Latest Stories By Madeline Heim

On the opening night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, President Joe Biden officially passed the baton onto Vice President Kamala Harris as she makes a historic presidential run.  A few months ago, the nation couldn’t have seen that coming.  In July, Biden announced he would drop out of the presidential race, bowing […]

As Election Day looms, many Republican politicians are facing the same question from reporters on the campaign trail: Will they accept the results of the 2024 election?  Amid former President Donald Trump’s repeated false claims that he won the 2020 election, including in Wisconsin, some Republicans took up his case, casting doubt on the results […]

We’ve turned the calendar to 2023, but before we get too far into it, we wanted to take a quick look back at five of our top fact-checks from December 2022. They covered several issues that will remain on the front burner this year, including access to abortion and Milwaukee’s soaring homicide rate:  1. Gov. […]

It’s been a busy, fraught and thorny campaign season in Wisconsin as national issues seep into state and local politics. Perhaps none has held center stage as much as the abortion debate. On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, scrapping federal protections for the procedure and turning its legality back to […]

The claims we looked at in September 2022, as the November election drew closer, became more pointed — and often more off the mark.  Each month we offer readers of High Five — a look at some of our most-clicked, but also some others that are especially relevant or timely — such as the ones here involving the […]

When the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, overturned Roe v. Wade, holding that there was no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion, the ruling ignited a firestorm across the country. So, it’s not surprising two fact-checks on issues related to the ruling and abortion took the top two spots in our […]

From drug prices to gas prices to inflation and health care, a range of topics came out on top for readers of PolitiFact Wisconsin in April. Here’s a look at our “High Five,” our feature that looks at the most-clicked items posted in the previous month. 1. U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., said: “The price […]

With the 2022 election ramping up, we are returning to our monthly “High Five” feature, a quick look at the five items that drew the most readers in the preceding month. Given the massive impact of the coronavirus, and the continuing economic fallout, it should come as little surprise that a virus-related item took the […]

Earlier this month, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed his second state budget into law, an $87.3 billion spending plan charting the state’s path over the next two years.  Much has happened since he headed out on the campaign trail and first took office, but Politifact Wisconsin is still monitoring 27 of his campaign promises using […]

Since the first COVID-19 vaccines were sent out across the country last December, more than 135 million Americans have gotten at least their first shot.  They’re growing more confident about it, too, after watching others get immunized. A March Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that just 17% of respondents were planning to “wait and see” […]

It’s hard to believe, but most of us hadn’t even heard the term “COVID-19” at this time last year. We didn’t have a collection of cloth masks, and we didn’t shudder at the thought of getting together with large groups of people for a sporting event or concert.  PolitiFact Wisconsin has rated dozens of coronavirus-related […]

A razor-thin margin, a slow vote count and a presidential election hanging in the balance have created the perfect storm for misinformation in Wisconsin. The morning after the election, social media generated an avalanche of claims about Wisconsin voting totals, timing and turnout. Much of it isn’t true. We’re separating fact from fiction on some […]