There has been much discussion/litigation about the post office and election ballots of late. And, changes in postmark practices mean that the mailing date on untracked mail is no longer accurate. But, something more fundamental with mail delivery needs to be reckoned with.
Here is the tracking information for a recent letter a person from Indianapolis sent to me here in Madison Wisconsin.
August 27, 2026
Out for Delivery. Expected Delivery Between 9:30am and 1:30pm.
MADISON, WI
Continue Reading The Sorry State of the Post Office Letter
Wisconsin Watch has some unemployment claim-filing tips to offer.
These tips are largely based on the unemployment primer, with an extra focus on Wisconsin’s work search requirements — do five work searches per week rather than just the four required work searches — and the documentation you need to retain about those work searches for the eventual work search audit that will come your way.
These tips also include my advice to file weekly certifications for the
Continue Reading Still more claim-filing tips
The Department of Workforce Development and Wisconsin Watch indicate that a scam has started up of FAKE HEARINGS for workers compensation benefits. As Wisconsin Watch explains:
DWD spokesperson Haley McCoy told Wisconsin Watch that 10 Wisconsin workers reported receiving emails instructing them to attend “online workers’ compensation hearing(s)” via video call. The emails’ senders generally use “.org” addresses and bill themselves as government agencies like the “Workers’ Compensation Board.”
Workers who joined the calls via Zoom, WhatsApp, Teams and
Continue Reading Fake Hearing Scams
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Jul 2026
ArsTechnica has a follow-up to a Wall Street Journal piece about polymarket’s false advertising. Essentially, the old saw of “on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” has become a business model for a new kind of snake oil.
“In its push to draw users to its unregulated platform, Polymarket has flooded social media with videos like [George] Makihara’s, which appear genuine at first glance,” the article said. “In reality,
On 16 June 2026, the state supreme court accepted Abby Windows LLC v LIRC, 2025 WI App 50, 418 Wis.2d 92, 25 N.W.3d 631, for review. This case concerns whether a door-to-door sales person paid on a commission basis and then laid off is eligible to receive unemployment benefits based on that sales work. Here are the basic facts:
The claimant went into prospective customer’s homes and sold doors, windows, roofs, gutters, and siding for the employer. The
Continue Reading A test for covered employment and for statutory interpretation
It has been several years since the claim-filing crisis from the Covid-19 pandemic. In January of 2021, I explained why then proposed changes to the claim-filing process were unlikely to lead to any real improvements. And, in November of 2022, I reviewed noticeable trends in why and how unemployment claims were being denied in Wisconsin.
So, it is time to look at the data since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic to see what has changed
Continue Reading Claim Filing in 2026 in Wisconsin
Note: You can find prior versions of these questions at this October 2020 post, which has the questions that existed as of September 2020.
The initial claim and weekly certification questions as of June 2022 are also available. The June 2007 weekly certification questions (all 11 of them) and the 2009 claimants’ handbook focused on how to answer those 11 questions are also available.
Here are the summer 2025 versions (with Spanish versions again available)
Continue Reading Claim-Filing Questions in Wisconsin as of the Summer of 2025
My examination of economic trends has been sparse of late given my workload. But, current economic news, as most people are reading, is not good. Examining that news up close paints an even worse picture.
As Jake in Wisconsin has been pointing out for some time, job market trends started declining in 2025 and then nose dived in early 2026. Along with the downward job estimates in early 2026, these reports coincided with major revisions to the
Continue Reading Economic slowdown is here
Georgia Maxwell, lame duck appointee to the Commission back in 2018, had that appointment expire in March 2023. She stayed on past that expiration date, however, and so her replacement, Katy Lounsbury, has yet to begin serving on the Commission.
But, Maxwell’s service on the Commission may be ending soon, as she has recently accepted a job as Waukesha county clerk beginning in June of this year.
When Maxwell’s work at the Commission will officially end remains
Continue Reading Maxwell moving on from LIRC perhaps
A photo I took when paddling and portage through Quetico in September 2023 is a winner for the Xubuntu 26.04 wallpaper contest.
I will be getting some stickers.
I have to include a personal note here. My friend from law school passed away suddenly the week ending November 15th. Like me, he was an “older” student at law school, and we were both one of the few still trying to keep up with all the reading by hanging out at the law library on Friday evenings.
Dave’s claim to fame at law school were his 1L contributions to the weekly “WE” law school student newsletter. He “wrote”
Continue Reading Rave Rothstein RIP
Basically, a corruption of the CUPS policy file stops CUPS from running until the corruption is removed.
My printing stopped working after a late November 2025 update. Basically, only Airprint drivers would appear in a print dialog, and those drivers could not connect to anything when selected (and so there was no printing at all).
I tracked the error down to CUPS not operating
In August of this year, the US Post Office announced a new rule that included without much fanfare a MAJOR change in when letters are postmarked. Under this new rule, most letters will no longer be postmarked on the day the letter is received by a post office but instead postmarked a day later when the letter is processed at a regional mail processing facility.
It is important that mailers understand the distinction between the date when the Postal
Continue Reading Postmark changes at the Post Office and late mail
The legislature has sent three unemployment bills to the governor.
As I wrote previously in a letter to the legislature, AB168 and AB169 deserve an immediate veto. Indeed, Gov. Evers previously vetoed versions of these bills during the last legislative session.
AB146, on the other hand, addresses a real problem in Wisconsin: ongoing and worsening delays in mail delivery. As I already noted to the legislature, however, formally extending the deadline for responding to
Continue Reading Legislative unemployment bills going to the governor
Information about the class representatives and how to obtain unemployment benefits that are due disabled workers because of Wisconsin’s illegal SSDI eligibility ban is now available.
Besides this guidance, make sure to review the Department’s well done information about how to obtain the unemployment benefits that are due you.
Recent press coverage of the case is available.
Continue Reading Class representatives for the Wisconsin SSDI eligibility ban case
