Maciver Faces Reality

By Jeff Simpson 

(Matt "not a journalist" Kittle crying with Robin "bitter far right partisan" Vos that an adult introduced a budget in WI for the first time in 8 years).   

One thing that never fails to amaze me in modern day politics, is when someone does something stupid, their best defense is to pretend it never happened.  We saw Scott Walker master that with his perpetually sticking his foot in his mouth(wall off Canada, comparing peaceful protesters to ISIS, etc..) then pretend it never happened.    Luckily for them, the Wisconsin Press Corps is toothless and pandering and they never get called on it. 

Unlucky for them, Capper started a blog a few years ago and invited me to join him. 

The latest situation of faux outrage and terrible memories comes from our friends on the right - Maciver Institute.  Tony Evers refused access to their bloggers at a press briefing, and their feels got hurt. 

 Gov. Tony Evers likes to talk a lot about transparency and accountability.
Those two noble words, after all, were in the first paragraph of the Democrat’s campaign agenda.
“For the past eight years, Wisconsin’s state government has been used to … undermine our state’s rich tradition of transparency and accountability,” the opening lines of the political document state.
But it appears the governor is suffering from selective transparency and accountability. He certainly doesn’t seem to have much time for conservative journalists and critics.
Evers administration made that clear — again — on Thursday afternoon, when his handlers barred MacIver News Service from attending a Capitol Press Corps budget preview powwow behind closed East Wing doors.
This, despite the fact that MacIver has long been a credentialed Capitol news organization in good standing. 

They are credentialed in "good standing" because Scott Fitzgerald and Robin Vos issue the credentials. Does anyone think that a dark money propaganda org, that will write whatever they are told to help the Dems look bad and the GOP look good would not be in good standing with the WISGOP? 

Even Robin Vos apparently felt the need to weigh in (Edit note: i just saw this on Macivers page, could not see it on my own as Robin Vos is currently illegally blocking me on twitter.  Hey Robo - my handle is JeffSimpson7, please follow the law and unblock me):

Robin Vos@repvos

Amazing that @wisgop allow liberals to attend but @GovEvers is afraid to let @MacIverWisc attend?MacIver Institute@MacIverWisc
And thus ends the Open Government Era of the Walker years ... @MacIverWisc not allowed to attend @GovEvers capitol press corps budget briefing this hour despite MacIver's multiple requests and its capitol credentials. MacIver turned away at the East Wing door #wiright #wipolitics

311:38 PM - Feb 28, 2019

Umm Robin, I know that no one ever accused you of being brilliant or even remotely non partisan, but you do not "allow" liberals to attend.  Let me refresh your memory:

It doesn’t appear Walker is interested in improving his own image among certain members of the press, however. In an effort to block access to independent journalists, the entire media group, which was already set up in a first floor conference room, was asked to move to a more secure room on the sixth floor of the building.
The move caused congestion with about twenty members of the press and all their equipment jammed up in the hall outside the elevator. State officials checked the press credentials for a second time before allowing people onto the elevators. Once on the sixth floor, several independent journalists, including Jenna Pope and Arthur Kohl-Riggs, were denied access to the room by four Capitol Police officers.
These enhanced security measures delayed the press conference by 45 minutes.
Once in the room, Scott Walker’s Communications Director and former Karl Rove associate Jocelyn Webster ejected a WCCA-credentialed photojournalist for not displaying her press credentials (even though she is well-known photographer in the Capitol), and scanned the room in hopes of targeting more non-preapproved reporters.  Members of the public who pay for the state-owned building and to whom the governor is accountable as a public servant, were also blocked from attending the press conference.

Almost word for word the other way.   I personally feel that both sides need to let in people with press passes of either persuasion.  I also feel that the politicians should not be deciding who gets a press pass and who does not.   The one thing though that I am certain of, is that no one at Maciver is a journalist, nor are they reporters, they especially are not investigative reporters.    They are in our category of political bloggers, they are in a subset though of the Political Propagandist Bloggers, since they have a nice budget from the Bradley Foundation, so really stand for nothing but a paycheck.   

I also applaud Tony Evers for keeping them out of his presser.   Unless, both sides want to get together and come up with a fair and impartial way to issue press passes, then the WISDEMS need to be playing the same game as the WISGOP.   

For too long they haven't been. 

As a blogger, I say let the bloggers in (I have occasionally had press passes), but I have never once called my self a reporter or a journalist, and if Matt Kittle and his cohorts, continue to do so, maybe they should talk to a therapist about delusions of grandeur, before they get their blogger press pass and are allowed out in public! 

Wisconsin's Right Wing "Media"

By Jeff Simpson

Everyone knows the turmoil that Scott Walker's budget despair bill brought to the State of WI in early2011.   Scott Walker shortly after being sworn in, decided to "drop the bomb" and completely switch course from all of his campaign promises and attack his enemies by outlawing public unions. 

The people of Wisconsin did not take this lightly. 



Despite the fact that Scott Walker never campaigned on ACT10 or any of the policies he rushed through, it is EXACTLY what he had intended to do:

   .

Luckily for Scott Walker, he has always had a well funded "media"(term used loosely) at his beck and call.  From Jsonline giving free reign to the Bradley Foundation's gopher Christian Schneider to the ridiculous mediatrackkkers and their racist writer Brian Sikma. 

However nothing better showcases how ridiculous they are then the current story of the Walker Docs.   A quick rundown of Walkerdocs.  There was a three year investigation into illegal campaigning activities of the Scott Walker administration while he was Milwaukee County Executive.  In the end, while Scott Walker was never charged with a crime(he did have to pay his TWO criminal defense firms he had on retainer $650,000 + to make sure of it) 6 of his top staffers were actually charged and convicted of various crimes.   Despite efforts by the Walker administration to stop the release of the documents collected during the investigation, a judge ruled that one of the felons - Kelly Rindfleisch, had to turn over all of her emails that she sent on county time and with county equipment.  

  These documents were released at the end of February 2014 and totaled approximately 27,000 pages.    In layman's terms, in this investigation, this one person(Rinfleisch) had 27,000 pages of evidence against her(she was convicted).   This is just a tip of the iceberg of the investigation and the results of one of the people being investigated among many.   The full set of these documents can be found here!  

Back to the story at hand - mediatrackers website has covered the full release of these #walkerdocs with exactly ONE story.   The story is a reprint of a two year old story trying to question the credibility of one of the investigators, who has 24 years of solid law enforcement experience, for allegedly having a "recall walker" yard sign in 2011.   Apparently 24 years of  exemplary public service means nothing if your wife does not like the current Governor.    

After that silly story , there is not a word written about any of the 15000 emails that were released.  Not. one.  word.    A few stories about how bad unions are and how Obamacare will destroy the world, but nothing about Scott Walker and his secret email system.   

However, go back in time two years ago and we find a "breaking news story" that they could not get out fast or loud enough.   Tom Barrett's wife, who is a teacher, sent three emails.   Two were to different representatives, asking them to vote against Act10 and one asking a few of her friends if they would be attending a protest.   

Then Sikma really nailed her good!   Kris Barrett, Tom's wife, was on one of his mailer's as supporting the Tom Barrett campaign(seriously he wrote that).   

With her husband Tom running as the Democratic nominee for governor, Ms. Barrett has already intentionally inserted herself into the political fray according to Politico. And on April 15, Ms. Barrett’s name was on a Tom Barrett campaign email entitled “Pink Slip.

 17,000 emails, 27000 pages = crickets
3 emails and endorsing her husbands run for office = major investigation!

When Gannett Attacks!

By Jeff Simpson

H/T Blue Cheddar for bring this story to my attention:

In an era where politicians like Ron Johnson and Paul Ryan refuse to talk to anyone but the extreme right, and  politicians like Rebecca Kleefisch and Paul Ryan refuse to debate their opponent, the era of transparency is eroding.,   This is a time when we need our media the most.  Unfortunately, Gannetts media latest series attacking public workers under the ruse of more information to the public, is a wolf in sheep's clothing!  I asked to speak to reporter Eric Litke about this series and, after he reviewed this blog, was turned down by editor Dan Flannery.

I was told that any and all questions were covered in the online chat.  Before we get to that though, let's take a look at their justification   Here is Flannery explaining the project:







Unfortunately Flannery starts out on a false basis, so lets help him correct it via an expansive Watchdog reporting effort from CogDis WI:

1.  First they say they are getting salary information from all public workers because "we the taxpayers" are their employers!(Litke even used the term Boss: "  We obviously aren't going to print addresses and phone numbers, but basic info like identities and salaries should be available to us like it would any boss.").

CD:  That premise on its own is INCORRECT.  Do we really think that we are the employers of the local math teacher?  The law school professor at UW-Madison?  the snowplow driver?   Custodian at the Capitol?   Am I in Madison the "Boss" of the person who works buildings and ground at UW- Stout?  Of course not and this false premise is what has caused much division in this state.

