(The Center Square) – Catholic Charities are to be granted religious exemption to unemployment taxes, the Wisconsin Supreme Courtruled Monday.
Attorney General Josh Kaul had asked the court to eliminate the exemption after the U.S. Supeme Court had ruled in June that Catholic Charities qualified.
Nineteen state attorneys general had supported the Catholic Charities case in a letter before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled.
Monday’s order noted the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled on the case and sent further action on the case back to the Wisconsin bench to make further rulings that were consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Therefore, it wrote, Catholic Charities “is eligible for the religious purposes exemption to unemployment taxation” and the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered the Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission to make Catholic Charities eligible for the exemption.
“After decades of fighting for a statutorily available religious exemption, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has affirmed the religious liberty of the Diocese of Superior Catholic Charities Bureau,” David Earleywine, Wisconsin Catholic Conference Associate Director for Education & Religious Liberty, said in a statement. “As the WCC has previously stated, true Catholic charity is inherently religious and cannot be reduced to another secular social service.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin all-terrain and utility task vehicle drivers now must follow Wisconsin laws on where they can drive the vehicles and must pay trail registration fees regardless of where the vehicle is registered.
The bill was recently signed into law by Gov. Tony Evers and it became Wisconsin Act 64.
The law requires any ATV or UTV to follow state law based upon how Wisconsin would classify the vehicle regardless of what the title says for the state where the vehicle is registered.
Lawmakers said the goal of the bill was to close a loophole where Wisconsin UTV and ATV owners would register a vehicle in South Dakota and Montana but drive it in Wisconsin.
“They’re contacting people in Wisconsin and saying ‘Hey, if you register your UTV to an LLC in Montana or South Dakota, we can license that as a motor vehicle, not as an ATV or UTV,’” sponsor Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, said during a public hearing on the bill. “And, because of that, they tell Wisconsin residents that you can now use this motor vehicle on any road in the state of Wisconsin.”
The current system of UTV and ATV routes and trails in the state and laws on using those vehicles are locally regulated and usage is determined on the local level.
The new law allows nonresidents access to all Wisconsin ATV and UTV trails and approved routes with a nonresident trail pass.
The registration system is a tax that allows ATV and UTV owners to pay their way by paying for the trail system, Wisconsin ATV Association President Randy Harden said during a public hearing. This means it is important that out-of-state vehicle owners also pay for using the system.

(The Center Square) – A trio of men from Chile who are believed to be illegally in the United States have been arrested and charged for a series of home burglaries in the Milwaukee suburbs.
All are being held in Waukesha County jail with hearings scheduled for Wednesday.
The men face multiple felony charges. Enjerbet A. Rojas Silva, Luciano A. Silva Cifuentes and Leandro F. Pino Uribe were all charged with burglary of a building or dwelling and possession of burglarious tools.
The Mequon Police Department sent out a warning about burglaries in November which alerted the public to coordinated property thefts at area homes during the early evening hours on Thursdays through Sundays.
“We are working closely with the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office and our other law enforcement partners to determine whether the individuals that were arrested by WCSO may be connected to the burglaries that occurred in the City of Mequon,” Mequon Police Operations Commander John Hoell told TCS on Monday. “Our priority is keeping the community informed while also ensuring a thorough and successful investigation. To protect the integrity of this ongoing work, no additional information is available at this time. We appreciate the community’s patience and cooperation.”
The criminal complaint said the investigation began with a home jewelry theft in Delafield where 100 pieces of jewelry were reported missing, according to the Waukesha Freeman.
Police were able to locate the subjects through a tower dump where they were able to identify phone numbers or devices used near the burglary sites.
A group of four international numbers appeared in both Delafield and Mequon during the burglaries, according to the complaint.
The numbers were found to move across the country regularly but were believed to originate in Florida, the newspaper reported.
The phone numbers and new phone numbers from the group were linked to burglaries in Mendota Heights and Edina along with Fox Point, De Pere and Middleton, according to the complaint.
A white Nissan Rogue believed by prosecutors to be driven by the suspects was found to travel regularly between Florida and Wisconsin. The group was then arrested Wednesday by Waukesha County Sheriff’s deputies along I-43 in Mukwonago.
The suspects were found with a Dewalt Sawzall, 13 red Diablo Sawzall blades, and 26 block radio antennas resembling those used in Wi-Fi signal jammers, along with window punchers similar to those used to break patio doors in the burglaries and multiple fraudulent IDs and passports, according to the newspaper.
Prior to publication, TCS was unsuccessful getting a copy of the criminal complaint by contacting the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office, district attorney’s office or clerk of the court.

