Monthly Archives: May, 2023

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent an SOS to his fellow 49 governors Tuesday asking for help to secure the state's 1,254-mile-border with Mexico.

Abbott sent a letter to every governor of every U.S. state asking for their help after the public health authority Title 42 ended on May 12 and roughly 150,000 people are estimated to be congregated on the Mexican side approaching to enter the U.S. illegally.

Groups of tens of thousands have already arrived in the Rio Grande Valley and other areas of Texas, overwhelming Border Patrol agents. Gov. Abbott already has sent more than 10,000 Texas National Guard troops as border communities continue to declare emergencies.

The call for help comes after at least 125 known, suspected terrorists have been apprehended illegally entering the southern border this fiscal year and as the former ICE chief argues Biden administration policies are the greatest national security threat since 9/11.

While the Biden administration has sent 1,500 military personnel to help Border Patrol agents process illegal foreign nationals into the U.S., they aren’t acting in a law enforcement capacity.

“Since taking office, President Biden has willfully refused to enforce our nation’s immigration laws while systematically dismantling every effective border security policy that previously led to the lowest number of illegal border crossings in decades,” Abbott wrote the governors. “The resultant surge in illegal immigration and transnational criminal activity is a direct consequence of these misguided actions.

“The flood of illegal border activity invited by the Biden Administration flows directly across the southern border into Texas communities, but this crisis does not stop in our state,” Abbott wrote. “Emboldened Mexican drug cartels and other transnational criminal enterprises profit off this chaos, smuggling people and dangerous drugs like fentanyl into communities nationwide.

“In the federal government’s absence, we, as Governors, must band together to combat President Biden’s ongoing border crisis and ensure the safety and security that all Americans deserve.”

Referring to an Emergency Management Assistance Compact, he said the states are empowered to provide assistance to each other “in times of disaster or emergency, both of which accurately describe the current border crisis.

“Join us in the mission to defend our national sovereignty and territorial integrity and send all available law enforcement personnel and resources to the Texas-Mexico border to serve alongside our thousands of Texas National Guard soldiers and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers,” Abbott urged his fellow governors.

He also explained that the Texas legislature first allocated $4.5 billion on border security operations from 2021-2023 through Operation Lone Star. The current budget is allocating an additional $4.6 billion over the next two years. Texas also began building its own border wall using hundreds of millions of Texas taxpayer dollars and private donations totaling over $55 million so far.

Since March 2021, Operation Lone Star officers have apprehended more than 376,000 illegal foreign nationals and made over 28,000 criminal arrests, with over 25,000 felony charges reported. They’ve also seized more than 416 million lethal doses of fentanyl, enough to kill more than the entire U.S. population.

“Texas alone should not have to shoulder the financial burden of protecting our nation," Abbott wrote.

He also thanked the governors of Idaho and Florida for already committing to send assistance to secure the Texas-Mexico border.

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(The Center Square) – Apprenticeship programs across Wisconsin are on the rise, as companies fiercely compete for talent in the post-pandemic era.

Wisconsin Apprenticeship Deputy Director Liz Pusch pointed to an ongoing surge in business engagement with the state Department of Workforce Development (DWD), adding that more students and even college-educated workers now view the program as an avenue toward better job opportunities.

“Our average age of a registered apprentice is 28 years old,” Pusch shared during a recent speech at the Madison Region’s Economic Development and Diversity Summit hosted by the Madison Region Economic Partnership and the Urban League of Greater Madison, according to WisBusiness.com. “So people are starting in their career route, and then they’re figuring out, ‘This is not what I want to do.’”

In April, DWD announced a new record-high 8,357 high school junior and senior students were taking part in the Youth Apprenticeship programs during the 2022-23 school year, and just weeks before then state officials highlighted that a record 15,900 apprentices took part in the Registered Apprenticeship program last year. While many of the programs typically train workers for a specific occupation, the youth program is structured to open participants to a growing list of career choices.

“Employers are starting to see some increased retention because you’re making and building this bond with the workers,” said Seth Lentz, executive director of the Workforce Development Board of South Central Wisconsin, adding that more businesses are starting to internalize the long-term advantages of investing in their own workers’ skills.

Americans’ views of the housing market have plunged as interest rates continue to rise because of government-fueled inflation.

