Month: December 2021

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Republican state lawmaker says she’s running to be Wisconsin’s next secretary of state, saying she wants to turn the mostly powerless office into a check on the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission. State Rep. Amy Loudenbeck’s announcement Wednesday is the Republicans’ latest effort to weaken the agency that oversees the state’s elections. The 81-year-old Democratic incumbent, Doug La Follette, has held the office since 1978 but […]

The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a series of daytime burglaries.  Sheriff Dale Schmidt says  three separate burglaries  occurred recently in the Town of Clyman on County DJ, in the Town of Hustisford on Hillcrest Rd, and in the Town of Oak Grove on State Highway 33.  The thief or thieves stole small safes or cash.   Detectives are still trying to determine if the burglaries are related.  Schmidt says in all three […]

In  response to the Kyle Rittenhouse case a group of Democratic lawmakers have introduced a bill to make it illegal for anyone under 18 to carry a rifle or shotgun unless they are hunting.   Democratic state senator Melissa Agard of Madison says the bill closes a loophole that allows a minor to possess a long gun or rifle if the barrell is longer than 16 inches.  Prosecutors initially charged Rittenhouse with illegal possession […]

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona State University students angered that Kyle Rittenhouse had been a fellow classmate and could enroll again are protesting. Four student organizations planned to hold a rally Wednesday afternoon on the Tempe campus to urge the university to disavow the 18-year-old, who was acquitted of murder last month in the deadly shootings during last year’s unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In his testimony, Rittenhouse said he was […]

The state's leading small business association is encouraging Wisconsin residents to shop local this holiday season.  National Federation of Independent Businesses State Director in Wisconsin Bill Smith says small businesses continue to face numerous challenges.  Smith says the latest NFIB jobs report found 49 percent of its membership reporting job openings they could not fill.  Smith says the latest Small Business Economic Trends report found the percentage of small business owners expecting better […]

The Downtown Fond du Lac Partnership  has received a grant  designed to improve pedestrian safety in downtown Fond du Lac.  The $1,000 AARP Wisconsin Small Dollar, Big Impact grant will be used to purchase decals  asking riders of bicycles, skateboards and scooters to "Walk Your Wheels"   along Main Street in downtown Fond du Lac.  Executive director of the Downtown Fond du Lac Partnership Amy Hansen says for years there has been a problem of people […]

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana girl often called “The Little Cajun Saint” has been moved a second step toward actual sainthood. So have a teacher who evangelized door to door in Louisiana's Cajun country and a man who worked for decades at a Hansen’s disease colony in Hawaii. During its November meeting in Baltimore, the U.S. Conference of Bishops held voice votes  to advance the cause of beatification and […]

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A divided Wisconsin Supreme Court has sided with Republicans in a redistricting ruling that will lay the groundwork for drawing new political boundary lines. In a 4-3 ruling Tuesday, the court’s conservative majority said it will make as few changes as possible to the current maps drawn by Republicans and enacted a decade ago. Democrats and others have argued that those maps are so heavily skewed […]

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Republicans are working to discredit the bipartisan system they created to run elections in the state after President Joe Biden narrowly won last year's presidential race. The political battleground becomes the latest front in the national push by the GOP to exert more control over elections before the 2022 and 2024 elections. Wednesday will bring a flurry of election-related developments in the state, with both […]