The seller, reached through a chain of intermediaries, wanted $1 million.
The $100,000, delivered in a cash-stuffed suitcase handed over in a Berlin hotel room, was an initial payment by US agents still dubious he really had what he was promising.
– Trump kompromat –
The seller also repeatedly pressed US agents with offers of compromising materials, or kompromat, on Trump, the Times said, citing US and European intelligence officials.
It seems like they were overzealous in giving away suitcases full of cash in exchange for dirt on the President.
by Owen | 0705, 10 Feb 1818 | Off-Duty | 0 Comments
MJ Stevens Pub ‘N Restaurant has been sold
Mark Jug poured himself a cola out of the soda gun at MJ Stevens Pub ‘N’ Restaurant on Friday afternoon. You could hear the din grow as customers came in for lunch.
Slowly Jug, 64, tried to get comfortable and leaned heavy into the end of the bar to share the news he had sold the business.
“You know I feel it was time to go a little smaller,” he said. “I’ve worked 32 years here.”
It was 1979 when Jug took over the Long Branch in Barton. In 1985 he took over the bar that ran alongside then Highway 41. “It was called the Timber Inn,” he said. Owners were John Kreilkamp and Harold Hefter.
“I leased it from them for three years and then I bought it,” said Jug.
Over three decades there were plenty of memorable moments at MJ Stevens. “We had two New Year’s Eves in a row that we got hit with snow storms and we lost both those nights,” said Jug.
If that wasn’t bad enough… “We also had two Father’s Days in a row and some guy hit a pole and knocked all of our electricity out and then the next year Mother Nature hit something electrical again and down we went that year too,” he said. “How the hell does that happen?”
Over the years the “traditional pub-style restaurant with an old-world traditional flavor” grew in popularity. Neighbors would wait an hour for a Friday fish fry, prime rib or Sunday brunch. The time would pass swiftly with a Bloody Mary at the bar or a traditional Old Fashioned.
Jug credits his 80 employees for making the business a success. During a recent Christmas party he made a list of all his long-time employees and read it aloud.
“When we started here it was just Brian the bartender, Manny, who is still with me, he was the server and I did the cooking and dishes,” said Jug. “The first Friday we sold 25 pounds of fish and I was so happy. Now we do 600 – 700 pounds.”
After a heavy pause Jug admitted he had been thinking about selling the business for a while. “It’s a big place; big operation,” he said. “I’m going to do something… it’s going to be hard to let go here.”
Recently Jug bought a place in Lomira. His intentions were to do a bit more catering. “I’m still working on that,” he said. “I do want to go back to a place like Long Branch. Small bar and grill and that’s it.”
It was last May when Jug listed the business with a realtor that specializes in bars and restaurants. “I thought it would take more time, maybe two years.” Jug whistles, like a firework taking off. “It went quick, quick, quick.”
Asked if he was happy about the speedy offer and Jug’s eyes tear up. “I have mixed emotions,” he mumbled.
A company executive from Iowa is how Jug describes the new owner. “I like him,” he said. “He’ll bring new ideas. He did this kind of work years ago and always wanted to own his own place.”
Jug said the new owner has agreed to “keep the name of the business the same, keep all the traditional recipes and the employees.”
On Thursday, Feb. 15 the Town Board of Addison will consider a “Class B” Beer and Liquor License, SAC Corporation, Andrew Kraus, agent, 5260 Aurora Road, Hartford. (M.J. Stevens Pub ‘n Restaurant). Jug said the transfer of ownership is expected to take place in mid March.
Tim Schmidt of USCCA in West Bend featured on 60 Minutes this Sunday
There will be a familiar face on national TV this Sunday, Feb. 11 as Tim Schmidt, president and founder of the U.S. Concealed Carry Association, is featured on 60 Minutes. The show, according to cbsnews.com focuses on legislation moving through Congress that would allow “state-issued concealed carry permits to be recognized nationwide.” Schmidt was interviewed by reporter Steven Kroft.
Honda dealership approved for West Bend
There’s a Honda car dealership coming to West Bend. A vote was taken Tuesday by the West Bend Plan Commission to annex property from the Town of West Bend so development can move forward on a new Honda location.
Karl Schmidt, CEO with Morrie’s Automotive Group of Minneapolis, was officially awarded “the point” for the Honda dealership in April 2017.
Shortly thereafter Schmidt flew to West Bend to scout a location for the new store. The property search proved a bit more challenging than first expected. Schmidt finally honed in on a parcel on the west side of Highway 33 and Scenic Drive.
