Thousands of protesters gathered at the Wisconsin State Capitol to protest President Donald Trump on Saturday. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

People across Wisconsin joined “No Kings” day protests held in cities across the U.S. Saturday, with thousands of protesters marching in the streets of Madison and Milwaukee. 

The protests took place on the same day as a military parade held in Washington D.C. on President Donald Trump’s birthday and the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army and in the wake of the Trump administration’s escalated response to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions in Los Angeles. 

‘We will fight joyfully’: Thousands march through downtown Madison to protest Trump 

Thousands of people crowded into downtown Madison Saturday afternoon joining the nationwide “No Kings” protests against the administration of President Donald Trump. 

Protesters waved American flags right side up and upside down (a traditional signal of distress), as well as LGBTQ pride flags, Mexican flags and Ukrainian flags. Signs called for equality, criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement and  compared Trump to dictators of the past. The crowd included trapeze artists, people in drag, Madison protest regulars the “Raging Grannies,” a 15-foot Statue of Liberty puppet and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia). 

The protest started on UW-Madison’s east Campus Mall, where the Women’s March hosted a “kick out the clowns” event. There, Madison resident Amanda G., who declined to give her last name, did hand stands on the grass next to a sign stating “hand stand against facism.” 

“When people engage in a struggle against facism, you need calm, focus and concentration,” she said, adding that those same qualities  are required for holding a hand stand as long as she could. 

A nearby group of protesters performed a skit featuring giant paper mache heads of Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin debating how to start a dictatorship before they were surrounded by about 15 dancers dressed like the Statue of Liberty. 

When  the protesters began marching from the campus toward the Capitol,  hundreds of people were still flowing in the opposite direction  down State Street.  The combined crowd came together and headed  up the street towards the Capitol as onlookers cheered from the sidewalks. 

Madison police observed the marchers as they gathered at the Capitol from a rooftop across the street.

Cindy Reilly, a Sun Prairie resident who had joined the crowd on the mall, watched and chanted from the patio of a State Street bar. Reilly said the budget bill currently being moved through Congress by Republicans was her biggest reason for protesting on Saturday, saying Republicans are defunding programs that help people who are struggling while funding rich people.

“It’s important for people to tell Trump and Republicans we don’t like what they’re doing,” she said. 

When the crowd reached the Capitol square, Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, emceed a series of performances and speeches.

“We will fight joyfully, we will fight peacefully, in these streets for our democracy” Ramos said.

Georgia Sen. Rafael Warnock, who was in Wisconsin to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s annual convention in the Wisconsin Dells this weekend, spoke from the protest stage and  highlighted the assassination of a Minnesota Democratic lawmaker Saturday morning, the deployment of U.S. troops against protesters in Los Angeles and the detainment of U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) at a Department of Homeland Security press conference this week. 

Warnock said that he often talks about the value of nonviolent protests, but it’s not protesters who are being violent. 

“I have said that to the activists,” Warnock said. “But somebody needs to say that to the Trump administration.” 

Throughout the first six months of the Trump administration, people have regularly called for more forceful opposition from elected Democrats. Warnock acknowledged those calls, while saying it will take work from people inside and outside the halls of power to fight Trump’s unpopular policies. 

“People like you are asking people in positions like mine to speak up,” Warnock said. “I’m going to do that, but we must work on the outside and the inside.” 

Protests wrap around multiple city blocks in Milwaukee 

More than  12,000 people  marched in the No Kings Day protest in Milwaukee, packing  Cathedral Square Saturday afternoon. Elderly people and military veterans, parents with young children and Milwaukee residents of all ages  turned out to denounce what some event speakers described as a fascist and authoritarian Trump administration. 

Most of the crowd gathered on  the grass at the center of the square in front of  a large stage while others stood off to the side in the shade. Law enforcement kept a low key profile during the protest, helping direct traffic and watching from rooftops. Several drones flew over the crowd throughout the protest, including some which legal observers believed were operated by law enforcement due to their size, complexity and because they seemed to land on the rooftops occupied by police.

For nearly an hour, the crowd listened to a procession of speakers including  local activists, community organizers and a retired U.S. attorney. Speakers expressed the grievances of the chanting, cheering crowd about the military parade being held in Washington, D.C.,  the deployment of active duty U.S.troops on American soil, immigration raids  and attacks on the judicial system including the arrest of Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan, as well as threatened cuts to reproductive and gender affirming health care, attacks on workers rights, and the ongoing mass slaughter of civilians in Gaza. The crowd observed a moment of silence for Minnesota Democratic legislative leader Melissa Hortman who was the victim of a targeted assassination Saturday in what appeared to be a politically motivated attack.  

The protest march proceeded  east towards Lake Michigan and  past Museum Center Park, winding back into the downtown area to pass the federal courthouse, and restaurant-lined streets before returning to Cathedral Square. 

The march stretched for several city blocks. There was no evidence of property destruction or clashes with police , and counter protesters were nowhere in sight. 

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Just hours after Minnesotans learned that Democratic House leader Melissa Hortman had been assassinated, right-wing influencer Collin Rugg, who has 1.8 million followers on X, posted a report that hinted that she’d been killed because of a recent vote on ending undocumented adults’ ability to enroll in MinnesotaCare, a subsidized health insurance for the working poor.

Mike Cernovich, another right-wing influencer who has 1.4 million followers on X, took Rugg’s post and amped it up, but in the “just asking questions” style of many conspiracy theories:

“Did Tim Walz have her executed to send a message?”

They were deeply ignorant about the MinnesotaCare issue.

Walz and Hortman — who was instrumental in passing legislation allowing undocumented people to sign up for MinnesotaCare as speaker of the House in 2023 — negotiated a compromise with Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature to end eligibility for adults, but keep it for children. They did so to win necessary Republican support in the 67-67 House to pass a state budget. Without it, state government would have shut down on July 1.

Both Hortman and Walz signed the compromise agreement in mid-May. This week, Hortman spoke tearfully about how difficult the vote was for her, but she was bound to vote yes on the issue because of the prior agreement.

Rugg and Cernovich’s posts were shared widely and just the start of the disinformation.

Once law enforcement sources began revealing a suspect, right-wing influencers ran with an insignificant detail: That Vance Luther Boelter was a “Walz appointee.”

Like many states, but even more so here, Minnesota is home to hundreds of nonpartisan and bipartisan boards and commissions, which are composed of thousands of people who typically win the appointment by simply volunteering. There are currently 342 open positions on Minnesota boards and commissions. Boelter was appointed to the Workforce Development Council by Walz’s predecessor Gov. Mark Dayton and reappointed by Walz.

It was the equivalent of calling a Sunday school volunteer an “appointee of the bishop.”

No matter, the Murdoch media machine, specifically the New York Post, had their headline: “Former appointee of Tim Walz sought….”

Cernovich had his greasy foil hot dog wrapper and began constructing a hat:

“The Vice President candidate for the Democrat party is directly connected to a domestic terrorist, that is confirmed, the only question is whether Tim Walz himself ordered the political hit against a rival who voted against Walz’s plan to give free healthcare to illegals.”

Walz had no such plan. He had signed an agreement to end eligibility for undocumented adults.

Joey Mannarino, who has more than 600,000 followers on X, was more crass:

“Rumor has it she was preparing to switch parties. The Democrats are VIOLENT SCUM.”

It was a ridiculous “rumor.” One of the last photos of Hortman alive was an image of her at the Democratic-Farmer-Labor’s big annual fundraising event, the Humphrey-Mondale dinner, which took place just hours before her assassination.

No matter, Cernovich wanted his new friends in federal law enforcement to act:

“The FBI must take Tim Walz into custody immediately.”

Finally, fresh off his humiliating defeat at the hands of President Donald Trump, world’s richest man Elon Musk quote-tweeted someone again falsely alleging Hortman was killed by “the left”  and added:

“The far left is murderously violent.” 

The suspect’s “hit list,” according to an official who has seen the list, comprised Minnesotans who have been outspoken in favor of abortion rights. CNN reported that it also included several abortion clinics, which doesn’t sound like the work of “the left.”

Right-wing influencers marred Hortman’s death and smeared Walz on a pile of lies.

In a different, saner world, they would be humiliated and slink away. But the smart money is that during the next moment of national crisis and mourning, they will again lie for profit.

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.

Speaker emeritus Rep. Melissa Hartman talks to colleagues during a special legislative session Monday, June 9, 2025 at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

House Democratic-Farmer-Labor caucus leader Melissa Hortman, who was among the most influential Minnesota elected officials of the past decade, died on Saturday morning after a man impersonating a police officer shot her in her Brooklyn Park home, Gov. Tim Walz said.

Hortman’s husband was also shot and killed, the governor said.

Walz, appearing emotional at a press conference in the north metro, said they were killed in an apparent “politically motivated assassination.”

“Our state lost a great leader, and I lost the dearest of friends,” Walz said. “(Hortman) was a formidable public servant, a fixture and a giant in Minnesota.”

Democratic Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were also shot multiple times earlier in the evening in their Champlin home. Walz said they were out of surgery, and that he’s “cautiously optimistic they will survive this assassination attempt.”

Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said Champlin law enforcement received a call at about 2 a.m. that a person shot Hoffman and his wife.

Brooklyn Park Police Department Chief Mark Bruley said his officers assisted with the Champlin shooting; a sergeant suggested checking in on Hortman’s home. They live about five to eight miles away from each other. When Brooklyn Park police officers arrived at Hortman’s home, they encountered a person who was dressed like a police officer who “immediately fired at them,” Evans said. Police exchanged gunfire with the person, but they were able to escape.

The shooter is still at large, and Brooklyn Park is under a shelter-in-place order. Hundreds of police officers and SWAT teams are conducting a manhunt for the person, officials said.

On Saturday afternoon, authorities asked for the public’s assistance in locating Vance Luther Boelter, the suspect connected with the shootings. They said he was last seen Saturday morning in Minneapolis wearing a dark long-sleeved shirt and a cowboy hat.

Bruley said that when they arrived at Hortman’s home, they saw a police SUV with its lights on and saw the suspect was impersonating a police officer.

In the SUV, police found a “manifesto,” with a list of lawmakers and other officials on it. Hortman and Hoffman were on the list. According to an official who has seen the list, the targets included prominent pro-choice individuals in Minnesota, including many Democratic lawmakers who have been outspoken about their policy positions.

Hortman, who has two adult children, was first elected to the Legislature 2004 and served as House Speaker from 2019-2024. She lost two elections before winning, which she said gave her an understanding of what it takes to win swing seats and hold them.

Her speakership will be remembered as among the most consequential in recent Minnesota political history. With Walz and Senate GOP Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, she guided the state through the pandemic before helping Democrats achieve a trifecta in the 2022 election.

During the 2023 legislative session, she helped bridge the wide gulf between moderates and progressives in her caucus to achieve a historic legislative agenda. Democrats codified abortion rights in law; invested in education, including universal schools meals, as well as transportation and housing; created paid family leave; legalized cannabis; and passed gun control laws.

The encomiums poured in Saturday. “There is no greater champion for Minnesota’s working people than Melissa Hortman,” said Joel Smith, President and Business Manager of LIUNA Minnesota and North Dakota, the laborers union.

Hoffman was elected in 2012 and is known for his work on human services.

The Reformer sat down with Hortman at the Capitol on Thursday to discuss the 2025 session, which ended on Monday.

During his remarks Saturday, Walz denounced political violence and said the people involved in the shooting would be caught and held responsible.

“This was an act of targeted political violence. Peaceful discourse is the foundation of our democracy. We don’t settle our differences with violence or at gunpoint,” Walz said.

According to a source close to Walz, the governor spoke to Vice President J.D. Vance about the targeted attacks in Minnesota. The governor thanked the vice president for the coordination between federal law enforcement and Minnesota public safety officials.

House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, who worked closely with Hortman in the Legislature to negotiate a state budget this year, said she was horrified by Hortman’s murder.

“I am horrified by the evil attack that took place overnight, and heartbroken beyond words by the loss of Speaker-Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark,” Demuth said in a statement.

 

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.

Thousands march through Portland, Oregon, after speeches from local officials and organizers as part of No Kings Day demonstrations nationwide on Saturday, June 14, 2025. (Photo by Alex Baumhardt / Oregon Capital Chronicle)

With the nation’s capital hosting multimillion-dollar celebrations and a parade marking the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary and President Donald Trump’s birthday Saturday, huge No Kings demonstrations blanketed the country from coast to coast to protest the president’s actions that have left thousands without jobs and diminished government services.

Mac Farish, who was visiting Topeka, Kansas, from Portland, Oregon, said she felt joy to see hundreds of people attend a No Kings rally in a red state.

“A lot of people here might be lifelong Republicans, but we’re standing here together because there is a line where tyranny shows up,” Farish said.

Protesters rallied at more than 1,500 sites across the country as of mid-afternoon, according to No Kings national organizers, with 600 more events scheduled.

In Arizona, Phoenix resident Cindy Mendoza, 31, came to the Tempe rally with the colors of the Mexican flag painted on her face. She said that her family’s legal status in the country is mixed.

“We’re here to speak for those who can’t speak,” she said. “We love America. We love your people.”

Mendoza said that the recent immigration raids have created fear in her community.

“Some friends in construction … they went to the gas station and they got picked up,” Mendoza said. “They were up early heading to work, they stopped by the gas station to get gas and water, and they were taken.”

Repeated bursts of drenching rain Saturday didn’t deter thousands of Hoosiers amassing at the Indiana Statehouse.

“Our immigrants are not getting their due process and people are being snatched out of their schools and workplaces. We’re worried that equality is not (getting) attention too,” said Rhonda Clair. “We just want people to be treated with dignity and respect and we’re not seeing that.”

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen issued a state of emergency and activated the National Guard ahead of No Kings events, citing the reaction to recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

Still, around 2,000 people turned out in Lincoln, Nebraska, for a peaceful protest, and at least 11 other cities were part of the demonstrations statewide.

Trenton Morales, 17, said he came out to protest against the workplace immigration raid in Omaha this week and other similar raids nationally.

“My grandpa recently got deported,” Morales said. “That’s one reason why I’m out here.”

E.J. Martinez Elementary teacher Jennifer Lopez carried a sign in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that read, “I’m here for my students who are living in fear.”

“It’s not only about immigration,” she said. “It’s also trans students; students who have gay parents. It’s all women. We’ve had families who are worried about bringing their kids to school when this all started. We’ll see what it’s like when the school year starts again. I’ve had kids who have had a lot of anxiety about the rights for trans kids being taken away.”

What does she tell them?

“We just have to have hope and to fight,” she said.

In Colorado, Emily Baxter, a 23-year-old Boulder resident, said she also joined the Denver protest to object to the Trump administration’s extreme immigration enforcement actions.

“I am very, very mad about all of the people being taken off of the street and those who are going to work and not coming home and the children who are losing their parents and losing their livelihood,” Baxter said.

The protest comes after multiple demonstrations in Denver against deportation efforts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including a march to an ICE detention center in Aurora on Monday and a large gathering at the Capitol on Tuesday evening. Law enforcement deployed smoke and pepper balls against a group of protesters that marched near the interchange of Broadway and Interstate 25 on Tuesday and made 18 arrests related to the demonstration.

Thousands rallied peacefully in downtown Anchorage, Alaska, along with at least 18 communities across the state. Community advocates gave speeches calling to protect democracy, equal rights and due process, followed by a march a few blocks to the Park Strip where a Juneteenth celebration was kicking off.

Tessa Gonzalez, a pediatrician, attended the demonstration of thousands at the Statehouse grounds in Columbia, South Carolina. Her 8-year-old daughter and potential cuts to Medicaid moved her family to join the rally. The child has a rare genetic mutation and requires a specialized wheelchair.

“My daughter, 100% depends on Medicaid to provide the medicine, equipment — everything that she needs to lead a happy, healthy life,” Gonzalez said. “So it’s essential.”

Protesters in Georgia evoked the name of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. during a rally near the Gold Dome in Atlanta with signs that read, “Our only king is MLK Jr.!!!” 

Anna Yousaf, an infectious disease doctor who works with vaccines at the CDC, told the Georgia Recorder she came out to oppose Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who she said is undermining public trust in vaccines to deadly effect.

“Disinformation used to be coming from non-governmental sources,” she said. “Now, RFK Jr. is hijacking political organizations like the CDC, like the FDA, and using our name brand, if you will, to spread disinformation. And so people who would ordinarily go to a CDC resource for trusted information, now they’re going to get disinformation from the health secretary of the United States.”

“If he succeeds in his crusade to undermine vaccine confidence and restrict access, we will see thousands of people die, mostly children,” she added.

Massive crowds crossed the Broadway Street bridge in Little Rock, Arkansas, where 15 demonstrations were expected across the state.

“June 14, Flag Day, is when President Donald Trump is holding a military parade in the nation’s capital, wasting tens of millions of taxpayer dollars as a birthday gift to himself while his administration defies checks on his power, undermines our civil rights and tries to strip away essential benefits from veterans, seniors, hungry children and others,” Indivisible NWA, the organizers of the No Kings protest in Fayetteville, Arkansas, said in a press release.

The No Kings protests top off a week of mostly nonviolent demonstrations building around the country in response to ICE raids and in solidarity with Los Angeles, where Trump sent troops in defiance of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom. U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, was forcibly removed and handcuffed by federal authorities Thursday during Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference in Los Angeles. Thousands gathered across the city for demonstrations opposing ICE and Trump policies anyway.

In Maine, Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree attended a rally in York, handing out red roses to marchers. “People are angry. They want to know what to do, want to do something. They want to fight back,” she said.

Craig Carscallen from Lyman, Maine, said, “I hope it influences our elected officials, if they want to get reelected.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis posted one message on social media Saturday, not mentioning the crowd outside his office but rather Army anniversary. “As Americans, we carry the sacred duty to remember, to reflect, and to protect the freedoms that generations of our countrymen have fought to secure.”

Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, appeared in Tallahassee and posted video comments on social media. “I’m standing on the Old Capitol steps as hundreds and hundreds of Americans are here showing up today to tell Donald Trump, ‘No Kings in America.’ We’re going to fight for our Constitution, fight for our democracy,” she said.

Saturday’s protests coincided with the 250th anniversary of the Army. A military parade marked the occasion in D.C., where critics have blasted the parade’s cost and optics as Congress weighs the budget reconciliation package that proposes massive cuts to safety net programs.

Earlier this week, Trump said that protests at the Army parade “will be met with very heavy force.”

The U.S. Capitol Police told States Newsroom that protesters were arrested outside the Capitol late Friday after they pushed down bike rack barriers around the building and began running for the Rotunda steps. Veterans for Peace, a group that organized the demonstration, posted photos of the arrests on social media and of several demonstrators wearing “Veterans Against Fascists” t-shirts. Among those arrested was an elderly Vietnam veteran using a walker, Capitol Police confirmed.

Niki Kelly and Whitney Downard of Indiana Capital Chronicle, Ainsley Platt of Arkansas Advocate, Sara Wilson of Colorado Newsline, Corrine Smith of Alaska Beacon, Julia Goldberg of Source New Mexico, Sherman Smith of Kansas Reflector, Ross Williams of Georgia Recorder, Cassandra Stephenson of Tennessee Lookout, Juan Salinas of Nebraska Examiner, Michael Moline of Florida Phoenix, Jessica Holdman of South Carolina Daily Gazette, Jerod MacDonald-Avoy, Gloria Rebecca Gomez and Emily Holshouser of Arizona Mirror, and Jane Norman of States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau contributed to this report.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump stand together at the end of the U.S Army parade on June 14, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

This report has been updated.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Saturday celebrated his 79th birthday reviewing a parade of tanks, armament and marching soldiers gathered in the nation’s capital for the Army’s 250th anniversary celebration, amid heightened political tensions across the country and anti-Trump “No Kings” protests.

The nearly 90-minute parade cycled through the Army’s history, beginning with soldiers marching in Revolutionary War uniforms and ending with symbols of the Army’s future, including small robots carrying the U.S. Army flag and new West Point cadets about to be sworn in.

Massive tactical vehicles rolled down Constitution Avenue one after another. Sherman tanks used by the military in World War II were followed by early 2000s-era howitzers and HIMARS, or High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, that can launch newly developed precision missiles that reach up to 310 miles away, according to the Army.

HIMARS were among the weaponry the U.S. provided to Ukraine’s forces under President Joe Biden.

“The Army keeps us free,” Trump said in brief remarks at the conclusion of the parade, after Vice President J.D. Vance introduced him. “Every other country celebrates their victories, it’s about time America did too. That’s what we’re doing tonight.”

But tragedy and deep conflict marked the hours and days leading to the event. Early Saturday, a Minnesota Democratic state lawmaker and her husband were assassinated in their home in an “act of political violence,” said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, while another legislator and his wife were shot and gravely wounded.

Late Friday, dozens of veterans breached barricades around the U.S. Capitol in protest of the Army parade. On Thursday, a Democratic U.S. senator from California was handcuffed and forcibly removed from a press conference with the head of Homeland Security.

Last weekend, multi-day protests erupted in Los Angeles after immigration raids swept across several Home Depots, typically where undocumented day laborers search for work, as Trump’s mass deportations continue to be carried out.

And the president is in a legal standoff with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, after Trump ordered more than 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to be sent to LA without Newsom’s consent and Newsom sued. The Guard troops remained in LA Saturday after a federal appeals court froze a lower court’s order directing Trump to return command to Newsom.

The city saw a large protest Saturday afternoon, according to local media reports. A curfew of 8 p.m. Pacific time remained in effect, Mayor Karen Bass’ office said in a morning press release.

And on Saturday night, the Salt Lake City Police Department said it was investigating a shooting that occurred during a “No Kings” protest and officials urged people to disperse the demonstration.

‘Yeah, I wanna be there’

In Washington, spectators from across the country began lining barriers along the Army parade route hours before the event’s start.

Scott Aiken, 59, of Athens, Georgia, drove 10 hours for the parade. Aiken, who told States Newsroom he voted for Trump in the last three presidential elections, said he wanted to support the anniversary of the Army.

“My father was in the Army, and my wife’s father was in the Army, and we’re a supportive military family. And when I heard the parade was going to happen, I thought, ‘Yeah, I wanna be there.’ So we drove up from Athens on Thursday, and did the Capitol tour yesterday, and here we are.”

When asked about the timing of Trump’s birthday, Aiken said “whether it’s on his birthday or not, I don’t care. That’s not the purpose of this.”

Members of Trump’s Cabinet and other allies on social media posted well wishes and greetings. “Wishing a very happy birthday to our incredible President Donald J. Trump!” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted on X. Trump said on his social media site, Truth Social, “President Putin called this morning to very nicely wish me a Happy Birthday, but to more importantly, talk about Iran,” referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin and a recent attack by Israel on Iran’s military leaders.

Not everyone at the parade was wishing Trump well. Angelica Zetino, 24, and Shoshauna Brooks, 27, from Rockville and Gaithersburg, Maryland, stood out among the crowd as they carried signs protesting Trump’s administration, particularly recent immigration raids.

The pair began their morning at a “No Kings” protest in Rockville before heading to D.C.

“They (the administration) just want to put on a show, which is OK, but we’re here to support the people that can’t have a voice for themselves,” Brooks said.

Tom Moore, 57, of the District of Columbia,, took issue with Trump’s words this week that any parade protesters would be met with force. 

“That’s not acceptable. He didn’t say violent protesters. I wasn’t planning on coming down here before that,” said Moore.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on June 10 that any protests at the military parade “will be met with very heavy force.”

Rallies opposing Trump

Throughout Saturday, protests unfolded across the U.S. bearing the theme “No Kings” to decry Trump’s military display on his own birthday and the mass immigration arrests.

The “No Kings” national organizers said in a press release that as of 2 p.m. Eastern, protesters had rallied at more than 1,500 sites across the country, with 600 more events scheduled through the rest of the day. “No Kings” was organized by liberal groups and labor unions including Indivisible, the American Federation of Teachers, American Civil Liberties Union, Public Citizen, MoveOn, 50501, Interfaith Alliance, Stand Up America, Common Defense, Human Rights Campaign and League of Conservation Voters.

Approximately 60 protesters were arrested outside the U.S. Capitol Friday evening, according to the U.S. Capitol Police. Veterans for Peace, a group that organized the demonstration, posted photos of the arrests and of several demonstrators wearing “Veterans Against Fascists” t-shirts.

Police said 75 people peacefully demonstrated outside of the U.S. Supreme Court.

“A short time later, approximately 60 people from the group left the Supreme Court so as a precaution, our officers began establishing a perimeter,” a police spokesperson told States Newsroom in an email. “A few people pushed the bike rack down and illegally crossed the police line while running towards the Rotunda Steps. Our officers immediately blocked the group and began making arrests.”

Among those arrested was an elderly Vietnam veteran using a walker, Capitol Police confirmed.

Two mules and a dog

A trickle of red “Make America Great Again” hats and apparel displaying support for the Army intermingled as supporters shuffled into the parade grounds Saturday afternoon.

The parade featured soldiers from every division, 150 vehicles, 50 aircraft, 34 horses, two mules and one dog, at a price tag in the tens of millions of dollars, according to the Army.

Among the vehicles and equipment that rolled down Constitution Avenue between 15th and 23rd streets were Abrams tanks, first used in 1991 for Operation Desert Storm; and 9,500-pound titanium M777 lightweight Howitzers that fire 105-pound shells up to 24 miles and are currently in use on Ukraine’s battlefields.

Military aircraft that could be seen above Washington in ceremonial flyovers, from AH-64 Apaches, UH-60 Blackhawks and CH-47 Chinooks. Army Golden Knights parachuted down to the White House South Lawn, red smoke in their wake, to present Trump with a folded flag. The president has never served in the military.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser expressed concern in the weeks leading up to the parade about the heavy tactical vehicles causing damage to the city’s streets. The Army Corps of Engineers had installed large steel plates ahead of the event to reinforce the roads.

The parade coincided with the Army’s 250th birthday celebration festival, which has been in the works for a year.

The parade appears to have been a late addition to the festivities. According to documentation obtained by local D.C. news outlet WTOP, America250 applied on March 31 for a permit for the parade. A May 21 press release about the parade from America250, which describes itself as a “nonprofit supporting organization to the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission,” celebrated Trump’s role in the event.

Trump wanted a military parade during his first term, but the idea was dismissed because of cost, NBC reported at the time.

The last time the U.S. staged a celebratory military parade was in 1991 under former President George H.W. Bush to recognize the victory in the first Gulf War.

Immigration enforcement and military 

The big Army celebration early in Trump’s second term came as the president has intertwined the U.S. military with his immigration policy, as shown in LA and elsewhere.

In his first days in office, Trump signed five executive orders that laid out the use of military forces within the U.S. borders and extended other executive powers to speed up the president’s immigration crackdown.

He’s directed the Department of Defense to use a naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to detain migrants. Military planes have been used in deportations – rather than standard commercial airplanes.

In April, he signed a proclamation creating a military buffer zone that stretches across Arizona, California and New Mexico just north of the U.S.-Mexico border. It means any migrant crossing into the United States would be trespassing on a military base, therefore allowing active-duty troops to hold them until U.S. Border Patrol agents arrive.

National and military experts have raised concerns that giving control over the Roosevelt Reservation to the military could violate the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law that generally prohibits the military from being used in domestic law enforcement. A statutory exception in the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, is the Insurrection Act of 1807.

Trump has considered invoking the Insurrection Act, but has stopped short. The Insurrection Act is an existing presidential authority that would grant the president access to use all federal military forces, more than 1 million members.

The Insurrection Act has only been invoked 30 times, and is typically focused on an area of great civil unrest that has overwhelmed law enforcement.

The last time a president used it was 1992, during the Los Angeles riots, after four white police officers were acquitted in the brutal beating of Black motorist Rodney King.

In calling in the National Guard in LA last week, Trump cited a rarely used statute known as the protective power –  10 U.S.C. 12406 – to use National Guard troops to protect federal personnel and property, but not for broad law enforcement functions.

Joint Finance Co-Chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said at a press conference ahead of the meeting that he would tell advocates who wanted the 60% rate that the state budget has to be “right-sized” and “affordable.” (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

After many delays, the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee met Thursday evening to approve its plan for K-12 education spending that included a 5% increase to special education funding for schools and its $1.3 billion tax plan that targets retirees and middle-income earners. 

