In September of 2020, then-Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett proposed cutting 120 police officers from about 1,800 budgeted positions in the 2021 budget.
Barrett proposed the cuts, in part, due to budget constraints amid a national and local clamor to divert resources from policing just four months after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police.
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The plan to use more than $600 million in taxpayer money to pay for work in American Family field and keep the Brewers in Milwaukee until 2050 is not done, but the pitch for the funding package is set.
State Rep. Rob Brooks, R-Saukville, told lawmakers Thursday at the first public hearing in the stadium funding package that only Milwaukee and Milwaukee County will be paying for the stadium.
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It remains to be seen just how quickly the return of abortion in Wisconsin will end up before a judge after Planned Parenthood on Monday started offering abortion services at its clinics in Milwaukee and Madison.
“Thank you so much for your enthusiasm that PPWI has restarted abortion services! We are as thrilled as you are! We haven’t been able to respond to all our DMs, comment on every thread about abortion, or talk to you individually about how you can help (but we’re trying),” Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin said on social media Monday.
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Donald Trump’s decision to skip the first Republican primary debate left a huge vacuum on the stage in Milwaukee. That vacuum was filled by Vivek Ramaswamy, who showed poise, conviction, and grace under fire – in the process making most of his opponents look like the career politicians they are.
Like Trump, Ramaswamy is a businessman who feels called to run for office because he sees that the country is facing dark times and needs to be saved from the political establishment, which prioritizes self-interest and the status quo over patriotism and the sort of decisive action that our country needs.
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Chicago is the latest major city to sue Hyundai and Kia for failing to equip their U.S. cars for more than a decade with anti-theft technology, which was exposed on social media last year and made the vehicles a target for criminals.
“Unlike the movies, hot-wiring vehicles is far harder than it appears—unless that vehicle was manufactured by Hyundai or Kia,” the lawsuit filed Thursday by the city of Chicago states.
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Fox News barred The Star News Network access to the all-important Spin Room at Wednesday’s first Republican presidential primary debate in Milwaukee, blocking access to the candidates and they’re surrogates.
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For those who thought a Trump-less GOP presidential primary debate was doomed to be a snooze fest, the two-hour political bar brawl disabused them of that notion.
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The opening debate of the 2024 presidential primary season won’t have Donald Trump, but it won’t be lacking memorable moments.
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Former President Donald Trump on Sunday said he is not going to participate in the 2024 Republican presidential primary debates after a new poll showed that he is far ahead of all other GOP candidates.
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Brian Schimming is one busy guy these days.
Schimming, chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, is spending a lot of time fielding calls from media, campaigns and fellow Republicans preparing to descend on Milwaukee next Wednesday for the first debate of the presidential primary season.
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So much for Senate decorum.
Wisconsin state Senator LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) dropped the f-bomb — and another bad word to boot — during Wednesday’s budget debate.
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State Representative Janel Brandtjen (R-Menomonee Falls) is urging the Wisconsin Elections Commission to fire Meagan Wolfe, WEC’s controversial administrator.
The commission meets at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday to take up Wolfe’s re-appointment to a four-year term. Her current term ends Friday.
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After a season of spending, the Wisconsin Legislature is finally getting around to talking tax cuts. Perhaps Republicans have saved the best for last.
The Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee put the finishing touches on a complete rewrite of Democrat Governor Tony Evers’ 2023-25 state budget proposal, passing a tax reform package that promises to deliver $3.5 billion in income tax cuts and nearly $800 million in property tax relief.
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School choice in Wisconsin would get a huge funding boost, and Milwaukee and Milwaukee County would stave off financial devastation in deals announced Wednesday.
Just when it appeared the Milwaukee portion of a massive state shared revenue plan was on the brink of collapse, the Republican-controlled Legislature reached an agreement with Democrat Governor Tony Evers that will allow pension debt-ridden Milwaukee County and the city to put in place a new sales tax — without having to ask their voters to do so.
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The top Republican in the Wisconsin Senate says there are not enough Republican votes to change the plan for a Milwaukee sales tax increase.
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said on UPFRONT over the weekend that he doesn’t have the 17 votes needed to pass a plan that would allow Milwaukee and Milwaukee County leaders to raise taxes, as opposed to putting the question to voters.
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Milwaukee’s looming fiscal cliff and the lack of an agreement on shared revenue at the Wisconsin Capitol have earned the city a credit downgrade.
