The seven members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court hear oral arguments. (Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)

In a 4-3 decision, Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the state’s 1849 law banning abortion had been “impliedly repealed” by the Legislature when it passed laws over the past half century “regulating in detail the ‘who, what, where, when, and how’” of abortion. 

The Court’s majority opinion, authored by Justice Rebecca Dallet and joined by Justices Ann Walsh Bradley, Jill Karofsky and Janet Protasiewicz, finds that the Legislature could not have passed laws regulating abortion access if the 1849 statute was believed to remain in effect. 

“This case is about giving effect to 50 years’ worth of laws passed by the Legislature about virtually every aspect of abortion including where, when, and how health-care providers may lawfully perform abortions,” Dallet wrote. “The Legislature, as the peoples’ representatives, remains free to change the laws with respect to abortion in the future. But the only way to give effect to what the Legislature has actually done over the last 50 years is to conclude that it impliedly repealed the 19th century near-total ban on abortion, and that [the statute] therefore does not prohibit abortion in the State of Wisconsin.” 

Dallet wrote that when the Legislature passed laws restricting abortion under narrower circumstances, guiding “where, when and how” health care providers could perform an abortion and outlining how public money could fund abortion providers, it was repealing the 1849 law. 

The ruling comes three years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark Court ruling that found there was a constitutional right to abortion access and marks the conclusion of a legal dispute that helped Protasiewicz win election to the Court in 2023 and Susan Crawford win election this April. 

In response, the Court’s three conservative justices filed dissents, accusing the majority of “propaganda,” “smoke-and-mirrors legalese” and “pure policymaking.” 

“The majority’s smoke-and-mirrors legalese is nothing more than ‘painting a mule to resemble a zebra, and then going zebra hunting. But paint does not change the mule into a zebra,’” Justice Annette Ziegler wrote. “Those in the majority know better, but they do so anyway because they like the result and promised to deliver it.” 

In his dissent, Justice Brian Hagedorn wrote that the majority failed to show when the law was presumably repealed by the Legislature, saying that the opinion doesn’t properly address the Legislature’s actions in 2011 and 2015 amending the 1849 law.  

“The majority does not say when over those 40 years the Legislature once and for all repealed [the statute],” he wrote. “Was it when the Legislature passed a postviability ban? A partial-birth abortion ban? A twenty-week ban? A waiting period? A physician licensing requirement? The majority fails to say.”

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Following the ruling’s release, the state’s Democratic elected officials and abortion access activists celebrated the decision as a “win” for reproductive health care in the state. 

“Thanks to our lawsuit, today’s decision affirms that access to reproductive healthcare will continue to be available, helping ensure Wisconsin women today are not forced to face firsthand what it’s like to live in a state that bans nearly all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest,” Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement. “Today is a win for women and families, a win for healthcare professionals who want to provide medically accurate care to their patients, and a win for basic freedoms in Wisconsin, but our work is not over. I will continue to fight any effort that takes away Wisconsinites’ reproductive freedom or makes reproductive healthcare, whether birth control, abortion, IVF, or fertility treatments, any less accessible in Wisconsin than it is today. That is a promise.”

Attorney General Josh Kaul, who brought the lawsuit against the law, said at a Wednesday morning news conference that the decision was an important step toward ensuring all Wisconsinites have the freedom to access abortion care, but that the Legislature should step up and further clarify the law.

“I thought we were right on the law. The arguments we made have now been vindicated,” Kaul said. “But at a time when the rights of Wisconsinites and Americans are under threat, this case is a stark reminder of how important it is that we fight for our rights, that we advocate for what is in the best interest of the people of our state, and that we stand on the side of freedom. Here today, we were able to achieve a significant victory for the freedom of Wisconsinites.”

Wisconsin’s state and federal Democratic lawmakers responded to the ruling by saying it wasn’t enough, promising to continue working to codify abortion access in law. 

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin said she will continue to work to enact her proposal to ensure women across the country have access to abortion care. 

“Today’s ruling tells women across Wisconsin that we will not go back,” Baldwin said. “Today’s ruling tells women that our government trusts you to make decisions about your own body and your future. Today’s ruling tells women in our state that they are not second-class citizens. But, this fight is not over. Every woman, in every zip code, in every state deserves the same rights and freedoms. I will not stop fighting until we make that a reality and pass my bill to restore the right to abortion nationwide and allow women to make their own health care decisions without interference from judges or politicians.”

State Sen. Lisa Subeck (D-Madison) said the Legislature must now pass a bill guaranteeing the right to an abortion. 

“Now that the courts have made it clear that Wisconsin does not have a total abortion ban, we must go further,” Subeck said. “It’s time to protect reproductive rights not just in practice, but in law. We must pass the Abortion Rights Restoration Act to guarantee the right to abortion and eliminate the medically unjustified, politically motivated restrictions that still exist in our state statutes. The people of Wisconsin deserve nothing less than full access to safe and legal reproductive health care without unnecessary barriers and free from judgement.”

In a concurring opinion, Karofsky wrote that interpreting the 1849 law as banning abortion gives the state the authority to “exert total control” over women and “strips women and pregnant people of the dignity and authority to make intimate and personal choices by exposing medical professionals who perform abortions to 15-year prison terms.” 

In her opinion, Karofsky details the history of abortion access in the U.S. and highlights four women who died because of restrictive abortion bans, including the recent deaths of two Black women in Georgia and a Honduran immigrant in Texas as well as the death of her own great-grandmother in Boston in 1929. 

“I tell the stories of Amber, Candi, Josseli, and my great-grandmother Julia to remind us that severe abortion restrictions operate like death warrants,” Karofsky wrote. “Under such restrictions women, children, and pregnant people are denied life-saving medical care while medical professionals are forced to sit idly at their bedsides, unable to do their jobs. Extreme abortion restrictions revive a time in our history driven by misogyny and racism, divorced from medical science; it is a world that must be left behind.” 

In her dissent, Justice Rebecca Bradley accused Karofsky of rewriting history to achieve a desired outcome in the case. 

“Not content with effacing the law, Chief Justice Jill Karofsky rewrites history, erases and insults women by referring to mothers as ‘pregnant people,’ slanders proponents of the pro-life perspective, and broadcasts dangerously false narratives about laws restricting abortion,” Bradley wrote. “Laden with emotion, steeped in myth, and light on the law, the concurrence reads as a parody of progressive politics rather than the opinion of a jurist.”

A Green Light Metals crew hit water when it began digging a waste pit for its exploratory drilling project last week. Activists say it proves the project is occurring too close to the groundwater while the DNR and company say it's just rain water. (Photo obtained by the Wisconsin Examiner)

A Canadian mining company began work on an exploratory drilling project in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in Taylor County earlier this month, triggering local concerns that the project could harm groundwater and the nearby north fork of the Yellow River as the company and state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) insist the permitting and regulatory processes are enough to keep the environment safe. 

Green Light Metals, which runs its U.S. operations out of Medford, owns the mineral rights to the Bend deposit in Taylor County, about 19 miles north of Medford, and the Reef deposit near Wausau. The Bend deposit, which has been explored before, contains copper, gold, silver and zinc. The deposit is estimated to contain more than 4 million tons of ore. If the drilling exploration is successful, it could lead to a larger underground mine. 

The start of work on the project is the beginning of the company’s efforts to expand its operations in the U.S. after it went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange earlier this year. 

“Wisconsin is open for business,” the company’s CEO Matt Filgate said on an investing focused podcast earlier this month. 

Company officials say their aim is to protect the environment while nodding to the possibility that a mine in the region could produce materials necessary for green infrastructure — mostly tellurium, a metal necessary in the construction of solar panels. 

“There are very detailed environmental review and environmental studies that are done on virtually every aspect of the surrounding environment,” Steven Donahue, a Green Light Metals board member, told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in April. “An important component of that is the water resources, but it’s also all the ecosystems. It’s the engineering of the project, it’s how the project is going to be closed and reclaimed, and how it’s going to be able to protect the environment, not only during construction and operations, but also after it’s closed. All those facets of a project would be evaluated by the state.”

Views of the project within the rural, largely conservative county — President Donald Trump won Taylor County with 73.5% of the vote last year — vary widely. Much of the county is covered by the national forest, which Juliana Reimann, a Madison resident who grew up in the county and remains a regular visitor, says is a “magnificent, breathtaking natural environment.” 

Conservative hunters and fishers in the area are concerned about the drilling project’s potential effect on those activities in the forest or on the Yellow River. Still, some community members are hopeful the mine can bring some economic benefits to the community and others are keeping a watchful eye on the project without making a conclusion. 

