Other candidates include Nada Elmikashfi, a University of Wisconsin-Madison student, and Aisha Moe, a recent UW-Madison graduate.
Fred Risser, Nation’s Longest-Serving State Legislator, To Retire
Wisconsin Public Radio
Category: State news
Amid Uncertainty, Wisconsinites Find Fault With Political Response To COVID-19
Wisconsin Public Radio
“It really started when the University (of Wisconsin-Madison) announced that it was closing,” she said. “That signaled to people that this was quite serious.”
Can he do that? The law (and history) behind the governor’s emergency powers
Quoted: “One thing to keep in mind, particularly during a crisis like this, is that state actors and governors in particular can often just act more swiftly and more nimbly than the federal government can,” University of Wisconsin Law School professor Miriam Seifter said.
Seifter studies administrative law and constitutional law; much of her recent work has focused on the powers of state leaders.
Tony Evers to order nonessential businesses to close statewide in response to COVID-19 pandemic
Wisconsin State Journal
Details were not available Monday on which Wisconsin businesses will be allowed to remain open, when the order will go into effect or how long it will be in place. An Evers spokeswoman said there will be a grace period for businesses to adjust.
Man Charged in 2008 Killing of Wisconsin College Student
The New York Times
A 53-year-old man was charged Friday in the 2008 killing of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student who was found strangled and stabbed in her downtown apartment after she returned home from class.
Before coronavirus, Milwaukee service workers could work more hours to get more money. Now, everything is closed — and they’re in trouble.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: One in five Wisconsin workers holds “a poverty wage job with few benefits,” according to a 2018 report from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Social distancing would be a lot less inequality promoting if we had the infrastructure of strong medical care, insurance and housing supports for low-wage workers, but we don’t,” said Laura Dresser, a labor economist and the associate director of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy. “That means that this crisis tends to push the inequality along, instead of the crisis showing how connected we are and pulling us closer together.”
Doctor At Waupun Prison Contracts COVID-19 As Advocates Push For Release Of Inmates
Wisconsin Public Radio
“You can’t plan for an outbreak of COVID-19 in a prison as if it was like a nursing home or assisted living because there are more variables than just visitors,” the officer wrote in a letter to Evers. “They have inmate transfer from institution to institution, Monday (through) Friday trips to (University of Wisconsin)-Madison for inmate doctor/surgical appointments, semi drivers bringing in supplies, County Sheriff’s picking up (and) dropping off inmates due in court, laundry that GBCI does for other institutions, emergency trips to local hospitals and the list goes on (and) on.”
Coronavirus crisis could put Wisconsin’s April election under a national spotlight
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: “I think it could be an interesting test case for the rest of the country to examine,” University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Barry Burden said of the “terrible trade-off” between holding the election as scheduled and putting it off.
Wisconsin Bans Crowds Of 10 Or Larger; Order Bars And Restaurants Closed
Wisconsin Public Radio
Quoted: Dr. Patrick Remington, the director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Preventive Medicine Residency Program, said many people who work in the service industry are now “basically unemployed.”
Growing List Of Private Universities Move Classes Online To Prevent Spread Of New Coronavirus
Wisconsin Public Radio
The move comes the day after several University of Wisconsin System schools made changes to how they operate to slow the spread of COVID-19, and the same day Gov. Tony Evers declared a public health emergency in response to the virus.
What to Do If Your College Closes Due to the Coronavirus
US News and World Report
University of Wisconsin—Madison
Big events banned, NCAA tells fans to stay home over virus
The Washington Post
Penn State, Swarthmore, West Virginia’s Marshall University, the University of Virginia, the University of Tennessee system and the University of Wisconsin at Madison joined the rapidly expanding list of schools announcing plans to send students home and hold classes remotely.
Wisconsin Sees 2nd Confirmed Coronavirus Case As Health Officials Fight Disease And Myths
Wisconsin Public Radio
Two commercial labs, Quest and LabCorp, will supplement testing being done at the State Laboratory of Hygiene on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus and the Milwaukee Health Department. The state lab can do 100 tests per day and the Milwaukee lab up to 30. It’s not known yet how many additional tests will be done through the commercial labs.
Despite concerted effort, Wisconsin’s obesity rate continues to rise
Wisconsin State Journal
A $10 million, five-year effort at UW-Madison to curb obesity in Wisconsin, which ended in December, met a stark reality: The state’s obesity rate, which is slightly higher than the national average, continued to go up.
Super Tuesday results impact Wisconsin voters
NBC-15
Quoted: “He was more or less left for dead a few weeks ago,” University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communications Professor Michael Wagner said of Joe Biden. “It’s really remarkable, Biden won states, where he did not advertise, did not show up, did not have a field office; it was all on the strength of endorsements over the last couple of days.”
