Frederica Freyberg:

Homeland Security agents engaged city of Portland protestors every night this week under orders to protect the federal courthouse from vandalism. This week President Trump announced more federal enforcement would be sent to other cities, including Chicago, Kansas City, Albuquerque and Milwaukee. A group of Senate democrats, including Wisconsin U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, sent a list of questions about the deployment of federal forces to U.S. cities to Attorney General William Barr and Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf. The statement said in part, “All of this is part of an alarming pattern by the Trump administration in taking aggressive and excessive response to protests catalyzed by the killing of George Floyd.” Governor Tony Evers said that he sent a letter to President Trump expressing his disapproval of federal forces in Milwaukee or anywhere in the state. Last month protestors in Madison destroyed statues on the Capitol square.

This week, the board that oversees Capitol restoration voted unanimously to restore the statues. “Forward,” the personification of the state motto and the statue of abolitionist and Union soldier Hans Christian Heg will be returned to their pedestals.