“I like the corner and visibility and it was kind of serendipitous because we flew into the West Bend Airport and one of the people at the airport, his family owns this land,” he said of the Devenport family.
The past few months have been filled with working with the Wisconsin Conservation Congress and the Department of Natural Resources.
City administrator Jay Shambeau said the annexation is necessary so the property can hook up the utilities, like sewer and water.
“This is a 40-acre property involved in the attachment and it’s part of the boundary agreement with the Town of West Bend,” said Shambeau. “Upon request that land has to be annexed to the city of West Bend.”
The property is currently owned by Devenport Family Limited Partnership #1.
According to Washington County the parcel was purchased in 1988 by Douglas Devenport. In 1996 it was transferred to Craig Devenport and the Devenport Family Limited Partnership #1.
The 2017 assessment is for two parcels. One is 37.2 acres and its assessed value is $217,700. The second, much smaller parcel closer to the Highway is about a 3-acre strip valued at $7,700.
Morrie’s Auto representative Lynn Robson said construction will start as soon as the property sale and licensing is complete.
Schmidt said, moving forward, the design is pretty straight forward and hopefully they can break ground in a couple months. “We’re already in the process of designing the building with a manufacturer and what we’re really working through right now is the annexation and being able to proceed,” he said.
Schmidt expects to start building in late spring or early summer. “We’d like to be open yet this year,” he said. “We’ll see how the plan goes.”
The new Honda dealership will be full service; carrying new and used vehicles, parts and service.
“We’ll bring 60 to 70 new jobs, which is exciting for the area and for us,” said Schmidt. “We love the Wisconsin market and hope to be a good partner in the area and do well.”
Prepping for the Amazing Ride for Alzheimer’s
No better time to release details on the 2018 Amazing Ride for Alzheimer’s then when an Olympic hopeful, who will be tagging along on this year’s tour, is on Milwaukee TV.
Audrey Steffes, 15, is my niece and she was recently featured on TMJ4 in an Olympic-preview piece about the Wisconsin Speed Skating Club. In the video, the great thing about the club is how the participants are able to skate alongside some of the current Olympic athletes including Mitch Whitmore, Shani Davis, and Brian Hansen.
Audrey is a freshman at Milwaukee Rufus King and a fabulous athlete. She will be touring with me this summer as we head out on a bicycling adventure to raise money and awareness for Alzheimer’s. This year, following a request from Bike Friendly West Bend, the tour will raise money for a rickshaw bicycle to be donated to The Samaritan Home in West Bend.
The bicycles cost about $10,000 and allows seniors to be able to enjoy the exhilaration of bicycling again.
On a side note: This will be a rather large learning curve to have someone pedaling with me on tour. Normally this is a solo adventure. However, Audrey and I did a 20-mile test ride and since we didn’t have to call the cops on each other – we figure we can be pretty compatible on the road for three weeks.
The early thought is to bicycle around the entire state of Wisconsin, crossing over into Minnesota, Michigan, and Illinois although those plans are bound to change on a teenager’s whim.
More details on the 2018 Amazing Ride will be forth coming. Donations are tax deductible and the Tax ID No. 39-1741288. Please mail donations to:
Ozaukee Washington Land Trust, Inc.
William Taylor
P.O. Box 786 Cedarburg, WI 53012-0786
All money stays within Washington County and 100 percent will be donated to a bicycle for the residents at The Samaritan Home in West Bend.
Renovation of east side Riverwalk in West Bend to begin this summer
The City of West Bend is moving forward with construction of the Downtown Riverwalk project on the east side of the Milwaukee River. The $2 million project is being funded with a combination of grants from the Department of Natural Resources, funds from the City of West Bend and donations from private foundations and businesses.
The downtown portion of the Riverwalk, located between Washington Street and Water Street was originally constructed in the early 1980’s. Reconstruction of the Downtown portion on the east bank of the river includes removal and replacement of existing retaining walls, addition of new walkways, plazas, stairs to the river for direct water access, a new pedestrian bridge, and new seating and lighting.
West Bend Mutual Insurance Company Charitable Fund, West Bend Economic Development Corporation, West Bend Business Improvement District, Serigraph, the Ziegler Family Foundation, the Johnson Family Bus Foundation, We Energies, Walmart and Roots & Branches have all contributed funding towards the project. “The Riverwalk improvements will enhance tourism and economic development opportunities for our entire city,” said City Administrator Jay Shambeau. Construction is expected to begin this summer and be completed in late fall of 2018.
