Category: Wisconsin

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and GOP Colleagues Urge Democrat Committee Chairmen to Investigate Human Trafficking

Susan Berry, PhD

Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R) led the Senate Republican conference in a letter to Senate Democrat committee chairmen urging them to hold hearings and investigate human trafficking, a press statement from Johnson’s office stated Monday.

The letter, sent to Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations; Richard Durbin (D-IL), who chairs the Committee on the Judiciary; Gary Peters (D-MI), chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), chair of the Committee on Foreign Relations, urges increased oversight and investigations into human trafficking.

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Wisconsin Lawmakers Introduce ‘Tiny Tot Tax Cut’

M.D. Kittle

Taking a page from a Florida plan to bring tax relief to families, two Badger State Republican legislators are pushing a bill that would create a sales tax exemption on baby-related products.

State Representative David Steffen (R-Howard) and State Senator Jesse James (R-Altoona) recently introduced the “Tiny Tot Tax Cut” to help fight inflation where it can hurt families the most.

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Parental Rights Groups to Protest Against Drag Queens Party in Park for ‘All Ages’: ‘This Is Sexual Grooming of Our Children, and That Is Not Okay’

M.D. Kittle

Wisconsin parental rights groups plan to demonstrate this weekend against a daylong pride event featuring a drag queen story hour and a children’s dance party.

Organizers with No Left Turn in Education, Parents Patrol, and Gays Against Groomers Wisconsin said they will be out in force at Pride in the Park, scheduled from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at Watertown’s Riverside Park. The protesters are planning a Classic Story Hour at the city park.

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Wisconsin School District That Used Prepared Statement to Inform Students About Teacher’s Pending Sex Change Faces Open Records Lawsuit

M.D. Kittle

After school officials reportedly read a statement to students about a teacher’s upcoming sex change, the Eau Claire Area School District faces a lawsuit demanding it to turn over the document. 

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), a Milwaukee-based civl rights law firm representing parent Leah Buchman, claims the district has been sitting on the document for weeks, citing an ongoing investigation. 

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Wisconsin Lawmakers Pitch Strip Search Law Overhaul

The Center Square

A pair of Green Bay-area lawmakers want to rewrite Wisconsin’s strip search law to make it clear that underwear counts too.

State Rep. David Steffen, R-Green Bay (pictured above, left), and State Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Green Bay (pictured above, right), told an Assembly committee on Thursday that the law needs to be updated after the superintendent in Suring Schools stripped five teenage girls down to their underwear to look for a vape cartridge in January of last year.

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Report: SSM Health Ends ‘Gender-Affirming Surgeries’ at its Wisconsin Aesthetic Center

M.D. Kittle

One of Wisconsin’s larger health care systems has ended sex reassignment surgeries for adults and children following a directive from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Liberal lawmakers blasted the decision, first reported by Channel 3000 in Madison, as “misguided and dangerous,” while a conservative lawmakers who have championed bills prohibiting the “mutilation” of children called SSM’s change in protocol a “brave” decision.

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Wisconsin Congressman Scott Fitzgerald Introduces Bill Taking on National Education Association’s Political Clout

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Representative Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI-05) introduced a bill that would check the power of the National Education Association (NEA).

The Stopping Teachers Unions from Damaging Education Needs Today (STUDENT) Act aims to reform the NEA’s federal charter and “rededicate the organization to the pursuit of increased student learning and quality education in schools across America,” according to the congressman.

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Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley Says IRS Whistleblower Testimony in Hunter Biden Probe Shows ‘Two-Track’ System of Justice

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley says Wednesday’s testimony from two Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers alleging political interference in the Hunter Biden criminal probe underscores the “two-track” system of justice in America.

Meanwhile, the Iowa senator is leading a group of Republican senators demanding the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation protect whistleblowers who disclosed records alleging a criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national.

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Republican Lawmakers Pitch Constitutional Amendment to Keep Wisconsin Churches Open

The Center Square

Wisconsin Republicans want to make sure churches in the state are kept open during the next emergency.

State Sen Cory Tomczyk, R-Mosinee, along with Rep. Ty Bodden, R-Hilbert, and Rep. Karen Hurd, R-Fall Creek, took a proposed constitutional amendment to a Senate committee on Tuesday. If the amendment becomes law, it would stop public health managers from closing churches.

