Free Republic

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A new report says nuclear power plants would take too long to build and are too expensive to make any impact on global warming. The report, released by Wisconsin Environment, an environmental advocacy organization, notes scientists believe developed nations must reduce emissions dramatically by 2020 to limit global warming. The report says the first new nuclear reactor in the United States probably won't be completed until at least 2016. Money that would go to new plants would be better spent on renewable sources. State Rep. Mike Huebsch, a West Salem Republican, has pushed to repeal Wisconsin's...

A Spooner man involved in the Interstate 35 bridge collapse gets prison time for brutally beating a toddler. Michael Stoner was sentenced to 7.5 years for beating his fiance's 2-year-old daughter Emma. Stoner attacked Emma Manning the same day as the Interstate 35 bridge collapse. He and Emma's mother were in a car that plunged into the Mississippi River. Stoner told reporters the two swam to shore and ran to the hospital to be with the girl. What he didn't mention was that Emma was in the hospital there because she was beaten so badly she had to be flown...

Detainees at a camp in Baghdad, Iraq have found a way to get under the skin of guard troops from Wisconsin. And it has to do with football and a painful chapter for some Green Bay Packers fans who consider Brett Favre a traitor for joining the rival Minnesota Vikings. First Lieutenant Tim Boehnen of New Richmond says the detainees are familiar with Favre and picked up on the troops' discussion about the quarterback's performance with the Vikings. Lt. Col. Tim Donovan says the detainees at Camp Cropper needle the guards about Favre's success as a Viking.

Another day, another stimulus reporting snafu.Of all the problems found in the latest round of stimulus reporting, add another one: congressional districts that don't exist. In Wisconsin, about $3.5 million has been awarded to projects in six non-existent congressional districts, including the 0th, 9th, 10th, 14th, 39th and 55th, data from Recovery.gov shows. Those grants are listed as creating or saving 4 jobs so far.ABC News reported yesterday that White House officials have found 700 mistakenly credited congressional districts out of more than 130,000 stimulus grants.Earlier this month, a Journal Sentinel review found that the number of jobs reported in...

[SNIP] Charged Tuesday According to a criminal complaint, Charles Avey wrapped a necktie around Cody's neck and strangled him Sunday afternoon inside a minivan parked at a Germantown Wal-Mart. He was charged Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court with first-degree intentional homicide in Cody's death. He admitted to killing Cody as payback to the boy's mother, the complaint says. The killing occurred within an hour or so of Trista Avey going to the Grafton Police Department and reporting an assault at the hands of her husband one week earlier. Charles Avey allegedly started strangling her inside the couple's Grafton apartment...

The Seventh Circuit last week vacated a man’s conviction for possession of a firearm after having been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. However, the court did not strike the statute down as unconstitutional, but remanded the case to the district court to give the government the opportunity to “establish a reasonable fit” between the “statute’s means and its end.” Addressing the record made before the district court, Judge Diane S. Sykes wrote for the court, “The government … has premised its argument almost entirely on Heller’s reference to the presumptive validity of felon-dispossession laws and reasoned by...

<p>Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!</p> <p>U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.</p>

The pickings are apparently so slim in the linguistics field that three University of Wisconsin-Madison linguists took on the conundrum of Sarah Palin's speech patterns. That's how it was reported, a conundrum, suggesting that they went off in search of a solution to a problem that didn't exist. Now, it was pretty good fun when Tina Fey took on Palin. There was one episode of "Saturday Night Live'' when Palin was a guest and Fey and Palin were on the set at the same time. I didn't know who was who. There were cards wandering around Foggy Bottom who had...

Darwinizing Everything --snip-- The Darwinians, who took over biology in the 19th century, are still busily engaged in mythmaking, comforting the feebleminded who accept their explanations as wisdom, denouncing the heretics who call their bluff. They wear S on their chests: Science, the equivalent of Superman in intellectual circles. They are phonies. Bring out the kryptonite of critical analysis. It scares them to death, even though they never had special powers to begin with...

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) Funeral services for the second Wisconsin soldier, Russell Seager, killed in the Fort Hood, Texas, shooting spree will be held Monday. PICTURES: Fort Hood's Fallen Heroes Seager, 51, of Racine, Wis., was a psychiatrist who joined the Army a few years ago because he wanted to help veterans returning to civilian life, said his uncle, Larry Seager of Mauston. Russell Seager's brother-in-law, Dennis Prudhomme, said Seager had worked with soldiers at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Milwaukee who were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He also taught classes at Bryant & Stratton College in Milwaukee, said Prudhomme,...

Mark HoffmanSurrounded by white corn drying the traditional way, manager Jeff Metoxen talks about the benefits of white corn to a group of visitors from Germany last month at the Tsyunhehkwa Agricultural Center in Oneida. Oneida embrace planting, harvesting of white corn as a staple of diet, culture Mark HoffmanWhite corn has far fewer rows of kernels than its sweet corn cousin. Oneida - George Washington's troops at Valley Forge may have starved to death without the white corn an Oneida Indian chief gave them in the winter of 1777 during the Revolutionary War. Now, the Oneida, like other...

From across the banks of the Sheboygan River, after night fell in tiny Kiel, there was a final beauty in the flickering lights spread across Veteran’s Memorial Park.Hundreds of mourners, friends and family of Amy Krueger, strangers too who came to learn who she was – and wonder why she died – burned candles in her memory and slowly lifted them aloft. Held them there.This is a place, a small town far from Fort Hood, where the 29-year-old soldier’s memory will be held forever – where the monument near the dais where they cried and sang is for all those...

OSHKOSH, Wisc., Nov. 12, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has created a new task force to enhance existing department efforts to counter the threat from roadside bombs, the No. 1 killer in Afghanistan. Gates announced the new task force today, and said he expects its members to spend the next six months reporting to him about the best way to deal with the improvised explosive device threat in Afghanistan. The task force will be co-chaired by Ashton Carter, undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics; and Marine Lt. Gen. John M. “Jay” Paxton Jr., the Joint Staff’s operations chief....

In Arizona, the budget has grown so gloomy that lawmakers are considering mortgaging Capitol buildings. In Michigan, state officials dealing with the nation's highest unemployment rate are slashing spending on schools and health care. Drastic financial remedies are no longer limited to California, where a historic budget crisis earlier this year grew so bad that state agencies issued IOUs to pay bills. A study released Wednesday warned that at least nine other big states are also barreling toward economic disaster, raising the likelihood of higher taxes, more government layoffs and deep cuts in services. The report by the Pew Center...

Madison — Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker is among the Republicans lining up for an endorsement from Sarah Palin, the 2008 vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor. Walker sought help in his run for governor Friday in a half-hour meeting with Palin after her invitation-only Wisconsin Right to Life event. Time magazine's Web site first reported on the meeting Wednesday, and Walker spokeswoman Jill Bader confirmed it was accurate. "Sarah Palin is one of many national political figures we're reaching out to help on the campaign trail to be part of Scott's effort," Bader said. She said Walker will...

After Sarah Palin spoke to 4,000 people at a Wisconsin Right-to-Life event last Friday night, she met for thirty minutes with Scott Walker, the Milwaukee County executive and the Republican frontrunner for governor in 2010. With incumbent Democrat Jim Doyle not seeking re-election, Walker is favored by many GOP powerbrokers to win the September primary next year and perhaps beat whomever the Democrats nominate. In a room at the fabled Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee (just a block from where Jerry Seinfeld had lunch earlier that day at Zarletti), Walker made the case to Palin and a few of her...

MILWAUKEE — A Milwaukee Army reservist's military identification earned him some street cred Tuesday, when he says four men who mugged him at gunpoint returned his belongings and thanked him for his service after finding the ID. The 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student said he was walking home from work about 1:15 a.m. Tuesday when he was pulled into an alley and told to lay face down and with a gun to his neck. Four men took his wallet, $16, keys, his cell phone and even a PowerBar wrapper from his pants pockets, he said. But the hostile tone quickly...

Robbers return Army ID, Thanked him for service.

Supervisor Toni Clark is subject of secret criminal investigation Milwaukee County Supervisor Toni Clark is the subject of a secret criminal investigation into possible campaign finance abuses, the Journal Sentinel has learned. Clark declined Tuesday to answer questions about the matter. Last month, she filed three amended campaign reports with the county Board of Election Commissioners. In those reports, Clark admitted she took in and spent money from her campaign fund in the past three years after she earlier swore that her campaign was inactive during those times, according to public records filed with the board. .... Trip not probed...

Federal Bench: Yet another judicial nominee seeks to impose the "empathy" standard on the courts. He thinks judges should base rulings on a plaintiff's status, legislate from the bench and amend the Constitution. Indiana federal judge David Hamilton stands poised to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to assume a seat on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals serving Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. He's a former fundraiser for Acorn and a former leader of the Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He is also another in a series of activist judges who believe the U.S. Constitution is not...

This 640-pound concrete elk statue lies on its side in the backyard of Mark and Carol Brye’s home in rural Viroqua. The dead buck lies about 20 feet away. A love-struck buck ran out of luck a week ago. The seven-point buck was killed when it rammed a 640-pound concrete statue of an elk in the backyard of Mark and Carol Brye's home in rural Viroqua. Bucks often fight during the breeding season, commonly called the rut. Dominant bucks defend breeding territories and female deer by sparring with subordinate bucks. Antler battles sometimes result in the death of one or...

A love-struck buck ran out of luck a week ago. The seven-point buck was killed when it rammed a 640-pound concrete statue of an elk in the backyard of Mark and Carol Brye's home in rural Viroqua, Wis. Bucks often fight during the breeding season, commonly called the rut. Dominant bucks defend breeding territories and female deer by sparring with subordinate bucks. Antler battles sometimes result in the death of one or both deer, but usually end with the biggest buck winning and the smaller buck high-tailing it out to another area. Mark Brye, who owns Brye Plumbing in Viroqua,...

http://www.funkymonkeyphoto.com/ We are trying to get number 11 to win. He has spinal bifida and plays wheelchair hockey. The winner gets their picture on the front of a calender. He and his family heavily supported me while I was in Iraq and I would like to repay them by helping him out now. Thank for voting!

Wisconsin Governor Doyle has ruined the state (WI is a microcosm in the mold of the Feds). Our dem gov bowed out of the gov race a couple months ago. So, of course the GOP is running several candidates. Who's going to fill the dem opening, so far, NO ONE! What Democrat can run on the lib ticket? Is Wisconsin paving the way for a democrat defeat across the nation in 2010? The DNC's only hope is bambi. What hope is that? WE HAVE NO SERIOUS DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR IN THE STATE OF WISCONSIN!THIS IS HUGE! IS THIS...

On Tuesday, November 3, the Wisconsin State House unanimously passed Assembly Resolution 15. This resolution requests the participation of the Attorney General in the “friend of the court” brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case, McDonald v. Chicago. The case will address the application of the Second Amendment to the states through either the Due Process clause or the Privileges or Immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case has major implications for the legality of restrictive gun laws not only in Chicago, but also in other cities across the United States. Full support by the Wisconsin Assembly and other...

WEST ALLIS, Wis. – Sarah Palin rallied thousands of abortion opponents Friday night with a a stark warning that the same philosophy that allows abortion rights could soon be invoked to allow the government to cut off health care for the elderly or children with special needs. Speaking to a fund-raising banquet of Wisconsin Right to Life, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee asserted that if policy-makers don’t believe a child in the womb is valuable, then “perhaps the same mind-set applies to other persons.” “What may they feel about an elderly person who doesn’t have...

2 killed, 4 wounded; some were to go to Afghanistan with assailantBy Don Walker At least six soldiers from Wisconsin were among the 43 people killed or injured by an Army psychiatrist at Fort Hood, and an Army major said Friday night that the shooter was scheduled to deploy with a Madison-based unit. The man identified as the shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was to be sent to Afghanistan. Madison's 467th Medical Detachment, also known as a combat-stress unit, was also in the process of being deployed with him, according to Maj. Claudia Jefferson, an Army spokeswoman. "Hasan was supposed...

Democrats seized on Friday's report that the nation's unemployment rate has reached a 26-year high of 10.2 percent to call for further tax and spending measures to bolster the economy. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.) said the unemployment news was confirmation that the $787 billion fiscal stimulus signed into law in February WAS NOT BIG ENOUGH.“The bottom line is that additional action is required," Obey said. "An effective short term boost would mean a stronger economy, less unemployment and ultimately lower deficits.”Liberal Democrats, including Obey, have said for months additional stimulus efforts are needed. President Barack Obama...

Russell Seager, a 51-year-old nurse practitioner from Mount Pleasant, Wis., was among those killed in Thursday's violence. Seager, like others at Fort Hood, was preparing to deploy to Iraq, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. His uncle, Larry Seager, told the paper that he was eager to go abroad and had "pushed officials for deployment." "He wanted to get in there and help the soldiers coming home and leaving," Larry Seager told the paper. "I still can't believe it. Such a foolish thing," he said of the shooting. He learned of his nephew's death Friday morning when he received a...

Amy Krueger joined Army in aftermath of Sept. 11 attacks. In Kiel, Wis., a rural community of 3,200, feeling for the military runs so strong that, every Veterans Day, the high school invites local vets to lunch. So it was not entirely surprising that the week after Amy Krueger, a college student preparing to be a social worker, watched the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on television, she and her roommate walked into an Army recruiting office to enlist. She felt she needed to be "an army of one," a story in the local Tri-County Times quoted Krueger as saying...

A 1998 graduate of Kiel High School is among the 13 people killed Thursday when 39-year-old Major Nidal Hasan opened fire on his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, getting ready to deploy overseas. Thirty people were wounded. Staff Sergeant Amy Krueger was killed at Fort Hood. The first thing the mayor of Kiel did Friday morning when he heard the news about 29-year-old Amy Krueger was to order all the flags in the city lowered to half-staff. The mayor, who's too close to the Krueger family to speak on-camera, told us he feels overwhelmed and he still can't believe...

A stimulus job report that says more than 10,000 jobs were saved or created in Wisconsin is rife with errors, double counting and inflated numbers based more on satisfying federal formulas than creating real jobs, a Journal Sentinel review has found. In one case, five jobs were mistakenly listed as 50 - and then counted twice. In another, pay raises to workers were listed as saving more than 100 jobs. And in another, jobs were listed as saved even though the money had not been received and no work on the project had begun. The problems mirror those surfacing around...

Republicans still believe the President is visiting Wisconsin for one reason only. Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Reince Preibus says both President Barack Obama and Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle realize how important it is to help convince the undecided Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to jump into the state gubernatorial race. “In my view this is nothing more than an attempt to get Mayor Barrett into this governor’s race while the Democrats in Wisconsin are sucking for air. They’ve just got beat out east, they don’t have a governor candidate in the state of Wisconsin, they don’t have many legislative candidates...

The State Supreme Court has declined to hear a constitutional challenge to a law creating a domestic partner registry for gay couples. The high court denied a petition for original action from Wisconsin Family Action, which claims the registry violates a state Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage or any similar status. Lester Pines, the attorney representing the state in the case, says it’s not the end of the road for the challenge. He says the lawsuit will just have to start at the Circuit Court level instead. In a statement, Wisconsin Family Action says it plans to take its challenge...

Using stimulus dollars as bait, President Obama is coaxing states to rewrite education laws and cut deals with unions as they compete for $5 billion in school reform grants.

Socked by tens of thousands of childless adults applying for a new state health plan, Wisconsin is failing to meet requirements in federal law for timely approvals of applications for both the Medicaid health coverage and food stamps. Since June 15, more than two-thirds of childless applicants with virtually no income - the highest priority cases - haven't received food stamps within the federally required seven days, state figures show. Nearly two-thirds of all the childless adults seeking food stamps haven't received them within the required 30 days. The same process is used to check whether applicants are eligible for...

Thirty-five new refrigerated cargo trucks will rumble away from Madison's Far East Side Tuesday, bound for 35 food banks across the country to deliver food donated by the world's largest retailer. Better yet for the food banks, there's no return trip. As part of a holiday giving campaign, Wal-Mart is filling the trucks with its store brand Great Value products and apples and letting the food banks keep not only the food but the trucks, too.It's the second year Wal-Mart has spearheaded the program, according to Margaret McKenna, president of Wal-Mart's charitable arm, the Wal-Mart Foundation. Last year, the trucks...

Excitement is building and potential hassles emerging as Madison readies for President Barack Obama's visit Wednesday. The public can expect some flight delays, street closings and parking restrictions as Obama arrives at Dane County Regional Airport and makes his way to and from Wright Middle School, 1717 Fish Hatchery Road, on the South Side. The main road to the airport, International Lane, and the airport terminal will be open during the visit, but temporary flight restrictions will be imposed, deputy airport director Dave Jensen said. "There is the possibility there may be some delays to flights," he said, adding that...

An armed bank robbery turns deadly Friday afternoon. It happened Dairyland State Bank in Exeland in Sawyer County around 2:30 p.m. Officers arrested one man near Deer Lake in Sawyer County. A massive search was underway for another suspect that ran into the woods. He’s described as a white man around 6’5’’ and 200 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. The Rusk County sheriff says an officer shot and killed a third man after he stayed in the car and took of south into Rusk County. The chase ended near Bruce where the man was shot. WEAU 13 News...

The Federal Aviation Administration violated its own rules by taking more than 40 minutes to alert the military after losing communication with a Northwest Airlines flight last week, according to officials familiar with internal reviews under way at several federal agencies. The delay has sparked consternation within the military, concern within the FAA and special oversight by the White House, these officials said, particularly because such time lags were supposed to be eliminated as a result of the lessons learned from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks... the man charged with protecting the skies above North America, U.S. Air Force...

