WJI's daily reads for Aug. 11, 2021

Wisconsin State Journal: Gov. Evers vetoes bills that would have put new restrictions on voting.

The bills would have made significant changes to Wisconsin elections, such as requiring most people who are “indefinitely confined” — unable to get to the polls by themselves — to provide a photo ID to vote. The legislation would also have required all people who vote absentee to present a photo ID every time they vote, not just the first time.

GOP lawmakers have said their election bills would help build trust in elections, but they were panned by Democrats and many other organizations, including disability rights advocates. Some of the measures failed to get full Republican support.

The Hill: Police and the public will benefit from ending qualified immunity.

CBS Minnesota: Gun group sues for right to carry guns at Minnesota State Fair.

Wisconsin Examiner: What does it cost to be sued by WILL?

Those lawsuits can cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars and strain government insurance policies as local government agencies defend themselves against the litigation. The suits have included challenging the use of drop boxes for receiving absentee ballots; school districts’ referring to students by their preferred gender identity; public health orders and an ordinance requiring buildings be constructed with bird-safe glass. 

The deep-pocketed conservative legal advocacy group has filed lawsuits, sent notices of claim — a legal procedure that notifies a government agency that a suit will be filed against them — and sent letters threatening legal action to more than a dozen local and state government agencies this year. While local governments need to dip into their annual budgets and spend through their insurance deductibles to defend themselves, WILL is funded by the Bradley Foundation, a right wing, nonprofit grant funder organization based in Milwaukee, as highlighted in research from the Center for Media and Democracy and a recent in-depth story in the New Yorker. 
​
Library of Congress: Today is the anniversary of the opening of  Alcatraz prison. 

The Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was conceived of as a high-security, escape-proof fortress for federal prisoners considered either particularly dangerous, infamous, “incorrigible,” or presenting the greatest risk of flight. For the next twenty-nine years, the prison held a series of notorious inmates including Chicago mobster Al Capone, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, and Robert Stroud, memorialized in the 1962 film Birdman of Alcatraz.