Milwaukee

Walker's Chickens Coming Home To Roost

November 15, 2011 by The Political E...

The entirely-justifiable recall campaign against Scott Walker that begins today was a tad foreshadowed in something I wrote in a posting from 2009 about then-Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker's emerging gubernatorial campaign. In fairness, given Walker's track record to that point, particularly with County budgeting, we can all put such predictions in the "shooting-fish-in-a-barrel" category:

About one dollar in six raised by County Executive Scott Walker in his run for the GOP 2010 gubernatorial nomination does not meet minimal state legal reporting requirements, a report shows.

Details, details...pesky details, similar to those gaps in Walker's budgets, revenue projections, pension 'reforms,' taxpayer-paid statewide motorcycle junkets, etc. etc.

Medicaid Cut Hearing - Eau Claire - 11/11/2011

November 14, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

Kathleen Vinehout, Mark Miller, and Janet Bewley held a public hearing on the upcoming Medicaid cuts last Friday in Eau Claire.  The Republicans in Madison had only held hearings in two cities, Madison and Milwaukee.  Sen. Vinehout felt there was a need for hearings in other parts of the state, and convened the meeting in Eau Claire.  The afternoon was very enlightening, as it made some of the ramifications of the cuts much clearer to me (and it became obvious that the ramifications were much worse than I had imagined). 

There was testimony from many different people at the hearing, some of whom had traveled quite far to testify.  Nobody testified in favor of the cuts.  I have included an audio recording of the first part of the hearing, as well as the slide show that was presented.

The testimony was very powerful, including multiple health-care practitioners, and people who have loved ones and relatives who face losing all of their health-care benefits, possibly facing health crises or death.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Where streetcar foes bend the logic around

November 14, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

Extinct Milwaukee streetcarThe biggest irony in the continuing, arms-length battle over a new electric streetcar system in Milwaukee is the veiled antagonism of the very company that once ran the city's previous electric streetcar line.

WE Energies, the state's largest power utility, has been objecting to a planned route for the new streetcars through Milwaukee's downtown on the basis that it would cost tens of millions of dollars to relocate power lines along the planned route. Then there's a reported ten million dollars that AT&T says it would need to relocate its communications lines in the city so the streetcar rails and support systems could be installed.