State of Governor Walker’s Wisconsin: Low Wages and Stagnant Job Creation

MADISON – In response to Governor Walker’s State of the State address, Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison) issued the following statement:

“During this entire legislative session, Governor Walker and legislative Republicans have shown that their priorities are protecting their own political careers, not the people of this state.  Time and time again we’ve seen this Governor and this Legislature put themselves, their campaigns and their own jobs, first.    

“Since coming into power and following Governor Walker’s lead, legislative Republicans have cut more than $2 billion from our public schools, universities and technical schools.  They expect our public schools to Book Fair and Bake Sale their way out of the black hole they have created for our state, and our children.  Tonight we heard Governor Walker’s plan for Divide and Conquer 2.0 – taking health care options away from state employees to throw pennies at our public schools, instead of making the education investment our children need.

“The vision outlined by Governor Walker tonight exemplifies a series of bad choices that continue to catapult Wisconsin’s families to lower wages, more student debt and fewer quality health care providers.”  

“It is not too late for Wisconsin.  We are just one decision away from starting to turn this ship around.  Accepting the federal Medicaid dollars provided a pathway to put more money into the classroom while reducing if not eliminating the funding cut to our higher education institutions.  Despite my colleagues taking their marching orders from the special interests bankrolling their campaign coffers, we as legislators must continue to fight for the Wisconsin we all believe in, and protect the people’s backs, not our own.”

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Office of Representative Chris Taylor

306 West – (608) 266-5342

PO Box 8953

Madison, WI  53708

Headlines Of The Damned

Dancing hamster pleads no contest to felony fraud

Larson Would Restore Civil Service Protections In Milwaukee County

Even as State Senator Chris Larson was trying to stop the state Republicans from returning the state to an era of political patronage, he is fully aware of the fact that Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele has already done that in Milwaukee County.

In a press release, Larson has vowed to restore integrity to Milwaukee County government by restoring the civil service protections that Abele destroyed:

State Senator Chris Larson (D – Milwaukee), a candidate for Milwaukee County Executive, is in Madison today fighting to protect Wisconsin workers against a bill that would gut civil service protections. This bill will consolidate power and streamline corruption in Scott Walker’s government.

But it should be noted that incumbent Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele has already gutted civil services for county employees.

After Act 10 mandated that only wages could be collectively bargained, the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance that protected other important employee rights, including seniority, the evaluation process, weakening progressive discipline, and other due process protections.

Starting with the passage of Act 203, which gave the County Executive unilateral control over the Behavioral Health Division, Abele has asserted that this ordinance is no longer in effect. Within two months–from December, 2014 to February, 2015–thousands of public servants became subject to the same rules as political appointees.

The weakening of civil service protections can lead to cronyism and corruption. Larson said, “Wisconsin families are tired of politicians like Walker and Abele who continue to erode workers’ rights, wages and protections. As County Executive, we will work to restore civil service protections that ensure workers are hired based on what they know and not who they know.”

Since Abele changed the civil service code for the county, morale has dropped and turnovers have skyrocketed. There has been notable patterns of retaliation against workers, denials of due process for targeted workers and a conspicuously large amount of the most senior workers being harassed to the point of being unfairly fired and/or forced to retire. Labor strife has also increased as favored workers - especially new hires - are started at the top of the pay scales, making more money that workers that have been there for ten years or more.

Milwaukee County is even more corrupt and in disarray under Abele than it was under Walker, as hard as it is to imagine.

It is good to see Larson making cleaning up the government a priority.

Abele Wants To Give Away War Memorial Center, O'Donnell Park

When Scott Walker was Milwaukee County Executive, he would willfully fail to maintain county assets, spending the money that was meant for repair and maintenance to cover his budget shortfalls. Sadly, the worst case scenario did happen and a boy lost his life when a facade on O'Donnell Park fell on him.

Another consequence of Walker's willful neglect was that the Milwaukee Art Museum and the War Memorial Center were at odds with each other, fighting over the scraps that they were able to get from Walker and the county.  It was the precursor of "Divide and Conquer."

After years of contention, Milwaukee County, under the direction of then-Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic and Supervisors John Weishan and Gerry Broderick, a deal was struck between the county, the art museum and the memorial center.  They brokered an agreement where the county  would give the two entities about $1.5 million per year for ten years so that they could fix up their respective buildings.

