Wisconsin Right Now

“If you don’t feel safe in your home, you don’t want to stay here, and you’re not going to want to raise your family here, and work here, and retire here,” -Samantha Kerkman Kenosha County’s newly elected county executive says connecting with people – and connecting with their biggest worry – helped sweep her into office. Samantha Kerkman spoke with News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber Friday morning. She credited her victory, the first for a Republican in Kenosha County, to a grassroots campaign and listening to voters who said they want to feel safe. “It’s been two years, and it’s been really difficult dealing with COVID and then we had the riots and civil unrest down here. People have been through so much,” Kerkman explained. “The issue of public safety resonated with everybody. It didn’t matter if you were on the east side of the county or the west side of the county, public safety hands down was that key issue.” Her comments can be heard on Weber's podcast, listen here.

Maurice Freeland, a felon with a long criminal history and an open domestic violence charge, is accused of being the mysterious supposedly unidentified man known as "Jump Kick Man" during the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. Wisconsin Right Now has learned from a law enforcement source in a position to know that prosecutors informed the Rittenhouse defense team only last Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021, as the trial came to an end, that Freeland had come forward claiming to be Jump Kick Man. It's not clear when Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger and his boss, DA Mike Graveley, first learned about Freeland's claims, the source said. Clearly, it would be a much bigger issue if the prosecution knew his identity for longer because the defense might have wanted to call or cross-examine him or track him down and vet the story; Wisconsin Right Now wrote Graveley and Binger and asked them for comment, and neither wrote back. Our source added additional details, saying that autho

Everyone should be terrified by the excesses of Big Tech. Facebook has removed Kyle Rittenhouse's presumption of innocence. Facebook has labeled defendant Kyle Rittenhouse a "dangerous person or organization," and banned people from sharing a news story that discussed a legal ruling favoring his defense in court. Read the story here. Facebook wrote that sharing the story analyzing Wisconsin law violates "our standards on dangerous individuals and organizations. We don't allow symbols, praise or support of dangerous individuals or organizations on Facebook. We define dangerous as things like: terrorist activity, organized hate or violence, mass or serial murder, human trafficking, criminal or harmful activity." Kyle Rittenhouse Facebook Ban Facebook took this action BEFORE the jury even went into deliberations on the charges against Rittenhouse; they labeled him a "dangerous person" even though he's innocent until proven guilty in

Wisconsin Right Now suggests: Everyone should make their ringtone "God Bless the USA" in support of Kenosha County Bruce Schroeder. Doing so expresses support for the rule of law. Post on social media when you do! Let's make this go viral. As the prosecution's case against Kyle Rittenhouse spectacularly crumbles, some in the media and left are ridiculously trashing Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder for... strictly adhering to the rule of law. The criticism of the judge has gotten so absurd that he's actually being attacked for having a cell phone ringtone that plays Lee Greenwood's iconic tune, " God Bless the USA ." The judge's ringtone, which briefly went off in court, made big national headlines in liberal sites that pretend they're objective, like the Daily Beast and Raw Story. They tried to attach Donald Trump to the apolitical 75-year-old judge (who was appointed by a Democratic governor decades ago) because, non-sequitur here,

Rittenhouse trial recap: There have been a lot of characters in this one. The Kyle Rittenhouse trial has given the public a bird's eye view into the criminal justice system. Some of the characters whose lives have intersected with this story are heroes. Others, not so much. We've been attending the trial, and watching it gavel-to-gavel; here, we round up the heroes, the villains, and the people in between. VILLAINS [caption id="attachment_2097" align="alignnone" width="720"] Joseph Rosenbaum[/caption] Joseph Rosenbaum - he comes across as a terrible person in all ways who started all of this. He was the only person in this story running around using racial slurs and provoking fights. Plus he was a child molester. He was chasing Rittenhouse down , igniting the chain of events. He's the number 1 villain of this case. Take Joseph Rosenbaum out of the equation that night - say he decided not to go there - and none of this would have hap

It's a video we hadn't seen before. And it's the closest look at Joseph Rosenbaum chasing Kyle Rittenhouse. Dramatic new drone video of the Joseph Rosenbaum shooting was played in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial for jurors on Tuesday, showing the shooting of Joseph Rosenbaum by Kyle Rittenhouse in the Car Source parking lot. The never-before-seen video appears to the clearest and closest released so far of the Joseph Rosenbaum shooting. A previously widely circulated video of that shooting is grainier and further away. The prosecution and defense were first made aware of the video on Friday, and the Wisconsin State Crime Lab began an analysis of it on Sunday. James Armstrong, a forensic imaging specialist with the Wisconsin State Crime lab, zoomed in and slowed down the video for the jury. It shows Rosenbaum chasing Rittenhouse before Rittenhouse turns around and fires at Rosenbaum at very close range. Rittenhouse is on trial for the deaths of Rosenbaum and Anthon

After the medical examiner's testimony, the state rested its case without a coherent theory to counter self-defense. The 7th count, a curfew violation citation, was dismissed by the judge. Joseph Rosenbaum's hand was either very close or in contact with Kyle Rittenhouse's rifle when Rittenhouse shot him, a medical examiner testified in court, strengthening the defense argument that Rosenbaum was lunging for Rittenhouse's gun. Dr. Douglas Kelley also testified that Rosenbaum had "forward momentum" that wasn't from the first shot, which was to the hip, as his body moved closer to Rittenhouse. The hand shot was the second wound. The defense attorney, Mark Richards, asked Kelley, "That hand was over the barrel of Mr. Rittenhouse’s gun when his hand was shot?" Kelley responded, "That makes sense." All of this happened when Rosenbaum was in very close proximity to Rittenhouse (and closer for the second than the first shot) in less

After the medical examiner's testimony, the state rested its case without a coherent theory to counter self-defense. The 7th count, a curfew violation citation, was dismissed by the judge. Joseph Rosenbaum's hand was either very close or in contact with Kyle Rittenhouse's rifle when Rittenhouse shot him, a medical examiner testified in court, strengthening the defense argument that Rosenbaum was lunging for Rittenhouse's gun. Dr. Douglas Kelley also testified that Rosenbaum had "forward momentum" that wasn't from the first shot, which was to the hip, as his body moved closer to Rittenhouse. The hand shot was the second wound. The defense attorney, Mark Richards, asked Kelley, "That hand was over the barrel of Mr. Rittenhouse’s gun when his hand was shot?" Kelley responded, "That makes sense." All of this happened when Rosenbaum was in very close proximity to Rittenhouse (and closer for the second than the first shot) in less

Concerns over privacy relating to the Kyle Rittenhouse jury increased on Tuesday, as Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder revealed that someone was videotaping jurors outside of court as they got on the bus. The jurors' identities have been sealed by the court. People are also not allowed to photograph or videotape the jurors, 18 of whom remain. In court, Schroeder revealed the jurors were being filmed when the bus picked them up to take them to court on Tuesday morning. He said deputies made the person delete the video. Schroeder said it's not clear whether the person was ever in the courtroom. Rittenhouse Jury Reassured The judge took pains to reassure jurors when they walked into court on Tuesday morning after the incident. "I have been assured the video that was taken has been deleted. New procedures have been instituted so something like that should not occur. I'm frankly surprised that it did," the judge told the Rittenhouse jury. He told Rittenhous

The Rittenhouse case has had a lot of dramatic moments. But these are the 7 bombshell moments for the defense in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. They sank the state's case. In each case, they demolished the state's most serious charges: First-degree reckless homicide in the death of Joseph Rosenbaum; first-degree intentional homicide in the death of Anthony Huber, and attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the wounding of Gaige P. Grosskreutz. For good measure, they also torpedoed the first-degree recklessly endangering charges against Daily Caller video editor Richie McGinniss and the unidentified man known in court as "jump kick" man. That leaves the lone charge of possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under age 18. But that's only a misdemeanor punishable by up to nine months in prison. It also leaves a "failure to comply with an emergency management order of state or local government" count (curfew), but that's only a citation that

Cortez Rice, who is the nephew of George Floyd per published reports, says on video that jurors in the Kenosha trial of Kyle Rittenhouse are being photographed. The names of the jurors in the trial were sealed by the judge making it harder for them to be doxxed. However, the public has access to the court proceedings, where the jurors sit in plain view. Only journalistic pool photographers are allowed inside the courtroom. The Rittenhouse trial just concluded week 1; it didn't go well for the prosecution, which has failed to present evidence that counters his self-defense claims. There hasn't been much protest activity outside the courthouse yet, but, of course, Kenosha burned in the violent response to the Jacob Blake police shooting. Riteenhouse, who is charged with homicide and other serious charges, had gone to Kenosha to protect businesses and act as a volunteer medic. There are 18 jurors left in the case after two were dismissed. They were drawn from Kenosha County.

Prosecutors in the Kyle Rittenhouse homicide trial have possessed an FBI thermal image video taken by a plane flying above the Kenosha riots for over a year. In opening statements , Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger claimed that Rittenhouse was the person who chased Joseph Rosenbaum first before Rosenbaum started chasing Rittenhouse, leading to the first shooting. That was significant because it was an attempt to paint Rittenhouse as an aggressor, which could weaken a self-defense argument and was previously unknown. The only thing known before day 1 of the trial was that Rosenbaum is seen on video chasing Rittenhouse. But... The FBI thermal image video seems to contradict the narrative prosecutors told jurors earlier in the opening statements. First of all, they never backed it up in court when they called the FBI agent to the stand. Secondly it's hard to tell from the video what was going on; perhaps Rittenhouse was just walking down the sidewalk in the general d