U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan said he is quarantining after being exposed to COVID-19.
In a statement, Pocan, D-Black Earth, said he started quarantining last Tuesday after discovering his 91-year-old mother had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Pocan said he transported his mother on a two-hour drive to a nursing home she was moving to on Nov. 9 and the next day, he found out his mother tested positive from a COVID-19 test she had taken on Nov. 4.
Pocan said his mother has been asymptomatic and has shown no signs of the disease. He wore a mask when he transported her but his mother didn’t. Pocan was tested for the virus on Friday using an antibody test from UW Health and received a negative result, and will test again at the end of this week using a traditional COVID-19 test.
Pocan said his quick notification by his mother’s nursing home of her positive COVID-19 test allowed him to swiftly quarantine so his exposure to others was negligible.
He said he fears many other Wisconsinites may not enjoy such speedy notification due to the state’s current number of contact tracers, which he thinks the state and federal governments should work to increase.
“That’s ideally what happens when you have enough contact tracers in the state, everyone would be in that position, immediately get a call and to self-isolate and to quarantine,” Pocan said. “That would significantly help reduce the numbers. I kind of lived through the perfect system, which wasn’t anything to do with the state system, because it was the nursing home that let me know, not a contact tracer.”
To address the ongoing pandemic, Pocan said Congress should have passed an aid package months ago to stem the economic fallout from the pandemic, but is still hopeful it might be done before President Donald Trump leaves office. He also said Congress needs to work on a distribution plan for a vaccine, something he said could be hindered by Trump’s refusal so far to concede the race to President-elect Joe Biden.
“There’s all kinds of things that are going to need to be produced now so we can distribute starting in January or February, and that’s all going to be delayed if they don’t do the proper transition,” Pocan said. “So I think it’s definitely hurting us.”
Looking ahead to the incoming Biden administration, Pocan said executive orders will take on added significance if the Senate is controlled by Republicans next session and GOP leaders don’t work with the Biden administration on passing new legislation. Republicans are projected to hold at least 50 seats with two Georgia seats currently held by Republicans to be decided in a Januarys runoff election.
Looking ahead to 2022, Pocan said Democrats might be able to ward off the “midterm effect,” where the winning presidential candidate practically guarantees his party congressional losses in the first post-election midterm, if the Biden administration and Democrats successfully distribute a COVID-19 vaccine and pass other legislation to revive the economy.
Clash between motorcyclist and protester tops notable recent crime news
UW-Madison investigating after video shows employee on motorcycle drive through group of protesters
UW-Madison is investigating after an employee was seen in a video posted on social media driving his motorcycle through a group of protesters Friday on Capitol Square, the day supporters of President Donald Trump and counter-protesters clashed on the square.
One of the counter-protesters said at least three from the group were hit, with injuries including bruising, pulled tendons and a burn from the exhaust pipe. One had his foot run over.
Police stumped by theft of large, rare pine tree from UW Arboretum
Unlike the more populated parts of Madison, the UW Arboretum is not blanketed with surveillance cameras, and presumably it doesn’t have its own Lorax to speak for the trees.
So UW-Madison officials are seeking the public’s help in finding whoever went into the Arboretum between Nov. 5 and Monday, cut down and carted away a rare, 25-foot-tall Algonquin Pillar Swiss Mountain pine tree, and cut off a 12-foot section of a Compact White Fir tree but left it on the ground.
Defendant in Blue Mounds homicide again incompetent, will again receive treatment
A Mount Horeb man charged with the death last year of a Blue Mounds man was again found incompetent to stand trial, just a month after it was determined mental health treatment had returned him to competency.
Riley L. Berg, 22, who was charged with the Jan. 15 slaying of Nicholas Day, 26, was returned to the Dane County Jail after he was treated at Mendota Mental Health Institute, where he had been sent after being found incompetent to assist in his defense in April.
Pedestrian hit by car on North Side suffers broken leg, internal injuries, Madison police say
The 30-year-old man was struck shortly before 11 p.m. Friday at the intersection of Northport Drive and Dryden Drive, police spokesman Joel DeSpain said in a statement.
His injuries were considered life threatening, police said.
Deputies injured stopping suicide attempt by jail inmate, Dane County Sheriff’s Office says
Two deputies were injured stopping a suicide attempt by a jail inmate Sunday morning, the Dane County Sheriff’s Office reported.
The 30-year-old male inmate had been exhibiting self-harm behavior prior to the incident about 6 a.m. in the City-County Building facility of the Dane County Jail , Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Elise Schaffer said in a statement.
The inmate was treated for his self-inflicted injuries by jail medical staff and jail mental health professionals were notified, Schaffer said.
Madison man arrested in Monday night hotel shooting
A 24-year-old man has been arrested in the shooting late Monday night of a 30-year-old man at a town of Middleton hotel, police reported.
Deonta A. Gaines, of Madison, was booked into the Dane County Jail on Tuesday night on tentative charges of first-degree attempted homicide and first-degree reckless injury after police executed a search warrant at 26 Park Heights Court on Madison's Southwest side, Dane County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Elise Schaffer said in a statement.
Former Midwest Horse Fair director convicted of thefts, sentenced to probation
Rhonda Reese, the former executive director of the Midwest Horse Fair, was sentenced Tuesday to three years of probation after she pleaded no contest to five misdemeanors and a felony stemming from her embezzlement of nearly $239,000 from the organization over more than five years.
The plea agreement, entered at a hearing held by video in Columbia County Circuit Court, was a vast reduction from the 41 counts of fraudulent writings by a corporation officer and 20 counts of theft in a business setting that she originally faced after being charged in January 2018.
'Chaotic' fight causes woman to jump out of car as windshield breaks, then car runs over her
A "chaotic" fight between two men Wednesday afternoon led to a woman jumping out of a car fearing for her safety, but the car ended up rolling over her legs, Madison police said.
The two men, 26-year-old Samuel J. Scott and 49-year-old Fabian N. Zepeda, both with no permanent addresses, began fighting on the 600 block of Mayfair Avenue at around 4:10 p.m. Wednesday, Madison police spokesperson Joel DeSpain said.
Complaint: Argument over furniture arrangement led to attempted stabbing homicide
An argument that started over the arrangement of living room furniture at a town of Albion home led to a stabbing for which a rural Edgerton man was charged Thursday with attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
The incident Tuesday night began, the victim told police, when he and Mathew D. Webb, 19, argued about the placement of a sofa in the living room of a home on Lake Court in rural Edgerton, and the fact that Webb had been evicted from the home and really had no say over the sofa’s location, according to a criminal complaint filed in Dane County Circuit Court.
Dane County DA's Office says no criminal liability for Monona officer in Madison man's death
A Monona police officer will not face criminal charges after a Madison man he was pursuing died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after crashing his vehicle in September, the Dane County District Attorney’s Office said Friday.
District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said in a statement there is “no potential criminal court liability” for the officer involved in the death of 24-year-old Elliot Johnson after the Sept. 17 chase that started in Monona and ended in Madison around 11 p.m. Based on investigation findings, it is “clear” the officer did not use deadly force and Johnson’s death “could only have been caused” by Johnson himself, Ozanne said.
Pocan
Riley Vetterkind | Wisconsin State Journal
Capitol reporter
Riley Vetterkind covers politics and state government for the Wisconsin State Journal. He can be reached at (608) 252-6135 or rvetterkind@madison.com.
