With growing threats to higher education and state government, Wisconsin Republicans have a plan to put the Badger State at the forefront of combating Chinese Communist Party influence.
Five Wisconsin Republicans unveiled a series of bills this week to keep CCP influence out of state government and institutions of higher education. If the legislative package is passed, national security experts say that Wisconsin would become a state leader in combating China. 
“We can all agree and should be able to rally around the fact that we should not be supporting or doing anything to support organizations, such as the Chinese Communist Party, that seek to undermine the foundational things that make America exceptional,” Senator Patrick Testin told The Daily Wire. 
The bills would block partnerships between the University of Wisconsin system and China, prevent state agencies from contracting with companies controlled by China, ban critical telecommunication companies from using equipment manufactured by foreign adversaries, crack down on transnational repression, target illegal organ harvesting, and protect genetic data from countries like China.
The lawmakers behind the legislative package include Testin, Senator Cory Tomczyk, Representative Daniel Knodl, Representative Clint Moses, and Representative Alex Dallman.
Testin said that the CCP wants “to embed themselves in every element and sector” to “essentially extend their tentacles and their influence.”
The higher education bill would ban the University of Wisconsin from entering into “a collaboration agreement, academic partnership, or research partnership with a college or university based in China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, or Qatar,” according to a draft shared with The Daily Wire. 
There would be an exception if a federal law enforcement agency performs a national security assessment. 
Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to <a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DailyWire.com/Subscribe</a> to join now.
A recent House <a href="https://selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/media/press-releases/new-investigative-report-uncovers-billions-in-taxpayer-money-used-to-fund-chinese-military-apparatus">report</a> listed over a dozen Pentagon grants to the university worth tens of millions of dollars that raised concerns over links to China. The university also has relationships with <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250929185535/https://tc.seu.edu.cn/jt_en/2017/1230/c16823a206389/page.htm">Southeast University in Nanjing</a> and <a href="https://alc.wisc.edu/2019/06/18/uw-madison-celebrates-40-year-relationship-with-nanjing-university/">Nanjing University</a>, both of which have been <a href="https://www.civitas.org.uk/content/files/The-Strategic-Dependence-of-UK-Universities-on-China-.pdf">assessed</a> to have medium to high risk in terms of Chinese defense ties. 
Another bill would stop state agencies from contracting with organizations that are headquartered in certain countries, like China, or are controlled or majority-owned by the Chinese government or the CCP. 
A third bill would prohibit “telecommunications providers from purchasing, renting, leasing, obtaining, or maintaining critical telecommunications infrastructure that includes equipment manufactured by a foreign principal of a foreign adversary.”
Another bill aims to protect the genetic data of Americans. It would ban “the use of genetic software from foreign adversaries in medical and research facilities, the storage of any human genome sequencing data within the borders of a foreign adversary.”
State Rep. Clint Moses told The Daily Wire that the intent of that legislation was to ensure that genetic data was not being used for biological warfare or other “nefarious” purposes. 
Another measure part of the package would prohibit “coverage of organ transplantation and related care under health insurance policies and the Medical Assistance program if the organ is transplanted in or originates from a country known to have participated in forced organ harvesting.”
There are between 25,000 and 50,000 people in China every year whose organs are harvested against their will, according to some estimates. 
“When you start looking at what some of these countries are doing, particularly in China, where they’re getting organs for transplant usage, obviously from inmates, prisoners,” Moses said. “I think, [Americans] would find that absolutely shocking and atrocious, because it’s a humanitarian issue. It’s a crime against humanity.”
The final bill in the package would give more teeth to law enforcement in punishing those engaging in transnational repression. Other bills aiming to prevent foreign adversaries from owning land in Wisconsin and to keep Chinese software off state devices are also working their way through the legislature. 
Michael Lucci, the founder of the national security advocacy group State Armor, said that Wisconsin would become the model in the Midwest for targeting China if all of the proposals pass. He said states need to take increasingly strong action to safeguard themselves. 
“Over time, the breadth and scale of the threat has become more apparent and it has grown. It&#8217;s become clear it&#8217;s quite large,” he told The Daily Wire. “Therefore, the American response, which is both federal and state, needs to expand and become more forceful.”