Lawmakers on the powerful budget-writing committee went back and forth for nearly three hours about the plans with Republicans saying they made significant investments in education and would help Wisconsinites while Democrats argued the state should do more for schools. 

Over $220 million for special education, no additional general aid for schools

The committee approved a total of about $336 million total in new general purpose revenue for Wisconsin’s K-12 schools — only about 10% of Gov. Tony Evers’ proposed $3.1 billion in new spending.

Special education costs will receive the majority of the allocation with an additional $220 million that will be split between the general special education reimbursement and a subset of high-cost special education services. 

The special education reimbursement funding includes $77.2 million in the first year of the budget, which will bring the rate at which the state reimburses school districts to an estimated 35%, and $151 million in the second year bringing the rate to an estimated 37.5%. It’s well below the $1.13 billion or 60% reimbursement for special education that Evers had proposed and that advocates had said was essential to place school districts back on a sustainable funding path. 

Education advocates spent the last week lobbying for the additional funding — and warning lawmakers about the financial strain on districts and the resources the students could lose. Ahead of the meeting Thursday, Democrats and a coalition of Wisconsin parents of students with disabilities spoke to the urgent need for additional investment in the state’s general special education reimbursement rate. 

“Everywhere we’ve gone in the state of Wisconsin, whether it’s rural school districts, urban school districts, whether it’s school districts that have passed referendums and those that haven’t, they all say the same thing — 60% primary special education funding is absolutely necessary for our schools to succeed,” Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) said at the press conference.  “You can see that we have had a cycle of referendum throughout Wisconsin, and that cycle has to end.”

The special education reimbursement peaked at 70% in 1973, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum. After falling to a low of 24.9% in 2015-16, the state’s share of special education costs has been incrementally increasing with some fluctuations. 

The Republican proposal represents, at maximum, about a 5% increase to the current rate by the second year. According to budget papers prepared by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the investment lawmakers made last session was meant to bring the rate to 33.3%, but because it is a sum certain rate — meaning there was only a set amount of money set aside, regardless of expanding costs  — the actual rates have been 32.4% in 2023-24 and an estimated 32.1% for 2024-25.

Joint Finance Co-Chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said at a press conference ahead of the meeting that he would tell advocates who wanted the 60% rate that the state budget has to be “right-sized” and “affordable.”

“The governor’s budget has always [had] reckless spending that the state can’t afford, and so we’re choosing to make key investments and priorities, and these investments today will be some of … the largest investments you’ll see in the budget,” Born said. 

The committee also added $54.5 million to bring the additional reimbursement rate for a small number of high-cost special education services to 50% in the first year of the budget and 90% in the second year. The high-cost special education program provides additional aid when costs exceed $30,000 for a single student in one year. According to DPI, in 2025 only 3% of students with disabilities fell in the high-cost special education category.

In 2024-25, the program only received $14.5 million from the state. Evers had proposed the state invest an additional $18.5 million. 

Republicans on the committee insisted that they were trying to compromise and making a significant investment in schools — noting that education likely will continue being the state’s top expenditure in the budget. Meanwhile, Democrats spoke extensively about the need for higher rates of investment, read messages from superintendents and students in their districts and said Republicans were not doing what people asked for. 

“High needs special education funding only reaches about 3% of Wisconsin’s special education students,” Rep. Deb Andraca said. “You’re getting a couple good talking points, but you’re not going to get the kinds of public schools that Wisconsin kids deserve.” 

During the committee meeting, Sen. Julian Bradley (R-New Berlin) criticized Democrats for saying they would vote against the proposals. He said Democrats would vote against any proposal if it isn’t what they want. 

“If we all voted no, we would return to base funding, which was good enough by the way for the governor last budget because he signed it,” Bradley said. “There would be no increases, but instead we’ve introduced a motion which will increase funding.”

McGuire responded by saying he wouldn’t vote for a proposal that is “condemning the state to continuing the cycle of referendum,” which he said Republicans are doing by minimally increasing the special education reimbursement rate and not investing any additional money in general aid. 

“Wisconsinites across the state are having to choose between raising their own property taxes” and the schools, McGuire said. 

The Kenosha School District, which is in McGuire’s legislative district, recently failed to pass referendum to help reduce a budget deficit. School leaders had said a significant increase in the special education reimbursement would prevent the district from having to seek a referendum again.

“They had a $19 million budget gap, and if this state went to 60% special education funding, you know roughly where we promised we would be, that would’ve gone down to $6 million,” McGuire said, “…$13 million of those dollars are our responsibility. That’s been our failing, and we should live up to that.”

“What are we arguing about? We’re putting more money in,” Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point) said.“I would think that when this gets to his desk, Evers would sign this because it is a bigger increase than any of what he proposed while he was state superintendent.”

McGuire said the investment in the high-cost special education is also good, but only applies to a small number of schools and students. 

“You know, what would benefit all school districts in the state and will benefit all students who need special education? The primary special education reimbursement rate, which you put at 37.5[%], but everyone says should be at 60[%].” McGuire said. “I don’t think this is your intention, but I don’t believe that we should be exchanging children who need our assistance for other children who need our assistance. Why can’t we just help all of the kids who need our help?”

Rep. Tony Kurtz (R-Wonewoc) said that the increase for high-cost special education will have a significant impact on some schools, especially smaller ones, and students, even if it’s not many of them.

“To get 90% for them is huge for any of our rural districts. One child, which deserves an education, can break the bank for our small districts,” Kurtz said. “Is it perfect? No, it’s not perfect, but we have to stay within our means.” 

Committee co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) echoed Kurtz’s comments saying that there will be “a lot of districts that are going to be awful happy about that.” 

“They’ve been worried about sometimes, a student moves into the district, and it’s of incredibly high, high needs,” Marklein said.

The committee also declined to include additional general aid for school districts. Republicans on the committee said  there was already a $325 per pupil increase to districts’ revenue limits built into the budget from last session due to Evers’ partial veto. The increase gives districts the option to raise property taxes, though it doesn’t require them to, and does not include state funding for the increase.

Sen. Romaine Quinn (R-Birchwood) told lawmakers not to forget about the increase, saying the “insulting part about that is that everyone gets it.

There are schools that don’t need that,” Quinn said. “72% of my districts spend less than [the schools of] my Democratic colleagues on this panel.” 

School Administrators Alliance Executive Director Dee Pettack, Wisconsin Association of School Boards Executive Director Dan Rossmiller, Southeast Wisconsin School Alliance Executive Director Cathy Olig and Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance Executive Director Jeff Eide said in a joint letter reacting to the proposal that lawmakers failed to hear the voices school leaders, parents and community and business leaders.

“While the $325 revenue limit authority exists, it is not funded by the state. Instead, it is entirely borne by local property taxpayers. In addition, school districts will not see the requested support in special education,” the leaders stated. “Because of the lack of state support in these two critical areas, school districts will be left with no choice but to ask their local taxpayers to step up and shoulder the costs locally, regardless of their ability to pay.” 

The leaders said the state was investing minimally and school districts will continue to struggle to fund mandated primary special education programs.

State Superintendent Jill Underly called the Republicans’ proposal “irresponsible” in a statement Friday and said it “puts politics ahead of kids and disregards educators and public schools when they need support the most.”

“Our public schools desperately need and deserve funding that is flexible, spendable and predictable,” Underly said. “This budget fails to deliver on all three. Once again, those in power had an opportunity to do right by Wisconsin’s children — and once again, they turned their backs on them.” 

The committee also approved $30 million for the state’s choice school programs, $20 million for mental health services in school, $250,000 for robotics league grants, $750,000 for a single school, the Lakeland STAR Academy (a provision that Evers vetoed last session), $100,000 for Special Olympics Wisconsin, $3 million for public library system aid, $500,000 for recovery high schools and $500,000 for Wisconsin Reading Corps. 

Over $1 billion in tax cuts 

Republican lawmakers also approved tax cuts of about $1.3 billion for the budget Thursday evening after 8 p.m., including changes to the income tax brackets and a cut for retirees in Wisconsin.

Born and Marklein said the cuts would help retirees and other Wisconsinites afford to stay in the state.

“These are average, hard-working people in our state that will benefit from our tax cut,” Marklein said. 

The income tax change will allow more people to qualify for the second tax bracket with a rate of 4.4% by raising the qualifying maximum income to $50,480 for single filers, $67,300 for joint filers and $33,650 for married-separate filers. This will reduce the state’s revenues by $323 million in 2025-26 and $320 million in 2026-27. 

People currently eligible for the second tax bracket include: single filers making between $14,680 and $29,370, joint filers making between $19,580 and $39,150 and married separate filers making between $9,790 and $19,580.

Wisconsin Republicans have been seeking another significant tax cut since the last budget cycle when Evers vetoed their proposals. After the rejection, Republicans started to narrow their tax cuts proposals to focus on retirees and a couple of other groups with the hope of getting Evers’ approval. When negotiations on this year’s budget reached an impasse, Evers had said he was willing to support Republicans’ tax goals, but he wanted agreements from them, too. 

The proposal also includes an exclusion from income taxes for retirees that would reduce the state’s revenues by $395 million in 2025-26 and $300 million in 2026-27.

“This isn’t a high-income oriented kind of thing,” Marklein said during the meeting. “It just helps a lot of average people in the state of Wisconsin, so it’s very good tax policy.” 

Democrats appeared unimpressed with the tax proposal. 

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau told lawmakers that the income tax change would lead to about a maximum impact of $253 annually for married joint filers, $190 annually for single filers and $127 for married separate filers. 

“So roughly $5 a week for a married couple,” McGuire said. 

McGuire said that Democrats just have the perspective that Wisconsin could invest more in the priorities that residents have been expressing. 

“We heard from a lot of people about what they need,” McGuire said in reference to school districts. “We also know that as they’ve been attempting to get those funds they’ve had to go to referendums across the state, and… we think that’s harming communities and making it more difficult for people. As a perspective, we believe that that’s a good place to invest in dollars.” 

Tech colleges

The committee also voted to provide additional funding for the Wisconsin technical colleges, though it is, again, significantly less than what was requested by Evers and by the system.

The proposal will provide an additional $13 million to the system. This includes $7 million in general aid for the system of 16 technical colleges, $2 million in aid meant for grants for artificial intelligence, $3 million for grants for textbooks and nearly $30,000 to support the operations of the system. 

Evers had proposed the state provide the system with $45 million in general aid

Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) said the differences between Evers’ proposals and what Republicans offered were stark. 

“We hear my GOP colleagues talk about worker training all the time and this is their opportunity to make sure that our technical colleges have the resources that they need to make sure that we are training an adequate workforce,” Johnson said, noting that the state could be short by 1,000 nurses (many of whom start their education in technical colleges) by 2030. “I’ve never had an employer complain about having an educated workforce, not once, but I have heard employers say that Wisconsin lacks the skill sets and educational skills they need. It seems my Republican colleagues are more concerned with starving our institutions of higher education, rather than making sure they have the resources they need.” 

Testin said the proposal was not a cut and that Republicans were investing in technical colleges. 

“We see there’s value in our technical colleges because they are working with the business community … getting students through the door quicker with less debt,” Testin said. “Any conversations that this is a cut is just unrealistic. These are critical investments in the technical system.” 

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Demonstrators protest outside a downtown jail in Los Angeles following two days of clashes with police during a series of immigration raids on June 8, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

A federal appeals court late Thursday quickly froze a lower court’s order that President Donald Trump return command of 4,000 California National Guard troops to Gov. Gavin Newsom and set a schedule to more fully hear the closely watched case in the coming days.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued a one-page order pausing implementation of U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer’s order issued just hours earlier that called for Trump to relinquish control of the National Guard by noon Friday.

The panel asked the state to file a written brief by 9 a.m. Pacific time Sunday and scheduled oral arguments for Tuesday.

The short 9th Circuit order did not explain the panel’s rationale for granting an administrative stay of Breyer’s order.

The Trump administration appealed and asked for the stay shortly after Breyer issued his ruling Thursday evening. Breyer said the mobilization was illegal and there were limits to Trump’s statutory authority.

Breyer’s order was “an extraordinary intrusion on the President’s constitutional authority as Commander in Chief to call forth the National Guard as necessary to protect federal officials, as well as his statutory authority … to mobilize state National Guards into federal service to quell riotous mobs committing crimes against federal personnel and property and to protect federal officials’ ability to enforce federal law,” the administration said. “The order also puts federal officers in harms’ way every minute that it is in place.”

The state opposed the request for a stay, saying Breyer’s “extensive reasoning” had shown the state would be irreparably harmed without court intervention.

Trump called up the state National Guard on Sunday in response to protests in Los Angeles over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Newsom opposed the deployment, saying it would only make the situation more volatile.

It was the first time in 60 years that a president called up a state’s National Guard over the objection of the governor.

California sued the administration to block the federalization, arguing that the president unlawfully took control of the state National Guard.

Breyer took the state’s side in his Thursday evening order, saying Trump violated the 10th Amendment to the Constitution that protects states’ rights.

A voter shows identification to an election judge. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — A Massachusetts federal judge on Friday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order requiring states to mandate voters in federal elections provide documents proving their citizenship, ruling the measure would cause a significant burden to states and potentially harm voters.

U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper issued a preliminary injunction stopping the order from going into effect while the case is pending.

“There is no dispute (nor could there be) that U.S. citizenship is required to vote in federal elections and the federal voter registration forms require attestation of citizenship,” Casper wrote in her order.

“The issue here is whether the President can require documentary proof of citizenship where the authority for election requirements is in the hands of Congress, its statutes … do not require it, and the statutorily created (Election Assistance Commission) is required to go through a notice and comment period and consult with the States before implementing any changes to the federal forms for voter registration,” Casper, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, continued.

Democratic attorneys general in 19 states brought the suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts after the president signed the order in March.

The order directed the federal Election Assistance Commission, which distributes grants to states, within 30 days to start requiring people registering to vote to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport or state-issued identification that indicates citizenship.

Harm to voters

In her decision to grant the preliminary injunction, Casper said the states had shown that without a pause on the executive order, “citizens will be disenfranchised.”

“The States have also credibly attested that the challenged requirements could create chaos and confusion that could result in voters losing trust in the election process,” she said.

