Author: Wisconsin Public Radio

Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin introduced a bill in December that would provide federal funding grants to pay for travel-related expenses for people seeking abortions. But despite their support for the effort, abortion rights advocates say it is unlikely to get through Congress, where the House of Representatives will be controlled by Republicans. The Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act would set up a grant program for $350 million per year for the next five years, distributing the funds through nonprofits and community organizations that assist abortion seekers. It would give priority to people who live in states that have...

Millions of Wisconsin residents will be affected by two separate mergers of nonprofit hospital systems that were finalized in December. Gundersen Health System and Bellin Health completed a merger on December 1. The next day, Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health did the same. Together, the mergers will impact about 8.5 million patients across several states. Bellin and Gundersen will keep their respective names for the time being, as well as separate headquarters in Green Bay and La Crosse, while Advocate Aurora and Atrium will become “Advocate Health.” Marshfield Clinic Health System and Essentia health also announced merger talks....

Governor Tony Evers started his second term on January 3, but scores of holdovers from the Democratic governor’s first term are stuck in a kind of legislative limbo. Nearly 180 people appointed by Evers to lead state agencies, boards and commissions had yet to be confirmed by the state Senate, according to lists provided in mid-December by the governor’s office and the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau. That includes five Cabinet members who continue to lead state agencies despite having never been confirmed by the Senate. While they have all the duties of other cabinet secretaries, they’re technically secretary-designees, which...

Wisconsin utility regulators approved rate hikes for electric and natural gas customers served by two of the state’s largest utilities on December 1, but they reduced profits utilities can collect amid outcry from financially-strapped ratepayers. The Wisconsin Public Service Commission approved overall electric rate hikes of 8.8 percent for We Energies and 9 percent for Wisconsin Public Service, according to commission staff. The increase is higher than what utilities initially proposed, but less than changes they suggested later that would have shifted more costs to residential customers. This fall, the utilities owned by Milwaukee-based WEC Energy Group asked for...

Since the start of the pandemic, deaths by domestic violence in Wisconsin have surged to record levels. According to a new report from End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin, domestic violence claimed 80 lives last year, including victims and perpetrators. That is up from 72 in 2019 and 68 in 2020. Around half of the victims were people of color, despite the population of Wisconsin being about 87 percent White. The cases occurred across Wisconsin, but 74 percent happened in urban areas, and the homicides were most concentrated in Milwaukee. While COVID alone did not create this spike in violence, it...