The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Thursday against Wisconsin Elections Commission guidance that bars people who request an absentee ballot from casting an in-person ballot if the mail ballot will not arrive by the time polls close on Election Day. 

The lawsuit was filed as officials in Wisconsin, and the commission itself, have warned voters about potential delays in the mail system ahead of this year’s August and November elections. 

But commission guidance states that once voters mail their absentee ballots back to the clerk, they cannot be issued new ballots at the polls on Election Day. This means that if voters realize their ballots will not arrive in time after early in-person voting closes the Sunday before an election, they will not be able to vote. 

“Once a voter has placed their ballot in the mail, it is considered mailed,” the WEC guidance states. “They cannot be issued a new ballot at the polling place on Election Day, even if their absentee ballot will not be returned to the clerk’s office in time to be counted.”

The lawsuit seeks to allow voters who believe their ballots will not arrive to the clerk in time to go in person to cast a provisional ballot that would be set aside and only be counted if the initial ballot does not arrive by the deadline. 

Hundreds of voters did not have their votes counted during the state’s April elections because their ballots did not arrive in time. A WEC survey of clerks following the April election reported that hundreds of the state’s election officials believed delays in the mail had caused problems in the spring election. 

“Every voter in Wisconsin that puts an accurately requested absentee ballot in the mail on time expects their vote will be counted. Delays in mail delivery prevent that. It is time to have a remedy for these eligible voters,” Debra Cronmiller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, said. 

The League is represented in the lawsuit by Law Forward and the Fair Elections Center. The lawsuit argues that the commission understands the problem but is not taking advantage of an obvious solution to the potential mail delays. 

“The right to vote protects Wisconsinites from baseless disenfranchisement on Election Day. But WEC wants to turn these voters away. That’s just wrong,” Law Forward attorney Scott Thompson said. “We shouldn’t punish Wisconsin voters just because the mail is late. They must have the opportunity to vote on Election Day.”

Family members  of Corey Ruiz, who was shot and killed by a Madison police officer on the city’s east side Wednesday, said at an emotional press conference Friday afternoon they want charges filed against the officer who fired the shots and for Madison cops to be equipped with body cameras. 

Speaking from the Assembly parlor in the state Capitol building, Ruiz’s mother, two sisters, brother, daughter and daughter’s mother spoke of a man who loved to crack jokes, make music and work in construction. 

The family was joined by state Rep. Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison) and Ben Crump, a national civil rights attorney who has frequently represented the families of people of color killed by police. 

Orchestrating the press conference, Crump noted Madison’s policy against high speed chases for property crimes — Ruiz was first chased by police on his bike after officers responded to reports that someone in the area was looking into parked cars. Crump also raised questions about whether  the other officers on the scene believed deadly force was necessary and if Ruiz actually brandished the knife police have said he used against the officer who shot him. 

“We saw an execution, and it shocked our conscience,” Crump said. “People all over Wisconsin were shocked when they saw the execution of Corey Ruiz. People all over America are shocked when they see the execution of Corey Ruiz, because they understand when they see that video that it was so unnecessary to execute him. It was unnecessary, unjustifiable, and unconstitutional how they executed Corey Ruiz.”

Crump also said he wants officials to be transparent about the investigation, which is being conducted by the Wisconsin Department of Justice under a state law that requires officer-involved shooting investigations to be led by  an outside agency. Crump added that he believes the officer responsible should be charged with a crime. 

Marjorie Ann Aliomar, the mother of Ruiz’s 13-year-old daughter, Kah’liyah, said the tragedy was especially painful because the shooting took place at a busy intersection in their own neighborhood. 

“This place is two blocks up the street from our home, two blocks away from her school,” Aliomar said. “Every day she has to walk to school … she would have to walk past her dad’s memorial, where he was murdered by people we’re supposed to trust and depend on.”

While wiping away tears, Kah’liyah addressed the police. 

“How can I call you knowing you shot my father?” she said. “How are you going to have four policemen on one Black man? On top of that, how are you going to get scared of us if you’re supposed to save us?” 

Several times, Ruiz’s family said they wanted the city to equip Madison cops with body cameras. 

For years, city and police officials have requested body cameras for all Madison police and a body camera pilot program is currently underway on the city’s north side. 

Last fall, the common council voted against allocating money in the budget for a citywide body camera program, instead sending that money to the city’s Office of the Independent Monitor — the civilian oversight body that tracks the police department. 

Ripple effects 

Protests over the killing of Ruiz continue to make waves across the city. 

Two days after the shooting, activists still control the intersection of Baldwin and Williamson Streets where the shooting occurred, with makeshift barricades of garbage bins, mattresses and scrap metal blocking off the streets in every direction. 

Organizers of Atwood Fest, a popular annual street festival that takes place a few blocks east of the shooting’s location, was canceled. 

“Our community and our Marquette neighbors witnessed another horrific officer-involved shooting just blocks from our festival grounds, leaving us in deep pain and justified anger,” organizers wrote on the festival website. “AtwoodFest’s core values have always centered on building community, using each festival’s proceeds to support the groups doing important work right here in our neighborhood. Now it is vital to support our neighbors, particularly those who have borne the brunt of this pain and injustice, by taking time to mourn and reflect on our role in these broken systems, so we can create a community that truly lives up to our values.”

The number of cases of cyclosporiasis — a parasitic infection linked to contaminated water or food that causes severe intestinal issues — has more than doubled to over 4,173 cases across 41 states this week, up from the 1,645 confirmed cases in 34 states reported last week by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cyclosporiasis causes symptoms that include watery or “explosive” diarrhea, nausea and stomach cramps. The surge in cases had made 2026 the worst year for the infection on record.

The CDC estimates that there are likely more than 7,400 additional cases that have not yet been confirmed. No deaths have been reported, but 308 people have been hospitalized, more than double the 141 hospitalizations reported last week.

State and federal officials suspect there are multiple sources of the outbreak, but they had reported that the cases in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia were connected to shredded iceberg lettuce grown in central Mexico and sold by Taylor Farms. On Monday, however, federal officials said tests making the connection were a false positive.

Michigan, the first state to report an outbreak, reported 7,171 cases and 102 hospitalizations as of July 16. Indiana, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Indiana also have seen high case counts, alongside New York City.

The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, which represents public health agencies across the country, said labs have a hard time tracking case connections because cyclospora is a parasitic genome that is more complex than the bacterial pathogens that cause other foodborne illnesses. As a result, state and local heath investigators must resort to reviewing restaurant and grocery receipts, menus and supply chain records, according to the organization.

“Case interviews and traceback investigations are often time intensive, creating a burden on state and local public health infrastructure,” senior analyst Heather Tomlinson and environmental health director Courtney Anderson wrote.

North Carolina had confirmed more than 560 cyclosporiasis cases as of July 20. Dr. Carl Williams, state public health veterinarian for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, told reporters on Tuesday that the state has relied heavily on its 86 local health departments to track cases.

Williams said twice weekly calls with the CDC also have been helpful.

“The CDC has been very responsive to us and the other states,” Williams said during the briefing. “But as you can imagine, I mean, it’s a lot to go through.”

Stateline reporter Shalina Chatlani can be reached at schatlani@stateline.org.

The U.S. government filed a lawsuit against the city of Milwaukee Thursday, arguing the city has no authority to enforce its ordinance preventing law enforcement from wearing masks while interacting with the public. 

The lawsuit, filed against the city as well as its mayor, city attorney and police chief, argues that cities and states are unable to regulate federal government action. 

“For centuries, the Supreme Court has reaffirmed that States have no authority whatsoever to regulate the Federal Government,” the lawsuit states. “Despite that well-established principle, Milwaukee recently enacted an ordinance that purports to do exactly what constitutional law says it cannot: regulate how federal law enforcement officers carry out their official duties in that City.”

Initially enacted in April, the Milwaukee ordinance prohibits law enforcement officers performing their duties from covering their faces and requires that their names and the agency they work for be easily identifiable on their uniform. 

“The use of facial coverings and disguises by law enforcement officers significantly affects the public’s perception of law enforcement, officer-community interactions, and accountability,” the ordinance states. “Persons reasonably may experience fear or intimidation when approached by officers whose faces are obscured. Such reactions can heighten defensive behavior and unnecessarily escalate the tension inherent in many interactions between law enforcement officers and members of the public.”

Last week, City Attorney Evan Goyke wrote in a letter to U.S. prosecutors  that federal officers wouldn’t be exempted from the ordinance, prompting the lawsuit. 

“the City and the public have a right to know if masked, armed, and unidentified men seizing people on our streets are who they say they are,” Goyke wrote, objecting to the federal government’s insistence that immigration officers be allowed to conceal their identities “at their discretion.”

“Unfortunately, in the case of federal immigration officers, in particular, that unbounded discretion, coupled with guns and a lack of accountability, has had tragic consequences in cities across the country,” he wrote. Goyke disputed the federal government’s claim that the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution makes ordinances such as Milwaukee’s illegal, citing previous and ongoing litigation on the matter.

Federal immigration officers across the country have worn masks while carrying out  President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants. Federal officials have argued the masks prevent officers from being doxxed. 

“State and local leaders cannot tell Federal officers how to do their job,” Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward, Jr. said in a news release. “And they certainly cannot prohibit them from ensuring their own safety in safeguarding our communities and enforcing federal law. We will never tolerate the doxxing or harassment of federal officers, or any law like Milwaukee’s that enables violent behavior against law enforcement officers and their families.”

The lawsuit argues that federal officers should be able to make decisions about covering their faces on a case-by-case basis. 

