WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) reintroduced the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act (PCHETA), a bipartisan reform to grow, improve and sustain the palliative care and hospice workforce to keep pace with patient need and to help improve the well-being of Americans with life-threatening illnesses and their families.

Riverview Beach in Eau Claire has been closed due to unsafe bacteria levels.  Full details are available at the link below.

This morning Governor Evers signed the budget forwarded from the legislature, but added 78 partial vetoes. The end result is a budget that is a compromise between Evers' budget proposal and the bill passed by the Republican-controlled legislature. The entire veto messages is included below, but some of the primary items of interest include

Cable and phone companies are getting a big windfall in the state budget and taxpayers are
going to pay the bill for the next ten years. Wisconsin Community Media can think of a lot
of better ways to spend tax dollars than subsidizing large telecommunications companies
like Charter Communications, Comcast and AT&T that are making a lot of money here in
Wisconsin through their cable TV, broadband and telephone services. We are asking

A Families Belong Together rally was held in Eau Claire in 2018 when the family separation policies at the Mexican Border first became apparent. This was well-attended, and a second rally was held today in Owen Park in Eau Claire. As several of the speakers pointed out, it is disappointing that not only does this policy still exist, but it has become severely worse in the past year. 

The 2019 Dragon Boat Festival has been canceled. According to a statement from Mayo Clinic today, the event will not be held this year due to a lack of participating teams.  This is disappointing as the festival has always been a fun event for participants and attendees. Let's hope it comes back again in the future. The photo is from last year's festival. We had noticed earlier in the day that the Facebook event and all associated web pages suddenly disappeared.

by Matthew Rothschild, Executive Director

The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court today on two gerrymandering cases was disappointing but not surprising. And for the vast majority of Wisconsinites who want to ban gerrymandering in our state, this is not the end of the story. Not by a long shot.

The Wisconsin State Senate has passed the GOP Budget Bill and it is now heading to Gov. Tony Evers desk for signature. The bill passed 17-16 this afternoon, with two GOP Senators joining all of the Democrats in voting no. 

Wisconsin's agricultural bounty is possible thanks in part to the state's voluminous supply of freshwater. At the same time, the use of this resource to grow crops and nourish livestock poses risks to the quality of these waters. The effects of agricultural practices on the state's rivers, lakes, wetlands and groundwater can come by way of soil erosion, water overuse, chemicals and livestock manure.