TOPSHOT-CHINA-EXPO2010

Crouching Badger, Hidden Dragon: How Wisconsin Republicans Are Fighting China

China

Chinese Communist Party

University of Wisconsin

Wisconsin

This is the first part of a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/michael-knowles-offers-the-case-against-murder-an-anti-abortion-speech-at-university-of-wisconsin-madison" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech</a> delivered by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-michael-knowles-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Knowles</a> at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Wednesday, March 13, 2024.
For most of American history, the intentional killing of unborn babies was illegal. From the colonial period through the middle of the nineteenth century, when abortion was surgically impossible and chemically dubious, it was not a major public issue. In that era — obviously long before ultrasounds — people did not know exactly when or how conception occurred, outside of the basics. Inasmuch as they did know, and in so far as it was addressed by the law, abortion was outlawed.
By the turn of the twentieth century, abortion was a felony in every state. The legal distinction between early abortions and later-term abortions also began to disappear as scientists came to understand that the first movement of the unborn baby — known as quickening — did not represent a particularly significant moment in the development of the baby.
One can understand why earlier generations might have thought that “quickening” would be morally and legally significant. But scientific advancements revealed details about human physical development that thinkers such as Aristotle simply would not have been able to know. And as our understanding of when and how conception occurs changed, our laws changed to reflect it. Simple enough.
A couple of decades into the twentieth century, with the rise of the eugenics movement that sought to exterminate disfavored populations such as the mentally handicapped and certain racial minorities, Margaret Sanger founded the American Birth Control League, which became Planned Parenthood a couple decades later.
By the late 1960s, after decades of activism, the pro-abortion movement successfully decriminalized abortion in certain limited cases — rape, incest, threat to the health of the mother — in one state: Colorado. Several states soon followed. By the early 1970s, some states, such as New York, had gone further, legalizing abortion all the way up to the 24th week of pregnancy. Then in 1973, the Supreme Court discovered a previously unidentified constitutional “right” to murder babies. 
That supposed “right” seems to have eluded the men who wrote the Constitution, as well as the nine generations of Americans that lived between ratification and Roe v. Wade. Perhaps the abortion clause of the Constitution was written in some secret code known only to twentieth-century liberals.
Whatever the case, in 1973, the Court pretended that the Constitution granted a right to kill babies through abortion. 19 years later, as the pro-life movement picked up steam and Roe began to crumble under its own incoherence, the Court revisited the question in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-michael-knowles-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Michael Knowles Show</a></h4>
In Casey, the Court made an even stranger ruling than it had in Roe, deciding that the practical outcome of Roe — the license to kill unborn babies in the first trimester, sometimes in the second, and usually not in the third — was sound, but that the reasoning around the decision was not sound. So the Court threw out Roe’s trimester system and changed the reasoning to argue that women had a right to kill their kids until the baby was “viable,” after which point they might still kill their kids, but it depended on state law. Maybe. 
The Casey decision changed some of the other constitutional reasoning — or lack thereof — from Roe as well. But the practical implications — now even more legally and constitutionally preposterous — remained unchanged until the Dobbs decision a couple years ago, which happily overturned Roe and Casey and returned our law and jurisprudence to what had been the norm for most of American history, when abortion was not considered a right and usually was simply outlawed.
That is about three centuries of American abortion law in under ten paragraphs, all of which I mention because the pro-abortion crowd wants to pretend that infanticide is a constitutional right deeply embedded in the American political tradition. And it just simply isn’t. In fact, the license to abortion is an aberration that even its most significant defenders have admitted is legally dubious. Very sus.
Justice Harry Blackmun, the most liberal justice on the Court who wrote the majority decision in Roe v. Wade, admitted in writing that the Court’s logic was more or less gobbledegook. While some justices favored the viability standard that came to be adopted in Casey, Justice Blackmun pointed out the pointlessness of quibbling over the precise moment at which infanticide would be acceptable. “You will observe,” Blackmun <a href="https://www.justfacts.com/abortion.blackmun.asp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>, “that I have concluded that the end of the first trimester is critical. This is arbitrary, but perhaps any other selected point, such as quickening or viability, is equally arbitrary.”
Of course it’s arbitrary, as must be any selected point other than conception, which by definition marks the beginning of the individual human life. Some of the sillier abortion advocates today will sometimes claim that a baby in the womb does not constitute a “human life.” They will say, “It isn’t a baby; it’s a fetus” — unaware that the word fetus is just the Latin word for “offspring” — in this case, the offspring of two human beings, also known as a baby.
Or they’ll say that the baby, at an early stage of development, isn’t a baby but rather a “zygote” or a “blastula.” They make the baby sound like a Pokemon or something. But of course, we have all sorts of different terms to denote different stages of human development: zygote, blastula, embryo, fetus, baby, infant, toddler, kid, teen, adult, old man, geezer. All the stages are distinct. Teens can do some things that babies can’t — like speak. Adults can do some things that teens can’t — like control themselves. Sometimes. Geezers, oddly enough, start to act like toddlers again. (At the extremes, human development starts to look a bit more circular.) But in any case, no particular stage between the beginning and the end either confers or negates our humanity. We’re human the whole time.
We know that babies in the womb are human because they have human parents. If a woman gave birth to a platypus, that would be a cause for great concern. If I were the husband, I would have questions. But it wouldn’t happen because that’s not how reproduction works. We know that babies in the womb are human, and we also know they’re alive. We know they’re alive because they exhibit the characteristics of life: cellular organization, growth, the potential to reproduce, adaptation, etc. All the characteristics you learned in middle school science class.
The baby in the womb is obviously human, just as the baby in the womb is obviously alive. If the baby were not alive, there would be no cause for an abortion. There would be nothing to terminate. Liberals sometimes try to deny these facts or at least to soften them with euphemisms. They do so because, even as they advocate for abortion, they recognize its moral repugnance. They don’t want to admit what everyone with even a modicum of sense and honesty knows, which is that abortion is a type of homicide.
The feminist writer Naomi Wolf discussed this fact bluntly in the mid-‘90s. She <a href="https://lib.tcu.edu/staff/bellinger/abortion/wolf-our-bodies.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>, “Abortion should be legal; it is sometimes even necessary. Sometimes the mother must be able to decide that the fetus, in its full humanity, must die.” Wolf was wrong, obviously, in her conclusion, but at least she was honest. Abortion, by definition, ends a human life.

5Knowles_2020_headshot (1) copy

The Pro-Abortion Crowd Wants To Pretend That Infanticide Is A Constitutional Right 

