Homicide has exploded statewide during the tenure of Attorney General Josh Kaul as he holds press conferences taking credit for Wisconsin crime statistics. Since Kaul...

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin has seen 32 fatalities from all-terrain and utility task vehicles this year and the DNR says that it will have additional law enforcement officers over the Labor Day weekend.

Eighteen of the fatalities were on UTVs and 14 on ATVs across the state with the most recent being two accidents on Aug. 17, including a UTV collision with a motor vehicle in Wilson and a 24-year-old passenger who was ejected from a UTV in Lafayette County.

"This is trending in the wrong direction as we continue to see an increase of injury and fatal ATV and UTV crashes – with plenty of riding season left this year," Lt. Jacob Holsclaw, DNR off-highway vehicle administrator, said in the enforcement announcement. "A large percentage of injury and fatal crashes involve riders not wearing helmets or seatbelts, operating without completing a safety course or with some level of impairment. I can’t stress enough that the public needs to regulate themselves every time they go out riding."

The DNR officers will be monitoring safety equipment, Operating While Intoxicated and other driving issues such as speeding.

The DNR maintains a list of fatalities on ATVs and UTVs in the state that includes where the operator had safety certification, if alcohol was involved and whether a helmet or safety belt were being used.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s wildlife managers say the state’s deer population is at risk because of a growing EHD outbreak.

The state’s Department of Natural Resources last week said it is tracking deer deaths related to epizootic hemorrhagic disease.

"An ongoing EHD outbreak has been confirmed in wild deer in Washington County and suspect cases are also being reported from northern Waukesha and Ozaukee counties. The DNR continues to catalogue all reports of potentially impacted deer, but sampling is prioritized in regions where the virus has not already been confirmed this summer," the DNR said in a statement. "The DNR is tracking this outbreak through reported sightings of recently dead deer in the area."

The DNR said it had received 100 reports of dead deer through the middle of August, but those reports have spiked. As of Monday, the DNR said it has received 600 reports of dead deer.

Some of those are in southeast Wisconsin, specifically Waukesha and Ozaukee counties.

EHD is often deadly for deer and has been a problem in Wisconsin for years. The DNR said EHD was first confirmed in 2002, but the outbreak began to grow in 2012.

There are now 24 counties that have or have had an EHD case.

"Department staff continues to monitor the deer herd for indications of HD and ask citizens to report any unusual observations of dead deer to the DNR," the department said. "In areas where HD regularly occurs, death rates are lower, usually less than 25% of the population, in areas where the disease rarely occurs. In Wisconsin, death rates can be much higher and high-density deer herds may have higher mortality rates."

Wildlife managers say there are clear signs of infected deer.

“Deer that are infected and have the most severe cases of the disease may be unafraid of humans, salivate excessively, have foam present around the nose (sometimes with blood), appear weak but in good body condition and may appear to have swollen areas of their body (typically the areas of the head and neck). Deer may also be found in or near water, as they can develop very high fevers and be dehydrated,” the DNR added.

But most EHD cases are confirmed only after the deer had died.

While EHD is often deadly for deer, the DNR said it is not a risk to humans.

Rep. Robyn Vining "has repeatedly voted against legislation that would have lowered taxes for Wisconsin families, retirees, married couples, and small businesses," her opponent,...

Lawmakers probed birth tourism schemes that have emerged throughout the country Tuesday as part of broader investigations into the efforts of foreign mothers seeking United States citizenship for their children.

The U.S. House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses held a hearing on Tuesday to discuss ongoing litigation against companies accused of enticing foreign women to give birth to children in the U.S.

The task force excused Wladimir Lorentz, founder and chief medical officer of Miami Medical Concierge Services, after he pleaded the Fifth Amendment right to protect against self-incrimination several times during the hearing. The company, also known as “Have My Baby in Miami,” is under federal investigation for enticing foreign women to give birth to children in the U.S.

The Migration Policy Institute estimates as many as 26,000 babies are born in the U.S. each year through birth tourism. The research institute analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau to determine that figure.

