Briefs are posted weekday mornings, M-F

Our next storm system is here. Some light rain and snow showers started rolling in just after 1 AM with steady rain arriving shortly after that in our southern counties: Walworth, Racine and Kenosha. That steady rain has moved north into the metro area now with some rain and snow mix north of the metro.

Overall the track of the storm has stayed similar the last 24 hours but a few other items have changed. The timing of the storm has slowed a touch with the switchover from rain to snow for all not expected to happen until around noon. By that point most of southeast Wisconsin, except for right near the lakefront in southern counties, will have switched to heavy wet snow. That snow will last a little later with some impacts to the evening commute as snow wraps up by 7 PM near the lakefront.

—CBS 58 Milwaukee

A vigil will be held Friday near Milwaukee Police District Four for Peter Jerving, the police officer who was shot and killed early Tuesday morning while attempting to arrest a robbery suspect on the city’s south side.

Jerving’s funeral will take place Monday morning in Brookfield, Krause Funeral Home announced Wednesday.

The vigil is scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. at the Silver Spring Church of God, located at 7333 W. Silver Spring Drive. The event is organized by activist Tracey Dent and Peace For Change Alliance Inc.

According to Police Chief Jeffrey Norman, Jerving, 37, was killed after being shot by 19-year-old Terrell I. Thompson of Milwaukee, who also died in the gunfire exchange.

Jerving was with the department for four years. Norman said he wanted to be an officer since the age of 13.

Krause said visitation for Jerving will take place Monday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Elmbrook Church, 777 S. Barker Road in Brookfield. The funeral service is at 1:30 p.m. and burial will occur at Wisconsin Memorial Park.

—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Wednesday on “Fox & Friends” that President Biden falsely claimed Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare. McCarthy said some GOP members erupted in anger during the State of the Union address because of “goading” from Biden with false claims.

KEVIN MCCARTHY: The president was trying to goad the members and the members are passionate about it. But the one thing the president was saying is something that he knew was not true. I just spent an hour with him. I’ve said it many times before. Social Security and Medicare are off the table. He tries to use it for a political ploy. But the one thing we need to be is we need to be smart. He’s trying to play politics with the debt ceiling by not negotiating, by lying about our position. I want to be responsible. I want to be sensible. I want to sit down and work through this problem. Because look, the Democrats raised the highest debt ceiling ever and they blew through it in the shortest amount of time and now they want to come right back to it. We need to be smart. Don’t take the bait. Stay with the American public about what we want to do, curb this runaway spending that the president has been spending so much. The Democrats increased discretionary spending by 30%. There’s a lot of places that we could have savings to make government more accountable and actually put us on a path to balance.

—Townhall

(Joe Biden’s) State of the Union address was high on volume—literally as he yelled quite a bit—but appallingly thin on how to get America back to work. The 12 million jobs figure is Chinese math; fugazi numbers manufactured by spin doctors from this administration. No one believes that, given that companies are shedding jobs, inflation is high, and we’re in an economic recession. It’s funny how that fact and the Chinese spy balloon incursion were omitted from the address. We’ve had two consecutive quarters of economic contraction under Biden—that’s a recession, folks.

Biden tossed out a total lie about how the GOP is planning to cut Social Security and Medicare, which is a lie, but there was nothing substantive in this speech except noise. Biden’s speech was we ended COVID, I created 12 million jobs, GOP is evil, and America. Also, hidden fees for hotel rooms are immoral. This speech was part of the foundation for Biden’s 2024 pitch, and it fell flat.

But the liberal media engaged in their usual blitzkrieg to dominate the airwaves propping up this dementia-ridden screed, trying to make this speech into something not seen since Lincoln’s second inaugural address. From descriptors like “Mr. Smooth to brilliant,” the networks and insufferable daytime shows all painted the speech, and the president, as apex communicators managing this nation well: no one believes that.

—Matt Vespa, Townhall

For most Americans watching President Joe Biden’s occasionally hectoring State of the Union address on Tuesday, there had to be some jarring moments.

Where Democrats and progressives saw a passionate man taking on political opponents, many conservatives saw a mean-spirited demagogue setting up straw men only to knock them down.

Conservative commentator Matt Walsh saw something far worse, though — and it doesn’t bode well for the country as a whole.

“Biden’s habit of randomly screaming for no discernible reason is a classic symptom of Alzheimer’s,” Walsh wrote in a Twitter post Tuesday night.

Walsh didn’t specify what he was referring to, but from the time stamp on the tweet, it was published about the same time Biden launched into full, finger-pointing fury regarding Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The unscripted moment was memorable — for the wrong reasons.

“Name me a world leader who’d change places with Xi Jinping. Name me one!” Biden shouted. “Name me one!”

If it wasn’t quite “randomly screaming,” it’s pretty clear Biden wasn’t using his inside voice either, and the evident rancor didn’t help make his point at all.

In fact, the point was pretty weak in the first place, as there are probably quite a few “world leaders” who would love to change places with the ruler of a vast, wealthy nation under the domination of a single militarized political party.

—The Western Journal

If President Joe Biden is seeking a second term, his path started Wednesday in Wisconsin where he courted blue-collar voters who continue to inch away from the president’s party.

Following a State of the Union address focused on expanding jobs for America’s middle class and ahead of a potential 2024 announcement, Biden made his first stop in Dane County — a voting powerhouse for Democrats that also is one of the only areas of the state with consistent population growth. Biden promoted an economic plan he argues will address the challenges of an aging population and a stagnant workforce.

“A typical middle-class family for decades was the backbone of America. The middle class has been hollowed out — it’s been hollowed out,” Biden said at the Laborers’ International Union of North America training center in DeForest, 14 miles north of Madison.

