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Wisconsin Watch
Medicaid unwinding: 360,000 in Wisconsin lose coverage as eligibility checks resume
Teresa was used to paying just $6 for medication to treat a chronic condition that puts her at high risk for a stroke and heart attack. So the Dane County resident was shocked this spring when the pharmacy cashier asked for more than $1,000 — more than some of her paychecks.
Waupun prison warden, eight staff members charged following probes into inmate deaths
The warden of a maximum-security Wisconsin prison and eight members of his staff were charged Wednesday following investigations into the deaths of four inmates over the past year, including one that wasn’t discovered until at least 12 hours after the man died. Waupun Correctional Institution’s warden, Randall Hepp, is...
Richard Brown to join Wisconsin Watch as director of engagement, growth & innovation
Richard Brown will become the director of engagement, growth and innovation for Wisconsin Watch starting June 17. Brown brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to help Wisconsin Watch serve audiences it isn’t yet reaching, boost engagement and lead regional growth initiatives, starting in Milwaukee and northeast Wisconsin. This...
Did Eric Hovde say most senior citizens shouldn’t vote?
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. A TV ad misstated what Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde said about older voters. Hovde is running in the November 2024 election against...
Wisconsin attorney general files felony charges against attorneys, aide who worked for Donald Trump in 2020
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed felony forgery charges Tuesday against two attorneys and an aide who helped submit paperwork falsely saying that former President Donald Trump had won the battleground state in 2020. The charges were filed against attorneys Kenneth Chesebro, 62, and Jim Troupis, 70, and former Trump...
Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent resigns
Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Keith Posley resigned early Tuesday morning, hours after a public hearing where more than 100 parents, staffers and community members — using words like embarrassing, dysfunctional, failing and imploding — called for his ousting. The MPS board voted unanimously to accept Posley’s resignation at...
For a century, this upper Mississippi River refuge has been an ecological oasis. What comes next?
Sabrina Chandler spent much of her life on the other end of the Mississippi River. Growing up on the Gulf Coast near New Orleans, where levees wall the river off, she had to work to see it. Near the delta, the river is a big, scary, powerful thing. People fear it.
Have climate models overestimated global warming?
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. Climate models have correctly predicted how the planet would warm due to human greenhouse gas emissions. Models use the laws of physics to probe...
Your Right to Know: Officials must bear burden of proof in records cases
Imagine I sue a school district for refusing to provide copies of records. Do I have to prove I’m entitled to them, or does the district have to prove it can withhold them?. That’s a question the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty have asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to clarify, in a friend-of-the-court amicus brief filed on May 22.
Is freight traffic the cause of Amtrak delays between Milwaukee and Chicago?
A reader recently asked whether Amtrak’s Hiawatha passenger train service between Chicago and Milwaukee is notoriously tardy because it shares tracks with freight trains. It’s a topical question because Amtrak has recently inaugurated Borealis, a second daily service between Chicago and Minneapolis with several stops in Wisconsin including Milwaukee, Portage and La Crosse. Like the Hiawatha train, it’s on Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s railroad, which Amtrak gives its highest marks among the half dozen Class I railroads whose tracks host its passenger trains.
Lawsuit could complicate absentee voting in Wisconsin
A lawsuit that could complicate Wisconsin’s absentee voting process, create additional last-minute work for election officials and confuse voters is coming before a Marinette County judge Wednesday. The lawsuit asks Marinette County Circuit Court Judge James Morrison to require voters who request their ballot through MyVote, Wisconsin’s online voting...
Journalism groups sue Wisconsin Department of Justice for names of every police officer in state
Two groups of investigative journalists tracking police misconduct have filed a lawsuit in the hopes of forcing the Wisconsin Department of Justice to divulge the names, birth dates and disciplinary records of every officer in the state. The Badger Project and the Invisible Institute filed the lawsuit last Thursday in...
Wisconsin unions: Overturn 2011 law that ended nearly all collective bargaining
Public worker and teachers unions argued Tuesday that their lawsuit seeking to strike down a Wisconsin law that drew massive protests and made the state the center of a national fight over union rights should be allowed to proceed, even as the Republican-controlled Legislature sought to have it dismissed. It...
Were US gas prices higher in April 2024 than a year prior?
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. Gas costs in April 2024 were about the same as those in April 2023. The U.S. Energy Information Administration records weekly, monthly and yearly...
Is a reference to ‘deadly force’ in an FBI Mar-a-Lago search memo evidence that Joe Biden weaponized the federal government?
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. A reference to the potential use of “deadly force” is part of standard policy for FBI agents issuing search warrants, not something that singled out former President Donald Trump in a 2022 search for classified documents at his Florida estate.
Amid debate about child labor rules, Wisconsin teens take summer jobs
High school sophomore McCartney Schwab spreads several dishes on a counter, scooping ice cream into each. It’s her third summer working at Wilson’s Restaurant & Ice Cream Parlor in Door County’s village of Ephraim, which sits along Eagle Harbor on the eastern side of the bay of Green Bay.
Has the US ‘lost’ seven embassies during Joe Biden’s presidency, the most under any president?
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. During Joe Biden’s presidency, three U.S. embassies — in Afghanistan, Belarus and Sudan — suspended and have not resumed operations, each following unrest in those countries.
Have more immigrants become US citizens in recent decades than in past decades?
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 number of immigrants who become U.S. citizens is generally higher in recent decades than it was previously. Naturalization is the process for immigrants...
Wisconsin criminal justice groups push for invalidating constitutional amendments on bail
Wisconsin criminal justice advocates argued in court Wednesday that Republican-backed cash bail constitutional amendments approved by voters last year should be invalidated over procedural flaws, a case that elections officials and the Legislature call a cynical attempt to undo election results. Dane County Circuit Judge Rhonda Lanford did not rule...
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