Wisconsin
Wisconsin, National Campus Protests: Follow The Money Trail [Up Against The Wall]
![Wisconsin, National Campus Protests: Follow The Money Trail [Up Against The Wall]](https://i0.wp.com/www.wisconsinrightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/wisconsin-protests.jpg?ssl=1 "Wisconsin, National Campus Protests: Follow The Money Trail [Up Against The Wall]")
Hmm, how come so many of those tents by the campus occupiers are exactly the same? If I was the police, I’d follow the money trail. That always works. Someone is funding these protestors and pushing their buttons. Another curious observation – why are the protestors wearing masks? It ain’t about COVID. They’re wearing masks because they know that they are doing something illegal and they don’t want to be identified.
The real problem is that these protestors, now including at the UW-Madison, are trying to disrupt classes; even graduations have been canceled at some other campuses, and that’s not fair to the students who worked their butts off for the last 4.5 years.
So here are my thoughts on how to handle these protestors. First, I’ll place a bet that many of these troublemakers are foreigners here on visas. Sooo, let’s cancel the visas. Any foreign protestor who breaks the law should be deported. That starts with revoking their visa. Then suspend the domestic terrorists, err, I mean, students who are breaking the law.
Worse, what really makes me sick is that many of these foreigners may even be here on scholarships – scholarships paid for by you and me – the taxpayers, enabling them to come here and protest. And maybe they even got student loans from our government, too.
Most people don’t know a dirty little secret – that the immigration authorities give universities (even elementary schools) the right to issue their own visas! Yeah, that’s right. Without checking on who they are letting into our country, universities can issue visas like writing a blank check. So while they hire foreigners for high-paying jobs that Americans want, they also issue visas and give away valuable student slots at our taxpayer-funded universities while rejecting Wisconsin residents, the children of hard-working, taxpaying Wisconsin families.
Why? Because the universities want the out-of-state tuition, which is a lot higher than the tuition that we cheeseheads pay. And by the way, why is UW-Madison letting these troublemakers set up camp anyway?
Where is our chancellor? (I’m surprised the university isn’t screaming “insurrection! insurrection!” but of course, they wouldn’t do that unless it was the College Republicans setting up camp and protesting; then the university would take immediate action.) What’s the point of having rules if the university won’t enforce them? But then the D.A. won’t arrest them, and they won’t be prosecuted. So I guess there’s no point, instead, the university will just let this blow up in their face.
Unfortunately, we all know that they won’t be prosecuted, unlike the January 6th protestors who were mercilessly demonized, hunted down weeks and months later, arrested, held without bail, and prosecuted even when they didn’t commit a violent act. But we all know we have a two-tiered justice system. A free pass if you protest in favor of leftist causes; cancellation if you protect in favor of right(eous) causes.
So, the next step is to motivate universities that won’t stand up to internal law-breaking terrorists and trace back the food chain to those funding them. (By their own words and definition, terrorist is the standard they meet.) That next step is to revoke federal and state funding from universities that let these anti-Israel protests continue and revoke the universities’ right to issue visas in the future because if it continues, it’ll end up like the last few times – when protestors firebombed the city-county building, trashed, looted and burned State Street businesses, and bombed Sterling Hall. How quickly we forget.
Remember, not only are we taxpayers funding the public universities, even the private universities like the ivy leagues are public funded too – through their tax exempt status. They don’t pay property taxes or corporate tax on their income.
These students are protesting instead of studying and learning – violating the rules of the universities, trespassing, stirring up trouble – and disgustingly, they are supporting the terrorist group Hamas against the democracy Israel. Hamas attacked the Jews in Israel. It is Israel that is the victim. Do these protestors think that Israel should not defend itself against the murderers and kidnappers? How do they feel about a rape victim? A victim of murder? What if it was their wife or sister or daughter? Would they protest in favor of the criminal then?
Why is it that these whack-jobs always, always defend the criminal? Why, why, why?
Frankly, I’m tired of it. I say clear them out, revoke their visas, suspend their student status, and ship them home.
Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield shares his biggest spring takeaway
Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield shared his biggest takeaway from the spring following the Badgers’ four-set win over Northern Illinois.
MADISON – Kelly Sheffield has coached All-Americans, national players of the year, national champions and future Olympians in his 13 years as Wisconsin volleyball coach.
So Sheffield’s unique praise of Decelise Champion – a star pin-hitter from Puerto Rico who committed to the Badgers last fall – carries a lot of weight.
“Her highest-end potential is certainly as high as about anybody we’ve ever brought in,” Sheffield said. “She’s got a lot of work to get to where she’s capable of, and that’s on us as coaches and on her to help reach those dreams and goals. But when you’re watching people around her age, she’s different.”
That work is beginning earlier than initially expected after Wisconsin announced that Champion will reclassify from the 2027 recruiting class and join the Badgers as a freshman for the 2026 season.
Champion – currently 16 years old and turning 17 in September – will arrive with a resume that includes experience on Puerto Rico’s senior national team and the elite Italian club Volleyro Casal de Pazzi. That’s all while being strong enough academically to earn a GED degree and the necessary NCAA waiver for a few missing core classes.
“What made it really a lot better is that all of her grades at the different schools she’s been at have been fantastic,” Sheffield said. “She’s an excellent student. Was crushing it at a really, really good academic school in Italy in her third language.”
