MON AM News: Union argues it ‘did nothing wrong’ after charges filed with NLRB; Capitol Chats: CUB’s Tom Content says data centers need to ‘show me the money’

July 27, 2026

— A union representing painters and other tradespeople argues it “did nothing wrong” after an employee of Olympic Companies in Waukesha filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board alleging illegal coercion.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation announced painter Caryn Johnson filed charges with the NLRB against the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 7 after she was “coerced” into joining the union.

The foundation says Johnson was told she had to join the union and pay dues to be employed by the Waukesha business, which has worked on various large-scale commercial and public projects including the Baird Center and BMO Harris Financial Center in Milwaukee, according to its website.

IUPAT officials allegedly “demanded” Johnson sign documents authorizing union dues being deducted from her paycheck, the foundation says, calling it a violation of federal law.

When asked for comment on the charges, IUPAT DC7 Business Manager and Secretary Jeff Mehrhoff said the union followed both federal and state law governing union membership and dues collection “in all respects in our correspondence and conversations” with Johnson.

Mehrhoff says the union respects her right to file the charges but believes “we will be fully vindicated” by the board’s investigation, arguing the allegations have no merit.

“We see this charge as nothing more than an attempt by the Virginia based National Right to Work Committee to stay relevant in a time when Union approval ratings among Americans are nearly 68%,” he wrote in an email, noting the union chapter’s membership has remained steady “even in the face of the attacks by Wisconsin Republicans over the last decade.”

Johnson has since resigned her union membership, according to the foundation, but the union has allegedly continued to take union dues out of her wages based on the form the foundation says she was coerced into signing.

“Union officials are claiming she cannot cut off dues for approximately eight months, and even then must provide additional written revocation during the union’s arbitrary revocation window,” the foundation said in a release.

The foundation provided free legal aid for filing the charges with the NLRB.

As the board’s investigation proceeds, Mehrhoff says the union will “cooperate fully in the process to clear our name of these baseless claims.”

See the release.

— In the latest WisPolitics Capitol Chats podcast, CUB’s Tom Content says data centers need to “show me the money.’’

Content, the executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin, makes the case for the billion-dollar collateral that state regulators have required data centers to post to cover the lifetime value of new power plants being built to serve the tech facilities.

“This is an extra protection if things go wrong,” Content said. “In other words, if the projects don’t materialize to the fullest extent, and so not as many power plants are needed, that’s the kind of risk that this is designed to protect customers from.”

Content and CUB are wary of what are called “stranded assets,” decommissioned or underused power plants that Wisconsin ratepayers are still paying for under the state’s regulated monopoly framework.

Oracle, set to occupy the data center campus under construction in Port Washington, has sued the Public Service Commission to overturn the rule that would require it to post, by its estimates, some $7 billion in collateral for new power plants.

The company argues the PSC has set unreasonable standards for it and other data center developers and created undue financial pressure on companies with investment-grade credit ratings.

CUB is skeptical of this argument. In filings, it compared Oracle to companies like BlackBerry and Enron, which posted strong credit ratings until days before those companies collapsed.

“They were a darling of Wall Street in much the same way that Big Tech is right now, and what Steve Kihm, our chief economist, pointed out in the testimony is that they had an investment-grade credit rating in late October, and by mid-December they were bankrupt,” Content said of Enron.

— Madison-based Elephas Biosciences Corporation is touting new research showing its “elive” drug testing platform works with targeted therapies in addition to immunotherapies.

The company on Friday announced the new data, which was showcased at last week’s American Association for Cancer Research Drug Discovery and Development conference in Boston.

The poster detailed research involving both live tumor fragments from a human specimen and mouse cell models, showing a cancer drug called daraxonrasib had similar toxic effects in both models. This represents “a strong signal that the platform’s performance translates from preclinical models to patient tissues” according to the company.

Elephas CEO and founder Maneesh Arora notes the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s recent clinical notice signaling support for functional precision medicine, saying it reflects “real momentum toward more personalized” cancer care.

“Elephas is proud to be one of the only companies with data supporting functional precision medicine across both treatment classes, and we’re energized to help shape what comes next for oncology diagnostics,” Arora said in a statement.

See the release.

See more recent coverage on the company.

— U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin slammed “erratic” cuts to health research under the Trump administration after $94 million in grants were cancelled, including for an AI-related project in Wisconsin.

The Madison Dem accused the president and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of cutting important research “to play petty politics” with real consequences for the health of Americans. Friday’s release referenced funding cuts for 150 grants funding health research and programs from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Her office notes one Universities of Wisconsin project that faced abrupt funding cuts aimed to use AI to improve the experience for children and families spending time in the hospital.

“We are talking about helping kids in hospitals, improving telehealth in rural parts of America, and stopping lung cancer from plaguing more Americans – but this administration is saying that is not a priority for them,” Baldwin said.

See more on federal research funding cuts in a recent story.

See the release.

— A researcher at Marquette University has been selected for a Fulbright Scholar Award, supporting a project in Portugal exploring the effects of light on the body.

Deanna Arble is an associate professor of biological sciences whose work has focused on various bodily processes such as sleep and breathing, as well as obesity.

She’ll be working with cellular metabolism expert Paulo Oliveira at the University of Coimbra to study how exposure to light can influence how cells function, as well as the process of body weight regulation.

Arble says pairing her work in circadian rhythms with Oliveira’s expertise could “catalyze new strategies for obesity prevention using light” as a non-invasive approach.

The research will center on residents of southern Europe with naturally high levels of light exposure, using urine-derived stem cells to assess the impact of this environment.

See the release.

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