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The Wisconsin Senate is expected to vote Tuesday on a bill to create statewide standards for the placement of high-tech windmills. A similar measure is pending in the Assembly. Sponsors say it's needed because local governments have restricted the wind farms so much, it's hurting...

The Wisconsin Assembly is expected to vote today on the proposed new state budget, after majority Democrats made some big changes Wednesday. They modified the new oil profits' tax, so it comes out to an increase for drivers of 4 cents a gallon. They dropped the controversial legal...

Gov. Jim Doyle is happy that the Legislature's budget committee kept his plans intact for wiping out the state's $6.6 budget deficit. The final vote came around 5:30 a.m. today, when 12 Democrats voted yes and four Republicans voted no to send the whole package to the Legislature....

The U.S. House is expected to approve the $825 billion federal economic stimulus package today. Wisconsin Democrats generally support the plan, which is said to create up to 4 million jobs as soon as possible. House Appropriations Chairman U.S. Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., of Wausau...

U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., was one of just three U.S. Senate Democrats who voted against the confirmation of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The head of the New York Federal Reserve bank was confirmed 60-34 Monday, despite personal tax problems which came to light after...

The U.S. Senate will vote tonight (Wednesday) on the latest compromise to rescue the financial services industry. Leaders of both parties announced a new agreement Tuesday night to add major tax cuts, with the goal of getting 12 more House votes needed to pass the measure. Basically,...

Illinois and Iowa have recently agreed to start letting ex-felons vote as soon as they get out of prison. A Wisconsin lawmaker will try again to let felons here do the same. Rep. Joe Parisi, D-Madison, is unopposed in November.

Tuesday is the spring election in River Falls and throughout Wisconsin. In most cases, voters will be asked to follow up and narrow choices they made in the Feb. 19 primary. Polls everywhere, whether in the city or town, open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. In the city of River Falls,...

Wisconsin senators are expected to pass their own version today (Tuesday) of a bill that gets rid of the state's $650 million budget shortfall. It differs strongly from two other plans pushed by the GOP Assembly and Gov. Jim Doyle. That's because it tries to close business tax loopholes. Doyle...

Wisconsin senators have voted to make police and sheriff's departments give psychological tests to their candidates for new officers. The bill has virtually no chance of becoming law before the current session ends Thursday. The Assembly refused to act on a similar mandate last...

Democrats tried but failed Tuesday to get their state Assembly colleagues to vote on the Great Lakes water protection agreement. Republican leaders have been holding up the regional agreement. They're trying to make it easier for places like Waukesha to tap into the Great Lakes...

The Wisconsin Assembly voted 53-44 overnight to keep the state's online public schools open next fall. The two parties still cannot agree on how many students should be able to take advantage of learning at their home computers. Gov. Jim Doyle wants enrollment frozen at its present...

State Assembly Republicans have agreed to an enrollment limit for Wisconsin's online public schools so they won't have to shut down next fall. But the GOP's cap is about 2.5 times as big as the 2-year freeze Gov. Jim Doyle demanded last week. Doyle got the Senate to limit virtual...

The future of Wisconsin's online schools was put back in jeopardy Tuesday, after Gov. Jim Doyle insisted on new enrollment limits. Doyle also said he wants a study, to find out if students are getting the same quality of education they'd get in an actual classroom. At first, senators...