The Beloit Buccaneers have replaced their swashbuckling, Errol Flynn-esque design from the 1970s with a new, grinning skeleton pirate logo.
The post Beloit College leader highlights the school’s first new athletics logo in more than 40 years appeared first on WPR.
Democrats are escalating an effort to capitalize on a Republican rift about documents related to financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The post Democrats bring ‘Epstein files’ demands to Wisconsin swing districts in new ads appeared first on WPR.
Waukesha-based Generac Power Systems unveiled the company’s newest and largest manufacturing facility in Wisconsin on Thursday in Beaver Dam.
The post Generac unveils its newest, largest manufacturing facility in Wisconsin appeared first on WPR.
Wisconsin's political world was turned upside down Thursday by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' announcement that he won't seek a third term in office.
The post As Tony Evers retires, possible candidates emerge for Wisconsin governor’s race appeared first on WPR.
The criminal case against the father of a Madison school shooter will move forward after a Dane County court commissioner ruled there is probable cause to believe he gave his daughter access to the guns used in the deadly attack.
The post Case against father of Madison school shooter will move forward after court official finds probable cause appeared first on WPR.
A discussion of the overrepresentation of Black women in Wisconsin’s correctional system.
The post Why Race Matters appeared first on WPR.
Legislative Republicans in Wisconsin are now trying for a third time to cap tuition increases at the state's public university system at no higher than the rate of inflation.
The post Wisconsin Republicans are trying again to cap tuition increases at UW campuses appeared first on WPR.
We celebrate the world of aviation as Angela Fitzgerald attends EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.
The post Wisconsin Life:Adventure Waits appeared first on WPR.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has announced he won't seek reelection, a bombshell decision that shakes up Wisconsin politics ahead of the 2026 election.
The post Tony Evers won’t seek reelection, setting up wide-open race for Wisconsin governor appeared first on WPR.
Rice-Eccles Stadium on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City is pictured on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that bars payments from university boosters and some other private-sector donors to college athletes.
The NCAA changed its rules in 2021 to allow athletes to profit from their own name, image and likeness, or NIL. A White House fact sheet Thursday said third-party payments from boosters and other private donors “created a chaotic environment that threatens the financial and structural viability of college athletics.”
“Waves of recent litigation against collegiate athletics governing rules have eliminated limits on athlete compensation, pay-for-play recruiting inducements, and transfers between universities, unleashing a sea change that threatens the viability of college sports,” the order said.
A patchwork of laws exists across states, with no federal NIL law in place. A federal judge in June approved the terms of a nearly $2.8 billion antitrust settlement, which paved the way for schools to directly pay athletes.
“While changes providing some increased benefits and flexibility to student-athletes were overdue and should be maintained, the inability to maintain reasonable rules and guardrails is a mortal threat to most college sports,” the executive order said.
According to the White House fact sheet, the order’s prohibition of “third-party, pay-for-play payments” does not apply to “legitimate, fair-market-value compensation that a third party provides to an athlete, such as for a brand endorsement.”
The order also seeks to preserve and expand “opportunities for scholarships and collegiate athletic competition in women’s and non-revenue sports” and calls on the secretary of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board to clarify the “status” of college-athletes.
A day before the order, two U.S. House panels advanced a measure that would set a national framework for college athletes’ compensation and bar them from being recognized as employees.
That bill, the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements Act, or ‘‘SCORE Act,” was approved in the House Energy and Commerce and Education and Workforce committees, which both have jurisdiction.
The Federal Corrections Institution in Tallahassee, Florida, photographed on Thursday, July 24, 2025. Ghislaine Maxwell, former girlfriend of the late financier and Florida sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is serving a 20-year sentence at the low-security prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse girls. (Photo by Christine Sexton/Florida Phoenix)
WASHINGTON — The fallout over President Donald Trump’s handling of financier and Florida sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s case files permeated business on Capitol Hill Thursday, as Senate Democrats urged release of the information.
Meanwhile, in Tallahassee, Florida, a top Department of Justice official interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and a key figure in the growing controversy.
David O. Markus, lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell, speaks to reporters outside the Joseph Woodrow Hatchett United States Courthouse and Federal Building in downtown Tallahassee, Florida, on Thursday, July 24, 2025. (Video by Christine Sexton/Florida Phoenix)
Members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary accused their Republican counterparts on the panel of “concealing the Epstein files” after they voted to quash an amendment from New Jersey’s Sen. Cory Booker, who proposed tying the start date of an opioid data collection bill to the release of Epstein case material.
The committee’s tumult came a day after U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson sent his members home early for their six-week August break to avoid voting on efforts by both House Democrats and Republicans to make the files public.
Before heading back to their districts, three House Republicans voted Wednesday with Democrats on a House Committee on Oversight panel to subpoena the Department of Justice to turn over all Epstein investigation records. GOP Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Brian Jack of Georgia voted in favor of the push led by Pennsylvania Democrat Summer Lee.
Earlier, House Oversight Chair James Comer of Kentucky issued a subpoena for an Aug. 11 deposition with Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Florida for conspiring with the financier to sexually abuse girls.
Epstein died in his New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges for sex trafficking minors. He pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida for procuring and soliciting minors for sex.
The wealthy broker was surrounded by a powerful circle of friends, including Trump. Attorney General Pam Bondi informed the president in May that his name appeared among many others in the case files, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The context in which Trump’s name appears is unclear.
