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WSUM News Team compiles recent news in under 5 minutes every Monday through Thursday. Originally aired on the 91.7 FM stream, each newscast is re-posted in audio form.
INTRO GOOD (DAY) EVENING MADISON! YOU’RE LISTENING TO THE 5/6 O’CLOCK NEWS UPDATE ON WSUM 91.7 FM MADISON STUDENT RADIO. I’M NATHAN JAHN.
IN THE NEWS TODAY,
IN STATE NEWS,
Wisconsin residents hold protests across seven cities against AI data centers. Data centers have been a pressing issue in the state of Wisconsin recently. Many AI companies are pushing to build new data centers in Wisconsin for a multitude of reasons. Lake Michigan provides lots of water, Wisconsin has lots of open land and closed factories, and Wisconsin has always been ahead of the curve in technology. Protesters demanded local and state officials halt approval of large Wisconsin data center projects proposed by Microsoft, Vantage and other tech companies across the state, particularly southeast Wisconsin. In Port Washington, one protester was arrested for chastising city officials about a possible new 15 billion dollar data center campus for OpenAI and Oracle. Most of the protests against AI centers stem from their environmental impacts. Residents are concerned about the land use and water use required for building these large buildings. Recently in Caledonia Microsoft had to pull their plans to build a campus on 240 acres of farmland after citizen protests. Microsoft says that they are still committed to building data centers in Wisconsin and doing it sustainably.
ALSO IN STATE NEWS,
The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case challenging local law enforcement's authority to hold people in custody. The arguments will be in relation to Immigrations and Custom and Enforcement officers. The Court on Wednesday granted an original action petition brought by immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera and the Wisconsin ACLU against the sheriffs of Walworth, Brown, Marathon, Kenosha and Sauk County. Voces' challenge centers around the use of immigration detainers or "holds;" requests from ICE asking local law enforcement to hold a person for up to 48 hours after their original release date so that ICE can take that person into custody. The lawsuit argues that such detainers amount to a new arrest, and that state law does not give local law enforcement authority to make civil immigration arrests. The group is asking the Court to block local sheriff's offices from holding people under ICE detainers after they are otherwise entitled to be released.
IN NATIONAL NEWS,
Federal Authorities start crackdown on immigrants in New Orleans. The Department of Homeland Security that they would target violent criminals who were recently released. New Orleans had been preparing for the arrival of border patrol for weeks, as they are a blue city in a red state. Trump has targeted similar blue cities like LA, Chicago, and Charlotte. It is not yet clear exactly what departments will be involved, but past operations included Border Patrol, and a senior official Gregory Bovino. Bovino has been criticized as of late for his aggressive tactics, with videos circulating online of people getting tackled while being taken in. Trump released a list of 10 people who he called the worst of the worst criminals living in New Orleans when announcing the crackdown. In the past, most arrested haven’t had a criminal record with about 11% arrested in Charlotte having criminal records. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry said that they would welcome the agents with open arms so they can take dangerous criminals off the streets.
IN ECONOMIC NEWS,
Trump administration staffers cancelled interviews with a group of finalists to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve, as President Trump signaled he had already made a decision about who to nominate to lead the central bank. Kevin Hassett, a longtime advisor to the president and the current Director of the National Economic Council, has emerged as the frontrunner for the job. Hassett, a University of Pennsylvania-educated Ph.D. economist, previously served as the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. Other candidates include former Fed governor Kevin Warsh and current governor Chris Waller. Waller is seen as a more pragmatic choice by advocates for Fed independence, and was endorsed by the journal The Economist this week.
President Trump’s nominee will succeed current chair Jay Powell, who has led the central bank through the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent spike in inflation, which has since cooled but remains above the Fed’s 2 percent target. Trump, who originally selected Powell, has been frustrated with the Fed for being too slow to cut interest rates. This summer, the president blamed his first-term Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, for choosing Powell, writing on social media that Mnuchin “really gave me a ‘beauty’ when he pushed this loser.” The central bank’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee meets again next week. Analysts say committee members are divided over whether to cut rates further or hold them steady. For WSUM News, I’m Daniel Stein.
OUTRO: THANK YOU FOR TUNING IN! FROM THE WSUM NEWS BOOTH, I’M NATHAN JAHN. HAVE A GREAT EVENING MADISON!