“Some of the people who are in our group are adamantly opposed to any mine, period,” Cathy Mauer, a member of the Friends of the Yellow River, says. “Some of us think that so far they’re trying to be careful without being naive about it because the goal is to make money for their investors.” 

“I’ve found sometimes the people from Green Light are being, I don’t think they’re lying, I think they believe it, but I don’t think they’re being realistic about the potential problems,” she adds. “I think they’re being straightforward, they’re either optimistic or aren’t being completely realistic about the potential problems. And maybe we’re imagining the worst case scenario, which we need to. It’s the worst case scenarios that cause the problems. That’s what we have to plan for.”

Some environmental activists remain much more concerned about the possible effect of the drilling operation on the local water. 

“I really have such a love for that forest, and that drilling site is right smack dab in the middle of it,” Reimann says. “The project will impact groundwater, as I see it, heavily. And of course, groundwater is critical as drinking water.”

She adds that the health of the forest is important for the community’s ability to “thrive.” 

Wisconsin was under a mining moratorium from 1997 until 2017, which required companies that wanted to mine sulfide ores such as copper and gold to prove that other mines operated and were closed for 10 years without causing pollution. While business groups lauded the law’s repeal as opening up the state to billions of dollars in investment, drilling operations in the state have yet to result in a full mine being opened. 

With the repeal gone, the DNR’s permitting process for drilling operations requires companies to obtain a license and file a notice of intent to drill, which the state can deny, approve or approve with conditions. The company must then obtain a number of permits relating to stormwater discharge, dewatering operations, endangered species and wetland preservation. Because the site is within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, the U.S. Forest Service also has its own permitting process. 

The DNR’s approval of Green Light Metals’ notice of intent included nearly two dozen conditions but despite that, environmental activists remain concerned about a number of aspects of the project. 

When the company drills into the bedrock where the minerals are, the drill must go through the layers, known as the glacial overburden, above it, which requires a steel casing to keep chemicals out of the groundwater. The company obtains cuttings from the bedrock that can be tested for the metals it is looking for. After drilling is complete, the hole is filled from the bottom up with cement, which pushes up the lubricants and water used in the drilling process and flushes out the hole. 

State regulations require that the pipe used to pump in that cement be submerged the entire time so as to prevent air pockets forming. This is often done using what’s known as a tremie pipe, but Green Light Metals is instead pouring cement through the drill rods themselves, which come in 10 foot sections and therefore require that crews stop as each piece is removed — a method that activists are concerned makes the process more likely to cause pollution but DNR metallic mining coordinator Molly Gardner says is common practice. 

The materials flushed out of the drill hole as the cement rises are then put into a lined waste pit dug by the company, encased with more cement and finally covered with the topsoil. 

Activists are concerned the company will not be thorough enough to protect the environment throughout this process.

“It’s like any industrial activity, there is room for error, and if not fixed, you could have a problem,” Dave Blouin, the political chair for the Wisconsin Sierra Club, says. 

Additionally, there has been a dispute about the type of land the company is operating on. Green Light Metals says there is some wetland in the area, but not where it is drilling, while activists say much of the area is wetland, directly connecting the groundwater with the Yellow River. A recent study by the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey found that “the North Fork Yellow River and surrounding surface waters are connected to the shallow glacial aquifer.”

“The North Fork Yellow River is a river within the Chippewa Basin. Over 3,000 stream and river miles flow within the Chippewa River basin and with 156,200 acres of freshwater lakes, 22,711 acres of flowages and more than 150 acres of freshwater springs. The river basin watershed provides significant habitat, recreation, navigation and is a significant drinking water resource for northwest Wisconsin people,” Wisconsin Trout Unlimited said in a resolution opposing the Bend project. “Mining of metallic sulfide ores and minerals has a consistent proven record of surface and ground water contamination and pollution. This potential source of pollution threatens the groundwater of Taylor County and the surface waters of the Chippewa Basin watershed.”

When the company began digging the waste pit for its first drill hole last week, the crew hit water just four feet below ground, which opponents of the project say was the groundwater and proof the area is mostly wetland. 

State regulations require that waste pits for drilling “shall not be at or below the groundwater table at the time of the drilling activity and shall be constructed such that the base will remain above the normal local groundwater elevation.”

Reimann and other opponents believe the company moving forward puts the entire watershed at risk. 

“This drilling is taking place very close to the north fork of the Yellow River,” Reimann says. “It’s taking place in vast wetlands, the hydrology is such that any kind of contamination there will affect not only the Yellow River. The Yellow River flows to the Chequamegon Waters Flowage. People up there refer to it as Miller dam, that’s a very popular camping and fishing site, as well as close to the rice beds of the Ojibwe and ultimately those waters will migrate westward to the Chippewa River, to Lake Wissota and I guess ultimately to the Black River [and] to the Mississippi. You know that water doesn’t stay in one place, so it has a huge negative impact if those waters are contaminated.” 

But Gardner says those claims aren’t accurate and is confident in the department’s regulatory and inspection processes. She says the survey conducted by the company confirmed they weren’t drilling in wetlands and the water the crews found when digging the pit is just rainwater. She says the groundwater is actually 20 feet below the surface. 

The company’s wetland study was partially done as a “desk review” using maps, state data and satellite imagery. A field study by the company was conducted later, but “soils were not investigated,” and “WDNR Wetland Soils & Indicators (WSI) are prevalent across nearly the entire site,” a company memo states. 

“We’re looking at the access, we’re looking at the drilling operation, the sumps, the security, the safety, and everything that’s going on,” Gardner says. “We’re regulating, we’re inspecting that they follow their exploration plan.” 

She says that throughout the drilling process, which includes eight holes as part of the first phase and an additional 15 holes in the second phase, the DNR will have stormwater inspectors, exploration inspectors and Gardner herself on site at regular intervals and for occasional unannounced inspections. 

“It’s not common for the DNR to be able to go on site continuously with any type of construction projects,” Gardner says. “So mining and mining-related projects are allowed to have extra inspections to really ensure that things are going according to plan, because it is an important topic and it’s an important project, so we have more resources to do additional inspections for mining in relation to other types of construction projects.” 

Donahue, the company board member, says the company has been working with local officials and community members to keep them aware of what’s happening on the site and that the project will follow all “applicable regulations.” 

“The Green Light exploration team has been working diligently with the Wisconsin DNR and the U.S. Forest Service to secure all necessary permits and approvals for the exploration program,” he says. Green Light will work diligently to properly abandon the boreholes with the proper amount of cement in accordance with applicable regulations and permits.  In addition, the drill cuttings will be properly disposed by mixing the cuttings with cement in accordance with applicable regulations and permit requirements.”

Wisconsin Supreme Court chambers. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

The Wisconsin Supreme Court issued two orders Wednesday, declining to hear cases challenging the constitutionality of the state’s congressional maps. 

Democrats had hoped that the liberal wing of the court retaining majority control of the body in this spring’s election would give them an opportunity to change the congressional lines. Republicans currently hold six of the state’s eight congressional seats, and Democrats hoped they could flip the 1st and 3rd CDs under friendlier maps. 

Before Republicans drew new congressional lines in 2010, Democrats controlled five of the state’s seats. The current maps were drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and approved by the state Supreme Court when it was controlled by conservatives. That Court had required that any proposed maps adhere to a “least change” standard that changed as little as possible from the 2010 maps. 

While Evers’ maps made the two competitive districts slightly closer contests, they’re still controlled by Republican U.S. Reps. Bryan Steil and Derrick Van Orden. 

The two lawsuits were brought by the Elias Law Group representing Democratic candidates and voters and the Campaign Legal Center on behalf of a group of voters. The cases argued the maps violated the state’s constitutional requirement that all voters be treated equally. 

The challenges against the maps drew national attention as Democrats hope to retake control of the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s midterm elections. 

This is the second time in as many years that the Supreme Court, under a liberal majority, has declined to hear challenges to the congressional maps. 

In both cases, the Court issued unanimous decisions without any explanation as to why they weren’t accepting the cases. 

Aside from declining to hear the cases, Justice Janet Protasiewicz issued an order denying requests that she recuse herself from the case. Republicans have called for her recusal from redistricting cases because of comments she made during her 2023 campaign about Wisconsin’s need for fairer maps. Previously, after Protasiewicz joined the Court, as part of a new liberal majority, it declared the state’s legislative maps, which locked in disproportionate Republican majorities in the Legislature, unconstitutional. 

“I am confident that I can, in fact and appearance, act in an impartial manner in this case,” she wrote. “And the Due Process Clause does not require my recusal because neither my campaign statements nor contributions to my campaign create a ‘serious risk of actual bias.’”

