(The Center Square) – Voters in Wisconsin are getting differing messages when it comes to crime in the state’s race for the Supreme Court.
Current Attorney General Josh Kaul held a call with reporters across Wisconsin earlier this week, saying Judge Brad Schimel was taking too long to test Wisconsin’s backlog of rape kits back in 2015.
“Brad Schimmel failed to respond with urgency,” Kaul said. “His administration tested just nine of the thousands of backlog kits in his first two years in office.”
Kaul said he wanted to “set the record straight” before Wednesday’s debate between Schimel and Judge Susan Crawford.
Schimel said several times that his office took its time, got a grant to pay for the work, then tested 4,000 kits. Schimel said is “every single kit that needed to be tested” was tested.
Kaul’s call came as the latest in the back-and-forth over the two judges’ records on crime and crime victims.
Schimel’s campaign on Monday launched a new ad featuring a victim of crime.
The ad, called, “Tell Me,” recounts a story from a woman named Laurie, whose sister was murdered.
“When my sister was murdered 15 years ago, Brad Schimel kept his promise to us. He told us he was gonna get us justice, and he did,” the ad states. “When I see these commercials attacking him, I have a lot to say about that, because Brad would kneel next to my mom and hold her hands. And you’re gonna tell me that’s a person that doesn’t care about victims?”
Crime, and the judges’ past rulings from the bench, has become one of the major issues in the race for the high court.
Schimel has spent weeks hammering on Crawford for a list of cases that he says shows she is soft on crime.
Crawford’s campaign, meanwhile, put out a call for “common sense” on Tuesday.
Schimel and Crawford will answer questions at the same time, on the same stage at a debate played host to by Channel 12 in Milwaukee on Wednesday night.

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum in response to the 25% tariffs Ontario put on electricity going to the U.S.
Trump’s tariffs, of up to 50%, come amid an ongoing trade spat with Canada. On Monday, the Canadian province of Ontario announced it was going ahead with a 25% retaliatory tariff on electricity exports to the United States expected to affect 1.5 million homes and businesses in Michigan, Minnesota and New York. Ontario Premier Doug Ford estimated the tariffs would mean an additional $69 monthly charge for consumers in the three states.
Trump called Ford’s move an “abusive threat.”
“Based on Ontario, Canada, placing a 25% Tariff on ‘Electricity’ coming into the United States, I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This will go into effect TOMORROW MORNING, March 12th.”
Trump also said he planned to declare a national emergency in the three states.
“I will shortly be declaring a National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area,” he said on Truth Social. “This will allow the U.S to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada.”
Trump further lashed out at Canada, promising to shut down its auto industry.
“If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the Tariffs on Cars coming into the U.S. which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada,” the president wrote. “Those cars can easily be made in the USA! Also, Canada pays very little for National Security, relying on the United States for military protection.”
Trump also suggested again that Canada become the 51st American state.
“We are subsidizing Canada to the tune of more than 200 Billion Dollars a year. WHY??? This cannot continue. The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians’ taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever – And Canada will be a big part of that. The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World – And your brilliant anthem, ‘O Canada,’ will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!”
Trump’s trade policies have battered U.S. markets, leading to sharp declines across all three U.S. indexes on Monday. Stocks continued to slump Tuesday after Trump’s latest move.
Trump has promised that his tariffs would shift the tax burden away from Americans and onto foreign countries, but tariffs are generally paid by the people who import the products. Those importers then have a choice: They can either absorb the loss or pass it on to consumers through higher prices. He also promised tariffs would make America “rich as hell.” And he’s used tariffs as a negotiating tactic to tighten border security.
Trump granted temporary tariff relief to Canada and Mexico last week by exempting goods under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement from tariffs until April 2.
On April 2, Trump plans to announce broader reciprocal tariffs against countries that impose tariffs on U.S. goods or keep U.S. goods out of their markets through other methods.

(The Center Square) – Baraboo High softball player Macy Weigel will be allowed to compete in softball for the school after a Sauk County Circuit judge granted a temporary injunction blocking the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association’s ruling that Weigel was ineligible.
Weigel had attended Community Christian School, which does not offer athletics, for her first two years of high school before transferring to Baraboo, the district where her family has resided.
The Weigels say the transfer was necessary due to financial constraints after Weigel’s younger sibling was diagnosed with a deadly and rare blood condition and her mother left her career as a full-time teacher to care for the sibling.
