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Evers unveils funding for school mental health services

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Governor Tony Evers (PHOTO: Larry Lee, Brownfield)

School mental health services in Wisconsin have received a financial boost. Governor Tony Evers announced at locations around the state  this week that nearly every K-12 district in Wisconsin will be awarded funding through the 15 million dollar “Get Kids Ahead Initiative.”

The funds are from Wisconsin’s share of the federal American Rescue Plan Act.

Schools will be able to use the funds for a variety of mental health support services for students and families. Every public school district in the state was eligible to opt in and was guaranteed a minimum of $10,000 dollars, with the remainder of the money allocated on a per-pupil basis.

Aimee Burazin, staff psychologist at Stevens Point Area High School, said they’ll use some of that to expand mental health navigator services. “To help eliminate some of the barriers that our students have in getting connected with outpatient counseling, whether it’s the difficulties with outpatient counseling, whether it’s the difficulty navigating the insurance part or scheduling and who’s even available, since it’s been really difficult even with waiting lists.”

Burazin said some of the funding will also go towards expand professional development to teachers, “who are really our frontline people who are working with our students, and are the first to probably notice that something is maybe amiss with the student and the student is maybe struggling.”

Brownfield’s Larry Lee contributed to this report

 

U.S. House votes to pass insulin co-pay cap

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A bill to cap insurance co-pays for insulin has passed the House of Representatives without the support of any Wisconsin Republicans.

Twelve Republicans joined all House Democrats on Thursday in voting for legislation that would cap the cost of insulin at $35 per month, but Wisconsin’s Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Tiffany, Brian Steil, Glenn Grothman and Mike Gallagher all voted no.

Experts say insulin costs about ten dollars per vial to produce. The price has more than doubled since 2012, and even some people with insurance can pay hundreds of dollars per vial. Republicans have referred to the bill as “government price fixing.”

The measure now heads to the U.S. Senate, and president Joe Biden is expected to sign it, if it passes that chamber.

 

La Follette will seek 12th term as Secretary of State

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Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug LaFollette has announced he’s seeking a 12th term in office. The Democrat said Thursday that he opposes Republican proposals to give the partisan office oversight of elections.

“Two years ago I might have made a different decision. But now with the integrity of this office at risk, many people have urged me to run for reelection,” LaFollette said.

“Wisconsin historically, and in my entire tenure, 44 years, the Secretary of State has never been involved in election supervision.”

There are four Republican candidates for secretary of state including state Representative Amy Loudenbeck, and all have said the office should oversee elections.

The Secretary of State’s duties have been diminished during La Follette’s tenure. The office now fulfills a limited number of administrative functions.

Ballot drop box plans announced in Madison and Milwaukee

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Election officials in the state’s two largest cities have announced differing plans for absentee voters ahead of the Spring Non-Partisan Election.

Milwaukee officials plant to staff nine different ballot drop boxes scattered throughout the city to allow voters to return their completed ballots on March 26th and April 2nd. Officials say they believe this option will be in compliance with a recent court ruling which states that unmanned drop boxes are not a legal option for voters to return their completed ballot.

Milwaukee will also offer several in-person absentee voting options in the days leading up to the April 5th election.

Meanwhile voters in Madison are being encouraged to either bring their completed ballots to city hall in the days leading up to the election or drop them off at their polling place on election day. Ballots can also be return through the mail, provided you get them sent in time.

Vos heckled following meeting with election decertification proponents at Capitol

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At the Capitol on Wednesday, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was heckled, as he emerged from a meeting with Republicans who want results of Wisconsin’s 2020 elections decertified, something Vos has repeatedly explained is not possible.

Attorney Jefferson Davis, who has claimed there was widespread fraud in 2020, told reporters that the meeting was “very productive.” As he spoke, Vos emerged from the room where the meeting took place, to calls of “toss Robin Vos.”

Vos reiterated what he’s been saying for months. “There are some people who think that we have the unilateral ability to overturn the election, we do not.”

Vos also claimed there was “widespread fraud,” in 2020, but that the solution is to elect a Republican governor and attorney general in November.

President Joe Biden won Wisconsin by some 20,000 votes in 2020, in an election that also saw many Republican lawmakers win. A review by the Legislative Audit Bureau found a need for the Wisconsin Elections Commission to improve some of its procedures, but no evidence of widespread fraud.

But Vos said a partisan probe led by former state Supreme Court justice Mike Gableman will yield results. It has so far failed to come up with anything substantive, which Vos blames on a lack of cooperation by elected officials and  elections officials in Democratic cities. Gableman has insisted that those officials testify in private.

Prior to the meeting at the Capitol, Vos reportedly asked that State Representative Tim Ramthun leave the room. Ramthun is a Republican candidate for governor who has embraced election conspiracy theories.

