MARY BOTTARI ON DEMOCRACY NOW!

Watch our own Mary Bottari speak on Democracy NOW! about thousands of protesters that were being denied entry to the State Capitol yesterday despite a court order to open the building to the public.

CMD REPORTS: WISCONSIN GOVERNOR DENIES COURT ORDER TO OPEN CAPITOL

From Mary Bottari. Read the full article here.

In a dramatic turn of events at the Wisconsin State Capitol today, Governor Scott Walker defied a court order to open the Capitol for normal business operations. State legislator, Representative Marc Pocan, called the move "not only unprecedented, but contempt of court as well."

On Monday at 8:00 a.m., the Wisconsin Capitol building, which was the site of dozens of major protests in the last two weeks -- including one of over 100,00 on Sunday -- was virtually locked down as the Governor moved to limit protester access in advance of his scheduled budget address on Tuesday.

After untold numbers were turned away at the door Monday and told they could not speak to their legislators, Dane County Sheriff David Mahoney pulled his deputies from the Capitol saying it was not their job to act as "palace guard." Wisconsin has some of the strongest open meetings and open government laws in the nation, and the local sheriff's department had played a key role in allowing protesters to exercise their legal rights in a public space, while keeping the protests inside and outside the Capitol safe and incident-free.

The conservative American Recall Coalition, a group from Salt Lake City, Utah, is leading the charge to reel in eight Democratic Senators in Wisconsin who are among 14 lawmakers who left the state in protest of Governor Scott Walker's budget repair bill, according to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB).

The out-of-state group last week filed with the GAB website to recall the Senators, but initial filings did not have anyone from the local senatorial district as part of the recall requests.

"They didn't have any local people involved, so we contacted them and said they need to have one local person in each district," said GAB spokesman Reid Magney. "They withdrew those initial filings and made new ones and we are waiting for the signed paperwork."

CMD REPORTS: LEGAL ACTION TAKEN MONDAY TO KEEP CAPITOL OPEN, TUESDAY COMMITTEE HEARINGS "OPEN" TO THE PUBLIC

9:00 p.m. - Mary Bottari reports: Peg Lautenschlager, the former Attorney General of Wisconsin, announced Monday night on the Ed Schultz Show (MSNBC) that she had already filed a temporary restraining order (TRO) to keep the WI State Capitol open to citizens. The TRO was filed in response to the fact that citizens are having a more and more difficult time getting into the WI capitol building, as the Governor's office attempts to clear the building in advance of his 4:00 p.m. budget address on Tuesday.

Access to the capitol is protected by the Wisconsin Constitution and WI open records law when there is legislative business. Late tonight, Jonathan Rosenblum spotted committee hearing notices at the State Capitol with the following language at bottom: