Wisconsin Right Now

Hudson, Ohio Mayor Craig Shubert raised eyebrows and drew laughter during a city council meeting when he suggested that allowing ice fishing could lead to prostitution. During the meeting Tuesday, on the topic of whether to allow ice fishing in public parks, City Council President Chris Foster reported that  “a number of residents” have requested permission to ice fish on Hudson Springs Lake. However, some city officials are concerned the city could be liable if someone fell through the ice. Mayor Shubert then responded, "If you open this up to ice fishing, which while on the surface, it sounds good, then what happens next year? Does somebody come back and say, 'I want an ice shanty in Hudson Springs Park for X amount of time?'" Shubert stated. "And if you then allow ice fishing with shanties, then that leads to another problem: prostitution. And now you have the police chief of the police department involved. Just some data points to consider." The M...

The Milwaukee Black Panthers briefly took over a Milwaukee mayoral debate on Feb. 3, leading to a raucous scene in which their leader, King Rick, yelled at Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson. King Rick and the other Panthers first stood in front of the bank of television cameras before storming to the front of the room and the table where the candidates sat. They were then removed from the Good Hope church by police. Johnson told the crowd that he didn't ask for the group to be removed; he said they showed up at another church to similarly confront him the other day, and he said they are suing him. Indeed, they are suing Johnson in federal court, claiming he barred them from a previous town hall. We previously wrote about the Panthers' confronting employees at an Asian nail salon. The leader in the mayoral forum video is "Darryl King Rick Farmer II,” whose Facebook page proclaims him as, “LEADER AND BLACK GENERAL OF THE ORIGINAL BLACK PANTHERS NATIONWIDE AND OTHER COUNTR...

Acting Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said on Thursday that he won't "commit" to increasing the number of officers on the shrinking Milwaukee police force because the city needs to take care of other "challenges" instead, such as plowing snow, funding libraries, and picking up garbage. His comments are on video, which you can watch below. Mayor Cavalier Johnson did say he supports "bail reform," but he walked away to speak to someone else without clarifying what exactly he means by that. He repeatedly said, during the interview with Wisconsin Right Now's Jessica McBride and Jim Piwowarczyk at a northside mayoral forum on Feb. 3, 2022, that he would consider adding more officers only if the state gave Milwaukee more money. Asked why he advocates sending millions of dollars to the city's Office of Violence Prevention instead of using existing resources to add more police, he said public safety needs to be "multi-pronged." We...

Former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, a Republican candidate for governor, called out the "lack of leadership" on crime in the state, outlining an aggressive plan to combat it, including putting 1,000 new police officers on the street, taking away judicial and prosecutors' discretion on bail, surging the Wisconsin State Patrol into areas with crime increases, appointing law-and-order judges, and firing Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm. "As your governor, I will fire District Attorney John Chisholm," she pledged in the February 1, 2022, news conference. Kleefisch, appearing alongside leaders from the Milwaukee Police Association and Fraternal Order of Police , also highlighted a series of stories broken by Wisconsin Right Now over the past year, including Chisholm's high non-prosecution rate, a two-year backlog in the Milwaukee County court system, a domestic violence suspect who was out on bail when accused of murder, and a waiting list...

Milwaukee Mayoral candidate Bob Donovan, speaking at the site where a Milwaukee police officer was shot Thursday, called the "crisis this city is facing...unprecedented in our 175-year history," and slammed Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson's "anti-violence" plan, differing sharply on the approach to restoring law-and-order in Milwaukee. Donovan noted that Johnson proposed an additional $5 million for the Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention . Donovan called that office a "questionable agency," saying, "I can't even tell you in all my years at City Hall what they've accomplished substantively to reduce violence." Yet, Gov. Tony Evers has also proposed funneling $8 million to that office, said Donovan. Putting more money into that office is "not the answer," he said. Furthermore, Donovan noted that Johnson "proposed diversity training for our police officers. Our police officers have received a lot of diversity traini...

Two sting videos have emerged this week capturing Republican state Representatives John Spiros (R-Marshfield) and Elijah Behnke (R-Oconto). You can see the Spiros video above and the Behnke video later in this article and decide for yourselves how you take their comments. Based on the comments in the videos, the unidentified people recording the legislators approached them from an anti-establishment, conservative perspective, expressing scorn for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and, in the case of the Behnke video, demanding that the legislator aggressively tackle voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. One woman identifies herself as the sister of talk radio host Mark Belling at the end of the Behnke video, but that claim could not be independently verified. Behnke made a series of controversial comments in the video that the legacy media have jumped on, labeling Vos a "swamp creature" at one point and saying he wanted to punch Gov. Tony Evers; you can listen to the ...

Derrick Ellis was charged with one count of Possession of a Firearm by Outstate Felon. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison and could be fined up to $25,000. On Thursday, January 6, 2022, the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office issued criminal charges against Derrick D. Ellis in connection to the homicide of 16-year-old Niesha Brazell , who was shot and killed while working at a Milwaukee Burger King restaurant on Sunday, January 2, 2022. The shooting occurred at approximately 10:12 p.m., on the 5100 block of W. Capitol Drive. "Ellis was armed with a firearm and engaged an armed robbery suspect," Milwaukee police wrote in a statement. "During the confrontation, Ellis’ coworker was struck by gunfire, which caused her death. Ellis is a convicted felon and prohibited from possessing a firearm. Ellis fled the scene." Video captured the armed robbery suspect in the drive-thru window with a handgun. [caption id="attachment_46216...

