In the State of the Union address last week, President Barack Obama proposed increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9 an hour. This is a good idea that would raise the standard of living for millions of Americans and help minimize loan debt taken on by college students.
Gov. Scott Walker recently announced plans to propose a $29 million increase to mental health services in the state. Of the $29 million, $10.2 million would go toward expanding community-based care programs for individuals with severe mental illnesses and $12.5 million would fund two new treatment units at Mendota Health Institute. While Walker said the proposal is not solely intended for public safety purposes, discussions surrounding mental health began in response to recent mass shootings nationwide.
Most people reading this are familiar with the American education system. Having the privilege of being woken up early every morning, brainwashed by radical liberal educators and arbitrarily judged on our intelligence is an experience shared by almost every child in this country. Education, I believe, is one of our most important political issues, as it paves the way for progress in the future. Because of this, I have much interest in Gov. Scott Walker and his education efforts. Recently, Walker announced his plans for a new set of reforms. In the spirit of transparency, I feel it necessary to note my mother is a teacher and I participated in the anti-Walker protests here in Madison two years ago, so admittedly I am biased against Gov. Walker. Despite this, I sat down and tried to take an objective look at his proposals. Upon shallow examination, I rather liked some of it. It encourages reading and seems that it would improve teacher training. Quickly, however, I found something to object to. Walker’s reforms propose a system that rewards schools based on test scores. This isn’t a new idea. It’s already quite present in education funding. While I agree that it is important to reward achievement, I believe it is much more important to give aid to schools that need it rather than those that “earn” it.
Man, I feel terrible. I had this whole thing planned out where I was going to formally introduce myself and my thoughts to everyone out there. But Ron Johnson just had to ruin it. The senior senator from our home state put on quite the speech over the weekend. Here’s an excerpt from this glorious display of oration: “Let me describe what we’re up against as conservatives, as patriots, as people who like freedom, as people who like this country... We are up against a strategy that is taking place by liberals, progressives, Democrats, whatever they call themselves nowadays, Socialists, Marxists... .” Now not only is this comparison offensive to Marxists, it also has absolutely no place in politics. It’s incredibly divisive and casts much doubt on whether he is fit to do what it takes to become an at least decent senator for our state. But this speech just underlines the larger problem with Ron Johnson, the fact that he might just be one of the worst senators in the history of Wisconsin politics.
“Alex and Sam, both sophomores at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, previously dated for about a year. Despite their break-up, a couple of weeks ago Sam started closely following Alex’s whereabouts on Facebook and began showing up at places Alex went.
There is a difference between questioning the way an organization is run and holding a bias against what an organization stands for. The MultiCultural Student Coalition should not be appealing the Student Services Finance Committee’s decision to minimally fund them, but instead have worked out a more reasonable budget than $1.4 million.
The Frequency bar recently made the decision to discontinue hip-hop concerts after a fight at a concert early in the morning of Jan. 29 escalated into a shooting outside the club.
This Sunday, an estimated 20,000 people will converge on the National Mall in Washington D.C.
Valentine’s Day—the one day a year when we’re all expected to spend exceptionally long amounts of time with people we don’t always like and pretend to be interested in things we really don’t care about. Dudes: You have to go through all that trouble to prove that you really do like your partner, despite their abnormally boring stories and obnoxious snoring. Ladies: We spend weeks trying to find the perfect outfit and hours waiting by the door for flowers and chocolate to show that yes, we have somebody special in our lives and we are going to flaunt it. We all make ourselves up on this one special day as though an entire relationship rests on a silly Hallmark holiday. However, I will admit that I’ve been in just about every stage of a relationship on Valentine’s Day:
Not every registered student organization seeks funding from the Associated Students of Madison. If I were to list every group that did not receive funding from ASM the list would be incredibly long because it would include all the groups who did not apply for any of the Operations, Event or Travel grants that Finance Committee allocates as well as those denied funding, which is miniscule compared to the amount not requesting. There are over 800 RSOs on campus and many seek funding in other ways. As to why we are running out of Event Grant funds for the academic/fiscal year, it’s because we have nearly allocated all of it. We have had an exceptionally large number of grants this year because of certain changes outside our control. The MultiCultural Council changed its funding stream to limit how much it can grant to organizations. ASM Finance Committee changed its policies to help more groups access funding this past year and will continue to do it at the end of this academic year. Also, due to the construction of the new Union Theater, many groups who use this venue events had to contract with other, more expensive venues, including the Overture Center, which has refused to offer cheaper rates.
Jose Canseco tweeted 9:03 Monday morning “What all does a Pope do?” Canseco asks an important question, and I don’t think he’s the only one who ponders for what purpose the pontificate exists. With Pope Benedict XVI’s recent retirement announcement, I thought this would be a good time to educate readers on who the pope is, how the office came to be and what exactly papal infallibility is all about. You can use this information to wow friends when the topic of cut-throat Vatican politics comes up, or you can just tuck it away for future use in crossword puzzles.
Conventional wisdom requires an individual to finish his or her dinner before dessert. Even if one must sift through green vegetables, rubbery chicken and bland potatoes, it is still better to eat these things before taking in tasty but empty calories.
Journalism is struggling. People just don’t read like they used to—at least not in the same way. The rise and democratization of high-speed Internet access and new devices like iPads, smartphones and Kindles have revolutionized the way we consume information, communicate and, ultimately, the way we live our lives. I still have not-so-fond memories of waiting 30 minutes for my AOL Internet to dial up when I was a kid. While at work this summer, I almost had a heart attack when my phone struggled to load the live-stream HD video of Michael Phelps making his competitors look like fools at the Summer Olympics.
The issue of homelessness has never received enough attention from public policy makers. No incident has made this more apparent than an event several months ago in Madison, in which a police officer ordered the belongings of the homeless on Capitol Square to be brought to the city dump before other police officers ultimately retrieved them.
Compromise is a word we don’t often hear in regard to the stubborn, partisan Wisconsin legislature. And even when it occurs, it seems most legislators are too proud to admit such maturity could ever breach the wall of juvenility that seems to surround our state Capitol. While the controversial bill to streamline Wisconsin’s mining permit process made large steps toward bipartisanship, division within the legislature brought us back to the same old story of ego before cooperation.
It is all but impossible to conceive of a Middle East bereft of violence and bloodshed. The Arab Spring, which has stormed through Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, has now claimed over 60,000 Syrian lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians in an increasingly gory Syrian Civil War. Supposedly, removing Bashar al-Assad, the ruthless Syrian dictator, from his authoritative post is the highest priority of the U.S. State Department, as quotidian remarks of the necessity of his departure by outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are ubiquitous in newspaper headlines. However, as we approach the two-year anniversary of Syria’s struggle to emancipate itself from Assad, all predictions as to when the war may conclude are dubitable.
An impending investigation pertaining to the legality of drone strikes by Ben Emmerson, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, offers a vital opportunity to reflect upon the morality and efficacy of a technology that has become a hallmark of President Barack Obama's foreign policy. The expansion and entrenchment of this capability as a central component of U.S. military power under Obama's tenure has received far too little discussion, especially in light of disturbing findings regarding the extent of civilian casualties and psychological trauma resulting from this targeted killing program.
The Daily Cardinal’s Editorial Board met with Mayor Paul Soglin last week for over an hour. The Mayor opened with an informal statement of his priorities and how Madison has changed in the past 20 years. He continued to answer our questions about several of the topics you see below. Here are some of our thoughts on the areas of the city that Soglin commented on regarding the issue of homelessness.
Read on Issuu
Solutions by The State News
