UP: Jim Doyle. The governor, in a letter to Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, supports changing state law to allow municipalities that use the state's health plan to offer domestic partner benefits. (Doyle has also proposed offering these benefits to all state and UW System employees.) The city of Madison currently reimburses employees up to $7,200 a year to cover private insurance for domestic partners, but this week rejected a union grievance over its failure to find a plan that would allow it to offer the benefits directly.
DOWN: Robert Morlino. Before a packed forum at the Catholic Multicultural Center, the Madison bishop defends his role as chair of the Board of Visitors of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly the School of the Americas, whose graduates have committed human rights abuses in Latin America. Morlino, who admits the school invited him on the board to 'improve its good name,' says there's no evidence of any wrongdoing by the school.
