Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — UW System President Ray Cross is calling for a special legislative session seeking “immediate flexibility and regulatory relief” to address budget challenges brought on by COVID-19. In a letter to Gov. Tony Evers and GOP legislative leaders, the departing System president highlighted

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Amid a wave of protests around Wisconsin sparked by the death of George Floyd, Gov. Tony Evers today called on state lawmakers to quickly pass legislation that would require law enforcement agencies to adopt new policies stating deadly force only be used

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Over 129,000 voters could be removed from the rolls after the state Supreme Court today agreed to hear a case challenging the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s handling of a mailer to those who may have moved. But it’s unclear whether conservative Justice Daniel

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — State agencies plan to save millions by lapsing money that otherwise would’ve gone to cover the costs of student assessments and services for drunken drivers, among other things, according to a DOA summary. DOA late yesterday released an overview of the nearly

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — DWD Secretary Caleb Frostman today pushed back on criticism that his agency should’ve more quickly expanded call center hours for those applying for unemployment, telling a Senate committee it previously didn’t have the staff needed for a more robust operation. Frostman also

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — With a committee hearing planned on delays out-of-work Wisconsinites have faced in dealing with the unemployment system, the Evers administration has begun to attribute some of those issues to an outdated computer system it inherited and other factors. Joint Finance Co-chair John

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Assembly Speaker Robin Vos pulled GOP Rep. Jim Ott from JCRAR less than 40 minutes after Rep. Romaine Quinn formally asked for an appointment to the committee, according to records obtained by WisPolitics.com. Speculation on the move has focused on whether Vos

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — The state’s unemployment rate soared to 14.1 percent in April, reaching a level not seen since the Great Depression. According to a release from the state Department of Workforce Development, Wisconsin’s unemployment rate in April was 0.6 percent lower than the national

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Presumptive Dem presidential nominee Joe Biden today slammed President Trump’s response to COVID-19, saying it has been marked by “denials, delays, distraction, and bald-faced lies.” Biden did a virtual round table this morning with La Crosse-area participants and a rally this afternoon

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Of the 43 people the Elections Commission referred to local DAs for prosecution on possible double voting in November 2018, 26 were suspected of casting ballots in Illinois as well as Wisconsin, according to records reviewed by WisPolitics.com. The cases also involve

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — State officials are still unsure why some 1,600 absentee ballots from voters in the Fox Valley ended up in a Milwaukee postal sorting facility or why some Oshkosh voters — including the Assembly minority leader — never received the ballots they’d requested

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Gov. Tony Evers’ administration today signaled its upcoming emergency rule to deal with COVID-19 will share some similarities with its previous order that was struck down by the state Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Evers said after his meeting with the Legislature’s top two

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Twenty-five agencies, including the lieutenant governor’s office and DOT, are exempt from 5 percent cuts in GPR operations budgets the Evers administration ordered to help deal with falling revenues, according to a DOA memo obtained by WisPolitics.com. Budget Director Brian Pahnke wrote

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Voters’ views of how Gov. Tony Evers and President Trump are handling COVID-19 have slipped over the last month, according to the latest Marquette University Law School Poll. Still, nearly two-thirds of voters back Evers’ response to the pandemic, while Trump is

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Gov. Tony Evers today announced small retailers can now reopen as Wisconsin for the first time showed a downward trajectory over a 14-day period for the percentage of daily positive COVID-19 tests. Still, the state today met just three of the six

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Assembly Speaker Robin Vos removed one of his most vulnerable members from JCRAR and replaced him with a departing state rep just as the committee could be thrust into the COVID-19 reopening debate. Vos spokeswoman Kit Beyer wrote in an email to

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — The state’s general fund “undoubtedly” will take a hit as tax collections fall due to COVID-19, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. But a new memo from Director Bob Lang says several factors may help soften the blow to the state’s bottom

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Justice Rebecca Bradley today suggested the DHS secretary’s stay-at-home order was a form of “tyranny” and argued the Legislature never intended to grant an unelected bureaucrat such expansive powers. During oral arguments in a GOP lawsuit seeking to prevent enforcement of the

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Gov. Tony Evers said the focus of today’s meeting with GOP legislative leaders was to explore a plan to reopen the state and see where there might be common ground. The meeting comes just ahead of the state Supreme Court’s oral arguments

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — WEDC Secretary-designee Missy Hughes said she found WMC’s plan to reopen the economy “very thoughtful and reasonable,” but that she believes public health assessment in a pandemic should be left to the public health experts. In today’s Assembly Committee on State Affairs