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Results for " wisconsin " 1,037 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle

Wisconsin’s largest sports complex moves forward — but not without opposition

The Breck Athletic Complex is set to be built at the intersection of Highway 164 and I-43 in Waukesha County.

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May 5 • 5:32 PM EDT • Sports • spectrumnews1.com
New bill aims to reduce sports streaming costs for Wisconsin fans

MADISON, Wis. — A new push in Washington, D.C. aims to make it easier and cheaper for fans to watch their favorite Wisconsin teams.

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May 4 • 5:33 PM EDT • Sports • channel3000.com
The State of Politics: Was Dan Bice Wisconsin’s Most Important Journalist?

Remembering the unique style of the Journal Sentinel columnist and former colleague.

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May 4 • 8:32 AM EDT • Politics • urbanmilwaukee.com
Wisconsin avoids High Point if NCAA tournament expanded in 2026

Had there been an expanded tournament in 2026, the Wisconsin Badgers would've avoided High Point in the first round.

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May 4 • 6:31 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Wisconsin lands 2027 defensive lineman over fellow Big Ten schools

The Badgers stocked up on the defensive line this week.

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May 3 • 3:01 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Wisconsin Community Services launches campaign to transform mental health space

Wisconsin Community Services launches campaign to transform mental health space:

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May 3 • 8:01 AM EDT • Health • onmilwaukee.com
Morning Notes: Brett Newski captivates Madison with unique sound

MADISON, Wis. — Some call Brett Newski the "Tom Petty of Wisconsin."

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May 2 • 11:19 AM EDT • Entertainment • channel3000.com
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2026 Best & Brightest MBA: Alexander Porte, Wisconsin School of Business

Alexander Porte, who is graduating from the Wisconsin School of Business, has been named a Poets&Quants Best & Brightest MBA for 2026

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May 2 • 7:54 AM EDT • Business • poetsandquants.com
Big Bend youth sports complex; $175 million project approved

Big Bend has approved plans for a $175 million multi-sport facility at Highway 164 and I-43 set to be the largest of its kind in Wisconsin.

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May 1 • 11:40 AM EDT • Sports • fox6now.com
USPS delays causing problems for small business in Wisconsin

A business owner in Oak Creek says delays at the United States Postal Service (USPS) are creating problems with her customers.

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Apr 30 • 10:41 PM EDT • Business • fox6now.com
Political violence and Wisconsin's 2026 race for governor

As the political tenor in America continues to deteriorate, threats against politicians have increased, some only online and others very much real and in person. This peril was once again ...

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Apr 28 • 6:07 PM EDT • Politics • pbswisconsin.org
CFTC sues Wisconsin over sports betting lawsuit targeting major prediction markets

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it's suing to "reaffirm its exclusive jurisdiction."

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Apr 28 • 2:53 PM EDT • Sports • wisn.com
These platforms allow users to speculate on sports. So why aren't they illegal in Wisconsin?

Last week, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit against 5 different prediction market platforms alleging that they facilitate illegal sports betting in Wisconsin.

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Apr 28 • 6:00 AM EDT • Sports • wpr.org
Wisconsin offensive lineman invited to Saints rookie minicamp

While not a single Wisconsin Badgers football player was drafted, Davis Heinzen is the latest to have a chance to prove himself at the next level.

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Apr 27 • 8:03 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
The News Anchor Who Keeps Politics Out of the Dog Park

Dana Perino, a news anchor and former White House press secretary, wrote her first romance novel about liberal women and conservative men in Wisconsin.

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Apr 27 • 8:00 AM EDT • Politics • wsj.com
Wisconsin DOJ sues Kalshi, other prediction markets for illegal online sports betting

Wisconsin is suing Kalshi, Robinhood, Coinbase, Polymarket and Crypto.com for allegedly illegally facilitating sports betting on their prediction market platforms, the state’s Department of Justice announced this week.

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Apr 24 • 3:02 PM EDT • Sports • wpr.org
Will Tommy Thompson return with a run for governor?

Political reporters Molly Beck and Jessie Opoien answer frequently asked questions on Wisconsin's political scene.

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Apr 24 • 6:05 AM EDT • Politics • jsonline.com
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Wisconsin DOJ suing sports betting apps

The Wisconsin Department of Justice announced on Thursday that they are suing sports betting apps like Kalshi, Polymarket, Crypto.com and others to try and stop their alleged facilitation of illegal sports betting.

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Apr 23 • 9:49 PM EDT • Sports • wmtv15news.com
Changes to Wisconsin's FoodShare program set to take effect this year

Work requirements are being expanded for participants, along with certain products being banned from the program.

