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...

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,...

A liver transplant recipient was given a public intoxication warning Monday afternoon after he registered a 0.39 percent blood-alcohol level, according to La Crosse police reports. The 34-year-old man was found on a curb at Springbrook Way and Cliffside Drive about 3 p.m., reports stated. He could not stand or walk unassisted when a family member took him home, police noted. He was taken to Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center for detoxification.

Recently Jim Robinson posted two threads declaring Free Republic’s determination to see Conservatives elected and ousting Rino's from government. Jim and a great many Freepers believe that we need to take back control. But the RNC is not hearing us. Activism is called for NOW. 2010 is nearing and we need Conservative candidates to run. The time is ripe and people are ready for another 1994 type election. But we need to make the RNC hear us loud and clear. This is the Rino Free America Project. Get involved. Make them listen. Write a letter and MAIL it. Republican...

Senators have to find a balance between voting their conscience and voting as their constituents would like. If senators vote their conscience too heavily, constituents tend to get angry. When this happens, constituents may ask for a recall of their U.S. Senator. (The 5 steps are listed in detail) -- The 18 states allowing for recall are as follows: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin.

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...

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,...

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...

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...

Under fire from the Milwaukee Police Department for selling guns used in crimes, the owner of Badger Guns boasted last week he has a close working relationship with his local police department in West Milwaukee. "West Milwaukee knows what we do," Adam Allan told Milwaukee aldermen during a hearing on gun laws. "We always are having felons taken out of there." Data from the West Milwaukee Police Department tells a different story. So does the village's police chief. Police calls to the store dropped sharply beginning in 2007, the year Allan took over the store, according to a Journal Sentinel...

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...

It’s going to happen. Gun rights activist and former Afton resident David E. Olson of Glenwood City has announced that an “Open Carry Tea Party” will be held the afternoon of Oct. 17, a Saturday, at Lakefront Park in Hudson, Wis. The purpose of the event is for people to exercise their First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly and their Second Amendment rights to own and carry firearms, Olson said. After holding an open carry event in Glenwood City on Aug. 23, Olson told other media outlets that he was planning a similar event for Hudson in mid-October....

Felons should be banned from gun stores. But until a law is passed to do that, law-abiding gun owners should boycott shops such as Badger Guns. Lawmakers have not done enough to keep felons away from gun shops, and Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn has a right to be fed up. Passing a bill to ban felons from gun stores should be common sense. And probation agents should insist that felons stay away. But as the Journal Sentinel's John Diedrich reported Sunday, felons are routinely showing up at Badger Guns in West Milwaukee. Milwaukee police staked out the store for...

FOND DU LAC - The deer a Fond du Lac man bagged has people talking all across Wisconsin. Hunters call the buck unbelievable, a freak of nature. "For anybody to shoot a fair chase animal like that is incredible, it just doesn't happen," Duffy Munson with Dutch's Trading Post said. But on Sunday it did for Wayne Schumacher. The avid hunter is now finding fame on the heels of a 30-pointer. "There had to be 250 people that came through looking at it yesterday," Schumacher said. "One would call the other one, after they saw it they would call the...

May we, please, have a respite from the supposed controversy over open carrying of firearms? Perhaps it is extremism fatigue brought on by the recent wave of demonstrations about health care, a purported turn toward socialism, and so on-all of which have added to the amount of noise but not to the potential solutions for problems. The people now accusing Racine police of overreacting to an armed citizen are off base. Our problem is not with open carry in and of itself. Our problem is that the advocates of open carry are asserting that the right to carry a firearm...

UPDATED Thursday, September 17, 2009 --- 4:40 p.m. The fiancee of the man who was shot and killed after he broke into a house speaks. Forty-one-year-old Jamie Chen was alone at his home on the 2900 block of Osmundsen Road in Fitchburg Wednesday afternoon when police say Roberto Vega-Gil broke in. Fearing for his life, Chen grabbed a gun. A short time later he shot and killed Vega-Gil as he emerged from the basement. And now the intruder's family is trying to figure out why he did what he did. "This is Roberto and I when we were ready to...

RACINE - Normally inside Mechanix Auto Shop, repair is done on cars. Saturday, it was done on a man's reputation. Hubert Hoffman, a member of www.opencarry.org, organized a gathering to support Frank Hannan-Rock. Most everyone there was openly carrying a firearm, which is legal in Wisconsin. "You stand by your friends," Hoffman said. "Frank was, in my opinion harassed and detained unlawfully." It all started Wednesday night when Racine Police were investigating a raccoon shooting in Hannan-Rock's neighborhood. They noticed he was wearing a gun on his hip and asked him questions. "I did nothing to provoke them," said Hannan-Rock....

KENOSHA -- A jewelry store owner who was faced with a man trying to rob him at gunpoint reached for his own gun and shot the suspect Wednesday. The suspect is believed to be from Zion. Kenosha Police Department officials said that two men with partially concealed faces entered the Jewelry Exchange at 2400 52nd St. around 12:30 p.m. and confronted the 55-year-old owner. Police said one suspect pointed a handgun at the owner, but the owner drew his own handgun from under the desk where he was sitting and shot the suspect once in the chest. The two men...

Jeff Niles asked his local police chief about his ability to openly carry a gun a few months ago. The response from the Police Chief to Jeff was essentially no you can’t carry a gun because Milton has a local ordinance that prohibits open carry. However Jeff knew the ordinance was unenforceable and he was just trying to determine if the Police Chief knew the ordinance was unenforceable as well. It turns out the Chief apparently did not know that Wisconsin Stat. § 66.0409 (local regulation of firearms) effectively repealed the local ordinance which prohibited citizens from carrying a gun,...

There is no such thing as ‘a right to a job’—there is only the right of free trade, that is: a man’s right to take a job if another man chooses to hire him.” —Ayn Rand, “Man’s Rights,” 1963— If you want to understand the most common reason for unemployment in America—the real unemployment rate of which is now well into the double digits—you need only look as far as Washington, D.C., home of the federal government, for the answer: bureaucratic intervention in the economy in the form of minimum wage laws, “public works” projects, “stimulus” programs and the regulation...

RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina consumers are about to feel another pinch in their wallets at the mall, the convenience store and most every retailer in between. The state's sales tax goes up a full penny Tuesday, bringing the total rate charged in most counties to 7.75 percent. At the same time, cigarettes, beer, wine and liquor will have higher excise taxes, all of which are likely to be passed on to retail buyers. Gov. Beverly Perdue agreed to raise these taxes in early August as part of a $991 million package designed to narrow a portion of a budget...

Glenwood City (WQOW) - More than 200 residents showed up for the open carry picnic in Glenwood City on Sunday afternoon. The picnic was held at the Saint Croix County Fairgrounds, in Glenwood City. The picnic was open to the public and was free to attend. Most of the 200 residents who were at Sunday's picnic were carrying guns. Organizers say they held the picnic to celebrate a recent memo from Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen regarding the legality of open carry. "My wife and I and our grown daughters organized this as an informational session more than anything else...

FOND DU LAC, Wis. – Union workers at Mercury Marine put their jobs at risk Sunday when they rejected a package of wage and benefit concessions the boat engine maker said it needed or it would move their work to a nonunion plant in Oklahoma. Union leaders did not immediately release Sunday's tally but said the vote was "overwhelming" to reject what the company called its final offer. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Local 1947, represents 850 workers at Mercury Marine, the largest employer in the eastern Wisconsin city of Fond du Lac and the world's largest...

Aug. 14, 2009 A 17-year-old killed Thursday by a man he was trying to rob had been ordered to stay out of trouble in March after he pleaded guilty to taking a woman’s car on a joy ride. Devin Ollie was supposed to participate in a substance abuse treatment program, stay in school or hold down a job and perform 20 hours of community service, according to a deferred prosecution agreement he signed March 23. Less than a month later, Ollie tested positive for THC, according to a July 11 letter from a juvenile justice program that was monitoring him....

enlarge photo Kenneth J. Whitaker more photos Kenneth J. Whitaker Close Two men died Tuesday after they were shot while trying to rob a convenience store on Milwaukee's north side, police said. Both men were armed and wearing masks and gloves when they entered the store at N. 12th and W. Chambers streets about 10:45 a.m., Milwaukee police Capt. Edith Hudson said. The men announced the robbery but were then shot by a customer or customers, who ran from the store, Hudson said. No arrests have been made in connection with the case, she said. A man identified by family...

A 19-year-old Milwaukee man has been charged in the death of his 17-year-old partner in an armed robbery. Police say his partner was fatally shot by one of the pair's intended victims last week. Damien A. Cole faces charges of felony murder, as well as being party to the crimes of armed robbery and attempted armed robbery. If convicted of felony murder, he faces up to 55 years in prison. According to the criminal complaint, a 23-year-old man had met his girlfriend at a bus stop to walk her home after she finished her job early Thursday at a Water...

* GREEN BAY - With holstered pistols at their sides, about 50 gun owners gathered at Ted Fritsch Park in Green Bay Saturday for an open carry picnic. Organizers said they were celebrating their right to openly carry a firearm in public. "There's nothing to be afraid of," said Henry Rahr, of Green Bay. "We're all law abiding citizens and this is for self protection. Most people don't realize it but the public is much safer with us with open carry," said Rahr. Openly carrying a holstered firearm is legal in Wisconsin. Organizers of the picnic said it's a right...

DRUMMOND, Wis. (AP) — An Austrian woman on vacation in Wisconsin is getting rabies shots after she said she was bitten several times by at least two otters while swimming in a lake. Brigitte France, 51, told the Duluth News Tribune that she was swimming on Lake Owen near Drummond, Wis., last Wednesday when she heard something hissing behind her. She spotted an otter. ``I thought it was really cool,'' she said. ``I'd never seen an otter before. Then, all of a sudden, there were three of them.''

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has been interpreted as guaranteeing a right to bear arms. Wisconsin, where deer hunting is hard-wired into the state's DNA, respects that right. Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives agree on the point. Indeed, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Congressman Dave Obey, D-Wausau, are among the steadiest defenders of gun rights at the national level. We respect their reasoned positions, as we do those of Congressman Tom Petri, R-Fond du Lac, and former Gov. Tommy Thompson. But we do not respect the bizarre claim that the Second Amendment can be read to include...

This weekend, a group celebrates the right to bear arms with an open-carry picnic. They're planning on a picnic at a Green Bay city park, celebrating what they say are two American traditions -- a barbeque and the Second Amendment. "It's a right that a lot of lawmakers are trying to take away from us, and people need to make a stand," organizer Bronson Smith said. So Saturday at noon, Smith and others who own guns will be exercising their rights at Ted Fritsch Park with their first open-carry celebration. They got the idea to have the picnic after seeing...

Yesterday (30 July, 2009), a friend of mine who is in the Wisconsin State Patrol noticed a motocyclist parked on the shoulder of the a highway in northern Wisconsin. The motorcyclist had a pistol in a holster on his hip. Realizing the potential danger that the motorcyclist was in, the trooper stopped to assist. He approached the motorcyclist and notified him that he (the motorcyclist) was legally open carrying. He then asked if he was aware of Wisconsin firearms laws. The motorcyclist had a State of Michigan CCW permit, and thought that it was accepted in Wisconsin. The trooper explained...

ROTHSCHILD (WAOW)-- A sign directing drivers onto Business Highway 51 in Rothschild spelled every word incorrectly except for "exit." A spokesperson with the Department of Transportation says it should be fixed tomorrow morning. He says the company who made the sign apparently just put a few letters out of order and added some extra letters. He joked that it was quote "just a bad day" for whoever made it.

A bra-clad woman charged with injuring a Portage police officer in a drunken rage early Saturday reportedly kicked and screamed her way to a possible 12-year prison sentence. Courtney L. Steinhorst, 20, of Baraboo, is free on a $2,500 signature bond after an initial appearance Tuesday in Columbia County Circuit Court. She is charged with two counts of felony battery of a peace officer, two counts of felony attempted battery of a peace officer, and misdemeanor charges of resisting an officer and disorderly conduct. Steinhorst faces a maximum initial penalty of 12 years in prison if she is found guilty...

