There is that irony of a war president winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
It is beyond irony — beyond comprehension, really — that the prize was awarded to a man who has decided to overlook the crimes committed by those in government service who sanctioned torture.
President Barack Obama, in giving these [...]
Jim Rowen has the scoop on the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission’s self-indulgent, taxpayer-funded thousand-dollar dinner at the University Club.
Sounds likely that there was a quorum of some SEWRPC committee or task force or perhaps the commission itself at that dinner. Seems to me that it probably should have [...]
Department of Public Works officials will be back before the Common Council’s Public Works Committee tomorrow morning to talk about the best way to spend more money on fixing City Hall, which already has cost $76 million to restore.
City officials say that restoration project was completed within budget, but that is true [...]
Constant snow, constant shoveling for the next two days. Golly, I love Wisconsin livin’.
[...]A Common Council committee this week will consider making bicycle registration and licensing optional — a move that would acknowledge reality that many people don’t license their bikes and the Police Department couldn’t handle the demand if everyone did.
An ordinance making the change from a mandatory licensing system is being [...]
What a disappointment President Barack Obama’s financial policies are. Wall Street reform hasn’t happened and while tens of millions of people are unemployed, Obama…has a meeting.
About 130 people were invited to yesterday’s gathering, which may mean that the meeting — a “jobs summit: — put a couple of caterers to [...]
The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission got slapped around some for its amazingly bad web site and other continued weaknesses in outreach and congestion mitigation, but in the end the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration gave SEWRPC another four years to wreak havoc and destruction on the [...]
Will Sherard, a landlord that frustrated even the federal government when it tried to get him to clean up his property, is again in the acquisition mode, according to city records.
And he again is under orders to clean up his property.
Sherard, who in July reached yet another agreement with [...]
In this economy, getting just one bid on a multi-million dollar project likely means your bid criteria stink.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation solicited bids for the $12 million to $22 million Zoo Interchange bridge repair project and got exactly one bid — from Milwaukee Constructors LLC, which is made up [...]
The Rising Tide: A Novel Of World War IIJeff Shaara; Ballantine Books 2007WorldCat⋅LibraryThing⋅[...]
Amazon.com, which yesterday simply could not give me my money back after it overcharged me, today says it will give my money back.
So fairly indignant emails can help.
Still makes me wonder if Amazon’s business model includes trying to scam customers a little bit.
[...]The Amazon.com mp3 service was excellent. There’s a free download every day and many of the prices seem to be be below those charged by iTunes.
Then a strange thing started happening with my account. Amazon.com started making billing mistakes and – now this is really strange – they were never [...]
Shoulda known better.
Shoulda figured the roofers would be back after lunch.
Shoulda known Abe the dog would freak.
Put him in the back yard yesterday with his little sister Tennessee Petunia. The back yard is fenced now, because Tennie likes to run and when she runs, the wind can’t keep up. And [...]
Here’s a cheer and a great sigh of relief for the State Supreme Court’s decision rejecting the Doyle state’s efforts to get around the law through labor negotiations.
The court rejected arguments that the Legislature changed the open records law when it approved labor contracts the prohibited employees’ names from being made [...]
Story 1 from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal:
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–American International Group Inc. (AIG) shares fell nearly 20% Thursday as an analyst said there’s a significant chance the stock’s value will eventually drop to zero.
Analyst Joshua Shanker estimated a 70% chance that AIG’s shareholder equity will be worthless [...]
The American Energy Act is about as bad as it gets, so of course US Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Menomonee Falls) is a co-sponsor.
As Think Progress notes, the bill would deal with the issue of global warming simply by prohibiting the regulation of greenhouse gases. The bill is [...]
From State Sen. Jim Sullivan (D-Wauwatosa) on challenger Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa):
It looks like I will be running against one of Wisconsin’s most extreme and divisive politicians once again. Rep. Leah Vukmir has a long history of putting her own partisan agenda ahead of the needs of the district – It [...]
