Wisconsin Right Now

  Pro-Palestinian protesters broke windows, barricaded doors and occupied a building at New York's Columbia University overnight after school officials said they would not cede to demands from demonstrators to divest assets from the Israeli government. The breach of Columbia's Hamilton Hall began around 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday by students and others who have refused to leave the so-called Gaza Solidarity Encampment on the campus grounds, according to published news reports. Hundreds of students created a human chain in front of the building to block campus police. Columbia faculty members were also involved in blocking security. Video footage showed the demonstrators, many of whom covered their faces with masks, smashing windows and unfurling a Palestinian flag from a window as they chanted "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" and "Palestine will live forever." The protesters hung a hand-written sign reading "Hind's Hall" a...

  Four lawmen on the U.S. Marshals Task Force died Monday while serving an arrest warrant in North Carolina. A marshal and two officers from the Department of Adult Correction were confirmed killed early Monday evening in Charlotte. A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officer, one of five others injured in the standoff and shooting, died later in the evening at a hospital. The graphic scene unfolded as officers attempted to serve the warrant for a felony firearm arrest. A helicopter pilot recording for television decided against filing certain elements of the video footage for broadcast. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings said Joshua Eyer, the officer who died later at the hospital, “certainly gave his life and dedicated his life to protecting our citizens.” Eyer earlier in April was named officer of the month. Sam Poloche and Alden Elliott, each with more than a decade of service, were identified as the members of the state Department of Adult Cor...

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, under growing fire from the left, slipped out of a room at UW-Green Bay through a back door about 30 minutes early during an event organized to help students vote for her. That's according to Dane Snudden, writing for Fight Back! News, who reported that "student pro-Palestine protesters cut Sen. Tammy Baldwin event short, make her leave." According to Snudden, "Baldwin exited the room through the back door cutting her one hour event short by 30 minutes." The story comes as businessman Eric Hovde has tied Baldwin among likely voters in the most recent Wisconsin poll. The Fight Back! News site broke the story of the Baldwin exodus on April 25, although it occurred on March 22. According to Fight Back! News, the event, with Baldwin as a guest speaker, was interrupted by the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The event was held by the College Democrats. The protest came even tho...

The PSC is now considering the issue of net metering, which is when electric utilities pay homeowners and property owners for the solar energy that the homeowner delivers to the utility. All utility companies, except MGE, pay a tiny fraction of the value of that solar electricity to the solar provider (property owner). Up until recently, MGE paid at a ratio of 1:1, i.e. paid $1.00 for $1.00, which is to say, MGE paid the same rate for the solar electricity delivered to MGE as MGE charged for electricity. Good for them! But recently even MGE announced that they would reduce the reimbursement rate for new solar electricity providers as well. Investment in solar is not financially feasible for homeowners and property owners (even with tax credits and grants) without the 1 for 1 reimbursement rate. This is how solar really works: Solar panels produce a surplus of electricity during the peak sunny months in Wisconsin, July and August, and also produce the surplus primarily during ...

Trump vs. Biden: The widening lead comes as Democrats are trying to jail the Republican frontrunner. President Donald Trump is leading President Joe Biden in a new CNN poll by a whopping 6 percent, as Trump inches ahead with women and registers strong support among other Democratic constituency groups as voter concern about the U.S. economy grows. Trump leads 49% to 43% for Biden among registered voters in the poll, which was released April 28. You can read the poll in full here. The poll shows Biden is losing independents 47-36%. The cross tabs show 39% of “people of color” voting for Trump as well as 46% of women compared to 45% of women voting for Biden. Men are more lopsided with 53-41% going for Trump. That’s compared to 47% for Trump and 46% for Biden in August 2023. Nostalgia for Trump's years in office and the stark reality of inflation and Biden's economy are helping push Trump into a large lead that is well outside the margin for error, according to th...

Wisconsin’s pro-life groups are unified in telling the Wisconsin Supreme Court it is not the court’s job to create a right to abortion. Wisconsin Right to Life, Wisconsin Family Action and Pro-Life Wisconsin all filed a joint brief with the court that argues there is no right to abortion and add that if there is to be one, that decision is up to lawmakers. “The Supreme Court is not the proper venue to create health and safety law nor the proper mechanism to add a constitutional amendment. The legislature is the proper body to weigh the policy considerations and create law, not the court,” Wisconsin Family Action president Christine File said. “Finding a right to abortion in our state constitution, where there clearly is none, would be the most extreme form of legislating from the bench,” Dan Miller, state director at Pro-Life Wisconsin, said. “The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled in Dobbs that there is no federal constitutional right to abortion. Nothing in Wisconsin’s cons...

