Obama Demands Action

Finally!

“I don’t see how another year of negotiations would help.”

Oh, I though he was talking about Iran.  Nevermind. 

Milwaukee Democrats Seek to Make Milwaukee County a Tax Island

Yeah, good plan 

Struggling to enact a transit sales tax before the end of the legislative session, Democrats are pushing a revised bill that still would establish a new Milwaukee County transit authority, funded by a 0.5% sales tax, that could take over the Milwaukee County Transit System, with County Board approval and eventually could merge into the existing Southeastern Regional Transit Authority.

But it would drop earlier plans for separate Kenosha and Racine transit authorities funded by hotel, vehicle registration or property taxes. Instead, starting Jan. 1, the Kenosha and Racine bus systems would become part of the regional authority, which already is responsible for the planned KRM Commuter Link rail line. The state could provide some added transit aid to those cities’ transit systems.

I fully support this legislation.  I look forward to consumers and businesses moving to Washington County in order to escape Milwaukee’s ever-increasing tax burden. 

We welcome all of you to Washington County.  We’re not perfect, but we’re a helluva a lot more sane than Milwaukee  

Average Teacher Compensation in MPS Tops $100k

Stunning.

For the first time in history, the average annual compensation for a teacher in the Milwaukee Public School system will exceed $100,000.

That staggering figure was revealed last night at a meeting of the MPS School Board.

The average salary for an MPS teacher is $56,500. When fringe benefits are factored in, the annual compensation will be $100,005 in 2011.

Obama Fails to Fill Civil Liberties Board

Heh.

When President Bush two years ago failed to name members to a federal board to monitor the protection of civil liberties, Democrats and activist groups were duly outraged, seeing it as one more example of his administration’s indifference to the subject.

But more than a year into a new presidency, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board—created by Congress in 2007—remains as much a cipher under Barack Obama as it was under George W. Bush. The White House has yet to nominate a single person to sit on the five-person board. It has no members, no staff, and no office.

Chileans Defend Themselves From Looters

Scary stuff. 

Garrido’s son armed himself with a garrote and joined a local crime watch whose other members wielded knives and pistols. But it didn’t make Garrido feel much safer. She worries they’ll kill someone.

She also worries that criminals will get in anyway, simply by wearing twisted plastic bags that patrol members use as armbands to identify themselves.

“I’m destroyed,” Garrido said. “Last night I heard gunfire all around me. They’re looting things and walking around with rifles doing anything they want. Nowhere is safe.”

Like her neighbors, she must make the stressful decision each day of briefly abandoning her home so she can fill a wheelbarrow with water from a system that in normal times irrigates a traffic circle.

Under a state of emergency declared by Bachelet on Sunday, about 14,000 troops were sent into the quake zone. They can shoot to kill if necessary. The military says that hasn’t happened.

A homeowner shot and killed a young man entering his house in the town of Chiguayante, El Mercurio newspaper reported.

In Concepcion, an unknown number of looters set fire to the El Polar department store Tuesday and were caught inside by the flames. Their bodies have yet to be recovered.

It’s a good lesson that when society breaks down, you will have to rely on yourselves and your neighbors.  Prepare for it before it happens. 

Rangel Temporarily Steps Down From Chairmanship

If he had any ethical standards, he would resign permanently.  But, of course, he doesn’t have any standards. 

Rep. Charles Rangel announced Wednesday he will temporarily step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, saying he didn’t want his ethics controversy to jeopardize election prospects for fellow Democrats.

The 20-term Harlem congressman held a news conference on short notice, telling reporters, “My chairmanship is bringing so much attention to the press, and in order to avoid my colleagues having to defend me during their elections, I have this morning sent a letter” asking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “to grant me a leave of absence until such time as the ethics committee completes its work.

Customer Service Fail

I recently needed to set up some additional email accounts with my ISP.  I can do this online, so I went to take care of it.  After having some issues, I decided to chat with support.  I’m a big fan of web chat because I can multi-task while I work on the issue.  Here is the text of my chat with some specific company and personal information removed:

Thank you for choosing ******* Chat Live! A Customer Care representative from My Account will be with you shortly.
You have been connected to TTD Pia .

TTD Pia : Thank you for contacting *******. My name is Pia. How may I help you today?

Owen Robinson: Hi Pia. My Account appears to be behaving improperly. When I login, I can only login with my old zip code and it takes me to an account called “Owen Cleanup.”... I’m trying to get into “My Account” to manage my email addresses, but it keeps going to the “Owen Cleanup” account and I don’t have access.

TTD Pia : I apologize for the inconvenience you are experiencing with your account access. Are you using Internet Explorer?

Owen Robinson: yes. IE8

TTD Pia : I see.

TTD Pia : Before I could assist you further, may I please have the account holder’s name, phone number, and service address?

