Author: Wisconsin Watch

Brandon Cacek filed for unemployment insurance in mid-March last year after losing his substitute teaching job due to the pandemic. He is still waiting for that crucial aid 11 months later. “I keep leaving out hope that I’m going to get some kind of assistance through this,” said Cacek, 40, a Marine Corps veteran and father of two in Marinette, Wisconsin. “But the longer this goes on the less hope that lingers.” Nearly every person who has reviewed Cacek’s case has found no reason to deny him compensation, he said. That includes an administrative law judge who ruled on...

In May of 2017, eight men met at Mackesey’s Irish Pub in downtown Madison to drink beer and talk politics. The men, all of them White and most in their 20s, had met online and were getting together for the first time. The meeting would establish the Wisconsin chapter of an emerging national group called the Proud Boys. For Thaddeus Pall, it was a rare opportunity to openly express his support for President Donald Trump in liberal Madison. As the men were leaving the bar for a member’s apartment, Pall, then 26, separated from the group to buy cigarettes....

Working digitally and on the streets of Milwaukee, activists tried to convince nonvoters to go to the polls, but distrust and disgust kept some away. When Angela Lang reflected on the thousands of conversations she and other members of her community organization, BLOC, have had with Milwaukee residents, one floats to the top of her mind. It was with a 54-year-old Milwaukee resident who explained to Lang’s colleague that she was not voting because she was a convicted felon. Unbeknownst to her, she had been eligible for about 12 years — since she completed her probation. A BLOC staffer...

David Couper, Madison’s police chief from 1972 to 1993, said law enforcement should ditch the riot gear and tear gas to keep the peace. At least 1,500 young people gathered on Madison, Wisconsin’s Mifflin Street in April 1973 for a block party featuring street dancing, potato salad and sunshine. People drank beer, smoked weed and tossed Frisbees in the neighborhood near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus known informally as Miffland. Police officers observed the party from a distance, greeting attendees and directing traffic away from the event. They did not wear police caps, nor did they make arrests. The...

Unable to dictate election results with their gerrymandering voter maps in November, Wisconsin Republicans called for changes to election laws and made broad allegations of fraud and misconduct without offering any proof. About two hours into a joint legislative hearing on December 11, state Rep. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, said he had enough of the “sham” gathering called by Republican lawmakers to investigate the November 3 election. “Maybe that will speed things up a bit,” joked Rep. Ron Tusler, R-Harrison, who oversaw the daylong hearing before two legislative elections committees. The terse exchange was repeated several times until all five...

Knowing he would probably face fierce criticism, Rohn Bishop raised a dissenting voice while some of his fellow conservatives argued in favor of invalidating votes in Wisconsin. In a November 21 post on Twitter, Bishop said he had spent the past decade refuting claims that state Republicans were “trying to disenfranchise people” with voter ID and signature laws. But the campaign of President Donald Trump had gone too far, he said, in legal challenges aimed at tossing out votes during the recounts in mostly liberal Dane and Milwaukee counties. The counting was completed Sunday, adding 87 votes to Joe...