West Bend Common Council to select representative to serve as Dist. 2 alderman
The West Bend Common Council hashed over its options Monday on how to fill the seat recently vacated by Dist. 2 alderman Steve Hutchins. After a short discussion the council voted to select an alderperson within the next 45 days.
City attorney Ian Prust said applications would be accepted and interviews would be held in early March and then fill the seat which will carry a term that ends April 2019.
Following on the heels of that decision the mayor filled some of the key committee positions. Dist. 6 aldermen Steve Hoogester was voted the new council president. Hoogester was also named to the Licensing Board. Dist. 5 alderman Rich Kasten was voted onto the Plan Commission. Dist. 4 alderman Chris Jenkins was voted onto the Community Cable TV Committee.
Hutchins turned in his resignation Tuesday, Jan. 30. Hutchins had been alderman since April 2009. Kasten was first elected in 2014. He said Hutchins, as the longest-serving member on the council “always helped bring a historical perspective to the table.”
While Hutchins served as Council President he also was on a large number of committees including Plan Commission, Redevelopment Authority, Community TV, Solid Waste and Recycling Committee, Long Range Transportation Committee, and Deer Management Committee.
The city has already received interest in representing District 2 as Mike Christian called to inquire about the post. Christian has been involved in the community. He currently sits on the board for the History Center of Washington County and he’s on the Community Cable Committee. Christian also ran for mayor of West Bend in 2008 and lost to Kristine Deiss.
New look for Galactic McDonald’s on S. Main Street
The Galactic McDonald’s, 1140 S. Main St., in West Bend is going to get a bit of a makeover. The West Bend Plan Commission approved a facade update, reconfigured building signage and designs for a newly laid out parking lot. Aside from the signage on the building the other big change will be the layout of the parking lot, especially on the south side of the building as a new one-way drive aisle and a lane for parallel parking will be added for customers waiting for orders.
Hartford in the spotlight on Discover Wisconsin
Discover Wisconsin, a long-running tourism TV show, put Hartford in the spotlight last weekend with an episode, “Bike Nights and Fall Sights in Southeastern Wisconsin.”
The show kicked off in Milwaukee at the Harley-Davidson Museum before Haberman headed out on motorcycle to Holy Hill. In Hartford the crew checked out The Mineshaft, met up with the local Hartford Hog chapter outside of Pike Lake State Park and then stopped at Mickey’s Frozen Custard, Scoop DeVille, and the Erin Inn. The Westphal Mansion Inn was also featured.
Third candidate to step into race for 59th Assembly District
Watch for another candidate to enter the race to succeed Rep. Jesse Kremer in the 58th Assembly District. Ty Bodden is scheduled to formally announce his candidacy in the coming days.
“I’ve been into politics almost my whole life,” said Bodden. He put a start date to his interest at 2004 when he met President George W. Bush. Bodden was Jesse Kremer’s campaign manager in 2014. He assisted Duey Stroebel in a special election campaign in 2015 and has worked in the past with Congressman Glenn Grothman. The 24 year old is currently a member of the Stockbridge Village Board.
Born in Madison, Bodden moved to Highland Avenue in Kewaskum before residing in St. Cloud. Bodden attended Stockbridge High School and received his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Public Administration, along with a Business Administration minor, from the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. Bodden is currently the Farm and Nonprofit Manager of Cristo Rey Ranch.
A pro-life advocate and an NRA member, Bodden is a strong supporter of 2nd amendment rights. He promises to protect and support the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin, as well as the Constitution of the United States of America. One of his main goals is to create and support policies that help farmers. In addition he wants to make sure there are more job training opportunities for high school and college students, especially tech school students.
Bodden is the third candidate to announce his intentions for the 59th Assembly District. On Jan. 28, Rachel Mixon announced at the Washington County Republican Lincoln Day Lunch she was running and Fond du Lac County Supervisor Ken Depperman will reportedly make a formal announcement about his candidacy later this month.
The 59th Assembly District extends through portions of Calumet, Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, and Washington counties.
Updates & tidbits
-Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner will have a town hall meeting Sunday at 1 p.m. at West Bend’s City Hall.
– The 2018 sturgeon spearing season on the Winnebago System gets underway on Saturday, Feb. 10.
– On Jan. 17 West Bend West senior Alex Rondorf scored 37 points against Nicolet and was presented a plaque for reaching 1,000 points in her high school career. Rondorf is only the second girl in school history, aside from Meghan Conley, to achieve this. Rondorf has received a full-ride scholarship to Michigan Tech.
– County music star Jon Pardi will headline this year at the Fond du Lac County Fair. Pardi will perform July 20. Tickets go on sale Feb. 12. The country music star is known for hits, “She Ain’t In It” and “Dirt On My Boots.”
– Molly Riebe, Campbellsport, RN on the Modified Care Unit, has been recognized with the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin St. Joseph’s Hospital third quarter DAISY Award for her “huge heart” and compassion.
– St. Frances Cabrini alum Brianna Vitkus, a sophomore at West Bend East, and Jillian Wedin, a senior at West Bend West became selected members for their solo performances at the 2018 WACPC State Championships, held at the La Crosse Civic Center on Saturday, Feb. 3. The West Bend West team also performed at State, and placed 5th in D2 Pom and 8th in D1 Kick.
– The West Bend East Dance Team is hosting a dance camp for grade school and middle school students on Saturday, Feb. 10 from 3 p.m. – 7 p.m. at West Bend East High School.
– Join the Wisconsin Antique Power Reunion for its 19th annual Farm Toy Show on Sunday, Feb. 18 at Circle B Recreation in Cedarburg from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. The show will feature over 50 tables for dealers and displays. Food and refreshments available.
-There’s a motivated seller for the West Bend Wash, 2110 W. Washington Street in West Bend. The six-bay car wash features 2 automatic bays, 4 self serve bays, 3 vacuum pods, various dispensers and large billboard sign with LED scrolling message board. It is located to the west of the new Pizza Ranch. There sale price by BOSS Realty lists the property at $750,000.
– The Washington County Fair Park will be celebrating this St. Patrick’s Day with an indoor concert featuring Irish and Scottish folk tunes and classic pub songs from bands Tallymoore and Ceol Carde. Headlining the event will be U2 Zoo.
-The 7th annual Diamond Dinner & Benefit for the West Bend Baseball Association is March 3 at The Columbian. There will be a tribute to athletes who made their mark in local baseball circle including Mark Scholz, Adam Rohlinger, Bob Meyer, Bob Kissinger and TJ Fischer.
Letter to the Editor: County proposes wasting $5 million on road to nowhere By Elaine Gehring
This past Wednesday evening, Feb. 7, 2018, I attended an informational meeting at the Addison Town Hall in Washington County held by the Washington County Road Commissioner. At that meeting I learned that the state together with the county plans to spend $5 million to build a brand new road in the Township of Addison that nobody in the community wants and even the county admits will not get used much.
If you look carefully at this map you will clearly see that the proposed new road will be constructed between two existing roads a half mile or less from where this road will be. All three of these roads connect with the exact same two roads, Hwy 83 and Hwy 175.
In a time when the state is scrounging to find dollars to fund repairs for its existing aging roads and bridges, even seriously considering installing tolls on some of our major roadways, the WiDOT is planning on wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on building a very expensive new road in a tiny township, in the middle of NOWHERE, that the local community does not want, that the county expects very few people to use and doesn’t really go anywhere!
When we in the Addison community objected to this wasteful use of Wisconsin taxpayers’ money, the county insisted that the new road is necessary for safety.
But when the citizens asked the county to document how building yet a THIRD road between two already existing roads within a half mile of the proposed road improves safety and doesn’t just spread out the problem to more intersections, they told us not to worry about it because the road won’t be used much.
Well if the road is necessary to improve safety but it isn’t likely to be used much then how can it possibly be necessary? This is a circular logic shell game intended to confuse Wisconsin taxpayers and hide the fact that this new road is entirely unnecessary.
Rather than improve the safety at the intersections of our EXISTING roads, the WiDOT and Washington County’s absurd safety solution is to build yet a THIRD road instead! In the process, the state is going to destroy many acres of valuable farmlands and unnecessarily bisect and ruin a number of large farm fields.
Our farmers are having it hard enough trying to make a go of farming, now they have to fight the WiDOT and the county from paving over their fields. This is an INSANE waste of taxpayer’s money and it needs to be stopped. We absolutely do not need THREE roads within a one mile stretch that all connect the very same road!
The estimated $5M cost to build a road that local taxpayers did not ask for and do not want can and should be used to repair and restore Wisconsin’s EXISTING transportation infrastructure to benefit motorists and taxpayers in the entire state of Wisconsin.
Thank you for your consideration of this very serious matter
Anne Gehring
For further information please contact me at: 262-224-0712 centuryfamilyfarms@gmail.com
Thanks to the bipartisan agreement reached this week, crafting a spending agreement in March should be an easier task.
The overall budget caps – set after fierce negotiations back in 2011 when Republicans were railing against runaway government deficits – have been raised.
Congress has agreed to a general spending outline for the next two years, and now what’s left is filling in the gaps.
The military will get a total of $165bn (£119bn) in new funding – for weapons-development programmes, training, facilities and the like – bringing the total for 2018 to more than $700bn.
Discretionary domestic spending will go up $131bn, to almost $600bn in total. (The rest of the US budget is comprised of mandatory social safety net programmes and servicing the US government debt.)
Speaking of that debt, it already totals more than $20tn and is set to expand like the waistline of a middle-aged man who, after contemplating whether to exercise and go on a diet, opts to stay on the couch and eat.
The fear is that Trump is not a small government guy. He’s a big government guy. And there are already plenty of big government Republicans in Congress. This is what we get… plenty of spending and goodies for ever politician’s pet special interest. Taxpayers get screwed for generations.
L.L. Bean’s generous return policy is going to be a little less forgiving, after people have abused the policy and are returning items they bought at thrift stores and found in the trash.
The company, which has touted its 100 percent satisfaction guarantee for more than a century, is imposing a one-year limit on most returns to reduce growing abuse and fraud.
The outdoor specialty retailer said returns of items that have been destroyed or rendered useless, including some purchased at thrift stores or retrieved from trash bins, have doubled in the past five years, surpassing the annual revenue from the company’s famous boot.
‘The numbers are staggering,’ CEO Steve Smith said. ‘It’s not sustainable from a business perspective. It’s not reasonable. And it’s not fair to our customers.’
GREEN BAY – Conservative radio talk show host Jerry Bader was let go by Midwest Communications on Thursday. Bader said in a email it was because of his coverage of President Donald Trump.
Bader’s show was broadcast on WTAQ-AM from 8:40-11 a.m. daily in Green Bay. The station also carries conservative hosts Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and Sean Hannity, none of whom are as critical of Trump as Bader sometimes was.
Bader recently changed the tagline of his program from “Close captioned for the reality impared” to “Truth over tribe.”
“Following my show today, management at Midwest Communications informed me that I was being let go. It was made clear to me that the reason was the manner in which I covered President Trump,” Bader said in his email.
“I have always tried to tell what I believed is the truth and more recently to comport my behavior, on and off the air, with my Christ-following faith, after I was saved in 2016. I’ve always known it was MWC’s microphone that I used each day. I have no regrets on how I’ve handled the show the past two and a half years.”
I never listened to Bader’s show, so I can’t comment on the content. Media is notoriously ratings driven, so I would assume that his listenership has dropped off recently. Perhaps that’s because of the content. Perhaps people just moved on. In any case, I’m glad that Bader will continue to contribute to the conservative thought landscape in his role at MediaTrackers.
Wisconsin has had a remarkable run with in local talk radio that is almost unique in the nation. With the decline of 620 and now this, that run is slowing down. 1130 has a fantastic local lineup now, but they are the last one in the state.
A U.S. bobsleigh athlete has revealed she is already on skid row before she bids for glory in the Big Freeze Winter Olympics set to take place on Friday.
Katie Uhlaender, the Colorado-born double World Cup winner told DailyMail.com she is deeply in debt, has no job and nowhere to live.
And a gold medal victory here will not ease her financial woes without Uncle Sam getting his share of her award.
The 33-year-old daughter of MLB star and former Cleveland Indians coach Ted Uhlaender, has been told the US public purse will gobble up a large chunk of the $37,500 the American Olympic Committee is set to pay out if she strikes gold.
Many athletes are solely keen to achieve Olympic gold and reap the lifelong adulation and glory which inevitably follows individual triumph on the world’s biggest sporting stage.
UW-Madison officials say they will cover tuition and fee costs for Wisconsin students from families with incomes below the state median, a move they say shows all state residents that an education at the state’s flagship campus is within reach.
The plan, dubbed “Bucky’s Tuition Promise,” was unveiled at a University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents meeting Thursday.
It pledges to cover four year’s tuition and certain fees for all in-state students who are accepted to the university and come from families with a yearly household income of $56,000 or less. University officials say that amount is roughly the median family income in Wisconsin.
UW-Madison officials stressed the plan will not trigger financial aid reductions elsewhere and is not funded with taxpayer dollars.
