Morning Headlines - Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023

U.S. and World Headlines

Who Will Win The First Republican Debate?

Wednesday is the biggest day of the 2024 presidential race so far. Eight candidates will take the stage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the first Republican primary debate. Chances are good that something will happen tonight that will be touted as a potential game-changer in the race: a viral moment, a particularly withering attack line, an out-of-nowhere tour de force. But how can we know whether that moment really changes voters’ minds, or if it was just a tale of sound and fury, signifying nothing? Ideally, we’d take voters’ temperatures on the presidential primary just before the debate, then go back to the same people after the debate and ask them the same questions again.

So that’s exactly what we’re doing. FiveThirtyEight has partnered with Ipsos and The Washington Post to conduct a Republican primary poll both before and after tonight’s debate. The charts below represent the views of likely Republican primary voters between Aug. 15 and Aug. 22, the first wave of the poll.

Republican Says Threat To McCarthy’s Speakership ‘Inevitable’ If He Doesn’t Meet Conservative Demands

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) said Tuesday that a threat to Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R) Speakership is “inevitable” if he does not meet conservative demands and requires help from Democrats to avert a government shutdown.

“It’s going to be detrimental to leadership in the House, if they blow off the concerns of the people like myself and the Freedom Caucus and some of the other people on the right that are making reasonable demands in this problem,” Jackson said on Steve Bannon’s “War Room.” “It’s going to be a problem.”

Asked if he is prepared to move to vacate McCarthy’s Speakership, Jackson responded, “I think that’s inevitable.”

Minnesota Names First Black Chief Justice Of State Supreme Court, Natalie Hudson

Gov. Tim Walz on Wednesday promoted Natalie Hudson to be chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, making her the first Black person to lead it.

Hudson was appointed associate justice in 2015 by then-Gov. Mark Dayton, after serving as a judge on the Minnesota Court of Appeals for 13 years. She'll lead the high court when current Chief Justice Lorie Gildea retires in October.

“Justice Hudson is one of our state’s most experienced jurists. She has a strong reputation as a leader and consensus builder,” Walz said in a statement. “I am confident that she will advance a vision that promotes fairness and upholds the dignity of all Minnesotans.”

India Becomes The Fourth Country Ever To Land A Spacecraft On The Moon

India has landed its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the moon, becoming only the fourth nation ever to accomplish such a feat.

The mission could cement India’s status as a global superpower in space. Previously, only the United States, China and the former Soviet Union have completed soft landings on the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan-3’s landing site is also closer to the moon’s south pole than any other spacecraft in history has ventured.

Schools Shrug Off Cheating Concerns And Embrace AI

Many school districts spent the last academic year trying to seal students off from artificial intelligence. Now, they’re racing to establish AI-friendly classrooms as a new school year kicks off.

They’ve crafted rules for AI use among students and trained teachers on how to fuse the technology into daily learning. The reason for the dramatic shift: a realization that it’s better to harness the rapidly evolving technology than futilely attempt to insulate against it.

The November release of ChatGPT — a free bot that can solve calculus equations, write term papers and translate Spanish — upended education seemingly overnight. Students from middle school to college tinkered with chatbots, using them to help with homework or complete assignments altogether, spurring some school systems to block their use.

Wisconsin Headlines

Republican Lawmakers Grill Judicial Commissioners With A Focus On Wisconsin Supreme Court's Liberal Majority

Wisconsin Republicans grilled members of the state’s judicial ethics commission who are up for Senate confirmation, pressing them Aug. 22 to say how they would handle complaints that could come against the new liberal majority on the state Supreme Court.

The hearing foreshadows what could be a looming battle between Republicans who control the Legislature and the state Supreme Court, which liberal justices took control of in August for the first time in 15 years. The committee’s Republican chairman, Sen. Van Wanggaard, said after the hearing that he was impressed with all three nominees, but he conceded that he hadn’t discussed their status with his party’s leadership.

Federal Grant Helps Build Tribal Technical Assistance Program Center In Wisconsin

Federal funding is helping Wisconsin create a Tribal Technical Assistance Program (TTAP) Center for 65 Tribal Nations across 30 states, including Wisconsin. The Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory (TOPS Lab) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) received the two-year $625,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) will work through the TTAP Center to support transportation investments on tribal lands and other tribal initiatives related to training, technical assistance and technology services.

“Wisconsin has the highest concentration of tribal communities in any state east of the Mississippi River,” WisDOT Secretary Craig Thompson. “We are proud of our government-to-government relationships with the 11 federally recognized Tribes in Wisconsin. This federal grant will help strengthen those partnerships and allow us to continue making strategic transportation investments on Tribal lands."

Milwaukee Gears Up To Host The First Republican Debate Of The 2024 Election Season

Milwaukee is preparing for thousands to attend the RNC's presidential debate and other events as GOP candidates take the debate stage at 8:00 pm Wednesday.

The debate is the first event the Republican Party is hosting and a formal introduction to the 2024 election season.

"This is going to reverberate throughout the entire country. And the stage where that's happening is right here in the City of Milwaukee, and we're very proud of that." Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said his goal has been to grow the city and he expects the debate to do just that.

This Week's Heatwave Could Create Record Demand For Power From Midwest Electric Grid

As Wisconsinites have been bracing for extreme heat ahead of Wednesday and Thursday, so too have the state’s utilities as the Midwest electric grid could see electricity demand reach record levels.

Ahead of the heatwave, the Midwest grid operator called on utilities to "prepare every available resource" to prevent outages. That's as much of Wisconsin is expecting heat indexes above 100 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday. The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning for much of the state. Milwaukee Public Schools announced it's closing schools and extracurricular programs Wednesday because of the high temperatures.

Electricity usage typically peaks when Wisconsin — and the upper Midwest — has factories and residential air conditioners running simultaneously during summer heat waves.

DATCP Announces Steve Ingham As Interim Administrator

Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) Secretary Randy Romanski announced that Steve Ingham will begin serving as Interim Administrator for DATCP's Division of Food and Recreational Safety on August 28, 2023.

Ingham served as Administrator of DATCP's Division of Food and Recreational Safety for more than a decade before retiring in 2022. During his time as Administrator, the division's manufactured foods regulatory program was the first to meet the Food and Drug Administration's national standards.