It Seems Off (Hour 3)

Transcript

It Seems Off (Hour 3)

Daybreak w/ Brian and Jamie · Tue Jun 2, 2026

Kathryn Lake

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Now back to Brian and Jamie.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning on the Civic Media Network.

It is six minutes after eight now.

My name is Jamie Martinson.

And good morning.

I'm Brian Noon and glad you are here.

So we've been talking a lot over the last couple of weeks about this tax proposal that the governor and Robin Voss and Devin LeMay put together.

And you know, it was going to fund some schools and everybody was going to get a little cash back.

And some people were like, oh, that sounds great.

And other people went, oh, that's not good at all.

And then the Senate said yes.

The Senate said yes, the House said no, or vice versa.

Vice versa.

Senate said

no.

House said yes.

Senate said no.

Okay.

Well, then it went away.

Then the legislative fiscal bureau came out a couple days later because a poll came out right after the thing got the proposal got defeated and most people said, oh, you should have passed it.

And then the fiscal report came out.

A couple days later went, well, actually, had you passed it, we would have had to spend an additional $3.5 billion over four years.

And that would have left the state with a $2.95 billion deficit.

And people went, oh, hold on.

But now, Governor Evers and Robin Boss want a new vote on this deal.

And the Senate is saying, yeah, we're not going to agree to this.

Jamie Wood.

Why must we make things so complicated here?

I'm not sure why we're making anything complicated with this, because Senate Minority Leader Diane Heselbein has come out and said that her chamber refuses to come back into a session to take up this package that died in the Senate just a few weeks ago.

It

hasn't been that long.

All the Senate Democrats and three of the Senate Republicans voted against it, and she went on to say that she actually came to this conclusion.

after she spoke with Senate Majority Leader Devin Lemayhew, who controls the chamber's schedule.

Here's my thing with this.

Is there something new?

that we didn't know?

Has there been amendments made to this bill?

Or

is it

just the governor and Robin Voss deciding, well, let's give it a shot

once again.

Let's

try

it again.

What?

Because they saw the poll numbers.

And that's our question to you.

Now that you know how much the proposal would have really cost the state, you've got a much fuller picture, does that change how you feel about this proposal?

And

Do you think there should even be another vote on this tax deal?

85575 Civic 8557524842.

Yeah, did they?

Because one of the big gripes was that it was all done behind closed doors.

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So if

there has been an amendment, it would be behind closed doors again.

And I didn't mind that part of it because the open doors have been debating this forever.

I didn't mind that they brought a deal to the floor that had been negotiated in private.

But now we see, one it's been voted down, two we see the actual cost and that at least for me, I'm not too proud to admit that that's when I changed my, because I was for the initial proposal.

I thought compromise is good and we gotta take short term wins over long term battles.

Then all of a sudden the actual price tag came out and I went, oh that's not what you sold

us.

This is a whole different bill of goods and I'm glad it got defeated.

So why why come back

what I think

what are you gonna do?

What do you got for me now?

It doesn't sound like anything It just sounds like they're going off of the momentum of the Marquette polling and by the way You're right Initially people who participated in that Marquette poll 80% said that they you know would have liked to see the surplus

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bill

pass once they found out

about the $3.5 billion deficit over the next four years.

It's still a high number, but that support drops to 69%.

So it's still high because people are looking at property taxes.

They're looking at maybe

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not

having to go back to the polls for a year or so to vote on another school referendum, because nobody wants to be the bad guy and be like, look, I've done all I can.

I can't

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allow

my taxes to go up, but I really need

kids to have education.

Nobody wants to make that choice in the voting booth.

Nobody.

But you have to.

People liked the idea of getting a little cash back.

Of course.

Granted, it was a very small percentage.

It wasn't going to really make a huge difference.

But if one day you get a check for 300 bucks or 600 bucks, if you're a couple, you get that in the mail, you go, oh, boy, that pays.

The groceries for the month or that's whatever it is.

Alicia chiming in on our YouTube chat this morning says, why are we trying to go for the same bill?

Like learn a lesson, make a better deal?

