Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts said inundating the city with more law enforcement would not work because Portland’s newly elected district attorney has dismissed charges against hundreds of protesters arrested for non-violent, low-level crimes.
Roberts and Washington County Sheriff Pat Garrett also said the liability for their deputies would be too great amid worries deputies could be sued for actions they take outside their home jurisdictions.
“The same offenders are arrested night after night, only to be released by the court and not charged with a crime by the DA’s Office,” Roberts said. “The next night they are back at it, endangering the lives of law enforcement and the community all over again.”
At least 175 people have been arrested during the recent civil unrest in Kenosha, Wis., with 102 having addresses listed outside of the city, according to numbers released by police on Sunday.
[…]
Kenosha Police said in a media release that the arrests were from people located in 44 cities, although authorities didn’t elaborate which states they came from. A total of 69 people were arrested for curfew violations.
Thirty-four were arrested for violating curfew. The charges ranged from carrying concealed weapons, burglary and possession of controlled substances, police said. More than 20 firearms were seized. At least three vehicles were towed and all were related to “active criminal investigations.”
Kenosha police had arrested nine people traveling in vehicles with out-of-state license plates last Wednesday on suspicion of criminal conduct, according to a report.
Inside the vehicles, officers found fireworks, helmets, gas masks, protective vests, and suspected controlled substances, police said.
Like dozens of other investors whose properties were severely damaged in the May riots, the Kim family was stunned to discover that the money it would collect from its insurance company for demolition won’t come close to the actual costs of doing the job. Most policies limit reimbursement to $25,000 to $50,000, but contractors have been submitting bids of $200,000 to $300,000. In many cases, the price of the work is not much lower than the actual value of the property, records show.
“I think that is price-gouging and they should contact the attorney general,” said Andrea Jenkins, vice president of the Minneapolis City Council. “That is a symbol of capitalism run amok.”
Contractors acknowledge that prices for riot-related work are far higher than usual, but they said that is because government regulations require them to treat all debris from a burned-out building as hazardous. Industry veteran Don Rachel said those rules can double demolition costs.
[…]
Islam decided to move forward on a $125,000 bid; insurance will cover just $50,000 of those costs.
“Our neighborhood looks like a war zone,” Islam said. “As a property owner, it is my moral responsibility to somehow get it done.”
The move will leave him with almost no money for rebuilding. Most of the money he got from his policy went to pay off his mortgage.
Other immigrant property owners are facing the same situation. Faisal Demaag said a contractor first offered to demolish his store, Chicago Furniture Warehouse, for $18,000. Then the company started revising the price. He is now facing a total bill of $133,000 if he moves forward.
[…]
Ade Alabi said he was billed $75,000 by the city of Minneapolis after contractors knocked down his 32,700-square-foot retail complex on East Lake Street, but he said he has struggled to find a company willing to finish the job. Two of the three contractors he contacted last month have yet to submit a bid, and the third told him last week that it will cost $363,000 just to haul away the debris.
“The guy down the road paid $114,000 for demolition and removal,” Alabi said.
Alabi said he will have just $200,000 left for rebuilding after paying off his $3.4 million mortgage — leaving him far short of what he needs to rebuild.
“I don’t know what to do,” he said. “I think the city should have helped us more, but they haven’t.”
Gov. Tony Evers on Sunday sent a letter to President Donald Trump asking the president to reconsider his plan to visit Kenosha on Tuesday.
A spokesman for Trump said the president plans to meet with local law enforcement and survey damage from recent demonstrations.
In Evers’ letter to Trump, the Democratic governor said Kenosha residents are “exhausted and heartbroken with the division that has ripped apart their community, but they are also already working to rebuild, together, and support each other in the face of adversity.”
“It is our job as elected officials to lead by example and to be a calming presence for the people we know are hurting, mourning, and trying to cope with trauma,” Evers said in the letter. “Now is not the time for divisiveness. Now is not the time for elected officials to ignore armed militants and out-of-state instigators who want to contribute to our anguish.”
The Texas Sexual Assault Prevention and Crisis Services Program pays for an array of services designed to help crime victims, including rape crisis centers and training for specialized nurse examiners.
But it is funded mainly by a $5-per-patron fee charged to adult businesses, such as strip clubs — shuttered this spring as the government tried to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The uncollected “pole taxes” have drained $5.35 million from the program.
All the stories, all the time
Inmates who work for Texas Correctional Industries typically make garments and other items whose sale contributes revenue to the Department of Criminal Justice. But this spring, in response to a shortage of personal protective equipment, the inmates switched to manufacturing masks, costing the corrections department $3 million in profits.
The Office of Risk Management, the state’s self-insurance agency, says that in recent months it has processed double to triple the typical number of workers’ compensation claims. As of mid-August, the state’s risk managers had received 5,130 claims “potentially related to COVID-19,” spokeswoman Janice McCoy said. Covering the claims could top $6 million.
Table 3 shows the types of health conditions and contributing causes mentioned in conjunction with deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death. The number of deaths with each condition or cause is shown for all deaths and by age groups. For data on comorbidities,
Oh, and this… when thinking about kids returning to school.
What does this mean? This means that this is a serious disease that disproportionately impacts those with serious underlying health conditions. This is particularly concerning for elderly people who are more likely to have an underlying health condition.
As a matter of public policy, we should be encouraging sanitary and behavioral actions to limit the spread of disease and take particular care for our elderly and sick people. It does not mean, however, that we should shut down our economy or strip people of their civil liberties. This is a serious health concern that needs some attention. It is not something for which we should abandon our way of life.
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. If kids ever go back to school, they might like the building and facilities.
But remember that they will put the same teachers in there who are churning out results where 51.2% of the high schoolers are less than proficient in Language Arts and 55.2% of the kids are less than proficient in Math. In other words, less than half of the kids in this school are proficient at either math or English language arts. But hey… the facilities are cool. I’m sure that will help.
VERONA — A cathedral-height atrium will bathe students in sunlight as they eat lunch, small conference rooms attached to classrooms and the large “social stairs” are designed to promote collaboration, and floor-to-ceiling windows in the library pull a view of the rolling countryside inside the new $150 million Verona High School.
After two years of construction — and more years of preparation and anticipation — the project to transform farm fields on the edge of the growing city into a modern high school is complete.
[…]
The 592,000-square-foot building occupies a seven-acre footprint on a 162-acre parcel just southeast of where Highway 18-151, West Verona Road and Epic Lane meet. Parking lots and new athletic facilities, such as turf football and soccer fields, baseball and softball diamonds, and tennis courts, surround the building.
[…]
Perhaps the most striking space in the school runs the length of two football fields through the center of the building.
A large atrium features three-story-high ceilings lined with windows at the top. Throughout the ground floor and a second-floor balcony of the atrium, restaurant-style booths, high-top tables and conventional dining tables offer spots for 1,000 students to eat at one time, and nine lunch lines will provide a variety of food options. Three “bridges” on the upper floors divide up the expansive space.
A central atrium of the new school draws in an abundance of light to a space that spans two football fields and can fit up to 1,000 students for lunch.
JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL
The space acts as the backbone of the school as most instructional spaces ring the atrium.
Classrooms for core subjects like English, math and science line the hallways of the second and third floors around the atrium. Some have windows looking outside, and others provide views looking down into the atrium.
In the classrooms, there are no rows of stale wooden desks. Instead, each room has brightly colored seating of three styles — regular chairs, barstool-height chairs and “comfy furniture,” such as sofas — to accommodate student preference, Hammen said.
by Owen | 1346, 30 Aug 2020 | Off-Duty | 15 Comments
Sirens sound as Newburg couple celebrates 72nd wedding anniversary
Considering their age… the sirens that approached Friday night could be misconstrued for an emergency but the Newburg Fire Department rolled up to the driveway of Lucy and Norbert Carter to personally wish them a happy 72nd wedding anniversary. It could be the start of a Midwest tradition…. After a short panic and check of the pulse Norbert and Lucy welcomed the good wishes.
Lucy was 21 years old when she got married; Norbie was 18.
“We met at the Newburg centennial picnic,” said Lucy. It was July 27, 1947.
“I was there with my parents, standing on the merry go round with my little sister and he was looking at me.”
Norbert was with his buddies. “They were pretty wild,” said Lucy. “They were noisy.”
It did not take long and the pair were going out. Norbert picked her up in his black 1931 Chevrolet. The four-door had spoke wheels and there was white writing on the driver’s side and passenger doors. “Don’t spit the driver can’t swim” and “Peaches here’s your can.”
Lucy is almost 93. Norbert turned 90 in April. Both vividly recall their wedding day August 28, 1948.
“We were married in the Newburg Holy Trinity priest’s house,” said Lucy. “I was Catholic and Norbert was Lutheran.”
“They wouldn’t marry us in the church,” said Norbert.
“And the bride could not have a sleeveless dress,” Lucy said.
