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Wisconsin

Majority of Walworth County’s Renters are Rent-Burdened

A new study, Paying the Rent, from the Wisconsin Policy Forum finds that a majority of Walworth County’s renters are rent-burdened, placing the county in the top five most distressed in the state by that measurement. (There are, of course, 72 counties in Wisconsin, so Walworth County is among the weakest of a very large…

Walworth County’s Working Poor

In Whitewater and throughout Walworth County, huge numbers of residents are “asset limited, income constrained [yet] employed” (ALICE®). A report from the United Way of Wisconsin, entitled ALICE® ASSET LIMITED, INCOME CONSTRAINED, EMPLOYED WISCONSIN, reveals the truth about many in our community. Walworth County measures slightly worse than the already-disappointing state average. The talk of…

Brad Schimel Brings Trumpism to the Wisconsin Department of Justice

Daniel Bice reports that Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel is now demanding non-disclosure agreements from employees of the Wisconsin Department of Justice: On Aug. 10, staffers at his agency were sent an email instructing them to sign a nondisclosure agreement barring them from revealing any confidential information about their work — not just during their time in office but even after…

Friday Catblogging: Milwaukee-Area Cougar

Henry J. Morgan reports The Wisconsin cougar has returned. This time reportedly in Lisbon as several residents see the wildcat: According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the cougar (puma concolor) is one of three wild cats native to the state, along with the bobcat and Canada lynx. It is the largest wildcat north…

Redefining Reality

Tony Evers, State Superintendent of Public Instruction and candidate for governor, has a new video about a political effort to redefine reality. The video is about Scott Walker, but it might as easily have been about any number of local politicians in Whitewater or other small Wisconsin towns, with tax breaks for out-of-towners and cronies…

Local Results from the Spring General Election 2018

Wisconsin’s spring general election’s now over, and in the paragraphs below I’ll consider the local results for state, district, and city-wide races. These results are unofficial; online detail may be found for the counties of Walworth, Jefferson, and Rock (where Rock County’s detail applies only to the WUSD race). Contest/Question Candidates/Preference City Vote % WI Supreme Court…

Friday Catblogging: Cougar sighting verified in Washington County

Contact(s): Scott Walter, DNR Large Carnivore Specialist, 608-267-7865 or Dianne Robinson, Wildlife Biologist, 262-424-9827 MADISON- Video footage of a large cat submitted by landowners in Washington County has been verified by Department of Natural Resources biologists as a cougar. The animal was recorded on a security camera during the early morning hours of Feb. 7…

Trump and Walker

In 2014, Gov. Walker ran for re-election, and two years later Trump ran for president. The two-party results for the GOP candidates in the City of Whitewater were much different. In 2014, Gov. Walker narrowly lost the City of Whitewater to Mary Burke: Walker 2,616  49.8% Burke 2,634    50.2% In 2016, Trump decisively lost…

10 Key Articles About Foxconn

➤ Foxconned (“How much is Wisconsin paying for a Taiwanese manufacturer’s jobs?”): Already, it is hazy just how much of a boost to the local economy Foxconn is expected to make. The company said it planned to hire 3,000 workers over four years, whereas the state said the new facility would create 13,000 jobs with an average…

Foxconn? What’s Foxconn?

One reads that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker downplays Foxconn because deal not a sure campaign winner: MADISON – Scott Walker said the state would ink a $3 billion contract this week with Asian tech giant Foxconn Technology Group, even as he downplayed the deal and pointed to other jobs being created through his administration. As Walker launches…

Whitewater, Rock, and the UW System

There’s a UW System plan to pair some two-year colleges with some four-year universities. Reporting on the plan first broke Tuesday night, and since that evening there’s been more information about the proposal (to be considered formally in November, and if adopted to be begun in July 2018). For the principal Wisconsin stories on the…