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Sheriff says Chippewa County killer may have been inspired by Jayme Closs case

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Much more is now known, about a pair of shootings in Chippewa County that left a total of a five people dead. But the motive that drove 33 year-old Richie German Jr. may remain unclear. “What was the motive? Why did this happen? I don’t have that answer,” said Chippewa County Sheriff Jim Kowalczyk during a Tuesday press conference. “We’re working on that answer. That question may never be answered.”

German killed his mother, 66 year-old Bridget German, brother, 32-year-old Douglas German, and Douglas’ eight year-old son Calvin Harris, all at Bridget German’s Lafayette home. Kowalczyk said he believes all three were dead by Saturday morning.

German was arrested following a domestic incident at his mother’s home in 2006, his only known contact with police. Kowalczyk called him a “troubled individual,” and said there are no indications that  German had a job or a car.

Sunday night, German shot and killed 24-year-old Laile Vang and himself at a Lake Hallie home, after shooting through the front door with a shotgun.

Vang’s parents, who were wounded, told police they did not know German. Sheriff Kowalczyk suggested German may have been attempting to kidnap Laile Vang, and compared the case to that of Jayme Closs kidnapper Jake Patterson, serving a life sentence for the murders the Barron teen’s parents.

Kowalczyk said Ritchie had exchanged text messages with Laile Vang, but that she also apparently did not know him. Her parents, 39-year-old Mai Chang Vang and 51-year-old Teng Vang were both shot, and both had to have an arm amputated. The parents are expected to recover.

NWS confirm nine tornadoes in weekend storms

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National Weather Service forecasters have confirmed nine tornado touchdowns across Wisconsin from weekend storms.

Friday night’s storm near Mosinee produced one of the biggest, an EF-1 that was on the ground for nearly ten minutes. Officials say that one uprooted hundreds of trees and damaged at least one barn while tearing the roofs off several other buildings.

No injuries were reported. Another EF-1 was reported near Pelican Lake in Oneida County- but N-W-S officials haven’t pegged any damage on that storm.

Another EF-1 was reported near Tripoli as well. Two additional touchdowns were reported near La Crosse, four others occurred from eastern Waupaca County into the Fox Valley

WSAU

Walker’s new job precludes run for office in 2022

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Governor Scott Walker (WRN photo)

It’s a new gig for Scott Walker. Walker tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he has accepted a full time job running the conservative group Young America’s Foundation.

Walker lost his bid for a third term as governor to Democrat Tony Evers, and says his new job will preclude another run for that office, or for U.S. Senate.  A post on the Young America’s Foundation website praises Walker. “Governor Walker courageously advanced freedom in a state that once was a “progressive” bastion. He championed right-to-work laws, right-to-life causes, and defended Wisconsin’s wage earners from over-reaching bureaucrats and tax collectors.”

Walker told the Journal Sentinel that he will not assume the presidency of the organization until 2021, when the current president steps down, and has committed to serve at least four years.

“I hope Scott Walker’s new employers in the D.C. area have a good contract with him,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair Ben Wikler, who noted that Walker launched his campaign for president in 2014, after earlier saying his plan was to serve as governor for four more years. “I’m not even thinking about taking Walker off the list of potential Republican contenders for the 2022 Senate seat.”

Young America’s Foundation was founded in 1969. The group’s stated mission is “to educate and inspire young people on Traditional values, Limited Government, Judeo-Christian values, and Conservatism”

 

Trump and Democrats to visit Wisconsin this week

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Donald Trump will be in Milwaukee this week for a fundraiser for Republicans. GOP officials have confirmed that the President will be at a private event alongside top Republican National Committee officials. There’s been no announcements of any public rally alongside the trip. Several Democrat candidates for President are also scheduled to be in Wisconsin this week for a town hall meeting.

WisPolitics reports that sources say the event will include donations ranging from $2,800 per person up to $100,000 per couple, with the top donors able to participate in a round table discussion with the president,. The event is also expected to include RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel and party Co-chair Tommy Hicks Jr., along with Todd Ricketts, co-owner of the Chicago Cubs and finance chair of the Trump Victory Committee.

Five Democratic presidential candidates bring their campaigns to Milwaukee later this week. Julian Castro, Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren will take part in a town hall meeting Thursday night at the Wisconsin Center. The League of United Latin American Citizens is holding its national convention. Marianne Williamson will speak to the same group Friday. Warren is also going to appear at a separate town hall meeting Thursday night at South Division High School.

Evers signs state budget, increases education funding through line item vetoes

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Governor Tony Evers has issued a partial veto of the state budget. At Wednesday’s signing, Evers said he’s excited to be able to return some of the things he promised to bring to Wisconsin residents when he was elected, including more school funding.

“And through the veto promise, I am adding nearly 100 million dollars more in per pupil aid for our schools compared to the budget that was passed by the legislature.”

Evers’ version of the budget restores funding for state youth prisons, allows the state prosecutor’s office to decide where new staff positions will be filled across the state, and cuts back on work requirements for food and health assistance programs.

Evers said his veto power couldn’t bring one of his biggest promises to fruition: the expansion of federal Medicaid funding for the state. “That’s why I’ll continue to fight for Medicaid expansion through separate legislation, future budget bills, and otherwise through every executive power I am afforded.

“Vetoing this budget in its entirety would have been more of the same divisiveness and petty political theatrics that the people of Wisconsin have had to put up with for far too long.”

Legislative Republicans say the relatively low number of vetoes shows that this was a good budget with lots of potential.

Madison mayor calls for gun control action in wake of Shake The Lake shooting

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Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway defends her statement in the immediate aftermath of Saturday night’s shooting at the city’s Shake The Lake fireworks show. “Because exactly then is when we need to be talking about the problem of guns,” the mayor said during a Monday press conference with Chief of Police Mike Koval.

One person was wounded Saturday in what police say was a shooting in which the suspect and the victim knew on another. That shooter remains at large. There were some 25,000 people at the show, one of the Midwest’s largest. “I understand that this was a very frightening event for a number of people, and I’m very sympathetic to that. That’s exactly why we have to talk now about what our country has to do to get a handle on gun violence. Because it is terrifying for people.”

Rhodes-Conway says her preference would be for federal legislation to decrease access to guns, but she also accused state legislators of not doing enough to let Wisconsin cities crack down. Our job is made more difficult by a state legislature that advances reckless gun laws and at the same time curtails the rights of cities to take further action,” the Mayor said in a Tweet.

Assembly Minority Leader Jim Steinke, in tweet of his own over the weekend, called the comment from Rhodes-Conway a “reckless and stupid accusation.”

Chief Mike Koval said the sort of shooting that occurred Saturday’s is becoming too common. “We have so many conflicts that are being resolved at the barrel of a gun these days, that in the past when I was a young copper in ’83 would’ve been a fistfight. Not any more.”

The mayor and chief commended the response to the shooting by Madison police and other personnel at the scene on Saturday, as well as the preparations that went into the event. Koval said lessons learned will help the city plan for similar large scale events in the future.

Republican leaders optimistic as budget heads to Governor Evers

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Governor Tony Evers WRN image

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has signed the completed state budget, and sent it on to Governor Tony Evers. It’s a budget the Republican Speaker sees as a compromise with the Democratic governor. “I think we did try to not just stick to what we believe in, but actually stick to what Governor Evers wanted, and tried to say where does it not conflict with our principles, and we could find that middle ground,” Vos said Friday at the Capitol.

The Speaker’s comments echo those made by Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. “Governor, please don’t veto the whole document,” Fitzgerald said Thursday. “It’s going to be very difficult . . . to pull this process back together to kind of build something that he would find acceptable.”

Evers formally requested on Thursday that the budget be sent to his office. “I’m optimistic that especially if you look at the things that are in here, that there is no good reason for the governor not to sign,” Vos said.

Eves now has six days to either sign the budget or announce his vetoes. Vos says he hopes those vetoes will be relatively minor.The Legislature finished work on the nearly $82 billion two year spending plan this week. It passed both chambers without a single Democratic vote.

Vos open to discussions on allowing medical marijuana for Wisconsin

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Speaker Robin Vos

Republican budget writers removed a provision in Governor Tony Evers’ budget to legalize medical marijuana, but the idea is budding anew at the Capitol, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos wants to look at legalizing medical marijuana in Wisconsin.

Evers’ budget also would have decriminalized recreational pot in some amounts. “I do not support recreational marijuana” Vos said Thursday at the Capitol. But the Speaker said this fall lawmakers could look at allowing medical marijuana in Wisconsin

“The goal would be to try to show people that there’s a path, to be able to talk about this, to discuss it,” Vos said. “To figure out maybe a Wisconsin way that isn’t like Illinois or Michigan or Minnesota.” Minnesota allows marijuana for medical use, Michigan allows it for recreational use, and Illinois Governor J.B. Priitzker this week signed a bill doing the same there.

“I’d much rather figure out a way to get to yes than just instantly say “well because it could lead to recreational marijuana I’m an automatic no,” Vos said.

State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald has thus far been skeptical about medical marijuana.
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SCOTUS ruling leaves Wisconsin’s partisan-drawn districts in place

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Republican-drawn political maps in Wisconsin appear likely to stay in place, after a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued Thursday. The decision effectively ends proceedings in Wisconsin, where a retrial was scheduled this summer after the Supreme Court last year threw out a decision on procedural grounds.

The court rejected challenges to Republican-drawn congressional districts in North Carolina and a Democratic district in Maryland. The decision could embolden political line-drawing for partisan gain after the 2020 census.

“We hope the high court’s ruling puts an end to the litigation in Wisconsin associated with redistricting,” Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, (R-Juneau) and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, (R-Rochester), said in a joint statement. “The Supreme Court has now confirmed what we have said all along – that it was not a matter for the federal courts to second guess the Legislature on these issues.”

Wisconsin Democrats were reacting to the news Thursday morning.

U.S. Representative Ron Kind said the decision will allow politicians to choose their voters, instead of their voters choosing them to choose their voters, instead of their voters choosing them. “This decision completely fails to protect our constitution and disenfranchises voters already lacking rights under the Equal Protection Clause. I wholeheartedly disagree with this ruling because it will increase the partisan divide in our country as we move forward,” the La Crosse Democrat said.

“Democrats believe every voter deserves to have their voice heard,” said state Senate Minority Leader, Senator Jennifer Shilling. “Republican efforts to suppress voters, restrict voting rights and rig elections through gerrymandered maps have undermined the will of the people.”

“Wisconsin’s heavily gerrymandering maps have created a complete lack of accountability for Republican legislators. The numbers confirm that Republicans have built an impenetrable electoral wall around themselves with no consequences for their actions,” said Assembly Minority Leader, Representative Gordon Hintz. “Today’s SCOTUS decision benefits politicians, not the people of Wisconsin.”

Governor Tony Evers said the Supreme Court’s decision about the politics of political maps is “devastating for our democracy.”

The governor said the decision to allow state legislature to draw their own political boundaries will allow politicians to pick their voters, rather than the other way around. The ruling all but ends a challenge to the Republican drawn map in Wisconsin.

State budget now headed to Governor Tony Evers

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Governor Tony Evers WRN image

The legislature has finished its budget work, now will the governor sign it? State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said Wednesday that members of his Republican caucus were “skittish” because of the potential for vetoes from Governor Tony Evers.

“I don’t ever remember a budget document getting this much scrutiny, prior to the legislature voting on it,” Fitzgerald said.

The state Senate passed the budget, 17-16, with Republicans David Craig & Steve Nass voting no along with all Democrats. Wednesday’s debate was not as long as that in the Assembly, which lasted 10 hours on Tuesday. The Republican Senate majority turned back a number of amendments offered by Democrats.

“The budget that is on its way to Governor Evers’ desk is incredibly disappointing compared to what he originally introduced,” said Senator Jon Erpenbach, a Democrat who serves on the Joint Finance Committee. As in the Assembly, Senate Democrats called out the majority for rejecting $1.2 billion of federal money to expand Medicaid, which had been the foundation of Evers’ “Peoples Budget.”

Still, Fitzgerald is optimistic that Evers will sign the package, which Republicans have characterized as a compromise.

“And I think he will. I’ve urged him every time that we’ve met in his office to give that a lot of thought,” Fitzgerald said. “I think it would be difficult to reassemble the legislature, bring them back, and then work on the policy decisions from a different perspective.”

Evers has a number of options now, from partial vetoes of the $81.7 billion spending plan, to vetoing the entire package.
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