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What all the buzz is about Bees approach new blossoms under sunny skies Wednesday in Roswell, N.M.
AP photo
MADISON, Wis.
Anti-union proposal passed
Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate voted Wednesday night to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers after discovering a way to bypass the chamber’s missing Democrats.
Senate Democrats fled the state nearly three weeks ago to block a vote on Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s plan. The leader of Democrats in the Wisconsin Senate says his caucus will return to the state today.
The state Assembly is scheduled to take up the measure this morning. That’s the last step before it can go to Walker for his signature.
All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Walker’s so-called “budget repair bill” — a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall.
The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. But Republicans on Wednesday split the proposal to curtail union rights, which spends no money, from the legislation, and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved the bill a short time later.
The lone Democrat present on the conference committee, Rep. Peter Barca, shouted that the surprise meeting was a violation of the state’s open meetings law but Republicans voted over his objections. The Senate convened within minutes and passed the measure without discussion or debate.
CAPE CANAVAVERAL, Fla.
Discovery’s journey ends
Discovery ended its career as the world’s most flown spaceship Wednesday, returning from orbit for the last time and taking off in a new direction as a museum piece.
After a flawless trip to the International Space Station, NASA’s oldest shuttle swooped through a few wispy clouds on its way to its final touchdown.
When it landed three minutes before noon EST, Discovery ceased being a reusable rocketship.
Discovery now leads the way to retirement as NASA winds down the 30-year shuttle program in favor of interplanetary travel.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill.
Law abolishes death penalty
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday signed into law a historic ban on the death penalty in Illinois and commuted the sentences of 15 death row inmates to life without parole.
The ban comes about 11 years after then-Gov. George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions after 13 condemned inmates were cleared since Illinois reinstated capital punishment in 1977.
Ryan, a Republican, cited a Chicago Tribune investigative series that examined each of the state’s nearly 300 capital cases and exposed how bias, error and incompetence undermined many of them.
The death penalty ban would take effect July 1.
WASHINGTON
Journalist Broder dies at 81
David Broder, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post political reporter and columnist whose even-handed treatment of Democrats and Republicans set him apart from the ideological warriors on the nation’s op-ed pages, died Wednesday.
He was 81.
Broder died of complications from diabetes, Post officials said.
For decades, Broder set the standard for political coverage by seeing trends ahead of his competitors and by explaining how shifts in voters’ moods and concerns forced politicians to adapt nimbly or falter.
Long after he was famous he did tiring, shoe-leather reporting, including knocking on doors in bellwether precincts to discern voters’ attitudes.
Broder was familiar to television viewers as a panelist on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. He appeared on the program more than 400 times.