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edited by: Chris Liebenthal, Wisconsin Editor

News and Opinion

  • Happy holidays, part IV

    Yeah, I don’t like that phrase either -- it’s so deliberately beige. One might as well say, “Happy Whatever!” So, as a cure, I suggest we wish people happy specific holidays. After all, if we mean happy holidays, then surely we’re wishing people a happy: End of the hurricane season. It’s been [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 9:15pm EST

  • The sufferings of Barbara

    Wigderson dissects Barbara Lawton -- yes, she’s still talking, as if you were interested -- when she tries tries explaining why she mysteriously dropped out of the governor’s race. It’s because, she tells a TV station, it’s so hard for women to raise money to run for governor. Mean ol’ world! Which [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 6:15pm EST

  • Driving the parental involvement discussion

    Apparently, it's an apt time to talk about parental involvement in schools. Our four-day series is in the middle of its run, and it mostly focuses on the challenges - but also success stories - of inner-city schools' efforts to get families to support the education of children in the home. Tomorrow,' [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 4:23pm EST

  • A billion here, a billion there, a billion dollars scattered amid the trees

    Speaking of Duluth, news comes that a proposed high-speed choo-choo from the Twin Cities to that noble northern port now would cost -- HOLY BUCKETS! ONE BILLION DOLLARS?! Yep: $990 million, actually, which is of concern to you because, of course, you’ll be paying for 80% of it. The project last year [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 3:45pm EST

  • No wonder so many Minnesotans regard Wisconsin askance

    And they do: As most Minnesotans are next to the parts of our state mainly inhabited by wildlife, lots of Minnesotans think Wisconsin is a kind of Appalachia-North (I write by personal, Minnesota-resident experience). Then again, it could be the wild Wisconsinites. Note the Superior woman who got in trouble in [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 3:15pm EST

  • My magic eight ball is always right. No, you can't check.

    New, delicious twist on the Climategate scandal: No, no one can double-check the alarmists’ data. They threw it out. Climategate, as you’ll recall, is what blew up after someone leaked emails from researchers worldwide who, working through a leading climate research center in Britain, wrote each other about massaging data to [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 2:15pm EST

  • The congressional candidate and the gay marriage movie

    So one Republican candidate who wants Democrat David Obey's congressional seat is criticizing another Republican candidate because the other Republican candidate appeared in a spoof video that has a story line on a gay couple that wants to get married. OK, we think we have that straight. Bad pun intended. The Wisconsin [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 1:58pm EST

  • Should domestic violence lessons be taught in school?

    There is no question that domestic violence is on the rise and studies have shown that young people today are witnessing more violence today than ever before. Sure you can blame society, bad parents, the economy and nearly a dozen other social issues that contribute to the breakdown of the family [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 1:17pm EST

  • A timely ad from Tiger Woods' sponsor

    Police are still looking into the circumstances surrounding the weekend wreck by golfer Tiger Woods outside of his Florida home. And it's probably not ideal that this ad coincidentally ran today in The Wall Street Journal today from one of his main sponsors. As TMZ.com describes the ad text: "The road [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 12:02pm EST

  • New York Times and whine

    Today's New York Times asks this question, and 19 others, in a column about advertising: "Now that the three largest national newspapers have all introduced wine clubs, how long will it be before other papers try something similar with other alcoholic beverages and run ads for, say, “the beer that made [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 10:36am EST

  • Charter school weighs environment vs. Mandarin focus

    Charter schools in the Milwaukee suburbs aren't the only ones that are getting more creative, as highlighted in a story that ran in Monday's JS. Verona's New Century charter school is weighing whether to develop an environmental focus to attract more students, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. Some New Century parents' [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 10:29am EST

  • Oprah has a new favorite

    Oprah Winfrey helped make Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil. Now, apparently, we have Dr. Anne Dranitsaris, who is penning an article in O magazine about how women can analyze their strengths and weaknesses. Next stop: a TV show for Dr. A. This next item is not funny. Actually it's Newsweek's listing of [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 7:00am EST

