Brian Dake

The consumer price index, a broad gauge measuring the costs of goods and services across the U.S. economy, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.4%.

The annual inflation rate was 0.1 percentage point lower than August and is the lowest since February 2021.

Excluding food and energy, core prices increased 0.3% on the month, putting the annual rate at 3.3%. Both core readings also were 0.1 percentage point above forecast.

Much of the inflation increase — more than three-quarters of the move higher — came from a 0.4% jump in food prices and a 0.2% gain in shelter costs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in the release. That offset a 1.9% fall in energy prices.

Other items contributing to the gain included a 0.3% increase in used vehicle costs and a 0.2% rise in new vehicles. Medical care services were up 0.7% and apparel prices surged 1.1%.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ creative use of his expansive veto power in an attempt to lock in a school funding increase for 400 years comes before the state Supreme Court on Wednesday.

A key question facing the liberal-controlled court is whether state law allows governors to strike digits to create a new number as Evers did with the veto in question.

The case, supported by the Republican-controlled Legislature, is the latest flashpoint in a decades-long fight over just how broad Wisconsin’s governor’s partial veto powers should be. The issue has crossed party lines, with Republicans and Democrats pushing for more limitations on the governor’s veto over the years.

In this case, Evers made the veto in question in 2023. His partial veto increased how much revenue K-12 public schools can raise per student by $325 a year until 2425. Evers took language that originally applied the $325 increase for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years and instead vetoed the “20” and the hyphen to make the end date 2425, more than four centuries from now.

The lawsuit asks the court to strike down Evers’ partial veto and declare that the state constitution forbids the governor from striking digits to create a new year or to remove language to create a longer duration than the one approved by the Legislature.

Wisconsin’s partial veto power was created by a 1930 constitutional amendment, but it’s been weakened over the years, including in reaction to vetoes made by former governors, both Republicans and Democrats.

Voters adopted constitutional amendments in 1990 and 2008 that removed the ability to strike individual letters to make new words — the “Vanna White” veto — and the power to eliminate words and numbers in two or more sentences to create a new sentence — the “Frankenstein” veto.

The lawsuit before the court on Wednesday contends that Evers’ partial veto is barred under the 1990 constitutional amendment prohibiting the “Vanna White” veto, named the co-host of the game show Wheel of Fortune who flips letters to reveal word phrases.

But Evers, through his attorneys at the state Department of Justice, argued that the “Vanna White” veto ban applies only to striking individual letters to create new words, not vetoing digits to create new numbers.

With four weeks left until Election Day, Wisconsinites have already been inundated with campaign ads from candidates for state and national races.

But several nonpartisan and bipartisan groups focused on promoting election security are hoping to break up the barrage with an encouragement for everyone to cast their ballot this November.

LeaderEthics, WisAct and Keep Our Republic released a series of public service announcements on Monday. The video and radio messages urge residents to disregard political misinformation or scare tactics and have confidence in exercising their right to vote.

The announcements feature former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and former Republican Gov. Scott McCallum, as well as Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe and former leaders of the Universities of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Technical College System.

“We need to remind people that it’s important as citizens to make sure that they don’t miss the opportunity to vote and it’s not partisan,” said Lee Rasch, founder of LeaderEthics. “The best thing we could have in this election year is a good, solid turnout, regardless of who wins.”

A strike by tens of thousands of dockworkers on the East and Gulf coasts, that could have seriously hurt the U.S. economy had it continued, has been called off.

All workers were called back to work Thursday, after a three-day strike, following a tentative agreement on wages between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance, representing ocean carriers and port operators.

The two sides have agreed to a 62% wage increase over six years, according to sources who were familiar with the deal but not authorized to speak publicly about it. The union had been seeking a 77% increase over six years. A day before the strike began, the companies had offered nearly 50% in raises.

The parties have also agreed to extend the existing contract until Jan. 15, 2025. They will return to the bargaining table to negotiate all other outstanding issues, including the union’s demand of a ban on all automation at the ports.

The affected ports — from Boston to Houston — normally handle more than half of all cargo containers coming into the U.S., or about a million containers a month, as well as more than 300,000 containers heading out of the country, according to the freight-tracking company Vizion.

Effective immediately, all work will resume, the two sides said in a joint statement. But it could take some days to clear the backlog of ships — scores of them — that were waiting offshore for the strike to end.

In a statement, Jay Timmons, President of the National Association of Manufacturers said manufacturers were encouraged that cooler heads had prevailed.

“It is a victory for all parties involved—preserving jobs, safeguarding supply chains and preventing further economic disruptions,” Timmons wrote.

Ahead of the holiday season, retailers also expressed relief.

“Without the specter of disruption looming, the U.S. economy can continue on its path for growth and retailers can focus on delivering for consumers,” the Retail Industry Leaders Association said in a statement.

Three of the state’s major utilities are planning to spend almost $2 billion on five renewable energy projects as part of their plans to cut carbon emissions and shift to clean energy.

