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Racist messages prompt outcry, investigation at UW-Eau Claire
This article includes reporting by staff of the UW-Eau Claire student newspaper The Spectator, including Managing Editor Rebecca Mennecke, Lea Kopke, and Ta’Leah Van Sistine. A series of racist social media messages, accompanied by images of a Ku Klux Klan cross-burning, has sparked a week of discussion and protest at the University of Wisconsin-Eau […]
Evers signs ‘telehealth’ bill
Medicaid patients who get medical or behavioral health care delivered long-distance now qualify for coverage under a bill that Gov. Tony Evers signed Monday. The bipartisan bill, SB 380, passed the state Senate and the Assembly earlier this fall. In signing the legislation at Richland Center Hospital, Evers said it would offer expanded options for […]
Report: Watch out for dangerous toys when holiday shopping
From choking hazards to poisonous metals and compounds, the toy aisle still poses a danger to children, a report released Thursday warns. The report, Trouble in Toyland, published by the WISPIRG Foundation and the U.S. PIRG Education Fund, urges parents and caregivers to exercise caution in choosing children’s playthings. The groups have published the report […]
Tougher livestock farm rule dies
Years in the making, a plan to change the rules governing large livestock farms is dead — a side casualty of the state Senate’s party-line vote Nov. 5 to fire Gov. Tony Evers’ agriculture secretary. For rural residents who must put up with odors from neighboring livestock operations, the change might have offered new standards […]
Evers signs pipeline protest bill over critics’ objections
Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday signed a widely supported, yet also controversial, bill escalating penalties for trespassing on pipelines and other energy and water sites. Evers signed AB 426, which passed with bipartisan support and was backed by business groups as well as labor unions whose members work in pipeline construction projects. Opponents of the […]
Contract in hand, Milwaukee bus union looks to 2020 county elections
Lingering conflicts over funding, bus route management, and driver security could play a role in next spring's for Milwaukee County elections.
Seeking an Rx for skyrocketing drug prices
Although skyrocketing drug prices are a national problem, states can do a lot to help consumers. A new task force invites governors from around the country who are working on drug-pricing policy to present their ideas in Wisconsin, as the Evers administration seeks immediate relief for state residents.
Wisconsin’s frac sand mining business hits a slump
Hi-Crush Inc. laid off 37 workers in October and November.
Pipeline bill’s backers, critics both lobby Evers as signing deadline nears
Pressure is building on Gov. Tony Evers from both backers and critics of a controversial bill that would make it a felony for protesters to trespass on pipeline sites and other forms of energy and water-transmission infrastructure. Assembly Bill 426 formally reached Evers’ office Thursday, Nov. 14, giving him one week to sign or veto […]
All about the PFAS problem
They’ve been a part of life for decades, used for everything from waterproofing clothing to making foam for fighting airplane and industrial fires. But for most of that time, the class of chemicals known as PFAS escaped detection as potentially hazardous to human health. And not until the last five years or so have Wisconsin […]
Shareholders give the OK to Gannett-GateHouse merger
Shareholders for the country’s two largest newspaper groups on Thursday voted to approve the merger of Gannett Co. and GateHouse Media, opening the next chapter in more than a decade of struggle for Wisconsin’s largest newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, as well as 11 other dailies in the state. The vote came even as both […]
Federal bill would cap loan interest for consumers
Wisconsin Congressman Glenn Grothman (R-Glenbeulah) introduced bipartisan legislation this week along with several progressive co-sponsors that aimed at protecting consumers from predatory lenders. “Just on its face, where you’re getting interest rates up over 300%, it’s immoral,” Grothman said in a telephone press conference on Tuesday to mark the introduction of the bill. Citing a […]