Wisconsin Original production. >> You're watching "Here& Now"
2024 election coverage was terminated following a leak out
of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. An official order shows the
state's highest court will take up abortion rights. Wisconsin is
poised to receive millions to expand biotechnology and from
drought to deluge, experts mark two historic years of weather.
I'm Frederica Freyberg tonight on "Here& Now" we'll hear
updates on the cases at the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Then a
preview of the state's political landscape under new voting maps.
More on how Wisconsin is butting into a biotech nerve center, and
how weather whiplash is impacting farmers. It's "Here&
Now" for July five. >> Funding for "Here& Now" is
provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS.
Wisconsin. Court opinions were released
this week, and an order to hear a lawsuit brought by planned
Parenthood of Wisconsin asking the court to rule that access to
abortion is protected by the state constitution. The court
also decided to take up the appeal to a Dane County judge's
ruling that declared Wisconsin does not have an abortion
statute, only one that outlaws attacking a woman in an attempt
to kill her unborn baby. Senior political reporter Zac Schultz
joins us from the Capitol with more on. Hi, Zach. Hello, Fred.
With liberal justices in the majority, how fast tracked and
foregone are these abortion cases expected to be?
>> Well, we've already heard from the conservatives through
their dissents to taking these cases that they fully expect the
majority on this court to decide in favor of abortion rights and
strike down this 1849 law, and perhaps even go as far as to
enshrine the right to abortion in the Wisconsin Constitution.
So I think everyone expects that to be the end result in this
process. It would actually be quite surprising to
conservatives and a lot of the liberals that supported Janet
Protasiewicz in her run for the court just last year, if they
didn't go that route. >> So how soon could a decision
in these cases come? >> Well, we've got a briefing
schedule right now, 40 days and 20 days for responses. That puts
us into the fall. So you can expect oral arguments to be
scheduled sometime in either September or early October. That
puts us on track for a decision either by definitely before the
even around the election, depending on where this lands.
This could come right before November.
>> Reading the writings in this order. The vitriol in this court
persists. >> Absolutely. The dissents are
acting as press releases for both sides of the concurrences
and the dissents. They're responding to each other in the
footnotes. This isn't new, but it's become more outspoken.
Justices don't do a lot of interviews. They don't really
come on our program that often unless they're running for
reelection, as you know, Fred, and they don't sit for a lot of
interviews. But this is their way of promoting their views to
their specific audiences. And we know the courts become
politicized, and there are political audiences wanting to
favor of these decisions. >> So but but before decisions
in these cases, there are decisions and two other big
cases, one involving the legality of absentee ballot drop
boxes. revisiting the Teigen case that
outlawed ballot drop boxes. That came a couple of years ago. In
that case, that was when the conservatives controlled the
court. It was a very fractured decision. Justice Hagedorn made
the deciding vote, and he only concurred with a handful of
paragraphs, basically only enough to say ballot drop boxes
are not specifically allowed by law and therefore are not
allowed under the Constitution. Now, the liberals on the court
decided to retake that case under a few new angles. And it's
also, again from the conservatives and their dissent,
saying we fully expect the liberals to approve ballot drop
boxes. But no matter what, there will be some certainty as this
case comes out and the decision is rendered for clerks to know
what to expect from August through November, so people know
whether they can put their ballots in the mail or to drop
box, and how to vote. This fall. >> And then there was the case
over separation of powers, where legislative committee vetoes
shut down the governor's stewardship, land purchases.
>> That's right. Governor Evers sued over a number of different
things that the Joint Finance Committee has held up. These
were appropriations spending that were approved in a bill
that were signed into law by the governor, fully approved. But
then the funding could only be released at a later date by the
Joint Finance Committee. And it was held up by Republicans in a
number of different cases. Now, the governor sued, and the
Supreme Court is only taking this on stewardship, which is
land purchases that are designed to be for the benefit of all,
for public property, for outdoor natural resources, hunting,
skiing, fishing, etc. they're going to rule on those specific
cases. But it could have much broader ramifications because
going on over PFAS funding being held up under joint finance. In
the same manner, we've got funding for the hospitals up in
northwest Wisconsin being held up. So depending on how broad
that ruling is, it could impact a lot of other areas besides
stewardship. >> So is that the reason that
they could kind of just choose stewardship specifically because
potentially the implications are much broader.
