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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.
We hope your Monday is off to a great start.
My name is Jamie Martinson.
And good morning.
I'm Brian Noonan.
It is time, not just for stuff you need to know, but it is time for the first word in our Accelerate Year Summer Text to Win Multistate Contest.
five more days giving you a chance to win $100 in a Wisconsin Dells prize pack multiple times a day plus every time you enter you are in the drawing for the grand prize of $250 in gas and $250 in groceries.
Great prizes you only have to do one thing Jamie.
Yes, it's super simple.
All you have to do is text us using your Civic Media app.
If you haven't already gotten that, please do so by going to your Google or your Apple Store, download it for free.
You're going to have until eight o'clock to get us this word and then multiple chances throughout the day to also qualify for all of the prizes that Brian laid out there quite nicely.
So without further ado, this hour's key word is light, L-I-G-H-T.
Light is the word that you need to text us right now before eight o'clock using your Civic Media app so that you can qualify for cash and prizes.
Light, L-I-G-H-T is the word that we need before eight o'clock this morning.
So good luck to everybody.
Yes, and we will repeat that throughout the hour and there are more words throughout the day, so continue listening to Civic Media and your Civic Media app.
All right, that's what you needed to know to get some prizes, but what else do you need to know?
It's a wake-up call in more ways than one.
Time for some sh** you need to know.
Yeah, that's true.
Hey, here's something you need to know.
La Crosse gets $2.4 million for affordable housing projects.
La Crosse received that $2.4 million in state and federal funding to help build two affordable housing projects.
that will create nearly 100 new housing units.
One project will transform the former Lincoln Middle School into the Heritage Lofts at Lincoln, creating 51 affordable apartments and community space after the school closed in 2023.
The second project, 7th Street Residences, will add 45 affordable units near the Green Island ice arena and provide housing options for working families and residents with moderate incomes.
City officials say the projects will help address
across his growing housing shortage and support workforce housing needs as employees struggle to find enough affordable places for workers to live.
A recent housing study found La Crosse County needs nearly 4900 additional housing units, including more than 2000 apartments affordable to lower wage workers.
Construction on the Lincoln School redevelopment is expected to begin in early 2027 with both projects scheduled to be completed in 2028.
We're hearing more and more about these affordable housing developments and that's great because just those numbers alone in La Crosse County
are terrifying, and then you magnify that by the rest of the state not having affordable housing.
And this is a problem that's not going away, but a little bit.
Little start.
That's how you got to get the first steps in.
So good for the cross.
Absolutely.
In other stuff you need to know this morning, President Trump abruptly ended a roughly 50-minute interview with NBC's Kristen Welker during his visit to Wisconsin, saying he had, quote, had enough and criticizing NBC as a one-sided crooked network.
The exchange became tense after Welker challenged Trump's claims about California primary elections, leading the president to remove his microphone and walk away from the interview.
Now this interview was conducted during rainy conditions in Chippewa Falls with both Trump and Welker later acknowledging whether an audio issues complicated the conversation.
Trump referenced the interview during his Wisconsin event telling the crowd he quote got a little bit angry with NBC but said they ultimately had a good time.
Welker later said she and Trump spoke the following day and agreed to do another interview in the future.
range of topics, including the economy, the Iran conflict and federal spending.
And NBC later published a fact check of several claims discussed during the conversation.
There's been video of that that circulated all over this weekend.
It's been shown several times across many, many news, uh, across many, many news agencies.
Uh, if you weren't able to see the full thing, uh, just go to your favorite.
I'm going to be honest.
