Author: Wisconsin Public Radio

February 18 — the day NASA’s Perseverance Rover landed on Mars — was an emotional rollercoaster of a day for Darian Dixon. The landing is the most dangerous part of Perseverance’s mission to take detailed pictures to help scientists search for evidence of life on the red planet. Dixon, who as the Mastcam-Z data management lead is responsible for getting those images to Earth, anxiously watched the pivotal moment from home. “I couldn’t take my hands off my face,” he said. “My eyes wide, tapping my foot, pacing. I ate all the food in the house out of stress....

An influx of pandemic-related federal aid to state and local governments is helping clear a backlog of needed road improvement projects in Wisconsin. In 2020, the American Society of Civil Engineers Infrastructure Report Card gave Wisconsin roads a letter grade of D+. The state Department of Transportation recently announced a COVID-19 relief plan passed by Congress in late 2020 will allow the state to complete 42 highway projects valued at nearly $150 million in the next two years. “The funding was able to fill in for the lost revenues we had (in 2020) because of gas tax revenues being...

Election officials and some community groups raised concerns about several proposed changes to Wisconsin election laws on April 8 as others argued the measures would increase public confidence in elections. The bills are part of a Republican-backed package of proposed election law changes aimed at changing how the state’s elections are run. Several of the plans are direct responses to criticism of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. One proposal discussed during a meeting of the state Senate elections committee on April 8 would limit local governments from accepting grant money from an individual or group to assist with administering...

The effects of climate change are being felt in every corner of the globe, including nearly 500 feet below the surface of Lake Michigan. A new study by scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory found that water deep below the surface of Lake Michigan is warming in the winter. The research published in the journal Nature Communications provides new insight into the effect climate change is having on one of the world’s 10 largest freshwater lakes and its implications for seasonal changes in ice cover, weather and the food supply. “These...

Wisconsin cities that cut their law enforcement budgets would lose state funding under a Republican proposal at the state Capitol. Under the bill, a municipality that decreases its budget for hiring, training, and retaining police officers would lose the same amount of money in state support. The plan is a response to a recent push from some activists to cut law enforcement budgets in Wisconsin and across the country. That policy push, sometimes called “defunding the police,” has come amid a national conversation about police brutality, criminal justice, and systemic racism. During a March 11 committee hearing, State Senator...