You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
And good morning.
I'm Brian Newton.
Big day.
Another week.
Who knows what it will hold, but we know at least what the next few hours will hold.
And if you want to get involved, 8-5-5-7-5-7-8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.
Jamie, nothing overtly horrible happened over the weekend, so I hope you were able to enjoy at least a few hours.
I know Saturday I kept waiting for the shoe to drop, going, all right, what's his?
I got up, I got my coffee set, I went, did we?
blow up anybody else.
like when you're checking your phone every few minutes just to make sure that this administration is behaving themselves on a Saturday.
A little shout out to Daniel listening on the live stream this morning.
He says happy Monday.
Sup guys.
Not too much.
We're good.
We're good on a Monday.
Thank you for watching this morning.
But we do have.
I mean, let's be realistic.
There wasn't a lot of major news stories over the weekend, but there's enough for us to keep busy this morning.
Yes.
Unfortunately,
the saddest update a U.S.
service member another U.S.
service member died after sustaining injuries in that initial attack the military said Sunday that brought the number of American troops killed in the around World War seven we saw the president and vice president at the the distinguished transfer which drew a lot of criticism especially from boy
I don't know if you, I know you saw this, Jamie.
The fake news, the people who scream about it the most, Fox broadcasting footage of a years old dignified transfer of Trump not wearing his hat, when in fact he did, he wore, he kept his little shilling his products, his baseball hat
And Fox just goes, oh, it was a mistake.
No, it wasn't.
Come on.
Stop screaming about fake news and then literally broadcasting fake news.
Fake news that everybody else could check because it was the real photos or the real footage were on every other media outlet in the country and the world.
In other news headlines, Ali Qaimani's son Mojtaba has been named the next supreme leader in Iran.
U.S.
President Donald Trump previously said that Mojtaba would be an unacceptable choice and Israel vowed to target any successor.
I mean, we've talked to some experts here on this program who said that this was probably the case, that this regime, even with Ali
Kamani's death, this was a regime that was very much in place.
They had successor upon successor.
We've had a Middle Eastern expert, Lucas Gage, join this program who said they were probably six to seven people deep as far as how they viewed this particular regime.
Now, from what I understand about Kamani's son, this is also not good because if you thought Kamani was not a good person, this is like,
basically upping that ante.
And so this is gonna be interesting to see what experts have to say as we find out how his rule is going to look in around.
He has
I saw one expert this weekend basically compare to him to his dad as if you thought his dad was a, in comparative American terms, a right wing progressive, this guy will up the ante about.
500 steps.
So it's going to be, it'll be fascinating to see how that plays out as we watch what's happening in the Middle
This is where I think even hardcore Republican Congress people are starting to ask questions because we're not seeing any reason for what we're doing and the amount of civilian deaths that we're seeing throughout the Middle East.
And I understand it's not all at the hands of the United States.
There are several countries in play, 14 countries under attack as we talk this morning.
But
president of Iran, who's a little more moderate, had come out and apologized to his neighbors and said, if you don't attack us, we're not gonna attack you.
But then the regime said, oh no, that's not the case.
It sounds familiar, doesn't it?
So now we're waiting, we're hoping to see, but it does appear that even today,
the headline in CNN was that the president is waiting.
He's not going to make a decision on when things are going to end until Israel lets him know.
So we are there at Israel's behest as everybody theorized.
It becomes more and more clear.
And we haven't even dove into the fact that the Iranian Foreign Minister admitted that, yes, Russia is giving them intelligence on
American troops and we seem okay with that.
I think we're gonna need to have on this.
We'll have that conversation but make a note we're gonna need somebody to help us dissect that who knows Soviet policy Russian policy as well as Middle Eastern policy because boy that's a whole that's a whole keg of worms to open up right there isn't it but
It is, because the Trump administration is working, if you haven't heard this, on a potential economic agreement with Cuba.
And officials say a deal might be announced in the very near future.
Exact details and timing.
Like a lot of things with this particular administration remain pretty unclear at this point in time.
Two weeks?
two weeks, might be two weeks.
Now, this particular agreement could include loosening restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba, particularly to Havana.
The president has the authority to relax some of those travel rules without needing any sort of approval from Congress.
Now, there have been some repeated discussions, including economic partnerships in certain areas like ports, things with tourism and energy, along with the possibility that the United States could eat
some sanctions on the Cuban government.
Now, the strategy here is interesting because it appears to be aimed at increasing Cuba's economic reliance on the United States rather than trying to immediately overthrow the country's communist government.
So, okay, so let me just get this straight.
So, right now, we are looking at instead of overthrowing a communist government working alongside of them.
Okay, do I have that correct?
I have that correct based on it.
Okay.
And we're also acknowledging the fact that we're going to lift sanctions just, just so I'm clear this morning, because it's Monday, I'm a little foggy yet, just so I'm clear.
You lost an hour of sleep.
I did lose an hour of sleep.
And we're also accepting the fact that Russia is giving Iran intelligence on the US and we're okay with that, right?
We're okay with that this morning.
You seem to
We're having the conversation.
Now, I think this is interesting as well because the talks around Cuba involve the Cuban president, Miguel Diaz Canal, while members of the Castro family are still believed to hold a lot of influence behind the scenes in the country's leadership.
And Marco Rubio, in case you're wondering, he's reportedly leading the discussions with Cuban officials.
And there have been reports of outreach to people connected to the former Cuban leader, Raul Castro.
Now, this administration's approach actually comes after the U.S.
capture of Venezuelan leader, Nicolas Madaro, remember that a thousand years ago, and the disruption of Venezuelan oil shipments, which were a major source of economic support for Cuba.
The president has argued that Cuba's economy is in serious trouble, saying that the country is at the end of the line financially and could be forced to negotiate with the United States.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get
started.
Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
We've got some text rolling in this morning, Brian.
Of course, if you ever want to chime into the conversation, 1-855-752-4842.
That's 1-855-CIVIC.
Someone texts in saying, war is, civilians aren't safe.
I believe we did talk about civilians in this particular case and the loss of life that is happening in the Middle East.
And no, the civilians aren't safe right now in the Middle East.
Mark also,
timing in this morning on the text line saying, remember when Russia was paying a bounty to the Taliban for killing American soldiers in Afghanistan?
Trump never cut ties with Putin over that.
Nope, never, never did.
That is absolutely correct.
He will not
Well, I think and I think we watched some of that relationship change back in the Trump first presidency and Anybody who who was paying attention to what was happening can go back to that original meeting in Helsinki during the first administration and that was when I believe that there was always some sort of relationship there my personal opinion but that was when we saw the relationship change and whatever
hold Russia had over Donald Trump at that point became pretty obvious in that Helsinki meeting.
Well,
Even though Donald Trump believes himself to be on that level, he is not.
And that same press conference that you're talking about when Donald Trump went, well, he told me they weren't involved.
Oh, and so you just believed him?
Yes.
I keep thinking about this story, and we are going to talk about it in depth more at another
But I keep thinking about this, and whatever your thoughts were about Ronald Reagan or the Bushes or whatever, this would have been the final straw.
This would have been the severing point for anybody who is not Russian-controlled.
This would have been the time when you stepped away and went,
How dare you
you are the commander-in-chief and somebody is selling out your troops But you still want to continue a dialogue with them you still want to Admire them because that's that's what it really is Trump admires the way Putin has an iron head hold over his country and that's what Donald Trump really wants But if you how dare you then Talk about the troops go to go to watch the transfer of these service members coming home
and allow the person who is selling them out to still be on good terms with you is beyond me and it should be beyond
It goes beyond a certain level of patriotism, right?
It's really hard to say how much you love this country when you're allowing those things in plain sight to happen and you're part of it.
It's really hard to defend the actions of this country when you're watching it play out over and over and over, because this would not be the first time that we've seen this president capitulate to somebody like Vladimir Putin.
Right?
So, and it's unfortunate.
It's unfortunate.
It
But one of the presidents appointees, U.S.
Transportation Secretary and former Lumberjack Sean Duffy, is being implored by Wisconsin and Minnesota Democratic senators to release about a billion dollars
federal grant for the replacement of the Blentnick bridge.
The bridge connects Duluth and Superior and carries about 33,000 vehicles a day, but
you know, these are two, we got a blue state and a purple state.
So what do you think the chances are of that
The money coming is also being asked by the females in Congress.
Senators Tammy Baldwin, Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar, they actually sent a letter to Duffy trying to finalize the amendment grant agreement.
The replacement project is estimated to cost about $1.8 billion.
Wisconsin and Minnesota have already each committed about
about $400 million to the effort.
And in case you're wondering, the Blackneck Bridge was actually built in 1961 and now has weight restrictions because of corrosion and aging structural components.
And this is a major, this is a major area, it's a major hub of getting goods in and out of the area.
Transportation officials warn that this bridge could be forced to close completely by 2030 if they aren't able to...
make some sort of replacement.
And both states can move forward with construction contracts and project planning because federal approval, but federal approval of the grant is required.
Now, construction is currently scheduled to begin in phases later this year.
Officials say delays though in approving the funding could push back the timeline and increase those costs.
Estimated inflation alone could add about $80 million per year to this project if, by chance, it is delayed.
Now, this will affect regional transportation, great movement, economic activity, and public safety.
So I can't imagine not getting this deal done, but, well.
But it seems like if this we're going to, I don't know, let's say Oklahoma and Arkansas, it might be a different story.
There is always a hold up in blue or purple states.
And, you know,
There's gonna be some quid pro quo for this.
Okay, again, hey, we need those, you know those pesky election rolls we were asking for before?
You guys want a
Well, I think it's interesting, though, and I think that would be one tactic considering this is a critical economic artery for both Northern Wisconsin and Northern Minnesota.
Both very, let's be honest, very red in how they vote.
I mean, I don't want to play the politics because I want to see economic growth for both states, but if you're going to look at it from how this administration would, you know, these aren't areas that are going to primarily vote for a Democrat.
Just throwing that out there.
Now back to more of Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.
If you are listening this morning in Oshkosh and Appleton, you are listening on WISS.
Thank you.
In Eau Claire, you're listening on 93.5 the tap and in the cross WLCX.
For anybody who's listening, whether over on air radio or online through the app, we are certainly glad that you are joining us today.
My name is Jamie Martenson.
So get outside, touch a little grass as the kids like to say.
But before you do, you can give us a call or text 855-75-CIVIC-855-7524-842.
In all the commotion over Iran, we've almost forgotten, well, that's the
The plan is that we've some of us have almost forgotten.
We will never forget that Donald Trump has floated the idea of taking over and nationalizing elections just ahead of the midterms.
And we know that based on polling numbers, things are grim if you are a Republican.
And now if you are a supporter of this war, as people's gas prices and grocery prices and everything continues to rise, it's not going to look good.
But there's always been, we're going to nationalize it in 15 states, but they were very vague.
We would, you know, we would theorize what
But now it's starting to become more clear.
The president once again raised unproven claims of election fraud while discussing the possibility of nationalizing elections.
He encouraged Republican officials to take greater control of voting procedures.
Analysts and election experts say the key swing states could become targets for pressure, including Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, and Arizona.
And if those four states sound very familiar, that's because in the last election, boy, they came down to the wire.
That's where the big in Arizona, there were the big stop the steal
That's interesting because of the current rhetoric around Wisconsin, because the president has attacked our election system repeatedly over the last few weeks with claims that there was fraud in the state's elections.
There's been audits.
There's been recounts.
There's been court rulings.
They've repeatedly found no widespread fraud in Wisconsin elections or anywhere else across the country.
And no,
And, you know, the president recently shared claims online suggesting that Wisconsin has millions more registered voters than eligible adults.
Election officials actually had to debunk that a little bit.
at saying that it's misleading because voter rolls often include inactive voters or even outdated records.
And that includes people who have moved, passed away or haven't voted recently, but that doesn't mean that people are voting illegally.
And you know, when we... Facts, why
them?
I get it.
They get in the way.
I understand.
It's easier to control the narrative with whatever you want it to be.
But when we talk about the states that are in the crosshairs specifically, Michigan, for example, there's a group of conservative election activists, Brian, that have obtained copies of about 150,000 absentee ballots, also ballot envelopes from the 2020 election through public records requests.
Volunteers are now building a database to review those for what they
claim could be errors or fraud.
In fact, election officials in Detroit say that they welcome this review and they are confident that the ballots will confirm that the election was conducted properly.
That's just it.
There is no fraud.
You're not going to find anything.
Yeah, I know.
Why are you repeating yourself?
Because sometimes
to battle a lie that is being repeated and repeated and repeated and repeated you have to repeat the truth that many times as well if you just go oh they're lying again no you have to you have to counter the BS with facts right and the fact is it has been litigated and investigated and all you have to do that the youngest child could figure this out wait if all if all elections are corrupt
Why wasn't the last election corrupt right?
Oh?
Who oh could you want that election?
It's
Imagine if your kid did that if they came home from soccer or little league or football practice and every time they lost
the game was rigged.
But every time they won, they won it fair and square.
You would look at your kid and go, I'm going to put you in a dark room for a little bit because obviously your head must hurt.
You need some sort of help.
This is not rational thinking.
So now, just put some things in real simple common sense thinking and then realize
Now we're talking about grown people who refuse to accept the truth.
These people cannot accept the truth and we continue to have this conversation.
It is six years later and we are still getting that ballot.
absentee ballots from an election that was held six years ago, so think about that.
These are also people, as you noted at the beginning of the segment, that need to go touch some grass, maybe get some reality, go outside, understand that there is life outside of whatever you are being told, because this is not, none of this happened, none of this happened.
There are people living in that exact situation because there are people who voted for this president that truly, truly believe just like these conservative, concerned conservative citizens who are requesting this information to build the database.
So we know that there are people living in those circumstances.
When we look at some of these other states though, Georgia is another one.
We know that the FBI seized hundreds of boxes of ballots from that government warehouse just a few weeks ago as part of
of an investigation tied to the claims about the 2020 election, those claims have been debunked.
And there is a worry that the investigation could set a precedent for federal intervention in local elections.
In North Carolina, Brian, the Republican controlled legislature recently shifted power over the state election board and county election boards away from the governor and gave that authority to the elected state auditor.
Now, here's what's worrisome in some of these states, right?
is that North Carolina is an interesting state because of the dynamics of the government and how it is operated.
You do a lot of times have a Democratic governor and then you have a lot of Republicans who fall in line in other positions or have been elected to positions.
So I think this is going to be
This is what this administration has talked about doing, getting people on board on their side, essentially, to be in power and be in control of some of these elections or some of these processes.
And so that I think is probably the most worrisome is that instead of people who truly believe in the process and want the process to play out, what we're seeing is people who have some sort of agenda and alignment with this particular.
administration.
And that, I think, is going to be the most worrisome part of elections going forward, because we've seen this administration do that time and again in multiple states.
We'll put their people, we'll put that in air quotes, in control of certain positions.
And that is what scares me the most.
And while it didn't work last time in Georgia, because there were Republicans in those positions that said, no, our election was fine down here, you are getting
the opportunity to just like you said now the down ballot races that people they pay attention to a little bit but you know now you've got people in there who are aligned with
way of thinking no matter what and if you start allowing your states to take power away from the governors and I would love to say well you know you're not going to be in power forever and once that changes that but when you start talking about elections that
isn't a guarantee that these people won't be in power forever.
That's their goal, obviously, is to be in power forever.
So it is very dangerous.
It's very worrisome.
But
you know, you go, okay, well, it's one state, but then one state turns into how many
Right, and I think that that's the biggest concern I have as we look at what this administration is trying to do.
Now, in Arizona, election oversight remains a huge, a huge flashpoint down there because there's been disputes over the 2020 presidential election.
There's also been disputes over the 2022 governor's race.
In fact, a Republican
is currently seeking greater control over early voting and ballot tabulation procedures in Maricopa County, which is one of, it's traditionally a democratic stronghold, or it has been over the years.
But see, this is where it also gets dangerous because you'll see the areas that they're targeting.
They're not only targeting people, targeting states where there were close elections, but they're also targeting states that have a large population of minorities.
voters.
And I think that is also very telling as we look at what we're seeing play out.
There have been proposals, in fact, in Arizona to station federal immigration agents near polling places, though that idea has not, as of right now, moved forward.
I mean, there's time, unfortunately.
You know, it comes down to the fact that the reality is just because you lose an election doesn't mean something illegal ever happened.
And we rarely hear claims of fraud and elections that Trump won, as we pointed out.
Election experts also point out that the state's most often targeted with a lot of these accusations
tend to be the places that are democratically run or with black and minority voting populations.
And here's the thing about that.
If you start giving into those whims, perhaps, of the administration, that's what I'm going to say, because for lack of better word this morning, that's dangerous.
Well, there are whims.
It's dangerous.
Everything
She was saying that if there was no way she could lose if she if she lost and think back, think back to 2020.
That was that was the or 2016.
He said from the very beginning, if he didn't win, it was, there was no way it was fixed.
It was rigged.
And it's that old thing about repeating the lie.
You repeat it, you repeat it.
And a lot of rational people said he's going to
he's going to say that the the election was stolen if he loses and then we were told we were being hysterical yeah and uh and now six years later we're still litigating
right now the white house says that the administration's goal is to restore confidence in elections and support legislation such as the save act that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote but again this is essentially just making it harder for
many, many people to vote, including women.
The SAVE Act is going to make it harder not only for women, but minorities.
And voting should not be this difficult in this country.
But when I guess you're really worried about winning or not winning an election, you're going to do everything you can to keep people home, which is...
not how democracy works.
It's 6.48 right now.
You are listening to Daybreak.
I am Jamie Martenson.
Network.
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.
Local news, community stories, and the conversations that matter most.
Now, more Daybreak with Brian and JB.
lot of sense.
a
It is on brand.
Hey, we have Aaron texting in this morning.
He is listening in Madison.
We were talking about the fact that this particular presidential administration
and likes to keep rehashing the 2020 election if you joined us last segment.
He says, I think part of the reason why they have so many claims of election fraud, but so that once they actually do start committing election fraud themselves, they can point to all the people that have been saying there is no election fraud.
Not a bad theory, honestly.
I agree
Every every accusation.
Yeah, it's kind of a confession.
Yeah, so Yeah, keep that in mind when you're when you're dealing with them.
I always I always poo poo public transportation, but I also understand I understand our need for it.
I
am
I think it should be there.
I personally can't stand it.
But that's that's me.
That's everybody has their own thing, right?
But Amtrak Amtrak is now
Getting people excited, I guess, because they may.
Start service from Madison to Chicago or do you want to say Chicago to Madison?
I don't care either way It goes but the train goes both ways.
It doesn't
don't just stockpile So they're thinking to do this around 2030 possibly shortly there thereafter depending on funding and construction timeline timelines the project often called the Hiawatha West expansion would extend the current Hiawatha service beyond Milwaukee to connect
Madison with Chicago.
I love that.
It sounds great.
Imagine if you wanted to go to Milwaukee, whatever, but then there's something you want to do in Chicago and you could just take the train.
Sure.
That would be nice.
I've taken the train once.
And Brian almost hit somebody so hard.
He was so frustrated with it.
I gotta stop and pull down the hill wherever to let three pigs cross the tracks and then the conductor's gotta look out and go, hmm, anybody here?
No, there's nobody here on a regular basis.
Who's here waiting for a train?
But I know how many people,
It depends on rail transportation to get around.
And I do romanticize each
And I think it's good for local economy as well, because there would be proposed new stops along the route, including Pewaukee, Watertown and Madison, which would expand access into Waukesha, Jefferson and Dane counties.
Now, this project gained new momentum after the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.
If you want to thank President Biden for something, you could definitely
definitely thank him for that because that was that was all President Biden.
Just again, dabbling in the facts here.
That set aside more than $100 billion nationwide to expand and modernize rail service.
Now Amtrak and state transportation officials are currently reviewing possible station locations and gathering feedback from local communities.
In fact, in Madison, one recommended station would be located near Lake Minona and John Nolan Drive, which would give you closer access to the cap.
Minona Terrace and even some of those downtown hotels.
But I think about this for people who might want to just take a weekend trip, maybe do a little shopping.
You know, maybe you've got concerts or maybe there's something happening, you know, if you're in Madison at the university and you want to come into town for that.
We've got Alicia over on listening on YouTube this morning that says she wants to take the train from Green Bay to Milwaukee because how awesome would traffic be on pack or game days if you had a train.
from Milwaukee to Green Bay?
Yeah, something like that would be sensational for people.
And you know, it's a time to get some things done and you can
build that time into your day you know that's the thing and if you're taking a trip on the train you know it's going to be leisurely right you get on you relax you don't have to worry about traffic or driving and all of that um and this is good and last year when it they expanded from Milwaukee up to Minneapolis that was a big deal added a lot of a lot
Oh, he'll knock down his small child to get onto the train first.
And I'm not even joking.
I have to really guard him out in public.
I'm like, the child deserves the train ride before you do.
But at any rate, this has always been a pipe dream of his.
to do something from this area down to Arizona to the Grand Canyon.
I'm like, you take the train and I'll see you there when you get in at the train stop.
I'm gonna fly.
How about that?
I'll just fly.
You know, I understand his point of view.
I think it'd be fun.
It would be a different experience.
And for a lot of us, you know, a lot of people, like you said, do the commuter trains every single day.
So that's not new for them.
My wife takes
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.
