In this photo illustration, a pharmacist holds a COVID-19 vaccine. States and clinicians are working on getting correct information on vaccines to vulnerable groups amid shifting federal guidance. (Photo illustration by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The state health department is recommending COVID-19 vaccines for all Wisconsinites 6 months and older and authorizing pharmacies to give the vaccine without an individual prescription.

In addition, Wisconsin’s insurance regulator issued guidance to health insurance companies that the shots are to be provided without a patient co-payment.

Both department declarations were issued Tuesday following Monday’s executive order from Gov. Tony Evers to protect vaccine access.

At the Department of Health Services (DHS), Dr. Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer and state epidemiologist for communicable diseases, issued a standing medical order recommending the vaccine for all eligible Wisconsin residents this fall. With the order, no prescription is needed, DHS said.

The health department said its recommendation for the vaccine follows guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

States, public health organizations and agencies have been stepping in to recommend the vaccines for COVID-19 and for other communicable diseases following a shift at the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) away from vaccine recommendations under the administration of President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy, who has long embraced anti-vaccine views, has replaced the members of a CDC committee on vaccination with vaccine skeptics, and the body is expected to consider softening or eliminating some recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine and some childhood immunizations. 

The Food and Drug Administration has narrowed its recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine to people 65 or older, while public health advocates have called for maintaining the vaccine schedule for all ages.

The DHS order states it “is also intended to authorize vaccination for other groups for whom professional society guidance supports vaccination — such as children, adolescents, pregnant people, and healthy adults under 65 — even though these uses are considered ‘offlabel.’”

“Everyone in Wisconsin should be able to make the choice to protect themselves and their families against COVID-19, and that choice should be based on the best available science and medical recommendations,” DHS Secretary Kirsten Johnson said in a department statement. “As the federal government limits access to the vaccine, we want to reassure Wisconsinites that recommendations from our nation’s leading medical associations are clear, and we will work every day to support access to care and resources to help families make the best decisions on how to protect themselves from illness and disease.”

The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) said in a bulletin that based on “the evidence-based guidance” from DHS and state laws against discrimination in insurance coverage, “the commissioner continues to expect that all governmental self-funded and fully insured group health plans and individual health plans will cover, without cost sharing, all costs associated with administration of COVID-19 vaccinations for all policyholders.”

As power-hungry data centers proliferate, states are searching for ways to protect utility customers from the steep costs of upgrading the electrical grid, trying instead to shift the cost to AI-driven tech companies. (Dana DiFilippo/New Jersey Monitor)

Two environmental groups are warning state residents about the amount of energy and water that is set to be used following the construction of AI data centers in southern Wisconsin. 

In an analysis released Tuesday, Clean Wisconsin found that two data centers approved for construction in Ozaukee and Racine counties will consume enough energy to power 4.3 million homes — nearly double the 2.8 million housing units in the state. 

The first AI data warehouse, operated by Microsoft, is set to open next year in Mount Pleasant. The company has promised it will support 500 jobs. The $3.3 billion project is located at the site initially planned for Foxconn’s massive manufacturing plant. 

Further north in Ozaukee County, Denver-based Vantage Data Systems has acquired 700 acres of land in rural Port Washington. The company has planned a campus that will hold 11 data center buildings and five substations, according to concepts approved by the local government. 

Clean Wisconsin’s analysis found that these two projects will require a combined 3.9 gigawatts of power and hundreds of thousands of gallons of water to keep the buildings cooled. 

“To put this in perspective, that is more than three times the power production capacity of Wisconsin’s Point Beach nuclear plant,” Paul Mathewson, Clean Wisconsin science program director, who conducted the analysis, said in a statement. “And because only two of the data center projects have disclosed their power needs, we know this is really just a fraction of what the energy use would be if all those data centers are ultimately built.”

The power needs of the two sites are just the tip of the iceberg for the energy and water needs of data centers, which house the servers used to host chatbots such as Chat GPT, stream video and use social media. Microsoft has plans for a smaller data center in Kenosha County. Work is also underway on a data center on 830 acres in Beaver Dam reportedly for Facebook owner Meta. In addition, a Virginia-based company has eyed a site in Dane County, Wisconsin Rapids has plans for a $200 million data center and Janesville is seeking to build a center in a former General Motors assembly plant. 

A proposed project in Caledonia has been delayed following  local resistance to the project’s proposed rezoning of 240 acres of farmland. The community’s plan commission postponed a July vote on the proposal until later this month. 

Environmental advocates say local officials and the state’s power companies are rushing to attract data centers to Wisconsin based on the ambiguous promise of jobs without accounting for the effect they could have on a community’s water sources and energy needs. Increases in the amount of power used by the state could result in the state relying more heavily and for longer periods on non-renewable sources of energy and raise energy rates for households. 

‘More questions than answers’

“If data centers come to Wisconsin, they must benefit  — not harm — our communities. But right now, we have far more questions than answers about their impacts. How much energy and water will a project use? How will those demands be met? Will there be backup diesel generators on site and how often will they be fired up for testing? Our communities don’t have the transparency they need and deserve,” Chelsea Chandler, Clean Wisconsin’s climate, energy and air director said. 

Data centers also often emit a constant humming sound as the servers work inside, creating an irritating noise pollutant for neighbors.

Both the Mount Pleasant and Port Washington projects are close to Lake Michigan, raising further complications about the centers’ use of water and the protection of the Great Lakes. The Foxconn site in Mount Pleasant was already at the center of a controversial plan to divert 7 million gallons of water per day from Lake Michigan. 

“There has been very little transparency about the amount of water that will be used on site at these proposed data center campuses. Add to that a lack of transparency about energy use, and it’s impossible to know what the impact on Wisconsin’s water resources will be,” Sarah Walling, Clean Wisconsin’s water and agriculture program director said. “Communities need to know what the on-site demand will be on the hottest, driest days of the year when our water systems are most stressed. And we need to understand how much water will be needed off site to meet a data center’s enormous energy demands.”

Demanding water-use information from Racine

Earlier this week, Midwest Environmental Advocates filed a lawsuit against the city of Racine for records about the Mount Pleasant center’s projected water usage. Water for the center will be provided by the Racine Water Utility under an agreement with the village of Mount Pleasant. 

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Milwaukee Riverkeeper, is seeking to force Racine to hand over information about projected water usage requested through an open records request in February. In a news release, MEA noted that many companies constructing data centers across the country require that local governments sign non-disclosure agreements. 

The legal advocacy group noted that data centers can use as much water as a small to medium sized city and the public has a right to know the scale of water use. 

“Wisconsin law requires public officials to respond to public records requests ‘as soon as practicable and without delay.’ Yet more than six months after making their request, our clients are still waiting,” MEA legal fellow Michael Greif said. “This blatant disregard for the Public Records Law violates their rights and deprives them of the transparency they deserve. Community members have a right to know how much water a data center will use before it is built.”

Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray announces charges against Tyler James Robinson, 22, including aggravated murder, a capital offense, in the death of conservative commentator and activist Charlie Kirk. The charges were announced during a news conference at the Utah County Health & Justice Building in Provo, Utah on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)

Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray announced that his office has filed charges against 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, accused of shooting and killing conservative influencer Charlie Kirk during a crowded outdoor speaking event last week. 

Gray called Kirk’s death “an American tragedy” at a news conference in Provo on Tuesday, calling the shooting an offense against the state of Utah. He also expressed his concern for all those who were in the crowd at Utah Valley University and witnessed the attack. 

Robinson has been charged with multiple crimes, including one count of aggravated murder, which is a capital felony. If convicted, Robinson could face the death penalty — a sentence that Gray said he plans to pursue. 

“I do not take this decision lightly, and it is a decision I have made independently as county attorney based solely on the available evidence and circumstances and nature of the crime,” Gray said. 

Robinson is facing several penalty enhancements if convicted, including a “victim targeting” penalty that prosecutors are seeking because “Robinson intentionally selected Charlie Kirk because of (Robinson’s) belief or perception regarding Charlie Kirk’s political expression,” according to charging documents. 

Prosecutors also charged Robinson with two counts of obstruction of justice, second-degree felonies, and two counts of tampering with a witness, third-degree felonies. Robinson is accused of attempting to hide the rifle he allegedly used to shoot Kirk, disposing of his clothes and trying to encourage his roommate to “stay silent” if questioned by police, the charges say. 

Robinson is being held at the Utah County Jail without bail. He made his first court appearance at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, joining the virtual call with attorneys and Fourth District Judge Tony Graf from a jail cell. 

