Here & Now; 920

November 12, 2010

Here and Now, state employees and state budget, As a new governor and administration targets state worker pay and benefits to balance the budget, Marty Beil - executive director of state's largest public employees union is ready fight. high speed rail, Governor-elect Scott Walker vows to kill the high-speed rail project and continues to ask the feds to put the $810-million toward road projects instead. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood stated that none of the money provided to Wisconsin may be used for road or highway projects. Spanish train company, Talgo, that's already built a plant in Milwaukee says if Wisconsin doens't want rail, then the company could move to Illinois. Talgo has projected 125 jobs in Milwaukee by next year. B-roll of Talgo trains, capitol advice - higher education, Art Hackett caught up with former U-W Madison Chancellor Donna Shalala for her advice to our next Governor. The subject was higher education but since Shalala is a former Secretary of the U-S Department of Health and Human Services, and since she was here to deliver a lecture to the U-W's School of Nursing, Art 's first question dealt with the impact of the new health care reform legislation on the educational system. clash of Hmong clan system and Hmong-Americans, 30-thousand Hmong people live in Wisconsin - one of three states with the greatest population who took asylum starting in 1975, after fighting on behalf of the U.S. during Vietnam War. Formerly, Hmong cultural leader was hand-picked under watch of General Vang Pao -- recognized leader of Hmong people in the United States. Today, second and third generations of Hmong in Wisconsin and the 18 families clan system - can clash. Bridging gap is the job of newly elected Clan Council leader, Wa Meng Yang of Milwaukee. Mr. Yang is joined by an interpreter. B-roll of Hmong soldiers during Vietnam war, veterans day recognition and Vietnam paper wall, Doyle sound bite about veterans and B-roll of ceremony at capitol and 'The Paper Wall' - a collection of obituaries and newspaper articles from Wisconsin soldiers who went missing or were killed during the Vietnam War. Emmy Awards reader, Wisconsin Public Television awarded three Regional News Emmys this week in Chicago. Our Here and Now series on the Wisconsin Shares program won as a series in the Outstanding Acheivement in a newscast category. Outstanding Documentary. Wisconsin Viet Nam War Stories won the historic documentary category. And Art Hackett's series of reports on Wisconsin groundwater issues won for best hard news feature series. retirement sign-off, In fact, after 31 years of reporting stories from all over the state for Wisconsin Public Television, Art will retire, well, at the end of this program. No amount of commentary can possibly describe Art's work at WPT. So we asked Art himself for the last word on the subject, and to please sign off the airwaves for the very last time.