Associated Press

The longest-serving legislator in the United States is finally going to call it quits. Wisconsin state Sen. Fred Risser announced Thursday that he won't seek reelection this fall. 

After 64 years representing Madison in the State Assembly and State Senate, I have decided not the stand for re-election. pic.twitter.com/RtfJymSFYe

— Senator Fred Risser (@SenRisser) March 26, 2020

A conservative law firm asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn an appeals court ruling that stopped the purging of more than 200,000 people from the state's voter rolls, a move that Democrats argued was intended to make it more difficult for their voters to cast ballots.

Twenty-four people associated with a violent drug trafficking gang operating in a northeast Milwaukee neighborhood face federal charges, authorities said Wednesday.

Hundreds of federal, state and local officers executed search warrants Tuesday and rounded up 17 of the defendants. The rest remained at large Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Matthew Krueger said.

Officers recovered 53 firearms, including military assault-style weapons, 900 grams of heroin, and more than 150 grams of a drug mixture that contained fentanyl. They also found cocaine, marijuana and $300,000 in cash.

Updated at 4:19 p.m. CT

A woman who was found slain in a Milwaukee garage along with her two daughters had been beaten up by her boyfriend the day before she was reported missing — and just hours after the funeral of the couple's young son, according to a criminal complaint.

Republicans on the Legislature's finance committee on Wednesday rejected a plan to build new institutions to replace Wisconsin's troubled youth prison, saying the state doesn't have the money for the facilities.

The move signals that the existing prison won't shut down by the July 2021 deadline lawmakers imposed last year and raises questions about whether the prison will ever close.

A dean at Marquette University is one of two people struck and killed by suspected drunk drivers in separate crashes on Milwaukee's near west side, officials said Wednesday.

Marquette University officials identified one of the victims as Joe Daniels, 60, a business school dean and a faculty member since 1992.

He was crossing a main street on campus about 8 p.m. Tuesday when a 20-year-old female driver struck him, according to police. The woman was arrested.

Wauwatosa police say the teenage boy who was fatally shot by police fired first in Sunday's shooting at Mayfair Mall.  

On Friday, police released a squad car video from the shooting. Wauwatosa police officers don't wear body cameras.

The video shows police chasing 17-year-old Alvin Cole and the sound of gun shots. After Cole fired, one officer fired back five times, according to Wauwatosa Police Operations Capt. Brian Zalewski. The name of the officer has not been released.

The Wisconsin Republican Party this week will open its first-ever office in the heart of downtown Milwaukee, one of the clearest signs yet of the party's push to cut into Democrats' advantage among minority voters and the latest indication of how hard-fought every vote will be in the battleground state.

The office, which opens Thursday, will serve as the base for the party's minority outreach coordinator and serve as a hub for Republican events, campaign organizing and efforts to connect with black and Hispanic people in Milwaukee, party leaders told The Associated Press.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' plan to create a nonpartisan redistricting commission to draw Wisconsin's electoral maps may put pressure on the Republicans who control the Legislature to consider an alternative plan, but it won't force them to do anything differently next year and GOP leaders made clear they won't change course.

Updated Tuesday at 2:46 p.m. CT

A Wisconsin appeals court has put on hold an order to immediately remove up to 209,000 names from the state's voter registration rolls, handing Democrats who had fought the move a victory in the battleground state. The appeals court also put on hold an ealier decision that found the Wisconsin Elections Commission to be in contempt.

Original story Monday at 5:23 p.m. CT