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Van Hollen wants to fight more fraudsters

September 8, 2010 By

JB Van Hollen testifying at legislative committee (Photo: Jackie Johnson)

Wisconsin’s top cop has a good idea for fighting fraud within public assistance programs. Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen says his department’s Medicaid Fraud Control and Elder Abuse Unit is proven to be successful with recovering money, investigating, and prosecuting the bad guys.

Van Hollen says, in just the last four years, they’ve collected a lot of taxpayer money that was intended for Medicaid recipients. “Our Medicaid Fraud Unit has recovered approximately $35-million in Medicaid fraud reimbursements. And we have orders, or approvals or judgments for approximately $26-million more.”

Because of this unit’s success, Van Hollen says it would be a good model to create a new anti-fraud unit to protect the public assistance programs from those who feed off of taxpayer dollars. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Politics & Government

Barrett proposes K-12 funding changes (AUDIO)

September 8, 2010 By

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett PHOTO: WRN

Tom Barrett wants changes in the way Wisconsin funds public schools. A pair of proposals for K-through-12 education from the Milwaukee mayor and Democratic candidate for governor. First, Barrett wants a funding floor for school districts faced with declining enrollments. “If you have a situation where you’ve had 27 seventh graders and four families move away, and you suddenly have 23 seventh graders, you still have to have the teacher, you still have to have the heating costs, you still have to have the transportation costs, even though you’ve lost that state funding,” Barrett explained during a press conference in Madison on Wednesday. “We’re going to deal with that situation, so that you do not see dramatic cuts in districts because of declining enrollments. Just this last school year we probably had 100 districts that faced cuts because of declining enrollments.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, Elections, Politics & Government Tagged With:

Appleton cops kill sword wielding assailant

September 8, 2010 By

A 35-year-old man is dead after police officers opened fire at a home on Appleton’s north side. Police chief David Walsh says officers were called to a house on around 2:30 Wednesday morning for a domestic disturbance. He says the woman who called police didn’t mention if there was a weapon involved. Walsh says when police arrived they found a very agitated Armond Aponte. Walsh says Aponte didn’t calm down and charged at the officers with two swords, and they shot him several times. Aponte was pronounced dead a short time later at Appleton Medical Center. Walsh says 25-year veteran Lieutenant Carlos del Plaine and 8-year veteran Officer Joseph Lidbury are the officers who fired the shots. The Green Bay police department is investigating the incident. They’re expected to complete their work Thursday or Friday. Walsh says this is the first fatal shooting by an officer in Appleton in 24 years.

AUDIO: Police Chief David Walsh (:60)

Rick Schuh, WHBY

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Feingold proposes six debates with GOP opponent

September 8, 2010 By

U.S. Senator Russ Feingold says he’s willing to participate in several debates with his eventual Republican opponent.

Feingold has accepted invitations to six candidate debates, and wants the eventual Republican nominee to join him. The Wisconsin Democrat says such debates are part of the Wisconsin tradition, and TV ads alone should not be used to decide the election.

Feingold will likely face Oshkosh businessman Ron Johnson, who is seen as the Republican front-runner heading into the primary. Johnson, Dave Westlake of Watertown and Stephen Finn of Milwaukee are all seeking the GOP nomination in next Tuesday’s primary.

Johnson has run several negative ads attacking Feingold as a career politician, which the Senator says he would look forward to addressing. Feingold says he’d like him to explain to his face why being a career politician makes him unworthy to continue to serve in the Senate.

The debates could take place in several locations around Wisconsin. Invitations he’s accepted include for debates in Eau Claire, Milwaukee, Wausau, Oshkosh, and Madison.

Johnson’s campaign says the candidate looks forward to debating Senator Feingold, if he wins the nomination. However, a spokeswoman would not comment on a specific number of debates Johnson would be willing to participate in.

AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (1:11)

Filed Under: Elections Tagged With: , ,

Badgers climb in top 25 polls

September 8, 2010 By

The Wisconsin Badgers moved up one spot to No. 11 in the USA Today and Associated Press top 25 college football polls on Tuesday.

Wisconsin plays its home opener on Saturday against San Jose State at Camp Randall Stadium.  The Badgers are 38-point favorites after beating UNLV 41-21 in their season opener.  San Jose State lost its opener 48-3 to Alabama.

Filed Under: Badgers, Sports Tagged With:
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