Last week, the Center for Media and Democracy reported on the amusing mistake made by a Politico reporter who misidentified the blue Wisconsin state flag as a "union flag" that signaled President Obama's support for the Wisconsin labor struggle. The story rocketed around the state and caused many chuckles.
Late in the evening, on February 22, the Wisconsin Legislature turned back the clock gutting key provisions of Wisconsin's Equal Pay Enforcement Act (Act 20).
Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison), a long time women's rights advocate lamented: "It's like we're going back to 1912. We are fighting the same fight our mothers fought, just to be treated equally."
Senate Bill 202, authored by Senator Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend), passed on a party line vote. According to the Wisconsin Alliance for Women's Health, Act 20 sought "to secure equal pay for the thousands of working families who are denied fair pay due to wage discrimination based on race and gender." Specifically, the act was intended to deter employers from discriminating by opening an avenue to bring discrimination cases in state court with stiff penalties. Previously, victims were required to pursue lengthy administrative remedies through a state agency. SB 202 removed the compensatory and punitive damages for violations of Act 20, leaving it a toothless tiger.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald are pushing for radical changes in Wisconsin's current mining law to benefit a single out-of-state company.
Gogebic Taconite, based out of Florida, has proposed a massive twenty-one mile long iron-ore strip mine in some of the most beautiful and pristine land in the northern part of the state. Walker and the GOP are promoting the mining bill as the most important "jobs bill" of the session. Since Governor Walker's austerity budget kicked in on July 1, Wisconsin has lost jobs for six straight months, the worst record in the country.
The Assembly proposal (PDF) would make numerous changes to current law, including regarding how mines can affect waterways, wetlands and groundwater. The new bill drastically limits the time available to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for processing permit requests to 360 days. Similar permit requests in Minnesota took between two and four years. The new bill also places a two million dollar cap on the amount a company must reimburse the DNR for costs associated with processing a request. Any expense beyond the two million dollar cap would come from the DNR's budget. Similar mining permits elsewhere have cost between three and four million dollars, and the DNR already faces severe cuts.
"That same day that I gave her the first bottle [of formula], she had terrible diarrhea, she had horrible spit-up, she had gas, she was crying with pain. ... [Then] our pharmacy accidentally ordered [formula] without DHA/ARA. She had it for four days and her symptoms improved almost overnight."
One year ago this week, blogger Ian Murphy of the Buffalo Beast pranked Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker by posing as billionaire David Koch on a phone call. As the crowds at the Capitol protesting Walker's bill to end collective bargaining were increasing in size and volume, the fake Koch inquired how Walker's efforts to "crush that union" were going. Walker's fawning response helped rocket the Wisconsin protests into the national media limelight.
Now the real David Koch reveals that crushing unions is indeed at the top of his agenda. In an interview with the Palm Beach Post, Koch talks about Walker, unions and the historical importance of the Wisconsin recall fight.
Leaked documents show that the Chicago-based Heartland Institute is planning to spend $612,000 supporting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and four GOP Senators in their probable recall elections. It is the second nonprofit group known to be active in the Wisconsin recalls, and comes as secretly-funded nonprofits are playing an increasingly important role in elections across the country.
The candidacy of Mitt Romney for President of the United States has drawn scrutiny to the practices of the "private equity" industry. Tired of being bashed as greedy "vulture capitalists," the industry has launched an effort to polish its image.
The Private Equity Growth Capital Council (PEGCC), a trade group representing many of the most powerful firms in the venture capital and private equity industry, recently announced its intention to begin a new media initiative called "Private Equity At Work" to correct what it views as "a real lack of understanding about private equity."
Questionable challenges to recall petitions for Wisconsin State Senator Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) bear a resemblance to a "voter caging" scheme led by Tea Party groups in the 2010 elections.
President Obama visited Wisconsin today to speak at Master Lock, a union firm that that has brought 100 manufacturing jobs back from China to the United States. Because it was the President's first visit to the state since the historic fight over collective bargaining broke out over one year ago, everyone was watching to see if he would address the controversy or signal his support. Some saw signals where none were intended.
With two rallies on Valentine's Day, students and teachers commemorated the first anniversary of Wisconsin's historic struggle against Governor Scott Walker's attack on the state's 50-year tradition of peaceful collective bargaining.
Walker introduced his proposal to end collective bargaining for most state workers on Feb. 11, 2011. On Feb. 14, 2011 the Teacher's Assistants Association, the graduate student union at UW-Madison, organized a march from the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to the Wisconsin State Capitol to deliver thousands of Valentine's to Walker to protest the measure and planned cuts to the UW system.
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