Well, this should be interesting. Wauwatosa’s Leah Vukmir, a very conservative Republican, will take on Wauwatosa’s Jim Sullivan, a very moderate Democrat, for Sullivan’s 5th District Senate seat, according to wispolitics.com.
It’s good that Vukmir is announcing now. Greater Vukmir visibility can only be good for Sullivan.
[...]The WisDOT version of public hearings, that is. It’s a good chance to weigh in on WisDOT’s awful plans.
The hearings will be from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday (June 23) and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. (Wednesday, June 24). Both will be conducted at the Tommy Thompson Youth Center [...]
The State Senate last night voted to pay for Oak Creek’s $3.75 million share of an I-94 interchange at Drexel Ave.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation itself says the interchange would harm efforts to redevelop older commercial areas of Milwaukee.
Not a single peep in protest from Milwaukee Dems.
More here.
[...]The first summer concert at Mitchell Blvd. Park is tonight. It features the King Comets, “Milwaukee’s four-piece rocking jump swing band with attitude!”
The fun in at the park, conveniently located at N. 51st St. and W. Bluemound Rd., will be from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The concert is sponsored by the [...]
Neighbor Joe DiGiovanni reports a coyote sighting in Story Hill last week (Joe was timely with his report; I am late with this post).
The coyote was running south out of the neighborhood into the bluff area on Story near Mitchell Blvd about 9:30 p.m.
Says Joe: “I think our neighbors better [...]
JS reporter John Diedrich’s series on super bad guy Michael Lock are absolutely riveting reads.
But, a few small quibbles. Anyone who buries a couple of bodies in his own back yard is not — absolutely, positively NOT — a criminal mastermind.
And any law enforcement personnel who meets with a violent [...]
The average assessment for a single-family home in Story Hill was down 5% this year, according to City Assessment Commissioner Mary Reavey.
“For 2008 there were four sales in the neighborhood,” Reavey wrote in an email. “Sales transactions were down city wide and the Story Hill area is not an exception [...]
The JS had had a half story in the paper yesterday about suburban school districts’ diversity. A major point of the story was that suburban districts now are educating minorities who don’t have to be bused to the suburbs, but who actually live there.
The story, though, relied on cherry-picked [...]
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s engineering and applied sciences program have a total of three black employees.
Three, out of a total of 101. That is an amazingly low 2.97%.
Those numbers, by the way, come from UWM’s own affirmative action report.
As UWM seeks to flee the confines of the city for [...]
Story Hill residents turned out Saturday to reclaim Mitchell Blvd. Park from garlic mustard in a battle that was over in short order, with the weed ripped easily from saturated ground.
Then, frustrated by the eight years of government neglect that allowed garlic mustard and buckthorn to take over Bluff Park, [...]
From e-Notify:
A burglary was recorded in the 4700 block of Woodlawn Ct. at about 7:20 a.m May 2.
Sustainable Story Hill (disclosure: I’m on the board), along with the City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County Parks Department, the Park People of Milwaukee County, the Bluemound Road Business Advancement Association and the Story Hill Neighborhood Associatiom, is sponsoring a weed-out in Mitchell Blvd. Park from 9 a.m. to noon this [...]
I am spending way too much time apologizing to the stupid bird that has taken up residence in the curve of a downspout not far enough away from the back door.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Bird,” I say as I walk out to go to work.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. [...]
Will Sherard, one of Milwaukee’s most notorious landlords, continues to thumb his nose at the federal government four years after the feds sued him over the poor condition of his properties.
“Sherard was to have twenty-nine (29) properties abated by the end of March 2009,” Assistant US Attorney Stacy Gerber Ward [...]
As Journal Communications stock plummeted in value and Journal Communications employees lost their jobs, CEO Steve Smith did the real corporate thing: he grabbed the money and screwed his stockholders.
Reported the paper in March:
Total compensation increased almost 22% last year for Journal Communications Inc. chairman and chief executive Steven [...]
The Joint Finance Committee early this morning approved the creation of a Regional Transit Authority, but limited it to Milwaukee County.
The committee also approved a new authority and a $16 per car rental car fee, which will automatically rise with inflation, to fund the expansion of the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter [...]
You might want to consider a new slogan.
The excellent Gail Collins’ take on “Live Like You Mean It.“
[...]The Story Hill Neighborhood Association’s quarterly meeting will be held at 7 p.m. tomorrow (that’s Wednesday, for the calendar deficient) at the Wisconsin Humane Society, 4500 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Topic 1, and it ought to be a good one, is the sidewalk replacement program that is costing everyone south of W. [...]
Milwaukee won’t get consideration as a distressed area for federal transportation stimulus money because Milwaukee County suburbs are rich, according to the JS.
To consider Milwaukee and River Hills together when weighing need is just ludicrous. Oh, wait. That’s right. The State Department of Transportation wanted to give more consideration to [...]
Two books are recommended in honor horror of the swine flu outbreak that is killing people in Mexico. The flu has a great and lethal history in the United States and around the world. The last huge influenza pandemic was in 1918, ennabled by WWI troop movements and the shroud of secrecy [...]
The Common Council, without a shred of public input, this week decided that anyone wanting to park a car that is for sale on the public property must get a $40 permit from the city, show the Department of Public Works the title to the car and have the vehicle [...]
It will cost $40 to park a car on the street and stick a “for sale” sign on it, under an ordinance adopted Tuesday by the Common Council.
Anyone wanting to sell a car on public property — namely, streets — will have to fill out an application and have the [...]
Mayor Tom Barrett on stimulus funding:
“People in this city are much, much more interested in seeing potholes and local streets repaired than expanding Interstate systems…That’s a message we have to deliver both to the state and the federal governments. There has to be a basic realignment of spending priorities.
[...]The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is failing to adequately enforce federal Clean Water Act provisions that are under its purview, according to an environmental legal agency.
The agency has failed to “limit discharges of nutrients (e.g., phosphorous and nitrogen), determine the “reasonable potential” of a discharge to violate a water [...]
Gov. Jim Doyle’s attempt to strip homeowners and other property owners of legal rights in condemnation disputes with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation was dropped from the proposed 2009-11 budget after key lawmakers determined that the proposal was a policy issue, not a budgetary one.
Doyle wanted to make it [...]
Vliet Street, Lisbon Avenue, Bolivar Avenue, and a whole lot of other eligible streets are on the city’s wish list for stimulus funding. Proposed project costs total $77 million.
Nothing for the shoddily-rebuilt Hawley Rd. viaduct, darn it.
The wish list, recommended for approval last week by the Common Council’s Public Works Committee, [...]
It’s easy to be really, really mad about the endless stream of bailouts and the treasury secretary who — oopsie! — forgot to pay his taxes. Actually, getting really, really mad probably is more than easy; it’s probably unavoidable. Who did these yahoos think they were and how come they [...]
While Gov. Doyle commits to spend billions to widen freeways that don’t need widening, city streets are falling apart. The situation is dire and aldermen are getting desperate to come up with some way of making things better or at least slow the descent into much, much worse.
Ald. Jim Bohl [...]
Mayor Tom Barrett will propose budget cuts of 15% to 20% in order to deal with debt service, levy limits and employee benefit costs, according to City Budget Director Mark Nicolini.
“All of you are aware that the city has been dealing with an ongoing imbalance between the costs of continuing [...]
SEWRPC says it will give special attention to proposals for stimulus-funded transportaiton projects in economically distressed areas and Ken Yunker said his public-outreach blowoff was an incomplete email. More on that here.
The bad news, as blogger Jim Rowen points out, is that the Federal Highway Administration says there [...]
Two — count ‘em, two (that’s less than half the fingers on one hand) — researchers at UWM say global warming may take a little longer than a zillion other scientists think.
The global-warming nay-sayers glom onto and distribute a distorted, incorrect version of their research and use itto argue that [...]
This one was hard-earned and is so important that it must be shared.
If you, like me, dump your wet, soggy coffee grounds into a plastic newspaper bag, never, ever twirl said newspaper bag while walking to the kitchen garbage.
It’s amazing how far those tiny grounds can fly with a little [...]
President Obama’s Special Olympics joke on Letterman was not one of his better moments, but it came and went without leaving much damage in its wake. Sarah Palin, the ungifted one from Alaska, who is the mother of a child with disabilities, criticized Obama for the unfunny joke, but as [...]
City property values are projected to plunge $1.5 billion, leaving an $11.8 million revenue hole in the 2010 budget, according to information from City Assessment Commissioner Mayor Reavey.
That 5% decline in value means less money for pothole patching, police, firefighters, libraries and other city services unless Mayor Tom Barrett and [...]
Rough Weather, Parker, Robert B.; G.P. Putnam's Sons
Find in a library
Susan Silverman is the oh-so-perfect significant other [...]
“It’s going to be about the 12 toughest decisions I had to make. I’m going to put people in my place, so when the history of this administration is written at least there’s an authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened.”
– Former President George W. Bush, discussing the book he is going to [...]
It’s hard not to notice, especially if one is riding a bicycle right next to one of them, the increasing number of drivers who park their vehicles and then fling open their car doors into traffic without so much as a glance.
There are enough hazards on the road, and huge [...]
Those folks looking at the ground aren’t searching for the first blooms of the season. They’re staring in disbelief at their sidewalk slabs and trying to figure out why the city is worried about cracked sidewalk slabs when the neighborhood streets are falling apart. South-of-Bluemound residents got notices last week [...]
Everyone needs something to do Saturday besides St. Patrick’s Day parades, right? Here’s an opportunity to clean out and safely dispose of some of that electronic junk you have stored away.
Residents of southeast Wisconsin will be able to drop-off television sets, computer equipment, and other consumer electronics for recycling on [...]
A Milwaukee man who pimped out his son’s juvenile girlfriends advertised their sexual services on craigslist and sold them both locally and in other states, federal prosecutors allege.
Craigslist has said it is attempting to reduce the number of erotic odds posted on its site. The popular advertising site was [...]
From the Huffington Post:
How bad are things getting?
Beyond the obvious numbers — 7.6 percent unemployment, 6,600 foreclosures a day — the depressing indicators keep piling up, each statistic representing more pain and hardship.
The United Way saw a 68-percent increase during the past year in the number of calls for [...]
Really. The city should get its money back. The new Hawley Rd. viaduct keeps disintegrating — the contractors did a really, really bad job. Here’s the latest — the new curb is separating from the new sidewalk.
[...]The Milwaukee Brewers and Milwaukee Police Department should resolve their differences over who should pay for traffic cops at intersections near Miller Park on game days and make sure those traffic cops are posted, Ald. Michael Murphy said.
“I’ve received complaints on the ad hoc placement of officers,” he told the [...]
It’s official. The annual white trash moment that marks the beginning of spring. It came late yesterday afternoon, as the sun warmed the world from the west. I took a break between the life chores of financial reckoning and cleaning the kitchen floor and carried a beer out to the [...]
County Supervisor John Weishan said he will seek a delay in County Board action to sell County Grounds property to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for construction of an engineering school and other facilities.
The deal is to be considered by the County Board’s Economic and Community Development Committee during its March [...]
The county’s pension obligation bond work group is holding an informational session today (at 9:30 a.m. in room 203-R of the courthouse). It would be fun to attend just to see if there is a quorum of any County Board committee and then to ask if the meeting has been [...]
The plaster in the hallway needs some repair, making a wallpaper tear-off mandatory. Who wants to work hard at that? There’s this convenient liquid wallpaper stripper that upon closer examination says “WARNING: This product contains a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer and birh defects, or [...]
Gov. Doyle’s budget proposal would strip legal rights and potential state protections from property rights who challenge the State Department of Transportation when it grabs privately-owned land for transportation projects, budget documents show.
