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Wisconsin wakes up here.
Back to Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.
you might not
But now we will start with some headlines from the Persian Gulf and the Iran War, which is going on.
Both President Trump and Iran have portrayed the last minute ceasefire deal as a victory for their
nations, the ceasefire pauses a spiraling conflict that has upended the global economy and sparked a historic oil crisis.
Pakistan's Prime Minister has invited delegations from both Iran and U.S.
to Islamabad for talks on Friday.
Earlier yesterday, Pakistan proposed the two-week ceasefire to allow for diplomacy.
But as we heard last hour, this news coming out not too long ago, that the White House has not confirmed that they will be sending anybody to the talks, which is...
Again, feel free to correct me.
Hard to have peace negotiations when you don't send anybody to the negotiating table.
If it's going
I mean, that seems like a typical GOP tactic, though, doesn't it?
Where we just aren't going to negotiate even though we say that everybody else is to blame for no negotiations, but we're just not going to show up to the conversation.
But no, in reality, we had been told that there had been peace talks happening between Iran, Israel, and the United States.
So we've been told a lot of things, especially in the last month.
And none of it seems to have any rhyme or reason, literally, for anything that we've been told, including whatever happened yesterday.
Everything lives in infamy in 2026.
And it's kind of like this administration forgets that there are so many receipts that you can actually go get.
But far be it from me to discourage them.
In other headlines, the Israeli military today said that it will continue its intensified ground operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office claimed Lebanon was not
part of the ceasefire, despite Pakistan's Prime Minister saying that it is.
So what it really seems like is this ceasefire might not actually be much of a ceasefire
And it's well, it's Wednesday.
We'll see what happens Friday on these talks.
We'll see what happens today.
See if there's more threats to blow up entire civilizations.
But that's the Persian Gulf.
There has to be other stuff we need to know.
It's a wake-up call in more ways than one.
Time for some sh** you need to know.
Oh.
Well, it was time for that.
We were talking about this yesterday that the meeting was going to be held while the meeting has been held.
The universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents voted unanimously to fire President J. Rothman after about four years in the role.
Rothman refused to resign saying Regents never clearly explained why they wanted him out.
Yes, that's why we're fascinated by this because there's really so weird.
We don't know.
Regents say they had concern about leadership and direction, but haven't shared specific details publicly.
They're getting their walking orders like the administration.
Don't give any specific.
Rothman says his performance review was mostly positive and that the decision felt already made.
Republican lawmakers are calling the move political and accusing the board of acting out of partisanship.
Some Republicans are now threatening to block or remove Regents who supported the decision.
Rothman had worked with both Republicans and Democrats, including negotiating funding deals and handling controversial issues like campus protests and DEI policies.
Now, the university system has been dealing with bigger challenges, including declining enrollment and the closure of some branch campuses.
It also comes as UW Madison is losing its chancellor, adding more leadership uncertainty.
Rothman's contract allowed him to be fired without a specific reason and without an appeal process.
That's a bad guy.
I was
Are we ever going to find out what was actually behind this?
And I love that the Republicans have gotten involved in this.
As far as I understand, Board of Regents are usually bipartisan, non-political, because they want what's best for an education system.
So the fact now that you're just calling it some sort of...
by partisan effort
is
fascinating to me.
But yeah, I feel like there's more and there's a bigger shoe to drop.
I don't think we'll probably ever know what that bigger shoe is, but there's a lot of uncertainty around the UW system right now.
And I think that should be...
I think that's a little bit of a wake-up call, especially if you're a student, you're looking at potentially going there for higher education.
I also think when we have as many funding issues as we have from the federal government and there's so many of those programs that are tied into that funding all around the state, I don't know if you really want to see the dude who's been running it just all of a sudden be let go for no explanation,
In other stories, and this is some good news, American journalist Shelly Kittleson has been freed after militants from an Iranian-backed group kidnapped her in Iraq.
It was part of Hezbollah just one week ago, according to two Iraqi government sources and a source familiar with that situation.
Now, Hezbollah had Kittleson's name on a list of American journalists
target for kidnapping, at least according to multiple sources.
She was abducted in Baghdad last Tuesday, that was on March 31st, if you're keeping track.
A spokesperson for the Hezbollah militia said in an earlier post on the group's Telegram messaging app channel that Kittleson was being released on the condition that she leave Iraq immediately.
Her whereabouts were not immediately clear.
