DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate was set to vote Thursday on firing the battleground state's top elections official — a move that was denounced by Democrats as illegitimate and is expected to draw a legal battle. Nonpartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe has been the subject of conspiracy theories and threats from election skeptics who falsely claim she was part of a plan to rig the 2020 vote in Wisconsin. The bipartisan elections commission deadlocked in June on a vote to nominate Wolfe for a second four-year term. In addition to carrying out the decisions of the elections commission, Wolfe helps guide Wisconsin’s more than 1,800 local clerks who actually run elections. Since the 2020 election, some Republicans have floated the idea of abolishing or overhauling the elections commission.

Persons: Meagan Wolfe, Wolfe, Devin LeMahieu, Josh Kaul, Kaul, Michael Haas, Scott Walker's, ERIC Organizations: Republican, Wisconsin Senate, GOP, Democratic, Biden, Trump, Republicans, Government, Board, Republican Gov, National Association of State, Registration, Associated Press, America Statehouse News Initiative, America Locations: MADISON, Wis, Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Republicans have enjoyed outsize control of the Legislature in one of the most closely divided states for a dozen years. Maintaining that power is now at the heart of a drama involving the state Supreme Court that has national political implications. “Impeachment is an act of pure power politics,” said Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. In 2020, the state Supreme Court, then controlled 4-3 by conservatives, came within one vote of overturning Democrat Joe Biden's nearly 21,000 vote victory over then-President Donald Trump. The Supreme Court has yet to decide whether it will take either case.

Persons: ”, Ben Wikler, “ It’s, Joe Biden's, Donald Trump, Greta Neubauer, Mark Pocan, Robin Vos, “, ” Vos, Wisconsin Legislature “, Nick Seabrook, Janet Protasiewicz, Protasiewicz, Vos, Tyler August, ” ___ Lieb Organizations: — Wisconsin Republicans, Republicans, Democratic, Wisconsin Democratic Party, Wisconsin Supreme, Donald Trump . Wisconsin Republicans, Republican, Michigan House, Democrat, U.S . Senate, Associated, Democratic U.S . Rep, U.S, Supreme, Wisconsin Legislature, University of North, Wisconsin Democrats, GOP, Legislative Republicans, Democratic Party, GOP . Wisconsin Locations: MADISON, Wis, Wisconsin, Neighboring Michigan, Unlike Wisconsin , Michigan, Wisconsin’s, West Virginia, ” Wisconsin, University of North Florida, Jefferson City , Missouri

☆ Why Wisconsin’s Pension Chief Earns Eight Times the Governor’s Salary
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-09 | by ( Heather Gillers | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/why-wisconsins-pension-chief-earns-eight-times-the-governors-salary-dea166b9

Persons: Dow Jones

☆ Opinion | Wisconsin Republicans Try to Subvert Democracy, Again
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Michelle Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

If Republicans move ahead with this impeachment, it will be for one reason only: because they think they can. (Given the size of their Senate majority, they couldn’t afford to lose a single vote.) But some observers think that even if Republicans impeach Protasiewicz, they have no intention of actually holding a Senate trial. But since the state Constitution is silent on a timeline for that process, Republicans could impeach Protasiewicz and then leave her in legal oblivion indefinitely. “Senate Republicans in Wisconsin are basically saying, ‘Yeah, we’re not going to have a trial.

Persons: ”, Charlie Sykes, Protasiewicz, Tony Evers, ’ ”, Sykes, “ Organizations: Democratic Party, Wisconsin’s, Republicans, Trump, State Senate, Democratic Locations: Wisconsin, State

☆ Why Republicans Could Impeach a Liberal Judge Before She’s Heard a Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Reid J. Epstein | More About Reid J. Epstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Republicans in Wisconsin are coalescing around the prospect of impeaching a newly seated liberal justice on the state’s Supreme Court, whose victory in a costly, high-stakes election this spring swung the court in Democrats’ favor and threatened the G.O.P.’s iron grip on state politics. The drama over Republican threats to impeach and possibly remove Justice Protasiewicz could raise new questions about democracy and the legitimacy of elections in a state where G.O.P. For Republicans, the liberal Supreme Court majority serves as an existential danger. If the court, as expected, invalidates Wisconsin’s legislative maps, it would strip Republicans of what now amounts to permanent majorities in the Legislature. But removing a newly elected justice could prompt a backlash in 2024 from Democrats and moderate Republican voters who abandoned the G.O.P.

Persons: ’, Janet Protasiewicz, Protasiewicz Organizations: Republican, Trump Locations: Wisconsin

That marked the 10th straight season in which at least two Big Ten teams ranked in the top 10 in total defense. The last time the Big Ten had two teams rank in the top 15 in total offense was 2014. Washington ranked second, USC third, UCLA fourth and Oregon sixth nationally in total offense just last season. The arrivals of Harrell and Longo suggest Big Ten teams might start throwing the ball more often. “I definitely think football as a whole has kind of shifted to that spread offense, West Coast offense type of deal from Coach Leach,” Williams said.

