Madison
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle called Tuesday for state employees with unsettled labor contracts for 2003-'05 to return to the bargaining table to work out their differences with the state.
There are approximately 24,000 state workers, including those in the Teaching Assistants' Association at UW-Madison, who are currently working in this situation.
The state would still like to recoup missed health-insurance premiums which were not paid over the past two years. Despite the Doyle administration's calls for new negotiations with the Legislature's Joint Committee on Employment Relations, the state has not softened its stance on making state workers pay these premiums.
Doyle also proposed 2005-'07 pay raises for non-represented state employees, UW System faculty and academic staff. Accordng to the Wisconsin State Journal, employees would receive 2 percent raises this July, another 2 percent in July 2006 and an added 1 percent in April 2007, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
Green Bay
In an attempt to \expand opportunities"" for northeast Wisconsin citizens, state Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, announced the formation of a U.S. Congressional exploratory committee Monday with the intention to run for the open eighth Congressional seat in Northeastern Wisconsin.
Presently, Rep. Mark Green, R-Green Bay, Gard's self-proclaimed close friend and ally, holds the position.
Gard, who has served in the state Assembly since 1987, said people who know northeast Wisconsin best and want to make a difference in Wisconsin and their communities' futures will comprise the committee.
If Gard emerges from the Republican primary as a viable Congressional candidate, democratic candidate Jamie Wallsaid he looks forward to stacking up his record ""as a pragmatic job creator to [Gard's] record as a partisan career politician.""
UW-Madison
In a bizarre incident Wednesday afternoon, a flood of blue smoke poured out of vents in Room 19, Ingraham Hall, startling students waiting for a lecture to begin. UW-Madison sophomore Jolene Daw said the entire room was filled with smoke in approximately 30 seconds. Though the smoke dispersed without further evidence of a fire, police units and firefighters were summoned to the scene. Lt. Larry Grab of the Madison Fire Department hypothesized a burning mechanical belt in an air-handling unit may have caused the sudden burst of smoke. No one was injured in the incident, although an acrid burning smell permeated Ingraham throughout the afternoon.
