(The Center Square) – Democrats at the Wisconsin Capitol are pushing ahead with their latest climate plan.
Several lawmakers recently introduced what they are calling the Forward on Climate package. It contains more than a dozen plans to do everything from plant more trees, to encourage more sustainable farming, to green energy.
“Wisconsinites are already facing fluctuations in regular weather patterns, including heat waves, worsening floods, and changes in the annual snowfall. We must work to combat the threats of climate change now while also preparing our state for the future,” Rep. Jill Billings, D-Madison, said.
All of the plans came from Gov. Tony Evers’ Task Force on Climate Change. It’s unlikely any of the plans will get a hearing as long as Republicans control the state legislature.
Top Assembly Democrat Greta Neubauer said the package is necessary.
“Our lives, and every generation from here on out, will be affected by climate change. That’s why we need to take action now to secure our shared future and build a resilient economy and state,” she said in a statement. “Our planet is changing. Human activity is affecting weather patterns, growing seasons, and our economy. We’re already feeling it in Wisconsin, from stronger storms to rising costs for weatherization, and it’s time for us to act.”
There are specific pieces of legislation to allow the Public Service Commission to create a program where utilities could “finance” home improvements for customers. Things like HVAC upgrades, solar panel installation, or other energy upgrades could be added to a customer’s bill, which they would then pay off over time.
There are also proposals to spend $1.8 million on new county conservation corps positions and create a new Wisconsin Climate Corps program, and would require the Department of Natural Resources to report the potential environmental impact of any project that needs a DNR approval.
Critics of the plan, however, say nothing in the package will impact global temperatures or pollution, but they say the package will make things in Wisconsin much more expensive.

(The Center Square) – New wedding barn regulations set to go in place Jan. 1 were the subject of lawsuit that was thrown out in Trempealeau County court last month and is now the subject of a bill that would change the restrictions.
The new regulations limit many wedding barns to being rented out just six times per year and once a month for events where alcohol is consumed.
But the new bill would raise that total to 36 events per year.
The bill is sponsored by three Democrats – Sen. Mark Spreitzer, Reps. Clinton Anderson and Jenna Jacobson along with Sen. Andre Jacque, R-New Franklin.
“I just got married, and I know firsthand how quickly wedding costs are rising,” Anderson said in a statement. “Family-run farm venues allow couples to celebrate without breaking the bank while providing Wisconsin farmers with a critical source of income. This bill is a common-sense fix that keeps weddings affordable and helps farms stay afloat, while undoing the damage 2023 Act 73 did to this industry.”
The previous lawsuit aiming to overturn the law was filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on behalf of the Farmview Event Barn in Berlin and Monarch Valley Weddings and Events in Blair.
“Hosting low-cost weddings in our barn allows us to pay for maintenance and updates of our home and farm equipment to keep our farm up and running,” Farmview Event Barn owner Jean Bahn said in a statement.
Many farm owners said the new law would force them to cut their total number of events each year by as much as 75%.

(The Center Square) – A financial audit of Wisconsin state government accounting found issues with nearly $900 million in alterations made to Department of Transportation assumptions, issues with the documentation of interest earned on federal funds and found that the state’s Department of Administration has not properly followed guidance on properly monitoring information technology security across state government.
The leaders of the state’s Legislative Audit Bureau – Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, and Rep. Robert Wittke, R-Caledonia – released the audit while pointing to Gov. Tony Evers using his veto power to remove four additional auditors from the most recent state budget.
“The Wisconsin DOT made a nearly $1 billion mistake, and it was only caught because of the oversight by legislative auditors,” Wimberger and Wittke said in a statement. “This highlights the critical oversight role that the Legislature provides for the people of Wisconsin, and once again proves how short-sighted Governor Evers’ veto of four new auditor positions was.”
The audit also pointed out that a new University of Wisconsin enterprise resource planning system has a potential to lead to future financial reporting delays.
“State agencies must be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, and providing accurate and complete financial statements is a major part in good governance,” the leaders said in a statement. “We understand that mistakes happen, but the same mistakes happening year after year raises significant concerns. We look forward to following up with agency leaders to ensure their full compliance with state law.”
In all, Wisconsin earned $185.5 million in interest from the federal coronavirus recovery funds sent to the state for distribution and the state is allowed to spend those funds as it chooses but the funds need to be credited to the state’s general fund.
Wimberger has been outspoken over the past year over the interest funds, saying they need to be appropriately added to the state’s general fund and not be held by Evers or the Department of Administration.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s attorney general doesn’t seem to be looking to cooperate with two investigations, one that involves his office directly.
Attorney General Josh Kaul told the hosts of UpFront that he will not cooperate with the
Trump Administration’s investigation into Wisconsin’s voter rolls.
“What the federal government is doing here is preposterous,” Kaul said. “This is again a conspiracy theory that the Trump administration is chasing.”
The Justice Department has asked all states for unredacted voter lists, including names, addresses and Social Security numbers.
The White House says they are trying to make sure that illegal immigrants aren’t voting.
Wisconsin’s Elections Commission has told the Justice Department that state law bans them from sharing unredacted voter lists. That law specifically outlaws sharing things like Social Security numbers.
Kaul, however, said the idea that illegals are voting in Wisconsin is far- fetched.
“We have had reviews of our elections in Wisconsin over and over and over again, and what they consistently show is that our elections are free and fair,” Kaul added. “The Trump administration can go online and purchase information about voters in Wisconsin just like anybody else can, but what they’re asking for is personally identifying information.”
Kaul said the Justice Department is likely going to have to settle that investigation in court.
Kaul is a little less certain about the Wisconsin Senate’s new oversight committee that is investigating his special environmental prosecutors. He did not say he will not work with Republicans in the Senate, but he didn’t sound enthusiastic to cooperate.
“We are going to review the document request that we received,” Kaul said. “And we are going to make an appropriate response based on what’s in there. Here’s what I can say, though. We are happy to talk about the work that we do at the Wisconsin Department of Justice to protect clean air and clean water.”
Republicans in the State Senate want to see communications between Kaul and the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center at New York University. That center is funded by Michael Bloomberg, and lawmakers say they’re worried Kaul is using outside money from outside groups to drive environmental prosecutions in Wisconsin.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Republican Assembly leaders say they will begin impeachment proceedings if Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan does not resign from her post immediately following a felony obstruction conviction Thursday evening.
Dugan was found guilty of obstructing as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were attempting to arrest a defendant in her court outside of the courtroom.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August, R-Walworth, sent a statement Friday noting that the last Wisconsin judge was impeached in 1853 but that the Assembly would begin impeachment proceedings if Dugan doesn’t resign.
Dugan’s legal team indicated Thursday that she would appeal the jury’s decision.
“Under a 1976 Attorney General Opinion, Democrat Bronson La Follette stated that when a State Senator was convicted of a felony, a vacancy was created, and the Senator ‘was effectually divested of any right or title to the office. His status with reference to the office was fixed at the time of his conviction,’ the leaders wrote. “Such is the case here, and Judge Dugan must recognize that the law requires her resignation.
“Wisconsinites deserve to know their judiciary is impartial and that justice is blind. Judge Hannah Dugan is neither, and her privilege of serving the people of Wisconsin has come to an end.”
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.
The obstruction charge could lead to up to five years in prison.
The Assembly leaders cited the Wisconsin constitution, which says “‘[n]o person convicted of a felony, in any court within the United States, no person convicted in federal court of a crime designated, at the time of commission, under federal law as a misdemeanor involving a violation of public trust and no person convicted, in a court of a state, of a crime designated, at the time of commission, under the law of the state as a misdemeanor involving a violation of public trust shall be eligible to any office of trust, profit or honor in this state unless pardoned of the conviction.”
“While we are disappointed in today’s outcome, the failure of the prosecution to secure convictions on both counts demonstrates the opportunity we have to clear Judge Dugan’s name and show she did nothing wrong in the matter,” her legal team said after the verdict was read. “We have planned for this potential outcome and our defense of Judge Dugan is just beginning.”

(The Center Square) – Nearly a year after Milwaukee Public Schools began the work to clean lead out of its school buildings, the district says its classrooms are now lead-free.
MPS said crews finished the last of the lead remediation in the 99th and final school that had lead-based paint.
“This is an important milestone for the MPS community,” MPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said. “We have asked so much of our students, families, and staff over the past 10 months as we addressed this issue with the urgency it required…because of the hard work of so many dedicated teams in our district – we can move forward with the peace of mind that our schools are safe.”
MPS had to move students or close parts of six entire school buildings because the lead contamination in those buildings was so bad. The other 90-plus schools had some lead paint, but students were allowed to continue with classes while the work unfolded.
In all, MPS says it cleaned 2,700 classrooms or common areas in those school buildings.
Cassellius had set a Dec. 31 deadline to finish the lead remediation. She said MPS is nearly two weeks ahead of schedule.
MPS’ lead problems were decades in the making. Lead-based paint has been banned in the United States since the 1970s, but it wasn’t until earlier this year that anyone flagged MPS schools. That came after Milwaukee’s health department reported that a handful of children tested positive for elevated levels of lead in their blood.
Cassellius said she has added both cleaning and maintenance crews to the MPS payroll to monitor and clean up any lead they find going forward. That includes “39 new school-based custodial positions, four new district operations managers who are in schools daily and report concerns immediately, [and] Environmental Health & Safety staff who will continually monitor lead safety by conducting regular checks.”

(The Center Square) – Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan was found guilty of a felony charge of obstruction by a jury Thursday in a case involving the judge’s actions related to a defendant in her court that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were attempting to arrest outside of the courtroom.
The jury returned the verdict at 8:38 p.m. Central Time.
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.
The obstruction charge could lead to up to a $100,000 fine and a year in prison.
“While we are disappointed in today’s outcome, the failure of the prosecution to secure convictions on both counts demonstrates the opportunity we have to clear Judge Dugan’s name and show she did nothing wrong in the matter,” her legal team said. “We have planned for this potential outcome and our defense of Judge Dugan is just beginning.”
Video from the courthouse depicts Dugan speaking with ICE officers in the hallway outside her courtroom and defendant Flores-Ruiz walking through a back hallway with a person identified in an affidavit as his attorney before heading to an elevator and then being chased down and arrested on the street outside of the courthouse.

(The Center Square) – A group of Wisconsin lawmakers are working to add homeless shelters to a list of sites where drug dealing charges will be enhanced by adding up to five years to the maximum term of imprisonment.
Wisconsin currently enhances drug delivery, distribution and intent to distribute charges within 1,000 feet of a park, jail, multi-family housing project, public swimming pool, youth or community center or alcohol/drug abuse treatment center.
Senate Bill 610 would add homeless shelters to that list.
“Homeless shelters serve some of the most vulnerable Wisconsinites including men, women, and children who rely on these facilities for safety, stability, and a path toward recovery or independence. Unfortunately, shelters can become prime targets for drug dealers seeking to prey on that perceived vulnerability,” said Sen. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, a sponsor of the bill.
The American Civil Liberties Union lobbied against the bill and wrote a letter opposing it for the bill’s public hearing in front of the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, saying “In densely populated urban areas, a 1000-foot radius around these enumerated locations often overlaps to the point where an entire city becomes a ‘drug-free zone.’”
The bill will next head to a vote in the Senate committee before reaching the full Senate.
The ACLU said that these enhancements have not proven to deter drug activity in areas around homeless shelters.
“While this bill has a laudable goal—protecting vulnerable individuals seeking shelter and other services from homeless service providers—we have concerns about the unintended consequences of this proposal that diverge from this goal,” the group wrote.

(The Center Square) – People continue to pay a premium for homes across most of Wisconsin.
The latest Wisconsin Realtors Report, this time for November, shows a slight drop in home sales compared to November 2024, though sales continue to grow since January. It also shows the median price for a home in Wisconsin crept-up another few thousand dollars.
“Existing home sales [were] down 9.2% year-over-year, the first monthly decline since May,” Realtors wrote in their report. “Year-to-date sales are up 1.5%. Median prices rose 4.8% to $325,000 in November, while inventory grew 3.7%.”
More than 5,000 homes sold in November, and again more than half of those sales happened in either southeast Wisconsin or in the Madison/Dane County area. Those two parts of the state accounted for 53% of all homes sold in the state.
Though the Realtors note the year-to-year sales drop off was larger in urban areas across the state.
The median price of $325,000 is also a statewide number. Once again, the Madison-area in south central Wisconsin saw the most expensive homes last month. The median price there hit $374,900, while the median price in southeast Wisconsin was $335,500.
The Realtors’ report shows that most of the homes sold in Wisconsin this year are less than $350,000.
Realtors president Tom Larson said he sees some good news in the numbers from November.
“While affordability remains a challenge, we did see progress in November, and there are some promising trends. Mortgage rates continue to trend downward, and the annual rate of home price appreciation averaged just 5.5% through the first 11 months of the year,” Larson said in a statement.
“We hope these trends continue and lead to sustained improvements in affordability in 2026.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin-based Menards has agreed to pay a combined $4.25 million to settle a lawsuit from 10 states related to deceptive marketing for its 11% rebate.
The states attorneys argued that the Eau Claire retailer misled consumers in some cases that the 11% rebate would be a discount that customers would receive at checkout instead of a rebate that needed to be mailed in and returned for a later store credit.
The company agreed to make payments to Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio and South Dakota.
It also agreed to several terms, including allowing one year for customers to return rebate forms and investigating how to create an option for consumers to safely and securely submit rebates online instead of mailing in the forms and receipts.
“Menards’ deceptive marketing left many customers believing they were getting a discount, when, in fact, the store was only offering an in-store credit for future purchases,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement. “Customers deserve to know what they will be charged when they make a purchase, without deceptive deals and fine print. I’m pleased that this settlement requires Menards to end these practices, and I will continue to work to ensure Illinois consumers are treated fairly.”
Menards agreed to pay Wisconsin $450,000 and Illinois nearly $947,000, Iowa nearly $447,000 while each of the 10 states will receive payments.