I would not think that I needed to explain this to someone who has had 27 years experience in the newspaper industry but apparently I do.   There is either a chain of command or there is chaos.  " We the taxpayers" are the "boss" of the local elected representatives(say school board).   The School Board is then in turn, the "boss" of the local administration, who is then the "boss" of the teaching staff.

The term Boss means in this context: a. An employer or a supervisor or b. One who makes decisions or exercises authority.  Does Gannett really think that taxpayers do that with public employees or should?  In our Constitutionally Limited democratic republic, we have a system of checks and balances in the government that is supposed to be in charge of making these decisions in a line flow basis.   It is truly unfortunate that what passes as media did not understand that.

2.  They say they have included all public employees:   The result is a collection of more than 250,000 names, covering every Wisconsin public employee earning more than $25,000 in the most recent available fiscal year. The listing includes state, federal and U.S. Postal Service employees, as well as those who work in Wisconsin’s 72 counties; 91 cities, towns or villages with a population of 10,000 or more; 26 University of Wisconsin campuses; 16 technical colleges and 424 public school districts.  

CD: See who is noticeably missing?  Elected officials and their staff of course,  No sense in letting people know exactly how much money and how many staffers their elected officials have. These are the people who the taxpayers are, in theory, the Boss of!    It might blow some of the arguments that the right has been using the last two years....now back to focusing on the kindergarten teachers...

3. Every Wisconsin public employee earning more than $25,000 in the most recent available fiscal year.  

That is purely and  simply because public workers making less than $25.000/yr do not fit the "public workers are overpaid" meme.  When the general public wokers, who you know are doing an honorable job serving the public on a daily basis, then you find out they are not even making $25,000/yr, it really blows holes in the public workers are paid to much meme.

4. "We do point out pay differences between one area of the public sector Vs. another comparable area. That is our responsibility."


 Again what is missing is education, years of education, extra credits, job descriptions, class sizes, classes taught,  personnel reviews etc...(all of which are available via public records the same way the limited information they obtained and shared).   They also fail to explain where they came up with their numbers for benefits costs.

5. How much do the reporters publishing public workers salaries make? 

Eric Litke: 

Paul: I figured this question would come. :-) The simple answer is that I'm not a public employee, and the general public has no more right to know what I make than they do any other private worker. Public employees work for the taxpayers, so there is a direct taxpayer interest in what they are paid, since it's our money. 

The answer of course is mind your own business, because the fact that advertising rates, subscription rates, the prices we have to pay at establishments that advertise their products in the paper, classified advertising rates, taxes they pay, deductions they take, etc... all are related to what Gannett pays their employees.   

6.  Since public workers have been demonized over the last two year, you know that people will use these numbers to harass and attack.  Do you feel a little bad about that at all?   
  
Eric Litke: 
preese: We're here to educate and inform. If people use this data to make unfair, inflammatory statements, it doesn't seem fair to hold us accountable for that, does it?
 Gannett is washing their hands of all responsibility for any consequences that come up from this online database.   Which I am assuming includes if someone is trying to hide from a past abusive partner or spouse.   We should also keep in mind that when "Verify the recall" put up a database of people who signed the petition to recall Scott Walker, it was Gannett themselves that used the information to harass their own employees!  

FYI to all of the righties out there who love this, Gannett is also the company that released the names of all gun owners in NY!  

Need some perspective?  There was one small story written off of press releases when our Republican Congressional Delegation voted against Hurricane Sandy Relief!    

Let's hope, for all of our sake,  that our public workers are doing better at their job, than the people at Gannett .  Let us also hope that our teachers are not as sloppy when working with our kids as the Gannett crew has been with working with the public workers information.   

If you want to contact Mr. Flannery and ask him for accuracy in journalism:

 920-993-1000, ext. 237.
dflannery@postcrescent.com

If you are a subscriber, I would also highly recommend, calling up Customer Service and let them know that you would like to cancel your subscription:

 For customer service call: 1-877-424-5639 (toll free).
Hours are Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything.  Except what is worth knowing.  Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands.  ~Oscar Wilde

Quote of the Day

Steve Jagler, executive editor of BizTimes, on the shock that Republicans received on Election Day:

Here’s a hint. If you are a conservative, and your only sources of political news and analysis are Fox News, Limbaugh and conservative talk radio yackers, you do not have a realistic prism of the world.

And if you are a liberal, and your only sources of political news and analysis are MSNBC, Current TV and The Huffington Post, you do not have a realistic prism of the world.

Believe it or not, it is still possible to find journalism that is committed to the honest pursuit of the truth, wherever that may lead, rather than just spoonfeed a preconceived political agenda that tells you what you want to hear. We just have to look a little harder and think a little deeper to find it.

WTDY: Under New Manglement

The big news of the day, at least if you live in the Madison area, was the firing of John "Sly" Sylvester and several other staff members at WTDY.

I can not honestly say that I am as upset as some of my friends, but that is mostly because I'm in Milwaukee and had never heard their station or met any of them. That said, I think it's a great loss whenever a voice gets silenced like that.

However, my distance from these events gives me the advantage of an objective view and a chance to see the big picture. Here are some of the things I've noticed.

Scott Wittkopf cited Sly's announcement of his termination from the station:

Message to everybody: I just want to inform you that today was my last day of employment at WTDY. After 15 years, I was told that my services were no longer needed. I would like to thank everybody that’s supported my program. It’s been a pleasure to share this wonderful experience with you. I need to take a big deep breath this weekend and figure out what my future plans are. But, old Winter Soldiers NEVER DIE, and I look forward to letting you know what lies ahead. Solidarity!

-SLY

That, in my humble opinion, is class. He was direct, and he was upbeat even though his heart must have been breaking. After all, the man had been with the station for fifteen years, which is forever in radio time.

Then again, Sly's positive message could be because they could not make any negative comments about the station, lest they lose their severance package, as reported by Emily Mills. How that's not extortion, I don't know. But it might be the norm for the radio/TV business.

As one would expect, the right wingers were celebrating eight more people losing their jobs the day before Thanksgiving.

Kevin Binversie, a propagandist in the Kochs' employment, and Owen Robinson, an AFP zombie, both stated the change in format was because of low ratings, even though neither one of them offered any proof for their scurrilous remarks.

They offer no proof because they have none. They have no proof because it's not true.

Here's a few things to keep in mind.

If a radio station is going to change formats, this is the time of year they usually do so.

As noted above, Sly has been doing this gig for 15 years, they don't get rid of them at a drop of the hat for ratings. It would take something really egregious.

Furthermore, their ratings weren't low. Wittkopf quoted another WTDY staffer who was fired, Crystal McKenzie Parker, who said that their ratings were the best in 10 years. The last two years of the illegal and unethical behaviors of the Republicans is fodder for shows like Sly's, so it is more likely true that they have had higher ratings.

While it's true that ratings correlate with how much a station can charge for ad time, it's also true that ratings don't necessarily mean a change in format. If radio stations were only interested in revenue, Clear Channel would have dropped Rush Limbaugh long ago. Limbaugh's history of over the top sexist and racist remarks is having such a negative effect on revenue that it is starting to hurt stations that don't even carry him:

Doug Stephan, president of Stephan MultiMedia and host of the nationally syndicated “Good Day” program, had this to offer:

Let’s face it, the agencies and advertisers are how we survive. So to tell them that their clients are stupid for not staying in an atmosphere in which they don’t want to be is akin to the Republicans not reading the tea leaves about changing demographics.

I’m not here to argue the point, but rather to tell you what this ONE incident has cost me as an independent in a sea of big corporate operators, who are obviously losing tens of millions of dollars due to this one event.

So far this year, my losses are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Cancellations, avoidance and decisions to just not buy across the whole format, no matter what the content...

I’m not looking for Limbaugh to send me a check (although that would be nice), but I do think we have to let it be known that his actions have been devastating to our survival.

The real reason for the change has to do with two things.

One, they just brought in a new general manager in June. Odds are that this pinhead was brought in to be a hatchet man or he wanted to make a name for himself by being "bold."

Secondly, the new format will be sports talk, relying heavily on a national feed. This is the radio version of a Bain-type of outsourcing. But the experienced and more costly staff and ship the work to somewhere else where they'll do it much cheaper. Then the general manager can point to the higher profits and try to cover up the lower ratings.

The investors will be happy raking in the higher profit and won't know about the ratings until it's too late.

On an end note, I just wanted to point out the biggest ass regarding this whole affair. No, it's not Brett Hulsey either.

It's the Las Vegas Badger, who was not satisfied with the crew getting fired on the day before Thanksgiving, but wished that Sly had a fatal accident:

To [sic] bad this thug didn't accidentally touch any electrical lines that power the radio tower as he left the building for the last time.

No wonder the right is against anyone but them. It's the only way that that buttheads like this, who aren't worth the time of day, can get anyone to pay attention to them.

Walker Must Come Clean On Walkergate Now!

There is a reason why people refer to Scott Walker as a weasel, besides the fact that I've been doing it for years.  Walker is as unscrupulous as a person can be and despite his inability to govern his way out of a wet paper bag, he is very adept at dodging and sidestepping the truth, even when it requires talking out of both sides of his mouth.

One of Walker's most glaring examples of his skill at "weaselspeak" is the way he is now trying to address the Walkergate issue.  He alternates between being cooperative, to not being a target to being unable to talk about it because of the secrecy rules, depending on which is most politically convenient at the moment.  He often uses all of them in the same conversation which is really confusing to most people.

On Saturday evening, I had the chance to speak with former Kenosha County District Attorney Bob Jambois, to help clarify the issues regarding Walker's weaselspeak and Walkergate.  Jambois is a very astute attorney and has conducted a number of John Doe investigations while he was a district attorney.  Jambois also cosigned the letter from some of the most esteemed members of the legal field attesting to the integrity of the Milwaukee County District Attorney, the Honorable Neal P. Nettesheim and the prosecutorial process.

"I'm not the target."

Walker has often claimed that he is not the target of the Walkergate investigations.  The most recent example comes from Friday night's debate, where he claims to be cooperating again and claims to not be the target (starting about the 1:45 mark):



However, per Jambois, the only way for a person to know that they are not the target of a John Doe investigation is to be given immunity.  And when one is given immunity in a John Doe, it is easily verifiable, regardless of the type of immunity which was granted.

If Walker was given formal immunity, there would be a court record of it which would be public knowledge.  If Walker was granted informal immunity, he would have a letter from the District Attorney's office which he could legally produce to verify this claim.  However, there is no court record showing Walker was granted immunity.  Likewise, he has never produced a letter to verify his claim.

Thereby, we can conclude with confidence that Walker has not been granted immunity and thus cannot, in any conceivable way, know that he is not a target of the Walkergate investigation.

"Bound by the secrecy of the John Doe process"

When Walker is not busy professing that the he is not the target or that he has a "high level of integrity,*" he is copping out saying that he cannot talk about Walkergate because of the secrecy aspect of the John Doe proceeding, as he did in this interview, starting after the nervous cough at 1:45:



Per Jambois, the only way that Walker would be under a secrecy order is if he testified before the John Doe judge or if there is a broad secrecy order.  And even if he did testify, the only thing he couldn't comment on is his testimony.

Now, given Walker's history of micromanaging his campaign - see the infamous "we can't have another story like this" email - I reckon it is conceivable that his testimony could be rather extensive.  This is especially true when one considers all the different directions the Walkergate investigation has taken, from embezzlement to pay for play bid rigging to illegal campaigning and Lord knows what else.

Furthermore, as Jambois explained to me, if Walker was not the target and if Walker did not testify before the judge, the DA has no legal authority to forbid Walker from talking about Walkergate.  It would be especially unlikely, given that Walker is just days away from facing a recall election, that the DA would forbid Walker from clearing his name in a clear and concise way, if, as Walker claims, he is not a target.

Which is it? Secrecy or immunity?

As I said, Walker is trying to play both sides of the John Doe.  But he simply and legally cannot have both his secrecy and immunity too.  If he was given immunity, it would be public record and not a secret.  If he was ordered to secrecy, then he cannot claim not to be a target.

It is time that Scott Walker comes clean about Walkergate and his involvement in it.  He needs to answer directly to what his role is and why he has been lying to the voters regarding this.

It is also time that the press in this state start doing their jobs and asking these questions until he gives a clear and direct answer to them instead of giving him a pass on his weaselspeak.

And this needs to be done now, so that the voters have a clear understanding of just who Walker is and exactly just what role he played in the illegal activities that took place in his own executive suite and under his watch,.

Walker Shows He CAN Do The Right Thing -- When He's Forced To Do It

While running for governor, Scott Walker regularly touted what a success Family Care was for Milwaukee County and how it helped get services to frail senior citizens who had been on waiting list for year. This was a rather perverse position for him to take since Milwaukee County's Department of Aging was one of the pilot programs in the state and started years before Walker weaseled his way in as county executive.

To add to his depravity, Walker actually tried to sabotage the program by laying off the CPAs who were overseeing the program to make sure there weren't costs overruns. Walker said that he laid those people off to save money. The end result of his money saving scheme was two years of massive deficits running into the millions of dollars.

But despite his continued praise of the Family Care program, as soon as he started wielding his budget ax around, one of the first things he did was put a two year cap on the program.

What this meant was that about 10,000 of our most vulnerable citizens were being denied services for no other reason than Walker wanted to do that. The only way that these poor souls were to get services would be if that someone already receiving services moved away, aged out or died. And if the denied disabled person happened to live in a county that had not transitioned to Family Care yet, they were completely screwed over.

Walker claims he did this as a cost saving measure, but the hard truth is that it actually ran up the bill faster for taxpayers:

Allowing an expansion of Family Care and related similar programs would lead to "quality services at a lower cost," said Terry Metzger, an executive with the Southwest Family Care Alliance. The savings figure in the study was a statewide projection based on actual costs for 28,000 Family Care clients from northeastern Wisconsin.

If the freeze is enacted, many people now on waiting lists for Family Care could wind up in nursing homes, said Barbara Beckert, Milwaukee office manager for Disability Rights Wisconsin. That would drive up state costs because nursing home care typically costs $5,000 a month or more. Average costs in Family Care are about $2,800 a month for care services provided at home.

Milwaukee County has at least 2,000 on its Family Care waiting list. Some of those would likely wind up at the county's Mental Health Complex, where acute care costs more than $1,300 a day, if program enrollments are frozen, Beckert said.

It was further reported that the state was already saving $90 million a year on the people already enrolled, which is almost the same amount Walker figured he would save by denying these people services.

Like I said, he only did it because he could.

Now let's fast forward to a couple of weeks ago.

Walker arranged one of his usual grandstanding press conferences to announce that they had suddenly found all sorts of savings and were now going to lift the cap on Family Care, at least eighteen months before he originally planned on doing so:

Earlier this year an enrollment cap was placed on Family Care in response to a Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) evaluation which found a number of areas the program could be improved and made more efficient. After a briefing on the hard work done by DHS over the past couple of months, today Governor Walker announced a plan to lift the Family Care cap. Governor Walker’s plan also calls for Family Care to be expanded to additional counties.

“I am confident that Family Care can continue to be implemented efficiently and cost effectively,” said Governor Walker. “Lifting the cap will be done in a way that respects taxpayers and is mindful of their investment, while at the same time providing care for those who are truly in need.”

The 2011-2013 state budget and the Legislative Audit Bureau required the Department of Health Services to do a thorough review of the program given its rapid growth. The LAB report released in April 2011 offered recommendations for improving the program. A very critical issue raised in the report was that the cost effectiveness of Family Care was difficult to assess. Because the Department was able to take the time to strengthen the program, Wisconsin now has the detailed data needed to develop solutions to ensure Family Care is on sound financial footing for those in the program now and for future enrollees.

Wowsa! What a great governor he is, right? Not in the least, actually.

You see, the thing is Walker didn't suddenly find any savings. What he did find was a scathing letter from the feds telling him he is in violation of their agreement and needed to cease and desist his malfeasance immediately:

Because the currently approved waiver includes and entitlement to waiver services, we are instructing the State to operate the waiver as it was approved by CMS. Therefore, we are directing the State to identify any individuals not currently enrolled onto the Family Care or Self-Directed Supports waivers since the July 1, 2011 implementation of the newly instituted enrollment caps, and immediately enroll those individuals in the waiver programs. This includes individuals living in any counties who had or would have had an entitlement to the waivers as of July 1, 2011, and includes individuals who were or would have otherwise been selected for enrollment from other participating counties.

There is no denying that Walker is a weasel and cannot be trusted to do the right thing unless he is literally forced to do so.

But his problems might not end there.

He made the grave error of embarrassing the media when he told his outright lie, knowing that they were going to most likely regurgitate it. But unlike when he was Milwaukee County Executive, and had the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covering up for him, he is dealing with media sources that he doesn't have in his back pocket. That would explain why so many of the news stories regarding the Family Care issue starts like this one from the Green Bay Press Gazette:

Gov. Scott Walker failed to reveal that the federal government had ordered him to immediately lift an enrollment cap on a state program to help the disabled and elderly stay out of nursing homes, instead telling reporters that his administration removed restrictions after identifying tens of millions of dollars in efficiencies in the program.

The rest of the article focuses on Walker's lies instead of the positive spin he was hoping for.

