Last month, same-sex marriage was both celebrated and condemned on a national scale. Pastors from Madison and Manitowoc County shared their personal stories and reaction to recent news.
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Advocates, Gov. Tony Evers and Republican lawmakers have conflicting views about the Department of Corrections funding in the 2025-27 state budget. (Photo by Caspar Benson/Getty Images)
For criminal justice advocates in Wisconsin, the new state budget leaves much to be desired. Although the $111 billion two-year budget signed by Gov. Tony Evers earlier this month will help eventually close the beleaguered Lincoln Hills juvenile prison, some feel that it missed opportunities to reform the state’s justice system.
“Wisconsin’s elected officials, including Gov. Evers and state legislators, have once again failed to take meaningful action to overhaul the state’s broken and inhumane carceral system,” Mark Rice, statewide coordinator for WISDOM’s Transformative Justice Campaign, wrote in a statement released July 11. “The recently passed state budget ignores the deep harm caused by mass incarceration and falls far short of what is needed to address the humanitarian crisis unfolding inside Wisconsin’s prisons.”
Evers’ original budget proposal released in February contained a number of proposals that were removed or reduced by the Legislature’s Republican-led Joint Finance Committee, including $8.9 million to support alternatives to revocation. Another pitch by Evers for $4 million to fund community reentry centers was cut in half by Joint Finance. His proposed $3.19 million in supportive housing service beds for people under DOC supervision was removed. Over $1 million in funding for six positions on the DOC’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance team was also removed by JFC.
Evers proposed a total increase of $519 million to the Department of Corrections budget over the next two years. The final budget deal instead increased the DOC budget by $461 million over the two-year period.
The budget’s capital projects plan, passed by the Legislature and signed by Evers, allocated $225 million to the Department of Corrections (DOC), as well as another $15 million towards construction planning for facilities, with the goal of closing the Green Bay Correctional Institution by 2029.
Evers used his partial veto to strike the 2029 deadline for closing Green Bay. “We need more compromise on that,” said Evers, who added that he supports closing the prison, one of Wisconsin’s oldest, but called the timeline unrealistic: “Saying we’re going to do Green Bay by ‘29 doesn’t mean a damn thing.” In his veto message, Evers said that he objected to the Legislature “assigning a date” to close the Green Bay prison “while providing virtually no real, meaningful, or concrete plan to do so.”
“I support closing Green Bay Correctional Institution,” Evers wrote. “Indeed, my administration spent years working on a comprehensive corrections reform plan to be able to close Green Bay Correctional Institution quickly, safely, and cost efficiently, which was included in the biennial budget I introduced months ago. I proposed a ‘domino’ series of facility changes, improvements, and modernization efforts across Wisconsin’s correctional institutions while improving public safety by expanding workforce training opportunities to reduce the likelihood that people might reoffend after they are released. Under that plan, Green Bay Correctional Institution would be closed in 2029. Instead, the Legislature sent this budget with the same deadline and no plan of which to speak.”
Lincoln Hills, Wisconsin’s notoriously troubled juvenile prison, which still houses 79 boys according to the DOC’s most recent population report, blew years past its own closure deadline. Now, the budget provides $130.7 million to build a new Type 1 juvenile facility in Dane County to help facilitate the closure of Lincoln Hills. Plans for a second Type 1 facility in Milwaukee County ran into roadblocks from local resistance and political disagreements in the Capitol, though the facility’s completion is still planned.
Green Bay’s prison was originally built in 1898. Plaques embedded in its outer wall commemorate that the wall was “erected by inmates” in 1921. Over 1,100 people are incarcerated in the prison, which is designed to hold only 749, according to the DOC’s most recent weekly population report. In late June, prison reform advocates from JOSHUA, a local affiliate of WISDOM, held a monthly vigil and prayer service outside the prison, where people are held in “disciplinary separation” for the longest periods in any of DOC’s adult facilities. Protesters included people whose loved ones have died inside the prison, some by suicide due to a lack of mental health support. In late August, 19-year-old Michah Laureano died in the prison after he was attacked by his cell mate.
Although the budget aims to close Green Bay, how that will be accomplished remains hazy. Rice wrote that the budget “includes no plan” to close the prison, “despite overwhelming evidence that the facility is beyond repair.” Instead, Rice wrote in a statement that “some legislators continue to push for more studies and planning tactics that will only delay justice while people continue to suffer and die behind bars. This is unacceptable.”
That sentiment was echoed by the Ladies of SCI, an advocacy group formed by women with loved ones at the Stanley Correctional Institution. Although the group appreciated that closing Green Bay was part of the budget discussion, “we also agree that does not mean much without funding an actual plan,” the group wrote in an email to Wisconsin Examiner. “The [Joint Finance Committee] committed that the plan presented by [DOC] Secretary [Jared] Hoy’s team in the Governor’s initial budget was ‘just an idea’ and yet, the JFC also just put an ‘idea’ in the budget. Yes, they put in dollars for a plan to be developed, but this has already been done several times over.”
Studies for closing Green Bay, Waupun, and other old and blighted facilities have been recommended as far back as 1965, Ladies of SCI wrote in the statement. “Here we are, 60 years later, STILL discussing it. The most recent study was done in 2020 and called out almost $1 billion in projects to increase capacity across our facilities to just handle that population level…We are well above that population level today.”
The group asks, “Is $15 million actually enough to finally get tangible actions to deal with our Corrections crisis? We’d like to know what the magic combination of dollars and opinions are needed to finally address issues that have been identified over and over.” Ladies of SCI said “setting aside money for yet another study and plan development is rinse and repeat of history…The bottom line is our state’s prison population is too big for what we currently have.”
Rice concurred, writing in his own statement that prisons like Green Bay, Waupun (the state’s oldest prison where multiple deaths have occurred in recent years), and the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (MSDF) “are notorious for inhumane conditions and should have been shut down years ago.” Rice added that “there is no justification for continuing to pour hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into maintaining or expanding a failed prison system.”
Instead, he believes that the state should commit to reducing the prison population by expanding treatment alternatives to incarceration, commuting “excessive and unjust sentences,” granting “fair access to parole and early release,” and stopping the practice of locking people up for “technical or convictionless revocations.”
When Evers wrote his message vetoing the deadline for closing Green Bay, there were 362 people working at the prison and more than 1,100 incarcerated adults. “As of this writing, Wisconsin has the capacity to house 17,638 individuals at its correctional institutions but there are 23,275 people living in [DOC] institutions across Wisconsin;” Evers wrote, “the Legislature provides no steps whatsoever to stabilize the state’s skyrocketing prison population.”
Referring to the saga of Lincoln Hills, Evers added, “Wisconsin already has about a decade’s worth of painful experience learning how well it works in practice to set unrealistic, artificial timelines and due dates for closing prison facilities without a complete and thorough plan for implementation. It would be foolish and dangerous to attempt to take a similar approach with a maximum-security institution like Green Bay Correctional Institution.”
Just over one-third of the 2,727 new prison admissions statewide between January and April were people sent back to prison for issues like violating the rules of community supervision, and without a new crime committed or sentence issued, according to the DOC’s dashboard. Over the same period of time, there were more than 63,435 people on community supervision, probation, or parole.
Sean Wilson, senior director of organizing and partnerships at Dream.org, criticized the cuts to proposals to expand alternatives to incarceration, “clean-slate” legislation and expungement reforms that were left out of the final budget deal. “I think that there continues to be a lack of re-entry investments, which should be pretty high on the list,” Wilson told Wisconsin Examiner. For years, criminal justice advocates have pushed for support for housing, access to mental health care and jobs, “those things were not included in the budget.”
With less than 3,000 people housed between Green Bay, Waupun, and MSDF, Rice feels that “these prisons could be emptied and closed within months” and that “doing so would not only alleviate human suffering but it would also free up critical resources” which “must be reinvested in the communities most harmed by incarceration.” From providing living-wage jobs and stable housing to creating educational opportunities and violence prevention, Rice wrote in his statement, “that is how we build true public safety.”
The path forward is clear: Care, not cages. Communities, not prisons.
– Mark Rice, statewide coordinator for WISDOM’s Transformative Justice Campaign
Wilson declared that “the biggest elephant in the room” was that “there’s no real movement on closing outdated prisons or reducing the DOC’s footprint.” He stressed that “we are beyond design capacity…with 5,000 additional bodies [beyond the number] this system was designed for.” Without a concrete roadmap and deadline, he says the budget commitment to closing the Green Bay prison doesn’t mean much.
Over 20 years ago, Wilson spent time in the Green Bay prison, which he remembers as “a dilapidated hellhole…It was a trauma pressure cooker in my opinion.”
“But the fact that they’re talking about just studying it, that really made me livid as someone who spent time in that facility, and is currently in communication with many individuals who are still housed there today,” he added.
Wilson said he doesn’t see focused funding to reduce racial disparities in incarceration, nor is there funding to support people who have been directly impacted by the criminal justice system and are trying to lead a reform effort. “I think if you look at the movement at large for the last 20 years, it’s been led by directly impacted leadership,” said Wilson. “Because we believe in the words of Glenn Martin that those closest to the problem are closest to the solution.” People with personal experience need to be brought to the table to offer both critiques and solutions, he said.
Ladies of SCI called the building plans in the budget “just one of the steps our lawmakers must take to address things,” and pointed to separate legislation introduced by Republican Senator Andre Jacque (R-DePere) and Rep. Paul Tittl (R-Manitowoc), which the group believed would have put needed investments into rehabilitation “instead of warehousing people in our crumbling facilities.”
Evers said the budget was an exercise of compromise and cooperation. “We need to work together,” he said after signing the budget less than an hour after the Assembly passed it. “Compare that to what’s going on in Washington, D.C., and it’s significantly different, so I’m very proud to sign it,” Evers said of the bipartisan compromise. In order to retain $1 billion per year in federal Medicaid matching funds, legislators on both sides of the aisle worked to finalize the bill before the federal reconciliation bill was signed by President Donald Trump.
Another one of Evers’ partial vetoes stirred discussion around juvenile incarceration. The Senate version of the budget specified that state juvenile correctional facilities would operate at a rate of $912,000 in 2025-26 per kid, per year, before increasing to over $1 million per kid per year for 2026-27. Evers’ partial vetoes lowered the rates to $182,865 per kid in 2025-26, and $275,670 per kid in the following years.
Over the last decade the cost of housing for each young person in youth corrections in Wisconsin has quadrupled from $303 per day in 2014 to $1,268 per day in 2024, largely due to a lower population of incarcerated youth and higher staffing needs. In his veto message, Evers objected to the Legislature’s plan to continue expanding the costs of the existing youth incarceration system during a time of “uncertainty,” and delays in closing youth prisons.
Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) criticized Evers for using a veto to cut housing expenditures for juvenile offenders. “Evers’ veto of this provision is unsustainable and he knows it,” said Wanggaard. “The statutory daily rate is not a number that we come up with out of thin air. It’s simple math – the total cost to operate our juvenile facilities divided by the average population.”
Wanggaard added that “up until now, a county sending a juvenile to a state facility paid for those costs…Governor Evers just decided unilaterally to turn it on its head and have the state pick up the vast majority of costs. It flips the entire funding of juvenile corrections without debate or discussion. It’s irresponsible.” Wanggaard also said that Evers’ refusal to utilize the expansion of the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center to house more youth offenders is driving costs higher. Children can only be placed in Mendota when it’s clinically appropriate, however. The facility was never intended to replace Lincoln Hills, or augment bed space for incarcerated kids.
In his veto message, Evers explained why he shifted the cost burden from local communities to the state, writing that he objected “to establishing a daily rate that is unaffordable to counties.” He continued that, “I have heard loud and clear from counties that the current daily rate is burdensome and will detrimentally impact public safety. Unbelievably, despite that clear message from the counties, the Legislature has chosen to increase that rate by over $1,000 per day. This increase and funding model is untenable, and counties have expressed that this unaffordable increase will have serious and detrimental effects on other county services.” Evers urged the Legislature to “revisit this issue in separate legislation and appropriate those additional GPR funds to the department.”
Criminal justice advocates around the state say viable solutions must go beyond incarceration. Lincoln Hills continues to be under a court-ordered monitor due to a successful lawsuit that brought attention to the harms done to both incarcerated youth and reports of abuse within the facility. Waupun’s prison has yet to recover from a string of deaths which ultimately led to charges against the prison’s warden and several staff. Green Bay is also notorious for inhumane conditions and deaths behind bars.
“We don’t need more studies, we need action,” said Wilson.
When he was incarcerated at Green Bay between the years 2000 and 2005, he added, “I watched people get battered by each other. I saw individuals get beaten by staff. I see the paint peeling, the walls are sweating. The prison cells are outdated. You’re talking about a facility that was built in the 1800’s…And you’re putting people in this facility in 2025 and you are expecting them to come home sane. You are expecting them to navigate this space in a rational way. You expect them to interact with one another in a humane way when you are housing them, or caging them, as if they were animals. Wisconsin should stop wasting taxpayer money by keeping people in cages that should’ve been shuttered decades ago!”
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A federal appeals court sided with a woman who accused a former Badger football star of sexual assault, overturning a lower court's dismissal of her lawsuit against UW-Madison.
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A northern Wisconsin town sued by the U.S. Department of Justice last year for not providing electronic voting machines to people with disabilities has lost its federal appeal.
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White House budget director Russ Vought speaks with reporters inside the U.S. Capitol building on Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Tuesday night moved one step closer to canceling $9 billion in previously approved funding for several foreign aid programs and public broadcasting after GOP leaders addressed some objections.
Nearly all the chamber’s Republicans voted to begin debate on the bill, though Maine’s Susan Collins, Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski opposed the procedural step along with every Democrat.
The 51-50 vote marked a significant moment for President Donald Trump’s rescissions request, which faced more headwinds in the Senate than in the House. Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote.