“I am excited for my daughter to get on the field with her friends and enjoy her junior year playing softball,” said Emily Weigel, Macy’s mother. “She is so grateful for this opportunity.”
The WIAA had ruled that Weigel would be ineligible to compete in athletics during her junior year, after Weigel had applied for a waiver, leading to a lawsuit from the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty on behalf of Weigel.
Circuit Court Judge Michael P. Screnock ruled that Weigel was likely to succeed on the merits of her case and granted a temporary injunction to allow her to compete.
“The record reflects that the WIAA administrative staff considered rule mitigation in its initial denial and concluded that approving the Baraboo School District’s waiver request ‘would open the door to any transfer becoming allowed,’ Screnock wrote in his ruling. “That is patently absurd.”
Macy has competed in a recreational softball league previously, making her ineligible for an automatic waiver for those who have not competed in a sports before.
The lawsuit challenged WIAA’s authority to exercise authority over public schools in the state because there is no statute or constitutional provision giving that authority to the WIAA over the state’s public schools, which are all WIAA members and make up 80% of WIAA membership.
“The WIAA made an arbitrary decision to exclude a student athlete from a school-sponsored and taxpayer-funded co-curricular activity,” said WILL Associate Counsel Skylar Croy. “Today, that injustice has been rectified for now.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ $4.1 biennial billion capital budget includes recommendations for $325 million toward a plan to realign the state’s correctional institutions, including closing the Green Bay Correctional Institution in 2029 and rehabilitating the Waupun Correctional Institution.
The proposal also includes $1.6 billion in capital improvement projects across the University of Wisconsin system.
Republican leaders in the Wisconsin Legislature have called Evers’ budget proposal a “financial disaster” while Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam estimated that it includes $3 billion in tax increases.
The proposal would spend down $4 billion of the state’s expected $4.3 billion surplus if it is enacted after having more than a $7 billion surplus last budget season, according to Wisconsin Policy Forum.
“These investments are critical to not only address our state’s aging infrastructure but build for our state’s future, whether it’s at our UW System, supporting our veterans, protecting our valuable natural resources, or modernizing our correctional institutions to improve community safety across our state,” Evers said.
The spending includes demolishing and replacing the Mosse Humanities Building at UW-Madison, completing the Prairie Springs Science Center at UW-La Crosse and changing former hospital buildings into a Health Sciences hub at UW-Milwaukee.
The proposal includes a $137.5 million allocation for the renovation of UW-Oshkosh’s Polk Learning Commons.
“UW-Oshkosh graduates are more likely to stay and work in our region, which means investing in UW-Oshkosh is an investment in the Fox Valley workforce. This project ensures that UW-Oshkosh remains an attractive option for prospective students,” said State Sen. Kristin Dassler-Alfheim, who met with Governor Evers to discuss the importance of the project for the Fox Valley.
The spending proposal also includes $137 million in essential upgrades to Wisconsin veterans homes and a future upgrade and expansion of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.
Another proposal involves $195 million for health services facilities statewide, including renovating the food service building at Central Wisconsin Center and upgrading utility infrastructure at the Mendota and Winnebago Mental Health Institutions.
Evers said that Republican leadership has blocked prior proposals, leading to a $13 billion backlog in state infrastructure needs, with $3.4 billion in critical high-priority needs.
“We can’t afford to kick the can down the road on key infrastructure projects across our state, most especially as the cost of building materials may only get more expensive with each day of delay due to potential tariff taxes and trade wars,” Evers said. “We must take the important steps necessary to invest in building a 21st-century infrastructure, workforce, and economy, and I am hopeful that these recommendations will receive bipartisan support to get these projects done that communities across our state are depending on.”
Evers proposed spending $1.2 billion in the state’s All Agency program to fund small to mid-sized maintenance and repair projects across all state agencies.
In addition, he proposed funding $406 million in the Minor Facilities Renewal programs for the Department of Corrections, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, including almost $230 million for the UW System.

(The Center Square) – Add Wisconsin to the list of states suing the Trump Administration over federal layoffs.
Gov. Tony Evers said the state joined with 19 other Democrat-led states to sue over the firings ordered by President Donald Trump and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency Department.
