Republicans, Democrats Agree on New Protections for Wisconsin Election Workers

The plan that would add protections for election workers in Wisconsin, including a felony charge for anyone who assaults a poll worker, is bringing Republicans and Democrats together.

The Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections held a hearing on a series of election bills, including AB 577 that would expand protection for frontline election workers throughout the state.

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State Republicans Push Free Speech Punishments for University of Wisconsin Schools

Republicans at the Wisconsin Capitol say students need free speech protections on University of Wisconsin campuses.

The Assembly Committee on Colleges and University held a public hearing on a pair of plans Republicans say will not only make sure the Universities of Wisconsin are respecting the First Amendment but will also open the campus to more students.

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World Relief Wisconsin Leader Says Biden Administration Has Decided Refugees Are Coming to Eau Claire

An official with a refugee resettlement organization told The Wisconsin Daily Star that 75 refugees are coming to Wisconsin’s Chippewa Valley beginning in early January, and there’s nothing opponents of the resettlement plan can do about it.

Tami McLaughlin, office director of World Relief Wisconsin-Fox Valley, said the Biden administration has signed off on the plan, and the federal government is the final authority.

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Opposition Rises over Plan to Relocate Potentially Hundreds of Somalis to Wisconsin City Without Approval from Elected Officials

Eau Claire residents are speaking out against a plan to relocate potentially hundreds of Somali refugees to the northwest Wisconsin community without the consent of elected city officials.

One Eau Claire County resident who spoke to The Wisconsin Daily Star said the relocation effort amounts to “taxation without representation.”

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Economist: Aging Workforce, Learning Loss Among Biggest Wisconsin Economic Worries

Wisconsin’s top economist says the state’s economy is in a great place to grow, as long as the state doesn’t lose what makes it great.

John Koskinen, the chief economist for the state of Wisconsin, told the Wisconsin Economic Summit on Monday that Wisconsin has a strong workforce that wants to work, a large and solid manufacturing base and the potential to grow.

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Plan to Change Wisconsin’s Indefinitely Confined Voter Rules Faces Opposition

Republicans and Democrats each question the plan to change the state’s indefinitely confined voter rules at the Wisconsin Capitol.

Rep. Cindi Duchow, R-Town of Delafield, presented her plan to tighten the state’s indefinitely confined voter law by defining what indefinitely confined means, requiring people apply for a separate indefinitely confined absentee ballot, clarifies a public health emergency does not allow people to claim indefinitely confined status and would ban people from voting indefinitely confined if they vote in person.

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Wisconsin State Lawmakers Block Raises for University Workers in Fight Against Diversity Spending

Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled legislature withheld pay raises for employees of the University of Wisconsin System (UW) over  its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) funding, according to the Associated Press.

Wisconsin Republicans voted in June to cut the UW System’s budget by $32 million, which is the estimated amount it spends on DEI over a 2-year period. Wisconsin Republicans denied the raises Tuesday in a bid to pressure the system to cut the spending, according to the AP.

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President of Wisconsin Right to Life Files Second Complaint Against Planned Parenthood Abortionists

Wisconsin Right to Life state Director Dan Miller has filed a second round of complaints with the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board demanding that the agency investigate Wisconsin doctors illegally performing abortions in defiance of state law.

Miller filed his first complaints late last month after Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced it would resume abortions at its Madison and Milwaukee clinics.

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Wisconsin Passes Protections for Women’s Sports, Bans Sex Change Surgeries for Minors

Wisconsin lawmakers passed a series of bills on Thursday that ban doctors from performing sex change surgeries on minors and bar male athletes from participating in women’s sports, according to the Cap Times.

The package contains three bills, two of which prohibit biological men from competing in girls’ K-12 sports and women’s collegiate sports, while the third would cause a physician to lose their medical license if they perform a sex change surgery or administer puberty blockers to a minor, according to the texts. The Wisconsin Assembly passed the package, sending the bills to the Senate for final approval before heading to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ desk, who has said he would veto the legislation, the Cap Times reported.

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Trump Leads Biden Wisconsin: Poll

Former President Donald Trump is leading President Joe Biden in the crucial battleground state of Wisconsin following a series of similar findings in other key swing states, according to a Thursday poll.

Trump is beating Biden 42% to 40% among Wisconsin voters with 11% choosing someone else and 8% remaining undecided, according to an Emerson College survey. The poll comes after several other recent battleground state surveys found Trump ahead of Biden, including in Pennsylvania and Michigan.

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Wisconsin Democrats, Groups Applaud Protasiewicz Decision to Stay on Election Map Cases

The showdown over Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz and the state’s redistricting process continues after Protasiewicz announced she would not recuse herself from two challenges to Wisconsin’s electoral maps.

