Madison Judge Temporarily Blocks Wisconsin “Repair” Bill

 

A county judge in Madison, Wisconsin, issued a temporary restraining order today blocking the publication of Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker’s fiercely contested “budget repair bill.”

The order comes after Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne sued the state, alleging that state Senate Republicans violated open records law when they hastily convened a special committee on March 9 to vote on a rewritten version of Walker’s bill. The judge, Maryann Sumi, said the restraining order will remain in place until she rules on whether lawmakers in fact violated state law, as Ozanne claims.

Judging by Sumi’s comments at today’s hearing, there’s a strong chance Ozanne, the district attorney, could win his case and overturn the law. “It seems to me the public policy behind effective enforcement of the open meeting law is so strong that it does outweigh the interest, at least at this time, which may exist in favor of sustaining the validity of the (law),” she said, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Sumi’s order is a brief victory for the unions, progressive groups, and protesters who flooded the streets of Madison over the past month in opposition to Walker’s bill, which would, among things, eliminate collective bargaining rights for most public-sector unions in Wisconsin. Ozanne’s suit challenging the bill’s legitimacy is one of several, with Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk also challenging the legality of the bill, alleging Senate Republicans did not have the necessary quorum to pass the bill. Falk’s suit is pending.

 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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