Yearly Archives: 2024

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Sunday he is dropping out of the Republican presidential primary and endorsing former President Donald Trump.

DeSantis said he could not continue to ask for support when he does not have a "clear path to victory."

"I'm proud to have delivered on 100% of my promises, and I will not stop now," he said in an online video. "It's clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance."

The news comes as New Hampshire voters are set to head to the polls Tuesday to choose their favored candidate in the Republican presidential primary race as Trump’s challengers run low on time to gain ground in the race.

Trump holds a sizeable lead in New Hampshire, though not as wide as his margin in Iowa, a state he won handily last Monday with more than 50% support.

DeSantis finished a distant second in Iowa, but he had a grim outlook in New Hampshire and little hope of winning any other early primary state. His campaign canceled some major media interviews this weekend, raising speculation that he could be considering leaving the race.

According to a RealClearPolitics aggregation of polling data, Trump at 50% support leads New Hampshire by 15 points, outpacing former Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who is in second with 35% support. DeSantis trails with about 6%.

Haley campaigned in New Hampshire Sunday, which included spending time with New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who was considered a possible GOP presidential candidate, something that never materialized. Sununu endorsed Haley.

“We need someone at the top of their game in the Oval Office,” Haley wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, Sunday, repeating a familiar talking point for her campaign. “America deserves a better choice than two 80-year-old names from the past,” referring to Trump and President Joe Biden, the likely Democratic nominee.

The New Hampshire Union Leader, the largest paper in the state, echoed that sentiment in their endorsement of Haley on Saturday.

“Nikki Haley is an opportunity to vote for a candidate rather than against those two,” the paper said. “A candidate who can run circles around the dinosaurs from the last two administrations, backwards and in heels.”

Nationally, Trump dominates the GOP field as well and even has a lead over Biden.

The Center Square’s Voter’s Voice Poll released this month showed that Trump has more support than all his competitors combined.

The Center Square’s Voters' Voice poll queried Republican voters, “Which of the following candidates are you most likely to vote for in the 2024 Republican primary?” Of those surveyed, 61% of Republicans chose Trump. In the poll, 13% picked Haley while 12% chose DeSantis.

As The Center Square previously reported, the same poll shows Trump leads Biden by 4 percentage points in a potential general election faceoff. Trump also leads in most key swing states, according to recent surveys.

Trump also secured some major endorsements this month, including from two of his recent opponents. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., as well as businessman Vivek Ramaswamy both endorsed Trump, and now DeSantis has.

Ramaswamy, who had vocally praised Trump even on the campaign trail, dropped out of the primary after securing about 7% of the vote in Iowa last week.

A Kennebec County Superior Court judge has issued a stay on the Maine secretary of state’s decision to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the primary ballot, citing the 14th Amendment.

In Justice Michaela Murphy’s decision, she refused to rule on the case until the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on Colorado’s attempt to disqualify the former president. Murphy underscored the need to “promote consistency” in an effort to “avoid voter confusion.”

In addition to the stay, Murphy denied an appeal filed by Trump’s legal team earlier this month.

Last month, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows issued a decision brought forth by Maine voters to challenge Trump’s primary petition, determining it invalid. Bellows, a Democrat, “ruled that the declaration on his candidate consent form is false,” saying the former president is not qualified to hold the office of president, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear Trump’s appeal challenging a decision from Colorado’s highest court ruling that the former president was ineligible to appear on the state’s primary ballot, citing the 14th Amendment.

The Maine GOP primary is set for Super Tuesday, which will be held March 5. The highest court in the land is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the Colorado appeal Feb. 8.

A Virginia mother on Thursday told members of Congress that Biden administration policies enabled a teenage Salvadoran and MS-13 gang member to illegally enter the country and brutally rape and strangle to death her autistic daughter.

In her statement before the House Homeland Security Committee, Tammy Nobles said that on July 27, 2022, three days after her daughter, Kayla Hamilton, turned 20, she “received the worst news that a parent doesn’t want to hear.” Her daughter, who was autistic, was found “murdered in her own room and left on the floor like trash.”

