Well, and a couple guinni . . . and I didn’t want to get up this morning. Luckily, I have hours to spare this morning, since I’ll be working again on Saturday.
HOW EXPENSIVE IS THIS GOING TO BE
Federal lawsuit . . . and May has “no comment”. Looks bad. What a waste of taxpayer dollars.
AND HOW EXPENSIVE WAS THIS?
If the Secret Service has their way, and I think they will, we may never know. I kind of agree with the Mayor that when the president comes to town, well, you eat the costs and suck it up. (My words, not his!) But not for this reason:
Cieslewicz added that he believes the exposure the city and the university got through national media Tuesday “more than compensates us for out of pocket costs.
It’s more of a patriotic thing . . . and you do it whether its a Democrat or Republican. It just sucks that this was a campaign stop, that’s my one hesitation, and probably my problem with the Mayor’s quote. When we saw it on the news last night, Rob looked at me and said, “yeah, you got a nice campaign photo out of it, that’s why it was worth it.” Watch for it on the lit this spring.
VOTE TURNOUT, DISMAL
You know I’m a political junky . . . but its hard for even me to be excited about voting in Democrat or Republican primaries, since I’m a Green. In fact, it just feels wrong. Plus, I just wish we had a decent media that covered the issues and could ban TV ads. Sound bite politics are just awful. Rob sent in a check to Feingold this morning, but I hate that he will likely use it on tv ads. This system has got to change!
MORE BAD HEADLINES
If they got Verveer’s quote right, the headline is wrong. Verveer says:
The hotly disputed plan for a Sconnie-themed bar suffered another setback at a meeting of the Alcohol Licensing Review Committee as the issue was postponed to the October meeting.
“Basically, the application wasn’t ready for primetime,” Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said. “The party requested more time before the matter was put up for final consideration.”
If so, this isn’t really right:
ALRC postpones approval of Sconnie Bar
ALRC didn’t postpone it, the applicant did. Tho, its always hard to tell with the student newspapers.
AND BOTCHED QUOTES
This is a student newpaper classic. Rummel notified her neighborhood listserve this morning:
The Badger Herald writer attributed someone else’s comments to me! Architect Dawn O’Kroley made the comments….
AND I DON’T QUITE THINK THIS IS RIGHT EITHER
Edgewater still has some hurdles, like a law suit. And state approval of the TID expansion, and a landmarks meeting next week. And what about the pier? And the management agreement for the public space? And hey! Where is that community benefits agreement they did with labor and why won’t they give it to me, what’s to hide? In this reporter/headline writer’s defense, they did take the word of an alder, I just think she is wrong. Oh, wait, the quote changed, (I hate it when that happens!), they clarified, it was one of the last legislative hurdles . . . they just forgot to clarify in the headline.
I SHOULD JUST CLOSE MY EYES
I didn’t get past the third sentence on this one . . . it is Heather Stouder, not Heather Stouter. However, in this case, I’m impressed that a) they covered this very boring meeting and b) I think they described things quite well, so a misspelled name is not the worst thing that could happen! In fact, it could just be a typo and bad fact checking by the editor. This reporter probably knows more about the zoning code than some alders!
THE NEW WIN?!
What business can survive without budgeting for increasing costs – healthcare, office supplies, employee wages. It’s ridiculous to think that is feasible, right? So why does local government think it is possible for non-profit services in this economy with the increasing needs due to population and the economy? “No cuts” is now considered a win for non-profits. But in fact, it is a cut, employees need to get paid, as does the insurance bills . . . something has to go, especially after years vof flat funding.
Many local agencies were glad to hear their 2010 funding levels would be maintained next year, rather than cut 3 percent as they were this year.
“This is tremendous,” said Tariq Pasha Saqqaf, youth programs director for Common Wealth Development. “It would have been a struggle to figure out where that $20,000 was going to come from.”
Dude, this isn’t tremendous. This sucks. I”m getting the same amount of money for our county program as 10 years ago, and the costs have gone up in those 10 years, they now pay for 75% of the program where they used to pay for 100% and we have to serve more people. It’s the incremental changes that are killing us. Haven’t we played this game long enough, ask for cuts and then celebrate when they don’t do them, and fail to do the right thing, which is pay for the increased costs.
MANURE, FOR SURE
Many thanks to Lucy Mathiak for being the girl in the room, and the voice of reason. What happened to Worzala? He asked all the right questions, pushed all the right buttons and then . . . and Gary Poulson, the “public” representative said if he voted the way the public who contacted him wanted, he would vote no, that was clear. But he voted yes anyways. Funny thing was, I don’t think he had to vote at all . . .
IF I COULD EDIT THIS STORY
I’d have put in the quote about how Gary thinks they should probably know how many jobs, but it doesn’t matter, jobs are all that matter, 200 or 300 or 500 or 1000, they’re still jobs. Watch for it in my blog . . . tomorrow?
RACE TO THE BOTTOM
Courtesy of Harley-Davidson. Is this the new way of doing business? Will businesses be saved on the backs of the taxpayers and workers?
MISSED THIS LIBRARY STORY
I blame google reader or the Badger Herald news feed. 🙂
AND ONE ON THE OVERTURE
Let me just say . . . thank goodness for some coverage!
Alright, back to work . . . more tomorrow, as I get caught up again, hopefully
