Economics


RIGHT-SIZING THE PENTAGON (how to reduce military spending and maintain security)

Budget
RIGHT-SIZING THE PENTAGON (how to reduce military spending and maintain security) By Philip Anderson   I believe we can reduce military spending without hurting national security. Reducing the huge cost of our military requires many reforms large and small. It requires reducing waste. We need to take the profit out of war. We need to demilitarize our foreign policy. And we need to “right size” the military. Reduce the waste. Waste is endemic in the military and is the obvious place to begin reducing costs. Waste happens everywhere at every level from ...

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PREVAILING WAGE

Steam Rollers
PREVAILING WAGE By John Spiegelhoff Prevailing wage is the minimum hourly wage employers must pay certain workers who work on construction projects where state dollars are used to fund the construction. The prevailing wage includes the employer's cost of benefits. Prevailing wage is used in any construction project funded in whole or in part by federal or state funds. For example, state-funded projects can be projects to construct highways, roads, wastewater treatment plants, public utilities, colleges, schools or park and recreation improvements. The prevailing wage ...

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WISCONSIN’S RANKING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

Storefront with sign in window
WISCONSIN’S RANKING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES By Joyce Luedke DO YOU KNOW? June of 2015 in the latest Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation survey. ***The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurship , respected around the world, focuses on education and small business start-ups.  See page 10 for rankings and page 67 for Wisconsin’s profile. *** Wisconsin’s job creation ranking in the nation fell from 31st in December, 2014, to 38th in March*** Wisconsin’s ranking for small business start-ups dropped from 45th in 2014 to 50th in, 2015. *** Wisconsin lags the nation: ...

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Eminent Enbridge Domain

Pipeline being installed
Eminent Enbridge Domain by James Botsford Enbridge Pipeline Corporation is a multi-national corporation based in Canada. In the early days of the feeding frenzy created by the discovery of frackable oil in the Bakken oil fields of Western North Dakota, Enbridge moved in. They put on nice suits and went to visit with the kind and apparently trusting state government officials. I suppose they said they were world-wide experts in such matters and knew how to help North Dakota plan for the most efficient and expeditious way of capitalizing on this oil boom. That ...

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STOP HOG FACTORY FARM NEAR LAKE SUPERIOR

Hogs in a farm
STOP HOG FACTORY FARM NEAR LAKE SUPERIOR By Virginia Kirsch Badgerwood LLC wants to build and operate a 26,000 hog factory-farm in Eileen Township of Bayfield County. Badgerwood LLC is from the Reicks View Farms in Iowa. Why choose such an ecologically delicate area close to Lake Superior? Perhaps the plan includes exporting animals from the Great Lakes by rail to British Columbia and then by ship to China. This long journey sounds like cruel treatment! The proposed hog factory farm is 8 miles from Lake Superior. The proposed factory farm is in the Fish Creek ...

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WIND POWER

Wind Farm
WIND POWER By Jeanne Larson Science Alert reports that on a particularly windy July 2015 day Denmark's wind farms produced between 116 and 140% of the nation's electricity requirements, and they weren't even operating at full capacity. Germany and Norway took 80% of the excess, storing the surplus in hydropower systems for later use, and Sweden took the rest.                  Oliver Joy from the European Wind Energy Association said this shows that a world powered 100% by renewable energy is no fantasy. Denmark cannot rely on wind energy to ...

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PREVAILING WAGE

Construction worker cutting metal
PREVAILING WAGE By Nancy Stencil Oh my, such the times we Wisconsinites are living in! Wages are stagnant and income equality is at an all-time high in America. I can't believe the attacks that Wisconsin Republicans snuck into the budget at the last minute…provisions that will lower wages for all of us and weaken our middle class. The prevailing wage bill failed to pass using the normal democratic process. Weakening the prevailing wage was slipped into the budget, just days before it was signed, in order to avoid public debate and scrutiny. Prevailing wage is a ...

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So Enbridge Sued Us

Image of James Botsford and his wife
SO ENBRIDGE SUED US By James Botsford (Editor’s Note: James and Krista Botsford of Wausau, Wisconsin are being sued by Enbridge, a multi-national oil pipeline corporation based in Canada, over land in North Dakota that the Botsfords own.) One day around dinner time the phone rang and it was someone from a multi-national oil pipeline corporation telling me they wanted to run a 24-inch pipeline across our farmland capable of transporting 300,000 barrels of oil a day in order to get it to a seaport so it could be sold on the world market. I told them my wife and I ...

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Shrink the Pentagon’s Massive Contribution to Climate Change

Military Planes on Runway
Shrink the Pentagon's Massive Contribution to Climate Change by Lenore Hitchler (This article was first published in The Capital Times) Roads melting from a heatwave in India. Droughts. Floods in Bangladesh. Many scientists believe the dramatic increase in extreme weather is a result of global climate change. Pope Francis is particularly concerned about the ethics of not stopping global warming, as he discusses in his encyclical. A lot of talk about the causes of climate change emphasizes the contributions of individuals to the problem. The solutions to climate ...

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STOP Shopping Til THEY Drop! Family Values Weekend: A new tool for change.

Child Sitting in a Shopping Cart
STOP Shopping Til THEY Drop! Family Values Weekend: A new tool for change. By Philip Anderson Progressives are often frustrated by the overwhelming odds against building a better society. Money rules elections. Corporate lobbying trumps public opinion. Voters are apathetic and vote against their own interests. Crazy reactionaries succeed and common sense reforms go nowhere. We organize, march, write letters, contact our legislators, sign petitions, and advocate for the common good seemingly to no avail. Perhaps we need a new tool. A new protest that will demand ...

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