Investigators with the state Department of Justice are investigating a mysterious death in northeastern Wisconsin.
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Republican bills push cash bail, subvert Democratic changes
If ratified by Wisconsin voters on April 4, the amendment would let judges setting bail consider the criminal history of someone accused of a violent crime.
Read More »Arrest warrant issued for Russian President Putin
THE HAGUE (AP) — The International Criminal Court said Friday that it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. It was the first time the global court has issued a warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the ...
Read More »UN: Russia committed war crimes in Ukraine
GENEVA – Russian attacks against civilians in Ukraine, including systematic torture and killing in occupied regions, amount to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity, according to a report from a U.N. backed inquiry released Thursday. The sweeping human rights report, released a year to the day after a Russian airstrike on a theater in Mariupol killed hundreds sheltering inside, ...
Read More »EPA rule limits emissions polluting downwind areas
(AP File Photo) WASHINGTON — A new “good neighbor” rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency will restrict smokestack emissions from power plants and other industrial sources that burden downwind areas with smog-causing pollution they can’t control. Nearly two dozen states will have to cut harmful industrial emissions of nitrogen oxide and other pollutants to improve air quality for millions ...
Read More »Experts: Censorship growing in US
BOISE, Idaho — In Idaho, an art exhibit was censored and teens were told they couldn’t testify in some legislative hearings. In Washington state, a lawmaker proposed a hotline so the government could track offensively biased statements as well as hate crimes. In Florida, bloggers are fighting a bill that would force them to register with the state if they ...
Read More »Wisconsin Republicans float bill to designate state rifle
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican lawmakers began circulating a bill Thursday that would designate a lever-action rifle produced in northwestern Wisconsin as the state’s official rifle. The bill from state Reps. Dave Armstrong, Treig Pronschinske and James Edming and Sen. Romaine Quinn would designate the Henry All-Weather .45-70 as Wisconsin’s official state rifle. The bill is symbolic only. The state ...
Read More »Ziegler to continue as Wisconsin Supreme Court chief justice
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Annette Ziegler has been reelected by her fellow justices to a second two-year term leading the state’s highest court. The court announced Thursday that justices had voted in private to keep Ziegler in the post she first assumed in 2021. The court did not announce the vote breakdown. The chief justice has no ...
Read More »Wisconsin lawmakers clash over cash bail proposals
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic lawmakers unveiled plans Thursday to largely eliminate the use of cash bail in Wisconsin, clashing with Republicans who proposed a constitutional amendment to make it harder for people to get out of jail before trial. The Democratic proposal, which almost certainly will not pass the Republican-controlled Legislature, would rely on risk assessments to allow most ...
Read More »Maryland lawmakers support making abortion constitutional right in state
After the House of Delegates approved the bill last week to create a referendum on enshrining a right to abortion in the state constitution, the Senate passed its companion bill Tuesday, reports The Baltimore Sun. The Maryland House voted Friday to enshrine the right to abortion in the state Constitution, one of several steps lawmakers are taking this legislative session ...
Read More »Election Investigation: Georgia grand jury heard another Trump call recording
ATLANTA (AP) — A special grand jury that investigated whether Donald Trump and his allies illegally meddled in the 2020 election in Georgia heard a recording of the former president pushing a top state lawmaker to call a special session to overturn his loss in the state, according to a newspaper report. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday that it spoke to five members ...
Read More »Wisconsin man pleads guilty to role in Michigan governor’s kidnap scheme, governor blamed then President Trump
BELLAIRE, Mich. (AP) — A Wisconsin man accused of assisting the key figures in a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor pleaded guilty Wednesday to a lesser charge and will cooperate with prosecutors. When the plot was foiled, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer blamed then-President Donald Trump, saying he had given “comfort to those who spread fear and hatred and division.” Last August, after ...
Read More »Assembly votes to mandate school officers
Schools that experience a high number of crimes would have to hire police officers and station them in their buildings under a Republican-authored bill the state Assembly passed Tuesday.
Read More »Wisconsin man charged in Gov. Whitmer plot to change plea
A Wisconsin man who drove past the vacation home of Michigan's governor during a scheme to kidnap her in 2020 is returning to court to change his not-guilty plea, records show.
Read More »GOP lawmakers allow conversion therapy for LGBTQ patients
Republicans who control the Wisconsin Assembly voted Tuesday to continue allowing therapists and others to attempt to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.
