Tiffany-authored bill could move management to state with over 100 wolf attacks in recent year |
The U.S. House of Representatives Thursday passed a bill by Wisconsin Rep. Tom Tiffany that, if approved by the Senate, would remove the state’s rapidly expanding and aggressive gray wolf population from the endangered species list and open the door for state management. The bill passed 211-204, with five Democrats voting with the majority.
Gray wolves are increasingly prevalent and threatening. At the turn of the century, there were roughly 300 gray wolves in the Badger State. The number surged past 1,100 before a three-day hunt in February 2021 that culled 218 of them. Gray wolves were taken off the endangered species list — that is, “delisted” — immediately before the hunt, but then relisted by a federal court ruling in February 2022.
Since then, the population has grown to an estimated 1,226, according to a Department of Natural Resources monitoring report. |
Independents were among the most distrustful |
A recent nationwide Marquette University Law School poll found that 80 percent of Americans trust the government “only some of the time” or “never,” a widespread, intergenerational skepticism that experts say is not merely the result of the country’s increasingly cutthroat politics.
When asked in the November poll, “How much of the time do you think you can trust the government in Washington to do what is right?” 61 percent said “only some of the time” while 19 percent said “never.” Just 1 percent said they “just about always” trust the federal government, with another 19 percent saying they trust government “most of the time.”
Independents are more distrustful than Republicans or Democrats. Thirty-one percent of independents said they “never trust the government.” Those with “very liberal” inclinations led in the “never” category with 35 percent, compared to only 22 percent of moderates. |
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| The Difference with Will Martin |
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Testimony submitted to the Assembly Committee on Regulatory Licensing Reform on Dec. 17, 2025 |
The numbers don’t lie, and nobody knows that better than all the kids who no longer want to be accountants in Wisconsin. The number of people getting bachelor’s or master’s degrees in accounting at University of Wisconsin System schools plummeted from 828 ten years ago during the 2014-15 school year to 621 in 2024-25 — a 25 percent drop.
Other states have had the same basic problem. But, unlike Wisconsin, about half have enacted the same basic solution: elimination of unnecessary and expensive CPA licensure requirements that currently cost many kids about $100,000 in extra tuition and lost earnings. |
While Christmases in Milwaukee have felt warm in recent years, they’re no warmer, on average, than they were in the 1940s, data from the Wisconsin State Climatology office show.
The graph shows a five-year rolling average of the daily high temperatures in Milwaukee on Christmas day as recorded by the Mitchell International Airport weather station going back to 1942, as well as the same series for Green Bay at the Austin Straubel International Airport weather station. |
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Weekly survey: Should gray wolves be removed from the list of endangered species in Wisconsin?
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Previous survey question: |
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The November survey was the latest benchmark on a question the poll has been asking the last five years. General trust in others among Americans was down to 51 percent in 2025, a four percentage point decrease since 2021. |
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