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PARIS (AP) – A 15-year-old French Muslim girl has been banned from her classroom for wearing a long black skirt, seen as going against France’s law guaranteeing secularism.

She missed two days this month in a dispute over her skirt, French education officials said Wednesday, and the issue remains unresolved.

A popular Twitter hashtag #jeportemajupecommejeveux (I wear my skirt as I like) popped up on Wednesday after the dispute was made public in the girl’s local newspaper in Charleville-Mezieres, in northeast France.

School officials say the skirt itself was not the issue. Rather, the problem was that the student had worn it specifically as a sign of her faith – contravening the 2004 law barring religious symbols in classrooms below university level.

The student, identified as Sarah, was among a group of at least five girls who arrived at the Leo Lagrange school in recent weeks with long skirts – and Islamic headscarves which they removed before entering school, the Reims Academy Services said.

The students were asked to change into “neutral clothing” before coming to class. Sarah complied, then stopped coming to class, the Academy Services said.

“It was a concerted action … with a will to put a (religious) identity on display,” Patrice Dutot, inspector of the Ardennes Academy which oversees schools in the area, said by telephone.

Unlike most European countries, France prohibits “ostentatious” religious symbols in classrooms. The 2004 law, which Muslims groups said at the time stigmatized them, was complemented with a 2010 law banning head-covering face veils in streets and other public places.

Dutot said the school has worked with the students and families for two weeks to explain why the long skirt contravened the law, but the family “wasn’t satisfied.”

“It is not the long skirt that is the problem,” Dutot said. The issue is that the girls “had agreed to wear the same skirts …. to display their belonging” to a religious group.

The incident comes as the issue of secularism rises to the fore in France following the deadly January attacks by three Muslim extremists, as politicians and others look to preserve the French identity, of which secularism is an integral part.

Scores of Muslim girls who refuse to remove their headscarves have left schools due to enforcement of the 2004 law.

New questions are being asked as to whether a ban on religious symbols should be extended to universities, policed in businesses or whether school canteens should systematically offer alternative meals when pork is served.

NEW YORK (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton issued an impassioned call for overhauling an “out of balance” criminal justice system Tuesday, using her first major public policy address as a presidential candidate to reflect on the recent unrest in Baltimore and push for an end to “the era of mass incarceration.”

Speaking at an urban policy forum at Columbia University, Clinton recounted the recent killings of unarmed black men by white police officers, arguing that the chaos and rioting sparked by their deaths should prompt a national reckoning with longstanding and profound economic and racial inequalities.

“The patterns have become unmistakable and undeniable,” she said. “We have to come to terms with some hard truths about race and justice in America.”

Clinton spoke in the days after violence and protests have swept through the streets of Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who suffered a spinal-cord injury while in police custody. With her remarks, she joined a bipartisan group of politicians who are rejecting the tough-on-crime policies of the 1980s and 1990s — including those trumpeted as a major achievement by the administration of her husband, Bill.

Nicholas Turner, president of the Vera Institute, a nonprofit focused on crime policy, said the belief in those years that longer sentences would mean more safety is being set aside. “What Clinton talks about today reflects a repudiation of that thinking,” he said. “On some level, everyone has evolved.”

The emerging presidential field has been tested by the startling wave of rage that swept the streets of Baltimore. With smoke still rising from the city’s burnt buildings, many have struggled to calibrate their political response.

Martin O’Malley, a former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor who might challenge Clinton for the Democratic nomination, returned from Europe to walk the streets of his city.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, commenting during a Republican campaign swing in Puerto Rico, called both for an investigation into Gray’s death and “a commitment to the rule of law.” Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who’s pushed for sentencing changes in Congress, blamed the unrest on a “breakdown of the family structure” while joking that he was glad a train he was traveling on through downtown Baltimore “didn’t stop.”

Clinton proposed body cameras for all police departments, alternative punishments for low-level offenders, and more money for mental health and drug treatment programs.

She tied the problem to her broader campaign theme of inequality, citing “cycles of poverty and despair” in inner city neighborhoods. “We need a true national debate about how to reduce our prison population,” she said. “We don’t want to create another incarceration generation.”

