>I'm pretty sure you were already gone when this happened but one of the big U.S. news stories earlier this year was massive protests at the state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin. They were triggered by the new governor, Scott Walker, unilaterally taking away collective bargaining from most public unions in the state. (The only exceptions were police, firefighters, and state troopers, who are about the only three unions who tend to vote Republican).

I remember that part.

>... The unions' bargaining rights remain lost, Walker's budget was passed by the GOP majority in the legislature, and not enough recall efforts against Republicans in the legislature succeeded to reverse their majority. In fact, the bold movement that began in Wisconsin has spread to other states, like a cancer. A number of other states with Republican governors and legislatures, many elected in the Republican sweep last fall, have followed Wisconsin's lead.

I sort of guessed things were going to be that way, what with GOP owning (through intermediaries, of course) most of the media (and then claiming that they are all too liberal so it could clamp even tighter on them). You can be right all you want - you don't set the topics for the media, they do. Your part will be misrepresented, taken out of the context, etc, and whichever text pleases the owners will be broadcast ad infinitum, regardless of its truthfulness, consistency or even plain logic.

> I am quite pleased that she is now a Badger.

Our remaining student is about to get into entrance exam at the college of imagery arts in Belgrade. The exam was postponed for August (not Octavian, the month... why do you write days of the week as if they were persons?) because of the high school professors' strike.

(we have a different set of educational ranks here: teacher teaches grades 1-4; lecturer 5-8, professor 9-12 and college; likewise, kids in kindergarten are just kids, no rank; grades 1-12 they are learners (aka pupils or disciples), students are only college students - try to say "elementary school student" in Serbia, and you'll get some laughs, because you described someone who's college age yet still in elementary)