Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin introduced a bill Tuesday in an attempt to make college more affordable and to help graduates pay off their student loans.
President Barack Obama named federal judge Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday morning, despite firm pushback from a Republican-controlled Senate that they will not confirm a nominee. Speaking at a news conference in the Rose Garden, Obama called Garland a jurist who possesses “decency, modesty, integrity, even-handedness and excellence.” Garland would replace longtime conservative justice Antonin Scalia, who died unexpectedly last month.
The state Senate approved dozens of bills in their last session of the year Tuesday, including most of Gov. Scott Walker’s college affordability package.
The UW System selected Gary Bennett, chief of staff for state Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, to lead an agency that will explore opening new charter schools in Madison and Milwaukee. Starting April 1, Bennett will head the Office of Educational Opportunity and will also be a special assistant to UW System President Ray Cross.
The state Senate released its calendar for the last session of 2016 and Assembly Bill 739, the centerpiece of Gov. Scott Walker’s college affordability package, did not make the cut.
After months of waiting for the insult slinging author of “Art of the Deal” to stumble, students are soberly staring down the possibility of Donald Trump being the Republican party’s presidential nominee. Trump’s success prompted the mobilization of campus political groups who vow to blunt the mogul’s momentum ahead of Wisconsin’s April 5th primary.
It’s not exactly a state secret that Madison is politically liberal. Famously derided by Republican Governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus as “30 square miles surrounded by reality,” the city and its college campus are notorious bastions of liberalism in a state which swings between political parties. At first glance, voting data from the UW-Madison campus seem to unquestionably support Dreyfus’ quip; no Republican has garnered more than 30 percent of the vote in campus precincts since 2000 and in most elections the campus was even more liberal than the city of Madison as a whole. 2014 marked a significant shift, however.
Cheeseheads across Wisconsin can rejoice, as Fitchburg-based Emmi Roth USA took home top honors in the World Cheese Contest Wednesday.
City, county and state officials are locked in a battle over whether more should have been done to prevent the closing of Madison’s Oscar Mayer plant last year. Legislative Democrats and city officials have pointed the finger at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and the state’s chamber of commerce, saying both entities knew Kraft-Heinz was considering shuttering the east Madison facility but didn’t do enough to keep the company in the Badger State. But Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, countered Tuesday by announcing that he was submitting open records requests to determine if Madison Mayor Paul Soglin and Dane County Executive Joe Parisi could have prevented Oscar Mayer’s departure. "If the Mayor did have advance knowledge of changes at the Madison location as he has suggested, the city’s residents deserve an explanation as to why no action was taken,” Fitzgerald said in the statement. “His misguided attempts to shift blame onto WEDC or other state business groups are no more than a smokescreen to disguise his office’s culpability.” Fitzgerald added that since the Oscar Mayer facility was located in Madison, the closure happened “under Mayor Soglin’s watch.” Soglin held a press conference Thursday in which he claimed the Walker administration has caused Wisconsin’s economic performance to lag.
Wisconsin is ranked the 36th among 50 states in the pace of job creation, according to the latest employment census report released by the Federal government Wednesday. U.S.
Candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court JoAnne Kloppenburg and Rebecca Bradley met Wednesday at the Milwaukee Bar Association’s Supreme Court Judicial Forum to promote their campaigns before the April 5 election.
Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill Tuesday that would remove requirements for hiring vocational teachers, despite arguments by critics that the legislation waters down the quality of teaching. The legislation, authored by state Sen.
The Wisconsin-based grassroots organization Better With Bernie invited the public to celebrate the opening of its Madison office Tuesday afternoon after Sanders shocked former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by narrowly winning the Michigan primary.
State Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley came under fire Monday after a liberal advocacy group released an editorial penned by the justice in which she described the actions of gay members within her college community as “immoral.” One Wisconsin Now released the letter to the editor that Bradley wrote as a college student at Marquette University 24 years ago.
Recently appointed Corrections Secretary Jon Litscher testified before a Senate committee Wednesday, following recent scandals at the state’s largest juvenile facilities. Gov.
The Wisconsin Assembly passed a package of bills to address college affordability last month, but the fate of the legislation remains uncertain with an end to the two-year session looming. The bills, introduced by Gov.
Gov. Scott Walker signed 58 bills into law Tuesday, including a strip search bill and a bill that allows the UW System’s Board of Regents to regulate agricultural land without oversight of the Building Commission. Governor approves strip search bill Walker signed Senate Bill 248, which dismisses the requirement that a person who is arrested or taken into custody can only be strip searched if they are going to be held with other detainees for a minimum of 12 hours.
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Democratic leaders renewed their calls Monday for an audit of the state Department of Corrections after allegations of abuse at the Lincoln Hills juvenile facility in Irma. Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, and three other top Democrats sent a letter to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee in an effort to spur on a closer look at the state’s correctional facilities. Public outcry has mounted after a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation alleging that workers at the Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake juvenile facilities committed acts of abuse, sexual assault and intimidation of inmates. The scandal has forced the resignation of former Corrections Secretary Ed Wall, and over a dozen prison staffers have been placed on leave. Lawmakers said in the letter that an audit of the DOC would hold staff accountable, as well as provide a plan for future reforms within the state prison system. “The situation can no longer be ignored,” the letter said.
Gov. Scott Walker signed 46 bills into law Monday, including one prohibiting legislators from concurrently holding office as county executives. Written by Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, and Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, Senate Bill 707 passed the Senate with a 19-13 vote. The measure is intended to prevent government officials from taking two salaries from taxpayers’ dollars, Fitzgerald said in a Feb. 2 Wisconsin State Journal article.
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