It is time for Wisconsin to pass badly-needed reforms to take the drawing of electoral maps out of the hands of politicians.

Earlier this year, a group of Democratic legislators finally said enough is enough, and introduced a common-sense bill that would place the redistricting power in the hands of the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Under their proposal, politicians would no longer have the power to carve out “safe” districts for their party, thus bringing more competition to our elections, and ensuring your vote isn’t being marginalized for partisans ends.

But Republican legislators are dragging their feet – and worse, some are even threatening to squash any attempt at reform and keep politicians in charge of drawing the district lines that can shape the outcome of elections.

With all the scandal and dirty tricks that marked the last redistricting session, it is clearly time for Wisconsin voters to hear about ways to reform this broken and corrupt system. And with the next legislative session just around the corner, Wisconsin voters deserve a fair public hearing before any action to kill this bill is taken.

Senators Harkin and Begich have proposed legislation that would:

Increase cost of living adjustments (COLAs), not decrease them. Instead of cutting benefits through a Chained CPI formula, Senators Harkin and Begich have proposed using a benefit formula designed specifically to take into account seniors’ rising living expenses such as healthcare, food, and housing.

Increase Social Security benefits for almost all recipients by approximately $70 per month, or $800 a year. Senator Harkin’s bill would reform the benefit formula for all beneficiaries, but target those most in need. This would result in an across the board benefit increase, with the most going to those in the lower and middle classes.

Ensure that the wealthy are paying their fair share into Social Security. Currently, Americans are only paying Social Security payroll taxes on their first $113,700. That means that Wall Street CEOs are not paying the same rate as the rest of us. By lifting the payroll tax cap on Social Security, we can extend the life of Social Security for decades to come while expanding benefits.

When the city of Kenosha was preparing to formally petition Congress to take the necessary steps to get corporate money out of politics and to restore grass-roots democracy, the congressman who represents the community was meeting secretly with the Koch brothers to plot election strategies and policy agendas.

Kenosha is the largest city in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District, which Congressman Paul Ryan has represented since 1999 — thanks to heavy infusions of cash from out-of-state special interests. With Congress out of session for the August recess and Ryan expected to head home to meet with constituents, members of the Kenosha City Council decided to deliver a message. They voted overwhelmingly to ask Ryan and other Wisconsin representatives to amend the Constitution to bar corporate cash from buying elections.

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Ryan has been among the prime beneficiaries of the money-in-politics moment ushered in by the high court's Citizens United ruling. As the House Budget Committee chairman, he has collected millions of dollars from individuals and groups that stand to benefit from initiatives such as Social Security privatization and schemes to “reform” Medicaid and Medicare. The congressman has become a favorite of many of the biggest donors in the country, including billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.

The Koch brothers, prime funders of conservative causes and Republican politicians, were enthusiastic backers of placing Ryan on the 2012 Republican ticket. That move ended in a fiasco that saw Ryan fail to deliver Wisconsin for the ticket led by Mitt Romney. Ryan lost not only his hometown of Janesville but many of the other communities in his district, including Kenosha.

There is really no way around it: Thanks to climate change, sea levels are rising. A huge question on the minds of many is, what does this mean for America? Will sea walls and city planning protect major metropolises, or are we bound to lose some national gems? Unfortunately, the latter is a significant possibility. Read on for 14 U.S. cities that could be devastated over the next century due to rising tides.

1. Miami, Fla.

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3. Boston, Mass.

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If Hurricane Sandy struck Boston during high tide, 6.6 percent of the city would have been flooded. Water would have reached the steps of City Hall, according to a piece in The Atlantic. Within 100 years, that could become the new normal, twice a day. Goodbye Boston, even the Yankee fans will miss you.

4. New York City, N.Y.

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Probably one of the least surprising entry on this list, Hurricane Sandy gave New Yorkers just a taste of what might happen to their city over the next hundred years. According to new data released in June, sea level could rise by 4-8 inches in New York over just the next TEN years. A terrifying interactive from the New York Times shows that a five-foot rise in sea level would submerge La Guardia airport, many of the barrier islands, and a significant portion of Manhattan.

This past Saturday, Scott Walker chose to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's legendary March on Washington by going to the original capital of the confederacy: Montgomery, Alabama. In fact, the hotel he spoke-at was once the spot of the Confederate government's offices-- there was even a historical marker near the hotel with a Confederate rebel flag displayed prominenty!

And even though Montgomery was also the epicenter of the civil rights stuggle and where Rosa Parks famously stood her ground, Walker chose to ignore that and instead talk about his own struggle, claiming that his mother and and son were spit-upon in 2011 when Walker took away public workers' right to collectively bargain:

"He said he received death threats, and his mother and son were shouted at and spit upon during a trip to the grocery store."

Hmmm... this doesn't pass the smell test. This is the first time Walker has claimed that anyone in his family were spit upon and I find it hard to believe that Walker, who is perhaps the most opportunistic victim in Wisconsin history, would have waited for nearly two years to tell anyone about it.

Scott Walker has to be the unluckiest man alive. He had promised us that he would create at least 250,000 jobs by the end of his first term. Fifteen months
from the next election, he has created about one eighth of them. And most of them were state fluff positions that he doled out to cronies and lobbyists' sons. But now Walker is trying to back off of his promise.

The one thing Walker had in plenty was a list of excuses for his epic failure. Some of his excuses include, but are not limited to:

Unions
Protesters
The weather
Taxes
Regulations
Former Governor Jim Doyle
President Barack Obama
Elections

And now he is adding one more to his list of excuses - Syria:

"The President, working with other leaders on a global basis, can try and put some pressure on to get things under control in the Middle East and provide stability there, because that will help our economy and if they don't it has an impact," Gov. Walker said. "We can do all the good possible, we can get the state back on the right track, but if there's instability around the world it will inevitably have an impact."