Steven Camarota, Director of Research at the Center for Immigration Studies, said that a surge of companies operating birth tourism schemes are in the U.S. He said most companies are enticing women to pay large amounts of money so their children can be born in the country and achieve citizenship.

Camarota said American taxpayers could be on the hook for many birth tourism schemes because hospitals do not foot the bill.

“The taxpayer is often getting stuck with the bill based on anecdotal evidence, but I don't know that we have any systematic evidence,” Camarota said.

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., called on lawmakers to thoroughly investigate the flow of taxpayer dollars toward birth tourism schemes. He said Medicaid payments could be going to fund the operation of birth tourism centers across the country.

“We're trying to prevent Medicaid payments to people that aren't citizens at the very least,” Comer said. “They’re advertising people to come over here, the hospitals get them signed up on Medicaid and it’s paid for.”

Camarota said the goal of birth tourism is to allow the child to obtain citizenship and return to the U.S. as an adult in order to sponsor their parents for citizenship. He said most foreign mothers do not stay in the U.S. after giving birth.

“The goal is to return home with their citizen child,” Camarota said. “That child then can come back to the United States as an adult, that child when they reach adulthood could sponsor the parents for green cards.”

Democrats on the committee grilled Camarota and dismissed claims of widespread birth tourism in the country. Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., said the Trump administration’s deportation policy is more concerning than birth tourism schemes across the country.

“We are talking about an action that is already illegal and is exceedingly rare, while we ignore the violations of constitutional rights that take place on a daily basis in every community across this country,” Walkinshaw said.

The investigations surrounding birth tourism have ramped up after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled President Donald Trump’s executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship is unconstitutional. The court’s majority said the 14th Amendment, which was designed to confer citizenship rights to formerly enslaved African Americans, also extends to children born in the U.S. to immigrant parents.

The 14th Amendment reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject ot the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Republican lawmakers have said the inclusion of "subject to jurisdiction thereof" would exclude immigrants seeking citizenship in the country.

“While current law contains no such restriction, Congress could pass a law defining what it means to be born in the United States ‘and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,’ excluding prospectively from birthright citizenship individuals born in the U.S. to illegal aliens,” U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said.

Rep. Dave Min, D-Calif., pointed to the high court’s ruling and slammed the Trump administration for its order seeking to overturn the legal precedent. He cited his lineage as a birthright citizen for his defense of the 14th Amendment.

“I and my colleagues here will continue to fight as long as we're members of Congress to ensure that every American is ensured the due process and fair representation that the 14th Amendment also guarantees,” Min said.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said birth tourism is not rare and has disproportionately affected his home state of Arizona, which shares portions of the U.S.-Mexico border. He said hospitals in his community of Yuma were filled with foreign women giving birth, leaving other women without necessary care.

“When local moms came in to deliver their baby, they had to go to Phoenix or San Diego four hours away,” Biggs said. “If it was an emergency, we even had a cardiac instance where they had to air evac[uate] people to Phoenix and San Diego, not because of the acuteness of the case, but because there was no place to treat them.”

Tuesday's hearing continues the lawmaker's probe into birth tourism operations throughout the U.S. while federal investigations operate at the same time.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s measles outbreak continues to grow.

The state’s Department of Health Services said more people in southwest Wisconsin have tested positive for the measles.

“The Wisconsin Department of Health Services is reporting a significant increase in measles cases associated with the outbreak in Grant, Iowa, and Lafayette Counties – from 42 reported on Tuesday to 92 reported [on Friday]. This increase reflects ongoing transmission among people connected to previously identified cases,” DHS said in a statement.

Wisconsin is not alone in seeing measles cases this year.

The CDC said, as of Sunday, there were 2,903 confirmed cases in 47 states and Washington, D.C.

Most of those cases, 1,351, are among young people between the ages of 5 and 19 years old. The CDC said 94% of measles cases are in people who are not vaccinated.

Wisconsin's public health managers are not saying who is sick in the state, or where the measles outbreak began. DHS, however, said it continues to investigate the outbreak.

"While the increase in cases is significant, it does not necessarily indicate an increase in exposure risk to the broader public," DHS added. " Federal, state, and local public health agencies continue to investigate cases of measles to identify and notify close contacts, identify potential public exposure locations and will notify the public of possible exposure locations if needed."

DHS said all people in Wisconsin should update their vaccination status and is promoting its Measles Information Page that you can find here.

Following attempted missile attacks from Iran targeting a U.S. military base in Jordan, President Donald Trump vowed to retaliate.

The Islamic Republic launched several missiles targeting an American base in Jordan overnight after the U.S. reportedly targeted rocket launchers along the Strait of Hormuz. It has been reported that most of the missiles were intercepted.

In response, the president told Fox News Monday that Iran would be “hit hard” for the attack.

In a Truth Social post, Trump declared, “Iran is officially a failed nation. It is dead.”

In a separate post, the president posted what appears to be an AI-generated video showing Iran’s Kharg Island “being blown to smithereens” following Iran’s latest round of attacks.

The president added that Iran is dealing with 300% inflation and is unable to pay its military and police.

Videos circulating on social media claiming to be taken inside Iran show miles-long lines for gas, as the U.S. continues to enforce a full naval blockade on Iranian ports. The Trump administration claims the blockade is costing the Islamic Republic between $400 million and $500 million in economic losses a day, coupled with intense sanctions meant to squeeze the country financially.

The latest rounds come on the same day as the Pentagon announced a seven-year agreement with General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin to “accelerate” missile production.

The agreement would “triple” the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement and “quadruple” the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense programs.

The overnight attacks come days after U.S. Central Command announced that U.S. forces had “successfully cleared sea mines” in the Strait of Hormuz, within the international shipping lanes that “were laid months ago by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”

The Pentagon says it has spent nearly $40 billion on military operations in Iran, though many independent analyses estimate the true amount is at least double.

(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Elections Commission plans to send a letter thanking the Milwaukee Elections Commission for its promised release of documents by this Friday related to an error at Milwaukee Central Count on the night of the recent primary.

On Friday, the MEC acknowledged that a team led by its deputy director mistakenly selected and downloaded an audit log instead of election results on five of nine tabulators at its central count facility on the state’s primary election night, leading to a delay in reporting unofficial results.

The WEC had planned to vote at its Monday meeting to approve a letter asking the MEC to release documents but the MEC preemptively sent a promise to release those documents.

The WEC plans to review the Milwaukee documents and see if further action is necessary. Those documents will include an audit log that will show if any action was taken on the machines between the first download of data and second download.

“I know I’m not supposed to make bets on voting but I bet anybody $100 that there will be a major problem with the November ’26 election at central count,” Commissioner Robert Spindell said during Monday’s meeting.

Commission Vice Chair Mark Thomsen, however, said that the hour delay in results on election night was simply a delay and he believes that all votes were counted, unlike an issue in Madison where nearly 200 ballots were not counted in the 2024 presidential election.

“The city has answered every question and it’s transparent and it’s there,” Thomsen said.

He added that he believes the WEC should not “unfairly attack people who have a very tough job.”

He was against the WEC sending its originally planned letter, saying that the MEC already had responded and that "crosses a line into witch hunting from investigation."

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U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, on Tuesday announced his eight-point plan on affordability including lowering property taxes, sales taxes, gas prices and utility costs along with returning a state surplus.

Tiffany is running against Democrat David Crowley in the Nov. 3 general election.

Tiffany said he would end a 400-year property tax increase that was implemented with a partial veto from Gov. Tony Evers that allows for a $325 per student per year school funding increase for the next 400 years.

Voters will vote statewide on a constitutional amendment that will eliminate the governor’s partial veto power to “create or increase or authorize the creation or increase of any tax or fee” on the November ballot.

Tiffany vowed to cut state income taxes by 10% for families earning less than $150,000 annually along with eliminating taxes on tips and overtime and returning a state surplus to voters, both aspects of a plan that failed in the Wisconsin Senate this spring after Republican leaders of the Assembly and Senate and Evers agreed on a deal for both.

Tiffany also vowed to prevent state sales tax increases, to appoint commissioners to the Public Service Commission that will reduce citizen’s utility costs while embracing next-generation nuclear energy.

He also vowed to end Wisconsin’s minimum markup law and government-mandated higher prices on gas. The law, called the Unfair Sales Act, requires retailers to include a 9.18% markup on motor vehicle fuel.

"Wisconsin families work hard for every dollar they earn, but government at every level keeps taking more," Tiffany said in a statement. "Property taxes are too high, utility bills have soared, and everyday purchases cost more. Meanwhile, David Crowley has never met a tax hike he didn't like. He raised Milwaukee County’s sales tax by 80%, raised property taxes five times, and even voted against a 10% middle-class income tax cut. We cannot afford Tax Collector Crowley taking more of your paycheck just to spend more in Madison."

Tiffany also vowed to “lower taxes, cut red tape, speed up permitting, and reform occupational licensing” to create more good-paying jobs in the state.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin lawmakers plan to take their first hard look at the state’s food stamp program in more than a decade.

The legislature’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee authorized an audit of the FoodShare program.

"The biggest thing I'd look at is that the federal requirements have changed, and the state is in a position where there's close to a $300 million risk if we don't look at and have in place the things we need to do to comply with the [Big Beautiful Bill]," Audit Committee co-chair Rep. Bob Wittke, R-Caledonia, said at Tuesday's hearing.

President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill sets new requirements that punish states if error rates are too high. Any state with an over-payment or under-payment rate more than 6% will be fined by the federal government.

Wisconsin's Department of Health Services, which runs FoodShare in the state, said Wisconsin's error rate was 5.72% for fiscal year 2025.

"We collectively should be very proud of our state administration of FoodShare," DHS Secretary Kirsten Johnson told lawmakers Tuesday.

But it's not just errors. Lawmakers say Wisconsin last audited its FoodShare program in 2012.

"What I was seeing towards the end of my practice was the act of [a SNAP recipient] paying [a] drug addict, for instance, a dollar amount to go shop for them, or the drug addict going in and buying a bunch of meat and then selling it on the street. What are the mechanisms you use to stop that?" Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Gillet, said during the hearing.

Wimberg also pressed DHS managers for a plan to deal with FoodShare abuse.

"For the bad actor who is going to do those methods to basically get money by allowing other people to get food, what do you have that stops that sort of behavior?"

There are nearly 700,000 people in Wisconsin who are enrolled in FoodShare, though that number could drop.

The Big Beautiful Bill requires people who are not parents, elderly, or who have developmental disabilities to work 20 hours a week, go to school, or enroll in a job training program to continue receiving benefits.

(The Center Square) – A Wisconsin lawmaker is raising concerns that one of nine members of Gov. Tony Evers’ commutations board has a conflict of interest as his work colleagues advocate for applicants being considered by the board.

Restorative Justice Director Jonathan Scharrer is one of nine members of the board that heard the arguments of 12 applicants on Friday. Scharrer’s colleagues are advocating for four of the 12 applicants, but he only recused himself from one of the four applicants, according the state Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine.

Wangaard published the names of the 809 felons requesting commutations through Evers’ board.

A commutation shortens the sentence of an inmate. Applicants must have at least a year remaining and have served half of the full incarceration term or 20 years of a life sentence.

Those imprisoned for sexual assault, physical abuse of a child, sexual exploitation of a child, trafficking of a child, incest and soliciting a child for prostitution are not eligible for commutation.

“It is a rigged system!” Wanggaard said in a statement. “Board members are considering applications their close colleagues are urging. The supposed “consideration” of releasing killers early seems like a guarantee now.”

Wanggard said he has received 1,800 pages of documents from the governor’s office in a partial response to an Open Records Request related to application materials for those seeking commutations.

“As we combed through the documents, we realized the Law School’s Remington Center wrote a letter in support of 4 of the 12 applicants,” Wanggaard said. “Jonathan Sharrer is listed on the Remington Center’s letterhead. He is also a member of Governor Evers’ Commutation Board. If that’s not a conflict of interest, I don’t know what is.”

Wanggaard’s office said the senator is still seeking the records of the remaining 797 applicants.

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