Free Republic

Republican Gov. Scott Walker has quietly signed a bill that allows Wisconsin farmers to grow industrial hemp. Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said the governor signed the bill Thursday but his office didn't issue any news releases about it. The bill passed the Legislature unanimously. The measure's sponsor, Republican Rep. Jesse Kremer, tweeted Thursday that the bill will make Wisconsin a leader in hemp production. His tweet included the hashtag "AmericasHempland."

Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY) exhibited mounting frustration Wednesday with the inaction on Capitol Hill in light of the recent sexual allegations. She has called for the resignation of both Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and even walked out of the House Democrats’ morning conference meeting saying harassment wasn’t being addressed seriously. “I don’t have time for meetings that aren’t real,” she told reporters. Rep. Kathleen Rice leaves House Dem meeting early, saying harassment wasn’t being addressed seriously. “I don’t have time for meetings that aren’t real.” pic.twitter.com/hoB6lAmBqX— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) November 29, 2017 Rice asked House...

To say yesterday was a bad day for Pelosi is putting it mildly. She allowed ego and hurt feelings to trump (see what I did there) the possibility of proving the Democratic Party is willing to sit down and negotiate on important issues like immigration. Instead, she and Chuck Schumer chose not to attend a planned meeting with President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Seems Pelosi’s delicate feelings got hurt when the President tweeted ahead of time that he didn’t think there could be a deal because Pelosi and company...

Trump, next to empty chairs, tears into Dems for skipping meeting By Jordan Fabian - 11/28/17 04:06 PM EST President Trump tore into Democratic leaders on Tuesday for skipping a legislative strategy session at the White House. Trump said he is “not surprised” that Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) decided not to attend, accusing them of being “all talk” and “no action.” “Now it’s even worse. Now it’s not even talk. Now they’re not even showing up to the meeting,” Trump said. The president spoke at the White House, flanked by two...

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson has caused a bit of a hullabaloo by complaining that small businesses don't get the benefits that corporations do in the GOP tax plan. Johnson has credibility here because he is one of those rare breeds in Congress who actually knows something about running a business, having done so for nearly 30 years. Sen. Johnson's beef with the House plan is that the effective tax rate on a successful small business would be almost 36 percent (as opposed to 39.6 percent today), compared with the new 20 percent rate for a corporation, such as General Electric...

The Wisconsin legislature continues to reform old hunting and gun laws. Most states do not impose a limit on the age at which people can start hunting. Wisconsin was one of those few.For millennium, hunters were started hunting when their parents thought they were mature enough to do so.Wisconsin has returned to that tradition. The reform allows parents to take their children hunting at ages less than 10. Children are individuals and highly variable.Some children will be responsible and capable of instruction at less than 10. Other children may remain irresponsible all of their lives.  Parents are in a...

Video House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi defended Rep. John Conyers on Sunday while saying accusations of sexual harassment against the 88-year-old Democratic congressman from Michigan should be taken “seriously.” On NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Pelosi called Conyers “an icon in our country” who “has done a great deal to protect women” and deserves “due process.” “Just because someone is accused — and was it one accusation? Is it two?” Pelosi, D-Calif., said. “The fact is, as John reviews his case, which he knows, which I don’t, I believe he will do the right thing.” Last week, BuzzFeed revealed that in...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Sunday chided NBC's Chuck Todd for not asking her about tax reform during his interview of her that focused mostly on sexual misconduct claims made against members of Congress. Todd was set to close the interview, airing on "Meet the Press," without asking about the Republican tax reform plan, when Pelosi cut him off. "You mean we're not even going to talk about taxes?" Pelosi said. "You see, you have fallen into the place, where they [Republicans] are doing something that is going to increase the debt enormously, it's going to be a job...

A law signed last week by Wisconsin’s Republican Gov. Scott Walker to eliminate the threshold age to hunt has produced results for mentored hunters. As reported by Green Bay’s Local 5 News, six-year-old Reece Krantz of Lancaster bagged his first buck while out hunting with his father as a result of the new law. “There is a lot of backlash and typically it is the people that don’t understand hunting,” said Joe Krantz, the youth’s father. “We just wanted the freedom to make the choice ourselves.” Classified as a “youth mentored hunting bill” by its sponsor, Assembly Bill 455 passed...

Now ten members of the "progressive caucus" of the Democratic Party are trying to give these terrorist leaders another reason for using even younger terrorists to kill even more innocent civilians. The bill fails to acknowledge that some of the most barbaric terrorist attacks against Jewish Israelis have been committed by Palestinian teens who have been recruited by terrorist leaders. Israel has a right — according to international law — to protect its citizens from constant terror attacks, even those committed by young Palestinians. Indeed, it has an obligation to do so. Palestinian terrorist leaders often use teenagers to...

