Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Nearly seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States has not yet come up with a "coherent plan of action" to fight terrorism, Sen. Russ Feingold said Monday during a speech at the New America Foundation. "Instead, we remain mired in and distracted politically and financially by Iraq," Feingold told the audience. "As a consequence, many of the same serious problems that made us vulnerable to al Qaeda’s attack -- in strategic planning, institutional readiness and allocation… more

250 State Deaths Yearly Blamed on Insurance Gap

Nearly five people die each week in Wisconsin because they don't have health insurance, according to an estimate released Tuesday by a national group that supports universal coverage.

That figure - roughly 250 people a year - is based on an update of an estimate released in 2002 by the Institute of Medicine, an affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Len Nichols, a health care economist at the New America Foundation, described the… more

The leading presidential candidates' proposals on health care reform are more detailed - and perhaps more realistic - than those of past elections.

That could bode well for the chances of significant reform in the next four years.

"Both sides of the aisle give me hope that we are going to have an adult conversation," said Len Nichols, a health care economist at the New America Foundation, a research group that focuses on bipartisan approaches to public policy issues.

In the Democratic… more

Energy experts with Glendale-based Johnson Controls Inc. are busy crafting their first proposal aimed at winning a piece of an ambitious $5 billion plan to reduce global warming by retrofitting energy-wasting buildings in 16 of the world's largest cities.

Step one: Houston, one of the country's most polluted cities, where more than 270 buildings could see upgrades.

Meeting in Milwaukee last week, managers and experts from Johnson Controls offices around the country scoured slides of aging boilers and control systems in… more

Growing sentiment that the nation's health care system is broken beyond repair is moving the once radical idea of universal health coverage closer to the political mainstream...Few would argue with the goal. More than a few would question whether it's realistic...The three proposals - the Wisconsin Health Security Act, the Wisconsin Health Care Partnership Plan and the Wisconsin Health Plan - have each been introduced at least once in previous legislative sessions. Their supporters… more

Washington - Vying for support in an anti-war party, the Democratic presidential candidates are with each passing week embracing new and tougher measures to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, adopting ideas they once shunned. In June, Barack Obama voted against a deadline for withdrawal, saying an "arbitrary" date could make things worse, "plunging Iraq into an even deeper and, perhaps, irreparable crisis."

But a few weeks ago, the Illinois senator proposed a withdrawal date (March 2008), saying,… more

Rep. Tammy Baldwin, one of the most liberal members of Congress, and Rep. Tom Price, one of the most conservative, seldom agree on political issues.... But the two agree on one thing: Significant health care reform stands little chance of getting through Congress.

That political reality is unlikely to change with the recent election. And it has made Baldwin and Price improbable allies.

The two are backing an approach designed to get around Washington's deadlock on health care reform. They are part… more

They include children born with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and other disabilities.

They include people paralyzed in accidents or by strokes and those with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. They include the elderly in nursing homes. And they include children whose parents are unemployed or in low-wage jobs.

All of them -- and the list is far from complete -- depend on health programs run by the state. They have a direct stake in the health policies of the next governor.

Those… more

The National Academy of Sciences building in Washington might seem to be an odd place for a fist fight. But reporters know any slugging match, anywhere, is news. Even a scuffle is guaranteed to get on the tube.

As it happened, we journalists covering last week's conference at the NAS, " Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Cloning," had to settle for rising voices and flaring tempers. Given the intensity of interest in the topic, we couldn't fail to get… more