>> Well, it this depends. Courts in the past will take a very
narrow approach to some things and rule only on the one issue
before them, or they've seen other times where they take one
narrow issue and then they broaden it out and it applies to
a lot of other places. And we'll just have to see how broad this
is. And we may not know until court rulings down the road all
right. be following these. Of course.
Zac Schultz. Thank you. Thank you. How do down ballot
candidates like those running for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin,
fare with the tumult at the top of the Democratic ticket for
president on this in the state of legislative races, we turn to
UW La Crosse political scientist Anthony Chergosky. And
being here. Thank you. So obviously, things are shaky at
the top of the ticket. Now, more than a week out from Joe Biden's
very bad debate performance. What effect might this have on
Wisconsin's U.S. Senate race and its candidates?
>> I think the effects could be substantial, Fred, and that is
because the amount of split ticket voting has gone down over
the years by split ticket voting, I mean a ballot where a
voter votes for at least one Democrat and one Republican on
the same ballot. More and more, we're seeing voters vote
straight ticket, meaning they vote for the same political
party for all of the races on the ballot. As Partizanship in
the electorate has increased, and as the political divide in
society has widened, we see more and more that how someone votes
for president is a great predictor of how they vote in
other races on the ballot. So what happens at the top of the
ticket will really matter when it comes to explaining what
happens down the ballot. >> So how does Joe Biden
dropping out change the calculus for other races?
>> I think other candidates need to adjust to the new political
realities because they could try to perhaps distance themselves
from the presidential campaign, try to run their own race. As
Senator Baldwin said in a recent statement, it is still possible
nowadays to get some cross party voters, but it takes a strong
candidate with the right message and the right amount of
resources to pull that off. It's not easy to get voters to cross
the party line, but it can be done in certain circumstances.
And in fact, with Senator Baldwin, we've seen that in the
past. She has been able to pull in at least some voters who tend
to go the Republican direction. >> Similar effects down to
congressional races and even state legislative races.
>> I would say. So what happens at the presidential level will
affect Democrats chances of unseating Republican incumbents
House of Representatives races. Democrats have talked up their
opportunities to defeat Bryan Steil and Derrick Van Orden. And
what happens at the presidential level will affect their chances
of doing that. And of course, when we look at the state Senate
and state Assembly, Democrats are enthusiastic about the new
district maps. But how much can they take advantage of those new
district maps? What happens at the in the other races on the
ballot will have a lot to say about that.
>> So as to the legislature, between, as you say, these
redrawn districts and retirements, nearly two thirds
of the Assembly seats are open this election, 60 open seats of
99, and Dems have 120 candidates running. How stunning is that?
>> A candidate recruitment was going to be huge this time
around because there are so many redrawn districts, so many
districts that have changed significantly since the last
round of redistricting. So the pressure is going to be on these
candidates to introduce themselves to the voters. We see
a lot of incumbents who are either not running or are
running in a very different district. A lot of new faces
coming into the political scene for these state legislative
races. So the stakes are high and these candidates are going
to have to work really hard. They're going to have to knock
on a lot of doors, march in a lot of parades, make a lot of
phone calls to be successful in this campaign.
>> So you remarked how candidate quality would affect the battle
for majority control of the Assembly. Is that what you mean?
Does these people have to really get out there, put their faces
out there and be super engaged? >> Absolutely. The right messag,
the right candidate with the right amount of resources, a
candidate who can quickly develop trust in what might be a
redrawn district or might be a completely new district, a
candidate with a compelling message that can take advantage
of the political conditions on the ground. Maybe they need to
distinguish themselves from the other candidates of their party
on the ticket. And of course, money, money, money that's going
to play a huge role in candidates being able to get
their message out in a very crowded political environment.
