Free Republic

Wisconsin’s gerrymandering case has garnered national attention. But a little-explored aspect of the suit — the pervasive presence of “Swiss cheese” districts — could have huge ramifications for the outcome.

Rashida Tlaib had the crowd eating out of her hand. It was March 2018, and the hookah lounge in a working-class suburb outside of Chicago was packed. Warm and engaging, switching frequently between English and Arabic, Tlaib - a Michigan State representative with larger ambitions - pleaded for out-of-state donations to help her become the first Palestinian American in Congress. She unashamedly told the audience that her Detroit constituents often declared: 'Rashida is a warrior, and this is a war we're in.' Sitting in the front row, Rafeeq Jaber listened intently, seemingly impressed and knowing a thing or two about...

It’s quite astonishing that the United States of America, one of the most powerful nations in the world, struggles to hold streamlined elections. We’ve gone from having election results on the same night or in the early hours to prolonged counts of sketchy ballots behind closed doors, with the winner remaining unknown for days on end. And these types of rinky-dink elections with long “third world” delays are being normalized, but it’s far from normal, and we all know it. This unacceptable stark contrast was glaringly obvious during the recent presidential election in Argentina, where they efficiently tallied 25 to...

Agroup of masked neo-Nazis marched through the capital of Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon waving swastikas around, shouting racial slurs at onlookers, and chanting “there will be blood.” About two dozen men wearing red shirts that identified them as members of Blood Tribe—a white supremacist group that has been trying to make a name for itself since 2021 by targeting Jews, people of color, and the LGBTQ community—took part in the march in Madison, according to local reports. Footage from the scene showed them standing in formation to perform a Nazi salute while onlookers mostly mocked them and called them “disgusting.”...

<p>A group of nearly two dozen people waving swastika flags and chanting antisemitic rhetoric marched on the Wisconsin state Capitol grounds Saturday afternoon, performing a salute originally used by Nazis at political rallies, often called the "Hitler salute."</p><p>The group was dressed in red shirts with "Blood Tribe" written on the back. The Blood Tribe is a neo-Nazi group that promotes hardline white supremacist views and "openly directs its vitriol at Jews, 'non-whites' and the LGBTQ+ community," according to the Anti-Defamation League.</p>

If you were thinking that those large pro-Palestine protests popping up everywhere seem awfully organized, you’re not wrong. Today the Free Press points out that at least four rallies, including one in New York which was later denounced as too extreme by AOC, were co-organized by a group called The People’s Forum.Based in Midtown Manhattan, The People’s Forum calls itself a “movement incubator for working class and marginalized communities to build unity across historic lines of division at home and abroad.” But a review of public disclosure forms show that multimillionaire [Neville Roy] Singham and his wife [Jodie] Evans have...

A Milwaukee mother has been criminally charged after her 10-month-old girl died from an overdose. Kiara Hopson, 29, was charged with four counts of child neglect, including for the death of her infant, and for illegal substances being found in the blood samples of her other children. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office identified the infant as Rayah Coleman. Emergency medical personnel responded to Hopson's residence on Milwaukee's lower east side in the 1700 block of West Water Street on Oct. 25 following a report of an unresponsive child. Life-saving measures were attempted but Rayah was declared dead at the...

MADISON, WI - Controversial conservative commentator Ben Shapiro returned to UW-Madison campus for the first time since 2016, sparking new local conversations about freedom of speech and rhetoric surrounding the Israel-Hamas conflict. Shapiro titled his talk Monday "Stop Being Apologetic about the Superiority of Western Values," part of Young America's Foundation's Free to Choose Lecture Series. The Chairman of Young Americans for Freedom at UW-Madison, Harrison Wells, said conservatives at college campuses across the country are being treated unfairly. "Free speech is an issue on every college campus." "We wanted to bring a prominent conservative speaker to show that conservatives...

ATLANTA -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday continued to sound the alarm about a spike in syphilis cases among newborns. Congenital syphilis is caused by a pregnant woman with syphilis passing the infection to their unborn child. CDC officials said that new data shows that 10-times more babies were born with syphilis in 2022 than in 2012. "New actions are needed to prevent more family tragedies," CDC Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry said. "We’re calling on healthcare providers, public health systems, and communities to take additional steps to connect mothers and babies with the care they...

Tyson fully cooked, breaded, shaped chicken patty product that may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically metal pieces, has been recalled. (Photo: USDA) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nearly 30,000 lbs. of Tyson chicken nuggets that may be contaminated with metal pieces have been recalled. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced the recall Saturday for Tyson's 29 oz. bag of fully cooked fun nuggets breaded shaped chicken patties. Bags with the dinosaur-shaped nuggets were sold in Tennessee and Kentucky, as well as Alabama, California, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. Consumer complaints reporting small metal pieces inside the chicken led...

