(The Center Square) – A Wisconsin bill would create an exemption to employment law that would make Minor League Baseball players in the state salaried workers and not eligible for overtime pay.
The exemption would only apply to the about 60 players for Wisconsin’s two Major League Baseball affiliates, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in Appleton and the Beloit Sky Carp.
The bill does not apply to independent league teams or other baseball teams in the state.
Similar bills have been passed in both red and blue states, sponsor Rep. Alex Dallman, R-Markesan, told the Senate Committee on Government Operations, Labor and Economic Development.
He noted that Arkansas, California, Florida, Indiana and New York had already passed similar bills.
Senate Bill 374 is supported by both Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players’ Association, according to Sen. Dan Feyen, R-Fond du Lac.
Minor League Baseball players are part of a 2023 collective bargaining contract that runs through 2027.
That first CBA included increased benefits for players, including team-paid health benefits, pay increases and an increased housing allowance, according to Feyen. Players are now paid weekly throughout the year, not just during the season.
If the bill did not pass, teams would have to track all work-related activities for players and count rehab, any training and time spent at the ballpark or with the team toward overtime requirements.
“Being a professional baseball player is a unique job, to say the least,” Feyen said.
The Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball lobbied for the bill in Wisconsin, recording $46,000 in expenses between January and June in that effort, according to information posted by the Wisconsin Ethics Commission.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Democratic race for governor continues to grow after Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, jumped into the race Wednesday.
“In 2020, I made history as the first Asian American elected to the Wisconsin State Legislature,” Hong wrote in a campaign announcement on X. “Since then, I’ve fought like hell for working families – and now, I’m ready to take that fight to the next level.”
Hong represents Madison’s isthmus and is a member of both the Democratic Socialists of America and the Wisconsin Assembly’s Socialist Caucus. She is often considered one of Wisconsin’s most progressive lawmakers.
“We don’t have the billionaire class behind us,” Hong added on X. “We have something stronger: people who believe Wisconsin should work for all of us – not just the wealthy few.”
Hong is a chef and bartender and owned a restaurant in Madison until it closed during COVID. She is making her work history a large part of her campaign kickoff.
“I’m the daughter of immigrants,” she wrote. “I built my career in the service industry – as a chef, a small business owner, and a community organizer. I know what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck. To scramble for child care. To lose sleep because of bills piling up.”
Hong is just the latest Democrat to jump into the race, including the second this week.
She now joins Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, state Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley as the major candidates in the race.
They are all running to see who will replace Gov. Tony Evers as the Democratic candidate next year.
There are two official Republican candidates. Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann and businessman Bill Berrien are the only GOOP candidates so far.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin scored a 53, ahead of just 15 other states, in a new report on election security.
The Meyers Report rated state election processes based on 17 risk areas, giving an ultimate score between 0 and 100 with 100 being the most secure. Mississippi had the highest score at 83 while Nevada was the lowest at 30.
Wisconsin lost points due to 193 uncounted absentee ballots from the November 2024 election found in Madison due, after which an investigation from the Wisconsin Elections Commission investigation has found former Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl broke the law by leaving those ballots uncounted.
MacIver Institute CEO Annette Olson told The Center Square that a large concern out of the uncounted ballots is that the people of Madison have confidence that their ballots will be counted and handled properly in the future.
“We really want to make sure that people have confidence in the elections,” Olson said.
Olson is part of the Election Integrity Network, which has members from 26 states who meet regularly to discuss election integrity issues, determining if perceived issues are actual problems and ensuring that states and local officials are following election law and have been properly trained.
The group has both short-term and long-term goals on legislation to ensure the public has confidence in elections including the proper handling of absentee ballots and ensuring that American citizens are the only people voting in elections with stricter voter identification laws.
“How do we make sure that when people vote absentee, they know that every ballot is handled with integrity, transparency and the property chain of custody?” Olson said the group asks.
The Meyers Report pointed to the Carter-Baker Commission, which said that mail-in ballots and lack of voter identification were the two greatest risks in the American election system.