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections Madison offices. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the state’s correctional officers can sue the Department of Corrections as a class in an effort to get compensation for the time it takes the officers to be screened by security when coming to and leaving from work. 

In 2020, an officer filed a class action lawsuit against DOC arguing that the pre and post shift activities should be compensated. A Milwaukee County judge divided the case into two parts, separating the certification of correctional officers as a class from the evaluation of their argument on the merits. 

The circuit court judge granted the motion for class certification but that decision was reversed by the court of appeals, which ruled that the officers couldn’t be certified as a class because their argument was unlikely to be successful. 

In a majority opinion written by Justice Janet Protasiewicz, the Court reversed the appeals court’s decision, stating that to certify a class action lawsuit a judge must determine if the group at issue has a common question without evaluating the answer to that question.

“There is a difference between identifying whether a common question exists and deciding its answer,” Protasiewicz wrote. “A court ‘must walk a balance between evaluating evidence to determine whether a common question exists and predominates, without weighing that evidence to determine whether the plaintiff class will ultimately prevail on the merits.’”

Protasiewicz’s opinion was joined by Justices Ann Walsh Bradley, Rebecca Dallet, Brian Hagedorn and Jill Karofsky. Chief Justice Annette Ziegler wrote a partial concurrence, which was joined by Justice Rebecca Bradley. 

The attorney for the DOC officers who brought the case said in a statement that his clients appreciate the Court’s decision.

“Our clients appreciate the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s well-reasoned decision reversing the Court of Appeals and reinstating the Circuit Court’s decision to certify a class of Wisconsin corrections officers,” the attorney, Michael Flannery, said in the statement. “Corrections officers are the largest officer force in the State of Wisconsin, and do a vital and incredibly difficult job. It is simply unfair that, for years, Wisconsin has forced them to do unpaid work before and after their shifts. We look forward to litigating this case through trial and getting some of Wisconsin’s hardest workers the economic justice they so deserve.”

The seven members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court hear oral arguments. (Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)

In a 5-2 ruling on Tuesday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed the Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) authority to regulate polluters who produce hazardous substances such as PFAS through the state’s toxic spills law. 

The court’s ruling reverses the decisions of the circuit and appeals courts that could have threatened the DNR’s ability to force polluters to pay for the environmental damage they cause. For more than 40 years, the spills law has allowed the DNR to bring civil charges and enforce remediation measures against parties responsible for spills of “harmful substances.” 

The lawsuit was brought by an Oconomowoc dry cleaner and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), the state’s largest business lobby, after the owner of the dry cleaner, Leather Rich Inc., found PFAS on her property. 

In preparation to sell the business, Leather Rich had been participating in a voluntary DNR program to remediate contamination on its property in exchange for a certificate of liability protection from the department. During that process, the DNR determined that PFAS should be considered a “hazardous substance” under the spills law and communicated that on its website. 

If PFAS were present on a site, the DNR stated, participants in the voluntary program would only be eligible for partial liability protection. 

While conducting a site investigation through the program, Leather Rich determined three of four wells on the property exceeded Department of Health Services standards for PFAS concentration in surface or drinking water. The DNR requested that future reports from Leather Rich to the department include the amount of PFAS found on the property. Leather Rich responded by withdrawing from the program and filing suit. 

At the circuit and appeals courts, Leather Rich was successful, with judges at each level finding that the decision by the DNR to start considering PFAS a “hazardous substance” under the spills law constituted an “unpromulgated rule” and therefore was against the law. That interpretation would have required the DNR to undergo the complicated and often yearslong process of creating an administrative rule each time it determines that a substance is harmful to people or the environment.

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In the majority opinion, authored by Justice Janet Protasiewicz and joined by the Court’s three other liberal leaning justices and conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn, the Court found that the DNR spent nearly 50 years administering the spills law responding “to about 1,000 spills each year, without promulgating rules listing substances, quantities, and concentrations that it deems ‘hazardous substances.’”

Protasiewicz wrote that when the Legislature wrote the spills law, it left the definition of “hazardous substance” intentionally open-ended but required a potentially harmful substance to meet certain criteria if it would apply under the law. 

“The definition of ‘hazardous substance’ is broad and open-ended in that it potentially applies to ‘any substance or combination of substances,’” Protasiewicz wrote. “But the definition is limited in that the substance or combination of substances must satisfy one of two fact-specific criteria.” 

She wrote that the law considers “a substance or combination of substances is ‘hazardous’ if,” its quantity, concentration or characteristics may cause or contribute to an increase in mortality or serious illness or may pose a potential hazard to human health or the environment

Leather Rich and WMC had argued that the Legislature’s failure to include chemical thresholds in the statutory text left while including the use of terms like “significantly,” “serious,” and “substantial,” meant that the law was ambiguous and therefore any DNR determinations of what counts as hazardous must be delineated in an administrative rule. They argued that under this interpretation of statute, spilling milk or beer on the ground could constitute a toxic spill. 

Protasiewicz wrote if that were the case, “then scores of Wisconsin statutes on a wide range of subjects would be called into doubt,” and that their hypotheticals are undermined by the text of the statute. 

“It is possible for an everyday substance like milk or beer to qualify as a ‘hazardous substance,’ but only if it first satisfies [the statute’s] fact specific criteria,” she wrote. “A mug of beer or a gallon of milk spilled into Lake Michigan may not ‘pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment,’ but a 500-gallon tank of beer or milk discharged into a trout stream might well pose a substantial present hazard to the stream’s fish and environment.” 

The majority opinion also found that communications the DNR made on its website and in letters to Leather Rich counted as “guidance documents” not as rules.

Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley, who once gave a speech to WMC in which she declared to the business lobby that “I am your public servant,” wrote in a dissent joined by Chief Justice Annette Ziegler that the majority’s interpretation of the spills law left the state vulnerable to a “tyrannical” government that could both create the rules and enforce them. 

“This case is about whether the People are entitled to know what the law requires of them before the government can subject them to the regulatory wringer,” she wrote. “The majority leaves the People at the mercy of unelected bureaucrats empowered not only to enforce the rules, but to make them. Americans have lived under this unconstitutional arrangement for decades, but now, the majority says, the bureaucrats can impose rules and penalties on the governed without advance notice, oversight, or deliberation. In doing so, the majority violates three first principles fundamental to preserving the rule of law — and liberty.” 

After the decision’s release, Democrats and environmental groups celebrated its findings as an important step to protecting Wisconsin’s residents from the harmful effects of pollution. 

“This is a historic victory for the people of Wisconsin and my administration’s fight against PFAS and other harmful contaminants that are affecting families and communities across our state,” Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement. “The Supreme Court’s decision today means that polluters will not have free rein to discharge harmful contaminants like PFAS into our land, water, and air without reporting it or taking responsibility for helping clean up those contaminants. It’s a great day for Wisconsinites and the work to protect and preserve our state’s valuable natural resources for future generations.”

But WMC said the Court’s interpretation leaves businesses guessing what substances count as hazardous under the law. 

“The DNR refuses to tell the regulated community which substances must be reported under the Spills Law, yet threatens severe penalties for getting it wrong,” Scott Manley, WMC’s Executive Vice President of Government Relations, said in a statement. “Businesses and homeowners are left to guess what’s hazardous, and if they’re wrong, they face crushing fines and endless, costly litigation. This ruling blesses a regulatory approach that is fundamentally unfair, unworkable, and impossible to comply with.”

Don Millis and Ann Jacob, the former and current chairs of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, testify Tuesday, Feb. 4, at an Assembly hearing on a commission rule for election observers. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)

The Wisconsin Elections Commission on Monday published a new permanent administrative rule to guide how election observers are allowed to conduct themselves at polling places. 

On Friday, the commission voted 5-1 to approve the rule after more than two years of work that involved the participation of a 24-person advisory committee made up of municipal clerks, poll workers, political parties and outside groups including advocates for people with disabilities and right-wing election conspiracy outfits. 

The final rule order specifies who is allowed to observe elections and defines the boundaries of what observers are allowed to do at a polling place. The rule also dictates when poll workers are allowed to call law enforcement to diffuse a situation and includes provisions to require that observers be allowed to use available chairs and restrooms and for how the news media is allowed to operate inside polling places. The rules are different for members of the media, who are allowed to take videos and photos inside polling places while observers are not.

WEC commissioners of both parties advocated for the passage of the rule, arguing that while not perfect, the compromise reached to create the rule was better than the vague interpretation of state law that had previously governed observers. 

But even after their involvement on the advisory committee, election skeptics opposed the rule’s enactment. WEC commissioner Robert Spindell, a Republican who has often flirted with election conspiracy theories, was the lone vote against the rule going into effect. 

