Monthly Archives: January, 2021

(The Center Square) – Nothing is changing about Wisconsin’s coronavirus emergency order or the state’s mask mandate. At least for the time being.

Republicans in the State Assembly did not vote to overrule the governor on Thursday, largely because of questions about nearly $50 million a month in enhanced food stamp benefits.

Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services on Wednesday said ending Gov. Evers coronavirus emergency order would also end the state’s eligibility for enhanced SNAP benefit funding. DHS said those benefits totaled $49.3 million for 242,507 households this month alone.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, on Thursday said not including a work-around for those benefits in the original override was a misstep.

"Unfortunately when our Senate colleagues passed it, they didn’t necessarily do the same due diligence, which is why we had to add that amendment to AB1 today. We do not want to repeat that mistake,” Vos told reporters at the Capitol.

Republicans in the State Senate approved the override Tuesday. Senators on Thursday added a fix for the food stamp mistake into the coronavirus relief package passed by the Assembly. But that too appears to be dead for now.

State Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said Senators did what was necessary “to preserve those funds going forward.”

Vos said he wants to double-check before taking the next step.

"I think the amendment that we worked with in the Senate probably fixes the issue but I don’t know that for sure,” Vos added. “Our job is to guarantee when we pass legislation we know what the ramifications are.”

Democrats in the legislature are satisfied to have the governor’s emergency order and mask mandate remain in place.

“I am both relieved and not surprised that we are here not taking up repealing the mask mandate,” Rep Gordon Hintz, R-Oshkosh, said during the Assembly debate. “I hope the extra time allows cooler heads to prevail.”

Republicans in the Assembly and the Senate say overturning the governor’s emergency order and mask mandate is not about masks. They insist the move is about reining-in the governor who they say has overstepped his legal authority.

(The Center Square) – Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate approved a resolution that rolls back Evers’ latest emergency order extension on a largely party line vote.

The resolution prompted Democrats at the Wisconsin Capitol on Tuesday to paint a dark picture of what will happen in the state without Gov. Tony Evers’ latest emergency order and mask requirement

Gov. Evers has issued several emergency orders since last March dealing with the coronavirus. State law limits his emergency powers to just 60 days, though the Wisconsin Supreme Court is considering that question right now.

Last week, Evers issued another extension that would carry the state’s emergency coronavirus restrictions and mask requirement into mid-March.

Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville, said Wisconsin has been under one emergency order or another since last March.

“There is no such thing as a perpetual emergency,” Stroebel told senators. “Reissuing emergencies every 61 days is transparently attempting to circumvent the law.”

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said earlier on Tuesday that lawmakers want to check the governor rather than decide who should wear a mask.

“I don’t think the Constitution envisioned a single person being able to make rules forever by himself,” Vos told reporters. “I’m going to say people should still wear a mask, especially if you’re in a group of people that you don’t know.”

Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said the vote is not about face masks or even coronavirus restrictions. Nass said the question is about the balance of power in state government.

“This is not about face masks, Nass said. “This is about repeatedly issuing emergency orders, contrary to what the law allows. This is about the rule of law.”

Nass said lawmakers must act to “protect the governed from an abusive government.”

Republican Sen. Rob Cowles, R-Green Bay, and Sen. Dale Kooyenga, R-Brookfield, voted against the resolution.

Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, said Tuesday during the Senate debate over the governor’s order he is annoyed "because my neighbors are dying,” adding: “This will shut down our state. Moving this forward will shut down our state and hurt even more. And maybe you’ll feel great and pat yourself on the back. But the rest of society will say ‘What the hell are you doing?’'"

“I know you can work things out,” Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, said, addressing Republicans favoring a new round of negotiations with the governor. “I know you’re going to alienate your base. People are going to be mad at you. People will be mad enough that they will storm the Capitol, kill people, break windows, think they are taking over the U.S. Capitol.”

Carpenter didn’t stop there. In a 20-minute speech from the Senate floor, Carpenter blamed former President Trump for a lack of a national mask requirement, too few vaccines, an angry political culture, and thousands of deaths.

Carpenter also said the same people who oppose masks in Wisconsin are the same people who wanted to kidnap Michigan’s governor.

After the Senate vote, the Wisconsin Assembly scheduled a vote on the resolution to roll back the governor’s order on Thursday.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s largest business group says Gov. Tony Evers’ planned PFAS chemical lawsuit is nothing more than a political stunt.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce on Friday said the governor is way off base in announcing he will sue to punish companies for years of what he called PFAS pollution.

“They want to sue businesses for the past use of compounds for which no standards have been set under either state or federal law,” WMC’s Kurt Bauer said.

PFAS chemicals, or forever chemicals as they are also known, are in everything from Teflon, to waxes and paints, to food packaging materials. PFAS chemicals are also used in firefighting foam. That is where they are most common, and where Gov. Evers has focused his pursuit.

Bauer said the governor is trying to make a political point, while ignoring the reality of how businesses have been trying to work with environmentalists across Wisconsin.

“The business community has worked cooperatively with policymakers and regulators to address concerns stemming from the use and testing of firefighting foam containing PFAS chemicals.” Bauer added. “[This] action doesn’t recognize the sincere attempts by businesses to collaborate with governmental entities on the complexity of PFAS-related issues.”

Environmental groups, on the other hand, are thrilled with the governor's decision.

The group Clean Wisconsin says Gov. Evers needs to sue, blaming state lawmakers for not going along with the governor’s earlier requests to implement new PFAS standards into state law.

“Against legislative inaction and limiting any PFAS protections at the behest of industry and PFAS-users, this action finally provides accountability and prioritizes public health,” Clean Wisconsin director of government relations Carly Michiels said. “Industry and heavy PFAS-users cannot continue to drive the narrative to protect their own pocketbooks, forgetting those most harmed by their actions.”

Gov. Evers’ office says the state is monitoring 50 sites for PFAS contamination or pollution across the state.

There is no federally mandated PFAS threshold, meaning there is no EPA required level for what constitutes pollution or contamination. The EPA does recommend that PFAS levels be under 70 ppt (parts per trillion) in water samples.

Gov. Evers is recommending 20 ppt, or almost four times lower than what the federal government recommends.

Bauer and the WMC said on Friday tht “the Evers Administration seems dead set on disparaging Wisconsin employers regardless of whether there is an actual health risk associated with certain PFAS compounds.”

(The Center Square) – Among the more than 30 executive orders issued by President Joe Biden halting previous policies for an initial 60 to 100 days is an order halting a requirement that community health centers provide insulin and epinephrine at discounted rates to low-income and impoverished patients.

The initial rule change would have reduced insulin and epinephrine costs effective Jan. 22. The new order halts this plan by 60 days, pending review.

“Many patients have expressed that the freeze will indeed impact their ability to acquire affordable medications,” David Balat, head of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s healthcare initiative, told The Center Square. “The party that won political points on saying they wanted to protect those with pre-existing conditions is now hurting those very people.”

In response to the department’s announcement, Balat tweeted that temporarily postponing a rule requiring lower costs of much-needed drugs like insulin “isn’t a partisan issue. Insulin and epinephrine are expensive. There’s no reason to not let this order stand and I ask that you [President Biden] reconsider this position.”

Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw agreed, adding, “Why add this to the chopping block? To ‘own Trump’? Why exactly does Biden NOT want to pass on cost savings on insulin? Diabetics deserve better.”

According to the directive from the Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, entitled “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review,” federal agencies were instructed to delay the effective date of rules published in the Federal Register by the previous administration that had not yet taken effect for a period of 60 days from the date of the memorandum.

The rule change impacting insulin and epinephrine costs applies to all health centers that receive section 330(e) grant funds and participate in the 340B Drug Pricing Program.

The Biden rule change is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Jan. 26.

The previous rule required community health centers to make available insulin and injectable epinephrine to low-income or indigent patients at the same price the health center paid through the 340B Program, effective Jan. 22. Now that date may or may not be March 22 pending review.

