Tuition hike approved by regents By Teresa Shipley, Wisconsin Public Radio
The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents has voted to increase tuition at the system's 26 campuses by 5.5 percent, despite some opposition. The decision to raise tuition at UW schools was not unanimous.
Regent John Drew called the hike unfair, saying the UW System was becoming public in name only. Drew says, "Working people are not getting 5.5 percent pay increases. It is not fair to ask them to shoulder the burden of more costs for education."
But UW System president Kevin Reilly echoed the sentiments of the majority of regents who voted in favor of the tuition increase. He says, "The 5.5 percent base undergrad tuition hike proposed covers only 30 percent of the $250 million dollar, so I think it's very important for students and families and all of us to realize we're not putting the burden so to speak of that full $250 million cut on the backs of our students and families."
The hike works out to about a $400 increase for the Milwaukee and Madison campuses. Tuition at the two-year UW colleges will increase for first time in 5 years by $235. Tuition revenues account for one-fifth of the operating budget.
One recent UW-Madison graduate said after the meeting that he didn't support the hikes. He said a few hundred dollars might not seem like a lot, but that for many students, increased tuition and other fees could mean the price of a couple months' rent.
The regents also talked about new flexibilities the system would have thanks to the recently passed state budget, including more independence for deciding how certain funds are spent.
Proposal would restore forestlands that were once near the Mississippi River By Maureen McCollum, Wisconsin Public Radio
The Army Corps of Engineers wants to restore the forest ecosystem along the Mississippi River. Logging, agriculture, urbanization, and the locks and dams have contributed to a decline in forests along the Mississippi River. Aging stands of silver maples aren't replacing themselves, and the invasive reed canary grass is taking over the floodplains.
So the Army Corps of Engineers has developed the Systemic Forest Management Plan to restore and maintain the ecosystem along the upper Mississippi River and its major tributaries, stretching from Minneapolis to Cairo, Ill.
It's working with U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and Upper Mississippi River Refuge District Manager Tim Yager says it would help the animals. He says,"The thread of forest that's found along the Mississippi River and along the bluffs and valleys of the river is a continentally significant migration corridor for a lot of species. So we're concerned about the importance of that migration corridor potentially declining as we transition out of the forested ecosystem to more of a grass and meadow ecosystem."
Randy Urich is the Corps's Forest Management Plan team leader. He says more tree species and ages would create a more diverse forest. Urich says, "One that would be, hopefully, more sustainable in the long run, where we could maybe get to the point where there wouldn't have to be as intense management, to have it continue on into the future just on its own."
Urich says some people are concerned about what the management plan could entail, but there aren't any plans to drastically change how land along the river is being used.
Debate continues over legality of collective bargaining law By Gilman Halsted, Wisconsin Public Radio
The new state law restricting public employee collective bargaining is now being challenged in federal court. But the state Supreme Court ruling upholding the law is still being debated outside the court room.
At a forum sponsored by the Madison chapter of the Federalists Society, assistant attorney general Kevin St. John said the high court did the right thing in ruling that the judicial branch cannot interfere with the power of the legislature to enact laws or to make its own rules for passing them. He said the legislature is free to change rules like how much notice to give before voting on a bill at a moment's notice.
St John says, "So if it's got a rule of proceeding, rule of proceeding says it has to do x or y, it acts in a different way and it's an act of the legislature, a majority part of the legislature that constitutes to do business, that's what it's new rule is. When it does it, that's what the new rule is."
Taking the opposing view at the forum, Marquette law professor Edward Fallone argued the Open Meetings law does apply to the legislature. He said Dane County Judge Maryanne Sumi was just doing her job when she found the legislature had violated it when it passed the collective bargaining law.
Fallone says, "They passed a law saying these are the minimum hours of notice that have to be afforded and the method in which that notice has to be given and we want ourselves to be held to this. And all Judge Sumi was doing was saying that's what the statute says. She was simply enforcing their policy choice."
Fallone called that an appropriate use of judicial power to review legislative actions. The law is now in effect but faces a challenge in federal court. Unions claim it violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, because the bargaining limits do not apply to police, fire, or transit unions.
