(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction framed its new Portrait of a Graduate initiative from a steering committee that included employers and those in Wisconsin’s industries that would help frame what graduates need to know.
But the steering committee actually included just one member of private industry in Wisconsin, Sargento’s Anne Troka, along with 26 public employees from the state, according to the response to a records request from The Dairyland Sentinel.
The committee is filled with high school teachers and members of the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America along with members of state agencies such as the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.
DPI presented the initiative as an effort to define the “knowledge, skills and experience” that graduates need to be prepared for “college, careers, community leadership and civic life.”
Rather than providing the list of 27 members of the steering committee, DPI made Dairyland Sentinel’s question a public records request.
“Shifting a routine press question into the statutory open records track is a classic government delay tactic,” Dairyland Sentinel wrote. “It allowed DPI to avoid answering immediate questions during the launch week, effectively killing the immediate news cycle and buying the department weeks of silence while they promoted their unvetted narrative through friendly channels.”
The department also said that there were no documents showing the selection process or criteria to be invited to join the committee.
Critics questioned the initiative when it was announced because it didn’t mention basics such as improving reading, writing or math scores.
Questions surrounding the new initiative follow Dairyland Sentinel’s questions related to a 2024 Forward Exam standards-setting conference in the Wisconsin Dells that has led to a lawsuit over a potential Open Meetings Act violation involving the conference as well as a multiple year battle over public records related to DPI’s efforts to keep details of the $369,000 conference hidden from the public.
IRG’s General Counsel and Director of its Center for Investigative Oversight Jake Curtis told The Center Square in February that he believed the 88-member standards-setting group filled with school employees and leaders fits the exact definition of an Ad Hoc Committee and that meetings of that committee should be public and not subject to the non-disclosure agreements signed by conference attendees.
Dairyland Sentinel has asked Wisconsin’s Department of Justice to intervene on a public records request related to the conference that the outlet believes is still incomplete.
Dairyland Sentinel Publisher Brian Fraley previously told The Center Square that he believes there are minutes and recordings from the conference that should be public records that DPI has not released related to its workshop and that he plans to continue to fight for those records.

(The Center Square) – Many of Wisconsin’s representatives in Congress spent Wednesday talking about something other than Iran.
Most of the state’s eight members of Congress were silent about President Trump’s deal with Iran.
Green Bay-area Republican Tony Wied was the only member of the House to talk about the deal on social media.
“President Trump has made it clear that he does not want endless wars in the Middle East. I completely agree,” he wrote. “Yet as soon as a peace deal emerges, the swamp attacks it. They either want to see America fail or want to see endless wars continue. I want to see this war come to an end, and I am grateful to have a president who is pursuing peace through strength to protect our country and the American people.”
Wisconsin’s two U.S. senators also addressed the deal. They were, as expected, split on the agreement.
“And now he’s claiming victory without a permanent solution in hand,” Democrat Sen. Tammy Baldwin said on Capitol Hill Wednesday. “We are in a worse position than when President Trump started this war. That is why Donald Trump’s ‘wink and nod’ promise is simply not enough.”
Baldwin said she, and her constituents, want a guarantee that the war in Iran is over once and for all.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson on Wednesday said the president’s deal with Iran is “bowing to reality.”
“President Trump recognizes the reality that the Iranian people were not able to overthrow the regime and that Americans would not support a ground war to defeat it. So [the president] made a deal to open the Strait of Hormuz to limit economic damage and carefully monitor the regime’s behavior moving forward,” Johnson wrote on X.
Johnson added that if Iran walks away from the 60-day memorandum of understanding, or doesn’t deliver on its end, the United States can and will act.
“You can always go back in there,” Johnson said.

(The Center Square) – The top seven Democrats running for Wisconsin governor and the candidates to replace Congressman Tom Tiffany in the 7th Congressional District both have televised debates scheduled before the state’s Aug. 11 primary.
Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, current Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, state Rep. Francesca Hong, state Sen. Kelda Roys, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, businessman Joel Brennan and former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. CEO Missy Hughes are all scheduled to take part in a July 28 debate on WISN moderated by WISN 12 News’ journalists Gerron Jordan and Matt Smith.
Hong led a Marquette Law School poll with 14% support, followed by Barnes (11%), Crowley (3%), Rodriguez (3%), Brennan (2%), Roys (1%) and Hughes (1%).
Tiffany is the Republican primary favorite.
The debate between Democrat candidates for the office will be hosted at Weasler Auditorium on the Marquette University campus and will be broadcast on the WISN website along with WISN and partner stations in Green Bay (WBAY), Madison (WKOW), Wausau (WAOW), Eau Claire (WQOW) and La Crosse (WXOW).
“A majority of Wisconsin voters are currently undecided in this primary election, making the debate especially important before people head to the polls,” President and General Manager of WISN 12 Shawn Oswald said in a statement. “Wisconsin voters deserve clear answers about where each candidate stands on the important issues.”
WJFW Newswatch 12 will hold two live debates in July with candidates for the 7th Congressional District.
The Republican debate will be from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on July 7 with Michael Alfonso, Jessi Ebben, and Niina Baum. The station said that Kevin Hermening has not committed to attending.
The Democratic debate will be from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on July 14 with Chris Armstrong, Ginger Murray and Fred Clark attending.
The debates will be broadcast live on WJFW and will include a 10-minute intermission and streamed on the station’s website and Facebook page.
WJFW anchor Dan Hagen will be moderator for both events.
“The last time Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District held an openseat election — with no incumbent on the ballot — was the Special Election in 2020,” WJFW News Director Geoff Weller said in a statement. “District 7 voters deserve clear answers on where each candidate stands on important issues. Two live, 90-minute debates will add clarity to this race.”

(The Center Square) – Kirk Bangstad is moving ahead with his case against the state of Wisconsin over his seized beer.
Bangstad, the one-time Democrat candidate for governor, filed a lawsuit in Dane County court against the state’s Department of Revenue.
His suit accuses the state of treating his beer “differently than substantially identical beer produced within the state of Wisconsin.”
Bangstad is asking the judge for an injunction and to return the nearly $25,000 in beer that DOR agents seized last week.
The Department of Revenue is not commenting on the lawsuit and has not said much about the bust at Bangstad’s taprooms in both Madison and Minocqua.
Bangstad said the state seized the beer because he failed to pay $500 in state excise taxes on his beer that is brewed in Illinois.
Bangstad has claimed that he tried to pay the tax but was not given the opportunity.
Over the weekend, Bangstad wrote on Facebook that he is being targeted by Gov. Tony Evers because he has criticized the governor. Bangstad also claimed that he is being targeted by the Tavern League because of his dislike of Wisconsin’s liquor regulations.
Bangstad doubled-down on those claims in his latest Substack post.
“I’m putting out a call to all breweries, distilleries, and wineries in Wisconsin who have been similarly discriminated against by the Tavern-League-backed Wisconsin Department of Revenue. If we pool our resources, we can better afford this lawsuit that will hopefully even the playing field between Wisconsin’s small producers and the distribution monopolies that keep us down,” Bangstad wrote. “There’s a target on my company’s back for a reason, and that reason is because we’re slowly helping move Wisconsin FORWARD—a direction in which Republicans haven’t allowed us to move for over 20 years.”
Bangstad announced a campaign for governor last month, but that fizzled after the Wisconsin Elections Commission said he did not gather enough valid signatures to make the primary ballot.

(The Center Square) – A federal judge denied former Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan’s request to be acquitted or receive a new trial Tuesday.
District Judge Lynn Adelman denied the appeal, rejecting the three claims from Dugan’s lawyers that would allow for the case to be reheard.
