Officials sign a trade agreement making a Chinese company the exclusive distributor of Wisconsin ginseng in China.

Governor Jim Doyle says customers regard Wisconsin ginseng as the world’s highest quality.

“In China, I know from my travels there, when you say ‘Wisconsin,’ people in China know the word … because it is symbolic with particularly high-quality and very mild ginseng.”

China is Wisconsin’s primary market for the ginseng root. It’s estimated that this new deal with the largest producer of traditional Chinese medicine will bring more than $12 million back to Wisconsin in the next five years.

“While 2009 has been a very difficult economy for a lot of businesses, in the first part of 2009 the exports of ginseng from Wisconsin have increased by 70%.” [Read more...]

Wisconsinites aren’t as enamored by President Obama as they were six months ago, according to a statewide survey by St. Norbert College in De Pere.

Political Scientist Wendy Scattergood, who coordinated the polling, says Obama’s approval rating dropped to 50-percent. That’s down from a favorable rating of 60-percent in a poll conducted this past spring.

Scattergood says the drop is expected of Presidents when the “honeymoon period” wears off. [Read more...]

Former candidate for governor, Ed Thompson is making a bid for the legislature. Saying he’s fed up with new taxes and spending, the longtime Libertarian is launching a campaign for the state Senate, and drawing inspiration from the most libertarian of national Republican politicians. “I’m a Ron Paul Republican,” says Thompson. “I think the people who know who Dr. Ron Paul is will understand that quite clearly.”

AUDIO: Ed Thompson (:13 MP3)

So how would that brand of Paulite Republicanism play out if Thompson were in the Senate? Again, he says it’s all about the taxing and spending. “Don’t come to me with any new programs, unless you plan on eliminating one of the old ones,” says the Tomah mayor. “There’s just not the revenue to do it, and to think that we can fund something new, it’s ridiculous.” [Read more...]