Morning Headlines - Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024 | Recent News

Start your day informed with today’s must-read headlines from around Wisconsin and the world. And don’t forget to check out our Meme of the Day and the end for a little humor to go with your news!

U.S. and World Headlines

Trump Opposes Funding Bill, Pushing Government Closer To A Shutdown

President-elect Donald Trump excoriated a bipartisan government funding bill Wednesday afternoon, throwing the stopgap measure into chaos just as leaders of both parties were hoping to pass it.

The joint statement by Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance left Republican leaders scrambling to come up with a new plan in the House, where Trump wields significant influence. A top GOP lawmaker later said the bill text, released just a day earlier, had been scrapped.

Teamsters Going On Strike Against Amazon At Several Locations Nationwide

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says workers at seven Amazon facilities will begin a strike Thursday morning in an effort by the union to pressure the e-commerce giant for a labor agreement during a key shopping period.

The Teamsters say the workers, who authorized walkouts in the past few days, are joining the picket line after Amazon ignored a Dec. 15 deadline the union set for contract negotiations. Amazon says it doesn't expect any impact on its operations during what the union calls the largest strike against the company in U.S. history.

Dow Plummets 1,100 Points After Fed Scales Back Plans For Interest Rate Cuts

The stock market plunged on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve scaled back its expectations for interest rate cuts next year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 1,100 points, or 2.5%, the largest drop for the index since August. The dip marked the 10th consecutive day of losses for the Dow, its longest losing streak since 1974.

The S&P 500 fell nearly 3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq plummeted about 3.5%.

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Challenge To TikTok Ban

The Supreme Court said it will hear arguments challenging a law that could lead to a ban of the popular social media app TikTok.

The law would force ByteDance, the Chinese parent of TikTok, to sell the app or face being de-platformed in the United States by Google and Apple.

President-elect Donald Trump met with TikTok’s CEO at his Florida club the same day the company asked the Supreme Court to take its case on First Amendment grounds.

You Can Now Call 1-800-CHATGPT

For the 10th day of “ship-mas,” OpenAI rolled out a way to call ChatGPT for up to 15 minutes for free over the phone using 1-800-CHATGPT.

The feature was a project spun up just a few weeks ago, OpenAI’s chief product officer Kevin Weil said on the livestream. Users can now call ChatGPT in the US and message via WhatsApp globally at 1-800-242-8478. The 15-minute limit is per phone number per month, so really, you could spin up a few Google Voice numbers to get as much time with it as you want.

Wisconsin School Shooter Was In Contact With California Man Plotting His Own Attack, Court Documents Say

The shooter who killed a student and teacher at a religious school in Wisconsin brought two guns to the school and was in contact with a man in California who was planning to attack a government building, according to authorities and court documents that became public Wednesday.

Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told The Associated Press Wednesday. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.

Dane County Judge Temporarily Stays Ruling To Overturn Act 10 Restrictions On Unions

A Wisconsin judge temporarily put on hold his ruling that restored collective bargaining rights to teachers and most other public workers that were lost under a 2011 state law that sparked weeks of protests and made the state the center of the national battle over union rights.

That law, known as Act 10, effectively ended the ability of most public employees to bargain for wage increases and other issues, and forced them to pay more for health insurance and retirement benefits.

Wisconsin Man Sentenced To 45 Years’ Imprisonment For Sex Trafficking

Samuel L. Spencer, a.k.a. “Bin Laden” (age: 53), of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison, followed by 5 years of supervised release, after being convicted at trial of four counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, as well as conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.

The evidence at trial proved that Spencer, a drug dealer, used his access to cocaine and heroin to coerce women struggling with addiction into engaging in commercial sex acts to make money for him. In addition to strategically giving or withholding drugs, Spencer controlled his victims by depriving them of sleep and food, threatening them with firearms, and using extreme physical violence, which included strangling his victims, whipping them with belts, burning their skin, and kidnapping one woman in the trunk of his car after she tried to flee from him. During a two-week trial, the government introduced numerous exhibits that included Spencer’s own words boasting about his crimes and threatening to kill and disfigure his victims.

LeMahieu Says Senate GOP Will Focus Income Tax Cut Efforts On Second-Highest Bracket

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu told WisPolitics cutting income taxes will be the top priority for Senate Republicans next session with an emphasis on targeting the second highest of the state’s four rates.

LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, noted Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has raised the prospect of again trying to cut taxes on retirement income. But LeMahieu said he wants broader tax relief that cuts across ages. The majority leader also said he likely won’t bring up his proposal from this session to move the state to a flat tax and believes there’s no appetite in his caucus to try pumping additional state money into various local aids in an attempt to drive down property taxes.

Lake Michigan, Superior Warmer Than Average Going Into Winter

When the lakes start to freeze and many Wisconsinites head inside, fishing charter captain Luke Chatfield does the opposite. He guides his customers over the ice of Green Bay, searching for perch and whitefish.

With 10-16 sixteen inches of ice, 25-year-old Chatfield said, he can easily drive onto the bay in UTVs.

“We could drive our side-by-sides 5, 6 miles out,” he said. “We could drive nearly clearly across the bay of Green Bay.”