State Headlines From Wisconsin Public Radio, August 26
More Wisconsin residents will be insured under federal health care reform
By Shamane Mills, Wisconsin Public Radio
An independent review assessing how federal health reform will affect Wisconsin shows the number of uninsured will decrease by 2016, but premiums for some will increase.
The findings are based on analysis by MIT health economist Jonathan Gruber and the Gorman Actuarial group. They estimate premium increases for 59 percent of those in Wisconsin's individual market. Part of this is due to federal requirement on what plans have to cover. Another factor is restrictions on higher prices for the elderly. As for those who get their insurance through work, the report characterizes the impact of the Affordable Care Act as "modest." There is expected to be a NET reduction of 10,000 individuals receiving coverage that way.
Wisconsin Health Services Secretary Dennis Smith thinks that number will be higher, even though there's a penalty for employers not offering insurance. He says, "Employer covered insurance has been eroding nationally. Employees themselves may believe they are better off with going to the exchange with very generous tax subsidies."
Subsidies will be available to those at 400 percent of the federal poverty level, amounting to 89,000 dollars for a family of four. Smith says he's concerned Wisconsin's insurance market could become less competitive under federal reform.
Robert Kraig, director of Wisconsin Citizen Action, agrees there will be a shakeup in the market, but he says it will positive. The report says the number of uninsured will decrease 65 percent because of the coverage mandate and federal subsidies.
"A lot more people will be covered and they'll have a guarantee of access to coverage, which you lack now," he says.
Even with reform, the report predicts 180,000 people in Wisconsin will still be uninsured, including undocumented immigrants.
Technical advisor to look at contamination at the former Badger Army Ammunition plant
By Chuck Quirmbach, Wisconsin Public Radio
A group that wants more environmental clean-up of the former Badger Army Ammunition plant near Baraboo says it's won an important victory.
Citizens for Safe Water around Badger says the Army has reversed itself and will allow federal money to pay for an independent technical advisor. The consultant will review Army plans for the largest contaminated site at the former plant: sixty acres called the settling ponds area that stretches from Highway 12 to the Wisconsin River. The land may contain high levels of chemical contamination.
Citizens Executive Director Laura Olah says additional clean-up would ease several concerns.
She says the independent consultant will also look at regulation proposals made by the Wisconsin DNR. She says she hopes the Army gives the technical advisor enough time to do a thorough review.
Gauging whether a tar sands pipeline could affect the flow of support for President Obama
By Chuck Quirmbach, Wisconsin Public Radio
A Wisconsin man arrested during recent White House protests against a proposed pipeline says President Obama's decision on the project could affect progressive support for the President.
Environmental groups are trying to convince President Obama to block a proposed pipeline that would carry crude oil from the tar sands region of Alberta to refineries in Texas. Longtime Wisconsin environmental activist Peter Anderson joined the protests outside the White House last Saturday, and was one of dozens of people arrested and thrown in jail for a couple of days. Anderson says he's not asking for sympathy, but he is asking questions of the president. Anderson says he'll still probably vote for the president next year, but may not spend a lot of hours working for Obama's re-election. Anderson says the president blocking the pipeline would restore some of Anderson's confidence in the white house.
Wisconsin marriage and divorce rates trail the nation's
By Teresa Shipley, Wisconsin Public Radio
People in Wisconsin are getting married and divorced less often than couples in the rest of the country. That's according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The bureau didn't actually start collecting data on marriages and divorces until 2008. Its analysis of the first sets of numbers shows that in Wisconsin, neither the marriage nor the divorce rates are as high as the national average.
In Wisconsin, only about 1.7 percent of men tied the knot in 2009, compared with 1.9 percent nationally.
There was a similar gap for Wisconsin women, with about 1.6 percent in the state saying "I do" that year, while nationally it was closer to 1.8 percent.
And Wisconsin divorce rates were lower than the national average by similar margins. Diana Elliot is a family demographer for the U.S. Census Bureau. She says those numbers go hand in hand.
"If you don't have as many people getting married, you don't have as many people in the pool to get divorced," Elliot says. "For example, if people for some reason in Wisconsin are delaying marriage, then the marriage rates are going to be a little bit lower, and then the divorce rates are going to be a little bit lower."
Elliot says the data also reveal an interesting national trend.
"We see that since 1970, the median age for men and women has increased for first marriage by about 6 years," Elliot says.
That means the average man marries at about age 28, while for the average woman it's at about age 26.
Elliot says these rates are connected to higher education levels. In other words, she says, the more highly educated a population is, the more it tends to delay marriage.
Can highway deaths keep declining if transportation budgets are shrinking?
By Chuck Quirmbach, Wisconsin Public Radio
Federal and state officials say they're pushing ahead with a goal of zero deaths on highways, despite budget crunches in Madison and Washington.
Highway deaths are declining in Wisconsin, and in many other states. Highway safety leaders are in the middle of a campaign that has a goal of lowering the death toll to zero. Deputy U.S. Transportation Secretary John Porcari told attendees of a motor vehicle administrators conference in Milwaukee this week that building a safer driving culture is a relatively inexpensive way to go during tight budget times.
He says the U.S. DOT is doing some spending, on things like putting more cable barriers in highway medians and during repaving projects, tilting pavement edges so vehicles are more likely to stay on the road. Lynn Judd heads the division of motor vehicles for the Wisconsin DOT. She says the state is trying to funnel more staff and money into highway safety, in part by cutting back on dealing with drivers in person.
Judd also says the state d-o-t is trying to make sure it has people in place to watch over ignition interlock programs for drunk drivers and medical programs that evaluate whether people are still fit to get behind the wheel. Upcoming data will show if budget cuts stall the effort to get to zero highway deaths.
Wisconsin farmers to ship hay to drought-stricken Oklahoma
By Teresa Shipley, Wisconsin Public Radio
Wisconsin only got a taste of the hot weather that's been plaguing Oklahoma for almost the entire summer. The prolonged drought there means farm animals don't have enough hay to eat, and Wisconsin farmers are stepping in to help.
Oklahoma has had a record-breaking 52 days of temperatures over 100 degrees this summer. Sixty-seven of the 77 counties have been declared disaster areas due to the severe drought.
Randy Jasper is a grain farmer from Muscoda and a member of the Wisconsin-based group Family Farm Defenders. He was at a Farm Aid concert in Kansas City just over a week ago.
"And a farmer from Oklahoma was there just all but on his knees pleading for hay," he said.
Willard Tillman was that man. He runs a farmer's cooperative in Oklahoma that focuses on small and minority-owned farms.
Tillman says, "There's no hay, and then the hay that's here is not good hay and then it's overpriced, so these guys are really suffering."
Tillman says about 50 family farms are in danger of going out of business. The lack of hay is forcing them to sell off their herds, though Tillman says auction houses are so full because of the drought that they aren't accepting more animals.
"It's really in the survival stages right now," he says. "And hopefully with this shipment, we can actually make an impact."
Meanwhile, farmer Randy Jasper says they've got two semi-loads of hay bales ready to ship and are just waiting on the trucks to arrive. A representative from Farm Aid says the first shipment should arrive in Oklahoma this week.
Tillman estimates that each farm will need at least one large round bale of hay a day to survive.
More information about the aid effort is at family farmers.org.
Some concealed carry supporters say the law is too restrictive
By Rich Kremer, Wisconsin Public Radio
Passage of the concealed carry bill this summer is hailed as a major victory for gun rights supporters, but some wish it had gone further.
On a sunny, Sunday afternoon at the St. Croix County Fairgrounds in Glenwood City about 150 people gathered for the third annual Open Carry Picnic, many of them wearing holstered pistols. This year's picnic celebrated the passage of the Personal Protection Act in Wisconsin. The act will allow citizens to carry concealed firearms with proper training and a permit. Annette Olson helped organize the event and says she's glad concealed carry was. But, she said, the legislature should have passed constitutional carry, which would allow anyone to carry a concealed gun without a permit.
"Our constitution of the United States as well as our state constitution tells us that we are able to protect ourselves and carry a firearm in doing so," she said. "So it is a disappointment but this is a huge leap for us."
Fred Yulga of Marathon was also disappointed that constitutional carry did not pass but said the concealed carry law can be tweaked in the future.
"It should have been done sooner but the fact that it is here now and we have it," he said. "It's something we should work with and fine tune it, it's going to take a little bit but it's a start."
Yulga is also concerned about what he calls attacks on the new concealed carry law. He says cities, towns and villages are already banning guns in government owned public buildings.
Yulga says, "There's no reason for that to happen, they're supposed to be supporting our constitution not infringing on our rights."
Wisconsin's concealed carry law will take effect November 1.
UW to offer online wellness degree
By Shamane Mills, Wisconsin Public Radio
Four University of Wisconsin campuses have a new online degree for those interested in managing corporate wellness programs. Worksite wellness programs used to be considered a perk when they cropped up in the 70's. Now many employers look at them as a way to reduce increasing health costs. As more businesses offer the programs, they need someone who can oversee them. An online degree, starting next spring, trains people for that job. George Kroeninger is an assistant dean of continuing education at UW-Extension. He says the Health and Wellness program is for those who already have 60 credits toward a Bachelors degree or have an associate degree.
"We're trying to reach out to those people who may have stopped out of their university experience after 2 years or 3 years," he said. "The majority of people who come to us will likely be working adults so the online piece is so attractive to them. Or those individuals who find themselves time or place bound."
Faculty for the online wellness management program will come from four UW campuses in La Crosse, River Falls, Stevens Point and Superior.
Nature group exceeds its fundraising goal
By Chuck Quirmbach, Wisconsin Public Radio
The Nature Conservancy says it raised almost $32 million, during a recently-completed fund drive, exceeding a goal of $30 million. The drive took four years to complete. Almost nine million dollars of the amount came came early in the campaign and is targeted to help protect the Mukwonago River watershed in Waukesha county.
Nature Conservancy Wisconsin director Mary Jean Huston says during the recession there were some ups and downs. but she says she thinks people continued to give because of their love for the outdoors.
The $32 million raised by the Nature Conservancy is only a fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars the state has borrowed for the stewardship program over the last two decades. Huston says her group will continue to pair private and stewardship dollars where possible.
Huston says about $18 million raised by the conservancy has already been spent on land purchases, managing land and on scientific research. She says two big ongoing projects are efforts to reduce phosphorus pollution along the Pecatonica and Sheboygan rivers.
Green Bay's port is busier after construction of a new dock
By Patty Murray, Wisconsin Public Radio
Shipments through Great Lakes ports are reflecting positive economic news. Movement of raw materials is up across the board. In Green Bay, a newly-improved dock has opened up a new sector of shipments.
Earlier this year the oil company U.S. Venture used a federal grant to improve a petroleum shipment dock at the Port of Green Bay.
Port Director Dean Haen says the port is the end of the line for a pipeline that moves oil into Northeastern Wisconsin. From the port he says the petroleum is put onto ships bound for Cheboygan, Michigan and on to Canadian refineries.
Haen says the new dock means a more diverse cargo beyond the port's usual hauls of things like coal, cement, and raw materials for paper making.
"Which is always good, then you don't have such a peaks and valleys booms and busts of economic times. The more and varied types of cargo you're moving the better you weather those changing economic conditions," he says.
US Transportation statistics show the port of Green Bay had an economic impact of $83 million in 2010. Haen says movement through the port is a leading economic indicator for the region's economy. Tonnage dropped in 2008 due to the recession but Haen says activity is picking back up.
And since the new petroleum dock wasn't up and running until this year, Haen says the next economic report should reflect even greater movement.
A separate report gives a bigger picture of movement through the St. Lawrence Seaway. Numbers from the Seaway's Development Corporation indicate cargo shipments were up more than 20 percent this July compared to the same time last year.
Wisconsin state workers face higher health costs
By Shamane Mills, Wisconsin Public Radio
Beginning this month, Wisconsin state workers start paying higher premiums for health coverage. Beginning in January, they'll pay more to see a doctor.
In 2012, state workers who visit a doctor will pay 10 percent of the bill. The amount is capped with an out-of-pocket maximum, says Shawn Smith, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds.
"And that is up to a maximum per year for a single person which will be 500 dollars per year or for a family a thousand dollars per year," she says
There are exceptions to the coinsurance: it won't apply to dental benefits, preventative care like routine physicals, or pharmacy benefits. The upcoming changes are prompting a lot of calls to the Department of Employee Trust Funds. Smith says they're trying to get the word out.
"We unveiled two new videos on our website and we're really encouraging our members to do 2 things," she says. "One: pay special attention to materials coming in next couple of weeks. And second thing we do offer medical reimbursement account where people can set aside pretax dollars for what they would anticipate their costs would be with the new 10 percent coinsurance requirement."
Smith says the state employee insurance changes will affect 183,000 people: current workers, their dependents, and those retired but not yet on Medicare.
Federal loan will help develop high speed internet in southwest Wisconsin
By Rich Kremer, Wisconsin Public Radio
A $24 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will bring state-of-the-art, high speed internet to rural Vernon County. The Vernon Telephone Cooperative in Westby says it will use the money to provide fiber-to-the-premise service. That means fiber optic cable will be trenched directly to users and internet speeds could hit one gigabyte per second. Stan Gruszynski is state director of U.S.D.A Rural Development. He says without this help from the federal government small, rural telecom companies can't afford these kinds of improvements.
"There's a lot of cost associated with the infrastructure for fiber optics," he says. "And to expect a small community where there's limited population to take on that cost would be pretty difficult."
The money offered to Vernon Telephone Cooperative is part of $108 million in grants and loans for 23 projects across the country for broadband development. Jonathan Adelstein is Administrator of the Rural Utility Service at U.S.D.A. He says the entire economy is moving to high speed internet and communities without are at distinct disadvantages.
"They won't have the educational opportunities, they won't have the healthcare you can get through telemedicine and they won't have the jobs and the economic opportunities that come with broadband," he says.
Adelstein says the type of internet service Vernon Telephone can provide with these federal dollars will rival any in the country.
"This project is providing state of the art technology," he says. "This is the best possible broadband. It's fiber to the premise, right to the barn, right to the home, right to the business that will be as good of a quality of broadband that you can get in downtown Washington or downtown New York City right there in rural Wisconsin."
Since 2003, The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports spending more than $451 million to improve telecom services in rural Wisconsin communities.
Madison Police Dept tries to improve ties with Latino community
By Gilman Halsted, Wisconsin Public Radio
The Madison Police Department is trying to help tear down a wall that exists between police and the city's Latino community, through a first-of-its-kind Latino youth academy. Twenty-three middle schoolers were recruited for a recent two-day workshop held at a community center. The "Amigos en Azul" or, "Friends in Blue" workshop showed young people things like how police brush crime evidence for fingerprints.
Officer Zulma Franco coordinated the project. She says cultural barriers and the recent heightened attention to illegal immigration has made it difficult for Latinos and police officers to get along. "We felt that if we are able to give information to the kids, then they'll give it to their communities, parents, grandparents, and neighbors, and that will help us break down those barriers," she said.
The academy targets middle-schoolers in hopes od building positive attitudes towards police officers before they reach high school, where they are more vulnerable to being recruited by gangs. Thirteen-year-old Nicolo Cuamani said she enjoyed the academy, and might consider becoming a police officer when she grows up.
Two Wisconsin counties selected for criminal justice pilot
By Richard Kremer, Wisconsin Public Radio
Eau Claire and Milwaukee Counties have been chosen by the National Institute of Corrections to introduce what's called an evidence-based approach to criminal justice. Its goal is to reduce recidivism by focusing treatment on underlying conditions, like addiction or mental illness, and keeping low-risk offenders out of jail. Eau Claire County Judge Michael Schumacher says it could rewrite the book on criminal justice.
"It's huge," he says, "It is a systematic change from the point of arrest through charging, court appearances, through probation and parole and incarceration or prison or otherwise, from one point to another."
Eau Claire County Sheriff Ron Cramer says the program works by having offercers determine if an offender is a high or low risk to the community, instead of pushing them all through the courts.
Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisolm says that diversion could lead to treatment for drug or alcohol dependency, or certain mental health conditions.
"In the past, what we've done is we've quickly processed people through the system and then essentially dumped the problems on the Department of Corrections," Chilolm says, "and then try to forget about them, but you can't forget about them because they eventually all come back to your community."
Kroc-funded community center set to open in Green Bay
By Patty Murray, Wisconsin Public Radio
The Salvation Army is set to dedicate a new community center on Saturday. It will be one of just a few dozen around the country funded through the estate of Joan Kroc, the widow of the late McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc.
The Salvation Army's Ken Shiels says Green Bay is the only Wisconsin city with such a center. He says, "When you think of all the millions of hamburgers served, (it's) part of what created this facility and facilities like it around the country."
Sheils says Joan Kroc had a personal relationship with her local Salvation Army in California. Before her death, he says Kroc decided to spend money to give underprivileged kids opportunities she didn't have growing up.