Sitting in the couple’s driveway on Highway M on Friday night, both acknowledged the recent passing of Jack Eggers of Campbellsport. “He drove at my wedding,” said Norbert.
Black-and-white pictures of their wedding day are eased out of a large crisp white envelope. “I bought my dress up in Fond du Lac and that bridal shop, Edith’s, is still open,” said Lucy. “We all went into the priests house; only immediate family were allowed in.”
The couple first lived with Lucy’s grandmother. “Oh, and the rent was high,” said Norbert. “It was $15 a month. “There was no in-door plumbing. We had a hand pump for water and the toilet was up on the hillside.”
Three years after getting married the couple bought 1-acre of land from Lucy’s parents farm. “We started to build our own house in 1951 and we lived in the basement,” said Norbert. “I put tar paper over the top.”
Norbert laid all the block walls in the basement with the help of his brother. “The block were 12 inches and weighed 92-pounds apiece,” he said. “We poured the footings with a hand mixer that had a little electric motor on it. We wheeled it down in the hole on a ramp.”
“We both worked during the day and then we would come home at night and Norbert’s brother would dry mix the mortar during the day and we would eat supper and they would work on the roof half the night under the moonlight,” said Lucy.
“One night a neighbor complained, we can hear you pounding away,” said Norbert. “That was when I was putting shingles on the roof. Not a crack in those walls though….”
It was January 1951 when the couple realized their construction project would be put on hold. Norbert was drafted into the U.S. Army. He entered service in 1952. He spent 15 months and 22 days in Korea
“I never got to go to high school,” said Norbert. “I was put on the farm to help my uncle because he couldn’t get a hired man during the war.”
Norbert was one of seven boys in the family; four of his siblings were also in the service. “My dad was in World War I; my oldest brother was in the Navy during Pearl Harbor. Two of my brothers were in Germany, two of us were in Korea and my youngest son was in Desert Storm.”
Norbert went to Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania for basic training. That was followed by a stint in Washington and later he spent 17 days on a ship to Japan.
“We spent one night in Japan, got back on the boat and I spent the next 15 months and 22 days in Korea,” Norbert said.
Immediately stationed on the front line, Norbert recalls his orders.
“We were on night patrol and walked up to one area and were handed a steel vest and they said ‘put it on — this is the area where you need it’ and we walked some more and pretty soon we were up on Old Baldy,” he said referencing the site of five engagements during a 10-month span of the Korean War.
“For 32 days I helped build bridges while we were under fire,” he said. “There were some Army tanks on a couple mountains up there and we had to get them back for service work.
“The biggest bridge we had was 280-feet long and it was all steel treadway. We couldn’t work during the day because the enemy could see us and every day for the first five days the bridge was knocked out by artillery, so each day we had to tear it out and start over.”
Back home Lucy was working at Badger Meter in Brown Deer. “Most of the time I stayed with my parents. A neighbor man would pick me up and take me down to work where we made bullets,” she said.
Norbert and Lucy corresponded via letter. “It took 29 to 30 days when I mailed a letter to her and it was airmail; for her to mail a letter to me it took the same amount of time,” said Norbert.
One story about mailing a package to Korea involved a homemade hickory nut cake with frosting. “His mother sent the cake and it took weeks to get there and once they received it the frosting was all moldy,” said Lucy.
“The guys around me said, ‘We’re going to have dessert.’ We opened it up and it was green. In true soldier fashion, the fellas got some spoons and scraped the frosting off and ate the cake,” Norbert said smiling.
The letters Lucy received were censored. “The letters all had been opened and if they didn’t like something, they just cut it out,” said Lucy.
Upon his return Norbert said, “It was 19 days going over to Korea on a ship and it took 18 days coming back. Norbert was discharged in 1953 as a staff sergeant Section B in the Second Division Combat Engineers.
“We landed in San Diego, California. We came in on a ship and went under the Golden Gate Bridge and within two hours we went over the top on a bus and we were there two or three days and then bused to Camp Carson Colorado.”
“I drove all the way to Colorado to pick him up and bring him home,” said Lucy.
When Norbert and Lucy reunited at home things moved quickly. “The day we moved into the house, June 1955, was the day I brought home my first daughter,” said Lucy.
Over the years the Carters had four boys and four girls. Today their family has grown to 16 grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.
“I used to sew lots of clothes,” said Lucy. “We wore aprons and I had an electric sewing machine and got my material from JC Penny.”
Lucy credits her mother and grandmother for her skills, both sewing and in the kitchen. “The family liked my homemade noodles, homemade sweet rolls, and coffee cakes,” she said.