“Defendant argues that ICE was acting as a law enforcement agency here,” Adelman wrote. “But this ignores the fact that, unlike, say, the FBI, ICE can issue its own warrants and adjudicate and effectuate a removal, as it did with Flores-Ruiz, without the involvement of a court.”
Dugan was found guilty of a felony charge of obstruction by a jury in December after she was accused of obstructing the arrest of a defendant in her court by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers outside of her courtroom.
The jury found Dugan not guilty of a misdemeanor charge of concealing related to defendant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who was later arrested on the street outside the courthouse and has since been deported.
Dugan resigned from her judge role after her conviction.

(The Center Square) – Federal officials announced charges Tuesday against eight people accused of defrauding taxpayers of more than $1.3 million through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Among those arrested was a Minneapolis man alleged to have stolen more than $1.1 million in benefits.
The arrests were highlighted as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Tuesday Takedown,” which targeted alleged SNAP fraud schemes ranging from more than $1,000 to more than $1.1 million.
“Steal from SNAP. Get Busted,” USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins wrote on social media Tuesday morning. “These 8 fraudsters thought they could steal food assistance money and get away with it.”
According to the USDA, the largest case involved Abdidwahid Mohamed of Minneapolis, who is accused of defrauding more than $1.1 million from SNAP. Also known as food stamps, SNAP provides food assistance to approximately 40 million low-income Americans and is administered by states with federal funding and oversight from USDA.
The announcement comes less than a week after federal authorities celebrated the first arrest from the FBI’s newly-launched “Most Wanted Fraudsters” list, as previously reported by The Center Square.
Minnesota has come under scrutiny from the Trump administration’s “war on fraud” efforts. Estimates place fraud losses in the state at between $9 billion and $20 billion, and some state officials are even facing criminal investigations tied to allegations they failed to stop widespread taxpayer-funded fraud.
U.S. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has led some of the investigations into fraud in Minnesota. He said on Monday that accountability is coming.
“States can no longer look the other way,” Comer said, applauding federal efforts to pass legislation addressing fraud. “Criminals are being held accountable.”
Rollins identified the eight individuals charged in Tuesday’s announcement as:
• Timesha Fleming of Summerville, South Carolina – $76,502.
• Jenny Quinones of Amsterdam, New York – more than $12,000.
• Tiffany Butler of Sprakers, New York – $50,525.
• Abdidwahid Mohamed of Minneapolis, Minnesota – more than $1.1 million.
• J’Anne Mizro of Auburn, New York – more than $1,000.
• Jennifer Geddings of Sumter, South Carolina – $21,716.
• Lina Orovio-Hernandez of Boston, Massachusetts – $43,348.
• Aisha Carr of Milwaukee, Wisconsin – $2,808.
USDA did not immediately release additional details about the individual cases, though Rollins said the arrests are just the beginning.
“[USDA Food and Nutrition] is coming for everyone attempting to defraud the American taxpayer,” she said.

(The Center Square) – Charlie Berens knows that not everyone agrees with him on data centers.
But the Wisconsin comedian also knows that a lot of people do.
He’s read the polls, he’s done the research and last weekend he was the keynote speaker at the United West Wisconsin regional response to data centers in Eau Claire, attempting to bring the communities together for a common cause.
“I would love to stick with comedy,” Berens told the crowd. “I will stick with comedy as soon as our politicians stick with policy and stop protecting big tech and start protecting the people who put them into office.”
Berens wasn’t the only speaker or only comedian at the event. But he was the most well-known as he followed up speakers like Ed Gorell of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, who said that his group is opposed to allowing data centers to increase local electricity rates, contaminate local water supplies and increase local tax burdens or those that are built on prime farm land.
Gorell went on to list tax increment districts and overuse of the term blight to give data centers breaks that other businesses don’t receive.
Berens cited the recent Marquette Law School poll, which showed that 69% of voters believe the costs of data centers are greater and 30% believing that the benefits are higher.