The executive order posed risks of irreparable harm to states “for at least three reasons,” Casper wrote.

She noted the cost and resources to implement the executive order, the federal funding states are at risk of losing if they do not comply with the order and discouraging voter participation.

Chilling voter participation is “the antithesis of Congress’s purpose in enacting the (The Uniform Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act) and the (National Voter Registration Act),” she wrote.

The order also would prohibit the counting of absentee or mail-in ballots that are received after Election Day. States set their own rules for ballot counting and many allow those that arrive after Election Day but postmarked before.

The states that brought the challenge to the executive order are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.

Crackdown on immigrants

The executive order that Trump signed in March was a culmination of his rhetoric on the campaign trail about people without U.S. citizenship voting in federal elections and his vow to crackdown on immigration and carry out mass deportations.

Republicans have sought to use the rare examples of people without citizenship voting in federal elections, and local governments that allow immigrants to vote in local elections, to tighten restrictions on voter registration.

U.S. House Republicans in April passed a bill to codify the executive order.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, conducted an analysis of election conduct from 2003 to 2023 and found 29 instances of noncitizens voting, just more than one per year.

William Garcia, Joe Zepecki and Devin Remicker are the candidates for Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair. (Photos courtesy of candidates)

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin will meet over the weekend with the task of choosing a new party chair who will lead the party into 2026 when crucial elections are at stake. 

Those elections include a nominally nonpartisan state Supreme Court race that could nonetheless lock in a liberal majority past 2028, campaigns for competitive congressional seats, the governor’s race and state legislative races that will determine the balance of power in the state Legislature, where Democrats have a chance to flip both the Senate and Assembly for the first time in over a decade.

The state party has been led by Ben Wikler since 2019. He’s credited with helping transform the party through fundraising and with being instrumental in many wins including electing Gov. Tony Evers to a second term, gaining back ground in the state Legislature and flipping the ideological balance of the state Supreme Court, though the party has also had some close losses under him with President Donald Trump winning the state last November and U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson winning a third term in office. The state party had started considering who could fill the position earlier in the year when Wikler campaigned for Democratic National Committee chair in February, though some thought he’d remain after he lost.

Wikler announced in April that he wouldn’t be running for another term as chair, saying it was time to “pass the torch.” 

Three candidates with slightly varied visions are running for the position: Devin Remiker, a party insider from Reedsburg who has worked in leadership roles in the party since 2018; Joe Zepecki, a Milwaukee-based Democratic communications professional, and William Garcia, the 3rd Congressional District chair and co-chair of the La Crosse County Democratic Party.

Party insider wants to fine-tune party 

Remiker said he initially wasn’t sure he would have the energy to be chair but that Susan Crawford’s victory in her state Supreme Court race changed that. 

“It was just a really good reminder of why we do this and why it’s important, so I sort of switched gears pretty quickly,” Remiker said, adding that some people were encouraging him to run. 

Remiker, a 32-year-old New Rivers native, most recently served as a senior advisor for the state party. He is currently on a leave of absence during his campaign. He first joined the Democratic Party of Wisconsin as a staffer in 2018 and has worked up from there. He served as a senior advisor to the Biden-Harris and then Harris-Walz presidential campaigns in 2024 and was executive director of the party for a few years starting in 2021. 

Remiker is responsible for some of the communications campaigns that the party launched during competitive elections, including the “People v. Musk” campaign, which highlighted Elon Musk’s involvement in trying to win the state Supreme Court seat for Schimel and his work to slash funds and staffing of federal agencies.

Remiker said he thinks the state party and candidates are in a “fantastic” spot, but that “there’s always room to improve” and “to figure out how we take things to the next level” and that’s what he’d work on as chair.

Despite committing to remaining neutral in a state party chair race during his DNC chair campaign, Wikler reversed course and endorsed Remiker in a column in late May. He said at a WisPolitics event that he changed his mind because he wanted people to know about the work that Remiker’s done for the party and is making calls on his behalf. Wikler said that he thinks there will be a “burgeoning blue wave” in 2026.

“My decision to endorse was I knew that I thought he’d do a phenomenal job and I also knew that I thought he’d been working behind the scenes and people would not know what a role he played in so many of our fights unless I said something,” Wikler said.

Remiker is also endorsed by U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, State Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine), State Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) and former state party chairs. 

Remiker said that other than his father being in a union, he didn’t grow up in a very political family, but he caught the politics bug “pretty quickly” in college at UW-La Crosse and during an internship with the special election campaign for now-state Rep. Steve Doyle (D-Onalaska).

“I collected nomination signatures. I knocked on doors, and I just love talking with people,” Remiker said. The loss of his dad’s job when a nuclear facility in Kewaunee was decommissioned also pushed him towards politics. 

“It was a knife in the heart [to] this sort of rural county and area,” Remiker said. “This facility provided a lot of good paying benefits, providing union jobs, and then, to add insult to injury, I find out afterwards that they essentially are offering people their jobs back… as independent contractors with no benefits, a fraction of the pay that they were receiving before… I was mad as heck.”

Remiker said it was at that point that he decided to see where a career in politics would lead and it has shaped his mission for the party: ensuring it fights for working people.

“Our biggest failure from 2024 is that people lost faith in us as the party that fights for the working class, and I really want to center that in my work,” Remiker said.

Remiker noted there is “tremendous” opportunity for Democrats with fair state legislative maps and backlash against the Trump administration that is motivating people to become involved with the party, but the challenge will be keeping people engaged through 2026. He said there is more the party can do to ensure its engaging authentically across the state in all communities and to help Democrats in rural communities feel like they don’t have to hide. 

“We just have to make sure that when there is energy, we are running towards it and bringing it with us, so that we can point it like a laser at the fights that we need to win next year,” Remiker said. “We have a lot of fights on our hands.”

Remiker said he wants 72 county strategies that are unique to each county party. He said he’d work towards that by building on the neighborhood teams that exist by creating regional teams, which would be tasked with going county by county to better understand the needs of county parties, college Democrats, community groups and others. 

“There’s no one size fits all solution to how we sort of support each county, but we really have to get into the weeds…,” Remiker said. “This county they need some help building their membership base, because they might be struggling to have enough folks to sustain their level of work. This county might need some additional help opening a year round permanent office in their county. This county might need funding to get a trailer that they can build a parade float on. I think there’s more room to provide resources. I just think that we need to make sure that we are listening, engaging and have a more consistent feedback loop with our leadership on the ground.” 

Fundraising, he said, would also play a critical role for making that work. With his previous work for the party, Remiker noted that he has already helped do that work and would continue it as chair. 

“Wisconsin’s unique success [in fundraising] comes down to relationships of trust built with donors large and small over time, and that requires being honest about losses and proud of your victories,” Remiker said. “I’ve been lucky enough having worked with Ben so closely to have been part of sort of building that trust over time — helping to write the memos, do the calls. I’ve raised millions of dollars for the party myself.” 

Democratic comms professional says he offers fresh POV 

Zepecki, a 43-year-old from Milwaukee, is pitching himself as having the fresh perspective the party needs to win more elections, saying he’ll work to revamp the organization’s communications. 

“Two things can be true at the same time… Ben and his team have done a remarkable job. We are the envy of 49 other state parties. At the same time, it is true that Democrats have a lot of work to do,” Zepecki said in an interview. “Our brand is busted. Our messaging isn’t landing. We have work to do, and you shouldn’t need more evidence of that than the occupant of the White House, than the fact that Ron Johnson is still representing Wisconsin in the U.S. Senate.” 

As he decided to run, Zepecki said he took the time to consult a broad swath of people and entered with supporters who he said “speak to the broad coalition that is our party — rural, urban, suburban, north, south, east, west, gay, straight, progressive [and] moderate.” He said it was clear there was an “appetite” for some changes to the party.

Zepecki is endorsed by several state lawmakers, including Reps. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), Clinton Anderson (D-Beloit), Darrin Madison (D-Milwaukee), Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) and Sen. Jamie Wall (D-Green Bay). He also has support from former Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Linda Honold and several local party chairs including Kelly Gallaher of the Racine County party, Nancy Fisker of the Lafayette County party and Matthew Mareno of the Waukesha County party. 

Some advocates have also given their support including Angela Lang, the executive director of Black Leaders Organizing Communities (BLOC), Shawn Phetteplace, an organizer and campaign strategist with small business advocacy organization Main Street Alliance and Kristin Lyerly, a Green Bay OB-GYN who advocates for reproductive rights and ran for Congress in 2024.

Zepecki appeared critical of Wikler for his endorsement of Remiker in a video posted to Facebook in May, saying the current chair had assured him he wouldn’t make an endorsement and that he “abandoned” that commitment. He declined to speak further on the issue in the Examiner interview. 

“I thought that was vitally important because it is the members of our party — the folks who knock the doors and plant the signs and make the phone calls — who should decide this election and know that their voice is paramount in this process,” Zepecki said in the video.

“If you don’t change the people who are at the top are, I don’t believe we’re going to see the changes and improvements we need to see,” Zepcki added. “We need new leadership and a fresh perspective. That’s what I’m offering.”

Since 2016, Zepecki has run a communications company and worked for organizations such as Protect Our Care Wisconsin. Prior to that, he also worked on federal and state campaigns including Democrat Mary Burke’s 2014 run for governor, a U.S. Senate campaign in Nebraska and a presidential primary campaign in Nevada. 

Zepecki said he wants to build better infrastructure for the party’s communications and has been saying there are “five Ms” that should guide the work: message, messenger, mood, medium and masses.

“Spoiler alert: there is no magic set of words in just the right order that unlocks your vote… You’re better off having a young person communicate with a young person, better off having someone who’s a union member communicate with a union member. We need more messengers…,” Zepecki said. “We can’t just assume that our elected officials are going to be the only ones communicating our values, and when those messengers are out there, I think they need to match the mood of the country… It is virtually impossible to get ahead, and people are pissed about that. When we do not match the mood of the electorate, people tune us out. There are more ways to reach people than ever before, and we need to be more intentional about using more of that.” 

Zepecki said this approach will help the party, which he said has troubles communicating what it’s for and against. When it comes to what Democrats are for, Zepecki said that communicating the party as one of “economic opportunity and fairness” is essential. 

“Whether they’re building trades union members and apprentices, whether it’s public sector workers, the Democratic Party is the party of working people. When we get back to communicating that every single day, I think people are going to respond favorably,” Zepecki said, adding that this “doesn’t mean that we don’t stand up for our trans brothers and sisters. It does not mean that we do not protect civil rights.”

Zepecki said with the “big, pivotal year” of 2026 upcoming, he would want to use the latter half of the year to build up the party’s power and infrastructure to be prepared to win. He said the approach would vary region to region but it comes down to communicating that people are welcome in the party and it will work for them. 

“It is required that we ask for and earn the support of people who have voted Republican in the past, and we do so without making them swear out a blood oath to be Democrats for the rest of their life. That is the way you win elections in a 50-50 state like Wisconsin,” Zepecki said. “We share many of the frustrations that people who vote for Donald Trump and Republicans have when it comes to how our economy is working. We do a better job communicating that we welcome folks into our party, don’t like the chaos, division and the overreach of what the Trump administration is doing, and we’re going to be just fine next year.” 

Zepecki said his time serving as a political appointee in the federal Small Business Administration (SBA) in the Obama administration is the role that has prepared him the most for serving as chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. He said he was tasked with leading a team of civil servants across 68 districts, and he compared it to Wisconsin’s 72 counties.

“There are different realities and challenges and context depending on where you are…You have to earn trust. You have to win trust, and you have to lead and communicate internally as well as you communicate externally,” Zepecki said. “When you do that, I think you can improve organizations. We certainly did that at SBA — incredibly, incredibly proud of the two and a half years I spent there — and that’s the type of approach that I would bring to this.”

Garcia wants to strengthen county parties 

The basis of Garcia’s campaign is strengthening the state’s county parties. He told the Examiner that he has seen first-hand the “dangerous disconnect between the state party and county parties” that exists. 

Garcia, who is originally from San Antonio, Texas, said he grew up “very, very political,” having helped Democrats since he was a teenager. He and his wife moved to La Crosse about seven years ago after she secured a job at the UW branch campus and when they arrived he said he almost immediately looked to get involved at the local level. He is also an educator currently working as an instructor at Western Technical College and having worked in K-12 education for 17 years prior.

“‘Hey, I live here now. How can I help?’” Garcia said, he asked when he walked in the La Crosse County party office. “I started working from there.” Over the last several years, Garcia said the party has grown strong and robust.

“We get a lot of work done,” Garcia said, noting that La Crosse recently elected its most progressive mayor and city council ever, and just overturned the 96th state Assembly seat, which had been represented by Republicans for about 70 years. 

“We were able to flip that through hard work,” Garcia said, adding that new fairer maps helped also. “That was because of the strong infrastructure that we built at the county,” Garcia said. “What I want to do is replicate that all across the state.”

Garcia has support from Democrats in his local area, including Rep. Tara Johnson (D-Town of Shelby) of the 96th district, Rep. Jill Billings (D-La Crosse), La Crosse Mayor Shaundel Washington-Spivey, as well as the chair of the Jackson and Richland County parties and John Stanley, who serves as the progressive caucus chair.

Garcia said some of the changes the party needs to make may appear small but are important for helping the party reach as many people as possible. 

“Logistical things like packets with turf maps that make sense…,” Garcia said. “If you actually live in the area, you know, there are problems with how it’s put together, and it slows down our door knockers. Things like we’re not doing enough talking to our rural voters, and we’re not doing enough to talk to our farmers.”

As chair, Garcia said he would want to ensure that county parties have the resources, tools, training and infrastructure so that they can spend all their time reaching out to voters. He said that he also wants to ensure that county parties have a bigger seat at the table when it comes to organizing and messaging decision making. 

“County parties are the experts in what is happening in their own communities, and we need to be listening to them in ways that we’re not right now about the best way to really reach out and talk to voters in those areas,” Garcia said. “The organizing strategy that works in Madison is not the organizing strategy that works best in Pierce County, and the messaging that works wonderfully in Milwaukee is not necessarily the strategy that’s going to work best in Menominee.” 

Garcia added that this would apply to other local organizing organizations, including the state party caucuses such as the Latino, Black and rural caucuses. 

Garcia said strengthening the county parties is essential towards winning the trifecta in 2026.

“It’s the county parties that are really the hub of activity for electing our Assembly candidates and our state Senate candidates. It is the county parties where we find our door knocking volunteers. It’s the county party where we find the infrastructure the candidates need to tap into in order to mount an effective campaign, and so the stronger we can make these county parties, the more likely we are to flip those Assembly and Senate seats that we need to flip.” 

Garcia said it is also important to get to the areas where it’s difficult to win as well.  

“Even if an Assembly seat goes 65% for Republicans and is a very difficult win for a Democrat, we still desperately need those votes for our statewide office holders.”

Garcia said that people don’t get elected by being against something so Democrats needs to be proactive, illustrating what they are doing for people, their vision for government and, specifically, honing in on a message of “protecting Wisconsin families.”

“That’s what Democrats are trying to do from child care, where we’re trying to make it actually affordable to pay for child care, trying to expand Medicaid so that pregnant women have the care that they need to take care of their babies, all the way up to protecting Medicare and Social Security,” Garcia said. “It is Democrats that are consistently passing laws — or preventing Republicans from passing laws — to help our people.” 

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Flags of the 11 Native American tribes of Wisconsin in the Wisconsin State Capitol. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

At a state prison in Stanley, Wisconsin, participants in a Native American-focused group take part in traditional cultural practices.

According to Ryan Greendeer, executive government relations officer with the Ho-Chunk Nation, Stanley Correctional Institution’s chaplain recently reached out to the tribe with requests for the group’s programming.  

The chaplain wanted teaching materials, as many materials in the current selection were old. He said that men learn songs and Native language with the materials, as well as history and culture.

The chaplain said the men are eager to learn more about all things Native, according to Greendeer. He was also seeking a larger pipe bowl and poles to help build a new lodge. The pipe has a history of ceremonial use.  

The prison’s annual report for fiscal year 2024 mentions a Native American smudge and drum group. The report says that each month, several religious organizations and volunteers come in to hold various services, and the list includes “Sweat Lodge (Native American).”

There were 79 American Indian or Alaska Native people at Stanley Correctional as of April 30, according to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC). 

Gov. Tony Evers’ budget recommendations for corrections included a tribal liaison position for the DOC. The liaison would be responsible for working with Native American tribes and bands on the agency’s behalf.

Each of the governor’s cabinet agencies has already set at least one staff member to be a tribal liaison. The governor’s proposal would create a new position, set aside for the job of tribal liaison for corrections. 

Evers also proposed creating a director of Native American affairs in the Department of Administration and tribal liaisons in several other agencies, including the Department of Justice and Department of Natural Resources. 

“Gov. Evers’ commitment has been—and always will be—to ensure that the state maintains strong partnerships with the Tribal Nations by recognizing and respecting the needs and perspectives of the Nations and Indigenous people,” Britt Cudaback, communications director for the governor’s office, said in an email.

The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee removed the proposed positions in May, along with hundreds of other items proposed by Evers. 

“Unfortunately, [Evers] sends us an executive budget that’s just piles full of stuff that doesn’t make sense and spends recklessly and raises taxes and has way too much policy,” Joint Finance Committee co-chair Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said in May.

Tribes already work with the state, including the Oneida Nation, which is located in northeast Wisconsin. The tribe told the Examiner that it continues to work with the state to make sure incarcerated Native Americans have proper access to culturally based practices and resources. 

With a tribal liaison that can help navigate the corrections system, the tribe’s efforts to make sure resources are provided and distributed appropriately make better progress, the tribe said. 

“These efforts will continue whether or not a tribal liaison position exists, although the impact on incarcerated individuals who use culturally based resources may be greater as efforts take longer,” the tribe said. 

The Oneida Nation said it “supports tribes’ efforts to ensure incarcerated members maintain access to appropriate support services as provided by tribal, state, and federal laws.”

Maggie Olson, communications coordinator for the St. Croix  Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin, said the tribe is not located close to the corrections facilities where their tribal members are incarcerated. This is a significant barrier, she said. 

“It would be nice to be able to have a better handle on where our people are within the system to ensure they are having their spiritual and cultural needs met,” Olson said in an email to the Examiner. “It is much easier (at this time) to meet religious needs (think Christianity) within the correctional system than it is to meet the spiritual and cultural needs of Native Americans within the system.”

A great first step would be having a dedicated person who can build relationships with incarcerated Native Americans, she said.

In a statement, the tribe said the liaison “would be a start to developing and enhancing tribal input with State initiatives.” The tribe said it wants to work with the DOC on access to supportive services in county jails. 

Olson said she met DOC Secretary Jared Hoy at an event on June 5 and that they had a great discussion about the potential benefits of a tribal liaison at the agency.

“With the uncertainties surrounding federal funding, we are hopeful state funding will be increased to tribal programs in Wisconsin,” Olson said.

The tribe’s criminal justice work involves partnership with the DOC. In the St. Croix Tribal Reintegration Program, case managers work with tribal members before and after their release from prison or jail, the tribe said. The program has a memo of understanding with the Department of Corrections, providing guidance for working relationships between tribal reentry and probation.

All of the governor’s cabinet agencies have consultation policies that say how they will work with tribal governments. Agencies and tribal elected officials have annual consultation meetings to talk about programs, laws and funding that may affect the tribe. 

Discussions at the annual state-tribal consultation tend to be about high-level policy, but they can delve into specifics, Greendeer said. He gave an example related to tribal members who are on probation or parole. 

“For example, a topic that keeps coming up is re-entry programming for enrolled tribal member offenders,” Greendeer said. “A concern discussed at a recent consultation was that probation/parole officers might not consider tribal norms/values, citing a lack of eye contact in saying a client is disengaged or disconnected.”

The co-chairs and vice-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee did not respond to requests for comment. DOC communications director Beth Hardtke did not answer a question from the Examiner about the responsibilities and goals of the tribal liaison position.

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Left to right, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul are sworn in before the start of a hearing with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee at the U.S. Capitol on June 12, 2025 in Washington, D.C.  (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Three Democratic governors from states that leave immigration enforcement to the federal government said Thursday they oppose President Donald Trump’s decision to send more than 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines into Los Angeles without the consent of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The lengthy and tense U.S. House hearing where the trio appeared — highlighted by a shouting match among members and accusations of Nazi tactics — came as the nation’s capital prepared for a major military parade and Trump’s birthday Saturday, along with thousands of “No Kings” protests across the country.

In Los Angeles, a U.S. senator was tackled and removed from an immigration press conference by federal law enforcement agents accompanying Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The governors, whose states have submitted an amicus brief to a lawsuit by Newsom challenging Trump, said the decisions to bring in the military should be made by local officials.

“It’s wrong to deploy the National Guard and active-duty Marines into an American city over the objection of local law enforcement, just to inflame a situation and create a crisis, just as it’s wrong to tear children away from their homes and their mothers and fathers, who have spent decades living and working in our communities, raising their families,” Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee.

The hearing with Govs. Pritzker, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Kathy Hochul of New York marked the second time House Republicans have called in leaders in blue states that have policies of non-cooperation with federal immigration officials in enforcement efforts. Those policies do not bar immigration enforcement from occurring.

Republicans brought in the mayors of Boston, Chicago and Denver in March.

The eight-hour hearing came after multi-day protests in Los Angeles sparked when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers began widespread immigration raids at Home Depots in their communities in an effort to carry out the president’s mass deportation efforts.

The governors stressed that the president’s decision to send in the National Guard set a dangerous precedent and posed a threat to democracy.

Republicans on the committee defended the president’s actions and instead accused the governors of violating federal law because of their state policies, dubbed as “sanctuary cities.” Immigration policy is handled by the federal government and states and localities are not required to coordinate with officials.

Shouting match over Noem

More than four hours into the hearing, video circulated of California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla being forcibly removed and handcuffed by Secret Service agents while trying to ask a question of Noem during a press conference in LA.

Democrats on the panel, such as Arizona Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari, slammed the video and raised concerns that a “sitting senator was shoved to the ground.”

It led to a shouting match, with Florida Democratic Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost asking the chair of the panel, James Comer of Kentucky, if the committee would subpoena Noem.

Comer said Frost was out of order and tried to move on.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was next in line for questioning, heckled Frost and said that Democrats “can’t follow the rules.” Comer eventually told Frost to “shut up.”

Pritzker said that he could not “believe the disrespect that was shown to a United States senator” who was trying to ask Noem a question.

“That seems completely irrational,” Pritzker said.

Democrats on the panel such as Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez and Dan Goldman of New York called for Noem to appear before the committee.

“Anyone with two eyes that can see, can see that was authoritarian, lawless behavior that no person in America, much less a senator conducting congressional oversight, should receive,” Goldman said.

‘People are living in fear’

The Democratic governors defended their immigration policies and criticized the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, pointing to ICE officers wearing face coverings to arrest immigrants.

“People are living in fear in the shadows,” Hochul said. “People can’t go to school, they can’t worship, they can’t go get health care. They can’t go to their senior center. What is happening has been traumatic.”

Several Republicans including Reps. Comer, Tom Emmer of Minnesota and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, took issue with comments by Walz at a commencement speech in May, in which he accused the president of turning ICE agents into a modern-day Gestapo, the official secret police of Nazi Germany.

Republican Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri said that Walz should apologize.

Walz said that as a former history teacher, he was making an observation about ICE tactics — such as wearing a face covering to arrest people — that were similar to those used by secret police.

The top Democrat on the panel, Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, defended Walz’s statement, and said that ICE is operating like a modern-day Gestapo.

Lynch pointed to the video of the international Tufts University student who was approached by masked men on the street and taken into a van for writing an op-ed in defense of Palestinian human rights.  

“ICE agents wearing masks and hoodies detained Rümeysa Öztürk and those of you who watched that, that abduction, when you compare the old films of the Gestapo grabbing people off the streets of Poland, and you compare them to those nondescript thugs who grabbed that student, that graduate student, it does look like a Gestapo operation,” Lynch said.

 

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., holds up an Elmo toy while the chamber debates a bill that would eliminate previously approved funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides grants to public radio and television stations, including the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS, which airs "Sesame Street." (Screen shot taken from House Clerk website livestream.)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House narrowly passed legislation Thursday that would revoke $9.4 billion in previously approved funding for public media, including National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, as well as foreign aid, though the bill’s future in the Senate amid a strict timeline is uncertain.

The 214-212 mostly party-line vote marks just the third time in several decades the House has approved a bill to claw back funding that lawmakers formerly agreed to spend. President Donald Trump sent the rescissions request that led to the House bill to the Republican-controlled Congress earlier this month.

Republican Reps. Mark Amodei of Nevada, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Nicole Malliotakis of New York and Mike Turner of Ohio voted against approving the bill along with all of the chamber’s Democrats.

Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon and New York Rep. Nick LaLota, both Republicans, switched from opposing to supporting the bill after Speaker Mike Johnson spoke with them on the floor as the vote was held open.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., contended during floor debate that pulling back the funding is the right place to start, but said the GOP will seek to do much more in the months and years ahead.

Scalise said PBS and NPR should have to compete against other media organizations without grant funding from the federal government.

“There is still going to be a plethora of options for the American people,” Scalise said. “But if they’re paying their hard-earned dollars to go get content, why should your tax dollars only go to one thing that the other side wants to promote? Let everybody go compete on a fair basis.”

Maine Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree said every state in the country would feel the impact of eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

“I rise today in strong opposition to the reckless attack on public media contained within this rescissions bill and millions of Americans who rely on and treasure their local public television and radio stations,” Pingree said.

Efforts to defund CPB, she said, were the result of Trump’s “agenda against the free press and his authoritarian desire to control the media.”

Public media would lose $1.1 billion

The seven-page bill would rescind all funding that Congress approved for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, a total of $1.1 billion.

CPB, which provides grants to public radio and television stations throughout the country, is one of the few programs that receives an advanced appropriation. So the funding elimination envisioned in the House bill would take effect starting on Oct. 1.

The legislation revokes more than $8 billion from several foreign aid programs run by the U.S. State Department or the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Florida Republican Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, chairman of the State-Foreign Operations Appropriations subcommittee, said during an interview Wednesday there were extensive talks between GOP lawmakers and the Office of Management and Budget before the Trump administration officially submitted this rescissions request.

But Díaz-Balart cautioned there would need to be substantial pre-negotiations ahead of any future rescissions requests for programs within his annual funding bill.

“This rescission package — which I’ve had communication with OMB on — if this passes, we can move forward,” he said. “Now, if you’re talking about a potential for future additional rescissions, that could potentially create a problem and tie the president’s hands when it comes to dealing with adversaries or helping allies.”

Díaz-Balart said that OMB officials hoping to make any additional rescissions requests on foreign aid would need to engage in “a level of coordination that is so detailed, so intense to make sure that nothing comes forward that could potentially hurt the president’s ability to really do the America First agenda internationally.”

Florida Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel, ranking member on the State-Foreign Operations spending panel, said during floor debate Thursday the bill was an attack on American values and posed a threat to national security.

“It’s not charity, it’s strategy,” Frankel said of foreign aid. “Don’t take my word for it, military leaders from both parties have warned us for years — if we fail to lead with soft power, we’ll end up paying in blood, bombs and more boots on the ground.”

“Cutting foreign assistance will deepen desperation, fuel extremism, push fragile societies toward collapse and when that happens we all pay the price,” she added. “Refugee crises surge, diseases spread, trade routes shut down, our troops and diplomats face greater danger and our homeland security is weakened.”

First of many requests

The House vote took place just one week after the Trump administration sent lawmakers the rescissions request, the first of many proposals the White House budget office plans to submit. 

The $9.4 billion cancellation proposal represents a small fraction of the roughly $6.8 trillion the federal government spends each year.

The recommendation said some of the foreign aid should be cancelled because it supported “programs that are antithetical to American interests and worsen the lives of women and children, like ‘family planning’ and ‘reproductive health,’ LGBTQI+ activities, and ‘equity’ programs.”

The rescissions request allows the Office of Management and Budget to legally freeze funding on the programs listed for 45 days while lawmakers decide whether to approve the recommendation as is, amend it, or ignore it.

The House and Senate must agree to approve the same rescissions bill before mid-July for the changes to take effect. Failure to reach a bicameral agreement before then would require the Trump administration to spend the funding and block the president from requesting the same cancellation for the rest of his term.

Rescissions requests are rare since Congress typically negotiates spending levels on thousands of federal programs in the dozen annual spending bills that are then signed by the president.

The first Trump administration proposed rescissions in 2018, but the bill never made it through the Senate.

The last time Congress actually approved rescinding funding was in 1992 during the George H.W. Bush administration, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

More action in the Senate

The Senate will need to take up the bill before mid-July if it wants to approve any of the spending cuts, though several GOP senators told States Newsroom during brief interviews Wednesday ahead of the House vote they may amend the package, which would require it to go back to the House for final approval before the 45-day clock runs out.

Rescissions bills come with a vote-a-rama in the Senate, giving Republicans and Democrats the chance to call up as many amendments as they want for a floor vote. The GOP holds a 53-member majority, so four or more Republicans opposing any element of the bill would likely lead to its removal.

Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she will give the rescissions bill “careful consideration.”

In a statement released earlier this month just after the White House sent the request to lawmakers, Collins wrote the committee would “carefully review the rescissions package and examine the potential consequences of these rescissions on global health, national security, emergency communications in rural communities, and public radio and television stations.”

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the State-Foreign Operations Appropriations subcommittee, said he’s mostly supportive of the rescissions request, though he didn’t rule out offering an amendment to restore full funding for the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, often called PEPFAR.

“I think I’ll be okay with most of it. I’m concerned about PEPFAR. I’ll have to look at that,” Graham said.

West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, chairwoman of the spending panel that oversees the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, said she’s planning to evaluate the bill once it arrives.

“We’ve got all these other things I’m thinking about. I haven’t even focused on it,” Capito said, referring to ongoing negotiations over the party’s “big, beautiful bill.”

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, said she’s going to “try to” ensure the Corporation for Public Broadcasting keeps its funding.

“I’m a supporter of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It’s a lifeline for many of my small, rural communities,” Murkowski said

Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran, a senior appropriator, said he’s “trying to figure out a strategy of how to deal with” both the foreign aid and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting provisions once the bill comes over from the House.

“I’m looking at both of them to see what the right outcome should be.”

‘The risk of living in a news desert’

Both PBS and NPR released statements following the House vote, pledging to do their best to keep their funding intact.

Katherine Maher, NPR president and CEO, wrote in a statement the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is essential to the organization.

“Americans who rely on local, independent stations serving communities across America, especially in rural and underserved regions, will suffer the immediate consequences of this vote,” Maher wrote. “If rescission passes and local stations go dark, millions of Americans will no longer have access to locally owned, independent, nonprofit media and will bear the risk of living in a news desert, missing their emergency alerts, and hearing silence where classical, jazz and local artists currently play.”

Paula Kerger, president and CEO at PBS, wrote in a separate statement the “fight to protect public media does not end with this vote, and we will continue to make the case for our essential service in the days and weeks to come.

“If these cuts are finalized by the Senate, it will have a devastating impact on PBS and local member stations, particularly smaller and rural stations that rely on federal funding for a larger portion of their budgets. Without PBS and local member stations, Americans will lose unique local programming and emergency services in times of crisis.”

Union members and supporters rally in Grand Park calling for the release of union leader David Huerta, who was arrested during an immigration enforcement action on June 9, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

A federal judge in California late Thursday ordered President Donald Trump to relinquish command of 4,000 National Guard troops the president called to help contain Los Angeles protests over immigration raids.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said Trump’s mobilization of the National Guard was illegal, and ordered the return of control to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had opposed the deployment. He said his order would go into effect noon Pacific time Friday, likely setting up an emergency appeal by the administration.

Trump’s “actions were illegal—both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” Breyer wrote.

He issued the 36-page order mere hours after an afternoon hearing at which he appeared skeptical that Trump’s order was lawful.

Breyer at the hearing appeared not to accept the Trump administration’s argument that obtaining consent from Newsom, a Democrat, was not a prerequisite to federalize the California National Guard.

Newsom has been backed up by Democratic attorneys general across the nation in the closely watched case.

Breyer noted the law Trump cited when mobilizing the troops requires the order to go through a state’s governor, but Trump’s order bypassed Newsom and went directly to the adjutant general of the California National Guard.

“I’m trying to figure out how something is through somebody if, in fact, you didn’t give it to him, you actually sent it to the adjutant general,” Breyer said. “It would be the first time I’ve ever seen something going through somebody if it never went to them directly.”

‘A constitutional government and King George’

U.S. Justice Department attorney Brett Shumate, who argued for the administration, said Newsom’s approval was not necessary for the commander-in-chief to call National Guard troops into service.

“There’s no consultation requirement, pre-approval requirement,” he said. “The governor is merely a conduit. He’s not a roadblock. The president doesn’t have to call up the governor, invite them to Camp David, ‘Let’s have a summit, negotiate for a week about what are the terms that we’re going to call up the National Guard in your state, what are the terms of the deployment?’”

The president alone can determine whether the conditions allowing for the federalization of the National Guard are met, Shumate said.

But Breyer, who was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton, said the president faced more limits on his authority than Shumate had argued.

“That’s the difference between a constitutional government and King George,” Breyer said.

Nicholas Green, who argued on behalf of the state, called the federal government’s argument “breathtaking in scope,” in part because the troops appear to be assisting in domestic law enforcement.

“They are saying, Your Honor, that the president, by fiat, can federalize the National Guard and deploy it in the streets of a civilian city whenever he perceives that there is disobedience to an order,” Green told Breyer. “That is an expansive, dangerous conception of federal executive power.”

Breyer seemed less opposed to Trump’s order to deploy 700 U.S. Marines to the area, noting those troops are not yet on the ground in Los Angeles and, as federal troops, were already under Trump’s command without needing to satisfy any other criteria.

Breyer’s order Thursday night did not direct any action regarding the Marines.

Pause requested

The judge, who is the brother of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, said he would rule quickly, possibly late Thursday, on California’s request for a restraining order to stop the deployment in Los Angeles.

Shuman requested that, if Breyer found in favor of the state, he should pause any restraining order while the federal government appeals.

Green said the state would “strongly oppose” such a pause because of the urgency of the situation in Los Angeles.

The city has seen days of protests starting on Friday over Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on workplaces. Trump ordered the National Guard to the area on Sunday, saying it was necessary to restore order.

Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass objected to the decision and have said it has caused more chaos and inflamed tensions.

Democrats’ amicus brief

The hearing on California’s request for an injunction came a day after 21 Democratic attorneys general and the Democratic governor of Kansas filed an amicus brief in the case backing up California.

Trump wresting control of a state National Guard sets a dangerous precedent that undermines National Guard missions, they said.

“National Guard troops fight fires, respond to hurricanes, protect their residents from flooding, and provide much-needed security,” they wrote. “By undermining states’ authority, unlawfully deploying the National Guard troops, and leaving the door wide open to deploy the Guards of every state, the President has made us all less safe. This Court should enjoin the federal government from continuing down this unlawful and perilous path.”

In addition to Kansas Gov. Laura Kelley, the attorneys general of Washington, Delaware, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Wisconsin and Rhode Island signed the brief.

President Donald Trump signs a Congressional Review Act resolution Thursday, with congressional Republicans looking on. Left to right are Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Rep. John Joyce of Pennsylvania, Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, Rep. John James of Michigan, House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. (Screeenshot from White House webcast)

President Donald Trump signed a Congressional Review Act resolution Thursday that revokes California’s authority to set tailpipe emissions standards, upending policy in California and 17 other states that tie their standards to that of the Golden State.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Democratic attorneys general in 10 other states immediately sued to block enforcement of the law. Through a process that allows Congress to undo recent executive branch rules, the law repeals a U.S. Environmental Protection Act waiver allowing California to set a schedule for emissions standards for cars and trucks.

Trump signed two other resolutions that repeal the state’s authority to ban sales of new gas-powered vehicles in the state by 2035 and to regulate emissions on heavy trucks.

At a White House signing ceremony, Trump said the law would allow greater consumer choice and lead to less expensive vehicles.

“Your cars are going to cost you $3,000, $4,000 less and you’re going to have what you want,” he said. “Again, you can get any car you want.”

Simple majority vote

The procedure used to pass the law was controversial because of the use of the Congressional Review Act, or CRA, which allows a simple majority vote in the U.S. Senate instead of the chamber’s usual 60-vote threshold.

Both the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office and the Senate parliamentarian ruled that the EPA waiver was not a rule and that the CRA could not be used. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune used the procedure anyway, and the measure passed 51-46.

The states suing over the law argued that process was illegal, saying that the CRA was “deemed inapplicable by every nonpartisan arbiter and expert who analyzed the question.”

“While all fifty States consented—through their Senators—to these expedited procedures for congressional disapproval of federal rules, no State consented to the CRA as a means for Congress to negate state rules,” the Democratic attorneys general wrote. “Nor would any State have done so.”

The states joining California in the lawsuit are Colorado, Delaware, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Vermont and Washington.

Clean Air Act

The federal Clean Air Act of 1970 generally prohibits states from setting their own air quality standards. But a section of the bedrock environmental law allows California, which had stringent environmental standards at the time the federal law was passed, to set its own standards.

While the other 49 states may not set their own standards, any state can adopt California’s standards as its own.

That means the law Trump signed Thursday has effects far beyond California’s borders, which the president noted.

“The federal government gave left-wing radicals in California dictatorial powers to control the future of the entire car industry, all over the country, all over the world, actually,” he said.

The law, which both chambers of Congress passed last month, applies to 17 states that follow California standards. In addition to those suing, those states are Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

From left to right, Chase Christie, development director for Alaska Solar LLC, Josh Craft, managing partner of Wasilla, Alaska-based Crafty Energy LLC, and Josh Shipley, owner of Alternative Power Enterprises in Ridgeway, Colorado, at the Holiday Inn Express on C Street SW in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, after meeting with staff of U.S. senators about preserving clean energy tax credits in the Republican budget reconciliation bill. (Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — Small business owners and community leaders from rural regions in Western states including Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Utah pressed lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week to preserve clean energy tax credits on the chopping block in the Republicans’ “one big beautiful” mega-bill, now in the Senate.

The suite of investment, production and residential tax credits enacted and expanded under the Democrats’ own big budget reconciliation bill in 2022, titled the “Inflation Reduction Act,” incentivized homeowners, car buyers, energy producers and manufacturers to invest in types of energy beyond fossil fuels, with the aim of reducing the effects of climate change.

The credits have spurred hundreds of billions in investment dollars in advanced manufacturing and production since 2022, and contributed to job creation, largely in states that elected President Donald Trump to a second term.

Small business operators and community leaders from rural and mountainous areas of the United States that have benefited from the boom in alternative energy sources say the campaign to end the tax credits will also cause job losses and cut options for consumers.

Solar projects in Alaska

Chase Christie, director of development for Alaska Solar LLC, said his company installs four to five large-scale solar projects per year in remote Alaskan villages and also fits and services smaller residential solar installations.

“They take a lot of planning, a lot of logistics,” Christie told States Newsroom in an interview Wednesday.

“For going into a remote village where there’s tundra, we might need to go there in the dead of winter so we can work on frozen ground,” he added. “Other places we won’t go until summer. So we have these large gaps in between these larger projects, and a company like ours absolutely relies on the residential installations to keep our workforce going.”

Christie, who met Tuesday with staffers for Alaska’s Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, said in January he let a handful of workers go and paused most new hiring.

“Our workforce is roughly half of what it usually is just because we’re not sure which direction things are going to go,” he said.

Christie was among a dozen small energy business owners, municipal government officials and nonprofit employees focused on energy options for low-income households who States Newsroom spoke to Wednesday.

A spokesperson for Sullivan said in a statement: “Senator Sullivan supports energy projects that lower costs for Alaska. The Senator and his team have been meeting with a number of Alaskans about energy tax credits. As we wait for text from the Senate Finance Committee, the Senator is working with his colleagues to ensure that the bill strikes the right balance between promoting stable and predictable tax policy, advancing projects that benefit Alaska, and addressing the need to reduce the federal deficit.”

Murkowski’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Elimination of tax credits

Senators are hashing out language for the massive Republican agenda bill that will extend and expand the 2017 tax law, costing roughly $3.8 trillion, and cut spending in other areas to offset the price tag.

A contingent of House Republicans, who have dubbed the tax credits the “green new scam,” won on accelerating the expiration of the energy tax credits and tightening restrictions on eligibility as a way to pay for individual and corporate tax cuts that Trump campaigned on.

The language in a section of the House bill, passed 215-214 on May 22, titled “Working Families Over Elites,” terminates the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Tax Credit, worth up to $3,200 for homeowners who make energy upgrades to their property.

Among the slate of other affected IRA tax credits, the House bill also speeds up the expiration of the Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit, a credit dating back decades that was updated in 2022.

The credit is available to taxpayers who invest in “energy property,” including solar installations to provide electricity and heat, fuel cells, small wind turbines, geothermal pumps, and other electricity-producing technologies. 

House Republicans wrote provisions to eliminate the credit for facilities placed into service after 2028 and end eligibility for projects that don’t begin construction within 60 days of the bill’s enactment.

The credit is worth up to 30% of the cost of the project, plus two bonus credits up to 10% each if the project includes mostly domestically produced material and if it’s located in an “energy community,” meaning a place where a coal plant has closed or where unemployment reaches a certain threshold.

The bill also repeals a taxpayer’s ability to transfer the tax credits as a way to finance a project, and introduces restrictions on foreign-made components that industry professionals say essentially makes the credit unworkable.

Critics point to the cost of the tax credits.

The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated, as of June 4, the elimination of the clean energy investment and production tax credits will save roughly $249 billion over the next decade.

Alex Muresianu, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, a right-of-center think tank that advocates for lower taxes, said Thursday in a new analysis that “The final House bill makes impressive cuts to the IRA green energy tax credits, but it does so in part by introducing more complexity.”

The group is advocating for senators to reduce the tax credit rates and make clearer complicated language, like the provision around “foreign entities of concern.”

Keeping on the heat during a Montana winter

But Logan Smith, weatherization program manager for the Human Resource Development Council in central Montana, argues the credits have been a lifeline for lower-income rural residents.

“If I can get solar panels on each of the clients’ homes, that means that their power is going to stay on in the middle of winter,” Smith said. “Because every winter we plan for losing power for about a week, that’s just something we grew up with. … But if we have solar panels, the power stays on, the heat stays on.”

Ralph Waters, owner of SBS Solar in Missoula, Montana, became emotional when talking about how an early termination of the tax credits could slow his business and result in having to lay off half his workforce.

He criticized the politicization of the tax incentives.

“Montana is deeply red, but it’s also a very practical place. And so green energy renewables becomes a taboo phrase somehow,” Waters said. “The practical energy needs are undeniable, and so if we can get past our disagreements about the phraseology and realize that it’s electrons, watts, and amps. And it’s cheaper.”

The offices of Montana GOP Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy did not respond to a request for comment.

Senator Alex Padilla, D-Calif.,  speaks at a Biden-Harris campaign and DNC press conference on July 18, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

Federal law enforcement officials forcibly removed and handcuffed U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla at a Thursday press conference in Los Angeles by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem amid multi-day protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

The scuffle between law enforcement, including an officer wearing a jacket with an FBI logo, and a United States senator represented a stark escalation of tensions after President Donald Trump ordered 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to LA. His action followed major protests sparked by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials ramping up immigration raids.

Before Padilla was physically removed, Noem said that the Trump administration would continue its immigration enforcement in LA.

“We are not going away,” Noem, the former governor of South Dakota, said. “We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”

Padilla, 52, a member of the Senate since 2021, when he was appointed to replace former Vice President Kamala Harris, and then elected in 2022, tried to ask Noem a question and was rushed by federal law enforcement.

“I’m Sen. Alex Padilla and I have questions for the secretary,” he said as four federal law enforcement officers grabbed him and shoved him to the ground. “Hands off.”

The DHS wrote on social media that U.S. Secret Service officers thought “he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately.”

DHS said that after the press conference, Noem and Padilla had a 15-minute meeting. His office did not respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment.

In a statement, Padilla’s office said the California senator was in LA for congressional oversight into the federal government’s operations in LA and across California.

“He was in the federal building to receive a briefing with General Guillot and was listening to Secretary Noem’s press conference,” his office said, referring to General Gregory M. Guillot, commander of United States Northern Command.

“He tried to ask the Secretary a question, and was forcibly removed by federal agents, forced to the ground and handcuffed. He is not currently detained, and we are working to get additional information.”

The incident drew swift condemnation from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

“Watching this video sickened my stomach, the manhandling of a United States Senator, Senator Padilla,” Schumer wrote on social media. “We need immediate answers to what the hell went on.”

On the Senate floor, Schumer said the video of Padilla “reeks of totalitarianism.”

He called for a full investigation so that “this doesn’t happen again.”

Padilla gave remarks after the incident, with The Associated Press. He did not take questions. 

“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they’re doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community,” Padilla said. 

The Eau Claire County Jail | Photo by Frank Zufall/Wisconsin Examiner

Silver O. Jenkins, 29, who was found unresponsive in the Eau Claire County Jail on the morning of March 12, 2023, had by choice eaten very little in the 27 days leading up to  her death. She appeared ”emaciated,” raising concerns among jail and medical staff. Still, no interventions were taken to save her life because the sheriff’s office didn’t believe it had the authority for drastic measures and instead  continued to offer her food and water and monitor her condition.  

The Eau Claire County in-custody death investigation report on Jenkins, prepared by the St. Croix Sheriff’s Office, was released Monday June 9.

St. Croix County Sheriff Scott Knudson had told the Wisconsin Examiner back in July 2024 that the death investigation had been completed in August 2023, but the report was not available through a  records request pending a review by the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ).

On Monday, Eau Claire County Sheriff Dave Riewstahl issued a press release saying that  the DOJ had “declined to bring charges.”

The investigation included interviews with the sheriff, the jail’s security services captain Travis Holbrook, four shift sergeants, 17 correctional officers, Christ Hill with the Eau Claire County Department of Health Services and five employees of Wellpath, an agency providing medical and mental health services to the jail.

“The Wisconsin Department of Justice concluded criminal charges were not appropriate in this matter,” said Riewestahl.

Jenkins was booked into jail on February 9, 2023, for criminal trespass and held on a $500 cash bond. By Feb. 18, Jenkins had refused 22 meals.

On Feb. 19, 2023, due to difficulty breathing, Jenkins was transferred to the Mayo Clinic, where she received two liters of IV fluids and was returned to jail on Feb. 20, 2023.

On February 28, 2023, Jenkins again requested to go to the hospital due to chest pains, but the request was denied.

On March 3, Jenkins was moved to a special needs cell at the suggestion of a clinical social worker, where there are better facilities for showering.

On March 5, Jenkins asked to see a nurse and go to a hospital, and again her request was denied.

The nurse attending Jenkins on March 5 said it was challenging to obtain heart rate and blood pressure because Jenkins would not sit still.

On March 8, Jenkins made a court appearance via a laptop held by correctional officer Craig Berg, who told the investigators on that date Jenkins looked malnourished. Berg later told Sgt. Phil  Field, the day-shift sergeant, that he didn’t think Jenkins would be physically able to make a court appearance the following week.

On March 8, Field sent out an email that states, “I witnessed her in her cell a few moments ago and observed that she is very emaciated from the last time I personally saw her. It appears that most of her hair is gone and her overall physical appearance does not look well. Her log indicates that she did eat some the past 2 days but mostly refused for many days before.”

The investigation revealed that Holbrook, who was in charge of the jail, took no action because he thought the situation was under control and the medical staff was monitoring her condition.

Riewestahl said he had asked Hill whether his office could use a Chapter 51 mental health detainment to address the feeding issue with Jenkins.

Hill told the investigators that Chapter 51 emergency detentions cannot be used for medical conditions, although it was Riewestahl’s opinion that Jenkins was also experiencing mental health issues.

Correctional officer Ryan Addis had the 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift starting March 11. He said he passed by Jenkins’ cell in the early morning hours of March 12, between 1-2 a.m., and Jenkins was lying on the ground naked but moving. He didn’t enter the cell because in a previous situation, he did try to help her, and she lunged at him and he noted she had previously slept on the floor naked.

Addis said he noticed Jenkins was breathing and moving. He could also see her skeletal structure and what he observed concerned him, prompting Addis to send an email to the nursing staff asking what was being done for Jenkins.

Addis said he talked to his morning replacement, Byran Dachel, and they both thought Jenkins was dying.

Addis said he went home and told his wife that Jenkins would be dead within a week or a couple of days, and he determined, when he saw Jenkins again, to intervene and offer her some juice or “something.”

But later that Sunday morning, March 12, Jenkins was found in her cell by medical personnel not breathing, and her body was cold.

The autopsy findings, reported by Kristin E. Howell, M.D. Assistant Medical Examiner, attributed Jenkins’ death to “dehydration due to voluntary restriction of food and liquids.”

Day shift Sgt. Kevin Otto said in his interview that he didn’t believe Jenkins’ death was inevitable.

“I mean, all the players that were involved, something should have happened, and it always seemed to just get dumped back on us as a staff.”

He added, “I just think the staff was, were frustrated, we don’t know what to do with her. We’re not capable of doing it in our roles, and it seemed like the people that could weren’t doing it.”

Several of the jail staff said they felt frustrated in that all they were being asked to do was monitor and document Jenkins’ condition, but nothing was being done to ameliorate it other than offering her food and water.

Sheriff and jail captain

Since 2019, Jenkins had spent 205 days in the Eau Claire County jail for various charges.

Sheriff Riewstahl said that often when Jenkins was released, she would ask to be taken to a local hospital and then refuse to leave the hospital’s premises, resulting in a complaint and Jenkins returning to jail.

Riewstahl, Holbrook and others interviewed also noted that Jenkins from previous stints in the jail would often not eat the food offered to her and even ask for bottled water instead of using water from the jail sink.  

Hill said she believes Jenkins didn’t have a food disorder, but that refusing to eat gave her one thing she could control in her otherwise chaotic life.

“Silver has severe mental health issues, and our jail is the largest mental health facility here in Eau Claire County,” said Riewestahl. “Jails have been turned into the answer for mental health.”

He added, “we are technically a jail but the people that come to us have more mental health crisis needs at a different level than a Chapter 51 [a person who is involuntarily committed for mental health reasons].”

Investigator Dustin Geisness asked Riewestahl if he was aware of any concerns being expressed by the jail or medical staff regarding Jenkins.

“Ultimately, the hunger strike was a concern, and it was a concern every time she’s been here,” he said.

Holbrook also told investigators there was concern every time Jenkins returned to jail

“Obviously we know Silver as often as she’s here,” he said. “We know she‘s a problematic inmate, not cooperative, whatever. We knew that something potentially could happen someday.”

He added, “She was a non-cooperative inmate. She was offered food, medical services. A lot of times or sometimes she would refuse that, sometimes she wouldn’t. You never knew what she was going to  do.”

He said Jenkins was never on a full hunger strike and occasionally would eat small amounts of food offered.

He was asked about March 12 when she was naked on the floor and noted that was normal behavior for Jenkins and that she was often naked.

Holbrook also said the local hospitals didn’t want to see Jenkins unless it was an emergency because she had been disruptive there during previous visits. He said because everyone was aware the hospitals were reluctant to see Jenkins that may have played a part in not sending her to a hospital again before her death.

“Most of the hospitals don’t want nothing to do with her here, so even when we’d bring her there for something, we’d get a lot of heat from the hospital,” he said.   

Holbrook was asked by the investigator after Feb. 19,  when Jenkins returned from the hospital,  if anything  different was done for Jenkins besides  documenting her condition and food intake.

 “They’re just still documenting, documenting, documenting and in my opinion that sounds like the definition of insanity,” said investigator Geisness. Holbrook concurred, saying, “Over and over.”

Holbrook was also asked, “Who is ultimately responsible for this jail?” and he responded, “Ultimately, ultimately, yeah, that’s exactly. That’s the problem.”

Holbrook also said there was a “leadership issue,” but he didn’t specifically place responsibility for the issue on himself or staff or the sheriff.

Investigator Capt. Tim Kufus asked a similar question of the sheriff: “But while she’s here, whose responsibility is she?”

Riewestahl responded, “Ours.”

“When you’re saying ours, you’re saying collectively?” asked Kufus.

“The sheriff, the sheriff’s office,” responded Riewestahl

“Okay, and are you the …”

“I’m the sheriff,” said Riewestahl.

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A rally goer rolls out a scroll with the names of every school district that has gone to referendum since the last state budget. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner.

Education advocates are making a push for more investment in public schools from the state as the Republican-led Joint Finance Committee plans to take up portions of the budget related to K-12 schools during its Thursday meeting.

The issue has been a top concern for Wisconsinites who came out to budget listening sessions and was one of Gov. Tony Evers’ priorities in his budget proposal. Evers proposed that the state spend an additional $3.1 billion on K-12 education. Evers and Republican leaders were negotiating on the spending for education as well as taxes and other parts of the budget until last week when negotiations reached an impasse. 

Evers has said that Republicans were unwilling to compromise on his funding priorities, including making “meaningful investments for K-12 schools, to continue Child Care Counts to help lower the cost of child care for working families and to prevent further campus closures and layoffs at our UW System.” He said he was willing to support their tax proposal, which Republicans have said included income and retiree tax cuts. 

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said on WISN 12’s UpFront that Evers “lied” about Republicans walking away from the negotiating table.

“We’re willing to do it, just not as much as he wanted… When you read that statement, it makes it sound like we were at zero,” Vos said. “We were not at zero on any of those topics. We tried to find a way to invest in child care that actually went to the parents, and to make sure that we weren’t just having to go to a business. We tried to find a way to look at education so that money would actually go back to school districts across the state. It just wasn’t enough for what he wanted.” 

Public education advocates said school districts are in dire need of a significant investment of state dollars, especially for special education. After lobbying for the last week, many are concerned that when Republicans finally announce their proposal it won’t be enough. 

State Superintendent Jill Underly told the Wisconsin Examiner in an interview Wednesday afternoon that she is anticipating that Republicans will put forth more short-term solutions, but she said schools and students can’t continue functioning in that way. 

Underly compared the situation of education funding in Wisconsin to a road trip.

“The gas tank is nearly empty, and you’re trying to coast… you’re turning the air conditioning off… going at a lower speed limit, just to save a little fuel and the state budget every two years. I kind of look at them as like these exits to gas stations,” Underly said. “We keep passing up these opportunities to refuel. Schools are running on fumes, and we see the stress that is having an our system — the number of referendums, the anxiety around whether or not we’re going to have the referendum or not in our communities. Wisconsin public schools have been underfunded for decades.” 

The one thing lawmakers must do, Underly said, is increase the special education reimbursement rate to a minimum of 60%, back to the levels of the 1990s. 

“It used to be 60% but they haven’t been keeping up their promise to public schools,” Underly said. “They need to raise the special education reimbursement rate. Anything less than 60% is once again failing to meet urgent needs.”

The Wisconsin Public Education Network is encouraging advocates to show up at the committee meeting Thursday and continue pushing lawmakers and Evers to invest. Executive Director Heather DuBois Bourenane told the Examiner that she is concerned lawmakers are planning on “low balling” special education funding, even as she said she has never seen the education community so united in its insistence on one need.

“We’re familiar with the way they work in that caucus and in the Joint Finance Committee,” DuBois Bourenane said. “The pattern of the past has been to go around the state and listen to the concerns that are raised or at least get the appearance of listening, and then reject those concerns and demands and put forward a budget that fails in almost every way to prioritize the priority needs for our communities.” 

While it’s unclear what Republicans will ultimately do, budget papers prepared by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau includes three options when it comes to special education reimbursement rate: the first is to raise the rate to 60% sum sufficient — as Evers has proposed; the second is to leave the rate at 31.5% sum certain by investing an additional $35.8 million and the third is to raise the rate to an estimated 35% by providing an additional $68.6 million in 2023-24 and $86.2 million in 2024-25. 

The paper also includes options for investing more in the high cost of special education, which provides additional aid to reimburse 90% of the cost of educating students whose special education costs exceed $30,000 in a single year. 

The School Administrators Alliance (SAA) sent an update to its members on Monday, pointing out what was in the budget papers and saying the committee “appears poised to focus spending on High-Cost Special Education Aid and the School Levy Tax Credit, rather than significantly raising the primary special education categorical aid.”

SAA Executive Director Dee Pettack said in the email that if that’s the route lawmakers take, it would “result in minimal new, spendable resources for classrooms and students.”

Public school funding was one of the top priorities mentioned by Wisconsinites at the four budget hearings held by the budget committee across the state in March. 

“I just think it’s time to say enough is enough,” DuBois Bourenane said. “We’re really urging people to do whatever they can before our lawmakers vote on this budget, to say that we are really going to accept nothing less than a budget that stops this cycle of insufficient state support for priority needs and demand better.” 

Pettack and leaders of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, Southeast Wisconsin School Alliance and the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance also issued a joint letter Tuesday urging the committee to “meet this moment with the urgency it requires,” adding that the budget provides the opportunity to allocate resources that will help students achieve.

The letter detailed the situation that a low special education reimbursement has placed districts in as they struggle to fund the mandated services and must fill in the gaps with funds from their general budgets.

“The lack of an adequate state reimbursement for mandated special education programs and services negatively affects all other academic programs, including career and technical education, reading interventionists, teachers and counselors, STEM, dual enrollment, music, art and more,” the organizations stated. “While small increases in special education reimbursement have been achieved in recent state budgets, costs for special education programming and services have grown much faster than those increases, leaving public schools in a stagnant situation.” 

“Should we fail in this task, we are not only hurting Wisconsin’s youth today but also our chances to compete in tomorrow’s economy,” the leaders wrote. 

If the proposal from Republicans isn’t adequate, Underly said Evers doesn’t have to sign the budget. Republican lawmakers have expressed confidence that they will put a budget on Evers’ desk that he will sign. 

“There’s that, and then we keep negotiating. We keep things as they are right now. We keep moving forward,” Underly said. “But our schools and our kids, they can’t continue to wait for this… These are short term fixes, I think, that they keep talking about, and we can’t continue down this path. We need to fix it so that we’re setting ourselves up for success. Everything else is just really short sighted.”

WPEN and others want Evers to use his veto power should the proposal not be sufficient. DuBois Bourenane said dozens of organizations have signed on to a letter calling on Evers to reject any budget that doesn’t meet the state’s needs and priorities.

“What we want them to do is negotiate in good faith and reject any budget that doesn’t meet the needs of our kids, and just keep going back to the drawing board until you reach a bipartisan agreement that actually does meet those needs,” DuBois Bourenane said. “Gov. Evers has the power to break this cycle. He has the power of his veto pen. He has the power of his negotiating authority, and we expect him to use it right and people have got his back.”

The budget deadline is June 30. If it is not completed by then, the state continues to operate under the 2023-25 budget. 

“Nobody wants [the process] to be drawn out any longer than it is,” DuBois Bourenane said. “Those are valid concerns. But the fact is we are in a really critical tension point right now, and if any people care even a little bit about this, now is the time that they should be speaking out.” 

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Why has the Wisconsin State Bar take a pass on condemning unconstitutional intimidation of lawyers? And why can't anyone find out the details of how that decision was made? |Getty Images Creative

The State Bar of Wisconsin was created by the Wisconsin Supreme Court as the trade association that all Wisconsin lawyers must join to obtain their law licenses. Its vision statement declares its cardinal purpose: “Our members are the respected guardians of the dignity and integrity of the rule of law within a fair and accessible justice system.” 

Yet recently, State Bar leaders deliberately violated their own vision statement by refusing in any way to push back against President Donald Trump’s blatantly illegal executive orders attacking lawyers, without whom the rule of law cannot exist “within a fair and accessible justice system.” Why they shirked their express mission remains a mystery because State Bar leaders voted in secrecy on the issue and refused to explain themselves to the 25,000 State Bar members they purportedly serve. Instead, they have stonewalled membership with a bogus cone of silence over their deliberations.

Here is the context:

Earlier this Spring, President Donald Trump issued punitive executive orders targeting 14 prominent law firms because he didn’t like their lawyers, clients, cases, or speech. He acted to cripple their ability to provide legal services to their clients. Trump then offered these firms an extortionate “deal” he thought they couldn’t refuse: agree to provide millions of dollars in pro bono legal work to further Trump’s political agenda, such as free work for the coal industry, or else lose security clearances, access to federal buildings and even government contracts held by their clients.  

Several of the firms capitulated, offering roughly $1 billion in legal services to Trump that otherwise would have funded true “pro bono” work for the underserved. Several others, including Perkins Coie, a distinguished national firm with Wisconsin members, refused. They fought back in court, and won.

Their wins are unsurprising. The U.S. Constitution undeniably bars our government from wielding its power to target lawyers based on their representation of clients, their employment decisions, or their advocating positions the administration doesn’t like.

Federal courts have been unanimous and unsparing in condemning Trump’s orders. One judge characterized such an order as a “personal vendetta” by Trump  that “the framers of our Constitution would see…as a shocking abuse of power.”

Retired conservative federal judge J. Michael Luttig commented that executive orders targeting law firms are “the most sinister and corrupt” of the “ocean of unconstitutional orders” coming out of the White House. He correctly emphasized that the legality of the executive orders is beside the point for Trump, who knows that no court will uphold them. The purpose, rather, is to intimidate lawyers.

Wisconsin lawyers are officers of the court, sworn to support the Constitution of the United States. We are thus duty-bound to guard the Constitution against existential hazards like Trump’s illegitimate orders. The rule of law requires no less.

Because the State Bar, through its governing board, is uniquely positioned to speak on issues of universal concern to all lawyers, we and others have repeatedly urged the Bar to honor its vision statement and publicly condemn Trump’s orders. Various versions of a statement supporting the rule of law have been offered for the board of governors’ consideration and adoption, statements that no reasonable lawyer could find objectionable while remaining true to the lawyer’s oath. 

We are not asking a lot. Already the State Bar—once a national leader in advancing the rule of law—is woefully behind many other respected lawyer organizations. On March 26, 2025, for example, the American Bar Association was joined by more than a hundred other lawyer organizations in a public statement specifically rejecting “the notion that the U.S. government can punish lawyers and law firms who represent certain clients…”

The ABA statement continued: “There are clear choices facing our profession. We can choose to remain silent and allow these acts to continue or we can stand for the rule of law and the values we hold dear. We call upon the entire profession… to speak out against intimidation.”

On May 22, we were informed by a single member of the Wisconsin State Bar board of governors that the board met in closed session May 14, and “following extensive discussion protected by the attorney-client privilege, the Board voted to make no statement concerning recent actions taken by the Executive Branch of the federal government.”

That’s all we know because board members also voted to remain silent on what occurred during the closed meeting, for reasons they will also not disclose. Newly-elected members of the board of governors taking office July 1 will be barred from learning more about the May 14 closed meeting until they first take a vow of silence on what they may learn even though they are instructed by their position description to “[c]ommunicate regularly with constituents,” and to “[b]e well versed in the State Bar’s public policy positions and be prepared to explain them to…members of the bar.”

We have since asked 12 representatives on the board several questions about what happened in secret and why. Only three replied, but they provided little information. We still don’t know: (1) why the question was taken up in closed session, (2) why State Bar leaders needed legal counsel to advise whether the Bar should issue a statement supporting the rule of law, (3) what was discussed, (4) why no statement was issued, and (5) what was the final vote. 

We asked State Bar leadership and staff to forward our questions to all 52 members of the board but, despite an agreement to do so, the questions were not sent. We still have no answers.

More than 400 years ago Shakespeare highlighted the tyrant’s tactic for thwarting the rule of law: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Federal District Judge Beryl Howell invoked Shakespeare’s warning in her scathing takedown of the executive order targeting Perkins Coie, further observing that when American history is written, “those who stood up in court to vindicate constitutional rights and, by so doing, served to promote the rule of law, will be the models lauded.” 

The success of Trump’s intimidation campaign depends largely on whether lawyers forcefully resist his illegal bullying at every opportunity. Thus, the State Bar’s cowering non-response bodes ill for the rule of law in Wisconsin. As the American Bar Association stated: “If the lawyers do not speak…who will protect the bedrock of justice?”

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U.S. Army soldiers work on an assortment of M1 Alpha a3 Abrams tanks, stryker armored vehicles, and M2 Bradley fighting vehicles at West Potomac Park along the Potomac River on June 11, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Tanks and other heavy military equipment have arrived in the nation's capital for a military parade in honor of the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary, which coincides with President Donald Trump's birthday and Flag Day. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — More than 100 heavy-duty military vehicles and weapons systems will parade down Constitution Avenue in the nation’s capital Saturday, just days after President Donald Trump ordered troops to Los Angeles to quell mostly nonviolent protests against deportations.

The display, on the date of the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary and Trump’s 79th birthday, will feature roughly 6,700 soldiers from every division, 150 vehicles, 50 aircraft, 34 horses, two mules and one dog, at a price tag in the tens of millions of dollars, according to the Army.

The evening parade of Army vehicles and aircraft flyovers — plans for which came to light in early May — will occur as protests against the administration’s immigration raids spread through major U.S. cities.

Trump ordered 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles Sunday after demonstrations opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests erupted Friday, some turning violent over the weekend in downtown LA, a suburb and a portion of a freeway.

Trump ordered another 2,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to LA Monday, despite numerous reports that protests remained peaceful.

Saturday’s parade in D.C. has drawn criticism for the cost and optics, as Republicans on Capitol Hill seek ways to cut safety net programs, and as Trump deployed troops to LA, defying the state’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Trump told reporters Tuesday in the Oval Office that any protests at the Army parade “will be met with very heavy force.”

When pressed Wednesday by a reporter following up on Trump’s comment, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “Of course the president supports peaceful protest. What a stupid question.”

Mass “No Kings” protests organized by a coalition of liberal national groups and labor unions are planned across the United States Saturday, but deliberately not in D.C. Some actions from separate organizations are expected to crop up in the nation’s capital, though details are sparse.

Army equipment stored in Maryland

Tanks and fighting vehicles were transported into the District of Columbia Tuesday night on flatbed trucks, as shown in video circulating online. The equipment rolled in over the weekend by rail from Texas and had been staged at the CSX rail yard in Jessup, Maryland, according to the Army.

A festival to celebrate the Army’s founding in 1775 has been in the works for more than a year and will feature a wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery as well as a fitness competition, military equipment exhibits, food trucks and appearances by professional NFL players on the National Mall. 

But details of a parade only emerged in April and were confirmed in early May by The Associated Press.

According to a March 31 application obtained by WTOP News, America250.org applied for a permit for the parade along the National Mall, as well as nighttime fireworks and concert “featuring well known performers, likely from the country music world.” 

A press release for the event from America250, described as the “nonprofit supporting organization to the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission,” celebrates Trump and his role. “Under President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. Army has been restored to strength and readiness,” it says. “His America First agenda has delivered historic pay raises for service members, rebuilt military stockpiles, invested in cutting-edge technologies, and ensured our soldiers have the tools and support they need to win on any battlefield.” The pay raises were part of last year’s defense policy bill, before Trump’s presidency.

The festival and the parade will cost an estimated $25 million to $45 million, according to Army spokesperson Heather Hagan, though the price tag for the parade alone was not specified. The Army did not respond to a question about where the funds originated.

It is not the first time Trump has wanted a military parade. He had planned one in the nation’s capital in 2018 but it was called off due to the cost, NBC reported at the time.

Big crowds and lots of fencing

Matt McCool, of the U.S. Secret Service Washington field office, said for this parade, officials are expecting an “enormous turnout.” The agency is leading local, state and federal law enforcement during the National Special Security Event, the sixth for D.C. this year. They are nationally or internationally significant events expected to be attended by high-level officials and large numbers of people.

Just over 18 miles of anti-scale fencing and 17 miles of “bike rack”-style fencing has been erected as a security perimeter surrounding the parade route. Members of the public wishing to see the parade will have to pass through one of the 175 metal detectors at three security checkpoints.

McCool, special agent in charge of the Washington office, said the Secret Service has been planning security since April 22, “which is shorter than normal,” and that the agency is prepared for protests.

“We are paying attention obviously to what is happening (in Los Angeles) and we’ll be ready for that if it were to occur here,” McCool said Monday during a press conference.

Troops bunking in federal office buildings

The parade will include troops from the National Guard and Army Reserve, Special Operations Command, United States Military Academy and Reserve Officer Training Corps, and it will feature period uniforms and equipment reflecting the Revolutionary War to the modern forces.

Young enlistees sent to Washington to march in the parade toured the D.C. sites near the U.S. Capitol Wednesday.

Not every state sent Guard members. But the New York National Guard will participate, and will house roughly 460 New York and Massachusetts National Guard soldiers in an empty Department of Agriculture office building and an unused General Services Administration warehouse until June 15, according to a press release.

The troops were bused to Washington on Wednesday, and the trip cost — including meals ready-to-eat for breakfast and lunch, a hot dinner and a $69 per diem — will be covered by the Army.

Golden Knights to give Trump a gift

Flyovers will also occur during the parade featuring AH-64 Apaches, UH-60 Blackhawks and CH-47 Chinooks.

The Army Golden Knights parachute team is expected to land on the White House South Lawn and present Trump with a folded flag, according to media reports. Trump is expected to deliver remarks, according to the America250 organization. The White House did not respond to questions about the day’s timeline.

Among the vehicles and equipment rolling down Constitution Avenue between 15th and 23th streets will be Abrams tanks, first used in 1991 for Operation Desert Storm; High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, used to launch multiple rockets at precise aim from far distances; and 9,500-pound titanium M777 lightweight Howitzers that fire 105-pound shells up to 24 miles and are currently in use on Ukraine’s battlefields.

The Army Corps of Engineers released footage of 18-by-16-foot metal plates installed on D.C. streets to reinforce the roads prior to the massive vehicles driving over them.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said in early June that she “remains concerned” about damage to the city’s streets.

“But I gotta think that the Army is among the most qualified logistics moving agencies in the world. They have moved equipment in more precarious situations, so we’re relying on their expertise. But what I can tell D.C. residents is that we will try to keep our road network usable, and if we have to fix something we will seek reimbursement from the Feds,” Bowser told reporters at a June 3 press conference.