☀️ Good morning!

It’s Sunday, December 14, 2025

Wisconsin’s Sean Duffy has had an odd December. 

When President Trump called affordability a “hoax,” his Secretary of Transportation was standing right behind him. 

Days later, when asked specifically about bringing down high costs in airports, Duffy said “I don’t have a plan to reduce costs. What I am trying to do is provide healthier options for people.”

Duffy does like to talk about being healthy. Duffy and HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. held a pull-up contest this past week while advocating for fitness centers in airports. 

The late night hosts had a field day with that idea.

Also last week, Duffy posted on social media that his department has pulled 9,500 truck drivers off the road who couldn’t comply with Trump’s strict new rules on English. Many of the responses echoed this sentiment: “Congratulations, you just removed 9,500 essential workers, raised delivery costs, and worsened inflation all in the name of grammar.”

And finally, when Trump rolled back environmental rules for automobiles, Duffy took an unusual approach at giving it a positive spin.

“This rule will actually allow you to bring back the 1970s station wagon — maybe a little wood paneling on the side,” Duffy told CNBC. “We can bring back choice to consumers so yeah the minivan is awesome but maybe the station wagon is cool too.” 

I’ve had a lot of “told you so” moments since losing to Duffy in 2012, but even I didn’t think it would include so many odd moments in such a short time — especially headlines incorporating the old gas guzzling “woodies.”

Anyway, hunker down, stay warm, have a great day, and Go Packers! As always, we invite you to stay up to date with our social media posts and morning radio show, too. (There’s also some news about the radio show in today’s newsletter.)

⏮️ Last Week:  Wedding barns

Should the Legislature revisit a recent overhaul of liquor laws in order to reduce a new batch of regulations affecting wedding barns?

About 60% said yes. These are family-run businesses facing severe limits on the number of days they can operate.

Julie leaned in that direction: “I don’t know enough to make a choice, but I think that wedding barns should be able to operate more days. These barns are beautiful and preserve our heritage. Owners put a lot of labor and finances into them. The result is a unique setting for weddings.”

About 40% said no and were less sympathetic to their issues.

Said Lawrence: “So, a family run tavern shouldn’t need a license either? It’s a business and the owners need to meet the same requirements as any other business.”

⏭️ This Week: How we pay for education

In the new state budget passed earlier this year, Republicans provided no increase in general school aids. But costs continue going up, as anyone who goes shopping can tell you. As a result, lots of people getting their property tax bills this week saw a higher amount going to their local school district. 

(Important Note: Not all of that money goes to the local school district, by the way. A chunk is skimmed off the top to pay for private school tuition under the state’s vouchers programs, but legislators have refused requests to break out that total on a separate line.)

Is this the right way to fund Wisconsin’s public schools?

A – Yes. State aid should be limited and the local property taxpayers can decide the level of financial support they want to give to their local schools. If parents don’t like the level of community support, they can move their kids elsewhere.

B – No. A property tax — based on land values — is a bad way to support schools. State income taxes are fairer to more families so state aid should be increased to take pressure off property taxpayers and schools.

To answer this week’s question, hit reply or email me directly at pat@couriernewsroom.com, and we may share it in a future newsletter or on our radio show.

Joel Brennan, a former top official in Gov. Tony Evers’ administration, joined a crowded Democratic primary field for the 2026 election for governor.

Brennan was secretary of the state Department of Administration from 2019 to 2022. He has served as president of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, a group of about 200 business and nonprofit leaders boosting various issues in the area. Brennan spent 11 years as executive director of Discovery World, the state’s largest science museum.

In the Capitol, Brennan told us he “tried to restore some of the things we had lost under Gov. Scott Walker and a right-wing legislature.”

Brennan said his public and private sector experience “suits me well to be somebody who can not only fight but get something done.”

1️⃣ Ron Johnson celebrates higher costs — Sen. Ron Johnson surprised no one by voting with most other Republicans against extending the health insurance premium supports that are going away at the end of the year and raising costs for about 20 million Americans. 

Four Republicans joined Democrats in a 51-48 majority vote that fell short of the 60 required by Senate rules to resurrect the premium assistance that’s about to expire.

As he has for years, Johnson blamed the Affordable Care Act itself for having a “faulty design.” But he and other Republicans have never proposed a workable alternative to prevent millions of Americans from going uninsured, driving up costs for everyone else and reducing access to lifesaving care.

“We had a simple choice,” said Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, “Vote to avert crisis for 275,000 Wisconsinites or greenlight higher costs for millions of Americans. My Republican colleagues voted to double, triple or quadruple working families’ health care premiums.”

2️⃣ Catch Kit Killed — Facing strong vocal opposition, Republican legislators have removed language from a bill that would have required women who sought medication abortions to use a “catch kit” to retrieve the results of the miscarriage in a medical waste bag — purportedly in the name of keeping the medication out of ground water. “Voters won’t forget their creepy and invasive attacks on reproductive healthcare,” State Senate Democratic Committee spokesman Will Karcz said in a statement. 

3️⃣  Signing off, for now — Our radio show on Civic Media is coming to a close. We started the program in August 2022 and have produced more than 750 editions of Wisconsin news, interviews, features, and humor. You can catch our show this week from 6-9 a.m. on our Facebook and YouTube pages.

After the holidays, we’ll be working on new ways to share information and pleasant conversation about what’s happening across this state we love — based around this Sunday morning newsletter, which isn’t going anywhere. You’ve made it a cornerstone of our coverage.

Thank you for listening and we can’t wait to unveil new ways to keep connected.

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

🏁 Thanks for reading our update.

Have a great week!