The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, released Tuesday, found that 62% of voters believe local governments should be cautious while 24% believe that they should encourage new data centers because they create jobs, tax revenue, and support America’s digital economy.
The poll asked voters if they believed data centers can place strain on electricity, water, land and local infrastructure.
A report earlier this year from the American Energy Institute showed that foreign billionaires have provided funding upwards of $39 million to the anti-AI data center movement in the United States, something that Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, told The Center Square earlier this year showed that data center opposition is not “organic or purely local” and that transparency matters with what the report showed.
In Wisconsin, however, opposition has grown related to the four largest projects in the state.
A report earlier this year from Wisconsin’s Legislative Audit Bureau showed that the state will forego $1.5 billion in sales tax to four data center projects in initial construction and then $369 million more annually once the projects are completed.
Wisconsin’s exemption, enacted in the 2023-25 budget, applies to everything from property purchases to computer servers and energy systems at the site to electricity and cooling systems.
The exemptions apply to Microsoft’s $20.6 billion in data centers in Wisconsin along with OpenAI, Oracle and Vantage Data Centers’ $15 billion in data center in Port Washington. Epic Hosting’s $347 million project in Verona and Meta’s $1 billion project in Beaver Dam are also included.
Berens told the crowd that the largest threat to big tech and AI is the organic movement against data centers, because it’s the one thing he believes they can’t buy. He believes that Wisconsin and the federal government need to enact legislation that data centers must follow because “there are more regulations on a bratwurst than the entire artificial intelligence industry.”
“Our politicians have failed us,” Berens said. “They left Madison without passing anything. Could you imagine getting paid to do some work and you show up for work and you leave without doing your job?”
Wisconsin congressman and leading Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany has said that he will end tax breaks for data centers if he is elected governor.
Metro Milwaukee Association of Commerce President Dale Kooyenga, however, has advocated for the continued use of data center sales tax exemptions in Wisconsin, saying that construction workers on the projects are paying income and property taxes that exceed the value of the sales tax exemptions and the projects would not come to the state without the sales tax break.
“As a CPA, it is not a ‘cost’ if you never had the revenue or expense,” Kooyenga wrote. “There is no hole in the budget; in fact, there are more state resources because the policy brought economic activity to WI, and an existing funding stream or expenditure didn’t have to be cut.
“Ratepayers will not subsidize electrical rates, property taxpayers do not subsidize TIFs and a sales tax exemption does not mean that this is ‘costing’ WI taxpayers.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s governor continues to insist his 400-year veto is not a guaranteed tax increase, but education experts say he’s not telling the truth.
Gov. Tony Evers told the crowd at last weekend’s Democrat State Convention that he is proud of his 400-year veto that added $325 per-student to Wisconsin’s school funding formula for the next four centuries.
“Do you know what really gets wound up? When I use my veto pen to do what is best for our kids and our schools,” Evers said to a round of applause. “I guess they’re not as jazzed as I was when I used my veto pen to provide a $325 increase for every student, and every school district for the next 400 years.”
Evers used his veto power back in 2023 to change what was supposed to be a two-year school funding increase into a 400-year school funding hike. A lawsuit immediately followed, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court sided with the governor, and his 400-year veto stood.
Many Republicans blamed the governor’s veto for the double-digit property tax increases that many Wisconsin homeowners saw earlier this year.
On Saturday, Evers said his veto is not to blame.
“Let’s get something straight, my 400-year veto isn’t an automatic property tax increase,” Evers explained. “I know that, because that’s not how the school funding system works in Wisconsin.”
But Will Flanders, an education expert with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, said the governor is not exactly being truthful.
“The governor is trying to hide the reality of this situation by assuming the Legislature could simply provide enough funding to offset the $325 annual increase, and that school boards could choose not to increase spending by that amount. Neither assumption is realistic. There is no plausible scenario in which the Legislature can indefinitely keep pace with the roughly $130,000 in additional spending per student that the governor’s vetoes have put Wisconsin on a path toward. And history shows that few school boards have met a revenue limit increase they don’t like.”
