Free Republic

MADISON, Wis. -- On Friday, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway announced she would end her bid for reelection over threats and harassment. "The price of being in public office has gotten too high," Mayor Rhodes-Conway said in a TV-exclusive interview with News 3 Now's political reporter and "For the Record" host Elly Laliberte. The news broke amid rising threats against mayors, common council members, and other local officials around the country. In a report from the Brennan Center for Justice published in 2024, more than 18% of local officeholders said they experienced threats or attacks in the 18 months prior to...

MADISON, WI — Hundreds of people gathered Saturday for another "No Kings" rally in Madison. Protesters began at James Madison Park and marched peacefully to the Wisconsin State Capitol. The rally was one of thousands held nationwide to promote early voting and encourage people to head to the polls. Previous "No Kings" demonstrations largely focused on protesting Trump administration policies. This time, participants said the event was about bringing people together, regardless of ideological differences. “I think it’s really important that people come together. I’m OK with different opinions,” said Charlie Berthoud, a protester and local pastor. Madison’s "No Kings"...

The state’s 1,800 municipal clerks are prohibited from using President Donald Trump’s federal voter database intended to flag noncitizen voters, the Wisconsin Elections Commission ruled Friday. Accessing the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database would be “impossible” because state law bars clerks from sharing voters' personal information, the bipartisan commission determined in a unanimous vote. That law supersedes a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month that allowed the Trump administration to move ahead with creating the database, commissioners said. Despite voting for the guidance, Republican commissioner Robert Spindell said he was frustrated with the two other Republicans on the board,...

Wisconsin election officials say a loss of trust in the U.S. Postal service is likely behind a roughly 30 percent decline in the number of absentee ballots received three weeks ahead of the November election. As of Tuesday, the Wisconsin Elections Commission reported clerks have gotten around 128,000 absentee ballots. Three weeks out from the 2022 election, clerks reported getting nearly 184,000 ballots by mail. During a Tuesday press conference in Madison, Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe was joined by Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell and acting Madison Clerk Kaitlyn Bernarde. McDonell was asked why he thinks the number...

Wisconsin voters will decide in November whether to approve three proposed amendments to the state Constitution. The Republican-led Legislature has placed three separate questions on the ballot. The proposed amendments would: *Prohibit the governor from using the partial veto power to create a new tax or fee. *Prohibit the government from ordering the closure of places of worship during an emergency. *Bar the government entities from discriminating against or providing preferential treatment to individuals based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. Under Wisconsin law, a proposed constitutional amendment must pass the state Legislature in the exact same form...

MILWAUKEE - Abortion hasn't been a major focus in the race for Wisconsin governor, but with just four weeks to go, Democrat David Crowley is making a new push. Constitutional amendment? What they're saying: Crowley announced he backs a push to amend the Wisconsin Constitution to make abortion a constitutional right. "I'm also a girl dad times three, and so this isn't just a policy debate for me. It's personal. You know, when I look at my three daughters, I think about the Wisconsin I want them to grow up in, a Wisconsin where they have the same rights to...

Wisconsin voters, like many across the country, are increasing against the use of Flock cameras for public safety. A new poll found that 63% of registered voters believe Flock cameras are an unacceptable violation of privacy rights while 37% believe that they are an important tool for police investigations. Those polled were told that Flock Safety has 120,000 cameras that allow the company and law enforcement to track the movement of vehicles and then were asked about their beliefs about those cameras in the most recent Marquette Poll. ... Milwaukee Police have misused Flock and .... automated license plate readers...

The U.S. can deport the leader of Wisconsin’s largest mosque on the grounds that he is a threat to national security, an immigration judge ruled Wednesday. Salah Sarsour was detained in Milwaukee in March by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. A federal judge ordered Sarsour’s release in June, saying he raised a “substantial” claim that the Trump administration was targeting him for speaking out against Israel and advocating for Palestinian rights. Sarsour called the ruling “deeply disappointing,” but said he intends to appeal. “I will continue fighting to defend the right to free speech and to stay in the...

A Republican congressman said he had to swim to safety after a plane he was traveling in made an emergency landing in a lake late Saturday. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany says he was returning from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner when the light aircraft lost power as it approached Wausau Downtown Airport. The pilot made an emergency landing in Lake Wausau. They both ended up in the water and swam to safety. “After landing, we called 911. As the plane began to submerge, we exited the aircraft and swam to a shallow area, where we waited until emergency...

MADISON, Wis. (CN) – Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin sued the Medical Examining Board and statewide district attorneys, challenging the constitutionality of two abortion statutes. “Freedom means being able to make the decisions that shape our lives and futures,” said Tanya Atkinson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. “No politician should have the power to make a deeply personal pregnancy decision for someone else. Wisconsin’s Constitution promises liberty to all of us, and this case asks our courts to protect that promise.” The Guttmacher Institute, a leading research and policy institute, classifies Wisconsin as a restrictive state for abortion...

Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican nominee for Wisconsin governor, says he sustained minor injuries late Saturday when a plane he was traveling in was forced to make an emergency water landing. Tiffany said in a statement on X that he and the pilot swam to safety after the light aircraft, which had lost power while approaching Wisconsin’s Wausau Downtown Airport, landed in Lake Wausau and began to submerge. His Democratic opponent, David Crowley, said in a post on X: “I’m grateful to God that Congressman Tiffany and no one else was hurt in this horrifying incident, which could have been...

A waitress running for Congress in Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District was on the payroll of two left-leaning organizations with ties to billionaire investor George Soros' Open Society Foundation. Rebecca Cooke has portrayed herself as a working-class outsider, touting her experience as a waitress, small business owner and nonprofit leader raised on a dairy farm. But a personal financial disclosure released two days after Wisconsin’s Aug. 13 primary shows she received more than $5,000 apiece for work with Third Way and the Pipeline Fund, two left-leaning organizations with financial ties to George Soros’ Open Society network. The Open Society network awarded...

A decade after Natalie Murphy was sentenced to prison for the death of her boyfriend in Juneau County, she is asking Gov. Tony Evers to shorten her sentence. Murphy, now 33, was one of 12 people who appeared before Wisconsin’s new Commutation Advisory Board Friday as the state held its first commutation hearings in decades. Murphy was 21 when she was arrested on Feb. 12, 2015, after Andrew Dammen was shot and killed inside an apartment in Necedah. Murphy was initially charged with first-degree intentional homicide. She was ultimately convicted of first-degree reckless homicide and second-degree recklessly endangering safety. In...

"A short term social experiment" Polls were always a debatable proposition, but lately, like everything in politics, they’ve gotten worse. The Dem primary polls promising big wins by Hong and El-Sayed in Wisconsin and Michigan were, as the actual races showed, exercises in voter suppression. Now the company behind at least one of them got caught and is admitting to having put out a fake poll. Pollsters had been caught before, but the company made the mistake was putting out a poll showing a wide lead for the less socialist candidate in the LA race. Had the poll promised a...

The Madison Police Department cannot release records in the Corey Ruiz shooting to the city's independent police monitor because of state statutes and city ordinances, City Attorney Michael Haas said Monday. Ruiz was shot and killed by an MPD officer at the intersection of Williamson and South Baldwin streets during a struggle. Police said he was seen "checking vehicles" in the Marquette neighborhood before his encounter with police and used a knife to injure one of the four officers taking him into custody. The the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation is leading the investigation into the shooting...

Some police officers were badly beaten, as families with kids were seen RUNNING FOR THEIR LIVES as teens began brawling Police responded to the brawls; made arrests including juveniles; and 1 officer was punched in the face during the mayhem. Officials investigated reports of possible shots fired

Samotria Matthews, the top deputy and closest ally of Milwaukee County Clerk of Circuit Court Anna Maria Hodges, was arrested Thursday and is currently incarcerated in the Milwaukee County Jail, the Heartland Post has learned exclusively. Sources tell the Heartland Post that Matthews was arrested during a raid at her home and is being held on potential drug charges. She is one of the longest-tenured employees at the Milwaukee County Courthouse and came out of a brief retirement in 2022 to join Hodges’ staff. Ironically, she had been serving as the senior admiinistrator for Milwaukee County Criminal Court. “An individual...

Wisconsin Democrats just got a preview of what happens when the party that brands itself the guardian of democracy runs its own primary. On Tuesday, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley (D-Wis.) pulled off what pollsters insisted was impossible, beating state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Wis.), who was backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), in the Democrat gubernatorial primary. RealClearPolitics, PPP, and Marquette all had Hong up by 18 to 22 points heading into election night, and her victory was seen as inevitable. Crowley’s victory has plenty of people asking questions, and now more have come up.. The trouble started...

DEFOREST, WI - Republican candidate for governor, Tom Tiffany met with supporters at Timbers Tavern in DeForest less than 24 hours after officially winning the Republican ticket. At this event – crowds cheered for Tiffany as he spoke about the American Dream in Wisconsin, flipping the state fully red, and “save girls sports.” When asked by Channel 3000 if he was concerned about a smaller turnout of Republican voters compared to Democrats, Tiffany said that he believes that was because his primary was uncontested. Noting that there was a lack of awareness in the Republican primary compared to the Democratic...

Yesterday, Hong was winning until, magically, she was losing. It was a familiar story.If you’ve got a winning tactic, you don’t abandon it until it no longer wins. Back in 2020, Democrats claimed that their winning “tactic” was Joe Biden himself, an early-stage-dementia blowhard with a long family history that suggested corruption and a record of amazingly bad political stances. Republicans, however, suspected that the winning tactic was that Democrats in states in which they controlled elections legalized election fraud with mail-in voting, ballot harvesting, and the abandonment of voter ID. In addition, Trump supporters looked at data from the...