The Outdoors, Reading, Spelling And Pop Culture (Hour 2)

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Wisconsin wakes up here.

Back to Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.

706 right now.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning on the Civic Media Network.

Hey, Brian, it is time.

It's time to hopefully make somebody a winner and get them qualified for that big grand prize.

It's the break into spring text to win, multi-state contest, and of course our word of the day.

I'll let you do the honors.

All right, well, thank you.

The word for this hour.

So from now until eight o'clock, text the word thaw.

thaw is the word for now.

Text using the Civic Media app.

You should have downloaded already.

We warned you.

So you have an hour and after eight o'clock.

That will stop, and then later in the day, there will be more words.

Can I enter more than once?

Brian, yes, of course, why not?

So enter for your chance to win $200 today, and then the grand prize, Jamie, I love what you describe it so well.

We are talking about a new mattress set from Verlo, over $1,300 value.

You get the Queen V3 plush mattress, a set of tensile sheets, the mattress protector, and two active dough queen size pillows because of

Of course, if we're gonna give you the mattress, we gotta outfit you with the entire good night's sleep.

So we are going to do that courtesy of Verlo.

But again, you gotta text us the word thaw.

Look at all these people coming

in.

Judy, Lynn, Mark, thank you

so much.

Thaw is your word for this hour.

T-H-A-W, use your Civic Media app.

Now we got a quick talk about some headlines here because some things that you might have missed yesterday.

We'll start with the big news.

Should we, from Governor Evers?

I'll

let you.

Yeah, go

ahead.

Yeah, I'm so excited about this.

This is such a good one for.

across the state because the governor did sign Gale's law to expand breast cancer screenings throughout the state of Wisconsin.

The law requires insurance to cover additional tests like MRIs and ultrasounds especially for women with dense breast tissue.

It aims to catch cancer earlier and improve survival rates as about 6,000 women are diagnosed each year.

The change also removes cost barriers so more women can get the screenings they need.

Thank you GOP for finally bringing this to the floor and doing some good for the

women of Wisconsin.

And in case your calendar says 2026 it's probably wrong because it's obviously 2016 because former FBI Director James Comey has been subpoenaed in a wide-ranging federal investigation tied to the 2016 election and cases involving President Trump.

He did win that election.

He did as far as I

know.

Comey's help.

Yes.

Yes.

OK.

Just checking the probe led by a Trump appointed prosecutor in Florida.

already issued more than 130 subpoenas.

For what?

Officials are examining whether any actions tied to that period fall within legal time limits to pursue.

And then finally in news headlines, I know, I know, it's the weird wacky world we live in.

We're going to constantly go back in time.

In other news headlines this morning, Senator Mark Wayne Mullen's nomination for Homeland Security Secretary narrowly passed committee in an eight to seven vote.

Republican Senator Rand Paul voted against him, so

Our good friend John Fetterman from Pennsylvania decided to support the nomination and it was key in moving it forward.

The vote came after a very tense hearing.

Mullin's nomination now heads to the full Senate where he is expected to be confirmed.

And of course, a few things that you just might have missed before we get into some of the bigger news of the day, of the week, whatever.

Yeah, John

Fetterman said Mark Wayne was a solid dude that he had worked closely with.

And by the way, if you joined us earlier, Parker did a little digging for us.

I said, I didn't know what the polling for Fetterman was.

It turns out that in the great state of Pennsylvania, about 46% of people still support him.

40% of people disapprove him.

This is according to a Quinnipiac poll that just came out this week.

What about Democrats?

Well, it turns out not so much.

62% of Republicans actually

support.

John Federman.

Are there numbers for Democrats?

I

think there were.

There were.

There were somewhere in there.

I got to scroll up.

Everybody's texting so

feverishly.

I want to say it was about 73% of Democrats do not...

Yes.

I'm sorry.

I got that

backwards.

62% of Republicans or Democrats disapprove.

Yes.

73%

approve of Republicans approve

yes

so Republicans love a good turncoat Democrats are a little upset with the guy they thought was a Democrat and then voted him in and he's not yeah all right should conservation be a partisan issue should your outdoors come down to bickering amongst political parties eight five five seven five civic eight five five seven five two four eight four two well

The Wisconsin Senate, which you know has punched out for the year, did not take a vote to renew the Knowles-Nelson stewardship program during their session.

That likely means that the program is going to expire in June after nearly four decades in place.

This is, Jamie, you know this.

We talked about it, I think it was last week or the week before.

This is a program that has had not only bipartisan support, but pretty much universal support amongst voters in Wisconsin and yet

We're not gonna talk about it.

Let it go.

I think this is this is really frustrating because this feels like the kind of issue that we should get right as a state and in our and our Legislature's legislators should be able to get state because this has been a program since 1989 so this has been about protecting land the Knowles Nelson program that is and

It's also been a big supporter of the state's economy, tourism, outdoor recreation, hunting, fishing.

Those are all real drivers of local jobs and local businesses all across the state.

So at this point, you would think that this would be something that we could champion and we could get behind.

I don't know.

I like a good local strong economy.

I don't know what the Republicans think, but I certainly do.

I know the voters

don't understand how they now the Republicans said they couldn't see a path forward.

to fund this, but how do you not drive around the state?

Once you get outside of Madison, Milwaukee, and Green Bay, there's nothing but beautiful hills or state parks.

It should be a no-brainer, especially when all your constituents are for it.

This is another one of those...

where you just scratch your head and say, all right, everybody wants this.

What's the hold up?

What are you going to hold hostage?

Well, they've decided to hold this hostage.

And I think they may have made a miscalculation on how upset people will get when they finally realize

what the impact is going to be if this program goes away.

Well, yes.

And here's the thing that I think everybody needs to keep in mind.

This is not just a democratic issue.

This is supported widely by Republican, independent and democratic voters.

So this, this feels like a major misstep on the GOP's part.

And in case you're wondering where the hangup is, it really, some of these disputes amongst the parties really center on state land purchases, the conservation limits and the.

legislative oversight.

Of course, Republicans want more control and stricter rules on how the land is bought and managed, which I think is interesting, especially when you look at what's happening at the federal level.

The federal government is also trying to purchase national lands for development or use to not

just be

national lands for us to visit anymore.

So they want it for some sort of economic purpose to build for big business.

So is this the same type of pattern that the Wisconsin

and GOP has in their minds because that doesn't work for all of us.

We like our space.

We like to be outdoors.

We like to use the land that we were given.

But Jamie, how many data centers can we put in a state park?

Not

many, it turns out.

There's a few rules and regulations that prohibit that.

Well, not if we buy the land.

Not if the land is up for sale and not being preserved.

I stand corrected this morning.

You are absolutely correct, and I do stay corrected.

I somehow think a little more diabolical than you, which is good.

It's good to have

an optimistic

brain and a nice... But that's the thing.

All of this open land, and it was infuriating when it was first brought up and still being considered, like you said, with the federal government and the national park system, but in this state where, and again, I know we've said it, but the amount of money that comes into this economy because of outdoor recreation and because of the open land and the open spaces, everything is not for sale.

Everything...

Well, everything is, but everything shouldn't be.

And I guess that's... But how do you justify it as a legislator to say, I know all my constituents want this.

I know most of the other representatives in my party want this.

I don't want this.

And so instead of working for the greater good, you're working for whatever narrow interests you have or whoever's whispering in your ear, you know, lobbyists.

PACs, whatever.

And you're doing that.

It's going to be interesting to watch as the elections come up.

How

big an issue this becomes between the candidates.

Where do you think it's going to fall and how do you think some of the Republican candidates may justify their allowing this program to lapse?

I think about that and then I also think about the fact and I wish I could answer that.

I don't know.

I've seen Republican candidates turn themselves into pretzels trying to come up with answers for questions that they're asked on multiple issues.

So I wish I actually had an answer for that.

I had my crystal ball available to see how that was going to look.

But I think this also sends a bigger message to all of us that if this is a longstanding supported program that

that all political sides can agree on, and it can't get across the finish line, then where do we stand in this state, and what can we get across the finish line?