Republican lawmakers on the Legislature’s Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) had denied the passage of an emergency rule instituting similar provisions earlier this year. JCRAR deadlocked on a vote to deny the permanent rule’s enactment in April, allowing it to move out of the committee and back to WEC for final approval. 

“Today marks a significant milestone that will ensure election observers, election officials, and voters all have a clear and consistent understanding of the observer process,” WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe said in a statement. “After years of thorough public hearings, advisory committee input, and careful drafting, this rule enshrines standards for election observers that ensure participation in our electoral process.”

The commission will hold a meeting later this year to approve new guidance for election clerks administering the rule, according to a news release. The rule is set to go into effect Aug. 1.

Wisconsin Public Radio's offices are located in UW-Madison's Vilas Hall. (Photo Courtesy of UW-Madison)

Wisconsin Public Radio announced last week that it was laying off at least 15 staff members and cancelling four radio programs as the station faces budget shortages and the looming prospect of cuts to its federal funding. 

The staff members were notified of the layoffs on Friday and the cancelled programs include the nationally syndicated “To the Best of Our Knowledge,” the arts and culture show “BETA,” the health show “Zorba Paster On Your Health” and the local “University of the Air.” 

Republicans in control of the U.S. Congress have been considering a proposal to rescind federal money previously allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes federal funds to local stations across the country. Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to take $1.1 billion from CPB and the Senate has until mid-July to pass its own version of the provision. 

About four percent of WPR’s budget comes from federal CPB funds. 

But WPR’s financial troubles were looming prior to the Republican cuts, with the station facing a budget deficit in recent years. WPR itself reported that the prospect of layoffs was raised almost a year ago and there is a plan to merge WPR with the more financially stable PBS Wisconsin in the works. 

“We’re saddened to say goodbye to these valued colleagues and shows that have been an important part of our recent history,” Sarah Ashworth, WPR director, said in a letter announcing the changes. “This is a difficult decision and WPR must prioritize its capacity to provide what no other media outlet can: unique Wisconsin content from a decidedly Wisconsin point of view. A focus on creating Wisconsin content for Wisconsin audiences is our obligation to — and our richest opportunity for — public service.”

Sen. Tammy Baldwin speaks on the Senate floor on Jan. 6, 2022 | Screenshot of video provided by Baldwin's office Wisconsin Examiner

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin said she’ll “fight tooth and nail” to protect LGBTQ children after the administration of President Donald Trump proposed Wednesday that the national suicide and crisis lifeline would no longer support programs aimed at LGBTQ youth. 

On Wednesday, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) proposed defunding the program within the 988 suicide hotline aimed at LGBTQ children and cutting ties with the Trevor Project, a non-profit LGBTQ mental health organization. 

While the 988 number would still be available, LGBTQ children would no longer be able to request that they be directed to someone specifically trained in the area and with shared experiences. 

A survey conducted last year by the Trevor Project found that 40% of LGBTQ young people considered attempting suicide in the previous year and 12% of LGBTQ young people attempted suicide — both rates are higher than those among non-LGBTQ youth. 

Baldwin wrote the legislation to create the 988 hotline and worked to create an LGBTQ youth pilot program, which was expanded by Congress in 2023. 

Since the hotline’s creation, it has received 1.3 million contacts from LGBTQ people, according to SAMHSA data. 

“I worked hard to stand up a special line for LGBTQ+ youth because we are losing too many of our kids to suicide, and it’s well past time we did something about it,” Baldwin said. “Children facing dark times and even contemplating taking their life often have nowhere else to turn besides this 988 Lifeline, and the Trump Administration is cruelly and needlessly taking that away.” 

The proposal to cut funds for the LGBTQ program comes as the Trump administration has become increasingly hostile to LGBTQ people and as, on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law that prohibits transgender children from receiving gender-affirming treatments. Republicans in Wisconsin and across the country have passed or attempted to pass laws preventing transgender children from participating in sports.

“During Pride Month, a time to celebrate the progress we’ve made, the Trump Administration is taking us a step back and telling LGBTQ+ kids that they don’t matter and don’t deserve help when they are in crisis,” Baldwin said. “This is not the final chapter of this story, and I’ll fight tooth and nail to protect these children. Suicide prevention has been and should continue to be a nonpartisan issue, and I call on my Republican colleagues who have long supported this program to fight for these kids, too. The children and teens who rely on 988 need our help, and it’s our duty to protect this literal lifeline for hundreds of thousands before it’s too late.”

Lambeau Field in Green Bay | Photo by Jason Kerzinski for Wisconsin Examiner

Gov. Tony Evers announced Wednesday that he’s awarding $1.8 million to the city of Green Bay to cover the public safety costs associated with hosting the NFL draft in April. 

The event drew more than 600,000 visitors to the city which, with a population of about 105,000, is the smallest NFL city in the country. Initial estimates say the draft generated $94 million in economic activity across the state and $20 million for the Green Bay area specifically. 

Prior to the draft, a pair of Republican lawmakers had requested that the Republicans in control of the budget writing Joint Finance Committee include $1.25 million in the next state budget to help cover public safety costs. That request has not yet been addressed as Republicans continue to work on delivering a state budget to Evers. 

The money Evers awarded is being disbursed from the Opportunity Attraction and Promotion Fund, a program proposed by Evers in his last state budget proposal to help the state recruit and host large-scale events. The 2023-25 budget included $10 million for the program and Evers had proposed an additional $5 million in his latest budget proposal. 

“The 2025 NFL Draft was a booming success, and I’ve said all along that nobody could have pulled it off other than the Green Bay Packers and the good folks in Green Bay and across the region,” Evers said in a statement. “So, it was critically important to me that Green Bay and our local partners received the support they need to cover public safety costs, and I’m glad we were able to get this done.” 

According to a news release, the grant will also help the village of Ashwaubenon and Brown County cover their costs associated with the event. Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich said the money will keep the burden of the event off city taxpayers. 

“We’re incredibly grateful to Gov. Evers and WEDC for their critical support in covering public safety expenses related to the NFL Draft,” Genrich said. “This was a historic event that brought enormous economic benefits to our community and the entire state of Wisconsin. The allocation of this funding recognizes that positive statewide economic effect and protects our local taxpayers from bearing the costs—a win-win for our state’s and our city’s residents.”

Attorney General Josh Kaul speaks with reporters outside the Wisconsin Supreme Court in February 2023. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision Tuesday that the Legislature’s Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee (JFC) doesn’t have the authority to approve settlement agreements made by the state Department of Justice (DOJ) in certain types of cases. 

The Legislature gave itself that authority as part of the lame duck laws it passed when Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul were elected in 2018, taking powers away from the executive branch offices once they were no longer held by Republicans. A previous challenge to the law giving JFC authority over settlements failed because the Court found there are some cases when the committee does have the authority to control how settlement money is spent. 

In a statement, Kaul said the decision will allow the DOJ to more efficiently do its job. 

“This unanimous ruling finally puts an end to the legislature’s unconstitutional involvement in the resolution of key categories of cases,” he said. “As a result, the Wisconsin Department of Justice will be able to more efficiently resolve the cases that are impacted by this decision, including civil actions enforcing our consumer protection laws and civil actions enforcing our environmental protection laws.” 

This second challenge to the law was filed by Evers and Kaul, arguing that it is unconstitutional for the Legislature to give itself the authority to weigh in on settlements in civil enforcement actions and actions that state agencies request DOJ to pursue. The case was initially brought in Dane County Circuit Court, where a judge sided with Evers and Kaul. The Court of Appeals overturned that ruling and the Supreme Court has reversed the appellate decision. 

These types of cases include the enforcement of environmental, consumer protection, financial regulation and medical assistance laws and lawsuits over the breach of a contract with the state or damage to state property. 

In Tuesday’s decision, authored by Justice Brian Hagedorn, the Supreme Court ruled that these types of cases are “core” executive powers and while the Legislature can pass laws giving the attorney general and DOJ guardrails over how to apply the law, it can’t intervene in the settlement process. 

“Thus, DOJ’s litigation in these categories of cases is, rather straightforwardly, the execution of laws enacted by the Legislature,” Hagedorn wrote. “Just as the pursuit of these claims is unequivocally an executive function, so is the settlement of them. When the Legislature gives authority to the Attorney General to pursue these claims, it necessarily confers discretion on how to pursue the claims to completion, through settlement or otherwise.” 

The Legislature had argued that because the state’s Constitution requires it to account for all “sources of income” to the state so it can determine tax levels, it must have the authority to determine the amount of money awarded to the state in the settlement of a lawsuit. 

