Skip to main content

Category: State news

Stricter Rules for Voter IDs Reshape Races

New York Times

SAN ANTONIO — In a state where everything is big, the 23rd Congressional District that hugs the border with Mexico is a monster: eight and a half hours by car across a stretch of land bigger than any state east of the Mississippi. In 2014, Representative Pete Gallego logged more than 70,000 miles there in his white Chevy Tahoe, campaigning for re-election to the House — and lost by a bare 2,422 votes.

Steinke slams UW-Madison faculty ‘hissy fit’

Wisconsin Radio Network

A state legislative leader is critical of UW-Madison faculty members who want a vote of no confidence on UW System leadership. “This faculty group seems to be having a hissy fit over some pretty minor charges, which bring us in line with most of the nation’s universities, and do very little to chang the overall idea of tenure,” said Assembly Majority Leader, Representative Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna)

What would Tommy do?

Isthmus

In early January, UW-Madison economists Steven Deller and Tessa Conroy released a study on Wisconsin job creation that sank beneath the waves with barely a ripple, despite its insight into the Badger State’s sluggish economy.

UW-Madison cuts student employment, undergrad advising, IT services to hit budget

Capital Times

Student employment hours have been drastically cut back because of state funding cuts, University of Wisconsin-Madison officials reported last week to UW System administrators. Those cuts came in addition to paring of undergraduate advising services and reductions in information technology services to students, according to a campus budget impact statement that was to have been presented to the Board of Regents when it met last week in Green Bay.

‘Desperate times for democracy’ in Wisconsin

MSNBC

MADISON, Wisconsin — Alfonzo Noble, a senior at Madison West High School, was excited to vote in this year’s Wisconsin primaries — but his state’s strict voter ID law posed a problem. Without a driver’s license, Noble would need to get a special voter ID card at the DMV, about 45-minutes away by bus. And for that, he’d have to provide his birth certificate, his social security card, proof of his address, and even documentation of his name change after he was adopted.

Wisconsin’s Voter-ID Law Could Block 300,000 Registered Voters From the Polls

The Nation

Johnny Randle, a 74-year-old African-American resident of Milwaukee, moved to Wisconsin from Mississippi in 2011, the same year the state legislature passed a law requiring a government-issued photo ID to cast a ballot. Randle, with the help of his daughter, petitioned the DMV to issue him a free ID for voting because he could not afford to pay for his Mississippi birth certificate.

Walker signs college affordability bills

Madison.com

The four bills increase grants for technical college students; create grants to help two-year students deal with financial emergencies; require the Department of Workforce Development to coordinate internships with colleges and employers; and require colleges to provide students annual information about their debt levels.

Barbs and battles as presidential campaign heats up in Wisconsin

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: During a speech Monday afternoon on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, Clinton took aim at Republicans who have erected a blockade against President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. Clinton singled out GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin for his part in preventing the confirmation of Merrick Garland.

Scott Walker’s college affordability bills pass, minus a cornerstone provision

Capital Times

In lawmakers’ final floor period of this session, most of the governor’s proposed college affordability package was approved — absent a key proposal that served as a cornerstone for the initiative. That bill, authored by Rep. John Macco, R-Ledgeview, and Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, would have eliminated the cap on the state’s tax deduction for student loan interest. But with a price tag of $5.2 million, it wasn’t brought to the Senate floor despite being approved by the Assembly.

Senate approves most of Walker’s college costs proposals

AP (via Madison.com)

The Senate approved bills that would increase grants for technical college students; create grants to help two-year students deal with financial emergencies; require the state Department of Workforce Development to coordinate internships between colleges and employers; create coordinators within the UW System to help students find internships; and require colleges to keep students apprised of debt levels.

Scott Walker orders quicker responses to records requests

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: In July, the GOP governor and Republican legislative leaders spearheaded an effort to gut the open records law, but they backed off within days after facing a public backlash. Walker has defended a decision to withhold some records about a budget provision — a proposal later disavowed by the governor — that would have rewritten the University of Wisconsin System’s mission statement, removing from it the Wisconsin Idea that says its purpose is to improve people’s lives beyond the classroom.