Wis. journalism group stunned by budget provision - DINESH RAMDE, Associated Press

A provision that would force the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism off the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus blindsided the center's leader, who said Wednesday he's still trying to understand why his group was specifically targeted. The center, a nonpartisan investigative news organization that offers its stories free to mainstream media outlets, operates rent-free out of two offices in the university's journalism school, said Andy Hall, the group's executive director. Under an agreement signed in 2011, the school covers the cost of utilities and Internet access, and in exchange the center hires some of its students as paid interns and provides academic support. Hall and the school, who agree the arrangement has been mutually beneficial, stopped short of interpreting the move as some sort of political payback. But the budget modification, proposed early Wednesday by two Republicans, left the center and the school scrambling for answers. http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Wis-journalism-group-stunned-by-budget-provision-4578408.php