OpenAI and Oracle are behind the massive data center campus in Port Washington, a Wednesday statement from Vantage Data Centers confirmed.

Vantage Data Centers, which was previously the only known company behind the project, had originally said it would spend $8 billion on the development. The companies’ latest announcement said they plan to invest more than $15 billion at the new campus, which will include four data center buildings.

OpenAI is the company behind ChatGPT; Oracle is a software and cloud computing company. The Port Washington location is part of the companies’ Stargate program, a $500 billion push to expand artificial intelligence capacity across the nation. That initiative was announced in January by President Donald Trump.

OpenAI and Oracle’s data center campus in Port Washington joins sites in Texas and New Mexico as part of the Stargate program. It is the only Midwest site in the program. The tech giants recently agreed to develop 4.5 gigawatts of additional power capacity for the initiative, according to a July news post from OpenAI.

Wednesday’s announcement said the data center campus in Port Washington, named “Lighthouse,” could create more than 4,000 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs. Construction on the data center buildings will start soon and could be complete in 2028, according to Vantage.

Patients with UnitedHealthcare insurance once again have in-network coverage at Ascension Wisconsin hospitals and doctors’ offices.

United and Ascension Wisconsin announced Tuesday that they reached a new multi-year agreement to give United members access to Ascension’s hospitals and providers in Wisconsin.

According to United, the deal is effective immediately and retroactive to October 1, the day the insurer’s members lost coverage when the two sides failed to reach an agreement in a dispute over reimbursement rates.

According to an Ascension Wisconsin spokesperson, services that patients received from October 1 to October 13 will be covered at in-network rates and patients should not be billed for out-of-network costs.

Before reaching a deal Ascension and United had been locked in a months-long contract dispute. Ascension argued United was not offering reimbursement rates that covered rising health care costs, while United argued Ascension was asking for large price hikes that would raise costs for customers and employers.

A popular tax break for workers nearing retirement age to make extra catch-up contributions is changing next year, which will limit access to some high earners.

The IRS issued new regulations last month to implement a provision of a 2022 law known as the SECURE 2.0 Act, which requires that high earners who earned $145,000 or more in gross income as an individual the prior year make 401(k) catch-up contributions to after-tax Roth accounts starting with the 2026 tax year.

Under the rules that will remain in effect through the 2025 tax year, workers aged 50 and up were eligible to make their 401(k) catch-up contributions to either a before-tax traditional account or an after-tax Roth account, depending on their preference and what their retirement plan allows.

Making catch-up contributions on a before-tax basis allowed workers to receive an upfront tax break by using a deduction to reduce their taxable income — but the change means that high earners over the income threshold won’t have that option starting in the 2026 tax year.

Catch-up contributions are made in addition to normal contributions to 401(k) accounts.

In 2025, eligible workers over the age of 50 can make an extra $7,500 in contributions to their 401(k) in catch-up contributions in addition to the standard contribution limit of $23,500 for workers under 50.

There’s also a higher limit for workers between the ages of 60 and 63, who can make up to $11,250 in catch-up contributions in 2025.

Wisconsin lawmakers are debating Republican-backed bills designed to cut back on the number of state regulations.

One of the bills would cause state regulations to expire after seven years unless officials take the steps needed to re-adopt them.

State Rep. Adam Neylon, R-Pewaukee, an author of the bill, said the goal is to make sure old regulations are still relevant.

“We cannot afford to let regulations linger on the books for decades without scrutiny, particularly when they impose real costs on employers, consumers and taxpayers alike,” Neylon said. “The red tape reset bill is not about eliminating necessary protections. It’s about ensuring that every rule is up to date and justified in serving the public good.”

Another proposal would affect any new regulation that’s expected to cost businesses or local governments more than $0 to implement. Under that proposal, the new rule could not be added unless Wisconsin first repeals an old rule to offset the compliance costs of the old one.

That differs from existing Wisconsin law, which only requires expenses to be offset if compliance with a new rule is expected to cost more than $10,000 over two fiscal years. As is the case with the existing law, that bill would include an exception for new emergency rules, as well as for new rules needed to comply with federal air and water quality standards.

Another part of the package would require the state to pay back legal costs if someone successfully challenges an administrative rule in court. Additionally, a fourth bill debated on Thursday would change the process for putting out a new rule, by requiring an agency to put out a separate statement describing the scope of each new proposed rule. That differs from the current practice, in which an agency can put out a single scope statement to cover multiple related rules.

Republican backers have said their goal is to increase transparency while ensuring regulations are put up to public scrutiny.

But state Rep. Mike Bare, D-Verona, suggested the package could run afoul of the state constitution by attempting to create a “new legislative veto.”

In a ruling this summer, the state Supreme Court found that a GOP-led legislative committee had violated the constitution’s separation of powers principle by indefinitely blocking rules advanced by executive agencies.

Lawmakers first introduced the bills in April. Neylon said they may be altered to comply with the July ruling.

“We probably will need to do amendments to tighten up the language to make sure that it is in line with the current law of the land,” Neylon said.

But Neylon said that doesn’t mean lawmakers should “cede” their authority to state agencies.

Wisconsin has a lot of areas to improve on when it comes to cybersecurity, including gaps in statutory definitions, AI use and collaboration between groups, experts say.

A panel of experts during an Assembly Science, Technology, and AI Committee informational hearing yesterday provided several hours of insight into the current state of cybersecurity in Wisconsin. While the state does a good job with responding to and investigating cyberattacks, there is room for improvement when it comes to proactively preventing cyberattacks, experts said.

Mike Wyatt, Deloitte’s cybersecurity leader for state, local and higher education, noted the FBI identified cyber crime cost Wisconsin about $160 million of the roughly $16.6 billion in losses across the country.

But the state could work to improve its outlook by working toward a whole of state model where municipal, county and state governments collaborate and share data.

“From a policy perspective, whole-of-state is absolutely critical and needs to be top of mind,” Wyatt said. “Legislators in New York, Oregon, Iowa, Texas and a number of other states have established cross-government cyber policies with common standards, shared funding and statewide training. A robust, scalable approach that Wisconsin may wish to consider.”

Wisconsin, like everywhere else nowadays, is also vulnerable to cyberattackers using AI to glean as much information as possible from public reports and meetings, Trevor Johnson, head of Google’s midwest division for state and local government, said.

“There were references [earlier in the hearing] to using AI in order to read some of the Legislative Audit Bureau reports,” he said. “Unfortunately, malicious actors will also use AI to read those reports and understand, ‘Where might I be able to find a nugget that will help me get into this particular system.’ They’re using it for research. They can even use AI on top of videos or recordings of sessions such as this one; understand what things might be said that might give me a vector to get at some information.”

And while companies such as Google, Microsoft and others have created safeguards to block malicious actors from prompting AI to create a piece of code to penetrate a system, those malicious actors are also always working on ways to circumvent the safeguards, Johnson added.

A recent federal court order outlines a new additional required poster: SSDI Notice Poster (Publication UCB-20040-P), available on October 14, 2025 (new date). Go to dwd.wisconsin.gov/dwd/publications/ui/ssdi.htm to print the new additional required poster. Display the poster where workers will easily see it or share directly with each person. Posting is required from October 14, 2025 until Jan 12, 2026 (new dates).

The Notice to Employees About Applying for Wisconsin Unemployment Benefits (Publication UCB-7-P) will be updated with the latest identity verification information on October 31, 2025. Go to dwd.wisconsin.gov/dwd/publications/ui/notice.htm to print the updated required workplace poster. Display the poster where workers will easily see it or share directly with each person.

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.