Gallup released new polling data showing that only 21% of Americans say now is a good time to buy a house, down 9 percentage points from the previous year. This year and last year during the Biden administration are the only times that fewer than half of Americans said it was a good time to buy a house since Gallup began asking in 1978.

Even during the housing market crash of 2008, numbers did not drop nearly as low as they are in this latest survey.

“Gallup first asked Americans about their perceptions of the housing market in 1978, when 53% thought it was a good time to buy a house,” the group said. “Thirteen years later, when the question was asked again, 67% held that view. The record high of 81% was recorded in 2003, at a time of growing homeownership rates and housing prices.”

The change in perspective comes as the Federal Reserve has hiked interest rates nearly a dozen times during the Biden administration, making borrowing money to buy a home far more expensive.

The problem is further complicated by the fact that millions of Americans currently have mortgages with an interest rate below 3%, pushing many to decide now is not the time to sell their house and lose that lower rate.

“In the past two years, as housing prices have soared and the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates to try to tame inflation, houses have become less affordable for many Americans, and views of the housing market have tumbled,” Gallup said.

The higher inflation rates are driven in large part by a surge in the money supply and federal debt spending to the tune of several trillion dollars in recent years.

The federal government also recently enacted controversial policies to punish home buyers with good credit and help those with poor credit, akin to policies enacted ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, fueling fears first sparked by several bank collapses earlier this year.

All these factors have helped to contribute to Americans’ banking fears hitting the worst point since the 2008 financial crisis. Gallup released the survey data earlier this month, which showed that 19% are “very” worried about the safety of their funds in banks and another 29% are “moderately” worried.

The survey shows nearly half of Americans are concerned about the safety of their money in banks, a figure that is reminiscent of the 2008 financial crisis.

“The latest readings are similar to those in 2008,” Gallup said. “In September of that year, shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which remains the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history, 45% of U.S. adults said they were very or moderately worried about the safety of their money. Several months later, in December, after Congress’ Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) bailed out other banks in danger of failing, Americans were slightly less concerned about the safety of their personal financial accounts, as 41% said they were very or moderately worried.”

(The Center Square) – University of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman said the “war for talent” is driving his vision for the school, which he says is necessitating both a tuition increase and a request for $200 million more in the next state budget.

Rothman told WisPolitics’ Newsmakers program that Wisconsin must do both in order to compete in that war.

“We’re not graduating enough people in the state right now to fill the jobs that are there,” Rothman said. “That war for talent is in this state. If we are not successful in graduating the number of people that this state needs, the state’s long term economy is going to suffer. Those jobs will leave the state.”

Rothman uses the “war for talent” to justify not only the recently approved tuition increase for students, but his request for an 8% budget increase over the next two years.

“We need more nurses, and engineers, and educators, and data scientists,” Rothman added. “So our budget request, which is 4% on the operating side in each year of the biennium, is really to address those needs. To build the capacity we need to educate students in those high-demand areas, as well as to attract them, get them enrolled, and get them graduated.”

Enrollment is an issue for Rothman and the University of Wisconsin. A Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported that enrollment declined nearly 10% between 2012 and 2021. The same report said four-year campus enrollment is down 5.7%, the lowest since 2000.

Rothman said enrollment is starting to bounce back after COVID, noting that last fall’s freshman class was the largest since 2018, and the new class for the fall of 2023 is even larger.

But Rothman also came back to his “war for talent” stock answer.

“All of the states around us are having more people go on to some form of higher education. That ought to be very concerning to the state of Wisconsin,” Rothman explained. “If we don’t [reverse that trend] Wisconsin is going to fall behind in the Midwest. But we’re not just competing in the Midwest. We are competing nationally, and we are competing globally.”

Rothman’s focus on the “war for talent” is so encompassing, that it’s his answer to questions about diversity, equity, and including concerns on UW campuses.

“I keep going back. We are in a war for talent,” Rothman again said. “We need to be as inclusive as we possibly can to get our students and prospective students interested in coming on to our campuses, and feeling they are included.”

Wisconsin’s Assembly Speaker, Robin Vos, this month hinted at withholding some state money from the UW System to push Rothman to rein-in DEI efforts on campuses.

Vos said he’d rather see the university spend its $13 million DEI budget on in-demand degree programs.

