News of the Day

The state Assembly approved a rash of bills on Tuesday aimed at expanding affordable housing in Wisconsin.

Backers of the GOP-authored initiatives said they’re looking to expand on bipartisan housing legislation passed in 2023 and signed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, although the legislation passed Tuesday would still need to clear the state Senate.

Among the bills is a proposal to allow some building projects to move forward without having to comply with a new commercial building code that was promulgated after a Supreme Court decision that altered the state rulemaking process.

Other legislation would establish mandatory rezoning for certain residential requests and allow for the construction of more Accessory Dwelling Units, sometimes known as in-law suites.

Two other bills would establish a “starter” home loan program of up to $60,000 at zero percent interest, and a reimbursement grant program of up to $50,000 to reimburse the conversion of multifamily housing into condos.

President Trump said on Monday that his administration will impose a 25% tariff on medium- and heavy-duty trucks next month.

“Beginning November 1st, 2025, all medium and heavy-duty trucks coming into the United States from other countries will be tariffed at the rate of 25%,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

The U.S. trucking industry is a cornerstone of the national economy, moving roughly 73% of all domestic freight, according to the American Trucking Associations.

Around 2 million Americans work as heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, with many more employed as mechanics and support staff, according to data provided by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

What’s more, profit margins across the U.S. logistics sector are typically slim, leaving it highly sensitive to any unexpected increases in operating costs.

The top five import sources by customs value are Mexico, Canada, Japan, Germany and Finland, according to data compiled by the United States International Trade Commission.

In early 2023, the European Union implemented a ban on seaborne imports of diesel fuel, commonly called gasoil, from Russia following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine the previous year. The ban reoriented trade flows as Europe imported more diesel from the Middle East and the United States rather than Russia. This summer, Europe’s increased reliance on imports from the Middle East, coupled with conflict-related disruptions to refineries and escalating geopolitical tensions, contributed to a tightened global diesel market.

Before the ban, Russia supplied a significant portion of Europe’s diesel imports, accounting for 50% in 2022, according to data from Vortexa. The 2023 ban on diesel imports from Russia led to a rerouting of global trade flows of distillate. Distillate from Russia made its way to buyers such as Brazil and Türkiye, while importers in the rest of Europe needed new sources of distillate to backfill the lost volumes from Russia. In 2024, European distillate imports from Russia accounted for less than 1% of total seaborne imports from outside the region.

European imports of Russia’s distillate were replaced with increased imports of distillate from the United States and the Middle East. New refinery capacity in the Middle East, including the Al Zour refinery in Kuwait and the Duqm refinery in Oman, helped to supply the additional volumes of distillate to Europe. U.S. distillate exports shifted from Latin America to meet demand in Europe.

Earlier this year, escalating tensions related to Iran’s nuclear program led to rising geopolitical risks to petroleum supply chains from the Middle East to Europe. An attack on a 197,000-b/d refinery in Haifa, Israel, in mid-June led to significant tightening in Mediterranean refined product markets in the early summer.

Conservative Judge Maria Lazar has launched a campaign for the state Supreme Court, telling voters her race will be different than the highly politicized elections that have become the norm in Wisconsin.

Lazar is running for the seat being vacated by conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley, who was first elected in 2016 and decided in August not to seek a second term.

Lazar, who has served on Wisconsin’s District 2 Court of Appeals since 2022, announced her candidacy in a four-minute video posted Wednesday morning. She used the message to attack District 4 Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor, who’s running for Supreme Court with the backing of Democrats.

Lazar was previously a judge on the Waukesha County Circuit Court, winning elections in 2015 and 2021.

She worked as an attorney for the Wisconsin Department of Justice from 2010 to 2015 under Republican Attorneys General J.B. Van Hollen and Brad Schimel. Prior to that, she was an attorney in private practice for more than 20 years.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division today announced four opinion letters designed to promote clarity, consistency, and transparency in the application of federal labor standards.

The opinion letters provide official written interpretations from the division that address real-world questions and explain how laws apply to specific factual circumstances presented by individuals or organizations, that may also have a broader interest to those impacted by the issue presented.

The opinion letters issued today are:

• FLSA2025-03: Addressing whether a restaurant employer may include “front-of-house” oyster shuckers in a traditional tip pool with servers for whom the employer takes a tip credit under section 3(m)(2)(A) of the FLSA.
• FLSA2025-04: Addressing whether “emergency pay” provided to firefighters and other employees of a city must be included in the regular rate of pay used to calculate overtime premiums under section 7(e) of the FLSA, and, if so, how to calculate the regular rate when such pay is included.
• FLSA2025-05: Addressing whether two entities that are physically connected, and whose ownership, management, and operations appear common, are jointly and severally liable for all aspects of compliance under the FLSA.
• FMLA2025-02-A: Addressing how to calculate the number of hours of Family and Medical Leave Act leave available to correctional law enforcement employees who work a fixed “Pitman Schedule” requiring 12-hour shifts over a two-week cycle that includes mandatory overtime.

The public is encouraged to use the division’s new opinion letters page to explore past guidance and submit new requests. The division will exercise discretion in determining whether and how it will respond to each request, which will focus primarily on attempting to address issues of broad-based concern.

The Wage and Hour Division offers multiple compliance assistance resources to provide employers the information they need to comply with the law. Employers and workers can contact the division at its toll-free number, 1-866-4-US-WAGE (487-9243).

The Point Beach Nuclear Plant along the lakeshore will operate for an additional 20 years. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved subsequent license renewal for Point Beach Nuclear Plant Units 1 and 2, extending operations through 2050 and 2053, respectively.

“This approval ensures that Wisconsin’s only nuclear plant will continue to provide safe, reliable, low-cost energy for generations to come,” said Brian Bolster, NextEra Energy Resources president and chief executive officer. “We are proud that Point Beach will remain an integral part of Wisconsin’s energy future and a vital contributor to the state and local economies.”

Since beginning commercial operations in 1970 (Unit 1) and 1973 (Unit 2), Point Beach has been a cornerstone of Wisconsin’s energy infrastructure. The facility:

• Generates enough electricity to power nearly 1 million homes and businesses.
• Supplies approximately 14% of Wisconsin’s total electricity.
• Maintains grid stability.
• Operates on a 1,200-acre site along Lake Michigan.

State utility regulators approved a pair of renewable energy projects last week, including Wisconsin’s first large-scale wind farm in more than a decade.

The Badger Hollow Wind Project in Iowa and Grant counties and the Whitewater Solar Project in Jefferson and Walworth counties received approval from the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, or PSC, on Thursday.

The Badger Hollow Wind Project is a 118-megawatt wind farm that will be able to generate enough electricity to power more than 30,000 homes, while the Whitewater Solar Project is a 180-megawatt solar farm that will be able to generate enough electricity to power more than 21,000 homes, according to the developers.

Because both were proposed by developers and not state electric utilities, they were not required to provide their project cost to the PSC. Regulators would review costs to Wisconsin energy providers and ratepayers if the facility or power from the facility is purchased by state utilities.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has asked parties to file briefs on whether two redistricting lawsuits filed in Dane County Circuit Court should be allowed to proceed.

The court issued its order in response to two requests asking justices to appoint a judicial panel to consider the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s congressional voting map ahead of the 2026 midterms.

The lawsuits were filed in circuit court in July by two liberal law firms. They asked the Supreme Court to appoint three-judge panels to decide whether Wisconsin’s congressional districts are unconstitutional. Until Thursday, the court hadn’t responded.

This week, an attorney representing plaintiffs in one of those cases sent a letter to the Supreme Court stating a Dane County judge denied their request to set a briefing schedule in the case because doing so would violate the law passed by the Legislature more than a decade before.

On Thursday, the majority responded. Instead of appointing the judicial panel requested by the liberal firms, they ordered legal briefs arguing whether or not the lawsuits filed in Dane County constitute a valid “action to challenge the apportionment of a congressional or state legislative district.”

Conservative Justice Annette Ziegler “reluctantly” concurred with the court’s order, but warned fellow justices “that this court should not redraw partisan maps, especially since the issue has already been settled.”

Ziegler was referring to a redistricting challenge filed in 2021 in which the court ordered any new maps make the least changes possible. While Wisconsin’s current eight-district congressional map was drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, it largely resembles the map drawn by Republicans a decade earlier when they controlled all of state government.

Zeigler said the legal challenges to the state’s congressional map have been “repeatedly mounted and consistently denied.” She said she reluctantly agreed with the majority’s call for briefs to discuss the validity of the challenges in Dane County Circuit Court, but noted “briefing should not be confused with a decision to grant relief sought.”

“Constitutionally, it is the responsibility of the legislature and the governor — not the judiciary — to redistrict,” Zeigler said. “This case has been filed long after the completion of the most recent decennial census. Unlike the past, this filing does not come to the court because of an impasse between the political branches requiring this court to act so that partisan elections can occur.”

President Donald Trump announced his newest round of tariffs set to take effect on October 1 in a series of Truth Social posts Thursday evening.

The tariffs will target pharmaceuticals, home goods and heavy trucks, and Trump said he believes the move will strengthen U.S. manufacturing and protect national security.

In one post, he declared that branded and patented pharmaceutical products will face a 100% tariff unless the company is actively building a plant in the United States. He went on to define that as breaking ground or under construction. His reasoning is that the measure will force drugmakers to shift production to American soil.

President Trump also announced plans to stop the “flooding” of imports that threaten American manufacturers by imposing a 50% tariff on kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities and related products, and a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture.

“The reason for this is the large scale ‘FLOODING’ of these products into the United States by other outside Countries. It is a very unfair practice, but we must protect, for National Security and other reasons, our Manufacturing process. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” the president wrote.

He also said he will impose a 25% tariff on heavy trucks built outside the U.S., a move aimed at shielding domestic companies such as Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner and Mack Trucks.

“In order to protect our Great Heavy Truck Manufacturers from unfair outside competition, I will be imposing, as of October 1, 2025, a 25% Tariff on all ‘Heavy (Big!) Trucks’ made in other parts of the World,” the post said.

The Wisconsin REALTORS® Association (WRA) has released its August 2025 Real Estate Report, revealing a slight increase in existing home sales by 1.8% compared to August 2024. The statewide median home price rose 5.3% to $338,000.

Affordability remained almost unchanged, decreasing just 0.1% since August 2024 as rising prices and mortgage rates offset a 4.8% increase in median family income.

WRA President and CEO Tom Larson said several indicators suggest a softening market, which could benefit first-time buyers.

“Improving inventory, moderating price appreciation and increasing days on the market are signs that the strong seller’s markets we’ve seen over the last few years continue to soften,” Larson said. “This is welcomed news for young families still struggling to buy their first home.”

The report also noted that year-to-date home sales increased by 1.1% compared to the first eight months of 2024, and homes were on the market for an average of 69 days. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate slightly increased from 6.50% in August 2024 to 6.59% in August 2025.