Issue of the Week: Gas Tax Pandering

Issue of the Week: Drunken Driving

A recent report put Wisconsinites at the top of the list for drunken driving, with more than 25% of those polled admitting that they’ve driven while intoxicated in the past year. Unfortunately, the dangers of driving while under the influence hit home when pregnant Oconomowoc school administrator Jennifer Bukosky...

Read more...

UWM Student Election In Doubt

Ruling party’s ally removes opposing party from ballot

If this is how UW-Milwaukee students are learning how democracy works in the real world, we’re in trouble. Last week’s two-day election for the Student Association featured allegations of voter intimidation, bribery, poll workers filling out ballots for voters and censorship.

Read more...

Statewide Smoking Ban Still Popular

Bars remain the sticking point

Although the statewide smoking ban was held up in the state Legislature this past session, it still seems to be popular among voters. A just-released survey from Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) and St. Norbert College found that 41% of respondents want a complete ban, now.

Read more...

Gableman Won the Election, But Will He Sit on the Court?

Citizen Action complaint could remove him

Just about everyone denounced Burnett County Judge Michael Gableman’s false, race-baiting attack ad against Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler—well, everyone except Gableman. Even Charlie Sykes called foul on it, and the bipartisan Wisconsin Judicial Campaign Integrity Committee declared that it...

Read more...

Rise Up, Milwaukee

The Milwaukee Unity Campaign threw a party with a purpose

Aide cross-section of Milwaukee gathered on Saturday night at the Rave for “Rise Up Milwaukee,” a party with a purpose. Organized by the Milwaukee Unity Campaign, a coalition of labor unions, community organizations and committed residents, the event included great music, good food, meet-and-greets...

Read more...

Lead Paint Red Herring

Is Gableman a total hypocrite?

The state Supreme Court’s 2006 decision to allow a Milwaukee teen to sue a company that produced paint containing lead energized the conservative portion of Wisconsin’s business community. After all, they reasoned, if a lead-poisoned teen could get his day in court, wouldn’t that lead to similar...

Read more...

WMC’s $9.8 Billion Debt to the State

Calculator totals up the business lobby’s cost to taxpayer

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), the state’s big business lobbying group, costs the state about $31 a second. That’s because WMC’s proposals—from slashing corporate income taxes to opposing insurance coverage of wigs for cancer patients—

Read more...

Driven to Distraction

City debates electronic signs

Why stop with cell phones, texting, DVDs, CDs, the radio, fast food, traffic, construction, snowbanks and pedestrians? Add electronic billboards to the list of drivers’ distractions. On March 18, the city’s Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee will debate—yet again—

Read more...

Autism Shenanigans

Featured from this week's Expresso

One good bill is getting stuck in the final days of the regular legislative session: insurance coverage of autism. Senate Democrats—plus 15 Senate Republicans—voted to mandate that insurance companies cover treatment for autistic kids (SB 178). But Assembly Republicans want to give private insurers $6 million of state money and $8 million of federal money for coverage. "...That means the insurance companies would get the giveaway, while Wisconsin parents receive no new guarantee that treatments for their autistic children would be covered.”

Read more...