The clouds have burst, the downpour has begun. The GOP’s campaign-ad deluge is coming to a screen near you.

It’s all over but the blaming. The state Legislature’s 2011-12 regular session has careened to a close, with both parties accusing the other of blocking progress on Wisconsin’s number-one issue: job creation.

Update at 4:20 p.m. March 22: We received so many applications from qualified students that we hired three instead of two. We look forward to sharing the report with you in April.
We’re seeking two UW-Madison journalism students for immediate involvement in a project examining state government issues.
The students will be paid $10 an hour, with [...]

About this story
This story was produced with support from the State Integrity Investigation, a ranking of all 50 states’ corruption risk by the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International. The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism assessed Wisconsin for the project, which gave the state a C-, ranking 22nd among the states: [...]

Scroll down to view a previously unpublished list of forfeitures paid to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board from 2009 to 2011 for campaign finance, ethics and lobbying violations. For more information about what statutes the board enforces, go to gab.wi.gov.
GAB staff assembled this data in January 2012 in response to an open-records request from the [...]

More than one hundred people or groups paid fines for violating Wisconsin’s campaign finance and ethics laws in the past three years. The violator list reads like a Who’s Who of Wisconsin politicians, and includes some noteworthy outsiders as well.

The backdrop for many of Wisconsin’s current ethical controversies is an unprecedented flow of money into the state’s political machinery. With last year’s Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case, some loopholes in the state’s campaign finance laws have grown even wider.

The Wisconsin Judicial Commission today filed a complaint against state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser over an incident last June in which he placed his hands around the neck of a fellow justice. It asked that “appropriate discipline be imposed.” But Prosser declared his innocence.