The Puerto Rican artist asked history professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo to help write historical “visualizers” about his island to accompany each song on YouTube.
The post Bad Bunny gets help from a Wisconsin professor appeared first on WPR.
Wisconsinites started the 2025 tax season on Monday with a new tool — free access to software that sends their returns straight to the IRS.
The post Wisconsin residents can file their taxes directly to the IRS for free in 2025 appeared first on WPR.
Hobby tunneling is a pastime in which amateur excavators build their own underground infrastructure with minimal equipment. We take a tour through a tunnel system more than a decade in the making.
The post Explore ‘Sandland,’ a hidden underground labyrinth in western Wisconsin appeared first on WPR.
Flutist Genevieve Eichman returns to southwestern Wisconsin as the featured soloist in the La Crosse Wind Symphony concert on Feb. 2.
The post Flutist looks forward to musical ‘Homecoming’ with La Crosse Wind Symphony appeared first on WPR.
Liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford is facing Republican criticism for participating in a Democratic donor call advertised as a "chance to put two more House seats in play."
The post GOP accuses Crawford of ‘selling’ congressional seats for addressing Democratic donor briefing appeared first on WPR.
The investigation began after a traffic stop in West Allis in June 2023. West Allis Police Chief Patrick Mitchell said drugs found in the vehicle eventually led to a wider investigation involving multiple agencies.
The post Drug trafficking case in Milwaukee area leads to 14 arrests appeared first on WPR.
The order specifically mentions a Madison Metropolitan School District policy that it says calls on schools to “disrupt the gender binary” by teaching students to embrace different gender identities.
The post Madison school policy cited in Trump order banning teaching critical race theory, gender identity appeared first on WPR.
President Donald Trump's budget office on Wednesday rescinded a memo freezing spending on federal grants, less than two days after it sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country.
The post Trump White House rescinds memo freezing federal grants after widespread confusion appeared first on WPR.
A month after a student opened fire at Abundant Life Christian School, another killed a classmate at Antioch High School. Both were active in an internet subculture that glorifies mass shooters and encourages young people to commit attacks themselves.
The post Madison and Nashville school shooters appear to have crossed paths in online extremist communities appeared first on WPR.
After struggling for much of the last year, Menomonee Falls-based Kohl’s Corp. is reducing its corporate workforce by about 10 percent.
The post Kohl’s is reducing its corporate workforce by 10 percent, says fewer than 200 people are affected appeared first on WPR.
Getty Images
As an oncologist, I can’t forget some of my patients’ stories. One of those belongs to a mother of two I diagnosed at age 35 with non-small cell lung cancer. She was a physician and a long-distance runner who had never smoked a day in her life. She died of metastatic lung cancer about two years after her diagnosis.
Sadly, her story echoed that of another one of my patients, a 32-year-old emergency room nurse who never smoked and raised two teenage daughters. She was divorced and spent her days in my care desperately worried about what would happen to her daughters after she passed. Both women were medically considered “lucky” to survive long enough to see their children graduate high school, but they should have had decades left with their kids.
I will never know exactly what caused the lung cancer in these two particular women, but the number of people being diagnosed who have never smoked is rising, particularly in young women. And these diagnoses are deadly. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in America, responsible for about 125,000 deaths each year. Even with new, cutting-edge treatments, the five-year survival rate of patients with metastatic lung disease is only 6%.
Switching from coal to gas is like seeing one of my patients switch from smoking to vaping.
– Dr. Joan Schiller
Why do I mention these dismal statistics? Because after witnessing too many tragic deaths, I feel a deep responsibility to educate my community and policymakers about what contributes to lung cancer. And all too often, fossil fuel pollution is not on their minds, even though reducing that pollution is one of the strongest actions we could take to prevent future kids from growing up without their moms.
Air pollution is a Class 1 carcinogen, as rated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The word carcinogen means “cancer causing,” and air pollution is responsible for about 14% of all lung cancer deaths. It can cause lung cancer even in people who have never smoked and can significantly affect the prognosis and treatment of other cancer patients.
One of those key pollutants is fine particulate matter, also called PM 2.5. That means the particles are 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter or 20 times smaller than the width of a human hair. These microscopic particles primarily come from the burning of fossil fuels.
That’s why I am deeply concerned that several Wisconsin utilities, including We Energies, WPS, Alliant Energy, and Madison Gas and Electric, recently delayed their plans to retire coal and are proposing new methane gas plants in Wisconsin. In the next few months alone, the Public Service Commission will determine the fate of $2 billion in new gas infrastructure proposals.
Switching from coal to gas is like seeing one of my patients switch from smoking to vaping. Billions have been spent to market vaping as a better, cleaner alternative. A ploy that is not only blatantly false when it comes to the heart health impacts, with vaping causing an outbreak of cardiovascular injuries, but it has dangerously hooked a new youth generation of smokers.
