Wildfire smoke engulfs Wisconsin

QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The public health threat we are all enduring must be a wakeup call.”

– Chelsea Chandler, Clean Wisconsin’s climate, energy and air program director

For the second time in three years, noxious clouds of wildfire smoke are smothering Wisconsin, dangerously degrading air quality and restricting people’s ability to go outside. Isiah Holmes reports on the Superior National Forest wildfires, the current air quality warnings throughout the state and the advocates pushing Wisconsinites to recognize the connection between the current crisis and climate change.

In a commentary, Editor Ruth Conniff writes about waking up to a world on fire, leaving behind a brief, beautiful summer idyll as the escalating climate disaster intrudes. “The least we can demand of our political leaders,” she writes, “is that they stop dismantling the only tools we have to fight the incineration of our world.”

Activists who protested outside the Department of Corrections headquarters and the DOC gave dramatically different descriptions of what it’s like to experience solitary confinement in the Wisconsin prison system. Andrew Kennard reports on the struggle over what is needed to reform a corrections system under scrutiny.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany reported Wednesday he raised over $8 million, while Mandela Barnes reported the highest amount raised among Democratic primary candidates at $841,358. Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, after struggling with a campaign finance disaster, had only $35,000 on hand, the lowest amount in the Democratic field. She then amended that figure upward to over $640,000, Thursday, only to correct it again to the original $35,000. Baylor Spears reports on the money and the politics in Wisconsin’s contentious governor’s race.

PLUS:

Finishing a distant second in fundraising, Milwaukee latecomer drops out of 1st CD primary

Judge Pedro Colón leads early fundraising battle in 2027 Wisconsin Supreme Court race

More from Washington:

US House panel approves $95B GOP-only budget blueprint

House Dem Leader Jeffries hammers Trump, asks for teachers union help in midterms

Labor nominee defends transfer of programs to agency from Education Department