Wisconsin

From the Article:

Gov. Tony Evers signed two bills, now 2023 Wisconsin Act 92 and 2023 Wisconsin Act 93, on Friday that will release long-awaited pay raises to employees of the University of Wisconsin System.

The 4% raises for about 35,000 UW employees were included in the 2023-24 budget that was passed by the Republican-led Legislature and signed by Evers. However, they were held up last year by Republican lawmakers on the Joint Committee on Employment Relations (JCOER) as Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) decided to use the raises as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the UW System over diversity, equity and inclusion issues as well as funding.

The UW System and Republicans came to a deal in December 2023 under which lawmakers agreed to finally release the pay raises and fund some infrastructure projects for the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Wisconsin schools, while the System agreed to freeze DEI hiring and realign some positions.

“All our UW faculty, staff, and workers should be treated with dignity and respect,” Evers said in a statement about signing the raises. “While I’m glad these well-deserved pay increases will finally be in the hands of the UW building trades employees who’ve earned them, these workers never should have had their wages held up for political games in the first place.”

The actions by Republican lawmakers regarding the pay raises also became one of the subjects of a lawsuit filed by Evers in October 2023. In the ongoing lawsuit, Evers argues that the actions by lawmakers constitute “legislative vetoes” that are “unconstitutional and unlawful.”

“Republicans’ obstruction of basic functions of government have harmed tens of thousands of people across our state — folks, that’s wrong,” Evers said in his statement. “Wisconsinites expect government to work for them, not against them, and for elected officials to do their jobs and get things done. I will continue to fight every effort by Republicans in the Legislature to unconstitutionally and unlawfully obstruct our administration from doing the right thing for Wisconsin.”

From the Article:

Two consultants hired by the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority said redistricting plans submitted by the Republican-controlled Legislature do “not deserve further consideration” by justices as part of an ongoing lawsuit over the state’s political maps.

Their report on six map proposals said plans submitted by Gov. Tony Evers, Democrats and academics are “tilted toward the Republicans” but are competitive enough that “the party that wins the most votes will win the most seats.”

The findings, released to the court Thursday night, struck at the heart of an argument long used by Republicans that Wisconsin’s “political geography” favors their party because Democrats are generally clustered in larger cities. Wisconsin’s current legislative maps, first drawn by Republicans in 2011 and redrawn in 2021, have helped the GOP cement lopsided majorities in the Assembly and Senate, even in years when Democratic candidates performed well statewide.

But University of California, Irvine political scientist Bernard Grofman and Carnegie Mellon University political scientist Jonathan Cervas told the court that the maps submitted to the court contradicted that claim.

“To put it simply, in Wisconsin, geography is not destiny,” they wrote.

The report argues map proposals from every party except the Legislature and voters represented by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty are able to “improve on traditional good government criteria compared to the current map and manage to create plans with modest levels of partisan bias.”

Also, the consultants wrote, the Legislature’s plan and the plan submitted by WILL “are partisan gerrymanders” from a social science perspective.

The other four plans, the report said, are similar on most criteria, and more competitive than the GOP maps. The consultants did not endorse a specific map but told the court they were prepared to improve map proposals if justices choose.

Shortly after the report was released, Evers called it an important step in the process for finding new maps.

“The days of Wisconsinites living under some of the most gerrymandered maps in the country are numbered,” Evers said.

From the Article:

A Dane County judge has ordered the Wisconsin Elections Commission to create new rules that allow local clerks to accept absentee ballots with missing witness address information.

The move could lead to more votes being counted in this year’s elections compared to in 2022. An attorney for the Republican-controlled state Legislature plans to appeal the ruling.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Ryan Nilsestuen issued the ruling as part of a permanent injunction Tuesday. The order requires the commission to rescind guidance it sent to clerks in September stating the agency could no longer advise clerks on whether or not to accept absentee ballots with incomplete address information written on ballot envelopes by a voter’s witness.

In it’s place, Nilsestuen’s order requires the commission to notify clerks that ballots cannot be rejected if witness addresses are missing things like a ZIP code or municipality. It also states that witness addresses marked “same as voter” or “ditto” must be accepted if that person lives at the same residence as the voter.

“The right to vote is one of our most important, if not the most important, right,” Nilsestuen said. “And this furthers that.”

The injunction wasn’t unexpected. On Jan. 3, Nislestuen, a former chief legal counsel for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, issued preliminary rulings on the witness address issue in cases brought by the League of Women Voters and the national youth organizing group Rise, Inc. At that time, he said rejecting absentee ballots due to incomplete witness addresses violates the federal Civil Rights act of 1964 and that the definition of an address should mean “a place where the witness can be communicated with.”

