Wisconsin in Focus

Wisconsin’s election managers want to open a new multi-million-dollar office to focus solely on election transparency. The Wisconsin Elections Commission approved a $2 million budget request to open an Office of Election Transparency and Compliance. WEC chair Ann Jacobs said creating an Office of Election Transparency is “what we have to do.” The Elections Commission continues to deal with questio...

Two of Wisconsin’s Republican congressmen want answers from Dane County’s sheriff about how a wanted illegal immigrant was able to commit another crime in another part of the state. U.S. Reps. Tom Tiffany and Derrick Van Orden sent a letter this week to Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett asking about Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate. Prairie du Chien police say Coronel Zarate is suspected of being a...

The Wisconsin Supreme Court didn’t ask about Racine’s mobile voting van until the end of the hearing on whether it's legal or not. The court Tuesday instead focused on whether the voter challenging the van can actually sue and whether the van gave Democrats an advantage in the 2022 primary election. A Racine County judge ruled in January the van used by Racine’s clerk in 2022 is illegal and cannot...

 Former Independent party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed a lawsuit against the Wisconsin Election Commission to remove his name from the state’s ballot this November, part of his ongoing battle to exit from races in swing states. The case argues that, absent a compelling reason, different treatment for third party candidates violates the Equal Protection Clause and Kennedy’s Fi...

A lot of students in Wisconsin are about to get far better grades on the state’s standardized tests, but advocates say it’s not because they are suddenly better at reading or math. Wisconsin’s State Superintendent of Schools is defending the decision to change the standards for Wisconsin’s Fordward Exam and the ACT. The Department of Public Instruction is both lowering the threshold for what is pr...

There is more talk about releasing the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the University of Wisconsin System. The Legislative Study Committee on the Future of the UW System submitted a plan that would transition the UW-Madison campus into a new agency within state government, give the university borrowing power and spin the state’s main campus away from the other 12. Supporters of the plan point...

State Sen. John Jagler is frustrated Milwaukee Public Schools seems to be ignoring the state law that requires police officers in the city’s schools. But, he doesn’t expect any changes either. Jagler, R-Watertown, last week wrote a letter to the MPS board, asking when the city’s schools plan to follow the law and return school resource officers to their buildings. Republican lawmakers included the...

A Wisconsin lawmaker wants this to be the last school year that begins with cellphones in the classroom. Sen. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, released a column that outlines what he says is the need for a cellphone ban. Currently, local schools set their own rules for cellphones in schools. Some school districts have district-wide policy, while others allow principals in individual schools to set their o...

Voters in Wisconsin will see several names on their presidential ballots this fall. The state’s Elections Commission on Tuesday approved Jill Stein, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Cornel West and a handful of other independent candidates for the November ballot. Stein’s place on the ballot was essentially sealed when the Wisconsin Supreme Court shot down a request from the Democratic National Committee to...

The Wisconsin Elections Commission says there won't be a recall against any Milwaukee Public School board members. Now, Milwaukee's teachers’ union wants answers. The Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association celebrated the Elections Commission declared MPS recall organizers failed to gather enough signatures to force a recall election against four Milwaukee School Board members. The MPS School Bo...

The president of the University of Wisconsin wants nearly a $1 billion more from lawmakers in the next state budget. UW president Jay Rothman said he needs $914 million in order to avoid another tuition increase. Rothman said the University of Wisconsin ranks 43rd in terms of the percent of state dollars it receives. He said it will take $457 million in each year of Wisconsin’s two-year state budg...

There is now a First Amendment challenge to Wisconsin’s personalized license plate restrictions. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty wants a judge to strike down the state law that allows the Department of Motor Vehicles to ban license plates that are deemed “objectionable.” The case stems from a Wisconsin man who wanted a license plate that read RD RRAGE. The DMV allowed him to get the pl...

There are more than 100,000 more people enrolled in Medicaid in Wisconsin now than before COVID struck. Wisconsin Medicaid director Bill Hanna spoke at a Wisconsin Health News Newsmaker event Tuesday. He said while Wisconsin’s Medicaid enrollments are down from their peak, more people are receiving government health care now than before the pandemic. Support this podcast:  https://secure.anedot.co...

The outgoing state representative in the town of Summit is asking for legislative hearings into the mix up that had people there voting in the wrong statehouse race. Rep. Angie Sapik, R-Lake Nebagamon, on Wednesday called for an information hearing in front of the Assembly’s Committee on Campaigns and Elections because some voters were given ballots with the wrong Assembly district. Sapik said the...

Voters in Wisconsin haven’t changed their minds in a while about their elected leaders in Madison. The latest Marquette Law School Poll shows the approval ratings for Gov. Tony Evers and the legislature are relatively unchanged. Pollsters say 51% of voters approve of Gov. Evers’ job performance, while 44% disapprove. Those numbers are largely the same as they were in the Marquette Polls from June,...

Local governments across Wisconsin may be looking to raise taxes now that their transportation fees are in legal limbo. The Wisconsin Supreme Court denied a petition from the Village of Pewaukee to hear its case that sought to save its transportation fee. Pewaukee, like many local governments across the state, turned to a transportation utility fee to raise money for local road projects. Wisconsin...

The Wisconsin state representative who got three fake military ballots in the mail two years ago is now getting mail for at least one of those same fake people. Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, on Tuesday said she recently got a letter for Holly Adams. Brandtjen made headlines in October of 2022 when she turned three fake military ballots over to investigators. It turned out, a former depu...

Members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission are not worried about computer glitches or a shortage of ballots on Election Day in November. They’re worried about outside agitation and election disruptions. Elections Commission Chair Ann Jacobs told WisPolitics her biggest fear on is an effort to freeze Wisconsin’s votes. Republican Elections Commissioner Don Mills said he too is worried that someo...

Most of Wisconsin’s high school students say they are anxious or depressed, and that has the state’s superintendent of schools asking for more money. Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction on Tuesday released the results from the latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The survey is now a semi-annual thing, offered every other year. In the spring 2023, 1,882 Wisconsin students in 42 public, chart...

A consulting firm with former public school administrators will lead the audit into Milwaukee Public Schools’ financial woes. Gov. Tony Evers on Monday named MGT of America Consulting to lead the probe. MGT will handle the audit into MPS’ “operations, processes, and procedures.” That includes an examination of how Milwaukee’s school district were being months late with key state financial reports,...

The rules will soon be changing for people who carry guns and go near the water in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on Wednesday announced the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has agreed to repeal its rule that essentially banned people from carrying a gun near any lake, river or stream in the state. The rule stated that no one can “[p]ossess or control any firearm,...

A Western Wisconsin’s Republican congressman is pushing Vice President Kamala Harris to replace President Biden, immediately. Congressman Derrick Van Orden said Harris should invoke the 25th Amendment and remove President Biden from office. Also on Monday, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey renewed his call for Harris to invoke the amendment and take over as president. Support this po...

Public schools in Wisconsin are spending nearly $1,000 more per-student than a decade ago, despite falling enrollment and flat test scores. The latest spending information from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction shows public schools in the state spent $17,697 per-student in 2022. That’s down from the $18,088 in 2020, but about $1,000 more than what schools were spending in 2011. Will F...

Nearly three-quarters of voters in Wisconsin say their incomes haven’t kept up over the past four years and more than half say that’s their top issue this fall. The Institute for Reforming Government is out with a new poll that says “kitchen table issues” dominate the minds of voters heading into November. IRG’s poll said 47% of voters said the economy is their top issue for the election. Another...

Western Wisconsin’s congressman says he was assaulted at Milwaukee’s Republican National Convention, but a women’s group disagrees. Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden took social media Tuesday to say a protester with the group Code Pink assaulted him while he was standing in line at the RNC. Code Pink almost immediately said Van Orden was the one who bumped into who they called a “visibly Pa...