“Denying federal agencies and officers discretion in these areas would chill federal law enforcement, threatening the safety of communities in Milwaukee,” the lawsuit states.

Brad Schimel, the former conservative Supreme Court candidate who is now an assistant U.S. attorney, said that the ordinance pits federal and local cops against each other. 

“Not only is this ordinance an affront to the Constitution, but it jeopardizes the safety of our courageous sworn law enforcement officers,” Schimel said. “Further, it puts local and federal law enforcement officers at odds with each other when they should be working together on the common goals to enforce the rule of law and keep our communities safe.”

Measles cases this year have surpassed all of 2025 to become the worst since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000, with cases now in 44 states and the District of Columbia, according to a federal report released Friday. 

There were 2,318 confirmed cases as of July 23, compared with 2,289 in all of 2025, with 93% of cases for both years being among unvaccinated people, mostly younger than 20. 

There have been fewer hospitalizations this year, 151 compared with 243 last year, and no deaths yet, compared with three in 2025. The highest number of new cases was in mid-January 2026, when there were almost 300 new cases. 

The largest number of current cases are in South Carolina (670), Utah (522), Texas (188), Virginia (176) and Pennsylvania (134). Except for Virginia, all those states have childhood vaccination rates below the 95% level considered necessary to prevent outbreaks among unvaccinated people as of the 2024-25 school year. 

Virginia’s statewide rate was 95.6%, but the measles outbreak was in two rural counties west of Richmond where measles vaccination rates are less than 75%. 

The last time national cases were higher than 2025 and 2026 was in the 1990s as national vaccinations were still ramping up, with 9,643 cases in 1991 and almost 28,000 in 1990. 

Most states now have childhood vaccination rates below the 95% level considered necessary to prevent outbreaks among unvaccinated people, including people who choose not to be vaccinated and small children too young for the shots. 

Oklahoma has a low childhood vaccination rate of 88.7% and saw 20 cases last year, but only one so far this year. A foundation has sent a mobile health van around the state to vaccinate thousands of children. 

Delaware declared a new outbreak this week. The state’s first measles cases in a decade climbed to five cases in a few days. The state’s child vaccination rate is 94.1%. 

“High vaccination coverage has protected even the unvaccinated and undervaccinated because of herd protection, keeping measles at bay for the past few decades,”  said Dr. William Moss, director of the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University, in a published statement. 

“But in communities with pockets of susceptible individuals across a broad age range, measles has been able to take hold, infecting those who are susceptible and spreading rapidly,” he said.

The center used its own measles tracker to declare more cases in 2026 than last year as of July 21. 

The Pan American Health Organization is scheduled to review the U.S. measles status in November and consider revoking “elimination” status as it did for Canada last year.  

Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at thenderson@stateline.org.

Gov. Tony Evers sent a letter Thursday to President Donald Trump and Wisconsin’s congressional delegation urging the White House to resolve delays in the processing of applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. 

The DACA program has existed since the administration of President Barack Obama and allows people who were brought to the country as children without documentation to live and work in the U.S. 

There are 500,000 DACA recipients across the country and more than 5,000 in Wisconsin. The Trump administration has put their renewal applications on “processing holds.” For some of the program’s participants, those holds have now pushed their renewal beyond the deadline, putting their ability to obtain work permits and driver’s licenses at risk. 

Since its inception in 2012, the DACA program has been broadly popular among Democrats and Republicans. Earlier this year, Evers signed into law a bipartisan bill that allows DACA recipients to obtain occupational licenses from the state. 

But Trump attempted to end the program during his first term and amid his administration’s harsh crackdown on immigration, DACA recipients have been detained and deported despite their legal status. The delays in application processing have put even more people in legal limbo. 

“Mr. President, I urge you to end this harmful practice by your administration and resume expeditious processing and renewal of DACA applications,” Evers wrote. “And to Wisconsin’s Republican congressional delegation, I urge you to stand up for Wisconsin’s Dreamers, who will be or are up for renewals, and join me in demanding that the Trump Administration immediately identify and resolve the source of these unconscionable delays and resume processing and renewal of DACA applications, as Senator Baldwin, Congressman Pocan, and Congresswoman Moore have done. These hardworking members of our community should not endure the consequences of the Trump Administration’s failure to uphold the DACA program to basic standards.”

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump reignited his tariff agenda Friday by imposing new import taxes on products from dozens of top U.S. trading partners, immediately replacing temporary global tariffs he levied after the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a major blow to his sweeping “Liberation Day” duties.

As of Friday morning, American importers will now pay an extra 10% to 12.5% of a product’s value on most goods from nearly 60 countries, including Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan and the United Kingdom, among dozens more. The tariffs could affect 99.4% of imports, according to U.S. trade authorities.

The fresh round of import taxes, first announced late Thursday afternoon, replace a blanket 10% tariff on global goods under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which expired at midnight Friday. Those tariffs invited new legal challenges, including from Democratic-led states.

The latest tariffs were imposed after the Office of the United States Trade Representative allegedly found forced labor conditions in all of the economies investigated under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.

U.S. Trade Ambassador Jamieson Greer said in a statement Thursday that Trump “recognizes that decades of moral suasion have not eradicated forced labor from global supply chains.  The United States has had a forced labor import ban for nearly a century, and rigorously enforces it; it’s well past time for our trading partners to do the same.”

Supreme Court ruling

The Office of the United States Trade Representative announced two broad investigations in March, less than one month after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s unprecedented global tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, commonly called IEEPA. 

Shortly after the Supreme Court’s blow to his IEEPA tariffs, which he announced in early April 2025 on what he dubbed “Liberation Day,” the government was on the hook for roughly $166 billion in refunds to American importers who already paid the duties.

The latest batch of duties, in effect as of Friday, is the second round of import taxes the Trump administration announced this week. The White House introduced 50% tariffs on most Canadian imports Monday, triggering the duties under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930.

The Depression-era provision, which has never before been enforced, authorizes the president to impose duties up to 50% of a product’s value in response to discrimination against U.S. commerce.

States Newsroom has spoken with numerous small business owners since 2025 about the effects tariffs have on their capacity to keep prices steady, hire employees, invest in new equipment and inventory, and just generally remain in operation.

‘Ridiculously blunt’

Critics slammed the administration’s new series of sweeping duties on a large swath of the country’s imports.

Scott Lincicome, vice president for general economics at the libertarian Cato Institute, wrote Thursday the outcome of the Section 301 investigations were “clearly predetermined” and “both ridiculously blunt and wildly out of proportion to any measurable economic distortion.”

“And the whole thing establishes precedent for an ‘automatic tariff generator’ that Trump or a future president can deploy at will. It makes a mockery of a real issue and might poison legitimate reform. And Congress probably won’t do anything about it,” Lincicome wrote.

Some Republicans in the U.S. House rebuffed Trump’s tariff agenda in February, but legislative change has not emerged. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement Thursday the president has “has bled the inflation-battered American people dry with his tariffs.”

“Now he’s coming back for more. Trump’s chaotic tariff taxes have made life harder and more expensive for the American people. Families are paying more for everyday necessities. Small business owners are struggling to keep the lights on. Manufacturers are shedding jobs and farmers are getting squeezed. Meanwhile, Trump and his billionaire family and friends get richer on the backs of working families,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said.

The Yale Budget Lab estimates consumer prices could rise up to 1% under the new tariffs, increasing household costs by roughly $1,100.

If the duties remained in place, the U.S. would gain about $2 trillion in revenue over the next decade, though the number would likely be lower after accounting for negative impacts on the economy, according to the Yale Budget Lab.

Madison city officials attempted to hold a press conference Thursday after a police officer shot and killed a man, identified as Corey Ruiz, at a busy intersection on Williamson and Baldwin streets Wednesday. The briefing was derailed by a group of protesters who arrived and took over the podium, sparking a verbal altercation with Madison residents who also wanted to express their discontent and question Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, Police Chief John Patterson, and Common Council President Sabrina Madison. 

“My immediate concern, right now, is for the well-being of our community,” Rhodes-Conway said at the beginning of the press conference, speaking to reporters while local residents began taking seats in the small room. “I want to make sure that everyone who needs it has access to resources and mental health support. Those resources exist, and are available if you need them.” 

Rhodes-Conway urged residents to use the 9-8-8 hotline for urgent mental health support, or to text either “home” or “hola” to 741-741 to reach volunteer crisis counselors, or to contact the Dane County crisis hotline at 608-280-2609. 

The shooting triggered  outrage, anger and  grief among residents, especially those who witnessed it directly. 

Video taken by bystanders shows several officers wrestling Ruiz to the ground. While he is on the ground, one of the officers appears to fire several shots into Ruiz’s head at close range. The Madison Police Department does not have a universal body camera program, and Chief Patterson has pushed local elected officials to implement a body camera program in the 2027 budget. During the press conference Thursday, Patterson said a criminal homicide investigation has been opened in the shooting.

The shooting is being investigated by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation. Patterson said Wednesday that the officer who fired was injured by a fixed-blade knife Ruiz brandished. Patterson also said that officers had confronted Ruiz after responding to a call from someone in the neighborhood who said he was checking cars, but that Ruiz fled before they chased him to  the intersection. 

State law requires that officer-involved shootings be investigated by an outside agency in order to maintain objectivity and public trust. The investigations can take months, after which the case is handed over to a local district attorney who then determines whether an officer will be charged for the shooting. Madison residents, impatient for more information and still angry about the 2015 police shooting of Tony Robinson in the same neighborhood, are demanding a response from city officials.

“This is an incredibly difficult moment for the Madison community,” Rhodes-Conway said. “And I understand the very difficult emotions that people are feeling. I am feeling them too. As a city, as a community, as a society, we have to do better.” She added  that “it does not matter who you are, or what your past is, you should not lose your life as a result of an encounter with law enforcement. That should not happen.” 

“Like many in our community today, I have a lot of questions and concerns about what happened yesterday,” Rhodes Conway said, “what decisions were made by officers that led to escalation instead of de-escalation; what different choices could have been made to prevent harm; what needs to change — police policy, or training, or anything else — to prevent more deaths.”

Madison, the city council president, said Ruiz could have been any number of people, including people she knows and loves. She added that she has family members who have struggled with mental illness, homelessness, and that Black and brown children are taught by their parents how to interact with police in order to survive the encounter, something Madison said her white friends with children have no need to discuss with their own sons. Madison said that Ruiz “is a person, he’s a human being, he has a family, he has parents who loved him, you know, who brought him home, who cared for him, who poured into him.”

Watching the videos Madison said she could hear the sounds, she could hear officers yelling “taser,” and she can also hear the shots fired. Madison said she asked herself, “When the officer’s walking away, why isn’t he walking away in cuffs?” She said her thoughts are with Ruiz’s family because “his death is final, there is no coming back from death.” 

Madison, the mayor, and the police chief all called for a full, fair and transparent investigation. Madison also said that “we should be pushing and advocating for our district attorney to charge folks” and that people should engage with the district attorney, the Division of Criminal Investigation, the city’s independent police monitor, and the Police and Fire Commission. Madison encouraged residents to file complaints with those organizations, as well as the police department. “I think you should take every route for justice for Corey; I don’t think you should limit yourself.” 

Patterson said that he didn’t want to “rush past” the fact that Ruiz’s family and the community are grieving. He said that the Madison Police Department requested a full, independent criminal investigation. Patterson said that the Division of Criminal Investigation will release the name of the officer on its own timeline, and that the Madison Police Department has limited information about and involvement in the investigation. Recalling the words of retired former Madison Police Chief David Couper, Patterson said that police “cannot do the job unless you have the support of the community.” He added that Couper once wrote that “use of physical force by police is a sacred public trust…The more force a department uses, the less trust and support it has from the people it serves. The more force we use, the less trust we have.”

As Patterson spoke about the need to recognize  the trauma the community has experienced from  past shootings, Carlos LeMar Dixon of Milwaukee entered the room with a small entourage. Dixon yelled, “We can shut this down, you can stop talking!” 

“You’re going to say the same thing you all say every time a Black body gets shot down in this city,” Dixon yelled, adding, “Have no fear, the anti-Zionist is here!” 

Dixon continued yelling over the chief while walking to the podium, about imperialism and Zionism, asserting that he would not allow any public officials to speak or answer questions. Dixon also scolded reporters in the room to hear the briefing from public officials for not asking him questions instead. 

Some of Dixon’s supporters also yelled, helping him drown out the mayor, chief and common council president. Meanwhile some Madison residents in the room argued with Dixon, sparking a tense verbal confrontation as Dixon and members of his group hurled insults and threats at various people. Some of the Madison residents, while critical of the public officials at the briefing, demanded that Dixon either calm down or leave so that relevant questions could be asked. 

At one point after the chaotic exchange, Mayor Rhodes-Conway left and Patterson held the podium to answer questions. 

Patterson answered a question from the Examiner about whether officers are trained under Defense and Arrest Tactics to use the least amount of force necessary to overcome a threat, and whether officers who use deadly force must evaluate whether the threat is still present after each shot is fired. “There is a standard of a threat of great bodily harm or death that must be articulated to one’s self or someone else,” Patterson began. “And so that is a standard that [Division of Criminal Investigation] will be evaluating when they start, that is a standard that we use when we use our use of force review.” 

Under Defense and Arrest Tactics, there are several levels of force available to police officers including their mere presence, which can discourage criminal activity, less lethal force such as  tasers and deadly force. The standard for use of force is evaluated through the perspective of a hypothetical “reasonable officer” faced with the same situation, and questions whether such an officer would have used deadly force. Prior to shooting Ruiz, one of the four officers involved deployed a taser, which Patterson said was ineffective. 

The Examiner asked Patterson how the reasonable officer standard would apply when four officers are involved in a situation and only one officer chooses to use deadly force. Patterson declined to respond to that question citing the ongoing investigation. Patterson also said that the officer who fired was not a supervisor — such as a sergeant or lieutenant — but that he was a veteran officer with 11 years experience. He added that he did not have information about whether the officer who fired had a history of discipline or citizen complaints, but he did say that he’d never been involved in a deadly force incident before. 

Evening vigil 

More than 24 hours after the shooting, protesters still controlled the intersection where Ruiz was killed. Initial barricades of garbage bins and mattresses were reinforced by police blockades and Madison city snow plows.

Activists and community members held a vigil Thursday evening in the intersection with hundreds of people somberly listening as pained members of Madison’s Black community spoke, with chants of Ruiz’s name interspersed like the response in a prayer.

Juliana Bennett, a former Madison alder who is now running in the Democratic primary for the 76th Assembly District — which includes Willy Street — noted in a speech to the crowd that the killing of Ruiz took place six years after the police protests of 2020, which themselves took place six years after Madison police killed Tony Robinson, a few blocks west of the spot where the vigil was held, in 2015.

Bennett said that police killings are policy decisions and noted that in a liberal community such as Madison, police violence and racism are often met with “committee after committee, meeting after meeting,” and implored community members to continue pressing local officials for change. 

Small wonder nearly half of voters haven’t decided who to back in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin’s next governor. If you sent in your ballot early, you might have voted for the candidate who won the straw poll at the Democratic party convention only to flail her way through a dramatic public scandal, run out of money and quit. The latest Marquette Law School poll, released this week, still had her name as a candidate, but didn’t include the candidate who dropped out two weeks ago before getting back in the race with Gov. Tony Evers’ endorsement. 

Meanwhile, the frontrunner in poll after poll, as Baylor Spears reports, is Francesca Hong. 

Some Democrats are so sure Hong, as a democratic socialist, will lose in a general-election matchup with Republican Tom Tiffany they’re desperately hopping from horse to horse, searching for an alternative. One of those horses, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, stumbled badly and collapsed. Now we’ve got Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, whose late endorsement by Evers generated a backlash against the “Democratic establishment.”

Whoever’s running the “establishment’ might be overbearing, but they sure don’t seem to be adept at picking winners. Days after his reentry, Crowley is struggling with negative stories about crude posts to an old Twitter account.

The problem Democrats in Wisconsin face is less about party bosses behind the scenes calling the shots than it is lack of any organization. A little leadership from Evers earlier in the process might have staved off disaster.

At a minimum, he could have made up his mind to back Crowley before Crowley dropped out. He could have had painful but necessary conversations with Joel Brennan, Sara Rodriguez and Missy Hughes, the other members of his administration who campaigned at least partly on their association with him. “Look, I see a bright future for you in politics, but I’ve decided to go with Crowley in this race,” he might have said. Then Crowley (or whoever Evers decided to support) could have built some strength over the course of the campaign.

Instead, we have the current mess.

Wisconsin’s messy primary is also a symptom of Democrats’ general disarray. Unable to come up with a plan to effectively counter the frightening power of a violent, kleptocratic regime in Washington, they are waffling between trying not to alienate swing voters by sounding too radical versus tapping into the energy and outrage of the anti-Trump electorate.

Looking over their shoulders at the Republicans, several Democratic campaigns point to the millions of dollars in TV ads the Republican Governors Association bought featuring light criticism of Hong. The ads appear to be a transparent effort to boost Hong in the primary, since Republicans think they can beat her in the general election. So what? Hong appears to be winning the primary anyway, with or without the RGA boost, through her straight talk, superb social media strategy, grassroots ground game and the enthusiasm she’s generating, especially from young voters who don’t trust normal politicians and institutional Democratic party politics. 

That doesn’t mean she’s the best candidate to beat Tiffany. But instead of buying into the Republican political analysis, or as one Democrat did, running an ominous attack ad trumpeting that Hong is a “proud socialist!” (the horror!), Democrats should be trying to steal a page from Hong. That ugly ad, featuring photos of the three candidates of color, labeling them all unelectable, and then toggling to Joel Brennan, the only white guy in the race, is a good example of what Democratic primary voters want to reject.

It’s no surprise Hong is catching fire. People like candidates who say what they mean and aren’t afraid to be themselves, as opposed to candidates who seem to be trying to tell them what they want to hear or pretending to be just like them. They want to see courage and conviction in the face of bullying and corruption. They do not particularly like seeing Democrats tearing each other apart — especially not by drawing on the kinds of smug, bigoted attacks made by the other side. 

Imagine a Democratic party that includes democratic socialists and more middle-of-the-road candidates, promoting an uplifting message about protecting a decent society, functional government and human rights. 

That’s the vision people are hungry for. Wisconsin Democrats should not be afraid to serve it up. 

The union election of nurses at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison was certified Wednesday after a regional office of the National Labor Relations Board overruled the objections of the hospital’s parent company, SSM Health. 

On June 11, nurses at the hospital voted 89% to form a union. It was the largest representation election in Wisconsin in at least a quarter century. The nursing staff at St. Mary’s previously told the Wisconsin Examiner that they were seeking to form a union over concerns about procedures, staffing and compensation and a lack of responsiveness from hospital management. 

The St. Louis-based SSM Health had objected to the election, arguing that charge nurses at the hospital should not be allowed to vote or join the union because they hold a supervisory role. At the nearby Meriter Hospital in Madison, charge nurses are part of the union. 

The company had filed its objections about the charge nurses prior to the election but the NLRB had decided to delay ruling on the question and the charges nurses were allowed to vote but their ballots were kept separate. 

The hospital system’s objections included claims that the delayed decision affected the election results, that charge nurses engaged in pro-union electioneering, that the union caused disruptions to the hospital’s human resources staff, that a pro-union staffer brought cookies to the voting area and that union supporters tried to enter the voting area. 

Jennifer Hadsall, the director of the NLRB region that includes Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and parts of Iowa, wrote in her ruling that for most of the objections, the system did not include proof of the complaint or that the activity affected the election results. 

“I have concluded, for the reasons set forth in this decision, that the offer of proof produced by the Employer is not sufficient to meet its burden of showing that the proffered evidence would be grounds for setting aside the election if introduced and credited at a hearing,” Hadsall wrote.

While the election was certified, the board has still not ruled on the question of charge nurses joining the union. 

After the ruling, nurses at the hospital celebrated the decision and urged hospital management to stop working to prevent the unionization and instead start bargaining. 

“The Labor Board has spoken, our community has spoken, elected leaders have spoken, St. Mary’s nurses have spoken, and we have resoundingly declared that it’s time for SSM to respect our union vote so we can start working on solutions for our patients,” Zach Zahalka, a nurse in the hospital’s cardiac catheterization lab, said in a statement. “As nurses, this work is a calling, and our primary role is to be our patients’ advocates. Forming our union is an extension of that patient advocacy, and we urgently have to solve the crisis of understaffing and loss of experienced nurses at St. Mary’s.”

“SSM needs to stop trying to undermine our union,” he added, “and instead focus all their resources on engaging with us productively so that together we can create real solutions for better staffing and retention to provide the best care.”

Lisa Adams, a spokesperson for the hospital, said in a statement that the hospital is reviewing the decision. 

“SSM Health respects the federal labor law process. We have received the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) staff decision and are reviewing it,” she said.

WASHINGTON — One day after President Donald Trump attended the dignified transfer of the remains of four U.S. service members killed as a result of the Iran conflict, the two chambers of Congress were at odds over whether to rein in the president’s military powers in the monthslong war.

While members of the U.S. House approved a War Powers Resolution 214-208, with four Republicans joining all Democrats, lawmakers in the U.S. Senate rejected the measure by a slim margin of 47-49, though two senators who previously supported the measure did not vote.

Trump reignited the conflict earlier this month, rupturing a ceasefire during 60-day negotiations between the U.S. and Iran to end the war. The countries have since been trading rocket fire on a near-daily basis.

The most recent deaths of U.S. soldiers in the conflict bring the total killed to 18. Three service members were killed July 17 and July 18 in an Iranian strike at a U.S. airbase in Jordan, and a fourth was killed during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone July 19 at a U.S. base in Iraq. 

The dignified transfer, in which the remains of soldiers are transferred from an aircraft arriving from the theater of operations back to the United States, occurred at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The soldiers were identified by the Pentagon as:

• Army 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii
• Army Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas
• Army Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York
• Army Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina

Gas prices shoot back up

Economic fallout is also center stage again as Iran has choked off nearly all traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world’s petroleum traveled prior to the war. 

Oil reached over $100 a barrel Thursday, and AAA clocked gas prices at $4.09 a gallon across the U.S.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who prefers the title secretary of War, told Senate appropriators Tuesday the war has so far cost $37.5 billion. The administration has requested an additional $67 billion.

Dissident Republicans

House Republicans who sided with Democrats to stop Trump’s military action in Iran included Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Warren Davidson of Ohio and Tom Barrett of Michigan. 

In the Senate, Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky, who both voted “yes” for some or all of the dozen Iran War Powers Resolutions considered so far during the conflict, did not vote.

A spokesperson for Murkowski said the senator returned to Alaska Wednesday for a family emergency. Paul’s office did not immediately respond regarding the reason for his absence.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican locked in a tough reelection race, supported the measure Thursday.

As he has on all previous votes to curb the president’s war powers in Iran, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., opposed the resolution, which some argue is not legal.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in early May that the 1973 War Powers Resolution is “unconstitutional.” 

Congress overruled President Richard Nixon’s veto of the measure meant to rein in his actions during the Vietnam War.

According to Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell on Monday, 100 troops have been injured since July 7, and 96% have returned to work. 

The department’s Defense Casualty Analysis System only identifies five injuries during Operation Epic Fury in July, and 420 total since the conflict began Feb. 28.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Gov. Tony Evers sent a letter Thursday raising concerns about “severe delays” in the U.S. mail system threatening the delivery of absentee ballots during Wisconsin’s August and November elections. 

The letter to Postmaster General David Steiner and members of the USPS Board of Governors noted that many absentee ballots cast during the state’s April elections arrived to local clerks after Election Day and therefore went uncounted. The letter also pushes the board to reverse course on implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order to create a federal mail-in voting list that includes the personal information of absentee voters. 

Trump and Republicans have become increasingly hostile to mail-in voting in recent years — mostly due to unfounded complaints that they were the source of fraud that swung the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. 

Earlier this month, Evers also joined the governors of Illinois, California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington in writing a letter to the USPS leadership to oppose the Trump absentee voting order. 

The pair of Democrats noted that in 2024, 500,000 Wisconsin voters, 15% of all voters in the state, used mail-in ballots. Because Wisconsin is a swing state with especially close elections, they wrote, any delays “could very well tip the scales of the election.” 

“The Postal Service has a critical responsibility to ensure that election mail is handled with the urgency and reliability that voters, election officials, and the public rightly expect,” they wrote. “To meet this responsibility, USPS must address delays we saw in Wisconsin’s Spring Election and not move forward with the rule restricting vote by mail. Ensuring the timely delivery of election mail is essential to protecting every eligible Wisconsinite’s right to vote and maintaining public confidence in our elections. When ballots fail to arrive in time to be counted, voters are denied the opportunity to participate in our democracy through no fault of their own. These failures not only disenfranchise individual voters, but also erode trust in the reliability and fairness of our elections.”

They also noted that delays disproportionately affect rural voters in communities with fewer poll locations and absentee ballot drop boxes. 

Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Elections Commission released a list of best practices for absentee voting which included the recommendation that if voters are going to return their ballot by mail, it should be sent at least 10 days before the election. Ballots can also be returned directly to a voter’s municipal clerk’s office, to the voter’s polling place on Election Day or to an absentee ballot dropbox — in communities that use them. 

The Evers, Baldwin letter also notes that WEC sent a similar letter to the Postal Service leadership in May about the mail delays during the spring election. In that letter, the commission relayed the results of a survey of the state’s local election officials, which found that two-thirds of them reported problems with the mail. 

Wisconsin’s early in-person voting process also allows voters to request, fill out and return their ballots all at once at designated locations. For the August primary elections, early in-person voting begins July 28. For the November general election, early voting begins Oct. 30. 

Voters can request  absentee ballots sent to them by mail online at MyVote.WI.gov or by sending a letter or email to their local clerk that includes their full name, voting address, mailing address, the election in which they are voting and a copy of their photo ID.

WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. Senate tasked with advancing acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to be the nation’s top law enforcer on Thursday pushed the vote one week.

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s delayed vote to send the controversial nominee to the full Senate is “per standard committee practice,” according to a spokesperson for Chairman Chuck Grassley.

The Iowa Republican and the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., used the time that had been allocated for the vote to comment at length on Blanche’s nomination. Grassley then recessed the session because too many Republicans were absent, which he described as “kind of rude.”

Grassley praised the selection of Blanche and said the Justice Department under his leadership as deputy and acting attorney general “has protected Americans at every turn,” but that committee Democrats “like clockwork, sought to defame him.”

Democratic committee member Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey led a forum Wednesday featuring former Department of Justice officials and a survivor of abuse by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. 

The witnesses questioned Blanche’s fitness to lead the Justice Department following his handling of the Epstein files release, during which several victims’ identities were unmasked, and his role is establishing a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund as part of President Donald Trump’s settlement with his own administration’s IRS.

Durbin said Thursday he and fellow Democrats oppose Blanche, who worked as Trump’s personal defense lawyer prior to his appointment to the DOJ, because he “will continue to serve the interests of Donald Trump, not the American people.”

Sen. Darline Graham joins

Committee members were scheduled to address other business, including voting on federal judicial nominees in Ohio and Oklahoma, and approving subcommittee roles for Republican Sen. Darline Graham, sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. She was sworn in as a senator July 14 following the sudden death of her brother.

The committee meeting marked the first for Graham, who was not yet part of the panel when members questioned Blanche for nearly five hours during a confirmation hearing July 15. Her arrival on the GOP-led committee brings the split among members back to 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats and is likely a positive development for Blanche.

Nominations require a majority vote to advance to the Senate floor. All eyes are on whether committee Republicans Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who announced his retirement last year, and John Cornyn of Texas will support Blanche after Trump effectively ended both of their Senate careers.

Trump subjected Tillis to intense criticism for opposing the Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025 and said he would find candidates to oppose Tillis in his primary. Trump endorsed Cornyn’s primary opponent earlier this year.

Both Tillis and Cornyn pressed Blanche during his confirmation hearing about formally ending the “anti-weaponization” fund. 

While Cornyn was present at Thursday morning’s Judiciary Committee meeting, Tillis was one of several members missing. Grassley’s spokesperson attributed Tillis’ absence to a Senate Banking Committee meeting that convened just a half hour before the scheduled Judiciary Committee meeting. Tillis’ office did not immediately respond to a question about his absence.

Blanche was a prosecutor in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York from 2006 to 2014. 

