Morning Headlines - Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 | Recent News

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

U.S. and World Headlines

Trump Meets With TikTok CEO As Company Asks Supreme Court To Block Ban On App

TikTok asked the Supreme Court to block a law that would effectively ban the social media app in the United States by Jan. 19 if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell the company.
On the same day, President-elect Donald Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
TikTok will ask the Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court ruling, which upheld the law targeting the app on the grounds of national security concerns.

President-elect Donald Trump's criminal conviction in state court remains on the books Monday, after a New York judge rejected an effort by Trump to have the case tossed based on a landmark Supreme Court ruling.
Justice Juan Merchan found that a July Supreme Court ruling granting Trump presidential immunity for official acts did not preclude a jury from finding him guilty after a criminal trial this spring.

ABC News’s decision to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by President-elect Trump is sending a chill through the media, with press organizations suggesting it is a major blow.
“It should not be seen as normal for powerful elected officials to wage legal campaigns against members of the press and their employers,” Caroline Hendrie, executive director of the Society of Professional Journalists, told The Hill on Monday.
“We are concerned that even the perception that media organizations must offer large payouts to settle legal challenges from public officials will have a chilling effect on the kind of independent and fearless reporting that our nation needs to hold the powerful to account,” she added.

Eleven Indian nationals were among 12 people found dead at a ski resort in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia, officials said, in what may be a case of carbon monoxide poisoning.
All were employees at a restaurant in Gudauri, a popular ski resort near the Russian border. The 12th person was a Georgian national.
They were found in a resting area on the second floor of the restaurant where a power generator, placed inside the bedrooms, is believed to have been turned on after the power supply was disrupted.

The thousands of drone sightings reported over the last month in Northeastern states don't appear to be "anything anomalous," nor do they present a national security or public safety risk, federal officials said in a multiagency statement late Monday.
The FBI has received more than 5,000 tips in the last few weeks about drone sightings in New Jersey and other states, said the statement, which was released jointly by the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense.
Those tips have resulted in about 100 leads, with federal investigators supporting state and local officials.

2 Killed, Suspect Dead In School Shooting In Madison, Wisconsin, Police Say

Two people were killed and a suspect was found dead in a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday morning.
Just before 11 a.m., Madison police responded to the mass shooting at the private school located at 4901 E. Buckeye Rd. on the east side of Madison.
Madison Chief of Police Shon F. Barnes said a second-grade student called 911 at 10:57 a.m. to report the shooting.

Police in the US state of Wisconsin say the emergency call they received over Monday's school shooting came from a child no older than seven or eight years old.
A teenage pupil and a teacher were shot dead and six others injured at a Christian private school by a 15-year-old girl, named by authorities as Natalie Rupnow. The attacker, who attended the school, was also found dead with a handgun.
The police chief in the city of Madison said the child who rang 911 just before 11:00 local time (17:00 GMT) was in the second grade. "Let that soak in for a minute," Shon Barnes told reporters.

AT&T plans to discontinue its traditional landline telephone service in Wisconsin and most states in its service area by the end of 2029. But experts say the change poses risks for older, more rural customers.
The company is phasing out its “legacy copper network operations,” or the copper lines that run into a home or business to provide landline phone services. A company spokesperson said the copper services no longer meet customer needs.
“We are seeing declining reliability with storms and increased copper theft. Copper simply does not do well with water and flooding,” AT&T said in a statement. “The copper network is an energy hog — an active technology which means that every line, every element is powered all the time.”

Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Matthew Ramos-Soto, 27, Hartford, Connecticut, was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson to 41 months in federal prison for his role in a wire fraud scheme targeting elderly victims. Ramos-Soto pled guilty to the charge on April 4, 2024. He was also ordered to pay restitution.
Ramos-Soto was part of a network of individuals perpetrating related grandparent schemes across the United States. Coconspirators operating outside the United States called elderly victims posing as a relative or relative’s attorney. Victims were told that their relative had been arrested for causing an accident that severely injured or killed another person. Victims were asked to provide bail money in cash so their relative could be released immediately.

The location where Aspirus Health plans to build its new hospital in Chippewa Falls is headed to the city council for approval.
According to the plans submitted to the city, the hospital would go in on the southeast side of Chippewa Falls along Chippewa Crossing Boulevard, west of Highway 178. The land is currently owned by the City of Chippewa Falls.