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Well, a lot's going on.
with bills that are being sent to not only the governor, but to the president.
And some of them concern transgender youth and their health care and their ability to participate in sports.
Abigail Swetz is the executive director for Fair Wisconsin.
You can follow them at fairwisconsin.com.
They work to build a fair, safe, and inclusive Wisconsin for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people by advancing, achieving, and protecting
the LGBTQ civil rights through lobbying, legislative advocacy, and the rest.
Abigail, thanks for being here this morning.
We appreciate it.
Let's start with the bills right here in Wisconsin that were sent to the governor.
What does that entail for trans and gay youth?
Absolutely.
Let's get into it.
So there are a few bills that are currently on their way towards the governor right now.
They have passed through the assembly and the Senate in Wisconsin State Legislature.
And I think the most important thing to keep in mind about these bills is that they are not about the makeup of a team.
They are not about health care.
They are about excluding trans people from public life.
And we can allow that.
especially when our trans community is just facing so much hostility from literally every level of government.
You've mentioned that in terms of the federal government as well, right?
And so, you know, as Wisconsinites, I'm sure can agree with me.
We're getting a little sick of things like skyrocketing healthcare and public education that's not funded.
And yet people are deciding to spend their time on attacking trans kids.
It's really got to stop.
And so just to detail the bills real quickly, we have two that are attacking the ability for a trans athlete to play on the team where they belong.
We have one that would very, very strongly restrict, the severely restrict the ability for a trans kid to use the names and pronouns that they also feel that belong to them in a school.
And we have two that threaten access to youth gender affirming care.
One that
would essentially ban it for children under the age of 18.
And another that is banned by another name, it's about civil liability and malpractice and all these big words that really boil down to creating such a chilling effect that access would just be drastically reduced, which we're already seeing because of the federal threats.
So again, it's about attacking trans people in a way that we cannot allow.
Let's talk a little bit about the medical care for a moment because major medical groups in the state, including Children's Wisconsin and the Medical College of Wisconsin, actually registered against these particular bills.
So why do you think so many medical organizations are opposing them when this is such a push coming from our legislature and our government?
I appreciate the question because I think the way you asked it is exactly the reason that I need to explain that.
they are against this care because this care is safe and this care is effective.
It is good health care.
The provision of gender affirming care to trans kids is guided by incredibly rigorous evidence-based standards of care.
It is care that is provided by trained professionals who you just mentioned who are registered against these bills.
It is life-saving.
It is medically necessary.
It is accessed with full parental consent along with the child.
And most importantly, it significantly reduces the rates of anxiety and suicidality and depression and gender dysphoria that these kids experience.
And of course we want that, right?
We want what is best for every kid.
And every kid in the state and country includes trans kids.
And what we know is best for them from so much research.
And even just personal experience, I've seen it, is gender from in care for kids.
And it has to be accessible.
And in too many states, it is already banned.
It is not banned in Wisconsin.
And this ban will not become law, which is all
the more reason it is difficult to see that these bills keep getting introduced, they keep getting hearings that last hours and hours because the kids and their parents turn up to show that this care is important to them and yet they are met with with such disdain in some ways and yet they still they still get voted on right and so like it's so frustrating to see this this sort of cyclical repetition of something that is so harmful.
Abigail, I can hear the voices in my head of the people who are forwarding these kinds of bills and who would support these kinds of bills.
Can you once and for all clear up some misconceptions about people jumping, kids being either forced to or jumping into this medical care?
with no thought about trans athletes taking over these sports teams about pronouns being frivolous for these kids and they shouldn't you know you call them what you whatever gender you were born that's your thing can you clear up some of this because it seems like and you know i'm an older straight white guy if i can get it it seems like it should be easy for everybody to get but there's still there's still people who believe this
Garbage that's being shoveled out by some people.
I understand how it can be so frustrating to see the garbage continued to be shoveled out and frankly even more frustrating to see it continue to work on people because it's difficult to break through.
right, when there's so much disinformation.
But what we have to remember is that trans people, trans kids are our family and friends.
They are the people who shovel us out of snow in Wisconsin, right?
They are our neighbors.
And there is so much ugliness and disinformation about them because there's not a lot of them.
It's a very small segment of our population.
And so it is
easy for some people who want more political power to scapegoat them into a thing that they are not.
And what they are are wonderful neighbors of ours, right?
And so just a few things that you mentioned that, yes, of course, we should explain the truth as opposed to the disinformation that's spread.
Gender from in care, like I mentioned, accessed for a youth with parental consent along the way.
It is an arduous process.
