Detail of a mural inside the Madison Labor Temple building celebrating unions and worker rights. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

“This fight is all of labor’s fight,” Kevin Gundlach, president of the South Central Federation of Labor, declared at a “solidarity dinner” for 43 immigrant workers who recently lost their jobs at a Monroe, Wisconsin cheese factory. “Even Wisconsinites who don’t know about the story, should know in a cheesemaking state we should support cheesemakers.” 

The workers, some of whom labored for more than 20 years at W&W Dairy, were told in August they would have to submit to E-Verify screening and confirm their legal status in order to continue their employment after a new company, Kansas-based Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), bought the cheese plant. They walked off the job to protest, hoping DFA, which has a policy of subjecting new hires to E-Verify screening, would exempt them because of their many years of service. The company declined, but asked the workers to return to help train their replacements, one worker said. 

The cheese plant employees I spoke with said they were still in shock, worried about supporting their families as they face the loss of pay and benefits at the end of the month.

Workers who pulled long shifts, kept the plant going through the pandemic and took pride in producing high quality, Mexican-style cheeses — queso fresco, queso blanco, quesadilla and panela — now feel betrayed. 

Their goal is no longer to return to their old jobs. Instead, they are focused on getting severance pay from W&W Dairy, which is still technically their employer until Sept. 1 — Labor Day — when DFA assumes control of the plant.

On Thursday, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of the immigrant workers’ rights group Voces de la Frontera, wrote to W&W president Franz Hofmeister to ask that the dairy show appreciation for its longtime workers by offering them a severance package. A Labor Day picnic organized by community members to support the workers, “would be an excellent opportunity to announce that the workers and the company have resolved their differences and that workers are being given some compensation,” Neumann-Ortiz wrote. “This would give the workers a chance to thank you publicly and provide some healing and closure.”

W&W’s success was propelled by its loyal workforce — fewer than 100 people who knew how to do multiple jobs in the plant and switched roles to keep things running smoothly. The quality of the product attracted a high-profile buyer. 

“The growth trajectory for the Hispanic cheese market is more than three times that of the cheese category,” Ken Orf, president of DFA’s Cheese, Taste and Flavors Division, told the trade publication Cheese Reporter, in an article about the benefit to the company of its “strategic acquisition” of W&W, which puts it in a “stronger position for growth with this important dairy category.”

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Hispanic employees of the plant.

Bibiana Gonzalez, a child care provider and community leader in the Monroe area, said she liked the term “essential workers” when she first heard it. The W&W workers felt they were essential to their employer’s success, and put in long hours during the pandemic, when other people were staying home to protect their health. But “unfortunately, people confuse essential workers with workers who can be exploited,” Gonzalez said.

“They want to toss these workers in the street just for being immigrants,” said Voces de la Frontera organizer Pablo Rodriguez.

DFA wants to distance itself from any thorny political issues around immigration. In a statement to WKOW Channel 27 news, the company asserted it had a goal “to retain 100% of the W&W workforce,” but that “as part of the hiring process to become DFA employees, all W&W workers and other applicants were notified of the need to provide documents to complete both an I-9 form and the E-verify process.” Failing to produce the proper documents, unfortunately, would mean “DFA’s ability to offer employment was impacted.”

Using cold, passive bureaucratic language, DFA casts it as a regrettable accident that its E-Verify policy rendered nearly half the cheese plant’s employees ineligible to continue working there. But as a cooperative with 5,000 dairy farm members, it’s impossible DFA leadership is unfamiliar with its industry’s heavy reliance on workers who don’t have papers.

In Wisconsin, where DFA has 399 member farms and four dairy manufacturing plants, an estimated 70% of the dairy workforce is made up of immigrants who cannot get E-Verifiable legal work papers.

In dairy, as in other year-round, nonseasonal industries, immigrants who make up the majority of the work force are ineligible for U.S. work visas. Congress has simply failed to create a visa for year-round jobs in agriculture, manufacturing, construction, food service and other industries that rely on immigrant labor.

Far from being a drag on the economy, immigrant workers who lack legal authorization are heavily recruited by U.S. employers and “supercharge economic growth,” according to a new Center for Migration Studies research brief. The research brief shows that 8.5 million undocumented workers in the U.S. contribute an estimated $96.7 billion annually in federal, state and local taxes, “filling roles vital to critical industries.”

The brief also warns that mass deportations could cause critical workforce shortages. No one knows that better than Wisconsin dairy farmers, who would go out of business overnight if their mostly immigrant workforce was deported.

Union members who came out to support the W&W workers Tuesday night embraced the idea that all workers are in the same boat, are ill served by an authoritarian, bullying Trump administration, and will do better if they band together.

That’s the whole idea of solidarity: Working people need to unite to protect their common interests against the rich and powerful, who will run roughshod over all of us if they can. Expanding on that unifying message, Al Hudson, lay leader of the Union Presbyterian Church in Monroe, whose congregation supports the W&W workers, brought his social justice gospel to the union hall.

“We are proud to be a gathering place for the Green County Hispanic community,” Hudson said of his church. “We’re proud to do our part to be a Matthew 25 church,” he added, referring to the Bible verse in which Jesus calls on the faithful to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, care for the sick and visit those in prison. “This is what churches are supposed to do,” Hudson said. “I admire your courage,” he told the displaced W&W workers, pledging to continue to “walk with you and support you in your struggle as long as you want us there.”

The union members in the hall cheered. They applauded the W&W workers, they applauded speeches about solidarity among working people of every race and ethnic background. They seemed enlivened by the chance to do something to help.

The warm feeling of pulling together to resist the violent bigotry of the anti-immigrant Trump administration, recognizing the common struggle among all working people, was uplifting.

“Solidaridad!” shouted Gundlach, and the mostly gringo crowd of unionists shouted back, “Solidaridad!” 

U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Bill Cassidy speaks with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after Kennedy's confirmation hearing on Jan. 30, 2025. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Bipartisan leaders of a U.S. Senate committee dealing with health policy expressed alarm with the direction of the country’s top public health agencies after President Donald Trump fired the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other high-level officials resigned. 

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy — chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee — posted on social media late Wednesday that the “high profile departures will require oversight by the HELP Committee.”

Cassidy separately called on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to indefinitely postpone its September meeting.

“Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September ACIP meeting,” Cassidy wrote in a statement. “These decisions directly impact children’s health and the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted. If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership.”

Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, ranking member on the committee, called for a bipartisan investigation into the reasons Trump fired Susan Monarez as CDC director less than a month after she received Senate confirmation.

Sanders said that Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Monarez and the handful of high-ranking CDC officials who resigned this week should be able to testify publicly about what’s happening inside the agency. 

“We need leaders at the CDC and HHS who are committed to improving public health and have the courage to stand up for science, not officials who have a history of spreading bogus conspiracy theories and disinformation,” Sanders wrote.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing that Trump had every right to fire Monarez and that he expects to pick a new nominee “very soon.”

“Her lawyers’ statement made it abundantly clear themselves that she was not aligned with the president’s mission to make America healthy again,” Leavitt said. “The secretary asked her to resign. She said she would and then she said she wouldn’t. So the president fired her, which he has every right to do.” 

Kennedy is scheduled to testify before the Senate Finance Committee next week, that panel’s chairman, Idaho Republican Mike Crapo, announced Thursday.

Kennedy “has placed addressing the underlying causes of chronic diseases at the forefront of this Administration’s health care agenda,” Crapo wrote on X. “I look forward to learning more about @HHSGov’s Make America Healthy Again actions to date and plans moving forward.”

Cassidy key vote for RFK

Cassidy was an essential vote to confirm Kennedy as director of HHS, which oversees the CDC, though he expressed concerns throughout that process that Kennedy’s past statements about vaccines weren’t rooted in reputable medical research.

Cassidy said during a floor speech in February after voting to advance Kennedy’s nomination that Kennedy assured him he will protect “the public health benefit of vaccination.” 

“If Mr. Kennedy is confirmed, I will use my authority of the Senate committee with oversight of HHS to rebuff any attempt to remove the public’s access to life-saving vaccines without ironclad causational scientific evidence that can be accepted and defended before the mainstream scientific community and before Congress,” Cassidy said at the time. “I will watch carefully for any effort to wrongly sow public fear about vaccines between confusing references of coincidence and anecdote.”

Vice President J.D. Vance addresses a crowd at Mid-City Steel in La Crosse on Thursday. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Vice President J.D. Vance decried what he described as the crime-ridden streets of American cities and Democrats’ alleged efforts to take health care away from U.S. citizens and give it to undocumented immigrants at an event Thursday afternoon at a steel fabrication facility in La Crosse. 

At the event, which took place on the bank of the Mississippi River at Mid-City Steel, Vance and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum touted the benefits that Republicans’ budget reconciliation law, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, will deliver for working class Wisconsinites. 

The night before Vance’s visit, Democratic elected officials and candidates for state and federal office mingled with voters at state Sen. Brad Pfaff’s (D-Onalaska) annual corn roast. State Dems came to meet voters at the La Crosse County Fairgrounds in West Salem and to search for a path back to power nationally, trifecta of control of  state government and an effective counter to the authoritarian impulses of President Donald Trump.

The back-to-back events highlighted how politically important western Wisconsin is set to become over the next year as attention focuses on the competitive 3rd Congressional District, represented by Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden, and the open race for governor. 

At the fairgrounds on Wednesday, Pfaff’s staff members handed out 350 brats, 150 hot dogs and 500 ears of corn slathered with 13 pounds of butter as a polka band played and candidates for statewide office made their way down long picnic tables with cups of Spotted Cow and Miller Lite, stopping to chat with voters. In attendance were Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who is running for governor, Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, who is running for lieutenant governor, and Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor, who is running for a seat on the state Supreme Court. Also in attendance were state Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) and Wisconsin Economic Development Coordinator Missy Hughes, both of whom have been testing the waters as possible gubernatorial candidates. 

Pfaff, who ran unsuccessfully against Van Orden for the 3rd District congressional seat in 2022, repeatedly touted the importance of Democrats listening to rural voters and speaking to issues that matter to their lives.

That message played well in front of the group of about 120 attendees who complained that Van Orden does not often face disgruntled constituents. Democrats have frequently highlighted the fact that Van Orden has not held any in-person town halls or debated his Democratic election opponents.