Hagedorn wrote that the Legislature has given the attorney general the authority to bring these lawsuits and resolve them as he sees fit, including the amount of money in a settlement. 

“The Legislature’s argument seems to rest on the notion that the Legislature must be able to account ahead of time for how much money will come into the state’s coffers in the upcoming year, and therefore be allowed veto power over settlement agreements in the event its math may be off,” he wrote. “This doesn’t make sense. While undoubtedly the Legislature would be wise to account for all sources of income when determining the amount to tax in the coming year, it does not follow that the Legislature has a constitutional interest in controlling every executive function involving the collection of revenue, or even taxes.” 

“We fail to understand why the power and duty to levy taxes allows the Legislature to control the execution of the law,” he continued. “If the Legislature wishes to know the amount of any settlements, it may prescribe that by law. If it wishes to establish more specific direction regarding settlement revenues, it may do so by law, and it already has in some areas. The Legislature simply has not connected the dots for why the taxing power gives it a constitutional role in litigation involving the receipt of monies into state coffers.” 

Hagedorn added that by this logic the Legislature could insert itself into basically any executive branch function involving money. 

“If the Legislature has a constitutional interest in the execution of the laws every time an executive action involves money, there would be virtually no area where the Legislature could not insert itself into the execution of the law,” he wrote. “The constitution cannot and does not mean that.”

The Legislature also argued that provisions in the settlement of a given lawsuit could have policy implications and, as the law-making branch of government, it should have the authority to determine those aspects of a settlement agreement. But Hagedorn wrote that the executive branch’s duty to enforce the laws the Legislature passes inherently requires the exercise of some discretion and that discretion will undoubtedly have policy impacts. 

“In executing the law, executive branch officials must decide how to effectuate the law’s policies, and those decisions will necessarily have policy implications,” Hagedorn wrote. “The Legislature’s argument that it can step into the shoes of the executive when executive action impacts policy would eviscerate the separation of powers.” 

Exercising the discretion given to the executive branch will have a policy impact, he wrote, and “it is the Legislature that has given this authority and discretion in the first place, including any limitations on how settlements are to be spent. When the Attorney General, therefore, decides where settlement proceeds are to be directed, he is acting within the scope of the authority the Legislature gave him. If the Legislature is dissatisfied with the discretion it left to the Attorney General, it may amend the laws accordingly.”

Thousands of protesters gathered at the Wisconsin State Capitol to protest President Donald Trump on Saturday. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

People across Wisconsin joined “No Kings” day protests held in cities across the U.S. Saturday, with thousands of protesters marching in the streets of Madison and Milwaukee. 

The protests took place on the same day as a military parade held in Washington D.C. on President Donald Trump’s birthday and the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army and in the wake of the Trump administration’s escalated response to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions in Los Angeles. 

‘We will fight joyfully’: Thousands march through downtown Madison to protest Trump 

Thousands of people crowded into downtown Madison Saturday afternoon joining the nationwide “No Kings” protests against the administration of President Donald Trump. 

Protesters waved American flags right side up and upside down (a traditional signal of distress), as well as LGBTQ pride flags, Mexican flags and Ukrainian flags. Signs called for equality, criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement and  compared Trump to dictators of the past. The crowd included trapeze artists, people in drag, Madison protest regulars the “Raging Grannies,” a 15-foot Statue of Liberty puppet and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia). 

The protest started on UW-Madison’s east Campus Mall, where the Women’s March hosted a “kick out the clowns” event. There, Madison resident Amanda G., who declined to give her last name, did hand stands on the grass next to a sign stating “hand stand against facism.” 

“When people engage in a struggle against facism, you need calm, focus and concentration,” she said, adding that those same qualities  are required for holding a hand stand as long as she could. 

A nearby group of protesters performed a skit featuring giant paper mache heads of Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin debating how to start a dictatorship before they were surrounded by about 15 dancers dressed like the Statue of Liberty. 

When  the protesters began marching from the campus toward the Capitol,  hundreds of people were still flowing in the opposite direction  down State Street.  The combined crowd came together and headed  up the street towards the Capitol as onlookers cheered from the sidewalks. 

Madison police observed the marchers as they gathered at the Capitol from a rooftop across the street.

Cindy Reilly, a Sun Prairie resident who had joined the crowd on the mall, watched and chanted from the patio of a State Street bar. Reilly said the budget bill currently being moved through Congress by Republicans was her biggest reason for protesting on Saturday, saying Republicans are defunding programs that help people who are struggling while funding rich people.

“It’s important for people to tell Trump and Republicans we don’t like what they’re doing,” she said. 

When the crowd reached the Capitol square, Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, emceed a series of performances and speeches.

“We will fight joyfully, we will fight peacefully, in these streets for our democracy” Ramos said.

Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, who was in Wisconsin to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s annual convention in the Wisconsin Dells this weekend, spoke from the protest stage and  highlighted the assassination of a Minnesota Democratic lawmaker Saturday morning, the deployment of U.S. troops against protesters in Los Angeles and the detainment of U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) at a Department of Homeland Security press conference this week. 

Warnock said that he often talks about the value of nonviolent protests, but it’s not protesters who are being violent. 

“I have said that to the activists,” Warnock said. “But somebody needs to say that to the Trump administration.” 

Throughout the first six months of the Trump administration, people have regularly called for more forceful opposition from elected Democrats. Warnock acknowledged those calls, while saying it will take work from people inside and outside the halls of power to fight Trump’s unpopular policies. 

“People like you are asking people in positions like mine to speak up,” Warnock said. “I’m going to do that, but we must work on the outside and the inside.” 

Protests wrap around multiple city blocks in Milwaukee 

More than  12,000 people  marched in the No Kings Day protest in Milwaukee, packing  Cathedral Square Saturday afternoon. Elderly people and military veterans, parents with young children and Milwaukee residents of all ages  turned out to denounce what some event speakers described as a fascist and authoritarian Trump administration. 

Most of the crowd gathered on  the grass at the center of the square in front of  a large stage while others stood off to the side in the shade. Law enforcement kept a low key profile during the protest, helping direct traffic and watching from rooftops. Several drones flew over the crowd throughout the protest, including some which legal observers believed were operated by law enforcement due to their size, complexity and because they seemed to land on the rooftops occupied by police.

For nearly an hour, the crowd listened to a procession of speakers including  local activists, community organizers and a retired U.S. attorney. Speakers expressed the grievances of the chanting, cheering crowd about the military parade being held in Washington, D.C.,  the deployment of active duty U.S.troops on American soil, immigration raids  and attacks on the judicial system including the arrest of Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan, as well as threatened cuts to reproductive and gender affirming health care, attacks on workers rights, and the ongoing mass slaughter of civilians in Gaza. The crowd observed a moment of silence for Minnesota Democratic legislative leader Melissa Hortman who was the victim of a targeted assassination Saturday in what appeared to be a politically motivated attack.  

The protest march proceeded  east towards Lake Michigan and  past Museum Center Park, winding back into the downtown area to pass the federal courthouse, and restaurant-lined streets before returning to Cathedral Square. 

The march stretched for several city blocks. There was no evidence of property destruction or clashes with police , and counter protesters were nowhere in sight. 

This article has been edited to correct the first name of Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Rep. Tony Kurtz testifies on his proposed legislation to reauthorize the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Grant program. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Organizations representing wildlife, land conservation and local governments testified Wednesday at a public hearing to push for the passage of a Republican bill to reauthorize the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Grant program while advocating for a number of amendments to the bill’s text. 

The proposal’s authors, Rep. Tony Kurtz (R-Wonewoc) and Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point), say the current version of the bill is a starting point for negotiations. Without a deal, the 35-year-old program will lapse despite its popularity among voters. 

The challenge for legislators is that despite overwhelming public support for land conservation, a subset of the Republican members of the Legislature have grown opposed to the grant program. In their view, the grant program allows land to be taken off the local property tax roll and blocks  commercial development. 

That opposition has grown stronger since the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in a 6-1 decision last year that the Legislature’s Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee’s authority to place anonymous holds on stewardship grant projects is unconstitutional. 

Kurtz has said that without returning some level of legislative oversight, the Republican opposition to the program won’t get on board with reauthorizing it. But the bill also needs to be palatable to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers so that he will sign it and any Republican opposition to the bill could make the votes of Democratic legislators more important. 

In an effort to recruit  Republican holdouts, the bill includes a provision that requires the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to submit a list to the Legislature each January of any major land acquisitions costing more than $1 million the department plans to purchase with stewardship funds that year. The Legislature would then need to approve each proposed project in a piece of legislation and provide the required appropriation. 

To gain the support of environmental groups, the bill allows stewardship dollars to be used for the first time to fund habitat restoration projects. 

