Free Republic

MADISON — As the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) faces a lawsuit over its policy on student gender identity, it’s being accused of discriminating against transgender teachers in the bathroom. On Tuesday, Madison Teachers Inc. (MTI) fired out a press release asserting it supports equal restroom access for MMSD students and staff. The union doesn’t like the district’s directive to Frank Allis Elementary school staff to “limit their use of restroom facilities to the single person restroom.� The union’s Equity and Diversity Committee, as well as MTI’s board of directors, released a statement saying that they “stand with Vica Steel and all...

Correspondent Lee Cowan checks in on Epic Systems Corporation, of Verona, Wis., a software company that has changed the way medical records are kept, accessed and disseminated.

This winter semester, more UW-Madison students are bundled up inside, counting on app-based delivery robots to feed their appetites. The maker Starship launched a fleet of thirty self-navigating campus food carriers in November. Since then, Peter Testory, the university’s director of dining, said orders have jumped more than 700 percent. Testory said there’s also a correlation between bad winter weather and service use. When the order comes in with a “ding,” dining staff prepare the food at a campus kitchen. Runners or, oftentimes, kitchen managers take the food to the delivery bots parked outside. Once runners close the lids, the...

A group of Wisconsin parents is suing the Madison School District, claiming it violated their due process rights by sidestepping them in supporting the students' decision to change names and gender pronouns if they want to. The policy allows school employees to use alternative names and pronouns for children without parental notice or consent. The policy states that the district is committed to affirming each student’s self-designated gender identity, and that the district will strive to “disrupt the gender binary” with books and lessons stating that everyone has the right to choose their gender. “Madison schools have adopted policies that...

Wisconsin's second-largest school district won't back off a policy of keeping minor students' transgender experimentation secret from their parents despite a new lawsuit filed Tuesday. Wisconsin’s second-largest school district so far won’t back off a policy of keeping minor students’ transgender experimentation secret from their parents despite a new lawsuit filed Tuesday.A group of parents represented by Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty sued after the Madison Metropolitan School District refused to alter its policy of concealing childrens’ transgender behavior and related medical records from parents, no matter how young the child is. The district oversees children as young as...

A Milwaukee man was charged Sunday with shooting two kids who threw snowballs at his car last month. William Carson, 24, faces two counts of first-degree reckless injury and five counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, all felonies. Several children were playing in the snow on Jan. 4 when they began lobbing snowballs at passing cars, prosecutors said. The driver of one vehicle that was struck got out and began firing a handgun as the kids ran away. A 13-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl were hit in the thigh and forearm, authorities said. A third child was grazed by a...

Michael Aventatti, who rose to national prominence for representing porn-star actress Stormy Daniels against President Donald Trump was found guilty Friday of trying to extort more than $20 million from Nike, inc. with threats to expose defamatory information of the company.The case launched last year by the U.S. attorneyÂ’s office in Manhattan followed an investigation into a series of meetings with Los Angeles lawyer Mark Geragos and representatives for Nike in March of 2019. Avenatti was convicted by jury of all three counts charged by U.S. attorneys including extortion, transmission of interstate communications and intent to extort, and wire fraud.Prosecutors...

... The third impeachment trial in American history ended on Wednesday not with a bang but with a whimper. But here in Waukesha County, a patchwork of suburbs, small cities and rural areas west of Milwaukee that holds more Republican votes than any other county in this crucial swing state, there was a nervous excitement. Yard signs have been flying off the shelves in the county Republican Party’s headquarters in a strip mall near a vegan food supply store. More than 150 people showed up for a State of the Union watch party on Tuesday night, applauding and cheering in...

... During the 2018-19 school year, 107 bias and hate complaints were filed at UW-Madison, each of which I retrieved through a freedom of information request. While the information identifying students and professors was redacted, the breadth and scope of what campus community members are willing to report one another for is revealing. UW-Madison isn’t alone—In 2017, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education found 232 American schools with Bias Response Teams. This number is almost certainly outdated—in 2020, it is difficult to find any major public university that doesn’t have some sort of reporting structure, whether they call it...

The drumbeat for Democratic National Committee boss Tom Perez to be “held accountable” for recent party failures appears to be getting louder. The latest Democrats to criticize Perez include U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., all backers of 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Recent party setbacks have included the vote-count fiasco at Monday’s Iowa caucuses and Tuesday night’s disclosure that two officials on the host committee of the party’s upcoming national convention in Milwaukee had been fired over non-specified allegations that they oversaw a work environment where staff members were not being...

