Scott Walker

• Court rules Milwaukee police can’t bargain health costs

  By Todd Richmond  |  April 17, 2013

  Two Wisconsin appellate courts bolstered portions of Republicans' contentious collective bargaining restrictions Tuesday, ruling that Milwaukee police can't negotiate their own health care costs and that a county board legally required elected officials to pay more for their benefits.

• Wisconsin governor wants more state employees

  By The Associated Press  |  February 21, 2013

  Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is proposing hiring 710 new state employees over the next two years.

• Do tax increases kill jobs?

  By Patrick Condon  |  February 13, 2013

  Dik Bolger is a lifelong Minnesota Democrat, a gray-bearded baby boomer with a braid down his back whose Minneapolis printing company's plant displays work by local artists and sculptors. He backed Mark Dayton for governor, but his take on the Democratic chief executive's plan for new business taxes could be...

• WEDC head asks for $200 million in pension funds

  By Scott Bauer  |  February 4, 2013

  The board that oversees Wisconsin's pension program for public employees has rejected a request by the head of Gov. Scott Walker's semi-private economic development agency to tap $200 million from the fund to invest in risky startup businesses.

• Unions suffer sharp decline in membership

  By Sam Hananel  |  January 23, 2013

  The nation’s labor unions suffered sharp declines in membership last year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday, led by losses in the public sector as cash-strapped state and local governments laid off workers and — in some cases — limited collective bargaining rights.

• Unions plan new offensive after Michigan loss

  By Sam Hananel, Thomas Beaumont  |  December 18, 2012

  Blindsided by a new law weakening union rights in Michigan, organized labor is preparing to target Republican governors in politically important states up for re-election in 2014 — part of a renewed offensive against perceived anti-union policies.

• Audit faults Wisconsin job agency

  By Scott Bauer  |  December 18, 2012

  Poor record keeping, a lack of basic accounting controls and high staff turnover all contributed to problems in the first year of Wisconsin's premiere job-creation agency, according to an independent audit released Monday.

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  GOP fiscal cliff plan echoes failed budget talks

  By Andrew Taylor  |  December 4, 2012

  Republicans are proposing a "fiscal cliff" plan that revives ideas from failed budget talks with President Barack Obama last year, calling for raising the eligibility age for Medicare, lowering cost-of-living hikes for Social Security benefits and bringing in $800 billion in higher tax revenue.

• Unions show muscle, spent millions in state races

  By Samn Hananel  |  November 19, 2012

  From California to Maine, unions used their political muscle to help install Democratic governors, build labor-friendly majorities in state legislatures and defeat ballot initiatives against them.

• Michigan voters face bevy of ballot proposals

  By Corey Williams  |  October 31, 2012

  Michigan voters will decide next week on a labor-backed ballot proposal that would strengthen municipal workers' union rights, even as some deficit-plagued cities look to cut pay and other benefits negotiated through collective bargaining.