“alcohol was a factor”

Ya think.

Sheriff’s Lt. Dale Wisnewski says a deputy arrived to find the car stuck in the field, and a 25-year-old Birnamwood man trying to free it. The man was naked from the waist down and had been covering himself and the car with mud.

The deputy used a Taser on the man when he resisted arrest. The man was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting.

Wisnewski says alcohol was a factor.

Dems Politicize Mother’s Day

Huh. I didn’t realize that Ms. Brickerman spoke for all mothers. Somehow I suspect that there are a few mothers out there who are quite happy with Walker’s performance.

In response, Democratic Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Maggie Brickerman, co-chair of the Party’s Women Against Walker group, stated, ““It’s too late for Scott Walker to win back women voters. His actions have proven he’s not on the side of mothers in Wisconsin.”

Obama and Wright (again)

So much for the myth that Obama was unaware of Wright’s racist rants.

“Did Obama himself ever make an effort to see you?”

“Yes,” Wright said. “Barack said he wanted to meet me in secret, in a secure place. And I said, ‘You’re used to coming to my home, you’ve been here countless times, so what’s wrong with coming to my home?’ So we met in the living room of the parsonage of Trinity United Church of Christ, at South Pleasant Avenue right off 95th Street, just Barack and me. I don’t know if he had a wire on him. His security was outside somewhere.

“And one of the first things Barack said was, ‘I really wish you wouldn’t do any more public speaking until after the November election.’ He knew I had some speaking engagements lined up, and he said, ‘I wish you wouldn’t speak. It’s gonna hurt the campaign if you do that.’

Barrett’s Gender Gap

Well, well... how will Barrett explain this? Or will he bother?

Women working in the office of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett make significantly less per year than men working for Barrett according to data provided by the mayor’s office to Media Trackers. Just two weeks after launching a television ad critical of Governor Scott Walker’s (R) so-called war on women, employment data from Barrett’s office shows the existence of a gender pay gap that greatly exceeds the disparity that is said to exist statewide in Wisconsin.

Among current employees, Barrett pays women an average of $17,645.19 less per year than he pays men working for him. Records from the mayor’s office released in March show that not including Barrett there are three men and nine women who work full time in the mayor’s office.

GOP Convention Doesn’t Endorse Senate Candidate

This is a good thing. The media spin in this article is off base.

GREEN BAY — None of the four Republican candidates for U.S. Senate was able to capture 60 percent of support at the state party convention Saturday, meaning no one will get the party’s official endorsement.

The vote was an especially tough blow to former Gov. Tommy Thompson — who was first elected to public office in 1966 — as he was eliminated in the second round of voting after getting just 18 percent support. It also served as a stinging rebuke to political newcomer Eric Hovde, who was eliminated in the first round of voting with 16 percent.

Frankly, with all of the necessary attention being paid to the recall elections, we haven’t had a chance to fully evaluate these candidates yet. Republicans should be pleased to have such a stong pool from which to choose, but there will be time to dig in after June 5th.

Alleged Child Abusers Seek Donations for Legal Defense

Wow. A word comes to mind… it’s not a pretty one.

The parents of a 15-year-old girl who are facing felony charges for allegedly starving and torturing the girl and keeping her in a basement have set up a website seeking donations from the public to pay their lawyers.

The girl’s father, Chad Chritton, 41, and stepmother, Melinda Drabek-Chritton, 42, “have been falsely accused” of abusing the girl, the website states, and “the government wants to make Chad and his wife felons and subject them to imprisonment.”

The site contains a number of pages that argue the couple’s case and asks that as site visitors read the information they “remember that Chad is an eight-year Army veteran who was honorably discharged and served his country well and that neither he nor his wife has ever been arrested before for anything.”

District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said he had no comment about the site.

The girl’s biological mother, Heidi Carr, said in a statement that the website is “just an attempt by the defense to try and lie their way out of this horrible crime.”

She wrote that Chritton and Drabek-Chritton are putting the girl “through hell by calling her crazy and a liar.”

Chritton and Drabek-Chritton were arrested on Feb. 10, four days after the girl was found walking on a street near the family’s home on Treichel Street on Madison’s Far East Side, barefoot and dressed in pajamas.

When the girl was found she weighed 82 pounds, the weight of the average 9-year-old child, abuse expert Dr. Barbara Knox testified at a preliminary hearing. She said that the child had suffered “serial child torture.”

Saverin Renounces Citizenship

It’s a good financial move for him.

Facebook plans to raise as much as $10.6 billion in an IPO that values the company at as much as $96 billion.

The offering could leave Saverin - who once owned 5 percent of the company - with a hefty capital-gains tax bill.

Saverin has sold enough of his Facebook stake that he doesn’t appear in IPO filing documents that list shareholders who own 5 percent or more of the company, though his holdings are still believed to be substantial.

He now lives in the Asian city-state of Singapore, which has no capital-gains tax. That compares with a minimum 15 percent rate for long-term capital gains in the United States for people in higher income brackets.

Green Bay Facing Deficit

Ouch.

Representatives of the Green Bay Professional Police Association could not be reached for comment.

The city’s 2012 budget was based on projected savings that would occur if police officers and firefighters agreed to accept new contracts that called for the employees to make contributions to their pension plans.

The firefighters union ratified its contract in December, agreeing to pension contributions of 5.9 percent from each employee.

But with the city still paying 100 percent of police officer pensions, the city’s budget has developed a deficit, now estimated to be $700,000.

City Human Resources Director Lynn Boland said there have been no contract negotiations with police officers for several months and she doubts that a settlement is possible before the fall. Issues are being thrashed out instead before a state labor board and in a pending lawsuit that challenges the city’s authority to impose health care coverage changes.

Referring to the pension contributions, Boland said of police union representatives, “They have not shown any interest.”

Man Gets Escorted Off of Plane for Making VoIP Call

This stinks, but the publicity for this guy’s ap is awesome.

Marco, 39, was en route from New Orleans to New York when he decided to call an associate using the airline’s in-flight Wi-Fi and the very app offered by his company.

He was approached by a flight attendant and told he needed to turn off his phone, Marco recalled in a phone conversation with msnbc.com. He ended the call right away and then explained that his phone was in fact switched to in-flight mode. He told the flight attendant he made the call using the Wi-Fi service with the VoIP application.

The flight attendant told Marco that the FAA forbids the use of these applications, he said.

“She said this was a flight safety issue. That makes absolutely no sense because there’s no difference between using Skype, Viber or watching a movie on YouTube,” Marco said.

Indeed, FAA notes that airlines block the use of in-flight calling using Skype and similar applications not because of an FAA restriction, but because the carriers are “simply responding to the overwhelming majority of their customers, who prefer silent communications to the public nature of Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) calls.”

JPMorgan Chase Posts Loss

Someone is in trouble...

JPMorgan Chase, the biggest US bank, has revealed a surprise trading loss of $2bn (£1.2bn) on complex investments made by its traders.

Overall, after accounting for other gains, losses at its chief investment office (CIO) are estimated to come in at $800m in the second quarter.

The loss could be as big as $1bn, chief executive Jamie Dimon said in an unscheduled conference call.

JPMorgan shares fell 6% after-hours, with other bank stocks following.

Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Bank of America also suffered heavy losses in electronic trading after the market close.

The strategy taken at its CIO had been “riskier, more volatile and less effective” than previously believed, Mr Dimon said.

“There were many errors, sloppiness and bad judgement. These were egregious mistakes.

“They were self-inflicted and this is not how we want to run a business.”

Tax Delinquents Who Signed Recall Petitions

it’s neat that these folks who want to increase my taxes don’t pay their share.

[Madison, Wisc…] After refining the dataset created by Verify the Recall, a Wisconsin man began running it against other public records and discovered 571 tax delinquents signed Recall petitions.

His findings? The total in back taxes owed by petitioners is more than $17 million. The list of individuals can be found through the website, http://www.putwisconsinfirst.com

The creator of the site told the MacIver News Service, his databases should be considered to be tools and not definitive source documents. The source documents are from the State of Wisconsin and the Verify the Recall effort and can be found through links on the site, all he’s done is connected the names and addresses together.

That being said, the site’s creator said he had to throw a lot of names out, to be sure his tables are as accurate as possible. Misspelled and nicknames signed on the petitions were removed. That means the actual number of tax delinquents could be three times higher than the 571 listed.

Couple Allegedly Abused Daughter to Death

These are truly horrible people.

West Bend - A 3-year-old toddler died this month of a massive streptococcus infection throughout her body after several days of neglect during which her mother refused to seek medical treatment out of fear that she would be accused of child abuse and the woman’s boyfriend ignored steadily worsening symptoms, according to a criminal complaint released Thursday in Washington County Circuit Court.

Both the 25-year-old mother, Leann L. Leszynski, and Justin J. Streicher, 24, were charged Thursday with felony child neglect resulting in the death of the girl May 1 and seven other criminal charges.

The charges include three additional felonies: maintaining a drug house for delivering illegal drugs; possession of heroin; and possession of oxycodone, a narcotic painkiller. Other drug related charges against both include possession of cocaine, possession of THC, and two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia.

Wisconsin Projecting a Surplus

I blame Scott Walker.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s administration said Thursday that its new revenue projections show the state will finish the 2011-2013 budget years with a surplus rather than the deficit predicted earlier this year.

The projections were based on stronger-than-anticipated personal income growth last year, Walker officials said. The numbers could give the governor a boost as he heads into a June 5 recall election against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. The Democrat has been pounding Walker over his inability to jumpstart the Wisconsin economy.

“This is great news for the state,” said Walker campaign spokeswoman Ciara Matthews. “(This) is why voters in 2010 chose Scott Walker to be governor and why they will stand with him again on June 5.”

Minnesota Senate Passes Stadium Bill

Well, they got it done.

The deal guarantees the Vikings’ future in Minnesota for three decades.

The team would pay 49 percent of construction costs: $477 million, which is $50 million more than owners initially committed. But the public expense is still high: $348 million for the state and $150 million for the city of Minneapolis.

Remembering Hoffa

For all of the propaganda, let’s remember that the union movement had its fair share of intimidation, bullying, exploitation, and outright criminal behavior.

Known throughout the trucking industry as a tough and knowledgeable bargainer, Hoffa successfully centralized administration and bargaining in the international office of the union. He also played a key role in the creation of the first national freight-hauling agreement. His efforts helped make the Teamsters the largest labour union in the United States.

Known to have long associated with organized crime figures, Hoffa nevertheless survived a series of governmental prosecutions until 1967, when he entered the federal prison in Lewisburg, Pa., to begin a 13-year sentence for jury tampering, fraud, and conspiracy. Hoffa refused to resign as president of the Teamsters while in prison and kept his position until 1971. U.S. Pres. Richard M. Nixon commuted Hoffa’s sentence in December 1971, stipulating that he could not engage in any union activity until 1980. Hoffa, however, fought the restriction in court and was widely believed to have covertly continued his efforts to reestablish a union position.