Latest news with #WisconsinAssembly
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Campaigns have always been rough. I'm sick of politics of personal destruction.
The recent Wisconsin Supreme Court race reminds me of better days when candidates treated each other with respect and offered positive visions for the future. Yes, there was once a time when candidates could disagree without being disagreeable, as evidenced by two hard-fought races during my career. In 1966, I ran in the Republican primary against incumbent Louis Romell to represent a rural district in the Wisconsin Assembly. Louis began serving in the Legislature in 1947 but hadn't risen to a leadership position. Wisconsin needed a new generation of conservative leaders who would keep taxes low and protect our rural communities, and I believed I could do better. Louis may have taken his reelection for granted because he took an extended vacation that summer while I went door to door in Adams, Juneau and Marquette counties. I met thousands of farmers, small business owners, factory workers and retired persons who shared concerns for their families and communities. I listened, honed my message and used their views to set an agenda for when I got to Madison. Opinion: Here's what you told us about Wisconsin Supreme Court race I liked Louis and didn't disparage him on the trail or in the press. Instead, hard work and a positive message propelled me to a primary win with 57 percent of the vote and 72 percent in the general election. When the Assembly met in January 1967 with Republicans in charge, I nominated Louis to serve as the house's Sergeant at Arms. We remained friends until he passed in 1987. I ran against Tony Earl for governor but still considered him a friend I ran against another friend in 1986 when I challenged Tony Earl for the governorship. Tony and I served together in the Legislature beginning in 1969, a time when Republicans and Democrats fought fiercely for their principles and policies in the Capitol during the day, and then crossed the street to drink beer together at the Park Motor Inn at night. Like me, Tony quickly rose into leadership in his caucus and looked forward to a promising future. Tony's governorship was plagued by a stagnant economy and difficult budgets. He and the Democrats in charge of the Legislature had raised taxes to fix the state's fiscal woes and that issue became a problem for him when reelection time came around. In contrast, I opposed tax increases and questioned Tony's plan to locate a prison in downtown Milwaukee. Our campaigns focused on issues, and the voters ultimately chose my vision for the state. Tony and I continued to discuss important issues even after our hard fought race. In particular, Tony had a national reputation on water policy and I shared his vision for the future of the Great Lakes. I named him as my representative on the new Great Lakes Protection Fund and asked him to find ways to improve water quality across the basin. I trusted Tony to make good decisions and his leadership led to investments that continue to serve Wisconsin and the entire region. My last conversation with my friend Tony was at his apartment in Madison, not long before he died in 2023. Supreme Court campaign featured vicious and sickening attacks Louis and Tony came to mind as I watched the recent Supreme Court race with disgust. I have no doubt both court candidates are well-intentioned public servants, but the nature of today's politics pushed them to engage in vicious, sickening attacks that went beyond questioning their opponent's qualifications to disparaging their ethics and morality. Do I believe Susan Crawford or Brad Schimel think child rapists should be given light sentences and released back into the community to reoffend? Of course not. But $100 million of negative, nauseating advertising went on the air to make us all believe just that. Opinion: Musk, billionaires took over Wisconsin Supreme Court race. The joke is on us. I am not so naïve to propose turning back the clock to some idealized version of 1966 when candidates ran campaigns that focused on issues. Campaigning has always been a rough business where candidates occasionally have to throw and take an elbow. But I join the many voters today who are sick of the politics of personal destruction that tear down an opponent rather than uplift us with ideas and positive visions for the future. Wisconsin is more than a year away from the next round of statewide elections that will determine who controls the governorship and Legislature. I hope my fellow citizens will use that time to insist that candidates focus on issues and treat their opponents with respect. Unless voters demand better, we can expect campaigns to spiral deeper into the abyss of vitriol and destruction. By the way, if candidates have $100 million to throw into negative advertising, they might consider putting that money to better use by building hospitals and schools. Okay, there I go being naïve. Tommy G. Thompson was elected governor of Wisconsin four times, serving from 1987 to 2001. In 2001, he became Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a post he held for four years. He previously served in the State Assembly from 1967 to his election as governor. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Unless voters demand better, campaigns will spiral deeper | Opinion
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Bill that makes Medicaid tougher to renew gets panned by people who depend on the program
