Author: Wisconsin Examiner

Republicans appear to be going all-in on the idea that some of us will have to suck it up and die in order to get the economy restarted. Can they win in 2020 with this message? Party leaders at both the state and national level seem to think so. President Donald Trump made his pitch for reopening the country, even if it leads to more infections and deaths, during a visit to a mask factory in Phoenix on May 5, “Will some people be affected? Yes,” Trump said. “Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to...

The legal authority to enforce Wisconsin’s “Safer at Home” order was ripped away by the 4-3 state Supreme Court ruling on May 13. On the following day, the Department of Health Services (DHS) and Governor Tony Evers vowed to press ahead with a voluntary approach to reopening the state’s economy while, seeking to curb the virus responsible for COVID-19. “We cannot let the court’s ruling undo all the work we have done and all the sacrifices Wisconsinites have made over these past few months,” Evers said at a media briefing. “The Supreme Court may have changed the rules for...

It is understandable that people who are out of work during the pandemic are getting restless. In fact, plumbers, electricians, and HVAC and janitorial staff are allowed to operate as “critical trades” under “Safer at Home” order by Governor Tony Evers. But it is not clear that the governor has the power to make customers let heating installers into their homes, or for that matter, to quickly ramp up business and restore our economy to health as the toll of the virus continues to mount. But Governor Evers, like other Democratic governors around the country, has become a convenient...

A growing series of COVID-19 outbreaks in American meatpacking plants, including in Wisconsin, is putting a spotlight on dangerous working conditions that employee advocates have been complaining about for decades. State officials reported on April 29 that Brown County has set up two isolation facilities for people who may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus that causes the disease — many of them because of outbreaks in local meat production facilities in and around Green Bay. Meanwhile, critics including Governor Tony Evers and several advocacy groups are pushing back on action by President Donald Trump that would pressure...

An interfaith group of clergy joined workers on April 22 to back the extension of Wisconsin’s “Safer at Home” order through May, and to criticize Republican legislative leaders for trying to block it with a lawsuit filed in the state Supreme Court. Participants, representing Christian, Jewish, Unitarian Universalist and other faith groups, took part to show “their support for the moral imperative to stay at home and keep us all safe,” said Rabbi Bonnie Margulis, executive director for Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice, which organized an online news conference along with SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin, part of the Service Employees...