Wisconsin in Focus

The former head of Wisconsin’s Republican Party and the man in charge of this summer’s Republican National Convention says he doesn’t see anyone but Donald Trump getting the nomination. Reince Priebus told News Talk 1130’s WISN that after the former president’s resounding win in the Iowa Caucuses, Trump is the presumptive nominee. Trump doubled the vote totals of both Ron DeSantis and Nikki Halley...

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is now being asked to overturn the state’s other political maps after asking for new legislative maps. The Elias Law Firm, headed by lawyer Mark Elias, asked the state’s high court to redraw Wisconsin’s congressional maps. Elias has ties to the Hillary Clinton campaign network and has filed several election-related lawsuits across the country. Support this podcast: http...

The people in charge of hiring in Wisconsin are souring on the state’s economy. Just 22% of employers in Wisconsin think the state’s economy is strong, according to the latest Employer Survey from Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce released Thursday morning. The vast majority of employers, 70%, think the state’s economy is moderate, and 9% think its weak. The 22% strong number is near historic low...

Wisconsin’s powerful Assembly speaker doesn’t appear worried about the effort from a Racine County voter to oust him from office before the November election. Matthew Snorek, of Burlington, filed a petition with the Wisconsin Elections Commission to begin a recall campaign against Speaker Robin Vos. Vos said he’s not afraid to face voters in June. Get your Audible Membership today! (As an Amazon A...

A pair of conservative senators at the Wisconsin Capitol don’t like that the state’s Department of Transportation wants to get into the business of regulating office cubicles. Both Sens. Duey Stroebel, R-Cedarburg, and Steve Nass, R-Whiterwater, are speaking out against a new plan that would force more regulations on auto wholesalers in the state. The plan,  AB 625 , quickly cleared an Assembly Co...

The latest plan to legalize marijuana in Wisconsin isn’t making either side happy. A group of Republicans on Monday introduced the outline for a new, medical marijuana program in the state. It would be limited to just severely or chronically ill patients, like people with cancer or multiple sclerosis, and the program would limit what kind of medical marijuana people can use. Get your Audible Membe...

A judge in Dane County says absentee ballots in Wisconsin don’t need a full address to be counted this year. Judge Ryan Nilsestuen ruled local election managers need not reject absentee ballots if the absentee witness’ address is incomplete. The ruling comes after a judge in Waukesha County ruled last year local election clerks could not count ballots with missing address information. The Waukesha...

One of the men in charge of the legislature’s audit committee says he’d been forced to use the audit process to get the answers the Evers administration is reluctant to provide. Rep. Bob Wittke, R-Racine, told The Center Square that agency directors under Gov. Tony Evers have made a habit out of ignoring questions from lawmakers. Wittke has specific questions about two recent audits – the audit in...

A letter from Whitewater’s police chief is getting new attention as two of Wisconsin's congressmen are again focusing on illegal immigration. Northwoods Congressman Tom Tiffany shared the letter with a warning about the flood of illegal immigrants who’ve come into the U.S. during President Biden’s three years in office. Tiffany included a link to a story published about the 1,000 immigrants from N...

Wisconsin's State Assembly speaker, on a Tuesday radio show, said he doesn't think drawing new political maps will change things. Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, told Jessica McBride on the Dan O’Donnell Show that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is likely to veto any maps drawn and only wants "lap dogs" to do his bidding. The conversation comes in the wake of Friday's state Supreme Court ruling calling...

There is a plan at the Wisconsin Capitol to create a new statewide Office of Violence Prevention. Rep. Shelia Stubbs, D-Madison, wants to set-up the new office in the state’s Department of Health Services. Milwaukee and Madison are both seeing increases in crime, including violent crime. Milwaukee set records for homicides in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.co...

A pair of Republican lawmakers are promising to hold hearings into why so many state and University of Wisconsin workers aren’t in their offices. A pair of audits from the Legislative Audit Bureau looked at telework and office space trends. Auditors found that nearly 20% of state employees are allowed to work from home, some as many as five days a week. That number jumps to more than 30% of UW wor...

