Recent commentaries on Wisconsin public pension systems that blame public employee unions for what are perceived as excessive benefits have too often little or no actual knowledge of the facts. It’s time to set things straight.

Yesterday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in a 4-3 ruling, overturned the lower court decision that had barred implementation of Scott Walker’s anti-collective bargaining law on procedural grounds.

While Walker’s law will now take effect, this is the least of the problems revealed by the high court’s ruling.

Dozens of Walkerville activists marched from the Wisconsin state Capitol to DOA Secretary Mike Huebsch's offices at noon on Wednesday, June 15, to protest the former GOP state rep's archaic Capitol security measures.

If top Republican lawmakers move forward Tuesday with a plan to pass the state budget in "extraordinary session," it will be the first time lawmakers have used this speedy political maneuver to pass a budget in at least 80 years.

The state's Legislative Reference Bureau has records of every vote made by the Legislature since 1931.

Madison - The Legislature will write Gov. Scott Walker's frozen limits on collective bargaining into the state budget Tuesday if the state Supreme Court hasn't restored them by then, the leader of the state Assembly said Monday.

As time was running out for the high court to act and the budget showdown loomed, Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon) and other Republicans said they also would seek to pass the budget bill under so-called extraordinary rules that allow it to be advanced more quickly from one house to the next.

On Monday, June 13, at noon, Wisconsin citizens organized by the group Wisconsin Wave marched around the Capitol building and converged on the offices of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the largest business lobby group in the state, to protest the WMC's support for Governor Scott Walker and his devastating state budget.

For Immeidate Release

LABOR AND COMMUNITY GROUPS TO HOLD MARCH AND PRESS CONFERENCE AT WISCONSIN MANUFACTURERS AND COMMERCE

Organizers will declare a people’s state of emergency and call for a mass mobilization against the two-year budget bill

What: We will march from Walkerville on the Capitol Square to the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) headquarters for a press conference and rally.

Ran into former Gov. Tony Earl during lunch at the Avenue Bar earlier this week and asked him how he was.

“Frankly, I’m despondent,” said the governor, who at age 75 otherwise looked quite chipper. “Every day it’s something even more unbelievable.”

Earl was talking, of course, about the goings-on in the state Capitol these days, where no one should be surprised any longer by the audacious pandering to the special interests and their bottomless cache of campaign money.

Yesterday morning Governor Scott Walker addressed participants in a conference called “New Partnerships: Government and Real Estate” which was sponsored by the UW Graaskamp Center for Real Estate, Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, Wisconsin Department of Commerce, Wisconsin Realtors Association, Wisconsin Bankers Association and M&I Bank. In attendance were scores of property developers, bankers, mortgage brokers, and real estate agents.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. Dane101 has learned through a direct, anonymous source that a state emergency response team has been operating out of the GEF-2 (101 S. Webster St.) building downtown specifically to monitor protest related activity on social media sites and elsewhere.

The team is allegedly coordinating with law enforcement to identify and shut down any major direct actions planned by protesters at the capitol, by watching things like the #wiunion hashtag on Twitter and related Facebook groups, etc.

Yesterday’s march from Madison’s Fire Station 1 to the Walkerville camp and around the Capitol – stopping by the criminal M&I Bank along the way – was an inspiring spectacle, but things should have turned out better.

Russ Feingold leapt into the center of the fight for worker rights and people-first budgeting in Wisconsin this week, stirring excitement about the prospect that the popular former U.S. senator might soon be re-entering the political fray — as a candidate for an open Senate seat in 2012 or perhaps as the champion of the forces seeking to remove right-wing Gov. Scott Walker in a recall election.

Madison - As the budget committee wrapped up work last week, Republicans largely avoided putting earmarks in the state budget bill but injected new and far-reaching policies into it.