Milwaukee County Executive Emperor Chris "Boss" Abele was none too happy and called the deal "bullshit."  Supporting these two entities would slow down his plan of giving away these county assets to his wealthy friends.

Things were going swimmingly for three years until Tuesday, when Boss Abele dropped a bomb on the veterans who make up the executive board of the War Memorial Center.

Abele sent his Director of Administration, Teig Whaley-Smith, to the board meeting and told them outright that Abele was looking to give - not sell, but give - the ownership of the War Memorial Center and O'Donnell Park to the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM).  In exchange, the art museum would pick of the cost of maintenance and repairs for the two buildings as well as their own.

Needless to say, this is not sitting well with the veterans.  They were comfortable with the county - a public entity - being their landlord.  They are not comfortable at all with a private agency assuming that role.

If MAM were to become the owners of the War Memorial Center, they would have the last say on what could and couldn't be done.  If they didn't like a statue on the grounds, they could have it removed.  If they decided to double or triple the rent, they could without needing anyone's permission.

Taxpayers should be equally upset about the proposed deal.  From what Whaley-Smith told the board, the art museum would be able to keep the revenue from the parking structure at O'Donnell Park, which would be enough to pay for its own upkeep and then some.

Not only is Abele willing to again give away county assets, but now is ready to also give away sources of revenue, even as he whines that there isn't enough money to take care of the assets he hasn't given away yet.

It should also be noted that thanks to the power grab by Abele, with the assistance of his Republican friends in the state legislature, he could do this deal without any input from the county board or the public.

Abele, as part of his campaign, likes to claim that he is working for Milwaukee County.  How he claims this while giving away county assets and revenue streams without input from the public - or without even letting the public know - is breathtaking in its egregiousness.   It's almost as outrageous as his claims that he supports the veterans.

How AT&T Reached Out And Put The Touch On My Late Father

As the gentle reader might remember, my father passed away nine months ago.

Since his passing, it's been a long haul cleaning the house, getting it repaired and up to code and settling his estate.

One of the last things we did was close his account with AT&T.  We held off doing that because we had decided to keep my dad's phone number when we moved into the house.  When it came time to make the transition, the AT&T representative was very helpful, informative and the process went very smoothly.  We couldn't have been happier with how it happened.

Until last week.

Last week, AT&T sent a refund check worth a whopping $5.62.  Not a lot but still better than a sharp stick in the eye.

The problem was that the check was made out to my late father.  Because of actions I took last year in settling his estate, I could not cash or deposit the check.  I needed the check to be made out either to myself or to the estate of my father.

This is not the first time something like that happened and so I knew what needed to be done.  At worst, I needed to send the check back to the company, along with a copy of my dad's death certificate and a letter explaining that I needed to have the check reissued.  At best, they company could just transfer the amount of the refund to our account and be done with it.

But not with AT&T.

On Saturday, I spent more than three hours on the phone with AT&T.  I got disconnected several times and when I was able to talk to a real person, I would get transferred around.  More often than not, I ended up either getting transferred to another person who couldn't help, getting transferred to a number that didn't work or disconnected.

Finally, I got transferred to a person who was able to understand the issue, only to be told that it was the company policy not to reissue checks.  In other words, they refused to make the money accessible to me, the only heir and the executor of the estate.

Now, like I said, it's only five bucks and won't make or break us.  But to me, it's the principle of thing.  And I'm sure that I'm not the only one that has had this problem.  It's bad enough that they charge an arm and a leg for their services, but then to rip off dead people is just bad form.

Abele Leaves Homeless Out In The Cold

As anyone in Wisconsin can attest to, the state is in the middle of a second dangerous cold snap.  In Milwaukee, the severe cold has already claimed the life of a young woman who was not dressed appropriately for the weather.

Can you imagine what it would be like to have to try to survive outside in this cold weather, day in and day out?

Sadly, too many Milwaukeeans have to do just that.

Despite Abele's outlandish claims that he has cured homelessness, there are still scores of homeless people that have no escape from the dangerous cold except for homeless shelters.  Yet Abele had refused to restore hundreds of thousands of dollars to help fund these homeless shelters.  Fortunately, the adults on the Milwaukee County Board overrode Abele's greed and restored the funding themselves.

Yet even that is proving to be not enough and groups are scrambling to open more shelters to deal with the growing number of homeless.

Unbelievably, denying funding to the homeless shelters wasn't enough for Abele.  His war on the poor continued when he sent out county workers to take away and throw out all the belongings of people living below bridges and in other homeless camps.

There has to be a better way.

Thankfully, there is.

Chris Larson has vowed to step up the county's efforts to help the homeless by creating more shelter beds.  Furthermore, Larson said he would pay for them by getting rid of Abele's Hollywood bodyguards, cutting the extravagant raises that Abele has given his cronies (just to keep them from quitting on him) and freezing the county executive's budget.

But for Larson to be able to do these things, we need to get him elected.  Please help support Larson.  You can find ways to help by visiting his website.

And remember to vote in the primary on February 16 and the election on April 5.

It is time to Toss the Boss.

RoJo Calls Gov Haley An Immigrant And Says Other Dumb Things

Ron Johnson, Our Dumb Senator from Wisconsin, lived up to this moniker during a radio interview on WSAU, a radio station in Wausau, when he called South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley an immigrant:

Asked about the possibility of Haley getting a backlash from supporters of Donald Trump for her jab at the GOP presidential candidate during the response, Johnson said Wednesday, “That may be, but let’s face it. No two people agree on everything. And Governor Haley is an immigrant. She has powerful stories of being an immigrant. And experiencing discrimination herself. And so she’s obviously gonna react different to somebody who’s never experienced that. I tend to align myself more with Governor Haley’s comments on the issue.”

Haley, whose parents are Indian immigrants, was born in South Carolina.

But have no fears, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel came to his rescue, giving RoJo the chance to call it a "honest mistake" and that he "just misspoke." The paper is very good at minimizing the gaffes and mistakes made by Republicans.

However, this was one of the times that they should have just stopped there. But they didn't and let RoJo come up with a couple more head-scratchers.

One is this:

Johnson was in Milwaukee on Friday to discuss health care during a meeting with members of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Assocation of Commerce. Johnson favors the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, in favor of a health care system that injects more "free-market discipline."

"I'm not saying every word of Obamacare is awful," Johnson said.

BTW, the MMAC is the Milwaukee's local right wing money bank that has been supporting the likes of RoJo and Scott Walker. I'm sure RoJo saying anything remotely nice about Obamacare didn't fly well with them.

Another dumb thing from Our Dumb Senator is when he tried to explain away the fact that many Wisconsinites still don't know who he is, even after being in office for over five years:

"Why does a pretty good chunk of Wisconsin not know enough about me to have an opinion? I view it as an opportunity but it's also easily explainable," Johnson said. He indicated voters have paid intense attention to other political figures, including Gov. Scott Walker, who won a recall election and then re-election to a second term, and House Speaker Paul Ryan, the Janesville congressman who was the GOP vice presidential candidate in 2012.

Johnson said he has worked hard to get around the state to talk with constituents and explain his positions.

"I've put myself out there," he said. "I've certainly honored the two promises I've made: always tell you the truth: never vote with my re-election in mind."

It's Scott Walker's fault that no one knows RoJoWho? One would think that if anything, Walker would help lift his fellow Republicans. That it didn't work for RoJoWho tells us that either RoJo was distancing himself from Walker or vice versa. Either way, I can't say that I blame them.

Finally, as a double bonus, if RoJo was indeed telling the truth - at least how he sees it - he truly is dumb and/or slightly insane. Also, if voting as your pay masters tell you how to vote isn't voting for your next reelection, I don't know what is.

Maybe that's why Russ Feingold has been maintaining a double point lead over RoJoWho in the polls all this time.

Apocalypse or Republican Rally

By Jeff Simpson

Time to get your affairs in order, I think the Four Horsemen are on their way.

Larson Earns Labor Council Endorsement

In the interest of full disclosure, the gentle reader should be aware that I am a member of the Executive Board of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council.

On Monday and Tuesday, the Milwaukee Area Labor Council's COPE Committee interviewed nearly 60 candidates running for office in the 2016 spring elections. We even had candidates that didn't believe that unions are good things for the community.  It also flies in the face of the anti-union factions that keep trying to claim that unions aren't important anymore or don't have any power. 

The recommendations from this committee were presented before the delegates of MALC, who voted to endorse the following candidates for the following races:

Milwaukee County Circuit Court 31 - Paul Rifelj

Milwaukee County Circuit Court 44 - Gwen Connolly

Milwaukee County Circuit Court 45 - Jean Kies

Milwaukee County Executive - Chris Larson

Milwaukee County Supervisor  District 4 - Marina Dimitrijevic

Milwaukee County Supervisor District 5 - Marcelia Nicholson

Milwaukee County Supervisor District 7 - Michael Mayo

Milwaukee County Supervisor District 11 - Dual endorsement of Patricia Najera and Yaghnam Yaghnam

Milwaukee County Supervisor District 12 - Peggy Romo-West

Milwaukee County Supervisor District 14 - Jason Haas

Milwaukee County Supervisor District 16 - John Weishan

Milwaukee County Supervisor District 17 - Tony Staskunas

Milwaukee County Supervisor District 18 - Martha De La Rosa

City of Milwaukee Mayor - Tom Barrett

City of Milwaukee Treasurer - Spencer Coggs

City of Milwaukee Comptroller - Martin Matson

City of Milwaukee Aldermanic District 2 - Chevy Johnson

City of Milwaukee Aldermanic District 4 - Bob Bauman

City of Milwaukee Aldermanic District 6 - Milele Coggs

City of Milwaukee Aldermanic District 7 - Khalif Rainey

City of Milwaukee Aldermanic District 8 - Josh Zepnick

City of Milwaukee Aldermanic District 10 - Michael Murphy

City of Milwaukee Aldermanic District 11 - Tim Kenney

City of Milwaukee Aldermanic District 12 - Jose Perez

City of Milwaukee Aldermanic District 13 - Terry Witkowski

City of Milwaukee Aldermanic District 14 - Tony Zielinski

Congratulations to all the candidates who have earned these endorsements.  A formal press release will be issued later today.

I plan on writing on some of these candidates as time allows.

For now, I just want to comment on the Milwaukee County Executive Race.  

As I have written before, Chris Abele tried to pull his buy-partisanship routine to divide and conquer the unions and the Labor Council.  This made for a very contentious week, with the building trades and the laborers unions coming out early in favor of Abele.

Fortunately, there are some things that all of the money in Abele's daddy's checkbook can't buy.  

One of those things is solidarity.

At the meeting, there was a strong show of solidarity between many of the unions - including AFSCME, ATU (the bus drivers), AFT (MATC teachers), the Steelworkers, the Ironworkers, and many others to say that we stand united against the tyranny of Chris Abele and in support of State Senator Chris Larson.  We recognized that harm to one is harm to all, and in Abele's case, it was harm to most anyway.

I want to make special mention of gratitude and solidarity with the Ironworkers, who put themselves out there by making a stand with Larson.  Being part of the building trades, they normally would have stood with Abele, but they recognized the harm that Abele has done to the other unions and that they could not trust Abele not to do the same to them if he were to be elected again.  It was an courageous and difficult decision for them to make, and I want them to know I appreciate them for it.

The decision was made easier by looking at the track records of the two.

When Act 10 was being revealed, Larson led his fellow state senators on a weeks-long self-exile to give Labor the chance to organize and start fighting back.  Abele, on the other hand, praised Act 10.

When it came to living wages, Larson has always been a strong advocate of it.  Abele vetoed the bill when it came across his desk. Even worse, he spent lots of money to lobby for living wage laws across the state to be wiped out.

Larson has stood with the teachers against Abele's takeover with MPS.  Likewise, Larson stood with the bus drivers and mechanics even has Abele tried to bust their union and refused to bargain in good faith with them.

The list goes on and on.

I don't always agree with Larson's decisions, but that is part of life.  

What I can agree on is that Larson would make an exponentially better than the Scott Walker doppleganger Abele.  You can support Larson via his campaign website.

Rebecca Bradley -The Do Nothing Republican Judge

By Jeff Simpson

Rebecca Bradley, the interim Supreme Court Justice, who has made a living out of being appointed to better jobs frequently by Scott Walker, has apparently taken up Walker's work ethic.

One Wisconsin Now, recently did an open records request for her calendars when she was the sitting(and sitting is an apt description here) judge in her previous positions.   After much delay she finally gave up her schedule to OWN and for 2 1/2 years her calendar was empty.

Responding to an open records request from a liberal group, the newly appointed conservative justice provided monthly calendars that suggested she had no official business— other than the cases she was hearing —for 29 straight months. 

