Monday, July 28, 2025
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Monday, July 28, 2025

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Janet Protasiewicz Gave Weak Sentence to Man Accused of Murdering Milwaukee Common Council President’s Niece

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Update – we were just told by sources that Elijah Combs led Milwaukee police on a chase the evening of Feb. 28, crashed, and shot himself.

In addition, Elijah Combs was freed and given a “summons” on Feb. 9 in two criminal cases in Milwaukee County, leaving him on the streets when Aliyah Perez was killed. That’s a piece of paper that merely asked him to show up for his next court date rather than being booked in jail.

Left-wing Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz gave a slap on the wrist in a previous felony domestic violence case to Elijah Combs, the man accused of murdering Aliyah Perez, the niece of Milwaukee Common Council president Jose Perez, Wisconsin Right Now has learned.

Janet Protasiewicz could have sent Combs to prison for 15.5 years if he was convicted on the original charges. That means he would have been off the streets on the day of the murder. Instead, she allowed three serious felony charges to be dismissed and stayed all prison time in the 2016 case, meaning he would not have to serve the time unless he messed up again. That’s even though he jumped bail.

Read the horrific details from the criminal complaint here.

Jose Perez, the victim’s uncle, is the president of the Milwaukee Common Council. According to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s office, Aliyah Perez, 26, was murdered on the evening of Feb. 26, 2023, in the 5300 block of South 26th Street. The Milwaukee police homicide unit is handling the case.

Common Council President José G. Pérez said in a statement: “My family has experienced an immense tragedy within the past 24 hours that has left us saddened beyond words. I ask the news media and the public to please allow me and my family members space and privacy at this time.”

Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee judge running against former Justice Dan Kelly, is already under fire for a string of weak sentences that have put dangerous offenders back on the streets with little accountability. The state Republican Party has even created a website to highlight the cases called “No Jail Janet.”

Combs appeared before Protasiewicz on a slew of very serious domestic violence-related and bail jumping charges in 2016. She could have sent him a message; instead she gave him a slap on the wrist, letting him go with only 6 months in the House of Correction, probation, and stayed prison.

If Protasiewicz had not agreed to the plea bargain that dismissed multiple felony charges against Combs, and had sentenced Combs to the maximum penalty for those, he would have been behind bars today. Although plea bargains are negotiated by prosecutors, judges have the power to reject them under Wisconsin law. The plea agreement reduced his exposure from more than 25 years to 9 years overall – with the confinement time portion (the portion that could be spent behind bars rather than on extended supervision) reduced from 15.5 years to 4.5 years.

Protasiewicz agreed to dismiss but read-in at sentencing three felony charges – strangulation and suffocation, false imprisonment, and intimidate victim/threaten force.

She convicted Combs of felony substantial battery – intend bodily harm.

In the second case, Combs was sentenced by Protasiewicz on felony bail jumping. In other words, he had already screwed up while out on bail in the first case.

According to court records, she stayed all prison and jail time in that case, meaning he wouldn’t have to serve a day of it unless he messed up again. Instead, she placed him on probation.

Combs was accused of being Perez’s killer by multiple family members of the victim on Facebook. A law enforcement source confirmed to Wisconsin Right Now that he is the suspect accused in the homicide case.

The Milwaukee Court System continued to send messages to Combs that he would not be held accountable.

On Feb. 9, 2023, Combs was charged with third-offense OWI in Milwaukee County. He was mailed a summons. There is no evidence bail was even set or that he was booked in jail.

In a separate case, he was charged with felony fleeing an officer in Milwaukee County. He was given $2,500 bail in that case and then given a summons and told to show up for his next court date.

Both of those cases are pending; Protasiewicz did not handle those cases because they haven’t even made it before a judge yet.

When we interviewed Milwaukee County DA John Chisholm in 2021, he revealed that the court system has been sending thousands of offenders such “summons” to show up in court, instead of booking them into jail. We’ve got that on audio. That means they are handed a piece of paper and just told to show up for court.

Chisholm revealed in that interview that officials were using the previously unreported process – which he blamed on COVID – to hand many arrested suspects the “summons” (a notice) to come to court for their first appearance, rather than book them into the jail and requiring them to bail them out at all. That means that many offenders were left on the streets after their arrests, and it was left to them to do the right thing and show up for their first court appearance.

Asked if his own office has backlogs, Chisholm said, “Oh yeah. A huge number of cases that are out in summons…so many of them are in summons.”

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Border Patrol Agents Continue to Arrest Iranians, Weapons Traffickers at Northern Border

At the northern border, Border Patrol agents continue to arrest Iranians and weapons traffickers and are helping seize record amounts of fentanyl.

