Your Representatives in the News

State Assembly Representative Garey Bies:

Bies, along with Rep. Melissa Sargent, presented a bill to the state legislature that would prohibit employers, universities and landlords from asking for applicants’ social media passwords. The bill would allow employers and the like to look at public postings, but would stop them from being able to ask for passwords to access a person’s private online information. Six states have already passed similar legislation.

Source: The Badger Herald

State Senator Frank Lasee:

Lasee introduced a bill that would grant individuals who have been physically, emotionally or financially harmed by 500-foot industrial wind turbines the right to sue for damages. The bill would allow anyone who can prove they were harmed by 500-foot wind turbines to sue both the owner of the tower as well as the owner of the land the tower is placed on for a variety of damages, including loss of property value, medical expenses, and pain and suffering.

Sources: Press release from Lasee’s office, Green Bay Press-Gazette

Governor Scott Walker:

Walker recently returned from a 10-day trip to China, where he visited Beijing, Tianjin, Harbin and Shanghai. Walker met with provincial governors and representatives from the country’s water and wood sectors, and he also visited Wisconsin businesses operating in China.

Source: The Associated Press

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson

Johnson recently launched a video series called “Victims of Government,” designed to tell the stories of those who have been harmed by government regulations or red tape. The first video, which features an Iowa landowner’s dispute with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has been viewed more than 50,000 times on YouTube. To see the videos, head to Johnson’s website: ronjohnson.senate.gov

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin

Baldwin was recently interviewed by the Washington Blade, where she reflected on her first 100 days as a senator. She also talked at length on a variety of LGBT-related issues, including anti-discriminatory bills that are currently in consideration in the Senate. The full interview can be found at the Blade’s website.

Source: Washington Blade

U.S. Representative Reid Ribble

Ribble’s office is hosting a Wisconsin Job Fair on April 29. The job fair starts at 9 am in the Student Commons of NWTC’s Green Bay Campus, located at 2740 W. Mason St. Registration for the event can be completed online at ribble.house.gov/jobfair.

Source: Reid Ribble’s website

President Barack Obama

Obama said on April 16 that the proposed immigration reform legislation being crafted by the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” is a compromise but contains a number of measures that would significantly modernize the immigration system.

As the bill stands, it includes a route to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. since Dec. 31, 2011, as well as those who have been deported already but can show they have close family members living in the U.S. It also proposes tightened border controls, including the construction of a wall along parts of the Mexican border. The bill also hopes to address the backlog of legal immigration applications.

Source: The Guardian