Rather, they said the anticipated cost — about $3 million a year when fully phased in — will be paid by private donations and other revenue sources such as licensing royalties.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday suggested the state could extend its tax break offer to paper companies besides Kimberly-Clark if the opportunity to prevent job losses is “significant.”
Under Walker’s proposal, the company could receive a tax incentive of 17 percent of its payroll — up from the 7 percent available under current law. The plan is modeled after the tax breaks offered to Taiwanese electronics company Foxconn, which will receive more than $3 billion in incentives from the state as it builds a plant in southeastern Wisconsin.
Allowing open-road tolling on Wisconsin’s interstates is the only viable way to raise state money to match whatever federal funding could be coming for transportation, Republican state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald told county officials Wednesday.
President Donald Trump last month called on Congress to approve a $1.5 trillion federal infrastructure plan that likely would require states to put up some money to receive the federal funds. Trump’s plan would rely on state and local governments working with private investors to come up with much of the cash.
Republican legislative leaders have long been supportive of tolling in Wisconsin and they reiterated that again Wednesday. Gov. Scott Walker has also been open to tolling and last week said he would consider a gas tax increase to access the federal infrastructure money, if the increase were offset by cuts elsewhere. But Fitzgerald said Wednesday there was not enough support in the Senate to pass a gas tax increase or vehicle registration fee increases.
“The only way that we are going to be able to do this and the only way that makes sense is open road tolling,” Fitzgerald said.
Why does the scramble for “free” federal money always end up in higher taxes and fees for Wisconsinites?
US entrepreneur Elon Musk has launched his new rocket, the Falcon Heavy, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The mammoth vehicle – the most powerful since the shuttle system – lifted clear of its pad without incident to soar high over the Atlantic Ocean.
It was billed as a risky test flight in advance of the lift-off.
The SpaceX CEO said the challenges of developing the new rocket meant the chances of a successful first outing might be only 50-50.
“I had this image of just a giant explosion on the pad, a wheel bouncing down the road. But fortunately that’s not what happened,” he told reporters after the event.
With this debut, the Falcon Heavy aims to become the most capable launch vehicle available.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court, deciding along ideological lines, said Tuesday that a state agency that oversees public employee union recertification elections can delay the release of voter records to prevent voter intimidation.
Government openness advocates warned that the ruling could have a broad impact on the public’s right to know how its government works because it allows records custodians to consider the perceived motivations of requesters when determining whether to release records.
The court’s 5-2 decision overturns a ruling in Dane County Circuit Court that favored Madison Teachers Inc.
MTI sued the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, which in 2015 denied MTI’s requests for lists of teachers who did and did not vote in the annual union recertification election. MTI had sought the records under the state’s open records law, but WERC denied the release of the records during the election because it feared that MTI would use that information to intimidate voters who had not yet voted.
[…]
Roggensack wrote that WERC Commissioner James Scott properly balanced the considerations of the state’s open records law with concerns about voter intimidation before deciding not to release voter records during the election.
“Preventing voter intimidation during elections conducted by phone and email, as occurred here, is challenging,” Roggensack wrote. “Given MTI’s repeated requests for the names of those who voted before the election concluded, it is entirely possible that those employees who had not yet voted would become subject to individualized pressure by MTI of a type that MTI could not exert when speaking to all members of the bargaining unit collectively.”
These records are public and should be released, but there is good reason to not release them as an election is in process. This is especially true when it comes to groups that have a history of using intimidation tactics.
My column for the Washington County Daily News is online. Here you go:
The passage of time makes it easy to forget how activist and liberal the Wisconsin Supreme Court was a few short years ago. For many years before 2008, the liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court rendered ruling after ruling that eviscerated individual liberty, punished commerce and rewrote laws from the bench.
By 2007, Wisconsin voters had had enough. Wisconsinites elected conservative Justice Annette Ziegler to an open seat, but the liberals on the court still held a 4-3 majority. 2008 was the pivotal year. In that year, the upstart judicial conservative Michael Gableman challenged incumbent liberal Justice Louis Butler and won. This was the first time since 1967 that an incumbent Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice had lost a bid for reelection. Gableman’s victory also flipped the court to a conservative majority. Since 2008, Wisconsin voters have elected or reelected judicial conservatives every time except once. Conservatives hold a 5-2 majority on the court.
The conservative majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court has been critical in Wisconsin’s conservative reformation. Liberals who failed to win elections and majorities in the legislative or executive branches have routinely run to the courts to advance their agenda. Act 10, right to work, concealed carry, school choice, regulatory reforms, tort reforms, welfare reforms, etc. would all likely have been thwarted by a liberal Supreme Court.
After serving for 10 years, Gableman has chosen to return to private life, thus inviting an open election for the seat. There are three candidates for the seat. On Feb. 20, Wisconsinites will go to the polls to narrow the field to two candidates in the spring primary election. With one judicial conservative, one judicial liberal and one activist liberal, the choice could not be clearer.
Tim Burns is a liberal Madison lawyer who has made his name suing insurance companies. Although the Supreme Court race is nonpartisan, Burns is taking the approach of running as an avowed “progressive” (the chosen moniker of modern socialists) and is unabashed about espousing his political opinions. He also believes that the court should not just interpret laws passed by the other two branches of government, but that the court should intervene to “protect the middle-class economy.” Burns also believes that the court has an “obligation to strive for more than just equality. Progressive courts can ensure equity.”
Burns does not want to just interpret and enforce the laws as written. He wants the Supreme Court to serve as a socialist super-legislature that will reshape our lives in his vision — win Tim Burns making the decisions, of course. Burns is not just the typical judicial liberal. He is a dangerous activist with little regard for representative government or judicial restraint.
Rebecca Dallet is a more traditional judicial liberal. Dallet has been a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge for 10 years after working as an assistance district attorney for Milwaukee County. She is president of the Milwaukee Trial Judges Association and secretary of the Association of Women Lawyers. While Dallet is also an avowed liberal, she advocates a more restrained approach to the bench than Burns.
Dallet’s judicial rulings reveal her liberal approach to justice. As recently uncovered by Right Wisconsin, Dallet sentenced a confessed pedophile to a mere two years in jail saying, “there wasn’t an extreme amount of harm. There wasn’t intercourse” as if a grown man repeatedly fondling the vaginal areas of two elementary school children was not serious enough to warrant a more severe penalty.
Dallet has been at the heart of the liberal criminal justice system in Milwaukee County that has enabled violence and crime to surge. If voters want the rest of Wisconsin to look more like Milwaukee County, then a vote for Dallet would be the way to go.
The third candidate is the only judicial conservative in the race. Judge Michael Screnock has served as a Sauk County Circuit Court judge since 2015, but he has a very well-rounded background with experience in education, the private sector, local government and the legal system. After earning a BS in mathematics from UW-Madison and an MBA with an emphasis in urban economic development, Screnock worked for the cities of Reedsburg, Washburn and Ashland before returning to UW-Madison to earn a law degree. Screnock then worked for Michael Best & Fredrich for nearly 10 years before Gov, Walker appointed him to the Sauk County Circuit Court.
Screnock has a traditionally conservative judicial philosophy rooted in restraint and deference to the other branches of government. Screnock believes that “the role of a judge or justice is to interpret and apply the law, not rewrite the law.” While such a statement seems like traditional common sense, it stands in stark contrast to the judicial philosophies of Burns and Dallet.
Wisconsinites have worked very hard over the last decade to build a conservative Supreme Court majority that upholds the law with humble respect for the role of the court. That work must continue by electing Judge Screnock to the court — first on Feb. 20 and again on April 3.
(CNN)Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson and another man were struck and killed in a suspected drunken driving accident early Sunday morning.
Indiana State Police say the man they believe hit them is an undocumented immigrant who has been deported twice.
[…]
Police identified the driver of the F-150 as Manuel Orrego-Savala. Police said he gave them an alias at the scene — Alex Cabrera Gonsales — and attempted to flee on foot. He was taken to the Marion County Jail, accused of driving without a license and on suspicion of intoxicated driving.
WANT to win a war? Build a better gun. Now China appears to have taken a huge stride ahead of the United States with the first experimental deployment of a new ‘supergun’ aboard a warship.
The first images began circulating on the internet last week.
They showed a Chinese amphibious assault ship — usually used to deploy troops and tanks on a beach — fitted with an enormous cannon on its bows.
The Chinese newspaper says cutbacks in US funding for rail gun research had allowed Beijing to catch up: “the US Navy demonstrated its rail gun prototypes in 2006 and announced in 2016 that it would test electromagnetic railguns on the joint high-speed vessel USS Millinocket (JHSV 3), though no rail gun has ever been seen on any US military vessels …
“Though the test rail gun is not the final version of the hi-tech weapon, its size does fit the 055 destroyer, which would become an invincible vessel once equipped with electromagnetic weapons.”
MADISON –Gov. Scott Walker called Monday for giving paper-maker Kimberly-Clark Foxconn-sized job incentives to avoid the closure of plants in Neenah and Fox Crossing.
As Democratic lawmakers were announcing their own Kimberly-Clark plan, the GOP governor called for passing legislation to allow the state to give the paper company the same level of tax credits per job as Foxconn.
Walker and Republican leaders have said they were willing to provide unprecedented tax credits to Foxconn because the deal with the high-tech company would be “transformational” for the state’s economy. Walker is now saying he’s willing to provide similar incentives for an industry that, while critical to the state, has shed thousands of jobs in recent years.
“To keep 600 jobs here in Wisconsin, I asked the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to offer Kimberly-Clark the same deal for jobs as Foxconn,” Walker tweeted.
Foxconn is at least bringing new jobs to Wisconsin in a new, growing, high-tech industry. KC is a marvelous company with a long history in the state, but it is also experiencing a negative global market shift. We should not use tax dollars to try to fight against market forces.
Foxconn Technology Group will buy a seven-story office building in the heart of downtown Milwaukee from Northwestern Mutual and will soon begin setting up office operations there.
Northwestern Mutual on Monday announced the pending sale of its full city block southwest of East Wisconsin Avenue and North Van Buren Street. The two-acre block has the seven-story, 132,806-square-foot office building where Foxconn plans to have employees, but also a large surface parking lot with space for new development, should the company choose. The pending land sale means Milwaukee will get a direct benefit from Foxconn choosing Racine County for its LCD screen manufacturing operations.
“From an investment standpoint, I’d say it’s the best remaining development site downtown,” Northwestern Mutual vice president of real estate Tom Zalesaid of the property.
Remember that most of the Democratic candidates for governor have said that they will roll back the Foxconn deal if they are elected.
This seems like kind of a neat idea. It does open a door for having a cord for everything, but that’s a bridge to cross another day.
Feb. 4, 2018 – West Bend, WI – A West Bend West High School senior is trying her best to make a difference. Serenity Krueger is collecting signatures on an idea to allow students with more than 100 hours of volunteering to receive a cord at graduation.
When you walk into a High School, you are welcomed by a wide assortment of students. Athletes, Honor/AP students, Humanitarians and so many more different groups of students. So why at the biggest event of our school careers, are only the athletes or scholarly kids given awards or shown any kind of respect at graduation. We are here to change graduation to encompass the whole of the West Bend High School. Our goal is to introduce volunteerism cords to graduation to showcase the huge amount of volunteerism that is within our school. To achieve this cord, a student must meet the requirement of having at least 100 documented hours of volunteering in the community. Overall, this will achieve a more willingness to volunteer around the community for students as well as a sense of involvement and belonging in the school.
Krueger approached Lois Pellegrini, head of the College and Career Center at the West Bend High Schools. “She sent an email to administration, I think Mr. Schlass, and they told me ‘no because graduation is about academics,’” said Krueger.
A New York City middle school teacher’s lesson on slavery in America has sparked outrage after she allegedly singled out black students and told them to lie face-down on the classroom floor.
Students and a staff member at a middle school in the Bronx told the New York Daily News that social studies teacher Patricia Cummings was giving a lesson to several 7th-grade classes about the Middle Passage, the harrowing journey of millions of Africans who were kidnapped and shipped to America as part of the Atlantic slave trade.
Cummings, who is reportedly white, allegedly had black students lie on the floor. At one point, the New York Daily News reports, she allegedly stepped on the back of at least one of the students and said, “How does it feel? See how it feels to be a slave?”
If I paint this in the most favorably way, I can see what the teacher was trying to do. She was trying to evoke an emotional connection between the kids and the plight of slaves… but what an idiotic way to teach the subject.
Washington (CNN)House Speaker Paul Ryan deleted a tweet Saturday touting the GOP tax overhaul after critics called him out for appearing out of touch with the reality of low-income individuals’ financial situations.
The tweet shared the story of a secretary who, according to a report by the Associated Press, was “pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week.”
“A secretary at a public high school in Lancaster, PA, said she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week … she said [that] will more than cover her Costco membership for the year,” Ryan tweeted with a link to the full article.
A basic Costco membership costs $60 a year.
People, including several prominent Democrats, noted on social media that $1.50 per week is not a significant pay bump.
No, it is not a huge pay bump, but it is a pay bump. Just remember that the Democrats would rather that she didn’t get a pay bump at all. Instead, they would prefer that she send that $1.50/week to them to spend in Washington. Who is out of touch with low-income folks?
