Tag: Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s economy is reopening and it’s a hot coronavirus mess. Don’t do what we did.

The Republican plan all along was to thwart any plan. Granted a seat at the table, they now have set the table on fire and thrown it out the window.

Some curious photos began rocketing around social media sites Wednesday night — pictures of people in Wisconsin once again in their natural habitat, crammed shoulder to shoulder in bars.

Fortunately, the patrons were not drinking shots of flaming Lysol or Cloroxtinis. Unfortunately, there were no masks to be found, and the only thing drinkers were distancing from were their inhibitions. Just hours earlier, the Wisconsin Supreme Court had struck down a statewide “safer at home” order that, among other things, closed “nonessential” businesses and ordered people to stay in their homes, with limited exceptions. The order itself was fairly standard for states across America.

For weeks, Republicans had argued that their lawsuit against the order was needed simply so the legislature could have some say in the reopening plan. “We want not a Democratic plan, not a Republican plan, we want a Wisconsin plan where we’re all working together,” Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke said May 7. Continue reading.

Wisconsin governor sets up unique redistricting panel

The Hill logoWisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) is taking a new weapon into the fight for control of the decennial redistricting process in a state where Democrats say Republicans have consistently built themselves a gerrymandered advantage.

Evers has ordered a new independent redistricting panel to draw congressional and legislative district maps after the 2020 census results come in next year. The panel, he said in an interview, would craft lines with an eye toward creating competitive districts across the state, rather than seats that are heavily skewed toward one party or the other.

“We’re creating a commission that will be meeting in public, going around to each of the congressional districts,” Evers said in an interview on the sidelines of the National Governors Association meeting in Washington. “It’s going to be clearly nonpartisan in its output.” Continue reading.

A judge ordered up to 234,000 people to be tossed from the registered voter list in a swing state

Washington Post logoA Wisconsin judge ordered the state to take as many as 234,000 people off its registered-voter list Friday because they may have moved — a decision that could impede residents of this swing state from voting in next year’s presidential election.

The case centers on a letter that the state Elections Commission sent in Octoberto hundreds of thousands of voters, asking them to respond if they were still at that address or to update their registrations if they had moved.

Conservatives filed a lawsuit alleging that to avoid fraud, the commission should have thrown out the registrations of voters who did not respond to the mailing within 30 days, the Associated Press reported. The Elections Commission, composed of three Republicans and three Democrats, is challenging the suit by arguing that it has the legal power to manage the registered voter list and that removing people now would cause confusion if some of them had not actually moved.

Continue reading

Trump’s ‘snow job’ Foxconn deal cost these people their homes — and now they say they were ‘railroaded’

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump’s much touted deal with manufacturer Foxconn to bring manufacturing jobs to Wisconsin hasn’t delivered its promised jobs — and now homeowners who have lost their houses thanks to the deal are saying they’ve been misled.

The Racine Journal Times reports that several residents of Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin are upset that they were threatened with eminent domain unless they agreed to sell their property to help with the construction of a Foxconn plant that has repeatedly failed to meet expectations for delivering jobs.

As the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year, contractors working for Foxconn have “bulldozed about 75 homes in Mount Pleasant and cleared hundreds of farmland acres” in preparation for the construction of the plant in the town.

View the complete September 3 article by Brad Reed from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Wisconsin swing voters turn on Trump: ‘He’s a dirty crook that lies, cheats and steals’

Swing voters in Wisconsin — which was crucial to Donald Trump’s 2016 election win — have had enough of the president and his “lies.”

The president barely won the state, where he got about 22,000 more votes than Hillary Clinton, and some voters who had previously backed Barack Obama before casting ballots for Trump are unhappy with their choice, reported Axios.

“I think he’s a dirty crook that lies, cheats, and steals when he can,” said George Engelmann, a 49-year-old Obama/Trump voter. “There’s just a plethora of things that are still coming out.”

View the complete March 18 article by Travis Gettys from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Foxconn factory jobs touted by Trump will not come to pass

Credit: Evan Vucci, AP

Madison, Wisconsin — Electronics giant Foxconn reversed course and announced Wednesday that the huge Wisconsin plant that was supposed to bring a bounty of blue-collar factory jobs back to the Midwest — and was lured with billions in tax incentives — will instead be primarily a research and development center staffed by scientists and engineers.

The move was decried in some quarters as a case of bait-and-switch by the Taiwan-based company, which originally planned to build high-tech liquid crystal display screens in a project President Donald Trump had proudly pointed to as a sign of a resurgence in American manufacturing.

