Thursday, February 13, 2025
spot_imgspot_img
Thursday, February 13, 2025

Milwaukee Press Club 'Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism' 2020 & 2021 Award Winners

Fallen Heroes: Remembering 6 Wisconsin Law Enforcement Officers

spot_img

These are the six heroes whose sacrifices were remembered at the 31st Wisconsin Law Enforcement Memorial Ceremony in Madison on May 7, 2021. They were officially added to the memorial honoring fallen officers.

Former Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales said that officers attended the memorial to “pay respects to our fallen heroes who gave their lives serving our communities. We can not and we will not forget them.”

Six names were part of the 2020 and 2021 honor rolls read at the memorial on Capitol Square. The 2020 names were also read because that ceremony was canceled due to the pandemic.

“Due to the pandemic, there was not an official ceremony in 2020, therefore the ceremony will include a 2020-2021 Honor Roll,” the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Memorial explained. “The Honor Roll includes six names that will be officially added to the Memorial, bringing the total amount of Wisconsin law enforcement officers listed on the Memorial to 285.”

The heroes are, according to a press release from the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Memorial non-profit organization:

“On November 3, 1945, Pepin County Sheriff’s Office Traffic Officer Starre A. Miles, was directing traffic while a wrecker was removing a vehicle that crashed. Another vehicle struck the wrecker. Officer Miles was struck by one of the vehicles and sustained a head injury. Officer Miles succumbed to his injuries on November 5, 1945, while in the hospital.”

“On May 25, 1933, Darlington Police Department Chief William McGinty, suffered a fatal heart attack, while struggling with an intoxicated male that he arrested.”

Wisconsin law enforcement officers

“On February 6, 2019, Milwaukee Police Department Officer Matthew J. Rittner, was a member of the department’s Tactical Enforcement Unit (TEU). The TEU was conducting a search warrant. Officer Rittner was the breacher on the team and as he breached the door, the suspect fired at officers striking and fatally wounding Officer Rittner.”

Matthew rittner
Matthew rittner

“On June 17, 2019, Racine Police Department Officer John D. Hetland was off duty. Officer Hetland took police action and intervened in an armed robbery. The suspect fired a handgun striking and fatally wounding Officer Hetland.”

John hetland
John hetland

“On August 3, 2017, Milwaukee Police Department Officer Mark S. Lentz, was attempting to stop a vehicle, when another vehicle intentionally rammed Officer Lentz’ police motorcycle, to assist the other driver from being stopped in a stolen vehicle. Officer Lentz remained in medical care for injuries sustained in the crash until he died on September 18, 2019, due complications related to his injuries.”

Mark lentz
Mark lentz

“On August 22, 2020, Dane County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Richard Treadwell, died from complications of COVID-19, which he contracted while performing his duties while assigned to Dane County Law Enforcement Training Center.”

Richard treadwell
Richard treadwell

“These individuals are God-fearing individuals who died serving and protecting our communities,” said Morales. “If we give up, the devil wins. The contest is not between us and them but between good and evil..Remember our fallen. Remember we live in America. God bless you and God bless America.”

C.O.P.S. president Jo Ann Mignon said, “Our law enforcement officers go out each day to do the best they can to try and make this world a better place and sometimes they give the ultimate sacrifice and don’t make it home to us. To the 285 names on the wall, we tell them we will not forget you.”

Morales added, “Imagine a day without police in our communities. I think it’s a scary thing. I can’t imagine it.”

He praised officers for reporting for duty “during repeated blasting of the law enforcement profession… you do it because it’s your calling. We all know you do God’s work.”

isaiah stott

Isaiah Walker Stott: Milwaukee Gunman Posted Anti-Trump Video, Sources Say

Three sources told Wisconsin Right Now that the Milwaukee Police Department believes the gunman who...
cavalier johnson mpd

MPD Officers IRATE After Mayor Cavalier Johnson Post Says Suspect’s Death Is a ‘Tragedy’

Milwaukee police officers anxiously awaiting news of their wounded colleague's condition are irate after a...
milwaukee police officer shot

Milwaukee Police Officer Shot at 27th & Wisconsin

A 34-year-old Milwaukee police officer was shot at 27th and Wisconsin today by a rifle-toting...
susan crawford act 10

Wisconsin Judge Susan Crawford Tries to Hide Her Anti Voter ID Activism

Why isn't Susan Crawford being honest with voters about her anti-Voter ID activism? New reports say...
susan crawford

Brad Schimel Slams Leftist Susan Crawford Over Soros, Pritzker Money

Former Attorney General Brad Schimel slammed Susan Crawford Tuesday over massive out-of-state donations made by...
brittany kinser

UNCENSORED: Wisconsin DPI Candidate Brittany Kinser Opens Up

Brittany Kinser is an empath - "someone who is highly attuned to the emotions of...
josh schoemann

Washington Co Exec: Putting the People Over the Government Paper Pushers

This is a column by Josh Schoemann, Washington County Executive 14 years ago, Scott Walker and...

