Free Republic

MADISON, Wis.— The Madison School District wants background checks on any poll workers in school buildings on election days. The city is looking into the time and cost required for background checks on more than 2,000 poll workers. City clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl says they also need to settle on the criteria that would be needed to pass a background check. Currently, poll workers take an oath and attend a training session. Never before has the school district asked for background checks. Assistant superintendent Erick Kass tells the State Journal (http://bit.ly/xWFr1e ) the district is trying to improve school safety based...

At least 10 doctors not previously disciplined by the state signed sick notes for Madison School District employees that the district considered fraudulent, according to a State Journal analysis of the notes submitted amid Capitol protests earlier this year. The newspaper also found that about 570 district employees submitted sick notes for at least one of the four days in February when teacher absences forced a school shutdown. The number presents, for the first time, a clearer picture of how many Madison employees sought an excused absence. The documents - obtained by the newspaper Friday as part of a settlement...

Snip- "City officials temporarily denied Occupy Madison a new street use permit Wednesday after protesters violated public health and safety conditions and failed to follow the correct processes to renew or amend a permit..." "A neighboring hotel's staff alleged voiced concerns about having to recently escort hotel employees to and from bus stops late at night due to inappropriate behavior, such as public masturbation, from street protesters."

Federal health officials don't know yet whether a bat that made its way onto a jet earlier this month had rabies, but new reports of dead bats at the Wisconsin airport where the flight originated have added another level of caution. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the dead bats at the Madison airport raise concerns because bats usually don't die in open areas unless they are sick or injured. Baggage handlers reported the bats to investigators after hearing that the Aug. 5 Delta Flight 5121 had reported a live bat on the plane. There was a concern...

Somehow, liberal Mayor Paul Soglin of Madison, Wisconsin is still too conservative for some. The Capital Times reports there will be a protest (or a "memorial service for fallen fowl") tomorrow to denounce the city's unannounced Canada goose roundup. Leftist animal advocates said democracy died with the geese: "This is a chance for us to get together and mourn the loss to the community not only of the geese, but of the democratic process. We want to know the mayor and the Parks Commission know that we're not going to go away," says Kathie Free of Madison, an organizer of...

A paper published by several college professors, entitled Organizing the Curriculum for Labor Consciousness, calls for more weaving of Big Labor history and tactics into every day curriculum. Take the case of Kate Lyman, a teacher in the Madison, Wisconsin school district. According to an article she penned for the leftist Rethinking Schools magazine, she was swept into the protests by her daughter and Facebook, because “that’s how they did it in Egypt.” When teacher staged a “sick out,” Lyman described it as “four exhilarating days, four confusing days, four stressful and exhausting days.” For the record, she’s speaking of...

A Dane County judge ruled against naked bike riders Friday, declining to issue a temporary injunction to keep them from possibly being cited for disorderly conduct at a Downtown Madison event Saturday. Judge Maryann Sumi said participants in the World Naked Bike Ride do not have a constitutional right to be naked in public and that police should have the full range of laws at their disposal. Afterward, one of the ride's organizers said the event will go on.

Really ugly.

With lawmakers gearing up for a vote on the state budget, a “Walkerville” camp similar to the one that sprang up during the protests at the state Capitol earlier this year may be returning this weekend — this time to the terraces of Mifflin and Carroll streets. We Are Wisconsin, an alliance of community groups, labor unions and others, has asked the city for a permit to set up the camp across from the Capitol to provide information about Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposals and efforts to recall Republican legislators who voted to eliminate bargaining rights for most public employees.

More than 100 pages of public records released Thursday reveal again how high emotion, bad judgment and anti-social media combined in February to generate a nationwide investigation of threats against Gov. Scott Walker and lawmakers on both sides of his budget-repair bill. Emails, Twitter streams, Facebook and Craigslist postings, phone calls and even a few notes sent by U.S. mail ranged from overt threats of violence to promises of political retaliation to benign-sounding requests for investigations of lawmakers' actions. A surprising number of even the most vile messages came from readily-identifiable senders. The vast majority of about 90 matters referred...

This is actually a course at UW Madison for sociology graduate students. One of the topics calls for a violent overthrow of the capitalist system. The head of the UW Havens center is part of the Wisconsin Wave, a left wing organization behind the union protests.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin headlines a "Tax Day" rally outside the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin. Palin was quick to criticize President Barack Obama while emphasizing the importance of the 2012 election period. State authorities estimate 6,500 people were at the rally. Recorded Saturday, April 16, 2011.

Listen to this podcast. It details how the MTI (Madison teachers union) used a phone tree to initiate a sickout strike in Madison. Wildcat strikes are illegal in Wisconsin as a public employee.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin is asking for a federal investigation into the surprise discovery of 14,000 votes in Waukesha County for the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. The Wisconsin Democrat sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Friday night asking him to assign the Justice Department Public Integrity Section. It oversees the federal prosecution of election crimes.

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They were images that were odd, and to some shocking. In the halls of the Wisconsin Capitol on Saturday, young people banged drums, danced around, and blew horns as socialists and Marxist signs looked on. It was a scene described to The Blaze by a disgusted observer as a drug and alcohol-infested rave that Capitol police ignored. And while the Capitol Police deny those charges, it seems one prominent protester noticed something interesting, too.

The documentary filmmaker was in Wisconsin yesterday, slamming Republicans for cutting union benefits. Michael Moore has a message for Wisconsinites: Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe -- so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had -- America is not broke. The claim came at the beginning of a speech delivered by the documentary filmmaker and liberal firebrand at the Wisconsin State Captiol yesterday. Over the course of 30 minutes, Moore railed against Republicans, who he accused of misleading the American public when they claim that...

Milroy says guv's rhetoric caused rising tensions Rep. Nick Milroy says he's got no bruises or scrapes from being tackled last night by an officer trying to keep him from entering the Capitol. While physically he's fine, Milroy told reporters this morning he's "disgusted" by the policies this week that he says led to the incident. "My biggest frustration has been the lack of leadership from the governor," the Dem from South Range said. Milroy said Walker has continued to escalate the tensions at the Capitol by refusing to sit down and negotiate a compromise to his plan to end...

Madison - State officials said Thursday that damage to the marble inside and out the State Capitol would cost an estimated $7.5 million...

During the Governor's Budget Address an individual, later identified as William M. Gruber of California, breached the closed plaza perimeter multiple times. Each time he was asked to leave and was escorted out. After his third breach he once again laid down on the plaza as he had done before. Upon his third breach when asked again to leave, he instead ran toward the Capitol building and was apprehended. He was subsequently transported to the Dane County Public Safety Building. He has been charged with State Disorderly Conduct and Resisting Arrest.

Aaron Kennedy, the founder of Noodles, grew up on a farm with few to no connections to money. Like my friend Rob, Kennedy also studied at the University of Wisconsin. At 29, while eating at a Chinese restaurant, Kennedy had an idea, and scribbled his business plan on a napkin. Scraping some money together from his friends and family and maxing out eight credit cards, Kennedy opened the first Noodles in his basement, and then put together a team with whom he’d build and operate 100 Noodles branches all on their own. It is now a $75 million franchise with...

Building Access Reminder: Visitors wishing to enter the Capitol will only be allowed to enter through the King Street entrance. Visitors without appointments may need to wait in line until visitors already inside the building leave the Capitol to make room for new visitors. These procedures have been in effect at the Capitol since this morning. --Capitol Police

The Rotunda continues to fill up as the 4pm deadline approaches. The Ustream video showed an almost empty Rotunda 35 minutes ago. Now the Rotunda is packed.

Physician actions as reported unacceptable Statement attributable to Timothy Bartholow, MD, Senior Vice President of Member Services, Policy Planning and Physician Professional Development Madison, Wis. (February 21, 2011) – The Wisconsin Medical Society was notified during the weekend that physicians may have been writing work excuses for people attending rallies at the state Capitol in a manner that is not consistent with acceptable medical practices. If these reports are accurate, the Society does not condone these actions under any circumstances. We are aware that the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board, the entity that licenses and disciplines physicians, has received information about...

With helicopters hovering overhead and bused in crowds jeering in red, it is clear that media cameras and microphones must be near because the Rev. Jesse Jackson has just shown to the Madison protest. Jackson was seen glad handing through the crowd with the requisite TV cameras lapping it all up.

For Americans who don't think the welfare state riots of France or Greece can happen here, we recommend a look at the union and Democratic Party spectacle now unfolding in Wisconsin. Over the past few days, thousands have swarmed the state capital and airwaves to intimidate lawmakers and disrupt Governor Scott Walker's plan to level the playing field between taxpayers and government unions. Mr. Walker's very modest proposal would take away the ability of most government employees to collectively bargain for benefits. They could still bargain for higher wages, but future wage increases would be capped at the federal Consumer...

The Wisconsin State Capitol is currently locked down. Pro-union protesters are intimidating legislators by pounding on windows, screaming insults and vandalising public property. Above is a picture of union protestors, many of whom are teachers who called off sick to storm the Capitol. Teacher strikes are illegal in Wisconsin. The Senate needs 20 members present for a quorum; there are 19 Republicans. Sen. Roberta Darling (R) told the media today that all Democrat Senators are on a bus heading out of the state so as to avoid quorum. The police have been dispatched to find them and drag them back...

Tens of thousands of workers and students are occupying the Capitol Building in Madison, Wis., trying to stop Gov. Scott Walker and his allies from passing legislation designed to strip public-sector workers of collective bargaining rights, and to bust their unions. Walker has announced that he is preparing to call out the National Guard and other law enforcement officers. In response, March Forward!, an organization of active-duty service members and veterans, has issued the following open letter to the Wisconsin National Guard. Please share it far and wide on Facebook and other social media websites. To our brothers and sisters...

Law enforcement are now searching for Democratic senators boycotting a Senate vote on Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair plan Thursday in an attempt to bring the lawmakers to the floor to allow Republicans to move forward on the bill. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said that Democrats were "not showing up for work" and that police were searching for them to bring them to the floor. He said the last time such an action had happened was in the 1990s and said he was not sure how much authority law enforcement officials would have to compel Democrats to show up....

The student government voted in support of endorsing a campus-wide student walkout in opposition of the proposed budget repair bill during their meeting Wednesday evening. The Associated Students of Madison voted in favor of supporting the walkout, which encourages University of Wisconsin students to abstain from attending classes on Thursday as part of the rallies taking place in response to Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal.

Following the announcement of the UW –Madison Teaching Assistants Association “Teach Out” tomorrow, United Council of UW Students calls for a day of action in support of faculty and staff of the University, public employees across the state, and the values of Wisconsin. Take action on Thursday February 17th! Join in as Universities across the state of Wisconsin walk-out of classes, hold teach-ins to educate why the Governor’s budget repair bill is an attack on Wisconsin values, and rally for the right to negotiate benefits and fight for fair pay and fair conditions. Click here to read United Council's Statement...

Me and four other conservative students attended a speech given by Hatem Abudayyehn, a member of the Palestinian Solidarity Group. Hatem has been accused of funneling money to terrorist groups in Palestine. The UWM Students for a Democratic Society sponsored the speech. We were kicked out almost immediately after one of our group decided to film Hatem's speech. We were going to ask a question about his feelings about Israel and the Holocaust, but we were unable. Yes, the SDS did call the cops, and we were removed by them. A member of the Palestinian Solidarity Movement gave an intro,...

UW-Madison athletics officials have created a unique way to use the UW Badgers' home football season to reduce carbon emissions. According to Justin Doherty, UW-Madison assistant athletic director, the effort to create a "carbon-neutral" football season involves offsetting the amount of carbon that is expended during home football games because of practices like fans traveling to and from the game and the use of electricity. He said along with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, UW-Madison calculated the amount of carbon emitted at home football games and will pay for carbon "credits" as a part of the Chicago Climate...

MADISON (WKOW) -- President Obama said Democrats are not just going to win the election, we are going to bring back the American dream. President Obama told the thousands of students he needs them fired up to vote. UW Police estimated 26,500 people attended the President's address. Library Mall had approximately 17,200 people, the rest of the people were on Bascom Hill and in front of Science Hall, East Campus Mall and a portion of State Street Mall. UW Police say prior to the gates opening, people formed a line that stretched for 1.1 miles waiting to enter the event.

Two UW-Madison students woke up with a maple tree in their living room Saturday morning, then spent part of the day replanting it because they were the ones who had dragged it there in the first place. Thomas Schroeder, 21, of Menomonee Falls, and Brenton Neuharth, 21, from Eureka, S.D., were issued citations for damage to property for taking a newly planted tree out of the ground on a terrace between West Main and South Broom streets. Madison police were alerted to it by Keith and Karen Weiss, who were returning from the Dane County Farmers’ Market and noticed an...

Jennifer Loewenstein, a professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, says Israel's deadly attack on the Freedom Flotilla was a "very carefully planned action" subsidized by the United States. The Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which was carrying food and medical supplies to Gaza, came under fire early Monday morning by Israeli navy forces in international waters more than 150km off the coast of Gaza. Twenty international activists are reported to have been killed and 50 others injured in the incident. The following is the transcript of Press TV's interview with Jennifer Loewenstein: Press TV: The first question that comes to...

Efforts to herd clothed, scantily clad and unclad bicyclists together for a potentially uncomfortable Madison tour on World Naked Bike Ride day have flopped in the past. But next month, they just might pull it off. Or at least most of it. There has been no official announcement, but there have been posters, and several informal meetings in the Rathskeller at the Memorial Union on campus. An earnest discussion group is maintained at Yahoo.com and news has circulated among bicycle groups. NOTE: The image in this story may be considered by some to be mildly not safe for work/children (Similar...

Ann Coulter came to UWM tonight, with few incidents. A croud of leftist Zombies (yes Zombies) tried to crash Coulter but failed to get past security. Coulter tore up the leftists, ripped on zerobama, and the leftist protesters.

This is why the American people believe Congress is among the country's sleaziest institutions. Recently when the Senate and House were debating the bill to make credit card companies more accountable and to stop them from arbitrarily changing the rules for their customers, Sen. Tom Coburn, the right-wing flamethrower from Oklahoma, decided that this would be a perfect opportunity to play some mischief. Coburn has been trying for the past couple of years to allow people to carry concealed weapons in our national parks, but even when his party had more power than now, he couldn't get that proposal passed....

When our family moved to Wisconsin in the mid 1960s, Dad found us a little two-story Cape Cod in the village of Maple Bluff. By all appearances it was a perfect starter home for an insurance claims man and his wife, featuring a backyard big enough to punt a football in and an elm tree with a swing, all within walking distance of Lakewood Elementary School. But my folks, swept up in the civil rights and anti-war movements, soon discovered they were out of step with some of their new neighbors in the conservative suburb on Lake Mendota's northeast shore....

During the course of the Bush/Cheney interregnum, millions of Americans resisted the worst excesses of a lawless and irresponsible administration that led this country into wars of whim, sanctioned torture and extraordinary rendition, embarked upon a spying regimen that made a mockery of the right to privacy, and destroyed the system of checks and balances that was supposed to protect the republic from monarchical abuse. Each year during a period of democratic decline that was so aptly anticipated by Jefferson with his 18th century reference to "the reign of the witches," we honored Most Valuable Progressives -- groups and individuals...

In what may be the beginning of a campaign to talk soldiers out of deploying to Iraq, 12 peace activists were fined Monday in federal court for trespassing last summer at Fort McCoy in west central Wisconsin. Members of Voices for Creative Nonviolence were arrested in August by base police at the main gate of the 67,000-acre military installation during a walk from Chicago to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. The activists said they wanted to "dialogue" with soldiers to tell them their Fort McCoy Training would leave them woefully unprepared for what they would face in...

To make up for years of writing that tends to annoy people with guns, let me take this opportunity to congratulate Wisconsin's deer hunters on a job well done. For decades now, I've written one of the few columns in the state about deer hunting from the deer's point of view. And every year I receive a flood of communications from hunters informing me how totally ignorant I am. What I fail to realize, they patiently explain, is the vital role in wildlife management hunters perform for deer when they go Up North to blow away Bambi's mother. If they...

When deer hunting season opens this weekend, Wisconsin’s poor deer hunters are going to be at even more of a disadvantage than usual in their annual attempt to match wits with highly intelligent animals. This year, deer hunters are going to be burdened by carrying heaping armloads of guns into the woods with them. Deer hunters and other gun lovers have been absolutely terrified ever since Nov. 4 that President-elect Barack Obama is going to swoop down on their homes and confiscate all their guns. In a panic, thousands of gun owners have raced to their nearest gun dealers to...

Can you be an obscure, self-indulged, theory-laden, post-modern scholar and manage to be an effective university president?  University of Wisconsin at Madison is hoping “yes.� It has picked Biddy Martin, Cornell provost and women’s studies professor, as its new chancellor. Her best-known work is a little something called Femininity Played Straight, which features chapters entitled “Sexualities without Gender and Other Queer Utopias� and “Teaching Feminism.� The one review that Amazon.com has picked up on the book is truncated to a single sentence, though it pretty much sums up the obtuseness of Ms Martin’s field: “Martin's eccentric use of the body...

MADISON, WI -- There was a time when residents in this liberal college city would greet homeless people by name. They'd stop to chat with Scanner Dan, the grizzled guy with a walkie-talkie buzzing at his hip as he asked for change. They'd offer odd jobs to a man known as Snowball, who was rumored to have been a smuggler for the Chicago mob during Prohibition. Then two violent slayings in less than three months shook residents in the state capital, which is also home to the main campus of the University of Wisconsin. Both victims were stabbed in their...

In seeking voters for her husband in Tuesday's presidential primary, Michelle Obama spoke with heartfelt empathy to the millions for whom the American Dream has been elusive. "There's a bar that's shifting and moving," Obama told a crowd of about 800 at the Overture Center's Capitol Theater this afternoon. "Most Americans can't catch the bar." And when people can't catch the bar, Obama said, they get tired, cynical and fearful and they pass those frustrations on to the next generation. "I'm here because I don't want that for my girls," said Obama, who has two young daughters with Democratic presidential...

Late this spring The Capital Times will dramatically enhance its Internet site as well as alter its print frequency from six days to two days per week to address changing habits of afternoon newspaper readers, company executives announced Thursday. Publisher Clayton Frink said the newspaper's online site, captimes.com, will feature increased volume, depth and timeliness of news, opinion and other information. He said the printed edition of the newspaper will expand its distribution by about five times and switch from six-day publication to two weekly tabloid-size editions."The Capital Times has been a progressive media voice in Madison for 90 years,...

Offer me a helping of potatoes and sugar snaps from a local farmer or a plate full of war and carnage, and I'll take the vegetables, thanks. Invite me to sit on a cushion in a chair made locally from willow branches or let me settle softly into plush slave labor and environmental degradation, and I'll choose the rustic chair and cushion. None of my friends or family actively seeks to support war, impoverishment, or desecration of the earth. But what is indisputable is that most any product I purchase, unless I know its maker, has long supply chains in...

In a case closely watched in higher education, the University of Wisconsin-Madison agreed Thursday to award more than $250,000 in student fees next year to a Catholic group to settle its religious discrimination lawsuit.Both the university and the UW Roman Catholic Foundation praised the agreement, which settles a federal lawsuit filed after the university refused to recognize the group despite a campus presence dating to the 1880s. The dispute has been watched closely because it could set clearer standards on whether student fees at a public university can go to religious groups -- and for what activities -- without violating...