(The Center Square) – How concerned are American voters about the situation at the border? Who do they blame the most for the fentanyl crisis gripping the country?

With former President Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner in the race for the presidency in 2024, facing four separate indictments heading into primary season, what does that mean for his and other Republicans' prospects when the first ballots are cast early next year?

These questions and more will be answered in the coming days and weeks in The Center Square Voters' Voice Poll, announced Wednesday by the Franklin News Foundation and its flagship media property, The Center Square. The first results drop Thursday morning at TheCenterSquare.com.

The Center Square Voters' Voice Poll, conducted by Noble Predictive Insights of Phoenix, improves upon the outdated practices in polling today by introducing an innovative approach to understanding the American electorate, according to Mike Noble, founder and CEO of Noble Predictive.

Traditional national polls, with their limited respondent count of around 1,000, fail to capture the intricate dynamics within political parties, Noble said. In its partnership with The Center Square, Noble's team surveyed 2,500 registered voters – 1,000 Democrats, 1,000 Republicans, and 500 independents. This pioneering solution addresses the constraint of a modest sample size and provides precision in sub-group analysis, Noble said.

“The Center Square readers represent a politically diverse group of taxpayers interested in a wide breadth of issues impacting their local, state, and national governments. Understanding the true sentiments of registered voters is critically important to our readers because they want to hear all voices represented and begin an honest discussion about our country,” Franklin News Foundation President and The Center Square Publisher Chris Krug said. “The Center Square has established itself as one of the most trusted national media brands in the United States through its dedication to unbiased, straightforward coverage of local, state, and national news, and our new recurring polling initiative will provide the best, most relevant insights.

“To achieve this, we are thrilled to partner with Noble Predictive Insights, which has established a reputation for accuracy in the polling space.”

This national poll was conducted utilizing a hybrid methodology, combining online opt-in panel (70%) and text-to-online (30%) surveys. Executed by Noble Predictive Insights from July 31 to Aug. 3, the survey drew from a national registered voter sample. Demographics such as gender, region, age, ethnicity, and education were weighted to mirror recent national affiliation surveys.

The margin of error for the aggregate sample was ±2.4%, with each political group independently weighted.

“In a landscape where conventional national surveys trade depth for breadth, Noble Predictive Insights’ revolutionary polling method not only ensures accuracy and precision but also opens new avenues for insightful analysis of the diverse political fabric that shapes our nation,” Noble said.

Noble Predictive Insights is a nonpartisan public opinion polling, market research, and data analytics firm. Formerly O.H. Predictive Insights, Noble Predictive Insights is a 2023 Inc. 5000 fastest-growing company in the Southwest region, and is ranked in the top 15 most accurate pollsters as well as in the top five for lowest average bias in the 2021-22 election cycle by FiveThirtyEight.

For more detailed insights and information about methodology, please visit www.noblepredictiveinsights.com.

The U.S Department of Education urged colleges and universities to continue pursuing racial diversity on campus despite a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision deeming the previous affirmative action admissions framework illegal.

“The resources issued by the Biden-Harris Administration today will provide college leaders with much-needed clarity on how they can lawfully promote and support diversity, and expand access to educational opportunity for all following the Supreme Court’s disappointing ruling on affirmative action,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said. “This is only the first step and our Administration will continue to work to ensure we prepare students of all backgrounds and income levels to lead our multiracial democracy together.”

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the common practice of considering race as a factor in university admissions was illegal.

The court ruled in two separate cases that Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s race-based affirmative action admission policies violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Those policies had become common across colleges and universities, and the court’s decision left those institutions grappling with how to approach admissions.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the opinion that it should not “be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant's discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”

“But, despite the dissent's assertion to the contrary, universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today," he added.

The Biden administration released new information for institutions in navigating admissions in the wake of this ruling, urging schools to keep race as a focus in admissions.

“Ensuring access to higher education for students from different backgrounds is one of the most powerful tools we have to prepare graduates to lead an increasingly diverse nation and make real our country’s promise of opportunity for all,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said. “These resources provide universities with the information they need to determine what lawful tools remain available to them to promote diversity in higher education.”

The “resources” in question advise higher education institutions on how to continue to promote racial diversity in admissions.

“As described in the attached Q&A document, schools can consider the ways that a student’s background, including experiences linked to their race, have shaped their lives and the unique contributions they can make to campus,” the DOE said.

From the DOE document:

For example, a university could consider an applicant’s explanation about what it means to him to be the first Black violinist in his city’s youth orchestra or an applicant’s account of overcoming prejudice when she transferred to a rural high school where she was the only student of South Asian descent. An institution could likewise consider a guidance counselor or other recommender’s description of how an applicant conquered her feelings of isolation as a Latina student at an overwhelmingly white high school to join the debate team. Similarly, an institution could consider an applicant’s discussion of how learning to cook traditional Hmong dishes from her grandmother sparked her passion for food and nurtured her sense of self by connecting her to past generations of her family.

The DOE also advised recruiting students from areas known to include higher levels of minorities.

“For institutions of higher education, this may mean redoubling efforts to recruit and retain talented students from underserved communities, including those with large numbers of students of color,” the DOE document said.

Critics said the Biden administration’s push could be a violation of the court’s decision.

“In Students for Fair Admissions, the Court said that discrimination cannot be done directly or indirectly,” GianCarlo Canaparo, a legal scholar at the Heritage Foundation, told The Center Square. “So, if schools are using ‘identity,’ ‘lived experience,’ or even zip codes as proxies for race, that’s unlawful. The Court allowed schools to consider whether personal experiences, like overcoming discrimination, created personal virtue, but it made clear that schools can’t use such things to discriminate on the sly.”

How the DOE advised schools and what some say of the court’s decision seem to conflict at times, possibly setting up another legal battle to flesh out the details of how or how not race may be considered in admissions.

“In particular, nothing in the SFFA decision prohibits institutions from continuing to seek the admission and graduation of diverse student bodies, including along the lines of race and ethnicity, through means that do not afford individual applicants a preference on the basis of race in admissions decisions,” the DOE said.

Biden has also worked to provide student loan forgiveness despite the Supreme Court decision overturning his broad cancellation of $10,000 per borrower and $20,000 per Pell Grant recipients.

The Department of Education announced in July that $39 billion in federal student loan debt for about 800,000 borrowers will be "discharged," by changing how monthly payments are counted for those under the Income Driven Repayment plans.

On Tuesday, a court rejected a legal challenge to that effort from conservative groups.

“Biden’s student loan forgiveness disaster is effectively a regressive tax disguised as a progressive policy,” Republican presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy wrote on Twitter. “Barely over 1/3 Americans get a 4-year degree, yet Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan forces every citizen to pay for anti-American gender-studies majors. It’s a scam.”

(The Center Square) – While opposition remains to Wisconsin’s planned liquor law rewrite from wedding barn owners, some breweries and wineries are celebrating the changes.

A Wisconsin Senate committee will hear testimony Thursday about the changes to Wisconsin’s three-tiered liquor law that would allow wineries and breweries to sell more directly to customers,

“For too long uncertainty surrounding the state’s alcohol laws has created a patchwork of regulation that is not only challenging for the industry, but could also better serve consumers,” the coalition representing Wisconsin’s alcohol industry said in a statement.

The coalition includes the Wisconsin Brewers Guild and Wisconsin Wine and Spirits Institute, as well as Molson Coors, The Wisconsin Tavern League and Kwik Trip.

The coalition says the rewrite “includes reforms that will streamline regulations, increase competitio, and expand choices for consumers. And while stakeholders still hold differing perspectives on individual provisions contained in the bill, this negotiated package required all coalition members to find consensus and agree to finding a solution.”

A coalition spokesman told The Center Square eliminating extraneous or outdated regulations will only help people and small businesses in Wisconsin.

“These comprehensive reforms will streamline alcohol regulations in a way that benefits Wisconsin consumers by preventing monopolies and government overreach,” the spokesman said. “This legislation builds on Wisconsin’s legacy of promoting free market competition and makes further strides toward simplifying the three-tier system for all consumers.”

While the coalition supports the liquor law rewrite as a whole, there are some members who still have questions about every piece of the package, including rules requiring wedding barns to get the same liquor licenses as bars or banquet halls. That has been a goal of the Tavern League for years.

As previously reported by The Center Square, a number of free market groups in Wisconsin said that portion of the rewrite threatens to put wedding barns out of business.

The liquor law rewrite has already passed the State Assembly. Thursday’s hearing is its first step in the Senate.

In the United States, the common law principle known as the "castle doctrine" allows individuals to use deadly force, if reasonable, to protect themselves from home intruders. Variations of the castle doctrine are the law of the land in all but a handful of states. But in recent years, a number of states have expanded on the principle, allowing individuals to use deadly force in public spaces under certain circumstances, even if they have the option to safely retreat. These statutes are commonly known as "stand your ground" or "shoot first" laws.

Unlike the castle doctrine, which is deeply rooted in historical precedent, stand your ground laws represent a meaningful departure from American legal tradition. According to gun control advocacy group Giffords Law Center, stand your ground laws increase the likelihood of avoidable violence and death -- especially if firearms are involved, which, in states with these laws and weak gun control regulations, they often are.

Wisconsin is a state that does not have stand your ground laws on the books and where citizens have a legal duty to retreat from potentially dangerous public confrontations if doing so safely is possible. State residents are also required to have a permit to carry a concealed firearm in public.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 793 firearm-related fatalities in Wisconsin in 2021, or 13.5 for every 100,000 people, the 15th lowest gun death rate among the 50 states.

All data in this story on stand your ground laws and concealed carry regulations is from Gifford's Law Center, a gun control advocacy group. It is important to note that policy details can vary by jurisdiction.

StateStand your ground laws?Permitless concealed carry of a firearmFirearm deaths per 100,000 people, 2021Total firearm deaths, 2021AlabamaYesLegal26.41,315AlaskaYesLegal25.2182ArizonaYesLegal18.31,365ArkansasYesLegal23.3698CaliforniaNo (some protections from legal precedent)Illegal9.03,576ColoradoNo (some protections from legal precedent)Illegal17.81,064ConnecticutNoIllegal6.7248DelawareNoIllegal16.6158FloridaYesLegal14.13,142GeorgiaYesLegal20.32,200HawaiiNoIllegal4.871IdahoYesLegal16.3309IllinoisNo (some protections from legal precedent)Illegal16.11,995IndianaYesLegal18.41,251IowaYesLegal11.2364KansasYesLegal17.3503KentuckyYesLegal21.1947LouisianaYesIllegal (with exceptions)29.11,314MaineNoLegal12.6178MarylandNoIllegal15.2915MassachusettsNoIllegal3.4247MichiganYesIllegal15.41,544MinnesotaNoIllegal10.0573MississippiYesLegal33.9962MissouriYesLegal23.21,414MontanaYesLegal25.1280NebraskaNoLegal (effective Sept. 2023)10.3200NevadaYesIllegal19.8633New HampshireYesLegal8.3123New JerseyNoIllegal5.2475New MexicoNo (some protections from legal precedent)Illegal27.8578New YorkNoIllegal5.41,078North CarolinaYesIllegal17.31,839North DakotaYesLegal16.8128OhioYesLegal16.51,911OklahomaYesLegal21.2836OregonNo (some protections from legal precedent)Illegal14.9670PennsylvaniaYesIllegal14.81,905Rhode IslandNoIllegal5.664South CarolinaYesIllegal22.41,136South DakotaYesLegal14.3128TennesseeYesLegal22.81,569TexasYesLegal15.64,613UtahYesLegal13.9450VermontNo (some protections from legal precedent)Legal11.983VirginiaNo (some protections from legal precedent)Illegal14.31,248WashingtonNo (some protections from legal precedent)Illegal11.2896West VirginiaYesLegal17.3319WisconsinNoIllegal13.5793WyomingYesLegal26.1155

Former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and UNC law graduate Sidney Powell are the North Carolina ties among the 18 allies of former President Donald Trump facing indictments in Georgia related to the 2020 election.

