(The Center Square) – Attorneys for the Bad River Band and environmental groups will give oral arguments Thursday morning challenging permits for Enbridge’s 41-mile reroute of Line 5 in northern Wisconsin.
The hearing is part of the groups’ continued challenge of the projects. They are also separately challenging permits for the project from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The groups continue to argue that the reroute is not environmentally sound and could permanently damage wetlands and resources in the region.
The groups are pointed to a spill of more than 1,600 gallons of drilling fluid in wetlands in Iron County during construction of the reroute, which began in February after a judge approved the initial permits. Later, a stay was placed on four waterway crossings that was lifted a week ago.
The hearing will occur at the Bayfield County Courthouse with additional viewing at the Iron County Courthouse.
“The reroute project entails blasting, horizontal drilling, or trenching through at least 186 waterways and 101 acres of high-quality wetlands that drain into Lake Superior,” the groups said. “The new pipeline will surround the Band’s reservation on three sides, causing significant long-term harm to Tribal waterways, violating the Band’s water quality standards, and limiting tribal members’ ability to exercise their treaty rights.”
Enbridge and proponents of the project have pointed toward an extensive review process that took place before the permits were granted.

(The Center Square) – A Waukesha County judge updated his order and no longer has ruled a state budget provision allowing Milwaukee County to keep all of its motor vehicle fines and forfeiture funds.
Last week, Judge J. Arthur Melvin signed an order ending the allowance and ruling the provision from the last state budget unconstitutional. But Melvin reportedly changed that order Monday, saying that instead he intended to allow the Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association to file an amicus brief, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Milwaukee County was the state’s only county who did not have to pay 50% of its fines and forfeitures into a state Common School Fund, which is then used to fund school libraries. Instead, Milwaukee County used the funds to pay for 12 district attorney positions.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Menomonee Falls resident Christine Stueland by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.
“The law passed to ‘fund prosecutors’ allows Milwaukee County to take millions from the school fund,” WILL Attorney Dan Lennington wrote on social media. “That’s unconstitutional and no one in the case disputes that, even Milwaukee County’s attorneys. Actually I haven’t seen anyone defend the legality of this move anywhere. The legislators who wanted this — correct me if I’m wrong — never asked for or received advice from Leg Council or WisDOJ, which is typically what legislators do when they have legal questions about legally complicated bills.”
Lennington went on to say that funding prosecutors can be done through state revenue or local revenue but it cannot legally be done by raiding the school fund.
The change was estimated to cost the Common School fund $2.2 million per year, according to estimates from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Milwaukee County schools were still receiving benefits from the Common School Fund even without contributing funds.
“Finally, I should say that the legislators who wanted to ‘fund prosecutors’ put no language in the law to actually make sure this gambit — taking money from kids who want to read library books — actually funds prosecutors,” Lennington wrote. “MKE is not required to use this money to fund prosecutors and the money will just be dumped into David Crowley’s Milwaukee County DEI Budget. They could spend the money on whatever they want. We’re putting an end to this illegal scheme.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin handed out the first $1 million of its film tax credit program since it was restarted.
The program was started despite economists who have studied the tax credits showing evidence the programs are simply a way to divert taxpayer funds to a specific industry rather than something that provides a benefit to the state’s economy.
https://www.thecentersquare.com/wisconsin/article_88774929-ba31-41e3-9c02-b4b85e097aae.html
The program sent $557,991 for the production of the movie ‘Rao’, more than $140,000 for ‘Ueck’ about late Brewers Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Uecker, sent $86,000 for ‘Run to Glory: The Don Beebe Story,’ sent $216,000 to ‘The Warehouse’ about completing Frank Lloyd Wright’s unfinished Richland Center and $19,273 for ‘Mis Undead Quince’ about Cyclops Girl Productions.
The film credit program had $5 million available for tax credits.
To be eligible for tax credits, productions must spend a minimum of $100,000 in salary and wages for projects 30 minutes or longer and a minimum of $50,000 in salary and wages for projects less than 30 minutes. Projects may receive up to $1 million in tax credits per fiscal year.
