MADISON – A Democratic lawmaker introduced legislation Monday morning that would legalize marijuana in Wisconsin, but the bill will likely go up in smoke.

State Rep. Melissa Sargent, D-Madison, held a press conference at the Capitol along with the president of the Wisconsin Cannabis Project. They said the change would reduce crime associated with growing and selling cannabis and create jobs.

State Rep. Melissa Sargent, D-Madison.

Sargent introduced a similar bill last year, but it made no progress through the state Legislature.

EUGENE, Ore. - With just days left to file income taxes, Oregon Representative Earl Blumenauer and Senator Ron Wyden introduced legislation that would allow marijuana businesses to take deductions as long as they are following state laws.

Wyden has also proposed a tax reform plan that would make filing taxes easier and create incentives for local businesses.

“We really have a one page form, just over 30 lines long and if we go to something like that - Oregonians are going to be able to get their April back," Wyden said.

He said these changes would reflect the will of Oregon voters and provide some certainty for small businesses.

He hopes to move forward with these tax changes in the upcoming months.

As 2016 presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) continues to voice disdain for the war on drugs, it will be interesting to see whether fellow presidential candidate Hillary Clinton shifts her views on drug reform, especially since she's wavered on the issue for years.

MADISON (WKOW) – State Rep. Melissa Sargent (D-Madison) will unveil a proposal Monday to legalize marijuana in Wisconsin.

Sargent, who introduced a similar bill during the last legislative session, said legalizing pot is about personal liberty.

“This is not an issue for just one party or another. This is an issue that brings the state together,” Sargent said. “It actually energizes a base of people that feel that feel they haven't had a voice at the Capitol – an awful lot of young people who value that personal liberties angle.”

Sargent said legalizing marijuana would also combat racial disparities evident in the current, criminal justice system by cutting back on the incarceration of non-violent, drug offenders.

DES MOINES — Everyone knows that politics makes strange bedfellows.

A pair of Linn County legislators has — unintentionally — taken that to a new level: They call the same house home.

But not at the same time.

Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, and Rep. Art Staed, D-Cedar Rapids, both call — or have called — 2905 Alleghany Dr. NE home.

Paulsen grew up there from the late 1960s to 1983 when he left to attend the University of Iowa. Sixteen years later, Staed and his wife, Susan, bought the house and reared their children there.

“I wasn’t involved in politics back then,” Staed says. “I didn’t know Kraig at that time.”

TRENTON — The co-founder of the medical marijuana dispensary in Egg Harbor Township will appear in court Wednesday to dispute claims he blocked his employees' attempts to join a union in a case that is being watched across the nation.

And this isn't even David Knowlton's biggest problem.

Michigan would legalize the use of marijuana for recreational use under the wording of a proposed ballot initiative submitted Thursday, the first of what could be competing legalization efforts.

If authorized by the Board of State Canvassers, the Michigan Cannabis Coalition's initiated law would require roughly 252,000 valid voter signatures before going to the Republican-led Legislature. If lawmakers rejected the bill or took no action, it would receive a statewide vote in November 2016.

The initiative is being backed financially by six to eight anonymous people from the agricultural, real estate, insurance and education sectors, said the ballot committee's spokesman, Matt Marsden. Donors will have to be identified later in campaign finance reports.

Don’t accuse Denver City Council at-large candidate Kayvan Khalatbari of getting lost in the crowd. If there’s one thing he knows how to do, it’s stand out — this time, on a pizza box.

Khalatbari, 31, has been harnessing the natural delivery system of one of several businesses he co-owns — Sexy Pizza, which has three locations in central Denver neighborhoods — by affixing campaign fliers to pizza boxes before they’re sent out to customers.

Khalatbari says he printed 5,000 campaign fliers for the pizza boxes, enough to last about two weeks at the pizza shops. The piece pictures Khalatbari under the words “I’m a real person.”

TALLAHASSEE — Citing frustration with delays in getting non-euphoric cannabis to patients, a Florida Senate panel Thursday pushed forward a revised attempt to create a regulatory framework for the pot industry, but did not include changes sought by black farmers who complain they would be shut out of the industry.

The bill, approved by the Senate Rules Committee and headed to the Senate floor, would quadruple the number of state-approved businesses that could participate from five to 20.

One of those potential players is Sarasota County-based AltMed LLC.

LANSING, MI -- An activist-led group seeking to put a marijuana legalization proposal on Michigan's 2016 ballot wants to tax retail sales at 10 percent and allow residents to grow up to 12 plants at home.

The Michigan Comprehensive Cannabis Law Reform Committee -- one of three unaffiliated groups considering a possible petition drive -- on Friday released draft language of its ballot proposal.