Brian Dake

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) effectively prohibited 14 voice service providers from connecting to U.S. networks for failing to comply with FCC robocall rules. The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau removed the companies from its Robocall
Mitigation Database and ordered U.S. voice service providers and intermediate providers to block calls from these companies.

The 14 companies removed from the FCC’s Robocall Mitigation Database had been ordered to correct deficiencies in their database certifications and show cause why they should not be removed. But these companies failed to respond or take meaningful steps to update their database filings. The removed providers are: Apps Communications, CFX Business Solutions, Conference America, Convergence Technology Solutions, CSB Technologies, Digital Division, Dixie Net Communications, HIGHCOMM, Inatech Solutions, makrodepot, Opex Communications, Reachme.com, SECURE, and Skycom Healthcare.

The FCC’s Robocall Mitigation Database was established to promote transparency and effective robocall mitigation. This database is a critical tool through which the agency ensures providers are actively combatting robocalls and implementing STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication. Providers are required to certify that they have implemented STIR/SHAKEN on all IP-based portions of their networks. All providers must also submit robocall mitigation plans. Failure to meet these obligations can result in removal from the database and blocking of the provider’s traffic.

The average price for diesel has reached a new record of $5.85 as of September 4, surpassing the prior high of $5.8159 set back in June 2022, according to AAA.

The month-ago average was $5.3715 and the year-ago average was significantly lower at just $3.7121.

As of Friday, the AAA national average price for regular fuel is $4.1474, compared to the year-ago average of $3.2016.

The highest recorded AAA national average price for regular gas was set in June 2022 when Americans paid $5.0165 per gallon.

Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) Secretary Dan Hereth joined union and industry leaders Monday, to officially sign the state’s new electrical code. Wisconsin is adopting the 2023 National Electric Code, moving away from using the 2017 edition with amendments.

The new electrical code updates take effect September 1, 2026. The updated electrical code introduces several safety updates,
including:

• Requirement for whole home surge protection
• Restrictions on the number of feeders that can supply a building or structure
• Requirement of permits and inspections for services on vacant land

DSPS has started updating its licensing exams to reflect the electrical code changes. The agency expects exam updates to be completed by October 1.

The Trump Administration shut down three Wisconsin truck driving schools as part of a crackdown on fraud in the trucking industry.

According to the USDOT, CDL Pro School in Kenosha, On Your Way CDL Training in Milwaukee, and Tez CDL School in Sturtevant were all shut down.

They say those schools issued licenses to drivers who failed English language proficiency tests.

The Trump administration is also shutting down 160 additional schools that Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy says lacked proper space for driving tests or had unlicensed instructors. There were also more than a dozen other online-only schools that were shut down.

This comes one year after the president signed an executive order requiring commercial truck drivers in the U.S. to be proficient in English.

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.