Monday, February 18, 2013
Most of the cash in high court campaign will spent by conservative and liberal outside groups — not the candidates themselves.
On Tuesday, Wisconsin will hold a primary election for state Supreme Court, narrowing the field from three candidates to two. Then the race will begin in earnest. Justice Patience Roggensack, who has already served one 10-year term on the state’s highest court, is expected to survive the cut. Her challengers are Ed Fallone, a Marquette University Law School professor, and Vince Megna, a Milwaukee lawyer specializing in suing auto companies. The general election is April 2. Between Jan. 1 and Feb. 4, according to the most recent reporting, Roggensack had raised about $200,000, compared to Fallone’s $75,000 and Megna’s $0. Roggensack reported having $219,154 cash on hand, compared to Fallone’s $63,713 and Megna’s $5,340. Most of Megna’s …
Thursday, February 7, 2013
The Village continues to grow while retaining its inner Bedford Falls.
As every clock owner knows, the times they are a changin’. It certainly holds true here in the Garden Community. We move into our 75th year in full stride, boasting of archways and signage and streetscaping and a totally reimagined Mall. Our Village Leaders have done all this without a loss of innocence, without transforming our core essence. We remain way more Bedford Falls than Pottersville. I am fairly certain Mr. Gower is a manager at our Walgreens. The last time Greendale went through so much change was in 1938 – the big move from ‘cow pasture’ to ‘Village’. Historians refer to 1938 as “the year Greendale started making Greenfield look bad” – although some cows feel they – the cows - were doing this long before 1938. If you are …
Monday, February 4, 2013
Being a farm girl myself, this ad reminded me just how cool calling yourself a "farm girl" really is.
I am the daughter of two parents, who grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. And when I was 10, they bought a farm in Wooster, Ohio. And when I saw that Dodge Ram commercial during the Super Bowl last night, which featured Paul Harvey reading the poem God Made a Farmer, it brought up all of these wonderful (and emotional feelings) I have about growing up on a farm. My parents didn’t know that there is no hobby in farming – only a commitment to working until the work is done and the work is never done. We started off with three hogs, and two steers, then quickly grew to having 300 hogs, a few horses, and an orphaned goat named Gabby. We owned a 1942 Case Tractor that had a crank start and an electric start that came with a plow and a manure spreader…
Sunday, February 3, 2013
From submitting a DNA sample when arrested to comparing the President to the Three Stooges, Patch bloggers weighed in on a variety of topics this week. Here is a look at some of the most popular posts over the past week.
Blog posts in Wisconsin Patches this past week ran the gamut — from mental health to gun control to bullying. Every day, Patch's Local Voices bloggers share information, insight and opinion about what matters to them. Here's a selection of blogs from throughout the past week. In, "Mental illness and Violence: An opinion," Patch Local Voices contributor Tracy Craft takes a look at President Barack Obama's movement to require more mental health screenings in an effort to decrease violence in America. "Passport Please" garnered more than 114 comments in just a couple of days on Patch. Rees Roberts asks if no longer allowing people to post anonymously online would help develop more respectful and responsible posting. Drawing from current …
Saturday, February 2, 2013
2012 was the most expensive election in the "history of the world," and advocate says it's all the U.S. Supreme Court's fault.
During a recent news conference at the state Capitol, Lisa Graves, executive director of the Madison-based Center for Media and Democracy, made an astonishing claim. “This past election, in 2012, was the most expensive election in U.S. history,” Graves said. “In fact, it was the most expensive election in the history of the world.” She later pointed to articles that backed this up, at least in terms of total amount. The Jan. 22 event, before a mostly empty room, highlighted a new report tracking spending in the 2012 elections, the first since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United. That ruling, which equated money with speech and barred government from restricting “independent” spending on political campaigns, opened two …
Monday, January 21, 2013
What's blocking Wisconsin from implementing new, tougher laws against drunken driving? It could be "the dollar factor."