Trump proposed doing away with $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that lawmakers had approved for the next two fiscal years as well as $8.3 billion from several foreign aid accounts.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting provides funding to National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting Service and local media stations throughout the country.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said before the vote that some of the progress stemmed from removing a spending cut for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, a global health program to combat HIV/AIDS launched by former President George W. Bush.
“There was a lot of interest among our members in doing something on the PEPFAR issue and that’s reflected in the substitute,” Thune said. “And we hope that if we can get this across the finish line in the Senate that the House would accept that one small modification.”
South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds, who had raised concerns about cutting funding for rural public broadcasting stations run by tribal communities, announced a few hours before the vote he’d reached an agreement with the White House.
“We wanted to make sure tribal broadcast services in South Dakota continued to operate which provide potentially lifesaving emergency alerts,” Rounds wrote in a social media post. “We worked with the Trump administration to find Green New Deal money that could be reallocated to continue grants to tribal radio stations without interruption.”
Rounds said during a brief interview that $9.4 million will be transferred from an account within the Interior Department directly to 28 Native American radio stations in nine states.
“I had concerns specifically about the impact on these radio stations that are in rural areas with people that have basically very few other resources, and to me, they got caught in the crossfire on public broadcasting,” Rounds said. “And so I just wanted to get it fixed and I was successful in getting it fixed.”
White House budget director Russ Vought told reporters after a closed-door lunch meeting with Republican senators that he didn’t want to get “too far ahead” of discussions, but that his office was working with GOP senators to ensure certain local broadcast stations “have the opportunity to continue to do their early warning system and local reporting.”
Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Collins, who voiced reservations about several of the rescissions during a June hearing, said preserving full funding for PEPFAR represented “progress.”
But Collins said a few hours before the vote she still wants more details from the White House budget office about the exact source of the other $9 billion in cuts to previously approved spending.
“One of the issues, which I raised at lunch, is the total is still $9 billion and it’s unclear to me how you get to $9 billion, because he’s listed a number of programs he wants to, quote, protect,” Collins said, referring to Vought. “So we still have the problem of not having detailed account information from OMB.”
Collins, R-Maine, then held up a printed version of the 1992 rescissions request that President George H.W. Bush sent Congress, which she said was “extremely detailed” and listed each account.
“I would contrast that to the message that we got for this rescission, which just has a paragraph and doesn’t tell you how it’s broken down in each program,” Collins said, adding she’s still “considering the options.”
The Senate’s procedural vote began a maximum of 10 hours of debate that will be followed by a marathon amendment voting session that could rework the bill. A final passage vote could take place as soon as Wednesday.
The House approved the legislation in June, but the measure will have to go back across the Capitol for a final vote since the Senate is expected to make changes.
The effort to cancel funding that Congress previously approved in bipartisan government funding bills began last month when the Trump administration sent Congress this rescission request.
The initiative, led by White House budget director Vought, is part of Republicans’ ongoing efforts to reduce federal spending, which totaled $6.8 trillion during the last full fiscal year.
Vought expects to send lawmakers additional rescissions proposals in the months ahead, though he hasn’t said publicly when or what funding he’ll request Congress eliminate.
Once the White House submits a rescission request, it can legally freeze funding on those accounts for 45 days while Congress debates whether to approve, amend, or ignore the proposal.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said during a press conference before the PEPFAR removal was announced that he hoped the Senate didn’t change the bill at all.
“I’ve urged them, as I always do, to please keep the product unamended because we have a narrow margin and we’ve got to pass it,” Johnson said. “But we’re going to process whatever they send us whenever they send (it to) us and I’m hopeful that it will be soon.”
Johnson said canceling the previously approved funding on some foreign aid programs and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting represented “low-hanging fruit.”
Federal funding for public media, Johnson said, embodied a “misuse of taxpayer dollars” on organizations that produce “biased reporting.”
“While at its origination NPR and PBS might have made some sense, and maybe it does now,” Johnson said. “But it shouldn’t be subsidized by taxpayers.”
Trump has also sought to encourage Republican senators to pass the bill without making any significant changes.
“It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together,” Trump wrote on social media last week. “Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
In an aerial view from a helicopter, the migrant detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" by Florida Republicans is seen at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on July 4, 2025 in Ochopee, Florida. (Photo by Alon Skuy/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Former top immigration officials from the Biden administration warned Tuesday that billions for immigration enforcement signed into law earlier this month will escalate the rapid detention and deportations of immigrants.
During a virtual press conference with the immigration advocacy group America’s Voice, the former Department of Homeland Security officials said they expect to see a trend toward states building “soft” temporary detention centers similar to Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz,” the name given by Florida Republicans to an Everglades detention center.
Funding for those initiatives will come from President Donald Trump’s tax break and spending cut bill signed into law earlier this month that provides roughly $170 billion for immigration enforcement, the former officials said.
Trump’s massive tax and spending cut bill provides $30 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, making it the nation’s highest-funded law enforcement agency, to hire 10,000 new agents and carry out deportations. Another $45 billion will go to ICE for the detention of immigrants and $450 million in grants to states to partake in border enforcement.
Billions more are provided for border security and for the military to partake in border-related enforcement.
Andrea Flores, who directed border management for the National Security Council under former President Joe Biden said she expects to see states running their own immigration detention centers similar to the “Alligator Alcatraz” center that state officials quickly erected to hold immigrants. That state-run facility in the Florida Everglades is expected to house up to 5,000 immigrants.
Jason Houser, who served as ICE chief of staff in the Biden administration, said the quickly built detention centers will likely create an unsafe environment for immigrants brought there. The lack of experience and training for employees running those centers will also put migrants at risk, he said.
“People are gonna get hurt,” he said. “They’re gonna die.”
He added that with the arrest quotas that immigration officials have been given, roughly 3,000 arrests a day, “ICE is going to focus on those (immigrants) that are easily reachable, those who have been complying and checking in,” either with immigration officials or appearing in immigration court.
“Hitting quotas is not in the national security interest,” Houser said.
Houser said with the rapid arrest and detention of immigrants, the need for detention centers will likely lead to states building the “soft sided” detention centers in “some of the most rural parts of the country where they cannot be properly staffed and resourced.”
Flores said if states work to build their own centers like the one in Florida, there will likely be a lack of oversight because DHS has significantly fired federal employees that ran the watchdog that conducted oversight of ICE — the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Flores currently serves as the vice president of immigration policy at FWD.us, which focuses on immigration policy and reform.
Royce Murray, a former DHS assistant secretary for border and immigration policy and a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official during the Biden administration, said she is concerned that the Trump administration will now be able to ramp up third-country removals with the increase in funding.
Any removals to a third country “have to be to a country that is safe,” she said.
If an immigrant has a final order of removal but their home country will not accept their deportation, then the United States typically looks for another country that will accept the removal — a third country.
The Trump administration has tried to secure agreements with countries to take deportees, such as Mexico and South Sudan, which recently ended a civil war, but is still experiencing violence. The State Department warns against travel to South Sudan, but the Trump administration won a case before the Supreme Court seeking to use the East African country for third-country removals.
Murray said that the Trump administration is using third-country removals to “create a climate of fear” and get immigrants to self-deport.
She said if third-country removals are going to take place, they “need to be a place where people can successfully integrate.”
Wisconsin has joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration's action to withhold $6.8 billion for education progams supporting English language learners, migrants, low-income children, adult learners and others. (Photo by Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images)
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul joined 23 states and the District of Columbia Monday in suing the Trump administration for withholding $6.8 billion meant for six U.S. Department of Education programs, which help support English language learners, migrants, low-income children, adult learners and others.
The funds, approved in the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act 2025 and signed into law on March 15, are typically distributed to states by July 1. However, the Department of Education notified the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction as well as other state education agencies on June 30 that they would be withholding the funds.
“Depriving our schools of critical resources is bad for our schools, bad for students, and bad for Wisconsin,” Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a statement. “This unlawful funding freeze should be stopped.”
The Wisconsin DPI said in a statement that the federal agency gave no specific explanation for the action. Instead, the U.S. Department of Education said that “decisions have not yet been made concerning submissions and awards for this upcoming academic year” and “accordingly, the Department will not be issuing Grant Award Notifications obligating funds for these programs on July 1 prior to completing that review. The Department remains committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities and the Department’s statutory responsibilities.”
The withholding of funds comes as the Trump administration continues to pursue closing the Department of Education with a plan to lay off more than 1,000 agency employees and resume drastically cutting the agency after getting the greenlight from the U.S. Supreme Court Monday. The Trump administration has also withheld other funds this year, including for grants for mental health in schools. A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement about the review of education funding that “initial findings have shown that many of these grant programs have been grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda.”
The multi-state lawsuit argues that the freeze of the $6.8 billion violates federal laws and regulations that authorize and fund the programs, federal laws, including the Antideficiency Act and Impoundment Control Act, that govern the federal budgeting process and the constitutional separation of powers doctrine and the Presentment Clause.
The coalition of states is requesting that the court provide declaratory relief by finding the freeze is unlawful and offer injunctive relief by requiring the release of the funds.
Over $72 million is being withheld from Wisconsin. Without the funding, school districts face funding shortfalls for programs that have already been planned, DPI may have to lay off 20 employees and programs at Wisconsin’s technical colleges are in trouble with $7.5 million in adult education grants being withheld.
State Superintendent Jill Underly said in a statement that Wisconsin schools depend on the federal funding distributed through an array of programs to support students. There are five programs affected: Title I-C, which supports migrant education, Title II-A, which goes towards teacher training and retention, Title III-A, which supports education of English language learners, Title IV-A, which is for student enrichment and after-school programs and Title IV-B, which supports community learning centers.
“Make no mistake, stopping this money has had and will continue to harm our families and communities,” Underly said.
Wisconsin schools have received funding through these federal programs for decades to help carry out related programs. According to DPI, federal funding makes up about 8% of funding for Wisconsin schools with nearly $850 million coming into the state.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin alongside 31 other U.S. senators penned a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and Education Secretary Linda McMahon, calling on them to release the money.
“This delay not only undermines effective state and local planning for using these funds to address student needs consistent with federal education law, which often takes place months before these funds become available, but also flies in the face of the nation’s education laws which confers state and local educational agency discretion on permissible uses of federal formula grant funds,” the senators wrote. “We are shocked by the continued lack of respect for states and local schools evidenced by this latest action by the administration.”
“It is unacceptable that the administration is picking and choosing what parts of the appropriations law to follow, and you must immediately implement the entire law as Congress intended and as the oaths you swore require you to do,” the lawmakers said.
The lawmakers also said the “review” being undertaken by the administration appears to be intentional to delay the funding and will result in budget cuts for schools. They said it is happening “with no public information about what the review entails, what data the administration is examining or a timeline for such review.”
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Homer Blow, a well-known radio personality and producer in Milwaukee, saw more than fireworks shoot off outside his North Side home on the Fourth of July.
He witnessed flames from a fire that damaged homes, destroyed at least one garage and engulfed two vehicles – the result of illegal fireworks.
“There were multiple people on multiple blocks setting off those really big fireworks,” Blow said.
Blow filmed firefighters working to put out flames just four houses down from his home on the 2900 block of North 53rd Street near Sherman Park.
The incident is part of a growing trend in Milwaukee: fires caused by illegal fireworks on the Fourth of July. This year, there were seven fireworks-related fires on July 4, according to data provided by Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski.
In 2020, there was one. Five of the seven fires this year – including the fire on North 53rd Street – occurred on the north or northwest sides of the city, according to fire department reports.
Since 2020, there have been 17 fires on the Fourth of July linked to fireworks. That total could be higher because determining the precise cause of a fire is difficult, Lipski said.
“We do not always either know or have available to us the exact cause just based upon the realities of fire damaging/destroying evidence for all of these fires,” Lipski wrote in an email to NNS.
Shanise Sanders knows all too well the damage fireworks can cause. Her Northwest Side home erupted in flames last year on the Fourth of July.
Sanders said she and four family members were in their apartment at 6279 N. 84th St. when it caught fire.
“At the time, I had no fear – I just needed to make sure my family was safe,” Sanders said. “But it was definitely scary.”
Everyone made it out safely, Sanders said, but she and her family lost their home and all their possessions.
Illegal fireworks were used near the rear of the building, one of which reportedly lodged behind the electrical meter and exploded, according to information from the fire department.
Two years before Sanders’ fire, Christina Blake said her North Side home burned down on July 4 – with her daughter and grandchildren inside.
“They called me and said they see smoke coming from the wall,” Blake said.
According to Blake, a firework went between the sun porch and the house, where a socket was on the other side of the wall, resulting in an electrical fire.
“I wish people could know firsthand the damage it causes,” Blake said. “There should be more consequences.”
The sale, possession and use of fireworks is illegal in the city without a permit approved by the fire chief, according to a city ordinance. Violators can face fines ranging from $500 to $1,000, and those who fail to pay may be jailed for up to 40 days.
The ban on fireworks came after the Milwaukee Common Council created a fireworks task force in 2006 to examine the impact of fireworks on public safety after a Milwaukee home was destroyed.
Ald. Mark Chambers Jr., who represents the district Sanders lived in, said in a statement that the fire that destroyed her home was entirely preventable, suggesting the Legislature revisit regulations surrounding these “commercial, high-grade explosives.”
Undeterred by the fire on July 4, people on North 53rd Street were setting off fireworks the next day, Blow said.
“I understand people want to light fireworks, but, I mean, you have to understand fire safety,” Blow said. “My whole thing is – what goes up must come down,” he said. “When those fireworks come down, they’re going to be hot.”
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
‘What goes up must come down’: Illegal fireworks linked to rising number of Milwaukee fires is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
A recent state Supreme Court decision could be just the beginning of a broader legal fight to expand abortion access in Wisconsin.