A quick look at her bio and we see that she really has done nothing in her career.  Here is her extensive career public service record:

Other public service: Wisconsin Court of Appeals Judge, 2015 (appointed); Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge 2012-15 (appointed); Wisconsin State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

You will not run out of ink printing that out...It makes sense though, because she has no criminal law experience either.

To compare/contrast here is her opponent the Honorable JoAnne Kloppenburg 

Other public service: Board member, Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation (2014-present); member, Wisconsin Court System Planning and Policy Advisory Committee (2014-present); speaker to bench and bar groups around the state and at conferences around the country (1993-present); volunteer faculty, University of Wisconsin Law School intensive skills course (1992-present); volunteer judge (quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals) for University of Wisconsin Law School and Marquette University Law School moot courts, and for Wisconsin High School Mock Trial Tournament (2011-present); mentor, Dane County Bar Association and University of Wisconsin Law School (2011-present); coordinator and adjunct instructor, University of Wisconsin Law School Department of Justice extern program (1995-2012); volunteer mediator, Dane County Bar Association (2010-2012); volunteer attorney, Dane County foreclosure clinic (2010-2012); board member, Wisconsin Legal Action (1991-1993)

I guess Ms. Bradley is too busy attending Republican fund raisers to worry about serving the actual public.

Ms. Bradley could not even get her own nomination papers signed, she enlisted the WISGOP to do that for her(not that she will be beholden to them if she wins).

Shining the spotlight on Ms. Bradley, with continuous bigger appointments, have shown that she is out of her league in this realm.

Rebecca bradley also opposed the clean campaign pledge, pushed by the state bar association, to keep the campaign clean and focused on the issues.   This I do not fault her on though, I think she is not opposed to running a clean campaign, just too lazy to actually do anything about it.

Things are getting so bad, Mike assigned Christian Schneider to try and run to her defense.

In a position as important as the Supreme Court, and with our Supreme Court already a laughing stock of corruption in legal circles, and an embarrassment to our state, do we really want to elect yet another Walker patsy to sit on the highest court in Wisconsin???

Bobby Monroe is Insane

By Jeff Simpson

Republican Robert Monroe who was charged with 13 felony counts of voter fraud. 

  Monroe cast two ballots in the April 2011 Supreme Court election, two in the August 2011 Alberta Darling recall election, five in the Scott Walker-Tom Barrett recall, one illegal ballot in an August 2012 primary, and two ballots in the November 2012 presidential election.In the presidential election, Monroe cast an in-person absentee ballot in Shorewood on Nov. 1 and drove a rental car to Lebanon, Ind., where he showed his Indiana driver's license to vote in person on election day, Nov. 6, the complaint charges. Monroe owns a house there, according to the complaint.

Being a typical Wisconsin Republican, means that Mr. Monroe refuses to take responsibility for his actions and even plans on pleading insanity.

Monroe blamed the double, and once quintuple, votes in 2011 and 2012 on fugue states, or periods of disassociative disorder. He blamed his disorder on a long series of life events, from watching his father have a heart attack at age 8 and surviving a serious car crash in high school, to witnessing sexual misconduct by a priest in college and the fallout of his brother's murder in 2000.
For the defense to succeed, Monroe, his psychiatrist and attorneys must convince Cimpl that Monroe's mental disease or defect prevented him from appreciating the wrongfulness of his votes or from conforming his actions to election laws.

As we know there is more, there is always more:

To Monroe's claim that he didn't follow politics and wasn't even a regular voter, Landgraf asked Monroe about several emails and texts he shared with family and friends urging them to vote, inquiring about donating to candidates, requesting an absentee ballot in his son's name, critiquing unions and getting subscription messages from Americans for Prosperity, a group that supported GOP candidates and issues.

I would like to testify in Mr. Monroe's behalf.  Anyone who listens to Americans for Prosperity for actual information and works that hard, to vote for a guy who wants to wall off Canada, does not have all of their brain functions.

Unfortunately for Mr. Monroe, Milwaukee County has had such poor leadership the last few years that the Mental Health system there leaves plenty to be desired.  

PS:  One last note, not a single law the Republicans have passed in Walkers regime, would have stopped this.  However, as has been pointed out numerous times, we do not need new laws to catch voter fraud we already have them and they work fine.  

The Continuing Adventures Of Bob Gannon, SuperJerk!

At the end of 2015 Wisconsin State Representative Bob Gannon (R-(Gun)Slinger) proved himself to be no ordinary fool when he issued a statement in response to yet another shooting at a mall by calling for vigilantism:

Gannon said allowing citizens with permits to carry concealed weapons into areas like shopping malls would enhance the public’s safety.

“Wisconsin does not have a death penalty law, but with significant practice and careful aim, law-abiding citizens can help clean our society of these scumbags,” Gannon said. “Criminals no longer have any fear of our courts or our prisons, so it’s time that the citizens of this fine state stand up and fight back.”

Already this year, Gannon is set to break all records for being an asshole.

On January 6th, Gannon issued another statement, blaming Wisconsin's economic woes not on the Republicans' own failed policies but on the African American community in Milwaukee:

Milwaukee finished the year with an unemployment rate of approximately twenty percent for
their black population. This is almost four times as high as the white unemployment rate for the city and the state. This means that Milwaukee leads in murders and mayhem per capita, with a large number of these crimes occurring in mainly black neighborhoods, the same neighborhoods with the worst unemployment rates in the state.

Could one make a connection between employment opportunities and the level of crime on those same streets? What employer will build or expand when they fear muggings, carjackings, attempted murder, or other serious criminal threats to their employees? One cannot ignore the correlation between jobs and crime, employment opportunities will only expand in these neighborhoods when the violence is stopped.

Several Democratic state lawmakers blasted Gannon - and rightfully so - for his inane, racist statement.

On Tuesday, during the first session of the state assembly, Wisconsin Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) added to the criticism. Gannon responded by giving Barca the bird:

Several Democratic lawmakers from Milwaukee chastised state Rep. Bob Gannon, R-Slinger, for his comments, which they believed were racially charged. After a heated back-and-forth, Gannon flashed Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, his middle finger and walked out of the Assembly chamber.

Gannon later issued an insincere apology and at the same time, doubled down and doubled down again on his own idiocy and racism:

But while Gannon apologized for losing his cool on the floor, he doubled down on the spirit and content of his original comments.

Gannon said Milwaukee's mayor, police chief and district attorney are failing to keep the city's citizens safe. He argued that the city's criminal activity is spilling into his district, which neighbors Milwaukee.

"Put your focus where it belongs and stop worrying about me," Gannon said, addressing Milwaukee Democrats. "Your drugs, your crime knows no border. The 58th Assembly District is being impacted by the out-of-control crime in the city of Milwaukee."

At the time of this writing, we have been unable to confirm that Gannon has eye holes cut out of his pillow cases.

At his current pace, Gannon is not only putting himself to be an early contender for Ass of the Year, but just might end up being one of the top Republican presidential candidates.

West Bend Strikes Again

By Jeff Simpson 

With the over abundance of testing in our public schools, there has been a movemento to limit testing that has even reached the White House.

While it is consuming the country, the one place it apparently has not reached is West Bend, WI.  The backwards land, represented so well by racist Republican Bob Gannon, is back at it again,

 A social studies teacher, Tanya Lohr, had some concerns about their new testing program called Galileo.  Ms. Lohr feels that there are some flaws in the system and wanted to address them with the administration.   In order to be heard, she did what our democracy affords her to do, she drew up a petition and had her fellow teachers sign it.

One Voice speaks louder than 100 individual voices.



However, as we explained earlier, this is West Bend, and the Administration and School Board of the district handled it like you would think they would.   They sat down with Ms, Lohr and discussed where she felt the problems were  and worked on ways to address them to make sure we are getting the most and best information about our kids when we are evaluating their progress.

They suspended Ms. Lohr with pay.

That sent a nice do not talk to us about your area of expertise, we do not want to hear it message to their staff!

That led to the packed house at the School Board meeting, where there was a huge show of support for Ms. Lohr.

In front of a packed West Bend School District School Board meeting Monday night, there was an outpouring of support for Lohr.

• "This teacher puts her students` needs all ahead of her own," one parent said.

• Some members of the community came to Lohr's defense, believing Lohr was doing what is best for the students.

"What is happening to our democracy when teachers are not allowed to circulate a petition?" Joy Schroeder said.
Kimberly Roemer launched her own petition, gathering 1,100 signatures to get Lohr back in the classroom. At Monday's school board meeting, she expressed her disgust toward district decision-makers.
"I think at this point, there`s very little concern about our teachers and our children," Roemer said.

After the outpouring, and another petition calling for Ms. Lohr to be reinstated, Republican activist and School Board President Randy Marquardt, reading a condescending and snarky statement,  announced that Ms. Lohr will be returning to her classroom.

“As you’re aware of the ongoing investigation into possible policy violations of a member of the high school. While no decision has been made regarding this matter it is clear from the information that has been supplied to this board there is significant and outright false information being published about this matter. By law the district unfortunately cannot address and correct the specific misleading or false information because as the employer the district does not have the same rights  as public employees to go public and share with others their version of the facts of the personnel matter.
This inability to publicly address the situation and correct the inaccurate information that’s being communicated by these individuals puts the district at a significant disadvantage.
This district can not utilize social media in the same manner and to the same extent as the supporters of the employee who apparently don’t care what the facts really are as long as they can blame the administration for the situation and absolve the employee of any responsibility for the choices she made regarding her own behavior.
The district holds all staff members to standards of behavior that this community has the right to expect of any employee of the district regardless of the subject matter of an interaction between a staff member and an administrator.
When the administration receives information that those standards may not have been upheld the board expects the administration will conduct a thorough investigation of the matter that is exactly what is happening here.
The board fully supports the administrative actions in investigating this situation.
Finally we also agree with the administration recommendation to place Miss Lohr back in her classroom immediately.”

(WBEA response to Mr. Marquardt is here).

I guess the School Board and Adminstration, want the children of West Bend, to grow up to be as ignorant as Bob Gannon.

Bradley Foundation Behind Latest Attack on Unions, Public Education

On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments on Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a case that could devastate unions across the country. Sadly, it appears that the conservative court is leaning towards ending mandatory dues collections, which mean that union members could reap the benefits of union representation without paying their fair share. In other words, if the court rules against the unions, it would legalize freeloading nationally and set up the country for a complete return to Right to Work.

Brian Mahoney, writing at Politico, found that the whole lawsuit is being funded by the Milwaukee-based dark money funding group, the Bradley Foundation:

The conservative Bradley Foundation has spent millions over three decades to smash labor unions. Now an investment that could barely buy a house in Washington may bring it closer to that goal than ever before.

The vehicle is a Supreme Court case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, to bar public employee unions from compelling payments from nonmembers. The lawsuit, about which the high court will hear arguments Monday, was brought by Rebecca Friedrichs and eight other California public school teachers who declined to join the union that represents them in collective bargaining. But the lawsuit's true author looks to be the Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

The Bradley Foundation funds the Center for Individual Rights, the conservative D.C. nonprofit law firm that brought the case; it funds (or has funded) at least 11 organizations that submitted amicus briefs for the plaintiffs; and it's funded a score of conservative organizations that support the lawsuit's claim that the "fair-share fees" nonmembers must pay are unconstitutional. When CIR first filed the case in a California federal court in 2013, the Bradley Foundation posted the news on its website under the tab, "What We Do."

Bradley isn't the sole conservative philanthropy to bankroll CIR. Others have included Donors Capital Fund and Donor's Trust, two vehicles frequently used by the Koch brothers; the Dunn's Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking; the F.M. Kirby Foundation; the Lillian Wells Foundation; and the Carthage Foundation, according to Conservative Transparency, a project of the liberal opposition research nonprofit American Bridge.

But it's Bradley - with an endowment estimated at $800 million - that's provided the most conspicuously extensive support to Friedrichs. Since 1989, CIR (which bills itself as the conservative alternative to the American Civil Liberties Union) has received more than $2 million from the Bradley Foundation, according to data compiled by Conservative Transparency. Bradley continues to fund CIR through a general operating grant, CIR President Terry Pell told POLITICO.

The Bradley Foundation has a long history of wanting to smash unions and had bankrolled Scott Walker's gubernatorial campaigns in order to bust the unions in Wisconsin. They were so invested in making sure that Walker won and did what they hired him to do that Michael Grebe, then head of the Foundation, became Walker's campaign chair.

But the Bradley Foundation's goal isn't just to bust the unions. In fact, busting the unions - especially the teachers' unions and other public sector unions - was just a step in their bigger agenda. The Bradley Foundation wants to get rid of unions in order to get even more money and more power.

With the teachers' unions out of the way, it would make it easier for them to accomplish another goal - privatizing the public education system. Three years ago, the liberal watchdog group One Wisconsin Now, reported that the Bradley Foundation had already spent $31 million to support groups that wanted to privatize from public education. I'm sure that they consider that money well spent since Walker has already spent nearly $2 billion in tax dollars for private schools.

As the gentle reader already knows, these private schools have already shown themselves to be utter failures. They not only perform worse than public schools, but the education profiteers are already complaining that they need even more money.

But the failure of privatized schools are not necessarily unintentional.

Decades ago, the Bradley Foundation paid $1 million to Charles Murray to write The Bell Curve. In that book, Murray basically says that the poor - especially African Americans - aren't worth spending a lot of money on so that they could receive a quality education:

The explosive conclusions of The Bell Curve are now common knowledge. What is less well known is that the country's leading conservative foundation paid co-author Charles Murray $1 million to write the book. Foundation funding of research is nothing new. But Murray's support from the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation is an example of the highly ideological research that conservative foundations favor as they seek to mold public policy. Even in the marketplace of ideas, it takes money to compete.

The Bell Curve's key educational policy recommendation dovetails with the Bradley Foundation's top education priority: support for school choice, including public funds for private and religious schools. This bolsters the case of those who argue that despite the rhetoric of choice, many voucher advocates have abandoned the vision of a quality education for all children. Says Robert Lowe, associate professor at National Louis University and an editor of the journal Rethinking Schools:

The Bell Curve is a smoking gun. It maintains that the poor—including the majority of African Americans—are generally incapable of benefiting from education....

C.J. Prentiss, an Ohio legislator (Independent/Democrat) who has been active in the African-American community opposing vouchers, also notes that voucher advocates have tried to win converts by arguing that vouchers would improve educational opportunities for the poor:

You have to be suspicious of someone who argues that on the one hand, African Americans are dumber than whites, and then, on the other, comes into the Black community and says, `We are going to make you as bright as you can be, here are some vouchers.... I believe vouchers are simply a way to dismantle public schools and use tax dollars to fund an elitist private school system. But voucher advocates know it would be suicide to say that openly.

So there you have it with all the dots connected.

The Bradley Foundation and other groups like them want to do away with the unions to make it easier to privatize and profiteer from public education. To increase their profit margins even more, they will not provide a quality education because poor people - especially the minority ones - well, they're just not worth it.

Is it any wonder that Wisconsin and other states under the influence of dark money are in an economic and social free fall?

Larson Is Running Strong, Abele Begs His Way Onto Ballot

As the gentle reader probably already knows, candidates for the spring elections recently needed to turn in their nomination papers to be certified to be on the ballot.

In Milwaukee County, the excitement got turned up by a few notches with the chance to elect Chris Larson, a truly progressive candidate who will actually listen to and respect the people of Milwaukee County, a person who will restore the office of County Executive instead of County Emperor, as Boss Abele has made it.

The people are responding well to Larson too.

Larson had scores of volunteers gather 5,000 signatures, two and a half times more than what was needed and 1,000 more than he could even submit.  I guess that listening to people, being positive and empowering people might be a good thing after all.

Compare that to Boss Abele, who had paid "volunteers" gathering signatures.  Apparently they weren't doing so well and Abele had to resort to a mass mailing of his nomination papers with the following letter attached, begging people to help him get signatures:

Here's a closer look at the part where he's forced to ask people to pass his paper around:

Despite the paid "volunteers," the plea for assistance and the advertising ad nausea, Abele managed to gather only 3,200 signatures.  There is no indication how many of those signatures he had to pay for.

Yes, it is enough to get him on the ballot, but it is also a pale comparison to the level of excitement and the level of commitment seen by Larson and his team.

It is even more important to note that Abele is the incumbent, which is usually a formidable obstacle for any challengers, especially in Milwaukee.  It doesn't appear to be helping him much.  Maybe his "leadership" style of being a bully, doing what he wants regardless of what the people want and what is actually best for the county and showing utter disdain for the people isn't working out too well for him after all.

If you want to join the fun and the excitement and show your support for Chris Larson, you can do so via his website.

Not only does Larson need you, but Milwaukee County does too.