Mark Grapentine is a seasoned observer of state politics. He was an aide to then-state Rep. Scott Walker and a policy adviser to then-Gov. Tommy Thompson. For the past decade, he’s been a lobbyist for the Wisconsin Medical Society. In this capacity, he’s pushed for tougher state drunken driving laws — and noticed that, despite an absence of pushback, these laws have stayed mostly the same. “It has been interesting to watch how there has been a lack of progress in an area where there seems to be a tremendous amount of agreement on the need to do something,” Grapentine says. Wisconsin remains the only state where first-offense drunken driving is not a crime, although the civil penalties include license suspension and substantial fines. Two …
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Republican lieutenant governor says Wisconsin is "in better shape today than we were before, and we're not done yet."
With a collective sigh of relief, we can now look back at the time since Governor Walker and I took office, and size up the accomplishments of the last two years. Although we've seen things unprecedented and unpredictable, our experiences have made us stronger. We have a lot to be proud of. Our successes give us new perspective, though, and through the lens of a state pursuing economic competitiveness, we see we have a lot of room to grow in our future. Despite the rampant wrong turns from our federal government, Wisconsin is finally on the path to prosperity. We inherited a $3.6 billion budget deficit that has been balanced without raising taxes. After seeing nearly 150,000 jobs lost under the last three years of the previous …
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Gov. Scott Walker looks at the upcoming legislative session as lawmakers return to work.
Each week, Gov. Scott Walker delivers a weekly radio address. The following is the transcript from the address titled A Look Ahead. Hi I’m Scott Walker. Two years ago, Wisconsin was facing a $3.6 billion budget deficit and the state had an unemployment rate of 7.5 percent. Today, Wisconsin has a $341 million surplus and we set money aside in the rainy day fund for the first time in two consecutive years. The unemployment rate is 6.7 percent. In 2010, a mere 10 percent of employers surveyed said the state was headed in the right direction. Chief Executive Magazine ranked Wisconsin as the 41st state for business rankings. In 2012, 94 percent said Wisconsin was headed in the right direction. Chief Executive Magazine moved our ranking up to…
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Sen. Ron Johnson is Wisconsin's Republican senator in Washington, D.C. This commentary is taken from his weekly e-newsletter to constituents.
Although I strongly prefer extension of current tax rates for all Americans, I supported the compromise bill that protects 99% of Wisconsinites from an income tax increase, limits the death tax, and prevents a dramatic increase in milk prices. It is by no means a perfect piece of legislation. The revenue raised by this legislation will equal approximately 7% of projected deficits. It is now time for President Obama and his Democrat colleagues to show the American public their plan to close the other 93% of the deficit. Our nation's debt now stands at $16.4 trillion, and has reached its statutory limit. We blew through the $2.1 trillion increase in the debt ceiling granted in August 2011 in only 17 months. This is clearly unsustainable, and…
Friday, December 28, 2012
The NRA would like to arm Greendale's - and the nation's - schools. Solution or escalation?
“And if we threw it all away Things can only get better” Howard Jones I am a Noun. Full disclosure: I am on the low end of the Noun ‘person, place, or thing’ trifecta. I am a Thing. And as long as we are being honest, like those who do not pay child support and eight track players, I am a Useless Thing. Incredibly useless, without question. I will be the first to admit it. However, I am one Thing that has been in the news a lot lately. I need to make a statement. Keep your expectations low. As you know, Things are not deep thinkers. (Look at the opening quote. Howard Jones? Only a Thing would quote Howard Jones.) As you read on, it will become abundantly clear that Things are not great communicators. Things are simple. We …
Colonel Mustard
10:56 pm on Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Well, we see how well it worked out for the crazed Allen West (former 1 term Congressman). He got his butt kicked up to his loud mouth. The next up-coming "McCarthy" Clone is loud-mouthed Sen. (of 6 weeks) Ted Cruz (TEA BAGGER - TX). more ›