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  • Mayoral control opponents, supporters lobby in Madison today

    Representatives from several Milwaukee-area groups gathered in Madison today to oppose legislation that would allow the city's mayor to choose the superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, said Bob Peterson of the Coalition to Stop the MPS Takeover. Meanwhile, another group of organizations and individuals called Education Reform Now Advocacy headed to [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 3:19pm EST

  • Recovery, as long as Harry Reid doesn't screw it up

    Grim news on how bad the past year has been on business, according to a survey of the job creators of southeastern Wisconsin. Two-thirds of businesses in the Milwaukee area didn't meet expectations, as the polite phrase has it, and it was 82% among manufacturers. Four in ten saw a' [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 3:00pm EST

  • It's not about climate; it's about redefining humanity

    Hey, that's not your humble right-wing columnist muttering that headline. Rather, it's your world-famous left-wing columnist, George Monbiot, in the Guardian the other day. He says that what's being imposed on us at Copenhagen -- an imposition he wants -- is not about addressing climate change. Nothing so small: "The meeting at [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 1:45pm EST

  • The end of white folks?

    Some people think white folks get kicked around a lot because they have been the majority population in this country for a long time. But that's due to change. By 2050, white people will no longer be the racial majority in the United States. Newly released Census figures show there will [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 1:17pm EST

  • Are these sensible fixes to youth crime?

    This summer I asked if a 13-year-old girl should be charged as an adult after she was accused of stabbing and killing a man married to her grandmother. Labrina Brown had troubles that began before the stabbing incident. She was raped, abused and bounced around to different homes. She was failed [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 12:53pm EST

  • If you don't nip it early, the kid could become a centurion

    Then there's the school in Massachusetts that sent a second-grader home and demanded he see a shrink because of the violent drawing he made in class. The drawing was a stick figure of Christ on the cross. Reports the local paper: [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 12:45pm EST

  • The plow driver did it!

    So Milwaukee got little snow last week, but Madison got whomped. Cars were sliding and roads were clogged for several days. Apparently, some believe this was a staged attack on our capital city. Dane County's highway commissioner has had to refute a rumor that some plow truck drivers deliberately raised their [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 12:24pm EST

  • Suspect arrested in puppy-dumping

    When six newborn Lab-mix puppies were found abandoned in a gas station Dumpster last month, it was big news around Marinette and twin city Menominee, Mich. A $1,000 reward and scads of posters seeking information paid off with a tip that led to an arrest over the weekend. The Marinette Eagle-Herald has [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 12:15pm EST

  • About those schools in which the state superintendent could intervene

    Late yesterday, an aide from state Sen. John Lehman's (D-Racine) office gave us a list of five public schools in Milwaukee that could be affected by a new bill introduced yesterday in the Senate Committee on Education. The problem: two of the five schools on the list the aide gave the [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 12:03pm EST

  • Michigan proposes Wisconsin-like public defender

    Despite flaws in its system, Wisconsin remains well ahead of neighboring Michigan when it comes to trying to provide legal counsel to indigents charged with crimes. Under the pressure of a pending lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, Michigan lawmakers have recently introduced a bill that would create a Wisconsin-style [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 9:15am EST

  • And only because of the Department of Agriculture did cornstalks grow tall this year

    Via Steve Prestegard, pundit-economists economists Wesbury and Stein look at who’s trying to claim credit for the economy recovering. That would be politicians who, if anything, floundered in ways that most likely slowed the recovery. Mr. I-give-myself-a-B included. (You know, the real graders seem to disagree.) Anyhow, various politicians are now all [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 7:30am EST

  • How to make kiddie films that adults like

    The BBC has a nice read on a story with a simple premise: how do you make a children's movie that adults will like, too? One of the tricks is to throw a few jokes in that are clearly intended for adults. "Toy Story" did that. And "Shrek" was a pioneer. While [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 7:00am EST

  • Firstwatch: Extra session on drunken driving, Facebook sex and the Lakers

    Braving the chill, or creating one, the Wisconsin Legislature will take up tougher drunken driving laws in a special session. Both houses have passed slightly different bills that make a fourth-offense DUI a felony in some circumstances and raise a first-offense to a misdemeanor if a child younger than 16 [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 5:45am EST

  • Joint Finance to hold hearing on stimulus job reporting

    Joint Finance Committee co-chairs Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) and Sen. Mark Miller (D-Monona) said today they will hold an informational hearing on oversight of federal stimulus money and the jobs it has created or saved at their committee meeting Thursday. The announcement comes more than a month after state Rep. Rich [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 6:15pm EST

  • Now do you want to talk about race?

    I assume I suckered you in with the picture above. The poster isfor a new play on Broadway from writer David Mamet and it’s about a wealthy white man accused of raping a black woman. The play is meant to test the audience assumptions about racial allegiance and gender roles and [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 5:44pm EST

  • Should judges, lawyers be Facebook friends?

    While Milwaukee Circuit Judge John DiMotto feels confident he can blog about a jurist's life without veering into ethical danger zones, at least one state has warned its judiciary to be very careful about how they use the more ubiquitous Facebook. Florida's Judicial Ethics Advisory Comittee found last month that judges [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 4:30pm EST

  • The rock-solid certain prediction of doom turns out to have been made-up nonsense

    And it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving propagandist: Our ex-vice president, Al Gore. What happened, you ask? From The Times: “Mr Gore, speaking at the Copenhagen climate change summit, stated the latest research showed that the Arctic could be completely ice-free in five years. “In his speech, Mr Gore told [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 3:30pm EST

  • Waukesha site expanding Early Head Start spots

    National Centers for Learning Excellence in Waukesha is increasing the number of spots in its Early Head Start program by 50% thanks to a new federal grant. The grant, which amounts to nearly $300,000, means that the early childhood program can serve an additional 24 low-income infants, toddlers and pregnant women, [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 3:21pm EST

  • Cheers and jeers for immigration reform measure

    U. S. Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, D-Il., today introduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 in the House of Representatives and all sides of the debate were quick to react. The Immigration Policy Center said in a press release that the bill "jump starts reform [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 2:45pm EST

  • It's enough to make you sick

    You can now add intestines to the list of problems that bisphenol A causes, a new study says. BPA, used to make polycarbonate plastic and resins, is also suspected of causing cancer, diabetes, heart disease, sexual dysfunction and hyperactivity. [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 2:23pm EST

  • ABBA: Legitimate member of the Rock Hall of Fame?

    The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame picked team members today and there's good news for Genesis, Jimmy Cliff, The Hollies and The Stooges. ABBA also gets in. So the argument for ABBA: There's not a pop hall of fame and the group is the second-best selling group of all time. [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 11:52am EST

  • Bright light from Obamas and Smiths

    I have been black all my life, and I just want to say it does my 53-year-old body good to see Will and Jada Smith and their beautiful and accomplished children (Willow spoke Mandarin at the Nobel Peace Prize festivities!) and Barack and Michelle Obama, and their beautiful and accomplished [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 10:57am EST

  • When salamis and cheese attack

    This certainly qualifies as a "news of the weird" kind of story. But we couldn't resist as we enter the season of giving. In Aachen, Germany, a brawl broke out in a supermarket in which salamis were used as clubs and a block of Parmesan was used as a dagger. You' [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 7:00am EST

  • Firstwatch: Start the economy and stop the carp

    It seems the government is motivated today. First of all, your government wants you to get a swine flu shot. The government is saying that after several weeks of rationing flu shots for those at most risk of getting swine flu or spreading it, there are now plenty of swine flu shots [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 5:45am EST

  • Closing the digital divide

    Last week, my 72-year-old mother asked me if I could help her to start a Twitter account. She said a Twitter would allow her to tweet show ideas to Oprah Winfrey. I think that’s pretty cool, considering that fewer than half of all blacks and Hispanics use the Internet regularly, [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 4:56pm EST

  • Food is thought for UWM's Eayrs

    James Eayrs, the very large and very entertaining forward for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers men's basketball team, likes his double meat burritos from Chipotle. In the blog he writes for the Horizon League, Eayrs brings the food and basketball metaphors in a recent post. James, take it away: "The perfect burrito [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 2:21pm EST

  • Man with donated liver hits 0.39 BAC

    From the La Crosse Tribune: A liver transplant recipient was given a public intoxication warning (last week) after he registered a 0.39 percent blood-alcohol level, according to La Crosse police reports. [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 2:07pm EST

  • Default rates jump for Corinthian

    Corinthian Colleges is rolling toward setting up a new non-profit college in Milwaukee's Park East area, despite criticism from some quarters. But all is not well for the publicly traded company. The Wall Street Journal reports today that students who took out government loans to attend for-profit colleges had a 21% default [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 1:41pm EST

  • Is the $175 fine enough?