Similarly, billions have been spent to market natural gas as safe. But make no mistake, just like coal pollution, gas plants kill people by emitting PM2.5 and a mix of other hazardous pollutants that are inhaled through the lungs. From there, those toxicants can enter the bloodstream, heart, brain, and even the placenta. Akin to hooking a new generation of smokers, building new and expensive gas plants locks us into decades of fossil fuel dependence. We can’t afford that when 99% of scientists agree that we must take rapid action to decrease fossil fuels to maintain a liveable climate. Meanwhile, our neighboring states investing in wind, solar and energy efficiency prove that a better way forward is possible and that path saves lives and creates jobs.
As I think back to my two patients who died too young from lung cancer, it’s clear that we must do more. We must reduce air pollution and address climate change by decreasing fossil fuels. We can’t let Wisconsin get left behind. We need to ensure that new gas plants, such as the Oak Creek Gas Plant and Paris Plant, are not built in Wisconsin. We must come together to prevent more needless deaths from lung cancer.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, testifies during his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Jan. 29, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s alternating views on vaccines, reproductive rights and public health issues were a central focus at his first confirmation hearing Wednesday, with Democratic senators expressing dismay at his nomination and Republicans signaling he’ll likely have their support.
Kennedy pledged to bring “radical transparency” to the Department of Health and Human Services if confirmed by the U.S. Senate, though he didn’t detail his plans for large-scale health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid during the nearly four-hour hearing.
Kennedy repeatedly testified before the Finance Committee that he wants to reduce chronic illnesses throughout the country and let scientific research lead the way.
But Democratic senators were skeptical he would improve the country’s overall health outcomes if confirmed as HHS secretary, listing off several of his past claims not backed by research or medicine.
“For a long time the nation has been locked in a divisive health care debate about who pays. When health care costs reach 20%, there are no good options, only bad ones,” Kennedy said. “Shifting the burden around between government and corporations and insurers and providers and families is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.”
Kennedy said that if confirmed he would try to ensure federal spending on nutrition programs goes to “healthy foods” and bolster scrutiny of “chemical additives in our food supply.”
“We will remove financial conflicts of interest from our agencies. We will create an honest, unbiased, gold standard science at HHS, accountable to the president, to Congress and to the American people,” Kennedy added. “We will reverse the chronic disease epidemic and put the nation back on the road to good health.”
Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders questioned how senators or Americans could trust what Kennedy said during the hearing, given his rapid change in opinion on vaccine safety and the government’s role in abortion access, compared to comments made just last year.
“Tell me why you think people should have confidence in your consistency and in your work, when you really made a major U-turn on an issue of that importance in such a short time?” Sanders said.
Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, rebuked Kennedy for some of his prior comments on vaccine safety, saying he “embraced conspiracy theories, quacks, charlatans.”
“Mr. Kennedy has changed his views so often, it is nearly impossible to know where he stands on so many of the basic issues that impact Americans’ daily lives,” Wyden said.
Kennedy testified at several points during the hearing that he supports certain vaccines, including measles and polio, and science-backed research into medical treatments.
“I support vaccines. I support the childhood schedule. I will do that,” Kennedy said. “The only thing I want is good science and that’s it.”
New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan said Americans should be proud that vaccines have largely eradicated deadly diseases within the United States, including polio and smallpox.
“I am extremely concerned that as secretary, you would be able to halt critical vaccine research and to exploit parents’ natural worries by advising them not to vaccinate their children,” Hassan said. “This will lead to more children getting sick and some will even die.
“Before the measles vaccine about 500 American children died a year from measles. This is too much of a risk for our country and there is no reason that any of us should believe that you have reversed the anti-vaccine views that you have promoted for 25 years.”
Kennedy, who made several different statements about abortion access during his unsuccessful run for president, pledged during the hearing to implement President Donald Trump’s agenda on reproductive rights, whatever that might be.
Anti-abortion groups are advocating for the Trump administration to restrict access to medication abortion, a two-drug regimen consisting of mifepristone and misoprostol that’s approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration up to 10 weeks gestation. The FDA is housed within HHS.
“President Trump has asked me to study the safety of mifepristone,” Kennedy said. “He has not yet taken a stand on how to regulate it. Whatever he does, I will implement those policies. I will work with this committee to make those policies make sense.”
The FDA originally approved mifepristone in 2000 and made several changes to prescribing guidelines in 2016.
Those changes included increasing the gestational limit from seven to 10 weeks and making dosage and timing changes for both pharmaceuticals. The updated guidelines allowed qualified health care providers with the ability to prescribe medications to do so with mifepristone, not just doctors. And the requirement for three in-person doctor’s office visits was removed.
Numerous medical organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Association and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine filed briefs to the Supreme Court last year attesting to the safety and efficacy of mifepristone in a case that ultimately left access to medication abortion intact.
