This Just In...

And they shouldn't have to.

From Wausau. Two parents who stood by and prayed while their child  died are now charged in connection with her death. A judge has ruled the mother is indigent and local taxpayers must pay for her defense to help her and her husband get off.

Voters need to remember that judge and boot him off the bench.

The story got the attention of the NY Times.

More from the MJS.

That's the way it would be in Governor Doyle's world.

We talk about the nails in the newspaper coffin. Yours truly questions the daily’s ideology. It’s only fair, then, to commend the Milwaukee Journal when it makes noteworthy achievements.

The team of photojournalists at the paper is solid. I have blogged about one of them, Kristyna Wentz-Graff often:

Here….

And here….

And here.

Plus her work has often showed up in my Sunday feature, Photos of the Week.

From jsonline:

“Kristyna Wentz-Graff was named WNPA Photographer of the Year, the second year in a row, for her 2008 portfolio.

She also won Best of Show for her photo story on Marine reservist Cpl. Richard "Ricky" Nelson, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. The photo essay was a part of her year's work showing how the Iraq war affected Wisconsin residents.”

Congrats to Wentz-Graff and all the other award winners.

Thanks to Jim Doyle, just about everyone in America is allowed to carry a concealed weapon except law abiding, trained Americans who live in Wisconsin.

In Tennessee, there’s currently a debate about expanding conceal-carry. Currently, those with permits to carry concealed weapons can’t do so where alcohol is served. There is proposed legislation to allow conceal-carry in restaurants that serve alcohol.

The knee-jerk reaction to such an idea is probably similar to the response this issue gets in general, that people will just start shooting willy nilly, carnage will be everywhere, and blood will flow in the streets.

Just not happenin’, folks. The guy sitting and having chicken alfredo isn’t about to start blasting. But some pistol packin’ crook might, and the law abiding, trained citizen who’s armed just might save a bunch of lives.

The details…

The Milwaukee County Board has voted to uphold County Executive Scott Walker’s veto that will not renew Gerard Randall’s contract with the county to serve as a consultant on finding employment for minority youth.

I am sure this wasn’t easy for Walker. Randall has been a longtime supporter of the County Executive (as have I).

This isn’t easy for me to see unfold. As many of you know, Randall appears with me weekly on Milwaukee Public Television’s “InterCHANGE.” As such, he has become a very good friend.

Gerard Randall is one of the most honest, decent individuals I’ve ever known. I believe he’s gotten a bad rap.

But I am confident he’ll bounce back. He’s too much of a quality individual not to.

Back in the mid-90’s, one of my many hats at WTMJ-AM was to write and produce a daily two-minute commentary to run twice during the morning drive period. We cleverly called it, “Kevin’s radio column,” because it was a radio version of a newspaper column.

One morning, I lamented the Milwaukee Journal’s decision to no longer run Thomas Sowell’s column in the daily paper’s editorial section. I did more than lament. I blasted.

At that time, the paper had as many regular conservative columnists as it has today: few, if any. It certainly had no local conservative columnist, and Sowell, a black writer to the right was a refreshing voice on those lefty pages. Then the paper dumped his contributions, and I criticized the move on the newspaper’s sister AM station.

Later that day, I got a call from Ken Roesslein, the paper’s Editorial Page Editor. He was basically a nice fellow, a guy I got to know as we were both members of the Milwaukee Press Club.

Roesslein was incensed that I would dare question such an editorial decision on his part and then go and  talk about it on the most listened to drive period on Wisconsin radio. Sowell’s work didn’t belong anymore, I was lectured, because he was dull and boring and not a very good writer. Yes, that’s exactly what Roesslein, now retired, told me.

I thought it odd that I was being chastised for having an opinion by the editor of an opinion page.

Today, Thomas Sowell remains one of the best and brightest and most read columnists in America. But he wasn’t good enough for the Milwaukee Journal.

I read Sowell’s latest offering earlier today and felt it was too good to wait for my Saturday round-up, “Recommended reading.”

Here it is, The Rookie President.

