Wisconsin
Ziebell, Jirschele named athletes of the year at Northeast Wisconsin High School Sports Awards
Neenah basketball star Allie Ziebell was honored as the girls athlete of the year and football, basketball and baseball standout Keagen Jirschele was honored as the boys athlete of the year during Thursday’s Northeast Wisconsin High School Sports Awards show.
The event, presented by Festival Foods, was held at the Lambeau Field Atrium in Green Bay.
In all, 34 awards were handed out at the show, which honored athletes, coaches and teams from the entire region. The boys and girls athlete of the Year Awards were sponsored by Cellcom.
Ziebell concluded one of the most decorated high school basketball careers in state history.
A generational talent, Ziebell led the Rockets to the WIAA Division 1 state championship game, was voted the Associated Press state player of the year and also named the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Ms. Basketball winner.
She was also named the Gatorade Wisconsin player of the year for the second year in a row and was selected to play in the McDonald’s All-American game. She was also a member of the Team USA U19 national team that captured the FIBA Women’s World Cup title last summer.
Ziebell finished her high school career fourth overall in state history in points scored with 2,819 and will play basketball in college at the University of Connecticut for legendary coach Geno Auriemma.
More: Find complete prep sports coverage on our Varsity page
Jirschele, a senior from Mosinee, is a three-sport standout in football, basketball and baseball. He was a Wisconsin Football Coaches Association all-state selection on offense and defense and was also voted the offensive and defensive player of the year in the Great Northern Conference.
In basketball, Jirschele was unanimous first-team all-conference and honorable mention all-state after leading Mosinee to the conference championship. And this spring, he was named the Great Northern Conference player of the year in baseball on the No. 1 ranked team in the state in Division 2. He will play baseball in college at South Dakota State.
The Northeast Wisconsin High School Sports Awards show is part of the USA TODAY High School Sports Awards, the largest high school sports recognition program in the country. The show was produced with the support of Prevea Health, USA Today Sports and Golfweek.
The show recognized prep athletes, coaches and teams in the Appleton, Fond du Lac, Green Bay, Manitowoc, Marshfield, Oshkosh, Sheboygan, Stevens Point, Wausau and Wisconsin Rapids markets for their achievements during the 2023-24 school year.
Wisconsin
Wisconsin's partial veto has stood for nearly a century. The Wisconsin Supreme Court will give it another look.
While dozens of other states have line-item vetoes, Wisconsin stands alone when it comes to the power it gives its governors through what’s known as the partial veto. Now, it’s up to the Wisconsin Supreme Court to decide whether it stays that way.
The state’s partial veto dates back to 1930, when concerns about state lawmakers adding multiple appropriation and policy items into what are known as omnibus bills came to a head. The Wisconsin Constitution was amended to give more power to governors to reject those items, one by one.
“Appropriation bills may be approved in whole or in part by the governor, and the part approved shall become law,” the new amendment read.
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According to a study by the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, proponents believed governors needed a check on the new budgeting process. But opponents worried giving governors more veto authority extended the already broad powers of the executive branch.
When he was campaigning for governor, Phillip La Follette said the proposal to expand veto powers “smack[ed] of dictatorship.” The amendment was approved by around 62 percent of voters in 1930, and after he was elected, La Follette became the first governor to use it.
Nine times, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has heard challenges to the partial veto. The case now pending before the Wisconsin Supreme Court will make it an even ten.
Evers used partial veto to extend school funding increase for 400 years
The latest challenge focuses on Gov. Tony Evers’ partial veto in the last state budget, which extended a school funding increase through the year 2425. It’s the latest of many attempts to restrict a veto power that a federal judge once described as “quirky.”
Evers’ partial veto last summer caught the Republican-controlled Legislature by surprise. By crossing out a 20 and a dash before he signed the state’s two-year budget, Evers authorized school districts to collect additional property taxes to fund a $325 per-pupil increase for more than 400 years. The Legislature intended the increase to expire in two years.
Republican lawmakers were outraged. The GOP-controlled Wisconsin Senate voted to override Evers’ veto, but the Assembly never followed suit.
The challenge the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to hear Monday, which was brought by the business lobbying group Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, alleges Evers’ veto violates the state’s constitution. The first legal briefs are due by July 16.
Democratic and Republican governors have used partial vetoes extensively
Evers’ latest veto received national attention, but he was hardly the first Wisconsin governor to push the limits of the unique power.
Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker struck individual digits from dates written in the 2017 state budget to change a one-year moratorium on school referendums aimed at raising taxes for energy efficiency projects into a 1,000-year moratorium. The Supreme Court’s former conservative majority threw out a challenge to Walker’s veto because it was filed too late.