The temporary delay for the effective date of the final rule, the administration argues, is to allow HHS officials the opportunity to review the regulations.

According to Bloomberg Law, critics of the previous rule change claim that health centers providing the two medications in question “already pass on those savings and this [Trump] rule is merely an administrative burden that paints them as entities that price-gouge patients.”

Last year, Trump also signed an executive order to lower prescription drug prices.

In the last 20 years, our country’s national debt has exploded. In 2001, when George W. Bush took office, the national debt was $5.8 trillion. It took around 225 years – booms, busts, depressions, wars, etc. – to amass that much national debt. In just eight years, Bush and a compliant Congress doubled the number to $11.7 trillion. In Barack Obama’s two terms, another $8.6 trillion was added. During the past four years, Donald Trump and Congress fought many battles, but not over this: In that time, America’s future was mortgaged to the tune of another $6.7 trillion. Today, the national debt is around $27 trillion, a four-fold increase in the last two decades. That doesn’t count unfunded mandates. And there is no end in sight.

Whenever human beings gather to accomplish a task, any task, without strong and effective oversight, a natural evolution takes place. Whether it be in business, academia, philanthropy or government, every activity morphs from the original goal to self-aggrandizement. In government, this process is particularly toxic. There are no profits, let alone a profit motive. No concern with productivity. No incentive to turn off the proverbial lights. No measure of success. No motivation to end counterproductive activities.

Add to this mix the influence of public employee unions. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman were opposed to them for reasons that long ago became apparent. The goal of all unions is self-preservation – just as management’s is to maximize profits. But public employee unions add two other noxious elements to the mix: (1) defending job incompetence and (2) heavy-handed involvement in the electoral process in a search for pliant politicians who can help them achieve their objectives by spending ever more of the public’s money.

Now, out of the blue, the experts-for-hire have a new scheme to justify continued fiscal irresponsibility: modern monetary theory. It holds that so long as interest rates are lower than inflation rates, politicians can spend away. That is not a theory. It is idle wordplay, and the victim of such sophistry is the American taxpayer – and future generations of American taxpayers.

Never in our history has fiscal soundness been more important. The exploding annual deficits of the last 20 years have produced a national debt as a percentage of the gross domestic product that is as high as it was during World War II even though our nation is at peace. Moreover, many severely underfunded programs such as Social Security and Medicaid are not included in today’s debt calculations, although they should be.

The passage of a 5,593-page must-pass-quickly bill in December was indisputable evidence that the national debt will never be addressed from the top down. That legislation was sent to the Senate two hours before the vote. Who can read 2,800 pages per hour, 47 pages per minute? How can responsible lawmakers vote on bills they have not read? While our political leaders have repeatedly told us how important this bill was to the survival of so many Americans, they delayed the bill for months for political reasons. A crucial-to-the-survival-of-so-many-Americans pork-filled bill? Some $10 million to Pakistan for “gender programs”? Another $700 million to Sudan for Lord knows what? And on and on and on.

History has a clear and repeated message: If we do not address this exploding debt, it will bring to life all-knowing leaders, leaders who Friedrich Hayek said possessed the “fatal conceit.” They think they know more than is knowable. Leaders who have all the answers for everything they define as a problem: More regulations. More government control. More taxes. This is a noxious cure that has never succeeded, one that has left country after country in economic tatters.

Fortunately, the world in changing. Today, we have the means to address this financial irresponsibility, this threat to our country as our founders envisioned it. We are immersed in the Information Age, the Big Data world, the Cloud world, the Bitcoin world. The cost of communications is close to zero. Smartphones, iPads, and computers are a crucial part of everyday life. With the touch of a finger, one click, information on every topic is available 24 hours a day. Buy anything. Sell anything. Today, instant access to information is embedded in our culture. Why should government expenditures be exempt?

Transparency has always been the best antidote to rein in profligate government spending. Having instant information at our fingertips gives fiscally responsible Americans a powerful new weapon in the War on Waste. Today, there is no reason why every local, state, and federal government expenditure is not online, in real-time, available to every citizen. Taxpayers should be able to attend a school board meeting and pull up school expenses on their phones.

OpenTheBooks has a formidable weapon to unleash the voting public’s ability to address this exploding national debt, this lack of transparency, this threat to our democracy – the OpenTheBooks Government Expenditure Library, which contains over 5 billion (and growing) local, state, and federal government expenditures. Last year, we filed 41,500 Freedom of Information Act requests. We sued several government entities to encourage them to provide us the same information we collect from other states.

The OpenTheBooks Government Expenditure Library is open to everyone: Citizens. Politicians. Students. Academics. Scholars. Journalists. Think tanks. Everyone – 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

Transparency can be as revolutionary as the Internet has been for the economic well-being of the world. Transparency can not only enhance the odds of the survival of this, the greatest country in the history of the world but, over time, it will contribute to our prosperity, our health, and our happiness. Wasted taxpayer dollars are not just nonproductive. Waste allowed to exist encourages more waste. Fraud allowed to exist encourages more fraud. A financially sound economy, one that works to remove waste, fraud, duplication, and incompetence, will increase respect for government, for the rule of law.

OpenTheBooks places the future of this great country more firmly in the hands of the voters. To ensure our elected officials realize this, we have to communicate continuously with them what we expect and how we will vote. I suggest we begin with one clear public statement: “I will never vote for anyone who has voted for a bill they have not read.”

Obviously, our elected officials are unwilling to address this explosive, increasingly crucial national debt problem. Fortunately, we the taxpaying voters today have a weapon at our fingertips to successfully wage a War on Waste. Successful because our political leaders will quickly recognize that if they want to be reelected, they will have to respond accordingly.

“The cause is great, and it is for me I say, give me liberty or give me death.”

– Patrick Henry

When patriots angrily destroyed a shipload of tea in Boston Harbor in 1773, their “Tea Party” was the most significant incident in Western hemispherical political history. What began as a resistance movement against violations of man’s God-given rights provided the impetus for the revolution for independence and formal self-governing. This not only made America a nation, but the architect of modern republican governing. It was the best of times for liberty and the worst of times for tyranny.

Some 236 years after the uprising in Boston Harbor, in reaction to a government that was abusing funds in the public treasury at the expense of individual liberties, a Chicago radio host “got mad as hell and said: “He was not going to take it anymore.” On Feb. 19, 2009, Rick Santelli of CNBC challenged his disciples to join him at a “Tea Party” to protest runaway spending and violations of of their Constitutional rights. This was the catalyst that christened America’s Tea Party Movement.

With American socialism forced upon us, there is no better time to mark the 10th anniversary of the Tea Party movement than to call them back into action. The Tea Parties were individual groups of patriots, unlike today’s individual protesters. They were well organized and knew their Constitution. They were fed up with Barack Obama’s polices of “fairness and identity voter coddling” as they watched Congress pass every law he proposed.

“It is time everyone pays their fair share.”

– Barack Obama

Viewed as a threat to Obama’s extremism, the Tea Parties were labeled right wing agitators. The liberal media recanted the left’s tried-and-true tactic, condemning the patriots as a white patriarchy resistance movement, angered over Obama’s race. Yet well over 30% of them were non-white.

Tea Partiers were patriotic, religious middle and upper class moderates and conservatives. They began each protest pledging allegiance to America, and ended with prayers of gratitude for liberty. When attacked by leftist agitators, they turned the other cheek in a show of strength. As buses of paid union protesters arrived to harass them, they refused to take the bait and kept on protesting.

As Obama, Pelosi, Reed and Congress doubled down on assaults against our Constitution and our liberty with partisan spending, the Tea Party movement exploded. Peaceful organized protesters all over the U.S. were confronted with insurgents and union workers, paid to disrupt protests against Obamacare. Subversives insulted them, tried to start fights, but could not disrupt their mission to fix America.

