Reading Time: 4 minutes The search for someone to lead the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, or DOC, is in progress. In a press release, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers announced the retirement of Kevin Carr, who served as secretary of the DOC for roughly five years. Evers applauded Carr’s accomplishments, including expansion of educational opportunities for people who are incarcerated as well as increased access to medication-assisted treatment, a treatment often used for opioid use disorder. But some people who are currently incarcerated are not so quick to praise Carr.  Prisoners thr ..read more

Reading Time: 4 minutes The race to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden in western Wisconsin is on, with three Democratic candidates jostling in a primary that offers voters three distinct paths forward for the general election. Small-business owner Rebecca Cooke, state Rep. Katrina Shankland and information technology professional Eric Wilson are all running for the Democratic nomination in the 18-county district. Van Orden’s seat is seen by both national and Wisconsin Democrats as a prime flip opportunity to help them win back the U.S. House in November. Spanning most of western ..read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes Wisconsin Supreme Court justices questioned Wednesday how much power legislative committees should wield — in a case that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers brought against the Republican-controlled Legislature and that could have a major impact on how state government functions. A ruling in favor of Evers would upend decades-old practices in the Legislature and make it easier to approve projects in a land stewardship program. But justices echoed concerns raised by Republicans that the case could have far broader impacts on the separation of power between the executiv ..read more

Reading Time: < 1 minute Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims. No. Experts on prison populations told Wisconsin Watch there is no evidence that prisons in either the Republic of the Congo or the Democratic Republic of the Congo are emptying their prisons, or that released prisoners from those neighboring African nations are coming en masse to the U.S. Speaking about illegal immigration in the U.S., former President Donald Trump made the Congo claim in an Apr ..read more

Reading Time: < 1 minute Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims. No. A claim by a psychology professor interviewed by conservative commentator Rachel Campos-Duffy that hormonal birth control increases teens’ “risk of death by suicide 600%” is not supported by the study she cited. Hormonal birth control uses synthetic hormones such as estrogen and progestin, typically in pill form. Campos-Duffy, a Republican and wife of former Wisconsin U.S. Rep ..read more

Reading Time: 4 minutes Less than a week after voters narrowly approved a $252 million referendum for Milwaukee Public Schools, the district decided to eliminate full-time trauma support specialists from the schools in the 53206 ZIP code. Before the April 2 election, MPS Superintendent Keith Posley said the money was needed to maintain services including “art, music, physical education classes, smaller class sizes, psychologists and social workers.” But on April 8, four full-time trauma informed coaches working in 53206 schools were told their positions are being eliminated.&nbs ..read more

Reading Time: 8 minutes This story was originally published by Votebeat. When Stacy Ellingen, a 38-year-old Oshkosh resident with athetoid cerebral palsy, wants to cast a ballot, she relies on voting absentee, because she can’t drive, and caregiver transportation to the polls is unreliable.  But even voting from her home is a struggle — and the process may well mean sacrificing her constitutional right to a secret ballot.  Unlike more than a dozen other states providing fully electronic absentee voting for people with disabilities, Wisconsin requires absentee voters to cast their vot ..read more

Reading Time: 9 minutes During the 2023 harvest season, one of Jake Lieb’s tractors quit working. A week later, his combine stopped working, too. Both were new — and he was locked out from making any repairs himself because of software restrictions embedded in the machines. Instead, a technician from John Deere was dispatched to diagnose and repair the problems. While waiting for the technician to come out, Lieb fired up a 20-year-old tractor he hadn’t used for harvesting in years. Crops are vulnerable to the weather, and had he not, Lieb could have lost at least a day of harvest. Some of the ..read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes Diamond Riley plans to pursue a new goal in life once she’s released from the Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center. “I want to work with justice-involved youth and young adults and help them overcome the challenges I had,” Riley said. “I found my passion.”  She now has the skills to help her achieve her goal thanks to a workshop that prepares people for successful reentry after incarceration. In March, Riley, 22, completed Building a Path to Success, a six-week workshop of the My Way Out program offered to individuals at the Milwaukee County Co ..read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit that could further alter the balance of power in Wisconsin state government. The case, brought by Gov. Tony Evers against the GOP chairs of three legislative committees, seeks to limit the Legislature’s ability to throw out certain policy decisions made by state executive branch agencies. Evers filed the lawsuit directly with the state Supreme Court.  At issue is whether the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee can use so-called “committee vetoes” to block conservation projects app ..read more