Owen Robinson: Owen Robinson. ********************************

TTD Pia : Thank you for verifying the account. May I know who I am chatting with?

Owen Robinson: Owen Robinson

TTD Pia : Thank you. Please try to delete your cookies, then access the site again.

TTD Pia : To delete the cookies and clear the contents of your browser’s temporary Internet files folder, please do the following:

1. On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and then click the General tab.
2. Click Delete Cookies, and then click OK.
3. Click Delete Files, and then click OK.
4. Click Clear History, and then click Yes.
5. Click OK.

Owen Robinson: OK, hold on

TTD Pia : Alright.

Owen Robinson: done

Owen Robinson: working on accessing the site again

TTD Pia : Alright.

TTD Pia : Is it working now?

Owen Robinson: I went to the main page and clicked Log In. I logged in with my email address and password. It worked and welcomed me as “Owen.” I then clicked on “My Account and Help” and then “Manage Email Accounts.” At this point it prompted me to login again with a login page that asks for a username, password, and zip code. It does not accept my email address as the username, but does accept my username “*********” and my old zip code.

TTD Pia : Your login information is incorrect.

Owen Robinson: It accepts that login, but then takes me to the “Owen Cleanup” account and won’t do anything from there.

TTD Pia : I can certainly assist you with your login information.

TTD Pia : For security and identity verification purposes, may I please have the account holder’s name, phone number, and service address? 

AAARRRGGGGHHHHH!  At this point, I disconnected the chat.  If your company is going to offer a customer service web chat option, please have people on the other end that know what they are doing. 

Teachers’ Union Gives Finger to Taxpayers

This reaction was expected.

West Bend School Board members crossed a line when they sent a letter to teachers about labor negotiations Friday, according to the representative of the West Bend Education Association.

  Contract negotiations for teachers in the West Bend School District started last fall, and moved into mediation in February. If a voluntary settlement cannot be reached through mediation, which can take place over a series of meetings, the terms of the contract will be settled through binding arbitration.

  “The approach taken by the board was disrespectful to the membership,” said Jeff Wickland, who is representing the West Bend Education Association and is executive director of Cedar Lake United Educators Council.

  The two-page letter, which was signed by each School Board member, stated that the “current collective bargaining process is going to directly impact the amount that has to be reduced for next year’s budget.”

  Superintendent Pat Herdrich recently recommended $2 million in cuts for 2010-2011 school year budget. The cuts are necessary to bring the budget under the revenue caps, and as a result of reduced state funding for schools, she said.

  “To target our members, their wages and benefits is unfair,” Wickland said. “We are not the problem. The school funding formula is the problem.”

In other words, “FU, give us more money.”  Personnel costs constitute roughly 85% of the district’s budget.  You CAN NOT seriously address the district’s finances without addressing those costs.  The reason that the union doesn’t like the school funding system is that it prevents the board from jacking up taxes to pay higher personnel costs. 

Look, here’s the reality.  Even if the school district taxes to the max again, which will draw even more fire from the public, they will come up short.  The school board does not have the power to change the school funding formula.  It has to play the hand it’s dealt.  And if the union insists on increases in this economy, that money has to come from somewhere.  It will come from programming, teacher jobs, or the other 15% of the budget. 

The school board is doing the right thing here.  There will be consequences if the teachers’ union insists on an increase.  We don’t live in a fantasy land of endless resources here. 

If you are a teacher in West Bend and disagree with your union, it is your responsibility to tell them AND the school board that they don’t speak for you.  Silence is acceptance. 

Good Times

We went to (yet another) high school basketball game this evening.  The whole fam went.  We had the best time and drove home singing to Queen at the top of our lungs. 

Good memories were made tonight…

Bill To Include Mental Health For Background Checks Passes Senate

I’m OK with this bill.

The state Senate unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that would require gun dealers to check whether someone has been involuntarily committed for mental health reasons before selling them firearms.

The move is meant to help prevent shootings like the one at Virginia Tech in 2007 that killed 32 students and teachers.

Gun dealers currently have to conduct background checks through the state Department of Justice, but the checks don’t include information about mental health commitments by state courts.

The bill passed without debate and now heads to the Assembly, which like the Senate is controlled by Democrats. Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle has supported the idea in the past.

As the bill is written, the courts would have to declare if someone is unfit to possess a gun and notify the DOJ.  The courts would also have to notify the DOJ if a person is returned to being deemed fit to possess a gun.  Then the DOJ includes this information in the criminal background checks that they already do and the gun dealers are already required to request.  So the gun purchasers are afforded due process in the court system regarding their mental health status and it provides a reasonable layer of regulation for preventing nuts from legally buying guns. 

I don’t think that it will have any substantial effect on the true nuts who will find a way to get a gun, but it doesn’t strike me as overly onerous.  Nobody wants a nutjob to have a gun. 

West Allis Alderman Fights Back Against Unfunded Mandates

Good for him.

The Legislature has approved an expansion of health insurance benefits for state and local government employees without providing any money to local governments to pay for them, Ald. Michael Czaplewski says.

“You have a Cadillac plan and now make it a Mercedes plan and have the people driving a 10-year-old Chevy pay for it,” he said Tuesday.

In an effort to stop what he says is another unfunded state mandate and a burden on taxpayers, Czaplewski is presenting a resolution tonight to the Common Council.

The resolution says that if the state passes any more mandates regarding pay or benefits for government employees, that it also give local governments the power to pass on the costs to employees.

As it is now, Czaplewski said, local governments must provide the benefits mandated by the state but can’t pass along costs because they are bound by employee contracts.

[...]

Czaplewski said he was prompted to propose the resolution after hearing news about some of the new benefits for state and local government employees that took effect Jan. 1.

Among them: dependents must be covered, up to age 27, if they are not married or employed and covered by employer health insurance; treatment of autism must be covered; hearing aids and cochlear implants must be covered at 100%, up from 80%, for deaf children.

Wood Says He Shouldn’t Be Disciplined By Assembly

Of course he did.

In a resolution released Tuesday, Wood recounts a series of lawmakers who have been charged with a range of crimes dating back to the 1940s. He said the Legislature took no action against them, and shouldn’t discipline him, either.

Wood, a former Republican, suggested he is being treated differently because he is an independent.

When Government Picks Winners and Losers

Doyle has been touting his spending of taxpayer dollars on buying trains with a no-bid contract and luring a Spanish company to Milwaukee.  It looks like it will result in some good things:

The passenger train factory to be developed at the former Tower Automotive plant on Milwaukee’s north side will create around 125 jobs, Gov. Jim Doyle and other officials said Tuesday morning.

Spanish train manufacturer Talgo will use a refurbished building at the former Tower site to assemble passenger trains that will be used in Wisconsin, Oregon and possibly other states. Around 60 positions will be needed to build the trains, with another 65 jobs tied to maintenance work.

Talgo had initially been expected to have around 80 positions at its Wisconsin plant. Doyle said the factory at the Tower site will also indirectly create an estimated 450 jobs at companies located throughout the Midwest that will provide supplies, equipment and services to Talgo.

That initial number of 80 jobs was based on Wisconsin’s $47.6 million controversial no-bid deal with Talgo to build two 14-car trains for use on Amtrak’s Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line. That contract includes an option to buy two more trains for a planned extension of that route from Milwaukee to Madison.

Of course, Milwaukee already has a company that builds trains: Super Steel.  But Doyle didn’t want to favor a local company because that’s not as cool.  Well, when the government picks winners, it also picks losers.

Milwaukee manufacturer Super Steel Products Corp. filed for receivership Tuesday, listing $44.4 million in liabilities and assets of “significantly less” than $16 million.

[...]

In this case, the receivership filing comes just one day after Super Steel was told it wouldn’t win a contract to build train cars for Spanish company Talgo. Super Steel had been pursuing the work.

German Family Receives Asylum Because Homeschooling is Persecuted in Germany

This is an interesting case.

The Romeikes are not your typical asylum seekers. They did not come to the U.S. to flee war or despotism in their native land. No, these music teachers left Germany because they didn’t like what their children were learning in public school - and because homeschooling is illegal there.

“It’s our fundamental right to decide how we want to teach our children,” says Uwe Romeike, an Evangelical Christian and a concert pianist who sold his treasured Steinway to help pay for the move.

Romeike decided to uproot his family in 2008 after he and his wife had accrued about $10,000 in fines for homeschooling their three oldest children and police had turned up at their doorstep and escorted them to school. “My kids were crying, but nobody seemed to care,” Romeike says of the incident. (See pictures of a diverse group of American teens.)

This is a mindset that’s becoming more prevalent in America.

Concerns that homeschooling could lead to insularity - or worse, as Kraus puts it, “could help foster the development of a sect” - are shaping policy debates in European countries.

Domino’s Gamble Pays Off

They took a risk and it’s paying off.  Good for them.

Revamped pizza and a frank advertising campaign helped Domino’s Pizza Inc. more than double its fourth-quarter profit as curious customers tried out its new recipe, the delivery chain said Tuesday.

Executives have said that the chain decided to start overhauling its recipes more than 18 months ago after mounting criticism from focus groups and on social media sites. And it boldly admitted in a series of documentary-style spots that under its old receipe, customers complained its crust tasted like cardboard and its sauce was reminscent of ketchup.

The company began promoting its new pie, which has a new sauce and cheese combination and herb- and garlic-flavored crust, in December. That helped the company’s profit climb to $23.6 million, or 41 cents per share, for the three months that ended Jan. 3.

Domino’s earned $11 million, or 19 cents per share, a year earlier.

Removing one-time items, the company’s profit was 30 cents per share — well ahead of forecasts.