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Boston is a great city to explore with the family!

Boston is a fantastic all-around trip destination. It is a city that is rich in American History, nature and additional attractions. Boston has kosher food and minyan.We visited for a two-day trip one fall and managed to do a lot in Boston. It is a great overnight Chol Hamoed destination and not extremely far from many of the Jewish communities in the Tri-state area.If you prefer not to drive over there is always the option of taking an Amtrak Train.

Approximate Distance fromBrooklyn Bridge: 3 hours, 20 minutesApproximate Distance from Lakewood: 4 hours, 20 minutesApproximate Distance from Monsey: 3 hours, 10 minutes

Riding a bus into the water (you heard me correctly. The bus is driven into the water) is an experience hard to forget.The idea of Duck boats was actually conceived during WWII. They were used by the military as a convenient mode of transport with no need to dock. Now the Ducks are used as a fun way to explore and get to know the city of Boston.

The tours leave from three popular tourist sites; the Science Museum, The Prudential Center and the New England Aquarium. There are also discounts available for those attractions bought in conjunction with the Duck Tour tickets. Parking is also at a reduced rate for Duck Tour Visitors.

The conDucktors narrate the 80 minute tour, 60 minutes on land and 20 minutes of riding the beautiful Charles River. During the ride the conDucktor explains about the three fs you will encounter. The city represents Freedom, it is the city of Firsts, and of course a Fun place to be. Some of the famous landmarks seen on the tour are thegolden-domed State House, Bunker Hill Monument, Boston Common, Copley Square, the Big Dig, Boston Public Library, The Prudential Tower and of course the magnificent Boston and Cambridge Skyline seen from the Charles River.

When we were on the tour our funny and engaging tour guide taught us about the Boston history, the wicked way of talking in Boston, and even allowed us to take turns steering the Duck on the River.The Duck Tour is the absolute best way to see Boston and get a real feeling for the history while having fun at the same time.

Address:Either outside the:Prudential Center,Science Museum orNew England AquariumPhone Number:(617) 267-3825Tour Length:80 minutesPrice: Check online for the current pricing and hoursWebsite:bostonducktours.com

The Skywalk Observatory in Boston is located on the 50thfloor of the Prudential Shopping Center in Boston.

I hadnt expected the Observatory to be all that interesting, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Since Boston is a beautiful city with the Charles River running alongside it and mountains completing the pretty picture from afar, the Skywalk Observatory, with its 360 degree views of Boston, was actually very enjoyable.

In addition to Audio guides available for visitors to listen to in a variety of languages with explanations of the view, history and culture of Boston, there are interactive displays and informative displays with information relating to the fascinating history and culture in Boston.

Address:800 Boylston St,Boston, MA 02199Phone Number: (617) 859-0648Hours:Mon Sat 11am 7pm andSun 12pm 6pmPrice:Adult Admission: $21.00Student (with ID) $17.00Children(Ages 3 thru 12):$15.00Children (Ages 3 and under): FreeSenior Admission (62 and above): $17.00Website:prudentialcenter.com

The 50-acre Boston Common is the oldest park in America, dating back to 1634. Thepentagon-shaped parkborders onTremont, Park, Beacon, Charles, and Boylston Streets. The Common has witnessed many events of history and protests throughout the years. The historic 2.5-mile Freedom Trail with many historic sites along the way starts from the Common.

In addition to the large grassy fields found on the Common there are tennis courts, an exciting Tadpole Playground, a carousel, and the Frog Pond in which children can splash in the spray pool. In the winter the Frog Pond becomes a skating rink. Originally, there were three ponds in the common. The Frog Pond is the only one left.

The Common is located just across the street from the more formal Boston Public Gardens and can be enjoyed at the same time.

Address:139 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02108Hours:6:30am 11:00pmPrice:FreeWebsite:friendsofthepublicgarden.org

The Boston Public Garden is a formal garden located across the street from the Boston Common. The garden is beautifully kept by caring citizens through the Friends of the Public Garden Association.The garden is the first public botanical garden in America dating back to 1838. The garden is masterfully designed with trees planted from countries all around the world. The trees have name tags and relevant information hanging from them.

There is a majestic statue of George Washington on a horse at the Arlington Street entrance. TheDuckling Sculptureat the corner of Beacon and Charles is extremely popular.

The statue is based on Robert McCloskeys 1941 bestsellerMake Way for Ducklings, the bronze figures represent Mrs. Mallard and her eight ducklings.

From early April to late September the original Swan boats are open for visitors to enjoy. The Swan boats were first designed in 1877 and have been gliding along the lagoon ever since.

The boat moves along at two miles an hour, circles the island and goes under the bridge. A trip on the Swan Boat adds excitement to a visit to the beautiful garden.

Address:4 Charles Street,Boston, MA 02116Garden Hours:6:30am 11:00pmPrice:Garden: FreeSwan Boats:Check online for hours and pricesWebsite:friendsofthepublicgarden.org

Before we entered the Tea Party Ship and Museum I told my husband, I really dont want to spend much time here. Max a half hour. Lets look around quickly and then continue on. Dont read everything

I was really taken by surprise when we began the tour. The guides were all dressed in clothing from the period prior to the Revolution and reenacted the meetings and the actual throwing of the tea into the sea.

Everything was presented so interestingly; you wouldnt know you were learning history.Each visitor on the tour was given an identity of one of the men who took part in the Boston Tea Party with some personal details about him.

After meeting to discuss the major tax issues, we headed out to the ship

to dump the tea from the authentically restored ship into the sea.

The tour then continued on to the museum (no photos allowed in the museum) where you can view the only surviving tea chest from the Boston Tea Party, a 3D holographic exhibit and an award winning multi-sensory film that takes you through time until we became our own independent country.

Address:306 Congress St,Boston, MA 02210Phone Number:(866) 955-0667Hours:Thursday MondayTours start 10am 5pm (closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays)Price at the Door:Adult: $31.95Children (Ages 5 thru 12):$23.95Website:bostonteapartyship.com

The Harbor Walk starts at the Atlantic Wharf across the street from the Tea Party Ship and Museum and continues alongside the beautiful harbor. The walkway passes through the Rowes Wharf, the New England Aquarium, Christopher Columbus Park, Sergeants Wharf and ends all the way by Battery Wharf.

When we visited Boston, we stayed right by the Harbor. We walked along the Harbor Walk at night enjoying the fresh air and the sights of the docked boats and the twinkling lights of the building.During the day there are a lot of activities in the area. There is the Tea Party Ship and Museum, there are inexpensive Hubway bike rentals, where bikes can be picked up and dropped off in various stations all over the city. There are also ferries and water taxis, parks as well as the New England Aquarium along the Harbor walk. It is definitely a busy and beautiful area to visit.

Address:280 Congress St, Boston, MA 02210Price:FreeWebsite:summeronthewaterfront.org

After strolling along the Harborwalk at night, we crossed over the Christopher Columbus Park to the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, a series of parks which led back down to our destination on Atlantic Avenue. We entered the Greenway right near the Greenway Carousel.

We continued to the beautiful Ring Fountain and then through Mothers Walk.

Harbor Fog Fountain area with its foggy fountain caught us by surprise as we were sprayed with mist as we passed. We exited the Greenway by the Fort Point Channel Park although the Greenway continues to the Dewey Square Park and then to the China Town Park.

I was amazed at how each section of the park has its own original character and is extremely well maintained. I kept thinking that the parks would end, but it continued to lead to more and more areas.

Address:Mostly on Atlantic Avenue parallel with the HarborwalkHours:The park is open from7am 11pm every dayPrice:FreeWebsite:rosekennedygreenway.org

Compiled and Photographed by: Sarah Einhorn

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Original post:
Planning Your Chol Hamoed Trip to Boston - Between Carpools

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said he is glad he is leaving Congress at the end of this year rather than running for reelection, pointing to Republican colleagues who criticize Disney but have shown Putin sympathy and calling them children.

