Jessica Mcbride

Corey Proulx, the 49-year-old youth counselor at Lincoln Hills who was killed after the Department of Corrections says a 16-year-old inmate assaulted him and another staffer, was remembered on June 26 for his compassion and smile. “It is with tremendous sadness and regret that I announce the loss of a dedicated professional, colleague, and friend in the line of duty,” said Jared Hoy, Department of Corrections (DOC) secretary, in a news release . “A career in corrections, with its dual mission to protect the public and guide individuals toward rehabilitation, can be demanding and requires so many sacrifices for our staff and our families, and Corey made the ultimate sacrifice. Our DOC family is mourning Corey’s loss, and we are keeping all of his family members and friends in our thoughts.” An executive order from Gov. Tony Evers, lowering flags to half-staff, named Corey Proulx as the deceased staff member, and said he "served the DOC as a youth counselor, having originally

By: Rebecca Kleefisch We have a lot to be proud of. But while voters enjoy cookouts and fireworks this summer, we should not rest on the statewide ballot victories of April or even the local election wins. Activists need to work tirelessly and preach endlessly about the lessons learned in spring. I want to share what we learned because if we are not in a posture of constant improvement, the conservative movement will not improve win rates…and we must. As the president of the 1848 Project, which recruits, trains, and does continuing education for local candidates like school, county, and municipal board members, I was incredibly proud of our candidates’ win rate: nearly 70% declared victory in their April 2 elections. I want to reiterate: I am so proud of our win rate, our candidates, and the work ethic that got conservatives over the finish line in April. But the lessons we took away from spring were not about the wins but the preventable losses. We learned three big things, and

This is story 4 in WRN's 7-part series on the Waukesha County District Attorney's race, based on the recent DA debate sponsored by the Republican Party of Waukesha County. Waukesha County District Attorney candidate Mike Thurston's five donations to Democratic Milwaukee County DA John Chisholm sparked a heated exchange with his opponent, Lesli Boese, at the candidates' debate. At one point, Boese implied Thurston is a "RINO," although Thurston insisted he's since soured on Chisholm's leadership. "I didn’t know what a RINO was when I first started this. I do now know what a RINO is," Lesli Boese said, referring to the acronym for "Republican in Name Only." Thurston previously told Wisconsin Right Now that he did not recall making four of the five donations to Chisholm, who enraged conservatives with his later discredited John Doe probe into Republican Gov. Scott Walker's campaign finance network, as well as his 60% non

This is story 3 in WRN's 7-part series on the Waukesha County District Attorney's race, based on the recent DA debate sponsored by the Republican Party of Waukesha County. Read parts 1 and 2 here and here. Waukesha County District Attorney candidate Mike Thurston said during a June 19 debate that, if elected, he would invite Democrats to train prosecutors in the DA's office on election integrity matters, a plan his opponent Lesli Boese called "silliness." Thurston said he would also invite Republican experts. "This wouldn’t just be a Republican thing," Thurston, a deputy DA in the office, said. "I'd invite Democrats too. They could come in. They could train us." He didn't name the experts who would get his invitations. The idea of bringing Democrats in to train Waukesha prosecutors on election integrity generated a sharp rebuttal from his opponent in the race, Deputy DA Lesli Boese . "This county needs a conservati

This is story 2 in WRN's 7-part series on the Waukesha County District Attorney's race, based on the recent DA debate sponsored by the Republican Party of Waukesha County. Read story 1 here. What metric should be used to measure the prosecutorial performance of the two deputy district attorneys who are running for the top job? Candidates Lesli Boese and Mike Thurston disagreed sharply over that question during a DA debate. Thurston slammed the number of jury trials she's handled, saying he's handled far more in the past decade, and he said the drug unit she supervises has a "backlog" of cases waiting to be charged, whereas he doesn't. Thurston said Boese's drug unit has 103 uncharged cases, some dating back to 2019. She slammed his dismissal and amendment numbers. According to Boese, Thurston reduced 32% of his cases in a recent time frame from felonies to misdemeanors and dismissed 20% of them, numbers much higher than hers. The two candida

This is story 2 in WRN's 7-part series on the Waukesha County District Attorney's race, based on the recent DA debate sponsored by the Republican Party of Waukesha County. What metric should be used to measure the prosecutorial performance of the two deputy district attorneys who are running for the top job? Candidates Lesli Boese and Mike Thurston disagreed sharply over that question during a DA debate. Thurston slammed the number of jury trials she's handled, saying he's handled far more in the past decade, and he said the drug unit she supervises has a "backlog" of cases waiting to be charged, whereas he doesn't. Thurston said Boese's drug unit has 103 uncharged cases, some dating back to 2019. She slammed his dismissal and amendment numbers. According to Boese, Thurston reduced 32% of his cases in a recent time frame from felonies to misdemeanors and dismissed 20% of them, numbers much higher than hers. The two candidates both handle key