Fitch Ratings on Wednesday downgraded Milwaukee’s credit from A to Triple-B+, with a negative outlook.
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Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy has risen in the polls to a top 5 candidate. Now the Ohio businessman and political outsider has secured a spot on the Republican National Committee debate stage.
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In need of quiet solitude not long ago, I did the obvious: I got on Milwaukee’s streetcar, The Hop.
It did not disappoint: In all, five people Hopped on, then off, as we trundled 2.1 miles across downtown.
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Republican leadership is blasting Governor Tony Evers for threatening to kill a bill that would boost state shared revenue and bail out financially troubled Milwaukee.
The liberal governor, however, isn’t the only critic of the legislation that pours hundreds of millions of dollars of new taxpayer revenue into Badger State towns, villages, cities and counties.
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Republican lawmakers this week unveiled a shared revenue plan that would boost state funds for counties and municipalities and give authority to fiscally troubled Milwaukee and Milwaukee County to set and boost sales taxes.
But will taxpayers around the Badger State be forced to pay for Milwaukee’s mistakes?
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The biggest parties in U.S. politics will be held in two of the more dangerous cities in America.
A former conservative sheriff who has been an equal-opportunity critic of Democrats and Republicans wants to know what convention organizers are thinking.
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Republican lawmakers at the Wisconsin Capitol want to stop local governments from paying people just because.
A plan at the Capitol, AB 146, would ban local governments across Wisconsin from using public dollars to pay for a guaranteed income program.
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Subsidiaries of behemoth concert promoter Live Nation Entertainment received $20 million in federal COVID grants that they were not entitled to, according to a Wisconsin Daily Star review of documents.
Madison-based Frank Productions Concerts, LLC and National Shows 2, LLC of Delaware, each received $10 million from the Small Business Administration’s Shuttered Venues Operator Grant (SVOG) program — funding that was clearly marked for independent operators, not subsidiaries of publicly traded companies.
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Sick of the recurring violence going on in classrooms, hallways and gymnasiums, parent Kate Bertram last week told the Wauwatosa School Board that the “new pandemic in Wauwatosa schools is a lack of accountability.”
A Republican-led bill passed Tuesday in the Assembly demands more accountability from Wisconsin’s schools in tracking crime.
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Last week, following the killing of police officer Peter Jerving, local and state leaders alike called for change to stop the senseless, preventable, tragic violence in Milwaukee. And they’re right. While the causes of violence are many, solving the crisis that is the Milwaukee criminal justice system would go a long way.
Let’s start with the front line – police officers and police policies.
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On this National School Choice Week, a new study by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty shows parental choice programs continuing to outperform public schools, particularly in the state’s largest city.
“Apples to Apples: Accessing Wisconsin State of Education”, accesses Badger State educational performance across public, charter, and private voucher schools.
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The Republican National Committee on Wednesday announced plans to hold its 2024 convention from July 15-18, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the GOP will select its 2024 presidential nominee.
“We look forward to our continued work with the beautiful city of Milwaukee to make this convention week a success. Republicans will stand united in Milwaukee in 2024 to share our message of freedom and opportunity with the world,” RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said.
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A United States Postal Service carrier was shot and killed in Milwaukee, Wisc., on Friday evening, authorities said.
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Wisconsin Republicans are losing one of their longtime leaders in the state Senate.
Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, is retiring. Darling has been in the Senate in Madison since 1992. She made her announcement on Wednesday.
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Milwaukee’s get-out-the-vote partnership with a liberal/progressive firm is not technically against the law, so a judge is not going to stop it.
Milwaukee County Judge Gwendolyn Connolly on Friday refused to grant the Republican Party of Wisconsin a temporary restraining order against Milwaukee Votes 2022, the city-backed privately funded get-out-the-vote effort with GPS Impact.
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There are now questions from Washington about Milwaukee’s get out the vote effort this fall.
Wisconsin Republican Congressman Bryan Steil joined two other congressmen in asking the city to explain just what the Milwaukee Votes 2022 Campaign is about.
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If it weren’t for federal dollars, Milwaukee’s bad 2023 budget would be much worse.
A new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum makes the case that Milwaukee is simply postponing an inevitable fiscal crisis for another year or so with Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s latest spending proposal.
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A lawsuit is brewing over Milwaukee’s 2022 get-out-the-vote effort.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin on Wednesday filed an open records lawsuit against Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and the city’s Elections Commission.
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There is, apparently, a limit to what Milwaukee County considers coronavirus-related relief.