I mean, that's kind of where I'm at on the whole thing.

Alicia with her common sense.

It doesn't sound like the Democrats are going to change their minds on the Senate

side

and all of a sudden be like, you know, a $3.5 billion deficit.

a big deal let's just pat that's not happening nobody's passing that on the Senate side it's still going to get hung up the thing that I think bothers me most about all of this and I keep going back to this and I can't get rid of the nagging feeling in my head Tony Evers as governor of the state whether you agree with everything he's done or not he's been fairly measured

in how he's responded to things, right?

He's put a lot of thought in.

He has made sure that Democrats and Republicans could come to the same table when appropriate, when needed.

He has been that type of governor.

And even Republicans can't actually deny that he's been like that and they don't actually deny that he's been like that.

Why this bill?

Why on his way out of office is this the bill he's hanging his hat on?

And that's what I can't get out of my head because this is not a great bill.

And

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this

is the one that he is, he is, he is adamant needs to get passed.

And that is where what I can't rectify in my own brain.

Why this bill?

Why this particular

moment?

Well, it's probably, and it's probably with, with Voss and Lemayhu too.

This is a legacy move because.

they could we know all of them are done at the end of this term.

Sure.

So they leave with being the being the guys who funded schools and gave Wisconsinites breaks on their property taxes.

They didn't leave.

They left the state better than it was because now, you know, the property taxes will not keep skyrocketing and be that one of the highest nation.

So it's it's a way for them to leave

on a bipartisan note that remember their final act is working together after all the years of discord between them.

They came together at the end to produce something that actually helped all the people of Wisconsin.

Sure,

because there were some good things in the bill.

I'm not going to sit here and pretend like there weren't a few good things that popped up in that bill.

Here's the thing that, I guess, again, that I keep going back to.

You were leaving the state with a two and a half billion dollar surplus, right?

This has been the negotiating point.

Now all of a sudden, you're like, yeah, heck with it.

We're gonna just leave you with three and a half billion dollars in the red when I actually gave you a surplus

and left you on good

terms?

Like, I don't-

Alicia sent a message saying, hey, there was a lot of good stuff just like you did, Jamie.

And yes, I know.

I was, again, I was all for it.

Until we got the actual receipts.

Right.

And then I hope, no, you didn't tell me this.

You didn't tell us that, like you said, Jamie, all of a sudden we go from a surplus to a deficit.

Right.

And we blow through all of this extra money?

No.

You're putting us in a deeper hole that

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we're

already in with a very short-term fix.

And if that legislative fiscal bureau report had not come out, I still would have said this should have passed.

And I would probably be on the side of the governor and Robin Voss saying, yes, let's get back in and try to hammer this out before we're done.

But no now it now it comes across as the most fiscally irresponsible proposal I've seen in a long time

and it's it feels very Tony ever not Tony Evers ask

Right?

Like, it

really

does to me.

And look, I'm not going to sit here with my rose-colored glasses and be like, oh, our governor's perfect.

No governor's perfect.

Right?

No governor's perfect.

I understand that.

These are also elected politicians who are also human.

They make mistakes.

Sometimes the judgment is off.

It's hopefully why they have good people around them to help combat some of that.

Right?

So I understand that.

So I'm not going to sit here and pretend that.

It just, it feels very off for some reason to me.

And you're right.

Maybe it is a lake.

a C thing, but to go out knowing that you could leave a $2.5 billion surplus to potentially leaving the state in debt by $3.5 billion, I don't know.

It feels

like the wrong deal

to die on to

me.

going with what you're saying about it being a little, and I'm gonna use the colloquialism for the kids, Jamie, because we're talking to a lot of young kids.

It seems a little sus.

Parker always perks up, ooh, look at the old man, has a word I understand.

The- Never sure if he has to double check his using it right with me.

No, I'm using it right.

That's what I know.

But the point is, were they hiding?

This fiscal bureau reported they know they had to know this beforehand.

Somebody had to crunch the numbers.

So you are hoping and I don't know this is conjecture.