“We had the power today, the possibility today, to force out the truth regarding the Epstein files and the lies and the obfuscation that is happening by this administration,” Booker said after the GOP-led panel advanced an amendment offered by Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas that rendered Booker’s effort moot.
Booker eventually withdrew his amendment after roughly 40 minutes of back-and-forth in the middle of a vote, and after Sen. Lindsey Graham vowed to help him with a separate funding issue related to the underlying bill to address opioid overdose deaths.
“What we’re trying to do with this bill is really good, and there’s no end to this (Epstein debate). If this is a headline about ‘Cornyn blocks transparency of Epstein,’ then that would be sad because he’s responding to your amendment that would make the bill, quite frankly, fail,” said the South Carolina Republican. “I don’t think it’s helpful.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also put a spotlight on the Epstein case in his floor remarks Thursday, calling for the Trump administration to provide a closed-door briefing for all senators on details uncovered during the Epstein investigation, including whose names appeared in relation to the sex offender.
“The Senate deserves to hear directly from senior administration officials about Donald Trump’s name appearing in these files and the complete lack of transparency shown to date,” Schumer said.
Trump and his supporters, including some now working in his administration, dealt in conspiracy theories for years on the information surrounding the Epstein case, including whose names turned up during the investigation and the circumstances of his death.
A July 7 Department of Justice memo poured cold water on the fervor, declaring no incriminating “client list” exists and that officials would not be releasing any materials because of the risk of revealing victim identities. The department concluded Epstein harmed over 1,000 victims.
Trump answered swift and sharp criticism from his voter base by calling them “weaklings” for falling for a “Jeffrey Epstein hoax” in several social media posts.
In lieu of releasing the files, he ordered the unsealing of grand jury testimony in the case, which a Florida federal judge blocked Wednesday.
The president also told reporters that it was “appropriate” for Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, his former criminal defense lawyer, to interview Maxwell.
Blanche traveled to Florida, where reporters Thursday waited at the Joseph Woodrow Hatchett United States Courthouse and Federal Building in downtown Tallahassee, where the U.S. attorney’s office is located.
The courthouse is about 4 miles from the city’s Federal Correctional Institution, where Maxwell is serving time.
Blanche arrived around 9 a.m. Eastern at the courthouse, according to media reports. Maxwell’s appellate lawyer, David O. Markus, told ABC News, “We’re looking forward to a productive day” and declined further comment.
Markus, a Miami-based attorney with the firm Markus/Moss PLLC, emerged just before 4 p.m. Eastern and told news media outside the courthouse, including the Florida Phoenix, that Blanche “took a full day and asked a lot of questions, and Ms. Maxwell answered every single question.”
“She never invoked a privilege, she never declined to answer. She answered all the questions truthfully, honestly and to the best of her ability, and that’s all the comment we’re going to have about the meeting. We don’t want to comment on the substance of the meeting for obvious reasons,” Markus said.
Christine Sexton reported from Tallahassee.
National Public Radio headquarters on North Capitol Street in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (Photo by Jacob Fischler/States Newsroom)
President Donald Trump signed into law Thursday the bill Congress passed earlier this month to revoke $9 billion in previously approved spending for public broadcasting and foreign aid.
Trump’s signature was expected after his Office of Management and Budget compiled the list of requested rescissions.
Congressional Republicans approved a small slice of what the White House initially wanted, but the effort still represents a win for Trump, who used small majorities in both chambers of Congress to claw back money approved in bipartisan spending laws.
The law rescinds $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a congressionally chartered nonprofit that provides a small share of funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service but accounts for much larger portions of local public broadcasters’ revenue. The funding had been approved to cover the next two fiscal years.
The law also cancels about $8 billion in foreign aid accounts, including global health initiatives.
Republicans have long criticized NPR and PBS news programs as biased toward politically liberal points of view, while Trump’s America First movement has consistently called for reducing foreign aid.
The law does not touch the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, after Senate Republicans removed a provision to defund the program created during Republican George W. Bush’s presidency.
No Democrats voted for the law. Two Republicans in each chamber — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mike Turner of Ohio — voted against it.
It passed 51-48 in the Senate and 216-213 in the House. Each chamber took votes in the wee hours as Republicans raced to meet a July 18 deadline.
Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, warned the move undermined the annual appropriations process, which typically involves consideration of rescissions requests during bipartisan negotiations over government spending.
Congress last approved a stand-alone rescissions bill in 1992, following a series of requests from President George H.W. Bush, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
The Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building pictured on Nov. 25, 2024. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats on Thursday slammed the “assault” on public education by President Donald Trump’s administration, underscoring the impact of billions of dollars in funds still frozen for K-12 schools and ongoing efforts to dismantle the Education Department.
Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono, who hosted a forum alongside several Democratic colleagues that also heard testimony from education leaders, advocates and leading labor union voices, said Trump is engaged in “an all-out, coordinated attack on public education.”
The agency has seen a dizzying array of cuts, overhauls and changes since Trump took office as he seeks to dramatically redefine the federal role in education and take an axe to the agency.
This month, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily cleared the way for the administration to carry out mass layoffs and a plan to dramatically downsize the Department of Education that Trump ordered earlier this year.
“How can we expect our schools to plan for the upcoming school year when they are confronted with chaos and uncertainty from this administration?” Hirono said at the forum.
Compounding the issue, the administration garnered bipartisan backlash after notifying states that it would be withholding $6.8 billion in funds for K-12 schools just a day before July 1, when these dollars are typically sent out as educators plan for the coming school year.