“Obamacrats couldn’t make them act like them and resort to violence.”

– David Webb

On Sept. 12, 2009, a Tea Party protest, the largest peaceful protest in history against federal abuse, took place in Washington, D.C. against Obamacare. The Tea Party was upset at how Obama used crooked deals and shady tactics to get it through Congress. According to FreedomWorks, an estimated crowd of over 600,000 conservative protesters participated without one act of violence.

Among the speakers at the rally were House Majority Leader Dick Armey and other congressional Republicans, including Reps. Mike Pence of Indiana, Tom Price of Georgia, and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and South Carolina’s Sen. Jim DeMint. Pence set the tone for the rally: “Americans wanted health care reform, but never wanted government to run their health care."

Throughout the event, protesters prayed, sang patriotic songs, chanted political slogans, waved the American flag and signs. Gene Healy of the libertarian Cato Institute issued this statement: “They had grave concerns about the economic future of our nation and theft of free market health care.”

Groups of agitators tried to disrupt this landmark gathering throughout the day, calling them racists and radicals and shouting obscenities. The patriots continued to ignore them until they wimped out. By the time they left Washington, the capital grounds were cleaner than when they had first arrived.

In 2013, an IRS official admitted under oath that Obama had asked them to thoroughly investigate the Tea Party and other center-right groups. But this backfired when over 500 groups sued the IRS and won "substantial settlements." Attorney General Jeff Sessions said: "There is no excuse for this! These groups deserve an apology from the IRS. This abuse of power is absolutely wrong.”

Obama claims his greatest gift to America was one they did not want: Socializing their free market health care on Christmas Eve 2009. And it cost him. During his two terms in office, Democrats lost the House, the Senate, and more state legislatures and governors than any other president due to the Tea Party.

“Republicans encouraged the “tea-baggers” to protest everything.”

– Barack Obama

Ten years after the Tea Party movement began, the House Tea Party Caucus is long gone. So too are most of the 87 House Republicans elected in the biggest GOP sweep since the 1920s. In a recent Rasmussen survey, only 8% of all voters identify with the Tea Party. In 2010, Rasmussen found that 39% of voters surveyed identified with the Tea Party and 41% agreed with their politics.

The Tea Party was the only faction in the Republican Party that showed concern for civil liberties. Sen. Rand Paul tirelessly safeguarded the 4th and 5th Amendments. Tea Partiers had a fetish for intransigence over compromise that raised the bar on eventual compromises on policies for the moderates and conservatives. Today’s socialist left is garishly demanding and won’t compromise.

But it’s hard to celebrate the anniversary of someone who can’t be found. What happened to the Tea Party? Average Americans, not patriotic organizations or Tea Party groups, elected Donald Trump. And most average Americans don’t belong to organized political groups. They depend on citizen-led political activists to inform them when Congress and the president need their help. Yet Tea Parties have been asleep for almost a decade. It is time these Rip Van Winkles wake up and put on a pot of tea for American liberty.

“Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.”

– Phyllis Diller

Aristotle wrote, “Ignorance is dangerous.” The socialist left claims they have a mandate. Yet the final tally shows Biden only won by an ambiguous 4%? But we all know numbers don’t mean a thing to socialists. A win is a mandate, even if 50% of America voted against socialism. The right of center and conservatives in Congress will be eaten alive without citizen support. We need the Tea Party and their organized leadership to rescue our liberty by electing patriots in the midterms.

The far left and socialists control government and traditional media. Conservative views are being censored on social media, as well as radio, TV and print media. We need organized groups like the Tea Party who are willing to do what they do best. We need help vetting and supporting patriotic candidates who will win the midterms. We need to bring back the Tea Party caucuses and groups around the nation, to keep the fires of patriotism alive. We need organized, dedicated patriots now.

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”

– Edward Abbey

Elections have consequences.

Don’t believe that? Well, start stretching your brain because the mental hot yoga has commenced and you’re at least one sunrise salutation behind.

After a completely overblown military display that led President Joe Biden through his inauguration on Wednesday, our 46th president went right to work on undoing as much of the past four years as he could with the precision of a jackhammer.

In his first two days in office, Biden issued 17 executive orders, and he hasn't slowed down just yet.

In almost every case, the order sought to specifically undo something that had been done during the tenure of his predecessor, 45th President Donald Trump.

In the private sector, businesses pressured – internally or externally – to change direction often succumb to a practice of hiring an opposite in roles of authority and leadership. Subconsciously or consciously, these companies hire people whose talents, attitudes, and personalities are precisely the opposite of the person who previously held the position.

We may have done precisely this as a nation. How do these hires ultimately work out? Not well, because there is so much energy spent reversing course in the water that the tide itself pushes the department or division off of its intended course.

Elections – specifically the actions of those elected – have ramifications.

Don’t believe that? Well, let’s check in again in January 2025.

Maybe take a snap of your current state property tax bill, 401k statement and bank account this morning, print them out and then stuff it all in a filing cabinet that you’ll be able to access four years from now.

Welcome to The Sunday Read.

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As mainstream media outlets mostly fawned over Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, The Center Square reported on how the new administration's policy decisions would have real-life impacts on jobs and the economy. Biden last week ordered a temporary halt to new leases and permits for oil and gas development on federal land, something critics said would cost thousands of jobs and lead to a renewed reliance on foreign energy providers. Our reporting also noted that a federal lease moratorium would result in a $639.7 billion hit to gross domestic product (GDP) in Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, California and Alaska by 2040.

Biden revoked the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline, which led Canadian company TC Energy to halt construction. The pipeline, if finished, would carry approximately 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta, Canada, to the Texas Gulf Coast. Passing through six U.S. states, the project has faced multiple legal challenges. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said he was “deeply concerned” about Biden’s repeal. “Doing so would kill jobs on both sides of the border, weaken the critically important Canada-U.S. relationship, and undermine U.S. national security,” Kenney said.

In Texas, the governor and attorney general announced plans to sue the Biden administration over several executive orders recently issued – and immigration policy is front and center. “A new crop of Texas-led lawsuits awaits Joe Biden's White House,” Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted. “Texas will take action whenever the federal government encroaches on state's rights, or interferes with constitutional rights, or private property rights or the right to earn a living.” Texas, along with California, leads the states in the number of times it has sued the federal government. Arguing against federal government overreach and in favor of the Tenth Amendment, Texas’ legal actions have ranged from suing the federal government over the Affordable Care Act, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), the Clean Power Plan, and many other issues. Now immigration is policy is the target.

In Ohio, Biden's Keystone XL action drew concerns from U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who said it will cost jobs and hurt the economy. On Wednesday, Biden signed an order rescinding the presidential permit that allowed for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Before the order, TC Energy announced it had suspended work on the 1,700-mile pipeline. Portman, an Ohio Republican, said he wants to work with the new administration and called the order unfortunate.

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis does not want more help from the federal government in administering COVID-19 vaccinations. Instead, he just wants more doses sent to Florida. DeSantis called Biden’s plan “a big mistake.” “I saw some of this stuff Biden’s putting out, that he’s going to create these FEMA camps. I can tell you, that’s not necessary in Florida,” DeSantis said. “All we need is more vaccine. Just get us more vaccine.”

In Kentucky, a Republican Party county chapter voted unanimously to censure U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell for comments he made on the Senate floor. McConnell said President Trump “provoked” the group that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 and interrupted the counting of the Electoral College votes to confirm Biden as the new President. It was broadly reported Friday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, will transmit the article of impeachment to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday. A trial could begin as soon as February 1.

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Elsewhere in America…

INDIANA

In what may be the first attempt at reforming state-level election laws in the U.S. since the November 2020 election, Indiana legislators introduced a bill calling for the formation of a Commission on Election Integrity that would review the security of all voting machines used in the state and consider whether election laws should be changed to increase confidence in the vote. The commission would be tasked with finding outside experts to assess the security of all voting machines and also look at whether absentee voting laws should be tightened, with fewer reasons for voting absentee allowed and early voting possibly curbed.

MICHIGAN

For the past 83 years, Peter Tomassoni’s family has run Recreation Lanes and the Antoin Room Banquet and Convention Center in Iron Mountain. Less than one year under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19, however, it could close, through no fault of the family. On Wednesday, the Michigan Independent Bowling & Entertainment Centers Association (IBECA) filed a federal lawsuit in the Western District of Michigan, claiming the state owes five businesses compensation for the takings of their respective businesses for public use without just compensation since March of 2020.

Staring down the barrel of a projected $1.2 billion tax revenue shortfall, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has asked the state legislature to approve $5.6 billion in COVID-19 relief programs. The programs will flood federal stimulus money to education and businesses sectors. In the meantime, the state’s bars and restaurants have remained closed to in-person patrons since mid-November, although the governor has stated the industry may open at 25% capacity up to a limit of 100 customers and must observe a 10 p.m. curfew on Monday, Feb. 1. Data from the industry reports 5% of bars and restaurants have been forced to close permanently because of state-imposed shutdown orders. A total of 27% of the state’s bars and restaurants may be forced to close permanently by the end of February, industry analysts project.

ILLINOIS

The Illinois Board of Higher Education has approved a $2.1 billion budget request, a 4.5 percent increase over the prior year at a time when enrollment is nearly flat and the state faces a multi-billion dollar budget gap. The 2022 fiscal year budget proposal is $2.1 billion dollars and would reflect a 4.5 percent increase for general funds, excluding the State University Retirement System. State Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, said he is skeptical about increasing funding during a pandemic. “The situation we find ourselves in with COVID and with so many other pressures on the budget, I don’t foresee anything more than hopefully even a stable year for higher education let alone what potentially could be cuts,” Brady said.

Under Gov. J.B. Pritzker's COVID-19 rules, the state's 11 regions were under four different classes of mitigations, leading to confusion among lawmakers and local officials. State Rep. Fred Crespo, D-Hoffman Estates, said restaurants are ready to do it right, but the governor isn’t listening to the industry, or to state lawmakers. “I think if the administration were to listen to those restaurants, there might be a happy medium, somewhere where they can meet and the restaurants can somehow stay afloat,” Crespo said.

WISCONSIN

There is another call for lawmakers in Madison to gut an emergency order and mask requirement from Gov. Tony Evers. Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, on Friday said the governor once again overstepped his authority when he extended his emergency order until mid-March. “The time has come for the Wisconsin Legislature to stand up for civil liberties and put an end to the excessive actions of Governor Evers to control the people of this state with unending Covid-19 emergency declarations,” Nass said in a statement.

PENNSYLVANIA

The Keystone State’s Independent Fiscal Office is a nonpartisan agency that’s tasked with looking at the state economy and government spending and providing reports and analysis so that lawmakers and citizens can have an accurate, unbiased look at what’s really happening. The IFO’s latest report, providing a five-year forecast that factors in the effects of the pandemic and Gov. Tom Wolf’s economic restrictions, paints a gloomy picture. The agency anticipates that COVID-19 will create a $2 billion structural deficit for state government, and that many of the jobs lost in 2020 will still not have returned by 2026.

NEW YORK

A Democratic New York lawmaker is eager to see mobile sports gambling legalized in the state to establish a new source of revenue for a state government hungry for dollars. But Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants a much bigger cut of the proceeds and is eying the format used in New Hampshire, which would see the betting run by a single company that would be required to share perhaps as much as half of the take with the state. “This is not a moneymaker for private interests to collect just more tax revenue,” Cuomo said in his budget address Tuesday. “We want the actual revenue from sports betting.”

NEW HAMPSHIRE

The new Republican majority in the Granite State’s Legislature is looking to consider a bill that would trim the state’s taxes on business, which one policy expert described as some of the highest in the country. While New Hampshire famously levies no income tax, its business profits tax comes in at 7.7% and its business enterprise tax at 0.6%. The legislation from new House Speaker Sherman Packard would cut the former to 7.5% and the latter to 0.5% over the course of the next two years.

MAINE

Ranked-choice voting in Maine was a controversial aspect of the November 2020 presidential election, the first time it was used in the state. Democrats argue that it better reflects the will of the voters, while Republicans say it violates the principle of “one person, one vote.” Now, the majority Democrats in the Legislature hope to amend the state’s constitution to allow the use of ranked-choice voting in state races. Maine is the only state to use the voting scheme for all federal races; Massachusetts voters rejected a referendum on using it in November.

TENNESSEE

Republican leadership in the Tennessee Legislature filed a bill during last week's special session on education that would allow the state to withhold funding from school districts that refuse to provide an in-person learning option for students. The bill would give the Tennessee Education Commissioner authority to withhold all or a part of state funding from school districts if they fail to provide a minimum of 70 days of in-person learning this school year and the full 180 days of in-person learning next school year for all kindergarten through eighth-grade students. The legislation did not advance during the special session, but House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, said he plans to file it again.

VIRGINIA

Democrats in the Virginia Legislature are pushing legislation to make sure federal Paycheck Protection Program loans are not exempt from taxes for Virginia businesses that received them. The loans are exempt at the federal level. Del. Vivian Watts, D-Annandale, said during a committee meeting last week that fully conforming to the federal income tax code would cause a $1 billion budget deficit for the state. The National Federation of Independent Business cautioned that not exempting PPP loans would have a negative effect on the 113 businesses that took out these loans.

NORTH CAROLINA

North Carolina experienced the sixth-highest percentage of inbound migration (60%) in 2020, according to the United Van Lines' National Movers Study. North Carolina ranked 10th for inbound moves related to retirement. The state exempts Social Security benefits from income taxes.

GEORGIA

Georgia's economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic should be strong and swift, the state's fiscal economist said Tuesday. Georgia's economy has been supported by federal aid, a recovering job market and business owners' improvisation, state economist Jeffrey Dorfman told the House and Senate appropriations committees during a joint meeting Tuesday. "The federal government has passed out a lot of free money, and that has held our sales tax collections up. Withholding on the unemployment benefits has helped hold our income tax collections up," Dorfman said. "Frankly, I think we need to put a lot of credit where it belongs. Business owners in Georgia, small and large, have done a tremendous job at finding ways to still carry out business and keep their businesses operating during a pandemic."

LOUISIANA

Louisiana’s two open seats in Congress drew crowded fields of contenders during qualifying, with 28 candidates in total filing to run. Among the highest-profile candidates to qualify was Republican Julia Letlow, who will compete in the 5th Congressional District. She is the widow of Luke Letlow, who won the seat in December but died following a COVID-19 diagnosis days before taking office. Julia Letlow works in marketing and communications at UL-Monroe.

CALIFORNIA

The state that has led population growth nationally for the past 170 years, reported a population loss under Gov. Gavin Newsom – the state's first since 1850, according to newly published Census Bureau data. Until 2020, California had gained population in every year since 1900.

ARIZONA

In Arizona, a handful of Republicans want to make their state the fifth to keep state resources from assisting in any federal activity they consider contrary to the Second Amendment. State Rep. Leo Biasiucci, R-Lake Havasu City, filed the Second Amendment Firearm Freedoms Act on Jan. 14. Like other measures, it would ban the use of local resources from enforcing any federal law or executive rule that could be seen as running afoul the constitutional right to bear arms. The bill also declares any federal measure deemed to run up against the 2nd Amendment to be “null, void and unenforceable in this state,” but federal laws supersede state-enacted measures. Other similar resolutions have been seen as symbolic.

OREGON

Oregon saw 25,500 jobs lost in December, marking the biggest employment dip since last April, the Oregon Employment Department reports. Data from the agency's most recent report on Wednesday shows the job losses resulted from the state’s unemployment rate rising from 6.0% in November to 6.4% in December.

WASHINGTON

A bipartisan bill in the Washington Legislature seeking to reopen much of the state is driving a wedge between business owners and frontline health care workers exhausted by the pandemic. Effective Jan. 11, Gov. Jay Inslee moved the state to a phased reopening plan requiring counties to meet four health metrics to progress between phases. Those metrics include two-week declines in new COVID-19 cases and hospital admission rates per 100,000 people in addition to week-long positivity rates of less than 10% and ICU bed capacity of less than 90%.

Chris Krug is publisher of The Center Square. Executive Editor Dan McCaleb, regional editors J.D. Davidson, Derek Draplin, Cole Lauterbach, Delphine Luneau, Brett Rowland, Jason Schaumburg and Bruce Walker contributed to this column.

From mid-March of 2020 through the first full week of 2021, Wisconsin reported a spike in its weekly unemployment claims of 522.53%, compared to the same period a year earlier, according to a new analysis from the WalletHub website.

Using that metric, Wisconsin had the 42nd highest number of jobless claims among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the WalletHub analysis found.

Using another metric, however, the state ranked 31st highest based on a recent number of weekly unemployment claims. That metric combines comparisons of the jobless claims during the week of Jan. 4 of this year with the first week of 2019 and the first week of 2020, the study states

Nationally, 10.7 million Americans are jobless as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. During the week of Jan. 4, 965,000 new jobless claims were filed across the nation, which is 86% below the 6.9 million claims that were made at the height of the crisis, according to 24/7 Wall St.

Coronavirus restrictions have hurt the job markets in states around the nation, the study said. Only two jurisdictions, Washington, D.C., and Kentucky, had jobless claims during the week of Jan. 4 that were under the claims filed during the first week of 2019, the researchers reported.

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States With Biggest Spikes in Jobless Claims

StateIncreased Most Using Most Recent DataIncreased Most Since Start of COVID-19 CrisisChange in Jobless Claims (Week of Jan. 4, 2021, Compared to First Week of 2019)Change in Unemployment Claims (Week of Jan. 4, 2021, Compared to First Week of 2020)Change in Unemployment Claims (Since Start of COVID-19 Crisis vs. Same Period One Year Earlier)Kansas152996.12%3220.01%1261.64%New Mexico213782.51%1737.92%952.67%Florida32646.01%1533.69%1683.09%Louisiana44686.90%1124.49%1400.65%Illinois530669.58%720.67%710.11%Virginia66550.52%875.38%1239.87%Mississippi711522.35%687.18%1032.18%Tennessee814463.85%612.68%874.13%Colorado912418.26%555.99%972.23%Arizona1037304.12%507.85%605.65%Maryland1121311.70%447.66%788.25%Rhode Island1235356.94%289.05%642.93%Nebraska1324314.30%369.34%761.19%Indiana148289.08%324.27%1141.82%New Hampshire143279.58%344.49%1423.08%California1633239.27%394.49%671.78%Nevada1718243.90%351.90%812.25%Delaware1834234.30%306.51%656.15%Texas1929194.11%387.35%710.30%Ohio2028254.32%234.85%717.54%Massachusetts2125249.23%228.78%753.97%North Carolina229196.75%313.65%1125.97%Alabama2315203.53%178.57%854.24%Washington2422203.47%176.77%773.16%Alaska2531131.30%325.59%699.46%Hawaii2617196.22%179.18%840.07%Minnesota2726202.19%139.96%751.68%New York2832234.50%61.61%683.87%Georgia291178.94%114.93%1793.44%Vermont3046155.79%153.53%475.87%Wisconsin3142182.06%75.31%522.53%Utah3239120.66%163.11%582.41%Oklahoma337131.10%102.51%1185.19%Arkansas3441118.26%116.23%566.73%Maine3516117.53%114.13%853.96%Oregon3651113.00%88.61%422.73%North Dakota374070.81%151.32%577.25%District of Columbia3820-0.97%304.37%795.45%South Dakota392365.15%127.39%771.56%Montana404573.86%99.36%494.60%Missouri413687.17%52.44%616.47%Iowa425073.79%66.55%433.73%Connecticut434983.96%31.15%444.16%Wyoming444857.51%83.69%458.22%Pennsylvania454471.46%49.31%495.20%Idaho463871.69%47.07%598.71%South Carolina471977.64%15.58%799.31%Michigan482746.21%78.34%734.25%West Virginia494321.89%116.43%514.65%New Jersey504745.68%34.67%463.38%Kentucky5110-1.10%116.79%1123.23%

Source: WalletHub.com

(The Center Square) – Parents looking to alternatives to educate their children, unhappy with state lockdowns and public school system approaches to learning can find resources available through National School Choice Week 2021 events being held all this week.

The events and resources are designed to empower parents with information about the best educational environments and options for their children.

National School Choice Week (Jan. 24-30) celebrates all of the K-12 education options that parents can choose – or want to be able to choose – for their children. They include traditional public schools, public charter schools, public magnet schools, private schools, online academies and homeschooling.

The week is held every January to help parents at the beginning of the year begin the process of selecting the right school for their children by knowing all of their options. Resources explaining education options and state laws and types of school are available by state.

According to the Center for Education Reform, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota are the top states for their school choice programs. Rounding out the top 10 are the District of Columbia, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah and South Carolina.

This year, roughly 24 landmarks will have light displays of yellow and red to raise awareness for National School Choice Week 2021.

Iconic landmarks and notable buildings will display red or yellow lights to participate in “Shine for School Choice,” one of more than 33,000 virtual or socially distanced celebrations across the country. Families are encouraged to participate in social media contests, drive-in movie screenings, scavenger hunts, and virtual school fairs – in order to spread awareness of school choice and scholarship opportunities.

Some of the buildings will have light displays for one day or for the entire week. National School Choice has a complete list on its website, with links to locations and times. Each state has a page for events being held statewide.

Perhaps most spectacular will be the lighting of Niagara Falls in upstate New York, which will glow in red and yellow for 15 minutes from 10 to 10:15 p.m. Jan. 24.

The only governor’s mansion to light up all week will be in South Carolina. The Sky Wheel in Myrtle Beach will also be lit yellow and red from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Jan. 24.

The only state capitol to light up will be in Nashville, from dusk to dawn Jan. 22-24.

In other states, civic centers, court houses and cultural places are joining the celebration.

In Colorado, the McNichols Civic Center in Denver will light up in red from dusk to dawn all week.

In Florida, the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium in West Palm Beach will light up in red and yellow from 6 to 11:59 p.m. all week.

In Illinois, the spire of Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago will light up in red at sunset all week.

In Cleveland, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will light up in red from dusk to dawn all week, and Terminal Tower will light up in red and yellow on Jan. 24.

In Texas, the McLennan County Courthouse in Waco will light up in yellow all week.

This year marks the 11th annual celebration of National School Choice Week; the first celebrations held were in January 2011.

(The Center Square) – The state of Texas sued the Biden administration in response to the Department of Homeland Security announcing it would be suspending for 100 days the deportations of people in the U.S. illegally.

“On its first day in office, the Biden Administration cast aside congressionally enacted immigration laws and suspended the removal of illegal aliens whose removal is compelled by those very laws. In doing so, it ignored basic constitutional principles and violated its written pledge to work cooperatively with the State of Texas to address shared immigration enforcement concerns,” the lawsuit states.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas Victoria Division.

Texas sued David Pekoske, acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as well as the agency, Troy Miller, senior official performing the duties of the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the agency, Tae Johnson, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the agency, Tracy Renaud, senior official performing the duties of the director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the agency.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not released a statement on the lawsuit.

The memo issued by Pekoske to Homeland Security agencies on Jan. 20 directed “an immediate pause on removals of any noncitizen with a final order of removal (except as noted below) for 100 days.” The exceptions include anyone perceived as a threat to national security.

According to Texas’ lawsuit, Pekoske’s memo affects nearly all illegal immigrants with pending deportations “including those whose removal was ordered following a full and fair hearing and those who are not entitled – and do not claim to be entitled – to further immigration benefits.”

Paxton argues that the order violates an agreement between DHS and Texas and asks the court to declare the directives in the memo unlawful and block them from being executed.

“This unlawful reversal will cause Texas immediate and irreparable harm if it is not enjoined,” the lawsuit claims.

“In one of its first of dozens of steps that harm Texas and the nation as a whole, the Biden administration directed DHS to violate federal immigration law and breach an agreement to consult and cooperate with Texas on that law. Our state defends the largest section of the southern border in the nation. Failure to properly enforce the law will directly and immediately endanger our citizens and law enforcement personnel,” Paxton said in a statement.

“DHS itself has previously acknowledged that such a freeze on deportations will cause concrete injuries to Texas. I am confident that these unlawful and perilous actions cannot stand.”

In response to the deportation plan, Gov. Greg Abbott said, “Biden is trying to halt deportations of illegal aliens who already have a final order of removal from the U.S. This abandons the obligation to enforce federal immigration laws. Texas is fighting this attempt to grant blanket amnesty.”

(The Center Square) – Just days after former President Donald Trump declared Jan. 22 as National Sanctity of Human Life Day, newly sworn-in President Joe Biden disregarded the designation and pledged to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law to prevent any changes that might occur if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to codifying Roe v. Wade and appointing judges that respect foundational precedents like Roe,” a statement put out by the White House states.

Just days before, Trump’s proclamation declared that the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision was a “constitutionally flawed ruling [that] overturned State laws that banned abortion, and has resulted in the loss of more than 50 million innocent lives. … Because of the devotion of countless pro-life pioneers, the call for every person to recognize the sanctity of life is resounding more loudly in America than ever before. Over the last decade, the rate of abortions has steadily decreased, and today, more than three out of every four Americans support restrictions on abortion.”

But according to the Biden administration, “In the past four years, reproductive health, including the right to choose, has been under relentless and extreme attack.”

On Jan. 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas statute banning abortion, effectively legalizing abortion nationwide. The court held that a woman’s right to an abortion was implicit in the right to privacy protected by the 14th Amendment. Prior to Roe v. Wade, abortion had been illegal nationwide since the late 19th century.

Former President Ronald Reagan declared the first National Sanctity of Human Life Day on Jan. 13, 1984. It was continued under both Bush presidencies and discontinued for eight years each under presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Trump was the only president to attend and speak at a March for Life Rally in Washington, D.C.

In response to Trump’s proclamation, Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, said, “President Trump has been a champion in seeking to protect unborn children. We are grateful for his dedication to the right to life and the work his administration has done on behalf of the most vulnerable among us.”

The Biden administration also plans to reverse Trump policies that prevented taxpayer dollars from funding Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.

In 2019 alone, Planned Parenthood lost $60 million after it withdrew from the Title X Family Planning Program, which had previously used taxpayer funds for contraceptive services for low-income individuals. The Trump administration changed the policy to exclude any organization that offers abortion services, resulting in Planned Parenthood withdrawing from the program.

Last year, Planned Parenthood spent more than $27.4 million through a super PAC to support Biden’s election. Alexis McGill Johnson, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said the fund will work "in partnership with the Biden-Harris administration and the pro-reproductive health care majority in Congress” to “not only reverse the attacks of the past four years, but boldly expand sexual and reproductive health care and rights for all people in the U.S. and across the globe.”

The fund supports the Biden administration's priority to institute taxpayer funding of abortions in the United States and abroad, as well as reversing the funding restrictions the Trump administration instituted on the global Family Planning Program. It has also recommended nearly 200 staffers for key positions in the administration.

Biden’s plan to codify abortion is consistent with Democrats’ efforts in May 2019 when they introduced the Women’s Health Protection Act in Congress.

The bill “guarantees a pregnant person’s right to access an abortion – and the right of an abortion provider to deliver these abortion services – free from medically unnecessary restrictions that interfere with a patient’s individual choice or the provider-patient relationship.”

Cosponsors included Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and then-Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.

The growth domestic product of Wisconsin dropped 2.9% between the third quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2020, the 26th best economic performance among the 50 states, according to a new ranking by the website 24/7 Wall St.

Nationwide, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. economic output declined 2.8% over that same time period, and only three states saw their economies expand, 24/7 Wall St. reported.

In Wisconsin, the fastest-growing industries during the period were agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, while arts, entertainment and recreation were judged the fastest-shrinking industries, according to the analysis. The November unemployment rate in the state came in at 5%.

The states in the worst economic shape as the coronavirus pandemic wore on tended to rely heavily on industries such as energy resource extraction, food services and accommodation, and the arts, entertainment and recreation sector, the study found.

As a result of the crisis, most states have lost tens of thousands of jobs and have seen their unemployment rates move upward, according to 24/7 Wall St.

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Which States Have Fared the Best During the COVID-19 Era?

RankState1-year GDP ChangeFastest-Growing IndustryFastest-Shrinking IndustryNovember 2020 Jobless Rate1Utah1.1%ConstructionArts, entertainment and recreation4.3%2Washington0.5%Agriculture, forestry, fishing and huntingArts, entertainment and recreation6.0%3Idaho0.1%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation4.8%4Arizona-0.1%Management of companiesArts, entertainment and recreation7.8%5Colorado-1.4%InformationArts, entertainment and recreation6.4%6Iowa-1.4%Agriculture, forestry, fishing and huntingArts, entertainment and recreation3.6%7South Dakota-1.5%Agriculture, forestry, fishing and huntingArts, entertainment and recreation3.5%8Georgia-1.7%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation5.7%9North Carolina-1.7%Finance and insuranceArts, entertainment and recreation6.2%10Arkansas-1.8%UtilitiesAccommodation and food services6.2%11Alabama-1.8%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation4.4%12Indiana-1.9%Agriculture, forestry, fishing and huntingArts, entertainment and recreation5.0%13Mississippi-1.9%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation6.4%14Oregon-1.9%Agriculture, forestry, fishing and huntingArts, entertainment and recreation6.0%15Maryland-1.9%Agriculture, forestry, fishing and huntingArts, entertainment and recreation6.8%16Kansas-1.9%Agriculture, forestry, fishing and huntingArts, entertainment and recreation5.6%17Florida-2.0%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation6.4%18Nebraska-2.0%Mining, quarrying, and oil and gasArts, entertainment and recreation3.1%19Virginia-2.0%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation4.9%20California-2.1%Agriculture, forestry, fishing and huntingArts, entertainment and recreation8.2%21Kentucky-2.6%UtilitiesMining, quarrying, and oil and gas5.6%22Delaware-2.7%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation5.1%23Missouri-2.7%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation4.4%24Minnesota-2.8%Agriculture, forestry, fishing and huntingArts, entertainment and recreation4.4%25Montana-2.8%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation4.9%26Wisconsin-2.9%Agriculture, forestry, fishing and huntingArts, entertainment and recreation5.0%27Rhode Island-2.9%Finance and insuranceArts, entertainment and recreation7.3%28Illinois-3.0%Agriculture, forestry, fishing and huntingArts, entertainment and recreation6.9%29South Carolina-3.1%Finance and insuranceArts, entertainment and recreation4.4%30Ohio-3.2%Agriculture, forestry, fishing and huntingArts, entertainment and recreation5.7%31Connecticut-3.3%InformationArts, entertainment and recreation8.2%32Massachusetts-3.3%Agriculture, forestry, fishing and huntingArts, entertainment and recreation6.7%33Maine-3.4%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation5.0%34North Dakota-3.4%Agriculture, forestry, fishing and huntingArts, entertainment and recreation4.5%35Texas-3.4%Finance and insuranceArts, entertainment and recreation8.1%36New Jersey-3.5%InformationArts, entertainment and recreation10.2%37New Hampshire-3.6%Finance and insuranceArts, entertainment and recreation3.8%38Nevada-3.7%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation10.1%39New Mexico-3.7%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation7.5%40Pennsylvania-3.9%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation6.6%41Vermont-4.3%Management of companiesArts, entertainment and recreation3.1%42Tennessee-4.3%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation5.3%43Michigan-4.4%Agriculture, forestry, fishing and huntingArts, entertainment and recreation6.9%44Alaska-4.9%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation8.1%45Louisiana-5.0%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation8.3%46West Virginia-5.0%UtilitiesAccommodation and food services6.2%47New York-5.8%InformationArts, entertainment and recreation8.4%48Oklahoma-6.3%Management of companiesMining, quarrying, and oil and gas5.9%49Wyoming-7.9%UtilitiesAgriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting5.1%50Hawaii-8.2%UtilitiesArts, entertainment and recreation10.1%

Source: 24/7 Wall St.