Gov. Tony Evers appoints nonprofit leader, boxing legend to UW Board of Regents
Wisconsin State Journal
Héctor Colón, 47, will serve the rest of Gerald Whitburn’s term on the UW Board of Regents, which lasts through May 2025. Whitburn resigned in late January.
Molson Coors Victims: Names, Photos & Tributes
Heavy.com
He had also worked as a manager at a pizza company and as a Health Care Services account manager. He had a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in political science and government. He spoke Dutch.
Union Supporters To UW Hospital: ‘We Will Keep Coming Back’
Wisconsin Public Radio
Nurses and their supporters packed a board meeting of the University Hospital and Clinics Authority Thursday on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to demand union recognition, touting community support and singing the song “Solidarity.” But the board resisted their pleas, saying current law prevents them from doing so.
Building Commission approves projects, grant funds for youth prison alternatives
NBC-15
In addition to the grant funds for alternatives to the youth prisons, the commission approved the following projects: Funding increase to complete the Babcock Hall Dairy Plant / Center for Dairy Research Addition and the Meat Science and Muscle Biology Laboratory projects at UW-Madison; construction of the Sellery Hall Addition and Renovation at UW-Madison.
Those who sat out 2016 back Democrats for president by 2-to-1 margin
Wisconsin State Journal
Boosting turnout this November among registered voters who didn’t vote in 2016 could spell trouble for President Donald Trump in key battleground states, according to a new UW-Madison poll. “For Trump, I think it’s holding onto that vote, and not losing anybody to stay competitive, whereas the Democrats are probably looking for additional voters to turn up,” said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center. “Without them, the Democrats look to be just competitive, maybe at a slight disadvantage.”
Wisconsin Assembly approves bill to extend bar time to 4 a.m. during DNC
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: Assembly lawmakers early Friday also approved a bill that would require the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study dangerous long-lasting chemicals in groundwater and soil and mandates the Department of Natural Resources to develop standards to use to certify labratories to test for such chemicals.
Bernie Sanders opens sizable lead over Democratic field in new Wisconsin poll
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: In the UW-Madison survey, there was a lot less separation among the three states, with Trump essentially even or modestly behind in matchups with most Democrats. Of the three, Pennsylvania was the worst state for Trump in the Quinnipiac polls. Michigan was the worst for Trump in the UW-Madison polls.
“All three states are up for grabs in 2020,” said Barry Burden, political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of its Elections Research Center.
In These States, College Students Say Republicans Have Made It Harder for Them to Vote
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Most Wisconsin colleges do not provide student IDs that are in compliance. The University of Wisconsin at Madison began issuing voter IDs to students in 2018, which they can obtain on campus throughout the year, including on Election Day. While this helps many students on the state’s largest public campus, it does not solve the problem.
Ho-Chunk Supreme Court Justice Tricia Zunker Overwhelmingly Wins Congressional Primary
Madison365
Zunker, who is also president of the Wausau School Board, is a UW–Madison alumna.
GOP Tax Cut, Agriculture Bills Pass Legislature’s Budget Committee
Wisconsin Public Radio
The budget committee also passed a GOP bill that would spend $1 million per year on state specialists providing extension services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Wisconsin census panel holds first meeting one month before 2020 effort will start
The Capital Times
In addition to Evers and Barnes, the 40-member panel includes four lawmakers — including Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau — representatives from UW System, UW-Madison and the tech colleges, officials from the Administration and Public Instruction departments, local leaders and individuals from a number of groups, such as the League of Women Voters and the Wisconsin Counties Association.
New group seeks fundamental shift in the way Wisconsin teaches children to read
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: There has been a resurgence of interest among educators in recent years, driven in part by people like Mark Seidenberg, a University of Wisconsin-Madison neuroscientist whose 2017 book “Language at the Speed of Sight” argued that the current approaches to reading instruction were out of sync with the latest research into how children learn.
Speaking at the Capitol Wednesday, Seidenberg said DPI “has done little to address literacy issues that have existed for decades.”
“We know the best ways to teach children to read,” he said. “Wisconsin is simply not using them, and our children are suffering.”
Fast-moving GOP farm aid legislation would cost $36 million per year
Wisconsin State Journal
The GOP proposal also would direct UW-Madison to compile a report on ways to best serve the state’s farmers and conduct research on technology specific to agriculture.
Wisconsin Assembly passes campus speech bill
The Capital Times
Rep. Diane Hesselbein, D-Middleton, on Tuesday called Assembly Bill 444 bill an unnecessary repetition of the U.S. Constitution. Rep. Katrina Shankland, D-Stevens Point, called it a draconian state statute. Rep. Gary Hebl, D-Sun Prairie, called it a partisan waste of time.
