Wisconsin officials are investigating the ride failure, which required firefighters to free those trapped ‘near the top of a loop’
Officials in Wisconsin are investigating how eight people became trapped upside down on a roller coaster – some of them for more than three hours – at a festival over the holiday weekend.
The nightmarish incident took place on Sunday at the Forest county festival in Crandon, a city of about 1,700 north-west of Green Bay.
Continue reading...Control of state’s supreme court will ultimately decide fate of 1849 abortion ban that was revived in June, after Roe was overturned
One weekend in late March, McKenzie Schroeder offered to drive her friend across the Wisconsin border into Illinois to get an abortion. Abortion has been illegal in Wisconsin since June, when the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, reviving the state’s 1849 near-total abortion ban.
“If you’ve never been in that situation, you can never understand how a woman feels if they’re pregnant and don’t know what to do,” said Schroeder, 30, who lives in Sun Prairie and works for a property management company and as a waitress. “I don’t think that any human being on the face of the earth should control what I do with my body.”
Continue reading...The race for a place on Wisconsin’s supreme court could have major implications for abortion, democracy and the 2024 election
More than $37m has already been spent in an election that will this month determine control of Wisconsin’s supreme court, easily making it the most expensive judicial contest in US history.
Spending in the race easily shatters the $10m spent in the 2020 Wisconsin supreme court race, the previous record in the state. It also easily surpasses the previous national record, $15m spent on an Illinois supreme court race in 2004. The race has national implications – it will probably ultimately determine the legality of abortion in the state as well as play a key role in setting voting rules for the 2024 election in one of America’s most competitive states.
Continue reading...Disabled voters push for better protection voting absentee and with assistance after temporary ban that disenfranchised some
As Wisconsin’s 4 April supreme court election approaches, disabled voters in the state are pushing elections officials to prioritize protecting the right to vote absentee and with assistance.
“I always, always vote absentee,” said Stacy Ellingen, a Wisconsin voter who has cerebral palsy and requires assistance in voting. “If absentee voting wasn’t an option, I honestly wouldn’t be able to vote in most elections.”
Continue reading...Hundreds of thousands lose power and thousands of flights canceled as weather takes toll across northern and western states
A brutal winter storm closed interstate highways from Arizona to Wyoming on Wednesday, trapped drivers in cars, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people and prompted the first blizzard warning in southern California in decades – and the worst won’t be over for several days.
Meanwhile, pockets of the south-east will be cooking, with record-breaking warmth expected to stretch into the mid-Atlantic spiking temperatures more than 40F warmer than normal and creating weather that feels more “like June than February”, according to the National Weather Service.
Continue reading...Senior state officials have commented on the postponement of Blinken’s trip to China after a Chinese spy balloon was discovered over the US yesterday, noting that conditions were no longer right for Blinken’s travel.
From Reuters’ reporter Hümeyra Pamuk:
Continue reading...Robert Spindell, who sits on state election commission, told party members to be ‘proud’ of low voting figures in Democratic areas
A top Republican election official in Wisconsin is facing calls to resign from his role after boasting about lower turnout last year in Black and Hispanic areas of Milwaukee.
Robert Spindell is one of three GOP appointees on the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), the six-member bipartisan body that oversees elections in the state. He is also the chair of the Republican party in the fourth congressional district, which includes Milwaukee. After last year’s election, he sent an email to fellow Republicans touting the party’s “well thought out multi-faceted plan” that resulted in a drop in voter turnout in the city, which is home to a majority of Wisconsin’s Black population.
Continue reading...Singer abruptly evacuated just a couple of songs into her concert after the bomb threat forced authorities to evacuate the theatre
Patti LaBelle was abruptly rushed offstage just a couple of songs into a Christmas concert in Milwaukee, after a bomb threat forced authorities to suddenly evacuate the venue.
Footage of the 78-year-old singer’s sudden evacuation from the stage at the Riverside Theater began to circulate on social media on Saturday night shortly after the incident.
Continue reading...Barnes, who would be the first Black senator from Wisconsin, is looking to unseat Republican Ron Johnson
Barack Obama, who twice won Wisconsin by large margins, will travel to the battleground state in the final weeks of the current midterm elections, seeking to boost Mandela Barnes, the young lieutenant governor looking to unseat the Republican Ron Johnson in a key US Senate contest.
Barnes would be the first Black senator from Wisconsin. He held early leads over Johnson but the Republican, a prominent figure on the GOP hard right, has surged back. This week, a Marquette University Law School poll showed Johnson in the lead.
Continue reading...Discovery made by same archaeologist less than a year after finding another historical canoe in the same body of water
A 3,000-year-old canoe has been found in Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin, less than a year after another historical canoe dating back more than a millennium was discovered in the same body of water.
An archaeologist found the artifact in pieces before it was recovered from the lake last Thursday in collaboration with Wisconsin’s Native Nations, a press release from the Wisconsin Historical Society said.
Continue reading...President again pledges to be ‘most pro-union president’ in history during speech in Milwaukee
Joe Biden used a Labor Day speech in the battleground state of Wisconsin to endorse the expansion of unions, reiterating his election promises to be the “most pro-union president” in American history.
The US president argued in Milwaukee that a skilled, unionised workforce would help the US regain its place as a world leader in infrastructure and manufacturing.
Continue reading...Democrats select progressive Becca Balint for Vermont House seat while Trump-backed candidate nominated for Wisconsin governor
Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a member of the select progressive group in the House of Representative dubbed the Squad, eked out a closer-than-expected Democratic primary victory on Tuesday night against a centrist challenger who questioned the incumbent’s support for the “defund the police” movement.
The evening went far smoother for another progressive, Becca Balint, who won the Democratic House primary in Vermont – positioning her to become the first woman representing the state in Congress.
Continue reading...Drop boxes may be placed only in election offices and voters must return ballot in person, in blow to Democrats in battleground state
Wisconsin’s conservative-controlled supreme court ruled on Friday that absentee ballot drop boxes may be placed only in election offices and that no one other than the voter can return a ballot in person, dealing a critical defeat to Democrats in the battleground state.
The court did not address the question of whether anyone other than the voter can return his or her own ballot by mail. Election officials and others had argued that drop boxes are a secure and convenient way for voters to return ballots.
Continue reading...Text appears to indicate campaign sought to use certificates it knew were not state-certified to obstruct Biden’s victory
The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack made the case at its fourth hearing on Tuesday that the Trump 2020 campaign tried to obstruct Joe Biden’s election win through a potentially illegal scheme to send fake slates of electors to Congress.
The panel presented a text message sent on 4 January 2021 that appeared to indicate the Trump campaign was seeking to use fraudulent election certificates they would have known were not state-certified to obstruct the congressional certification of Biden’s win.
Note: This post was updated to clarify the former US attorneys’ titles.
Continue reading...Rittenhouse, who was found not guilty after fatally shooting two and injuring one in Kenosha unrest, made claim on Friday
Kyle Rittenhouse – who was acquitted last year on charges related to a triple shooting resulting in two deaths during racial justice protests in Wisconsin – will not attend Texas A&M University as he has claimed, school officials said.
In an appearance on Friday on a conservative radio show, Rittenhouse said he would attend Texas A&M University and it would be “awesome”.
Continue reading...John Roemer, who sat on the Juneau county circuit court bench for 14 years, was found dead in his home by police
A retired Wisconsin judge was gunned down and killed in his home on Friday, and his suspected killer – a former defendant in his courtroom – shot himself in the basement, a government official familiar with the investigation said Saturday.
The official confirmed John Roemer, 68, who sat on the Juneau county circuit court bench for 14 years beginning in 2004, was found shot dead in his home in the community of New Lisbon about 6.30am Friday. His alleged killer, identified Saturday as 56-year-old Douglas Uhde, was then discovered in the basement with a self-inflicted bullet wound, and was brought to a hospital.
Continue reading...Officers found a 68-year-old man fatally shot in his home and a suspect in the basement with an apparent self-inflicted wound
A man was fatally shot at his home in Wisconsin on Friday and a suspect was discovered in the basement with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in what may have been a plan to target people connected to the judicial system, Wisconsin’s attorney general said.
Josh Kaul, the attorney general Josh Kaul refused to name the victim or the suspect, but said the shooting appeared to be a “targeted act” and that the gunman had selected targets who were “part of the judicial system”.
Continue reading...Wisconsin couple say they stabbed bear with a kitchen knife and then killed animal with a firearm after it attacked them at home
A Wisconsin couple say they killed a bear who attacked them inside their home after they spotted it eating from their bird feeder.
The Taylor county sheriff’s office said the attack happened at about 11pm Friday at a home near Medford in north-central Wisconsin. The couple told authorities that the bear charged through a window after they yelled at it to go away.
Continue reading...Suit seeks fines and damages from those casting fake ballots and prohibition from serving the future
Two of Wisconsin’s presidential electors and a voter in the state filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to punish a group of Republicans who tried to cast fake electoral votes for Donald Trump in 2020, asking a state court to order them to pay up to $2.4m collectively in damages and bar them from ever serving as legitimate electors in a presidential election.
Wisconsin was one of seven states Trump lost in 2020 where allies cast an alternative set of electoral votes as part of his effort to overturn the election. The suit, filed by Law Forward and the Georgetown Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (Icap) on behalf of the legitimate electors, is the first of its kind seeking civil punishments against the electors. Federal prosecutors and the January 6 commission are reportedly also reviewing the fake slates.
Continue reading...Madison police investigate attack on Wisconsin Family Action after claim by group calling itself Jane’s revenge
Federal agents and detectives from the Madison police department are investigating a claim by a pro-choice group that it was behind a weekend arson attack on an anti-abortion office in Wisconsin.
The headquarters of Wisconsin Family Action in Madison was attacked in the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown through a window, starting a small fire, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. Nobody was hurt.
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