Dairyland Power Cooperative announced Thursday that the Trump administration had "affirmed" its $595 million grant to help invest in renewable energy projects and transmission infrastructure.
The post Trump administration affirms Biden-era clean energy grant for Dairyland Power appeared first on WPR.
The Women’s Center in Waukesha County has been around since 1977. It serves survivors of domestic abuse, sexual violence, child abuse and human trafficking.
The post Wisconsin women’s center serves human trafficking victims by relying on donations, federal funding appeared first on WPR.
Wisconsin Republicans are reviving bills that would make wide-ranging changes to unemployment benefits and prevent local communities from establishing guaranteed income programs.
The post GOP bills would tighten Wisconsin unemployment insurance, ban guaranteed income programs appeared first on WPR.
The new procedures for city police mirror a policy that has already been adopted by UW-Madison Police.
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Discovering the effect of invasive species on remote islands in Guam, including animals driven to the edge of extinction; marine conservation in Palau; the endangered hawksbill turtle and rare dugong.
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A small plane crash in central Illinois killed four people from Menomonie, the Coles County coroner confirmed.
The post Identities released of 4 Wisconsin residents killed in deadly Illinois plane crash appeared first on WPR.
Singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile showcases her Grammy-winning album In These Silent Days.
The post Austin City Limits:Brandi Carlile appeared first on WPR.
The U.S. Supreme Court building. (Photo by Ariana Figueroa/States Newsroom)
The U.S. Supreme Court early Saturday temporarily blocked a new round of deportations under the wartime Alien Enemies Act until the high court considers the case of several migrants in Texas whose lawyers say are at risk for “imminent removal.”
The justices issued the one-page order just after 1 a.m. Eastern, directing the government “not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court.”
The order was unsigned and noted conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
The rare overnight order followed a flurry of activity Friday after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the migrants’ appeal for a temporary restraining order.
A federal judge in the Northern District of Texas on Thursday denied the petitioners were at “imminent risk of summary removal” because immigration officials said in a previous court filing they would not deport the migrants until the district court resolved allegations that the removals are illegal.
The American Civil Liberties Union asked the Supreme Court to take up the matter Friday after the group said their clients were “loaded on to buses, presumably headed to the airport,” violating an earlier ruling from the justices.
The attorneys for Venezuelan men held at the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas, “learned that officers at Bluebonnet have distributed notices under the Alien Enemies Act, in English only, that designate Venezuelan men for removal under the AEA, and have told the men that the removals are imminent and will happen today.”
“These removals could therefore occur at any moment,” the ACLU wrote in its application.
President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in mid-March to trigger the removals of the Venezuelans age 14 and up whom the administration suspected had ties to the Tren de Aragua gang.
The deportation flights sparked a legal challenge separately winding through the federal courts. Family members of many of the Venezuelan men say they have no gang ties and have been illegally deported without due process.
Melissa Beson photo courtesy LDF Police Department
The authorities searching for Melissa Beson, 37, a missing member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Vilas County, who has been missing since March 17, say they have followed up on reports that Beson was seen around the city of Wausau as they continue searching the forest near her home.
On March 17, Beson was noticed walking on Village Road near Wayman Lane toward Hwy. 47 on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation.
Six days later, family members reported Beson missing on March 23.
Beson was last seen wearing red sweatpants, a black sleeveless shirt, and a gray sweatshirt. She is a Native American female, 5’7”, with a medium build, brown hair, and brown eyes. She has numerous tattoos on her neck, arms, and legs.
Ground searches began on March 24 and 25, and aerial and underwater drones covered the Bear River in the vicinity where Beson was last seen.
Over 360 surveillance cameras positioned near tribal properties and monitored by full-time police employees had recorded footage reviewed without any evidence of Beson.
Subsequent ground searches were hampered by the heavy snowfall, but since most of the snow has melted, ground searches have resumed.
Lac du Flambeau Tribal Police Chief TJ Bill reports that on April 16, a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) plane provided aerial coverage, and he expects the DNR aircraft will again be available on Monday, April 21.
So far, Bill said, searchers have covered over 824 acres of forest.
“We are not saying she is out in the forest, but we need to make sure, and this is why we are doing the searches,” said Bill.
Recently police received reports that Beson was seen in the Wausau area.
Beson’s mother, Winifred Ann Beson, “Winnie,” told the Wisconsin Examiner on Tuesday, April 8, that her daughter might be with friends and she noted her daughter also likes to travel to other states, but in the past, Beson has always stayed in communication.
“Usually, she calls me if she needs money or is in trouble, but she hasn’t called me,” she said.
“We have been getting numerous reports Melissa is in the Wausau area,” said Bill, “but nothing has been substantiated. We have our officers travelling to Wausau and other areas.”
Beson’s mother also said she is afraid Melissa might have been kidnapped by human traffickers. Native Americans have been targeted by human traffickers who prey on vulnerable populations where there is poverty and high drug use.
According to the Indian Law Resource Center, Native American women experience the highest rates of sexual assault of any group and are10 times more likely to experience domestic violence than white women. On some reservations, Native American women are murdered at a rate that is 10 times the national average.
The missing and murdered Indigenous women plus relatives (MMIW/R) movement has strived to raise awareness of the plight of Indigenous people in North America.
May 5 is Red Dress Day, a national day of awareness for MMIW/R.
Wisconsin has a MMIW/R Task Force that is part of the Department of Justice, but Wisconsin doesn’t have a full time office as in Minnesota, which monitors MMIW/R cases, assists families, coordinates information for r law enforcement agencies and offers rewards for information.
Concerning the search for Beson, Bill said his office has one officer dedicated to the case who is also coordinating the searches with the help of the tribe’s emergency management office.
“Our two detectives are spending the majority of their time on the case, working social media search warrants for cellular telephones (Verizon), Facebook, Snap Chat and Google, working with these entities on past history locations,” said Bill. “If we’re not handling current cases/calls coming into the PD, we are working this case non-stop.”
Bill said the public may be invited to help in the search for Beson, but he is concerned that volunteers stay safe in the large forest where it is easy to become disoriented and lost.
“These areas are dangerous to the novice, and we cannot afford the volunteers to work the swamp and bog areas,” he said. “There is still some ground freeze, but areas of the swamps have thawed areas with deep mud. We got stuck at times [Thursday] in the swamps. When safe and weather conditions are good, we will ask for volunteer support.”
Anyone with any information regarding Beson’s whereabouts should call the Lac du Flambeau Tribal Police Department at (715) 588-7717 or Vilas County Sheriff’s Office at (715) 479-4441.
Bill wanted to acknowledge organizations that have helped with the search for Beson.
“We literally have thousands of hours into this investigation, which involves so many entities, not just ourselves,” said Bill.
Organizations that have helped include:
LDF Emergency Management, LDF Tribal Roads, LDF Tribal Wardens, LDF Natural Resources, LDF Victim Services, LDF Economic Support, LDF Prosecutor, Newbold Fire Search and Rescue, LDF Fire and EMS, Arbor Vitae Fire and EMS, Vilas County Sheriff’s Office and Dispatch, Vilas County Sheriff’s Office Jail, Vilas County IT Department, LDF IT Department, Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office, DNR, Wisconsin Emergency Management, Wausau Police Department, Mountain Bay Metro Police, Taylor County Sheriff’s Office, Medford Police Department, Forest County Sheriff’s Office, Crandon Police Department, Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office, Atkins County Sheriff’s Office – Minnesota, Milwaukee High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) agency, Vilas County Emergency Management, State of Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation, State of Wisconsin Department of Corrections Probation and Parole, Lake of the Torches Casino surveillance, Missing Murdered, Indigenous, plus Relatives (MMIW/R) Wisconsin Task Force, and Native American Drug and Gang Initiative (NADGI) Task Force.
