Brian Dake

The latest figures from the state Department of Transportation show the 495 fatalities as of Nov. 17. That’s down from 521 at the same point in 2018.

The number of fatal crashes is also down. There were 463 as of Nov. 17, down from 467 through the same period in 2018.

Michael Schwendau with the state Bureau of Transportation Safety said the declines appear to show more drivers are taking safety seriously on the roads.

Drive are “not being distracted with their cellphones driving, buckling up, finding that sober ride home, whether they’re using a ride-sharing service or calling a friend … everybody’s doing their part, so it’s really starting to have some measurable effects on saving lives,” Schwendau said.

Wisconsin is part of a national trend of fewer traffic deaths.

But Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, said the goal remains getting the total number of deaths on the roads to zero.

This holiday season, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) is reminding shoppers to make sure their gift purchases are not going to scammers.

“Every year we receive complaints from people who thought they were buying holiday presents but never got them,” said Lara Sutherlin, Administrator of DATCP’s Division of Trade and Consumer Protection. “It’s important for consumers to recognize how they can protect their holiday purchases from a scam.”

Shopping Online

• Avoid suspiciously deep discounts or free offers, including social media posts or emails that offer these deals. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
• Verify websites before ordering. A quick internet search can help you verify the company’s information and find any warnings about their website.
• Check that you are using a secure website (“https” rather than “http”) before entering your password or any personal or banking information.
• Pay by credit card. Federal law gives you the right to dispute charges if you report them to the credit card company within 60 days of receiving your statement.
• Keep a paper trail, and carefully review your credit card statements after the holidays for any unauthorized charges.

Buying Gift Cards – Watch for the following common gift card scams:

• Phony surveys that promise a free gift card in exchange for your personal information. Scammers sell your personal information and no gift card is ever sent.
• Unsolicited messages, such as email, text, social media or internet ads that promise a free gift card. Do not click on any links and delete the message.
• Online auction sites selling discounted or bulk gift cards. The cards may have been tampered with, have already been used, or expired.

The city of Milwaukee will offer Molson Coors Brewing Company a $2 million incentive package as part of the company’s restructuring plans, which include bringing “hundreds” of jobs to Milwaukee.

In October, Molson Coors announced plans to streamline its operations, which involved moving its corporate headquarters from Denver to Chicago. The structuring plans also will include a shift in functional support roles from several locations around the country to Milwaukee.

As part of the offer, Molson Coors will be required to engage certified small businesses enterprises for at least 25% of the design and construction of the company’s office renovations. Also, at least 40% of labor hours for the renovations must be performed by certified workers under the Residents Preference Program, which requires Molson Coors to meet certain resident hiring goals.

“We want to ensure that the people who live in this community and sometimes the people literally in this neighborhood, are helping to build the future of this city,” Barrett said.

However, even as state and local officials continue to praise Molson Coors’ decision to reinvest in Milwaukee, the exact number of jobs that are coming to Milwaukee is still unknown.

“There will be a gain of jobs in Wisconsin in the hundreds,” said Gavin Hattersley, Molson Coors CEO. “We haven’t finalized that and we’re stilling working through it with our employees.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she doubts Congress has enough time left to pass the USMCA this year, but Democrats and the Trump administration will continue talks next week to work out a compromise on remaining issues.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer met with Pelosi and House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) midday to discuss the last sticking points of the deal. Democrats want President Donald Trump’s trade chief to deliver on stronger enforcement mechanisms in the USMCA before a House vote is held. But lawmakers emerged without any announcement.

The House has only eight official session days left in the 2019 calendar year, although lawmakers are expected to stay on an extra week in December to resolve budget issues and avert a government shutdown.

Despite the short time window, Neal is still hopeful that a deal could be struck soon that would allow Congress to pass the pact this year. He said he would talk with Lighthizer again before Thanksgiving, and even joked he would be spending the holiday with the trade chief.

“We’re going to stay right at this through the next week, and we’re going to have a couple counterproposals,” Neal said. “With all seriousness, we do think we’re down to two-and-a-half, maybe three issues.”

