Morning Headlines - Wednesday, Apr. 20, 2022

U.S. and World Headlines

Why Do GOP Lawmakers Still Oppose Legalizing Weed?

Today is 4/20, the holiday for stoners and weed enthusiasts around the world. Legalizing marijuana is no longer a fringe issue championed mainly by those partaking in the day’s festivities either. Over the past two decades, we’ve seen a remarkable rise in support for legalization. Polls over the past year from Civiqs, Quinnipiac and Gallup show that roughly 7 in 10 American adults think the use of cannabis should be legal, double the share who thought so 20 years ago.

Netflix Slowdown A Sea Change For Streaming

Netflix's quarterly subscriber loss — its first in a decade — has sent shockwaves through the entire streaming industry.

For years Wall Street rewarded Netflix with an outsized market value for its ability to keep expanding its user base. Now, reality is setting in.

UK Court Order Moves Julian Assange Closer To US Extradition

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a step closer to being extradited to the United States following an order by a United Kingdom court.

With Assange supporters gathered outside, the Westminster Magistrates’ court in London formally issued an order on Wednesday to extradite the Australian to the US to face spying charges for publishing a trove of classified information more than 10 years ago.

Today's Mortgage And Refinance Rates: April 20, 2022 | Rising Rates May Cool Demand

Will rising mortgage rates finally cool the white-hot housing market? Possibly — but that doesn't mean affordability is going to get any better.

In its April forecast, Fannie Mae predicted that homebuying demand will slow over the next couple of years as would-be buyers opt to keep mortgages they got with much lower rates and first-time homebuyers are priced out of the market.

Judge’s ‘Textualist’ Ruling On Airline Mask Mandate Sparks Backlash

A federal judge in Florida stirred controversy Monday by striking down the Biden administration’s mask mandate for public travel in a ruling that critics derided as overly formalistic and divorced from the health imperatives of a global pandemic.

In a 59-page decision, Tampa-based U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a Trump appointee, ruled that the measure went beyond the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) authority.

The opinion drew criticism on multiple fronts, ranging from personal attacks over the 35-year-old judge’s youth and qualifications for the bench, to accusations of judicial overreach. 

Wisconsin Headlines

Marijuana Legalization In Wisconsin Not Likely

Though Wednesday, April 20, or “420,” is approaching, the legalization of marijuana in Wisconsin is not.

Devin LeMahieu, Wisconsin senate majority leader and Republican from Oostburg, which is around 50 miles away from Milwaukee, said in an online panel with WisPolitics.com last week that the probability marijuana is legalized in the next year, medically or recreationally, is slim to none.

Arizona Man Sentenced To 8 Years On Fentanyl Charges

Jason Jordan, 36, Mesa, Arizona, was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson to 8 years in prison for attempted distribution of fentanyl and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl. Jordan pleaded guilty to these charges on January 25, 2022.

On January 21, 2021, an Express Mail parcel mailed from Mesa, Arizona, to an apartment in Madison, Wisconsin, was intercepted by United States Postal Inspectors. Inspectors executed a federal search warrant on the parcel and found 1,000 blue pills inside. The pills were monogrammed with an “M” on one side and a “30” on the other side and appeared to be legitimate oxycodone pills. However, the pills were sent to a laboratory and tested positive for fentanyl. The subsequent investigation revealed that Jordan mailed the pills to Madison from Arizona.

AG Kaul Releases Update In Advance Of One-Year Anniversary Of Clergy And Faith Leader Abuse Initiative

As Wisconsin approaches the one-year anniversary of the launch of Wisconsin’s Clergy and Faith Leader Abuse Initiative, AG Kaul is releasing additional information and highlighting the successes.

“In the year since we launched the Clergy and Faith Leader Abuse Initiative, over 200 people have reported information, and a District Attorney has criminally charged a defendant in a previously unreported case,” said AG Kaul. “We continue to encourage anyone with information about clergy and faith leader abuse to report that information.”

Analysis: New Legislative Maps Give GOP 12-15% Edge

An outside analysis of the new legislative maps Wisconsin is set to have for the next decade give Republicans a 12 to 15 percent advantage in a scenario where the statewide vote was evenly split.

The findings for the Assembly and Senate maps come from the Campaign Legal Center, which has gotten involved in lawsuits over gerrymandered legislative and congressional maps drafted by both Republicans and Democrats.

UW-Madison Election Law Professor Rob Yablon compared the maps to other redistricting processes over the last 20 years where courts had to settle the matter. Yablon found Wisconsin's maps were unusually partisan relative to other instances where courts had to finalize a state's voting maps for the next decade.

A Former Foxconn Executive Tries To Explain What Went Wrong In Wisconsin

If you don’t quite remember, the Foxconn project in Wisconsin was announced in 2017 as a massive deal to build the first “Generation 10.5” LCD factory in North America. It was also one of the first big moments in the Trump presidency, complete with President Trump holding a golden shovel at a lavish groundbreaking ceremony where he said the factory would be “the eighth wonder of the world.”

The deal was supposedly quite simple: Foxconn (the company best known for manufacturing the iPhone), President Trump, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker all announced that Foxconn would build a 20-million-square-foot display factory in Wisconsin that would bring 13,000 manufacturing jobs back to the United States. Wisconsin promised more than $4 billion in tax credits to Foxconn, cleared land by pushing people out of their homes, and diverted water from Lake Michigan to support the factory. A lot of people got excited about this promised American manufacturing renaissance and left good jobs to join it.

But it turned out that while Foxconn was putting on a great show, no LCD factory was actually getting built, even though Foxconn kept saying it was happening.