Oh, and if any reporters out there that do happen to come across this little old blog post of mine, I'd be glad to help you catch up to speed on the other ways he has bamboozled you.

Would Someone Please Explain...

...how the heck this is newsworthy? Especially for a "liberal paper"?

Also, how long before they change their name to the Milwaukee Faux News Journal Sentinel?

Has Journal Communications Spread Itself Too Thin?

I saw this interesting story at WSAW-TV's website:

Local mom creates own newspaper:

A mother of four is doing what she can to help the newspaper industry stay alive.

Her paper, "The Clintonville Chronicle" hit stands this past Tuesday, and sold out in a couple of days.

"They need to know what's going on in the community, their tax dollars especially. They need to know what's going on and what decisions are being made on their behalf," said Owner and Publisher Tricia Rose.

Tricia says after leaving a rival newspaper in town, she dreamed of opening her own, even though larger papers across the country are struggling.

"Tight knit communities want to know whats going on down the street and they came up to us and said we want this and I just said lets do it," said Co-owner Greg Rose.

Tricia financed the business by herself this spring and hired three people to help her create her weekly paper, covering the Clintonville, Bear Creek and Embarrass areas.

Owners of local businesses who are helping sell the newspaper say they had a hard time keeping the "Chronicle" stocked.

To give the gentle reader a little insight into this story, and as to why it is interesting to me, I will give you a brief history of the newspapers in Waupaca County.

As long as I can remember, going back to when I was a boy, almost every town up north had it's own weekly newspaper. There was the Iola Herald and Waupaca County Post. Manawa, Fremont, Weyawega, Clintonville, and New London each had their own paper as well. As far as news goes, they weren't much. Mostly local news, such as a business expanding, or the local philanthropist donating a large check to this or that organization, or who won the blue ribbon for the best dill pickles at the county fair.

Then about a year and a half ago, things changed, and not necessarily for the better. The local papers were all bought out by Journal Communications, Inc. This brought on a series of changes in itself. One was that they stopped carrying as many folksy stories and more news type stories. They also changed some of the cosmetics of the paper, making it bigger but the type smaller.

Then earlier this year, they combined the papers for the east side of the county into one paper, and the papers from the west side into another. Even though each paper kept the same name, the banner was the only thing different from one town's paper to the next. Now there was even less local news, maybe two sheets per town, instead of a whole paper.

Just a few weeks ago, they dropped the pretense of having different papers and have changed the names to Waupaca County East and Waupaca County West. Outside of the name change, the papers still give only the smallest of tastes of local news before moving on to the next community.

Which brings us back to the story at the top of this post. People in the community were not satisfied with the lack of coverage of what was happening in their town or in neighboring communities. They took it upon themselves to start their own paper, and it appears to be a raging success.

That made me think about what is going on here in Milwaukee. As most people are aware, the newspaper business across the country is really suffering. Even the biggest papers are laying off staff in record numbers. There is a growing number of cities whose newspapers have gone strictly online and have ceased all "dead tree" publications.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is no different. They too have sent many good reporters and columnists packing. They have cut back on the coverage and even on sections, such as on Mondays, when they no longer have an editorial of their own and have combined the national and the local sections into one.

Oh sure, they still can come out with great pieces, like the ones the last couple of mornings highlighting the fraud that can occur in child care subsidies. They still have some crack reporters, like Dan Bice and Crocker Stephenson, who do a good job covering local issues. However, they also have clung onto some lesser performing reporters and journalists, like Steve Schultze and Patrick McIlheran.

No matter what, there has been a definite drop in quality and quantity of local news reporting. I have been hearing an increasingly frequent rumor and/or speculation that MJS will soon be going strictly online in the relatively near future. The recent actions of MJS only seems to make these rumors and speculations seem all the more likely.

I don't believe it would be so far fetched to think that some local people could form their own paper. Oh, I know that there already is one local weekly not affiliated the Journal Communications, the Shepherd Express. While I enjoy reading the Shepherd every week, I don't read it for news, per se. Although the Shepherd will occasionally break a story, their articles seem to be as much opinion pieces as actual news stories.

There are people that don't own computers and/or aren't very computer savvy. They would prefer to hold and read a newspaper at their table as they eat their breakfast or have a cup of coffee. Or maybe they don't care about what is happening in countries they've never heard of or can't find on a globe. Likewise, there are many people that don't want a spin to the stories, either to left like the Shepherd, or to the right, like the Journal Sentinel.

But then there are bonafide reporters and former reporters, like Michael Horne of Milwaukee World and Gretchen Schuldt of Milwaukee Rising and CASH, both of whom have been known to break stories and tell a compelling account of some event or another. I could rattle off a half dozen names easily of other bloggers that would make fine reporters as well.

What would happen if they pooled together and found a way to start publishing their own newspaper, focusing on the local issues? While they might not become super wealthy, I believe they could make a go of it quite easily. I think that a paper, even a small one, that focused on mostly, if not exclusively, on local and state issues, would readily find a niche in the Milwaukee market.

Like the ancient Roman Empire, I wonder if Journal Communications has spread itself too thin. When the economy crashed, they suddenly found itself unable to continue to dominate like it used to, and is now becoming vulnerable, not only on the fringes, like Waupaca County, but also in its own backyard, to smaller groups that can take advantage of their thinning media empire.

Spring Election Results And Thoughts

Tuesday was the big day for the spring elections, there were some winners, losers and some really big losers.

Supreme Court

In the biggest race of the day, Lady Justice was the winner, by the re-election of the lady Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson.

The loser was Randy Koschnick. Not because he had his butt handed to him in the election. I believe that he was led to believe that he would be enjoying the same bought and paid for election that Annette Ziegler and Michael Gableman had. But early on WMC and the other special interest groups bailed out on him, if they ever did support him in the first place. It seemed like they were dredging the bottom of the barrel by then, having a lot of other people say no to them earlier.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Education won has Tony Evers managed to gain his victory more easily than I would have predicted, given that his opponent, Rose Fernandez, was getting a lot of out-of-state special interest money thrown at her.

I think she would have had a better chance of winning except for two things. The fact that she was too willing to sidle up to the special interests was one of them. The other was that some of her ideas and positions showed just how unqualified she really was for the job.

Taxpayers also win in this race as well. Fernandez' proposals, like breaking up MPS, would have jacked up the cost immensely. I suspect that it appealed to conservatives who saw several big troughs they could have fed at instead of just one huge one.

Local Courts

This was not a bad night for Lady Justice on the local level either.

J.D. Watts beat out Gabler and his hypocritical negativity, which is always a good thing.

Ellen Bostrom beat out Christopher Lipscomb. Even though I endorsed Lipscomb the other day, I also pointed out that Bostrom would make a good judge as well. I think it would have been better if one of them had gone up against someone else, but incumbents are hard to beat.

Local School Boards

This was the most disappointing part of the evening.

Peter Blewett walked away with an easy victory, defeating the dirty playing special interests-backed candidate.

Unfortunately, the special interests won on the other two contested races for the Milwaukee School Board. David Voelther beat Donna Peck.

In a real heart breaker, my friend Michael Mathias led through most of the evening. It was so sound that even JSOnline had called him the winner:

Newcomers will take three other seats on the board, with David Voeltner defeating Donna Peck in a district covering the southwest side, Michael Mathias narrowly defeating Annie Woodward for a seat representing much of the central city and Larry Miller winning an uncontested election to represent much of the east side and some of the south side.

Unfortunately, it seemed that there was a sudden spurt at the end by his opponent and Michael lost the race by a lousy 76 votes.

At least Mike can hold his head up with pride, knowing he ran a clean, positive campaign.

Similarly, my friend Zach Wisniewski lost out in his bid for the South Milwaukee School Board. But he too ran a good clean campaign. To show the class that Zach has, just look at the post he wrote about the race.

Both of these men should be congratulated just for the simple fact they were willing to take the risk and run for office, and did so with grace and dignity.

I am proud to call each of them my friend.

On a more positive side, another friend, Janet Evans was able to claim a seat on the Franklin School Board. Congratulations go out to her, with a word of advice about not letting the negative influences in her town sway her from doing what is best for the children.

The Biggest Losers

The biggest losers of the evening were not the candidates that lost their races. It was not the special interests. The biggest losers and biggest disappointments were the local media.

JSOnline did not have any results for a couple of hours after the polls had closed. But as observed by Phel and by RP, that did not slow them down from marking off the winners. On top of that, they had two separate poll results for Michael's race with the names interposed, and as mentioned above, they even named Michael the winner in the race in one of their Newswatch blurbs.

Fox 6's website was no better. They showed Michael losing in the numbers, but still checked him off as the winner.

TMJ4, boasting of their first HD news casts, couldn't be bothered with having a scroll of the results. To add insult to injury, I don't think they even covered the races in their first ten minutes of air time.

If the local news sources can't even get the information correct, where do we go from here?