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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.

Tiffany and Fitzgerald object to certifying election results

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Hours after a Trump mob takeover of the Capitol, two Wisconsin House Republicans voted to overturn results of the presidential election.

Scott Fitzgerald and Tom Tiffany voted to object to the Electoral College results. Fitzgerald had not said how he was going to vote before the chaos and delayed vote. In all, just over 120 House Republicans voted to object.

Wisconsin’s Republican U.S. Senator Ron Johnson claims to still have questions and concerns about the November election.

Despite those doubts, Johnson did not vote to object to November’s election results on Wednesday night. Johnson has been one of the most vocal critics of the 2020 election, and one of Donald Trump’s most vocal supporters, but said he was not going to challenge the results because of Wednesday’s violence at the U.S. Capitol.

Johnson says states need to answer the questions about their elections, or they risk angering people again in two years.

Trump recounts in Dane and Milwaukee Counties come in under budget

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The cost to recount presidential votes in Wisconsin’s two most populous counties came in slightly under budget.

In Dane County, the bill to recount the votes as requested by President Donald Trump was around $730,000, about $11,000 less than initially estimated. That money went towards hiring poll workers, increased security, and payments for special gear to recount the votes, according to County Clerk Scott McDonell.

Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson reports the presidential vote recount came at almost $1.7 million, below the $2 million that was budgeted

Christenson said about one-third of the cost was used to rent the space where the ballots were counted again.

Trump’s campaign paid $3-million dollars in advance for the recounts in heavily-Democratic Milwaukee and Dane counties. The effort actually discovered a few additional votes for Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Trump lost Wisconsin by fewer than 22,000 votes.

The itemized bills comes after the Republican lead Joint Finance Committee objected to handing over the money that the Trump Campaign paid the state without getting an invoice from Dane and Milwaukee Counties.

 

Evers requests state Supreme Court allow new order limiting capacities

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A new statewide order would cut bars and restaurants to 25-percent of capacity.
Governor Tony Evers’ office is asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to allow public health officials to issue that order in the effort to slow down new cases of COVID-19.

The order would be in effect for 28 days. The same order issued earlier this year brought on the lawsuit argued Thursday before the high court.

The Evers administration wants the Supreme Court to issue a favorable ruling, so Department of Health Services Secretary designee Andrea Palm can issue a new one.

Report finds UW System competitiveness threatened by financial challenges

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A new report indicates the tuition freeze imposed on the University of Wisconsin System has led to many financial challenges.

The Wisconsin Policy Forum report says the tuition freeze is choking off a stream of new revenue. It also says the flagship campus in Madison is slipping behind its competitors as a major research institution, and campus buildings are starting to deteriorate.

The Policy forum also found that stagnant state funding and declining enrollment have added to difficulties for the UW System and Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS).

The group Badgers United is advocating for a tuition increase, more money in the state budget, and a billion-dollar line of credit for UW Madison.