President Donald J. Trump will travel to Waukesha, Wisconsin, on May 1 "to contrast the peace, prosperity, and security of his first term with Joe Biden’s failed presidency," according to a press release from Trump's campaign. The rally will be at 2 p.m. at the Waukesha County Expo Center, 1000 Northview Road, Waukesha. General admission tickets are available. You can get tickets here. This will be Trump's second appearance to Wisconsin this month. He was in Green Bay on April 2. Trump has been prevented from hitting the campaign trail under threat of arrest by a Biden-donating judge in Manhattan. It's expected that the Waukesha rally will occur on a day that Trump does not have court in New York; it will be his first rally during the trial, in which a Soros-funded, Democratic prosecutor is using a novel legal theory to try to jail the likely Republican nominee during a heated presidential election campaign. Trump has repeatedly calling the prosecution elec...

"I will work side-by-side with law enforcement to hold criminals accountable" - Barry Braatz. Barry Braatz, the Fond du Lac County Deputy District Attorney, career prosecutor, and a former Washington County legal intern, is running for Washington County District Attorney, and he's got some big endorsements out of the gate. County Executive Josh Schoemann offered his full endorsement of Braatz, along with multiple Republican legislators and Washington County supervisors and other officials: “Not only does Barry have the proven track record as a front-line prosecutor of being tough on crime and holding criminals accountable, he also shares the same conservative principles and beliefs that we value here in Washington County,” said Schoemann.  “Washington County is only as safe as the leaders we elect.  Barry’s fresh perspective will be an outstanding new energy in the District Attorney’s Office to protect our communities and make our neighborhoods safer.” Braatz i...

For taxpayers, it has been a symbolically momentous week. Tax Day arrived as usual on April 15th, and Tax Freedom Day arrived three days later, symbolizing the day when Americans finally earn enough to pay off their total tax bill for the year. This year, taxpayers spend 109 days working solely to support the government's spending, before finally earning for themselves. In Wisconsin, Tax Freedom Day could have arrived a little sooner, but did not courtesy of Governor Tony Evers’ repeated vetoes of the Republican-led tax reform packages that have arrived at his desk this session. Three times now just this legislative session, Governor Evers has vetoed tax relief packages sent to his desk, denying Wisconsinites their own hard-earned dollars despite a multi-billion dollar surplus, at a time when taxpayers across the state are feeling the strain of economic uncertainties. Let's review exactly what the governor denied Wisconsin taxpayers (in other words, you). Most recently, h...

The profanity apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in the Evers Administration. In fact, maybe it’s a prerequisite. Last week, Governor Veto’s highly-compensated Comms Director, Britt Cudaback posted on X, revealing her low IQ and even lower standard of communications. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, as she is a product of the apparently unprincipled UW system. And evidently, her controversial $112,000+ annual salary emboldens her continued irreverence. A cursory scroll through other social media posts and reposts confirms her unprofessionalism and lack of qualifications for her role. But she is a remarkable leftist parrot! Source: X Her taxpayer-funded 80% salary increase was first reported by the  Milwaukee Journal  last year and then covered more thoroughly by Wisconsin Right Now  here  and  here . Cudaback, who oddly resembles an emasculated, unaesthetic and unappealing version of Clark Kent, received a huge taxpayer-funded increase in 2020. It is sugges...

  Federal prosecutors on Monday began laying out what they say is election fraud in 2016 by former President Donald Trump. Trump, 77, is the first former U.S. president to be charged with a felony. Prosecutors and defense attorneys presented their opening statements to the jury of five women and seven men. Prosecutors said Trump corrupted the 2016 election, The Hill reported on Monday. "This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up," Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said. "The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 election, then covered it up." Trump will spend four days a week in court in New York for the next six to eight weeks on state charges that he disguised hush money payments to two women as legal expenses during the 2016 election. Judge Juan Merchan has not scheduled trial days on Wednesdays. On Monday, his defense attorneys said he had done nothing wrong. "President Trump is innoce...

Another local prosecutor declined to bring charges against a Republican state lawmaker in a campaign funding raising case. Waukesha County’s District Attorney Sue Opper said she would not file charges against state Rep. Janel Brandtjen. But Opper said she is not clearing Brandtjen in the case. “I am simply concluding that I cannot prove charges against her. While the intercepted communications, such as audio recordings may be compelling in the court of public opinion, they are not in a court of law,” Opper said. Wisconsin’s Ethics Commission suggested charges against Brandtjen and a handful of others in a case that investigators say saw them move money around to allegedly skirt Wisconsin’s limits on campaign donations. Opper said the Ethics Commission investigation was based on “reasonable suspicion and then probable cause.” But she added that those “burdens are substantially lower than proof beyond a reasonable doubt which is necessary for a criminal conviction.” Opper sai...

Finally, a few correct court decisions. It’s about time. First, out of the U.S. Supreme Court, a big thank you to George Sheetz who sued a county in California over excessive "traffic impact" fees that the county demanded. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in an unusual 9-0 vote (wow!) that local and state governments can’t charge excessive fees that are out of alignment (have no nexus) with the property. A prime example of the impact of this case is Middleton, which keeps trying to force our development to pay for a two-mile-long regional water main that would serve numerous properties or a regional sewer lift station that would do the same. Another example is when the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District tried to force us to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for an adjacent golf course that didn’t need or want sewer service and that we didn’t own - or a local government that tried to insist we pay 100% of the cost of a traffic signal at an intersection where we cau...

Trump gets it. We all need to get it. We currently find ourselves in the Republican Party between a rock and a hard place. We want to be principled and stand our ground on many things, but we don’t have the luxury of getting everything we want in our current situation. That doesn’t mean we don’t fight hard for certain things, but we have to be realistic in our expectations of what can be done at the moment. Example—Biden's Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was impeached in the House, but in the words of Senator Ron Johnson, “Senate Democrats abdicated their constitutional duty and did great harm to the U.S. Senate by cavalierly dismissing the serious charges against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.” The truth is we don’t have the presidency or the Senate right now. We have a slim (and shrinking) majority in the House—thank God we still (barely) have it.  We don’t have the governorship, AG, or the Supreme Court in Wisconsin. ...

Judge Brad Schmiel says he’s not going to repeat the mistakes of the last Wisconsin supreme court race. Schimel told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber he isn’t going to politicize the race like liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz, and he’s not going to ignore his campaign like former conservative Justice Dan Kelly. Schimel said he can run for the court next year without injecting Republican politics into the court. “I've had plenty of people on our side that suggested, ‘Brad, you just got to do the same.’ No. I cannot do that,” Schimel said. “We still have to respect the rule of law. We still have to respect the Constitution. We still have to respect judicial ethics. I'm not going to go out and promise people what I'm going to do. But I will promise people that they can look at my record, and they know that I've done the right thing. That I have put the law above politics. I put the law above my own personal opinions.” Republicans roundly criticized Protasiewicz ...

  Several U.S. House Republicans introduced multiple pieces of legislation to defund National Public Radio following new allegations of “leftist propaganda” from the taxpayer-funded news source. House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good, R-Va., Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., introduced similar legislation to prohibit federal funding for NPR, including barring local public radio stations from utilizing money from federal grants to “purchase content or pay dues to NPR.” Over the years, Republicans have made multiple attempts to defund NPR, citing similar complaints. The latest outrage follows an  editorial  from former NPR Editor Uri Berliner, who criticized the news source claiming it had "lost America's trust." Berliner criticized NPR’s coverage of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, the COVID-19 lab leak theory and of Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop as examples of the outlet’s left-leaning bias. He described “...

It all adds up to one thing: Tammy Baldwin and Joe Biden are in trouble in the key swing state of Wisconsin. Businessman Eric Hovde has TIED the Wisconsin Senate race against U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin with likely voters, a dramatic narrowing of the race since he entered it just over two months ago. The poll also showed former President Donald Trump with a narrow lead over President Joe Biden in Wisconsin. Trump led Biden 51% to 49% among both likely and registered voters. It should be noted that in the 2016 election, the Marquette poll, although considered the most credible Wisconsin poll, dramatically underestimated Trump's support. The good news for Hovde, the Wisconsin-raised businessman who lives in the Madison area, comes as he has hammered Baldwin on her weak record on the border and her rubber stamping of the Joe Biden agenda. Baldwin has also been hit on the left by pro-Gaza activists who pushed her to flip slop and support a ceasefire. https://twitter.com/EricHovd...