From the Article:

Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday vetoed a redistricting proposal that the Republican-controlled Legislature passed last week in a last-ditch effort to avert the drawing of legislative boundaries by the state Supreme Court.

The veto came a day after five of Wisconsin’s Republican members of Congress, along with the GOP-controlled Legislature, asked the newest liberal member of the state Supreme Court not to hear a lawsuit that seeks to redraw congressional district maps ahead of the November election.

The political stakes in both cases are huge for both sides in the presidential battleground state, where Republicans have had a firm grip on the Legislature since 2011 even as Democrats have won statewide elections, including for governor in 2018 and 2022.

Evers had promised to veto the GOP legislative-district proposal, which largely mirrored maps he had proposed, but with changes that would reduce the number of GOP incumbents in the state Senate and Assembly who would have to face one another in November.

Evers said he vetoed the maps because they are “more of the same.”

“Republicans passed maps to help make sure Republican-gerrymandered incumbents get to keep their seats,” he said in a statement. “Folks, that’s just more gerrymandering.”

Republicans don’t have enough votes in the Legislature to override the veto.

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos accused Evers of trusting the Wisconsin Supreme Court “to give him even more partisan, gerrymandered maps for Democrats.” And Republican Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said in a statement that Evers is confident the court “will trample the constitutional authority of the legislature.”

The liberal-controlled state Supreme Court last month tossed the current Republican-drawn legislative maps as unconstitutional. The court said it would draw new maps unless the Legislature and Evers agreed to ones first.

They could not agree.

The Legislature raced to pass maps ahead of Thursday’s deadline for consultants hired by the Wisconsin Supreme Court to submit their recommendations for new boundary lines. They were reviewing six maps submitted separately by Evers, Republicans, Democrats and others. They could recommend one of those maps, or their own. It will then be up to the liberal-controlled court to order the maps.

The legislative machinations in Wisconsin come as litigation continues in more than dozen states over U.S. House and state legislative districts that were enacted after the 2020 census. National Democrats last week asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take up a challenge to the state’s congressional districts, but the court has yet to decide whether to take the case.

That lawsuit argues that decision last month ordering new state legislative maps opens the door to the latest challenge focused on congressional lines.

Republicans asked in that legislative-district case for Justice Janet Protasiewicz to recuse herself, based on comments she made during her campaign calling the maps “rigged” and “unfair.” She refused to step aside and was part of the 4-3 majority in December that ordered new maps.

Now Republicans are making similar arguments in calling for her to not hear the congressional redistricting challenge. In a motion filed Monday, they argued that her comments critical of the Republican maps require her to step aside in order to avoid a due process violation of the U.S. Constitution. They also cite the nearly $10 million her campaign received from the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

“A justice cannot decide a case she has prejudged or when her participation otherwise creates a serious risk of actual bias," Republicans argued in the motion. “Justice Protasiewicz’s public campaign statements establish a constitutionally intolerable risk that she has prejudged the merits of this case.”

Protasiewicz rejected similar arguments in the state legislative map redistricting case, saying in October that the law did not require her to step down from that case.

“Recusal decisions are controlled by the law,” Protasiewicz wrote then. “They are not a matter of personal preference. If precedent requires it, I must recuse. But if precedent does not warrant recusal, my oath binds me to participate.”

Those seeking her recusal in the congressional redistricting case are the GOP-controlled Wisconsin Legislature and Republican U.S. Reps. Scott Fitzgerald, Glenn Grothman, Mike Gallagher, Bryan Steil and Tom Tiffany.

The only Republican not involved in the lawsuit is U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who represents western Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District. His is one of only two congressional districts in Wisconsin seen as competitive.

The current congressional maps in Wisconsin were drawn by Evers and approved by the state Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court in March 2022 declined to block them from taking effect.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is under an extremely tight deadline to consider the challenge. State elections officials have said that new maps must be in place by March 15 in order for candidates and elections officials to adequately prepare for the Aug. 13 primary. Candidates can start circulating nomination papers on April 15.

The lawsuit argues that there is time for the court to accept map submissions and select one to be in place for the November election.

From the Article:

Remote work has declined in Wisconsin after spiking during the COVID-19 pandemic, but office vacancies remain elevated in the state’s largest city and its suburbs.

From 2021 to 2022, the state saw an 11 percent decrease in the number of people working remotely, from 437,295 to 387,700, according to a recent study from LLC.org.