In December, President Barack Obama asked Congress for $263 million for police body cameras and additional law enforcement training — a request Congress has yet to act on.

Still, Clinton praised the bipartisan cooperation forming on the issue, specifically mentioning Paul’s work with New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat.

“It is rare to see Democrats and Republicans agree on anything today,” she said. “But we’re beginning to agree on this: We need to restore balance to our criminal justice system.”

Paul did not return the favor, putting out a campaign statement criticizing her for “emulating” his proposals and “trying to undo some of the harm inflicted by the Clinton administration.”

After decades of politicians vowing to get tougher on crime, then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton ran for president with a promise to tackle doubling homicide rates, a pledge he fulfilled in 1994 with the passage of the Violent Crime Control Act.

That law, particularly a Republican-backed provision, resulted in longer terms for prisoners and more police on the street. “It’s facile to say she’s repudiating something her husband was involved in when the whole country moved in that direction,” said Jeremy Travis, who attended the bill signing as director of the National Institute of Justice.

Nearly 20 years later, Hillary Clinton’s wide-ranging speech showed how strikingly the politics of law and justice have shifted in recent years. “It is stunning,” said Travis, now president of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “I live this stuff and I keep waiting for a day like this and there it is.”

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Associated Press writer Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report. Lerer reported from Washington.

 

BALTIMORE (AP) — With rubble and debris looming nearby, and tempers still smoldering in riot-torn Baltimore, the Orioles played a baseball game on Wednesday.

This wasn’t for the fans, because there weren’t any at Camden Yards.

The game was held behind closed doors, and the Orioles and Chicago White Sox played because it was the best time to fill out the schedule for both teams.

The timing worked for baseball, not so much for Baltimore. It was an unusual move by Major League Baseball, which usually errors on the side of caution in the wake of tragedy.

Baseball games were cancelled after riots ignited in Los Angeles and terrorists attacked New York and Washington. Baseball put off the World Series in 1989 after an earthquake hit San Francisco.

Chicago White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers sits in the dugout of an empty stadium before playing the Baltimore Orioles in a baseball game, Wednesday, April 29, 2015, in Baltimore. Due to security concerns the game was closed to the public. (AP Photo/Gail Burton)

In Baltimore, after drug stores were set on fire and the National Guard had to be called in to restore order, they played a game because this was Chicago’s only planned visit to the city. The postponed games on Monday and Tuesday were to be made up as part of a doubleheader on May 28, but there was seemingly nowhere to go on the schedule with Wednesday’s game.

So they moved up the starting time by five hours to 2:05 p.m. to beat the 10 o’clock curfew and had the teams go at it before 47,000 empty seats.

“We have a schedule so we’ve got to get games in,” Chicago second baseman Gordon Beckham said. “We can’t just miss all three games and expect to make them up down the line. I mean we’ll have no off days for the rest of the year. So, we at least have to get this one in.”

Just about everyone who put on a uniform understood the circumstances. The city was hurting, and here they were, playing a baseball game to preserve the integrity of the schedule.

On a scale of what was significant to Baltimore on this day, the Orioles’ 20th game of the season wasn’t exactly at the top of the list.

“It makes you realize how unimportant really in a lot of ways this is compared to some things that are going on,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “You try to keep that mind and look at things realistically, where this fits in the scheme of things. You prioritize what’s important and we tried to do that.”

Their intentions may have been in the right place, but seemingly not much else.

Playing the game without any fans in attendance was both a good and a bad thing. The team didn’t divert any police from doing their job around the city, but the people of Baltimore didn’t get a chance to turn the page by watching the home team play at Camden Yards.

“Sports brings people together — black, white, or any different,” Orioles center fielder Adam Jones said. “For those three hours, you can have beers, nachos and some Boog’s (barbecue) and forget about our daily lives.

“But today, we’re just going to have to play a Major League Baseball game without fans. I think that’s first time in history.”

Must the game go on?

“We’ve thought about that, and we’ve actually talked about that,” Orioles first baseman Chris Davis said. “Obviously the decision was out of our hands. But the thing that makes it so tough is that this is an out-of-division opponent. We would have had to basically make up three games.

“We’re doing the right thing. I’m not real happy about playing in an empty stadium. That’s one of the reasons that we look forward to coming home so much, playing in front of our fans. But we also understand that there’s a bigger picture here.”

That’s true, but the bigger question is whether they should have been playing at all.

“There are a lot more important issues going on outside the stadium,” Orioles left-hander Zach Britton said. “It kind of makes you realize how small baseball is compared to some of the other issues in the U.S. and around the world.”

 

OSHKOSH – The man whose apartment was searched and from which authorities removed a variety of chemicals was charged Wednesday – but no counts were filed related to what police had called “suspicious materials.”

Steven Meyer is charged with two counts of false imprisonment and one count of burglary for the April 23 incident on Appleton’s south side.

He is scheduled to make an initial court appearance today in Winnebago County Court.

While investigating, police found a cache of chemicals. Many were taken from the apartment. Police said the items were legal individually, but could have been combined to create explosives.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Federal Reserve has downgraded its assessment of the economy after a winter that saw growth slow to a trickle. It kept its key interest rate unchanged.

On a day when the government said the economy barely grew in the January-March quarter, the Fed gave no indication it is any closer to raising a key rate from its six-year low near zero. The Fed notes in a statement that growth slowed, business investment softened and exports declined.

It repeated previous language that it needs to be “reasonably confident” that low inflation will move back to its 2 percent target.

The Fed statement’s followed a policy meeting and came hours after the government estimated that the economy slowed to a 0.2 percent annual growth rate in the first quarter of 2015.

DE PERE – If you missed sturgeon spawning along the Wolf River system, you have another chance to see the prehistoric fish up close.

The De Pere Parks, Recreation and Forestry Dept. says there are reports of sturgeon spawning in the Fox River at the De Pere dam. The activity can be viewed from the riverwalk and wildlife viewing pier.

GREEN BAY – Double threat Noah Guthrie is showing Green Bay his musical talents at a concert at the Meyer Theatre.

Guthrie is known for his unique song covers on YouTube and as a guest star in season six of FOX TV hit “Glee.”

The South Carolina native is promoting his first album, “Among the Wildest Things,” on Thursday, June 25 at 8:00 p.m.

Guthrie is describe as having a pop/Americana sound with soul. He’s described as the male version of Adele and a mix of John Legend and Dave Matthews.

Throughout his career, Guthrie has opened for Ed Sheeran, Neon Trees, Ben Rector, Cobra Starship, Matt Nathanson and Selena Gomez.

Tickets are $15 for general admission and go on sale Friday, May 1 at 11:00 a.m. at meyertheare.org, the Ticket Star Box Office in the Resch Center or by phone, 1-800-895-0071.

TONIGHT at 9 p.m.

Your All-Access Pass to the Packers and the 2015 NFL Draft continues. FOX 11 will be live with coverage from Chicago and the locker room at Lambeau Field on #fox11news tonight at 9pm.

On the road to the Windy City, FOX 11’s Dylan Scott stops in Milwaukee to meet with the high school coach of Wisconsin’s star running back, Melvin Gordon. Gordon’s ability to run, catch and block at the line of scrimmage has him listed as first-round player on countless draft boards.

Then join Dylan live from the NFL Draft in Chicago and FOX 11 sports director Drew Smith with live reports from Lambeau Field as the Packers’ first pick is announced. This year General Manager Ted Thompson goes into the draft with nine picks in seven rounds, with six of those picks on the final day.

Also, Drew and Packers wide receiver Jordy Nelson examine of all the moves on a special “Inside the Huddle Draft Special” airing 9:30pm Saturday night on FOX 11.

If you’re away from home, you can livestream all newscasts on fox11online.com, follow our Facebook and Twitter feeds, and get a morning recap of on “Good Day Wisconsin.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Bud Light should have kept the word “No” handy in this case.

Anheuser-Busch is apologizing for ad copy that appeared on bottles saying Bud Light removes the word ‘no’ from drinkers’ vocabulary.

Photos of the bottles went viral on social media Tuesday with widespread complaints about the slogan, particularly at a time of national debate about college rape.

“The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night,” the copy read in full.

The response on social media ranged from crude jokes to criticism that the slogan is part of a culture that tacitly condones sexual assault.

The slogan is part of the brewer’s two-year-old “Up for Whatever” campaign that includes a wide array of marketing, such as a Super Bowl commercial that showed a Bud Light drinker going through a live-action Pac Man game.

The company says there are waves of the bottle-message campaign included more than 140 different messages — with new ones out every few months — intended to “encourage brand engagement.” They said this particular one missed the mark, and the company regrets it.

“We would never condone disrespectful or irresponsible behavior,” Alexander Lambrecht, vice president, Bud Light said in a statement. “As a result, we have immediately ceased production of this message on all bottles.”

Marketers can sometimes lose perspective when they walk the line between being edgy to get attention and being offensive, said marketing expert Allen Adamson, managing director of branding firm Landor Associates.

“All marketers want to get people’s attention, not alienate them,” Adamson said. “The challenge is to understand who you’re talking to, but not lose sight of the bigger picture and be potentially polarizing and offensive.”

Some other messages on bottles include: “The perfect beer for dropping everything and going to Paris, even if it’s the one in Texas;” and “The perfect beer for being that guy people know when they say they ‘know a guy.'”

GREEN BAY – Several community-support agencies were in one place Wednesday to help victims of the Danz St. apartment fire.

The American Red Cross hosted representatives of agencies including the Salvation Army, Brown County Human Services, the Brown County Register of Deeds, the YWCA and the DMV. The goal was to give the victims crucial resources as they work to rebound from the fire.

Fire crews at the scene of an apartment fire on N. Danz Ave. in Green Bay, April 28, 2015. (WLUK)

About 66 residents need to find a new home after an early morning fire destroyed their apartment complex on Green Bay’s east side. Fire crews were called to the fire just before midnight Monday.

Officials say the fire caused $691,000 worth of damage and the building is a total loss. All of the residents made it out of the building safely. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

FOX 11’s Andrew LaCombe will have a complete story tonight on FOX 11 News at Five.

DE PERE – Police are asking for the public’s help in solving an armed robbery.

De Pere police released this image of the suspect in an April 7, 2015 armed robbery at Scheuring Mobil. (Photo courtesy De Pere Police Dept.)

De Pere police say the robbery happened around 10:30 p.m. April 7 at Scheuring Mobil gas station, 1620 Lawrence Dr. The robber pointed a gun at the cashier, who handed over some money.

The robber was described as being 6-foot-1 with a stocky build and broad shoulders.

Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Sgt. Steve Yedica at (920) 339-4804 x1208 or email [email protected]. Anonymous tips can be left with Crime Stoppers by phone at (920) 432-7867 or by text message with the keyword GBTIP to 274637.

11:30 a.m. Wednesday

We’re hitting the road on the way to Chicago! Keep refreshing this story over the next two days to get our latest updates.

BAKER COUNTY, Fla. (CNN) – One body, two faces. A phenomenal creation, a curious sight.

“A two-headed calf! I cannot believe it. I’ve heard of them but I’ve never seen one. This is my first one,” said farmer Dwight Crews.

In more than 60 years of raising cattle, Crews has experienced a first of its kind.

And mom is never too far away.

“She will come in and lick her, smell her and make sure she’s OK, I guess, and then she’ll go back out and she’ll stay gone for a while and then she’ll come back again,” Crews said.

The calf may have two sets of eyes, but Crews says he doesn’t think the two middle eyes are actually seeing anything. Crews says he believes she only has one brain, so he thinks she’s most likely only seeing one image.

She’s bottle feeding now, and Crews says when one mouth is feeding, the other mouth suckles at the same time.

“I would like to see her live, and see her get up and walk and function,” Crews said.

But she’s weak and her head is heavy. “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” says the longest a two-headed cow has lived is 40 days, which means, sadly, in this situation, two heads are not always better than one.

WASHINGTON (AP) – A small gyrocopter that flew through miles of the nation’s most restricted airspace before landing at the U.S. Capitol was “indistinguishable” from other non-aircraft such as a flock of birds, a kite or a balloon, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday.

FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told a House committee that the slow-moving gyrocopter appeared as an “irregular symbol” on radar monitored by air traffic controllers. Huerta and other officials said the small, unidentified object did not pose an apparent threat before landing on the Capitol’s West Lawn April 15.

Forensic analysis conducted later identified a slow-moving object that traveled about 70 miles from Gettysburg, Pa., to the U.S. Capitol. Officials now believe that was the gyrocopter. A dot representing the gyrocopter “appeared only intermittently throughout the flight,” Huerta said.

Navy Adm. William Gortney, commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, said small aircraft such as gyrocopters represent a “technical and operational challenge” for the military to detect and defend against.

A Capitol Police officer flashes a thumbs up after inspecting the small helicopter a man landed on the West Lawn of the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, April 15, 2015. Police arrested a man who steered his tiny, one-person helicopter onto the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, astonishing spring tourists and prompting a temporary lockdown of the Capitol Visitor Center. Capitol Police didn’t immediately identify the pilot or comment on his motive, but a Florida postal carrier named Doug Hughes took responsibility for the stunt on a website where he said he was delivering letters to all 535 members of Congress in order to draw attention to campaign finance corruption. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

The gyrocopter incident “has further confirmed the need to continue to improve our ability to identify low-altitude and slow-speed aerial vehicles” operating in the skies above the nation’s capital, Gortney told the House Oversight Committee.

Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine said police were contacted just before 1 p.m. EDT by an employee of the Tampa Bay Times, who said a local man was flying a gyrocopter to the Capitol as a form of protest. No time or date information was provided regarding the flight, Dine said.

The newspaper employee later identified the pilot as Douglas Hughes and said that Hughes told the newspaper he had received permission for the flight from the U.S. Secret Service and Capitol Police, Dine said. No such permission was granted by either agency, he added.

The newspaper employee said Hughes was providing a live feed of the flight on his website, but officials were unable to find the feed if it existed, Dine said.

At 1:21 p.m., just before the landing, a reporter approached a Capitol police officer and asked if he had seen a “helicopter” yet, Dine testified. He was told no.

The vehicle landed at 1:23 p.m.

“The extremely short time frame” between a lockdown order issued after the gyrocopter was identified and the vehicle’s landing made it impossible to notify members of Congress in advance, Dine said.

Paul Irving, the House Sergeant at Arms, said he has ordered Dine to use an official notification system to alert lawmakers, staff and visitors of “events that could potentially be a threat” to the Capitol.

Capitol police notified senators but not House members of the lockdown, Irving said. “I have ordered the chief never to allow this to happen again,” he said.

Hughes, 61, of Florida, was arrested upon landing and charged with violating restricted airspace and operating an unregistered aircraft. His next court appearance is May 8.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the Oversight panel, has said that Hughes is “lucky to be alive” and “should have been blown out of the air.”

A combination of “lack of communication and some human error” by Capitol police and other officials allowed Hughes to steer his tiny aircraft across 30 miles of restricted airspace to within a few hundred feet of the Capitol before landing on the West Lawn, Chaffetz said after a closed-door briefing last week.

Chaffetz and other lawmakers want security officials to explain how they determined that the gyrocopter piloted by Hughes did not pose a threat.

OSWEGO, N.Y. (AP) – A 690-foot freighter that replaced the ill-fated Edmund Fitzgerald as the flagship of a Great Lakes shipping company will be scrapped.

The American Fortitude spent the winter docked at the Port of Oswego, on Lake Ontario in central New York. Port officials tell The Post-Standard of Syracuse that the 62-year-old vessel will leave this weekend for Canada, where it will be scrapped.

The iron ore carrier was once one of the biggest and fastest vessels plying the Great Lakes.

In 1978, it replaced the Edmund Fitzgerald as the flagship of a fleet of freighters owned by Cleveland-based Oglebay Norton, which was bought by a Belgian mining firm in 2008. The Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior in 1975, killing all 29 crew members.

The name of American Fortitude’s current owner hasn’t been released.

BOSTON (AP) – A Harvard University survey released Wednesday found that nearly one in two millennials believe America’s criminal justice system is unfair and few believe protests triggered by the killings of black men at the hands of police will make a significant difference.

The findings, from a survey of 18-to-29-year-olds conducted from March 18 to April 1, come as anger over the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Baltimore man who suffered a spinal cord injury in police custody, turned violent this week.

Rioters looted and burned businesses in the Maryland city and clashed with police after Gray’s funeral Monday, prompting Gov. Larry Hogan to deploy the National Guard. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake imposed a weeklong curfew.

John Della Volpe, director of polling at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, said the findings suggest young people are genuinely interested in seeing real change in the criminal justice system – not just rhetoric.

“What I think they’re asking us through this data is to have a meaningful, non-ideological conversation about this,” he said. “Even before the violence in Baltimore, you only had a minority of 18-to-29-year-olds believing the protests would create change.”

The survey polled over 3,000 millennials across the country.

It showed about 49 percent of millennials have little to no confidence that the judicial system can fairly judge people without bias for race and ethnicity. Another 49 percent have “some” to “a lot” of confidence in the judicial system.

The disparity is more pronounced among black millennials, with 66 percent expressing little to no confidence compared to about 43 percent of white millennials and 53 percent of Hispanic millennials.

Black millennials also, unsurprisingly, showed much stronger support than their white and Hispanic counterparts for “Black Lives Matter,” the protest movement sparked by recent police killings of black men in Ferguson, Missouri, New York City and other cities.

Overall though, American millennials aren’t confident that the movement will be effective in bringing meaningful change. Just 39 percent of those polled believed the efforts would be “somewhat” or “very” effective.

“This is a more cynical generation,” Della Volpe said. “They’re willing to volunteer and participate, if they’re inspired, feel like it matters and believe it can create change. But right now, they feel like no one is really listening to them.”

Many polled strongly agreed with some solutions protest movements have helped bring to the forefront. About 80 percent believe requiring police officers to wear body cameras can be effective, for example.

On other topics, a solid majority of millennials – about 57 percent – supported sending U.S. ground troops to fight the Islamic State group in the Middle East, and a growing number support pre-emptively attacking potentially hostile countries.

Della Volpe suggested that points to a growing desire among young adults for more aggressive foreign policy.

And more than one-third of young women said they’ve had a personal experience with sexual assault, either as a survivor or through close friends or family members. Of those, 91 percent said the assault occurred outside college campuses.

“It’s an issue that clearly transcends college campuses,” Della Volpe said. “It’s a societal, not a collegiate, issue, unfortunately.”

NEW YORK (AP) — A second coyote has been captured in New York — this time in Queens.

Police say they tranquilized the animal and captured it just before 8 p.m. Tuesday. The NYPD says it’s likely the same one that got away after being spotted hiding near a house Monday.

It’s being cared for at the Center for Animal Care and Control.

The capture comes after authorities collared one near a sidewalk cafe in downtown Manhattan on Saturday morning.

At least four other coyotes have been spotted in Manhattan this year.

MADISON (AP) – The state Supreme Court says prosecutors must prove a Kenosha man convicted of bludgeoning a woman when he was 15 is competent to proceed with an appeal.

Roddee Daniel was convicted in 2010 of helping kill Capri Walker with a baseball bat during a burglary.

Daniel’s attorney, Anthony Jurek, argued Daniel isn’t competent to proceed on appeal in hopes of getting a guardian appointed who could assist with appellate strategy.

Circuit Judge Wilbur Warren III ruled Jurek failed to prove incompetency. The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the state must prove competency if the defense alleges incompetency. The court said that standard applies if Jurek continues to pursue the issue.

Jurek said the ruling clarifies state law and he’ll speak with Daniel about their next move.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Declaring “history is harsh,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan offered solemn condolences Wednesday for the Americans who died in World War II as he became the first Japanese leader to address a joint meeting of Congress.

“My dear friends, on behalf of Japan and the Japanese people, I offer with profound respect my eternal condolences to the souls of all American people that were lost during World War II,” said Abe, prompting lawmakers of both parties to stand and applaud.

But as he did at a news conference Tuesday with President Barack Obama, Abe stopped short of offering an apology for Japanese conduct during the war, including sexual enslavement of tens of thousands of Asian women by Japan’s imperial army. South Korea and a number of U.S. lawmakers have sought such an apology, but Abe did not offer one.

Instead, he expressed “feelings of deep remorse over the war” and acknowledged that “our actions brought suffering to the peoples in Asian countries, we must not avert our eyes from that.”

Later in the speech, without directly referring to World War II, Abe said: “Armed conflicts have always made women suffer the most. In our age, we must realize the kind of world where finally women are free from human rights abuses.”

Abe described visiting the World War II memorial on the National Mall, and reflecting upon the 400,000 American war dead “with deep repentance in my heart.”

“What is done cannot be undone,” Abe said. But he hailed the alliance that rose from the ashes of that terrible conflict 70 years ago, saying that “Enemies that had fought each other so fiercely have become friends bonded in spirit.”

“What should we call this, if not a miracle of history?” Abe asked.

Abe entered the House chamber to warm applause, smiling broadly and delivering handshakes on all sides. He delivered his remarks from prepared text in heavily accented English.

He also sought support for a 12-nation trans-Pacific trade pact that has divided Congress and provoked opposition in Japan, telling lawmakers it should be completed “for the sake of our children and our children’s children.”

Abe arrived in the midst of a bruising battle in Washington over legislation that would give Obama the authority to negotiate the deal, a cornerstone of his second-term agenda. In a reversal of politics-as-usual, it’s Obama’s own Democratic base that opposes him, and Republicans who support the deal.

After an Oval Office meeting with Abe on Tuesday, where the two leaders declared progress in bilateral trade talks that are critical for completing a wider TPP agreement among nations accounting for 40 percent of global GDP, Obama conceded to reporters: “It’s never fun passing a trade bill in this town.”

Abe told lawmakers that the Pacific trade deal is about spreading the shared values of rule of law, democracy and freedom.

“It is also about our security. Long-term, its strategic value is awesome. We should never forget that,” Abe said. “Let us bring the TPP to a successful conclusion through our joint leadership.”

The line drew a warm response from Republicans in the chamber, but most Democrats did not applaud. Republican have acknowledged they’ll need Democratic support to get the trade bill through the House, and earlier Wednesday the top vote-counter for House Republicans, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, complained that “one thing we don’t see is that strong push by the administration to move more Democrats to support this initiative.”

Since winning election in December 2012, Abe has been strong advocate of closer ties with the U.S. He’s been granted the full pomp and ceremony at the White House, and was feted Tuesday night with a state dinner.

But it was the invitation to address Congress that sets him apart from his predecessors. While past Japanese prime ministers – including Abe’s own grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, in 1957 – have addressed the House, it was the first time for a leader of the East Asian nation to speak to both chambers.

Another theme of his speech was security cooperation, which is set to intensify with the revision this week of U.S.-Japan defense guidelines that will allow Japan’s military to play a bigger role in global military operations and work more closely with U.S. forces, and possibly come to their defense.

Obama’s focus on Asian allies and the trade deal is viewed as a way to counter China’s growing might. Abe alluded indirectly to disputes between China and its neighbors over claims to waters and islands when he asserted that “we must make the vast seas stretching from the Pacific to the Indian Oceans seas of peace and freedom, where all follow the rule of law.”

MADISON (AP) – Republican legislators are circulating a bill that would merge Wisconsin’s two major economic development agencies into a new entity.

Gov. Scott Walker’s budget calls for merging the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority into the Forward Wisconsin Development Authority. WEDC and WHEDA leaders told the Legislature’s finance committee last month the change would create a one-stop shop to help communities and businesses grow.

Sen. Rick Gudex and Rep. Rob Hutton sent a memo to their colleagues Wednesday looking for co-sponsors for a stand-alone bill that would accomplish the same thing. The memo says Walker asked them to introduce a separate bill. Gudex aide Lance Burri said the governor wants a more transparent process.

A Walker spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.