Assembly to vote on sexual-assault kit proposal, ‘Tougher on Crime’ bills
Wisconsin State Journal
The Assembly is also scheduled to vote on a bill to codify protections for public speakers on University of Wisconsin campuses. The rules were adopted last year by the UW Board of Regents and would require disciplinary action against students who disrupt public speeches.
Republican farm aid bills include tax credit, insurance deductions, but full cost still unknown
Wisconsin State Journal
The GOP proposal also would direct UW-Madison to compile a report on ways to best serve the state’s farmers and conduct research on technology specific to agriculture.
Hundreds of evacuees to be held on bases in California; Hong Kong and Taiwan restrict travel from mainland China
The Washington Post
The patient reportedly had not been hospitalized. However, they had been evaluated and tested at the University of Wisconsin Hospital, according to Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer in the Department of Health Services Bureau of Communicable Disease.
The Novel Coronavirus And How Isolation And Quarantine Authority Works In Wisconsin
WisContext
In Dane County, which has a population of international students from China mostly affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, public health officials declined to comment on any action plans that may include the use of quarantine or isolation orders — a Public Health Madison & Dane County spokesperson cited a lack of time amid pressures to monitor the 2019-nCoV outbreak as it unfolds.
Wisconsin Resident Who Traveled To China Is State’s First Confirmed Coronavirus Case
Wisconsin Public Radio
An email from Jake Baggot, executive director of University Health Services, said officials have no information indicating that the patient visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus other than to seek care at the hospital.
Vos, Assembly Republicans To Introduce New Agriculture Tax Credits, Export Incentives | Wisconsin Public Radio
Wisconsin Public Radio
The positions, which would cost the state $2.5 million over the next two years, would be based in the Division of Extension at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Black lawmakers moving forward with their own Black History Month resolution
Wisconsin State Journal
Among the others the resolution honors are Mabel Watson Raimey, Wisconsin’s first black female attorney and first black female graduate of UW-Madison …
Evers administration threatened prosecution of journalist over child abuse case reporting
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Robert Drechsel, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in media law and constitutional issues, said the agency is free to ask the reporter not to publish but cannot legally compel them to do so.
“I don’t know how common it is for a Wisconsin state agency to tell a reporter to ‘cease and desist’ and threaten prosecution this way. No other examples come to mind in all the years I’ve lived in Wisconsin,” Drechsel said after reviewing the agency’s letter to NBC News. “Any formal legal cease and desist order issued against the news media would be a prior restraint that is almost certainly unconstitutional.”
Who received the voter purge letter? State lawmakers, a cabinet secretary and a former UW chancellor
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Among the thousands of voters flagged to be possibly removed from Wisconsin’s voter rolls are two state lawmakers, a cabinet secretary, a Milwaukee County supervisor and a former University of Wisconsin chancellor.
Election officials in October asked more than 230,000 people to update their voter registrations because they believed they had moved. The letters triggered an ongoing legal battle over whether the recipients should be quickly taken off the rolls.
Among those who were targeted were Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam; Rep. David Crowley, D-Milwaukee; Workforce Development Secretary Caleb Frostman; Milwaukee County Supervisor Sequanna Taylor and former UW Extension Chancellor Cathy Sandeen.
The social cost of carbon: Bill would require consideration of economic impacts for new power plants
Wisconsin State Journal
Greg Nemet, a professor with UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs who studies environmental policy, said $50 is in line with the broader climate impacts.
Amidst dairy crisis, call for more UW Extension agricultural agents sees some early support
Wisconsin State Journal
Few things embody the Wisconsin Idea more than UW Extension agricultural agents.
With student loan debt in Wisconsin surpassing $24 billion, Evers creates task force to seek solutions
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order Wednesday creating a task force to research the mounting pressure student debt places on Wisconsin college students, which some say has reached crisis levels — not just in the state but nationwide.
Bill would raise retirement age from 55 to 59½ for Wisconsin Retirement System participants
Wisconsin State Journal
A bill meant to alleviate teacher shortages in Wisconsin schools comes with a proposal to raise the minimum retirement age for participants in the Wisconsin Retirement System by nearly five years, a pill that may be too hard to swallow for some public employees.
Milk prices are so low Wisconsin is losing two dairy farms a day
AP
Hire 20 experts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison extension division to provide free research and technical assistance to farmers;
Pieces of Madison’s past
Madison Magazine
A tour of the massive $47 million, 188,000-square-foot State Archive Preservation Facility on the near east side is overwhelming. One room alone contains a 1969 Wienermobile, a Marc’s Big Boy restaurant statue, a Green Bay Packers-themed fishing shanty and a Tommy Bartlett boat once capable of pulling nine water-skiers.
‘Irresistible’: Everything we know so far about Jon Stewart’s political comedy set in purple-state Wisconsin
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: Stewart basically pulled back from entertainment work after leaving his gig hosting “The Daily Show” in 2015. But in 2017, he reached out to Kathy Cramer, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor and author of “The Politics of Resentment,” to get insights on the political climate in Wisconsin for a possible feature film.
Cramer’s book, published in mid-2016, looks at the role disaffected rural voters had in Wisconsin’s shift to the right after the Great Recession — a shift that some believe contributed to Donald Trump’s winning the state in 2016.
Gov. Tony Evers calls special session for lawmakers to take up his $8.6 million agriculture package
The Capital Times
Others would add five positions to DATCP to help farmers access mental health support and provide one-on-one counseling to farmers and add 20 county-based ag experts to UW-Madison’s Division of Extension, who would provide research and technical help to farmers around the state on business and ag practices.
Assembly committee passes college free speech bill, requiring punishments for student violators
The Capital Times
The Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities passed a bill Thursday that would enforce mandatory disciplinary sanctions for student who disrupt others’ free speech, aiming to codify UW Board of Regents policy into state law.
Evers unveils plan to tackle Wisconsin’s farm crisis
Wisconsin State Journal
A third proposal would expand the state’s Farm-to-School program will help to connect farmers and the food they produce with universities, technical colleges, hospitals and local businesses across Wisconsin.
UW Regents eyeing tuition increase in next budget biennium, System president says
Wisconsin State Journal
The UW System Board of Regents is eyeing a tuition increase in the next budget biennium, University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross told a legislative committee Wednesday.
Three local finalists named in American Dream Ideas Challenge
Deseret News
In March the three local finalists will compete against teams from Ohio State University, Arizona State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, pitching their ideas to the advisory board of Schmidt Futures. The winners will move on to the final round of competition this summer and are eligible for up to $1 million in funding from Schmidt Futures.
Senate approves funding for UW missing soldiers project
Associated Press
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers would be permitted to request funding from the state to recover missing Wisconsin soldiers under a bill the state Senate overwhelmingly approved Tuesday.
Senate approves funding for UW missing soldiers project
WISC-TV 3
The state Senate has approved a bill that would allow University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers to request hundreds of thousands of dollars to recover missing Wisconsin soldiers’ remains.
Senate to vote on funding for UW missing soldiers project
NBC-15
The bill would allow the UW-Madison Missing-In-Action Recovery and Identification Project to ask the state to release $360,000 over the next two fiscal years to fund searches for Wisconsin soldiers missing around the world.
SWIB says ‘core fund’ grew 19.9%, ‘variable fund’ 28.6% in 2019 in good news for state pension system
Associated Press
The primary investment fund for most Wisconsin public employees and retirees grew nearly 20% last year, bouncing back from a loss in 2018, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board reported Thursday.
Jeffrey Sommers: Wisconsin needs another Dane County — and Milwaukee’s research institutions can help
The Capital Times
Column: As one of just over 100 Tier 1 institutions in all the U.S., UW-Milwaukee could be our state’s second driver of enterprise and innovation. The problem is UW-Milwaukee is underfunded by any reasonable metric.
Assembly to attempt veto override that would reduce training hours for nursing assistants
Wisconsin State Journal
The Assembly this week is slated to attempt to override Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ veto of legislation that would reduce the number of required training hours needed to become a certified nursing assistant in Wisconsin, as well as vote on raises for unionized trades employees within the University of Wisconsin System.
Jessie Opoien: Informed consent bill for pelvic exams gets welcome bipartisan support
The Capital Times
It’s not every day that you find Andre Jacque, Lena Taylor, Janel Brandtjen and Chris Taylor on the same side of a reproductive health issue.
Lawmakers release $10M plan to address water contamination in Wisconsin
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: It touted efforts it plans to focus on over the coming years, such as developing a program in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin to assist farmers to reduce leaching nitrates from fertilizer into groundwater. The report also noted the administration had started a program to monitor water chemistry and fish tissue near sites contaminated with PFAS.
Bill seeks informed consent for pelvic exams under anesthesia by medical students
Wisconsin State Journal
UW School of Medicine and Public Health adopted a policy in July covering “educational sensitive exams,” including breast, pelvic, urogenital, prostate and rectal exams on patients under anesthesia or otherwise sedated.
Task Force Begins Work To Combat Climate Change
Wisconsin Public Radio
Quoted: “No matter how we evolve as a global society, by 2050, we can be planning for this. This is likely going to happen,” said Dan Vimont, WICCI’s co-director and director of the Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin -Madison.