Wisconsin Supreme Court lets stand ruling that declared Amazon drivers to be employees
Wisconsin Watch
by Scott Bauer / Associated Press
18h ago
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday let stand a lower court ruling that declared some delivery drivers for Amazon were employees as the state argued, not independent contractors as the online retail giant contended. The court, in a unanimous decision, said the appeal was “improvidently granted,” meaning the Supreme Court should not have reviewed the case. That decision dismissing the case, issued after the court heard oral arguments, leaves a 2023 Wisconsin appeals court ruling against Amazon in place. That ruling found that drivers in the Amazon Flex progr ..read more
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As of early 2024, is the waiting period for a US immigration asylum hearing six to eight years?
Wisconsin Watch
by Tom Kertscher / Wisconsin Watch
18h ago
Reading Time: < 1 minute 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. No. The average waiting period for an immigration asylum hearing is 3.9 years, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which tracks enforcement of federal immigration laws. Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, who represents the Madison area, claimed at a March 16, 2024, town hall that “right now, the waiting time in order to have your c ..read more
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Would the April 2024 Milwaukee Public Schools referendum raise property taxes 30%?
Wisconsin Watch
by Tom Kertscher / Wisconsin Watch
18h ago
Reading Time: < 1 minute 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. Yes. Milwaukee Public Schools’ property tax levy would increase 30% if voters approve an April 2, 2024, referendum. It would allow MPS to collect $252 million in additional revenue over four years. According to MPS: The 2023-24 levy, $320.2 million, would rise to $417.6 million in 2024-25. That’s an increase of $97 million, or 30.4%. That first-year increase would add $216 to the property ta ..read more
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Ice cover on the upper Mississippi River was fleeting this winter. Is this our future?
Wisconsin Watch
by Madeline Heim / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
1d ago
Reading Time: 4 minutes Anthony Larson describes himself as a hard-core ice fisher. Living in La Crosse, Wisconsin, right next to the Mississippi River, he has the luxury to fulfill that description. Once the river and its backwaters ice over each winter, he aims to fish every day, using his work commute to scope out particular spots he wants to hit. Even if all he can spare at the end of the day is 15 or 20 minutes, he goes for it. This winter was different. The above-average temperatures across the upper Midwest, driven in part by the El Niño climate pattern and in part by human-caused clima ..read more
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Midwest maple syrup producers adapt to record warm winter, uncertainty as climate changes
Wisconsin Watch
by Bennet Goldstein / Wisconsin Watch and Brittney J. Miller / The Gazette
1d ago
Reading Time: 5 minutes Click here to read highlights from the story This year’s maple sap season began early in Upper Midwestern states for many producers, who experienced shorter seasons. Some credit those shifts to the year’s record warm winter.  Experts say human-caused climate change also is having varied and unpredictable effects on the maple harvest. Farmers and Indigenous communities whose ancestors have tapped trees since time immemorial are altering their practices and planning for an erratic future. The art of maple syrup production flows through generations of Dan Potter’s f ..read more
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Next week’s election features powerful people you may have never heard of
Wisconsin Watch
by Jack Kelly / Wisconsin Watch
2d ago
Reading Time: 4 minutes Next week Wisconsinites in 34 counties will elect some of the most powerful office holders in their communities: circuit court judges. Making up the bottom tier of the state’s court system, Wisconsin’s 261 circuit court judges collectively handle hundreds of thousands of cases each year, ranging from speeding tickets to murder trials to challenges to state law. Elected to six-year terms, circuit court judges enjoy broad autonomy and far-reaching authority in the cases they oversee. Despite that power, just 10 of 56 circuit court races on the April 2 ballot will feature ..read more
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Check out 10 of our recent data graphics from the Forward newsletter
Wisconsin Watch
by Matthew DeFour / Wisconsin Watch
3d ago
Reading Time: 2 minutes Every week illuminating data flows through our mailbox from groups like the Wisconsin Policy Forum or the Legislative Fiscal Bureau without ever generating a story. That’s why when Wisconsin Watch earlier this year launched Forward, our weekly newsletter focused on the upcoming week in state government and politics, we wanted to include a regular way to feature that information. And so we created “Data Watch” to amplify that statistical information. Here are 10 of our most recent examples. Legislative occupations In the latest legislative session, Wisconsin had more far ..read more
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Wisconsin hospitals have quietly rolled back COVID vaccine mandates
Wisconsin Watch
by Tom Kertscher / Wisconsin Watch
3d ago
Reading Time: 3 minutes Manitowoc County resident Jeanette Deschene had been working remotely for Advocate Aurora Health for two years when the system ordered its employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19.  She refused and was fired. “I really thought that this was a human right to be able to choose what you wanted to do,” said Deschene, who for a total of eight years helped patients get financial assistance for their bills. The 38-year-old’s firing was in October 2021, when U.S. deaths from the pandemic exceeded 752,000 and Badger State hospitals were overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. Wi ..read more
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Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoes Republican election proposals, signs bill requiring disclosure of AI use in campaign ads
Wisconsin Watch
by Scott Bauer / Associated Press
6d ago
Reading Time: 3 minutes Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Thursday vetoed Republican proposals that would have allowed election observers to get closer to poll workers and required a new post-election audit while signing a bill increasing the penalty for assaulting an election official. Evers, a Democrat, also signed into law a bill requiring that political TV ads using artificial intelligence come with a disclaimer and a bipartisan bill exempting purchases of precious metal, such as gold and silver, from the state sales tax. The exemption does not apply to jewelry and other personal property ..read more
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Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signs bills creating electric vehicle charging network
Wisconsin Watch
by Scott Bauer / Associated Press
1w ago
Reading Time: 2 minutes Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday signed bipartisan bills designed to jump-start creation of an electric vehicle charging network along the state’s interstate system and major highways. The new laws free up nearly $80 million in federal construction aid and make it easier for gas stations, convenience stores and other businesses to operate the electric vehicle charging stations. The measures were backed by businesses and environmentalists alike and cheered as a way for Wisconsin to expand its electric vehicle charging network. The funding is designed to support Lev ..read more
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