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Wisconsin Politics

Carp Barrier Electric Current Turned Down

October 20, 2011 by The Political E...

Original Author: 
(James Rowen)
Interference with railroad signals is the culprit.

Bad news for the effort to keep this super-predator out of the Great Lakes.

Evidence that without a physical separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds, the carp are going make the jump.

There's A Lemon Law For Politicians; We Have A Recall For That

October 20, 2011 by The Political E...

Original Author: 
(James Rowen)
I can remember the day our whole family headed for a dealership on E. Washington Ave. below the Madison Capitol Square and piled into our new car - - a 1975 Plymouth Valiant, clone of the Consumers' Report highly-rated Dodge Dart.

Ours was two-toned - - a white vinyl top over a gold lower body - - in what  

Oh, brother:

We drove it off the lot, and it stalled. It was always in the shop in search of a fix that could not be found.

This was before the days of lemon laws, so we were stuck with it.

Republicans Should Abstain From Undoing State's Sex Ed Curriculum

October 20, 2011 by The Political E...

Original Author: 
(James Rowen)
Especially during a special legislative session on job-creation.

Where Hortgage-Related Fraud Is Found, Justice Is Not Equal

October 20, 2011 by The Political E...

Original Author: 
(James Rowen)
The feds are bringing criminal charges against some alleged local mortgage fraud perpetrators. The charges are serious and it looks like jail or prison time is coming.

So be it. Anyone who had a hand in this national economic scandal should face criminal charges.

But where we have already had banks too big to fail, we've got some bankers who apparently are too big to jail.

The feds are alleging a massive mortgage-securities related scheme perpetrated by Citigroup by letting the Wall Street giant  settle and buy its way out through a civil complaint process...though Citigroup continues to report billions of dollars in profits that dwarf the amount of the proposed settlement...after having received the largest taxpayer-paid bailout to survive the crash it helped bring on by creating and selling and profiting from shady, toxic mortgage securities and manipulations.

A State That Is Open For Business Can't Have Its Public Business Troubled By Open Records

October 20, 2011 by The Political E...

Original Author: 
(James Rowen)
How else to interpret the State Public [sic] Service Commission's decision to put documents into confidential status - -  by default?

Revisiting Wisconsin's Race to the Bottom: Why we Must Recall Scott Walker

October 19, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

Uppity Wisconsin's picture
Original Author: 
oldmoderate

 I have shared these comments this summer before the Senate recall elections.  Everything I said at that time has been magnified by the actions of the Governor and Republicans in the State Senate and Assembly.  Therefore I am reposting it to encourage Wisconsites to support the recall of Governor Scott Walker and at least three of the Republican Senators.

When I arrived in Southern China in the Fall of 2010 to work as a Fulbright Senior Specialist at the Shenzhen Tourism College of Jinan University , I expected to have an opportunity to learn more about an authoritarian regime in transition.  I did not anticipate that the regime in question would in my home state - Wisconsin.    

I had visited China eight other times, but this was the first time I was completely immersed in the Chinese culture with no “Western” colleagues. While my primary role was as a consultant to the University Administration, I also gave regular lectures and held discussion groups with to students.  

EPA Orders End To Sewer Pollution - - In Brookfield

October 19, 2011 by The Political E...

Original Author: 
(James Rowen)
Seems there's trouble in the brooks and fields near Brookfield.

Are we going to hear talk radio dump all over the tony Waukesha County suburban City of Brookfield, as it regularly does when Milwaukee is involved, now that the EPA is giving Brookfield  a 2015 deadline to end sewage overflows?
In the seven years between Jan. 1, 2004, and Feb. 28, 2011, Brookfield reported 46 sanitary sewer overflows to tributaries of the Fox River or Lake Michigan, according to the consent order. Only five of the overflows were caused by contractor error or other problems not related to rainfall.

Wisconsin PSC Opts For Document Secrecy. Why?

October 19, 2011 by The Political E...

Original Author: 
(James Rowen)
This decision by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission certainly raises a lot of questions about open government, public access to records and the free flow of information:
NOTICE TO ALL WISCONSIN PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION ELECTRONIC REGULATORY FILING USERS

Effective immediately, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission is changing the handling of confidential filings.  As you may recall, past practice was to have confidential status expire automatically after 4 years unless a party requests an extension of that status.  Because the retention for the vast majority of our documents is greater than 4 years, this resulted in numerous and repeated requests for extensions of confidential status.  This was becoming burdensome and inefficient.  To reduce waste, improve efficiency, and to better align the Commission’s practice on the handling of confidential materials with the Commission’s document retention practices, the Commission has decided to abolish the 4 year automatic expiration period.  Instead, please be advised that Commission practice, until further notice, is to maintain the confidential status of the document throughout the life cycle of the document.
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