Normal view

There are new articles available, click to refresh the page.
Before yesterdayMain stream

Despite rocky past, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says he’s ‘tight’ with Trump White House

25 February 2025 at 23:11

Just a few years after President Donald Trump backed a primary challenger against Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the Rochester Republican says he and the president are "tight." 

The post Despite rocky past, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says he’s ‘tight’ with Trump White House appeared first on WPR.

Musk-backed SCOWIS attack ad features wrong Susan Crawford

24 February 2025 at 22:56

A week after booking a seven-figure TV ad buy in Wisconsin’s high-stakes Supreme Court election, a political action group tied to Elon Musk has canceled one social media ad that featured the wrong person.

The post Musk-backed SCOWIS attack ad features wrong Susan Crawford appeared first on WPR.

After years of controversy, Wisconsin Assembly recognizes Black History Month in February

20 February 2025 at 00:43

For the first time in years, the Wisconsin State Assembly formally recognized February as Black History Month — during the month of February.

The post After years of controversy, Wisconsin Assembly recognizes Black History Month in February appeared first on WPR.

Evers calls for historic school funding in $119B budget proposal

19 February 2025 at 03:49

Calling for a significant investment in kids from preschool to college, Gov. Tony Evers proposed a budget Tuesday that would invest heavily in education, increasing overall state spending by billions of dollars in the process.

The post Evers calls for historic school funding in $119B budget proposal appeared first on WPR.

Crawford, Schimel won’t pledge to recuse from cases involving political parties

18 February 2025 at 11:00

With Wisconsin's Supreme Court election on track to be the most expensive judiciary election in history, neither candidate has pledged to recuse themselves from hearing cases involving the political parties backing their races.

The post Crawford, Schimel won’t pledge to recuse from cases involving political parties appeared first on WPR.

Evers calls for closing Green Bay prison in $535M corrections overhaul

16 February 2025 at 11:00

The Green Bay Correctional Institution would be closed and the Waupun Correctional Institution converted into a new “vocational village” to train incarcerated people for jobs under a set of “sweeping reforms” Gov. Tony Evers will propose in his new budget.

The post Evers calls for closing Green Bay prison in $535M corrections overhaul appeared first on WPR.

Bipartisan proposal to expand Medicaid coverage for new moms returns to Madison

13 February 2025 at 11:00

Wisconsin lawmakers are once again considering expanding Medicaid access for new mothers — a proposal that received bipartisan support in past sessions but has never received a vote in the state Assembly.

The post Bipartisan proposal to expand Medicaid coverage for new moms returns to Madison appeared first on WPR.

Protasiewicz says she won’t recuse from case challenging Wisconsin Act 10

12 February 2025 at 23:01

A lawsuit challenging Wisconsin Act 10 will take a while longer to make its way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. But once it gets there, Justice Janet Protasiewicz plans to hear the case.

The post Protasiewicz says she won’t recuse from case challenging Wisconsin Act 10 appeared first on WPR.

Judge temporarily blocks DOGE data access suit brought by Wisconsin, 18 other states

10 February 2025 at 22:00

A federal judge has issued an emergency order to prevent Elon Musk’s government efficiency office from accessing personal data, following a multistate lawsuit joined by Wisconsin and 18 other states.

The post Judge temporarily blocks DOGE data access suit brought by Wisconsin, 18 other states appeared first on WPR.

State Superintendent candidate defends lack of education license at forum

6 February 2025 at 23:31

Candidates vying for state superintendent made their cases at a forum in Madison Thursday, with Brittany Kinser defending her qualifications amidst a report that she holds no active Wisconsin educational license.

The post State Superintendent candidate defends lack of education license at forum appeared first on WPR.

Elon Musk calls for cutting funds to Lutheran groups, including in Wisconsin

6 February 2025 at 15:24
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Lutheran groups in Wisconsin are defending their records of service after coming under attack on social media by Elon Musk, the tech mogul tapped by President Donald Trump to root out waste and inefficiency in the federal government.

Over the weekend, former national security advisor Michael Flynn posted on X, the social media platform Musk owns, accusing Lutheran organizations who receive federal grants of committing “money laundering.”

Musk responded that his team at the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, is “rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.”

Federal grants totaling billions of dollars each year go to nonprofits to provide a range of community services that states don’t provide themselves, such as housing or food assistance.