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Since last Thursday night, seven people have died in shootings in Milwaukee.
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A new national school voucher program allocates up to $1,700 in federal tax credits for individuals who donate to organizations that provide private and religious school scholarships. (Photo by Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — A national private school voucher program is now law, though the school choice initiative comes with a huge caveat. States also choose — whether or not to participate.
It’s a setback for advocates who hoped to see the program — baked into the mega tax and spending cut bill President Donald Trump signed into law on July Fourth — mandated in all 50 states.
The permanent program, which starts in 2027, saw several versions between the House and Senate before getting to Trump’s desk as part of congressional Republicans’ massive reconciliation package.
Robert Enlow, president and CEO of EdChoice, touted aspects of the program, but said his organization would have preferred to see a 50-state program, rather than allowing states to opt in or decline.
“I think I’m really worried about that because this is seen as a sort of more partisan issue and as a result, what would make a governor in a blue state say, ‘Let me bring in school choice’?” said Enlow, whose nonprofit focuses on advancing school choice options.
Still, Enlow described the program as “just another step along the way of giving parents more choices.”
It remains to be seen which states will participate, including those with their own voucher programs already underway.
Jon Valant, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution, said he’s “not clear on how states will shake out on the question of whether or not to participate.”
“I’m sure the vast majority of, really, all red states will participate in this thing, but I don’t know what’s going to happen in blue and purple states,” said Valant, who also serves as director of the think tank’s Brown Center on Education Policy.
Despite that unknown, Valant said that states “do have some incentive to participate because if they don’t, then they’re potentially losing access to some funds that they wouldn’t otherwise get.”
The program allocates up to $1,700 in federal tax credits for individuals who donate to organizations that provide private and religious school scholarships.
There is also no cap to the cost of the program, unlike earlier versions seen in both chambers of Congress.
The scholarship funds would be available to families whose household incomes do not exceed 300 percent of their area’s median gross income.
More than 138 million people could be eligible to make use of the tax credit in 2027, according to an analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
However, Carl Davis, research director of the left-leaning think tank, notes in the analysis that “most of those people will not contribute” given the necessary paperwork and vouchers’ unpopularity with the public.
A state’s program participation will be decided by its governor or “by such other individual, agency, or entity as is designated under State law to make such elections on behalf of the State with respect to Federal tax benefits,” according to the final bill text.
The umbrella term “school choice” centers on alternative programs to one’s assigned public school.
The effort has sparked controversy, as opponents say these programs drain critical funds and resources from school districts, while school choice advocates describe the initiatives as necessary for parents dissatisfied with their local public schools.
Trump and congressional Republicans have made school choice a major part of their education agenda.
The program also reflects a sweeping bill that GOP Reps. Adrian Smith of Nebraska and Burgess Owens of Utah and Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana reintroduced in their respective chambers earlier this year.
Valant, of the Brookings Institution, expressed several concerns about the program, saying “there’s very little quality control, transparency or accountability for outcomes in this program, and it’s potentially a major use of public taxpayer funds.”
He said he doesn’t see anything in the program’s text that “protects against widespread waste, fraud and abuse and from programs and schools that aren’t providing much value at all to students from continuing to get a large amount of funding.”
The program also came as Trump and his administration continue to dramatically redefine the federal role in education.
Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget request calls for $12 billion in spending cuts to the Education Department. A summary from the department said this cut “reflects an agency that is responsibly winding down.”
The administration has also taken heat for its recent decision to put on hold $6.8 billion in federal funds for K-12 schools.
Sasha Pudelski, director of advocacy at AASA, The School Superintendents Association, said that a time when the administration is withholding billions of dollars in these funds for public schools, “the idea that we’re going to spend an unlimited amount of tax dollars to support private and religious schools is unthinkable, unimaginable — it’s horrific.”
“This is yet another handout to wealthy Americans who can already afford to send their children to private religious schools and at a cost that comes from tax dollars being deferred away from public education that serve the poorest and neediest students in America,” added Pudelski, whose organization helps to ensure every child has access to a high quality public education.
A program at Marquette University that trains Milwaukee-area teachers to incorporate the city’s untold stories – particularly those of communities of color – into their classrooms is losing federal funding.
The U.S. Department of Education sent a letter that stated it will not continue the grant, saying the program – called MKE Roots – reflects “the prior administration’s priorities and policy preferences and conflict with those of the current administration.”
The decision means funding will end this fall, leading to staff cuts and scaling back of programming.
It’s a loss for the teachers who participate – but one that will affect thousands of Milwaukee students, said Melissa Gibson, faculty director of MKE Roots.
“Students realize that their communities have this whole rich history of organizing and advocating, making our city not only what it is but also a better place,” Gibson said. “They feel more empowered to be their own community and civic leaders.”
MKE Roots is a professional development program for Milwaukee-area teachers that includes a weeklong summer training in which they visit local landmarks and meet with historians and community leaders.
Places this summer included America’s Black Holocaust Museum and Sherman Phoenix Marketplace.
Before the school year begins, teachers get help developing lesson plans that reflect what they’ve learned, then they meet at least four more times to collaborate.
There is also an online map with lesson plans and primary sources tied to Milwaukee neighborhoods.
“We are heralding the men and women – the legacies of our city’s past – so that our students understand that they are part of a rich tapestry of cultural experiences,” said Robert Smith, director of Marquette’s Center for Urban Research, Teaching & Outreach, which houses MKE Roots.
Milwaukee schools often teach local history through a curriculum that focuses largely on traditional narratives – such as beer barons and European immigrants, Gibson said.
“Students don’t know that Black Milwaukeeans have been here since the 1800s” before Wisconsin was a state, she said. “They don’t know how and why Mexican migrants came to Milwaukee in the 1920s. They don’t know that Wisconsin was one of the first states to pass anti-LGBTQ discrimination laws.”
“No matter where you are as a teacher, you do something like this, and it gives you perspectives that I think truly, as a teacher – especially today – you need,” said Jeffrey Gervais, a fifth-grade teacher at Hamlin Garland School who is participating in this year’s training.
In 2023, the Department of Education awarded MKE Roots a three-year grant for $1.27 million. However, on June 18, the department sent a letter to Gibson that stated it will not fund the program for the third year.
The letter gave four possible reasons for the decision: The program violates the letter or purpose of federal civil rights law; conflicts with the department’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness and excellence in education; undermines the well-being of the students the program is intended to help; or constitutes an inappropriate use of federal funds.
It did not specify which reason – or reasons – apply in this case.
The Department of Education did not respond to questions about its decision, but Smith said he can only assume it is because of the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion, often known as DEI.
Within two weeks of his inauguration, Donald Trump issued an executive order specifically on DEI in K-12 education.
It calls for eliminating federal funding that supports “gender ideology” or “discriminatory equity ideology” in K-12 curriculum, instruction, programs or activities, as well as teacher education, certification, licensing, employment or training.
Smith rejects the idea that MKE Roots is a DEI program.
“The notion of DEI is fundamentally based on people having equal access to institutions,” he said. “What we are doing is actually attending to the various populations of students we serve.”
Smith also disputes the reasons listed in the letter from the Department of Education.
“None of the reasons are accurate relative to what we do with MKE Roots,” he said. “This is civics education at its purest – making sure our teachers have the tools to engage in important conversations with their students about Milwaukee, Wisconsin, their neighborhoods and communities, and their role in shaping those neighborhoods and communities.”
Smith and Gibson said they are appealing the decision.
Gibson said she is considering applying for a new Department of Education grant for civic education programs that develop “citizen competency and informed patriotism” especially among low-income students and underserved populations, according to the grant’s description.
It would require redesigning aspects of MKE Roots to put “founding documents in conversation with local context,” Gibson said.
“We would need to find a different funding stream to maintain what MKE Roots currently does,” she added.
Regardless of the outcome, she said, the work will continue.
“I was doing this work before I had funding, and I’ll do it after I have funding.”
A program helps teachers tell Milwaukee’s untold stories. The Trump administration says it will no longer fund it. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Hundreds of police officers from across the state packed into Elmbrook Church in Brookfield to pay their respects to Milwaukee Police Officer Kendall Corder.
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A state board heard directly on Friday from two Wisconsin brothers who served more than two decades in prison for a murder they didn't commit. David and Robert Bintz are asking for over $2 million each as compensation for their wrongful convictions.
The post Claims board hears from Green Bay brothers who spent decades in prison for murder they didn’t commit appeared first on WPR.
The Waupun prison sits in the middle of a residential neighborhood (Photo | Wisconsin Examiner)
Most of those speaking at the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) online public hearing on community supervision – parole, probation and extended supervision – said the system is too rigid. Instead of helping people successfully integrate back into society, they said, the system creates a tripwire of rules that can easily be broken and result in too many people being ordered back to prison when supervision is revoked.
The public hearing on July 8 took up proposed rules to amend the DOC’s Administrative Code because of a law passed in April 2014, Act 196, that directs the creation of a system of appropriate short-term sanctions for violation of conditions of supervision. The law sets out eight criteria, including minimizing the impact on the offender’s employment and family, and offers rewards for those complying with conditions of supervision.
Of the 18 members of the public who spoke at the hearing, most addressed the need for implementing the spirit of the 2014 law to create a less burdensome system of community supervision and reduce the number of revocations that in 2023 represented over 30% of those entering prison and in 2024 reached nearly 60%. Update: DOC disputes the 60% figure, saying about half of those included in that number are people whose revocation was related to the commission of new crimes.
Several people who had been on community supervision or were still serving on supervision also spoke and asked that the DOC do more than just provide accountability and make the system less oppressive and also offer resources, such as help obtaining housing.
One of the first to speak was Tom Gilbert, an advocate for WISDOM, a statewide network working on reform of the prison and criminal justice systems and other social justice issues. Gilbert, whose son has twice had supervision revoked, has been pushing since 2019 for the DOC to implement Act 196.
“Act 196 is a good law passed with broad bipartisan support, and it calls for a cultural shift in how the Department of Corrections administers its supervision programs,” he said.
“For many years, WISDOM has called on the department to implement the law and thereby provide a solid alternative to thousands of revocations each year,” he added.
However, Gilbert said, when he read DOC’s proposed rules for implementing the law he was upset that the DOC only stated the eight criteria without creating or describing a system for “new and revised policies and practices.”
Gilbert accused the DOC of not wanting to fulfill the intent of the law.
“This cannot be an oversight. It is a conscious omission,” he said. “To me, it signals that the DOC is not committed to creating a system of short-term sanctions, that it is not serious about shifting the community corrections program from an operation that sabotages the successful reentry of people into their communities to an operation that is focused on healing individuals, families and communities by providing the treatments and supports needed to accomplish that goal.”
People on supervision are trying to live. We're parenting, working, healing and giving back, but we live in fear that one misstep will erase years of progress. You have a chance to change that, to lead with justice instead of fear.
– Marianne Oleson, operations director for Ex Incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO)
Gilbert challenged the DOC’s current protocol of calling 90 days of jail a short-term sanction because, he said, even 60, 30, 21, or 14 days in jail has a negative impact on employment and family.
He also challenged the DOC’s perspective that the rules revision would only impact those on community supervision, vendors and DOC staff.
“The decisions you and your agents make every day regarding people under your supervision widely affect families, employers, health care providers, social service providers, schools — in other words, whole communities and this whole state,” Gilbert said. “The proposed rules should be revised by adding back the language from Act 196 that explains its whole purpose — creating a system of short-term sanctions.”
Sean Wilson, senior director of organizing and partnership of Dream.Org, a national non-profit working on social justice issues, was also critical of the proposed rule for offering no description for short-term sanctions.
“There’s no real short-term sanctions framework,” Wilson said. “Instead of building a system that redirects people before they spiral back into incarceration, this proposal simply restates the existing law; meanwhile, revocations without new convictions in Wisconsin still account for 40% of our prison admissions.” (The rate rose from 40% early in 2024 to nearly 60% at the end of the year)
“Here in this state, there are no guardrails to prevent over-punishment,” Wilson added. “The proposal leaves full revocation on the table for things like substance abuse, missed check-ins, minor violations that are far too often treated as major. There’s no real focus on rehabilitation. There’s no clear investment in helping people reintegrate successfully, and no mention of support, supportive services, trauma-informed care, or reentry pathways.”
He said the rules are “vague about how sanctions will be applied, who will review them, and how racial disparities, which are deeply embedded in our system, will be addressed.”
He also raised concerns about private contractors offering supervision, creating a “financial incentive that undermines fairness and accountability.”
Carol Rubin, a former administrative judge, also encouraged the implementation of Act 196 and was also critical of the proposed rules not fleshing out the intent of the 2014 law.
“I want to express my dismay that DOC has delayed issuing formal rules for Act 196 for 11 years, despite being ordered to issue rules in 2014 by the Wisconsin Legislature,” she said. “In the meantime, thousands of individuals have been denied the benefit of a real, short-term sanction system with trained agents that could have stabilized their new lives in the community.”
Rubin said the DOC should provide examples of how short-term sanctions should be employed to minimize the impact on employment.
“For a low violation, consider imposing a short-term sanction that does not restrict the hours that a client could be available for employment, such as a verbal or written reprimand,” she said. “For a medium or high violation, consider a brief house arrest or weekend jail sanction of two days or less that will not interfere with the client’s current or future hours of employment; if appropriate, a weekend home arrest could be repeated.”
Liz Monroe noted that the DOC’s manual for Evidence Based Response to Violations (EBRV) has two mentions of using rewards, including stating that rewards are “more effective than only using sanctions” and that incentives and rewards are “helpful for compliance and positive behaviour and that there should be at least four rewards for every sanction.”
As a reward for compliance, she encouraged reducing the supervision time, such as 30 days of compliance resulting in 30 fewer days on supervision.
Barbie Jackson, vice president of MOSES, an affiliate of WISDOM, asked for a description that “clearly defines short-term sanctions to assure that they focus on helping people avoid harmful behaviors and fulfill societal obligations, minimize disruption of the impacted person’s employment, minimize the effect on the impacted person’s family and establish incentives and rewards for compliance and positive behavior.”
Jeremy Dings, who said he had been originally sentenced to five years in prison but ended up serving 12 because of two revocations, talked about how he was unable to help his family during a health crisis after he broke a rule and was revoked. He was allso not allowed to attend his mother’s funeral.
“People on supervision have families, too, just like all of you,” he said. “Revocation for rule violation ends the person’s employment and their ability to support their family and themselves.”
Marianne Oleson, operations director for Ex Incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO), noted she had been on supervision for eight years and still had 18 more years to serve.
“I’ve rebuilt my life. Started over with nothing, and dedicated myself to helping others,” she said, “but despite everything I’ve done, I wake up every day with 18 more years of supervision ahead of me, not because I’ve reoffended, not because I’m a danger, but because the system has failed to evolve with science.”
She contended that recent research on community supervision says the ideal period is three to five years.
Oleson noted that her clients include many who have been revoked and sent back to prison for a technical rule violation.
She said the present system often does not have the goal of rehabilitation but “surveillance disguised as support.”
“People on supervision are trying to live,” said Oleson. “We’re parenting, working, healing and giving back, but we live in fear that one misstep will erase years of progress. You have a chance to change that, to lead with justice instead of fear. Please rewrite this to reflect what the courts, the research and those of us directly impacted are telling you. Our futures matter. Please treat us like they do and we do.”
JenAnn Bauer of West Bend who had been in prison and on supervision said that “excessive supervision” creates challenges for rebuilding a life.
“Every job, every lease, every new agent and every step forward comes with extra scrutiny and extra risk,” she said. “I have done everything the system has asked of me. I pay taxes, I’ve reintegrated, I’ve contributed. These things don’t just affect the formerly incarcerated. They affect our families, our children and future generations. When a parent is stuck under financial pressure or the constant threat of being sent back for a technical violation, it creates instability that reaches far beyond one individual, it holds entire families hostage and in survival mode, and that affects the health, safety and future of whole communities and our entire state.”
Robert Thibault, vice president of Prison Action in Milwaukee, said he had been on supervision for 15 years and had experienced a “huge inconsistency” in how supervision was administered depending on the parole or probation officer (PO), adding the attitude of a PO over the interpretation of “arbitrary rules” could result in a revocation.
Meah Flowers of Madison talked of having family members going in and out of prison and the disruption that revocation causes. She encouraged implementing Act 196 to help families.
Eric Howland said there is an expectation that those coming into community supervision obtain employment, housing and a positive social network, but a 90- or 60-day jail sentence for a supervision violation negatively impacts those goals.
Why 11 years?
The DOC has not yet responded to questions from the Examiner on why it has taken 11 years to implement Act 196.
Update: DOC spokesperson Beth Hardke responded to this story on Tuesday, July 15: “The idea that 60% of Wisconsin’s prison population is incarcerated for rules violations is simply untrue but it’s a common misinterpretation of the data.” She pointed to DOC’s prison admissions dashboard which shows 27.3% of people admitted to Wisconsin prisons over a one-year period are described as “revocation new sentence” while 32.5% described as “revocation only.” Taken together, those numbers represent about 60% of admissions. But, Hardke writes, about half of them were convicted of a new crime resulting in a new sentence, not for violating supervision rules. This story has been updated to include that response.
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A Wisconsin State Patrol director and his wife were killed by their son at their Middleton home, and the suspect later died by suicide during a standoff with police, according to the Dane County Sheriff’s Office.
The post Wisconsin State Patrol bureau director and wife die in town of Middleton double homicide appeared first on WPR.
A summer day on Golden Trout Lake in the Salmon-Challis National Forest, in east-central Idaho. (USDA Forest Service photo)
Members of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee differed along party lines at a Thursday hearing about how the U.S. Forest Service should partner with states and how the federal wildfire response should be organized.
Senators of both parties emphasized the importance of working with state forest managers. But while Republicans praised the efforts of Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz, a former state forest administrator in Idaho and Montana, to reach out to state governments, Democrats noted that President Donald Trump’s budget request for fiscal 2026 proposed eliminating a key program for state and tribal partnerships.
Democrats on the panel also raised a series of questions about the still-unfinished Forest Service budget request as the next fiscal year approaches in less than three months.
Schultz told the senators the budget proposal was not yet final, but confirmed the agency was telling states to prepare for zero dollars in discretionary spending for the State, Private, and Tribal Forestry program in fiscal 2026.
The program received more than $300 million in discretionary funding in fiscal 2024, plus another roughly $300 million in supplemental funding.
The Trump budget request does include $300 million for supplemental funds to the program that can be used for disaster relief.
Ranking Democrat Martin Heinrich of New Mexico noted states are facing tighter budgets after passage of Republicans’ “big, beautiful” budget reconciliation law that includes a host of policy tweaks meant to reduce federal safety net spending while extending tax cuts for high earners.
Under the law, states will be required to pay billions more per year to cover a greater share of major federal-state partnership programs for food assistance and health coverage.
“States need that funding,” Heinrich said of the forestry program. “That is an example of a successful partnership. If we don’t have that funding, that’s not shared responsibility, that’s abdicating our federal responsibility… at a time when (state) budgets are being decimated by Medicaid cuts thanks to the big, whatever bill.”
Schultz said the state foresters had relayed similar concerns, which the administration was considering as it finalized the budget request.
Chairman Mike Lee of Utah said the Forest Service under Schultz had given states greater flexibility to set their own forest management policies.
“I want to thank you, Chief, for giving the states more and more authority, more involvement and more of an ability to set a course for the proper management of these lands,” he said. “I know that Utah is really looking forward to working with you to expand these partnerships and I know my state is not alone in that.”
Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California also blasted the administration for cutting the state forestry spending.
“Every state that I’m aware of is having a tougher budget picture to face,” he told Schultz. “The threat of fires is real. The threat of fires is growing. How does it make sense for the federal government to zero out these programs?”
Schultz answered that the agency would continue “partnering with the states in dialogue and discussion.”
“But you’re zeroing out their resources,” Padilla said.
“That’s correct,” Schultz said. “It’s sharing that responsibility and pushing it to the states.”
Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper, a former governor and Denver mayor, said the Trump budget request more broadly called for shifting more funding responsibilities to state and local governments.
“I see again and again, throughout all the budgets we’re seeing, is more costs shifted from the federal government to states and local areas that are going through their own budget struggles right now,” he said.
Montana Republican Steve Daines defended the idea of greater state responsibility, saying he had found the Gem State’s approach to land management more effective than the federal government’s.
“If you take a look at the landscapes across Montana and look at federal lands versus state lands, I can tell you the state’s doing a much, much better job in terms of stewardship of public lands than the federal government,” Daines said.
Schultz said several times the administration had not yet finalized a plan to shift federal firefighting authorities to the Interior Department. The responsibility is currently split between the Forest Service, which is under the Department of Agriculture, and various Interior agencies, primarily the Bureau of Land Management.
Heinrich, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, raised concerns about the lack of a plan.
Heinrich said he was open-minded about the reorganization effort but was concerned that Congress had not yet seen a blueprint.
“I think there are many of us who are more concerned about the adequacy of that plan and would like to see that plan before we start making budgetary decisions about whether it’s a good idea or not,” he said. “I am very open to different ways of organizing how we fight fires on our national forests and our public lands. But I want to see the plan.”
Wyden raised opposition to the idea more broadly, saying the Forest Service should remain involved in firefighting.
“Nobody in my home state… has told me, in effect, ‘Ron we gotta have the Forest Service less involved in fighting fires,’” Wyden said. “But that is the net effect of your organizational plan.”
Schultz said the proposed reorganization would not cut any federal firefighting resources, but move the federal agency responsible for overseeing the issue. The administration would not put the reorganization in place this fire season, he added.
The National Public Radio headquarters in Washington, D.C., is pictured on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — Congress has just one week left to approve the Trump administration’s request to cancel $9.4 billion in previously approved funding for public media and foreign aid, setting up yet another tight deadline for lawmakers.
The Senate must pass the bill before July 18, otherwise the White House budget office will be required to spend the funding and be barred from sending up the same proposal again for what are called rescissions.
But objections from several GOP senators could stop the legislation in its tracks, or change it substantially, requiring another House vote in a very short time frame. Rejecting the plan would represent a loss for the Trump administration after passage of the “big, beautiful” tax and spending cut law earlier this month.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., appears optimistic he can secure the votes needed to begin debate, though he hasn’t said publicly if he thinks the bill can actually pass.
“We’ll have it up on the floor next week. Hopefully, we get on it and then we’ll have an amendment process,” Thune said during a Wednesday press conference. “And kind of like a budget reconciliation bill, it’s an open amendment process, a vote-a-rama type process, which I’m sure you’re very excited about.”
At least 50 Republicans must agree to proceed to the legislation amid unified opposition from Democrats. Thune can only lose three GOP senators and still begin debate with Vice President JD Vance’s tie-breaking vote. Rescissions bills are exempt from the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster.
After a maximum of 10 hours of debate, the Senate will begin a marathon amendment voting session that could substantially reshape the measure.
There may be enough Republican votes to completely remove the section rescinding $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds the Public Broadcasting Service, National Public Radio and hundreds of local public media stations.
Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins, Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds all brought up misgivings during a June hearing about how canceling previously approved funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would impact rural communities and emergency alerts.
Collins, R-Maine, also raised concerns about the Trump administration’s efforts to claw back previously approved funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, and is likely to bring an amendment to the floor on that issue, according to her office. PEPFAR is a global initiative to combat HIV/AIDS that was led by President George W. Bush.
Democrats will get to offer as many amendments as they want during the vote-a-rama and could try to remove each section of the bill one by one, forcing Republicans to weigh in publicly on numerous foreign aid programs.
President Donald Trump sent Congress the rescissions request in early June, starting a 45-day clock for lawmakers to consider his proposal.
The recommendation asked lawmakers to cancel $8.3 billion in foreign aid funding, including $500 million for certain global health programs at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“This proposal would not reduce treatment but would eliminate programs that are antithetical to American interests and worsen the lives of women and children, like ‘family planning’ and ‘reproductive health,’ LGBTQI+ activities, and ‘equity’ programs,” the request states. “This rescission proposal aligns with the Administration’s efforts to eliminate wasteful USAID foreign assistance programs.”
The House voted mostly along party lines in mid-June to approve the rescissions request, but the legislation sat around the Senate for weeks as Republicans struggled to pass their “big, beautiful” law.
The Senate can vote to approve the proposal as is, change it, or let it expire, forcing the White House budget office to spend the money, which it’s been able to legally freeze since sending Congress the rescissions request.
Senators’ decision will impact how Republicans in that chamber, especially Thune and those on the Appropriations Committee, work with White House budget director Russ Vought in the coming months and years.
Congress and the Trump administration must broker some sort of funding agreement before the start of the next fiscal year on Oct. 1 to stave off a shutdown.
Vought has also said he plans to send lawmakers additional rescissions requests, though he hasn’t said exactly when or what programs he’ll include.
Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Thursday as the panel debated three of the full-year government funding bills that the rescissions package is not acceptable and could impede the committee’s traditionally bipartisan work.
“We need to make sure decisions about what to fund and, yes, what to rescind are made here in Congress on a bipartisan basis and within our annual funding process,” Murray said. “We cannot allow bipartisan funding bills with partisan rescission packages. It will not work. And that is why I will repeat my commitment to all of my colleagues that on this side of the dais, we stand ready to discuss rescissions as part of these bipartisan spending bills.”
A Waymo self-driving robotaxi in Los Angeles recently found itself in a bit of a pickle after stopping abruptly in traffic, making an illegal left turn, and then being pulled over by a police officer in the heart of Los Angeles. While a human driver might have ended up with a ticket, fully autonomous vehicles currently dodge that fate in California since there’s no person behind the wheel to hold accountable.
Read: Waymo’s NYC Debut Comes With Training Wheels
A clip of the incident was recently shared on social media. It shows a white Jaguar I-Pace stopped in the middle of a road in Beverly Hills, much to the dismay of a Mercedes-Benz G-Class driver behind it.
According to the individual filming, the man slapped the rear of the car, either purely out of frustration, or in the hope it would get the car to start moving. Not the most reliable method, but hey, it occasionally works on stubborn toasters at home.
Maybe it did in this case too, because moments later, the robotaxi began moving again. But its next moves didn’t exactly smooth things over. A police officer in a Ford Explorer pulled in behind it, just as the Waymo SUV slipped in front of an electric Mercedes and made an awkward, and illegal, left turn.
After appearing to get confused by the flashing red and blue lights behind it, the robotaxi eventually pulled over to the side of the road.
@kiefer_d_live Replying to @himothee55 I used the song to cover up my hysterical laughter 🫣 #waymo ♬ original sound – Kiefer_D
It’s unclear what happened after the officer stepped out and approached the Jag, but they likely spoke with a human operator over the phone as there was no one onboard at the time.
No Ticket, But Not Off the Hook for Long
In the end, Waymo’s car probably without a ticket. According to The Washington Post, autonomous vehicles are currently exempt from receiving moving violations in California, as these must be issued to a human driver.
However, this policy is set to change. Starting in July 2026, police will be able to issue “notices of autonomous vehicle noncompliance” when a self-driving vehicle breaks the rules of the road. Not a moment too soon, if we may add.
A federal court has set new deadlines as the criminal case against a Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan moves forward. Dugan faces federal charges after prosecutors say she helped a man evade immigration enforcement this spring.
The post Federal court sets new deadlines as case against Judge Hannah Dugan moves forward appeared first on WPR.
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