During the court appearance, Robinson only spoke once to state his name, sitting still and expressionless. While the judge read the charges that had been filed against him, Robinson at times nodded his head slightly, remaining stone-faced. 

The judge, after reviewing Robinson’s declaration of financial status, deemed him indigent, and he provisionally appointed a public defender to represent him in a case that could make Robinson the next inmate on Utah’s death row.  

Texts with roommate after shooting

Charging documents say police interviewed Robinson’s roommate, who told police about messages from Robinson. Officials haven’t named the roommate, who Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said “has been very cooperative with authorities.” 

On Sept. 10, the roommate received a text message from Robinson that said, “drop what you are doing, look under my keyboard.” 

“The roommate looked under the keyboard and found a note that stated, ‘I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I’m going to take it,’” the charging documents state.

After reading the note, the roommate responded in a text message: “What?????????????? You’re joking, right????”

Robinson replied that he would be stuck in Orem, Utah, for a while because he needed to retrieve his rifle, the documents state.

When the roommate asked Robinson why he shot Kirk, charging documents say Robinson responded, “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”

As the exchange went on, Robinson also said he had been planning to shoot Kirk for over a week, discussed engraving the bullets, talked about changing his clothes, and told his roommate to delete the text messages and not talk to media or police, according to the charging documents.

What parents told police

The charges also describe Washington County Sheriff’s Office investigators’ interviews with Robinson’s parents, who both saw photos law enforcement officials released of the suspected shooter during their 33-hour manhunt for Kirk’s killer. 

The day after the shooting, Sep. 11, Robinson’s mother saw the photos and “thought the shooter looked like her son.” 

“Robinson’s mother called her son and asked him where he was,” charging documents say. “He said he was home sick and that he had also been at home sick on September 10th. Robinson’s mother expressed concern to her husband that the suspected shooter looked like Robinson. Robinson’s father agreed.” 

Robinson’s mother also told police that “over the last year or so, Robinson had become more political and had started to lean more to the left.”

The charges also say that in one conversation with his parents before the shooting, Robinson mentioned that Kirk was expected to hold an event at Utah Valley University, “which Robinson said was a ‘stupid venue’ for the event.”

Robinson’s father told investigators that he also believed that the rifle that police suspected the shooter used matched a rifle that was given to his son as a gift. Based on Robinson’s text messages with his roommate included in the charging documents, that gun once belonged to his grandfather. 

Robinson’s father contacted his son and asked him to send a photo of the rifle, according to the charges. 

“Robinson did not respond. However, Robinson’s father spoke on the phone with Robinson,” the charges say. “Robinson implied that he planned to take his own life. Robinson’s parents were able to convince him to meet at their home.” 

While talking with his parents, charges say, “Robinson implied that he was the shooter and stated that he couldn’t go to jail and just wanted to end it.” 

“When asked why he did it, Robinson explained there is too much evil and the guy (Charlie Kirk) spreads too much hate,” charging documents say. “They talked about Robinson turning himself in and convinced Robinson to speak with a family friend who is a retired deputy sheriff. At Robinson’s father’s request, the family friend met with Robinson and his parents and convinced Robinson to turn himself in.” 

On Sept. 11, Robinson went to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in southern Utah with his parents and the family friend. 

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin | Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom

WASHINGTON — A trio of Senate Democrats urged Republican lawmakers at a Tuesday press conference to extend and make permanent the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits set to expire at the end of 2025.  

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, along with Sens. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, warned that the expiration of these credits would lead to “skyrocketing” costs for millions of enrollees unless the GOP-controlled Congress takes action. 

The credits are used by people who buy their own health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.

Stopgap spending bill

The extension is among congressional Democrats’ broader health care demands in order to back any stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown before the next fiscal year begins Oct. 1. 

House GOP leadership did not negotiate with Democrats on the seven-week stopgap funding bill released on Tuesday.

Schumer, alongside House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, said in a joint statement Tuesday that “the House Republican-only spending bill fails to meet the needs of the American people and does nothing to stop the looming healthcare crisis.” 

They added that “at a time when families are already being squeezed by higher costs, Republicans refuse to stop Americans from facing double-digit hikes in their health insurance premiums.” 

At the press conference, Baldwin called for legislation she and Shaheen introduced earlier this year that would make the enhanced premium tax credits permanent to be included in the stopgap government funding bill. 

“Time is of the essence — families and businesses are planning for next year, and we need to get this done,” Baldwin said. “The only question is whether Republicans will join us and stand for lower costs for families or not.” 

Shaheen said that “as we near the deadline for government funding, I hope that our colleagues here in Congress will join us, that they will act to extend these tax credits and to keep health insurance affordable for millions of Americans.” 

Premiums expected to soar without action

The enhanced premium tax credits, established by Democrats in 2021 as part of a massive COVID-19 relief package, were extended in 2022 through the Inflation Reduction Act. They are set to expire at the end of 2025.

Premiums, on average, for enrollees would soar by more than 75% if the credits expire, according to the nonpartisan health research organization KFF. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Tuesday at a press conference that “Republicans have concerns” about the credits because they have no income cap and certain high-income people can qualify for them. He also said Congress has until the end of the year to decide what to do.

At the Democrats’ press conference, Schumer said President Donald Trump “has taken a meat ax to our health care system,” adding that “it’s vicious, it’s cruel, it’s mean” and pointing to some of the repercussions of the GOP’s mega tax and spending cut law on Medicaid recipients. 

Meanwhile, open enrollment begins in November, meaning Congress would have to act before the end of the calendar year to avoid premium spikes.  

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson answers reporters' questions during a press conference in the Rayburn Room inside the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. Also pictured, from left to right, are California rancher and former president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association Kevin Kester; Wisconsin Republican Rep. Tony Wied; Republican Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn.; and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republican leaders released a seven-week stopgap government funding bill Tuesday that’s intended to avoid a shutdown when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. 

But GOP leaders opted not to negotiate the legislation with Democrats, who may be needed to approve the bill in the House and will be required to get past the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster. 

Democrats for weeks have called on Republicans to address what they view as critical health care issues, including the expiration of expanded Affordable Care Act tax credits at the end of the calendar year and the effects of the GOP’s “big, beautiful” law on Medicaid recipients.

Speaker Mike Johnson said during a press conference shortly before the bill was released that he views the ACA tax credits as “a December policy issue, not a September funding issue,” even though open enrollment begins in November. 

“They don’t expire until the end of the year and so we have until the end of December to figure all that out,” Johnson said. “But I can tell you that there’s real concern. I have concerns. Republicans have concerns about those policies. 

“If you look at how much they’ve been abused, in my estimation, in some ways. There’s no income cap on it. People who make $600,000 a year get a government subsidy for their health care. I don’t think that’s going to be a popular measure when people understand how that works. There’s a relatively small number of people that are affected by it. But that policy has real problems.”

The tax credits are used by people who purchase their own health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.

Schumer: Republicans ‘want to shut things down’

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said during a floor speech before the bill was publicly released that GOP leaders shouldn’t expect Democrats to help them advance any legislation they didn’t negotiate in a bipartisan way. 

“They can try and play the blame game, but their actions tell a different story. Their actions show clearly they want to shut things down because they don’t want to negotiate with Democrats,” Schumer said. “And it’s more than that. It means Republicans don’t want to help the American people with the crisis they’ve created raising people’s costs, particularly their health care costs.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the stopgap spending bill, which would keep the government running through Nov. 21, is needed to give lawmakers more time to work out final, bipartisan versions of the dozen full-year government funding bills. 

“The goal here should be to fund the government the way it was intended to be funded — through the normal appropriations process,” Thune said. 

House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Senate Appropriations ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., issued a joint statement shortly after the bill’s release, saying they’re ready to keep working with their Republican counterparts — House Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., and Senate Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine — on a bipartisan stopgap spending bill.

“Instead of continuing to work through important issues with us on the continuing resolution and government funding to help the middle class and the working class, House Republican leadership has walked away from negotiations and are now threatening a shutdown by trying to jam through a funding bill on their terms alone,” DeLauro and Murray wrote.

Security for members of Congress

The 91-page stopgap spending bill also includes $30 million in additional funds to bolster safety and security for members of Congress following an increasingly violent year that included the killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, the killing and attempted killing of Democratic state lawmakers in Minnesota as well as some of their family members and arson at the Democratic Pennsylvania governor’s mansion. 

Members of Congress, their staff and their families are subject to thousands of threats each year, according to data from the U.S. Capitol Police. 

