March 30, 2021

Courting an Ex

Anyone who tuned in on Saturday, March 27, to watch the University of Iowa take on top-seeded Connecticut in the women’s NCAA college basketball tournament should have been made aware of how poorly the NCAA has treated the women’s game.

Since the tournament in San Antonio, Texas, began, articles have repeatedly evidenced the utter inequality between it and the men’s tournament, in Indianapolis. Optics that include no on-site TV commentators until the round of 16, the dearth of marketing presence around the Texas city, inadequate weight rooms, the outright ban on the term “March Madness” for the women’s tournament, and the investment disparity, prove more than ever that the NCAA’s treatment of women’s sports is how W. C. Fields deals with annoyances: “Go on, kid, ya bother me.”

“This is an issue of fairness,” Amy Privette Perko, chief executive of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, asserted in The New York Times. “The NCAA is intended to be a unifying organization for its schools to provide educational opportunities through sports. One of its foundational principles is to conduct its activities in a ‘manner free of gender bias,’ and in this case, it seems clear that the NCAA failed to meet its own standard.”

But there’s a simple make-good for this separate-but-unequal treatment: Let college women’s sports once again be administered by an organization that has a herstory of keeping the toilet seat down: the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).

Read more: https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2021/03/28/courting-an-ex/

March 30, 2021

Courting an Ex

Anyone who tuned in on Saturday, March 27, to watch the University of Iowa take on top-seeded Connecticut in the women’s NCAA college basketball tournament should have been made aware of how poorly the NCAA has treated the women’s game.

Since the tournament in San Antonio, Texas, began, articles have repeatedly evidenced the utter inequality between it and the men’s tournament, in Indianapolis. Optics that include no on-site TV commentators until the round of 16, the dearth of marketing presence around the Texas city, inadequate weight rooms, the outright ban on the term “March Madness” for the women’s tournament, and the investment disparity, prove more than ever that the NCAA’s treatment of women’s sports is how W. C. Fields deals with annoyances: “Go on, kid, ya bother me.”

“This is an issue of fairness,” Amy Privette Perko, chief executive of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, asserted in The New York Times. “The NCAA is intended to be a unifying organization for its schools to provide educational opportunities through sports. One of its foundational principles is to conduct its activities in a ‘manner free of gender bias,’ and in this case, it seems clear that the NCAA failed to meet its own standard.”

But there’s a simple make-good for this separate-but-unequal treatment: Let college women’s sports once again be administered by an organization that has a herstory of keeping the toilet seat down: the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).

Read more: https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2021/03/28/courting-an-ex/

March 30, 2021

House inheritance tax phaseout differs from 'aggressive' Senate plan

A panel of Iowa House lawmakers moved a bill Monday that would eliminate Iowa’s inheritance tax by 2024.

House File 841 passed out of subcommittee Monday afternoon. The bill would gradually raise the size of an estate exempted from the tax: the $25,000 maximum would become $300,000 this year, then would increase to $600,000 and $1 million. The inheritance tax would be completely repealed on July 1, 2024.

Rep. Dave Jacoby, D-Coralville, proposed accelerating the process even further by immediately repealing the inheritance tax.

“I think the budget can absorb it,” he said. “Why don’t we just go ahead and eliminate this inheritance tax starting this calendar year?”

Read more: https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2021/03/29/house-inheritance-tax-phaseout-differs-from-aggressive-senate-plan/

March 30, 2021

Iowa COVID cases jump sharply, test positivity among highest in nation

Iowa has seen a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases during the past week and has one of the highest test positivity rates in the nation.

The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and epidemiologists have warned that the spread of new versions of the virus at a time when many Americans are ditching their masks and being more active outside the home could bring an uptick just when the nation appeared to be on its way to gaining control of the pandemic.

Gov. Kim Reynolds lifted the state’s limited mask mandate and capacity limits for businesses on Feb. 7.

The Washington Post reported that Iowa’s new cases are up 33.7% in the past week. The New York Times reported Iowa had 22% more new cases than it did two weeks ago.

Read more: https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2021/03/29/iowa-covid-cases-jump-sharply-test-positivity-among-highest-in-nation/

March 30, 2021

Witness: Derek Chauvin purposely shifted weight to add pressure on George Floyd's neck

Attorneys in the Derek Chauvin murder trial on Monday each made their case before jurors who will decide the fired Minneapolis police officer's fate in the killing of George Floyd 10 months ago.

Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell began shortly before 9:40 a.m. in front of a global livestream audience in downtown Minneapolis in the heavily guarded Hennepin County Government Center and explained how the state will prove that Chauvin killed Floyd and should be convicted of murder and manslaughter.

In his nearly one-hour address to jurors, Blackwell turned to what could be the prosecution's most crucial piece of the evidence -- the viral bystander video of Floyd's arrest -- and showed it in full to the jurors, others in the courtroom and millions watching on the livestream.

"I can't breathe," Floyd said repeatedly, a phrase that quickly became a rallying cry for activists around the world. The cellphone video captured bystanders' increasingly agitated calls for intervention while Chauvin remained with his knee on Floyd's neck.

Read more: https://www.startribune.com/witness-derek-chauvin-purposely-shifted-weight-to-add-pressure-on-george-floyd-s-neck/600039838/

March 30, 2021

Tony Evers signs bill aimed at lowering prescription drug prices in Wisconsin

MADISON - Gov. Tony Evers on Friday signed a bill that aims to lower prescription drug prices in Wisconsin.

