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<p>Outgoing House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) made headlines Thursday morning when he said GOP losses in the state of California were suspicious at a Washington Post Live event.</p> <p>In response, California’s secretary of state, Alex Padilla condemned Ryan’s remarks and defended California’s election laws.</p>

House Speaker Paul Ryan questioned California’s ballot-counting process after Democrats were able to flip several GOP-held seats.The state’s election system “defies logic to me,” he said during an interview with the Washington Post’s Paul Kane. “We had a lot of wins that night, and three weeks later we lost basically every contested California race. This election system they have, I can’t begin to understand what ballot harvesting is.”“We were only down 26 seats the night of the election and three weeks later, we lost basically every California race,” he continued. “This election system they have — I can’t begin to...

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Republicans, just weeks away from losing control of both the governor and attorney general's offices, planned dramatic lame-duck votes Tuesday on a sweeping attempt to limit the powers of incoming Democrats, a move that opponents decried as a last-gasp power grab and attempt to invalidate the election. Another Republican proposal to move the 2020 presidential primary election from April to March appears to be dead. A Republican-controlled committee did not advance the plan Monday, and the panel's co-chairs said it didn't have enough votes to pass. Once approved by the Legislature, the other measures would head...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Republicans moved quickly Monday with a rare lame-duck session that would change the 2020 presidential primary date to benefit a conservative Supreme Court justice and weaken the newly elected Democratic governor and attorney general. The changes being sought would shift power to the GOP-controlled Legislature and allow outgoing Republican Gov. Scott Walker to make one last major mark on the state’s political landscape after he lost re-election in November. Republicans forged ahead despite threats of lawsuits, claims by Democratic Gov.-elect Tony Evers and others that they were trying to invalidate results of the November election...

House Speaker Paul Ryan has announced that President George H. W. Bush will lie in state in the U.S. Capitol this week, giving Americans a final chance to pay their respects. The 41st president passed away peacefully in his home in Houston Friday night. The late President George H.W. Bush will lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda beginning with an arrival ceremony on Monday at 5:00 p.m. ET. The public is invited to pay their respects from Monday, December 3 at 7:30 p.m. ET until Wednesday, December 5 at 7:00 a.m. ET.— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) December 1, 2018...

General Motors Co on Monday pulled the plug on the Chevrolet Volt hybrid and the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant that builds it, both examples of a costly gamble that is not paying off. GM’s widely touted factory of the future, forced on a town desperate for jobs and hailed decades later by former resident Barack Obama, is set to wind down over the next few years, leaving beleaguered Hamtramck wondering what happened. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said at a news conference Monday that he told GM chief executive Mary Barra Monday that “we moved thousands of people out of that neighborhood...

The narratives of the midterm elections were set when suburban voters turned against President Trump, women racked up record numbers of electoral wins and Republicans dominated rural states and counties. But dive deeper into the results and some more surprising storylines emerge, from familial ties to long shot candidates, expanding suburbs and new battlegrounds. Here are the overlooked stories that didn’t get enough coverage after the polls closed. Did Puerto Ricans elect Rick Scott? When Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico devastated in 2017, almost 400,000 of the island’s residents moved to the mainland. Many of them landed in Florida, where...

Chicago Public Schools this fall recorded one of the sharpest single-year enrollment declines since the district’s student population began a steady downturn 16 years ago. The 361,314 students counted on the 20th day of classes this fall represents a reduction of 10,000 students from last school year. That’s a slightly smaller drop than two years ago, when enrollment plummeted by about 11,000 students from the preceding year. The numbers continue a long-standing trend that began in 2003, when total enrollment stood at 434,000. ... Years of falling enrollment, school expansion and choice patterns have left CPS with tens of thousands...

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., revealed the existence of a "fourth bucket" of information related to potential misconduct by the FBI that he wants declassified. On his way out as chairman, as Democrats will take control of the House next year, Nunes said his panel's investigation into the Justice Department and FBI is largely complete. Still, he said the public release of these "buckets" would help give his efforts a sense of "finality." Speaking with anchor Maria Bartiromo on her Fox News program "Sunday Morning Futures," Nunes said the first of three "buckets" were the Russia-related documents President...

A Wisconsin company is giving every employee a handgun for Christmas. The company, BenShot, sells novelty glassware with bullets embedded, according to the Appleton Post-Crescent. The gift idea is part of an effort to promote personal safety and team building, owner Ben Wolfgram told the newspaper. “For us, now, we have an entire armed staff,” he said. “I think that’s pretty good.” All 16 full-time employees will be able to pick their choice of revolver. Wolfgram said most employees, including some who had never shot a gun, were excited about the company's announcement. Wolfgram said at least two employees initially...