  • Firstwatch: More deals, less campaign money and a chill

    It’s Cyber Monday, so we know you’re looking for deals. Of course, if you are reading this, you’ll know we’re providing you with some helpful Cyber-shopping links where you can find deals. You’re welcome. [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 5:45am EST

  • Bishops and shopping and other public topics

    It’s a Kennedy vs. the church – who will win? It’s time for green shoots to sprout in the retail economy – will they? And whose fault is the Zoo Interchange debacle? These and other topics get hashed out on “Sunday Insight with Charlie Sykes,” and the panel will include politician [...]
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    Posted: November 28, 2009, 7:45am EST

  • Climate 'science' was rigged from the start

    Here, writes the Wall Street Journal, is what Climategate means. Here is what it means when the world’s leading global-warmist researchers are revealed in leaked e-mails as talking about massaging their data, suppressing contrary findings by blackballing peer-reviewed journals and deleting damaging evidence: “The real issue is what the messages say [...]
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    Posted: November 27, 2009, 4:00pm EST

  • The jobs weren't visible because they were non-existent

    Our president and his Congress are rushing to pass Stimulus II, the papers say. Not because Stimulus I, a trillion bucks of fun once you count interest, didn’t work. Heavens, no. It’s just “not a sufficient remedy for an unemployment rate that stands at 10.2 percent,” as one story put it. [...]
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    Posted: November 27, 2009, 2:45pm EST

  • Nobody told him he built a gas station on an alley

    Interestingly, Milwaukee is getting some resistance to its latest kick at people with the temerity to travel by car. At least one businessman who invested a lot of money in S. 2nd St. is objecting to the city’s plans to downgrade the thoroughfare, the Journal Sentinel reports. “Narrowing the road from four [...]
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    Posted: November 27, 2009, 1:45pm EST

  • Some people should not be parents

    Let’s face it, some people should not be parents. Just because you can produce offspring, doesn’t mean you should. Take the case of the 39-year-old father in Indianapolis, who is accused of leaving his 5-year-old son in his truck while he ducked into a strip club. [...]
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    Posted: November 27, 2009, 1:08pm EST

  • Yippee! Other people hurt more than we do!

    Comes the news that Wisconsin’s fallen in comparative tax burden rankings, at least by the Census Bureau numbers, the Journal Sentinel writes. Regarding our “status as a tax hell,” writes Dave Umhoefer, “The Badger State’s consistent top-five tax perch has slipped steadily down to 15th in the latest rankings.” Which is nice, [...]
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    Posted: November 27, 2009, 12:45pm EST

  • With numbers picked out of a hat, we're supposed to see it as an imperative?

    “Insuring the uninsured is a moral imperative,” writes Charles Krauthammer. “The problem is that the Democrats have chosen the worst possible method — a $1 trillion new entitlement of stupefying arbitrariness and inefficiency.” Take, he says, the decree that rates for old people should be no more than twice that of [...]
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    Posted: November 27, 2009, 11:30am EST

  • Madison TV anchor has seizure during live newscast

    A Madison television anchor is recovering after experiencing a seizure Wednesday during the station’s morning newscast. Viewers saw WMTV-TV (Channel 15) anchor Sarah Carlson have a seizure and fall into another anchor’s arms, according to a story on the Wisconsin State Journal’s Web site. Carlson was taken to a hospital. “As many [...]
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    Posted: November 27, 2009, 10:55am EST

  • Lots of new judges in Dane County

    Nearly a third of Dane County's circuit court judges joined the bench this year, as a generation of jurists steps up its retirement pace. "We lose a lot of institutional memory" with so many retirements, Dane County Circuit Judge William Foust, the chief judge for the Fifth Judicial District, told the [...]
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    Posted: November 27, 2009, 9:30am EST

  • Happy holidays. Of one sort or another. Whatever.