While illegal border crossings are down at the northern border under the Trump administration, Border Patrol agents in the busiest northern border Swanton Sector are continuing to interdict crime. The sector includes all of Vermont, six upstate New York counties, and three New Hampshire counties.

Earlier this month, Border Patrol Agents from the Champlain Station in New York responded to a report of suspicious activity near Mooers Forks, New York. Upon arrival, they located a minivan occupied by five Iranian citizens and two Uzbekistan citizens – all adult men in the country illegally.

Border Patrol agents then determined all seven men “had previously illegally entered the United States at various locations along both the U.S./Mexico border and the U.S./Canada border,” Swanton Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent Robert Garcia said. They were detained and are being processed for removal.

“Border security is national security and directly correlates to public safety,” Garcia said, adding that “Swanton Sector agents remain vigilant and committed to protecting our borders and enforcing immigration laws.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are also arresting Iranians in the country illegally, including Revolutionary Guard soldiers, after more than 1,500 Iranians illegally entered the U.S. under the Biden administration, with more than 700 released into the U.S., The Center Square exclusively reported.

In another instance, Border Patrol agents notified the New York State Police about a suspected driver of a vehicle allegedly involved in smuggling activity in upstate New York. State troopers responded, located and stopped the vehicle near Albany, Garcia said. A subsequent vehicle search resulted in a seizure of roughly 4.7 pounds of powdered fentanyl, enough to kill more than one million people.

“This seizure is a powerful reminder of why strong partnerships between federal, state, and local law enforcement are vital to our national security and public safety,” Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia said.

In another instance, Border Patrol agents helped ATF federal partners apprehend a criminal foreign national wanted for weapons trafficking. Honduran national Yubert Yasiel Lopez-Lopez, 31, was arrested in North Attleboro, Mass., after he illegally reentered the country after he was previously deported.

He was first apprehended in 2014 after illegally entering the U.S. in Hidalgo, Texas, under the Obama administration. A federal immigration judge in Houston ordered his removal, which occurred four years later under the first Trump administration. In 2022, he again illegally entered the country in Yuma, Arizona, under the Biden administration. It took another three years to arrest him, this time in Massachusetts, with authorities learning he was wanted in Honduras on weapons trafficking charges. A federal grand jury indicted him last month in Vermont, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont announced. He faces up to two years in prison if convicted and removal from the U.S. for a third time.

“We continue to enforce federal immigration laws and seek maximum consequences against those who violate them,” Garcia said.

Garcia also regularly thanks members of the public for supporting Border Patrol efforts, sometimes acting as the eyes and ears for agents in rural areas by calling in sightings of illegal border crossers or suspicious activity. He continues to encourage members of the public to report suspicious border activity in the Swanton Sector by calling 1-800-689-3362.

The sector was hit hard under the Biden administration with illegal border crossings from Canada reaching record levels, totaling nearly one million, according to CBP data and gotaway data exclusively reported by The Center Square. The greatest number ever reported in U.S. history in the sector was in fiscal 2024 of nearly 200,000, excluding those who evaded capture, The Center Square reported.

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Wisconsin Republicans Introduce Bill to Repeal Evers’ 400-Year Veto

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin state legislators have started circulating a bill to repeal Gov. Tony Evers’ 400-year school funding veto.

Evers’ veto in July 2023, which turned a temporary $325 per student K-12 funding increase – originally slated for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years – into a permanent increase through the year 2425, was recently upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in April, The Center Square previously reported.

However, the court’s ruling suggested lawmakers could still draft legislation as a recourse to the governor’s partial veto, and Republicans are seeking to do just that.

“The pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock 402 years before this veto. It is hard to justify locking in a funding increase for just as long into the future,” the bill’s four co-authors said in a cosponsorship memo circulating at the state Capitol, WPR reported.

The bill would effectively reverse Evers’ 400-year veto, eliminating the $325 per pupil adjustment in the school district revenue limit formula beginning with the 2026-27 school year.

“One man locked in a tax-raising mechanism that no one voted for and no one approved,” the cosponsorship memo reads. “Evers’ move bypassed both the elected Legislature and the hard-working people who pay the bills.”

However, if the bill passes both chambers of the Legislature, it would ironically require Evers to not veto it in order to become law.

While the Senate had voted to override Evers’ original veto in September 2023, the Assembly never held a vote on the override, so the effort failed and the veto stood.

Will Flanders, the research director at Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, previously wrote, “The Governor is not a king, even if the state Supreme Court says he is. Given this increase, the legislature should fight hard against any further increases for public schools that are now set up for a boondoggle.”

