☀️ Good morning!

It’s Sunday, October 26, 2025

🇺🇸 Let me begin with a note of personal gratitude that you’ve taken time each week to read our updates on Wisconsin politics. Public service is as important as ever — maybe more so, these days — and I’m thankful to see so many thousands of readers agree on the need to keep up with political headlines in our state.

🍔 Having said that, let’s take a break from politics and talk about food!

🍕 In the weekday newsletter assembled by our newest teammate Ellie Bourdo, her new Friday feature, “Locals Love,” has really taken off. A week ago, she asked readers to recommend their favorite local pizza joints. This past week, she asked about where to find the best local burgers in Wisconsin. What a great variety of praise and mouth-watering ideas for how to build a great burger: Apple-cranberry chutney? Maple bacon aioli? Melted cheese curds? Yes, please!

So if you’re not already getting our weekday newsletter — or if you subscribe but don’t get around to reading it regularly, consider this a gentle nudge to make it part of your daily information intake. After all, it’s good to care about politics and civic engagement, but why do it on an empty stomach?

Have a great day, and remember to carve out some down time since you might be up late watching the Packers in Pittsburgh on Sunday Night Football. As always, we invite you to stay up to date with our social media posts and morning radio show, too.

⏮️ Last Week:  I promise we didn’t have any inside information about the blockbuster sports betting investigation that was announced this week. It was purely a coincidence that it came just days after we asked if you support a proposal for expanded sports gambling options in Wisconsin.

24% said 🄰  Sure. It’s legal in 39 other states, so why not raise some revenue here?

58% said 🄱  It only opens the door to more problems with addiction, crime, and financial turmoil for families.

18% said 🄲  Not sure. 

From Jim D. (A-Yes): “The state and federal governments keep taking money away from the tribes and allowing online sports betting seems to be a reasonable way to replace some of that. Besides, it might put a dent in the national online sites’ profits.”

Mary D. (B-No): “We have more than enough ways to feed our gambling demons.”

Mike F.: “Unfortunately, I have to go with (C-Not sure). No matter what we want or do, it is inevitable in our current climate of free-for-all gambling. Not a shoulder shrug, just acknowledging that it’s already seeping in over the web.”

⏭️ This Week: Should a new nuclear power plant be built in Wisconsin?

The Kewaunee Power Station nuclear plant operated from 1974 to 2012. Now the current facility owner is interested in constructing a new power plant on the site and a legislator from that area has introduced a bill to provide tax credits as an incentive to build a new nuclear generator. What do you think?

🄰  Yes. If done under strict safeguards, it’s a carbon-free way to feed our need for power without contributing to damaging our climate.

🄱  No. No safeguard is worth the risk of another Three Mile Island or Chernobyl or Fukushima, not to mention another new batch of nuclear waste.

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.

President Donald Trump has rejected Wisconsin’s request for $26.5 million in public infrastructure disaster relief to fix damage caused by flash flooding in August in southeastern Wisconsin.

During storms on Aug. 9-10, parts of the region received as many as 14 inches of rain in less than 24 hours and caused four rivers in the Milwaukee area to hit record-high levels. Trump had approved $29.8 million in individual assistance in a disaster declaration on Sept. 11. 

Evers had requested “individual assistance” disaster relief for flood victims in Milwaukee, Waukesha, and Washington counties, which Trump approved. But he also sought “public assistance” disaster relief for those three counties plus Ozaukee, Door, and Grant counties to deal with debris removal and damage to roads and bridges, utilities and water systems, and public buildings.

Trump made several other decisions on disaster aid for states, curiously in line with whether each state voted for him or not last year.

Read the full story on our website.

1️⃣  Looming healthcare budget cuts are worrying the parents and caregivers of people with developmental disabilities. Megan Lowe joined our radio show to talk about how spiking health insurance costs may make it harder for her 17-year-old daughter to maintain contraceptive coverage. Lowe notes an estimated 80% to 90% of people with developmental disabilities will experience sexual assault at some point in their lives. The need for contraceptive coverage is on top of the many other expenses families like hers face with health care and daily living needs.

2️⃣  “Weaponizing red tape,” is how an advocate for struggling Wisconsin families describes the looming cuts to things like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP). “They’re cutting in half the amount of money the federal government usually chips in to help states administer the program. It really sets up Wisconsin to fail,” said William Parke Sutherland on Civic Media’s Maggie Daun Show. Read the full story on our website.

3️⃣ On top of less affordable health care and groceries, there’s also the rise in property taxes made necessary by a GOP-led legislature that refuses to fund public schools at a level that keeps up with inflation. Angie Lawrence, the president of the school board in Viroqua, joined our radio show to criticize the private school voucher program that skims its funding off the top of what would otherwise go to public schools — despite the lack of private school transparency or accountability. Lawrence and others are working to make the true cost of the voucher program easier for taxpayers to discover so that, in the case of Viroqua, people understand how $1.2 million in school funding went to private schools despite being listed on property tax bills as going to the Viroqua public school district.

📻 Catch our radio show weekdays from 6-9 a.m. on our Facebook and YouTube pages as well as stations across Wisconsin thanks to our friends at Civic Media. If you can’t listen live, listen on-demand by subscribing on Spotify.

📱 And 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!