She had been strangled to death and brutally raped by an MS-13 gang member and Salvadoran who illegally entered the country but was released by Border Patrol agents because he was an unaccompanied minor (UAC). He was transported by the federal government to Aberdeen, Maryland, where he claimed his aunt lived. In actuality, he rented a room in a trailer park from another illegal foreign national, authorities found.

After breaking into Kayla’s home, the Salvadoran “brutally raped and murdered my daughter by strangling her with a cord and robbed her of $6,” Nobles said through tears. During the attack, Kayla called her boyfriend for help but the call went to voicemail. The voicemail captured two and a half minutes of the sounds of her struggling, fighting for and losing her life.

“Let’s take a moment and think about how Kayla felt that day,” Nobles said. “How scared she must have been knowing that she was dying. And if she was going to see her mommy again, her baby sister, her brother or her cat, Oreo. Kayla fought for her life that day with all that she had. In the end, she lost to an individual that wasn’t even supposed to be allowed in the country.

“For me, this not a political issue. This a safety issue for everyone living in the United States. This could have been anyone’s daughter. I don’t want any other parent to live the nightmare that I am living. I am her voice now and I am going to fight with everything I have to get her story told and bring awareness of the issue at the border."

If there were stricter border policies, Nobles said, her daughter would still be alive.

“Nothing will bring my daughter back nor fix the pain of not having her here, but I want to prevent this from happening to someone else’s child. This isn’t about immigration. This is about protecting everyone in the United States.”

Nobles said Department of Homeland Security policies led to the Salvadoran’s release because Border Patrol agents “failed to visually inspect the assailant by lifting his shirt to check for gang related tattoos.” Had they done so, “they would have seen MS-13 gang related tattoos on his body, disqualifying him from entering the US,” she said.

After a multi-agency investigation was launched, the assailant who had fled the scene was eventually caught, arrested and charged with first degree murder. He is currently being held without bail.

Nobles also raised concerns about DHS Unaccompanied Children policies, concerns others have raised as hundreds of thousands of UACs have been released into the country, the overwhelming majority who are male. Maryland has received the fifth-greatest number of UACs in recent years; under Mayorkas, more than 6,000 arrived there in fiscal 2022.

Like Nobles, Americans living thousands of miles from the border have found themselves victims of violent crimes committed by repeat offenders illegally entering the U.S., The Center Square has reported. Law enforcement officials have also warned about targeted crimes committed by foreign nationals impacting Americans nationwide. CBP officials have also arrested 751 known gang members in fiscal 2022, 598 in fiscal 2023 and 83 in the first quarter of fiscal 2024, according to CBP data.

Florida state Rep. Kiyan Michael, R-Jacksonville, has also sounded the alarm after her son was killed by a twice-deported “illegal alien who should not have been here.” She has vowed, “As Angel parents, we are not going to stop securing our nation and preventing this from happening to somebody else.”

Nobles, who has previously testified before Congress, spoke on Thursday as part of several hearings held by Republican members of the House to make the case to impeach and remove Mayorkas from office.

Nearly a year ago, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, demanded answers from the Biden administration about the number of criminal aliens and violent gang members living in the U.S. Last May, the committee published a report detailing its findings of an investigation into Kayla’s murder.

It concluded, “The Biden Administration’s open-borders policies are dangerous and do not prioritize the safety of American citizens. The Department of Homeland Security is failing to perform even the most basic of measures to ensure that the aliens entering the U.S. are not dangerous criminals or known gang members. The Biden Administration’s disregard for the safety of Americans directly resulted in the tragic and – sadly, preventable – murder of Kayla Hamilton.”

Nobles recently filed a wrongful death lawsuit against DHS seeking $100 million, alleging agency polices and employee negligence led to her daughter’s death.

A long-awaited report from U.S. Department of Justice released Thursday found widespread problems with law enforcement officers' response to the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

A gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. The Justice Department report provided the most thorough examination yet as to what happened inside the school.