PRAIRIE DU SAC, Wis. — Abigail Berg acknowledged God’s undeniable call to religious life in the first week of her freshman year at The Catholic University of America.She stuck it out for two more years — and went through four majors — until she quit school and tried her vocation as a Cistercian nun at Valley of Our Lady Monastery, located on 112 acres in Prairie du Sac, outside of Madison, Wis. “It’s clear that all my life I felt a call to investigate religious life; I just had to trust God was speaking to me out of my deepest...

You may be used to seeing fireworks with names like 'Seaside Garden,' 'Burst and Bloom,' or 'Red, White, and Boom.' But the product names of fireworks at one Wisconsin fireworks stand are nowhere near as benign. Some say they're more than inappropriate--they're racist. Some of the novelties sold at Fireworks City in Baldwin, Wis. are sparking controversy in the Arab and Muslim communities. On one side of the packaging for 'Run Hadji Run' fireworks, men of Middle Eastern decent are riding on camels with a bomber plane flying above them. On the other side is an angry-looking Uncle Same yanking...

Back in the 1950s, when Republican "red" Wisconsin was represented by the lamentable Alexander Wiley and the reprehensible Joe McCarthy in the U.S. Senate, the state's most enlightened citizens adopted Minnesota Democratic Farmer Laborite Hubert Humphrey as "Wisconsin's third senator." Humphrey embraced the role, spending a good deal of time on this side of the Mississippi and developing a network of allies and associates in the state's burgeoning Democratic party. It wasn't enough to win him the 1960 Democratic presidential primary contest with John Kennedy, a defeat that Humphrey once told me broke his heart. But to the last days...

With two area murders in the past two weeks, two officers shot, and a popular candy store owner killed in Milwaukee -- all by gunfire -- it might seem to be an odd time to try to get more guns on the street. But gun advocates say this is the perfect time to build momentum for a movement that is already gaining traction. "That's just all the more reason why the good guys ought to be able to carry their guns," says Mark Stollenwerk, co-founder of OpenCarry.org, a Virginia-based pro-gun website that has targeted Wisconsin for a media and lobbying...

Virginia Tech. Columbine. A church in Kansas. A Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. A school in Weston. I think that is personal enough. Mrs. Dainty, I respect your right to free speech, however I still do not agree with your letter from last week’s Sauk Prairie Eagle, “Guns provide self-defense and aren’t allowed in bars.” When I think about the gun issue, I am thinking about the greater good of all people and not just the good of my family or myself. My family hasn’t had to deal with gun violence, thank God. Much of that is because I grew...

Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.), who believes that the 2nd Amendment is an individual right, on Wednesday was meeting with Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, who apparently holds a different view of the 2nd Amendment. As a federal appeals court judge, Sotomayor signed an opinion (in Maloney v. Cuomo) saying that the Second Amendment bars the federal government – but not the states -- from infringing on an individual's right to keep and bear arms. (See earlier story) Feingold told CNSNews.com last week (see video below) that he plans to question Sotomayor about the 2nd Amendment during her confirmation hearings, which...

The two men who were shot by a security guard while trying to rob a Milwaukee check cashing business last week were armed with realistic-looking BB guns, according to a Police Department spokeswoman. Ronald X. Reed Jr., 24, was shot in the back and died at the scene, police said. His cousin, 22-year-old Vidal D. Mason, was shot in the abdomen. The BB guns "looked very much like authentic weapons," police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz wrote in an e-mail. The men also used BB guns while committing a string of armed robberies in 2005, court records show. Reed and Mason...

A Town of Ripon man held a burglar at gunpoint after he caught the suspect inside his home, warning 911 dispatchers that if the intruder even flinched, he would shoot. "I got my burglar here right now. I got him at gunpoint," the man told a 911 dispatcher after he captured the intruder, according to a recording released by the Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Office. "Get them out here fast. You don't get somebody out here quick, this guy's going to die." The alleged burglar, Michael J. Roehling, 23, made his initial appearance in Fond du Lac County Circuit...

