Chuck Quirmbach

Election clerks across the presidential battleground state of Wisconsin rushed to mail absentee ballots Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the state Supreme Court lifted a temporary freeze on sending them while it considered a legal challenge.

“Oh, we're busy,” said Wendy Helgeson, the Town of Greenville clerk who also serves as president of the Wisconsin Municipal Clerks Association.

Kenosha's mayor has announced the goals of a community improvement plan following last month's police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, and the unrest that followed. Blake was severely wounded when shot seven times by a Kenosha police officer.

Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to speak in Janesville Monday. His campaign appearance comes a few days after a Trump administration appointee, Department of Energy Deputy Secretary Mark Menezes, traveled to the Janesville-Beloit area. Menezes’ visit highlighted the potential of more federal funding for two companies involving in making radioisotopes used in diagnosing medical problems. 

Many medical centers use a radiation-releasing element called a radioisotope to help diagnose and treat health problems. Friday, a high-ranking member of the U.S. Department of Energy will visit two southern Wisconsin companies involved in making the radioactive isotopes.  The Trump administration official is expected to highlight support of a program to reduce dependence on foreign imports. 

The telecommunications industry continues to promise faster wireless service with a technology known as 5G. Cables and antenna towers related to 5G are now being installed in neighborhoods in part of the Milwaukee area. But a Milwaukee alderperson says she's getting  many complaints about how the work is being done — complaints that an analyst says should worry a lot of communities.

One place the cable is going in, is along S. Delaware Avenue in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood. 

As Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris campaigned in the Milwaukee area Monday, Republican incumbent Mike Pence was in La Crosse.

It being Labor Day, Pence offered an optimistic view on what's happened since 22 million U.S. jobs were lost during the spring, as part of economic cutbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. Senate will go back into session Sept. 8.  Among the people hoping the GOP-controlled chamber will help the U.S. Postal Service are a New Berlin couple, Beth and Manny Medina.

It happened during the first week of September in 1945: Japan signed formal surrender papers aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, bringing an end to World War II.

This week, Milwaukee's War Memorial Center marked the 75th anniversary of the signing with a ceremony that included World War II veterans and advice about what it takes to keep nations out of wars.

An effort to recall Gov. Tony Evers fanned out across Wisconsin over the weekend, as critics of the Democrat began collecting the roughly 670,000 signatures needed to force a recall election.

Sunday morning at Echo Park in Burlington, recall organizer Misty Polewczynski wouldn't answer a reporter's questions about the recall effort announced Friday. But she did allow her voice to be recorded as she greeted people at a small table.

Updated at 2:41 p.m. CT

A white, 17-year-old police admirer was arrested Wednesday in the killing of two people gunned down during a third night of protests in Kenosha over the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake.

Kyle Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Illinois, was taken into custody in Illinois on suspicion of first-degree intentional homicide. Antioch is about 15 miles from Kenosha.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers says one priority this fall is to help fellow Democrat Joe Biden become president.  Evers says another key goal is to hold on to his veto power over Republicans in the state Legislature.

Evers is getting some high-profile assistance with that state politics effort.

Vice President Mike Pence says, "It's on!” — the 2020 election campaign pitting President Donald Trump and Pence against the Democratic ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Pence spoke at a factory in Walworth County on Wednesday and said Republican policies are helping the Wisconsin economy. Democrats are quick to disagree.

Republican Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to speak at noon Wednesday at a metal fabricating firm in Walworth County, Wis. The Tankcraft Corporation in the village of Darien makes fuel tanks and other products.

One of the company owners is board chair of a Wisconsin conservative think tank, and says he promotes liberty and individual rights.

The Trump campaign says Pence is scheduled to discuss “the failure of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to put American workers first.”   

In a controversial move, the Police and Fire Commission in Wauwatosa voted Monday night to set a firm schedule for hearing a complaint against suspended police Officer Joseph Mensah.

President Trump's son Eric Trump will campaign Tuesday at the office of the Milwaukee Police Association, the union that represents hundreds of Milwaukee officers. Eric Trump is expected to tout an endorsement of his father by the International Union of Police Associations.