Author
Sean Duffy’s former chief of staff sells pot
Chief of staff to former Wisconsin Congressman Sean Duffy is now working for a company that produces marijuana products. Pete Meachum, who worked for Duffy before the Congressman resigned in September, is now senior director for government affairs at the Cronos Group, according to a report in the insider government affairs publication Legistorm. Cronos Group, […]
Anti-sanctuary legislators warn of dangerous ‘criminal aliens’
A small group of Latino Wisconsinites, some in suits and ties, some in jeans, and some wearing T-shirts with the logo of the immigrant-rights group Voces de la Frontera, filed into the State Capitol Tuesday, for a hearing on a bill that would make it illegal for cities and towns to refuse to cooperate with […]
Push to purge Wisconsin voters goes to court Friday
Update: On Friday afternoon Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Paul Malloy ordered the state to purge the rolls of voters who may have moved. He also denied the League of Women Voters’ petition to intervene in the case. In issuing a writ of mandamus, the judge took the strongest action he could take, ordering the state to immediately comply […]
Report: millions wasted on Wisconsin charter schools that closed or never opened
A new report by the Network for Public Education, a group founded by public-education advocate and former U.S. Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, provides extensive, state-by-state data on waste in the federal charter schools program. In Wisconsin, 46% of charter schools that received federal start-up grants between 2006 and 2014 shut down or never opened […]
Biden’s run-in in Iowa is not a good sign
It’s not a good sign when your candidate starts doing pushups on the campaign trail to show that he’s fit for office. Just ask former Gov. Tommy Thompson, who dropped and ripped off 50 for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board during a contentious Republican Senate primary in 2012, right before he went on to […]
Trade deal presents political conundrum for Democrats
WASHINGTON — With only a few legislative days left before Congress adjourns for the year, House Democrats are eager to show that they can legislate while also pursuing an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. A massive trade deal represents their best shot at showing they can do so — but passing it would hand […]
All we want for Christmas is civility
My family attended the annual neighborhood holiday party at the governor’s mansion this year. My 13-year-old was pumped. The last time we went, she was 5. That was before eight long years of Gov. Scott Walker and the bitter polarization of politics in our state. The governor’s mansion, which looks like a mini White House, […]
League of Women Voters files motion to intervene in voter roll purge
Responding to a lawsuit that seeks to purge 234,000 Wisconsin voters who might have changed addresses from the voting rolls, the League of Women Voters filed a motion last Friday to intervene in Ozaukee County Circuit Court. The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed the lawsuit against the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) for not […]
Does the truth matter?
As one stand-up government official after another speaks credibly and directly about Trump’s “drug deal” in Ukraine — to borrow a phrase from that great progressive John Bolton — the Republicans, including Trump, have been bullying witnesses, conducting a smear campaign against a highly respected ambassador who bravely fought corruption, and questioning the loyalty of […]
Wisconsinites cool on impeachment even as hearings heat up
On the same day Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified to the House Intelligence Committee about an explicit quid-pro-quo offer from the Trump administration to Ukraine, the new Marquette University Law School poll showed support for impeachment has declined among Wisconsinites. Why is that? “On the Republican side it’s not hard to understand,” says poll director Charles […]
Supreme Court candidates differentiate themselves in heated first debate
In their first debate the three candidates for Wisconsin Supreme Court laid out radically different approaches to the law. Dane County Judge Jill Karofsky wasted no time in attacking incumbent Justice Daniel Kelly. In the opening moments of the debate, Karofsky declared, “I find it amazing that we have a justice on the Supreme Court […]
Ron Johnson slams Vindman, says only president can determine foreign policy
In a letter to House Republicans on Monday, Wisconsin’s U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson evoked Hillary Clinton’s emails and questioned the loyalty of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. Johnson, a Republican, addressed the letter to Reps Jim Jordan of Ohio and and Devin Nunes of California, who had requested “any firsthand information … about President Trump’s actions […]