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My name is Jamie Martinson.
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perhaps are given away.
Or sold, I guess.
You don't have to buy it.
You don't have to buy nothing.
No.
Look at what we give and give and give.
That's why we're here.
You know old old thinking or conventional thinking used to be if you worked for the government you were set you'd have a good pension you had long-term job stability because the government's not going anywhere and you could you know there were always jokes about government workers maybe taking a lot longer but
If you were a government worker, you seemed set.
Well, that has changed a lot and it changed even more because the Office of Personnel Management issued another rule this weekend and it says that career employees no longer have long-standing job protections and they don't have the ability to file to an independent board if they
get fired because they disagreed with the president.
So once again, the heavy hand of dear leader and potential authoritarianism.
comes into play.
Yeah and you know it's interesting because the administration says that the change will improve accountability and performance while keeping a merit-based hiring in place.
So veterans will have preference and there will also be whistleblower protections.
If you joined us last hour though we just talked about the fact that there
has been a
gone anywhere or been protected other than being protected in a vault by Tulsi Gabbard.
But, you know, we digress, whatever.
Now, critics warn, though, that this could be used to push employees who follow the law instead of political loyalty, weaken safeguards, and shell free speech, which I think is exactly what the goal of all of this is, right?
This is not happening in a vacuum.
Since Trump's second term began, the federal workforce has shrunk by more than 240,000 employees nationwide through layoffs, buyouts, and agency closures.
And this is what the president had to say two weeks ago.
Cut three, please.
I don't like doing that.
But the good news, I don't feel badly because they're getting private sector jobs.
And they're getting sometimes twice as much money, three times as much money.
They're getting factory jobs.
They're getting much better jobs and much higher pay.
Wow.
charge.
And just like we saw at the beginning of the presidency under Doge, this isn't about saving money.
This is going to be about replacing anybody who might question the administration's decisions or their motives.
That could be Democrats, it could be even the Reagan type conservatives who understand how government is supposed to work.
But if you have any sort of, if you are going to question...
this particular administration, they just don't want you around.
You're completely useless to them because they want to push through whatever agenda it is, and they want people who strictly agree with that to be in office.
Now, here's where this gets dangerous, because at some point, fingers crossed, this administration is not going to be in power.
So now you're going to be left with a bunch of federal employees who only believe in what one administration does.
That's not what career public servants
That's not what they do at all.
Here in Wisconsin, just in case anybody's interested, Brian, roughly 24 federal workers have left since November of 2024.
Jobs have dropped from 31,300 to 28,900.
2400, you said 24
Maybe they're looking in the wrong spot because I hear the private sector, especially factories, are very big on it.
If you own a factory, please call us and list some of these jobs because I know people are looking for work and they'd be happy to.
work for three times what their government salary used to
Right, according to the president, at least.
Right.
All of this, especially if we look at just Wisconsin, right, and the 2,400 workers, federal workers that we've lost in this state, all of this has created instability.
There's reports of low morale.
There's disrupted agency operations across the state, as well as the country, because again, 240,000 across the country.
And this is just a massive reshaping of the federal workers.
And it raises serious questions about the independence as well as the integrity of our career civil service, I think.
And this is not just top-level bureaucrats who have a direct line of reporting to the president or his administration.
This is, as you said, rank and file workers who have as much right to have their...
own thoughts as anybody else who doesn't work for the government.
But by the time they finish making all these cuts, I don't know where they think the mindset of people who are now having to work in either skeleton, crude agencies, or have been let go.
Where are they going to be supportive of the president at this point?
I doubt it.
And it just, it hurts the government.
It hurts the local economies.
It hurts everything except a fragile ego of one man who wants nothing but fealty from anybody even associated with the government.
that
make up this big picture That when you step back you oh it all is kind of going It's all feeding in it's a funnel to one ultimate goal, right?
And you can decide what that ultimate goal is for yourself.
You don't need me to tell you it, even though I will.
It's one person and one party running everything.
But it all funnels down and it makes sense.
And that's why we always talk about you have to speak up.
I
if you
Yeah, it's it would be interesting to hear because Just what what is the mindset when you're who do you think you work for you?
What I would imagine if I work for I don't know let's say that the Transportation department.
Well, I work I work for the transportation department my the secretary of transportation is my ultimate boss.
I don't I don't consider
The fact that just because I work in the gut you work in the government.
You don't work for the government, right?
and in the government is whatever that's why we hear about Attorney General attorneys general who have been appointed by one administration But they served in three administrations because they don't work for the guy They work for the country they work for the institution of the Justice Department, but yes his his goal is to just have
people who work and say what he wants to hear.
