UpNorthNews Supreme Court Panel Discussion on Education

TROLLIN’ TROLLIN’ TROLLIN’ – 📱 If it’s the weekend, a Wisconsin congressman is likely spending lots of time on a tiny keyboard. US Rep. Derrick Van Orden has almost made a second career out of social media trolling. The 3rd District Republican from Prairie du Chien frequently hurls insults at political opponents, constituents, and those who make critical comments about his job performance.

But Dan Shafer, Civic Media’s political editor and founder of The Recombobulation Area, says it’s important to note that the congressman doesn’t have much else to talk about, given that he’s in his third term and hasn’t passed a single bill into law.

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⁉️ WHAT DID I JUST VOTE ON? – There’s understandably some blowback to the bill House Republicans passed recently that makes massive cuts to important programs, but who expected it would come from GOP lawmakers who voted for it and now say they didn’t know what was in it?

A Nebraska congressman admitted not knowing the budget bill includes language that would make it harder for judges to hold people in contempt of court, a provision helpful to President Donald Trump. And Georgia US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she wouldn’t have voted for the bill had she known it would limit states from regulating artificial intelligence (AI) to protect people from misuse and harm.

US Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Black Earth) visited our daily radio show to say his Republican colleagues should have known better—and this might explain why so many of them aren’t holding public events.

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Wisconsin Democrats introduced bills in the state Legislature meant to show how it could avoid some of the massive, possibly illegal cuts President Donald Trump is making to federal funding.

Some of what Trump is doing is known as impoundment, a trick President Richard Nixon tried in 1974, where a president claws back federal money that was already allocated by Congress, either in the current budget or a past one. Courts made clear that Congress has the power of the purse and presidents cannot act unilaterally to undo their work.

One of the bills’ sponsors, State Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee), said on our radio show that Democrats want the state to withhold payments to the federal government if needed to offset attempts at federal cuts.

Another bill in the package would limit how the state shares sensitive personal data with the federal government, to ensure it’s done through a legal request.