Both Madison and Milwaukee have seen about a 20 percent decline in the number of people working from home, according to the report. Madison’s remote workforce declined by 22 percent from 40,253 to 31,385 people. Milwaukee’s has declined by 19 percent from 40,265 to 32,627.

Despite the decrease, remote work nationally remains higher than it was before the pandemic. In September 2023, the average U.S. worker reported spending 3.8 days each month doing their job remotely, down from 5.8 days in 2020 but up from 2.4 days in 2019, according to Gallup.

As of 2023, Forbes reported that 12.7 percent of full-time employees worked from home, while 28.2 percent worked a hybrid model.

Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce President Zach Brandon said the decline in remote workers noted in the LLC.org report isn’t surprising, but he doesn’t expect remote work to return to pre-pandemic levels anytime soon.

“It will continue to be higher than it was pre-pandemic but never be what it was during the pandemic,” Brandon said. “You’re going to continue to see businesses and governments sort out what works and what doesn’t work.”

While remote work has decreased in Wisconsin, it hasn’t necessarily led to offices brimming with activity in the greater Milwaukee area.

From the final three months of 2021 to the same period in 2022, office vacancies in southeast Wisconsin increased slightly from 15.3 percent to 15.8 percent, according to reports from the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin. By the end of 2023, office vacancies in southeast Wisconsin increased to 17.7 percent.

Tracy Johnson, president and CEO for the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin, said generally smaller offices are faring better in the market than larger office spaces.

“A lot of it has to do with the fact that people are just rethinking the way that they use their space,” she said. “You’ve got the hybrid model that, I think, is very pervasive.”

While office vacancies haven’t recovered, Brandon said offices are important to local economies because their workers help support surrounding businesses.

“Offices have amenities around them, (and) those amenities are struggling,” he said. “It’s not uncommon to see places that used to be open for lunch seven days a week (that) are not open for lunch every day of the week anymore, if they’re open for lunch at all.”

Johnson and Brandon said offices also provide an important social space for workers to build a sense of camaraderie. In a virtual work environment, they said it’s harder for coworkers to forge friendships, creating a feeling of isolation.

“We may not have water coolers per se anymore in offices, but the concept of the water cooler is real,” Brandon said.

A 2023 survey from the Society for Human Resource Management found that U.S. workers who have close work friends are more likely to say they’re satisfied with their job than those without close friends at work. And 80 percent of employees with close friends at work say they feel a strong sense of belonging to their organization.

“It’s good for their mental health, I think people feel very isolated,” Johnson said. “When you feel disconnected, I think that contributes to your ability to create trust, and also create innovation.”

From the Article:

Wisconsin’s budget surplus will be less than what was projected six months ago.

The state is predicted to have a surplus of $3.25 billion by the end of the current budget cycle, according to a new estimate of the state’s general fund from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

That’s nearly $800,000 less than what was projected when the current budget was signed last June.

Jason Stein, research director at the Wisconsin Policy Forum, said the surplus is still large enough to give lawmakers and the governor some options. Republicans have called for more tax cuts, while Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has proposed new spending.

“The state’s extremely bright financial picture dimmed a little bit,” Stein said. “On the whole things are still very strong with regard to state finances, but there was a little bit of a weakening compared to where we thought things were at six months ago.”

The state is projected to collect less tax revenue while spending has increased. The fiscal bureau is now expecting the state will collect $422 million less than previously expected from both individuals and corporations.

This estimate from the bureau included spending that has passed since June, as well as bills currently working their way through the legislature. That includes $423 million for building projects on University of Wisconsin system campuses and other items.

Republican leaders said the new estimates show there is still enough of a surplus to deliver more tax cuts.

“These estimates are consistent with what we expected when we crafted our budget. We created a responsible budget that protects taxpayer resources, while making important investments in our state,” Sen. Howard Marklein and Rep. Mark Born wrote in a statement. “With over $3 billion in the bank and $1.8 billion in the state’s rainy day fund, it is critical for us to return a portion of these funds to the people of Wisconsin.”

Earlier this week, Republicans called for tax cuts that would total $2.1 billion during this budget cycle and $1.4 billion every year after that.

“There’s a lot of room to do one-time spending increases or one-time tax rebates and there is less, but still significant room, to do ongoing spending increases or ongoing tax cuts,” Stein said.

Stein said state revenues grew very rapidly during and immediately after the pandemic.

“They’re not (growing) now, and there’s no real prospect for them doing that in the near future, absent some sort of tax increase by the state,” he said.

When asked for a response to the revised estimate, a spokesperson for Evers pointed to this week’s State of the State address.

In that speech, Evers called for funding a variety of programs, including child care, expanded Medicaid coverage for new mothers and investing in education.

From the Article:

A pair of Wisconsin Republicans want to give the Universities of Wisconsin $500,000 a year to ensure conservative voices on public campuses are heard.

Rep. Scott Johnson, R-Jefferson, and Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Appleton, are proposing a bill that would fund the university system’s free speech office, the Wisconsin Institute of Citizenship and Civil Dialogue.

The bill proposal says the Wisconsin Institute of Citizenship and Civil Dialogue was not adequately funded when it was created.

The Wisconsin Institute for Citizenship and Civil Dialogue was created in November 2022 by UW System President Jay Rothman in conjunction with a student free speech survey. The UW system spent $250,000 on the center in its first year, according to a university spokesperson.

At the time, Rothman said it was an extension of UW-Madison’s “It’s Just Coffee” program that brought students from different backgrounds together to discuss politics, religion and economics in a non-threatening environment.

The survey of more than 10,000 Universities of Wisconsin undergraduate students found stark differences in opinion on free speech when broken down by political affiliation, gender and race.

From the Article:

Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate cited decisions by a utility regulator that have made it easier for some customers to afford their utility bills and install rooftop solar projects among the reasons for firing him this week.

On Tuesday, the Senate voted 21-11 to reject Tyler Huebner’s appointment to the Public Service Commission. Huebner, an appointee of Gov. Tony Evers, had been serving since 2020. He’s the governor’s 10th appointee to be rejected by GOP senators. In a separate vote, they confirmed Evers’ appointee, Summer Strand, to the commission in a 27-5 vote.

Democrats said the move was tied to “partisan political games.” But Republicans, like Sen. Julian Bradley, R-Franklin, accused Huebner of using his position as an activist and acting beyond his authority under state law.

“Their job is to be regulators, not policymakers,” Bradley said.

In a statement on his firing, Huebner said he’s proud of the decisions he made “to balance safety, reliability and affordability” in the services provided by utilities.

From the Article:

Wisconsin’s population is holding steady, with modest gains attributed to immigration and people moving from other states.

According to data released last month by the U.S. Census Bureau, the state saw an estimated gain of 20,412 people between July 2022 and July 2023.

Wisconsin’s population is now estimated to be nearly 5.9 million people — a jump of about 1 percent since the last census was taken in April 2020.

So far this decade, the state has experienced about a quarter of the population growth it saw between 2010 and 2020. But the COVID-19 pandemic led to a spike in deaths that altered the state’s trajectory, said David Egan-Robertson, demographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Applied Population Laboratory.

“It actually may be a case that population will grow a little bit faster because there will be fewer deaths going forward in the state,” Egan-Robertson said.

During the period covered by the most recent estimates, there were 1,147 more births than deaths. That’s a change from recent years when there were more deaths than births.

Still, most of the state’s population growth has come from immigration, or from domestic migration. An estimated 13,653 people came to Wisconsin from other countries. Another 5,648 moved from another state.

“We’re not Texas, we’re not Florida or any of the other southern states that might be growing quite a bit,” Egan-Robertson said. “(Wisconsin’s) growth is pretty moderate and it’s in the positive direction.”

Mark Sommerhauser is the communications director and policy researcher for the Wisconsin Policy Forum. He said Wisconsin’s estimated growth was smaller than what most states saw in the same time period, but it’s still a positive sign.

“Given the sort of trajectory of population growth that we have seen in the last decade or two, that’s actually a decent annual number,” Sommerhauser said. “It’s higher than most of the years that I’ve looked at since 2010.”

John Johnson agreed. A research fellow at the Marquette University Law School’s Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education, Johnson said any net gain from other states is an encouraging sign.

“Whether or not more people are moving to our state or leaving our state is a sign of how satisfied people are with the quality of life that we’re providing. So I think that is an important indicator. And we do see positive net migration to Wisconsin overall,” Johnson said.

Other states are faring worse, Johnson said.

“Milwaukee is predicted to have the same number of congressional districts at the end of this decade as they did at the beginning,” he said, after having lost a seat after the 2000 census. That’s in contrast to cities such as San Francisco, which is on track to lose representation.