Federal environmental programs may be slashed By Chuck Quirmbach, Wisconsin Public Radio
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar warned of potential major cuts to wildlife and conservation programs, during a visit to Wisconsin this week. Salazar spoke at a conference of Fish and Wildlife Service employees. He says some House Republicans want big cuts in wildlife and lands programs. Salazar says if the cuts pass, about 20 percent of the 550 national wildlife refuges might have to close. Salazar later told reporters that it's too early to say if any Wisconsin sites would be shut down.
Salazar contends the budget threat is real, even though Democrats still control the Senate and White House. He's asking conservation groups, hunters and anglers to make their views known. But a conservative taxpayer group contends the potential budget cuts would be much smaller, if you take away added stimulus spending over the last two years. Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union says closing refuges seems unlikely.
Sepp says additional user fees might be considered, or a greater role for the private sector, though both would change the nature of protected lands.
Local governments object to GOP redistricting plan By Shawn Johnson, Wisconsin Public Radio
Local government officials told a panel of state lawmakers Wednesday that a Republican plan to change up Wisconsin's redistricting timeline will cost them time, money and headaches.
Normally the state waits for local governments to draw their ward lines first. But with recall elections looming on the horizon, GOP lawmakers are switching up the process, letting them draw legislative and congressional lines whether local boundaries are finished or not.
In Fitchburg, Mayor Sean Pfaff says it means his city will have to redo boundaries that a bipartisan committee put a lot of work into this year. He says, "All this stuff really kind of puts us in a box because we wanted to set it on the front end and hopefully let you guys layer in on top, which has been the practice in the past."
Pfaff says adjusting to the state's lines would force Fitchburg to scrap a plan to add two minority wards to account for changing demographics.
Pfaff's position is officially non-partisan, but he's worked for Democrats. In Franklin, Common Council President Steve Taylor is also officially non-partisan, but he's a Republican. Taylor says if GOP legislators were going to change the law to change the redistricting process, they should have told someone. He says, "When we've been playing with the old rules the whole time, this should have maybe come up right away. That this is how we're going to do it. Don't waste your time, don't spend your resources, don't spend any money."
As it is, Taylor says the changes the Republican legislative map will force on his community could end up confusing voters. A Republican Senate panel could vote on the statewide map Friday. The full legislature will likely pass it next week.
GOP targets President Obama in Wisconsin By Gilman Halsted, Wisconsin Public Radio
The Republican National Committee is running a new television ad in Wisconsin calling on voters to defeat President Barack Obama in 2012. But state Democratic Party leaders say Wisconsin will remain a blue state.
RNC chairman and Wisconsin native Reince Priebus says the GOP's new ad is part of a four-week-long national ad buy called Change Direction. He says the goal is to make sure Wisconsin and three other states Obama won in 2008 go from blue to red in 2012. He says Republicans will maintain the momentum that swept Gov. Scott Walker and Sen. Ron Johnson into office last year. He says those victories gave the GOP the enthusiasm edge over Democrats.
Priebus says, "The Democrats have no enthusiasm advantage in this country and I don't think they have it in Wisconsin either. I think they have a lot of people shouting through bull horns, but I don't think they have a whole lot of people who can get the job done going door to door. I've seen it. They haven't been able to get the job done in there Wisconsin for a long time and I don't expect them to anytime soon."
Not surprisingly Democrats have a different view of how the 2012 election will turn out. State party chair Mike Tate says the groundswell of opposition to Gov. Scott Walker's policy of restricting public employee bargaining rights has seriously damaged Republican prospects for victory in the 2012 fall elections.
Tate says, "The depth to which Walker has sunk has also been a bit of a boon for President Obama in this state. While we believe Wisconsin will remain competitive, Barak Obama is in better position to win Wisconsin and the White House today because of Scott Walker's actions."
The University of Wisconsin Badger poll released this past week found 59 percent of respondents disapprove of Walker's performance.
Wisconsin Frank Lloyd Wright sites could be headed for world distinction By Selene Jaouadi-Escalera, Wisconsin Public Radio
Interior secretary Ken Salazar says he'll nominate three Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in Wisconsin to be considered for the United Nations' World Heritage List. The three properties include the Jacobs House in Madison, the S.C. Johnson Wax building in Racine, and Taliesin in Spring Green.
