Month: September 2021

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A new political action committee headed by a longtime Republican operative has formed to help Rebecca Kleefisch win the governor’s race. Stephan Thompson announced Thursday that he will lead the new group known as Freedom Wisconsin. Thompson previously worked as head of the Wisconsin Republican Party, ran Gov. Scott Walker’s 2014 reelection campaign and served as an adviser to a group Kleefisch formed called the 1848 […]

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Tommy Thompson, the longest-serving governor in Wisconsin history and current interim president of the University of Wisconsin System, had surgery following a weekend water-skiing accident. The 79-year-old Thompson said in a Facebook post Thursday that he needed to "have my bicep reattached to the tendon.” UW spokesman Mark Pitsch says Thompson is resting and recovering following surgery Thursday and looking forward to getting back to work. […]

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Madison-area man had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Twenty-nine-year old Brandon Nelson appeared by video conference Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. on a charge of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. He faces six months in federal prison. Prosecutors say Nelson traveled from Madison with Abram Markofski, an […]

MILWAUKEE (AP) — First lady Jill Biden visited a Milwaukee elementary school to talk to parents and educators about the return to in-person learning and to promote direct federal funds for COVID-19 safety protocols.  Biden did not take questions from the media or comment on specific COVID protocols, such as school vaccine mandates or a city-wide mask mandate. Her visit comes days after health officials warned that COVID cases among […]

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Biden administration says federal protections may need to be restored for gray wolves in the western U.S. after Republican-led states made it much easier to kill the predators. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday that the region’s wolves face new potential perils, after a decades-long restoration was capped by their return to state management. Republican lawmakers in Montana and Idaho are intent on […]

It turns out a tentative Fond du Lac County supervisory district plan does include  one district resulting in two incumbent supervisors being forced to run against each other in next springs’ election.   The Fond du Lac County Board this week approved the tentative plan.  County Board chairman Marty Farrell says the plan puts supervisors in District 16 and District 4 in the same District.  Brooke Hills currently represents District 16 and Mike Will […]

MENOMONIE, Wis. (AP) — Sheriff's officials say one suspect has been arrested and a second suspect is being sought in connection with the fatal shootings of four people found in an abandoned SUV in western Wisconsin. Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Byrd says 56-year-old Darren Lee McWright, of St. Paul, Minnesota, who also uses the alias last name of Osborne, is being held in the Ramsey County Jail. Officials say a […]

A hearing  has been scheduled for  a Fond du Lac city councilmember’s request to reverse an Ethics Board ruling that he violated a section of the Ethics Code.   The hearing was scheduled  for November 19 following a scheduling conference via Zoom Thursday afternoon.   Councilmember Ben Giles claims that his constitutional right to due process was violated because he did not receive any advance notice of an Ethics Board hearing in February that he could […]

The Fond du Lac County Corporation Counsel is reviewing an email request signed by the leader of a Republican-ordered investigation into the 2020 Presidential election in Wisconsin.  The Corporation Counsel will decide how or whether the county will respond to the request by former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to retain all records related to the election and notify him if any had been destroyed.  Fond du Lac County Clerk Lisa Freiberg says she […]