Today, September 24

• 

  6:51pm

  Steve Hanson created Chippewa Valley Votes holds voter registration Sept. 25

  Tuesday Sept. 25 is National Voter Registration Day. Chippewa Vally Votes...

  Tuesday Sept. 25 is National Voter Registration Day. Chippewa Vally Votes is holding voter registration events throughout the Chippewa Valley Tuesday as part of that effort. 

  • L. E. Phillips Library Eau Claire - 3-7:30 PM
  • UW Eau Claire Davies Center - 10 AM- 2 PM - hosted by NexGen America
  • Menomonie Market Food Co-op - 10 AM - 2 PM
  • Community Table - Eau Claire - 4:30-6:30 PM
  • Sojourner House - Eau Claire - 7-9 PM
  • Eau Claire Government Center/Courthouse - 9 AM - 2 PM
  • JAMF Software - 2-3 PM
  • Municipal Elections office 203 S. Farwell, Eau Claire - 8AM - 5 PM

• 

  3:51pm

  Senator Kathleen Vinehout created Potato Disease, the UW and the Wisconsin Idea

  Late blight is a devastating potato and tomato disease that spreads quickly...

  Late blight is a devastating potato and tomato disease that spreads quickly in late summer. It can wipe out a crop in just a few days. This disease caused the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s which led to the starvation or relocation of millions of Irish, including my ancestors.

  Blight happens when it’s humid and muggy. The disease spreads very fast. Spores can move 40 miles a day. There are 30,000 spores in a patch the size of a dime. Because the devastating disease can “scale up quickly,” state laws exist for its control.

  Wisconsin is home to 63,000 acres of potatoes. Our state is ranked third nationwide in potato production. For over one hundred years, the University of Wisconsin has helped potato farmers work with the weather, disease and new varieties of potatoes.

  “The work of the University of Wisconsin is incredibly important,” an Antigo grower told the Senate Agriculture Committee last year. They have “the best potato research team in America.”

  While explaining the relationship between the UW and the potato growers, one of the growers said, “the UW grows baby potatoes, they test chemicals, they give us advice on the mix we give the co-ops.” The UW potato research team is critical to the success of Wisconsin potato growers. “We pay the UW Inspection Crew to look at our fields.” The team created a “blight forecasting tool” that helps growers predict when plants are most at risk for blight.

  Alex Crockford, a former Langlade County Ag Agent explained to the committee how roughly 9,000 acres of seed potatoes come from the Wisconsin seed potato certification program. “They go to the south, they go internationally. We [UW] are recognized as a national leader in quality and research.” The state farm in Rhinelander is the source of most of the seed potatoes in Wisconsin. “Here, we’ve been able to create very clean potatoes.”

  Controlling disease begins with clean seed and a clean field. The UW is also one of the biggest seed potato growers in the United States. The program began in 1912.

  This was the same year Charles McCarthy, the head of the Legislative Reference Library, wrote a book entitled, The Wisconsin Idea.

  UW’s assistance to potato growers is a shining example of the Wisconsin Idea. The Idea’s guiding principle is for Wisconsin’s public universities and state government to serve the people using the best ideas of the entire nation. The knowledge and work of the university should be spread across the entire state for the benefit of its citizens.

  ...

  Read more
• 

  2:51pm

  Steve Hanson updated Election Commission will have ambitious meeting before Nov. Election

  No visible changes

  Read more
• 

  2:48pm

  Steve Hanson updated Election Commission will have ambitious meeting before Nov. Election

  Changes to Tags
  		+	Elections 2018
  		+	Wisconsin Elections Commission

  Read more
• 

  2:47pm

  Steve Hanson created Election Commission will have ambitious meeting before Nov. Election

  The Wisconsin Elections Commission will hold a particularly long and...

  The Wisconsin Elections Commission will hold a particularly long and extensive meeting tomorrow, Sept. 25. Part of the meeting will be devoted to getting feedback on plans to spend the $7 million federal grant for election security. Approximately $2.4 million of that money has been allocated to hire additional staff for security purposes, particularly before the November election. This money will be used to hire six additional staff for the next four years. These positions are being filled fairly late because although the commission had requested additional security funds, they were turned down until the grant from the federal government was available.

  There has been pressure brought to bear to do more extensive auditing of election results at the local level (by policy local election officials are allowed to conduct vote audits, but are not required to do anything beyond doing tests of the accuracy of the voting machines). Certainly some of the feedback will be to request full audits, further security training, and new equipment for voting.

  The meeting will be held from 10:00 to 4:00 in the State Capitol, Room 413N, GAR Hall.  The agenda for the meeting is available at the elections commission website.