Free Republic

RE: Louis Butler's nomination to be a U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Wisconsin. On December 3 the Judiciary Committee voted out this controversial nomination on a party-line vote of 12-7, and floor action is expected in the near future. Louis Butler is unfit for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench because his record demonstrates a far-left agenda of personal beliefs and political ideology that he imposes from the bench, and the people of Wisconsin have twice rejected him as undeserving to serve on their highest court. ACTION: The nomination of Louis Butler is one of those...

In 1979, Robert Bartley's editorial writing at the Wall Street Journal not only garnered a Pulitzer Prize, but also exposed a pernicious threat to free enterprise. In a piece titled "Down With Big Business," which focused on how General Motors was using its muscle and government connections to squeeze out competitors, Bartley concludes we ought not rely on big business to defend free markets. It's up to the American people--innovators and entrepreneurs, small business owners, Bartley's "XYZ Bumperlight Lens Company"--to take a stand. Thirty years later, this crony capitalism is back with a vengeance, accelerated by an aggressive program by...

Appleton, WI (LifeNews.com) -- Two physicians are responding to a new sting operation video produced showing staff at a Wisconsin Planned Parenthood center lying to women about fetal development and abortion. The undercover footage from Live Action shows abortion center staff, including the abortion practitioner, misleading women. The Planned Parenthood staffers encourage pregnant women posting as potential abortion customers to obtain an abortion because "women die having babies." In the undercover video, two women posing as potential abortion customers ask a Planned Parenthood counselor if the pregnant woman's 10-week-old unborn child has a heartbeat. The counselor emphasizes "heart tones," and...

Milwaukee, WI - Area home sales soared 75% in November compared with the same month last year, an increase attributed mostly to efforts to close purchases before a tax credit for first-time homebuyers was set to expire.The federal tax credit of up to $8,000 - part of Congress' economic stimulus plan - has been extended to home deals that close by June 30 instead of Dec. 1 of this year. But uncertainty about whether it would be extended helped Realtors post sales numbers that the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors called staggering."The majority of that was the homebuyer tax credit,...

Gary Sherman….Gary Sherman….Gary Sherman. I should know that name. Now I remember Gary Sherman was the critical vote needed desperately by Governor Doyle to preserve open carry in Wisconsin five years ago. He is the Assembly Representative who voted for SB214 and then switched his vote against it to sustain the Governor’s veto of SB214. This legislation was the concealed carry law that passed the legislature with a bi-partisan two thirds super majority. By convincing Representative Sherman to switch his vote, the Governor was able to guarantee that his veto of SB214 would be sustained by just one critical vote,...

<p>GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Some Wisconsin communities that have installed high efficiency traffic lights are discovering the energy-saving bulbs are a hazard in a snow storm.</p> <p>City officials say the LED lights use less electricity and don't give off enough heat to melt ice or snow. So when the snow falls and the wind blows, the traffic lights are obscured.</p>

It might go against the adage "oil and water don't mix," but a University of Wisconsin professor and the City of Beloit's fleet manager are experimenting with technology that allows motor scooters, cars and trucks to use a combination of gasoline and water as fuel. They're testing a system that uses voltage from a vehicle's battery and alternator to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Those molecules are then burned as supplemental fuel -- reducing the amount of gasoline needed and resulting in a cleaner-running engine. The system has been used to power a Vespa scooter with distilled water. A...

Back door gun registration is being proposed for Wisconsin by Senators Coggs, Taylor and Lassa; Representatives Richards, Staskunas, Turner, Young, Sinicki, Berceau, Colon, Grigsby, Fields, Pasch, Kessler, Zepnick and Toles. SB 367 is yet another attempt to infringe upon lawful gun owners in Wisconsin by making it a crime not to report a lost or stolen gun within 48 hours of discovering the loss or theft. I am not clear how anyone will know if a stolen gun that shows up at a crime scene just 5 hours after it was stolen is your gun or to whom it belongs....

Republican lawmakers critical of efforts to battle climate change vowed to fly next week to the Copenhagen summit to undercut President Barack Obama's promises of strong U.S. action. Members of the minority party in Congress said they would highlight a scandal over leaked e-mails from leading climate scientists which they said backed their suspicions that the global warming threat was overblown and too costly to act on. "I will not be one of the sycophants that says climate change is the biggest problem facing the world, and we need to do all these Draconian things that cost jobs," Rep. Joe...

MADISON, WI - A combination of heavy snow, strong wind and freezing rain continued to pound Wisconsin early Wednesday as many residents attempt to dig out. Heavy snow and strong winds pummeled Wisconsin overnight as a major snowstorm crept across southern Wisconsin on Tuesday night. The storm has caused widespread power outages, hundreds of school closings and treacherous travel for those braving the roadways. State offices and the University of Wisconsin campuses are closed as well. The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the southwest corner of the state through Wednesday evening. The Wisconsin State Patrol said as...

Mary Spicuzza | 608-252-6122 | mspicuzza@madison.com In a nutshell Wisconsin would require new semiautomatic handguns sold or manufactured in the state to produce identifying codes on every shell they expend under a bill currently in the Legislature. The bill would require that semiautomatic handguns manufactured on or after Jan. 1, 2011 produce codes, known as a "microstamps," on their expended cartridges. The bill would also require gun manufacturers and dealers who sell handguns that produce microstamps to disclose guns' makes, models and serial numbers to law enforcement agencies when microstamped expended shell casings are collected during criminal investigations. It would...

The suspect in a quadruple homicide was charged Friday afternoon with killing his girlfriend and their 23-month-old daughter after telling the girlfriend's older children that the victims had been involved in a bad car crash in Middleton and wouldn't be coming home. According to the criminal complaint filed in Dane County Circuit Court, Tyrone Adair called the daughters of Tracy Judd around 7:20 p.m. Thursday to tell them that Judd, 33, and their daughter, Deja, had been in a crash near the Branch Street Retreat bar and restaurant and wouldn't be coming back to their town of Middleton home, which...

Two women and two girls were shot dead in Madison and Middleton Thursday night in separate incidents and police were searching for one man who they believe to be responsible for the killings. Suspected in the deaths is Tyrone M. Adair, 38, police said. He is described as black, 5 feet, 10 inches tall, 175 pounds with brown eyes. He may be driving a silver GMA Acadia with Wisconsin license 342-EBI. Police said he should be considered armed and dangerous. A mother and her daughter were found shot to death in their car in their garage at 6827 Park Edge...

Milwaukee Public Schools' health officials want to make condoms freely available to students in many of the district's high schools, as part of an effort to combat the health risks that sexually transmitted infections and other communicable diseases pose to young people. If the proposal wins the support of the School Board, the new policy could take effect as early as next school year, making MPS one of a few districts in the nation that provide contraception to students. Kathleen Murphy, the district's health coordinator, said that data continues to show that middle and high school students are engaging in...

A convicted sex offender has been charged with beating and sexually assaulting a elderly woman as she gave him a tour of a rural Kandiyohi County church last month. According to charges filed Monday, Lindon Roy Knutson, 61, left the 73-year-old victim bloodied on the ground outside the Crow River Church on the afternoon of Nov. 24. Knutson has been convicted of a string of sexual assaults dating back to 1973 and has spent much of the past three decades in prison. In Wisconsin, he was committed as a habitual sex offender, most recently at a mental health institution in...

Nov. 24, 2009 – When considering a charge of battery to a law enforcement officer, the officer must be in the course of performing official duties – but the officer need not be acting lawfully. In State v. Haywood, 2009AP30, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals rejected a defendant’s argument that an officer was not acting as a law enforcement agent when the officer improperly remained in the defendant’s home. A violent struggle Gary Post, a Milwaukee police officer, went to a home in search of Dione “Edjuan” Haywood. Marline Nicholson, a woman known to Post, opened the door to say...

A Rock County man sentenced to two years in federal prison for shooting a deer while he was on probation for domestic violence has had his case overturned by a federal appeals court. The case could have far-ranging impact in the gun-rights debate. For Steve Skoien, it meant he'll be home for the holidays. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled earlier this month that, in light of a major Supreme Court ruling about individual gun rights last year, prosecutors need to show that a lifetime ban on gun ownership for those convicted of domestic violence has a...

At a conference for environmental journalists in Wisconsin, Al Gore dodged questions on the many identified errors in his global warming movie, An Inconvenient Truth. "We're very close to that political tipping point," Gore said. "Never before in human history has a single generation been asked to make such difficult and consequential decisions." While the audience of environmental journalists were largely in agreement with Mr. Gore's presentation and his positions, one Irish journalist and filmmaker asked Gore about the many scientific errors that were found in Gore's global warming movie, An Inconvenient Truth. "A judge in the British High Court,...

Fort Hood soldier returns home to Wis. Updated: Friday, 27 Nov 2009, 12:54 PM EST Published : Friday, 27 Nov 2009, 12:53 PM EST LODI, Wis. (AP) - A Wisconsin soldier injured in the Fort Hood shootings spent Thanksgiving with his family, reminding all of everything they have to be thankful for. Army Reserve Specialist Grant Moxon was shot in the leg when Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire Nov. 5, and three of Moxon's friends died. Moxon told WISC-TV in Madison the memories are still raw, and Thanksgiving at home means a time to recover emotionally as well as physically....

MADISON, Wis. — Seven and a half months into Ta-Shai Pendleton’s first pregnancy, her child was stillborn. Then in early 2008, she bore a daughter prematurely. Soon after, Ms. Pendleton moved from a community in Racine that was thick with poverty to a better neighborhood in Madison. Here, for the first time, she had a full-term pregnancy... --snip-- The lives and pregnancies of black mothers like Ms. Pendleton, 21, are now the subject of intense study as researchers confront one of the country’s most intractable health problems: the large racial gap in infant deaths, primarily due to a higher incidence...