Morning Headlines - Monday, Mar. 28, 2022

U.S. and World Headlines

Americans Broadly Want The Senate To Confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson To The Supreme Court

The confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson are now over. And they were incredibly ugly.

We don’t know yet whether the hearings will dramatically alter Americans’ support of Jackson, but at this point, many Americans support her confirmation. Per a March 1-18 poll from Gallup, 58 percent of Americans said the Senate should vote to confirm Jackson, versus 30 percent who thought she should not be confirmed and 12 percent who had no opinion.

Why Biden's Off-Script Remarks About Putin Are So Dangerous

Over the past week, US President Joe Biden has made a series of unscripted remarks that have upped the temperature of US-Russia relations to near boiling point.

However, his ad-libbed line at the end of what was billed as a "major speech" in Poland on Saturday - seemingly calling for President Vladimir Putin to be removed from power - may have landed the hardest.

Kim Jong Un Pledges To Build Up North Korea’s Attack Capability

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un says his country plans to develop more powerful means of attack, days after its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch since 2017.

The statement published by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday suggests North Korea might perform additional launches or even test a nuclear device soon as it pushes to modernise its arsenal.

2022 Oscars: Awards, Speeches And Highlights

There were a number of historic firsts as the 94th Academy Awards returned to the Dolby Theater in Hollywood Sunday night — but they were overshadowed by a shocking moment when Will Smith walked up on stage and smacked Chris Rock after Rock made a joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

Then, less than 30 minutes later, Smith gave an emotional speech after winning his first Oscar, for Best Actor. In a line that seemed to allude to his behavior, Smith said that Richard Williams, whom he portrayed in "King Richard," was a "fierce defender of his family," and he offered an apology to the Academy and his fellow nominees.

Scientists Discover New Solar Waves That Don't Fit With Current Theories

Scientists have discovered a new set of waves in the Sun that appear to travel much faster then previously predicted, according to a new study published on Thursday in Nature Astronomy.

The newly-detected waves, called "high-frequency retrograde (HFR) waves," move in the opposite direction of the Sun's rotation and appear as a pattern of vortices on the surface of the Sun, moving at three times the speed established by current theories about the Sun.

Wisconsin Headlines

Supreme Court Ruling On Wisconsin Legislative Map Puts Voting Rights Advocates On High Alert

A Supreme Court order last week blocking Wisconsin's redistricting map is sparking fresh concerns among advocates that the high court may soon sound the death knell for what's left of the Voting Rights Act.

Experts warn that after gutting a provision of the landmark 1965 law that required some jurisdictions to submit election law changes to the Justice Department, the Supreme Court is now signaling it might curtail statutory language that's served as the chief federal protection for minority voters in the U.S. since then.

Wisconsin Walmart To Transform Into High-Tech Facility

Walmart has announced a multi-million dollar investment for their regional distribution center in Menomonie, Wisconsin.

According to a release, the investment is part of a broader initiative with automated technology to continue modernizing Walmart’s vast supply chain network. The upgrades are expected to increase the speed, efficiency, and safety at which products are distributed.

Wisconsin Veterans Affairs Chair Faces Child Porn Charges, Ignores Calls To Quit

The leader of the state veterans policy board is refusing to step down as he fights child pornography charges, creating another appointment headache for Gov. Tony Evers.

Prosecutors in Milwaukee charged Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs Board Chairman Curtis Schmitt Jr., 38, of Franklin, on Jan. 23 with three felony counts of possession of child pornography.

How A UW-Madison Professor’s Algorithm Helps Find The New Yorker’s Cartoon Caption

A praying mantis sits eagerly at a dinner table, as a mustachioed and bow-tied waiter unveils a dish containing the steaming head of, well, another praying mantis. "I take it the Honeymoon is over?" one caption reads. "Shall I pack the rest of your date in a to-go box?" says another. Under the caption sits a choice: unfunny, somewhat funny or funny.

Voters of The New Yorker’s weekly cartoon caption contest decide what witty line will appear in the magazine to accompany the praying mantis, an insect whose females notoriously decapitate its mates. But which captions of the thousands of submissions voters are shown is not random.

Johnson, Donovan Differ On Approach To Bolstering Police Force In Milwaukee Mayoral Debate

Acting Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and former Ald. Bob Donovan differed during a televised debate on how to help the Milwaukee Police Department address rising violent crime in the state’s largest city.

The two mayoral candidates at a WTMJ-TV debate organized in part by WisPolitics.com said they want to hire more officers. Johnson, who also serves as Common Council president, said he wants to recruit veteran officers to address rising homicide rates. Donovan said he wants to attract officers from other areas to increase community policing efforts.