Category: State news

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents will vote today on a resolution to cease granting backup appointments, the much-maligned UW policy of allowing some administrators lower-ranking positions should they be terminated.

A key committee of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents voted Thursday to accept an agreement that will pour hundreds of thousands of additional dollars and resources into dealing with Milwaukee’s myriad public health problems.

For that, everyone in Milwaukee should be pleased. But the committee should have gone a step further and recommended an even firmer commitment to the creation of a school of public health at UW-Milwaukee, a new entity that could improve the state of public health in the city all the more.

Many in the Capitol struggled Thursday with the news that Steven Avery was being questioned in the suspected homicide of a woman who disappeared after visiting his family’s auto salvage operation.

Lawmakers and others came to know Avery after his wrongful conviction prompted a major reform of the criminal justice system.

Authorities declared Teresa Halbach’s disappearance a homicide Thursday after finding human bone and teeth fragments on the Manitowoc County property owned by Steven Avery’s family. Her car’s ignition key was found in Avery’s bedroom, they said.

MADISON – The discovery of a woman’s remains at a salvage yard owned by the family of Steven Avery is a great shock, but it doesn’t change the mission of the group, said a co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project.

The group won Avery’s freedom from prison two years ago.

Although a formal request to speak has yet to arrive at Van Hise Hall as of late Wednesday, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents is prepared to accommodate state Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, or one of his colleagues at the monthly board meeting today or Friday.

Investigators searching for a missing woman arrested Steven Avery on an unrelated gun charge Wednesday and ordered him and seven of his family members to provide DNA samples.

Department of Administration Deputy Secretary Gina Frank-Reese told 27 News she was never told about dissatisfaction with the process used to pick Milwaukee-based Adelman Travel for a lucrative state contract, despite claims to the contrary by top UW-System officials.

A March 8 e-mail from UW-System Assistant Vice President Doug Hendrix to members of a contract evaluating committee indicates that System Vice President Deborah Durcan was instructed to protest the travel contract process: “Debbie will verbally communicate our dissatisfaction with the process to a higher level within DOA.”

Investigators said over the weekend that Steven Avery was among the last people to see Teresa Halbach, who took a photograph Oct. 31 at his home. She had been to his home several times in the past year to take photos of vehicles Avery sold.

Volunteers found Halbach’s Toyota Rav4 on Avery family property Saturday, but the 25-year-old woman is still missing. She was reported missing to Calumet County authorities Thursday.

Avery was freed — through the work of the UW Law School’s Wisconsin Innocence Project — after being jailed and falsely accused of committing a sexual assault.

MADISON – Most University of Wisconsin System leaders should continue to receive backup jobs, a controversial perk in which administrators get lower-level jobs if they are fired, UW System President Kevin Reilly said Friday.

As part of a decades-long practice in state government, at least a half-dozen political appointees of Gov. Jim Doyle were given higher-paying civil service jobs for as little as one day to ensure they could return to better state jobs than the ones they left to serve in his administration.

Quoted: Vicki Bier, University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering professor.

27 News has uncovered UW-System President Kevin Reilly and his cabinet of advisers discussed the process which rewarded Adelman Travel a lucrative state contract and expressed concerns about the contract to a deputy secretary in the Doyle Administration.

Two Wisconsin legislators expressed outrage last week over University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire�s policy of prohibiting residential assistants from leading bible study groups in their dorm rooms.

With 20 years of experience in the Wisconsin Legislature, Regent Peggy Rosenzweig serves an important role on the Board of Regents. She brings the background of someone who intimately understands and recognizes the relationship between the UW and state lawmakers.

27 News has uncovered UW-System President Kevin Reilly and his cabinet of advisers discussed the process which rewarded Adelman Travel a lucrative state contract and expressed concerns about the contract to a deputy secretary in the Doyle Administration.

ââ?¬Å?There were concerns about whether the contract process was fair and objective,ââ?¬Â Reilly told 27 News. ââ?¬Å?I remember the discussion.ââ?¬Â

UW-System officials told 27 News their high level meeting on the travel contract took place March 8. The awarding of the contract to Milwaukee-based Adelman was announced to competing travel companies March 15.

DENVER, Nov. 2 – The national movement to impose caps on state taxes and spending took a sharp blow in Tuesday’s election, conservatives and liberals say, when Colorado voters decided that the tightest spending cap in the nation was just a tad too tight.

Madison: Republican Frank Lasee (R-Bellevue) is the chief sponsor of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Bill of Rights. He holds up a triangle showing government at the top of the pyramid to show how his bill would work. “What we want to do is flip it around so the people are on the top, because it is our government that works for us. So we should decide how much our government is going to cost.”

An internal bombshell of sorts involving the UW system’s largest IT project ever is part of a News 3’s I-Team investigation. News 3’s Linda Eggert first reported that after tens of millions of dollars, the so-called “Lawson” based appointment, benefits and payroll system was still not working after six years. Now, the IT chiefs of nearly every UW campus say they want out of the Lawson software altogether.

A travel agency passed over for a state contract called the state of Wisconsin�s procurement practices into question Tuesday, alleging the state Department of Administration unfairly gave another company the contract.

Four state legislators are calling for a new ââ?¬Å?independentââ?¬Â investigation into the Paul Barrows controversy following UW System President Kevin Reillyââ?¬â?¢s acknowledgement Saturday that he was aware of the reasons for Barrowsââ?¬â?¢ sick leave.

The University of Wisconsin may see a second internal investigative report into the Paul Barrows scandal after a letter was sent to Board of Regents President David Walsh Monday.

Three lawmakers lashed out Monday at University of Wisconsin President Kevin Reilly for failing to disclose his own knowledge of the Paul Barrows matter as part of the investigation concluded in September.

Executives of the losing firm in a state travel contract process which is under federal investigation told 27 News they were denied important contract facts and given inaccurate information.

State officials responded that all procurement rules were followed in connection with Virgina-based Omega World Travel’s bid for the contract to book airline flights for state employees.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Teaching Assistants Association is scheduled to resume bargaining Tuesday with the state for the first time since March.

The University of Wisconsin System took a major step forward in the merger between UW Colleges and UW-Extension Thursday, as it released the names of four finalists for the new chancellor position, which will oversee both institutions.

David Walsh has accomplished quite a bit since graduating from UW-Madison in 1965. He served in Vietnam, graduated from Harvard Law School, received a partnership in the Foley & Lardner law firm and was even part of the ownership group that turned down a lucrative offer from North Carolina to keep the Brewers in Milwaukee.

The state Senate took a first step Tuesday toward a constitutional amendment that would prevent a Wisconsin governor from making some partial vetoes.

The vote on the resolution was 23-10, with some Democrats – including Sens. Fred Risser of Madison and Mark Miller of Monona – joining Republicans in voting for adoption.

The bill will now be considered by the Assembly, which is also dominated by Republicans and is expected to approve it, because many Republicans have been upset by the changes Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle made to the state budget with his veto pen.

University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly sent a letter to UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley Monday acknowledging he has reviewed the report Wiley delivered to him late last week.