Bipartisan Cooperation: Better Late Than Never (Hour 3)

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.

Wisconsin wakes up here.

Back to Daybreak with Brian and JB.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

Happy Friday!

It is 8.06 right now.

We hope that your day is off to a great start.

A little bit cooler today than what we have seen the last couple of days.

A little bit of a warm-up towards the end of the weekend, but my oh my, the sun is certainly bright and shining in this part of Wisconsin, so hopefully it is where you're at as well.

My name is Jamie Martinson.

And I'm Brian Noonan.

It should be a nice weekend if you want to go out to a No Kings protest tomorrow.

I don't know if you guys are.

I will be at one.

tomorrow.

I had some signs made for the first one, and they focused more on immigration.

So I'm going to have to try to be creative tonight to come up with a sign.

I need a sign that is going to humorously get my message across.

That's one of my favorite parts about these No Kings protests is people in this country are crazy, crazy creative and come up with some amazing stuff.

I always think, you know,

We all like to think we're creative, and I think I am, but then I am like you, I go, there's a lot of really creative, funny people, and, you know, they're pithy on their signs.

Yes, I love it, I love it.

You know, we've gotta have a little humor where we can find it in this current state of time, so if you have one of those signs, I'm

all about them.

Well, and it also...

It also gets people to notice them a little more.

If you just have, you know, F Trump on a sign, that's falling on deaf ears.

But if all of a sudden people go, what?

Okay.

And Wu Tang is for the children.

That was my favorite from the very first one.

I'm like, how'd Wu Tang get pulled into this?

But I'm glad they did.

I always like it when

Wu Tang gets pulled

in.

It is time, Parker, because yes, there are marches tomorrow, but there is some other you need to know.

It's a wake-up call in more ways than one.

Time for some sh**, you need to know.

I

can't

believe they're playing that

kind of obscenity on this network.

Oh come on, we're all

thinking it.

Yeah, exactly.

So, isn't that what people who voted for the administration, he says what people are thinking.

So

do we.

So are we.

We just, we

just, you know, Brendan Carr's FCC is watching so we can't really say it.

Anyway, here we are some stuff you need to know the Senate early this morning approved Homeland Security funds to pay transportation security administration agents.

That's the TSA for the less wordy amongst us and most other agencies, but it did not fund the immigration enforcement operations at the heart of this budget impasse that has jammed airports, disrupted travel and imposed financial hardship on workers.

Hopefully it starts trickling down quickly and a lot of those TSA agents who have been calling in sick come back today because it's payday if you are a TSA agent.

The deal which was approved by the Senate unanimously without a roll call now goes to the House.

Mike Johnson better not slow walk it.

It's expected to be considered today because if not, hey guess what?

They go on vacation for two weeks.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said we can at least get a lot of the government opened up again and then we'll go

from there.

Obviously we still have some work ahead of us.

The deal did not include

some of the constraints or any of the constraints really that the Democrats have demanded as they sought to rein in Trump's mass deportation agenda.

And Chuck Schumer said that the outcome could have been reached weeks ago and vowed that his party would continue fighting to secure Trump's rogue immigration operation and that does not get more funding without serious reform.

So I agree with Chuck that it could have been handled a while ago.

This takes

This takes some ammunition out of the administration.

They

can no longer blame the Democrats because this was unanimously voted on in the Senate.

And of course, we can't forget that the president was the one who has turned down and the Republicans turned down seven different bills from the Democrats.

So let's not let's not throw too many roses.

But if you are a TSA agent or in FEMA or with the Coast Guard, you're getting your paychecks.

So

Yes.

I'm happy

for you.

It's all good news on that front.

Closer to home, since Scott Walker signed Act 10 in 2011, union membership in Wisconsin has dropped sharply, more than almost any other state, that at least according to a new report from Center for Economic Policy and Research.

Wisconsin went from having over 22% of workers in unions to now being at or below the national average with less than 5% of private workers

and

under 20% of public workers union.

Act 10 limited what public sector unions could negotiate, mostly just pay, leading to many unions shrinking or disappearing altogether.

Now experts say that this decline means workers have less voice on wages, benefits, and working conditions which can impact workplaces and communities across the

state.

The Brewers are off today because Parker, Parker, I don't want to get you triggered.

I don't want to throw you off, but this is how it works the second

day of the season.