(The Center Square) – Joel Brennan, candidate for Wisconsin governor, says he wants to continue tax policy as set by his former boss and predecessor.
“I’d like to make sure that we continue to do what we’ve done under the Evers administration, is to find ways to lower the tax burden for middle-class families,” Brennan said of second-term Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. “And I think that’s been one of the hallmarks of what Tony Evers has been able to do. I think one of the things we have to do is find rational, reasonable ways to raise revenue in the state, but also direct that revenue and invest in things that we consider to be our Wisconsin values.”
Brennan is one of seven Democratic candidates to succeed Evers. He served as Department of Administration chief under Evers from 2018-21. He is running as more of a moderate and also holding the Democratic line on second-term Republican President Donald Trump.
Brennan, in a broadcast interview, suggested he may be open to a tax on higher earners in the state. No specifics were offered in the exchange. And he is looking to roll back Act 10.
Conservatives supporters in the state say that would guarantee a wave of property tax increases.
“I think it all depends on who you end up doing this,” Brennan said about the chances that ending Act 10 would raise taxes. “You can’t just settle all the responsibility of what’s happening at the local level. There needs to be this level of partnership. We decided to put a target on the backs of public employees and on teachers, and I think now we’re having challenges in finding people to fill some of those roles that now have for the better part of 10 years, some real challenges that they’ve had to do in retaining and attracting people in those jobs.”
Brennan used his campaign announcement last week to promise to fight the president.
“I think every campaign is a campaign about Wisconsin,” Brennan said. “Is it about Donald Trump? Yes. Is it about standing up for Wisconsin? Absolutely.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to get involved in the former Donald Trump lawyer and Dane County Circuit Judge Jim Troupis, who is facing 11 felony charges in Wisconsin related to an alternate set of electors in the 2020 election.
Dane County Circuit Court Judge John Hyland denied Troupis’ motion to dismiss the charges, which Troupis claimed were the result of “blatant political bias.”
Troupis’ lawyer, Joseph Bugni, went on to question whether Hyland authored the ruling, instead believing the writing was actually authored by retired Dane County Circuit Court Judge Frank Remington.
Remington’s son is a law cleark for Hyland.
Hyland recently denied Bugni’s request to move the case to another county, stating that “no person other the assigned staff attorney and I had a hand in drafting or editing the decision.”
Bugni has cited a forensic linguistics expert from Georgetown University who he said analyzed the order and documents previously written by Judge Hyland and Judge Remington, concluding it was “highly likely from a linguistic perspective, that the [August 22 Court order] was written by Judge Remington, despite the fact that it is signed by Judge Hyland.”
“It is difficult to understand how Judge Hyland can make an impartial decision about Mr. Bugni’s allegations when he is directly implicated,” Johnson wrote in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Therefore, I respectfully request that the Department of Justice review Mr. Troupis’ case to determine whether any wrongdoing has occurred.”
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul announced charged in 2024 against Kenneth J. Chesebro, Michael A. Roman and Troupis for fraudulent writings and being “part of a conspiracy to present a certificate of purported electoral votes from individuals who were not Wisconsin’s duly appointed electors,” according to Kaul.

(The Center Square) – Many state labor laws in Wisconsn no longer apply to Minor League Baseball players after Gov. Tony Evers signed legislation to redefine what counts as minium wage overtime and record keeping.
The bill allows the state’s players on the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in Appleton and the Beloit Sky Carp to adhere to the rules of a 2023 collective bargaining agreement that runs through 2027 instead of being subject to reporting hours for their jobs.
Major League Baseball Senior Vice President of Government Relations Joshua Alkin explained in a public hearing on Senate Bill 374 that the legislation would allow players to receive housing benefits, club-provided meals, per diems on the road, highly subsidized health benefits, retirement benefits, salary continuation for disability resulting from work-related injury, tuition assistance and signing bonuses that are part of the CBA.
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.
“To be clear, we are not here because our collective bargaining agreement for Minor League players fails to meet state standards but because both MLB and the players’ own union believe that our negotiated compensation structure is more beneficial to the players and better fits their actual day-to-day experience,” Alkin said.
He explained that the minimum in-season salary for High A Minor League players is $920 per week, but that tracking hours would be difficult figuring out what counts and what doesn’t toward work hours.
“The experience of players is unique to hourly workers, who can only work at employers’ specified times,” Alkin said. “Indeed, Minor League players compete vigorously at and away from the ballpark to reach their dream of being called up to the major leagues, so it doesn’t benefit them to have their playing or practice time limited or access to club facilities and resources restricted due to having hourly worker status.”
Arkansas, California, Florida, Indiana and New York have passed similar bills, noted sponsor Rep. Alex Dallman, R-Markesan.