(The Center Square) – A group of three women protesting before being handcuffed and receiving citations at a Port Washington Common Council meeting included one who landed a kick on Police Chief Kevin Hingiss and another who shouted obscenities at council members.
The group was protesting the $8 billion Vantage data center project in Port Washington. Those arrested included Christine Le Jeune, Julianne Wanderer and Paula Butler, according to police reports obtained by The Center Square through a public records request.
The three received tickets for disorderly conduct.
Le Jeune spoke at the meeting and then shouted “shame” and “recall” as she headed to her seat.
Video from the meeting showed Hingiss approaching Le Jeune in the audience and asking her to leave.
“Prior to the meeting, City Attorney Nugent addressed the public crowd, establishing the rules and guidelines for decorum throughout the meeting,” Officer James Mejchar wrote in his report. “The crowd was asked to remain respectful and let everyone speak without interruption. The crowd was warned that disruption of the meeting could result in their removal.”
Mejchar and Hingiss wrote in the report that Le Jeune landed a kick
Police Captain Craig Czarnecki wrote that Wanderer left the seating area “and was now approaching the council, yelling at them and I was later informed by council members she was using profanity and calling them names. I could hear her yelling and saw her gesturing and heard her say shame.”
Police said that two of the individuals arrested were released at the scene and “a third was released from the Police Department after obstructing the arresting officer by initially refusing to identify herself.”
Police say that, as they were attempting to take Le Jeune into custody, the other two interfered.
“Two other female subjects who were ultimately identified as Paula Butler and Julianne Wanderer, positioned themselves between officers and Le Jeune. Wanderer grabbed a hold of Le Jeune’s right arm and tried to keep her arm away from officers while Butler positioned herself along Le Jeune’s left side,” Mejchar wrote. “While Le Jeune was laying on her back, facing the ceiling, Butler laid across Le Jeune’s torso, obstructing officers’ ability to successfully take Le Jeune into custody.”

(The Center Square) – There is a plan at the Wisconsin Capitol to have the state pick up where Wisconsin Eye left off.
Wisconsin Eye, which has essentially been the C-SPAN of Wisconsin, ended its video service this week because of a lack of donations. That means the public will no longer have the same access to legislative floor session broadcasts, or to the daily committee hearings and news conferences that WisEye broadcasted.
This week, a pair of Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation to have state government takeover.
“WisconsinEye’s shutdown caused an immediate and unacceptable loss of public access to state government – including meetings happening this week which will not be recorded or broadcast at all. Unless we take action, the legislature’s floor sessions in 2026 will not be publicly accessible and will not be recorded for the future,” Sen. Mark Spreitzer said in a statement.
“[My] important legislation will ensure continuous, nonpartisan public access to state government for the people of Wisconsin.”
Spreitzer is not saying how much his plan would cost. WisEye said it would need almost $900,000 to keep its service going for just one year.
State government already has some photographers on the payroll, and Wisconsin has a large IT staff, but it’s unclear if there are enough camera operators available to continue WisEye’s work.
Spreitzer, however, is framing the issue as government transparency, not a government cost.
“The loss of coverage that we have seen in the last [week] hours is simply unacceptable,” Spreitzer said on Facebook. “We must ensure that our government remains transparent and that the people of Wisconsin have access to their state government. Public access should not be dependent on the generosity of donors.”
Rep. Brienne Brown, D-Whitewater, said pretty much the same thing.
“As a former investigative journalist, I know that free, unedited access to footage of legislators is not a luxury, it’s a necessity for accountability. At a time when local newsrooms are collapsing and misinformation spreads faster than facts, cutting off public access only deepens the crisis,” she added. “It is more important than ever that we allow our constituents direct access to the work we are doing in Madison.”
Brown wrote for stratfor.com, which focuses on international policy, military readiness, and foreign affairs before making her way to the Wisconsin legislature.

