WAUKESHA – Local elected officials and educators agree that Gov. Jim Doyleââ?¬â?¢s proposed college incentive program has merit, but some question the potential cost of the program to taxpayers.
Doyle spoke of the idea in his State of State address Tuesday night.
The plan would guarantee financial aid to students who sign a pledge in eighth grade promising to maintain at least a B average, attend college-prep classes and live a clean life.
MADISON – Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz urged fellow legislators Wednesday to endorse a proposal that would give University of Wisconsin System professors and academic staff the right to form unions.
All other state workers have the right to form collective bargaining units except 17,000 UW professors, researchers and other staff members. Schultz’s plan, discussed at a public hearing Wednesday, would give them the ability to organize in an effort to boost their pay and benefits.
27 News has learned Department of Administration official Georgia Thompson has hired prominent Madison criminal defense attorney Stephen Hurley as investigators probe Thompson’s role in the award of a lucrative state contract..
Hurley’s clients have included triple murder defendant, UW-Madison student Mark Wu, former Madison Overture Center Director Bob D’Angelo and former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson.
While riding down a rural Irish lane so narrow that two cars could barely pass – much less avoid the wandering sheep – Gov. Jim Doyle mused out loud last week about the contrast between the bumpy road and the growing technology center that lay at its end.
Back in Wisconsin, Doyle said, most argue that the state must build expensive highways to lure factories and research facilities.
With one speech, Gov. Jim Doyle has offered state Democrats a platform for this fall’s elections: a living wage to lift families out of poverty, health care for all Wisconsin children, aid for low-income families to pay their heating costs this winter, easier financial access to the University of Wisconsin, and help for seniors to stay in their homes.
Doyle included those as points in his “Affordability Agenda,” unveiled during Tuesday night’s annual State of the State speech. He took to the road today to back up the speech with a series of statewide appearances.
Public colleges in states that spend a lot of money on higher education aren’t necessarily better than colleges in states that provide them with meager support, according to a report that ranks states based on an analysis of their higher-education budgets and the performance of their colleges.
The report, which was prepared by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, attempts to answer the age-old question in debates over state financing of higher education: Does more money equal better quality?
The attorney for state Rep. Scott Jensen (R-Town of Brookfield) told a judge Tuesday that his witness list for Jensen’s upcoming trial includes former Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser and the manager of Gov. Jim Doyle’s re-election campaign. Also on the list is former Assembly Speaker Tom Loftus, now a member of the UW System Board of Regents.
In his last State of the State address before what promises to be a tough re-election year, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle on Tuesday took credit for steering Wisconsin out of dangerous budget shoals and sought to align himself with middle-class families.
Doyle also announced what he called “the Wisconsin Covenant,” a program to provide eighth-graders – regardless of financial need – with help paying for college if they maintain at least a B average in high school and stay out of trouble.
In a wide-ranging speech aimed at covering all of his political bases, Gov. Jim Doyle said he had righted the state’s finances and was now turning to an “affordability agenda” to address the demands on middle-class families across the state.
If ever a school needed a year to end, it was the University of Wisconsin System in 2005. In what will surely go down as one of the most trying and difficult years in school annals, UW became a personal punching bag for the media, lawmakers and others throughout the state as one sordid scandal after another erupted in headlines throughout the year.
In their first-ever “pre-buttal” – presented before Gov. Jim Doyle gives his State of the State address tonight – majority Republicans in the state Senate were set today to call for new limits on government spending and tax increases and an overhaul of the state’s tax code.
Sounds of protest and praise filled the State Capitol this morning, though on starkly different issues.
In the chambers of the Senate and the Assembly, legislators formally commended University of Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez in a joint resolution that congratulated and thanked him “for his 16 years of hard work and great achievements as coach,” more wins than any of his predecessors.
But, at the same time down Wisconsin Avenue at Bethel Lutheran Church, demonstrators were also talking about work. They were rallying before a walk to the Capitol to try to influence senators not to approve a bill that would require documentary proof of citizenship or legal residence to get a driver’s license.
MADISON ââ?¬â? Not too many children and grandchildren of University of Wisconsin System alumni are taking up an offer for discounted nonresident tuition under a three-year pilot program.
Only 45 students are getting 25 percent discounts on nonresident tuition under the Return to Wisconsin initiative, which was put in place at eight regional campuses in fall 2004.
