Transportation agencies in both Wisconsin and Minnesota are moving forward with discussions on high speed passenger rail connecting the neighboring states’ largest cities. Wisconsin Governor-elect Scott Walker has repeatedly said the Madison-to-Milwaukee line is dead, yet Minnesota officials are still on track with a study examining possible routes and environmental impacts in a Midwest rail expansion. [Read more…]
Search Results for: index.cfm
Cieslewicz says rail not dead
Madison’s mayor holds out hope on high speed rail. “I think that there’s a long process ahead of us,” Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said regarding the efforts by Governor-elect Scott Walker, to kill the Madison to Milwaukee passenger rail line. “I don’t think it’s dead.” While Walker hopes to use high speed rail dollars to fix up our deteriorated roads, he’s reportedly out of luck. Cieslewicz refers to correspondence from Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood. “I think he’ll be coming to the conclusion over the next several days or weeks, that that’s just not possible.” [Read more…]
Tiger is a mess as PGA Championship draws closer (AUDIO)
Hunter Mahan fired a final round 6-under par 64 to win his first World Golf
Championship, the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio.
Mahan started the final round 4-shots off the lead. He ran off 5-straight birdies on the front 9 to take the lead, then put together three clutch par saves to hold off Ryan Palmer by 2-shots.
Tiger Woods will remain number one in the World Golf Rankings for the 270th consecutive week. But Woods is coming off the worst tournament of his career. He closed with a final round 77 to finish 18-shots over par for the tournament, his highest score on the PGA Tour as a pro or amateur.
Woods is clearly struggling heading into the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. It’s his last chance to get it together this season, trying to earn a Captain’s pick for the upcoming Ryder Cup by American Captain Corey Pavin.
Practice rounds started at Whistling Straits yesterday for the 92nd PGA Championship which starts on Thursday. Whistling Straits also played host to the 2004 PGA Championship and will host the 2015 event as well.
AUDIO: Bill Scott takes a look at Tiger Woods entering the PGA 1:30
Rallying against wage theft
We’ve all heard of employee theft, but what about employers who steal from workers? According to Patrick Hickey with Madison’s Workers’ Rights Center, it’s a growing problem. At a rally at the Capitol, Hickey said federal legislation would extend the two year statute of limitations that the Department of Labor has to meet in its attempts to recover unpaid wages. Hickey said it generally takes the department three to four years to resolve complaints. He said the WRC filed a complaint on behalf of some restaurant workers in Madison two and a half years ago. The investigation is ongoing, and if it’s ever resolved in the workers’ favor “they won’t see a dime,” said Hickey. Hickey said the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development does a pretty good job handling complaints, but that there needs to be tougher enforcement at the federal level.
Patrick Hickey (14:00) AUDIO: Patrick Hickey (14:00 MP3)
Sarah White from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy at UW Madison said low wage workers are getting “stiffed” in Wisconsin. “It is not happening in overseas sweatshops, it’s happening right here,” said White. “This is a huge trend that’s shaping the American workplace, and threatening, really our whole economic recovery here in Wisconsin and around the country.” White said the low wage workers who are denied their wages spend most of their money in local economies. She noted that many employers who engage in wage find it’s cheaper to withhold wages and pay the fines, then it is to pay workers what they’re owed. She noted that also gives those businesses an unfair advantage over competing businesses who are playing by the rules. [Read more…]
Weighing nanotechnology risks and benefits
An expert on nanotechonology makes a stop in Madison. Dr. Andrew Maynard is a nanotech expert from the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington D.C. He says there are benefits and risks associated with nantechnology. “We’re doing things differently, we’re manipulating matter in new ways so it behaves in different ways, and of course there’s a question about whether that creates new risks,” Maynard says. “That’s where the nub of the legitimate concern is: are we doing things which could cause harm in new ways, and how are we going to manage that?”
Maynard, in Madison for a briefing to the Assembly Committee on Public Health, says there are two issues surrounding nanotech. “One is how nanotechnology is going to revitalize local economies, create jobs, create wealth. But it’s also the question of how you’re going avoid harm to constituents and harm to the environment. And I think state authorities have got responsibilities in both of those areas.”
AUDIO: Bob Hague Q&A (3:25 MP3)
Maynard, asked for a definition of nanotechnology which an average person might be able to understand, refers to one given by Nobel Laureate Richard Smalley, who called nanotechnology “the art and the science of building stuff that does stuff at a nanometer scale.” Maynard says that definition “captures that idea of doing things differently at a very fine scale, so we can do new things.” [Read more…]
Johnson leads State Open at halfway mark
Neil Johnson of River Falls fired a 2-under par 70 to take a 4-shot lead at the halfway mark of the Wisconsin State Open at Blackwolf Run in Kohler.
Johnson holds a 4-shot lead on Tyler Obermueller, who won the State Amateur last month.
First-round leader and defending champion Ryan Helminen of Appleton, struggled with a 77 in round two. He drops into a tie for third with Brian Brodell and Daniel Woltman. Mario Tiziani is another shot back and six shots off the lead.
The State Open wraps up with a 36-hole final today.
No circus parade next year
The Great Circus Parade returns Sunday after a six year hiatus. Record turnout is expected at the downtown Milwaukee event which will be proceeded by wagons displayed by the lake and circus performances. Although a half million people are expected, organizers have already decided they will not hold a parade in 2010.
Dave Fantle with Visit Milwaukee understands their decision saying the more often you have an event the more likely it will be taken for granted, where as event like the Olympics, every four years, always builds up a demand.
Organizers say the economy must improve before they plan on bringing back the parade, which relies completely on private funding. The last one, which took place in 2003, cost $1.5 million.
This year's parade is expected to be among the largest in the county surpassed only by the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Rose Bowl Parade.
U-turn on car rental tax
The new state budget allows an increase in the car rental fee in Kenosha, Racine, and Milwaukee counties from $2 to $18. The money would be used to fund the proposed KRM passenger train that connects Chicago to Milwaukee. Proponents of the hike say out-of-towners can help foot the bill.
However, Dave Fantle with Visit Milwaukee says that's a misconception. He notes a lot of a car rentals are done by locals in many cases by persons whose vehicles are being repaired.
Fantle says Visit Milwaukee does not oppose KRM just the funding mechanism. The group is more in favor a potential half cent sales tax increase to help pay for a three county regional transit authority , an idea that Doyle at one time was in favor of, but vetoed this budget.
Fantle is concerned with the car rental tax they are "robbing Peter to pay Paul," as he claims car rental fees normally go to tourism promotion and development, rather than transit. He adds tourism is a $2.7 billion industry in greater Milwaukee which paid $426 million in state and local taxes.
Stout, Superior and St. Scholastica all awarded NCAA Hockey Div. 3 Hockey Bids
The NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Committee announced gave tournament bids to UW-Stout , UW-Superior and St. Scholastica for the upcoming 2009 Tournament. All three teams will open play in the quarterfinal round on Saturday, March 14.
Superior (23-3-3) squares off against Gustavus Adolphus (17-10), while Stout
(22-5-2) takes on St. Scholastica (20-6-2).
The winners of these quarterfinal games will meet on Friday, March 20 in the semifinals at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, New York. The Championship game is Saturday, March 21.
UW-Superior faced Gustavus on January 9th, winning 5-4 in overtime in St. Peter, Minnesota. St. Scholastica and UW-Stout have met three times previously this season, with both teams going 1-1-1.
Defending NCAA Champion St. Norbert College failed to make the NCAA field this season, the first time they've missed the NCAA Tournament since 2001.
Report critical of NCLB standards
A new report suggests Wisconsin has some of the lowest standards in the nation when it comes to complying with No Child Left Behind.
The study by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation took 36 public schools and looked at them under the accountability standards used in 28 states to comply with the federal education law. The Foundation's Mike Petrilli says they found Wisconsin had some of the easiest standards set for elementary schools in the nation.
Petrilli says the results show Wisconsin's standards are too relaxed, which results in some schools getting a passing grade that shouldn't. He says that means some families are being lead to believe their child's school is doing fine, when it's actually not.
The report says the state should create stricter standards. It also advocates for national standards to evaluate compliance.
The state Department of Public Instruction says Wisconsin's accountability system is federally approved, and officials have used it to identify schools most in need of improvement.