Were you hoping to get a vote through before people found out about this report and have it passed before we knew how much it was actually going to cost us or were you I can't I can't believe

Tony Evers, Robin Voss, and Devin Lamehu are stupid men who wouldn't have checked the math.

I don't believe that.

No.

So something is... There's something weird there, right?

We should

know.

I know there's been all this discussion about the surplus, right?

There's been so

much discussion about the

surplus.

There's been so much discussion about the surplus.

There's been so much discussion about this bill.

There's been so much discussion over the last few weeks about, ooh, who's gonna control this surplus?

Will Tom

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Tiffany get

to control it?

Will a Democratic governor get to control it?

There's a new house, there's a new speaker, all of that.

The point that I can't shake, though, is this one.

They had to know that they were actually putting the state in debt.

And I just, for some reason, I can't rectify it because it just feels, it feels very off for a fiscally conservative Robin Voss.

It feels very off for a very major Tony Evers.

And that is what, that's what I keep going back to.

I've read all the discussions, I've listened to all the discussions, but

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at the

end of the day,

It just feels like this is the wrong, literally, as I just said, the wrong hill to die on for all

three of

these men who are leaving office.

Even if it isn't, even if this isn't the case, it has a very bait and switch kind of feel to it.

And I don't, I don't like that.

I don't like, I don't like feeling like somebody tried to dupe me.

Right.

And that's really what everybody in Wisconsin should be feeling.

Even, even if you still are saying yes, the.

The bill had a lot of good things and it should have been passed.

We all want property tax

relief, right?

I get it.

We all want property tax relief.

We all want schools funded.

We all want special ed to get funded.

All of that.

All of that.

Yes.

It's all great, but at what cost?

Right.

And if you give us the actual cost and we're able to make a decision that way, that's one thing.

If you try to pull the wool over our eyes, then it's a whole other kettle of fish.

And I don't, I don't like the way it smells.

I mean,

The other thing I keep thinking about is was this a way for all three of these men to leave office by giving

Is this why they want it passed?

Because by giving these rebate checks, even though they're not big, do they feel like this is a way of giving back to the Wisconsinites so that they go down from their political careers in this bigger moment?

You know how short our memories are.

I know.

How long do you think we're going to remember $300 when in four years we've racked up a $3 billion debt?

The only thing I can keep thinking of is all three men have a stake in this, right?

They all have a stake in it because they all want either a Democrat in office again and a democratically run legislature or they want a Republican governor with a Republican run legislature.

It feels like it was a way to me.

This is just me reading all of it and watching everything.

It felt very much like all three men trying to buy off the voters.

Remember our party.

Yeah, but it also it also and.

It also, then, to your point, could be a way to scapegoat the other.

Because once the real numbers

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come out,

Voss and Lemay could go, who's the governor?

And Evers could go, oh, so that the Democrats

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have their

cover and the Republicans have their cover.

There's way too much going on with this, too.

To figure it out.

It's our property taxes.

It's too much politics.

Stop with the icky politicky.

The icky politicky.

Oh, the press has been

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banned.

Again, why?

We'll find out after this daybreak on the Civic Media Network.

Now back to more of Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning on the Civic Media Network.

It is 822 right now.

My name is Jamie Martinson.

And good morning.

I'm Brian Noonan.

The Pentagon has barred journalists from its press office.

How do you think the press should respond to this ban?

855-757-855-7524-842.

I saw this headline and

Of course, I don't believe all the headlines.

I always have to, you know, everybody has to read the stories.

But it is what it sounds like.

Once again, you know how much Pete Hexeth loves the press.

He loves the press as much as Donald Trump loves the press.

Because the press has the audacity, Jamie, we do this all the time.

We ask pesky questions.

We try

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to get to

the truth.

We try to find out what's going on to share it with the American public.

Sometimes there's a very friendly press and they don't ask the hard questions.

They just compliment you on your suit.

It gets

really awkward when they do though.

Because

sometimes they do.

Sometimes

they do.

And it's awkward.

I feel bad for them.

I don't I'm not mad at them.