It's going to be tough for these state legislative candidates to
break through in a climate where we've got a high profile
presidential race, high profile U.S. Senate race, these state
legislative candidates are going to have to work hard.
>> So how likely is it that Democrats could win control of
the Assembly? >> It's quite possible. And they
need to also have a good showing in the state Senate races to lay
the groundwork for 2026, where they hope to make a run at the
majority. Right now, I would tend to believe that the
Republicans are the favorite for the state Assembly majority, but
there is some uncertainty about that. And for over a decade,
it's been darn certain that Republicans would be the
majority party. For the first time in a long time. There's at
least some question about which party will hold majority control
in the state Assembly when we see the new Assembly members
come in to office next January. >> All right. We leave it there.
Professor Anthony Chergosky, thanks very much.
>> Thank you. >> The Republican National
Convention is less than two weeks away, and the Democratic
convention is coming in late August. Each will bring
thousands of visitors and millions in revenue to Milwaukee
and Chicago. But what is a national convention and who gets
to go "Here& Now" Reporter Aditi Debnath has more.
>> Two major Midwest cities are gearing up to host national
political conventions this summer the Republican National
Convention in Milwaukee and the Democratic National Convention
in Chicago. Republicans will meet in less than two weeks to
select former President Donald Trump as their nominee for the
presidential election. Democrats would nominate President Joe
Biden if he doesn't drop out of the race before the DNC in late
August. This is the main purpose of these conventions. Officially
selecting presidential nominees. Delegates from each state attend
the event on behalf of the Democratic or Republican voters
in their state. Delegates can be party officials that represent
the state, like Wisconsin's Republican Party Chair Brian
Schimming or Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler. They can also
be district delegates that represent voters in one of
Wisconsin's eight congressional districts. Almost 2500 delegates
will visit Milwaukee in July, 41 of which are from Wisconsin. The
DNC is larger and Wisconsin will send 95 out of 4600 delegates.
The conventions are not just a place for presidential nominees
to win over voters watching at home. Up and coming political
figures give speeches throughout the week, which can put them on
the map for future partisan elections. Conventions are also
a place for parties to decide on their political platform moving
forward. Delegates and party members determine a party's
platform by making policy recommendations, which often
nominee's campaign proposals. This aspect of the convention is
crucial in giving party members space to disagree and resolve
political conflict within the party. In the 2020 presidential
election, the GOP made no changes to their platform as
former President Trump was running as an incumbent. The
Dems did update their platform that year, which included
recommendations made by Bernie Sanders. This included
investing in climate change prevention and attempting to
relieve student debt. The unique partnership between Biden and
Sanders helped Biden win Sanders supporters in the general
election, which included many young voters. This election yea.
Neither party's presumed nominee has a high profile opponent in
the primary. Viewers can watch the RNC and DNC live at home as
the events are closed off to the public. Both conventions are
four days long. The RNC begins July 15 and the DNC begins
August 19. For "Here& Now, I'm Aditi Debnath.
>> In medical news, Wisconsin learned this week it has been
named as one of 12 technology hubs for the bio health
industry, and with that designation comes nearly $50
million. Over the next five years. The focus is on
personalized or precision Stephen Potter reports.
Wisconsin is front and center on efforts to advance precision
medicine. >> I love this machine.
>> A couple of years ago, when she was 43, Megan Haensgen had a
doctor's appointment, went in and saw that colorectal surgeon.
>> He sat down, looked me square in the face and said, I'm almost
100% certain you have cancer. And I argued. I said, no, I'm
here for my hemorrhoid. And he gave me a minute. And then I
realized that he what he was saying. And so that was the
start of the journey. They did a biopsy in the office that day.
Everything was very quick, rushed, definitely felt a sense
of urgency. I knew I'd been walking around with cancer for
several years, so I was really scared.
cancer treatment could be done close to home, and they said no.
