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Bipartisan bill would prevent backlog of sexual assault test kits

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The attorney general and a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduce a bill to prevent future backlogs of sexual assault kits in Wisconsin. Attorney General Josh Kaul said the measure will establish timelines and protocols for victims, medical professionals and law enforcement.

“Under current Wisconsin law, there’s no statutory framework for the collection and processing of sexual assault kits,” Kahl said during a Tuesday press conference. “This legislation will change that.”

Under the bill, if the victim wants to report the sexual assault to law enforcement, a health care professional must notify police within 24 hours of collecting the kit. If the victim doesn’t want to report, the kit must still be sent to the state crime lab 72 hours. Kits are to be stored there for up to 10 years

Kaul said he’s confident the bipartisan bill would pass the Legislature. “This legislation sends a clear message, which is that we can never have another backlog of untested sexual assault kits again in Wisconsin.”

Study: Wisconsin failing to attract and keep young people

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A new report reveals troubling trends for the future of Wisconsin’s workforce. Simply too few young people to replace retiring baby boomers over the next 15 years, despite the state still having a lot to offer, like good schools and low crime.

“Soemthing else has changed, but we’re not exactly sure what that is,” said Forward Analytics Director of Research Dale Knapp. “We’re now losing among what has been the most critical age groups for Wisconsin, that we typically gained among young families, which is a real problem not only for the short term but the long term for the state.”

Knapp says it can’t be pinned on our winter weather. “Iowa has been doing very well among the groups that we seen to have been losing. Minnesota the same way, and Minnesota has had much worse winters than we have.”

During 2010-2015, the state lost population among key groups. Most concerning, a net out migration of young families. The report, issued Monday, is entitled “Falling Behind: Migration Changes and State Workforce,” Forward Analytics is a new non-partisan research arm of the Wisconsin Counties Association.

 

Treu bound over for trial in Girl Scout troop road deaths

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Twenty-two year-old Colten Treu, accused in a hit-and-run crash that killed three Girl Scouts and a mother, has been bound over for trial. A judge in Chippewa County Court ruled Friday afternoon that there was enough evidence to proceed with the case against Treu.

He’s accused of huffing from an aerosol canister last November, then crashing his pickup truck into members of Girl Scout Troop 3055 as they were picking up litter in Lake Hallie. Treu is facing numerous charges, including homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle. He’s to be arraigned on May 24. Killed were 9-year-old Jayna Kelley, 10-year-old Autumn Helgeson, 10-year-old Haylee Hickle and her mother, 32-year-old Sara Jo Schneider. Another Girl Scout, Madalyn Zwiefelhofer, was injured

Bill would support Wisconsin’s hemp industry

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Proposed legislation will help support Wisconsin’s infant hemp industry. State Senator Patrick Testin said the legislation creates truth in labeling laws for hemp products, and incorporates lessons learned over the past year to create a program that better meets the needs of Wisconsin farmers and processors.

“We want to make sure that we’re able to administer our own program because we think we can administer it more effectively at the state level, as opposed to having the feds come in and mandate who it’s going to look and operate,” Testin said.

Is there money to be made? Representative Tony Kurtz is an organic farmer who grew hemp last year, the inaugural year for the state’s hemp program. “I’ll put it this way, I’m not growing it to lose money,” Kurtz said. “I think it will be profitable.”

The growing market for hemp derived products could represent an opportunity for Wisconsin’s hard-pressed dairy farmers to diversify. “Our farmers are going to run with this,” Testin said. “We’re really poisd right now to be the national leader.”
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Bernie Sanders to rally in Madison on Friday

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Madison will be “feeling the Bern” on Friday. The city is the first stop in a swing through “battleground states” by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. According to a release from the Sanders campaign, he’ll make the pitch that Democrats’ clearest and strongest path to victory in 2020 runs through the upper Midwest — and that he’s the best-positioned candidate to win these states and defeat Donald Trump.

Sanders has a rally set for 5:00 at James Madison Park in downtown Madison. He’ll be in Warren Michigan on Saturday and Pittsburgh on Sunday.

Voters in Madison and Green Bay elect new mayors

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Madison voters have unseated their long-time mayor. Satya Rhodes-Conway, who advises mayors around the country at the University of Wisconsin beat Paul Soglin in a landslide, 62% to 38%. Soglin has been Madison’s mayor on-and-off since the early 1970s. Rhodes-Conway will be Madison’s first openly gay mayor.

For the first time in 16 years, Green Bay has a new mayor. Former state representative Eric Genrich received 58% of the vote to beat Brown County Supervisor Pat Buckley at the polls. Genrich replaces outgoing mayor Jim Schmitt who decided against running for re-election.

State Supreme Court: Hagedorn claims win, Neaubauer not conceding

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Appeals Court Judge Brian Hagedorn is declaring a win, in his race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, but Appeals Court Chief Judge Lisa Neubauer is maintaining the race remains too close to call.

In unofficial returns collected by The Associated Press, Hagedorn was leading by 5,960 votes with 100 percent of precincts reporting. “It looks like the lead is quite large, and that a recount would not make a whole lot of sense,” Hagedron said Wednesday.

In a video posted to her Facebook page, Neubauer said she would make sure that “every last vote is counted” in the race which she added would “take a little time.”

The conservative Hagedorn credited a “grass roots” campaign for his apparent win. If it holds’ he’ll replace retiring Justice Shirley Abrahamson on the court.

Communications between Evers and GOP leaders appear tenuous

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Governor Tony Evers

Are they or aren’t they communicating? Democratic Governor Tony Evers says, while he hasn’t actually met recently with Republican legislative leaders. “I know we have some, I think meetings planned in the future,” Evers told reporters in Madison this week. “I think it’s working as good as it can, but under no circumstances are we not communicating with them.”

Evers said his staff and the staffs of GOP leaders are communicating. The majority leader in the state Assembly said that’s not good enough.

And if any face-to-face meetings have been scheduled, Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steinke is unaware of them. “There’s nothing on the calender. They haven’t reached out that I’ve been made aware of to any of us, to set up any kind of meeting face-to-face with the governor.”

Rep. Jim Steineke

Evers and Republican leaders are essentially proposing competing two-year state budgets. Evers said communications between his office and legislative leaders are adequate, to get a state budget accomplished. “Absolutely. We gotta do it. Do I want it to be done by end of June? Yes, but we can’t put all these school districts and municipalities in the position of having to guess what the aid will be.”

It that’s going to happen, Steineke said they need to meet face-to-face. “In the absence of those meetings, we’re just going to forward and do what we think is right, and I guess let the chips fall where they may.”

Kaul announces Wisconsin joining opioid distribution investigation

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Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul is joining a multistate investigation into three opioid distributors. It began in 2017 in response to the opioid epidemic that’s resulted in the deaths of thousands of people.

Kaul’s office announced Monday that the state DOJ is joining the effort to determine whether distribution practices of the three firms – that control about 90 percent of the country’s opioid supply – may have worsened the epidemic. The firms are AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson.

Ryan named to board of new Fox Corp.

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Former House Speaker Paul Ryan has been named to the board of the new Fox Corporation. The newly spun-off media company will house assets including Fox News Channel and Fox Broadcast Network.

It’s a new phase for billionaire Rupert Murdoch’s media business after the sale of Twenty-First Century Fox film and television assets to Walt Disney Company. Ryan and Murdoch are friendly – in 2014, Murdock named Ryan as a presidential contender he had “particular admiration for.”

Ryan served as House Speaker from October 2015 to January of this year, when he retired from Congress. The Janesville native represented Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District from 1999 until his retirement, and was Mitt Romney’s running mate in the 2012 presidential campaign.