Gov. Scott Walker announced Thursday his plan to expand the broadband program in rural areas, and proposed a bill to the state Legislature providing $35 million for the expansion.
The unprecedented recount of the state’s almost 3 million presidential ballots by the Wisconsin Elections Commission began Thursday, after it was formally requested by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who raised concerns of fraud or error. The first day of the recount, which is expected to take just under two weeks, has proceeded smoothly thus far, according to the Elections Commission.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin alleged unlawful coordination between the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Jill Stein Wednesday as the state begins its general election recount. In a complaint filed with the Federal Elections Commission, the state party asked for the commission to begin an investigation into whether campaign finance laws are violated by the two campaigns in efforts to reaffirm the validity of Election Day ballots.
Wisconsin’s Group Insurance Board met Wednesday to discuss the future of self-insurance in the state, in a potentially controversial move to change how the government provides health care to its 250,000 employees. Many UW faculty are questioning what this means for them.
A recount of Wisconsin’s general election results will start Thursday as scheduled after Green Party candidate Jill Stein paid the requisite $3.5 million before Tuesday’s deadline. Counties will not be required to tabulate the results by hand, however, as Dane County Circuit Court Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn denied a request Wednesday from Stein’s campaign for a hand recount.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission released a timeline Monday detailing the chain of events that will take place for a presidential recount in the state, with counties slated to begin tabulating votes Thursday. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has spearheaded an effort to recount the votes in swing states Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania after a stunning win in all three by Republican President-elect Donald Trump.
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign will join a recount of the general election results in Wisconsin, officials announced Saturday.
A federal court ruled Monday that Wisconsin’s Republican-drawn legislative districts were unconstitutional, a major victory for state Democrats after losses at the polls on Election Day two weeks ago. A three-judge panel of federal justices ruled 2-1 that the state Assembly districts drawn in 2011 “were intended to burden the representational rights of Democratic voters” and boosted the ability of Republicans to retain control of the state Legislature. “Act 43 did, in fact, prevent Wisconsin Democrats from being able to translate their votes into seats as effectively as Wisconsin Republicans,” Circuit Court Judge William Ripple wrote in the decision. Ripple said the court found the discriminatory nature of the redistricting to constitute an unconstitutional instance of gerrymandering.
A federal court ruled Thursday that Brendan Dassey must remain imprisoned while the state appeals the decision of a lower court to overturn his conviction. Dassey, along with his uncle, Steven Avery, were found guilty of killing photographer Teresa Halbach in Manitowoc County.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., urged President-elect Donald Trump to carry through on campaign appeals to the middle class by keeping Wall Street elites out of his cabinet in a Thursday letter. “You have made a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ in Washington by reducing the influence of special interests in government and expressed deep concerns about the influence of Wall Street over government,” Baldwin wrote.
While undocumented students proactively fight to secure university protection from deportation as the president-elect’s inauguration approaches, state legislators are divided on how to move forward. Though not officially a sanctuary city, Madison’s police department follows a resolution passed by common council in 2010 discouraging MPD officers from reporting undocumented people to immigration officers, except in instances of violent crime. After a presidential campaign that emphasized deportation and wall-building, anxieties continue to rise for undocumented students as Trump gets closer to the Oval Office. A letter to university administration urging protection for students, staff and their families by making the campus a sanctuary for the undocumented has gained 4,500 signatures. Mike Mikalsen, chief of staff for state Sen.
Continuing a recent series of powerful movements in Wisconsin’s GOP, the Republican Governors Association announced Wednesday that Gov.
A week after the historical presidential election last week, a Washington Post reporter and Milwaukee radio host joined two UW-Madison professors Tuesday to discuss the ramifications of Donald Trump’s shocking victory. The panel was headlined by David Weigel, a political correspondent from the Washington Post, who is also the Public Affairs Writer in Residence at UW-Madison.
In his newly submitted 2017-’19 budget proposal, State Superintendent Tony Evers requested a slight increase in K-12 education funding from Gov. Scott Walker and the state Legislature Tuesday.
House Republicans renominated Paul Ryan, R-Wis., as speaker of the House Tuesday, despite past feuds between Ryan and President-elect, Donald Trump. Initially, some Republicans had speculated that Ryan may not be renominated because he did not back Trump early in his campaign.
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., announced Monday his decision to run for chairman of the Democratic National Committee after Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned earlier this year.
State politicians and community members met Monday to discuss concealed carry on UW System schools’ campuses, with a bill allowing for so-called campus carry potentially looming next year. At times, the panel became very tense as state Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum—the only Republican panelist present—disagreed with state Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, College Democrats Chair Augie McGinnity-Wake, UW Madison professor Lisa Cooper and Samara Safarik from the group Moms Who Demand Action.
Student voter turnout for the 2016 presidential elections is up seven percent campus wide since the 2012 elections, with the overwhelming majority of those votes going to Democrat Hillary Clinton. Student wards themselves counted nearly 30,000 undergraduate votes, and there was a two to five percent increase of voters in dorms. Ward 55, which includes the Spring Street area of campus, saw 3,177 voters, an increase from 2012 when 2,694 votes were tabulated.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald was re-elected to a record fifth term Thursday, after helping to lead legislative Republicans to their biggest majorities in several decades. No member opposed Fitzgerald, who was confirmed on a voice vote.
Two prominent Wisconsin Republicans—House Speaker Paul Ryan and Gov. Scott Walker—touted Donald Trump’s presidential victory as a triumph for conservatism Wednesday. Both had been critical of Trump before, but campaigned with him in the last days of the election and appear ready to fall in line behind the president-elect. Ryan held a press conference in Janesville and congratulated Trump, as well as fellow Wisconsinites Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, and U.S.
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