Since Ron Johnson came on the scene in the summer of 2010, his most significant moments have been as follows:

Now that statehouse Republicans have voted to end (not entirely, but effectively) local government residency requirements for hired public employees, what's next? Well, logically, why wouldn 't the GOP next decide to end the requirement that elected officials actually reside within the districts they represent? (Not that they all now do, all the time, by the way).

After all, the residency requirement for lawmakers was designed expressly to encourage our chosen representatives to be more responsive to and understand the issues of their constituencies. By effectively ending local residency rules for non-elected public workers, the GOP has now argued that police, firefighters and other public employees don't need to "live among 'em" in order to well understand the needs of the citizens they are hired to serve.

We have a lot of exciting plans for Uppity Wisconsin over the summer.  One thing I am trying to build is a way for all of our readers to help crowdsource progressive news about Wisconsin. You can help out with the first experimental phase of that.  I know a lot of our readers scour the web every day, and you all find interesting stuff about Wisconsin on the web.  So here's the deal.  If you have a Reddit account, I'd really appreciate it if you would put items into my Wisconsin Progressive Subreddit. If you don't have a Reddit account and want to help out, go get a Reddit account already. 

We take the feed of those articles and pop it up into the side block on the site called "Wisconsin Progressive" which appears throughout the site.  More importantly, this gives our writers a chance to see what you are finding interesting, and to blog about it. Help create our news and help to build a list of articles that you've found interesting and helpful (but please ---- only news from Wisconsin or related to Wisconsin).  For the time being this subreddit is wide open for submissions - we'll see how it goes. Let me know if you have any questions - just leave a comment.

“In Wisconsin, we don’t make excuses, we get results,” said Governor Walker as quoted by the Associated Press. The governor was unveiling his $75 million budget initiative earlier this year to economic development professionals across the state.

While the new dollars are still being the debated, the spending of existing economic development dollars recently took center stage among Legislators.

The Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) released a stinging indictment of mismanagement and poor oversight at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). The audit reviewed 30 economic development programs during the 2011-12 fiscal year. WEDC awarded $41.3 million in grants, $20.5 million in loans, provided $110.8 million in tax credits to businesses and individuals, and authorized local government to issue $346.4 million in bonds.

Auditors found not a single job created by this investment was verified by WEDC. More than half of the required reports had not even filed by businesses receiving assistance. Without evidence it was impossible for auditors to determine if contractually specified performance, including required job creation, ever happened.

 In page after page of the 120-page report auditors outlined management failures and violations of current law.

The ultimate example of conservative heads exploding:

A public employee union representing faculty, counselors and professional staff at the Milwaukee Area Technical College negotiated a one-year agreement with the school, which the MATC board approved. Officials say the deal will save the school $122 million over the next 25 years, due to long-term reductions in early health benefits that will go forward. A one-year deal that saves a nine-figures amount of tax dollars ... Now THAT is good government. Unless, of course, you're a Republican.

Conservative reaction (summarized): This deal is an outrage! Schools can't negotiate with defrocked public employee unions, even if a judge rules they can! The Wisconsin Republican Party made it so!

Conservative action: Sue MATC! That'll make things better, oh yeah.

As the drivel keeps coming out of hm -- no cancer coverage for you because --- Freedom!

Reprinted with permission from http://huckkonopackicartoons.com

The recent bombing in Boston that killed three people was quickly branded “terrorism.” If convicted, the 19-year-old suspect could face the death penalty under federal law.  In the same week, an explosion at a West, Texas fertilizer plant killed 14 people, including 11 firefighters. Though the West Chemical and Fertilizer Company hadn’t had a safety inspection since 1985 and had lied to the Environmental Protection Agency about explosives on the property, it will likely and literally get away with murder. 

In Texas (and, sadly, elsewhere in the US), killing workers for profit is the perfect crime. In 2005 an explosion at British Petroleum’s Texas City refinery killed 15 and injured 170.  Five years later, BP’s offshore drilling rig, Deepwater Horizon, exploded and killed 11 workers. Though BP was fined for both incidents, there were no arrests of those responsible.  Similarly Gulf Stream Marine, which handles cargo at Gulf Coast ports, experienced six fatal accidents from 2007 to 2011. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found violations in every case but subsequently deleted violations and erased penalties in half of them.