Saturday, February 8, 2025
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers joins lawsuit over Elon Musk's access to restricted information
Molly Beck
MADISON – Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is joining Wisconsin to a multi-state lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration and billionaire Elon Musk from accessing restricted government records on millions of federal employees.
In a statement, Evers said the lawsuit is aimed at protecting Wisconsinites' personal details. “Wisconsinites expect the federal government to treat their Social Security numbers, bank account information, and other sensitive personal details with the highest level of protection and confidentiality — and that obligation doesn’t go out the window just because Elon Musk says it should," Evers said.“Giving political appointees access to our most personal information like this is illegal. That’s plain as day.”
Personnel Management, the Washington Post reported Thursday, citing four U.S. officials with knowledge of the developments.
The records accessed by Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, dubbed DOGE, included Treasury and State Department officials in sensitive security positions, according to the newspaper.
The Post cited records it had obtained showing several members of the DOGE team run by the South African-born billionaire were granted "administrative" access to OPM computer systems days after Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration.
A White House official told Reuters the people who are doing this work have the proper clearances at the respective agencies, went through onboarding and have read-only access. Asked why they are looking at the records of security officials or staff at all, the official said looking at the organizational charts is part of every restructuring.
On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the Treasury Department to limit who could access its information systems, in response to a lawsuit by unions and a retiree group that alleged Musk's team was violating privacy laws.
Musk, the Tesla owner tasked by Trump to slash the size of the 2.2 million-member civilian government workforce, has moved swiftly to install allies at the agency.
OPM systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers, the officials said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.
Cybersecurity event shuts down systems at The Journal Times
Lee Enterprises, the parent company of The Journal Times, was the victim of a cybersecurity event that shut down many of its networks this week.
In a statement to employees, Lee President and CEO Kevin Mowbray said the company is focused on investigating what information, if any, was affected. Lee has notified law enforcement. The company is working to identify and implement steps to help prevent this from happening again.
Mowbray thanked employees for “above-and-beyond efforts to continue reporting the news and maintaining our operations under challenging circumstances.”
The outage prevented The Journal Times from producing printed papers or e-editions earlier this week. Since then, the newspaper has produced a smaller newspaper and an e-edition each day.
The newsroom continues to post the latest news, sports entertainment and more on journaltimes.com.
Editors and designers have worked day and night this week to ensure that news is delivered to readers. Some of the processes that are typically automated had to be completed manually, taking more time. To ensure the newspaper was delivered, The Journal Times is temporarily printing a smaller two-section paper. The newspaper will return to its regular format when the issues are resolved.
We're working to get things back on track
Mike Boyd
One of the phrases bantered around the newsroom when I was working as an editor for one of the global tech giants was, “Technology’s great — until it isn’t.”
This week, a serious technology outage has delayed the production of both the daily print and e-editions of The Journal Times and Kenosha News. We’re working to resolve these issues.
It’s not unusual to receive a couple calls about missed paper delivery because nothing is ever truly perfect.
This week the phone has been ringing more than usual — and understandably so. You expect a paper outside your door in the morning or that the e-edition will be available when you visit journaltimes.com or kenoshanews.com.
It would be difficult to fully express how touching it is that you have been kind, empathetic and understanding when learning about the issues we’ve been dealing with. Our reporters and editors have continued to focus on making sure we provided the latest local news on the websites.
I’m very proud of the professionalism and commitment they display every day in working to give you information that will help you navigate your daily life.
I also appreciate all our papers’ readers and subscribers, and am thankful for your patience and understanding as we work to resolve these technology issues.
Mike Boyd is executive editor the Racine Journal Times, Kenosha News and Lake Geneva Regional News. He can be reached at mike.boyd@journaltimes.com.
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Trump administration freezes funds for Wisconsin electrical vehicle charging stations
Molly BeckRick Barrett
MADISON - Federal transportation officials are freezing funding for a program in Wisconsin that pays for the installation of new electric vehicle charging stations across the state, according to correspondence to Wisconsin state officials obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
In a memo dated Thursday, officials with the Federal Highway Administration said they were suspending the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, which funds new charging stations along interstates in Wisconsin. Any plans approved under former President Joe Biden are suspended until new guidance is issued by the department later this spring, according to the letter to state transportation officials.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called the move a "foolish" decision.
“I’m hearing every day from Wisconsinites who are worried about the Trump Administration raising costs from groceries to gas and jeopardizing everything from Head Start for kids, programs like Medicaid that help over a million people in our state, and even the basic security of confidential information like personal Social Security numbers," Evers said in a statement.
“The Trump Administration is messing around with Wisconsinites’ lives and livelihoods — these reckless and shortsighted actions have to stop.”
The funding freeze comes after federal transportation officials for three years approved state plans to construct a constellation of charging stations across Wisconsin.
This week's announcement by the U.S. DOT, which is overseen by former Wisconsin congressman Sean Duffy, also comes two years after Evers signed into law a Republican-authored bill that allowed the state to receive the federal funds that are now frozen.
The suspension of the federal program could jeopardize nearly $7 million in funding for 15 projects that had previously been approved, according to the Evers administration. Wisconsin planned to award about $22 million in funds for 53 projects, according to the administration.
Less than two weeks ago, The City of Milwaukee and La Crosse-based Kwik Trip stores, both recipients of federal grants to install EV charging stations, said they were moving ahead with those plans despite uncertainty about the Trump administration's decisions.
Milwaukee said it would install more than 50 stations between 2026 and 2030.
Friday, city officials said they have a signed contract with the Federal Highway Administration for their project totaling $18.7 million, including $15 million in federal funding. That contract was issued under former President Joe Biden's administration.
“We have access to around $1 million for engineering and planning,” Erick Shambarger, the city's director of Environmental Sustainability, said in an email shared with the Journal Sentinel.
Construction was not likely to start until 2026.
“We expect to complete the engineering work in 2025, and we further expect the federal government to honor its obligations for 2026 and beyond,” Shambarger said.
“My plan is to continue to move forward in selecting an engineering firm on this project and continue our planning on where the stations would be located. Hopefully, by the time that work is completed, we will have better guidance on how to proceed with the construction,” he added.
Kwik Trip had said it would have the chargers at 24 of its Wisconsin stores by the end of 2025. Last May it was awarded nearly $5.8 million from the government, representing around two-thirds of the project's cost.
Friday, Kwik Trip said it was trying to understand how the suspension of the federal funding would affect its grants. The company said it was in discussions with Wisconsin Department of Transportation officials and others.
"We're trying to get some clarification so that we fully understand what this new memo means," said company spokesman Bob Leibl.
Should the grant money disappear, it's still unknown whether Kwik Trip would install the charging stations.
"That's something we are still discussing internally," Leibl said.
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