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Across the state of Wisconsin, Daybreak with Brian and Jamie is back.
large
Yep, some tornadic activity is what they said.
But in Madison, they're saying it between 9 and 11, it could snow again.
So that's, that's going to be like, I have to go back out.
It's supposed to.
So it's raining now in Madison.
It's really raining.
No, according to the National Weather Service from nine to 10, nine to 11, there's a chance of snow.
And that's a 75% chance of snow.
So that's
That's pretty good.
It's pretty good.
It's going to start raining again.
And then you'll finally, you'll finally get a break at 8 p.m.
So fuck it up.
Weather whiplash.
Friends, it's going to be a horrible day.
I love it.
Just a horrible day.
High in the 60s today and then Friday and Saturday in
the
I'm a survival of the fittest kind of guy.
This boy is like, I want everybody to be okay.
But if you're not, that's on your personal responsibility.
All right, let's look to the Middle East because it's time for some war headlines, which are basically becoming all the same.
But let's start with this one.
Because last night, if you listen to the president or listen to our breakdown of what the president had to say, he used familiar talking points in his first address to the nation on the around war telling Americans the conflict is quote,
During completion and projecting another two to three weeks of involvement, he signaled the U.S.
prepared to intensify its military response and threatened to take Iran back to the Stone Ages.
There's only one Stone Age, but he said ages.
That's
In other headlines, Iran's military dismissed the president's claims that four weeks of attacks have left it weakened.
Following the powerful and unimaginable blows you have already received expect even more crushing, more extensive and destructive action from us, Iran's military said in a statement.
This doesn't seem like a country who's giving up and is depleted like the president continues to tell me that they are.
No, and they're also buoyed by the fact that nobody else, except for Israel, nobody else bought into this.
Right.
It's like, all right, you want to come after, and I, listen, I'm no fan of Iran.
No.
But...
He, this was a major miscalculation on the part of this administration to think they would just roll over and acquiesce to his demands.
They're not.
They won't do it.
They never have done it.
And there's no indication that they're going to do it now.
And he could keep saying till the cows come home that we're winning and that he's going to make the decision when it ends.
That's not, that's not going to happen.
It's not how
This is also true.
Israeli defense has intercepted Iranian missiles on the first night of Passover, and in Lebanon, Israeli attacks killed at least 50 people within 24 hours, according to health officials there.
So no end in sight for this.
If you think it's going to be two to three weeks, good.
I'm glad you can comfort yourself with that thought.
I'd be happy to throw some money down that it's not going to be in three weeks.
We're going to be into month three and it'll keep going because no matter how much you bomb them, they are going to keep coming back.
And we've talked about this before because Pete Higgs has also insinuated some of the same things the president did, especially about the regime and the new Ayatollah, that they are depleted, that they are on basically their very last leg as far as a regime goes.
My feeling is that's not true.
Obviously, I don't have the intelligence, but my feeling is that's not true.
This is a regime that isn't super public most of the time.
And so
This administration doesn't care if they have facts or not, or we wouldn't have been in this war.
But the former Ayatollah, the one that
is confirmed dead.
He didn't make public appearances either.
That's, that's what they do.
They stay, their leadership stays hidden because they know they are on their wanted.
They're, they're, you know, people are looking to kill them.
So they stay hidden.
And whiskey Pete, whiskey Pete just wants to cosplay.
He just he loves to stand up there and talk tough, and throw around all these things and make it seem like he I really believe
He is aroused when he's talking about that.
He gives off that energy of somebody who's describing their latest conquest or their trip to Vegas or whatever.
He doesn't, he's not a serious man.
This administration is not serious.
And they have made a major miscalculation, as I said, on their, on this enemy.
And it's going to, it's going to be long and drawn out, which is why longtime advocates and longtime supporters of
this president and the MAGA policy are like, this is not what you this is finally what they're like, hold on, you you promised this was not the thing.
Yeah, you promised campaign don't care.
They can they can be fooled about the economy.
They can be fooled about the Epstein files.
All of that they're willing to swallow.
But
the America first no long-term wars thing is for whatever reason sticking in their craw and this is going to be his downfall.
I mean, here we are after weeks of this, and there's still no end site.
And it turns out that a lot of the time what this administration says about
other people, uh, turns out to be what they're actually projecting about themselves.
And, and we're, we're living through that right this very moment.
A lot of things to talk about in Wisconsin and a lot of stuff you need to know, Parker.
