Fishing for Brown Trout

Wow.

The Department of Natural Resources announced Thursday it has certified the 41.5-pound brown trout caught July 16 in the Lake Michigan waters off Racine as the state record for the species.

The fish was caught by Roger Hellen of Franksville. It already earned him the $10,000 grand prize in the Salmon-A-Rama fishing contest.

Week In Review 7/30/10

I’ll be on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Week In Review tomorrow morning from 8 AM to 9

PM

AM.  I’ll be discussing the issues of the day with Christine Bremer Muggli and YOU!

Tune in.

Milwaukee County Supervisors Display Their Arrogance and Greed

Of course...

A divided Milwaukee County Board Thursday sidetracked a proposal to cut their own pensions and those of other elected county officials by 20%.

If ultimately approved, the cut would apply prospectively to future pension credit earned.

On a 10-9 vote, the board referred the measure for a legal opinion on whether the pension change could advance in the absence of any recommendation from the county Pension Board. The Pension Board, by county ordinance, weighs in on any pension change. But the pension panel has declined to state an opinion.

Voting to delay action were supervisors Gerry Broderick, Elizabeth M. Coggs, Marina Dimitrijevic, Nikiya Harris, Lee Holloway, Willie Johnson Jr., Theo Lipscomb, Michael Mayo Sr., Johnny Thomas and John Weishan.

Supervisors against the delay were Mark Borkowski, Paul Cesarz, Lynn De Bruin, Patricia Jursik, Christopher Larson, Joseph Rice, Joe Sanfelippo, Jim “Luigi” Schmitt and Peggy West.

The measure could come back to the board, but Thursday’s vote suggests there’s a solid though narrow majority opposed to the pension cut, said Holloway, the board chairman.

Whenever I see stories like this, I ask two questions…

Why are elected officials getting pensions at all? 

Why do we allow those elected officials to decide their own pension? 

It’s no wonder there are so many greedy dirtbags on the Milwaukee County Board.

I Hear the Train a Comin’

I know it may sound a little silly to ask this at this point, but where in the Constitution does it give the federal government the power to force a state to construct and support a train?  At least up until now, the fed at least had to bribe state politicians to enact stupid federal initiatives.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Gov. Jim Doyle on Thursday portrayed a planned Milwaukee-to-Madison high-speed rail line as an unstoppable train that Republican gubernatorial candidates can’t derail.

“High-speed rail is coming to Wisconsin,” LaHood said. “There’s no stopping it.

LaHood was in Watertown to sign an agreement to release $46.7 million of the $810 million in federal stimulus money that Wisconsin is receiving to build the 110-mph line.

That’s the second installment, after a previous $5.7 million payment.

Republican gubernatorial candidates Scott Walker and Mark Neumann have threatened to shut down construction on the line if they’re elected, saying they don’t want taxpayers burdened by operating costs. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the leading Democrat in the governor’s race, backs high-speed rail.

But LaHood, a former Republican congressman now serving in a Democratic administration, brushed those concerns aside, saying high-speed rail is a national program that will survive changes in political leadership.