A recently introduced bill in the Legislature would prevent lawmakers from adopting new occupational licenses without state officials first having weighed the proposed credentials’ likely costs and benefits.

The proposal, introduced Friday as Assembly Bill 605 and Senate Bill 541, would require the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) to evaluate new occupational licenses before lawmakers vote on them.

Specifically, the DSPS would have to consider both the “financial burden” that any proposed rules might impose on people and businesses and the ways in which other states regulate whatever job is up for licensing. After looking at various types of regulation, state officials would then have to pick whichever is “least restrictive,” according to the bill.

Rep. Rob Hutton, a Republican from Brookfield and an author of the latest licensing proposal, said his main goal is to require state officials to consider whether new credentials are actually needed before adopting them.

“Many times we vote to create a new occupational license without understanding the full impact that license may have on the workforce and public safety,” Hutton said in a statement. “This legislation will ensure that we have a better picture of the effect an occupational license will have so we can make more informed policy decisions.”

A DSPS report from December examining the state’s occupational-license system recommended eliminating or consolidating 28 of the 280 professional licenses the state regulates. Most of the credentials under review were found by the DSPS to be unnecessary. Among them were credentials for dance and music therapists or cigarette salespeople, none of which has to do the construction industry. The agency, however, recommended consolidating the state’s seven-tier license system for blasting and suggested eliminating a credential for engineering-systems designers.

Wisconsin could be at risk of losing $217 million in budget authority for transportation next year under a provision passed in a 2015 federal highway funding bill.

According to data released by the Federal Highway Administration in early November, Wisconsin is faced with the loss of $217 million in contract authority under a rescission that’s scheduled to take effect on July 1. Section 1438 of the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act included a mandated rescission of $7.6 billion for all states.

A Wisconsin Department of Transportation spokeswoman said the agency is still trying to determine the effect the rescission will have on next year’s transportation budget. The provision will affect contract authority, not actual “spendable funding,” the spokeswoman noted.

“The department is working with (the Federal Highway Administration) to determine the impacts, which we believe will be less than reported,” according to WisDOT. “We also have been in working with our congressional delegation in an effort to repeal this legislation.”

Debby Jackson, executive director of the Wisconsin Transportation Development Association, said the state’s risk of losing contract authority comes after a years-long fight over transportation spending in Wisconsin and could cause significant troubles if it takes effect.

“A lot of people worked hard during the last state budget to get more money into the transportation fund to slow the decline of our transportation infrastructure,” she said. “If this rescission of federal contract authority were to happen, it would be a step in the wrong direction.”

The New York Times accused FedEx on Sunday of essentially having lobbied President Donald Trump to sign tax cuts into law with the promise of  businesses using the saved money to reinvest in and further grow their  companies, and then failing to invest the billions of dollars that it reportedly saved as a result of the tax cuts.

“In the 2017 fiscal year, FedEx owed more than $1.5 billion in taxes. The next year, it owed nothing. What changed was the Trump administration’s tax cut – for which the company had lobbied hard,” The New York Times reported on Sunday. “

Late on Sunday, FedEx CEO Frederick Smith responded to The New York Times’ story by calling it factually incorrect, claiming that The New York Times is the company that does not pay federal income taxes, and challenging the publisher of The New York Times to a debate on tax policy.

“The New York Times published a distorted and factually incorrect story on the front page of the Sunday, November 17 edition concerning FedEx and our billions of dollars of tax payments and billions of dollars of investments in the U.S. economy,” Smith wrote.

“Pertinent to this outrageous distortion of the truth is the fact that unlike FedEx, the New York Times paid zero federal income tax in 2017 on earnings of $111 million, and only $30 million in 2018 – 18% of their pretax book income.  Also in 2018 the New York Times cut their capital investments nearly in half to $57 million, which equates to a rounding error when compared to the $6 billion of capital that FedEx invested in the U.S. economy during that same year.”