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Caught on the line between stay-at-home and reopened
Driving east on U.S. Highway 12, about 20 miles from Madison, the speed limit quickly drops from 55 mph to 25 mph as U.S. 12 becomes the Village of Cambridge’s Main Street. Cambridge, with a population of about 1,500, is home to the Cambridge High School Blue Jays and Main Street is lined with boutiques […]
‘Important lessons learned’ says Elections Commission report on April 7 absentee voting
A report released Monday by the Wisconsin Elections Commission shows that thousands of absentee ballots were rejected or never returned in the April 7 election, but that proportionally the amount of ballots not counted did not differ from past elections. The April 7 election was held under controversial circumstances as debates rose over the use […]
Counties, cities rescind local stay-at-home orders, citing shaky legality
Several Wisconsin counties and municipalities have rescinded local “Safer at Home” orders, citing legal advice against implementing them in the aftermath of Wednesday evening’s Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling throwing out the statewide order. After the court’s 4-3 ruling against Gov. Tony Evers and Andrea Palm, secretary-designee for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), Kenosha […]
Milwaukee-area Assembly candidate collects 1,000 signatures by mail
The coronavirus pandemic has upended every aspect of political campaigns and elections in Wisconsin, including the process for candidates obtaining ballot signatures. With door knocking unavailable because of the pandemic, candidates are forced to think creatively to collect the signatures they need to get their names on the ballot. In the hotly contested 23rd Assembly […]
Supreme Court ruling leaves complicated patchwork of local stay-at-home orders
After a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling struck down the state’s Safer-at-Home order, county and municipal governments were left to fend for themselves, with some instituting their own orders while others encouraged businesses to open “safely.” At a press briefing Thursday afternoon, Gov. Tony Evers expressed frustration over the chaos caused by the court’s ruling, and […]
Student debt task force meets for first time amid pandemic
Nearly four months after an executive order signed by Gov. Tony Evers created the Governor’s Task Force on Student Debt, the group met — virtually — for the first time on Wednesday. Made up of cabinet secretaries and government officials, educational policy experts and financial advisors, the task force was convened to recommend “how the […]
‘Egg on his face’ or ‘decisive victory’
Before the dust had settled in the special election for Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, the state’s Democrats were claiming a moral victory in Republican Tom Tiffany’s 14 point win over Democrat Tricia Zunker. Tiffany’s double digit margin was lower than President Donald Trump’s margin in the 7th district in 2016 and former Rep. Sean Duffy’s […]
Wisconsinites respond to Supreme Court tossing out Safer at Home
Late Wednesday afternoon, at the request of Republicans in the Legislature, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned Gov. Tony Evers’ Safer at Home plan, which was ordered by Department of Health Services (DHS) Secretary-designee Andrea Palm. Responses came flooding in from local government, elected officials, businesses and groups responding to the chaos created by the late-in-the-day […]
Tiffany wins 7th district by 14 points, less than Trump’s 20-point 2016 win
State Senator Tom Tiffany defeated Wausau School Board President Tricia Zunker by 14.4 percentage points in a special election for Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District Tuesday. Tiffany will replace Republican Sean Duffy, who stepped down in September. In an election held 175 days before November’s general election, the race was seen as a bellwether for the […]
Photos: Madison drive-through testing site
A testing site for walkup and drive-through COVID-19 tests opened at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison on Monday. The site, which is conducting 60-90 tests per hour, is part of an effort to expand testing capabilities in parts of the state that have shown a lack of access. In order to lift restrictions under […]
Science as a weapon
On March 3, working as a newspaper reporter at the Daily Jefferson County Union, I wrote a story with the headline, “Area health officials stress preparation, information as coronavirus spreads.” In the story, I quote Jefferson County’s Health Director Gail Scott and other public health officials saying the county was preparing for coronavirus and taking […]
UW System facing nearly $100 million in losses before next school year
The same day University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross said campuses should prepare for cuts and layoffs, the UW Board of Regents held a virtual meeting with campus chancellors to take stock of the economic toll the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on the state’s public university system. Cross told reporters Thursday morning that campuses […]