“I will set aside my opinions and decide cases based on the law. There will surely be many cases in which I reach results that I personally dislike. That is what it means to be a judge,” she said in a statement.

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After Evers Vetoes, Wisconsin Lawmakers Propose Constitutional Amendment to Ban Private ‘Zuckerbucks’ Election Funding in 2024

Wisconsin voters may be able to ban “Zuckerbucks” — the injection of private money into public election administration — from their elections next year, before the 2024 general election.

The Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) poured nearly $350 million into local elections offices managing the 2020 election, with most of the funds donated to the nonprofit by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The nonprofit has claimed its 2020 election grants — colloquially known as “Zuckerbucks” — were allocated without partisan preference to make voting safer amid the pandemic.

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In Disbarment Trial of Former Trump Attorney John Eastman, Kari Lake’s Attorney Goes over Significant Laws Broken in Various States During 2020 Election

The disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar, John Eastman, wrapped up its seventh week on Friday, with more testimony from Kari Lake’s attorney Kurt Olsen, and Eastman resuming the stand briefly at the end. Olsen discussed several laws he said he believes were violated by state election officials in Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

Olsen began testifying about a Motion for Leave to File a Bill of Complaint that he and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking to stop Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin from certifying their 2020 election results due to multiple violations of state law and constitutional problems. One of the reasons he said he brought the complaint was that signature verification was halted in the 2020 election in Detroit. 

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Lawmakers Sell Brewers Ballpark Funding as Only Costing Milwaukee

The plan to use more than $600 million in taxpayer money to pay for work in American Family field and keep the Brewers in Milwaukee until 2050 is not done, but the pitch for the funding package is set.

State Rep. Rob Brooks, R-Saukville, told lawmakers Thursday at the first public hearing in the stadium funding package that only Milwaukee and Milwaukee County will be paying for the stadium.

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Commentary: Protesters at Madison Black Conservatives Event Expose Themselves and Progressive Desperation

A discussion on black conservativism that took place on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus and was broadcast live on Zoom on Saturday, Sept. 30 was interrupted by what appeared to be a coordinated protest when someone hacked into the online portion, insulted speakers with vulgar language and was joined by a handful of others who exposed themselves onscreen nude or masturbating.

They did not show their faces.

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‘Constitutional Crisis’: Wisconsin Senate President Chris Kapenga Calls on the Assembly to Impeach Rogue Elections Administrator

Senate President Chris Kapenga is urging the Assembly to take up the impeachment of rogue Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe, who was ousted by the Republican-controlled Senate nearly a month ago but refuses to step down.

In a letter to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), Kapenga wrote that it is unprecedented for a state appointee to refuse to obey the Senate through its advice and consent powers, as Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) Administrator Meagan Wolfe has done.

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Judge Rules Wisconsin School District’s Gender Affirming Policy Without Parental Consent Violates Constitutional Rights

In a major victory for parental rights, a Waukesha County judge has ruled the Kettle Moraine School District’s policy of affirming students’ preferred gender identities without notifying guardians is a violation of basic constitutional rights.

Judge Michael P. Maxwell, in what is expected to be a nationally watched ruling, found the southeast Wisconsin school district violated parents’ constitutional rights to raise their own children by allowing minor students to change gender identity at school without parental consent, and even over their objection.

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Wisconsin League of Women Voters Weighs In on University of Wisconsin System Diversity Issue

The League of Women Voters in Wisconsin is taking a stand on the fight between Republican lawmakers and the University of Wisconsin over diversity, equity and inclusion money.

The League encouraged Republicans to release $32 million that’s being held in an effort to get the university to move away from diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

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Wisconsin Congressman Mike Gallagher’s DADDY Act Aims to End ‘Hunter Biden-Like Influence Peddling’

As concerns mount about alleged Biden family pay-to-play schemes, U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher is introducing the  Deterring Attempts at Dirty Deals by Youngsters — or DADDY — Act.

The bill bans immediate family members of the president, vice president, and cabinet officials from working for certain foreign companies while their family members are in office.

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Wisconsin Pro-Life Groups Call on Liberal DAs to Enforce Abortion Law and Stop Planned Parenthood

Pro-life groups are calling on liberal district attorneys in the Badger State’s two largest cities to enforce abortion statute as Planned Parenthood resumes performing abortions in Wisconsin.

Members of Wisconsin Right to Life, Wisconsin Family Action, and Pro-Life Wisconsin held a press conference last week at the state Capitol demanding Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne and his liberal counterpart, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm follow statute 940.04, which prohibits most abortions in the state.

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Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson Reveals 2017 National Institute of Health Records Raising Concerns About Wuhan Lab

In 2017, a report from an official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) raised red flags about the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), according to internal records revealed this week by U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI).

“It is clear to me by talking to the technician that certainly there is a need for training support,” Dr. Ping Chen, an NIAID official, wrote in a report about the controversial laboratory suspected of unleashing COVID-19 on the world.

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Far-Left Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice’s Campaign Accused of ‘Smurfing’, or Money Laundering Donations

The Wisconsin Ethics Commission launched an investigation into newly installed Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz’s campaign on allegations of money laundering and fraud.

The investigation, first reported by conservative talk show host Dan O’Donnell of NewsTalk 1130 WISN in Milwaukee, claims the far left justice’s campaign engaged in “smurfing,” using unwitting small-dollar donors to launder substantial cash donations.

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Commentary: Bill Will Keep Wisconsin’s Power Grid in State’s Hands and Out of the Control of Federal Regulators or Out-of-State Developers

Today, I introduced legislation to retain Wisconsin control over the safety and reliability of our state’s power grid instead of ceding that control to federal regulators and opportunistic out-of-state developers. This bill, known as Right of First Refusal, prevents fragmentation of the state’s transmission grid and retains the regulation and operation of the grid in Wisconsin.

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Wisconsin Republican Lawmakers Propose Resolution Seeking to Impeach Fired State Elections Administrator

Five Republican state representatives are seeking co-sponsorship on resolution to impeach embattled Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe, who was recently fired by the GOP-controlled state Senate but refuses to leave the post.

“Administrator Meagan Wolfe’s impeachment is warranted due to her maladministration during her tenure as the Administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, as evidenced by the 15 issues outlined in the attached resolution,” states the co-sponsorship memo sent to Assembly members on Thursday.

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Wisconsin Lawmakers Introduce Second Go at Constitutional Amendment to Ban Zuckerbucks in Election Administration

Looking to get around Democrat Governor Tony Evers’ veto pen, Republican lawmakers have introduced the second consideration of a constitutional amendment to bar the use of private funds in election administration.

Passage would send the proposed amendment to referendum, letting voters — not the liberal governor — decide if controversial “Zuckerbucks”-like funding of elections is legal in Wisconsin.

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House Select Committee on China Demands FBI and DOD Briefing on Communist China Spies Infiltrating U.S. Military Bases

U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-o8), chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, wants a briefing from top Biden administration officials on increasing incidents of CCP spies accessing sensitive military, economic, and technological secrets on U.S. soil.

Gallagher joined fellow committee member U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA-02) on Wednesday in calling on Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and FBI Director Christopher Wray to explain to the committee why there’s been a surge in CCP espionage, and what they plan to do about it.

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Abortions Resume in Wisconsin

It remains to be seen just how quickly the return of abortion in Wisconsin will end up before a judge after Planned Parenthood on Monday started offering abortion services at its clinics in Milwaukee and Madison.

“Thank you so much for your enthusiasm that PPWI has restarted abortion services! We are as thrilled as you are! We haven’t been able to respond to all our DMs, comment on every thread about abortion, or talk to you individually about how you can help (but we’re trying),” Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin said on social media Monday.

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University of Wisconsin Enrollment Up for First Time Since 2014

There are a couple of hundred more students at University of Wisconsin schools this fall after the university released its fall 2023 enrollment numbers.

“The estimates show an enrollment of 161,322 for fall 2023, an increase of 540 over fall 2022. For new freshman students, the estimates indicate an increase of 592 students in fall 2023 at UW System universities not including UW-Madison, which deliberately sought to reduce the number of incoming first-year students after last year’s incoming class was slightly larger than anticipated,” the university said in a statement.

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Wisconsin State Senate Votes to Sack Controversial Elections Regulator, Overrides Evers’ Tax Cut Veto

Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled state Senate on Thursday rejected Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe’s nomination to serve another four-year term, a move that normally would end the controversial regulator’s tenure in office.

But liberals are already challenging the Senate’s overwhelming vote to fire Wolfe, and the bureaucrat has defiantly said she’s not going anywhere.

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Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher’s Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Issues Subpoena in Chinese Lab Probe

The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party led by U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) issued its first subpoena in the committee’s ongoing investigation into the clandestine Chinese laboratory that local authorities uncovered in Reedley, California.

“It is deeply disturbing that a Chinese company set up a clandestine facility in small-town America that contained, per the CDC, ‘at least 20 potentially infectious agents’ like HIV and the deadliest known form of malaria. We are grateful to the city of Reedley for their cooperation,” Gallagher said in a statement.

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