Gov. Jim Doyle says he will propose new steps to maintain Wisconsin’s status as a leader in embryonic stem cell research during his State of the State speech (tonight). In an interview (yesterday), Doyle said he aims to have Wisconsin capture 10 percent of the stem cell research market by 2015. By then, Doyle estimates, the industry will be worth $10 billion nationwide and will employ 100,000 people.
To get to that target, Doyle said he will call for the Department of Commerce to dedicate $5 million to find, fund and recruit companies that find practical applications for stem cell research, such as Cellular Dynamics, the Madison-based company established by stem cell pioneer and UW-Madison researcher James Thomson.
ââ?¬Å?I am still a little numb. We almost lost Cullen early Sunday morning.ââ?¬Â
That�s how it started, with what appeared to be a concerned mother�s e-mail to two friends Tuesday, telling the twisted tale of her son�s escape from death in the Mississippi River the previous weekend.
MADISON, Wis. – Gov. Jim Doyle is proposing a new financial aid package to help high school students with good grade-point averages pay for college.
When state legislators and governors gather from around the country, they might be forgiven for thinking that all of those who run state higher education systems come from Lake Wobegon, where all children are above average. For in just about every state ââ?¬â? whether generous or frugal on college spending ââ?¬â? administrators say that they are making the absolute best possible use of available dollars.
For years, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has existed in the shadow of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Marquette University. But under the leadership of chancellor Carlos Santiago, UWM is making strides to step to the forefront of Wisconsin universities, which is a positive development for the Milwaukee-area business community.
Gov. Jim Doyle is proposing a new financial aid package to help high school students with good grade-point averages pay for college.
A pair of dramatic disclosures rocked the world of stem cell research to its foundations in recent weeks. Discovery of fraud at a top international research center and a breakthrough in stem cell culturing at a research facility affiliated with UW-Madison have each jolted a field of research already wracked by ethical issues.
There are days he still can’t believe it.
How could a state once known for its squeaky clean politics have degenerated into the cesspool that it is now – and in a relatively short time – Mike McCabe wondered aloud during an interview this week at a downtown coffee shop.
And yet, while he hates to sound naive, the 45-year-old executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign believes there are definite signs that the public is finally waking up and that we may be in the early stages of a “throw the bums out” movement.
La Crosse police continue to look into how a 21-year-old Viroqua man ended up in the Mississippi River.
Cullen Fortney, who is a UW-Madison student, says he found himself in the river early Sunday morning after a night of drinking in downtown La Crosse with friends. Fortney has no recollection on how he got there.
MADISON, Wis. – University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly is asking the public for suggestions on the role of residence hall assistants as he crafts a new policy governing their behavior.
The Information Technology Association of Wisconsin has named a former Charter Communications executive and entrepreneur as its first president and CEO.
Jim Rice took the helm Jan. 1 at ITAW, which was formed last June by a group of Wisconsin businesses as the first statewide organization dedicated to advancing IT.
….In the early 1990s, Rice co-founded Stress Photonics, a technology spin-out from the UW-Madison Engineering Department in the area of thermoelastic stress analysis.
An intoxicated college-age man reported he fell into the Mississippi River early Sunday but managed to climb out, authorities said.
The Viroqua, Wis., native, who attends the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was spending a night in downtown La Crosse with a couple of friends when they got separated, according to La Crosse police.
Capital Times editor’s note: In the wake of the ouster of Nino Amato as president of the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, Amato released this statement to “to eliminate any rumors or speculations as to what happened.” It has been edited slightly for length.
With electric rates and natural gas prices in Wisconsin soaring, customers have lost one of the most outspoken critics of utility profits.
Nino Amato was removed Monday as president of the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, a trade organization that represents large manufacturers and energy users. He had served 4 years in that position.
….Amato’s departure comes 1 1/2 years after he lost the presidency of the Wisconsin Technical College System board, which he maintains was due to his outspoken stances on the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents.
State retirees may receive “very modest” increases in their monthly payments based on 2005 fund returns reported by the State of Wisconsin Investment Board.
The amounts of any possible increases, which are calculated by the Department of Employee Trust Funds, will not be known until sometime in February, SWIB said in a press release on Monday announcing 2005 preliminary results.
A group of manufacturers concerned about high electricity and natural gas prices has terminated the contract of its president, Nino Amato.
