News

May 15, 2011 6:36 p.m.
Waukesha - Kathy Nickolaus, the county clerk at the center of the state Supreme Court election controversy and the focus of an ongoing state elections investigation, has been described by colleagues and acquaintances as headstrong and insular, hardworking and independent.

She came to local public office, where constituents are the boss, from a staff job at the state Capitol, where partisan politics and loyalty to the party caucus fomented team warfare.

"I don't think she's ever gotten past that," said Pam Reeves, the Republican elected county treasurer two years before Nickolaus' arrival at the courthouse. "From the beginning she put up walls: 'You're not going to tell me what to do.' Then she put up more walls."

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A new nonpartisan analysis of Republican Gov. Scott Walker's budget proposal shows that it would raise taxes for poor people, while decreasing taxes overall.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau report shows that taxes for low and moderate income people would increase more than $49 million over two years. The largest increase comes to families who qualify for the earned income tax credit and homeowners who receive a homestead tax credit.

On Monday, May 9th, I drove from Madison to Waukesha to observe the Waukesha County recount of the WI Supreme Court election. I observed from 2:30 pm until the day’s recount was finished at 7pm.

I began the day as a citizen observer. Observers sit in the gallery, a row of chairs behind a line that separates them from those conducting the recount (the official “tabulators”) and campaign-designated observers who are allowed to look over the shoulders of the tabulators. As an citizen observer I was only 4-6 feet from the first row of tabulator tables. But I wasn’t close enough to actually read anything in the poll books or ballots or computer tally tapes being processed.

WASHINGTON, May 5, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- ProtectOurElections.org today offered a $25,000 reward for "information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person or persons for election tampering, resulting in reversal of the current outcome of the April 5, 2011 Wisconsin Supreme Court election in which David Prosser is said to lead JoAnne Kloppenburg by more than 7,000 votes." A reward poster is located at http://www.velvetrevolution.us/images/SC-Reward.pdf.

The Joint Finance Committee voted today to end the independent agency status of the Wisconsin Arts Board, moving the oversight of arts to the Tourism Board. The proposal will now go before the State Assembly and Senate for final approval as part of Gov. Scott Walker’s 2011-13 biennial budget. The vote was along party lines with 14 Republicans voting in favor and four Democrats voting against.

The committee did restore some of the cuts Walker proposed, returning over $350,000 to the agency over the next two years. The Board was facing a drop from $3 million to $750,000; now it will have just over $1 million in the next budget period.

The JFC also reversed Walker by allowing the Arts Board the autonomy to select its own executive director in the future.

WASHINGTON, May 5, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- ProtectOurElections.org today offered a $25,000 reward for "information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person or persons for election tampering, resulting in reversal of the current outcome of the April 5, 2011 Wisconsin Supreme Court election in which David Prosser is said to lead JoAnne Kloppenburg by more than 7,000 votes." A reward poster is located at http://www.velvetrevolution.us/images/SC-Reward.pdf.

Wisconsin is no Minnesota.

Where Minnesota's post-election hand count of the 2008 U.S. Senate election between then Sen. Norm Coleman and now Sen. Al Franken was, as we wrote at the UK's Guardian at the time, "one of the longest and most transparent election hand-counts in the history of the US," Wisconsin has made it extremely difficult (putting it nicely) to know what the hell is actually going on in their statewide "recount" of the April 5th, 2011 state Supreme Court election between Justice David Prosser and Asst. Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg.

Note: These are unofficial recount results that have not been certified by the G.A.B.

As of 12:50 p.m. on Tuesday, May 2, 2011, 1,942 Reporting Units have reported results, which have been reviewed by G.A.B. staff.  That is approximately 54 percent of the of the 3,602 total Reporting Units.

So far, counties have recounted 718,230 votes, which is approximately 48 percent of the original votes cast in the State Supreme Court race.

There are 27 reporting units not included in this posting that have been reported but are being further reviewed by G.A.B. staff

Students organized on opposing ends of State Street, in Bascom Hall and the Capitol to advocate for equally polarized viewpoints of the New Badger Partnership on Tuesday.

Nearly 100 University of Wisconsin students hosted a rally against the proposal — which would make UW independent from the UW System — at the main administration building, Bascom Hall. The rally culminated in an impromptu meeting with Chancellor Biddy Martin, while members of a student organization advocated in favor of the plan by meeting with legislators at the Capitol.

For Immediate Attention

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Contacts:        
Ignacio Meneses 313-318-5159
Teresa Gutierrez 917-328-6470

A delegation of workers affiliated with the Mexican Electrical Workers Union of (SME) headed by Jose Humberto Montes de Oca, Secretary of the Interior of this organization, will participate this next Friday April 1st in the massive protest against the law that annuls the Collective Bargaining of the workers of the public services of Wisconsin to endorse their struggle. 

A second judge has castigated Wisconsin Republicans for excluding the public from the legislative process. Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi has issued a temporary restraining order blocking implementation of Governor Walker's union-busting bill on grounds that the conference committee's rushed passage of the bill on March 9 likely violated state Open Meeting laws. 

MADISON, Wis. (JTA) -- More than 100 Jews from all three Madison synagogues gathered Feb. 25 to celebrate Shabbat with services in the Wisconsin State Capitol. Four Madison rabbis led the services for the community members who had crammed into the North Gallery.

Below us, the Capitol Rotunda was teeming with energy -- protesters from all over the state were waving signs of opposition to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget repair bill.