Tag: wisconsin

Bird flu outbreak near Wisconsin lab raises gain-of-function concerns

A bird flu outbreak in a Wisconsin dairy cattle herd has raised questions about whether gain-of-function research at a nearby university laboratory may have played a role.

Last month, the US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) identified what it described as the first known case of highly pathogenic bird flu  in a dairy cattle herd in Dodge County, Wisconsin. The agency characterized the outbreak as a “spillover” event from wildlife to cattle.

The virus responsible for the outbreak was identified by two scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Veterinary Medicine — Keith Poulsen, DVM, Ph.D., and Yoshihiro Kawaoka, DVM, Ph.D. Both scientists have published research on gain-of-function experiments involving bird flu viruses.

Kawaoka directs the university’s Influenza Research Institute, a lab known for conducting gain-of-function research on H5N1. The lab is located approximately 40 miles from the Dodge County outbreak site.

The university confirmed that both scientists are conducting H5N1 research but denied that the work constitutes gain-of-function experimentation. University officials said the research is intended to better understand bird flu strains circulating among wildlife and livestock.

The scientists identified the virus as the H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b genotype D1.1 — a strain that contains mutations linked to increased transmissibility.

Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist at Children’s Health Defense, said the outbreak is notable because national databases show no recent mammalian hosts of the D1.1 strain near Wisconsin.

Two isolated spillover events involving the same strain were identified earlier in Arizona and Nevada, though federal officials said the Wisconsin case is unrelated.

While federal agencies said bird flu currently poses a low risk to the general public, the World Health Organization reported that a 3-year-old girl in Mexico died in 2025 after contracting the D1.1 strain.

Recent scientific studies have suggested the D1.1 variant may be better adapted to infect mammals, including humans, than earlier strains.

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Federal probe sought to refocus school districts’ priorities

A public watchdog has filed a federal complaint against a Wisconsin school district that prefers to hire “diverse” and “culturally competent” teachers rather than effective ones.

Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust, says the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District’s 2025-2030 strategic plan details goals of “increasing staff diversity” and prioritizing “hiring and retaining a diverse workforce that better reflects our student population.”

His team, which monitors public officials and institutions for ethics, transparency, and accountability, filed this federal complaint after taking similar action against another school district in Vermont.

“We received a tip from a concerned citizen … and what we discovered when we looked into it was yet another school district that was prioritizing politics and ideology over the civil rights and the needs of students,” Chamberlain summarizes.

They are setting goals for certain ethnicities and using terms like “equity,” which Chamberlain says is wrong.

“People in education know … that means putting the needs of certain students above the needs of others based upon certain characteristics that the students can’t control and using criteria like that rather than merit and looking to improve student achievement overall,” he details.

Though the strategy does include plans to increase student success as well, the Daily Caller says the district admits that only 33% of its third grade students are testing proficient or advanced in literacy and 33% of its eighth graders are earning the same status in mathematics on the state exam.

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18-Year-Old Pleads Guilty to Murdering His Mom and Stepdad to Fund His Trump Assassination Plot

A deeply unsettling story from Waukesha, Wisconsin, reveals that a teen murdered his parents — with a greater goal of killing President Donald Trump.

According to local Fox station WITI-TV, 18-year-old Nikita Casap admitted and pleaded guilty to murdering his own mother and stepfather in their home.

That alone is horrific, but Casap’s reason for the monstrous act is raising even more eyebrows.

The Associates Press reported that Casap killed his parents with an intent to steal their money to help fund a plot to assassinate President Donald Trump.

“The killing of his parents appeared to be an effort to obtain the financial means and autonomy necessary to carrying out his plan,” a related federal search warrant read.

Investigators believe the murders occurred around Feb. 11 at the family home.

According to court documents, the teen remained in the house with the decomposing bodies for several weeks before leaving. He took his stepfather’s SUV, along with roughly $14,000 in cash, jewelry, passports, the family firearm, and the family dog.

He was apprehended during a traffic stop in Kansas on Feb. 28.

As part of the homicide investigation, authorities seized and examined Casap’s cell phone and other electronic devices.

According to a search warrant, investigators discovered material linked to a group known as “The Order of Nine Angles” stored on his phone.

FBI documents describe the organization as a satanic cult that promotes extreme anti-Judaic, anti-Christian, and anti-Western views, and encourages members to “incite chaos and violence.”

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Judge Who Helped Illegal Migrant Escape ICE Resigns

A Wisconsin judge who helped an illegal alien escape from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials announced she would be resigning from her position in response to “unprecedented federal legal proceedings” brought against her.

Matt Smith, the political director with WISN 12 News, shared a letter addressed to Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) from Milwaukee Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan on X. In her letter, Dugan expressed that the citizens of Wisconsin “deserve to start the year with a judge on the bench in Milwaukee County Branch 31.”

“As you know, I am the subject of unprecedented federal legal proceedings, which are far from concluded but which present immense and complex challenges that threaten the independence of our judiciary,” Dugan said. “I am pursuing this fight for myself and for our independent judiciary. However, the Wisconsin citizens that I cherish deserve to start the year with a judge on the bench in Milwaukee County Branch 31 rather than have the fate of that Court rest in a partisan fight in the state legislature.”

Dugan continued on to state that it was “with a heavy heart” that she was submitting “this letter of resignation.”

“My faith in God and in our legal system leads me to trust that in the long run justice will be served for our independent judiciary and for me,” Dugan added.

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Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan Found GUILTY of Obstruction For Helping Illegal Alien Evade ICE Agents – Faces 5 Years in Prison

Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan on Thursday evening was found guilty of obstruction for helping an illegal alien evade ICE agents.

Dugan was acquitted of count 1 – the misdemeanor but she was found guilty on count 2 – the felony obstruction.

She is facing five years in prison.

AP reported:

A jury found a Wisconsin judge accused of helping a Mexican immigrant dodge federal authorities guilty of obstruction Thursday, marking a victory for President Donald Trump as he continues his sweeping immigration crackdown across the country.

Federal prosecutors charged Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan with obstruction, a felony, and concealing an individual to prevent arrest, a misdemeanor, in April. The jury acquitted her on the concealment count, but she still faces up to five years in prison on the obstruction count.

The jury returned the verdicts after deliberating for six hours.

Dugan and her attorneys left the courtroom, ducked into a side conference room and closed the door without speaking to reporters.

In April, a federal grand jury indicted Hannah Dugan for helping an illegal alien evade ICE agents.

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Wisconsin’s Lib-Led Supreme Court Stacks The Congressional Map Deck

While milquetoast Republicans experience a collective tummy ache over the “fairness” of mid-decade redistricting, Democrats nationally are feasting on power-grabbing gerrymanders.  

The latest outflanking comes — not surprisingly — from Wisconsin’s liberal-controlled Supreme Court. 

‘Forum Shopping’

Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, the Badger State’s court of last resort ordered the creation of judicial panels to hear two lawsuits seeking to undo Wisconsin’s existing  congressional maps, in which six of eight House seats are held by Republicans. Interestingly, the district lines were drawn by a committee whose members were appointed by Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a far-left Democrat. The Evers maps benefitted Democrats, but didn’t go far enough for a Democratic Party salivating over a potential congressional power grab with the help of the liberal-led Supreme Court. 

In a move oozing with partisanship, the court’s liberal justices selected some of the more far-left lower court judges in the state to serve on the two panels.

Justice Annette Kingsland Ziegler, one of three conservatives on the seven-member court, argued that the majority’s orders disregard the U.S. and Wisconsin constitutions and ignore fundamental legal principles. 

“The majority not only undermines our constitutional authority and circumvents established redistricting precedent but also, again, usurps the legislature’s constitutional power,” Ziegler chided. “In allowing this litigation to proceed, the majority abdicates its constitutional superintending authority to Wisconsin’s circuit courts.”