I
sat down with a cup of coffee.
and you know at 9 30 the local news is over and then mass comes on so i flipped over to meet the press and uh i started to see i started to watch the interview and i was like i can't it's too early on a sunday yeah i can't listen to this i missed it
i
had
it
on and i missed it i missed his petulet little outburst what he oh and come on i i
bed critical of Kristen Walker privately well just to my wife on Sunday mornings yelling why doesn't she ask the harder quite why doesn't she follow up what she did and then he said she was stupid again he loves to call ladies stupid I don't ladies why do you still support this guy but anyway uh yes so he had a little temper tantrum and he stormed off the interview because finally somebody called him out yeah finally she was like there's no proof of of
you know, the election in California being fake.
There's no proof of this.
There's no, oh, he doesn't like that.
And he especially doesn't like it from women.
Yeah.
Man, oh man, I, this guy.
hate strong women
he does
nasty women
he does and
Brian they should know their place
they should keep their
mouth shut
and later this morning we're gonna actually do have a fun game of factor fiction based on the president's appearance in Chippewa Falls
on
Friday so
we'll
get into a little bit of that later this hour so join us for that as well
well
I read this whole story.
I was trying to figure out how to fit this into the show
because
it's fascinating.
A
new, new private property signs and a rope barrier along Lake Michigan near Lyons Den Gorge, nature preserve in Ozaki County are sparking debate over public access to Wisconsin shoreline.
Go and follow up on this story and read more man.
We'll probably
talk
about it more nearby property owners say the signs were installed because of ongoing problems with litter,
dog waste, trespassing, and people climbing unstable bluffs near their home.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is investigating and plans to determine the site's official ordinary high watermark, which helps determine where the public can legally walk along the shoreline.
And that's a very important part of this story.
The Ozaki County Sheriff's Office says people generally have the right to walk along the beach below the ordinary high watermark and advises
visitors to stay on wet sand or in the water to avoid trespassing concerns.
The dispute comes as separate Lake Michigan Beach Access, as a separate Lake Michigan Beach Access case in Shorewood, moves through the courts and could eventually reach the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
So I started reading this and I immediately thought, oh, these spoiled people who live on the lake.
What?
Oh, they don't want people walking along like.
Then I thought these
people who leave their dog waste and drop garbage and stuff, I hate them too.
Then I read more and I said, oh, okay, there is a law that says if you have a house on a bluff, your property does extend down to the natural high watermark.
So people could still theoretically, down the road, still walk along the water's edge, get your feet wet, enjoy the walk, but you couldn't go past a certain point.
Which makes sense because the other thing was some of the residents were saying yeah people are climbing these bluffs We're afraid somebody's gonna get hurt It's a liability issue because it technically is our property And we don't want to have to cover somebody falling off a bluff because they didn't obey the no trespassing signs So it is a complicated thing
but
I just I I came to the conclusion that these property owners have that right and it would not it would not as I thought
Initially, completely shut down that stretch of beach.
It would still be accessible.
You just have to, you know, apply your trade elsewhere and do me a favor.
I don't
care
where you are outside.
I don't care if you're in the parking structure next to the station.
Pick up your garbage, pigs.
I don't know why we still have to teach people to do this.
Because
people are dumb and they only think of themselves.
That's what it is.
Yes.
We want to get into this story as well because this is going to affect a lot of people.
This is our big story.
If you or somebody you know uses the WIC benefits, you're going to want to pay attention to this because the US House has approved a new federal spending bill that would actually reduce funding
for the WIC program by about $200 million.
Now, of course, if you're not familiar, WIC provides food assistance and nutrition support to pregnant women, new mothers, infants, and children up to the age of five.
This particular proposal, Brian, would actually reduce monthly fruit and vegetable benefits for participants.
Benefits for breastfeeding mothers could drop from about $52 per month to $13, while benefits for young children could fall from $26 to $10 per month.
About 5.4 million people across the country actually receive WIC benefits, and it helps people purchase healthy foods like fruits and vegetables, milk, eggs, cereal, infant formula, kind of important if you have an infant in the house, whole grains and other approved items.
I
mean, before you go on,
can
I clarify something?
The House run by Republicans, they are the party that's telling people we need to have more kids, right?
And that even have kids you can't afford, which
they're
trying to make more possible because they're cutting funds.
So these are the people, they care and correct me again.
They care about people if they're unborn, they care about children.
But once you're born, you don't need to eat healthy.
and you don't need to get meals in school.
So
it's only until you actually are outside your mother's body
that you're
important.
Once you hit the streets, you're a burden.
Apparently so, and we want to make sure that when that happens that you don't have the support that you need or the healthy foods or the medical
care that you
actually need.
But in case you're wondering, WIC actually differs from SNAP or food stamps because those benefits can only be used on specific foods that meet federal nutrition standards designed for pregnant women, babies, and young children.
Now, in case you're wondering how this impacts Wisconsin.
The WIC program serves more than 142,500 women, infants, and young children each year with roughly 106,000 people receiving benefits in this state alone.
That is 38% of all babies born in Wisconsin and more than a quarter of children under the age of five statewide are using the WIC benefits.
Overall, it serves about 54% of the eligible population.
And here's the other thing that people in this
state need to remember that this is an urban, a rural area.
This is a program that benefits all of them.
The biggest users of WIC in the state of Wisconsin are white women who live in Milwaukee, Madison, and Marathon counties.
This is-
Say that again, would you?
Yes.
So the biggest portion of WIC recipients in this state goes to Milwaukee, Madison, and Marathon counties.
That can't be right.
It is.
I did
the research.
I know, but it goes
against everything.
So not only would this cut nutrition, it's going to also force states to create waiting lists or limit enrollment if available funding is not enough.
Health experts also say that WIC is as a preventative program that improves birth outcomes, child nutrition, and long-term health.
Every dollar invested in WIC generates an estimated $2.
48 cents in future savings through lower health care and social
service.
But again, short, short term vision, short term, we're cutting this, we're cutting this.
We don't pay attention to long term, because the people, a lot of the people making these decisions are not going to be here in the long term.
It's
just
It's just time.
It's just fact.
I mean, the whole thing is, is this is a program that is supposed to help and benefit mothers so that they can stay healthy.
They can get the assistance that they need.
They can buy the fruits, the vegetables, the supplements, and potentially even the baby formula, which again, kind of important if you have a child in the house to make sure that they're healthy.
Oh my goodness.
Yes, it's...
It's tough.
Man, it's a very happy Monday here.
We're going to play swipe or stay next.
I'm Brian Noonan.
This is Daybreak.
I'm Jamie Martenson,
719 right now.
Thank you for joining us today.
This is Civic Media Network.
22 right now.
It is time for Swipe Horse Day.
This is where we put the politics aside for a few moments with our senior producer, Frank, and we get more into the pop culture.
How's it going today?
It's going good.
We've got some interesting stories to say the least for today.
All right.
We're ready.
We're ready.
All right, here's how it's going to work.
If you're new to swipe or say, I'm going to read some pop culture headlines.
Brian and Jamie are going to have to decide whether to stay and hear more or swipe on to the next one.
Parker gets to be the tiebreaker if it comes down to that.
So let's get moving to story number one.
Country star has another on stage outburst.
I'm going to pass.
It's got to be Morgan Welling because he's.
Human
Morgan Whalen.
Morgan
Whalen.
He's skibbity.
That's
named Morgan Whalen.
Let's
swipe on this one.
Swipe
it.
Swipe.
TV star apologizes for resurfaced photo.
Oh, what could it be?
I'm staying.
I'll stay.
Parker, do we have the photo ready, by the way?
Oh, boy.
We've got it ready, Frank.
OK.
Oh,
what's happening here?
Wow.
Heated rivalry may be the most popular and successful shows of the year.
However, one of its stars is dealing with something from his past.
Hudson Williams is apologizing for this resurface photo with a, if you look in the top left corner of his forehead, there is a swastika.
Oh, I was just looking at the upside down cross, Satan.
But yes, I do see the
swastika.
