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Rep. Moore proud of her vote on Justice in Policing Act on police reform

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Congresswoman Gwen Moore says he’s proud of her vote on the Democrat backed Justice in Policing Act.

Moore says the goal of the bill is to rein in police departments that mistreat the public that they’re supposed to be serving. 

“That addresses police misconduct, outlawing racial profiling, chokeholds, the no-knock warrants that killed Breonna Taylor.”

Moore says one important part of that bill is removing military equipment from departments. That equipment was sold as surplus to police as the US Military pulled back from the war on terror. 

“So it felt like a really good idea, until we say, actually, what that looked like on the ground in real time.”

Moore says police departments need to actually protect and serve their communities, rather than be a standing army in military gear. 

“And so to the extent that police departments are behaving more like military units, I think it was important to send that message.”

Be careful picking a long distance moving company, says BBB Wisconsin

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If you’re planning a summer move to a new home, be sure you’re finding a safe, reputable moving company.

Tiffany Schultz with the Better Business Bureau says the danger in getting scammed is that you might not see it coming until the movers have your entire home on a truck under a lock and key. 

“And that’s where you get caught because you’re giving them money so you can get your goods over and above what you were expecting to pay and over and above what a legitimate company would be charging you.”

Scultz says it’s important to do more research than just a simple Google search for ‘moving companies near me’ because scammers like to pay for ads to put their names at the top of search results.  

“You also want to read reviews on moving companies. You want to check with friends and family. Ask for references from the moving company. If the moving company can provide you with some references, actually call them.”

Also be sure to take a really good look at that contract before you sign it.

“Goods are moved with the weight of them and they’re priced according to weight they’re not priced according to volume so if somebody asks you how many pieces you have, that could be a red flag.”

She says it’s good to consult with a number of companies, and to be sure to do some research or check their reviews online at reputable sites like the BBB or trade unions. 

State Senator Tim Carpenter assaulted during overnight unrest in Madison

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A Wisconsin state Senator said he was attacked by protesters overnight as he was heading to the State Capitol Building.  A  WKOW 27 News crew came across Senator Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) around midnight.  Carpenter said he was assaulted for taking a photo of the protest, an incident he apparently captured in a cell phone video which he posted to Twitter.

A few moments later Carpenter collapsed and an ambulance was called. He was able to get into the emergency vehicle on his own.

Also overnight, two statues on the grounds of the Capitol were taken down, during demonstrations over the Tuesday arrest of an activist. Protesters were demanding the release from jail of 28-year-old Devonere Johnson

Police took Johnson into custody outside a downtown restaurant at around 12:30 p.m. He was tentatively charged with disorderly conduct while armed, resisting arrest and attempted escape.

The Madison Police Department shared video of Johnson inside Coopers Tavern, and of his arrest. The footage inside the Tavern shows Johnson emphasizing that he is disturbing the restaurant and holding a baseball bat while speaking through a bullhorn.  Johnson followed a man into the restaurant that he called a racist.

The two statues that protesters pulled down were of Forward, which normally stands outside the State Capitol at the top of State Street. and left it lying in the middle of the road.

The same group also tore down the Colonel Hans Christian Heg statue on the opposite side of the Capitol a short time later. That statue was then thrown into Lake Monona. Heg was Norwegian immigrant who was killed in action while fighting in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Senator Baldwin backs sweeping federal police reform bill

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Senator Tammy Baldwin is backing a sweeping bill to overhaul how police departments are run in the United States.

Baldwin says too often police have to deal with issues that they’ve never been trained for. 

“They often become mental health counselors, social workers, dealing with addiction issues that should be handled by other professionals and would result in greater community safety if we made those investments.”

Baldwin says having a public safety presence through policing shouldn’t change. “But I do think it’s healthy when we take more than a moment to look at what we’ve built and what might be better to promote safety in our communities.”

Among its many proposals, the bill will peel back qualified immunity laws that protect police from being sued, require more reporting on use of force by police departments, and create a federal registry of police officers who are fired from their jobs for misconduct.

More charges filed in massive embezzlement case in Portage County

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Portage County prosecutors keep uncovering more and more victims in an embezzlement case against a Plover construction company.

Charges filed on Tuesday claim that 47 year old Jeffery Feist has stolen nearly 700-thousand dollars. The Point/Plover Metrowire reports that Plover Police started investigating last October after getting reports that Feist had not been paying his subcontractors and instead was allegedly forging documents to get payments from a title company.

Feist currently faces over 140 charges in the case and more could be filed as investigators untangle his business reports.

Feist is currently being held on a 10-thousand dollar cash bond.

Attorney says Steven Avery has contracted coronavirus

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Convicted killer Steven Avery has reportedly contracted COVID-19. Avery’s former attorney Jerome Buting tweeted that Avery caught coronavirus while in prison for the murder of Teresa Halbach.

He is reportedly doing well, and has been confined to his cell in quarantine. Avery has long maintained his innocence, but has repeatedly been denied new trials, including just last week.

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.