“Film and television productions create lasting economic impacts that extend well beyond the filming schedule,” Wisconsin Tourism Secretary Anne Sayers claimed in a statement. “Every production brings opportunities for Wisconsin businesses, workers, and communities while inspiring future visitors to experience the destinations they see on screen. Film Wisconsin is another powerful way we’re sharing Wisconsin’s story with the world.”
Economists, however, have studied the tax credits and shown that they do not provide the claimed benefits.
Economist J.C. Bradbury of Georgia’s Kennesaw State University extensively studied Georgia’s larger film credit program, writing in a peer-reviewed paper that the state spent $230 per household on foregone tax revenue because of the initiative, which has cost taxpayers the equivalent of $110,000 per full-time job in the industry without bringing the promised benefits from the program.
Wisconsin had a prior film credit program that was allowed to end in 2013 by state lawmakers.

(The Center Square) – Southwestern Wisconsin is seeing more measles cases after the Wisconsin Department of Health Services announced two new measles cases in Grant County.
“The Wisconsin Department of Health Services and Grant County Health Department have confirmed two cases of measles in Grant County residents. The two new cases are related to confirmed cases in Lafayette and Iowa counties and are part of an outbreak in Southwestern Wisconsin. Based on ongoing investigations, cases in the region have now increased to 36 confirmed and three probable cases,” DHS said in a statement.
Statewide, Wisconsin has seen 41 measles cases this year, with almost all of them have been in southwest Wisconsin.
In all of 2025, the state reported a total of 36 confirmed cases. A decade ago, in 2016, there were no confirmed cases in the state.
Iowa County has seen the most measles cases, with 31 cases in 2026. Lafayette county has the second most in the state, with six. DHS has confirmed two other cases, one each in Dane and Waukesha counties.
DHS said that more than half of Wisconsin’s measles cases this year are among children between 5 and 17. And the state says 40 of the 41 cases were unvaccinated, and two people have been hospitalized.
DHS, however, has not said who is sick with the measles, or how the measles outbreak in southwest Wisconsin began.
“At this time, no public exposure locations have been identified in connection with these cases. To protect individual privacy, no additional personal identifying or health information will be released by DHS,” the department added.
You can track Wisconsin’s measles outbreak at DHS’s website here.

(The Center Square) – Oracle’s challenge to a power agreement that puts data center companies in charge of paying for an estimated $4 billion in new natural gas projects and $2 billion in new big power lines in both Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was dropped this week.
The agreement was approved by Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission in May after more than 2,000 customers submitted comments or spoke at public hearings related to the cost of providing energy to data centers.
Oracle, OpenAI and Vantage Data Centers are spending $15 billion in data center investments in Port Washington. We Energies customers in the lawsuit were represented by the Citizens’ Utility Board of Wisconsin.
“CUB is pleased that Oracle has dropped its suit,” Tom Content, the utility watchdog’s executive director, said in a statement. “We were confident the PSC would win and that the consumer protection safeguards the CUB team sought would remain in place.”
CUB argued that there is risk that after the utility builds facilities to serve a data center’s intensive energy needs, at some point prior to the utility collecting all those costs the data center would close.
Similar risks have been voiced related to allowing data centers to enter into tax increment district agreements that return property taxes to the data center companies with full property taxes being paid only when the TID agreements run out.
CUB said that unrecovered costs from utility upgrades would then fall on both the utility and customer if not paid by the data centers.
“This was no technicality,” Content said. “This was no unintended consequence. This was a key plank among the changes the CUB team sought to revamp the WEC data center pricing plan, in order to protect the We Energies customers we represent.”
The agreement also allowed for data centers to be powered by more than just eastern Wisconsin and Upper Peninsula power plants, meaning that more cost-effective wind energy projects in windier areas such as Iowa and Minnesota could be utilized.

(The Center Square) – Despite record flooding earlier this year, most of Wisconsin remains too dry.
The latest drought report shows most of the state is suffering under moderate drought conditions, while parts of the northwoods are dealing with a severe drought.