Chad Sobieck testifies in opposition to a bill introduced in the Wisconsin Assembly that would place new limitations on the process to establish if a person is eligible for Medicaid. (Wisconsin Examiner photo) State legislation that would require the Wisconsin health department to verify that all Medicaid recipients are eligible twice a year was met with resounding opposition at a public hearing Thursday. The bill, AB 163, also would add restrictions on the verification process. With a few differences, the legislation echoed a bill that failed to pass two years ago. Only one witness testified in favor of the measure: its Assembly author, state Rep. William Penterman (R-Columbus). 'It will create a balance, an important balance, in preserving a strong safety net for our most vulnerable residents while curbing inappropriate long-term reliance on public assistance,' Penterman said. The legislation would prohibit the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) from renewing Medicaid recipients automatically and require DHS to reconsider a person's eligibility every six months instead of annually, the federal standard. It would cut off eligibility for six months for Medicaid recipients who don't report a change, such as higher income, that would make them ineligible for the program. It also prescribes additional requirements for checking databases of other agencies to confirm information about a Medicaid recipient's qualifications. Over the course of a 2-1/2-hour hearing, witnesses said the bill would impose significant administrative burdens on Medicaid recipients and likely lead some to be kicked off the rolls, not because they were not eligible but because of mistakes, whether made by the recipient in the process of trying to requalify or by state officials processing their paperwork. 'Its reason seems to be purposely causing difficulty for people whose lives are already a monumental struggle in an attempt to make it too difficult for them to access the services they are entitled to,' said Karel Oliveras, who has two grandchildren with Angelman syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes developmental delays and other problems. Referring to Oliveras' comments about the process of establishing eligibility for the program, Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) asked, 'Would you characterize it as too easy?' 'It's my daughter and her husband who do that,' Oliveras said. 'But the stress of that [on them] was very, very obvious.' Both Clancy and Rep. Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire), the committee's two Democrats, were skeptical about the idea that there were people in Wisconsin who were on Medicaid but didn't qualify. In response to lawmakers who had implied that Wisconsin's Medicaid enrollment — about 20% of the state population — was excessive, Tamara Jackson, the legislative policy representative for the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities, said the percentage is similar in most states. According to Jackson, Wisconsin's Medicaid staff already monitors people's eligibility rigorously. 'They are really checking every application and every renewal to make sure that people meet the income, asset, and other eligibility requirements,' she said. Chad Sobieck, who uses a wheelchair, said he has been on Medicaid for his entire life and it has enabled him to live in the community with the help of caregivers covered by the program. When completing paperwork, he has to enlist the help of others because he cannot write due to his physical disability, he said. A provision in the bill banning DHS from prepopulating forms for the renewal applicant would make that even more difficult. If he has to qualify every six months and there's an error that kicks him off Medicaid for six months, 'that would mean that I don't have caregivers,' Sobiek said. 'If there is a gap in those services, I will not be able to remain independent and it will become a safety and health issue for me.' Almost all the opposition testimony focused on people with disabilities. Several Wisconsin Medicaid programs enable people with disabilities to live at home or in the community, rather than in an institution, with the program covering their needs for health care and home and personal care that they cannot manage on their own. Wisconsin patients, families are wary as Congress prepares for Medicaid surgery Penterman said that after 'conversation and collaborating with the stakeholders' he was planning to offer an amendment that would exempt people with developmental disabilities from the legislation. Critics of the bill, however — including those speaking on behalf of people with developmental disabilities — were largely skeptical about that announcement. 'I am a little offended about the fact that the amendment offered only covers the developmentally disabled,' said Jason Glozier, executive director of the Wisconsin Coalition of Independent Living Centers, arguing that the proposal's limits would be onerous for people with physical disabilities, too. 'To say that doubling the administrative burden would decrease waste or decrease fraud doesn't seem to make sense when we have a system that is overburdened and unable to meet its need effectively,' Glozier said. 'Why should somebody who's been disabled from birth, who's been paralyzed or acquired a disability, have to consistently re-insist that they have a disability?' he added. 'It's not going to get better.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Washington Post
07-04-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Former Wisconsin justice to give up law license over 2020 election review
MADISON, Wisconsin — A former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice agreed Monday to give up his law license for three years after facing a string of ethics allegations stemming from his error-riddled review of the 2020 election for Republican state lawmakers. In a filing with the state Supreme Court, former justice Michael Gableman conceded that legal regulators had produced enough evidence to find he had violated state ethics rules for lawyers. He gave up his legal fight over the matter a week after a candidate backed by Democrats won a seat on the state's high court and locked in a likely liberal majority for years. In a 10-count complaint in November, Wisconsin's Office of Lawyer Regulation alleged Gableman had filed false information with a judge, repeatedly engaged in dishonesty, unfairly disparaged a judge and an attorney, failed to perform competent legal work, did not follow the directions of his client, released confidential information and lied to the lawyer who investigated him. Gableman on Monday said he would no longer contest the complaint and would agree to have his law license suspended for three years. The state Supreme Court will have the final say on whether to suspend his license. 'Gableman hereby stipulates that he cannot successfully defend against the allegations of misconduct contained in the Complaint, and agrees that the allegations of the Complaint provide an adequate factual basis in the record for a determination of [ethics] violations as alleged in each of the ten counts of the Complaint,' Gableman, his attorney and an attorney for the state wrote in Monday's joint filing. An attorney for Gableman had no immediate comment on the filing. After Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential race, Republicans who control the Wisconsin Assembly hired Gableman to review how the election was conducted in the swing state. Gableman falsely claimed the election was stolen, consulted with conspiracy theorists, kept shoddy records and unsuccessfully sought to jail mayors and local election officials who he contended weren't cooperating with him. He publicly urged lawmakers to try to revoke the state's 10 electoral votes, even as he privately acknowledged doing so was a 'practical impossibility.' His review came as courts and independent studies found the 2020 election was properly decided. Trump narrowly won Wisconsin in 2016, narrowly lost it in 2020 and narrowly won it in 2024. In litigation over his election review, Gableman was dishonest and left out important information that he should have reported to the courts, according to the Office of Lawyer Regulation complaint. In addition, he gave false statements when he testified before a legislative committee, according to the complaint. Gableman improperly maintained records and didn't appropriately respond to public records requests, according to the complaint and separate court rulings. When he was sued over his handling of records, he disparaged the judge overseeing the case and an attorney who sued him, according to the complaint. Gableman also did not follow the directions of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the GOP legislative leader who hired him, according to the complaint. Soon after Vos hired him, Gableman turned on the speaker and campaigned for his 2022 primary opponent. Vos won his race and fired Gableman soon afterward. Amid their clash, Gableman disclosed information about his legal work that should have remained confidential, according to the complaint. Gableman also failed to cooperate with the ethics investigation and falsely claimed he hadn't been practicing law when he worked for the legislature, according to the complaint.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Wisconsin legislators pause to remember former colleague Jonathan Brostoff
The late Jonathan Brostoff, photographed during his time as a state representative in the Wisconsin Assembly. The Assembly and state Senate approved a resolution in Brostoff's memory March 18, 2025. (Photo by Greg Anderson) Editor's note: If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, call or text 988 or chat On a day of contentious legislative debates and an annual ceremonial custom to recognize Wisconsin's tribal communities, members of the Wisconsin Legislature united to remember a former colleague this week. More than one lawmaker made clear it was an event they fervently wished would not have been necessary. Former State Rep. Jonathan Brostoff took his own life on Nov. 4, 2024, with a gun he had purchased just an hour earlier. He was 41 years old. Brostoff served in the Assembly for eight years, leaving in 2022 after he was elected to the Milwaukee Common Council. Tuesday, the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate each voted unanimously to pass a resolution in Brostoff's memory. The votes were cast in each chamber in a two-part secular memorial service of sorts, with heartfelt eulogies from Brostoff's former colleagues. Many wore green ribbons in recognition of mental health awareness. 'Jonathan was well known for his honesty,' said Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer. 