DHS launches Thank You Tour honoring frontline health care workers

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The Wisconsin Department of Health Services is honoring all those who worked on the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic.

An event in Madison on Monday kicked off a statewide “thank you tour” to celebrate health care workers and those who helped over the past two years.

“Our healthcare workers have shown up every day, and have cared for the people in our community who needed care. They have held our loved ones hands, when we couldn’t hold them ourselves,” said Janel Heinrich, Director of Public Health Madison & Dane County.

Wisconsin National Guard. Adjutant General, Major General Paul Knapp also spoke at Monday’s event.

“In the National Guard we have a motto – ‘always ready, always there.’ Never have I seen our motto proven so true. I am proud to say the adaptability and professionalism of our service members was on full display over the past two years as well,” Knapp said.

COVID-19 has been a trying time for the state’s public health workers, some of whom have been ostracized and even threatened over their efforts to keep communities safe.

Governor Tony Evers grew emotional, relating a conversation he had during the depths of pandemic. “One of the public health officers said, ‘the worst thing that happened to me, was I was disinvited to my granddaughter’s birthday.’ Think about that.”

Evers called health care workers the heroes of the pandemic. “For all the things that you have done well, and all the things that happened to you, that you just kept to yourselves.”

The “Thank You Tour: Moving Forward Together” will recognize community efforts to fight COVID-19. DHS has also launched a webpage where people can post notes of appreciation.

 

Six state Senators won’t seek reelection

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At least six Wisconsin state Senators will not seek reelection this fall. Republican Senator Jerry Petrowski of Marathon dropped that news on Thursday.

Petrowski is a veteran lawmaker, elected to the Senate in 2012 following Assembly service that began in 1998.

Evansville Democrat Janis Ringhand also said last week that she’s not running again. Ringhand was elected in 2014 and has served as Assistant Minority Leader. Republican Senators Roger Roth of Appleton and Kathy Bernier of Chippewa Falls and Democrats Jon Erpenbach of West Point and Minority Leader Janet Bewley of Mason all previously announced they were not running again. Roth is running for lieutenant governor. There are also 14 members of the state Assembly not running for reelection.

Also, Brookfield Republican Dale Kooyenga has said he won’t seek reelection, if districts approved by the Wisconsin Supreme Court are allowed to stand. The maps, a product of a commission appointed by Governor Ton Evers, moved Kooyenga in to the district of River Hills Republican Alberta Darling. Republicans have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the state court ruling.

Former Lieutenant Governor Margaret Farrow has died

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Former Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Margaret Farrow has died. That word comes from Farrow’s son, Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow in a news release on Tuesday.

Margaret Farrow spent decades in politics, first as a trustee in the Waukesha County Village of Elm Grove. She was elected to the state Assembly in 1986 and to the state Senate three years later.

She was then reelected in three times before being appointed lieutenant governor in 2001 after Scott McCallum became governor when Tommy Thompson was appointed as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary. Margaret Farrow was 87.

In State of the State, Evers says he’ll call special session on his budget surplus plan

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In his State of the State address Tuesday night, Governor Tony Evers called on Republicans to return part of a projected budget surplus back to state residents.

The Democratic Governor will sign an executive order, calling a special session of the Wisconsin Legislature to address his plan to spend about half of the state’s projected $3.8 billion dollar surplus.

The Democratic Governor noted Republicans want to hold off on decisions regarding the surplus. “That’s not going to help Wisconsinites buy groceries today. It won’t help Wisconsinites pay for gas today. It won’t help Wisconsinites pay for childcare, heat their homes, or put food on their table today. Wisconsinites can’t wait.”

Evers wants to send $150 surplus rebate checks to each resident, provide $750 million in additional funding for K-through-12 education, and provide $130 million in child and caregiver tax credits. Republicans have already called the plan an election year gimmick, and have failed to take action on any previous special sessions called by the governor.

 

Republican Representative Ramthun running for Governor

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A Republican state lawmaker has entered the race for Wisconsin governor. Representative Timothy Ramthun of Kewauskum is a fervent supporter former President Donald Trump. Ramthun has espoused conspiracy theories and false claims, regarding the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos recently stripped Ramthun of his sole office staffer in response to Ramthun’s claims that Wisconsin can revoke the 10 electoral votes it delivered to President Joe Biden. Ramthun also falsely accused Vos of signing a deal with attorneys for former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to authorize ballot drop boxes in Wisconsin.

Two other high-profile Republicans, former Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch and former U.S. Senate candidate Kevin Nicholson, are also running to challenge incumbent Democrat Tony Evers.

Ramthun announced his campaign Saturday, during a three hour event a Kewauskum High School, during which he received the endorsement of My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell.