(The Center Square) – Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Gillett, wants Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction to continue an investigation into allegations of grooming and sexual assault at Oconto Falls School District even after one of those accused voluntarily surrendered his teaching license.
DPI has come under fire this year for allowing accused teachers to surrender a teaching license to avoid the scrutiny of a full investigation into misconduct, leading the Joint Legislative Audit Committee to order a full audit of the department’s investigation process that Wimberger recently said would be completed in the coming weeks.
Oconto Falls is currently facing a federal civil rights lawsuit over a series of sexual misconduct accusations over decades and how the school district has handled those accusations. David Heisel, one of the teachers accused of misconduct, surrendered his teaching license March 31, according to DPI’s investigation database.
“The highest responsibility of any education official is to ensure our children are safe at school, especially from predators disguising themselves as authority figures,” Wimberger said in a statement. “Ending the Heisel investigation early will not only betray the public’s trust, but deny the chance of restoring accountability for the victims who came forward.
“I am calling on DPI to continue investigating the Oconto Falls situation, even after David Heisel surrendered his license. These allegations deserve a full and proper examination so our community can transparently know what happened, when it happened, and who knew about the misconduct occurring in our schools.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a bill that would have ended the ability of the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection to raise fees for animal market licenses, animal dealer licenses, animal trucker licenses and animal transport vehicle registrations after the department had proposed large increases in those fees earlier this year.
DATCP had proposed increasing a livestock market fee from $420 to $7,430, trucker license fees from $60 to $370 and animal dealer fees from $220 to $670 last year before receiving significant pushback and later proposing smaller increases.
“I am also vetoing this bill because I believe the current process relating to rule promulgation and setting, increasing, or creating fees works, including ensuring adequate public input and accountability for agency decisions regarding fees,” Evers wrote in his veto message. “I am also vetoing this bill because it fails to establish a reasonable and sustainable funding plan for the department. It would not cover annual program costs, nor eliminate the current structural deficit in the programs, resulting in the appropriation operating in a negative cash balance.”
The Wisconsin Farm Bureau and Americans for Prosperity–Wisconsin collected public feedback, sending it to DATCP after the rules were proposed, and leading DATCP to later propose lower fees.
The fee increase proposal came after a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that blocked legislators from oversight on rulemaking with Evers telling agencies to bypass having rules heard in committee and instead simply enact them.
Bill sponsor Romaine Quinn, R-Birchwood, said in a statement that he was particularly upset with Evers stating the fee freeze was “enabling the Legislature to go right back to indefinitely obstructing the People’s Work.”
“I find it offensive that the governor would consider it the ‘people’s work’ to target those who work hard to survive in our ag industry,” Quinn said. “Governor Evers chose to back his unelected bureaucrats instead of looking out for the farmers in this state. Forcing his unchecked power against the will of the majority…looks like we have some new material for the next ‘No Kings’ protest.”
Republican lawmakers and Congressman Tom Tiffany’s War Room official campaign for governor account responded to The Center Square’s initial report on the DATCP bill veto questioning why Evers’ would want to put the large fee increases on Wisconsin farmers.
This is insane. Democrats want to raise fees on Wisconsin farmers and livestock barns by 1,700%.@saraforwi, @TheOtherMandela, and @FrancescaHongWI all support it. https://t.co/hZlzgJJNRe— Tiffany War Room (@TiffanyWarRoom) April 3, 2026
“Unelected bureaucrats in the Evers-Rodriguez Administration tried sneaking through a 1700% fee increase on Wisconsin farmers,” Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, wrote. “Republicans fought to end it, but today Evers VETOED that bill—doubling down on harmful fee hikes on our family farms.”
Unelected bureaucrats in the Evers-Rodriguez Administration tried sneaking through a 1700% fee increase on Wisconsin farmers. Republicans fought to end it, but today Evers VETOED that bill—doubling down on harmful fee hikes on our family farms. https://t.co/RmVXsDo1gk pic.twitter.com/QaNGTlQOBz— Rep. Amanda Nedweski (@RepNedweski32) April 3, 2026

(The Center Square) – Fewer people voted early in Wisconsin this year.
The latest numbers from the Wisconsin Elections Commission show a nearly 50% drop in early absentee voting in the state.
WEC’s numbers show that in Wisconsin’s early voting period, between March 24 and Sunday, 148,307 people cast an early, in-person ballot.
Last year, that number was more than 361,000 early, in-person votes.
Another 176,089 people cast their early vote by mail this year. That too, is down from last year, when the mail-in early vote total hit nearly 333,000 votes.
Some of the drop is being blamed on what some are calling a lower stakes Supreme Court race.
Last year’s race between Brad Schimel and Susan Crawford decided the ideological balance of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Last year’s race also became a national race and saw the involvement of Elon Musk.
The 2025 race, just like Wisconsin’s 2024 race, set spending records. Last year Schimel and Crawford saw more than $100 million spent on their race. It remains the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history. The 2024 race was the previous record holder, with more than $50 million in total spending.
This year’s race between Judge Maria Lazar and Judge Chris Taylor will be a multi-million-dollar affair but won’t come anywhere close to the cost of the last races in the state.
While early voting numbers are down statewide, early votes are largely concentrated this year.
The Elections Commission said early votes from just three counties. Milwaukee, Dane and Waukesha account for 45% of all early votes cast this year. Those are also Wisconsin’s three largest counties.
The rest of the voters in the state will get to cast their ballots today. Polls in the state are open until 8 p.m.

(The Center Square) – The head of Wisconsin’s elections commission says it was mistakes, not fraud, that led to some voters getting two ballots ahead of the primary election on Tuesday.
News broke over the weekend that nearly 150 voters in Green Bay were sent duplicate ballots. On Monday, some voters in Racine said they too were sent two separate ballots.
“Two sets of Wisconsin voters received TWO ballots for tomorrow’s election for different reasons. This does NOT mean they get to vote twice. It is not fraud. It was human error,” WEC Chairwoman Ann Jacobs wrote on social media.
In Green Bay, the local elections clerk said someone on her staff mistakenly printed two sets of mailing labels, and someone else accidentally mailed two ballots to those voters.
In Racine, Jacobs explained, someone in the local clerk’s office left a judicial race off the ballot.
“In Racine, a non-contested municipal judge race was left off of the ballot. Ballots are printed by the county clerks and proofed by the municipal clerks. Both failed to note the missing race. To remedy this, the Racine clerk properly sent out,” Jacobs explained. “The ‘A’ ballot was the original wrong ballot ‘B’ ballot is the new correct ballot. Voters who submitted the ‘A’ ballot have the right to submit the ‘B’ ballot & vote in that missing race. When the ‘B’ ballot is received, the ‘A’ ballot is NOT counted & is documented.”
Jacobs was quick to dismiss critics who pointed to the mistakes as voter fraud, or as opening the door to doubling voting in both communities.
“In both situations, it was ordinary human error, not fraud. And in neither situation will anyone be able to vote twice,” Jacobs added. “A/B ballots happen (we even have a section in our manual about it). The system is designed so no voter can return 2 ballots & have them both count.”
This year’s double balloting in Green Bay and Racine comes after the city clerk in Madison sent out more than 2,200 double ballots to some voters in the 2024 election. That is the same election where Madison’s clerk did not count nearly 200 absentee ballots.
Those ballots were found in two batches, one about a week after Election Day, and the other about a month after Election Day.
Madison’s clerk reportedly took time off after the November 2024 election to bake Christmas cookies for city hall staffers, and no one ever counted the ballots.
Jacobs said it was clear that Madison’s clerk broke the law, but she did not ask for charges in the case.
Madison’s clerk was allowed to resign, though Madison city leaders continue to fight the changes that Jacobs and the Elections Commission ordered after the uncounted ballots were discovered.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin congressman and candidate for governor Tom Tiffany said that he will “end subsidies for data centers in Wisconsin” if he becomes governor.
Tiffany was responding to a video highlighting both proposed increased energy rates and the many tax exemptions for Wisconsin data centers.
As governor, I will end subsidies for data centers in Wisconsin. https://t.co/ZglSs88x8w— Tom Tiffany (@TomTiffanyWI) April 4, 2026
We Energies is proposing a 14% increase in energy prices over two years after multiple energy increases were approved by the Public Service Commission last year.
Along with increased energy rates, Wisconsin qualified data centers do not pay sales tax on construction materials, equipment inside the buildings and electricity. Many are also built as part of tax increment districts, meaning the increased property taxes paid once the data center is built don’t go to public entities but are kept by the data center companies.
The sales tax exemption was part of the 2023-25 budget passed by the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature and then approved by Gov. Tony Evers. Exemptions to allow the data centers to be part of TIDs despite going over a statewide mandated cap of 12% of a local entities property value being placed in a TID were proposed by Republican lawmakers and signed by Evers.
The Center Square has reported that the sales tax exemptions have already far exceeded projections with $70 million in forgone sales tax in the first two years of that program with that number expected to multiply in coming years as data center projects in Mount Pleasant, Verona, Beaver Dam and Port Washington have been certified by the state to be eligible for the sales tax exemption.
Wisconsin’s Department of Revenue estimated the value of the incentives would be $8.5 million for the full multi-year construction of a facility and $735,000 recurring afterward. The department attributed the estimates to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that a typical data center costs about $215.5 million to construct.
But many of the Wisconsin data centers are much more expensive, with Microsoft announcing a second data center in Mount Pleasant that will cost $4 billion.
“The state budget accounted only for regular data centers, not hyperscale like the Microsoft one you have in Wisconsin,” Good Jobs First Senior Research Analyst Kasia Tarczynska previously told The Center Square. “Therefore, the cost estimates in the tax expenditure report might be way higher than what they predicted in the budget in 2023.”
Data center incentives have shown to be unpopular with voters as 69% of Wisconsin voters in a recent Marquette poll said that they believe that the cost of data centers outweigh the benefits.
Several bills looking to limit the impact of data centers on energy rates and one looking to block non-disclosure agrees that was backed by comedian Charlie Berens was discussed but did not pass the Legislature before session closed.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a pair of bills Friday that would have exempted overtime pay and cash tips from state income taxes.
Assembly Bill 461 would have matched a temporary federal income tax exemption on overtime that would apply to the extra pay received for working overtime up to $12,500 per year for an individual or $25,000 per year for joint filers.
The exemption is targeted at middle-income residents and is phased out for those making an adjusted gross income between $150,000 and $275,000 as an individual or $300,000 to $550,000 as a joint filer.
“My position has always been that when we provide tax relief, it should be real, responsible, and targeted to the middle class and working families who need it,” Evers said in his veto message. “Unfortunately, I must veto this bill in its entirety because I object to this bill changing the tax code in a way that will treat Wisconsin workers who earn similar wages differently just because of their classification as salaried or hourly workers.
“A salaried worker who earns $35,000 (and is not eligible to earn overtime compensation) should not pay a different amount in taxes from an hourly worker who earns $35,000 through working overtime. We should focus on creating a fairer tax code that provides real, responsible tax relief that supports rather than divides working Wisconsinites.”
Senate Bill 36 would similarly had created an exemption for up to $25,000 in cash tips from state income tax.
“I am vetoing this bill because I object to the Legislature effectively ceding control over the direction of state tax policy to Congress by connecting the proposed state tax deduction for tips to any change in the federal deduction, regardless of what is best for Wisconsin,” Evers wrote in his veto message. “We should not be at the whims of a Republican-controlled Congress that has no problem gutting basic necessities and services like food and access to healthcare just to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.
“Wisconsin should retain control over the parameters of a potential income tax deduction for tips so we can modify the policy based on what makes the most sense for Wisconsinites.”
Congressman Tom Tiffany, R-7th Congressional, is a candidate for governor and said on Friday that he would have signed both bills into law.
“If you pick up extra shifts, work overtime, or rely on tips to make ends meet, Democrats in Madison think they should get a cut of your paycheck,” Tiffany said in a statement. “They claim to stand with workers, but when it matters most, they vote to take more of your money.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed a pair of bills into law Friday aimed at providing more transparency into teacher’s license investigations related to sexual misconduct and prevents local school officials from entering into agreements to hide information related to staff immoral conduct.
Senate Bill 785 requires the state Department of Public Instruction to keep a free, online searchable platform to include information on teachers who have had their licenses revoked and who are investigated by DPI.
The portal must name the license holder and the outcome of the investigation and must include if the teachers’ license holder voluntarily surrendered his or her license to avoid further investigation.
DPI currently posts each license holder who is under investigation and the name of each person whose license is revoked after an investigation.
The bill comes in response to a Capital Times investigation last year that showed DPI was shielding information on how it handled 200 cases of sexual misconduct and grooming between 2018 and 2023 and was forcing the public to file public records requests to access that information.
“By requiring DPI to post not only the names of license holders but also the results of investigations, AB 795 addresses this lack of transparency and strengthens the ability of families and school leaders to make informed decisions regarding the safety of students in their care,” bill sponsor Rep. Nate Gustafson, R-Omro, said in testimony on the bill.
Assembly Bill 1004 prevents schools from entering into confidentiality agreements related to investigations into immoral conduct.
“These ‘pass the trash’ policies simply move problematic staff from one school to another, putting more students at risk of being preyed upon,” Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, said as the bills passed the Assembly.
She noted that 10 states – including Michigan, Iowa and Illinois – have bans in place on confidentiality agreements.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District represents a rural area running from the Minnesota and Iowa borders to Eau Claire and a strip that ends between Wausau and Appleton. But a large topic of debate in the rematch race between incumbent Republican Derrick Van Orden and Democrat Rebecca Cooke is about a country a world away – China.
The race is expected to be close, which Cooke’s team claiming its internal polling showed a 1 percentage point lead over Van Orden in polling by Impact Research between Feb. 12-17 with questions asked of 500 likely general election voters.
Cooke recently touted an endorsement from the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Plan, a group heavily tied to China with everything from a Beijing office to employees who came to NRDC from the Chinese government. The group supports a fracking ban, opposes the Line 5 pipeline that stretches across Wisconsin and it supports the Green New Deal.
“It’s not just concerning, it’s completely disqualifying,” Van Orden Spokesperson Grace Kim told The Center Square. “Rebecca Cooke is in lockstep with radical left-wing groups like the NRDC, the same extremists pushing fracking bans, killing American energy, blocking pipelines like Line 5, and shoving Joe Biden’s reckless Green New Deal down our throats.
“If she gets her way, costs will soar, family farms will collapse, and the U.S. will hand more power to adversaries like China. She claims her family lost their farm to competition, but now she’s willingly siding with radicals who would make it impossible for any small farm to survive. Cooke would sell out Wisconsin families, even her own, just to pander to Washington Democrats.”
Cooke’s campaign, however, has a different viewpoint. They didn’t directly respond to questions from The Center Square about NRDC’s Chinese ties, but told The Center Square that Cooke has clearly stated she is against foreign nationals, including Chinese, from owning Wisconsin farmland.
“It’s not just a food security issue but a national security issue,” Cooke said at a recent event.
She also is against hyper-consolidation in the agricultural industry and beyond, saying there is no place for monopolies in America.
“Cooke can’t claim that she’s against Chinese owned farm land, while getting in bed with groups tied to China whose policies enrich China and crush American farmers,” Kim said. “So either she didn’t bother to research who she’s getting in bed with, or she’s willing to sell out Wisconsin farmers to advance a far-left, China-benefiting agenda. Neither is acceptable and shows that she is completely unfit to represent our state.”
Cooke’s campaign then pointed to Van Orden, who accepted a $5,000 donation from Syngenta, an agricultural technology company with Swiss roots that is now Chinese-owned. Van Orden refunded the donation in March and has since told his fundraising team not to accept donations from any Chinese state-owned companies.
Gov. Tony Evers recently vetoed a Wisconsin bill that would have banned allowing Chinese nationals from purchasing Wisconsin land.
In terms of fracking, Cooke’s campaign said that the federal government does not regulate frac sand projects, so her NRDC endorsement doesn’t relate to the group’s anti-fracking stance. But the state is one of the country’s largest producers of frac sand, which is used for hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas from rock formations in other states, according the the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which oversees the mining.
“Unlike Derrick Van Orden, who voted to raise electricity costs, Rebecca supports efforts at the federal level to lower energy costs while protecting Wisconsin’s natural resources and environment,” the Cooke campaign said.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin governor has not yet signed the biggest piece of legislation on his desk.
Gov. Tony Evers took action on 33 pieces of legislation, but not the plan to legalize online sports gambling.
That proposal went to the governor on Thursday. He has seven days to sign it or veto it.
Among the new laws the governor signed are plans to:
● Add search and rescue dogs to the list of animals included in the crime of harassment of police and fire animals.
● Send $950,000 a year to the program that is tasked with tackling veterans homelessness in Wisconsin.
● Allow the use of security cameras on school buses but makes it clear that those recordings are only to be used for “investigations, school disciplinary actions and criminal prosecution.”
● Create a new veterinary loan repayment program for vets in rural parts of the state.
● Allow Wisconsin fire departments to use soybean-based firefighting products as an alternative to PFAS-based products.
That is a law written by Rep. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie.
“This is a great example of how good ideas can come from anywhere,” Rep. Moses said. “After reading about this innovation, it was clear Wisconsin was well-positioned to use these products. We have the farmers, the research, and the need for safer alternatives — this bill brings those pieces together.”

(The Center Square) – The two candidates for Wisconsin Supreme Court attempted to frame themselves as the middle-of-the-road fair candidate while painting the other candidate as partisan in the lone debate between judges Maria Lazar and Chris Taylor on Thursday night.
The debate was delayed an hour due to storms, including tornado watches and warnings in the state, more than a week after the debate was delayed when Taylor suffered from kidney stones.
The candidates are vying to replace conservative justice Rebecca Bradley for a 10-year term on the court in Tuesday’s election. Both candidates are currently appellate court judges. The court currently has four liberal judges and three conservatives.
Lazar, considered the conservative candidate, said that she is “running so that we can restore independence.”
Taylor, a former Democratic state lawmaker, said that “I have a spine of steel when it comes to making sure that people’s rights being protected.”
Lazar called the state court’s abortion ruling settled law and she would respect what she called the court’s “20-week compromise.”
Taylor, who previously represented Planned Parenthood as an attorney, would not say if she would recuse herself if the group had a case in front of the court.
“We need a judge who loves the law, not a judge who loves their causes or their beliefs or their agendas,” Lazar said.
Taylor denied that she has prejudged any case involving abortion or other causes.
“Never have I said I am an advocate,” Taylor said. “Never have I said I am an activist on the bench.”
Lazar vowed that she would not “legislate from the bench” and that “we need to have a collaborative court.”
Taylor said that her opponent would be a “rubber stamp for the federal government.”
She added that she would respect workers and unions and has had family members who were union members, saying she should respect her values.
When asked about the 2020 election, Lazar said “”Joe Biden did win. I don’t think we should be looking back and instead looking forward.”
She noted that she believes that Illinois has a gerrymandered congressional map, but that Wisconsin should have a map drawn by the Legislature and approved by the governor, not having maps being drawn by other places like a court.
Lazar also said that she was concerned with how Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested in Milwaukee after allegedly assisting a defendant in eluding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I think that there has been a real attack on the independence of judges,” Lazar said.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s sports wagering bill and a name, image and likeness bill that will send $15 million annually to the University of Wisconsin athletics departments while exempting athletics spending or revenue from public records requirements were both formally sent to Gov. Tony Evers, leaving him one week to decide if he will sign or veto them with an option to partially veto the NIL bill because it includes an appropriation or state funds.
The sports wagering bill passed the Senate with a 21-12 vote with nine Republicans voting against it.
Evers’ administration will now have to negotiate updated compacts with the state’s 11 tribes and then send those compacts to the federal government to be approved before online sports wagering in the state can begin.
Evers has stated that he would want all of the tribes on board with the change before approving the plan.
“This bill fundamentally expands gambling in Wisconsin, while massively profiting tribes, by allowing people to download and place a bet on a computer or mobile device through an app tied to a tribe with a casino,” Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, wrote in his newsletter about the bill. “Most of us have the common sense to see the dangers of expanding legalized gambling, including the social and financial harm. I voted no, along with a significant number of Republican colleagues.”
The proposal would change the state’s definition of “bet” to allow the state’s tribes to offer mobile sports wagering if the bettor is in Wisconsin and the sportsbook servers are on tribal land, an amendment to current compacts allowing for casino gambling and sports wagering on tribal lands despite the state’s ban on betting.
The law would allow for a similar sports wagering model as Florida, where the state’s sportsbook operators have servers on federally recognized tribal lands while users can be in the state of Wisconsin.
The NIL bill passed the Senate on a 17-16 vote.
UW-Madison Athletics Director Chris McIntosh said in committee that the $14.6 million in funding annually to the school’s athletic department for facilities debt is essentially for the athletic department to remain competitive and supporting 23 sports and 600-plus athletes. He said that women’s and Olympic sports were at stake related to the bill.
The Badgers’ football program accounted for 80% of the program’s revenue, equaling $113.6 million last fiscal year, according to the NCAA report, which showed the football program brought in $72 million in excess during the year.
The Wisconsin Newspaper Association warned lawmakers and the public that a public records stipulation in the bill could have a sweeping unintended impact that goes well beyond NIL records.
The bill would exempt records related to the “generation, deployment, or allocation of revenue generated by an intercollegiate athletic program.”
“AB 1034 would not only codify NIL into state law but hand over more record funding to UW-Madison, this time dumping your tax dollars into a bottomless pit of college athlete recruitment,” Kapenga wrote. “But it gets worse. Under the bill, student athletes and the UW athletic department are now exempt from open records requests, raising significant questions about transparency. I voted no to one of the more absurd wastes of taxpayer dollars I’ve seen in a long time.”

(The Center Square) – Neither side of Wisconsin’s political spectrum is happy with the latest pitch from the state’s largest utility to hike power bills.
We Energies this week submitted a plan to the state’s Public Service Commission to raise electricity rates by 14% over two years.
“Our filing reflects the realities that our customers count on us every day for the energy they need. We recognize it’s our responsibility to continue providing safe and reliable energy while keeping customer bills low,” We Energies spokesman Brendan Conway said.
We Energies wants regulators to approve a 9.25% rate increase next year, and a 5.5% rate increase the year after that. The utility says the rate hikes would add around $13 more per-month next year, and an extra $8 or $9 per-month the year after that.
We Energies said the average electric bill for homeowners is currently a little less than $143 a month.
The request brought immediate condemnation from both Republicans and Democrats.
Republican candidate for governor Tom Tiffany took to social to blast We Energies’ request.
“We Energies wants to raise your electric rates another 14%,” Tiffany wrote in a post. “This comes after the Democrat-appointed PSC under @GovEvers approved over $2 billion in rate hikes in the last five years, a whopping 71% of what utilities requested.”
Tiffany said if elected he would “appoint PSC commissioners who say NO to unreasonable rate hikes.”
Democratic frontrunner Francesca Hong used the request to once again push for her plan to create public-owned utilities in the state.
“Who would you rather have in charge of your essential services: a private company accountable to shareholders, or a public utility that answers to you?” she added on X.
Tom Content with the Citizens Utility Board in Wisconsin said We Energies is not “reading the room” with its latest rate hike request, especially as people in Wisconsin continue to struggle to make ends meet.
“Based on an initial snapshot, it looks like another double-digit increase for We Energies customers, who have already seen their bills rise much faster than inflation over the last four years,” Content told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Twenty years ago, the average We Energies electric bill was just $76 a month. If this latest request is approved, that monthly cost would be more than double that amount.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction spent about $8 million on resetting its standards on the Forward Exam, according to new records released by DPI.
The records came after Dairyland Sentinel asked the Department of Justice last Tuesday to intervene on its public records requests. The DOJ sent a letter to both DPI and Dairyland Sentinel but also stated that it would have to defend DPI in the case of a public records lawsuit.
The records appeared to be one year of the expenses of what has been reported to be a 10-year, $80 million contract between DPI and Data Recognition Corp. to operate the Forward Exam and help desk.
The Center Square was unable to obtain clarity from DPI on if the $8 million was part of that contract, an amended contract or separate from the 2016 contract.
“The DPI holds a massive contract with DRC to manage the Forward Exam,” Dairyland Sentinel Publisher Brian 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 also sent Dairyland Sentinel the $396,0000 in expenses from its workshop in the Wisconsin Dells, a document it previously shared with only a select group of reporters that did not include The Center Square, despite requests for that information.
The conference was used to change standards on the Forward Exam.
Dairyland Sentinel still believes there are minutes and recordings from the conference that should be public records that DPI has not released related to its workshop, conducted by Data Recognition Corp. It plans to continue to fight for those records.
The Institute for Reforming Government has called for Wisconsin lawmakers to create a special committee to investigate the workshop and whether it should constitute a public meeting.
Jake Curtis, General Counsel and Director of the CIO at IRG, previously told The Center Square 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.
Conference attendees were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements to hide discussions that occurred at the workshop.

(The Center Square) – The Republican sponsors of a bill to enhance penalties for drug dealers near homeless shelters say that Gov. Tony Evers’ veto of the bill continues what they called failed policies against addiction and recovery.
The big would have allowed the maximum penalty for dealing drugs by delivery or intent within 1,000 feet of a homeless shelter to be increased by five years.
“Many of our fellow citizens who are homeless are also struggling with addiction. They need to get on the path of sobriety, but drug dealers preying on them nearby only make their situation worse,” Sen. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, said in a statement after the veto. “The Governor’s shameful veto will prolong a failed approach to homelessness and addiction that keeps people mired in the darkest period of their lives.”
Evers argued that the bill was part of an outdated and archaic approach to criminal justice. He said that the Legislature should instead use an evidence-based approach, which he did not describe.
“I am disappointed the Legislature continues to focus its attention on proposals that do little to improve this landscape when there are serious and urgent needs facing our correctional institutions and our criminal justice system, including aging facilities and a soaring prison population that Wisconsin’s correctional institutions cannot continue to accommodate,” Evers wrote.
The bill would have created something similar to a drug-free school zone around homeless shelters.
“I’m disappointed in Gov. Evers’ veto of SB 610,” Rep. Bob Donovan, R-Greenfield, said in a statement. “Yet again, it proves how naive the Democrat Party is when it comes to dealing with critical urban issues.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin ranks 35th on a list of states with affordable electricity with an average price of 12.72 cents per kilowatt hour.
North Dakota topped the list with the lowest price of 7.93 cents per kilowatt hour while Hawaii (38.0) and California (27.04) ranked lowest on the list.
The American Legislative Exchange Council ranks the affordability of energy across the country each year and the new report was produced using the most recently available data from 2024.
Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission has continued to approve increase rates since the report in the data.
The PSC approved Jan. 1 increases with a $31.3 million increase settlement to residential rates for electricity and natural gas for Madison Gas and Electric customers over the next two years soon after similar approvals for Alliant Energy and Xcel Energy that amount to $300 million in increases, meaning the three combined increases will be valued at more than $330 million.
“Wisconsin ranks in the bottom half of states in electricity affordability. Its electricity mix is led by natural gas and coal, with nuclear and smaller renewable contributions from solar and hydro,” the report states. “The state operates as an importer of electricity, balancing its generation with regional demand.”

(The Center Square) – A new survey says Wisconsin businesses are thinking about artificial intelligence, but they’re not yet thinking it is a major problem.
Better Business Wisconsin recently released its 2026 Accredited Business Survey that asked business owners across the state about their worries, their challenges and thoughts of AI.
Hiring, costs and finding new customers took the top three spots on the survey’s challenges list.
“Our latest survey shows that Wisconsin businesses are navigating a complex mix of workforce shortages, rising costs, and rapid technological change – while remaining deeply committed to trust, transparency, and quality customer service,” BBB Wisconsin President and CEO Jim Temmer said. “As AI adoption grows, businesses are asking important questions about ethics, accountability, and consumer confidence, and BBB is proud to help lead those conversations.”
The survey says 30% of businesses said finding qualified staff was their biggest challenge. That’s the same number that said finding new customers was their biggest challenge. The survey said 37% of businesses say increasing costs and inflation is their biggest concern.
Just 17% of businesses said making their business visible in AI searches was a problem.
But the survey also said that embracing AI is the number one area of opportunity for Wisconsin businesses.
“As technology rapidly evolves, businesses view AI as both an inevitable evolution and a potential threat. Currently, 50% of BBB Accredited Businesses are not yet using AI, while the other 50% use it primarily for simple applications like writing or editing emails, creating social media posts, drafting website or marketing content, brainstorming ideas, summarizing long documents or messages, and designing simple graphics or images,” The BBB said in the survey. “Notably, half of the respondents believe that AI can help increase their overall business competitiveness.”