The Republican-controlled state legislature and Wisconsin’s six GOP congressmen argue that the lawsuits confuse political representation concepts. But the Supreme Court’s majority said the argument is merely a matter of semantics, that “apportionment” and “redistricting” are used interchangeably in drawing up — or in this case, redrawing — political boundaries. And the law, the majority assert, requires the court “appoint a panel consisting of 3 circuit court judges to hear” a redistricting lawsuit. 

Conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn, who has at times sided with the liberals on the court, takes no issue with the creation of the panels. In his dissenting opinion, however, Hagedorn disagrees with the process. He argued the law is “transparently designed to prevent forum shopping in disputes over where congressional lines should be drawn.” But that’s exactly what the majority did. 

“Given the nature of this case and the statute’s implicit call for geographic diversity and neutrality, a randomly-selected panel and venue would be a better way to fulfill the statutory mandate,” the justice wrote. “Instead, my colleagues have chosen to keep this case in Dane County and leave the originally assigned Dane County judge on the panel.”  Dane County’s circuit court, located in state capital and far-left enclave Madison, is one the more left-leaning courts in the country. 

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Wisconsin’s Leftist Supreme Court Justices Have A Recusal Problem

Michael Gableman is asking another leftist Wisconsin Supreme Court justice to recuse herself from his disciplinary case before the state Office of Lawyer Regulation, according to court documents obtained by The Federalist. 

Gableman, the former state Supreme Court justice tapped by Republican legislative leadership in 2021 to lead a politically-doomed investigation into Wisconsin’s irregularity-filled 2020 presidential election, could have his law license suspended at the hands of a liberal-led court that clearly loathes him. 

The court will ultimately decide if the recommended 3-year suspension is proper.

‘No Reasonable Person’

On Wednesday, Gableman’s attorneys filed a motion with the court calling on Justice Janet Protasiewicz to step away from the proceedings, citing biased comments she made on the campaign trail. Protasiewicz, who in 2023 defeated former Justice Daniel Kelly in what was at the time the most costly judicial election in U.S. history, released a caustic press release effectively declaring Kelly and Gableman enemies of the state. 

”It’s too bad that Dan Kelly continues to join Mike Gableman in courting extremists who oppose democracy,” the Milwaukee County liberal opined. “Dan Kelly and Mike Gableman have demonstrated to the citizens of Wisconsin that they are not fit to be on the bench.”

In the same campaign statement, Protasiewicz denigrated all Republicans concerned with election integrity, accusing them of being part of “disgraceful effort to promote Donald Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election.” 

Given her history, Gableman argues Protasiewicz is unable to live up to a core judiciary standard: Avoiding even the appearance of bias. 

“Because of her statements on the campaign trail, she can’t comply with this standard while deciding whether Gableman has breached his professional responsibilities or, if he has, determining the appropriate discipline,” the recusal motion states, adding that “no reasonable person would want a judge to rule on his or her case after publicly and zealously attacking the person‘s professional judgment and character.”

The motion quotes from a 2020 Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling, which borrows from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1965 Estes v. Texas decision, cementing the basic requirement of due process, and the pursuit of preventing even “the probability of unfairness. . .”

Noble words. But In Wisconsin, the justices alone are the final arbiters of recusal, each deciding the question of whether to recuse, or not to recuse. 

‘Rubber Stamp’

Last month, leftist Justice Rebecca Dallet denied a similar request to recuse herself from the Gableman disciplinary proceedings. 