Meadows led Trump's staff from March 31, 2020, to Jan. 20, 2021, after having been the state's representative for the 11th Congressional District from 2013-20. Powell is a Durham native, with undergrad and law degrees from UNC Chapel Hill, who began her federal prosecuting career in the Western District of Texas in 1978.

The indictment in Fulton County, brought by third-year District Attorney Fani Willis, includes 13 counts against Trump of attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. There are 161 improper acts described in the document.

President Joe Biden narrowly won the state's 16 electoral college votes, part of his 306-232 triumph.

Trump is a front-runner among Republican candidates in the 2024 presidential campaign, challenged most closely — albeit distant — by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump has also been indicted in New York, Florida and Washington, D.C.

In the latest indictment, there are two counts tied to Meadows and seven linked with Powell. Trump and the other 18 are facing the count of violation of the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, also known as the RICO Act.

Georgia, like some other states, has adopted a state RICO definition that is broader than the federal statute, and Willis is known for making use of it. A pardon, if sought, would have to come from the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles rather than a sitting president.

Only Meadows and Trump face the 28th count in the indictment, solicitation of Violation of Oath by public officer. They are accused of asking Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to unlawfully alter, adjust and otherwise influence "certified returns for presidential electors for the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia," the indictment says.

Meadows from 1983-86 was manager and coordinator in customer relations and public safety with Tampa Electric, according to his biography on Ballotpedia. He was owner of a sandwich shop from 1986-90; and has been a real estate developer since 1990.

Powell, in addition to the RICO Act, faces indictments on counts 32 through 37. Two of those are Conspiracy to Commit Election Fraud, and the others are Conspiracy to Commit Computer Theft, Conspiracy to Commit Computer Trespass, Conspiracy to Commit Computer Invasion of Privacy, and Conspiracy to Defraud the State. Also facing those charges, among others, is Cathleen Alston Latham, Scott Graham Hall and Misty Hampton.

The indictment says those acts happened between Dec. 1, 2020, and Jan. 7, 2021. It involves accusations of tampering with electronic ballot markers and tabulating machines, and a payment to SullivanStrickler; and taking, appropriating, removing, examining and stealing voter information and data on software that was the property of Dominion Voting Systems Corp.

Powell, according to her LinkedIn biography, is president at Defending the Republic in Dallas. It says her specialties are "consulting in complex commercial litigation and federal appeals, corporate, legal and political strategy." She's author of the book, "Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the DOJ"; and has been at the law firm of her name since 1992.

Powell followed her time in the Texas federal office from 1978 to 1986 with a five-month stint in 1985 as assistant U.S. attorney in Norfolk, Virginia; then returned to the Northern District of Texas federal office from June 1986 to November 1988.

(The Center Square) – On paper, the Biden Administration said the president was coming to Milwaukee on Tuesday to talk about the Inflation Reduction Act. It took about 15 minutes, however, for President Biden to shift the focus to Bidenomics.

“The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal started calling my plan, and not initially as a compliment, Bidenomics,” the president told the crowd at the Ingeteam, a clean energy manufacturer that makes wind turbine generators and is the kind of green energy job creator the president wanted to praise.

“Like the 12 solar energy projects Alliant Energy is building across Wisconsin,” Biden noted. “Paris Solar has broken ground on the state’s first, large scale battery and storage project in Kenosha County.”

The president also mentioned Siemens will open in Kenosha County, with a plant that will make solar inverters.

Biden’s visit is his first to Wisconsin during the 2024 election cycle.

He won the state by about 20,000 votes in 2020.

He didn’t talk about the race, or the group of Republicans who will be in Milwaukee next week for their presidential debate.

Instead, Biden talked mainly about jobs during his nearly hour-long speech.

“I came to Milwaukee to talk about what we’re doing to bring manufacturing back home,” the president said to a round of applause. “It’s about our progress. Building an economy from the middle out, and the bottom up. Not the top down.”

President Biden’s visit did not go without opposition.

The group Americans for Prosperity in Wisconsin was outside the president’s speech, offering its own version of Bidenomics.

“From higher gas prices to more expensive groceries, we can’t afford it anymore,” the group said.

Wisconsin is one of the key battleground states in 2024. Politicos in the state have said that whoever wins Wisconsin could very well win the White House.

(The Center Square) – President Biden may not mention Bidenomics during his visit to Milwaukee this afternoon, but Republicans in the state talked about little else ahead of his visit.

Wisconsin Republican Chairman Brian Schimming and Northwoods Congressman Tom Tiffany spoke to reporters ahead of Biden’s stop in the state.

“It’s costing more to fill-up your gas tank, a $1.40 a-gallon more than when Joe Biden took office. We’re receiving paychecks that are literally worth less because of the cost of living being up. We’re paying 30% more for a cup of coffee. Everything in this administration has gone up,” Schimming said. “There is no amount of political spending that the president can do in Milwaukee today that can fool Wisconsinites.”

The president’s visit includes a tour of a green energy manufacturing center in Milwaukee. It is Biden’s first visit to the state in the 2024 election cycle.

Schimming noted that.

“Wisconsin is important. We’re really not one of 50 states for this election, we’re one of only five,” Schimming said. “We’ve had 12 races in the last 24 years in this state of 6 million people that have been decided by less than 30,000 votes.”

President Biden won Wisconsin by about 20,000 votes in 2020. Former President Donald Trump won the state by about 27,000 votes.

Tiffany said President Biden should talk about Bidenomics to explain to voters why things like cars and homes now cost so much.

“People are going to have to pay interest rates that are not 2% or 3% like they were paying in the previous administration. They’re now going to have to pay 7% or 8% for a new home loan,” Tiffany said. “And that’s made it further out of reach for young people to live the American dream.”

Home prices in Wisconsin are rising. The latest report from the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors said the average price for a home in the Milwaukee metro area is now more than $400,000.

As for the Republican presidential candidates, who will be in Milwaukee next week, Schimming avoided a specific endorsement.

“Look, we have a number of people running for president on our side,” Schimming said. “Anyone of them would be better than Joe Biden.”

Former U.S. President Donald Trump faces a fourth criminal indictment in as many months.

In Georgia, a Fulton County grand jury indicted the former president on allegations he attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state, which narrowly went to President Joe Biden.

Trump was charged with felony racketeering and conspiracy.

Read the full-text of the indictment:

Former President Donald Trump was indicted for the fourth time Monday night, this time on charges related to the 2020 election in Georgia.

A Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury indicted the former president on 10 counts of attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, which narrowly went to President Joe Biden.

Eighteen others also were indicted, including former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Trump attorney and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and several other former Trump attorneys, among others.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat who pledged after being elected in 2020 that she’d investigate election-interference charges in a letter to state officials, started the investigation in February 2021 that resulted in the 10-count indictment.

The campaign of Trump, the frontfunner for the GOP nomination for president in 2024, called the indictment "bogus."

"Fulton County, GA’s radical Democrat DA Fani Willis is a rabid partisan who is campaigning and fundraising on a platform of prosecuting President Trump through these bogus indictments," the statement read. "Ripping a page from Crooked Joe Biden's playbook, Willis has strategically stalled her investigation to try and maximally interfere with the 2024 presidential race and damage the dominant Trump campaign. All of these corrupt Democrat attempts will fail."

Reuters reported earlier on Monday that Fulton County officials posted and later removed information detailing charges in the case, including conspiracy to commit impersonation of a public officer, solicitation of violation of oath by public office and false statements and writings.

Trump's attorneys blasted the Fulton County District Attorney's office for the reported leak, which occurred before the grand jury proceedings had finished. They maintained the incident suggested the case was mired in constitutional errors.

Trump has also been indicted in New York, Florida and Washington, D.C.

The New York case involves allegations Trump paid former porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet ahead of the 2016 presidential election about an alleged affair that Trump denies. The Florida charges stem from his handling and retention of classified documents after his time as president. bThe Washington, D.C., indictment is related to his contesting the 2020 election and connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol building.