Wisconsin Right Now

The Milwaukee Police Department lost more than 7,200 traffic and non-traffic Milwaukee municipal tickets in the system, never sending them over to Municipal Court to be prosecuted, Wisconsin Right Now has learned exclusively. That means that the people who received the tickets were not held accountable for their actions because the court system never received the tickets, and now some, if not most, of the court dates have passed. We've learned that this is because of a "programming issue" and that some tickets may not be valid even if they are reissued because of the statute of limitations and invalid addresses. Sources tell us that officers are being asked to re-issue the more than 7,200 tickets and send them to people's addresses. Some officers have dozens of tickets to reissue. Why does that matter? The tickets were handed out during an epidemic of reckless driving and violent crime (see the traffic unit's data here ). In fact, in February 2022, Milwauke...

Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson met with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on March 31, 2022, Wisconsin Right Now can exclusively report. Previously, we broke the news that Rebecca Kleefisch met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Thompson has said he's considering running for governor but has not yet declared and insiders have conflicting opinions about how serious he is about the idea. Kleefisch, the former lieutenant governor under Scott Walker, is a declared candidate for governor. We heard that Thompson is down in Florida a lot anyway. Thompson has said he will decide whether to run for governor by the end of April. “I'm going to go skiing — snow skiing, at the end of March. And then I'm going to take the month of April, take a look at all the things that people want me to do, including the governorship," he said in February. Kevin Nicholson and Tim Ramthun are the other declared Republicans in the governor's race. Nicholson is backed by...

“Gas and groceries.” Those are the two things voters in Wisconsin's 3rd congressional district are most concerned about, according to Derrick Van Orden , the former Navy SEAL who is running such a strong campaign for outgoing Ron Kind’s Congressional seat in western Wisconsin that he’s considered the number one Republican challenger in the country to flip a Democratic seat. Wisconsin Right Now reached to Derrick Van Orden to get a sense of what he believes and how he’s mounted such a formidable effort to take back the seat for Republicans. [caption id="attachment_79131" align="alignleft" width="257"] Derrick Van Orden[/caption] “People want a change,” Derrick Van Orden said. “The reason so many people are getting involved now is that they are seeing how bad the economy is, the leadership coming out of Washington. The spending is out of control.” We asked about his strong fundraising totals. "Derrick Van Orden raised more than $830,000 i...

The Biden administration has allowed a more than eleven-fold increase in the number of illegal immigrant convicts let out of Texas prisons and into the general U.S. population, despite federal immigration law requiring ICE to take convicts into custody after serving their time, usually in advance of deportation. The disclosure emerges from state-initiated litigation that is beginning to shed light on what critics call the administration's secretive and lenient handling of immigrants beginning last year – treatment that is imperiling public safety, alarmed state authorities say. Soon after President Joe Biden assumed office a year ago January, agents of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement began dropping their usually automatic requests to take custody from Texas authorities of illegal immigrant convicts set to be released from the state's prisons and jails, so they could be deported. In the past, few such convicts were exempt from the process. From 2017 to 2020, IC...

The Clinton campaign agreed to pay an $8,000 fine while the DNC agreed to pay $105,000, and both promised not to violate the requirements in the future. The Federal Election Commission has fined Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign and the Democratic National Committee for disguising payments through a law firm for the infamous Steele dossier that gave rise to the now-discredited Russia collusion allegations, according to a letter made public Wednesday. The commission found the campaign and DNC made total payments of slightly more than $1 million to the opposition research firm Fusion GPS through its law firm, labeling it as "legal and compliance consulting" when in fact it was for research related to the Steele dossier, according to the letter made public by the Coolide and Reagan Foundation that filed the original complaint. Investigators "found probable cause to believe" the improper labeling of the expenditure violated federal election law and reached a c...

By: Ben Voelkel Grassroots conservatives across the state of Wisconsin are fired up. They’re frustrated and fed up with the way Governor Tony Evers has failed our state. That enthusiasm is evident in the Republican primary race for lieutenant governor. I’m one of nine candidates, most of whom have spent months campaigning across the state, introducing themselves to voters, hearing their concerns and asking for support. Nine candidates is a lot. But it’s a good sign for the Republican Party and the conservative movement. More candidates bring more volunteers and supporters off the sidelines and into the process, building momentum with people who see their vision of the future reflected in the field. That is, if their candidate gets a chance to be on the stage at all. Unfortunately, when Republicans gather in the Madison area (of all places) later this spring for our convention, delegates won’t get to hear from everyone running for lieutenant governor. Several candidates will b...

Election managers in Madison, however, are not looking to use ballot drop boxes. Wisconsin’s two largest cities are taking two different approaches to ballot drop boxes for the spring elections. Milwaukee’s Elections Commission on Tuesday announced it will continue to use drop boxes, despite a ban endorsed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Milwaukee Election Commission Director Claire Woodall-Vogg told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that adding election workers at the Milwaukee drop boxes should be enough to work around the court’s ban. "Our belief is that we are in full compliance under the order,” she told the paper. A Waukesha County judge ruled in January that Wisconsin election law allows voters just two ways to vote, in-person or through the mail. The judge said the ballot drop boxes, while locked, were not under 24-hour surveillance. Woodall-Vogg said Milwaukee also plans to use drive-up voting locations to make it easier for people to vote. Election manage...