“And homemade bread,” said Norbert.
Both Norbert and Lucy tended a big garden. “Norbie has been called the Tomato Man,” said Lucy.
The Carters said the hard work they experienced throughout their lives is what they credit as the secret to a long and happy marriage.
Body found in Washington County
A body has been found in Washington County and the Washington County Sheriff’s Department is investigating. According to Sheriff Martin Schulteis the body was found Monday, August 24, 2020 in the Town of Addison. An autopsy is currently underway. Schulteis declined further questions regarding where the body was located, how it was found, or the gender. “This is all still under investigation,” he said.
More details will be released as information becomes available.
Building home to Rose Marie’s Hair Designers for sale
Watch for a For Sale sign to go up shortly at the corner of Chestnut and Main Street in West Bend as the building that is home to Rose Marie’s Hair Designers is on the market, 408 S. Main Street.
The property is listed by Adam Williquette, president of American Commercial Real Estate.
The building was constructed in 2002 and the parcel is priced at $239,000. Click HERE for details.
Prior to the hair salon moving in September 2011 the location was home to Morning Glory Coffee & Conversation owned by Marianne Olson. In September 2000, Morning Glory had been located across the street, 349 S. Main Street, in the cream city brick building when her delicious coffee and scrumptious homemade bakery outgrew the location.
The shop jumped kitty-corner to 408 S. Main where Marianne purchased a big coffee roaster and meticulously decorated for the ever-changing season.
The coffee shop which was later purchased by Mark and Tina Thull. The couple from Kewaskum bought the business in August 2008 but by December 2009 the Thulls were looking to close. After a brief hiatus they hired a new manager and reopened briefly in February 2010.
Prior to Morning Glory the southwest corner of Main and Chestnut was home to Rick Takacs and Meadowbrook Market.
Meadowbrook Market had fresh produce in the summer, pumpkins in October and Christmas trees in December. The corner store had an open concept and car-dealership streamers of colorful flags above the lot. The corner sign featured a farmer in a straw hat holding an ear of corn. The building was razed in April 2002.
On a history note: Remember her big dog that laid on the carpet at the entrance to Morning Glory Coffee shop. The dog was a 100+ pound Samoyed. What was its name?
Horicon Bank’s Shred Day is Saturday, September 12
Make your life more secure by shredding old documents and make your community better too. Horicon Bank, 1535 W. Paradise Drive, in West Bend will be collecting donations for the Wisconsin Honor Flight at its Shred Day event, Saturday, Sept. 12 from 10 a.m. – noon.
Two homes razed on W. Washington Street in West Bend
Two homes in the 2100 block of W. Washington Street are being razed to make way for a new two-story office building. The homes are being leveled to make way for a 6,334-square-foot commercial building located 2115-2121 W. Washington Street.
It was March 2020 when a site plan was reviewed for the new Oak Brook Dental, currently located at 1201 Oak Street, West Bend. Oak Brook Dental will occupy the upper level and the lower level will be built out for a possible second dental office pending approvals.
Zoning: The 0.71-acre lot is zoned B-1 Community Business District. Two driveways exist on the site and the new proposal will utilize the eastern most driveway connection to W. Washington Street.
A total of 24 parking stalls (22 standard parking and 2 barrier free parking stalls) are provided for the development. The parking requirement for a dentist\medical use requires 5 parking stalls per doctor and parking for employees based on the largest shift. Based on the parking calculations 28 stalls would be needed. The developer is requesting a parking exception for the reduced number of stalls based on the anticipated needs that the office will generate.
Lateral Service\Utilities: Sanitary sewer and water laterals will be extended from the existing mains W. Washington Street to serve the buildings. An apparent electric easement may exist along the property frontage and should be verified.
Grading\Storm Water Management: A storm water management plan has been submitted and reviewed for the development. Prior to the issuance of a building permit, the storm water management plan must be approved.
25th annual Boltonville Fire Department Street Dance is Saturday, September 12
The last big bash of the summer is Saturday night, September 12 at the Boltonville Fire Department. The Street Dance starts at 5 p.m. with food and refreshments. There is an $8 donation at the door to see Rebel Grace. Proceeds benefit the Boltonville volunteer Fire Department.
Celebrating women’s right to vote in Washington County
There was a large gathering outside on Veteran’s Plaza on Wednesday, August 26, 2020 as officials from Washington County gathered to honor the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment which granted women the right to vote.
Former State Assembly Majority Leader Pat Strachota was the guest speaker. Segments of her speech are below, Women Suffrage Centennial Speech.
“It was August 26, 1920 that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, was finally ratified.
One hundred years ago the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution stated: The rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
This Amendment codified in law, for the first time that women, like men deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and this still holds true today.
Whistles and bells rang out in cities all across America acknowledging this historic day.
“Susan B. Anthony, is probably the best known suffragette. She was recruited by Elizabeth Stanton to travel and give many forceful speeches including her famous quote, “Failure is impossible” as well as this excerpt from her best known speech after her arrest for casting an illegal vote in the presidential election of 1872.
And I quote, “It was we, the people, not we, the white male citizen, nor yet we the male citizen; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them, not to be the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people – women as well as men. And it is downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them, provided by this democratic-republican government – the ballot.”
These were powerful words by a lady who was small in stature but large in her thinking.
A depth of gratitude is owed to these women and all the suffragists who were willing to voice their opinions, sacrifice their time and dedicate their lives so women could have the right to vote and participate in forming their government and communities.”
Hartford Lions Club accepts Eagle Scout Project | By Thomas Sweet
The Hartford Lions Club is heavily involved with vision-impaired people all over the world.
The Lion Club teamed with Boy Scout Aaron Haas, 14, of Slinger as he worked to complete an Eagle Scout project to build eyeglass collection boxes. This was designed to be coordinated with a Boy Scout doing his Eagle Scout Project.
Haas and his family met with leaders of the Lions Club and Aaron persisted in getting the project okayed by his troop, fund raising and bringing together a group of fellow scouts to work on the project.
The design of the boxes was modified slightly and the final project looked very sharp. The boxes will be placed in high-traffic areas like U.S> Post Offices, credit unions, schools and libraries. Total man hours in the project hit 150.
Highlighted in Lions Club yellow and blue colors, the boxes are sure to raise public awareness of what the Lions Clubs stand for as well as increase the collection of used eyeglasses, which are then refurbished and sent to undeveloped countries all over the world.
Aaron is entering Slinger High School where he has been part of Student Council and National Honor Society.
He will be a class officer his freshmen year. He was on the Yearbook Committee and Forensic team all three years of middle school.
With the Scouts, he earned Life Rank, went through National Youth Leadership Training, got confirmed at Still Waters UMC, and became a member of Brotherhood of the Order of the Arrow.
Aaron also donated $890 to the Lions’ Club that represents fund raising that did not go to the actual project. This was all warmly received by the Lions Club organization.
Aaron gave a fantastic recount of the entire project and the Lions Club expects to see him going a long way in life. Many thanks for a job well done.
Halloween store to open in former Shopko building in West Bend
The big white storage pods sitting in the parking lot of the former Shopko, 1710 S. Main Street, in West Bend are filled with costumes and Halloween displays as the empty big box store will temporarily be home to Spirit Halloween.
There are 16 Spirit Halloween stores in Wisconsin. The store in Fond du Lac is currently open.
According to its website:
Spirit Halloween has one single goal, to deliver the very best Halloween experience possible to all of our guests. We are the largest seasonal Halloween retailer in the world and the premier destination for everything Halloween. Since being acquired by Spencer Gifts, LLC in 1999, we have grown from 63 locations to over 1,300 across the United States and Canada and service the globe on SpiritHalloween.com.
Emily Putnam with Spirit Halloween said the store in West Bend will likely open in a couple weeks. The store’s web page lists “planned to open September 3.”
The stores normally stay open through November with big sales after Halloween, October 31.
The Halloween supply store will only take up about a third of the front of the former Shopko building. This is the second year Spirit Halloween has operated out of the old Shopko, which officially closed in June 2019. The last day for the Shopko in West Bend was April 15, 2019.
Trick or treat hours across Washington County.
Town of Addison 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 25.
Village of Jackson 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31.
Village of Slinger 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31.
Village of Germantown 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31. (Ben from the clerk’s office said, “Trick or treat will go on even if it snows…. like it did in 2019.” He said Germantown received 6 inches of snow. Remember that??
Village of Kewaskum 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31.
Village of Richfield 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31.
West Bend 4 p.m. – 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31.
Ghost sign discovered during demolition of Fleet Farm
As the final chapter of the old Fleet Farm, 1637 W. Washington Street, in West Bend comes to a close there was a brief glimpse of history caught as the demolition neared its final stage.
The northeast corner of the building is the oldest part of Fleet Farm. Barely visible on the dirty white brick is an arrow symbol pointing to the left with the words entrance. That same sign can be seen in the submitted photo below. The blocked windows can also be seen in the video on the back side of the building.
According to Terry Becker with You Know You Are from West Bend….
“the northeast portion of the old Fleet & Farm building dates back to March 1, 1949, the date the old “West Bend Pilot” newspaper was sold to brother investors Alan and Robert Pick along with their nephew Andrew J. Pick Jr.
The new endeavor, “The Pilot Press Inc.”, combined newspaper publishing and commercial printing all under one new roof built on W. Cherry (now Washington) Street during their first year at the helm. Tragedy also struck that first year when the young, vibrant Andrew Pick Jr. age 35 died of a cerebral hemorrhage on January 20, 1950 just three days after becoming father to his new baby daughter.
The grueling newspaper portion of the business merged with the West Bend News in 1954. The commercial printing portion of the business continued until 1959 when it was sold to Alfred Ramsthal’s Serigraph Sales. Equipment and files were moved to Serigraph’s new plant on Indiana Avenue, thus ending the final chapter of the “Pilot.”
The vacant building would soon become home to West Bend’s “Fleet & Farm.”
A couple recollections from the old, old store.
Andrea Peterson – Riding into town with Dad, stopping a Tri Par for gas and candy cigarettes then on to Fleet Farm and holding my breath in the stinky garden/lawn chemical aisles. Backing your cart all the way down an aisle or going 3 aisles over so you can get your cart near the checkout. Decades later shopping there for my kid’s Christmas present when the seasonal toy shop opened.
Matt Smith – Small squared off room was the ammo room. I helped expand it in 2001 when we started to fill CO2 tanks and did fishing line spooling. Also, the NE corner rumor had it was a former machine shop. The original blueprints for the build when it turned to fleet farm were in a crawl space up in the SW corner of the store. Many memories in that building.
Letter to the Editor | | By Kraig Sadownikow
I recently took a look at a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center that came out the first week in August. It revealed why voters support either President Trump or Joe Biden.
The survey listed various important traits of a quality candidate such as leadership, policy positions and temperament. It also listed a few attributes independent of performance such as party affiliation.
A full 72% of those intending to vote for President Trump say they support him for quality-based reasons while 38% support him simply because he is Republican or for other undisclosed reasons. It is pretty powerful that a super-majority of supporters have clearly taken the time to research the President and recognize tangible job performance-based reasons for endorsing him.
Most startling to me, however, is the leading reason supporters of Joe Biden are choosing him as their candidate. He is not supported for what he has done, he is not supported for what he plans to do. He is not even supported for who he is. He is being supported for who he is not. 56% of Joe Biden’s support comes because he is not President Trump. To me, this means virtually anyone could be on the Democrat ticket in November and would get support of 56% of Democrat voters. This is a scary statistic that hopefully causes real concern to the American people and acts as a gut-check for Democrat supporters.
Not being President Trump may help Joe Biden get elected. Big deal. Once in office though, don’t we all want someone there whose supporters voted for them because they had great ideas, was a quality leader, and because they believe in the American people and values?
Electing a President because they are not someone else may feel good at first but is this really good for the United States? Ideally the candidate I support for valid reasons will win. If not, at a minimum, I would like the candidate that does win to have support for who they are and what they plan to do and not be supported just because they are not someone else.
I understand there are those who do not support President Trump. If you feel that way, don’t vote for him. Similarly, if you do not support Joe Biden for who he is, please don’t vote for him either. It is insulting to our Republic, our history, and is dangerous for all Americans.
Kraig K. Sadownikow
City of West Bend
Disclaimer: Opinions and letters published in http://www.washingtoncountyinsider.com are not necessarily the views of the Editor, or Publisher. The http://www.washingtoncountyinsider.com reserves the right to edit or omit copy, in accordance with newspaper policies. Letters to the Editor must be attributed with a name, address and contact phone number – names and town of origin will be printed, or may be withheld at the Editor’s discretion. During the course of any election campaign, letters to the editor dealing with election issues or similar material must contain the author’s name and street address (not PO Box) for publication.
Kentucky senator Rand Paul and his wife were last night attacked by a large mob of Black Lives Matter protesters who shoved the police escorting him out of the RNC conference, knocking one of the officers into the Senator.
Video shows Paul and wife Kelley being surrounded by dozens of activists and aggressively accosted as they leave the Republican National Convention, where Trump had just accepted the party’s nomination, as police officers try to hold the crowd back.
At one point an officer holding a bicycle to shield the couple from the demonstrators was shoved backwards, stumbling into Paul and almost knocking the Kentucky senator to the ground.
