KENOSHA PROTEST-SHOOTINGS

Man who bought gun for Kyle Rittenhouse pleads no contest

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The man who bought an AR-15-style rifle for Kyle Rittenhouse has pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in a deal with prosecutors to avoid prison. A Wisconsin judge accepted Dominick Black’s plea on Monday. Prosecutors dropped two felony counts of intent to deliver a dangerous weapon to a minor. Contributing to the delinquency of a minor is a non-criminal citation. Black was 18 when he purchased the rifle in May 2020. Rittenhouse was 17 and too young to buy a firearm. Three months later, Rittenhouse used the rifle to shoot three people at a Kenosha protest. He killed two of them. A jury acquitted him of multiple charges in November.

ELECTION 2022-WISCONSIN-GOVERNOR

Wisconsin gubernatorial campaigns hauling in massive funds

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers raised $10 million last year, while his top Republican challenger brought in $3.3 million in just four months. The massive fundraising totals announced Monday point to how expensive and hard fought the race will be in the battleground state. Evers released his fundraising totals just hours after Republican rival Rebecca Kleefisch, a former lieutenant governor, announced how much she raised since getting into the race in September. Another Republican, businessman Eric Hovde, says he is “seriously considering” getting into the race, as is 2018 U.S. Senate candidate Kevin Nicholson.

ATTORNEY GENERAL-DISCRIMINATION SUIT

DOJ official files suit on top of discrimination complaint

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A recently promoted Wisconsin Department of Justice official who has accused the agency of racial and sexual discrimination has filed a federal lawsuit against Attorney General Josh Kaul and his top deputy. Tina Virgil, the head of the Division of Criminal Investigation, states that her civil rights have been violated. Virgil says she was hired by Kaul at a salary below her predecessors, who were white men. She says she has more experience than any other DOJ administrators but was paid less than all of them at the time of her appointment. Gillian Drummond, a spokeswoman for Kaul, says the agency denies the allegations leveled in the new suit in an earlier complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,

ELECTION 2020-AUDITS-WISCONSIN

Lawmakers vote to force ballot drop box, corrections rules

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Legislature’s Republican-controlled rules committee has voted to force election officials to publish rules on absentee ballot drop boxes and corrections by early February, a move that will allow the committee to kill the policies. The Wisconsin Election Commission issued guidance as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning in 2020 that allows local clerks to create alternate sites for returning absentee ballots. The commission in 2016 issued guidance saying clerks could correct witness address mistakes on absentee ballot envelopes without contact the witness. Republicans believe both policies are ripe for fraud. The rules committee voted 6-4 Monday to require the commission publish the policies as emergency rules by Feb. 9. Once in rule form the committee can kill both policies.

ELECTION 2022-WISCONSIN-SENATE

Wisconsin’s Johnson goes on attack with campaign ads

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson has released a pair of television ads attempting to frame his reelection campaign he announced the day before as being about fixing a broken country. Meanwhile, Democrats are hitting Johnson for breaking his pledge not to serve more than two terms and are trying to paint him as an out-of-touch millionaire. The early salvos come in a race in a nearly evenly divided Wisconsin that’s expected to be one of the most expensive and hotly contested in the country with control of the U.S. Senate at play. There is a large field of Democratic candidates fighting both to win the Aug. 9 primary and take hits at Johnson along the way.

ELECTION 2020-AUDITS-WISCONSIN

Wisconsin judge rejects attempt to block election subpoena

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge has rejected an attempt by the state’s Democratic attorney general to block a subpoena issued by a Republican-hired attorney seeking to interview the state’s chief elections administrator as part of his investigation into the 2020 election. The ruling from Dane County Circuit Judge Rhonda Lanford is a victory for now for Michael Gableman, a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who was hired last year by Republicans to investigate the election. But it’s not going to end the ongoing legal fight over subpoenas he has issued as part of the ongoing probe.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-WISCONSIN

All Dane County jail inmates to be tested for coronavirus

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The National Guard has been summoned to help test nearly 600 inmates at the Dane County Jail for COVID-19 on Monday. Sheriff Kalvin Barrett says there are record high coronavirus cases at the jail where nearly 90 inmates of the 594 incarcerated have tested positive. Barrett says the jail population usually decreased in the wintertime, but not this year when an abnormally high number of inmates is putting further stress on the facility. The sheriff says they are running out of space. The National Guard had previously tested the jail’s population at the onset of the pandemic. 

ICE RESCUE-WISCONSIN

27 people rescued from floating ice chunk in Green Bay

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Authorities say 27 people were rescued from a floating chunk of ice that broke away from shore in the bay of Green Bay in eastern Wisconsin. The Brown County Sheriff’s Office said no injuries were reported in the incident that happened Saturday morning north of Green Bay, in the arm that’s part of Lake Michigan. Many of the people were believed to be ice fishing at the time of the incident. The sheriff’s office said the chunk of ice floated about three-quarters of a mile during the rescue and  was about a mile from the shoreline by the time everyone was brought to solid ground. Authorities say a barge traveling through the bay may have caused the ice chunk to break off the shoreline.