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Wisconsin’s Elections Commission is not backing down in the latest fight over its absentee ballot rules. A Commission spokesman yesterday said the Elections Commission cannot end its guidance to local clerks that says they can add information to absentee ballots unless there’s a new vote by commissioners. That vote would have to override the rule, and because of the political make up of the Commission that’s unlikely to happen. State Senator Steve Nass said the Elections Commission is not above

The Wisconsin Elections Commission is looking to go to high schools across the state to talk about the 2020 election. The Commission is set to meet today to approve an Election Education program. The Commission says it wants to speak to young people about how elections work given what it’s calling the ‘heightened public interest in election administration.’ The education program also comes as Wisconsin’s Republican lawmakers are growing increasingly frustrated with how the Commission is preparing to run this year’s elections.

There’s another Wisconsin lawmaker calling for legal action against the state’s election managers. State senator Patrick Testin yesterday said the legislature needs to consider taking the Wisconsin Elections Commission to court to force the Commission to abide by the state’s election laws. A legislative committee on Wednesday killed a rule from the Elections Commission that would allow local election clerks to change absentee ballots on their own. Yesterday, the Commission said that rule will stay in place until Commissioners vote to change it, regardless

There are more than 450 people in the hospital in Wisconsin with the coronavirus. The state’s Hospital Association yesterday said there are now 462 people in the hospital, including 61 in the ICU. That 462 number is up from this point last week. Wisconsin is still, however, a long way from its peak hospitalization point of over 22 hundred people from back in January.

 Public health officials in Madison say they are dealing with a unique variant of the virus that causes COVID-19. The state’s Department of Health Services confirmed the variant was found in wastewater yesterday. There is no evidence that the variant is making people sick. Public Health Madison & Dane County says the variant has also not been found anywhere else in the state, and has not been found in any people yet. They are planning more tests.

Sauk County’s Devil’s Lake State Park is getting a donation to promote education about the park.  This week the Devil’s Lake Concession Corporation donated one-million dollars to the park’s capital campaign to build an interpretive center.  The center will help visitors learn the history and culture of the park.  More information is available on the park’s website.

For the second year in a row Madison is named the best place to live in America.  Livability gives Madison a Liv Score of 725, beating Ann Arbor, Michigan by 39 points for the top spot.  Livability ranks cities in several different categories including the economy, housing, education, and others.  Waukesha also ranks high on the list at 12th.

 Milwaukee is working on a six-day shooting spree. Police say four more people were shot yesterday, two of them died. Milwaukee Police say that was a case where a man killed a woman, then shot himself a short time later. He died at the hospital. Yesterday’s shootings come after 28 people were shot between last Friday and Tuesday night.

Wisconsin’s governor says he’s not ready to sign-off on a new casino in Kenosha. Governor Evers yesterday said he’s ‘a long way’ from a decision on a proposed Hard Rock Casino for the Menominee Tribe. The tribe and Hard Rock announced a partnership yesterday, and local leaders in Bristol okayed a land sale for the casino earlier this week. Evers would have to sign-off on any new gambling compact with the tribe for the project in Kenosha.