Flynn’s post included screenshots of some Lutheran groups that receive federal funds. But it’s unclear how Flynn identified which Lutheran groups to name in his post, or how Musk determined those payments to be illegal.

The two Wisconsin groups included by name in Flynn’s post are Wisconsin Lutheran Child and Family Services (WLCFS), a Christian mental health care provider in Germantown, and the Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation in La Crosse, a nonprofit health clinic that no longer has any affiliation with the Lutheran Church.

A spokesperson for Christian Family Services, which oversees WLCFS, said the group understands its government funding to still be in place.

“We have been following the news with interest because we know that any funding we receive – whether from public or private sources – is a privilege and could end at any time,” the spokesperson said.

In a statement, Gundersen’s parent group, Emplify Health, said the group works with officials of all parties.

Any public funding we receive is through existing public programs, approved through the legislative process, and is used to improve access to healthcare for our patients,” the statement reads.

‘I think he got this one wrong’

Other Wisconsin-based Lutheran service groups that received federal aid in recent years were not included in Flynn’s post. That includes Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.

“I actually responded to Musk,” said Héctor Colón, that group’s president.

Colón said he’s interested in Musk’s career trajectory, and said curbing wasteful government spending would support communities that need government resources.

“But I told him, I think he’s got this one wrong,” he added.

Colón said his organization has operated for 143 years and serves about 30,000 people per year, providing youth development, mental health and substance use services, housing coordination and other services.

The group has also helped resettle about 11,000 refugees over the last 50 years — another government project that is largely outsourced to nonprofit groups. That work has also been targeted under the Trump administration, and funding for Colón’s group’s refugee work has been suspended since last month, under a stop work order issued to all American resettlement groups.

“Not only is it the humanitarian thing to do for these individuals, but there’s economic benefits as well,” Colón said. “Right now, there’s a huge shortage of workers. And these individuals come here, they end up loving America, and clearly are on a path to citizenship and buying homes and having jobs and contributing to the broader economy.”

Since his brief stint in Trump’s first administration, Flynn has become a figurehead for the QAnon conspiracy movement. In other social media posts, he criticized money that goes to Catholic charity groups.

Flynn is tied to Christian nationalist groups that often see mainline Protestant groups as anti-Christian, according to Julie Ingersoll, an expert in American religion and politics at the University of North Florida. But many faith-based groups take on governmental priorities or projects, she added.

“Part of our whole system — in which we give tax advantages and all to religious organizations — part of the justification for that is the charitable work that they do,” she said. “(The government) can’t insist that that a group that wants to get funding for some charitable work be a secular group. That’s been considered by the courts to be discrimination against religious viewpoints.”

Indeed, the bulk of governmental refugee resettlement work is done by faith-based groups, primarily those with Protestant, Catholic and Jewish origins. Since 1980, that work has been standardized under the Refugee Act. Refugees have been granted legal status to be in the United States. Community-based groups do the work of getting them set up with housing and jobs, train them about how to set up utilities and bank accounts, and get their kids into school.

“They’re doing work that the federal government isn’t doing and can’t do, and they see it as part of their Christian mission to do good in the world,” said Ingersoll.

This story was originally published by WPR.

Elon Musk calls for cutting funds to Lutheran groups, including in Wisconsin is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

The federal funding freeze sparked anxiety in Wisconsin. Some groups are still on edge.

31 January 2025 at 01:56

Days after a White House announcement that a wide range of federal funds would be frozen across the country, Wisconsin nonprofits and agencies that rely on those dollars say they still don’t know where things stand.

The post The federal funding freeze sparked anxiety in Wisconsin. Some groups are still on edge. appeared first on WPR.

Wisconsin Republicans call on Protasiewicz to recuse from hearing Act 10 case

28 January 2025 at 22:55

Wisconsin Republican leaders have called on Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz to recuse herself from hearing a lawsuit about Act 10, the law that ended collective bargaining rights for most public sector employees more than a decade ago.

The post Wisconsin Republicans call on Protasiewicz to recuse from hearing Act 10 case appeared first on WPR.

Dueling Wisconsin Supreme Court ads focus on rape kit backlog

28 January 2025 at 15:00
Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Dueling ads in Wisconsin’s high-stakes Supreme Court election focus on a backlog of criminal cases that took place during one candidate’s stint as the state’s top lawyer.