I'm just I'm sad for them I'm like you are really a spineless flesh sack and I don't I don't understand it well in another series of moves restricting media across the Pentagon the Defense Department has declared that its press office is now a classified space inaccessible to journalists well that would

It's not a press office, that is it.

On X, acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez confirmed the move saying there was nothing controversial about it, and then it came because speechwriters who use classified material now are occupying the space.

Well, how about give those speechwriters their own office?

That doesn't seem to make sense.

Where did they write speeches before?

Maybe that's not in an open room.

I've been in a lot of those press rooms and media rooms

over

the course of time.

They're usually just one

open room and there's not a lot of privacy sometimes there's a door sometimes it's not even a closed door it's just like a holding room right and so maybe maybe there's somewhere in there that you can maybe put them or do something different just saying and let's be real I mean this isn't this isn't

An anomaly based on what the Pentagon is done in the

past

with the press.

This is just a pattern that we've seen from them since Pete Higgs that came became the secretary of defense

Christopher is in Beaver Dammy's listing on WIS says it's like the old episode of mash the general during a press conference says the suppress conference.

What's with all the questions?

Yes.

Yeah.

I love that.

Thank you.

They don't.

Yes.

Thanks Christopher.

They don't want questions, but yes.

So so they they're

They're lying again.

The speechwriters aren't in the press room using classified information.

The speechwriters are in there watching the speech that they wrote somewhere else.

Because there's not a chance that you're going to have computers open in an area.

Well, the speechwriters have been writing speeches in the Pentagon for a long time.

Yes, maybe they are.

Maybe they're sending all their speeches over.

What's the app that Pete Hexeth was?

What's that signal?

Was that signal and what's that signal?

Yep.

This administration loves

those two apps.

I don't know.

Well, this was reported by the Washington Post.

It took place against a backdrop of escalating tensions between the U.S.

media and the second Trump administration.

They have played out both in the public arena and at times in court.

You remember the Pentagon pulled everybody's press credentials who wouldn't sign a loyalty oath.

in

October.

So most press outlets who had any sort of journalistic ethics at all turned in their thing.

We're not signing a loyalty out to you, you knuckleheads.

And then the New York Times sued in December, or in May rather, for the second time in five months arguing that a requirement to journalists be escorted while on Pentagon grounds violated the First Amendment and is an unconstitutional attempt by the Pentagon.

So they're doing everything they can.

One, because every time Pete Hexeth is asked a question, it is revealed how inept he actually is

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and

unqualified he is for this office.

And also, maybe they don't want to have to answer questions about why he has blocked all promotions of black and female officers in the Navy.

Right.

Yeah.

So, you know, those are pesky questions, Jamie.

If I have to justify that.

And

nobody wants to have to answer those.

And nobody wants to have to get up to a podium and then call the press, say that the press is lying, even though there's paperwork saying that this has actually happened.

Because that's essentially what's going to happen because it's a pattern, right?

It's a pattern.

And we've seen this pattern since the beginning of this administration.

Most of us are never going to have the opportunity to walk through the halls of the Pentagon.

That's why we depend on journalists, because journalists are covering the military.

They help explain how our money is being spent as taxpayers, by the way, and what decisions are being made and how those decisions, like blocking promotions of qualified black and female

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officers,

might actually affect national security, plus not to mention the fact there's military families that probably want to know what's actually happening at the Pentagon.

And also is the country of a whole.

I mean,

you don't you don't hide information from the public.

That's not you are.

You work for us.

Yes.

That's that's the ultimate that you we have a right to know what's going on.

We have.

Yes, they're yes.

Of course, there's classified information.

Of course, we understand that we don't need to know the operational.

No.

specifics.

We don't need to know troop movement and maps.

We don't need to know, but we need to know, why are we in a war?

Why aren't you promoting certain people?

Why are you barring the press from your meetings?

Why

are you so inept?

But this is how you get public skepticism.

And then this is how all of those conspiracy theories start to grow and build as well.

Because there's not actual reporting coming from this administration or actual fact and actual news.

