ELECTION 2020-AUDITS-WISCONSIN

Gableman sends subpoenas to Milwaukee, Green Bay officials

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A former state Supreme Court justice leading Assembly Republicans’ probe of the 2020 election has sent subpoenas to officials in Milwaukee, Green Bay, Madison, Kenosha and Racine as well as Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe seeking information about private funds they used to run voting operations. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Michael Gableman’s subpoenas are the first issued by state lawmakers in four decades. The subpoenas, dated Thursday and delivered Friday, seek documents related to the Center for Tech And Civic Life, which gave more than $10 million to more than 200 Wisconsin communities to help cover election costs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The subpoenas require the officials to appear before him Oct. 15 with the documents. 

MURDER-FOR-HIRE

Wisconsin woman sentenced in murder-for-hire plot

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin woman has been sentenced to six years in federal prison for trying to hire a hitman using bitcoin currency. Federal prosecutors announced that 38-year-old Kelly Harper of Columbus received the sentence after she pleaded guilty to using the Internet to hire a hitman. Harper provided the man’s height, weight, eye color, cell phone number and photos of his vehicle. She also shared a screenshot of a bitcoin wallet with a value of about $5,633 to the site administrator. Her attorney didn’t immediately respond to a message.

WOLF HUNT

Federal judge sets hearing on blocking Wisconsin wolf hunt

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge has set a hearing for later this month on whether to block Wisconsin’s fall wolf hunt. Six Chippewa tribes filed a lawsuit on Sept. 21 seeking to block the hunt, saying hunters killed too many wolves during the state’s February season and kill quotas from the fall hunt aren’t grounded in science. U.S. District Judge James Peterson on Friday scheduled a hearing on the tribes’ request for a preliminary injunction blocking the fall hunt for Oct. 29, six days before the season is set to begin on Nov. 6.

LONG SENTENCE

La Crosse man sentenced to 66 years in crash that killed 2

BARABOO, WIs. (AP) — A La Crosse man with a history of drunken driving has been sentenced to 66 years in prison for a crash that killed two men and severely injured two others. Fifty-nine-year-old Albart B. Shores, who was convicted in April, apologized in Sauk County Court Thursday for driving drunk along Interstate 94/90 near Wisconsin Dells in 2018. He had a blood alcohol content just above the legal limit and used cocaine the night before. The Baraboo News Republic reports the prosecutor predicted that Shores, who was convicted on his seventh drunken driving offense, would kill again if he ever goes free.

WHITE SUPREMACISTS ARRESTED

Prosecutors: Neo-Nazis discussed assassination, prison break

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Federal prosecutors in Maryland are recommending 25-year prison sentences for two neo-Nazi group members who were arrested by the FBI ahead of a gun rights rally at Virginia’s Capitol. In a court filing Thursday, prosecutors described former Canadian Armed Forces reservist Patrik Jordan Mathews and U.S. Army veteran Brian Mark Lemley Jr. as domestic terrorists who prepared for a civil war and talked about planning an attack at the January 2020 rally in Virginia. Mathews and Lemley Jr. are scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 28 after pleading guilty to gun charges in June. They were charged along with a third member of The Base, a white supremacist organization. Defense attorneys filed their sentencing memos under seal.

GOLF COURSE-DISPUTE

Wisconsin justices weigh challenge to swap of parkland

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A conservation group asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday to let it challenge the state’s decision to transfer state park land to a company planning to build a golf course. Friends of the Black River Forest contend that the Department of Natural Resources board’s 2014 decision to hand the Kohler Company a 5-acre parcel and nearly 2-acre easement within the Kohler-Andrae State Park will deprive the public from enjoying that land and harm wildlife habitat. Kohler and the DNR want the Supreme Court to toss out the lawsuit, arguing that the conservation group lacks standing to sue because course construction hasn’t begun and until it does, no one has suffered harm. It’s unclear when the court might rule.

AP-US-AFGHAN-REFUGEES-WISCONSIN

Tour of Wisconsin Army post reveals thankful, bored Afghans

FORT MCCOY, Wis. (AP) — Reporters have been given a glimpse of life on a Wisconsin Army post for newly arrived Afghan refugees. During a tightly controlled tour of Fort McCoy on Thursday arranged by the U.S. Army and Department of State, reporters got to see the new arrivals playing soccer and basketball with soldiers and toting groceries to the barracks where they’re being housed as they wait for their new lives in America to really begin. The fort is one of eight military installations across the country that are temporarily housing Afghans who were forced to flee their homeland in August. Nearly 13,000 were sent to Fort McCoy.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-WISCONSIN

Wisconsin health officials push Pfizer COVID-19 boosters

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Every Wisconsin county has a high rate of COVID-19 infections and intensive care units in hospitals throughout the state are at or near capacity even though cases have been steadily dropping over the previous nine days. Dr. Ryan Westergaard, the state’s chief medical officer. said Thursday that although the decline in cases is encouraging, it’s too early to say that Wisconsin has seen the worst of the latest surge caused by the highly contagious delta variant. State health officials recommend a booster dose of Pfizer at least six months after those eligible received their second dose. They include people who are age 65 or older, who live in long-term care or who are ages 50-64 with certain underlying medical conditions.

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