Looks like the three major news networks have caved in and are finally starting to report on the protests in Wisconsin.
From what I can gather, it was the walkout by the Dems that forced their hand.
ABC News
Where are the Dems?
Wisconsin Lawmakers Hiding in Place They Hope Is 'Hard for Them to Find'
The top Senate Democrat in Wisconsin said today that he and the other state lawmakers who participated in a mass exodus to avoid a contentious Senate vote on slashing union rights "hope we are in a place that is hard for them to find."
After Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, called the Democrats' departure "disrespectful," Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller, a Democrat, told ABC News that "it's the governor who has been disrespectful of the workers to try and pass this legislation in ... basically six days.
CBS News
Wisconsin Protests Continue as Dems Leave State to Stall "Budget-Repair" Vote
Intense protests continued in Wisconsin today as state lawmakers prepared to vote on Gov. Scott Walker's highly controversial budget bill, which would strip most public workers of nearly all union bargaining rights.
Walker's "budget repair bill" faced imminent passage in the Republican-led legislature, but Democratic state senators decided to "boycott" the vote today, depriving the state Senate of the quorum needed to hold a vote, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. That's prompted Republican lawmakers to call on the police to bring the Democratic senators back to work.
NBC News
Wis. union vote on hold after Democrats leave state
Wisconsin state Senate Democrats boycotting a vote to curb the union rights of public employees left the state on Thursday while 25,000 critics of the bill marched on the state Capitol. At least nine protesters were arrested.
As ever-growing throngs of protesters filled the Capitol for a third day, the 14 Democrats disappeared around midday, just as the Senate was about to begin debating the measure, which would eliminate collective bargaining for most public employees.
They were not in their offices, and aides said they did not know where any of them had gone. Hours later, one member of the group told The Associated Press that they had all left Wisconsin.
"The plan is to try and slow this down because it's an extreme piece of legislation that's tearing this state apart," Sen. Jon Erpenbach said in a telephone interview.
Updated by HoosierDeb at Thu Feb 17, 2011, 08:10:50 PM
h/t to eXtina:
ABC led their newscast with it.
The others led with Bahrain but then had it on. PBS was the only one that made it clear that Walker is trying to remove collective bargaining rights rather than just reduce their raises or require greater health benefit contributions
http://www.dailykos.com/...