As many as 1 in 15 people drive under the influence of marijuana. And while many believe they drive better stoned, evidence shows they don’t.
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First responders across Wisconsin were recognized for their work earlier this month at the state capitol. We hear stories from two of them.
The post 2 of Wisconsin’s 99 First Responders of the Year tell their heroic stories appeared first on WPR.
A video quickly circulating online showed a father boarding a school bus and telling his daughter to hit another student. The man has now been arrested by local police.
The incident occurred Oct. 9 on a Ferguson-Florissant School District near St. Louis, Missouri. On Tuesday, the Ferguson Police Department identified the father as Maurice Fox, 36, in a statement.
In the video footage released by the department, Fox is seen onboard the bus telling his first-grade daughter to assault another student saying, “This one? Yeah, do what I told you to,” and “Don’t put your hands on my daughter no more because if I find out you’re touching her again, your parents will have to talk to me.” The daughter then begins punching the other student. When she stops, Fox says, “Again, I want her crying.”
Fox later posted on social media that he felt he did what he needed to do to teach his daughter to defend herself from bullies
A news article reported that before Fox was taken into custody, he created an online fundraiser seeking donations for his legal defense. But a spokesperson for GoFundMe said the platform’s terms of service prohibit people charged with violent crimes from raising money for their legal defense. The fundraising page was removed and donations were refunded.
The article also said that according to an affidavit, the school bus driver tried to stop Fox, but “he pushed the driver’s arm out of the way and continued walking.” The video blurs the faces of all others on the school bus, but the school bus driver appears to be seated at the front of the vehicle.
The statement said that Ferguson Police Chief Troy Doyle confirmed that Fox turned himself and is being held at the St. Louis County Justice Center with a $100,000 bond.
Prior to Fox’s arrest on Monday after turning himself in, police said he was being sought on an at-large warrant from the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s office. Fox is now also facing charges of one count of first-degree harassment, two counts of assault in the fourth degree and trespassing on a school bus.
“This incident is extremely troubling on many levels. As adults, we have a responsibility to model appropriate behavior and teach our children how to resolve conflict peacefully. Encouraging violence among children — especially in such a public and frightening way — is unacceptable. We are grateful this individual chose to turn himself in, and we hope this brings some measure of accountability,” said Police Chief Troy Doyle.
He continued, “No child should ever be exposed to that kind of behavior, especially in a setting that should feel safe, like a school bus,” he said. “We encourage parents and guardians to work with school officials, counselors and community resources when facing conflicts involving their children. Collaboration and communication, not confrontation, are how we keep our kids and schools safe.”
In the comments on the police statement, many people commented on the difficult emotions of knowing a child is being bullied, but that there are better ways to handle the situation.
School Transportation News reached out to Ferguson-Florissant School District for comment and received the following statement from their communications department:
“We fully cooperated with law enforcement as they addressed this matter. Student and staff safety is always our top priority, and we will not tolerate anything that compromises their safety. School buses are an extension of the school campus. Trespassing on a school bus and engaging in the behavior described in this incident are completely unacceptable.”
Related: School Violence Grant Provides Opportunity for Threat Assessment Training
Related: Florida District Introduces Innovative Safety Training for School Bus Drivers
Related: 9-Year-Old Arrested for Bringing Loaded Gun onto Florida School Bus
The post Missouri Parent Boards School Bus, Tells Child to Assault Another Student appeared first on School Transportation News.
For National School Bus Safety Week, the West Virginia Department of Education partnered with the state police department to create a video that is a sobering reminder of the dangers of illegal passing. The video shows footage of a student getting off the school bus and nearly being struck by a motorist driving past the stopped bus. Jimmy Lacy, the transportation director for the state’s Department of Education, and Sgt. Travis Bailes of the Charleston Police Department outline the impact on student safety and state regulations regarding illegal passing.
Related: WATCH: Michigan Association Releases Illegal Passing PSA for School Bus Safety Week
Related: Wisconsin State Police, School Bus Association Promote School Bus Safety
Related: Gallery: National School Bus Safety Week 2024
The post WATCH: West Virginia Releases Illegal Passing Awareness Video appeared first on School Transportation News.
Charlotte Stone, 18, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, held a sign depicting President Donald Trump with a Hitler mustache, at the "We Are All DC" march Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in the District of Columbia to protest the deployment of National Guard troops in the nation's capital. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — House Democrats demanded Thursday that President Donald Trump rescind two ominous directives they say target protest and dissent in the United States, including directing federal law enforcement resources to investigate groups that are “anti-American” and “anti-Christian.”
In a letter to the White House the lawmakers sharply criticize a “complete and utter lack of any legal basis” for Trump’s Sept. 22 executive order “Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorism Organization” and his Sept. 25 memo directing federal law enforcement to investigate and disrupt a wide range of activities by groups or individuals with a vast array of beliefs.
“While protecting public safety and countering genuine threats are essential responsibilities of government, the sweeping language and broad authority in these directives pose serious constitutional, statutory, and civil liberties risks, especially if used to target political dissent, protest, or ideological speech,” states the letter led by Democratic Reps. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Jared Huffman of California and Pramila Jayapal of Washington.
The letter comes just two days ahead of thousands of nationwide demonstrations, dubbed “No Kings Day,” against the activities of the Trump administration, including the deployment of federal law enforcement and National Guard troops in major American cities.
“Regardless of whether the President agrees with someone’s political views, the Constitution guarantees their right to speak and assemble peacefully. Officials must not label individuals as ‘supporting Antifa’ or ‘coordinating with Antifa’ based solely on their protected speech,” according to the letter.
“Antifa” is not one group. Rather, it’s an ideology that disapproves of the fascist style of governance.
The letter continues: “In fact, neither the memo nor the executive order clearly defines ‘Antifa’ as a specific entity. Instead, the executive order conflates nonviolent protest and activism with doxing and violent behavior. Without clear definitions and limits, this vague framing could subject lawful political expression and assembly to the same treatment as terrorism.”
Twenty-eight other Democratic lawmakers signed alongside Pocan, co-chair of the Congressional Equity and Labor caucuses; Jayapal, former head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus; and Huffman, founder of the Congressional Freethought caucus.
When asked about the letter, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson responded to States Newsroom: “The only thing Democrats love defending more than criminal illegal aliens is Antifa.”
Trump’s Sept. 25 national security memo orders the National Joint Terrorism Task Force and its local offices to create a comprehensive national strategy to not only disrupt and prosecute political violence but also to investigate funders and employees of organizations “that aid and abet” those who commit violence or who are “recruiting and radicalizing” people to do so.
There are about 200 such task forces in the U.S., including at least one in each Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 56 field offices and the rest in local, state and other federal agencies, according to the FBI.
The memo states that “Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.”
Such conduct, according to the memo, is organized “through a variety of fora, including anonymous chat forums, in-person meetings, social media, and even educational institutions” and then escalates “to organized doxing.”
The directive also instructs Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, who also happens to be Bessent after Trump fired his original pick two months into the job, to be on the lookout for suspect funding streams and ensure no tax-exempt entities “directly or indirectly” finance political violence or domestic terrorism.
The memo does not create any new parts of the criminal code or grant any new powers to federal law enforcement, including the FBI and agents who work in the criminal investigations units at the Department of Treasury and IRS.
The American Civil Liberties Union described the memo as “a fever dream of conspiracies, outright falsehoods, and the president’s distorted equation of criticism of his policies by real or perceived political opponents with ‘criminal and terroristic conspiracies.’”
“Through the memo, the president instructs federal departments and law enforcement agencies to use authorities they already have and focus them on investigations of civil society groups — including nonprofits, activists, and donors — to ‘disrupt’ and ‘prevent’ the president’s fever-dream version of ‘terrorism’ and ‘political violence,’” the ACLU’s Hina Shamsi wrote in an Oct. 15 article posted on the organization’s website.
Violent crime is down by over 20 percent in Milwaukee but homicides are still increasing compared to last year.
The post Crime is down across Milwaukee, but homicides continue to rise appeared first on WPR.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker speaks at a news conference in Chicago on Oct. 6, 2025. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson stands at right. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
A federal judge will hear arguments Thursday in Illinois over Chicago’s lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to the state before deciding whether to block the move, the judge wrote in an order.
In a one-paragraph order, U.S. District Judge April M. Perry, whom Democratic President Joe Biden appointed to the bench, set an 11:59 p.m. Wednesday deadline for the Trump administration to respond in writing to the suit filed by the Democratic leaders of Illinois and its largest city, which they filed Monday morning.
Perry did not immediately grant the restraining order Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson sought to block the deployment at the outset of the case.
Perry said she expected the federal government’s response to include evidence about when National Guard troops would arrive in Illinois, where in the state they would go and “the scope of the troops’ activities” once there. She set oral arguments for 11 a.m. Central Time on Thursday.
The suit seeks to stop Trump’s federalization of Illinois National Guard and mobilization of Texas National Guard troops to the state. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has also agreed to send Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, at Trump’s request.
Pritzker and Johnson’s complaint calls the federalization of state National Guard troops “illegal, dangerous, and unconstitutional.” The Democrats added that the move was “patently pretextual and baseless,” meaning it could not satisfy the legal requirements for a president to wrest from a governor control of a state’s National Guard force.
Pritzker, appearing at a Tuesday event in Minneapolis with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said the federal government has been noncommunicative about the plan for the National Guard troops, but had received “reports” that troops have arrived at a federal facility in the state.
“We don’t know exactly where this is going to end,” he said. “What we know is that it is striking fear in the hearts of everybody in Chicago.”
A federal judge in another case blocked the deployment to Portland after city and Oregon leaders sued to stop it. The federal government appealed that order, and a panel of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments Thursday, according to a scheduling notice posted Tuesday.
Trump has said the extraordinary use of troops, which raises serious legal and constitutional questions about the line between military forces and domestic law enforcement, is necessary to control crime in some Democrat-led cities, including Chicago and Portland.
State and local leaders in those jurisdictions, as well as Los Angeles, have said military personnel are not needed to supplement local police. Pritzker called the proposed deployment to Chicago an “invasion.”
Trump indicated Monday he may seek to further escalate the push for military involvement domestically, saying he would have no qualms about invoking the Insurrection Act, which expands presidential power to use the military for law enforcement.
“We have an Insurrection Act for a reason,” he told reporters. “If I had to enact it, I’d do that. If people were getting killed and courts were holding us up or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I’d do that.”
Democratic U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin of Illinois, Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden of Oregon and Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff from California — the three states where Trump has sent troops over the governors’ objections — called on Trump to withdraw the troops in a Tuesday statement that warned of the escalating conflict between blue states and the federal government.
“Donald Trump is stretching the limits of Presidential authority far past their breaking point and moving us closer to authoritarianism with each dangerous and unacceptable escalation of his campaign to force federal troops into American communities against the wishes of sovereign states in the Union he is supposed to represent,” the senators wrote.
Trump’s use of National Guard troops is in part a response to protests in Democratic cities over this administration’s crackdown on immigration enforcement.
Trump has surged immigration enforcement officers to certain cities. Those agents have pursued sometimes aggressive enforcement, including a Sept. 30 raid on a Chicago apartment building that has been criticized for using military-style tactics.
A group of eight U.S. House Democrats wrote Monday to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem calling for an investigation into that raid.
The members were Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin of Maryland, J. Luis Correa of California, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Shri Thanedar of Michigan, Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania and Delia Ramirez and Jesús “Chuy” Garcia of Illinois.
“We write to express our outrage over the immigration raid,” they said. “Treating a U.S. city like a war zone is intolerable.”
J. Patrick Coolican contributed to this report.
A jail lieutenant for a northern Wisconsin sheriff’s office resigned in 2022 after an internal investigation found he sent sexually explicit messages and photos to female subordinates. He now works as a police officer in a neighboring county.
Jeffrey Johnson worked at the Sawyer County Sheriff’s Office for 10 years, rising to administrator of the county jail, before he “resigned in lieu of termination,” according to a Wisconsin Department of Justice database that tracks law enforcement officers who leave a position under negative circumstances. Johnson started working for the Minong Police Department in Washburn County a little over a year later, according to the same database.
His resignation came after he admitted to sending “text messages of a sexual nature to a subordinate jail deputy, including pictures of your genitals,” according to a document from the sheriff’s office The Badger Project obtained in a records request. “When confronted about these text messages, you did not deny sending them and noted you could not recall the messages, given you were likely intoxicated when they were sent.”
Sawyer County refused to release the full investigation report to The Badger Project, citing client-attorney privilege, but one of the documents it did release notes that Johnson interacted similarly with “a number of other female deputies.”
Sawyer County Sheriff Doug Mrotek said in an interview that scrutiny on Johnson was greater because he was a leader and oversaw the jail’s staff of about 17 people. But he was not on duty when he sent the messages and the interactions didn’t constitute harassment, Mrotek said.
“We all make mistakes,” Mrotek said. “We all can have a bad day. It’s tough for me not to have a lot of respect for his integrity and character. Now make no mistake, I’m not saying that I condone his wrong action … but he made a mistake. And that mistake cost him his position as a leader.”
Mrotek said if Johnson had been a patrol deputy and not a jail lieutenant at the time, he would probably still be working for the Sawyer County Sheriff’s Office.
“It’s a leader-subordinate issue,” Mrotek said. But “he’s not going to make the same mistake twice.”
Johnson used Mrotek as a reference when he applied to his current job, where he works as a patrol officer and not in a supervisory role.
Johnson did not respond to requests for comment.
Minong Police Department Chief Lucas Shepard wrote in an email that Johnson was recommended for the position by the command staff at Sawyer County Sheriff’s Office.
Shepard also said Johnson was unanimously approved for the position at his department by himself and four citizen representatives. The chief and Johnson are Minong’s only full-time police officers.
Shepard said his department’s own background check revealed that the allegations of misconduct against Johnson involved consensual behavior that happened off duty.
“Beyond his resignation from that department, Officer Johnson offered the Minong Police Department years of valuable knowledge, training, and experience in law enforcement,” Shepard wrote. He “exemplifies what community-based policing strives for and if he has one definite characteristic as an officer, it is the care that he has for the people that he is policing.”
The total number of law enforcement officers in Wisconsin has dropped for years and now sits at a near-record low, according to stats from the state DOJ, as chiefs and sheriffs, especially in rural areas, say they struggle to fill positions in an industry less attractive to people than it once was.
This cop crunch has been a problem for years across the country, experts say.
Statewide, the number of wandering officers, those who were fired or forced out from a previous job in law enforcement, continues to rise. Nearly 400 officers in Wisconsin currently employed were fired or forced out of previous jobs in law enforcement in the state, almost double the amount from 2021. And that doesn’t include officers who were pushed out of law enforcement jobs outside of the state and came to Wisconsin to work.
Despite their work histories, wandering officers can be attractive to hire for law enforcement agencies, as they already have their certification, have experience and can start working immediately.
Law enforcement agencies can look up job applicants in the state DOJ’s database to get more insight into officers’ work history. And a law enacted in 2021 in Wisconsin bans law enforcement agencies from sealing the personnel files and work histories of former officers, previously a common tactic for cops with a black mark on their record.
About 13,400 law enforcement officers are currently employed in Wisconsin, excluding those who primarily work in a corrections facility, according to the state DOJ. Wandering officers make up about 2.5% of the total.
At least one major study published in the Yale Law Journal has found that wandering officers are more likely to receive a complaint for a moral character violation, compared to new officers and veterans who haven’t been fired or forced out from a previous position in law enforcement.
This article first appeared on The Badger Project and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.
Ex-Sawyer County jail head who sent lewd texts to female employees is now working at nearby police department is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Nevada became the 26th state to authorize school districts to install and use school bus stop-arm cameras.
Assembly Bill 527, which passed June 6 and went into effect on July 1, allows school districts to install the cameras and for law enforcement to use evidence of illegal passing to issue citations to the vehicle’s registered owner. Fines collected are used to fund the installation, maintenance and operation of the camera systems as well as pay the vendor to install, operate or maintain the systems.
School districts that choose to vieo cameras must conduct a public awareness campaign regarding the use of cameras and notify the public on when enforcement starts.
While school district leaders applaud the law, local police departments are questioning if they have adequate staffing to handle review video and issue citations, as noted in a local news article.
The law also addresses privacy concerns by requiring school districts and police departments to delete images of vehicles after 90 days.
Related: New York State Amends School Bus Camera Law Following Court Rulings
Related: Update: Nevada School District Raises Pay Amid Bus Driver Shortage
Related: Are Extended Stop Arms Part of Solution to Illegal School Bus Passing?
The post Nevada Latest State to Authorize Stop-Arm Cameras appeared first on School Transportation News.
Authorities in Alaska found 50 pounds of dynamite on an old school bus Wednesday, reported Fox 19.
According to the news report, Special Agent in Charge Rebecca Day said the property owner, who was not identified at this writing, discovered the dynamite in the school bus located on Richarson Highway. The bus was parked on his property, and he called law enforcement, which in turn contacted the FBI.
State troopers and other agencies shut down the highway for seven hours as they investigated. Agents said the dynamite was at least 20 years old and its location near the highway made it unsafe to attempt a controlled detonation.
Day told local media that authorities worked to remove the dynamite to a more appropriate location to dispose of it safely. The dynamite was doused with chemicals to keep it from exploding while it was burned. The situation was also monitored by a bomb disposal robot.
Authorities reportedly did not provide information on how the explosives got on the school bus or their intended use. Day stated that if anyone finds explosives in or on their property the best thing to do is contact law enforcement, which will assess the situation before making sure the explosives are disposed of safely.
Related: Alaska School Bus Driver Arrested for DUI, Firearm Possession
Related: Alaska School Bus Driver Charged with DUI
Related: Law Enforcement Expert Shares Importance of Identifying Weapons on School Buses
Related: WATCH: Fire Expert to Lead School Bus Evacuation Training at STN EXPO West
The post 50 Pounds of Dynamite Found Inside Alaska School Bus appeared first on School Transportation News.
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