So people have to assume that they just know what's happening and then they make up their own theories based on what they're hearing from the other press junkets, the ones that are more friendly to this administration coming out.

of the Pentagon or the White House or whatever it might

be.

Is it time finally, and we've had this debate before, I understand that access is where you get the information, but if they're blocking your access, isn't it time for the mainstream press, the big networks and newspapers to finally really speak out and start, we need to shine more lights on this because they're not.

The access you're getting is not helping.

The access you're getting is worthless because the information is

worthless.

When does the cost of a college education outweigh the benefits?

You tell us after this.

It's Daybreak on the Civic

Media Network.

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So all in all, not a bad way to spend a Tuesday, Brian.

Not at all.

I'm looking at this text that just came in.

Now, we talked about the polar bears at the Madison Zoo almost two hours ago.

Yes.

And the text is just coming in.

But how did you pronounce the zoo name?

I admit it up front, I wasn't sure.

You guys were

saying it funky.

It's Vylus.

Vylus?

Yeah.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think

Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I

think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think

Vylus.

I think

Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think

Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think

Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think

Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I think Vylus.

I

But I'm always just going to go, you want to go to the zoo?

Well,

if I'm in Madison, it'll be the Madison Zoo.

If I'm in Milwaukee, it's whatever local zoo.

If I say, let's go to the zoo.

Figure it's the local zoo.

Yeah, probably

just on a whim on a Wednesday afternoon.

We're not going to drive to San Diego,

right?

Well, that would be

lovely.

That would be lovely.

But literally, thank you so much for the

tax.

Make sure you keep us on our toes and make sure you keep us honest with our pronunciations.

We appreciate it.

Yeah, it may be, you know.

Maybe if we had gotten more college education, Jamie, we both graduated from college, but we need a little more.

But unfortunately, we're not going to be able to afford it.

Where's the diminishing returns?

85575 Civic, 8557524842.

Where does the cost of a college education outweigh the benefits?

As you're looking, maybe your kids are getting ready to go to college.

Maybe you went and you're saddled with a ton of debt and now you're rethinking that point.

The reason I bring this up and in the whole scheme of things, the increase is not a ton, but the universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents are going to vote on a proposed 2% tuition increase for in-state undergrad students for next school year.

If approved, it would be the fourth consecutive tuition increase since the 10-year tuition freeze ended in 2023.

So 2%, not all that much.

It's really going to increase in-state tuition by about $210 a year.

And again, $210 is real money.

But when you look at the whole bill, you go, well, I'm already paying this much.

What's another $210?

Out-of-state students are going to see a 4% increase.

Everything's going up.

I understand that.

And we all feel it.

I wonder though at what point is education going to become so out of reach like we're talking about housing and we're talking about health insurance.

College educations are starting to get to that point

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too.

Now

there's a lot of great state schools that are more reasonable and there's community colleges, there's other avenues.

But if you want to go to a big time university, if you were that smart and you were that...

Well,

and

let's be clear, depending on what UW university you go to around the state, your tuition will be a little bit different.

But with that being said, this tuition increase essentially covers things like facilities, utilities, employee pay, student services, and they also have to stay competitive with other Midwest universities.

Do you know why they're lacking that money?

because there's been a huge cut in federal funding for our universities, for our state-run universities.

And so these universities are having to make decisions to make sure that they can still have really great education.

And I get it, things are not cheap.

And this is only part of the problem with why our education is increasing in price.

However, with that all being said,

I think it answers a little bit of your question because this administration has had a war on education.

They don't want people to be educated.

So they don't think it's important.

And if they do, they don't want it going to public universities.

They want the money going to more private universities because it turns out that

for private control, the message, that's right.

And private universities

and private universities are also where sometimes not all, depending on the university, but you're more wealthy.

families will send kids.

Of course.

It's kind of like the same war

on legacies.

It's legacies, but it's also kind of like the same war on public education versus charter schools or private education that the GOP has had on our entire education system.

I listen to what we talk about and sometimes I'm like, are we being hysterical?

But we're not because if you look at it, if you have an educated, well-fed, healthy,

populace, they're going to question things, they're able to make decisions, and they're able to vote.