It's a wake up call in more ways than one.
Time for some shit you need to know.
Alright, well this is an all Wisconsin based blank you need to know.
I almost said it.
It almost came out of my mouth.
That would not have been good.
So US immigration changes mean less money for Green Bay schools a year and a half into Trump's term.
The law a longer term change may be hitting Wisconsin school districts one with direct financial consequences.
The Green Bay school district is facing a budget deficit of $8 million for next year 2026 27 and 24 million to 32 million for the following year 2027 28.
Part of the reason for that deficit is because schools are funded on a per pupil basis and enrollment has been declining for years.
Now there's a lot of reasons for declining enrollment, not as many kids, none of this, but one of the big reasons is the immigrant community in Green Bay and the surrounding areas is shrinking.
District Superintendent Vicky Bayer said Green Bay welcomes a lot of new immigrants and we're just not seeing those numbers right now.
Gee, I wonder why.
So, pardon me.
If you don't have kids coming with their immigrant families and they're not coming to school, suddenly when your enrollment is checked and funding is up, you're gonna go, well, you guys don't need as much money because you don't have as many kids.
Now, there's no real data as to how many of those
the children that are missing came from immigrant families.
We do know that there's been a decline in enrolment in the Green Bay School District and they're looking for that.
But that's one of the main reasons and just a reminder that every child
Regardless of citizenship status is entitled to free public education under the 14th Amendment and that was ruled by the Supreme Court in 1982 and I can hear some of you already, I don't want my tax dollars going to pay for some illegal going to school.
Well, sorry, that's the way it is in this country for now and
You can fight it if you want.
Green Bay is not tracking students immigration status.
They don't know.
But the Census Bureau shows net international migration to both Wisconsin and Brown County drops significantly between 24 and 25.
And if you're if you're somebody who's looking to move from your country or whether if you legally just want to move or if you're trying to get into this country
This is not the place to come anymore, and it's showing up, and it will have long-term effects on the school district.
What else we got?
You're losing students, that's fewer resources, fewer programs, and tougher decisions about staffing and class sizes, so something else to consider.
But yes, very quickly, Governor Evers is calling out President Donald Trump and using some harsh language.
I like spicy Tony.
This is fun.
But I obviously...
the president signed that order to restrict absentee ballots from going to people not vetted by his administration, and Tony Evers calls it BS, using the actual words, which I cannot, and I wish I could, because it's great.
Right, and he looks forward to seeing the president in court, is what Governor Evers says.
On Monday, Trump signed that executive order titled, ensuring citizenship verification and integrity in federal elections, which instructs the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security.
Social Security Administration to send election officials to states just like Wisconsin
and
list individuals confirmed to be United States citizens who will be old enough to vote before upcoming federal elections.
Now this order also requires U.S.
Postal Service.
out of money, by the way, to prevent mail-in ballots from being sent to anyone not on the list.
Components of this order are similar
to
The U.S.
House passed that bill in February.
It's currently stalled in the Senate.
Now, soon after the president's order was signed, Evers called the order BS in a social media post saying it's illegal, and we'll see the president in court.
Now, we've
talked to...
I got
Attorney
General said the order transparently attacks our democracy, restricts voting and tramples on the Constitution, quote, I am confident that key parts of the executive order will be blocked and that it accordingly won't prevent us from continuing to have free and fair elections in Wisconsin.
Good for Tony for saying the
this this proclamation this list that he wants everybody on a list that you have to then the list has to be vetted by so many different agencies and it's all all a load of garbage because he votes by mail don't don't ever forget this he votes by mail his family votes by mail don't let him don't let him convince you that there is fraud in mail-in elections there is not fraud in mail-in or in our elections in general no
Less than 20.
This is Daybreak.
I'm Brian Noonan.
I'm Jamie Martins and you are listening to The Civic Media Network.
It's a 22
And it didn't skyrocket before the war started, so correlation, causation, I don't know, you can draw your own conclusions, but...
Because of that, a lot of businesses that use trucks are having to pay a lot more.
And if you think that that's not going to get passed on to you, if it hasn't been passed on to you already, you don't know how this works.
And that's okay, because we'll try to help you know how it works.
Wisconsin is known as the dairy state, Jamie.
Dairy consists of milk.
Milk is transported in what?
Trucks.
Giant tanker trucks.
That's right.
Uh, something I didn't know about Wisconsin, but I do now is that there are some roads that they have weight limits on, especially in the rural part of this state, which makes sense.