 Not everyone is on board with the plan to start counting absentee ballots before election day in Wisconsin. Critics lined up Tuesday to press lawmakers not to approve the so-called Monday count legislation. Another election reform proposal came up this week before the Senate Committee on Elections. They heard a plan to introduce ranked choice voting in the state, which was criticized by many Repu...

Democrats at the Wisconsin Capitol are furious with Republican lawmakers after Universities of Wisconsin regents voted to accept the deal that will roll back some diversity, equity and inclusion jobs. Regents voted Wednesday night to accept the deal that repurposes a little more than 40 DEI administrators in exchange for $800 million for UW pay raises, a new engineering building on the Madison cam...

A judge says Wisconsin’s near total ban on abortions does not apply to consensual abortions. Dane County Judge Diane Schlipper last week ruled the 1849 law that bans almost all abortions in the state only applies to people who intentionally kill a baby, what she called feticide. Schlipper said the law does not apply when a woman agrees to end her pregnancy. The Sheboygan County district attorney i...

Wisconsin taxpayers are officially on the hook for $500 million for the Milwaukee Brewers’ ballpark. Gov. Tony Evers last week signed the ballpark funding plan. Evers high-fived the Brewers’ racing sausages after he signed the deal. The public funding package means $366 million from state taxpayers and $135 million from taxpayers in Milwaukee and Milwaukee County will be earmarked for American Fam...

The man who signed Act 10 into law is predicting an expensive turnaround if the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturns it. Former Gov. Scott Walker was a guest on Madison television over the weekend. He told Channel 3000’s For the Record that ending Act 10 would weaken voters, parents and communities, and give more power to Wisconsin’s public sector unions. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spot...

 A Wisconsin congressman is warning about possible Chinese spying at the nation’s ports. Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher, who leads the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said his committee is looking into whether the Chinese are using giant port cranes to spy. Gallagher said the Department of Homeland Security is looking into possible vulnerabilities at the nation’s seap...

 Many children in Wisconsin schools have not returned to class since the COVID outbreak. A new report from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty looks at the spike in chronic absenteeism, particularly since the start of the 2020 school year. The report shows truancy rates in Wisconsin public schools have more than doubled since 2012. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/s...

Wisconsin’s governor might have to make his secret email account, and the 17,000 emails he sent through it, public. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on Tuesday filed a formal request to see the Gov. Tony Evers’ warren.spahn@wisconsin.gov emails. Evers’ office has defended the email account as an “email alias,” that was necessary for “enhanced security.” Support this podcast: https://pod...

The effort to end school choice in Wisconsin through the state’s supreme court has failed to convince Gov. Tony Evers. The Evers Administration late Friday submitted a brief with the high court, explaining there is no emergency basis for the Supreme Court to take the case. Progressive activist and often-candidate Kirk Bangstad filed the lawsuit last month, claiming school choice and Wisconsin’s vo...

The top Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly says he is encouraged by the University of Wisconsin’s plan to focus on in-demand degrees, but it's not enough to move him off his block of the university's pay raises. Speaker Robin Vos told reporters at the Capitol that without an agreement to pull back on diversity, equity and inclusion spending there won’t be any movement on raises for university wo...

Despite test scores that show nearly 60% of students in Wisconsin schools cannot read or do math at grade level, more than 90% of school districts in the state meet the state’s expectations. The Department of Public Instruction recently released its school and school district report cards. Of the 378 public school districts in the state that received a report card this year, 357 met or exceeded ex...

It looks like taxpayers in Wisconsin will continue to pay for the Brewers’ baseball stadium. The Wisconsin Senate on Tuesday morning approved the plan to spend about $500 million on future renovations and maintenance at American Family Field. To make it happen, the Republican sponsor of the plan had to work a few changes. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wisconsininfoc...

Tuesday was a day for Republicans at the Wisconsin Capitol to show their frustrations with the University of Wisconsin. The State Assembly was scheduled to vote on a series of plans that would force changes upon the Universities of Wisconsin. The biggest proposed change would create a punishment for UW campuses that do not respect the free speech rights of students – particularly conservative stud...