Briefs
Sen. Dianne Hesselbein elected as Senate Democratic leader
Senate Democrats elected Sen. Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) on Friday to serve as the new Wisconsin Senate Minority leader, filling a vacancy left by Senate Minority Leader Melissa Agard (D-Madison). Hesselbein beat Sen. Kelda Roys of Madison and Sen. Jeff Smith of Brunswick to succeed Agard, who is stepping down after announcing on Thursday that she […]
Former AG Schimel announces run for Wisconsin Supreme Court
Former Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel announced Thursday that he’s running for a seat on the state Supreme Court in 2025. Schimel, a Republican who served one term as attorney general under former Gov. Scott Walker, has been a judge in Waukesha County since 2018 when he lost reelection to Democrat Josh Kaul. Schimel is […]
UW System President suggests universities with high numbers of low income students should ‘shift away’ from liberal arts
UW System President Jay Rothman suggested in an email to campus chancellors that they should consider cutting liberal arts programs at schools that serve a large number of low income students, the UW-Madison student newspaper the Daily Cardinal reported this week. In the email, in which Rothman lists a number of suggestions campus leaders can […]
Evers used email alias for security purposes, according to his office
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has been using an alternate email account under the name of a former Major League Baseball player to communicate with state employees — a practice his office says is used for security purposes and for work efficiency. Evers used the email address “[email protected]” to communicate with other state officials as first […]
Three presidential debates, one VP debate scheduled ahead of 2024 election
WASHINGTON — The Democratic and Republican nominees for president would debate three times next year if both candidates agree to a schedule released Monday by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. “The United States’ general election debates, watched live worldwide, are a model for many other countries: the opportunity to hear and see leading candidates […]
Gov. Evers tells Joint Finance Committee to release tribal grant money
Gov. Tony Evers urged the Joint Finance Committee on Monday to release funding for Tribal Assistance Grants after Republicans chose to exclude two tribes from recent funding approvals in part because of ongoing road disputes. In September, the Department of Administration (DOA) submitted a request for transfer of $11 million to be distributed for the […]
As expected, Evers vetoes GOP bill that replaced child care and other aid with tax cut
Gov. Tony Evers vetoed the Republican rewrite of his special session bill Monday, declaring it “wholly out of touch with what Wisconsinites, including child care providers, some of our state’s largest employers, working parents, students, and our state’s higher education institutions, are asking for and need.” Evers’ rejection of the bill was widely expected. The […]
Local, state officials condemn neo-Nazi march in Madison
About 20 neo-Nazis marched up State Street from the UW-Madison campus to the Capitol on Saturday and gathered at James Madison Park in front of the Gates of Heaven synagogue, a historic 19th-century building run by the city parks department. “To see neo-Nazis marching in our streets and neighborhoods and in the shadow of our […]
Job numbers ease slightly, but state economist sees little cause for concern
Wisconsin jobs and unemployment figures cooled slightly in October, but the changes weren’t significant enough to suggest the economy is shifting, according to the state labor department. Wisconsin employers reported a projected 3.014 million jobs in October, down about 1,400 from September, the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) reported Thursday. There were 900 fewer construction […]
Senate forces through update to alcohol regulations over objections of wedding barn owners
A bipartisan group of Wisconsin lawmakers on Tuesday forced an update to the state’s alcohol laws through the state Senate even though the new regulation had been blocked in committee after the owners of wedding venues across the state claimed it would kill their industry. The Assembly passed its version of the bill on a […]
Environmental group argues Wisconsin’s gerrymandered maps disenfranchise parents of lead poisoned children
Wisconsin’s legislative maps, which are drawn to heavily favor Republicans, have disempowered parents on the North Side of Milwaukee, preventing them from pushing their elected representatives to work toward removing the lead pipes that remain in their neighborhoods, a legal brief filed on Monday by an environmental group argues. The “friend of the court brief” […]
Milwaukee County stops taking fathers to court to pay back Medicaid for childbirth costs
Milwaukee County is on the verge of ending the practice of demanding that unwed fathers pay back the Medicaid program for the cost of covering the birth of their children. Dane County, which in 2020 stopped going to court to claw back those Medicaid dollars from fathers, is poised to drop pending cases that remain […]