Wisconsin

Sean Duffy, the leading Republican candidate challenging Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.), will report a fundraising total of $140,000, with $120,000 cash on hand, for the third quarter of 2009. I talked with the candidate today, keying off NRCC Chairman and Rep. Pete Sessions’s (R-Texas) prediction that Obey — who is seeking a 21st term in [...]

The Twin Ports of Duluth and Superior drew a record 12,000 people for the 23rd annual LGBT Pride event Labor Day weekend. Anti-gay protesters shouted at parade participants and festival-goers, while politicians angling for the DFL nomination for governor worked the crowds. The festival boasted a big name act with international drag sensation RuPaul.

A group of parents in the suburban Milwaukee community of Brookfield are suing their school district because the public high school holds its graduation ceremony in an evangelical church.
Nine individuals are suing the school district to prevent the graduation from occurring at Elmbrook Church, countering that previous graduation ceremonies have been held at numerous [...]

If Gov. Tim Pawlenty wants greater regional cooperation, he can look to the state’s half-century of success with regional library systems, writes the Minnesota Library Association’s legislative chair. But as for combining or coordinating operations with Wisconsin, the lesson from libraries is less rosy. Economies-of-scale savings have been miniscule since Minneapolis merged its library system with Hennepin County’s, says one of the last Minneapolis library trustees.

The leader of the Oshkosh, Wis., Salvation Army was suspended from his job last week because he is marrying a woman who is not a member of the faith-based charitable organization. Capt. Johnny Harsh lost his wife, a fellow Salvation Army officer, to a sudden heart attack earlier this year. He recently became engaged to [...]

After abandoning Michigan partly on the grounds of putting more resources into Midwestern neighbors like Wisconsin and Minnesota, the McCain campaign is now pulling up stakes in Wisconsin too — and, according to the AP, Maine. Writes Jim Kuhnhenn, “The party’s independent ad operation is doubling its budget to about $10 million and focusing on [...]

This evening Wisconsin residents will have the opportunity to voice their support or displeasure with proposed wolf hunting and trapping seasons in a statewide poll. The results of the poll will be non-binding and the state’s legislature would be required to establish the season, but many hope the poll will give a clearer picture of [...]

In the news again: A controversial transmission line project that will carry electricity into Minnesota from a new coal-burning power plant beyond our border. I’m not talking about Big Stone II, but rather Arrowhead-Weston, a 220-mile, 800-megawatt transmission line connecting Duluth with Wausau, Wis. Project managers flipped the switch on Tuesday, powering up the line [...]

Known for a personality as colorful as his iconic red vest, one-term Wisconsin governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus died last night at age 81. Described in a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel obituary as “a bit of a ham and, with apologies for mixing metaphors, one tough cookie beneath the jolly good fellow persona,” Dreyfus is hailed as one [...]