Following a recent trend of Republican-authored legislation, the bill separates the policy changes to the program from the budget appropriation to fund it in an attempt to sidestep Evers’ partial veto pen. 

Charles Carlin, the director of strategic initiatives at non-profit land trust organization Gathering Waters, said in his testimony at the hearing Wednesday that the bill’s authors had to “try and thread a challenging political path towards reauthorization.” 

At the hearing, testifying members of the public mainly highlighted two areas for improvement on the bill — clarifying how the DNR should prioritize habitat restoration, facility upkeep and land acquisition in award grants and more clearly laying out how the legislative approval process for major land acquisitions will work. 

As currently written, the bill would require the DNR to prioritize property development over land acquisition projects. 

Brian Vigue, freshwater policy director for Audubon Great Lakes, said those types of grants are so different that they should be considered separately. 

“Because habitat management projects are so different from land acquisition projects, it really will make it difficult for the DNR to determine which of the two types of grant applications would have priority over the other,” he said. “It’s kind of an apples to oranges comparison to make so I think a practical solution to this challenge is to create a separate appropriation for wildlife habitat grants.” 

A number of organizations testifying called for more direct language outlining how the legislative oversight process will work, such as binding timelines for when the Legislature must consider the projects on the DNR list, clear guidelines for how projects will be evaluated and quickly held votes on project approval. 

Representatives of organizations that work to purchase private land and conserve it through conservation easements or deals with the state said that the opportunities to purchase a piece of land and save it for future enjoyment by the broader public come rarely and that those real estate transactions can often be complicated and take a long time. If a deal is largely in place except for the required legislative approval — which could potentially take years or never even come up for a vote — landowners might be unwilling to participate in the process. 

“Opportunities to provide such access sometimes only come once in a generation,” said Tony Abate, conservation director at Groundswell Conservancy, a non-profit aimed at conserving land in south central Wisconsin. “We are concerned with the funding threshold and the logistics of the proposed major land acquisition program. Real estate near population centers is expensive, and we often compete with non-conservation buyers to secure farmland or recreational lands.”

Abate said that of the conservancy’s 16 current projects, four would surpass the $1 million threshold and require legislative approval. He suggested raising the threshold to $5 million.

Carlin, with Gathering Waters, said the provision as currently written could indefinitely delay projects. 

“We appreciate legislators’ concerns with oversight, and we welcome discussion about how to provide effective and efficient oversight,” he said. “Unfortunately, the current proposal lacks defined timelines, transparent evaluation processes or mechanisms to require timely votes. Without these elements, worthy conservation projects could languish indefinitely. So we would ask that any review process include binding timelines, transparent project evaluation and timely votes to ensure strong oversight while maintaining predictability for applicants.”

At the hearing, members of the committee asked few questions of the testifying groups and members of the public. Democrats on the committee pushed more than once to make sure they see the partner bill providing the money for the program before voting on the policy changes. 

All of the testimony at the hearing Wednesday was either to provide information only to the legislators or in favor of the bill. The committee received one written comment against the bill’s passage, from the Wisconsin Bear Hunters’ Association.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on May 30, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign is suing billionaire Elon Musk over allegations that he violated multiple state laws, including the election bribery statute, when he offered voters a potential $1 million award for signing a petition as part of his effort to sway the result of Wisconsin’s April Supreme Court election. 

Represented by Wisconsin’s Law Forward, Democracy Defenders Fund and New York-based law firm Hecker Fink, the lawsuit accuses the world’s richest man of implementing “a brazen scheme to bribe Wisconsin citizens to vote.” 

Musk and his political action committee, America PAC, played a major role in this spring’s election becoming the most expensive judicial campaign in American history. Musk’s involvement in the race, which came as he was leading President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting initiatives and firing thousands of federal employees through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), was widely seen as causing a backlash and helping Dane County Judge Susan Crawford defeat Musk-backed Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel. 

Musk and his PAC spent more than $20 million on the race. 

Prior to the election, America PAC offered voters $100 if they signed a petition “in opposition to activist judges,” and another $100 if they referred another voter to sign the petition. Later, at a pre-election rally in Green Bay, Musk handed out two $1 million checks to voters, which had been advertised as awards “in appreciation for you taking the time to vote.” 

The lawsuit, filed in Dane County court, notes it is against the law to offer anyone more than $1 to induce them to go to the polls, vote or vote for a particular candidate. 

“By offering and paying Wisconsin citizens amounts far greater than $1 to vote, Defendants violated Wisconsin’s election bribery law,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants’ payments and offers of payment to Wisconsin voters, made with the clear intent to aid one candidate and induce Wisconsinites to vote, threatened the integrity of the election and damaged public confidence in the electoral system.”

Jeff Mandell, Law Forward’s general counsel, said the lawsuit was meant to prevent efforts like Musk’s from becoming a regular occurrence. 

“We are fighting for free and fair elections,” Mandell said. “We believe our democracy demands better than schemes like the one detailed in our complaint. So, we are working to hold Musk accountable and stop this from becoming the new normal.”

Republicans on the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee rejected a funding request from the City of Ashland to build a new boat launch at Kreher Park. (City of Ashland)

A pair of Republican lawmakers has introduced legislation that would re-authorize the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Grant program, a popular program that allows the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to fund the purchase of public land and the upkeep of recreational areas. 

The decades-old program is set to expire next year and despite its bipartisan support among the state’s voters, a subset of Republicans in the Legislature — largely from the northern part of the state — have become increasingly opposed to the program due to concerns that it stops land from being developed for commercial activities. 

Until a 6-1 decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court last summer, members of the Legislature’s powerful Joint Finance Committee had the ability to place anonymous holds on proposed grants through the program, which resulted in many projects being delayed or prevented altogether. Without that ability, Republicans who were already wary of the program became more opposed because of what they characterize as a lack of legislative oversight. Proponents of the program say the Legislature exercises oversight through the budget writing process when it allocates funding for the program. 

In recent years, the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship program has received $33 million annually in the state budget. In his budget request this year, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers proposed re-authorizing the program with a $100 million annual budget. Republicans stripped that provision out of the budget along with most of Evers’ other proposals. 

Last week, Rep. Tony Kurtz (R-Wonewoc) and Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point) introduced a bill that would keep the program alive with $28 million in annual funding. The bill would also create a major land acquisitions program for stewardship grant awards which would require the DNR to annually submit a list of all its proposed land acquisitions costing more than $1 million for that year. 

Those acquisitions would need to be approved by votes of the full Legislature. 

Additionally, the bill would create a sub-program to use stewardship grant funds for habitat restoration projects, require the DNR to prioritize projects that develop already existing public lands over new land acquisition, require local governments to match 20% of the state funding, get rid of the current 10-acre minimum size requirement and limit the state’s contribution to 40% of the total cost if the sale of a piece of land is already closed when stewardship funds are applied for. 

In a co-sponsorship memo, Kurtz and Testin, who did not respond to requests for an interview about the bill, said the initial proposal is meant to be the start of negotiations, not the final version of the bill. 

“It’s important to note what we’re proposing is not an agreed upon deal,” the memo states. “It’s a first offer to provide a starting place for negotiations on this important program. It’s very likely the bill will continue to change during the legislative process, but it’s important to put something forward to allow feedback, have open-minded conversations and ultimately find a good place to ensure the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program’s legacy continues.” 

At a meeting with the Wisconsin chapter of the Audubon Society in April, Kurtz said the program was on “life support” and he was trying to save it from dying but any bill would need to put some oversight on the DNR in order to receive enough Republican support. 

The opposition to the stewardship program from a subset of the Republican caucus in both chambers means the bill might require Democratic votes to pass the Legislature and reach Evers’ desk. 

Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin (D-Whitefish Bay) has spent months pushing for the program’s reauthorization – often pointing to a stewardship grant project in her district that was subjected to an anonymous hold, the Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs on Lake Michigan. She said the hold on that project angered a lot of her constituents of both parties. 

“That really got people upset,” she told the Wisconsin Examiner. “People would not at all want to see a reenactment in any fashion of that anonymous objection process.” 

Habush Sinykin said that she’s closely watching the bill to make sure it protects a program that enjoys wide support outside of the Capitol building and will stir up significant opposition if it’s allowed to die. 

“Once people understand that this program is at risk, they are coming forward to express their opposition to any permanent damage to the program,” she said. “And so what we are engaged in right now is this process to keep it going forward, and there is going to be ongoing negotiation, because the devil is in the details. We need to make sure that what is one step forward will not ultimately be two steps backward.” 

