From the Article:

A complaint filed with the Wisconsin Elections Commission says a town in Rusk County is breaking the law by refusing to make voting machines available to voters with disabilities. Despite a warning from the U.S. Department of Justice, the town allegedly conducted the August primary election using only hand-counted, paper ballots.

The complaint filed by Disability Rights Wisconsin says the Town of Thornapple violated the federal Help America Vote Act by not making electronic voting machines available to people with disabilities during the April and August primaries. “By ceasing to use electronic voting equipment and, instead, exclusively using paper ballots completed and tabulated by hand, Respondents are no longer using voting systems that are accessible for individuals with disabilities in a manner that provides the same opportunity for access and participation (including privacy and independence) as for other voters,” the complaint said.

Disability Rights Wisconsin is asking the Wisconsin Elections Commission to order Thornapple to make accessible voting machines. DRW Director of Legal and Advocacy Services Kit Kerschensteiner told WPR the goal is to ensure all town residents are able to cast private ballots in the November presidential election. She said voting machines were used without issue in Thornapple before April.

“This is not the situation of a machine that just isn’t functioning that day at the polling place,” Kerschensteiner said. “This is a place that has chosen specifically, knowing that they were disenfranchising individuals with disabilities, and choosing to go ahead and do that, which we find to be unacceptable.”

From the Article:

Two Wisconsinites have died and a third has been hospitalized because of West Nile virus, according to state health officials.

On Thursday, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported the state’s first three cases of the mosquito-borne illness this year.

West Nile virus is spread through the bite of an infected mosquito and cannot be passed from person to person. The state sees an average of 18 cases annually, with cases usually peaking in August or September.

DHS epidemiologist Rebecca Osborn said on a call with reporters that Wisconsin has seen cases of West Nile virus every year since it was discovered in the state in 2002. She said the location of cases each year is “quite sporadic.”

“It’s an unpredictable disease at times,” Osborn said. “We can have as few as one or two cases in a given year, and we can have as many as 52 cases, I think was our record. So there’s this sort of ebb and flow.”

Osborn told reporters around 80 percent of people who are infected with the virus don’t have symptoms. People who do become ill typically develop a fever and experience symptoms similar to influenza, like headache and body aches.

From the Article:

Two Waukesha County municipalities have decided to prevent residents from using absentee ballot drop boxes in the upcoming presidential election. The decision comes after the Wisconsin Supreme Court last month reversed a near-total ban of the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in the state.

The Brookfield Common Council last week voted against allowing residents to use the city’s utility payment drop box outside of City Hall for absentee ballots. Last month, New Berlin took a similar step.

Brookfield Alder Mike Hallquist, who voted against the ban, said the decision from the council was a disappointment. “Essentially what we did as a community is we rolled back a voting method that makes voting more accessible in our community, that we previously had without issue,” Hallquist said.

Absentee voting and the use of ballot drop boxes became a more popular option for voters during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the spring of 2021, the Wisconsin Elections Commission found there were 570 drop boxes being used in 66 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties.

But the use of the boxes has also become a highly politicized issue in recent years. The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s conservative majority made them illegal in 2022. The election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz in 2023 gave the court a liberal majority. In July, the court’s four liberal justices reversed the earlier decision.

Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote in the majority opinion that the ruling “does not force or require that any municipal clerks use drop boxes.”

After that decision, the Wisconsin Elections Commission issued suggested guidance for municipal clerks for their ballot box use, which said the boxes should be affixed to the ground and should be in a well-lit area.

“Ideally, unstaffed 24-hour drop boxes should be located in areas with good lighting and be monitored by video surveillance cameras,” the guidance said. “When this is not feasible, positioning the box close to a nearby camera is a good option.”

The guidance adds that “chain of custody” forms should be completed every time ballots are collected.

Wisconsin State Journal Local News: $22 million city property tax referendum will go to Madison voters in November#referendums #psephology #elections #politicalevents #democracy #government #accountability #voting #groupdecision-making #politics #directdemocracy #parliamentaryprocedure #satyarhodes-conway #referendum #politicallaw #politicsoftheunitedstates #unitedstates #tax #governmentfinances #economy #publicfinance #payments

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/15783542

From the Article:

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is spearheading an effort to help more workers in the upper Midwest gain skills for green jobs that support manufacturing.

