Panel votes to create agency with broad powers to fight corruption

Patrick Marley reports in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,

One day after former state Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala was convicted of two felonies, the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee voted Wednesday to create a new agency with broad powers to investigate and prosecute politicians for violating ethics and elections laws. ...

The bill (SB 1) would merge the state Ethics Board and Elections Board into the new Government Accountability Board, which would have an enforcement division that, unlike the current boards, could prosecute politicians for criminal violations.