Those are the priorities of one Jim Doyle.  From the Manitowoc Herald Times:

“A group called The Ronald Reagan Legacy Project recently asked governors to sign a proclamation declaring Feb. 6 Reagan Day.

The group requested proclamations from all 50 governors and followed up to see who did — and didn't — issue proclamations. In a news release, the group listed the 19 governors who declined.

It's a little disappointing,’ said Grover Norquist, the group's chairman. He calls the proclamations ‘a useful, symbolic thing that governors can do.’

Wisconsin's Jim Doyle was among governors who did not proclaim Reagan Day. His spokesman, Lee Sensenbrenner, said incoming proclamation requests are screened by Doyle's staff. Reagan Day ‘just didn't meet the criteria. It was something we opted not to do,’ Sensenbrenner said.

But Henry Winkler made the cut. On Aug. 19, Doyle issued a proclamation as Milwaukee unveiled a statue of Winkler's ‘Happy Days’ character, The Fonz.”

HT: Foxpolitics.net

James Munley.

Nice message to send, your honor. Hey all you horny out of control teenagers, keep on sexting, baby!

It’s nitty gritty, crunch time as we get closer to those odd-year spring elections. The closer we get, the more we will suddenly, and I do mean suddenly, hear about the candidates for various local elections.

I have long advocated that voters seek out and obtain as much information as possible before casting a ballot. But along with that recommendation about doing one’s homework comes this note of caution: Beware and read very, very, very, very carefully what you’re being fed by each candidate today and in the days ahead.

Again, suddenly we’re hearing about who’s running and what they’re running for on April 7 and what they NOW have to say. Let’s look at Franklin.

In our quiet, humble city, there are three school board candidates on the ballot for two open seats. One of the candidates has announced that if he wins, he won’t serve, but he’s still a player because if he wins, the Franklin School Board (scary) would choose who sits on the board (very scary).

Here we are, with March 2009 breathing its last gasp. There are three, count ‘em, three candidates, two of them viable for the Franklin School Board, and I have heard nothing, zero, nada, zilch from any of them. Not a phone call. Not an e-mail. Not a brochure. Not a flyer stuck in my mailbox or on my front door.

Apparently my vote, and the odds are great that I will vote on April 7, means nothing, absolutely nothing to these candidates.

My blog is quite popular, or so I’m told. I have been more than happy to run unedited guest blogs in the past from candidates in local races. This year? Cue the crickets.

But April 7 is just around the corner. AND NOW THEY WANT MY VOTE AND OTHERS! Where were they this whole month? February? January?  If they were out door-to-door, no one rang my doorbell. Again, does my vote not count?

And this is going on, not just in Franklin, but in many other communities that are covered on the various CommunityNOW websites. You will be asked to read answers given by the candidates to questions posed that are published on the suburban NOW sites and on the Journal Sentinel's website.

BEWARE.


BEWARE.


1)  BEWARE the inability of a candidate to answer a DIRECT question with a DIRECT answer. Just tell us what the hell you mean, please.

2) Keeping #1 in mind, BEWARE the glittering generalities, especially the glittering generality of all-time. It kind of goes like this in a local school board election:

“In the name of fiscal responsibility, I support using every creative way possible to keep spending within our means to protect taxpayers but at the same time do whatever is necessary to improve the quality of education for every student in our district.”

Sounds nice, doesn’t it. Says the right things. Covers the bases. But what the hell does it mean? Zero specifics in that glad hand response.

3) BEWARE the oldest trick in the liberal (and phony conservative) playbook: As we get closer and closer to Election Day, move as far as possible to the right. Then when elected, drop your entire liberal agenda like the A-bomb.

There are lots of liberals running this April, especially in school board races, disguised as conservatives. Don’t buy their snake oil. Vote against them or be prepared to surrender your hard-earned wallet.

Candidates who have decided that now they need your vote may say anything to get it.

BEWARE.

This information, I hope, will be useful for future reference.

Ryan Moats.

The officer Moats had a confrontation with was one of my VILLAINS OF THE WEEK Saturday.

Last weekend, I blogged that the installation of photo radar has nothing to do with making roads safer. It’s all about the cash.

Photo radar is catching on, big time despite its obvious disturbing Orwellian characteristics. Motorists, as you can imagine, aren’t doing cartwheels over a system that sends them a ticket in the mail after the fact, based on some photographs. They are understandably upset.

When I say upset, I don’t mean they dash to their computer to send a nasty-gram. I mean they’re UPSET.

Victims of photo radar, or plain, ordinary citizens who are not enamored with this new law enforcement tool have resorted to chicanery, not to mention violence and property damage.

Apparently even Santa Claus, who tends to have a heavy foot in the first place, hates photo radar.

Even though government yahoo’s and bureaucrats think they’ve outsmarted everyone, the press has figured out the true MO of photo radar: to make mucho dinero and screw you, the guys and gals behind the wheel.

The Wall Street Journal has more.

And while we’re on the subject, here’s more evidence to demonstrate that when some public sector pencil pusher, guy with a badge, or elected official denies that writing all those tickets is a money-making operation, he/she is lying.

The above-mentioned Wall Street Journal article makes mention of a recent study done by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis with conclusions that shouldn’t surprise anyone. Tickets are used to generate revenue. Not only that, the number of tickets doesn’t decline when revenues increase:

“There is ample anecdotal evidence that local government use traffic tickets as a means of generating revenue, implying that traffic law enforcement may be motivated by political interests as well as public safety interests. Our paper provides the first empirical evidence to support this view by examining how changes in the number of traffic tickets issued in North Carolina counties are effected by changes in local fiscal conditions. The results indicate that, while changes in local government revenue are significantly correlated with the number of tickets issued, the response is asymmetric to positive and negative changes in local revenue. Positive changes in local revenue have no statistical effect on the changes in the tickets issued, but we find evidence that law enforcement officials issue significantly more tickets in the year following a decline in local government revenue. Specifically, a one percentage point decrease in last year’s local government revenue results in roughly a 0.32 percentage point increase in the number of traffic tickets in the following year. In terms of elasticity, we find that a ten percent decrease in negative revenue growth results in a 6.4 percent increase in the growth rate of traffic tickets.”

Here’s the shortened version of the study, and the actual study.

Culinary no-no.

Hungry? You won't be.

The University of Notre Dame needs to find a way.

Charlie Sykes gets the view of Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

And the ridicule of a proud university continues.

Your teenager won’t like it, but you, as a parent, can help prevent "sexting."

The video.

The web story.

 

A women watches on prior to Earth Hour on March 28, 2009 in Sydney, Australia. A WWF global initiative, Earth Hour will take place in over 900 cities and towns in 80 countries to highlight the world's need to reduce emissions as a shared global responsibility. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

 

A home is completely surrounded by Red River flood waters south of Fargo, N.D. on Friday, March 27, 2009. (AP Photo/Pioneer Press, Ben Garvin)

Eunice Guthrie prepares to pack up her personal items after being asked to evacuate from her home Friday March, 27, 2009 in Moorehead, Minn. Guthrie had offered to house those left stranded by the flood in spare rooms, but was now reluctantly leaving her house behind. (AP Photo/The Star Tribune, Brian Peterson)

 

John Iverson wades through icy water after leaving his home Thursday, March 26, 2009 in Oxbow, North Dakota. Water from the Red and Wild Rice Rivers has started to overtake the small community about 15 miles south of Fargo. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

 

Evelyn Radke is comforted by Anna Charles, right and Ves Marinov as she is evacuated with the rest of the residents at the Elim Rehab & Care Center, Thursday, March 26, 2009 in Fargo, N.D. North Dakota's largest city moved to the brink of potentially disastrous flooding Thursday, with earlier optimism fading as officials predicted the Red River would reach a record-high crest of 41 feet by the weekend. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

 

Michelle Dumont (left) and her church group from St. Cloud, Minn., passed sandbags Thursday, March 26, 2009 to help shore up a dike in anticipation of the crest of the Red River near Fargo, North Dakota. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Minneapolis Star Tribune/MCT)

 

