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Wisconsin wakes up here.
Back to Daybreak with Brian and JB.
I'm Brian Noonan.
If you want to join in the cackling and hackling and just overall fun and frivolity of the program, or if you just want to complain that you guys are having too much fun, 8-5-5-7-5-CIVIC.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.
You have to have fun because things are getting crazier and crazier in the Middle East.
We know about that.
So let's check some headlines from the area.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohamed Bogher, uh, gobb... Galabef?
Sorry, I should have taken the names out.
And I also want a breath from running up the stairs because... Anyway, uh... Take two.
Iranian parliament speaker said Wednesday that a ceasefire in negotiations with the U.S.
on ending the war is unreasonable.
As he accused the U.S.
of violating three of Tehran's 10 conditions for an end to the fighting, it comes as the not yet day old ceasefire appears at risk of fraying over significant disagreements between the parties.
But in other headlines, Israel has pushed forward its war against the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, striking dense commercial and residential areas of Beirut without warning, killing at least 112 people and wounding hundreds of others.
In one instance, Iran said the deal would allow it to formalize its new practice of charging ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which the White House said U.S.
President Donald Trump opposes.
And just a quick reminder, as we talk about this, the Strait of Hormuz was opened with no tolls prior to the U.S.
deciding to start bombing Iran.
So just keep that in mind.
when the president starts yapping and yapping.
It was wide open.
It
Here we are.
And remember, 20% of the shipping materials, including oil, and go through the Strait of Hormuz worldwide.
So as you're filling up your gas tank at almost $4 a gallon, there's a reason why that's happening.
China's defense ministry has denied reports that it offered support to Iran's military, including alleged intelligence on U.S.
forces location amid the war.
the ministry spokesperson said in a briefing earlier today, quote, we firmly oppose the dissemination of speculative and insinuating false information targeting China.
Didn't Russia, wasn't Russia accused of doing the same thing?
Pretty much.
Yeah, but Russia
Time for some shit you need to know.
This was the big question.
Would Pam Bondi, after she was fired from Attorney General, would she still need to answer her subpoena?
to Congress and former U.S.
Attorney Pam Bondi has answered that saying she does not plan to appear for a planned interview with the House of Representatives Committee on the release of the Epstein files following her firing by President Trump.
She was subpoenaed last month to testify in her formal role as Attorney General, rendering the demand invalid now that she no longer holds a title.
That's what a Justice Department official wrote in a letter to the House Oversight Chairman.
They disagree with that, though.
does.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Bondi for questioning on the Justice Department's compliance with a barry partisan law passed in November that required the DOJ to release nearly all of its files on Epstein.
Well you know lawmakers have complained that redactions in the files appear to exceed what is allowed in the law and the Justice Department publicly released names of victims in some documents.
spokesman for the House Oversight Committee said the panel will contact Bondi's personal lawyer to discuss next steps regarding scheduling her deposition.
The panel's top Democrat, Robert Garcia of California, threatened to begin contempt proceedings against Bondi if she did not appear before the panel, a move that would require Republican support to advance because what the Democrats and what other people on the committee are saying is, yes, we
subpoenaed her as the Attorney General, but she has to answer as
this looks so convenient that they suddenly just removed her and I get what they've been saying that he was she wasn't prosecuting people who Donald Trump wanted prosecuted fast enough Those things weren't happening turns out that you know the law is a pesky little thing that kind of gets in the way, but this looks convenient to me because
There's no way that this administration and this president wanted Pam Bondi sitting in front of a congressional panel answering questions.
Not that I think that even with an oath, she probably would have told the truth.
We've seen her do that numerous times.
She
well if you get divorced if we get divorced if we if I fire you you're not gonna have to answer the subpoena anymore well That may not be the case so she still could end up there and all of a sudden Perhaps her loyalties aren't what they would have been had she been right in front of that committee while she still had a job
I don't know but there is still I mean the Epstein file thing as I mentioned earlier in the show is not going to go away this will be adjudicated at some point it's it's shameful that nothing has happened so far but I do believe that somewhere down the road this is going to be fully
brought to light and people will pay.
Do you think that there'll be any tension between Congress and the Justice Department over something like this?
Because Republicans also voted to subpoena her.
I mean, they also voted to have her on the committee and subpoena her.
So it was a very partisan thing.
The subpoena wouldn't have been issued because the Republicans hold the majority.
obviously, because they hold the majority in the House on this committee.
So do you think there'll ever be any sort of tension between the Justice Department and Congress based off of Congress's need to get some sort of input and information from the Justice Department?
