To the editor:
Wisconsin’s pro-life advocates need to be contacting their legislators in the immediate future as the 2016 Legislative Floor Session will end the last part of February according to news reports.
Since September, Assembly Bill 305 — the Baby Body Parts Bill — has been languishing in the Assembly Rules Committee chaired by Representative Jim Steineke.
Speakers at the ninth biennial Catholics at the Capitol legislative conference urged Catholics to put their faith into action in the public arena.
Wisconsin is a great state! I was born and raised in Wisconsin, and I enjoy living and working in our state.
Despite some very cold temperatures and heavy snowfalls, unlike some people I know, I’m not eager to spend months in other warmer states. I actually enjoy the change of seasons and the natural beauty of Wisconsin.
In 2014, it was no surprise that Madison was named number one out of the Top 100 Best Places to Live on Livibility’s annual ranking.
When the Wisconsin Catholic Conference (WCC) staff talks to groups around the state, we emphasize that faithful citizenship is a 12-month obligation.
During the latter part of March, Catholics and others who want to be heard on how and where the state should spend our money will have a chance to do so.
They can show up at one of four hearings on the 2015 budget bill. The hearings, conducted by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance, will take place over a two-week period beginning on Monday, March 23, and concluding on Friday, April 3.
Wisconsin’s laws make for some pretty dull reading. Most laws consist of technical prose defining eligibility for programs and drawing lines between legal and illegal conduct.
But some laws serve a different purpose. Some declare a policy vision for our state or define the scope and mission of what our government should do.
It is in these sections of the statutes that prose becomes poetry. It is there that we Wisconsinites define who we are and what we want our state to be.
The Wisconsin Catholic Conference (WCC) joined other pro-life groups in voicing support for a bill before the Wisconsin Legislature to impose a civil penalty on doctors who knowingly perform sex-selective abortions.
Assembly Bill 217 (authored by Rep. Steve Kestell, R-Elkhart Lake) received a public hearing on May 29 before the state Assembly Committee on Health.
A sex-selective abortion is an abortion that is performed when the parent or parents of the unborn child abort because the baby is not of the desired sex. Most of the time, unborn girls are aborted because the parents wanted to have a son.
Carlo Gaetano Samuele Mazzuchelli was born on November 4, 1806 in Milan, Italy. He died in 1864 as pastor of St. Patrick’s, Benton. Years later, as pastor of St. Patrick’s, I walked the parish grounds, presided at Mass, and visited his rectory and grave. My knowledge and admiration of him deepened. He certainly is an inspiration in this Year of Faith.
Wisconsin’s public policy makers have increasingly focused on education reform. They do so for good reason.
Significant improvement in our education system could help alleviate many of the problems currently plaguing our state, such as skilled labor shortages and the high cost of incarceration. With “Catholic Schools Week” upon us, it’s fitting to reflect upon the Church’s approach to education reform and the unique role Catholic schools play in our community.
A year ago, the first thing the newly elected Legislature did was to adopt its scheduling resolution for the 2011-12 legislative session.
This resolution defined the floor periods during which the Legislature would meet to debate and pass legislation. In so doing, the legislators determined that they would convene for three “general business” floor periods between January 17 and March 15 in 2012, the last day of regular business for the year.
When they adopted that resolution, our lawmakers had no way of knowing that their session schedule would mesh with Wisconsin’s first ever recall of a governor and recalls of several state senators. But that is what appears will happen and it will affect what lawmaking takes place in these final floor periods.
Now that the governor has presented his state budget to the Legislature, fiscal issues and spending priorities will dominate the legislative agenda for the next several months.
First, the Joint Committee on Finance will hold hearings on the proposals. Then some of the standing committees may hold “subject matter” hearings on aspects of the budget related to their areas of expertise.
