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Wisconsin wakes up here.
Back to Daybreak with Brian and JB.
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.
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.
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
it
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
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
care
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
care that you
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-
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
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.
719 right now.
Thank you for joining us today.
This is Civic Media Network.
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.
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.
for
So
That's
people.
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.
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
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.
or
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?
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.
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.
going to
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.
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.
was there one
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
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.
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.
Local voices and statewide impact.
It's Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.
we've got about seven minutes to, for this hour's word in our Accelerate Your Summer Text-to-Win Multi-Stake Contest.
You know the deal.
Every day we're giving away a hundred dollars in a Wisconsin does prize package and Anytime you enter you are in the drawing for the grand prize, which is two hundred and fifty dollars in gas another two hundred and fifty dollars in groceries this hours word is light Yes, LI ght light
L-I-G-H-T light.
You have until eight o'clock to text that word in using your Civic Media app.
Don't text our regular number.
We will not count it.
So use the Civic Media app, text light, L-I-G-H-T, and that's your chance to win.
Good luck.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
bit.
And when it comes down to backing up statements with factual evidence, it becomes more look it up.
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.
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.
This is the Civic Media Network.
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