On the campaign trail in 2017, Dallet accused Gableman, a justice at the time, of running “one of the most unethical campaigns in state history.” She attacked him for refusing to recuse himself from what she banally described as a “criminal campaign-finance” investigation, accusing Gableman of being a “rubber stamp for his political allies.” Dallet was referring to Wisconsin’s notorious “John Doe” investigations, politically-driven probes led by left-leaning government agents who secretly targeted Wisconsin conservatives. Gableman wrote the majority opinion that found the star chambers unconstitutional and that the special prosecutor “was the instigator of a ‘perfect storm’ of wrongs that was visited upon the innocent…” 

In her denial order, Dallet insisted that none of the public statements she made about Gableman while she campaigned for her Supreme Court seat “create a serious risk of actual bias…” The justice claims she can act fairly and impartially in Gableman’s case. 

“In short, the opinions I expressed about Gableman’s judicial and campaign conduct from 2008 to 2018 say nothing about the conduct he is now accused of committing, let alone demonstrate that in either fact or appearance I cannot act impartially in this matter,” Dallet wrote. 

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Wisconsin Lawmakers Propose VPN Ban and ID Checks on Adult Sites

Wisconsin legislators have found a new villain in their quest to save people from themselves: the Virtual Private Network.

The state’s latest moral technology initiative, split into Assembly Bill 105 and Senate Bill 130, would force adult websites to verify user ages and ban anyone connecting through a VPN.

It passed the Assembly in March and now waits in the Senate, where someone will have to pretend this is enforceable.

Supporters are selling the plan as a way to “protect minors from explicit material.”

The bill’s machinery reads like a privacy demolition project written by people who still call tech support to reset passwords.

The law would apply to any site that “knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material harmful to minors.” It then defines that material as anything lacking “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.”

The wording is broad enough to rope in half the internet, yet somehow manages to exclude “bona fide news” (as to be determined by the state) and cloud platforms that don’t create the content themselves.

Whether that covers social media depends on who you ask: lawyers, lobbyists, or whichever intern wrote the definitions section.

The bill instructs websites to delete verification data after access is granted or denied.

That sounds good until you recall how the tech industry handles deletion promises.

Au10tix left user records exposed for a year after pledging to delete them within 30 days. Tea suffered multiple breaches despite assurances of immediate deletion. In the real world, “deleted” often means “archived on an unsecured server until a hacker finds it.”

The headline feature is a rule penalizing anyone who uses a VPN to access restricted material. VPNs encrypt internet traffic and disguise user locations, which lawmakers apparently see as a threat to order.

The logic is that if people can hide their IP addresses, the state can’t check their ID to ensure they’re old enough to view certain content. That’s technically true and philosophically disturbing.

Officials in other places are already cheering this idea. Michigan introduced a proposal requiring internet providers to detect and block VPN traffic.

If Wisconsin adopts the rule, VPN users would become collateral damage. Journalists, activists, and everyday users who rely on encryption for safety would be swept up in the ban.

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Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Refuses To Recuse After Openly Mocking Defendant

isconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Dallet has denied a motion to recuse herself from a case after openly criticizing the defendant, former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. She is now slated to rule on whether Gableman should have his law license suspended. Gableman has been attacked for his aid in investigating concerns about the integrity of the 2020 presidential election. 

Dallet is part of a growing movement of judges becoming more vocal about their partisan beliefs. Especially on the campaign trail, they promote not their impartiality but their political agendas. The courts are not meant to be benches of activists. For judges to avoid recusal issues, they need to maintain their impartiality and integrity. 

In early October, Gableman submitted a request to have two sitting justices removed from presiding over his case. He showed they each had a history of making biased statements that might affect the outcome of the court’s decision. One, Justice Susan Crawford, who had reportedly accused him of being a “disgraced election conspiracy theorist,” agreed to recuse herself because she had personal knowledge of the case that would prevent her from proceeding in unbiased decision-making. 

The other, Justice Rebecca Dallet, has refused to remove herself from the case. This is alarming because Dallet has a history of openly attacking Gableman, including during her election campaign, when she said Gableman “ran one of the most unethical campaigns in our state’s history,” and that he “was a rubber stamp for his political allies.”

Dallet has argued that her previous statements about Gableman being corrupt are irrelevant because they were made between 2008 and 2018 — but the dates don’t matter, only her record of attacks on her perceived political opponent. Dallet has repeatedly shown she’s biased against Gableman. Her record of attacks indicates she is unfit to rule on his law license. 

For the courts to maintain their dignity, they must not have any semblance of bias. Judges are required to recuse themselves from cases if there is any reasonable public doubt about their partiality. Crawford’s recusal was right and proper. Dallet refusing to do the same would be an abuse of power against someone she clearly once viewed as a political enemy — and may still. Further, Dallet’s unwillingness to recuse leaves a precarious 3-3 split between liberals and conservatives.

Gableman’s law license hangs in the balance over accusations of ethics violations, stemming from his investigation into Wisconsin’s 2020 election. In 2021, he was hired by the leader of the Wisconsin Assembly to investigate allegations of voter fraud as the head of a new Office of Special Counsel.

Gableman’s concerns about the 2020 election have been vindicated as evidence has arisen. For instance, according to the MacIver Institute, “Between January 1, 2020, and November 3, 2020, 33,473 deceased individuals matched records in the state voter system and were identified,” and the response from local clerks “seems to suggest again that state law is being ignored” and “raises all sorts of questions about the competency of the WEC staff and the local clerks.”

WEC also reportedly violated state laws by not requiring many newly registered voters to electronically sign their forms or provide proof of a valid driver’s license. Early absentee voting accounted for almost 60 percent of all ballots cast in the state’s 2020 election. Despite this, the city of Madison refused auditors the ability to physically review their absentee ballots. In a sampling of absentee ballots reviewed by statewide auditors, about 7 percent lacked the full witness address mandated by law.

Gableman’s investigation into Wisconsin’s discrepancies received pushback from elected officials on both ends of the political spectrum. Many news outlets targeted both him and Trump for their inquiries — but they’re far from the only two targets of left-wing lawfare.

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Huge win for Wisconsin mom who was sued for calling a teacher woke

A Wisconsin mom who was sued for defamation after calling an English teacher woke has won her free speech case.

Mother-of-five Scarlett Johnson took to social media in October 2022 to criticize Mary MacCudden for serving as Mequon-Thiensville School District’s social justice coordinator.

‘Why the hell am I paying for a “Social Justice Coordinator” in my school district?’ Johnson tweeted alongside a screenshot of MacCudden’s LinkedIn profile.

‘This is just what @mtschools needs; more woke, White women w/ a god complex. Thank you, White savior.’ 

Johnson, who is affiliated with education lobby group Moms for Liberty, in other social media posts, also referred to DEI specialists as ‘woke lunatics’ who ‘bully’ parents ‘into silence and compliance’.

MacCudden, who had resigned from her position at Homestead High School in January 2022, filed a defamation suit against Johnson in response.

She won her case against Johnson in lower court, but the Moms for Liberty activist’s legal team appealed the ruling.

The Wisconsin appeals court on Tuesday ruled to reverse the circuit courts ruling after determining that her statements ‘do not constitute defamation’.

MacCudden resigned from the school district in January 2022 but did not update her LinkedIn profile, according to a press release from Johnson’s lawyers.

Roughly 10 months later, Johnson discovered the profile, which listed MacCudden as the district’s ‘Social Justice Coordinator’, and started criticizing the district online.

MacCudden responded with a defamation suit, which went to trial.  

An appeals court has now ruled Johnson did not defame the former teacher because her statements ‘cannot be proven true or false.’

‘Free speech belongs to every mom, dad, and citizen who demands answers and accountability from their government,’ Johnson said in a statement by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL).

‘I am grateful that WILL stood alongside me in this legal battle. Parents across the country are speaking out against radical ideology in our schools, and our fight does not stop today.’

Johnson’s lawyers argued that while Johnson’s social media posts were ‘pervasive’, her words were ‘more restrained than a lot of online speech’.

Her legal counsel added that her posts could not be defamatory because they were ‘statements of opinion that are not provably false’.

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