Abortion

Michael Knowles

Opinion

Planned Parenthood

Readers Pass

Roe v. Wade's Long And Brutal Legacy

On Wednesday, Daily Wire podcast host <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/michael-knowles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Knowles</a> gave a speech on abortion, titled “The Case Against Murder,” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison — but not without the school putting up a fight.
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/college-backs-down-from-plan-to-charge-conservatives-security-fee-to-host-michael-knowles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">previously reported</a>, in the run-up to the speech, Young America’s Foundation (YAF), which hosted the speech, was informed by college administrators “that they would have to pay $4,271.17 for six police officers, a metal detector, and other security-related costs” despite student groups not having been charged for security before.
When Knowles reached the podium on Wednesday, he spoke first about the attempt by the university to “extort” YAF.
“I should also thank the UW-Madison administration for failing to cancel this lecture,” Knowles stated to applause. “I understand it wasn’t for lack of trying. … the administrators here attempted to extort the students who invited me for over $4,000 in an unprecedented, last-minute security fee.”
Knowles noted that the security fee wasn’t to protect students from him, but to protect the speaker and those in attendance from individuals who would protest the event.
The administration did eventually back down from demanding the security fee, though they did not admit any fault. “Solely to ensure that the speaker event moves forward in this tight timeframe, the contract is being revised to remove charges related to the extensive security protocols,” Nancy Lynch, UW-Madison’s vice chancellor for legal affairs, wrote.
After addressing the fee, Knowles began his lecture in earnest.
“The belief that murder is wrong should not have to be explained at an elementary school, much less at a university,” Knowles said. “But as our culture and education system have decayed, we have become confused even about basic matters of right and wrong.”
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Knowles then went into the history of how pre-born life has been viewed in the United States. By law, abortion was outlawed for much of American history, Knowles stated, even though it was neither practical nor safe, and the details of fetal formation were not well understood.
As our understanding of biology changed, so did our laws and views on abortion, Knowles then noted. “Then in 1973, the Supreme Court discovered a previously unidentified constitutional right to murder babies,” he said. “That supposed right seems to have eluded the men who wrote the Constitution, as well as the nine generations of Americans who lived between the ratification and Roe v. Wade.”
As Roe “began to crumble” with the advancement of the pro-life movement, the Supreme Court decided in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that “viability” was the new standard for abortion, and states could decide later in the pregnancy.
Knowles then noted, to much applause, that the case that overturned Roe “returned our law and our jurisprudence to what had been the norm for most of American history, when abortion was not considered a right, and usually, was simply outlawed.”
Knowles continued, laying out the case against pro-abortion activists, including a broadside against the argument that a “fetus” or “zygote” is not a human, despite the fact that those terms simply describe a stage of development for a human being, not whether or not it is indeed human.
“In any case, these are different stages, and nevertheless, no particular stage between the beginning and the end either confers or negates our humanity. We are human the whole time.”
After delineating the historical, legal, and constitutional arguments against abortion, Knowles moved onto the final question: Is abortion moral?
He set up the framework — is it moral to kill a plant, an animal, etc? Yes, Knowles argued. Animals aren’t rational, and they are naturally part of the human diet. He specifically noted the irony of many leftists being morally against the killing of animals, but pro-abortion.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@michaeljknowles</a> on Liberal hypocrisy regarding abortion: &#8220;Virtually every purple-haired vegan that you ever meet will support abortion.
They oppose the killing of irrational animals as inhumane, but they support the killing of human babies as a human right. Go figure&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/4oDsSSMmKX">pic.twitter.com/4oDsSSMmKX</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1768058399319564571?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
“Next question: Is it okay to kill bad guys? It depends,” Knowles said. “It seems to be perfectly fine for the government … to kill certain bad guys. That has been the moral and legal tradition in our civilization, and in every civilization, for all of history.”
Knowles, again, noted the irony that many leftists want to abolish the death penalty.
As for vigilante killings, Knowles argued that such extrajudicial executions not only defy the authority structure created by the law, but also pose unnecessary dangers.
Knowles contrasted this idea with many elected and unelected leftists who have looked the other way when BLM was committing violence, and have even actively advocated for violence against those who disagree with their views.
Knowles then spoke of killing in self-defense, which he argued was reasonable — though some leftists disagree — as well as suicide, which he argued was morally wrong.
“So, for those still keeping score, the libs oppose killing animals, murderers, and people who are trying to kill you, but they support killing their private enemies and innocent little babies. The Left’s position on killing seems to get weirder and weirder the more we examine it.”
“Now, we finally arrive at the core question: is it ever okay to kill the innocent?” Knowles began his conclusion. “Obviously, we wouldn’t be killing them in self-defense. We wouldn’t be killing them because they committed a crime. And we wouldn’t be killing them to protect the common good because (one) they’re part of the community—because they’re people—and (two) they actually advance the common good. Because they’re innocent. Therefore, it is never acceptable under any circumstances to kill the innocent, including the most vulnerable among us—innocent little babies.”
“Because it’s wrong to commit murder. In an earlier and saner age, we could have settled that question in pretty much those five words,” he continued. “Today, however, we’re more confused. We’ve made an idol of choice—a false kind of liberty—and we prefer it to reason. We mistakenly think that’ll make us better off. Because we forget that when society rejects reason, it necessarily conducts politics through irrational violence, which we see increasingly around us and which imperils not only our liberty but also our very lives.”
Following his lecture, the Daily Wire host proceeded to the Q&amp;A portion of the event, during which he answered questions about IVF, surrogacy, transgenderism, debating political and cultural issues, and several other topics.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Student: &#8220;What do you think is a true pro-life or conservative stance on IVF?&#8221;<a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@michaeljknowles</a>: &#8220;There is no question that the pro-life stance is to oppose the surrogacy industry and IVF. It&#8217;s a hard teaching.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/RTkIfrbsys">pic.twitter.com/RTkIfrbsys</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1768063783908319611?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@michaeljknowles</a> hits trans student with the truth: &#8220;Your masquerading as a woman does infringe on the legitimate rights of other people, the rights of women.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/KKa2yKqC0v">pic.twitter.com/KKa2yKqC0v</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1768079825732866199?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
During one exchange, a student attempted to compare a pre-born baby to an organ, but Knowles rebutted:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@michaeljknowles</a> embarrasses Leftist student as she attempts to compare organs to a baby in the womb: <a href="https://t.co/yERK3YiNW1">pic.twitter.com/yERK3YiNW1</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1768074314417406455?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
During another, a woman stormed off while Knowles was answering, referring to him as &#8220;Matt&#8221;:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Student storms away after debating <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@michaeljknowles</a>: &#8220;I don&#8217;t think she&#8217;s listening to the rest of my answer&#8221;
Lefty: &#8220;You&#8217;re not worth listening to Matt!&#8221;
Michael: &#8220;Matt?!&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/Ibvaeu1ymC">pic.twitter.com/Ibvaeu1ymC</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1768076978647683416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 14, 2024</a></blockquote>

Michael Knowles Offers ‘The Case Against Murder,’ An Anti-Abortion Speech, At University Of Wisconsin-Madison