The timing of the June 12 announcement accounted for the second-last open roster spot for the 2026 season, but Champion and UW’s efforts to make the reclassification possible go back much earlier than that.
“We’ve known she’s wanted to do this since February,” Sheffield said. “We told our team in February that was the plan. And then we didn’t let anybody know publicly until she was done with her season. She just didn’t want to be a distraction for her team.”
Badgers have even more competition at pins
Wisconsin already had plenty of competition at the pin-hitting positions before Champion’s move to the 2026 class.
Grace Egan had a major role on the 2025 Final Four team, and Eva Travis had an impressive spring after transferring from UC-Santa Barbara. Others include Grace Lopez, Madison Quest and the highly-touted freshman duo of Halle Thompson and Audrey Flanagan.
Even with the upcoming addition of one more pin-hitter – and one with such a high potential – UW did not lose any players in the spring transfer portal cycle. Even the idea of someone leaving seemed outlandish to Sheffield.
“If they’re just going to get up and leave because somebody came, I would say that that person is probably chicken s—,” Sheffield said.
Sheffield’s praise of Champion’s proposal obviously does not come with a guarantee of playing time either at the crowded pin-hitting positions.
“I would say, yeah, she does have a chance of being out on the court for us this year,” Sheffield said. “But we’ve also got some other really talented people that play the pins.”
The outside and right-side hitters already on UW’s spring roster will have at least one key advantage over Champion in her freshman season – time.
Egan, Lopez and Quest are returning players (although Egan and Lopez spent their spring recovering from injuries). Travis, Thompson and Flanagan all enrolled in time to spend the spring with the Badgers and impressed in UW’s spring matches.
Champion’s arrival, on the other hand, will follow her participation in an Olympic-qualifying event for Puerto Rico. Sheffield expects that to be Sept. 2, which is the day before fall classes begin and already after UW’s first four matches of the season.
“She’ll be drinking out of a fire hose early on, no doubt about it,” Sheffield said. “Even though she’s been playing with her senior national team this summer, it will be a lot of things coming at her in her secondary language at 16, so there’ll need to be some patience along the way.”
His advice to Champion when she was on campus earlier in June was to “be where your feet are.”
“When she’s with her national team – even though we will have started our preseason, playing matches – don’t worry about us here,” Sheffield said. “Be where your feet are. Be the best you can be for your team there. … Then when you get here, you’re not thinking about your national team.”
Champion’s NCAA eligibility clock starts earlier
Champion’s reclassification comes with the drawback of beginning her NCAA eligibility one year earlier in her volleyball career.
Had she stayed in the 2027 recruiting class, she theoretically would have begun her college career shortly before her 18th birthday and exhausted her eligibility at age 22. Instead, she will begin her college career shortly before her 17th birthday and likely exhaust her eligibility at age 21.
Those scenarios take into account the NCAA Division I Cabinet’s unanimous approval on June 23 of a new eligibility model that will give players five seasons of eligibility in five years. (That replaces the current system with four seasons, redshirts and other waivers.) The NCAA noted that its decision is not final, however, until the meeting concludes on June 24.
“We’re certainly excited to have her this year, but if you kind of think over the course of five years, it’s probably worse for us that she comes a year early,” Sheffield said. “You expect her to be better at 20 and 21 than what she is at 16 or 17. … It really wasn’t something that we were pushing for, but she was ready.”
Of course, volleyball at age 16 or 17 looks different for someone like Champion who has been competing against much older players as a senior national team member and studying halfway across the world from her hometown of Dorado, Puerto Rico.
“When you talk to her, she doesn’t come across as somebody who’s 16,” Sheffield said. “She’s very mature, very easy to talk to, very driven. She’s independent. … She’s had a lot more life experience than most people her age, and that certainly comes across when you’re around her.”
Wisconsin
Cult-classic filmed in central Wisconsin returns to big screen, with enhancements, this weekend
STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) – A giant spider isn’t actually invading central Wisconsin this weekend.
But an enhanced, big-screen version of the cult-classic 1975 film The Giant Spider Invasion is crawling back into local theaters — and it’s bringing some central Wisconsin nostalgia with it.
The movie was famously filmed in Merrill and Stevens Point, and the updated 2026 release adds enhancements designed for a modern theatrical experience.
What’s new in the 2026 enhanced version?
Executive Producer J.B. Thompson says the team took the original 1975 film and enhanced it for the big screen in 2026, giving audiences a refreshed way to experience a movie that’s long been a Wisconsin oddity — and a point of pride.
Actor and Producer Dan Davies is featured in newly filmed scenes created specifically for this updated release.
Stevens Point’s role in the original film
While much of the film is associated with Merrill, Stevens Point Mayor Mike Wiza says Point also played a major role in the production — another reason the film’s return matters to local history buffs and movie fans alike.
Why does this movie still capture attention 50 years later?
Whether it’s the over-the-top creature feature story, the uniquely Wisconsin filming locations, or the nostalgia of seeing familiar places on screen, the group says the film’s staying power is real — even five decades later.
Screenings this weekend
The enhanced version of The Giant Spider Invasion is set for local screenings this weekend in Central and North Central Wisconsin. To purchase tickets for showings in Stevens Point, Marshfield or Waupaca, click here.
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