Persons: ”, Graham Harrell, “, Luke Fickell, ” Fickell, Ben Scott, CJ Williams, Scott, ” Scott, Harrell doesn’t, ” Harrell, they’ve, Harrell, Mike Leach’s, Phil Longo, Longo’s, Sam Howell, Drake Maye, Longo, P.J, Fleck, Barry Alvarez’s, Tanner, Coach Leach, ” Williams, Eric Olson, Dave Campbell, Michael Marot Organizations: Big, Purdue, USC, Iowa, Ohio State, Washington, UCLA, Oregon, Big Ten, Arizona, Coast, West Coast, Texas Tech, North, Drake Maye . Ohio State, Nebraska, Gophers, Badgers, Buffalo, SMU, West, AP College Football, AP Sports, AP Locations: MADISON, Wis, Southern California, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, , Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, , Wisconsin, Wisconsin, Indiana, Big Ten . Nebraska, Arizona State, North Carolina, Drake Maye . Ohio, ” Minnesota

MADISON, Wis. (AP) —A state judiciary disciplinary panel has rejected several complaints lodged against Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz that alleged she violated the judicial code of ethics for comments she made during the campaign. Protasiewicz on Tuesday released a letter from the Wisconsin Judicial Commission informing her that “several complaints” regarding comments she had made during the campaign had been dismissed without action. Protasiewicz’s win in April flipped majority control of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court from conservative to liberal for the first time in 15 years. That case is expected to eventually reach the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Its members include two lawyers and two judges appointed by the Supreme Court and five non-lawyers appointed by the governor to three-year terms.

Persons: Janet Protasiewicz, It's, Protasiewicz, ” Protasiewicz, Randall Cook, Jeremiah Van Hecke, Dan Kelly, Van Hecke, Robin Vos, impeaches, Tony Evers, Todd Richmond Organizations: Wisconsin Supreme, Commission, Associated Press, Protasiewicz’s, Republican, Democratic, The Wisconsin Republican Party, Protasiewicz, Judicial, Supreme, Wisconsin Democratic Party, Senate, Democratic Gov Locations: MADISON, Wis, Wisconsin, U.S

☆ Redistricting battles could determine control of US House in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Joseph Ax | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

But a series of legal challenges, including a major U.S. Supreme Court ruling, have cast many of those district lines into doubt. Legal experts said the ruling bolsters similar challenges in Georgia and Louisiana, where voting rights groups have argued that Republican-drawn maps marginalized Black voters. In Ohio, the state Supreme Court appears set to alter course after previously finding Republican maps violated the state constitution’s prohibition on gerrymandering. In Wisconsin, the most expensive state Supreme Court election in U.S. history resulted in a new liberal majority. OTHER BATTLESLast month, the Utah Supreme Court heard arguments over the state’s Republican-drawn congressional map, which carved Democratic Salt Lake County into four separate districts.

Persons: reconvenes, Leah Millis, –, ”, Michael Li, University’s, “, Kathy Hochul, Janet Protasiewicz Organizations: YORK, House, U.S . Capitol, Republican, REUTERS, Republicans, Census, Supreme, Center for Justice, U.S, Democrat, REPUBLICAN, STATE, Democratic, Ohio’s Republican, DEMOCRATIC, Utah Supreme Locations: New York, Utah, U.S, Washington , U.S, New, Black, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, In Wisconsin, Democratic Salt Lake County, New Mexico

☆ Second Alzheimer’s drug to slow disease’s progression may be approved in the US this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Meg Tirrell | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

It was shown in May and in fuller Phase 3 clinical trial results released at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on Monday to delay the disease’s progression. More than 6 million Americans are estimated to have Alzheimer’s disease, with about 1 million estimated to be in the early symptomatic stages where these drugs have shown benefit. Both Leqembi and donanemab work by clearing buildups of a protein in the brain called amyloid, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s. It’s been a hypothesis that treating Alzheimer’s earlier with amyloid-clearing drugs would yield better results; Skovronsky said the donanemab trial bore that out. “We could look at people who had mild cognitive impairment, MCI, which is the earliest stage, versus mild Alzheimer’s versus moderate Alzheimer’s,” Skovronsky explained.

Persons: Leqembi, Eli Lilly’s donanemab, Lilly, “ Donanemab, Jennifer Manly, Kacie, ”, Dr, Gil Rabinovici, Renaud La Joie, Daniel Skovronsky, “, Skovronsky, ” Skovronsky, It’s, Eric Widera, Sharon Brangman, University of Wisconsin’s Dr, Nathaniel Chin, Donanemab, Lilly hasn’t, Lawrence Honig, Honig, White, Sanjay Gupta, Deters, ” Lilly, it’s “, it’s, there’s, Joe Montminy Organizations: CNN, Alzheimer’s Association, Food and Drug Administration, American Medical Association, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, University of California, MCI, SUNY, University of Wisconsin’s, Leqembi, FDA, donanemab, CNN Health, ” Manly Locations: Los Angeles, “

☆ The Quirk That Let Wisconsin’s Governor Raise School Funding for 400 Years
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Ben Kesling | Mariah Timms | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/wisconsin-governor-veto-400-years-9a2cc3c4

Persons: Dow Jones, 9a2cc3c4 Locations: wisconsin

☆ Wisconsin’s Governor Just Pulled Off the Strangest Veto of the Year
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Ben Kesling | Mariah Timms | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/wisconsin-governor-veto-400-years-9a2cc3c4

Persons: Dow Jones, 9a2cc3c4 Locations: wisconsin

☆ Singapore university unveils Asia’s largest timber building
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Oscar Holland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Sprawling across 43,500 square meters (468,000 square feet), it is now Asia’s largest timber building, by floor area. Some countries now even allow for high-rises (or “plyscrapers”), like Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s 25-story Ascent, which at 284 feet, is the world’s tallest mass timber structure. Advocates for mass timber point to the relatively slow and predictable rate at which the material burns. Many of the purported benefits of mass timber are, however, environmental. If a tree is then turned into mass timber, this embodied carbon is sequestered, or “locked in,” rather than being returned to the atmosphere.

Persons: Lee Kuan Yew, sunlit, Gaia, Toyo Ito, “, ”, ” Ito, Ito, Ho Teck Hua, ’ Organizations: Singapore CNN —, Nanyang Technological University’s, Singapore, CNN, RSP, Nanyang Technological, NTU, Construction Authority, NTU Singapore Locations: Singapore, Singapore CNN — Singapore, ”, Nanyang, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Europe, NTU Singapore, Milwaukee, Asia

☆ Opinion | The Courts Should Be More Political, Not Less
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Jedediah Britton-Purdy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

The North Carolina gerrymandering decision made that scandal impossible to ignore: What else but rank partisan allegiance could account for such an abrupt switch on a question that determined political power in the state? In other words, the vote for Supreme Court justices may have been the most important of the year, and it was a black box to most voters. Like it or not, the courts are another political branch, most of all when they decide basic constitutional questions, such as whether freedom and equality forbid extreme gerrymandering. On April 4, Judge Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court and switched the court’s ideological balance, by openly emphasizing her support for reproductive rights and broadly liberal commitments. Deep political conflicts over constitutional vision have always existed in American law, particularly when courts are called upon to judge what a fair election system looks like.

☆ Opinion: Vladimir Putin’s anxious time
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Richard Galant | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

We’re looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. He imagines a boy sitting “upon the high and giddy mast” of a ship tossed by wind and waves. “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” concludes the king in Shakespeare’s play. Russia said that President Vladimir Putin was the intended target of a foiled Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin, an allegation Ukraine denied. The unfortunate monarch who was the last to own the original St. Edward’s Crown, King Charles I, was convicted of treason and beheaded on January 30, 1649.

☆ Opinion | Could Peer Influence Be a Cause of the Global Baby Bust?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Peter Coy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

I read several papers on peer effects on fertility with Angrist’s caveats in mind. Those factors made the classmates more likely to become pregnant, which in turn influenced the fertility outcomes of the girls being studied. Less-educated women were less likely to have a baby when a colleague of the same education level had one. The negative peer effect for less-educated women “could come from a desire to distinguish oneself from one’s peers,” among other factors, they speculated. The research “provides support for the role of social norms in the fertility choices of reproductive-aged Chinese women,” they wrote.

☆ Opinion: Texas judge’s stunning ruling caps extraordinary week
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +17 min

We’re looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. Tennessee legislators targeted three members of the state House for joining a gun control protest in the chamber, expelling two young Black men while failing to oust a 60-year-old White woman. (He gave the Biden administration a week to appeal the ruling before it goes into effect. Thus, the week that began with Trump facing a judge in Manhattan ended with a Trump-appointed judge overturning more than two decades of medical practice. “They go far too fast to be safe on the sidewalk” and aren’t right for bike lanes or roads either.

☆ The Left Wins Big in Midwest Elections
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Progressives had a banner day in the Midwest Tuesday, with victories for Chicago mayor and a swing seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. The results will energize the left within the Democratic Party, and the Badger State results are a five-alarm warning to Republicans about 2024. The Chicago runoff was a battle between the moderate and progressive wings of the Democratic Party, and the left won despite public frustration over rising crime and failing schools. Brandon Johnson ’s victory means the city’s decline as a laboratory for progressive governance will continue, and more companies will consider following the recent exits of Caterpillar, Boeing and Citadel.

☆ Wisconsin Supreme Court Election Shows Abortion Continues to Sway Voters
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Laura Kusisto | Shannon Najmabadi | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Judge Janet Protasiewicz touted her support for reproductive rights during the campaign. For the first time in recent memory, liberals have gained a majority of seats on Wisconsin’s highest court, the latest in a string of electoral victories for Democrats in politically mixed states in which abortion rights have played a central role. Judge Janet Protasiewicz, a candidate with strong backing from the Democratic Party who openly touted her support for reproductive rights, won the seat in a swing state by 11 percentage points in Tuesday’s vote. It was the most expensive state supreme court race in U.S. history, in which money poured in from wealthy donors and national groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

☆ Wisconsin Votes for Work With Welfare
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Progressives took the main prize in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race this week, and an observer might guess that Judge Janet Protasiewicz ’s victory means the left is ascendant in Wisconsin. A glance down the ballot reveals a more complicated picture. Wisconsin Advisory Question 3 asked voters whether “able-bodied, childless adults [should] be required to look for work in order to receive taxpayer-funded welfare benefits.” Nearly 80% of Wisconsin voters approved that question, which is nonbinding but reveals strong underlying support in the state for a bedrock principle of conservative social and economic policy.

☆ Wisconsin Supreme Court Election Results
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Wisconsin’s State Supreme Court election carries bigger policy stakes than any other race in the country this year. It will decide whether conservatives (like Justice Kelly) or liberals (like Judge Protasiewicz) control the otherwise evenly divided court, which will determine the fate of abortion rights, gerrymandered political maps and a range of voting rights issues in the battleground state. Full results from the primary election ›

☆ The Best Places to Buy a House on a Budget
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Michael Kolomatsky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

First-time home buyers around the country are struggling to amass a down payment in this high-inflation economy. For those who work remotely or are open to relocating, a recent study by Rocket Homes can help find a new locale. To arrive at the 10 best metros for these buyers, researchers compared home prices, mortgage payments, income and sales taxes, unemployment and crime rates, the health of residents and climate hazards. Thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages and 20 percent down payments with an interest rate of 6.5 percent were factored into the calculations. Pittsburgh came in seventh, thanks in large part to the health of its residents.

☆ Democrats Seek the House via Wisconsin’s Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Collin Levy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Political campaigns are often expensive and tawdry, but judicial races used to be different. They tended to be low-profile and genteel, decided primarily by the small portion of the population familiar with the candidates. That model has been blown up in Wisconsin, where a state Supreme Court race has become a splashy national affair. The technically nonpartisan contest between liberal Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz and conservative former Justice Daniel Kelly will determine the balance of the Badger State’s highest court. The race has dragged in about $30 million so far, smashing records and permanently altering the way judicial campaigns are run.

☆ TikTok users are making fun of Congress members for their questions to app CEO Shou Chew
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Meanwhile, TikTok creators are leading the way ridiculing members of Congress. “There needs to be an age limit in Congress,” one caption by user @rachelhannahh said about a clip of US Rep. Many of the TikTok video clips suggested Congress members don’t know how modern technology works. They believe members of Congress are detached from technology and unaware of how tech companies within their own country operate, resulting in easily mockable questions. “What color is the algorithm?” said user Christian Divyne in a video mocking some of the questions Congress members asked Chew.

☆ Wisconsin’s Judicial Election Donnybrook
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Judicial elections used to be sleepy, nonpartisan affairs, but not anymore. A race for an open Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin has become a brawl with the Democratic candidate all but declaring how she’ll rule on cases. Conservatives on the Wisconsin court hold a 4-3 majority, but conservative Justice Patience Roggensack is retiring. Democrats are giddy at the prospect of controlling the court for the first time in more than a decade, and they’re not hiding their ambition to turn it into a policy engine.

☆ A Bad Start for the GOP in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Being the opposition party can have its political advantages, but if Republicans are hoping for victory next year, they might want to look around. Montana Sen. Jon Tester said this week that he’ll run for re-election in 2024, meaning no open race there to boost the GOP’s chances of taking the state and the Senate majority. Wisconsin’s primary Tuesday, with state Supreme Court candidates on the ballot, brought record turnout of nearly 21% of the voting-age population, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Compare that with 16% for a similar primary in 2020 and 12% for one in 2018. This could signal that abortion is still spurring Democrats to the polls, and the effect from the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last year hasn’t entirely faded.

Search resuls for: "Wisconsin’s"

25 mentions found