Kennedy also said during the hearing that he supports Trump’s policies on the Title X family planning grants program, including blocking federal funding from going to any organizations that perform or refer patients for abortions.
Federal law prevents taxpayer dollars from going to abortions, with exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the pregnant patient.
Kennedy didn’t appear familiar with a federal law that ensures patients access to emergency health care regardless of insurance status.
The law, known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, was a point of strong disagreement between Republican-controlled states and the Biden administration after the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion in 2022.
It is the subject of an ongoing case that made its way up to the Supreme Court before being sent back to the circuit court, which heard arguments in December.
Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto asked Kennedy a series of questions about protections under EMTALA during the hearing, starting with whether a woman experiencing a heart attack should receive care under that federal law regardless of her insurance status.
Kennedy said yes. But he said he didn’t know if the law would protect a woman experiencing life-threatening bleeding from an incomplete miscarriage whose doctor said she needed an abortion.
Kennedy struggled to answer another question from Cortez Masto about what authorities HHS has to enforce EMTALA at hospitals that receive Medicare funding, saying he thought he had budget power but nothing else.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, she said, “actually investigates complaints of EMTALA violations, as well as the Health and Human Services inspector general, who, by the way, was just recently fired by Donald Trump.”
“So you will be enforcing EMTALA laws, and it’s important that you understand their impact and don’t play politics with the patient presenting at the ER based on a position that this administration has taken,” Cortez Masto said.
Kennedy similarly struggled to answer questions from Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy on Medicare and Medicaid, in an exchange that could lead to significant hurdles for his confirmation if Cassidy does not support him.
Cassidy — a doctor and chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which holds its confirmation hearing for Kennedy on Thursday — repeatedly asked Kennedy how he’d improve Medicaid.
Kennedy listed off his criticisms of the program, before he said states should experiment with pilot programs and that the goals should be value-based care, transparency and accountability.
Kennedy said there were also many options through telemedicine and artificial intelligence before talking about AI nurses.
Kennedy, when asked by Cassidy about people who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, said he thinks the answer to that is “that the programs are consolidated, that they’re integrated, and the care is integrated.”
But Kennedy, when pressed on how he would handle that, didn’t have an answer. He also got basic facts about Medicaid, including that costs are shared between the federal and state governments, incorrect.
“I’m not exactly sure, because I’m not in there,” Kennedy said. “I mean, it is difficult to integrate them, because Medicare is under fee-for-service and is paid for by employer taxes. Medicaid is fully paid for by the federal government, and it’s not fee-for-service. So I do not know the answer to that. I look forward to exploring options with you.”
Kennedy said in response to a question from Cassidy about the differences between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage that people have the choice “right now,” though he said he expects more people would like to be on Medicare Advantage if it wasn’t for the more expensive price.
Another, potentially damaging exchange for Kennedy’s confirmation prospects, came when Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet asked a series of questions about previous statements Kennedy has made on various public health issues.
“Mr. Kennedy, did you say that COVID-19 was a genetically engineered bioweapon that targets Black and white people, but spared Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people?” Bennet asked.
Kennedy responded that he “didn’t say it was deliberately targeted.”
Kennedy said he “probably” had made comments that Lyme disease was a military engineered bioweapon.
Kennedy said he wasn’t sure if he had written in one of his books that it is “undeniable that African AIDS is an entirely different disease from Western AIDS,” following a question from Bennet.
Kennedy, however, denied making statements that pesticides cause children to become transgender.
Bennet said he would have those prior Kennedy statements entered into the committee’s official record.
Howard Lutnick, President Donald Trump's nominee for Commerce secretary, during his Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation confirmation hearing in the Russell Senate Office Building on Jan. 29, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Billionaire businessman Howard Lutnick got a step closer to potentially serving as the next Commerce secretary after largely sailing through his confirmation hearing Wednesday before a U.S. Senate panel.
If confirmed by the Senate, which appears likely, Lutnick would lead the department responsible for promoting and serving the country’s international trade and economic growth. He would be critical to carrying out President Donald Trump’s vision for imposing big tariffs.
“We need healthy businesses — small, medium and large — to hire our great American workers to drive our economy,” Lutnick told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
The New Yorker said he would dedicate himself to “making our government more responsive, working to ensure Americans have the greatest opportunity for success.”
During the lengthy hearing that featured questions from senators on both sides of the aisle regarding artificial intelligence, trade policy, manufacturing and export controls, Lutnick said he believes that the country’s farmers, ranchers and fishermen are “treated with disrespect around the world.”
Lutnick, who prefers “across the board” tariffs, said “we need that disrespect to end, and I think tariffs are a way to create reciprocity, to be treated fairly, to be treated appropriately, and I think it will help our farmers, our ranchers, our fishermen — to flourish.”
The Commerce Department’s wide portfolio also touches on technology, science and innovation.
