​"Evers' judges" is our effort to present information about Gov. Tony Evers' appointees to the bench. The information is taken from the appointees' own judgeship applications.   Italics indicate direct quotes from the application.​ Bold type within italicized answers comes from the original application. Typos, including punctuation errors, come from the original application even though we have not inserted “(sic)” after each one. WJI has left them as is. Name: Lena C. Taylor   Appointed to: Milwaukee County Circuit Court   Appointment date: Jan. 26, 2024, to a term ending July ..read more

By Alexandria Staubach Evan Goyke is being sworn in as Milwaukee city attorney today during a ceremony at city hall. Goyke recently won election to the position after challenging incumbent Spencer Tearman.   Tearman’s administration has been embroiled in controversy since his election in 2020, with accusations ranging from sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment to, most recently, an inspector general report that found that Tearman’s deputy city attorney, Odalo Ohiku, may have continued to do private legal work while serving as deputy.   Readers in Wisconsin’s 18th ..read more

By Alexandria Staubach On April 4, the Dane County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved doubling the daily wage rate paid to in-custody workers at the county jail. Incarcerated persons at the jail previously earned a wage of $3 per day for their work. Resolution 382 lifts the wage to $6 per day. The county said in the resolution that the prior rate was "insufficient” and that it would seek additional means to improve wages and combat poverty upon reentry for incarcerated persons, calling the wage raise an “interim step.” The Dane County resolution recognizes that most correctional fa ..read more

Gov. Tony Evers, Wisconsin Judicial Council members, and Legislature staff members at the signing of 2023 Wis. Act 245 on Mar. 27, 2024. By Margo Kirchner   Wisconsin courts will now accept written declarations instead of notarized affidavits in civil litigation.   A new law eliminates the need for a notary’s signature and stamp on various documents in civil proceedings. Rather than swearing to the truth of written statements before a notary, a person may now “declare under penalty of false swearing under the law of Wisconsin” that what they are signing is true.   The law shou ..read more

For those following WJI's candidate questionnaires or interested in judicial elections across the state, here are the results of yesterday's 10 contested races according to unofficial results posted online today: Roger Klopp defeated incumbent Troy Cross in Columbia County (by 386 votes) Jennifer Moeller defeated Brett Reetz in Door County Heather Iverson defeated incumbent Frank Gagliardi in Kenosha County Incumbent Mark Huesmann defeated Candice Tlustosch in La Crosse County Marisabel Cabrera defeated Rochelle Johnson-Bent in Milwaukee County Mary Sowinski defeated Michael Fugle in Oneida ..read more

The Wisconsin Supreme this morning denied a motion by the Wisconsin Elections Commission seeking clarification on what maps apply to recall and special elections.   The court issued the order in the Clarke redistricting case. The court stated in the order that “(o)n December 22, 2023, we enjoined the ‘Elections Commission from using [the prior] legislative maps in all future elections’ because the maps violated the Wisconsin Constitution.”   The Legislature then passed redistricting maps proposed by Gov. Tony Evers. On Feb. 19, 2024, Evers signed them into law as 2023 Wisconsin Act ..read more

​"Evers' judges" is our effort to present information about Gov. Tony Evers' appointees to the bench. The information is taken from the appointees' own judgeship applications.   Italics indicate direct quotes from the application.​ Bold type within italicized answers comes from the original application. Typos, including punctuation errors, come from the original application even though we have not inserted “(sic)” after each one. WJI has left them as is. Name: Frank Gagliardi   Appointed to: Kenosha County Circuit Court   Appointment date: Nov. 30, 2023, to term ending July 31 ..read more

​"Evers' judges" is our effort to present information about Gov. Tony Evers' appointees to the bench. The information is taken from the appointees' own judgeship applications.   Italics indicate direct quotes from the application.​ Bold type within italicized answers comes from the original application. Typos, including punctuation errors, come from the original application even though we have not inserted “(sic)” after each one. WJI has left them as is. Name: Toni L. Young   Appointed to: Racine County Circuit Court   Appointment date: Nov. 30, 2023, to term ending July 31, 20 ..read more

By Gretchen Schuldt Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday signed a bill allowing Wisconsin judges to take court action against people or businesses that post on the internet publicly available judicial officers’ personal information without the judges’ consent.  Even their marital statuses could be off limits.  Generally, under the First Amendment, governments cannot tell people what information they can or cannot post or share. But this law gives individual judges the private right of action to have the information removed from the Internet. Judges from around the state supported the bil ..read more

In Racine County, Jessica Lynott challenges recently appointed incumbent Judge Toni L. Young for the Branch 3 position. The election is April 2. Before her appointment as circuit judge, Young was the attorney manager for the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office in Janesville. She graduated from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School (formerly Thomas M. Cooley Law School) in 2005. Lynott is an assistant district attorney in the Racine County District Attorney's Office. She graduated from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 2003. Her resume is here. WJI asked each of ..read more