The tribal police department also received free software from Intrepid Networks, a company whose platform allows police to monitor searchers via cell phone using GPS coordinates.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Clean Wisconsin has been keeping track of the many attacks on bedrock environmental safeguards being carried out by the Trump Administration. Dozens of rules and regulations that protect our air, water, land, endangered species and more are being targeted. With so much happening in such a short time, how do you know what’s important, what’s just a lot of bluster, and what’s even legal?
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Brett Korte, Clean Wisconsin attorney
Resources for You:
Running list of attacks on environmental safeguards
1/20 Freeze All In-Progress Standards
EO - Freezes in-progress climate, clean air, clean water (including proposed limits on PFAS in industrial wastewater) and consumer protections.
1/20 Energy Emergency Declaration
EO - Authorizes federal government to expedite permitting and approval of fossil fuel, infrastructure, and mining projects and circumvent Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act requirements.
1/20 Withdrawal from Paris Climate Agreement
EO - Reverses the US' international commitment to tackling climate change and reducing pollution.
1/20 Revokes Biden Climate Crisis and Environmental Justice Executive Actions
EO - Reverses U.S. commitment to fight climate change and its impacts, and protect overburdened communities.
1/20 Attacks on Clean Car Standards
EO - to stop clean car standards that required automakers to reduce tailpipe pollution from vehicles beginning in 2027.
1/20 Resumes LNG Permitting
EO - Expedites Liquid Natural Gas export terminal approval over analysis finding exports raise energy costs for consumers.
Attacks Climate and Clean Energy Investments from IRA and BIL
EO - Freezes unspent funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and directs agencies to reassess.
1/20 Attacks NEPA Protections
EO - Rescinds order requiring White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to assess environmental and community impacts and allow community input into federal infrastructure projects.
1/21 Expands Offshore Oil Drilling
EO - Reopens U.S. coastlines to offshore drilling.
1/21 Terminate American Climate Corps
EO - Ends all programs of the American Climate Corps, which created thousands of jobs combatting climate change and protecting and restoring public lands.
1/21 Freezes New Wind Energy Leases
EO - Withdraws wind energy leasing from U.S. waters and federal lands.
1/21 Open Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other Alaska Lands for Drilling
EO - Reopens sensitive federal lands and waters in Alaska to drilling.
1/28 EPA’s Science Advisory Panel Members Fired
Memorandum - Acting EPA administrator James Payne dismisses members of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and Science Advisory Board, which provides independent expertise to the agency on air quality standards and sources of air pollution.
1/28 EPA Suspends Solar For All Grants
Memorandum - The EPA halted $7 billion in contractually obligated grants for Solar For All, an Inflation Reduction Act program that delivers clean energy and lower prices to vulnerable communities
1/31 Trump administration scrubs "climate change" from federal websites
Memorandum - Mentions of climate change have been removed from federal websites such the Department of Agriculture, which includes the Forest Service and climate-smart agriculture programs, and the EPA.
2/3 Trump requires removal 10 existing rules for every new rule
EO - The order requires that when an agency finalizes a new regulation or guidance they identify 10 existing rules to be cut.
2/3 Interior secretary weakens public lands protections in favor of fossil fuel development
Sec Order - After Trump’s "Unleashing American Energy" executive order, Interior Secretary Burgum ordered the reinstatement of fossil fuel leases, opened more land for drilling, and issued orders weakening protections of public lands, national monuments and endangered species, and overturned advanced clean energy and climate mitigation strategies.
2/5 Energy secretary announces review of appliance efficiency standards
Sec Order - Energy Secretary Wright ordered a review of appliance standards following Trump’s Day One order attacking rules improving the efficiency of household appliances such as toilets, showerheads, and lightbulbs as part of a secretarial order intended to increase the extraction and use of fossil fuels.
2/5 Army Corps of Engineers halts approval of renewables
Guidance via DOD - The Army Corps of Engineers singled out 168 projects – those that focused on renewable energy projects – out of about 11,000 pending permits for projects on private land. Though the hold was lifted, it was not immediately clear if permitting had resumed.
2/6 Transportation Department orders freeze of EV charging infrastructure program
Memorandum - A Transportation Department memo ordered the suspension of $5 billion in federal funding, authorized by Congress under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, for states to build electric vehicle chargers.
2/11 SEC starts process to kill climate disclosure rule
Memorandum - The acting chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission paused the government’s legal defense of a rule requiring companies to identify the impact of their business on climate in regulatory findings. The rule was challenged in court by 19 Republican state attorneys general and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s Liberty Energy, among others.
2/14 EPA fires hundreds of staff
Memorandum - The Trump administration’s relentless assault on science and career expertise at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continued today with the firing of almost 400 staff who had ‘probationary’ status.
2/14 DOE issues the first LNG export authorization under new Trump administration
DOE Secretary Wright issued an export authorization for the Commonwealth LNG project in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, despite a 2024 DOE report finding that unfettered LNG exports increase energy bills and climate pollution.
2/18 Trump issues order stripping independent agencies of independence
EO - Trump signed an executive order stripping independent regulatory agencies, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of their independence, moving them to submit proposed rules and final regulations for review by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) and granting the attorney general exclusive authority over legal interpretations of rules. The order is likely to be challenged as Congress created these agencies specifically to be insulated from White House interference.
2/19 Zeldin recommends striking endangerment finding
Memorandum - After Trump’s "Unleashing American Energy" executive order, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has told the White House he would recommend rescinding the bedrock justification defining six climate pollutants – carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride – as air pollution to be regulated by the Clean Air Act.
2/19 Trump administration moves to rescind all CEQ regulatory authority
Rulemaking - The Trump administration has moved to rescind the Council on Environmental Quality’s role in crafting and implementing environmental regulations, revoking all CEQ orders since 1977 that shape how federal agencies comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) which requires the government to consider and disclose environmental impacts of its actions.
2/19 Trump directs agencies to make deregulation recommendations to DOGE
EO - Trump issues executive order directing agencies to work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to make recommendations that will accelerate Trump’s efforts to dismantle regulations across the federal government as part of his 10 out, 1 in policy. Among the protections likely to be in DOGE’s crosshairs are those that keep polluters from ignoring environmental laws and protect clean air and water.
2/19 FEMA staff advised to scrub "changing climate" and other climate terms from documents
Memorandum - A Federal Emergency Management Agency memo listed 10 climate-related words and phrases, including "changing climate," “climate resilience,” and “net zero," to be removed from FEMA documents. The memo comes after USDA workers were ordered to scrub mentions of climate change from websites.
2/21 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund Director Placed on Administrative Leave
Guidance - According to media reports, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has put the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) director on administrative leave. The GGRF is a $27 billion federal financing program that addresses the climate crisis and is injecting billions of dollars in local economic development projects to lower energy prices and reduce pollution especially in the rural, urban, and Indigenous communities most impacted by climate change and frequently left behind by mainstream finance.
2/27 Hundreds fired as layoffs begin at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Guidance - On Thursday, February 27, about 800 employees at NOAA, the agency responsible for the nation’s bedrock weather, climate, fisheries, and marine research, were fired in the latest round of Trump administration-led layoffs. The layoffs could jeopardize NOAA’s ability to provide life-saving severe weather forecasts, long-term climate monitoring, deep-sea research and fisheries management, and other essential research and policy.
3/10 Energy secretary says climate change a worthwhile tradeoff for growth
Announcement - Speaking at the CERAWeek conference, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the Trump administration sees climate change as “a side effect of building the modern world,” and pledged to “end the Biden administration’s irrational, quasi-religious policies on climate change."
3/10 Zeldin, Musk Cut $1.7B in Environmental Justice Grants
Guidance - EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the cancellation of 400 environmental justice-related grants, in violation of a court order barring the Trump administration from freezing "equity-based" grants and contracts.
3/11 EPA eliminates environmental justice offices, staff
Memorandum - EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin ordered the closure of environmental justice offices at the agency’s headquarters and at all 10 regional offices and eliminate all related staff positions "immediately." The reversal comes just days after the EPA reinstated environmental justice and civil rights employees put on leave in early February.
3/12 EPA Announcement to Revise "Waters of the United States" Rule
Announcement - The EPA will redefine waters of the US, or WOTUS, to comply with the US Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Sackett v. EPA, which lifted Clean Water Act jurisdiction on many wetlands, Administrator Lee Zeldin said
3/14 Zeldin releases 31-rollback ‘hit list’
Memorandum (announced, not in effect as of 4/10) - EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced plans to dismantle federal air quality and carbon pollution regulations, identifying 31 actions ranging from from soot standards and power plant pollution rules to the endangerment finding – the scientific and legal underpinning of the Clean Air Act.
3/14 EPA halts enforcement of pollution rules at energy facilities
Memorandum - According to a leaked memo, the EPA’s compliance office has halted enforcement of pollution regulations on energy facilities and barred consideration of environmental justice concerns. The memo states: "Enforcement and compliance assurance actions shall not shut down any stage of energy production (from exploration to distribution) or power generation absent an imminent and substantial threat to human health or an express statutory or regulatory requirement to the contrary.”
3/14 Trump revokes order encouraging renewables
EO - Trump signed an executive order rescinding a Biden-era proclamation encouraging the development of renewable energy. Biden’s order under the Defense Production Act permitted the Department of Energy to direct funds to scale up domestic production of solar and other renewable technologies.
3/17 EPA plans to eliminate science staff
Memorandum - Leaked documents describe plans to lay off as many as 1,155 scientists from labs across the country. These chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists are among the experts who monitor air and water quality, cleanup of toxic waste, and more.
3/16 EPA invites waivers on mercury pollution and other hazardous pollutants
Memorandum - The EPA invited coal- and oil-fired power plants to apply for exemptions to limits on mercury and other toxic pollutants under the Clean Air Act. Mercury is an extremely dangerous pollutant that causes brain damage to babies and fetuses; in addition to mercury, pollution from power plants includes hazardous chemicals that can lead to cancer, or damage to the lungs, kidneys, nervous system and cardiovascular system.
4/3 Trump administration adds "deregulation suggestion" website
A new page on regulations.gov allows members of the public to submit "deregulation" ideas. The move is the latest in the Trump administration’s efforts to slash public health, safety, and climate safeguards, and comes soon after the administration offered companies the opportunity to send the EPA an email if they wished to be exempted from Clean Air Act protections.
4/8 Series of four EOs to boost coal
EO - Under the four orders, Trump uses his emergency authority to allow some older coal-fired power plants set for retirement to keep producing electricity to meet rising U.S. power demand amid growth in data centers, artificial intelligence and electric cars. Trump also directed federal agencies to identify coal resources on federal lands, lift barriers to coal mining and prioritize coal leasing on U.S. lands.
In a related action, Trump also signed a proclamation offering coal-fired power plants a two-year exemption from federal requirements to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals such as mercury, arsenic and benzene.
4/9 Executive Order Attacking State Climate Laws
EO - Directs the U.S. Attorney General to sue or block state climate policies deemed "burdensome" to fossil fuel interests — including laws addressing climate change, ESG investing, carbon taxes, and environmental justice.
4/9 New expiration dates on existing energy rules
EO - The order directs ten agencies and subagencies to assign one-year expiration dates to existing energy regulations. If they are not extended, they will expire no later than September 30, 2026, according to a White House fact sheet on the order. The order also said any new regulations should include a five-year expiration, unless they are deregulatory. That means any future regulations would only last for five years unless they are extended.
4/17 Narrow Endangered Species Act to allow for habitat destruction
The Trump administration is proposing to significantly limit the Endangered Species Act's power to preserve crucial habitats by changing the definition of one word: harm. The Endangered Species Act prohibits actions that “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect” endangered plants and animals. The word “harm” has long been interpreted to mean not just the direct killing of a species, but also severe harm to their environment
Mattie is assigned the unglamorous job of searching for a lost dog.
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Alexa’s personal and professional lives collide when she looks into the death of a drag queen.