The U.S. Department of Justice has asked that state voter rolls be available for free, with 75% of the other nations used in the Meyers Report fulfilling that obligation. But Wisconsin was included as one of the eight states that do not comply with the DOJ request, along with Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York and Pennsylvania.
The report also pointed to lax oversight of absentee voting and voter registration as potential isses while citing a 2021 Legislative Audit Bureau report showing the WEC violated state election law.
The report encourages states to maintain a consistent chain of custody on ballots, ensure only citizens vote while requiring government photo identification. It also recommended voters have privacy to vote without intimidation, results should be timely confirmed through recounts and audits and voters should have access to voter rolls.

(The Center Square) – Calls for repercussions and firings of those who celebrated or mocked the killing of Charlie Kirk have occurred across the country over the past week.
Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-3rd Congressional, would like to prevent federal funding from going to entities that employ individuals who did exactly that. But a First Amendment free speech group believes the proposal is a clear violation of the First Amendment, much like a threat from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to send law enforcement after individuals who participate in hate speech related to Kirk.
Van Orden has proposed a bill that would prohibit federal funding for “entities that employ individuals who condone and celebrate political violence and domestic terrorism, and for other purposes.”
“Political violence and politically violent rhetoric have no place in the United States,” Van Orden said in a statement. “Those celebrating or condoning the death of American citizens will not receive federal dollars, period. The time of funding hate is over. These radical individuals will be held accountable.”
The Center Square was unable to get further comment on the bill from Van Orden, but he has posted about the topic several times on X.com, saying that he would “remove all federal funding, including grants and community directed projects for the entire city of Ellsworth unless this is rectified immediately” for the community based after comments from a teacher reportedly from Ellsworth Community School District.
“The government can choose which programs to fund if there is some sort of program for supporting domestic terrorism or condoning violence or prevent funding for that,” said Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression Legislative and Policy Director Carolyn Iodice. “But they cannot, under the First Amendment, say that you only get federal funds if you agree to not partake in this kind of speech that is protected by the First Amendment. And this language goes even farther than that and says any entity that merely employs someone who engages in this kind of speech.”
Iodice pointed out that the legislation being proposed left a lot up to law enforcement or the president to interpret what qualifies as condoning or celebrating political violence and that that definition could swing based upon who is in office at the time.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that media outlets who were “unfair” to him “maybe” should be prosecuted for hate speech.
“It kind of illustrates why hate speech is such an amorphous category,” Iodice said. “It would be nuts if the federal government or any government could ban or otherwise regulate hate speech, because it is in the eye of the beholder. The president regards hate speech as speech that was critical of him or whatever he said in that clip.
“Other people think that saying ‘marriage is between one man and one woman’ is hate speech. Some people think that some of the things Charlie Kirk said are hate speech.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s governor is ordering the state’s public health managers to come up with state-specific rules for the COVID vaccine.
Gov. Tony Evers issued an executive order to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to “use every lever and take every action available to ensure Wisconsinites can access safe, effective vaccines.”
“RFK and the Trump Administration are inserting partisan politics into health care and the science-based decisions of medical professionals and are putting the health and lives of kids, families, and folks across our state at risk in the process,’ the governor said in a statement. “Here in Wisconsin, we will continue to follow the science to ensure Wisconsinites have access to the health care they need when and where they need it to make their own health care decisions that are right for them.”
Robert F Kennedy Jr. has changed the recommendations for the COVID vaccine, but he has said he has not restricted their access.
Under Kennedy, the FDA last month rolled back COVID shot recommendations to people more than 65, and anyone more than 6-months-old who have underlying health conditions that increase their risks from COVID.
“Vaccines save lives, folks. Spreading fear, distrust, and disinformation about safe and effective vaccines isn’t just reckless, it’s dangerous,” Evers added.
In addition to the order to DHS, Evers is also ordering Wisconsin’s Commissioner of Insurance and the Wisconsin Pharmacy Examining Board to ” identify, review, and remove barriers to vaccine access to the fullest extent permitted by law and available funding to ensure vaccines remain broadly and readily accessible to Wisconsinites.”
The governor wants the Commissioner of Insurance to also work with health insurers and other health plans to see who will pay for COVID shots in Wisconsin that may not be covered in other states.

(The Center Square) – Nick Jacobs was struck when he saw Wisconsin state Sen. Kelda Roys’ ad announcing her campaign for Wisconsin governor on Monday morning.
There were photos of President Donald Trump, then Elon Musk, along with the words, “As extremists attack our freedoms while families struggle to get by, we’re fighting back together.”
Those, Wisconsin College Republicans chairman said, are the type of words that lead individuals to political violence like occurred last Wednesday when Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while debating on the campus of Utah Valley University.
“After watching it, and sort of talking about it, Senator Roys’ rhetoric, calling President Trump and Republicans extremists, that’s exactly the language that got us to this point as a country,” Jacobs told The Center Square. “There has clearly been no self-reflection after the events of this past Wednesday and it looks like Senator Roys and the Democrats want to continue to push harmful rhetoric towards Republicans.”
The Center Square was unsuccessful prior to publication obtaining additional comment from Roys’ campaign.
Jacobs and his group concentrate on getting college students involved politically, often working on local campaigns, local elections and in student government. The University of Wisconsin-River Falls student said that included volunteering during Vice President J.D. Vance’s recent trip to La Crosse.
But the words of politicians have come under greater scrutiny for their risk following Kirk’s shooting, the shooting and killing of Minnesota House Speaker Emeritus Melissa Hortman and her husband and the assassination attempts on Trump in July and September of last year.
“The concern is that you are basically trying to say that the other half of the country is dangerous, which is not true and those are not American or Wisconsin values to say something like that,” Jacobs said. “It’s very irresponsible.”
In particular, Jacobs said, the comments are directed at Trump.
Jacobs said that he mainly operates the Wisconsin College Republicans account on X.com, where he directly commented with a quote of Roys’ campaign video, writing, “After a radicalized leftist Democrat killed Charlie Kirk in cold-blood, they’re calling us the extremists. This is unacceptable. Not only is this a tone-deaf ad and unbecoming of a gubernatorial candidate, it is deeply sick and evil.”
Jacobs said he was led to send the message after thinking further about Roys’ video and discussing it.
“They continue to push him as this incredibly dangerous figure, you are giving this message to impressionable people who might be convinced to do terrible things or, at the very least, it sort of saturates our environment with rhetoric to the point where it is impossible to escape it,” he added.
That’s why Jacobs plans to push hard for a Republican to be the next governor of Wisconsin, he said.
“We can’t have another far-left ideologue as the governor of Wisconsin,” Jacobs said. “We need somebody who is a strong conservative who wants to restore normalcy and sanity to our great state. I think somebody like Congressman Tom Tiffany would be excellent, if he were to decide to run.”

(The Center Square) – One of the Democrats running for Wisconsin governor says he wants a commission to take a look at new ways to raise state revenues.
“The way we are taxed in our state, in the state of Wisconsin, is antiquated. We put everything, all of our revenues, pretty much on the backs of all our property tax owners,” Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said on a local broadcast this past weekend. “So there are ways we can look at different ways in raising revenues for many of our local communities so they can invest in things that matter to them.”
Crowley said he is not looking to raise taxes. Rather, he said he wants a commission to look at the options. He wants Wisconsin less reliant on property taxes.
“There’s an opportunity to create a blue ribbon commission to get folks from all across this state to come to the table to tackle our tax code entirely,” Crowley said. “Whether we’re looking at property taxes, how the shared revenue formula works, how we’re funding our public schools, it’s not a one size fits all solution that’s going to be able to solve the issues in the state of Wisconsin.”
Crowley, in the broadcast, said he doesn’t have a new option that he favors.
Crowley touted his campaign for governor, saying he’s “the only candidate in this race that has both experience serving in the Legislature as well as actually running a government.”
Critics say he ran Milwaukee County into a $47 million deficit, and Crowley pushed for a sales tax for Milwaukee County that added nearly a half-a-cent to the price of many things sold in the county.
Crowley officially jumped into the race to replace Gov. Tony Evers last week.

(The Center Square) – When Chairman Robert Blanchard thinks about the impact of Line 5’s pipeline through or around the Wisconsin reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior, he tries to think about the impact seven generations ahead.
Blanchard testified on Monday morning in Ashland as the Band and environmental groups attempt to block permits granted by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for a 41-mile reroute of the Line 5 pipeline in northern Wisconsin.
“It’s all so important to us,” Blanchard told The Center Square. “Our land is our way of life and there’s a lot at stake here. We try to bring that forward.”
Supports of the reroute project have pointed to the an extensive review process for the permits on a project that still needs approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
But Blanchard, along with Mashkiziibii Natural Resources Director Naomi Tillison, groundwater expert Dr. John Bratton, water resources expert Noah Greenburg and wetlands expert Alice Thompson, were set to testify this week on the long-term negative impacts to the tribe and environment from the pipeline.
“I’d like to say everybody” understands the impact, Blanchard told The Center Square following his testimony. “Hopefully we’re getting through.”
Testimony from those opposing the project is scheduled to continue at 9 a.m. this week in Ashland.
Enbridge is scheduled to present its case on the challenged permits Monday through Friday next week in Madison before the Department of Natural Resources presents its case Sept. 29 through Oct. 2.
Public comment was heard in the case previously.
The Center Square was unsuccessful prior to publication of obtaining comment from Enbridge on Friday or Monday.
“After five years of extensive public review and input, the 41-mile Line 5 Wisconsin Segment Relocation Project is already the most-studied pipeline project in state history,” Enbridge previously told The Center Square. “The thorough Wisconsin permitting process resulted in a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement and allowed the WDNR to identify mitigation measures that ensure the project’s impacts are minimal.”

(The Center Square) – State Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, joined the race to be the next Wisconsin governor on Monday morning.
“We are in the fight of our lives, for our democracy and our kids’ future,” Roys said in her announcement.
Roys joins Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley in the race as Democrats while Republicans Bill Berrien, of Whitefish Bay, and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann have entered the race and Northwoods Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany has hinted that he would announce whether he is running in the next month.
The Democratic primary is scheduled for Aug. 11, 2026.
“As extremists attack our freedoms while families struggle to get by, we’re fighting back together,” Roys said in her announcement, with photos of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk shown on an overlay.

(The Center Square) – Lawyers from the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and several environmental groups will present their case starting on Monday in Ashland to block Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources permits for a 41-mile reroute of the Line 5 pipeline in northern Wisconsin.
The tribe and environment groups are challenging the permits. Testimony is expected from Bad River Band Tribal Chairman Robert Blanchard, Mashkiziibii Natural Resources Director Naomi Tillison, groundwater expert Dr. John Bratton, water resources expert Noah Greenburg and wetlands expert Alice Thompson expected as the trial meets daily from 9 a.m. on Monday through Friday.
Enbridge and Wisconsin business leaders have pointed toward an extensive review process that took place before the permits were granted. The project also needs approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“This phase of the hearing will center the voice of the Band, which faces an existential threat from both the existing Line 5 and the planned reroute,” Earthjustice senior attorney Stefanie Tsosie told The Center Square. “We look forward to sharing information and analyses showing the permanent and irreversible destruction that this reroute will cause to north Wisconsin.”
The Center Square was unsuccessful getting comment from Enbridge on Friday.
“After five years of extensive public review and input, the 41-mile Line 5 Wisconsin Segment Relocation Project is already the most-studied pipeline project in state history,” Enbridge previously told The Center Square. “The thorough Wisconsin permitting process resulted in a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement and allowed the WDNR to identify mitigation measures that ensure the project’s impacts are minimal.”
Enbridge is scheduled to present its case on the challenged permits through Friday in Madison before the Department of Natural Resources presents its case next week.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers iwants a court order to enforce his interpretation of a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling on rulemaking that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, recently described as “outside of the law.”
Evers directed Wisconsin agencies to create rules and then send them to the Legislative Reference Bureau for publication without those rules being first submitted to a committee.
That process led Vos to speak out at a recent meeting of Wisconsin’s Joint Committee on Employee Relations, saying “I would say that it’s unfortunate that something that has literally worked for generations, not just decades but generations, is being upended by an administration that is drunk with power.”
Vos then added that he believes Evers’ directives to bypass rules being heard in a committee is “outside the law” and beyond what the Wisconsin Supreme Court said about rulemaking in a recent ruling.
Agencies have submitted 12 rules to the Legislative Reference Bureau since the supreme court ruling but the Joint Committee on Legislative Organization has asked that nine of those rules not be published.
The new rules are leading to increased costs for a variety of businesses, including an increase in the livestock market fee from $420 to $7,430 from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, according to Badger Institute.
The agency will also increase the registration fee for livestock truckers from $60 to $370 in 2027 because its registration programs will be $1.1 million short of budget by then, the group said.
Many of the new rules being pushed through without committee approval were previously rejected in committee. Evers, however, contests that the agencies are following the new interpretation of the law.
“The Legislature cannot continue to indefinitely obstruct my administration from doing the people’s work – and the Wisconsin Supreme Court agrees, but Republican lawmakers are continuing their unlawful behavior anyway,” Evers said about the filing. “At the end of the day, this lawsuit is about following the law and making sure there’s accountability for elected officials if they fail to do so.
“It shouldn’t take going to court to get Republican lawmakers to comply with state law and Supreme Court decisions, but it seems like that’s what it’s going to take, unfortunately. Elected officials have to follow the law just like everyone else, folks. It’s pretty simple stuff.”
The Assembly Republicans have created a rulemaking task force to explore legislation in the upcoming session to address rulemaking in response to Evers’ orders to state agencies to bypass the committee process.
They called Evers’ directive a “180” from how the legislature has operated in the past.
Vos went as far as stating that the rulemaking debate will lead to issues when state leaders work on the next Wisconsin budget.
“It really seems like, rather than being collaborative and go through the normal process where Republicans, Democrats, Legislators, executive branch all sit down and work out a deal, they’re just going to try to impose their will on the state,” Vos said. “Which will, unfortunately, mean a that during the next budget discussion it will be dramatically different.”
Senate President Mary Felzkowski created a social media video on Friday to explain the process to the public and her concerns about the changes that Evers has attempted to implement.
“Until a few weeks ago, rules went through a review process by the Legislature, which is very important, and why?” Felzkowski explained. “To make sure they follow the intent of the law that your elected officials wrote. This review process also included time for public input meaning anyone could come to the Legislature and express concern or support for a rule.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s long moratorium on new cigar bars is a step closer to coming to end.
The Wisconsin Assembly approved Assembly Bill 211, which tweaks the state’s indoor smoking ban to allow new cigar bars to allow customers to smoke their cigars inside.
Wisconsin exempted cigar bars from the indoor smoking ban when it went into place in 2009.
Rep. Nate Gustafson, R-Fox Crossing, said the cigar bar rules needed to be updated.
“We can protect public health and strengthen communities at the same time,” Gustafson said.
Because of how Wisconsin’s 2009 smoking ban was written, new cigar bars were not allowed to get new licenses. That meant Wisconsin could not open any new cigar bars.
The new legislation allows new cigar bars to open as long as they only allow customers to smoke cigars and pipes, not cigarettes. And new cigar bars or lounges could not also have restaurants.
“[This plan] strengthens Wisconsin’s smoke-free law with modern safeguards, while respecting the right of adults to make informed choices,” Gustafson said.
Gustafson has been working on the plan for the better part of a year and has had to make some changes in order to gain support.
“This bipartisan vote proves that when we put constituents before politics, we can find common ground,” Gustafson added. “AB 211 is pro-balance, pro-accountability, and pro-Wisconsin.”
The plan passed on a 57–37 vote, and now heads for the Wisconsin Senate.