A Dane County judge has ruled against a telecommunications company that wanted to slow down a broadband project in rural communities. The University of Wisconsin System and others were awarded more than $37 million in grants for the project. Its goal is to deliver telecommunications capabilities to schools, hospitals and emergency services.
Category: State news
Capitol Report: Second round of insurance cost hikes unveiled for state workers
Capital Times
Come the first of the year, state workers and university employees will take another financial hit associated with their recent loss of collective bargaining power as the second wave of increased health insurance costs takes effect.
UW football: It runs in the family for Derek Watt, Tyler Leonhard
Madison.com
Derek Watt and Tyler Leonhard have yet to hold The Conversation. You know the one. About what it?s like to follow in the incredibly huge footsteps of a legendary brother for the University of Wisconsin football team.
Different Opinions on how Walker’s Budget Affects Schools
WUWM
Quoted: UW-Madison Professor Andrew Reschovsky, an economist specializing in school finance.
A look at turnout in the Wisconsin recalls: How high will it go?
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: University of Wisconsin political scientist Charles Franklin.
Democrats Hope to Ride Wave of Momentum from First Recall Victory (Patch.com)
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Wisconsin State Senate Races Getting Hotter | TPMDC
Quoted: Political scientists Ken Goldstein and UW-Madison Professor Charles Franklin.
Power grab: Is UW?s involvement in providing Internet access an invaluable public good?
Capital Times
No matter how vocal the opposition, the state?s new Republican leadership rarely blinks when pushing through measures it deems important. Return federal high-speed rail money? Check. Slash public sector unions? rights? Done. Implement a voter ID bill? No problem.
So, when members of the Republican-led Joint Finance Committee inserted language into their version of the state budget that would have been a boon to state telecommunications providers and a blow to decades-old investments made by University of Wisconsin institutions to help deliver and expand Internet access to entities such as schools and libraries, people across Wisconsin reached for the panic button.
Campus Connection: UW-Madison’s Ward names Bugher special assistant
Capital Times
Interim UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward named Mark Bugher, the director of University Research Park, as his special assistant, the university announced in a news release Monday. Bugher won?t be paid for assisting Ward and will continue to lead University Research Park, the university said.
Bugher is expected to advise the chancellor on everything from strategic priorities and political issues to the challenges of implementing newly awarded administrative flexibilities, which were granted to the university in the 2011-13 state budget.
Loftus says proposal to break up UW System was politically unfeasible
Capital Times
Tom Loftus? six-year run as a member of the University of Wisconsin System?s Board of Regents came to an end on Friday. Loftus, 66, was regarded as one of the most politically savvy regents and earlier this year emerged as an outspoken critic of the plan contained in Gov. Scott Walker?s 2011-13 budget proposal that would have granted UW-Madison public authority status and split it away from the rest of the UW System.
“A proposal to remove UW-Madison from the UW System in the budget bill is a guarantee that we will return to the tribalism of the past, when each campus and their legislators fought for their turf and decried any perceived advantage one campus might get that they did not,” Loftus said after news of the plan broke in February.
Madison 360: Biddy Martin leaves Madison as an enigma
Capital Times
Gauging by decibel level, the best moment in a 21-point Badger basketball victory last Dec. 8 was a free-throw contest between Biddy Martin and her fellow chancellor from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the Badgers? foe that night. Madison?s chancellor hardly missed, drilling 12 free throws with a rapid-fire, line-drive delivery to win easily. As with most things during her three years in Madison, Martin came prepared. Just before the shootout, she had sneaked off to warm up on the Nicholas-Johnson Pavilion practice courts next to the Kohl Center.
When a UW official first shared that anecdote last winter, it fit my evolving impression of Martin as a person who left nothing to chance. That, plus being smart, broadly experienced and charismatic, won her the chancellor?s job. Yet she also seemed oddly cautious and sensitive to what others said about her.