What I think is interesting is Trump actually tried this during his first presidency when he signed an executive order that created a similar classification that was known as Schedule F. And that was back in 2020.
Then President Biden, when he became president, actually rescinded that order.
And then Trump, as you can imagine, reinstated it.
One of the first things he actually did when he became president was reinstate that Schedule F type rule.
And I get it.
When it comes to talking about the federal government, we need to make government work better.
We've talked about that numerous times here on this program, and some agencies could totally use an overhaul.
I will
And back to Caroline Levitt's comments, I am sure that there are performance reviews with government jobs, just like there are performance reviews with our job, with my wife's job.
Everybody I know gets a performance review once a year.
I would find it impossible to believe that the government also doesn't have performance reviews.
So once again, a lie that, you know, that is trying to hide what is really happening.
Of
Of course.
And Len chiming in over on our text line this morning saying it's the God complex or more accurately the alternate, the Satan complex.
I just don't think this administration cares about people.
They don't care about people.
Obviously, the actions that we've seen from this administration would prove that they absolutely do not care about actual people or the ramifications or how it's going to affect them.
They just don't care.
And that's the bottom line, I think, when it comes to what we've been seeing from the federal workers all the way up to the ICE rates.
They absolutely,
it's
This was a money-making scheme and a power grab from the start, hence the suing the IRS, which is us for $10 billion of taxpayer money and everything else that is going on.
It's rough, but hey, listen, there's good news because maybe you're thinking four years of college might be too expensive.
What if I could get my bachelor's degree in three years?
Ah, UW-Madison may be able to hook you up.
I'm Brian Noonan.
Civic Media Network.
are
a parent whose child is about to head to college, or you've been saving for college, or if you're someone like our boy aquarium inhabitant Parker, who recently graduated from college, you know how expensive college can be.
And there's alternatives.
Of course, you could maybe go to junior college and transfer.
You could go to trade school, which is not cheap, but there's all different ways.
But UW Madison, the regions are thinking about a little policy change and the whole system.
where they could offer reduced credit or three year bachelor degree programs because if you've gone to school the first couple years are all general education stuff
anyway which
most of us took in high school and it's like well I took creative writing in high school why do I need to take it again in college and pay exorbitant fees for it can't we just jump into my major class which is part of the reason some people opt for junior college prior to going to university so this is great
I believe it's a good way to move on a three-year plan instead
And in case you're wondering how this would work, instead of the traditional 120 credits, these degrees would typically require just 90, which would potentially shave an entire year off of a student's time in college and significantly lower the cost.
Now, right now, Mount Mary University in Milwaukee is the only four-year school throughout the state offering this reduced credit degree after
after launching the program earlier this year.
The UW Board of Regents reviewed the proposed policy changes on Friday without discussion, and it's expected to vote on them at a future meeting.
Now, a typical full-time undergraduate course, which not a lot has changed.
I went to the college in
the
cutting
Well, at UW-Madison, tuition fees for 2025, 26, are about $12,186 for in-state students and $44,000 for out-of-state students.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Wow, that's a lot.
So if you could cut a third or a quarter of that out, you're saving.
If you're not a state student, you're...
You're saving yourself about 45 grand.
At the time that we live in, a lot of students are arriving on campus with college credits from AP classes or dual enrollment programs.
In fact, nationwide, about two and a half million students participated in dual enrollment during the 2022 to 2023 school year.
At UW-Madison, about 7% of students from that 2022 freshman class graduated in three years, which was up from less than two
percent just 15 years ago.
The current average time to graduate is just under four years.
And I'll be honest, I went into college, okay, I'm an overachiever, but I went into college with...
Thank you.
I went in with several AP credits.
And so I started out and was able to get out of at least four or five of my Gen Ed classes because I went in with AP credit.
Now, I also ended up taking so many classes that overlapped.
I ended up graduating with double degrees and a bunch of minors because all my genres were so closely related that it just started making sense to align it like that.
And I was able to do it in the four years time.
However, what I will say is I probably should have stayed an extra semester because I was doing so much work.
But if I would have had the option at, you know, again, in the Stone Age to
go in
and to be done in three years, oh, I would have done that in a heartbeat.
I would have been so excited about that because let me be very honest, the only reason my school loans are paid off is because I had to forebear so often, because I was a stay-at-home mom, is because of President Biden.
That's the only reason my school loans got paid off.
So I will forever be grateful to
him for many things,
Living free
appreciated things that has ever, ever happened to me honestly because of the fact that we were paying on these every month and we had to forbear for so often because of the fact that I stayed home to raise our kids for as long as I did.