Derrick Ellis was charged with one count of Possession of a Firearm by Outstate Felon. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison and could be fined up to $25,000. On Thursday, January 6, 2022, the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office issued criminal charges against Derrick D. Ellis in connection to the homicide of 16-year-old Niesha Brazell , who was shot and killed while working at a Milwaukee Burger King restaurant on Sunday, January 2, 2022. The shooting occurred at approximately 10:12 p.m., on the 5100 block of W. Capitol Drive. "Ellis was armed with a firearm and engaged an armed robbery suspect," Milwaukee police wrote in a statement. "During the confrontation, Ellis’ coworker was struck by gunfire, which caused her death. Ellis is a convicted felon and prohibited from possessing a firearm. Ellis fled the scene." Video captured the armed robbery suspect in the drive-thru window with a handgun. [caption id="attachment_46216...

The mayor says about 75% of the town is gone, and the governor says the missing list is eight pages long. Dawson Springs is a town of about 3,200 people. The destruction from the massive quad-state tornado is immense, yet it has been overshadowed by the devastation in Mayfield, Kentucky, about an hour away. Yet the devastation here is so severe that the mayor says about 75% of the town is gone, and the governor says the missing list is eight pages long. Single-spaced. https://youtu.be/JCJGTM8fycc About 95 people are still missing and 13 are confirmed dead in Dawson Springs, where the National Guard is checking identification cards to get into the community, and residents tell us looting has already occurred. Dawson Springs drone video shows how the twister obliterated entire low-income apartment buildings, moved houses off their foundations, bent trees, overturned cars, and smashed homes to pieces. It threw people's bodies into their neighbor's yards and into local...

An NBC News booking producer in New York named Irene Byon told Kenosha police in a body cam video that the network was trying to "see where people involved in the trial are positioned" when an Atlanta producer was accused of following the Kyle Rittenhouse jury van. In the body cam video, the officer asked James Morrison if he's from Wisconsin. He says he's from Atlanta and works as a producer for NBC. "I was trying to see...I was being called by New Yor, going maybe these people are who you need to follow. I don't know. I was trying to...just do what they told me to do." New York told you to follow a vehicle? asked the officer. "Yes," said Morrison. He said he wasn't trying to talk to anybody. He then called NBC producer Irene Byon in New York on his cell phone, and handed it to the officer, who recorded the conversation on his body camera. "We're trying to figure out what's going on, why you have a reporter or producer...

According to Sheriff Schmaling , Adrian "Jefferson is a dangerous criminal with access to high-powered weapons and a large amount of ammunition." Yet he's been released on low bail in three different counties, the latest with an elected official's help. Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling is calling for the immediate removal of Racine County Board Supervisor Nick Demske for posting cash bail for a man the sheriff called a "dangerous criminal." According to the Racine County Sheriff press release, On Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021, Supervisor Demske posted $10,000 cash bail for Adrian O. Jefferson, which released him from the Racine County Jail. According to Sheriff Schmaling , "Jefferson is a dangerous criminal with access to high-powered weapons and a large amount of ammunition." The Sheriff released this photo with his post: [caption id="attachment_45159" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Demske posted...

On the evening of Nov. 21, 2021, shortly after the Waukesha Christmas parade massacre happened, Milwaukee BLM activist Vaun Mayes went to the scene and declared on livestream video: "It's possible the revolution has started in Wisconsin." At least five people were killed and more than 48 injured in the parade horror. While there, Wisconsin Right Now's Jim Piwowarcyk observed several Milwaukee BLM activists, some of whom have ties to the "Peoples Revolution," a BLM organization, arrive on the scene. We overheard the activists saying they had just arrived from Kenosha while protesting over the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict continued. We observed Milwaukee community activist, Vaun Mayes, live streaming over Facebook from the scene when he stated, "It sounds possible that the revolution has started in Wisconsin' He further said, "I said I wasn’t going to speak on no rumors. Y'all are repeating some of the stuff that, you know, that has c...

On the evening of Nov. 21, 2021, shortly after the Waukesha Christmas parade massacre happened, Milwaukee BLM activist Vaun Mayes went to the scene and declared on livestream video: "It's possible the revolution has started in Wisconsin." At least five people were killed and more than 48 injured in the parade horror. While there, Wisconsin Right Now's Jim Piwowarcyk observed several Milwaukee BLM activists, some of whom have ties to the "Peoples Revolution," a BLM organization, arrive on the scene. We overheard the activists saying they had just arrived from Kenosha while protesting over the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict continued. We observed Milwaukee community activist, Vaun Mayes, live streaming over Facebook from the scene when he stated, "It sounds possible that the revolution has started in Wisconsin' He further said, "I said I wasn’t going to speak on no rumors. Y'all are repeating some of the stuff that, you know, that has c...