>> We feel strongly that this is where you need to be.
>> She had her treatment done at the Froedtert hospital campus in
Milwaukee, using the Radixact Radiation therapy machine. It's
designed to deliver cancer killing beams of energy to a
very focused area. And given the sensitive spot of Haensgen
cancer and the proximity to the rest of her digestive system,
that's exactly what she needed. >> As a patient. You want as
targeted of a therapy as you can get, so you don't damage healthy
tissue, and so you can spare, you know, your quality of life,
that kind of precision, tailor made treatment based on the
individual patient's conditions, ailments and body needs is known
as precision or personalized medicine.
>> And researchers say it's the wave of the medical future.
>> Every patient is a unique individual. They have their own
genetics, their own exposures, their the environment that they
have been in. And so precision medicine is this approach that
could we actually learn more about each individual patient so
that each patient gets the right drug at the right time?
>> Doctor Mohammad Murtaza is the associate director of the
center for Human Genomics and Precision Medicine at
component of precision medicine, he says, is looking at a
patient's DNA. Doctors like Murtaza work to explore how
precision medicine can develop treatments for patients with
ailments like asthma, COPD, kidney disease and of course,
cancer. of their therapy based on their
genetic makeup? So not just the makeup of their cancer, but
actually their genetic makeup that they were born with,
Murtaza says. >> We've barely scratched the
surface of what these new medical advancements can do.
>> What I see precision medicine interacting with a lot more is
new advances in data science and artificial intelligence and
us really make sense of this data and then make better
clinical decisions. >> But precision medicine isn't
just research and patient treatment. It's also big
business. A number of Wisconsin companies are poised to be the
lead innovators in this medical revolution.
>> It's very precise, submillimeter accurate
radiation. called Accuray, which moved its
headquarters to southern Wisconsin last year.
products the CyberKnife, the Radixact, which is also the form
of TomoTherapy, which originated here in Wisconsin and then the
precision planning software where the doctors pull in MRI
and CT images and they literally paint on the image, where do
they want to radiate? And then the areas that they want to
protect from radiation. precision and personalized
medicine companies operating in the state.
>> We have leaders in genomics, like exact Science for
diagnostics, Illumina for DNA sequencing. And then we have
this a supply chain that's built around Plexus and Rockwell,
where we actually manufacture and make things here. And then
we have the clinical institutions like UW, the
Medical College of Wisconsin. So within Wisconsin, we have the
whole ecosystem of what we were calling the invent, build and
deploy life cycle for personalized medicine.
>> Because of this network of companies, the federal
government recently designated Wisconsin as a bio health
technology hub, which may also mean an influx of money. Lisa
Johnson is the chief executive officer at BioForward, the
state's bio health industry association. She explains the
objective behind the designation to fund tech hubs throughout the
country in key technology areas where the United States needs to
become more competitive. The program also brings together
partnerships for data collection with the intent to benefit
patients. >> That data collection that
really guides now our physicians, but also certainly
our innovators on where what kind of drugs should be brought
to market. It's certainly we get that data from medical imaging
from our diagnostics to really guide where we should go with
our drugs in the future. >> Personalized medicine is
about the right treatment for the right patient at the right
time. So the goal is to give them effective care, but also
not to give them unnecessary care where they're going through
unnecessary procedures, unnecessary tests. It may be
having side effects that that they don't need to face, but to
really match them with what's going to address their disease.
>> For patients like Haensgen, who is now cancer free after
chemotherapy and laser focused radiation, precision and
personalized medicine made a life altering difference. She
hopes the advancements continue, even since the three years that
I've been treated, I know that my doctors and my team at my
hospital on this machine are doing things a little
differently, and that's just in the last three years.
>> So I can only imagine that research and innovation just
will improve going forward. To make things even better for
future cancer. Cancer patients and future generations.
>> For "Here& Now, I'm Stephen Potter.