Well, we're trying to, they're trying to take away votes for many people.

They're keeping us, they're keeping us underfed because they're cutting, they're cutting school lunch programs, they're cutting help with SNAP benefits, they're cutting all that.

Healthcare, we were just talking about the price of healthcare.

If we're sick, we're not going to want to leave the house, we're not going to want to vote, we're not going to be out on the streets protesting.

And if we're dumb,

And we continue to gut public education and cut funding to universities.

We're not going to have the great minds that are going to perhaps replace the regimes that are in place to make our lives better.

So I know it sounds, I know it sounds crazy.

And years past, it never would have never would have crossed most of our minds.

But when you start connecting the dots, you go, why are they so fixated on this?

Well, there's a reason.

None of this is done in a vacuum.

And I think when I start thinking about and even though this is a 2% increase right and and on average It's gonna be across the entire system UW says be including at the tuition the fees room board It's gonna be about a two and a half percent increase on average across the entire system But here's what I also think about I think about college students and families who need to take out loans because if you're taking out loans to go to school which a lot of students

do

That means that you're

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also,

yeah, it means that you're taking on more debt when you graduate.

And that then means longer interest payments, higher interest payments, longer payments, whatever it might be, which is just another problem with the entire education system because at the end of the day, and we're gonna talk about it in just a second, turns out that for our recent grads, there's not enough jobs to go around.

No, and if you look, if you remember, they're trying to...

Change up the government loan programs for schools and privatize them.

Well, somebody's making somebody then is making more money off of that and again, it's not you and I

know

It's a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of

corporations and and and CEOs and boards of directors and all of that That's that's essentially making that money.

I always have to be careful when we start doing that and I've said it a couple times say

I'm not one of these anti-corporation guys.

I'm all for capitalism.

I would like to be making more money.

I don't think there's anybody who could honestly say

Yeah, I don't want to make phone calls.

I just wish that... I'm not anti-capitalist

at all.

There's a responsibility.

Yes, that's just it.

My family has owned businesses my entire life.

Some very lucrative businesses.

They've been in boardrooms and things like that.

But at the end of the day, they still actually cared about the people who worked for

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them,

underneath of them, and the people who didn't make as much as them.

And I think that's where the difference is.

We have hit this level

and echelon of this need for money and greed in this country, that it's mind-blowing and it's unfathomable to me that this is what is so important to a huge section of this country, money and greed and always having more.

And I understand that, you know, more prerogative to you if that's how you want to live your life.

I'm not gonna judge that but at the

same I'll judge it for you Jamie.

Let me I'll handle all the judging

here, but at the same time

What is that getting us?

It's making people who don't have that type of income poorer to a point where people are making really hard decisions.

And it's not getting better, and I don't see it getting better.

And even if this administration ends in two years, or even at midterms, because, you know, there's a different Congress, I don't see that being fixed, and I certainly don't see it better.

And I'm gonna be clear, both political parties are not great at it right now.

Neither of them are great.

Neither are great.

I think there will come a time where there will be some kind of class War not not a not a guns and missiles kind of right, but there's going to be some sort of revolt because you can't keep creating a class of ultra-rich and then have such a big class of struggling people and it it's It's not for lack of trying

Right.

I've said this.

You've said this.

People are working and they're still having to go to food banks.

People are so there is going to come a time when enough is enough.

Yeah.

And hopefully it's in November at the ballot box.

Who knows how it will present itself, but I do think there is going to come a time of reckoning where things have to be balanced out a little.

I'm not talking about equity across the board.

Everybody doesn't have to make the same amount of money.

We're not talking communism.

No, we're talking about let's balance the scales a little bit so that people don't have to worry.

about getting their medicine.

Parker, real quick, you're lucky you have your first job.

We've seen all these commencement speeches where AI, people are getting booed and booed.

It's not AI that is the true villain here.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, remote work is the villain.