Two militia officials told the Associated Press that in exchange for
Kittleson's release, Iraqi authorities would free several detained members of the group.
Now Kittleson was contacted multiple times with warnings or threats against her, including as recently as the night before she was abducted, at least according to a US official.
Now, it's also important to note that she does have some Wisconsin ties.
Her mother still lives in the state of Wisconsin, so I'm sure for her community, this is probably some very good news to hear.
I've got a couple of questions with this.
I think
it's fascinating being a reporter, having contacts within groups like Hezbollah.
If you don't think that what reporters do is important,
you would be wrong because we are literally talking about Hasbola contacting members of the Associated Press to give a story, right?
So if you're skeptical about what reporters work can actually look like, look no further than that, because not a lot of us have that in our old Rolodex, right?
And the other thing about this is the rhetoric around reporters has been so inflamed.
And I'm so glad that she is she is safe as far as we know I'm glad that there there wasn't more danger To her or immediately but at the same time how how long is this list?
How long is this list of journalists that that they have that they're going to be targeting?
Because we know that this conflict is not ending soon and I think that should be frightening to all of us
you know you want to stay there you want to do this but she's a young woman who was looked like she was traveling by herself and at some point you have to heed the warnings that say listen you're you're being targeted so you either have to hire a uh either have to hire some sort of security force or you got to go um and not that i'm i'm i'm very happy she got released and nothing happened to her
We don't always see that kind of result.
And you have to, you have to weigh is the story worth it.
And I understand the dedication of a journalist, but then you, you need to do everything you can to try to protect yourself.
Right.
Because they got her right on the street corner and she was by herself when they, when they kidnapped her, there's video of her being abducted.
So you gotta be a little more responsible for yourself.
Yeah.
I just think it's fascinating.
And for the disrespect as well that this administration gives the First Amendment and reporters, they're doing some heavy work.
They're doing some heavy lifting out there.
And they are the reason why we have comments from Hezbollah, right?
Because, again, that's not something that most of us could say or maybe ever want to say.
But this particular reporter was able to get a comment and then, of course, find out more about the release of Kittlesons.
So I do find it fascinating.
And there's a lot, I think, wrapped up into that, especially about what this administration thinks about the First Amendment and how they treat reporters.
How about a good state of affairs, Jamie?
How about $7 brewer tickets?
We were talking about how expensive it is to go to a game.
Well, the brewers have heard your concerns.
And so for a number of games through April and May and one in June, the brewers are going.
to give you $7 tickets during a flash sale, but the flash sale only goes through today, so you've got to make sure you're getting your tickets now.
They are for a couple games in April, the 15th, the 28th, and the 29th, then May 12th, 13th, 26th, and June 1st.
So you get games against the Padres, the Diamondbacks, the Cardinals.
That'd be a good one, Tuesday the 26th.
$7 are for loge outfield, loge bleachers, and terrace level.
You can upgrade those if you want.
If you got that kind of money going for you, you got 17 bucks burning a hole in your pocket.
Feel
All right.
So that's not bad.
But again, you got to go to Brewer's tickets and look for the flash sale and you got to do it before midnight tonight or until the tickets are sold out.
So if you're looking for a game and you wanted to take a bunch of kids and you're like, Oh, I don't have seven bucks, man.
You can't beat it.
You can't get a Starbucks for $7.
You can't
So this is a really good deal.
And it's one of those things that we always talk about how out of reach sometimes it is to take a family to a game.
So the brewer's helping you out with a few games that way.
When we come back, do you think this ceasefire
is a real step toward peace or are we just kicking the can down the road and after Friday it's all going to start up again.
We will break down the ceasefire deal and talk about the war that one man wanted.
We'll do all that after this.
This is Daybreak.
I'm Brian Noonan.
You're listening to Civic Media.
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Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
Now back to more of Dave Ray with Brian and Jamie.
I'm Brian Noonan.
If you want to jump in and tell us what you think about this ceasefire, is it a real step toward peace or just a little kicking the can until we can start firing up the missiles again?
We'd love to hear from you 855-75 Civic, 855-752-4842.
That's the direct line to a good time and being sure
you get nice to
That's how that works.
So yeah, we about an hour and a half before the deadline.
where Trump had said we were going to basically wipe out an entire civilization.
He tackled, as he always does.
And thank goodness, because I'll be honest, I thought the worst all day yesterday.
My rational mind was like, no, he's going to back out of this again.
This is just him being his usual ham-handed, idiotic, blustery self.
But there was a little part of me that went...
He's nuts and he could he could Decide unilaterally, which is how he makes all the decisions without Congress.
He's gonna just do something horrendous.
And I think that, you're right, that was the scary part because you didn't want to put too much hyperbole onto all of it.
You didn't want to give in to the rhetoric because you know that this person ends up multiple times and has, as a proven record in his presidential career, going back on things that he has said.
And it does sometimes end up being bluster.
But when you're literally talking about and posting about taking out an entire civilization,
I think you have to take pause for a minute and say, is this actually something he's going to do?
Or is this just more words coming from the president's fingers onto social media?
We don't know.
And that, I think, is the most frightening part about where we're at.
We can't actually count on him to know what is rhetoric or what is going to be truth.
That scares
And let's break this down.
Let's explain what exactly we know so far about this ceasefire because I would challenge someone to defend what we have won from this.
And if you think we have, you're welcome to tell us and share your opinion.
I don't see it.
I don't see the win on any level here.
If you want to look back,
This is... We had a deal with Iran about their nuclear weapons.
Obama had put it together.
It was in place.
They were adhering to it.
We were told in the summer that we had completely obliterated all their potential for nuclear weapons.
Then we were told they're making a nuclear weapon and they're three months away from having it, which goes against...
something that was obliterated, but why quibble over details?
And now, so everything that comes out has that asterisk of it's coming from somebody who has lied to us multiple times.
So, um, after once it was announced, Trump went on to, uh, say that, you know, we had a, he posted on true social
Complete immediate and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz.
I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks This will be a double-sided ceasefire Now as he's declaring victory of course Iran is declaring victory saying with their foreign minister saying that their military will cease their defensive operations if the US halts its attacks but
the Strait of Hormuz.
According to Iran, they said for a period of two weeks safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination with Iran's armed forces and with due consideration of technical limitations.
So those were, that was the bluster coming out of both sides.
Yeah.
But what do we actually know, Jamie?
that
Oh, just just for a point of contention So the ceasefire had been mediated by Pakistan's Prime Minister and their military chief He said according to him now Iran had put forth a 10-point proposal which the US views as a workable basis on which to negotiate according to the president now
In an interview with the AFP news agency yesterday, the president described the deal as total and complete victory.
But he would not say whether he would
fulfill his prior
threats to destroy Iran's civilian infrastructure if Tehran reneged on this agreement, only saying, quote, you're going to have to see, which means he actually has no plan and he has no idea.
In a
I think that would be my guess.
I think he actually thinks that he has a say in this.
He still thinks he has leverage.
I believe he does.
I mean, it sounds like he does.
If you listen to his rhetoric
today,
if you listen to some of what Hank Seth said today at the podium, along with Dan Cain, yeah, I believe they absolutely think they still have leverage in this.
Well, Iran is saying if the US stops their attacks, Iran will hold back.
They also will coordinate, but it's got to be with tolls.
And this is...
There's a lot to talk about with this plan.
We will continue talking about it as the days go on.
But right now we must take a break.
And when we come back, we'll talk about yesterday's elections here in Wisconsin
on the Civic Media Network.
Local news, community stories, and the conversations that matter most.
Now, more Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.
We
And I know for a lot of people, it felt like a quieter election just based on the numbers that we were seeing and the polling that we were seeing.
But it turns out that there was a lot of action happening across the state last night.
And joining us this morning to tell us about some of what we were seeing is Brittany Carloni.
and politics reporter at Wisconsin Watch.
So good morning.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you so much for having me.
Look at you, you're bright, you're sunshiney, like it wasn't even a late night or anything.
If you were watching the headlining act, we'll call it with the Supreme Court race.
So I think we should start right there.
Obviously Chris Taylor won the Liberal Leaning Judge, won that election last night.
About 60% of the vote
is
what I
saw come through.
Was there anything that surprised you, Brittany, about that particular result or that race in general?
I think the conversation around the state in the last couple of months as we've gotten closer to this election has been, okay, the liberal justices in these past contests have been very successful, but...
So I think people were kind of going along that line.
This might be where this goes.
But because this was such a quieter election, there was no court majority on the line, I think people were kind of cautiously going, we don't really know what's going to happen.
And then pretty much 35, 36 minutes after polls closed for the numbers to come out.
And then to see how well Taylor performed didn't.
counties like Jefferson County, Ozaki County, some of these like really.
And I haven't had a chance to really dig into those numbers yet.
And that's going to be a lot of my project today.
But some of those initial.
initial county numbers, I think really surprised a lot of people and especially for Democrats and like liberal leaning folks last night that were hoping for a big Taylor when they got what they wanted.
You've been covering the campaign that Maria Lazar kind of disappeared.
We didn't see her at making as many Appearances we didn't hear from her it seemed to come after she aligned herself with Scalia was do you think that played into the fact that she got Defeated so soundly
so I I don't know if I necessarily saw that she disappeared I I do know that in this these last in this last week or so that
She made her appearance on the WISN debate.
She had a, across the state, like final days tour.
I saw her at the Dane County Republican Party headquarters.
But I think the big thing that might have been the issue in this case was just the fun, gigantic fundraising advantage that Chris Taylor had over Lazar.
I mean, if you even look at the contributions that the state political parties provided, the amount of money that
the Wisconsin Democrats gave to Chris Taylor and then the amount of money, I think it was maybe like $65,000.
The last report that I looked at that the state Republican party gave to Lazar when it might be a disappearing act when you just don't have the money to get your name out there.
Yeah, I mean, there was a portion of when I was growing up when the conservative court majority was a big factor in state government, and I think this is of the five, two majority, I believe.
the state will have going into 2030 and it'll continue to be a factor in major politically charged cases including as we head toward like 2030 we'll have a new census
there'll be
new congressional redistricting there are even challenges in in court right now at this point when it comes to the state's congressional maps and there are big cases that the court could see coming forward like
collective bargaining rights challenges related to Act 10 that are still making their way through the court system.
When you have a 5-2 liberal majority, that is a big factor in state government.
And then when we think about later this year, the battles for power in the legislature and who will take control of the governor's office, when we think about the last eight years with a divided state government and how the court, especially following the 2023...
shift in the majority where liberals actually got control they really
became a factor in these last couple years in major decisions.
She is the state government and politics reporter at Wisconsin Watch.
We're talking about the shift in the majority on the Supreme Court, the state Supreme Court, and now a 5-2 majority with the win of Chris Taylor last night.
So liberals in this state have won several of these races in a row.
You mentioned that
as
I did see a lot of social media chatter last night about what does this mean for the future of the Republican Party?
Who could be the next conservative justice or who would even want to put their name into these kinds of races when there's just...
So a little bit of a chance for success based on what these kind of performances have been.
I think I also had an interesting conversation in these last couple of days where people were asking why didn't Republicans invest more money?
And it's also a question of, does that mean that they might be trying to save their resources for the elections later this year?
So it's a great question.
So there's been a lot of, uh, a lot of talk about property taxes in the state.
So there are a lot of referendums.
What did you see as far as these referendums?
Because, you know, it's all we got to, we got to worry about property taxes, but we got to have these referendum for the schools.
So how did it look?
So I haven't quite seen what the pass fail rate was for the 72 school districts that went to referendum overall.
I did see, I believe Whitefish Bay had a gigantic
I believe capital referendum, which is getting debt for construction projects.
I think we were talking about Dodgeville before we went on the air here, and they had an operating referendum, which it looks like failed for the second time in these last two years.
So I haven't had a chance to look at the full pass-fail rate across the state, but it really is, these districts that went to referendum at this time were really coming in at a difficult moment where people
are really feeling the pain of costs going up, their property taxes rising, and then school districts, especially school district leaders that I spoke to ahead of the election, were just saying school funding rising with inflation over these last several years has just not risen at the same level.
So districts need, say they need more money, they're also struggling with costs.
So it'll be really interesting to see going forward, A,
what districts have to do to cut costs to deal with the fact that these referendums have or have not passed.
And then as well, the state's still negotiating over that $2.5 billion surplus.
And what does...
what factors into those negotiations going forward, too?
I was just going to say, since you spend time, and we're talking with Brittany Carloni, she's the state government and politics reporter at Wisconsin Watch, since I'm assuming you spend a good portion of your time over at the Capitol.
And you probably hear some of these conversations.
Do you think this gives the GOP with the fact that some of these school districts are going to have to look at closing facilities or either consolidate with other school districts?
Do you think it gives the Republicans and the
Democrats more of a negotiating table?
Do you think it brings them to the table, or are they just gonna stay out and say, whatever happens, happens, the election's coming, we'll let the chips fall?
I could
for the
So I don't necessarily think that they want to let go of something that could really, they believe could help Republicans later this year, but also, I know Democrats, especially ahead of the election here, were really pointing out, hey, Republicans haven't funded schools to the level that they should have, which is why we're seeing all these referendums.
And so it really could go either way.
I think Governor Evers definitely wants to see more funding for schools, but I wonder if that helps anybody at this point
And as you mentioned, Dodgeville, for instance, this was a referendum they'd already had on the ballot once.
It failed for the second time.
And for a lot of these school districts, it's really just to keep their schools running.
Are voters understanding that?
Or are you getting the sense that it really does?
And I get it.
I totally get it.
Is it coming down to the dollars and cents of what they're able to afford with their own property taxes?
for
I think from my understanding, going with the districts that I've spoken to so far, they hopefully will look at those additional administrative costs, like where can they slice things that are less likely to impact students in the classroom.
When you have districts that have failed two years in a row like Doddville, they may need to have some really difficult conversations with the community.
Yeah,
And we have about a minute left.
And with about 200 days until the midterms, just over 200 days, because elections in this state never stop.
No.
What would you recommend our listeners and our online viewers be watching and paying attention to as we head into what is going to be yet another election cycle?
Oh,
forward, but definitely try to stay engaged with what's happening in your local races because we're also going to see not only local local.
probably elections later this year, but also there's going to be a lot of power struggles over who's going to control the legislature.
So.
Find a local news source that you love and trust.
Oh, there's one.
It's called Wisconsin Watch.
Thank you so much.
Brittany Carloni, state government and politics reporter at Wisconsin Watch.
Big night across the state of Wisconsin yesterday.
And we'll hear more, I'm sure, about these referensums and these school districts soon.
It's 848 right now.
I am Jamie Martenson.
This is Dave Wraith.
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.
I'm Brian Noonan.
Yesterday, if you were with us and if you weren't, shame on you.
We're here every day.
But you can catch up.
You can always catch up.
Go to civicmedia.us.
Listen to all the podcasts.
It's like binge watching your favorite show, but it's binge listening your favorite show.
So you can go and binge listen to everything we've done before so you don't feel left out.
But we talked about how passive
Activities like watching TV can lead to higher rates of dementia Well, I don't know if my computer was listening because then I found a story about friction maxing and no Parker I know you think that's when the Mormons try to skirt around their premurdo sex issues.
It's not it's not friction maxing That's that's not it.
So stop sending me pictures.
Is this friction maxing?
No, that's that's not Wow, I think that's where we were going
Of course not.
That's the beauty of me.
I'm always impressed by you, Brian.
But friction maxing is a thing.
So here's the thing.
When you're...
Because we have everything doing stuff for us.
We have spell check.
We can look up a name right away without having to think about it.
If we think we know something instead of puzzling over it, we just look it up.
Well, we kind of lose something in our brains.
So now we have to have friction maxing, which according to an expert in...
She was reintroducing challenges.
She's an expert in neuro neuroscience.
So in an article in January, she says, you need to reintroduce challenges into your life, Jamie.
I know your life is way too easy.
You
don't have a lot going
You don't have a lot of things to keep your mind occupied.
But they're saying that cooking dinner instead of ordering on Uber Eats can help reorient people to discomfort and make us more human.
So we need to be a little less comfortable.
We need to max our friction so that we can engage our brain.
Who is this
We'll get somebody in here.
Because as you know, the brain's number one job is to help you survive.
So throughout our daily routines, according to these folks, the brain conducts cost benefit analysis to determine whether a choice is worthwhile.
Mine is out to lunch.
My brain does not have a business degree.
It does not understand cost benefit analysis.
So you get that part we both get.
So over time, frictionless living could be detrimental according to brain health researcher, Mark Milstein, who you may have heard of.
I never have.
But he's a brain health researcher.
He said, taking on friction filled challenges such as learning new things is like investing in a financial account as you age.
Research on cognitive research reserve theory shows these things cause the brain to form new connections, which increase overall reserve Parker, it's not too late for you.
I'm a lost cause.
My my I are my brain IRA is depleted.
So I'm done.
Yeah, we
I usually figure I don't know the answer and I'll look it up or I'll make it up without doing a whole lot of thought because then I'm off the hook because people go, really?
I go, yep.
And then I walk away and the conversation's over.
And when they finally figured out, they go, wow, he was wildly
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