Social Issues

U.S.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison backed down from plans to charge a conservative group a special &#8220;security&#8221; fee for bringing Daily Wire host Michael Knowles to campus, seemingly rewarding lawless protesters with a heckler&#8217;s veto by making conservatives pay for police to stop leftists from committing crimes.
Ahead of Knowles&#8217; speech on campus Wednesday, college administrators told Young Americans for Freedom that they would have to pay $4,271.17 for six police officers, a metal detector, and other security-related costs&#8211;even charging &#8220;sales tax&#8221; despite being seemingly inapplicable. The university did not return a request for comment from The Daily Wire, but reversed its decision on Monday afternoon in the face of accusations that what it was doing was &#8220;unlawful.&#8221;
The university has not billed student groups for &#8220;security&#8221; for hosting speakers in the past, the Wisconsin Institute for Law &amp; Liberty (WILL) and the Mountain States Legal Foundation <a href="https://will-law.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/FINAL-UW-Letter-3-8-24.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>, saying the costs are &#8220;unlawful.&#8221;
The charge was purportedly the result of a &#8220;risk assessment worksheet&#8221; that said there were &#8220;significant security/safety problems at event sponsor events (in last 2 years).&#8221;
That may be a reference to the fact that leftists <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wisconsin-college-campus-vandalized-ahead-of-matt-walshs-speech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">committed large-scaled vandalism</a>, with profane messages spray-painted on prominent historic buildings, when YAF brought another Daily Wire host, Matt Walsh, to campus in 2022. University police have video of that occurring, yet chose &#8220;not to prosecute or otherwise punish the perpetrators, and UWPD has refused to release public records related to the incident to YAF,&#8221; the letter to Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said.
Also contributing could be the fact that last April, pro-transgenderism protesters allegedly committed crimes including igniting an &#8220;incendiary device&#8221; to derail a speech by Knowles at the University of Pittsburgh, after plotting to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/knowles-unfazed-as-pro-trans-protesters-bid-to-disrupt-pitt-debate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;shut it down.&#8221;</a> Two people were later charged by the federal government with conspiracy and obstruction of law enforcement. One of them, Brian DiPippa, was also charged with using an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/two-protesters-from-michael-knowles-pitt-debate-on-transgenderism-indicted" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explosive to commit a federal felony</a>.
In other words, the university was punishing conservatives for the fact that liberals committed crimes to silence or victimize them — all while not punishing those liberal wrongdoers, the letter said, adding that such a policy encourages more left-wing crimes.
On Monday afternoon, UW backed down from the demand without conceding any mistake or pledging reforms.
&#8220;Solely to ensure that the speaker event moves forward in this tight timeframe, the contract is being revised to remove charges related to the extensive security protocols,&#8221; Nancy Lynch, UW-Madison’s vice chancellor for legal affairs, wrote.
UW did not bill YAF for security for the Walsh event or for a similar one with Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro. There is no indication it has charged left-wing speakers for security, including the &#8220;controversial&#8221; Bradley Manning, a felon who stole classified documents, or Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
&#8220;According to WILL’s own public records requests, UW-Madison did not charge controversial author Nikole Hannah-Jones (author of the historically inaccurate 1619 Project) for security in 2022—in fact, UW-Madison actually paid her $55,000,&#8221; the legal group&#8217;s letter said.
The letter from YAF&#8217;s lawyers said UW &#8220;apparently believes that Knowles’s speech presents more of a security concern exactly because of the content of his speech, and the public reaction to that speech. But a policy like UW’s is invalid if it &#8216;ties the amount of the fee to the content of the speech.'&#8221; It warned that &#8220;individual UW actors may be personally liable for their involvement in these constitutional violations.&#8221;
The University of California, Berkeley similarly tried to charge YAF for security aimed at restraining leftist would-be lawbreakers, and &#8220;ultimately settled with YAF by paying $70,000 in attorney fees and agreed to revise campus policies for hosting speakers,&#8221; the letter said.
Knowles, ironically, authored a book on censorship called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Speechless-Controlling-Words-Minds/dp/1684510821" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;Speechless.&#8221;</a> His speech at Madison is a pro-life address called &#8220;The Case Against Murder.&#8221;
“Freedom of speech is not negotiable,&#8221; Dan Lennington, WILL Deputy Counsel said in a statement. &#8220;Charging a conservative group thousands of dollars for a so-called ‘controversial’ speaker is ridiculous, especially since UW-Madison routinely hosts—and even pays—controversial leftwing speakers. UW-Madison should be happy to support multiple viewpoints and a robust exchange of ideas.&#8221;
UW is a public institution that says it &#8220;values freedom of expression as an essential part of its educational mission&#8221; and helpfully <a href="https://free-expression.wisc.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explains</a> to its students, &#8220;What is the First Amendment?&#8221;
DiPippa, the man charged with allegedly using an explosive device at Knowles&#8217; University of Pittsburgh speech, remains in jail while awaiting trial, despite a letter from a &#8220;DEI coach and consultant&#8221; named Nancy Kahn, who <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.pawd.300848/gov.uscourts.pawd.300848.54.1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote to the judge</a> that he should be released because he is &#8220;self aware of his male privilege.&#8221;
Kahn, who told the judge her pronouns were &#8220;she/her + BIPOC,&#8221; is Managing Principal of the Across Differences Coaching Institute and Consultancy and said she worked with DiPippa at talk radio station KPFA.

Knowles protests

College Backs Down From Plan To Charge Conservatives ‘Security’ Fee To Host Michael Knowles

Daily Wire

Education

Free Speech

The “most dangerous” movement in the West is composed of radical Islamists and their enablers, according to Daily Wire Editor Emeritus <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/ben-shapiro" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ben Shapiro</a>.
Shapiro delivered a speech on the “Superiority of Western Values” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Monday evening. The Daily Wire host said the West must decide to stand again for the values that made it great, or risk losing to radicalism.
The immediate threat to Western values is the terror group Hamas. But after October 7 when Hamas killed over 1,400 civilians in Israel and abducted over 200 more, the West is facing a growing crisis from radical Islamist sympathizers and enablers within its own borders.
“Why are there so many in the West eager to make excuses for today’s Nazis, barbarians who carve live children out of their pregnant mothers? Why are so many in the West trembling to find evidence of Israeli errors in their prosecution of war against Hamas, so as to set up some sort of retroactive moral equivalence between the Jews and their genocidal neighbors?” Shapiro asked.
The Daily Wire cofounder gave two reasons: complicity and cowardice.
For the complicit, Shapiro gave examples such as Queers for Palestine and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. These groups seemingly find common ground with Islamist terrorists because the LGBT movement and BLM “agree with Hamas about one key notion: that the West is evil and exploitative,” Shapiro said.
“These Hamas fellow travelers are members of the so-called ‘decolonization’ coalition. They believe that the West, because it has been uniquely powerful historically, is also uniquely bad and uniquely sinful. And thus it must be torn down,” he continued.
Of the cowards, Shapiro said that UW-Madison counted as one after the university put out an ambiguous statement after the October 7 attack. The university president later clarified, after backlash, that the university condemned the Hamas attack, but questioned why such pressure was brought to bear on him.
Shapiro said the university’s reaction drew a stark contrast to how it embraced social justice in the wake of George Floyd’s death, which the Daily Wire host said exemplified a “double-standard.”
Shapiro said: “The cowards have spent generations apologizing for Western civilization. They have refused to acknowledge two obvious truths: first, that Western civilization has, of course, committed atrocities and evils in the past; and second, that nevertheless, Western civilization is, in fact, better than its competitors. All civilizations have attempted to engage in colonization and exploitation. Only one civilization has spent its own blood to free slaves throughout the world. All civilizations have engaged in ruthless suppression. Only one civilization has spread liberty. All civilizations have engaged in economic imperialism. Only one civilization has spread prosperity. Western civilization is great because it has provided unique good, and continues to do so.”
The cowards have created a “dreamworld in their own head” that sees the atrocities committed by Hamas as a “rational result of oppression,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro called the alliance between radicals, sympathizers, and cowards “the most dangerous phenomenon in the West.”
He ended his speech on a hopeful note, but with a warning.
“I believe that the West will once again stand up for its own principles. The West’s freedoms are good, they are morally good and must be protected. That means opposing moral relativism. Loving freedom does not mean that every expression is equivalently valuable. Freedoms should not be trampled upon, and those who oppose freedoms should be opposed,” Shapiro said.
“The West has a long history of resilience. The West should not and will not go down without a fight. But that requires actual moral courage. That requires recognizing the greatness of the West, and not being shy about proclaiming that greatness in the face of alternatives. It requires moral clarity. It requires the tough business of saying things that are true. If the West does the business of saying things that are true, the West will emerge successful and stronger than before. If the West does not, it will fall to the darkness,” he warned.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Stop Being Apologetic About the Superiority of Western Values | Ben Shapiro LIVE at UW-Madison" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LUq2d3-kViY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Ben Shapiro

Ben Shapiro: ‘The Most Dangerous Phenomenon In The West’ Is An Alliance Of Radicals, Sympathizers, And Cowards

House Republicans announced an investigation on Friday into gain-of-function research at the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/university-of-wisconsin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Wisconsin-Madison</a> that they said could be “dangerous.”
The <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2023.09.01-BRW-Letter-to-UW.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> was sent by Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) to UW Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin requesting information on the university’s gain-of-function research and any information on if the university had worked with the Wuhan Institute of Virology or on any coronavirus projects. 
The letter pointed to previous problems identified with gain-of-function research at the university, but the university has said that the controversial research is “needed and highly regulated.” 
Wenstrup said that he disagreed with the university’s assertion that there was enough regulation on gain-of-function research, saying that previous use of gain-of-function research at the university proved otherwise. 
“UW has already shown it has the capabilities to modify pathogens and make them more dangerous. In 2011, Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka revealed to the world that he had modified the deadly avian H5N1 influenza virus so it could spread between ferrets. This experiment enabled the bird virus to spread more easily among mammals, particularly ferrets which most closely mimic human response to the flu. The H5N1 virus is considered a ‘potential pandemic pathogen,’ which through modification or handling could cause another global pandemic,” Wenstrup wrote. 
The letter also referenced several instances where gain-of-function research was being conducted at the university and scientists working on the projects ended up in quarantine. In one instance, a researcher pricked their finger with a needle that had engineered high pathogenic avian influenza on it and had to have their family stay at a hotel while quarantining at home. 
In response to these reports, some Republican lawmakers in the state have moved to ban gain-of-function research. Rep. Elijah Behnke, Rep. Ty Bodden, and Sen. André Jacque are working on a <a href="https://wisconsinhealthnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/23-2947_1.pdf">bill</a> that would ban “institutions of higher education from conducting gain of function research on potentially pandemic pathogens, requiring reporting of the intention to conduct research on potentially pandemic pathogens, and providing a penalty.”
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The university has pushed back on the notion that the research is problematic, saying that it instead important for the public&#8217;s safety.
“The ability to safely study harmful viruses, bacteria and other pathogens is critically important for protecting public health and the food supply,” UW spokeswoman Kelly Tyrrell <a href="https://wisconsinhealthnews.com/2023/08/08/gop-lawmakers-seek-to-ban-gain-of-function-research-in-wisconsin/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Wisconsin Health News. “UW-Madison is committed to ensuring that its researchers who work with high-risk pathogens have safe and secure laboratories and receive training and certification to ensure their investigations are conducted safely.”
Several federal government agencies believe that COVID likely escaped from a lab in China, potentially as they were conducting gain-of-function research on the coronavirus.

Northwestern Wildcats v Wisconsin Badgers

University Of Wisconsin Investigated By House Republicans Over ‘Dangerous Gain-Of-Function’ Research

Coronavirus

COVID-19

Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin voted Thursday to cut $32 million from the University of Wisconsin’s (UW) budget due to the university’s promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
State lawmakers say the $32 million cut is the amount Wisconsin’s flagship university system spends on DEI initiatives, intending for the university to cut those programs altogether. Lawmakers said that the university could get the $32 million back if it shows that the money would be spent on workforce development rather than DEI programs, the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/university-wisconsin-budget-legislature-cut-tuition-c654d9cb21317c7d0a868602019c2dcf">reported</a>.
According to Republican state Rep. Alex Dallman, the university should not be “forcing these students to view the world through a lens of race, gender or economic class just to obtain one of these degrees.” He continued, “[The] UW System ought to be teaching them different things, such as critical thinking and problem solving, teamwork and collaboration, professionalism and communication skills.”
The vote is part of an ongoing battle between the university, the state’s Republican legislature, and Democratic Governor Tony Evers. The Badger State’s Governor has <a href="https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/evers-threatens-budget-veto-republicans-cut-diversity-funding-for-uw-system/">vowed</a> to veto any budget that cuts diversity funding from the state’s premier university system. 
Democratic Rep. Evan Goyke called the plan “garbage,” saying, “You are sending such a painful message to communities of color, people of color around Wisconsin.”
The UW system’s president, Jay Rothman, also <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/republicans-pull-millions-from-wisconsin-universities-for-pushing-dei-programs">derided</a> the cut, saying, “Continued erosion of state investment will diminish student access and affordability at our public universities. This is a missed opportunity and a significant setback to Wisconsin’s efforts to win the war for talent.”
UW-Madison’s Diversity Inventory <a href="https://app.diversityinventory.wisc.edu/Initiative/Search">promotes</a> events like “Citational Justice,” which <a href="https://app.diversityinventory.wisc.edu/Initiative/Details/1060">encourages</a> students to use sources in their research based on the racial or sexual identity of the author rather than the source’s merit, reliability, or relevance.
Another <a href="https://app.diversityinventory.wisc.edu/Initiative/Details/1052">program</a> promoted by the UW-Madison Diversity Inventory is the Coalition for Leading Anti-Racist Schools. According to the program’s “Lunch and Learn” <a href="https://mediaspace.wisc.edu/media/4.4.23+Coalition+for+Leading+Anti-Racist+Schools+Lunch+and+Learn/1_o83bj7im">session</a>, the program “disrupts and dismantles long-standing norms and practices steeped in whiteness.” 
“For people on the left, (DEI) has become their new religion,” Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told the Associated Press last week. “They no longer go to church on Sunday, but boy, are they trying to make sure that everybody is evangelized on campus, that there’s only one acceptable viewpoint. That’s not what I think taxpayers should be funding.”
Rothman admitted that DEI efforts can “go too far” and ordered campuses to stop asking job applicants to provide diversity and equity statements last month. Similar statements are required by universities like UC <a href="https://www.thefire.org/cases/university-california-berkeley-university-finally-turns-over-diversity-statements-used">Berkeley</a> and are <a href="https://www.thefire.org/news/victory-fire-forces-berkeley-turn-over-records-related-dei-hiring-policy-after-two-year-delay">criticized</a> for being “litmus tests” for hiring based on political views, which is unconstitutional for public universities.
Still, the head of the Madison campus, Jennifer Mnookin, said Thursday that she supports DEI employees, saying they “play a critical role on campus.”
University officials asked the state for a $500 million increase in its budget. Governor Evers previously proposed to increase the University of Wisconsin’s budget by $300 million, a number of university officials say is insufficient to prevent tuition increases.
University of Wisconsin officials say that the cut in subsidies will force the institution to further raise tuition costs amid a financial crisis spurred by a tuition freeze and increased spending by the university. The university has not revealed any plans to cut spending for DEI initiatives.

Republicans Cut University of Wisconsin’s Budget By $32M For Promoting DEI Programs

Republicans Cut University of Wisconsin's Budget By $32M For Promoting DEI Programs

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Tony Evers

A young street preacher reacted to a protester stealing and eating his beloved personal <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/bible" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bible</a> — during a demonstration against Daily Wire host <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/author/matt-walsh" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matt Walsh</a> — by emphasizing the forgiveness found in Christ.
On Monday evening, the Young America’s Foundation chapter at the University of Wisconsin hosted a screening of Walsh’s blockbuster documentary “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/what-is-a-woman-official-trailer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">What Is A Woman?</a>” as well as a question-and-answer session about radical gender theory. Footage of a protester <a href="https://twitter.com/yaf/status/1584667429858598912" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shredding and consuming</a> pages of a Bible quickly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/protesters-outside-matt-walsh-speech-shred-pages-of-bible-eat-them-walsh-responds-your-choice-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">began circulating online</a>.
The Daily Wire has learned that the Bible belonged to Nick Proell, a local teenager who joined peers from his church to preach and start conversations about God’s design for human sexuality among left-wing demonstrators gathered outside of the event. In an interview with The Daily Wire, Proell explained that the copy of the Scriptures was a Legacy Standard Bible purchased for roughly $100 at the end of last year.
“It was my personal study Bible that I used every single day,” Proell explained. “At church, at Bible study, to preach, you name it.”
Proell had briefly set his Bible down in order to engage a crowd of protesters in conversation. When he later saw pages blowing in the wind, he realized that his Bible was missing. “Right away, I connected the dots,” he recounted. “They also stole our camera and equipment … batteries, chargers, and microphones, that cost more than $1,000.”
When he later saw the footage of a red-headed individual eating pages of the Bible, Proell quipped that he was glad to see him “digesting God&#8217;s word.” Proell had decided to street preach at the event because “as a Christian I&#8217;m called to love God and love my neighbor as myself.”
“If I saw someone walking off a cliff, how much would I have to hate them to see them walking off a cliff and not tell them there&#8217;s a way out? These people are just like me before Jesus, sinners who love their sin and hate God,” he said. “But praise God, he gives sinners the greatest joy, peace, and pleasure when he saves their soul from destruction. And now, because God saved me, I have so much joy. I want to go and tell everyone about this life-changing good news, that you can be reconciled to your Creator by repenting of your sins and trusting in Jesus, who bore the punishment we deserve for our sins in our place by dying on a cross. It&#8217;s the most loving message I could tell anyone.”
Proell explained that radical gender ideology and child mutilation are fundamentally opposed to the biblical worldview since “God made man and woman in his image,” each with distinct roles and characteristics, but “nevertheless equal” in value.
“God uniquely chooses who we are and what our purpose is. He decides if we&#8217;re a man or a woman, not us,” he continued. “Men weren&#8217;t designed to chop off their penises and call themselves women. It&#8217;s a foolish thing to try and play God.”
Proell recalled that Jesus and the apostles were often despised and rejected for their message: “This is exactly what happened to us last night, and it is something we as Christians should expect to happen if we&#8217;re living out the Christian life.” However, Proell expressed confidence that some degree of good came from the destruction of his copy of the Scriptures.
“The Bible says, ‘God does all things for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.’ I hope that by them stealing the Bible and people seeing the footage, the narrative changes,” he said. “I hope that people realize it&#8217;s not just a right-versus-left thing, it&#8217;s an attack on truth and the standard of truth, God himself. That the question ‘What is a Woman?’ is about more than just gender or sex. It&#8217;s about truth. It&#8217;s about God.”
“While I lost $100 and a Bible that meant so much to me, it&#8217;s just a material object. Unlike in many other countries, I can always buy another one. And I know that God&#8217;s word will go out and, as the Lord says, ‘It will not return void.’ Later in the evening, I saw many students walking around with pages in their hands. Whether reading or mocking, I know that seeds were planted. And I pray that God waters those seeds, saving souls and changing lives for the better.”

