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Walker could fetch up to 25K per speech

February 8, 2019 By WRN Contributor

Governor Scott Walker (WRN photo)

A Virginia-based national speakers group has added former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to its list. Walker – who lost his reelection bid to Democrat Tony Evers last November – will charge $15,000 to $25,000 to speak on topics like “the power of faith in times of crisis” and “insights on the current and future political landscape in America.”

#WWSG announces @ScottWalker as new exclusive speaker!https://t.co/wg4YtkYhgQ pic.twitter.com/JkUtHFDYxh

— Worldwide Speakers (@WWSGconnect) February 7, 2019

Other speakers represented by World Wide Speakers Group include General John Kelly, Doctor Sanjay Gupta and former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina.

Finance committee approves GOP middle-class tax cut

February 7, 2019 By Bob Hague

A Republican-authored middle-class tax cut has passed the legislature’s finance committee. “We have a reasonable, simple plan, said Representative Mark Born, part of the Republican majority who advanced the plan over the objections of Democrats. “We’ve collected too much money, we’re going to give some it back.

The Republican bill pays for a tax cut out of a state surplus. Democratic Governor Tony Evers has a tax cut plan as well. He pay for it by capping a tax credit for manufacturers, something opposed by Republicans.

Thursday’s Joint Finance Committee vote was 10-3, with three members absent. Republicans amended AB-10 with an “emergency clause.”

“I think it would have been better suited for us to table this, take a look at his (Evers’) budget, and then decide if this was necessary,” said Senator LaTonya Johnson, a Milwaukee Democrat.

Joint Finance Committee co-chair, Republican Representative John Nygren, said numbers from the Legislative Fiscal Bureal reveal that Evers’ plan is tilted more towards higher income households than that from Republicans. “Somebody’s go to be spinning in their chair somewhere,” Nygren said.

AUDIO: Rep. John Nygren :34

The Republican plan, which calls for tapping a budget surplus to pay for a $340 million annual tax cut that would net an average reduction of $170, now heads to the Assembly for a vote next week.

A spokesman for Evers called the GOP plan “fiscally irresponsible.” Evers will present his state budget proposal later this month.

Republicans signal possible plans to create toll roads in Wisconsin

February 7, 2019 By Raymond Neupert

Toll roads might be the future of road funding for Wisconsin, according to state Republicans.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald broached the subject at a Wisconsin Counties Association meeting Wednesday. Fitzgerald says tolling could be the only way to solve transportation infrastructure problems.

He says collecting tolls could generate billions of dollars to cover the costs and that raising the gas tax won’t create enough revenue.

Patterson waives preliminary hearing, will head to trial for Closs kidnapping and murders

February 6, 2019 By Raymond Neupert

The man accused of kidnapping Jayme Closs and killing her parents is headed to trial

In a very brief hearing on Wednesday, 21-year-old Jake Patterson waived his right to a preliminary hearing.

Barron County judge James Babler accepted that waiver and bound Patterson over for trial on two counts of homicide, one count of kidnapping, and one count of armed burglary.

Police say Patterson confessed to the attack and the kidnapping at the time of his arrest.

Patterson will be back in court for arraignment March 27th.

U.S. attorneys issue letters to opioid prescribers in Wisconsin

February 6, 2019 By Bob Hague

A warning to medical professionals who prescribe opoioids to their patients. The U.S. Attorneys in Wisconsin have sent letters to over 180 physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners advising that a review of their prescribing practices showed that they were prescribing opioids at relatively high levels compared to other prescribers.

U.S. Attorneys Issue Warnings to Opioid Prescribers https://t.co/F7xrnMmEjw

— US Attorney EDWI (@EDWInews) February 5, 2019

Although the letters acknowledge that the prescriptions may be medically appropriate, they remind the practitioners that prescribing opioids without a legitimate medical purpose could subject them to enforcement action, including criminal prosecution. Names of the letter recipients are not not being made public.

Evers and GOP at odds over middle class tax cut

February 5, 2019 By Bob Hague

Governor Tony Evers is rejecting a Republican proposal, to provide middle class tax relief out of the state surplus. “The plan that we will be proposing in the budget is a far superior one,” Evers said on Tuesday. “I don’t I could possibly sign a tax cut of that type, where the money going forward is not there.”

Republicans want to return some of the state’s surplus in the form of a tax cut. Evers has already rejected that. He wants to pay for it by scaling back a tax credit for manufacturers. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos calls that a non-starter. “I am glad that Governor Evers is trying to find ways to cut taxes,” Vos. “I think he has one flawed belief, is that the only way to reduce taxes on some is to raise taxes on others. That is something that we’re never going to accept.”

Evers is expected to formally introduce his state budget plan on February 28.

Evers says he’ll close ‘dark store’ loophole

February 5, 2019 By Bob Hague

Governor Tony Evers told the annual meeting of the Wisconsin Counties Association something they’ve been waiting to hear. “Our budget is not just about transportation. My budget is also going to make good on the promise I made to you last December, to close the dark store loophole in the state of Wisconsin,” Evers said Tuesday in Madison.

The dark store loophole allows big box retailers to base their tax assessments on the value of vacant stores, reducing their property tax assessments and shifting the tax burden to residential homeowners and local small businesses.

Madison police seek man in assault on UW student

February 5, 2019 By WRN Contributor

Madison Police say they are putting every available resource into finding a man who brutally attacked a woman in downtown Madison. The 19-year-old UW-Madison student was taken to a hospital with injuries to her face after someone she didn’t know grabbed her from behind and beat her while she was walking early Sunday morning.

“This is a stranger attack, very brutal, lots of injuries, on someone who was just going home, so this is priority number one for the police department right now,” said Madison police spokesperson Joel DeSpain.

Police say witnesses saw the man drag the victim toward Lake Mendota.

“Whether or not they scared this stranger off, we don’t know at this point, but we do know that these good Samaritans went down, found her, got her the help she needed,” DeSpain told 27 News.

WIBA

Somali American candidates for Barron City Council believed to be a first for Wisconsin

February 5, 2019 By WRN Contributor

Early voting has begun in the city of Barron for the primary election for the open at-large seat on the Barron City Council. Three candidates are running for the position, including two Somali American residents, Isaak Mohamed and Faisal Ahmed.

They will join Paul Solie on the ballot in the February19th primary, when the field will be trimmed to two candidates for the April 2nd spring election. The winner will serve a two-year term.

Although Somali Americans have been living and working in Barron for more than 20 years, this is the first time a Somali American has run for public office in the city. It is believed that Mohamed and Ahmed are the first Somali political candidates in Wisconsin history.

WJMC

Unions file ‘lame duck’ lawsuit

February 4, 2019 By Bob Hague

Another lawsuit has been filed, against legislation passed late last year by a lame duck session of the Republican-controlled Wisconsin legislature. The suit was filed Monday in Dane County by AFT-Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization, the Service Employees International Union Local 1, and the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, challenging the constitutionality of laws enacted by the legislature in extraordinary session following the November 2018 election in an attempt to limit Governor Tony Evers’ power before he assumed office.

Governor Tony Evers

The suit alleges that these laws violate the state constitution’s separation of powers laws and grant unprecedented authority to the Legislature that traditionally belongs to the governor. The unions filing the suit maintain that the lame-duck proposals are an illegitimate, illegal and partisan attempt by politicians to prevent the governor from acting as the chief executive of the state, simply because they don’t agree with his politics. Similar efforts to thwart the democratic process have been attempted-and ultimately overturned-in other states, most recently in North Carolina in 2014.

“We will not let power-hungry politicians in Wisconsin run roughshod over the will of the people,” said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten in a press release. “This case is about restoring justice for the people of Wisconsin and for the office of the governor, and it’s about preserving the integrity of our democracy. Elections matter. If you don’t like the outcome, you don’t get to ignore it and legislate a different power structure that the majority of people didn’t actually vote for.”

“We’ve said repeatedly that the lame-duck session was a hasty and cynical attempt by Republicans to override the will of the people, and that the governor expected legal challenges. He will be consulting with legal counsel to determine an appropriate course of action,” said Evers’ spokeswoman Melissa Baldauff.

The lawsuit is the third filed in response to the lame duck actions which limited access to early voting in Wisconsin and prohibited Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul using authority that was available previous governors and AGs. State Senator Janet Bewley (D-Mason) is also a plaintiff.

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