Yearly Archives: 2024

(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Supreme Court is reopening the debate over ballot drop boxes.

The liberal-majority court accepted a case that looks to overturn Wisconsin’s current ban on ballot drop boxes.

The former conservative-majority court, ruled Wisconsin law does not allow for ballot drop boxes at any place except the election clerk’s office.

"[The Wisconsin Elections Commission] staff may have been trying to make voting as easy as possible during the pandemic,” conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote in 2022. “But whatever their motivations, WEC must follow Wisconsin statutes. Good intentions never override the law."

But Democrats and activists argued state law didn’t specifically ban them, and Wisconsin’s liberal justices argued that a ban on drop boxes was tantamount to voter suppression.

"Although it pays lip service to the import of the right to vote, the majority/lead opinion has the practical effect of making it more difficult to exercise it. Such a result, although lamentable, is not a surprise from this court," Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote in her dissent.

The court’s new case argues ballot drop boxes are “critical for voters … who are unable to vote in person because of disability, scheduling conflicts, lack of transportation, or other hardship."

Conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote Tuesday the liberal-majority court is, once again, trying to play political games.

"By granting this petition to bypass, the majority again aims to increase the electoral prospects of its preferred political party," Bradley wrote. "Finding the decision politically inconvenient, and emboldened by a new makeup of the court, this new majority embraces the opportunity to overturn (the 2022 ruling in Teigen v. Wisconsin Elections Commission). The majority's decision to do so will upset the status quo of election administration mere months before a presidential election and lead to chaos and confusion for Wisconsin voters and election officials."

The court will hear oral arguments in the new challenge in May.

Republican lawmakers have tried to ban the use of ballot drop boxes in Wisconsin, but Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed those attempts.

A state judge on Wednesday dismissed some of the charges against former President Donald Trump in the Georgia case that accuses the former president of trying to interfere with the 2020 election.

Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six charges in the indictment, including three against Trump due to a lack of detail that he said was "fatal." But the ruling doesn't end the case against Trump. Trump still faces criminal charges, including Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act charges that underpin the prosecution's case.

"The Court's concern is less that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants – in fact it has alleged an abundance," McAfee wrote. "However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned's opinion, fatal."

However, the judge wrote that the case was far from over.

"This does not mean the entire indictment is dismissed," he wrote in a footnote. "The State may also seek a re-indictment supplementing these six counts. Even if the statute of limitations has expired, the State receives a six-month extension from the date of this Order to resubmit the case to a grand jury."

McAfee's latest ruling did not address the potential disqualification brought against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and prosecutor Nathan Wade by the defendants. The judge said he would rule on that issue by the end of the week.

Defense attorneys have argued that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had an improper relationship with an attorney she hired to prosecute the state's election interference case against Trump and should be disqualified. Willis and prosecutor Nathan Wade said they had a personal relationship that started after Willis hired Wade to prosecute the case.

One witness told the judge the relationship began in 2019 after the pair met at a judicial conference and long before Willis hired Wade in 2021.

The allegations about the prosecutors have at times eclipsed the matter that preceded it: The allegations that Trump tried to steal the 2020 election.

In August 2023, a Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump and 18 others, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former state Republican Party Chair David Shafer, on charges they tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

President Joe Biden's budget proposal seeks to set aside billions of dollars to push progressive gender, sexuality and race ideology at home and around the globe.

Released this week, the $7.3 trillion budget also proposes spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to train school teachers in diversity, equity, and inclusion dogma.

The White House touted the spending in its announcement of Biden’s budget, which includes $3 billion to “advance gender equity and equality worldwide.”

That $3 billion figure is several hundred million dollars higher than the 2023 budget request.

Funding for domestic projects of the same kind are robust as well though, including for public education to "improve the diversity of the teacher pipeline."

In fact, Biden’s budget prioritizes training a new generation of teachers who embrace progressive ideology on race, gender, and sexuality.

