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Bipartisan bill aims to protect youth victims of sex trafficking

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At the Capitol, bipartisan legislation to end the practice of charging youth under the age of 18 with prostitution had a public hearing on Thursday.

State Senator Alberta Darling (R-Rivers Hills) said it’s a recognition of the fact that those young people are victims of human trafficking.

“I think we have to make this really personal. Because what if this was your daughter, or your granddaughter . . or your niece or your nephew,” Darling told the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety. “All of us can look at people we care about and ask what if it were them.”

Advocates say human trafficking takes place in all 72 Wisconsin counties.

“It’s not just a real problem it’s a heartbreaking problem. And we need to do everything that we can to treat these young people as victims, and get them the help that they need,” said state Representative Joel Kitchens (R-Sturgeon Bay).

State Senator LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) said the bill (SB 245) would bring Wisconsin into line with federal law, which treats children involved in commercial sex acts as sexually exploited children and victims of child abuse, not criminals. “This is bill does not legalize prostitution,” Johnson said.

Restored Wisconsin State Capitol statues back on their pedestals

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Statues damaged during last summer’s unrest in Madison are back in place on the grounds of the state Capitol. Workers with the Wisconsin Department of Administration put the statues on their pedestals on Tuesday morning.

The two statues pulled down on the night of June 23, 2020 were of Forward, a female figure outside the Capitol at the top of State Street, and Colonel Hans Christian Heg, a Norwegian immigrant killed during the Civil War.

The action followed a day of demonstrations over the arrest of activist Devonere Johnson outside a Capitol Square restaurant.

The nearly year long restoration was done by a Michigan company. The bulk of the 80-thousand dollar project was paid for by federal grants, the remainder through insurance and donations to the State Historical Society.

Gableman says he’ll compel clerks to cooperate with investigation

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The former state Supreme Court justice overseeing a Republican review of the 2020 presidential election is telling local elections officials that they’d better cooperate

“As the officials directly responsible for administering elections, Wisconsin’s 1,922 county and municipal clerks have a duty to the people of our state to be forthcoming in this investigation,” attorney Michael Gableman said “It is my sincere hope that Wisconsin election officials will live up to that duty. But if they do not, we will use the power afforded to the office of special counsel to compel answers to these questions.”

Gableman released a six-minute YouTube video on Monday. “It’s critical to know that an obstruction of this office is an obstruction of each citizens right to know whether all ballots were appropriately counted, that our elections were managed with fairness, inclusivity and accountability.”

He also says the public can submit information regarding the election, although his Office of Special Counsel has no website or official email address.

New bill seeks to move Wisconsin Elections Commission to Wausau

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A Republican lawmaker from Green Bay is looking to move the state elections commission to Wausau.

Representative David Steffen says that the days of keeping offices in Madison for the sake of being in Madison are over. 

“It made sense 173 years ago to have everything together when a person like myself had to get on a pony, put on a powdered wig to walk over, to get over to someone else’s office, to sit by whale-oil light to make a decision but that’s no longer the situation.”

He says Wausau is a central location in the state on two major highways, and rent would be much cheaper than in Madison. 

“Their lease is expiring at the end of the year for office space that cost twice that of almost every other community in the state.”

This is not the first attempt to start moving state agencies out of Madison. There’s been an effort to move the DNR farther north for many years.

Bill would allow parents to opt kids out of sexual orientation curriculum

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At the Capitol on Thursday, a hearing on legislation that would allow parents to remove their K-12 students from any program “related to sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or gender expression.”

State Representative Donna Rozar (R-Marshfield) is a co-sponsor of the bill (AB-562).

“When you have belief systems being subtly introduced to young, developing minds that are in direct opposition to what a belief system is in the home that is detrimental, parents need to know that that is happening,” Rozar told the Assembly Education Committee.

Rozar insisted the Republican measure is not intended to “erase or alienate” LGTBQ youth, but LGBTQ Legislative Caucus chair, Representative Lee Snodgrass said it will run the risk of doing that if it becomes law.

“When children and young people are informed, they’re able to be more tolerant, more inclusive and have a better understanding. And without that you run the risk of their being things that they don’t understand,” Snodgrass said. “And frankly you run the risk of them bullying them this group of already marginalized individuals that they don’t fully understand some of the things that they might be dealing with.”

Snodgrass noted that Governor Tony Evers would be unlikely to sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

LeMahieu says he’ll fight gov’s order on COVID-19 testing for state employees

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State Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostberg) said he’ll be looking to challenge Governor Tony Evers’s order on COVID-19 testing for state employees.

The Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA) on Tuesday announced a new weekly testing requirement for all executive branch employees, interns, and contractors. The testing requirement will go into effect beginning October 18, 2021, and will apply to all employees who have either not submitted their vaccination status or reported their status as not fully vaccinated.

LeMahieu calls the requirements an invasive overreach of governmental authority, and said the State Senate will explore all options to ‘protect the rights of citizens.’

Evers seeks to intervene in redistricting case

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Governor Tony Evers has signaled he wants to be involved in a redistricting case. Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul on Monday asked a federal court to allow Evers to intervene in a lawsuit filed last month by Democrats, that asks a federal court to draw the state’s next set of electoral maps.

The governor’s motion contends state law recognizes a joint role for both the governor and the Legislature in the redistricting process, and that the governor should be allowed to provide input in the litigation.

The Democratic governor said he intends to submit maps drawn by a commission he created to both the Legislature and the federal court for its consideration.

Democrats confident of refugee vetting process at Fort McCoy

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Wisconsin Democrats who visited Fort McCoy on Tuesday said they’re certain of the vetting process Afghan refugees being housed there have undergone.

“We were hearing, at least anecdotally, that there’s just nobody who’s popped up that has any red flags,” said  U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin

“There are no 100 percent guarantees with any of this, but I am comfortable with the extreme vetting process that we were briefed on today,” said congressman Ron Kind of La Crosse.

Congressman Mark Pocan and several state lawmakers were also part of the delegation. Fort McCoy is one of eight military bases temporarily housing Afghan refugees.

As of Friday, more than 8,700 people had arrived at the base in central Wisconsin, which has a potential capacity of some 13,000. Kind said Tuesday that the number of refugees was no longer being updated by officials at the base.

Tommy Thompson rejects Republican oversight of UW System COVID-19 protocols

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Interim UW System President Tommy Thompson

Interim University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson says he won’t back down, in the face of demands by Republican lawmakers who want to weigh in on any campus COVID-19 protocols.

“I’m not abdicating my responsibility, and I will contest it aggressively,” Thompson said during a call with reporters on Tuesday.

“Even though I don’t want to pick a fight with the legislature, I am going to stand my ground to make sure that we maintain our colleges and make sure that our students are able to get the best education possible, in as safe and a healthy way as possible.”

Majority Republicans on the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules have directed the UW System to submit its pandemic protocols for approval. Thompson said that’s not going to happen, and predicted the UW will win if the issue ends up in court.

“We will contest it,” Thompson said. “I don’t want to fight with the legislature, but we will contest it aggressively, whether it be in the circuit court, court of appeals or the Supreme Court.”

Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules co-chair, state Senator Steve Nass (R-Whitewater), said he’ll ask legislative leaders to begin legal action against the UW System following a September 2nd deadline to submit those pandemic plans to the committee.

New state website provide details on tax allocations

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A new website can show you where your state tax dollars are spent. The information is provided by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.

It reveals that 36 percent of state taxes go to K-12 schools, 16 percent to health-care programs like BadgerCare, eight percent to local property tax relief, 7 percent to the Department of Corrections (prisons), 6 percent to the UW System and 5 percent to local governments.

The site is the result of legislation (Act 66) from Senator Rob Cowles (R-Green Bay) and Representative Samantha Kerkman (R-Salem), the co-chairs of the legislature’s Joint Audit Committee.

“The website prepared and published by DOR, months in advance of the deadline we set by law, meets the requirements in Act 66 and exceeds my expectations,” Cowles said. “I encourage all Wisconsinites to visit the dashboard learn more about where their tax dollars are being used in Wisconsin State Government. I want to thank Secretary Barca and his team at DOR for their efforts to make the dashboard readily available.”