Now she?s history. Her last day here was Friday, and the one-word summary that comes to mind is ?enigmatic.?
Concealed-carry law a loaded issue for businesses
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Deborah Mitchell, executive director of the Center for Brand and Product Management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business.
Public workers retire in droves
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
One out of about every 14 public employees in the Wisconsin Retirement System asked for “the numbers” – estimates of what their pensions would be if they retired – in the first half of this year.
A new report from the Department of Employee Trust Funds, which runs the pension system, says the 18,759 state and local government workers who asked what their pension would be was 75% more than those who made the same request in the same period last year.
Under redistricting plan, nearly 300,000 would have 6-year wait for Senate vote
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: David Canon, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist.
Walker says he wants to work with Democrats
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political science professor at UW-Madison.
The ad wars heat up in the Wisconsin recall campaigns
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Spending on broadcast TV for just one race ? the northwestern Wisconsin seat now held by Republican Sen. Sheila Harsdorf of River Falls ? has totaled roughly three-quarters of a million dollars in recent weeks, according to estimates by CMAG, the national firm that tracks campaign spots.
?We are in uncharted territory,? says political scientist and CMAG president Ken Goldstein, referring to the unusual dynamics of these legislative races: mid-summer, stand-alone, quasi-nationalized elections in which nobody is quite sure who will vote and how big the electorate will be.
Some insiders expect combined spending of all kinds to top $20 million for the nine recall elections, much of it outside money, much of it undisclosed.
GOP lawmaker says UW gets enough money
Wisconsin Radio Network
There?s partisan feuding over everything it seems these days, including the cost of a UW education. Some members of the UW Board of Regents are ?crying wolf? about the impact of cuts under the Republican state budget. So says GOP Representative Steve Nass of Whitewater. ?We fund the UW System by more than a billion dollars every year, and historically every single session we hear from the university about how they cannot survive without more money. And they certainty have survived very well.?
UW tuition increase draws concern
Wisconsin Radio Network
Tuition will go up five-and-a-half percent at University of Wisconsin system campuses this fall, under a budget approved by the Board of Regents Thursday. The vote was 11-4, with John Drew of Milwaukee in opposition. ?I have supported similar tuition increases in the past when they were part of responsible budgeting process that recognized the importance of the UW System and public higher education,? said Drew. ?But this tuition increase is nothing more than an attack on middle class Wisconsin citizens, and a giant step away from high quality, affordable public education.?
Walker administration reverses course, now backs health grants
Wisconsin State Journal
Public health advocates seeking federal grants to prevent chronic diseases now have the state?s support, after Gov. Scott Walker?s administration reversed its opposition to the grants. The state Department of Health Services has written letters supporting applications for about $30 million in grants over five years ? most of it sought by UW-Madison ? to curb smoking and obesity and encourage physical activity and good nutrition.
Poll: Obama’s state approval rating at 50 percent
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: Katherine Cramer Walsh, a University of Wisconsin political science professor who runs the UW-Madison Badger Poll.
Voter poll shows discontent; blame for recall cost aired
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The poll numbers were from the University of Wisconsin Badger Poll released Wednesday that indicated that more than half of state residents disapprove of the job that both Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers are doing. Also quoted: UW-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin.
Surprisingly high turnout in Democratic Senate primaries
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Tuesday?s Democratic recall primaries were not the low-turnout contests some observers expected.
In fact, says University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin, in some of the Senate districts, the turnout even rivaled that in April?s blockbuster Supreme Court election ? which Franklin termed “gigantic.”
Our view: UW Regents had few real options in tuition increase
Wausau Daily Herald
The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents Thursday decision to raise tuition 5.5 percent already has plenty of UW students and parents concerned.
