[Editor’s note: Not sure if glyphosate, the toxic active ingredient in the Monsanto’s flagship herbicide Roundup, is safe? This week it was “classified as probably carcinogenic to humans” according to a new report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the Word Health Organization’s France-based cancer research arm.]

Here’s a lesson for lobbyists: eating your words is a lot safer than drinking the poison you sell. Today’s lesson is brought to you by Dr. Patrick Moore, who has worked for pesticide manufacturers like Monsanto, refusing to drink Monsanto’s product just seconds after claiming it’s safe to do so:

Once upon a time, Dr. Patrick Moore was an early Greenpeace member. Now he is a public relations consultant for the polluting companies that Greenpeace works to change: Big Oil, pesticides and GMO agribusiness, forestry, nuclear power … anyone who puts up the money for truth-benders who appear to carry scientific and environmental authority.

This is the best gotcha-moment I’ve seen on camera since tobacco lobbyist Joe Bast, CEO of The Heartland Institute, was forced to acknowledge and re-affirm his denial that smoking cigarettes is bad for your health, courtesy of Lee Fang for Republic Report.

News conferences at the NCAA tournament are generally the definition of bland. The cliches are flying, every opponent is touted as the '96 Chicago Bulls, the term "student-athlete" is used at least twice a minute.

But every once in awhile, there are genuine flashes of human emotion and non-robotic answers. Case in point: the Wisconsin Badgers this weekend.

It all started when Wisconsin teammates Nigel Hayes, Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker discovered the until-now-anonymous NCAA stenographer after Friday night's postgame presser. They were genuinely fascinated by the process.

It’s reality that our governor is giving our state part time attention as he tackles a run for the White House, which means that the executive affairs of state devolve to his staff and to his cabinet. But, in Wisconsin in recent months, all indications point to the Walker cabinet being relatively inconsequential... .

The root cause of the budget crisis is the inability or refusal of the governor’s team to deal with health cost inflation. Medicaid increases and bloated costs for covering state employees are wiping out much of the positive revenue surges from a much-improved economy. Under-managing these programs almost guarantees a budget “crisis” every two years.

And it is the semi-annual crisis that gives the governor’s team and legislative leaders the platform to make drastic moves, like whacking the university, trimming K-12, jacking public park fees and cutting their state support, and killing Stewardship [the state's natural public lands acquisition program].

So, adding it all up, if the cabinet is not at the center of policy in the capitol, and the governor is dancing a presidential tango, who is running the government?

Letterman

Mitt Romney has a fund-raiser. He’s going to get in the ring and fight Evander Holyfield. This is the dumbest thing Republicans have done since they wrote that open letter to Iran.

Fallon

Mitt Romney announced he will fight former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield in a charity boxing match. You can tell that Romney is serious about it. Today, his butler gave him a piggyback ride up the steps of the Philadelphia art museum.

It turns out they're already trying a bunch of nicknames to try to hype up the match. First they considered “Vanilla in Manila.” Next up, they tried “Lean and Mean versus L.L. Bean.” Finally, “Mitt Romney Loses to Another Black Guy.”

Dear Scuba,

The Wisconsin legislature continues to discuss the 2015-17 state budget and to consider the impact that this budget will have on the University of Wisconsin System. As part of the legislative process, the state's budget-writing Joint Committee on Finance will be holding four public hearings on Governor Walker's 2015-17 budget proposal.

We strongly encourage you — as a supporter of UW-Madison — to consider attending a budget hearing in your area. All interested individuals are given an opportunity to register their opinions on the state budget and to speak before the members of the committee. This is an excellent opportunity to let your voice be heard.

The budget hearings and locations are:

Wednesday, March 18 (10:00 a.m.—5:00 p.m.)
Brillion High School
Endries Performing Arts Center
W1101 County Road HR
Brillion, WI 54110

Friday, March 20 (10:00 a.m.—5:00 p.m.)
Alverno College
Pitman Theatre
3400 South 43rd Street
Milwaukee, WI 53234

Monday, March 23 (10:00 a.m.—5:00 p.m.)
University of Wisconsin-Barron County
Fine Arts Theatre
1800 College Drive
Rice Lake, WI 54868

Thursday, March 26 (9:30 a.m.—4:00 p.m.)
Reedsburg High School
CAL Center Auditorium
1100 South Albert Avenue
Reedsburg, WI 53959

If you have questions about the hearing or want to learn more about the budget process, I encourage you to visit uwalumni.com/advocacy or the UW-Madison budget page, budget.wisc.edu. If you have more specific questions feel free to contact me directly at mfahey@waastaff.com or 608-263-2645.

If you can't make it to a hearing but want to register your opinion on the budget and its impact on UW-Madison you can contact your legislator directly.

Lastly, you might be interested in seeing this video from UW-Madison assistant professor Lt. Col. John Hall, talking about his experience teaching at UW--Madison. Professor Hall is one example of the many great faculty members at UW-Madison.

Thank you for your advocacy on behalf of UW-Madison,

On, Wisconsin!

Mike Fahey '89
Managing Director for State Relations

Not only did Walker's budget turn a deaf ear to to the department's requests for transparency and accountability, CMD can reveal that a Walker official actually instructed the non-partisan drafting bureau to hide the changes from the state's independent and non-partisan education agency.

...

Governor Walker's executive budget, however, did the opposite. Walker's budget lifted the cap while nixing almost all of the measures DPI had asked for—from non-profit schools to bare-bones requirements for school accreditors. And the governor's budget analyst, Megan Stritchko at the Department of Administration, made sure that the DPI was excluded from the process. "Please do not discuss any of the changes with the DPI," she told the nonpartisan lawyer drafting the bill as this email shows below.



...

An independent 2012 review by the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau found that Milwaukee voucher students score slightly worse than students in the district's public schools, but what's even more worrying—they enroll fewer students for whom English is a second language, and only a third as many with disabilities. This prompted congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI) to ask for an independent federal probe into "alarming allegations of potentially discriminatory practices" within the schools enrolled in the program.

As the schools are exempt from most state regulations, they have no obligation to provide a comprehensive education—much less a secular one. Carter’s Academy in Milwaukee, for example, uses the K-12 curriculum designed by fundamentalist Christian publisher A Beka Books, which is notorious for homophobic lesson plans on the “gay lobby” and for portraying the Ku Klux Klan in a positive light.