It seems like every election, I read Referendum items and think "Well that seems logical..." only to then do some research and find out that there's something more going on behind the question.

So I'm wondering if we might have some knowledgeable folks here chime in and break down the 3 Referendum questions I see on our ballot a week from today.

I have a teenager who will be voting in his first election ever this time around and I tried to warn him about needing to understand Referendums in particular because of how they can be worded in funny ways to make you think they're common-sense when really there's more at play.

Appreciate any thoughts on the three, like why is this on the ballot, what problem is this trying to solve, etc.

QUESTION 1: “Partial veto. Shall section 10 (1) (c) of article V of the constitution be amended to prohibit the governor, in exercising his or her partial veto authority, from creating or increasing or authorizing the creation or increase of any tax or fee?”

QUESTION 2: "Freedom to gather in places of worship during an emergency. Shall section 18 of article I of the constitution, which deals with religious liberty, be amended to prohibit the state or a political subdivision of the state from ordering the closure of, or forbidding gatherings in, places of worship in response to a state of emergency, including a public health emergency?"

QUESTION 3: "Governmental entity discrimination prohibited. Shall section 27 of article I of the constitution be created to prohibit governmental entities in the state from discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, public education, public contracting, or public administration?"

Just curious as to where most of wisco lies when it comes to hockey. Also I don't know how to add logos to the poll if anyone has insight pls lmk.

Spent a summer in Mississippi and they were was like “yea it’s hot here but it’s the humidity that gets you” and I was like we have 10k lakes and the Great Lakes I know humidity, and then there were like “well it’s hotter here and I opened up my homes weather app in July in was 85 humidity and it was only 59 there. Granted it was like 80 at 8 am but I did take that over when it snows 26 inches in two days. And it’s fall and the humanity is 84 right now. Southern people be so weak

I can’t believe this is still on the schools fb page…

over the summer, I bought a bird bath which is a glass bowl that sits on a foldable metal stand. the chickadees love it and I want to make sure they can use it all winter too. should I look into buying a heated bird bath or could anybody recommend a heating element I could buy for the bird bath I have. I'm also concerned about fire safety and accidentally hurting the birds while heating it. thanks

Hi Wisco,

I'm a transplant and have grown to love OF's. The one thing I said to my wife is that I would learn to make her OF's. Here's my take and Go Brewers!

Syrup #1

Simple syrup:

100 grams sugar

50 grams water

Syrup #2

150 grams maple syrup

.5-1.0 oz Ango bitters 

1oz Luxardo cherry syrup

6 dashes orange bitters

1-2 dash vanilla extract

Mix Syrup #1 and Syrup #2 together which we'll call Syrup #3

Then take Syrup #3 and mix 1:1 ratio with Gran Mariner, Cointreau, or another dry curaçao. This is your final Old Fashioned mix(OF mix). I usually batch this out and keep a gallon or so stored in the basement.

Although shelf stable, I keep a squeeze bottle of this in the fridge.

Muddle your cherries and orange with about 1/2-3/4 oz of the OF mix. Then add your brandy, bourdon or rye. Don't forget your ice and sweet/sour. I know it's criminal here, but if you want a traditional/Non-Wisco OF, skip the sweet/sour. Play with the OF mix to spirit ratio to your liking.

Apple Old Fashioned Mix:

Substitute apple bitters for orange bitters and apple brandy or schnapps for dry curaçao. Then, get yourself a quality Apple Brandy to enjoy. I keep the cherries, skip the orange and add an apple slice for garnish.

Hopefully we'll get to enjoy a few of these this evening for a big win!

Drove Johnson Street in Fond du Lac (deep red city) over the weekend and it sure doesnt look like it. Still tons of Tiffany signs. Im sure its the case for areas like Manitowoc and Two Rivers (been a few weeks since ive went there, but I still saw plenty of Tiffany signs there too). People there are almost worse than Fondy nowadays. However, I did see tons of Crowley signs in Sheboygan County

I need help figuring this out, because I can't find any info online. I can never explicitly find "Instruction permit" in the list of valid or invalid forms of ID to register to vote. All I can ever find are "driver's license," or "state ID."

I don't have a driver's license, just an instruction permit. is that gonna be enough?

