Wisconsin Budget Stalemate Threatens Up to 12,000 Public Jobs

The ongoing budget stalemate in Wisconsin threatened to jeopardize as many as 12,000 public-sector jobs beginning next week as Democrats in the state Senate continued to abandon their jobs. Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican whose plan to cut nearly all public employees' collective bargaining rights remains in limbo, said Friday that he didn't want to see layoffs, but insisted that if the bill is not passed by the end of next week, his administration would have to start preparing layoff notices for as many as 1,500 state employees. They would be laid off by July in order to achieve the...