    Arguably teaching may be one of the most stressful jobs in the world. And I know from personal experience that teachers carry around a lot of stress. Last week, one teacher let her stress get the best of her when she got so mad at one of her students, that she [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 1:17pm EST

  • Benefit for Hispanic journalists' group

    Marquette University English professor and author,C. J. Hribal, will read from his works and discuss his writing this evening at 6:30 p.m. at The Sugar Maple, 441 E. Lincoln Ave. The literary evening is a benefit for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, an organization that works to increase the percentage [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 1:05pm EST

  • And when you don't give up meat, they won't merely ask

    Officially, now, Britain wants Britons to start giving up meat. Mother Earth wants them to. So some “independent advisory body on sustainability” has some big report demanding, as the Guardian put it, that “British consumers must cut down on meat and dairy produce.” Must. [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 12:45pm EST

  • From laid-off GM worker to bowling champ

    No offense to professional bowlers, really. And no offense to this guy, who was laid off from a General Motors assembly plant last year and now has a world ranking in bowling and won a PBA event over the weekend. But if you can walk off an assembly plant, put on bowling [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 12:43pm EST

  • Could you send any leftover mints, perhaps?

    Jim Rowen can’t abide regional planning organization SEWRPC – it hasn’t, after all, banned suburbia yet – but he’s onto something with posts about how the regional planners put on an annual dinner for themselves at the Wisconsin Club. It cost about $1,000. That’s for 17 people. Bon appétit! Rowen since has [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 11:00am EST

  • Look for new directions in job hunt

    Congress has several times extended jobless benefits for those out of work. Is this the government’s idea of a jobs program? Don’t be fooled by a false sense of security. Now is the time to look for a new direction in your job hunt. Take advantage of training offered by [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 10:24am EST

  • Need realistic plans to save economy

    So President Barack Obama has this new plan to stimulate the economy by creating all these new jobs and new businesses that will in turn create new jobs. Those companies that have already been given stimulus money are sitting on the money and not expanding or adding new workers because [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 10:13am EST

  • It's about parents, attitude and lack of discipline

    On my morning walk past Bay View High School last week, I saw a student entering the school late with underwear totally exposed, pants waistline sagging somewhere near mid-thigh. There were students loitering throughout the neighborhood at 8:50 a.m. Is there a connection between this and the absolutely miserable national [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 10:11am EST

  • Trial is testimony to our strengths

    Object to a federal court trial for the 9/11 mastermind because you don’t want to give jihadists a platform to spew their views? I’m confident that democracy and secular freedom can win out in any such debate, even one that one side is trying to turn into a spectacle. Not [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 10:07am EST

  • Yeah, how has that comprehensive latex approach been working out?

    Great piece in Sunday’s Journal Sentinel by three plain old citizens in West Bend taking on the Planned Parenthood duckspeak about teen pregnancy. Mary Weigand, Bruce Dunford and Diane Osberg are all on the West Bend schools’ citizen panel that oversees sex ed – the kind of panel that would be [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 9:30am EST

  • Mel Gibson's doing films again

    Actor-director Mel Gibson has surfaced with reports that he will do a Vikings-type film with actor Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio will play quarterback Brett Favre. Oh, wait, it's the other kind of Viking. DiCaprio, apparently, has has a long fixation with the Vikings, just like Packers' fans. But these are the ones' [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 7:00am EST

  • Firstwatch: A hurt officer, sleet and playoff football

    First, the serious news. A Wautatosa police officer was shot late Sunday, so check back today as details about that incident are revealed. So there's the serious news and then there's the weather. If you like winter weather, you're in luck. We have all of it available today.' [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 5:45am EST

  • Latino youth in the U. S.

    Two-thirds of Hispanic youth between the ages of 16 and 25 are not immigrants, but were born in the United States, according to a new study by the Pew Hispanic Center. Hispanics are the largest and youngest minority group in the country, the report said. One in five school children is [...]
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    Posted: December 12, 2009, 8:00am EST

  • Happy holidays: finale

    As I’ve been saying, it’s not as if “happy holidays” is an offensive greeting. Rather, it’s so inoffensive -- so deliberately unspecific -- as to inadvertently minimize what people actually are celebrating on their holidays. Yes, I know: It’s meant not to offend. One says happy holidays, all of them, whatever, [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 7:45pm EST

  • Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

    Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church at 613 S. 4th St. begins celebrations for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe tonight (Friday) at 8 p.m. Various groups will sing, pray and dance in honor of the patron saint of Mexico beginning at 8 p.m. until about 11 a.m. At midnight [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 5:44pm EST

  • Drunken driver who urinated on cop sentenced to year in jail

    From the Sheboygan Press: A 36-year-old Waldo man who urinated on a police officer during a fifth drunken driving arrest has been sentenced to a year in jail. Daniel L. Shilts Jr., of 720 W. Second St., was sentenced Nov. 30 by Judge Gary Langhoff to the jail term and three years [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 4:36pm EST

  • No, it's not about you buying a Prius

    Rather, if we’re going to cut how much carbon dioxide you emit, it won’t be a matter of you signing up for windmill-generated electricity. Buying a Prius isn’t going to take us back to the per-capita emissions levels of 1860. Rather, it’s going to take a little less of that per-capita. [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 3:45pm EST

  • Cap-and-defraud

    Speaking of unholy marriages between business and government, how has that cap-and-trade system worked for Europe? Try $7.4 billion in fraud, says the European Union, just over the past 18 months. [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 3:30pm EST

  • Pro-business vs. pro-market

    There’s a difference between being pro-business and in favor of free markets, writes Rep. Paul Ryan in Forbes. Our federal government is drifting into the former, to the detriment of any of us who aren’t attached to one of the big businesses thriving under the new crony capitalism. This, writes Ryan, [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 2:45pm EST

  • Two Milwaukee high schools on U.S. News' best list

    Milwaukee Public Schools had two schools and the Racine Unified School District had one school that made U.S. News and World Report's latest Best High Schools list. Milwaukee School of Languages and Rufus King High School were awarded silver medals in the news magazine's annual ranking. Along with Racine's Walden III [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 11:49am EST

  • Don't belittle peace prize achievement

    President Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize does not reduce the value, stature or significance of the award. In fact, it strengthens the award. It recognizes that our president and our country are on the right track for improving the world we all live in. The award not only [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 10:16am EST

  • Talk to your kids about sex

    Talking about sex may be the most difficult task for some parents. Forty percent of adolescents said they had sex before talking to their parents about safe sex, birth control or STDs. Troubling? Yes. But if you still need a push, consider this: 70% of boys said they did not [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 10:12am EST

  • Those funny Facebook snafus

    Who among us hasn't posted something on Facebook that we, well, regretted saying? The Huffington Post has put together a collection of the funniest screw-ups. The assumption is that these posts really happened. But they're funny even if they aren't real.' [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 10:03am EST

  • Next big thing: 'Avatar'

    "Avatar," the 3-D epic sci-fi flick by James Cameron, is getting strong and favorable reaction in London. The film, coming to a theater near you, comes from the same guy who did "Titanic." So Cameron knows blockbusters. A more nuanced assessment of the chances that "Avatar" will be a huge hit or [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 7:00am EST

  • Firstwatch: Skating, protesting and celebrating

    So even the trees don't like this extreme cold weather. But there is an upside. When it's freezing, the ponds outside freeze a little earlier. The skating rink at Red Arrow Park opens this afternoon, earlier than scheduled, so find your blades and have a little fun.' [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 5:45am EST

  • Put a robe on that blog

    Lawyers are probably the bloggingest professionals out there, as evidenced by the plethora of blogs by, for and about them. Judges are lawyers so why wouldn't they ride the same wave? Well, many judges take their ethical obligations not to talk cases or issues that might become cases before them to' [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 12:15am EST

  • State laws and immigrants

    Legislatures in 48 states enacted 222 laws and adopted 131 resolutions relating to immigrants during 2009, according to a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures' immigrant policy project. The report notes that Wisconsin became the 11th state to offer in-state tuition to certain illegal immigrant students this year, Illinois passed' [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 5:53pm EST

  • Lawyer in Elmbrook church suit cites loss in sheriff's appeal

    A lawyer who sued the Elmbrook School District to stop it from holding graduation ceremonies in a Waukesha County mega church says that a recent federal court ruling supports his case. In a letter to U.S. District Judge Charles Clevert, attorney Alex Luchenitser with Americans United for Separation of Church and [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 4:29pm EST

  • A little more of the same thing will make all the difference

    Or so said a Milwaukeean to Congress. Patricia DeLessio told congressmen than the nation needs yet a third stimulus to put people back to work. DeLessio, by the way, is a lawyer, so you can be sure she's an expert on economics. She got invited by Rep. Gwen Moore, who said [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 3:00pm EST

  • Man arrested for OWI, claims he was scouting deer

    From the Sheboygan Press: A 25-year-old rural Sheboygan Falls man has been charged with drunken driving after telling police he was driving in a ditch because he was looking for deer, according to a criminal complaint. Daniel J. Schmidt, of W3121 Highway J, was charged Wednesday with second-offense drunken driving after being [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 2:30pm EST

  • Neenah plans driver sobriety checkpoints

    If you knew you had been drinking, would you stop your car at a voluntary sobriety checkpoint? Neenah's police chief wants to find out. He's proposed setting up the state's first sobriety checkpoints by the New Year's holiday. But as the Appleton Post-Crescent reports, the idea has generated lots of debate, from [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 2:00pm EST

  • As long as the health care plan includes an Oklahoma

    My column in Thursday's Journal Sentinel is about health care "reform." My point: "The president and his Congress have odd ideas about bending the cost curve. So far, the cost measures all aim to restrain how much all of us together spend on health care. . . . [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 1:30pm EST

  • Be careful out there

    In Wisconsin, you’d think it’d be obvious. But it’s amazing how some people have no clue how to drive in snowy conditions. There are the perennial tailgaters, the SUV drivers whizzing past who think they are invincible (till they end up in that ditch), the distracted cell-phone gabbers and those [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 12:44pm EST

  • On handing out condoms

    So Milwaukee Public Schools is now going to give out male condoms to students. I guess it's a day whose time has come. Two things I found interesting about the article. First, the use of the word "male" struck me as odd. Are you telling me that women will not [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 12:40pm EST

  • Synchronicity isn't just a Police song

    On Climategate, Megan McArdle finds it unlikely that lots of climate scientists were in a conspiracy to commit fraud (well, yes, I agree. Conspiracy to save face might be another matter, but . . . ) Still, you don't need a conspiracy to be worried, writes McArdle. What if they're all [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 12:30pm EST

  • How do you label the reset button in Norwegian?

    Our Leader, so much better at getting along with the world than his predecessor, appears to have miffed Scandinavians. And, you know, it takes quite a bit to get them to the point of mentioning it. What has The One done? According to the Daily Beast, it's that Obama won't have' [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 11:15am EST

  • Tiger let down Clintonville school?

    The Clintonville Middle School band is planning to go to Disney World next spring to perform. Naturally, they needed to raise money for the trip. And so last weekend, a concert and auction were planned to raise more money. One of the big items that went up for auction was an autographed [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 10:34am EST

  • Mom guilty in son's cold-shower death

    A woman whose 8-year-old son died of hypothermia after she made him take an extremely cold shower as punishment has been convicted of causing his death. A Kenosha County jury on Wednesday night convicted the 27-year-old mother of first-degree reckless homicide and two counts of child abuse in the Feburary 2008 [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 9:30am EST

  • Obama gives love to Wisconsin

    President Obama, in Norway to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, made mention of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Here are his remarks, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times: "Norway is a close friend and an ally, and the relationship between the American and the Norwegian people has always been extraordinarily strong. It's been noted [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 8:50am EST

  • Kenosha cops do the 12 days

    Not to be too harsh a critic, but this Christmas gift from the Kenosha Police Department is almost a crime -- muscially. Some of Kenosha's more fun-loving and holiday-spirited officers put together this, ah, entertaining video, and made it available to the citizenry via the department's Web site. Judge for yourself whether [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 8:00am EST

  • Beer-can collecting is so passe

    The Wall Street Journal sent a reporter to Hubertus to document the fact that beer-can collecting is not a favored pastime of the young. It's all about videogames and iPods. Randy Langenbach of Hubertus, though, is a collector. And he's 10. We salute you, Randy. In the Washington Post, there's a debate [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 7:00am EST

  • Firstwatch: A peace prize and a snowball fight

    So the snow emergency is over. The slip-and-fall emergency might be beginning. There's also the freezing-your-tush advisory that you'll have to consider.' [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 5:45am EST

  • Happy holidays, part XIII

    I get, as I mentioned before, why impersonal commerce might adopt the impersonal phrase, "happy holidays." What baffles me is why it is becoming de rigeur for individuals who actually do derive joy from some holiday in this stretch of days to say it. And there is, mind you, joy to [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 9:15pm EST

  • Death penalty for gays? Are you serious!

    In the year 2009, this is almost unimaginable, but proposed legislation would impose the death penalty for some gay Ugandans. If that’s not enough, their family and friends could face up to 7 years in jail if they fail to report them to authorities and even landlords who rent to homosexuals [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 5:53pm EST

  • The tastemakers

    What you like is very much manipulable, says this would-be nanny. Barry Popkin, "who has advised the U.S. government and health policy makers around the world," says people are fat because they drink soda. Reports Reuters, "Reviving a taste for water could cut between 300 and 600 calories a day from [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 5:45pm EST

  • The news about Hispanic

    The historic nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court led the tally of Hispanic-related news stories in the media during a six-month period, a new study shows. The nomination made up 39.4% of Latino-related news, more than twice than any other story, according to a study by the Pew [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 5:12pm EST

  • Snowballs fly in Madison

    Students at the University of Wisconsin - Madison made the most of their snow day, by studying the physics of spheres in flight. [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 5:00pm EST

  • Take it to 'em, F. James

    U.S. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner breaks into the trance of denial in which our president makes absurd promises about cutting our energy use to preindustrial levels. You won't get laws like that, says Sensenbrenner, until someone starts addressing the tainted underlying science. He says he plans to show up in Copenhagen' [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 4:00pm EST

  • Sick of snow, cold? Watch the surfers

    Are you already sick of the snow and ice and cold? Check out this video of the surfing in Hawaii. [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 3:25pm EST

  • Let us know if there's snow, slush or blacktop

    Let's help each other out. Tell us about the conditions at your house or in your area in the comments on this story. If you post questions, we will try to get answers. [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 2:16pm EST

  • Are our kids better off eating KFC?

    How many of you remember school lunch? Back in the 80s I didn’t think it was so bad. We had the mock-chicken legs, burgers and my favorite, lasagna with that buttery bread. Were the meals healthy? I guess, but I don’t remember anyone questioning it. I was more amazed at how [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 1:38pm EST

  • Tiger and his (white) women

    When it comes to Tiger Woods and his harem of alleged extra-marital affairs, it's hard to tell if we're in 2009 or 1959. Lots of people seem upset that most of Tiger's mistressess are white women.' [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 12:45pm EST

  • The Top 10 of everything

    Time magazine has kindly put together a Top 10 list of everything from 2009. From children's books to awkward moments to music to, you get it. Here is the link. [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 12:00pm EST

  • Thin bench for Democrats

    As they say in sports, the bench is thin, really thin. I’m referring to the pipeline of future state Democratic leadership. What would the party have done if Mayor Tom Barrett had refused to run for governor? As we sat scratching our navels, the only names that seemed plausible were [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 11:21am EST

  • Nice decorations, but don't dawdle in the intersection

    Fair warning: This is not one of the major issues of the day. But Milwaukee has done a great job with the downtown holiday decorations — in the parks such as Cathedral Square, Zeidler Park and Pere Marquette Park and along the streets. Thanks to the donors. And unlike some [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 11:10am EST

  • Folks on Twitter are battling the #mkesnow

    It seems people are having back problems after shoveling the overnight snow. "Oh man this #mkesnow is wet & heavy," said the person using the screen name CaptnMo22 from Milwaukee on the social networking website Twitter. "I think I almost threw out my back shoveling! I was really hoping my neighbors [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 10:44am EST

  • The way totalitarian minds think, Copenhagen edition

    Bret Stephens brilliantly compares the intellectual bad habits of global climate alarmists to earlier patterns of totalitarianism. And totalitarianism it is, as we see with the EPA now wanting utter regulatory power over, literally, the gas you exhale. Not, says Stephens, that the warmists are commies. But the intellectual methods are similar, [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 7:30am EST

  • Surf is really up in Hawaii

    The Eddie, a gathering of the greatest surfers when the conditions are just right, was held in Hawaii on Tuesday. The waves were huge, and the vibe was just right. Everybody had fun. We had a blizzard. Clnt Eastwood, the actor and director, is turning 80 soon. He says it's the new [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 7:00am EST

  • MPS committee approves condom distribution

    A Milwaukee Board of School Directors committee voted Tuesday night in favor of a proposal that would allow for the limited distribution of male condoms in many of the city's public high schools.' [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 3:07am EST

  • Recession and break-ups

    The hard times, notes Heritage, leads to fewer break-ups: The divorce rate has declined in the first year of the Great Recession. The people doing the report, the National Marriage Project, say it’s not a coincidence. Tough times make people stick together, said sociologist Brad Wilcox. But there’s a trade-off: He [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 1:30am EST

  • Happy holidays, part XII

    There -- the somber occasion of Pearl Harbor Day now having passed, we can return to being happy about holidays. And I do mean happy. As I might have mentioned before, the problem with the phrase “happy holidays” and the term “holiday season” is that, useful as it is to designate, [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 9:45pm EST

  • Elian Gonzalez turns 16

    The five-year-old boy who was found floating on an inner tube off the South Florida coast in November 1999 turned 16 last weekend, according to The Miami Herald, which cited Cuban media reports. Elián González set off an international tug-of-war over whether he should remain in the U.S. with relatives, or [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 6:13pm EST

  • BPA hearing a no go (snow)

    The hearing scheduled for Wednesday at the State Capitol to consider banning bisphenol A in baby bottles and children's cups has been postponed because of the storm. It's likely to be rescheduled in early January. BPA is suspected of all kinds of health problems. It's been banned in baby bottles in Canada, [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 5:02pm EST

  • Affairs behind bars

    These cases always seem puzzling, but they come up on a fairly regular basis -- prison staff getting into sexual relationships with inmates. In the latest one, a nurse at Kettle Moraine Correctional Institution is charged with sexual assault by correctional staff for what prosecutors say was an affair with a [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 5:00pm EST

  • The School Board needs to hit the brakes

    The Milwaukee School Board has narrowed its list of candidates for Milwaukee Public Schools’ next superintendent to six semifinalists, but Mayor Tom Barrett has had no input in the process. With interviews set up for this week to narrow the field down even more and the public having no indication yet [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 3:10pm EST

  • Brown County deputy awarded for making most OWI arrests

    From the Green Bay Press Gazette: Scott Vande Voort's holiday tradition includes cutting the turkey, hunting deer and receiving the Truttmann Award. The Brown County Sheriff's Department deputy was presented Wednesday with the 2009 award for his 47 drunken-driving arrests this year. That's the highest number of any officer this year. [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 3:00pm EST

  • TV network's diversity "report card"

    The National Latino Media Council has issued its 9th annual "report card" that tries to capture how the networks are doing in efforts to become more diverse both on the TV screen and behind the camera. The council started efforts 10 years ago to persuade the four major television networks--ABC, CBS, [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 1:23pm EST

  • Party time for self-loathing humans

    Frank Furedi at Spiked ponders the festival of carbon-fear now unfolding in Copenhagen and thinks about the photo a prominent British paper just ran: It is, he writes, of 12 beaming babies in Dakar, Senegal. Near the photo, we are reminded that 4 pounds spent on contraception saves a ton [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 11:15am EST

  • Who who is Scott Harshbarger, painting all those acorns white?

    This may surprise you, I know, but ACORN, the professional leftie agitators whose employees got captured, repeatedly, on video telling a sting how to pull off a prostitution operation from a tax angle, has cleared itself. Yes, it has. ACORN hired a former Massachusetts attorney general to look into the matter, [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 9:45am EST

  • Too many suicides - and who is noticing?

    If a young man takes his own life and nobody reports it, does his passing resound? Through the grapevine, I learned of a young man who committed suicide during school hours inside a local public high school. Now, that’s newsworthy, I thought, and I waited for more news. There wasn’t [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 9:32am EST

  • Don't make them celebrities, charge them

    People like Tareq and Michaele Salahi, who enter other people’s homes uninvited should be arrested and charged accordingly. They should not become TV celebrities and should not be making demands regarding appearance fees. Instead, they should be contacting their attorneys and deciding whether they should be entering guilty pleas to [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 9:29am EST

  • Educated parents

    Kudos to Lennise Crampton and others like her — parents who have become very involved in their kids’ education by volunteering, working or just being present during the school day. The benefits are obvious: Children blossom when they know a parent cares, and a parent can learn to better monitor [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 9:25am EST
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