The 610-page report details the multiple failures in the response to the shooting, including the breakdowns in leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy and training that contributed to those failures. While some of the first officers on the scene initially tried to engage the gunman, they retreated after being met with gunfire. After that, the law enforcement responders began treating the incident as a barricaded subject scenario rather than as an active shooter situation.

A tactical team finally went into the classroom to engage the gunman, Salvador Ramos, 77 minutes after police arrived on the scene. Police killed Ramos.

"As a consequence of failed leadership, training, and policies, 33 students and three of their teachers – many of whom had been shot – were trapped in a room with an active shooter for over an hour as law enforcement officials remained outside," U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said. "We hope to honor the victims and survivors by working together to try to prevent anything like this from happening again, here or anywhere."

(The Center Square) – The latest version of a Parental Bill of Rights has cleared its first major hurdle at the Wisconsin Capitol, but it’s not expected to get much further.

The State Assembly on Thursday approved AB 510, which spells out the rights that parents in the state have over their own children.

That list includes formally acknowledging that parents make medical and education decisions for their children.

Including, as Rep. Bob Wittke, R-Racine explained on the Assembly floor, the right to know what their kids are learning.

“I agree with those that have stood up and said ‘I have no desire to have the school, or someone else within the school raise my children. I want information so that I can deal with subjects with them, so that they can participate in their school, to the extent that they can learn and expand their horizons. I don't want to be ambushed by their subjects that are going on that they bring home and say, What is this?’” Wittke said.

There are 16 different rights in the legislation. But it is the fifth parental right, the right to decide what name a child will be called in school, that drew most of the opposition.

“This bill is not about rights but rather about wrongs the Republicans want to inflict on our state and our students, especially transgender students,” Rep Melissa Ratcliff, D-Cottage Grove, said earlier in the week. “Restricting a student’s right to be called by their preferred name and pronouns is deplorable and reprehensible.”

Wittke said the idea is not to harm any particular group but to empower parents.

“The bill, basically, will prohibit the state from infringing on any of the fundamental rights of parents to direct the upbringing, education, healthcare, and mental health of their children,” he said.

The Parental Bill of Rights next heads to the State Senate.

Gov. Evers has already promised to veto the proposal when it reaches his desk.

Wittke on Thursday said that’s the governor’s decision to make.

“At some point time we have to get back to the way Gov. Tommy Thompson ran things,” Wittke said. “And that was that we do things for what's best for the families in Wisconsin and not be in the partisan divide continually.”

(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Supreme Court is now being asked to overturn the state’s other political maps after asking for new legislative maps.

The Elias Law Firm, headed by lawyer Mark Elias, asked the state’s high court to redraw Wisconsin’s congressional maps.

Elias has ties to the Hillary Clinton campaign network and has filed several election-related lawsuits across the country.

“Wisconsin’s current congressional map was drawn according to a 'least change' principle that perpetuated and exacerbated the partisan unfairness that has robbed Wisconsin voters of fair congressional districts for over a decade,” Elias Law Group partner Abha Khanna said in a statement.

The “least change” principle kept Wisconsin’s maps largely unchanged in 2021, and once again gave Republicans in the state a majority.

Six of Wisconsin’s eight members of Congress are Republican.

Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming said the lawsuit isn’t about “least change.” Instead, he said it’s about political power.

"The newly bought and paid for liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court faces yet another test of the public's trust: do the right thing by leaving the current, constitutional maps in place or abandon sound judgment by catering to their left-wing out-of-state donors," Schmmining said.

Wisconsin’s new liberal-majority Supreme Court discarded the state’s legislative maps just before Christmas. The court said those maps, also drawn in 2021 and used in the 2022 elections, were too friendly to Republicans.

The court set a March 15 deadline to get new legislative maps so they can be used in this fall’s election.

The Elias lawsuit also asks for new maps for the November election.

(The Center Square) – Public schools in Wisconsin have nine months left before the last of their COVID-19 relief cash expires, and there’s hundreds of millions of dollars still on the table.

The Institute for Reforming Government has been tracking Wisconsin’s $1.5 billion in COVID relief money.

Their latest update shows that $307 million of that haul remains unallocated.

“Before districts spend money, they are supposed to get DPI’s approval. DPI confirms whether their allocations qualify for ESSER III reimbursement. So, districts either lack DPI approval for $307 million or are spending money without DPI approval with no guarantee of reimbursement,” IRG said in its report. “Thirty-nine districts have below 50% allocated, including Green Bay and West Bend. Thirty-five districts have over $1 million left to allocate, including Milwaukee and Fond Du Lac. Eight districts are at $0 allocated.”

IRG first sounded the alarm about unallocated COVID cash in February. At that point, Wisconsin schools were sitting on about $1 billion of unallocated COVID money.

IRG’s report said the unallocated money is likely to add to the fiscal cliff that many schools across the state are facing.

“$512 million over 1.5 years has been allocated to district staff. Various factors contributed to this problem, but Wisconsin schools could confront between 1% and 4% holes in the roughly $14 billion they spend as a result. Schools’ recent 2-year, $1.2 billion increase in spendable authority may disappear more quickly than anticipated,” the report noted.

Making that cliff worse is how many schools are spending their COVID dollars.

“Construction is the 2nd-largest allocation category at 24%. This $284 million could grow from inflation or supply chain delays, which is why the Biden administration ‘strongly discouraged’ it,” IRG stated.

Unallocated doesn’t mean unspent or wasted. IRG said it simply means school boards have not filed the formal paperwork and gotten the proper permission to spend their COVID dollars.

Schools in Wisconsin have until September to make those allocations, even if the money will be spent next year.

The editorial board for one of the nation's leading newspapers called for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to drop out of the Republican presidential primary.

The editorial board for the Wall Street Journal, owned by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp., wrote Tuesday that DeSantis can't win.

"Mr. DeSantis faces no clear path to the nomination. He's well behind Ms. Haley in New Hampshire and South Carolina," the board wrote. "If he believes, as he says, that Mr. Trump can't win in November, he should leave the race and give Ms. Haley a chance to take on Mr. Trump one on one."

Trump won the Iowa Caucuses on Monday evening. The loss was particularly acute for DeSantis. His campaign had invested significant time and money in Iowa. DeSantis garnered about 21% support, compared to Trump, who received 51% of the vote. Even so, DeSantis and Republican former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley both said they would to continue their campaigns.

"Ms. Haley's relative strength in the Granite State speaks to Mr. Trump's weakness in the general election," the WSJ editorial board wrote. "Independents can vote in either party primary in the swing state, and Ms. Haley is attracting these voters who will be crucial in the half dozen states that will be decisive in November. It's also one reason most polls show she defeats Mr. Biden easily while Mr. Trump is barely ahead despite the President's historically low approval rating of 40%."

(The Center Square) – The former head of Wisconsin’s Republican Party and the man in charge of this summer’s Republican National Convention says he doesn’t see anyone but Donald Trump getting the nomination.

Reince Priebus told News Talk 1130’s WISN that after the former president’s resounding win in the Iowa Caucuses, Trump is the presumptive nominee.

“I think that Donaald Trump exceeded expectations,” Priebus said. “I think that he exceeded the mental threshold that Democrats and people that don’t like Trump wanted to out there. ‘Oh, he didn’t get 50%.’ I think it ended up being 51%.”

Trump doubled the vote totals of both Ron DeSantis and Nikki Halley in Monday night’s caucuses.

Priebus said that kind of victory will make it tough for either challenger to find a path forward, especially DeSantis, Priebus said.

“His play is that he is going to get second in South Carolina. That he’s going to talk to donors about whether any of these cases are going to matter, in regard to President Trump, and whether he should stay in to see how things go,” Priebus said. “[But] nothing has panned out in terms of those hopes and wishes.”

Haley, Priebus said, has a slightly different play. But he also doesn’t see it panning out.

“There is a small play that, maybe, Nikki Haley can somehow rally in New Hampshire, and somehow win in South Carolina,” Priebus said. “Her play is that she is going to have this inside straight going through New Hampshire. The reality is that Super Tuesday is March 5. Fifteen states are rolling on March 5. You need to have an enormous amount of money, and an enormous number of volunteers combined to do well in 15 state primaries,”

Priebus said that’s “a tough hill to climb.”

As for Trump’s play moving forward, Priebus said the former president needs to start running as the only Republican in the race and focus that race on President Biden,

“Act like the other campaigns don’t matter to you. Slowly focus on Joe Biden, do all of your speeches about him. Go to New Hampshire and South Carolina and start acting like you are the presumptive nominee. That’s number one,” Priebus said.” Number two, I’d start making demands through your campaign to say ‘I’m the presumptive nominee.’ And I would want the party to call me the presumptive nominee.”

Priebus said it looks more and more like nothing is going to stop the former president from getting the nomination at Milwaukee’s RNC in July.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson ended his bid for the Republican nomination for president after receiving only 191 votes in the Iowa caucuses.

Hutchinson frequently called out former President Donald Trump on the campaign trail.

"Trump not only wants to be above the law, but claims he is the law," Hutchinson said in a pinned post on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

Trump received 51% of the vote in the Iowa caucuses, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with just over 21% and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley with 19.1%.

"My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front-runner did not sell in Iowa," Hutchinson said in a statement Tuesday morning. "I answered every question, sounded the warning to the GOP about the risks in 2024 and presented hope for the country's future."

Hutchinson did not endorse another candidate.

Vivek Ramaswamy, who received 8,449 votes, ended his campaign Monday night and endorsed Trump.

The latest The Center Square Voters' Voice poll shows Trump would defeat President Joe Biden in the November election. Trump is ahead of Biden in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, states he lost in the 2020 elections, according to the poll.

New Hampshire voters will make their choice in the GOP primary on Tuesday.

Former President Donald Trump on Monday night easily won the caucuses in Iowa, the first state to vote in a months-long primary process where Republican voters will decide who they want to face the likely Democratic nominee, President Joe Biden, in November.

Based on national polling and Trump's decisive win Monday, it might not take months to decide the GOP nominee.

Iowa has 40 delegates up for grabs, and 1,215 are needed to win the Republican nomination.

Initial results showed Trump winning more votes than all of his opponents combined, though he dropped to about 50% of the total as more votes were counted. The outcome seemed so lopsided early, most major news outlets – including Fox News, CNN, CBS News and ABC News – called the race less than 30 minutes into the caucuses.

Trump's top challengers, former South Carolina Gov. and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, were in a tight battle for second place with thousands of votes still to be counted. Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy was a distant fourth.

"Well, that was fast," the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., wrote Monday night on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Thank you Iowa. Now let’s end this nonsense and go after the insanity that is today’s Democrat party. Enough is enough! It’s time to put America first for a change."

The DeSantis campaign lamented the media calling the race so early in the evening.

"It is absolutely outrageous that the media would participate in election interference by calling the race before tens of thousands of Iowans even had a chance to vote," Communications Director Andrew Romeo said in a statement. "The media is in the tank for Trump and this is the most egregious example yet."

U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who chairs the House Republican Conference, celebrated the "massive Trump victory" on X Monday evening.

"I have said it before, I will say it again – President Trump is our Republican Nominee for 2024 & he will defeat Joe Biden this November to #SaveAmerica!" she wrote. "Congratulations [Trump] on your huge #TrumpTrain Iowa Caucus win! Choo-choo!!"

Trump leads Biden by four percentage points in the hypothetical general election race, according to the latest The Center Square Voters' Voice Poll.

Iowa Republicans faced snow and below-zero temperatures Monday to cast their vote in the state's caucuses, the first to vote and set the tone for the Republican 2024 presidential primary. Trump’s victory comes as no surprise, but the remaining votes will show how his competitors fared and if one of Trump’s challengers can muscle the others out of the race.

Unlike other states, Iowa caucus-goers attended party meetings at local schools, churches and more later in the evening to choose their candidates.

"I’m asking you to go out, brave the cold and support me in the Iowa Caucus," DeSantis said in a video on X ahead of the vote.

His opponents did the same.

"Bundle up and buckle up!" Haley said on X earlier Monday.

Supporters traveled to Iowa for the big day or took to social media to show their support.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie withdrew from the race last week after lagging in the low single digits in polling. DeSantis and Haley also faced off in a CNN debate last week, one that Trump skipped and for which businessman Ramaswamy did not qualify.

Heading into the Iowa Caucuses, Trump held a hefty lead in the polls, outdistancing his challengers by about 30 points. Nationally, Trump holds an even bigger lead over his GOP rivals.

The Center Square’s Voter Voices poll released last week asked Republican voters, “Which of the following candidates are you most likely to vote for in the 2024 Republican primary?”

Of those surveyed, 61% of Republicans picked Trump.

In the poll, 13% of those surveyed chose Haley while 12% picked DeSantis.

The poll was conducted in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights and surveyed 2,573 Americans. The poll has a margin of error of about 2%.

In the three months after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, antisemitic incidents increased throughout the U.S. by 360%, according to preliminary data published by the Anti-Defamation League.

At least 3,283 incidents were reported between Oct. 7, 2023, and Jan. 7, 2024, according to the preliminary data. This represents a 360% increase from the 712 incidents reported over the same time period in the prior year. It’s also higher than any total tracked in any year in the past decade, except for 2022.

In 2022, the total number of antisemitic incidents were already at a historic high of 3,697, with an 87% increase occurring in the southwest region of the U.S.

With an average of nearly 34 antisemitic incidents occurring every day, 2023 is on track to be the worst year for Jews in America with the highest number of antisemitic acts reported since ADL began tracking this data in the late 1970s. The ADL has yet to release 2023 data for the calendar year.

“The American Jewish community is facing a threat level that’s now unprecedented in modern history,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said. “It’s shocking that we’ve recorded more antisemitic acts in three months than we usually would in an entire year.”

ADL’s Center on Extremism gathers reports and tracks antisemitic incidents in three categories: assaults, harassment and vandalism. This includes criminal and non-criminal acts of harassment and intimidation, which includes distribution of hate propaganda, threats and slurs, vandalism and assault reported by victims, law enforcement and community leaders. In 2022, antisemitic incidents occurred in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The number of incidents is not the same as, and is generally higher than, the number of victims.

After the Hamas attacks and over the three months evaluated, ADL tracked 60 antisemitic assaults and over 500 incidents on U.S. college campuses.

Of the 3,283 antisemitic incidents reported over this time period, ADL tracked 60 physical assault incidents, 553 acts of vandalism, and 1,353 acts of verbal or written harassment.

There were also 1,317 pro-Hamas rallies at which participants engaged in antisemitic rhetoric and expressed support for terrorism against Israel and/or anti-Zionism.

Several incidents occurred in Texas and Florida, whose Republican governors pledged support for Israel. They also met with Israeli leaders, instructed law enforcement officers to crack down on antisemitic acts and beefed up security outside of Jewish schools, establishments and houses of worship. After the Hamas attacks, a south Texas congresswoman’s office was vandalized by Hamas supporters. In Florida, pro-Hamas groups and violent protestors were shut down at state-funded universities. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was also the only governor in U.S. history to fly home stranded Americans from Israel.

“In this difficult moment, antisemitism is spreading and mutating in alarming ways,” Greenblatt said. “This onslaught of hate includes a dramatic increase in fake bomb threats that disrupt services at synagogues and put communities on edge across the country.”

Among the incidents reported to have occurred at school campuses, at least 505 occurred on college campuses; 246 at K-12 schools nationwide.

At least 628 antisemitic acts were committed against Jewish institutions, including synagogues and community centers.

Two-thirds of all incidents reported were directly related to the Israel-Hamas war, according to the report.

ADL also highlighted incidents that occurred in the first few days of the New Year, with the most occurring in California. On Jan. 3, at least six Jewish temples in San Diego County received bomb threats; 91 Jewish houses of worship statewide were targeted.