    We were watching television the other night when came a string of ads that, coincidentally, all happened to mention “the holidays” or “holiday lights” or “holiday season.” “What holiday?” snapped my 10-year-old, her rhetorical intent loud and clear. I don’t know where she got that from (no, not me). If it [...]
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    Posted: November 27, 2009, 7:45am EST

  • Happy Thanksgiving

    "Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour," wrote our first president, it is only fitting that the nation set aside a day "that we [...]
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    Posted: November 26, 2009, 9:15am EST

  • Two charged in robbery killing

    Two Milwaukee men have been charged in the shooting death of a 21-year-old Donte L. Dyson during a robbery attempt. [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 10:01pm EST

  • Gore's gaffes don't help his cause

    Someone needs to rein in Al Gore, or at least get him a fact-checker for Christmas. On Conan O’Brien’s show, Gore — extolling the virtues of geothermal energy — said the temperature in the interior of the Earth is “several million degrees.” Actually, if that were the temperature, the Earth [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 2:17pm EST

  • Everyone's extraordinary (which means no one is)

    Some foundations gave oodles of money to Boston’s public schools, reports the Boston Herald, so that really excellent teachers could be given bonuses when enough of their students reached a particular goal. No can do, says the union: “The Boston Teachers Union staunchly opposes a performance bonus plan for top teachers -- [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 12:15pm EST

  • If you have to unbutton your pants its time to stop

    Thanksgiving holds a special place in my heart. It’s the only time of the year that everyone gathers around a meal cooked by my mother. Sure my cousin makes a Jell-O fruit mix and a lemon-cake and I usually pick-up a bean pie as my contribution. But for many of us, [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 11:30am EST

  • Interning off-the-hook style

    When Guy Fieri brings his "Guy Fierie Roadshow" to the Riverside Theater next week, he'll get prep help from Rebekah Detrie, a senior at South Milwaukee High School and Christian Wagner from Waukesha South High School. In all, six Wisconsin high school students were tapped by the Wisconsin Restaurant Association Education' [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 11:19am EST

  • College Notebook: Doyle to speak to UWM grads, ex chaplain to speak at Concordia

    Wisconsin's governor and a decorated Navy chaplain will speak at area commencement ceremonies for university students graduating next month. Gov. Jim Doyle will speak at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's commencement Dec. 20. The ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. at US Cellular Arena, 400 W. Kilbourn Ave. The university expects about [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 10:48am EST

  • The case for euthanasia, school edition

    We all say bad schools should be turned around. We all hope it. Milwaukee’s biggest argument -- whether the mayor should run the Milwaukee Public Schools -- is premised on the idea that one king can turn around a failing system. But do turnarounds work? The evidence says no, writes Andy [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 9:45am EST

  • The Muppets take on Queen

    The video features chickens, not turkeys. But it's still a nice Thanksgiving gift. The Muppet Studio has released a take on the Queen hit "Bohemian Rhapsody." Folks must be slacking off at the office. Close to a million people have viewed the YouTube video in the past two days and the video [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 9:39am EST

  • Crime-per-capita rankings irk Flynn

    CQ Press has released its annual rankings of cities and metro areas based not on crimes, or the change in crime, but on crimes-per-100,000 residents. Some might find this an interesting comparison -- which cities with lots of crime aren't really that bad compared to some smaller cities with fewer crimes' [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 8:00am EST

  • Ranking the best Disney films of all time

    Here we go again. Another list to peruse, criticize and examine. It's the list of the 48 top animated Disney films of all time. Go ahead, take a look. When you're done with that, sample the very first look at visible light on the planet Saturn. The video was released Tuesday' [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 7:00am EST

  • Firstwatch: Travel, tryptophan the Packers and closings

    If you're at work this morning, we know you're eyeing the clock. Your boss knows you're eyeing the clock. So do your coworkers.' [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 5:45am EST

  • The hopeless case who is now tapping out a book

    Make sure you read that story in today’s paper (print edition, please, for fuller version) about the Belgian guy who was said for two decades to be a vegetable -- but was conscious the whole time. Rom Houben is now communicating quite well, thank you, by tapping out messages on electronic [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 8:45pm EST