Rothman last week told lawmakers the UW System will no longer require DEI statements as part of the hiring process, which was welcome news to the Republican-controlled legislature.

It remains to be seen, however, just how much of a budget increase (if any) lawmakers will provide to the university system in the new budget.

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Instead of U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehending, detaining and deporting people who’ve illegally entered the U.S., they will be implementing a plan decided on last year to release them en masse into local border communities.

The public health authority Title 42, which has given Border Patrol agents an additional tool to deport certain individuals, was slated to end last May. On May 20, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana enjoined the repeal of Title 42 in a case filed by 24 states, issuing a nationwide injunction.

The federal court order was the only thing that stopped CBP from enacting its policy of releasing foreign nationals en masse into local border communities. The federal injunction imposed last May halted the administration from ending Title 42.

After President Joe Biden ended the national public emergency implemented under the Trump administration to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Title 42, which can only be utilized during a public health emergency, will expire Thursday (May 11).

While Fox News reported on Tuesday that CBP and Border Patrol made a decision Monday night to “authorize all Border Patrol sectors to begin ‘safe’ street releases of migrants to communities across the border *if* NGO shelters and CBP facilities do not have the capacity to hold them,” this isn’t a new plan.

It’s been a plan in place for over a year, which The Center Square first reported on last September. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody uncovered the plan as part of discovery in a lawsuit Florida filed against the administration over its “catch and release” policy.

Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez also told local Texas law enforcement last December she was working with local municipalities to learn where foreign nationals should be released into their communities when shelters, NGOs and nonprofits assisting them were at capacity. A recording of her remarks was provided to The Center Square, which broke this story ahead of her giving testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability in February.

In a May 19, 2022, memo, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz instructed Border Patrol agents to release “processed noncitizens in the vicinity of nongovernmental organizations” and coordinate with NGOs in advance as to the specific locations where they’d be released, “paying particular attention to the availability of services and transportation options.”

“If safe locations are not available” to release illegal foreign nationals, instead of processing them for removal, Ortiz said agents would “engage with nearby cities and local governments to identify alternate safe locations for release.”

Foreign nationals were also instructed to be released into the U.S. in a “safe, humane and orderly manner,” not “late at night in an unpopulated area or in circumstances in which the individual would face a known safety risk.”

On Dec. 20, 2022, Chavez told local law enforcement that she was coordinating with local mayors and NGOs to move people into the U.S., saying the NGOs “are phenomenal.” She was learning of “particular areas they [mayors, local officials] want us to drop them off at.”

Many Texas border counties first issued declarations of disaster in early 2021 after their communities were inundated with people committing crimes and burdening local taxpayers with services they didn’t have the resources to provide – including thousands infected with COVID-19 who were released into local communities even while Title 42 was in place.

By July 5, 2022, the first county judge and later judges and commissioners of over 40 Texas counties declared an invasion, arguing Mexican cartels are bringing in drugs, terrorists and criminals through the southern border using “migrant warfare” and “nonconventional warfare” to do it. The amount of fentanyl being seized by law enforcement in single vehicles over 100 miles from the border in Texas, Arizona and California is enough to kill entire populations of small cities and towns. The amount of fentanyl Texas Operation Lone Star officers have seized since March 2021 is enough to kill everyone in the United States.

More counties are likely to issue disaster and invasion declarations as the Biden administration continues to facilitate “legal pathways” for people from all over the world to illegally enter the United States. An estimated 13,000 are expected to arrive a day when Title 42 ends, officials have estimated, or roughly 4.6 million within a year.

(The Center Square) – The latest plan to limit the books on school library shelves in Wisconsin could lead to lawsuits over "obscene materials."

State Rep. Scott Allen, R-Waukesha, and Republican state Sen. Andre Jacque, R-DePere, are looking for support for their plans to ban material they deem obscene from school libraries, as well as allow parents to sue librarians if they break the law.

“LRB-0522 prohibits schools from using the tax-payer funded common school fund to purchase obscene materials. LRB-0423 removes the exemption for school employees to be held liable for displaying obscene material,” the two wrote on a note to possible co-sponsors in the state legislature.

Allen calls the pieces of legislation the Protect Childhood Innocence plans.

“When you look at the definition of obscene material in state statute, there is no reason for that type of material to be in our schools,” Allen said.

Wisconsin state law defines obscene material as something that describes or shows sexual conduct in an offensive way with no educational or literary value.

Allen said he got a complaint from a parent in his district about a “book in which characters describe how to perform oral sex.”

“Since the pandemic, parents have been paying more attention to what material their students are encountering at school,” Allen added. “There is a demand to ensure that students are not encountering sexually explicit material in school.”

There are worries that allowing parents to sue will lead to a flood of lawsuits against school districts or individual teachers or librarians.

But Allen said state law requires both local prosecutors and the Wisconsin Attorney General’s Office to sign-off on any possible lawsuits.

He said he’s not worried about, or looking for, lawsuits. He, instead, said he wants to make sure kids aren’t exposed to graphic sexual content while in school.

“Schools that are focused on teaching students have nothing to fear from this legislation,” Allen said. “Accountability is important, and these bills create healthy accountability for schools.”

The two bills are out for co-sponsorship, and have not yet been assigned a hearing date.

It is highly unlikely that either plan would ever become law. Gov. Evers is expected to veto both bills if they ever make it to his desk.

Members of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability said Wednesday the panel uncovered evidence of influence peddling and financial deception by the Biden family, claims the White House said lack merit.

"Many of the wire payments occurred while Joe Biden was vice president and leading the United States' efforts in these countries," House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said at a news conference Wednesday.

He said the payments show "a pattern of influence peddling."

The committee's memorandum said the Bidens and their business associates formed a series of companies, the majority of which were created while Joe Biden was the vice president. The memo said the Biden family, their associates and their businesses were paid more than $10 million by foreign companies, including companies in China and Romania.

"The committee has identified over 20 companies affiliated with certain Biden family members and their business associates, formed mostly in Delaware and Washington, D.C," according to the memo. "The services provided by some of these companies, the purpose for creating such a complicated corporate structure, and whether ethics/financial disclosure laws should require a public official to publicly disclose the identities of such companies remain under scrutiny by the committee."

The committee wants to change government ethics and disclosure laws to provide transparency regarding presidents and vice presidents immediate family members’ income, assets and financial relationships, the memo said.

Existing financial disclosure laws and regulations don't require non-dependent family members of senior elected officials to provide any information to the public. The committee plans to write legislation that would change reporting requirements related to some foreign transactions involving senior elected officials’ family members and financial disclosure requirements that show ownership of corporate entities, according to the memo.

The White House has dismissed the claims as baseless.

"They're really just microwaving old debunked stuff," White House spokesman for oversight and investigations Ian Sams said on Twitter.

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The U.S. Department of Transportation said Monday it will launch a new rulemaking process to require airlines provide compensation and cover expenses for stranded passengers.

"When an airline causes a flight cancellation or delay, passengers should not foot the bill," U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. "This rule would, for the first time in U.S. history, propose to require airlines to compensate passengers and cover expenses such as meals, hotels, and rebooking in cases where the airline has caused a cancellation or significant delay."

The rulemaking will address compensation for passengers when there is a controllable airline cancellation or significant delay; a meal or meal voucher, overnight accommodations, ground transportation to and from the hotel, and rebooking for controllable delays or cancellations; timely customer service during and after periods of widespread flight irregularities; and it will define what constitutes a controllable cancellation or delay.

The 10 largest airlines guarantee meals and free rebooking. Nine guarantee hotel accommodations. One guarantees frequent flyer miles and two airlines guarantee travel credits or vouchers in the case of significant delays or cancellations caused by something within the airline’s control, such as a mechanical issue. No airline guarantees cash compensation when an airline issue causes the significant delay or cancellation.

The department's planned rulemaking process would make passenger compensation and amenities mandatory.

Airlines for America, a lobbying group for airlines, said its members plan to work with the government "to ensure U.S. airspace remains the safest airspace in the world while supporting robust marketplace competition that provides transparency and vast options for consumers."

"U.S. airlines have no incentive to delay or cancel a flight and do everything in their control to ensure flights depart and arrive on time – but safety is always the top priority," Airlines for America said in a statement. "We have the safest air travel system in the world because we never compromise on safety."

The group said weather is a major cause of disruptions. It said that in 2022, more than half of flight cancellations were due to extreme weather.

