Morning Headlines - Friday, Oct. 28, 2022

U.S. and World Headlines

Elon Musk Has Taken Control Of Twitter And Fired Its Top Executives

Elon Musk has completed his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, a source familiar with the deal told CNN Thursday, putting the world’s richest man in charge of one of the world’s most influential social media platforms.

Musk fired CEO Parag Agrawal and two other executives, according to two people familiar with the decision. Twitter declined to comment.

The deal’s closing removes a cloud of uncertainty that has hung over Twitter’s business, employees and shareholders for much of the year. After initially agreeing to buy the company in April, Musk spent months attempting to get out of the deal, first citing concerns about the number of bots on the platform and later allegations raised by a company whistleblower.

Schumer Caught On Hot Mic Telling Biden That Georgia's Senate Race Is 'Going Downhill' For Dems

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was overheard Thursday telling President Biden that the potentially pivotal race for U.S. Senate in Georgia appears to be "going downhill" for Democrats.

"The state where we're going downhill is Georgia," Schumer said in a candid conversation on a New York airfield tarmac with the president, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., that was filmed by the Washington Post. "It's hard to believe that they will go for Herschel Walker."

Georgia's incumbent, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, currently holds a slight 1.7% point lead over Walker, the Republican nominee. The trend line in recent polls, however, shows Walker ahead in recent surveys, despite allegations brought by two women that Walker, who has been outspoken during the campaign about his opposition to abortion, paid for them to undergo the procedure.

Cracks In US Support For Ukraine Risk Helping Putin

Cracks are forming in what has largely been a united U.S. response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, with calls rising from the right and left for President Biden to push harder for peace talks.

The push from figures ranging from former President Trump on the right to progressive leader Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) on the left has thrust questions about the Biden administration’s strategy toward Ukraine into the fore as Kyiv has seized momentum on the battlefield.

Supporters of current U.S. strategy say pressuring Ukraine into negotiations now would only help Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

“It helps the Russians and it hurts the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians want the Russians out of their country. And right now they’re on track to do that,” said William Taylor, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine now with the United States Institute of Peace.

Appeals Court Refuses Trump Request To Consider Shielding Tax Returns From House Committee

A full federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. dealt another blow to former President Donald Trump's attempt to shield his tax returns from House Democrats on Thursday, refusing a request from the former president to reconsider a three-judge appellate panel's ruling against him.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled – apparently without any dissenting votes – that Trump's case against the House Ways and Means Committee should not be reheard en banc, or in front of the entire panel.

The decision clears the way for the committee to obtain the financial records Trump has repeatedly fought to keep from Congress, but his legal team could still appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

45% Of Americans Say U.S. Should Be A ‘Christian Nation’

Growing numbers of religious and political leaders are embracing the “Christian nationalist” label, and some dispute the idea that the country’s founders wanted a separation of church and state. On the other side of the debate, however, many Americans – including the leaders of many Christian churches – have pushed back against Christian nationalism, calling it a “danger” to the country.

Most U.S. adults believe America’s founders intended the country to be a Christian nation, and many say they think it should be a Christian nation today, according to a new Pew Research Center survey designed to explore Americans’ views on the topic. But the survey also finds widely differing opinions about what it means to be a “Christian nation” and to support “Christian nationalism.”

Wisconsin Headlines

Darrell Brooks Trial: Former Judge Weighs In On Length, Handling

A former Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge says the Waukesha parade attack trial was long for a homicide case, but certain steps had to be taken even though they delayed proceedings.

Judge Mary Kuhnmuench spent 21 years on the circuit court, 11 of those presiding over criminal cases, including sexual assaults and homicides.

She's seen her share of difficult defendants, she said, even ones like Darrell Brooks. On Wednesday, a jury in Waukesha convicted him on 76 counts, including six of intentional homicide, for driving through the Waukesha Christmas Parade last November.

"He was on the higher end of very difficult defendants," said Kuhnmuench.

Texas, Wisconsin Both Mourn An Officer Killed In The Line Of Duty

Two cities -- one in Texas, the other in Northeast Wisconsin -- are mourning a fallen police officer.

Steve Nothem, who was originally from Kiel and was on the Grand Chute police force, was laid to rest Thursday just outside of Dallas.

Officer Nothem came to the Dallas/Fort Worth area from Grand Chute, a much smaller community with 24,000 residents and 38 police officers.

Eighteen current and former officers of the Grand Chute Police Department, along with law enforcement officers from across America, came to honor someone who was called “a man of great compassion, sensitivity and empathy.”

The procession for Nothem’s funeral ran for miles and people lined the streets to honor him and other fallen officers.

Nothem died on October 18 after his squad car was hit by another vehicle as he responded to a DWI call in Carrollton, Texas.

Derrick Van Orden Tells Prayer Breakfast Attendees 'Leftists' Cannot Be Christians

Republican Derrick Van Orden, who is running for Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District seat, says "leftists" cannot be Christian. His opponent, former Democratic State Sen. Brad Pfaff, responded by saying Van Orden is "a religious bigot.

Van Orden's comments came from a presentation at a prayer breakfast in Sparta last weekend. A recording of the event was provided to media by the Pfaff campaign.

"There are many God-fearing Christians who are Democrats," said Van Orden. "There's not a single God-fearing Christian that is a leftist, because those two things are incompatible."

A spokesperson for Van Orden's campaign told Wisconsin Public Radio the "leftist" comments refer to a passage in the Communist Manifesto, which states, "...Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead constituting them on a new basis: it therefor acts in contradiction to all past historical experience."

In an interview with WPR, Pfaff said he doesn't buy the explanation from Van Orden's campaign and called the Republican "a religious bigot."

Kaul, Toney Clash In Final AG Debate Ahead Of Election

Fond du Lac DA Eric Toney in a debate Thursday compared Dem AG Josh Kaul to a “plastic bag blowing in the wind,” while Kaul accused Toney of not knowing how the Department of Justice works.

Toney, 38, criticized Kaul for what he said was a change in stance on how elections should be administered. Toney said Kaul during the 2016 presidential recount argued humans would do a better job than machines because they could better tell the intent of voters.

Kaul, 41, shook his head as he talked, but Toney continued.

“We need an attorney general that’s gonna be serious and not a plastic bag blowing in the wind whichever direction their liberal politics go,” Toney said.

Kaul slammed Toney for standing alongside former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman as he led a probe into the 2020 presidential election.

DATCP Addresses Misleading COVID-19 Test Advertisements

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) has reached a stipulated consent judgment in Dane County with Aleya Siyaj and Akbar Syed, doing business as Center for COVID Control, LLC, to address concerns with the company’s misleading advertising related to COVID-19 testing.

During an approximately 14-month period from December 2, 2020 until January 21, 2022, the Center for COVID Control, LLC provided advertising, marketing, website optimization, a consumer call center, transportation, and other support services to Doctors Clinical Laboratory, Inc. This included establishing twenty-five collection sites in Wisconsin, six of which were in Dane County, where individuals could provide biological samples for COVID-19 testing.

With the intent of increasing utilization of the testing services available at the Wisconsin collection sites, Center for COVID Control, LLC advertised and promoted those testing services and collection sites to the public via website advertising enhanced with Google Search Engine Optimization, social media posts, and physical signage. The online advertisements stated that individuals who provided a biological sample for a free “gold standard” reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) COVID-19 test would have their test results emailed to them within 48 hours. Contrary to these representations, individuals who utilized RT-PCR testing at their Wisconsin collection sites did not receive their test results within this time frame.