  • Mourning a son

    Juan Andrade, the long time leader of the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute, writes about the sudden death of his 37-year-old son, Joaquin in an e-mail sent today He died of a massive gastrointestinal hemorrhage, althugh earlier in life he had bbattled and beaten cancer, Andrade writes. Joaquin was a graphic designer [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 5:58pm EST

  • If you keep smoking, the terrorists have won

    Do recall first that couching an argument for this or that Bush administration wish as helping the war on terror soon became a snicker-line -- so much that even the pachydermal minds of Republican politicos gave up on it. Eventually, we were left only with the crowd demanding $5-a-gallon gas taxes [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 4:45pm EST

  • Civil rights investigators back at Arrowhead

    Investigators with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights were at Arrowhead High School Tuesday as part of an information-gathering effort in response to a complaint that the school does not offer its female athletes the same opportunities as it offers males. The complaint was filed earlier this year, [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 4:23pm EST

  • This economy is giving black men a one, two punch

    We know that the economy is harder on black men in the country than it is for any other race. The latest figures show us that nationally, 34.5% of black men are unemployed and in Milwaukee that number is well over 50%. I’m not going to bore you with statistics but [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 3:30pm EST

  • Believing in Facebook

    This is not good news. A team of researchers says that kids who view other kids boasting about drinking on Facebook take the boasts as truth. “Most kids told us what they saw was what they believed. Teens said that if (they) see someone on Facebook talking about drinking alcohol, [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 2:23pm EST

  • Nicolet, Glendale authorize legal action in Green Tree Rd. flap

    Boards for both the Nicolet School District and City of Glendale authorized legal action Monday night to try to stop the Village of River Hills from partially closing Green Tree Road. The River Hills Village Board authorized a six-month trial closing of the eastbound lanes of the road, near where it [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 1:55pm EST

  • Free food gift card for Thanksgiving

    My old boxing coach Al Moreland died Aug. 20 but his brother Tom Moreland is keeping up the tradition of taking care of those in need. Tom Moreland, on behalf of the Al Moreland Boxing Club, is giving away $20 Lena’s Food Market gift cards to make sure those in need [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 1:18pm EST

  • Double trouble Sarah

    Looks like there's twice as much Sarah to deal with these days. There are two books out about Sarah - one is of her own making, the other is a mean parody about the former Alaskan governor but is still confusing some media folks. [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 12:46pm EST

  • Why worry about toys?

    Every year, we hear about the hot toy of the holiday season and the extremes that people will go to get it. Should that even be an issue this year? How much does it mean to the average American this year as to whether or not he or she can [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 9:58am EST

  • Lawyer keyword fight gets Web traction

    A lawsuit filed in Milwaukee last week over lawyers' use of competitors' names as sponsored search engine keywords has drawn lots of attention among other lawyers and tech types. First reported in the Journal Sentinel, the story then became an Associated Press story that took it to the mainstream media nationwide. Here's' [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 8:00am EST

  • They're in the business of fighting evil. Even politically popular evil.

    John McAdams has no patience with those who fret that it breaches some church-state membrane when bishops tell politicians to stop advocating evil, such as abortion. The left, which is doing the fretting lately, had no problem with Catholicism denying communion to wrongdoers before. In the 1960s, for instance, the church told [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 7:15am EST

  • The old ham-in-the-face trick

    TV Chef Paula Deen got more than she bargained for when she showed up at a charity event in Atlanta. Someone was tossing a ham around and, POW, Deen got it in the kisser. Here's the video. Watch CBS News Videos Online Speaking of food, we've been going through some food shortages' [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 7:00am EST

  • Firstwatch: Needles, a high rise and a political battle

    The heated debate kicks off next week. That's when the U.S. Senate starts debate on a major expansion of the nation's health care insurance. So Sen. Herb Kohl probably plans to play it a bit more low key today when he visits an elderly care unit at Aurora Sinai Hospital. Kohl is [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 5:45am EST

  • Because they're not arguments, they're lyrics

    Latest global warming horror: Third World women will increasingly pursue the flesh trade, as one Philippines TV network worded it, because of global warming. She’s a hooker because of your Hummer, in other words, or so said some UN functionary. Really? Even if the globe isn’t warming and hasn’t been for [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 9:15pm EST

