Who Has Abele Placed In Your Neighborhood?

For more than two years, AFSCME and the mental health professionals at the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division have been warning about the dangers associated with Chris Abele's plan to privatize the mental health system and close the mental health complex.

The Milwaukee County Board heeded these warnings and wanted to put safeguards into Abele's plan to relocate all the patients into the community.  Because of this and his desire for no accountability or public knowledge, Abele ran to his old buddy, Republican State Representative Joe Sanfelippo.  After slipping Sanfelippo a few bucks, he got his privately owned state rep to push through a law taking the board out of the loop and creating a puppet board to rubber stamp Abele's plans.

Earlier this year, Abele's secrecy and dishonesty started causing problems.  The citizens of Franklin started protesting a group home opening in their community.  They cited concerns about who might be housed in the group home, whether there would be adequate supervision and security and other such things.  Instead of doing the proper education, Abele and the private agency have threatened to sue the City of Franklin to force them to allow the group home.

But it doesn't end there.  As with all things Abele, there is more.  There is always more.

Apparently, in an effort to avoid another fiasco like the one in Franklin, Abele adapted a new modus operandi, namely, lying about what he is doing.

On Wednesday, Milwaukee Alderman Terry Witkowski and State Representative Christine Sinicki held a press conference accusing Abele of opening another group home which will house sex offenders, despite his assurance that this wouldn't happen:

Ald. Terry L. Witkowski on Wednesday accused Milwaukee County officials of covering up a plan to place sex offenders in a community-based residential facility in a quiet south side neighborhood.

The facility at 429 W. Uncas Ave. could open as soon as Friday, with two sex offenders scheduled to move in, said Witkowski, who was joined by more than two dozen neighborhood residents at a news conference in front of the home.

Witkowski said he received assurances from the county's contractor for the facility, Matt Talbot Recovery Service Inc., and its president, Karl Rajani, that no sex offenders would be placed in the home.

But Wednesday, Witkowski said Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services Director Hector Colón called him and said two sex offenders would be placed there.

State Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) joined Witkowski at the news conference and also said she had been misled into believing no sex offenders would be placed in the home.

"This is a residential neighborhood with a park and a lot of young children," Sinicki said.

"We were baldfaced lied to about this."

I find it interesting that the agency that owns this group home is the same one that caused the ruckus in Franklin. It should give one pause to wonder what kind of deal Abele made with this agency.

Abele's staff won't say whether the two sex offenders are on the state's sex offender registry. He then tried to assure people that the two people would not violate the city's law restricting where sex offenders can live.

But given how Abele lied about whether sex offenders were going to be placed in this group home, who would or could believe him on the type of sex offenders he placing there?

These stories should raise a red flag for anyone living in Milwaukee County or in the Southeast region of Wisconsin.

Given Abele's secrecy and outright lying, how can anyone be sure of the safety of their own neighborhood?  Who has Abele placed in your neighborhood without telling you or your local leaders?

Having sat in on some of the meetings with AFSCME to discuss this, I can advise the gentle reader of one thing they can be sure of us.  These aren't isolated incidents.

Republicans To Go After Unemployment Insurance. Again.

Wisconsin Republicans love to kick people when they are down.

They have screwed around with food stamps, cutting back benefits and making it difficult for people in need to meet those needs.  They have also screwed with the unemployed, again, making it more difficult for people to get unemployment compensation and making it harder to keep it once they do jump through all the hoops.

In fact, the cuts to the unemployment insurance program is one of the biggest influences in the low unemployment percentage rate.  The rate isn't low because of all the jobs Walker created, because he hasn't created a whole helluva lot.  In fact, Walker's performance in job creation is worse than if he did nothing.  The rate is being artificially suppressed by Walker not allowing people on the system in the first place.

On Sunday afternoon, at the Bay View Tragedy Commemoration, State Representative Chris Sinicki told the crowd that the Republicans are gearing up for more attacks on the unemployment system, targeting the construction trades.

The first thing we had already heard about, which is that the Republicans want people receiving unemployment compensation to have to take drug tests.  Sinicki pointed out that this would effect almost all construction workers, who are generally laid off in the winters.

The other thing was that the Republicans are planning on trying to make construction work be considered seasonal employment.  This means that the construction workers would not be eligible for any unemployment compensation during the winter.

The Republicans are pretending that this will save the taxpayers money.  This is rubbish.  Taxpayer money isn't used for unemployment insurance.  It comes from the workers.

Think about the long term ramifications of these moves, especially when they are compiled with the already ruinous wage theft bill and the ongoing attack on prevailing wages.

It means that all our local construction workers will be forced out of jobs and the roads and bridges we drive on, the buildings we work in and the rest of our infrastructure will be built by people with insufficient training and without sufficient safety practices.

I hope that those that have supported the Republicans are willing to put their lives on the line for it, because they just did - and all of our lives as well.

Republicans Maleficence Towards Unemployed Continues Unabated

As we - and only we - had reported on Sunday, the Republicans were planning on launching a double pronged attack on the unemployed in Wisconsin.  They were

going to introduce a set of proposals agreed upon by the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council which would drastically cut benefits for many unemployed and underemployed Wisconsinites.

We also reported that the Republicans would then introduce the parts that the UIAC did not agree upon in Finance, so as they could stay in the good graces of the well moneyed special interests who had bought and paid for them.

And on Wednesday, it came to pass.

The Republicans did their secondary attack on the unemployed.  Per the Wisconsin State Journal, among the new proposals that the Republicans approved without so much as a public hearing include:

• Someone denied benefits after failing to accept a job offer would remain ineligible until finding a job and earning six times his or her weekly benefit rate. Under current law the requirement is four times the weekly benefit rate.
• Jobless benefits would no longer be extended beyond their normal expiration date for people who are completing vocational training or basic education courses.
• Unemployed people who failed to keep their identification number, user name and password secure could be liable for any benefits obtained by unauthorized persons
• Financial institutions doing business with the state would be required to disclose information about accounts held by people who owe money to the unemployment system.
• The state would try to collect overpayments made as a result of administrative errors or computer malfunctions. Officials could sue to freeze bank accounts holding money wrongly paid out.

These changes, which the Republicans falsely claim will protect the unemployed, actually will cut benefits by more than $14 million in the 2013-14 fiscal year and by more than another $23 million in the 2014-15 year.

The legal analysis of the proposed changes are here:

JCF Motion on UI, May 29, 2013 by Chris Capper Liebenthal

Representatives Chris Sinicki and Bob Jauch issued a joint press release which addressed the Republicans malfeasance:

Today the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee approved changes that make it more difficult for laid-off workers to collect unemployment benefits when they have lost their jobs. For roughly eight decades the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Advisory Council, made up of representatives of employers and employees, has set this policy. Today Republicans on the Finance committee unilaterally took those duties upon themselves and defiantly passed anti-employee measures that the UI Council did not agree upon. They’ve forced changes to UI law into the state budget without any public hearing or scrutiny.

Wisconsin’s unemployment program was the model for the nation at its creation. Now, Republicans are seeking multiple changes that would profoundly change the program and tilt the it dramatically against employees.

In response to this Republican sneak attack on employees, Rep. Chris Sinicki (ranking Democrat, Assembly Committee on Labor ) and Sen. Bob Jauch (ranking Democrat, Senate Committee on Workforce Development, Forestry, Mining, and Revenue) released the following statements:

“Under Gov. Walker and the Republicans, Wisconsin has fallen to 44th in the nation in job creation. But, instead of focusing on putting people back to work, Republicans are focused on kicking jobless workers off unemployment,” said Rep. Sinicki. “Republicans want taxpayers to spend millions more on private schools and tax breaks for the rich, but they are kicking workers when they are down in a lagging economy that Republicans themselves created.”

“Rather than working together on bipartisan solutions agreed upon by employers and employees, Republicans are again dividing and polarizing Wisconsin citizens by ramming through measures into the budget that make life even harder for people who have lost their jobs in a down economy,” said Sen. Jauch. “This is incredibly short-sighted because unemployment is intended to maintain the workforce and because it allows people to keep paying their bills, it benefits our whole state economy.”

Indeed, it takes a special level of depravity to cause such widespread unemployment, ruin the economy so we have no chance of any significant job growth, and then viciously and repeatedly attack the people you have already victimized.

But as the gentle reader knows, there is more.  There is always more.

The Republicans are continuing to ramrod through their multi-pronged attack on the unemployed by having the vote on it this coming Monday, instead of waiting until the regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday.  The Democrats have sent a letter to Rep. Dan Knodl, Chair of the Labor Committee, asking him to show some decency by holding the vote at a normal time.

Given how the Republicans only listen to their corporate masters and given how they appear to be in a controlled panic about things, as if they are trying to get as much crammed in before some shoe drops, I would not count on them doing anything even remotely resembling decency.

If they had any decency, they would be focused, you know, on actually creating jobs in order to get the rate of unemployment down.

Republicans About To Launch Double Pronged Attack On Unemployed

Earlier this year, I warned the gentle reader that the Republicans were gearing up to launch yet another war on the unemployed:

As I had related in my last post, Representative Chris Sinicki told me

that they have no less than 51 changes in store for unemployment insurance.  Furthermore, she said that the Republicans have made it abundantly clear that they plan on ramming these changes through, regardless of what the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council, the Democrats or their own constituents have to say about any of this.

Sinicki had already told us that one of the changes will be pushing back the start of unemployment back to six weeks.

Scott Walker also pointed out several changes he wants to make:

These changes, which would need to be made by lawmakers, would include requiring the unemployed to do four job applications a week instead of the current two.

"Common sense changes could improve the (unemployment) reserve fund condition, enhance the integrity of the program, and ensure taxes paid into the fund are used properly," the report reads.

At the bottom of the unemployment insurance complaints from business owners - and the Walker administration's focus - lies the financial state of the state's jobless fund. Weakened by the recession and a lack of past action to raise taxes or cut spending from the fund, the jobless reserve had to borrow from the federal government to keep paying benefits and stood $1.2 billion in the red at the beginning of 2012.

So to pay off the debt, the state already has had to restrict benefits for the jobless and raise payroll taxes on state employers.

Making it harder to get benefits would help with that process by keeping more money in the fund. But Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) said he was worried about the unemployed workers who wouldn't receive that money.

"Of the few details available, we know Wisconsin families and those suffering the most from slow job creation may lose important protections in the unemployment insurance program. We can only conclude that there is cause for concern that this administration may remove other common sense protections for Wisconsin's middle-class workers," Larson said in a statement.

The Walker administration also wants to look at:

Requiring more documentation from recipients of jobless benefits to cut down on fraud
Restricting the number of reasons such as illness, travel distance or physical limitations that a person can give to refuse work and still receive jobless benefits
Narrowing the list of exceptions that allow workers to quit a job and then receive unemployment insurance. Wisconsin currently has 18 of these exemptions, such as quitting for medical reasons or moving to a new region with a spouse. According to the report, Minnesota is the state with the next highest number of exemptions with nine.

As noted in the article, the problem arose during the Bush/Cheney recession, which produced a horrendously large number of job losses, quickly draining the fund for the unemployment insurance. As a consequence, the state had to borrow more than a billion dollars from the federal government in order to be able to pay the bills.

The article states that there were two ways to pay off the debt - raise taxes on the companies or cut the spending from the fund.

Well, don't say I didn't warn you.

With thanks to Rep. Chris Sinicki for the heads up, we find that the Republicans had introduced the bill this past Friday and it was immediately scheduled for a public hearing this coming Wednesday:

Assembly

PUBLIC HEARING

Committee on Labor

The committee will hold a public hearing on the following items at the time specified below:

Wednesday, May 29, 2013
12:00 PM
300 Northeast

Assembly Bill 219
Relating to: various changes in the unemployment insurance law; license revocations based on delinquency in payment of unemployment insurance contributions; granting rule-making authority; providing a penalty; and making an appropriation.

By Representative Knodl; cosponsored by Senator Lasee.

________________________
Representative Daniel Knodl
Chair

Here is AB 219 in all it's ugliness.

But there is something that the gentle reader should note.

AB 219, as bad as it is, is strictly what was agreed upon by the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council.

AB 219, by no stretch of the imagination, contains all the things that the Republicans want to do to the unemployed.  And don't think for one hot second that the Republicans won't go after everything they want.

I have word that the Republicans could very well enter a motion in Finance on Wednesday to add all the crap that was not approve by the advisory council.  I do believe we've seen enough to know how it will go from there without me having to paint the gentle reader a picture.

So let us be prepared.  Not only will be there the frontal attack of kicking the unemployed while they are down, but they will be also launching a sneak attack adding the things that no one but the Republicans and their corporate masters want.

I just find it sickening that the Republicans - who have cause the state to become 44th in the nation in job creation and just had the largest one month drop in jobs in years - believe it is necessary or even desirable to attack their victims a second time. Talk about your sad sacks.

I also have to wonder how the thirteen Democrats who voted for AB 110 feel about themselves now that the people they voted against before are about to get slammed again.

Solidarity Fish Fry, Week 17: Well, That's A Fine Kettle Of Fish!

As advertised, last Friday was the seventeenth week for the Solidarity Fish Fry.

This one was no different than the other weeks in that there was good food, great solidarity and a bit of political discussion.

Upon arrival, seeing all the good people enjoying the solidarity and the abundance of tartar sauce, I saw Representative Chris Sinicki and her husband, Mike, who is a proud card-carrying union thug himself:

Well, OK, that isn't his union card he's holding, but there's nothing wrong with a fistful of fish either.

Sadly, while we did share some laughs, Rep. Sinicki had some bad news.  She said that the Republicans have 51 changes in store for unemployment insurance and are determined to ram them through committee and through both houses, regardless of what the UI Council has to say about things.

She said that the people should be ready to take action, for this is coming down the pike as soon as their done screwing with the mining bill.

But back to the fish fry, I had the extreme pleasure of dining with Kelley Albrecht, my blogdaughter Meg Moen (Cog Dis' own Meg!) and her friend, the fabulous Jenny G., who will talk your ear off if you let her:

Jenny on the left, Meg on the right

Other regulars were there as well, including the good folks from the Progressive Democrats of America.

But as we were dining, I looked up and saw none other than Vince Megna, the comic relief candidate for the state supreme court race.  I thought to myself how nice of him to come and support the union workers.

Except he didn't.

He and his companion headed straight to the non-union section.  With the help of Kelley, I was able to get a shot of him:

Megna is the gentleman in the white shirt.


Here's a blow up of him at his table.

So much for him being a man of the people.

As the gentle eater can see, if you miss a week, you miss a lot.

So don't miss out on any more.

Come join Randy, Meg and myself this Friday for Week 18.

And tell them that Cog Dis sent ya.

Solidarity Fish Fry, Week 10: A Lot To Digest

Chalk up the tenth Solidarity Fish Fry in the books.

As I've mentioned before, the one thing about these events is that it's never the same from week to week.  This one was no different.  Not only was there a lot of food to digest, there was a lot of food for thought that needs to be digested as well.

When I arrived, I noticed that the parking lot was pretty empty.  I was disappointed, but not too surprised.  Lots of people have holiday parties and are getting ready for Christmas.

Probably a bigger factor was the fact that the horrible events in Newton, Connecticut put a damper on everyone's mood.  It's hard to make it through the day after something like this, much less go out once you get home.

But there were still a fair number of us there and once again, I came away amazed at the good in people, especially after the day's news.

Even before I made it into the Hall, I saw the dashing Randy "Ironstache" Bryce and his even more dashing son in the parking lot.  We chatted excitedly about next week's Ultimate Solidarity Fish Fry as well as the other news of the day.

I had the pleasure of meeting Andy, the author of Wisconsin's Soap Box (now added to the Royal Blogroll).  He's new to Milwaukee and decided to use that to his advantage by taking on a new angle to the fish fry.  His observations from sitting in the non-union section are quite interesting:

After some reflection, it was easily detected who the professional and veteran staff was from the inexperienced more recent hires just working it as "a job." Maybe it was just my experience, and there's no denying that I'm viewing the situation through my own biased lens, but I could easily see the professional union staff working 10 times as hard as their non-union coworkers. I saw them working hard and being speedy with every request while maintaining a professional demeanor and personable smile. On the contrary, the non-union waiters were slow, cold, and apathetic to my dining experience. I was never once asked how my meal was, given a run-down of the dining options, or checked on to see if I needed anything additional.

I will be back to Serb Hall. The fish itself was quite good and the price for the meal is still very good. However, I will be specifically requesting one of the waitresses I saw across the room who made their guests feel right at home. Next time, I will be looking for the union label, and with good reason. My non-union experience seemed sub par to that of others.

But do make sure you read the whole thing.  It is rather well written and it is a rather accurate description of things.

I also had seen members of the Progressive Democrats of America and had the pleasure of meeting two of my 4.3 readers.

I had the honor of dining with State Representative Chris Sinicki, John Pokrandt and Kelley Albrecht.  The conversation was lively and ranged from political gossip to the events of the day to adventures in campaigning and some of the weird things we've come across.

And through the various conversations I've had, I learned many things (all of which I will expand on in later posts), but just to give you a heads up:

• Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele is still planning to go ahead with his ill-advised plan to further disrespect the voters by downsizing the board.  He will do so with the aid of his buddy, Representative Elect Joe Sanfelippo, whose claim to fame is abdicating his duties and profiteering off the county through his taxi company.  True to their nature though, they are doing it wrong and it will end up failing after costing taxpayers untold fortunes in legal fees as it's fought out in court.
• Besides the Right to Woe law, the selling out of our state to Gogebic Taconite, eliminating same day registration and other non-job focused laws, Assemblywoman Sinicki said that they are going after unemployment compensation again.  If you thought what they did the first time was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet.  For example, unemployment claimants would have to wait six weeks before receiving their first check.  This bill is set to go on day one.  I'll share more as soon as I get more information.
• I have also heard that it's increasingly unlikely that the Honorable Maryann Sumi will run for the Supreme Court, confirming what Brew City Brawler had already reported.  While Sumi would have made a fine justice, I still prefer Ed Fallone.

Best of all, we were able to all help each other cope with the day's news by sharing our grief and our sadness and leaning on each other.  It's amazing what miracles a hug can do for a soul.

And as we are fond of saying, "One fish fry longer, one fish fry stronger."

Remember that next week we will be hosting some of the Palermo's workers, who stand in solidarity with the Serb Hall union workers.  But to make this successful, we need your help.  Please help out by donating generously to the Palermo's fund.  It's a great way to show your support for both groups, especially if you're not able to make it to a fish fry.