Morning Headlines - Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022 | Recent News

U.S. and World Headlines

For One Day, The Nation Stood Still

It was a day when people stood still - on the streets and in their homes - to witness Queen Elizabeth II's final journey.

Royals and world leaders were inside Westminster Abbey. But outside there were many more, ordinary mourners lining the streets of central London. And further beyond - in living rooms and parks, in pubs, cinemas and town squares - the British public marked the first state funeral for nearly six decades in millions of individual ways.

In Doncaster, Alistair Mitchell brought afternoon tea and sandwiches for his mother, who had not been able to make the journey to London. At the Curzon cinema in Sheffield, there were no pre-show trailers, or the sound of rustling popcorn - just an audience dressed mostly in black as they watched the ceremony. Blackpool's illuminations were switched off.

Britain's Truss Doesn't Expect UK-US Trade Deal Anytime Soon

Prime Minister Liz Truss has kicked off her first visit to the United States as Britain’s leader with an admission that a U.K-U.S. free trade deal is not going to happen for years.

Truss said a trans-Atlantic deal is not one of her priorities — a sharp contrast with the stance of her immediate predecessors as Conservative prime minister, Boris Johnson and Theresa May. Both dangled the promise of a deal with the world’s biggest economy as one of the main prizes of Britain’s exit from the European Union.

“There (aren’t) currently any negotiations taking place with the U.S., and I don’t have an expectation that those are going to start in the short to medium term,” Truss told reporters aboard her plane to New York, where she landed Tuesday to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

More Than 1,600 Books Banned During 2021-22 School Year, Report Finds

More than 1,600 books were banned in over 5,000 schools during the last school year, with most of the bans targeting titles related to the LGBTQ community or race and racism, according to a new report.

PEN America, a nonprofit group that advocates for free expression in literature, released a report Monday, the start of Banned Books Week, that shows the sweeping scope of efforts to ban certain books during the 2021-22 school year.

It found that there were 2,532 instances of individual books’ being banned, which affected 1,648 titles — meaning the same titles were targeted multiple times in different districts and states.

Fetterman Campaign Walks Back Apparent Call To 'Free' Every Convicted Second-Degree Murderer

The campaign of Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman is walking back comments he made last year that appeared to call for the release of all second-degree murderers from Pennsylvania’s prisons.

Fetterman, the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor who chairs the state's Board of Pardons (BOP), commissioned two reports last year released by Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity (PLSE) that recommended the BOP consider merit-based clemency for currently incarcerated second-degree murderers, as well as for the state legislature to reform the law that mandates life sentences without parole for second-degree murder convictions.

Fetterman said at the time that he commissioned the reports in a call for "mercy for the deserving and rehabilitated."

New Evidence Shows GOP’s Trump Problem May Be Getting Worse

Republicans are growing more concerned that President Trump could be a drag — and not a help — in tight midterm races that will determine the majorities in the House and Senate.

Trump remains overwhelmingly popular among Republican voters, but he’s just as unpopular with Democrats, and there is a growing body of evidence that he is losing more support from independent swing voters as he grapples with a slew of investigations.

A new NBC News poll released Sunday found just 34 percent of registered voters said they have a positive view of Trump, compared to 54 percent who said they have a negative view of him. That’s the lowest Trump has polled in NBC’s survey since April 2021.

Why Is Wisconsin So Divided? NBC's Chuck Todd Looks At The Polarization In Politics

Fall is in the air and NBC's Chuck Todd is on the ground in Wisconsin.

"I'm actually here because we are doing a story about polarization in our politics. The thesis is patient zero seems to be the state of Wisconsin," said Todd.

It's not just the fallout from the last two presidential races in Wisconsin when Donald Trump narrowly won in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.

Todd is looking back at the 2010 epic battle between newly elected Republican Governor Scott Walker and Democrats that brought tens of thousands of protesters to the state Capitol.

Wisconsin Governor Challenged To Stop All Inmate Paroles

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels called Monday on Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers to halt all paroles in the state, even though a governor can't unilaterally order them to stop and some paroles are mandated by law.

Michels has been hitting Evers as being soft on crime, accusing the Democrat in a letter Monday of sympathizing with and coddling “brutal, convicted criminals.” Evers' spokesperson Britt Cudaback said it would be illegal to do as Michels wants and called the request “an uninformed stunt to score political points by someone who has no regard or appreciation for the laws of our state.”

Bayfield County To Map Artesian Wells Following Proposal To Bottle And Sell Water There

Bayfield County residents will soon have access to a map of the county's artesian wells, following a controversial proposal to bottle and sell water from a well near Lake Superior.

The water startup Kristle KLR, founded by Kristle Majchrzak, sought a special land use permit last year to bottle and sell water from property that she and her father Robert Glau own in the town of Clover, locally known as Herbster. Majchrzak proposed building underground storage tanks that would capture water from an artesian well flowing at a maximum rate of 7,200 gallons each day.

The proposal sparked more than 1,600 comments in opposition to the project, and Bayfield County denied the company's permit. Kristle KLR is fighting that decision as part of an ongoing legal challenge.

Loudenbeck Calls For Expanding Duties Of Secretary Of State’s Office

Amy Loudenbeck, the GOP state lawmaker looking to unseat longtime Democrat Secretary of State Doug La Follette, says she’s not running for a “power grab” or pushing to fully take control of the state’s elections.

“Having unilateral power to be the chief decider is not something that I think the Legislature has an appetite for, and I don’t think the public would either,” Loudenbeck said on WISN’s “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics.com.

Loudenbeck said if elected she wants to expand the office’s power, which Republicans have all but eliminated over La Follette’s four decades in office, but in partnership with the Legislature.

“I want to be really clear and manage expectations so that people realize that I am trying to open the door to an office to have conversations with people, and I’m not trying to have a hidden agenda,” Loudenbeck said. “This is not a power grab. This is just about using a constitutional office for a duty that most other states recognize belongs there.”

Hunters: Follow Baiting And Feeding Bans; Properly Dispose Of Carcasses

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is asking deer hunters and the public to help prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) by following baiting and feeding bans and by properly disposing of deer carcass waste this hunting season.

Placing bait to hunt deer or feeding deer for viewing is banned by state law in certain counties due to the presence of CWD. In counties where CWD has not been found, hunters and other wildlife enthusiasts can still choose not to bait or feed deer and help reduce the risk of CWD transmission. You can easily check county baiting and feeding bans on the DNR website.

Bait is any material that is placed or used to attract wild animals for hunting purposes, including scent materials, salt, minerals and grains. Feed is any material used to feed or attract wild animals for non-hunting purposes, including recreational and supplemental feeding, except as allowed for birds and small mammals. Bait and feed placed on the landscape, even in limited quantities, often attracts unnatural numbers of deer.