A Wisconsin judge dismissed homicide charges against Minneapolis firefighter Kyle Huggett because law enforcement authorities failed to preserve voice-mail messages that would have helped determine whether he acted in self-defense when he fatally shot an intruder. Burnett County Circuit Judge James Babbitt ruled that sheriff's detectives denied Huggett due process when they failed to thoroughly listen to and transcribe threatening messages left by John Peach, who broke into Huggett's home in rural Danbury, Wis., last year. "It is hard to imagine any evidence more compelling than threats from the decedent that the defendant heard approximately two hours before the decedent...

Pfister Hotel Has Some Strange Happenings MILWAUKEE, WI (KTVI-FOX2now.com) - When the Cardinals travel north to tangle with the Milwaukee Brewers, they stay at a downtown Milwaukee landmark known for being ornate, historic and perhaps haunted. Professional baseball players have plenty of eerie tales about the Pfister Hotel, and, from Brendan Ryan to Manager Tony LaRussa, the Cardinals are no exception.

GREENFIELD -- The picnic looks a lot like many others you might see on Memorial Day. Except at this one, many people are carrying a gun on their belts. Greg Plautz set up the picnic. He's a college senior and is affiliated with the opencarry.org organization. Plautz hopes the picnic will help encourage people to understand Wisconsin's gun laws, saying, "[the picnic is] to just further the acceptance of open carry and allow people to come together with a like cause." This 'open carry picnic' is one of several that have occurred since Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen said...

WITI-TV, MILWAUKEE - Cookouts and picnics are a Memorial Day tradition. But it's rare when the host invites guests to bring their licensed firearms in addition to food. FOX 6's Bob Moore takes you to the first open-carry event in Milwaukee County.

“Gun!” We knew that would get your attention. Guns — and gun laws — have a way of doing that in this state. That’s never been more true than in recent weeks after state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen issued a memo to state district attorneys saying that openly carrying a handgun in public isn’t automatically a crime. In short order, gun-rights advocates were planning open-carry picnics like the one in an Onalaska park last weekend where hamburgers and holstered sidearms were the order of the day. Both were served up with relish. It was, according to news accounts from...

There’s a new effort to expand the number of places in Wisconsin where you can openly carry a gun. A group called Operation CarryLand has an online petition urging the Legislature to repeal the law against open weapons near schools. Right now, it’s a felony to openly carry a weapon – either personally or in a vehicle – within 1,000 feet of school property. Group spokesman Nik Clark of New Berlin says criminals are ignoring the law as evidenced by the large number of gun crimes in Milwaukee that take place close to schools. As a result, Clark says licensed,...

Underperforming Chrysler dealers targeted for closing should get more time to wind down their car dealerships, lawmakers said Thursday, as several groups urged the Obama administration to reconsider its work to restructure the faltering U.S. auto industry. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) pushed a proposal to give Chrysler dealers 60 days to close their dealerships instead of three weeks outlined by the company. Seeking leverage, her measure would prevent the Treasury Department from providing funding to an auto company that failed to give a dealership at least 60 days to wind down its operations and sell its inventory. Forum Car...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The president of the U.S. bishops' conference and two members of Congress have called on President Barack Obama to make good on something he said in his May 17 speech to University of Notre Dame graduates, namely that he wished to "honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion." In a May 22 statement, Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago said he was grateful for Obama's promise to support conscience clauses. At a May 19 press conference in Washington and in a letter sent that day to the president, Reps. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Chris Smith,...

We, in Wisconsin are tiptoeing no more about gun rights. Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen opened the box and gave us our BOOTS. Open Carry Picnics are being organized around the state. Local officials are being asked questions. Village attorneys are ducking phone calls. The genie is out of the bottle. I recently sent several letters to the editor of our local weekly paper. He published them. The result was a very complete story this week, and more to come. http://www.wiscnews.com/spe/news/451912 Finally, people are beginning to realize what we have known all along. Peaceful Open Carry is Legal in Wisconsin....