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This is Where Wisconsin Wakes Up.
It's Daybreak with Brian Noonan and Jamie Martinson.
Here are your hosts, Brian and Jamie.
are
This is why Frank, you could tell Parker is new to the industry.
He's a young man.
He's a recent college graduate.
You and I jaded professionals.
We don't get nervous about stuff.
Here's the trick, Parker.
And this is for every job.
This is not just a radio job.
Ask forgiveness, not permission.
That's what I
No, you weren't.
So, well, that's good.
Well, this is exciting.
Stick around.
If you're here now, welcome.
We're glad you're here.
I think I mentioned that.
But if you're sticking around, make sure you stay till 7.30 because we're going to talk to the filmmakers behind a new documentary about Bob Uker.
It's called Uke.
They were able to film...
with Bob during the last three years of his life.
So great first-hand documentary, filmmaking, and it premiered last week, had its world premiere at the Milwaukee Film Festival.
So we will talk to those guys at 7.30.
Frank, you came to us yesterday.
I don't know why you asked, Parker.
He doesn't have any experience with this.
But you have a bachelor party conundrum.
Okay.
Now there's like a group chat of like 20 dudes, which is way too many.
Too many dudes.
It's way too many for future reference under 10.
because you have to book things.
You have to book Airbnbs.
You have to book hotels, dinner reservations.
So he texted all of us and was like, yeah, here are the dates.
So we got that lockdown.
We're either going to be in Colorado or in the UP.
So so wildly different and I was like, okay, I feel like that doesn't make sense for this guy, but sure So weeks pass and People start sending question marks in the group chat because we've heard nothing people want to get this stuff on the books We're all adults now.
Yeah, we got stuff to do your save the date means nothing for the wedding
The bachelor party, I need hard concrete evidence for our wives, girlfriends, significant others that I am booked.
And he's like, sorry, I've really been slacking.
And then my wife talked to his fiance and apparently he's really struggling finding a place in Colorado.
So that's gone.
And then he's having a hard time finding a place in the UP.
So now.
I messaged him, I said, hey man, do you need any help?
And he goes, yeah, maybe we should just find a place in Wisconsin.
I said, what's the criteria?
He said, I need a good golf course and a place to go hiking.
So that is my task for all of our listeners.
I need a recommendation for somewhere in Wisconsin for a bachelor party where there's a good golf course and we can go on a hike, apparently.
And when I say we go on a hike, I mean, everybody else goes on a hike while I sit and drink somewhere
Thank you, Alicia.
High cliff and lots of bars.
Fox Valley is good because you got your Appleton.
Um, your Appleton area, which is fun.
One of my favorite bars in the world.
You know, that is an Appleton.
Um, why is your cousin a golfer or does
stuff as
got?
Well, you could try the Chano and Cecil area.
They have a nice golf course.
Golden Sands is a nice golf course.
They have their county park that Washington Inn and Cecil has wonderful food.
And the Mountain Bay Trail is right down the road that you can hike for miles in either direction.
My bachelor party was, I guess, what you would consider an old school kind of bachelor party.
We went, I had nothing to do with it.
first of all, is the groom.
We went to a steakhouse, a whole bunch of us.
We had a big steak dinner and some entertainment that came in after dinner.
Then we went to an Irish bar.
And that's where the bachelor party was supposed to end, which would have been great.
But then there were those amongst us who said, oh, let's go to this other bar that stays open till four.
Let me I'll just do the
The bachelor party ended with three different law enforcement agencies coming to the bar.
One of my brothers standing in an emergency room screaming at the top of his lungs that he was a Christian missionary and didn't deserve to be treated this way.
Bruce stitches, open lips, bruises, people fleeing down the street.
me throwing one of my brothers behind a dumpster to save him from being pummeled, and me taking probably the hardest punch to the face I've ever taken, shaking it off and coming back up and thinking to myself, yeah, not bad.
Who
Allegedly, one of my brother, and I don't know how because I've known my brother his whole life.
He is not Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic Four.
His arms cannot stretch in enormous length.
Somehow,
There was an allegation, and I, this bar has a history, but that he somehow reached across and over the bar and touched the female bartender on her rear end.
Physically, I don't think it's possible.
But all of a sudden, the rest, now there was about 15 guys, we see him being punched and dragged out of the bar.
We all run out of the bar.
all the meatheads that frequent the bar run out of the bar, and it is a Donny Brook.
This is daybreak on the Civic Media Network.
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Yes, it is daybreak.
I'm Brian Noon and glad you are with us this morning.
If you want to call in, we're still looking for suggestions.
You can do this throughout the show.
Frank is looking for suggestions in Wisconsin for a nice area that has a golf course, the ability for people to go hiking.
He's helping plan a bachelor party, nothing tawdry.
but some outdoor activities, some golf and access to restaurants and bars, et cetera.
So we've been getting some great suggestions.
You can keep sending those in at 855-755-CIVIC, 855-755-248-42.
You can text those in.
And if you want to call about anything that we're talking about this morning, please do so.
But remember, when you dial that number, be nice to Parker, because to get to me, you got to get through him.
That's how it goes.
Well.
In what is not really a shock, another member of the Trump cabinet has resigned, been let go, however you want to put it.
Labor Secretary Laurie Chavez de Remer is out as President Trump's white...
Labor secretary that according to the White House yesterday She was let go after multiple allegations of abusing her positions power Including having an affair with a subordinate and drinking alcohol on the job.
This seems to be common behavior Allegedly for people in the Trump administration and his cabinet.
She is now the fourth person to be let go in What do we had a year year and a couple months of this latest term?
Yeah
He let go, of course, let's see, we'll go back to the beginning.
Mike Waltz was dismissed in May.
He was a national security advisor, so President Trump didn't like his vision for securing the nation.
So he was gone.
Then of course, Kristi Noem, R.I.P.
She was fired in March and she was also accused of partly abusing her power.
She was having an affair with a subordinate, so common, I guess.
And then who could forget the great Pam Bondi?
And by great, I mean awful.
She was let go April 2nd.
She is gone.
And so now Laurie Chavez de Remer is the latest to be let go.
In a statement posted on social media, everything is social media.
Remember what we used to, Parker, you're probably too young for this.
They used to have like press conferences and things where they would let the fake news mainstream media ask questions and the press secretary would actually answer them instead of berating the press.
Real words where people could actually call you out on things if people had the backbone to call you out on things.
And yeah, it was it was a different time.
It was nicer.
But anyway, now we live in this.
Everything goes on social media.
That's how the president decides to negotiate a ceasefire and negotiate with a warring country that he chose to go to war with.
But that's another story.
So.
Chavez de Remer praised Trump and wrote, I am proud that we made significant progress in advancing President Trump's mission to bridge the gap between business and labor and always put the American worker first.
How did they put the American worker first?
By putting in tariffs that businesses then had to close down and cut their staff?
Well.
Unlike other recent cabinet departures, Chavez Doremer's exit was announced by a White House aide, not by the president on his son.
Boy, she didn't even rate a true social post.
She got some aide.
God, Bobby, to do it.
I don't want anything to do with it.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer will be leaving the administration to take a position in the private sector White House Communications Director Stephen Chung said on social media.
She has done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives.
Which begs the question then, why are you firing her?
Keith Sonderling, the current deputy labor secretary is going to become the acting labor secretary in her place.
uh notice was notice the news organization i use that term loosely was the first to report on her resignation her departure follows reports that began surfacing in january that she was under a series of investigations a new york times report last week revealed that the labor department's inspector general was reviewing material showing shaves de remer and her top aides and family members routinely sent personal messages and requests to young staff members
Her husband and father exchanged text messages with young female staff members according to the newspaper.
Some of the staffers were instructed by the secretary and her former deputy chief of staff to pay attention to her family.
She also faced allegations that she drank alcohol on the job and that she attached AIDS to plan official trips for personal reasons.
She has of course denied all the allegations.
Boy, a lot of these cabinet members allegedly and department chiefs drinking on the job.
I wonder if that's to quiet the voices in their head.
The screaming demons that are making the question all their choices.
Because now we'll talk about Cache Patel later and he's suing the Atlantic because they said he was drinking on the job and too drunk to show up to work.
We all know about whiskey Pete and the rumors about him.
So like going on there but yes one more down and we're only a year in now there were I think there were during his first administration there was something like 30 or 40 resignations or firings
from different staff positions.
He went through a lot of press secretaries.
You remember that.
He had, uh, was Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
She was the, she was the meanest one.
Sean, uh, was a Sean Spicer.
Yeah.
He lasted about a week and a half.
There were a lot of them.
A lot of people coming through there.
So that's, uh, RIP.
Poor one out for, for Chavez de Remer and her.
time as the Labor Secretary.
