MADISON - A new study shows the contentious cuts to teachers' benefits pushed by Governor Scott Walker last year offset about two-thirds of the reductions to school revenue.
The report by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance shows school districts across Wisconsin collectively cut spending on health and pension benefits by about $287 million in the 2011-2012 academic year as the result of cuts to public worker benefits and limits on collective bargaining.
The alliance found the benefit cuts offset about 64 percent of the $451 million decrease in revenue for school districts that was imposed to help balance the budget passed by Republican lawmakers last year.
The analysis used data from the more than 420 Wisconsin school districts collected by the state Department of Public Instruction.
(Copyright 2012 Associated Press - All Rights Reserved)
MERRILL - Farmers in Lincoln and Langlade Counties may need to make a longer drive or call a different office for USDA services.
The Merrill Service Center will be temporarily split up between Rhinelander, Wausau, and Medford.
The Farm Service Agency will move to the Wausau Service Center and the Natural Resources Conservation Service will be relocated to the Rhinelander and Medford Centers.
MINOCQUA - These plants may look pretty but they're taking over our rivers and lakes. Michele Sadauskas is Oneida County's Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator. She is working to map and control the yellow iris, the plant you see here. She and two other conservation workers spent the day weeding Stacks Bay.
"They invade our wetlands. They're a really robust, aggressive plant. What they do is they crowd out our native species and make actually the wetland a lot less diverse," says Michele Sadauskas, Oneida County AIS Coordinator.
Removing yellow iris is a slow process. It takes three hours of work just to properly map and control 20 feet of shoreline.
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