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Groups call for Kenosha chief, sheriff to lose their jobs
Jacob Blake survived being shot seven times in the back by Kenosha police, but his father says he is paralyzed from the waist down. Despite that, Blake’s father told the Chicago Sun-Times on Thursday, Blake has been handcuffed to his hospital bed. Asked at a news conference in Kenosha Thursday afternoon whether that report concerned […]
A ‘call to arms’ that filled Kenosha with combat weapons
The man who called gunmen to gather on the streets of Kenosha Tuesday night — culminating in the deaths of two people and an injury to a third — says he did so to keep the city safe. Despite the deaths, he believes they made it safer. Kevin Mathewson is a former Kenosha alder who […]
Lawsuit challenges Evers’ latest health emergency
A conservative public policy law firm filed suit Tuesday to overturn Gov. Tony Evers’ July 30 health emergency declaration, and with it the statewide mandatory mask requirement. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), which has been involved in several challenges to Evers’ powers as governor, sued on behalf of three Wisconsin residents. The […]
Kenosha shooting feels all too familiar for city resident Michael Bell
For Michael M. Bell, word Sunday that Kenosha Police had shot Jacob Blake in the back at close range replayed events from nearly 16 years ago. A Kenosha Police officer shot Bell’s son, Michael E. Bell, in the head Nov. 9, 2004, killing him — and sending the father on a crusade to reform the […]
Baldwin letter demands postal service reverse ‘harmful changes’
In a letter Tuesday to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, Sen. Tammy Baldwin is demanding that the postal service restore disconnected mail sorting machines, reverse orders that had barred letter carriers from making extra trips to deliver mail and ensure overtime for postal employees to provide timely mail delivery. “I am writing to demand that you […]
Testing for COVID-19 hits a slump
Testing for COVID-19 has hit a lull in Wisconsin, with many fewer people getting tests for the coronavirus than the state Department of Health Services (DHS) says is possible. There is more than one reason, and what’s behind that trend is unclear. Public concern about the disease may be diminishing, and reducing the demand for […]
State job picture improves, but full recovery is far off
Wisconsin’s pandemic jobs recovery continued in July, with the state restoring 30,500 jobs and the unemployment rate falling to 7%, the state Department of Workforce Development reported Thursday. The numbers are an improvement as the economy struggles back from record-breaking job losses in March and April that came with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic […]
Utility customers behind on their bills avoid cutoffs for another month
A statewide moratorium on shutting off power, water and other utilities got another extension Thursday, this time until Oct. 1. The state Public Service Commission voted 2-1 Thursday to extend the moratorium because of the continued COVID-19 pandemic and its disruption to the economy. The change prevents utilities from disconnecting service to customers who don’t […]
Pence paints a vibrant economic picture, but the numbers don’t match
Vice President Mike Pence got a friendly reception at a Walworth County factory on Wednesday, where he poked fun at the Democratic National Convention in its third day and boasted of numbers that depict an economy “roaring back” from the COVID-19 pandemic. Pence mocked the DNC organizers for forgoing an in-person convention, and Democratic nominee […]
Complaint questions omissions in Vos ethics filings
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has omitted certain business holdings from his most recent Statement of Economic Interest (SEI) filed with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission, state records show. Vos’ press secretary said shortly after an official complaint was filed Wednesday about the omissions that two of them were due to a “clerical error” that would be […]
Green Bay man sues over post office turmoil
A Northeast Wisconsin man filed a lawsuit Monday in an effort to stop what he described as “the sabotage” of the U.S. Postal Service by the Trump administration. Russell Beckman, a public school special education teacher, is representing himself in the lawsuit, although he told the Wisconsin Examiner he hopes a public interest law firm […]
Turning guns into garden tools
Fred Martin pulled out his tongs, gripping a piece of red-hot steel, from the forge and turned to place it on the anvil. Camille Mays brought the hammer down, pounding methodically at the glowing metal: a shard from a gun barrel. She hammered again and again, the metal head making a quick, sharp bark as […]