Domina Named To Waukesha Bench

This caught me by surprise:

William Domina, a longtime Waukesha School Board member and former assistant corporation counsel who moved to Milwaukee County to become that county's chief legal counsel in 2003, was appointed a Waukesha County circuit judge by Gov. Jim Doyle on Monday.

He will fill the vacancy created with the December retirement of Judge Robert Mawdsley starting in February with a term that ends July 31, 2011. He would stand for election in April 2011.

It is an interesting choice made by Doyle, to say the least. While he has done some good deeds while an attorney, as corporation counsel, he has also made some major mistakes that has cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

But it also takes a close Walker ally away from him, especially during these crucial times as Milwaukee County is facing a growing number of lawsuits and is in the middle of some nasty contract issues with the unions.

If Scott Walker wanted to act quickly (which would be a big surprise, considering that it's been such a long time and he still doesn't have a public works director, and economic development director, or a health and human services director), I would like to recommend someone. Although, on second thought, Walker probably wouldn't hire this guy, since he actually knows and believes in the law.

Boo Humbug!

From JSOnline:

A group representing the mayors and village presidents of Milwaukee County's 19 municipalities recommended Monday that each community hold trick-or-treat on the same day - usually a Sunday.

The resolution is aimed at keeping children safe and deterring groups of kids from collecting candy outside their own communities.

[...]

The issue was raised by Hales Corners Village President Robert Ruesch, who said a number of residents complained to him after last Halloween that vanloads of trick-or-treaters from outside Hales Corners were being dropped off in the village to trick or treat.

Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor said he's received the same type of complaints over the past several years and would like to return to a uniform date.

I don't know which is more offensive: The thinly-veiled racism of the white suburbs not wanting "those other kids" coming to their burbs or the flimsy excuse that they use to hide behind.

Since we usually do the trick-or-treating from my dad's house, I will be making sure to buy extra candy, just for the "other kids."

Stevens Point Continues To Surpass MKE Co. In Transit Dept.

While other parts of the state, like the Stevens Point/Plover area, are growing and becoming better, thanks to Scott Walker and company, we are still in a transit and economic quagmire.

Don't Forget The Birds

This is the time of year that our feathered friends rely on well-stocked bird feeders the most. WSAW-TV gives us this timely reminder:

Wild birds are working to survive during the cold winter months.

If you want to help your backyard birds, you can give them peanuts.

The owner of Wild Birds Unlimited says birds love foods that are high in fat and protein during the winter.

Peanuts, black oil sunflower seeds, and sunflower chips will help them stay warm.

They also need access to water that isn't frozen.

"They need water to keep their feathers clean, otherwise they couldn't fly. And they need water to drink, and of course all the lakes and rivers and ponds are frozen, so if anybody has a heated birdbath, that helps a lot too," said Lori Schubring, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited.

There may be more migratory birds sticking around for the winter.

According to the Audubon Society, for unknown reasons, 60 percent of birds seem to be moving slightly northward.

Safflower seeds are also popular, but only with specific types of birds.

And don't be surprised if the squirrels will come visiting as well. They don't like the safflower seeds and sometimes mixing safflower seeds in with your other bird food is enough. If it isn't, I found that mixing in some ground cayenne pepper will do the trick. The birds can't taste it, so it doesn't bother them, but the squirrels can't stand the stuff.

Help Zach Take The Plunge

My good friend, and a man I admire, Zach Wisniewski, is going to do a very good deed, but he needs our help.

Zach, author if Blogging Blue (I love his work!), is going to participate in a Polar Bear Plunge to help raise funds for the Special Olympics:

I’ve decided to take the Polar Plunge to support Special Olympics Wisconsin on Saturday, March 6, 2010 at Bradford Beach in Milwaukee! As a part of the Polar Plunge, I’ll be collecting pledges before jumping or running into Wisconsin’s cold waters to raise funds for Special Olympics, and so I’d like to ask those of you out there who support the mission of the Special Olympics to consider helping me reach my pledge goal of $150.00. Money raised from the Polar Plunge will support local Special Olympics programs in Wisconsin, allowing nearly 10,000 athletes with cognitive disabilities to experience the joys of participation in sports and competition with their peers.

If you’re interesting in making a pledge, check out my Plunge Web site to submit a credit card pledge online.

I hope you’ll consider making a pledge, because it’s certainly for a good cause.

Who Will Get Wisconsin Back On Its Feet?

Some good news for Milwaukee! Mayor Tom Barrett and Governor Jim Doyle announced additional state funding to go with the stimulus dollars to clean up the old Tower Automotive site:

The state of Wisconsin has issued an $800,000 grant to the city of Milwaukee to help pay for the cleanup of the former Tower Automotive site in Milwaukee in preparation for redevelopment.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett announced the Blight Elimination and Brownfield Redevelopment grant from the state Department of Commerce Friday.

Renewal of the industrial site is expected to attract new development that could potentially create 700 to 1,000 new jobs.

"State investment in this project will help to transform a highly distressed property into an economic engine and symbol of hope," Barrett said in a press release.

Who could possibly argue with cleaning up and redeveloping a brownfield, while creating up to 1,000 new jobs at the same time?

Team Walker, that's who.

They apparently like the guy who can't make up his mind about stimulus dollars, was so bad at job creation that he had the Private Industry Council taken away from him, and thought a good way to create economic development was to abolish the whole thing, but only after his campaign staffers proved to be incompetent.

Could the choice be any easier?

Classy And Intelligent

Source

And then there's this:



Source: Reform Dem, who makes this all too valid point:

It might be easier to take the complaints from teabaggers seriously if O'Reilly's minions of hate weren't flooding Fiore with death threats, and if there weren't quite so many signs containing words like nazi, communist, socialist, and anti-Christ, at tea party events. It is rather difficult to contemplate having a thoughtful policy discussion with the guy in the picture below, who I met at the Madison tea party this past spring. Teabaggers may not like the scorn Fiore has heaped on them, but they've certainly worked extremely hard to earn it.

Beware Walkers Bearing Gifts

Last spring, when President Obama made a trip to merry old England, he met with the Queen and gave her an iPod as a gift. The usual suspects, including Charlie Sykes, James Harris, and WISGOP had a conniption about it, even though it turned out the Queen had actually requested this gift.

Later in the spring, Sykes et alia had themselves another conniption fit when Obama gave the British Prime Minister a collection of classic American movies.

Interestingly, these aficionados of gift giving etiquette seemed to have missed a real terrible blunder of poor gifting here on a local level.

Just this past week, when Archbishop Jerome Listecki was welcomed by political leaders of the area at a ceremony at City Hall, Walker decided to welcome the Archbishop and commemorate his recent installment in Milwaukee by giving him a Bradford Beach sweatshirt. I am sure that the Most Reverend Listecki will be glad to have it as he is playing beach volleyball this spring.

I don't know how the conservative gifting gurus could have missed it, since so many of them, Sykes most of all, were falling all over themselves to ingratiate themselves with Listecki. Not only that, but Walker crowed about it both on Twitter and on his publicly-funded campaign site.

I can't wait to see Aaron Rodriguez question the safety of Walker's eternal soul after this non-Catholic insulted the local Catholic leader.

I'm just glad it wasn't a Cardinal or even the Pope that came for a visit. The way Walker handled this, he probably would have given the visiting dignitary some Elephant Poo Poo Paper of a Windup Hopping Lederhosen from the Milwaukee Public Museum's gift shop.

County Parks Plan Calls For Sales Tax

At Milwaukee County First, I wrote about how the local paper reported this morning that the long range plan for the parks system calls for and relies on the dedicated funding source that the propose sales tax would bring. Unsurprisingly, but no less disappointing, Scott Walker is against helping the parks:

Later in the article, they quote Scott Walker, who said that he opposes helping the parks. He goes on to say, true to his nature, that he is more than willing to dump the mess he created on a parks entity, but doesn’t want them to fix it either, just take the blame that lies squarely on his shoulders for their poor condition.

The neglect of the parks and the infrastructure is not new. It started before Walker was elected into office, but has increased at exponential rates under his willful neglect. From park facilities in such bad shape that they had to be closed to the public to the health-endangering exposure of PCBs in Estabrook and Lincoln Parks.

The MJS article also keys us in how clueless Supervisor Joe Sanfelippo really is:

Like Walker, county Supervisor Joe Sanfelippo opposes any sales tax increase, saying it would be particularly ill-timed during a recession. Sanfelippo said selling some park property with proceeds dedicated to park maintenance could ease the county's park funding problem. Prime parkland would not be considered for sale, Sanfelippo said.

First of all, it is not smart for someone who wants to keep their job long to follow Walker's pattern of leading by neglect. Secondly, Sanfelippo, being a businessman himself, should be keenly aware that all his suggestion would do is delay the eventual collapse of the parks system by a few years at best, and would do nothing to resolve the problems he and Walker created.

Wally World: Screw The Poor!

I guess this means that Wally World can drop the "Live Better" part of their new slogan:

This week the New York Times reported a disheartening story about two of the largest retail chains. You see, instead of taking unsold items to sample sales or donating them to people in need, H&M and Wal-Mart have been throwing them out in giant trash bags. And in the case that someone may stumble on these bags and try to keep or re-sell the items, these companies have gone ahead and slashed up garments, cut off the sleeves of coats, and sliced holes in shoes so they are unwearable.

This unsettling discovery was made by graduate student Cynthia Magnus outside the back entrance of H&M on 35th street in New York City. Just a few doors down, she also found hundreds of Wal-Mart tagged items with holes made in them that were dumped by a contractor. On December 7, she spotted 20 bags of clothing outside of H&M including, "gloves with the fingers cut off, warm socks, cute patent leather Mary Jane school shoes, maybe for fourth graders, with the instep cut up with a scissor, men’s jackets, slashed across the body and the arms. The puffy fiber fill was coming out in big white cotton balls.”

The bright side is that they were finally embarrassed into doing the right thing. I just wonder if their so-called shock at this behavior was because they couldn't believe their stores were doing this or simply because they got caught.

What's Missing In This Picture?

From Scott Walker's county-sponsored campaign site:



Why has he talked to the unions who he expects to give up all these concessions with nothing in return? After all, the unions have been at the bargaining table for almost a year and a half, but still nothing.

This smells like nothing more than one of his political grandstanding stunts. When will he ever grow up?

And would someone please read Dale Carnegie to him?

Well, This Should Make The Right Happy (Or Maybe Not)

Businesses getting tax breaks using stimulus money:

The Wisconsin recipients of the tax credits are:

• Waukesha Electric Systems Inc. is receiving a $12.45 million tax credit to expand its plant in Waukesha to product large, high-voltage power transformers. The company anticipates that more than 80 percent of them will be used to help bring renewable energy to distant load centers or to replace aging, less efficient transformers.
• Caledonia-based CalStar Products is receiving a $2,443,547 tax credit to manufacture bricks and pavers from coal power plant fly ash. The process uses 88 percent less energy than traditional fired clay products, while avoiding the carbon dioxide emission associated with concrete, and makes beneficial use of fly ash.
• Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Kaydon Corp. is receiving a $1,774,800 tax credit to re-equip and expand its manufacturing facility in Milwaukee to produce pitch and yaw bearings used in the production and assembly of wind energy turbines.
• Milwaukee-based Ingeteam Inc. is receiving a $1,665,299 tax credit to manufacture wind turbine generators in various technologies. The company will also manufacture power converter and control systems for the wind and solar industries.
• Wausaukee Composites Inc. is receiving a $930,810 tax credit to manufacture fiberglass wind turbine components.
• Kaukauna-based Bassett Inc. is receiving an $868,500 tax credit to manufacture wind turbine towers and foundation components for all sizes of turbines and a $75,000 tax credit to manufacture carbon capture and sequestration systems to extract and trap carbon from waste systems from coal fired power plants.
• Waukesha-based Cooper Power Systems LLC is receiving an $846,180 tax credit for its new facility that will be producing high efficiency transformers.

The right should be happy, since all they've whined about (OK, not all) is that the stimulus isn't going to businesses. Now it is. If unemployment isn't wiped out and all products become dirt cheap to buy, that means the right wing was wrong and then we can get back to fixing their mess.

MJS Editorial Board Goes Two For Two

Get the details at MCF.

Abelson Tells It Like It Is

Rich Abelson, Executive Director of AFSCME DC 48, has a letter to the editor, telling it like it is:

The Journal Sentinel's editorial concerning the "wolf" at the door of Milwaukee County completely downplays the positive contributions that the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and county employees have made to deal with Milwaukee County's budget issues (Editorials, Jan. 1).

The editorial failed to note that no employee represented by our union hired after Jan. 1, 1994 gets any paid health insurance upon retirement. Approximately two-thirds of the current workforce was hired after that date. This employee concession was made more than 15 years ago.

The editorial also fails to accurately talk about events in July and November, when Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, in both instances, attempted to reduce the hours or lay off county employees based on lies and phony projected budget deficits. Within days of crying wolf, Walker had to retract the actions because his own people came forward with true budget figures.

Finally, the editorial does not address the county's failure to ratify a labor agreement that the union bargained with Walker and the County Board in good faith. This labor agreement would have mirrored the contract our union negotiated with the City of Milwaukee. It coupled employee concessions on health insurance and froze wage rates in return for some measure of job security.

Why hasn't the Editorial Board placed the blame on Walker for failing to even try to engage our union? Refusing to engage the union fails to recognize the positive contributions AFSCME has made when employers act in good faith.

Richard W. Abelson
Executive director
AFSCME
District Council 48
AFL-CIO

Oops! I Did It Again!

The issue of the Eschweiler Buildings keep getting attention, and now I've got my name in another local publication's online page.

Another one of Charlie Sykes' ankle-biting attacks in 3...2...1...