Month: August 2026

Gov. Tony Evers has formally requested a disaster declaration from President Donald Trump in response to a tornado that ripped through the Fox Valley in late July, the governor’s office announced Wednesday.

The EF3 tornado was among the severe storms on July 27 that carried strong rain and hail with them, causing widespread damage across the Fox Cities area. Evers is seeking federal individual assistance for Forest, Outagamie, Vilas and Winnebago counties and public assistance for Vilas and Winnebago counties.

According to the governor’s report to the president, 2,346 residential buildings were damaged, including 84 that were destroyed, 412 with major damage, 1,331 with minor damage and 519 others affected.

The total cost of the damage to residential buildings is estimated to be more than $8.2 million, while government property suffered another $13.8 million in damage, according to preliminary assessments.

The President needs to approve the governor’s request before federal aid becomes available.

Canada announced retaliatory tariffs on hundreds of American products as high as 50 percent Tuesday, just days after the collapse of negotiations between the two countries.

Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Canada will match the U.S.’s tariffs “dollar for dollar, rate for rate.” The tariffs would take effect September 8.

He said the 15 percent, 25 percent and 50 percent tariffs will be on $27.6 billion of imports from the U.S.

“For each product, our tariff will match the American tariff on the same type of Canadian good,” he said.

Arguably the biggest measure is Canada doubling its tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum to 50 percent to match the 50 percent the U.S. put on Canadian steel and aluminum.

He said the countertariffs “are designed primarily to provide protection for Canadian industries impacted by the U.S. tariffs and allow them to compete against U.S. products in the Canadian market.”

Canada released a list of over 700 items that will be targeted with tariffs ranging from live fish, frozen fish, cheese, some apparel, carpets and metal products made of steel or aluminum, among others.

The U.S.’s 50 percent tariffs went into effect on Saturday across over $20 billion of Canadian imports after negotiations collapsed late Friday.

Trump threatened to impose 50 percent tariffs on a plethora of Canadian imports in response to “discriminatory” trade measures. The U.S. tariffs fall under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, the administration said when announcing them last month.

Prices across dozens of hospitals in Wisconsin were “consistently and substantially higher” than prices for the same services in Illinois, a report from a UW-Madison think tank found.

The Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy recently issued a report comparing prices between 70 hospitals in Illinois and 60 in Wisconsin based on commercial negotiated-rate data.

It covers dozens of health systems, assessing “high-spend” inpatient services for UnitedHealthcare and the “Blue plan,” Anthem Blue Cross in Wisconsin.

Authors found hospital prices in Wisconsin are about 26% higher than in Illinois, noting the finding “holds under multiple analytic approaches.” This suggests the difference isn’t driven by differences in the mix of patients, services or insurers, or by hospital type, the report found.

“Within the Advocate Health system, which operates on both sides of the border under common ownership, Wisconsin hospitals are still paid about 23 percent more than their Illinois counterparts,” authors wrote. “And the premium is strikingly uniform across the Blue plan and UnitedHealthcare, which independently land within half a percentage point of each other for inpatient care.”

The report points to structural differences as an explanation for the trend authors found, including provider market concentration, system-level consolidation and the “strategic positioning” of major health systems in the state. It points to the widespread use of “percent-of-change” contracting in Wisconsin as particularly important.

Under this model, a hospital is paid a fixed share of its billed charges, rather than a pre-set dollar amount. This results in the effective price being linked to a price database that “the hospital sets unilaterally and can raise over time,” authors wrote.

It’s much more widely used in Wisconsin than in Illinois, per the report.

“The concentration of such contracts in Wisconsin is consistent with the strong provider bargaining position that a consolidated hospital market confers; and because these contracts give hospitals a standing mechanism to raise realized prices, they may help entrench the very premium this report documents,” authors wrote.

The report was authored by Prof. Anthony T. Lo Sasso, a member of UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs, and Ike Brannon, president of the consulting firm Capital Policy Analytics.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Monday said Canada was responsible for the collapse of trade-deal negotiations last week, telling CNBC that Ottawa changed its demands at the eleventh hour.

