Tuesday, May 19: Mother of teen killed by police speaks, U.S. Supreme Court pivots from 20-year-old principle on election changes, Trump settles IRS case for ‘weaponization’ fund, abortion bans reduce miscarriage options, Line 5 partial pause, judge orders Madison to count late ballots
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Keep fighting for your child.“
– Tracy Cole, who recently reached a confidential legal settlement with the Wauwatosa Police Department in the 2020 killing of her son, Alvin, by a police officer.
Tracy Cole (right) stands with her family and attorneys outside the federal courthouse in Milwaukee in a 2025 photo. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
More than six years after 17-year-old Alvin Cole became the third person killed by a single Wauwatosa police officer, his family has reached a confidential settlement with the Wauwatosa Police Department. In an exclusive interview, reporter Isiah Holmes hears from Alvin's mother, Tracy, about the impact of the settlement and her efforts to find solace amidst grief in the intervening years.
For the past two decades, the Supreme Court has advanced the idea that federal courts should not order major changes close to an election to limit voter confusion. But election law experts and one of the court’s liberal justices say the Supreme Court is wielding — or disregarding — that principle unevenly in ways that aid Republicans. Democracy reporter Jonathan Shorman has the story.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday a new “anti-weaponization” settlement fund as a condition of President Donald Trump voluntarily dropping his multi-billion-dollar lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service for the 2019 leak of his tax returns. Democrats swiftly denounced the settlement as a “slush fund" and moved to dismiss the lawsuit entirely. Ashley Murray reports from our Washington bureau.
PLUS:
ICYMI
East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, voters stand in line at an early voting location in 2022. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has suspended Louisiana’s May 16, 2026, party primary elections for six U.S. House districts — after early voting had begun — following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to throw out the state’s existing congressional map. (Photo by Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator.)
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