Category: State news

Madison – Republican legislators who want to rewrite the Wisconsin Constitution to limit state and local government spending suffered a major setback Wednesday when two key GOP senators said they would not vote for the measure but instead want limits set by state law.

MADISON, Wis. – Qualified students at Madison Area Technical College are guaranteed admission to the University of Wisconsin-Madison as transfer students under an agreement announced by both schools Wednesday.

MADISON, Wis. — The attorney for a former University of Wisconsin-Madison administrator said on Wednesday that his client wants his old job back after a UW appeals committee voted last week to overturn his reprimand after sexual harassment allegations were leveled against him.

William K. Johnston, who began his newspaper career 33 years ago in Madison, is returning as publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal.

Johnston, currently publisher of the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star and regional executive for Lee publishing operations in Nebraska, begins his new duties May 22, succeeding James W. Hopson, who announced in March that he will retire at the end of the year.

Johnston has a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in social work from UW-Madison.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Gov. Jim Doyle named a University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh student on Tuesday as the first nontraditional student member of the UW System Board of Regents.

….The governor said Thomas Shields of Oshkosh would be the first to join the board under a law he signed in December requiring a student over age 24 to represent the views of nontraditional students on the board.

The other new members are Jeffrey Bartell, a Madison lawyer who served as a Wisconsin assistant attorney general and the state securities commissioner; Brent Smith, a La Crosse lawyer who is president of the Wisconsin Technical College System board; and Mary Quinnette Cuene, an instructor at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay.

MADISON � Public pressure may have cost Paul Barrows a high-powered job with the University of Wisconsin-Madison last summer. Now his lawyer hopes public pressure will win him the position back.

Attorney Lester Pines has a message for members of the state Legislature.”Until you know what you’re talking about, keep your mouth shut,” said Pines.

He was referring Friday to pressure from lawmakers last summer for Chancellor John Wiley to fire Pines’ client, former vice chancellor Paul Barrows.

Wiley didn’t fire Barrows, but he did cut Barrows’ pay by about $120,000. After an investigation, Provost Peter Spear reprimanded Barrows for allegedly sexually harassing two women. On Friday, the Academic Staff Appeals Committee voted 5-0 to say Spear lacked just cause for disciplining Barrows.

State Republican lawmakers have introduced another draft of their plan to amend the Wisconsin Constitution to limit how much money governments can raise, in hopes of garnering votes within their own party.

The latest version of the plan, nicknamed the Taxpayer Protection Amendment, includes rules that could limit public employees’ salaries, prevent transferring money from one state fund to another and set up a statewide cap on school district revenue.

A former top administrator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison got his chance Tuesday to defend himself against allegations that he sexually harassed women.
During day two of a public hearing, one woman described a series of incidents in which she says Paul Barrows’ behavior was predatory, saying he repeatedly stared at her and followed her.

A potential witness to sexual harassment by UW-Madison administrator Paul Barrows said he saw nothing.� 

A University of Wisconsin-Madison appeals panel this morning overruled a university attorney’s efforts to limit the scope of inquiry in the Paul Barrows matter.

MADISON, Wis. — The former University of Wisconsin vice chancellor accused of sexual harassment faced down those allegations at a hearing on Monday.

UW-Madison administrator Paul Barrows told a university appeals committee discipline he received for acts of sexual harassment and his use of leave were unwarranted. After 27 News reports on Barrows’ months of taxpayer-supported sick leave, an investigation determined the former Vice Chancellor should not been granted much of the leave.Ã? 

Celebrate National Landscape Architecture Month, now through April 14, with a visit to the displays in the Wisconsin Capitol rotunda.

You’ll find award-winning projects by the Wisconsin Chapter of Landscape Architects, works by University of Wisconsin Landscape Architecture Extension, UW senior capstone projects and historic plans by landscape architects on the formation of Madison.

State legislators ordered a state audit Wednesday to probe several information-technology projects at various state departments, including the University of Wisconsin System.

(AP) Gov. Jim Doyle called for a review Thursday of standards used to determine whether charities can participate in a state-run program allowing employees to automatically donate part of their paychecks.

A coalition of religious groups filed a federal lawsuit against state officials late last week claiming they were excluded from a list of groups to which state employees can direct part of their earnings.The lawsuit challenges a state rule that requires groups to adopt a statement agreeing not to discriminate on the basis of religion or sexual orientation in hiring staff and accepting members.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – A new coalition at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee says the campus would get more respect by losing its hyphen.

“We’re looking to eliminate this hyphen,” junior Bradley Wooten told dozens of students at a rally Thursday. “It gives us a second-class status.”

Students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will have the opportunity to vote on a possible name change for the university in their upcoming student elections later this month.

Troubled by cost overruns and quality concerns, state lawmakers ordered an audit Wednesday into information technology projects across state government.

The Legislative Audit Committee voted for an audit that will create an inventory of projects in progress in each agency, including their budgets and expected completion date. The audit will also review projects completed in the last two years to see if they were done within their budgets and on schedule.

Lawmakers cited four examples of troubled projects at the University of Wisconsin System, the state Elections Board, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Revenue. The problems have included lengthy delays, cost overruns and glitches once the new systems are implemented.

A lawmaker who has spent years pushing spending limits on state and local governments disowned the latest version of a constitutional amendment to do that, on Wednesday calling it “meaningless” and not worth taking to voters.

“Don’t gut this, and then call it something that really works,” said Rep. Frank Lasee (R-Bellevue), who led a push two years ago for tight, Colorado-like spending limits and endorsed the first version of what supporters call the Taxpayer Protection Amendment.

MADISON, Wis. – A former dean at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, fired from that job four months ago after a critical audit, has resigned from his faculty position, the university confirmed Tuesday.

Former UW Vice Chancellor Paul Barrows is calling his demotion unfair and said he is looking forward to his appeal.

MADISON, Wis. – University of Wisconsin System regents formally opposed a proposal to rein in government spending on Thursday, arguing it would cause tuition increases and campus enrollment caps.

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents took an official stand Thursday against the proposed state Taxpayer Protection Amendment.