From the Article:

Wisconsin's powerful Republican Assembly leader said Tuesday that he hopes the liberal-controlled state Supreme Court adopts new constitutional legislative boundary maps, even as he slammed proposals from Democrats as “a political gerrymander” and threatened an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The court tossed Republican-drawn maps, long considered among the country's most favorable to the GOP, and ordered new maps that do not favor one party over another. It said if the Legislature doesn't adopt maps, the court will.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Republicans have approached Democrats about passing new maps in the Legislature, but “we have not gotten a warm reception to that idea.”

“We are ready, willing and able to try to engage in that process,” Vos said at a news conference.

Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer questioned Vos' sincerity.

“We are always open to conversations with our colleagues, but have yet to be convinced that Republican Legislators are serious about passing a fair and representative map, especially given the extreme gerrymander they submitted to the court on Friday," she said in a statement.

Wisconsin is a purple state, with four of the past six presidential elections decided by less than a percentage point. But under legislative maps first enacted by Republicans in 2011 and then again in 2022 with few changes, the GOP has grown its majorities to 64-35 in the Assembly and 22-11 in the state Senate.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed the maps passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature in 2021, leading the then-conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court to adopt the maps that are currently in use. The court has since shifted to liberal control, and it threw out the maps last month.

In a 4-3 ruling, the high court said the current maps were unconstitutional because not all districts were comprised of a contiguous territory. Some districts included areas that weren't connected to the whole.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers, along with Evers, a conservative Wisconsin law firm, a liberal law firm that brought the redistricting lawsuit, a group of mathematics professors and a redistricting consultant submitted new proposed maps on Friday.

The map submitted by Republicans would maintain the current 64-35 GOP majority, while other maps would narrow it to as little as a one-seat Republican edge, according to an analysis by Marquette University Law School research fellow John D. Johnson

Vos dismissed the maps submitted by Democrats, saying they would move too many boundary lines and force incumbent lawmakers to run against one another. He called them “nothing more than a political gerrymander.”

In the 2022 election, Wisconsin’s Assembly districts had the nation’s second-largest Republican tilt behind only West Virginia, according to an Associated Press statistical analysis that was designed to detect potential gerrymandering. Republicans received less than 55% of the votes cast for major party Assembly candidates, yet they won 65% of the seats.

The submitted maps are being reviewed now by two consultants hired by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. They will submit their report by Feb. 1, which will include their recommended maps.

“My hope is that the court, in any fair reading, rejects the maps that were submitted which have large partisan bias and either has maps drawn by the professors, if they go that route, or ultimately we'll have to go to the (U.S.) Supreme Court and demonstrate the huge political nature of what they’ve done, ” Vos said.

When asked when such an appeal would be filed or what it would argue, Vos declined to say.

“Our goal is not to rush to the U.S. Supreme Court," Vos said. “We want to try and have a map that meets the constitution."

Republicans have indicated that they would argue that there were due process violations. Vos has also suggested that the appeal would argue that liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz, who called the current maps “rigged” and “unfair” during her run for office, should not have heard the case. She sided with the three other liberal justices in ordering new maps.

From the Article:

One in 10 Wisconsin teenagers has attempted suicide over the last three years. More than one-third of high schoolers feel sad or hopeless. Half of Wisconsin youth have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety or behavioral problems.

At the same time, half of Wisconsin's youth say they have difficulty obtaining mental health services and half of children aged 3 to 17 with mental health conditions received no treatment.

These are just some of the deep concerns raised by the Wisconsin Office of Children's Mental Health, a state agency within the Department of Health Service, which met with state legislators, stakeholders and members of the media Friday morning. The data are part of the latest annual report from the state agency, which tracks well-being trends and demographics, offers strategies and solutions, and hosts discussions that impact the social connectedness of youth.

Some of the stressors impacting young people, according to research, include academic pressures, widespread gun violence, racism and discrimination (especially with regard to anti-LGBTQ+ policies), political divisiveness, and climate change. And some stressors that more broadly impact families also harm young people, such as the state's lack of child care options, financial insecurity, food insecurity and housing instability.

The goal of the Office of Children's Mental Health report, its director Linda Hall said, is to "take a look at what's happening with kids, to monitor the data around children's well-being and then to work with a broad range of stakeholders to work on improving the children's mental health system."

Speakers Friday included staff from the Office of Children's Mental Health; Rep. Patrick Snyder (R-Schofield) and Rep. Jill Billings (D-La Crosse), co-chairs of the Legislative Children’s Caucus; and student leaders Samera Osman from Reagan High School in Milwaukee and Nathan Zirk from North Crawford High School in Soldiers Grove, a village south of La Crosse.