In 2022, the greatest number of antisemitic incidents occurred in five states: New York (580), California (518), New Jersey (408), Florida (269) and Texas (211). These five states accounted for 54% of all incidents reported.

In 2022, one hostage crisis occurred at a synagogue in the Dallas area and 91 bomb threats were made against Jewish institutions, the highest number recorded since 2017.

Former President Donald Trump is the heavy favorite to win Iowa's Republican presidential caucuses Monday, leading his closest challengers in polls by more than 30 percentage points.

RealClearPolitics Poll Average of major polls across the country shows Trump with more than 52% support in The Hawkeye State. His closest challenger there, former South Carolina Gov. and Ambassador Nikki Haley, shows 18.2% support, a nearly 34% percentage point gap between the No. 1 and No. 2 candidates in the state. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is an even more distant third with 15.6% support.

Monday's caucuses in Iowa – where temperatures are expected to hover just below 0 degrees and wind chills could hit minus 35 degrees or worse – are the first time voters get to weigh in during the Republican primary season.

Unlike a standard primary election where voters simply go to the polls and cast their ballots for the candidate of their choice (or in more recent years, mail in their ballots), voters at a caucus must show up in person and listen to supporters lobby for candidates before choosing sides.

A significant win by Trump in Iowa could all but deflate the candidacies of most – if not all – of the former president's Republican opponents.

Following Monday's caucuses, GOP voters in New Hampshire head to the polls Jan. 23 for the first-in-the-nation primary. Trump also holds a significant lead in polling there with 43.5% support, according to RealClear, but Haley has closed the gap down to about 14 percentage points with 29.3% support.

Trump leads all challengers by large amounts nationally as well. The latest The Center Square Voters' Voice Poll shows Trump with 61% support across the country, with Haley (13%) and DeSantis (12%) far behind.

Nevada follows with a Nov. 8 caucus, followed by primaries on Feb. 24 in South Carolina and Feb. 27 in Michigan (though not all delegates will be awarded on this date in Michigan; more than half will be awarded at the state convention March 2); and caucuses in Idaho March 2 and North Dakota March 4.

On Super Tuesday March 5, Republican voters from 15 states will select the candidate of their choice: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.

Trump could have the nomination locked up by then.

On Iowa, Colin Reed, a Republican strategist, former campaign manager for U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., and co-founder of South and Hill Strategies, told The Center Square: “For Trump, he needs to show a result that’s consistent with his lead in the polls or risk losing the veneer of inevitability,” Reed continued. “For DeSantis, he needs a decisive second place showing or loses a credible rationale to continue on. Nikki Haley placed more of her chips in New Hampshire so she has the least to lose and most to gain. Either way, the events in Iowa have the potential to reshuffle the deck in the eight days between the caucuses and New Hampshire primary.”

DeSantis received the coveted endorsement of Iowa's popular Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, but that hasn't helped him in polling there.

Trump also faces nearly 100 criminal charges across several states as well as ongoing efforts to remove him from the ballot for his role in the Jan. 6 protests at the U.S. Capitol. Translated, those challenges mean Trump’s campaign could be upended later this year and make second place in the GOP primary more important than ever.

If Democrats had a magic wand, they'd put Michelle Obama in the White House.

The former first lady has more political star power than incumbent President Joe Biden and other famous and not-so-famous Democrats ahead of the November election, according to The Center Square Voters' Voice Poll, conducted Jan. 2-4.

The poll, conducted with Noble Predictive Insights, found that if Democrats and Democrat-leaning likely voters could wave a magic wand, 24% would pick Michelle Obama. The former first lady was followed by Biden (20%), U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (12%), someone else (9%), U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (9%), former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (8%), Vice President Kamala Harris (7%), and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (5%).

Three other Democrats didn't have as much appeal: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer got 4%, followed by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (1%) and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (1%).

Michelle Obama, the wife of former President Barack Obama, has strong support among Black and Hispanic Democratic voters, women and people younger than 55, according to the poll. Michelle Obama, who turns 60 on Jan. 17, recently spoke with Jay Shetty for an episode of his "On Purpose" podcast. During the podcast, she said she was terrified about the upcoming election.

