Hope all of you have had a great Easter!

I wanted to start off with something that I had mentioned in class about Sen. Kohl not having raised any money this quarter. This news creates more speculation as to whether or not Kohl is planning on retiring in 2012. This news stirs things up because Kohl has loaned $1 million last year towards his campaign, a move that seemed to point out that Kohl will run again in 2012. There have been talks that Kohl will retire only to leave the door open for former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold to get back his seat in the Senate.

With all the news about the Federal Budget Plan, Paul Ryan and Herb Kohl have brought the debate to their home state. The two have been very busy talking about both sides of the budget in Wisconsin. Paul Ryan is obviously trying to promote his new deal that would cut more than $6 trillion in the next 10 years. Kohl, however, is talking about the budget proposed by President Barack Obama. Kohl is saying that the budget proposed by Obama will cut as much as $4 trillion in the near future. Both men are acknowledging that this debate will last for many more days to come.

On a very quick and short note, Kohl is the only remaining Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee that has not sponsored a bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. If the bill passes it would repeal the law that does not recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian couples. A gay-rights group in California has begun a campaign to sway over Sen. Kohl to join in on the bill.

Finally, Kohl again shows off his Wisconsin roots by supporting a bill that would help dairy workers out not only in Wisconsin, but throughout the entire country. This new bill would allow farmers to use a visa program that would allow them to hire foreign workers. This would allow the immigrants to come in for a three period term which could be extended for another three years by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. This is a great potential bill for the farmers because it would most certainly provide great help to farmers for much less than normal.

Thanks for reading, enjoy the last day before getting back to school!