“We progressed to a point Tuesday night where we had enough agreement among the parties to announce that we had we had found the way to a deal,” Greer told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“Then we set about to finalize it, and then in the last hours, I think there were things that the Canadians just — you know, they wanted more,” he said.

The comments mirror those offered by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who had accused the U.S. of proposing “last-minute changes” that were “unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.”

We Energies plans to continue purchasing energy from a nuclear plant in Manitowoc County through 2053.

This week, the utility’s parent company told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that We Energies entered into a power purchase agreement with NextEra Energy to buy 86 percent of the energy from Units One and Two of the Point Beach Nuclear Plant.

The plan comes as We Energies is working to meet an expected spike in energy demand associated with data centers. A recent draft report from state utility regulators showed electricity demand in Wisconsin could increase by more than 40 percent by 2032, driven by hyperscale data centers.

The agreement still needs to be approved by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, and there were no financial details available in the SEC filing.

We Energies’ existing agreement to purchase power from the two units is set to expire in 2030 and 2033. But under the new agreement, the utility will purchase energy from Unit One through 2050 and Unit Two through 2053.

In a statement, We Energies spokesperson Brendan Conway said the agreement supports “around-the-clock reliability for customers” and will “provide customers with fuel savings” compared to the current deal with Point Beach.

“The agreement also provides long-term price certainty,” he stated. “The companies plan to file the agreement for approval with state regulators this fall.”

Conway added that more information would be released as part of the public regulatory process.

We Energies has said its current agreement to buy nuclear power from Point Beach is driving around 20 percent of its total requested rate increase for 2027.

Yesterday, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) proposed a comprehensive overhaul of its small business size standards, modernizing how the federal government defines and classifies small businesses across the United States. Published in a proposed rule, the new standards would simplify industry categorization and raise applicable size thresholds, allowing small but rapidly growing firms to continue qualifying and adding over 110,000 firms to the 36 million small businesses in America.

Mandated by law every five years, this historic update would introduce a market-size approach that would dramatically simplify industry classifications by transitioning from complex separate 6-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code standards to streamlined 4-digit category standards where appropriate. By cutting the total list of similar industry categories by approximately 65%, down to 338 broader classifications, the SBA seeks to remove regulatory complexities for business owners.

The proposed standards would also expand the official small business pool by over 110,000 firms, ensuring that rapidly growing companies can continue to qualify as small businesses under President Trump’s pro-growth economic agenda. By raising applicable size thresholds, the proposal is designed to reward growth rather than force successful firms out of small business eligibility prematurely, especially those in industries that are critical to American strength.

Key highlights of the proposed size standard overhaul include:

• Streamlines the existing NAICS structure to a 4-digit classification system that reduces total size standard categories from nearly 1,000 down to 338 broad industry groupings, simplifying how firms determine their small business status.
• Introduces regional market considerations to ensure size thresholds accurately reflect the realities of local economic competition.
• Expands the pool of employer small businesses (firms with 1 or more employees) by 1.8%, growing the nation’s 6.3 million employer firms by over 110,000 and adding to the 36 million small businesses that exist today.

The SBA is seeking comments on the proposed rule. Small businesses can check their current industry classification and size eligibility by visiting www.sba.gov/size-standards.

President Donald Trump said late Tuesday that he is pausing 50% tariffs on Canadian goods scheduled to take effect Wednesday, saying the two countries have reached a deal pending final documentation.

“I have paused the 50% Tariffs against Canada, that were scheduled to kick in tomorrow morning for a three day period, based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“The great Keystone XL Pipeline, long ago killed by Sleepy Joe Biden, may be awoken from the grave!” Trump added.

The duties would have covered roughly $20 billion in Canadian imports, including liquor, dairy products, vehicles, hockey equipment and other goods. Certain food products, wearables, synthetic materials and industrial goods were also expected to be affected.

President Trump spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday night and reportedly spoke with him again Tuesday afternoon.

Insurers seeking ACA plan premium increases in Wisconsin for 2027 say rising medical costs and greater use are driving their double-digit requests, while advocates raise concerns about affordability.

Health insurers in the state are requesting an average premium increase of 20.9% for next year, according to rate review filings posted online. All 12 of the insurers that proposed rates for the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace are requesting increases, ranging from about 11% to more than 30%.

Of the 12 insurers that requested rate increases in the state, five responded to requests for comment on their proposals.

Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative, which is proposing the largest increase across its plan categories at 30.88%, said its proposal reflects the expected cost of providing coverage in the coming year and aims to “ensure we can continue to provide high-quality coverage” for its customers.

Compcare Health Services Insurance Corporation, which operates as Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Wisconsin, is requesting a 16.48% rate increase. Spokesperson Emily Snooks says the company’s proposed rates are “a direct reflection of local healthcare costs,” arguing Wisconsin has some of the highest costs in the country.

Meanwhile, Healthpartners Insurance Company is requesting a 15.59% increase, based on anticipated changes in healthcare utilization and benefits. A spokesperson for the insurer said the increase accounted for expected “future medical inflation” and benefit changes between this year and next, based on shifting state and federal regulations.

Medica Community Health Plan, which is requesting a 24.56% increase, says the request “reflects a priority on high value plan offerings and provider partnerships” along with ensuring rates cover the cost of care.

The state’s ACA plan enrollment total dropped by nearly 46,000 earlier this year as the enhanced subsidies went away, falling from 291,336 at the end of open enrollment to 245,753 in February. That decline of 16% matched the national trend.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said on Wednesday that the consumer price index (CPI) – a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost – increased 0.1% on a monthly basis and is up 3.4% from a year ago.

The monthly data follows a reading of negative 0.4% in June, while the annual figure is slightly cooler than last month’s 3.5% reading.

So-called core prices, which exclude volatile measurements of gasoline and groceries to better assess price growth trends, were up 0.2% from a month ago and are 2.5% higher year over year. The monthly figure represents a slight uptick after price growth was flat in June, while the annual figure is slightly cooler than last month’s 2.6% reading.

Energy prices fell 1.5% on a monthly basis in July, but remain up 14.7% from a year ago. That follows a decline of 5.7% in June, when energy prices were easing quickly.

Food prices increased 0.1% from a month ago and are up 3% compared with last year. The food at home index declined 0.1% in July and is up 2.7% from a year ago, while the food away from home index rose 0.3% in July and is 3.4% higher than last year.

Housing prices rose 0.1% in July, which the BLS noted was responsible for about two-thirds of the total monthly increase, while the shelter index is up 3.2% from a year ago. Tenants’ and household insurance prices decreased 0.1% in July but are up 4.8% from a year ago.

Transportation services prices rose 0.3% in July and are up 2.9% from a year ago. Airline fares rose 2.2% in July and are up 25.5% over the last year.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule that permanently removes the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons to report beneficial ownership information to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act.  The final rule is effective on its publication in the Federal Register. FinCEN today also announced that it will delete previously reported information by U.S. persons—now exempt from the reporting requirements—from the beneficial ownership information database.

“Today’s action is a victory for common sense and American small businesses,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “President Trump promised to cut red tape, and this final rule delivers. Treasury is eliminating a burdensome reporting requirement for millions of law-abiding business owners without compromising our national security.”

The final rule:

• adopts the exemptions set out in the interim final rule issued in March 2025, making the rollback of beneficial ownership reporting by U.S. companies permanent;
• exempts U.S. persons who have obtained FinCEN IDs from any obligation to update or correct the information they originally provided to FinCEN to obtain their FinCEN IDs;
• eliminates the requirement for foreign companies to report U.S. person “company applicants” (i.e., the individuals who helped those foreign companies register to do business in the United States);
• exempts foreign pooled investment vehicles registered in the United States from reporting the beneficial ownership information of a U.S person in control of the investment vehicle; and
• confirms that FinCEN will delete information about any individuals—company applicants, beneficial owners, or recipients of a FinCEN ID—that FinCEN reasonably believes is a U.S. person (e.g., the information is linked to a U.S. passport or U.S. driver’s license).

Under the final rule, foreign entities that are reporting companies will still be required to report beneficial ownership information for foreign individuals.

In addition to the final rule, FinCEN has issued Frequently Asked Questions, and will be updating guidance on FinCEN.gov to reflect the final rule.