Former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle used his partial veto to combine parts of unrelated sentences in the 2005 budget to move more than $400 million from the state’s transportation fund into the general fund. That led to a constitutional amendment in 2008 at preventing future governors from using what became known as the “Frankenstein Veto.”
With his first state budget in 1987, former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson partially struck phrases, digits, letters and word fragments, using what was known as the “Vanna White” veto, to create new sentences and fiscal figures. The Supreme Court upheld Thompson’s partial veto, but in 1990, voters approved a constitutional amendment specifying that governors cannot create new words by striking individual letters.
University of Wisconsin Law School State Democracy Research Initiative Attorney Bryna Godar told WPR governors have gotten creative with how they’ve used partial vetoes, “but we now have this very long standing practice that is really codified in state law.”
Godar said even the constitutional amendments aimed at restricting a governor’s partial veto powers were — in some way — a stamp of approval from the Legislature.
“They didn’t completely do away with this,” Godar said. “If people really wanted that, you could argue that they could have amended the constitution to completely do away with this type of partial veto.”
Godar said it’s possible that current lawmakers don’t want to restrict partial veto powers too much in case the current political power structure of the Legislature and Governor’s office switch in the future.
Until 2020, Supreme Court generally allowed partial vetoes to stand
For as long as Wisconsin has had a partial veto, there have been lawsuits about how governors have used it.
The first came in 1935 and challenged the governor’s partial veto of an emergency relief bill, which approved funds but struck provisions related to how the Legislature wanted the money to be spent. The court upheld the partial veto so long as the remaining language equates to “a complete, entire, and workable law.”
Future courts upheld partial vetoes in 1936, 1940, 1976, 1978, 1988, 1995 and 1997.
Things changed in 2020 when three of four partial vetoes by Evers in the 2019 state budget were struck down by the Supreme Court’s former conservative majority. But instead of a single majority opinion, the court issued what’s known as a fractured ruling. There were four opinions issued by justices that provided different tests for whether a partial veto can be constitutional.
“Those vetoes in that case were pretty in line with what governors from either party have done in prior decades,” Godar said. “They weren’t a significant departure from how this has been used in the past, but the court struck down three of them.”
But not having a “unified majority opinion” in the 2020 case, Godar said the court didn’t offer clear reasoning on how governors can use the partial veto in the future. But that could change in the latest case challenging Evers’ veto.
“I am really curious to see how the court rules in this case,” Godar said. “Because I think they will tell us a lot about what type of partial veto we will have going forward, and if it will continue to be this pretty broad, granular veto, or if it will be more based on subject matter.”
Looking at the big picture, Godar said the question is whether the legislative and executive branches are “striking the right balance” of power.
“And so, it is ultimately up to the Legislature and the people if they want to restrict it more significantly, which they could do in the future,” Godar said.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers are pushing for another constitutional amendment in reaction to Evers’ latest veto. Earlier this year, the Legislature passed a proposed amendment aimed at keeping future governors from using the partial veto pen to “create or increase or authorize the creation or increase of any tax or fee.”
Before the new language can be added to the constitution, the measure must pass the full Legislature during the next legislative session and be approved by voters in a statewide referendum.
Wisconsin Public Radio, © Copyright 2024, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.
Wisconsin
Dem Milwaukee mayor, Wisconsin governor should ‘step up’ to help with RNC protest zone, says GOP Sen. Johnson
Wisconsin’s Republican US senator wants Milwaukee’s mayor to move the protest zone for next month’s RNC.
Sen. Ron Johnson was on UpFront on Milwaukee television over the weekend, and he said Mayor Cavalier Johnson and Gov. Tony Evers need to get involved and try to get the US Secret Service to move the RNC’s planned protest zone.
“I’d like to see Mayor Johnson step up to the plate or demand change as well. Again, this is in all of our best interests. Gov. Evers ought to be demanding change as well. As you know, obviously, the Republican Party we’re asking for this concern to be addressed,” Johnson said.
He called the protest zone’s placement in Pere Marquette Park, about a quarter of a mile from the Fiserv Forum convention site, “ridiculous.”
“I’m concerned about the US Secret Service now kind of digging their heels in right now,” Johnson said. “That has to be addressed. That has to be changed.”
Johnson and RNC planners have said for months that the protest zone is too close to the Republican National Convention site.
They worry that keeping the protest zone where it is will lead to unnecessary trouble.
Johnson said it’s in Milwaukee’s best interest to make sure there isn’t any trouble next month.
Milwaukee welcomes the Republican National Convention on July 15.
Wisconsin
Trump campaigns in Wisconsin after reportedly calling Milwaukee
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