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WMC Survey of Businesses Finds Alarming Number of Wisconsin K-12 Graduates Aren’t Prepared for the Workforce

M.D. Kittle

As Wisconsin businesses struggle through a worker shortage crisis, it appears Wisconsin’s public schools are failing to prepare students for the workforce.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce’s latest employer survey finds 73 percent of responding businesses said ‘no’ when asked if students graduating from the Badger State’s K-12 education system are prepared for the workforce.

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Wisconsin Constitutional Amendment Would Ban Places of Worship from Closing During States of Emergency

Susan Berry, PhD

A proposed amendment to the Wisconsin constitution that would clarify that state and local officials “may not order the closure of or forbid gatherings in places of worship,” in response to a state of emergency declared at any level of government during a public health emergency, will go before a state Senate committee Tuesday.

State Republican lawmakers introduced the Senate Joint Resolution 54 in June in response to the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown order that restricted worship gatherings, even though the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down that order.

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Wisconsin Lawmakers Introduce Save Women’s Sports Act,’ Dems Cry Discrimination

M.D. Kittle

Two Badger State Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation that would keep biological males who identify as female from competing in K-12 and collegiate sports in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Legislative Transgender Parent and Non-Binary Advocacy Caucus is crying foul, asserting the legislation is discriminatory and detrimental to the youth trans community.

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Wisconsin Congressman Introduces Constitutional Amendment to Prevent Court Packing

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) re-introduced a constitutional amendment that would prevent court packing by locking in the size of the U.S. Supreme Court at the long-standing nine justices.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) originally proposed the amendment in 2019, and it was re-introduced in 2021 after President Joe Biden announced the creation of a commission to explore expanding the nine-member court and other “reforms.” 

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Federal Judge Orders Wisconsin School District to Allow Transgender Student to Use Girls’ Bathroom

Just the News

A federal judge in Wisconsin ordered a Milwaukee-area school district to allow biological male students who identify as female to use the girls’ bathroom and locker room facilities.

Eastern District of Wisconsin Judge Lynn Adelman, a Clinton appointee, in a ruling last week prohibited the Mukwonago Area School District from enforcing its policy requiring students to use the restrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth.

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Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos Calls Governor Tony Evers a ‘Liar’, Expects Evers’ Partial Vetoes to be Challenged in Court

M.D. Kittle

Democrat Governor Tony Evers’ “creative” partial veto that boosts public education spending for the next four centuries “proves he’s a liar,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said during a Sunday morning interview. 

The Rochester Republican said the governor’s “unprecedented” veto trick leaves Republicans — and taxpayers who would be on the hook for 400-plus years of spending increases —  with “little option” but to take the governor to court. 

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Wisconsin Republicans Look to End Race-Based Scholarship Programs

The Center Square

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is vowing Republicans will move to end race-based scholarship programs across the state in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court moving to erase race as a factor in college admissions.

Soon after conservatives on the high court used their 6-3 advantage to impose the new standard, Vos took to social media to tweet “we are reviewing the decision and will introduce legislation to correct the discriminatory laws on the books and pass repeals in the fall.”

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Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Signs Budget, Guts $3.5 Billion Tax Cut with ‘Frankenstein’ Veto Pen

M.D. Kittle

In signing Wisconsin’s new two-year spending plan Wednesday, Democrat Governor Tony Evers liberally applied his veto pen to the Republican-crafted biennial budget, gutting a $3.5 billion tax cut proposal that had reduced the state’s tax brackets and delivered relief for all taxpayers. 

Republicans blasted the governor for his 51 partial vetoes, including a particularly sneaky one that changed the meaning of funding for schools to a four-century commitment.

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Wisconsin Is Outlier Among Great Lakes States for Medicaid Expansion

The Center Square

Wisconsin is the only Great Lakes state that hasn’t adopted Medicaid expansion, according to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

KFF has tracked states’ expansion of Medicaid. It found that Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota have adopted and implemented Medicaid expansion. Iowa and Michigan implemented expansion in 2014, while Minnesota expanded it at the beginning of 2015, the report found. Iowa and Michigan are among seven states that have approved Section 1115 waivers from federal laws to operate their expanded Medicaid expansion programs. The other states are Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Montana and Utah.

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Republican-Led Wisconsin Senate Turns Tables on Democrats in Resolution That Could Lead to Elections Commission Chief’s Ouster

M.D. Kittle

In a move that turned the tables on Democrats who had played political games with the appointment of controversial Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe, the Republican-controlled state Senate late Wednesday evening dropped a surprise resolution that sets up a confirmation vote sources say Wolfe can’t win. 

Democrats stormed out of the Senate Chamber, refusing to vote on the resolution. 

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Report: Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Uses Third-Party Funding from the United Nations Foundation to Pay for Far-Left Climate Change Initiatives

M.D. Kittle

The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature wouldn’t go along with Governor Tony Evers’ far-left climate change and “environmental justice” initiatives, so the Democrat went around the legislature.

Evers took in hundreds of thousands of dollars in third-party funding from media tycoon Ted Turner’s United Nations Foundation, according to a new report from the Institute for Reforming Government’s Center for Investigative Oversight.

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Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher Blasts Intelligence Report on COVID-19 Origins That ‘Obscures More Than it Illuminates’

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) is criticizing a long-awaited report on the origins of COVID-19, saying it failed to answer significant questions surrounding researchers at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology who became sick with an unspecified illness in November 2019. 

The 10-page report, finally declassified by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), underscores the fact that the intelligence community remains divided on the origins of a virus that is believed to have killed more than 1.13 million people in the United States, and nearly 7 million worldwide. 

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Wisconsin’s Budget-Writing Committee Passes Budget with ‘Historic’ $4.3 Billion Tax Cut

M.D. Kittle

After a season of spending, the Wisconsin Legislature is finally getting around to talking tax cuts. Perhaps Republicans have saved the best for last.

The Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee put the finishing touches on a complete rewrite of Democrat Governor Tony Evers’ 2023-25 state budget proposal, passing a tax reform package that promises to deliver $3.5 billion in income tax cuts and nearly $800 million in property tax relief. 

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Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson on Hunter Biden Plea Deals: ‘This Stinks to High Heaven’

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) joined a chorus of Republicans blasting plea deals that would keep the president’s ne’er-do-well son out of prison.  

“Well first of all, this stinks to high heaven. It certainly proves we do not have equal application of justice under the law,” Johnson said this week on Fox News’ Jesse Waters Prime Time. 

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Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce Urges DNR to Move on Permitting Line 5 Pipeline Project

M.D. Kittle

Time is of the essence for the Evers administration to act on a critical energy pipeline relocation project in northern Wisconsin, according to the state’s largest chamber of commerce and manufacturers’ association. 

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) is urging the state Department of Natural Resources to swiftly move forward with a slow-moving permitting process of Enbridge Energy Co.’s Line 5 relocation project in northern Wisconsin. 

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After Wisconsin Line 5 Ruling, Michigan Business Leaders Say Build the Tunnel

The Center Square

A federal court on Friday ordered Canadian oil company Enbridge to cease the flow of oil and decommission within three years the segment of its Line 5 pipeline in Wisconsin trespassing on the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians.

Concurrently, Michigan’s business leaders urged the United States Army Corps of Engineers to give the approval needed for the construction of the Great Lakes Tunnel.

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Dairy State Lawmaker Leads Fight Against Biden Administration’s War on Chocolate Milk

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI-07) has introduced a bill that would stop the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s war on chocolate milk in school lunchrooms.

The Milk is Indisputably Liked by Kids Act of 2023 – MILK Act — would amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to require schools to offer flavored milk under school lunch program. 

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College Professor in Wisconsin Says American Flag Causes Him ‘Anxiety’

Admin

A Marquette University professor said the American flag makes him “anxious” in a National Public Radio interview Wednesday.

Philosophy Professor Grant Silva told an interviewer with WUWM, an NPR affiliate station in Milwaukee, that he feels “anxious” when he sees an American flag. In the interview, Silva described how “excessive imagery” of American flags is borderline “nationalism.”

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Evers Hints at Third Run for Wisconsin Governor

The Center Square

Just months into his second term, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers is already dropping hints about a potential 2026 reelection run.

“Some things have changed since our last convention,” Evers recently told onlookers at the Wisconsin Democratic Party Convention in Green Bay. “Some people have called me two-term Tony. You can call me governor. You can call me Tony. You can call me two-term Tony or three-term Tony, I don’t mind.”

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