Author: Wisconsin Public Radio

A lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump’s campaign against a Northwoods TV station has been dismissed in federal court. The Trump campaign in April sued the Rhinelander-based WJFW-TV over an ad that juxtaposed clips of Trump’s statements about the coronavirus in January and February with a graph showing the rising case count in the United States. The ad was produced by the liberal advocacy group Priorities USA, but the Trump campaign initially targeted WJFW-TV in the lawsuit. The station’s owner, Rockfleet Communications, is a small company that also owns stations in Bangor, Maine. The case was initially filed in...

Wisconsin’s 10 presidential electors cast their votes for President-elect Joe Biden on December 14, taking one of the final state-level procedural steps in a tumultuous election year. The 10 Democratic presidential electors met at the state Capitol Building at noon, as is required under state law, to cast their votes for Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. The process, which is typically obscure and happens without much public interest, was under a spotlight this year following a flurry of lawsuits from President Donald Trump and his allies over election results. Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin...

Liberal justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court grilled an attorney for President Donald Trump’s campaign during oral arguments on December 12, with one calling the president’s lawsuit seeking to overturn the state’s election results racist and “un-American.” If there was any doubt, the case highlighted fierce opposition to Trump’s arguments by some members of the court, which has already ruled 4-3 to reject two other lawsuits filed by allies of the president. Trump’s lawsuit aims to throw out more than 220,000 ballots cast in Dane and Milwaukee Counties, both Democratic strongholds that helped propel President-elect Joe Biden to his...

The state’s Legislative Audit Bureau is recommending the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. (WEDC) make several changes to how it oversees Foxconn’s tax credit program when it comes to employees. While the Taiwanese tech giant has yet to actually receive any state tax credits to date because officials say they haven’t met promises laid out in their contract with WEDC, the nonpartisan bureau’s latest report found issues with the way the agency would administer certain credits. The report found WEDC would not give tax credits for the wages paid to Foxconn employees who live in other states but work here....

The judge hearing President Donald Trump’s federal lawsuit seeking to overturn Wisconsin’s November election said on December 10 that such a move would be without precedent in U.S. history. The comments were the latest example of a skeptical tone struck by U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig, who is being asked to reverse President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Wisconsin. Trump’s lawyers are asking Ludgwig to declare Wisconsin’s entire presidential election unconstitutional, leaving it to Wisconsin’s GOP-controlled Legislature to choose the state’s presidential electors. “The relief that’s been requested, if that relief were granted, this would be a most remarkable proceeding...

As temperatures in Wisconsin drop, homeless advocates and state government officials are preparing for increased demands on homeless shelters across the state. At the same time, many shelters have had to reduce the number of beds available as a health and safety precaution during the coronavirus pandemic. “The challenge is going to be extreme this winter,” said Michael Basford, director of the state Department of Administration’s Interagency Council on Homelessness, noting the capacity reductions many shelters have already implemented. “It makes it much more difficult to serve the number of people they typically serve.” The U.S. Centers for Disease...