Okay.
Well, that just means trucks have to make more than one trip.
Half a tank.
Mm-hmm.
Well, but they still need to deliver a full tank so they got to go back and get another tank So now you're using more diesel fuel.
Yes, which have I mentioned prices skyrocketed The average price for example in the Midwest of diesel is five dollars and ten cents a gallon Wow now that was a dollar that's a dollar thirty one higher than before The tangerine tyrant decided he was gonna start a war so again
We were told we have all this crude oil that makes diesel fuel.
Well, we don't.
So there's a lot of concern, growing concern, as there should be because we will start paying more for all of this.
And
It turns out that we...
we are going to have to pay higher prices because those companies, those milk farms, any truck really who has goods crossing through the state right now or in the country are probably going to end up charging more because at some point they have to offset their own costs.
It doesn't matter where you're at in the state, you're gonna end up paying more because of this.
That's just how it goes up.
Groceries get higher.
Any goods that you're buying are going to get higher.
Anything tied to transportation, turns out, is going to increase in price.
That's
And once again, Jamie, not telling you that you were lied to last night, but according to GasBuddy... I feel lied to.
Well, according to GasBuddy...
While diesel is expensive here in the Midwest, it's even more expensive on the coastal states, and you may say, well, why would that be, Brian?
Well, despite statements to the contrary, coastal states rely on overseas oil for their diesel fuel, which diesel is produced in a much lower quantity than gasoline, as is jet fuel, which is why you're seeing your airline tickets go up.
But yes,
Contrary to popular belief, or one person's belief, connections to the global oil market are very, very essential to the United States.
But I don't know if you've noticed, but it's spring.
This happens to be a really busy time for the farming community in Wisconsin and across the nation.
What does this do to them with diesel prices going up when tractors, trucks, anything that they need to use on the farm mostly runs on diesel?
How does this affect them, their bottom line?
They're already usually on very thin margins as far as profit and loss.
How does this affect them on a day-to-day basis?
And this is a big concern for a state like Wisconsin that relies on their rural industry so much.
it's it's gonna be rough and not only gas buddy but other economists have said that these fuel costs will be passed on well most likely so will be passed on to consumers across all sorts of industries which will then lead to a resurgence of inflation in the coming months once again going against the
We have the strongest economy, we're the hottest nation in the world.
Yeah, we're gonna be hot because nobody will be able to afford to run their air conditioners this summer.
That's one way we'll be hot.
It all comes back and it's so easy to disprove.
All you have to do is look at the numbers and listen to people who aren't politically aligned.
They're economists, they're fuel experts, they're this, they're that, whatever they are, they're looking at the numbers.
And they're laying it out for us.
And it's not good.
And it's contrary to everything we're being told.
and it's in
Yeah,
a yeah, that's it.
Yeah.
You are listening to the Civic Media Network.
Local news, community stories, and the conversations that matter most.
Now more Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.
I'm Brian Noonan, alarming statistics from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Between 2016 and 2023, over 9,000 people in Wisconsin died as a result of an opioid overdose.
Good news is, though, in 2024, Wisconsin had one of the sharpest declines of any state in opioid deaths.
That's from a new report by Vital Strategies, a nonprofit organization.
The decrease came in part from the fact that Wisconsin prisons and county jails have expanded access to medications for opioid use disorder over the last five years.
There are still gaps in the program, however, and we are joined by Jason Stein.
He's the president of Wisconsin Policy Forum and Andy Tisdale, a researcher at Wisconsin.
and Policy Forum.
They just put out a new piece, treatment behind bars.
Gentlemen, welcome to the show.
We're glad you're here.
The numbers were fascinating and a little astounding.
But Jason, what's the evolution of and what brought about the evolution of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections response to opioid use?
Well, sure.
Thanks, Brian, for having us.
And this study we did with support the Wisconsin Policy Forum did with support from vital strategies.
And we were trying to update a 2021 survey that looked at access to medication for people with opioids use disorder in jails or prisons around the state.
And essentially, we did find, as you allude, that
the access within Department of Corrections institutions increased sharply.
So we went from about a third of DOC facilities, there's about 36 facilities in the state, providing some kind of access to certain individuals in the prison.
And that increased to all prisons now provided at least some access to some individuals.
And, you know, whereas in
2021, there were only a few dozen individuals that received medications in prison.
There was about 150 individuals who received buprenorphine, which is a medication that's associated with a decrease in overdose deaths among those who use it.
