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Category: State news

?Family friendly? brewpub opens in Columbus

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Wisconsin State Journal

COLUMBUS ? Beer hasn?t been commercially brewed here since Kurth?s Brewery closed in 1949. But a Columbus couple have changed that with the opening late last year of Hydro Street Brewing Co. & Eatery in downtown Columbus at 152 W. James St. Aaron and Sandye Adams, former researchers at UW-Madison, drained their savings, maxed out their credit cards and pestered family and friends to help them raise $86,000 to renovate a former clothing store into a business that likely will be a draw for local residents and the antiques shoppers who flood the city of 5,036 to visit the many shops.

Grass Roots: ‘Censored Art Show’ rises in protest of canceled exhibit

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Capital Times

I?m not sure anyone who watched the massive protests unfold at the Capitol a year ago in response to Gov. Scott Walker?s political agenda figured the people who marched, sang and slept their way into history there would knuckle under when a GOP legislator forced the sponsors to pull the plug on a planned exhibit of art from the protests. They didn?t. The exhibit ?Art in Protest,? planned for UW-Madison?s Pyle Center later this month, morphed into a protest itself. It opened as ?Censored Art Show? Friday at the Goodman Community Center on Madison?s east side.

In bizarre twist, some Wisconsin Catholic dioceses may soon have to pay for contraception

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Wisconsin State Journal

In August, when the new federal mandate that insurance plans offer free contraceptive services kicks in, it will save women in Wisconsin hundreds and perhaps thousands of dollars. But it also adds fuel to a long-simmering debate over religious freedom in the state. And the effect on Catholics in Wisconsin could be surprising….Among those applauding the new requirement is Grace Colas, a UW-Madison junior who co-chairs the campus chapter of Advocates for Choice, an affiliate of Planned Parenthood. She pays about $45 every three months for birth control under her insurance plan. Colas, 20, welcomes the mandate but said more should be done to help poor women pay for contraception.

“I think it’s important to remember that this is a matter of making basic health care accessible,” she said.

UW women’s basketball: Future Badger Bauman honored

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Madison.com

University of Wisconsin women?s basketball recruit Nicole Bauman of New Berlin Eisenhower has been named the state Gatorade Player of the Year. Bauman, a 5-foot-10 guard, was selected for her combination of athletic and academic achievement, personal character, sportsmanship and community leadership.

Anecdotes don’t reflect UW reality

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Task Force on UW Restructuring should be using its time to refocus the state and UW on the needs of Wisconsin students and families. It should be working to open the university doors to all Wisconsinites, instead of protecting the prestige of UW. It should be focused on rebuilding the relationship between our communities and the universities in them and reprioritizing public investment in UW. [A column by Allie Gardner, ASM chair.]

Judge makes the right decision on voter ID law

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

It?s entirely possible that the temporary injunction against Wisconsin?s voter ID law issued Tuesday won?t stand. The decision has obvious flaws. And, no, Dane County Circuit Judge David Flanagan should not have signed a petition to recall Gov. Scott Walker. Nevertheless, Flanagan raised enough issues in his 11-page decision to call Wisconsin?s version of voter ID into question and to warrant this action. We think that?s good news for the state?s voters, especially the 220,000 who, according to one expert quoted by the judge, don?t have the proper ID to vote.

Obama Strategists To Meet With UW Students

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WISC-TV 3

Strategists with President Barack Obama?s campaign plan to meet with University of Wisconsin students in Madison on Wednesday. Former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and Obama?s national field director Jeremy Bird were to host the student summit. It is part of Obama?s re-election effort to mobilize young people to support him. College-age voters were a big reason for Obama?s victory in 2008.

30 percent of state kids live in low-income working households

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Wisconsin State Journal

Fully 30 percent of Wisconsin?s children now live in working but low-income households, which overall make up a quarter of the state?s working families and half of its non-white families, a new report from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) says. Wisconsin also is near the bottom of states for minority-family income, which is higher in 41 states, the study said. The COWS study argued that recent policy changes were making things even worse for low-income working residents, defined as those earning two times the poverty line.

Judge grants temporary injunction barring enforcement of voter ID law in April election

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Wisconsin State Journal

A Dane County judge on Tuesday barred the enforcement of the state photo ID law at polling places during the general election on April 3, calling it an “extremely broad and largely needless” impairment of the right to vote.