“It’s extremely frustrating. The thing is that we as Democrats, we’ve got a brand that we’ve got to rebuild,” Pfaff said. “And I’m a Democrat. I’m a proud rural Democrat. I was raised with the values of hard work, dedication and resilience. I was raised in the fact that, you know, you need to get up every morning and go to work, and you need to be able to provide for your family and put away for the future. But you need to be able to be part of a community and build a community that is inclusive and welcoming.” 

Pfaff added that Van Orden has not been accessible to his voters or answered for his votes on legislation such as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 

“You need to be accessible to your constituents, and when you’re not accessible to your constituents, you’re not serving yourself, and definitely you’re not in touch with the people of the district,” he said. “So it’s very concerning. But …  we will have a very competitive congressional race in 2026 and Derek’s gonna have to explain his votes and his actions.” 

Rebecca Cooke, who lost to Van Orden in last year’s election and is running again to unseat him next year, said she’s trying to spend this time, about 14 months before the midterm elections, traveling the district and understanding voters’ concerns. 

“My campaign has always been really focused around working families and working class people, which I think Senator Pfaff too, we have a very similar thought and understanding, because we talk to people, right?” Cooke said. “Brad hosts open events like this so that he can hear from people directly. And I think that that’s the difference with Van Orden, who brings in J.D. Vance, the big guns, because he can’t deliver the message himself. I think we are of and from western Wisconsin, and so we know how to communicate with people in our community, and we listen to them.”

On Thursday, both Burgum and Vance celebrated Van Orden’s vote on the budget reconciliation bill, inspiring Van Orden  to stand from his front row seat and pump his fist. Prior to his vote on the legislation, Van Orden said he wouldn’t support a bill that cut funds from food assistance programs, but ultimately he cast a deciding vote for the legislation that, analysis shows, will boot 90,000 Wisconsinites off food assistance programs and cause 30,000 rural Wisconsinites to lose their health care. 

Burgum also said the Trump administration is working to bring steel manufacturing and shipbuilding back to America. But on Thursday, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin raised the alarm for shipbuilders in Marinette after Trump announced the purchase of ships built in South Korea. 

“I am deeply concerned by recent reports that indicate the Trump Administration is looking to have U.S. ships made overseas in South Korea,” Baldwin said in a statement. “We need to see the details of this agreement because at the end of the day, America cannot compromise here – we are already losing to China and we have no time to waste. We must be firm on our commitment to supporting our maritime workforce, keeping our country safe, and revitalizing America’s shipbuilding capacity. I have long fought to strengthen our shipbuilding industry, and it can’t be done with shortcuts or quick fixes. The President must prioritize American workers by investing in our shipbuilding industry here at home and buying American-made ships.”

Despite the massive cuts the reconciliation law is making to federal assistance programs, Vance said that the Democratic Party is lying about its effects, claiming Democrats voted against the bill because they wanted to raise taxes and give health care to people who are in the country without legal authorization. 

Vance touted the extension of tax cuts passed by Republicans in 2017 during the first Trump administration, saying they will put money back into the pockets of American workers like the ones at Mid-City Steel. He also celebrated Trump’s tariffs calling them a lever to protect American industry. 

“What the working families tax cuts did is very simple, ladies and gentlemen, it let you keep more money in your pocket, it rewarded you for building a business, for working at a business right here in the United States of America, it makes it easy for you to take home more of your hard earned pay and it makes it easier if you’re an American manufacturer, an American business, it makes it easier for you to build your facility or expand your facility,” Vance said. 

But the cost of the tariffs is being borne by American consumers in the form of higher prices, and the tax cuts have largely gone to benefit the wealthiest Americans. 

An analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that 69% of the benefits of the tax cuts will go to the richest 15% of Wisconsinites.

The vice president also painted American cities as crime-infested slums where everyday Americans cannot walk down the street without being accosted by a person “screaming on a street corner.” The Trump administration has deployed the National Guard and Marines in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles in a show  of force, and Trump has threatened to send soldiers to fight crime in other Democratic cities — even though the highest crime rates in the country are in Republican-controlled states. 

On Thursday Vance said that even though Milwaukee has what he said is a crime problem, the president doesn’t want to send troops in to address it unless he’s asked to by local officials. 

“Very simply, we want governors and mayors to ask for the help. The president of the United States is not going out there forcing this on anybody, though we do think we have the legal right to clean up America’s streets if we want to,” Vance said. “What the president of the United States has said is, “Why don’t you invite us in?’”

William Garcia, the chair of the 3rd Congressional District Democratic Party, said that Vance’s visit showed that Republicans are out of touch with western Wisconsin, noting that a speech at a steel fabricator isn’t representative of what actually drives the local economy and delivering that speech to a hand-selected crowd glosses over the pain the Trump administration’s policies are bringing to local communities.

“If you really wanted to talk to people out here, you would talk about agriculture, and you would try and justify why Canadian fertilizer has a massive tariff on it now, so we have to spend so much more money to just grow our own food,” Garcia said. “Then you have to talk about your immigration policies that are preventing our harvest from being picked after they’ve grown. And so that’s why he’s having to narrow the people he’s talking to, to this super small crowd, because by and large, conservative, liberal, whatever, are being hurt by these policies, and he doesn’t want to hear any pushback about that.”

“The Trump administration is threatening our state’s fundamental values by commanding ICE and its agents to ignore due process, rip people from their communities and repeatedly violate basic human rights,” Rep. Darrin Madison (D-Milwaukee) said. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Wisconsin Democrats are calling for prohibitions on state and local support for the Trump administration’s mass deportations and for greater transparency surrounding law enforcement officers and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers helping carry out arrests. 

Lawmakers, led by the Democratic Socialist caucus, proposed a package of five bills to meet those goals at a press conference Thursday. Federal agents have used increasingly aggressive tactics to arrest immigrants as they seek to advance the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. In Wisconsin, ICE arrests have doubled under Trump with agents arresting an average of 85 people per month since January. 

“The Trump administration is threatening our state’s fundamental values by commanding ICE and its agents to ignore due process, rip people from their communities and repeatedly violate basic human rights,” Rep. Darrin Madison (D-Milwaukee) said. The bills, he said, will implement “strong accountability measures so that all Wisconsinites, regardless of their background, are welcome and safe here.”

Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez (D-Milwaukee) said that most of the people being detained by the Trump administration aren’t criminals. According to ABC News, a recent report found that since late May, people with no criminal convictions and no pending criminal charges have started to make up an increasing percentage of those arrested by ICE. 

“The vast majority have been people who pose no public threat,” Ortiz-Velez said. “They are the essential workers that put food on our tables, milk the cows and keep the meat factories operating. They build our homes, and they’re our neighbors, and they’re our friends.” 

Republicans, who hold majorities in the Senate and Assembly, would be necessary for the bills to advance.

Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) said it’s unlikely Republicans will sign on. 

“We hope that our Republican colleagues will work with us on common-sense legislation, especially when the stakes are this high, but no, I don’t anticipate any support from our Republican legislative colleagues on this,” Clancy said. 

Republicans introduced a bill earlier this year that would require local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE. It passed the Assembly in March. 

One of the bills in the Democratic package is a measure introduced earlier this year by Ortiz-Velez to do the opposite by prohibiting cooperation of law enforcement with ICE

Another bill would require law enforcement officers to identify themselves when arresting someone including making their name and badge number visible, providing the authority for arrest or detention and prohibiting them from covering their face or wearing a disguise. Face coverings would be allowed if worn for safety or protection.

Violations would be a Class D felony and carry a penalty of maximum $100,000 fine.

Leaders of the Department of Homeland Security have said agents are covering their faces to protect themselves from doxing and threats, according to NPR. 

“It’s not normal for any law enforcement officer, any agency to wear masks and hide their identity, nor is it safe,” Ortiz-Velez said. “No exception should be made here.” 

One bill would prohibit state employees and police officers from aiding in the detention of someone if the person is being detained on the “sole basis that the individual is or is alleged to be not lawfully present in the United States.” The bill would also prohibit law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin from participating in 287(g) agreements.

The federal 287(g) program provides the opportunity for state and local law enforcement agencies to partner with ICE, allowing local officers to perform certain immigration-related duties, including identifying, processing and detaining removable immigrants in local jails. 

According to the ACLU of Wisconsin, there are 13 counties in Wisconsin as of the end of July that formally participate in the program. Several have joined this year including Kewaunee, Outagamie, Washington, Waupaca, Winnebago and Wood. 

“It’s important to remember as we’re here at the state capitol that Wisconsin has shown strong opposition to policies like 287(g),” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director and co-founder of Voces de la Frontera, a nonprofit immigrant rights organization. 

Neumann-Ortiz noted that in 2016 thousands protested immigration legislation that Republicans were proposing at the time, and it ultimately failed.

“People can make the change,” Neumann-Ortiz said.

Another bill would prohibit state and local facilities from being used to hold detained immigrants and would prohibit funds from being used to establish new immigrant detention facilities. The bill’s co-author, Rep. Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire), called it “the Communities, Not Cages” bill. 

“Over the past eight months, my constituents have stopped me at events and contacted my office and shared personal stories of fear and horror that grows and comes with watching the Trump regime abduct, detain and deport people they perceive to be immigrants without due process without accountability, often without even showing their faces,” Phelps said. “Our constituents in every corner of the state wish for us to be welcoming, safe and humane — a state that invests in communities and not in cages.” 

The final bill would establish a grant program run by the Department of Administration for community-based organizations in Wisconsin to support them in providing civil legal services to people and families in immigration matters.

Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement that the bill is “bad for Wisconsin taxpayers, who will be forced to help foot the bill for Republicans’ red-tape requirements.” Evers delivers his 2025 state budget address. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Gov. Tony Evers’ administration released new estimates Thursday showing that President Donald Trump’s recently approved federal tax cut and spending megabill will cost Wisconsin $284 million — $142 million annually — due to shifting costs and new “red-tape” requirements for social programs. 

The “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act — as it is officially named — makes a number of policy changes to federal social safety net programs, including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), that will be implemented gradually until completion in 2028. The cuts to the programs were aimed at balancing out the continuation of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and significant increases in military as well as immigration and border spending, though the law is projected to add $3 trillion to the national debt. 

The estimate from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) comes as Vice President J.D. Vance is scheduled to speak in La Crosse on Thursday to tout the legislation. 

Evers said in a statement that the bill is “bad for Wisconsin taxpayers, who will be forced to help foot the bill for Republicans’ red-tape requirements just to make it harder for folks to get the care they need and food to eat.”

“Wisconsinites shouldn’t have to pay the price for a reckless Republican bill that’s going to add trillions of dollars to our federal deficit and shift hundreds of millions of dollars in costs to hard-working taxpayers, all so Republicans could pay for tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations,” Evers said. “Wisconsinites aren’t getting a fair shake from Republicans in Washington — that’s plain as day.”

Some of the cost-cutting in the law comes from adding additional requirements to qualify for safety net programs that will reduce the number of people benefiting from them and offload some of the federal government’s costs to state and local governments. 

Wisconsin DHS has estimated that the requirements could put more than 270,000 Wisconsinites at risk of losing health insurance and as many as 43,700 could lose access to food assistance. 

Starting on December 31, 2026, childless members of BadgerCare Plus who are between the ages of 19 and 64 will have to report 80 hours of work, training or volunteering per month or risk losing coverage.

The analysis notes that it is now “fiscally and operationally unfeasible” for Wisconsin to expand its Medicaid program due to new provisions in the law. Wisconsin could get an additional $1.3 billion from the federal government if it expanded Medicaid, but the provision that made that a possibility will sunset in 2026. Expansion states will also now be required to redetermine eligibility at the six-month marks for its adult population covered under expansion.

When it comes to the SNAP program, the federal government will only cover 25% of administrative costs under the new law. It previously covered 50%. The shifting of the additional 25% to the states will cost Wisconsin about $43.5 million annually starting in 2027. That cost is also expected to grow in the future. 

The federal law also eliminates funding for SNAP education programs with Wisconsin losing $12 million annually starting in October. DHS said it would need additional funding in the 2027-29 state budget to implement and sustain Medicaid and FoodShare employment and training programs. 

The federal law could also mean additional costs for states if its annual payment error rate for the SNAP program is over 6%. The payment error rate measures mistakes by states in assessing eligibility and payments and, according to the Evers administration, Wisconsin has typically had a low rate. Last year, the state’s error rate was about 4.5%, but the agency said rates fluctuate and new policies and standards could make rates fluctuate more. 

States with a rate over 6% starting in October 2027 will be required to pay 5 to 15% of SNAP costs. 

“Achieving and maintaining Wisconsin’s historically low error rate while implementing the other provisions in the reconciliation bill will require additional state and county quality control staff,” the analysis states. “Failing to do so will have even larger consequences for the state and Wisconsin taxpayers.” 

The agency estimates that if an error rate were over 6%, it could cost the state as much as $205.5 million annually. 

DHS said it will not be able to absorb all of the increased costs associated with the law and additional state funding will be necessary, including $69.2 million to cover additional administrative costs including an  additional 56 state employees and county quality control positions to consistently achieve and maintain a FoodShare payment error rate in Wisconsin below 6% over the long term. The agency  said it would also need additional funding in the 2027-29 state budget to implement and sustain Medicaid and FoodShare employment and training programs. The agency estimated that it would cost the state roughly $72.4 million each year to provide employment and training services to help Medicaid members meet the new requirements. 

DHS Sec. Kirsten Johnson said the potential costs covered in the analysis are “just the tip of the iceberg.” 

“From increases in uncompensated care for hospitals to lost revenue for Wisconsin’s farmers, grocers, and local economies and thousands of Wisconsinites losing Medicaid and FoodShare, these cuts will cause a ripple effect throughout the state and put a financial strain on all of us,” Johnson said. 

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell administers the oath of office to Lisa Cook 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 — Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve governor, sued President Donald Trump Thursday, calling his move to fire her an “unprecedented and illegal attempt” that jeopardizes the independence of the board. 

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, sets up a fight between the Federal Reserve and the president who has tried to pressure the independent board to lower interest rates. The challenge could go all the way to the Supreme Court. 

The suit argues that the president’s Monday decision to remove her was political and violated her due process rights because she had no chance to respond to the allegations of mortgage fraud a Trump appointee lodged against her. Cook has not been charged with any crime.

“It is clear from the circumstances surrounding Governor Cook’s purported removal from the Federal Reserve Board that the mortgage allegations against her are pretextual, in order to effectuate her prompt removal and vacate a seat for President Trump to fill and forward his agenda to undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve,” according to the suit. 

The suit also emphasized the importance of the Fed’s independence from elected officials.

“The operational independence of the Federal Reserve is vital to its ability to make sound economic decisions, free from the political pressures of an election cycle,” according to the suit.

The case is assigned to Jia M. Cobb. Former President Joe Biden appointed Cobb in 2021. 

The suit asks the district court to allow Cook to continue serving on the Fed as she challenges her removal. 

In a statement to States Newsroom, White House spokesperson Kush Desai defended the president’s decision to remove Cook.

“The President determined there was cause to remove a governor who was credibly accused of lying in financial documents from a highly sensitive position overseeing financial institutions,” Desai said. “The removal of a governor for cause improves the Federal Reserve Board’s accountability and credibility for both the markets and American people.”

Rift highlights policy differences 

Cook, the first Black woman appointed to the Fed, has consistently voted against lowering interest rates since joining the board in 2022. Her term ends in 2038. 

If Trump is successful in removing her 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.

Despite Trump’s long-running pressure campaign, the Fed has kept rates steady amid concerns that the president’s tariffs will produce price hikes. 

The allegations of mortgage fraud stem from Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Pulte accused Cook of making a false statement on a mortgage application to obtain a more favorable rate on her second home. He referred the matter to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. 

The suit does not address the merits of the allegations.

Pulte has made similar mortgage fraud accusations against two other political enemies of Trump’s: New York Attorney General Letitia James, who investigated the president’s business dealings and won a finding of fraud in state court, and California U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, who led the investigation into Trump’s first impeachment inquiry.

A doctor takes the blood pressure of a pregnant patient. The Affordable Care Act has expanded the number of people with access to health insurance and health care, but advocates say changes being made since President Donald Trump took office could lead people to lose access. (Getty Images)

Months away from 2026, Amanda Sherman worries often about how the new year will change her health care.

Sherman, a broker’s assistant in a real estate office, buys her health insurance through the federal health insurance marketplace, HealthCare.gov. Her coverage has helped her through a chronic illness and critical health setbacks.

Her health plan costs her $300 a month. Without it, she says she couldn’t afford the weekly shots that she gets for lupus — a chronic autoimmune disorder she was diagnosed with five years ago.

HealthCare.gov was established in 2014 as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). “It’s been there as a great resource when I haven’t been able to get insurance at work,” Sherman says.

In 2026, however, Sherman expects the cost of her health insurance to skyrocket. An enhanced federal subsidy that helped her afford the coverage is set to disappear at the end of this year. When that happens, she isn’t sure what she’ll do.

In the last few years, record numbers of Americans, including record numbers of Wisconsin residents, have been signing up for coverage that the ACA has made possible.

“When we look back over the last decade, the number of uninsured people in our state has dropped by over 200,000 thanks to the Affordable Care Act,” Wisconsin Commissioner of Insurance Nathan Houdek tells the Wisconsin Examiner. “So we’ve seen a lot of success in terms of more people getting health insurance coverage and being able to access the health care they need as a result.”

Advocates warn that that is about to change under policies coming from the administration of President Donald Trump and the Republican majority in Congress.

“It’s going to take apart a lot of the advances that have been made to extend coverage to more people,” says Bobby Peterson, executive director of ABC for Health, which provides nonprofit legal services and advocacy for people caught up in medical debt.

Obamacare and HealthCare.gov

The ACA was enacted in 2010 during then-President Barack Obama’s first term and phased in over four years.

Nicknamed Obamacare — by detractors at first but later by its supporters — the law made changes that affected health coverage for everyone. It prevented insurers from rejecting coverage or hiking the premium cost because of a pre-existing health condition, for example.

The ACA also created a first-ever national marketplace where people without health insurance could buy coverage for themselves and their families: HealthCare.gov. And the law set standards for the policies sold in the marketplace.

In addition, the law established a nationwide navigator system — nonprofit agencies that help people who buy coverage at HealthCare.gov review their policy options and assess what might best fill their needs.

Dr. Jill McMullen, a family practitioner in Tomah, says she saw “a big improvement in people having access to care and the consistency of care since the Affordable Care Act went in place.”

The ACA required insurers to cover preventive care visits, for example.

“We could predict what was covered regardless of what insurance a patient was signed up with,” McMullen says. “That just makes it a lot easier for patients to get their care” — and also reduces the chance that providers would not get paid for their services.

To make insurance more affordable, the ACA included tax credit subsidies tied to the consumer’s income and available for people with household incomes up to 400% of the federal poverty guidelines. Those subsidies reduce, but don’t eliminate, the HealthCare.gov premium cost and reduce the annual out-of-pocket deductible that the patient has to pay.

Program improvements, record enrollments

In 2021, after President Joe Biden took office, Congress passed and Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), legislation to provide economic relief in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. ARPA included a provision that supercharged the premium tax credits and lowered patients’ out-of-pocket costs.

For the first time, subsidies were available to people with incomes more than four times the poverty guideline, according to the nonpartisan health research organization KFF. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act extended those enhanced subsidies through the end of 2025.

The Biden administration increased funding for navigator agencies and extended the annual ACA open enrollment period to run from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15.

Those changes helped produce higher-than-ever HealthCare.gov enrollments in Wisconsin in the last few years, Houdek says.

For 2025 alone, a record 313,579 people signed up for coverage at HealthCare.gov. National marketplace enrollment for 2025 also reached a record, 24 million, according to KFF.

Since taking office President Donald Trump and his administration have made or proposed changes in how HealthCare.gov works.

In June the Trump-appointed administration at the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) filed a new administrative rule governing Healthcare.gov enrollment that also would add roadblocks for the premium subsidies and shorten the open enrollment period for HealthCare.gov in future years.

On Friday, however, a federal judge in Maryland issued an injunction halting several provisions in the rule pending the outcome of a lawsuit to overturn it.

Even if the new rule doesn’t get enacted, experts say other Trump administration changes to the ACA are almost certain to make health insurance more expensive for people who buy their own coverage.

Navigator cutbacks, mega-bill changes

The administration has cut back support for the nonprofit health care navigators.

Wisconsin’s navigator agency is Covering Wisconsin, part of the University of Wisconsin Extension. Over the course of 2024, the agency’s 41 navigators helped with 100,000 coverage issues, says Covering Wisconsin Director Allison Espeseth.

Those include about 10,000 people who needed assistance through the full process of enrollment at Healthcare.gov, she says. But navigators up to now have helped people with other related needs, such as getting people who qualify enrolled in Medicaid, called BadgerCare in Wisconsin.

“The role of the navigator is to be that hub,” Espeseth says. “To be that one person who understands the health system, hospitals, health plans, understands government.”

In May, Covering Wisconsin received word from the federal government that, like navigator programs across the country, the Wisconsin program would lose 90% of its federal funding, Espeseth says. The cutback took effect Wednesday, Aug. 27.

Espeseth said that will reduce the number of Covering Wisconsin navigators from 41 to 17. With just one-third the number of navigators, “it’s going to make it more difficult for sure to see as many consumers as we have in the past,” she says.

Espeseth says Covering Wisconsin is connecting with insurance agents and brokers who can help with HealthCare.gov marketplace enrollment. The nonprofit is also coordinating with county agencies that qualify and enroll people in Medicaid and other safety net programs.

During the Healthcare.gov open enrollment period, “Typically we help anybody with any coverage issue that comes up, not just for the marketplace,” Espeseth says. “But this year, we need to prioritize. So we’re going to be really focusing as much as we can on marketplace consumers [who] need to renew or find a plan [or] don’t have coverage.”

The tax-cut and spending cut reconciliation bill that Republicans in Congress passed this summer and Trump signed on July 4 includes new limits on who can qualify for the ACA’s premium tax credit subsidies.

Meanwhile, Trump and the congressional Republicans rejected appeals to keep the ARPA enhanced subsidies in place after 2025.

“The federal reconciliation bill is the biggest change to health care in this country since the passage of ACA, and it goes in the wrong direction,” says William Parke-Sutherland, government affairs director for Kids Forward, an advocacy organization for families and children.

The ARPA enhanced subsidies “made health insurance way more affordable for people under 250% of the federal poverty level,” he says — and also made it possible for middle class families who previously had no support to get “a little bit of support to help pay for the cost of their health insurance.”

KFF reported earlier in August that insurers on the ACA marketplace on average plan to increase premiums 18% for 2026. But without the enhanced subsidies, consumers’ out-of-pocket expenses for health coverage could increase by 75%, the research organization calculates.

“You could see 50,000 or more Wisconsin residents lose their ACA coverage because of some of the changes related to not extending the enhanced premium tax credits, increasing the maximum out-of-pocket cost for consumers, shortening the open enrollment period, reducing funding for navigators,” Houdek says. 

“All of these things are going to have a negative impact on people’s ability to access coverage through the Affordable Care Act.”

Next: The threat to coverage and widespread consequences

A researcher surveys wild rice on the Pine River. (Wisconsin SEA Grant)

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced that this year’s wild rice crop yield in northern Wisconsin is low, continuing a pattern of lower yields over recent years. Wild rice crops have been affected by heavy rainfall and powerful storms this year, contributing to an 18% decline in the wild rice crop compared to last year.

“The 2025 season has brought a mix of conditions, including several notable storm systems,” said Kathy Smith, Ganawandang manoomin (which means she who takes care of wild rice), with the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission. “A fast-moving windstorm in mid-June produced widespread wind damage and heavy rainfall across the upper Midwest. In late June, some areas saw 6-7 inches of rain in a short period, contributing to temporary high-water levels on seepage lakes.”

Using satellite-facilitated remote sensing technology, the commission was able to determine the 18% decline in the wild rice crop. A DNR press release notes that these technologies do not provide insights into local wild rice production, bed densities, or seed production. Early scouting reports help fill in the gaps, showing a “mixed bag of production,” the agency stated,  “with some top-producing lakes seeing declines in the crop from last year, while others appear to be rebounding.” 

Wild rice harvesting is open to all Wisconsin residents with a wild rice harvester license. The crop provides nutritious, naturally grown food to people across the upper Midwest. Wild rice also holds an important cultural place for indigenous tribal communities. Around late August through mid-September, the rice reaches maturity. Jason Fleener, a DNR wetland habitat specialist, stresses that it’s important to wait to harvest the rice until it falls with relatively gentle strokes or knocks from  ricing sticks. If no rice falls, then it’s best to wait a few more days before attempting to harvest. 

Harvesting immature beds can negatively affect the overall harvest, as well as the long-term sustainability of the rice. Besides climate effects, human activity such as boating (which creates waves that uproot growing rice plants) can also harm the crop.

Police respond at Annunciation School after a man killed two children and injured several others Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025 in Minneapolis. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

Two children, ages 8 and 10, were killed by a shooter who opened fire outside Annunciation Church in south Minneapolis, where students at the Catholic school were gathered Wednesday for Mass to celebrate the beginning of the school year.

Another 17 people were injured — 14 children and three parishioners in their 80s — and are being treated at area hospitals. One adult and six children were in critical condition Wednesday afternoon, according to Hennepin Healthcare.

Annunciation Principal Matt DeBoer said teachers acted within seconds of gunfire erupting to shelter children under pews.

“It could have been significantly worse without their heroic action,” DeBoer said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “We lost two angels today. Please continue to pray for those still receiving care. We can’t change the past, but we can do something about the future.”

The shooter, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, barricaded the door of the church with a wood board and shot dozens of rounds through the window using a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.

“The coward that shot these victims took his own life in the rear of the church,” O’Hara said.

Outside the school after the shooting, parents were picking up their children, who wore the green polos that are the school uniform.

Susan Ruff, a neighbor whose children attended the school at Annunciation and has a grandson currently enrolled, said she saw the shooting from her window.

She witnessed a man dressed in black, wearing a helmet, with a long gun, shooting at the church from the outside. She heard 25 or 30 gun shots. “It sounded like someone was dropping a dumpster. That loud bang. But I kept hearing it, so I thought, that’s not a dumpster.” Her grandson was unhurt in the shooting.

Westman purchased the weapons legally and did not have a criminal record, O’Hara said. He said law enforcement were not seeking other suspects.

Court records show a Mary Westman, who retired from Annunciation Catholic School in 2021 according to a now-deleted Facebook post, requested a name change for her child from Robert to Robin in 2019 saying “minor identifies as female.” O’Hara said he could not confirm the suspect’s connection to the school or that the suspect changed their name.

O’Hara said investigators believe Westman is behind videos scheduled to post on YouTube on Wednesday morning, which have since been taken down. One video opens with a four-page handwritten screed that begins, “I don’t expect forgiveness … I do apologize for the effects my actions will have on your lives.”

It also showed an arsenal of guns and ammunition with writing on them reading “Where Is Your God?” and “Suck On This!” Other writings, some in Russian, target President Donald Trump and wish death upon Jewish people.

Numerous law enforcement agencies were on the scene including the FBI, ATF and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office.

O’Hara said law enforcement are executing four search warrants, one at the church and three others at residences in the metro area connected to the suspect where firearms are being recovered.

“We are all working tirelessly to uncover the full scope of what happened, to try and identify a motive, why it happened, and whether there are any other further details,” O’Hara said.

Neighbors and former students said they were shaken by the shooting in the typically quiet southwestern Minneapolis neighborhood.

Jack Friedman, 25, went to the school and lives in the area. He said, “You never think that it’s going to happen at the school you went to, but then you start thinking how naïve to believe that. Because it happens everywhere.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, speaking at a news conference outside the school, called for action — not just thoughts and prayers, which has become a rote response to mass shootings.

“Don’t just say, this is about thoughts and prayers right now,” he said. “These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church.”

Vigils are planned Wednesday night for the victims. Annunciation Church announced a prayer vigil at 7 p.m. in the Holy Angels Gym. Anti-gun violence group Moms Demand Action announced a candlelight vigil at 8 p.m. at Minneapolis Lynnhurst Park.

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.

Susan Monarez, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on June 25, 2025 in Washington, D.C.. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t appear inclined to leave her post, despite the Trump administration announcing Wednesday that she’s no longer running one of the country’s top public health agencies. 

Attorneys for Susan Monarez, who received Senate confirmation in late July, posted that she hasn’t been fired or resigned, but didn’t announce whether they plan to sue the administration. 

“When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda,” wrote Mark S. Zaid and Abbe David Lowell. “For that, she has been targeted. Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired, and as a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign.”

The statement from Monarez’s attorneys came just hours after the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, wrote on social media that she was no longer running the agency. 

“Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” the post stated. “We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people. @SecKennedy has full confidence in his team at@CDCgov who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.”

The Washington Post first reported the news. 

The U.S. Senate voted along party lines to confirm Monarez as CDC director in late July, giving her just weeks in one of the nation’s top public health roles.

Monarez’s last post on social media from her official account was on Aug. 22, marking the death of a police officer after a gunman opened fire at the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta. 

“A large group of CDC employees and I attended today’s memorial for Officer David Rose, whose Tour of Duty ended on August 8 when he responded to shots fired,” Monarez wrote. “He leaves behind a legacy of love, courage, and service to the community that will never be forgotten.”

The dispute over Monarez’s position as CDC director appeared to potentially mark the beginning of a wave of resignations from other public health officials, including Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Demetre C. Daskalakis.

“I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health,” Daskalakis wrote in a lengthy social media post. “The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people.”

Monarez second choice after Weldon

Monarez was President Donald Trump’s second choice for CDC director. He originally selected former Florida U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon to run the CDC shortly after he secured election to the Oval Office in November. But the White House pulled Weldon’s nomination in March, after it appeared he couldn’t secure the votes needed for confirmation.

Later that month, Trump announced his plans to nominate Monarez in a social media post.

“Dr. Monarez brings decades of experience championing Innovation, Transparency, and strong Public Health Systems,” Trump wrote. “She has a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, and PostDoctoral training in Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine.

“As an incredible mother and dedicated public servant, Dr. Monarez understands the importance of protecting our children, our communities, and our future. Americans have lost confidence in the CDC due to political bias and disastrous mismanagement. Dr. Monarez will work closely with our GREAT Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy Jr. Together, they will prioritize Accountability, High Standards, and Disease Prevention to finally address the Chronic Disease Epidemic and, MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN!”

Restoring trust in CDC

Monarez testified in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in June as part of her confirmation process. The committee voted 12-11 in July to send her nomination to the Senate floor, where Republicans approved her to the post later that month. 

Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., said during the committee’s markup that he believed Monarez would put science first and help to restore public trust in the agency. 

“The United States needs a CDC director who makes decisions rooted in science, a leader who will reform the agency and work to restore public trust in health institutions,” Cassidy said at the time. “With decades of proven experience as a public health official, Dr. Monarez is ready to take on this challenge.”

The river flowing through Wauwatosa's Hart Park overflowing with flood water. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

On Wednesday, Gov. Tony Evers formally requested a presidential disaster declaration from President Donald Trump to direct federal assistance to parts of Wisconsin still dealing with the aftermath of unprecedented rainfall and flooding earlier this month. The request for additional support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Individual Assistance Program includes Milwaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties, as well as support from FEMA’s Public Assistance Program for Door, Grant, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington, and Waukesha counties. 

The move comes following joint preliminary damage assessments conducted by FEMA and Wisconsin Emergency Management in Milwaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties, which found over 1,500 residential structures which were either destroyed or sustained major damage, racking up an estimated price tag of over $33 million. Many people lost homes, personal property or were displaced after the historic, 1,000-year storm, which dumped a summer’s worth of rain in a single day. Scientists have long warned that climate change would lead to more intense rainfall and flooding events in Wisconsin. 

Local officials have been on the ground surveying flood damage across neighborhoods. “Having been on the ground to see firsthand some of the areas that have been hit hardest by the disastrous storms and flash floods that have affected folks across our state, it’s clear it’s going to take a significant amount of time and resources to recover,” Evers said in a statement. “My administration and I have been working diligently to respond and support clean-up efforts, but it’s clear more help is needed to support the people of Wisconsin and ensure we can rebuild.”

Evers is calling on Trump to “do the right thing and make the appropriate presidential disaster declaration in coordination with the preliminary damage assessment — and quickly and without delay.” The governor added that, “folks and families whose homes, businesses, schools, and community centers were severely damaged by this severe weather event are counting on this relief.” 

WEM Administrator Greg Engle applauded “the swift and collaborative effort for these assessments” as “a powerful demonstration of unity between counties, the state of Wisconsin, and FEMA to get help to those in crisis after this historical flooding event…The speed and precision in which this was accomplished speaks volumes. When different agencies come together, the road to recovery reaches the people who need it faster.” 

Initial damage reports collected by the state suggest that over $43 million in public sector damage occurred across six Wisconsin counties. Residents with damaged property are encouraged to save all receipts for damage repair, and to continue calling 211 to make an official record, which will also help support the case for federal support. FEMA’s ability to provide assistance to Wisconsin has been up in the air as  the Trump administration threatens agency cuts . Recently, several FEMA employees were placed on administrative leave just a day after signing a public letter accusing the Trump administration of politicized firings and “uninformed cost-cutting” at the agency. 

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley also announced that preliminary assessments were completed by FEMA on Aug. 22, and that Wisconsin had likely surpassed the threshold to be eligible for federal support. Crowley said that residents “have shown incredible resilience in the face of this disaster,” adding that the completion of FEMA’s assessment is “an important milestone, but it’s just one step in the process toward federal assistance.” Crowley said in a statement that “we will continue to stand with our communities, fight for the resources families need, and keep residents informed every step of the way….This collaboration helps us respond to disasters with both speed and compassion.”

An emergency shelter in Milwaukee established at Marshall High School will close Wednesday due to the start of the school year. Individuals who were housed at the shelter will be moved to the Milwaukee Environmental Sciences Academy (6600 W Melvina St, Milwaukee, WI, 53216). People displaced from their homes are encouraged to call the American Red Cross at 1-800-RED-CROSS for shelter assistance. Volunteers for clean up operations and to help staff the emergency shelters are also still needed.

U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (center) and tribal leaders speak to the media after a public safety roundtable on Aug. 14, 2024, in Wagner, South Dakota. With Rounds, from left, are Cheyenne River Chairman Ryman LeBeau, Lower Brule Chairman Clyde Estes, Sisseton Wahpeton Secretary Curtis Bissonette, Wayne Boyd of Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Yankton Chairman Robert Flying Hawk, Oglala President Frank Star Comes out and Crow Creek Chairman Peter Lengkeek. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)

WASHINGTON — Tribal radio stations that are supposed to receive millions to fill the hole created when Congress eliminated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting haven’t heard anything from the Trump administration about when it will send the money or how much in grants they’ll receive.

Unlike most government spending deals, the handshake agreement South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds negotiated with the White House budget director in exchange for Rounds’ vote on the rescissions bill wasn’t placed in the legislation, so it never became law. 

Instead, Rounds is trusting the Trump administration to move $9.4 million in funding from an undisclosed account to more than two dozen tribal radio stations in rural areas of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota and Wisconsin that receive community service grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 

But neither Rounds’ office, the Office of Management and Budget, nor the Bureau of Indian Affairs responded to emails from States Newsroom asking when the grants would be sent to those radio stations and whether the funding levels would be equal to what they currently receive. 

Loris Taylor, president and CEO of Native Public Media, a network of more than 60 broadcast stations that’s headquartered in Arizona, said she’s written to Rounds and the Bureau of Indian Affairs about the handshake deal reached in July but hasn’t heard back. 

“I can’t place my expectations on something that hasn’t been concretely shared with the stations,” Taylor said. “And so all I can say is that our expectations are to raise money for the stations to make sure that they have operational dollars for FY 2026, and that’s exactly where we’re placing our focus.”

Taylor pointed out that Rounds’ informal deal with White House budget director Russ Vought doesn’t cover all of the tribal stations in the network and will only last for one year, leaving questions about long-term budgeting.

An Interior Department spokesperson wrote in an email after this story originally published that “Indian Affairs has received a list of 37 stations and is working to distribute about $9.4 million in funding to support them. 

“We know how important these stations are for public safety and are moving quickly to get the money out. Before we can set a timeline, we need to coordinate with the stations, tribes and other partners to ensure the funds are delivered efficiently and meet the needs of Indian Country. We will share updates when we have more to share publicly.”

The spokesperson did not provide a list of those stations or information on how the department plans to divvy up the funding. 

‘The little stations like us’  

Dave Patty, general manager at KIYU-FM in Galena, Alaska, said he isn’t planning to receive any federal funding during the upcoming fiscal year, in part because he hasn’t heard anything from the administration. The 2026 federal fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.

“Well, I certainly can’t budget anything that I don’t know is coming, so I’m definitely not planning for it now,” he said. 

President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers’ decision to eliminate all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting because of their belief of left-leaning bias at National Public Radio wasn’t the right way to address those frustrations, Patty said. 

“The narrative was definitely centered around NPR and that was definitely wrong because NPR aren’t the ones in trouble,” he said. “NPR is well funded from philanthropists all over the country, and as a mothership, NPR is not going anywhere. It’s the little stations like us that are going to go away because, for instance, about 60% of our budget came from the CPB grant.”

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced in early August it will shutter most of its operations by the end of September, with some staff working through January. 

NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service have made no such announcements, but local stations throughout the country have announced budget cuts since Congress approved the bill rescinding $1.1 billion in funding it previously approved for CPB. That money was supposed to cover costs during fiscal 2026 and 2027. 

Lawsuit feared 

Karl Habeck, general manager at WOJB in Hayward, Wisconsin, said he’s only heard “gossip” and “rumors” about how exactly the handshake agreement will work in practice but is concerned that someone may challenge the Trump administration’s authority to move money around since it wasn’t in the bill and never became law. 

“What gives them the right to take these funds that were allocated for environmental projects and send them towards Native American radio stations?” Habeck said. 

Typically, the administration would need sign-off from appropriators in Congress before moving large sums of money from one account to another. 

Officials haven’t said publicly where exactly they plan on taking the money from and it’s unclear if the Trump administration is trying to create a new account for grants to rural tribal radio stations out of thin air, without an actual appropriation from Congress. 

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, chairwoman of the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, and Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, ranking member on the panel, didn’t immediately respond to a request for details.  

Habeck said he expects WOJB will be okay financially for the next year, but that he and many others don’t know what the future will hold after that. 

“It’s going to be hard,” Habeck said. “I guess people don’t understand. You know, they try to compare us to commercial radio and it’s two different things.”

Local broadcasting stations, he said, have fewer employees and are often a nexus for their communities, providing information about everything from lost dogs to emergency alerts to high school sports updates. 

“That doesn’t happen everywhere. It’d be a shame to lose that,” Habeck said. “I think we’re an integral part of the community and people have come to rely on us and appreciate that. And I’m talking everybody. I don’t care what their political stance is. “

A different mission for tribal radio stations

Sue Matters, station manager at KWSO in Warm Springs, Oregon, said she reached out to one of her home-state senators, Ron Wyden, who contacted Rounds’ office to ask how the funding would be allocated and when. But Wyden was unable to share any concrete information.

Matters also spoke with someone she knows at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, who was similarly unable to provide information about how the agreement will actually work.

“I’m just assuming there’s not anything,” Matters said, adding she’s now focusing on securing a grant from the bridge fund that’s supposed to help the more at-risk public broadcasting stations.

Tribal stations, she said, often have substantially different missions than commercial stations, focusing on language and cultural programs as well as preserving their traditional life.

“That’s endangered,” Matters said. “We won’t let anything stop us. But it’s sad that for whatever reason this funding has been taken away.”

“I fear for my life on campus now, going to class each day with the knowledge that, at any moment, my lecture hall might become the site of a shooting, my classmates the victims shown on television, my parents the ones receiving frantic texts of ‘I love you,’” said Nessa Bleill, founder and president of the University of Wisconsin-Madison chapter of Students Demand Action. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Democratic lawmakers want to align gun laws for Wisconsin colleges and universities with those in place for K-12 schools by prohibiting concealed carry on campuses.

Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) and Rep. Brienne Brown (D-Whitewater) said during a press conference Wednesday that the bill would help protect students at a time when schools continue to be targets of gun violence.

“We know that responsible gun safety measures, when they’re implemented in states — they do work. They reduce the incidence of firearm injury and death,” Roys said. “But we have a patchwork across the country. Until more states and the federal government step forward to enact gun safety measures, we are still going to make a public policy choice that allows an unprecedented amount of gun violence in this country.” 

The bill would ban possession of a firearm on public and private college campuses even with a permit. If someone violated the prohibition, they would be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.

State law currently prohibits people from carrying a gun in a building owned by the state, but this does not apply to someone with a license to carry a concealed weapon. 

Wisconsin’s concealed carry law does not permit people to be armed in certain buildings owned by the state including police stations, prisons, courthouses and schools, and if someone violates this, they are guilty of a Class A misdemeanor. This doesn’t currently include college or university buildings.

Colleges do have the option, under state law, to post notice on a building to prevent someone from entering with a firearm. In this case, a person, even with a license, would be guilty of trespassing and is subject to a Class B forfeiture, which is a forfeiture not to exceed $1,000.

While there is not a state statute prohibiting concealed carry on campuses, University of Wisconsin system policy does prohibit people from carrying, possessing or using any dangerous weapon on university property and in university buildings and facilities, including dorms.

The bill has a slim number of exceptions including for a law enforcement officer, for military personnel in the line of duty and for someone who possesses the firearm for use in a program approved by the university or college, such as if the school has a shooting range. 

Lawmakers made the announcement just a few hours after reports of a shooting four-and-a-half hours away from the Wisconsin State Capitol at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis. Students, who attend the Catholic school, had gathered for mass to celebrate the start of the school year. Two children are dead and 17 others, including 14 children, were injured. 

Brown, who represents UW-Whitewater, said she had just heard the news out of Minneapolis. 

“I’m pretty frustrated,” said Brown, who was tearing up. She said she has been constantly asked by students, staff and faculty what can be done about gun violence at universities, adding that they can’t handle the issue on their own. 

“This is a generation that has grown up with school lockdown drills. We have absorbed images of children dying at the hands of armed shooters,” Brown said. “We have witnessed adults doing nothing about it or weakening the laws that were already in place… School should not be another place where they can be victimized by gun violence. As the mother of teens who will soon be off to college, we need to do better.”

According to a CNN review of events reported by the Gun Violence Archive, Education Week and Everytown for Gun Safety, there have been 44 school shootings in the U.S. this year, as of August 27. Of those, 22 were on college campuses. 

Wisconsin Democrats’ proposal also comes amid about a dozen college campuses across several states, including Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Louisiana, facing disruptions this week due to hoax calls reporting school shooters. UW-Madison received an unsubstantiated call about an active shooter on Monday. According to WPR, the call was determined to be false quickly, so the campus did not activate its campus emergency alert system. 

Nessa Bleill, founder and president of the University of Wisconsin-Madison chapter of Students Demand Action and a survivor of a mass shooting at a parade in Illinois in 2022, said she has feared for her life at school since kindergarten. 

“I fear for my life on campus now, going to class each day with the knowledge that, at any moment, my lecture hall might become the site of a shooting, my classmates the victims shown on television, my parents the ones receiving frantic texts of ‘I love you,’” Bleill said. “This fear lives in the mind of every American student… We deserve better than this violent reality and the fear it causes…. There is a solution to this fear — ensuring that no kid has any reason to be scared for their life at school — that solution, however, takes action from students like me and especially action from lawmakers.”

Roys said the legislation could also help reduce incidents of suicides among students. 

“One-third of college students have contemplated suicide within the past year,” Roys said. “As we know that suicide by gun is the most lethal form that it can take. With access to a gun, 90% of suicides are completed… but if you do not have access to a gun, only 4% of suicide attempts are completed. This is an important, life-saving measure.” 

Support from Republican lawmakers, who hold the majority in the Assembly and Senate, will be necessary for the bill to advance. 

Roys said the bill will be circulating for cosponsorship, but seemed to doubt Republicans would support the proposal.

“Republicans have been pretty reticent to sign on to gun safety regulation,” Roys said, adding that gun control measures are supported by an array of voters. 

The bill authors noted in a press release that Republicans have not signed on to other proposals Democrats have introduced this legislative session. Some of those bills include one requiring a 48-hour waiting period to purchase a gun, one prohibiting undetectable firearms, one requiring gun owners to store their firearms in a safe if they live with a child and one prohibiting the sale of firearms without a background check and going through a federally licensed firearms dealer.

Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill to create a sales tax exemption for gun safes to encourage more gun owners to purchase them and another bill that would allow teachers to carry guns in the classroom as a way to address school shootings.

Cows at a Dunn County dairy farm. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)

A Wisconsin Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled that the state Department of Natural Resources has the authority to require that factory farms obtain water pollution permits, affirming a previous Calumet County court decision. 

Two groups representing Wisconsin’s factory farms, known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, filed the lawsuit in 2023, arguing that the state did not have the authority to require permits under the DNR’s Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) program. The program requires any entity that discharges pollution into the state’s waterways to obtain a permit. 

The lobbying groups, Venture Dairy Cooperative and the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance, are themselves led by factory farm operators who have been cited by the DNR for contaminating the state’s water through manure spills. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business lobby, has also been involved in the lawsuit. 

State law requires an application for a WPDES permit must be made within 90 days of becoming a factory farm or expanding. The permits last for five years before they must be renewed. CAFOs — factory farms with more than 1,000 “animal units,” which is equivalent to about 700 milking cows — are also required to submit plans to the DNR for how they intend to manage the manure created on the farm. 

Over the last two decades, the number of CAFOs operating in Wisconsin has more than doubled, creating an increasing amount of manure that sits in lagoons, gets spread onto fields and potentially runs off into local waterways. 

If a manure spill occurs, the permit requires the owner to notify the agency and is responsible for the cleanup. The permits also need to be reapproved whenever an operation is planning to expand and every permit application is subject to a public comment period. 

A manure spill can cause harmful substances such as nitrates, E. coli and phosphorus to enter the state’s ground and surface waters — potentially making drinking water dangerous to consume and causing fish to die. 

Four years ago, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the DNR had the authority to use the WPDES permits to impose conditions on factory farms as a way to control their environmental effects. In recent years, WMC has filed several lawsuits seeking to weaken the DNR’s authority and undermine its ability to regulate water pollution across the state. 

The lawsuit argued that having to comply with the “time-consuming, costly process” of obtaining a permit that imposes “substantial costs and regulatory burdens” on the farms, is against the law because of two previous federal court decisions in 2005 and 2011 about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s own permit requirements for polluters.

On Wednesday, the District II Court of Appeals, which covers 12 counties in southeastern Wisconsin, found that the DNR does have the authority to create the rules the dairy groups challenged. 

“The challenged rules do not exceed the DNR’s statutory authority and do not conflict with state law,” the three judge panel, controlled by a conservative majority, wrote.

After the decision, advocates for the environment and smaller farms said it would help the state protect water quality. 

“This decision is a win for every rural community that depends on clean water,” Wisconsin Farmers Union President Darin Von Ruden said in a statement. “Family farmers understand that stewardship of the land and water is key to long-term success. Ensuring that large livestock operations follow commonsense permitting rules protects our shared resources and the future of farming in Wisconsin.”

“These large operations can produce as much waste as a small city, and the state must be able to monitor and control how, where, and in what quantities manure is stored and spread on the landscape,” said Clean Wisconsin attorney Evan Feinauer. “That’s why for nearly 40 years, the DNR has required large CAFOs to have permits to limit this dangerous pollution. Allowing large dairies to sidestep oversight would have been catastrophic for water protection in our state.”

A couple hundred people rallied Aug. 25 in support of Kilmar Abrego Garcia outside the the George H. Fallon Federal Building, where the ICE detention facility is located in Baltimore. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)

WASHINGTON — Maryland federal Judge Paula Xinis barred the Trump administration Wednesday from re-deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was unlawfully removed earlier this year, until she makes a decision in an evidentiary hearing set for October.

Separately, Abrego Garcia filed a claim for asylum, a longshot bid to gain legal status as the Trump administration aims to expel him to Uganda after unlawfully deporting him to a notorious prison in El Salvador in March. Xinis has no jurisdiction over the asylum case, which will be handled by an immigration judge.    

Xinis said at a Wednesday hearing that she would issue a temporary restraining order blocking immigration authorities from removing Abrego Garcia until she issues a decision following a hearing scheduled for Oct. 6 in the U.S. District Court of Maryland. 

That hearing is on Abrego Garcia’s habeas corpus claim challenging his detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials this week. 

Xinis said she would rule on the claim within 30 days of the early October hearing. 

Detained in Virginia

Immigration officials took Abrego Garcia into custody Monday when he appeared for an in-person interview at Baltimore’s ICE field office. He is currently detained at an ICE facility in Virginia, his attorneys said. 

Xinis said she would include in her temporary restraining order that Abrego Garcia must be detained within 200 miles of the district courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland. 

Attorneys for Abrego Garcia are also challenging the administration’s efforts to expel Abrego Garcia to the East African nation of Uganda and are pushing for a credible fear interview, in an effort to stop his removal to a country where he could face harm. 

Immigrants who are deported to a country that is not their home, known as a third country, are allowed to challenge their removal if they believe they will experience harm in that country.

Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign said during Wednesday’s hearing that he expects the credible fear process to take two weeks. 

Ensign said that while the Department of Justice objects to Xinis’ temporary restraining order, the federal government is “committed” to keeping Abrego Garcia in the United States until she makes her decision on the habeas corpus claim. 

Uganda or Costa Rica

Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador despite deportation protections granted in 2019, was brought back to the U.S. in June to face criminal charges lodged against him by the Department of Justice in May amid several court orders, including from the Supreme Court, that required the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return. 

His case has brought a spotlight to President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown. Abrego Garcia has detailed the physical and psychological torture he experienced at the El Salvador megaprison.

Last week, attorneys for Abrego Garcia in his criminal case in Nashville, Tennessee, said in court filings that the Trump administration is trying to force Abrego Garcia to plead guilty to human smuggling charges by promising to remove him to Costa Rica if he does so, and threatening to deport him to Uganda if he refuses. 

Costa Rica’s government has stated it will grant Abrego Garcia refugee status. 

Abrego Garcia’s attorney in his Maryland case, Simon Y. Sandoval-Moshenberg, said Abrego Garcia is willing to be removed to Costa Rica but will not plead guilty to the charges in Tennessee. 

Those charges stem from a traffic stop in 2022 in which Abrego Garcia was in a car with several people. No charges were filed at the time. 

The Department of Justice has alleged that Abrego Garcia took part in a long-running conspiracy to smuggle immigrants without legal status across the United States. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges. 

Trump and other top officials such as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have accused Abrego Garcia of being a MS-13 gang leader, but no allegations have been proven in court. 

Abrego Garcia came to the U.S. without legal authorization from his home country of El Salvador in 2011 at the age of 16. He applied for asylum in 2019, but authorities denied the claim because he did not apply for asylum within his first year in the U.S., which is the legal deadline for such claims.

Instead, an immigration judge gave him deportation protections, known as a withholding in place, because it was likely he would face gang violence if returned to his home country of El Salvador. 

Federal immigration officials at the time didn’t object to the deportation protections and declined to find a third country of removal that would accept him and where he would not experience harm. 

The updated Free Application for Federal Student Aid for the 2026-2027 school year will launch for all students by Oct. 1, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said. (Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — The updated form to apply for federal student aid will launch for all students by Oct. 1, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon told congressional leaders in a letter this week. 

The department began testing in early August for the 2026-27 Free Application for Federal Student Aid — better known as FAFSA — to address any bugs or technical issues before opening it up to everyone in the fall. 

The agency signaled earlier this year that the form would open up to the general public by Oct. 1, the typical opening date for the annual form that’s now congressionally mandated. 

The department noted that for the 2026-27 FAFSA, 2,435 forms were started, 1,372 were submitted and 1,347 had been processed, as of Monday. 

McMahon’s letter to lawmakers on Tuesday followed the botched rollout of the 2024-25 FAFSA, which faced several highly publicized hiccups during then-President Joe Biden’s administration’s attempts to implement a makeover after Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act in 2020.

The rollout of the following 2025-26 form, still under the Biden administration, took a staggered approach that included several rounds of testing and gradually increased the number of people able to complete the form. 

Though that form debuted earlier than the 2024-25 application, the full rollout still came nearly two months later than the usual Oct. 1 date. 

“Under President Trump’s leadership, our team has prioritized technical competence and expertise, which has led to the earliest testing launch of the FAFSA form in history,” McMahon said in a statement Wednesday. 

“The Biden Administration failed the FAFSA rollout two years ago, leaving millions of American students and families without clear answers or a path forward in their educational journey,” she said. “Congress gave us a mandate to improve the form and deliver it on time for students, families, and institutions of higher education — and I am proud to certify that the form will launch on time this fall.” 

McMahon’s letter to the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the House Committee on Education and Workforce follows a law signed by Biden last December that ensures the FAFSA rolls out by Oct. 1 each year. 

The law also requires the Education secretary to notify Congress by Sept. 1 annually on whether the department will meet that Oct. 1 deadline.

Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) moderated a Tuesday panel with medical students and health care professionals on restrictions to abortion and the effects on care. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Following a recent state Supreme Court decision that upheld legal abortion in Wisconsin, medical students and health care professionals say Wisconsin laws and the Trump administration attacks on reproductive health still make care inaccessible for many patients and that physicians still face significant challenges in providing care.

In July, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled invalid an 1849 criminal law that had halted abortion care in the state for over a year following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that revived previously unenforceable abortion bans on the books in many states. In its 4-3 decision, the Court found the law had effectively been repealed by other laws passed after it. 

During a Tuesday panel discussion hosted by the advocacy organization Free & Just, Dr. Abigail Cutler, a practicing OB/GYN at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health, said the decision provided a “reason to celebrate” but ultimately it brought the state “back to a pretty low bar.” 

“We have just a slew of abortion restrictions on the books that pre-dated Dobbs that make it really, really difficult to access care if you’re a patient and to provide care if you’re a provider,” Cutler said, adding that the decision also doesn’t prohibit the state Legislature from potentially passing an abortion ban in the future. “Our right to access abortion in our state and to provide it freely is not protected.” 

Some Wisconsin laws restricting abortion include a 22-week ban, a requirement that patients have two, in-person visits with a physician, a mandatory ultrasound, a prohibition on telehealth abortion care and a parental consent requirement for minors seeking an abortion. Wisconsin, in line with federal law, prohibits its state Medicaid program from covering abortions except in limited circumstances. 

Amy Williamson, associate director of the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity, a research initiative at UW-Madison, said the state law prohibiting telehealth related to abortion isn’t based in science. 

“There’s plenty of studies that indicate that abortions can be provided safely and effectively through telehealth, whether it’s the consultation you could do by telehealth, or you can provide a medication abortion by telehealth,” Williamson said. “If we were able to change that, we know that we could expand access to care in the state, like with other health care services.”

Cutler said the “most insidious restriction” to her is the restrictions on insurance coverage for abortion care.

“If you cannot pay for the care that you need, then you’re not going to get the care. You’re going to choose to provide food for your kids, you’re going to choose to keep going to your job and not taking time off from work,” Cutler said. 

In addition to state restrictions, the Trump administration has been targeting abortion care on a federal level.

Trump’s recent megabill approved this summer included a provision to prohibit Planned Parenthood from accessing Medicaid payments. 

The Hyde Amendment has long banned the use of federal dollars to pay for abortion care, but the new provision went further by banning federal support for nonprofit facilities that provide abortions using separate funds. The provision has been challenged in court, though a federal judge recently ruled in favor of the administration.

Williamson called Planned Parenthood a “really critical part of the economic safety net,” noting that about one in five women of reproductive age who are on Medicaid get their care at Planned Parenthood. 

Williamson said that given the array of services, cuts would also mean further consequences.

“This leads to a decrease in contraceptive use, an increase of undesired pregnancies, undetected and untreated STIs and less opportunities to identify cancer early,” Williamson said. “We can be doing better. It’s not rocket science.” 

“When Planned Parenthood is targeted, it is because they provide abortions,” Cutler added. “In the state of Wisconsin, they are also one of the largest providers of non-abortion care, preventative and reproductive health services to so many people in our state … so that’s really concerning, and it’s why a lot of people are referring to that bill as a backdoor abortion ban.”

Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison), who moderated the panel, said abortion bans “do not stop abortion… but what they do do is they kill women, and they make all of us vulnerable to not receiving the medical care that we need.” She said it’s important to continue conversations about changes that need to be made, though state-level bills to protect access may be in limbo under split government.

Roys and her Democratic colleagues introduced a bill earlier this year that would repeal many of the abortion restrictions on Wisconsin’s books. 

“I think these bills are unlikely to advance until we have elections and new leadership in the Capitol,” Roys said during the panel. 

Republicans currently hold majorities in the Assembly and Senate in Wisconsin, though control will be up for grabs in the 2026 elections. The governor’s office is also an open race with the retirement of Gov. Tony Evers.

Roys told the Examiner after the panel that she is “very likely” to enter the 2026 race for governor and she thinks reproductive health could be one motivating issue for voters come next year.

“In a time when reproductive freedom is threatened, people want someone who is a champion and not mealymouthed. This is a popular issue, and it’s a really important economic issue,” Roys said. 

Roys said Democrats are also planning to introduce several other reproductive health bills this fall. Those include one to help with infertility coverage, one to ensure young people have access to “medically accurate, age-appropriate, comprehensive information to help them make healthy choices throughout their lives, especially with respect to sexuality and reproduction” and one to help protect people from being prosecuted for certain outcomes in pregnancy.

“We have seen pregnancy criminalization around the country — people being arrested, jailed, prosecuted for having miscarriages,” Roys said, adding that it is personal to her as someone who has had a miscarriage. “This is a known and intended outcome of abortion bans is for our pregnancies, our periods to be policed.” 

The panel also discussed how restrictions in Wisconsin are affecting the state’s health care workforce. 

Cutler spoke about research she worked on that focused on 21 OB-GYNs working under the 1849 law, which had an exception for the life of the mother, before there was a final decision invalidating that felony abortion ban. 

“It was really alarming because participant after participant described how difficult it was to interpret this vague, ambiguous law into their medical practice,” Cutler said. “As a result, there were wide, wide variations in the kind of care being provided to patients presenting with the exact same problem.”

According to a CORE brief, some OB-GYNs had contemplated leaving the state due to restrictions, though most expressed a commitment to staying in Wisconsin in part because they felt responsible for their community. 

Cutler said the data is mixed when it comes to the specific effects of restrictions on the workforce, but pointed to recent research from University of Illinois-Champaign that found that targeted regulations of abortion providers are associated with significant decreases in the density of OB-GYNs. 

“This study suggests that these providers are just retiring. They’re stopping practice all together, not even leaving the states where they’re restricted,” Cutler said. “That’s also a problem because you’re diminishing the workforce.”

Cutler said the restrictions in Wisconsin are also at the top of mind for medical students

“What are the restrictions in Wisconsin? Am I going to be able to get abortion training in Wisconsin?” Cutler said she’s asked. “It’s difficult to reassure people of the stability of the landscape when so much feels uncertain and again tied to political whims and election outcomes that are not completely within our control.

Cutler noted that there has been a decrease in residency applications at the UW OB/GYN residency program since the Dobbs decision in 2022. According to a CORE brief on the OB-GYN workforce, Wisconsin witnessed an 8% drop in applications for OB/GYN residency training programs in 2023 and a 10% drop in 2024.

Morgan Homme, a member of Medical Students for Choice UW-Madison, said she constantly thinks about whether she wants to do her residency and practice in Wisconsin. 

“It’s a hard choice and a hard thing, you have to grapple with,” Homme said. “I grew up here, and all my family is here, and I do like it. I do love the state, but if they’re not going to allow me to practice the way that I want, the full scope of care, then why would I limit myself to that and limit my training?”

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell administers the oath of office to Lisa Cook 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 — Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook will challenge her removal, her attorney said Tuesday, arguing President Donald Trump “has no authority” to fire her.

Trump announced late Monday that he would fire Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve Board, over allegations that she falsified documents to obtain a favorable mortgage rate. She has not been charged with a crime. 

Cook has consistently voted not to lower interest rates, rejecting requests Trump has made of the independent central banking board.

Cook’s attorney, Abbe David Lowell of Lowell & Associates, said in a statement to States Newsroom that she would sue to block the firing. Former president Joe Biden appointed Cook in 2022. Her term ends in 2038.

“President Trump has no authority to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook,” Lowell said. “His attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis.”

Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, referred Cook’s mortgage application to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. Pulte has made similar accusations against political enemies of the president.

Pulte has accused New York Attorney General Letitia James, who investigated Trump’s business dealings and won a finding of fraud in state court, and California U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, who led the investigation into Trump’s first impeachment inquiry, of mortgage fraud.

Trump posted a letter on social media, arguing that the allegations of Cook’s mortgage fraud had called “into question your competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator.” 

He said the Federal Reserve Act gave him the authority to dismiss a governor for gross misconduct. 

Trump’s fight with Fed

The president defended his decision to dismiss Cook to reporters during a more-than-three-hour Cabinet meeting. 

“We need people that are 100% on board,” Trump said, adding that he’s already considering someone else for the job.

Cook is not the only Federal Reserve Board member Trump has trained his criticism on. He has long gone after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell for not lowering interest rates. 

Trump has pushed for lower interest rates to boost the economy, but rates have remained lower amid concerns that the president’s tariffs will produce price hikes. 

“I think we have to have lower interest rates,” Trump said Tuesday. 

Dems defend Fed independence

The dismissal has drawn outrage from economists and Democrats, including the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Yvette D. Clarke of New York.

“President Trump is attempting to oust Dr. Lisa Cook — the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve Board — with no credible evidence of wrongdoing,” she said in a statement.

“Let’s be clear: this is a racist, misogynistic, and unlawful attack on the integrity and independence of the Federal Reserve,” Clarke said. “It is a dangerous attempt to politicize and exert control over the central bank — one that will only continue to damage the economy, harm hardworking Americans, and undermine our credibility on the world stage.”

Heather Boushey, a top economist under the Biden administration, said in a statement that Trump’s move to fire Cook undermines the independence of the Federal Reserve. 

“It is clear from his actions that he does not believe he is bound by rule of law, but can — and will — intimidate experts to bend to his own ends,” Boushey said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a late Monday statement that any attempt to fire Cook “shreds the independence of the Fed and puts every American’s savings and mortgage at risk.”

“This brazen power grab must be stopped by the courts before Trump does permanent damage to national, state, and local economies,” Schumer said. “And if the economy comes crashing down, if families lose their savings and Main Street pays the price, Donald Trump will own every ounce of the wreckage and devastation families feel.”

The top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, Richard Neal of Massachusetts, slammed the president, calling Cook’s firing unlawful. 

“President Trump’s illegal removal of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook is (an) economic assault,” Neal said in a statement. “Instead of taking responsibility for his own economic failures, he’s manufacturing a villain to blame. As seen around the world, politicizing the central bank means rampant inflation, higher mortgage rates, unstable retirement accounts, and more uncertainty for the people. All of which will threaten the financial security of every American.” 

A sign acknowledging Stewardship program support at Firemen's Park in Verona. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Democrats in the Wisconsin state Legislature released their proposal for saving the broadly popular Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Grant program from lapsing next year. The bill marks the latest step in a legislative effort to save the conservation program — a goal for which members of both political parties have expressed optimism.  

The stewardship grant program through the Department of Natural Resources allows the state to fund the purchase and maintenance of public lands. Created 35 years ago, the program is supported by a large swathe of Wisconsin voters, but a subset of Republicans in the Legislature have grown increasingly hostile to its continuation. 

Those Republicans argue the burden of land conservation falls largely on their rural districts in northern Wisconsin, which has the most land available for recreational purposes but the state purchasing that land takes it off the property tax rolls.

Republicans have also complained that the program lacks legislative oversight since the state Supreme Court ruled in a 6-1 decision last year that the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee doesn’t have the authority to hold up projects through the program. 

Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk), one of the program’s strongest critics, has suggested she’d support re-authorizing the program if it included provisions that capped the amount of government-owned land in a county or allowed counties to sell off existing conservation land.

Without action, the program will end next summer. In his initial budget proposal, Gov. Tony Evers had asked for the program to be provided $100 million per year for 10 years. The version of the budget signed into law in July did not include the program’s re-authorization. 

Another bill authored by Republican Rep. Tony Kurtz (R-Wonewoc) and Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point) would re-authorize the program for six years at $28 million per year. To gain the support of the Republicans who want more oversight of the program, the bill would require that any land acquisitions that cost more than $1 million be approved by the full Legislature. 

Tuesday’s proposal from Democrats would re-authorize the program for six years at $72 million per year. The bill would also create an independent board with oversight authority over the program. 

The 17-member board would include members of the majority and minority in both chambers of the Legislature; two representatives from environmental organizations; two representatives of hunting, fishing or trapping interests; two DNR representatives, including one member from the Natural Resources Board; one representative from the Department of Tourism; one representative of the outdoor recreation industry; one representative from the Ice Age Trail Alliance; a representative of a federally recognized Native American tribe in the state; one local government representative and two members of the public. Members of the board would serve staggered three-year terms. 

Under the bill, the board would meet at least quarterly and have the authority to advise the DNR on all projects through the program. On projects involving grants of more than $2.5 million, the board would have full approval authority. If the board doesn’t meet to vote on a project within 120 days, it would be automatically approved. 

The Democratic proposal has been co-sponsored by all 60 Democrats in the Assembly and Senate, signaling the broad support for the bill among the Democratic caucuses. 

Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin (D-Whitefish Bay) tells the Wisconsin Examiner that the proposal involves a lot of thoughtful effort from Democrats trying to make a “good faith” effort to answer Republican concerns about oversight over the program while getting it re-authorized. 

“Our intent in introducing these companion bills in the Senate and the Assembly was premised on a great deal of thought and seriousness,” she says. “That we have the expectation that Republican legislators will take it seriously, because, like us, they have been hearing from their constituents and constituents from across the state. This is an issue that people in Wisconsin 90% approve and they want action, and they want legislators to demonstrate that they can work together and lead with our shared values to get something done.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Kurtz said his intention remains working to find a bipartisan solution to re-authorizing the program. 

“It’s always been our intention to find a bipartisan path forward to ensuring the Stewardship Program’s future,” the spokesperson said. “We haven’t reviewed their proposal yet, but look forward to continued discussions on this important issue this fall.”

Charles Carlin, the director of strategic initiatives at the non-profit land trust organization Gathering Waters, says the fate of the program is now up to Republican leaders and their ability to compromise. Carlin points out that it’s clear there aren’t 17 Republican votes in the Senate to support reauthorization. 

“As far as anybody can tell, there’s not 17 Republican senators that are going to vote to reauthorize Knowles-Nelson,” he says. “If they were to choose that strategy of trying to do this with only Republican votes, my fear and expectation is the bill would wind up becoming so weighed down with poison pills and anti-conservation measures, it would wind up not being a workable proposal. On the other hand if leaders in the Senate were willing to say ‘OK, this can be a bipartisan exercise, nobody’s going to get quite what they want,’ I think we’re going to see there are 15 Democratic senators eager to find a solution and we could get a decent bill passed with pretty overwhelming support from both parties.”

Carlin says he sees the Democrats’ oversight board idea as a good way to avoid the Joint Finance Committee “veto fiasco” that previously held up projects through the program while allowing the board to make “smart, educated and informed decisions” separate from the political games of the legislative process. 

However in recent years under Wisconsin’s divided government, legislative proposals have been met with hopes for bipartisan compromise only to end in partisan bickering. Last session, a proposal to get $125 million out the door to clean up PFAS contamination across the state died after initial optimism after Democrats and Republicans couldn’t agree on the bill’s language. 

“That’s a real concern. Where we had the most heartburn and worry coming out of the state budget, this Legislature does not have a good track record of getting things done,” Carlin says. “Even though there were promises made that legislators would come back to work and get Knowles-Nelson done, there’s not a lot of precedent for legislators working together. There are folks on the Republican Senate side who are simply not going to work in good faith to get this done.”

He says Felzkowski’s ideas on the subject are “not serious proposals” but that there are 10 or 12 Republicans in the Senate who value conservation and understand how important it is to the state’s voters. 

“If they really engage with the Democrats’ proposal and find middle ground, we can find that success without too much heartache,” he says. “We do know that everybody’s constituents want to see this get done.”

The Hubert H. Humphrey Building, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., as seen on Nov. 23, 2023. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration demanded Tuesday that dozens of states remove from sex education materials any references to a person’s gender departing from their sex assigned at birth, or lose federal funding.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families warned in letters to 40 states, the District of Columbia and several territories that they could lose a total of $81.3 million in remaining federal funds for the Personal Responsibility Education Program, or PREP, if they do not get rid of these references within 60 days. 

The policy appears to target any reference to transgender or nonbinary people. For example, in a letter to an adolescent health program specialist at Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services, the federal agency asked that a definition of transgender and related terms be deleted from school curricula.

In a statement shared with States Newsroom, Laurel Powell, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, said the move was part of Trump’s “all-out fight to erase government recognition of transgender people.”

“Sexual education programs, at their best, are age-appropriate, fact-based and informative at a time when young people need this information to keep themselves healthy,” Powell said. “When they do not acknowledge the existence of trans people they fail in their goal to inform, and cutting this funding denies young people the information they need to make safe, healthy, and informed decisions about their own bodies.” 

PREP focuses on preventing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and targets youth who are experiencing homelessness or in foster care, or reside in rural areas or places with high rates of teen birth, according to the agency. 

The states that HHS sent letters to Tuesday are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. 

Latest demand

The demand marks the latest effort from the administration to do away with “gender ideology,” which the administration says includes “the idea that there is a vast spectrum of genders that are disconnected from one’s sex.” 

GLAAD, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, noted in a fact sheet that “gender ideology” is “an inaccurate term deployed by opponents to undermine and dehumanize transgender and nonbinary people.”

The letters came less than a week after the administration terminated California’s PREP grant after refusing to remove “radical gender ideology” from the education materials. 

Failure to comply with this demand, the agency said, could result in the “withholding, suspension, or termination of federal PREP funding.” 

“Accountability is coming,” Andrew Gradison, acting assistant secretary at HHS’ Administration for Children and Families, said in a statement. 

Gradison added that the administration “will ensure that PREP reflects the intent of Congress, not the priorities of the left.”

The effort also comes as the administration continues to crack down on gender-affirming care.

Trump signed earlier executive orders that: restrict access to gender-affirming care for kids; make it the “policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female;” bar openly transgender service members from the U.S. military; and ban trans women from competing on women’s sports teams.