And about the same number were given naltrexil, which was a big increase from what had happened just three years prior to that.
I think there certainly has been a big shift.
Now, it's important to note that
we still have roughly five to 600 opioid overdose deaths a year in Wisconsin, which is on the order of traffic fatalities.
So it's still a very big public health crisis, but it has certainly improved a lot.
And one reason we're looking at this specific population of people who are released from incarceration is that they aren't at an elevated risk of overdose if they go back to using at the same levels they did prior to
going behind bars.
And, you know, I didn't really get to all Brian's questions in the previous take there, but we know that the DOC, I mean, I think there were a lot of factors, but one is just the level of deaths and the sort of urgency that society and elected officials feel to address this issue.
And then there has been funding through opioid settlements.
So with manufacturers of opioids, funding for state and local governments to address the crisis.
And then finally, the U.S.
Department of Justice also issued guidance in recent years that the Americans for Disabilities Act requires access to these medications to be available.
So I think it's a common, it's no one factor that accounts for the difference, but a combination.
the opioid deaths of the people you studied weren't happening while they were in jail or prison.
It was happening when they came out.
Can you explain why that is in a little more detail and what what the program is doing to combat that?
Sure.
So when someone is addicted to opioids and they're in prison, they don't have access to opioids, their tolerance will start to decline.
So if they are then released from prison and start using opioids, as Jason said at the same level that they did prior to incarceration, their body may not be able to handle that amount.
And so they're at increased risk of overdose.
Also, when someone is going through withdrawal from opioids, that is often a very painful and very protracted condition.
They are in a lot of discomfort.
So when they're using opioids,
in that state to try and make that stop happening, they may not be using it the same pace that they were before.
So it's just, it's a very dangerous situation for someone to be in.
Yes, and methadone is one of the medications that are sometimes available in Department of Corrections facilities and in jails.
So there's methadone and buprenorphine that Jason alluded to.
Both of those are what's called agonist medications.
They activate the same receptors in the brain that opioids activate, but in a safer and more controlled way.
So they can be part of a treatment regimen for people who are gradually coming down from opioid addiction.
Now trexone, the other medication, is also considered a medication for opioid use disorder.
it doesn't activate those same receptors.
So where the first two medications address the symptoms of withdrawal and they make them a little bit softer and easier to deal with, naltrexone does not.
It just stops people from being able to use opioids and get the effects of opioids.
Jason, you had mentioned that the state received settlement funds, about $200 million, about $780 million of that expected by 2038.
And when you look at those numbers, a lot of that money hasn't been allocated yet.
And so who is actually deciding how this money gets spent and used?
Is it the legislature, the Department of Health, local governments?
How is that being broken up right now?
It's all of the above.
So it would be...
I mean the state elected and appointed officials have a role to play and then it's also happening at the level of county government and county supervisors, county administrators or executives depending on the structure of the county.
So it's really leadership at the state and local level because there are different funding streams of these opioid settlement dollars that are available.
And I think in some ways,
you know, sometimes if you have a local county, a smaller county, they may not have a lot of,
you know, they
haven't been planning for years in advance on how they're going to spend this money put it that way.
Right.
And this is one of many avenues that exist to, you know, potentially expand what's happening at the local level and and also, you know, improve health and up to and including potentially save lives.
He's a researcher at Wisconsin Policy Forum.
Their latest study is treatment behind bars.
You can find that at wispolicyforum.org.
I guess this question would be for either one of you.
This program sounds great because it does cut down on fatalities, but we know
Once an addict, always an addict, once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.
Are there any numbers on the rate of recidivism when the people who have been treated with these drugs to help with their symptoms while they're incarcerated, when they get out?
How many go back to using full time?
Or does it work as also a quote unquote cure where people now are going to try to stay off the opioids?
And do you want to speak to that first?
Sure.
Well, we don't have numbers in the study from Wisconsin.
We got our data from a survey of all JLs in Wisconsin, as well as DOC facilities.
And while they kept numbers on the great many things, they don't have numbers on the number of people with opioid use disorder who get these medications, who like totally, sorry, they don't have numbers on the total number of people with opioid use disorder entering the facility or the number who get the medications and come back.
However, we did do a literature review as part of this study and we found that several studies indicating when people receive these medications in jail, they not only have a lower risk of overdose afterwards, but they also have some studies have found lower recidivism rates and also higher rates of intake into treatment in the community.