Im glad Im leaving here in a year because Im just being surrounded by a bunch of children, Kinzinger, 44, said in avideoposted to Twitter on Tuesday. I hope my party can finally remember where our foundations are and actually say that were not going to be Putin-sympathetic anymore. Wishful thinking.

Kinzinger posted the video shortly after Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) announced his retirement on Tuesday. Kinzinger and Upton were two of 10 Republican members who voted to impeach former President Trump following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The latest outrage of the day is some woke thing on Disney or whatever it is, you know. Dr. Seuss weve moved on from, Kinzinger said. The world order is being challenged for the first time since World War II, and theyre sitting around thinking today about how we can win our next election, what the newest outrage is, whats the next thing we can do to get people angry and upset and get their money from them for their election.

A number of Republicans criticized Disney after the company announced opposition to Floridas Parental Rights in Education bill, known as the Dont Say Gay bill by critics, that was signed into law last week.

Kinzinger, who is in the Air National Guard, also bashed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for not saying or doing more about GOP members who have shown Putin sympathy.

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) last month called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a thug, which McCarthy said was wrong. Kinzinger also mentioned Fox News host Tucker Carlson, whom Kinzinger has repeatedly criticized on Twitter for his characterization of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Kinzinger, who was first elected to Congress in the 2010 Tea Party wave, has been largely shunned by his party and Republican colleagues. He continued his vocal criticism of Trump and Trumps supporters in the party after his impeachment vote and accepted an appointment from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to sit on the select committee formed to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Kinzinger opted to retire from Congress at the end of his term rather than seek reelection. Redistricting in Illinois combined his Chicago exurbs district with that of another Republican member.

See more here:
Kinzinger says hes surrounded by a bunch of children in Congress - The Hill

Summary

Its too early to conclude whether this series has story value, but its certainly an intriguing start.

This recap of Netflix K-Drama series Green Mothers Club season 1, episode 1, contains spoilers.

With Thirty-Nine coming to an end last week, Netflix has replaced the Wednesday/Thursday K-Drama slot with Green Mothers Club. So far, the Netflix series shows a dysfunctional group of mothers with disparate interests. Will it remain as intriguing as the premiere? Lets hope so. Im still not entirely sure what to think of the story yet. Lets recap the premiere.

Episode 1 opens up with Lee Eun-pyo delivering a lecture about Aesthetics at a university. Suddenly, she becomes irritated by a woman in the lecture room (we later learn this woman is an old friend). The room empties, and Lee Eun-pyo has a confrontation with this woman and smashes her at the back of her head. Was this a dream? A manifestation? A hallucination? At this stage, we have no idea.

Episode 1 moves to the present, showing each mother starting the day with their children before carrying out their duties for the Green Mothers Club. Meanwhile, Lee Eun-pyo is in transition, moving home. Her moving van nearly hits a student, which is not a grand entrance as she embarks on a new community. Her day becomes weirder when shes left a note in her new apartment; theres plenty of advice in the note, but theres a warning too shes told to avoid Kim Yu-bins mother, Chun-hui. However, Eun-pyo appears uninterested, and she speaks to her mother about the professors role at the university. She does not feel confident about getting it.

Maybe Lee Eun-pyo should have taken that warning seriously because shes soon in the presence of Chun-hui at the bakery. Chun-hui is berating the baker about the quality of her products. The baker asks Eun-pyo to taste one of her foods to prove a point. The new neighbor tastes it and states it is fine, provoking Chun-hui to give her a side glare. Moments later, Eun-pyo learns that Chun-hui is Kim Yu-bins mother. Theres already a lot of tension between these two women.

To try and nestle herself in with the community, Eun-pyo attends a tea and cake party with the mothers. Chun-hui also attends, and her tone is different more friendly, making the audience feel she is possibly being manipulative. She asks Eun-pyo about her major in Aesthetics. The two clash again when discussing the raising of their children, but its abundantly evident that Chun-hui was trying to find a problem with Eun-pyo. After their disagreement, Chun-hui and the other mothers move to another table away from Eun-pyo and continue their tea party. They believe Eun-pyo should be more humble.

Lee Eun-pyos integration into the community gets worse. Her son plays with the lights at a childrens music show and ruins it. Her son then breaks Kim Yu-bins violin. She asks her son to apologize to Yu-bins mother formally, but Chun-hui asks for money for a new violin it will cost Lee Eun-pyo three million won.

As we approach the premieres ending, Lee Eun-pyo crosses paths with her friend from the past again, and she looks spooked. The friend hugs her she appears to have a lot of love and affection for Eun-pyo. A flashback shows theyve known each other since school, and now their children are in the same class. The old friend asks Eun-pyo why she left France, which is not answered. When Eun-pyo looks at her friends photos, shes irked by the pictures of her partner.

Lee Eun-pyos life is in crisis as episode 1 ends; her career is uncertain, and her finances are dwindling. She heads to the university and apologizes to a professor for making a mistake. She begs him and explains the personal article she published was meant to be a journal entry. She asks if she can lecture again, but the man walks off with his colleagues. Flashbacks show how her son accidentally pressed submit on her phone and published a journal entry that got her into trouble.

By the end of the episode, Lee Eun-pyo is exhausted from all the stress. As she takes her children to school, she remembers a peaceful day on the beach with a man. It looks like pure love. This man is her old friends partner. She falls outside the school, and the same man catches her.

Its too early to conclude whether this series has story value, but its certainly an intriguing start.

What did you think of Green Mothers Club season 1, episode 1? Comment below.

You can watch this K-Drama with a subscription to Netflix.

Related

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Green Mothers' Club season 1, episode 1 recap - the premiere explained - Ready Steady Cut

"Oh, wow! Wow! Gas prices just smacked the sh*t out of me."

Soaring gasoline prices are leaving many Americans reeling like Chris Rock after his Academy Awards slap from Will Smith. The conventional wisdom is that we are experiencing an energy price "shock" like those in the early 1970s when OPEC sanctions caused gas prices to triple.

Not even close. I knew the 1970s. And 2022 is not 1974. It's not the worst we've seen, just the worst in recent years. This time Americans are experiencing a rude awakening from a different kind of shock: energy price deflation.

Since 2000, Americans have benefitted from staggering natural gas deflation brought on by a one-off Texas-sized shale oil and gas boom. The Henry Hub spot price for a million British thermal units of gas plunged from almost $18 in 2005 to less than $2 in 2020. (See chart.)

During this time, U.S. per capita personal consumption expenditures almost doubled, leading to the supersizing of carbon-heavy American habits, including the proliferation of plastic, the return of large, gas-guzzling cars, soaring fast food consumption and the rise of McMansions. We even got bigger as the rate of obesity increased from 30 percent to 42.4 percent from 2000 to 2018.

Perhaps more significant, cheap energy hobbled a nascent renewable energy industry.

Renewable energy prices followed natural gas prices down, leading the clean fuel industry to a near-death experience in the mid-2010s. Unlike gas, renewable energy subsidies were winding down. Nor did they have the benefit of a flood of cheap credit that was available to the oil and gas industry credit that artificially stimulated shale oil gas and production causing even more pressure on natural gas prices. (See a Climate & Capital report.)

That Texas tea party came to a crashing end with the outbreak of COVID, and now with Russias invasion of Ukraine. So it should be no surprise that American consumers are experiencing a splitting, petro-sized hangover induced by paying $100 or more to fill up a Chevy Silverado pickup or XC70 Volvos.

But what is surprising has been the response of the Biden administration. The collective freakout of American consumers has led to panic and near capitulation of the Biden administration to oil and gas company pressure. It seems the administration cannot decide whether it wants to be a petrostate or climate champion.

That is a starkly different response from Europe where the greatest European land war since World War II has caused natural gas prices in Europe to jump eightfold. Europes shock was to wake up to the reality of having become addicted to Russian energy.

We have been handing over more than $100 billion a year to the biggest threat to Europe since Adolf Hitler," said one observer. "What was Angela Merkel thinking?"

But unlike the United States, Europe is taking advantage of its Will Smith moment to supercharge its energy transition.

No company better symbolizes Europes hyper transition to renewables than Italy's largest power producer and the world's biggest listed renewable energy company. "The crisis," Francesco Starace, CEO of Enel, told Bloomberg, "is accelerating the need to decarbonize in a very, very significant way."

It seems the administration cannot decide whether it wants to be a petrostate or climate champion.

Starace says Italy, which gets 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia, will be independent of Russian gas in three to four years by fast-tracking renewable power, importing more politically stable LNG gas and replacing gas heaters with heat pumps. He said the company expects authorization from the Italian government to develop and generate 55,000 megawatts of new renewable power in the next three to four months and 105,000 more over the next three years. This will reduce the amount of gas Italy uses by 18 billion cubic meters per year. All this is happening as Enel divests from Russian coal plants and closes its final three coal plants in Italy by 2025.

But there's more. The company last week announced a $600 million deal with the European Commission to expand a solar panel gigafactory in Sicily 15-fold by 2024. Ironically, the impetus of the deal was not Russia but to cut Europe's dependence on Chinese solar power components.

The response of Enel and European leaders cannot be more starkly different than that of the Biden administration and U.S. Congressional leaders. If Europe is leaping into the future, its back to the future in the United States.

It had started before Ukraine when the administrations climate-friendly Build Back Better plan was derailed by coal-fired West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.

The administration then suffered another crushing defeat when oil, gas and banking industry lobbyists torpedoed the candidacy of Sarah Bloom Raskin to be the top bank regulator at the Federal Reserve for her pro-climate views.

Now, as gasoline prices edge towards $6 a gallon, the once swaggering climate championing administration is experiencing the humiliation of going hat in hand to seek favor from Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and meeting with American energy executives to increase oil and gas production in the fading hope of bringing back the good old days of 2020.

Schadenfreude fog has settled over the oil and gas industry as it suddenly finds itself being pressured to fast track renewed oil and gas production and facilitate LNG exports to Europe. Total capitulation will come if it also succeeds in defeating proposed rules giving the Securities and Exchange Commission the power to monitor, disclose and penalize future methane emissions from oil and gas operations. (See Climate & Capital investigation.)

But what is truly shocking is the ominous silence on climate from the administration.

If one is being generous, the sudden embrace of Big Oil by the Biden administration could be excused as necessary to meet urgent national security needs.

But what is truly shocking is the ominous silence on climate from the administration.

The administration appears to be more scared of the American consumer than Vladimir Putin as an increasingly desperate administration seems ready to authorize the energy equivalent of the Vietnam War strategy of "burning the village to save it."

It all has the whiff of the kind of populist energy capitulation that led to the re-election defeat of Jimmy Carter in 1980.

That would have tragic results for the planet. Carter was just getting up to speed on the danger of climate change when, in 1980, he was defeated by Ronald Reagan, setting back climate mitigation by 40 years.

Oh, how quickly life can change. Remember all that bravado and high-fiving about the climate A-team Biden assembled when he came to office? But drafting first-round draft picks does not guarantee a trip to the Super Bowl. How ironic that Italy mocked mercilessly for its corruption, inefficiencies and indulgent, pasta-living ways would emerge as a critical leader in the decarbonization movement. Hmm. I wonder what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's plans are for renewable energy?

Read more from the original source:
The ripple effects of the Ukraine energy shock | Greenbiz - GreenBiz

By Megan O'Matz, ProPublica

This story was originally published by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week.

At the beginning of March, three conservative candidates for school board seats in the west Wisconsin city of Eau Claire stoked controversy about a teacher training program that they claimed could exclude parents from conversations about their childrens gender identity or sexual orientation.

Right-leaning groups across the country seized on the issue, portraying it as another example of schools usurping the role of parents. A few weeks later, the school board president received a death threat.

"I am going to kill you and shoot up your next school-board meeting for promoting the horrific, radical transgender agenda," an anonymous email read.

Farther south in Holmen, in the scenic Driftless Area of Wisconsin, local police are investigating a social media post showing a postcard left on cars at a shopping center that read: "Keep Holmen Schools White and Christian."

The postcard urged support for two board candidates. Neither candidate has been connected to the incident, and both decried the postcard on social media, calling it a "disgusting and vile fake political ad."

"I really don't want to make more statements on it. It's been really exhausting," Josh Neumann, the father of six said of the attention paid to the card. His running mate Chad Updike could not be reached for comment.

Voters in Wisconsin and three other states head to the polls April 5 in what are some of the nation's earliest school board elections in 2022. In a harbinger of what voters across the country will see in coming months, many of the traditionally nonpartisan school board races have become increasingly polarized.

Outsiders who have traditionally stayed out of local races are now trying to influence school board contests across the country, using tactics more typical of elections with higher stakes.

Republicans, and particularly the wing of the party that still supports former President Donald Trump, have come to see local races as a way to energize their base and propel voters to the polls part of what some leaders have called a "precinct strategy." Sen. Ron Johnson, the Wisconsin Republican, last year encouraged residents to "take back our school boards, our county boards, our city councils."

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, speaking on his "War Room" podcast in May 2021, said: "The path to save the nation is very simple. It's going to go through the school boards."

"It's the precinct committees. It's you. It's upon your shoulders," he added, warning that "cultural Marxism" is being introduced in schools and promising a tea party-like revolt by parents of schoolchildren.

In Wisconsin, as elsewhere, some school board members and other school officials have quit without finishing their terms, saying that the anger directed their way has made serving untenable. Others have declined to run for reelection.

In Eau Claire, school board President Tim Nordin, who received the death threat, is standing firm and running for reelection. "This is Eau Claire's election," he said in a statement. "Others want to control this election by inciting fear in you and driving votes with outside money and news coverage. They, quite literally, are trying to threaten us into submission. I remain unbowed."

The three conservative candidates did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Michael Ford, an associate professor of public administration at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh who studies school board races, said it's not surprising that the state, the birthplace of school vouchers and home to one of the most robust open-enrollment public school choice programs in the country, would be a focus for school board elections.

"We always, traditionally, are on the front lines of the changes in education policy, especially those that are highly premised on parental engagement," he said. "I think it's logical other states that have looked at Wisconsin as a pioneer on these things would look again."

Parents, who during the pandemic saw their children struggle with remote learning and other issues, are demanding more control over school management and curriculum decisions. The backlash against mask-wearing by students has played neatly into conservative themes of parental freedom.

Some political observers and academics worry that the politicization of local offices will make it harder to deliver essential school services.

"It makes progress impossible," Ford said.

The Mequon-Thiensville School District, located north of Milwaukee in Ozaukee County, held a school board recall election in November 2021, with two of its seats up again in the spring 2022 election. (Credit: PBS Wisconsin)

Wisconsin school board races at times have had partisan undertones, but the issues at play have largely centered on controlling taxes and paring the benefits educators received.

Things began to change about a decade ago. That's when Wisconsin school board candidates who had signed petitions to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker over his push to limit collective bargaining for public employees became targets of conservative talk radio. On the other side, the state's largest teachers union typically vetted and endorsed candidates it believed would support its aims at the bargaining table.

Today, school board elections are more heated and personal framed in terms of saving schools, saving children and saving America. Also mentioned: COVID-19 protocols, critical race theory, equity, "divisive curriculum," library book bans and parental rights.

Rebecca Kleefisch, the former lieutenant governor under Walker who is running for the GOP nomination for governor, recently endorsed 115 local candidates she calls conservatives, including 48 school board candidates a product of two years of work recruiting and training people for local races. Her campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Political experts say it is highly unusual for gubernatorial candidates to endorse school board candidates, except perhaps in their hometown. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has not done so. "The governor generally has not gotten involved in nonpartisan races in Wisconsin," his communications office said in an email.