We Energies, Wisconsin Public Service and Madison Gas and Electric filed plans with the Public Service Commission to acquire and build facilities that would cost around $1.9 billion combined. The five projects are expected to power about 250,000 homes. They include 500 megawatts of solar, around 180 megawatts of wind and 100 megawatts of battery storage.

We Energies would own 80 percent of the projects. WPS and MGE would each own 10 percent.

We Energies and WPS, which are owned by WEC Energy Group, plan to invest nearly $8 billion in renewable energy, natural gas projects and storage in Wisconsin. The Milwaukee-based company said it’s part of a larger plan to save customers more than $2 billion over the next two decades.

Utilities say renewable projects will also help reduce costs in the face of new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency that require coal plants to reduce 90 percent of their emissions by 2039.

However, consumer advocates like Wisconsin’s Citizens Utility Board, or CUB, have voiced concerns about the pace and cost of the transition as utilities like We Energies retire coal plants and invest in renewable energy.

The utility is currently asking to raise electric rates 6.9 percent in 2025 and nearly 4.8 percent in 2026, which is due in large part to its energy transition. In a filing, CUB said that means customers would pay about 36 percent more or roughly $40 extra per month on their electric bills in 2026 compared to December 2022.

Construction work on a high-voltage transmission linking Iowa and Wisconsin has been completed and the line is fully operational, a group of utilities announced September 27.

American Transmission Company, Dairyland Power Cooperative and ITC Midwest began work on the 102-mile Cardinal-Hickory Creek line between Iowa’s Dubuque County and Wisconsin’s Dane County in April 2021. Construction wrapped up late the previous week, ITC Midwest spokesperson Rod Pritchard said. The 345-kilovolt line was fully energized on September 26.

The utilities say the line will improve electrical reliability and support renewable energy projects.

Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association are set to go on strike at 12:01 am ET Tuesday at three dozen facilities spread across 14 port authorities. There are few signs that a deal could be reached by the deadline set by the ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance, which uses the acronym USMX. The maritime alliance represents the major shipping lines, all of which are foreign owned; as well as terminal operators and port authorities.

The strike, which would be the first at these ports since 1977, could stop the flow of a wide variety of goods over the docks of almost all the cargo ports from Maine to Texas. This includes everything from bananas to European beer, wine and liquor, along with furniture, clothing, household goods and European autos, as well as parts needed to keep US factories operating and American workers in those plants on the job. It also could stop US exports now flowing through those ports, hurting sales for American companies.

The union has pledged to continue to handling military cargo even during a strike and said passenger ships won’t be affected. Oil tankers and ships carrying liquified natural gas usually go to other facilities that are not affected by the strike, as do bulk ships carrying things like grain. But almost all the other ports along the two coasts could be affected.

The USMX claims the union is refusing to negotiate in good faith and says the two sides have not met in person since June.

“We remain prepared to bargain at any time, but both sides must come to the table if we are going to reach a deal, and there is no indication that the ILA is interested in negotiating at this time,” the management group said last week in a statement,

The USMX has offered upwards of 40% in wage increases over the six-year contract, according to a person with knowledge of negotiations. The ILA is not publicly discussing its demands but it is reportedly asking for annual pay hikes that would result in raises totaling 77% through the life of the contract, with top pay climbing from $39 an hour to $69.

The union says it has continued to talk with the USMX, just not in face-to-face negotiations. It said management knows what it is demanding in order to get a deal done and that any strike will be management’s fault, not the union’s. It said its demands are reasonable given the level of profits in the shipping industry.

The American economy expanded at a  3% annual pace from April through June, boosted by strong consumer spending and business investment, the government said Thursday.

The Commerce Department reported that the nation’s gross domestic product — the nation’s total output of goods and services — picked up sharply in the second quarter from the tepid 1.6% annual rate in the first three months of the year.

Consumer spending, the primary driver of the economy, grew last quarter at a 2.8% pace. Business investment was also solid: It increased at a vigorous 8.3% annual pace last quarter, led by a 9.8% rise in investment in equipment.

The third and final GDP estimate for the April-June quarter included figures showing that inflation continues to ease, to just above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The central bank’s favored inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE — rose at a 2.5% annual rate last quarter, down from 3.4% in the first quarter of the year.

A category within GDP that measures the economy’s underlying strength rose at a solid 2.7% annual rate, though that was down from 2.9% in the first quarter. This category includes consumer spending and private investment but excludes volatile items like exports, inventories and government spending.

The Conference Board on Tuesday reported that its Consumer Confidence Index fell this month to 98.7, down from an upwardly revised August reading of 105.6.

The Justice Department sued Visa on Tuesday, accusing the company of illegally monopolizing the debit card market and therefore driving up prices for businesses and consumers.

The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, says Visa handles more than 60% of debit card transactions in the U.S. and collects more than $7 billion in annual processing fees. The company allegedly used its market power to stifle competition and keep fees artificially high, according to the suit.