The special session of the legislature is underway. The Senate met for five seconds, gaveling in and gaveling out. Democratic Senators Jon Erpenbach and Tim Carpenter were the only senators present. 

The Assembly has now also had their special session, taking In uch more thoughtful 17 seconds to gavel in and gavel out. 

The legislature is now adjourned until 10 AM on Monday.

We may not continue to write an article about this every day unless something really unusual happens, We still wait patiently for a strong indication of the curve flattening. Cases in the state have increased by 200 since yesterday. There are now 2112 confirmed cases of infection in the state. The number of deaths has reached 56, which is a considerable increase since yesterday's numbers. There are 588 hospitalizations, and 28% of those infected are being treated in the hospital. 

Wisconsin Farmers Union has received a number of inquiries from concerned consumers along the lines of, "Can't farmers do something with the milk other than dump it?  Why are farmers disposing of milk when I'm being limited on milk purchases at the store?"  

This situation is indeed troubling. It is heartbreaking for farmers to have to dispose of their milk like this.

The status of the April 7 election continues to change. Late yesterday the 7th District Court of Appeals responded to the emergency appeal posed by the state, and national Republican Parties, as well as the appeal from Republicans in the state legislature. The court refused to stay the order from Judge William Conley to change the cutoff date for the return of absentee ballots in the state, which was the main point of conjecture in the appeals.

Speaker Robin Vos and Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald today rejected Governor Evers' call for a special session to stop in-person voting and to move the postpone the April 7 election into May as an all-mail election.

Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) released the following statement.

We are starting a project to have community members add resources to the website so that people can find resources to help them through the current situation. This includes things like grocery stores and restaurants that are open, local farmers, government information sources, ways to keep entertained, and a lot more.

The Governor announces call for a special session to address the spring election as well as the launch of a Resilient Wisconsin website.

Commission members expressed dismay that today's court order did not follow the letter the commission wrote expressing support for extending the deadline for receiving absentee ballots by allowing ballots to be counted that were postmarked by election day rather than received by election day.

Breaking update --- due to a ruling today in federal court, the last day to request an absentee ballot is now Friday, April 3. .