Well, first of
all, at some point the Justice Department will go back to being the Justice Department and not a tool of the President.
The Justice Department is supposed to be an independent agency that does nothing but enforce the law.
The reason that I don't
to answer your question, no, there won't be friction, is because this was all part of the Republican campaign.
They thought they would get all kinds of Democrats snagged up in this Epstein thing, and they're not, you know, there's names coming in and they had the Clintons come in and testify and the whole thing, but Republicans were going to release every file, every file, and that's just another lie that some people who back this administration so fervently are not willing to forget.
And so I think in this instance, the Republicans on that Judiciary Committee are going to stay in lockstep with the Democrats.
It will be a bipartisan push to get to the bottom of this because it was so important to them, as it should be.
In other headlines from Stuff You Need to Know, Fleet Farm has joined other Wisconsin-based companies ensuing the Trump administration to recover tariff payments following that U.S.
Supreme Court ruling.
Now, Fleet Farm's suit, which was filed just this week on Tuesday in the U.S.
Court of International Trade, says that the Appleton-based retailer paid an unspecified amount of tariffs on imported goods.
The company that's known formally as Fleet Farm Wholesale Supply, LLC, wants the
The lawsuit cites the Supreme Court's February 20th ruling that President Trump lacked any sort of authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act without congressional approval.
Now, Fleet Farm actually operates 50 stores in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Fleet Farm had around 500 employees at its Appleton headquarters in 2019.
It joins at least 15 other Wisconsin-based companies that have now filed
similar lawsuits with the court of international trade.
Well, yeah, they want their money back.
They're illegal tariffs.
We all want our money back for the tariffs.
How
Yes, a lot of the gullible sheep did not know how it worked and believed the gaslighting BS that was being forced on them that the other countries are going to pay for this.
Well, if other countries were going to pay for it,
Why are all of these U.S.
companies now suing and trying to get their money back?
So 10 Wisconsin Democratic state legislators wrote Republican
uh us rep brian steel the other day urging him and the g lp majority in congress to take control of the war in iran in reaction to the social media messages that went out you know
civilization being destroyed days.
The lawmakers sent the letter after Trump posted on his social media platform that a whole civilization will die.
We're writing to you with an urgent request and to express our grave concerns for the safety of our country and civilians around the world.
The lawmakers wrote in the letter to steal this was the letter was led by Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, who's from Racine.
The letter went on earlier today.
President Trump warned the world through a so
media post that a whole civilization will die tonight if Iran fails to meet his deadline, the letter stated.
This appears to be an explicit threat to commit unimaginable atrocities against civilians.
Congress must act and stop the president's actions.
In addition to New Bauer, the letter was signed by Democratic State Reps Christine Sinekke, Breanne Brown, Anne Rowe, Clint Anderson, and Angelina Cruz, Tip Maguire, great name, sounds like a professional golfer, and Ben Demstit and Democratic Senators Mark Spitzer and Robert Werch.
So of
Of course, we know
This is the same guy behind the Make Elections Great Again Act, or known as the Mega Act.
This is also the same guy who said, quote, we protect our beer more than our vote.
You can look that up, by the way.
He did actually say that.
Well, I
You're listening to Civic Media.
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Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get
So there were furniture purchases in excess of $250,000 on Jenner's credit and debit cards, along with payments on eBay and Shopify.
Pudgins also allegedly received over seven grand in cash advances from Jenner.
The estate
just
Mike Florio on NBC is talking about it.
Yeah.
So here's the deal.
We never usually talk about other journalists because, you know, there were the same profession and all whatnot, especially their personal lives.
But Diana Rossini, Mike Rabel story is the best thing.
Actually, it is on television.
There's a clip of Roussini on the Stu Gottsy company show from February when she claimed her own mother felt her relationship was falling apart.
Speculating her husband was seeing someone on the side while she's on the road for work.
And then
there
we
some didn't.
This is the city.
Local voices in statewide impact.
It's Daybury with Brian and Jamie.
I'm Brian Noonan.
Now, you know, much of the attention on Tuesday's election was on the state Supreme Court race, but
Voters also had to decide on funding referenda for dozens of school districts throughout Wisconsin.
Preliminary results from across state show that of the 75 referenda questions, 46 passed and a lot of those passed by very, very slim margins.
Here to help us take a closer look and make some sense out of it all is Jimmy Koska.
He is the Civic Media Sports Director, also a news contributor, and he's a member of the basketball school board.