“Republicans are messing with lives and livelihoods by recklessly firing federal workers and veterans, making drastic guts to popular programs kids, families, seniors, and farmers depend on, and hurting our kids and our schools by threatening to cut the Department of Education – all to help pay for tax cuts for rich millionaires and billionaires,” Evers said in a statement.
It’s not clear just how many federal workers in Wisconsin have lost their jobs. It’s also not clear how many more could lose their jobs.
As of last March, Wisconsin had about 18.000 federal employees in the state. The majority of them, nearly 11,000 work for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Last month, 10 people who worked at the VA in Milwaukee were fired.
“Our loved ones, friends, and neighbors who have bills to pay and families to feed have been fired for no fault of their own, including veterans, their spouses, and people dedicated to serving our veterans every day, people working to help fight the avian flu, and even people whose jobs are to help keep us safe in dangerous weather,” Evers added in his statement. “Republicans’ actions are wrong, illegal, and bad for our state and our country – that’s why we’re headed to court to try and stop them.”
Maryland’s Democratic attorney general is leading the lawsuit.
“[The] States are suffering significant and irreparable harm caused by the unannounced, unlawful, mass termination of federal employees who work or reside in our jurisdictions. These mass firings were executed illegally, without proper process or the statutorily required notice to [the] States,” the court filing reads. “States are now left to pick up the pieces of the shattered federal workforce – addressing numerous unemployment compensation requests and helping our residents seek new jobs as each new wave of terminations crests. This Court should halt the unlawful firings now.”
Wisconsin’s Attorney General Josh Kaul echoed the same argument.
“The Trump administration has undermined important services and carelessly upended the lives of veterans, scientists, and many other public servants,” Kaul said. “These workers’ rights should be protected, and the Trump administration should be required to follow the law.”

(The Center Square) – An audit of Wisconsin’s 2024 general election found no errors from its electronic voting system.
The audit included a review of 327,230 ballots statewide, around 10% of the total votes, that were counted by hand to ensure the electronic system had accurately counted the votes.
Previous audits included counting 145,000 ballots from the 2020 election and 222,075 from 2022.
The audit began immediately after the 2024 election.
“The municipal clerks, county clerks, election inspectors, and volunteers who completed these audits should be commended for their work and for their continued dedication to secure and accurate elections,” said WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe.
The audit concluded that there were no issues in the ballot counting.
“They found no election equipment changed votes from one candidate to another, incorrectly tabulated votes, or altered the outcome of any audited contest,” the audit said. “Additionally, there was no evidence of programming errors, unauthorized alterations or hacking of voting equipment software, or malfunctions of voting equipment that altered the outcome of any races on the ballot.”
The audit found that there were five errors on the machines that had to be corrected throughout the state with three creases and a tear near an oval in Franklin being read as overvotes along with one smudge apiece in Antigo and Mukwonago leading to an error for an overvote.
“In total, 593 human errors were recorded in the administration of the 2024 post-election voting equipment audit,” the audit said. “While human factors may not be relevant to the federal definition of an error, they still inform the WEC of opportunities for improvement through additional training, procedural changes, or other actions.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says Republicans won’t work on the next state budget until Gov. Tony Evers signs their tax cut package.
“We are not going to pass a budget with increases in spending unless we get some kind of guarantee that Gov. Evers will put a big chunk of the money going back to the taxpayers,” Vos told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber. “We’re not even saying that we should return all of the surplus he vetoed last time, even though that’s our preference. We’re trying to say it should be at least $2 billion, which is again a very reasonable number.”
Vos has made it clear that he wants to return Wisconsin’s $4.3 billion surplus to the taxpayers in one shape or another.
“Our focus would have it go toward middle-income individuals and seniors. I think that’s the smartest idea for us to help deal with the inflationary times caused by Joe Biden,” Vos said.
Inflation actually rose to 3% at the end of January after President Donald Trump took office, following a growth trend after the November 2024 election.
Inflation rose steadily under former President Joe Biden, before consistently falling from September 2023 until November 2024.
Vos said Wisconsin Republicans will talk this week about what a tax cut package may look like and then send it to Evers.
“We’re not going to pass a budget that increases spending and go to this entire, you know farse frankly, where Gov. Evers says he’s for tax cuts. Until push comes to shove, and then he only takes the tax increases through the form of more spending,” Vos said.
In the last tax cut proposal, Evers kept a tax cut for Wisconsin’s bottom two tax brackets, but vetoed the rest of the cut, calling a tax cut for millionaires.
Evers’ proposed budget would add about $10 billion in spending each year of the new two-year state budget. In all, Wisconsin’s budget would grow to $120 billion for the two years, up from nearly $100 billion over the past two years.
Vos has said the Republican-controlled legislature will kill most of what Evers wants, but not everything.
“We’ve been saying for a decade now that we need to tear down the Green Bay prison, which is over 100 years old, and build a replacement that’d be safer for the guards, and more able to control the population,” Vos said. “Gov. Evers frankly took our idea to tear down Green Bay, which is a good thing, but he is not replacing it with a new facility of anywhere near the amount that we need.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin saw 91.1% of its high school students graduate on time in the 2023-24 school year, according to a new report from the Department of Public Instruction.
That marked the highest number since DPI began reporting that data in its current format in 2009-10.
“This achievement reflects the hard work and commitment of Wisconsin’s students and teachers,” State Superintendent Jill Underly said. “It’s the result of countless hours, determination, and the strength of our community. This success shows what we can achieve when we work together. Moving forward, we must continue to build on this momentum and ensure every student is set up for success beyond graduation.”
The state saw its chronic absenteeism drop to 17.7% for the 2023-24 school year while attendance rates climbed to 92.4%, the lowest and highest marks for the state since 2020-21.
Chronic absenteeism is when a student misses 10% or more of classes in a given year.
The numbers were part of the annual new data release on DPI’s WISEdash public portal, with information on school districts across the state.
“Although we should celebrate our successes, we should all continue to be concerned about – and work to reduce – the disparities in graduation rates between different groups of students,” Underly said. “The reality is that students of color and other marginalized students are not doing as well, although those cohorts are also seeing some improvement. We need to double-down on making investments for those kids who need it the most.”
There were 805,881 public school students between K-12 in the state in the September 2024 count.
The data can be downloaded in a report card format for public schools and districts across the state with data from 2011-12 to 2023-24.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election will likely do more than just decide the partisan make up for the court.
Next month’s election could impact the state’s landscape on everything from business regulations to property taxes, to who controls Congress in 2026.
Judge Brad Schimel and Judge Susan Crawford are running in what is shaping up to be the most expensive judicial race of all time. Ostensibly, they are competing to replace the retiring Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, but the winner of the election will likely decide much more than whether the court maintains its liberal majority or flips back to a conservative majority.
There are already challenges to Wisconsin’s Act-10 and abortion laws before the court.
But there are also pending cases like WMC and Leather Rich Inc. vs. WI DNR, which could decide how far Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources can go with its self-written rules about environmental cleanup. There’s also Evers vs. Marklein, which would take power away from the legislature’s Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules and give that power to the governor.
Gov. Tony Evers’ 400-year school funding veto is also pending before the current court, as is the challenge to Wisconsin’s wedding barn regulations that could put those barns out of business.
All of those cases came not long after liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on the Wisconsin Court in 2023.
Depending on the outcome of the April election, some believe other cases could quickly come before the court, like challenges to the state’s voter ID law.
Republican lawmakers, however, are pushing an amendment that would take the issue out of the court’s hands.
The court could also declare Wisconsin’s congressional maps unconstitutional and order new maps, which could impact the outcomes of races for the U.S. House, which could impact the balance of power in Congress.

(The Center Square) – A federal judge Thursday blocked the Trump administration from freezing up to $3 trillion in funding for federal agency grants, loans and other financial assistance.
Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island granted a preliminary injunction that was requested by attorneys general for 22 states and the District of Columbia.
The attorneys general sued the Trump administration Jan. 28 to prevent the funding freeze.
McConnell’s ruling extends a previous block that the federal court imposed with a temporary restraining order on Jan. 31.
In his written decision, McConnell accused the executive branch of placing itself above Congress, an equal branch of government.
The Trump administration can only take actions on funding if it’s authorized to do so by laws passed by Congress, McConnell said.
“The Executive’s categorical freeze of appropriated and obligated funds fundamentally undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government,” the judge wrote.
McConnell’s ruling was praised by the attorneys general in the suit, which was led by New York Attorney General Letia James.
Other plaintiffs are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.
The prosecutors have accused the Trump administration of acting illegally and recklessly by imposing the cuts, which they noted in statements Thursday would have affected everything from community health centers to schools and resources for firefighters.