Flanders said Evers essentially created a situation where property taxes are going to have to increase.
“Local property taxpayers will continue to bear the burden of the governor’s 400-year veto. No hypothetical dream scenario can change that reality,” Flanders added.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez led a straw poll in the race for Wisconsin governor released Sunday, followed by state Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, and state Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison.
The poll, conducted by WisPolitics at the Democratic State Convention, showed former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes (41 votes) running sixth behind Rodriguez (164), Hong (138), Roys (114), Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley (78), businessman Joel Brennan (52) and former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. CEO Missy Hughes (10) trailing.
“I look forward to continuing my work to earn support & ask you to join our fight,” Rodriguez posted in response to the poll. “If you want to beat @TomTiffanyWI you’re damn right I am the proven winner who is ready to do it!”
Wisconsin’s primaries will be Aug. 11.
Congressman Tom Tiffany is the favorite to win the Republican nomination with 40% support in a recent Marquette Law School poll, trailed by Andy Manske (6%) with the remainder undecided.
Hong led in that poll with 14% support, followed by Barnes (11%), Crowley (3%), Rodriguez (3%), Brennan (2%), Roys (1%) and Hughes (1%).
Those at the convention also favored former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to be the Democratic nominee for president (102), edging U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (101).
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker was third (81) was the only other candidate that received more than 50 votes.
Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin said that the straw poll results showed that Wisconsin Democrats wanted to double down on failed policies.
“While Democrats’ theme this weekend was Saving the American Dream, Tom Tiffany actually plans to save the American Dream for Wisconsin by repealing the 400-year property tax, protecting farmers, lowering utility rates, and defending education freedom,” AFP-WI State Director Megan Novak said in a statement. “We have a choice in November. Will we continue allowing Madison Democrats to push the American Dream out of reach, or will we put Tom at the helm so we can right the ship and make Wisconsin a beacon of freedom in the Midwest?”

(The Center Square) – Kirk Bangstad is accusing Wisconsin’s governor of playing politics with the seizure of beer from two of his taprooms.
Bangstad, the one-time candidate for governor, over the weekend said the state’s Department of Revenue seized about $25,000 worth of beer because the beer is brewed out of state, saying he didn’t have the proper permits, and he didn’t pay the correct taxes.
“Now that our beer is mostly being made in Illinois, we build a refrigerated warehouse in Madison to be able to distribute it throughout Wisconsin from a central location. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue alcohol enforcement division tells us we need a permit to store beer at that warehouse,” Bangstad wrote on Facebook. “All in all, they probably took $25K worth of beer from us yesterday and haven’t put it under refrigeration to keep it fresh – all because we weren’t allowed to pay approximately $500 in Wisconsin excise taxes.”
Bangstad claimed he tried to pay the tax, but he said the state refused to accept it.
The Department of Revenue confirmed that Bangstad is under investigation and told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that state law prohibits beer brewed in Illinois to be sold in Wisconsin without a permit or license.
Bangstad argued that those state laws are unfair.
“Every one of the issues that led to my beer being seized yesterday stemmed from me simply trying to sell my beer online to Wisconsinites and customers around the country that want to buy it. If the Department of Revenue Alcohol Enforcement Division was able to relax these laws during Covid, with statistics showing that no harm was done to folks having beer delivered to their doorstep versus driving to a store to buy it, they shouldn’t be dropping the hammer on breweries that want to do it today,” Bangstad said.
Bangstad also said he is suing to get his beer back.
“The Minocqua Brewing Company has sued Wisconsin’s Department of Revenue over their seizure of approximately $25K of our beer. We had to act quickly – not only because our beer will spoil if left unrefrigerated, but because we will go bankrupt if we don’t have beer to sell during Minocqua’s busy summer tourism season,” he wrote.
And then Bangstad got political.
