Wispolitics Midday

In this week's Capitol Chats podcast, Assembly Corrections Committee Chair Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh, talks about some of the most pressing issues facing the Wisconsin's prisons. He talks about what it will take to continue driving security staff vacancy rates down and how likely it is a longterm push to replace maximum security prisons from the 19th century in Waupun and Green Bay with one newer facility. He also briefly touches on what's to come from his committee.    

In this week's Capitol Chats episode, WISDOM Transformational Justice Campaign Coordinator Mark Rice says long term lockdowns amount to torture for inmates. He also says there has been no significant progress to lift the nearly yearlong lockdowns at Wisconsin's two oldest maximum security prisons, and argues former Parole Commissioner John Tate II created a better climate on the Parole Commission.

In this week’s Capitol Chats episode, freshman Rep. Nate Gustafson discusses recommendations from the Speaker's Task Force on Artificial Intelligence he chairs. The Fox Crossing Republican also shares his thoughts on how AI could be used to address the state's workforce shortage.

In this week's WisPolitics Capitol Chats podcast, Americans for Prosperity State Director Megan Novak says most voters are thinking about inflation on regular goods and services such as groceries and energy heading into the presidential election. She argues the federal government has got to stop growing the national debt and should also focus on providing more American energy while. She also blasts President Joe Biden for what she calls anti-worker freedom policies.  

In this week’s Capitol Chats episode, state Rep. Katrina Shankland, D-Stevens Point, talks about her campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, and touts her credentials as a state legislator. Shankland is one of three Dems vying for the seat.

In this week's WisPolitics Capitol Chats WILL President and General Counsel Rick Esenberg talks about the legislative redistricting lawsuit his office is party to. Esenberg also talks about what to watch for in the lawsuit seeking to make Wisconsin's 1849 abortion law unenforceable. A Dane County judge late last year ruled the law doesn't apply to consensual abortions, but Sheboygan DA Urmanski is appealing the decision.  

In this week's Capitol Chats episode, Marquette University Law School Lubar Center Research Fellow John Johnson gives his first impressions of maps submitted to the Supreme Court for a redistricting lawsuit. He says the court laid out criteria the maps must meet, but did not detail how to gauge the criteria. He also says he'd be surprised if the federal government weighed in on the issue as Republicans have said they are ready to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In this week’s Capitol Chats episode, Debra Cronmiller, executive director of the League of Women Voters and chair of the Fair Maps Coalition, discusses a case before the Supreme Court challenging the state's legislative maps. The court has ordered new maps ahead of the 2024 elections.

In this week's Capitol Chats episode, Department of Workforce Development Secretary Amy Pechacek says the department's plan to modernize its unemployment insurance claims program is on track to finish within the 4-year goal. But she says that won't be the end of modernization efforts as new technologies to improve efficiencies and protect against fraud come about.

In this week's Capitol Chats podcast, Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Green Bay, says it's crucial to include protections for innocent property owners who discover PFAS contamination in their wells in his grant bill. He rips those who argue the protections would give polluters a legal pass, noting many who find contamination are not the source of the pollution. His bill to issue remediation grants would protect homeowners from being labeled as polluters and being forced to disclose the pollution on their mortgages and other legal documents.

In this week's Capitol Chats episode, Democracy Found Executive Director Sara Eskrich says ranked choice voting has proven successful in other states such as Alaska. Final five, a subset of ranked choice voting, would also decrease the odds candidates who mostly appeal to their party's extremes end up on the general election ballot, she added.

In this week's WisPolitics Capitol Chats podcast, Rep. David Steffen, R-Green Bay, argues the state has delayed replacing the aging Green Bay maximum security prison, built in the 1890s, too long. He says the politics of constructing a new prison while the administration has focused on criminal justice reform have let long term infrastructure, safety and staffing issues languish.

In this week's Capitol Chats podcast, Wisconsin Conservation Voters Government Affairs Manager Peter Burress explains why the group opposes a GOP bill to combat PFAS contamination. Burress argues a provision in the bill would protect polluters and shift the cost to fight pollution to taxpayers.

In this week's Capitol Chats episode, Rock County Clerk Lisa Tollefson, also the Wisconsin County Clerks Association's Legislative Committee co-chair, says a bill to allow absentee ballot processing before election night will absolutely help clerks do their jobs. But she says she's not sure if clerk protections the Legislature recently passed will do enough to deter harassment that has driven many election workers away since the 2020 election.    

In this week's Capitol Chats podcast, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Town of Vermont, says he and other House members are asking Israel to describe what the end of its latest conflict with Hamas will look like. He argues the Israeli bombing campaigns that have taken innocent lives "isn't a plan." The Congressional Progressive Caucus chair emeritus also says the White House should also do more to bring a ceasefire to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

In this week's Capitol Chats podcast, Sen. Romaine Quinn says his package of abortion-related bills would provide support for women and families. The Cameron Republican also pushes back on a lawsuit arguing abortion is legal in Wisconsin, saying abortion is clearly prohibited under state law.

In this week's Capitol Chats podcast, acting State Public Defender Katie York is in the office to talk about how she's doing since outgoing SPD Kelli Thompson gave her the reins earlier in the year. She says recent pay raises have helped some with staff vacancy issues, but she has a lot of other projects to work on now too.

In this week's Capitol Chats episode, Rep. Shelia Stubbs discusses a bill she has reintroduced to establish a task force on missing and murdered African American women and girls. The Madison Dem says she is hopeful the bill will be signed into law considering its bipartisan support.

This week's Capitol Chats podcast features an interview with redistricting expert John Johnson. The Marquette University Law School Lubar Center research fellow says the state Supreme Court could take a few different paths to tackling how to redraw the state’s legislative boundaries if it rules against the current maps. He said if the court draws new districts, he would expect to see “a map that bears no relation to what we currently have.”

In this week's Capitol Chats episode, Rep. LaKeshia Myers explains why she voted with Republicans on a nonpartisan redistricting bill. The Milwaukee Dem also explains her past concerns with Gov. Tony Evers' People's Maps Commission.