Jimmy, thanks for being here this morning.
A lot going on with these.
So let's talk about the margin of victory first in some of these.
How tight were some of these referendum measures?
You know, it's amazing because the last few years here at Civic Media, when I've added these up, I've noticed a trend of
of some very tight margins with these.
And I was tracking things that were maybe 100 votes or fewer that kind of decided some of these referenda.
But this year, for this election, I was really surprised at just how excited it was, and especially in a couple of places.
Now, a lot of the referenda this cycle were smaller school districts, especially Northern Wisconsin.
And for a lot of districts,
these were operating referendum.
The vast majority were operating referendum that really just helped keep the lights on, pay for staff, keep services, keep the lights on.
These are not, we're building a football stadium, we're not adding to the school, especially in an era of declining enrollment.
This is for a lot of schools survival.
And with the results when I looked at it, one of these passed by a single vote in the unofficial tallies from...
from Tuesday night, another pass by just two votes, Butternut and Shell Lake respectively.
And when I look further into some of the close margins from the past few elections, yeah, it's a trend.
I mean, these these are really tight, really contested.
And as a school board member of myself, when we did a referendum, we had taken a survey of
what level of funding the community would support.
So the question was asked at different levels like would you support 30, would you support 20, 10, just to figure out where people might set it to.
And everything we were told by the person that put together the poll and analyzed the data was that if you try to go above what the community is telling you they will support,
it is almost guaranteed that you will fail.
So we actually went in just under what the community said they would support and ours added a passing by about 80 votes.
Well, we weren't alone in this in the last three years because in this week, you know, we saw besides the two that passed by just single digits, you know, under 83 votes, Gilmontons passed by 83, 11 passed by 83 or fewer votes.
And
those are
really outstandingly tiny margins where if you look at it as a percentage, that's within about five to 10 percentage points.
So yeah, the margins were very tight for a lot of the ones that passed as are some that failed, some failed by fewer than a couple dozen votes as well.
Jimmy, from your perspective as a school board member who's gone through this process, who is tracking these referendums, how difficult is it for these districts to keep going without
without this money.
I mean, especially, you know, we were talking about BASC about how difficult would have been for your particular school district without the voter support.
A lot of district, it depends on kind of the finances of the area and the property values and things like that.
It's really complicated.
And
we could probably spend the entire show talking about school funding and how it's done.
I'll be honest with you, I'm not a math guy, but I've had to learn a lot about it in four years on a school board.
Like it's probably the most important thing to learn to be honest with you because people have to ask that question.
Like,
well, you know, we already have high property taxes, how could a school need more money?
And you have to explain to them just how.
the funding formula works between property values, enrollment, things like that.
And it's really complicated.
There's not really a simple way to boil it down.
But if you look at a lot of the districts that did try to go for operating referendum, they were smaller rural districts like the one that I'm in.
And for this cycle, a lot of them were really looking at this as a matter of survival.
In fact, for a couple of them that failed, and I think especially one of them, Houston's Fert is probably going to be the one that you look at in this cycle.
you know, consolidation or disillusion are now very squarely on the table.
In fact, Ustas Vertus come out right out and said they have to transition next year into consolidation and disillusion because they don't have, there's no way to keep operating at what they have.
Some of the smaller districts that did see it fail, I think of, you know, like Siren or Lena or some of these smaller ones, where the referendum did pass, Winter's another one, you know, they post that that's not the option they want to pursue, but
financial reality is they can't operate with no fund balance or cash reserve that you know the reality is without the operating referendum they don't have the money to continue operating long term.
This is not unique to these districts in this referendum cycle.
I think pretty much every small district in the state is facing this.
There's declining enrollment at about three quarters of all rural school districts in Wisconsin according to data from a couple years ago it's probably
updated since then but just in the last couple of years when we went through it and looked at the data we were one of those districts we had seen our enrollment drop in our district by over a hundred in just five years and we're talking a matter of going from like 800 to 700 students so it is a problem that's facing everybody I know for our district we are one of the fortunate ones that has had you know strong you know financially
policy.
So there was a very large fund balance to draw on and cash reserves.
But that only lasts a long and some schools aren't as fortunate as they've had to dip into that in instead of having an operating referendum to pay for things.
So there are some schools that don't have that.
That's why they were looking at operating referendum and why some of them are now posting those big strong words of consolidation and dissolution in their referendum message.
He's civic media sports director also our news contributor and he's a member of the basketball school board.