Sexual assault kits — often referred to as rape kits — are collections of DNA and other evidence taken from an assault survivor that can help identify or prosecute an assailant. But in some cases, the evidence is collected and then goes unprocessed, creating what some advocates have described as a national backlog of hundreds of thousands.

In Wisconsin, that backlog was about 6,000 when Brad Schimel, the Republican-backed candidate for Supreme Court, took office as Wisconsin’s attorney general in 2015. He served until 2019, and in a recent campaign ad he claimed that his office cleared 4,000 sexual assault kits during that time.

This week, his Democratic-backed opponent, Susan Crawford, released a competing ad that focused on the early years of Schimel’s time as attorney general.

“He let 6,000 rape kits sit untested for two years,” the ad states.

Crawford’s ad refers to a statistic from midway through Schimel’s tenure. As of early 2017, his office said the state had cleared just nine of those 6,000 backlogged tests, according to reporting by the Green Bay Press-Gazette at the time.

That came after the U.S. Department of Justice and the New York County district attorney’s office sent $4 million in grant funds to Wisconsin to assist with the process. A Schimel spokesperson at the time said the DOJ was following proper protocols for respecting survivors and adhering to requirements of the grant money.

A year and a half later, much of the backlog had been cleared. Schimel announced in September 2018 that all but five of the eligible tests had been cleared, using about $7 million total in grant funding.

That announcement came ahead of his reelection campaign against Democrat Josh Kaul, who criticized Schimel’s handling of the backlog and ultimately bested him that November. Schimel said at the time that there was no political motivation behind the announcement.

“We didn’t delay anything. We didn’t set anything aside. This was done as quickly as possible,” Schimel said in 2018, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

All told, Schimel said at the time that his office had cleared about 4,154 kits, in which survivors consented to the testing. Some of those incidents dated back to the 1980s.

Now, sexual assault kit testing is once again a subject of political debate — this time in a battle for a seat on Wisconsin’s high court, which has no say in how the state manages its DNA testing.

But being able to hold up a record in addressing crime — or suggesting that one’s opponent is soft or slow to respond to crime — is standard messaging in these races, said Damon Cann, a political scientist at Utah State University who has written extensively about judicial elections.

“Rape kits are crime-related, and crime tends to be the No. 1 issue for voters in judicial elections,” Cann said. But, he added, “the big money and the most influential cases that the courts decide that have the most policy consequences are almost never criminal cases.”

Schimel and Crawford are both running to replace outgoing liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley in an election that will determine whether the high court maintains its 4-3 liberal majority or flips to a conservative majority.

This story was originally published by WPR.

Dueling Wisconsin Supreme Court ads focus on rape kit backlog is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Dueling Wisconsin Supreme Court ads focus on rape kit backlog

24 January 2025 at 11:00

Dueling ads in Wisconsin’s high-stakes Supreme Court election focus on a backlog of criminal cases that took place during one candidate’s stint as the state’s top lawyer.

The post Dueling Wisconsin Supreme Court ads focus on rape kit backlog appeared first on WPR.

Wisconsin Democrats signal starting priorities with health care, school lunch proposals

17 January 2025 at 11:00

Wisconsin Democrats say they'll introduce a package of bills to lower drug prices, make school lunch free and create a tax credit for low-income people as their first official actions in a new legislative session.

The post Wisconsin Democrats signal starting priorities with health care, school lunch proposals appeared first on WPR.

Wisconsin’s Penzeys sends ‘Resist!’ spice blend to DC ahead of Trump inaugural

16 January 2025 at 11:00

Wauwatosa-based spice retailer Penzeys is sending tens of thousands of packets of salt, paprika and four kinds of pepper to Washington, D.C., residents, hoping to encourage them to "resist" Trump.

The post Wisconsin’s Penzeys sends ‘Resist!’ spice blend to DC ahead of Trump inaugural appeared first on WPR.

Voters to decide whether to enshrine voter ID law into Wisconsin Constitution

14 January 2025 at 22:56

Assembly Republicans voted Tuesday to advance a proposal that would enshrine Wisconsin’s existing voter identification law into the state constitution.

The post Voters to decide whether to enshrine voter ID law into Wisconsin Constitution appeared first on WPR.

❌
❌