(The Center Square) – Settlement of $1.25 million will be paid by a Wisconsin country club receiving an improper paycheck protection program loan.
Westmoor Country Club in Brookfield was not eligible for the loan because it is a private club that limited its membership for reasons other than capacity.
The settlement was similar to a $1 million settlement with the University Club of Milwaukee settled on Dec. 13, 2024.
“The favorable settlement in this case is the product of enhanced efforts by federal agencies such as the Small Business Administration working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and other federal law enforcement agencies to recover the product of this fraud as well as penalties,” Small Business Administration General Counsel Wendell Davis said in a statement.
The country club applied and received a $755,471 loan, according to ProPublica data.
“While the settlement resolves the government’s allegations against Westmoor Country Club with respect to its PPP loan, the club does not admit liability and no court has made any determination as to liability,” according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin lawmakers will investigate claims Attorney General Josh Kaul is pursuing an anti-oil agenda with the help of an assistant paid for by an advocacy group.
The arrangement is at the center of a lawsuit filed by Wisconsin dairy-farming groups who call the relationship “repugnant.” Like other AGs around the country, Kaul, a Democrat, has taken in a special assistant to focus on climate-change litigation whose salary is paid by a Bloomberg Philanthropies-funded program at the NYU School of Law.
The Wisconsin Senate Committee on Organization announced a Special Committee on Oversight of the Department of Justice. Its job is to perform an investigation into “external influences affecting the Wisconsin Department of Justice.’
A final report will be in by April 14.
“The people of Wisconsin deserve transparency and accountability from every corner of their government,” Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said.
“This special committee will ensure that the Department of Justice, an agency created and funded by the Legislature, is operating within its statutory authority and serving the public interest – not the agenda of third parties or outside organizations.”
Dozens of climate lawsuits have been pushed by state, city and county officials who hired private lawyers working on contingency fees. President Donald Trump has forbidden any more lawsuits against the oil industry in an executive order.
The state of Wisconsin has not filed one, though it remains active in climate matters. In September, it joined a coalition of states opposing the rollback of EPA emissions standards.
Challenges to the Bloomberg-funded prosecutors in other states focused on communications between AG offices and the NYU School of Law State Energy and Environmental Impact Center. Last year, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Kaul hired Karen Heinemen with an annual salary of $90,000 to be paid by the NYU program.
Complaining of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “far-left” agenda, the dairy groups said in their Calumet County lawsuit, which is still pending, that, “such an arrangement between a special interest group and a Republican attorney general would be just as outrageous and unlawful.”
“It is not difficult to imagine how a ‘Second Amendment Fellow’ deputized as a (special assistant attorney general) by the Gun Owners of America would be received,” the complaint adds. “Or an ‘Anti-Abortion Fellow’ empowered to act on behalf of the State while being paid by the National Right to Life.”
Republican members of Congress earlier this year announced an investigation into the NYU program, with Kentucky’s James Comer, the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, questioning the motives.
Environmental litigation can take many forms, but the biggest target is currently Big Oil, which has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put an end to the approximately 40 cases it faces nationwide.
Judges in South Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Delaware and Pennsylvania have found the cases involve questions of international emissions standards better left to the federal government.
Dozens of lawsuits remain pending. Colorado’s and Hawaii’s supreme courts refused to grant motions to dismiss cases there, and the Colorado case is the one that will possibly be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Lawyers crafted their complaints to keep them out of federal courts, where companies like Exxon and Chevron had stronger defenses. The lawsuits allege violations of state laws of consumer protection and public nuisance and allege the public wouldn’t have used as many fossil fuels as it did had the industry been more honest about their effect on the environment.
Bucks County, Pa., judge Stephen Corr noted that the county’s complaint used the word “emissions” more than 100 times, while “deceptive” and “deception” were used only 39 times combined. He threw out the case as an attempt to regulate the international emissions market masked in consumer protection.
Judge Videtta Brown, in Baltimore’s case, said the litigation goes beyond the limits of Maryland law, or whatever states other cases are filed in.
“This Court holds that the U.S. Constitution’s federal structure does not allow the application of state court claims like those presented in the instant cases,” Judge Steven Platt wrote in tossing Annapolis’ case.
“The States such as Plaintiffs here… can participate in the efforts to limit emissions collaboratively, but not in the form of litigation… If states and municipalities [or] even private parties are dissatisfied with the federal rulemaking or the outcome of cases, they may seek federal court review.”