Circuit Judge David Flanagan said the Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP and Voces de la Frontera had demonstrated that their lawsuit against Gov. Scott Walker and the state Government Accountability Board would probably succeed on its merits and had demonstrated the likelihood of irreparable harm if the photo ID law is allowed to stand. Flanagan cited testimony by UW-Madison professor Ken Mayer, who found that as of 2002 there were 221,975 constitutionally qualified voters who do not have a driver’s license or a photo identification card.

Report: UW faculty hurt with low salary rates

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Badger Herald

The University of Wisconsin Faculty Senate reviewed a report Monday that recommends university officials raise non-residential undergraduate and differential tuition rates while limiting resident undergraduate tuition.

Body pulled from river in Stevens Point ID’d as missing student from Fitchburg

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Wisconsin State Journal

Police believe a missing Fitchburg man whose body was found in the Wisconsin River Monday afternoon became disoriented after drinking and wandered into the river. “We believe he mistook the ice for a field or something, wandered in and fell through,” said Stevens Point Sgt. Dan Wheeler. Eric Duffey, a UW-Stevens Point student, disappeared early Saturday after celebrating his 21st birthday in Stevens Point.

Biz Beat: More Wisconsinites working two jobs to make ends meet

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Capital Times

While Wisconsin?s unemployment rate is below the national rate, many in the Badger State are now working two jobs just to make ends meet. Minorities are especially struggling in the current economy, according to a report titled ?Wisconsin Jobs and Low-Income Working Families? from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, a liberal UW-Madison think tank….?One in four families, half of minority families and three in 10 children now live in families with low incomes — and our commitment to these families is shrinking even as their needs are rising,? says COWS associate director Laura Dresser in a statement.

Body pulled from river in Stevens Point ID’d as missing student

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Wisconsin State Journal

Emergency personnel say a coroner?s office has identified a body removed from the Wisconsin River as a college student from Fitchburg who went missing over the weekend. Stevens Point Sgt. Dan Wheeler says officials removed the body of 21-year-old Eric Duffey Monday afternoon. The coroner?s office made a positive identification after meeting with Duffey?s family.

Police recover body from river in Stevens Point

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Wisconsin State Journal

Emergency personnel say they?ve removed a body from the Wisconsin River they believe could be a missing college student. Stevens Point Sgt. Dan Wheeler says officials removed a body around 1:10 p.m. Monday. The coroner?s office has not made a positive ID, but they believe the body is 21-year-old Eric Duffey.

Update: Police searching river for missing UWSP student (stevenspointjournal.com)

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Authorities have turned their search for a missing student to the Wisconsin River this morning, using a boat to break the ice and searching along the shore near the Clark Street bridge. It is a grim turn in the search for Eric Duffey, a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point student who was last seen at about 1:15 a.m. Saturday leaving Joe?s Bar in downtown Stevens Point. Duffey has been missing for more than 55 hours, including three nights of cold weather.

Outdoors: Madison celebrates Aldo Leopold

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Madison.com

The first weekend in March is officially designated as Aldo Leopold Weekend and to celebrate it, readings, film screenings and workshops are being held throughout Wisconsin and many other states. One of the six events in Wisconsin Saturday, March 3, 2012 was ?Madison Reads Leopold? held at the UW-Madison Arboretum Visitor Center. Forty-one conservationists read aloud from A Sand County Almanac, as members of the public listened to the writings that formed the late Aldo Leopold?s land ethic.

Has Walker’s budget formula worked?

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Unveiling deep budget cuts to schools and local governments one year ago, Gov. Scott Walker assured voters that the reductions could be more than offset by cuts to public workers? compensation.

Democrats and unions confidently countered that the Republican governor?s cuts of more than $1 billion would prove devastating to schools and local governments despite his repeal of most collective bargaining by public workers. The competing claims already are playing a role in the looming recall election against Walker.

Madison360: UW professor laments the closed doors facing many 20-somethings

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Capital Times

Tim Smeeding gestured at the white board in his University of Wisconsin office and told me the indecipherable scrawling related to a model for measuring poverty. I?ll have to take his word. Like many professors on the Madison campus, Smeeding is a star. He?s been director of UW-Madison?s Institute for Research on Poverty and is a national poverty expert, a prolific author and someone regularly quoted in the national media.

A powerful argument for blocking Wisconsin?s voter ID law

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Capital Times

University of Wisconsin political scientist Ken Mayer is one of the most serious and responsible analysts of the politics of the state. Widely respected as fair player, whose work is well regarded by members of both major political parties, Mayer is someone conservatives and liberals listen to for reasoned comment on the political processes of the state. So when Mayer talks about the challenges raised by Wisconsin?s new voter ID law, we should all take him seriously.

Bill Lueders: Nonprofit news outlets not all the same

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Capital Times

The other day at the Wisconsin Newspaper Association?s annual convention in Madison, I represented the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism on a panel titled, “Nonprofit News: What You Need to Know About ?Free? Media.”….Moderator Stephen Ward, a UW-Madison journalism professor who specializes in media ethics, focused in on who funds our organizations and how that affects what we do ? worthy questions that merit a thoughtful response.

Norman Stockwell: Attack on ?Art in Protest? is an outrage

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Capital Times

….Since the Republicans have achieved absolute power in our state, they have sought to destroy the labor movement and any political opposition to their corporate agenda. They have crippled public employee unions and have now attacked the School for Workers, the oldest university-based labor education program in the country. It was also one of the first outreach programs created by the Wisconsin Idea. The Wisconsin Idea was developed during the governorship of Robert M. La Follette. It is based on the belief that the people rather than special interests should control government institutions. In 1904 UW President Charles Van Hise declared: ?I shall never be content until the beneficent influence of the university reaches every home in the state.? He decreed that the boundaries of the university should be the boundaries of the state. The Wisconsin Idea gave birth to such innovations as workers? compensation, unemployment insurance and collective bargaining laws, as well as the formation of cooperatives, vocational education and apprenticeship programs for worker training.

Dr. Norman Jensen: Don’t let doctors be scared silent

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Wisconsin State Journal

Regarding Sunday?s story titled ?Legislation would allow doctors to say ?sorry,?? readers may be interested in the view of one who teaches communication to doctors. The author examines the trial lawyers? view that protecting a doctor?s admission of error will prevent a patient from receiving compensation. That would be a bad thing ? there should be no tolerance for malpractice. But common sense suggests such rare cases would be far outweighed by the common good resulting from doctors feeling safe to speak openly after bad news happens.

Packers combine notes: UW?s Toon likes thought of staying in state

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Madison.com

INDIANAPOLIS ? University of Wisconsin receiver Nick Toon laughed when asked about his dad, Al. The former Badgers and New York Jets star receiver currently sits on the Green Bay Packers board of directors and Nick was asked if his dad is politicking being the scenes. ?Not that I know of,? Toon said with a smile. ?It?s obviously a unique situation to have a dad who played in the NFL and now is on the board of directors for the Packers. It?s cool, but we?ll see what happens come April.?

Possible WIAA Schedule Change Concerns Parents

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WISC-TV 3

As many as 60,000 people cheered on young competitors during the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association?s high school state wrestling tournament this week, but some parents said they were concerned about possible scheduling changes next year. The tournament, which has been on a Thursday through Saturday for years, may move to weekdays because of scheduling conflicts at the Kohl Center. University of Wisconsin-Madison officials have told WIAA leaders to plan on getting bumped next year, tournament director Wade Labecki said.

Dr. Richard L. Brown: Less binge drinking key to DUI problem

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Wisconsin State Journal

The State Journal editorial board is right to express outrage over our continuing DUI epidemic. But when our lawmakers do react, let?s make sure their actions are effective. Clearly Wisconsin needs stronger DUI penalties, but that alone won?t help. Ample research has shown that increasing penalties doesn?t change behavior unless people think they might get caught. Toward that end, we need sobriety checkpoints.

Federal trial over redistricting maps now underway

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WITI-TV, Milwaukee

The trial went into the evening Thursday in federal court, and testimony centered around Ken Mayer, a UW-Madison political scientiest. Mayer argues the new maps drawn by Republicans moves 50 people for every one person that should be moved to balance the districts. He also says the new Wisconsin maps disenfranchise about 299,000 people, by making them wait longer to vote in Senate elections.

Wisconsin voter maps drawing scrutiny in federal trial

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Appleton Post-Crescent

Kenneth Mayer, a political-science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the maps move far more people than is necessary. For example, he said one Assembly district was under-populated by 379 people. The mapmakers? proposal added a net of 217 people, but they did so by moving 29,936 people into the district and moving 29,719 out. That means nearly 60,000 were shifted when only 400 needed to be.

Redistricting ‘radically reconfigured’ districts, expert testifies

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In drawing new election districts last year, Republican lawmakers shifted huge numbers of voters into new districts, in one case moving more than 700 times the number of people needed, according to court testimony Thursday.

They could have left the 60th Assembly District in Ozaukee County largely alone because it was underpopulated by just 10 people. Instead, they moved 17,595 people out of the district and put 17,963 people into it. In all, the shift moved 719 times as many people as was necessary, testified Ken Mayer, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist.

T.G. Bell: ?How smart ALEC threatens public education?

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Capital Times

Dear Editor: Many informed readers are aware that the American Legislative Exchange Council, better known as ALEC, has been the idea center for Gov. Scott Walker and several of the Republicans in our Legislature, like Robin Vos and Scott Fitzgerald. ?A smart ALEC threatens public education? shines a critical light on how ALEC supplies word for word legislative documents to our governor and these legislators. The article?s authors are Julie Underwood, UW-Madison School of Education dean, and Julie F. Mead, professor and chair of the UW?s department of education leadership and policy analysis. Their research will be dismissed by many as ?so what!?

Martin David: Water compact could trump mine permit

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Wisconsin State Journal

State Journal reporter Ron Seely?s coverage of the Joint Finance Committee hearings on the mining bill has been outstanding. The proposed iron mine is near the triple-divide between the watersheds of Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and the Mississippi. It will use a great deal of water and will be deep enough to be far below the lake level of Lake Superior. This can not help but affect Lake Superior.

– Martin David, Middleton, emeritus professor, UW-Madison and Nelson Institute

Campus Connection: Pressure from Nass’ office nixes UW-Extension’s ?Art in Protest’

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Capital Times

Artists from around the area say they were looking forward to participating in “Art in Protest,” which was being billed by promoters as an opportunity for people to exchange music, images, written works and other art that grew out of the mass protests against Gov. Scott Walker?s union-busting legislation introduced last year. But when Rep. Steve Nass, R-Town of La Grange, got wind of the event — which was being sponsored by UW-Extension?s School for Workers — his office strongly suggested it be called off.

Northern Wisconsin Chippewa tribes might use treaties to halt or slow proposed mine

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Wisconsin State Journal

Armed with its status as a sovereign nation and powerful treaties with the federal government, the Bad River Chippewa tribe has the legal muscle to do what Democratic opponents of an iron mine proposed for northern Wisconsin have so far been unable to do: halt or delay the project.

Those powers, say experts on Native American law, appear to have been both underestimated and misunderstood by proponents of the mine, including Republican legislators who have been criticized for failing to consult with tribal members as they work on a bill to streamline permitting for the mine.

“All of us are going to get an education in federal Indian law,” said Larry Nesper, a UW-Madison scholar in Great Lakes Indian law and politics.

Stephen D. Morton: UW officials: Speak up on WIAA move

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Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison is a state university, not a private one, and it has an obligation to all the people in the state. This includes high school kids who, in coming to Madison, may be seeing the campus and the Capitol for the first time. The university president, chancellor and the Board of Regents should take a stand on the state basketball tournament issue since they, and not the athletic director, are running the university.

UW-Madison, WIAA drop ball on tourney talks

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Wisconsin State Journal

Among the big stories that broke last week in Madison ? and, for better or worse, it was an especially newsy week ? two in particular caught our attention. Mostly because we think it?s worth connecting the dots on the two.

….Is this problem so unsolvable? Is there really no way to maintain this 90-year tradition in Madison? Or is it more a clash of egos between two dominant institutions in the state and their respective leaders, neither of whom likes to take a back seat on any matter of consequence. So while the travel budget for UW football goes from $706,000 to $1.05 million next year, and the travel budget for men’s basketball goes from $607,767 to $767,000, travel plans for students and families all over Wisconsin will change from visiting the Capital City to visiting the Green Bay area for the state basketball tournaments. Somehow that just doesn’t seem right, no matter how you connect the dots.

Campus Connection: UW profs shed light on ALEC’s threat to public education

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Capital Times

University of Wisconsin-Madison professors Julie Underwood and Julie Mead are expressing concern over the growing corporate influence on public education in an article published Monday. In particular, they are highly critical of the American Legislative Exchange Council ALEC, which connects conservative state legislators with like-minded think tanks, corporations and foundations to develop “model legislation” that can be enacted at the state level.