Free Republic

The Green Bay Packers asked fans to link arms during the national anthem at Thursday night’s game against the Chicago Bears to show “unity.” If the footage from the song’s performance is any indication, fans largely ignored that request. Quarterback Aaron Rogers even made a personal request, saying “we’ve got to come together and talk about these things and grow as a community, as a connected group of individuals in our society, and we’re going to continue to show love and unity, and this week we’re going to ask the fans to join in as well and come together and...

Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers insisted throughout the week that he wouldn’t be thinking about anything that had happened in past games with the Seattle Seahawks as the two teams prepared for a rematch. But after the Packers beat the Seahawks 27-17 in Green Bay Sunday night, Rodgers made a comment that appeared to show some of the history with the Seahawks was on his mind. Specifically, comments Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson made after the NFC Championship game crediting the Seahawks’ comeback to God. Asked after the game a question about the Packers have been able to create and deal...

On May 5, two firefighters with concealed carry permits stopped a man allegedly attempting to shoot kids and firemen at the fire station. According to Fox Carolina, “Children and firefighters” were in the station parking lot when, at about 6:30 p.m. at New Holland, Wisconsin’s Fire Station 2, Chad Barker allegedly pulled up, got out of his car, and opened fire. He allegedly fired in the air and at his own vehicle and “pointed the firearm at individual firefighters for lengthy periods of time.”

Cheese lovers rejoice: Recently discovered 40-year-old cheddar to be sold When Edward Zahn decided in May to close his cheese shop in Oconto, he made a discovery that is going to drive cheese lovers more bonkers than the 15-year-old cheddar released by Hook's Cheese in Mineral Point in 2009. In the back of his walk-in cooler, Zahn, 73, found several wooden boxes of cheddar cheese from the now-closed County Line Cheese in Oconto that over the years had repeatedly been buried by incoming cheese products. The result is 40-year-old cheddar that makes up part of what is likely the oldest...

(Will new requirement for driver's licenses create unsafe roads and second-class citizens?) Laws requiring motorists to prove they are in the country legally to get a driver's license will force immigrant workers further underground, make roads more dangerous and inconvenience all drivers, local workers' rights advocates say.A state law goes into effect April 1, requiring proof of legal presence in the United States before a driver's license or state ID card is issued. The new law will put Wisconsin in compliance with the federal REAL ID law, which requires states to adopt a legal presence requirement by May 2008. Civil...

<p>FOND DU LAC, Wis. — Rick Lisko hunts deer with a bow, but got his most unusual one driving his truck down his mile-long driveway.</p> <p>The young buck had nub antlers — and seven legs. Lisko said it also had both male and female reproductive organs.</p>

Wisconsin, which proudly calls itself "America's Dairyland" and embraces all things cheese as a whey of life, is not yet ready to become a second-rate cheese power. California is poised to take over the crown or the cheesehead? as the nation's top cheese producer as early as next year, but Wisconsin cheese lovers say quality is more important than quantity. "We still have the best cheese," says Mary Deheck, a suburban Milwaukee resident who often makes a special trip to this central Wisconsin cheese mecca to stock up. She buys 100 pounds of cheese per year, typically colby or cheddar,...

osa grocery store clerk charged in stadium hoax threat Man, 20, posted "targets" on the Internet Associated Press Posted: Oct. 20, 2006 Newark, NJ - A Wisconsin grocery store clerk described as artsy and quiet surrendered Friday on charges in an Internet hoax threatening a ''dirty bomb'' plot against U.S. football stadiums, federal authorities said. Advertisement Jake J. Brahm, of Wauwatosa, admitted that between September and Wednesday he had posted the same threat about 40 times on various Web sites, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said. Brahm surrendered to the U.S. Marshal's Service on Friday morning and was scheduled to appear...

I WAS watching the DVD of a favorite movie, "The Late Show," over the weekend and heard something that startled me. The 1977 movie was produced by Robert Altman and written and directed by Robert Benton. It stars Lily Tomlin and the late Art Carney, who plays an old, cranky private detective named Ira Wells. It's a funny, bittersweet mystery, a lovely film. It earned Benton a best original screenplay Oscar nomination. He mined the same territory two decades later, writing and directing "Twilight," with Paul Newman as the aging private eye. It's just a shade less satisfying than "The...

Green Bay, WI - Like a pot of bratwurst left unattended at a Lambeau Field pregame party, simmering tensions in the strife-torn Midwest boiled over once again today as rioting mobs of green-and-gold clad youth and plump farm wives rampaged through Wisconsin Denny’s and IHOPs, burning Texas toast and demanding apologies and extra half-and-half.The spark igniting the latest tailgate hibachi of unrest: a Texas newsletter's publication of caricatures of legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi.Protestors demonstrated against the images throughout the Badger State yesterday, with violent egging and cow-tipping incidents reported in Oconomowac, Pewaukee, Sheboygan, Ozaukee, Antigo, Oshkosh, Waubeno,...

MADISON, Wis. - Across the country, the National Association of Realtors and the 6 percent commission that most of its members charge to sell a house are under assault by government officials, consumer advocates, lawyers and ambitious entrepreneurs. But the most effective challenge so far emanates from a spare bedroom in the modest home here of Christie Miller. Ms. Miller, 38, a former social worker who favors fuzzy slippers, and her cousin, Mary Clare Murphy, 51, operate what real estate professionals believe to be the largest for-sale-by-owner Web site in the country. They have turned Madison, a city of 208,000...

A Wisconsin school that had secularized the lyrics of the beloved Christmas carol "Silent Night" has now agreed to change the words back to the original after receiving countless phone calls and e-mails about the issue. Liberty Counsel, the law firm working on behalf of parents upset about the secularization of the carol, says it was both public pressure and two letters attorneys sent to the school that prompted the change. According to a statement from the organization, Debra Messer, administrator of the Dodgeville School District confirmed that "'Silent Night' will be sung. 'Cold in the Night' will not be...

MADISON, Wis., Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Wisconsin legislators are promoting a plan to create a spaceport in the country's top cheese-making state. The proposal would set up a nine-member Wisconsin Aerospace Authority to promote the state among private entrepreneurs planning to go extraterrestrial, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. Sheboygan would be the state's Houston, allowing failed rockets to fall into Lake Michigan. Bob Cook, head of the Wisconsin Transportation Development Association, thinks the plan has some lift. "As long as there's not much state money involved, I think it makes sense," Cook said. "There's an industry out there that's growing...

MILWAUKEE, May 11 (UPI) -- The Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled a man forced by police to drink liquid laxative to expel a swallowed bag of heroin was unreasonably searched. The decision reverses a trial-court ruling that found police and medical personnel at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Wauwatosa acted solely out of concern for the health of Tomas R. Payano-Roman, 35, when they forced him to drink six cups of liquid laxative while handcuffed to a bed and made him defecate into a portable toilet as they looked on, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The appeals court found police...

OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) It's a choice that could give pause to some Green Bay Packers fans. A judge ordered an Appleton woman convicted of theft to decide whether to spend 90 days in jail or donate her family's Packers tickets next season to charity. Sharon E. Rosenthal, 59, of Appleton, took more than $3,000 from labor union accounts before she left the organization, according to a criminal complaint. She was sentenced Friday in Winnebago County Circuit Court on one felony count of theft. Judge Scott Woldt offered her the decision to either serve the jail time or donate her family's...

STEVENS POINT, Wis. (AP) Despite defeating a proposed smoking ban at city restaurants and bars, a group of businesses is continuing its suit against a college professor for offering extra credit to students who helped promote the ban. University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point professor John Munson sent an e-mail from his university account in November to students urging them to patronize non-smoking establishments and collect signatures to put an anti-smoking referendum on the ballot. In exchange, he wrote, the students would get up to 1,500 extra credit points. Although the referendum lost at the polls by 1,000 votes on April 5,...

WHITEWATER - At the off-campus house Johnny Lechner shares with three other UW- Whitewater students, the stairway to his attic bedroom is lined with photos dating back to his freshman year. Lechner has lost track of many of the buddies that posed with him at these long- ago fraternity parties and Homecoming parades. They have moved on to new lives - careers, wives, children, mortgages - and that's just not Lechner's scene. "I could have - should have - graduated many years ago, but I keep passing on the real world's invitation," said Lechner, 28, who is in his 11th...

Flag shouldn't be lowered for pope, group says By Matt Pommer April 6, 2005 An anti-religion group is denouncing Gov. Jim Doyle's executive order to lower flags to mark the death of Pope John Paul II. Doyle's directive appears like "an endorsement of Roman Catholicism over other religious viewpoints," according to the Freedom From Religion Foundation. On Saturday, the governor praised the pope as both an inspiration spiritual leader and a man who has made "a significant impact on social justice." Doyle cited the pope's fight against communism, his opening of dialogue with other faiths, and his fight for peace...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The state Ethics Board is investigating tavern industry lobbyists for charging Wisconsin lawmakers $5 for unlimited beer the night a senator was arrested for drunken driving. State Sen. Russ Decker was pulled over in a Madison suburb about three hours after he and other lawmakers were charged the $5 for food and beer at the Tavern League of Wisconsin's event, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at a downtown hotel. Roth Judd, director of the state Ethics Board, said he launched the investigation to see whether the event complied with state laws on lobbying. Lawmakers...

Official Viewed 24,000 Explicit Web Sites At Office POSTED: 12:20 pm CST March 27, 2005 FOND DU LAC, Wis. -- A City of Fond du Lac official being investigated for allegedly viewing pornography on his office computer, viewed some 24,000 explicit sites, some featuring children younger than 10-years-old. A closed session for council members revealed the information last week. Council member Michael Schmal said a review of two years of files showed the employee had visited the sites for about four to six hours a day from 2003 to 2004. Schmal said one of the sites he reviewed was voyeuristic...