Doyle accepted a WisDOT budget request to limit legal fees a court can award to lawyers who [...]
Negotiators for the county and University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee are near a deal that would have the county selling about 89 acres — including 13.3 acres of conservancy land — to the university for construction of an engineering school and other facilities, according to County Supervisor Lynne DeBruin.
The proposal [...]
I’m sure it’s kind of a downer for staff members, who have to chase the materials down and set them aside, but it is great news for Milwaukee Public Library customers. According to the library’s web site:
Media Holds: Milwaukee Public Library Policy Change
Effective February 16th.
Effective Monday, February 16th 2009, [...]
Dishwasher: One Man's Quest To Wash Dishes In All Fifty States (P.S.), Pete Jordan; Harper PerennialChange is comin’ and highway-happy Wisconsin Department of Transportation and coal-addicted We Energies are going to have to change their ways.
From the International Herald Tribune:
WASHINGTON: The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to act for the first time to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists blame for [...]
Not only are the people reduced to wearing barrels…
…but the trees are as well.
The tree picture was taken on North Story Parkway, where the city is getting ready to do some sewer work.
[...]Didn’t anyone provide County Executive Scott Walker with a copy of the federal stimulus legislation? Is he pretending to be totally unfamiliar with it? Or is he really such a dolt he hasn’t bothered to become at all informed about what is in it?
The bill says what the stimulus [...]
Re: Milwaukee County Transit System Development Plan: 2009–2013 Transit Service Improvement Alternatives.
A Response by Bill Sell
Dear Transit Planners
I appreciate that you have a difficult job in a day of when politics is sometimes hostile to practical, wise investment in our infrastructure. Many believe Transit is a luxury because, they [...]
The Common Council went on record last week opposing a bill backed by some Milwaukee Democrats that would prohibit housing discrimination based on arrests or convictions that are more than three years old.
“My office, in meeting with landlords, regularly advises that one of the things that landlords can do to [...]
Guess which company is more likely to get repeat business from my family and me?
Amazon.com, which charged $7.99 for a $1.99 download, then apologized and credited the full $7.99 when the error was brought to the firm’s attention, thus making the download free?
Or Colder’s, whose customer service rep berated my [...]
The state is going to slash and burn jobs over the next two years, under legislation to be considered next week. State government would be cut by $125 million over the next two years, but highway workers would be exempted from threats to their jobs, as would those with public [...]
Sheriff David Clarke got virtually a free ride from the media when conditions in the county jail — which he runs — were deemed so bad that the county was held in contempt of court.
And God knows what the County Board was thinking when it took the messed-up House [...]
It’s hard to figure: a governor who endorsed Barack Obama for president when it was a semi-risky thing to do is letting his transportation department show total disrespect for the man now that he holds the highest office in the land.
President Obama had made a few priorities absolutely clear: this [...]
Absolute Friends, John Le Carré; Little, BrownThis novel could be subtitled “The Book of Disillusionment.” [...]
$100 million would be made available for capital costs of Milwaukee-area transit projects, under a proposal in the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s budget request. The catch is that local officials would have to get their act together on a dedicated revenue source before they could even ask for the money.
Keeping [...]
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is planning to extend the Hank Aaron bike trail from Miller Park to 94th Pl. next year, according to WisDOT official Donna Brown.
Kudos to WisDOT for that smart move. The trail should help spark development of some of its neighboring properties, which are now in [...]
The former political genius, now a diabolical lawn gnome, complains about President Obama’s office arrangements and work habits.
Like there are no real issues to tackle? This may be one of the early signs that absolutely nothing about the Obama administration is too insignificant for the right to attack. From the [...]
The House of Representatives added $3 billion for transit spending on its way to passing the stimulus bill yesterday. raising the total to $12 billion.
That’s good news. Still, highway building gets $30 billion and it will be pumped through the traditional formulas, which simply do not work very well.
Will [...]