Celeste Adams is the president and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust in Chicago. She says that the nomination will bring more international interest to these sites. Adams says, "This kind of honor and recognition for Frank Lloyd Wright will surely expand awareness of his importance in American culture. I think a World Heritage recognition will bring even broader international awareness to Frank Lloyd Wright and his contribution to American culture."
A total of 11 Frank Lloyd Wright structures were nominated for the Heritage list from more than 400 Wright-designed buildings. The nomination will likely be presented to the U.N.'s World Heritage Committee in 2013 for possible inclusion on the list in 2014.
Wisconsin astronaut will be more involved with Russian space program By Mike Simonson, Wisconsin Public Radio
The NASA space shuttle program's 135th and final mission concludes next Wednesday. And once it's done, the United States will look to Russia to keep its astronauts in space. A Wisconsin astronaut is taking a key role in Russia's Soyuz program.
Colonel Jeffrey Williams of Winter in northern Wisconsin went to the International Space Station on the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2000, and onboard the much smaller Soyuz rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan in 2006 and 2009. He says, "They both have their level of discomfort. I call a Soyuz as if you're triplets in a womb. You're in the fetal position on your back and shoulder to shoulder with your crewmates."
The 53 year-old Williams doesn't expect to blast off again, having logged about a year in space. But that experience of two Soyuz missions sends him back to Russia and Kazakhstan from time to time. There he trains NASA astronauts who are using the Russian Space Program to keep the International Space Station supplied. Williams says, "I often get that question here recently that 'What's it going to be like working with the Russians now or launching on Soyuz?' I have to remind folks that we've been working with the Russians directly on this program since the mid-1990's. We've been relying on the Russians to supply the lifeboat on the (International Space) Station since day one."
Meanwhile, NASA is privatizing space travel with the commercially developed "Dragon" space vehicle being developed by SpaceX Corporation.
Recall elections set for August By Maureen McCollum, Wisconsin Public Radio
All six "real" Democrats won their primary elections this week and will now try to defeat state Senate Republicans in next month's recall elections.
State Rep. Jennifer Shilling is just one of the Democrats who faced a so-called protest candidate in the primary elections. Shilling addressed volunteers and supporters in downtown La Crosse, immediately calling out the Republicans after she was declared the winner. She says, "Dan Kapanke and his Republican allies tried to steal this recall process and silence the votes with this underhanded, dirty tactic, of this shameful and sham of a primary tonight, we did not let them do that tonight."
Shilling will now face La Crosse state Sen. Dan Kapanke on Aug. 9, as will the other Democrats challenging Republican Senators. The Republican Party ran the fake Democratic candidates to give their own senators more time to campaign, but Shilling says it won't matter. She says, "We were ready to go here in July, I think the voters are as well. The die has been cast. People know how they feel about this. The next 28 days will not change their opinion."
Most of the Democrats beat the protest candidates by a wide margin, except in the 10th Senate District. Shelly Moore beat Isaac Weix with about 55 percent of the vote and next month she'll face River Falls Sen. Sheila Harsdorf. Nancy Nusbaum will challenge State Sen. Robert Cowles of Green Bay. In the Milwaukee suburbs, Democratic Rep. Sandy Pasch will square off with Sen. Alberta Darling. Fred Clark is contesting Sen. Luther Olsen of Ripon. And Jessica King will try to unseat Fond du Lac Sen. Randy Hopper.
Potato crop threatened by thieves By Glen Moberg, Wisconsin Public Radio
Thieves are stealing irrigation wire from central Wisconsin potato farms, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, and endangering one of the state's big cash crops.
The thefts are occurring right in the middle of growing season, shutting down big irrigation rigs that supply vital water to the potato fields. Portage County Detective Sgt. Gary Koehmsteadt says it's due in part to hard economic times and high prices for copper. He says, "We've had them all over our county. Small farmers, big farmers, it doesn't matter. You know, how much they may take in a night, and what the going rate is for copper, there's a potential of a few hundred dollars for a night's work."
But a few hundred dollars for the thieves comes at a much higher price for their victims, according to Duane Maatz, executive director of the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers. He says, "It has probably affected between 20 and 40 farms. But how many people does it affect? In the hundreds. We've had one warehouse where there was in excess of $300,000 damage done to it. It's an incredible amount of damage."
And Maatz says the financial loss to the farmers, and the state could be even worse if we hit a prolonged dry spell and the irrigation rigs are shut down. He says, "Now this time of year, we need one inch of water per week, and if rain isn't providing it, it needs to come through the irrigation system for us to properly grow the crop."
The irrigation wire is marked for identification, but Sgt. Koehmstedt says the thieves are covering their tracks.
The Potato and Vegetable Growers are offering rewards for information leading to arrests and convictions through the Portage County Crimestoppers program.
Divided Supreme Court rules justices can decide the same case at two levels By Gilman Halsted, Wisconsin Public Radio
A split ruling this week in a sexual assault case reveals the sharp divide among state Supreme Court Justices about the rules for recusal.
For the past decade, Dimitri Henley has been trying to get a new trial based on new evidence that suggests the victim in the sexual assault he was convicted of may have consented to have sex with him and two other men. In his most recent effort he asked the court to disqualify Justice Patience Roggensack from ruling on the case because she had ruled in the same case as an appeals court judge in 2002. State statute prohibits judges from ruling on the same case in both a lower and a higher court.
Keith Findley of the Wisconsin Innocence Project represents Henley. He says, "We argued that it violates due process to have a system when an individual justice makes their own decision about whether they're biased or impartial and there's no way to review that very personal decision. Providing no way to review that essentially elevates an individual justice above the law."
But Justice Roggensack joined the four justice majority this week in ruling that recusal is a personal decision that the other justices cannot interfere with. The court split 4-3 on another recusal issue last year when voting against a rule to require justices to recuse themselves from cases involving people who contributed substantial sums to their election campaigns. Findley called this latest ruling a troubling one. He says, "It really looks like the majority appears to be tone deaf to the legitimate constitutional concerns and the mounting public concern about this court's ability to act in an impartial and balanced manner."
Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson writing for the dissent says Justice Roggensack has violated the ancient maxim that no person should be the judge of their own cause.
Transportation Secretary defends mass transit cuts By Chuck Quirmbach, Wisconsin Public Radio
Walker administration cabinet members keep touting the state budget, during appearances around Wisconsin. This week it was Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb's turn in Milwaukee.
Gottlieb told the Milwaukee Rotary Club that the budget does many good things for transportation in Wisconsin. He says for one thing, there's no more raiding the transportation budget to fund other state programs.
Gottlieb also says there's no increase in the state gas tax or vehicle registration fees, there's a plan to reduce borrowing for transportation projects, and a program to steer some auto-related sales tax money into the transportation fund. Gottlieb concedes the budget does cut funding for local mass transit programs in the state.
The cuts in state money have some transit systems talking about eliminating bus routes or service hours. Bruce Speight of the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group says it's a mistake to slice state aid for transit.
And Sierra Club says the transit picture would have been worse, if state lawmakers hadn't dropped the governor's proposal to take some transit money out of the transportation fund.
Governor and DPI chief to work together on NCLB replacement By Brian Bull, Wisconsin Public Radio
Wisconsin's governor and its chief education official are collaborating on an alternative to a Bush-era education law. Governor Scott Walker and State Superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction, Tony Evers, say they're developing a new accountability system apart from No Child Left Behind. The goal is to find multiple ways of evaluating student and school performance, based on college and career readiness. It'll apply to every publicly-funded school, including charter or choice schools.
Evers says the new system will be more fair and accurate than the "one size fits all" approach of No Child Left Behind. He says it'll help officials target low-performing schools and target high-performing schools.
"Whereas the present system doesn't have those shades of differentiation," says Evers. "The reason why it's important is that as a state we have an obligation to take the practices of those high-performing schools and spread them across the state to other schools."
The governor's office lists more than a dozen "invited partners" for the design team, which includes the Wisconsin Education Association Council. But a WEAC spokeswoman says the union is wary of Gov. Walker's record, including his restrictions on collective bargaining for public workers, and the $700-million cut to education he recently signed off on.
"Having them (WEAC) participate doesn't mean they have to support everything I may have supported in the past, or will be in the future," says Gov. Walker.
Gov. Walker says at least among the teachers he knows, there's interest in being part of the process.
"Whether it's WEAC or AFT or others - to have a seat at the table, because the more inclusive this is, the better off it is, and I think having talked to the superintendent in the end, they're going to see the secret process and want to be a part of it," Walker said.
Superintendent Evers says if the federal government grants them a waiver from No Child Left Behind, they aim to have the new accountability design in place by next spring.
Legislative committees vote to extend unemployment benefits By Shawn Johnson, Wisconsin Public Radio
A plan that would extend unemployment benefits in Wisconsin by another 13 weeks has passed a pair of legislative committees. The plan would change the way the state calculates its long-term unemployment rate to extend unemployment coverage from 73 weeks to 86 weeks. It would tap into nearly $90 million in federal funds.
Assembly Sponsor Mike Endsley--a freshman Republican from Beloit--says he learned first-hand what it's like to be unemployed when he lost his own job and spent last year knocking on doors to run for the legislature. He says it's possible if he hadn't gone through the experience, he would've thought a little longer and harder on extending the benefits.
"I'm sure there's some people that kind of look at it and say, `Where does this end?'", says Endsley. "And I don't have all the answers. But what I can tell you is I not only lived it personally, but I lived it for a number of months last year with the people in my district."
The plan was recommended by both business and labor representatives on an unemployment advisory council and would not add to the deficit in the state's unemployment fund. It passed a Senate panel unanimously and cleared an Assembly committee with only Delafield Republican Chris Kapenga voting against it.
Kapenga cited concerns about the federal deficit, saying it'll be $89-million that somebody's going to pay for.
"It's not free money," says Kapenga.
The plan would apply retroactively to April, when the state cut off extended unemployment. The Department of Workforce Development says it could affect between 23,000 and 40,000 people.
Some police will continue to collect racial profiling data By Gilman Halsted, Wisconsin Public Radio
Police and sheriffs' departments across the state no longer have to keep track of the race or ethnicity of drivers they pull over for traffic violations. But some cities and counties are continuing the data collection because they want to make sure they are not unfairly targeting certain drivers.
The law mandating the racial and ethnic data collection officially ended on June 30. But in Dane, Brown, and Milwaukee Counties, and in the cities of Madison, Green Bay and Milwaukee, police are still typing the race and ethnicity of each driver they stop into a database and then analyzing the trends. Green Bay Police Chief Jim Arts was on the statewide commission that initially drafted the law mandating the collection of racial and ethnic data.
"One of the things that this initiative did was force us to get off our cans and get electronic citations," says Arts. "Now, Green Bay is approximately 80 percent white but people get caught up in those big numbers. We do a lot of heavy enforcement based on location based crime, intelligence-led responses, so I'm very happy to keep collecting the data. "
Arts says he's also happy to offer that data to colleges and universities who want to do their own studies on the racial profiling.
Green Bay, Madison and Milwaukee all have their own numbers crunching software to analyze the data and find problems that may occur in certain neighborhoods if complaints about racial profiling start to surface. But many police departments that depended on the state to do the analysis now no longer have anywhere to send the data. And there's little incentive for them to spend money buying new software in tight economic times.
Meanwhile, the Wisconsin-ACLU is launching an effort now to gather stories of racial profiling from motorists across the state in the hopes of building support for re-enacting the statewide data collection mandate.
Proponents say EHRs increasing tribal members' life expectancies By Brian Bull, Wisconsin Public Radio
A health administrator says people on the Lac du Flambeau Indian reservation are living longer, thanks to the tribal clinic's electronic health records (EHR).
Michael Popp of the Peter Christensen Health Center says before its EHR system launched in 2005, the local life expectancy was 56 years. But Popp says the center has now seen that climb to 59 years. He says that's because EHRs are more accessible, more readily updated, and allow multiple users to see how well patients are complying with their treatment. Popp says this is especially vital with chronic conditions such as diabetes.
"We are pretty much able to put our finger on the pulse of the health of the community," says Popp. "We believe that that is directly affecting our patients being healthier and over the course of the last five years, helping quite a few of them live longer."
But Kristin Hill -- who directs the Great Lakes Inter-tribal Council's Epidemiology Center based in Lac du Flambeau -- says it's a too soon to know if EHRs have had an impact on the overall community population health. She says while EHRs have helped, there have been many recent collaborations among federal, state, university, and tribal organizations that have likely added years to native people.
"Multiple diabetes programs to various kinds of prevention programs, injury prevention, environmental risk assessments, and more recently a lot of attention focused on reducing commercial tobacco use and focus on obesity," says Hill.
Hill adds barely half of the 34 tribal communities she works with have EHRs. But Hill and Popp agree there needs to be more research into better longevity for Native Americans, especially in boosting it up to the national average of 78 years.
Economic Development Corporation now operating By Patty Murray, Wisconsin Public Radio
Wisconsin's new Economic Development Corporation officially began operating at the beginning of this month. The public-private entity replaces what used to be the state Department of Commerce. And its new leader says the corporation will "operate at the speed of business."
With the signing of the new state budget, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation was born. And it will have a lot more money to work with than the Commerce Department ever did, according to the WEDC's Chief Executive Officer, Paul Jadin.
Instead of a budget of about $50 million a year, Jadin says the corporation will have $84 million,
"Our operations will be roughly the same with the exception of $1.5 million dollars for marketing," says Jadin. "So that significant increase is going to allow us to allow entrepreneurs to be innovative to create businesses, allow us to work with industry clusters. Of course, it's going to allow us to create the kind of awards and incentives which we've historically done whether it's tax credits, grants, or loans."
The Commerce Department's divisions of licensing and regulation are moving over to another state agency.
Jadin hopes the changes, coupled with tax breaks for manufacturers and capital gains, will make Wisconsin more competitive.
"As you compare us to states around us--Minnesota had to shut down, Illinois with tax increases and a significant structural deficit and the myriad of problems that Michigan is facing, we do stand out and this is not lost on the business community," Jadin says.
Since it operates as a pseudo private entity, Jadin says the WEDC is able to solicit money from corporations to help with a beefed up marketing campaign aimed at attracting businesses to the state.
Health insurance co-pays expanding for public workers By Shawn Johnson, Wisconsin Public Radio
Public employees will soon face higher co-pays for some of their health care in addition to higher insurance premiums as a result of the new state budget.
The co-pay won't apply to preventative services like routine checkups or physicals. But it will apply to non-preventative medical care, like for example, coming in with a cold and being examined for strep throat. In those instances, a single person would pay 10 percent of costs on up to a maximum of $500. A family would pay the same 10-percent up to a maximum of 1,000.
The move was authorized by the governor's budget repair bill and approved by the Group Insurance Board late last month.
Wisconsin State Employees Union Director Marty Biel told Wisconsin Public Television's "Here and Now" program last week that it's likely a sign of things to come now that unions had lost the power to bargain over health care.
"So not only now are state employees going to get this 12 percent increase in premium cost, but on top of that they're going to get this increase in out of pocket expenses," says Biel. "So that's a pretty insidious way for people who use the health care system--that's a large amount of money, you know? So it's kind of an insidious way of chipping away at benefits."
The changes would affect more than 260,000 workers at the state and local level (for full disclosure, employees of Wisconsin Public Radio would be among them). The move is expected to reduce the cost to the state for its group health plan by at least five percent next year.
New stink bug invading Wisconsin By Kristen Durst, Wisconsin Public Radio
An invasive species of stink bug has hitchhiked its way to Wisconsin. The pest is expected to cause some big problems for farmers and homeowners in the coming years.
Wisconsin already has some species of stink bugs -- some are pests, some are beneficial. But none of them are anything like the Asian variety, the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug. It's invaded the East Coast and recently was discovered in Wisconsin.
Phil Pellitteri runs the University of Wisconsin-Madison's insect diagnostic lab. He says it's only a matter of time- possibly three to four years- until the stink bug hits the state with full force.
"This is one of those classic non-native invasive species where they have really no natural enemies, so their populations explode to levels that you wouldn't expect in a balanced system," says Pelliterri. He says that there are two main reasons why the Asian stink bug is loathed. It invades homes in the fall en masse, similar to the Asian Lady Beetle, sometimes wintering in walls and attics. And he says it decimates certain crops.
"In fruit such as apples, in peaches, and now there's even reports of it being somewhat detrimental to corn. We see it on green beans, it will also feed on peppers. It was devastating enough that in some of the eastern states they had better than 50 percent fruit loss," Pelliterri said.
And true to its name, the stink bug actually does stink. It lets off an odor when threatened-- an odor that can linger in a home for days. Pelliterri says researchers are looking into biological controls, but he says pesticides will likely be the main line of defense.
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