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Wisconsin wakes up here.
Back to Daybreak with Brian and JB.
706 right now.
Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
We do appreciate it if you're listening in Madison on WMDX or in Wausau and WXCO or in Richland Center on WRCE.
We are glad that you are joining us this morning.
My name is Jamie Martenson.
And good morning.
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.
Usually I
give you the ones with the names.
That's what
we were talking about when you were gone.
Said what?
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.
Turns out that maybe the ceasefire was not all it was cracked up to be as we get more information.
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.
And going back to the ceasefire, all sides have presented vastly different versions of the terms.
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
was part of
the deal that President Obama had put in place.
Now we're here.
But here we are.
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
admitted it.
Okay, all right.
Does that make it better?
No, it makes it worse,
because then we continued to hang out with Russia.
Oh my
goodness.
It just keeps getting worse.
It keeps getting worse, and it's like, all right, we must know everything now.
But no, there is always more, Parker.
It's a wake-up call in more ways than one.
Time for some shit you need to know.
Cackle, cackle, cackle.
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
an
individual who was working in the Justice Department.
Well, they made the Clintons do the same thing.
They make everybody do it.
Unless you're Steve Bannon, then you go to jail for a little while for contempt, and then now it's going to be stricken from the record.
Was this part of the plan?
I mean, I understand what the administration keeps telling me about.
You don't
seem smart enough, Jamie.
I mean, we all keep... It makes sense that you ask that question because a lot of it does...
Because it looks convenient.
You can't
connect the dots.
Without a lot of yeah,
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
would have talked about the dial.
We would have
gotten the numbers.
That would have
helped.
But I feel like this is very convenient to me, just based on the timing and everything that is happening in the
world.
This may be its own separate plan.
I don't know how it's connected to the big plant, but They may have made another crucial legal miscalculation when they think that she doesn't have to
right
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.
Speaking of the Clintons, whatever happened to that testimony?
We saw the videos.
We know that they went in and they did their depositions.
Did anything ever come of that?
I haven't seen anything.
No,
it was theater.
It was all theater and it led to nothing because first of all, Hillary Clinton owned them.
Yes.
As
you knew she was going to.
Right.
And then Bill Clinton went in and not only discounted everything they said, but also then defended Hillary.
Yeah.
So they got nothing.
And once they got nothing and were embarrassed.
They moved on.
Then
they just let that drop.
Which is what this particular GOP does most of the time when they get
nothing.
Just make a lot of noise.
Grab everybody's attention and then move on.
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
can they want money back that they didn't have to pay?
Jamie, the other countries pay for those tariffs.
And I
know you.
No.
Now people go, you don't know how it
works.
I know.
I do know how
it
works.
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?
And why are you paying more every time you go pick up something at the store?
It's all related, is all we're saying.
There's dots to connect here this morning.
And if you don't see it, you ain't looking.
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
that...
We
didn't end civilization.
If you think that Brian Stiles is going to stand up to this president, you are sadly mistaken.
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
can't argue with him there, Jamie.
You could write all the letters you want.
He's not going to have a backbone and stand up to the president.
Not happening.
I know, but sometimes getting on the record
can be enough.
It's important.
It's important.
I get it.
Oh, if you don't like cackling, don't stick around because Swiper Stay is next and we will probably laugh and have a little fun.
That's what we do.
It's Daybreak.
I'm Brian Noonan.
I'm Jamie Martins and you are listening to 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.
Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
Before we jump into swipers day, Mr. Plowking has a beef with you this morning, Frank, over on our YouTube.
He says your outfit confuses him this morning.
Quality hat, awful shirt.
I lived 15 minutes from Ann Arbor for five years.
I grew
up in the city of, well, the suburbs of Chicago.
I now live in Chicago.
I am a Cubs fan.
I've been to like over 20 Michigan football games amongst other sports.
There you go,
Mr. Plow
King.
Mr.
Plow King.
I'm a professional.
I'm a professional.
Cubs hat, Michigan shirt.
Looking out your drip.
It's like Parker's worst nightmare, basically.
It gets a stare at right now.
And Parker's wearing a Badger jersey today.
It's like,
I didn't
know it was sporty day.