But Brian, they play indoors.

They don't need the day off.

Brian.

Some of the teams they

play,

they'll play outdoors.

But they're playing indoors today.

No, they're not playing today.

They're not playing today.

Are you OK?

Look at him.

He's having

like

his only

turtle dialogue over

there.

Yeah, he's, wow, what are you channeling me?

He's hearing voices.

Don't shake those off.

That's a bad precedent to set for yourself.

Well, the other day we talked to Marty Ronsky, the COO

of

the Brewers, and we asked the million dollar question as she described it.

How could people watch the Brewers this season while the question was answered moments before the first

pitch?

yesterday.

They gave a rundown of channels on cable and satellite for game broadcasts.

The club said channels include 12.63 on Xfinity.

That's one of my favorites.

6.70 on Direct TV, also a good one.

And 17.43 on Uverse, 4.69.

Spectrum has all kinds of channel variations on there, depending on your local system.

The broadcasts are also listed as available on streaming service Fubo.

I've never heard of

Fubo.

We've tried the free trial with Fubo.

So anyway,

go ahead.

How is

Fubo?

It's like getting your local channels.

I have a whole problem with streaming networks, so get through the store.

Hang on, let's finish this and then we'll get back to it.

But here's the easiest way.

Go to brewers.com backslash watch.

You'll get a full list of everywhere you can watch it.

You can always download...

get the Brewer streaming service which was a hundred bucks for the season you get all the games and all that other stuff but you can still watch it on your however you get your TV you can still watch it on TV so

Good news for Brewer's fans.

Bad news for Parker because today he has to just watch, I don't know what he's going on, slap fighting.

He has to be on the outro.

Slap fight, that's a good idea.

Slap fighting is cool.

Have you ever watched slap fighting?

Oh, I've watched slap fighting, yeah.

No fan.

Slap fighting is all right.

Well, we know what

Parker will be doing the rest of the weekend.

You want to start an intershow league?

Well, you know, that's why I'm growing out the beard to give me a little cushion for when we slap

fight.

You better hope that beard is made of titanium.

Because I bring the heat.

I know you do.

Big shack has game.

All right, what's your beef with streaming services except that we all have to have a million of them?

That's my beef with them because these were supposed to be essentially a way of bringing the cable bill down, right?

And now you have, right, they were.

And so now we have all of these streaming services like your fooboo's, like your YouTube TV.

And I'm sure there's tons of them off the top of my head that I'm forgetting.

We have Hulu Plus with live TV, but then we also have to have Disney Plus.

We have Netflix.

We have Paramount Plus.

We've got Peacock.

So in the

scheme of things, how much more are you paying than you were when you had cable?

That's

my problem.

I think we're actually still paying a little bit less, not a ton less.

It's not like, oh, we can buy a car.

But it's like, oh, I can buy a cup of coffee from,

you

know, so it's a little bit of difference.

But yeah, it's insane.

And everything, everything, you have to get a different streaming service.

It's like even for a show that's on, you know...

The whatever it's the only everybody's after my money

The only thing that I really love about the streaming services is the fact that when I sign up and then I cancel They you don't get those residual bills right like you do with table for you know because two months later You're still like I still owe $12.

How could this possibly be right?

So at least when you cancel you're just done and you get to use the service until the end of that billing period and then you're just done and you don't get billed again

that

That is the good part about them.

At some point, I feel like it's gonna have to be like cable, and we're already starting to see it just a little bit, but I feel like they're gonna have to bundle at some point, like cable does.

And you already see

Disney do that

with Hulu and ESPN.

That's what Hulu does, because that's how HBO Max and Showtime and stuff.

like we were with direct tv and i listen i'll throw them under the bus a little bit we were at direct tv for years probably 20 years we were at direct tv and it kept going up up up up up and i have stay with me i have a big problem with the biblical story of the prodigal son i think the prodigal son is one of the most

horrible stories in the Bible and in general.

It sets a horrible lesson for people.

Yes.

And that's how I always felt dealing with direct TV.

Because they would announce all the greatest deals for people who have never subscribed.

And I'm like, hey, we've subscribed for 20

years.

We've been here for years.

What

about us?

Yeah.

No, no, that's not for you.

Why?

Well, because you're a loyal customer.

So why would we give you a deal?

That seems, no, that's not how this should work.

