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Republicans critical as Regents pick Mnookin as next UW Chancellor

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The University of Wisconsin in Madison has its next chancellor. Jennifer Mnookin is the unanimous choice of the UW System Board of Regents.

Mnookin is Dean of the UCLA law school in Los Angeles. Mnookin has a long history has an educator. She’s been a professor at UCLA since 2005, and before that, taught law at the University of Virginia, and was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School.

Mnookin becomes UW Madison’s 30th chancellor, after Rebecca Blank’s departure to Northwestern. Blank’s last day is on May 31. Provost John Karl Scholz will serve as interim chancellor until Mnookin starts in August.

Mnookin will have to win over Republican legislators. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on Monday called the Regents’ unanimous pick of the UCLA Law School Dean a “blatant partisan selection.” Vos said Mnookin is a supporter critical race theory and campus  vaccine mandates.

State Senator Steve Nass, Vice Chair of the Senate Universities and Technical Colleges Committee, calls Mnookin a “West Coast liberal.” Both lawmakers also pointed out that Mnookin met with Hunter Biden in 2019 and supported having him join the UCLA faculty to teach drug policy.

In a statement to WisPolitics, Mnookin said she hasn’t had an opportunity to meet Vos yet but look forward to doing so, and that she plans to work with all legislators regardless of party to move the university and Wisconsin forward.

Future of abortion in Wisconsin hinges on SCOTUS ‘Roe’ decision

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Most abortions would likely become illegal again in Wisconsin if a leaked majority opinion draft by the U-S Supreme Court holds up.

Wisconsin has actually had a little-known abortion ban on the books since 1849. It was rendered unenforceable by the landmark Roe versus Wade U-S Supreme Court ruling of 1973. But if Roe is overturned, as the leaked draft opinion suggests it could be, the only legal abortions in Wisconsin would likely be those to save the life of the mother.

The new draft opinion was made in a case challenging Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The court is expected to rule on the case before its term ends in June or July.

Candidates for Wisconsin governor and U.S. Senate have all weighed-in on Monday night’s leak of a draft opinion from the high court. It makes it appear likely that the court’s conservative majority plans to strike down the nearly 50-year-old ruling making abortion legal in the United States.

Statements fell along party lines; Governor Tony Evers said he’ll fight to keep abortion legal in Wisconsin; while three of his four Republican challengers said Monday night that they support the draft opinion. Senator Ron Johnson said the leak is an attempt to put political pressure on the court.

 

Ruling by California judge puts gray wolf back on endangered species list

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A California judge has placed gray wolves back on the federal Endangered Species List. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White on Thursday reversed a November 2020 decision that removed the gray wolf from federal protections.

White agreed with environmental groups, in ruling that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service improperly relied on inadequate and outdated state plans for wolf management when deciding to remove protections for wolves in Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is reviewing the ruling.

Funeral for Master Trooper Daniel Stainbrook

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Funeral services were held Tuesday in Plover for Wisconsin State Patrol Master Trooper Daniel Stainbrook, who contracted COVID on the job and died. State Patrol Lieutenant Nate Henriksen

“We are very grateful for this opportunity today, that we can have our troopers . . . and the law enforcement community to come out here and pay their final respects for Trooper Stainbrook,” said State Patrol Lieutenant Nate Henriksen.

Governor Tony Evers has ordered flags to fly at half-staff in honor of Stainbrook, who died November 15th at age 42.

COVID-19 is now the number one cause of death for law enforcement officers. The Officer Down Memorial Page shows 285 line of duty deaths from COVID-19 this year.

Underly and Kerr advance in state superintendent primary

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Pecatonica Area School District superintendent Jill Underly and retired Brown Deer superintendent Deborah Kerr are the two finalists for Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Underly and Kerr won the most votes in Tuesday’s primary which included a total of seven candidates.

Underly, who had the backing of the state’s largest teachers union, led the field with 27% of the vote. Kerr – backed by Republicans but calling herself a Democrat – received 26% of primary votes.

Current State Superintendent Carolyn Stanford Taylor is not seeking another term.  Underly and Kerr will meet in the April 6th election.

Natural Resources Board sets quota at 200 wolves for February hunt

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Wisconsin’s Natural Resources Board has set a quota of 200 wolves for the rapidly-organized winter hunting season.  The board met online Monday, unanimously supporting the Department of Natural Resources recommendations.

DNR Division Administrator Keith Warnke says application for permits will begin at the DNR’s Go Wild website at 12:01 am Tuesday, February 16th and close Saturday, February 20th at 11:59 pm. “Customers who win in the drawing will be able to review the results on February 22nd. Drawing winners can begin hunting and trapping when they have purchased their license and printed their carcass tag. The season will run through February 28th.”

Warnke says the online applications for the November hunt will open March 1st, and he says applicants can apply for preference points without seeking a harvest tag.  Permits cost $10.00 and if applicants are drawn for a license, wolf harvest tags cost $49.00.  Hunters and trappers can begin harvesting wolves Warnke also says DNR will forego carcass testing for the winter hunt.

DNR Program Supervisor and carnivore specialist Dave MacFarland told the board the 200 quota figure along with other human-caused wolf mortality figures is a figure that stabilizes the wolf population.  Board member Greg Kazmierski asked if that is the goal. “I’m not sure that should be our objective, and maybe that’s what the biologists were asked to do is come up with a quota that stabilizes the population, but the current population is almost four times what our population goal is.”

Board Chair Dr. Frederick Prehn appreciated the efforts of DNR and the board since Thursday’s Jefferson County court ruling. “We have a job to do and I think we completed it, but we completed it with what we believe (is) good science from the department, all politics aside.”

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Bennett Brantmeier ruled Thursday, February 11th the DNR violated existing state law by refusing to schedule a winter 2021 gray wolf hunt.  He scheduled a hearing for Tuesday, February 16th to get DNR’s update on complying with his Thursday order.

Livestock growers have had increased depredation problems since the last wolf season in 2014 including nine confirmed and 36 unconfirmed wolf kills in 2020.

Larry Lee, Brownfield

UW Health reports practically nonexistent Flu season

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Wisconsin is seeing virtually no flu cases this season. As of Wednesday, UW Health reported treating only one case of influenza all season. Compare that to a year ago, when UW Health had seen more than 1,000 by this time.

“The decline in flu numbers is encouraging because I think it would have been worse if we had high numbers of COVID-19 cases coinciding with influenza cases,” said Dr. Nasia Safdar, medical director of infection control at UW Health. “In light of this sharp drop in flu cases, the public might consider wearing masks in public during flu season in the future, regardless of the COVID-19 situation.”

The precautions people are using to stay safe from COVID-19: such as wearing masks, social distancing, washing hands, and staying home, are credited for the dramatic decrease in flu cases.

Evers announces new community vaccine clinic at Blackhawk Technical College

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Blackhawk Technical College will host Wisconsin’s first community-based COVID-19 vaccine clinic.

Governor Tony Evers toured the Janesville campus Wednesday in the clinic space that normally hosts the college’s student center.

The vaccines will be administered by AMI Expeditionary Healthcare as part of a partnership with the state Department of Health Services.

Governor Evers said they chose Blackhawk Tech and Rock County because of their already-established clinic infrastructure and the need to reach residents who might not have access to the vaccine at an area health system.

The vaccines will be available to any Wisconsin resident who is eligible for the shots under the state’s priority groups.

Evers said the clinic can vaccinate up to 250 people per day starting next Tuesday, but the state needs a greater supply of vaccines for the clinic to reach its full capacity.

He credited the Biden administration’s vaccine rollout for helping Wisconsin improve its rate of vaccinating residents, with better communication and planning from the federal level.

WCLO

Biden will visit Wisconsin next week

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President Joe Biden will visit Wisconsin next week, his first stop in the state since winning the presidency.

Biden’s Tuesday visit will come the same day Governor Evers delivers his budget address, and Wisconsin’s spring primary election.

The White House has not released details of the president’s stop. Biden was last in Wisconsin on October 30th for a campaign rally in Milwaukee.

 

Wisconsin National Guard deploying to Washington

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The Wisconsin National Guard is sending personnel to Washington, D.C. for Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Governor Tony Evers has ordered 500 troops from both the Army and Air National Guard to deploy to the nation’s capital.

The Wisconsin troops are just part of a massive deployment of National Guard troops from across the country to D.C. ahead of next week’s swearing-in, amid concerns ever possible armed protests at the U.S. Capitol.