The new law adds transparency requirements for pharmacy benefit managers, who manage prescription drug benefits for health plans and negotiate prices for prescription drugs.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R-Irma, and Rep. Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh, requires the managers to give the state more information on what they pay for the drugs and whether their savings are reflected in costs paid for by customers.

The new law also bars pharmacy benefit managers from preventing customers from receiving information about cheaper alternatives to their prescriptions.

Read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/26/tony-evers-signs-bill-aimed-lowering-lower-prescription-drug-prices/7016519002/

March 30, 2021

Residents of Fort Atkinson shocked that 2019 petroleum spill by Enbridge went unreported for over a

Residents of Fort Atkinson shocked that 2019 petroleum spill by Enbridge went unreported for over a year


Community members near the site of a 2019 pipeline leak are questioning why the Canadian oil company in charge of the line didn't notify them sooner.

Enbridge Energy waited more than a year to notify the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources of a spill on one of its pipelines running through south-central Wisconsin, leaving residents wondering if their wells could be impacted by petroleum products.

Line 13, also known as the Southern Lights Pipeline, starts in Manhattan, Ill., and runs through Wisconsin and Minnesota, delivering products to Enbridge's Edmonton terminal in Alberta, Canada, according to the company's website. The line transports 180,000 barrels per day of petroleum diluent, which is used to dilute heavy oils for easier transportation.

The spill took place in Fort Atkinson, on Blackhawk Island Road near the Rock River and Lake Koshkonong.

Read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/wisconsin/2021/03/29/enbridge-energy-2019-wisconsin-spill-went-unreported-over-year/7007012002/
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

March 30, 2021

300 days of Black Lives Matter protest

Beneath a gray, overcast sky, on a damp and windy day, protesters gathered in Madison Park near Wauwatosa. Among them were the parents of 25-year-old Jay Anderson Jr., who was killed by former Wauwatosa police officer Joseph Mensah in 2016. The group had gathered not only to pay their respects to the Anderson family, but to also celebrate the 300th day of Black Lives Matter protests in Milwaukee.

“I just want to say that we love ya’ll,” said Mariah Smith, a member of The People’s Revolution (TPR). The group formed after the George Floyd-inspired protests began in the summer of 2020. Since then, TPR has held demonstrations throughout southeastern Wisconsin from Milwaukee to Kenosha and elsewhere. Smith addressed not only Anderson’s parents Jay Sr. and Linda, but also the entire group. “We love ya’ll too,” Jay Sr. responded, echoed by others in the group of 30 or so.

Day 300 coincided with the second court date in the ongoing John Doe hearing into Anderson’s death. The hearing ended with WPD Chief Barry Weber being ordered by a judge to testify on May 4. “I don’t think any of us can fathom what ya’ll are going through,” Smith told Anderson’s parents. “You guys get up every day, and ya’ll keep the fight. Ya’ll got to go on with your lives before this tragedy first happened right here in this parking lot,” said Smith. “So I commend ya’ll, and I love ya’ll.”

Linda Anderson thanked the group, stating, “It’s ya’ll that’s keeping us going. I mean that, from the bottom of my heart. And I have to keep fighting for my son. He did not deserve this, and that’s the reason we’re out here every day.” After the speeches, the group organized a march and car caravan. The protesters, chanting Anderson’s name, traveled about a mile through the neighborhoods surrounding the park. As the marchers returned to the park, someone threw eggs from a hidden vantage point in a yard. Anderson’s parents and the marchers just grinned.

Read more: https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2021/03/29/300-days-of-black-lives-matter-protest/

March 30, 2021

Ukrainian Association in Baraboo honors Nazi collaborators with statues at children's summer camp

A Chicago-based Ukrainian Youth Association owns a property in Baraboo where kids attend summer camp in the bluffs near the Wisconsin Dells — it’s also the location of statues honoring four Ukrainians who aided the Nazis during the Holocaust.

The property is miles away from downtown Baraboo and the front gate keeps out members of the public, but in a community that has had its own brush with antisemitic hate, the statues’ presence is alarming.

An investigation by the Jewish news outlet The Forward found more than 300 monuments to and statues of Nazi collaborators around the world, including two in Wisconsin — the Ukrainians in Baraboo and a Serbian general in Milwaukee, Dragoljub ‘Draza’ Mihailovic, who was killed for collaborating with Hitler.

The existence of the statues was unveiled as communities across the U.S. and Wisconsin debate who and what should be memorialized with public statues in the wake of widespread protests for racial justice.

Read more: https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2021/03/29/ukrainian-baraboo-nazi-statues/

March 30, 2021

Gov. Tony Evers announces he'll direct $2.5 billion in federal relief money to economic recovery in

Gov. Tony Evers announces he'll direct $2.5 billion in federal relief money to economic recovery in Wisconsin


Gov. Tony Evers announced Monday he will spend $2.5 billion in federal relief funding to help Wisconsin's economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Democratic governor delivered the news at a Milwaukee café just before he vetoed a bill that would have given that decision-making power over billions coming to Wisconsin through the federal American Rescue Plan to Republicans who control the state Legislature.

“We were pushed back every step of the way every time we tried to mitigate the disease,” Evers said about giving Republicans control over COVID-19 relief spending.

He said he was vetoing Senate Bill 183 "to make sure once we get the guidance we need from the federal government, we can work to get these funds out quickly and make sure they don’t get tied up in some political fight in the legislature."

Read more: https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/29/tony-evers-direct-2-5-billion-stimulus-wisconsin-businesses/7048016002/