You should, if you're offering better deals, you should give them to everyone, not just people who you're trying to lure away.

I understand you trying to lure people away, but how about retention?

Because then it finally was, and part of the reason we didn't change sooner was sloth, if I could throw out

another

biblical term.

But yeah, this Friday show, betting and the Bible.

That's what we talk about here on the show.

We've covered every end of the spectrum,

if that's how it works out today.

We go 180.

Here we go.

So it always bothered me.

And that's, and now we're with, now I do like the fact that, like you said, Jamie, when you're done with the streaming service, you just go, nope.

Or if you just want to watch one thing on it and go through a series or something and you know that it's brand new, you can sign up for just a month or two and then you can

just be

done with it.

So there

are those.

One week free trial.

Right.

There are those perks to it.

I understand that, but it really is maddening because at the end of the day, you look at your bill and you're like, I'm

actually not really saving as much as I thought I was going to.

Now, I will tell you that we don't subscribe to any of the streaming services that have the live channels because we have an antenna, which

we

do.

We have an antenna and we love our antenna.

It's great.

We know it's a digital antenna.

So we love our digital antenna.

It's fantastic.

We don't have really any issues with it.

We had direct TV at one point.

And let me tell you when we had it when we lived in the Twin Cities and we were

going to

transfer our service to our house outside of Baraboo when we moved there.

Now we lived on a lake, 100 foot pine trees all around us.

And so my husband calls direct TV and he's like, you know, we've got a clearing over the house, you know, a technician comes out, we can probably put it at the end of the driveway, the dish that is maybe on the house.

And they went into their little map that they have there, you know, and they looked at the house and they're like, Oh, no, you just leave the dish and we'll just pick it up.

They wouldn't even like try.

They were like, there's no

way we're

getting through the pine trees.

We know that the service is going to be horrible.

And they wouldn't even try.

So they're like, just leave the dishes and we'll pick them up.

Did you buy your house from Ted Kaczynski?

No, we bought it from a very lovely couple.

It was a for sale by owner home and it was their dream home that they purchased, they bought and they built, but they refused to get rid of any of the trees that were around this particular home because that was what they loved about the land.

And it was literally hundreds of foot of pine trees.

Yeah, I'm seeing this text

from Roger.

Roger, yeah.

He says his dad cut direct TV six years ago, switched over the air.

$1,500 in the first year.

Yeah, that seems about right.

It doesn't.

Yeah, it doesn't surprise me when you look at them.

That's one of those things everywhere.

And they know they got you.

See, and it's not just direct TV.

It's it's anybody.

It's anybody.

You know, they're all the same.

They're all just out for themselves.

They don't care about your viewing habits.

No, but they know they got you.

What am I going to go without TV?

I didn't have a TV in my hotel room last weekend.

I went about crazy.

Oh, but you're supposed to unplug and unwind.

I have to talk to

you?

Is that what you

said,

Debbie?

That's what Corey always says to me.

Now we have to talk or something.

That's what phones are for, Jamie.

All right.

Listen, when we come back, there's more.

Oh, bipartisan

bill.

Oh, to actually help people.

It's

weird.

Yeah, this doesn't sound right.

I don't trust it.

No.

But this is Daybreak.

I'm Brian

Newton.

I'm Jamie Barton, and it's 8.19.

This is the Civic Media Network.

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.

It's

822 right now.

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

We hope that your day is off to a great start.

Friday, right?

And we're few hours now from the weekend unless, you know, you're like our winner of the Brewer's Tickets earlier and, you know, he's just off today.

He's getting a jump start on the

weekend.

That was a nice deal.

It was.

It was good for him.

It was.

Good for Joe.

He puts in his hours Monday through Thursday and they have flex hours and then he gets

Friday off.

I love that.

It's the way to go.

Yeah.

That is the way to do it.

This is always nice when we can say, hey, there's a bipartisan agreement among senators.

And this is a disparate group of senators.

Jean she Shaheen, Raphael Warnock, Susan Collins, I didn't think she was able to make a decision on anything.

But and then John Kennedy, they introduce a bill to cap insulin costs at $35 per month for people with private insurance.

And this is a huge, huge deal.

Because if you or somebody you know is diabetic, and they rely on insulin, the cost of that can be

unbelievably prohibitive if you don't have insurance.