'He never held back if he thought we were heading in the wrong direction or missing something important — often crossing his eyes and staring you down. With Jonathan, you always knew where you stood, and he helped us grow as a caucus and as individual legislators.' One story was told repeatedly: Brostoff's campaign to pass a bill that would tighten state standards for American Sign Language interpreters. The legislation established a tiered licensing system to ensure that people interpreting between doctors and patients or lawyers and clients had a higher level of skill, Brostoff said at the time. Frustrated when the legislation stalled, he vowed not to cut his hair until it was signed into law. In an April 2019 Wisconsin Public Television interview, Brostoff — who normally favored a close-cropped cut — sported a curly afro that surrounded his face. It wasn't a protest, exactly, he told interviewer Frederica Freyberg. 'Especially for the deaf community, it's a visual indicator saying I'm with you and we're not going to stop until we get this done,' Brostoff said. 'I would send him pictures of Richard Simmons,' Rep. Lisa Subeck said on the Assembly floor Tuesday. 'He sent me back pictures of Bob Ross.' Gov. Tony Evers signed the bill in July 2019. Sen. Dianne Hesselbein was a member of the Assembly at the time. In the Senate Tuesday, she recalled Brostoff's Assembly floor speech on the day the measure finally passed. 'He signed the entire thing, and it was long, and he could do sign language of the entire thing without looking at notes,' Hesselbein said. 'He knew what he wanted to say, and he was careful, and there was silence, absolute silence and respect.' Colleagues described the diminutive Brostoff as intense, funny, passionate about causes and smitten with his four children. In the Assembly, Rep. Jodi Emerson recalled hearing Brostoff break into the 'Itsy bitsy spider' song while changing a diaper in the midst of one of their phone calls discussing their work in the Capitol. Those phone calls were a regular feature of her drives home to Eau Claire from Madison at the end of a busy week in the Capitol. She said she spoke before Tuesday's session with Brostoff's father about those calls. 'I was thinking about that last week, and really wish I would have been able to talk to Jonathan last week,' Emerson said. 'I had my own version of a conversation with him,' she added wistfully, 'but the reception wasn't clear from wherever he was.' Brostoff was first elected to the Assembly in 2014. Rep. Christine Sinicki related a memory from Brostoff's campaign that year. She had not endorsed him in the four-way Democratic primary, and at a neighborhood parade both attended that summer, a Brostoff volunteer sidled up to her and made a 'snide remark,' she said. 'I went over to Jonathan and I said, 'I really did not appreciate that.' The next day, that volunteer was at my door, apologizing,' Sinicki recalled. 'That was the kind of man that Jonathan was. He had so much integrity.' Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde, who met Brostoff when both were at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, nicknamed him 'JoBro.' But Brostoff had his own self-applied nickname: Honey Badger, after a viral YouTube video and internet meme — 'Honey Badger Don't Care.' 'He's getting into like, messing with bees and snakes and all types of things, because Honey Badger don't care and he's gonna do what he wants to do anyway. That's Jonathan Brostoff,' Omokunde said. Brostoff was passionate about the causes he adopted, his colleagues agreed. Omokunde referred to a comment moments earlier, when Subeck 'called him tenacious.' He paused. 'However, let's be honest,' he continued. 'Jonathan was annoying … and everybody in this body who ever came across him knows he was annoying.' Affectionate laughter greeted his candor. 'Sometimes he could make me crazy,' Sinicki said. 'That's only because he had such passion and such conviction for the things that he wanted that nothing was going to change his mind, nothing at all.' For all his fervor as a Democratic lawmaker, Brostoff endeared himself to Republican colleagues. GOP Rep. Paul Tittl found Brostoff, who was Jewish, to be 'a deeply spiritual person' who asked to attend a regular Capitol Bible study that Republican lawmakers, all Christian, organized. 'He always added to the conversation.' In the Senate, Sen. Andre Jacque recalled both Brostoff's participation in the Bible study program as well as his enthusiasm for the gaming community. 'One thing that always struck me about Jonathan is that he was somebody who was unafraid to put himself out there and have conversations,' Jacque said. 'I'm going to miss him.' Brostoff took it upon himself to vet prospective candidates. One was Rep. Robyn Vining, ahead of her first election to the Assembly in 2018. At a Colectivo Coffee near UWM, 'Jonathan grilled me with questions, and was very clear on his priorities,' Vining said. 'He was also very clear that he would not be supporting me if I did not pass his test.' They talked. 'What I didn't realize was that after I did pass that test, Jonathan was going to jump on board and fight for me, which is exactly what he did,' Vining said. 'We finished my vetting, and he said, 'OK, let's go knock some doors.'' First-term Rep. Sequanna Taylor was another such candidate. Friends from before she decided to run for the Assembly, she and Brostoff and their families were dining together early in her campaign. 'In the middle of him eating, he was like, 'Give me your spiel,'' Taylor said. She was caught off guard, but he persisted. 