An ethics complaint filed against St. Croix County Board Supervisor Paul Berning alleging that he told a member of the public to “shut their mouth” and gave another a “stern lecture on civics” was dismissed by the western Wisconsin county’s ethics inquiry board earlier this month, citing a lack of convincing evidence.

The ethics inquiry board voted 2-1 on Feb. 4 to dismiss the complaint; the details of the case were made public on Tuesday.

According to the Findings of Facts, Conclusions of Law, and Order signed Tuesday, a resident of the Town of Erin Prairie in November filed a written complaint against Berning alleging two violations of the county’s code of ethics.

A preliminary investigation was held before the county board on Dec. 11, and the board concluded “that there was probable cause to believe the allegations contained within the complaint regarding one of the violations,” the document states.

That violation alleged that Berning made those statements on Oct. 15, 2025, at a Hammond Town Hall listening session regarding the Xcel Energy Ten-Mile Creek Solar Project.

Berning made a motion to dismiss the complaint at a Feb. 4 fact-finding hearing. The ethics inquiry board deliberated on the motion to dismiss and held the motion in abeyance pending the complainant’s witnesses testifying.

The board found that Berning was acting in his “official capacity” when he attended the listening session on the Ten-Mile Creek Solar Project, “but that he was not conducting St. Croix County business at that time,” according to the document.

The complainant “did not prove by clear, satisfactory, and convincing evidence that Supervisor Berning was conducting St. Croix County business when he attended” the listening session, the document states.

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The board is composed of three appointed citizen members: Susan Gherty, James Parent and Gerry Ries.

Parent and Ries voted in favor of the motion to dismiss. Gherty voted against the motion to dismiss, concluding that the listening session regarding the solar project constituted St. Croix County business.

The complaint was dismissed with prejudice.

On Tuesday night, Berning said that he had not yet had a chance to review the document in its entirety.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died Tuesday at the age of 84, was known not just as a tireless advocate for the Civil Rights Movement but as one of its most dynamic orators. He spoke tirelessly for the poor and marginalized on issues from voting rights to housing. Jackson also gave numerous speeches as the leader of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and as a presidential candidate in the 1980s. Later, he did the same for the Black Lives Matter movement.

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Here are some notable and defining words from Jackson.

‘I Am — Somebody’

Though not written by Jackson, this poem became synonymous with him. He turned a verse into a rallying cry at rallies in the 1960s and even on a 1972 episode of “Sesame Street.” The poem goes:

“I may be poor, / But I am Somebody. / I may be young, / But I am Somebody. / I may be on welfare, / But I am Somebody.”

Diploma in one hand, voter registration in the other

With his PUSH Excel education initiative, Jackson gave a speech in Chicago in the 1970s on equity in education and voting rights.

“Senior high school graduation must be seen as a passage of rites into adulthood. On that graduation day or night, we must put a diploma in one hand symbolizing knowledge and wisdom, and put a voter registration card in that other hand symbolizing power and responsibility.”

Tears vs. sweat

“Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change.”

America as a patchwork quilt

Jackson told the Democratic National Convention in 1984 during his first run for president:

“America is not like a blanket — one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size. America is more like a quilt: many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread.”

‘Keep hope alive’

FILE – Democratic presidential primary candidate Jesse Jackson speaks to a group of his supporters at a rally held at a Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio, April 14, 1984. (AP Photo/Rob Burns, File)

When he nearly captured the Democratic nomination in 1988, he told the party convention:

“You must not surrender. You may or may not get there, but just know that you’re qualified and you hold on and hold out. We must never surrender. America will get better and better. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. On tomorrow night and beyond, keep hope alive.”

Crime in the ’90s

To students at Kansas State University in November 1993, he said:

“At this stage we are on the defensive as a struggle, as a humane struggle. Fear: it is pushing hope back. Cowardice is pushing courage back. Death is taking the joy of life. Dope is outdistancing hope. Escapism is outdistancing embrace. When youth come alive, you have the energy, the strength, the need, and the moral authority to make America better and the whole world more secure.”

‘From racial battleground to economic common ground’

FILE – Jesse Jackson, with his wife Jacqueline, concedes defeat in the Illinois Democratic primary on March 16, 1988, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Lisa Genesen, File)

In Virginia, at the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge in September 2008, he said of the new span:

“It must lead to more futures and fewer young funerals. It must embrace Dr. King’s last dream, a poor people’s campaign, where all could come together with a job, income, education, and health care. A bridge that leads us from racial battleground to economic common ground. It leads us to healing.”

Dare to dream big

To students at the Cambridge Union Society in England in December 2013, he said:

“Common ground leads to coalition, to cooperation, to reconciliation and redemption, and to higher moral and economic ground. … I want to say to you young people especially — keep reaching beyond your grasp, keep dreaming beyond your circumstances, keep dreaming of a new Europe. When young people move, the world changes.”.”

By MARCIA DUNN

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA began another practice launch countdown Tuesday for its first moonshot in decades with astronauts after making repairs to fix dangerous fuel leaks that already have bumped the flight into March.

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The first fueling test was halted two weeks ago by the same kind of liquid hydrogen leaks that disrupted the Artemis program’s first flight without anyone aboard three years ago.

Launch teams replaced a pair of seals and a clogged filter at the Kennedy Space Center pad where the giant moon rocket stands before starting the countdown clocks back up. The two-day test will culminate Thursday with the attempted fill-up of the rocket’s fuel tanks. The four Artemis II astronauts will monitor the crucial dress rehearsal from afar.

A successful, leak-free test is needed before NASA will set a launch date. The earliest the Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket could blast off is March 6. Officials had considered moving it up by three days, but said the extra time was needed to analyze the fueling test results.

The last time astronauts blasted off for the moon was in 1972 during NASA’s Apollo program.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ

NEW YORK (AP) — An immigration judge has blocked the Trump administration from deporting Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian graduate student who led protests at Columbia University against Israel and the war in Gaza.

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In a ruling made public Tuesday, the judge, Nina Froes, said she had terminated the case because of a procedural misstep by government attorneys, who failed to properly certify an official document they intended to use as evidence.

The Trump administration may appeal the decision. But the ruling marked the latest setback for the federal government’s sweeping effort to expel pro-Palestinian campus activists and others who expressed criticism of Israel.

Last month, a separate immigration blocked the government’s attempt to deport a Tufts University graduate student, Rümeysa Öztürk, over an op-ed criticizing the school’s response to the war in Gaza.

Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident of the U.S. for the last decade, was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He was arrested by immigration agents during a citizenship interview last April, but he was released two weeks later by a federal judge.

In the months since, the government has continued its effort to deport him, citing a memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio arguing noncitizens can be expelled from the country if their presence may undermine U.S. foreign policy interests.

Government attorneys submitted a photocopy of the document to the immigration judge, but they failed to certify it as required under federal law, the judge wrote.

“I am grateful to the court for honoring the rule of law and holding the line against the government’s attempts to trample on due process,” Mahdawi said in a statement released by his attorneys. “This decision is an important step towards upholding what fear tried to destroy: the right to speak for peace and justice.”

Mahdawi has also mounted a separate case federal district court arguing that he was unlawfully detained. That case remains ongoing, his lawyers said.

Inquiries to the Department of Homeland Security were not immediately returned.