“Last month, the Trump administration chaotically implemented a sweeping federal funding freeze, halting access to billions of dollars in funds lawfully appropriated by Congress,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. “In doing so, it willfully ignored the immediate devastation a freeze would have on the health, safety and wellbeing of communities and businesses across the country.”
Bonta called McConnell’s ruling “an important victory for the rule of law and for the many programs throughout our state that rely on federal funding to carry out their mission.”
He vowed the attorneys general would continue to work to get a permanent ruling against the federal funding freeze.
California this year is expected to receive $168 billion in federal funding, or 34% of the state’s budget, according to Bonta’s office. That includes $107.5 billion in California’s Medicaid programs, which serve about 14.5 million Californians, including 5 million children and 2.3 million seniors and people with disabilities.
More than 9,000 full-time equivalent state jobs are federally funded in California, Bonta’s office said.
The Trump administration’s freeze on funding could have affected California’s law enforcement, public safety, critical transportation infrastructure, water quality and workplace health and safety, according to Bonta’s office. The attorney general’s staff also cited Head Start, education services for students with disabilities and research projects at state universities as programs that depend on federal funding.
In Arizona, Attorney General Kim Mayes called the preliminary injunction a victory for her state’s residents.
“I won’t stand by while the Trump administration puts itself above Congress and withholds resources that families, public safety and health care providers depend on,” Mayes said.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said his state would have been devastated by federal cuts to everything from lifesaving health care to resources for firefighters.
Thursday’s preliminary injunction against the funding freeze was the second one issued by a federal judge. The first such injunction was imposed last month by U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan in another lawsuit in Washington, D.C. That suit was filed by a group of nonprofits.

(The Center Square) – More Wisconsin voters disapprove of President Donald Trump’s performance than approve with 51% disapproving and 48% approving, according to a new Marquette Law School poll.
Meanwhile, 90% of Republicans approve of Trump’s work while just 2% of Democrats approve. On the state level, 49% approve of the job being done by Gov. Tony Evers while 44% disapprove.
The results came from a poll that asked questions to 864 registered Wisconsin voters between Feb. 19 and 26.
The voters were asked if Trump freezing spending and closing federal government agencies was beyond his control with 59% of Wisconsin voters saying it was beyond his authority and 40% believing the president has that authority without congressional approval.
Only 32% of voters believe that Trump’s tariffs will help the U.S. economy while 51% said it will hurt the economy.
Voters also are skeptical of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is properly carrying out Trump’s agenda with 53% saying it is disrupting programs required by law. Musk is viewed unfavorably by 53% of voters and favorably by 41%.
Wisconsin voters were supportive of the deportation of immigrants by the Trump Administration with 61% supporting the initiative and 38% opposed. Those voters, however, were evenly split at 50% a side when asked if those who have been in the country for years, have jobs and no criminal record should be deported.
Wisconsin voters were also supportive of requiring photo ID to vote with 77% supporting the measure and 22% opposed.

(The Center Square) – One of Wisconsin’s Republican congressmen says he’s not going to let potential protesters scare him away from talking to voters.
Congressman Bryan Steil was on News Talk 1130 WISN recently and said he has no plans to change his town hall meeting schedule.
‘I’ve done a series of town halls already this year across southeast Wisconsin,” Steil said. “I hold town halls with a history of being available and accessible, and we’re going to continue to do that.”
A number of Republicans have recently seen angry crowds at town halls protesting potential Medicaid cuts.
Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, including President Donald Trump, have called them “protesters professionals.”
Richard Hudson, the, National Republican Congressional Committee chair told Republican congressmen earlier this week to stop holding in-person town halls because of the protests.
Steil said the “fear mongering on the left is really unhelpful.”
“We have to go out and explain to people what is actually occurring in Washington, D.C.,” Steil said. “So, we have to go back and tell our side of the story. And continuing that pattern of being available and accessible is something that I plan on continuing to do.”
Steil framed any talk of cuts to Medicaid as protecting the system for “the least among us.”
“The program has expanded to pick up people that shouldn’t be receiving benefits in the manner they are,” Steil said.
Steil said Trump has made it clear there’s no intention to cut benefits for the single parents, elderly folks, or people with disabilities who Medicaid has traditionally cared for.
Northwoods Congressman Tom Tiffany and Congressman Glenn Grothman have also said they also plan to continue with town hall meetings.