🥩 Did you ever make plans for dinner but then someone else wanted to meet you for lunch — and you missed breakfast, so you ate too much for lunch and now you’re at the supper club ordering from the salad bar and skipping the broasted chicken you were thinking about yesterday?

It doesn’t make the supper club or your dinner companions any less enjoyable. It’s just one of those times to order off the “small plates” menu.

Similarly, after working all through last weekend covering the Democratic Party of Wisconsin state convention, the kitchen staff is giving the broaster oven a break this evening! We’ll have a new “Prime Cuts” story next week, one that’s exclusive to newsletter subscribers.

We’d rather be up front about the times when we can’t do everything we’d like. It’s really a change of pace from what you see from others.

🪂 Take Rep. Derrick Van Orden, for example, who recently parachuted into town with Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan — not to do a public town hall, of course, but to meet with a controlled audience on a topic of their choosing: in this case, the so-called “no tax on overtime” provision in last year’s megabill.

💸 What’s missing is the full context on how the new law is mostly a gimmick. It’s a deduction, not a true exemption, since payroll taxes are still levied. It doesn’t cover all overtime. It works out to be substantially less than politicians want you to believe. And it only encourages more overtime — away from home — instead of improving regular hourly wages. 

Just thought you should know things that don’t get mentioned in the fluffy pieces that say only what the congressmen want said.

Have a great weekend. And be sure to stay up to date with our posts on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

🧀 For Sen. Kelda Roys, it was time to tell the crowd, “This is not a moment for a newbie.”

For Rep. Francesca Hong, it was time to remind the audience that lots of people were called radical in the beginning, and now their ideas are seen as mainstream.

Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley talked about their elected experience.

Missy Hughes and Joel Brennan discussed their economic development strengths in the public and private sectors.

Hundreds of delegates at last weekend’s Democratic Party of Wisconsin convention heard direct appeals from the candidates hoping to break out of the pack and win the Aug. 11 primary election that will determine who goes up against Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in November.

Read my write-up about their remarks — and you can watch highlights from all seven candidates’ pitches in 70-second bites on our social sites, like Facebook.

🫒 The Fair Maps Coalition is working to make fair maps permanent in Wisconsin through an Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC), a proposal supporters say would reduce partisan influence in the redistricting process.⁣

⁣Read more about how the coalition has launched an online tool that allows Wisconsin residents to contact their state lawmakers and urge them to introduce and support the proposal.

🥦 Fake Electors Court Update: President Donald Trump’s attorney for the 2020 campaign in Wisconsin and two former aides all pleaded not guilty Tuesday to felony forgery charges for their roles in a fake elector scheme designed to overturn Trump’s loss in the swing state. 

Jim Troupis, a former judge who was Trump’s Wisconsin campaign attorney, Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day operations in 2020, and Ken Chesebro, a former Trump legal adviser, all entered the pleas in Dane County Circuit Court. Prosecutors allege that the three defendants defrauded the 10 Wisconsin Republican electors who cast their ballots for Trump in 2020.

⛵️ The Apostle Islands have had a National Lakeshore designation since 1970. 

But others, like Rep. Tom Tiffany, want the 21 islands along the Lake Superior shoreline given National Park status. There hasn’t been support in Congress for it due to local opposition, but Tiffany is hoping to sneak it through by inserting the language inside one of the federal budget bills.

Watch what Rep. Mark Pocan has to say about a big change that many constituents say needs more study and transparency.

🗳️ It’s time for another poll about the Wisconsin governor’s race.

Obviously these are not scientific, but we always appreciate getting a feel for where our readers are when it comes to the 2026 campaign for Wisconsin’s next governor.

We are less than eight weeks away from the Democratic primary. Do you have a favorite candidate? Have you narrowed it down to a couple? Or are you far from committed, maybe even still tuned out?

Click on the box below to go to our website and select the answer closest to your point of view. We’d really appreciate you adding specifics: candidate names, your comments, and your first name and hometown.

🚦 Should state political parties make endorsements at their conventions for elections like governor and US senator?

68% said (A) No. Leave it to the voters in the primary election.

32% said (B) Yes. It helps winnow down a large field of candidates, gives them faster access to resources, and gives them more time to unite the party.

👉🏼Chris H. is in the endorsement camp: “The primary is just way too late, and the fix is to move it back to April. Until this happens, we should have the convention push forward a candidate as painful as that sounds.”

👉🏼 Bill X. in Milwaukee does not want endorsements: “The Dem convention delegates are committed hard core activists. They are not representative of the Dem base and certainly not the state’s electorate.”

Thank you, as always, for some great table talk about this week’s primary concern: um, primaries!

Our favorite supper clubs often have a bulletin board filled with information about upcoming events and local services. 

This week, instead of our usual “Do Something” calendar with a variety of civic events, we offer a guide to the many Juneteenth celebrations taking place around Wisconsin. 

Check ‘em out on our website.

Send your events and announcements to Abigail Deatrick, regional community development organizer at Courier Newsroom at abigail@couriernewsroom.com at least one week before the event to see them here.

📱 Remember, you can stay up to date all day with all of our team’s work through our social media feeds, including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

🏁 Thanks for reading our update.

Have a great weekend!