"Thus far in 2023, the majority of flight cancellations have been because of ATC outages and severe weather," the group said. "Carriers have taken responsibility for challenges within their control and continue working diligently to improve operational reliability. This includes launching aggressive, successful hiring campaigns for positions across the industry and reducing schedules in response to the FAA’s staffing shortages. In 2022, carriers reduced their schedules by about 15% to alleviate pressure on the National Airspace System (NAS), and U.S. airlines are currently accommodating record demand while operating 10% fewer flights than in 2019 to reduce pressure on the system."

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(The Center Square) – The focus at the Wisconsin Capitol has, so far, been on sending more money to local governments across the state. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says that’s going to change.

Vos on Friday told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber that Republicans are working on a plan to use about $3 billion of Wisconsin’s record $7 billion surplus on tax cuts.

“My colleagues right now are working on a plan that we’ll announce probably after Memorial Day, which will focus on giving tax relief to everyone in Wisconsin who actually pays taxes,” Vos said. “If you work right now, you’re going to see a reduction in the amount of taxes that you pay. Plain and simple.”

Vos didn’t say just how much less people can expect to pay in taxes.

“Senator Le Mahieu has been out there fishing very hard for a flat tax, which I support. That is the ultimate goal, so hopefully the system will be flatter,” Vos said. “I don’t think it’s likely we’ll get a flat tax, given where Governor Evers is. But that is certainly one of the goals we are striving for. And we’ll probably have some version of flattening in the income tax proposal that we bring forward.”

Le Mahieu, the Senate majority leader, has been pushing for months to lower Wisconsin’s progressive income tax to a flat 3.25% income tax. Evers has promised to veto any kind of flat tax.

The governor has called the flat tax “a tax cut for millionaires.”

Vos on Friday said the governor would rather raise taxes on most people in the state, and call it a tax cut for others.

“What the Democrats want to do is tax the people who are hard working, and reward those who, perhaps, aren’t working through a made-up tax cut,” Vos said. “That is not what our plan is going to be.”

As for the shared revenue plan that Evers threatened to veto on Thursday, Vos said Republicans in the Legislature are willing to make some changes, but he said they will not make the changes that the governor wants.

“We’re not going to break,” Vos said. “He’s not going to bully people into his position of saying we’re going to have a massive spending increase.”

The federal government is directing U.S. Border Patrol agents to release foreign nationals into the U.S. with “Notice to Appear/Warrant to Appear” forms for immigration court in 2026.

The Center Square obtained documents provided in a packet to foreign nationals who were processed by Border Patrol agents in Brownsville, Texas, were released and later apprehended in Jackson County, 260 miles north. Highway 59 is a major human smuggling route where an Operation Lone Star Task Force is operating to interdict criminals, state officials say.

Jackson County Sheriff Kelly Janica and his deputies are key players in the task force who’ve been involved in a range of interdiction activities, from seizing stolen cars, to apprehending smugglers, to arresting other perpetrators and fugitives.

Biden administration policies have been “an unmitigated disaster,” Janica argues, but now the “federal government is involved in legalized smuggling,” he told The Center Square.

Janica contacted The Center Square to describe a recent incident his deputy encountered.

On May 2, one of his deputies noticed a silver Toyota Tundra heading north on Highway 59 with five people sitting in the bed of the truck. The deputy pulled over the vehicle believing the group to be foreign nationals being smuggled north from the border.

According to his report, he observed “multiple Hispanic passengers in the bed of the truck and multiple Hispanic passengers in the cab.”

The driver, a 36-year-old man from Humble, said he was the son of a 63-year-old man sitting in the passenger seat to whom the vehicle was registered.

The deputy asked if all the occupants in the vehicle were in the U.S. legally and the driver said they were family members from Honduras who they picked up in Brownsville, Texas, and were driving to North Carolina.

All 11 being transported had Honduran identification cards or passports and were between the ages of 5 and 73, including four men and four women each, two boys, and one teenage girl. Three were minors, ages 5, 9 and 16.

They all had manila envelopes including “Notice to Appear/Warrant to Appear” papers, which are what Border Patrol agents give foreign nationals when they release them into the U.S.

The document states, “You are an arriving alien. The Department of Homeland Security alleges that you: 1. Are not a citizen or national of the United States; 2. You are a native of Honduras and citizen of Honduras; 3. On or about May 2, 2023, you applied for admission to the United States at a Brownsville, Texas, Port of Entry; 4. You are an immigrant not in possession of a valid unexpired immigrant visa, reentry permit, border crossing card or other valid entry document required by the Immigration and Naturalization Act.

“On the basis of the forgoing it is charged that you are subject to removal from the United States pursuant to” several federal laws listed.

They were all ordered to appear before an immigration judge at a court in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Oct. 15, 2026.

The deputy contacted Border Patrol to confirm their paperwork and was told they were apprehended on April 23 and had been released pending their immigration hearing in three years.

“Border Patrol advised they would not take them and they were free to go,” the deputy said.

Janica contacted The Center Square alarmed by what he says is the Biden administration “finding a way to get people into country under the auspices of a court proceeding in three years, moving people across the country to North Carolina.”

“They said they were all family members,” the sheriff said, but “we don’t believe that for one minute.”

Under normal circumstances, if federal law were being enforced, Janica said his deputy would have arrested the driver and front passenger and they would’ve been charged with human smuggling. The reason they couldn’t arrest them is because Border Patrol said they wouldn’t come and get them; a court date in 2026 was enough to release them, he said.

“We really don’t know where they’re going. That’s just a piece of paper the federal government gave them so they don’t have to come and get them,” he said.

Janica said law enforcement expects to see more of this after the public health authority Title 42 expires on May 11. They’ll be coming “on a party bus,” he told The Center Square, “and at our expense,” meaning the taxpayers’.

He also said the federal government is “preventing law enforcement from doing their jobs.”

In a previous stop, his deputies apprehended 22 people they believed were “illegal aliens but they each had brand new U.S. passports. They were heading to Florida. They were being driven by a Mexican national who was hired by a third party funded by U.S. government to drive the 17-passenger van,” Janica said.

His deputies called Border Patrol, who said the 22 people had been apprehended and released a few days before his deputies stopped them. Border Patrol said, “they were good to go. There was nothing we could do, we had to release them.”

“How were they American citizens if they’d just come across the border?” he asked. “How did they get brand new passports?”

“It takes my residents 6 to 10 weeks to get a passport. How did they get a passport in two days? Something’s going on down there that the American people don’t know about.”

On Friday, May 5, 2023, at approximately 11:00 p.m., Milwaukee Police officers were in the area of the 1200 block of S. Cesar Chávez...

The Milwaukee Police Department is investigating a fatal shooting that occurred on 05/05/23 at about 8:30pm in the 6600 block of W. Villard. The 16 year old male victim was conveyed to a local hospital and did succumb to his injuries. Police continue to seek unknown suspects. The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with any information is asked to contact Milwaukee Police at (414) 935-7360, or to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at (414)224-Tips/ or P3 Tips. Capt. Warren E. Allen Jr. Milwaukee Police Department Night Watch Commander 749 W. State Street Milwaukee, WI 53233 414-935-7313 The City of Milwaukee is subject to Wisconsin Statutes related to public records. Unless otherwise exempted from the public records law, senders and receivers of City of Milwaukee e-mail should presume that e-mail is subject to release upon request, and is subject to state records retention requirements. See City of Milwaukee full e-mail disclaimer at www.milwaukee.gov/email_disclaimer

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(The Center Square) – Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin are pushing a bill that would open the door for local hospitals to be fined by state regulators if they fail to comply with federal price transparency guidelines.

Sponsored by state Sen. Mary Felzkowski and Rep. Robert Brooks, the measure would also obligate state hospitals to post online standard costs for at least 300 services that can be scheduled in advance of the procedure being performed.

Violators to the proposed mandate would be subject to fines handed out by the Department of Health Services of as much as $10,000 per day, with the actual amounts being calculated based on the size of the hospital.

In seeking other co-sponsors for the bill, Felzkowski told reporters that the measure largely mirrors federal regulations already on the books. Along with Brooks, she added the bill would also help create competition across the industry, which ultimately could lead to lower prices for consumers.

With similar laws in Colorado and Texas already on the books, not everyone thinks such policy is needed in the Badger State.

Wisconsin Hospital Association President and CEO Eric Borgerding issued a statement to that effect, saying such a law would only serve to add to an already tangled web of regulations.

Republican lawmakers are asking questions about the Navy's decision to enlist an active-duty sailor and drag queen to recruit people through social media platforms such as TikTok.

