By Karen Timberlake, Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Widespread use of lead based paint in older housing throughout Wisconsin has poisoned more than 46,000 Wisconsin children since 1996. More than 1,000 Wisconsin kids are reported each year with newly diagnosed lead-poisoning. Although the use of lead in house paints was prohibited in [...]

Governor Jim Doyle last week signed into law Senate Bill 437 – education reform legislation that will help turn around struggling schools in Wisconsin, particularly in Milwaukee. “This new law is a comprehensive set of reforms that sets a much needed focus on turning around our struggling schools,” Governor Doyle said. “Today, we are dramatically [...]

A bill authored by Sen. Coggs that could lead to a ban at individual schools across the state on racebased Indian team names, logos, mascots, and nicknames passed the state Senate today with just days left in the two year session of the Legislature. Nearly 40 schools in Wisconsin still use nicknames such as the [...]

Dear Editor: Milwaukee County Transit needs your support! There is transit legislation being proposed in the Wisconsin State Assembly and State Senate, and if this transit legislation is not supported, then Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) and its budget will continue to slowly deplete year after year. If the MCTS is depleted, it will not [...]

Dear Governor Doyle: As President of the Milwaukee Board of School Directors, I am writing to express my disappointment with your cynical statement regarding Wisconsin’s Race to the Top (RTT) application. In your release, you predict that the application will fail because it does not include mayoral control of the Milwaukee Public Schools District (MPS). [...]

State Representative Jason M. Fields (D-Milwaukee) this week thanked his Assembly colleagues for unanimously approving SB 242, a proposal to revise Wisconsin buyers club laws. “This bill will provide Wisconsin citizens with more options in their purchasing decisions, and will also create jobs in Wisconsin,” Fields said. “I believe this legislation will encourage DirectBuy to [...]

Major work being done on domestic, gender, and sexual violence legislation With news of a possibly record high number of domestic violence homicides for 2009 in Wisconsin, committees in the Senate and Assembly are moving forward on important legislation to draw down the number of violent assaults and homicides. The Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence [...]