Let's talk a little bit about this consolidation, Jimmy, because it's not a thing, really, in Wisconsin yet.
I would have thought, in order to stop that, it would have spurred more of these smaller districts to back the referendum.
What do you make of this, the districts that said, listen, if we don't get this funding, we're gonna either have to dissolve or consolidate, and it still didn't sway enough voters to get them the money they needed.
I think that with recent...
you know, reassessment of property values, for example, especially again, as we talk about it, Northern Wisconsin rule areas where they reassess properties, it reduces the mill rate to a point, you know, $4 in some places, $4 mill rates, which means that the schools can't.
with the tiny enrollments they have in some of these places, where people don't live in some places in northern Wisconsin, area I'm from.
They don't live in these areas permanently.
They don't have kids going to schools.
It means they can't draw enough in local money to fund their operation.
That's why they have to go to referendum.
There's not another lever to pull.
This is all they can do.
And unfortunately, in places like winter, it means that the referendum is asking for quite a bit per student, over $10,000 in some cases per student.
That's a big number.
And when local taxpayers see this, maybe knowing that their taxes are grown up anyway because of assessments in the last few years, post-COVID assessments have in some places more than doubled the property values of some places.
And local taxpayers just
can't handle it, especially because it's not just schools that have to go to referendum.
We're seeing cities, we're seeing counties go to referendum to pay for.
basic essential services like EMS or having a fire station that isn't 100 years old or just enough money to just fund the things that keep cities moving, right?
And if you go to some places, you look at some cities, some municipalities, not only do they have referendums on the table for a school and they see the mill rates increase for that, but again, it's those basic shared services like police and fire and things like that, that if they don't have the money for, they have to ask in a referendum.
You know, they have to build a new community pool.
They have to do all these different things and property taxes as a result.
If you've looked at any of the polling here from our university, for example, when they've done the law school poll for the last four or five years, it's really flipped to become very strongly where people are.
more in favor of lowering property taxes than paying for public education.
They've asked this question for a couple of decades and you can just see the flip in that to where that number has gone up, the property tax support has gone up and the number of passing referenda has gone down.
How much pressure, you know, as a school board member yourself, how much pressure are these school boards under knowing that a vote could come down to just a few ballots?
I mean, we mentioned the districts where it was only one ballot.
We saw several referendums like Dodgeville.
This was a referendum on the ballots.
This time around, it had been on the ballot just last election.
So how much pressure does this put on the school board members at this point?
It does put pressure on school boards and administrators because
In a lot of these cases, this isn't the first time they've caught a referendum.
I mean, a lot of these schools, the odds are a great example.
They put up a question just about every year and they keep adjusting the number to what they can actually do.
I mean, there's been a lot of cuts almost every single one of these that I looked at.
There were 75 ballot measures on Tuesday, almost every single one of them cited that.
in the operating referendum that they had already taken steps.
They've already made cuts.
They've already gone through and eliminated some services.
They've already cut, you know, they don't fill staff positions when they come up if somebody retires or resigns.
They've already taken some of these steps.
For a lot of them, you know, it's...
the financial responsibility part of it.
That's what that's what a school board's responsibility is.
How do you manage taxpayer dollars?
Well, in this case, there's a point where there just isn't enough.
And that's why they go to this.
This is this isn't easy for.
somebody in an elected position to do.
I mean, I'm speaking for myself.
It wasn't like it was super difficult for me because we looked at the need and saw that our school added and had a facilities update in 65 years.
We had kids going to a building that was 125 years old where I was inside on a tour and I could see outside from inside.
That's not
good.
You know, so... History, Jimmy, it's history.
Yeah, definitely historical, but you know, you're supposed to be inside in a closed building, right?
But these are, these are very, very big realities that are...
being shared across the state by any number of school board members that show up, whether they're new, whether it's somebody that's been on the board for 30 years.
I think everybody's in the same boat.
That's why you're seeing some unusual unprecedented steps of administrators, for example, from an area, sending letters to elected officials in the legislature saying, look, we need something to change.
Whatever is happening now, it's just not sustainable.
I'm one of those people.
I don't think it's sustainable to have this referendum model because you're
literally taking the school funding issue and you're asking people in your your community.
So already being seeing their property taxes go up already seeing referendum for.
all the other shared services.
Now they're being asked to step in and fund schools on top of it.
I don't see that as sustainable.
So what's going to happen?
Well, we're going to see it in Eustisford, where they have to next school year operate with bare bones, just the bare bones mandated classes with almost no support staff that they are mandated by law to offer.