Any help is greatly appreciated 😭🙏

Anyone else remember those really slanted news mailers from new/fake outlets that tried looking like local news? They started sending out before the 2024 election, and then disappeared immediately after… I looked back out of curiosity and this points towards Dick Uihlein and his dark money groups registered in Illinois, but you couldn’t tell who was sending them at the time.

Today I got an attack ad against Crowley from “Progressive Alliance of Wisconsin “. Looking it up, it was conveniently registered by an Illinois address 10/19/26, the day before the new reporting period started. The donations came 10/20/26 or after, so a brand new group that will not need to disclose their donors until 1/15/27, but has already spent a reported $299k on these mailers.

Seems disingenuous at best, but by the time we’d get the background info it won’t matter. Citizens United really got us good.

This surprised me, since we usually hold our congressional maps up as the original partisan gerrymander. This study does not take statewide partisan balance into account and instead compares these maps to nonpartisan geographically-balanced maps. They rank Texas #1, followed by California #2.

When it comes to Wisconsin, their thesis is basically that we liberals have gerrymandered ourselves. We are so densely packed into Milwaukee and Madison that we'd need to geographically "gerrymander" in the other direction to achieve statewide partisan balance, breaking up urban districts and scooping up suburban areas (see their analysis of Minnesota, or Illinois for a more extreme example that gives Dems an edge). They claim that the "fairness" method that they're using in this study is a commonly-accepted standard among academics and courts.

For state assembly and senate districts, note that even with our court-mediated "fair" maps, this presumptive blue wave year is only shaping up to yield a narrow assembly majority. The reason is a ton of "wasted" votes in deep blue urban areas.

The bottom line is that Wisconsin's extreme rural-urban divide is potentially more of an obstacle to partisan balance in our representation than gerrymandering. Even with "fair" maps, republicans have a structural edge. Our perception is tinged by the fact that pre-gerrymandered Wisconsin was a different Wisconsin. 15 years ago there was much more geographic balance in partisanship, such as a bluer Driftless Area. District-based representation under the current demographic situation is a challenge to achieve partisan balance.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

This will be hitting my mailbox soon ...

The Wisconsin humane society is still struggling with higher than normal population of cats. We have over 1100 cats in our care currently and we have seen over 1000 more cats in our system than last year.

Ways you can help

1. Leave healthy stray cats outside until population has gone down. Bring in sick, injured and young kittens. Also signing up for redemption of the animal really helps if you find a stray. We are getting a lot of feral cats and it takes longer of them to leave the shelter due to behavior that may not fit with every family. Redeeming them allows them to have to spend less time in the shelter. They can be released outside once they're fixed.

2. Adopting or fostering. We have multiple adoption promotions going on right now. Also we have both cats and dogs for foster.

3. Donating to your local shelter. The wisconsin humane society has a pet food pantry and we are always looking for donations. Donating to the food pantry allows family who are struggling to feed and keep their pets.

4. Waiting to surrender animals until population has gone down or seeking alternative rehoming methods. Due to us seeing such a high cat number of cats enter our shelter we are struggling with a lack of kennel space. We do not euthanize for space or length of stay.

5. Volunteering or applying to work at your local humane society. We have many volunteer and employment opportunities throughout our campuses.

Thank you for any support you can give us during this difficult time.

Tech billionaire Scott Banister is helping fund $9M+ to PACs that are airing ads attacking David Crowley. Banister is heavily invested in Flock surveillance cameras and AI data center development. He is not helping fund PACs that air ads attacking Tom Tiffany.

Source for Scott Banister giving money to PACs that are airing attack ads against Crowley: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/10/23/here-are-the-big-donors-fueling-wisconsins-race-for-governor/92269114007/

(Unpaywalled) https://archive.ph/yr0Hf

Source for Banister's investments: https://siliconvalleyinvestclub.com/investors/long-journey-ventures/

Another source for Banister spending money on PACs airing attack ads against Crowley: https://www.wispolitics.com/2026/a-better-wisconsin-together-icymi-ultra-wealthy-tech-bro-and-elon-musk-contemporary-joins-maga-billionaires-attempt-to-buy-wisconsin-government-for-gop/

Source for Banister being invested in building data centers and Flock: https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/949482905/big-tech-billionaire-targets-florida-democratic-legislative-candidates