Landlords, debt collectors win

March 1, 2016

February 29, 2016

Republican Gov. Scott Walker paid about $28,400 in 2015 for campaign violations. It was more than one-third of the total of $68,600 that candidates and others paid in 2015 for campaign finance and lobby law violations.

February 26, 2016

A Milwaukee attorney who has contributed more than $12,000 mostly to Democratic candidates for statewide office and the legislature is the first appointee by legislative Democrats to a new partisan panel to oversee elections.

February 24, 2016

The first appointee to Wisconsin’s new Ethics Commission suggests that patronage and partisanship will be the order of the day. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald appointed Katie McCallum to the Ethics Commission. She is a former communications director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin and, according to her LinkedIn page, she is currently fourth vice chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Previously she worked as a legislative aide to Republican State Senator Sheila Harsdorf.

February 24, 2016

A Republican bill that would cut funding for a popular energy efficiency program and ease state rules to monitor and regulate sulfur dioxide pollution is in the Senate.

February 23, 2016

A Republican bill that favors debt collectors is before Republican Gov. Scott Walker. He and GOP legislators hauled in more than $30,000 from the debt collection and credit reporting industry over the past five years.

February 19, 2016

Numerous bills on the wish lists of special interest groups were approved this week by the GOP-controlled legislature, and await final action by Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

February 17, 2016

Powerful special interests that have spent millions to elect Republican Gov. Scott Walker are hailing his order to stop state agencies from working to meet federal regulations that require Wisconsin utilities to cut power plant pollution.

February 16, 2016

It’s Election Day, and Republican bills that would effectively end voter registration drives and prohibit communities from issuing photo IDs to register to vote are among a host of bills the Assembly is poised to act on today.

February 11, 2016

A legislative committee has recommended that the GOP-controlled Assembly approve spending $14 million in additional taxpayer dollars for voucher schools outside Milwaukee in 2016-17.

February 10, 2016

Several legislative proposals that hamstring how communities deal with land use, landlords, and liquor licenses were approved by the Assembly at the behest of business, construction, labor, real estate and other powerful special interests.

Before the Assembly Committee on State Affairs and Government Operations

February 10, 2016

(WDC Testimony on AB 723, Regulating Photo ID Cards Issued by Local Units of Government)

February 9, 2016

Three candidates vying for a 10-year seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court reported raising nearly $180,000 in January, led by conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley, who took in nearly $88,000.

Urgent: Block SB 295!

February 8, 2016

February 8, 2016

A conservative special interest group has sponsored two mailings that attacked the record of one of the county prosecutors involved in appealing a state Supreme Court decision that closed the John Doe II investigation.

February 5, 2016

Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel plans on issuing a legal opinion on whether the state can regulate high-capacity wells frequently used in the agricultural industry, which spent about $36,000 to help elect him in 2014.

February 4, 2016

A secretive special interest group that sponsored an “issue ad” this week in the upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court race to support Justice Rebecca Bradley used footage produced by her campaign in its television ad.

February 3, 2016

A bipartisan bill that would legalize the sale of homemade baked and canned goods has farmers and a conservative ideological group at odds with restaurants, grocers, and public health officials.

February 2, 2016

Lawyers for two people embroiled in the now-halted John Doe II investigation are seeking to block any appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is due on March 1.

January 29, 2016

Controversial Republican bills that would make it easier for private corporations to buy publicly owned water supplies is similar to some model legislation by the pro-business American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

January 28, 2016

Public officials would face a fine of up to $1,000 for arbitrarily destroying or throwing out a public record before it was scheduled to be disposed of, according to a bill sponsored by two Democratic legislators.

January 27, 2016

Two bills are moving through the legislature that would make it harder for Wisconsin residents to have a say about whether their publicly owned drinking water supplies should be controlled by private corporations.

Testimony before the Senate Committee on Elections and Local Government

January 26, 2016

(WDC testimony opposing SB533 which seeks to regulate the production and use of photo ID cards by local units of government.)

January 26, 2016

GOP bills backed by pro-gun interests that would legalize switchblades and put guns confiscated by law enforcement back in the hands of their owners faster are on the governor’s desk.

January 25, 2016

The Republican-controlled state Senate recently approved bills that cut $7.5 million a year in government payments for health care services provided by Planned Parenthood because the group performs abortions, which GOP lawmakers generally oppose.