Read More »Lac du Flambeau roads to reopen, judge sides with tribe
A Native American tribe and a northern Wisconsin town have reached an agreement under which the tribe will temporarily reopen four barricaded roads that are the subject of a decadelong dispute and a recent lawsuit.
Read More »China accuses Canada of smearing over secret police stations
BEIJING (AP) — China on Friday accused Canada of smearing its reputation over allegations China is secretly operating two overseas police stations in Quebec. Canada should “stop sensationalizing and hyping the matter and stop attacks and smears on China,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing. “China has been … strictly abiding by international law and respecting ...
Read More »Republicans block meningitis, chickenpox vaccine mandates
Wisconsin Republicans blocked Gov. Tony Evers' plan Thursday to require student vaccinations against meningitis and tighten student chickenpox vaccination requirements.
Read More »Appeals court sides with AP, others in open records case
A Wisconsin appeals court ruled Thursday that the state Assembly violated the open records law when it initially rejected, then fulfilled with redactions, documents sought by The Associated Press and three other media outlets related to sexual harassment allegations against a former legislator.
Read More »Women sue Texas over abortion ban, say it risked their lives
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Five women who said they were denied abortions even when pregnancy endangered their lives are suing Texas over its abortion ban, the latest legal fight against state restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. The lawsuit filed Monday in state court said the Texas law, one of the strictest in the country, is creating confusion ...
Read More »Illinois man charged in Wisconsin woman’s death 23 years ago
DNA and genetic testing have led to the arrest of an Illinois man in the 23-year-old strangling death of a woman in southeastern Wisconsin, police said Wednesday.
Read More »US to relax COVID testing rules for travelers from China
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is preparing to relax COVID-19 testing restrictions for travelers from China as soon as Friday, according to two people familiar with the decision. The people, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the administration has decided to roll back the testing requirements as cases, hospitalizations and deaths are ...
Read More »Wisconsin Republican says Brewers stadium funding plan dead
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s top Republican said Wednesday that a plan put forward by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the Milwaukee Brewers to spend nearly $300 million in taxpayer money on improvements to the stadium where the team plays was likely dead in the GOP-controlled Legislature. But Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he hoped Republicans could devise a better ...
Read More »Progress, staffing shortages reported at Wisconsin prison
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Operations are at the best they have been since 2019 at an embattled Wisconsin juvenile prison, while staffing shortages are hampering further progress, according to the latest report by a court-ordered monitor. The Wisconsin State Journal reported Thursday on the latest findings of the monitor overseeing the Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for ...
Read More »Evers: Raises for corrections, prosecutors a must in budget
Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said Tuesday he would consider rejecting a Republican budget plan that doesn't significantly increase pay for corrections officers, prosecutors and public defenders.
Read More »Survivors of deadly Mexico abduction returned to US
CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (AP) — A road trip to Mexico for cosmetic surgery veered violently off course when four Americans were caught in a drug cartel shootout, leaving two dead and two held captive for days in a remote region of the Gulf coast before they were rescued from a wood shack, officials said Tuesday. Their minivan crashed and was fired ...
Read More »Two men convicted in journalist’s kidnapping
NEW YORK (AP) — Two men have been convicted of helping Somali pirates who kidnapped a U.S. journalist for ransom and held him for 2 1/2 years, prosecutors said. Mohamed Tahlil Mohamed and Abdi Yusuf Hassan were convicted by a federal court jury in New York on Feb. 24 of hostage-taking, conspiracy, providing material support for acts of terrorism and ...
Read More »Hope Hicks meets with NY prosecutors investigating Trump
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s former spokesperson Hope Hicks met Monday with Manhattan prosecutors who are investigating hush-money payments made to women on the ex-president’s behalf — the latest member of the Republican’s inner circle to be questioned in the renewed probe. Hicks and her lawyer, Robert Trout, spent several hours inside the Manhattan district attorney’s office and, afterward, were seen ...
Read More »Could grand juror’s words tank charges in Georgia Trump investigation?
ATLANTA (AP) — Almost as soon as the foreperson of the special grand jury in the Georgia election meddling investigation went public this week, speculation began about whether her unusually candid revelations could jeopardize any possible prosecution of former President Donald Trump or others. Emily Kohrs first spoke out in an interview published Tuesday by The Associated Press, a story that was followed by interviews ...
Read More »Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates to meet in debate
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates Janet Protasiewicz and Dan Kelly have agreed to meet in at least one debate ahead of the April 4 election.
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