The more people that are working remote makes it harder for...

companies to hire entry-level employees because entry-level employees historically have been mentored by older employees and if everybody's working at home there's no one to mentor the utes and the utes then don't get a job and once a ute doesn't get a job then they struggle for their whole career because if you're struggling to find your first job that's right then all of a sudden you're you have slower career growth you have lower long-term earnings fewer opportunities later in your career so

AI is not the boogeyman.

Me staying at home to work is the boogeyman.

You're welcome.

Damn you, Brian.

In fact, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York actually found that remote work actually explains why two-thirds of young college graduates are unemployed since the pandemic.

Two-thirds.

Let's be real.

I have a recent college grad.

Parker, you're a recent college grad.

It's brutal out there.

It is brutal.

for job searching right now, if you're in that category, and hey, guess what?

Your tuition's going up, so when those student loans come into the, that's right, when you have to pay those back, you're gonna not be making enough to probably pay those.

And that

is- Parker, do you want me to come in and mentor you a couple days next week?

Yeah, sure, I

would love that.

Oh, I'll mentor you.

I

want you to be here Wednesday, Thursday, Brian.

That's what I want next week.

Hmm,

I'll

see what I can do.

Okay.

We've talked a lot about these never ending circles this morning, as far as the money to living ratio, and this is just another one of those examples for

young

college students.

If you can't get a job and all of a sudden you gotta pay your student loans back, you're probably not using that fancy degree, been there, done that, not judging

here,

you're probably not using that fancy degree because you got bills to pay.

And

everybody's working at home.

Wow.

Thanks, Biden.

I just throw that in.

Just throw that in.

Because that seems to be the line from the administration.

We blame Biden for everything.

You know what I'm going to blame him for too?

Malls and curfews.

Oh, Jamie, we got to get into it.

People are going crazy at the malls and we're trying to stop it.

It's daybreak.

This is the Civic Media Network.

Kathryn Lake

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.

Across the state of Wisconsin, a break with Brian and Jamie is back.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

It's the Civic Media Network 8.52 right now.

My name is Jamie Martinson.

And good morning.

I'm Brian Noonan.

Here's a question that comes right out of 1983.

Hey, do you and your kids still go to the mall 85575 Civic 8557524842 or if the answer was no, when was the last time you were at a mall?

I can't even tell you.

Jamie, you found this story and you were fascinated by

it.

I was fascinated by it because this is, I mean like 90210, right?

The original, not the reboot that they had on

for a few years is what

brings back.

And everything from the 90s is big again.

So apparently malls are making a bit of a comeback for the young folk.

And it turns out though that because there's more young people congregating at the malls, malls across the country are restricting accompanied teenagers.

because there's been a lot of gatherings, fights, shoplifting incidents, and also social media organized mall takeovers.

Now, here's the thing, we were talking about this at the break.

I don't know how prevalent malls are, especially in the Midwest anymore.

I know like on the West Coast, if you go to the West Coast and have a chance to visit, say California,

beautiful big outdoor malls where people

Kathryn Lake

are

hanging out.

It still looks very much like what you used to see on TV in the 90s.

That is what you kind of equate to it because you see people hanging out, they're shopping, they're doing their thing.

It's not like the malls here where it's a closed building.

And

you know what I'm saying?

It's

a little bit more less.

The trend went from like a shopping center, not to the enclosed malls.

And then it went back to these open air malls.

And I'm trying to think, even in Milwaukee,

the malls that I used to go to around there are gone.

Right.

I'm out toward 94.

There was there was a is that mall still there in Madison out on?

Yeah, I'm trying to

say we have the

West Mall and the East Mall.

And then of course,

you

have the big outlet mall near

Johnson Creek.

Yeah, gotta like the job.

Gotta love an outlet mall.

But you know, now you got all these.

We used to live

right very close within a mile of a smaller mall sure they had a few things and at least four or five times a year it was a multi-police response because something had gone out on social media and there were hundreds and hundreds of kids swarming the mall running across the busy streets creating a thing so I I don't there's a and I live but I live pretty close to a mall

I know they have a sign.

I go in, I go there on Christmas Eve to pick up my Cinnabon.

And then if I order something from Pennies or Macy's, I go in the one door right by the catalog pickup corner.