Milwaukee County’s American Rescue Plan Act Task Force last week unanimously rejected a proposal to spend $19 million of ARPA dollars to rehabilitate the Mitchell Park Domes.
“This Task Force has spent millions of dollars on initiatives to ensure that houses in suburban Milwaukee aren’t falling into disrepair, potentially rushing foreclosures.
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The Site Selection Committee of the Republican National Committee voted to recommend Milwaukee as the host city of the group’s 2024 convention.
In a statement announcing the decision, GOP leaders pointed to the “forthright and professional behavior” of the city’s leaders throughout the process.
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A number of Wisconsin’s progressive advocates and big labor unions want Milwaukee to abandon plans to host the Republican National Convention because they don’t like Republicans’ politics.
Voces de la Frontera Action, Power to the Polls, the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, Never Again is Now, and SEIU all signed on to an open letter Tuesday asking Milwaukee’s city council to reject a contract that would be necessary for Milwaukee to host the RNC in 2024.
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The Republicans running for governor in Wisconsin are promising more cops, more prisons, and say they’ll fire prosecutors who don’t get tough on crime after a violent weekend in Milwaukee that saw more than two dozen people shot.
Milwaukee Police say Friday night’s shootings near the Deer District wounded 21 people. Another of those shootings saw 17 people shot. A string of shootings on Sunday saw another five people shot, including two people who died.
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There’s a lot of talk about doing something about guns after Milwaukee’s most violent weekend of the year.
Milwaukee Police say more than 20 people were shot in separate shootings Saturday and Sunday. Three of the gunshot victims died, including a 10-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl.
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Cavalier Johnson, former Alderman for Milwaukee’s 2nd District, has been elected Mayor of Milwaukee. On Tuesday night, former Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan conceded to Johnson in the race after early election results showed Johnson leading by nearly 40,000 votes.
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Three Milwaukee, Wisconsin, officials face accusations of illegally taking “Zuck Bucks” to facilitate voting by purchasing absentee ballot drop boxes, among other things, according to a lawsuit filed by the Thomas More Society.
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Claiming government officials violated state election law, a lawsuit was filed Wednesday against the acting mayor, the former mayor and the city clerk of Milwaukee, Wisc.
Milwaukee voter Jim Engstrand, represented by the Thomas More Society, filed the complaint before the state’s Elections Commission.
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Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Thursday announced a new grant for Milwaukee and Milwaukee County that will award approximately $25 million to the region.
The money, which was awarded to the state through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), will go to affordable housing and other issues in the region. For example, child care services and libraries will see a boost in funding.
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The latest school choice plan in Wisconsin would break up Milwaukee’s public schools.
Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, introduced the plan.
“Wisconsin was the first state to give parents more say in their children’s education and future. We have an opportunity to build on our reputation and reclaim our status as a national model for reforming K-12 education,” Darling said in a statement.
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Milwaukee Public Schools voted to extend virtual learning another week, after making the last minute decision to not have in-person classes following Winter Break, which Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) said is based on ‘outdated science.’
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A Wisconsin university has announced that they will be requiring the COVID booster shot for their students and “strongly recommending” it for faculty and staff. Marquette University, located in Milwaukee, has announced that all eligible students will need to have received a booster shot of the COVID vaccine by February 1.
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Wisconsin Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) criticized distance learning, saying that it’s “not a substitute” for in-person learning. Gallaher made the comments about distance learning following the announcement that Milwaukee and Madison schools reverted to online schooling for the first several days back after Christmas break.
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A new statewide Wisconsin law will now require law enforcement officers to stop other officers from using excessive force. TMJ4 reported that this law has been in effect in the city of Milwaukee since 2013, but the data on its effectiveness is “inconclusive.”
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Teachers from Milwaukee, Madison, and Green Bay have signed a pledge to teach Critical Race Theory in schools. The pledge, started by the Zinn Education Project, had over 7,500 signees in the end of October, which was the last time an update about the petition was posted.
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The city of Kenosha is on edge as the jury verdict nears in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. Reports have been coming in sharing videos of rising tensions on the courthouse steps and accusations are flying of more individuals attempting to doxx jurors.
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A “Citywide Intergenerational Peace March” was held in Milwaukee on Saturday by community members in response to the rising levels of violence. WISN 12 reported that this year, Milwaukee has had 152 homicides, and 710 non-fatal shootings to date, which is more than double the number of shootings from 2019.
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