Charles Carlin, director of strategic initiatives for Gathering Waters, a non-profit aimed at land conservation across Wisconsin, said that Kurtz and Testin should be credited for working to get the conversation started and provisions in the bill like the habitat restoration program. But he added that there are still a lot of questions about how provisions such as the requirement for legislative approval will work. 

“I think part of what they are trying to balance here is a recognition that this is an incredibly popular program with voters, while trying to balance that against the fact that there are a handful of legislators who are deeply skeptical of the DNR and deeply skeptical of additional investments in conservation,” he said. “So I see that major land acquisitions component as a way for them to try and balance those competing interests. The way that that major land acquisitions program is currently described in the bill just leaves a lot of question marks.”  

The bill is set to receive a public hearing in the Assembly Committee on Forestry, Parks and Outdoor Recreation Wednesday at 11 a.m.

Protesters gather outside of the Milwaukee FBI office to speak out against the arrest of Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Prosecutors for the Trump administration filed a brief Monday requesting that a federal judge not dismiss the government’s indictment against Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan. 

Dugan faces criminal charges after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, along with agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency and FBI, arrived in the Milwaukee County Courthouse April 18 to arrest 31-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz for being in the country illegally. 

Flores-Ruiz was set to appear in Dugan’s courtroom that day for a status hearing on misdemeanor charges against him. When Dugan learned that the agents were outside her courtroom, she confronted them and learned they only had an administrative warrant, which was issued by an agency official and not a judge. An administrative warrant doesn’t allow agents to enter private spaces in the courthouse such as Dugan’s courtroom. 

Later, while the agents were waiting for Flores-Ruiz in the hallway outside the main courtroom door, Dugan sent him and his attorney out a side door into the hallway. One of the agents rode down the elevator with Flores-Ruiz and he was later arrested on the street.

Dugan-DOJ-Filing

Dugan was charged with concealing an individual to prevent arrest, a misdemeanor, and obstruction, which is a felony. Last month, Dugan’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case against her, arguing she was acting in her official capacity as a judge and therefore immune from prosecution for her actions and that the federal government is impinging on the state of Wisconsin’s authority to operate its court system. 

The case drew national attention, with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel both making public statements about Dugan’s arrest before she’d even been indicted. Legal experts have questioned the strength of the federal government’s case and accused Trump officials of grandstanding to make a political point. 

In the Monday filing, federal prosecutors argued that dismissing the case would ignore previously established law that allows judges to face criminal charges. 

“Such a ruling would give state court judges carte blanche to interfere with valid law enforcement actions by federal agents in public hallways of a courthouse, and perhaps even beyond,” the prosecutors argued. “Dugan’s desired ruling would, in essence, say that judges are ‘above the law,’ and uniquely entitled to interfere with federal law enforcement.”

Dugan is set to appear for trial on July 21.

The Menomonee Falls village board voted to cut the library budget by $300,000 last month. (Menomonee Falls Public Library)

Menomonee Falls residents are concerned about the future of their public library after the village board voted late last month to move $300,000 from the library’s 2026 budget to the police department. 

Board members said the May 19 move, which passed in a unanimous 6-0 vote, was intended to help the police increase staffing in response to an uptick in crime. Critics of the decision said the move is likely to force the library to cut back on staff, hours and programming — potentially putting its certification from Waukesha County at risk. 

The resolution, which was passed months before the board begins working on writing the village’s 2026 budget, also comes as libraries across the country are about to be hit by funding cuts from the federal government as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to slash federal spending. 

This year, the library’s budget was set at about $2.3 million, making the $300,000 cut about 15% of the library’s total budget. The cut is larger than the $225,000 the library was budgeted to spend on purchasing new materials this year. The police department’s 2025 budget is more than $12 million. 

“If village board members are so obsessed with firing librarians, just say so and be transparent with the community, because that is the impact of stealing 20% of the library’s funds,” Ian Dickmann, a community resident and former member of the library board, said at the board meeting. “You will be firing multiple librarians, cutting library hours and negatively impacting library programs, materials and services. The community has spoken in support of the library on multiple occasions. Yet here we are again. If you as a village board cannot manage to properly fund the police and the library, then you have failed as a board.” 

Menomonee Falls Police data shows that crime has increased slightly this year, and through retirements, resignations and leaves, the department currently has fewer than the 65 sworn officers in its budget. Police Chief Mark Waters said at a board meeting in April that the department was working with 54 fully trained officers. 

At that meeting, Waters said that this year, class A offenses, which include more serious crimes such as assaults, robberies and drug offenses, are up 18% compared to the first quarter of 2024. However, much of that increase is due to a 41% increase in drug offenses, of which Waters said the vast majority was “a lot of marijuana taken out of traffic stops.” 

As of April, there had been 41 thefts in Menomonee Falls this year, according to police data, an increase of six incidents from the first quarter last year. The clearance rate, the percentage of crimes that are solved, on those thefts was 51%.

Menomonee Falls Assistant Police Chief Gary Neyhart said in an email that the department has had problems  with staffing, but that budget decisions are up to the board. 

“Chief Mark Waters provides public quarterly updates to the Village Board and a consistent message has been that staffing has been an issue here at the police department,” Neyhart said. “The Village Board then determines how best to address these stated staffing concerns. I also cannot speak on their behalf. I don’t believe we are alone with our staffing issues and that many area departments are in a similar situation as well as dealing with retention and recruitment. We will always strive to provide the highest level of service that our staffing allows.”

Board member Paul Tadda, said at the May meeting that the resolution to cut the library budget was made to maintain the level of police services a suburban community expects. 

“We’re down to 52 fully trained officers. That requires forced overtime to maintain shifts are full and able to respond to emergencies as necessary and provide police services that the village has been accustomed to,” he said. “I do not want to live in Milwaukee.” 

Andy Guss, co-leader of the community group Grassroots Menomonee Falls, told the Wisconsin Examiner he is used to Tadda’s “racist dog whistles,” and that he is more concerned about the library’s ability to remain certified and serve as an important resource for village residents. 

In Wisconsin, counties set a tax levy for library services. Those funds are distributed to municipal libraries to compensate for the use of services by people who live in communities without a library. Municipal residents are exempted from paying the library tax if they live in a community that has a library which meets standards set by the state and county board. 

The Waukesha County standards require the village to provide at least $1,630,000 in the annual library budget, be open at least 60 hours a week, employee at least 17.61 full time employees, have a collection size of at least 125,400 materials, have at least 20 public computers and provide wireless internet access. 

Guss says he’s worried the cuts will put the library dangerously close to not meeting the standards. 

“We’re going to be really close to not hitting the Waukesha County standards,” he says. “And I’m fearful of what will happen if we also lose additional funding from the federal government, because then how short will we be? How many people, how many librarians will we have to fire? How many services will we have to cut? How many books do we not get, how much new material can we not get? How many computers? It’s scary to think about, because it limits access to people that need it. Because I don’t go to the library all the time for books, I use the library for a lot of other things, like book clubs or meeting spaces. What happens to that when the hours are reduced?” 

But at the meeting, board members brushed aside concerns community members raised about the standards. Board member Ann Lessila said in an email to the Examiner that the library won’t suffer.

“By reallocating funds ahead of the budget process, we have allowed the library board extra time to prepare,” Lessila said. “The library has been funded well over the required amount every year, without having to make any significant adjustments. The library remains well funded! Just about every other department has made significant adjustments over the years.” 

Steve Heser, a Menomonee Falls resident and the director of the Milwaukee County Federated Library System, said he highly doubts claims that residents won’t see any impacts from the cuts and that one community library failing to meet the county standards strains the whole county system — which in this case is the Bridges Library System covering all the libraries in Jefferson and Waukesha counties. 

“What you really don’t want in a system is one library failing to meet those standards, and then they’re kind of relying on the other municipalities to foot the bill for their library,” Heser said. 

Aside from the county standards, Guss said he’s also worried about the village board diminishing a community gathering space, especially for kids and teenagers who have already had recreational opportunities taken away. 

In March, the board voted to ban any children over the age of 12 from hanging out unaccompanied at Menomonee Falls Village Park, which is across the street from North Middle School. Village officials said the move was meant to deter vandalism. 

“They’ve got the playground across the street. They ban the 12-year-olds so they can’t go there,” Guss said. “But we do have at the library, they have a teen room that is well managed. I know it’s well attended, but I would assume that, based on these cuts, that they’re going to lower hours, lower staff, and maybe we would even lose the teen room.” 

The Menomonee Falls Village Manager Mark Fitzgerald and six of the village board members did not respond to requests for comment.

The Progress Pride Flag flies over the Wisconsin Capitol. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

For the seventh time, Gov. Tony Evers ordered the Progress Pride Flag to fly over the Wisconsin State Capitol for LGBTQ Pride Month. 

