Wisconsin

Republican lawmakers ask Wisconsin Supreme Court to reconsider redistricting ruling – Wisconsin Examiner

Published

2 years ago

January 2, 2024

Republican lawmakers ask Wisconsin Supreme Court to reconsider redistricting ruling – Wisconsin Examiner

Wisconsin Republicans have asked the state Supreme Court to reconsider its decision to overturn the state’s legislative maps, saying lawmakers can’t draw new maps by the Court’s Jan. 12 deadline.

In a motion filed last week, the attorneys for Senate Republicans argued the lawmakers wouldn’t be able to hit the Jan. 12 deadline to produce new maps that follow the Court’s order that districts be contiguous.

“And now, announced the Friday before Christmas, the parties have been given 21 days — a third of them falling on weekends and state holidays — to submit proposed remedies, lengthy remedial briefs, and expert reports,” the Republican attorneys state in a filing. “The message is clear: The regular rules apply to Republicans. But here, Democrats get special solicitude.”

The Republicans also argue that the Court didn’t listen to their arguments, pre-decided the case and didn’t give them a chance to respond to the deadline for new maps.

On Dec. 22, the Court ruled in a 4-3 decision that Wisconsin’s current maps are unconstitutional because they include many districts that aren’t contiguous — a requirement under the state constitution. The Court ordered the Legislature and the other parties involved in the lawsuit to submit new maps by Jan. 12, with supporting arguments due 10 days later.

In order to be in place in time for the 2024 legislative elections, the maps must be set by mid-March, state election officials have said.

The maps submitted by the parties will also be assessed by two referees the Court has appointed: University of California, Irvine political science professor Bernard Grofman and Carnegie Mellon University postdoctoral fellow Jonathan Cervas.

For more than a decade, despite Wisconsin’s near 50-50 political divide, Republicans have enjoyed a disproportionately large majority in both houses of the Legislature because of the severe partisan gerrymander they instituted in 2011. That gerrymander, which experts have often cited as one of the worst in the country, was continued in 2022 when the Supreme Court, then under a conservative majority, imposed maps drawn by the Legislature.

In addition to their request that the state Supreme Court reconsider its decision, Republicans have also suggested plans to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

That course of action, however, would require Republicans to find a violation of federal law in a case and decision that are almost entirely focused on issues of state law.

“We will pursue all federal issues arising out of the redistricting litigation at the U.S. Supreme Court,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said in a statement after the state Court’s decision.

Before the decision, Republicans suggested that they would challenge Justice Janet Protasiewicz’s participation in the case at the U.S. Supreme Court.

For months, Republicans alleged Protasiewicz had “pre-judged” the case because of comments about the legislative maps she made on the campaign trail and donations her campaign received from the state Democratic Party. Republicans threatened that if she didn’t recuse from the case, they’d move to impeach her.

Protasiewicz denied the request for recusal, saying that the Democratic Party wasn’t a litigant in the case so its political donations to her didn’t affect the case and that recusing because of donations from one party would set a difficult precedent for the other members of the Court who have received campaign cash from either of the parties.

The impeachment threat has subsided, but Republicans could argue in federal court that her participation violated their due process rights.

Such an argument would be made under a federal precedent set in a 2009 Supreme Court case, Caperton v. Massey. In Caperton, a West Virginia judge had refused to recuse himself from the appeal of a $50 million jury verdict after the CEO of the plaintiff in the case had donated $3 million to the judge’s campaign.

In addition to the facts in the case being different, the Caperton precedent was set by a liberal majority, so the current conservative leaning U.S. Supreme Court — which has regularly ruled in favor of money in politics — might be hesitant to endorse its argument.

Other federal claims could be made after the maps are chosen. In the legal battle that led to the imposition of the current maps, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in to say the Wisconsin Supreme Court couldn’t select legislative maps drawn by Gov. Tony Evers because they violated the Voting Rights Act by attempting to create too many majority-minority districts around Milwaukee.

Vos said he expects a similar outcome this time.

“Last time around, the Democrats’ maps racially gerrymandered voters to obtain a political goal,” he said. “I expect they’ll do so again. The Supreme Court wasn’t fooled by the overt racial gerrymandering before, and it’s my hope that the Court will refuse to allow that or any other violation of federal law this time around, too.”

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Wisconsin

Wisconsin multi-county police chase, 2 people from Illinois arrested

Published

2 hours ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

Wisconsin multi-county police chase, 2 people from Illinois arrested

article

Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office

FOND DU LAC COUNTY, Wis. – Two people from Illinois were arrested following a police chase that started in Fond du Lac County and ended in Winnebago County on Friday, May 8.

Initial traffic stop

What we know:

According to the Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office, just after 1 p.m. the sheriff’s office got an alert for a stolen vehicle out of Illinois heading northbound on I-41 from County Road Y.

It was learned that the vehicle was involved in two different police chases in the past week in Illinois, but had eluded officers each time.

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A short time later, a deputy spotted the vehicle on I-41 near Winnebago Street. The deputy continued to follow the suspect vehicle northbound, waiting for more deputies to get into position to attempt a high-risk traffic stop. Once those deputies were in position, a high-risk traffic stop was conducted. The vehicle initially pulled over and stopped, but right after deputies got out of their squad cars and started telling the people to get out of the vehicle, it instead fled northbound on I-41.

