By SCOTT BAUER

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Robin Vos, who has led the Republican charge in Wisconsin during his record-long stint as state Assembly speaker and blocked much of the Democratic governor’s agenda, announced Thursday that he will retire at the end of the year.

Vos, who also drew President Donald Trump’s ire for not aggressively challenging Trump’s loss in the battleground state in 2020, made the announcement from the floor of the Assembly. Vos is in his 22nd year in the Assembly and 14th year as speaker.

Vos has served during a tumultuous time in Wisconsin politics, in which the swing state became a national leader in curbing union powers, was a key battleground in presidential elections and was at the center of redistricting fights over Republican-friendly maps championed by Vos.

To his political opponents, Vos has been a shadow governor who shrewdly used his legislative majority to create a dysfunctional state government focused on advancing the conservative agenda and denying Democrats any victories they could tout.

To his supporters, Vos has been a shrewd tactician who outmaneuvered his political foes, sometimes within his own party, to become one of the state’s most influential Republicans in a generation.

Vos told The Associated Press that he suspects Democrats will be “happy that I’m gone.” But he had a message for his conservative detractors: “You’re going to miss me.”

Vos worked to curb union power, fight Democrats

Vos was a close ally of former Republican Gov. Scott Walker and helped pass key parts of his agenda, including the 2011 law known as Act 10 that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers. Vos also led the fight to pass several tax cuts, a “ right to work ” law and a voter ID requirement — legislation strongly opposed by Democrats.

When Democrat Tony Evers defeated Walker in 2018, and after the top Republican in the Senate won election to Congress two years later, Vos emerged as the leader of Republicans in state government and the top target for those on the left.

Vos successfully thwarted much of Evers’ policy agenda the past seven years. He kneecapped Evers even before Evers took office in 2019 by passing a series of bills in a lame duck session that weakened the governor’s powers.

“I’ve been tenacious and I’ve fought for what our caucus wants,” Vos said.

Vos and fellow Republicans ignored special sessions Evers called and successfully fought to limit his powers during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Vos led the lawsuit to overturn Evers’ stay-at-home order, resulting in Wisconsin becoming the first state where a court invalidated a governor’s coronavirus restrictions.

Vos angered some fellow Republican

s

Vos angered some within his own party, most notably Trump, who criticized him for not doing enough to investigate his 2020 loss in Wisconsin. Vos eventually hired a former conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice to look into the election, but later fired him amid bipartisan criticism over his effort that put forward discounted conspiracy theories and found no evidence of widespread fraud or abuse.

The episode amounted to a rare misstep for Vos, who is now advocating for revoking the former justice’s law license. Vos has repeatedly said that hiring Gableman was the biggest mistake he ever made.

Trump endorsed Vos’ primary challenger in 2022 and his supporters mounted multiple unsuccessful efforts to recall Vos from office. Vos decried those targeting him as “whack jobs and morons,” and he held on to extend his run as Wisconsin’s longest-serving speaker, eclipsing Democrat Tom Loftus, who held the position from 1983 to 1991.

Democrats eyeing a majority

Vos grew the GOP majority under Republican-drawn legislative maps before the state Supreme Court ordered new ones in 2023, resulting in Democratic gains in the last election. The Republicans held as many as 64 seats under Vos, but that dropped to 54 in what will be Vos’s final year.

Democrats are optimistic they can take the majority this year, while Vos said he remains confident that Republicans will remain in control even without him as speaker.

Vos, 57, was first elected to the Assembly in 2004 and was chosen by his colleagues as speaker in 2013. He became Wisconsin’s longest-serving speaker in 2021.

Vos said he had a mild heart attack in November that he didn’t reveal publicly until Thursday, but that’s not why he’s leaving.

“It was the tap on the shoulder that I needed to make sure that my decision is right,” he said.

Vos said it was “unlikely” he would run for office again, but he didn’t rule it out.

Vos was college roommates with Reince Priebus, who was chair of the Republican National Committee in 2016 and served as Trump’s first White House chief of staff.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The search for the “next man up,” has begun.

With news of Pablo López’s injury, which very well might wind up with the starter needing season-ending Tommy John surgery, the Twins suddenly are looking for someone to step up and fill an, unexpectedly, open rotation spot.

The Twins have touted their rotation depth from the start, and now they’ll get a chance to see it in action. Zebby Matthews will have his first in-game chance to make an impression on team’s decision-makers when he takes the ball on Friday in the Twins’ spring opener against the University of Minnesota, a game that is set for 5:05 p.m. Central at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers, Fla.

“I’m going to do my best in spring to earn a rotation spot,” Matthews said. “If it works out, that’s awesome. If not, then I’ll be ready in Triple-A whenever they make the call and need me back up.”

Matthews spent the beginning of last season at Triple-A but was in the majors much of last season, making 16 starts sandwiched around a shoulder strain that kept him out for part of the summer.

His focus this offseason — and his continued focus as camp gets underway — is on his execution, particularly with his offspeed pitches.

“I’ve got the stuff. I’ve got the pitches. Just trying to fine tune and execute,” Matthews said. “If you look at some of the better starters in the league, you look at what they’re able to do locating their pitches, missing to their advantage, that sort of stuff. Big focus on that.”

Across 16 major league starts last season, Matthews had a 5.56 ERA, mixing in some clunkers with some stretches of dominance. In his second-to-last start of the season, he gave up nine runs in three innings. In his final outing, he went seven innings and gave up one run on four hits against the Texas Rangers.

Now, with major league experience in each of the past two seasons, he’s looking to find more consistency, as he has in the minors. What that looks like, manager Derek Shelton said, in this case, is making sure he’s “able to manipulate the plate and off the plate in specific counts.”

“We’ve seen over the time, he’s got really good stuff and flashes that,” Shelton said. “I think for a young pitcher, just to be more consistent is probably the main theme.”

Twins “hunt the good”

When Shelton first heard strength and conditioning coach Chuck Bradway drop the phrase “hunt the good,” during a staff retreat in Minneapolis last month, the new Twins manager knew he was going to steal it. Now, it’s written atop the Twins’ daily schedule that’s posted on the walls every day, and Shelton made sure to include the phrase in his speech to the group as camp begun.

“It was something that organically came up in a staff conversation about how we wanted our staff to relate to players and what we wanted them to feel because the game is based on so much negativity,” Shelton said.

To illustrate their point, they highlighted Hall of Famer Tony Oliva, a career .304 hitter. Along the way, that meant failing every seven of 10 times.

“Our game is based on failure,” Shelton said. “I want to make sure our coaches and our players focus back towards what the good thing about every day is.”

Briefly

The Twins’ game against the University of Minnesota will last seven innings. The Twins will have a couple of major leaguers play in Friday’s game, but Shelton said he expects most of the rest of them to play within the first couple games. … Joe Ryan will start Saturday’s game.

Related Articles

With Pablo López’s injury, what starters could step up for Twins?

After frustrating free agency, Andrew Chafin competes for spot in Twins’ bullpen

Bruce Meyer elevated to baseball players’ association interim executive director

Twins look for “next man up,” in wake of Pablo López injury news

Twins’ Pablo López likely to miss entire season

A man who killed three people by opening fire at a Minneapolis homeless encampment and was shot the next day during an encounter with St. Paul police has been sentenced to 86½ years in prison.

Earl Bennett (Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)

Hennepin County District Judge Hilary Caligiuri gave Earl Bennett, 42, of Minneapolis, three consecutive prison terms on Wednesday after a jury in December found him guilty of three counts of second-degree murder in the shootings of Christopher Martell Washington, 38, Louis Mitchell Lemons Jr., 32, and Samantha Jo Moss, 35, in Minneapolis’ Hiawatha neighborhood on Oct. 27, 2024.

The judge followed a recommendation by a Hennepin County probation officer, who did a presentence investigation, and the urging of prosecutors to hand down the 1,038-month prison term.

Prosecutors said Bennett, wearing a balaclava-type mask, stepped into a tent at a small homeless encampment in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue, behind railroad tracks and near Hiawatha Avenue, about 2:20 p.m. He asked for Washington, then started firing. Washington was shot in his neck and thigh. Lemons was hit in his neck and back of his head. Both men were pronounced dead at the scene. Moss was shot in the head, shoulder and hand, and died of her injuries six days later.

The killings were “intentional, brazen and violent, occurring in broad daylight near numerous witnesses,” a presentence investigation report said. “These victims had no warning or opportunity to protect themselves or flee before (Bennett) executed all three.”

Video showed Bennett “casually leave the encampment and ride his e-bike away from the scene,” prosecutors wrote last week in a sentencing memo to the judge. “(Bennett) gave no thought to the people he just murdered or their friends who would inevitably find victims’ lifeless bodies.”