So I will always be appreciative of that.
So this is this some of you UW Milwaukee is saying they want to do it Lakeshore College saying they want to do it I would imagine if you are paying your loans now or you're paying your kids loans You would have liked that opportunity like Jamie said I know I
I sure would have liked it.
Molly only had to go three years.
And she had, I don't get to brag about AP credits because I thought AP was a grocery store.
So I did not take any of those classes.
But Molly did it.
So she went in with credits too and you still got to go the four years.
Right.
Yeah.
a day and age where if you're a student or somebody wants to continue your education, you're actually really lucky because we have so many different options.
You listed some of them between the junior colleges, the technical schools, the four-year degrees if you want to do the traditional route or a potential three-year degree.
None of this is a wrong way to get your education.
And it finally feels like maybe higher education is meeting people where they are instead of forcing everyone into the same little shoe box.
And I can definitely appreciate that.
Not everybody learns the same.
Not everybody wants to spend the same amount of time in a classroom.
And, you know, if you're somebody who wants to continue your education or go back for a degree, I think a three year program is also really a great option for those folks too.
a lot of economic harm due to Operation Metro Surge and the ongoing ice occupation of their city.
That's why we needed to find out just how bad it is for small businesses.
Sean Fetaplace is the National Campaign Director for Main Street Alliance.
They represent tens of thousands of small business owners nationwide and over 1,500 in Minnesota alone.
Sean, thanks for taking some time today.
We appreciate it.
Thanks for having me here.
Yeah, so we're an organization that really focuses on getting better policy for small businesses.
So whether that's
fair access to health care, childcare, pay-payment medical leave, which we help pass in Minnesota.
And we work to help folks engage with lawmakers, with the press, and with the public to make sure that we have an economy that works for everyone, including those mainstream businesses we all love.
You've had some of these ongoing conversations.
And as of right now, Minneapolis officials say that city businesses are losing right around $20 million a week, potentially more than $100 million already because of these ICE raids.
So from your perspective and from the perspective of Main Street Alliance, is this current level of support anywhere close to matching the scale of the damage that we're currently seeing?
No.
So first off, you know, most estimates there's community development financial institutions and the city of Minneapolis have done a lot of analysis and it's in the hundreds of millions of dollars in economic damage so far.
Clearly the murders of Alex Pretty and Renee Good and others in the violations of civil rights and human rights is the main thing.
I'll just note that Alex was killed immediately on the doorsteps of a member of business of ours, Glamdol, and the Eat Street neighborhood.
And there needs to be a couple of things happening.
First is philanthropy needs to come in big and then you come in big quick.
They need to figure out ways to get cash assistance directly to businesses so that they can make payroll and that they could pay rent because otherwise there's going to be a huge amount of people losing their jobs.
We've heard that the economic downturn from this is worse than COVID for a lot of them.
And the feds are not coming in because they're the ones causing this problem in the first place.
And so there's going to be a need for the city, for the state,
to really come in, but that's going to take some time.
The legislative session doesn't start until the 17th, so in the meantime, we're doing everything we can to help raise funds to get to folks, but we're also going to need long-term economic stabilization so that the city doesn't descend into an economic depression.
Yeah, so we've had meetings with both Mayor Frey and with Governor Walz's team.
And what I would say is that they're trying to figure out right now a series of proposals that could pass the legislature.
The lower house right now is evenly split, 67, 67.
So that will require Republican votes.
Now, there are Republican lawmakers that represent parts of Hennepin County where Minneapolis is located.
And so the focus is going to be on them.
There's still discussions ongoing.
It does look like some combination of forgivable loans, kind of like PPP during COVID, the Payment Protection Program, combined with grants could be a solution.
You know, I know we had discussions of
packages in the range of about $100 million, which is a lot of money, but compared to the overall state budget, which is in the tens of billions, it should be achievable with some revenue raise.
and maybe some of that revenue could be raised from the large corporations who haven't done Jack's squat about ICE's presence in the state and putting out really a milk toast statements about it.
But regardless, there's going to need to be that action.
So they're doing everything they can.
They're listening to small business owners.
They're talking to the stakeholders and coming up with a plan to address it.
But it's going to require a lot of work to get it across the finish line.
He is the National Campaigns Director for Main Street Alliance.
Sean, if these raids continue, if the presence of ICE continues in the city of Minneapolis, what do the next few months look like for some of these Minneapolis businesses that are already obviously operating based on what we're talking about on very thin margins?
They're going to go under.
You're looking at...
losses in excess of 80% in some cases.
There's some businesses that aren't as impacted because of the nature of the business and where they're located, but especially food service, restaurants, public meeting spaces.
I was talking to somebody who has a meeting space in the city and just all of them are canceled and it's not only canceled for this month, but people often, if you have an event venue space, you're booking months in advance.
but those bookings aren't happening right now because people are unsure of the safety situation.
So there's going to be tail end effects of this.
Even if Homan came to the census, even the president came to the census and pulled out all the surge ice troops now, you're still going to have people who are not going to feel safe coming into those businesses.
You're still going to have folks who, because of economic loss, maybe missed their paychecks or how to get laid off.
And so it's pretty dramatic.
Right now, the estimates are that between 10 and 20 million dollars a week is being lost in revenue by these businesses.
And especially those businesses that are most impacted are the ones who are these immigrant businesses that themselves, but also their staff, those corridors are being impacted the most.
When we talked about the protests, they were limited to a couple smaller areas across the city.
But this economic hardship is crossing all the neighborhood lines, it's covering the whole city, right?
And I've got to imagine it's moving into St.
Paul as well.
Yes.
And some of these areas were already struggling for... I mean, there's been...
whether it's the murder of George Floyd and some of the impacts of that.
You know, you had Speaker Hortman assassinated.
I mean, there's been a lot of political violence in Minnesota, which is deeply troubling.
But yeah, I mean, the thing about it is that this is going to impact everyone.
And, you know, if you love your local restaurant, your local bar, your local bookstore, even if you don't live in Minnesota, since a lot of your listeners are in Wisconsin, but if you, what I would say for folks who are listening to this is look up some local businesses in Minnesota, in Minneapolis, and order online, you know, buy a gift card, do something you can to support those folks.
And I know that they'll greatly appreciate it in this moment.
Sean, I want to bring things back over to the border just a little bit into Wisconsin, because we've heard reports of ice raids near the Wisconsin-Minnesota border affecting really small towns.
We've heard instances in Baldwin, Wisconsin, where the population is only about 4,500.
So what happens to a local economy when a large share of the town's workforce suddenly just disappears or stays home out of fear?
I mean, I would say, first off,
I mean impacts all parts of the economy impacts the businesses operating also impacts the schools.
I mean people if they're keeping their kids home that's going to impact you know their education and it also impact it has a chilling effect as well of folks who are in these areas who are looking to invest looking to start small businesses but see the ongoing you know impacts of this and may think twice and so
Yeah, I do worry.
There are definitely parts of Western Wisconsin, which I won't name because I don't want to give ice any ideas, but they, you know, there's really large pockets of, you know, folks who some of whom are documented and some of whom are not documented, who, you know, are in these smaller towns that, frankly, are easier targets.
for ICE and others and so I know there's been a lot of activity in Eau Claire and even if like you have the 700 troops that were read are apparently being redeployed I'll wait to see if that actually happens or not out of Minnesota they have to go somewhere ICE has gotten you know I think it's over an excess it's around a hundred billion I believe they got an excess funding from the big ugly law and so they have and they have all these
folks that they recruited that they gave $50,000 signing bonuses to who need to go somewhere.
So I do worry that Minneapolis in some sense has been a testing ground for a lot of this and we need to remain vigilant.
And that's why it's so important for the Senate to take action to demand real reforms with the way that the agency is operating and not just kicking the can down the road.
He's the National Campaign Director for Main Street Alliance.
MainStreetAlliance.org is their website if you want to get more information about what they do for small businesses.
You mentioned philanthropy a few times, Sean.
In the whole scheme of thing, in the past, where has that philanthropy come from to help out causes like this?
And where are you hoping other than the big corporations in the Twin Cities that you said haven't really stepped up to the plate yet, where does that philanthropy usually come from?
I mean, some of it does come from those businesses, but not all.
But there are a lot of folks, a lot of foundations nationally that are looking at ways to deploy resources.
I'll just tell you one that has already happened, which is the Minneapolis Foundation has, which is headed by RT Ryback, who's the former mayor of the city.
They are, they raised about $4 million, which
They're working to distribute to local groups who are working with impacted businesses across the city.
And there's been a lot of emergency meetings and calls to discuss process around that, to make sure it's moving expeditiously.
But that's, like I said, $4 million, which as well is certainly helpful, is like 5% of the need at most.
And so there's, I think it's really important for national groups, and we've been in touch with a bunch of them to come in to either support
the efforts of the Minneapolis Foundation.
We have our own fund that we've launched as well, the Open for Tomorrow fund, which will be going to direct cash support for businesses.