(The Center Square) – The Ute Indian Tribe of the Uinta and Ouray Reservation in Utah sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) this week asking for the agency’s recent order that temporarily halts leases and permits for energy development on federal land to be “withdrawn or amended.”

Luke Duncan, the tribe’s chairman, sent the letter on Thursday asking the DOI to amend its order “to provide an exception for energy permits and approvals on Indian lands.”

“The Ute Indian Tribe and other energy producing tribes rely on energy development to fund our governments and provide services to our members,” said the letter, which was obtained by The Center Square.

The letter comes after Acting Interior Secretary Scott de la Vega signed an order Wednesday that halts approvals of new federal land leases and drilling permits for 60 days.

The order was among other moves President Joe Biden made in the first days of his presidency to reinstate stricter environmental regulations that were rolled back under the Trump administration. Biden revoked the Keystone XL pipeline’s permit and rejoined the Paris Climate Accord, among other executive orders he signed this week.

The DOI’s order says it “continues its existing operations – including operations necessary for health, safety, and national security matters – consistent with all legal obligations and policy goals to uphold trust and treaty responsibility to tribal nations.”

Duncan, however, says in the letter that the order “is a direct attack on our economy, sovereignty, and our right to self-determination,” and alleges it violates the U.S.’ treaty with the tribe, which has 2,970 members.

“Indian lands are not federal public lands,” he added. “Any action on our lands and interests can only be taken after effective tribal consultation.”

“The Order must be withdrawn or amended to comply with Federal law and policies,” the letter said.

DOI did not respond to a request for comment on whether it would amend or rescind the order.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and the state’s congressional delegation also criticized the Biden administration in a statement, calling the order “a serious mistake that will harm” small businesses in the state that are struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Although it is routine for an incoming administration to pause high-level agency decisions while agency leaders get into place, such a widespread suspension of routine permitting decisions normally made in the field is unprecedented,” read the statement.

Utah Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney, Utah Reps. John Curtis, Blake Moore, Chris Stewart and Burgess Owens, state Senate President Stuart Adams, state House Speaker Brad Wilson and Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes were all part of the joint statement.

"The economic impacts of this decision will be felt nation-wide and couldn’t come at a worse time for Utah’s rural communities, tribes, and small businesses,” the statement continued. “Our energy industry is among the hardest hit by the pandemic. Utahns previously employed in the energy sector have lost their jobs in historic numbers. This decision only exacerbates the problem.”

Utah is estimated to lose a total of $1.5 billion in oil and gas tax revenues by 2040 from a lease moratorium on federal land, according to a report commissioned by the Wyoming Legislature.

If there is any possibility of finding common ground and restoring civic health in our dangerously divided nation today, we must begin talking to one another again.

If we cannot do this, there is no American future.

The Father of the Constitution, James Madison, knew well that men were not angels. It is because we are not angels – because we possess both the potential for depravity and for virtue – that government is necessary, and good government is possible.

The age-old problem of injustice and faction, Madison taught, stems from the selfishness and prejudices that too often take up space in our hearts and minds. They are forms of narrow self-interest and irrational bias that cause conflict, division, volatility, and rancor within the political community.

But rather than attempt to remove these causes of faction from man’s nature (which could mean destroying liberty), or force people to think and feel the same way (an impossibility), Madison argued that we should control the effects of faction by establishing representative democratic government over a large territory, thereby encompassing a greater number and diversity of interests and views. In this new, extended republican system, narrow interests and biased views can be weeded out over time and through the layered processes required to achieve a majority opinion.

The American constitutional system Madison helped construct was not meant to shut down communication, but rather to encourage debate and deliberation, and ultimately consensus. It was intended to refine and enlarge public views, resulting in a just and reasonable public opinion.

In other words, Madison emphatically rejected what today is called “cancel culture,” the suppression of opinions that one doesn’t like. Even if you think someone’s views are false, bigoted, pernicious, or politically dangerous, Madison counseled taking great caution before considering censorship or making accusations of sedition. Facts are slippery things, he noted, for “opinions, and inferences, and conjectural observations, are . . . in many cases inseparable from the facts.”

For Madison, the fulcrum of the American constitutional system was the free communication of opinions among citizens, the suppression of which should be viewed with universal alarm, for such acts in time will “destroy our free system of government, or prepare a convulsion that might prove equally fatal to it.”

In a word, it is critically important that we allow the expression and exchange of ideas to play out freely. This is not only how liberty is preserved but also how people learn to refine and broaden their views. It is how we live and govern together and build a healthy and vibrant political community.

The effort to force people into agreement by silencing them is precisely the tactic utilized by despots to prevent subversion and maintain power. Thwarting communication is the stratagem of tyrants, whether they be public officials or leaders in private industry, CEOs of big tech companies or university deans and provosts.

Those of us – on both sides of the political spectrum – worried about the future of America and whether the chasm separating us politically can ever be bridged do not have the luxury of digging our heels in too deeply. We are in the midst of a crisis of civic trust, and our first order of business must be to squelch the urge to “cancel” our fellow Americans who have different views. Instead, we must engage with them in the public discourse necessary to save our nation.

Like Madison, Abraham Lincoln also understood that men are not angels. He, too, understood his task as a statesman to be that of combatting civic prejudice and leading and uniting public opinion on the basis of a just regard for the rights of all people.

“In your hands . . . and not in mine,” Lincoln told his “dissatisfied countrymen,” was the decision of the nation’s future. Then as now, the country was split into two camps that not only disagreed but distrusted and loathed each other. “We must not be enemies,” Lincoln pleaded. Passions and prejudice had surely strained, but they must not break the bonds of affection that unite us, he counseled.

Now, as then, it is worth remembering the “mystic chords” of our shared civic past, stretching from Valley Forge to every living heart and home in our land today, with hope that they might be made to resonate, one more time, if touched by “the better angels of our nature.”

(The Center Square) – President Joe Biden revoked the Keystone XL pipeline’s federal permit, a move that an economist says could have far-reaching and hidden unintended consequences.

The revocation suspended the 1,200-mile pipeline project, which, if finished, was projected to carry approximately 800,000-barrels of oil per day through Canada and the United States.

Keystone XL President Richard Prior said more than 1,000 jobs, mostly unionized, will be eliminated.

“We will begin a safe and orderly shut-down of construction at our U.S. pump station sites and we will conclude the Canadian pipeline scope in the coming weeks,” Prior said in a statement.

Gary Wolfram, an economics and public policy professor at Hillsdale College, told The Center Square that the cancellation will increase prices of fuel and petroleum derivatives.

“The halting of the Keystone pipeline is going to increase the cost of natural gas and oil ... that will result in less output,” Wolfram said in a phone interview. “So the question is, what’s the opportunity cost of stopping the pipeline?”

