Monday, February 18, 2013
Most of the cash in high court campaign will spent by conservative and liberal outside groups — not the candidates themselves.
On Tuesday, Wisconsin will hold a primary election for state Supreme Court, narrowing the field from three candidates to two. Then the race will begin in earnest. Justice Patience Roggensack, who has already served one 10-year term on the state’s highest court, is expected to survive the cut. Her challengers are Ed Fallone, a Marquette University Law School professor, and Vince Megna, a Milwaukee lawyer specializing in suing auto companies. The general election is April 2. Between Jan. 1 and Feb. 4, according to the most recent reporting, Roggensack had raised about $200,000, compared to Fallone’s $75,000 and Megna’s $0. Roggensack reported having $219,154 cash on hand, compared to Fallone’s $63,713 and Megna’s $5,340. Most of Megna’s …
Monday, February 4, 2013
Being a farm girl myself, this ad reminded me just how cool calling yourself a "farm girl" really is.
I am the daughter of two parents, who grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. And when I was 10, they bought a farm in Wooster, Ohio. And when I saw that Dodge Ram commercial during the Super Bowl last night, which featured Paul Harvey reading the poem God Made a Farmer, it brought up all of these wonderful (and emotional feelings) I have about growing up on a farm. My parents didn’t know that there is no hobby in farming – only a commitment to working until the work is done and the work is never done. We started off with three hogs, and two steers, then quickly grew to having 300 hogs, a few horses, and an orphaned goat named Gabby. We owned a 1942 Case Tractor that had a crank start and an electric start that came with a plow and a manure spreader…
Sunday, February 3, 2013
From submitting a DNA sample when arrested to comparing the President to the Three Stooges, Patch bloggers weighed in on a variety of topics this week. Here is a look at some of the most popular posts over the past week.
Blog posts in Wisconsin Patches this past week ran the gamut — from mental health to gun control to bullying. Every day, Patch's Local Voices bloggers share information, insight and opinion about what matters to them. Here's a selection of blogs from throughout the past week. In, "Mental illness and Violence: An opinion," Patch Local Voices contributor Tracy Craft takes a look at President Barack Obama's movement to require more mental health screenings in an effort to decrease violence in America. "Passport Please" garnered more than 114 comments in just a couple of days on Patch. Rees Roberts asks if no longer allowing people to post anonymously online would help develop more respectful and responsible posting. Drawing from current …
Saturday, February 2, 2013
2012 was the most expensive election in the "history of the world," and advocate says it's all the U.S. Supreme Court's fault.
During a recent news conference at the state Capitol, Lisa Graves, executive director of the Madison-based Center for Media and Democracy, made an astonishing claim. “This past election, in 2012, was the most expensive election in U.S. history,” Graves said. “In fact, it was the most expensive election in the history of the world.” She later pointed to articles that backed this up, at least in terms of total amount. The Jan. 22 event, before a mostly empty room, highlighted a new report tracking spending in the 2012 elections, the first since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United. That ruling, which equated money with speech and barred government from restricting “independent” spending on political campaigns, opened two …
Monday, January 21, 2013
What's blocking Wisconsin from implementing new, tougher laws against drunken driving? It could be "the dollar factor."
Mark Grapentine is a seasoned observer of state politics. He was an aide to then-state Rep. Scott Walker and a policy adviser to then-Gov. Tommy Thompson. For the past decade, he’s been a lobbyist for the Wisconsin Medical Society. In this capacity, he’s pushed for tougher state drunken driving laws — and noticed that, despite an absence of pushback, these laws have stayed mostly the same. “It has been interesting to watch how there has been a lack of progress in an area where there seems to be a tremendous amount of agreement on the need to do something,” Grapentine says. Wisconsin remains the only state where first-offense drunken driving is not a crime, although the civil penalties include license suspension and substantial fines. Two …
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Republican lieutenant governor says Wisconsin is "in better shape today than we were before, and we're not done yet."
With a collective sigh of relief, we can now look back at the time since Governor Walker and I took office, and size up the accomplishments of the last two years. Although we've seen things unprecedented and unpredictable, our experiences have made us stronger. We have a lot to be proud of. Our successes give us new perspective, though, and through the lens of a state pursuing economic competitiveness, we see we have a lot of room to grow in our future. Despite the rampant wrong turns from our federal government, Wisconsin is finally on the path to prosperity. We inherited a $3.6 billion budget deficit that has been balanced without raising taxes. After seeing nearly 150,000 jobs lost under the last three years of the previous …
Sunday, December 16, 2012
After visiting families of Sikh temple shooting victims, Sikh filmmaker Valarie Kaur traveled to Newtown, Ct. Friday.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Are you celebrating Wisconsin's special 12-12-12? Share what you like best about the Green Bay Packers quarterback here – or tell us why you can't stand him!
I personally think 12-12-12 should be a national holiday, but with our president being a Bears fan and all … it’s not going to happen. It’s Aaron Rodgers day. A day for Green Bay Packers fans to celebrate the success of the team under the leadership of No. 12. Let’s just face it, it’s a day for us to wear our green and gold jerseys, to paint our fingernails green (am I right, ladies?) and to just get darn excited that we are Packers fans from Wisconsin. Aaron Rodgers day started as a Facebook joke that became viral. The state legislature officially declared Dec. 12, 2012, to be his day. Milwaukee County workers are being allowed to wear Packers jerseys or shirts to work on Wednesday. Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele is encouraging …
Friday, December 7, 2012
Democrats received more votes statewide in the November elections, but Republicans won more seats. What does that say about redistricting?
The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board’s Nov. 29 certification of the official results of the Nov. 6 election made it, well, official: Democratic candidates got more votes than Republicans in state races for president, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, state Senate and state Assembly. But the Republicans were able to keep a 5-3 lead in the U.S. House of Representatives, reclaim control of the state Senate by a margin of 18 to 15 seats, and secure a commanding 60-39 advantage in the state Assembly, despite getting fewer votes overall. How can that be? Mike McCabe, the executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonpartisan elections watchdog, has a theory: “The outcome of this year’s U.S. House as well as …
Saturday, November 10, 2012
As we look forward to celebrating Veterans Day and 2012 as the Year of the Veteran we will continue to focus on honoring our Veterans by doing all we can to help them secure good health, security, and happiness when they come home.
Gov. Scott Walker delivered the weekly radio address titled Honoring Veterans. The following is the transcript from his address. Hi, this is Scott Walker. As we look forward to celebrating Veterans Day and 2012 as the Year of the Veteran we will continue to focus on honoring our Veterans by doing all we can to help them secure good health, security, and happiness when they come home. Beyond just words our state is taking action to show how much we appreciate their service. So far this year, we’ve held 16 job fairs for veterans, connecting hundreds of employers with veterans looking for work. This week we partnered with VETansfer to launch a program focused on growing on veteran-owned business startups. Beyond helping veterans create …
Colonel Mustard
10:56 pm on Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Well, we see how well it worked out for the crazed Allen West (former 1 term Congressman). He got his butt kicked up to his loud mouth. The next up-coming "McCarthy" Clone is loud-mouthed Sen. (of 6 weeks) Ted Cruz (TEA BAGGER - TX). more ›