'And so, you know, I went into my little spiel, and he took a moment and he looked at me. He was like, 'You'll be good,'' she said. 'Then he was like, 'Next time somebody asks you this, though, I want you to be able to say this in 30 seconds flat.'' Brostoff was always straightforward, Taylor said. 'You never had to worry about a gray area with JoBro, because there was no gray area with him.' Sen. LaTonya Johnson recalled a riot in Milwaukee's Sherman Park neighborhood, part of her district, after an officer-involved shooting 10 years ago. She was visiting the scene the second night of unrest — 'I was not brave enough to go that first night,' she confessed — when Brostoff showed up with big packs of chewing gum. 'This is de-escalation gum,' Johnson recalled him saying. She was skeptical, 'but lo and behold the longer we were out there, when things became confrontational, Jonathan would walk up and he said, 'You want gum?' And people would stop, and they would take it.' And, she said, it helped redirect people's attention. Subeck said she and Brostoff were two of three Jewish members of the Assembly when they both took office in 2015. She described the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam, to repair the world. 'This is a concept that is built on our guiding principles of social justice, of making the world a better place, of taking care of our world and taking care of its people,' Subeck said. 'And Jonathan, more than just about anybody else I know, lived up to that principle.' Brostoff was candid about his own mental health history, Subeck added. 'He brought his own struggles, and he shared his very personal struggles with all of us here in the Legislature, and I believe that they made me, and hopefully made many of you, a better legislator.' There were also calls to address directly how Brostoff's life had ended. 'I hope that we will recommit ourselves to preventing needless deaths in this state and to doing what Jonathan would want us to do, and enacting policies that will save other lives, even though we are too late to save his,' said Sen. Mark Spreitzer. 'I will miss my friend Jonathan Brostoff, may his memory be a blessing.' 'Jonathan's story is one that too many Wisconsin families know the pain of,' said Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin. 'In 2022 alone, 530 Wisconsinites died by suicide with firearms.' Habush Sinykin read to her colleagues a statement from Brostoff's widow, Diana Vang-Brostoff, and his parents, Alan and Phyllis Brostoff. Earlier, Rep. Deb Andraca read the same statement in the Assembly. 'Once again, we want to thank the Wisconsin Legislature for today honoring the memory of our husband and son,' the statement began. Their statement recounted the circumstances of Brostoff's death as well as a commentary Brostoff wrote in October 2019 that was published in the Wisconsin State Journal and Urban Milwaukee about his failed suicide attempts as a teenager. Brostoff had just served on a Legislature task force on suicide prevention. They quoted Brostoff's column, in which he wrote that access to a firearm for someone contemplating suicide 'is like having your own personal permanent delete button.' In the essay he had acknowledged that if had had access to a gun at the time of those teenage attempts to kill himself, 'I would not be here today.' 'Our family believes that had Jonathan been required to wait perhaps a day or two or any amount of time after entering that gun store last November to make that purchase, his life may have been spared,' their statement concluded. 'And so now, in the interest of saving other lives at risk for mental health issues, domestic violence or other circumstances, it is our hope that you find the collective will to reinstate a reasonable waiting period for finalizing gun purchases. Doing that would enhance your thoughtful and kind honoring of his memory today.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Assembly passes bill requiring local law enforcement cooperation with ICE
The Wisconsin Assembly voted along party lines Tuesday to pass legislation penalizing counties with sheriff's departments that don't cooperate with ICE, the federal Immigration Customers and Enforcement agency. (Photo via ICE) Legislation passed the Assembly Tuesday that would claw back state aid from counties where the sheriff doesn't cooperate with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement service (ICE). The legislation would require sheriffs to check the citizenship status of people being held in jail on felony charges and notify federal immigration enforcement officials if citizenship cannot be verified. The state Senate, meanwhile, approved a bill that would block a judicial investigation of a police officer involved in the death of a person unless there's new evidence or evidence that has not been previously addressed in court. The immigration-related bill, AB 24, passed the Assembly on a straight party-line vote. In addition to requiring citizenship checks, the bill would also require sheriffs to comply with detainers and administrative warrants received from the federal Department of Homeland Security for people in jail. Counties would be required to certify annually that they were following the law and would lose 15% of their shared revenue payments from the state if they were not. Proponents described the measure as enhancing safety. 'We have the opportunity to emulate in many ways the best practices that are already happening across our country,' Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), the bill's author, said at a news conference before the floor session. 'We have seen since [President] Donald Trump took office that we have had a dramatic reduction in the number of illegal crossings that are happening at the southern border.' Opponents said the bill would divert local law enforcement resources while driving up mistrust and fear among immigrants, regardless of their legal status. Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) said the legislation was 'big government' and interferes with local counties' policy decisions. It also undermines the presumption of innocence for a person charged with a crime, potentially strains resources for local jails, and could lead to holding people 'longer than is necessary,' he said. But he added that those weren't his top reasons for opposing the bill. 'I'm voting against this because it's wrong, because this legislation rips people from our communities and families based on the mere accusation of a crime, because our Republicans colleagues' eagerness to make themselves tools in Trump's attacks on immigrants, refugees, visitors and those who oppose him is vile,' Clancy said. On the floor, Vos replied that he agreed with Clancy about the presumption of innocence, and that he also agreed with other lawmakers who said the vast majority of immigrants are not guilty of any crime. 'But I would also say that there is a burden of proof on both sides,' Vos said. 'It's not entirely on just the side of the government to ensure that you follow the law.' Claiming broad bipartisan support for the measure, Vos said Democratic opposition was 'clearly out of step, even with your base.' Rep. Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire) responded that he hasn't heard constituents ask for the legislation or anything like it. 'They are asking us explicitly to make life tangibly easier for working class Wisconsinites,' he said, 'and they have not been asking me to engage in redundant acts of political theater to satisfy the whims of a rogue president engaging in a campaign of intimidation and mass deportation that includes constituents in western Wisconsin.' The state Senate voted Tuesday to pass a bill that makes an exemption to the state's John Doe law for police officers involved in a civilian's death. In Wisconsin, if a district attorney chooses not to file criminal charges, a judge may hold a hearing — known as a John Doe investigation — on the matter and file a complaint based on the findings of that hearing. The legislation, SB 25, 'simply says, if that case goes before a DA, and then the DA justifies their actions and they are deemed to be innocent of any wrongdoing … that case is closed and it is in a file never to be seen again,' said the bill's author, Sen. Rob Hutton (R-Brookfield), on the Senate floor. Hutton said the legislation allows a judicial investigation to proceed, however, 'if a new piece of evidence is presented that wasn't known before, or an unused piece of evidence is found.' But Sen. Dora Drake (D-Milwaukee) questioned carving out an exemption to the state's John Doe law. 'This bill does not apply to any other crime in Wisconsin,' she said. Lawmakers, Drake added, should do more to address 'the environment and the situations' that have led to officer-involved deaths. Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee), said testimony at the bill's public hearing discussed only two attempts to invoke the John Doe proceeding after a prosecutor declined to file charges in an officer-involved death — and one of them involved former Wauwatosa police officer Joseph Mensah, who killed three people in five years. Allowing for a John Doe investigation in an officer-involved death 'protects the public,' Johnson said. 'What it does is put a second eye on those cases that deserve a second look.' The Senate passed the bill 19-13. Two Democrats, Sens. Kristin Dassler-Alfheim (D-Appleton) and Sarah Keyeski (D-Lodi), voted in favor along with 17 Republicans. Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto), who also opposed the bill in committee, joined the remaining Democrats who voted against the measure. Reversing DPI testing standards: On a vote of 18-14 along party lines, the Senate concurred in an Assembly bill that would reverse a change that the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) made last year to testing standards. AB 1 would revert the state's testing standards to what they were in 2019 and link standards to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Republicans voting for the bill said that the DPI change 'lowered' standards — a claim DPI and Democrats rejected. Direct primary care passes — but Democrats object: The Senate also voted 18-14 on party lines to pass SB 4, legislation that would clear the way for health care providers who participate in direct primary care arrangements. Under direct primary care, doctors treat patients who subscribe to their services for a monthly fee as an alternative to health insurance for primary care. An amendment Democrats offered would have added a list of enumerated civil rights protections for direct primary care patients. That list was in a direct primary care bill in the 2023-24 legislative session that passed the Assembly but stalled in the Senate when two organizations protested language protecting 'gender identity.' After the amendment was rejected, also on a party-line vote, Democrats voted against the final bill. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