He eventually left the Justice Department to work in private law and represented Trump as his personal defense attorney in three criminal cases in 2023 and 2024. 

Trump, with the approval of Senate Republicans, installed Blanche as deputy attorney general in March 2025. 

Trump announced Blanche as his pick for attorney general in early June, just over two months after former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s departure. 

Melissa and Mark Hortman were killed in less than 30 seconds on June 14, 2025, in a shocking act of political violence. 

But their quick deaths are of no comfort to their son, Colin Hortman, who on Thursday told a federal judge that he falls asleep every night picturing a waterfall of blood flowing down the stairs of his childhood home in Brooklyn Park. It’s the same image he awakens to. 

And his parents’ quick demise is of no comfort, he said, because the last thing his mother saw before she was killed was her husband and beloved dog shot multiple times.

Now, he has trouble recalling his parents without remembering the bullet holes in their bodies. 

The horror of the assassination and the impact of the attacks on Minnesota’s political system were detailed by the Hortman children, Colin and Sophie, as well as 12 other victims at the Minneapolis federal courthouse, who shared how their lives were shattered by the man sitting next to them in an orange jumpsuit: Vance Boelter. 

Boelter last month pleaded guilty to the murders of Melissa Hortman — the former Democratic House speaker and one of Minnesota’s most consequential legislative leaders — and her husband, Mark, as well as the shooting of state Democratic Sen. John Hoffman and his wife.

Thursday’s hearing signifies the final chapter in a year-long saga that has scarred the state and injected a new level of fear into politics. 

U.S. District Judge John Tunheim sentenced Boelter to two consecutive life sentences as well as an additional 40 years. There is no parole in the federal judicial system, so it’s extremely likely Boelter will spend the rest of his life behind bars. 

Tunheim said it’s the longest sentence he’s ever imposed on a person in the thousands of cases he’s heard over his career. 

“I believe it’s well-deserved,” Tunheim told Boelter.

Boelter read a short statement apologizing to the victims aloud in court: “To every person I have caused loss, pain, heartache, confusion, sadness or loneliness, I am truly sorry.”

Boelter previously pleaded guilty to all the government’s charges: two counts of stalking Melissa Hortman and John Hoffman; two counts of murder in the killings of the Hortmans; and two firearms offenses in the shootings of the Hortmans and the Hoffmans, and the attempted shooting of Hope Hoffman, who managed to call 911 amid the bloody attack.

He admitted in court that he planned the murders months in advance, recording the addresses of his victims and buying a highly realistic silicone mask to impersonate a police officer.

In the early hours of June 14, Boelter drove to the Hoffman home and shot John and Yvette Hoffman through the front door. He then drove to Rep. Kristin Bahner’s home in Maple Grove, but she was on vacation. Then he drove to Sen. Ann Rest’s home, where he was seen by a real police officer who assumed he was a cop conducting a welfare check. 

Next, he drove to the Hortmans’ in Brooklyn Park and parked his Ford Explorer with fake police lights turned on in their driveway. He rang the doorbell and said he was conducting a welfare check. He told Mark Hortman he needed to see Melissa, and then shot him. He shot Melissa multiple times as she tried to flee up the stairs. Boelter then shot her in the head. 

U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Daniel Rosen wrote in the government’s sentencing memo that Boelter “expressed great disdain” for the Democratic Party.

“And he knew that the Minnesota Legislature was so closely divided that by killing four state legislators, the inevitable result would be a shift in the balance of power in both legislative houses,” Rosen wrote. “The astonishing damage that Boelter caused to his victims and to the State of Minnesota will never be cured. Justice requires that Boelter never be free ever again.”

Bahner was the first to read aloud her victim statement. She told Boelter she would have opened the door if she were home that day because she trusts law enforcement. She told Boelter that he failed his mission because she was still alive, and he has strengthened her resolve to continue advocating for her constituents.

John Hoffman, Yvette Hoffman and Hope Hoffman also addressed Boelter. Hope Hoffman criticized the media, who in the aftermath of the shootings, incorrectly reported that Yvette Hoffman jumped on top of her to save her from Boelter’s bullets. 

John Hoffman read to Boelter several passages from the Bible, including Matthew 7:16: “By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”

These, Hoffman said, are “words of the faith the defendant claimed to represent.” 

He added: “(Boelter’s) actions spoke louder than any sermon he has ever preached.”

Many wiped away tears in the packed courtroom as legislators and family members told Boelter how his decision to kill their loved ones not only ruined their lives, but also irrevocably changed Minnesota.  

J. Carroll Hortman, Mark Hortman’s father, said that his daughter-in-law Melissa was witty and brilliant. She had a bright future, and she had yet to experience the joy of becoming a grandparent. 

“I believe she could have become the next governor of this state,” he said. 

Mark Hortman’s family, including his brother and his sister, told the judge they were upset that Boelter’s guilty plea deprived them of a trial and of the opportunity to see Boelter receive the death penalty. They hated the idea that Boelter would live a comfortable life in prison.

Carroll Hortman said he blamed Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, who he said did the country a disservice by agreeing to a plea deal. He also questioned why Brooklyn Park police on June 14 watched from afar as Boelter killed his son and went into the home and shot his daughter-in-law.

The Hortmans’ daughter Sophie Hortman said she had been working on her statement for the whole year since she lost her parents.

“I miss my mom. I miss my dad. I miss my best friends, and I miss believing in the goodness of humanity. The pain will never go away,” she said. 

She also detailed the agonizing decision to put down the family dog, Gilbert, who Boelter shot multiple times before killing Melissa Hortman.

On the morning of June 14, Sophie and Colin received conflicting information about whether Gilbert was alive and went to the veterinarian.

A vet wheeled Gilbert into the room on a metal tray. Colin started screaming when he saw Gilbert. He had been shot multiple times, including in the head. Despite his condition, Gilbert still flickered his tail when he saw the Hortman children, and he gave them kisses with his big tongue.

The Hortman children asked the vet if he would let his own dog live in Gilbert’s condition. The vet said no. 

“Colin and I agreed: Gilbert would want to be with his parents,” Sophie said. “I told him he would see mommy and daddy soon.”

More than 200 American mayors are calling on the federal government to reverse changes that will cost states billions and push millions of people off the food stamp program.

This week, the United States Conference of Mayors asked the U.S. Senate’s agriculture committee to reconsider the deep cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP,  enacted in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. In addition to imposing new eligibility and work requirements for recipients, the law will require states for the first time to fund some SNAP benefits themselves beginning in fall 2027.

The 210 mayors who signed a letter to Senate leaders said they are on the “front lines of a deepening food security crisis” and said the federal government should be expanding access to food, not creating new obstacles.

That letter was signed by Democratic and Republican mayors leading major cities such as Baltimore, Las Vegas, Oklahoma City and St. Louis, as well as smaller communities including Lima, Ohio; Manhattan, Kansas; and Muskegon, Michigan. The U.S. Conference of Mayors is a nonpartisan organization representing the more than 1,400 leaders of cities with populations of 30,000 or more.

“When we’re talking about how to make sure that our residents are fed, that is something that worries Republican mayors, it worries Democratic mayors, it worries independent mayors. It worries everybody,” Matt Tuerk, the Democratic mayor of Allentown, Pennsylvania, said in an interview with Stateline.

Tuerk, who leads the national organization’s Children, Health, and Human Services Standing Committee, said his constituents are already struggling with the high costs of housing, utilities and groceries. 

“Now they’re worrying about their ability to even pay for those needed groceries without those SNAP benefits,” he said. 

Already, more than 4 million Americans have lost SNAP benefits, putting more pressure on food banks and food pantries across the country.

Federal officials have argued that changes were necessary to root out fraud and waste from the food stamp program. 

Tuerk said philanthropic groups don’t have the resources to serve as the national safety net, and city and states are already facing tight budgets that cannot fill the void left from federal cuts. 

“And there’s no adequate replacement for food,” he said. “And I can say that as a kid who had a free lunch card … Without food stamps, I wouldn’t be where I am right now.”

The mayors are also asking Congress to delay implementation of new requirements that some experts expect could cost states more than $9 billion.

The new law will penalize states depending on their payment error rates — a technical calculation by the feds of SNAP overpayments and underpayments, not fraud. States with a payment error rate above 6% will have to fund 5% to 15% of their benefit payments. Previously, the feds provided the aid.

Last month, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement new error rate data was “further proof that state accountability is severely lacking” in the SNAP program.

But the mayors group said states need more time to improve their error rates and budget for additional costs.

“Rising costs of living, stagnant wages, and reduced federal support are converging to create conditions that municipal governments are increasingly challenged to address on their own,” the mayors’ letter said.

Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at khardy@stateline.org. 

The Trump administration has a new plan for teenagers learning about pregnancy: Beginning this summer, it will steer millions of dollars toward organizations that focus on anatomy, fertility tracking, hormonal production and “reproductive goals counseling.”

The plan will also emphasize abstinence from sex and the importance of marriage. 

In doing so, it will pivot away from programs that serve populations in areas with the greatest need and that use particular evidence-based programming to reduce teen pregnancies — and some say the new language puts a greater focus on planning for pregnancy rather than preventing it.

The new grant application terms are consistent with an approach called restorative reproductive medicine that has become popular among conservative groups, including those who identify with Make America Healthy Again initiatives.

The approach discourages the use of any type of contraception and instead focuses on fertility awareness methods, usually in the context of couples trying to get pregnant without medical intervention such as in vitro fertilization or other treatments. That typically means not using any birth control and instead tracking indicators such as cervical mucus, body temperature and other physical symptoms to monitor the menstrual cycle. 

Academic studies have repeatedly shown that abstinence-only approaches result in higher rates of teen pregnancy and births, even after adjusting for other socioeconomic factors.

Congress created the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program in 2010, and has renewed funding for it on a bipartisan basis over the past 16 years, including the 2026 budget bill, despite President Donald Trump’s office targeting the program for defunding. 

During that time, teen birth rates declined by about 72%, according to federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, and much of the drop in the overall national birth rate is because teen birth rates have fallen so sharply. Experts say more comprehensive sex education, better access to contraception for girls and general behavioral trends around sex explain that shift. 

Amy Friedrich-Karnik, director of federal policy at the reproductive rights-focused Guttmacher Institute, said the new language in the teen pregnancy program is similar to the new funding opportunity released for Title X, which is a more than 50-year-old grant program designed to help low-income populations receive reproductive healthcare.

“We do think that fertility awareness-based methods should be explained to patients and they should have the right to understand what those options are,” Friedrich-Karnik said, describing the administration’s approach. “But (patients) need to also be aware of the full options that are available and the pluses and minuses of every option that is out there.”

Body literacy modules

The intent of the program, according to the original law, was for grants to fund “medically accurate and age-appropriate programs that reduce teen pregnancy” and then to continue the programs shown to be most effective through rigorous academic evaluation. According to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs, those programs were developed for children and young adults between the ages of 10 and 24 and the people in their lives who support them.

Most of the grants that were canceled this year were programs implementing the methods proven effective in reducing teen pregnancy, while others were more research based, in which additional strategies are tested and refined. Several of those programs were canceled as well in states such as Louisiana, Texas and Washington.

A separate federal grant program called Sexual Risk Avoidance Education exists for abstinence-only programs, but the evidence-based criteria for Teen Pregnancy Prevention is much higher, said Rachel Fey, vice president of policy at national reproductive rights advocacy organization Power to Decide. She sees the new funding opportunity for teen pregnancy prevention as an extension of the sexual risk avoidance program — one of the pillars of the new description tells grantees to “incorporate sexual risk avoidance education.”

The funding notice requires applicants to pass an “alignment review” with agency priorities that is conducted by political appointees, a new process that the U.S. Office of Management and Budget is trying to implement for federal financial assistance across the government.

Applicants for the new teen pregnancy program are required to teach body literacy, including two distinct modules about anatomy and reproduction for girls and boys. 

Grace Stark, editor-in-chief of a Texas-based nonprofit called Natural Womanhood that promotes fertility awareness and restorative reproductive medicine, told Stateline by email that the new funding opportunity’s focus could be helpful, as it “encourages young people of both sexes to consider their reproductive goals now and in the future, and how their current health and lifestyle choices can impact those future goals.”

The female module must include instruction about the menstrual cycle and the patterns and key indicators of the phases of the cycle, and recognize ovulation as the “central event and primary indicator of hormonal health and fertility.” It must also include the advantages and disadvantages of “ovarian suppression” compared to approaches that address “root causes.” 

Restorative reproductive medicine focuses on identifying underlying conditions that contribute to infertility or other reproductive health-related problems, according to the International Institute of Restorative Reproductive Medicine. It refers to conventional approaches that use treatments that “suppress normal physiology,” such as various forms of birth control, and claims that RRM works with the body to treat problems. 

Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi introduced a bill in Congress in 2025 that would have directed federal health agencies to promote such training for medical students and professionals through existing funding opportunities in Title X and the HHS Office of Population Affairs. That bill didn’t advance.

Joely Pritzker, who has been a family nurse practitioner for more than 20 years and is the senior director of healthcare for Power to Decide, said the “ovarian suppression” language likely refers to one of the most common ways birth control works, which is to temporarily suppress ovulation. Typically, in medical practice, ovarian suppression refers to lowering the estrogen produced by the ovaries, sometimes to prevent or treat breast cancer.

Pritzker said most people in the reproductive health world would support the idea of teaching young people about their bodies, but said it comes down to how that information is interpreted and applied, and that the new program design is unclear about those intentions. Not wanting to use hormonal birth control is different from discouraging the use of it entirely, she said.

“I genuinely don’t know what (body literacy) means to the folks who wrote these proposals, other than based on everything else we know, there is an assumption that if people knew more about their bodies, they would choose not to use, for example, hormonal birth control,” Pritzker said, adding that the assumption is false.

Stark, of Natural Womanhood, said body literacy can help young people notice signs of reproductive health issues,“which (restorative reproductive medicine)-trained healthcare professionals can help diagnose and treat to improve current health and protect future fertility — and future reproductive health plans.”

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists warns against leaning on restorative reproductive medicine in fertility discussions, saying it can be “ineffective and redundant” and unnecessarily delay a patient in seeking medical treatment when it is presented as the sole or best approach. 

The male health module, according to the federal grant funding notice, includes an emphasis on understanding how testosterone is a hormone that is responsive to sleep, physical activity and environmental factors. Instruction must include the physiology of arousal, and address how “repeated or artificially stimulated arousal may affect neural development and behavior over time,” seemingly referring to masturbation.

Testosterone has been a heavy focus of the Trump administration. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. frequently refers to lower sperm counts among men, including teen males, despite no scientific evidence backing up those claims when it comes to young men. He cites it as a reason for birth rates that have remained flat or lowered slightly every year since 2015, though experts say the lower national birth rate is actually because of the lower teen pregnancy and birth rates. 

U.S. Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also announced last week that military men over the age of 30 would receive annual testosterone level checks, which doctors say could actually be counterproductive to military readiness and could risk infertility. 

The teen pregnancy prevention programs must also include counseling on reproductive goals, and “should affirm marriage and parenthood as meaningful and value components of adult life,” the federal description says.

New recipients could include crisis pregnancy centers 

Ginger Mullaney, CEO of former youth services grantee Healthy Futures of Texas, said its nearly $2 million grant funded 11 programs that served various populations, including young in foster care, and runaway and unhoused youth. The grant was cancelled, which shocked her, she said, because the group had already adapted all of its materials and programs to comply with new executive orders around diversity, equity and inclusion and other administration priorities. The new curriculum had been approved.

“We felt like we had already made all the necessary changes to comply,” Mullaney said.

Earlier this month, Healthy Futures was still deciding whether it would apply for the new round of funding. It’s not an easy task, she said, in part because the government documents no longer include a list of approved programs that qualify for the funding. Mullaney said there used to be a list of more than two dozen programs that the agency approved because they had been academically evaluated for effectiveness, but that list is gone now. However, the instructions still tell applicants they must use an evidence-based program. 

“We don’t know what (programs are) considered evidence based,” Mullaney said.

The new funding opportunity also awards more points to applicants that have never been awarded funds before.

Alison Macklin, director of public affairs at sex ed advocacy group SIECUS, said based on what she has seen at the local level, the new funding opportunity is paving the way for crisis pregnancy centers to apply for and receive federal dollars. 

Crisis pregnancy centers are anti-abortion organizations that typically offer free ultrasounds, pregnancy tests and parenting classes with a religious mission, and most often do not provide or refer for contraception. States Newsroom found earlier this year that the centers have received nearly $500 million in taxpayer dollars from state and federal sources since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“They’ve been given an inch, so they’re trying to take a mile, is what it seems to me,” Macklin said.

‘Losing trusted relationships’

In mid-May, staff at Children’s Aid said they expected their $936,700 Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grant to be renewed for another year after meeting with U.S. Health and Human Services and receiving nothing but positive feedback about their program. It was eligible for funding through 2028.

But at the end of June, they received another letter letting them know the grant was canceled, effective immediately.

“It was an overnight shutdown with no transition period for staff, or for young people that were relying on these resources,” said Rhonda Braxton, vice president of health and wellness at Children’s Aid, a 170-year-old organization in New York City.

It was one of 53 grantees that received letters from the federal government agency notifying them that their funding had been terminated without notice. Most were told their programs were now misaligned with federal agency priorities and that they normalized sexual activity for minors. Three affected grantees and SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change filed a lawsuit challenging the action on July 14. 

Braxton said the abrupt termination is expected to result in nine people losing their jobs, six of whom worked full time, and will affect the 1,200 young people who were served each year in areas such as the South Bronx, Harlem and Washington Heights. A group of high school-aged peer educators also found themselves suddenly without the summer job they’d planned to have with Children’s Aid.

“These young people are losing trusted relationships in an era of misinformation and distrust,” Braxton said.

She said they’ve made the decision not to apply for the new funding because it seems to be aligned with promoting abstinence-only initiatives, and, “Our experience has been that that’s not evidence-based programming.”

Stateline reporter Kelcie Moseley-Morris can be reached at kmoseley@stateline.org.

A federal immigration judge heard arguments Wednesday from attorneys in a deportation hearing for Salah Sarsour, the president of Milwaukee’s Islamic Society. Earlier this year, Sarsour was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and then detained in an Indiana facility for months. Sarsour was released in June following a federal judge’s ruling that his arrest constituted First Amendment retaliation due to his advocacy for Palestinians and his criticism of the Israeli government. 

The Wednesday hearing, which ran all day before being adjourned until next week, was to determine whether Sarsour’s deportation order can be upheld. Sarsour has lived in the U.S. with no criminal record for decades, and is considered a local community leader. Sarsour became a lawful permanent resident in 1998 when his application was approved under Republican president George W. Bush in 2002. 

After his arrest, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused Sarsour of lying on his 1993 green card application, asserting that Sarsour was convicted in Israeli military courts of throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli soldiers. The department also cites other accusations by Israeli authorities that Sarsour “illegally attempted to possess” weapons and ammunition. Sarsour’s family members have said that he would tell stories of being tortured to confess while in Israeli detention. Prosecutors repeatedly referenced detentions and accusations from Israeli authorities against Sarsour during 1988 and 1995.

Those accusations, and the context of what living under Israeli military occupation means for Palestinians in the West Bank, were examined in court Wednesday. Defense attorneys first called Sarsour’s older brother Mohammad, a U.S. citizen who is married and lives in Oak Creek. Mohammad testified that he helped his brother retain a well-known lawyer in the West Bank when Sarsour was arrested. He denied ever seeing Sarsour ever provide support to terrorists of any kind, and recalled that Sarsour went through three or four Israeli military court hearings.

“Every time I saw him, I noticed weight loss and also discoloration in his eyes, redness, yellowish,” said Mohammad Sarsour, speaking through an Arabic translator, although he also understood English. “And had a discolored, faded face color. He looked like he was unable to take showers so his hair was sticking on his head.” There were other signs that his brother was not being provided proper hygiene access, and that he “complained to the court of pain in his knee and back.” Mohammad said that the Israeli authorities would not allow them to talk to Sarsour, but that at one point a member of the Israeli secret service told Mohammad and Sarsour’s wife to persuade him to plead guilty. 

Prosecutors raised questions about Mohammad’s ability to remember those events from decades ago. Mohammad couldn’t remember the exact dates of the hearings. Prosecutors questioned why an Israeli military official would tell them to get Sarsour to plead guilty if they generally weren’t allowed to talk to him. “They [Israeli authorities] can do whatever they want,” he said on the stand. Mohammad was also asked by prosecutors whether he loved his brother and didn’t want to see him be deported, which Mohammad affirmed.

Defense attorneys also called Alan Hirsch, an expert in false confessions and chair of the Justice & Law Studies Program at Williams College. Prosecutors spent an extended period of  time trying to convince the judge, unsuccessfully, that Hirsch was not qualified to testify as an expert in false interrogations, particularly as his direct knowledge of Israeli interrogation practices would be limited. Hirsch testified that Israeli authorities, based on his own studies, were “using aggressive interrogation tactics” during the time when Sarsour was detained. He said that there’s no evidence that Sarsour’s confession either generated new evidence or corroborated existing evidence, and that when Sarsour was initially detained in 1988 he was a juvenile, one of the groups most vulnerable to giving false confessions. 

Another defense witness had a much more extensive knowledge of Israeli treatment of Palestinians. Sari Bashi, an Israeli lawyer and human rights investigator, testified remotely, from Israel, where it was late at night when she was called to give her testimony. Bashi has an extensive knowledge of what Palestinian prisoners go through in Israeli detention and military courts. She pointed out that Sarsour’s 1988 arrest occurred shortly after the First Intifada, a sustained period of uprising and protest by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Prosecutors attempted to undermine her credibility as an expert, casting her as overly sympathetic to Palestinians, and saying she was too young to have known first-hand what Israeli practices in 1988 were. 

Bashi said that Israel holds the West Bank under “belligerent occupation,” where the local military commander serves as the executive, lawmaker, judge and executor of law. Military orders dictate what is considered a crime in the West Bank, and Palestinians can be detained without charge for long periods of time. Sometimes evidence against the accused is considered secret, and proceedings and documentation are in Hebrew, which few Palestinians speak and even fewer can read. “The system lacks very basic due process standards,” said Bashi. “So arrests are the norm, even for children.” Conviction rates in Israeli military courts against Palestinian civilians are over 90 percent. 

Under this regime, Palestinian people often receive very vague charges for organizing community activities, public disorder, association, or writing a liberation slogan on a wall, Bashi testified. “There can be almost no limit to what that association can look like,” she said. This was especially true during the First Intifada, a period during which Bashi said that hundreds of thousands of people were detained by Israeli authorities.

Bashi said that Israeli forces used euphemisms such as “moderate physical pressure,” “threats,” and “severe psychological pressure” to describe tactics which she and other international experts would simply call “torture.” During testimony she listed a variety of interrogation tactics including violent shaking; prolonged stress positions, beatings, sexual violence such as forced nudity, hitting of genitals, or rape threats, temperature torture, exposure to foul smells and human bodily fluids, being forced to hear the screaming of other tortured detaines, sleep deprivation, the targeted arrest and threating of loved ones and choking. 

“People will do whatever they think will get them out, released, as quickly as possible,” said Bashi. “They just want to make that stop.” Reviewing the Israeli records provided for the hearing, Bashi said that she can only see pending charges for membership in unlawful associations and helping wanted people as of 1995 for Sarsour. Based on the records she reviewed, it wasn’t clear to Bashi whether Sarsour had ever been convicted of weapons charges. She also pointed out that he was kept in detention for a matter of months, which is “pretty short” compared with  a typical Israeli detention experience. “It would seem inconsistent with somebody who they truly believed was providing assistance” to terrorists, Bashi said. 

Prosecutors asked Bashi whether she was aware of accusations as described in Sarsour’s immigration records. She said she was not. Bashi only reviewed Israeli records. Prosecutors also targeted Bashi’s statements that high conviction rates may indicate some sort of problem like torture, citing high conviction rates in America. Bashi said that whenever there are exceedingly high conviction rates, it’s worth asking why that is. She said that while she doesn’t know Sarsour, everything he described in terms of being tortured by Israeli forces to produce a confession is  “extremely common” among Palestinians. 

Correction: A previous version of this story mistakenly described Sarsour’s application for permanent residency as a “naturalization” application, which would have been an application for citizenship, not permanent residency. We regret the error.

WASHINGTON — Former career Department of Justice officials and a survivor of abuse by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein sounded the alarm Wednesday on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s fitness to lead the Department of Justice, one day ahead of a scheduled committee vote to advance his nomination to the full Senate.

The narrow committee divide, razor-thin after the death of the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, could mean the vote will hinge on two Republican senators spurned by President Donald Trump, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas.

The former DOJ staffers and Epstein survivor testified on Capitol Hill, at a forum held by Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats. 

They said Blanche’s relationship with Trump and his “mind-boggling” involvement in the president’s recent settlement with the IRS, as well as the botched release of the Epstein files, disqualifies him from becoming the nation’s top enforcer of the law.

“I don’t know what happened, but he is certainly not the person that I once worked with,” said Perry Carbone, a former federal prosecutor who worked alongside Blanche in the Southern District of New York, where Blanche served from 2006 to 2014.

Blanche eventually left the Justice Department to work in private law. He represented Trump as his personal defense attorney in three criminal cases in 2023 and 2024. Trump, with the approval of Senate Republicans, installed Blanche as deputy attorney general in March 2025. 

Trump announced Blanche as his pick for attorney general in early June, just over two months after former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s departure. 

The Department of Justice did not respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment on the hearing.

IRS deal, Minnesota probe

Carbone listed a number of reasons he believes should preclude Blanche from leading the department, including “the extraordinary IRS settlement,” the prosecution of the president’s political adversaries “on evidence that raises serious doubt about the bona fides of those cases” and efforts to “halt or interfere” with the Minnesota state investigation into the shooting deaths of U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents.

Carbone also highlighted Blanche’s “declaration of war on our judges” and the interview and relocation of Epstein co-conspirator and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell “for what appear to be political reasons.”

“We repeat a mantra daily so that no one forgets it: ‘We do the right thing in the right way for the right reasons.’ It’s not my place to say whether the nominee has forgotten that credo. That judgment belongs to the committee. I can only tell you what I’ve observed and why it troubles someone who spent a career trying to live by that credo,” Carbone said.

He added that Blanche’s firing of department officials who investigated Trump and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, “undermines” public confidence.

“Even the appearance of retaliation for doing one’s job sends a chilling message throughout the department,” Carbone added.

Firings, resignations

Peter Carr, a longtime department spokesperson fired by Blanche in April 2025, estimated the department has lost 19,000 employees, including 30% of its attorneys and 10% of its FBI special agents.

“That includes those who were fired, but also those who’ve been pushed out or chose to leave,” said Carr, who worked as a spokesperson for special counsel Jack Smith’s office during the Biden administration. He first joined the DOJ in 2007 under President George W. Bush.

Elizabeth Stein, an Epstein abuse survivor, expressed anger that victims’ names and images were disclosed when the DOJ published the Epstein files online, as legally mandated after Congress nearly unanimously passed legislation to force the release.

“When the Epstein files were released earlier this year, my own name was left unredacted in a sentence that read in part, ‘Stein was a victim of Epstein and Maxwell in the mid-90s.’ It doesn’t get much clearer than that,” said Stein, now a human trafficking specialist and survivor advocate for World Without Exploitation.

“The name of the school I attended, where I worked, and portions of my home address were also publicly disclosed. The very institution Congress charged with protecting survivors instead exposed us.”

‘Typical’ terms

Carbone also spoke at length about Blanche’s involvement in Trump’s settlement with the IRS. 

In exchange for Trump and his family dropping a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS for the 2019 leak of tax returns, the DOJ ordered the establishment of a settlement fund in the amount of nearly $1.8 billion.

Blanche defended the settlement terms as “typical” during his confirmation hearing with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 15.

“If this is not standard language, can you make that point for us? I think it’s really important to draw that out,” Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., asked Carbone.

The former federal prosecutor, whose career spanned 30 years, said under normal circumstances the IRS would tailor language only specifically to the matter of litigation, and possibly calculate a settlement sum.

“That’s not what this is. Some of this language is mind-boggling, and I have it here in front of me … One of the subcategories is relating to ‘lawfare and/or weaponization.’ What does that mean?” Carbone said.

Booker said the “totality of the evidence is staggering” against Blanche’s nomination.

“I want to let you all know very clearly and unequivocally that if there were just some of these issues, they would be enough to be disqualifying. … This man has had an impact already in his deputy role and now in his acting role,” Booker said at the close of the hearing.

Dramatic vote ahead

Whether Blanche’s nomination advances from the Senate Judiciary Committee depends on whether every Republican on the panel, split 11-10, supports him.

Those campaigning against Blanche’s confirmation are targeting two members — Tillis, who is retiring at the end of his term, and Cornyn.

Trump subjected Tillis to intense criticism for opposing the Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025 and said he would find candidates to oppose Tillis in his primary. Trump endorsed Cornyn’s primary opponent earlier this year.

Just over two dozen survivors affected by abuse by Epstein and Maxwell sent a letter Tuesday to Tillis and Cornyn.

“We understand that both of you remain open to opposing his nomination, and we are asking you to stand with survivors of human trafficking and sexual assault at this critical moment,” the survivors wrote.

“Under Todd Blanche’s leadership, the Justice Department released survivors’ names, identifying information and images while the names of alleged abusers and enablers remained hidden. More than a thousand women and girls were abused, yet no one beyond Epstein and Maxwell has been prosecuted.”

The women wrote that Blanche met with them following his confirmation hearing, but that it amounted to “an hour of deflection, interruption and gaslighting.”

“Senator Tillis, when you urged Todd Blanche to meet with survivors, we believed you expected a serious and meaningful conversation. What occurred instead was a box-checking exercise arranged only after his confirmation was put at risk,” they wrote.

Common Cause North Carolina, a state arm of the national progressive advocacy group, urged Tillis in early July to vote against Blanche, who the group’s director, Brooks Fuller, said “has shown the only person he is interested in protecting and defending is President Donald Trump.”

The advocacy organization joined with other groups, including North Carolina for the People and The Justice Project, to deliver messages to Tillis’ office on July 6, according to organizers.

Tillis’ office did not respond to States Newsroom’s request for a response. Cornyn’s office said it did not have a comment at this time.

WASHINGTON — Education experts and advocates warned Wednesday that the recent federal student loan system overhaul stemming from the GOP’s mega tax and spending cut law will drive borrowers to private lenders and could derail their higher education plans. 

U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Education and Workforce, convened a panel to blast the sweeping loan changes, as well as separate, ongoing efforts from President Donald Trump’s administration to dismantle the Education Department and its impact on the federal student aid system. 

“Student loan debt now exceeds $1.7 trillion. Borrowers need clear guidance and certainty,” Scott said. “Instead, they’re forced to deal with uncertainty and chaos created by an administration that has systematically weakened the federal student aid system.”   

Scott criticized Education’s plans to transfer core student aid functions to the Treasury Department. Under an interagency agreement, or IAA, announced in March, Treasury will take over Education’s responsibility for collecting on defaulted federal student loan debt in what marks the first step in a multi-phase process toward Treasury taking on the entire federal student loan portfolio. 

The Virginia Democrat said Treasury “has no expertise serving students or institutions of higher education or monitoring servicers for accuracy.” 

Meanwhile, the Education Department finalized regulations — most of which took effect July 1 — that implement sweeping student loan system changes outlined in the GOP’s “big, beautiful” law.

Scott said that the sweeping changes to the federal student loan system originating from that law are “compounding the issues that have risen from the dismantling of the Education Department.” 

Borrowing limits

Among the major changes are new loan limits for graduate and professional students, a restructured repayment system that gives new borrowers only two plans to choose from and the elimination of a key loan program for graduate and professional students that allowed for unlimited borrowing.

Wil Del Pilar, senior vice president at the nonprofit policy and advocacy group EdTrust, said the mega tax and spending cut law “restricts access to federal graduate lending, pushing many borrowers, especially those from low-income and middle-income backgrounds, many of whom are students of color, into the hands of private banks.” 

Del Pilar, who was deputy secretary of postsecondary and higher education for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, said that would present a series of challenges for borrowers. 

“That means higher interest rates, fewer consumer protections, stricter credit requirements, and flat-out denials for some, forcing those students to halt their educational journey,” he said.

Access to graduate education 

Clare McCann, managing director of policy and operations at the Postsecondary Education and Economics Research Center, said her organization was “very concerned that for many borrowers who want to continue to pursue a graduate education, that they will find themselves locked out of the private market or unable to access affordable loans without a qualified cosigner.” 

McCann, whose organization is housed at American University, added that the center’s research suggested almost 40% of student borrowers subject to the new caps have either poor or no credit scores, making them unlikely to be able to borrow money in the private market without a cosigner.

McCann noted that allowing largely unlimited graduate lending is “unwise” and “puts both students and taxpayers at risk,” while calling on Congress to “allow students to borrow enough to make high-return investments in themselves, so long as their loans remain affordable and repayable based on the salaries students should expect.” 

Ellen Keast, a spokesperson for the department, defended the student loan system overhaul, in a statement shared with States Newsroom on Wednesday. 

“Blank checks to universities resulted in tuition skyrocketing for American students and families. Mass student loan forgiveness failed in nearly every courtroom it entered. The student loan portfolio is at a fiscal cliff because the last Administration perpetrated the lie that students do not need to repay their loans,” Keast said. “The Trump Administration is righting these wrongs – all while implementing historic reforms to federal student aid that will drive down the cost of college and simplify student loan repayment.”

In the center of a busy intersection on Williamson and Baldwin Streets in Madison, Wisconsin, several officers from the Madison Police Department wrestled a man to the ground in the early afternoon Wednesday, used a taser on him and then shot him at close range. Unable to cross the intersection, several vehicles stopped and their drivers got out to film the arrest. In videos posted online, residents can be heard screaming in shock and anger. Hundreds of protesters converged on the scene Wednesday evening and marched downtown, interrupting the Concert on the Square. Protest speakers identified the man as Corey Ruiz and a crowd of hundreds of people chanted his name. 

Madison Police Chief John Patterson held a press conference Wednesday, urging residents to keep the Willy Street neighborhood in mind and the “historical trauma” that arises when officer-involved shootings occur. Patterson said that officers responded to a call concerning a person apparently checking parked vehicles. When officers encountered the man he fled on a bicycle, riding through backyards until he lost the officers. They caught up with him again, at which point the man “either fell off or was taken off the bicycle by officers,” Patterson said. 

During the struggle, Patterson said the man produced a “fixed blade knife,” injuring one of the officers who then fired his weapon multiple times. Patterson described the officer as a “veteran” who was the only officer to fire out of the four who were involved in the struggle. Video also shows one of the officers seemingly stomping the man while he was on the ground as the first shot was fired.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) is leading the investigation into the shooting. Wisconsin law dictates that officer-involved shootings must be investigated by an outside, uninvolved agency to maintain objectivity. After the investigation is over, which may take weeks or months, a local district attorney reviews the findings and decides whether or not to charge an officer for the shooting. Such charges are exceedingly rare in Wisconsin.

Due to the ongoing investigation Patterson declined to  answer questions about the details of the shooting  Wednesday. Madison police officers do not have body cameras, and Patterson has pushed for body cameras to be included in the 2027 city budget. Patterson said that the man’s family had been notified before he spoke with the media, and he expressed  his sympathies to them. 

Democratic primary candidates in the governor’s race issued statements about the shooting. Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) said that the police had “killed a Black man just a few blocks from our campaign office and just a few blocks from where Madison police murdered Tony Robinson in 2015.” Hong said that she is “horrified and devastated” and that her heart “goes out to his loved ones and everyone who witnessed this tragic event.” Hong said that all police footage of the shooting needs to be preserved and released, and that questions need to be asked of the police department as to why its officers could not de-escalate the situation. 

Milwaukee County Executive and Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley said, “I am horrified by the reports coming out of Madison about a man who was shot and killed in the street by police officers. While details are still emerging and a full accounting of what happened is still needed, these reports are painfully reminiscent of the tragedies in Kenosha, Minneapolis, and far too many communities across our country. Each incident reopens deep wounds, raises difficult questions, and reminds us of the urgent work that remains to build trust, transparency, and accountability in our systems.” Crowley said his “heart is with the individual’s loved ones, who are now facing an unimaginable loss, and with the entire Madison community as it grapples with this tragedy.”

Joel Brennan, another Democratic primary candidate, said that Madison “deserves a full, transparent, and independent accounting of what happened.” Brennan added that “no family should have to wait for answers, no community should have to wonder whether the truth will come out. The Wisconsin DOJ investigation must be allowed to do its work completely and without interference.”

State Sen. Kelda Roys, another candidate in the primary, said, “Let this city wrap its arms around Corey’s family and loved ones, and demand justice for him and them and all of us. There must be a full, independent investigation and the responsible officers held fully accountable under the law, as required by Wisconsin statute. The Department of Justice should serve as the lead investigator to ensure fairness and impartiality. We do not have to accept this as normal or inevitable. It is NOT. No other country in the world tolerates this level of police violence. We can and must create a more just, safe world for all of us.”

Melissa Agard, Dane County Executive, said, “our community is once again confronting the profound consequences that follow when a life is lost in an encounter with law enforcement.” Agard said, “this is not just another headline, this is someone’s child. A family is grieving an unimaginable loss, and our hearts are with them, with everyone affected by this tragedy, and with the bystanders and emergency personnel who responded to an incredibly difficult situation.” Agard said that every police shooting “shakes the public trust and leaves our community searching for answers.” She added, “we cannot become numb to these tragedies or accept them as inevitable.”

Ruth Conniff contributed to this report.

Updated on Thursday, July 23 at 8:04 a.m.