Free Republic

MILWAUKEE, Wisc. — The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously ruled that a Wisconsin school district must allow a girl who identifies as a boy to use the boys’ restroom, concluding that the prohibition would likely cause “irreparable harm.” “A transgender student’s presence in the restroom provides no more of a risk to other students’ privacy rights than the presence of an overly curious student of the same biological sex who decides to sneak glances at his or her classmates,” Judge Ann Claire Williams, nominated to the bench by then-President Bill Clinton, wrote on behalf of the three-judge, all-female...

A federal appeals court Tuesday issued a decision that could have far-reaching implications for transgender students, siding with a transgender boy whose Wisconsin school district had sought to bar him from the boys’ bathroom to protect the privacy of other students. High school senior Ash Whitaker sued Kenosha Unified School District No. 1 last summer, arguing that its bathroom policy violated his civil rights. In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction that temporarily stops the district from enforcing that policy while the case is tried.

The Obama administration knowingly let in at least 16 admitted MS-13 gang members who arrived at the U.S. as illegal immigrant teenagers in 2014, a top senator said Wednesday, citing internal documents that showed the teens were shipped to juvenile homes throughout the country. Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said a whistleblower turned over Customs and Border Protection documents from 2014 detailing the 16 persons who were caught crossing the border. “CBP apprehended them, knew they were MS-13 gang members, and they processed and disbursed them into our communities,” Mr. Johnson, Wisconsin Republican, said. The...

Bill would create 500,000 new visas, include path to citizenship, and be open to current aliens A bill introduced this month by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) would increase foreign guest workers by up to 500,000 a year and offer a back-door amnesty for illegal immigrants. The legislation, the State Sponsored Visa Pilot Program Act of 2017, has attracted support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the libertarian-oriented Cato Institute. “We pretty strongly oppose it. It’s an indefinite renewable visa. In our eyes, that’s a permanent worker.” The bill would represent a massive increase in the number of non-immigrant visas...

It's going to take much more money to keep Chicago's schools open through June than previously revealed, top Emanuel budget aide Carole Brown says. The Chicago Public Schools actually need $596 million to keep schools open the rest of the school year, and not just the $129 million officials have publicly discussed, a top aide to Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday. ... Brown said all options are on the table to find the cash needed to stave off an early closing of schools that CPS CEO Forrest Claypool has warned might be needed but that Emanuel has ruled out to...

Anti-racism became racism a while back. But most lefties aren't as open in discussing the implications of that. 

--(snip)"In Wisconsin, we experienced more than 600 gun deaths in 2015 alone, and nearly 70% of those gun deaths were gun suicides like my mom. Southeastern Wisconsin, particularly Milwaukee, has experienced a deadly amount of gun violence that claimed the lives of 250 people from 2015 to 2016, according to the Journal Sentinel. These aren’t just statistics, these numbers represent the pain that nearly 600 families have endured, families that now join the loneliest club. When you see these numbers and then you meet the families behind the statistics, you understand that the deadly epidemic of gun violence is more...

A University of Winsonsin-Madison student leader, who describes herself as “woke”, has sent out an open letter to a campus community saying “all white people are racist” and urged minorities to stop attending the university. In the letter the outgoing chair of the university’s student council, Carmen Goséy, slammed the institution, claiming its institutionalized racism and racist campus culture destroyed the sense of hope for minority students. She urged them to rethink their affiliation, The Daily Cardinal Reported.

Peg Orcutt, a resident of Madison, Wisc., painted a dismal, black-and-blue horizon entitled “The Sky Is Falling.” Orcutt is selling her portrait, which depicts her “dismay over the results of the 2016 presidential election and my concern for the future of the country” for $2,000. A third painting shows a seemingly pregnant woman sexually penetrated with an oil pipeline, reported MacIver Institute.

A new bill has just passed the NC House that would allow North Carolina drivers to legally hit protesters who are blocking the road without being sued, as long as they “exercise due care.” North Carolina House Bill 330 was passed by a 67-48 vote. It was introduced by Republican Justin Burr and “provides that a person driving an automobile while exercising due care is immune for civil liability for any injury to another if the injured person was participating in a demonstration or protest and blocking traffic.” “As we’ve seen, time and time again, as folks run out in...