So there is some evidence that people are getting these medications and that it is making the lasting change.
Well, so we can talk about counties.
Our survey, we reached 65 out of the 71.
counties with jails.
There's 72 counties in Wisconsin, two counties share a jail, so there's 71 county jails.
Of the 65 counties we reached, 53 of them now offer at least some access to these medications compared to 25, three years ago, so there's been a really big increase.
There are still, you know, roughly eight counties that don't provide
any access and there's a half dozen counties that we haven't we didn't get a response from.
So I mean I think one way that the access can be expanded is you know we do have these settlement dollars that we alluded to and as well now every county in the state if they don't offer this they have at least one neighboring county that does they have state facilities that do so there are
people with the expertise to do this in all parts of Wisconsin in a way that just wouldn't have been true just a few years ago.
And so I think the message would be that local officials who would like to do this but who may find it intimidating because it is, you know, it's a matter of getting individuals with the right certification and training and everything else that there are both in the private and public sector.
providers who have done this that they can turn to for help.
Well another one of the gaps that I found kind of surprising is that as you mentioned Jason not only do some of the counties not have all the medications but some counties are actually not starting opioid addicts on the programs quick enough or if they're only going to be in jail for a short time they're not even doing it then.
Is this going to be a legislative question down the road?
Possibly.
I mean, it's worth noting that there are a lot of pressures that jails have been under.
For example, you know, we've seen jails that have had to increase their pay to guards significantly to in order to keep them as we've sort of had turnover problems in the public and private workforce at large.
And so that's been a hit to their budget and other things.
And you, as you allude to, you have people who are coming
in and out of jail on a very short period of time and it may be difficult to start someone on a medication, you know, get the right professional in to see them and so forth if they're in and out in a matter of days or hours.
But yeah, I mean, I think it's worth both at the local level as well as the state level thinking about what additional tools might be made available to county officials to be able to, you know, reach as many people as possible.
I mean, I think there's probably likely to be more access to these medications just given how the last several years have gone.
And we have been on a trend that if it continues, we'd see fewer deaths.
And I think really the question is how low can we go, right?
Because again, getting down to 100 or 200 further deaths would be great, but there'd still be 300 people you're dying in the state of this scourge.
So it's really about how low can we make it go?
Media.
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.
Now back to more of Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.
Have you ever had a chance encounter with a celebrity?
We would love to hear it.
8-5-5-7-5.
Civic 8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.
This one, I saw this story.
I immediately thought of Frank and how jealous he would be about this.
A young man from Depeer is in the news because he had a run-in, not only a run-in, but he photobombed
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey.
I love it Frank.
What would you what would you do to be so close to Taylor Swift that you could photo bomb her?
He would oh, he would he would plots.
He's coming in wedding.
He'd
fanboyed by
OK.
And like went to like, damp me up.
And I'm like, what are we doing?
You're like a 60 year old white guy.
Right on, brother.
And he like was, he was like, Frank, why are you being weird about this?
I was like, one, I've never met you before.
Two, what is this?
What about me gives off that vibe?
It was, it was such a weird interaction.
Paul Janowitz, he's from Depeer.
He was at the the I Heart Music Award the other the other day, March 26.
He was there.
So he's there as a seat filler, which is a job that if you're in Los Angeles, they hire people just to come.
So like if I go to the bathroom, or you know, Diddy needs to go replenish the baby oil, somebody sits in his chair.
So it looks nice and full.
So he's sitting three rows.
behind Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift.
And they had just announced their engagement, always big deal.
They stand up to get a picture and he sees his moment and he whoops, moves right into the middle of them.
This picture then goes viral.
It's everywhere.
It's on all the news stations.
It's all the photos, services, and his cousin's or his uncle's wife, his cousin's wife, somebody sees about TV and
Sends it to him because it was on the chief's Facebook page.
He moved over and sat in his seat, but he sat up tall and he just was smiling as big as could be.
So he wasn't doing anything obnoxious.
If you looked past him, there he is, like, grinning from ear to ear like the Cheshire cat going, ha ha.
was a
take for us?
But why would she be there?
She wouldn't have really good seats.
She'd be back.
She would.
No.
Yes, she would.
Even some of the people who are nominated for major awards are sitting farther back.
Taylor Swift has no business.
I know, but she doesn't fit with that.
Grammy's front row hundred percent Taylor Swift I heart media where I think this may be a little sour grapes on somebody's part.
I don't
so kudos
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