Governor’s Veto Powers Wisconsin Republicans Parental Bill of Rights Outlaw Child Sex Dolls Embrace Them Both Unemployment Reforms Wisconsin’s Professional Licensing Bail Reform Amendment wisconsin covid-19

Wisconsin Cities, Counties Saw Drop in June Unemployment Rate

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin saw the June unemployment rate go down in 24 of the state’s largest 35 cities over the month while the rates lowered in 63 counties and stayed the same in eight more, according to new numbers from the state’s Department of Workforce Development.

Wisconsin’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate went down to 3.2% in June, less than the 4.1% national rate.

Wisconsin’s labor force participation rate went down to 65.1% in June while the national rate decreased slightly to 62.3%.

Wisconsin saw 10 of its largest metropolitan areas show unemployment decreases while three of those areas remained the same. Twelve of the metropolitan areas saw unemployment decreases over the year while the rate in Sheboygan remained the same.

Menominee, meanwhile, was the only county that saw a month over month increase in unemployment rate while the rate increased in just four counties year over year.

Trump Expects Indictment White House Cocaine president trump covid-19

Tulsi Gabbard Releases New Intel Claiming FBI, CIA ‘Knowingly created’ Russia Hoax

Federal officials have released more documents indicating a Democratic-led intelligence community politically targeted President Donald Trump by claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin influenced the 2016 presidential election to help Trump win.

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified a 2020 House Intelligence Committee report Wednesday that “exposes how the Obama Administration manufactured the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment that they knew was false.”

“The Russia Hoax was a lie that was knowingly created by the Obama Administration to undermine the legitimacy and power of the duly elected President of the United States, Donald Trump,” Gabbard posted on X.

Notably, the report found that the majority of the intelligence community’s judgements on Russia’s confirmed attempts to meddle with the 2016 election were “sound,” including its findings that Putin ordered “conventional and cyber influence operations” to undermine faith in the U.S. democratic process and the legitimacy of an expected Hillary Clinton presidency.

However, further judgments from the intelligence community alleging that Putin “developed a clear preference for candidate Trump” and “aspired to help his chances of victory” were not only false but also the result of apparent bad faith, the oversight investigation reveals.

To reach their conclusion that Putin had attempted to help Trump win, top intelligence officials cherry-picked inconclusive information that supported the narrative, omitted or suppressed information contradicting the narrative, and based their “high confidence” assumptions on untrustworthy and dishonest sources.

The report builds upon other documents that Gabbard declassified over the weekend showing that Obama, along with his senior advisors, reportedly pressured the intelligence community to contrive evidence that Russia intended to manipulate the vote count in Trump’s favor.

The Trump administration believes these efforts amounted to a “coup” meant to delegitimize the results of the 2016 election and cast doubts on Trump’s presidency.

Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., said Wednesday that the “Russia hoax will go down as one of the most troublesome events in U.S. history” that caused the country to become “more polarized than ever before.”

“A President of the United States was falsely accused, and a nation had to endure lies fabricated by rogue personnel within their own Intelligence Community,” Crawford said on X. “There are still Americans who passionately believe the fabricated narrative. That is why releasing this document to the public has been so important.”

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2026 GOP Candidate Josh Schoemann Challenges Evers’ Budget Approach

(The Center Square) – Josh Schoemann, the only Republican currently in the race for governor next year, is criticizing Gov. Tony Evers’ approach to the next state budget by comparing it to his plans in Washington County.

“In Washington County our budget cycle starts right now, and it’s not due until November. We will propose our budget goals to the County Board in the next couple of months. We will share ‘This is what we’re thinking.’ It gives them months of time to think those through, give us feedback, and [have] that kind of dialogue,” Schoemann explained in an interview on News Talk 1130 WISN.

Schoemann said that is far better than the approach Evers is taking again this year.

“That’s not how government is supposed to work,” Schoemann said. “It’s not the vision of the governor. It’s not the vision of any one person.”

Evers and the Republican legislative leaders who will write the budget have been involved in on-again, off-again budget talks this month. On Thursday, the governor’s office said those talks were off once again because of gridlock in the Senate.

“Ultimately, the Senate needs to decide whether they were elected to govern and get things done or not,” Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback said in a post on X.

Schoemann’s criticism of Evers is nothing new. He has long been a critic of the governor and has turned that criticism up since launching his campaign for governor.

But the recent criticism was also aimed at other Republicans who may jump into the 20206 governor’s race later this year.

“Nobody else in this race on the Republican side, being rumored to this point, has the executive leadership of skills and history to be able to show ‘This is how I’ve done it before, and here’s how we’ll do it Madison,’” Schoemann said. “The results in Washington County speak for themselves.”

Northwoods Congressman Tom Tiffany is also rumored to be looking to get into the Republican race. Before he went to Congress, Tiffany was a Republican lawmaker in Madison.

Businessman and veteran Bill Berrien is also on the short list of likely GOP candidates for 2026.

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