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Apr 23 • 6:25 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumnews1.com
Wisconsin DOJ sues online prediction markets, charging illegal sports betting

The lawsuits were filed as Wisconsin prepares to renegotiate tribal gaming compacts to include online sports betting under a new state law.

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Apr 23 • 5:11 PM EDT • Sports • wisconsinexaminer.com
Wisconsin sues, alleging online services facilitate illegal sports betting

Wisconsin is suing five websites, alleging they are facilitating illegal sports betting in the state.

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Apr 23 • 2:15 PM EDT • Sports • fox11online.com
Wisconsin attorney general suing Kalshi, others for illegal sports betting

Attorney General Josh Kaul is holding an afternoon news conference to address the lawsuit

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Apr 23 • 1:42 PM EDT • Sports • wisn.com
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Brewers top prospect Luis Peña leaves minor-league game in ambulance

The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers game April 22 ended early after a medical emergency for top prospect Luis Peña, though he's reportedly doing better.

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Apr 23 • 9:19 AM EDT • Health • jsonline.com
Packers safety Evan Williams set for Northeast Wisconsin High School Sports Awards show

Packers safety Evan Williams will be the guest speaker as part of the event, which will recognize many of the state's top prep athletes, coaches and teams.

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Apr 23 • 7:01 AM EDT • Sports • greenbaypressgazette.com
Wisconsin basketball gets commitment from Mount Horeb's Josh Manchester

Wisconsin men’s basketball has added some homegrown talent to its backcourt, as Mount Horeb's Josh Manchester has committed to the Badgers.

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Apr 22 • 7:43 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Nominations Now Open for WMC’s Business Friend of the Environment Awards

MADISON – Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) – the combined state chamber and manufacturers’ association – opened nominations for its annual

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Apr 22 • 2:27 PM EDT • Business • wmc.org
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Wisconsin sports access bill introduced; Packers warn of potential impact

Wisconsin lawmakers are pushing to expand access to sports broadcasts, as the Packers raise concerns about potential impacts to small-market teams.

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Apr 21 • 11:31 PM EDT • Sports • fox6now.com
What are next steps for online sports betting in Wisconsin?

This report is in collaboration with our partners at ICT.

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Apr 21 • 5:20 PM EDT • Sports • pbswisconsin.org
Wisconsin political leaders mourn Daniel Bice's death

A veteran Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter, Bice broke national scoops and dug into local stories with same tenacity.

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Apr 21 • 2:58 PM EDT • Politics • jsonline.com
CommUnity Conference to spotlight civic health, engagement across Wisconsin and beyond

The University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh will bring together students, community members and civic leaders for a day of dialogue, learning and connection at the upcoming CommUnity Conference, focused on strengthening civic health at the local, state and global levels.

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Apr 21 • 12:36 PM EDT • Health • uwosh.edu
Daniel Bice, veteran Wisconsin political reporter and columnist, dies at 62

Daniel Bice, who worked for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for 33 years, died from complications of esophageal cancer on April 21, his birthday.

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Apr 21 • 11:00 AM EDT • Politics • jsonline.com
Wisconsin businesses could recoup millions paid in illegal tariffs

Importers that paid tariffs later struck down by the Supreme Court can now apply for refunds.

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Apr 20 • 3:30 PM EDT • Business • wpr.org
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Teaching Legislative Politics Through a Game: Active Learning, Assignment Co-creation, and Assessment Across Modalities -

Teaching Legislative Politics Through a Game: Active Learning, Assignment Co-creation, and Assessment Across Modalities By Jennifer L. Clemens, University of Wisconsin–Parkside and Michael A. Hansen, University of Turku This article examines a legislative politics simulation [...]

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Apr 20 • 10:00 AM EDT • Politics • politicalsciencenow.com
Wisconsin ranked as 17th best state for business

Wisconsin ranked as the 17th best state in the country in which to do business, according to Chief Executive magazine’s annual Best & Worst States for

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Apr 19 • 11:18 PM EDT • Business • biztimes.com
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Small business tax deduction highlights challenges for Wisconsin entrepreneurs

MADISON, Wis. — This week, millions of Americans filed their taxes, including 497,000 small business owners here in Wisconsin.

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Apr 19 • 12:10 PM EDT • Business • channel3000.com
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Former Iowa women’s basketball forward Teagan Mallegni transfers to Wisconsin

Teagan Mallegni will remain in the Big Ten after transferring from Iowa women’s basketball to Wisconsin.

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Apr 18 • 10:02 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Wisconsin hockey signs Penn State's JJ Wiebusch, Cornell's Alexis Cournoyer

Wisconsin men's hockey coach Mike Hastings added scoring, goaltending depths with his latest signings from the transfer portal.

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Apr 17 • 7:50 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Former Wisconsin man sentenced to 20 months in federal prison

Court records show U.S. District Judge James Peterson sentenced Roger Hoffman on Wednesday.