Proell

‘I’m Called To Love God And Love My Neighbor’: 19-Year-Old Responds To Protester Who ‘Stole’ And Ate His Beloved Personal Bible At Matt Walsh Event

‘I’m Called To Love God And Love My Neighbor’: 19-Year-Old Responds To Protester Who 'Stole' And Ate His Beloved Personal Bible At Matt Walsh Event

Bible

Christianity

Jesus Christ

Matt Walsh

Transgender

The UW-Madison <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/police" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Police Department</a> has opened an investigation into leaked nude photos and videos of University of Wisconsin <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-athlete-severely-injures-girls-volleyball-player-with-spike-district-forfeits-games-for-girls-safety" target="_blank" rel="noopener">women volleyball players</a>, the school announced last week.
The graphic content includes a photo of numerous players lifting their sports bras after a win in November.
The private images and videos were published on a website, and most of the content has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/20/wisconsin-volleyball-photos-leaked/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> since been removed, though it is still circulating online.
&#8220;We are aware that private photos and video of UW volleyball student-athletes that were never intended to be shared publicly are being circulated digitally,&#8221; University of Wisconsin athletics said in a statement shared online Wednesday.
&#8220;The unauthorized sharing is a significant and wrongful invasion of the student-athletes&#8217; privacy, including potential violations of university policies and criminal statutes,&#8221; it added.
&#8220;When the student-athletes became aware of the circulating photos, they contacted the UW-Madison Police Department. UWPD is investigating multiple crimes, including sharing sensitive photos without consent.&#8221;
&#8220;UWPD is not investigating the volleyball student-athletes for wrongdoing in this matter,&#8221; the statement concluded. &#8220;Our top priority is supporting our student-athletes and we are providing them with the appropriate services and resources.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Statement from UW Athletics <a href="https://t.co/M2lK2OYg8a">pic.twitter.com/M2lK2OYg8a</a>
&mdash; Wisconsin Badgers (@UWBadgers) <a href="https://twitter.com/UWBadgers/status/1582857592228917248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<div class="lee-article-text">
The girls&#8217; coach, <a href="https://uwbadgers.com/sports/womens-volleyball/roster/coaches/kelly-sheffield/1784" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kelly Sheffield</a>, <a href="https://madison.com/sports/college/volleyball/uwpd-investigating-sharing-of-sensitive-photos-video-of-wisconsin-volleyball-team/article_a08f3eba-5301-55d3-b8b6-76df757c0432.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Madison.com that he didn&#8217;t want to comment other than to say he&#8217;s in full support of his players. The coach echoed the school, noting that the student-athletes would not face disciplinary action.
Sheffield has been coaching at the university for nine years, leading the Badgers to a 2021 NCAA Championship and qualifying for the NCAA Final Four four times in his tenure &#8212; in 2013, 2019, 2020, and 2021.
</div>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-high-schools-steering-students-to-alleged-porn-producer-for-scholarship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EXCLUSIVE: High Schools Steer Students To Alleged Porn Producer For ‘Scholarship’</a>

2021 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship

Police Open Investigation After Nude Photos, Videos Of UW Women Volleyball Players Are Leaked Online 

Police Open Investigation After Nude Photos And Videos Of University of Wisconsin Women Volleyball Players Are Leaked Online 

Leak

Nude

Photos

Volleyball

Women

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department (UWPD) is investigating the sharing online of private photos and videos of the university’s women&#8217;s volleyball team, reportedly including one photo of some players lifting their sports bras up and baring their breasts.
The <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/uw/2022/10/20/uw-police-investigate-private-volleyball-team-photos-posted-online/69576000007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</a>  received one of the photos, reportedly taken after the team clinched the Big Ten title last November, in which several players are lifting up their sports bras.
“We are aware that private photos and video of UW volleyball student-athletes that were never intended to be shared publicly are being circulated digitally,” the university stated.
“UWPD is not investigating the volleyball student-athletes for wrongdoing in this matter,” the statement added. “Our top priority is supporting our student-athletes and we are providing them with the appropriate services and resources.”
The university asserted that players on the volleyball team notified the university police after discovering the posts online. “The unauthorized sharing is a significant and wrongful invasion of the student-athletes’ privacy, including potential violations of university policies and criminal statues,” the university stated.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Statement from UW Athletics <a href="https://t.co/M2lK2OYg8a">pic.twitter.com/M2lK2OYg8a</a>
&mdash; Wisconsin Badgers (@UWBadgers) <a href="https://twitter.com/UWBadgers/status/1582857592228917248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
Most of the photos have reportedly been taken down from where they had appeared.
The team has achieved tremendous success under coach Kelly Sheffield, competing in the last three Final Fours and the team has reached the finals three times in the last ten years. The team currently has a 13-3 record, 7-1 in the Big Ten and ranked fifth nationally.
Here is the full statement from UW Athletics on the incident:
<blockquote>We are aware that private photos and video of UW volleyball student-athletes that were never intended to be shared publicly are being circulated digitally. The unauthorized sharing is a significant and wrongful invasion of the student-athletes’ privacy, including potential violations of university policies and criminal statutes. When the student-athletes became aware of the circulating photos, they contacted the UW-Madison Police Department.
UWPD is investigating multiple crimes, including sharing sensitive photos without consent. UWPD is not investigating the volleyball student-athletes for wrongdoing in this matter. Our top priority is supporting our student-athletes and we are providing them with the appropriate services and resources.</blockquote>

Private Photos Posted Of UW Women‘s Volleyball Team Baring Breasts Being Investigated

Private Photos Posted Of UW Women's Volleyball Team Baring Breasts Being Investigated 

A basketball player for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater passed away this week after suffering a &#8220;cardiac event&#8221; while at a summer basketball practice.
&#8220;Warhawk Nation mourns the loss of Derek Gray, a student-athlete on the Warhawk men&#8217;s basketball team, who passed away unexpectedly on July 24th, 2022, playing the game he loved,&#8221; the school&#8217;s athletic department said in a statement.
&#8220;It was a cardiac event,&#8221; UW-Whitewater Men&#8217;s Basketball Coach Pat Miller <a href="https://www.wkow.com/news/coach-whitewater-basketball-players-sudden-death-cardiac-related/article_95bbf726-0e07-11ed-a5de-233e74827dab.html">told</a> local media. &#8220;He had a blockage.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Warhawk Nation mourns the loss of Derek Gray, a student-athlete on the Warhawk men&#39;s basketball team, who passed away unexpectedly on July 24th, 2022, playing the game he loved. <a href="https://t.co/gHkyMr23NP">pic.twitter.com/gHkyMr23NP</a>
&mdash; Warhawk Athletics (@UWWAthletics) <a href="https://twitter.com/UWWAthletics/status/1552053637014327296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“He was a great kid,” Miller said following Gray&#8217;s passing. &#8220;He was very intelligent. He and I had long talks about basketball, life and family. He was a very engaging, sincere person. He was loved by his teammates. He had an ability to connect with people. And he showed up and played hard — to do what he could for the team. There are not enough good things I can say about him. The shock of this is beyond words.”
Miller said that when Gray collapsed, he initially believed the player was experiencing a seizure.
&#8220;It was just a very surreal situation where you&#8217;re thinking, &#8216;Okay, he&#8217;s going to be all right,&#8217; and then you&#8217;re very scared and the longer it went on, it became apparent that this was extraordinarily serious,&#8221; Miller said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been around for a long time, I&#8217;ve seen a lot of different things. It was one of the most traumatic things I&#8217;ve ever been a part of.&#8221;
Gray&#8217;s high school, Madison&#8217;s La Follette High School, put out a statement remembering his time as a student athlete at the school.
&#8220;On behalf of Principal Mat [Thompson] and all [La Follette] High School Staff, it is with a profound sense of sadness that the La Follette community mourns the unexpected loss of former Lancer, Derek Gray,&#8221; Assistant Principal Cullen Haskins wrote in a statement. &#8220;Derek was a giant of La Follette basketball and Lancer athletics, and was at his best in the toughest games and most challenging moments. He was a true ‘gamer.’ His toughness and tenacity on the court will always be remembered, and his kindness and smile off the court forever missed.”
“As a well known student-athlete and basketball standout, his presence and impact on the La Follette community was far-reaching,” the statement continued. “His life, both on and off the court, had an enormous impact on all those who knew him. As we process this tremendous loss for our community, we ask you to join us in keeping Derek’s friends, teammates, and family in our thoughts.&#8221;

UW-Whitewater v Wisconsin

College Basketball Player, 20, Drops Dead From ‘Cardiac Event’

College Basketball Player Derek Gray, 20, Drops Dead From ‘Cardiac Event’

College basketball

Heart Attack

Medical

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/wisconsin">University of Wisconsin</a> announced on Thursday that it will pay its athletes up to $25,000 as a graduating bonus after the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/supreme-court">Supreme Court</a> of the United States ruled in 2021 that colleges cannot be limited in giving educated-related compensation to their <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/college-sports">student-athletes</a>.
In 2021, the Supreme Court <a href="https://harvardlawreview.org/2021/11/ncaa-v-alston/">ruled</a> in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) v. Alston that the NCAA&#8217;s rules limiting education-related compensation violated the Sherman Act, which paved the way for Wisconsin to enact this bonus plan. Wisconsin Athletic Director Chris McIntosh <a href="https://uwbadgers.com/news/2022/7/27/general-news-wisconsin-commits-to-full-academic-award-plan.aspx">said</a> in a press release that the university made its decision as soon as Alston was decided.
&#8220;As soon as the Supreme Court ruling was determined, we knew we wanted to commit the full allotment to our student-athletes,&#8221; McIntosh said. &#8220;I&#8217;m really proud of the fact that we can provide our athletes with a significant amount of money to start their post-graduate lives.&#8221;
There are <a href="https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/33684066/only-21-130-ncaa-fbs-level-schools-say-plans-provide-allowed-academic-bonus-payments-athletes-year">currently only 22 out of 130 FBS-level schools</a> with plans to pay students for academic-related expenses in the coming year.
McIntosh also noted that the program is rooted in ensuring that Wisconsin&#8217;s student-athletes are given a high-quality education.
&#8220;Our approach is weighted heavily toward graduation because that is ultimately what we are here for. We want student-athletes to leave Wisconsin with a college degree,&#8221; he added. &#8220;I want our approach to reinforce that becoming a UW graduate sets our student-athletes apart and is something they can leverage into a prosperous future.&#8221;
An attorney who argued on behalf of plaintiffs in the Alston case recently told ESPN that he predicts more colleges will soon begin similar efforts.
&#8220;The competitive market will emerge and we fully expect everyone will have these in the near future,&#8221; Jeffrey Kessler <a href="https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/33684066/only-21-130-ncaa-fbs-level-schools-say-plans-provide-allowed-academic-bonus-payments-athletes-year">told</a> the outlet. &#8220;If not for COVID, I think it would have happened more quickly. &#8230; With the combination of the educational aid and NIL, it&#8217;s hard to not see that the welfare of athletes today is significantly advanced to where it was prior to the Alston decision.&#8221;
Wisconsin&#8217;s women&#8217;s soccer coach, Paula Wilkins, hailed the announcement for the benefits it will bring her players and future players.
&#8220;This is a game-changer for Wisconsin,&#8221; Wilkins said. &#8220;For me to be able to offer every athlete, including walk-ons, this award money can&#8217;t be understated. I think about this from my own personal perspective as a former student-athlete and the impact $20,000 upon graduation would have had for setting up my future. I&#8217;m thrilled for our players.&#8221;

Bucky Badger

University Of Wisconsin Will Award Athletes Up To $25,000 As A Graduating Bonus Thanks To Supreme Court Ruling

College

College sports

Supreme Court

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