Author: Wisconsin Examiner

Wisconsin reviews Foxconn job audit to determine if company qualifies for portion of $3B in tax credits

Wisconsin reviews Foxconn job audit to determine if company qualifies for portion of $3B in tax credits

Posted by | Jul 31, 2020 |

Foxconn — and Wisconsin — are another step closer to learning whether the Taiwan-based company will qualify for a portion of the $3 billion in state tax credits that were part of the deal signed three years ago to bring the electronics manufacturer to Racine County. A formal audit of the company’s 2019 jobs report was released Wednesday, a week after being submitted to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. But the audit doesn’t evaluate whether the company has met conditions set in the contract that former Gov. Scott Walker and the state signed with Foxconn in 2017. That will...

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Local public schools are being deprived of vital federal funding while Wisconsin sues Betsy DeVos

Local public schools are being deprived of vital federal funding while Wisconsin sues Betsy DeVos

Posted by | Jul 28, 2020 |

Millions of dollars that were earmarked for low income students in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act have been distributed to the states. But because of a federal lawsuit, Wisconsin school districts are still waiting for the money, which has not been released yet by Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI). Attorney General Josh Kaul has joined attorneys general from five other states in suing the Department of Education over a rule created by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. An analysis by the Congressional Research Service supports the position this rule change might violate federal law. Under...

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Schools work to ensure Wisconsin students have broadband access if virtual learning continues

Schools work to ensure Wisconsin students have broadband access if virtual learning continues

Posted by | Jul 25, 2020 |

Governor Tony Evers signed an executive order on July 14 establishing a task force on broadband access. The body will attempt to find ways to provide internet to the 26.7% of rural Wisconsin residents who don’t have access to at least one broadband service. The state has already doled out $24 million in grants this year to build the necessary infrastructure, but the need for quality, high-speed internet has intensified as nearly every industry has become, in some way or another, a virtual operation. “The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the problems people face when they don’t have broadband access,...

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A Broken System: Millions of Americans lost heath insurance along with their jobs due to COVID-19

A Broken System: Millions of Americans lost heath insurance along with their jobs due to COVID-19

Posted by | Jul 23, 2020 |

By the end of 2020, 10.1 million people in the U.S. will probably lose health insurance because they or their family members have lost work due to COVID-19, a new report released Monday forecasts — and more than 1 in 3 of them will be unable to find a replacement policy. The findings are tied to the study’s projection that 48 million people live in families in which, between April 1 and December 31, 2020, at least one person will lose a job because of COVID-19. The study was conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which specializes in...

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The STOP program: How a youth initiative to build trust with police instead blamed Milwaukee students

The STOP program: How a youth initiative to build trust with police instead blamed Milwaukee students

Posted by | Jul 22, 2020 |

The Milwaukee School Board voted unanimously to end all contracts with the Milwaukee Police Department on June 18. But school board member Paula Phillips, who co-sponsored the resolution to remove police from schools stated in her opening remarks that some people in her district were unhappy about the termination of a policing program in the schools called STOP (Students Talking it Over with Police) a couple of years ago and the loss of interactions between police and students. Through the STOP program, designed by the MPD, police worked with upper elementary/middle school students to help them understand what the...

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Wauwatosa Police escalate pressure on Alvin Cole protestors as his death gains national attention

Wauwatosa Police escalate pressure on Alvin Cole protestors as his death gains national attention

Posted by | Jul 15, 2020 |

Pressure continues to mount on the Wauwatosa Police Department (WPD), and the city as a whole, to fire an officer who has fatally shot three people since 2015. Officer Joseph Mensah has been off the street, but still on the payroll, since shooting 17-year-old Alvin Cole in February. As protests triggered by the death of George Floyd in Minnesota spread across the globe, Cole’s family broke the silence they had held for months. Now, their case has garnered the attention and support of big celebrity names. Late last week Roc Nation, a social justice organization founded by rapper and...

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