Wisconsin Right Now

  An industry group says the Biden administration’s new staffing regulations for long-term care facilities are unrealistic. The mandate requires that all nursing homes that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding provide a total of at least 3.48 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Plus, nursing homes must have a registered nurse onsite at all times. Research by SeniorLiving.org shows  82%, or nearly 12,000 facilities in the U.S., will need to hire staff or face being shut down. Spokesperson Corie Wagner said Illinois is home to the fifth highest number of understaffed nursing homes in the country. “If we were to apply the new policies and new standards to nursing homes in Illinois today, 84% of facilities would need more staff, and that is really significant,” said Wagner. The mandate will be phased in over three years, with rural communities having up to five years. Nursing home operators strongly objected to the minimum staffing proposal in September, saying they...

The Iranian-backed terrorist group Hamas killed hundreds of Israelis and injured hundreds more in a barrage of surprise attacks early Saturday morning, just weeks after the Biden administration authorized $6 billion to the group’s biggest backer: Iran. The Hamas attack included a combination of thousands of missiles fired into Israel as well as Hamas terrorists who infiltrated Israel, killing and capturing civilians, according to reports from multiple news outlets and relevant governments. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani praised Hamas after the attack. Immediately after the attacks, President Joe Biden took fire for releasing billions of dollars to Iran, a known backer of Hamas that funnels money to the terrorist group. “Just weeks ago, the Biden administration handed over $6 billion to Iran, and today, innocent Israelis were murdered by Iran-backed Hamas terrorists,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said in a statement after the attacks. “We must continue ...

A group of 20 attorneys general want the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule a lower court's restrictions on local governments enforcing homeless camping bans. In their petition regarding Johnson v. City of Grants Pass, the attorneys general wrote that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was wrong to prohibit state and local governments from enforcing laws that bar public spaces from being used as homeless encampments. “The Constitution nowhere strips States of the power to regulate use of public spaces,” the attorneys general wrote. “It empowers States and guarantees an inviolable sovereignty meant to address local issues like homelessness.” Meanwhile, the attorneys general said the 9th Circuit “relied on this Court’s ‘evolving standards of decency’ jurisprudence,” something they said “lacks textual, historical, or structural support.” “The Court should put that troublesome jurisprudence to bed once and for all,” they added. In 2018, the 9th Circuit ruled that the Eighth Amend...

WMC’s survey states that 88% of businesses said there would be disruptions to their operations and 84% said a lack of testing supplies for the required weekly tests would make it nearly impossible to test all non-vaccinated employees. Wisconsin’s largest business group says almost every employer in the state expects to see some workers quit if they are forced to get the coronavirus vaccine. Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce said a new survey of employers shows that 88% of Wisconsin businesses expect to lose workers if President Joe Biden’s private sector COVID-19 vaccine mandate is put into effect. “If enacted, most employers would not be able to comply with the rigorous requirements and, to make matters worse, workers would end up walking off the job,” WMC’s Kurt Bauer said. “For Wisconsin businesses, not only is this mandate unlawful, it is unworkable.” Bauer said WMC asked 100 businesses across the state about the president’s proposed mandate, and 88 of them said it wo...

WMC’s survey states that 88% of businesses said there would be disruptions to their operations and 84% said a lack of testing supplies for the required weekly tests would make it nearly impossible to test all non-vaccinated employees. Wisconsin’s largest business group says almost every employer in the state expects to see some workers quit if they are forced to get the coronavirus vaccine. Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce said a new survey of employers shows that 88% of Wisconsin businesses expect to lose workers if President Joe Biden’s private sector COVID-19 vaccine mandate is put into effect. “If enacted, most employers would not be able to comply with the rigorous requirements and, to make matters worse, workers would end up walking off the job,” WMC’s Kurt Bauer said. “For Wisconsin businesses, not only is this mandate unlawful, it is unworkable.” Bauer said WMC asked 100 businesses across the state about the president’s proposed mandate, and 88 of them said it wo...