Free Republic

The Legislature's budget committee refused to allow domestic partner benefits for state employees. On Tuesday, the committee voted along party lines to reject Governor Doyle's plan to make health insurance and other benefits available to the partners of gay and straight state employees. Democrats were in favor of the plan but they failed to get the one Republican vote they needed to insert the policy into the budget. Democrats who control the Senate are expected to push for the benefits in their version of the budget. Representative Mark Pocan, a Madison Democrat, says UW-Madison is losing key researchers as a...

Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) -- A bill in the California legislature that would have made the state the second to legalize the practice of assisted suicide is dead for the year. Backers of the bill pulled it from consideration Thursday when they realized they did not have enough votes to get it approved by a Friday deadline. The bill has already received approval from a state Assembly committee but did not have enough votes to make it through the full Assembly. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez ended up abandoning the effort and claimed he couldn't find enough support for AB 374 as...

JUNEAU -- With the latest poll showing her approval rating at 89 percent, Gov. Sarah Palin may now be the most popular governor in the nation. A recent public opinion poll taken by Ivan Moore Research showed both Republicans and Democrats in favor of the state's first female governor. The poll comes just two weeks after a separate poll taken by Dittman Research gave Palin a 93 percent approval rating. While political polling numbers can fluctuate week to week, Palin's numbers have consistently been extremely high, putting her near or at the top among the nation's governors, according to Jennifer...

-- SNIP -- On other issues facing the Legislature and Spitzer, the Siena poll found voters favor _ 52 percent to 42 percent _ a death penalty for those who kill police officers and are divided on Spitzer's call for legalization of gay marriage, 43 percent in favor and 47 percent opposed.

LUCASVILLE, Ohio - An overweight inmate was executed by injection Thursday after a delay of more than an hour while prison medical staff struggled to find suitable veins in his arms. The execution of Christopher Newton, who had killed a cellmate in 2001 and insisted on the death sentence, had been set to begin at 10 a.m. But members of the medical staff at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility struggled to find veins in each arm, said Leo Jennings, a spokesman for the attorney general. Newton, 37, was pronounced dead shortly before noon. He weighed 265 at his physical on...

The Pennsylvania Democrat tarnishes the party's image and nearly receives a reprimand playing 'earmark' politics. WITH DEMOCRATS like Rep. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi doesn't need Republicans. After Pelosi promised that Democrats would preside over "the most honest, the most open and the most ethical Congress," Murtha, whom Pelosi unsuccessfully pushed for majority leader, described a Democratic lobbying reform proposal as "total crap." (He graciously added, however, that he'd support the legislation because "that's what Nancy wants.") Murtha's latest gift to Pelosi is a confrontation in which he allegedly told Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who had...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana may execute a man convicted of raping an 8-year-old girl, the state Supreme Court said Tuesday — the first time it has upheld such a death sentence under a 1995 law allowing execution of child rapists. Patrick Kennedy, 42, of Harvey, will become the test case for whether the U.S. Supreme Court will uphold the death penalty for someone who rapes a child. "He's the only person in the United States on death row for non-homicide rape," said attorney Jelpi Picou, director of the New Orleans-based Capital Appeals Project. The U.S. Supreme Court, ruling on...

ST. PAUL — No more eyebrow studs for underage Minnesotans — at least not unless Mom or Dad goes along to the piercing parlor and signs a consent form. Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed a body piercing bill into law Monday, threatening jail time and fines for body piercers who perform work on minors without getting parental consent. The law, which takes effect Aug. 1, doesn't apply for traditional ear piercings. Pawlenty also signed several other proposals that got noticed this year. —Expiration dates and service fees for gift cards will be banned starting Aug. 1, but the law doesn't apply...

Arizona conducted its first execution in seven years, after administering a lethal injection to Robert Comer. Comer was convicted in a 1987 crime spree in which he killed a fellow camper at Apache Lake east of Phoenix. Additionally, he was also convicted of repeatedly, brutally raping a female camper the same night, in front of her boyfriend. Robert Comer was termed the most dangerous man in the Arizona prison system. Comer is the first inmate to be put to death in Arizona since Donald Miller was executed November 8, 2000, for participating in the murder of an 18-year-old woman. The...

WASHINGTON, D.C. May 16, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Former President Jimmy Carter issued a statement yesterday urging the United States military drop its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding homosexuals in the military. "The nation’s commitment to human rights requires that lawmakers revisit ’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ the current policy that prevents lesbians, gays and bisexuals from serving openly in our armed forces," Carter said in an exclusive statement to the homosexual activist group, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN). Carter told the SLDN that the current prohibition “regulates a group of citizens then prohibits them from identifying themselves and speaking up...

People would be protected from criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits if they use deadly force against someone who illegally enters their home, car or other dwelling under legislation sent to the governor's desk Tuesday. The measure also includes a provision added in response to the Virginia Tech slayings. Currently, Missouri does not transmit mental health records to the database that licensed gun dealers nationwide use to do instant background checks before any sale. Only people with criminal convictions are added to the system. The bill calls for records from court actions requiring people to undergo mental health treatment, either outpatient...

So Senator Feingold of Wisconsin, a foe of the federal death penalty, is stalling the elevation of the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Roslynn Mauskopf, to the federal bench. The senator from the Badger State, our Joseph Goldstein reports, has been badgering the Brooklyn prosecutor about how often she requested the death penalty. Mr. Goldstein reports that she brought death penalty charges in 12 cases out of more than 100 in which the law provided that she had the option to do so. Mr. Feingold has plenty of ways to pursue his campaign against the...

Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday flatly denied that he has offered jobs to anti-gay-marriage lawmakers to get them to change their votes on a proposed ban on gay nuptials - a tactic proponents of the ban fear could help turn the tide in the Legislature. During a press conference, Patrick offered a terse, “No” when asked if he has dangled jobs to sway votes, contradicting State House sources who told the Herald the governor has done just that in recent weeks. In an interview Wednesday night, a spokesman for Patrick refused to respond when asked whether the governor had offered jobs...

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois lawmakers rejected a proposal Thursday that would have legalized medical marijuana, snuffing the first attempt in nearly 30 years to allow a drug some say is their only relief from the painful symptoms of debilitating diseases. The measure failed 22-29 in the state Senate with an overwhelming number of suburban legislators voting against it. As proposed, anyone with cancer, multiple sclerosis, AIDS or similar weakening conditions would have been able to use the drug. Caretakers could have access to it for their patients as well. Julie Falco is one of those people. An MS survivor, she testified...

BOSTON (AP) - Governor Patrick is warning that Massachusetts will be crippled by a "political circus" if a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage makes it to the state ballot. The Democratic governor says he's actively lobbying legislators who are opposed to same-sex marriage to switch their votes. Lawmakers yesterday postponed a vote until June 14th at the earliest. Before it can reach the 2008 ballot, the proposed amendment needs the backing of 50 lawmakers in two successive sittings of the Legislature. It won approval in the previous Legislature in January, on the final day of its session. Gay marriage...

TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Charlie Crist said Wednesday that he is ready to resume lethal injections after the prison system announced changes to its death penalty procedures. Department of Corrections Secretary Jim McDonough made the changes - including enlarging the death chamber and increasing training - to avoid a repeat of the botched execution of Angel Diaz five months ago. Executions have been halted since Dec. 13, when it took 34 minutes to kill Diaz, twice as long as normal. Crist, who was in South Florida on Wednesday, told the Miami Herald he's ready to start signing death warrants now that...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A man convicted of killing a Memphis police officer in 1981 was executed early Wednesday after a court rejected defense pleas for more time to examine newly revised execution protocols. Philip Workman, whose execution had been delayed on five prior occasions, became Tennessee's third lethal injection since 2000. The Tennessee Supreme Court rejected a final defense request for more time to challenge the way the state carries out its three-chemical injection procedure. A federal judge halted Workman's execution last week over concerns about the revisions, but a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...

May 7, 2007 -- GOV. Spitzer's plan to legalize gay marriage is dividing Democrats, harming Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential ambitions, and handing Republicans their first strong campaign issue in some time, officials told The Post. "This could turn out to be the Democrats' Achilles' heel," crowed Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, a Schenectady Republican who has seen a sharp drop in the Legislature's GOP membership in recent years. -- SNIP -- His action forced the Assembly's majority Democrats, who have avoided taking sides on the polarizing issue for years, to confront what is expected to be a bitter internal debate...

BOSTON --As they scramble to change minds on Beacon Hill, gay marriage activists are pulling out all the stops. They are inviting skeptical lawmakers into the homes of recently married gay couples, holding ice cream socials, distributing pro-gay marriage DVD's and even asking the state's congressional delegation to appeal directly to legislators who may be on the fence. The goal? To block a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage in Massachusetts from reaching voters next year. The clock is ticking. State lawmakers meet in a special joint session on Wednesday, and while it's unlikely a needed vote will...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A federal judge in Nashville this afternoon delayed the scheduled execution of Philip Workman. He was scheduled to die by lethal injection early next Wednesday. U-S District Judge Todd Campbell ruled shortly after Workman's attorneys asked for a delay on grounds they did not have time to file complaints against new execution procedures. The new guidelines were released Wednesday. Workman was convicted for the 1981 shooting death of Memphis police Lieutenant Ronald Oliver after a fast food robbery. He twice has come within hours of execution before the courts stepped in. Campbell cited the likelihood that...