BROWN COUNTY (WLUK) -- If you experience stop-and-go traffic heading to work or backups on your way home, you’re not the only one frustrated. Every community experiences traffic delays. Transportation planners design new roads to ease the congestion. But FOX 11 Investigates found that in Brown County, those planning the roads are frustrated too. Ads by ZINC Highway 172 in Brown County carries a heavy load of cars and trucks. During peak traffic hours, motorists are trying to cross the Fox River. A little over two miles to the south, the Claude Allouez Bridge in De Pere can be even...

A University of Wisconsin-Madison study shows that the shift of more than 7 million acres into cropland led to massive releases of carbon emissions into the atmosphere after a 2007 federal law mandated ethanol in gasoline. The increased carbon emissions is equivalent to 20 million new cars driving down American roadways every year, according to the researchers' estimates in the study released Wednesday.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) said he opposes the Senate Republican tax package, becoming the first GOP voice of dissent that, if it gains momentum, could force significant changes or jeopardize the party’s goal to pass the bill before the end of the year. “If they can pass it without me, let them,” Mr. Johnson said in an interview Wednesday, adding that the plan unfairly benefits corporations more than other types of businesses. “I’m not going to vote for this tax package.” Any Republican opposition is significant because GOP leaders are counting on near universal support from within the...

A 16-year-old said she and a 15-year-old were in Basley’s garage late Oct. 29 or early Oct. 30 with about 15 other people after the girls had run away from the Family & Children’s Center, according to the complaint. She said the males raped and hit the 15-year-old before she intervened, the complaint stated. The 16-year-old girl said she protested and was forced to perform oral sex on “a lot” of offenders until her throat bled. Several males then raped and hit her, according to the complaint.

University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty members have adopted a resolution encouraging campus administrators to implement a plan to become carbon neutral by 2050 or sooner. The UW-Madison Faculty Senate unanimously passed the resolution on Nov. 6, said sponsor, Kurt Paulsen, an associate professor in urban planning. The resolution encourages funding, creation and implementation of a campus-wide climate action plan with specific and measurable targets. Sustainability improvements on campus often require financial investments, Blank stressed. And investments in the campus’ state-owned buildings often requires state approval and funding, she said. Blank in closing quoted former Wisconsin governor and U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson,...

News Military training exercise to test local response to sustained power outages Updated: Nov 07, 2017 12:14 PM CST MADISON, Wis. - Wisconsin’s Department of Military Affairs is warning Columbia County residents of an increased law enforcement presence on the ground and in the air next week for a training exercise. The training in Columbia County and at Wisconsin’s Emergency Operations center in Madison starts Nov. 14, and is in conjunction with a national-level exercise, known as Grid Ex, that takes place Nov. 15-16, officials said. The public might see increased law enforcement presence and military personnel, including non-military unmanned...

In a move sure to annoy the academic left already hostile to him, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed an executive order effectively outlawing BDS in the state. "On October 30th, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed an anti-BDS measure, Executive Order 261, into law," the Louis D. Brandeis Center reports. "The Executive Order states that agencies may not 'execute a contract with a business entity if that entity is engaging in a boycott of Israel. Further, agencies shall reserve the right to terminate any contract with a business entity that engages in a boycott of Israel during the term of the...

Following passage of a joint State Senate resolution Tuesday, Wisconsin became the 28th state to call for a U.S. constitutional convention. Earlier this year, the Wisconsin State Assembly passed a similar resolution. As the resolutions have now passed both houses of the state Legislature, and as Governor Scott Walker’s approval is not needed, last night’s vote made Wisconsin’s call for a constitutional convention official. The convention was called in support of a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution which would require the federal government to operate under a balanced budget.

Catholic Bishop Robert Morlino is defending his diocese's recent guidelines to priests about denying funerals for non-repentant homosexuals, saying it’s the "straightforward teaching of the Church." He clarified in the face of an ugly campaign to have him removed as bishop that such guidelines in no way indicate that "we don’t care about homosexual people"  Morlino, the bishop of the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin, has come under fire because his priests received a guidance reminding them of what the Code of Canon Law says about Catholic funerals for unrepentant “manifest public sinners,” such as people who publicly entered a same-sex “marriage.”...

GIVE IT BACK, PAUL! THE CONSERVATIVE NEWS OUTLET WASHINGTON FREE BEACON WAS ORIGINAL FUNDER OF ANTI-TRUMP OPPO RESEARCH WITH FUSION GPS The Free Beacon informed House Intelligence officials on Friday that the news organization was the original funder for the anti-Trump Fusion GPS opposition research.Political operative Roger Stone said Thursday, as reported on The Gateway Pundit, that Paul Singer was the conservative billionaire behind the “Trump Dossier.”The Washington Free Beacon is funded by conservative Paul Singer who was an anti-Trumper and Marco Rubio supporter. Singer reportedly donated $2.5 million to the Marco Rubio campaign.Paul Singer is also a top Paul Ryan...