Politics
PREVAILING WAGE
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 ...
WISCONSIN’S RANKING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
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: ...
BOBFEST 2015
BOBFEST 2015
By MW Editorial Staff
Mark your calendar: Saturday, September 19 is Fighting Bobfest 2015 at Breese Stevens Field, Madison. Time is 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
It is back by populist demand and is sponsored by The Progressive magazine and The Cap Times.
Speakers include: Russ Feingold, Lizz Winstead, John Nichols, Mark Dimondstein, Scot Ross, Ed Schultz, Senator Tammy Baldwin, Kevin Alexander Gray, Jesse Hagopian, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Jim Hightower, John Fugelsang, Rep. Mark Pocan, Young Gifted & Black Coalition and Ruth Conniff, editor of The Progress...
CHOOSE “WE” INSTEAD OF “ME”
CHOOSE “WE” INSTEAD OF “ME”
By John Spiegelhoff
Preamble to the U.S. Constitution:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
I had a coach during high school that always said, “There is no I in TEAM.” He was a wise teacher. He knew that the only way to succeed was to play ...
A Wisconsin Tragedy in Three Acts
A Wisconsin Tragedy in Three Acts
By Nancy Kaplan, Kath Michel and Pat Slutske
(of Grassroots North Shore)
The word 'free' is heavily used by the Right, even in contexts where it is not appropriate. They use it wantonly in order to control perception and influence people. Because everything 'free' must be good (like motherhood or apple pie), the word has a halo effect on other words in a phrase or sentence, magically making them inherently good too.
But beware! Right wingers use it to mask their true intentions: to strip us of the liberty and freedom democracy ...
ELEVEN STEPS TO A MORE OPEN AND HONEST GOVERNMENT
ELEVEN STEPS TO A MORE OPEN AND HONEST GOVERNMENT
By Mike McCabe
Those who call the shots in Wisconsin’s Capitol show themselves to be most comfortable working in the dark . They tried to butcher the state’s open meetings law, and only backed down when their action whipped up a public firestorm. They want to do away with the highly respected state audit office. They’re itching to turn a nationally acclaimed, politically independent elections and ethics watchdog agency into a lapdog .
They must have a lot to hide
With open government laws under assault, ...
Medicare and Medicaid Turn 50: Born from Compromise ~ Continuing in Controversy
Medicare and Medicaid Turn 50: Born from Compromise ~ Continuing in ControversyBy Senator Kathleen Vinehout“Whatever you do,” the elderly woman in Gilmanton told me a few years ago, “Keep your government-run hands off my Medicare.”Medicare and Medicaid turned 50 years old on July 30, 2015. After decades of political leaders grappling on the issue of health care, it was in 1965, that then President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law.Today we take for granted what was a seminal political accomplishment. Medicare, a federally run program, provides ...
YOU NEED A PHOTO VOTER ID TO VOTE
YOU NEED A PHOTO VOTER ID TO VOTE
by Virginia Kirsch
You need a photo ID to vote in Wisconsin elections. The Government Accountability Board of Wisconsin has a very handy, user-friendly website to help you with this process as well as many other details concerning elections.
At myvote.wi.gov you can register to vote, check your voter registration status, find your polling place, see what's on your ballot, request an absentee ballot (military and permanent overseas voters only), and check provisional ballot status.
The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed the photo ID ...
Imagining a Nuclear Free World
Imagining a Nuclear Free World
By Phil Anderson
John Lennon's song “Imagine” asks us to “imagine all the people living life in peace.” What we imagine shapes the way we see the world and how we behave in the world.
August 6th and August 9th are the 70th anniversaries of the U.S bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki using nuclear weapons.
As we remember these tragedies, can we imagine a nuclear weapons free world? We created these weapons of mass destruction and are the only
nation to ever use them against civilian targets. We should take responsibility ...
Eminent Enbridge Domain
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 ...