UW-Milwaukee will assist nine community colleges in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois to establish Industrial Training Assessment Centers — places where workers can develop energy assessment skills. Those skills can then be used to help manufacturers reduce energy consumption and cut carbon emissions, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Energy Department selected UW-Milwaukee to lead one of its Clean Energy and Manufacturing Workforce Consortia, with the goal of helping companies be more competitive while addressing climate change. The university received a $5.7 million federal grant to assist in the effort, the college announced this week.

From the Article:

Less than a month after buying roughly 170 acres in Racine County, Microsoft has acquired even more land for its $3.3 billion data center campus.

Microsoft purchased 70.9 acres of mostly vacant land in Mount Pleasant for $12.75 million, according to Wisconsin Department of Revenue online records.

The sale was recorded Tuesday. Like the 173 acres purchased last month, the land acquired in August is located along Louis Sorenson Road. It’s near the main data center development site, according to a project overview. The company also bought 32.1 acres on the road back in May.

From the Article:

Only four of the Wisconsin restaurants Guy Fieri visited on “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” remain open, but they’re certainly worth a visit.

If you’re on the hunt for a diner to experience in Wisconsin, look no further than the restaurant “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” host Guy Fieri has already visited on his ever-popular Food Network show. In these episodes, which span culinary options throughout the entire United States, he visits for a meal and to chat with the owners as well as regulars. Wisconsin has been featured numerous times on what’s fondly known as the “Triple D” show. Even though some of those spots are now closed, here are four that remain open and are ready to serve you.

From the Article:

Amtrak's train line connecting Chicago to the Twin Cities through Milwaukee saw a successful first full month of service this summer.

Amtrak’s new Borealis line saw 19,400 riders in the month of June, giving the line a total of 26,000 riders since it launched May 21, according to a June performance report by Amtrak. The line saw 6,600 passengers over its first 11 days of operation in May.

The route is sponsored by the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois. A federal grant provides 90% of the first-year operating costs. The project represents a $53 million investment and includes track improvements in La Crosse and Minnesota.

The twice-daily Borealis was built as an expansion of the Empire Builder service which connects Chicago with the Twin Cities on its way to Seattle. Borealis’ 411-mile route takes about 7 hours and 20 minutes, compared with Empire’s nearly 8-hour journey.

The report also showed $1.9 million in operating revenue versus $1.8 million in operating expense for the line so far this year, giving the line adjusted operating earnings of $100,000.

This made it one of just two lines to have positive adjusted operating earnings for the year, along with the Berkshire Flyer.

However, operating earnings doesn't equate to profitability, according to Amtrak spokesperson Marc Magliari.

Magliari said that the report only measures direct costs for the line like employee salaries, fuel and payments to the railroads used. It doesn't cover things like depreciation, income tax expense and other factors.

Any earnings from the line would be split between the three states based on a cost-sharing agreement, Magliari said.

While what Amtrak has seen so far in terms of ridership is “very encouraging,” Magliarli said, the company is not actively considering adding more service in Wisconsin.

“We need more than 90 days of data to make these kinds of decisions, and we’ve not even gone into a slower travel season yet,” Magliari said.

Magliari said increasing how often the trains run would also be difficult. If the service were to expand, it would be likely through adding capacity to the trains, although that’s constrained by fleet size.

“We have a contract with these states to provide this much capacity and if there’s a need for additional capacity, we and the states will talk about that,” Magliari said.

In addition to downtown Milwaukee Intermodal Station, Wisconsin stops include Sturtevant, Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, Columbus, Portage, Wisconsin Dells, Tomah and La Crosse.

“The initial data is promising and reflects the hard work done by WisDOT, our partner states and Amtrak to bring this service to the people of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois,” Wisconsin Department of Transportation Secretary Craig Thompson said in an Amtrak press release. “We’re hopeful the more people that ride Borealis and like it, the more successful it will be.”

Consider this scenario: An absentee ballot in Wisconsin gets returned with an error, like the voter failing to sign the envelope, but it mistakenly gets counted anyway, because a municipal election worker initially didn’t catch the error when taking the ballot out of the envelope.

Later, perhaps during a recount, a worker catches the error and has to mark that voter as invalid. And now the number of ballots in the counting pile is one greater than the number of valid voters.

The solution? Just pull one random ballot out of the pile and set it aside to not be counted. Now the numbers match up. But someone — it’s impossible to know who — got their valid vote tossed.

It may not seem fair, but it actually happens from time to time in Wisconsin — and almost nowhere else — because of an election law that’s nearly as old as the state. Election officials aren’t crazy about the practice, called a ballot drawdown, and say it is reserved only for extraordinary cases.