Amato’s departure comes 1 1/2 years after Amato lost the presidency of the Wisconsin Technical College System board, which he at the time attributed to his outspoken stances on the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents.
Quoted: Katherine Cramer Walsh, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor.
State spending for higher education grew at the fastest rate in five years during the current fiscal year, allowing colleges throughout much of the nation to regain their financial balance after a series of tight budgets.
Wisconsin lost $4.7 billion in household net worth over a five-year period as more highly paid and well-educated residents moved out of the state than came in, according to a study that also found high numbers of 20-somethings and seniors leaving.
MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin lost $4.7 billion in household net worth over a five-year period as more highly paid and well-educated residents moved out of the state than came in, according to a study that also found high numbers of 20-somethings and seniors leaving.
While home from college last month on holiday break, about 1,200 recent grads of the Mequon-Thiensville School District opened a peculiar piece of mail: a letter urging them to approve an upcoming $7.5 million referendum and a form they could use to request an absentee ballot.
The idea? By targeting college kids who might not otherwise vote on local issues, an advocacy group is trying to tap into a sympathetic audience of students who can vote in the district but who aren’t likely to own property and pay property taxes.
MADISON – A University of Wisconsin committee started drafting new guidelines governing the behavior of student dorm supervisors on Thursday after learning policies vary sharply by campus.
….Looking back over 2005, there are some things I’ll take the liberty of commenting on.
For the first time since the late 1800s the number of dairy farms in Wisconsin fell below 15,000. Some will blame government, big business, county extension agents, UW-Madison researchers, chemical companies, milk processors, media and even other farmers.
I say baloney, balderdash and b.s. Farmers are like other business owners: they do the best they can given the resources available.
An insurance plan that extends dental coverage to domestic partners of state employees is drawing fire from a Republican lawmaker.
In a letter Wednesday to the director of the Office of State Employment Relations, Rep. Mark Gottlieb of Port Washington questioned whether the department has “specific statutory authority to recognize domestic partnerships, and to offer tax-advantaged insurance plans to employees and their domestic partners?”
Gottlieb also asked if the department has the authority to authorize tax-deductible deductions to an employee reimbursement account for the medical expenses of a domestic partner.
Scott Walker would cap tuition at University of Wisconsin schools, although he was not sure at what amount. He also could foresee offering incentives to attend UW campuses, perhaps in a similar way to the military paying for education in return for service.
He would consider cutting the number of graduate programs at UW-Madison and focus on attracting more resident undergraduates.
Scott Walker wants to take aim at the University of Wisconsin system. He thinks UW-Madison has too many graduate programs and too many out-of-state students.
He says the main goal of the university should be to educate undergraduate students so that they can get productive jobs.
Fraud, waste and mismanagement in state government are the targets of a bill authored by state Sen. Julie Lassa. The bill would create a toll-free telephone line in the Legislative Audit Bureau to receive reports of questionable activities.
Lassa, D-Stevens Point, said the identities of those who called the hotline would be confidential.
The weather was dreary, cold and depressing Monday in Green Bay. It was a perfect day for a firing, and Ted Thompson didn’t hesitate. After all, cleaning house is the No. 1 duty on a new general manager’s job description.
Down in Orlando, it was bright, warm and invigorating. It was a perfect day to slap around an SEC team for a change and to reaffirm a legacy. Wisconsin did just that.
Mike Sherman and Barry Alvarez gave up their coaching jobs on the same day. One left the stage silently in deep and no doubt bitter disappointment. He had nothing to say. The other made a glorious exit that spoke volumes.
MADISON, Wis. – A University of Wisconsin-Madison administrator who says he was wrongly demoted will get a chance to make his case at an appeals hearing.
It’s one of the smallest pieces of your property tax bill, but it’s growing fast and is one of the least scrutinized.
A state lawmaker says he plans to introduce legislation this year to increase accountability of technical college district boards and reduce their reliance on property taxes.
NEW YORK – Tensions over government pensions, like those that triggered New York’s transit strike, aren’t going away.
After a three-day walkout, the nation’s largest bus and subway system and the union representing its workers reached a deal this week that tiptoed around the contentious pension issue. But similar tensions will likely surface in other cities and states, as more governments wrangle with fast-rising retirement costs, experts say.
Lawmakers and public officials across the country are increasing their scrutiny of pension plans for state and local workers.
Matt Jazwiec likes attending the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Don’t get him wrong. The classes, the students, they’re great.
But to hear the sophomore tell it, there’s a gaping hole in his college experience. The Illinois native grew up going to football games at the University of Illinois. Mesmerized by the stadium’s throbbing energy, he would sit in the stands, dreaming of the day when he could cheer for his own NCAA college football team.
Post this one under the heading “What were they thinking?” and let it serve as a warning to all public officials:
If you have to play dumb about what is and what is not ethical behavior in government, maybe you are too dumb for public service.
2005 saw a host of committees, task forces, hearings and press conferences devoted to improving – or touting – Wisconsin’s response to a possible outbreak of avian influenza. Though no confirmed human or bird cases of the H5N1 influenza virus have occurred in the United States, the disease has spread rapidly among birds and poultry in Asia and Europe.
Gov. Jim Doyle directed three state departments – Health and Family Services, Natural Resources and Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection – to form an Avian Influenza Coordination Team to bolster the state’s preparedness efforts.
….University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists, especially Yoshihiro Kawaoka, have been working on several fronts to fight avian influenza.
Sitting in his second-floor office at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Michael Edmonds declared that his goal is to “turn this place inside out.”
Christmas is past, and the new year soon to arrive. It’s time for a long winter’s nap and some comforting dreams about how the datelines of 2006 might read. Wake me up Jan. 2, when the Badgers play. Please save some eggnog.
Hmmm, let’s see …
….MADISON – UW United, a new organization comprising University of Wisconsin System alumni, announced today a statewide effort to build support for Wisconsin’s higher education system. It’s time to end decades of erosion in support for the system, organizers said, promising to target legislators who have sought to dismantle the system.
….The National Weather Service and Wisconsin Emergency Management plan to use the Aug. 18 tornadoes to study how larger cities such as Madison and Milwaukee would cope with a massive tornado.
The two agencies are drafting projections on what would happen should a tornado lay waste to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the state Capitol, downtown Milwaukee or Miller Park, all scenarios that could result in tens of millions of dollars in damage and dozens of deaths….
Vicki Lord Larson, the interim chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, has struck down a new student fee that would have funded pay raises for the university’s faculty and academic staff, saying salaries of university officials should remain in the hands of the UW System Board of Regents, the Legislature and the governor’s office.
MADISON – A University of Wisconsin-Madison administrator collected $125,000 in salary during nearly eight months of paid leave after he stepped down and his position was eliminated, university officials acknowledge in court records.
The university could have saved $77,000 of that salary had Chancellor John Wiley demoted Paul Barrows into a lower-paying backup job after he forced him to resign as vice chancellor, UW-Madison human resources official Stephen Lund said in an affidavit.
MADISON – Eleven state lawmakers purchased tickets to sold-out Wisconsin football games this fall through the school’s lobbyist in an arrangement the state Ethics Board says must end, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press.
Eleven state lawmakers purchased tickets to sold-out Wisconsin football games this fall through the school’s lobbyist in an arrangement the state Ethics Board says must end, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Chancellor Richard Wells said he supports a state Senate bill that would give faculty and academic staff members at University of Wisconsin institutions the right to organize unions.
Wells met with Northwestern editors Wednesday morning to discuss UWO’s annual report, its future growth plans and the bill, Senate Bill 452, which is making its way through the state Legislature.
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Chancellor Richard Wells said he supports a state Senate bill that would give faculty and academic staff members at University of Wisconsin institutions the right to organize unions.
The bill, sponsored by Sens. Mike Ellis, R-Neenah, Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, and Daniel Kapanke, R-La Crosse would not automatically unionize faculty and academic staff members. Instead, it would give groups at each university in the UW-System the ability to vote on whether or not to organize.
Gov. Jim Doyle on Wednesday signed a bill into law that prohibits the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority from making, buying or assuming mortgage loans to anyone without a Social Security number.
Other legislation he signed included three bills that benefit university and college students.
A lack of funding means police and security units on University of Wisconsin campuses are understaffed and cannot afford crime prevention programs, a new UW System report warns.
Some of the smaller campuses in the UW System struggle to maintain an around-the-clock security presence due to low staffing levels even though they assure parents such coverage is always available, according to the report obtained by The Associated Press.
