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Barron County Judge rejects Tavern League challenge to Gov. Evers health order

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A Barron County judge has denied a request by the Tavern League to put a stop to Governor Tony Evers order limiting the number of people that can be inside a business or establishment. 

The League filed that lawsuit last week and got a temporary restraining order after a complaint that the law unfairly targets bars and taverns. 

However, Judge James Babler rejected both that lawsuit and the original restraining order, saying that there was no evidence of harm on the part of the Tavern League or the people who filed the lawsuit. 

Evers responded today to the news, saying “This critically important ruling will help us prevent the spread of this virus by restoring limits on public gatherings. This crisis is urgent. Wisconsinites, stay home. Limit travel and going to gatherings, and please wear a face covering whenever you have to go out.”

Johnson defends Trump coronavirus response: ‘we’ve learned how to cope with this disease’

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U.S. Senator Ron Johnson says that President Donald Trump has done a good job of managing the federal government’s response to the global coronavirus pandemic.

“The main goal was to flatten the curve, so that we could delay people the people getting infected when a we had more effective therapies, which we have now,” The Wisconsin Republican said. “I mean President Trump’s living proof of that. We’ve got some pretty effective therapies. We’ve learned how to cope with this disease.”

Johnson made his comments during “Your Talk Show,” on Janesville radio station WCLO Thursday morning. Also Thursday, Wisconsin recorded new single day records of 3,747 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 1,043 hospitalized patients and 17 additional deaths.

“By flattening the curve, delaying people getting infected, now that were more effective therapies, hopefully we’ll have a vaccine in the next couple of months,” Johnson said. “I give the administration a great deal of credit of squeezing every degree of inefficiency out of the vaccine development process.”

While Governor Tony Evers said that President Trump’s “inconsistency” on messaging about COVID-19 “has not helped,” to slow the spread of the virus, Johnson maintained the president has done a good job.

“The president does not get credit, because the mainstream media just wants to beat up on him. He’s been very straightforward with the American public, he’s been very transparent,” the Senator said. “I mean for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to say ‘oh he lied,’ what did he lie about. He tried to make sure that we didn’t panic.”

 

Judge halts Evers’ order on public gatherings and capacities

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A northern Wisconsin judge has temporarily blocked Governor Tony Evers’ order limiting indoor gatherings.

Evers’ order caps the number of people who can gather in bars, restaurants, and many other businesses at 25-percent of capacity. Wisconsin set another record for single-day COVID-19 cases Tuesday.

The temporary restraining order from Sawyer County Judge John Yackel halts the order, after the Tavern League of Wisconsin and a Sawyer County tavern, The Flambeau Forest Inn, sued to halt its implementation. A court date is set for Monday in Hayward.

Evers’ order went into effect last Thursday, and it is scheduled to last until November 6th.

WEDC denies tax credits to Foxconn for 2019

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State trade officials say Foxconn will not be getting any tax breaks, for work done in 2019. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation announced on Monday that Foxconn had failed to meet its contracted goals for qualifying for those state aids.

The original contract, touted by President Donald Trump and then Governor Scott Walker, would have given the Taiwanese tech firm $4 billion to build a top of the line LCD plant in southeast Wisconsin.

Since then the company has repeatedly scaled back its plans, and WEDC Secretary Melissa Hughes said the company won’t see any more funding unless they come back to renegotiate a contract with the state, the Journal Sentinel reports.

According WEDC, Foxconn has hired only 281 people eligible for tax credits and has made only $300 million in capital expenditures, not fulfilling the goals set out in the contract signed by Foxconn and the state.

The Journal Sentinel reports that in April, Foxconn stated publicly that it had hired enough workers to be eligible for tax credits.

Facebook set to ban all political advertising after election day

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Facebook is continuing to take steps to limit the sort of content it allows on its platform, and says it will stop allowing political advertising once the election season is over.

Madison College marketing professor Steve Noll says these actions might be too little too late for the company as it looks at an uncertain future after the election.

“I really hope that you know Facebook can do the right thing, that history is going to be able to look back on them 30 years from now and show that they are on the right side of history, but I don’t know. I’m really not necessarily seeing that that’s their behavior.”

Facebook has come under fire for allowing false and misleading ads on its platform, and has only recently started kicking dangerous groups like Q-Anon and Holocaust deniers.

Noll says it seems like Facebook wants the clout for banning ads, while still taking political money. 

“These political ads cost money to run and Facebook shareholders want that revenue. It’s a very complicated problem of dancing the fine line between ethics and the bottom line for shareholders.”

Noll says it’s a good first step, but that the company needs to tread carefully in the months ahead as talks start to brew over breaking up big tech firms.

Evers’ letter requests meeting with legislative leaders on coronavirus response

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Governor Tony Evers has sent a letter to Republican legislative leaders, requesting  a meeting to discuss the state’s COVID-19 response.

Evers’ letter states that he wants Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald to join him for negotiations on future plans. The Democrat Evers says he welcomes feedback from Vos and Fitzgerald.

“I welcome the opportunity to meet with both of you to discuss our state response. Given it has been 180 days since the Legislature last passed a bill and that you have repeatedly-through costly litigation and your public comments-expressed opposition to nearly every action my administration has taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19, I am eager to ensure our meeting is productive.”

The governor’s letter, sent Monday, said now isn’t the time to weaken Wisconsin’s response to the virus. The number of positive test results for COVID-19 in Wisconsin has more than doubled in recent weeks.

As of Tuesday morning Vos and Fitzgerald had yet to respond to the letter.

Committee requires latest public health order to go through rule-making process

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The state legislature’s Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative rules has ordered the Evers’ administration to go through the formal rule-making process, to implement the governor’s order limiting the size of indoor gatherings due to the coronavirus.

“We have no emergency rule. We’d love to have an emergency rule, that we could have a public hearing on, but we don’t have one,” Committee co-chair, Representative Joan Balweg (R-Markesan) said Monday “And actually that’s why the department has declined to call in or appear at this meeting, because there is no emergency rule to discuss.”

The committee voted 6-4 to require the Department of Health Services to present an emergency rule within 30 days. There were some heated comments made by committee members, prior to that vote.

Representative Gary Hebl (D-Sun Prairie), leveled a charge at Republicans who have not taken any action during the pandemic.

“So no action tells me that the way it’s going is the way you want it to go,” Hebl said “You’re in control of the legislature. The legislature makes the law. And if you’re not willing to do that, then you have blood on your hands, these people are going to die because of your inaction.”

“We can come together, and use the emergency rule process, to provide a more comprehensive discussion regarding our response,” Ballweg said.

The latest order, which limits gatherings in public spaces to 25% of capacity, expires November 6th. If the Evers’ administration chooses to extend it, the committee could block that.

AARP Poll finds heightened concern over coronavirus

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The latest AARP Poll of older Wisconsin voters finds those 65 and over solidly support the Democratic candidate for president.

“They are supporting Vice President Biden by an 11 point margin” said Lisa Lampkins of AARP Wisconsin. “And I think we’re seeing a lot of that happen because concerns around the coronavirus are increasing.”

“In September . . . 53 percent of 50 plus voters were worried about getting the virus. Now in October . . . a full 65 percent of all Wisconsin voters age 50 plus are worried about getting the virus.”

There hasn’t been much movement on voter preferences. Biden has a narrow 49 to 46 percent lead over President Trump among those 50 and over.

‘VoteSafe Wisconsin’ aims to reassure voters of integrity of state’s elections

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A bipartisan effort aims to let prospective voters know it can be done safely. VoteSafe Wisconsin is led by Attorney General Josh Kaul — and former Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.

“Vote Safe Wisconsin came to be because we really have a robustly and safe election system here in Wisconsin,” Van Hollen said.

Van Hollen said they want to people to know that voting in person can be done safely, and that voting absentee is also a viable option.

“With all the national talk about safety and security of voting being in question, we wanted to make sure that people of Wisconsin knew that if they wanted to go to polling places, it’s a safe place to vote. And if they wanted to vote via absentee ballot, it was certainly a secure and safe way to vote as well.”

He hopes those voters who choose the latter option will do so in a timely manner

“We don’t want them to be flooding the postal service last minute. So we’re strongly encouraging people if they’re going to vote absentee to so early.”

Find more information at wi.votesafe.us.

Judge rules against conservatives in health order lawsuit

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A St. Croix County judge has ruled against a conservative law firm who tried to challenge Governor Evers’ powers to issue emergency orders. 

Judge Michael Waterman has denied a request to halt Governor Evers’ public health emergency order.

The Wisconsin Institute for law and Liberty, backed up by legislative Republicans, said that Governor Evers did not have the power to issue more than one 60 day order in a row for the same crisis. Attorneys for the Governor’s office said new orders can be issued if the public health emergency is still ongoing.

Judge Waterman agreed with the Governor’s office, and said that the 60 day time limit was a sufficient check, because the Governor has to explain in each order why the state of emergency still exists. He says that the legislature can end the state of emergency at any time, but so far, it has declined to do so. 

Judge Waterman’s ruling has an effect of keeping both the mask mandate and the newly issued occupancy mandate in effect.

Governor Evers is calling the move a victory for the people of Wisconsin. “As the number of COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin reached 150,000 yesterday, we will continue doing everything we can to prevent the spread of this virus. We ask Wisconsinites to please stay home as much as possible, limit travel and going to public gatherings, and wear a mask whenever out and about.”

Attorney General Josh Kaul says the ruling was the right move. “Wisconsin currently faces one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the nation, and the mask requirement is a critical protection against the ongoing danger that the coronavirus poses to Wisconsinites’ health. I encourage legislative Republicans to stop supporting this attack on the mask requirement and instead to work with Governor Evers to adopt statewide policies that will allow us to more effectively to fight the virus and keep Wisconsinites safe.”

A number of legislative Republicans have stated that if the lawsuit against the Governor failed, that they would move to take action in the Legislature. So far today, no announcements on public hearings or votes in the full legislature have been scheduled. The Legislature’s joint rules committee is set to take a vote today on the order, but they cannot change the ruling themselves without action from the full legislature or a court order.