The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a Tea Party challenge to proposed election spending disclosure rules. While billed as a case involving free speech and a possible response to the post-Citizens United campaign landscape, the outcome may be decided on more mundane grounds of whether the state elections board acted within its statutory authority.
As President Obama gets ready for his big jobs speech Thursday, America's nurses have a message for him. "Heal America, Tax Wall Street!" the signs read as nurses rallied in front of 61 Congressional offices this week. The nurses are proposing a bold alternative to the "cut, cut, cut" rhetoric emanating from Washington, D.C.
Their proposal? "It's time for the Wall Street financiers who created this crisis and continue to hold much of the nation's wealth to start contributing to rebuild this country and for the American people to regain their future," explained Rosanne DeMoro, Executive Director of National Nurses Union (NNU), in a press release. The nurses are joining groups across the nation and around the world who are calling for a financial transaction fee on high-volume, high-speed Wall Street trades, to tamp down dangerous speculation and to raise revenue for heath care, jobs and other critical needs.
Embattled Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser has unexpectedly announced he will recuse himself from an upcoming case involving a Tea Party challenge to proposed election disclosure rules. Prosser was asked to step down on conflict-of-interest grounds because his campaign attorney, James Troupis, is also the attorney for the Tea Party groups; for weeks, Prosser had insisted on his impartiality.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman's allegation that Justice Ann Walsh Bradley smacked him upside the head in 2008 is being disputed by three Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices. Gableman made the allegation to Dane County sheriff's deputies investigating the June 13 "choking" incident between Justices David Prosser and Bradley.
As CMD has reported, sheriff's deputies questioned all seven state Supreme Court Justices about a June 13, 2011 altercation between Prosser and Bradley that took place just before the court released its decision on Governor Walker's collective bargaining law.The investigation was initiated based on Justice Bradley's concerns about workplace safety and officers questioned each of the justices on the topic.
Cuentamé has released a new video documenting the labor abuses and exploitative conditions faced by workers in the $23 billion carwash industry, many of whom the group says are Latino and immigrant workers. The video accompanies a campaign by the Community-Labor-Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) to improve working standards for carwash workers in Los Angeles.
The Sheriff's report on the investigation into Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser allegedly "choking" Justice Ann Walsh Bradley in June not only describes a dysfunctional work environment, but also provides new details about the process leading to the court's decision on Governor Walker's contentious collective bargaining bill.
As CMD has reported, last week the Dane County Sheriff's office released the report of its investigation into Justice Prosser placing his hands on Justice Bradley's neck the evening before the court issued its controversial 4-3 opinion upholding Governor Walker's contentious collective bargaining bill. That report describes Prosser's role in creating the situation leading to the dispute by issuing a lengthy concurrence, without notice, after the court's liberal minority had drafted their dissenting opinion.
Statements made by Wisconsin's seven Supreme Court Justices to Dane County sheriff's deputies investigating Justice David Prosser allegedly "choking" fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley on June 13 describe a dysfunctional court and hostile work environment.
Across the country on September 1, nurses will converge on local congressional offices to demand a tax on Wall Street financial speculation, a move they say is a step towards healing the nation, trimming the deficit, and preserving social programs.
National Nurses United (NNU) is planning a day of action in over 60 congressional offices in 21 states. In Wisconsin, the group is sponsoring a soup kitchen outside of Rep. Paul Ryan's Janesville office "to provide residents with the sustenance they are not getting from Paul Ryan," says NNU spokesman Charles Idelson.
After trying to have children, but finding themselves unable, Madison, Wisconsin resident Chris Bering and his wife were hoping to adopt. But then Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker proposed a radical overhaul of public employee collective bargaining rights. Although the battle over the Walker proposal took place in the depths of winter, August 25th marked the first day that the payroll changes took effect for Wisconsin workers. The cutbacks will force public workers to change their daily spending habits and for many -- their vision of their future. As a public employee, Bering has estimated the family will see about a $400 decrease per month. The cuts mean that he and his wife are now unsure whether they can financially support a child and their dream of adoption may be put on hold.
Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan's focus on cutting federal social programs apparently leaves little time to deal with the unemployed in his district, according to constituents who have been staging a sit-in at his Kenosha, Wisconsin office since last week, and who were barred from Ryan's office by police on Wednesday.
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