“I went to the election. I chose not to vote for president. I signed the everybody sucks campaign,” she deadpans. But in the years that followed, Goetz, 40, has gradually moved from “never Trump” to “probably Trump” . . . One day after the rally, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale tweeted out data gathered from people who registered for the Milwaukee event: Of the 20,395 registered, 15,738 said they were voters from Wisconsin, 57.9 percent said they were not Republican and 4,313 said they didn’t vote in 2016. Some of those 4,313 nonvoters will be people just like Goetz, who...

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), UW Hospital and Clinics, the local health department, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have confirmed the first case of 2019 novel coronavirus in Wisconsin. The case was confirmed at the CDC. The immediate health risk to the general public for contracting this virus is low. The patient is an adult with a history of travel to Beijing, China prior to becoming ill and was exposed to known cases while in China. The individual is isolated at home, and is doing well. Out of respect for the privacy of the...

The two top officials overseeing Milwaukee's host committee for the 2020 Democratic National Convention were sidelined Monday amid allegations of a toxic work culture. In a letter to staff obtained by the Journal Sentinel, the board said it had retained an attorney to investigate "concerns about the work environment" for the Milwaukee 2020 Host Committee. During the investigation, Liz Gilbert, president of the host committee, will not be in the office and "will not have direct contact with staff," the letter says. Adam Alonso, the chief of staff for the group, has been placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome...

MADISON — The Wisconsin Department of Transportation wants everyone to know that getting a free ID for voting is easy.  Maybe too easy. The DOT page detailing the Wisconsin ID card petition process advises individuals seeking a voter ID card to provide the Division of Motor Vehicles with the usual identifying information — a birth certificate, Social Security card, proof of Wisconsin residency (utility bill, government mail, etc.), and proof of U.S. citizenship. “If you don’t have all or any of these, you can still get an ID for voting,� the web page assures. Really? Even if you don’t have proof of U.S....

There is a combustible dynamic going on within the Democratic Party right now and it is centered directly along the fault line between the mainstream segment of the party represented by Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, and the radical left of the party represented by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. And the fuse may be lit in Milwaukee. The Democratic National Convention to nominate their presidential candidate is being held in Milwaukee this year — Wisconsin being a state they desperately need to flip back from President Trump. As the party apparatus, which clearly includes much of the mainstream media,...

President Donald Trump’s rallies continue to attract a broad coalition. While Democrats are trying to out-compete one another by moving further and further to the left, alienating many voters in the process, Trump pitched the GOP as a big tent party last night. And that shows in his audience. Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale polls the audience at all of Trump’s rallies, and during last night’s rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, the figures showed Trump attracting Democrats and the previously politically-apathetic. “10.4% of attendees didn’t vote in 2016,” Parsale wrote in a tweet. And 26.3% were Democrats. While New Jersey...

Some Democratic National Committee (DNC) members and supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are venting frustration at DNC Chairman Tom Perez over his initial appointments to the committees that will oversee the rules and party platform at the nominating convention in Milwaukee later this year. Sanders’s allies are incensed by two names in particular: former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who will co-chair the rules committee, and Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chairman John Podesta, who will have a seat on that committee.

Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders' White House bid and some Democratic National Committee members are frustrated with some initial appointments made by DNC Chairman Tom Perez to the crucial committees that will oversee the rules and party platform at this summer’s presidential nominating convention in Milwaukee, Wis. Their frustration comes after Perez named former Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts – who was a surrogate for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign -- as co-chair of the convention’s Rules Committee. And Perez picked John Podesta – who served as Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager – to have a seat on the committee.

Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders' White House bid and some Democratic National Committee members are frustrated with some initial appointments made by DNC Chairman Tom Perez to the crucial committees that will oversee the rules and party platform at this summer’s presidential nominating convention in Milwaukee, Wis. Their frustration comes after Perez named former Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts – who was a surrogate for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign -- as co-chair of the convention’s Rules Committee. And Perez picked John Podesta – who served as Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager – to have a seat on the committee. The...

RightWisconsin is always reluctant to endorse candidates for public office. We would like to remain a forum for candidates and let the voters decide for themselves. However, there are circumstances in the 7th congressional district special election that compel us to indicate a preference in that race. Those circumstances lead us to conclude that Sen. Tom Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) is the only candidate deserving of Republican votes in the February 18 GOP primary. Tiffany and his opponent Jason Church are currently fighting a battle of who can be more supportive of President Donald Trump. We’re a long way from when Wisconsin...