"What's going to happen in this next election? I am terrified about what could possibly happen because our leaders matter," Michelle Obama said. "Who we select speaks for us. Who holds that bully pulpit, it affects us in ways that sometimes I think people take for granted."

"You know, the fact that people think that government, eh, you know, doesn't really even do anything and I'm like, 'oh my God, does government do everything for us,' " Michelle Obama said. "And we cannot take this democracy for granted. And sometimes I worry that we do."

Former President Donald Trump holds a significant lead over his challengers in the Republican primary heading into Monday's Iowa caucuses, the first time U.S. voters can officially weigh in on whom the GOP nominee should be. The Obamas have been vocal critics of Trump.

Previous The Center Square Voters' Voice Polls showed similar support for the former first lady.

"Michelle Obama currently has the best of multiple worlds," said David Byler, chief of research at Noble Predictive Insights, which conducted the polling. "She's a celebrity with near universal name recognition. She's beloved by Democrats who remember her years as First Lady. But she doesn’t have the string of failures and missteps that follow anyone who holds formal political office.

"In other words, she has all the goodwill that comes with the Obama brand but no record that a potential opponent could use against her. She's not running for office now – but if she chose to do so in a future cycle, she could be formidable," he said.

The poll with Noble Predictive Insights surveyed 2,573 Americans from Jan. 2-4, including about an even number of Republicans and Democrats along with 266 "true independents," which are independents who indicated they do not lean toward either party. The poll has a margin of error of about 2%.

In other results, Trump surpassed Biden by four percentage points nationally in The Center Square Voters' Voice poll.

(The Center Square) – Milwaukee Public Schools are going back to taxpayers for a quarter-billion dollars.

The city’s school board voted Thursday night to put a $259 million tax hike request on the April ballot.

MPS leaders say they need more money to maintain operations and keep up with rising costs.

"We can’t let our public school system fail," MPS Board vice president Jilly Gokalgandhi told the board.

"How many years are we supposed to keep getting kicked in the face?" board president Marva Herndon asked.

The tax hike request comes after state lawmakers signed off on a school funding increase in June and after voters approved an $87 million tax increase for Milwaukee Public Schools in 2020.

Will Flanders, an education expert at the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, told The Center Square it’s unsurprising that MPS is once again asking taxpayers for more money.

“Like death and taxes, low-performing school districts demanding even more money from taxpayers is seemingly inevitable,” Flanders said.

MPS’s CFO told the school board the district will be looking at a $200 million deficit next school year. He warned about layoffs, frozen salaries, closed schools and fewer school buses if the referendum doesn’t pass.

Flanders said MPS already has plenty of money and is in line to get more.

“As it stands, MPS has nearly $19,000 per student. This doesn't even take into account the increases Gov. [Tony] Evers has set the district up for the next 400 years with his partial veto last year. Milwaukee taxpayers should carefully evaluate whether a district achieving less than 20% proficiency in reading and math should be rewarded with even more funding,” Flanders said.

Voters will have their say on the tax increase on the April ballot.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Supreme Court will not reconsider its ruling that tossed out the state’s political maps.

The new liberal-majority court ruled 4-3 against a request from Republican lawmakers to listen to arguments again.

Lawyers for the Republican-controlled legislature also said Friday’s deadline for new maps was too quick of a turnaround.

The liberal-majority court ruled just before Christmas that Wisconsin’s political maps from 2022 were too gerrymandered in favor of Republicans.

The court then ordered new maps for both the Wisconsin Assembly and Wisconsin Senate to be drawn before this spring’s primaries.

Gov. Tony Evers has said he intends to offer input on the new maps, but he said it will likely be up to the court’s experts to decide what the new legislative boundaries will be.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court didn’t offer an explanation with its decision.

The deadline for those maps is 5 p.m. today.

After that, experts hired by the court will either issue a report on new maps or will draw maps of their own.

Those maps are due to the court by Feb. 1. The Supreme Court has said Wisconsin’s new maps must be finalized by March 15 so they can be used in this year’s elections.