☀️ Good morning!

It’s Sunday, September 28, 2025

We are not done watching candidates enter the 2026 election cycle, but we’re already seeing some end their campaigns. 

In the 3rd Congressional District, former Eau Claire City Council member Laura Benjamin suspended her campaign on Friday. That still leaves two Democrats hoping to unseat US Rep. Derrick Van Orden next year.

And in the race for governor, businessman Bill Berrien ended his “family values” themed campaign on Friday—days after a blistering news report about his sexually explicit web browser history. 

It wasn’t that terribly long ago that good public servants had their careers ended for youthful indiscretions or questionable but not life-or-death decisionmaking. We no longer expect politicians and public officials to be squeaky clean, but we do still draw the line—at least sometimes—at hypocrisy. 

Enjoy your day. And stay up to date with our weekday newsletter, our social media posts, and our morning radio show.

⏮️ Last Week:  If there is a government shutdown in the coming week, who’s to blame?

🄰  Congressional Republicans. 

🄱  Congressional Democrats.

🄲  President Trump.

Nearly all of the responses were some variation of A and C, with most wanting to choose both or put more blame on the president.

James S.: Trump thinks he can come up with the “Art of the Deal,” but in practice he is a spoiled brat.

Mary K. gave a similar answer: The man needs to step up and emulate the wisdom and grace the office deserves instead of the spoiled 5 year old he is.

Robert H. blames GOP lawmakers: The Congress has abdicated its responsibilities. If Trump wants to get a deserved gold star, he can sign an executive order authorizing no pay for Congress until they start doing their job — the people’s business.

⏭️ This Week: President Trump is already ratcheting up the stakes of a government shutdown, planning to lay off many more federal employees than would otherwise be necessary. In other words, increase the number of families who feel the pain. He believes that will put pressure on Democrats to give up their demands that Republicans restore the healthcare cuts they made earlier. Will it work? If there’s a shutdown, how does it end?

🄰  Democrats cave – saying it’s irresponsible to let people suffer, so they’ll stop pushing to restore healthcare cuts. 

🄱  Trump caves – TACO: Trump Always Chickens Out. He’ll find a way to claim victory even as healthcare cuts are restored.

🄲  Republicans snub Trump – agreeing to restore some healthcare cuts. Trump vetoes the plan, but Republicans and Democrats join together to override his veto and greatly diminish his control over Congress.

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

(AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)

Republicans in Madison and Washington, DC, are trying new approaches to ban or restrict reproductive healthcare rights. One of them is working, for now.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin will stop providing abortion care at least temporarily as it awaits legal challenges to the Trump/Republican megabill that cuts Medicaid to payments to clinics that perform abortion services, even though the funding is used for a wide range of non-abortion care such as physicals, cancer screenings, blood tests, and more.

“This is Donald Trump’s backdoor abortion ban because he knows he can’t do it through the front door,” said Dr. Kristin Lyerly, an obstetrician-gynecologist in the Green Bay area.

At the state level, Republican legislators have introduced a bill they claim is designed to prevent doctors from violating abortion bans by spelling out procedures that may be needed when a pregnancy is no longer viable or when a woman or her baby are in grave danger. Critics, however, say it’s micromanagement that could never keep up with changes in healthcare and conditions.

“If the authors of that bill want to practice medicine, they should go to medical school,” Lyerly said on our radio show. “Otherwise, they should leave it up to the people who know what they’re doing. It makes me so profoundly angry because all they have is a political agenda. All they want is control and power over people of reproductive age.”

In response, legislative Democrats reintroduced their “Right to Contraception Act,” that would establish a statutory right to access—and a health care provider’s right to provide—contraceptives and information regarding contraception. State and local governments would be barred from passing restrictions on  contraceptives or contraception-related information.

1️⃣  State of Education – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly was on our radio show this past week to review the State of Education address she delivered at the Capitol. We asked about her statement that the biggest bullying threat in our schools right now comes from the federal government, which is ironic given how conservatives used to talk a lot about reduced government involvement in education—until they got into power.

“The federal government is really inserting themselves into the everyday operations of our schools and really threatening the good work that our students are doing,” Underly said. “They’re taking away funding for teachers, for special education students, for students who are deaf-blind. They’ve threatened funding for school nutrition programs. They are the ones causing a lot of chaos in our schools.”

2️⃣  Soybean Surplus – Wisconsin farmers are about to begin harvesting what appears to be a very healthy crop of soybeans, but prices are lower and piles of beans will begin rising since China has yet to purchase a single US bean. China imported about $12 billion worth of US soybeans last year, but President Trump’s trade war tariffs have sent Chinese buyers to Brazil and Argentina. Wisconsin sells about two-thirds of its soybean crop overseas.

Doub Rebout, Wisconsin Soybean Growers Association president, put it directly to Wisconsin Public Radio: “Right now, there’s not a lot of optimism. Maybe in the long run, but I do not see any short-term, quick fixes that are going to help us.” 

3️⃣  Gerrymandering Update – The Wisconsin Supreme Court is taking the next step in either hearing or outsourcing two lawsuits seeking to overturn the state’s congressional map, which currently has a Republican supermajority of 6-2. A report by WisPolitics says the justices are asking parties to file briefs on whether the justices should appoint circuit court judges to hear the challenges first. To this point, the court’s liberal majority has refused to take up challenges to the congressional map ahead of the 2026 election cycle.

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🏁 Thanks for reading our update.

Have a great week!