Wisconsin
Defiant Biden tells Wisconsinites ‘I’m staying in the race!’ • Wisconsin Examiner
President Joe Biden flew to Wisconsin Friday to shore up voter confidence in this critical swing state after a stumbling debate performance last week fueled speculation that he might drop out. He told a cheering crowd of hundreds of supporters packed into the Sherman Middle School gymnasium in Madison, “I’m the nominee of the Democratic Party.”
Reading fluidly and energetically from a teleprompter, he acknowledged that last week’s debate with former President Donald Trump “wasn’t my best performance.” He spoke directly to the doubts expressed by some elected officials and liberal pundits — including the The New York Times editorial board, which has urged him to quit the race and make way for a different Democratic nominee. Those calling for him to drop out are ignoring the will of the voters, he said, “who voted for me in primaries all across the nation.”
“Guess what, they’re trying to push me out of the race,” Biden told the diverse crowd packed into the gym as well as an overflow room (the campaign estimated total attendance at more than 1,000). “Let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race!”
“I’m not going to let one 90-minute debate wipe out three and a half years of work,” he added, to raucous cheers and chants of “four more years!”
“There’s a lot of discussion about my age,” Biden said, joking “I know I look 40.” “I wasn’t too old to create over 50 million new jobs,” he said, segueing into a litany of his accomplishments, including expanding health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, reducing student debt, and putting the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. “Do you think I’m too old to restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land?” he asked the crowd, to a resounding “No!” He got the same response as he asked if people believed he was too old to ban assault weapons, make billionaires pay higher taxes and to beat Donald Trump
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers took the stage just before Biden to give him a plug. “With the help of the American Rescue Plan Act we were able to rebuild Wisconsin’s economy from the ground up,” Evers said, crediting Biden with investments that created hundreds of thousands of jobs, replaced contaminated wells, expanded internet access and rebuilt infrastructure in the state.
“The thing about me and Joe,” Evers said, “we’re not flashy. Nor are we fancy. We’re not for political drama or fanfare. We put our heads down and do the work. We always try to do the right thing.”
Other Democrats, including Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway made the case that a second Trump term represents an existential threat and that reelecting Biden is essential. “I have to be honest with you, I’m afraid,” Rhodes Conway said. “The specter of dictatorship looms over America.”
“The only people with the power to stop Donald Trump are you,” Wikler told the crowd.
“Joe Biden took office amidst the wreckage of Donald Trump’s failed insurrection, an attempt to overthrow democracy in America on Jan. 6,” Wikler added, saying Biden “helped us to stabilize, helped us to refocus on rebuilding a country that works for working people.”
He praised Biden’s “patriotism, his decency, his empathy, his steely determination” and his ability to “get back up.” “And we know that he is asking us to get back up,” Wikler added, leading the crowd in a chant of “Get back up!”
Notably absent was Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who is in a close race against Republican challenger Eric Hovde. The most recent Marquette University Law School poll shows Baldwin leading Hovde by a narrow margin. The same poll, released before the debate, showed Biden and Trump in a dead heat. Baldwin has deflected questions about whether she believes Biden should drop out of the race.
Olivia Saud, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who came to the rally at Sherman Middle School to see Biden in person, said she watched the debate and “I understand the concern.”
“I also understand the concern of Trump being president,” she said, adding, “I’m one of those people who subscribes to anything that’s blue I’m going to vote for at this point.”
Among her peers, Saud said, “I know a lot of students that are not really proud of how he handled Israel and Palestine. I also know that they feel he doesn’t really represent their beliefs and the policies they stand for. They feel he’s too old. But there are also people who will vote for him. It’s a mixed bag.”
Saud said she doesn’t know what Biden can do at this point to increase support among young voters. “A better debate performance — a little bit more on top of things — would have helped. I think with respect to Israel and Palestine it’s a little late now to fix things so people who are in that camp would support him.”
She had heard talk about Vice President Kamala Harris possibly replacing Biden, she said, but was not sure if Harris or another candidate would fare better than Biden with young voters.
Hernán Rodriguez, a recent UW graduate who now works full-time in higher education, came to the rally because “a goal of mine has always been to see a president live in person,” he said.
“I think at this point it’s very likely,” he’ll vote for Biden, he said. “I think it’s all doors open, because who knows what could happen in the next few months.”
Asked what he hoped to hear from the candidate, Rodriguez said, “I think hope is important. At this point you listen in on the national conversation, it’s rather bleak, at least from the left, in terms of how well he’s doing in the election, what’s to come, the implications if he loses. So really, I want that spark — that spark in the base, that spark from Biden. So hopefully he’ll spark some momentum and turn things around.”
Tanya Cornelius, a member of the Ojibwe nation who works in tribal affairs, was also open to hearing what Biden had to say. It meant a lot, she said, that Biden appointed the first Native American cabinet member in history, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, and that his administration had done a lot of work to recognize tribal sovereignty and to uncover the dark history of the federally sponsored Native American boarding schools.
“Every Native American person you meet has some contact with those schools,” she said — because almost every Native family has been affected. “The idea was to annihilate the Indian population.”
“I’m a third-generation descendant of a survivor,” she said. Growing up in Wisconsin, away from her Ojibwe family in Michigan, she lost her connection to her culture and language, she said. Now her children and grandchildren are trying to reclaim that connection.
Biden has been good on Native American issues, she said. “I saw no movement from the Trump administration on upholding tribal sovereignty.”
Should Biden stay in the race?
“I’m here to find out,” Cornelius said.
Jim Singer, an electrician and a member of IBEW Local 159, came to the rally to support Biden.
“I think everybody’s worried. I think he’ll come through,” Singer said of the debate. “It’s one bad night. I’m not going to judge his whole presidency based on one bad debate.”
Among his top concerns in the election, Singer said, are democracy, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and workers’ rights.
He agrees with the characterization of Biden as the most pro-labor president in recent history. “I’ve been in the trades 36 years, I’ve never seen work the way I’m seeing it now,” he said.
Singer said he thinks the large number of voters who tell pollsters they have less confidence in Biden than Trump on the economy are missing the big picture.
“I think the economy — people are so focused on the inflation. And while inflation is part of it, you have to look at the work situation,” he said. “There is so much work nationwide. I get it, the inflation is not good. That will come down. That will get under control. But right now, in my opinion, the economy is smoking.”
It does worry him, he added, that “there’s a faction of people that are pushing for him to step aside. I don’t think it’s a good move. I think if we throw all our resources and our support behind him, I think he’ll be fine.”
At the end of the rally, as Biden left the stage to the strain’s of the Tom Petty song “Won’t Back Down,” Singer was satisfied.
“I like it,” he said. “He’s fine. We’ll win.”
Biden stayed on stage as the rally ended to shake hands with the supporters arrayed behind him. Then he approached the mic one more time and the music stopped. “I won’t forget this,” he said. “God love ya.”
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Wisconsin
A Wisconsin family is suing Target after their 10-month-old died from swallowing a water bead
A Wisconsin family lost their ten-month-old daughter after she swallowed a water bead. They blame Target and the water bead manufacturer for her death.
This week, Taylor and Tyler Bethard filed a lawsuit against Target in Hennepin County, claiming that the company failed to warn them and other customers about the dangers of a water beads product that used to be sold exclusively at Target.
Water beads are marketed as toys that come with sensory kits or craft sets, but data shows the products are prone to injuring young children. The polymer material is extremely absorbent, allowing water beads – which are often colorful – to expand around 100 times their original size when they interact with water or liquid. This presents a hazard for kids; the United States Product Safety Commission states that between 2017 and 2022, there were 6,300 water bead-related ingestion injuries that required treatment from emergency departments across the country.
In 2023, a 10-month-old girl died. Her name is Esther “Jo” Bethard. According to court filings, Taylor Bethard found her daughter unresponsive in her crib on the morning of July 7, 2023, after she had suffered symptoms of a stomach illness overnight. Medical examiners told the family that her death was caused by swallowing a single water bead.
The Bethards had purchased a Chuckle and Roar water bead set in the spring of 2022 for Esther Jo’s older siblings, never intending for the infant to interact with the water beads.
Target and the Chuckle and Roar manufacturer, Buffalo Games LLC, mutually agreed to pull the product from the shelves in November of 2022. Court records show an email exchange between Buffalo Games and a product safety employee at Target where the manufacturer noted that while their water beads had met safety standards at the time, they wanted to “avoid any future unintended misuse of the product.”
That conversation was prompted after Buffalo Games was informed that an infant required surgery after ingesting a water bead from the Ultimate Water Beads kit. Target agreed to end sales, indicating that this would be classified as a “safety removal.”
The Bethard’s lawsuit alleges that Target clearly knew how dangerous these water beads could be, but failed to warn them or other customers. Target stopped selling the product about eight months before Esther Jo died. Daniel Mann, a personal injury attorney representing the Bethards in this case, said that Esther Jo would still be alive if Target had acted.
“With all this information Target didn’t do anything to reach out to the family or other consumers to let them know about this problem,” Mann said, “I think 10/10 people would say Target had a responsibility to do more than what they did, which was nothing.”
A spokesperson for Target said that they would not comment on ongoing litigation, but the company had already responded to an identical complaint filed by the Bethards in the State of New York. In 2025, the Bethards sued both Target and Buffalo Games in Erie County, N.Y., because that was where the manufacturer was based. In response to the lawsuit there, court filings show that Target denied the allegations that they knew of an extraordinary danger posed by the water beads and failed to notify customers.
The complaint was dismissed against Target in New York, Mann explained, due to jurisdiction. This lead to them refiling in Hennepin County this week.
In a statement to WCCO on the new legal action, a Target spokesperson said “We extend our deepest sympathies to those affected by this tragedy, and we worked closely with the manufacturer of the product at the time the incident occurred.”
Taylor Bethard, Esther Jo’s mother, has lead the charge to ban water beads entirely. Her efforts lead to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commision recalling the more than 52,000 Chuckle and Roar Ultimate Water Beads Activity Kits that were in circulation. The recall took effect in September of 2023. Target, Walmart and Amazon announced that they would stop marketing water beads to children.
Bethard is also working with Wisconsin U.S. State Senator Tammy Baldwin to establish federal legislation to permanently outlaw all water beads. This past spring, the CPSC established new legal guidelines that restrict the size of water beads to try to ensure high safety standards.
(WLUK) — Wisconsin State Patrol troopers are teaming up with truckers to better spot dangerous driving behaviors.
The annual Trooper in a Truck initiative kicks off next week in Wisconsin.
Troopers will ride along with with semitruck and bus drivers to use the higher vantage point to spot dangerous driving behaviors, especially near commercial motor vehicles.
Troopers will be looking for risky driving behaviors, including distracted driving, speeding, following too closely and seatbelt violations. When an officer identifies a violation from the truck or bus, they will radio to patrol cars in the area for appropriate enforcement action.
Drivers can expect to see Trooper in a Truck enforcement in the following areas:
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- Monday, July 13: Eau Claire
- Tuesday, July 14: Waukesha
- Wednesday, July 15: Madison
- Thursday, July 16: Green Bay
- Friday, July 17: Wausau
New Wisconsin athletic director Shawn Eichorst, who spent the last eight years at Texas, believes his new and old schools have much in common.
Both are well-regarded research universities in state capitals that belong to major conferences and have relatively similar enrollments.
He also pointed out one difference.
“There’s swag at Texas, right?” Eichorst said Tuesday during his introductory news conference. “There’s 30 million people in Texas. We’ve got swag, too, but we have a little humility with that deal. We need to get our shoulders up. We need to feel good about what it is that we’re doing.”
Wisconsin could gain more of that Texas swagger if its football program gets back to winning the way it did the last time Eichorst was employed in Madison. Eichorst, who most recently worked as a deputy athletic director at Texas, received a five-year deal worth $1.6 million annually, with provisions for increases and incentives. He was hired 2½ months after Chris McIntosh left to become the Big Ten’s deputy commissioner for strategy.
Eichorst worked at Wisconsin from 2006-11 when Barry Alvarez was AD and Bret Bielema was leading the football program. He followed that up with stints as an athletic director at Miami (2011-12) and Nebraska (2012-17) before Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte hired him in 2018.
He returns to Wisconsin with the Badgers coming off back-to-back losing seasons in football, a notable fall for a program that had 22 straight winning seasons from 2002-23. Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell has gone 17-21 after posting a 53-10 record with one College Football Playoff appearance in his last five years at Cincinnati.
Eichorst hasn’t worked with Fickell before but said he’s encouraged by their initial conversations.
“Obviously he’s won every place he’s been,” Eichorst said. “My expectation is more of me than him, meaning I need to pour into him, learn more about his program, how he has things set up, how his athletes are taken care of, how we’re supporting that endeavor. And then we can figure out, as we move along, what that might look like.”
Football struggles led to Eichorst’s downfall the last time he was an athletic director.
He fired Nebraska coach Bo Pelini in 2014 and hired Mike Riley, who had gone 93-80 in 14 seasons at Oregon State. Eichorst was dismissed shortly after Nebraska suffered an early-season loss to Northern Illinois in 2017. Riley was fired at the end of that season after going 19-19 in three years.
When Eichorst’s hiring was announced last week, he spoke about how much he had grown from that Nebraska stint. Wisconsin interim chancellor Eric Wilcots led the search and has emphasized Eichorst’s accomplishments at Texas, which has won the Learfield Directors’ Cup all-sports standings five times in the last six years.
Texas ranked anywhere from fifth to ninth in the Directors’ Cup standings in the five years before Wilcots’ arrival. Texas’ football team went a combined 23-27 from 2014-17 but has made two College Football Playoff appearances in the last three years.
“Everybody looks at the end result of what we did at Texas,” Eichorst said. “When we got there in 2018, we weren’t very good in a lot of areas. And that didn’t change overnight.”
Eichorst said one thing that has caught his attention about Wisconsin is the overall quality of its head coaches.
“You’re going to be as good as your coaches,” Eichorst said. “That’s it. If you have an elite group of coaches who are working together and uniting and galvanizing and learning from one another and taking it out to their individual programs, I think you can start to build something special. I go back to Texas. We built a room of really elite head coaches and put them at the top of everything we did to help guide us.”
Eichorst said this job is particularly important to him because of his Wisconsin roots. He was born in Lone Rock, about 45 miles northwest of the Madison campus.
He treasured his previous stint at Wisconsin and says he believes this school “represents everything that is great about higher education and college athletics.”
“Nobody will work harder for Wisconsin athletics,” Eichorst said. “I love this state, and I love everything that it represents. The passion is there. You can see it. I don’t have to make it up. I’ve lived it. It’s in my heart.”
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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
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