The U.S. Drought Monitor says nearly 92% of Wisconsin was abnormally dry last week. Of that area, 70% experienced moderate drought, and 15.5% was suffering from a severe drought.
Since the start of 2026, the Drought Monitor said 97% of Wisconsin has been abnormally dry.
Only Racine, Kenosha, and parts of Walworth counties have enough rain in southeast Wisconsin. There are also parts of seven counties in southwestern Wisconsin that are free from drought conditions.
Another 10 counties in far northwestern Wisconsin are the driest counties in the state.
That has some local communities taking action.
City leaders in Menomonie, in northwest Wisconsin, on Monday voted to extend their ban on watering laws.
Menomonie’s watering ban was supposed to end Tuesday, but city leaders now say people will have to go without watering their lawns until the end of October. Menomonie says it nearly ran out of water because of the drought in July. City leaders on Monday said they fear that could happen again.
Farmers in other parts of the state have said they are now worried about their corn crops and say they could see a much smaller harvest this year.
There could be some relief in the next drought report.
Large parts of Wisconsin saw thunderstorms last week, and forecasters say there is another chance for scattered storms Tuesday. But most of those storms are expected to roll across central and southeast Wisconsin, which won’t do much for the driest parts of far northern Wisconsin.

(The Center Square) – The taxable value of Wisconsin property went up 8% again in 2026, matching the rise from the year before, according to new data from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.
The total equalized value of residential property in the state jumped up nearly $52 billion to $776 billion. Overall, there is now more than $1 trillion of property in the state, up from $654.8 billion in 2021 after it steadily rose from 1988 to 2008 before five years of lowered prices began.
The overall state property value was $126.6 billion in 1988, then $514.4 billion in 2008 before going to $467.5 billion in 2013.
Since then, values have increased each year with large jumps in 2022 and 2023.
There is now nearly $210 billion worth of commercial property, up nearly $18 million and 9% from the year before.
“Equalized values are calculated annually and used to ensure statewide fairness and equity in property tax distribution,” the report said. “The equalized value represents an estimate of a taxation district’s total taxable value and provides for the fair apportionment of school district and county levies to each municipality. Changes in equalized value do not necessarily translate into a change in property taxes.”

(The Center Square) – People who lost or saw their homes damaged during April’s rounds of severe weather in northeastern Wisconsin have just a few weeks to submit the requests for help to the federal government.
Wisconsin’s Department of Emergency Management on Monday said requests for Federal Emergency Management Agency Assistance or an Small Business Administration home disaster loan are due by the end of the month.
“Homeowners and renters in Bayfield, Brown, Buffalo, Jackson, Jefferson, Juneau, Kenosha, Manitowoc, Marathon, Milwaukee, Outagamie, Racine, Rock, Sauk, Vernon, Washington, Waukesha, Waupaca, and Winnebago counties and the Oneida Nation with uninsured damage to their primary home, personal property loss or disaster-related emergency needs may be eligible for federal assistance,” the state said in a statement.
Several powerful storms cut across northeastern Wisconsin in April and left behind flooding across the region.
The National Weather Service says the Wolf River Basin was the hardest hit and forecasters say a number of communities saw new flooding records.
“Record flooding also occurred on other rivers over northeast Wisconsin, including the Embarrass River near Embarrass and the Peshtigo River near Porterfield. A record high level was also set on the Wolf River near Lake Poygan. Major flooding was also observed on the Menominee River at McAllister as it reached its second highest level on record,” the Weather Service said in its report on the storms and flooding. “In total, 47 river flood warnings were issued from late March through early May. Some river flood warnings were in effect for nearly one month!”
Wisconsin Emergency Management said the deadline to apply for help is Aug. 31.
In addition to flood damaged walls and floors, Wisconsin EMA is reminding people that there is other flood damage that may be covered.
“It may still be summer but if you were impacted by April storms, take time now to ensure your furnace and water heater are operating safely and are not damaged. FEMA grants may be available to help repair those items and replace them if they were destroyed by floodwaters,” the state said in its statement. “If you received a FEMA grant for repair of your furnace or water heater and later discovered those items need replacing, you can use the FEMA appeal process for additional grant funds.”
You can find more information, including the steps to begin to request storm recovering aid, online at DisasterAssistance.gov.

(The Center Square) – The University of Wisconsin System is asking state lawmakers for $190 million in additional funding in order to freeze tuition for two years and cap the increase at the rate of inflation for the two next years.
The proposal is part of the university system’s biennial budget request from state lawmakers. UW leadership recently asked for an additional $90 million of funding to use toward training 35,000 new healthcare professionals over a 10-year span.
“This proposal means four years of predictable tuition with costs that remain well below inflation,” Universities of Wisconsin Regent President Kyle Weatherly said in a statement. “It represents an important commitment to Wisconsin families and helps ensure the Universities of Wisconsin remain the Midwest leader in tuition affordability.”
University leaders said that the pledge would mean that students entering the school in fall 2027 would see tuition decline related to inflation over that span.
University leaders also proposed what they call Wisconsin Work and Learn, part of the university budget proposals that regents will vote on this week.
The universities are hoping to create 300,000 career-ready workers, increase the skills of 1 million workers for better jobs and create 2,500 new businesses over a decade.
“Our budget will offer opportunities to invest in people and education that will help Wisconsin meet its workforce challenges, while providing targeted funds to help grow the next generation of businesses,” system Interim President Renée Wachter said in a statement.

(The Center Square) – Milwaukee County can no longer keep 100% of certain motor vehicle fines and forfeitures after a judge ruled an allowance for only Milwaukee to do so was unconstitutional.
The Wisconsin Constitution requires counties to send at least 50% of the proceeds of those fines and fees to the Common School Fund, which supports libraries in schools in the state.
Wisconsin’s last biennial budget, which began on July 1, 2025, allowed only Milwaukee County to keep all of the funds.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Menomonee Falls resident Christine Stueland by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.
“I know that every dollar matters,” Stueland said in a statement. “I am so thankful that WILL stood up for what’s right and protected the interests of taxpayers across Wisconsin.”
The change was estimated to cost the Common School fund $2.2 million per year, according to estimates from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Milwaukee County schools were still receiving benefits from the Common School Fund even without contributing funds.
“This decision brings an end to an unconstitutional and costly money grab by Milwaukee County,” WILL Associate Counsel Lauren Greuel said in a statement. “WILL continues to oppose reckless mismanagement and unconstitutional overreach because taxpayers deserve a government that’s efficient, accountable, and operates within the law.”

(The Center Square) – Democrat David Crowley leads Republican Tom Tiffany in the first polling on Wisconsin’s governor’s race since the two won primary races on Tuesday.
Crowley led with 48% to Tiffany’s 44%, which falls within the +/- 4.4 percentage points on the poll, conducted by interviewing 500 likely general election voters on Wednesday and Thursday after the primary.
The poll by Platform Communications was from live telephone interviews.
Crowley never led in Democratic polling heading into the primary, a process confused by Crowley dropping out and reentering the race with the endorsement of Gov. Tony Evers while former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez also dropped out of the race late.
State Rep. Francesca Hong led all of the polling heading into the primary, many by a large margin.
The new polling shows that Crowley has a 42% to 30% lead amongst independent voters.
Poll respondents said that 43% viewed Crowley favorably and 26% viewed him unfavorable. Tiffany had 38% view him favorably and 43% unfavorably.
“We see a Wisconsin electorate that is pessimistic about the direction of the state, with a 51% majority saying things are going in the wrong direction,” the poll summary stated. “However, voters are more pessimistic in their view of the direction of the country, with a 61% majority saying the country is on the wrong track. In both cases, independent voters are even more likely to say things are going in the wrong direction than the electorate at-large.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin hospitals charge 25.6% more to patients for in-person care than hospitals in Illinois, even within the same company, according to a new report shared exclusively with The Center Square.
Costs for hospital services are negotiated between hospitals and insurance carriers and fewer options on each side of the negotiation mean less leverage to negotiate.
In particular, hospitals that are able to negotiate percentage-of-charge contracts where prices rise over time instead of set fees for particular services are more expensive to patients, according to the study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Anthony Lo Sasso and Capital Policy Analytics’ Ike Brannon.
Lo Sasso said that the results are less about Illinois being cheaper than about Wisconsin being an outlier as more expensive than other states, something he isn’t certain the public knows. He told The Center Square that hospital consolidation in Wisconsin has been a “slow burn” over time that has created less competition and higher costs.
“The speculation is that the Wisconsin local markets are just not very competitive,” Lo Sasso said. “… There’s been a lot of consolidation over the past 10-20 years and so it’s just led to increasing levels of what we in the business call market concentration.”
Lo Sasso said that the higher costs showed up statewide and not just in the competitive Chicago market, but that the difference was even slightly higher between Wisconsin and areas outside of Chicago.
About 45% of patient charges are calculated using percentage-of-charge while 24% are in Illinois.
“Payers generally accept percent-of-charge terms only where they lack the leverage to insist on fixed dollars, so the concentration of such contracts in Wisconsin is consistent with the strong provider bargaining position that a consolidated hospital market confers; and because these contracts give hospitals a standing mechanism to raise realized prices, they may help entrench the very premium this report documents,” the report states.
Wisconsin Advocate Health hospitals in Wisconsin receive 23% more for the same services as the company’s hospitals in Illinois.
Blue Cross Blue Shield and UnitedHealthcare customers are each charged more than 25% more for the same services in Wisconsin as in Illinois “indicating that the gap is a feature of the Wisconsin provider market rather than any single insurer’s contracting strategy,” according to the report.
The same was true for each of the 24 inpatient procedures that were examined in the study across specialties.
Lo Sasso said that he plans to study the reasons that the Wisconsin is more expensive and what can be done to combat that in future research. He said that Wisconsin must first acknowledge that the cost of health care is an issue before combating what led to it.
He said that encouraging new facilities in the marketplace and greater scrutiny of future hospital mergers could have an impact.
“Building new hospitals and facilities that can act as and create a competitive market at a state and local level I think would be very important, long run,” Lo Sasso said. “A hospital is not going to spring up overnight but, basically, encouraging that to the extent possible would have very positive downstream effects.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin is selling the Department of Natural Resources and former Department of Public Instruction buildings in downtown Madison for $12.6 million, below the more than $45 million assessed value of the buildings at 101 and 125 S. Webster St.
That sale was approved by the State Building Commission after objection from some lawmakers who believe the sale was below what the state should receive for the buildings, which need an estimated $213 million in repairs to meet modern safety and operational standards.
“Selling these state buildings and land that is on prime real estate in downtown Madison for pennies on the dollar is a bad deal for Wisconsin taxpayers and needs a lot more scrutiny before being transferred to a developer in a sweetheart deal while nobody is watching,” Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah, said in a statement. “We’ll have a new Governor in a few months and the new administration should get a chance to see if this fits their new goals and policies.
“Even if it is decided to sell these properties in the future, we should negotiate a much better deal for taxpayers – we’ll always be able to sell it at fire sale price, but if approved, it’s gone forever and taxpayers foot the bill and lose the value.”
Rep. Robert Wittke, R-Caledonia, spoke with the developer purchasing the property and said that he believes the gap in appraisal and reality is that the buildings were appraised as office space but ultimately will be redeveloped into residential space.
“If it was such a sweetheart deal, why don’t we have 15 offers on the table for it?” Wittke said during Building Commission discussion.
Sen. Andre Jacque, R-New Franken, said that “if the appraisal is the problem, then we need to fix the appraisal before we move forward with a sale of this magnitude.”
The sale was approved 7-1 with Jacque as the only objection.
“I don’t believe that this is a good deal for taxpayers at this time,” Jacque added.
Kaufert, a former member of the commission, added that he was concerned the sale will make it more difficult to have state employees return to more in person work in the future, stating that some state agencies have employees working just one day per month in an office.

(The Center Square) – With the wins of socialist, progressive and moderate Democrat candidates in recent midwestern primaries, top leaders in the party are embracing “unity” with the far-left wing of their party.
Former Detroit public health official and progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed defeated U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-MI., in the Michigan Senate Primary.
State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, also ran for the Senate seat, but dropped out weeks before the election.
Both Stevens and McMorrow were quick to endorse the candidate they both targeted for his views in the weeks before.
“What is most important now is that we recognize that for all of the differences we may have had in this primary, that those differences pale in comparison to the contrast that we face in November,” McMorrow said after the Senate race was called.
Among other top Democrats from across the country, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has made calls to winning candidates in recent primaries.
“After an election I often call the victors and those who lost in the elections just to say ‘congratulations on your victory,’ or, ‘I went through an election where I lost some number of years ago. It’s a hard thing to do.’ I always remind people who are losing in Democratic primaries as I did, it’s really important to go and support the victor,” Pritzker said.
He said he wants Democrats to keep their eye on winning in the elections to win back a majority in Congress.
Pritzker wouldn’t go as far to back socialist candidates outright.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of ideological differences. I do think it’s a matter of team fight versus team cave and I think the voters want people who are going to go to Washington and fight for them,” Pritzker said.
Michigan isn’t the only midwestern state to embrace the party’s “unity” approach following their primaries.
Both in Minnesota and Wisconsin, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and Democrats respectively followed a similar playbook Wednesday.
Minnesota DFL U.S. Senate nominee Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota said in a statement that the party’s unity in their state would help Democrats earn a majority in the Senate, despite her party already holding both seats.
State Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, a Democratic Socialist Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate, lost her race to the more moderate David Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive.
Crowley said this week he plans to do a “unity tour” with his more radical counterpart.
“We’re going to be getting together relatively soon to actually start our unity tour,” Crowley said Tuesday night.
Crowley said later in the week to note that he wouldn’t be embracing some of Hong’s policies, such as a moratorium on data centers.
His general election opponent, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wi., said he would back widely bipartisan supported restrictions on data centers – including ending tax incentives, ensuring no rate hikes and heavier regulation on construction.
In many primary races, turnout for Democrats has been higher than anticipated. Pritzker attributed the turnout to Republicans choosing to take Democrat ballots this year.
“As to why progressives are winning in some places, and not, you know, maybe some in others, Democrats are seeing this huge turnout again because whoever it is that’s articulating a message that they’re going to go to Washington and fight for people,” Pritzker said.

(Legal Newsline) — A federal appeals court has asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to decide if a Wisconsin state law allows customers from across the U.S. to sue retail chain Kohl’s over claims the retailer misleads customers over how much money they are actually saving.
The underlying litigation stems from a lawsuit filed by named plaintiff Michelle Cortez Gomez. Gomez claims she bought a $100 portable speaker in May 2023 and said she only did so because of the advertised $30 discount. She said she later learned the chain almost never sold the product at the regular price.
She and other named plaintiffs want to sue Kohl’s under the Wisconsin Unfair Trade Practices Act state law.
U.S. District Judge James Peterson dismissed the complaint, saying a federal law known as the Class Action Fairness Act only gives federal courts jurisdiction over complaints alleging damages of more than $5 million. The judge further said Gomez wasn’t entitled to recover any damages under Wisconsin state law because she couldn’t show she bought something defective or worth less than the price paid.
When the case reached the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Judges Thomas Kirsch, Candace Jackson-Akiwumi and Nancy Maldonado found the question about how to apply Wisconsin state law less clear. They said they could find no prior Wisconsin state court rulings addressing the issue.
So, the Seventh Circuit judges invited the Wisconsin Supreme Court to weigh in on the question in an order issued decision Aug. 3.
The order was issued as a “per curiam” opinion. “Per curiam” is a Latin phrase, meaning “by the court.”
The order opened by noting “the line between legitimate enticement and improper deception can be fuzzy, and sometimes retailers cross it in their eagerness to make a sale.”
The panel said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission began regulating price comparison advertising in the 1960s to make sure retailers weren’t citing inflated prices solely to offer purported discounts, thereby creating a false bargain. Like many states, Wisconsin enacted its own price comparison laws. Retailers can only advertise a “claimed regular price,” the panel said, if the goods or services actually were sold at such a price within 90 days before the sale advertisement or if the advertisement discloses when such sales were made.
Whether a class action can proceed, the panel said, depends on whether the complaint alleges a “pecuniary loss” under state law. A pecuniary loss is a legal term meaning a loss of money.
“That’s easier said than done, because no court has discussed pecuniary loss in the context” of the relevant Wisconsin state laws, the panel wrote, “or false price comparison advertising, and there’s a split in the persuasive authority.”
Earlier this year the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in Koble Investments v. Marquardt, held a tenant didn’t show a pecuniary loss despite alleging her lease violated state law because there was no evidence she “suffered any loss from paying rent in exchange for a place to live.” The appeals panel said the Kohl’s argument is similarly rooted in the concept of suffering “loss in the form of a purchase price for a product she was wrongfully induced to buy” and identified three state appellate court decisions supporting the position, albeit not as relates to false comparison advertising.
Conversely, the panel continued, “the Wisconsin Court of Appeals held that pecuniary loss could be either the purchase price of a product or benefit of the bargain damages, depending on the proof,” in a 2014 decision, Mueller v. Harry Kauffmann Motorcars, while several federal court decisions endorse the idea a plaintiff has to allege more than that they wouldn’t have bought something but for the facts their complaint asserts.
“Considering the available persuasive authority, we’re left with a close call on an important question of Wisconsin law,” the panel wrote. “The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s ruling in Koble is ambiguous — it can be read to support either party’s interpretation.”
Even if there was a loss, the panel continued, would it be just the difference between what was advertised and what was paid? Or would a shopper be entitled to keep the product and get a full refund? Because uncertainty about whether a loss exists and, if it does, how to calculate the value, the panel said the Wisconsin Supreme Court needs to decide.
“The case concerns a matter of vital public concern, because every Wisconsin retailer who uses price comparison advertising and every consumer who purchases the advertised products has a potential stake,” the panel said. “Similarly, retail sales are common, and so the issue is likely to recur.”
The panel said its own opinion shouldn’t limit the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s consideration of the question, to the point of reframing the query if needed. The underlying litigation is stayed pending a response.
Gomez is represented in the action by attorney Martin Woodward, of the firm of Kitner Woodward, of Dallas; and attorneys Kiran H. Bhat and Ethan H. Ames, of Keller Postman, of Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Kohl’s is represented by attorneys with the firms of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, of New York; Godfrey & Kahn, of Milwaukee; and Kelley Drye & Warren, of New York and Parsippany, New Jersey.

(The Center Square) – Democrat David Crowley outperformed polling results in winning a close race over Francesca Hong to become the party’s candidate for governor.
That’s after Hong held 38% support in the primary compared to 7% from Crowley in a late July Marquette Poll and a State Navigate poll released on Aug. 6 had similar results.
“The clear thing is that the vast majority of late-deciding voters went to Crowley and very few went to Hong,” Marquette Law School Poll Director Charles Franklin wrote. “The race was complicated by three candidates dropping out, and Crowley reentering, in the final month.”
Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes held 16% support in the Marquette Poll before he dropped out of the race.
Franklin also said that Gov. Tony Evers’ endorsement of Crowley as he reentered the race made a difference.
“In our final poll, more than one-third (36%) of Democratic primary voters said that this endorsement made them more likely to support Crowley,” Franklin wrote. “Evers’ job approval with Democrats was also over 85%.”
Crowley will now take on Congressman Tom Tiffany in the Nov. 3 general election.
There were 792,009 voters in the Democratic primary, up from 640,247 in the 2024 Senate primary and 538,857 in the 2018 primary for governor.
“The chaotic changes of candidates, plus the governor’s late endorsement and increasing electability concerns, all made for a surprising endgame to the race,” Franklin wrote.