Thursday, July 16: Governor contest escalates, disaster resources get tighter, air quality plummets in Minnesota, Education Dept. dismantling begins, delays in treating teen cannibis users, ‘slush fund’ queries for AG nominee
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“That’s for Sara to decide. That’s for her and her family and the people around her.“
– Joel Brennan, answering a reporter’s question about whether Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez should drop out of the Democratic primary for governor after a campaign finance crisis for which he criticized her. A Rodriguez spokesperson said she will stay in the race
Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez meets with residents at the Madison YWCA on Tuesday, July 14. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)
Despite a campaign finance crisis Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez remains committed to staying in the contest for the Democratic nomination for governor, a spokesperson says. Meanwhile one rival makes a show of filing campaign financial statements, another garners an advocacy group’s endorsement and Dems suspect that a GOP ad attacking Francesca Hong is a ploy to drive up her votes in the primary. Erik Gunn rounds up the state of play in the race.
Communities that ask for federal assistance when climate disasters hit can’t count on that help to arrive. That increasingly common reality was reviewed in a recent report by Wisconsin Policy Forum focusing on the historic floods in the state last August, finding that federal aid to help rebuild public infrastructure damaged by the record-breaking storms fell short of what was needed. Isiah Holmes follows up on the report.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has issued an air quality alert for parts of Minnesota, including the Twin Cities metro area, for Tuesday through Friday, as wildfires in the northern parts of the state and Canada continue. Ria Gupta of our affiliate newsroom Minnesota Reformer reports.
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More from Washington:
ICYMI
A potters field, or mass grave from a decommissioned mental health hospital, completely flooded in Wauwatosa. (Photo courtesy of Baiba Rozite)
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