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Apr 17 • 4:55 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumnews1.com
Former Wisconsin man sentenced to 20 months in federal prison for illegal campaign contributions

A federal judge has sentenced a former Wisconsin man to 20 months in prison for making campaign contributions after renouncing his U.S. citizenship | 1010 WINS

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Apr 17 • 4:50 PM EDT • Politics • audacy.com
Use caution and keep safety in mind during storm cleanup, Wisconsin health officials warn

Flooding has ravaged parts of Northeast Wisconsin the past few days, while at least five tornadoes touched down in southern Wisconsin earlier this week.

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Apr 17 • 4:38 PM EDT • Health • fox11online.com
Federal labor official schedules union elections at West Allis, Madison mental health clinics

A National Labor Relations Board official rejected Rogers' argument that all its clinics should vote on union representation.

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Apr 17 • 6:30 AM EDT • Health • wisconsinexaminer.com
Central Wisconsin high school sports roundup

D.C. Everest and Central Wisconsin picked up wins in high school sports action Thursday.

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Apr 16 • 11:55 PM EDT • Sports • wsaw.com
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Wisconsin women's basketball 2026-27 roster after two portal additions

A pair of transfer portal additions has strengthened the 2026-27 Wisconsin Badgers women's basketball roster.

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Apr 16 • 3:45 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Road America hints IMSA sports car racing after dark could come soon

Road America fans got their IMSA endurance event, so is racing in the dark next? The Wisconsin track's boss drops hints about the possibility.

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Apr 16 • 1:12 PM EDT • Sports • jsonline.com
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Watch Wisconsin business leaders celebrate 2026 Top Workplaces

Business leaders across Wisconsin celebrate the 2026 Top Workplaces and the people behind outstanding work cultures.

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Apr 16 • 10:03 AM EDT • Business • yahoo.com
Watch business leaders celebrate 2026 Wisconsin Top Workplaces

Business leaders across Wisconsin celebrate the 2026 Top Workplaces and the people behind outstanding work cultures.

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Apr 16 • 10:03 AM EDT • Business • jsonline.com
Gen Z is at the precipice of political power in Wisconsin. Will they use it?

Poll after poll shows that America’s youngest voters have grown increasingly disillusioned with the traditional political system.

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Apr 16 • 9:27 AM EDT • Politics • jsonline.com
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New York Islanders sign star Wisconsin hockey forward

21-year old Wisconsin Badgers forward Quinn Finley has signed a two-year, entry-level contract with the New York Islanders.

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Apr 16 • 6:02 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Report: Health care costs rising faster than wages in Wisconsin

Ananth Seshadri, director and co-author of a report on health care costs, said increasing costs hurts Wisconsin's economic competitiveness because insurance is often tied to employment.

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Apr 16 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • wpr.org
Wisconsin Senator Proposes Free Streaming Of Sports Games

U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) is introducing a new bill to stop professional sports leagues from blacking ...

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Apr 16 • 3:02 AM EDT • Sports • radioresultsnetwork.com
Sen. Ron Johnson weighs in on Iran war, gas prices, Wisconsin state politics

The Republican senator joined WPR’s "Wisconsin Today" as Congress is back in Washington to tackle big issues.

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Apr 15 • 5:11 PM EDT • Politics • wpr.org
Wisconsin tornado causes damage but no injuries in Sussex and Lisbon

A tornado caused significant damage to a historic church and businesses in Sussex and Lisbon. No injuries were reported.

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Apr 15 • 1:37 PM EDT • Business • jsonline.com
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Wisconsin men's hockey vs. Denver breaks ESPN viewership records

While the Wisconsin Badgers men's hockey team fell short against Denver, their National Championship game smashed viewership records on ESPN.

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Apr 15 • 9:47 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Lowering taxes would help make Wisconsin more competitive

WI tax climate is failing its families and businesses as other states and the nation work to keep more money in the pockets of those who earn it.

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Apr 15 • 6:04 AM EDT • Business • jsonline.com
Wisconsin Badgers mourn loss of longtime assistant coach Henry Mason

Wisconsin football community remembers Henry Mason, a key figure in Badgers football history and player development.

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Apr 15 • 5:40 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Wisconsin GOP leaders keeping door open to partisan gerrymandering ban

Wisconsin Republicans say they are open to dialogue with Gov. Tony Evers on banning partisan gerrymandering.

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Apr 14 • 2:53 PM EDT • Politics • jsonline.com
Wisconsin AD leaving to become deputy commissioner at Big Ten, sources say

Wisconsin athletics director Chris McIntosh is leaving the school to become the Big Ten's deputy commissioner for strategy, sources told ESPN on Sunday.

