Stories about Packers, welfare's end, tribal gaming led news
Story-Date: 02:56 a.m. PST Sunday   , December 28, 1997

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Stories about Packers, welfare's end, tribal gaming led news

ASSOCIATED PRESS



The top 10 Wisconsin news stories of 1997, as selected in a vote by
AP-member editors and broadcasters (with point totals):

1. PACKERS MANIA: Packers fans go wild as the team sweeps to victory in
playoff games and wins the Super Bowl title. (154)

2. ENDING WELFARE: After years of preparations, Wisconsin implements its
W-2 welfare-to-work initiative statewide, requiring that those on welfare
instead go into jobs and work-training. (139)

3. TRIBAL GAMBLING: Gov. Tommy Thompson threatens to shut down tribal
casinos if tribes don't reach agreements with him on renewing gaming
compacts that begin expiring in 1998. (85)

4. BUDGET BUNGLES: The two-year state budget is delayed for months and
finally passed by the Legislature. It includes another big round of prison
construction, plus higher fuel and cigarette taxes. (80)

5. DAIRY PRICING: A federal judge's ruling invalidates much of the federal
milk-pricing system that Wisconsin farmers have fought for years because it
sets higher prices the farther the farm is from Eau Claire, Wis. (64)

6. POWER SHORTAGE: Hot weather hits while both Wisconsin nuclear power
plants are out of service, raising a threat of power blackouts. The
governor orders a study of power supplies. Wisconsin Electric Power Co.
asks to raise electricity rates 15 percent, in part to make up for reactor
repair costs. (58)

7. CROWDED PRISONS: Hundreds of state prisoners are shipped to rented jail
space in Texas, but prisons here remain overcrowded. Construction of a
"supermax" prison for the toughest convicts starts at Boscobel. (50)

8. SEX OFFENDERS: The state tightens controls on sex offenders, enforcing a
law allowing them to be kept in custody after their scheduled parole if
they still pose a danger and giving communities notice of their release.
(40)

9. BREWERS STADIUM: Legislators tighten spending controls on the Milwaukee
Brewers stadium project, keeping it to the original cost of $250 million,
and finally settle for a compromise. By fall, auditors are saying it will
cost $400 million. (34)

10. CLINTON-CASINO: Records show three Indian tribes that opposed a Hudson
casino gave heavily to the National Democratic Party after the Clinton
administration rejected the project. The U.S. attorney general considers an
investigation. (30)

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