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Category: State news

Schimel names business lobbyist as top aide

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Also on the transition team are Ave Bie, a managing partner at the Quarles & Brady law firm and a former chairwoman of the state Public Service Commission; former Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Michael Brennan; Mark Cameli, a member of the board of law firm Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren; former Lt. Gov. Margaret Farrow; Brian OKeefe, the director of law enforcement services for Van Hollen; and Raymond Taffora, vice chancellor for legal affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a former deputy to Van Hollen and former Gov. Tommy Thompson.

AG-elect Schimel names transition team

Posted on
AP

Schimel also has tapped former Lt. Gov. Margaret Farrow; Brian O’Keefe, a current DOJ administrator; and Raymond Taffora, vice chancellor of legal affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a former Wisconsin deputy attorney general, to serve on the team.

Four years later: How does Wisconsin’s budget outlook in 2015 compare to 2011?

Posted on
Capital Times

(Wis. Taxpayer’s Alliance’s) Berry also addressed the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents earlier this month along with Department of Workforce Development secretary Reggie Newson … The two talked about the role of education in Wisconsin’s economic outlook and Newson noted the growing need for more bachelor’s degree-holders in Wisconsin. “The university shouldn’t be figuring out how to fill today’s jobs but how to spawn tomorrow’s quirky thinkers who innovate, who will sometimes succeed and sometimes fail,” Berry told the board.

Murphy’s Law: The Economic Madness of Robin Vos

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Urban Milwaukee

Back in the 1980s, three economics professors, Robert Wilson of Stanford, Paul Milgrom of Northwestern and R. Preston McAfee University of Texas, worked together conducting research on “game theory and auctions.” It was just the sort of seemingly trivial, silly-sounding research that critics of universities point to, but it became crucial in 1993, when Congress granted the Federal Communications Commission authority to auction portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The three profs helped design the auction, helping pave the way for the telecommunications revolution.

On Campus: Speak up, UW-Madison urges state alumni; Badgers making babies

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

The day after last Tuesday’s election didn’t exactly inspire confidence for backers of the University of Wisconsin System and its request for a funding boost of $95 million in the next two-year cycle. Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, who’s co-chairman of the state’s budget committee, called the request a “tough sell. ”At the same news conference, Nygren’s colleague Robin Vos, R-Rochester, who’s speaker of the Assembly, said faculty should focus on research that would benefit the state’s economy, not the “ancient mating habits of whatever.” The remark was seen as condescending by many at UW-Madison, a research giant that brings $1.2 billion a year in federal funding to the state. The same day, a different effort got no headlines but could be significant: UW-Madison emailed all of its in-state alumni with a plea. “Right now, UW-Madison needs your voice more than ever,” the email said.

Are victim impact panels effective?

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Capital Times

Some drunken drivers are required to attend panels where they hear from victims of drunken driving and their families. But the panels often fail to keep offenders from driving drunk again, and may even increase the chances they will.

Quoted: Randall Brown, associate professor of family medicine; Director, Center for Addictive Disorders, UW Hospitals and Clinics; Director, UW Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program.

UW-Madison researchers react to Robin Vos’ ‘ancient mating habits of whatever’ remark

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Capital Times

It may come as no surprise that state Republican leaders, in the flush of electoral victory, are targeting University of Wisconsin funding in the next legislative session. But the scorn for the university evident in Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ post-election remarks struck some observers.

Chancellor works to demystify UW-Madison’s budget in hopes of increasing it

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank arrived in July 2013 amid an uproar at the Capitol over hundreds of millions in cash balances carried over by the state’s public universities without full disclosure, including sizable tuition balances that amassed alongside annual tuition hikes during a recession.

On Campus: Van Hollen sues for-profit Everest College; Odyssey founder gets national award

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Wisconsin State Journal

Following the lead of attorneys general in different states, outgoing Wisconsin attorney general J.B. Van Hollen has sued a now-closed for-profit college in Milwaukee for misleading students about job placement rates and other outcomes. Also: UW-Madison English professor Emily Auerbach’s work with nontraditional students for more than three decades won her a distinguished service award from a division of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.

Our View: Education – Maintaining quality education requires money

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Higher education: Walker takes pride in freezing tuition at the University of Wisconsin System for two years and plans to do so again. That no doubt plays well with university students and their parents, but the fact is that such a continued freeze could hurt the system?s ability to attract and retain faculty. UW schools are a bargain, with average costs, and quality doesn?t come cheap.

Wisconsin Assembly Republicans release goals for next legislative session

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Capital Times

Among the Republicans? priorities are “course correction” for the state Government Accountability Board, providing funding for free GED testing, expanding public school open enrollment and voucher school programs, increasing access to classes through a state-funded digital learning program for rural schools and extending a tuition freeze for the University of Wisconsin system.

What do the polls really tell us about what?s happening in Scott Walker-Mary Burke race?

Posted on
Capital Times

Capital Times has pulled together a group of expert panelists , including Brad Jones, a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Political Science Department who has created a polling aggregation model for the paper to reflect the totality of polling in the gubernatorial race …  and Michael Wagner, a professor in the university?s school of journalism who studies political communication.