Yeah.
Frozen
four.
Brian, every day, sporty day.
Yes.
Michigan takes
on
Denver tonight in the frozen four and then Wisconsin takes on University of North Dakota.
Yes.
It's
a big day.
There we go.
Big day.
Hopefully we don't have to play each other for national title because there will be fists.
Oh, fisticuffs.
I drink
your milkshake.
Parker is no longer apathetic when he says that.
No, I stand up for my sports teams, Frank.
You know this.
Well, good for you.
Anyway, let's move on to Swipe or Stay.
Yeah, let's get to
it.
I'm going to read some headlines.
Brian and Jamie are going to have to decide whether or not to move on to the next one and Swipe or Stay and hear more about the story.
Let's move on to story number one.
Former Olympian takes legal action against a state of their late assistant.
I like some intrigue.
I'll stay.
I'm going to stay.
What former Olympian am I talking about?
Is it Bruce Jenner?
No,
it is Caitlyn Jenner.
God, Brian is on a roll.
Caitlyn Jenner is taking legal action against the estate of her late assistant, Sophia Hutchins.
Jenner filed a claim against the estate, claiming her friend and manager owed her $439,095 $439,095 and 88 cents.
Get that 88.
Get that 88 cents
pal on that up to the dollar.
Prior to her tragic death in July at the age of 29, the document broke it all down.
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
has
already agreed to pay it
back.
She has an
estate.
Seems pretty young to have this
like everybody has an estate, right?
Mine
just has nothing I was just gonna say you get this.
Yeah,
take
my
hoodie.
Well, he's got some Captain America memorabilia He's got a lot of beer themed apparel
beer stuff
He's got that Tulane bead necklace he got from
it.
Well, I don't know if that's part of my estate that might that's in a shadow.
He doesn't own
that
part
All right, legendary basketball coaches have made up.
I don't care.
Swipe.
Swipe.
Major news channel apologizes for a celebrity death hoax.
Oh,
stay.
I don't know this.
Yeah, stay.
This is
new.
CNN has had to apologize for publishing a package on their website.
with the title Remembering the Life of Michael J. Fox.
Oh, very much alive.
Not only is he alive, a rep for Michael J. Fox said Michael is doing great.
He was at Paley Fest yesterday.
He was on stage and was giving interviews.
He actually had a public appearance and everything while he
was with the cast of
Shrinking.
Yes,
correct.
A CNN spokesperson told TMZ the package was published in error.
We have removed
it from our platforms
and send our apologies to Michael J. Fox and his family.
So the only conclusion is they have had this in memorial package locked and loaded for Marty McFly for who knows how long
probably just tired of
holding on to it.
Let's just air it probably since he was diagnosed with Parkinson's would be my guess just
for everybody.
knowing he was diagnosed in 1990, he came out to the public with his diagnosis in 1998.
I'm
going to say they've been holding on to it for a while.
It's like the sports commentators that have been sitting on the take that Tom Brady should retire and
was
washed up and they just held on to
that
take for 10 years.
A little bit morbid this time, but you get the drift.
All right.
We have a closer look at a sports journalist's marriage.
Well, this is a continuation of yesterday, I'm assuming, so I want to stay.
I'm going to swipe just because Parker got so excited.
I'll let
her break the
tie.
Parker, don't let me down.
Frank, you know what I texted you last night.
I'm staying.
Parker and I are so enthralled with this.
This is
a
great story.
It is so good.
And let me tell you, it's so good that even
other major sports outlets are picking it up.
It's not
just
tabloids, TMZ, page six.
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
was another clip from Get Up on ESPN where she says she's married to someone average.
But
if she had tied
the knot with someone beautiful, he'd be all over her social media pages.
So
what
came across as jokes in the past, like nobody gave that any attention.
Oh, I'm sure her husband gave it attention.
Well, when she even said she goes, I got to stop ragging on my husband.
But now we're going back and looking at all this.
Oh, oh, Diana.
Yikes.
Wow.
This is better than any actual, this is like real life soap operas.
This is
great.
I sent at least one meme to Parker last night.
And I enjoyed it.
Yikes.
Wow.
That swipe is safe for today.
Holy smokes.
I liked it.
Thank you, Frank.
That
was a good
one.
Wow, imagine you're Mrs. Frank or Mr. Allison telling you that you were just average.
Anyway, when
we
come back, we will talk about all the referenda that were on the ballot on Tuesday.
Some pass,
some didn't.
This is the city.
Local voices in statewide impact.
It's Daybury with Brian and Jamie.
735 right now.
We hope that you are having a great start to your morning.
A little sunshine across the state and some warmer temperatures today.
We will take what we can get.
My name is Jamie Martenson.
And good morning.
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.
Jimmy Koska is our guest.
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.
We only got about a minute left, Jimmy.
But somebody, Troy from Mount Horror, texted this question.
And can you ask Jimmy what he says to people against the referendum who talk about school districts being too top heavy, too much administration?
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.
Jimmy, thanks a lot.
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.
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You're listening to Civic Media.
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Call or text 855-75-CIVIC.
Now back to Brian and Jamie.
It's 7.52 right now.
We hope that your morning is off to a great start.
We've made it to Friday Eve, which means we only have a couple days left in another week.
And boy, do we deserve a weekend because it's always a week as far as, you know, the new cycle goes.
I'm not going to hold out hope that it's going to be a restful weekend.
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?
I did I went to whitewater.
I have absolutely zero.
I believe it was an alum who had just happened to do well in life.
There you go.
Was she
inspirational?
I don't remember.
Oh, okay.
All right.
Nobody remembers.
Nobody remembers.
It's
such a big deal.
Oh, my
God.
I was playing New York Times games on my phone.
There you go.
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 didn't sit on the stage in her honorary.
down
and
oh
no
that's bad form
no and stay for the whole thing he also says all he really got afterwards was you know an alumni letter asking for money
welcome to go into college that's how everybody goes who was yours Jamie
no idea I I graduated in 2001 you're lucky I remember what I had for breakfast this morning so no I have I have no idea who our commencement speaker was at all
Ours was Virginia Marmaduke, who was nicknamed a duchess.
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
pages where
they used to relegate women reporters, she actually was covering crime,
corruption,
politics.
Yes, I don't remember one word she
said.
But at least you remember who she was.
That's important.
Well, I remember that
because I worked at the radio station, which was
an
NPR affiliate.
I worked at the TV station.
So I had met her and I was familiar with her work.
That's the only reason I remember.
And then I saw, like the other day, we got a notification.
Tulane this year, Sterling K. Brown is going to
be
speaking at Tulane.
Yeah, but why?
I mean, yeah, it's cool.
I like Sterling K. Brown.
I like his work as an actor.
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.
I will
say if it
if it was someone who I knew I would be ecstatic
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.
What?
They wanted, you know, well, this place has Tom Hanks or somebody else has so, you know, the president.
Hoda's that good enough for you?
Not for some
wow some of
the hoity-toity bougie jerks.
Did they want Joe Joe?
Did they want Joe Joe Siwa like a Harvard Business School?
No, no, no they wanted they wanted I guess a more marquee name, but hoda copy everybody knows
Wow
Yeah, and I would have told everybody to go pound sand then but hoda still hoda stayed true She came and did
it.
I love it
her hometown and she she did by all By
all that was an amazing speech from hoda
Oh, I would imagine.
Especially now, because she had something to prove.
Yeah, I can imagine that that was fantastic.
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?
No, you probably Google who it is.
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,
maybe not.
He's my airport author.
My travel author.
Because his books are always good.
You never want to put them down while you're on a plane.
But at the same time, you don't have to think that hard
to get
through them, right?
But they're entertaining at the same time.
The first gentleman, by the way, that came out in 2025 that he wrote with Bill Clinton, that's actually my new favorite airport book.
Oh, is it a good one?
It is.
I like that one.
I do appreciate it.
I've read a bunch of his stuff.
I've read some of the Alex Cross stuff.
Yeah, I like them, but I don't have to flip my tassel anymore.
That was done a long time ago.
And Parker?
No, not a euphemism.
When we
come back, it is headlines as we cackle our way through the final hour.
If you're listening on WMDX, see ya.
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You can still listen to us here.
It's Daybreak on Pacific.
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