Sen. Glenn Grothman set off quite a bit of media coverage with his suggestion that the state stop funding 4-year-old Kindergarten (4K). A Jan. 16 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel fact-check piece on Sen. Grothman’s claims about 4K rendered a verdict of FALSE. And a Jan. 21 editorial by the Wisconsin State Journal on school reform also...
People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote - a very different thing.~Walter H. Judd (MN Republican Congressman, 1943-1963) In the November election, 52 percent of eligible Wisconsin...
In response to input from advocates and others around the country, the SMART office (it’s an acronym for an office created following approval of the Adam Walsh Act!) had modified its guidelines to permit states discretion to exempt information concerning sex offenders required to register on the basis of juvenile delinquency...
The House of Representatives has scheduled a vote Wednesday to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the federal health care reform law passed last February. Although no one expects the House bill to be approved by the Senate or signed by the President, the vote this week marks the beginning of a new stage in the long assault on the...
Tonight (January 13) the A&E Network begins it’s broadcasting of a seven-part series titled “Beyond Scared Straight” – supposedly a look inside “new” Scared Straight programs – but, at least based on their initial promotional videos looks an awful lot like the old Scared Straight. The producer of the series apparently does not trust...
In his recently released state budget proposal, Governor Jerry Brown has proposed eliminating the state’s juvenile correctional institutions, instead reserving state capacity only for the most serious and violent felony youth and transferring funds and responsibility for less serious offenders to the local level. This is at least one...
While the efforts of advocates and justice professionals to promote community-based programs for offenders often fell to the conservative mantra of being “tough on crime”, apparently some conservatives have finally felt the sting of the high costs of incarceration in their pocketbook – to the point of suggesting that the drive to build...
On yesterday, Wednesday, January 5, 2011, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin heard oral arguments on whether sentencing an individual to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a crime committed at the age of 14 violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. You can view/listen to a recording...
Members of the Joint Finance Committee received a short DHS report today on the BadgerCare Plus Basic program, which was launched in July 2010 to make a low-cost, unsubsidized health care plan available to childless adults on the waiting list for the BadgerCare Plus Core Plan. DHS reported that as of December 14, 2009, BadgerCare Plus...
The Wisconsin Office of Health Care Reform has developed a prototype website for a health insurance exchange. The exchange is an online marketplace where individuals and small businesses can easily compare health plans and purchase health insurance, beginning in 2014. This online prototype is simply a starting point for the individual...
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