From the Article:

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is now considering a handful of proposed changes to the state's legislative boundaries after Republicans, Democrats, university professors and partisan law firms submitted options as part of a lawsuit aimed at making the state's legislative districts more competitive.

The court received submissions from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, Republican legislative leaders, Democratic lawmakers, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professors, the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty and the petitioners who brought the lawsuit who are represented by Law Forward, a liberal legal firm.

Most of the submissions would reduce the current Republican advantages.

The court will review the seven sets of competing legislative maps as it lurches toward the March 15 deadline to enact new districts ahead of the August legislative primary.

The court on Dec. 22 ordered the Republican-controlled state Legislature to draw new legislative boundaries ahead of the 2024 election, arguing the maps are unconstitutional because many disticts' boundaries are not contiguous — meaning they include pieces of land that are not connected.

In a 4-3 decision, justices said they are also prepared to replace the state's heavily gerrymandered maps if the Legislature and Democratic governor cannot agree on a new plan. In that case, the court ruled that justices will consider the partisan makeup of the new map if they are forced to step in.

Law Forward brought the legal challenge straight to the Supreme Court in August — bypassing lower courts in an expedited effort to put new maps in place before the fall. The lawsuit came to the court shortly after it flipped to a liberal majority for the first time in years with the election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz.

The state's current maps are a product of another court battle — Johnson v. Wisconsin Elections Commission — that ultimately landed at the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2022, the nation's highest court threw out election maps drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. The state Supreme Court embraced a redistricting plan crafted by Republican state lawmakers just three weeks later.

Like now, the decision from the state Supreme Court was released without time to spare, just as candidates could begin circulating petitions to get on the midterm ballot that year.

The court's most recent ruling delivers a political landmine ahead of the 2024 presidential cycle that will all but certainly focus on the battleground state of Wisconsin. It's the latest chink in Republican power since GOP dominance in Wisconsin state government began diminishing in 2016, when Donald Trump became president.

Since then, Republicans have lost the governor's office and control of the state Supreme Court.

In a narrowly divided state that often decides statewide races by a few thousand votes, Republicans have held wide majorities in the state Legislature for years.

The current maps tilt heavily in Republicans’ favor, according to a December analysis by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

From the Article:

A Wisconsin judge ruled that the state’s top election leader can legally remain in her position, handing a blow to the Republican-controlled state Senate that tried to oust her.

The GOP-controlled Wisconsin Senate voted in September to fire Meagan Wolfe, the top election official, from her position at the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), after months of threatening to remove her over how she handled the 2020 election.

They falsely claimed that Wolfe orchestrated a plan to rig the election in the state — a swing state that President Biden secured by over 20,000 votes.

Biden’s win in Wisconsin has withstood multiple partial recounts, a nonpartisan audit, a conservative law firm’s review and multiple state and federal lawsuits, the Associated Press reported.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Ann Peacock declared Friday that she agreed with the WEC, which argued that stability in its elections system ahead of the 2024 election would be best for the public. Thus, Wolfe was cleared to remain in the role.

The injunction, Peacock wrote in her order, will “provide stability to protect against any further legally unsupported removal attempts” against Wolfe.

Democrats argued that the state Senate vote to oust Wolfe from her position was not held properly and they don’t have the power to remove her from her position or appoint an interim administrator.

Peacock’s decision renders the the state Senate’s statute removing Wolfe as moot. The defendants were also barred under the ruling from taking official actions contrary to the order and their counterclaim and pending motions were nixed.

“I hope this will put an end to attempts by some to target nonpartisan election officials and fabricate reasons to disrupt Wisconsin elections,” Wolfe said in a statement to the AP.

“The effort to undermine me was especially cruel given that the defendant legislators themselves admitted in court that I remain the lawful administrator,” she added.

From the Article:

Republican majorities would shrink but the party would maintain an upper hand in the Wisconsin Legislature under new redistricting plans proposed by the Democratic voters who convinced the state Supreme Court to declare the state’s Republican-drawn legislative maps unconstitutional.

Seven sets of map proposals were submitted to the court Friday afternoon by parties to a redistricting lawsuit that has generated national attention.

In its Dec. 22 opinion, the Supreme Court’s liberal majority said remedial maps must comply with the Wisconsin Constitution’s requirements that voting districts be compact, include equal populations and have boundaries that physically connect. That last requirement, known as contiguity, was the justification the court’s 4-3 liberal majority used to strike down current Republican drawn maps.
The majority said it would also consider “partisan impact” to measure political fairness of new maps, telling parties that it would take care to avoid picking new maps that favor one political party over another.