And, you know, I think that's, that's they're able to move quicker.
And it's also not government money.
And frankly, I think there will be some safeguards needed, just given the absolute, I would say, some partially
legitimate concerns about fraud and issues.
And there's been some court cases and some issues in Minnesota around that.
But there's also just like the, frankly, the feeding frenzy from like Nick Shirley and these other folks that are also really stretching or blind about what's really happening there.
And that's why it's even more important for me to come in because those are private dollars and versus government, which has a role and is going to be really important.
But it's just going to not move quickly enough with proper safeguards to get the money in a timely manner.
I know you've been meeting with local and state level leaders in Minnesota.
But is there anything, because I know these are federal raids, but is there anything they can do immediately if they want to prevent permanent closures and job losses besides the philanthropy?
Just give them business.
Just give them business, encourage.
There's actually a press conference happening in St.
Paul as we speak, talking about.
a need to shop small to support those local businesses next week.
I mean, I think that's the thing that the people who are listening to this are able to do either in person or by ordering product online or in gift cards.
And then as far as like what they can do now is every local elected, every mayor, every city council person, every governor should be calling their centers to demand
that they, there was a list of demands that speaker, or sorry, and leader Jeffries, maybe that's next year, leader Jeffries and leader Schumer demanded for substantive reforms in DHS Nice.
And so that's, that's what needs
listening to the Civic Media Radio Network.
Thank you for joining us on this Monday.
If you're listening in Eau Claire on 93, 3.5 the tap or also in Wisconsin Rapids on WFHR or an Oshkosh and Appleton on WISS.
We hope you are having a great morning.
You're listening to the Civic Media Network.
This is Civic Media Mornings.
My name is Jamie Martenson.
We want to know what you thought of the halftime show.
There was a lot of buzz building up to it.
What did you think?
8-5-5-7-5-CIVIC.
8-5-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.
Yes, Baboni took the stage yesterday.
And while I did not understand 98% of the words that came out of his mouth, I loved it.
He came out and it was energy from the start.
Jamie reduced himself in Spanish, but I do have the English translation He said my name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio and if I'm here today at Super Bowl 60 It's because I never stopped believing in myself and you should also believe in yourself your worth more than you think and That inspiring message carried through this entire performance.
I would have loved to be in one of the blades of grass
in this thing.
Because I was like, where'd they breed those bushes?
That I realized there were people in there scurrying around in grass.
and
And I will say this, the wedding...
portion if you watch the halftime show, that was an actual wedding.
That couple had invited Bad Bunny to their wedding and instead of going to their wedding, he brought them to the halftime show and they got married officially during the middle of that halftime show in the middle of that halftime performance, which I think is amazing.
We have some texts coming in.
Tom in Hartford says, I like the halftime show and Dolores in Madison said, I am so blessed to be bilingual to enjoy the halftime in both.
languages.
Yeah, that's when I I was like, man, four years of Latin in a year of Greek in high school did not really help me with bad bunny.
I would had I, you know, spoke, but sit.
But you could still if you wouldn't if you allowed yourself to say, OK, it's in Spanish, bad bunny is from Puerto Rico.
They speak a lot of Spanish and Puerto Rico.
A lot of people in America speak Spanish.
Yes.
That's, you know, talk to some of your neighbors.
I'm sure they speak Spanish.
But if you just
Let yourself be pulled into the experience.
The music, if you weren't moving a little bit, I saw a funny video of John Hamm dancing on the sidelines.
John Hamm was, John Hamm was, well, he's
a renowned
But I mean, I'm sitting in the chair and I'm, oh yes, you know, I tried to get Debbie to get up and do a little salsa.
She would not.
She had nothing to do with my moves, because my moves are sweet and erotic.
But if you just if you just let it Wash over you.
Yeah, you realize what was going on and then if you were paying a little more attention Just past the fun of the music.
Yeah, you're like always there's a story here I might not get it all but I do get the power lines in Puerto Rico I do the wedding like you said the symbolic gesture of handing Who a lot of people thought was
actually the Liam Ramos from yes from Minnesota it was not it was an actor but it was symbolic of handing him the thing there were a lot of stories a lot of story lines running through there it was great.
There were and if you watched all the way to the end you'll know that Bad Bunny spoke in English saying God bless America while flying the American flag alongside the flags of Puerto Rico as well as several other Latin countries and Jumbotrons in at Levi's Stadium actually lit up with
The only thing more powerful than hate is love, which I think is fantastic.
And at the end, he held out that football that said, together we are America.
About 130
bunny.
Let's hear the, this is
So I will
didn't miss
that
what
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