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As the wedding approaches, Alberto sees Ana with another man and has to choose between her and Cristina; Luisa’s husband gets sick again.
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Saturday marked the second time this month that thousands of people rallied across Wisconsin as part of a nationwide movement protesting President Donald Trump and his administration.
The post ‘People clearly care’: Milwaukee protests target deportations, Democratic leadership appeared first on WPR.
When Neenah resident Tom Frantz got a pair of identical emails last Friday, saying they were from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, he just shrugged it off at first, believing it was spam.
But then, he said, he read the email more closely and was “really bothered” by the content.
The email said Frantz — a 68-year-old retired college administrator and teacher and American citizen born in western Pennsylvania — was in the United States on humanitarian parole and his parole was being terminated.
“If you do not depart the United States immediately you will be subject to potential law enforcement actions that will result in your removal from the United States,” the email stated.
“Do not attempt to remain in the United States — the federal government will find you,” it added. “Please depart the United States immediately.”
Frantz has never been on or applied for humanitarian parole. He’s lived in the Fox Valley since moving in 1981 for a job at what is now the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh at Fox Cities.
Because of the threatening nature of the email and the lack of information about what to do if you were a U.S. citizen who received the notification, Frantz said he decided to do some research. He discovered that an immigration attorney in Massachusetts received a similar letter from immigration officials.
“I thought, ‘Boy, if an immigration attorney is alarmed about this, then I should be, too, and I should pay attention to what is being said here,’” Frantz said.
He said he was worried about the possibility of immigration officials showing up at his home, arresting him and ultimately deporting him. As a retiree, he said he was also worried about a reference in the letter to losing benefits because he spent years paying into Social Security and Medicare.
“I was not naive enough to believe that the government never makes a mistake,” he said. “But my fear was that it could compound. And if it compounded, then what were the consequences for me?”
Frantz spent much of that Friday debating what to do about the letter. He ultimately decided his best bet would be to reach out to one of his representatives in Congress. On Monday morning, he said he left a voicemail with U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s office and received a phone call less than an hour later.
“After I contacted Sen. Baldwin’s office, they were working (on) it right away,” Frantz said. “I felt like I had an advocate, somebody who really understood my situation and knew the inner workings of government to try to address it.”
Baldwin’s office got in contact with the Department of Homeland Security and discovered the email was incorrectly sent to Frantz.
The notice that Frantz received went out to email addresses in the Customs and Border Patrol Home App, according to Baldwin’s office. The emails typically belonged to a person applying for parole or asylum, immigration lawyers, non-governmental organizations and financial supporters of applicants.
Frantz said he did not use the app or fit the description of those categories. He still isn’t quite sure why he received the email. Baldwin’s office says it has been in contact with federal immigration officials to ensure the issue was resolved.
While he says the Department of Homeland Security didn’t apologize to him directly, he says the department did apologize through Baldwin’s office. Frantz said the department reached out with a number of questions, and he got the sense “they were trying to figure out what went wrong.”
If Baldwin’s office hadn’t worked with him, Frantz said he planned to reach out to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson’s office and the office of Rep. Glenn Grothman.
“Had none of them responded … I probably would start carrying around different forms of identification, birth certificate and other stuff, to prove citizenship,” Frantz said.
The Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Frantz’s situation and why he received the notification.
In a statement, Baldwin criticized the Trump administration’s handling of the situation, which could have resulted in the wrongful detention or deportation of a Wisconsin resident.
“This is completely illegal — President Trump is trying to deport an American-born, law-abiding citizen and has provided absolutely no justification,” Baldwin said in a statement. “The President cannot kick Americans out of the country just because he wants — no one is above the law, including the President.”
In reflecting on the situation, Frantz said he’s lucky because he knew how to find help. He said he expects that more U.S. citizens likely received similar emails by mistake.
“If I’m getting this, and that attorney in Massachusetts also got it, there’s probably a lot of other people who got this,” he said. “We don’t know how many people are on the distribution list.”
“I think it’s important that people stay vigilant and that they take emails seriously. Don’t click on the links, but investigate them,” Frantz added. “If it looks legitimate, I would definitely treat it as legitimate, and I would seek assistance from officials.”
This story was originally published by WPR.
‘The federal government will find you’: Immigration officials wrongfully told a Fox Valley man to leave the US 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.
Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ creative use of his uniquely powerful veto can lock in a school funding increase for 400 years, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.
The 4-3 ruling from the liberal-controlled court affirms the partial veto power of Wisconsin governors, which is the broadest of any state and has been used by both Republicans and Democrats to reshape spending bills passed by the Legislature.
Wisconsin is the only state where governors can partially veto spending bills by striking words, numbers and punctuation to create new meaning or spending amounts. In most states, governors can only eliminate or reduce spending amounts.
The court’s four liberal justices ruled Friday that the state constitution allows the governor to strike digits to create a new year or to remove language to create a longer duration than the one approved by the Legislature.
“We are acutely aware that a 400-year modification is both significant and attention-grabbing,” Justice Jill Karofsky wrote for the majority. “However, our constitution does not limit the governor’s partial veto power based on how much or how little the partial vetoes change policy, even when that change is considerable.”
Justice Brian Hagedorn, writing for the three-justice conservative minority, said Wisconsin was now in a “fantastical state of affairs” that allows the governor to write new law through the use of his partial veto.
“One might scoff at the silliness of it all, but this is no laughing matter,” Hagedorn wrote. “The decision today cannot be justified under any reasonable reading of the Wisconsin Constitution.”
Evers called the decision “great news for Wisconsin’s kids and public schools.”
Brian Schimming, chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party, said the ruling gives Evers “unchecked authority to override the will of Wisconsin voters.”
The ruling came in a case against Evers that was supported by the Republican-controlled Legislature. It is one of two lawsuits pending before the court dealing with vetoes by the governor. Republicans this year also introduced a constitutional amendment intended to curb veto powers.
Evers’ partial veto in 2023 increased how much revenue K-12 public schools can raise per student by $325 a year until 2425. Evers took language that originally applied the $325 increase for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years and instead vetoed the “20” and the hyphen to make the end date 2425, more than four centuries from now.
Evers told lawmakers at the time that his partial veto was intended to give school districts increases in funding “in perpetuity.”
The Legislature and the state’s largest business lobbying group, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, argued that the court should strike down Evers’ partial veto and declare it unconstitutional. They argued that the Evers veto was barred under a 1990 constitutional amendment adopted by voters that removed the ability to strike individual letters to make new words — known as the “Vanna White” veto, named for the co-host of the game show “Wheel of Fortune” who flips letters to reveal word phrases.
Finding otherwise would give governors unlimited power to alter numbers in a budget bill, they argued.
But Evers countered that the “Vanna White” veto ban applies only to striking individual letters to create new words, not vetoing digits to create new numbers. Evers said that he was simply using the long-standing partial veto process allowed under the law.
Wisconsin’s partial veto power was created by a 1930 constitutional amendment, but it’s been weakened by voters over the years, including in reaction to vetoes made by former Republican and Democratic governors. The Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2020, then controlled by conservatives, undid three of Evers’ partial vetoes, but a majority of justices did not issue clear guidance on what was allowed.
Reshaping state budgets through the partial veto is a long-standing act of gamesmanship in Wisconsin between the governor and Legislature, as lawmakers try to craft bills in a way that is largely immune from creative vetoes.
Republican legislative leaders have said they were waiting for the ruling in this case and another pending case affecting the governor’s veto powers before taking up spending bills this session, including the two-year state budget.
The other case centers on whether Evers properly used his partial veto power on a bill that detailed the plan for spending on new literacy programs. The Legislature contends that Evers’ partial veto was unconstitutional because the bill did not appropriate money. Evers contends the Legislature is trying to control how the executive branch spends money and limit his partial veto power.
If the court sides with Evers in that case, it could greatly expand the kinds of bills subject to partial vetoes in the future.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup. This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.
Wisconsin governor can lock in 400-year school funding increase using a veto, state Supreme Court says 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.
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