The administration last week confirmed the release of a portion of those funds that support before- and after-school programs and summer programs, totaling $1.3 billion, but it has yet to release the remaining $5.5 billion that go toward migrant education, English-language learning, adult education and literacy programs, among other initiatives.
“How dare they take the monies that you appropriated, that schools need right now, as schools start in the next two weeks, taking it away from summer school, from after-school, from kids that need English-language acquisition — how dare they do that?” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said at the forum.
“How come we have to constantly go in and sue them and sue them and sue them to get things that you already appropriated?” said Weingarten, who leads one of the country’s largest teachers unions.
Jacqueline Rodriguez, CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, said the withheld money was devastating to students with disabilities.
“This funding delay is sabotaging student learning, educator preparedness and essential services, causing heavy impacts on those students with disabilities,” she said.
“To educators, this isn’t a delay, it’s a breach of public trust,” she said, adding that the freeze is “forcing schools to make tough choices about how they now have to reallocate funding.”
The forum also took aim at a sweeping national school voucher program included in the mega tax and spending cut bill that Trump signed into law July 4.
The permanent program starts in 2027 and allocates up to $1,700 in federal tax credits for individuals who donate to organizations that provide private and religious school scholarships.
“What we are seeing is just a wholesale dismantling and disruption of the public education system,” said Denise Forte, president and CEO of the nonprofit policy and advocacy group EdTrust.
“And with this new national voucher scheme — which is exactly what it is — that’s really about making sure that students from wealthier families who had already been participating in private schooling will have access to even more public dollars.”
Earlier Thursday, former U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona also criticized Trump’s “attacks” on education, including the billions of dollars in frozen funds.
“The irony is, this is really impacting many of the communities that really were rooting for this current administration,” Cardona, who was Education secretary under then-President Joe Biden, said on a press call hosted by Defend America Action that also featured Karen Smith, a member of Pennsylvania’s Central Bucks School District School Board as well as Nick Melvoin, a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education.
“They’re being impacted the most in many ways,” Cardona said. “I always say, all students are going to be impacted, but the students furthest from opportunity are going to be impacted the most and more severely and more quickly, so let’s put that perspective on what’s happening in education — policies have consequences, and the consequences are going to be felt for decades, just from what was done in the last five months.”
Gov. Tony Evers will not run for a third term in office. Evers delivers his 2025 state budget address. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Gov. Tony Evers announced in a two-minute video Thursday that he would not be running for reelection — launching the first open race for governor in Wisconsin since 2010.
The decision came after months of waiting as Evers said he wouldn’t make a decision until the 2025-27 state budget was completed. After he signed the budget in early July, anticipation of his decision increased along with debate over whether he would be the best candidate among Democrats.
Evers said there was “no question” he could win another term, but said that “whether I’d win or not has never been part of my calculus about running again.” He said he won’t run in order to spend time with his family.
“Wisconsin, the only thing I love more than being your governor is being a husband, a dad, and a grandpa,” Evers said. “For five decades, my family has sacrificed to give me the gift of service. They’re my world. And I owe it to them to focus on doing all the things we enjoy and love doing together.”
Evers was elected to the office in 2018 — ousting Gov. Scott Walker in a close election. Previously he served as state superintendent of public instruction from 2009-2019 and was known for his advocacy for public education.
During his time in office, Evers has worked with Republican and Democratic lawmakers to write four state budgets, using his partial veto power extensively at times, and signed new, fairer legislative maps into law.
A love letter from me to Kathy and my family—and to you, Wisconsin. pic.twitter.com/VDcztZ6JPy
— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) July 24, 2025
Democrats expressed appreciation for Evers’ service and are now considering the future, including who might run for the office.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin said Evers’ “commitment to every kid’s education, our teachers, and public schools will undoubtedly shape our future for the better and be a cornerstone of his legacy” and that his “steady hand led us through a once-in-a-generation pandemic, and Wisconsin came out the other side with a strong economy, record low unemployment, and a strong sense of community that bonds us all.”
Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said Evers’ election in 2019 “signaled the end of an era of right-wing governance and a new path forward for Wisconsin” and commended him for vetoing Republican bills that would have “harmed Wisconsinites” and working under split government to get “get things done where possible.” She said she respects his decision to do what’s right for him and his family.
“Making the decision to step away from public office is not easy,” Neubauer said. “As Democrats, we will continue the work of ensuring the will of the people is the law of the land.”
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) said Evers’ career has been built on “hard work, compassion, service to others, and family.”
“He has sought and found practical solutions to tough problems, worked across the aisle when he could, and, when that was not possible, he has fought hard for Democratic principles in the face of Republican extremism,” Hesselbein said.
Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) told the Wisconsin Examiner that Evers has been a great “goalkeeper” during his time in office, but said Democrats need someone that will try to make goals. He expressed immense disappointment in the budget deal that Evers and Senate Democrats came to with Republican lawmakers and recently penned a letter, which has received over 40 signatures, laying out expectations for a potential 2026 candidate.
“I for one am glad that the governor is reading the room and ready to pass the torch to the next generation to step forward and to lead in this fight,” Larson said. “Now that he is moving on and not running, I’m excited to see who steps forward and what kind of platforms they are going to have to basically meet the moment, not just on K-12 education, but higher ed, on tackling climate change… [and] talking about health care.”
