Pinellas Park, Fla.
Terri Schiavo's life ended shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday at the Hospice House Woodside in Florida.
In the final legal opinion issued in the drawn-out case, a federal judge lashed out at President Bush and the Congress for pushing the case into federal court with a bill passed in a hurried weekend session and signed by Bush in the middle of the night.
Some conservatives are just as angry at the judges for what they see as a failure to adhere to the law, which they had hoped would result in the reinsertion of Schiavo's feeding tube and a reversal of years of state court decisions. Instead, a federal judge in Tampa, Fla., ruled that Bob and Mary Schindler, Schiavo's parents, were unlikely to prevail and refused to reinsert the tube, infuriating supporters.
Madison
State Rep. Therese Berceau, D-Madison, proposed legislation Wednesday that would raise Wisconsin's beer tax by two cents per six-pack, or about a dollar a barrel.
The money generated from the increase would fund alcohol abuse treatment throughout the state.
\The cost to society in terms of lives and property lost to alcohol abuse, as well as the cost of lost work hours, unemployment, rehabilitation, prisons, criminal courts and all of the many ancillary costs of alcohol, has increased dramatically over the past 30 years, while the beer tax has remained stagnant,"" Berceau said in a statement.
Madison
Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, held a press conference by a gas station on West Washington Avenue Thursday to announce his introduction of legislation to repeal the state's annual automatic gas tax increase.
Every year, Wisconsin's gas tax increases on April 1. This year, the total will increase 0.8 cents per gallon, from 32.1 to 32.9 cents. The amount of the automatic increase each year varies based on inflation.
The Wisconsin AAA reported this week that the average cost for a gallon of gas in the state is $2.19, while the national average is $2.05. Wisconsin has one of the highest gas taxes in the country.
Washington, D.C.
US News & World Report released their latest rankings of graduate school programs across the nation on Friday.
The UW-Madison Engineering was ranked 16th in the nation,
beating out Princeton and
Harvard Universities.
The UW-Madison Schools of Medicine and Business are ranked 27th and 39th respectively.
The university's law school is ranked 34th.
As usual, Harvard University was the most consistent list-topper.