That's an old online pickup.

I don't wander the mall like I used to back in the day.

But they do have signs about unaccompanied miners after six

o'clock.

are now requiring anybody under 18 to be accompanied by adults.

Often 21 or older during certain hours as you're alluding to.

especially on weekends and on school breaks.

And owners of these malls say that these policies have helped reduce all of this disruptive behavior, the violence, the theft, the large crowds that make shoppers and employees feel uncomfortable.

And now they can feel safer in their mall shopping experience.

I've got to be honest with you, I haven't been in a mall in a very long time.

The last one I was at, you wouldn't have, I mean, a disruption might have been pleasant because it was, there was nobody in there.

It would have been people milling around.

I think I saw maybe like three or four people the last time I was in

a mall.

It was really kind of sad in that particular corridor.

Parker, you're a young person.

Are you milling around at the malls a lot?

I wasn't at all in high school.

I haven't but I might now like if I had a buddy coming in town like I just kind of dink around for a while I was

never I even in high school we were talking about that my friends on the weekend would be like you know we had to drive an hour to our closest mall

oh I'm not doing

that and I would be like

yeah that's

South Dakota right yeah you can't

yeah you can't spend the whole day shooting pheasants out of your car this is true

this is true they'd say well let's go to the mall this weekend my mom's willing to drive us you

And I'd be like, really?

Why don't you let me sit here in the pretzel aisle by Auntie Annie's here, and I'll have a pretzel, and you come pick me up when you're

done milling rabbits.

See, Parker, this is good as a surprise.

I'm old enough to remember when the first mall opened near my house.

I thought you

meant ever anywhere.

No, not ever in the world.

But we went, my buddies and I, we were like in seventh grade, and we would go to the mall with walkie-talkies.

And that was a big adventure.

We would all run around the mall with walkie-talkies.

Well, that sounds

fun.

It was fun.

We were dorks.

And we had a great time.

And then I had moved back to the area and had to go over there for something.

And I was there when the mall was...

on its last legs.

Now it's been demolished.

But when there was like no anchor stores anymore, and it was like the weird little shops that you were like, whoever goes into a place like this.

Like the masseuse

parlors and things like that.

Yeah, and a lot of the far eastern art.

Yeah.

Really?

Who's buying samurai masks to put on their walls?

No, it's very strange.

It's very strange.

And here's the thing.

I was never one who really, I don't really love to shop all that much anyway.

And we were talking about this at the break.

I would much rather go online, look at the things that I like, know that there's a larger selection and a bigger size selection.

And I'm usually the type of person that's...

probably looking for something fairly specific.

So I'm gonna

Kathryn Lake

go

find it.

I'm gonna have a few of those things in different sizes and colors shipped to my house.

I'm gonna try them on in my bedroom on my own timeline where nobody's knocking on my door asking me if I need another

bigger size.

Without the harsh fluorescent lights.

Because everybody

looks

good at what looks like a fun house me or two, right?

Everybody's shorter, wider, whatever.

And I don't need anybody to have it on the door ask me if I need the size up.

I don't need that.

Let me try it on myself.

And then I'll just return them.

Like this is-

Me too.

I

don't know.

That seems like a much more productive way to get shopping done than being stressed out about it in a

mall.

There was a calmness in the malls.

When I was on the road all the time, the mall always felt like home because it was the same stores.

So wherever, other than some of the anchor stores being a different big department store regionally, the rest of the mall was the same.

So it was like,

Oh, here's a little piece of normalcy in the mall.

I don't need to be normal anymore.

I don't need the mall anymore.

And if you're a teen, don't

disrupt the mall.

Yeah, stop it, teens.

You're ruining everything.

That's why we can't have nice things.

And that's why we're leaving.

We're done.

We've had enough.

Thank you for listening and being part of the program.

We will talk to you again tomorrow.

I'm Brian Noonan.

This is Daybreak.

I'm Jamie Martins.

And thank you so much for joining us today.

This is the Civic Media Network.

Stephanie Miller is next.

Kathryn Lake

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