[…]
Later, video showed Black Lives Matter activists aggressively harassing people leaving the White House after Trump’s speech.
One man was punched in the back of the head and later knocked to the ground by a mob of activists who also threw water over him.
Meanwhile RNC committeeman Chris Ager and his wife were repeatedly abused by a balaclava-wearing protester who threatened to ‘f*** you up’ as they tried to get into the doors of their hotel.
SMH…. way to be on top of it… schools are opening NOW. It is August 28th. And NOW the health department decides to offer some guidance? School Boards should remember that they serve the voters in their districts and take this guidance for what it is… one more unelected official’s opinion.
WEST BEND — The Washington Ozaukee Public Health Department recently published guidance for a COVID-19 decision-making framework for schools. The department also added data for burden by zip code and schools.
The decision-making framework will provide guidance to school districts and school boards for understanding COVID-19 risk. It will also “help districts determine when to implement virtual, hybrid (blended learning), or inperson instruction for the 2020-21 academic year,” according to the framework.
Final determinations will be made by school boards and district administration.
The framework data is based on the burden of COVID-19 cases, which is the number of COVID-19
cases in a 14-day period computed as a rate per 100,000 people, allowing for comparison between communities.
Risk level is placed into one of five categories: low, moderate, moderately high, high and critical.
Less than 10 cases per day per 100,000 people would constitute an area as low burden. An area with at least 350 new cases per day would fall into the critical category.
The Washington Ozaukee Public Health Department recommends that areas with a low burden host inperson classes five days a week.
Areas in the moderate or moderately high category are recommended to use a hybrid or in-person model with physical distancing.
Construction workers boarded up broken windows Wednesday along Gorham Street and University Avenue after a third night of unrest in Downtown Madison.
John Theisen said security cameras showed several people smashing the windows of his Domino’s Pizza shop on Gorham Street and then leaving after finding nothing to steal.
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Tuesday night’s destruction came just as shopkeepers and building owners had largely removed plywood that covered windows along State Street and its offshoots since protests earlier this summer after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
Now virtually every window on Capitol Square, State Street and part of University Avenue is boarded just as UW-Madison students return to campus.
Tiffany Kenney, executive director of the Central Business Improvement District, said it could be months before business owners feel comfortable without protection over their windows.
“This is a giant setback for us,” Kenney said. “They are fearful. There has been damage, there’s been violence and we’re back, way, way back.”
Kenney said many are worried about the November elections and may leave their boards in place through the end of the year, which “could be devastating for our Downtown.”
LRB-6422 is being introduced to provide parents with additional flexibility to address the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact it will have on students and families for the 2020-2021 school year. Under current law, students may open enroll to another district only if they apply during the spring prior to a fall semester. This bill allows parents to use the alternative open enrollment process to enroll their child in a different district if they believe their home district’s chosen instructional model is not in their child’s best interest.
It also gives parents the tools to make this decision without the threat of a veto from their home district. Finally, the bill removes the enrollment cap that currently limits how many students from a specific district can participate in the state choice programs and allows choice applications to be processed on a rolling basis throughout this coming school year.
Two people were killed and another was injured as a gun battle broke out on the third night of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin last night.
Footage showed gunshots ringing out amid a scuffle in the street while bystanders screamed and fled in terror, with one person shot in the arm and another one hit in the chest.
Panic broke out as another man lay in agony ‘losing a lot of blood’ after he was shot in the head, with onlookers desperately trying to stem the wound and yelling that ‘we’ve got to keep him alive’.
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As the crowd gave chase, one pursuer took a flying kick at the gunman and another tried to grab his weapon before he started firing to disperse the crowd, hitting another two people.
Three people were shot in total and two of them were killed, police confirmed in the early hours of this morning – but it is not clear which victims died and the identity of the shooter is not known.
Police are hunting for a man with a long gun and fear that the shooting stemmed from a conflict between ‘self-styled militias’ defending their properties from looting and demonstrators voicing anger at the shooting of Jacob Blake.
Government has failed to control the violence for days. People have a right and duty to protect their property and themselves from violent roving mobs.
From MacIver. How many of these folks continue to get these magnificent bennies while refusing to go to school and teach.
Out of 421 public school districts, taxpayers in 26 districts (6.2%) pay the entirety of employee monthly health insurance premiums for single plans. For family plans, 24 districts (5.7%) pay all of the monthly premiums.
The average monthly premium for a single plan is $740.25, and the average monthly employee contribution is $81.84. School districts pick up the remaining $658.41 monthly, which means taxpayers spend $7,901 on the average school employee health insurance single plan every year. The total value of single plan premiums is $8,883 annually.
The problem we have in America is not in the collective support for education. We have proven time and time again that we, as a people, will dig deep into our pockets to support education. The problem we have is that we have put our trust in too many government schools that routinely fail in their duty to provide the education for which we are paying.
For decades, we have seen educational outcomes remain static or decline as the taxpayers continue to shovel more and more cash into the flames. We are spending more than ever on government schools and our kids are getting a worse education than their parents or their grandparents. Now as COVID has laid bare the priorities of the people who lead our government school systems, we see why. Providing in-person classroom teaching is proven to be the most effective method for educating most kids, but when push comes to shove, educating kids is less of a priority than servicing the political clout of government employees.
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One cannot claim to support education and then continue to support government schools that are refusing to provide a quality education. We must put our money where our hearts and mouths are and spend our money on people and schools that are striving to educate kids despite the obstacles. We should lavishly fund true educators and cut off those who would continue to collect a paycheck while cowering in their virtual basement.
Wisconsin was an innovator in creating school choice for families to choose better schools for their kids even when their economic circumstances would not allow it. School choice was a conscious acknowledgment that wealthier families have always had the choice to send their kids to better schools and the taxpayers should enable the same choice for all families. The politicians have shackled Wisconsin’s three school choice programs with income restrictions, onerous deadlines, and enrollment caps. The decision by some government school districts to intentionally provide a substandard education provides ample justification to unshackle our school choice programs and allow every family to make the choices that wealthier families are already making.
If we truly believe in the power and importance of education, then we must stop supporting government institutions that have long since demonstrated that they are incapable, and in recent revelations, unwilling to provide the education that our kids deserve. We must redirect our hard-earned and painfully taxed dollars to people and institutions who value education for kids as much as their parents do.
At least 33 states and the District of Columbia are temporarily allowing cocktails to-go during the pandemic. Only two — Florida and Mississippi — allowed them on a limited basis before coronavirus struck, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.
Struggling restaurants say it’s a lifeline, letting them rehire bartenders, pay rent and reestablish relationships with customers. But others want states to slow down, saying the decades-old laws help ensure public safety.
Last week’s Democratic National Convention did not give Joe Biden even the modest polling “bounce” that some previous nominees have enjoyed, according to the new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.
Yet the virtual, COVID-era event, which most viewers thought went better than expected, did boost Biden’s favorability rating and solidify his support, preserving his 11-point lead over President Trump heading into this week’s Republican National Convention.
The curfew will be in effect from 8 p.m. Monday night until 7 a.m.Tuesday, according to the Kenosha Police Department. The Wisconsin National Guard was headed to Kenosha on Monday, according to the Kenosha News.
The state Department of Justice is investigating after officers from the department responding to a domestic incident shortly after 5 p.m. “were involved in an officer involved shooting,” according to a news release.
The man who was shot, identified by Gov. Tony Evers as Jacob Blake, was airlifted to a Milwaukee hospital in serious condition as of early Monday, police said. Tyrone Muhammad, a member of the group Ex-Cons for Community and social change, said Blake’s father told him Blake was out of surgery and was expected to survive.
On Twitter, Evers said he and his wife are hoping for Blake’s recovery.
“While we do not have all of the details yet, what we know for certain is that he is not the first Black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country,” Evers wrote on Twitter.
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Evers is calling lawmakers into session to take action on a package of bills aimed at reducing the prevalence of police brutality a day after Blake was shot. The move would ban police chokeholds and no-knock search warrants and make it harder for overly aggressive officers to move from one job to another.
Like most people, I look at the video and have some serious questions. I don’t know why non-lethal force was not used first. I question why they shot him when he was moving away. I wonder what happened before the video started. But I also understand that the police were responding to a domestic call, thought he had a gun, and perhaps thought that the kids were in danger.
We. Don’t. Know. What we do know is that a thorough investigation should be done to find out the facts. And if the police are found to have acted illegally, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But if they are found to have acted appropriately, then we should laud their actions while lamenting the sad results.
But before we even know the facts, the governor is out with a statement intimating that it was an unjustified shooting by racist police. His statement gave tacit permission for rioters to burn down Kenosha. And he has called a special session to pass a bunch of bills that have nothing whatsoever to do with this shooting. But since the bills are about police brutality, the governor is sending the message that he thinks this shooting is the result of racist, brutal police.
Governor Evers’ actions are repugnant and they have endangered the lives, health, and property of all Wisconsinites.
