Morning Headlines - Friday, May 23, 2025

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 at the end for a little humor to go with your news!

U.S. and World Headlines

US Bans Harvard From Enrolling Foreigners, Forcing Transfers

The Trump administration blocked Harvard University from enrolling international students, delivering a major blow to the school and escalating its fight with elite colleges to unprecedented levels.

The US revoked Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, meaning foreign students can no longer attend the university. Existing international students must transfer or lose their legal status, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday.

“Harvard’s leadership has created an unsafe campus environment by permitting anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to harass and physically assault individuals, including many Jewish students, and otherwise obstruct its once-venerable learning environment,” according to a statement.

Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Faces A Swarm Of Senate GOP Objections

The 1,116-page bill the House passed early Thursday morning to enact President Trump’s ambitious legislative agenda faces a swarm of objections from Senate Republicans.

GOP senators are calling for a rewrite of the bill to address concerns ranging from Medicaid reforms and the phase-out of clean energy incentives to the sale of government owned spectrum bands and the bill’s projected impact on the federal debt.

The deal that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) struck with Republicans from blue states to raise the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions from $10,000 to $40,000 is also a sticking point with Republican senators.

Amazon Tribe Sues New York Times Over Story It Says Led To Porn Addict Claims

An Amazonian tribe has sued the New York Times (NYT) over a report about the community gaining access to high-speed internet, which it claims led to its members being labelled as porn addicts.

The defamation lawsuit said the US newspaper's report portrayed the Marubo tribe as "unable to handle basic exposure to the internet" and highlighted "allegations that their youth had become consumed by pornography".

The lawsuit also named TMZ and Yahoo as defendants, and said their news stories "mocked their youth" and "misrepresented their traditions".

The NYT said its report did not infer or say any of the tribe's members were addicted to porn. TMZ and Yahoo have been contacted for comment.

Microsoft Employees Say Emails With ‘Gaza,’ ‘Palestine,’ Or ‘Genocide’ Won’t Send

Microsoft employees are concerned that the company has been blocking Microsoft Outlook emails containing the words “Palestine,” “Gaza,” “genocide,” “apartheid” and “IOF off Azure.”

On internal message boards, messages seen by CNBC showed employees asking why their emails with the word “Israel” may go through but not the word “Palestine,” as well as “Gaza” and other terms.

Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s chief communications officer, responded to employees: “To clarify, emails are not being blocked or censored, unless they are being sent to large numbers of random distribution groups.”

Stock Market Ignoring Trump’s Trade War After Wild April Ride

Stock investors are starting to tune out President Donald Trump’s trade war.

After frantically pushing share prices higher and lower for weeks on each twist and turn in Trump’s tariff negotiations, investors are now largely ignoring new announcements. Last Friday, for instance, stocks barely budged after Trump said he’d just start imposing rates on many countries soon because his team didn’t have time to negotiate with them all. The same thing happened this week after news that the European Union shared a revised trade proposal with the Trump administration that included plans to gradually reduce tariffs to zero on many products.

Wisconsin Headlines

Wisconsin Schools Face A Growing Number Of Students Being Secluded And Restrained

The number of times that Wisconsin students became “an imminent physical risk to their safety or the safety of others” and were then secluded in a space they couldn’t leave or restrained by school staff increased significantly in the 2023-24 school year.

According to a report from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, there were more than 6,222 incidents that resulted in student seclusion and staff physically restrained students 7,439 times in public and private schools statewide.

These figures represent an increase in seclusion actions of just more than 15% and an increase in the use of physical restraint by almost 17% over the prior school year.

Wisconsin Man Indicted For Child Pornography Production And Possession

A federal grand jury indicted Nolan M. Pitsch (age: 31) of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, on five counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

The indictment alleges that between approximately March 1, 2024, and continuing until at least September 30, 2024, Pitsch knowingly employed, used, persuaded, induced, enticed, and coerced multiple minor children to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct, knowing and having reason to know that such visual depiction was and would be produced and transmitted using materials that have been mailed, shipped, and transported in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce by any means, including by computer. 

Wisconsin Man Sentenced To 148 Months In Federal Prison R Involvement In Armed Robberies Of U.S. Postal Carriers

Huria H. Abu (age 22) was sentenced to 148 months in federal prison for his role in multiple armed robberies of U.S. postal carriers that occurred between October 2022 and March 2023 in Milwaukee. After completing his prison sentence, Abu will also spend five years on supervised release.

According to court records, Abu and his co-defendants (who named themselves the “Scamily”) robbed U.S. postal carriers at gunpoint for the postal carriers’ arrow keys, which were then used to steal U.S. mail from mail receptacles. The following co-defendants have also been sentenced in relation to their individual roles in this case:

• Jessie L. Cook (21): 94 months’ prison, followed by four years of supervised release (sentenced August 9, 2024);
• Abdi A. Abdi (24): 96 months’ prison, followed by three years of supervised release (sentenced April 14, 2024);
• Darrion M. Allison (24): 72 months’ prison, followed by five years of supervised release (sentenced November 8, 2024);
• Abdi I. Baba (27): 120 months’ prison, followed by three years of supervised release (sentenced July 24, 2024)

Four Mexican Nationals Charged For Conspiring To Distribute Over 30 Kilograms Of Cocaine

A federal grand jury returned a 4-count indictment charging four defendants with offenses related to a conspiracy to distribute large amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The indictment charged the defendants as follows:

• Ruben Salgado Espinoza (50), of Rockford, IL Conspiracy to Distribute over 5 Kilograms of Cocaine, Possession with Intent to Distribute over 5 Kilograms of Cocaine and Illegal Re-entry. 
• Pablo Sifuentes Navarro (20), of Rockford, IL, Conspiracy to Distribute over 5 Kilograms of Cocaine, Possession with Intent to Distribute over 5 Kilograms of Cocaine and Distribution of at least 500 grams of Cocaine.
• Pedro Sifuentes Navarro (20) of Louisville, KY, Conspiracy to Distribute over 5 Kilograms of Cocaine, Possession with Intent to Distribute at least 5 Kilograms of Cocaine.
• Sanjuana Montenegro Ochoa (27)of Rockford, IL Conspiracy to Distribute over 5 Kilograms of Cocaine and over 50 grams of Methamphetamine.

Wisconsin Would Lose $314M In Federal Food Assistance Under ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

Wisconsin would lose about $314 million in food assistance from the federal government under the massive budget bill passed by the U.S. House early Thursday, according to an an analysis of the proposed cuts by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

The legislation, which President Donald Trump refers to as the “big, beautiful bill,” would require states to start matching federal funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. It would also impose new work requirements on families with young children and older people, and it would require regular paperwork to prove exemptions from such requirements for some groups, such as families with special needs children.