From the Article:

A judge refused Thursday to put on hold his ruling that allows disabled people in Wisconsin to be emailed absentee ballots at home in November’s presidential election in the closely watched battleground state.

Republicans asked the judge to not enforce his ruling while their appeal is pending. But Dane County Circuit Judge Everett Mitchell on Thursday rejected their arguments, saying putting his ruling on hold “would inflict significant harm on both the disability rights advocates and the public interest.”

From the Article:

The last coal-fired passenger steamship in the U.S. is attempting to become more green while maintaining its steam-powered charm as it travels to and from Wisconsin.

Last year, the SS Badger received a $600,000 federal grant to study alternative fuel sources beyond coal in efforts to make the ship zero-carbon.

The Badger connects Manitowoc to Ludington, Michigan, through a four-hour ferry ride across Lake Michigan. The ship first set sail on the lake more than 70 years ago. In 2016, the U.S. Department of the Interior designated the Badger a National Historic Landmark.

From the Article:

Vice President Kamala Harris has closed the polling gap with former President Donald Trump among Wisconsin voters, according to polls taken since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

“What we’re seeing is that voters under the age of 50, independents and ethnic minorities, especially African American voters, are swinging back towards the Democratic party,” said Matt Taglia, a senior director at Emerson College polling.

Emerson’s poll is one of several that show Harris leading Trump when voters are asked to choose between the two. A survey conducted July 22-23 showed Harris leading Trump 51-49, within the poll’s margin of error.

When other candidates were included in the question, Harris and Trump were tied 45-45, with independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. getting 3 percent support and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 1 percent.

“She changed the dynamics of the race substantially. She moved five points in the margin in Wisconsin, and so I don’t think we necessarily need to wait to see what changes are taking effect as a result of Harris on the ticket,” Taglia said.

Still, with an expected vice presidential announcement in the next several days and the Democratic National convention in less than two weeks, he said it will take some time to get a firmer sense of how the race has changed.

From the Article:

Wisconsin Republicans are asking voters to take away the governor's power to unilaterally spend federal money, a reaction to the billions of dollars that flowed into the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers was free to spend most of that money as he pleased, directing most of it toward small businesses and economic development, angering Republicans who argued the Legislature should have oversight.

That's what would happen under a pair of related constitutional amendments up for voter approval in the Aug. 13 primary election. The changes would apply to Evers and all future governors and cover any federal money to the state that comes without specific spending requirements, often in response to disasters or other emergencies.

Democrats and other opponents are mobilizing against the amendments, calling them a legislative power grab that would hamstring governors' ability to quickly respond to a future natural disaster, economic crisis or health emergency.

If the amendments pass, Wisconsin’s government “will become even more dysfunctional,” said Julie Keown-Bomar, executive director of Wisconsin Farmers Union.

“Wisconsinites are so weary of riding the partisan crazy train, but it is crucial that we show up at the polls and vote ‘no’ on these changes as they will only make us go further off the rails,” she said in a statement.

But Republicans and other backers say it's a necessary check on the governor's current power, which they say is too broad.

From the Article:

Starting next week, tens of thousands of high school students across Wisconsin will be directly admitted to Universities of Wisconsin schools without filing applications.

The admissions are part of a new program, launched in December, to boost admission on the state’s public university campuses.

Next week through September, students will start receiving emails letting them know they’ve been admitted. School districts across the state participating in the Direct Admit Wisconsin program shared student grade point averages and course credits with University of Wisconsin administrators for rising seniors. The program identifies if a student qualifies to be directly admitted to any of the 10 participating campuses.

UW-Madison, UW-La Crosse and UW-Eau Claire are not participating.

Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman said this week 50,000 students across 330 high schools are eligible under the program.

In recent years, enrollment across the UW system has declined. Historically, more than 30% of the state’s high school graduates enroll in a UW school but that number had dropped to 27% in 2020.

“These students have already demonstrated through their junior year of high school that they have the ability to succeed at one of our universities, and to put themselves on a path to a better life and to a better career,” Rothman said.

From the Article:

Wisconsin Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany is introducing a bill that would designate the Apostle Islands as the state’s first national park.

The proposal would redesignate the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore as the Apostle Islands National Park and Preserve. The country has 63 national parks, but Wisconsin currently lacks any such designation.

While some elected leaders and communities applaud the bill, the proposal is sparking concerns among local officials about its effects on tribal treaty rights, housing, workforce and infrastructure.