>> Turning to agriculture, experts are calling it a weather
whiplash. First, too much dry weather caused drought in
Wisconsin. Now there's too much rain for farmers and their crops
are feeling the effects. We turn to Natasha Perez, covering
central Wisconsin as regional crops educator with UW-Madison
extension, who joins us from Green Lake. And thanks very much
for being here. >> Thanks for having me.
>> So describe the weather whiplash, as you call it. How
severe is it, >> well, last year at this time,
we had just experienced our fourth driest May on record and
our 10th, driest June on record, and we were still in drought
here in Green Lake County into the end of May. And now here in
Green Lake, we aren't in drought anymore. And in fact, we've had
excess amounts of rain. And, statewide we had the 10th
wettest May on record. And the numbers are still being
finalized, but we're looking at being in the top ten wettest
Junes as well. >> So where in the state is the
worst of the water access, >> it's really in that north
central region, spanning kind of from the northeast over to the
north central, there's, there's kind of this, this band, across,
I think it's in marathon, Lincoln, Langlade area, that's,
that's that's had an excess amount of rain. And I've heard
from folks up there that there really haven't been able to get
a lot of their crops in, and there's a lot of fields that are
just standing empty or the crops have failed. Yeah, that was what
I was going to ask is what has been the effect on crops? Yeah
So, we have we have fields where, the, the crops were able
to get in early and, sometimes they've made it through and done
and done pretty well. But then sometimes they got caught in
those absolute deluges of rain and they, they, they were
drowned out. So we've been talking about things like
replant, or there's, there's cases where they've just never
been able to get in the fields at all. And so we're looking at,
at what we call a prevented plant situation where you if you
have the right crop insurance, you might be able to receive
some type of payment. But there's a lot of fields where,
the corn was planted a month late, if not more.
>> So what are what are farmers telling you about their their
mood with all of this right now, it really depends on the farm.
>> It depends on what they're growing for, I, you know,
they're they're they're for the some of them are feeling are
really feeling the pinch in terms of if they are a dairy
farm and they planted a new seeding of alfalfa and they
weren't able to get much out of it or the, the alfalfa that they
have been able to harvest because it was delayed, because
it was so wet, the quality isn't very good. And so you're just
not getting going to get as many pounds of milk out of that. So
that's really been putting a pinch on some of our dairy
farmers. notes manure runoff risk. Is
that an overall risk or more so in specific places in the state,
>> well, it's a risk based on soil type and topography. So
areas where we have those, those, those, those clay soils,
and the Filthier soils that are, that are going to move more
easily, that can that can cause risk. And then, obviously on
areas where there's, there's more hills and then also the
type of tillage and the type of cropping system being used. And
so there's been some rain events this year that have kind of
overdone whatever cropping system has been in place, but so
we've been really trying to, to help people use the tools that
are available to assess the intensity of the rainfall that
could be predicted, to better to time their manure applications,
to, to prevent runoff. >> So gauging what you're seeing
to date, what does the rest of the growing season hold? Well,
we are we're looking at, a little bit warmer, a little bit,
a little bit wetter. >> July, but then over the
course of the summer as a whole, we're looking at warmer. There's
not a clear signal yet. About what? About being wet or dry,
and so at this point, those who have really had these early
season struggles are hoping for some, some, break in the rain so
that they can at least get established. Maybe, maybe an
alternative forage here in the in the, high summer to be able
to grow some feed for the animals, and those who are
growing for grain purposes are looking at, really dialing in
their, their disease management because this hot, wet weather is
going to really kick up the incidence of disease that we're
having in, in our crops. And so really making sure that we're
timing those fungicide applications at the right time.
So we can counteract disease that can affect yield and
quality. Perez, thank you very much.
>> Thank you. >> For more on this and other
issues facing Wisconsin, visit our website at PBS Wisconsin.
Org and then click on the news tab to see all of our election
coverage. Visit Wisconsin tonight. I'm Frederica Freyberg.
Have a good weekend. >> Funding for Here and Now is
provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS.