As you will see if you look at the COVID graphs for today on the site, the reporting from the state was a little disrupted over the weekend as the Wisconsin Electronic Disease Surveillance System was being upgraded to be more flexible and powerful. A lot of data flowed out of the system again this afternoon after a weekend period of no reporting. DHS recommends looking at the 7-day average of cases rather than individual days, as that makes the general trends much clearer.
But no matter how you look at it, Wisconsin is still in trouble with the pandemic. 26 deaths have been reported since Friday, three each in Chippewa, La Crosse and Waukesha Counties; two each in Kenosha, Langlade, Milwaukee, and Portage Counties; and one each in Brown, Clark, Dodge, Green, Juneau, Marathon, Marinette, Oconto and Outagamie Counties.
7705 new cases have been confirmed since Friday, and it may in fact be worse than that since there is always a weekend lag of reporting positive cases.
Court battles continue over restrictions to limit the spread of COVID, while the legislature continues to call out from the sidelines as they continue not to meet, but continue to complain about attempts by the Governor and DHS to control the pandemic. This is an untenable situation, and one can only hope that the Republican-led legislature will consider actually doing something useful about the health crisis in the state after the election. Citizens need protective measures from the virus, and businesses in the state and the nation need to have legislation to protect them from the safety measures.
In the meantime Wisconsinites become sick from the virus, some of them die, and some of them develop long-term complications. While we wait for definitive action, please follow the health advisories and advice. Mask up, wash your hands like you've never washed them before, and whenever possible stay at home.
Memberships
Agreement reached on Capitol access
Peculiar timing on this one - budget is passed, Suprreme Court rules, suddenly there's an agreement -
Administration Secretary Michael Huebsch said that, beginning on Monday, all eight entrances to the Capitol will be open to the public. In addition, metal screening will be discontinued.
However, the Department of Administration still has the authority to adjust security and change practices and procedures if new protests erupt.
The settlement effectively ends a lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin State Employees Union, which had sought better access at the height of the budget protests last winter. The union also had sought a contempt of court order against Huebsch; that, too was dismissed.
Both sides welcomed the settlement.
Uppity Upgrade
Some of you may have noticed that we've been down for a little while this evening. We've been upgrading the Drupal software that this site runs on. The upgrade went fairly well, but it's entirely possible that there will be some "odd" behavior for the next day or so as we work through a couple niggling issues. Please let us know if you see any problems by using the Contact Us link at the top of the site.
Scott Walker's Missing Policies
You may have seen some of the flap last week where Scott Walker was asked about what his presidential policies would be, and he said to "look at his website". Unfortunately nobody could find much in the way of proposed policy there either. American Bridge has helped Walker along by building a policy page for him that reveals what actually appear to be his policies. Take a l ook for what you can expect from a Walker presidency.
Steve is a member of LION Publishers , the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, the Menomonie Area Chamber of Commerce, the Online News Association, and the Local Media Consortium, and is active in Health Dunn Right.
He has been a computer guy most of his life but has published a political blog, a discussion website, and now Eye On Dunn County.
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