I mean, I even think about a couple of bills, right, this week that Governor Evers signed for women's health.

When we talk about the postpartum bill, when we talk about the breast cancer bill that we just mentioned in the headlines, think of how long that took this state.

Women's health, five years, those were tied up in this Congress.

And I think about how long that it took to get something so simple to protect women, to protect the health of women and individuals.

I mean, if we can't even agree on that, if we can't agree on a bipartisan issue like land conservation, then where do we essentially stand as a state, as a community?

And, you know, if you want to really expand your broad as a country as a whole, because these things to me should be require absolutely no thought.

That should be an easy win in any house, in any assembly, any Senate, anywhere across the country.

Well, and there's there is a chance that the Senate will come back for a special session Nothing is guaranteed the governor of course saying he hopes and Agreement can be reached because it did fly right through the assembly the assembly voted for it.

They approved it and So if if you're upset by this talk to your state senators.

They're the ones who are gonna make the decision and urge them to come back for a special session

and make sure that this does not expire before June.

I don't know too many people who live in Wisconsin that don't take advantage of

the outdoor

spaces.

I mean, and think about it.

This is something that funds public land access.

It funds trails, boat launches, conservation projects.

If you love a specific trail and you love to hike on it, it's probably getting money from the Knowles Nelson project.

I mean, we are talking parks.

We're talking the access to the public lands.

Essentially, it's things that get us outside and a lot of us are going to partake in throughout the entire season.

And it's also what brings other people here to support our local economies.

We've talked about it on this program this week, right?

that the snowmobile trails are opened in the Northwoods because of all of the snow that we've gotten.

And this is an extended period for the businesses up there.

And how exciting that must be for those resorts and restaurants.

And then you think of something like the Knowles Nelson, which can help bring usher in that type of business.

What happens to those local economies?

This is easy.

This is easy stuff.

I don't understand why we're making it hard.

The girls get overgrown, nobody

comes, the restaurants go under.

It's all part of the bigger plan.

There is no plan.

There is no plan, and that's the problem.

One thing I think, Jamie, we can all agree on is pop culture is kind of dumb.

But it's interesting, and it's fun, and there's a lot of stupidity.

And what doesn't cost anything is swipe or stay, and we're going to play that next on Daybreak.

I'm Brian

Noonan.

I'm Jamie Martins, and it's 7.19 right now.

Happy Friday!

The

Civic Media Network.

We are looking for a beautiful weekend in the state of Wisconsin.

Join us last segment talking about the Knowles Nelson program.

Well, get outside and enjoy some land this weekend, because you're going to have plenty of opportunity.

But you don't know more politics.

We can't talk about that.

We want to talk about some pop culture, which is equally as exciting and not politics.

So our producer Frank joins us for Swipe for State.

Good morning.

How are you today?

I'm doing well, we've got some good stories, I'm not gonna lie.

I think there's gonna be a lot of staying going on.

All

right, all right, we're excited.

All right, popular show has pulled the plug.

Stay!

Can we stay?

Stay!

I

know this story, we gotta stay anyway.

All right, so we talked about this, was it yesterday or two days ago?

Two days ago, I think.

Two days ago.

The bachelorette has officially canceled its upcoming season.

This comes after a video release of Taylor Frankie Paul in a physical altercation with her ex Dakota Mortensen.

ABC said in light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of the bachelorette at this time and our focus is supporting the family.

So when we talked about this the other day,

I said how people were pulling endorsements from secret lives of Mormon wives where she appeared on before they stopped filming.

They didn't want to do it during these allegations.

And we said, well, ABC is still holding on and they still plan to air the Bachelorette first episode on Sunday.

Brian, you saw the video.

I saw the video.

It is this woman is, and I'm sorry, prove me wrong.

She's nuts.

This video, and you shouldn't judge a person by their worst moment.

This has got to be one of her top worst moments.

When you throw a metal stool at your boyfriend, knowing your five-year-old kid is sitting right next to him, and the stool, according to reports, ends up hitting the kid, you've got something going on upstairs, and

this was not the first

time.

