WisconsinWatch.org (https://www.wisconsinwatch.org/author/bridgit-bowden/)
Bridgit Bowden is the special projects reporter at Wisconsin Public Radio. Previously, she was the Mike Simonson Memorial Investigative Reporting Fellow at WisconsinWatch.
Before the pandemic, Amy Moreland worked as a bartender and events coordinator in Madison. “Well, that’s canceled forever, or the foreseeable future,” she joked anxiously in her latest audio diary for Outbreak Wisconsin.
Amy Moreland, a Madison bartender out of work since mid-March, has been forced to make tough decisions about money as her benefits from the federal CARES Act near expiration.
Bryan Voegeli runs a dairy farm located between New Glarus and Monticello. “In our small corner of the world we were just starting to get through one set of difficult times, and now … like everyone else we kind of got hit with another.”
Madison bartender Amy Moreland has been out of work since mid-March. “I am trying to control the things that I can control, but I’m frustrated,” she said.
Prior to the pandemic, Moreland’s life was moving forward. Now she’s unemployed and scared of the unknown.
Payday lenders in Wisconsin charge an average of 565 percent interest for short-term loans. New proposed federal rules to protect consumers will not change that.
Pattison Sand Co., which recently opened a site in Wisconsin, is facing concerns over the growth of its Iowa mine, which has a worst-in-the-nation safety record.
The FTC has recommended that states boost requirements for what documentation is needed at the beginning of a lawsuit. Wisconsin’s new law does not meet most of these recommendations.
A new Wisconsin law standardized debt collection; advocates fear it could hurt consumers.