So this bill would apply to Obamacare Marketplace Plans and employer-based insurance, require insurers to waive deductibles for insulin, limit what patients pay to $35 or 25% of the drug's price, whichever is lower, and create a pilot program to help uninsured people get insulin at the same capped price.

And my wife is diabetic.

And one of my closest friends are diabetic.

And for my wife, we have really good insurance.

So

once we

meet our deductible, that's great.

My buddy was between jobs.

And his insulin was so much that he was like trying to find people who had some extra that they could float him until his new job's insurance kicked in because it was

And no one should have to make that decision on a drug that they have to stay alive.

Yeah, you have to have that

insulin.

You have to.

Right now, only Medicare patients actually have a nationwide $35 cap.

That's the biggest change here.

That was from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

Thank you, President.

Biden, by the way.

Well, people with private insurance can still pay much more, sometimes $60 plus a month on average.

And that's, again, if you're insured.

The goal is to make insulin more affordable for the roughly 40 million people with diabetes, many of whom rely on the drug, as we just said, to essentially survive.

Lawmakers say this bill would close that gap between Medicare and private insurance coverage and make pricing more consistent across the country.

Experts are warning that insurance

companies could raise costs on other medications to make up for the capped insulin prices.

I mean, here's the thing about insulin, too.

Why is this such a debate?

This shouldn't be a debate.

There are 40 million people, as I just said, who rely on insulin to regulate their diabetes and to help them stay alive.

And yet this has to be a debate about, well, shouldn't we make it affordable?

What?

Just do something.

Go do something.

I don't know why this has to be a constant conversation among our legislators.

I imagine them sitting in a room.

Oh, we've got all these people, millions of people who need this help.

Should we actually do something about that?

Nope.

What?

Yes, go

do something.

It's her old fault they got bad pancreases.

What are we doing?

This doesn't even seem, at this, sometimes it just seems illogical and silly, right?

Like it just seems illogical and silly that you would even have to have people sit around in a room to have that conversation and that this bipartisan bill hasn't been proposed much sooner than this.

Well, it's, we could look back and complain that it hasn't been done in the past, which is...

legit, but we can also look at it now and go, all

right,

let's see.

Now this, you know, the insurance lobbies are going to be working against this, you know, big pharma is going to be working against this.

So it's going to, and boy, I really, I don't like thinking this way, but I do.

And that's the way it is.

It's going to get to a point where if it does pass, it's going to have to go to the president's desk.

And I don't, I don't see him caring.

being swayed well yeah he doesn't care about American people he's he's shown that basically uh every every decision he makes but uh the fact that you've got these big money lobbyists and we know the grift is strong with this one um so yeah I don't I don't see it going anywhere even though

This is something that if it were vetoed, it should be overridden immediately.

Absolutely.

You've already been messing with people's health care because you couldn't stand the fact that President Obama came up with a plan that was not perfect in any way, shape, or form, but it was working.

And it did get a lot more people insured than were insured before.

And people, you know, people...

didn't even know it was Obamacare because it was the Affordable Care Act.

And we saw that with people who were supporters of Donald Trump going, well, I'll get rid of Obamacare as long as I keep my Affordable Care Act insurance.

Oh, it's not going to work that way.

No,

no.

Yeah.

That was the one thing that I think was so troubling to me is that most people didn't even know they were talking about the same thing,

right?

Like they literally had no idea that if you had Obamacare, that was the affordable care plan and vice versa.

I mean, people didn't even realize they were the same thing.

Now, to be fair to this bipartisan bill, there was one that was brought in 2023, but that.

failed to pass at that point

in time.

Now, with this

particular bill, lawmakers may try to attach it to a larger must pass bill to improve its chances.

Because again, they don't think it will actually make it through as a standalone bill, which also says a lot about where we are as a country.

But in case you're wondering, there is no true generic version of insulin.

That's why the costs of it remain so expensive.

And there are some states that have taken action.

About $29 have capped insulin costs between $25.

and $100 per month, but this bill would create that nationwide standard, which again, I feel like is long overdue.

So I'm all for this.

I hope that they can pass it through a bigger bill, try to get it through as a standalone.

I just hope that somebody can actually do something with this to relieve the cost for, you know, like your wife, your friend.

I

mean,

that's who we're

talking about.

A lot of diabetics out there.

When we come back, we are going to talk to Emily Sefos.