(The Center Square) – Opening arguments are scheduled Monday for the Wisconsin judge accused of helping a person illegally in America evade federal authorities leaving her courtroom.
Two of 14 jurors – five women, nine men – are alternates to be dismissed prior to deliberations in the trial of Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan. Prosecutors say she helped a suspect leave her courtroom to avoid detection by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Dugan is facing felony federal obstruction charges. Prosecutors say she confronted a pair of ICE agents in April while they waited outside her courtroom.
After speaking with the agents, and sending them away, a video shows Dugan return to her courtroom. Shortly after she returned, the same security video shows Eduardo Flores-Ruiz walk out the nonpublic, usually restricted side door of Dugan’s courtroom. He made his way to an elevator, and left the Milwaukee County courthouse complex.
A third ICE agent spotted Flores-Ruiz, and was able to eventually arrest him.
Duagn was indicted and arrested about a week later.
Lawyers have been instructed to avoid injecting feelings about second-term Republican President Donald Trump into the trial. The judge in the case has barred jurors from seeing some social media posts about Dugan made by Trump administration officials.
Flores-Ruiz eventually pleaded to both federal immigration violations, and the state charges that he was facing in Dugan’s court. As part of his plea deal, Flores-Ruiz agreed to be deported in November.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s prison managers say it took them a couple of hours to deal with the Slenderman Stabber’s broken ankle bracelet because they had hundreds of other calls that night.
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections wrote to state lawmakers this week, explaining that the same night that Morgan Geyser cut her GPS ankle bracelet and ran from a Madison group home, they had 297 other alarms in just three hours.
“As you know, DOC takes very seriously our obligation to ensure to the policies and procedures we have in place, which are an important part of public safety. The results of that investigation will determine any further disciplinary actions that are necessary and, if so, how severe,” DOC Secretary Jared Hoy wrote to the lawmakers.
Three DOC workers have been placed on leave, though Hoy would not say if more could be.
Hoy said more than 250 of the alarms on the night that Geyser escaped were marked as “high priority.”
Hoy added that Geyser cut her ankle bracelet at 9:38 pm. He said it wasn’t until 11:34 pm that DOC staffers called the group home to see if Geyser was still there. However, it wasn’t until about 12 hours later that police in Madison were notified about her disappearance.
Geyser was missing for almost a full day before police in Illinois caught up with her behind a gas station.
Geyser was quickly arrested and brought back to Wisconsin. But where she is, for now, remains unclear.
Jail records in Waukesha County Wednesday showed that she is no longer being held there.
Geyser’s lawyer had asked the judge in her case to return her to the state mental hospital where she spent nearly a decade for the Slenderman Stabbing.
The state’s Department of Health Services, which runs the mental hospital, has not yet confirmed if Geyser is there.
Geyser was originally sentenced to 40 years in the mental hospital for the Slenderman Stabbing, after her escape it remains unclear as to whether she will have to finish that full sentence.

(The Center Square) – Democrat Joel Brennan, a former Wisconsin Department of Administration Secretary, announced Thursday he is running for governor.
Brennan joins a crowded Democratic primary field including former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, current Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, State Rep. Francesca Hong, state Sen. Kelda Roys, former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. CEO Missy Hughes and former state Rep. Brett Hulsey.
“Thanks to Donald Trump’s chaos and incompetence, the numbers just aren’t adding up for Wisconsin families,” Brennan said in a statement. “Costs, like everything, are out of control, and coming from a family who had to make every dollar count, I know what that feels like.”
Brennan has been executive director of Discovery World, a Milwaukee science museum, and was president of the Greater Milwaukee Committee.
“I’ll be a Governor who will stand up to Trump’s dysfunction and be laser focused on improving the lives of people across our state. With fair maps and a Democratic governor, we can stay true to our values and deliver real and lasting change,” Brennan said.
Republicans in the race for governor include U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann.

(The Center Square) – An environmental group has filed a lawsuit against Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission asking for the electrical load projections for a $1 billion artificial intelligence data center in Beaver Dam.
The PSC released electrical load information for a planned 1,300 megawatt data center in Port Washington but denied releasing the data for the Beaver Dam facility after it was requested by the Midwest Environmental Advocates.
“It appears the PSC is unlawfully withholding this information because either Meta or a public utility is claiming the electricity demand for the data center is a trade secret,” MEA Legal Fellow Michael Greif said in a statement. “We call on Alliant Energy, American Transmission Company and Meta to be forthright with the public about their plans. These companies are asking a lot of the public and the public deserves, at least the very least, basic information about the data center’s massive energy needs.”
The Beaver Dam project is planned to require just 100 operational employees once it goes online in 2027 and will receive the benefit of a set of tax breaks from the state including a tax increment district that collects property taxes and gives it back to the company and a sales tax exemption on construction materials, electricity and equipment within the data center, a state exemption that has already far exceeded fiscal expectations by costing the state $70 million in sales tax in the first two years since implementation.
The energy companies have said that data centers will pay for the infrastructure of energy needs but questions remain about whether consumers will see increased costs if energy needs exceed the available energy in the state.
Data centers are expected to lead to the average American’s energy bill increasing from 25% to 70% in the next 10 years without intervention from policymakers, according to Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Jack Kemp Foundation.
Data centers in Port Washington and Mount Pleasant alone will use more energy than the rest of the consumers in the state.
“This lawsuit is about making sure Wisconsin residents have access to the critical information they need to understand and evaluate the impacts of the fast-growing data center industry,” Greif said. “Keeping the public in the dark about data centers and the amount of water and energy they will use deprives Wisconsinites of the transparency they deserve.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin saw its unemployment rate remain at 3.1% in September, according to data released Wednesday afternoon that was delayed due to the shutdown of the federal government.
Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development said it intends to release November numbers on Jan. 7 but there won’t be a release of October unemployment numbers because it was not collected during the shutdown.
“We are sort of trying to piece together the puzzle of what’s happening and about to happen,” DWD Section Chief of the Office of Economic Advisors Scott Hodek said.
The September numbers showed that, overall, Wisconsin’s labor force had 11,400 less workers than in August and 51,500 less than a year before.
Hodek said that the trend is expected with Wisconsin’s aging labor force and the numbers released in January would provide more context.

(The Center Square) – A report looking at potential developments on the property adjacent to the Milwaukee Brewers’ American Family Field highlights three potential location options estimated to cost between $700 to $800 million for developing a combination of multi-family residences, hotels, office space and stores near the stadium.
But the premise that developing those offerings near a sports stadium would help the businesses or community and is worth public funding or incentives is something that economists who have studied similar projects across the country have repeatedly shown does not work.
“It’s just your standard, for-hire, contracted report,” economist J.C. Bradbury of Georgia’s Kennesaw State University to TCS. “… Clearly it gives the impression that this is a worthwhile project that’s going to create something useful and I just don’t see anything useful in here that is convincing.”
Bradbury said that, in general, stadiums are not good development anchors and “I don’t see anything in here that would change my mind.”
The report was required to be completed by last week under the terms of the financial agreement with Wisconsin leaders that included $366 million from state taxpayers and $135 million from taxpayers in Milwaukee and Milwaukee County for American Family Field over the 27 years as the Brewers agreed to stay in the state until 2050.
The funding includes $67.5 million from both Milwaukee County and the city of Milwaukee.
Brewers president of business operations Rick Schlesinger told media in a statement that “There’s no doubt American Family Field is a strong economic engine for the region” but that is not backed up by numbers anywhere in the country.
Bradbury has extensively studied the Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park and the neighboring Battery development and has shown that the development costs Cobb County taxpayers about $15 million a year while a recent study from Bradbury and Berry College’s E. Frank Stevenson showed that the Braves’ stadium and development did not have a meaningful impact on hotel night stays in the county or in close proximity to the stadium.
Those findings are consistent with findings related to sports stadiums and events across the country.
The Brewers’ development report from consultants Brailsford & Dunlavey was recently presented to the Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District before the deadline but the district made it clear it was not an endorsement of development, which the team, park district and Milwaukee entities would need to approve.
“While the District is not the entity to initiate or perform any redevelopment activity, this report and the information provided may be used to guide potential redevelopment planning and identifies opportunities as well as the challenges that will need to be addressed to make redevelopment of the site possible,” district facility manager Brian Dworak said in a statement.
The report recommended that, since the property is currently not subject to property taxes, any development should be subject to a Payment In Lieu of Property taxes agreement called a PILOT that could pay for new infrastructure needed at the site and provide an equal playing field with nearby businesses that are subject to property taxes.