Larson said he thinks the decision to step down could help build enthusiasm among the party’s base, which could bode well as Senate Democrats work to flip the Senate to a Democratic majority for the first time in 16 years.
“It builds an energy, and it builds an excitement,” Larson said.
Larson said he isn’t worried about how a new candidate will match up with a Republican candidate.
“The Republicans, [who are] all lining up behind a right-wing zealot who demands loyalty and has supporters who have driven themselves to be irrational and violent…,” Larson said, referencing Trump, “they’re all going down with the ship.”
This will be the first open election for Wisconsin governor since 2010. Some of the Democrats who have been mentioned as potential candidates include Attorney General Josh Kaul, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, state Sen. Kelda Roys, former Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.
Rodriguez thanked Evers for his work in a statement, saying he has led the state with “integrity, compassion, and a deep belief in doing what’s right – even when it’s hard.”
“There’s still work to do to make sure every family in Wisconsin has a fair shot at a better life – and I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work,” Rodriguez said.
Crowley told WISN-12 just before the announcement that he needs to speak with his family as he considers whether to run. In a statement, he praised Evers for his work that has supported Milwaukee County, including the passage of Act 12, which reworked local government funding in Wisconsin and gave Milwaukee the ability to levy a new sales tax.
“I’m especially grateful for Governor Evers’ partnership in passing Wisconsin Act 12 and securing new revenues and resources for Milwaukee County, putting us on a path to long-term fiscal stability for generations to come,” Crowley said. “Simply put, Milwaukee County is stronger, healthier, and better off because of the leadership and partnership of Governor Evers.”
According to the Associated Press, Barnes, who lost the 2022 U.S. Senate race against Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, said he is “considering” running.
Two Republican candidates, Washington Co. Executive Josh Schoemann and Whitefish Bay businessman Bill Berrien, have already launched their campaigns. Other Republicans are still considering whether to run, including U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany.
Schoemann said in a statement that he wouldn’t be “outworked” while running for governor and said any Democratic candidate that runs “will be more of the same status quo but even more extreme than Gov. Evers.”
“I look forward to contrasting my record of cutting taxes, reducing government and innovative reforms with their woke, radical agenda,” Schoemann said.
Berrien told reporters on a Zoom call that Evers stepping down would not change his approach to the race. He jumped into the race earlier this month, declaring that he is similar to President Donald Trump, as an “outsider” and businessman. He is the CEO and owner of Pindel Global Precision Inc. and Liberty Precision New Berlin, which are contract manufacturers that make machined parts.
“We have a vision and a mission of where we need to take Wisconsin,” Berrien said. “Now that it’s not going to be Gov. Evers that I’m running against, it’s going to be someone probably sharply like him, so, you know, we’ve got our plan. We are aggressively getting around the state, listening and crafting a vision and a strategy.”
Tiffany fell short of saying whether he would run for the office in a social media post, but said Evers “leaves behind a legacy of decline” and said the state needs to change course before “we end up like MN and IL.”
Former Gov. Scott Walker also made a cryptic post on social media following the announcement, saying “interesting” with a photo of a red hat with the slogan “Make Wisconsin Great Again” and the numbers 45 and 47, referencing nonconsecutive terms served by President Donald Trump.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) took a more cordial tone, wishing Evers and his wife well.
“No matter what side of the aisle we stand on, the decision to run for statewide office comes with many personal sacrifices that are worthy of recognition,” Vos said. “I want to thank Governor Evers for his service to the state of Wisconsin.”
Republicans have struggled to win statewide elections in Wisconsin in recent years, with the candidates the party supported losing the last three state Supreme Court races, the last two governor’s races, the last two state superintendent races and the last U.S. Senate race.
Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brian Schimming said in a statement on Evers’ decision to step aside that he “saw the writing on the wall: Wisconsinites are fed up with far-left policies.”
“While Wisconsin Democrats continue to lose the approval of voters, Republicans are already working on winning up and down the ballot,” Schimming said.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Jamie L. Whitten Federal Building in Washington, D.C., pictured on Dec. 18, 2017. (USDA photo by Preston Keres)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to slash its presence in the Washington, D.C., area by sending employees to five regional hubs, Secretary Brooke Rollins said Thursday.
The department wants to reduce its workforce in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia from 4,600 to less than 2,000 and add workers to regional offices in Raleigh, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Indianapolis; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Salt Lake City.
The department will also maintain administrative support locations in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Minneapolis and agency service centers in St. Louis; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Missoula, Montana, according to a memorandum signed by Rollins.
The effort, which the memo said is expected to take years, will move the USDA geographically closer to its constituents of farmers, ranchers and foresters, Rollins said in a press release.
“American agriculture feeds, clothes, and fuels this nation and the world, and it is long past time the Department better serve the great and patriotic farmers, ranchers, and producers we are mandated to support,” Rollins said.
“President Trump was elected to make real change in Washington, and we are doing just that by moving our key services outside the beltway and into great American cities across the country. We will do so through a transparent and common-sense process that preserves USDA’s critical health and public safety services the American public relies on.”
U.S. Sen. Todd Young, an Indiana Republican, called the announcement “very exciting news for Hoosiers.”
“Great to see these services move outside of DC and into places like Indiana that feed our nation,” he wrote on X.
U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, slammed the plan, saying it would diminish the department’s workforce and that Rollins should have consulted with Congress first before putting it in place.
The move by President Donald Trump’s first administration to move USDA’s Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture out of Washington, D.C., resulted in a “brain drain” in the agencies, as 75% of affected employees quit, Craig said.
“To expect different results for the rest of USDA is foolish and naive,” she said Thursday. “Sadly, farmers will pay the price through a reduction in the quality and quantity of service they already receive from the department.
She called on the committee’s chairman, Pennsylvania Republican Glenn “G.T.” Thompson, to hold a hearing on the issue.
“That the Administration did not consult with Congress on a planned reorganization of this magnitude is unacceptable,” Craig added. “I call on Chairman Thompson to hold a hearing on this issue as soon as possible to get answers. We need to hear from affected stakeholders and know what data and analysis USDA decisionmakers used to plan this reorganization.”
The USDA release also appealed to the plan’s cost efficiencies. By moving workers out of the expensive Washington, D.C. area, the department would avoid the extra pay workers in the region are entitled to, the department said.
Federal workers are eligible for increased pay based on the cost of living in the city in which they’re employed.
Washington has among the highest rates, boosting pay for workers in that region by 33%. Other than Fort Collins, whose workers also earn more than 30% more than their base pay, the other hub cities range from 17% in Salt Lake City to 22% in Raleigh, according to the release.
The plan includes vacating several D.C.-area office buildings that are overdue for large maintenance projects, the department said.
The department plans to retain its presence at the Jamie L. Whitten Federal Building and Yates Building, both in D.C., and the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Maryland.
It will vacate the South Building in D.C., Braddock Place in Alexandria, Virginia, and Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland. The George Washington Carver Center in Beltsville will serve as an additional office location during the reorganization, but will also be sold or transferred once the reorganization is complete, the memo said.
Each of USDA’s mission areas will still have a presence in the nation’s capital, according to the release.
But the plan includes consolidating several functions into regional offices in an effort to “eliminate management layers and bureaucracy,” according to the memo.
The U.S. Forest Service, a key USDA agency, will phase out its nine regional offices primarily into a single location in Fort Collins. The agency will retain a small state office in Alaska and an Eastern office in Athens, Georgia, according to the memo.
The Agriculture Research Service will also consolidate from 12 offices to the five regional hubs.
And a series of support functions would be centralized, according to the memo.
Gov. Tony Evers announced Thursday he will not seek a third term. | Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers announced he will not seek a third term in office Thursday — triggering a competitive Democratic primary ahead of the 2026 general election to fill the office.
In a two-minute video posted to social media, Evers said that he wouldn’t be running for reelection despite being sure he could win a third term, because he wants to spend more time with his family.
“I began my run for governor as a proud Plymouth Progressive, and that’s still who I am today. I’m a science teacher at heart who ended up running for office and winning five straight statewide elections,” Evers said. “So, would I win if I ran a sixth time? Of course. No question about that. But whether I’d win or not has never been part of my calculus about running again.”
“Here’s the truth: Wisconsin, the only thing I love more than being your governor is being a husband, a dad, and a grandpa. I’ve spent 50 years in public service. I’m damn proud I devoted my entire career — and most of my life — to working for you. And from Plymouth to Baraboo, Tomah to Oshkosh, Verona to Madison, and everywhere in between, Kathy and my family supported me all the way,” Evers said. “For five decades, my family has sacrificed to give me the gift of service. They’re my world. And I owe it to them to focus on doing all the things we enjoy and love doing together. It’s why, Wisconsin, I’m announcing that I will not be running for a third term.”
Evers had said he would make a decision following the end of the budget cycle, and after he signed the new budget in early July, public debate about whether Evers should run began picking up steam. Some Democrats, including Rep. Mark Pocan and newly-elected Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Devin Remiker, expressed their hopes that Evers would run. Some Democratic state lawmakers expressed opposition to a third Evers term. .
Evers was first elected to the office in 2018, ousting Republican former Gov. Scott Walker in a close election and placing a Democrat in office for the first time in eight years. Weeks before he entered office Republican lawmakers sought to strip him of some of his executive powers before he even took office.
Prior to his governorship, Evers served as the Superintendent of Public Instruction from 2009-2019 and was known for his advocacy for public education.
Two Republican candidates, Washington Co. Executive Josh Schoemann and Whitefish Bay businessman Bill Berrien, have already launched their campaigns. Other Republicans are still considering whether to run, including U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany.
For the updated story, see: Democrats and Republicans react to Evers not running for reelection
A love letter from me to Kathy and my family—and to you, Wisconsin. pic.twitter.com/VDcztZ6JPy
— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) July 24, 2025
A woman cries after her husband is detained by federal agents during a mandatory immigration check-in in June in New York City. The Trump administration’s arrests have been catching a smaller share of criminals overall, and a smaller share of people convicted of violent and drug crimes, than the Biden administration did in the same time frame last year. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Despite Trump administration rhetoric accusing Democrats of protecting violent criminals and drug-dealing immigrants, the administration’s arrests have been catching a smaller share of criminals overall, and a smaller share of people convicted of violent and drug crimes, than the Biden administration did in the same time frame.
While the Trump administration has caught more immigrants with convictions for drugs and violence, their share of the rising arrest numbers is smaller, as more people get swept up for minor traffic violations or strictly immigration crimes, according to a Stateline analysis.
Forty percent of the nearly 112,000 arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from Jan. 20 through late June were of convicted criminals. That’s compared with 53% of the nearly 51,000 arrests for same time period in 2024 under the Biden administration.
Worksite immigration raids are supposed to free up jobs for citizens. Here’s what really happens
The share of people convicted of violent crime fell from 10% to 7% and drug crimes from 9% to 5%, according to a Stateline analysis of data from the Deportation Data Project.
The project, led by attorneys and professors in California, Maryland and New York, collects and posts public, anonymized U.S. government immigration enforcement datasets obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests.
Some Democratic states are among those with the highest share of violent criminals in this year’s ICE arrests: Hawaii (15%), Vermont (13%), and California and Nebraska (12%) — while some of the lowest shares were in more Republican states: Maine (2%), and Alabama, Montana and Wyoming (3%).
Immigration attorneys see an increased push to arrest and detain immigrants for any type of violation or pending charge as President Donald Trump pushes for higher arrest and detention numbers to meet his campaign promise for mass deportation. Trump officials have called for 3,000 arrests a day, far more than the current average of 711 as of June and 321 a day during the same time period under Biden.
The majority of recent ICE detentions involve people with no convictions. That’s a pattern I find troubling.
– Oregon Republican state Rep. Cyrus Javadi
Arrests have accelerated since about mid-May, when government attorneys began asking to revoke bail and arrest people who show up for court hearings after being released at the border, said Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, practice and policy counsel for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, which represents more than 16,000 immigration attorneys.
“We’re not completely sure what the reasoning or the goal is behind some of these policies, other than they want detention numbers up,” Dojaquez-Torres said.
“They seem to have really been struggling to get their deportation numbers up, and so I think that’s one of the reasons why we see a lot of these policies going into effect that are meant to kind of circumvent the immigration court process and due process.”
Arrests of people convicted of violent crimes increased by 45% from about 5,300 to 7,700 compared with last year. For drug crimes, the increase was 21% — and they fell as a share of total arrests, from 9% under the Biden administration to 5% this year.
If Trump wants more deportations, he’ll need to target the construction industry
Arrests for those not convicted of any crime nearly tripled to about 67,000, and increased from 47% to 60% of arrests.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security defended ICE arrests Wednesday. Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the agency was “targeting dangerous criminal illegal aliens and taking them off American streets. Violent thugs ICE arrested include child pedophiles, drug traffickers, and burglars.”
In Oregon, arrests during the first part of last year increased from 51 under the Biden administration to 227 under the Trump administration, with those not convicted of any crime increasing from 34 to 137. Those with convictions for violent crime increased from 3 to 16. Even some Republicans are concerned with the new emphasis on non-criminals.
“The majority of recent ICE detentions involve people with no convictions. That’s a pattern I find troubling, especially when it risks sweeping up people for things like expired tags or missed court dates,” said Oregon state Rep. Cyrus Javadi, a moderate Republican representing Tillamook and Clatsop counties.
Nationally, nonviolent crimes have risen as a share of immigration arrests. The most common crime conviction for those arrested this year is driving while intoxicated, which was also the top offense last year under Biden.
But this year it’s closely followed by general traffic offenses, which rose to second place from sixth place, surpassing such crimes as assault and drug trafficking.
‘Sanctuary city’ governors object to Trump deployment of troops into Los Angeles
Traffic offenses, outside of driving while intoxicated and hit and run, rose almost fourfold as the most serious conviction on record for those arrested, the largest increase in the top 10. Those offenses were followed by increases in the immigration crime of illegal entry, meaning crossing the border in secret, which tripled.
The increase in traffic violations as a source of immigration arrests is a reason for cities to consider limiting traffic stops, said Daniela Gilbert, director of the Redefining Public Safety Initiative at the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit devoted to ending mass incarceration.
“It’s an important point to consider intervening in so that there can be less interaction, and so ICE has less opportunity to continue its indiscriminate dragnet of enforcement,” Gilbert said.
The institute argues in general that traffic stops should be limited to safety issues rather than low-level infractions such as expired registrations or single burned-out taillights, both because they do not improve public safety and because they disproportionately affect drivers of color.
Such policies limiting stops under some conditions are in place in 10 states and in cities in six other states, according to the institute.
The most recent state polices took effect last year in California and Illinois, while a policy is set to take effect in October in Connecticut. The most recent city policies were in Denver and in East Lansing and Ypsilanti, Michigan. Six other states have considered legislation recently.
Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at thenderson@stateline.org.
Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.
The U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., is pictured on Sunday, June 29, 2025, as the reconciliation package was under debate. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — A majority of Americans believe Republicans’ “big, beautiful” law will either hurt them or not make much of a difference, according to a poll released Thursday by the nonpartisan health research organization KFF.
The survey shows 46% of people expect the new tax and spending cuts law will generally hurt them or their family, while 28% said it likely won’t make much difference and 26% said it will help them.
Those beliefs were skewed by political parties, with 54% of Republicans saying the law will help them or their family, compared to 19% of independents and 7% of Democrats.
People enrolled in Medicaid, the state-federal health program for lower income individuals and people with disabilities, have significant concerns about how changes to the program will impact them.
Sixty-five percent of Medicaid patients under the age of 65 said they expect the law to hurt them or their family. Another 17% said it won’t make much of a difference for them and 18% expect the policy changes to help.
The law makes more than a dozen changes to how Medicaid is run, resulting in a $1.058 trillion spending cut to the program during the next decade, according to an analysis released earlier this week by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The report projects that 10 million people will lose access to health insurance before 2034.
The law made permanent the 2017 tax cuts from President Donald Trump’s first term and provided billions to carry out his plans of mass deportations, an immigration crackdown and increased defense spending.
KFF’s survey shows most Americans know at least something about the new law, though 9% of those polled said they know nothing at all and 23% said they know just a little.
Democrats had the highest percent of respondents who said they knew either a lot, 35%, or some, 45%, about the law. Twenty-two percent of Republicans said they knew a lot about their party’s top legislative achievement this year, with 44% saying they knew something, 27% saying they knew a little and 7% saying they knew nothing.
The vast majority of those polled, 78%, said they saw information about Republicans’ new law on social media during the last month.
Facebook and YouTube were the more popular social media platforms for people to see information about the tax and spending cuts law, followed by Instagram, TikTok, X and Reddit.
Forty-seven percent of those surveyed said the content they saw on social media opposed the policy changes included in the law, while 41% said it was mixed and 11% said it supported the GOP’s work.
Republicans said 26% of what they viewed on social media was in support of the law, with 53% mixed and 21% opposed. Democrats polled said 76% of what they saw was opposed, 21% mixed and 3% was supportive.
Most of those surveyed said the social media content helped them understand what the new law actually does. Sixteen percent said it was very helpful, 46% said it was somewhat helpful, 27% said it was not too helpful and 11% said it wasn’t helpful at all.
David Sacks, U.S. President Donald Trump's "AI and Crypto Czar", speaks to President Trump as he signs a series of executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on Jan. 23, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Trump signed a range of executive orders pertaining to issues including crypto currency and artificial intelligence. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The Trump administration wants to greatly expand the development and use of advanced artificial intelligence, including rolling back environmental rules to spur building of power-thirsty data centers and punishing states that attempt to regulate AI on their own.
The administration’s action plan, called “Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan,” released on Wednesday, is a result of six months of research by tech advisors, after Trump removed President Joe Biden’s signature AI guardrails on his first day in office. The plan takes a hands-off approach to AI safeguards, and invests in getting more American workers to use AI in their daily lives.
“To win the AI race, the U.S. must lead in innovation, infrastructure, and global partnerships,” AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks said in a statement. “At the same time, we must center American workers and avoid Orwellian uses of AI. This Action Plan provides a roadmap for doing that.”
The action plan outlines three major pillars — accelerate AI innovation, build American AI infrastructure and lead in international AI diplomacy and security.
The Trump administration says that to accelerate AI in the U.S., it needs to “remove red tape,” around “onerous” AI regulations. The plan recommends the Office of Science and Technology Policy inquire with businesses and the public about federal regulations that hinder AI innovation, and suggests the federal government end funding to states “with burdensome AI regulations.”
The plan does say that these actions should not interfere with states’ ability to pass AI laws that are not “unduly restrictive,” despite unsuccessful attempts by Congressional Republicans to impose an AI moratorium for the states.
The plan also says that free speech should be prioritized in AI, saying models must be trained so that “truth, rather than social engineering agendas” are the focus of model outputs. The plan recommends that the Department of Commerce and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), revise the NIST AI Risk Management Framework to eliminate references to misinformation, DEI and climate change.
The Trump administration also pushes for AI to be more widely adopted in government roles, manufacturing, science and in the Department of Defense, and proposes increased funding and regulatory sandboxes — separate trial spaces for AI to be developed — to do so.
To support the proposed increases in AI use, the plan outlines a streamlined permitting process for data centers, which includes lowering or dropping environmental regulations under the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and others. It also proposes making federal lands available for data center construction, and a push that American products should be used in building the infrastructure.
The Action Plan warns of cybersecurity risks and potential exposure to adversarial threats, saying that the government must develop secure frontier AI systems with national security agencies and develop “AI compute control enforcement,” to ensure security in AI systems and with semiconductor chips. It encourages collaboration with “like-minded nations” working toward AI models with shared values, but says it will counter Chinese influence.
“These clear-cut policy goals set expectations for the Federal Government to ensure America sets the technological gold standard worldwide, and that the world continues to run on American technology,” Secretary of State and Acting National Security Advisor Marco Rubio said in a statement.
The policy goals outlined in the plan fall in line with the deregulatory attitude Trump took during his campaign, as he more closely aligned himself with Silicon Valley tech giants, many of whom turned Trump donors. The plan paves the way for continued unfettered growth of American AI models, and outlines the huge energy and computing power needed to keep up with those goals.
In an address at the “Winning the AI Race” Summit Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump called for a “single federal standard” regulating AI, not a state-by-state approach.
“You can’t have three or four states holding you up. You can’t have a state with standards that are so high that it’s going to hold you up,” Trump said. “You have to have a federal rule and regulation.”
The summit was hosted by the Hill & Valley Forum, a group of lawmakers and venture capitalists and the All‑In Podcast, which is co-hosted by AI Czar Sacks,
In addition to discussing the AI action plan, Trump signed executive orders to fast track data center permitting, expand AI exports including chips, software and data storage, and one that prohibits the federal government from procuring AI that has “partisan bias or ideological agendas.”
He spoke about the need for the U.S. to stay ahead in the global AI race, saying that the technology brings the “potential for bad as well as for good,” but that wasn’t reason enough to “retreat” from technological advancement. The U.S. is entering a “golden age,” he said in his speech.
“It will be powered by American energy. It will be run on American technology improved by American artificial intelligence, and it will make America richer, stronger, greater, freer, and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said.