Chase into Winnebago County

What we know:

The chase went into Winnebago County, with the vehicle failing to pullover and instead speeding up. As the chase continued, the vehicle continued driving recklessly, passing by other vehicles on the interstate, including passing on the shoulder and weaving between vehicles, all at a high rate of speed.

The vehicle exited I-41 and ran three red lights. The chase continued southbound on State Highway 26, with the vehicle continuing to pass vehicles at a high rate of speed on the two-lane highway.

The vehicle then went off the road and drove through the yard of a home before circling around in the yard, traveling through the ditch, and reentering the highway going northbound. It then went into a field near County Road Z and Clay Road.

As a sergeant with the sheriff’s office was moving in to perform a Pursuit Intervention Technique (PIT Maneuver), the suspect vehicle went into reverse and rammed the front of the squad. The vehicle then attempted to leave the field by traveling through a ditch and back up onto the road, where another sheriff’s squad ended the chase by intentionally striking the vehicle and pushing it off the road and back into the ditch.

The vehicle rolled over in the ditch, came to rest upright, but was then disabled and could not move. Two people got out of the vehicle and were taken into custody. The vehicle started on fire and a fire department had to respond to extinguish the fire. Both people from the vehicle were evaluated by medical personnel on scene.

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Facing charges

What we know:

The driver of the vehicle was identified as a 23-year-old man from Des Plaines, Illinois. He was taken to the Fond du Lac County Jail on the following charges:

Fleeing/Eluding an Officer
1st-Degree Reckless Endangering Safety (2 Counts)
Resisting/Obstructing Officer
Delivering Illegal Articles by Inmate (Ecstasy Pills).

The driver’s criminal history in Illinois was flagged as armed and dangerous with previous weapons offenses, dangerous drug offenses, and criminal damage to property.

The passenger of the vehicle was identified as a 23-year-old woman from Franklin Park, Illinois. She was taken to the Fond du Lac County Jail on the following charges:

Fleeing/Eluding—Party to a Crime
1st Degree Reckless Endangering Safety—Party to a Crime
Possession of THC
Possession of Drug Paraphernalia
Resisting and Obstructing an Officer

The Source: The Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office sent FOX6 a press release.

Police ChasesFond du Lac CountyNews

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Wisconsin

Stepmom from hell accused of starving 35-pound teen daughter enters plea — could spend the rest of her life behind bars

Published

14 hours ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

Stepmom from hell accused of starving 35-pound teen daughter enters plea — could spend the rest of her life behind bars

The Wisconsin stepmother from hell accused of abusing her 35-pound 14-year-old daughter by depriving her of food and water has entered a no-contest plea in the twisted case.

Melissa Goodman, 52, now faces up to 46 years in prison if she’s handed the maximum sentence for charges of chronic neglect causing great bodily harm, chronic neglect causing emotional damage and false imprisonment.

She’s set to be sentenced on July 1.

Goodman, along with husband Walter Goodman, have been accused of starving her autistic stepdaughter. Outagamie County Jail

Goodman, along with husband Walter Goodman, has been accused of starving her autistic stepdaughter.

Goodman’s daughter Savanna Goodman and her girlfriend Kayla Stemler were also charged over the alleged abuse, People reported.

The family is accused of locking the teen in a bedroom without a mattress, restricting her to only her room for years and depriving her of food and water, according to Wisconsin prosecutors.

The mobile home they lived in became a house of horrors for the teenager, who was mistaken for a 6-year-old when she was found by cops in August 2025 and rushed to the hospital.

Walter Goodman, the victim’s father, called 911 to report that his daughter was lethargic and ill.

Responding officers found her weighing just 35 pounds; she was hospitalized with multi-organ dysfunction, including respiratory failure and pancreatitis.

Melissa Goodman — Walter Goodman, the victim’s father, called 911 to report that his daughter was lethargic and ill. WBAY TV-2 | Green Bay, WI/YouTube

From 2020 until August 2025, the victim, whose name is not disclosed because she is a minor, was allegedly isolated in a trailer on Hattie Lane, in Oneida, Wisconsin.

Extended family members were told she was away on vacation or with other relatives to explain her absence.

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Wisconsin

‘Song Sung Blue’ subject Claire Sardina playing Wisconsin State Fair

Published

1 day ago

May 8, 2026

Press Room

‘Song Sung Blue’ subject Claire Sardina playing Wisconsin State Fair

When “Song Sung Blue” – the biopic about Milwaukee Neil Diamond tribute act Lightning & Thunder – had a premiere at the Oriental Theatre in Milwaukee last December, star Hugh Jackman gave Claire Sardina (played in the film by Kate Hudson) an engraved bench honoring Lighting & Thunder to be installed at Wisconsin State Fair Park.

In August, Sardina will get to have a seat on that bench – and sing again on a State Fair stage.

Sardina will perform with tribute act So Good: The Neil Diamond Experience Aug. 9 at the Bank Five Nine Amphitheater, the largest stage at the fair featuring free concerts with admission.

For Sardina, it will be a return to a place central to Lighting & Thunder. The band performed in the Milwaukee area from 1989 until Mike Sardina, aka Lightning, passed away in 2006. The State Fair was one of their favorite places to play, and the couple got married there in 1994.

The couple’s wild story – from a performance at a Pearl Jam Summerfest concert to major health issues – was the subject of the documentary “Song Sung Blue” that inspired the biopic, and earned Hudson an Oscar nomination for portraying Claire Sardina.

Fair officials May 8 revealed the full headliner lineup for the stage, which includes: