A liberal group filed an ethics complaint Monday against former Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder and a lobbyist for a self-described sportsmen group for going on a fishing trip together just days before the group got a now-canceled $500,000 state grant. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
While private schools benefit, courtesy of taxpayer-funded vouchers that in many cases far exceed the tuition paid by other students, it is once again our state public schools that lose out under the agenda of Walker and the Republican Legislature. [Capital Times]
MADISON, Wis. — The author of a sweetheart deal worth potentially millions of dollars for a politically-connected organization was offered a free, two-day Lake Michigan fishing excursion by the lobbyist and Executive Director for the group, according to a story in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. One Wisconsin Now has filed a formal complaint with the […]
MADISON, Wis. — The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics has released a new round of national job numbers. According to the data, Wisconsin ranks in the bottom third of states and significantly lags the national job growth rate. The following are the statements of One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross: “While Gov. Walker criss-crosses the […]
[WMTV-TV]
Melissa Harris-Perry talks to Mike Browne, the Deputy Director of One Wisconsin Now, about one state assembly representative’s attempt to prevent workers who are unable to cast a vote during normal workday hours from voting. [MSNBC]
The big business special interest lobby at Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce has now bought over $800,000 in deceptive television advertisements to boost the sagging poll numbers of Gov. Scott Walker.
Gov. Scott Walker “jets” to New York for a fundraiser hosted by billionaire owner of the New York Jets, for the benefit of the Republican National Committee.
MADISON, Wis. — As part of his 2013-15 state budget Gov. Scott Walker signed into law a provision directing a $500,000 taxpayer funded grant to United Sportsmen of Wisconsin, a group that endorsed him in his 2012 recall election. According to news reports, mega-GOP and right-wing cause funder Terry Kohler personally lobbied legislative leaders on the […]
One Wisconsin Now will join public education supporters from across the state at Saturday's 'Public Education Is a Civil Right' march and rally.
MADISON, Wis. — Almost daily new revelations have raised serious questions about the propriety and legality of Gov. Walker and Republican legislators inclusion of a sweetheart deal in the state budget that would have given $500,000 of taxpayer money to a group that endorsed Walker in his recall election. In the face of mounting questions and […]
One Wisconsin Now called on Walker to answer questions about the sweetheart deal to send state tax dollars to a partisan political front group that endorsed him in his recall election.
MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Walker has ditched the brown bag and four-door Saturn featured in his 2010 campaign ads for state taxpayer funded airplane travel, according to a report this week in the Shepherd Express. The paper’s review of Gov. Walker’s travel records found that between January and July 2013 Walker used state planes to fly […]
State legislators participating in a student debt panel on campus Tuesday said despite holding statewide elected offices, they are still paying off the loans they took out to finance their college education. [Badger Herald]
One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross was invited to be a featured speaker at the 12th Annual Fighting Bob Fest, where he addressed the student loan debt crisis to an enthusiastic crowd. [Fighting Bob Fest]
The campaign against the trillion-dollar student loan debt crisis and the effort to raise awareness about the devastating effects of it on students, workers and the economy has gained a prominent new advocate.
Breaking news reports today reveal that the group in question may in fact be a for-profit corporation that received at least $235,000 in income in 2011, courtesy of the right-wing Citizens for a Strong America.
On the heels of legislation introduced by Rep. Mark Pocan that would allow anyone with federal student loans to refinance them to the lowest interest rates available. [Capital Times]
The votes of Wisconsinites are there for progressives to take, Scot Ross told the crowd at Saturday's Fighting Bob Fest, the annual gathering of progressives. And it all comes down to student loan debt. [Capital Times]
MADISON, Wis. — A $500,000 taxpayer funded state grant to United Sportsmen of Wisconsin has generated increasing controversy over the last several weeks as serious questions were raised about how the grant process was rigged to make sure it went to a politically connected GOP front group and the trustworthiness of the organization. One Wisconsin Now […]
Scot Ross said Pocan's proposal is a common sense approach. “Why should student loans not be able to take advantage of lower interest rates?” [Wisconsin Public Radio]
MADISON, Wis. — According to reports, Gov. Walker has reversed course and will allow media to attend a speech he’s delivering to a right-wing think tank in Seattle, Washington today. While he’s not hiding from the press on the West Coast, back home in Wisconsin, over 6,100 citizens have signed a petition to the Government […]
Could a state grant slipped into the budget by the former Assembly Majority Leader, signed into law by Gov. Walker and rushed through the approval process by the Walker administration be used to help support partisan political activity?
“A strong economy demands an educated workforce and a robust middle class, and students are taking responsibility for paying for their education and job training.” [U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan]
Despite mounting questions and growing evidence that top Republican leaders went to great lengths to ensure a taxpayer funded grant went to a politically connected special interest group, the grant was approved on Thursday.
Said Scot Ross of One Wisconsin Now, who provided a copy of the drafting notes to the State Journal: “Why can’t they come up with the IRS letter?” [La Crosse Tribune]
One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross noted how the “divide and conquer” politics of Gov. Walker and the policies he and the GOP-led legislature have pursued are universally antithetical to Dr. King's message.
Scot Ross, Ohio State Sen. Nina Turner, and Judith Browne Dianis join Melissa Harris-Perry to discuss the continued need for the fight for voting rights, especially after seeing legislation pass. [MSNBC]
Jim Crow of the 1960s has nothing on Scott Walker when it comes to trying to keep legal voters from voting in free and fair elections.
We applaud President Obama for taking this crisis seriously and pushing for expansion of income based repayment for tens of millions of borrowers.
Seventy-five percent of the students applying for a taxpayer funded voucher are not coming from public schools, including 67% who were already in private schools.
State Senator Mary Lazich has fired back, re-introducing a package of bills to make it easier to toss out the legally cast ballots of legal voters for minor clerical errors and injecting more partisanship into election administration.
Sadly, it seems like the best advice Sen. Ron Johnson can give his Republican friends is: marry rich and have you company pay for the campaign.
Liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now is hoping its latest complaint against Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign gets more traction than the last one. [La Crosse Tribune]
But this same aide was kept on for two years after it was revealed he took the initiative to try to make it harder for hundreds of thousands of legal Wisconsin voters, many of whom are minorities, to vote.
“This is part of a larger and continuing effort on the part of Republicans to restrict voting by the people they don’t want to cast a ballot,” Mike Browne, deputy director of watchdog group One Wisconsin Now, said. [Huffington Post]
Going back to 2009, when Walker began his run for Governor in earnest, his reports have failed to disclose legally required employer information for 7,512 big money donors giving over $100 totaling $2,330,197.98 in contributions.
OWN found that despite the Republicans’ charges that widespread voter fraud was plaguing Wisconsin’s elections, fewer than two dozen people have been convicted of voter fraud since 2004. More than 14 million votes were cast during that time. [Express Milwaukee]
Obama's push for reforms to boost the housing market could be helped by enacting common sense reforms to ease the burden of the student loan debt faced by over 37 million Americans.
While some D.C. politicians like Sen. Ron Johnson are all too eager to declare the student loan debt crisis solved, it is clear more action is needed.
A recent survey from One Wisconsin Institute, a communication network for Wisconsin progressives, found that it will take the average student loan borrower more than 21 years to completely pay off their debt. [Alfred Woody]
Without a sense of urgency and action on real, comprehensive solutions, we run the risk of seeing the $1.2 trillion student loan debt crisis become a $2 trillion economic catastrophe.
Walker's “attack on 175,000 workers had nothing to do with budget deficits, but rather his desire to reduce the collective voice of working men and women in Wisconsin.” [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
The Republicans don't like what the people of Wisconsin did at the ballot box in November 2012, so they are going to try and keep certain people from being able to vote in the next election.
The link between campaign contributions and WEDC incentives to private business were noted recently in this report from One Wisconsin Now. [Capital Times]
To stop the trillion dollar student loan debt crisis from becoming a two trillion dollar albatross on the American economy we need to do more, like common sense solutions allowing people to refinance their student loan.
Scot Ross of One Wisconsin Now is an advocate for wholesale reform of student loan debt. Ross believes the current senate deal is just a short term solution. [WITI-TV]
Over the course of the show, Bayrd and Ross discussed not only the crushing student loan debt, but also how it is affecting the economy. [WORT-FM]
MADISON, Wis. — In a recent story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Gov. Walker weighed in on the Ryan Braun scandal, ripping him for failing to “fess up”. One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross called on Walker to heed his own advice by revealing the donors to his criminal legal defense fund and making […]
Senator Baldwin was exactly right in her speech on the Senate floor today, higher education and job training ought to be a path to the middle class, not a path to indebtedness.