Author: Wisconsin Public Radio

At a press conference on January 9, the governor and former school teacher laid out some of his legislative priorities for 2020. They are things he said have bipartisan support. Governor Evers called on legislators to remain in session long enough this year to pass bills he identified as having been introduced in one or both houses of the Legislature. On the list of priorities released by the governor’s office are capping copay amounts for insulin; closing the state’s “dark store” loophole; improving water quality; and addressing homelessness. He pointed to a bipartisan bill on homelessness and the results...

Businesses are suffering and taxpayers are shelling out due to the Trump administration’s increased import taxes, according to new analysis from a free trade group. Tariffs Hurt the Heartland says Wisconsinites have paid almost $830 million so far in additional taxes — $84 million in October alone. The Trump administration started imposing tariffs — or increased import taxes — on Chinese goods in 2018. President Donald Trump said last week the tariffs are working, and he has no deadline to make a deal to end the trade war. He added that it might be better to wait until after...

Despite not being able to purchase firearms directly, many teens have access to guns, according to a new study released this week by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The study looked at National Youth Risk Behavior Survey data from 1993 to 2017 to determine if the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) changed adolescents’ gun-carrying behavior. It found, on average, about 6 percent of teens reported carrying a gun. Of those adolescents, about 17 percent of them were from states with universal background checks. Meanwhile, data from the state Department of Public Instruction’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey found...

In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott case that black people — both enslaved and not — had no rights within United States borders. The ruling took place just four years before the American Civil War. Fewer than 10 years later, the Union won the war, slavery ended and some began to ask, “What about black people?” Eric Foner, a DeWitt Clinton professor emeritus of history at Columbia University, considers this question in his recently-published book, “The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution.” The results of the conversation about how...

Milwaukee-native Ryan Clancy recently earned a world record after playing pinball for 32 hours straight, for what is called the longest marathon playing pinball by Guinness World Records. The previous record was 30 hours and 10 minutes. “It was actually 32 hours and two minutes, but didn’t feel like a minute beyond 32 hours,” Clancy said of the total amount of time he spent playing pinball. Clancy, the co-owner of an amusement center, Bounce Milwaukee, began the attempt at 9 a.m. Friday, November 1 and finished at 5:02 p.m. Saturday, November 2, at the behest of his daughter Fiona, who...