Waukesha Co. GOP Announces Free ‘Reagan’ & ‘Joshua Glover’ Movie Night

The Republican Party of Waukesha County "invites you to a powerful Movie Night on Wednesday,...

DOGE: Democrats Are Protesting Against Government Efficiency! [Up Against the Wall]

This is an opinion piece by Terrence R. Wall America is Back! U.S. DOT - First let...

Trump to Stop U.S. Production of Pennies

President Donald Trump said late Sunday that he has ordered the U.S. Treasury Department to stop producing pennies.

Pennies famously cost more than a penny to produce, putting them in the crosshairs of Trump and DOGE’s government efficiency push.

"For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents," Trump wrote on TruthSocial, his social media site. "This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.

Let's rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it's a penny at a time," Trump added.

DOGE posted on X last month critical of the penny’s cost, hinting at its fate.

"The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost US taxpayers over $179 million in FY2023," DOGE wrote on X. "The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies in FY2023, around 40% of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced. Penny (or 3 cents!) for your thoughts."

According to the U.S. Mint’s latest report, the cost of all coins is on the rise. From the Mint’s 2024 report:

"FY 2024 unit costs increased for all circulating denominations compared to last year. The penny’s unit cost increased 20.2 percent, the nickel’s unit cost increased by 19.4 percent, the dime’s unit cost increased by 8.7 percent, and the quarter-dollar’s unit cost increased by 26.2 percent. The unit cost for pennies (3.69 cents) and nickels (13.78 cents) remained above face value for the 19th consecutive fiscal year."

Lake Sturgeon Protection

Wisconsin Lawmakers Want State Exempt From Any Lake Sturgeon Protection

(The Center Square) – A group of Wisconsin lawmakers have filed legislation to protect sturgeon spearing in the state.

The bill would exempt Wisconsin from any listing of lake sturgeon under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The group, including Republican Congressmen Glenn Grothman and Mike Gallagher filed what they called the Sturgeon Protected and Exempt from Absurd Regulations Act.

Reps. Tony Wied, Grothman and Tom Tiffany introduced the legislation on Friday.

The bill is in response to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducting a status assessment of lake sturgeon after the group was sued by an animal rights group in 2018 attempting to have lake sturgeon listed as threatened.

“Sturgeon-spearing is crucial to maintaining Wisconsin’s lake sturgeon population which is why we must take proactive steps to ensure that we are exempt from any action to list the lake sturgeon under the Endangered Species Act,” Tiffany said about the bill. “Wisconsin is a global leader in sturgeon management, and the SPEAR Act will protect this unique and long-standing tradition for years to come.”

https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/BILLS-118hr7037ih

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it will not add the lake sturgeon to the endangered species list last year.

A bipartisan group of Wisconsin lawmakers sent a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in December 2023 pointing out the impact a listing could have on Wisconsin and how the state has worked to manage the lake sturgeon population.

The letter was signed by Gallagher and Grothman along with Sens. Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin and U.S. Reps. Bryan Steil, Tiffany, Scott Fitzgerald and Derrick Van Orden.

“Wisconsin does not list lake sturgeon endangered nor threatened in state waters, and has in place a sturgeon program considered a world model for effective management and recovery, and as such should be exempt from any Federal ESA listing of the species”, said Dr. Ron Bruch, former Chief of Fisheries and Leader of the statewide Sturgeon Management Team for the WI Department of Natural Resources.

dpi wisconsin

Wisconsin Republicans Call for Transparency, Fairness in School Referendums

(The Center Square) – A pair of Wisconsin legislators are pushing for more transparency in the school referendum process in the state.

The proposal comes after 169 out of 241 school ballot referenda in 2024 elections were approved by voters at a cost of $4.4 billion to taxpayers.

Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Appleton, and Rep. Scott Allen, R-Waukesha, proposed bills that would require local governments and school boards to include information on the ballot about how much the difference in taxes would for a median-valued home in the community resulting from the referendum.

“Referendums are opportunities for voters to make important decisions about how their tax dollars should be spent,” Allen said. “Good decision making requires transparency in the information provided to voters.”

A second bill would protect school districts from losing state funding when other districts go to referendum.

“It was a shock to many to learn that the massive school referendum passed in Milwaukee would take away vital state funding from over 300 other school districts,” Allen said. “It’s only fair that large referendums in one district should not negatively affect other school districts.”

A Legislative Fiscal Bureau report last year analyzed by Badger Institute showed that a $252 million Milwaukee referendum would cost Madison, Waukesha and Racine $2 million a year in state funding while Appleton and West Bend would lose more than $1 million each year.

The impact is due to tax base equalization, which means that “a school district's property tax rate does not depend on the property tax base of the district, but rather on the level of expenditures.”

The bill states that any school referendum of over $50 million dollars should be paid for by the district that votes for the referendum instead of taking away money from shared school funding.

Tammy Baldwin Supports Transgender Children Surgeries

Trump Order Forces Many Medical Providers to End Transgender Procedures on Children

Late last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order restricting “transgender” procedures on youth, including puberty blockers and surgeries such as mastectomies and penile reconstruction. In response, many medical providers including some of the top in the nation for performing them have announced they will comply with the EO.

The EO states that “it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called 'transition' of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”

Last year, nonprofit Do No Harm unveiled a database reporting that between 2019-2023, there were 13,000 gender reassignment procedures performed throughout the nation on minors; those procedures included both surgeries and prescriptions. Among the top states in the nation for those procedures was Ohio, which has since enacted legislation banning such procedures.

The Center Square reached out to more than two dozen medical providers throughout the country based on data provided by Do No Harm regarding their total billing, prescriptions, and surgeries performed, asking them how they planned to respond to Trump’s EO.

Among those to announce they were suspending all procedures was Seattle-based UW Medicine, which stated in an email that it was “committed to supporting the clinical care needs and well-being of all our patients, as well as complying with state and federal law. We are currently in compliance and are also continuing to provide our full spectrum of services.”

Seattle Children’s Hospital ranked among the top in the nation for puberty blocker prescriptions; though it did not respond to request for comment, there have been reports that it has suspended those services, and its webpage for gender affirmation surgery has since been removed.

MultiCare Mary Bridge Children's Hospital located in Tacoma wrote in an email that while it does not perform gender-affirming surgeries, “we are aware of the executive order that calls for an end to gender-affirming medical treatments for children and adolescents under 19 and are continuing to monitor the situation. Executive orders are directives to federal agencies on how they will operate. Much of what’s been issued has not yet become rules for us to evaluate.”

D.C.-based Children’s National Hospital released a statement that it will no longer prescribe puberty blockers or hormone therapy, noting that prior to the EO it did not perform gender affirming surgeries.

Coolie Dickinson Hospital based out of Massachusetts wrote in an email that it “is reviewing to see what, if any, actual impact the executive orders might have and would follow up, if there is any impact. In the meantime, the care we provide to our community continues as normal at this time.”

University of Michigan Health stated that its “teams are assessing the potential impact of this executive order on our healthcare services and the communities we serve. Our priority remains delivering high-quality, accessible care to our patients while ensuring compliance with the law."

Another medical provider to cease gender transition services for anyone under 19 is VCU Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond, Virginia, which wrote in a statement that it was “in response to an Executive Order issued by the White House on January 28, 2025, and related state guidance received by VCU on January 30, 2025. Our doors remain open to all patients and their families for screening, counseling, mental health care and all other health care needs.”

UCSF’s Gender Affirming Care in San Francisco has also ended services for patients under 19, a policy also adopted by Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York simply wrote in an email that “we will keep you posted once we have an update on this matter.”

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia both said they were reviewing their services.

Several hospitals and hospital systems who performed these procedures on minors did not respond to The Center Square's requests for comment on the executive order. The Center Square will continue to seek clarification on whether they plan to comply with the order.

thomas gogin

Susan Crawford Made Excuses When Sex Offender Walked Free Due to Botched Appeal

Susan Crawford called the massive error in the Thomas Gogin sexual assault case a "simple...

A Minority Party Throwing a Major Tantrum

Since January 20th, it's obvious that the Democrats did not learn a thing from the...
brittany kinser

Brittany Kinser Slams MPS, DPI for ‘Gross Mismanagement’ After Lead Discovery

Brittany Kinser, the centrist candidate for DPI Superintendent, slammed Milwaukee Public Schools and the Jill...
marty schulteis

Washington Co. Sheriff Marty Schulteis Says ICE Has His Full Support; 7 Inmates Have Detainers

"You have the support of the Sheriff’s Office anywhere in Washington County," - Sheriff Marty...

Gov. Evers: Why Are You Siding With Criminal Illegals Who Commit Felonies?

This is an opinion piece by state Rep. Jim Piwowarczyk (R-Hubertus) Today, I introduced new legislation...
mpd

WAR ON MPD: Officers Haven’t Had Pay Raise for 2 Years; Make Less Than Area Forces

Milwaukee Police officers, despite having the toughest law enforcement job in the state, have been...
milwaukee county drug overdose

FENTANYL’S COST: 444 People Died of Drug ODs in Milwaukee County Last Year

President Trump is engaging in a high-stakes tariff war with Canada, Mexico, and China, with...