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Voters approved about 55 percent of the 89 referendums across the state, leaving 45 percent of districts now scrambling to figure out what’s next. 

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In western Wisconsin, an online design library offers the local community ideas to build small housing units on the existing property of a home.

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Martin travels to Papua New Guinea to experience life among the subsistence farmers of the Trobriand Islands; he visits the volcanic isle of New Britain, where he’s reminded of the […]

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Country singer Wynonna delivers a career-spanning performance of solo hits, Judds classics and new music.

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Marie Antoinette wants to protect her future; Louis questions the paternity of the child.

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The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., is pictured on Feb. 25, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans, in the early morning hours Saturday, approved their budget resolution that will aid the party in maintaining the 2017 tax cuts but also paves the way for them to add nearly $6 trillion to the deficit under an outside analysis.

The 51-48 vote sends the compromise measure to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., hopes to adopt the tax-and-spending blueprint within the next week. No Democrats backed the bill and no Democratic amendments were accepted during an overnight marathon voting session.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul were the only two Republicans who voted against the resolution, which needed only a majority vote under the complicated process being used in the Senate.

The lengthy voting session, known as the vote-a-rama, included debate on 28 amendments, with one adopted.

Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan was the only member of either party to have their change agreed to, following a 51-48 vote. His amendment addressed Medicaid, which has become a flash point in the battle over the budget this year, as well as Medicare.

Sullivan said his proposal would strengthen Medicaid, the state-federal health program for lower-income people that House GOP lawmakers are looking at as one place to cut spending, and Medicare, the health insurance program for seniors and some people with disabilities.

“We should all want to weed out waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid and Medicare, and we must keep these programs going. We should do both,” Sullivan said.

Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden spoke against the amendment, saying it didn’t clearly define which “vulnerable people” would have their access to Medicare and Medicaid protected.

“By not defining the vulnerable, the Sullivan amendment is code for states to cut benefits or kick people off their coverage altogether,” Wyden said. “To me, the Sullivan amendment basically says if somebody thinks you’re not poor enough, you’re not sick enough, or you’re not disabled enough, we’re not going to be there for you.”

Democrats unsuccessfully offered messaging amendments dealing with everything from Social Security phone service to the minimum wage to contracts with farmers.

‘Start the game’

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said during a floor speech Friday the budget resolution will clear the way for lawmakers to extend the 2017 tax cuts permanently, bolster federal spending on border security and defense, rewrite energy policy and cut spending.

“The resolution opens up that process that will be done by the House and Senate authorizing committees,” Graham said. “So this doesn’t do anything other than start the game and it’s time this game started.”

Wyden, ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, vehemently opposed the budget resolution, saying the tax cuts it sets up would predominantly help the wealthy.

Wyden argued the tariffs that President Donald Trump has instituted would negate any potential positive impacts of the upcoming GOP tax cuts. The tariffs sent markets diving on Friday for a second day in a row.

“People following along at home are going to hear a lot of sweet-sounding promises from Republicans about what they’re trying to accomplish,” Wyden said. “They claim their tax bill is just all unicorns and rainbows. They’ll say everybody is going to benefit from a tax cut and typical families will get the help they need. They’ll promise rising wages and a booming economy.

“It’s just not true. The reality is, unless you’re way out at the upper end of the income scale, any benefit you get from this Republican bill is going to get blown out of the water as the Trump tariffs continue to hike inflation.”

Paul said during floor debate that he was “concerned” about how his colleagues had written the measure.

“What worries me is that so many things in Washington are smoke and mirrors,” Paul said. “On the one hand, it appears as if all of this great savings is happening. But on the other hand, the resolution before us will increase the debt by $5 trillion.”

Paul offered an amendment that would have changed those instructions to set up a three-month debt limit extension, but it was not agreed to following a vote of 5-94.

Framework for tax hikes and policy bill

Congress’ budget isn’t a bill but a concurrent resolution, meaning it never goes to the president for a signature. Its various provisions take effect once both chambers vote to adopt the same version.

The budget resolution also doesn’t include any real money, just plans for the next decade.

But it does lay the groundwork for the GOP to use the complex reconciliation process to extend the 2017 tax law, much of which was set to expire at the end of this year.

Republicans plan to use that reconciliation bill to boost spending on border security and defense by hundreds of billions of dollars and make changes to energy policy.

The budget resolution also includes instructions to raise the debt limit by between $4 and $5 trillion later this year.

The reconciliation instructions give a dozen House committees and 10 Senate committees targets for how much they can increase the deficit or how much they need to cut spending when they draft their pieces of the package.

All of those panels are supposed to send their bills to the Budget committees before May 9, so they can be bundled together in one package and sent to the floor.

The House GOP set a minimum of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, while Republicans in the Senate set a floor of $4 billion in funding reductions. Those vast differences foreshadow an internal GOP struggle to achieve a final deal.

Nearly $6 trillion deficit increase

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office will ultimately calculate the deficit impact of the reconciliation bill once it’s written, but several outside organizations have said they disagree with how Republicans are moving forward. 

The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released an analysis Friday showing the reconciliation bill would increase deficits during the next decade by nearly $6 trillion.

“A $5.8 trillion deficit-increasing bill would be unprecedented,” CRFB’s analysis states. “It would add 14 times as much to the deficit than the bipartisan infrastructure law ($400 billion), more than three times as much as American Rescue Plan ($1.8 trillion), three times the 2020 CARES Act ($1.7 trillion), and nearly four times the original score of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ($1.5 trillion). In fact, it would add more to the deficit than all four of these major laws combined.”

Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank, wrote in a statement “the tax cuts called for in the budget plan are so expensive that deficits will rise substantially, raising economic risks associated with higher debt in service to expensive tax cuts skewed to the wealthy.”

“Policymakers need to course-correct and remember their campaign pledges to help ease families’ strained budgets, not contort the budget to the desires of the very wealthy,” Parrott wrote. “That would mean crafting a budget bill that doesn’t raise families’ health and grocery costs but instead invests in making health care more affordable and expands the Child Tax Credit to support families who face challenges affording the basics. These investments and lower deficits can be achieved by a sounder tax policy that requires corporations and the wealthy — who benefit enormously from public investments — to pay their fair share.”

An analysis from The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, called the GOP budget resolution a “fiscal train wreck.”

Romina Boccia, director of budget and entitlement policy, and Dominik Lett, a budget and entitlement policy analyst, wrote that Republicans need to start over.

“This budget isn’t just a missed opportunity; it actively worsens our nation’s debt trajectory,” they wrote. “The resolution abandons the House’s concrete spending reductions desperately needed in today’s high-debt environment, sets a dangerous precedent by adopting a so-called current policy baseline that hides the very real deficit impact of extending tax cuts, and adds hundreds of billions in new deficit spending. The Senate should go back to the drawing b

A man holds the Ukrainian and U.S. flags at a ceremony at the Holodomor Genocide Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 4, 2025, as the three-year anniversary of the Russian invasion neared. The memorial honors victims of a famine in Ukraine in 1932-33. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — Unknown numbers of Ukrainians received emails by mistake from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security saying their humanitarian protected status was being revoked and they would have to leave the United States within days, the agency said Friday.

“A message was sent in error to some Ukrainians under the U4U program. The U4U parole program has not been terminated,” a DHS spokesperson told States Newsroom, referring to the Uniting for Ukraine program.

Attorneys challenging the Trump administration’s pause of humanitarian applications for Ukrainians and Afghans, as well as the end of legal status programs for nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, filed a copy of the termination notice sent to Ukrainians in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts on Friday.

The notice, given on Thursday, instructs any Ukrainians in the Uniting for Ukraine humanitarian parole program to leave the U.S. within seven days of receiving the notice, according to court filings. 

“It is time for you to leave the United States,” according to the notice sent to some Ukrainians that immigration rights groups filed in court. “If you do not depart the United States immediately you will be subject to potential law enforcement actions that will result in your removal from the United States — unless you have otherwise obtained a lawful basis to remain here.”

The next hearing is set for Monday before U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama.

