Back in the swing of things . . . 3 days in a row I’m getting to the round up! Being gone for several weekends in a row threw me off, but I’m back on track!
T WALL TELLS ALL
Thanks to Barry Orton for pointing this out, and for grabbing the best bits . . . I’m not a regular reader of In Business Magazine and would have missed this one! And its a gem.
WANT MORE?
Here’s more on Johnson and Wall and the Republicans. Who doesn’t love a good trainwreck?
MAYOR DAVE, UNCIVIL
Wow. I’m surprised to see this in the paper, must have been worth a watch. Will have to follow up and watch it, and address his RIDICULOUS comments about human services. His claims of increases at the city and county are HILARIOUS given that they city spends around $5M and the county over $200M. And, he opposed those increases and called for an overhaul of the funding process as a result.
ANCHOR BANK STRUGGLES
I wonder how much this has to do with them going after Apex and their Merry St Property? And I wonder, should I refinance with another bank at this point?
HIGHLANDER, NO COMMENT
City calls it a drug house. The owner, no comment. The attorney, no comment, Two residents, no comment. Some neighbors say its getting better. No names of those neighbors. My question, as always with these things is, if there is so much drug activity, why not just arrest the criminals? Sounds like shooting fish in a barrel.
RHYTHM AND BOOMS
Is it worth $100,000 of city tax dollars each year? Probably, but if we have money for this, why not other things? How far could $100,000 go towards bus fares, or affordable housing, or kids programming or, well, you fill in the blanks.
WILL WE LOOSE OUR LOONS AND CRANES?
And ducks and songbirds. This is sad. Stupid BP.
NASS MIGHT HAVE GOTTEN IT RIGHT
I hate to say it, but this really doesn’t look good. I think the UW screwed up.
E-CIGARETTES?
Emily Mills takes a look at several issues with them.
VOTER FRAUD
I wonder, why’d Blanchard find time for this case when he can’t seem to address campaign finance violations?
I think that’s it for today . . . . in case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been adding lots of items to the Events tab instead of listing them here, so you might want to check that out.
I believe that under State law, campaign finance violations are under the jurisdiction of the Government Accountability Board, not the Dane County DA.
Read the comments to the TWall article for further entertainment. In it you see Thuy all but declaring not to run for re-election.
Within the last year the city clerk’s office sent violations to Blanchard’s office and he said he didn’t have the resources to pursue it.
http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26520
I’m not an expert on the county budget, but my impression from a quick look was that county human services spending was about $70 million from property taxes, with the rest coming primarily from “intergovernmental revenues.” Is that not accurate? There’s still a big difference between $5.5 million and $68-$70 million, but I just wanted to check on that and make sure I’m comparing apples to apples.
Local campaign finance matters are under the jurisdiction of District Attorneys. The G.A.B. has jurisdiction for state public offices (Assembly, Governor, Circuit Court Judge, etc.).