Johnson told reporters shortly after his press conference that he views the member security funding as a start and that there will be “more to come” in the full-year Legislative Branch funding bill.

Johnson said he expects the House will vote on the stopgap bill before Friday, when both chambers of Congress are set to leave on a week-long break for the Rosh Hashanah holiday week. 

Lawmakers aren’t expected to return to Capitol Hill until Sept. 29, with just hours to avoid a partial government shutdown if they cannot approve a stopgap bill in the days ahead.

The legislation includes an additional $30 million for the U.S. Marshals Service, which is responsible for the safety of federal judges and courthouses, as well as $28 million “for the protection of the Supreme Court Justices.” A GOP summary of the bill says the Marshals Service funding will go toward “Executive Branch protective services.”

Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell, left, administers the oath of office to Lisa Cook, right, to serve as a member of the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve System during a ceremony at the William McChesney Martin Jr. Building of the Federal Reserve May 23, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — An appeals court late Monday rejected the Trump administration’s request to move ahead with firing Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook, as the president tries to pressure the independent board to lower interest rates. 

The 2-1 decision will allow Cook to partake in Tuesday’s Federal Reserve meeting, where the board will vote on whether to adjust interest rates. 

The Trump administration is likely to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. 

If Trump is successful in removing Cook and is able to nominate a replacement, he could have a majority of Fed members who are aligned with his desire to lower interest rates to boost the economy.

Trump nominee approved

Cook, appointed by former President Joe Biden, is the first Black woman appointed to the Fed, and she has consistently voted against lowering interest rates since joining the board in 2022. Her term ends in 2038. 

Late Monday, the U.S. Senate also approved Trump’s nominee for an open spot at the Fed, Stephen Miran, in a 48-47 vote.

While the Fed is an independent agency, Miran will continue to serve as the head of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers.

In a social media post Monday, the president called out Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, and pressed that he “MUST CUT INTEREST RATES, NOW, AND BIGGER THAN HE HAD IN MIND. HOUSING WILL SOAR!!!.”

Appeals court splits

In the appeals court decision on Cook, D.C. Circuit Judge Gregory G. Katsas, whom Trump appointed in 2017, split with Judges J. Michelle Childs and Bradley N. Garcia, both appointed by Biden.

Last week a federal judge ruled to keep Cook in her position, determining that Trump administration allegations of mortgage fraud lacked evidence and did not meet the threshold for removing Cook under “just cause.”

Katsas agreed with the Trump administration’s argument that the president has the right to remove a Fed member for “just cause.” 

“This broad definition ‘give[s] the President more removal authority than other removal provisions’ imposed by Congress or reviewed by the Supreme Court,” Katsas wrote in his dissent. 

Childs and Garcia did not address the “just cause” argument but said the lack of due process Cook received in her removal warranted blocking Trump’s attempt to fire her.  

“Because Cook’s due process claim is very likely meritorious, there is no need to address the meaning of ‘for cause’ in the Federal Reserve Act in this emergency posture,” the majority wrote in the opinion.

A Trump official referred Cook to the Department of Justice, accusing her of improperly filing paperwork about her residence that allowed her to get a more favorable mortgage rate. Reuters obtained Cook’s paperwork and found no evidence of tax rule violations. 

University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Lingjun Li, left, and Ph.D. candidate Lauren Fields show off some of the crabs used in Fields' research project on how neuropeptides relate to feeding. The NIH, which funded the project, canceled it in April. (Photo courtesy of Lingjun Li)

Lauren Fields was less than four months into a research project funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) when she got an email message from her program officer at the federal agency.

A doctoral candidate in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Fields has been studying the biochemistry involved in the feeding process of  a common crab species. She and her faculty supervisor believe the project can shed new light on problems such as diabetes and obesity in human beings.

The two-year research project started in early January 2025. But the April NIH message told Fields the funding was being cut off. It didn’t explain why.

“It just said changes to NIH/HSS policies and priorities,” Fields says. NIH operates under the umbrella of the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Fields contacted her program officer on April 9. “I tried to kind of probe further with my program officer and I didn’t get any further than that,” she says.

She and her project supervisor have a working hypothesis, however. Fields’ project was funded under an NIH program to ensure that more researchers come from backgrounds that have been historically under-represented and underserved. She won the award as a native of Appalachia and a first-generation college student. 

This past spring, that program was quietly shelved after an executive order from President Donald Trump on his first day in office put an end to all federal programs involving diversity, equity and inclusion.

Trump’s order called such efforts “radical and wasteful.” But Fields’ supervisor, UW Professor Lingjun Li, says measures to broaden the field of researchers can help ensure higher quality and more useful research findings.

“We believe that different, diverse backgrounds can actually bring unique and different perspectives to make our research enterprise better and stronger,” says Li. Li is on the faculty at the UW School of Pharmacy as well as at the Chemistry Department in the UW-Madison School of Letters and Science.

Feeding crabs to understand human biochemistry

Fields’ project examines the feeding behavior and process in the Jonah Crab, widespread in the coastal waters of North America. She wants to know how neuropeptides — molecules that send signals through the nervous system —  prompt them to start and stop feeding.

“Crabs actually have one of the most well characterized systems to understand feeding behavior in the animal kingdom,” Fields says. That’s why UW has been making use of the species in its research.

Fields says research such as hers is directly relevant for human conditions that relate to eating — “anorexia, obesity, diabetes — conditions like that.”

For example, the medication semaglutide, which includes the high-profile brand Ozempic and is used for diabetes control and to curb obesity, is understood to work by mimicking the neuropeptides involved in the human feeding process.

Thanks to similarities between the neurotransmitters in crabs and the neurotransmitters in mammals, researchers can use what they learn “from our humble crabs to understand feeding behavior in higher order organisms,” she says — including people.

The project as it was designed also made it possible for Fields to track the entire research process instead of it being spread out through several different labs. That’s not always possible, she says.

“So I do feed the crabs,” Fields says. “I do dissect the crabs and prepare the samples from the tissue and all the way through.”

She records mass spectrometer readings that produce relevant information about the neuropeptides at the center of her research, then analyzes the data at the end to make sense of the whole feeding process.

A personal connection

Fields feels a personal connection to the research because of where she grew up. “Appalachia has historically higher rates of diabetes and heart disease, also mental health disorders, and it’s also been kind of really impacted by the opioid epidemic,” she says. “These are things that I grew up with, that’s a very real part of my everyday experience.”

And that background “is something that I keep in the back of my head,” Fields says. “Even on a hard day, it tells me what I’m working towards is helping the people back home overcome these types of things and have new alternative solutions that are maybe more affordable.”

Fields’ project was funded through an NIH fellowship program known as F-31,  directed at pre-Ph.D. researchers, and a specific category within that program set aside as diversity awards.

According to a now-expired NIH description, the F31 Diversity awards were made “to enhance the diversity of the health-related research workforce by supporting the research training of predoctoral students from diverse backgrounds including those from groups that are underrepresented in the biomedical, behavioral, or clinical research workforce.”

In her own research field, examining Alzheimer’s disease, Li says there’s “abundant evidence”  that the condition affects different ethnic groups differently — both in the outcomes it produces and in the biomarkers that are used to track the progression of the illness in a patient.

“The intention is to really help to address some systematic inequities in biomedical research,” Li says.

A more diverse research workforce can elevate the importance of considering a more diverse group of patients, helping researchers “really get a full understanding of the disease,” she says. “And there’s a lot of talk about precision medicine, personalized medicine and certain types of treatment that will be more effective to certain populations than others.”

Fields says that to qualify for the diversity research grant, “you have to jump through several hoops to really illustrate to them that you are somebody that has faced challenges that would warrant the diversity fellowship.”

But the academic qualifications are no less rigorous than what the regular F-31 grants require, she adds. Fields first applied in December 2023 and went through the process of refining the application before it was finally approved. The funding officially began in January 2025.  

“You have to be in the very strict, top percentage of the applications that were submitted to even get funded,” Fields says. The sudden decision to cut her project short leaves “a message that has been kind of hard to swallow.”

A short-term reprieve

Fields did get a short-term consolation: While the project was canceled in April, she was told her funding for the current calendar year, $37,165, remained intact through December. But she was also told that the funds “can be terminated even earlier, which fortunately has not happened,” she says.

She has been able to continue the project, but she’s also had to accelerate it considerably.

“It’s now, OK, we need to hurry up and do the research with the time that we’re allotted,” Fields says — even as she has to watch over her shoulder in case the money is cut off sooner. “You have to move as fast as you can, or as efficiently as you can, because you don’t know when the rug is going to be pulled out from under you.”

The prospect of other funding to make up for the second year loss, also $37,165, is unlikely.

“That was a conversation that we’ve had several times along the way,” says Fields. “When I found out that it was terminated [NIH officials] said, ‘Oh we would love to help you apply for other opportunities,’” she recalls.

Considering how much time elapsed between her original application and the grant’s arrival, however, “it’s a little tricky,” Fields adds. “I think they were really just trying to be supportive, but at the same time, not super practical.”

Private funding seems an unlikely prospect, Fields and Li say, with competition escalating while federal options are being curtailed.

“Research funding in general is a lot more difficult to get,” says Li. “It’s pretty hard to find replacement funding right away.”

In the meantime, Fields’ next step is to seek a post-doctoral fellowship — a task made more challenging because of widespread academic hiring freezes prompted in the wake of federal research funding cancellations.

She still has her eye on a career in academia, where she hopes to pursue research on personalized medicine for people in Appalachia.

Li says Fields is far from alone in her experience. Some colleagues across the country who were awarded fellowships through the diversity program saw their awards canceled “either right before or just a couple of months after when they started,” Li says, and their projects have ended before they even started.

“There are quite a few people. A range of research groups and programs are being affected,” Li says. “This could have even a longer-term impact on our country’s biomedical research.”

State Sen. Kelda Roys calls attention to the issue of child care funding during a June press conference alongside her Democratic colleagues. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Democratic state Sen. Kelda Roys of Madison said she will fight back against “extremists” as she launched her campaign for governor Monday morning. 

Roys, 46, is now the fourth candidate to enter the open Democratic primary. She joins Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley as well as Mukwonago beer vendor Ryan Strnad.

“I’ve been protecting our freedoms when others didn’t even see the threat coming. That’s leadership. See the problem. Build the coalition, deliver results,” Roys said in her campaign announcement ad. “I’ve done it while raising five kids and running a small business, because when something matters, we find a way.” 

Roys gave two reasons for why she is running for governor in an interview with the Wisconsin Examiner. 

“I’m running because Wisconsin needs a governor who’s going to stand up to what the Republican regime is doing and protect Wisconsinites from the harms that they are causing us,” Roys said. “And also because this is a time of incredible opportunity for Wisconsin, and we need a governor who knows how to get things done, how to deliver meaningful change for families across the state.” 

Promising to push back on the Trump administration, Roys said that means that “as people are losing their health care coverage because of the federal budget, as farmers don’t have the workforce to help harvest their crops, as small businesses are struggling with the high cost and uncertainty caused by Trump’s policies, I’m going to do everything in my power to help Wisconsinites thrive.”

Roys said the Democratic Party is struggling with low approval ratings because people aren’t seeing Democrats do enough to combat Trump.

“When I talk to folks all around the state, it’s because people are angry that Democrats don’t seem to be meeting this moment and ringing the alarm bells the way that we need to be right now,” Roys said. 

Roys was elected to the Senate in 2020 and has served as one of four Democrats on the Joint Finance Committee, which is responsible for writing the state’s biennial budget, since 2023. Prior to this, she served two terms in the state Assembly, including one under former Gov. Jim Doyle and one under former Gov. Scott Walker. 

Roys said her experience in the Legislature would help inform the way she would lead as governor. 

“Much to my chagrin, when you look at the governors who have been effective at cementing their legacies into the law, it’s the governors that have come from the Legislature,” Roys said. “Tommy Thompson and Scott Walker are really the top examples that we have, because they understood how to work with the Legislature.” 

Roys said the makeup of the state Legislature will not change her determination to get things done, though she is “bullish” in her belief that the state Senate will flip Democratic in 2026 and possibly the state Assembly, too. 

“My feeling is that you’re never going to get anything done alone. You always are going to need a team, and the job of the governor is to build that so that you can make durable change, and I will continue to maintain a strong relationship with Republican and Democratic legislators,” Roys said. “As governor, I’m going to be always looking for opportunities to partner with the Legislature, to reach across the aisle, because this is a purple state.” 

Roys said her history shows her ability to advance her priorities, even in a Republican Legislature, and that is what sets her apart from other Democratic candidates in the race.

One accomplishment, she noted, was her experience as a law student working with the Wisconsin Innocence Project to help pass Act 60, a criminal justice reform law aimed at helping prevent wrongful convictions, in a Legislature dominated by Republicans. Roys also noted the when she was executive director of NARAL Wisconsin, she advocated for the passage of the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Act, which requires Wisconsin hospital emergency rooms to provide medically accurate oral and written information regarding emergency contraception to victims of sexual assault and to dispense emergency contraception upon request. 

Roys has been an outspoken advocate for reproductive rights during her service in the Legislature as well, calling for the repeal of the 1849 criminal law that ended abortion services in the state for a year and a half after Roe v. Wade was overturned, and the loosening of other abortion restrictions in the state.

Roys, who voted against the recent state budget, said she did so in part because of the lack of education funding. As governor, she said she would want to improve public education and ensure that “we’re not perpetually forcing our schools to go to their neighbors and ask them to raise their own property taxes just to keep the lights on and keep teachers in the classroom.”

Beyond funding, Roys laid out a couple of priorities for schools on her campaign website, including “using evidence-based learning, keeping smartphones out of the classroom, retaining high standards, engaging parents and community members as stakeholders and ensuring high quality professional development for educators.” 

This is Roys’ second time running. She came in third in the Democratic primary in 2018, when Evers was first elected, behind Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin. 

Wisconsin’s gubernatorial primaries are about 11 months away, scheduled for August 2026.  

The Republican primary is still taking shape as well. Whitefish Bay manufacturer Bill Berrien and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann have officially entered the race. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany has said he will make a decision about entering the race by the end of the month. 

Berrien said in a statement about Roys’ campaign launch that Wisconsinites were not going to “elect a career politician who views the governor’s mansion as another stepping stone in her career” and that voters had already rejected her “extreme, far-left policies and Medicare for All Agenda.”

“As governor, I’ll create prosperity for all through work because it doesn’t matter who the Democrats nominate, I will beat them,” Berrien said. 

Roys said she hadn’t seen Berrien’s full statement, but it sounded “laughable.”

“I’ve actually spent more of my career in the private sector than in the public, but I still have way more experience than any of the Republicans thinking of running for governor,” Roys said.

In the six-year gap between her service in the Assembly and Senate, Roys founded Open Homes, an online real estate service, in 2013, as a way to “lower fees and make it easier for people to buy and sell their homes,” according to her campaign announcement. She first got her real estate license at 19 when she lived in New York City to help pay for college, according to the business website.

As for Berrien’s charge that she is “extreme,” Roys says, “there is no place for violence or violent rhetoric in our politics, but you have to look no further than the President that these Republicans support, who has unleashed an incredible amount of violent rhetoric that is meant to scare and intimidate Americans who disagree with him, and it’s not just his words, but it’s his actions.”

Roys noted Trump’s pardons of January 6th insurrectionists. 

“I don’t know what you can call those pardons, if not a permission slip for violence,” Roys said. “I don’t want to hear one word from Republican candidates about extremism, until they denounce their own president and his contributions to the terrible situation that this country is in.”

Roys said the biggest challenge that Democrats face in competing statewide in 2026 is a group of “very, very well funded billionaires and right wing extremists that gerrymandered our state and have been trying to buy elections here for a generation.” She said she would work to combat that by “building a strong statewide grassroots campaign of people from across the political spectrum who want to see Wisconsin actually solve our problems and move forward again.”

Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order Monday that is aimed at protecting access to vaccines in Wisconsin. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)

Seeking to combat efforts of the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump administration, Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order Monday that is aimed at protecting access to vaccines in Wisconsin. 

“Vaccines save lives, folks. Spreading fear, distrust, and disinformation about safe and effective vaccines isn’t just reckless, it’s dangerous,” Evers said in a statement. “RFK and the Trump administration are inserting partisan politics into healthcare and the science-based decisions of medical professionals and are putting the health and lives of kids, families, and folks across our state at risk in the process.”

Kennedy in his role as the health secretary has taken aim at vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine. This week, a CDC committee with new members appointed by Kennedy who are skeptical of vaccines is expected to consider softening or eliminating some recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine and some childhood immunizations. 

“Here in Wisconsin, we will continue to follow the science to ensure Wisconsinites have access to the healthcare they need when and where they need it to make their own healthcare decisions that are right for them,” Evers said. 

The order directs the state Department of Health Services to take several steps towards protecting access including monitoring and reviewing immunization recommendations, issuing guidance on the COVID-19 vaccine, determining additional measures that may be necessary to provide clarity and guidance on other routine vaccines.

The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance is also directed under the order to collaborate with health plans to make sure people have accurate, up-to-date information on access to vaccines and to help limit the costs of vaccines and to direct health insurers within their regulatory authority to provide coverage for the COVID-19 vaccine without cost-sharing.

President Donald Trump signs a presidential memorandum in the Oval Office on Sept. 15, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Also pictured from left to right are Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump Monday directed Tennessee’s National Guard deployed to the Democratic-led city of Memphis, following similar actions in the District of Columbia that Trump has said were needed to tackle crime. 

“We’re going to make Memphis safe again,” Trump said.

It’s the latest test of Trump’s presidential powers in using the U.S. military domestically, despite a law that bars soldiers from partaking in local law enforcement. Trump said his efforts in the district – using the National Guard – would be replicated in cities across the country.

In the Oval Office, flanked by Tennessee’s GOP Gov. Bill Lee and the state’s Republican U.S. senators, Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn, the president signed a presidential memorandum to establish a “Memphis Safe Task Force” to address violent crime using federal law enforcement and agencies. 

“We’re sending in the big force,” Trump said. 

Multiple federal agencies

In addition to the National Guard, the task force will include the U.S. Marshals Service, FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency, Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. It’s unclear how many Guard members or members of federal law enforcement will be sent. 

“This task force will be a replica of our extraordinarily successful efforts here, and you’ll see it’s a lot of the same thing,” Trump said of using the National Guard in the district. 

It’s the first time Trump has sent the National Guard into a red state, after seizing control of the California National Guard from the state’s governor — a Democrat — for deployment in Los Angeles, and then sending Guard members to the district, another Democratic stronghold. 

While homicide rates remain high in Memphis compared to the nation, murders overall from 2023 to 2024 have decreased by 14%, according to the most recent data from the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission.

The Memphis mayor’s office could not immediately be reached for comment. 

Trump added that St. Louis, Missouri, could also see similar action. 

Other cities

The dispatch of the National Guard to Tennessee comes after Trump has threatened to send troops to other cities including New Orleans; Portland, Oregon; and Chicago. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker pushed back and the president had backed off his threat, though he mentioned the city again on Monday. 

Governors have control over their state National Guard except in rare circumstances where the president can seize control. Pritzker has repeatedly rejected the idea of sending the National Guard into Chicago.

“If we don’t have the governor’s help we’re doing it without him,” Trump said of Pritzker. 

With Memphis, Lee welcomed the intervention and thanked Trump for directing federal resources to the city. 

“We are very hopeful and excited about the prospect of moving that city forward,” Lee said. 

A 10-week-old infant drinks from a bottle. A new study found that when rural hospitals were acquired by larger health systems, they were 30% less likely to still offer labor and delivery services five years later. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Rural hospitals are less likely to offer obstetric services after they’ve been acquired by a larger health system, leading to mixed outcomes for mothers and babies, according to new research.

It’s part of an accelerating trend that’s reshaped how Americans get health care: Larger health systems gobble up smaller facilities in a bid for financial stability.

“The hospital industry has undergone tremendous transformation over the past few decades, with nearly 1,600 mergers between 1998 and 2021,” said Martin Gaynor, a coauthor of the study and emeritus professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon, in a statement.

Those large-scale changes to the health system can affect costs, quality and access to care, he said.

Over the past five years, more than 100 rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies or announced they’ll stop in 2025, according to the most recent data from the Center for Healthcare Quality & Payment Reform. Less than half of rural hospitals still offer labor and delivery services.

Gaynor and a team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern University and the University of Georgia examined how hospital mergers have affected access to obstetric care in rural areas, and the quality of that care. They found that rural hospitals were part of more than 450 mergers from 2006-2019.

Once those rural hospitals were acquired by larger systems, they were 30% less likely to still offer labor and delivery services five years later. Many of the shuttered obstetric departments were the sole local source of obstetric care.

That loss translated to fewer resources — such as practicing OB-GYNs — in the county where the acquired hospital was located, researchers found.

The number of births in those counties didn’t change; families just had to go elsewhere for care.

Less access to nearby care could explain those counties’ small increases in health problems among women during or after pregnancy and child birth, and higher rates of smoking among pregnant women, researchers said.

On the flip side, they found that some patients went to higher-quality facilities farther away. And in rural hospitals that didn’t close their obstetric departments following a merger, the quality of care tended to rise.

In recent years, officials in dozens of states have championed laws to increase oversight of mergers and other health care dealmaking.

In the wake of devastating hospital closures tied to corporate financial maneuvering, some states have strengthened their antitrust laws.

Last year alone, 22 states enacted at least 34 laws related to health system consolidation and competition, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, an advisory think tank for lawmakers. Other states, meanwhile, have paved the way for health mergers in a bid to save failing rural hospitals.

At least 35 states now require hospitals, health systems, providers and private equity firms to notify a state official of proposed mergers or other contracts.

Earlier this month, California lawmakers passed a bill to expand the state’s authority in overseeing mergers and acquisitions in health care. It’s headed to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk, though Newsom vetoed a similar measure last year.

At the federal level, President Donald Trump’s administration has not signaled an interest in increasing antitrust oversight. But Trump’s recent tax and spending law did include $50 billion in funding over the next decade aimed at helping states strengthen rural health care. Massive cuts to Medicaid also in the law could have devastating impacts on rural hospitals struggling to stay afloat, however.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services this week announced that states have until Nov. 5 to apply for rural health funding. States must show that they’ll use the federal dollars in a way that aligns with certain CMS goals, including helping improve access to care and strengthening retention of health care workers.

Stateline reporter Anna Claire Vollers can be reached at avollers@stateline.org.

A student walks along the campus of Howard University, an HBCU, on Oct. 25, 2021 in Washington, D.C. Howard is an HBCU. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday it will redirect $495 million in additional funding to historically Black colleges and universities as well as tribal colleges. 

The U.S. Education Department’s announcement came just days after the administration decided to gut and reprogram $350 million in discretionary funds that support minority-serving institutions over claims that these programs are “racially discriminatory.” 

The department last week said it would cease funding for seven grant programs that go toward institutions that serve students who are Black, Indigenous, Hispanic and Asian, as well as initiatives for minority students pursuing science and engineering careers. 

The agency argued that these programs “discriminate by conferring government benefits exclusively to institutions that meet racial or ethnic quotas.” 

Charter schools, civics education

Meanwhile, the department is also diverting $60 million toward grants for charter schools, and will award a total of $500 million for these schools, which receive public funds and are a form of school choice. The umbrella term “school choice” centers on programs that offer alternatives to one’s assigned public school.

The agency also said it’s investing more than $160 million total in American history and civics grants — a $137 million increase in the funds Congress previously approved. 

In its announcement, the agency said “these investments will be repurposed from programs that the Department determined are not in the best interest of students and families.” 

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said her department “has carefully scrutinized our federal grants, ensuring that taxpayers are not funding racially discriminatory programs but those programs which promote merit and excellence in education,” in a statement Monday. 

She added that the administration “will use every available tool to meaningfully advance educational outcomes and ensure every American has the opportunity to succeed in life.” 

There was no breakdown made available Monday as to which programs or individual institutions would gain funding.

HBCU ‘godsend’

Lodriguez V. Murray, senior vice president for public policy and government affairs at UNCF, which supports historically Black colleges and universities, said the extra funding is “nothing short of a godsend for HBCUs,” in a statement Monday.   

“We are grateful to have worked with the Trump Administration, Secretary McMahon, and her Department of Education team in achieving this one-time infusion of grant funding,” Murray said.  

Murray noted that “HBCUs are currently and have been underfunded since their inception” and “while we are grateful for these funds, we are still under-resourced.” 

The National Center for Education Statistics noted that in 2022, there were “99 HBCUs located in 19 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.” 

(L-R) Adrien Wood, Aeriana Wood, and Juliana Wood have a picture taken by Michael Race in front of the Alligator Alcatraz sign at the entrance to the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on July 10, 2025, in Ochopee. The site is the location of the state-managed immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades that officials have named “Alligator Alcatraz.” (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A federal appeals court last week ordered the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center to remain open partially because it lacked federal ties. A week later, Florida formally applied for federal funds.

The state’s request for reimbursement for its spending on the migrant detention facility in the heart of the Everglades came just days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit hit pause on a federal judge’s order shutting down the center over environmental concerns. The 2-1 vote claimed that federal environmental laws don’t apply because Florida officials haven’t used any federal money.

But less than eight days after the ruling — which stayed all aspects of the case — the Florida Division of Emergency Management asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be reimbursed, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the Florida Phoenix in an email.

“The State of Florida submitted an application for reimbursement to [FEMA],” the spokesperson said. Although they didn’t comment on what day the application was made nor for how much money, this confirmed Politico’s reporting that FDEM’s executive director, Kevin Guthrie, said the state had applied for federal money.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has long promised that Florida would be reimbursed for its detention center spending, although neither his office nor FDEM ever clarified when they planned to ask for the money. Federal authorities similarly lauded the facility as a joint effort, but showed no signs of chipping in until last week.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens,” the DHS official said. “These new facilities are in large part to be funded by FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program.”

The Shelter and Services program allocated $608.4 million toward FEMA’s new Detention Support Grant Program, specifically designed to expedite Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s mass detention and deportation agenda. If FEMA approves Florida’s request, the money will be awarded by Sep. 30. The Everglades facility is estimated to cost around $450 million for the year.

The attorney general’s office redirected questions to FDEM, which did not respond to questions about the application’s timeline.

‘So what do you say, judges?’

In a 2-1 decision on Sep. 4, the Eleventh Circuit both paused federal trial judge Kathleen Williams’ order to shut down the facility and fully stayed the case. The lawsuit was brought against the state by the Miccosukee Tribe and environmental groups Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biodiversity.

They claimed the center, located within the Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve, was harming the environment and violating the National Environmental Policy Act.

But judges Barbara Lagoa and Elizabeth Branch, both Trump appointees, ruled that Williams had erred by applying the federal law to a center that had exclusively received state funds. Florida hadn’t even applied for federal reimbursement, they argued. The activists have since asked the appeals court to reconsider their decision to halt the lawsuit.

If the judges don’t, Miami attorney Joseph DeMaria said the plaintiffs would be stymied unless they can “un-stay” the case — even though the majority opinion was largely predicated on the lack of federal ties.

“Unless they can get the case unstuck, there’s nothing they can do,” said DeMaria, who once worked as a prosecutor with the Justice Department’s Miami Organized Crime Strike Force. [The state] played it cute by saying, ‘We haven’t formally agreed yet, so federal law doesn’t apply.'”

He posed a rhetorical question to the appellate judges on the case: “You said that the feds haven’t agreed to pay, so there’s no jurisdiction to enforce the federal environmental law, but then almost immediately after you said that, they went and agreed to pay. So what do you say, judges?”

Attorneys for the Friends of the Everglades declined to comment, while the governor’s office, the Miccosukee Tribe, and the Center for Biodiversity did not respond to requests for comment.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers address the Legislature in his 2024 State of the State message. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

Gov. Tony Evers is suing the Wisconsin State Legislature for clarification on administrative rulemaking powers after a state Supreme Court decision earlier this year found that lawmakers were unconstitutionally blocking administrative rules indefinitely. 

Since the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s Evers v. Marklein II decision in July, Evers has taken steps to implement 12 administrative rules that were approved by him, but without getting the sign off from committees. His administration has said the additional approval isn’t needed. 

However, Republican lawmakers have objected to Evers implementing the rules without going through the legislative committees, instructing the Legislative Reference Bureau not to publish any rule that hasn’t gone through a review by the Legislature in accordance with Wisconsin law. 

“The Legislature cannot continue to indefinitely obstruct my administration from doing the people’s work — and the Wisconsin Supreme Court agrees, but Republican lawmakers are continuing their unlawful behavior anyway,” Evers said in a statement about the court filing. “At the end of the day, this lawsuit is about following the law and making sure there’s accountability for elected officials if they fail to do so. It shouldn’t take going to court to get Republican lawmakers to comply with state law and Supreme Court decisions, but it seems like that’s what it’s going to take, unfortunately.” 

Evers argues in the filing in Dane County Circuit Court that the state law that barred agencies from publishing rules that hadn’t gone through the Joint Committee on the Review of Administrative Rules was invalidated under the state Supreme Court ruling. 

“No statute bars agencies from promulgating final administrative rules pending a legislative committee’s review,” the filing argued. “And even if any such statute existed, it would be facially unconstitutional under Evers II… a legislative committee cannot have discretion over a pre-promulgation pause without violating constitutional bicameralism and presentment procedures. Such a statute would also unconstitutionally intrude on the executive branch’s authority to execute statutes that authorize administrative rulemaking.”

Evers is asking for a declaration and an injunction that orders the Legislative Reference Bureau must publish the nine rules the Evers Administration has already submitted and all administrative rules that have completed all preceding rulemaking procedures and been approved by the governor. 

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) said in a statement that Evers is directing agencies to violate “valid” parts of Wisconsin law that “no court has ever questioned, let alone found to be invalid in any respect.”

“Just because Governor Evers is now a lame duck who no longer believes he is accountable to the people, it does not give him the right to ignore laws that the Legislature enacted, and a prior occupant of his office signed,” the Republican leaders said. “That’s not how the rule of law works.”

Amtrak's Borealis passenger train connecting Chicago to Minneapolis through Milwaukee arrives at the Columbus, Wisconsin, station on Friday, Sept. 12. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)

On a sunny Friday afternoon, a half-dozen lawmakers and at least as many passenger rail advocates boarded an Amtrak train in Columbus, Wisconsin, for a 90-minute ride across the countryside.

Their destination was Tomah, where they spent another 90 minutes talking about why Wisconsin should expand train service and how to make that happen.

The event was a debut of sorts for the state Legislature’s Passenger Rail Caucus, a body that began coming together this year.

There are many reasons to expand passenger rail service in Wisconsin, according to Rep. Lori Palmeri (D-Oshkosh), a principal organizer for the group.

She sees economic and environmental benefits to rail travel — moving more people with less pollution per individual. But it also provides options for people no longer interested in driving but who don’t want to be stuck at home.

Rail service can address “the spatial mismatch between where people are living and where people are either working or going to school or getting their health care or recreating,” Palmeri said in an interview. “When I talk to seniors, they want to have that access to not just urban centers, but some of our second-class cities, too.”

An adult granddaughter of hers has epilepsy and will never be able to drive, Palmeri said, but others in that age group appear to drive less for other reasons.

“Fewer and fewer younger people are investing either in the learning piece” — driver training — “or the financial piece of car ownership,” she said, especially as cars get more expensive to own.

In short, for lawmakers in the passenger rail caucus and for the advocates encouraging them, passenger rail service is more than a nostalgic indulgence. It’s an underappreciated alternative to cramped airliners and congested highways.

‘Our time to stand up’

And it’s an alternative that Susan Foote-Martin, vice president of communications for the Wisconsin Association of Railroad Passengers, says will require a concerted campaign to gain more attention and support.

“We feel now is our time to stand up, and to speak up, and to ante up for the things that mean something to us,” Foote-Martin told the lawmakers and other advocates gathered in a Tomah restaurant’s banquet room.

“If we don’t do it, it’s not going to happen,” she said. “We can’t wait for a posse to come riding out of the sunset to save us. We are the posse.”

The caucus is building up steam while the view ahead is murky.

Amtrak’s Borealis train, which makes round trips once a day from Chicago to the Twin Cities through southern and western Wisconsin, has lived up to early projections, transporting nearly 230,000 riders in the first year of  its launch in May 2024.

Meanwhile, a  bus service connecting the Amtrak station in  Milwaukee to Green Bay through the Fox Valley will end abruptly Oct. 1. The service was funded through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT), but money to continue the route was left out of the 2025-27 state budget.

“We’re working with WisDOT to do more, but to do more takes funding,” Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari told the assembled group. “And if there’s a way to put that back together again or find funding for it, we’re at WisDOT’s disposal and yours to go hunt that down.”

The bus service offered, in effect, proof of concept for a long desired  revival of passenger rail service to Green Bay. That proposed extension is the farthest along in development and planning of various Amtrak extension proposals in Wisconsin, according to Larry Rueff, who represents NEWRails, a nonprofit formed to promote the Green Bay extension. (The first three letters in the name stand for Northeast Wisconsin.)

The line is ready for the next phase in planning. “We need to know that it’s going to be funded, or it won’t get any further — and that’s going to be bad for Green Bay and bad for the rest of the state’s projects,” Rueff said in an interview.

High-speed memories

There’s no shortage of other ideas. Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) said he’d like to see passenger service into Beloit some day. Rep. Vincent Miresse (D-Stevens Point) would like to see service connecting Stevens Point and other central Wisconsin communities to the Twin Cities through the Chippewa Valley.

“I just want to see passenger rail as being a viable alternative to everyone having to have a car right now,” Miresse told the Wisconsin Examiner. “I think people would like the opportunity to travel to Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison and be able to hop on a train and not have the burden of having a vehicle.”

The choice of Tomah for Friday’s discussion harkened back to the high-speed rail project approved during former Gov. Jim Doyle’s second term. After Scott Walker was elected governor in 2010 promising to cancel the project, Doyle killed it just before leaving office at the end of that year.

The project’s demise also put off plans to put a passenger stop in Madison. Columbus, the nearest Amtrak station, is 27 miles northeast of the capital city.

“As someone who works in Madison almost every week, it was a great disappointment to lose that high speed rail option,” Rep. Jill Billings (D-La Crosse), who also came to the Tomah meeting, said in an interview. “There are times when I’m driving to Madison and I think, ‘I could be on a train working right now.’”

Tomah had begun planning an intermodal hub as part of the high speed rail project. While that plan died, Tomah City Administrator Nick Morales told the group the city has seen bustling tourism and regularly draws in traffic to the region’s two military bases and a veterans hospital.

“We struggle with a lot of our transportation needs, and increased rail services to Tomah would greatly benefit us,” he said.

Getting Republicans on board

The lawmakers and advocates who gathered in Tomah contend that expanding rail service in Wisconsin should be a bipartisan objective, but only Democratic legislators were on hand for Friday’s event.

The late Republican Rep. Ed Brooks is reported to have proposed a railroad caucus years ago. “This was a dream of his,” Billings told the group, recalling fondly how she got to know Brooks early in her Assembly career.

Palmeri said she has reached out to several GOP lawmakers, some of whom have put their names on railroad-related bills in the past. “The hope was that we would have folks on the other side of the aisle also join us and hear the same information,” she said after the session was over Friday.

The canceled bus connection to Green Bay was among the casualties when the Republican majority on the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee  removed $15 million for passenger rail service from Gov. Tony Evers’ draft budget.

The new passenger rail caucus is working on a bill that would make up for what was lost. There isn’t yet a draft, but Palmeri doesn’t expect it simply to be a rewrite of the Evers proposal.

“No disrespect to what was put in the budget, but I think there are some folks who are interested in going big or going home,” she said.  

Such legislation is unlikely to advance without support from Republicans, however. Asked what it would take to persuade GOP lawmakers to take it up, Palmeri answered, “them not being in the majority.”

So does that mean the developing legislation is intended for Democratic campaign messaging in the 2026 legislative elections?

“To a certain extent,” Palmeri said. “But I do also have the belief — maybe somewhat naïve — that there are people on the other side of the aisle who know this is good for their districts and who know that this could be their future — right?”

Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez secured Republican support for her resolution and, unlike the Hispanic Caucus, was able to get a scheduled floor vote. Ortiz-Velez speaks at a press conference in January. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner.

Monday marks the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, and this year’s celebration could be the first time that the Wisconsin Legislature officially recognizes the month. 

Assembly Joint Resolution 83 recognizes that Hispanic Heritage Month runs from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 and that it presents an opportunity to honor the contributions of Hispanics and Latinos to the “past, present and future” of Wisconsin and the country. The month starts halfway through September because Sept. 15 marks the anniversary of independence from Spanish rule for  several Central American countries, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

The Assembly unanimously passed the resolution authored by Milwaukee Democrat Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, though its journey to the floor was marred by a public dispute among Democratic lawmakers. Black History Month resolutions have also stirred controversy in the past and for many years faced roadblocks to passage. This year the Black History Month resolution passed smoothly. 

Ortiz-Velez authored her resolution after she was not included as an author on a similar effort  by members of the Hispanic Legislative Caucus. Ortiz-Velez had declined to join the newly formed caucus, and its members explained that the authors of their resolution were exclusively  caucus members. 

Ortiz-Velez’s resolution differed from the caucus version in that it doesn’t honor the work of any specific individuals. 

Ortiz-Velez secured Republican support for her resolution and, unlike the Hispanic Caucus, was able to get a scheduled floor vote.

Ortiz-Velez said on the floor that in writing her resolution she “wanted to make sure that I focused on the values that bind us together, so everyone can feel that they were included and had a seat at the table.” She noted in her speech that Hispanic and Latino people make up 7.8% of the state’s population — the largest minority group in Wisconsin. 

“Across the state, Hispanic and Latino families are helping revitalize small towns and urban neighborhoods by opening businesses and buying homes and restoring vacant properties, supporting local schools and churches,” Ortiz-Velez said. “Hispanic and Latino Wisconsinites share the same core values… faith, family, hard work and service to community and country.”

The resolution states that Hispanic and Latino people settled in the area before Wisconsin achieved statehood in 1848 and that the 20th century was a time when Central and South Americans increasingly migrated to Wisconsin for work, becoming a “vital part of Wisconsin’s agricultural economy.”

“Wisconsin has become home to more than 450,000 Hispanics and Latinos, who represent one of the fastest-growing demographic groups in the state,” the resolution states. “Hispanics and Latinos live and work all across the state, enriching and revitalizing rural and urban communities alike.” 

It also recognizes that Hispanic and Latino residents have served as elected officials and “have risked their lives to defend the United States in every armed conflict in modern history.” 

Several lawmakers spoke in favor of the resolution ahead of the unanimous vote last week, including Rep. Priscilla Prado (D-Milwaukee), the leader of the Hispanic Legislative Caucus. 

Prado said the resolution was a “long overdue acknowledgment of the meaningful contributions that Hispanic communities have made to our great state.” 

“Unity is possible, even if we disagree on other issues, and at a time when division can feel ever so present, this resolution promises to lean into our shared humanity. It is not about winners or losers. It’s about the community I represent, and that I identify with,” Prado said. “Today, let’s pass this resolution, not just as a formality, but with excitement and heartfelt recognition to our Hispanic communities and their contribution to our great state.” 

Ortiz-Velez said in a statement that if the resolution passes the Senate, it will be the first time a joint resolution recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month will have ever passed the full Legislature. 

The resolution also has bipartisan support in the Senate with Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara (R-Appleton) as the leading coauthor. The Senate does not have a scheduled floor session during September. 

The E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C., home of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, pictured on July 14, 2025. (Photo by Jacob Fischler/States Newsroom) 

WASHINGTON — A Friday lawsuit from a civil rights group accused the Trump administration of bypassing deportation restrictions on immigrants slated for removal by sending them to Ghana and having the West African nation deport them to their countries of origin, despite credible findings they could face harm there.

The move violates not only the due process rights of immigrants, but circumvents deportation restrictions placed by immigration judges who determined those immigrants could not be returned to their home country, attorneys from the Asian Americans Advancing Justice, wrote in their suit. 

“Defendants know that they may not, consistent with U.S. immigration law, directly deport non-citizens to countries from which they have been granted fear-based protection,” according to the brief. “As an end-run around this prohibition, Defendants have enlisted the government of Ghana to do their dirty work.”

The Department of Homeland Security and government of Ghana did not respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment.  

Ghana President John Dramani Mahama confirmed to Business Insider Africa this week that the country struck a deal with the U.S. to accept a group of 14 deportees and send some back to their countries of origin. 

The attorneys argued that immigration judges granted their five plaintiffs fear-based deportation protections to their home country under the Immigration Nationality Act and Convention Against Torture. 

They are asking U.S District Judge Tanya Chutkan to require the return of the plaintiffs to the U.S. 

Chutkan sits on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She was appointed by former President Barack Obama. 

The plaintiffs are nationals of Nigeria and The Gambia.

Third-country removals

A deportation protection, such as a “withholding of removal,” doesn’t create blanket protections from removal. It requires the U.S. to find what is known as a third country that will accept the deportee. 

Certain other requirements do apply. The government must notify the deportee of the country of removal and give them a chance to object if they fear persecution there. 

The U.S. government must ensure that a third country that accepts a deportee won’t then conduct a removal to their home country, where U.S. immigration officials have found they could face harm.

The suit says that none of the plaintiffs were notified they would be removed to Ghana and instead they were placed on a U.S. military plane and none were given a credible fear interview of being sent to the West African country. 

They were placed in straitjackets and remained on the plane for 16 hours, according to the suit. 

The plaintiffs are referred to by initials in court documents. 

