Wisconsin Losing Jobs

Sigh… it goes on. 

Wisconsin lost 1,000 private-sector jobs in June on a seasonally adjusted basis, the state Department of Workforce Development reported Thursday.

Manufacturing, information and financial services, and arts and entertainment all lost jobs, according to the latest data.

In the public sector, meanwhile, employment at all levels of government - local, state and federal - lost jobs in June as well. The federal government lost the greatest number of jobs - 3,600 - which coincide with the expiration of short-term canvassing work for the 2010 census.

Roundabout Rules

If you stop at a roundabout and wait for the roundabout to be clear before you venture into it, you will not only have to wait a long time, you will also end up with very many cars behind.  The grand purpose of roundabouts is that you usually don’t even have to stop at all.

And turning on your left blinker is pretty pointless in a one-lane roundabout.

Ship Found at Ground Zero

Wow.

Workers excavating at the World Trade Center site have unearthed the 32-foot-long hull of a ship likely buried in the 18th century.

The vessel probably was used along with other debris to fill in land to extend lower Manhattan into the Hudson River, archeologists said.

Archeologists Molly McDonald and A. Michael Pappalardo were at “ground zero,” the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on Tuesday morning when workers uncovered the artifacts.

State Supreme Court Rules On Baby Mama Case

Good ruling, and obviously not a hard one. 

Wisconsin’s infamous “baby mama” case got a new spin Wednesday when the state Supreme Court backed a judge’s use of the phrase at a sentencing and reversed an appeals court decision that had said the defendant deserved a new sentencing because of the judge’s comments.

In a rare 7-0 ruling, the court rejected the appeals court notion that if a reasonable observer might think racial or gender stereotypes influenced the trial judge, Landray Harris deserved a new hearing. Rather, the high court found, Harris needed to show by clear and convincing evidence that then-Circuit Judge Joe Wall did base his sentence on such inappropriate factors, and the justices found he did not.

Wall, who left the bench in 2007 to rejoin the U.S. attorney’s office, managed a chuckle Wednesday when observing that he somehow managed to bring unanimity to Wisconsin’s often-fractured high court.

“Race was never a factor in this case, and Harris’ sentencing attorney told your newspaper as much,” he said, referring to the original coverage of the appeals court ruling in January 2009.

Swimming In Red

I can’t wait for the government to control even more of our health care.

In spite of a recent round of cost cutting, the potential shortfall in the state’s health-care programs for the poor, elderly and disabled has grown to as much as $850 million in state and federal money, threatening to throw the entire state budget out of balance.

State Health Services Secretary Karen Timberlake told lawmakers of the expanding deficit as they approved a sweeping audit Wednesday of the state’s Family Care program. Republicans have questioned the financial sustainability of that program, which provides long-term care to the elderly and those with physical and developmental disabilities.

Timberlake last year was directed to find $600 million in savings for Medicaid, which provides health care to the poor, elderly and disabled and which includes the Family Care program. But Timberlake said Wednesday that the recession has opened up a new shortfall on top of those cuts because of diminished revenue and a flood of newly unemployed workers seeking health coverage.

Depending on how the new shortfall is handled, it could amount to about $300 million, or a fraction of the total potential deficit, for the state to resolve.

Sen. Rob Cowles (R-Green Bay) said Medicaid programs had “incredible cost overruns” that have to be dealt with by finding efficiencies and possibly tougher measures.

“One option is to cut various rates (paid to providers), cut benefits,” he said. “Is that painful? Yes.”