Free Republic

The GOP Speaker Paul Ryan attacked President Trump today after his meeting and press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ryan released the comments after the press conference this morning. Nancy Pelosi urged Paul Ryan to take a stronger stance against the Republican president.

Just last week, eight candidates for governor participated in the first broadcast Democratic primary debate, an event that showcased plenty of agreement, like on criticism of Gov. Scott Walker and the Foxconn deal and support for an early release program to reduce the state’s prison population. A forum held Sunday on Madison's east side featuring just four of the Democratic candidates covered more common ground on issues of school funding and the rights of undocumented immigrants. When asked to delve into the details of their ideas over the two hour event, the candidates attempted to differentiate their policies from the...

Compensation of most US public school teachers is rigid and determined solely on the basis of seniority. This paper examines the effects of a major change in laws regulating teacher salaries. In 2011, the State of Wisconsin’s Act 10 gave school districts full authority to design their own independent compensation schemes for teachers. Newly collected data on district-level policies show that roughly half of all districts retained seniority-based schedules, whereas the other half switched to flexible compensation and started paying high-quality teachers more. Teacher quality (measured using test scores) increased by 0.05 standard deviations in districts with flexible pay relative...

Actual title: Democratic Congressmen Accuse Paul Ryan Of Political Stunt For Calling For Vote On THEIR ‘Abolish ICE’ Bill — Say They’ll Vote No Three Democratic congressmen declared on Thursday that they will vote “no” on their own legislation if House Speaker Paul Ryan puts their bill on the floor. Reps. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Adriano Espaillat of New York introduced the Establishing a Humane Immigration Enforcement Act earlier Thursday, which would abolish ICE within one year of enactment, and also assemble a commission tasked with setting up a new immigration enforcement agency. .... The...

Chicago alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa penned an op-ed for NBC that encapsulates the reasons why Democrats will be unable to capitalize this November on the relative unpopularity of Republicans in the Midwest, given the Dems' turn to the hard left. Rosa is described as "Queer, Latinx and a democratic socialist" – whatever that means. In political terms, it means he would be a gone goose if he ran for Congress in the vast majority of districts anywhere in the Midwest. But Rosa doesn't see it that way. In fact, he believes that Midwesterners would embrace a socialist candidate and are "not...

(CBS Local)– Over 200 people have now been infected by an outbreak of parasites linked to recalled vegetable trays from Del Monte. According to the CDC, 212 cases of cyclosporiasis – an intestinal infection caused by the cyclospora parasite – were reported as of July 5. The condition has been linked to “6 oz., 12 oz., and 28 oz. vegetable trays containing fresh broccoli, cauliflower, celery sticks, carrots, and dill dip,” which were recalled by Del Monte Fresh Produce on June 15. More than 200 hit by parasite from Del Monte vegetables; symptoms can include 'explosive' bowel movements https://t.co/bs63NaRJbM pic.twitter.com/XiYnkpXzxP...

Milwaukee police are looking for a man involved in an attack at a Milwaukee restaurant. The man punched the manager in the face and went after a waitress until she pulled a gun on him. The incident was caught on surveillance video. Everything happened pretty fast at a George Webb restaurant. The manager at the grill that night said the customer was shouting at the waitress. She told him to get out, and surveillance video shows the man viciously punch her in the face. He then he goes after the waitress. The woman pulled out a handgun from her apron and only...

Political science professor John McAdams is going to be reinstated at Marquette University following a victory at the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He had been suspended by the school for writing a blog post critical of a graduate student. "The undisputed facts show that the University breached its contract with Dr. McAdams when it suspended him for engaging in activity protected by the contract's guarantee of academic freedom," said the opinion written by Justice Daniel Kelly. The state's high court ordered Marquette to "immediately reinstate Dr. McAdams with unimpaired rank, tenure, compensation, and benefits." ( Journal Sentinel ) The case...

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Friday that embattled Marquette University political science professor John McAdams was improperly suspended after he publicly criticized a graduate student by name on his politically conservative blog, leading to threats against her. The court ordered the Jesuit university to immediately reinstate the professor and sent the case back to a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge to award damages, including back pay.

Prominent pollster and ex-Clinton aide Mark Penn said on Thursday that House Speaker Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) refusal to retire from his post is negatively affecting congressional Republicans' approval ratings. "The Republicans in Congress also have a problem because they don't have a leader. They have a leader who quit. Whoever heard of going to an election with a leader who quit, but won't hold an election for a new leader?" Penn told Hill.TV's Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton on "Rising." "So I think the Republicans, at least in Congress, are hitting themselves...because they don't have a united message or group,"...