What's the cost of not showing up to court? For PepsiCo Inc., it's a $1.26 billion default judgment. A Wisconsin state court socked the company with the monster award in a case alleging that PepsiCo stole the idea to bottle and sell purified water from two Wisconsin men. Now the company is scrambling to salvage the situation. The damages award was handed down on Sept. 30. PepsiCo filed motions to vacate the order and dismiss the claims on Oct. 13, saying it wasn't even aware of the lawsuit until Oct. 6....

Armed F-16s from the Wisconsin Air National Guard were on the runway and could have shot down the errant Northwest flight, officials said today. "As a force of last resort, NORAD is always prepared to do whatever is necessary," NORAD spokesperson Mike Kucharek told ABCNews.com. Air traffic controllers feared Northwest Flight 188, might have been hijacked after its pilots failed to respond to radio transmissions for more than an hour. Air traffic controllers reported the pilots initially failed to respond to commands as it passed from the air space controlled by the FAA Denver Center into the area controlled by...

Do you want to help get the Health Care Public Option passed and show the nation your acting skills at the same time? Then this is the job for you! We are looking for: 2 midde-aged male actors (30-50 years old), 1 child actor (5-10 years old) Please respond with an email that contains: Headshot, Contact information and a Bio with acting related job exp. The job is non-pay, but the commercial will have national exposure, and you will receive a copy of the finished commercial for your resume. * Location: Waupaca * it's NOT ok to contact this poster...

(snip) SCHIEFFER: Let me ask you about health care quickly. It looks like that’s coming finally to a head in the Senate. It looks like that the majority leader, Harry Reid, is going to put the government- run insurance option in there, the so-called public option. Do you think at this point that that will pass the Senate?MCCAIN: I think that the Democrats have the votes. I think that Blue Dogs bark but never bite. So I don’t think they have a problem over in the House side.MCCAIN: In the Senate, I think that the Democrats are very aware that...

First Dupage Bank, Westmont, IL Riverview Community Bank, Otsego, MN Bank of Elmwood, Racine, WI Hillcrest Bank Florida, Naples, FL Flagship National Bank, Bradenton, FL American United Bank, Lawrenceville, GA Partners Bank, Naples, FL

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's a big number that only tells part of the story. The number of banks that have failed so far this year topped 100 on Friday — hitting 106 by the end of the day — the most in nearly two decades. But the trouble in the banking system from bad loans and the recession goes even deeper. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of other banks remain open even though they are as weak as many that have been shuttered. Regulators are seizing banks slowly and selectively — partly to avoid inciting panic and partly because buyers for bad...

October 22, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: http://milwaukee.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/mw102209.htm Forty-One Defendants Federally Indicted in Racine Gang Case United States Attorney Michelle L. Jacobs announced today that two indictments were unsealed in federal court charging 41 defendants with various drug-trafficking offenses. The defendants, many of whom are alleged to be members of the Vice Lords and North Side Gangster Disciples street gangs, are charged with, among other things, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A) and 846. The defendants are identified as: Starsius T. Barnes, a.k.a. “Star” (32), Brian T....

MILWAUKEE - Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will speak in a Milwaukee suburb next month as part of a program presented by Wisconsin Right to Life. Officials say no tickets will be sold at the door of the Nov. 6 event at Wisconsin Exposition Center at State Fair Park in West Allis, Wis. General admission tickets are $30 with a limit of four per order. Palin's stop in Milwaukee comes 11 days before the former Alaska governor's memoirs will be released.

A Massachusetts man is in custody at the Rock County Jail today after allegedly kidnapping a West Springfield, Mass., car salesman during a test drive and driving the stolen vehicle more than 1,000 miles overnight before getting caught speeding early Friday morning in Rock County. A Wisconsin State Patrol trooper, according to a lead dispatcher at the Rock County Communications Center, pulled over Aleh Kot, 32, of Massachusetts at 2:30 a.m. at Interstate 90/39 mile marker 165 just north of the Newville exit. Kot was arrested on charges of operating a motor vehicle without owner consent, speeding and reckless driving,...

In the 17 years that Russ Feingold has served Wisconsin in the US Senate, he has visited each county in the state at least once a year. Friday was Oneida County’s turn to tell the Senator what was on their minds. About 50 people showed up in Lake Tomahawk for the listening session, which the Senator opened with a comment on “the largest deficit in American history,” and his own efforts to cut spending. Although he admits he did vote for the stimulus bill, he said, “We can’t keep doing this stuff.” Feingold announced his introduction next week of the...