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At the mouth of the Mississippi, Louisiana bears the burden of upstream runoff. Why doesn’t it push for solutions?
Thomas Olander has watched his shrimp catch shrink over the last 15 years. It’s not just the abundance of Louisiana shrimp; Olander said that the average size of the crustacean has also shrunk. In the past, shrimpers could expect the crustaceans to grow throughout the spring season, which starts...
Did Donald Trump lower taxes on billionaires and raise them on everyone else?
Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims. The 2017 tax cut law signed by former President Donald Trump cut income tax rates essentially across the board. From 2017 to 2018, the...
Farm to Trouble: As conservation lags, so does progress in slashing Gulf of Mexico’s ‘dead zone’
The cover crop that blankets Dan Voss’ farmland from late fall into the spring comforts the eastern Iowa farmer because he knows heavy spring rain won’t wash away his topsoil. These off-season crops also soak up excess fertilizer. But for every Dan Voss, there are a thousand U.S....
Southeastern Wisconsin is election battleground within a battleground
As both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump zero in on Wisconsin ahead of November’s presidential election, a sort of battleground within a battleground has emerged: southeastern Wisconsin. Biden and Trump have frequented the region — both in 2024 and during their respective time in the White...
Milwaukee council confirms election chief after staff raises concerns
The Milwaukee Common Council confirmed city election chief Paulina Gutiérrez on Tuesday after election staff had repeatedly voiced concerns about her appointment and one sent the mayor a letter a month ago saying she struggled to handle her job. Gutiérrez, who joined the Milwaukee Election Commission in 2023 after...
Do about 90% of Americans support access to contraception?
Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims. Some 91% of registered voters said in a national poll released June 11, 2024, that birth control should be legal (73% said feel strongly, 18% said somewhat strongly).
‘It’s heartbreaking’: Milwaukee residents, vendors left in limbo after Social Development Commission’s shutdown
Milwaukee resident Maria Beltran relied on the Social Development Commission for years for home improvements, including the installation of new furnaces and weatherization. The Social Development Commission, or SDC, is a quasi-governmental community action agency responsible for providing a variety of services to low-income residents in Milwaukee County. Among those...
Does Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson oppose all access to contraception?
Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims. U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., is on record supporting contraception and offering it free in certain cases. The claim about Johnson was made in...
Do black roofs make your house hotter?
Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims. Darker-material roofs will tend to absorb more heat, leading to more strain on ACs, but probably not enough for you to notice. In Dallas-Fort...
Are recent US economic conditions similar to the stagflation of the 1970s?
Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims. Economic conditions in the 1970s were significantly worse than today’s. Stagflation is persistent high inflation combined with low growth in national income and...
Worried about losing Medicaid access in Wisconsin? Here’s what to know
Wisconsin’s June 2023 restart of annual eligibility checks for Medicaid following a three-year pause has eliminated coverage for more than 360,000 residents, as WPR and Wisconsin Watch reported this month. Some of those disenrolled had struggled to fill out recertification paperwork, and others have faced difficulties in finding alternative insurance plans.
Wisconsin Supreme Court keeps ban on mobile absentee voting sites in place for now
The Wisconsin Supreme Court kept a lower court’s ruling banning the use of mobile voting sites in the upcoming presidential election in place for now, a win for Republicans. However, in a victory for Democrats, the court also ensured late Tuesday that municipalities across the battleground state can use the same method in place since 2016 to determine where to locate early voting sites for the upcoming August primary and November presidential election.
Former Trump attorney Jim Troupis suspended from Wisconsin judicial ethics panel
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended former President Donald Trump’s Wisconsin lawyer from a state judicial ethics panel a week after he was charged with a felony for his role in a 2020 fake electors scheme. Liberal advocates have been calling for Jim Troupis to step down from...
The Wisconsin National Guard cleared her 4 times. She still wants to know why she was fired
Col. Leslie Zyzda Martin’s firing from her job as a commander in the Wisconsin Air National Guard began like this:. “Let me start by saying this is a one-way conversation,” said Gen. David May, her supervisor at the time and now interim head of the Wisconsin National Guard, reading off of a piece of paper.
‘Precision ag’ promised a farming revolution. It’s coming, just slowly
For 20 years, Pablo Sobron sought a better way to learn exactly what was in the soil, rock or any other substance on Mars. Instead of sampling and laboratory analysis — the old way of soil testing — scientists began to use lasers and sensors to get high-precision data quickly. Eventually, that led Sobron to think the same type of technology could work on Earth, particularly farms.
Legislative primaries worth watching in Wisconsin
For months, anticipation about November’s legislative races has grown. A Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in December to throw out the state’s Republican gerrymandered voting maps cleared the way for new boundaries, which were drawn by Gov. Tony Evers and signed into law in February. Evers’ maps could result, at least on paper, in either party winning control of the Legislature, representing a potential sea change in Wisconsin politics.
Liberal Judge Susan Crawford enters race for Wisconsin Supreme Court
A liberal judge who previously represented Planned Parenthood in a case related to abortion access entered the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday, with majority control of the battleground state’s highest court on the line. Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford launched her campaign to succeed retiring liberal...
Wisconsin’s system to block ineligible voters lets some on felony probation slip through
In 2020, Watertown resident Glen Godfroy walked into the polling place where he had voted for years. This time, he wasn’t sure if he could vote — he was on probation for a felony DUI offense. So, he said, he asked a poll worker to verify his status.
Has President Joe Biden ‘let in’ nearly 1,700 people with links to terrorism?
Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims. Border agents have encountered individuals on the federal terrorist watchlist nearly 1,700 times since President Joe Biden took office — that means those people were stopped while trying to enter the U.S.
Milwaukee Public Schools administration is in turmoil: Here’s what you need to know
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction on Thursday said it is withholding a $16.6 million payment to Milwaukee Public Schools for special education services because of missing financial data. This news comes only days after Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Keith Posley resigned in the wake of the financial scandal that...
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