During the address, Trump addressed his evolving relationship with tech CEOs, calling out Amazon, Google, Microsoft for investing $320 billion in data centers and AI infrastructure this year.
“I didn’t like them so much my first term, when I was running, I wouldn’t say I was thrilled with them, but I’ve gotten to know them and like them,” Trump said. “And I think they got to like me, but I think they got to like my policies, maybe much more than me.”
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI — one of the tech giants that stands to flourish under the proposed policies — spoke Tuesday about the productivity and innovation potential that AI has unlocked. The growth of AI in the last five years has surprised even him, Altman said. But it also poses very real risks, he said, mentioning emotional attachment and overreliance on AI and foreign risks.
“Without a drop of malevolence from anyone, society can just veer in a sort of strange direction,” Altman said.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared his view of the promise and peril of advanced artificial intelligence at a Federal Reserve conference in Washington, D.C. on July 22, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
For as much promise as artificial intelligence shows in making life better, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is worried.
The tech leader who has done so much to develop AI and make it accessible to the public says the technology could have life-altering effects on nearly everything, particularly if deployed by the wrong hands.
There’s a possible world in which foreign adversaries could use AI to design a bio weapon to take down the power grid, or break into financial institutions and steal wealth from Americans, he said. It’s hard to imagine without superhuman intelligence, but it becomes “very possible,” with it, he said.
“Because we don’t have that, we can’t defend against it,” Altman said at a Federal Reserve conference this week in Washington, D.C. “We continue to like, flash the warning lights on this. I think the world is not taking us seriously. I don’t know what else we can do there, but it’s like, this is a very big thing coming.”
Altman joined the conference Tuesday to speak about AI’s role in the financial sector, but also spoke about how it is changing the workforce and innovation. The growth of AI in the last five years has surprised even him, Altman said.
He acknowledged real fear that the technology has potential to grow beyond the capabilities that humans prompt it for, but said the time and productivity savings have been undeniable.
OpenAI’s most well-known product, ChatGPT, was released to the public in November 2022, and its current model, GPT-4o, has evolved. Last week, the company had a model that achieved “gold-level performance,” akin to operating as well as humans that are true experts in their field, Altman said.
Many have likened the introduction of AI to the invention of the internet, changing so much of our day-to-day lives and workplaces. But Altman instead compared it to the transistor, a foundational piece of hardware invented in the 1940s that allowed electricity to flow through devices.
“It changed what we were able to build. It became part of, kind of, everything pretty quickly,” Altman said. “And in the same way, I don’t think you’ll be talking about AI companies for very long, you will just expect products and services to use this technology.”
When prompted by the Federal Reserve’s Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman to predict how AI will continue to evolve the workforce, Altman said he couldn’t make specific predictions.
“There are cases where entire classes of jobs will go away,” Altman said. “There are entirely new classes of jobs that will come and largely, I think this will look somewhat like most of history, and that the tools people have to use their jobs will let them do more, achieve things in new ways.”
One of the unexpected upsides to the rollout of GPT has been how much it is used by small businesses, Altman said. He shared a story of an Uber driver who told him he was using ChatGPT for legal consultations, customer support, marketing decisions and more.
“It was not like he was taking jobs from other people. His business just would have failed,” Altman said. “He couldn’t pay for the lawyers. He couldn’t pay for the customer support people.”
Altman said he was surprised that the financial industry was one of the first to begin integrating GPT models into their work because it is highly regulated, but some of their earliest enterprise partners have been financial institutions like Morgan Stanley. The company is now increasingly working with the government, which has its own standards and procurement process for AI, to roll out OpenAI services to its employees.
Altman acknowledged the risks AI poses in these regulated institutions, and with the models themselves. Financial services are facing a fraud problem, and AI is only making it worse — it’s easier than ever to fake voice or likeness authentication, Altman said.
AI decisionmaking in financial and other industries presents data privacy concerns and potential for discrimination. Altman said GPT’s model is “steerable,” in that you can tell it to not consider factors like race or sex in making a decision, and that much of the bias in AI comes from the humans themselves.
“I think AIs are dispassionate and unemotional,” Altman said. “And I think it’ll be possible for AI — correctly built — to be a significant de-biasing force in many industries, and I think that’s not what many people thought, including myself, with the way we used to do AI.”
As much as Altman touted GPT and other AI models’ ability to increase productivity and save humans time, he also spoke about his concerns.
He said that though it’s been greatly improved in more recent models, AI hallucinations, or models that produce inaccurate or made-up outputs, are possible. He also spoke of a newer concept called prompt injections, the idea that a model that has learned personal information can be tricked into telling a user something they shouldn’t know.
In addition to the threat of foreign adversaries using AI for harm, Altman said he has two other major concerns for the evolution of AI. It feels very unlikely, he said, but “loss of control,” or the idea that AI overpowers humans, is possible.
What concerns him the most is the idea that models could get so integrated into society and get so smart that humans become reliant on them without realizing.
“And even without a drop of malevolence from anyone, society can just veer in a sort of strange direction,” he said.
There are mild cases of this happening, Altman said, like young people overrelying on ChatGPT make emotional, life-altering decisions for them.
“We’re studying that. We’re trying to understand what to do about it,” Altman said. “Even if ChatGPT gives great advice, even if chatGPT gives way better advice than any human therapist, something about kind of collectively deciding we’re going to live our lives the way that the AI tells us feels bad and dangerous.”
Login