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tomkertschernews.bsky.social
Wisconsin Watch reporter. Former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Freelancer for Associated Press Sports and Milwaukee Magazine. Author of Al McGuire and Brett Favre sports books. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ohio State University.
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The latest from Wisconsin Watch: No, Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel did not say he had no objections to Donald Trump's Jan. 6 pardons; and No, Wisconsin sheriffs are not required to check the immigration status of people they jail. wisconsinwatch.org/series/fact-...

In the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, Susan Crawford claimed Brad Schimel said he had no objections to Donald Trump's Jan. 6 pardons. Schimel said he didn't object to the use of presidential pardons, but that violent Jan. 6 offenders should not have been pardoned. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/03/wisc...

The latest @wisconsinwatch.org fact-checks: No, Wisconsin sheriffs aren't required to check the immigration status of new jail inmates; No, Supreme Court candidate @crawfordforwi.bsky.social hasn't backed stopping deportations or protecting sanctuary cities. wisconsinwatch.org/series/fact-...

A look at when Wisconsin sheriffs check immigration status while booking new inmates. A proposed state law would require them to do so for felony arrests. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/03/wisc...

Dropping f-balms. www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/202...

A look at how Milwaukee County polices its Brady List—law enforcement officers accused of dishonesty, bias or crimes. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/03/wisc...

Me: “Judge, for people who think that there's too much partisanship in the judicial elections, is there something that could be done to reduce that?” Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate @crawfordforwi.bsky.social: “Well, it's possible. I think the fact that the financing of these campaigns is so 1/2

Fitchburg, Green Bay, Kenosha, Madison, Manitowoc, Oshkosh, Racine and Sun Prairie all received requests from the GOAT Committee — which stands for government operations, accountability and transparency. The move was made without the knowledge of the committee’s Democratic members.

The latest Wisconsin Watch fact briefs: No, Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford hasn't stated support for ending deportations or protecting sancutary cities; No, states don't routinely audit health insurers based on how often they deny claims. wisconsinwatch.org/series/fact-...

Fact-checking a Donald Trump-themed ad from the Republican State Leadership Committee that attacks Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford over immigration. @wisconsinwatch.bsky.social found no readily available evidence to back the ad's claims. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/02/wisc...

Our look at whether recent research has found that putting fluoride in water systems has health benefits for children. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/02/wisc...

The latest @wisconsinwatch.bsky.social fact briefs: No, states don't routinely audit health insurers based on how often they deny claims; Yes, Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford sentenced a sex offender to 4 years after a prosecutor requested 10. wisconsinwatch.org/series/fact-...

@wisconsinwatch.bsky.social fact-checks @govevers.wisconsin.gov on whether any states audit insurers based on how often they deny health care claims. 45% of US adults said they were billed in the past year for care they thought should have been free or covered. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/02/wisc...

Did @crawfordforwi.bsky.social sentence a repeat child sex offender to 4 years in prison? Yes. An attack ad says it could have been 100 years. That ignores that the prosecutor asked for 10. Crawford faces Brad Schimel in Wisconsin's April 1 Supreme Court election. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/02/wisc...

Yes, the conservative candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court has supported the state's 1849 abortion law; No, Wisconsin is not one of only six states with same-day voter registration (it's one of nearly two dozen). wisconsinwatch.org/series/fact-...

Ahead of the April 1 Wisconsin Supreme Court election, @wisconsinwatch.bsky.social fact-checks liberal @crawfordforwi.bsky.social on whether conservative Brad Schimel has supported Wisconsin's 19th century law banning abortion except to save the mother's life. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/02/wisc...

Eric Hovde last week suggested that fraud led to his Nov. 5 loss to @baldwin.senate.gov, and said Wisconsin is one of only 6 states with same-day voter registration. @wisconsinwatch.bsky.social found that 21 states offered Election Day voter registration Nov. 5. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/02/wisc...

[email protected] checks a Wisconsin Reddit post after Robert Kennedy was confirmed as US health secretary. Kennedy has called for ending water fluoridation. Recent peer-reviewed studies found a link between it and better children's dental health. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/02/wisc...

Fact-checking @usdot.bsky.social Secretary Sean Duffy, in the wake of the 67-killed plane-copter crash, @wisconsinwatch.bsky.social found that in the US, air is safer than other major modes of transportation. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/02/airl...

Homicide, rape and aggravated assault in Milwaukee were lower in 2024 than 2023, Major Cities Chiefs Association says in a national report. Homicides dropped to 132 from 172. Slight uptick in robbery. majorcitieschiefs.com/wp-content/u...

SCOOP from me @wisconsinwatch.bsky.social: Wisconsin youth gender clinic cancels appointment for hormone replacement therapy after Trump’s anti-trans executive order. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/02/wisc...

On the Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates: Yes, Susan Crawford was involved in an error leading to a sex offender's early release. Yes, Brad Schimel helped lead a failed national effort to repeal Obamacare. wisconsinwatch.org/series/fact-...

In the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, @wisconsinwatch.bsky.social fact-checks Brad Schimel on the role of @crawfordforwi.bsky.social in the early release of a sex offender. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/02/wisc...

In the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, @wisconsinwatch.bsky.social fact-checks liberal candidate @crawfordforwi.bsky.social on whether the conservative candidate, Brad Schimel, tried to eliminate Obamacare. Schimel in 2018 helped lead a 20-state lawsuit that failed. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/02/wisc...