For example, the budget includes $30 million to increase the number of teachers who go through the Hawkins Centers of Excellence, a federal effort that sets up programs to trains teachers in inclusivity on race, gender and sexuality.

Those training programs must be set up at minority-focused colleges such as historically black colleges and universities or colleges focused on serving Native Americans or Hispanics.

Once established, the taxpayer-funded program must “examine the sources of inequity and inadequacy in resources and opportunity and implement pedagogical practices in teacher preparation programs that are inclusive with regard to race, ethnicity, culture, language, and disability status and that prepare teachers to create inclusive, supportive, equitable, unbiased, and identity-safe learning environments for their students.”

In another similar funding item, the budget sets aside $95 million for the Teacher Quality Partnership Program, another federal effort that administers grants for training teachers.

According to the Federal Register, this grant program prioritizes teachers of color over white teachers in order to “create inclusive, supportive, equitable, unbiased, and identity-safe learning environments for their students.”

“The Department recognizes that diverse educators will play a critical role in ensuring equity in our education system,” the agency said.

The program also prioritizes grant applicants who can help create a “positive, inclusive, and identity-safe climate” for gay, lesbian, transgender and minority students.

In response to The Center Square’s reporting, Republicans took aim at Biden’s budget.

“President Biden's reckless and radical budget adds $18 trillion dollars to the debt including billions of dollars for divisive DEI programs,” U.S. Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., who leads the House Freedom Caucus, told The Center Square. “As his partisan State of the Union speech previewed, President Biden is borrowing more money we don't have to pay for things we don't need in order to pander to the Democrat base."

In yet another similar funding item, the budget puts $90 million toward the “Supporting Effective Education Development Program,” which has given away tens of millions of dollars in recent years for similar efforts.

In one example, the program awarded $662,744 to the University of North Georgia to train teachers in “social and emotional wellbeing; trauma-informed pedagogies; and diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

“Our expected outcomes are that 30 new teachers will be certified, and 84 induction-level teachers will add two endorsements to their certifications,” the group said in its research abstract.

The funding proposals for teachers are relevant because critics of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Critical Race Theory teachings and trainings in public education have been brushed off by defenders, who say it is not present in K-12 schools.

“President Biden has his priorities completely backward, and hardworking Tennesseans will not stand for another tax-and-spend boondoggle,” U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told The Center Square. “This unserious budget – the largest proposed in U.S. history – includes $3 billion for the Green Climate Fund to help ‘prioritize climate change’ and millions for programs that promote DEI."

The national debt is currently over $34 trillion and would rise to $45 billion by 2034 under Biden’s budget.

As The Center Square previously reported, the budget includes several tax increases, including a 25% minimum tax on billionaires, as well as ramping up audits on Americans to increase IRS collection.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s push to help children in the state’s schools read better took its next step forward Monday.

The budget-writing Joint Finance Committee approved four new reading programs for the state’s public schools.

JFC co-chairman Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, said more than 60% of Wisconsin fourth-graders currently cannot read or write at grade level. Born said changing the way Wisconsin teachers teach reading is the obvious first step.

“Between 60 and 70% of our kids can't read at the proper level. Who runs that system now folks? Who's the one providing the council and the guidance to all of our school districts on that now? [Department of Instruction],” Born said during Monday’s hearing. “DPI is part of the failure of our kids to read. What are we doing? We had to create legislation…so our kids can read.”

The new reading curricula are required under Wisconsin’s read overhaul law, known as Act 20. But Born said schools are not required to use the new lessons. He did say local schools won’t get any state money to buy textbooks or lesson plans for any curriculum that is not part of the Act 20 overhaul.

“I am not an expert in curriculum. I am not an expert in education. That's why, in the bill, we created a panel of experts to be brought together,” Born explained. “[That] a panel of experts, including people from DPI, said these are the best that meet the standards.”

JFC Democrats opposed the new reading plans.

They fear lawsuits from local schools and don’t like the four choices offered.

