Morning Headlines - Friday, May 30, 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

Texas Set To Mandate Ten Commandments In Classrooms As ACLU Vows To Sue

Texas is set to become the largest state in the nation to mandate that every public school classroom display a copy of the Ten Commandments, with advocates fearing a further erosion of church and state and the legislation’s sponsor making clear that’s a separation she doesn’t believe in.

While Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has not yet signed the measure, which comes as red states are increasingly seeking to inject Christianity into public education, he told lawmakers in early May to “get this bill to my desk. I’ll make it law.”

Congress Rolls Out New Crypto Market Structure Bill—What Does It Actually Do?

House lawmakers today unveiled a new crypto market structure bill that would end SEC oversight over the industry and, for the first time, create a formal pathway to legality in the United States for most digital assets.

The legislation, dubbed the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, closely resembles a draft bill circulated earlier this month. It would go back and amend America’s foundational securities laws to explicitly carve out most crypto assets from the definition of security, and thus, end the SEC’s stringent oversight.

U.S. Government Employee Arrested For Attempting To Provide Classified Information To Foreign Government

An IT specialist employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was arrested today for attempting to transmit national defense information to an officer or agent of a foreign government.

Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, of Alexandria, Virginia, was arrested today in northern Virginia, and will make his initial court appearance in the Eastern District of Virginia tomorrow.

According to court documents, Laatsch became a civilian employee of the DIA in 2019, where he works with the Insider Threat Division and holds a Top Secret security clearance. In March 2025, the FBI commenced an operation after receiving a tip that an individual — now known to be Laatsch — offered to provide classified information to a friendly foreign government. In that email, the sender wrote that he did not “agree or align with the values of this administration” and was therefore “willing to share classified information” that he had access to, including “completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation.”

New Orleans Jailbreak Sheriff Asks For DA To Be Removed From Probe Into Security Breach

The sheriff in charge of the jail where 10 inmates escaped two weeks ago went to court on Thursday seeking to remove the local district attorney from the probe into the massive security breach, according to new court documents.

Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson, in her court filing, said District Attorney Jason Williams is letting "personal animus and political campaigning" interfere with the ongoing probe. Hutson said Williams has publicly questioned her leadership and has launched a series of "ongoing attacks" on her office in "an unprecedented display of political self-serving bias."

No More Cropping: Instagram Changes Standard Photo Aspect Ratio

File this one under “tiny, but significant”: if you default your iPhone camera to 3:4, Instagram will finally let you post exactly what you shot.

Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri announced today on Threads that the app will now support photos in the native 3:4 format, used by most smartphone cameras, including iPhones:

“Instagram now supports 3:4 aspect ratio photos – the format that almost every phone camera defaults to. From now on, if you upload a 3:4 image, it’ll now appear just exactly as you shot it.”

Whether you’re posting a single image or a carousel, 3:4 photos will now appear just as they were captured. That means no more cropping or black bars to make your vertical shots fit.

Wisconsin Headlines

Fourteen Individuals, Including Ten Mexican Nationals, Charged With Fentanyl And Cocaine Trafficking And Immigration Offenses

Richard G. Frohling, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, announced today that a criminal complaint charging fourteen individuals was unsealed, and thirteen of the fourteen charged individuals have been arrested. Additionally, multiple search warrants were executed in the Eastern District of Wisconsin and the Central District of California in coordination with the arrests. All the defendants are charged with narcotics trafficking, including fentanyl and cocaine, and two of the individuals, Osmar Venejas-Mejia and Hector Rodriguez-Villalobos, are charged with illegal reentry after removal from the United States.

According to the criminal complaint, between approximately March 2023 and the present, the fourteen defendants conspired to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute controlled substances, including fentanyl and cocaine, and that multiple defendants possessed with intent to distribute controlled substances, distributed controlled substances, and used communication facilities to facilitate the distribution of controlled substances. If convicted, the penalties for the narcotics trafficking offenses carry maximum penalties of forty years to life in prison depending on the specific offense and weight of controlled substances charged.

Onalaska Man Sentenced To 11 Years For Fentanyl Trafficking And Illegally Possessing Firearms

Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Efrain Estrada, 31, Onalaska, Wisconsin was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson to 132 months in federal prison for possessing 400 grams or more of fentanyl intended for distribution and possessing firearms as a felon. Estrada pleaded guilty to these charges on March 13, 2025.

On July 22, 2024, law enforcement found approximately 5,000 fentanyl pills and 3,000 methamphetamine pills in a package mailed from Houston, Texas, to La Crosse, Wisconsin. On July 25, 2024, after replacing the pills with candy, agents conducted a controlled delivery to the recipient address and arrested the person who retrieved the package. Upon arrest, the person told agents that the package was meant for Estrada and agreed to conduct a controlled delivery to Estrada’s house in Onalaska, Wisconsin. The person then delivered the package to Estrada and agents arrested him as he left his house.

Ron Johnson Says Trump Can't Bully Him Off His Deficit-Reducing Demands For A Federal Budget Bill

With a small group of protestors shaking signs outside and speaking before a group of reporters and others inside, Sen. Ron Johnson said May 28 that President Donald Trump could not force him off his blockade of Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill” without significant reductions in spending and a process to maintain fiscal responsibility. The megabill projects to add more than $3 trillion to the national debt.

“There’s no amount of pressure that President Trump can apply to me that exceeds the pressure I feel, the promises I made to stop mortgaging our children’s future,” he said. “My loyalty is to the future of this country. My loyalty is (to) our kids and grandkids, whose future is being diminished because of what we’ve done to them already.”

Wisconsin Lawmakers Introduce Legislation With LGBTQ+ Rights At The Forefront

As Pride Month approaches, some members of the LGBTQ+ community say they feel targeted by changes the Trump administration is spearheading.

In Wisconsin, members of the LGBTQ+ Caucus are focusing on easing concerns for LGBTQ+ Wisconsinites. On Thursday, they introduced new legislation, with equality and safety top of mind.

Minority Caucus Chair Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) introduced a bill that would amend the state constitution so it better reflects the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage.

Wake Boat Owners Sue Northern Wisconsin Town To Overturn Ban On Wake Surfing

A lawsuit against a small northern Wisconsin town seeks to overturn a local ban on wake surfing, saying the regulation is illegal and unconstitutional. The lawsuit is believed to be the first such legal challenge to local control of wake boats in Wisconsin.

Texas resident Chad M. McEver, Florida resident Scott Oppenheimer and the Peggy Oppenheimer Living Trust are suing the town of Scott in Burnett County over its ordinanc that restricts operation of wake boats on four lakes. The town passed the ordinance last November.

Although the people suing live out-of-state, they own or use lakefront property on Birch Island Lake within the town.