They also now are saying they have to dissolve.
after next school year.
So they got the rest of this year, they're gonna go through kind of a transition year where they're up to even offering some tuition share agreements to send kids to other districts so they can learn, and then they would dissolve.
And what happens in this solution is, I don't know, I know there's not a lot of time here to explain it, but it's not like the taxes go away.
Now you're just paying your mill rate for a whole different district and you locally no longer have a say in that issue because now you're at the mercy of another district and what they do,
and paying their mill rates.
So you lose that local control.
And now, especially if you're living in this community, you really lose, especially in these smaller towns, you're losing the backbone of your community in a lot of cases.
I will say this in a small district having just five administrators.
I see what they have to put up both on a daily basis.
I see our superintendent helping out in special education because there just isn't enough.
staff to go around.
Administrators don't just administrate in most of these small districts.
They are coaching, they are refereeing, they are working with your special needs students, they are everywhere.
And I can't thank them enough for all the work that they do.
Any educator, teacher, para, librarian, anybody working, custodian, bus driver, you have my full and full pledge support because I know how hard things are right now.
It is not a matter of administrators not doing whatever it is we think they're not doing.
I can give you a lot of examples of people going above and beyond.
And if you want to read Jimmy's whole breakdown, go to civicmedia.us and read all about what Jimmy talked about with these referenda.
Jimmy, thanks very much.
Good talking to you.
We'll talk to you again when we come back.
Do you remember your commencement speaker?
Remember their message?
We'll figure it out.
It's Civic 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.
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Call or text 855-75-CIVIC.
Now back to Brian and Jamie.
Things have been very tumultuous all week.
They have.
But if you are...
a student of a certain age who are looking forward in the next few weeks, commencements will be everywhere.
And this is a question for you.
855-755 Civic.
855-755-248-422.
Who was your commencement speaker?
Do you even remember anything that they said?
And are you, what's the fascination with
celebrities now and big name commencement speakers because it's the reason I asked this is James Patterson, the author who's behind the Alex Cross series of books and a lot of other things was announced just the other day.
He will be UW Madison's commencement speaker.
Parker, who did you have at at your UW?
Was whitewater?
Well, yeah, those commencements are long, especially.
They're really long.
Mr. Plow King says over on our YouTube chat that Oprah was the speaker when he graduated from Roosevelt University.
He says he doesn't remember any of the speech, but she left as soon as she was done speaking and didn't really get it.
Oh,
She was one of the first ladies of journalism.
She covered, she worked 35 years in Chicago.
Then she spent the rest of her time back, she was born in Carbondale and spent the rest of her time in Southern Illinois.
So instead of being like on the society
Right, but why are they speaking at a commencement and what does that have to do with the graduates?
No, it's like when Taylor Swift, and this is no shade, Frank, because I do love Taylor Swift, maybe not as big of a Swiftie as you and your lovely wife, but like when she speaks at these commencement addresses, because she's done so in the past, and then they make them an honorary this or that, I'm like, okay, good for you?
Yeah.
sure Yes, I guess I guess that's true Molly when Molly graduated from Tulane It was a New Orleans author and I can't remember her Jasmine something she had just
She just published another bestseller.
She'll be very well known.
And I don't remember the specifics, but I remember listening to her commencement address and thinking, this is really good.
This makes sense.
And I know people like when a president comes or a top tier celebrity.
James Patterson, big author, his wife is an alum of UW-Madison and they donate a lot of money.
So that makes sense.
But there was a big thing.
The year after Molly graduated, they were going to have Hoda Cotby as the commencement speaker, who is from New Orleans, who started her whole career in New Orleans, talks about New Orleans, has pretty good career.
Hoda's done pretty well for herself.
Love Hoda.
Oh my God, the parents went crazy that she wasn't a big enough name.
Now, let me ask you another question.
Are you a fan of James Patterson?
Because, I mean...
It's cool that he's an author, but for some of these students, they might not have ever picked up his book to even know.
And I think it's great that he and his wife have donated so much money to literacy-focused programs.
But I mean, if you're some of these students and you have no idea or have never read his book, do you even care that it's James Patterson?
If you're in those programs, you probably are because you know how much they've donated and how much they've done.
You know, they've given over 240 million dollars.
Yeah, that's a lot.
And he's, you know, he's legit.
He's got all sorts of awards.
He is 10 Emmy Awards, an Edgar Award, National Book Foundation Award.
So he's legit, but...
I don't know.
If I'm in business,
to get
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