One Wisconsin Now

Wisconsin and an Early Attack on Early Voting

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]

Wisconsin Representatives reflect on student loan debt

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]

Five themes from Fighting Bob Fest

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]

Pocan Introduces Student Loan Refinancing Bill

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]

The Struggle for Voting Rights is Still Real

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]

Walker campaign draws disclosure complaint

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]

Wisconsin State Senate Pushes Voting Law Overhaul

“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]

Voter Suppression Bills Target Early Voters, Seniors and the Disabled

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]

Fewer Young Americans Have Full-Time Jobs Now Than Last Year

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]

Debt shuts students out of housing market

Americans paying off student loans are, depending on income, 25 to 36 percent less likely to own a home than those who are free of student debt, a One Wisconsin Now survey of 61,000 people found last month. Indebted graduates faced an average of 21 years of debt before their student loans were paid off. [Telegram]

Walker Only Sixth Worst Governor

The watchdog One Wisconsin Now reported owners and employees of businesses receiving WEDC funds contributed more than $614,000 to Walker’s political campaigns and to the Republican Governors Association, which then contributed lavishly to Walker. [Express Milwaukee]

Student Loan Debt Keeps Buyers Out of the Market

The homeownership rate for those individuals who are still paying off student loans is 36 percent lower than among their peers who have no student debt, according to research from the One Wisconsin Institute [LA Times]

Ward warns of problems posed by tuition freezes

Scot Ross with One Wisconsin Now said “the sentiment expressed by Ward shows a substantial disconnect about financing higher education and the impact of exploding debt on borrowers.” [Wisconsin Radio Network]

Senate to take up student loans, resuming partisan debate

The problem of student loan debt “has been wildly under-covered,” said Scot Ross of One Wisconsin Now, whose group has been very vocal on the issue and opposes the GOP plan for letting interest rates on student loans float. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

Congress should reverse rate hike on student loans

The growing share of debt for young people is hampering their ability to take out a mortgage or purchase a car, according to Scot Ross, executive director of One Wisconsin Now. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

We must hate our children

It’s no wonder that people who’ve paid off their student loan debt are 36 percent more likely to own homes than those who haven’t, according to new research by the One Wisconsin Now Institute and Progress Now. [Salon]

Gov. Walker’s Political Future

“I think the reason Gov. Walker would run for president is because his political ambition knows no bounds,” Ross said. Ross accuses Walker of trying to pad his national resume by taking on public unions, enacting a tax cut, refusing to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, and expanding school vouchers. [WLUK-TV]

Weighing the impact of higher student loan rates

One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross says the increase will have a dramatic effect on current students, by making it harder for many of them to afford college. [Wisconsin Public Radio]

Student Loan Interest Rates Set to Double Unless Congress Acts

“Student loan debt is well over $1.2 trillion. Student loan debt passes every other consumer debt in the United States with the exception of mortgage debt. And student loan debt increased for people during the great recession,” Ross says. [Milwaukee Public Radio]

Student Debt Repayment Causes Concern Among Many Borrowers

On average, student loan borrowers take about two decades to repay their debt. Graduates of community colleges take almost as long as their counterparts from four-year schools to repay, according to a separate survey from the One Wisconsin Institute released last week. [Huffington Post]

One Wisconsin Now begins 20-day report on Walker’s “depressing failures”

Scott Walker is marking his 20th year serving in office in Wisconsin. So to commemorate the occasion, One Wisconsin Now has begun a 20-day report on Walker’s “depressing failures” while in office. It begins with the governor’s “cozy relationship” with the Bradley Foundation and other school privatization advocates which are aimed at destroying public education. [Capital Times]

Ron Johnson says poor blacks are responsible for financial crisis

Cody Oliphant on the One Wisconsin Now blog reports on Sen. Ron Johnson’s latest broadside against our “dependent” nation in which he complains about everything from food stamps to Social Security. So, in case you missed it, he says, poor black people are responsible for the country’s financial crisis, and unless we throw them to the wolves […] [Capital Times]

Twenty Years of Walker Failures Day 2: Failing to Protect Women’s Health

OWN is highlighting different Walker fails over the course of 20 days. Day two discusses right wing legislation attacking women’s health care. Scot Ross commented, “When given the choice between protecting women’s access to safe and legal health care services or pandering to the most extreme right-wing of the Republican Party, Scott Walker has sided […] [Common Dreams]

New bill: If you swear you’re poor, then you can vote without an ID

One Wisconsin Institute (affiliated with the liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now) filed a brief arguing that Wisconsin’s ID law would be significantly more burdensome than the ID law in Indiana that was upheld in 2008 by the United States Supreme Court. [Capital Times]

Murphy’s Law: Don’t Mess With the Press

The MacIver Institute calls itself and “think tank” that promotes “free markets” and “limited government and mostly supports the GOP. It’s closest counterpart on the left is probably One Wisconsin Now. [Urban Milwaukee]

Our view: Keep student loan rates affordable

It is not just students who are affected. Professionals who go through technical, four-year, or even graduate school have student loan debt. So do single moms. [La Crosse Tribune]

GOP throws UW students another $3

Scot Ross, executive director of One Wisconsin Now, calls the tuition freeze a “great idea” but says Republicans have only expressed outrage over high tuition as an excuse to cut the UW’s budget. [Capital Times]