Author: Wisconsin Public Radio

Wisconsin’s new poet laureate Dasha Kelly Hamilton wants to help people find the pulse of poetry and bring it into their everyday life. “In my experience that’s reminding all of us that poetry is always here, always around us and in us, and to exercise that almost superpower is a way to keep us together and remind us that we’re all important, all of our stories,” she said. Hamilton has been an ambassador for poetry and the arts for years. Her work includes three poetry collections, four spoken word albums, stage productions and two novels. She describes herself as...

Wisconsin is seeing a rapid conversion to solar energy as a growing number of utilities set goals to go carbon neutral by 2050. The investment comes despite challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. New solar installations nationwide are expected to increase 43 percent from 2019 to a record 19 gigawatts of capacity installed in 2020, according to projections from the Solar Energy Industries Association. Solar also accounted for 43 percent of all new electricity generating capacity added this year. The state currently has 20 solar farms under active development that will generate more than 2.2 gigawatts of power, according...

A Wisconsin-made smartphone app that helps people recycle better and track their composting is expanding its reach. Michelle Goetsch launched Betterbin in May 2018. The Wausau-based company’s app allows people in participating communities to scan barcodes on groceries and household products to find out whether or not the items can be recycled where they live. Recycling rules can vary a lot from place to place and what is recyclable isn’t always intuitive. In many cities, for example, cardboard milk cartons and the plastic containers used for fruits aren’t recyclable — even though the products likely have the three-arrow recycling...

Andrea Palm is leaving her position leading the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to join the administration of President-elect Joe Biden. Palm has been nominated to be deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers confirmed Palm’s departure in a statement on January 18. “Andrea Palm is a public servant through and through — she’s been a critical part of our administration and a consummate professional who has done an extraordinary job helping lead our state during an unprecedented public health crisis,” said Governor Evers. “I know she will continue to serve...

Wisconsin’s Congressional delegation split along party lines on January 13 for the bipartisan vote to impeach President Donald Trump over his role in inciting the deadly January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In statements, press conferences and speeches on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, House members weighed in on the historic second impeachment of a sitting president. The vote on January 13 came one week after a mob of violent Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an effort to disrupt the counting of Electoral College votes — and less than one week before the inauguration...

Governor Tony Evers began 2020 talking about how to spend a budget surplus and preparing for the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee. By the end of the year, the first-term governor had overseen a sweeping government response to a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, mobilized the National Guard following destructive protests in Madison and Kenosha, and fought repeated Republican lawsuits seeking to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Wisconsin. As 2021 begins, Evers will have to negotiate a new budget with Republican lawmakers, and — if he decides to seek a second term — lay the foundation for his reelection campaign. In...