It’s been 25 days since Jayme Closs disappeared, and her parents were killed... They are focused on forensic testing. For the last week, Wisconsin’s crime lab has tested 40 pieces of potential evidence a day. “As of now we just don’t have any good physical evidence either which is another frustrating part of this case,” Sheriff Fitzgerald said. That includes already 80 pieces of separate videos or pictures from homes and businesses along Highway 8 from that night. Investigators have also kept a close eye on social media. As Facebook groups pop up, Fitzgerald says investigators check every post.

MADISON — Governor Scott Walker on Wednesday, Nov. 7 released a statement conceding the governor’s race to Democratic challenger Tony Evers. Walker said he called Evers on Wednesday to concede defeat. The two-term Republican incumbent had held off conceding because the race was so close, but his campaign decided Wednesday there were not enough votes in play to change the outcome. Based on unofficial results, Evers won by about 31,000 votes. Walker says in a statement that he offered the full support of his staff and Cabinet to Evers as he begins the transition. Walker had expressed concern about 2,000...

MADISON – Democrat Tony Evers declared victory just after 1:30 a.m Wednesday, the culmination of a long – and disputed – election night. But the razor-thin result, allegations of thousands of damaged ballots, and a late-night surprise from Democrat stronghold Milwaukee County promised that Wisconsin’s dead-heat gubernatorial race was far from over. Evers, superintendent of the state Department of Public Instruction, bested Republican Gov. Scott Walker by less than 29,000 votes, or just over 1 percent of the votes cast in the heavy-turnout election (The unofficial count stood at 1,316,247 votes for Evers to 1,287,374 votes for Walker). But that...

Alert: Democrat Tony Evers elected Wisconsin governor, denying Republican Scott Walker a third term - @AP

Did nothing of value as Speaker. Didn't discourage at least half of those looking to retire into sticking around another two years where we could have maintained control. He lined up his K Street job and started throwing bombs towards Trump (which he also did a few days before the 2016 election). Trump worked and saved the Senate and made the difference in some key governor races. Tonight was not a Trump defeat. Part of it was history -- midterm election usually results in out of power party winning. But this was winnable. Ryan blew the House. /rant

With the race for governor hanging in the balance, Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson said his office still had more than 45,000 uncounted ballots shortly after midnight Wednesday. Christenson said his office had just received 7,800 ballots from Wauwatosa, which were delayed because of a problem with a computer modem. Officials were reconciling those numbers and would soon release the totals. Christenson said he was still waiting to receive 45,000 outstanding absentee ballots from the City of Milwaukee. Milwaukee city officials put the figure even higher, saying the outstanding votes total 47,000. That amount includes 36,000 in-person absentee ballots and...

The Taiwanese supplier to Apple must meet hiring, wage and investment targets by various dates to receive tax and other ‘performance-based’ benefits Foxconn Technology is considering bringing in personnel from China to help staff a large facility under construction in southern Wisconsin as it struggles to find engineers and other workers in one of the tightest labor markets in the U.S. The company, the Taiwanese supplier to Apple Inc., has been trying to tap Chinese engineers through internal transfers to supplement staffing for the Wisconsin plant, according to people familiar with the matter.

The ranks of Republican governors are poised to thin after this year’s midterm elections, and some party strategists are bracing for major Democratic gains even in some of the most conservative states in the country. Voters in 36 states will elect governors on Tuesday, including 26 states where Republicans currently hold the top job. Democrats are defending nine seats, and both sides are fighting over Alaska, where independent Gov. Bill Walker dropped his reelection bid late last month. Virtually all of the most contested races are being fought on Republican turf. Democrats are overwhelmingly likely to pick up governorships in...

House Speaker Paul Ryan pleaded with President Trump in a phone call to tout the booming economy rather than continue attacking the migrant caravan in Mexico in the final days before Tuesday’s midterm elections, according to a report on Monday. The Wisconsin Republican reached out to Trump on Sunday and urged him to change his message but the president said his focus on immigration is firing up his supporters, Politico reported. “Trump has hijacked the election,” a senior House Republican aide told Politico about Trump’s attention on immigration. “This is not what we expected the final weeks of the election...

Stars and Stripes Honor Flight 10th anniversary flight from Milwaukee Last flight for 2018 season