firststone

Police find ammunition outside Wisconsin Capitol as standoff continues (CNN) -- A third week of high-stakes power balance political drama unfolded in Wisconsin Thursday with an unexpected twist: 41 rounds of hollow-point rifle ammunition found outside the state Capitol. Police continued their search for more ammunition, and the person to which it belongs, amid a contentious budget showdown over a measure that would -- among other things -- curb the collective bargaining rights of most state workers. Weeks of demonstrations in protest of Gov. Scott Walker's proposal has drawn massive crowds to the state legislature since mid-February, contributing to $6.5 million in damages and other costs, state Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch said during a hearing Thursday. The hearing examined the question of public access to the building. Meanwhile, the state Senate approved a resolution that would hold absentee Democratic lawmakers "in contempt of the Senate" should they not return to the Capitol by late afternoon. The missing lawmakers -- who left February 17 -- had still not returned by Thursday night. The contempt measure allows state law enforcement to detain and return the 14 Senate Democrats to Wisconsin, according to Senate Majority Leader spokesman Andrew Welhouse. The lawmakers fled to Illinois to prevent a quorum on the state's budget repair bill that would limit collective bargaining to wages and require public workers, with the exception of police and firefighters, to cover more of their retirement plans and health care premiums. But whether the contempt measure is constitutional remains unclear. The state Constitution prohibits the arrest of lawmakers while the legislature is in session, except for power balance bracelet "treason, felony and breach of the peace." Whether Wisconsin law enforcement would be permitted jurisdiction in Illinois to detain the missing Democrats is also unclear. The stalemate has proven increasingly contentious in recent days as Senate lawmakers adopted a resolution on Wednesday that would fine absentee lawmakers $100 every day they remain missing. A similar resolution passed a day later in Indiana where House Republicans imposed a $250-a-day fine against AWOL Democrats who -- like their Wisconsin counterparts -- fled to Illinois in protest of a labor bill. In Wisconsin, Republicans need a single Democrat to cross party lines and rejoin the 33-member legislature to meet the quorum of 20 lawmakers required in a vote on state fiscal matters. Only 17 lawmakers are required for most other issues. Union leaders have agreed to pay more for benefits, but view restricting bargaining rights as an assault on workers' rights. Gov. Walker took to the airwaves Wednesday in support of his belt-tightening measure. "Every day we fail to act on this just adds more and more to the cost," he told reporters, defending a move to curtail workers' power to negotiate as an integral part of fiscal reform. Wisconsin is confronted with a looming $137 million budget shortfall at the end of the fiscal year, June 30. The 2011 coach purses state faces a $3.6 billion budget gap by 2013.