Joe Bottrell shovels freezing floodwater that has seeped through a sandbag dike into his neighbors home as the Red River continues to rise, Friday, March 27, 2009, in Briarwood, N.D. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Heidi Fast pushes her shopping cart through a snow drift while grabbing last-minute items at the Safeway in Monument, Colo. Thursday, March 26, 2009. A winter storm blew into Southern Colorado, dropping over a foot of snow and snarling traffic. (AP Photo/The Colorado Springs Gazette, Christian Murdock)

A rabbit heads for cover along a snow-covered path at Riverfront Park in Billings, Mont. after a snowstorm moved through the area Thursday, March 26, 2009. (AP Photo/Casey Riffe, Billings Gazette)

 

CBS' Steve Kroft interviews U.S. President Barack Obama for CBS' "60 Minutes" program, in the Oval Office in Washington. Photo: CBS

 

The Water Street offices of  American International Group Inc (AIG) in lower Manhattan March 23, 2009 after the troubled insurer took their name down over the weekend from the front of the building. Getty Images






From left, at table, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and Federal Reserve Bank of New York President and Chief Executive Office William Dudley, prepare to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 24, 2009, before a House Financial Services Committee hearing on AIG. CodePink demonstrators are seen behind them. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)


 

 

A demonstrator holds a placard during a march for jobs, justice, peace and the climate in central London, Saturday March 28, 2009. Thousands of people joined the march through the streets of the British capital to call on the G20 leaders, who are scheduled to meet in London April 2 for talks on the global economic crisis to 'put people first' and to listen to their concerns.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)






David Dallecarbonare, 42 of Franklin, Ind, helps out Doug Ayers with the charity of a dollar while wearing a sandwich board titled "Hire Me" in hopes of creating contacts to help himself find a job, Friday, March 19, 2009, in Indianapolis. Dallecarbonare was an Operations Manager/Senior Packaging Engineer who lost his job at Valeo Sylvania in January and treats every day like a job as he networks, sends out resumes and looks for any lead to a possible job. "Things are starting to get tight," said Dallecarbonare. For a 10th straight week, the number of people who are continuing to claim jobless benefits increased, fresh evidence that the labor market remains weak despite other hopeful signs that the recession may have bottomed out. (AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star)


 

Phillp Long, from Antioch, Calif., leaves flowers at the front entrance of the police station in Oakland, Calif., Sunday, March 22, 2009. A man wanted for violating his parole killed three veteran police officers and gravely wounded another in two shootings Saturday, March 21, 2009, the first after a routine traffic stop and the second after a massive manhunt ended in gunfire, authorities said. (AP Photo/ Tony Avelar)

 

Flags drape the caskets of Oakland Police Officers Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40, John Hege, 41, Sgt. Ervin Romans, 43, and Sgt. Daniel Sakai, 35, during funeral services for four Oakland police officers at Oracle Arena on March 27, 2009 in Oakland, California. Thousands of police officers from across the country along with members of the public came out to pay their respects to four Oakland police officers the were killed in the line of duty last Saturday following a traffic stop of a fugitive parolee. (Photo by Tony Avelar-Pool/Getty Images)

 

A U.S. Marine retrieves a parachute from a pallete that blew off course into an opium poppy field on March 22, 2009 in remote Qalanderabad in southwest Afghanistan. A U.S. Air Force airdrop of supplies blew off target, landing on some of the crops and crushing them. The Marines assured the irate Afghan farmer that he would be paid for his damaged poppy in compensation for the accident. The Taliban often extorts a percentage of the profits from the farmers' harvest to fund attacks on American forces, according to the military. U.S. Marines, however, have no mandate to destroy poppy crops and, in fact, rely on local farmers for information on Taliban activities. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

 

U.S. Navy Lt. Obi Ugochukwu checks sick baby Fatima, 8 months, on March 23, 2009 outside the U.S. Marine base in Bakwa in southwest Afghanistan. The child's parents brought her to the base for emergency treatment for a 104 degree fever and seizures. Ugochukwu, the base medical officer, gave the child medicine to reduce the fever and asked the parents to bring her again the following day. Such remote areas as Bakwa, in Afghanistan's Farah province, have no hospitals, and the medical personnel at the Marine base provide the only emergency care in the region. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

In this image from NASA Television, astronaut Richard Arnold II makes a space walk outside the international space station on Monday, March 23, 2009. (AP Photo/NASA TV)




 

Rep. Ron Reagan, R-Bradenton, repels down from the second floor of the Capitol building during National Guard Day at the Florida Capitol festivities, Tuesday, March 24, 2009, in Tallahassee, Fla.(AP Photo/Phil Coale)

 

Danish Member of the European Parliament Hanne Dahl votes from her seat while her baby rests on a blanket on her desk during a session at of the EU Parliament in Strasbourg, France Thursday March 26, 2009. (AP Photo/Christian Lutz)

Isabel Kallmeyer, 9, works with her neighbor Caitlin Carson, 6, with the shovel, to fill sandbags that will be piled around the Kallmeyer home in the hopes of holding back floodwaters of the Red River Tuesday, March 23, 2009, in Fargo, N.D. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Participants work on keeping their dribbles in the parking lot at Rock Springs Elementary School in Denver, NC as they take part in Dribble out Diabetes 2009, an attempt to break a world record for the most people dribbling basketballs all at the same time on Sunday. This was the first year of the event, which included vendors and raffle prizes. All proceeds will benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. DAVID T. FOSTER III-dtfoster@charlotteobserver.com

 

Meghan Duggan #7 and Erika Lawler #13 of the Wisconsin Badgers celebrate the win over the Mercyhurst Lakers on March 22, 2009 during the NCAA Women's Frozen Four Championship game at Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts. The Wisconsin Badgers defeated the Mercyhurst Lakers 5-0. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

 

Forward Joe Krabbenhoft #45 of the Wisconsin Badgers sits on the bench after fouling out against the Xavier Musketeers during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Taco Bell Arena on March 22, 2009 in Boise, Idaho. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

 

Marquette guard Wesley Matthews (23) lies on the floor after hurting his eye against Missouri in the first half of a second-round men's NCAA college basketball tournament game in Boise, Idaho, Sunday, March 22, 2009. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

 

The Missouri bench erupted when Marquette's Lazar Haywood stepped on the line on an inbounds play giving the Tigers the ball in their end of the court during the final seconds of the second round game of the 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship featuring the University of Missouri and Marquette University in Taco Bell Arena on Sunday, March 22, 2009, in Boise, Idaho. Photo: SHANE KEYSER/The Kansas City Star

 

Jayhawk, the mascot for the Kansas Jayhawks takes pictures with a camera from the photographer row against the Dayton Flyers during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome on March 22, 2009 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

 

Arnold Palmer moves quickly through a gauntlet of autograph seekers on his way to tee off during the pro-am for the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament in Orlando, Fla., Wednesday, March 25, 2009. (AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Stephen M. Dowell)

U.S. rider Lance Armstrong sits on the ground in this video image after he took a fall and broke his collarbone during the first stage of the five day Vuelta of Castilla and Leon cycling race to Baltanas, Spain, Monday March 23, 2009, halting his dramatic return to competitive cycling after a three-year retirement. (AP Photo/EFE)




 

People walk by cherry blossom trees in bloom along the National Mall in Washington, on Monday, March 23, 2009. The city's annual Cherry Blossom Festival, whose trees line the tidal basin, began on Saturday March 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

 

Keswick Mountain Festival volunteer Tara Vallente walks on water inside an inflatable sphere on Derwent Water in the Lake District on March 24, 2009 in Keswick, England. The new floating adventure is one of the hundreds of activities available to the public as part of this year's Mountain Festival which starts on May 13. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)


 

 

A model showcases a creation from a line of accessories by Little Shilpa at the Lakme Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2009, in Mumbai, India, Saturday, March 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Gautam Singh)

As I post every Sunday, here are the top five most popular of my blog entries from the previous week:


1) Photos of the Week (3/22/09)

2) Culinary no-no #104

3) "So, attorney husband of mine, how did your day go?"

4) *BREAKING NEWS*

5) UPDATE: Goodbye and God bless you, Angie