Yes, I see it.
Oh my gosh.
Now Ryan Reynolds at first
As with everything context is important.
Yes, please Okay,
hold on.
I am what happened was he fell asleep and other Intoxicated teens drew all over him.
Oh, they were being funny,
okay?
And you're a swastika on these
other teens then and why why would they
think that's pixelated
honeys?
I mean, probably just some dumb college friends, sources close to Hudson described the incident as a group of underage kids doing dumb things
while
under the influence, adding that the behavior was completely inexcusable.
How do you handle this one?
You let it
go.
I
think you try not to draw any more attention to this one, right?
Yeah,
get it draw attention.
I
got it completely unintended.
I'm not that clever this morning, but
very nicely done Well, it's a permanent mark on his record Frank.
That's all
I'll say about that.
Yeah, it's
Any more puns before we move let's
not put a final point on this story
All right celebrities court side seat is going up for auction
I'll stay.
All right, I'll stay.
Because I know the sportsman's.
All right, so you're probably thinking that something like Spike Lee's auctioning up his seat to like one of the next games or something of that nature, right?
Never
happened.
Yeah, but
it would never happen.
And it's not happening because this isn't a seat to a game.
Oh, OK.
Seat you get to rub my booty.
Taylor Swift's seat that she sat in for the Eastern Conference Finals game a couple weeks ago is currently up for auction.
That's right.
It can be yours Parker.
No.
Stop.
How one, stop.
It's a chair.
It's a folding chair.
I could have put it in the cross-site
seat.
It's
a folding
chair.
No one
cares about Travis' chair.
He's just a football player.
Frank, let me ask this.
He's just Ken.
Is there some sort of is there some sort of lingering mark or I
say or how I don't know
if chair.
Wow.
I here's what we have from the auction.
We have
let's
as one of the most recognized and influential artists of her generation.
The occupant of this chair has earned worldwide acclaim through a career defined by commercial success, critical recognition and multiple Grammy Award victories.
Her
attendance reflects the cultural reach of the NBA playoffs and the significance of the Eastern Conference Finals as one of the most visible events in sports.
What
is the
starting bid on this?
Do we know?
The starting bid was $100.
Do
we know what it's
up to?
Is it
right now?
We do.
Do we have any guesses?
7,300.
Oh,
much.
I'm going to
say like 12,000.
Parker I think much higher.
I think this is gonna be like 40,000 at least it is Brian was closest.
He still went over Six
dollars right
now, okay?
$6,000 right now, but the auction doesn't end until June 14th, so we'll keep an eye on
this cow
I
Yeah,
for anybody like even let's say you're a billionaire.
Maybe if I was a billionaire and just had money to throw around, I would as like a
joke
piece.
But like, do you walk people through your house and be
like,
do you see what this is?
That's so weird.
And you know, somebody from like New York bought this.
Of course.
What is this?
It's a cab seat.
Taylor Swift sat in it.
Are you
sure?
Well, here's the certificate.
I mean, it's very strange.
Stop it.
It's very strange.
I don't understand
our obsession
with
culture.
If I have the money to buy this, I'm buying something cooler than a chair she sat
in.
Yeah, not some.
No.
No, that's
weird.
Unless she
was really sweaty and there's like a shrod of Turin situation going on there.
Can you buy
it?
No, but I don't
understand it a little
more.
This is weird.
All right, Decker,
we
got time for a quick
one, Frank.
Quick one.
Do we have a quick one?
Buffalo Wild Wings is being roasted online for a tweet relating to the NBA Finals.
If you watch game one, there was a fan that ran on the court to take a selfie with Victor Wemenyama and was rushed off the court.
He resulted in being banned from all NBA stadium stadiums
for
life.
Buffalo Wild Wings tweeted out, Internet, help us find this band fan.
He can watch the rest of the NBA Finals.
on us, because that's great.
Let's encourage that behavior.
So
they're taking L's left and right.
That's
Swiper's say,
people.
I'm saying for the next segment,
we
have factor fiction coming up.
Fantastic.
This is
daybreak.
I know, you guys get me for two whole segments of the ride.
It's very
exciting stuff.
It's extremely exciting, so much so that I even trimmed up a little bit last night because I noticed that from the last game we played, the lieutenant governor of the state shared one of our clips and it happened to be my face talking on her Instagram story and I looked like a homeless person, no offense to them, just saying I wasn't shaven.
Well, listen, it's early in the morning.
We are not expected to be fashion.
I'm not used to being on camera.
This is
radio.
That's what we got into this for.
Before we get into factor fiction, though, let's quickly give out our acceleration summer text to win multi-state word again.
This is your chance to win $100 and Wisconsin Dells Prize package.
This is part of the daily giveaway, plus then every entry puts you into our grand prize drawing for $250 in gas and another two
$250 in groceries.
The key word this hour, light, L-I-G-H-T.
You gotta text us using your Civic Media app.
Again, that word is light, L-I-G-H-T.
This is gonna be for one of many opportunities to enter and qualify throughout today and this week, but light, L-I-G-H-T.
So good luck to everybody.
All right, no
further ado.
All right Frank, what do you got?
All right, so as you all know,
President Trump was in Chippewa Falls this weekend.
Yes, he was.
To speak about agriculture to the farmers.
And I was given the greatest task of all time, which is to watch the whole thing and come up with a factor fiction game, which we love playing on here.
It's the greatest radio game of all time.
It is.
It
is.
True.
And you're a good human being,
Frank.
I, you
know,
I really am.
This is my burden to bear.
So here's how it's going to work.
I'm going to play some clips from President Trump's speech
in
Wisconsin.
Brian and Jamie have to decide whether it is fact
or
if it's fiction.
Here we go.
You ready?
We're ready.
And we've had great success here in Wisconsin and we brought a lot of business to Wisconsin.
We recommend it.
I love the place.
Fiction did President Trump bring a lot of business to Wisconsin
That is fiction That's what I'm going with
Brian going with fiction fiction
fiction
pure fiction it is fiction, so Let's dive into this.
Yes, the biggest example We can look at is from the first Trump administration with Foxconn.
We remember
Foxconn.
I do remember Foxconn.
Yes, I pee
In 2017, the announcement promised a roughly $10 billion LCD factory in up to 13,000 jobs in southeastern Wisconsin.
They signed a revised incentive deal outlining a $672 million investment from Foxconn, creating fewer than 1500 jobs.
Trump has promised more investments in his latest term, but
If it's anything like Foxconn, we cannot count any of those as fact just yet.
Remember during the State of the Union address when he was talking about all the investments that we have?
Yes.
Yes.
And he inflated his own number, and the White House said it's actually 9.7 trillion, and I think he doubled it in his speech.
So we're going with fiction for this one.
OK,
there's nothing sadder either than driving by the Foxconn building and seeing like two cars parked outside of it on a Wednesday afternoon at 1 PM.
If you're in the vicinity sometime, go do it, and that's about all you're going to see outside the building.
It is a very sad sight.
All right moving on to number two
and we've had great success here in Wisconsin and we brought
a lot of Sorry, that's number one.
We're at a
point We're gonna come out of Iran very quickly and it's gonna be very strong one way the other whether it's a piece of paper or the Very tough way.
Okay.
The very tough ways may be the easier way, but we're gonna come out and your fertilizer prices are gonna go way down
Just like they were four months ago, your fertilizer is down, your energy is down, your oil, your gas is all coming way down.
All right, so the question is, are gas, there's a lot there, I know.
There's
a lot in that
one.
Some of these I have to, there's some of these I extend just a little bit because this really is how the dots get connected.
Sure.
Is the hard ways the easy way?
Okay.
The hard way is the easy way.
Okay.
Gas and fertilizer prices will come way back down as soon as the conflict with Iran ends.
Fiction.
Fiction.
Fiction.
That's the fact.
Oh,
OK.
As soon as soon.
Hold on.
Hold on.
This one gets tricky.
OK.
Look, none of these are really black and white for factor fiction.
So if the US and Iran reach a lasting peace and shipping through the.
The straight
of
four moves returns to normal.
Gas and fertilizer prices will come down.
That is a fact.
OK.
Gasoline prices could respond within weeks.
While fertilizer prices may take longer because global inventories and supply chains need time to recover.
There's also a very real possibility that gas prices will not come down to pre-war levels anytime soon, if at all.
So it's mostly fact.
If you're just looking at prices are going to come down, yes, that's a fact.
Are they going to immediately drop?
No.
No.
No.
But that's just part of the allure, right?
By telling people the half truths, then it seems like you're telling them the truth or you're not actually fudging the actual facts of what's
going to
happen.
That that's been part of the ammo of this particular administration since the first version.
If you say partially true things, then it seems like it's all true.
And that's why you listen to Daybreak.
That's right.
You know, producer Frank's going to watch it for you and do the fact-checking.
That way you can just kind of turn your brain off.
That's right.
And hear me spout about it.
All right.
What do you got
next, Spouty?
Here's what we've got.
If you're just tuning in, we are playing fact or fiction.
We are fact-checking President Trump's speech from Wisconsin this past weekend.
We had the worst border, maybe anywhere in the world.
There was no border.
25 million people came in.
Drug dealers came in.
People from mental institutions came in.
Murders came in.
11,888 murders, most of whom, over 50% of whom, killed.
Can you believe this?
More than one person.
One killed seven people.
We allowed them into our country.
We've got them largely.
They're going out and they're going out fast.
We have to fight crooked judges, crooked administrations, crooked politicians.
Wow.
That was a stream of consciousness.
Man.
Fiction.
I'm going to say fiction.
Pure fiction.
You know what's fun about some of these?
It's the same speech recycled over and over.
Like some of these, like especially for the immigration thing, I feel like I looked at my old script.
Yeah.
copied and pasted that section.
Backup.
All
over again.
Truly.
All right.
As for people entering the country.
U.S.
Customs and Border Protection recorded about 11 million border encounters during Biden's term, but that does not mean 11 million different people entered the country illegally.
That is far from the 25 million quoted by President Trump in the clip you just heard.
The true number of unique individuals who entered unlawfully is not known.
As for murderers, and I want this to be very clear.
The FBI's national crime data does not systematically track the immigration status of homicide offenders.
Does not track it.
So there is no official federal count of murders committed by undocumented immigrants between January 2021 and January 2025.
What about the mental patient?
We got
to
track our mental patients coming in.
Do you have that number?
Because a lot of them I hear the mental institutions are just emptied out.
That's
that's right here.
I'm not
in Mexico or empty now.
I am not seeing the data to support that.
Okay.
All right.
All right fiction fiction it is
We are going with fiction.
Let's see.
What was that number three?
Mm-hmm All right moving on to number four
I inherited all these high prices they came in and they said affordability
They made up the word, because that's the only thing they're good at, although I'm good at making up words.
They go, affordability.
I
was there one
day, and I called this young lady right over here, Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture.
I said, Brooke, get the egg prices down please.
And she got them down.
And by the way, speaking of Tom Tiffany is one of the best congressmen in our country.
Yes, that is exact.
I did not edit that portion.
That is the train of thought that rolled on to the next
one.
Okay.
Can I vote
more
than once
on one
thing?
You know what?
I'm gonna
allow it.
Can I go fiction squared?
You may
go
fiction
squared.
I
may go fiction cube down that one.
I'm gonna go cube
if I might.
Fiction.
Pure fiction.
It is fiction.
All of it is pure fiction.
Let's break this down.
So about the egg prices, do we remember when eggs were like $11?
Yeah, you
know
what I remember about that?
I remember a huge problem with a chicken disease.
It was going around
and
millions and millions of chickens had to be killed because they were spreading disease.
Yes, and it was infecting chicken farms across the country.
Yes.
Wisconsin had millions of stories about millions of
chickens.
Yes.
Yes.
OK, go
ahead, Frank.
I'm sorry.
I'm just baffled.
I
didn't have an avian flu outbreak.
I love watching Brian during the clips.
I think that's more fun than the actual game.
Here's an interesting note.
Brooke Rollins increased the import of eggs to counteract the avian flu outbreak.
However, one, it wasn't fixed overnight.
Two, the the avian flu was not.
fault of any president or any president's term.
It just
happened.
Thanks, Biden.
So no, you don't really get points for that one.
And you don't need me to rattle off X to tell you that affordability isn't a made up word or a hope.
It's affecting all of us at the grocery store.
at the gas pump and it affects some of us.
Let's say if you were over the age of 30 and you've never owned a home before and you're probably not going to any time soon.
That's affordability.
When it comes to things like the tariff decisions and the invasion of Iran, those two things can be blamed for a lot of these costs.
Not all of them, but most of them, especially when you're looking at the gas pump and you're going to the store to buy things.
What about the top Tiffany part?
I guess
that's a matter of opinion.
That's
a matter of opinion.
I just kept it in there because I thought it was interesting that we went from eggs directly to Tom Tiffany just like that.
Yeah.
Because he's too chicken to vote against Trump.
Anyway, that's me.
I apologize.
I'm out of line.
All right.
Moving on.
I think we got time at least for one more, right?
At least.
A little over a
minute.
And your 401ks, who has a 401k here?
Let me just say a lot.
Your 401ks, as you know, just hit a record high.
So that's everybody.
The thousand five hundred five thousand.
Fiction.
That one's hard because I'm going to say that
one's I'm going to say it's a fact because that's all he cares about is and he's manipulated the market enough.
I'm going to say fact on that one.
I'll say fiction just because it's a fact.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It is a fact.
I am insightful.
The Delany reported that the average 401k balance reached a record $146,400 at the end of 2025.
That's up 11.2% from a year earlier.
However, there was pullback in early 2026.
And we'll leave it at that.
Wow.
That was factor fiction, guys.
Thank you, Frank.
So much
fun.
So much
fun, Frank.
Thank you.
We're going to talk to James Kelly.
We talked to him the other day.
He was in the Chippewa Valley for the president's visit.
We'll get his thoughts on what was going on up there and some protests.
I'm Brian Noonan.
This is Daybreak.
I'm Jamie Martin, and you're listening to the Civic Media Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
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Glad you are here.
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Well, we were just, as you were listening, hopefully, to a factor fiction.
We know the president was in Chippewa, the Chippewa Valley on Friday.
He was having a round table.
He was talking to farmers.
There was...
There were people in in the crowd there were people protesting a ways away and there were people covering the story like James Kelly senior radio journalist at Civic Media for WCFW and WSCM in Eau Claire Chippewa Falls We talked to James right before this event and he is said he would come back and he did
James.
Thanks for being here
uh crazy day up in the Chippewa Valley on Friday um the heart of the third congressional district and you had a chance first of all what was the mood up there and you had a chance to talk to a lot of the candidates in the third congressional district tell us why that district is is important and what they had to say regarding the president's visit
well i think the best way to kind of say it would be how
candidate for third congressional district Emily Berge said it and that this is a swing district in a swing state and there is a lot of power here in the third congressional district to kind of direct how the rest of the state is going to go and how the rest of the country is going to go in the house of representatives just because of you know how competitive this district is and you know if this is a district that swings towards the blue side it's a pretty safe bet that a lot of other swing districts are going to be doing the same.
And obviously, Republicans agreeing with the fact that the Third District is such a priority.
Can you explain to us a little bit about why this district is so important politically, both for Wisconsin and nationally, and kind of the makeup of the Third District?
Yeah, well, as you know, we have a pretty interesting map of the Third Congressional District, a little bit of a U-shaped there.
So it is a pretty...
interesting district that has a lot of farms in it, and it does have a couple cities, La Crosse, Eau Claire, and that's really where most of the Democratic votes come from, but there's a lot of farmland in there too.
Now,
the
big problem is that over the last year, a lot of farmers have had...
difficulties with tariffs, selling their things off and getting the fertilizers they need.
And I always think it's one thing to say that they're struggling.
It's another thing to say, imagine having to fill a 300 gallon combine with diesel fuel at almost $6 a gallon.
That makes a huge difference for you.
So there's a lot of, I would say, anger, honestly, of farmers who have previously voted Republican and wanted this America first agenda.
It's just not what they've gotten really.
So James, speaking of that, there were some protests going on.
They were about a mile away from where the president was.
What were you hearing?
What were the big messages coming out of these protests?
Yeah, a lot of it was about the farmers and the war in Iran and gas prices.
That's definitely the major issues right now.
But a lot of these individuals who are protesting have also been out and about in the Chippewa Valley community protesting before, you know, no kings.
There's a lot of leftover signs from those that people keep breaking out.
And, you know, it seems almost like these people aren't forgetting any of the issues that have brought them out to protest before.
They're only adding to the list.
So the protests are getting a bit bigger.
There was about 300 protesters
at
the airport when Air Force One was
landing.
Probably a little over 150 outside the roundtable discussion as well.
There were some Trump supporters as well at the airport just there to kind of watch the plane land, not really there to protest anything, just kind of excited to catch a glimpse of the president.
And there wasn't too much of a back and forth between those protests, which was good to see.
We're talking with James Kelly.
He's a senior radio journalist for WCFW and WSCM in Eau Claire and the Chippewa Falls.
Obviously criticism from the protesters, from the people who were in support of the president, maybe going to the roundtable discussion.
What kind of support does he still have in that area and what are they still most pleased with this president about if you were hearing from any of them?
Oh, that's kind of tough to narrow down sometimes.
A lot of times it's just we love President Trump.
President Trump does what we want.
And a lot of times these people are focused on, you know, Medicaid, claiming Medicaid scams and elections being rigged and all that.
They want to go back and forth with
it a little
bit.
And when it comes down to backing up statements with factual evidence, it becomes more look it up.
Yeah.
I wanted to get your response, James, as a journalist.
You've covered the news.
If you happen to see Kristen Welker's interview yesterday and a lot of people saying it's about time that a journalist spoke up to the president and called him out on this, just on a personal level, what's your thoughts on that exchange?
Yeah, I did see it.
It was definitely an interesting exchange and it was nice to see, you know, somebody kind of demand that evidence, those facts.
That's not something that happens very often, but this is also a conversation that I have with a lot of other lawmakers who, you know, when they're speaking on these policies and speaking on what's being said about these policies and what reality is,
A lot of times they note, like, I mean, how are we supposed to really cover this?
You know, something new and interesting and important is happening pretty much every day, and it's impossible to kind of keep up that pace on everything, every single day, and it just starts to become a little normalized.
Is it going to be a quieter week for you in the Chippewa Falls area this week, James?
Oh, I hope not.
I like the things
happening.
Okay, good,
good.
We like to
hear that.
Well, we're always happy to have you.
James Kelly, senior radio journalist at Civic Media for WCFW and WSCM in the Eau Claire Chippewa Falls area.
James, thanks a lot.
We appreciate it.
Always look forward to talking to you.
When we come back, there is so much more.
This is Daybreak.
I'm Brian Noonan.
I'm Jamie Martenson.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
This is the Civic Media Network.
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