Another sign that the school board races are taking on a more partisan tone: Rather than campaigning as individuals, candidates in many of the states population centers are running on slates with common platforms and talking points.

"Attention Conservative Voters Dont Stay Home: Vote For all Four Candidates," a flyer for the village of Sussex states. Paid for by the Republican Party of Waukesha County, it features the names and photos of two candidates for village trustee and two for the school board.

All four members of the Mequon-Thiensville school board facing recall retained their seats in a special election on Nov. 2, 2021. The board held its final regular business meeting before the election on Oct. 25. (Credit: PBS Wisconsin)

A particular focus for Wisconsin Republicans has been the traditionally conservative communities ringing Milwaukee known as the WOW counties: Washington, Ozaukee and Waukesha.

The counties have shown some liberal leanings of late. In much of the area, Trump's support slipped from 2016 to 2020. Biden even won the city of Cedarburg, in Ozaukee County, though by just 19 votes.

Campaign finance records filed to date show the Republican Party of Waukesha County has funneled at least $10,000 into elections in nine school districts in that county alone.

The Patriots of Ozaukee a newly formed organization dedicated to "promoting conservative values and asserting our Constitutional rights" is endorsing candidates in school board and municipal races.

The Patriots of Ozaukee did not respond to requests for comment.

National conservative advocacy groups, with members in Wisconsin and elsewhere, also are having an influence on local school district races in the state. They include Moms for Liberty, which has a chapter in Kenosha and on its Facebook page has recommended three of the six candidates running for school board.

"Our mission is preserving America through unifying, educating and empowering parents to preserve their rights at every level of government," said Amanda Nedweski, the organization's co-chair in Kenosha and an outspoken critic of the Kenosha Unified School Districts board.

"We attend meetings. We do research. We do a lot of public record requests," she said. The tax-exempt organization only recently started asking for dues of $25 per year.

Another group urging greater activism is the Phoenix-based Turning Point USA, which has conservative political clubs on high school and college campuses nationwide. It does not endorse or fund candidates, but has a "school board watchlist" that names districts across the country it says push "Leftist, racist and anti-American propaganda." Its website lists nine Wisconsin districts.

The group uses its watchlist to highlight mask mandates, diversity and other matters, Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet said. "Those types of issues are obviously massively important to parents and other stakeholders in the community, and it's not always easy to find out who supports what," he said.

In Ozaukee County's Mequon-Thiensville School District in the suburbs north of Milwaukee, one of the organizers of an unsuccessful recall election in the fall of 2021 that targeted four school board members is again seeking a board seat. Scarlett Johnson, the former vice president of the Wisconsin chapter of No Left Turn in Education, has said that she wants to bring a fresh perspective to the board.

"I think education has changed," she said. "I think the way that parents look at education has changed. I think teachers are very frustrated as well. And so that's why I say the status quo is just not going to work anymore. And I don't get the feeling that our current board and our administrators really understand that."

The recall effort was notable because it drew contributions from two out-of-state billionaires: $6,000 from Illinois billionaire Richard Uihlein, a Trump supporter and founder and CEO of Uline, a Wisconsin shipping supplies company, and $1,650 from the Chicago hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin. Johnson said members of the recall effort simply wrote letters to the two men asking for donations.

Representatives for Uihlein and Griffin did not respond to requests for comment.

Altogether, the recall effort brought in more than $58,000 in contributions.

A coalition of parents opposing the recall raised more than $36,000, according to campaign finance reports.

Both sides spent money largely on Facebook ads, direct mail, radio ads and yard signs.

Nicole Angresano, a leader in the coalition that turned back the recall, resents the coordinated attacks on the top-rated district. "I don't think infuriating is hyperbole," she said. "It's infuriating to me."

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What increasingly partisan and venomous Wisconsin school board races reveal about American elections - PBS Wisconsin