Wisconsin Right Now

A Monroe, Wisconsin restaurant and next-door store were vandalized with expletives and vile slurs because the restaurant was hosting an event for a conservative woman, Charity Barry, who is running against liberal Democrat Mark Pocan for U.S. Congress. Charity Barry posted photos of the vandalism to her Facebook page. Vince’s Pizza and Dollar General were targeted, and police are investigating. The graffiti included the phrase ACAB, which is a leftwing slur against cops that stands for All Cops Are Bastards (it was widely seen during the rioting in Kenosha). The slurs included the juvenile, vile phrases, eat sh*t Charity, be gay do crime, f*ck this sh*t, and f*ck the restaurant next door. Pocan has been silent about the vandalism. [caption id="attachment_82789" align="alignleft" width="300"] Charity Barry[/caption] "Once again, the tolerant left shows their true colors! This is the restaurant where I was going to host an event this evening w...

There are new questions about who is running public schools in Wisconsin following the release of emails between Gov. Tony Evers and the state’s largest teachers’ union. Empower Wisconsin on Wednesday broke a story showing the Wisconsin Education Association Council, or WEAC, was in regular contact with Gov. Evers’ office about the plan to reopen schools back in the summer of 2020. “We at WEAC are getting pressure from the Senate Democrats to take a position on these bills from the School Administrators Alliance. We have been told the Senate Dems are working with the Governor’s office on a strategy relating to opening of schools,” wrote WEAC lobbyist Jack O’Meara in an August 21, 2020 email to Evers’ office. The report doesn’t include Evers’ response, but the governor eventually told local schools to make their own decisions about reopening. WEAC encouraged local schools to stay closed in the fall of 2020. Republican candidate for governor Rebecca Kleefisch on Wednesday ri...

Dow, S&P jump during Powell press conference following the central bank’s biggest rate increase since 1994 The Federal Reserve announced a 0.75 percentage point rate hike Wednesday to help combat soaring inflation, the largest rate increase in 28 years. The Fed said it raised the rates "to 1‑1/2 to 1-3/4 percent and anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate." "The committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2% over the longer run," the Federal Reserve said in a statement. "In addition, the committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities, as described in the Plans for Reducing the Size of the Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet that was issued in May. The committee is strongly committed to returning inflation to its 2% objective." The decision is expected to curb inflation, but that comes at a cost to the eco...

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...

"Joe Biden's self-made inflation crisis is destroying the nation" U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. The price of producer goods and services spiked by 10.8% over the past year driven in part by higher gas prices , according to new federal data. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Tuesday released producer price index data which showed the PPI increased by 0.8% in May, up from a 0.4% increase in April, and preceded by 1.6% in March. The PPI report shows that almost half of the increase in prices for final demand goods in May results from an 8.4% increase in the index for gasoline, with the national average sitting at a record high $5.02 per gallon of regular gas. "In May, nearly two-thirds of the rise in the index for final demand was due to a 1.4-percent advance in prices for final demand goods. The index for final demand services increased 0.4 percent," BLS said. "Over 70 percent of the increase in May can be traced to a 5.0-percent advance in prices...

Gov. J.B. Pritzker contended last week that the green energy law he signed in Illinois last year that requires coal-fired power plants in the state to close by 2045 isn’t the culprit. It’s not quite time for rolling blackouts , but an alert issued Tuesday by the Midcontinent Independent System Operators, which serves much of Illinois, could be the first step in preparing for such actions. Midcontinent Independent System Operators ’ “maximum generation alert” was issued for Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m for the market footprint, which also includes Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and North Dakota, most of Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana and South Dakota, and parts of Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana and Texas. A similar alert was sent Monday for the south region of MISO. The nation is split among several regional energy grids. “The reason for the Event is because of Forced Generation Outages, Above Normal Temps, High Congestion,” the alert notification said Tuesday. The announc...

Asking questions is not bullying, and pointing out the law does not constitute creating chaos. And no one supported the threats made against Kiel Schools. Rick Esenberg with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty responded to claims that his group bullied Kiel school leaders over its misgendering investigation into three middle school boys and unleashed a national campaign of chaos that led to a wave of threats against the school district. “Putting aside the unresolved question of whether Title IX even covers gender identity or whether the First Amendment even permits such a charge to be based on the refusal to say what the government wants you to say, the mere use of disfavored pronouns does not create an environment ‘so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to education, which is a precondition to a charge of harassment under Title IX,” Esenberg wrote in a weekend op-ed at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Esenberg r...