News
Ahead of razor thin elections, are Democrats overlooking rural Wisconsin?
In 2012, Barack Obama carried 35 counties on his way to winning Wisconsin with nearly 53% of the vote against Mitt Romney. In 2020, Joe Biden carried 14 counties on his way to winning the state with 49.6% of the vote against former President Donald Trump. 23 counties flipped from Obama to Trump from 2012 […]
Referenda ask voters if election aid should be outlawed
Voters in four Wisconsin counties will be asked in November whether the state should ban private grants to help local communities with the cost of running elections. The advisory referenda, on the ballot in Waukesha, Price, Lincoln and Brown counties, follow an attempt by Republicans in the Legislature to outlaw outside funds for election administration […]
Homes MKE development teams selected to renovate 150 vacant properties
The Homes MKE initiative in Milwaukee took another step forward Wednesday after Mayor Cavalier Johnson signed a resolution selecting the development teams for the initiative. Homes MKE aims to renovate a minimum of 150 vacant city-owned residential properties in Milwaukee. The resolution, which was signed after a unanimous common council vote, authorized the property sales […]
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 […]
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 union firebrand in the 1970s and ‘80s sees labor’s future in his past
Jon Melrod has written a memoir that tells a slice of labor history in Kenosha, Wisconsin, four decades ago. But he believes his story, “Fighting Times,” which goes on sale Tuesday, has broader appeal. “It’s everybody’s story — everybody who’s ever worked, who’s ever worked for a bad boss or under bad conditions,” said Melrod, […]
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 […]