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Apr 12 • 10:19 PM EDT • Sports • espn.com
AD Chris McIntosh is reportedly leaving Wisconsin for role in Big Ten office

According to two reports, Chris McIntosh, Barry Alvarez's successor as athletic director, is leaving Wisconsin for a job with the Big Ten Conference.

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Apr 12 • 8:49 PM EDT • Sports • jsonline.com
Wisconsin AD McIntosh to take new position at Big Ten

Wisconsin AD Chris McIntosh is set to become the Big Ten’s chief strategy officer, reporting directly to Tony Petitti. Exact responsibilities are TBD.

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Apr 12 • 7:26 PM EDT • Sports • sportsbusinessjournal.com
Wisconsin AD McIntosh to take new position at Big Ten

Wisconsin AD Chris McIntosh is set to become the Big Ten’s chief strategy officer, reporting directly to Tony Petitti. Exact responsibilities are TBD.

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Apr 12 • 7:26 PM EDT • Business • sportsbusinessjournal.com
Denver beats Wisconsin 2-1 for its 11th national title and 3rd in 5 years

Denver's Johnny Hicks continued his stellar play by making 29 saves, just two days after a personal-high 49 against Michigan.

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Apr 11 • 10:33 PM EDT • Sports • nbcnews.com
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Denver Pioneers win 3rd NCAA men's hockey title in 5 years

The Denver Pioneers of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference registered a 2-1 victory over the Wisconsin Badgers to complete the Frozen Four at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday in Las Vegas, the program's third national championship in five years.

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Apr 11 • 8:51 PM EDT • Sports • espn.com
Denver defeats Wisconsin to win 11th Frozen Four title

A late goal from Kyle Chyzowski lifted the Pioneers over the Badgers in the NCAA men's hockey championship.

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Apr 11 • 8:44 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
“AI polls” are fake polls