The proposals submitted Friday mark the beginning of the court’s efforts to replace maps that have helped Republicans cement lopsided legislative majorities in a state that’s otherwise known for close elections.

Many power outages across the state due to snowfall causing tree branches to take out power lines. Be sure to report that you have a power outage so the power company is aware of it. WPS phone number is: 800-450-7240, and here is the link to report if you have WE Energies.

It sounds like it may take a few days to fix. Make sure to stay warm and be safe. Run your faucets at a fast drip to help prevent them from freezing.

From the Article:

Opponents of a proposed interstate expansion in Milwaukee are arguing those plans should be put on hold because the project is now the focus of a federal civil rights investigation.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation announced plans in 2022 for a $1.2 billion project to expand Interstate 94 on the city's west side from six lanes to eight — four lanes in each direction — on about a 3.5-mile stretch of highway that passes the Brewers' American Family Field.

Opponents of the project believe the expansion would negatively impact people of color, as a majority of Black and Hispanic residents live along the corridor.

Cassie Steiner, the senior campaign coordinator for the Wisconsin chapter of the Sierra Club, is calling on Gov. Tony Evers to halt the project because of the civil rights investigation.

"Highway expansions have caused decades of harm, especially to Black and Brown communities," Steiner said.

Environmental activists have argued that more gas-burning cars on the road will lead to more carbon emissions in the air, contributing to climate change. They believe the expansion will make climate change and air pollution worse in the area. Environmental attorney Dennis Grzezinski said the project is located in a corridor that has a "larger proportion of Black and Hispanic residents than can be found in any other community in the region."

Aside from increasing noise and air pollution as more cars zip down a wider highway, some residents also worry the addition of about 29 acres of asphalt — the equivalent of more than 20 football fields — will increase flows of stormwater into the area.

"Who's it going to impact? Not the folks trying to get to downtown during rush hour from richer, whiter neighborhoods and communities, but the folks who live in and around the center city," Grzezinski said.

Last year, community groups and opponents of the project sent a civil rights complaint to the Federal Highway Administration. The complaint said if the project goes forward, people of color will "bear the brunt of the impacts of highway construction and expansion, while whites, especially white persons living in highly segregated suburbs, will reap most of the benefits."

"This will compound and exacerbate the historical, longstanding disparities and injustices to which these Milwaukee communities have been subjected," the complaint said.

From the Article:

COVID-19 cases are growing in Northeast Wisconsin, but the numbers aren’t significantly higher than a year ago.

A new variant, called JN.1, is spreading. According to a doctor we spoke with at Bellin Health, there’s a small change in part of the virus that’s causing more people who’ve already had COVID or were immunized to get this variant of the virus.

As of right now, the number of cases in our community is similar to this time last year.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services website, COVID hospitalizations in Northeast Wisconsin increased by 17% between Dec. 24 and Jan. 6. Specifically in the Fox Valley, hospitalizations grew 13% during that time period.

Overall, COVID symptoms are still fairly mild for people who’ve been vaccinated, according to doctors. People with a compromised immune system, underlying health conditions, and older adults still face significant risk.

If you think you have COVID, doctors urge you not to go to an emergency room to get tested unless you’re very ill and need to be evaluated by a provider.

“We just opened a fast lane clinic by [Austin Straubel] airport -- that’s new -- where people can get a test that’s ordered by their doctor or their nurse practitioner and get that test through the drive-through. So there’s easier ways than going to the emergency room and waiting a long time. We really want to make sure we’re protecting our emergency departments in this community when people truly need it,” Bellin Health Dr. Brad Burmeister said.

From the Article:

Verona resident Libby Belden and her husband chose to buy an electric vehicle almost a year ago. But as Green Bay Packers season ticket holders, they’ve run into hurdles trying to attend games at Lambeau Field.

Belden has tickets to two regular season games each season and a preseason game. Since buying an electric SUV, she has had to stop in Appleton for a charging station compatible with her vehicle before heading home to the Madison area.

While the charger isn’t one that requires the vehicle to be plugged in overnight, it still takes about an hour of waiting because it’s not a high-speed charger.

“We actually decided, after having done that for a few games, to skip a game we were planning to go to with a bunch of family this year, which was really heartbreaking,” Belden said. “It was a night game. We knew we were going to have to drive home, it was already going to be really late, and then it was probably going to be about a four-hour drive home with having to sit at that charger for an hour.”

Belden is not the only EV owner who has to meticulously plan trips throughout Wisconsin. That’s because the Badger State has fewer publicly accessible charging stations than most of its neighbors, according to data provided by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, or DOT.

Citing the Alternative Fuels Data Center Station Locator and state EV infrastructure plans, a DOT spokesperson said Wisconsin has 578 publicly accessible stations with 1,373 total ports, with 90 of those stations having high-speed chargers. Among surrounding states, only Iowa had fewer stations at 363 with 820 total ports.

From the Article:

Wisconsin's political party leaders met in the state Capitol for about six minutes Tuesday morning to determine which presidential candidates will appear on the primary ballot in the state: including former President Donald Trump.

The quick, no-hiccup meeting contrasts with two other states that have moved to bar Trump from the ballot. That decision was made by the Colorado Supreme Court and Maine's Democratic secretary of state based on an anti-insurrection clause in the 14th Amendment. The issue is likely to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Last week, the Wisconsin Elections Commission quickly rejected a petition filed by Kirk Bangstad — a Democratic activist and owner of the Minocqua Brewing Co. — that sought to keep Trump off the ballot on those grounds. Bangstad plans to challenge the decision in Dane County Circuit Court, and hoped it would reach the state Supreme Court.

WEC does not place candidates on the ballot in Wisconsin. That decision is up to the bipartisan state Presidential Preference Selection Committee, which is made up of state Democratic and Republican party chairs, majority and minority leaders in the state Legislature, and others.

The six candidates named by the state Republican party include: former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former President Donald Trump.

The state Democratic party presented only one name for the ballot: President Joe Biden. Author Marianne Williamson and Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips are also running as Democrats.

State law requires the committee to include all names "whose candidacy is generally advocated or recognized in the national news media throughout the United States," and can include additional names.

The names now go to WEC, which contacts the candidates to inform them they will appear on the ballot unless they notify the commission by Jan. 30 that they do not intend to run.

From the Article:

Minocqua brewery owner and political gadfly Kirk Bangstad says he will go to court to force the Wisconsin Elections Commission to keep Donald Trump off of the state’s presidential ballots in 2024 under the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Bangstad filed a complaint with the elections commission Thursday demanding Trump’s exclusion. The election commission’s dismissal came almost immediately afterward, in a letter saying that the complaint “is being disposed of without consideration by the Commission.”

Bangstad had anticipated the commission’s rejection, telling reporters immediately after he filed the document that he expected it would be dismissed and that he would sue the commission in circuit court to press the complaint’s demand. After receiving the dismissal notice Bangstad said he would follow up with a lawsuit next week.

Bangstad said that he views Article 3 of the 14th amendment as a clear-cut justification for keeping Trump from running for president again.

His elections commission complaint says, “Donald Trump disqualified himself and forfeited his right to serve as President of the United States of America by choosing power over the oath he took as an officer of the United States to uphold the Constitution of the United States and engaging in an insurrection against the Country he swore to protect.”

It calls on the six commissioners to find Trump “disqualified from serving as President of the United States of America” and to “refuse Donald J. Trump access to the 2024 Republican presidential preference primary ballot.”

The complaint cites a Wisconsin statute that allows a voter who believes that an election official’s action or failure to act “is contrary to law” or an abuse of discretion to file a complaint with the commission “requesting that the official be required to conform his or her conduct to the law.”

From the Article:

The majority leader of the Wisconsin Senate on Monday rejected Democrats’ calls to rescind his appointment to the state elections commission, who was one of the Republicans who served as fake electors for former President Donald Trump in 2020.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said in a statement that his appointee Bob Spindell and the other fake electors had invoked a “failed legal strategy” and “not a sinister plot to overturn an election.” For that reason, LeMahieu said he will not rescind his appointment of Spindell to the nonpartisan elections commission.

Spindell was one of 10 Republicans who signed certificates in 2020 falsely stating that Trump had won Wisconsin. President Joe Biden won the battleground state.

Spindell and other nine fake electors conceded in a legal settlement last week that Biden had won the state and agreed to not serve as electors in next year’s election or in any in which Trump is running. They also agreed that their actions were “part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results.”

A Madison local is looking to provide firearms instruction classes to students who might not feel safe taking a normal firearms course. The classes are free to the students to make them as accessible as possible. If you can help out with operating expenses (classroom rent, study materials, etc.) you will help build proficiency and safety in a community traditionally under served in this area.

Thanks!