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Lt. Gov. Barnes: To stop the spread, change our behavior
With public health almost entirely dependent on voluntary behavior and few enforced restrictions, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes telephoned Friday to get the word out: Wisconsin residents need to do what it takes to stop the spread of COVID-19. “We’re encouraging extreme caution for people across the state,” Barnes said in a phone interview. Compared especially […]
‘We need to have compliance’
With COVID-19 continuing to soar in Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers warned Wisconsin residents on Thursday that they need to stay home as much as possible. A little more than six months ago, he clothed the same preventive measure in an executive order that carried the weight of law. But since the state Supreme Court stripped […]
British TV investigation shows how Trump 2016 campaign tamped down Black voters
Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign didn’t just strive to appeal to white working-class voters who believed they had been forgotten — it actively sought to discourage Black voters from going to the polls, a British television news team is reporting. Among those voters targeted for suppression were residents of Milwaukee, in an election upset that […]
Homeland Security pushed talking points sympathetic to Kenosha gunman
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) is calling for an oversight hearing to investigate an NBC News report that the Trump administration prepped federal law enforcement officials to provide a sympathetic description of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old Illinois gunman charged with killing two protesters in Kenosha and wounding a third. The network obtained a talking points document […]
Report offers guarded optimism for manufacturing comeback
Wisconsin manufacturing is recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has strained shipping schedules but also given a boost to domestic suppliers in the face of uncertainty about international sources. The Marquette ISM Manufacturing Survey for September paints a guardedly upbeat picture for the sector in southeastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, the focus […]
‘The virus is everywhere’
The spread of COVID-19 in Wisconsin continues to get worse, Gov. Tony Evers and state health officials warned Tuesday — and unless more people take it seriously, many more people may die from the virus in the coming weeks and months. “We are in a crisis,” said Dr. Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer of the […]
Plaintiffs want court to order immediate end to mask requirement
As the number of positive tests for COVID-19 has skyrocketed in Wisconsin, the conservative law firm that wants to stop Gov. Tony Evers from declaring a health emergency or requiring masks to curb the spread of the virus now wants the court to immediately block all of those orders, including new ones the governor issued […]
Less than 1% of callers seeking unemployment got through
Telephone calls from people seeking unemployment compensation in Wisconsin so overwhelmed the state’s system in the first three and a half months of the COVID-19 pandemic that only half of 1% got through, according to a new audit released Friday. The report, produced by the state Legislative Audit Bureau, offers a glimpse of just how […]
Wisconsin might need 9,000 contact tracers. It has 1,200.
As confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Wisconsin have hit new daily records and hospitalization rates are soaring again, the state is facing a severe shortage of one important resource to help curb the spread of the pandemic: contact tracers. State and local health departments have been working, sometimes around the clock, to make phone calls […]
A film tells ‘what it feels like to be disenfranchised’ in Wisconsin
Less than two months from Election Day 2020, a new documentary looks back at Wisconsin’s 2018 election — when Democrats swept statewide offices but remained locked out of the majority in the Legislature. “Can You Hear Us Now?” follows the story of two unsuccessful candidates in that election, along with a handful of other activists […]
GOP fights Evers new emergency mask order despite COVID rise in Wisconsin
With one week to go before the state’s current statewide mask order expires, Gov. Tony Evers issued a new order Tuesday, along with a new public health emergency order as COVID-19 outbreaks persist on college campuses. “We continue to learn more about this virus, but what we do know is that we are facing a […]
Green Bay man asks court to drop his post office lawsuit
The Green Bay man who sued Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in August over postal delays that threaten to disrupt mail-in voting in the November election is asking the court to drop his case. Russell Beckman filed a motion to withdraw his lawsuit in federal court in Green Bay on Monday after a federal judge last […]