“We are saying that all of this isn't a mandate, you know this is just what you're going to get a grant for. Well, it is a mandate because what we've done is we've outlawed the teaching of three queuing and similar holistic approaches, and we're saying this is how we want to teach reading. That's a good thing, but we are also narrowing down the choices that schools have to simply four curricula,” Rep. Deb Andraca, D-Whitefish Bay, said.

Advocates, like Quinton Klabon with the Institute for Reforming Government, said the new curriculum is the “first comprehensive reading legislation in decades. It will replacediscredited reading curricula that have wrecked most public and private schools,upgrade teachers’ skills in classic, phonics-based methods, reflect those changes inuniversity teacher programs, and get parents more involved if their child is behind in reading.”

"The Joint Finance Committee did the right thing by trusting teachers, school leaders, and dyslexia experts,” Klabon added.

The new reading lessons will be available for schools to use in the next school year.

(The Center Square) – There’s going to be a building boom on some University of Wisconsin campuses across the state.

Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday signed a new law that clears the way for a new engineering building at UW-Madison, as well as classroom renovations in both Madison and Whitewater. The new law also includes nearly $200 million for central plant renovations and demolition projects.

“Investing in Wisconsin’s world-class higher education institutions, including our UW System, is critical for doing what’s best for our kids and helping us recruit, train, and retain talented students to help address the workforce challenges that have plagued our state for generations,” the governor said in a statement.

In all, the UW will get $700 million for construction projects,

The other part of the new law will send more tuition money to campuses.

Currently Wisconsin allows Minnesota students to attend UW school without having to pay out-of-state tuition. Some of the tuition dollars from those Minnesota students have, for years, gone straight to the state. Under the new law signed Wednesday, those Minnesota student’s tuition dollars will now go directly to the UW campus that they attend.

UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said that change will directly benefit her campus but will also help other UW schools by eliminating a layer of state bureaucracy.

“The changes approved to Minnesota-Wisconsin tuition reciprocity will provide millions in needed tuition dollars to Universities of Wisconsin institutions, including ours, that had previously been deposited in the state’s General Fund,” Mnookin explained. “Under the new tuition reciprocity bill, that money would instead be retained by the UW institutions providing the education. This will have a significant impact for campuses, including UW—Madison, and allow for more investment in educating the students we serve from both states.”

Other campuses, like UW-River Falls which is just over the border with Minnesota, say the reciprocity change will be worth millions.

Former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley dropped out of the Republican presidential primary Wednesday morning and declined to endorse former President Donald Trump.

"I am filled with the gratitude for the outpouring of support we have received from all across our great country, but the time has now come to suspend my campaign," Haley said during her remarks. "I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done that."

Haley said she has no regrets.

"In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee when our party convention meet in July," Haley said. "I congratulate him and wish him well. I wish anyone well who would be America's president. Our country is too precious to let our differences divide us.

"I have always been a conservative Republican and always supported the Republican nominee," Haley continued. "But on this question, as she did on so many others, Margaret Thatcher provided some good advice when she said, 'Never just follow the crowd. Always make up your own mind.' It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him and I hope he does that."

Haley bowing out comes after a shellacking on Super Tuesday, when 15 states voted in the Republican presidential primary. While results are still coming in, it appears Haley won the state of Vermont while Trump won the remaining states: Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

During her remarks, Haley also called for a smaller federal government, attacks on socialism and the growing debt as well as the dysfunction of Congress. Haley called for term limits and standing by Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine.

"If we retreat further, there will be more war, not less," Haley said.

Haley's losses Tuesday continued a streak in recent months. So far, Trump had also won the primaries and/or caucuses in Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina and South Dakota.

Haley's only bright spot was winning in Washington D.C. over the weekend.

As the losses piled up, calls for Haley to leave the race intensified.

"Man I knew Trump would have a good night but this is a rout," U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, as the results came in Tuesday evening. "For voters, we have the next six months to convince them that DJT deserves another term. But for donors and political professionals, it's time to unite behind our nominee. Please stop wasting time and money."

After Tuesday, Trump has 10 times the delegates to Haley, about 1,000 delegates to her nearly 100. A candidate needs 1,215 delegates to clinch the nomination.

Now Trump stands unopposed and can focus on his Democratic opponent, President Joe Biden, who also had a sweeping victory and stands largely unopposed in his own primary.

In a victory speech Tuesday night, Biden did not mention Haley by name and instead focused on Biden, setting the tone for his attention going forward.

“No country has ever had anything like it,” Trump said in an attack on Biden for his handling of illegal immigration.

“Joe Biden,” Trump added. “If he had just left everything alone, he could have gone to the beach….so we are going to take back our country. We are going to do it right.”

Sweeping a fourth consecutive primary by a significant margin, former President Donald Trump left South Carolina victorious on Saturday and on a roll heading into Michigan on Tuesday.

Nikki Haley, two-term governor of South Carolina and a former United Nations ambassador in Trump’s administration, was overwhelmed in unofficial very early vote count totals. The race was called minutes after the closing of polls at 7 p.m. Eastern.

South Carolinians, who do not register by party and could choose to vote in either but not both primaries, in early voting exceeded the more than 131,000 votes cast – about 4% – in the Democratic primary on Feb. 3 when 96% chose President Joe Biden.

South Carolina has about 3.3 million registered voters and gets nine of the 538 Electoral College votes in November's general election.

At stake in the South’s first Republican primary were 50 delegates at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 15-18. Twenty-nine went to Trump as the statewide winner; three delegates each go to winners in the seven congressional districts, respectively. Those results were still pending at time of publication, though Trump was projected to up his total to 44 of the state's 50.

"I have never seen the Republican Party so unified as it is right now," Trump said in a victory speech that began minutes after the polls closed. "You can celebrate for about 15 minutes, but then we have to get back to work."

The nation’s 45th president added to previous caucuses and primary wins in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, the first non-incumbent GOP candidate to open with such a sweep since 1976's primary and caucuses calendar change. Since 1980, only Newt Gingrich in 2012 won South Carolina's Republican primary without reaching the national ticket.

In a social media post in the final hour before polls closed, Haley wrote, "Filled with gratitude today. Getting to vote with my mom and my kids at my side is a memory I’ll cherish forever."

Immigration, inflation, energy, an America-first foreign policy and revenge from the 2020 loss to Biden have been hallmarks of the 77-year-old Trump’s campaign.

“No country could sustain what is happening to the United States of America,” Trump, during his victory speech, said of the ongoing situation at the U.S. border with Mexico. “Right now, our country is a laughing stock all over the world. Our country is going to be respected again, respected like never before.”

On the campaign trail in Rock Hill on Friday, Trump said Haley was staying in the race to help Democrats. The flip side is Haley’s supporters see Trump and his 91 criminal charges as the GOP choice that Democrats would want to face their candidate.

Trump also served up comments on race – sparking partisan critiques – when speaking to a friendly crowd at the Black Conservative Federation Gala in Columbia later in the evening.

Haley, 52, was in Greenville on Tuesday saying she’s campaigning to save the country, led by the topics of education, economy, immigration, homicides, fentanyl and foreign policy. She voted in Kiawah Island on Saturday morning, having spent Friday in Moncks Corner among other stops.

Haley says Trump brings chaos and will be unelectable in the general election, though national polls including The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll disagree. In a Marquette Law School national poll released Wednesday, proposed 1-on-1 races have Haley defeating Biden 58%-42% and Trump beating Biden 51%-49%.

Prior to Saturday, Real Clear Politics' polling average showed Trump ahead of Haley 63%-32% in South Carolina. Nationally, the advantage climbs to 75%-17%.

While Haley has tirelessly been asked about stepping out of the race, campaign manager Betsy Ankney on Friday confirmed a “seven-figure” ad buy for Super Tuesday states. The March 5 primary schedule includes 15 Republican and 14 Democratic primaries.

(This is a developing story and will be updated.)