A few weeks after Donald Trump’s second presidential win, I took the train up from London (where I was living at the time) to Oxford to attend a conference on polls and forecasts of the 2024 election. Most of the attendees were pollsters or academics, but I also watched presentations from Aaru and Electric Twin, two companies that do what is interchangeably called synthetic sampling, silicon sampling, or synthetic audiences. Stripped of startup jargon, that means they use large language models (LLMs) to simulate responses to public opinion polls by having AI agents take on the role of survey respondents. I had already heard of Aaru thanks to some articles with eye-catching headlines like “No people, no problem: AI chatbots predict elections better than humans” in the months leading up to Election Day. The founders were making some big, some might even say far-fetched claims, such as: “within two years, we will simulate the entire globe — from the way crops are grown in Ukraine to how that impacts production of oil in Iraq, trade through the strait of Malacca, and elections for the mayor of Baltimore.” When Semafor asked Aaru’s cofounders — Cameron Fink and Ned Koh — about my boss, they said “we respect all those who came before us.” Nate (as he so often does) shared his thoughts on Twitter: Fink and Koh were relatively good-natured about this back-and-forth when we spoke at Oxford. They even offered to mail me one of the t-shirts featuring Nate’s quote they apparently had made. I never took them up on the offer, which I now somewhat regret. These synthetic sampling companies fell off my radar for a while, but they do still exist. In fact, Aaru recently received a $1 billion valuation. Is what they’re doing anywhere close to the most important frontier in AI development? Not by a longshot, especially when Anthropic just developed a model so adept at exploiting software vulnerabilities that it’s only being released to 40 companies. Still, silicon sampling is increasingly finding its way into public polling. Axios reported in March that “a majority of people trust their own doctors and nurses” based on findings from Aaru — without mentioning that the “people” in that sentence were actually LLMs. Around the same time, the Public Sentiment Institute “boosted” their online sample of 373 real survey respondents with 114 AI agents.1 (Spoiler alert: even the co-founder of Electric Twin doesn’t think that’s a particularly defensible approach.) Polling companies like Qualtrics and Ipsos are also developing synthetic data panels. So, what should we make of these … “polls”? Let’s get one thing out of the way: whatever they are, they’re not polls in the way that term is usually defined. Subscribe You can’t replace polls with AI On one hand, using LLMs to essentially make up fake survey respondents sort of sounds like the dumbest idea ever, one that will at best imperfectly replicate real polls while introducing all sorts of biases. On the other hand, with LLMs improving at a remarkable, perhaps even alarming rate, maybe that means I’m a dinosaur at the ripe old age of 24 because I still want to rely on polls that talk to actual people. I’m not going to argue that synthetic samples are completely useless. In fact, as I’ll return to later, there is evidence that some techniques can replicate topline survey results quickly and cheaply. But the marketing from certain companies can be slightly optimistic. “No traditional poll will exist by the time the next general election occurs,” said Fink in 2024. We’re just 206 days away from the midterms, and based on the fact that I still have to collect a bunch of polls every day, I’d say he should have run that prediction by a sample of AI agents before the interview.2 To see why synthetic samples can’t replace polls, here’s a quick primer on how they work. The simplest version of these models involves taking a LLM (like ChatGPT or Claude), giving it a demographic profile (e.g., a white, college-educated woman who lives in Utah and makes $70k a year), and then asking it to respond to a survey question. You repeat that process a few thousand times using different demographic profiles and end up with a sample of synthetic survey responses. The actual models used by private companies are more sophisticated than this, usually because they incorporate more hypothesized demographic characteristics for each agent and provide them with extra information. Aaru, for example, feeds agents a diet of news and information they’d be likely to consume, while Electric Twin incorporates their customers’ proprietary data about the audience they’re trying to replicate. The way Ben Warner, the co-founder of Electric Twin, explained it to me was “we have a large amount of data on […] for instance, 5,000 people. Can we make an accurate prediction of how they would respond to another question?” Still, it should be obvious why synthetic samples can’t replace polls. Polling is fundamentally a data collection process. We might use surveys to make predictions by feeding them into election forecasts, but the main purpose of a poll isn’t prediction, it’s gathering new data about what people think and how they feel. Silicon sampling, on the other hand, produces no new data. It’s simply a model: you input LLM training data, demographic prompts, and a bunch of other information, and it spits out a prediction for what a poll would say. We love models here, but models aren’t polls. That difference is an important philosophical sticking point for most pollsters I talk to. “I think politics should stay away from [synthetic sampling], because we’re trying to […] represent the voice of the people,” said Natalie Jackson, a vice president at GQR Insights. Democratic pollster John Hagner told me: “I think I’m just incredibly skeptical of this idea. I don’t think it’s research. At that point, you’re asking the machine to tell you what you already believe.” Hagner has seen some presentations of early synthetic sampling experiments, but so far, “if it’s being used in a campaign, people are keeping it incredibly quiet.”3 But Eli, I hear you saying, aren’t polls themselves increasingly governed by modeling decisions? Indeed they are: pollsters’ choices on which sampling method to use, how to define their likely voter models, and how to weight their samples can and do lead to dramatic differences in the results they publish. Aaru even referenced these limitations in the methodology statement included with that maternal mortality “poll” — although I’m using the term “methodology statement” loosely here, because it doesn’t really explain how the model works at all. We can ignore the (frankly preposterous) implication that synthetic sampling isn’t subject to a separate set of biases. The important point is that there’s still a meaningful difference between using weighting and other statistical techniques on actual polling data and using a model to predict what a poll would say. The latter is far closer to election forecasts or techniques like MRP — potentially useful models, but not a replacement for polls.4 To be fair, other synthetic sampling companies are perfectly happy with the distinction between polls and models. Warner compared polling and synthetic sampling to different tools in a toolbox. “The mistake I think we make is we think that these new tools should either work in exactly the same way or somehow replace these old tools,” he said. “Rather than thinking of it as, okay, so we’ve always had the hammer, we’ve always had the screwdriver, now we’ve got a saw. But don’t use a saw to try [to] do the job of a hammer.” A quick comment from Nate Eli didn’t ask me for a comment — rather rude of him, don’t you think? But since I’m editing this story, I figured I’d add a few quick thoughts rather than putting words in his mouth. Beyond the frequently misleading marketing, what bothers me about the AI “poll” hype is that as AI tools make statistical inference cheaper and/or better (note that these are not synonyms) that actually increases the comparative value of collecting original data. You might be able to train a model to make a reasonable estimate of what some hard-to-reach poll respondent would say — say, a young Black man who voted for Trump. (Such a person checks a number of boxes for a voter who is usually hard to reach in surveys.) Indeed, this is closely related to what models like the Silver Bulletin forecast already do. They essentially smooth out the kinks in noisy survey data by making inferences based on past voting patterns or national polls or surveys of other states. But you don’t actually know what these voters think unless you’re reaching them directly. If there’s a shift in opinion among this subgroup, you’re not going to detect it. So if I were running a campaign, I’d invest more in going the extra mile to find a representative sample of those voters. And then I’d hire some smart quants — or Claude? — to figure out the implications for campaign strategy based on proprietary data that my competitors didn’t have access to. -Nate Silver Are these models any good? If synthetic surveys are just a new type of model, the next obvious question is whether the models are at least accurate. The answer very much depends on who you ask. On one end of the spectrum, you have the maximalist argument that synthetic sampling is more accurate than actual polls. “It’s an incredibly challenging problem to go to someone and say ‘hey, we’re going to be more accurate at predicting human behavior than you, even when you talk to your customers directly’,” Koh recently told CNBC. In his view, synthetic sampling isn’t a saw to polling’s hammer, it’s “magic.” There’s certainly evidence that synthetic samples can replicate certain survey toplines. But if Aaru does have any examples of their approach outperforming the polls, they’re keeping those to themselves.5 Aaru’s 2024 election model, for example, had Kamala Harris leading in Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on November 4th. And although they’ve since taken down their forecast page, they gave Harris a 50.5 percent chance of winning the race on November 2nd.6 After the election, Fink told Semafor he was happy enough with those results because they were “within margin of error,” a term that is completely meaningless when applied to a “sample” of AI agents. And of course, Aaru says their models have improved since 2024, so supposedly now they’d be more accurate than the polls? Still, their stronger argument is on cost: “We are significantly faster and cheaper than traditional polling, and still more accurate,” said Fink. The first two claims are undeniably true, but the third brings us to the opposite end of the spectrum. Both Jackson and Hagner are skeptical that these models are reliable for anything beyond replicating common survey toplines. “I just […] don’t think the machines are what we want when we’re looking for nuanced views. My example on this is people in Arizona and Nevada in 2024 who voted for Trump and voted for expanding abortion in their states on ballot initiatives,” said Jackson. Hagner identified another issue. Maybe the synthetic respondents, like sycophantic LLMs, are inhuman in one important way: they’re too nice. “The reports that have come through at the meetings that I’ve been at are that the early experiments on this, they cannot get respondents to be as racist or sexist or, frankly, as negative as human respondents,” he said. Academic research mostly agrees on this point. While there are some papers that show promising results when using LLMs to replicate polling data, most show that LLMs suffer from various quirks like producing too few “don’t know” responses and can seriously overpredict the favorability of politicians like Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. They also seem to struggle with too little variation between demographic subgroups, so the difference in predicted opinion between Democrats and Republicans, for example, is too small. When I asked Warner about these studies, his response to these papers was that just because academics can’t get synthetic sampling to work doesn’t mean that the technique doesn’t work in general. “Actually, the argument is, okay, yours does not [work]. That does not mean […] for this complex set of machinery, which uses a lot of investment, a lot of time, a lot of money, you can’t get it to work.” Cards on the table, I’m somewhat sympathetic to this argument because academics aren’t exactly great at making election forecasts. Usually, the people with skin in the game are the most accurate. Warner’s argument is that the approach Electric Twin takes — which includes, for example, making multiple predictions for each synthetic respondent using different models and prompts and subsequently averaging those to get a final prediction in a sort of ensemble forecast — produces better results than the simpler academic models. Warner shared a comparison between his method and the method from a recent academic paper with me, and Electric Twin was indeed able to get more accurate replication. But even still, he acknowledged that synthetic sampling “is not a crystal ball.” “If you asked me, do I think using other data sources will be more accurate than asking somebody who they will vote for, I would probably say no. But if you asked me ‘would your system be useful for our turnout modeling today?’ I would say yes.” For better or worse, it looks like the method is already getting more popular in the market research world. Most of the clients Aaru touts these days are businesses like EY and McDonald’s. And AI will probably begin to pop up in other parts of the political polling process. Pollsters are already using it to code open-ended survey responses, and some firms, like YouGov, are testing using LLMs to ask survey respondents questions. More worryingly, one danger to actual polls is that AI agents can be used to infiltrate online surveys. Most online polls use various checks to prevent that from happening, but there’s conflicting evidence on how effective those filters are and how prevalent AI agents currently are in online panels. If those agents ever become impossible to detect, it might spell the end of online polling, but the solution isn’t to replace all of your respondents with ChatGPT. Silver Bulletin is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a subscriber. Subscribe 1 That particular poll obviously doesn’t meet Silver Bulletin standards for aggregation. But we exclude all Public Sentiment Institute polls from our averages because we classify them as an amateur polling firm. 2 You could argue that Fink meant the next presidential election, but (a) I’m also confident we’ll still have real polls in 2028 and (b) in that case he should have asked an LLM to define “general election.” 3 Quick caveat: that’s reporting from a Democratic pollster. It’s possible that Republicans are more willing to use AI in political campaigns. 4 Indeed, Silver Bulletin does not include “polls” produced by MRP in our forecasts or averages, and we think it’s extremely misleading when their practitioners describe them in a way that suggests original data had been collected among a large number of states or Congressional districts. 5 A recent report from Aaru and EY did show two examples of a synthetic estimate being closer than a survey to a real-world benchmark — but I’d take those findings with a grain of salt because the report reads more like an ad and didn’t involve any sort of prediction being made ahead of time. 6 For comparison, our odds for Harris on the same day were 48.2 percent.

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Apr 11 • 11:38 AM EDT • Technology • natesilver.net
$600K grant expands school-based mental health support across Wisconsin

The funding, from the Roots & Wings Foundation, will support a school-based mental health initiative led by the WEA Member Benefits Foundation.

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Apr 10 • 10:30 PM EDT • Health • wmtv15news.com
What's in Wisconsin's plan for latest round of opioid settlement funds?

The state health department released the plan April 9. State lawmakers have the ultimate say in how opioid settlement funds are spent.

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Apr 10 • 12:40 PM EDT • Health • jsonline.com
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Wisconsin's future Michelin stars, a new poke spot and murder mysteries

This week in the food and culture newsletter, Michelin comes to Wisconsin, reinventing "Much Ado," Blind Shot closes, two mysteries to read and more.

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Apr 10 • 11:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • captimes.com
Underdogs Denver, Wisconsin advance to title game

The Pioneers defeated Michigan in double-overtime 4-03 while the Badgers held off North Dakota 2-1 to earn their spot in Saturday's Frozen Four championship.

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Apr 10 • 1:51 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Kristin Eschenfelder named interim dean of UW College of Letters & Science

Professor and Academic Associate Dean Kristin Eschenfelder was appointed as interim dean of the University of Wisconsin College of Letters & Science by Provost John Zumbrunnen, according to an email sent to UW students Thursday. The appointment will be effective May 17, when current Dean of UW L&S Eric Wilcots begins his term as interim chancellor,...

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Apr 9 • 8:13 PM EDT • Science • badgerherald.com
Wisconsin upsets North Dakota to reach Frozen Four title game

Wisconsin topped North Dakota 2-1 on Thursday to reach the Frozen Four title game for the first time since 2010.

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Apr 9 • 8:11 PM EDT • Sports • espn.com
Wisconsin becomes 33rd state to legalize online sports betting
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Apr 9 • 7:49 PM EDT • Sports • cbsnews.com
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Department of Health Services announces $31M investment in opioid settlements

Wisconsin's Department of Health Services announced a plan for its $31 million share of $794 million in opioid settlement funds.

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Apr 9 • 6:36 PM EDT • Health • fox11online.com
Wisconsin Department of Health Services releases $31M plan to combat opioid epidemic

The state Department of Health Services is planning to funnel over $30 million to programs and supplies to help combat the opioid epidemic across the state over the next two years.

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Apr 9 • 6:17 PM EDT • Health • wpr.org
So When Can We Call Wisconsin a Blue State?

The state’s Republicans are in a dire situation. Let’s keep it that way.

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Apr 9 • 6:01 PM EDT • Politics • esquire.com
Evers signs bill to allow sports betting in Wisconsin

Gov. Tony Evers signed a measure into law Thursday that will pave the way for people to place bets online in Wisconsin.

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Apr 9 • 5:58 PM EDT • Sports • wpr.org
Evers signs law legalizing tribal run online sports betting in Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed a bill into law on April 9 that legalizes online sports betting, making it the 33rd state to allow the practice. ...

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Apr 9 • 4:56 PM EDT • Sports • pbswisconsin.org
Evers signs measure paving way for online sports betting in Wisconsin

Gov. Tony Evers on Thursday signed a law opening the door to legal online sports betting in Wisconsin.

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Apr 9 • 4:06 PM EDT • Sports • jsonline.com
Wisconsin legalizes online sports betting after Evers signs bill

Gov. Tony Evers signed a bill legalizing online sports betting in Wisconsin on Thursday, April 9, but bettors must wait while the state negotiates agreements with tribal nations.

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Apr 9 • 4:02 PM EDT • Sports • fox6now.com
'We got our butts kicked.' Republicans rattled by Democratic momentum ahead of midterms

Simmering discontent could boomerang on Republicans just two years after Trump harnessed voters' anger with his comeback presidential campaign.

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Apr 9 • 2:26 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
How national political analysts see the Wisconsin Supreme Court race

J. Miles Coleman from Sabato's Crystal Ball said far different results in Washington and Ozaukee counties could mark the end of the "WOW" grouping.

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Apr 9 • 12:48 PM EDT • Politics • jsonline.com
How 10 year community science project is making difference for wildlife management in Wisconsin

The University of Wisconsin Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology welcomed Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources wildlife research scientist, Jennifer Stenglein as a part of their weekly seminar series April 8. “Snapshot Wisconsin: A decade of community science wildlife monitoring” is the title of Stenglein’s contribution to the series. Snapshot Wisconsin, an initiative within the...

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Apr 9 • 11:16 AM EDT • Science • badgerherald.com
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Get a head start on next school year by scheduling a sports physical with Essentia Health

Essentia Health is now offering sports physicals for student-athletes, from middle school to college, across North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin that will be valid for next school year and beyond.

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Apr 9 • 10:37 AM EDT • Health • essentiahealth.org
Get a head start on next school year by scheduling a sports physical with Essentia Health

Essentia Health is now offering sports physicals for student-athletes, from middle school to college, across North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin that will be valid for next school year and beyond.

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Apr 9 • 10:37 AM EDT • Sports • essentiahealth.org
Democrats running for governor have common ground, differences on health care policy

Democrats running for governor have similar health care goals, but different approaches to addressing them.

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Apr 9 • 6:45 AM EDT • Health • wisconsinexaminer.com
No Charges for Wisconsin Mayor Who Removed Ballot Drop Box in 2024

A special prosecutor said a review of the incident found there was not sufficient evidence to charge Doug Diny, the mayor of Wausau.

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Apr 8 • 10:14 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
Maria Lazar on her 2026 election loss and judicial politics

Maria Lazar on losing the 2026 race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

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Apr 8 • 3:34 PM EDT • Politics • pbswisconsin.org
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Another Big Night for Democrats: Tuesday’s Wisconsin and Georgia Results

Democrats enjoyed another double-digit victory in a Wisconsin state Supreme Court race; their win will expand the liberal majority on the body to 5-2. Meanwhile, Republicans held GA-14, although it made for another Democratic overperformance.

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Apr 8 • 2:16 PM EDT • Politics • centerforpolitics.org
Wisconsin Governor Faces Thursday Deadline on Online Sports Betting Bill

Gov. Tony Evers has until Thursday to mull a bill that would expand Wisconsin’s retail-only sports betting to also allow online wagers on tribal land.

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Apr 8 • 1:00 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
"Decisive victory" Political Analyst breaks down Taylor Supreme Court win

Judge Chris Taylor has won Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court race, a result political analysts say will shape the court’s balance and key decisions on elections for years to come.

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Apr 8 • 12:30 PM EDT • Politics • wxow.com
Wisconsin Democrats pull off a stunning election performance

Wisconsin's Supreme Court election result provided good news for Democrats and bad news for Republicans.

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Apr 8 • 11:29 AM EDT • Politics • jsonline.com
A landslide in Wisconsin will make it much harder for MAGA to steal elections

Progressives won a massive victory in a crucial state Supreme Court race.

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Apr 8 • 10:03 AM EDT • Politics • motherjones.com
Live updates: Democrats demand Trump's ouster; Republicans win Georgia special election

Get live updates and the latest news as Democrats demand Trump's removal, Republicans win Georgia's special election, and Wisconsin Democrats expand their majority on the state Supreme Court

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Apr 8 • 7:23 AM EDT • Politics • nbcnews.com
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Georgia, Wisconsin Elections Show Declining Appetite for Republican Candidates

A Republican won Marjorie Taylor Greene’s seat, but Democrats shifted the district 25 points to the left since the 2024 presidential race. Conservative candidates lost in Wisconsin, too.

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Apr 8 • 5:02 AM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
Leader of University of Wisconsin System Is Fired by the Board

Jay O. Rothman’s departure brought an end to a four-year stint as leader of the university system following a public struggle for power.

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Apr 7 • 7:12 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
Live Results: Wisconsin Supreme Court election

Democrats hoped to increase liberal control of the state Supreme Court in Wisconsin on Tuesday.

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Apr 7 • 5:24 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
What to watch for in Georgia and Wisconsin tonight: From the Politics Desk

Plus, Trump's escalating threats against Iran are drawing blowback from some corners of MAGA world.

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Apr 7 • 5:00 PM EDT • Politics • nbcnews.com
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Liberals tighten grip on battleground state Supreme Court in low-key but high-stakes election

Chris Taylor wins Wisconsin Supreme Court race, expanding the liberal majority to 5-2 in a key battleground state ahead of November's elections.

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Apr 7 • 4:41 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Wisconsin Supreme Court

Two state appeals court judges, Chris Taylor and Maria Lazar, are running to replace retiring conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley on Wisconsin’s highest court.

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Apr 7 • 4:05 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Wisconsin Supreme Court Election 2026 Live Results

See live results from the 2026 Wisconsin State Supreme Court election as votes are counted.

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Apr 7 • 11:42 AM EDT • Politics • nbcnews.com
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IAM Union Members Gather to Bolster Political Action and Solidarity in Wisconsin

Delegates from the IAM Wisconsin State Council recently gathered in Madison for a three-day meeting, bringing together members from across the state. Discussions underscored regulatory and political challenges impacting collective bargaining, while reaffirming the need for solidarity and proactive engagement to strengthen workers’ rights. Gov. Tony Evers opened the conference with remarks and, joined by

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Apr 7 • 10:19 AM EDT • Politics • goiam.org