When we come back, who should decide what your kids are allowed to read?
You, as their parents, educators, politicians, that is the question for us here.
And don't forget, you can always check out our new social media.
channels.
Oh man, we're on Instagram, we're on Facebook.
You can go there and look for Daybreak with Brian and Jamie and follow our adventures.
You can always go to Civic Media and download all of the podcasts.
If you miss any segment, if you miss any of our great interviews, any of our shows, go there and download the thing.
And don't forget, we're getting more, still getting more suggestions for Frank for hiking and golf for a bachelor party in Wisconsin.
So keep those coming in.
But now we must go, and I will be back to ask you that question again.
Who should decide what kids are allowed to read?
You, Educators Podcast.
Stay right by the Civic Media
Network.
Want to join in on the conversation?
Call or text 855-75-CIVIC.
Now back to Brian and Jamie.
Brian Noonan, Jamie's on vacation, but this is Daybreak.
We're glad you're here listening all across the network.
Everybody, good morning.
If you are listening on the stream, good morning.
And don't forget, you can still give Frank some suggestions.
Remember, please, when you're making suggestions, if you're just joining us, Frank is looking for an area in Wisconsin where a bachelor party can go for golfing with hiking opportunities that are fat guy friendly and somewhere with
proximity to bars and restaurants, so they can make a weekend out of it.
The problem becomes there are 20 guys, which seems way too many.
But any suggestions are welcome at 855-75 Civic, 855-7524-842.
Also, here's your question for right now.
Who should decide what your kids are allowed to read?
You, as their parents, educators, or politicians?
I want to hear your answer because I obviously have some of my own but let me tell you why I'm asking you this.
Book bans and attempted bans remain at record highs according to the American Library Association and efforts to have titles removed have never been more coordinated or publicized and that to me is the most un-American thing we have go at one of the
It used to be the most on America, now it's just in the list of the top five, but I still, it gets me extremely frustrated when I realize that people are still trying to ban books.
Why are you afraid of ideas?
That's the big question.
The L.A.
yesterday issued its annual list of the books most challenged at the country's libraries, part of the Association's State of America's Libraries Report, Patricia McCormick's Solid.
or sold rather.
A 2006 novel about sex trafficking in India topped the list of 2025.
Others targeted included Stephen Chabasky's high school novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which has been around forever.
Maria Kobabi's graphic memoir Gender Queen and Sarah J. Moss's Romanticy.
A Romanticy.
Oh, it's a romance fantasy.
Empire of Storms.
Now you can say well listen Brian, that's why they're being banned listen they all have they all have a similar theme don't they?
Similar I guess but again
just because there's ideas you don't agree with doesn't mean nobody should be able to read them.
The ALA usually features 10 books, but this year they have 11 with four tied for eighth place.
Anthony Burgess's dystopian classic A Clockwork Orange, Ellen Hopkins sibling drama identical, John Green's boarding school narrative looking for Alaska, and Jennifer L. Armantoup's paranormal romance Storm of Fury.
So objections to these.
that are being brought about by the people who want them banned include LGBTQ plus themes, sexual violence and use of alcohol and cigarettes.
This coming from the parents who are down in a couple high balls on a Friday night and smoking a pack of Paul malls out in the backyard.
But we don't want our kids reading about that.
Overall, the LA's office for intellectual freedom recorded challenges to 4235 different works topped only by
4,240 in 2023.
That's when the association started trying while they started tracking banning in about 30 years ago.
So the association defines a challenge as an attempt to have a library resource removed or access to it restricted based on the objections of a person or a group.
No, sorry, you don't get to decide for everybody else.
As we celebrate National Library Week reaffirm.
that libraries are places for knowledge, for access, and for all," said the ALA president, Sam Helmick.
Libraries exist to make space for every story and every lived experience.
Now, for decades, challenges to a given book have come from a parent or another member of the local community, your local Gladys Kravitz, who wants to get in everybody else's business.
She thinks because she wants to shelter her kid from this, or she doesn't agree with the subject matter of a book, then nobody's kid should be able to read this book.
Well, that has all changed.
Now there's groups of Gladys Kravitz's.
And in recent years, the ALA has found the trend has shifted sharply to government officials and conservative advocates, activists, such as Moms for Liberty.
You know Moms for Liberty.
Not only do they try to get books banned, they tried to get curriculums changed.
They don't want your children learning that, hey, guess what, America was guilty of slavery and some other horrific things too.
For all the good of America, there's
also some bad they don't want they don't want to hear the bad they don't want to hear that Johnny might have two moms they just they want you to just have a nice whitewashed version of everything and all ideas must be the same ideas well thankfully that's not happening so they're they're advocating parental choice in deciding what schools and libraries should make available here's the thing friends
You do, no matter what, you do have parental choice.
If your child brings home a book from the library, first of all, it's incumbent upon you, as their parent, to take a look at what they're reading.
Oh, even if it's, oh, what's that book you're reading?
It's this.
I've never heard of that.
Can I take a look?
Yeah, and you read the jacket cover and you go, I don't know.
Then, God forbid, you read it yourself and make a decision.
But you, you, as the parent, do have the choice.
to let your child read that book or not.
What you as an individual parent do not have the right to do is dictate what my kid can read and what Parker's future kid can read and what anybody else's kid can read.
See, there's the difference.
Everybody likes to preach that we're taking away their parental rights.
No, we're not.
We're taking away your right to be a busy body and inflict us with your mental baggage.
That's not how it works.
Florida, Texas and Utah are among many states that have called for books to be banned or passed restrictive legislation.
Shocking.
In Iowa...
in appellate court ruled earlier this month that the state can enforce a law that limits teachers from talking about LGBTQ plus topics with students in kindergarten through the sixth grade and bans some books.
Last year more than 90% of challenges arose from activists and government officials according to the ALA compared with 72% in 2024.
It has become another battle in this culture war.
Now I know what a lot of
people on the pro side of banning books and limiting speech in schools are going to say, do you want your kindergarten kid learning about blah blah blah?
Well, in graphic details, no.
If it comes up in a book that is age appropriate and you can teach that lesson, okay.
And if you then, the parent, you might have to have a difficult conversation.
When your child comes home from school and goes oh, we read this book about penguins and it said the penguins have two dads Huh?
Well, nobody should read that You could react that way if you're narrow-minded or or you could sit down with your kid and have a conversation and I know That would mean also opening your mind to new ideas Or even if you don't want to open your mind to new ideas tell them your closed-minded opinion
And then when they're older, they'll figure it out for themselves.
I think both can be true.
You can have age-appropriate material covering topics that you might not agree with, for whatever reason, as misguided as they might be.
But again, and this is the point that has to keep being hammered home, your personal beliefs do not get to dictate everyone's access.
That is not how this country works or not how it used to work and not how it's supposed to work.
I don't mind you Doing whatever you want in the privacy of your own home.
You can raise your kids however you want But what you can't do is raise my kids because I Have different thoughts and feelings than you do and yours are valid when in your home raising your children
But how dare you think that you have the right to tell me?
These organized political groups, like moms for liberty, they're not for liberty.
Their name is a misnomer.
They are for oppression.
They are for liberty as long as you do exactly what we say.
If not, then there is no liberty.
Now have you read any of these band book week?
We'll talk about band book week when it comes up because that's my favorite week It's kind of like a a finger to the to the man you're gonna read I'm gonna read these books and every time I talk about these stories all I can see is
these pictures of old protests where they had books and barrels and had some religious leaders standing up there screaming holding a book that was somehow penned by the devil and he's going to throw it in or I remember record bands during rock and roll times or when the Dixie Chicks spoke out and there was the big record band, everybody was going to burn her books.
I haven't, I
I don't know many of these.
I read The Perks of Beagle, Wallflower, I read Clockwork Orange, also saw the movies.
I don't know these other books, but maybe I'd like them, maybe I wouldn't, but that's not the point.
The point is, oh, Frank, you have a question?
Is
Well, what's controversial, what's controversial to you and your, let's say the fifth graders in my school.
By the fifth graders, some, there were a couple of students who were starting to come to terms with their sexual identity.
Some, you know, and okay.
You know the parents in that the parents were talked to and there was communication between the teacher and the administration and the parents of how to handle that But the fifth graders how do you know a books controversial?
So I can't put that blanket statement out the kids go to the library and the the books are divided for you know
kindergarten, first, second grade, then the chapter books are over here.
Those are for the older kids and the librarians do a good job of keeping the kids in their age group because you want kids to read age appropriate books.
But you can't you can't have a permission slip for every week to go to the library because again, I may choose a book that has a theme that my parents are fine with me reading and
your kid might choose a book and they get it home and you for whatever reason don't like this book.
Well, the librarian doesn't know that what specific paragraph or what chapter or what theme in the book is going to be offensive to you.