In a statement, Foxconn said it remains committed to Wisconsin and the creation of 13,000 jobs as promised. But because the global market environment that existed when the $10 billion project was announced in 2017 has shifted, “this has necessitated the adjustment of plans for all projects.”

 

Editorial Boards Cry Foul on Republicans’ Power Grab in Wisconsin and Michigan

Editorials across the nation are calling for Republicans to stop their lame-duck madness and to respect the rules of democracy. In rushed last-minute sessions — sometimes at night — Republicans have pushed through legislation that only promotes their own interests instead of those whom they were elected to serve. Editorial boards agree the people of Wisconsin and Michigan deserve leaders who will work together to solve problems and create opportunities, not more of the same political games. Read for yourself:

MLive: “Michigan’s legislators need to immediately stop pushing these types of bills through a lame duck session and allow those Michigan voters are sending to office have a voice. And Gov. Rick Snyder needs to do the right thing and not sign these into law.”

Lansing State Journal: “This behavior is unacceptable. Regardless of where people stand on issues, bullying through controversial legislation in a lame duck session is not the appropriate way to legislate.”

Continue reading “Editorial Boards Cry Foul on Republicans’ Power Grab in Wisconsin and Michigan”

Wisconsin served as ‘testing ground’ for Scott Pruitt’s war on environmental protection

The following article by Mark Hand was posted on the ThinkProgress website June 5, 2018:

Scott Walker’s former environmental chief now oversees six-state region for the EPA.

Former Wisconsin Dept. of Natural resources Secretary Cathy Stepp and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker promote a deer hunt in the state. Creit: WI DRN, Diana Ofosu

This is part two of ThinkProgress’ State of Conflicted Interest series.

Over the past seven years, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has overseen a sweeping rollback of state environmental protections, implementing a suite of industry-friendly policies that have since been embraced by the Trump administration at the national level.

During his tenure, Walker has cut back on enforcement, overlooked air and water pollution, and scrubbed climate change information from government websites — all drastic actions Scott Pruitt has also taken at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Continue reading “Wisconsin served as ‘testing ground’ for Scott Pruitt’s war on environmental protection”

Scott Walker’s handpicked candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court loses in a landslide

The following article by Josh Israel was posted on the ThinkProgress website April 4, 2018:

Walker’s candidate and a scheme to eliminate the State Treasurer both lost by double digits.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice-Elect Rebecca Dallet Credit: Dallet’s Twitter Feed

Wisconsin voters sent a strong message to Gov. Scott Walker (R) and the National Rifle Association on Tuesday, electing liberal Rebecca Dallet to an open seat on the state’s Supreme Court.

Dallet defeated a Walker-appointed and NRA-endorsed judge, Republican-backed conservative Michael Screnock, by a surprisingly lopsided 56 percent to 44 percent majority. Her win narrows the pro-Walker conservative majority on the court to 4 to 3 — and marks the first win by a liberal to an open seat since 1995. Continue reading “Scott Walker’s handpicked candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court loses in a landslide”

Wisconsin plans to drug test Medicaid recipients. Here’s why it’ll be a disaster.

The following article by Amanda Michelle Gomez was posted on the ThinkProgress website March 7, 2018:

WEST BEND, WI – AUGUST 16: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker introduces Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump as he gets ready to speak at a rally on August 16, 2016 in West Bend, Wisconsin. (Photo by Darren Hauck/Getty Images)

Over the past several months, Wisconsin lawmakers have waged a war on the state’s Medicaid program by requesting federal permission to add time-limits, work rules, and drug tests. But new data obtained by ThinkProgress suggests these drug tests are especially costly and virtually ineffective at enabling care. And if the Trump administration green-lights Wisconsin’s request, taxpayers will have to pay for it.

Requiring people who depend on government benefits to pee in a cup isn’t without precedent. At least 15 states, including Wisconsin, drug screen or test public assistance applicants. For three straight years, ThinkProgress collected state data on drug screening and learned that it’s expensive and yields few drug positive tests. This isn’t surprising, as a federal analysis on substance use among government assistance enrollees suggests abuse rates are only somewhat higher than general public. (Studies that report substance abuse rates higher than 15 percent define it to include a broader scope of alcohol and any illicit drug use within the past year rather than past month.) Continue reading “Wisconsin plans to drug test Medicaid recipients. Here’s why it’ll be a disaster.”