It is already difficult to access.
not only because there's not a lot of providers but more so even that there are there are frankly barriers on purpose to make sure that it is a thoughtful, considered decision by the youth and their family.
Also, there's a lot of disinformation about what it actually is once it's accessed.
There is no
medical intervention before puberty for gender-ferming care.
The first medical intervention that is beyond something like therapy, where of course we want to make sure the mental health providers are involved in the whole process, the first medical intervention could be puberty-pause medication, entirely reversible.
What is not reversible?
is puberty.
We have all been through puberty.
We know how much that changes the body for a trans youth accessing puberty pause medication at the age appropriate to access it.
is the possibility of a little time to further be considerate and thoughtful as that process continues, right?
And then yes, maybe the next step is hormones, not for everyone, but maybe it is to start puberty in a way that matches who they are.
Again, we've all been through puberty.
I know I didn't like being a 13 year old going through it.
Can you imagine what it would mean to not only have these changes to a body, but changes to a body that doesn't feel like home anymore?
That is something
that we can avoid for these kids if we're able to make sure they can access the health care they really, really need.
And so those are a few little things.
Another thing you mentioned is just about sports.
You know, trans kids just want to play sports.
It's not about so many things that this disinformation claims it's about.
This is not about winning trophies.
This is about
finding a team you belong on.
And again, just like we've all experienced puberty and how that change can affect the body and how uncomfortable and awkward those middle school years can be, we've also had moments where we felt like we belonged and moments where we felt like we didn't.
And for a trans kid, the ability to belong on a team, to fit in with your peers, to play soccer because you love soccer makes such a huge difference because we know that yes,
Our youth are experiencing mental health crisis and our trans youth are experiencing an even more severe one.
And that is not because they are trans.
It is a societally pressured outcome.
And if we as a society can be a pressure valve, if we can make it possible for them to play on a sports team, where they can get the exercise that we know helps them, if they can access the healthcare we know is life saving for them, then we can be that valve, that pressure valve to make it possible for their mental health to be so much better.
And these are just
some things that you know are are to me obvious but I get it if you don't know a trans kid and if you don't know a trans adult maybe they're not as obvious so I hope that maybe having a conversation like this could help you know a little window into an understanding.
Abigail, Governor Evers has promised to veto these bills yet again, because this is not the first attempt, right, by this particular legislature.
And with the governor retiring next year, how concerned right now should parents of transgender students, people within the LGBTQ community, be that the next administration
what that could mean for some of the protections that Governor Evers has so rightly put into place in Wisconsin?
Great question.
And I think in order to answer it, I need to sort of step out a little bigger for a second because...
Wisconsin exists, of course, as a state within a country that is growingly hostile to trans people and trans kids, specifically from this federal administration, this federal government.
And so as you pointed out, you know, Governor Evers has said he will veto anything, any bill that will make this state less welcoming, less safe for the LGBTQ plus community.
That's these bills.
But
The LGBTQ plus community is really struggling when it comes to any kind of safety in this country, right?
Our state does not exist in a vacuum.
And so we really need to make sure that the people we elect in in upcoming elections are people who are going to help us insulate our state with protections against this hostile federal, these hostile federal attacks.
And Wisconsin has a long way to go.
We were the first states to include sexual orientation in our gender, in our non-discrimination law in 1982.
It is as old as me.
And it does not include gender identity.
That's because we were so far ahead of the times.
Yay.
In the 80s, we were called the gay rights state.
Now we are very behind.
We have to get gender identity into our non-discrimination law.
That's an example of the bare minimum of a protection we need as a community.
And that means we need people with the political will and frankly, the human understanding that that is what is needed as our elected officials going forward.
That's a great question.
There actually, well there are bills, but the ones I'm sort of most focused on right now are actually proposed rules which are sort of like the way a bill gets used on the ground.
They're through the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.
The public comment period just ended.
And they're similar to the bills because they are not a ban on this gender affirming care, but they are an attempt to reduce the access so severely and hold, frankly, federal funding hostage in order to do that, that it would function like a ban.
And so we at Fair Wisconsin have mobilized our community to turn in really robust public comment to try and stop these proposed rules from ever going into effect.
They are not in effect, but we are already seeing reduced access to care just in that chilling effect because of these federal threats that just keep coming.
If people want to support, if they want to get information, if they need to know what legislation is coming or being fought against, fairwisconsin.com is the website.
Abigail Sweats is the executive director for Fairwisconsin.
We appreciate the conversation this morning.
Abigail, thanks for being here.
listening to Civic Media, the Civic Media Network.
If
Someday we will explain that.
After our unprecedented success, that's when we will explain that rejoin.
Welcome back.
It is daybreak.
I'm Brian Noon and she's JB Martinsen and you are you and we want you involved in the conversation.
855-755-CIVIC.
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All right.
What do you think should happen to all the money that was collected from the illegal tariffs?
Oh, that's right.
The Supreme Court said that the $175 billion in tariff revenue that came into the country because Donald Trump decided he was going to bypass Congress and put in these tariffs.
Well, we got all this money sitting there and three.
Senate Democrats are calling for the government to refund that money, Jamie.
Yes.
Would you like a check?
If you want to check, it's going to come with the other ones.
that we're supposed to be
know that
some of them had to stock up on a lot of the different merchandise that they do provide or goods they provide in anticipation for these tariffs so that they didn't have to mark up the prices as badly or put out those bigger orders when things needed to come back into the stores because of these tariffs.
Now, the senators are arguing that the tariffs amounted to an illegal tax hike that hurt
families and manufacturers.
of
Yes.
Just remember We weren't paying for the tariff.
No No, the other countries were but now all the numbers say that as Jamie pointed this out the average American family You paid for that tariff to the tune of 13 to $1,700 just in the last year small businesses have paid the tariff
costing something to have to close down some to raise the prices on you adding to that 13 to 17 bigger companies like we talked about Harley Davidson the other day have paid it so the fallacy that other countries pay for these tariffs if you're if you're not understanding that now you're as bad at math as I am but at least I can grasp these numbers and go wait yeah I understand who pays for what
You know this wasn't this wasn't Dutch treat for the world This was right we pay and they get they get the money
now if in case you're wondering even with Scott Bassett basically saying the quiet part out loud This bill is unlikely to pass and the Trump administration says that any of these refunds would need to be decided by the courts not the White House funny how we trust the courts now
Right?
It's funny how in the midst of all of this, we'll go trust the courts to make this decision, but we couldn't, we can't trust the Supreme Court to say that the tariffs are illegal.
But this case of the refund, yes, yes, we will have to hand this one back over to the courts.
It's weird how that works.
Very,
I don't... Well, it's no surprise, but here's the bigger question.
Okay.
We took in this $175 billion.
That's not in dispute by either side.
Got $175 billion.
It's sitting there.
If you don't refund it to the people who paid it illegally, where is it going to go?
Who is going to profit from this?
You can draw your own conclusions.
I know Jamie and I both have our own opinions of where this might go and based on
the track record of this administration, you might have an idea where some or all of it will go.
But that's not where it should go.
Right.
If the terrorists were meant to help American families and the court says they're unlawful, who actually owns fixing that?
Because at some point...
are going to care about which branch is making the decision.
They're going to care whether or not they feel like they got their money back.
And if you look at recent polling, people aren't feeling so great about the tariffs or the economy.
And that transcends all party lines.
So I think at some point, voters are going to start asking questions.
And I think it's also interesting that this is all coming up in a midterm election.
Politically, it's a powerful message to be going into the midterms if you're the Democrats saying refund the money.
That's a pretty clean message.
Who's got the money?
Where is it at?
That's clean.
That's a clean message for the
It's a very clean message.
It's going to come down to are the Democrats strong enough to use it and hammer it home nonstop and ask where's that money?
Hey, America, you voted for...
You voted for one kind of tariff that doesn't exist because it's imaginary.
You paid an extra $1,700 this year.
Do you have that kind of money?
And in this climate, except for the president's friends, a lot of people are going to go, I don't have an extra $1,700.
I could have used that $1,700 for anything else in my life other than giving it to some illegal tariff.
It should be an interesting battle.
829 right now.
Daybreak on the Civic Media Network.
It's 835 right now.
We hope that you are having a great morning.
If you're listening in Hayward on BZH, we appreciate it, or even in Wisconsin Rapids on WFHR, or right here in Appleton and Oshkosh on WISS.
I was gonna say on MDX, but our MDX listeners are listening to Stephanie Miller right now, so they won't hear the shout out.
The rest
of the
Airlines, you may be familiar with them.
They were another victim of the nationwide decline in regional air service.
60 years old Air Wisconsin, they laid off a bunch hundreds of employees in Appleton and Milwaukee at the end of last year, but now reporting and investigating on Wisconsin Watch has discovered
Something new is happening at Air Wisconsin.
That's why Paul is here.
He's been writing for Wisconsin Watch since September.
He focuses largely on immigration and data reporting, and he is here with us now.
Paul, thanks for being here.
We appreciate it.
For those of us who aren't really familiar with Wisconsin Air, can you give us a brief history leading up to January when they decided to lay off all these people?
Yeah, as you mentioned, it's a 60 year old airline.
They have operated as a regional carrier for a long time.
They've sometimes done service further afield depending on their contracts.
Last year, they terminated at the very beginning of 2025, they terminated a contract to provide aircraft crews and services to American Airlines and then planned to pivot to a program that subsidized
service, air service to rural communities or underserved communities.
That didn't pan out.
They laid off hundreds of employees and furloughed others.
And by the end of the year, the company's parent company, which is also Appleton based, was looking to sell Air Wisconsin entirely.
So there was chatter about
various buyers but yeah the the final sale was announced on January 9th so I'm happy to hop into sort of what transpires there but the big takeaway is that regional airlines all over the country have been spiraling.
Air Wisconsin is not different and
they are all trying to find some way to remain viable.
And that's how the story starts.
And so let's start right there, Paul, because based on your reporting and this flight data that you analyzed, and it's an incredible piece over at WisconsinWatch.
So WisconsinWatch.org again is the website.
What's the clearest evidence that you found that Air Wisconsin's business model started fundamentally changing after that sale to CSI Aviation on January 9th?
Right.
So first things first, CSI Aviation is
It is a company based in New Mexico.
It is an air charter company.
It has provided charter services to the Department of Homeland Security, which is the parent agency of ICE since 2024.
So, you know, going into the sale, we know that this is what the parent company does.
They purchased the brand Air Wisconsin and 13 of the airlines jets.
We looked at flight data going backwards and then we kind of tracked it up through the middle of February and up until January, we can only get flight data back to September 2025, but between September 2025 and January 9th when the sale is finalized and announced, we see Air Wisconsin sort of limping along doing what it's done for a long time, serving mostly.
Wisconsin airports, so Appleton and Milwaukee and Madison primarily, but also Lansing or Columbus, Ohio or Bloomington, Indiana or that kind of thing.
Very abruptly after the sale on January 9th, Air Wisconsin's flight patterns shift south.
They start flying to the most noticeable ones are Alexandria, Louisiana and El Paso, Texas.
They also start flying to Minneapolis, which they hadn't been doing a whole lot previously.
Flying to Minneapolis isn't all that notable in and of itself because that's a very busy Midwestern airport.
But Alexandria, Louisiana is a serious tell.
Alexandria is not a big city.
What it is is the center of ICE's deportation flight operations.
And it's a logistic center for many of the country's largest ICE detention facilities, which are in heavily concentrated in Louisiana and Mississippi.
El Paso is another big city, but it also happens to be
you know, the El Paso airport is a stone's throw away from the country's largest ice detention facility and is sort of the secondary flight hub for ISIS deportation, air operations.
So, the... Well, you said... Just to
Or at least not in the flight data that we could pull between September.
They had maintained service to these mid-sized Midwestern airports.
I wouldn't call Lansing or Bloomington huge.
But yes, they hadn't been in that period for which we can get flight data.
They hadn't been serving Minneapolis.
It just so happens that the sale took place midway through Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, which we're all familiar with.
ongoing-ish ice operation in Minneapolis.
And they started flying from Minneapolis to Alexandria, Louisiana and to El Paso, Texas.
So, you know, it is, I think we can be, you know, without having someone inside the cockpit telling us exactly what's going on, I think it would be fair to say that some of those flights, at least some of those flights were chartered by DHS.
Okay.
So, uh, uh, Alexandria, as you mentioned, became a hub for these deportation flights and Air Wisconsin flown there dozens of times since this acquisition.
Is it, uh, up until this time had it been really unusual for Wisconsin based airlines to be flying that frequently into this relatively small, uh, Louisiana airport?
Or does it feel, did your reporting show, uh, any sort of coincidence in that?
From what I can tell, again, with flight data only going back to September, we can only say so much.
They had not flown to Alexandria up until that point.
They had flown to New Orleans, but Air Wisconsin was doing some charter operations and it could have been someone wanted to fly to New Orleans for their wedding or whatever.
But no, not Alexandria.
Alexandria is a serious tell because there is not a whole lot of other reason to fly to Alexandria, Louisiana, aside from DHS charter flights.
Air Wisconsin has done
service to the DC area in the past prior to the sale.
So we spot some Air Wisconsin flights heading to BWI, Baltimore, Washington, since the sale.
And that could just be coincidental, or that could also be related to its relationship with the HS now.
But the real tell is Alexandria.
And to some extent, I'll pass up.
He's a writer for Wisconsin Watch.
You can read all his work at WisconsinWatch.org.
If I'm so inclined, which I understand why the story is important, and the writing is great, but there's gonna be some people go, why should we care what a private company is doing?
Why should we, you know, they're in business, they're making money for their shareholders.
Maybe they are working for DHS, but...
Why is this an important story?
I think that's their prerogative, but it's worth recognizing that in a moment of economic instability for a whole bunch of industries, the regional air industry included, federal contracts seem to present a source of stability, but also noteworthy,
Air Wisconsin isn't the only airline to have tested this out.
That's
I was going to
so yeah, so Avello, which is not a regional airline, but it's sort of a hyper budget airline, tested this out briefly last year, conducting.
deportation flights for DHS.
And they backed out in January, but after a public backlash, but in their public statements, they also said that the contract hadn't paid off as much as they were expecting.
So it's not necessarily a guarantee that a federal contract or a contract with DHS, which needs a whole bunch of air capacity right now for its operations, is going to be the salvation for a struggling regional airline.
I think that would be a step too far.
Well, I'll also note credit where credit is due.
The Appleton Post Crescent broke the news about the sale.
And as, you know, in reading their writing, they didn't get responses from CSI or Harvard diversified either.
And so what we pulled together was evidence of the change in flight patterns.
We didn't break the news of the sale.
But I would still like to know is, you know, to what extent they are actually receiving a return on, to what extent the contract is providing the financial stability that they needed.
I would like to know whether we can assume that all flights to El Paso have been part of their charter operations for DHS.
I think we can reasonably assume that for Alexandria, but I would like to be fact-checked.
I would like to know to what extent they are transporting people directly from Milwaukee.
If they're taking people from the detention facility in Dodge County, that would be interesting.
And I'd like to get a sense of the economics of all of this.
I mean, do they see themselves as, you know, as different from a velo?
Do they think that this will work out for them?
Do they have broad thoughts on the fate of regional airlines and what other options might exist to keep those businesses afloat?
I think that all of those things would be helpful to, it would be useful to have some answers on all those fronts.
WisconsinWatch.org is where you can find all of Paul Kieffer's work.
Good luck on this.
And listen, if you get to all those answers, we want to talk to you again and share them.
We'll be reading them first, though, on Wisconsin Watch.
Paul, have a great day.
Thanks for being here.
We appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Have a great day.
Take care.
You too.
Thank you.
It's one of those... This is a tough one because, yeah, there might be public...
outrage, which I, you know, that's fair.
But since they don't serve the public anymore, if I'm in there, if I'm in the corporate seat, I don't care what the public thinks.
This is we don't we don't have public flights.
We're a private company doing private contracting.
of
46%
25 of those countries had never previously received ice deportation flights.
Now, domestic transfer or shuffle flights more than doubled, topping 9,000.
in one year.
In January alone, ICE averaged about 36 domestic transfer flights per day.
Minneapolis obviously saw a sharp spike
tied
And Paul mentioned several, the fact that CSI aviation wasn't the only one, you know,
working through some of these different avenues, right?
So let's be fair.
But ICE's main air contractor is CSI, and they've received more than $650 million in recent contracts, according to recent reporting, including a no bid deal worth up to $219 million.
Their CEO, by the way, donated heavily to the RNC and to Trump.
There's another company, GlobalX, that handled nearly 80% of ICE deportation flights in 2000.
2004 and expects about $65 million a year from its contract.
Its executive chairman is donated to Republican candidates, including Wisconsin's own Ron Johnson.
Classic air charter previously held an $885 million ice contract and is led by executives who've donated to Trump-aligned groups.
This list actually goes on and on.
It's not short.
You're listening to Civic Media
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
It is.
Yeah.
I'm actually kind of impressed.
Wow.
in
came
Of course, fans had to react with a lot of surprise and some nostalgia online as well.
Some actually,
to reconsider and even other brands offered him well wishes.
Beyond the cleaning products, of course, veritably clean, has inspired everything from dolls to costumes, as well as other merchandise over the years, proving that that shine extended well beyond just your kitchen sink.
See what we did there?
Yeah, a few
See now, this is something, had we brought it up an hour ago, people would be flooding the text line.
But you'll have to wait for another day because our time is drawing to a close with you on another day of daybreak.
But we'll be back tomorrow with more facts.
And oh man, tomorrow it's gonna be exciting as we break down the state of the union.
You'll be, we're covering it again.
What time tonight?
What's the deal here?
Eight o'clock.
Bye-bye.
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