When Foxconn breaks ground on Thursday on a $10bn LCD manufacturing complex in Wisconsin, President Donald Trump will be there to claim credit for securing the Taiwanese group’s promise to deliver 13,000 jobs. But while Mr Trump helps Foxconn celebrate in Racine county, Wisconsin — a key swing district that helped him win the presidency in 2016 — just up the road at Harley-Davidson, executives will be figuring out who will lose their jobs, after the company said it must offshore production to battle retaliatory EU trade tariffs. That landed Harley in the presidential doghouse. In a series of early...

David Edwards had no beef with the guy who killed him. On March 1, 2017, Jordan Sharlow allegedly fired several bullets into the 31-year-old father of three at an east Madison gas station, reportedly confusing him with Riccardo Simms, the man he intended to kill. Simms was gunned down five months later. The murders of Edwards and Simms contributed to a grim milestone for Madison: 12 homicides in a single year, counting one in the town of Madison, a soon-to-be-annexed pocket on the city’s south side. That’s the most on record. Nine of those homicides were by gunfire, again a...

Leah Vukmir has won what may be her most high-profile endorsement yet in her bid for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination in Wisconsin: U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan. Ryan, R-Janesville, and the dean of Wisconsin's U.S. House delegation, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Menonomee Falls, announced their endorsements of Vukmir Monday in an op-ed at the conservative website RightWisconsin. Vukmir, a Brookfield state senator, and Kevin Nicholson, a Delafield management consultant and political newcomer, are the top contenders in the GOP primary. They're vying to face Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, of Madison, in November.

The company is shifting some production of motorcycles for European customers out of the United States to avoid EU retaliatory tariffs. Harley-Davidson's move is some of the most direct evidence yet that tit-for-tat trade fights between the United States and other countries have consequences for American companies. Harley-Davidson said it stood to lose as much as $100 million a year. "Increasing international production to alleviate the EU tariff burden is not the company's preference, but represents the only sustainable option," it said in a regulatory filing on Monday. Harley-Davidson's (HOG) stock tumbled 6%.

Video: On CNN, Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin admits that during the Obama administration, she did not criticize Obama about detentions at the border despite now criticizing President Trump for them. (click link below for video)

On the eve of two major immigration votes, weeks of hard-fought negotiations took a turn with a heated blowup on the House floor between two lead negotiators. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, a conservative Republican from North Carolina, erupted at House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin over their agreement involving two major immigration bills, saying several times, "I'm done," while pointing in an animated fashion at the top House Republican and raising his voice as their colleagues watched. The explosion drew widespread attention from inside the chamber and out -- and surfaced once again the long-simmering tension between House...

The Supreme Court’s 9-0 nondecision in Gill v. Whitford was more than a little anticlimactic. The Court had been asked to decide if extreme partisan gerrymandering can be challenged in federal court and if so, what standard should apply. (Extreme partisan gerrymandering allows a party to maintain disproportionate control of a state’s legislature or congressional delegation even if the majority of the state’s voters cast their ballots for candidates of the other party.) The Court decided neither question, ruling unanimously that the plaintiffs — Democrats in Wisconsin challenging the legislative map Republicans put in place after the 2010 census —...

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Leah Vukmir is out with her first TV ad of the campaign Monday and it will sure gain some attention. Sitting at her kitchen table, with her handgun by her side, Vukmir discusses death threats she received during the acrimonious state debates, such as Act 10 legislation. "Ever have someone threaten your life for what you believe in? I have," Vukmir, a state Senator from Brookfield, says in the ad. "When Scott Walker and I beat the union bosses, cut billions in taxes and defunded Planned Parenthood, the left couldn't take it," she says. "With President...

AP material - link only https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gun-by-her-side-gop-us-senate-candidate-talks-of-threats/ar-AAyOIk3?ocid=spartandhp

The Supreme Court on Monday sidestepped a decision on when partisan gerrymandering goes too far, ruling against the challengers of a Republican-drawn map in Wisconsin and a Democratic redistricting in Maryland. The decisions in the separate cases once again puts off a decision on when courts can find that partisan efforts to keep parties in power goes so far as to be unconstitutional. It was a technical resolution of what has seemed to hold the promise of being a landmark decision about whether extreme efforts to give one party advantage over another were unconstitutional. While the court routinely polices the...