Politics & Government
Manchin seeks bipartisan ‘sweet spot’ for a new try at his energy permitting bill
WASHINGTON — U.S. senators from both parties said Wednesday they hope to negotiate an energy permitting reform bill yet this year, reviving efforts to streamline the process after West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III had to pull back his plan amid broad opposition. The Manchin proposal was attached to a must-pass government funding bill […]
Stopgap spending bill advances in U.S. Senate after Manchin pulls his energy plan
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate advanced a catchall spending package Tuesday that would provide billions to aid Ukraine’s war effort, help communities throughout the country recover from natural disasters and keep the federal government funded through mid-December. Democrats and Republicans voted 72-23 to move the measure toward a final vote later this week—a success that […]
How are Wisconsin voters being fooled?
STEVENS POINT – The older I get, the less I know. Maybe it’s the wisdom of age telling me I wasn’t nearly as smart as I thought. Be that as it may, as the son of working-class parents and grandparents, I can’t for the life of my old bones understand why folks of modest means […]
House Jan. 6 committee to wait for court ruling before enforcing Vos subpoena
The U.S. House committee won’t force Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) to testify before its next televised public hearing, if that takes place within the next month. In a status hearing in federal court Tuesday, attorneys for Vos and for the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol said they’d […]
Key U.S. Senate panel advances bill aimed at preventing another Jan. 6
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Rules and Administration Committee on Tuesday passed legislation that would update an 1887 elections law and clarify how electoral votes are certified, with the hopes of averting another attempt to overturn a presidential election. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat and Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, put forth the bill, […]
U.S. House panel investigating Jan. 6 attack postpones hearing
WASHINGTON — A Wednesday hearing planned by the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol has been postponed due to Hurricane Ian nearing landfall in Florida. A new date has not been announced. “In light of Hurricane Ian bearing down on parts of Florida, we have decided to […]
Republicans in Congress say they’d keep federal abortion funding in cases of rape, incest
WASHINGTON — A nearly 50-year-old federal law backed by Republicans allows the use of federal dollars for abortions in cases of rape, incest or to save a patient’s life. That so-called Hyde Amendment, which is folded into spending bills, is less stringent than new or planned abortion bans in some GOP-led states, where governors and […]
Small farm pollution can slip through the cracks and be hard to enforce
Dane County instituted an ordinance guiding its enforcement of agricultural standards in 2019. Since then, the county’s land and water resources department (LWRD) has been fighting to improve the conditions on one cattle farm in the small Town of Primrose, southwest of Madison. The farm, which as of 2021 held about 80 head of dairy […]
A conspiracy-fueled push to count ballots by hand gains traction
Nye County, a rural enclave in Nevada, has positioned itself as the epicenter of a Donald Trump-fueled conspiracy about the security of electronic vote tabulators. The Nye County Commission voted in March to make the county one of the first to act on the false narratives that machines that count votes are rigged. County Clerk […]
Vos fights subpoena from U.S. House committee investigating Jan. 6 attack
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) is suing the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol to block a subpoena that directs him to testify about his phone conversation this July with former President Donald Trump. In his lawsuit, Vos claims the conversation, when Trump urged him to decertify Wisconsin’s […]
Fitzgerald constituent mail draws ethics complaint for campaign-style messaging
On one side of an oversize four-color card mailed to constituents in the 5th Congressional District, a color photo depicts a young couple bent over a kitchen table, their brows furrowed. Bold letters emblazoned across the lower half of the image declare: “Reckless spending policies are fueling inflation, CRUSHING American families.” At the top of […]
Overcoming Wisconsin’s toxic partisanship
As I watched the annual State of Education address last week I found myself wondering, is bipartisanship dead? Pushing back on Republican culture war talking points, state schools superintendent Jill Underly used the word “racist” to describe recent Republican efforts to rewrite school curriculum purging so-called critical race theory. Likewise, high-profile campaigns against LGBTQ and […]