By: Kevin Nicholson Last May, I wrote about escalating violence in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At that point, homicides in the city had already doubled over what they were the year before – matching trendlines in spiking violence in cities across America. Ultimately, Milwaukee ended 2021 with 197 homicides , the most in the city’s history. Other communities throughout our state have also seen escalating violent crime rates between 2010 and 2020 – including Green Bay (49%), Eau Claire (37%), Kenosha (31%), and Wausau (71% ). Wisconsin is not just facing a crime wave; we are facing a dissolution of law and order wrought by our inept political class. Through nearly two years of lockdowns, shuttered schools, riots, and the systematic besmirching of law enforcement as a profession, we are in a deep hole and off-kilter. As a candidate for governor, I understand the severity and scope of this problem – and I have practical ideas for addressing the problem. This week, I announced a 5 Point Pl...

“Congress created Daylight Saving decades ago as a wartime effort, now it is well past time to lock the clock and end this experiment.” - U.S. Sen. James Lankford The U.S. Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would make daylight saving time permanent starting in 2023. Lawmakers unanimously adopted the Sunshine Protection Act, which advocates say will boost economic activity. The measure must pass the U.S. House of Representatives before going to President Joe Biden for consideration. The Sunshine Protection Act The bill,  S.623 , would apply to those states who participate in daylight saving time. Most states observe daylight saving time for eight months each year. The Sunshine Protection Act would do away with changing clocks twice a year. Hawaii and most of Arizona do not participate in Daylight Saving Time. U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-FL, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, sponsored the measure. “Resetting the clocks may soon be a thing of the past,” Whitehouse said in a state...

Wisconsin Act 109, put into law in 2015, i mposed "a sunset date, providing that the mandatory minimums do not apply to sentences imposed after July 1, 2020," according to the Legislative Reference Bureau.  As gun crime skyrockets in Milwaukee, Judge Jean Kies sentenced a repeat gun offender to PROBATION in a case that exemplifies many of the problems in the Milwaukee County court system. Lavohn Lee Carter won't serve a day in jail under her sentence. [caption id="attachment_58705" align="alignleft" width="300"] Lavohn Lee Carter[/caption] Police reports obtained by Wisconsin Right Now through an open records request show that Milwaukee police had a strong felon in possession gun case against Lavohn Lee Carter, an already habitually convicted felon who was on extended supervision for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He fought with officers when they arrested him. This would be his 4th conviction for felon in possession of a ...

An example of shrinkflation, what was once a 24-can box of Coca-Cola now holds 20 cans. Americans are seeing the real costs of inflation in their daily lives as they pay record-high gas prices, significantly increased grocery costs, and suffer sticker shock at restaurants, hair salons and other places. Restaurants are charging more, with some posting notices on their doors. Increased prices, they say, are necessary to stay open simply to cover their increased costs for cooking oil and other goods. Some restaurants post signs accompanying empty containers to show that while they’re not increasing prices, their portion sizes are smaller. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that prices have increased by 7.9% in the past 12 months, since the start of President Joe Biden's presidency. But the increased prices don't take into account the fact that consumers also are paying more for less in another way: shrinkflation. The term points to how less of a product is sold at th...

This raises the question, where is the Milwaukee Police Association's endorsement? The West Allis Professional Police Association has announced its endorsement of former Ald. Bob Donovan for Milwaukee mayor, touting his "incredible courage" in supporting law enforcement at a time of "shamefully" high crime numbers and a "soft-on-crime" district attorney. They slammed Donovan's opponent Cavalier Johnson, the acting mayor, for not recognizing how crime in Milwaukee affects surrounding areas, citing the Waukesha parade attack as an example. "We appreciate and recognize your unapologetic and unwavering support of law enforcement as well as your strong commitment to a definitive rule of law," the West Allis Police Association wrote. "This is something that takes incredible courage to publicly proclaim, at the risk of becoming political cannon fodder by those who vilify the men and women who serve in the law enforcement p...

Is AG Josh Kaul using his power to harass an immigrant-owned business for his own political gain? One of southeastern Wisconsin's largest landlords is accusing Attorney General Josh Kaul and a Tony Evers' appointee of engaging in an “unconstitutional” and harassing fishing expedition against an immigrant-owned Milwaukee-area business that says it is fighting against gentrification by offering affordable housing to help Milwaukeeans. In essence, Berrada Properties Management, Inc. argues the government used COVID-19 policies and a couple anonymous complaints to launch a wide-ranging, endless investigation into almost every corner of the business without grounds or proper foundation. They say it's a premise that should terrify every business owner. The massive probe started because of a few anonymous complaints that Berrada was violating Evers' Safer at Home order on COVID-19 by replacing 55-year-old windows in apartments, which the government considered an illeg...

It's a pattern for Kaul, who has shifted his office away from fighting crime and toward a partisan liberal agenda. Attorney General Josh Kaul, in one of his earliest acts as the state's "top cop," pulled his agency out of a critical federal gun tracing program that was used by law enforcement agencies throughout the state to track guns that show up repeatedly in crimes. The reason: His backlogged crime lab couldn't meet the standards of federal auditors because Kaul's agency couldn't process cases quickly. "The National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) is the only national network that allows for the capture and comparison of ballistic evidence to aid in solving and preventing violent crimes involving firearms," the ATF, which runs the program in 258 locations, says. Before Kaul's action, police agencies throughout the state could access NIBIN by sending their evidence to the state Crime Lab. Now they can't. Thi...