There are issues.

Yeah.

And again, I didn't even

know who this woman was until I started seeing headlines about it.

I saw that she was the bachelorette.

I've never seen the show.

But I was like, who is this woman?

And now I know.

And I'm like,

who?

Yeah, she's

had a

history of some things, we'll

say.

And it's really not a story I usually gravitate to for these kinds of things, especially with like a like a reality star kind of deal.

But man, it includes taking over.

Swinging.

alcoholism, domestic abuse.

It's got all the great tenets of a story if as long as you're not the one having to live it.

Yeah, and I feel like this is one of those things that somebody should make dive dive deeper into Especially since this is something that's happening and I don't want to lay disparage disparage any sort of Religious group, but this is happening in the Mormon culture Which is I think even more intriguing and why I think this has become such a story because they're not really known for these things, right?

Like these are not things that you would normally associate with the Mormon culture, which I think is interesting

I

watch

Big Love, I never saw anything.

All right, we're swiping on now.

Dolly Parton's terrible habit led to Disney's special.

Oh, stay.

Wow.

I love Dolly.

I

know,

but a terrible habit, I'll stay.

What is Dolly doing?

So a lot of people like Brian are very excited for the Hannah Montana 20th anniversary special.

You know it.

But it turns out that it was not Disney's idea.

In

a recent interview, Miley Cyrus said she picked up a terrible habit from her godmother, Dolly Parton, who said, if you want something to happen, start promoting it like it already exists.

Miley said, so I just started promoting a Hannah Montana 20th anniversary special that literally did not exist.

That's hilarious.

She started teasing it on her socials that this is happening and it's coming.

Disney had no idea about it.

Oh well.

Well now they do.

They do now.

All right, good

for God.

She forced her hand.

I know Brian's excited.

This is going to release on Disney Plus on March 24th.

That was the

very first concert Molly went to.

Was

Hannah

Montana?

I didn't

have to take her.

Debbie did this.

She the Hannah Montana concert.

Wow.

You can't bring it up to my wife.

I brought it up the other day.

It was a concert she didn't get to go to.

She said it was the biggest miss of her life.

Oh,

well, there might

be

another tour.

I mean, you

know, I was I was told if there is a Hannah Montana reunion tour to just not look at our bank account.

We have a famous rapper that won a lawsuit over his local law enforcement.

Brian knows what it is.

I do, but I only saw the headline.

I'm stay

stay.

Parker, how much time do I have two minutes?

Oh, OK,

that's tons of time.

So Parker's favorite rapper, Afroman has won a defamation case against local police officers.

I'm going to play a little bit of the

song.

So this song was set to a music video, which his actual security camera footage of the cops breaking into his place on suspicion of drug trafficking.

Wow.

And kidnapping.

They found nothing.

And Afroman wasn't in the house.

This was a couple of years ago.

So he took the footage of which you see an officer do a double take on the lemon pound cake sitting on the kitchen counter and decided to make

a song and music video out of that.

The deputies were seeking four million dollars and Afroman had just won.

Holy

cow.

Four

million?

That's crazy.

They wanted four million.

Afroman puts out a great concert, by the way.

You

went to an Afroman concert?

When did you go see Afroman?

It

was in the Twin Cities when we lived there.

It was outside, grassy knolls.

It was super, super fun.

Oh no, it was fun.

It was a great show.

We had a blast.

I

guess it was a free show?

Was it a free show?

No, cheap tickets though.

Very cheap tickets.

Would you go see Afro Man for anything more than like 15, 20 bucks?

No, probably not.

I'd

go.

It

was

a

great show.

Frank, another stellar edition

of

Swiper's Stay.

The week was wonderful.

Hopefully, there will be some more crazy pop culture stories for next week.

I'm sure.

I'm sure there will be.

All right, well, we come back reading.

It's fundamental, especially now

in Stone

Town.

Local voices, a wide impact.

It's Dayburn with Brian and

Jamie.

735 right now.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning on the Civic Media Network.

Happy Friday, looking for some much warmer temperatures as we go through today and into tomorrow.

So hopefully you're going to get a chance to go outside and enjoy those just a little bit.

In the meantime, Brian, we've got to try to give away some stuff here this

morning.

I'll be honest, Jamie, 200 bucks going into the weekend would make my weekend a little sweeter.

Oh, that would be very nice.

Now,

unfortunately, I am not eligible to win in the multi-state, the break into spring multi-state text to win contest where we're giving away $200 every day and then qualifying you to win a $1300, more than $1300 queen mattress package.

That's those all sound good to me.

But in order to enter, you must.

text to win.

And Jamie, we have a very fitting word for this weekend.

We do.

I love this.

Now, these words are predetermined weeks in advance.

So I think that it's only fitting that this one came up today.

Yes.

Your word today is thaw, T-H-A-W, T-H-A-W.

That is the word you need to text us before 8 a.m.

so that you can qualify for $200 in cash or that Verlo mattress set.

So make sure you get us that word using your

media app this morning.

I mean, yes, it is very thought.

T-H-A-W.

What I'm watching the snow piles outside my big windows here at the studio do right now.

This is the point of the time where you can kind of watch them in real time, right?

Yeah.

Which I love.

And you can

see the more water you see on the sidewalk, the more you know things are thawing.

Yes.

It's great.

Don't forget, listen all day, because the word changes throughout the day.

You can enter more than once if you'd like to.

And again, we've already given away four days worth of, that's two times four.

$800 so far.

And the contest goes all next week as well.

So make sure you are entering.

Make sure you're getting in on that chance to win not only the $200 daily giveaway, but the big mattress grand prize.

It is the

Spring, or the

text into spring.

Break into spring.

Break into spring.

Break into spring.

Yes.

Text to win, multi-state.

That's all you really need to know.

Spring break would be good though.

We could all use a spring break.

We could use a spring break from whatever is happening in the news, that's for sure.

But we have some good stuff to talk about though,

yes.

This is, yes.

I remember, as a kid,

Now I'm, now I'm old and I start to read and I fall asleep.

But I

was a voracious reader.

Me too.

From the time I could read.

I loved reading.

I would sit, you know, I'd get in trouble because I'd take a book into the bathroom and I'd

be reading and reading and reading.

And

yes, Parker, just reading regular books or I'd sit in the bathtub and I'd read.

I'm like, it's sixth grade.

I'm reading an entire book in the bathtub.

Yes.

I don't know.

I had cucumbers on my eyes and a mud

pack.

The whole thing is spotless.

How could you see

the book?

Huh, how could you see the book you slice very thin?

Yes, it has a green tint, but

Isn't that more relaxing

than a

bright white page?

Green is supposed to be one of the most soothing colors to all of us, so there you go.

So

now that you've pictured me as a young boy bathing

with

cucumbers on his eyes, why are we bringing this up?

Because the Madison Reading Project is expanding into Salk County, starting with early literacy programs, and it also kind of ties back to what we were talking about.

with Miley Cyrus

and

Hannah Montana and our good friend Dolly Parton.

So this is great news, Jamie, this reading.

It

is.

I think anything that promotes reading is worthwhile.

It's worth the effort and it's worth the...

I gotta say, I was also a reader as a kid.

Do you remember the Weekly Reader, or the Bookit program

in the schools?

Yes.

Oh, where you could earn the pizza?

Weekly Reader was fantastic.

Weekly Reader, the Bookit program where you earned pizzas for reading books?

Yes.

Oh, I earned so many personal pan pizzas at Pizza Hut growing up.

I can only

imagine how many

pizzas.

You're still probably cashing

those

in, aren't you?

I loved, loved to read, but like you, you know, time has caught up with me.

So now every time I open a book, I fall asleep by paragraph one.

It is really hard.

But here's the thing.

Books were such an escape for me as a kid, right?

Because you got to go into all these worlds.

You got to learn things.

And I just absolutely loved, loved reading.

And one of my favorite things yet to do is go into a library.

I know that makes me sound super nerdy, but I will find the most comfy chair.

I will grab a book and I will sit down.

It's funny, my kids were always homeschooled and they also loved the library.

But unlike kids who went to a traditional school setting, my kids would get a book off the library.

and then they would just plop down wherever they were at because that's what they could do

at home, right?

And so I'd be like, no, no, guys, you got to go over to these beanbag chairs over here.

But they loved being in the library.

They absolutely did.

And so when it comes to this reading project, this is an organization, Brian, that's been serving kids since 2014.

And it grew from a single site to reaching kids from birth to age 18 all across Dane County.

And if you don't know what they are, they are an organization

that focuses on getting free books and literacy resources directly into communities so that they can build a love of reading early.

I've read to my kids, I'm going to assume that you and Debbie probably read to Molly very early on.

We did, and Debbie's grandma used to come down because I was on the road at that time, and she read to Molly and Molly became, you know, entranced with books.

And I'm sure that's what happened with...

myself where my mom and my grandparents would read to me and I saw so many kids who came into school.

whose parents or siblings or just at daycare wherever people read to them and they wanted to they wanted to read and then you could tell unfortunately the other kids who hadn't really been exposed to books and I don't say this is a joke sometimes they weren't even sure how to open a book right and you'd be in kindergarten and it's that that's really sad for yes so many reasons but this this mad I had not heard of the Madison reading project yeah and now I'm

Yeah, it's really cool.

So their expansion will launch with Dolly Parton's imagination library offering free monthly books to children between the ages of zero to five now I had my kids enrolled in the imagination library and They explain

what that is for people who

don't it's literally you sign up It's free and you can do so by going over to the Madison reading project and their website in case anybody's wondering We'll give this to you a few times Madison reading project

And right at the very top, there is a tab that you can click that says Imagination Library.

You literally sign up with your kids' names.

This is a long time ago, so maybe some of the sign up has changed, but I literally had to put my kids' names in there, their date of birth, because they want to confirm that they're under a certain age, right?

And then every month in your mailbox, you get a free book for your kid.

That's it.

That's all you have to do.

And we're talking good books.

We're not talking stuff nobody's heard of.

We

had like the little engine that could, right?

We had the little engine that could.

We had the whole line of the pigeon books, you know, like pigeon drives up.

Yes,

yes.

Who is with pigeon?

Who's

pigeon's pal?

I

want to say duck and pigeon,

but that's not right.

It's like a chick or something.

I can't remember.

It's been a really long time, but it's such a great line of books.

if you give a mouse a cookie kind of books.

So that's all you literally have to do.

And the books come to your house until your child, because you put their birth date in.

So those books will come to your house until they hit that age of five.

And that's it.

That's all you have to do.

One book a month.

And it's so cool.

So thank you to Dolly Parton because she's had that program for...

a really long time.

And families,

yeah.

Let me let me just jump in for a sec.

I am looking at that registration.

And again, Madison reading project.com is the website.

It started in Dane County, but now they have expanded to Sauc County.

So if you live in Dane or Sauc County, and you have a young child and you want to you want to read to them for free.

Yeah.

You'd be silly not to go in and sign up It's

like if you have a newborn with this imagination library through Dolly Parton and the Madison reading project and you have a newborn and you enroll today You're gonna get 60 books and then your kids first five years of life because that's one book per month doing the math and the

funny thing is Kids will keep reading the same books especially because at first they're not reading you're reading to

them But

as they get to that five-year-old and even beyond

They'll still read those

books

and the books are age appropriate.

The books

are really good.

I got to ask our listeners, did you have a favorite book as a kid or one that you just had to read your own kids?

Because for me, it was a carry order carryover of the quarter right books.

I started those in third grade.

I had the most incredible third grade teacher, Mrs. Connie Parrish, and she encouraged each of us every single day to use our imaginations and to write.

She had beanbag chairs in her classroom.

She had a whole writing lab and she had this little stuff.

corduroy.

And we took turns taking corduroy home every weekend because it was our responsibility to keep corduroy healthy, clean and safe.

And, uh, she just instilled this great love of reading and imagination in all of us.

And so when I was old enough and I had my boys, uh, corduroy became a major part of, of what we did.

Chris, uh, chiming in over on our text line this morning, I signed my granddaughters up as soon as they were born.

We're talking about the Imagination Library.

They both love checking the mail for their new books.

Great program.

Thank you for that text this morning, Chris.

It is

a great

program.

Yeah, 1-855-752-4842.

1-855-75 Civic, if you want to chime in with comments about the Imagination Library.

Your favorite book is a kid.

Your kid's favorite books because reading, there's nothing like books.

No.

I

love books.

And I'm trying to remember, like for me,

being a kid was a long time ago.

But I do remember reading like Treasure Island was a great one.

Philip and the Puka, that's an Irish tale that I read a lot.

But in our house growing up, it was Junie B. Jones.

Oh yeah.

Junie B. Jones.

Love Junie B.

Jones.

just crape and I liked reading them to Molly because they were funny.

Yes.

And then when she was even smaller, it was the Sandra Boynton books.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

The

hard cardboard books.

Yes.

All the animals and stuff.

Those were always a huge hit.

I also loved the Judy Bloom books growing up.

Are you there, God?

It's me, Margaret.

Hello, that's a classic for a young kid, especially young girls.

She also had, like, tale of the fourth grade nothing and super fudge and all of that.

So I loved when I got into chapter

books.

Judy Bloom was always one of my favorites.

But about 3,500 children in Salk County are expected to be eligible for this enrollment.

And in Dane County alone, Brian, more than 13,500 kids

already received books through the program each month.

Alicia chiming in.

Chronicles of Narnia were her favorite books, yes.

And she also says that her kids loved Junie B. Jones when they were little and they loved Beatrix Potter and Dr. Seuss is well.

Oh, Dr. Seuss.

Yes.

Dr.

Seuss.

Can't go wrong with any of those.

That's like the OG.

You gotta like Dr. Seuss.

And if you're wondering where the money comes from for the Madison Reading Project and this expansion, it's funded by the Roots and Wings Foundation and it's funded for the next five years.

And again, MadisonReadingProject.com, sign your kids up and that's because, let's be honest, yes, you could go to the library, but some people don't have a library close to them or it's a hassle.

And books are expensive.

Yes.

Even kids books, you go, what for?

Even

the audio versions or the like, now the ones that you're supposed to get on your Kindle.

And by the way, I don't know how you feel, but I am a book in the hand person.

I hate Kindles.

Yeah, I'm not a Kindle.

I love a book in the hand.

Debbie and

Molly love them.

I love pages.

I love to be able to flip pages down.

I love to be able to make notes.

I love to be able to highlight things.

So I'm very much a book in the hands person.

And here's what I'm going to say too.

This is a huge step for Salk County.

Somebody who lived in the area

owned a small business in the area.

The area is fantastic.

The people are great.

But like every other area, there's a lot of people who are really struggling financially.

And there's a lot of kids who get left behind because of finances and some of the economics of the county.

So the fact that this is expanding into Salk County for these kiddos, it is, yeah, I'm always going to be about that.

Anytime you can give back to the kids and make sure that they're getting what they need, I think that's great.

Megan texts in from Sun Prairie.

My son just turned five and we are so sad to not get Dolly's

books

anymore, but so happy we had them for five years.

Yeah, this is now we were talking about who should get a street named after him.

I think every town should have a Dolly Parton street named after them.

Absolutely.

You know why?

Because your kids can read it because of Dolly.

That's why you give her that.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Hey, you want to talk about struggle, Jamie?

Stay tuned because we're having a spelling

bee.

We are.

Yeah, we are.

We're going to have a spelling bee.

It's 748 right now.

This is Daybreak on the Civic Media

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.

7.52

right now.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

We've sure sparked some conversation about reading here this morning, which I love.

Dick and Madison called in.

Didn't want to be remissed and forget about the Curious George series.

Love Curious George.

You guys love Curious George and the man in the yellow hat.

My goodness.

Why

yellow?

I

don't know.

But Anna's baby, I don't know, but I loved Curious George as well.

My kids did too.

They were Curious George, sadly, for being their mom.

Jolene chiming in on the text line very quickly as well before we get to our spelling bee saying that she homeschooled her kids too.

Their favorite series was Little House on the Prairie.

She says, I read it out loud to them even when they were 10 and 12 years old.

They loved when I read to them even as older kids.

Yes, we had sheer reading time every day.

Yep.

We had Debbie's, we had Debbie's full set of Little House.

And then I

also, now I, it took me a while to remember.

I read all the Hardy Boys books.

Oh yeah.

So we had my original set

of all the Hardy Boys books.

I was Nancy Drew, but yes.

And Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys sometimes teamed up depending on what series and how far you got it.

Cross over, sure.

A very

special episode

of Nancy

Drew and the Hardy Boys.

I also, well, we got it.

Can you tell I'm stalling?

Brian's

scared.

No, like once books like Harry Potter and all of those kind of young adult books came out, it seemed like kids just started reading and then they kept it under pants

and

all, you know, all the all the crazy books.

And no matter what adults taught them, kids were reading.

Yeah.

And so

It

was good.

Okay.

It was good.

What's what's the deal?

Why are we having?

Why are we having a spelling bee?

Well, because the 2026 Badger State Spelling Bee is going to be held on Saturday tomorrow at the Mitby Theater at Madison College Truex.

That's here in Madison and the event determines what Wisconsin representatives will go to the Scripps National Spelling

Bee.

So this is a big thing.

This is like the national contest and

so

a huge tailgate tomorrow outside of it to get

ready.

Tailgating for a spelling bee.

Oh my god.

It's, listen.

Wow.

Parker's body painting himself up.

He's going to have letters all over him.

It's going to.

Yeah, but we can't arrange ourselves in the right order.

Mark's

on his suit.

That's what Parker's going to be.

Yes.

Yes.

So we're going to have a spelling bee in honor of this Badger State spelling bee happening tomorrow.

So I know Parker's going to be our judge here and our word giver.

So all right, let's jump in.

Here we go.

Can we

see?

Can we see?

Let's let's see if we can get one call.

two eight five five seven five civic eight five five seven five civic what the first person to call in who could get on the line and I know Parker you're doing that they can participate

okay

because

I'm

hoping there's somebody who's a worse speller

than so each of you is good each of you will get your own word

okay all right I'm ready

all right Brian we're starting with you I'm horribly sorry

that's fine your dog your dog your word is not dog your

first word Brian is indict

Indite.

Indite.

I know this word.

I-N-D-I-C-T.

Indite.

Ooh, good job.

Well done.

Nice.

That's a good start, Brian.

All right.

I was not sure.

I

was worried for

you.

I

was too.

All right, now, Jamie,

we're

moving on to you.

Okay.

Threshold is your word.

T-H-R-E-S-H.

I gotta think, oh, LD.

Yay, I had to think if there was a double H there,

there's not.

I wasn't really gonna say A first.

It did sound

like

she, it

did sound

like Jamie said A. I'm sorry, no, I had to think for a second.

That's

okay, that's all right.

All right, Brian, we're going back to you.

Okay.

Separate.

Oh man, that's why I have spell check.

Could you use the word in a sentence, please?

Uh, separate.

I would like to separate my whites from my darks in my laundry.

Uh, origin of the word?

This show, I said it and I don't know anything else about it.

Separate, S-E-P-E-R-A-T-E.

Oh.

It's A-R-A-T-E.

Yeah.

A-R.

I always get that one, though, too.

I even had to write that one out to check myself.

See,

there's certain words no matter how many times you correct yourself.

It's a mental.

All right, so I was wrong.

Jamie, you can take the lead.

All

right.

Jamie, I know desperately wants to win the daybreak spelling bee.

She wants to be the champion.

I know.

Is there a trophy, a championship belt?

There's a high five.

Okay, that works.

Your word, Jamie, is hankerchief.

Oh, I

gotta...

Oh, are we allowed

to write it down?

I was gonna say, this seems like cheating.

No, you're allowed to in the spelling bee, too.

Are you really?