“My feet are in a long, coffin-style bed, and my head and shoulders poke out the other end….I feel like a ghost floating through the afterlife.” -- A Milwaukee musician's reflections on the sometimes semi-terrifying life on the road. www.milwaukeemag.com/a-look-at-br...

On immigration: 1. No, most federal prison inmates, in Wisconsin and the US, did not enter the US illegally, though in WI, 41% are not US citizens; 2. Yes, the new Laken Riley Act allows for deporting migrants accused of crimes including shoplifting. wisconsinwatch.org/series/fact-...

[email protected] fact-checks @markpocan.bsky.social on the first law of new Trump administration. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/02/coul...

Our @wisconsinwatch.bsky.social fact-check of US Rep. Derrick Van Orden in the wake of Trump admin immigration arrests: No, most inmates in federal prisons in Wisconsin and the US are not "illegal aliens." Most are US citizens; in WI, 41% are not US citizens. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/01/wisc...

One tradition in need of a refresh: Dumping the Gatorade on the coach.

Wisconsin Supreme Court election: Schimel gave a plea deal to a campaign contributor's client, is partly responsible for $1.6M taxpayers paid to defend an abortion law ruled unconstitutional; Crawford tried to overturn Act 10, opposed Wisconsin's voter ID law. wisconsinwatch.org/series/fact-...

[email protected] checks a claim by @crawfordforwi.bsky.social that while her Wisconsin Supreme Court opponent, Brad Schimel, was a district attorney, he gave a plea bargain to a man whose attorney contributed thousands to Schimel's campaign. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/01/wisc...

Good to see the city where I started my reporting career held up by @niemanlab.org as a model for developing more local news, helped by @theajp.bsky.social www.niemanlab.org/2025/01/the-...

[email protected], with @gravesmatter.bsky.social and @factchecknet.bsky.social, on the impact on local news of Facebook dumping its independent fact-checkers. localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/posts/2025/0...

Live event Jan. 29: @wisconsinwatch.bsky.social and @propublica.org reporter @phoebepetrovic.bsky.social talks about covering extremism. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/01/wisc...

For a future story, I asked Milwaukee Bucks VP Arvind Gopalratnam how the team threads the needle between doing advocacy and not alienating fans: We try to ensure "we're as inclusive to everybody as possible," but "sometimes it's just, the right thing to do is the right thing to do.”

Before a Milwaukee Brewers game last May, Bob Uecker drove past me in his Corvette as I was talking with parking lot attendants near the media entrance at American Family Field. We weren’t in the roadway, but close. He yelled jokingly: “Want to become a hood ornament? Keep it up!”

At this week's Senate confirmation hearing for Trump's transportation nominee, ex-Wisconsin congressman Sean Duffy, Duffy and a GOP senator indicated that NHTSA doesn't use vehicle crash test dummies that represent women. @wisconsinwatch.bsky.social took a look. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/01/cras...

With Wisconsin Republicans putting a constitutional amendment question on April 1 ballots, a Democratic senator claimed the GOP is making it harder to vote than to buy a gun. Photo ID is required to vote. For gun purchases, ID is not needed for private sales. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/01/wisc...

Yes — in Wisconsin, you need more proof of ID to vote than to buy a gun, @tomkertschernews.bsky.social finds in this fact brief wisconsinwatch.org/2025/01/wisc...

Here's more from @wisconsinwatch.bsky.social on Republicans' record-setting use of constitutional amendments, such as the one on voter ID approved Tuesday for the April 1 election. wisconsinwatch.org/2024/06/wisc...

Paul Ryan tells @cnbc.com the strategy that is probably best is for Congress to eventually pass what some are calling "one big beautiful bill" to include "immigration reform, border control and tax cuts." Also says DOGE can help "digitize" government. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lixj...

Mark Zuckerberg's decision to end Facebook's fact-checking program underscores how independent fact-checkers such as @wisconsinwatch.bsky.social need help from readers. When you see what seem like specious claims on social media, or in the news, please let us know. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/01/wisc...

“While AI companies may say we are ‘trained on the world’s data,’ that’s untrue because there are entire swaths of the world that just don’t participate in the internet." -- @ucsandiego.bsky.social alum @ruchowdh.bsky.social to me on artificial intelligence today.ucsd.edu/story/uc-san...

“To see politicians and firefighters and cops and priests routinely come across my desk who are engaged in trafficking in this material...” -- @gwu1821.bsky.social alum Ethan Arenson of the Tech Coalition to me on fighting online child exploitation magazine.gwu.edu/running-towa...

"I said 'no' to nothing, I said 'yes' to everything...I listened and I learned and I traveled and I was uncomfortable. And I found a way to be comfortable being uncomfortable." -- Software exec Jay Bland to me on career development alumni.auburn.edu/2024/11/08/j...

Democrats "should go into this next election cycle with no commitments to anyone who's been on a campaign payroll before, and do a full audit, top to bottom," Wisconsin's @benwikler.bsky.social, candidate for DNC chair, tells @bluestein.bsky.social. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge4L... .

[email protected] sorts out an attack by @wisdems.bsky.social on Brad Schimel in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Schimel wasn't solely responsible for how much taxpayers had to pay Planned Parenthood. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/01/wisc...

Georgetown jumped on 7th-ranked Marquette and stayed close till the final moments. A key steal by Chase Ross helped MU hold on. MU coach Shaka Smart: "I had a feeling he'd be highly motivated going into this game." My report from Milwaukee. apnews.com/article/geor...