“We also suspect that the Department of Revenue’s actions last week were just the first steps in attempting to revoke our brewer’s permit and put us permanently out of business – not because we’re breaking laws, but because we’ve successfully angered the politically-influential alcohol distributors in Wisconsin’s Tavern League by selling our beer online, and because I’ve relentlessly criticized the Department of Revenue’s ultimate boss – Gov. Tony Evers – for being asleep at the wheel while Trump steamrolls American Democracy,” Bangstad posted on Facebook.
Neither the governor nor the Tavern League have commented on Bangstad’s claims.

(The Center Square) – A conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice once again called the court’s decision to hear an appeal of a three-judge panel’s ruling on the state’s congressional maps an “activist court” doing the “bidding of its political masters.”
The court stated it would hear a second congressional map challenge and did so while acknowledging that it’s uncertain whether it has the authority to review the rulings of a three-judge panel assigned to the case.
The order in the Elizabeth Bothfeld v. Wisconsin Elections Commission case comes less than two weeks after a similar ruling in a case filed by the Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy.
“The Democratic Party bought multiple seats on this court to achieve yet another outcome unobtainable democratically,” Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote in dissent. “Like last time, the United States Supreme Court will likely reverse the majority’s unlawful ruling and protect our Republic. No kings. No queens either.”
Both cases argue that Wisconsin’s current maps were gerrymandered and created in an unconstitutional way.
The Bothfeld case was rejected by a panel including Dane County Judge Julie Genovese, Milwaukee County Judge Mark Sanders and Outagamie County Judge Emily Lonergan.
The originally drawn maps were challenged after the 2020 U.S. Census and four maps were submitted to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, including maps from Gov. Tony Evers and the state’s Republican Congress members. Ultimately, the court chose Evers’ maps.
“We acknowledge that there is an unresolved question as to whether an ‘appeal’ from a final decision or order of a panel in an apportionment challenge is a matter of right or a matter of this court’s discretion,” the order to hear the case stated. “We conclude that it is not necessary to resolve this issue in this case because it will not affect the outcome.”
The minority of conservative judges disagree and, in dissent, wrote that the court should have analyzed if it had standing to review the case before hearing it.
“Entertaining Bothfeld’s previously rejected theory to once again overturn a map that was already ordered by this court, well outside the court’s normal constitutional boundaries, smacks of judicial overreach,” Justice Annette Ziegler wrote in dissent, joined by Bradley. “Moreover, this order will not be published, thus limiting accessibility of the public. This is an unprecedented matter of public import, and every effort should be made to make the public aware of this issue.”

(The Center Square) – Kirk Bangstad is aiming his anger at Wisconsin’s election managers.
Bangstad posted a lengthy takedown of the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Facebook.
“The Wisconsin Elections Commission denied ballot access to dozens of candidates in one vote, based on the recommendations of the WEC staff alone. One of those candidacies was my own for governor of Wisconsin,” Bangstad said.
The Elections Commission ruled Bangstad did not submit enough valid signatures. He needed 2,000 valid signatures to make the August primary ballot, but the Commission said he was about 500 short.
Bangstad claimed he tried to fix the mistakes, but said the commission still denied him ballot access.
“We spent an entire week reaching out to dozens of Wisconsinites who circulated our nomination forms and had them sign notarized affidavits correcting errors that the WEC claimed were reasons the signatures weren’t counted in the first place. We filed those affidavits before last Sunday’s deadline,” Bangstad added. “Before we accept that we’re officially off the ballot, I want to personally see how many affidavits we submitted that were officially rejected and why.”
Bangstad also logged some personal complaints against commission members.
He said three commissioners should have recused themselves from his case.
“Corporate Democrat Ann Jacobs should have recused herself from that vote because she publicly called me an antisemite after I wrote an article criticizing Jewish Federal Judge Lynn Adelman,” Bangstad wrote. “I believe Mark Thomsen, another corporate Democrat from Milwaukee on the WEC board, should have recused himself from a vote to kick me off the ballot because he told me personally in a text message that he was supporting another corporate Democrat from Milwaukee for governor.”
Bangstad also said that commissioner Bob Spindell should have stepped away because “he purposefully attempted to steal Biden’s victory over Trump in our state.”
Bangstad has threatened to sue to get on the ballot. On Thursday, he clarified.
“Obviously, there are some big hurdles I’ll have to climb to get on this ballot, and they will probably involve suing the WEC staff and/or the WEC board. I’m not sure it will be worth the effort, but I’m sure as hell not going to give up before I’ve seen the data and before I have a legal opinion on my theory on why these board members should recuse themselves,” Bangstad added. “Stay tuned for more quixotic windmill tilting in the name of protecting elections and saving American democracy.”

(The Center Square) – Politicians and the Wisconsin Department of Tourism touted new numbers this week that they say justify the $34 million in new spending in the state’s most recent budget to promote tourism in the state while making the state’s Office of Outdoor Recreation permanent and funding a new film office that includes a $5 million film tax credit.
The numbers, however, come from marketing group Tourism Economics which economists have said does not follow economic principles and the numbers are not reputable.
The same company filed a report on the claimed economic impact of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee that economist Victor Matheson of the College of the Holy Cross called a “promotional booklet/press release, not a serious economic impact study.”
Rather than being true economic studies that are peer-reviewed and published in journals, the reports are sent in marketing flyers that are then sent out in press releases by government entities hoping to benefit from the claims.
This year, the marketing report again claimed the state’s tourism industry had record numbers of visits, economic impact and both state and local tax revenue.
“Wisconsin’s tourism industry isn’t just growing, it’s booming,” Gov. Tony Evers said in a news release touting the numbers. “And the proof’s in the pudding, with four consecutive record-breaking years, including generating a record $27 billion last year alone.
“These numbers are a big deal for our state, our economy, and the countless hardworking folks in the industry who make it all happen – the folks who work each day to promote our state as the premier place to visit and explore, as well as the tour guides, waiters, restaurateurs, hoteliers, and the friendly faces in communities all across our state that keep folks coming back for one more adventure in Wisconsin year after year.”

(The Center Square) – One of Wisconsin’s Republican congressmen is leading the questions about how many NFL fans are being left out by games on streaming services.
Southeast Wisconsin Congressman Scott Fitzgerald led the Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on The Sports Broadcasting Act on Wednesday afternoon.
“When the NFL came to Congress in 1961 they warned that smaller teams wouldn’t survive if the league could not pool their broadcast rights. So, they created shared revenue,” Fitzgerald said during the hearing. “But today, professional sports leagues are amongst the most profitable in the world. Is it safe to say that the survival of professional sports is no longer dependent on a special exemption from Congress?”
Congress held the hearing because of complaints from fans that they now need several streaming services and have to spend hundreds of dollars a year to watch all of their favorite teams.
The NFL, for example, has games on broadcast TV, as well as games on YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and Peacock.
The 1961 Sports Broadcasting Act requires the NFL to provide games on broadcast TV, essentially for free. The NFL claims it still does, pointing out that 87% of games are available on broadcast TV.
But Fitzgerald said that means 13% of games are not.
“To me the straw that kinda broke the camel’s back was when the NFL signed a contract with Netflix,” Fitzgerald added. “At that point, I think, they went from pushing on the edge of the law to jumping head first through it.”
There is a unique Wisconsin tie to this hearing.
When NFL games are on streaming, fans in their team’s home market can watch them on broadcast TV. But in Wisconsin, that means only fans in the Green Bay and Milwaukee markets can get the games for free. Fans in Madison, Eau Claire, La Crosse, and northern Wisconsin are blacked out.
You also have some other Packer fans who are blacked out of broadcast games as well. Some people in northwestern Wisconsin are included in the Minneapolis TV market, and they get Minnesota Vikings games. There are also some fans near the Upper Pennisula who are in a Michigan TV market and get Lions games.
Wisconsin Democrat U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin has tried to fix that issue for years with her Go Pack Go Act that would allow all fans in Wisconsin to watch the Packers on their local TV stations.

(The Center Square) – A Pittsville mother has reached a settlement that includes legal fees and recognition of her free speech rights after she received a cease-and-desist letter and a visit from police to her home following a video she posted on social media stating that she was considering homeschooling her disabled daughter after she was pushed aside at a holiday school concert.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty represented Amanda Vogel and reached a settlement acknowledging that the video was seen by millions online and the commentary was protected by First Amendment rights. The settlement calls for a $15,000 payment to fees.
The district rescinded its cease-and-desist notice.
“When the police showed up at my door because of a social media post, it was shocking and overwhelming,” Vogel said in a statement. “I hope this settlement ensures that no other parents have to feel that way just for sharing their family’s story. At the heart of all of this was my desire to advocate for my daughter and to encourage a conversation about treating every child with dignity and respect. I hope this outcome helps protect both the right of parents to speak openly and the importance of ensuring that all children feel valued and supported.”
The Pittsville School District had threatened a defamation lawsuit and initially refused to acknowledge wrongdoing.
“The First Amendment does not disappear when a parent criticizes a school district,” WILL Deputy Counsel Cory Brewer said in a statement. “Our client exercised her constitutional right to share her family’s experience and explain why she chose to homeschool her daughter. The school district has now acknowledged that her speech was protected and has withdrawn its legal threats. WILL continues to fight, and win, on behalf of parents when they, or their rights, are threatened by government overreach.”
The district acknowledge that involving the Chief of Police, who serves as the District’s School Resource Officer, with two visits to her home could have been seen as intimidating.

(The Center Square) – The Institute for Reforming Government has filed a lawsuit claiming that Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction violated the state’s Open Meetings Act when it failed to post agendas, keep minutes or notify the public of committee meetings at a 2024 Forward Exam standards-setting conference in the Wisconsin Dells.
DPI spent nearly $369,000 on the conference, which was run by contractor Data Recognition Corp. as part of a nearly $80 million, 10-year contract with Wisconsin to operate its testing and create the Forward Exam.
The lawsuit was filed by the Wisconsin Transparency Project on behalf of IRG.
IRG’s General Counsel and Director of its Center for Investigative Oversight Jake Curtis told The Center Square in February that he believed the 88-member standards-setting group filled with school employees and leaders fits the exact definition of an Ad Hoc Committee and that meetings of that committee should be public and not subject to the non-disclosure agreements signed by conference attendees.
IRG previously asked the Adams County District Attorney to take action with an Open Meetings Act verified complaint and it did not, leading to the lawsuit.
“DPI cannot lower academic standards in secret and simply expect parents and students to accept the outcome,” Curtis said in a statement. “Taxpayers funded this process, but DPI shut them out. The DA’s silence left us no choice but to pursue legal action — Wisconsin families deserve to know how and why decisions about their children’s education are being made behind closed doors.”
Dairyland Sentinel has asked Wisconsin’s Department of Justice to intervene on a public records request related to the conference that the outlet believes is still incomplete.
Dairyland Sentinel Publisher Brian Fraley previously told The Center Square that he believes there are minutes and recordings from the conference that should be public records that DPI has not released related to its workshop and that he plans to continue to fight for those records.
“The DPI holds a massive contract with DRC to manage the Forward Exam,” Fraley told The Center Square. “However, the Department cannot use a private vendor to shield itself from public records requests, nor can they use that vendor to prevent citizens from seeing the inner workings of public meetings that altered state education policy.”
DPI Superintendent Jill Underly did not attend an April committee meeting about the conference, but did have private meetings she attended instead that day.
DPI representatives were adamant that the work of the 88-member committee was not subject to open meetings or open records disclosure because it was setup by vendor Data Recognition Corp.