  • Fitness course should be offered to all

    Historically black colleges do things differently. Take Lincoln University in Philadelphia, Pa. To graduate, obese students must to take a fitness course to receive their degrees. I applaud the school’s intent, but I don’t like its execution. Being obese is hard enough without being singled out. We also know that [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 4:55pm EST

  • Cudahy judge accused of misconduct

    The state Judicial Commission has issued a complaint against a Cudahy municipal judge, over claims that he allowed about 3,500 cases to back up, and has refused to adjudicate parking tickets because of a dispute with the police department. Journal Sentinel reporter Tom Kertscher has the story in JSOnline's NewsWatch. Earlier this [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 4:00pm EST

  • Arrests made after car drives through backyards

    Brookfield police were on the case last week of a suspected drunken driver who was reported driving through backyards in the city. They found a driver in car matching that description sleeping in the car in a church parking lot. BrookfieldNOW has the story. [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 3:25pm EST

  • McBride offers response on Flynn affair

    Local journalist Jessica McBride has now weighed in with her thoughts on the media coverage of Police Chief Edward Flynn's extramarital affair with her. In her Saturday column in The Waukesha Freeman, McBride defends herself while acknowledging some shortcomings. She also discusses her article on Flynn for Milwaukee Magazine earlier this [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 2:20pm EST

  • Youth have to stop youth violence

    After the highly publicized beating death of a Chicago teenager, Derrion Albert U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan called for a national conversation on youth violence, saying that the violence has to stop now. In Milwaukee, we know youth violence all too well and such a conversation [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 1:35pm EST

  • Science fair at the White House

    President Barack Obama touted efforts to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics (or STEM) education in a speech that was carried live online Monday and followed by a short round-table Facebook presentation by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. The "Educate to Innovate" campaign, for now, seems to consist mostly of getting [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 1:21pm EST

  • The closer it gets to your throat, the worse it stinks

    Upon examination, it turns out, Americans do not particularly want Obamacare. I mention this because some senator or other was droning on NPR about how wavering Democrats should get over it and give the American people what they want, by which he meant passing the health care “reform” that seems [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 1:15pm EST

  • Botched ticket earns Milwaukee lawyer reprimand

    A Milwaukee lawyer who failed to properly adddress a client's municipal citation has agreed to a public reprimand from his profession's regulators. According to the written reprimand issued earlier this month, Michael Chernin agreed -- for free -- to represent a man who had been ticketed for disorderly conduct in February [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 12:15pm EST

  • How not to treat a patient

    A North Carolina eye doctor could be in big trouble for calling a patient fat, the News & Observer reports. [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 11:48am EST

  • Dispatches from Afghanistan

    Journal Sentinel reporter Meg Jones will be visiting Wisconsin troops in Afghanistan the first two weeks of December and posting her reports. [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 11:42am EST

  • Is Adam Lambert done creeping us out yet?

    Our ears are still healing from Adam Lambert's performance Sunday on the American Music Awards. We're also trying to figure out if our parents would have covered our eyes to protect us from seeing the performance aired on ABC last night. Check out the screeching, um, singing for as long as you' [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 11:19am EST

  • An Iron Chef named Jose

    Jose Garces, the American- born son of Ecuadorian parents whose cooking has a Latin flair, won "The Next IronChef" contest on the Food Network Sunday night. Raised in Chicago, Garces beat ouf a roster of other leading chefs from across the country, including Jahangir Mehta, the New York chief who was [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 11:05am EST

  • Menominee school wins national award

    Menominee Indian Middle School in Neopit has been named one of 10 "breakthrough schools" for 2010 by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and MetLife Foundation. In recognizing the school, the groups pointed out that the Menominee middle school serves one of the most impoverished areas in the nation. Despite [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 10:50am EST

  • Autopsy set for woman found dead by hunters

    An autopsy is scheduled for today in the case of a 50-year-old woman found dead by hunters in Manitowoc County. Authorities have described her death as a likely homicide and indicated they had also arrested a suspect but provided no other details over the weekend. [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 10:00am EST

  • Smart move: Couple are Rhodes scholars

    Hey, how did this happen? A guy from Swarthmore, Pa., and his girlfriend both won Rhodes scholarships. Both are students at the University of North Carolina. Next stop for the pair: genius grants. In consumer news, Google has banned teeth whitener and flat stomach ads on the Internet. You know what [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 7:00am EST

  • Firstwatch: Oprah's mom, Scalia and a homicide

    T-minus just over three days until Thanksgiving. And the good news is that Thanksgiving dinner should be cheaper, unless you're going organic. Then you'll have to pay twice as much for turkey as some other families will pay for dinner. Speaking of the courts, USA Today Legal Affairs Correspondent Joan Biskupic, a [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 5:45am EST

  • Support for Waukesha's bilingual school

    Georgia Pabst blogs about parents concerned about the possible closure of White Rock Elementary School in Waukesha. The school is a magnet for many of the district's Spanish-speaking students, with about 70% of the students bused to the school daily, and has a Spanish-speaking staff. By closing the school, parents fear [...]
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    Posted: November 22, 2009, 9:47am EST

  • White Rock parents protest

    Many White Rock Elementary School parents have voiced objections to the proposed closing of the Waukesha school that's largely Latino and offers a bilingual program. Diamantina Gutierrez, secretary of the school's PTO and the parent of an 11-year-old student, said parents believe White Rock has a high quality bilingual program that's' [...]
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    Posted: November 21, 2009, 9:00am EST

  • Police-chief stories and the race to be gov

    The Ed Flynn-Jessica McBride affair is back in the news, and so is the race for governor. Both subjects are on the agenda for "Sunday Insight with Charlie Sykes," and I'm honored to be on the panel with pundit Jeff Fleming, editor Mikel Holt and journalist Rebecca Kleefisch. See it' [...]
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    Posted: November 21, 2009, 8:15am EST

  • Groups ask Obama to ban Fort Hood gun

    More than two dozen anti-gun violence groups have asked President Barack Obaman to ban further importation of the type of handgun used in the Fort Hood massacre. In a Thursday letter to the president, the group takes aim at the FN Herstal Five-seveN armor-piercing semiautomatic pistol. The letter suggests that the [...]
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    Posted: November 20, 2009, 5:30pm EST

  • Milwaukee's Own Oprah hangs it up.

    Oprah is ending her syndicated network show in 2011 and moving to cable. As the date grows closer, most of the media will likely pay tribute to her spectacular career as a ground-breaking female African-American broadcaster who had great impact on television and society. [...]
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    Posted: November 20, 2009, 1:04pm EST

  • Suspect in custody in fatal shooting

    A 22-year-old man suspected of killing another man Thursday night in a shootout inside an apartment building on Milwaukee's west side is in custody, a Milwaukee police spokesman said Friday. The suspect was arrested about 3:10 a.m. Friday in the 5100 block of N. 58th St., according to arrest records. The shooting [...]
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    Posted: November 20, 2009, 11:55am EST

  • Lending a hand for Thanksgiving

    For the 40th year in a row, the Council for the Spanish Speaking Inc., will pack up and distribute Thanksgiving food boxes to an estimated 1,800 low-income families. This afternoon beginning at 3 p.m., volunteers will begin accepting food donations from nine area schools and others and start sorting the food [...]
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    Posted: November 20, 2009, 11:41am EST

  • What about clean dishes?

    All I want for Christmas is Cascade. I understand the state's decision to effectively ban phosphorus in detergents beginning in July. It’s not that I am a fan of the stinky algae that it apparently causes. It’s just that I like having clean, sparkly dishes and, according to Consumer Reports, [...]
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    Posted: November 20, 2009, 10:50am EST

  • Should we live with this kind of tragedy?

    So, if, as it appears, Maj. Nidal Hasan legally bought the gun he is suspected of using to kill 13 and wound others, will this cause any more introspection on gun ownership? I’ve asked the question before with other shootings. Yes, the background check should have triggered yet another red [...]
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    Posted: November 20, 2009, 10:44am EST

  • Who will let Tom Cruise flip out?

    Now that Oprah Winfrey has decided to shut down her talk show, who among us will step up and land the kind of guests she was used to having? And in honor of her show, we present one of the great moments in Oprah history: The very strange behavior exhibited [...]
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    Posted: November 20, 2009, 6:45am EST

  • Firstwatch: A vigil, a vaccine and vampires

    Somber news to start. The funeral will be held today for Cody A. Reetz, the Grafton teen whose stepfather strangled him with a necktie, according to prosecutors. Also, there’s a walk and candlelight vigil in Reetz’s memory planed in Grafton at 5:30 p.m. Some big news for those who are trying to [...]
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    Posted: November 20, 2009, 5:45am EST

  • Mayor stands by police chief

    Mayor Tom Barrett is standing by Police Chief Edward Flynn despite new allegations that Flynn has continued his extramarital affair with local journalist Jessica McBride as recently as September. [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 3:08pm EST

  • Bucher accuses Flynn of continuing affair

    For the second time in recent months, ex-Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher has filed for divorce from prominent local journalist Jessica McBride. Bucher told Channel 4 that he recently confronted Police Chief Edward Flynn after discovering that he had continued his extramarital affair with McBride. "He was somewhat taken aback," Bucher [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 1:55pm EST

  • Did he salute? Of course he did.

    By now, some of you have heard about the bogus story that suggested President Barack Obama refused to salute the flag during Veterans Day ceremonies. The picture of a non-saluting Obama was widely distributed early this week by some conservative bloggers who insisted it showed Obama thumbing his nose at dead [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 1:49pm EST

  • W.Va. cops get new jobs despite past misconduct

    A story in the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette tells the tale of police officers fired by one department, only to be hired by another. [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 1:29pm EST

  • School districts levy for $61.8M less than allowed

    Wisconsin school districts left about $61.8 million on the table this fall in setting their levies below what they could have collected in state-imposed revenue caps, preliminary figures from the state Department of Public Instruction show. According to Brian Pahnke, the DPI's assistant superintendent for finance, that's the largest amount of [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 1:22pm EST

  • Law firms un-Googled?

    A day after Wisconsin's largest personal injury law firm sued a competitor over its Internet marketing practices, the offending search engine results have disappeared. On Wednesday, Habush, Habush & Rottier sued Cannon & Dunphy because when major search engine users in the Milwaukee area entered Robert Habush or Daniel Rottier, they [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 1:15pm EST

  • Police ID man who was killed while fleeing robbery

    A 21-year-old man who was shot to death Wednesday during a robbery attempt on Milwaukee's north side has been identified by police as Donte L. Dyson. The shooting was reported about 5 p.m. in the 3200 block of N. 21st St. Dyson was standing on a nearby corner with a friend when [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 11:57am EST

  • In a weird news contest, Sheboygan gets robbed

    A web site called Tableseed.com ranked the weirdest news towns in the country, based on a look at wire service stories from the Associated Press during the past year. Three Wisconsin cities are near the top of the heap, according to a news story in the Sheboygan Press. Madison is 3rd [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 11:17am EST

  • The administration's flip-off of Wisconsin voters

    Also, don’t miss the Wall Street Journal editorialists’ dead-on reading of what Louis Butler’s ascension to the federal court means. Wisconsin voters twice rejected Butler -- once refusing to elect him to the Supreme Court, then, after Jim Doyle stuck us with him anyhow, throwing him off the bench at the [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 11:15am EST

  • The California of the Midwest

    A Pew Center Report on the States finds that Wisconsin is one of 10 states in “financial peril." Years of shirking fiduciary responsibility by increasing state outlays without simple budgetary controls has made us the California of the Midwest. According to The Tax Foundation, we also make the top 10 [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 11:06am EST

  • The forgotten children

    We focus a lot on those imaginary children in day cares (those our tax dollars pay for but dont exist). Then there are those children who suffer at the hands of co-sleeping parents. But what about the children who are otherwise falling through the cracks? The other day, a mother [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 10:50am EST

  • You bad bargains can go wait in the no-mammography line

    The Wall Street Journal notes why that uproar over mammograms for women under 50 is about so much more than breast cancer. It’s because in now saying women under 50 or over 75 shouldn’t get annual mammograms, the federal advisory panel wasn’t acting on oncology or radiology. No such doctors are [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 10:45am EST

  • One holiday at a time

    No, it’s not one of the earth-shaking issues of our times, but a couple of local radio stations started playing Christmas music this past weekend. Actually, I was fairly impressed that they waited this long, less than two weeks before Thanksgiving. I prefer my holidays one at a time, so [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 10:34am EST

  • Will this "Twilight" flick top the first one?

    We're guessing "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" is one of those review-proof movies. Our Duane Dudek could say that the 2 hour, 10 minute movie is more worthless than a Will Ferrell flick and there would still be lines to see the film. Dudek's review will be on JSOnline later today' [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 8:15am EST

  • Meet Will Ferrell, overpaid actor

    Forbes, the maker of lists of all kinds, has put out a list of overpaid Hollywood actors. Atop the list is actor Will Ferrell. The actor's films earned just $3.29 for every dollar he was paid. That still sounds pretty good to us, but that's Hollywood for you. Carrie Prejean isn't on' [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 7:00am EST

  • Firstwatch: Swine flu shots and a day of parties

    Haven't these swine flu vaccination clinics been a bit confusing? Each time one is announced, you have to check whether you were pregnant or a medical worker or you're older than six months old. But Waukesha County will actually hold two vaccine clinics for just about anyone who wants to get the [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 5:45am EST

  • Killing evokes mother's nghtmare

    The scene at N. 21st St. and W. Auer Ave. Wednesday night brings tears to the eyes of Betty Butler-Brown, whose son was killed one block away almost exactly two years before. Emergency lights flash from police cruisers and yellow crime scene tape stretches across 21st St. As word spreads through the [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 10:45pm EST

  • NASCAR's new fans

    The entry of Bogotá, Colombian native Juan Pablo Montoya into the NASCAR racing circuit three years ago has helped fuel new interest among Hispanics in the sport, The Miami Herald reports. NASCAR has long been considered a niche sport in the South, but now it's attracting more Latinos both in interest' [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 3:37pm EST

  • Stimulus jobs reported in non-existent congressional districts

    Another day, another stimulus reporting snafu. Of all the problems found in the latest round of stimulus reporting, add another one: congressional districts that don't exist. In Wisconsin, about $3.5 million has been awarded to projects in six non-existent congressional districts, including the 0th, 9th, 10th, 14th, 39th and 55th, data from' [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 12:15pm EST

  • If he's abusive, kick him out

    The tragic murder of 14-year-old Cody Reetz allegedly by his stepfather should again shout out to all women living with a man who is not the father of her children. According to a 2002 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics, children living with unrelated male adults were eight times [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 11:11am EST

  • Get to the truth on Hasan

    It seems that some people are so afraid to acknowledge even the mere possibility that the alleged Fort Hood shooter was motivated by Islamic extremism that they’d rather point to everything but that. But even if it turns out that Army Maj. Nidal Hasan’s actions were terrorism, not the random [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 10:28am EST

  • Letterman's "Top 10" last night

    You may have heard that Bud Adams, the 86-year-old owner of the Tennessee Titans, gave the one-finger salute at Buffalo Bills' fans over the weekend. Last night's Top Ten list on CBS' "Late Show" was "Top Ten Signs Your NFL Team Owner Is Nuts." Here is the list: 10) "Married to a [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 8:40am EST

  • Studying ways to derail gangs and their culture

    Officials from around southeast Wisconsin will be in Milwaukee today and Thursday for the Anti-Gang Summit. The U.S. Attorney, state Attorney General, Milwaukee Police Chief and Mayor and others are all scheduled to speak. There will also be breakout seminars focusing on everything from gangs and the Internet to school threats, [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 8:00am EST
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