Medicaid expansion would save Wisconsin $206M
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Democrats are keeping the pressure on Republican Gov. Scott Walker to expand Medicaid eligibility with a new report that shows the move would save the state hundreds of millions of dollars over the next three years.
Under the new federal health care law, the federal government would pay the full cost through 2016 of expanding Medicaid to all adults earning 138 percent of the federal poverty level or less, which translates to $16,105 for individuals and $32,913 for families of four. Federal coverage would decrease annually after that before settling at 90 percent in 2020.
The influx of federal aid would have saved Wisconsin $206 million in the current two-year budget if it had expanded Medicaid, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau said in a memo prepared at the request of Sen. Jennifer Shilling, a La Crosse Democrat. If Walker agrees to the expansion in the 2015-17 state budget, the move would save the state between $261 million and $315 million depending on enrollment, it said.
Shilling said in a statement that Walker's refusal to accept the federal money was hurting Wisconsin residents.
"Putting partisan politics over people's lives is one of the reasons that families in Wisconsin continue to struggle to make ends meet," said Shilling, a member of the Legislature's budget committee. "Too many Wisconsin residents and working families are finding it difficult to get ahead because Republicans have blocked access to affordable health care."
Walker has defended his decision not to expand, saying he doubts the federal government would honor its commitment to cover the costs. The governor's spokeswoman, Laurel Patrick, said in an email to The Associated Press that if anyone thinks the debt-saddled federal government won't renege on its promises "they are not living in reality."
The Fiscal Bureau's memo represents another salvo in Democrats' campaign to pressure governors who have rejected the expansion to reconsider. President Barack Obama's administration released a report in July saying expansion would improve access to care, contain people's costs and create jobs. The report said expansion in Wisconsin would mean coverage for another 120,000 people by 2016 and reduce the number of people facing catastrophic out-of-pocket costs or borrowing to pay medical bills.
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Native Americans connect to past through gardens
CHICAGO (AP) — A train roars by as Native American children and instructors climb up a railroad embankment in Chicago, headed toward a barren patch of land that they'll transform into a garden with edible and medicinal plants.
Some carry potted plants or spades to break up the earth hardened by the summer sun, eager to connect with their natural surroundings. They're continuing an important cultural tradition that can be difficult to maintain for native people who, decades ago, left reservations for urban areas like Chicago, which now has one of the 10 largest native populations in the U.S.
"Even though we're in the city, we're not landless," said Janie Pochel, 28, an instructor who identifies as Lakota and Cree.
The garden project, known as Urban Ecology, is sponsored by the American Indian Center on the city's North Side. The first garden began 10 years ago in front of the center and has grown to include two more gardens in the city, including one lining an embankment of the Union Pacific railroad. There, the group is working on growing an oak savannah, like the one that inhabited the area years ago.
"If we're going to change kids' ideas about who they are as native people, who they are as tribal people and what that means, we had to connect kids with land — and that began with plants," according to project coordinator Eli Suzukovich III, who is also known as as Little Shell in Chicago's relatively small but tightknit native community. "We . get them thinking about how that plant lives, its cultural significance, and then from that one plant would radiate out to the larger land context."
The American Indian Center is one of a few organizations across the country to plant gardens. The Indian Health Centers in Milwaukee and Detroit focus in part on teaching the community about healthier eating habits in the face of increased diabetes risks. Native Americans are twice as likely to be diagnosed with diabetes, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health.
Detroit's garden also focuses on cultural relevancy like the Chicago center's garden, which was planted in hopes to bring back some remnants of life as it was on the reservation, where medicinal plants were more likely used and a trip to the pharmacy wasn't necessary. Plants like blue flag, an iris, can be used for fevers and Echinacea can be used as a vitamin source.
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Police: Several in custody after double homicide
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee police say several people are in custody and cooperating with authorities investigating a double homicide.
According to a department news release, the shooting happened during a party around 2:50 a.m. Saturday near Marquette University.
Police say the two male victims began to fight and both ended up getting shot and dying on the scene. Police say the victims are 20 and 21-years-old.
It wasn't clear how many people in custody. In a news release Saturday evening, police said no other suspects were being sought.
The party was near Marquette University. WISN-TV reports Marquette officials say the shooting didn't involve anyone on campus, but an alert was sent to students overnight.
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Stevens Point wants to redraw flood maps
STEVENS POINT, Wis. (AP) — Stevens Point officials will soon found out if they can upgrade a Wisconsin River seawall so they can redraw flood maps.
The Stevens Point Journal Media reports (http://spjour.nl/1pT3DUUhttp://spjour.nl/1pT3DUU ) the upgrade could spare more than 200 families thousands of dollars in flood insurance.
City officials have been working for 15 years to revise a map that places the properties in the river's 100-year flood zone, which has required them to buy extra insurance because of federal regulations.
The city already added a curb to the top of a wall along the river. An added curb allows the city, with federal approval, to remove the families from the flood zone.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved it, but the city is awaiting a ruling from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
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