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State will switch to public workers for FoodShare program |
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Written by Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel
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Friday, 12 August 2011 00:00 |
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Madison - In a deal that preserves millions of dollars in federal aid to Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker's administration will drop hundreds of private contractor employees who work for the state's food assistance program and hire scores of public workers as replacements.
The agreement comes after federal officials had threatened in recent months to withhold some money for the state's FoodShare program because of what they said were improper privatization efforts that were started by the administration of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and initially intensified by the administration of Walker, a Republican.
"We didn't create this mess but we sure are getting it fixed," Kitty Rhoades, deputy health services secretary for the state, said of the agreement with the federal Food and Nutrition Service. "It's a good workable solution."
If the state fails to keep up with the schedule to replace the private contractors, the federal government could still cut money that it sends the state to administer the FoodShare program, which replaced food stamps in Wisconsin. In 2010, the state received $20.5 million in federal money for administrative costs for FoodShare and another $2.3 million in one-time federal stimulus money.
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Wisconsin's Regressive Voter ID Law: It's about suppressing the vote |
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Written by Louis Fortis and Lisa Kaiser
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Wednesday, 03 August 2011 00:00 |
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Wisconsin's new Voter ID law is slowly being rolled out during this summer's recall elections.
Proponents have argued that the new law—one of the most restrictive in the country—will crack down on widespread voter fraud.
But the law will do no such thing, since evidence of widespread voter fraud simply doesn't exist, according to an investigation by then-U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic, a Republican.
What the new law will do is suppress the votes cast by minority citizens, the elderly, students and the poor—voters who typically support Democrats, which is why it was passed without a single Democratic vote of support.
Even worse, the new Voter ID law—enthusiastically signed by Gov. Scott Walker, who had introduced a similar bill when he was a state representative—contradicts Wisconsin's history.
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