‘Numerous reports’ of erroneous emails

“Plaintiffs’ counsel have received numerous reports throughout the day today that other Ukrainian members of the putative class—potentially thousands—have received an identical letter, including individuals with approximately two years left on their parole period,” according to the brief by Justice Action Center, an immigrant rights group.

According to the brief filed Friday, attorneys with the Justice Action Center notified the Department of Justice attorneys handling the case. The lawyers said the response from those DOJ attorneys was “to say that they ‘have been looking into this’ but ‘don’t have any information to share yet.’”

The Biden administration’s renewed work and deportation protections for 103,700 Ukrainians are set to expire on Oct. 19, 2026.

Trump and Zelenskyy

In late February, President Donald Trump got into a heated exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a meeting at the White House, breaking with Ukraine and its resistance to Russia’s invasion more than three years ago.

Former President Joe Biden’s administration created temporary protections for Ukrainians because of Russia’s invasion of the country.

Trump’s history with Ukraine, which was at the center of his first impeachment when he halted security aid approved by Congress, and his friendly relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, have moved the U.S. further away from European allies who have coalesced around Ukraine’s fight for its democracy.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in early March denied that the Trump administration was revoking protections for Ukrainians.

“The truth: no decision has been made at this time,” Leavitt wrote on social media.

We are breathing in and ingesting tiny plastic particles called microplastics and nanoplastics all the time. According to a recent study, tissues in a typical adult brain contain the equivalent of a plastic spoon’s worth of plastic particles. In this episode, find out what all that plastic accumulating in our brains, arteries and reproductive systems could mean for our health--and what we can do about it.

Host: Amy Barrilleaux

Guest: Kayla Rinderknecht, Population Health Fellow, Clean Wisconsin

Resources for You: 

Microplastics in our Bodies: Exposures and Potential Health Harms

Under the Lens: Microplastics in our Environment and Our Bodies

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There were dozens of demonstrations planned across the state, including in Milwaukee, Kenosha, Green Bay and Eau Claire. 

The post Thousands across Wisconsin protest cuts under Trump, Musk appeared first on WPR.

Madison Hands Off protest on April 5, 2025. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Thousands of Wisconsinites joined rallies in Madison, Milwaukee and Green Bay Saturday, taking part in a national day of action with simultaneous events in more than 1,200 cities across all 50 states, according to the organizers of the “Hands Off!” The protests targeted President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the Trump administration’s deep cuts to federal funding for health care, science, the Social Security administration, education and other public goods. Indivisible, one of more than 150 participating civil rights, labor, LGBTQ and other groups, put out a statement saying the rallies were an effort “to let Trump and Musk know they can’t intimidate us into submission.”

In Madison, a massive crowd filled the lawns, sidewalks and streets on the State Street corner of the Wisconsin State Capitol, then marched the one-mile stretch to Library Mall on the University of Wisconsin campus. Organizers estimated more than 10,000 people participated.

Madison residents Jason and Aubrey, who declined to give their last names, said they were looking for a community with like-minded people. “We can be angry but it’s also fun to be out with people and it’s important to have joy in your life,” Aubrey said. She said she is concerned with rising income inequality and billionaires having control over social media and society.

“I’m scared for democracy and for the people I love who are going to be targeted by [Trump’s] immigration policies, his hatred of LGBTQ+ people. I felt kind of powerless and I think just being out here protesting, being in a really welcoming community — it’s what I can do right now,” Jason said. 

“Our next few years will be tough,” Charlene Bechen, a leader with the Oregon Wisconsin Area Progressives said. “MAGA leaders will launch attack after attack, perpetuate outrage after outrage, commit injustice after injustice with the goal of keeping us disoriented, demoralized and demobilized. We cannot allow that.” 

A ‘Forward’ band played several songs in the time leading up to the official start of the rally at noon. One of the band members — seen holding the megaphone — told rallygoers that they were there to “express our outrage at our current political situation.” 

“We’ve got some songs for you. You know what helps sometimes when you’re scared and you’re angry — dancing,” he said.  

Jim from Mazomanie said his chainsaw with “Hand Off” written on it was getting a little heavy, but it was fun to bring some smiles to faces. He said it represented “Elon Musk and his idiocy,” and said that Musk has “worn out his welcome in Wisconsin.”

“If we didn’t produce Tuesday,” Jim said, referring to the state Supreme Court election, in which liberal candidate Susan Crawford defeated Brad Schimel, whom Musk supported by pouring more than $25 million into the race, “[it] would be a whole different deal.” 

Luis Velasquez, an organizer for Voces de la Frontera, highlighted the attacks against immigrants by the Trump administration and the issue of local law enforcement being pushed to assist with deportation efforts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Velasquez told the crowd that he is a DACA recipient whose parents brought him to the U.S. as a child from El Salvador, but that no pathway to citizenship exists for him. 

“I’m proud of being an immigrant myself and we know that there are plenty of good stories… stories that have been ignored and abandoned that have been systematically discarded,” Velasquez said. “Here in this space today, we can say that migration is beautiful, and that here is our home for the millions of immigrants who have been here in the U.S.” 

Milwaukee protest

In Milwaukee, organizers estimated 5,000 people gathered in front of the Federal Building as police blocked the road. Democratic U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore told the crowd “I feel like I’ve been born again,” and compared the protest to the civil rights marches of the 1960s.  “We fought for voting rights back then. We fought for health care rights then. We fought for the right for our elders to live in decency. We fought for educational opportunity. And guess what y’all, when we fought, we won. And that’s one of the things that… that’s the good news. Right now we’re fighting, and we are winning.”

The Trump administration, Moore told the crowd, is “actively trying to dismantle Medicaid.” Next week, as the Republicans move to push through their budget reconciliation bill with steep cuts to programs, they need to hear from the public, she said.  

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of the immigrant workers’ rights group Voces de la Frontera, told the crowd, “This administration has made it clear from the beginning that they are taking a page from the fascist playbook, and treating immigrants as the scapegoat for the economic hardship that they are causing. They are trying to desensitize us to their cruelty, and to the humanity of others.”

Neumann-Ortiz talked about recent ICE arrests inside the Milwaukee County Courthouse, and called on county leaders to make the courthouse a safe zone from ICE arrests. “People will be afraid to come to the courthouse if that is not a protected zone,” she said. “And we know that these local fights are our frontline battles.” This is “where we have the most power” she added, saying it is imperative to win local struggles.

Calling out Trump administration detentions of political activists and deportations without due process to a notorious prison in El Salvador, Neumann Ortiz said,  “I know you’re as clear as I am that this is not just what they are doing to immigrants. They are paving a path, because that’s what they want to do to us.”

Cesar Hernandez of Voces spoke in support of unions and attacked Trump’s claim that undocumented immigrants are a drain on the U.S. economy. “In 2022 alone, undocumented folks contributed $2.2 trillion to our economy, not to mention paying $96.7 billion (with a ‘B’) in federal, state, and local taxes.” 

Community activist Vaun Mayes told the crowd, “Right now food pantries for the poor and in need are losing funding in cities like this one right here, where food deserts are prominent.” Social Security and health care are being gutted “in front of our eyes,” he said. He denounced the erasure of Black history in schools and the rise of white supremacist ideology. “Fight back we will. Defend one another we shall,” Mayes declared. “… ‘cause we are the true patriots. And we seek a new day and a place for all Americans in this nation to thrive.”

Green Bay protest

In Green Bay an estimated 1,500 demonstrators gathered at Leicht Park with signs  protesting tariffs, the stock market crash, and Trump administration downsizing of federal agencies, threats to Medicaid and cuts to education.

Pete Schwaba previews the 2025 Wisconsin Film Festival.

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Wisconsin Humanities oversees educational and cultural programming across the state. It's preparing to shut down after the Trump administration abruptly promised to cut off funding.

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Dr. Chris Eberlein of La Crosse welcomes the $22 million that Wisconsin will see as part of a settlement with Kroger over the opioid epidemic. But he said the state still has a lot to do before the crisis is over.

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