Fourteen U.S. Senators sent a letter to Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro seeking more information about the Navy’s Digital Ambassador Pilot Program.

"While we understand the importance of social media for modern recruiting, we are concerned about both the promotion of a banned app and behavior that many deem inappropriate in a professional workplace," the letter said.

Fourteen Republican Senators asked for information about the program, including how much has been spent on it. They also sought data regarding the impact of the Navy’s Digital Ambassador Program and if the Navy paid influencers under the program.

The Senators further asked about the Navy's use of TikTok, an app owned and operated by ByteDance Limited, a private company based in Beijing, China. President Joe Biden signed the No TikTok on Government Devices Act in December 2022. The act required the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to develop standards and guidelines for agencies requiring the removal of TikTok from federal information technology, according to a White House memo.

"Does the Navy endorse drag shows? Where does the Navy draw the line on promotion of the personal activities of its influencers? Would the Navy enlist burlesque dancers or exotic dancers to reach possible recruits?," the Senators asked in the letter. "Such activity is not appropriate for promotion in a professional workplace or the United States military."

The letter sought a response by May 24.

U.S. Sens. Ted Budd, R-North Carolina, Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Marco Rubio, R-Florida, Mike Lee, R-Utah, Steve Daines, R-Montana, Rick Scott, R-Florida, Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, and Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, signed the letter.

(The Center Square) – A proposal from both inside and outside the Wisconsin Capitol would let people know how much they are paying for most health care and medical procedures before they go to the doctor.

Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R-Irma, on Wednesday introduced what she’s calling the Know Your Healthcare Cost Act.

“[The plan] requires hospitals to make publicly available a machine-readable digital file that contains a list of standard charges of certain services provided by the hospital. As well as a consumer-friendly list of standard charges for certain shoppable services” Felzkowski said.

The goal, Will Flanders with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty said, it to inject the free market into the health care market.

“Some say that the market has failed in health care, and the only solution is a nationalized system," Flanders told reporters at the Capitol. "But the truth is that a free market system has not existed in the health care industry in decades, thanks largely to the inaccessibility of information to empower consumers in their decision making. Price transparency is an important first step in altering this paradigm and restoring a sense of normalcy to our out of control health care costs.”

Flanders added that Wisconsin’s hospital costs are now fourth-highest nationally. Polls say 67% of Americans worry about unexpected medical bills, and 90% of people in Wisconsin support price transparency to better control their costs.

Felzkowski said the proposed Wisconsin law would mirror federal rules on price transparency but with what she hopes is a difference.

“Somebody put a really interesting book on my desk about two months ago, it’s called Stop Waiting for Washington. So that’s what we’ve decided to do in this state,” Felzkowski said. “I’ve been in this building for 10 years, and this was a conversation that was happening 10-years ago. And for 10 years we’ve seen no movement on helping our constituents with the high cost of health care.”

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, a large influential business association, and other Republican lawmakers also support the plan.

“Informed health care consumers create a competitive market,” Rachel Ver Velde of the association said Wednesday. “It is vitally important for employers and their employees to have access to transparent and easily understood medical cost data.”

Sen. Julian Bradley, R-Franklin, said there are, obviously, some medical procedures or treatments for which people won’t be able to shop. He said there are plenty of procedures that can be shopped.

“That’s what this bill does. It helps bring that transparency to light, it helps bring those costs to light,” Bradley said. “When we talk about shoppable services, we’re not talking about emergency services. We’re talking about things that can be scheduled, non-emergency services procedures that you can take the time to look forward to, to get scheduled, and to make the best decision for yourself.”

The U.S. Federal Reserve Board Wednesday announced another increase to the federal funds rate, inching the target range up to 5% to 5.25%, an increase of a quarter of a point.

Wednesday’s announcement is the tenth rate hike since March 2022.

“We are prepared to do more if greater monetary policy restraint is warranted,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a news conference after the announcement.

The Fed bases its decision largely on the health of the economy and whether the agency thinks it can withstand the economic pain of another rate hike.

“Economic activity expanded at a modest pace in the first quarter,” the group said. “Job gains have been robust in recent months, and the unemployment rate has remained low. Inflation remains elevated.”

The Feds' key interest rate was 1% to 1.25% just before the COVID-19 pandemic. In the middle of March 2020, the rate dropped to 0 to 0.25%. The federal government soon kicked off a several trillion dollar spending spree over the next two years in response to hardships during the pandemic, which were fueled in large part by aggressive lockdown policies.

Since that pandemic-era spending, inflation has soared, in particular affecting gas and food prices.

The banking sector has struggled in recent months with several bank collapses fueled in part by rate hikes. Experts fear another rate hike could worsen that situation, which is far from stabilized. The rate hike could increase fears that regional banks will go insolvent because they are less able to weather storms than bigger banks, potentially leading to a run on the depositors hoping to get their money out just in case.

The Federal Reserve board waved off those risks in its announcement.

“The U.S. banking system is sound and resilient,” the group said. “Tighter credit conditions for households and businesses are likely to weigh on economic activity, hiring, and inflation. The extent of these effects remains uncertain. The Committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks.”

Democrats raised concerns that the rate hikes amid a shaky banking environment could force an economic downturn that hurts Democrats in the next election.

"The Fed's extreme interest rate hikes risk triggering a recession, destroying jobs and crushing small businesses," U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote on Twitter.

Some were more optimistic.

“The remaining question is how much the regional bank crisis and credit crunch will slow the economy,” said Gina Bolvin, president of Bolvin Wealth Management Group. “Investors should remain cautiously optimistic. Evidently Powell thinks the economy is strong enough to continue to tighten.”

(The Center Square) – Attorney General Josh Kaul argued against a motion to dismiss his challenge to the state’s century-old abortion law on Thursday.

Kaul is suing the district attorneys in Sheboygan, Dane and Milwaukee counties – the only places where abortions in the state used to be performed – to block the enforcement of Wisconsin’s 1849 law that bans abortions in every case except to save a mother’s life.

“We’ve raised a few different legal arguments. Including the Black decision. That the logic of that opinion indicates the 1849 statute is not enforceable in cases involving consensual abortion,” Kaul said after appearing in court. “We’ve also argued that laws that were passed subsequent to Roe v. Wade fundamentally conflict with the 1849 ban. Both individual laws conflict, and the category of laws that regulate lawful abortion conflict with that statute.”

In the Black decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court wrote that Wisconsin’s law against killing an unborn baby “by its own terms it cannot apply to a mother.” But the opinion also said the use of Wisconsin’s abortion law to doctors who perform abortions “would be unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade.”

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe last year, and Wisconsin immediately reverted back to the 1849 law.

The district attorneys who are being sued are challenging whether Kaul has the legal standing to sue, since he is neither a doctor nor a mother who has been denied an abortion.

The judge in the case did not issue a ruling on the motion to dismiss.

Many in Wisconsin expect the 1849 law to eventually end-up before the to-be liberal-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Kaul, on Thursday, said that is likely. But it will also be a long time from now.

“The unfortunate reality, and I’ve said this since we filed the case, is that the legal process takes a while to play out,” Kaul said. “We filed this case almost a year ago now, and there are still going to be several steps in this case as it moves forward.”

Americans are worried about the safety of their money in the banking system after multiple banks have collapsed in recent weeks, according to a new poll.

Gallup released the survey data, which showed that 19% are “very” worried about the safety of their money in banks and another 29% are “moderately” worried.

That means about half of Americans are concerned about the safety of their personal funds in banks, numbers that are reminiscent of the 2008 financial crisis.

“The latest readings are similar to those in 2008,” Gallup said. “In September of that year, shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which remains the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history, 45% of U.S. adults said they were very or moderately worried about the safety of their money. Several months later, in December, after Congress’ Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) bailed out other banks in danger of failing, Americans were slightly less concerned about the safety of their personal financial accounts, as 41% said they were very or moderately worried.”

The poll was conducted April 3-25, after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed but before news broke about the failure of First Republic, which regulators took over and sold to JP Morgan earlier this week.

The concern varies by demographic and political affiliation.

“Whereas majorities of Republicans (55%) and independents (51%) say they are at least moderately worried, a 36% minority of Democrats are,” Gallup said. “Similarly, 54% of U.S. adults with no college degree are very or moderately worried, while 36% of college graduates are. About half of Americans with an annual household income under $100,000 express worry about their money, while 40% of those with higher incomes do.”

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