Author: Wisconsin Examiner

During a June 29 trip to the swingiest congressional district in the swing state of Wisconsin, President Joe Biden detailed a bipartisan deal on infrastructure, focusing on how it would help families and workers across Wisconsin and the country. Speaking from the municipal transit utility in La Crosse, Biden discussed the ways the infrastructure deal will help Wisconsinites with some of the state’s most pressing problems. Biden said the deal will include the removal of harmful “forever chemicals” known as PFAS from waterways — a problem that drove the state to provide free bottled water to residents of nearby...

More than a year ago, Wonderstate Coffee was developing its third Wisconsin café, a location on the Capitol square in Madison. And T.J. Semanchin, the owner of the Viroqua-based coffee roaster and purveyor, was contemplating how to improve the workplace for employees. “We were in the middle of revisiting our benefits in early 2020, as part of a project to acknowledge that we wanted to pay our staff better and provide better benefits,” Semanchin said. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The two existing Wonderstate Cafés in Viroqua and Bayfield shut down, reopening after a two-week hiatus to offer curbside...

A Waukesha County Republican said that armed troops patrolling the streets of Milwaukee is necessary for residents to feel like they don’t live in a “warzone-like setting.” State Representative Joe Sanfelippo (R–New Berlin), concerned about recent increases in violent crime in the state’s largest city, said in a news release on June 15 that despite his frequent attempts to introduce solutions he considers sensible — like making it easier to revoke parole or send children to detention facilities — Milwaukee is becoming too dangerous. Sanfelippo called on Governor Tony Evers to activate the Wisconsin National Guard to patrol Milwaukee...

June 1 was the day the city of Milwaukee lifted its mask mandates, but you would not know it watching the Milwaukee school board meeting that same night. On camera, all board members were in different rooms with masks. Superintendent Keith Posley and his staff sat in the administration conference room, masks on, socially distancing. Meanwhile, across Wisconsin school boards have mostly begun meeting in-person, often to affirm that masks can come off in the classroom both for staff and students. In Milwaukee’s “Roadmap to Readiness” presentation, the administration made it very clear that staff and students would continue...

From statehouses to Congress, Republicans have launched into a fight against the teaching of “critical race theory,” which just a year ago was a niche academic term. Experts in critical race theory say it is about acknowledging how racial disparities are embedded in U.S history and society, and the concept is being mischaracterized by conservatives. But GOP lawmakers in the past few months have succeeded in pushing it to the top of state legislative agendas. Governors in Idaho and Oklahoma have already signed measures to forbid the teaching of critical race theory in schools this year. Arkansas’ Republican governor...

Police in Milwaukee are now banned from using chokeholds, following a unanimous vote by the Fire and Police Commission. The FPC meeting was preceded by weeks of organizing by residents and activists pushing for the ban on a hold officers were not trained to utilize. Community members emphasized the importance of banning chokeholds, “without exception,” hoping to close any loopholes in the policy. Commissioner Amanda Avalos echoed the point in a statement made shortly before the FPC voted. “I don’t think I need to explain the urgency around why adding language in our policies around banning chokeholds, with no...