Uppity Wisconsin

We all have been reading about some spectacular (for Dane County) murder cases recently.

At a preliminary hearing yesterday, the Capital Times reports on: “an emotional day in court Friday as family members and friends of Joel Marino … heard audio tapes that offered the first glimpse of what appears to be limited words spoken during the interaction between the two men that resulted in Marino's death.” 

Accused murderer Adam Peterson, said, in a recorded phone conversation with his father, “I just stabbed him out of nowhere,” reports the Capital Times.

Incomprehensible. Senseless. Unstoppable?

And no comfort for the grief-stricken Marino family.

But I hope that the Madison citizen, John Brodan, who called police about Peterson after spotting him working at Capitol Centre Foods, and making the connection to a sketch of the murder suspect released March 10, gets the $30,000 reward for “information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the death of Joel Marino.”

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Last Thursday, the University of Wisconsin-Madison published this story:

An electric snowmobile built by student members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering Clean Snowmobile Team is now in Greenland, on loan to the National Science Foundation . . . at the Greenland Environmental Observatory (GEO Summit Camp).

Dubbed the Bucky EV, the snowmobile won the zero-emissions category of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Clean Snowmobile Challenge (CSC) in Houghton, Michigan, earlier this spring. The goal of this event is to promote the development of clean vehicles that can be used in environmentally sensitive areas where a gas-powered vehicle would contaminate air or snow samples . . .

From the Wisconsin State Journal:

"Epic Systems Corp., the Verona-based electronic medical records company, is threatening to pull its business from local vendors who support the state's largest business lobby over a political disagreement with the group.

In a statement to the State Journal, the company cited concern over Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce's spending this year on behalf of state Supreme Court candidate Michael Gableman, estimated at $1.8 million, as a reason for working only with vendors whose officials oppose WMC's agenda."

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Editor's Note:

As I occasionally feel the need to do - I will point out that the opinions expressed by authors in Uppity Wisconsin are their own opinions, not the opinions of Uppity Wisconsin - Which is a little electronic box sitting in a rack in Minneapolis, and has no opinions of its own of which I am aware.    That being said, I think that people in the progressive sphere in the state have differing opinions on a large range of subjects, many of which I do not personally agree with.  One of the purposes of developing this site was to allow that discussion to occur in public.  As someone who enjoys the opinions of both Brenda Konkel and Warmmidwest, I'm not going to make an editorial decision to pull this piece, or Brenda Konkel's response.  On the other hand, I'd like to remind people that although we have different opinions on strategy and direction, it's also important to remember that those of us who are nominally progressive in one way or another have a lot more in common than we have differences, and certainly a lot more in common with each other than with the direction our country's politics have taken over the last 7 years. I'd like us to not lose sight of that.

Sure, she's a self-described progressive, but goly, jee-whiz, Ms. Konkel didn't vote in Wisconsin's primary because there wasn't a decent candidate to vote for and ... drum roll ...

She thinks Cynthia McKinney would make a fine president.

I'm completely puzzled as to why the Green Party never gains traction. <snark>

The Dane County Sheriff's Department endorsed Kathleen Falk when she ran for Attorney General in 2006.

Now, former Dane County Sheriff's Deputy and current Dane County 911 Center Director Joe Norwick has been loudly, and justifiably criticized for the handling of Brittany Zimmermann's call for help. 

It doesn't help that Norwick had no public safety management experience on the level his current position requires. That stands in sharp contrast to this:

“We searched far and wide, and found the best candidate here at home,” Falk said of Norwick.

Is Falk's support of him payback for a past political endorsement?

It's nice that Executrix Falk is apologizing to the Zimmermann family a month after it was revealed their daughter called 911 and got no help.  

And now, Dane County Executrix Falk could restore some citizen faith in the 911 Call Center operations, you know, show some political backbone that she presumably had enough of to run for the governor's seat, and throw the State Attorney General's race to J.B. Van Hollen. But, here's what we get instead:

"Falk plans to instruct Dane County 911 director Joe Norwick on Tuesday as to what steps need to be taken to assure that a similar situation does not occur in the future, and has also told Norwick that she expects to be updated regularly on events in the 911 center ..."

They'll discipline someone when the 911 call center finishes its now month-plus long internal investigation of what they did wrong ... ah yes, a report by the same foxes guarding hen houses that never revealed Zimmermann's call for help in the first place.

Did you miss this story in Sunday's WSJ?

"County officials were warned in 2004 to increase staffing, change procedures and put in place a stronger oversight board.

"At worst Dane County faces possible liability and the potential for a catastrophic event," according to the 145-page "strategic plan" from MTG Management Consultants of Seattle."

And here's the money quote from a republican who's advocating more support for important social services!

Mark Hazelbaker, a Republican lawyer who represents the Dane County Towns Association, said solving the issues in the 911 center boils down to a matter of political will.

"I don't know if I blame Kathy Falk so much as I blame a climate in which people are afraid to spend money on vital services," Hazelbaker said.""

A Wisconsin State Journal online op-ed gets it right in noting that secrecy threatens safety.

Here's another secret that demands explanation:

The dispatcher claims she heard nothing on the line.

Madison Police Chief Noble Wray has said "there's evidence in the call that should've prompted the dispatch of a police officer ... County and city officials refuse to describe the content ..."

There's content in the call, or there's nothing. Which is it?

The UW-Madison is looking for a new Chancellor, and some people mistakenly think that salary of nearly one-third of a million bucks a year, plus a house and a car, is not enough to find a new "CEO."

One key UW-Madison booster called the compensation package "an embarrassment."

No wonder fiscal conservatives find the UW an easy target.

Details here.

It seems to have escaped public notice that Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle has added a Republican to his cabinet, with the appointment of Rick Raemisch as secretary of corrections.

 Raemisch is a former Dane County sheriff who was appointed by then Gov. Tommy Thompson, was later elected to the post as a Republican, and ran unsuccessfully for Dane County DA on the GOP ticket, too. (Yes, he’s also a lawyer.) He had been deputy corrections secretary.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, and not that it’s a big deal, but it seems worth a mention, and neither of the state’s two biggest newspapers, the Wisconsin State Journal and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, bothered. So now you know. (WisPolitics did mention it.)

AFTERTHOUGHT: Doyle actually has another R in the cabinet, but he didn't choose him. Veterans Affairs Secretary John Scocus was named by a Republican-heavy veterans board shortly after Doyle took office. Scocos is now temporarily on active duty, but still riling people up. Yet another. I am reminded by a reader that Insurance Commish Sean Dilweg is a former Republican staffer. They're everywhere!

Other random thoughts:

A debate I might watch: Tommy Thompson vs. Michael Moore? My money’s on the fat(ter) guy.

Paul Bucher is being mentioned – probably by Paul Bucher – as a potential Supreme Court candidate. As the Whallah! Blog notes, that would be a great opportunity for the incumbent, Louis Butler, to recycle a slogan from last spring’s campaign” “Not one day as a judge.”

Almost two weeks after the press release, the Journal Sentinel gets around to reporting that Wisconsin’s former US Senator Bob Kasten has been named a foreign policy advisor to the presidential campaign of Everybody’s Mayor, Rudy what’s his name. The story says Kasten runs his own investment banking and consulting firm. Last reports we heard sometime back was that he was an arms dealer. But he and Rudy, we understand, both look good in a dress.