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This is a personal snapshot of inner city gun violence from a man who knows what it feels like: Claude Motley dropped off a friend late at night on W. Capitol Drive and paused to check his cellphone for emails. Motley, 43, was in Milwaukee for the class reunion of Milwaukee Tech High School from his current hometown of Charlotte, N.C., where he and his wife moved five years ago from Milwaukee to pursue business opportunities. They wanted to live somewhere else for various reasons, including their concern about rising violence in the city. Born and raised on the north...

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Politifact.com have been tracking Gov. Scott Walker’s election campaign promises through an online feature they call the “Walk-O-Meter” and can be found online at PolitifactWisconsin.com. There you will find that Walker has kept an overwhelming amount of his campaign promises out of the 65 they are tracking.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) called on state lawmakers Thursday to pass a bill in January that would repeal the Common Core standards and replace them with “standards set by people in Wisconsin.” According to the Wisconsin State Journal, Walker released a statement Thursday afternoon, just hours after two Republican state senators, Leah Vukmir and Paul Farrow, issued a joint press statement calling for a delay in the use of the Smarter Balanced Assessments (SBAC) that are aligned with the Common Core standards. Earlier in the year, Walker helped draft a bill that would create a state board to replace...

A prosecutor plans to charge a western Wisconsin police chief with a misdemeanor for allegedly registering a tea party leader on gay dating, pornography and federal health care websites. Monroe County District Attorney Kevin Croninger told The Associated Press he plans to charge Town of Campbell Police Chief Tim Kelemen with misdemeanor unlawful use of a computerized communication system Thursday afternoon. Kelemen would face up to $1,000 in fines and 90 days in jail if convicted, but would still be able to stay on as police chief. Only those with felony convictions or misdemeanor convictions related to domestic violence are...

MADISON, Wis. - The city of Madison may be called on to shelter between 150 to 250 unaccompanied and undocumented children who’ve come into the country through the Mexican border. Mayor Paul Soglin told News 3 the city is working with several community organizations to find a facility to shelter the children. The city is looking for a facility of at least 90,000 square feet, like unused grocery stores. The federal Department of Health and Human Services is asking all cities with more than 200,000 people to consider hosting children. All expenses would be paid by the federal government. Soglin...

MILWAUKEE — Children are crossing the border into the United States by the thousands to escape violence in South America. It has been happening since October, and Wisconsin is being called on to help shelter some of them. If and when that will happen is still up in the air. The federal government has given notice to a Milwaukee agency, Catholic Charities, that it may be called upon to help shelter hundreds of children in the Milwaukee area. In the Milwaukee area, Catholic Charities is waiting for word from the federal government on if and when the agency will house...

The U.S. Justice Department plans to get involved in Wisconsin’s voter ID lawsuit, Attorney General Eric Holder said in a recent interview. “We have already filed suit in Texas and North Carolina,” Holder said. “I expect that we are going to be filing in cases that are already in existence in Wisconsin as well as in Ohio.” Holder’s comments were made in an interview with ABC News that aired Sunday. Holder’s office confirmed the statement but would not elaborate on what kind of action was planned. Wisconsin’s Republican attorney general, J.B. Van Hollen, criticized Holder’s comments. “He should focus on...

Sierra Guyton put up a long fight, but on Sunday her young body finally succumbed to her injuries. It was two months ago that a dispute between two men ended in gunfire and 10-year-old Sierra was shot in the head as she played at the Clarke Street Elementary School playground. Sierra died about 1:35 a.m. Sunday at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. She was taken off life support June 25, but survived another 2 1/2 weeks. If an effort ever was needed to get young black men to put down their guns and settle their disputes in a sensible manner, this...

A proposal to eliminate the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is drawing opposition from groups that typically sit on opposite sides of the gun debate. The idea, advanced last week by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and a left-leaning think tank, also is drawing support from powerful Republicans, and some Democrats are indicating a willingness to at least discuss the idea. A longtime former top ATF supervisor said his former employer is hobbled by a lack of supervision and leadership and folding it into the FBI and other agencies has merit. "I am not surprised by the proposed...

Deep in the nation's Bible Belt, new signs emerged this weekend of an evolution among Republican governors on gay marriage, an explosive social issue that has divided American families and politics for years. While the Republican Party's religious conservatives continue to fight against same-sex marriage, its governors appear to be backing off their opposition— in their rhetoric, at least. For some, the shift may be more a matter of tone than substance as the GOP tries to attract new voters ahead of the midterm elections. Nonetheless, it is dramatic turn for a party that has long been defined by social...

Deep in the Bible Belt, new signs emerged this weekend of evolving views among Republican governors on gay marriage. While the Republican Party's religious conservatives continue to fight against same-sex marriage, its governors appear to be backing off their opposition – in their rhetoric, at least. For some, the shift may be more a matter of tone than substance as the GOP tries to attract new voters ahead of the midterm elections. Nonetheless, it is a dramatic turn for a party that has long been defined by social conservative values. "I don't think the Republican Party is fighting it," Wisconsin's...

A Milwaukee teenager allegedly carjacked one-too-many people, and now he may be paralyzed for the rest of his life. The 15-year-old was shot when he tried to carjack a woman who had a concealed carry permit.

Local Catholics protest outside Mayo-Franciscan hospital over the hospital's affiliation with Dr. Carl Rose. Local Wisconsin Catholics are organizing protests outside a La Crosse Catholic-affiliated hospital that they say is employing up to three abortionists on staff. While the protesters acknowledge that the abortionists don’t perform abortions at the Catholic hospital itself, they say it is unacceptable for the hospital to be affiliated with abortionists in any way, and are calling for the hospital to sever ties with the doctors. Leif and Karen Arvidson, who are spearheading the protests, say that they were galvanized into action after Dr. Carl Rose,...

A Milwaukee businessman uttered a racial slur to describe President Barack Obama during a news conference Wednesday in Waukesha City Hall that was organized by Wisconsin business leaders as part of a national call for immigration reform.

At least 13 people have been shot in Chicago at the start of the long holiday weekend, including a woman killed as she sat on a porch near Garfield Park and a man slain in front of a hair salon on the South Side, police said. ... The mother of the boy, Andrea Byes, said she is planning to move out of the two-flat where she lives with her children because of the violence, drug sales and loitering on the block. "I'm not surprised something like this happened," said Byes, 40. "It was a matter of time. They're all over...

July 3, 2014School board president rips Michelle O over lunch program: She was ‘elected by no one’ by Kyle Olson MUSKEGO, Wis. – There’s growing heartburn over federal school lunch regulations and now school board members are lashing out at First Lady Michelle Obama, the champion of the program overhaul.The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:“We believe that proper food nutrition and meal portion guidelines are best decided at a local level,” said Rick Petfalski, School Board president for the Muskego-Norway School District.Opting out of the program means Muskego-Norway will no longer receive federal money for its meals, but it also means...

MADISON – The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB) is urging voters to not use old voter registration forms in a press statement issued by the state’s elections authority on Tuesday. The reason for the advisory is because Governor Scott Walker signed into law new legislation that would require the proof of residency of a voter to be disclosed on the official form used for voter registration. Kevin Kennedy, the Director of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, said: “State law changed on April 4, and most voters who register must now provide proof of residence. The G.A.B. has revised the form...

SHEBOYGAN – On Monday, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said that immigration reform will not be decided by the Congress in the 2014 calendar year. The decision to not pursue immigration reform led President Barack Obama to consider taking executive action on the issue. Wisconsin Election Watch talked to all three Republican candidates running for the 6th Congressional District on where they stand on the issue of immigration reform. More: Glenn Grothman wins endorsement of Rick Santorum Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan) felt on whether Congress should pursue immigration reform that: “Not this year. First and foremost, we need to secure the...

BURLINGTON, VT – The cities of Burlington, Vermont, and Madison, Wisconsin have opted to suspend enforcement of their laws requiring pro-life sidewalk counselors to stay away from abortion facilities. Burlington City Attorney Eileen Blackwood said today the Supreme Court's ruling last week striking down a similar Massachusetts law convinced her that Burlington's ordinance – which requires counselors to stay 35 feet away from abortion facilities – violates the Constitution.

The United States government is actually suing a private American business for discriminating against Hispanic and Asian employees because they don’t speak English on the job. It involves a Green Bay Wisconsin metal and plastic manufacturer that fired a group of Hmong and Hispanic workers over their English skills, “even though those skills were not needed to perform their jobs,” according to the feds. More importantly, forcing employees to speak English in the U.S. violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, says the Obama administration. Here’s the twisted explanation from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the...