Afternoon News Briefs: Poll puts Tom Barrett 17 points ahead of Kathleen Falk

A new Marquette Law School poll gives Tom Barrett a 17 point lead over Kathleen Falk for next Tuesday’s Democratic primary in the governor’s recall election.

A total of 705 Wisconsinites were interviewed by phone from last Thursday through Sunday and 38% of them favored Milwaukee Mayor Barrett to 21% for Falk, the former Dane County executive. 19% were undecided, over twice as many as those supporting the third place Democrat, Doug La Follette with 8%. Kathleen Vinehout had 6%. The poll also revealed a dead heat between Barrett and Republican Governor Scott Walker in the general recall election five weeks from yesterday. Among likely voters, Barrett led Walker 48-47. And among all registered voters in the poll, Walker led Barrett 47-46. Poll director Charles Franklin said it’s as close of a tie as possible. In both instances, Falk was about six points behind Walker. That’s beyond the poll’s error margin of 4% either way. Tuesday’s primary also includes fake Democrats which guarantee primaries for every race. Republicans did it so they wouldn’t risk an incumbent senator losing due to an expected high turnout for the Democratic gubernatorial primary. But 57% in the poll opposed the strategy. 46% said jobs are the top factor in choosing a candidate. 58% percent said they talked about politics with their families and friends at least once a week but 29% said they stopped talking to somebody about politics due to disagreements about the recall or Governor Walker.

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A UW-Madison scientist finally got his controversial research about the bird flu published today. A team led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka had its studies published in the on line journal Nature. A second study by a team in the Netherlands will have its results published in a few days by the journal Science. Kawaoka said the UW’s research showed there are relatively few amino acid mutations sufficient for transmitting the bird flu strain to mammals. But he cautions that there might be other mutations that can give the virus to people. And some viruses only require just four mutations to host cells that can threaten human health. Because of those factors, he said the research should continue. The federal government, which funded the research, originally asked that scientists only publish some of the work, so terrorists cannot duplicate the bird flu virus created as part of the studies. But the scientific community opposed that. Kawaoka recently said he modified his report to provide a more in depth explanation of the significance of his findings and to explain more about his lab’s bio-security and safety. Last week, the government recently authorized full findings of both studies to be published.

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Thirty new jobs are being added at Spancrete’s facility in Manitowoc. Governor Scott Walker’s office made the announcement today, but it did not say whether the firm would get state tax credits. Spancrete is based in Waukesha. It makes precast concrete materials and versatile building materials. The company recently brought back the employees who were laid off earlier. And Spancrete plans to hire 30 new workers over the next 45 days to keep up with a higher workload that’s expected over the next few months.

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