An inquest jury Monday issued an advisory verdict that probable cause of a crime exists in the death of Terrill Thomas in the Milwaukee County Jail a year ago. The jury found probable cause of a crime in the actions of seven jail officials under a felony statute prohibiting abuse, neglect and ill-treatment of inmates. Now it will be up to District Attorney John Chisholm to decide if any criminal charges are warranted in the April 2016 death of Thomas, a 38-year-old with bipolar disorder who was deprived of water and a mattress during seven straight days at the Milwaukee...

House Speaker Paul Ryan’s new 2017 budget allows the Department of Homeland Security to import at least 20,000 extra foreign blue-collar workers for seasonal jobs in the Untied States, instead of requiring companies to recruit, train and pay marginalized Americans.

The student government of the University of Wisconsin-Madison unanimously passed a divestment resolution targeting companies operating in many countries that included an amendment specifically about Israel, JTA reported Thursday. The resolution, which passed Wednesday by the Associated Students of Madison by a 24-0 vote with two abstentions, calls on the university and its foundation to divest from companies involved in private prisons, arms manufacture, fossil fuels and border walls, and banks that “oppress marginalized communities.” The vote comes a month after a divestment resolution specifically targeting Israel failed to pass the student government and two weeks after the student government...

Gone are the days when saying something that hurts another’s feelings is a bias incident. Now just looking at someone funny can get you reported to the campus Thought Police. It happened at the University of Wisconsin Madison, where an unnamed “white, female student” was reported to the university’s bias incident reporting system. Her crime? Glaring at two female peers.

Wisconsin’s highways are seriously underfunded. According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Transportation Fund Solvency report, spending only the $28 billion projected to be available over the next decade will lead to double the number of highway miles in “poor” condition — and will preclude even planning any highway expansions for nearly 40 years. Borrowing enough to spend $31 billion would slightly reduce the amount of “poor” highway miles but still would preclude planning any highway expansions until 2040. But a second WisDOT report offers a way out. Extensive research done last year for the DOT by the consulting firm...

<p>Canada says it’s being wrongly blamed for a decision by a major dairy processor that could put some Wisconsin farms out of business in less than three weeks.</p> <p>At issue are changes in Canadian policy that make it harder for U.S. dairy processors — such as Grassland Dairy Products of Greenwood — to sell ultra-filtered milk, used to make cheese, in Canada.</p>

House Speaker Paul Ryan’s approval rating has sunk to a low of 29 percent, lower than President Trump’s and lower than those of John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich at the same point during their first full terms as speaker. And Ryan’s disapproval rating is at 54 percent. However, he is more popular among his own constituents. A March survey found 49 percent of voters in Wisconsin’s first congressional district had a favorable view of Ryan, while 44 percent had an unfavorable view. Now the Republican who challenged Ryan for his congressional seat in last year’s primary has a theory as...

The H1-B visa program, which is used by tech companies to bring in high-skilled workers, will see a bit of an overhaul on Tuesday when the President issues a new executive order. The President will sign the executive order at a manufacturing plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which reportedly will make it far more difficult for U.S. employers to “look overseas for workers to fill middle-income jobs”.

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order in Wisconsin on Tuesday directing a government-wide review aimed at putting new teeth back into decades-old “Buy American” and “Hire American” directives. The 220-day review process, which could lead to additional executive orders and possibly legislation, will focus on preventing foreign workers with H-1B visas from, as one senior administration official put it, “undercutting American labor at less cost,” which the official labeled as “an abuse” of the current system. “This is a clear statement from the president of the United States to shore up some of these abuses,” the official continued....

RACINE — The widow of a Racine delivery driver James Norris, who was gunned down on Racine’s north side in March 2016, is calling for a ban on hollow-point bullets that reportedly contributed to his death. “The guy bought the ammunition from Walmart that killed him,” Stacy Blevins said. “You don’t buy hollow-point bullets unless you meant to kill him.” According to Racine Police, Norris was shot to death March 25, 2016, in the 3900 block of Green Street. He was found in the street next to his car door at an apartment complex where he had just delivered food...