To a crowd of Democratic officials, donors, and dozens of union laborers, Biden touted the hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs created under the American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act.

According to a memo released by the White House, private Wisconsin companies have committed to creating $4 billion worth of manufacturing projects since Biden took office and $2.9 billion in federal funding has been put toward infrastructure projects as a result of the measures.

Biden’s middle-class focus comes as Republicans are also putting priority on Wisconsin by holding their 2024 national convention in Milwaukee.

Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, said Wednesday that Biden would not succeed in his blue-collar appeal, characterizing the Wisconsin stop as a victory lap that “is out of touch with American families who are struggling to keep up with Biden’s failed economy.”

“Every day is a crisis for American workers facing rising costs to feed their families, yet Joe Biden continues to deflect, divide, and duck blame without offering solutions,” she said in a statement.

Brian Schimming, chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said “Biden’s first re-election campaign stop in Madison will do nothing to improve his standing with Wisconsin voters.”

“Wisconsin households and businesses have faced crushing inflation, decreasing real wages, and increasing energy bills for months and trying to buy votes with his inflationary spending and Green New Deal agenda isn’t the answer to helping Wisconsin families,” he said in a statement.

—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The arguments for sticking with Biden are not trivial. In addition to his successful record, he has the benefit of incumbency. Primaries are expensive, exhausting, bruising affairs. If only Biden were just a few years younger, it would not be worth the Democratic Party enduring one.

But it’s hard to ignore the toll of Biden’s years, no matter how hard elected Democrats try. In some ways, the more sympathetic you are to Biden, the harder it can be to watch him stumble over his words, a tendency that can’t be entirely explained by his stutter. [Sarah] Longwell said Democrats in her focus group talked about holding their breath every time he speaks. And while Biden was able to campaign virtually in 2020, in 2024 we will almost certainly be back to a grueling real-world campaign schedule, which he would have to power through while running the country. It’s a herculean task for a 60-year-old and a near impossible one for an octogenarian.

—Michelle Goldberg in the NY Times

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) was asked on Wednesday about former President Donald Trump reposting a picture of what claims to be DeSantis “grooming” high school girls when he was in his 20’s as a teacher as the former president is ramping up his well-known social media attacks against the governor.

“That’s not Ron, is it? He would never do such a thing!” Trump commented on the post with his Truth Social account. Trump went on to suggest DeSantis is soft on going after BLM and Antifa rioters following his comments about violent January 6 rioters deserving to be arrested.

“I would also just say this. I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden. That’s how I spend my time. I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans,” DeSantis said in response.

—Townhall

More than 17,000 people are dead after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria early Monday, according to officials.

The pre-dawn quake was centered in the town of Pazarcik in Turkey’s southeastern Kahramanmaras province and was followed by several powerful aftershocks. Thousands of buildings were toppled on both sides of the border, and the death toll was expected to rise as rescue workers searched for survivors in the massive piles of rubble.

—ABC News

First Lady Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff shared a special moment Tuesday night. The pair of presidential spouses kissed each other on national television as her husband prepared to give his third joint address to Congress in his annual State of the Union.

The passionate peck (which lasted longer than a typical peck) kept the first lady smiling like a 27-year-old Carly Rae Jepsen.

At 80, President Joe Biden is the oldest man ever to occupy the White House and deliver the State of the Union.

Jill Biden, nine years younger, was always by his side, even though Hunter Biden was calling her an “entitled c–t.”

The unseemly tableau is further made scandalous by the fact that Emhoff is the husband of a vice president known for her affair with a powerful politician that helped advance her career, and in light of the fact that Jill Biden’s ex-husband claims her relationship with Biden began by having an affair. If Biden were a Republican, his wife’s bizarre kiss to another man on national television would no doubt be a source of unending and unseemly speculation by the corporate press, decorum be damned.

—Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist

Father knows breast.

It’s safe to say this couple’s tropical vacation didn’t suck — even though the husband spent most of it sucking milk out of his wife’s boobs.

Mom of four Janelle McAloon revealed that she was forced to breastfeed her hubby Joshua during a would-be romantic getaway to Puerto Rico because she forgot her breast pump at home.

“I’m here to tell you [that] I had to breastfeed my husband,” Janelle, 32, from Boston admitted in her viral TikTok confessional, which recently amassed more than 188,200 views from hungry-eyed spectators.

The chuckling brunette went on to explain their peculiar predicament, saying, “We were in Puerto Rico and … I’m breastfeed, and I just forgot to pack my pump.”

“So for four days, we’re in Puerto Rico [and] my boobs are on fire,” she said. “On the first day, I’m like, ‘Josh, I need you to help me out.’ And that’s what he did.”

Joshua’s selfless act could benefit him in the long run. Researchers have found that breast milk could aid in the prevention of Crohn’s disease, arthritis, autism and some cancers.

And, naturally, Janelle’s jug-chugging revelation sent virtual jaws dropping — and had folks suspecting that forgetting the breast pump at home wasn’t a mere innocent mistake.

“Plot twist: He unpacked it,” joked one digital watcher, suggesting that Joshua had always intended on using his mouth to relieve the pressure in Janelle’s lactating chest.

—NY Post

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY – In 1964, 59 years ago today, The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show before a record-setting audience of Americans waiting to see them perform their No. 1 hit, I Want to Hold Your Hand. Never before had so many viewers tuned-in to a live television program; with 73 million viewers, it totaled three-fourths of the total adult audience in the U.S. The band recorded two more songs that night for other Sullivan broadcasts, Please Please Me and Twist and Shout, with the host introducing them—speaking warmly of “their conduct as fine youngsters”.