November 24, 2015

Chicago policeman faces murder charges in shooting of black teen:reports

Source: Reuters

The white Chicago police officer who shot a black teenager in an incident caught on video is expected to be charged with first-degree murder and appear in a bond hearing on Tuesday, city newspapers reported, citing unnamed sources.

Community leaders who met with Mayor Rahm Emanuel said they expected protests on Wednesday, when the city plans to release the video of the October 2014 fatal shooting. It shows Laquan McDonald, 17, being shot 16 times by police officer Jason Van Dyke, who is on administrative duty while state and federal prosecutors investigate.

The Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times both reported the murder charges are expected to be filed on Tuesday against Van Dyke. Citing unnamed sources, the papers said Van Dyke would turn himself in on Tuesday morning and be processed, fingerprinted and charged before his bond hearing at noon CST (1800 GMT).



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/24/us-usa-race-chicago-idUSKBN0TD1TC20151124#8kSB24IEuZct89hj.97

September 10, 2015

U.S. court finds EPA was wrong to approve Dow pesticide harmful to bees

Source: Reuters

A U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday that federal regulators erred in allowing an insecticide developed by Dow AgroSciences onto the market, canceling its approval and giving environmentalists a major victory.

The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, is significant for commercial beekeepers and others who say a dramatic decline in bee colonies needed to pollinate key food crops is tied to widespread use of a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids. Critics say the Environmental Protection Agency is failing to evaluate the risks thoroughly.

The lawsuit was filed in 2013 against the EPA by a number of organizations representing the honey and honey beekeeping industry. The groups specifically challenged EPA approval of insecticides containing sulfoxaflor, saying studies have shown they are highly toxic to honey bees.

The court said in its ruling that sulfoxaflor is a neonicotinoid subclass.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/10/us-epa-agriculture-honeybees-idUSKCN0RA2CQ20150910

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August 29, 2015

Scott Walker Unable to Give Specifics on US Relationship with Pakistan

On MSNBC Published on Aug 28, 2015

August 27, 2015

Walker Stakes His Territory on Foreign Policy

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-08-27/scott-walker-stakes-his-territory-on-foreign-policy

There comes a time in every presidential campaign when the candidate must make his case to voters that he should be trusted to be the commander in chief of the U.S. military and the leader of the free world. That moment is now for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and he is fighting for his own foreign policy identity against rivals like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio.

Walker is ready to roll out his foreign policy in a speech Friday at the Citadel in South Carolina, just a couple of weeks after Bush laid out his plan to defeat the Islamic State. Rubio plans to give his own foreign policy speech in South Carolina on Friday as well, focused on China.

In an interview Tuesday, Walker told me he would be demonstrably different from Bush on foreign policy by scuttling the Iran deal as soon as he took office.

“My view is, if you think it’s a bad deal now, you should be prepared to do it on Day One," he said. "I’m going to be a Day One president."

August 25, 2015

Bernie Takes on the Media

Published on Aug 17, 2015

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders takes questions from the press after speaking to 2,000 people in Dubuque, Iowa.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=147&v=bGv2SPB8pNU

August 22, 2015

Scott Walker’s chief of staff quits amid plummeting poll numbers

Source: Wisconsin Gazette

Scott Walker’s longtime chief of staff Eric Schutt is stepping down, the governor’s office announced.

Schutt is leaving “to pursue other opportunities and to spend more time with family,” Walker’s office said in a statement. It did not say what those opportunities are.

Walker’s campaign has suffered from declining poll numbers, a weak performance in the first GOP presidential debate, ongoing scandals, and growing national awareness of his economic failures as governor. A recent Marquette University Law School poll found Walker losing to Hillary Clinton among Wisconsin voters in a theoretical matchup. The poll also showed Walker’s favorability rating falling below 40 percent for the first time. Schutt played a key role in helping pass Walker’s three state budgets and his legislation repealing collective bargaining for most public employees.

Schutt’s replacement effective Sept. 4 will be Rich Zipperer, who had been deputy chief of staff since 2012.

Read more: http://www.wisconsingazette.com/political/scott-walkers-chief-of-staff-quits-amid-plummeting-poll-numbers.html

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August 5, 2015

Special prosecutor asks Wisconsin Supreme Court to reconsider Walker decision

Source: FOX6NOW

MADISON — A special prosecutor has asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to reconsider its decision ending an investigation into Gov. Scott Walker’s recall campaign.

Online court records show Francis Schmitz filed a motion Tuesday with the court to reconsider its decision from last month and put the ruling on hold in the meantime.

Part of the court’s decision ordered Schmitz to destroy evidence he had collected during the investigation.

Read more: http://fox6now.com/2015/08/05/special-prosecutor-asks-wisconsin-supreme-court-to-reconsider-walker-decision/

July 30, 2015

Records tie Walker's office to bill gutting open records law

Source: WTMJ4 (AP)

By Associated Press. CREATED 10:20 AM

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Newly released documents show Gov. Scott Walker's office was involved in drafting a state budget amendment that would have overhauled Wisconsin's open records law and kept some government materials secret.

Walker, who is seeking the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, has acknowledged his office played a role in developing the proposal but, in the wake of fierce bipartisan backlash, called it a "huge mistake." Documents released to a number of media outlets, including the Wisconsin State Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, show Walker's assistant legal counsel, David Rabe, was involved in drafting the amendment weeks before the Legislature's budget committee approved it.

A June 15 email from the Legislative Reference Bureau's Michael Gallagher to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos aide Andrew Hanus began with the subject line "Governor's request." Gallagher wrote in the email that he was in communication with Rabe about Walker's request to draft the amendment.

The next day, the reference bureau emailed draft amendment language that would have exempted legislative drafting documents and notes, personal property and other materials from the open records law, including so-called "deliberative process" materials, communications that include opinions, analyses, briefings, recommendations, suggestions and drafts related to bills.

Read more: http://www.scrippsmedia.com/tmj4/news/Records-tie-Walkers-office-to-bill-gutting-open-records-law-320025581.html

July 27, 2015

No need for EPA eyes on pollution, Scott Walker tells newspaper

Source: Wisconsin State Journal

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wants to all but eliminate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and place each state in sole charge of controlling air and water pollution within its borders if he is elected president, he told a conservative newspaper.

"I'm all for a sustainable environment, but you have to balance it with a sustainable economy, and I think in our state we've shown you can do that hand-in-hand," Walker told the Washington Examiner in an article published Monday. "I think states can do it all across America much better than the federal government."

Reaction was swift from critics of Walker's environmental record who said without the EPA there would be a "race to the bottom" among politicians in states competing for business investment and no safeguards in one state against pollution flowing through the air or water to another state.

"You don’t need a college degree to know that air and water pollution do not respect state boundaries," said Daniel J. Weiss, a League of Conservation Voters spokesman in Washington. "Wisconsin would be virtually helpless to protect its citizens from pollution from other states."



Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/local/environment/scott-walker-would-virtually-eliminate-epa-as-president-report/article_1b837577-6ffe-5fa4-8b6c-2561990ef91f.html

July 17, 2015

Back To The Future with Scott Walker

Published on Jul 16, 2015

If you want to catch a glimpse of what America would look like under President Scott Walker, you need to turn back the clock to one of the darkest periods in 20th century American history – the Lochner Era. Here’s a little history lesson just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about. Tune in...