WJI's Daily Reads for Sept. 9, 2022

WBAY: Daniel Kelly now in the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court.

 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Legislature passes plan for $31 million opioid settlement state received.

The Republican plan still included about 85% of the Department of Health Services proposals. Those include: 

• $10 million for capital projects that will expand treatment and recovery services. 
• $6 million for tribal nations to address the dramatic increase in opioid overdose deaths.
• $3 million for harm reduction by increasing the availability of Narcan, a drug that counteracts opioids.  

• $2 million to distribute fentanyl test strips around the state.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Federal judge says Enbridge can continue operating Line 5 pipeline through Bad River Band land until the line is rerouted.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Waukesha judge says clerks can't fill in missing info on absentee ballot envelopes.

WXOW (Associated Press): Judge issues gag order for man charged with requesting others' absentee ballots.

Reuters: Senate confirms John Lee for Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

The New York Times: Highlighting disparities in voter fraud cases.

The high-decibel political rhetoric behind fraud prosecutions drowns out how infrequent — and sometimes how unfair — those prosecutions are, said Richard L. Hasen, an expert on election law and democracy issues at the U.C.L.A. School of Law.

“It’s hard to see felons in Gainesville getting jail terms, and then look at people in The Villages getting no time at all, and see this as a rational system,” he said.

Slate: Federal judge allows employers to exclude HIV prevention drugs from insurance.

If the higher courts accept (U.S. District Judge Reed) O’Connor’s invitation to destroy these agencies, here’s a partial list of the preventive care that insurers will no longer be required to cover: genetic testing for women with a family history of breast and ovarian cancer; medication to reduce risk of breast cancer; breast cancer screening; breastfeeding support; cervical cancer screenings; STI screening; colorectal cancer screening; HIV tests; domestic violence screening; medication for heart disease; a vast range of screenings for children and pregnant women; and, of course, PrEP.

KIRO 7: Report shows more than half of prisoners are serving sentences of 10+ years.

“That’s a big growth compared to if you look at the year 2000,” said Nazgol Ghandnoosh, a senior research analyst at the Sentencing Project. “When we invest a lot of our public resources into very long sentences, we’re not doing the more important things that we know are more effective at preventing crime in the first place.”

The Marshall Project: Determining how much of ARPA funding went to policing.

Local police agencies have used ARPA funds on law enforcement equipment and capital expenses — from tasers and rifles to cars and shooting ranges. The Marshall Project found five municipalities used funding to purchase armored vehicles. At least 38 governments across the country used ARPA funds for police tasers. Nine spent ARPA funds on police drones.