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DPI, finance committee leaders clash over school pandemic relief money
Wisconsin’s schools chief and Republican lawmakers are in a standoff after the lawmakers doubled down this week on their plan to reward schools that stayed open during the pandemic with federal money that was supposed to help students whose schools were closed. The clash follows the U.S. Education Department’s rejection this week of the Republican plan, […]
State awards $8 million to encourage COVID-19 vaccination, greater health equity
Faced with persistent gaps in vaccination rates for COVID-19 across Wisconsin, the state health department has awarded $8.1 million to more than four dozen organizations to help increase vaccine uptake among populations and areas where it has been lagging. The funds are aimed at improving health equity, according to the Department of Health Services (DHS), […]
State moves to patch gaps in health care staffing
Wisconsin is dispatching contract health care workers to bolster staffs run ragged by caring for COVID-19 patients and is preparing to receive federal assistance in the coming weeks as the pandemic continues its latest surge. New daily cases of COVID-19 have been rising since the summer, with unvaccinated people accounting for a large majority of […]
New variants increase need for masking, other measures along with vaccines to curb COVID-19
As public health professionals brace for the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, masking may be more important than ever, a Milwaukee doctor said Tuesday. “You want to also think about what kind of mask you’re wearing,” said Dr. Ben Weston, Milwaukee County chief health policy advisor and a professor at the Medical […]
State’s pandemic school aid gets federal OK — along with a rewrite order
The federal government is ordering Wisconsin to rewrite part of its education pandemic relief plan that cuts out schools that went online for more than half of the 2020-21 school year because of COVID-19. At stake is about $77 million in federal aid to address learning loss due to the pandemic. The U.S. Department of […]
Omicron reaches Wisconsin, state health agency reports
Less than a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) first drew attention to the omicron variant of the virus responsible for COVID-19, the first cases connected to Wisconsin have surfaced, according to the state health department. On Saturday, the Department of Health Services (DHS) reported that a Milwaukee County resident has […]
Evers vetoes tax break on tuition that apprentices pay to outside groups
Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed a tuition tax break for apprentices who have to pay for classes that are provided outside of recognized trade schools. The legislation, SB-125, duplicates existing tax benefits, Evers stated in his veto message, “while leaving out important partners in Wisconsin’s apprenticeship system.” The governor took the action on Friday. The proposed tax […]
Report: Costs keep millions from filling needed prescriptions
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost of prescription drugs led nearly 13 million Americans to forgo medications that they had been prescribed, according to a new report. Uninsured adults were the hardest hit, found the study, produced by the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. The report says that 9.5% of people who were uninsured […]
Delta surge continues with omicron on deck
With thousands of new COVID-19 cases reported daily in Wisconsin and hospitals continuing to reaching capacity, the pandemic has continued to surge back in the state, hospital and health officials said Thursday. In Wisconsin’s west and northwest, as well as in the Fox Valley, intensive care unit beds are full, according to the Wisconsin Hospital […]
‘I don’t believe it was a dead end’
Second of two parts On the same day that the Wisconsin Assembly overwhelmingly approved a $15 million loan guarantee that officials in Park Falls hoped would save the city’s historic paper mill, a Wisconsin state senator pronounced the legislation all but dead. Language completely unrelated to the bill but tacked on in the second part […]
ICU beds fill up as officials watch for coronavirus omicron variant
With the continued resurgence of COVID-19 in Wisconsin, still driven by the delta variant of the virus, hospital intensive care units are full in the state’s western and northwestern regions, the Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA) reported Tuesday. “We are in the middle of a delta wave with record cases and record hospitalizations in Wisconsin for […]
Struggling to save the Park Falls paper mill
First of two parts Over three days in the middle of November, online auctioneers sold off bits and pieces of the paper mill that for a century has anchored the city of Park Falls in northern Wisconsin. The auction began just days after the Wisconsin Assembly passed a bill to steer a $15 million loan […]