Oil doesn’t just fuel cars, Wolfram said. Petrochemical products range from generating heat, electricity, inputs in plastics, synthetic materials and asphalt, personal protective equipment, COVID-19 vaccine vials, and even timed-release capsules in aspirin.

Blocking the pipeline will increase prices for all of the above, Wolfram warned.

Wolfram said blocking the pipeline won’t necessarily stop oil transportation — it’ll just be shifted to more costly and less efficient methods, like by rail or truck, that could lead to higher emission output relative to using the Keystone pipeline.

Assume transportation of the same amount of oil.

For example, an 84-car train will carry 60,000 barrels of oil, Wolfram said. So it would take 1,000 train cars to haul the same amount of oil that the pipeline would deliver in one day.

A 2013 Manhattan Institute report found that pipeline transportation of oil is safer than road or rail.

Additionally, TC Energy had already pledged to eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

But Minnesota lawmakers DFL Reps. Jamie Becker-Finn, of Roseville and Heather Keeler of Moorhead, and at least 14 other DFL members called the announcement “great news” for the environment, indigenous people, and landowners along the route.

“Like Keystone, Line 3 and Dakota Access would endanger our valuable water resources, cause irrevocable harm to our climate, and have been pushed forward despite opposition from impacted tribal communities," the lawmakers said in a statement.

"As a state and nation, we must strive for a green energy future and make decisive steps to address the harm to our environment perpetuated by the fossil fuel industry.”

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said the order will affect 8,000 union jobs and members' retirement and health benefits, and they “strongly oppose” the decision.

"This executive order doesn't just affect U.S. Teamsters; it hurts our Canadian brothers and sisters as well who work on this project,” Hoffa said in a statement. “It will reduce good-paying union jobs that allow workers to provide a middle-class standard of living to their families. America needs access to various forms of energy that can keep its economy running in the years ahead. This decision will hurt that effort.”

Thomas Pyle, the president of the American Energy Alliance, said in a statement the move further divided the nation.

“My mother taught me to judge people by their actions, not their words.... President Biden read a nice speech calling for unity then immediately signed a flurry of executive actions that thumbed his nose at half of the country and squarely took aim at affordable energy, the families that benefit from it, and the American workers who produce it.”

“The Keystone pipeline is nearly completely built and an important link for North America’s economic security. The decision today to rescind the permit makes it crystal clear that Mr. Biden stands with the extreme green lobby and not average Americans.”

(The Center Square) – The pressure for lawmakers to cancel Gov. Tony Evers’ coronavirus emergency order is growing.

Twenty-seven Republican senators and representatives in Madison on Friday signed a resolution tp overturn the governor's order to keep coronavirus restrictions in place until mid-March.

“Given that legislative oversight is vital to ensuring the governor's proper exercise of the emergency powers granted by section 323.12 of the statutes, legislative oversight is rendered useless if the governor ignores the temporal limitations on the emergency powers by continuously reissuing emergency declarations for the same emergency,” the resolution states.

Wisconsin law allows the legislature to overturn a governor’s emergency order by resolution. The Wisconsin Senate has placed the resolution on its calendar for next Tuesday.

Gov. Evers on Friday side-stepped questions about his ability to continue the emergency order, or even if it is necessary given Wisconsin’s falling coronavirus numbers. Instead the governor said coronavirus restrictions, and the state’s mask mandate are popular.

“You’ll recall the last time the MU Law Poll asked about support for face coverings in October 2020: ‘In October, 72% agree that masks should be required in public places, while 26% disagree with requiring masks. In August, 69% supported a mask requirement and 29% were opposed,’,” the governor’s office said in a statement. “‘Support for a mask requirement exceeds 60% in all regions of the state.’.”

The governor added: “Ending the public health emergency would eliminate one of the few tools left the state has to mitigate the spread of the virus that is killing our friends, families, and fellow Wisconsinites while we work to distribute the vaccine across our state.”

But the Republican lawmakers say the issue is not the popularity of a mask requirement or other coronavirus restrictions, rather the governor’s abuse of power.

New Republican Senator Julian Bradley, R-Franklin, called the governor’s emergency order ”unconstitutional.”

Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly agreed.

“Regardless of political persuasion, everyone should be greatly troubled by a governor who steadfastly refuses to recognize limits on his authority,” Justice Kelly told The Center Square. “Instead of gracefully recognizing the limits placed on him by the law, Gov. Evers has issued a string of executive orders, each declaring the same emergency over and over again, as if they were incantations for bringing expired powers back to life. His executive orders are nothing but camouflage for straight-up power grabs.”

This is not the first time Republicans have called to override Gov. Evers’ emergency orders, but it is the first time their call has been placed on the legislative calendar for a vote.

(The Center Square) – Texas plans to sue the Biden administration over several executive orders recently issued, and immigration policy is front and center.

“A new crop of Texas-led lawsuits awaits Joe Biden's White House,” Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted. “Texas will take action whenever the federal government encroaches on state's rights, or interferes with constitutional rights, or private property rights or the right to earn a living.”

Texas, along with California, leads the states in the number of times it has sued the federal government. Arguing against federal government overreach and in favor of the Tenth Amendment, Texas’ legal actions have ranged from suing the federal government over the Affordable Care Act, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), the Clean Power Plan, and many other issues. Now immigration is policy is the target.

Attorney General Ken Paxton said the state will sue the Biden administration after the Department of Homeland Security announced it was implementing an “illegal deportation freeze” for 100 days.

The agency says the purpose of the freeze “will allow DHS to ensure that its resources are dedicated to responding to the most pressing challenges that the United States faces, including immediate operational challenges at the southwest border in the midst of the most serious global public health crisis in a century. Throughout this interim period, DHS will continue to enforce our immigration laws.”

Acting DHS Secretary David Pekoske in a memorandum ordered agencies reporting to DHS to “review immigration enforcement policies and set interim policies for civil enforcement.”

But Paxton replied in a letter, tweeting, “Border states like Texas pay a particularly high price when the federal government fails to faithfully execute our country’s immigration laws. I won’t tolerate unlawful acts from Joe Biden’s administration. Today, I am taking action.”

Paxton argues the administration is obligated to consult with Texas before reducing immigration enforcement measures.

“DHS’s failure to provide Texas with pre-implementation notice of the memorandum – combined with its quick implementation of the memorandum – makes waiting impracticable. We require an immediate response or we will seek relief to enjoin your order, as contemplated by the Agreement,” Paxton writes.

The DHS memo states that deportations will continue under certain circumstances, including deporting those who pose a national security threat, those who have been convicted of an aggravated felony, who have been released from prison and are determined to be a security threat, and anyone who illegally entered the United States after Nov. 1.

“Due to limited resources, DHS cannot respond to all immigration violations or remove all persons unlawfully in the United States,” Pekoske states in the memo. “DHS must implement civil immigration enforcement based on sensible priorities and changing circumstances. DHS’s civil immigration enforcement priorities are protecting national security, border security, and public safety.”

Biden’s new immigration proposal, among other measures, offers an eight-year path to citizenship for roughly 11 million undocumented individuals living in the U.S.

Abbott tweeted in support of Paxton, saying, “Biden is trying to halt deportations of illegal aliens who already have a final order of removal from the U.S. This abandons the obligation to enforce federal immigration laws. Texas is fighting this attempt to grant blanket amnesty.”

In response to Biden’s plan, Lora Ries and Hans von Spakovsky, Heritage Foundation senior legal fellows, said in a statement, “No president has the power to override existing immigration law and establish a general administrative amnesty for illegal immigrants, even providing them with government benefits. Pursuing a legislative amnesty, however, is not only unnecessary but unwise. It would make our southern border less secure, cause even more foreigners to overstay their visas, and act as an incentive to attract even more illegal immigrants to the country.”