One, referred to as K.S., “is hiding and fears for his life” in The Gambia.

K.S. was granted protections under the Convention Against Torture, a United Nations treaty, because he is bisexual and fears returning to The Gambia where he could face harm, according to court records. The Ghanaian government deported him to The Gambia on Wednesday, according to the suit. 

Four others are detained in Ghana. They are referred to as D.A., T.L., I.O., and D.S in court documents. 

Ghana is planning to remove them to their countries of origin by Friday, according to court records. 

“The comments by U.S. officials on the plane on the way to Ghana, combined with news reports about Ghana’s involvement in a deal with the U.S. about repatriating non-citizens to their countries of origin in Africa, indicate that the U.S. is deporting people to Ghana with the intention that they be deported to their countries of origin,” according to the suit. 

American flags hang alongside the official agency flag at the U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C., in August. The Justice Department is sharing state voter roll data with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (Photo by Jonathan Shorman/Stateline)

The U.S. Department of Justice is sharing state voter roll information with the Department of Homeland Security in a search for noncitizens, the Trump administration confirmed.

The data sharing comes after Justice Department attorneys this summer demanded that election officials in nearly two dozen states turn over their voter lists, alarming some Democratic state secretaries of state and election experts. They have voiced fears about how the Trump administration planned to use the data. Even some Republican secretaries of state have declined to provide their full voter lists.

Homeland Security in an unsigned statement to Stateline called information sharing essential to “scrub aliens from voter rolls” and said the federal government was “finally doing what it should have all along — sharing information to solve problems.”

“This collaboration with the DOJ will lawfully and critically enable DHS to prevent illegal aliens from corrupting our republic’s democratic process and further ensure the integrity of our elections nationwide. Elections exist for the American people to choose their leaders, not illegal aliens,” the statement reads.

The Justice Department said in its own statement that state voter roll data provided in response to requests from the department’s Civil Rights Division is “being screened for ineligible voter entries.”

Noncitizen voting is extremely rare. One study of the 2016 election placed the prevalence of noncitizen voting at 0.0001% of votes cast.

The data sharing marks a next step in President Donald Trump’s efforts to exert more federal influence over state-administered elections. Trump signed an executive order earlier this year that sought to require individuals to provide proof-of-citizenship documents to register to vote, a rule quickly blocked in federal court. He has also threatened to sign another executive order attempting to restrict mail ballots.

At least 10 states have either provided publicly available data or given the department directions on how to request public data. On Friday, Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales, a Republican, confirmed to reporters that he had provided the Justice Department with all voter information requested, including driver’s license and partial Social Security numbers — making Indiana the first known state to have supplied personally sensitive data.

While the administration didn’t describe how Homeland Security will use the voter rolls to search for noncitizens, the agency operates a powerful program, Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, that can identify the immigration or citizenship status of an individual.

SAVE was originally intended to help state and local officials verify the immigration status of individual noncitizens seeking government benefits. But U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of Homeland Security, this spring refashioned it into a platform that can scan states’ voter rolls if officials upload the data.

In the past, SAVE could only search one name at a time. Now it can conduct bulk searches, allowing officials to potentially feed into it information on millions of registered voters. SAVE checks that information against a series of federal databases and reports back whether it can verify someone’s immigration status.

Since May, it also can draw upon Social Security data, transforming the program into a tool that can confirm U.S. citizenship because Social Security records for many, but not all, Americans include the information.

As the Justice Department has sought state voter rolls this summer, letters from the department’s attorneys to state officials in many instances have demanded full lists of registered voters that include sensitive personal information such as driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers. At least 22 states were asked for some data, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, which is tracking the requests.

Some states have turned over publicly available voter files or offered directions on how to request them. Others have flat-out refused the requests.

“The Department of Justice hasn’t shown any good reason for its fishing expedition for sensitive voter information on every American,” Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, said in a news release Monday announcing that her office had rejected the Justice Department’s second request for her state’s voter data.

Justin Levitt, who served as senior policy adviser for democracy and voting rights in the Biden White House and is now a law professor at Loyola Marymount University, said that he has no confidence that Homeland Security would act carefully with any data received.

Levitt, speaking with Stateline on Wednesday before the data sharing was confirmed, voiced concern that the Justice Department was “serving as a stalking horse” for other entities within the government.

“The fact that they’re having to sneak through the back door rather than knocking on the front door tells you that there’s improper procedures going on,” Levitt said.

This story was updated to add information from Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales confirming his state shared voter roll information with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Indiana Capital Chronicle’s Whitney Downard contributed reporting. Stateline reporter Jonathan Shorman can be reached at jshorman@stateline.org.

Gov. Tony Evers and Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. CEO Missy Hughes at the Hannover Messe trade show in Germany last week. (Photo courtesy of WEDC)

Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation Secretary and CEO Missy Hughes will step down from her position in the Evers Administration on Sept. 19, according to a Friday announcement. 

Hughes was first appointed to the position in 2019 and was confirmed by the state Senate in 2021 and in 2023. She is the first woman to serve in the position. Prior to that, she served as general counsel and chief mission officer at La Farge dairy cooperative, Organic Valley.

Hughes thanked Evers in a statement for “his vision and support for our efforts to build an economy for all.” 

“Each of our state’s successes serves to inspire more development, more innovation, and more growth,” Hughes said. “People start seeing something good happening in their communities, and they want to keep it moving forward. Opportunities to be in the national news for positive accomplishments show companies and talent that Wisconsin competes on the global stage. Every day, Wisconsin is solving problems for the world, and we’ve made sure the world has us on its mind. I’m incredibly grateful to have been a part of this work and the Evers Administration.”

According to Evers’ office, WEDC during Hughes’ tenure has worked with companies to commit over $8 billion in planned investments and to create or retain over 45,000 jobs. 

Hughes’ departure comes as she considers a run for governor in 2026, in the first open race since 2010, though she made no indication of her future plans in her statement. 

Gov. Tony Evers’ decision not to run so he can spend time with his family has left a lane for Democratic leaders across the state to consider a run. So far, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez entered the race first and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley launched his campaign this week. Others considering include state Sen. Kelda Roys, Attorney General Josh Kaul and state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison).

Evers said Hughes has played an important role in his administration’s focus on “building an economy that works for everyone, investing in Wisconsin’s homegrown talent and Main Streets, and supporting and expanding some of our state’s most iconic brands and companies while attracting new industries and opportunities here to Wisconsin.”

Wisconsin Superintendent Jill Underly called on the Trump administration to reconsider the decision in a statement this week. Underly at a rally for 2025 Public Schools Week. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner

The U.S. Department of Education has abruptly terminated nearly $11 million for two grant programs that have been helping Wisconsin serve children with vision and hearing loss and others receiving special education services, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Wisconsin is one of several states to be affected by the cuts to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part D grants. Others include Washington, Oregon and a consortium of New England states including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, according to ProPublica.

Wisconsin Superintendent Jill Underly called on the Trump administration to reconsider the decision in a statement this week. 

“Make no mistake, losing these funds will directly impact our ability to serve some of our most vulnerable kids,” Underly said. “Wisconsin had planned work with these funds that includes direct support for deafblind learners and their families and efforts to recruit and retain new special education teachers.”

According to DPI, the Trump administration said the programs “reflect the prior administration’s priorities and policy preferences and conflict with those of the current administration.” 

The first program to be affected is the Wisconsin Deafblind Technical Assistance Project, which provides assistive technology tools, coaching, family support and professional training for young people up to the age of 21 with vision and hearing loss. The program currently serves 170 students, and of those, 85% have four or more disabilities. 

The funding cut comes in the middle of a five-year grant cycle. Wisconsin was supposed to get a total of about $550,000 that was expected to last through September 2028.

“These are kids who depend on specialized support just to access their guaranteed right to a free and appropriate public education,” Dr. Underly said. “Losing these dollars at this point in the year will be devastating for the kids who need these supports the most.”

The other program being cut is the State Personnel Development Grant, which focuses on helping address Wisconsin’s critical special education teacher shortage as well as assisting with recruitment, retention and development.

The grant funds from the program, which totaled $10.5 million, was helping to fund a number of programs, including the Special Educator Induction Program. In its first year, the state program helped 280 new special education teachers. 

“At a time when schools in every corner of the state are struggling to find and keep special educators, cutting this support is unconscionable and harmful to every student with an IEP,” Underly said.

According to DPI data, only 46% of new special education teachers in Wisconsin remain in the field after seven years. 

The state agency plans to appeal the Trump administration’s decision.