Voter turnout for the November 2018 gubernatorial election reached a record high of 92.9 percent — the highest pre-registered voter turnout in Wisconsin’s history. The November 2014 gubernatorial vote was 69.5 percent.
Following an unprecedented period of early voting in the city of Madison and Dane County, turnout on Election Day exceeded expectations for the midterm and governor elections.
Madison set a new city record for early voting in a midterm election with a more than 400 percent increase from 2014 early voting turnout, Madison Mayor Paul Soglin announced at a press conference Monday. Soglin said absentee ballots totaled just over 45,700, more than four times the 2014 total of slightly more than 15,000.
In an attempt to get more voters to the polls, ride-share companies Uber and Lyft as well as Union Cab will offer free or discounted rides to voters on election day Tuesday. Lyft announced they would offer 50 percent off for riders across the country with a promo code as well as free rides for underserved communities in partnership with various nonprofits like Voto Latino, Urban League and the League of Women Voters.
A Waunakee woman pleaded no contest to felony homicide charges Thursday in Dane County Court after she killed a UW-Madison student in a drunk driving incident last January. The defendant, 25-year-old Nicole Bruns, was charged with five felonies in the death of student Alexandra Ihm, who Bruns hit with her car while driving drunk in January 2017.
A dairy herd in Dane County has been quarantined by state authorities after one cow was discovered to have bovine tuberculosis, a contagious disease that can possibly spread to humans. The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection released a statement Monday confirming the discovery.
Driving 100 mph, a 20-year-old Madison man struck a pedestrian couple in April, one of whom later died from the incident.
A Madison woman was arrested Monday for a murder that took place in the State Street parking ramp early Sunday morning. Twenty-one-year-old Kenyairra Gadson was taken into custody without incident after police identified her through surveillance footage and witness statements.
The voices that chanted the Mourner’s Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for those who grieve, were heavy with pain Sunday night when nearly 1,000 gathered at the First Unitarian Society for an interfaith service honoring the 11 killed and six wounded in Saturday morning’s attack on The Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
This year’s Freakfest drew a crowd of over 20,000 people, a small increase from 2017 but nearly 10,000 less than the crowd in 2016. Organizers attributed last year’s small crowd of 19,000 to cold weather, but Saturday’s event was nearly 10 degrees warmer and only resulted in a minor increase in attendance.
A Madison woman lost $8,800 following a phone scam in which a man claimed to be part of the FBI.
Over the past year, more than 70 Dane County children were reported to have elevated lead concentrations in their blood in what officials are calling “a public health concern,” according to a statement released Tuesday by the Dane County Public Health.
A Madison Metro bus plowed into a police station Tuesday afternoon after the driver suffered a medical emergency. The bus veered off the road and crashed into a brick wall housing trash cans outside the Madison Police Department’s North District Building just blocks from the airport. Police said the accident was likely caused by a medical emergency on the part of the driver, who was taken to the hospital.
Two of Dane County’s school systems will receive state funding for school safety programs, Wisconsin Attorney Brad Schimel announced Monday.
Madison police arrested a 68-year-old Beloit man Saturday night for making sexually suggestive comments to several pedestrians in the downtown area. The man reportedly pulled over near a pair of female students walking on Mifflin Street and asked them if they would like to watch what he was doing in the car.
Just three months after announcing he would not run for re-election, Madison Mayor Paul Soglin declared his candidacy in a surprise move Friday morning. Soglin, who has served as mayor on three separate occasions, announced in July he would not seek another four-year term.
Dane County’s Board of Supervisors will accept a $20,000 grant for criminal justice reform from the MacArthur Foundation. In a statement Thursday, the county said the funds would be used to create a data system for tracking race, gender, age and reason for arrest of those on trial.
Over 100 community members crowded the Working Draft Beer Company to sip craft brews and chat with the Milwaukee author, whose book The Life and Death of the Great Lakes landed on the New York Times Best Sellers list and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize this year.
Two of Madison’s top law enforcement officials traded public criticisms online Tuesday, chastising each other for their treatment of juvenile offenders. The dispute began when Madison Police Chief Mike Koval released his daily blog post, in which he expressed concern about the increasing frequency of “juveniles engaged in serious, illegal behavior[s].” Koval cast doubt on whether the "failing" juvenile justice system actually held offenders accountable for their actions.
Madison police arrested a 13-year-old boy Friday on charges of strong-arm robbery and battery in connection with a car theft last week that resulted in the arrests of three other teenagers. The three other teens, two 13-year-old girls and a 14-year-old girl, were arrested last Thursday after stealing and crashing an SUV.
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