Wisconsin News and Sports
The Wisconsin State Capitol will remain closed to the public. The Wednesday announcement from Governor Tony Evers’ administration also stated that state employees will have to wear masks at all times while they are inside state facilities, starting Monday.
The Capitol has been closed since March. It was supposed to reopen next week but the escalating number of coronavirus cases put that on hold.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has once again ruled in favor of Republicans in the legislature, in a series of lawsuits challenging the Lame Duck Laws. The ruling is being praised by majority leaders in both chambers.
In an opinion issued on Thursday, the court upheld laws passed by Republicans in 2018 that limit some of the powers of the Governor’s office.
One of those laws prevents the governor and the attorney general’s office from leaving federal lawsuits that the state has joined. That law was enacted to keep Governor Tony Evers from dropping out of a number of controversial lawsuits the state was involved in during the Walker administration.
“We had a race for governor in 2018. I won. Unfortunately, things got off on the wrong foot because Republicans immediately passed a law overriding the will of the people and the election, and they’ve been sour grapes ever since,” Evers said on Twitter.
We had a race for governor in 2018. I won. Unfortunately, things got off on the wrong foot because Republicans immediately passed a law overriding the will of the people and the election, and they’ve been sour grapes ever since.
— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) July 9, 2020
The court also upheld a measure that requires the Republican-led Joint Finance Committee to sign off on lawsuit settlements for the state. That law has led to a protracted standoff between Republicans and Attorney General Josh Kaul on just how the JFC will be allowed to be read in on confidential cases.
Among many provisions, the ruling requires that Attorney General Kaul send settlements to the Joint Committee on Finance for review, according to a statement from Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald.
A rogue attorney general can no longer unilaterally settle away laws already on the books and unelected bureaucrats can’t expand their powers beyond what the people have given them through their representatives. https://t.co/Ks7HVGSuvf
— Scott Fitzgerald (@SenFitzgerald) July 9, 2020
“Today’s ruling is a victory for the Legislature and all Wisconsinites who want to hold government accountable. A rogue attorney general can no longer unilaterally settle away laws already on the books and unelected bureaucrats can’t expand their powers beyond what the people have given them through their representatives.”
“In grasping at power after the 2018 elections, legislative Republicans demonstrated open hostility to outcomes chosen by Wisconsin voters and made it more difficult for state government to function effectively,” said AG Kaul in a statement. “Today’s decision leaves for another day a ruling on whether most applications of two provisions undermining the authority of the Office of Attorney General are constitutional, but the ultimate result is inevitable: those provisions will be found to be unconstitutional in nearly all of their applications.”
“Our state’s founders established co-equal branches of government in Wisconsin,” said Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in a statement. “This ruling reaffirms that each branch is equal to the other. This idea runs counter to what the governor and attorney general seem to believe. They deem the executive branch is the most important one and should unilaterally rule over the state.”
By Bob Hague
State Assembly Republicans have a plan to assist thousands of people still waiting to have their unemployment claims sorted out, by the Department of Workforce Development.
Majority Leader Jim Steinke spoke during a press conference at the Capitol on Wednesday.
“How long are these 140,000 people supposed to wait? How long can people go without any income, without being able to pay their bills? And how long are we going to tolerate the excuses from the administration , without any real action on solving the problem.”
They want Governor Tony Evers to use some of the state’s remaining federal CARES Act relief money to provide bridge loans to those who are still waiting.
“We’re calling on Governor Evers to step up, and give Wisconsinites the hand up that they need. Currently there’s over $280 million left of Wisconsin’s share of the CARES Act. So the question is, why is the governor not using that money to provide bridge loans, to the folks that are waiting for their unemployment claims to be approved?.”
Steinke said the bridge loans could be administered by a state agency other than Workforce Development – such as the Department of Revenue – to allow DWD to keep focusing on processing claims.
“We need to do more to help people who have been waiting weeks or even months for unemployment benefits after losing their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic,” said Speaker Robin Vos. in a statement “People are tired of waiting for the Evers administration to get its act together and we’re all tired of the administration’s excuses. There are families who are struggling to get by and they need help now.”
Evers’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
U.S. Senator Ron Johnson thinks the country closed too much of its economy when the coronavirus outbreak started.
The Wisconsin Republican told the online news publication Axios the country “overreacted” at first.
“We closed too much of our economy down, and I don’t think we focused enough on what we needed to do: isolate the sick, quarantine them, protect the vulnerable.”
“At the same time, elected officials. I’m not overly critical . . . . they’ve had to make really tough decisions with imperfect information.”
Johnson said the federal government needs to come up with additional plans to help businesses that are suffering. He said those businesses shouldn’t be blamed for a downturn in performance. He calls the pandemic “an act of God.”
By Bob Hague
Wisconsin is joining a lawsuit to keep private schools in the state from getting coronavirus stimulus money.
Attorney General Josh Kaul said Wisconsin’s share of the $13 billion in CARES money is at risk.
“The funds allocated to schools in the CARES Act provide vital support at a time when schools have had to make significant changes to the way they teach students,” Kaul said in a press release. “Instead of ignoring congressional intent and diverting funds away from public schools, Secretary DeVos should follow the law.”
Under a U.S. Department of Education rule issued by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, school districts are ordered to set aside a portion of their aid for private schools using a formula based on the total number of private school students in the district.
Kaul said spending government money on private schools hurts Wisconsin’s public schools.
The state of Wisconsin is shipping millions of cloth face masks and other types of personal protective equipment to schools, food processors and businesses.
Wisconsin Emergency Management is providing 4,200 infrared thermometers to public, charter and private schools.
The Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection is sending another 60,000 face masks to local food processors and other businesses.
When the Evers administration asked last month if Wisconsin schools were interested in the equipment, more than a thousand said yes, according to a press release from the governor’s office.
As county and local governments start to issue their own mask and health orders, Governor Tony Evers says it might take some time to do so statewide.
Evers says his Administration is exploring options to do so legally.
“Unfortunately the reality is that the Supreme Court ruling in the Republican lawsuit really hamstrung our ability to respond to this pandemic.”
Evers is calling on people, especially young people, to voluntarily take part in wearing masks, as the number of COVID-19 cases for people in their 20s continues to rise.
He reminds people that no one is invincible, and that young people catching the virus who don’t get very sick themselves, stand a greater risk of unknowingly spreading COVID-19 to a friend or loved one.
“Nobody is immune from this virus. We have seen patients of all ages lose the battle against this virus. And we have seen how one positive case can lead to a dozen positive cases in the blink of an eye.”
Evers says he’s disappointed that people are now choosing to harass and berate local health officials as they struggle to contain the coronavirus. He said that science shouldn’t be a political issue.
“The virus doesn’t give a crap about whether you’re a Democrat or Republican. People at the local level are just trying to do the best they can.”
By Bob Hague
Wisconsin’s five largest cities have received more than 6 million dollars in grants to help keep voters safe during upcoming elections.
Milwaukee, Madison Green Bay, Kenosha and Racine were notified that the Center for Tech and Civic Life had fully funded their “Wisconsin Safer Voting Plan.”
“The big winners in all this are the voters in our cities,” said Racine Mayor Cory Mason says he and his fellow mayors began working on plan, soon after the problem-plagued April elections
“To be able to work collaboratively to find ways to solve those problems was really a remarkable opportunity,” Mason said.
The cities plan on using the money for things like adequate numbers of voting sites, setting up in-person drive-thru locations, recruiting and training polls workers and providing PPE for them.
Congresswoman Gwen Moore says he’s proud of her vote on the Democrat backed Justice in Policing Act.
Moore says the goal of the bill is to rein in police departments that mistreat the public that they’re supposed to be serving.
“That addresses police misconduct, outlawing racial profiling, chokeholds, the no-knock warrants that killed Breonna Taylor.”
Moore says one important part of that bill is removing military equipment from departments. That equipment was sold as surplus to police as the US Military pulled back from the war on terror.
“So it felt like a really good idea, until we say, actually, what that looked like on the ground in real time.”
Moore says police departments need to actually protect and serve their communities, rather than be a standing army in military gear.
“And so to the extent that police departments are behaving more like military units, I think it was important to send that message.”
By Bob Hague
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has launched a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force.
Members will lead an effort to fight the abduction, homicide and trafficking of Native American women and girls in the state, according to a press release from Kaul’s office.
Effectively addressing the problem of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Wisconsin will require law enforcement, tribal leaders, victim advocates, and others to work collaboratively to collect data and identify solutions. pic.twitter.com/YVBoC7eVcJ
— Attorney General Josh Kaul (@WisDOJ) July 2, 2020
The task force is to examine the factors which contribute to missing and murdered Indigenous women. It will work with the Wisconsin Department of Justice and Native American communities on data collections and reporting methods.
“While there is so much that needs to be done to stop the violence perpetrated on Native women and girls, I applaud the Wisconsin Department of Justice for taking an important first step in establishing this task force,” said Shannon Holsey, president of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community and Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council.
Additional details on the task force will be forthcoming, according to the press release.