Some of the department’s 13 bureaus include the International Trade Administration, the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The department is also responsible for carrying out the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which authorizes billions of dollars in funding for the production and research of semiconductors in the United States.
Lutnick said he thinks the CHIPS and Science Act was an “excellent down payment” in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and noted that “we need to study it.”
Lutnick also said he has a “very jaundiced view” regarding China. “I think they only care about themselves and seek to harm us, and so we need to protect ourselves — we need to drive our innovation — and we need to stop helping them.”
Vice President J.D. Vance praised Lutnick during an introduction of the nominee, dubbing him “just a good dude.”
Vance, who served on the commerce panel while a U.S. senator representing Ohio, said Lutnick “is a person who on the world stage will say more and do more and convince businesses that America is back — that America is growing and thriving.”
Trump is promoting an “America First Trade Policy” and issued a memo last week that called for the Treasury secretary, in consultation with the Commerce and Homeland Security secretaries, to consider the establishment of an External Revenue Service.
The agency would “collect tariffs, duties, and other foreign trade-related revenues,” according to the memo.
Trump also directed the Commerce secretary to “investigate the causes of our country’s large and persistent annual trade deficits in goods.”
Lutnick, who’s taken heat over his business ties and potential conflicts of interest, vowed to sell all his business interests within 90 days, if confirmed.
“I made the decision that I made enough money in my life,” Lutnick said. “I can take care of myself, I can take care of my family. It is now my chance to serve the American people.”
He currently has or previously had a position in more than 800 organizations and businesses outside the government, according to his financial disclosure report.
Lutnick is the chairman and chief operating officer of Cantor Fitzgerald, a large financial services firm. He rebuilt the company after more than 650 employees, including his brother, died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
He also established a multimillion-dollar fund for the families of the victims.
Surrounded by members of Congress and the family of Laken Riley, President Donald Trump signs the Laken Riley Act, the first piece of legislation passed during his second term in office, in the East Room of the White House on Jan. 29, 2025, in Washington, D.C. U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, a Georgia Republican who represents the district where Riley was killed, is at far left. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump Wednesday signed into law the first bill of his second term, a measure that would require immigration officials to detain immigrants arrested or charged with property crimes, among others, and give broad legal authority to state attorneys general to challenge federal immigration law.
“Today’s signings bring us one step closer to eradicating the scourge of migrant crime in our communities once and for all,” Trump said.
Immigration advocates and attorneys have warned the bill would help fuel Trump’s promise to enact mass deportations by requiring the detainment of immigrants charged with property crime. ICE has funding for roughly 41,000 detention beds.
During the ceremony, Trump said that he will also sign a directive Wednesday to instruct the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security to prepare for a migrant detention center in Guantanamo Bay to hold up to 30,000 beds.
“We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” Trump said. “Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them, because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo. That’s a tough… place to get out of.”
From 1994 to 1996, the U.S. government used Guantanamo Bay to detain more than 30,000 Cubans fleeing due to political instability and economic downturn. In 2002, former President George W. Bush used the site to hold terrorism suspects who could be detained and interrogated without restraint following the Sept. 11 attacks.
DHS did not respond to States Newsroom’s questions about a new detention center in Guantanamo Bay. The facility has typically been used to detain asylum seekers on the way to the United States, rather than to move people already in the country to the naval base.
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan told reporters that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would run the naval base.
“We’re just going to expand upon the existing migrant center,” Homan said.
The bill Trump signed is named after a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student, Laken Riley, who was murdered by a man immigration officials say was in the country without authorization and was previously charged with shoplifting.
“We will keep Laken’s memory alive in our hearts forever, everyone’s hearts with today’s action,” Trump said. “Her name will also live forever in the laws of our country and this is a very important law.”
Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, was also at the signing and thanked Trump for the bill.
“There’s no amount of change that will ever bring back our precious Laken,” she said. “Our hope moving forward is that her life saves lives.”
Trump criticized the Biden administration’s immigration policy and blamed it for Riley’s death.
“Under the cruel policies of the last administration, instead of being deported as he should have been, he was released into the United States, as were millions of other people, many of them very dangerous people, and you see what we’re doing, we’re getting (them) the hell out of here,” Trump said.
Senate Republicans also expanded the mandatory detention requirements originally for property crime, like shoplifting or burglary, to include the assault of a law enforcement officer and bodily harm to another person.
Trump praised Alabama GOP Sen. Katie Britt for shepherding the bill in the upper chamber.
He also called on Congress to provide his administration with funding to carry out deportations.
“We need Congress to provide full funding for the complete and total restoration of our sovereign borders, as well as financial support to remove record numbers of illegal aliens,” Trump said.
ICE has estimated the cost of enforcing the Laken Riley Act would be $26.9 billion in its first year, according to NPR. The budget for ICE for fiscal year 2024 is about $9 billion.
The bill gained bipartisan support, despite concerns from immigration advocates and attorneys who warned the measure would scuttle due process rights for immigrants, and give state attorneys general the authority to question the bond decision of immigration judges.
Additionally, there is no carve-out for immigrant children in the bill, meaning they could be detained and not released on bond. Immigration attorneys have argued that while the bill aims to target people in the country without proper authorization, it would ensnare some immigrants with legal statuses that are discretionary such as humanitarian parole and even Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, colloquially called Dreamers.
The Trump administration last week, gave immigration officials the authority to cancel humanitarian parole — a discretionary status — for immigrants who arrived in the U.S. within the last two years. That would include the roughly 1.5 million immigrants the Biden administration allowed into the U.S. through various legal pathways.
And legal advocates this week said they were barred from providing legal services in detention centers and had their Justice Department funding cut that provided assistance to immigrants navigating immigration court proceedings.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday also revoked an extension for temporary protections for about 600,000 Venezuelans.
Trump praised Noem for her work so far. Earlier this week, Noem was in New York City earlier accompanying ICE on raids.
“I know it’s probably not complimentary, because she is a woman, but she is tough,” Trump said of Noem.
President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s latest actions included an offer to buy out a large swath of the federal workforce, and an order narrowing medical options for transgender children, and some transgender adults.
Millions of government employees received an email Tuesday evening instructing them to reply with the word “resign” by Feb. 6 for a “dignified, fair departure” that promises full pay and benefits through September 2025, with the option of continuing to work from home.
The offer was not extended to military personnel, U.S. Postal Service workers, or “those in positions related to immigration enforcement and national security,” and other “specifically excluded” jobs.
According to a copy of the email reviewed by States Newsroom, those who choose to remain as part of the “reformed federal workforce” will be expected to return to the office in person five days a week and be “reliable, loyal, trustworthy” employees.
Workers who break the law or engage in “other misconduct will be prioritized for appropriate investigation and discipline, including termination,” according to the email.
The unsigned memo also warns that while some federal agencies and military branches may grow, the administration expects others to shrink.
“At this time we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the protections in place for such positions,” according to the email, which was sent from hr@opm.gov.
The offer drew criticism, including from Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who said on the Senate floor Wednesday that Trump “has no authority to make that offer.”
The American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents 800,000 federal and D.C. employees, advised its members in a social media post to “NOT to make a hasty decision to resign until you have further details.”
A statement from the union’s national president, Everett Kelley, said the “purging” of government workers will have “vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government.”
“This offer should not be viewed as voluntary. Between the flurry of anti-worker executive orders and policies, it is clear that the Trump administration’s goal is to turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to,” Kelley said.
The federal government employs around 3 million people, making it the 15th-largest employer in the country, according to USAFacts.org.
Adding to a cascade of executive orders signed during his first nine days in office, Trump issued a directive late Tuesday that aims to limit treatment options for transgender children and adults under the age of 19.
The dictate is the latest in a string of orders by Trump to govern gender from the Oval Office.
On Monday, Trump banned openly transgender people from serving in the armed forces. On the night of his inauguration, the president declared the federal government will only recognize two sexes, male and female, ending “gender ideology extremism.”
According to Trump’s latest gender-related order, the government will “not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
The order defines a “child” as being under age 19, although most states recognize 18 as the legal age of adulthood.
Under the directive, heads of federal health agencies must pull research and educational grants from any medical schools or hospitals that continue to offer hormone treatments, often called puberty blockers, or gender transition surgery to patients under 19 years old.
Additionally, the order directs the U.S. attorney general — who will likely be former Florida AG Pam Bondi — to work with Congress on legislation that would “enact a private right of action for children and the parents of children whose healthy body parts have been damaged by medical professionals” who prescribed hormone treatments or transition surgery. The legislation should “include a lengthy statute of limitations,” the order states.
The decree also instructs the Department of Justice to “prioritize” investigating cases of female genital mutilation, prosecutable under a federal law meant to protect girls in the United States from the religious or cultural custom of removing portions or all of the genitalia.
Trump’s order ensures that neither Medicare nor Medicaid can cover hormone therapy and certain surgical procedures for recipients under 19, and that insurance benefits offered to federal employees also do not offer coverage for those under 19 receiving the specified treatments.
The directive also mentions a ban on such health coverage for the trans children of U.S. service members, but that prohibition was already made explicit in Congress’ most recent annual defense authorization package.
The executive order titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” gives the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services three months to publish a review of “best practices for promoting the health of children who assert gender dysphoria, rapid-onset gender dysphoria, or other identity-based confusion” — but specifically labels any guidance from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health as “junk science.”
Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as the nation’s next health secretary.
Then-President Joe Biden visited Milwaukee in October 2024 to announced a new rule requiring the replacement of all lead water pipes in the U.S. by 2037. On Wednesday, Attorney General Josh Kaul announced Wisconsin is joining nine other states and D.C. to defend the rule. (Oct. 8, 2024 screenshot/White House livestream)
Wisconsin has joined with nine other states and the District of Columbia to defend the federal lead and copper water rule that took effect Dec. 30, tightening standards for lead exposure and requiring water systems across the county to replace lead pipes by 2037.
The new rule, which then-President Joe Biden announced in Milwaukee in October, has been challenged by the American Water Works Association, a trade group for water and wastewater utilities.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice announced Wednesday the state was joining the legal effort to intervene in the lawsuit in support of the rule. Other states in the coalition are California, New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and North Carolina, along with D.C.
“Reducing lead in our drinking water shouldn’t be controversial,” Attorney General Josh Kaul said. “This common-sense rule that helps protect people’s health should remain in place.”
Lead exposure has been identified as a health hazard, especially for children, and has been linked to premature birth, damage during brain development and learning disabilities, delayed physical development in children and cardiovascular and kidney problems in adults. No amount of lead in drinking water is safe, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
On Tuesday, Gov. Tony Evers approved an emergency rule from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) to lower the threshold for lead poisoning to 3.5 micrograms per deciliter. The change makes more children and families eligible for intervention to diagnose and treat lead poisoning.
Evers has announced plans to seek a $6.2 million increase for local health departments, some of that to address lead poisoning, in the 2025-27 state budget that he will release in February.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during her confirmation hearing before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill on Jan. 17, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security late Tuesday revoked an extension of temporary protective status for nearly 600,000 Venezuelans, according to an unpublished Federal Register document obtained by States Newsroom.
The New York Times first reported on the decision.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, whom the U.S. Senate confirmed to lead the agency on Saturday, canceled the 18-month protections of temporary protected status. A country under TPS is deemed too dangerous to return to due to war, disaster or other unstable conditions.
It means more than 600,000 Venezuelans, who had TPS status renewed until October 2026, due to a last-minute action by former President Joe Biden, will have that extension undone. It comes as President Donald Trump has directed his administration to carry out highly publicized immigration enforcement actions in cities across the United States.
The president has said his administration will conduct mass deportations of undocumented people as well as immigrants let into the country under various legal pathways crafted under the Biden administration, including the TPS extension for Venezuelans.
The decision to revoke the renewal is effective immediately, according to the document.
Because of the instability of the Venezuelan government, those nationals have fled to the U.S. in recent years, with TPS designation in 2021 and an expanded redesignation in 2023, creating two separate filing processes for people from the same country.
Venezuelans who had TPS status in 2023 will have protections until April 2, and Noem will have until Saturday to make a decision to extend protections, according to the document.
Those nationals from Venezuela who had TPS status in 2021 will have protections until Sept. 10, and Noem will have until July 12 to make a decision about renewing the designation, according to the document.
In the document, Noem argued that former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas made his decision to renew TPS for Venezuela too early as her reasoning for revoking the extension.
The move is likely to face legal challenges. During the first Trump administration, DHS tried to end TPS for Haiti, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Sudan, but the courts blocked those attempts in 2018.
In a statement, Nevada’s Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto argued that DHS did not have the legal authority to revoke the TPS extension for Venezuela.
“The Trump administration does not have the authority to revoke this TPS extension – it’s cruel, misinformed, and illegal,” she said.
Noem noted in her confirmation hearing that she disagreed with the Biden administration’s decision to renew TPS recipients from Venezuela. She criticized the TPS program, and said those countries should have their designation reevaluated.
“This program has been abused and manipulated by the Biden administration, and that will no longer be allowed,” Noem said during her confirmation hearing.
There are currently 17 countries under TPS status – Afghanistan, Burma, Cameroon, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Lebanon, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela and Yemen.
Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during her confirmation hearing for U.S. attorney general in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Jan. 15, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Former Florida Attorney General Pamela Jo Bondi is one step closer to leading the U.S. Department of Justice after senators on Wednesday advanced her nomination.
Lawmakers on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary voted along party lines, 12-10, to send Bondi’s nomination to the full Senate. A final vote for President Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney general has not yet been scheduled.
Committee Chair Chuck Grassley of Iowa spoke ahead of the vote to address “some of the attacks against Ms. Bondi,” including her responses to Democratic committee member questions asking her to affirmatively state that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election.
“Several members of this committee characterized Ms. Bondi as an election denier. This is inconsistent with her own statements because on multiple occasions during her hearing Ms. Bondi stated that Biden was the president, and that she, quote unquote, ‘accepted the results,’” Grassley said.
Grassley also slammed Democrats’ criticism that Bondi’s loyalty to Trump is “somehow disqualifying.”
“The president has the right to choose an attorney general who is loyal and will faithfully carry out the vision for America that this president ran on,” Grassley said.
The committee’s top Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said Trump’s recent Justice Department firings only amplify concerns.
“As I said during Ms. Bondi’s hearing, it is absolutely critical that any nominee for the position be committed, first and foremost, to the Constitution and the American people, not the president and his political agenda. Unfortunately, I’m unconvinced that Ms. Bondi shares my belief,” Durbin said.
Senators questioned Bondi for nearly five hours on Jan. 15, ahead of Trump’s inauguration and his whirlwind of executive orders that included granting clemency to all Jan. 6 defendants.
The career prosecutor faced questions about how she would advise Trump on pardoning violent offenders who attacked law enforcement while breaking into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“I’m not going to speak for the president, but the president does not like people that abuse police officers either,” Bondi told Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina when he questioned her about the expected pardons.
Graham later spoke out against Trump’s clemency for violent Capitol rioters.
Democrats also pressed Bondi during her hearing on whether she would refuse a request from Trump to dole out political retribution against his political enemies.
In early December the president-elect told NBC News’ “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker” that Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson and former top-ranking Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming “should go to jail.” Thompson chaired and Cheney co-chaired the U.S. House select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.
Biden granted all members of the Jan. 6 committee a preemptive pardon hours before he left the White House.
Grassley said Wednesday before voting on Bondi that “there’s no reason to think that she would not follow the law.”
Bondi was a vocal supporter of Trump’s false claims that he had won the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania. She also advised Trump during his first impeachment trial in 2019.
Bondi served as the top law enforcement officer in Florida from 2011 to 2019 and as a prosecutor in Hillsborough County for 18 years.
Bondi, an experienced law practitioner, was not Trump’s first choice to lead the Justice Department. Rather, the president initially chose Matt Gaetz, the former Florida congressman accused of sex with a minor. Gaetz resigned from the U.S. House hours after Trump selected him and withdrew his name from the AG running a week later.
President Donald Trump attends inauguration ceremonies in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — A second federal judge appears ready to issue an order blocking the Trump administration from freezing funding on grant and loan programs, despite a move by the Office of Management and Budget to rescind a controversial memo Wednesday just before the hearing.
Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island opted not to issue his ruling during the virtual hearing, saying that he first wanted the Democratic attorneys general who filed the suit to suggest how such an order might be worded. He then wants to hear from the Justice Department lawyer arguing the case on behalf of the Trump administration about the scope of that possible order.
McConnell, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, said the state attorneys general had convinced him that the Trump administration was likely to continue with the funding halt detailed in the now-revoked OMB memo in some way, based on a social media post from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“That hasn’t changed based on comments by the president’s press secretary,” McConnell said. “And so I’m inclined to grant the restraining order, though I’m struggling with how it would be worded and what effect it would have.”
A ruling from McConnell would be the second order blocking the Trump administration from implementing a spending pause on certain grant and loan programs.
District Judge Loren L. AliKhan on Tuesday issued a short-term administrative stay preventing President Donald Trump’s administration from starting the spending freeze. She then set a hearing in that case, brought by organizations that receive federal funding, for Feb. 3.
The original memo, released Monday evening by the Office of Management and Budget, led to widespread confusion and frustration among organizations like Meals on Wheels and grantees that rely on funding from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, as well as members of Congress from both political parties.
The Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget rescinded that memo Wednesday, though comments from Leavitt just afterward led to even more confusion just before the hearing began.
Leavitt wrote in a social media post that OMB rescinding the memo was “NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze.”
“It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo,” Leavitt wrote. “Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction.”
“The President’s EO’s on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented,” she added.
Separately, Leavitt issued a written statement to reporters that seemed to suggest rescinding the OMB funding freeze memo was meant to get around AliKhan’s order.
“In light of the injunction, OMB has rescinded the memo to end any confusion on federal policy created by the court ruling and the dishonest media coverage,” Leavitt wrote in a statement. “The Executive Orders issued by the President on funding reviews remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented by all agencies and departments. This action should effectively end the court case and allow the government to focus on enforcing the President’s orders on controlling federal spending. In the coming weeks and months, more executive action will continue to end the egregious waste of federal funding.”
Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, welcomed OMB’s action before Leavitt’s post and the hearing.
“I am pleased that OMB is rescinding the memo imposing sweeping pauses in federal programs,” Collins wrote in a statement. “While it is not unusual for incoming administrations to review federal programs and policies, this memo was overreaching and created unnecessary confusion and consternation.”
Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., released a statement that the Trump administration reversal was the right decision. That was also before Leavitt weighed in.
“This is an important victory for the American people whose voices were heard after massive pressure from every corner of this country — real people made a difference by speaking out,” Murray wrote. “Still, the Trump administration — through a combination of sheer incompetence, cruel intentions, and a willful disregard of the law — caused real harm and chaos for millions over the span of the last 48 hours which is still ongoing.”
OMB’s decision to rescind the memo Wednesday followed the White House making public assurances Tuesday that the spending freeze wouldn’t impact Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and direct food assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Two separate lawsuits seeking to block the OMB memo from taking effect on Tuesday evening at 5 p.m. were filed in federal district court.
