Report: Rushing to Carbon-Free Energy Will Cost Wisconsin $250 Billion by 2050

A new report says Gov. Tony Evers’ goal to get Wisconsin carbon-free by 2050 comes with a $250 billion price tag.

The Center of the American Experiment released its report on Wednesday. It explains that Gov. Evers’ pledge to move electric generation in the state completely away from coal and natural gas will drive energy prices in the state even higher.

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Wisconsin School District Requires Parental Consent for Name, Pronoun Changes Following Backlash

A Wisconsin school board approved a policy Monday that requires students to receive authorization from a parent for pronoun changes at school.

The Rice Lake School Board in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, passed a policy that requires parent permission for a student to change what pronouns and name they go by at school. Critics of the policy, including a former board member and students, said at the meeting that the policy threatens student’s mental health and safety if they are not ready to reveal their gender transition to their parents, according to WQOW News.

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Firebombed Wisconsin Pro-Life Center Has Not Heard from FBI Since May

A Wisconsin pro-life organization set ablaze and vandalized with the message “If abortions aren’t safe, then you aren’t either” says it has not communicated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the horrifying attack since May, when the attack originally occurred.

Wisconsin Family Action, the 501(c)(4) arm of Wisconsin Family Council, said earlier this year that the clinic was attacked by an “elitist anarchist group,” Anarchy 1312, that reportedly threw two Molotov cocktails into the office, broke windows, and firebombed the building early in the morning on Mother’s Day. It also graffitied the building with the message: “If abortions aren’t safe, then you aren’t either.”

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New Paper Aims to Give Wisconsin Teachers Alternative Views on Race, Capitalism, U.S. History

Teachers in Wisconsin have a new resource with a much different take on American history, slavery and race, as well as the successes of capitalism.

The new paper – “Critical Theories vs Human Flourishing” from UW-Milwaukee Professor Emeritus Mark Schug and Professor Of Economics & Director Of The Free Enterprise Center Scott Niederjohn – offers an alternative narrative to the critical race theory being taught in many of Wisconsin’s schools.

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Milwaukee Public Schools Requiring FAFSA Application Before Kids Can Graduate

Milwaukee Public Schools are now requiring students to apply for college financial aid before they can graduate from high school, but critics say the city’s schools should worry about basic reading and writing before leaders worry about college.

MPS made Free Application for Federal Student Aid applications mandatory this month, and Milwaukee leaders celebrated the policy with news conferences this week.

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Wisconsin Test Scores Show Slight Bump in Math, Drop-Off in Reading

The latest snapshot of Wisconsin schools shows that kids are still not back to where they were before the coronavirus closed some schools for more than a year.

Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction on Thursday released the scores from the Forward Exam for elementary school kids, the ACT Aspire for freshmen and sophomores, and the ACT for high school juniors.

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Wisconsin Sen. Johnson Says Democrats Can’t Defend Their Record

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson attributed his lead in the polls to the Democrats’ inability to defend their policies based on the record of their past two years in power.

“The Democrats can’t defend their their record,” Johnson said on the Friday edition of the “Just the News, Not Noise” television show. “I mean, their policies have had just such disastrous results with the open border, the flooded deadly drugs, 40 year high inflation and record gasoline prices, which they purposely drove higher.”

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Federal Court Rules for Wisconsin Catholic School in Split Busing Decision

Parents at the St. Augustine School in Colgate could soon be putting their kids on the school bus after a federal judge ended a long-simmering court battle over Wisconsin’s school choice busing program.

A federal judge in Milwaukee last week issued a final decision in the case that questioned both First Amendment religious protections and Wisconsin state law.

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Michels Open to Abortion Exemptions, Evers Accuses Him of Dishonesty

After spending millions of dollars on campaign ads to paint Tim Michels as radical on abortion, Gov. Tony Evers is calling Michels dishonest for being open to exemptions to Wisconsin’s strict abortion law.

Michels on Friday told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Dan O’Donnell that he would sign a law allowing women who are the victims of rape or incest to get an abortion in the state.

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RNC, Republicans in Wisconsin Ramp Up Efforts to Recruit, Hire Poll Watchers Ahead of Midterms

Republicans in Wisconsin are recruiting poll watchers to monitor voting in November, as the GOP embarks on a multimillion-dollar effort to recruit tens-of-thousands of poll watchers and workers to monitor voting.

Both initiatives are part of renewed efforts to respond to the allegations of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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Politics and Money Dominate Wisconsin’s State of Education Speech

The ceremony for Wisconsin’s State of Education speech began with a “land acknowledgement,” and it didn’t get any less political from there.

“We acknowledge that this Capitol and our DPI building stand on the ancestral lands of the Ho-Chunk Nation. And that this land was forcibly and violently taken from them almost 200 years ago,” Department of Public Instruction Equity and Inclusion director Demetri Beekman said to open his speech Thursday. “Centuries of racism, colonization, and oppression caused by federal and state leaders, institutions, and policies continue to impact our tribal nations.”

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GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Tim Michels: Woke Politics, Gender Ideology Frustrating Wisconsin Parents

Tim Michels says Wisconsin’s State of Education speech was more of a political stump speech than a report card on the state’s schools.

Michels, who is running for governor against incumbent Gov. Tony Evers, told The Center Square Friday that State Superintendent Jill Underly’s focus on Pride flags and pronouns is frustrating parents across the state who want their kids to get back to the fundamentals.

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Republican Leaders Call Wisconsin Gov. Evers’ Latest Special Session ‘Political Stunt’

Wisconsin lawmakers are once again planning to ignore a call from Gov. Tony Evers’ for a special session, and they are once again calling it a political stunt.

The governor on Wednesday said lawmakers need to come back to the Capitol in Madison in two weeks and start work on a constitutional amendment that would allow voters in Wisconsin to vote on binding referendum questions that would create new state law.

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Second Wisconsin Deputy Backs Away from Barnes Endorsement

For the second time in two days an active duty deputy in Wisconsin has cleared their name of endorsement for Mandela Barnes in his race for U.S. Senate.

The first was La Crosse Sheriff’s Capt. John Siegel on Monday. He said he never endorsed Barnes and doesn’t know how he ended up on Barnes endorsement list. On Tuesday, Racine County Deputy Malik Frazier, the only other active duty deputy on the list, backed out.

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Seven Midwest States Enter Hydrogen Coalition

Seven Midwest states entered a coalition to pursue clean hydrogen development as an alternative to gas and diesel fuel.

The governors of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin signed onto the Midwest Hydrogen Coalition. The coalition will accelerate clean hydrogen development, from production and supply chain to distribution in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, and other industries.

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Wisconsin Law Enforcement Opposes Proposed Madison Tear Gas Ban

Nearly every single sheriff in the state of Wisconsin, along with the state’s police officers’ association, and the chiefs of police in Dane County are united in their opposition to a plan that would all but ban tear gas and pepper spray in the city of Madison.

Madison’s city council is set to vote on a proposed ordinance that would limit the use of tear gas, pepper spray, or other crowd control to only “circumstances in which urgent and imminent physical harm to the public or law enforcement officers is threatened or when significant property damage exists and escalation of property damage is threatened.”

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Wisconsin Senator Hits Opponent on School Choice

Wisconsin’s U.S. Senator is making an issue out of what his reelection campaign is calling Mandela Barnes’ hypocrisy on school choice.

“After Lt. Gov. Barnes has reaped the benefits of private school, he has sought to prevent that choice for parents who only want what is best for their children. Barnes is a hypocrite who is only out for his own political gain,” Mike Marinella with the Johnson Campaign told The Center Square.

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Poll Shows Ron Johnson with a Close Lead in Wisconsin Senate Race

The mood seems to be changing in Wisconsin’s top two races this November, even as the numbers continue to show toss-ups.

The latest Marquette Law School Poll released yesterday gives Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican U,S. Senator Ron Johnson slight leads in their races. Evers is up 47-44 on Republican Tim Michels, while Johnson is up 49-48 over Democrat Mandela Barnes.

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Milwaukee ARPA Commission Turns Down Request for Repairs to Landmark Mitchell Park Domes

There is, apparently, a limit to what Milwaukee County considers coronavirus-related relief.

Milwaukee County’s American Rescue Plan Act Task Force last week unanimously rejected a proposal to spend $19 million of ARPA dollars to rehabilitate the Mitchell Park Domes.

“This Task Force has spent millions of dollars on initiatives to ensure that houses in suburban Milwaukee aren’t falling into disrepair, potentially rushing foreclosures.

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City Invests in Wisconsin’s First Men’s Homeless Shelter

Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway have announced a $9 million investment for the state’s first men’s homeless shelter.  

“City-County announces additional $9 million investment in men’s homeless shelter,” Rhodes-Conway posted on Twitter highlighting the sides continued partnership. “A new commitment from @DaneCoJoe represents the single largest investment in the Dane County Capital Budget.”

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Longtime Madison Pub Closes Its Doors Due to Pandemic

One-time Madison-area stronghold Brasserie V is the latest neighborhood eatery to fall victim to the pandemic, with the owners recently taking to social media to announce its closing this month after 15 years.

“We are so very proud of our 15 years bringing a little bit of Belgium to Monroe Street,” the owners said in an Aug. 20 Facebook post. “We wouldn’t have reached this milestone without the talent, dedication and hard work of all of our amazing staff over the years.”

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