This year, Pride Month begins on the 10th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which gave same-sex couples the right to get married in 2015. But Evers’ celebration of LGBTQ pride is occuring as the administration of President Donald Trump attacks the rights of transgender people and a recent Gallup poll found that Republican acceptance of same-sex marriage has fallen to its lowest level in nine years. 

“When the Pride Flag flies above the People’s House, it sends a clear and unequivocal message that Wisconsin recognizes and celebrates LGBTQ Wisconsinites and Americans,” Evers said in a statement. “Every day, but especially today and this month, we reaffirm our commitment to striving to be a place where every LGBTQ kid, person, and family can be bold in their truth and be safe, treated with dignity and respect, and welcomed without fear of persecution, judgment, or discrimination. I promised long ago that, as governor, I would always fight to protect LGBTQ Wisconsinites with every tool and every power that I have. I will never stop keeping that promise.”

In the executive order Evers signed Friday, he notes that the LGBTQ has been under attack in recent years, including in Wisconsin where Republicans have tried more than once to pass legislation attacking transgender children.

“Despite historic victories, in the last several years, there has been a significant increase in anti-LGBTQ legislation introduced in state Legislatures across the country, including in Wisconsin, that have targeted LGBTQ kids and people and increased dangerous anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, as well as efforts on a state and national level to erase LGBTQ history and stories.” 

The Progress Pride Flag flying above the Capitol includes the recognizable LGBTQ rainbow colors and a chevron of additional stripes that represent LGBTQ people of color, the transgender community and people with HIV/AIDS.

Shawano County was included on a Department of Homeland Security list of jurisdictions "defying federal immigration law"

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security listed Shawano County along with Dane County, Madison and Milwaukee as Wisconsin jurisdictions “defying immigration law” on Thursday. 

The department released the list as part of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump requiring that sanctuary jurisdictions across the country be listed. 

“Sanctuary jurisdictions including cities, counties, and states that are deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws endangering American communities,” the DHS announcement states. “Sanctuary cities protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences and put law enforcement in peril.” 

Dane County, Madison and Milwaukee have enacted policies that limit local law enforcement agencies’ collaboration with federal immigration authorities. Earlier this year, Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett announced that the county would no longer participate in a program that provides funding in exchange for telling federal agencies when an immigrant without legal status is in custody in the local jail. Milwaukee also refuses to share such information. 

“DHS demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens,” DHS stated.

But Shawano County, which Trump won with 67% of its vote last year, is a Republican Party stronghold that appears out of place on the list. The DHS announcement states that “no one should act on this information without conducting their own evaluation of the information.” 

In 2021, the Shawano County board voted to declare the county a “Second Amendment sanctuary county,” which declared the county sheriff would not enforce any laws which “unconstitutionally impedes our fundamental Second Amendment right to Keep and Bear Arms.” 

The Shawano County administrator and sheriff did not respond to requests for comment.

UW-Madison Engineering Hall. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that international students with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in “critical fields” could have their visas revoked. Rubio didn’t define what those critical fields would be and also provided little detail when he said that the State Department would “enhance scrutiny” on new student visa applications.

The administration has also said it plans to increase the vetting of visa applicants’ social media accounts. The announcement that the administration would be revoking the visas of Chinese students came the same day the State Department announced it had paused scheduling appointments for visa applicants. 

UW-Madison had 3,414 international students from China this spring semester. In recent years, the university has worked to expand its international student body, aiming to increase the international population from 4% to 8% by 2028. The acceptance of international students helps the university increase revenue as state aid has remained flat and inflation has increased costs because international students pay an average of four times the amount of tuition as in-state students. 

The university said Thursday it is monitoring the situation. 

“We are deeply concerned about the impact of such a policy on our Chinese student community,” the university said. 

In a message to its international students, the university advised them to attend visa appointments that are already scheduled and inform university staff if an appointment is canceled. The message also told the students to schedule appointments as quickly as possible once the pause on scheduling is lifted and to enroll in classes for the fall. 

These moves are the latest in the Trump administration’s efforts to attack international student visas. Earlier this spring, the administration deleted visa records for some students over minor traffic infractions and encounters with law enforcement. That effort temporarily canceled the visas of more than two dozen students and alumni at UW schools across the state. 

The Trump administration rolled back that decision and reinstated the visas after a federal judge ruled in favor of a number of students who sued to stop the revocation.

USGS staff install a microsampler in a Milwaukee creek. (Photo by Peter C. Van Metre/USGS)

A field office of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Rice Lake that serves as part of an expansive national network monitoring water data is set to close next year as part of a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort to terminate the leases of the agency’s offices. 

The Rice Lake office and an office in Mounds View, Minn., are both operated by the USGS Upper Midwest Water Science Center. They are among the more than two dozen offices across the country DOGE has targeted for closure, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. 

USGS staff and environmental policy workers across Wisconsin say closing  the office in Rice Lake could harm the quality and quantity of the data available in the state — making it harder for local, county and state governments, as well as private citizens and businesses, to make plans and policies in a region that will be at more risk of both drought and extreme weather events as climate change intensifies. 

The USGS water science centers operate thousands of streamgages across the country, gathering data on stream flows and water quality. That data can be used to help design plans for infrastructure such as bridges and dams; inform research on pollutants such as nitrates and pesticides; help farmers set irrigation plans during droughts; give homeowners information on flood plains and support recreational industries such as whitewater rafting. 

“The Rice Lake office is just a very important but small piece of what they do, and what they do is so fundamental to what so many other people are trying to do across so many sectors in the state of Wisconsin,” says Erin O’Brien, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Wetlands Association. “They support state agencies and local communities and others doing not just land and water conservation work, but development and transportation planning and all these other sectors.” 

The agency has been operating streamgages in the United States since the 1880s. One of the first 120 gages the agency installed was in Wisconsin in 1899, according to USGS data. That longevity gives scientists an essential resource for tracking Wisconsin’s bodies of water. It’s easier to understand the effect of a 100-year flood when you’re working with more than a century of data. 

Each individual streamgage increases the value of the entire network, and every additional year of data further improves the data. Many practical uses of the data to understand how rivers and watersheds are functioning require 20 years of measurements, according to a 2021 report on the USGS streamgage network by the Congressional Research Service. 

At a field office such as the one in Rice Lake, the staff is responsible for maintaining and repairing the gages. The risk of closing an office is that the staff won’t be close enough to do that work, resulting in lower quality data, according to Paul LaLiberte, who serves as the chair of Wisconsin Green Fire’s Environmental Rules and Water Resources Work Group. LaLiberte worked on water quality issues for 36 years at the state Department of Natural Resources. 

“This flow data is continually recording, and [the field offices are] the ones that install the equipment, maintain the equipment, and, importantly, go out and calibrate it on a schedule and even in response to events,” says LaLiberte, who worked with staff in the Rice Lake office when he was based in Eau Claire with the DNR. 

“By closing the field offices, that’s going to make it a whole lot harder to do this calibration and maintenance and even run as many stations as they do,” he said. “The consequences will probably be some combination of dropping some stations or having the data be less accurate, because due to travel times, they just can’t send the crews out there to recalibrate the stations. So if the data is less accurate, then the predictions are going to be less accurate, and the infrastructure designs associated with that are going to be less accurate.”

One USGS staff member who works outside of Wisconsin, granted anonymity because agency employees have not been authorized to speak to the media, says staff members across the country weren’t aware their offices were being shut down until the General Services Administration told their landlords the leases would not be renewed. 

The staffer says the terminations are “shocking” because these offices are filled with lab equipment that is difficult to move and there are still not yet plans for alternatives. The result is that the data won’t be collected. 

“I guess maybe this is apparent, but leaving these leases was not a strategy for efficiency,” the staffer says. “There’s no plan in place to leave these facilities and find other alternatives. And it’s a huge effort to now create a plan to find alternatives for these facilities when you know these facilities are in full use, and we don’t see any other options. We will not be able to collect the data that we need to fulfill our mission, because we will be reassigning resources to deal with moving that we don’t have.” 

A USGS spokesperson said in a statement the terminated leases will not harm the agency’s mission. 

“USGS remains committed to its congressional mandate as the science arm of the Department of the Interior,” the spokesperson said. “We are actively working with GSA to ensure that every facility and asset is utilized effectively, and where necessary, identifying alternative solutions that strengthen our mission. These efforts reflect our broader commitment to streamlining government operations while ensuring that scientific endeavors remain strong, effective, and impactful. This process is ongoing, and we will provide updates as more information becomes available.”

The Rice Lake office’s lease is set to end July 31, 2026.