Author: Todd Richmond

The warden of a maximum-security Wisconsin prison and eight members of his staff were charged on June 5 following investigations into the deaths of four inmates over the past year, including one that was not discovered until at least 12 hours after the man died. With a “Shawshank Redemption”-style stone exterior and high castle-like guard towers, Wisconsin’s oldest prison, built in the 1850s, has long been a target for closure amid concerns about deterioration, extended lockdowns, and staffing shortfalls. Randall Hepp, warden of the Waupun Correctional Institution, was charged with misconduct in public office. The other eight face charges...

Wisconsin Democrats plan to spend $7 million on television ads in five state Senate races they believe are key to regaining control of the chamber, the biggest ad buy of its kind Democrats in the state have ever made in legislative races. Wisconsin, a perennial swing state, is no stranger to big spending on high profile races. But the money typically goes to top of the ticket statewide races, not contests for the Legislature where Republicans have held a strong majority for more than a decade. For example, this one ad buy is nearly half of the money Democrats...

Republicans who control the Wisconsin Assembly introduced a bill in early January that would call for a binding statewide referendum on whether abortion should be banned after 14 weeks of pregnancy. The proposal could still galvanize the conservative base after Democrats parlayed anger over the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn its landmark 1972 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide, into big election wins across the country. Nowhere was that dynamic more evident than in Wisconsin, where Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on the state Supreme Court last year after repeatedly announcing on the campaign trail that...

A Wisconsin judge on December 5 reaffirmed her ruling from earlier this year that state law permits consensual medical abortions, handing abortion rights advocates a massive victory but opening up appellate options for conservatives. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the court’s landmark 1973 decision legalizing abortion, in June 2022 reactivated an 1849 Wisconsin law that conservatives interpreted as banning abortion. Abortion providers ceased operations in the state out of fear of violating the ban. Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit days after the U.S. Supreme Court decision challenging the ban’s validity. He...