Good morning. 
Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 77. Sunrise is 5:26 AM and sunset 8:34 PM, for 15h 08m 10s of daytime. The moon is new with 0.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1962, Starfish Prime tests the effects of a nuclear explosion at orbital altitudes.
Recommended for reading in full —
Molly Beck reports Tony Evers signs Republican-written state budget that cuts income taxes, announces $100 million more for schools:
WHITEFISH BAY – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Thursday signed into law a new state budget written by Republican lawmakers that includes billions in income tax cuts and announced he would be providing school districts with an additional $100 million in federal funding to make up for what he characterized as a plan that falls short for schools.
The Democratic governor signed the $87.3 billion two-year state spending plan in an elementary school library in a Milwaukee suburb, igniting his reelection campaign that will rely on areas like Whitefish Bay where a shifting electorate could prove crucial in Wisconsin’s tight statewide races.
The governor tweaked the plan using his veto authority in 50 largely minor areas but left intact the centerpiece of the Republican plan — a more than $2 billion tax cut package that would reduce the state’s third tax bracket for about half of Wisconsin residents to 5.3%.
Shamane Mills reports DOJ: Wisconsin Could Get $65M Under Proposed Opioid Settlement:
Wisconsin could receive $65 million from a proposed $4.3 billion multistate settlement with Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Wisconsin Department of Justice announced Thursday.
In 2019, Attorney General Josh Kaul filed suit against Purdue alleging the maker of OxyContin helped ignite the drug crisis with deceptive marketing claims.
“It’s critical that we hold those responsible for the opioid epidemic accountable,” said Kaul in a statement announcing a proposed settlement. “No lawsuit can undo the destruction the opioid epidemic has caused. But by recovering funds from those whose unlawful conduct led to the opioid crisis, we can support prevention, treatment, and recovery programs and deter the kind of conduct that led to the epidemic.”
Wisconsin is one of 15 states that dropped their opposition to the Purdue Pharma Oxycontin bankruptcy plan which critics initially thought let the Sackler family, which made billions off the sale of opioids, off too easily.
Rebecca Beitsch reports Trump appointee erred in firing Voice of America whistleblowers: watchdog:
A government watchdog found the Trump-appointed leader of Voice of America (VOA) erred in his dismissal of six employees, which was likely retaliation against whistleblowers and wrongly stripped some of them of their security clearances.
President Biden dismissed U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) CEO Michael Pack on his first day in office following a string of complaints by employees that he was politicizing VOA and other state-funded media outlets.
Five of the employees in question have already been reinstated to their positions by the new administration, but the Thursday review from the State Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) clears all the employees of wrongdoing, while documents reviewed by The Hill include some previously unreported details about strife at the agency.
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“What is shocking are OIG’s discovery of the many more ways Pack and his political appointees – while running USAGM for a mere six months – managed to break the law, abuse authority, endanger public health and safety and grossly mismanage the agency,” David Seide, a whistleblower attorney with the Government Accountability Project who represented one of the employees, said in a statement.
Pack faced complaints from more than 30 whistleblowers during his tenure, firing six on the same day who had protested management decisions while at USAGM.