UP: Government Accountability Board. The recently created watchdog agency dodges a shadowy legislative effort to undermine its ability to investigate official misconduct. Legislative leaders, bowing to public outrage, remove a budget provision that would have limited the agency's ability to hire outside counsel. Both actions - adding the clause and removing it - occur in secret.
DOWN: Dane County. For the third time in two years, the state of Wisconsin faults county Human Services for its actions and inactions in the death of a child. The state says the county should have done more to investigate a 2007 report of sexual abuse involving a young girl. The girl, Amaya Walker, died at age 3 last February after ingesting some of her grandmother's illegal drugs.
DOWNER: Dane County. Circuit Court Judge Richard Niess rules that the county must pay upwards of $100,000 in legal fees incurred by media groups who successfully fought its wrongful denial of records regarding Brittany Zimmermann's mishandled 911 call.
