Pre-proposals are now being solicited for a university endowment competition that aims to share knowledge that benefits the community and the state of Wisconsin.
Provost asks for endowment ideas
Badger Herald
Category: State news
Chris Rickert: Governor could learn from my 8-year-old
Wisconsin State Journal
We all know Walker’s not a fan of the health reform law. But pretty much every group that will be affected by it ? including his strong ally Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce ? was telling him that if the law is to be a reality, let’s at least pick the kind of exchange we want by designing it ourselves.
….Granted, Walker?s primary argument against the state setting up the exchange would be good if it were true. He thinks that because federal money to help states set up their own exchanges will dry up ? it?s allocated only through 2014 ? those states will end up having to flip the bill for a service that years from now (presumably) has become established and popular. But Donna Friedsam, a UW-Madison health policy researcher and expert on the new law, said the exchanges ? no matter who runs them ? have to be self-sufficient by Jan. 1, 2015. “There is no bait-and-switch plan by the federal government here,” she said.
Gov. looks to cut taxes
Badger Herald
Gov. Scott Walker revealed his intended policies in a speech in California on Friday, which include lowering property taxes, providing additional aid to voucher schools and making public schools more accountable.
Editorial: Gov. Scott Walker should have talked in own state, not California
Appleton Post-Crescent
Well, this is puzzling. After a fall campaign season in which he was, for the most part, tight-lipped and vague about his plans for the state next year, Gov. Scott Walker revealed some of them last week.
Scott Walker Calls For Shift In Higher Education Funding Tying Dollars To Completion Rates
Huffington Post
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker R wants to overhaul public higher education funding in his state, but his proposed agenda has been criticized by Democratic opponents as “social engineering” that could prevent students from studying what theyre passionate about.
Gov. Scott Walker unveils agenda for Wisconsin during speech in California
Wisconsin State Journal
Gov. Scott Walker unveiled major new policy initiatives Friday night in a speech in California, including decreasing taxes, boosting the school voucher program and requiring Wisconsin?s schools, technical colleges and universities to meet certain benchmarks to earn state funding.
Bice: Walker promises major tax reforms, school funding changes
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Speaking before a packed house at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in California, Gov. Scott Walker unveiled major components of his upcoming legislative agenda, including “massive tax reform” consisting of cuts in state income and property taxes.
UW will host state tournaments through spring 2020
WISC-TV 3
MADISON, Wis.-The University of Wisconsin has reached a deal with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association to host state high school athletic competition for seven years. The WIAA will host state competition for high school boys basketball, football, golf, wrestling, and softball at UW facilities in Madison through the spring of 2020. State swimming, diving, and tennis tournaments will continue to be held on the UW campus but are not part of the new agreement.
Panel addresses tuition and fee hikes
Badger Herald
Closing the University of Wisconsin?s Shared Governance Week of Action, a panel of representatives from the UW System and student government convened Thursday to address issues about tuition and fees, prompting debate about the future of the UW System.
State residents not tolerating wolves as much as before, study finds
Capital Times
Are Wisconsinites wary of wolves? A study from UW-Madison researchers found an increasingly negative view of the animal by state residents. The study published in an upcoming issue of the journal Conservation Biology shows a declining tolerance of wolves, even if those surveyed had no intimate contact with a wolf. The study was by environmental studies professor Adrian Treves and colleagues Lisa Naughton-Treves and Victoria Shelley, according to a news release from the UW-Madison news service.
ASM forum discusses rising tuition at UW
Daily Cardinal
The Associated Students of Madison?s final Shared Governance Week of Action forum Thursday sparked discussion about how to handle the costs of University of Wisconsin System schools in the face of decreasing state funding and increasing tuition and fees.University of Wisconsin-Madison Student Services Finance Committee Chair Ellie Bruecker and UW System Regent Katherine Pointer, the student appointee on the Board of Regents, each voiced their own ideas on how best to raise and manage universities? funds.
Will Wisconsin Republicans wage another labor war?
Capital Times
In his first term as governor, Gov. Scott Walker dealt one of the most significant blows to organized labor in recent American history. In few, if any, states are the collective bargaining rights of public-sector workers so limited, and in few places are the barriers to organizing a union in a public workplace so high as in Wisconsin, due to Walker?s signature legislation, known as Act 10. However, there is still much Republicans could do to further marginalize Wisconsin labor unions.
Lowest corn yield in 16 years seen in drought fallout
Wisconsin State Journal
In each of the last two Novembers, area grain operations piled towering mountains of corn on their lots ? lasting images of the two best corn yields on record. Those lots are empty this fall, symbols of a drought-ravaged growing season that has led the National Agricultural Statistics Service to predict that Wisconsin?s corn yield will be the lowest in 16 years and 20 percent lower than last year.
Quoted: UW-Madison agricultural economics professor Bruce Jones
Law enforcement union sues over collective bargaining law
Wisconsin State Journal
A Wisconsin law enforcement union sued the state Tuesday over the state?s collective bargaining law, alleging that the portions of the law pertaining to teachers and municipal workers that were found unconstitutional by a Dane County judge are also unconstitutional for state workers….According to the lawsuit, prior to the law taking effect, WLEA included state troopers and inspectors, along with Capitol and UW police officers and detectives, DMV field agents and police communication officers. Only state troopers and inspectors retained their union rights as part of a new unit carved out called “public safety” employees, the union said in a news release.
Efforts to push turnout in key 2008 demographic groups pays off for Obama
Capital Times
Although there was no coordination between the Obama campaign and the get-out-the-vote efforts undertaken by advocacy groups like Citizen Action of Wisconsin, similarly targeted efforts were under way by the campaign. In fact, they?d never ceased since President Barack Obama was inaugurated nearly four years ago, says Gillian Morris, a campaign spokeswoman. College-age students were ?absolutely? targeted by the Obama camp, she says. Efforts were undertaken to get college students to vote early. Marquette University, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and UW-Madison students, for example, camped out at voting locations the night before Oct. 22, the first day residents could vote early in Wisconsin.
UW Health requires flu shots
Wisconsin State Journal
UW Health is requiring employees to get flu shots this year, as more health care organizations say mandates ensure workers and patients are protected from infection. ?It makes sense to do whatever we can to implement the one measure we know will reduce hospital-acquired influenza,? said Dr. Nasia Safdar, head of infection control for UW Hospital. SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin, which represents UW Hospital nurses and therapists, is asking UW Health to consider an exemption for personal beliefs. The policy allows medical and religious exemptions.
What’s next? Politicians, analysts debate election’s lessons for state leaders
Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin voters once again showed themselves to be both persuadable and polarized Tuesday. They stuck with their Democratic president despite a sour economy and they elected a very liberal woman to the U.S. Senate ? but at the same time they reinstalled and strengthened an aggressive Republican state Legislature that discarded 50 years of labor law, loosened gun controls and tightened restrictions on voting.
Quoted: Barry Burden, UW-Madison professor of political science
University of Wisconsin-Madison told of positives in detailing career prospects
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Universities should tell prospective students the job prospects and earning potential for careers they?re considering before students invest in a four-year degree, a national expert on workforce development told the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents on Thursday.
Wisconsin considered purple
Badger Herald
With Tuesday?s election, Wisconsin seemed to contradict its Republican shift in 2010 in its statewide elections, while also maintaining that shift at more local levels.
Chancellor committee hears input by citizens
Badger Herald
The Chancellor Search and Screen Committee held a public forum on Wednesday evening, providing Madisonians with the chance to add input before the committee decided what traits to look for in the new University of Wisconsin chancellor.
Baldwin campaign defined Thompson as corporate sell-out
Wisconsin State Journal
?Clearly, clearly Baldwin defining Thompson early on was a very big part of this race,? said Ken Goldstein, president of Kantar Media CMAG, which tracks political advertising. He noted Thompson wasn?t defining himself. UW-Madison history professor John Sharpless, a Republican who ran unsuccessfully against Baldwin for Congress in 2000, agreed. He said that between mid-August and mid-September, Thompson went from being a 10-point favorite to a 9-point underdog in the polls. ?It was a very rough primary that diminished (Thompson) the public?s eye, and a long period when she dominated the airwaves and beat him up,? said Sharpless, a Thompson backer.
Observers say Paul Ryan now a frontrunner for 2016 GOP nomination
Wisconsin State Journal
Ryan?s turn as a vice presidential candidate ? the first by a Wisconsinite on a major party ticket ? ended in a loss Tuesday, but observers say the Janesville Republican established himself as a frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016….And he would enter the 2016 election cycle better known by voters than other GOP hopefuls, said Barry Burden, a UW-Madison political science professor.