So we can't call a book, a book is not objectionable.
A book is a book.
How you perceive the book, how you perceive the theme and the characters and the story, that's where people get
wounded or triggered or offended or whatever.
If that, if, if I'm an administrator, do you send home something, be like, Hey, class is reading catcher in the rye.
We know it's controversial.
If you're a parent that doesn't want your kid doing this, your kid's getting an alternate assignment, just like you would if we were watching a rated R movie.
the
They go, these are what we're going to be reading.
Then it's up to the parents to come in.
I think if you start giving people way too much choice, it's everybody can't do their own research on medicine.
Everybody can't do their research on education and curriculums.
There are professionals for that.
If you don't agree with it at the time, you can go and speak to somebody.
And then yes, it's incumbent upon the administration to make some adjustments.
But you don't lay it out.
This is
You gotta trust
us to do what we're doing.
It's Daybreak Civic
Media.
Jamie's on vacation, but that doesn't mean you don't have to call or text.
You can.
8-5-5-7-5, Civic 8-5-5-7-5-2, 4-8-4-2.
The question that we're gonna get to in just a second, where does Up North begin in Wisconsin?
Everybody uses the term, we're going Up North.
Well, if you're in Kenosha, Up North could be Milwaukee.
Could it or is it?
Where, in your opinion,
Where does Up North begin in Wisconsin?
But before we do that, we were talking about book bands right before the break and Scott, listening on WMDX here in Madison, wanted to chime in.
He said, industries that make content generally self-regulate to keep the government out of regulating themselves.
Movie and music and video game industries all self-regulate with a rating system.
The thing that confuses me is why don't publishers do the same thing?
What makes books special from a rating system?
Well,
Most books, the books that are written for adults, everybody realizes they're for adults.
If you look, a lot of books that are targeted for children on the spine will either say like 1A or YA rather for a young adult, or it's obvious that a little kid book is a little kid book.
There's usually their paperback.
They've got big print, a lot of pictures, but I don't, the majority of books that you would see in a public library,
Outside of the children's section are adult books so they don't need to be rated most people Who?
Pick up a book know what that book is gonna be about and if they don't know what it's about they are The type of reader who is just open to any experience so that is why you know adult books don't never I don't want my When you're an adult you really need things rated do you need a book rated or a movie rated or a video game?
That's mostly for children and so the books
I know some of the books in the school library for the younger kids.
And again, my experience is in preschool through fifth grade.
So I don't know when you get to high school if it's different, but I do know
Up where the fit in the section where the fifth graders would get there what they call chapter books Parker.
Do you still call them chapter books?
I did call them chapter books when I was in school.
Yes Yes, everybody did because it oh suddenly when you when you make that jump it's a big boy chapter.
It's a big deal for your big boy now Yeah, you could read books with chapters, but
Those, you know, those have something on them to indicate the level or anything.
But thank you for that.
All right, here's a good, now Parker, I gotta, I gotta weigh in with you on this because you live in Madison, you've traveled the state, you're a man about town.
In your opinion, where does Up
Okay.
Okay.
And towards Chippewa Falls, I think I think that's about Earl Claire, maybe.
Okay.
I think that's about for me.
That's the cutoff.
I don't know if I have any particular
I guess I'll put it this way.
It's a lot easier for me to name towns that are south of that line, that are north of that line.
I don't know a lot of stuff up there, because a lot of it's so small, and to me, up north means...
I don't wanna say wilderness, but yes, wilderness, but smaller
I think people who live in that area would agree.
That's part of the charm is the wilderness, the more rustic areas, smaller towns.
Where's it for you though, Brian?
See, I'm guessing then from your description, Door County is a separate thing, right?
Like Door County is Door County.
That doesn't count as up north.
I don't know, other than I've been, you know, Claire a number of times and up in Stevens Point and Wausau a number of times, that I would say is probably the border.
Once I cross that, then I'm up north.
that I'm really far north.
Alicia says 29 is north of Green Bay.
Anything north of Green Bay is up north.
Alicia says, I live up north.
All right, then your opinion is your, well, everybody's opinion is welcome.
But Alicia has it because she lives there.
So Parker, you were right.
29.
So we got this question from Up North News and they're doing a poll if you want to go there and vote.
But yeah, 29 seems to be, because
Now, I'm looking at Highway 70, that's way up north.
That's the top of the state.
You can't begin up north when you are up north.
There are
like you're driving through a
For your
to
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