Wisconsin in Focus

Most of the argument for again allowing ballot drop boxes in Wisconsin hinges on what the state’s absentee voter law did and did not say. The new liberal-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday on whether it should overturn a 2022 decision from the then conservative-majority court that outlawed ballot drop boxes. “[The 2022 court] read a restriction into the statute that simpl...

It doesn’t look like the Secret Service is going to change the security plan for the Milwaukee Republican National Convention. Wisconsin Republican U.S. Senator Ron Johnson met with Secret Service officials Tuesday to press for a new protest zone and other security changes. Johnson said there are fears in Milwaukee that protesters will not only disrupt the convention, but they could threaten RNC a...

The head of the University of Wisconsin says there will be an end to part of the protests on campuses across the state, but he’s not saying how or when. UW President Jay Rothman was a guest on UpFront over the weekend. He said the tent communities that have popped up on the campuses in Madison and Milwaukee "will ultimately be gone.” Monday marks a week since the pro-Palestinian protests began. Fu...

President Joe Biden’s latest campaign stop in Wisconsin came with more than just a quick speech and some pictures. The president was in Racine on Wednesday to help announce Microsoft’s latest data center expansion. Last fall, Microsoft announced plans for a $1.4 billion data center site. The $3.3 billion site announced Wednesday would build on that original investment. Full story: https://www.thec...

Wisconsin Republican lawmakers want to know exactly what diversity, equity and inclusion is doing in state government and what it is costing. The Joint Legislative Audit Commission on Tuesday began an audit of DEI programs throughout the state’s executive agencies. Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Green Bay, opened the first audit hearing with a blistering rebuke of DEI, which he says is nothing more than a...

Milwaukee Public Schools are proposing a new budget that would cut nearly 300 positions and spend hundreds of millions of dollars less. MPS’s superintendent unveiled his budget for the 2024-2025 school year recently. The proposed 288 position cuts are getting most of the headlines. Nearly half of those positions are teaching positions. But those announced cuts are for positions, not necessarily pe...

Former President Trump isn’t saying much about his Wisconsin strategy, but he is talking about one potential rival. Trump appeared on News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber show Wednesday morning to talk about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The former president said some Republicans see Kennedy as a possible alternative because of his stance on the COVID vaccine. Trump said that’s a mistake. Full story: https://w...

The University of Wisconsin says protesters are more than welcome to continue their pro-Palestinain demonstrations, but they will do so without their tents. UW-Madison Police removed dozens of tents from the University’s Library Mall early Wednesday morning. Officers also arrested about a dozen people. UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin told the university in a letter Wednesday that protesters...

High school athletes in Wisconsin will not be paid to play their sport, at least not yet. The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletics Association, the group that manages high school sports in the state, on Wednesday voted down a name, image and likeness proposal. Brent Jacobson, the WIAA’s legal counsel, said NIL is coming to high school sports and suggested allowing for some payments now could head o...

Homes keep selling in Wisconsin but prices and the cost to get a mortgage are keeping some from being able to afford a new home. The Wisconsin Realtors Association is out with its latest look at the state’s housing market. Their report says home prices jumped in March by 3.2% compared to March of last year. Meanwhile, the median price of a home rose 10%. Full story: https://www.thecentersquare.com...

Sturgeon season in Wisconsin will continue. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it will not add the lake sturgeon to the endangered species list. “After conducting a thorough species status assessment using the best available science, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined lake sturgeon do not require listing under the Endangered Species Act,” Fish and Wildlife said in a statement on Mo...

One of the biggest critics of Wisconsin’s election administrator says no one should be threatening her and says threats don’t help fix election integrity issues. State Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, on Tuesday offered her thoughts after the Wisconsin Elections Commission confirmed elections administrator Meagan Wolfe is receiving extra security protection. "Threatening Administrator Meag...

A new report says Wisconsin is in its best fiscal position in decades. The Wisconsin Policy Forum released its latest report this week. It looks at the state’s debt, budget health, general fund reserves and what the future may hold for the state. “Overall, the state’s finances ended 2023 in outstanding fashion. Wisconsin has improved its fiscal condition substantially since the Great Recession yea...

There is now a legal challenge to Gov. Tony Evers’ 400-year school funding veto. The WMC Litigation Center on Monday asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take up their challenge to the governor’s summer veto that increased per-pupil funding for the next four centuries. The WMC Litigation Center is an affiliate of Wisconsin Manufactures & Commerce (WMC), the combined state chamber and manufacturers...

Wisconsin Republicans filed an election complaint about the balance of poll workers in Madison and Milwaukee. The RNC, along with the Dane County and Milwaukee County Republican Parties, filed two complaints with the Wisconsin Elections Commission that allege election managers in Madison and Milwaukee didn’t hire enough Republican poll workers. State law requires election managers to work off a li...

There is pushback to the University of Wisconsin’s decision to make the SAT and ACT optional for students for the next few years. State Sen. Duey Striebel, R-Cedarburg, on Tuesday said the plan to accept students’ high school grades only is short-sighted and politically motivated. UW regents approved an extension of the test-option policy. The university will not require the SAT or the ACT until a...

 Most voters in Wisconsin support their local schools’ requests for more tax money. A new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum says a little more than 60% of the local school referendum questions that were on the ballot so far this year have passed. But the Policy Forum says that number is low. “Voters across Wisconsin approved 62 of the 103 school district referenda placed on primary and genera...

Wisconsin Republicans are up in arms about Gov. Tony Evers latest wave of vetoes. The governor scuttled 40 Republican proposals. The list includes vetoes of a tax cut for retirees in the state, a plan to set a wolf hunt number and vetoes of a child care tax credit and a proposal to keep road salt out of the state’s drinking water, both of which Evers has said were his biggest priorities. Republica...

Voters across Wisconsin said yes to a lot of things on their ballots Tuesday. Both of the state’s proposed constitutional amendments to keep outside money and poll workers out of election operations passed, and a quarter-billion-dollar tax increase for Milwaukee Public Schools also likely gained approval. The first amendment, which bans so-called “Zuckerbucks,” passed with about 54% of the vote. T...

Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday vetoed the Republican-backed legislation that would have banned trans athletes from girls sports in the state. “I will veto any bill that makes Wisconsin a less safe, less inclusive and less welcoming place for LGBTQ people and kids, and I will continue to keep my promise of using every power available to me to defend them, protect their rights, and keep them safe,” Ever...

The price tag for the University of Wisconsin is set to go up next year. UWE President Jay Rothman on Thursday said regents will vote next week on a plan to raise tuition for Wisconsin students by 3.75%. The proposed tuition increase means in-state students in Wisconsin will pay $11,604 at UW-Madison, $10,398 at UW-Milwaukee and between $8,200 and $9,800 for the state’s other, smaller campuses. Th...

Gov. Tony Evers signed more than two dozen new laws, including bans on child sex dolls and child porn created by artificial intelligence. One of the new laws creates the new crime of possession of virtual child pornography. Prosecutors say the law is needed because even AI generated images feed into child pornography and often the pictures or videos are created based on real images. Another new la...

Republicans’ advantage in the U.S. House of Representatives will be only 217-213 after April 19, following Friday’s decision by U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher to resign. The resignation means no more than one Republican can cross the aisle on party-line votes. Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District representative, just 31 when he first won his seat in November 2016, had already said he would not seek a...

The former Milwaukee election manager who sent three fake military ballots to a state lawmaker back in 2022 is claiming to be a whistleblower, but the lawmaker who got those ballots isn’t sure. Kimberly Zapata’s trial began this week. She’s the former Milwaukee Election Commission supervisor charged with official misconduct after she mailed three military ballots to state Rep. Janel Brandtjen ahea...

The latest opposition to Milwaukee Public Schools’ proposed quarter-billion-dollar tax hike is a calculator. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on Tuesday launched its property tax calculator to let people in Milwaukee know just how much more they will pay if the $252 million tax increase passes in April. MPS says it needs the money to avoid deep cuts to school programs. But WILL's Kyle K...