If Romney wins, the pollsters will be the losers
Capital Times
If Mitt Romney is declared the president-elect Tuesday night, the nation?s pollsters will have some explaining to do. ?All of the stuff about skewed polls will be put to the test,? says University of Wisconsin political science professor Charles Franklin, who conducts the Marquette University Law School poll and is a polling consultant for the political website Talking Points Memo. In spite of national surveys that suggest the race is a dead heat, the consensus among poll analysts is that President Obama is heavily favored to win re-election.
Referendums cause UW students to vote absentee in Minn.
Daily Cardinal
Despite the critical role of Madison voters in deciding which candidate wins Wisconsin?s electoral votes, many University of Wisconsin-Madison students who are also Minnesota residents have opted to vote absentee for their home state in Tuesday?s election. Many students from Minnesota have chosen to use their vote to weigh in on the referendums on their state?s ballot, including the marriage amendment and Voter ID law.
Pattern of success: Knitters and crocheters push idea of a museum
Karen Kendrick-Hands is sick of knit and crochet being treated as ?the country cousins? of the textile world. She and fellow enthusiasts want to elevate the crafts? status by potentially opening a museum dedicated to preserving, documenting and sharing the knit and crochet heritage….To get the ball rolling, Kendrick-Hands, along with the Wisconsin Historical Society and a group of volunteers are organizing the symposium ?Knit and Crochet Heritage Project? Thursday through Saturday in Madison. To coincide with the symposium, the Wisconsin Historical Society will open an exhibit of 21 knitted or crocheted items from their collection and eight from UW-Madison?s Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection.
Young Americans for Liberty makes waves at UW, nationwide
Daily Cardinal
University of Wisconsin-Madison senior Joe Diedrich changed his conservative political views to embrace the independent, Libertarian party in his later high school years, when he said he realized the Bush administration?s continued shipment of U.S. soldiers and supplies to fuel warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan ?didn?t make any sense.?
?It didn?t make any sense for myself, didn?t make any sense to our national security, it didn?t make any sense for our economy to be in that war,? Diedrich said.
Q&A: Prof says Madison and Waukesha a study in contrasts — and similarities
Capital Times
Torben Lutjen, a political scientist at the University of Dusseldorf in Germany, is researching political polarization in the United States as a visiting scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison….After returning to Germany for the summer, Lutjen, 37, is back in Wisconsin yet again. This time he?s researching conservative Waukesha County. Lutjen believes the two counties ? Dane and Waukesha ? offer a special glimpse into a trend of political polarization that is gripping the United States and puzzling observers in the rest of the western world.
Madison visit part of Obama’s key strategy, experts say
Wisconsin State Journal
When President Barack Obama holds perhaps the largest campaign rally of the season in Madison on Monday ? aided by rock legend Bruce Springsteen ? he?ll cap three visits to Wisconsin in five days, a strategy designed to use the state to secure enough electoral votes for a second term and block challenger Mitt Romney?s path to the White House, experts say.
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professors Barry Burden and Ken Goldstein.
Budgets, loan debt addressed
Badger Herald
With tuition costs rising at the University of Wisconsin for the sixth consecutive year in 2012, the Associated Students of Madison Legislative Affairs Committee reviewed the impact the state and federal budgets will have on students, urging the campus community to get involved in the budget process at a meeting Monday.
Wisconsin Technical College System looking for a new leader
Wisconsin State Journal
As UW-Madison takes its time choosing a new chancellor, Wisconsin?s technical college system is in a relative sprint to get a new chief after former president Dan Clancy unexpectedly announced his retirement in July.
Analysis finds limitations of new public school report cards
Wisconsin State Journal
Julie Underwood, dean of the UW-Madison School of Education, said she was surprised so many charter schools didn’t receive ratings. Private schools in Milwaukee and Racine that receive public voucher funds also don’t have report cards unless a change is made in state law.
“All of the charter schools should be evaluated and we should figure out ways to make valid assessments of them,” she said. “Not only do we need to give parents the information, but we also need good accountability measures because public funds are going to those schools.”
Sen. Johnson speaks before student debate
Daily Cardinal
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., spoke about economic issues and their importance in this year?s election at Union South Tuesday prior to a debate between members of a student panel representing different political opinions.
Strong independent streak makes Wisconsinites fickle voters
Capital Times
Why are Wisconsin voters so changeable? Polling results reinforce our independent streak. The Capital Times asked UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin, who is conducting polls this election season as a visiting professor at Marquette University Law School, to review recent survey results and pull out data on how Wisconsinites say they will vote based on their beliefs on several social issues: the Affordable Care Act “Obamacare”, Medicare, immigration, gay marriage and abortion.
How Thompson, Baldwin differ on Medicare
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Pamela Herd, a University of Wisconsin-Madison associate professor of public affairs and sociology who specializes in Medicare and other social welfare programs.
Committee addresses Responsible Action Bill
Badger Herald
Student government members brainstormed methods for furthering the future of a state bill that would encourage underage individuals to call authorities in emergency medical situations. Â
The student-state tuition dilemma
Daily Cardinal
University of Wisconsin-Madison sophomore Amber Cypcar works four days each week at Gordon Commons and nearly 40 hours a week at Buffalo Wild Wings in her hometown during semester breaks. But instead of spending her money on State Street shopping sprees or eating at expensive restaurants, she saves money to pay for her entire college education.
Campus Connection: Can states be pressured into reinvesting in higher education?
Capital Times
Despite acknowledging concerns about the increasing costs associated with earning a college degree, the Regents this past June ultimately voted to increase tuition by 5.5 percent for the 2012-13 academic year for in-state undergraduates. It was the sixth straight year in which resident undergrads attending one of the UW System?s 13 four-year campuses have had their tuition bumped up by that exact same percentage. Add it up, and tuition and mandatory fees at UW-Madison are topping $10,000 for the first time in 2012-13, costing an in-state undergrad $10,378.
Wisconsin split even on presidential election
Badger Herald
With less than a month to go until the election, a new poll showed the presidential and Senate races are essentially tied among likely voters in Wisconsin.
Chris Rickert: Heroes, villains and humans
Wisconsin State Journal
Public television?s investigative series “Frontline” did a great job last week telling the life stories of President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. So great it actually made me want to vote for them. Not because they came off as particularly brilliant or capable or caring. But rather because they came off as all these things and more, including unserious, haughty and ineffectual. Human, in other words.
Arguably at the forefront of efforts to understand what fuels political stance-taking in Wisconsin is UW-Madison associate political science professor Kathy Cramer Walsh, who spent more than a year gathering the opinions of regular folk in face-to-face interviews around the state. In a guest column in this newspaper in June she noted that “politics is often … about us versus them” and candidates “often make claims about the ?type? of people they are battling on behalf of.”
Questions abound before Wisconsin’s wolf hunt
Wisconsin State Journal
As the state prepares for its first wolf hunt, scientists say they don?t know what effect the five-month hunt beginning Monday will have on Wisconsin wolves. One hunt won?t put wolves ? removed from the federal endangered species list last year ? back on the list but research hints at possible longer-term harm to the wolf population and even an increase in wolves killing livestock, researchers say.
Quoted: Tim Van Deelen, a wildlife biologist at UW-Madison who has studied the state’s wolves extensively.
Playing it safe: New standards in place to protect young athletes from repeat concussions
Madison.com
Even with increased focus on concussions, football remains by far the most popular high school sport. In Wisconsin, 29,807 football players compete at about 420 schools in Wisconsin ? nearly double the number of track and basketball players. But greater awareness of the effects of head injuries has prompted much conjecture about the viability of the game, said Dr. David T. Bernhardt, a pediatrician in primary care sports medicine at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
Scholar panel discusses Sikh temple shooting
Daily Cardinal
A panel of scholars from across the country met Friday to discuss ways to educate the public about the Aug. 5 Oak Creek Sikh temple shooting by connecting it to greater issues involving racism and violence. To connect what happens in smaller-scale terrorist incidents, such as the Oak Creek shooting, to current larger issues, UW-Madison professor Donald Davis said it is necessary to determine if such incidents are ?just a weirdo acting out? or if they are linked to greater global and national problems.
Scholar panel discusses Sikh temple shooting
A panel of scholars from across the country met Friday to discuss ways to educate the public about the Aug. 5 Oak Creek Sikh temple shooting by connecting it to greater issues involving racism and violence. To connect what happens in smaller-scale terrorist incidents, such as the Oak Creek shooting, to current larger issues, UW-Madison professor Donald Davis said it is necessary to determine if such incidents are ?just a weirdo acting out? or if they are linked to greater global and national problems.? The purpose [of the panel discussion] is to think about what scholars of South Asia can and should be doing to educate people about incidents like this to help make sense of why they happen,? Davis said.
Report shows deficit in skilled laborers in Wis.
Badger Herald
A recent report showed Wisconsin is experiencing a severe shortfall of skilled laborers in the workforce, something that could be harmful to the state?s growth.
UW-Madison accepting more in-state applicants
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
University of Wisconsin-Madison accepted 5% more in-state students who applied for admission this fall than it accepted last year – good news for high-achieving Wisconsin students previously on the admissions bubble because the flagship is so selective.
The trend is likely to continue for several years with declining birthrates driving down the number of prospective college students, and the number of students walking out the door with UW-Madison diplomas on the rise, according to university officials.
1 killed, 3 hurt in fire at off-campus apartment in Eau Claire
Wisconsin State Journal
EAU CLAIRE ? Authorities have identified the young man killed and three others injured when fire swept their off-campus apartment near the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Eau Claire fire officials say the four roommates were friends from Stillwater, Minn. They lived in an apartment above a real estate business in Eau Claire. Two of the four men escaped the building when fire broke out early Monday, while firefighters found two others unconscious inside.
Walker subpoenaed in former staffer’s trial
Wisconsin State Journal
Gov. Scott Walker has been subpoenaed to testify next week in the misconduct trial involving one of his former aides in Milwaukee County.
….”Some states have statutes that grant immunity to governors so that they cannot be called to testify in legal proceedings ? Indiana, for example. But most do not,” said Karl Shoemaker, UW-Madison associate professor of history and law. “Any witness retains, of course, the right to refuse to answer questions on grounds recognized under existing law ? for example, if testimony is covered by attorney-client privilege, or the 5th Amendment protection against self-incrimination.”
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen: Preventing rape on college campuses
Capital Times
As students pursue this fall semester on our college campuses, it is important to be aware of the risk of sexual assault. The American Association of University Women reports that up to one in four women experience unwanted sexual intercourse while attending college in the United States, and that one in 12 college men admit to acts that meet the legal definition of rape. Institutions of higher learning can and should help to prevent sexual assault on campus. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has launched a new initiative to do just that, with an interactive online program called ?Tonight? that is now required viewing for all first-year students.
….Wisconsin is home to many reputable colleges and universities whose goal is to create a safe and secure learning environment for all. Effectively addressing sexual violence with students, faculty, and staff is critical to achieving that goal. We should commend UW-Madison for implementing the ?Tonight? program, and we should encourage all of our colleges and universities to communicate similar messages to incoming students.
Reversing the slide: Iron County communities try to curb exodus of residents
Wisconsin State Journal
Until recently, a diverse constellation of industries ? farming, manufacturing, mining and tourism ? sustained these communities. But in many of them today, the population is aging, fewer babies are born, and fewer workers are left to support those left behind.
“When we think about the needs of the community and the tax base that?s required to support a community and all of its services, this is where it really starts to matter, not only for the current well-being of the community but for the future well-being for the community,” said Katherine Curtis, a UW-Madison assistant professor of community and environmental sociology.
Obama fires up Wisconsin Democrats in wake of bruising first debate
Wisconsin State Journal
In the wake of promising poll numbers but a bruising first debate with Mitt Romney, a fiery President Barack Obama kicked off the final month of the campaign Thursday in Madison, where he faced a sea of supporters in this famously liberal city. UW-Madison police estimated the crowd inside the barriers at Bascom Hill at 30,000, the largest of the 2012 presidential campaign.
Hot, dry year means box elder bug boom
Wisconsin State Journal
BARABOO ? The southern faces of buildings and other warm areas will have even larger hordes of box elder insects crawling across them this fall due to an early spring followed by a hot and dry summer, experts say. ?Swarms of the bugs always come out this time of year, but the dry weather has them even more active,? said Ron Mack, owner of Premier Pest Elimination in Sauk City. UW-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri said 2012 has been one of the worst years for box elder bugs since 1988 when Wisconsin endured drought-like conditions during the spring and summer months.
Changing demographics lead to UW System enrollment drop
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A drop in the number of high school students and competition from for-profit and online universities are factors pinching enrollment at some University of Wisconsin System schools, forcing them to fine-tune their recruiting efforts.
Company at Dairy Expo helps farmers turn manure into cash cow
Wisconsin State Journal
A Wisconsin company plying its wares in Madison this week at the World Dairy Expo is offering farmers a way to turn one of the dairy industry?s messiest problems ? manure ? into cash. With an assist from a team of UW-Madison scientists, Braun Electric Inc. of St. Nazianz makes equipment for the Trident “nutrient management system,” which processes manure that might otherwise pollute lakes and the air into animal bedding, dry fertilizer, mulch and biofuels that can be sold for profit.
….”Farmers will make more money off of manure than milk,” said Aicardo Roa, a chemist from Soil Net, a company which has operations in Madison, Belleville and China. He worked with a team from UW-Madison led by biochemistry professor John Markley to help Braun land a $7.5 million grant from the Department of Energy to make the system available to the public. “We are the first people to understand that manure is a resource. That water, protein, it’s all a resource,” Roa said.
Campus Connection: National board warns of threat to public research schools
Capital Times
The cover story of this week?s Chronicle of Higher Education print edition highlights the significant budget cuts most states have delivered to major public research universities between 2002-10. The article is based on a report by the National Science Board, which found that only seven states increased their per-student financial support to these institutions during that period. Perhaps surprisingly, Wisconsin was not among those 10 states making the deepest cuts. According to an online, sortable table put together by the Chronicle using the board?s figures, Wisconsin?s cut in state support to UW-Madison ?- the state?s only major public research university -? was 9 percent between 2002-10.
USDA chief says Congress must pass new farm bill
Wisconsin State Journal
After touring the Catholic Multicultural Center on the city?s South Side and seeing fresh, local produce processed for school lunches, Vilsack announced $101 million in grants ? including 19 for Wisconsin ? to support specialty crop producers. But Vilsack said all that grant money is on hold until a new farm bill is passed. Two grants totaling about $6 million were awarded to UW-Madison. One focuses on encouraging more farm-to-school programs like the Research, Education, Action and Policy Food Group?s farm-to-school program, which supplies area schools with fresh, locally produced fruits and vegetables that it prepares and processes at the Catholic Multicultural Center. The food produced by REAP is sustainably grown and comes from just one acre of land.
Campus Connection: National board warns of threat to public research schools
Capital Times
The cover story of this week?s Chronicle of Higher Education print edition highlights the significant budget cuts most states have delivered to major public research universities between 2002-10. The article is based on a report by the National Science Board, which found that only seven states increased their per-student financial support to these institutions during that period.
Campus Connection: Report says student debt a drag on Wisconsin’s economy
Capital Times
There?s no question that many of the statistics associated with student loan debt are eye-opening….A report released Thursday by the Institute for One Wisconsin, a liberal think tank, argues that yes, it is something to be concerned about, because ?student loan debt is stealing the future of the middle class? and acts as a significant drag on the state?s economic recovery due to the fact that so many people continue paying for their education so long after they graduate. The analysis indicates middle-class households with student loan debt are significantly more likely to rent than own a house, while those paying off student loans also are more likely than those without such debt to buy used cars rather than new ones, potentially reducing new car purchasing in Wisconsin by more than $200 million each year.
Chris Rickert: Be careful when you blame the referees
Wisconsin State Journal
In ripping Dane County Judge Juan Colas as “activist” for striking down key portions of the law ending most public-sector collective bargaining, Gov. Scott Walker is just the latest lawmaker to blame the ref for his own poor play….Donald Downs, a UW-Madison law professor, doubted the courts would look favorably on a First Amendment challenge to the law ? i.e., that restricting collective bargaining restricts union members? freedom of association. An equal protection argument ? that the law discriminates against some union workers because it doesn?t apply to public safety employees ? could get more traction, he said.
Campus Connection: UW-Parkside students note way to save prison system millions
Capital Times
Here?s an interesting story out of southeastern Wisconsin ?Some research done for a class project at UW-Parkside indicates that the state prison system could likely save millions of dollars if it would make the move from paper medical records to electronic ones, according to this article in the Racine Journal Times.
Q&A: Nicole Safar fights for women’s access to reproductive health care
Capital Times
Women?s reproductive health care has been an issue Nicole Safar has been advocating for since she was a law student at UW-Madison. In 2004, before graduating with her law degree, Safar began interning with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin.