Month: July 2011

The Milwaukee County Board voted Thursday to provide health insurance benefits to same-sex or opposite-sex domestic partners of county workers, a move supporters called long overdue. Critics said the benefit was too costly, considering the county's looming $55 million shortfall for 2012. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/29)

After three years of legal and political wrangling over the Milwaukee paid sick-day law that voters approved but business groups denounced, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Cooper declared Thursday afternoon: "It's over." In doing so he found the city law, passed by 69% of voters in November 2008 and upheld by the state Court of Appeals in March, was moot because of state legislation approved in April that voided it. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/29)

United Way of Greater Milwaukee announced Wednesday it will work with the City of Milwaukee to fight infant mortality, and launched the effort by giving the city $200,000 to expand an intensive home visiting program with a proven track record of saving babies. Babies in Milwaukee die at a rate greater than in all but six of the nation's 53 largest cities. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/28)

One of the Milwaukee area's largest providers of kidney dialysis recently was featured in the New York Times, but not for anything the company will likely want to promote on its website. DaVita is involved in a whistle-blower lawsuit filed July 25 in the United States District Court in Atlanta alleging the company used larger-than-necessary vials of medicine knowing that Medicare would pay for the unused portion of each vial if it were deemed unavoidable waste. (MILWAUKEE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/28)

Aspirus Wausau Hospital announced Tuesday that it is closing its behavioral health unit and sending its psychiatric patients to North Central Health Care center. The unit, which provides basic inpatient psychiatric care, will close Aug. 1 because of declining demand for its services, as outpatient treatment continues to become more popular. (WAUSAU DAILY HERALD, 7/27)

Milwaukee city employees will have to pay more for their health care next year, a move expected to save taxpayers at least $25 million a year, the Common Council decided Tuesday. It was the city's first action on employee benefits since a controversial new state law wiped out most collective bargaining for most public workers earlier this year. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/27)

A new link on the state government website directs visitors seeking information about family services to a national anti-abortion evangelical organization, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation has sent Gov. Scott Walker a letter claiming that "such religious propaganda" is a violation of the separation of church and state. (CAPITAL TIMES, 7/27)