Wisconsin Right Now

One of the Republicans in charge of the legislature’s audit committee made strong accusations against Gov. Tony Evers’ administration over nearly $100 million in COVID-19 relief interest. Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Green Bay, on Tuesday, grilled the Secretary of the Department of Administration, Kathy Blumenfeld, over an audit from December of last year that shows the state accrued $97.2 million in interest on the $3 billion the federal government sent Wisconsin as part of the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds in the American Rescue Plan. Wimberger and other Republican lawmakers say the $97 million should be returned to the state’s general fund. But Blumenfeld and the Evers’ Administration want to keep the money in a special account, which Wimberger said the governor wants to spend on his own. “It just seems like the things that the DOA is doing is over the edge. It's beyond awful. And who is personally responsible, and whether the agency is responsible, I gue...

The commander in charge of the police response to Tuesday's mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school made the "wrong decision" to not send officers into the classroom to confront the gunman who shot and killed 19 children and two fourth grade teachers, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said Friday. The chief of the Uvalde Consolidated School District Police Department, who was in charge of the initial response at Robb Elementary School, thought the shooter, 18-year-old Uvalde resident Salvador Ramos, was barricaded inside that classroom and that no other children were at risk, McCraw said. “Obviously, based on the information we have, there were children in that classroom that were still at risk,” McCraw said. “From the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision. Period.” Nearly 20 officers stood in a hallway outside of the classroom for more than 45 minutes before federal ...