Former Republican Attorney General Candidate and Fond du Lac County DA Eric Toney has endorsed Jim Piwowarczyk for Assembly , saying that Piwowarczyk "has helped lead the fight for our conservative values" and will "stand with our law enforcement." Toney is the president of the Wisconsin District Attorneys Association. Piwowarczyk, 53, the co-editor of Wisconsin Right Now conservative news site, is running for the Assembly District 98 , which spans parts of Washington and Waukesha Counties. A small business owner and former law enforcement officer, Piwowarczyk, of the Town of Erin, is a Republican. Toney said, “I’m proudly endorsing Jim Piwowarczyk for state assembly district 98. Jim is a retired police officer, a loving father, and the co-creator of the Wisconsin Right Now conservative news site. I know Jim is a fiscal conservative who will stand with our law enforcement and parents while prioritizing the protection and education of our kids. Jim has helpe...

The Young Americans for Freedom chapter at Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin, will host conservative icon and Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson to speak this Friday, April 19th, at 10:00 A.M. The event is one of many impressive speaker events held by the young conservative group, which started on campus in the fall of last year.  This is your chance to ask your senator a question! In addition to speaking, Senator Johnson will answer audience questions. Folks and students from left, right, and center will be in attendance to meet the senator.  “This is such an important event because, especially right now, the people of Wisconsin are feeling disconnected from the happenings in D.C. By providing the opportunity for young people to speak to their senator, we are helping them elevate their voices in our American democracy,” said Nick Taylor, chairman of the Young Americans for Freedom chapter. He continued, “Also, Wisconsin is arguably the most vital swing state in this elec...

Well, like I said, the war would escalate so long as Biden shows a lack of leadership and he and Schumer work to undermine Israel and actively empower and capitalize Iran with $10 billion. Is anyone surprised that Iran attacked Israel with over 300 missiles and drones shortly after Biden released the funding? The funding release sent the wrong message - that Biden and his administration are not going to stand behind Israel. Iran got the message loud and clear and did exactly what I said they would - escalate. So now Biden has a real, direct war on his hands - instead of a proxy war where Hamas does Iran’s dirty work for them. Iran has now launched a massive and direct attack, which also opens the door for Israel to defend itself directly, i.e. launch missiles into Iran, which they should do. Of course, Biden, being a lifelong idiot on foreign policy, can be counted on to get this one wrong as well. Imagine if Chamberlain of Great Britain gave Hitler $10 billion on the eve of WWII...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g0YE9DQNL8 "What is Donald Trump really like?" we asked Wisconsin Congressman Derrick Van Orden, a Republican and former Navy SEAL. "Do you want to know?" he asked. "Yeah." We were just curious. The answer was something all Americans should see, and so we share it here. Be prepared to tear up - because he did. And we did too. The video is above. The transcript it below." Van Orden: "Our daughter died of cancer this summer ( she was Sydney Marie (Van Orden) Martenis, his eldest daughter). So I finished running for Congress with a gravely ill daughter. And then she died right after I took office. She was in the process of dying. My first year in Congress is terrible. It was the worst thing ever. The morning after my daughter's funeral, I was sitting in my widower son's basement and my phone rang, and it was from Florida. And I don't have a lot of friends in Florida. Like who is calling...

https://youtu.be/bzqQ7sgQLec?si=96g0cUP5vc64jCQX Wisconsin Congressman Derrick Van Orden, a Republican who served as a Navy SEAL, says he voted against the FISA amendment because it would have afforded constitutional protections to the 9/11 terrorists and "criminal illegal aliens," including drug dealers. He said that's because the language in the amendment, which required a warrant, was expanded from U.S. citizens to "U.S. persons." Wisconsin's Republican delegation has been divided in the FISA debate like much of Congress (U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald voted with Van Orden on both measures, and U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany voted against FISA renewal.) In all, 86 Republicans voted against the amendment in the U.S. House, tying the vote. The broader FISA renewal, which Van Orden also opposed, then passed the U.S. House. Van Orden has been criticized by some over his vote; he says his position has been mischaracterized. So we wanted to hear his explanation....