Black voters in Milwaukee are feeling uninspired and potentially not motivated to vote for President Biden in advance of 2024, according to a CNN report Friday. Joanna Brooks, who owns a yoga studio in Glendale, said that the Democratic Party has taken Black voters for granted. "Black people in general, I think, tend to be pretty loyal to the Democratic Party," Brooks said. "Sometimes I wonder, just based on how that party has performed thus far for people so far, if they should continue to be." "I hear people saying [that] they're not gonna vote," Milwaukee voter Eric Jones said...

Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday sued the Republican-controlled Legislature, arguing that it is obstructing basic government functions, including signing off on pay raises for university employees that were previously approved. Evers is asking the liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court to take the case directly, bypassing lower courts. In addition to not approving the pay raises for about 35,000 University of Wisconsin employees, Evers argues that the Legislature is blocking state conservation programs, updates to the state's commercial building standards and ethics standards for licensed professionals. The Legislature included a 6% pay raise for UW employees over two years in...

Under the microscope are multiple small donations from voters who say they didn't make such donations to Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz.In the most expensive state judicial race in U.S. history, Janet C. Protasiewicz, a liberal, defeated conservative attorney Dan Kelly in April for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.The record $23 million raised by or on behalf of the Janet for Justice campaign prompted a group of citizen investigators in Wisconsin to look into where all of the money had come from.Election Watch, an election integrity watchdog group, has now asked the Wisconsin Ethics Commission to investigate...

A 1981 DeLorean — the gullwing-doored car that took its star turn as a time machine in “Back to the Future” — was found in a Wisconsin barn, complete with its original tires and with just 977 miles on the odometer. Mike McElhattan, a business owner who specializes in repairing DeLoreans, didn’t think much of the call he got from New Mexico about the car until he learned it had less than 1,000 miles on it. The original owner, identified only as “Dick,” had stored the classic car in a barn. The body was covered in dust and rodent droppings,...

Former President Donald Trump holds a two-point advantage over President Joe Biden in a hypothetical presidential general election match-up in Wisconsin, according to an Emerson College poll. This marks another concerning Rust Belt state poll for Biden.The survey, published on October 12, shows that 42 percent of Wisconsin voters would back Trump in a rematch of the 2020 election with Biden, who garners 40 percent of the response. Eleven percent would support “someone else,” while eight percent are undecided. WISCONSIN POLL2024 Hypothetical Presidential MatchupDonald Trump 42%Joe Biden 40%Someone else 11%8% undecidedhttps://t.co/o37XR7Jl2q pic.twitter.com/PprNJSvfhB— Emerson College Polling (@EmersonPolling) October 12, 2023This marks...

President Donald Trump is leading President Joe Biden in the crucial battleground state of Wisconsin following a series of similar findings in other key swing states, according to a Thursday poll. Trump is beating Biden 42% to 40% among Wisconsin voters with 11% choosing someone else and 8% remaining undecided, according to an Emerson College survey. The poll comes after several other recent battleground state surveys found Trump ahead of Biden, including in Pennsylvania and Michigan. “In a state Biden won in 2020 by less than a percentage point, and Trump won in 2016 by nearly the same margin, this...

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos apparently isn’t ready to impeach Justice Janet Protasiewicz. The Assembly leader has previously called for the liberal state Supreme Court Justice to recuse herself from a lawsuit challenging state legislative districts, and had even formed a panel of three former justices to explore the possibility of impeaching Protasiewicz. Protasiewicz said Friday she would not recuse from the suit. In a statement released Monday, Vos reiterated his contention that she should have done so, said a U.S. Supreme Court precedent compels her recusal, and that the U.S. Supreme Court will have the last word. In addition, former...

A new lawsuit spearheaded by attorney Marc Elias’ left-wing legal group threatens to abolish the witness requirement for Wisconsin absentee ballots, potentially enabling ballot fraud on a massive scale in the 2024 election. On Oct. 2, the Elias Law Group filed the lawsuit in federal court in conjunction with a lawyer from Pines Bach LLP, Diane M. Welsh. Welsh is a donor to, and former president of, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a far-left partisan group that supports mass illegal immigration, accuses Wisconsin Republicans of gerrymandering legislative maps, and wants to abolish the state’s photo ID law. Marc Elias is a...

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan said the historic vote to remove Kevin McCarthy from his role as speaker on Tuesday was “a total disgrace.” He also had strong words about former President Donald Trump, who he said was a “scourge” on the country and the Republican Party. snip Ryan said an “unprincipled demagogue” overthrew McCarthy for “just doing his job” — referring to Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who coordinated the effort to remove McCarthy from his role, and who Ryan criticized by name later in his remarks. “The kind of populism we have right now is not rooted in principle....

Republicans are playing the long game in the fight to ban “Zuck Bucks” nationwide, and in Wisconsin they’re entrusting it to voters on the state’s April 2024 primary ballot.The Federalist first reported on Republican legislators’ strategy to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot next year, giving Wisconsiners the power to ban private funding for elections. Twenty five states have already done so, and in purple Virginia and Pennsylvania with Democratic support.The need couldn’t be more urgent. Most Americans are now familiar with partisan billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s plot to funnel $420 million to thousands of local election offices in 2020,...