The lawsuit filed by the National Council of Nonprofits, American Public Health Association and Main Street Alliance led to federal District Court Judge AliKhan placing a temporary hold on the planned spending freeze until Feb. 3 at 5 p.m.
The second lawsuit, heard Wednesday, was filed by Democratic attorneys general from New York, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany speaks to voters on Jan. 27 at a listening session on the campus of UW-Eau Claire Barron County. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
RICE LAKE — On Monday, as a barrage of executive orders and policy changes from the new Donald Trump administration made headlines, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany criss-crossed his district holding listening sessions with constituents. Despite the sea change in Washington, many residents were focused on local issues outside the frenzy of attention, even as the White House took aim at programs the voters in this deep red part of the state said they rely on.
At Tiffany’s event in Rice Lake, held on UW-Eau Claire’s Barron County campus, the discussion touched on energy, government health care, COVID-19 interventions and Division III college hockey.
Dale Seidlitz complained to Tiffany that he and his brother-in-law were struggling with the disability compensation programs offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs and how payment amounts are calculated.
Seidlitz said he was a helicopter pilot for the Marines and did stints flying Marine One for Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. He said that he has a lingering hand injury, hearing loss and issues related to exposure to toxic chemicals at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, but the VA won’t provide the full amount of compensation he’s qualified for.
“It’s this wonky math that they do for compensation that really needs to be overhauled,” Seidlitz said. “It’s not just about me, it’s about all veterans at the VA.”
Tiffany directed Seidlitz to his staff, saying, “it’s always a priority with veterans.”
Shortly after Tiffany promised to help his constituent navigate the VA bureaucracy, the White House Office of Management and Budget released a memo announcing the freezing of all federal financial assistance, including the VA’s disability compensation program.
The memo immediately drew legal challenges including from Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, on the grounds that the president has no authority to prevent money appropriated by Congress from being spent. A federal district judge ruled Tuesday the Trump administration must wait until at least next week before it can move forward with pausing federal spending on trillions in grants and loans, though she emphasized the short-term administrative stay might not continue after a Feb. 3 hearing.
During Tiffany’s listening session in Rice Lake, Jennifer Jako, director of Barron County’s Aging and Disability Resource Center, told Tiffany that she was concerned about cuts that Republicans and Trump have proposed to Medicaid in order to pay for an extension of the tax cuts signed into law by Trump during his first term. Jako added that she’s heard Congress is considering $2 trillion in cuts.
Jako said that Medicaid funding makes up about half of her office’s budget and helps the county — where 40% of the population is older than 60 — provide important services to people of every income level.
“I just want to make sure you are aware that if we’re talking that large of Medicaid cuts, it will probably have some pretty big effects on a lot of those kinds of long-term care services and supports,” she said.
Tiffany said that the $2 trillion proposal is over a 10-year period, so as part of the annual Medicaid budget would only be $200 billion per year, before pivoting to saying the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, shouldn’t be available to people who are capable of working.
“Now, if you’re able bodied and you can work, you should not be on a program that’s paid for by you, the taxpayers of the United States,” he said. “We’re all willing to give a hand up, help someone out for a little while, but that shouldn’t be a way of life, and we’re also trying to get at that, because the estimates that I’ve seen is there’s five to 10 million people in America that are able bodied, that should be working and are collecting benefits, including sometimes Medicaid benefits, that really shouldn’t be getting those. And so that’s really what we’re trying to get at, is that those who legitimately deserve the help that we make sure that they get them.”
Tiffany also said that many of the proposed cuts to Medicaid should be focused on rooting out fraud and abuse in the program, saying that “hundreds of billions of dollars” of taxpayer funds meant to be used for Medicaid are going to “foreign actors that have figured out how to break into the American system. They’re hacking into the system.”
Among the programs for which the White House has attempted to freeze funding is the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
On Monday evening, Tiffany held a town hall event in New Richmond to discuss a proposed solar farm in the area and promote his bill which would prevent energy companies from receiving tax subsidies for building a solar installation if it is constructed on working agricultural land. During the Rice Lake event, he also emphasized efforts to increase energy production in Wisconsin and around the country.
Tiffany, who has taken a personal interest in local land use debates in his district, complained about the Bad River Tribe’s efforts to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5 natural gas pipeline, which runs through northern Wisconsin. He also said that he supports easing permitting requirements for all sorts of energy sources, including natural gas and nuclear power plants, because the country needs to produce more energy — although domestic oil and gas production is already at its highest ever levels.
“If you think climate change is real, nuclear is one of the ways in which we can have that base load power that will fill in the gaps,” he said. “If we’re going to continue to move with the wind and solar and the intermittent sources of power, you’ve got to have something that’s base load, and nothing’s more base load than nuclear.”
Login