Regents to approve tuition hike
Wisconsin Radio Network
UW System Regents are expected to approve a 5.5 percent tuition hike today. But they won?t be doing so willingly, according to Regent Tom Loftus. ?We?ve got no choice,? he said. ?Really, the budget is quite a disastrous cut to the university system, even with a five and-a-half percent tuition increase, it will wreak havoc in what has to be cut at each campus.?Â
UW Regents approve plan to raise tuition 5.5 percent, costing students hundreds more per year (AP)
Most students in the University of Wisconsin System will pay hundreds of dollars more in tuition starting in the fall, after the UW Board of Regents voted Thursday to approve a plan that raises tuitions 5.5 percent.
Voter poll shows discontent; blame for recall cost aired
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The poll numbers were from the University of Wisconsin Badger Poll released Wednesday that indicated that more than half of state residents disapprove of the job that both Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers are doing.
Badger Poll shows Obama’s Wisconsin approval rating at 50 percent (AP)
A new poll of Wisconsin residents shows President Barack Obama?s approval rating is at 50 percent, about the same as last year.
Wisconsin 13th in creating ?green? jobs; Madison 43rd of 100 metro areas
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: Sarah White, senior associate with COWS, the UW-Madison Center on Wisconsin Strategy.
Poll: 59 pct disapprove of Wis. gov’s performance
Madison.com
A majority of Wisconsin residents disapprove of Republican Gov. Scott Walker?s performance and are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the state, according to a new poll released Wednesday. The University of Wisconsin Survey Center?s Badger Poll found that 59 percent of residents disapprove of the performance of Walker, who took office in January and wasted no time pushing divisive legislation through the Republican-controlled Legislature, including a law that stripped most public employees of their collective bargaining rights. Quoted: Katherine Cramer Walsh, a political science professor at UW-Madison who helped with the poll.
Tuition Hike Raises Questions About Higher Education Mission
WUWM
Thursday, the UW System Board of Regents will consider yet another boost in tuition. System President Kevin Reilly is proposing a 5.5 percent hike, meaning students would pay between $300 and $400 more a year to attend a UW school. Reilly says the increase is needed to preserve educational quality in the face of deep cuts in state funding. As WUWM?s Erin Toner reports, the financial crunch is raising questions about the fundamental mission of higher education.
De Pere college student selected as student rep for Board of Regents (WTAQ-FM)
A U-W Madison student from De Pere has been appointed to the governing body of the state?s university system.Â
Redistricting legal challenges face tough road
Wisconsin Radio Network
Quoted: UW-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin.
Biddy Martin proposes using tuition hike for financial aid
Wisconsin State Journal
In one of her final acts as UW-Madison chancellor, Biddy Martin wants to set aside $2.3 million so that low- and middle-income students won?t have to pay a proposed 5.5 percent tuition increase. Martin sent a letter to the Board of Regents and UW System President Kevin Reilly on Friday seeking approval to use money from a 2011-12 tuition hike so that families with annual household incomes of less than $80,000 won?t have to pay the increase. Reilly responded Tuesday, letting Martin know the UW regents won?t set tuition and vote on the operating budget until Thursday and it would be ?inappropriate to pre-empt that action.?
Real Democratic recall candidates cruise to victory over fakes
Capital Times
None of the six placeholder or “fake” Democratic Senate candidates pulled off an upset victory during the first round of a historic recall election season in Wisconsin Tuesday. But then again, few expected they would.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, UW-Madison professor of political science
UW System plan could raise tuition 5.5 percent (AP)
Forbes
Most students at University of Wisconsin campuses would pay an additional 5.5 percent in tuition this fall, an increase of several hundred dollars per year, under a proposal released Monday.
State Supreme Court Won’t Reconsider UW-Whitewater Case
WISC-TV 3
MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Supreme Court has refused to reconsider its decision to deny a new trial to an Illinois man accused of participating in the gang rape a college coed in 1998. A University of Wisconsin-Whitewater freshman accused Dimitri Henley and two others of sexually assaulting her. A jury convicted Henley in 2000. A Jefferson County judge granted Henley a new trial in 2008 after a federal appeals court granted a new trial for a co-defendant.
UW System plan would raise tuition 5.5 percent (AP)
Most students at University of Wisconsin campuses would pay an additional 5.5 percent in tuition this fall, an increase of several hundred dollars per year, under a proposal released Monday.
Martin says Madison turmoil doomed UW initiative
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Outgoing University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said Gov. Scott Walker?s union bargaining legislation may have made it difficult to pass a measure backed by both leaders that would have given the university more independence.
New school reform for Wisconsin a model for nation?
Wisconsin State Journal
A new initiative to reform how Wisconsin schools are held accountable could lead to the development of a national model, similar to welfare reform in the 1990s, according to a leading UW-Madison education researcher. But the effort, announced over the weekend by Gov. Scott Walker and State Superintendent Tony Evers, could be hampered by an intensely partisan political climate in which school funding has been slashed by hundreds of millions of dollars, education advocates said Monday.
Quoted: Adam Gamoran, professor of sociology and director of the Wisconsin Education Research Center at UW-Madison
Campus Connection: Tuition for UW students likely to increase 5.5 percent
Capital Times
Students attending a University of Wisconsin System campus will likely see tuition increases of 5.5 percent for the 2011-12 academic year.
The UW System?s Board of Regents is slated to review an operating budget and consider new tuition rates for the upcoming school year when it gets together for its monthly meeting Thursday and Friday on the UW-Madison campus. And for the fifth consecutive year, UW System President Kevin Reilly has proposed the 5.5 percent tuition increase for resident undergraduates at the four-year campuses.
UW System plan could raise tuition 5.5%
Wisconsin State Journal
University of Wisconsin System officials are planning to seek a tuition increase of 5.5 percent starting in the fall. The recommendation reflects the maximum percentage that the state?s latest budget will allow.
Plain Talk: State must make it easier for voters to get IDs
Capital Times
Doug Erickson?s story about Wisconsin?s new voter ID law, which ran in the State Journal over the Fourth of July weekend, ought to open a few eyes around the state. Truth is, of course, that election fraud in Wisconsin is virtually nonexistent, but it was a convenient excuse to get what the Republicans wanted ? to discourage classes of state citizens, mainly the 18- to 21-year-old college kids, the poor and senior citizens from voting because they tend to favor Democrats.
Footnote: Does a photo ID need to have the current address on it to be valid for voting?
Wisconsin State Journal
Q. A new state law will require people to show photo IDs to vote beginning with the 2012 primary elections in February. Does the photo ID need to have the individual?s current address on it to be valid for voting purposes?
A. No, a voter?s photo ID does not need a current address for the voter to receive a ballot, said Reid Magney, spokesman for the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board.
Lyme disease on the rise in Wisconsin
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Susan Paskewitz, professor of entomology at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
State blocks plans to apply for federal health grants
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
University Health Services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison planned to apply for a federal grant worth roughly $23 million over five years for the remainder of the state. It operates a clearinghouse that provides training and technical assistance to community groups, coalitions and local public health departments.
Second federal lawsuit filed over union law
Wisconsin State Journal
A second federal lawsuit has been filed challenging Wisconsin?s new law restricting collective bargaining rights. The lawsuit by two Madison-based labor unions was filed in U.S. District Court in Madison on Wednesday. The unions represent about 2,700 public workers in Madison and Dane County, including school teachers, city public workers employees and others.
Warrants issued for three in Mifflin block party fight, stabbing
Wisconsin State Journal
Arrest warrants were issued Wednesday for three men who were allegedly involved in a fight at the Mifflin Street Block Party that left another man with life-threatening stab wounds and his friend with a broken jaw.
Plain Talk: We?ve become laughingstock of the nation
Capital Times
A longtime friend who now lives in Washington, D.C., called the other day.
?What the hell is going on in our state?? he demanded. ?People are making jokes about Wisconsin all over the place.? He?s right, of course. Our once proud state that long had the reputation for being on the cutting edge of everything from social justice to clean, honest government has become a laughingstock to many outsiders.
Breathing cleaner air
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The sky didn?t fall, after all, but the air sure got cleaner.
One year after enactment of Wisconsin?s controversial statewide smoking ban, we see very little evidence that the ban has harmed business for the bars and restaurants it affects. But there are signs that the air in those establishments is cleaner.
A University of Wisconsin air quality study found just that, and a UW-Milwaukee study found that bartenders reported a big drop in respiratory problems.
Many State Employees Retire Thursday
WISC-TV 3
A mass exodus is taking place in state offices around Wisconsin as retiring workers take the final day of the fiscal year to mark a new chapter in their lives.Memorial Library is just one of several places on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus Thursday where workers had their last day on the job.
Energy facilities sparking interest
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
As the Walker administration explores a plan to sell off the state?s energy plants, which provide heat and steam to college campuses and prisons, local utilities are expressing interest in buying the plants.
Milwaukee council tries to shape new districts for Hispanic majorities
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: David Canon, a political-science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Q&A: Deal maker John Neis works to connect ideas with venture capital
Capital Times
Those who follow Wisconsin?s economic development scene know the state suffers from a lack of investment dollars to help new companies get off the ground. One figure often cited is that Wisconsin is home to 1.84 percent of the U.S. population and receives 2.15 percent of the nation?s academic research spending but attracts just 0.11 percent of the available venture capital.
For more than 25 years, John Neis has been working to change that.
State senators propose constitutional amendment to end Supreme Court elections
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin.
State budget gives abortion foes motivation to push agenda
Wisconsin State Journal
Buoyed by successes in the just-signed state budget, abortion foes say they have the numbers and momentum to push a more sweeping agenda. Pro-Life Wisconsin?s top legislative priority is a law that would prohibit the sale and use of any human fetal body part, such as a cell, tissue or organ. Sande said the law is needed to prevent parts of aborted fetuses from being used in research, which he said has been done at UW-Madison.UW-Madison and UW Health issued a joint statement in response saying, in part, “Limiting or barring access to legally and ethically obtained research materials would compromise the ability of scientists to find new drugs and therapies to treat serious diseases.”
Chris Rickert: Healthier, but worth the cost?
Wisconsin State Journal
I think I understand the frustration behind what state Department of Health Services Secretary Dennis Smith said when asked why the department wouldn?t support requests from UW-Madison?s student health center and the Milwaukee Health Department for federal grants aimed at preventing obesity, smoking and other public health risks.
Johnson Controls partners with UW-Milwaukee & UW-Madison (WITI-TV, Milwaukee)
The goal making Wisconsin on a world leader in energy. That?s why Johnson Controls is partnering with state?s two largest university campuses. At the Johnson Control Headquarters, Governor Scott Walker praised the battery supplier as well as the University of Wisconsin system for a new partnership to advance research in energy storage.
Universities, company team up to research ‘powertrain of the future’
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A wide-ranging partnership between Johnson Controls and the University of Wisconsin will create three energy storage research laboratories in Milwaukee and Madison, in a bid to put the state on the map as a center for development of next-generation batteries.
Scientists at Johnson Controls Power Solutions business will work side by side in the labs with engineering students pursuing doctorates at both University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin-Madison, the company and state officials announced.
State senators propose constitutional amendment to end Supreme Court elections
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin.
From Medicaid to movies, Wis. budget touches you
Madison.com
Prospective politicians, college students, business owners, state workers and commuters all will face a new world when the new state budget takes effect Friday. The Republican-crafted spending plan reshapes all corners of Wisconsin life, from how much Medicaid will cost to auto title loans to honoring former President Ronald Reagan to even drinking alcohol at the movies. If you?re a University of Wisconsin student, start saving your pennies. The budget allows the UW Board of Regents to increase tuition by up to 5.5 percent beginning with the fall semester.