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Northwoods TV station calls for dismissal of Trump Campaign lawsuit

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A Northwoods TV station is calling a lawsuit filed by the Trump campaign frivolous.

The Trump administration filed suit last month against WJFW in Rhinelander over a political ad that aired which sought to tie President Trump’s words against the rising death toll of COVID-19.

The campaign called it defamatory, but WJFW says long standing First Amendment protections absolve them of wrongdoing. They state that a political opinion is protected and that his campaign has no standing to sue. They’re asking the federal court to dismiss the suit entirely. 

Tempers flare in State Supreme Court during oral arguments over Safer At Home lawsuit

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There were a lot of heated arguments on Tuesday as the State Supreme Court heard oral arguments over a challenge to Governor Evers Safer at Home order.

GOP Attorney Ryan Walsh argued that allowing DHS Secretary Andrea Palm to issue indefinite orders during a pandemic is an unconstitutional power grab.

“If the governor can use his Public Health secretary to exercise the police power over the state indefinitely the governor would never agree to any legislation, why would he agree to legislation?”

Assistant Attorney General Colin Roth says the legislature already has given the Governor the power to handle health crises. 

“And the idea that because the statute is passed under the legislature’s police power that the individual acts of execution under that police power statute are somehow legislative power I think it’s absurd. All you have to do is look at the criminal law statutes.”

Republicans want the court to strike down the order, but not right away, says Attorney Walsh.“Your honor, everyone understands that such an order would be absolutely devastating and extraordinarily unwise, and that is exactly why the legislature is asking for a six day stay of any order.”

Legislative Republicans want D H S Secretary Andrea Palm to meet with them to craft rules for the order, which could take two weeks to complete. Roth says that request is indicative of how Republicans feel about the case. “I think you can tell from the concession, that the order should be stayed, that the legislature has made. You understand exactly why they made that concession, because people will die if it disorder is enjoined with nothing to replace it.”

Roth was using the outbreak in Brown County as an example of why taking weeks to craft orders would be dangerous when Chief Justice Patience Roggensack said that was a special case. 

“That was due to the meatpacking, though. That’s where Brown County got the flare. It just wasn’t just the regular folks in Brown County.”

There were plenty of heated questions and positions laid out by the conservative members of the court. Justice Rebecca Bradley compared the state’s Safer At Home Order to the US Supreme Court’s Korematsu decision which legalized the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. 

“And that justified and I’m quoting assembling together and placing under guard all those of Japanese ancestry in assembly centers during World War II. Could the secretary under this broad delegation of legislative power or legislative like power order people out of their homes into centers where they are properly socially distanced in order to combat this pandemic?”

Justices met Tuesday evening in closed session but have not yet issued a decision in the case.

Kudos to Miss Carly as Wisconsin prison escapees are back in custody

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Kudos to Miss Carly. Rockford Police Chief Dan O’Shea said the operator of Miss Carly’s, a non-profit serving the homeless in the community, called police when two escaped Wisconsin prison inmates showed up Friday morning, looking for something to eat.

“Miss Carly, making the phone call, it does take a lot of courage.,” O’Shea said. “To recognize that somebody there could be dangerous, and to step away and make a phone call . . . that’s what we want every citizen to do. I’m not saying that every citizen would do that.”

The two inmates, 45-year-old Thomas Deering and 36-year-old James Robert Newman, were back in custody some 48 hours after their Thursday morning escape from Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage. Both were serving time for violent offenses.

“We applaud her and her staff for doing what absolutely needed to be done, to make sure these people go back to prison where they belong,” O’Shea said.

Two inmates escape from Portage prison

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Two prisoners at Columbia Correctional Institution have escaped. Portage police reported the escape early Thursday morning and said 46-year-old Thomas Deering and 36-year-old James Newman were believed heading towards Madison. They encouraged the public to stay indoors and make sure their homes and vehicles were locked.

 

James Newman (WI DOC)

Thomas Deering (WI DOC)

Online court records show Newman was convicted in Jackson County in 2016 of kidnapping, escape and theft, Deering was convicted of kidnapping, burglary and second-degree sexual assault in Milwaukee County in 2001.

Check your own coverage before buying extra COVID-19 insurance, says DATCP

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The COVID-19 crisis has a lot of people worried about their health coverage, and some scammers are out to bilk people out of their savings.

State consumer protection administrator Lara Sutherlin says many groups and companies are offering less than ideal health plans or even entirely phony offers for coverage. 

“You may see advertisements for these on the internet, through social media, or television, or maybe you might even be contacted directly over the phone to a robocall.”

Sutherlin says, as always, to read the fine print on a plan before you sign for it, and make sure your own insurance doesn’t cover something like telehealth before you make a purchase.

“These offers are often misleading or the benefits may be something you already have or you don’t need. If you already have health insurance check what is covered by your plan before buying any other additional benefits.”

If you don’t currently have health care, you could be covered under BadgerCare. Call 2-1-1 or contact the state at http://Access.Wisconsin.Gov to find out more.

Suspect named in central Wisconsin stabbing double homicide case

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A 22-year-old Marathon County man accused of stabbing two brothers may have planned the attack.

Court documents show Brandon Noll told investigators he had been planning to kill William and Michael Stone since early April, adding he had a life-long desire to kill and that Tuesday just felt like the day “he would do it.”

Noll is accused of stabbing both William and Michael in the home he shared with them along with his father and the Stone’s mother, then leading police on a chase that ended in Marshfield after he crashed one vehicle then stole another.

Noll is being held in the Marathon County jail on five million dollars bond for probable cause of first degree intentional homicide, formal charges against him are pending, and no further court action has been scheduled.

WSAU

Look out for scammers looking to make a quick buck selling COVID-19 cures, says DATCP

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Social media is swirling with fear and worry about the coronavirus, and that’s got plenty of crooks trying to make a quick buck.

State consumer protection administrator Lara Sutherlin says anyone who’s trying to sell you a cure at all is a scam artist. 

“We’re seeing scams around fake oils, fake vaccinations, fake home cures, because people are scared and these kinds of scams work.”)

Sutherlin says no multi level marketing product is going to help you. “There are no vaccines right now, and anybody who’s promising a cure for coronavirus is a fraudster and you should ignore them.”

The only way to prevent the spread of coronavirus is to stay home and practice good hygiene and social distancing.

 

ACLU of Wisconsin files suit to reduce prison population during pandemic

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Photo: WI Dept. of Corrections

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin wants fewer inmates in state prison during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit to that effect in the Wisconsin Supreme Court Friday. The organization claims that’s needed to avoid a dangerous outbreak that would further strain the state’s health care capacity and put public health at risk.

“Right now Wisconsin’s overcrowded prisons are a ticking time bomb that threatens the health of all Wisconsinites, especially people of color who are disproportionately impacted by mass incarceration,” said Chris Ott, ACLU of Wisconsin executive director. “The very modest steps taken so far by state officials are simply not enough to prevent an outbreak that would strain our hospital system, endanger public health, and claim thousands of lives. State officials have the power to avert this catastrophe – and they have to act now.” 

The suit, filed on behalf of two inmates with pre-existing conditions, state criminal defense lawyers, and Disability Rights Wisconsin, asks the court to order Governor Tony Evers and the Department of Corrections to reduce the prison population to a level where social distancing is possible, with priority to the elderly and those with conditions that increase their risk of COVID-19 complications and death.

According a press release announcing the lawsuit, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections holds almost 23,000 adults in facilities with a design capacity of 17,815, thus exceeding their capacity by more than 30%. 

The ACLU says so far DOC has reduced that population by just 1.3%, leaving tens of thousands of people incarcerated in overcrowded conditions where social distancing and other mitigation measures recommended by public health experts are impossible.

The lawsuit notes that an outbreak of COVID-19 in Wisconsin prisons could overwhelm available hospital beds and ICU units in communities where prisons are located.

UW-Madison Police investigating double homicide

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Two people are dead following a double homicide at the UW-Madison Arboretum.

UW Police are reporting that a jogger found two people, a man and a woman, lying in a ditch early Tuesday morning.

One person was dead on scene, while the other was transported to a hospital and died a short time later.

Police are still investigating, but say it does not have anything to do with a shooting at UW-Hospital Tuesday afternoon.

Charges filed in 2008 murder of UW student Brittany Zimmerman

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Brittany Zimmerman

Criminal charges were filed filed Friday in the murder of UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann. Interim Madison Police Chief Vic Wahl said 53-year-old David A. Kahl was charged in Dane County Circuit Court with first-degree intentional homicide.

Zimmerman’s murder took place on April 2, 2008 in her downtown Madison apartment. The 21-year-old Marshfield native was majoring in Medical Microbiology and Immunology.

Zimmermann’s killing “shook the Madison community and devastated her family, friends and hometown,” police said in a statement sent Friday.

Kahl, currently in prison on an unrelated charge, had been identified years ago as someone going door to door the day of Brittany’s murder, asking for money. A sample of Zimmerman’s clothing also had a DNA hit linked to Kahl.

WIBA