She is a candidate for Wisconsin State Senate, but she's doing something more important than running for office.

We'll get to that and so much more when we come back,

Jamie.

It's 8.29

right now.

You are listening to Daybreak.

This is Pacific Media Network.

It's Daybury with Brian and Jamie.

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

It is 8.35 right now.

My name is Jamie Martinson.

and good morning I'm Brian Noonan and after 42 days it appears there's some good news for TSA agents and air travelers as the Senate has agreed to fund a majority of DHS.

That funding comes just as TSA agents will do another paycheck.

Unfortunately for the people who've been working without pay the effects of this crisis are going to linger

TSA agents at the Appleton International Airport and across the country have been trying to scrape by, many turning to food banks to feed their families.

Emily Sefos is the chair of the Democratic Party of out of Game County and a candidate for 19th Senate District here in Wisconsin.

And she launched a campaign to help the TSA agents at Appleton International Airport.

Emily joins us now to talk about that and more Emily.

Thanks for being here this morning.

We appreciate your time.

Yeah.

This is not the first campaign of this type you started.

You did one during the last government shutdown.

So what was it about this this Christ in particular that motivated you to start this campaign?

You know, honestly, I saw that ATW Appleton Airport put a post up on Facebook.

And you know, it's something that I think we look at these government shutdowns and we're, you know, in the fall, it was certainly the snap beneficiaries were

top of mind but looking at that I was like they're right here these are our neighbors they didn't ask for this and they're suddenly put in this terrible situation so we thought what can we do right now and you know this community has always showed up and so we tried to do it again.

What does that say Emily do you think about Wisconsin communities who step up when our government either at the state level or at the federal level falls short and really in some cases lets us down and disappoints us.

Yeah I think it says

everything that you need to know about Wisconsinites, like we take care of each other at the end of the day.

When you see somebody, you know, I certainly grown up in slinger in the south, in the southeast.

My parents taught me like if you see something wrong or you see someone hurting, you roll up your sleeves and get

in there and do

something about it.

And that's I think kind of our, we don't expect anyone to come in like save the day.

So we're going to pick it up ourselves.

And that's what we see every time we ask for our community to show up in this way.

And it's really incredible.

Well, that goes to how quickly this campaign had to come together.

What was, how has it done so far?

We are currently, I just checked the GoFundMe and we're at $8,388, which is incredible.

Cause we just kind of announced it on Monday and it's been four days so far.

That's amazing.

Absolutely.

Yeah, I'm really excited.

So what are you hearing directly from people on the ground?

Have you talked to any TSA workers about the shutdown and how this has been affecting their daily lives?

I've talked to a couple and then I've talked to a couple like family member spouses.

And I think that what is special and unique about Appleton International is it seems like

administratively, they've really got their backs and they're really trying to like help them out and help carry them through this.

The, you know, we're coming upon with spring break and everything, one of the busiest travel seasons across the country, but certainly in Appleton, which is a much smaller airport, you could really, you know, a couple of people called out, you're kind of stuck because we don't have a lot to draw from.

And they've been showing up like really consistently getting people through those lines and things like that.

And I think part of it is because of that, you know, that support that they're experiencing from the airport itself.

When you hear the administration talking about, you know, if the airports aren't doing well and TSA is going, we may have to shut down some local airports.

And one of the airports listed as a possible one being shut down was Appleton.

What would that do to the community and to the Fox Valley if that airport were to be shut down?

I mean, it would be awful.

I mean, Appleton International has been built up.

We are getting more gates.

I certainly don't have all the details on that, but economic impact in the Fox Valley area is huge.

I know that there are a lot of business owners and folks that travel for work that fly out of Appleton, get those connections down to O'Hare and things like that to go to Chicago.

And it would be

I mean they would be what up a critic they'd be having to you know be virtual like I mean the ins and the outs of the people moving through that airport it's really like critical infrastructure that exists here so like and I think that at the end of the day deciding that huge swaths of population don't you know like you can be cut off from your airport

like

that's what kind of decision-making is that like and how do you determine

who falls where besides like strictly numbers without looking at the human side of it.

And I think that's kind of what I'm seeing across the board where it's all numbers.

We're not looking at the human impact.

We're talking with Emily Sefos this morning.

She is running for Wisconsin State Senate District 19.

She's a community organizer.

She's been raising funds for some of these TSA workers who have not been receiving a paycheck, which kind of leads to the deal that the Senate made in the very early morning hours overnight, whatever we want to call it.

Now, they do have plans to fund TSA.

There's still a few more hurdles.

But these workers have already missed paychecks.

How much does that financial hit still matter for families here in Wisconsin and how much is still going to be needed even if there is a deal reached?

I Mean

I bills don't stop coming do they like when we're talking about this kind of stuff like we're either

They're not holding up on car payments and mortgage payments and rent and things like that or groceries and gas and prices continue to rise for those things as well.

I think that, you know, on top of it, we experienced these folks specifically experienced a leg of a couple of months in the fall with the government shut down.

So like on, you know, like you're, I can't imagine the stress because people

don't have wiggle room with their finances.

And so to be out over a month and then have it like, oh, we're going to pay you now.

But we know that that's going to take another couple of weeks to come through.

Well, what the what the heck are they supposed to do?

I like, I just don't understand it.

And I feel like awful for them.

And that constant stress, like, who would want to do that?

So even with this news, are you going to keep the campaign going?

And if so, how can people get involved?

How can somebody donate help some people out?

So there are things popping up everywhere.

So if you're listening from other places, certainly look into what your own local airport is doing.

This will be open for at least another week because, again, these are lagging, but we are going to start drawing funds so that we can be delivering those gift cards that we wanted to deliver to them.

And I think that I would just encourage folks to look into your local stuff.

I've got my GoFundMe link on all of my social stuff.

But contacting your regional airport is a great idea.

wherever you are.

To kind of zoom out of this just a little bit because I know you've been involved in the political realm for a long time in your area, what role should our state leaders really be playing right now when these federal decisions start affecting our local workers or when we start talking about local closures like we were potentially for Appleton or even Dane County's airport?

I mean, in my mind, I'm at the end of the day a private citizen because I don't hold a lecture office.

But I think that what I'm looking for and what I'd hope our leaders would be doing is seeing a problem and then using the platform and the pulpit that they have to call on people to do the right thing.

And that is putting pressure on those that need to be, but also alleviating that crisis that exists for their constituents.

You know, I've sort of been a little disappointed in the fact that we haven't seen more of this.

This is a pretty low stakes effort, you know, and people want for it.

So I think that there's certainly, you know, we're told not to politicize things, but I think there's a difference between showing up in a moment of need and calling for accountability.

And I think we need to do both.

Like, I think that we need to not just point fingers and malign somebody else.

I think we need to say, here, from my point of view, here's what's happening.

But regardless of if you agree with me or not, this problem exists.

These people are being unpaid.

They can't make their rent or whatever.

We're going to show up for them.

And I would love to see more of that.

Because I think what we need to acknowledge and remember is that community service is not a replacement for good governance at the end of the day.

Well, you're a private citizen now, but you're trying to change that a little bit.

And people can go to emily4wi.com and find out all about it.

But it sounded like you were laying out part of your part of your platform.

What spurred you decide after years of being with the party in out of gaming County to finally run for office?

I think it's knowing that people deserve better when you're active in a political sense, like at a local grassroots level, like you hear stories, right?

And I think that knowing that there are so many issues and so many stress points that

people are just like living with and dealing with and thinking they're alone.

And I'm like, those are policy decisions that were made.

along the way that are impacting your life for the worse and I believe in good governance and I believe in helping people you know as many people as we can help we need to bring them along in that way and I'm just like not seeing it I'm tired of people resting on their laurels if you know this is a republican district and I think like just to show up and be like I'm here and I'm gonna win because I've got an R like I want to challenge that kind of allegiance to any party to say let's question

if this is really helping and how we can be better and like have those hard conversations because I think that if we just sit by and let things go on as they are and it's only going to worsen, we all have a responsibility in our local communities to do what we can and this is the way that I'm choosing to step in in this moment.

We're talking with Emily Seffo.

She is a candidate running for Wisconsin State Senate District 19.

She's also a community organizer.

And Stephanie, Emily, I'm sorry.

One of the things, I'm combining things this morning.

You've been very outspoken about accountability from the federal government, especially about things like ICE.

Why is that piece of the debate as we go forward so important to you and the voters of your district?

I think that at the end of the day, I think human dignity is what we all come back to.

There are a lot of conservative, faith-filled people living

in

this district.

And when we talk about the human dignity and the fact that we've dehumanized entire populations or communities so that in this case, ICE can enact.

violent and egregious actions against them.

There's that element.

And then also the rule of law.

We are not following the Constitution.

We are not showing warrants.

We are not identifying ourselves.

All of those things, if we truly are backing the blue, if we are truly going to be following the rule of law and believe that those exist for a reason and that accountability exists from top to bottom, then we need to call to attention the fact that

what is going on with ICE, what has been going on with ICE is not constitutionally sound.

It is not following that law.

And those are the conversations that I'm trying to have with people out here.

They've been politicized and things have been twisted, of course.

But at the end of the day, it's human dignity.

85% of the people that they've rounded up in a lot of these areas are not criminals.

They're doing what they're supposed to be doing.

So we're trying to have those conversations as well.

Now, those things all make perfect sense, and they should be logical and easy to argue.

You mentioned the 19th District, very blue.

How do you then... Very

red.

Very red, rather.

Very red.

So, how do you get... How do you change the minds of these people who have been voting and resting on their laurels, as you said before?

How do you get that message across to try to sway them?

Because, again, what you laid out for the ice thing seems pretty nonpartisan to me.

I mean, and I think like most at the end of the day, we're all, you know, we're being manipulated by the people at the top and we're being manipulated by certain media outlets.

And I think for me, it's showing up early and often and having respectful conversations like I sit down with.

you know conservative folks all the time and say tell me why you feel this way and then we kind of have to go back and forth about like show me where that exists you know and these are long drawn out conversations but we have to get back to talking to our neighbors in a way that is rooted in curiosity and respect so that we can begin to kind of unravel the twisted nature of politics today because

At the end of the day, we care about our communities, our families, our country, right?

And we got to get back to understanding that there are nefarious people that are trying to do a lot of things behind the scenes that are really going to adversely impact our communities.

And that's what we're going to keep doing.

Emily, we have just a couple of seconds left.

Speaking of taking care of community, can you tell us how to get in contact with that?

Go fund me one more time.

How people can donate to that if they want to help those TSA workers?

Sure.

It's probably easiest just to go to Emily Sefos for Wisconsin.

It's just all over my social media.

So that'll be the easiest one.

All right.

Perfect.

And Sefos is T-S-E-F-F-O-S.

So make sure you spell it correctly.

Emily, thank you for being here.

Good luck with the campaign and we appreciate your time.

Have

a great

weekend.

Bye.

Bye bye.

All right, when we come back, it's Dairyland Diaries.

Yes, we're going to end the week with some happy news.

Why not?

It is 8.49.

And oh, we got another 50 seconds.

Don't

worry.

Thank you so much for having us on this morning.

It is time for Dairyland Diaries, and this is such a fun part of our week because we get to zoom out of the politics, just take it, throw it all away for just a few minutes, and talk about the good stuff that makes Wisconsin Wisconsin, right?

Yes, there are a lot of good stories around the state.

Sometimes they get short shrift because we're talking about the other things.

But Dairyland Diaries is our chance to just move about.

And have you noticed, Jamie, we're getting a lot of intros for these segments.

I love them.

I

know.

We've got to commit to the bit.

I love it.

All right.

I saw this story and I I'm envious because it's about an eight year old man who has completed his 1000th hot yoga class.

Not just any 80 year old man.

Former Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle.

He's the oldest guy at Inner Fire Yoga for hot yoga.

And he just completed his 1000th class.

Staff member Mark the Clay occasion by getting him to do a handstand on TikTok.

Now those are all words that shouldn't

with 80-year-old man, but they did.

Or Jim Doyle.

Yeah, I don't know Jim Doyle.

I know he was the 44th governor of Wisconsin.

He was a Democrat.

He was governor from 2003 to 2011.

He was a longtime runner.

He still runs.

He plays basketball and golf.

Slow down, Jim.

Make

the rest of

us look bad.

Yeah, really.

How about it?

He said he started doing hot yoga about 10 years ago at the urging of a friend.

We were very good friends and he had been doing it for a number of years, despite having serious cancer.

Doyle said he'd still go through hot yoga.

So he'd been after me to do it up until about age 60.

Doyle ran long distances and he played basketball four to five times a week.

So took him a few months to get into this, but it goes to show you that you can pretty much your

never too old I guess that sounds cliche to start but 80 this guy's done a thousand hot yoga class he said at the beginning he could only do part of the class he'd have to walk out and catch his breath because it's I guess no joke reason there yeah it's no it's no joke at all and it's he's always done a hot yoga now he does a 75 minute class when he when he started he could barely make it 20 minutes or half hour so good for him good for good for former governor Jim Doyle

I feel bad if I can't walk down the stairs.

I'm out in the summer and I'm like, oh, it's so hot.

The

only thing I'm running for is if I see my candy bar getting ready to hit the ground or something, but I digress.

In other news from around the state in Dairyland Diaries, I love this, US News listed Wisconsin Dells at number eight on its best vacations list this year.

That's actually up a spot from last year on the 18 destination list.

So not a lot of competition on this.

I like that.

The Dells area is the only Wisconsin location on this list that includes four California locations and two each in Florida, Hawaii and the Carolinas.

So some steep

competition.

Yeah, those are some vacation destinations.

They really, really are.

Now the Wisconsin Dells Visitor and Convention Bureau President and CEO, Jill Adeil, says that they're excited to move up a notch in this very competitive list and that the town can continuously strives to provide new and exciting exp...

Experiences for visitors as well as preserve the area's natural beauty and she says this US news ranking is just validation of all of those efforts now the publication ranks its 18 destinations based on lodging attractions scenery public opinion and accessibility to major cities and airports among numerous other factors US news evaluates more than 1500 destinations now in in their report the US news senior travel editor

said Wisconsin Dells is a fantastic year-round family destination with indoor and outdoor water parks, museums, and natural attractions that can easily fill a kid-approved itinerary.

And of course you have all the resorts that are filled with some amenities

and things

like that as well.

I am

ashamed to say I have never been to the Dells.

I've stopped for gas in the Dells.

I've driven past the Dells hundreds, literally hundreds of times.

I lived

five minutes from the Dells.

That's where we lived.

We were five minutes from the Dells and I can honestly say there was from about Memorial Day to well past Labor Day.

Well past Labor Day.

Into about October, you did not go to the Dells because you could not move in the Dells.

And finally, Green Bay is known for more than Lambeau Field Parker.

I don't know if you believe that, but Green Bay is soon going to be home to a music hall of fame celebrating bands and artists from Northeastern Wisconsin who went on to national fame.

Strike Accord is a local nonprofit.

They were founded in 2014.

They've leased space in the former Keleron Elementary School to open a dedicated museum honoring the area's music history and contributions.

It's scheduled to open May 15th.

It's a big step for the idea that has been a couple years in the works.

Finally has a home.

The former school was purchased by Evergreen Theater in 2025, but the community theater organization is also leasing rooms to fellow nonprofit groups.

Music Hall of Fame will occupy a first floor room that is 42 by 30 in case you're measuring this out in your head and thinking how big will it be?

Well, there you go.

It'll be open to visitors during set hours a number of different days.

I love that.

It's very nice.

That's it.

There's your Dairyland Diaries.

We like to end the week with some uplifting stories because, listen, when we're back here Monday at six, you know it's going to be who knows what will be.

Not to

mention the fact

that we have two full days that we have to try to cram in because you know that this administration does not let any of us sleep and even though they take a lot of breaks, there's still stuff that happens because of their actions and then we've got to try to fit it all in.

It's a lot.

Well, the good news is any congressional news will happen today because they're taking two weeks off.

Yeah.

And I wonder if Delta is going to put the diplomatic

I wouldn't.

Extras back in.

I wouldn't.

If they're going to make them wait till all the time.

I wouldn't either.

Make them stand in line like everybody else.

I would make them stand in line even after this so they never forget what this was like.

Really

honestly.

No more.

You don't get anymore.

You've made us suffer.

twice this year twice in a year they've made they've made people suffer so now you get to be just like everybody you represent that's right maybe maybe just maybe being exposed to real people will make you keep real people in mind when you're sitting there in your ivory tower making these decisions so we are going to jump around and by jump around I mean jump out of here because it is it's time to go

Thank you for listening.

Thanks for being part of the show.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Jamie, I'll give you the last word.

We are so glad that you joined us this week.

Thank you so much.

It is 8.59 right now.

This has been another great week of daybreak right here on the Civic Media

Network.

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.