WI conservatives find an entitlement program they like

By   /  April 11, 2013  /  Featured, News, State Government, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Reporter  /  6 Comments

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The get-the-government-out-of-our-face party welcomed the help of the federal government this week, when Senate Republicans passed a new entitlement program for businesses and the already-employed.

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Workforce Development calls bull on BLS’ Wisconsin employment numbers

By   /  March 15, 2013  /  Featured, News, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Reporter  /  4 Comments

BLS jobs data off -significantly - again in December.

Stop me if you’ve heard this story before …

So it turns out Wisconsin’s employment numbers were better than estimated.

Ahead of Monday’s national release by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state Department of Workforce Development has issued the latest BLS benchmark figures for the first three quarters of last year.

There’s an involved process in benchmarking but the bottom line is they are the best employment numbers available, the most accurate, the hard count. They also take a lot longer to compile, culling from the employment records of the vast majority of Wisconsin employers.

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Battle over residency rules burning with overheated rhetoric

By   /  March 12, 2013  /  City Government, Featured, Governor, Local Government, News, Politics, Power Abuse, public sector, Scott Walker, State Budgets, State Government, State Politics, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Reporter  /  2 Comments

Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, says public employees shouldn't be forced to live in the city in which they serve. "It's about individual liberty, the lawmaker says."

While Milwaukee’s leading residents decry the loss of local control and warn of an exodus of public employees should a provision in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget come to pass, a southeast Wisconsin lawmaker claims the city’s “archaic” residency law cost her brother a career.

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WI: ‘Fiscal cliff’ deal could threaten proposed income-tax breaks

By   /  January 3, 2013  /  Featured, News, State Budgets, Tax Reform, Taxes, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Reporter  /  1 Comment

Wisconsin lawmakers are considering significant changes to income-tax collections in the state, but their efforts might be stymied by the fallout from Congress' "fiscal cliff" deal.

Wisconsin might struggle to afford all the income-tax relief Gov. Scott Walker and legislative leaders are hyping – in part because Wisconsin officials were betting that Congress would let the country fall over the “fiscal cliff.”

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Decisions await in reported assault cases involving politics

By   /  December 4, 2012  /  Wisconsin, Wisconsin Reporter  /  No Comments

By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter
MADISON — Still no charges in two reported assault cases with political implications several weeks after the high-profile incidents went public.

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