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Beware of scammers offering to get you a COVID-19 vaccine for cash, says DATCP

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The state’s consumer protection division has been getting reports of scammers trying to trick people into paying to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Administrator Lara Sutherlin says those scams have come in various forms, from spam emails to robocalls to text messages.

Sutherlin says these claims fall squarely into the realm of ‘too good to be true’.

“What’s clear is you cannot pay someone to get on a list to get it faster and that’s what the scammers are often telling folks.”

“So if you’re getting unsolicited emails or texts or phone calls from people and entities telling you we can get you the vaccine and we can get it faster, you should ignore those emails.”

If you’re worried about getting a vaccine, contact your doctor or insurance company, and never ever pay someone who calls you out of the blue asking for gift cards, prepaid debit cards or money orders.

Gallagher blames President Trump and Republicans for violence at US Capitol

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Congressman Mike Gallagher says that Wednesday’s riots and violence at the US Capitol was an unavoidable outcome of the rhetoric from far right Republicans and President Donald Trump.

The Green Bay Republican said Republicans in the House and Senate and the President are the root cause of the violence. 

“This is the cost of this effort. This is the cost of countenancing an effort by Congress to overturn the election and telling thousands of people that there was a legitimate shot of overturning the election today.”

Gallagher called on the President to call off the protestors in order to protect the integrity of the United States. 

“We have got to stop this. Mr. President you have got to stop this. You are the only person who can call this off.”

Gallagher, who represents the 8th Congressional District in northeast Wisconsin, says that efforts by Republicans, who knew that their challenges to the Electoral College were bound to fail, emboldened the protestors and led to the evacuation of the Capitol and the delay of the certification.

Kenosha Co. D.A. won’t file charges in Jacob Blake shooting

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Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey will face no criminal charges for the August shooting of Jacob Blake.

“It is my decision now, that I announce here before you, that no Kenosha police officer will be charged with any offense, based on the facts and the laws,” Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Gravely said Tuesday.

Gravely also said Blake will not be charged in connection with allegations of resisting and officer. Sheskey shot Blake seven times in the back, leaving him paralyzed.

Graveley, in deciding not to charge Sheskey or two other officers at the scene, said he  would have to “disprove the clear expression of these officers that they had to fire a weapon to defend themselves.” He said he did not believe he “would be able to prove that the privilege of self-defense is not available.” He said it was shown that Blake had a knife in his possession.

Benjamin Crump, and attorney for the Blake family said in statement “We will continue to press forward with our own investigation and fight for systemic change in policing and transparency at all levels.”

A federal civil rights investigation is ongoing, according to a statement Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Rittenhouse pleads not guilty to charges in Kenosha murder case

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Accused Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse pleaded not guilty to all charges in a short hearing on Tuesday.

Rittenhouse is accused of shooting and killing two protesters and wounding a third during protests and unrest in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

He’ll be back in court in March for a pretrial conference. Rittenhouse remains free on a $2 million cash bond. 

Sen. Johnson continues to insist on investigations into the November election

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US Senator Ron Johnson is continuing to push for investigations into the November presidential election, even as most of the nation prepares for President-elect Joe Biden to take office in January.

On Fox News on Wednesday, Johnson brought up the idea during an interview about the stimulus vote. 

“I personally think we do have to take a look at what happened in the election. We can’t just forget it and move on like Democrats want us to. We need to seriously consider what fraud did occur. The other types of… lack of transparency, the problems that we did have, the irregularities in this election need to be examined and they need to be corrected for the next election.”

Those claims of fraud and misconduct have consistently fallen short in court, and the Trump Campaign has lost nearly every single legal challenge it’s brought forward. 

The campaign is pushing to bring a failed federal court challenge in Wisconsin to the US Supreme Court.

 

Health-care worker ‘intentionally’ ruined more than 500 coronavirus vaccine doses at Grafton hospital

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Advocate Aurora Health says 57 vials of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine were deliberately removed from a refrigerator.

Aurora initially thought what occurred last weekend at its Grafton hospital was an “error,” which resulted in 500 doses being discarded. But the health care provider said in a Wednesday update that after an internal investigation, an employee acknowledged that they intentionally removed the vaccine from refrigeration.

That person has been fired, and appropriate authorities have been notified for further investigation.

The Grafton Police Department said in a statement late Wednesday that it was notified by Aurora shortly after 6 p.m. “regarding an employee tampering with vials of the COVID-19 vaccine” at its hospital, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The incident is being investigated by the FBI and the Food and Drug Administration as well as Grafton police, according to the statement.

Federal appeals court again rejects Trump Campaign challenge to Wisconsin election results

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It’s yet another legal defeat for the Trump Campaign in their efforts to overturn the results of the Wisconsin presidential election.

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously on Thursday that the Trump Campaign waited too long to complain about how the election was handled, and that their reasons for objecting were faulty.

The Campaign was trying to argue that the Elections Commission should not have allowed local clerks to complete address fields on absentee ballots, and that drop boxes were an illegal way to collect ballots.

The court stated that if the campaign wanted to complain about those decisions, they should have done so before the election.

State Supreme Court to hear case on digital privacy and evidence collection

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The State Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could define how police are allowed to search and use cell phones as part of their investigations.

George Burch was convicted in 2018 in the murder of Nichole VanderHeyden in Green Bay. Police caught Burch by connecting him to the case with the use of cell phone data that they had gathered from him while downloading his text messages several months before in an unrelated case.

At issue is whether or not police should have retained that phone data past the point of the previous investigation. There’s also a discussion to what extent police can actually search your phone when you give consent to only parts of the data on the device.

Lac du Flambeau man denied appeal in brutal murder in Iron County

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The State Supreme Court has denied an appeal to one of several men convicted in a brutal murder in northern Wisconsin.

Joseph Lussier was convicted in 2018 in the death of Wayne Valliere Jr. Police say Lussier and four other men drove Valliere out to rural Iron County and shot and beat him to death before hiding his body.

Lussier says that a judge was wrong to immediately sentence him to life in prison without giving him a chance to have a full sentencing investigation. The appeals court disagreed, and said that Lussier was properly informed by the judge that he could be sentenced after a jury reached a verdict.

The State Supreme Court decided on Thursday to not to hear a further appeal.

Former Golden Guernsey Dairy will pay fired workers as part of bankruptcy

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Workers that were unexpectedly fired when Golden Guernsey Dairy closed in 2013 are going to be getting checks.

Attorney General Josh Kaul says that any worker who puts in their time ought to be paid for it, even after the company no longer exists. 

“That can have an enormous impact on a family and recovering those funds is a huge deal for the families that are impacted.”)

Golden Guernsey closed unexpectedly in 2013, and didn’t notify the state or pay their workers.  “Unfortunately the bankruptcy process can take a while and that’s what happened in this case.”

Each employee will be eligible for over 11-thousand dollars in wages, and more if there’s money left while the proceedings continue.