A day after the triple shooting, at about 5:15 p.m., police responded to reports that a resident at a Minneapolis sober living house had shot another resident in the neck. Two people said Bennett was the shooter.

Less than three hours later, at 7:45 p.m., St. Paul police officers responding to a shots-fired call at Snelling and University avenues encountered a shirtless man, later identified as Bennett, walking and holding a handgun, which police say he wouldn’t drop, despite commands to do so and non-lethal rounds fired at him.

Bennett held the gun to his own head and pointed it at officers, according to city surveillance camera footage released by police. Four officers responded by firing a total of 31 rounds at Bennett, 15 of which struck him. He was treated at Regions Hospital for injuries that resulted in the amputation of one of his legs.

Related Articles

Barbara McQuade: How to safeguard the DOJ against the next Trump

St. Paul man gets probation for copper wire thefts that cost the city $200K in repairs

Report: Young offenders more likely to stay out of trouble under new Ramsey County initiative

Local journalist and activist plead not guilty in St. Paul church protest

Burnsville woman admits to fatally shooting 70-year-old, trying to cover up killing

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office determined that the four officers were justified in their actions.

The Sig Sauer 9mm handgun that Bennett dropped after he was shot was reported stolen from a truck in Apple Valley two days earlier. It was a match to casings found at the encampment and sober house shootings.

Bennett still faces first-degree attempted murder in connection with the sober house shooting, and second-degree assault and possession of a firearm by a person convicted of a crime of violence for his encounter with St. Paul police.

Bennett was prohibited from having a gun because of felony robbery convictions in St. Louis, Mo., in 2003. He was sentenced to 12 years prison and moved to Minnesota after his release. He then had an encounter with law enforcement in 2015 that nearly led to him being shot by a Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy after attempting to disarm another deputy at Regions Hospital. He received a four-year prison term.

By MICHAEL CASEY

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Thursday proposed a rule that would limit public housing mostly to citizens, which advocates fear could lead to tens of thousands of people being evicted.

Related Articles

Federal judge accuses Trump administration of ‘terror’ against immigrants in scathing ruling

Lawmaker says the US deported a baby with bronchitis, while authorities say the child was medically cleared

New Trump administration order could lead to the detention of thousands of legal refugees

Justice Dept. lawyer is found in contempt by federal judge in Minnesota

Minnesota Capitol rally calls for state aid following immigration crackdown

The rule, published in the Federal Register, calls for limiting funding for those in public housing and other HUD-related housing to citizens and eligible noncitizens. The rule would require every resident in HUD-funded housing to show proof of citizenship or eligible status, including those 62 years and older who previously only had to show proof of age.

The measure would effectively bar mixed status families —- where some household members are eligible for help — from housing and is part of the government’s immigration crackdown. A similar rule was proposed but never finalized during the first Trump administration and is mentioned as a policy priority in the conservative blueprint Project 2025,

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the days of illegal aliens, ineligibles, and fraudsters gaming the system and riding the coattails of American taxpayers are over,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in a statement.. “HUD’s proposed rule will guarantee that all residents in HUD-funded housing are eligible tenants. We have zero tolerance for pushing aside hardworking U.S. citizens while enabling others to exploit decades-old loopholes.”

The proposed rule will be made official when it’s published in the Federal Register on Friday. HUD did not answer how long it may take before the rule takes effect.

Housing advocates were quick to criticize the move.

“Our country can ensure that every one of us, no matter where we come from or what language we speak, has a safe home,” Shamus Roller, the executive director of the National Housing Law Project said in a statement. “Instead, Trump is trying to evict immigrant families, citizen and non-citizen, from HUD housing.

In December, the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that up to 20,000 families or as many as 80,000 people could lose assistance due to changes in eligibility that would overturn a rule that has been in place for decades.

The impact of the rule could affect many more people who struggle to provide proper documentation. About 3.8 million adults with citizenship lack any form of documentation proving their citizenship, and another 17.5 million cannot easily get the documents.

“Everyone deserves an affordable home, including our neighbors, friends, and coworkers who are immigrants,” said Sonya Acosta, a senior policy analyst with the Center. “This rule would force 20,000 families with mixed immigration statuses to make the agonizing choice between losing the assistance that helps them pay rent every month or separating their family. People without a documented immigration status have never been eligible for rental assistance.”