Tiffany, who chairs a House subcommittee on federal lands, said people are drawn to the lakeshore’s historic lighthouses, shipwrecks, sandstone cliffs and sea caves. During a hearing Wednesday, Tiffany said designating the Apostle Islands as a national park would increase tourism and attract more visitors to the area.

From the Article:

Anglers are now off the hook if they carry a firearm while fishing after the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has agreed to repeal a regulation preventing them from doing so.

The move follows a lawsuit filed by the conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, or WILL, on behalf of Sheboygan Falls resident Travis Kobs. The legal group sued Acting DNR Secretary Steven Little last month over the 25-year-old rule that bars firearms and guns on waters and shores used for fishing.

The group’s complaint states any angler found in violation of the regulation could have been punished by a $200 fine plus court costs that would have pushed the total penalty past $500.

WILL argued the rule is an unconstitutional violation of Kobs’ Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms. Now, a settlement between the parties states Little intends to repeal the regulation “as soon as practicable and without delay.”

Skylar Croy, associate counsel for WILL, said it’s important to ensure unconstitutional laws and rules are removed from the books as quickly as possible.

“There is a constitutional right under both the state and federal Constitution to protect yourself using firearms,” Croy said. “That right doesn’t disappear just because you’re in the great outdoors.”

From the Article:

Researchers have discovered a new parasite in freshwater mussels after investigating hundreds of mussels that died along the Embarrass River in Shawano County six years ago.

The findings were recently published in the international, peer-reviewed journal Parasitologia. Researchers with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources were among agencies that collaborated to study the mass die-off in 2018. Biologists observed sick mussels lying on their sides on the surface of the river with open shells when they’re normally buried in the river bottom.

Researchers examined 29 mussels from six different species within the river. They then cut them in half and examined the organs of some samples to see if the mussels were healthy or diseased.

From the Article:

Milwaukee backers of the Republican National Convention coming to the city, who have predicted a $200 million economic impact from the event, said they weren’t fazed by former President Donald Trump citing an impact of over $250 million during his speech accepting the party's nomination.

Two leaders of the Milwaukee 2024 RNC Host Committee said Friday they don’t yet know the final estimated impact of hosting the convention and don’t rule out finishing higher than their $200 million prediction.

Here is what Trump said Thursday night at Fiserv Forum:

“By the way, Wisconsin, we are spending over $250 million here creating jobs and the other economic development all over the place, so I hope you will remember this in November. Give us your vote. I am trying to buy your vote – I’ll be honest about that.” Trump's remarks drew cheers from the audience, which included the Wisconsin delegation near the stage.

A reporter from Milwaukee CBS affiliate WDJT-TV (Channel 58) reported the teleprompter for Trump's speech said $200 million, indicating Trump deviated from the script. However, the audience at Fiserv Forum and on television, streaming and other platforms heard the $250 million figure.

Visit Milwaukee president and CEO Peggy Williams-Smith said Friday that her organization and the Host Committee's $200 million figure was based on the impact of previous national political conventions.

“I do not control what Donald Trump says,” she said. “I’m still going with $200 million.”

Williams-Smith said she’s awaiting financial reports on the convention’s impact before declaring a final dollar amount.

“Obviously with inflation, I can totally see that ($250 million) happening, but I’m not going to increase it right now,” she said. “My gut feel says it’ll be higher (than $200 million), but we have to wait and see.”

Tim Sheehy, senior adviser and past president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said the convention met performance goals for attendance and impact on the local hospitality industry.

“I don’t know whether it’s $200 million or $250 (million),” Sheehy said. “Past conventions, it’s been around $200 (million). I don’t make this as a political statement, but inflation’s going to drive that up.”

Sheehy acknowledged that while the convention delivered revenue boosts for hotels and many hospitality and service businesses, it wasn’t a win for all businesses.

“I’m going to have to describe it as 'lumpy peanut butter,'” he said. “The reason I describe it as 'lumpy peanut butter' is I think the spread of exposure for Milwaukee nationally and internationally was fantastic.

“The lumpy part is not every business met the expectations that they had for the convention. That’s somewhat understandable,” he said.

Sheehy said convention guests faced challenges entering and exiting the security zone, which likely limited their access to businesses beyond the perimeter.

Williams-Smith said she was sad that not all businesses in Milwaukee did as well as their owners and managers thought they would, but she said the Host Committee never promised all businesses would benefit. She said activity picked up through the course of the week at bars and restaurants.

Before the convention started, the Host Committee announced raising over $85 million from businesses and organizations in Wisconsin and beyond. The sales pitch to local donors was that their contributions would boost the Milwaukee area during the convention week and lead to opportunities for more large conventions.

Sheehy, who worked on the fundraising campaign, said the final figure was about $87 million, and about $40 million of that was raised in Wisconsin.

From the Article:

Last month was one of the wettest on record for June in a dramatic reversal from the drought conditions that covered Wisconsin at the same time last year.

The month marked the sixth-wettest June in state history based on records dating back to 1895. That’s according to Steve Vavrus, director of the Wisconsin State Climatology Office.

“Last June was the fifth-driest statewide, so this marks the biggest one-year precipitation flip-flop from one June to the next,” Vavrus said.

In June, the state averaged 6.97 inches in rainfall, which was 2.27 inches above normal for the month.

“Most parts of the state had more wet days than dry days in June, which is especially unusual in the summer,” Vavrus said.

The La Crosse area set a monthly record with 24 days of rain last month compared to the previous record of 22 days seen in 1935 and 2013. Frequent rain prompted flooding along the Mississippi River and brought water levels to its second-highest for the month at 11.01 feet.

From the Article:

New guidance on how local clerks should secure and maintain absentee ballot drop boxes has been approved by the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The 6-0 vote comes days after Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley said the party doesn’t want “ballots going into drop boxes.”

Drop boxes are back in Wisconsin because the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority reversed a near-total ban on the receptacles July 5. It was a reversal of the court’s previous conservative majority’s order in 2022, which said unsupervised ballot drop boxes outside a clerk’s office were illegal.

Following the conservative majority’s ruling two years ago, former President Donald Trump falsely claimed the results of the 2020 election were also illegal. Trump lost Wisconsin to former Vice President Joe Biden by around 21,000 votes.

From the Article:

GOP lawmakers overstepped their constitutional authority when they used a committee to block certain gubernatorial actions, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court concluded in a 6-1 ruling.

Friday’s near-unanimous decision hands a major victory to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who filed a lawsuit arguing legislative committees like the GOP-led Joint Finance Committee violated the separation of powers established in Wisconsin’s Constitution.

The lawsuit cited moves by the committee, such as blocking the ability of Evers’ Department of Natural Resources to acquire land for conservation using funds that had already been earmarked by the full Legislature. In circumventing the DNR’s ability to carry out those purchases for what’s known as the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program, Wisconsin’s budget-writing committee “intruded” on executive power, six justices concluded.

“Maintaining the separation of powers between the branches is essential for the preservation of liberty and a government accountable to the people,” conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote in the majority opinion. “By placing the power of the executive branch to carry out the law in a committee of the legislature, the legislative branch subsumed the executive power.”

Evers called the ruling a “victory for the people of Wisconsin” in a statement Friday.

“Republican lawmakers have spent years giving themselves outsized influence and power that they’ve used to unconstitutionally obstruct basic government functions and prevent my administration from doing the people’s work,” the statement said. “I’ve spent years working against near-constant Republican obstruction, and this historic decision rightfully resets constitutional checks and balances and restores separation of powers.”

Joint Finance Co-Chairs Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, and Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, said the decision was an “unfortunate” reversal of longstanding, “key components” of the land stewardship program that have been in place under both Democratic and Republican administrations. “These provisions have ensured taxpayer resources are spent wisely and that local communities and stakeholders have had a seat at the table on important projects impacting their area,” the statement said. “This decision removes our current legislative oversight process. Our entire stewardship program is now in jeopardy.”

Evers has long been engaged in a tug of war over authority with Wisconsin’s Legislature. Republicans hold a majority in both Wisconsin’s Senate and Assembly, but are just shy of the Assembly supermajority needed to override vetoes from the governor.

According to the state’s historical society, Jacques Marquette first described the region in 1673. The cursive M was later misread as a W by Rene Robert Cavelier.

The meaning of the word was discussed:

However, the hypothesized meanings were derived incorrectly from the Ojibwe language, not Miami, because the latter had not yet been mastered by modern scholars.

Another possible origin for Wisconsin's name was mentioned to WPR in 2019 by University of Wisconsin-Green Bay elder in residence and member of the Menominee tribe, Napos. He said he "was always told the name came from the Menominee word 'Wēskōhsaeh.'"

The first part of that word come from the word "Wis-cu," which Napos told WPR means "something good." The ending of "Wēskōhsaeh" is locative, meaning "'a good place to camp,' or 'to make a clearing' or 'to basically live.'"