The University of Wisconsin-Madison now leads the nation as the top producer of Peace Corps volunteers with 90 alumni currently serving in 42 countries, the Peace Corps plans to announce Tuesday in Madison.

Peace Corps Acting Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet, who grew up in Appleton, will be on campus Tuesday morning to celebrate the Wisconsin flagship's new No. 1 ranking and longtime support of the Peace Corps.

UW-Madison is historically the second-highest producer of Peace Corps volunteers in the country, with a total of 3,112 alumni who have served. The University of California-Berkeley holds the top all-time spot, with a total of 3,576 volunteers since the Peace Corps' founding in 1961.

UW last held the No. 1 spot in the annual rankings from 2001 through 2006. Ohio State ranks fourth and Michigan ranks fifth in the new rankings.

Wisconsin Senate to take up bill limiting judges' authority to block state laws

A bill before the Wisconsin Senate on Tuesday would limit circuit court judges from blocking state laws — a measure that is being pushed by Republicans who have seen major initiatives blocked in recent years by the courts.

Since 2011, circuit judges have blocked all or parts of laws advanced by the GOP that would require voters to show a photo ID at the polls, limit collective bargaining for public employees and expand the governor's power over administrative rules.

Supporters of the bill said the legislation would honor the intent of the legislative branch and provide stability in state government but still allow for a higher court to block laws when deemed necessary. Democrats view the bill as a power grab by Republicans, who now control the Senate, Assembly and the governor's office.

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A former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, Janine Geske, has said the bill passed by the Assembly goes too far and violates judicial power under state law. Geske was appointed by former Republican Gov. Tommy G. Thompson and served from 1993 to 1998. Geske, a Marquette Law School professor, predicted the bill would not withstand a constitutional challenge.

Have you been shaking your fist in the general direction of the WI Department of Justice for exacting political retribution against singers? Well, after reading a story by Steven Elbow in Cap Times, I now wonder if we should switch to the harder work of verifying what criminal allegations the D.O.J. is deliberately deciding NOT to investigate and whose (possibly very important) names are attached to those crimes.

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The emailer is one of about 30 homeowners and subcontractors who were stiffed out of what amounts to $2 million after Bella Kitchen and Bath of Elm Grove closed in 2012.

According to Elbow, the homeowner forwarded him an email from a Wisconsin D.O.J. prosecutor which contains this:
“I haven’t received (Wauwautosa police) reports, so I am proceeding without them. I will be tied up with Capitol protester cases and a couple other things until Thanksgiving. I would like to get something filed on Bella before the end of the year.”

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Wisconsin D.O.J. can’t file charges against a business that walks off with families’ savings but it CAN doggedly pursue singers who got charged under a law that isn’t even valid anymore with citations not more serious than a traffic ticket. Time to touch up those signs at the state borders. They need to say “open for CRIMINAL business”.

What could possibly go wrong with a pending Wisconsin bill that allows cash-strapped city governments to turn more marijuana users into felons and generate hefty fines for their budgets in the process?

“Authored by State Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt (R-Fond du Lac), Senate Bill 150 and its companion — Assembly Bill 164 — grants municipalities jurisdiction to prosecute repeat offenses of any amount of marijuana possession in cases where either the district attorney has chosen not to prosecute or the state’s complaint against the defendant has been dismissed.

“It doesn’t increase any penalties whatsoever,” Thiesfeldt said. “All it does is clear up a loophole in the law.”

Fond du Lac Police Chief Bill Lamb is all in support of the Bill as it backs the city’s aggressive stance on going after marijuana and all drug offenders, he said.

Idea floated of Milwaukee selling foreclosed homes in bulk

With nearly 1,300 properties in its inventory because of tax foreclosures, the City of Milwaukee is entertaining ideas to whittle the list down, perhaps through private-equity investment.

Cory Nettles, a former state Commerce Department secretary and founder of Generation Growth Capital, a private-equity firm, has spoken with Mayor Tom Barrett and other city officials about forming a local group to invest in the city's foreclosed properties.

In an interview, Nettles declined to identify members of the working group, and he emphasized his company would not be involved in buying foreclosed properties.

But the idea, he said, could involve the purchase of as few as 300 homes or as many as 1,000, he said. "They want to do something at a significant scale up to maybe 1,000 units or so," Nettles said.

Madison — Wisconsin would put tighter caps on how much doctors and physical therapists could be paid to treat injured patients covered by worker's compensation insurance, under a bill before lawmakers.

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The cost savings projections are based on findings by the Workers Compensation Research Institute, whose board mainly includes insurers and employers.

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In 1911, Wisconsin adopted the Workmen's Compensation Act, the first of its kind in the country, to end the growing practice of injured workers being forced to sue their employers. The law provides for universal coverage for workers. Nearly all employers are required to pay for worker's compensation insurance, and the state also provides a fund for uninsured workers by penalizing businesses that are illegally operating without insurance.

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Bill opponents see the legislation as a decision by management and labor to push worker's compensation costs onto those who provide the care. They say that Wisconsin already performs well on a range of measures such as how quickly employees get back on the job. "Data shows that in Wisconsin, the period of time an injured worker is away from his or her job is lowest in the country," Brett Roberts, a board member of the Wisconsin Physical Therapy Association, told lawmakers at the hearing.