Wisconsin Right Now

A state lawmaker wants a full accounting of how the University of Wisconsin System has thousands of more administrators now than it did 30 years ago, despite having fewer teachers. State Rep. David Steffen told The Center Square on Wednesday the UW system has hired 6,000 administrators over the past 30 years. “What are the students and the taxpayers getting as a result of that investment?” Steffen asked. “That becomes very difficult, especially when you dig deeper to realize that it really isn't an increase in the faculty, the in-classroom personnel. These are all ancillary, secondary, non-essential type of additions to the head count.” Steffen pointed to a memo from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau that showed in the 1992-93 school year, the UW had 26,360 full time employees. In the 2022-23 school year, the UW’s headcount grew to 33,538. The additions are all out of the classroom. The LFB’s memo shows the faculty headcount in 1992-93 was 7,181. That number fell to 5,729 in

State Sen. John Jagler is frustrated Milwaukee Public Schools seems to be ignoring the state law that requires police officers in the city’s schools. But, he doesn’t expect any changes either. Jagler, R-Watertown, last week wrote a letter to the MPS board, asking when the city’s schools plan to follow the law and return school resource officers to their buildings. Republican lawmakers included the school resource officer in 2023’s shared revenue deal. It required MPS to add 25 officers by Jan. 1. That didn’t happen. “Now, I know it didn't get done fast enough last year. And to be honest, I kind of, to be fair, just kind of assumed it would be done in August of this year,” Jagler said on News Talk 1130 WISN on Tuesday. Jagler said he realized that Milwaukee Public Schools may never return the officers to their buildings after hearing MPS school board vice president Jilly Gokalghandi dismiss a question about officers in schools during a question-and-answer session last mont

  State prosecutors rested their case against former President Donald Trump on Monday, capping off four weeks of testimony from 20 witnesses. The first-ever trial of a former President was one step closer to a conclusion after prosecutors concluded their case Monday. Next up: Trump's attorneys will get a chance to present their defense. The case centered around Trump's alleged sexual encounter with an adult film actress in 2006 and a $130,000 payment to her in 2016 to keep her quiet ahead of the 2016 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied the encounter happened. Prosecutors allege that Trump covered up the payment to Stormy Daniels and another hush money payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal ahead of the election and covered them up as legal payments. Trump, 77, is the first former U.S. president to be charged with a felony. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to money paid t

The State Bar of Wisconsin isn’t ending its diversity clerkship that faced a federal discrimination lawsuit, instead it is changing the definition of diversity. The State Bar agreed to tweak the program and make it about the diversity of ideas and experiences, rather than base the clerkship on race and gender. “The settlement clarifies the definition of ‘diversity’ but makes no changes to the program,” State Bar Executive Director Larry Martin said. “The Diversity Clerkship Program, which has been creating opportunities for Wisconsin-based law students for three decades, will continue to exist and to operate in its current form.” The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty sued, saying it’s against the law to hire anyone based on race or gender. WILL Associate Counsel Skylar Croy said they have had to make it a habit to remind people of that fact. “Defeating unconstitutional DEI programs has become WILL’s area of expertise, and we are not stopping here,” Croy said in a stat

Wisconsin’s governor is asking the state Supreme Court to allow ballot drop boxes ahead of this November’s election. Gov. Tony Evers filed a brief with the court, asking the new liberal-majority to overturn a ruling from 2022 that said ballot drop boxes are not allowed under state law. “At the very heart of our democracy is the fundamental freedom to vote. In Wisconsin, we must work to protect that freedom and to empower our clerks and election administrators working hard at the local level to make decisions that are right for their communities. Drop box voting is safe and secure, and there is nothing in Wisconsin’s election laws that prohibit our local clerks from using this secure option, absent an incorrect ruling by our courts,” Evers said in a statement. Wisconsin law does not specifically allow for ballot drop boxes anywhere other than the local clerk’s office. The then-conservative-majority court based its ruling that banned ballot drop boxes on that fact. But Evers

  A swimmer who competed at N.C. State is among 16 collegiate athletes, including 12-time All-American Riley Gaines, suing the NCAA for letting men who say they are women compete against them and use the same locker rooms. Kylee Alons, a two-time national champion and 31-time All-American for the Wolfpack, in the summer of 2023 told her story of being forced to share a locker room and “compete against a male athlete” at the NCAA championships. In a social media post last September, she wrote, “I’ll be the first to admit that speaking up about this issue is hard, but it is essential to protect women’s privacy, safety, and integrity of competition.” Gaines, who competed at Kentucky, and Pennsylvania swimmer Paula Scanlan have led the effort nationally to save women’s sports. Gaines was at the North Carolina General Assembly last summer as lawmakers passed Fairness in Women’s Sports Act , legislation initially vetoed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper but later put into law by a veto o

  A state judge on Wednesday dismissed some of the charges against former President Donald Trump in the Georgia case that accuses the former president of trying to interfere with the 2020 election. Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six charges in the indictment, including three against Trump due to a lack of detail that he said was "fatal." But the ruling doesn't end the case against Trump. Trump still faces criminal charges, including Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act charges that underpin the prosecution's case. "The Court's concern is less that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants – in fact it has alleged an abundance," McAfee wrote. "However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned's opinion, fatal." However, the judge wrote that the case was far from over. "This does not mean the entire indictment is dismissed," he wrote in a footno

  A coalition of state attorneys general sent a letter Monday to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas backing Texas in its border battle with the Biden administration. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defied the Biden administration last week, making clear he would continue to put up concertina wire fencing at the southern border to help stop the flow of illegal immigration, which has soared since Biden took office. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the issue last week, saying federal agents could continue to remove the concertina wire, but the ruling did not prohibit Texas from installing the border defenses. Abbott said after the ruling that the federal government had broken its pact with the states for not stopping what more than 50 Texas counties have declared an “invasion.” That court case is the latest touchpoint for the ongoing immigration crisis and frustration of many border states and Republicans who argue Biden is willfully aiding millions of illegal

The Colorado state Supreme Court voted 3-4 Tuesday to block former President Donald Trump from receiving votes on the 2024 presidential ballot, saying he is disqualified because he “engaged in an insurrection,” a reference to his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol protests gone awry. The majority opinion acknowledged the U.S. Supreme Court could weigh in, and as a result postponed the effect of its ruling until Jan. 4, giving the court about two weeks. The Colorado secretary of state has until Jan. 5 to certify the 2024 ballot. "We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us,” the court wrote in its majority, adding that the justices are “likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach. “We are also cognizant that we travel in uncharted territory, and that this case presents several issues of first impression,” the opinion added. The

  Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who helped steer U.S. foreign policy in Vietnam and China, died Wednesday. He was 100. His consulting firm, Kissinger Associates Inc., announced the death. Kissinger, born as Heinz Alfred Kissinger in Germany in 1923, left Nazi Germany for America in 1938. He served in the 84th Army Division from 1943 to 1946 after becoming a U.S. citizen. He was awarded the Bronze Star. He later served in the Counter Intelligence Corps in occupied Germany. President Richard Nixon appointed Kissinger as National Security Adviser in 1969. He went on to serve as Secretary of State under Nixon. When Nixon resigned in 1974 amid the Watergate scandal, Kissinger stayed on and served under President Gerald Ford. "Kissinger played central roles in the opening to China, negotiating the end of the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East, and helping to bring America's role in the Vietnam War to a close. He worked to set the former Rhodesia on the path t

State Sen. Van Wanggaard spent 30 years in law enforcement and says he never came across anything as “sick” as a child sex doll. Wanggaard on Tuesday led a Wisconsin Senate committee hearing on a plan to outlaw child sex dolls in the state. “For $30,000, and it talks to you and everything else, I’m just thinking these people are really sick,” Wanggaard said. The legislation would make it a crime to have one of the new realistic sex dolls designed to be a child. “It’s not just what this doll looks like,” Wanggaard said. “I would imagine that there gotta be a set of operating instructions with this thing that talks about it being a minor.” Wisconsin currently doesn’t have any laws regarding underage sex dolls. Five states – Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Utah and Hawaii – are the only states with laws against the dolls. Wisconsin’s proposed law would mean a felony conviction, and up to three-and-a-half years in prison for a first offense. Anyone who owns a child sex doll tha

In May, the USDA announced it will interpret the prohibition on discrimination based on sex in Title IX to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Half of the state attorneys general in the country want the Biden administration to walk back new federal guidance on sex-based discrimination for schools and other organizations that receive federal money for food programs. The AGs, 26 of the 27 Republicans in those offices across the country, claim in a letter to President Biden the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s guidance means states, local agencies and programs that receive federal food dollars through the Food and Nutrition Act and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program could lose funding if they don’t comply, including in hiring practices. "Using hungry children as a human shield in a policy dispute violates basic decency," Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said. "Aren’t there any parents in the Biden administration that c

Jill Underly’s op-ed is 572 words long. She doesn’t use the word "parent" once. Wisconsin’s state superintendent of schools is jumping to the defense of teachers and schools in the debate over race, gender and sex in the state’s classrooms. Superintendent Jill Underly wrote an op-ed Wednesday that defends what she calls “welcoming spaces.” “The way we – as leaders, as community members, as adults – talk about race, or about respecting pronouns, or about including books in libraries that address racism or those with LGBTQ+ characters, have an impact. When the adults in charge – those who make policy, or run for office, or serve on boards – speak negatively and encourage harassment of students with disabilities, or of students because of their gender, immigration status, race, sexuality or gender identity, it makes life harder for students,” Underly wrote. “These are children! And when adults sit passively without calling out these harmful behaviors, they are no differe

Powell had been fully vaccinated. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, 84, has died after complications from COVID-19. Powell’s family issued a statement Monday announcing his passing and thanking others for their support. "We want to thank the medical staff at Walter Reed National Medical Center for their caring treatment,” Powell’s family said in the statement, adding that he had been fully vaccinated. “We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American." Powell served as Secretary of State in former President George W. Bush’s administration, helping it through the response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the following wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of Colin Powell. He was a great public servant, starting with his time as a soldier during Vietnam,” Bush said. “He was such a favorite of Presidents that he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom – twice. He was highly resp

State Sen. Patrick Testin, R-Stevens Point, joined the race on Sunday. Last week, longtime Ron Johnson staffer Ben Voelkel entered the race. The Republican race for lieutenant governor in Wisconsin is getting crowded. Patrick Testin has been in the state Senate since 2016. Most recently he took the lead in pushing Gov. Tony Evers for answers about the nearly 13,000 Afghan refugees at Fort McCoy, specifically where they will go once they leave the base. “I have been traveling the state and hearing from Wisconsinites in all corners of the Badger State. The single biggest concern I have heard is there is a leadership deficit in Madison,” Testin said in his campaign announcement. Testin is just the latest Republican to jump into the race for Wisconsin’s second in command. Last week, longtime Ron Johnson staffer Ben Voelkel entered the race. Lancaster Mayor David Varnam is also running for lieutenant governor. Pastor David King is raising money in the race too. “The last two y