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DNR awards over $6 million in clean water grants to local groups

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The Wisconsin DNR is awarding over 6 million dollars to local groups in order to help clean up and maintain lakes and rivers.

DNR Lakes and Rivers Team Leader Alison Mikulyuk says nearly 250 groups will be working to restore Wisconsin waters. 

“Grants are available to groups that want to take on projects to protect and restore lakes, rivers and wetlands, and help control invasive species. Together we can ensure we have healthy waters far into the future”

Among the projects are trout habitat restoration in Forest County, watershed management near Lake Winnebago, and multiple projects to reconnect wetlands to streams and rivers. 

Mikulyuk says this is part of the Department’s overall approach of keeping Wisconsin’s waters clean at the local level. 

State Dems say Republican efforts to control COVID-19 funding are partisan

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Legislative Democrats say attempts by the state GOP to take over control of COVID-19 relief funds are short-sighted partisanship. 

Democrat State Senator Melissa Agard says GOP requests to audit funding and debates over bills that would delay getting relief funds out to residents will harm Wisconsinites. 

“We do not have time for partisan bickering and partisan rhetoric. What we need right now is real true leadership that has a track record of doing the best thing for the people in the state of Wisconsin.”

Agard says Governor Tony Evers and his administration are perfectly capable of getting the funds to where they’re needed.

“Ensuring that they have access to affordable, quality healthcare, ensure that our schools are adequately funded, that our transportation budget isn’t being kicked down the road for future generations, and that we get our Main Street businesses back in order.”

Republican leaders say that they only want to ensure oversight and transparency in where those funds are going. Agard and other Democrats say that if Republicans wanted control over the funds, then Congressional Republicans should have voted in favor of the package. 

Senator Baldwin backs efforts to expand ACA coverage, Navigator programs

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Senator Tammy Baldwin is backing President Biden’s push to return funding back to the Insurance Navigator Program.

Baldwin says those funds will make it easier for people to get the coverage they need on the Healthcare Marketplace. 

“During a deadly pandemic we should be working to make it easier not harder for Americans to get the health care they need and that’s exactly what President Biden is doing.”

Former President Trump cut funding to the Navigator program during his administration.

Baldwin says she’s cosponsoring legislation that will reduce premiums and deductibles for low income families. “To expand Health Care coverage two more than 4 million Americans who are currently uninsured and reduce healthcare costs for millions of additional individuals who are already have coverage.”

Enrollment for the A C A marketplace is currently open through May 15th. 

Assembly Republicans call on Governor Evers to increase funding to schools that had in-person classes

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Assembly Republicans want Governor Evers to prioritize some 20 million dollars in emergency school funding for rural districts that have been holding in-person classes for most of the current year.

State Representative Pat Snyder said schools that prioritized in person classes should get more of that funding. 

“Some of the districts that haven’t been in like say through the first half of this year but came in after Christmas, they wouldn’t maybe get as much as the ones that have been in since September.”

Snyder says says those districts carried a heavy, unplanned financial burden. “Cost they’ve had in cleaning and staff and all the other things that are associated with it.”

That 20 million dollars of CARES act funding is under the Governor’s personal discretion. The state GOP already moved 66 million dollars of CARES funding to those schools earlier this year. 

UW-Health update on COVID-19 vaccinations in Wisconsin

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Now that more people are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccinations, health professionals say it might be harder to find a time to get your shots.

UW Health Primary Care Director Dr. Matt Anderson says that some people may just need to keep calling to check. 

“I think that broadly I would recommend people go to the DHS vaccinator map that’s available on their webpage, be looking at who’s vaccinating their area and then you know they certainly can be contacting, whether it’s pharmacies or others, to find out what’s going on with that.”

Right now the start has about 50 percent of the over-65 population fully vaccinated, and those people will still have priority in getting their shots.  Dr. Anderson says teachers and childcare workers should check with their providers to find out when they can get the shot. 

“New eligibility groups means that the demand is going to go up. It’s important that we continue to think about how the supply matches up with that. But it’s a lot of opportunities for people to be vaccinated and so hopefully the supply will catch up with the demand here in the coming weeks.”

Dr. Anderson reminds people who have gotten the shot that they can still transmit COVID-19, so they should continue wearing masks and being safe. 

Ron Kind still in favor of federal minimum wage increase despite removal from COVID-19 bill

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Congressman Ron Kind says he’s still going to push for an increase in the federal minimum wage, despite changes to the COVID-19 bill that will prevent that happening just now.

Kind says that it’s going to fall on the federal government to raise the minimum wage, because the Republicans that control the Wisconsin Legislature won’t do it. 

“Our state legislature in Wisconsin has refused to take any action. Folks, $7.25 an hour is an embarrassment for Wisconsinites, those working at jobs below the poverty level because the minimum wage is at $7.25.”

“Quite frankly I prefer a regional approach because the minimum wage requirements in San Francisco or New York and the cost of living there is much different,” says Kind.

The Senate Parliamentarian ruled last week that an increase in the federal minimum wage falls outside of the budget process being used to pass the $1.7 trillion stimulus package. 

 

Nearly double Wisconsin’s wolf hunt quota killed in abbreviated hunting and trapping season

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Wisconsin hunters took nearly twice the number of wolves than the Department of Natural Resources was hoping for during an extremely brief 3 day wolf hunt this week.

DNR Wildlife Administrator Keith Warkne said the agency to close the season nearly as fast as it opened.

“As of 3 p.m. today 216 wolves have been reported in GameReg. The harvest breakdown was 86% taken by dogs, 5% taken by trappers, and 9% by other hunting methods,” Warnke said. “We monitored the reported harvest constantly. The decision to close zones was made using the best available harvest data, and, following the law, we issued a 24-hour notice of closure.”

The total kill was 82% above the state-licensed goal, according to Department of Natural Resources data released Thursday. Licensed hunters and trappers had a harvest quota of 119 spread across the state, excluding Native American reservations.

“By Tuesday, we announced the closing of the first three zones at 10 a.m. followed by announcing the closure of the remaining three zones at 3 p.m. that afternoon. Those zones then closed 24 hours after the announcement,”  Warnke said.

A court ordered the wolf hunting and trapping season – just the fourth in state history – to begin this week following a lawsuit from an out-of-state hunting group. Legislative Republicans claimed that the DNR was trying to delay it until wolves were put back on the federal endangered species list.

 

WMC sues the Department of Natural Resources over expansion of PFAS rules

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The state’s largest business lobby is suing the Department of Natural Resources over new PFAS regulations.

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and an Oconomowoc dry cleaner want a court to stop the D-N-R from enforcing new rules regarding PFAS cleanup. W-M-C says that the D-N-R doesn’t have any legal right to tell businesses to test for PFAS contamination as a part of cleanup efforts, and that the courts need to stop the state from expanding their list of contaminants without legislative approval.

Those so called forever chemicals have now been found at over 50 sites statewide, mostly linked to firefighting foam spills.

Wisconsin wolf hunt already over, just days after start

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Wisconsin’s wolf hunt has already reached its quota, just a few days after it started.

That hunt opened up on Monday with a total of around 120 wolf tags available to regular hunters, and another 80 ceded to the state’s tribal nations. The DNR will be closing the hunts by Wednesday afternoon.

The wolf hunt was a matter of contention between Republican lawmakers and the Natural Resources Board, with a court ordering the hunt to take place.

Senator Johnson claims leftists, anarchists are to blame for attack on US Capitol

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At Tuesday’s Senate Homeland Security hearing on the January 6th riots at the US Capitol, Senator Ron Johnson claimed that the attack was carried out not by Trump supporters but by leftists and anarchists.

Johnson said that the people who attended President Trump’s rally that day were peaceful.

“Many of the marchers were families with small children, many were elderly, overweight or just plain tired or frail. Traits not typically attributed to the riot prone. Many wore pro-police shirts or carried pro police black and blue flags. Plainclothes militants, agents provocateurs, fake Trump protesters, and then disciplined uniformed column of attackers. I think these are the people that probably planned this.”

Criminal charges against those who have been arrested paint different pictures, with many of those arrested being longtime Trump supporters, and members of radical groups like the Proud Boys or other white nationalist organizations. 

Johnson also read an excerpt from an article that claimed that lack of action by the Capitol Police was to blame for the severity of the attacks. 

“‘When we crossed 1st Street Northwest and entered the Capitol grounds where the Capitol Police have jurisdiction I noticed no police at all. Several marchers expressed surprise. The openness seemed like a courtesy gesture from Congress, which controls security.'”

Testimony from the hearing painted a different picture, where miscommunication between federal agencies led to a lack of preparedness by the police force.