Madison Better Get Chicago Rail Connections For Its 2016 Olympic Games Role

If Chicago gets the 2016 Olympics, Wisconsin better get that Amtrak connection to Milwaukee and Chicago done beforehand if it plans on hosting some cycling events.

The track is there, but there are upgrades needed, along with a Madison station.

Passenger rail used to run from Madison through Milwaukee to Chicago, but was killed off, like so much train service in the US.

Telling media, Olympic visitors and competitors to come to the games in Chicago, then take the train to Milwaukee before switching to a bus or rental car to get to Madison will make Wisconsin look bush league.

Flood Control, Other Projects On MMSD Stimulus List

The Milwaukee Metropolitcan Sewerage District has a list of energy-saving, water-conserving and job-creating projects that it believes are a solid use of federal stimulus funding.

MMSD continues to make great strides defining itself as an environmental agency, with leadership that understands sustainability.

In other words, MMSD is working to keep itself relevant, ahead of the curve.

Scott Walker could learn a thing or two about how to do the public's business by looking at the philosophy and the details in MMSD's stimulus proposals.

Norfolk, VA Building Light Rail

With but 40% of the population of the City of Milwaukee, Norfolk has started its light rail system construction.

Are Prisons Racine County's Growth Industry?

One study says $100 million in new facilities could land there, but I'm betting the state doesn't have much appetite or funding for such a build-out.

First Few Pages From Maraniss Bio Of Obama

David Maraniss offers Washington Post readers some first pages from his bio-in-progress of Barack Obama.

Two things to note here.

First is the wonderful, flowing prose and finely-reported stories we have come to enjoy from Maraniss.

Second is the wisdom of The Post: as newspapers struggle for readers and identities and a role in the Internet era, The Post encourages its reporters to go out and write books.

The paper wins along with the reporter and the public.

Van Hollen Becomes Attorney General/Enabler

Only Wisconsin lets first-time drunk drivers off with a ticket and our Attorney General, J. B. Van Hollen, likes that weak approach.

And you wonder why we lead the nation in drunk driving? Or binge drinking? It's because we have an attitude so permissive towards alcohol that we encourage its abuse, and that includes giving a wrist slap to what every other state treats as a criminal offense.

Or why Mothers Against Drunk Driving says that most OWI drivers in fatal crashes have no prior offenses?

The state DOT has an online OWI calculator: check it out.

For example, a 170-pound man is over the limit having had five drinks in a two-hour period.

Would you care to meet that 'legal' driver out on the road at bar closing time, even if he'd had only four?

Women get drunk faster - - three drinks (yes, that means three beers) consumed in a two-hour period puts a woman weighing 130 pounds over the legal limit of 0.08, according to the calculator.

And if that driver got stopped, would you assume it's the first time he or she had drunk that much alcohol in a two-hour period? You've got to build up some tolerance to alcohol in order to be able to begin the drive home, and not have fallen asleep or flat on face down in the parking lot first.

It's behaviour we wouldn't tolerate if it involved a gun, or explosives, or any other item, or issue, or reckless behavior - - and in Wisconsin, it leads to loss of life.

Nearly half the fatal car and motorcycle crashes in Wisconsin annually are alcohol-related, DOT statistics show.

It's a "Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free-Card" available to every person on our highways.

Put there by our lawmakers, and now endorsed by our Top Cop.

Even GOP conservative talker and one-time AG candidate Jeff Wagner finds Van Hollen's enabling too much to bear.

Kathleen Falk Offers Package On Alcohol Abuse

The Dane County Executive sends a detailed package to the Governor; we'll know soon what will survive the new legislative session.

Despite a rash of high-profile offenses, and media coverage galore, I predict some minor revisions only to state statutes because the drinking culture and special interests are so entrenched here.

Recession Arrives On Milwaukee's East Side

A slowdown in construction at the $417 million Columbia St. Mary's hospital isn't good news for construction workers, and I'd assume also for the Whole Foods store that is already open in part of the complex.

On-Line Congressional Letter Favoring A Green Stimulus

Fill it in, pass it along.

Poll Finds People Want Road Repairs And Transit, Not New Highways

Will the Obama administration and Congress follow public opinion, or road-building special interests, when stimulus funding is distributed?

Predictably, Road-Builders Reject Green Program

No surprise that the people benefitting the most from transportation spending don't want fundmental change.

Will Federal Funds Fix Bridges, Or Build New Highways?

More evidence that road-builders want more construction, less repair.

Interesting Voice On Police Reform Re-Emerges

In another life, when I worked in the office of Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, I got to know the city's new police chief, David Couper.

From afar, I have followed Couper's career, from law enforcement to the ministry.

Now in retirement from both professions, Couper is working on a book about democratic policing.

He explains that in an op-ed in the Capital Times, and I'm passing that along, here.

How Do The Numbers 1 And 42 Describe Tommy Thompson?

Cary Spivak has the answer.

Scott Walker, Stimulus Sideline Critic

It's as if a quarterback takes himself out of the game, then takes potshots from the bench while the replacement QB calls the plays.

Scott Walker Staff Meltdown

Read all about it.

Highway Expansion Beating Transit In Stimulus Preliminaries

Anyone surprised that the road-builders are winning this internal debate?

KRM Meetings In Milwaukee Friday: Supporters Should Attend

Two opportunities to get into the debate in favor of Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail are available Friday.

Tom Rubin, a consultant with a history of opposition to some rail projects (including a flip-flop on the KRM), and author of the Reason Foundation’s report on the KRM will be presenting, so arm yourself with the facts and attend:

Independent Business Association of Wisconsin
Friday, Jan 16, 2009 at 7:00 AM
Register here.

Or...

Milwaukee County Board, 10:00 AM
Milwaukee County Courthouse, Room 203P
901 N. Ninth Street, Milwaukee, WI 53233

Walker Defaults Role To Board Chair Holloway

Welcome Lee Holloway, Milwaukee County Board chair, to his new role as the people's steward.

Pabst Farms Mall On Life Support

The state shouldn't spend one dime on an interchange to a project this iffy.

Light Rail #1 Issue Backed On Obama Citizen Suggestion Site

People want light rail and are telling the Obama administration that in large numbers.

Another Waukesha Conservative Weighs In Against Pabst Farms

I see a consensus emerging: when will the governments remove their ill-advised public financing?

State Highway Projects Get Less Federal Funds Than You'd Think

Remember when we learned a while back that the federal-state split on the $810 million Marquette Interchange project - - lauded as completed early time and under budget - - was about 50-50, not the 80% Federal-20% State that had been the earlier standard?

Michael Horne explains why, and the implications for bigger projects looming - - such as the $1.9 billion I-94 North/South plan, with a possible state pricetag of about $970 million.

Morning Commute Snarled: No Rail To Ride Instead

Cold, snow and accidents snarled Milwaukee's rush hour Wednesday morning, with travel times into the city hitting an hour instead of the typical 15-20 minutes in some spots.

Commuter and light rail connections could have been a Godsend, as this pattern will only worsen as I-94 between Milwaukee and the Illinois line undergoes its eight-year rebuilding and widening.

And then throw in the Zoo Interchange project where I-94, I-894 and State Highway 45 converge...

Waukesha Water Meeting Tuesday - - The Highs And Lows

The Waukesha Common Council met as a committee of the whole to kick off the eventual filing of an application for a Great Lakes diversion.

There was an excellent presentation by author Peter Annin on the history and politics of Great Lakes diversions, and that included his useful warning to Waukesha, presumably the first community to apply for an out-of-basin diversion under the Great Lakes Compact, to expect a "brutal" process.

Annin knows his stuff and explained to Waukesha with a power point the value of the Great Lakes and the precedent-setting position the city was in.

Check out his website.

And there was an informative presentation by a DNR staffer, Shaili Peiffer, who explained the multi-step application process, which optimistically is measured in months.

I was disappointed that Mayor Larry Nelson did not allow his water utility staff to address questions that dealt with specific issues already raised by Waukesha and other public officials, such as the potential size of the diversion sought, or return flow.

Nelson said those questions would wait for a later meeting, but with the city's council and water utility commissioners present, along with the public and at least one reporter, Tuesday night would have made a fine beginning of the broader discussion, too.

And one more thing: with water as the sole item on the agenda, here's an appropriate question: does anyone in Waukesha City Hall water the plants?

Those two big dead potted plants (at least one Hibiscus) by the windows outside of the council chambers offer a pretty grim welcome.

ACLU Wants Environmental Justice In Stimulus Projects

That means more transit, which by now should be seen as a mainstream need in southeastern Wisconsin.

Walker Runs To Darkness

While the public lambastes him for intensifying the local recession, Milwaukee County Executive/gubernatorial wannabee Scott Walker chats up the most unpopular President in American history.

Reminds me of failed Congressional candidate John Gard's tone-deaf campaign appearance in Green Bay with Dick Cheney after the veep shot his friend in the face.

Neither Walker or Gard ran to daylight, as was the Green Bay standard.

Data Throws Waukesha's Lake Michigan Diversion Plan, Need, Into Doubt

Very recent information sent by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) to the Waukesha Water Utility - - which is looking for a huge diversion of Lake Michigan water - - suggests that the City of Waukesha is in line for modest growth only.

That raises serious and fundamental questions about Waukesha's plan for a 24-million-gallon-per-day diversion of Lake Michigan water because its current daily usage is 9.8 million gallons daily.

And Waukesha's much-touted water conservation plan throws a 24-million-gallons-a-day Lake Michigan water plan into greater doubt.

Here is the data and documentation that has not been published in other media:

Then-SEWRPC Executive Director Philip Evenson sent to Waukesha Water Utility general manager Daniel Duchniak on December 23, 2008 a memorandum and map to meet Duchniak's August 13th, 2008 request for coordinated information about SEWRPC's proposed water study, Waukesha's water utility service area boundaries and the Great Lakes Compact, SEWRPC records show.

Duchniak needed that information to help it complete an eventual application for a Great Lakes diversion as permitted under the newly-adopted Compact, records show.

The map of the utility's water service area that Evenson included in his response to Duchniak also shows land bordering Waukesha and that city's water service territory that included environmentally-sensitive land, wetlands and surface waters as well as land in the vicinity that might be connected to the service area.

Key data in the memorandum:

* 84% of SEWRPC's existing 21.7 square miles of water service area is currently developed, and by 2028, the population there could increase by 8,800 persons, or 13%.

* There are 17.4 square miles near the existing service area - - 9.9 square miles of which are developed.

There is also a smaller portion, of 7.5 square miles, "considered as potentially developable land. This area has been included in the planned water supply service supply area primarily to support the resolution of potential water supply problems associated with existing development, rather than to support new development. Under the regional land use plan, a very limited portion of this area is proposed to be developed...," (emphasis added) with SEWRPC projecting a population increase in that area by 2028 of only 1,500 persons.

In other words, the City of Waukesha, and the area its utility could hook up, is in line for modest, limited growth projected over a 20-year-period, according to SEWRPC - - which under the Great Lakes Compact is the agency that must provide to a diversion applicant the projected water service area to which that diverted water would go.

So the SEWRPC memorandum is nothing to sneeze at, under the law.

The memorandum does underscore SEWRPC's interest in keeping growth out of the environmental corridors and other common spaces with this language:

"The adopted regional water quality management plan places great emphasis on protection of the environmentally sensitive land," so there wouldn't be any need to plan to send Lake Michigan water to new homes to those acres that border the proposed water service area and that are also abundant within it, the map shows.

So I ask again, why is the City of Waukesha, which is constantly touting its water conservation planning, and which could meet its water needs with existing deep and shallow well supply combinations, embarking on a 24-million-gallons a day Lake Michigan supply plan that a) increases its daily water budget by 150%, b) might cost its ratepayers $60 million, and c) could add unsustainable volumes of wastewater discharge to Underwood Creek on the return trek back to Lake Michigan?

Does Waukesha plan to go into the wholesale water selling business to other communities, or to lead the charge for a regional water authority - - a subject studied by SEWRPC, but not recommended for the region, so far, in the draft regional water supply study proposal about which public review began Monday night at a public session in Milwaukee?

Waukesha rolls out more about its plan at a city hall meeting tonight at 7 p.m. A good place to ask some questions of its Mayor, water utility personnel and consultants.

Great Lakes book author Peter Annin is also in Waukesha tonight, courtesy of the Waukesha Environmental Action league, signing books from 5-6:30 at Martha's, the bookstore, at 231 W. Main St.

Maybe he has some anwers?

A One-Question Waukesha Water Q & A

The City of Waukesha uses, on average, 9.8 million gallons of water daily, according to SEWRPC (see bold-faced updates).
(And feel free to peruse the longer contextual discussion there.)

It has talked about seeking a Lake Michigan diversion of 24 million gallons daily.

That's a 147% increase over its daily usage, though also according to SEWRPC - - same bold-faced updates), its service territory is essentially built out.

Even the low end (20 million gallons daily) mentioned by Waukesha as its diversion total more than doubles its average daily usage.

So why the huge overage?

SEWRPC infers the same question, here.

Goodbye, President Clueless

Without insight, Pres. Bush's long farewell to a fractured foreign policy and wrecked domestic economy can't wrap up soon enough.

Conservative Waukesha Opinion-Maker Wants Pabst Farms Projects Stopped

Blogger and Freeman columnist James Wigderson says its time for the stalled and discredited Pabst Farms mall concept to be shelved, along with the I-94 Interchange to serve it - - a highway expansion I have often called the Interchange to Nowhere.

This widens the scope of opposition to the mall and its wasteful interchange, which added Mark Belling the other day.

The ACLU of Wisconsin has filed a federal civil rights complaint over the interchange, noting it would spend public funds discriminatorily on a highway project while there is no transit in the area.

The interchange would be funded almost entirely by the public sector except for a 7% share paid in by the mall developer.

Ice, Cold, Snow - - And Air Pollution

Wisconsin's weather curse now includes a Monday dirty air alert, with the details below.

Remember that many of these counties are in line for more highways, courtesy of the State of Wisconsin, which will add more road capacity for polluting cars and trucks.

And how does that fit into the Governor's Task Force on Global Warming?

Air alert below:

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is issuing an Air Quality Advisory for Particle Pollution (Orange) for Brown, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Outagamie, Racine and Waukesha counties effective 3:36 pm on Monday, January 12, 2009 through 11:59 pm on Monday, January 12, 2009 .

The advisory is being issued because of persistent elevated levels of fine particles in the air. These fine particles come primarily from combustion sources, such as power plants, factories and other industrial sources, vehicle exhaust, and wood fires.

The Air Quality Index is currently in the orange level, which is considered unhealthy for people in sensitive groups. People in those sensitive groups include those with heart or lung disease, asthma, older adults and children. When an orange advisory for particle pollution is issued, people in those groups are advised to reschedule or cut back on strenuous activities.

People with lung diseases such as asthma and bronchitis, and heart disease should pay attention to cardiac symptoms like chest pain and shortness of breath or respiratory symptoms like coughing, wheezing and discomfort when taking a breath, and consult with their physician if they have co ncerns or are experiencing symptoms. Fine particle pollution deposits itself deep into the lungs and cannot easily be exhaled. People who are at risk are particularly vulnerable after several days of high particle pollution exposure.

To receive air quality advisories by e-mail, visit http://dnr.wi.gov/air/newsletters/.

There are several actions the public can take to reduce their contributions to this regional air quality problem.

Reduce driving when possible and don't leave vehicle engines idling.
Postpone activities that use small gasoline and diesel engines.
Minimize outdoor wood fires.
Conserve electricity.
For more ideas on how you can reduce your emissions today and every day visit: Do a little, save a lot!
For more information:

Air Quality Watches and Advisories Status Web Site
Daily Air Quality Hotline - 1-866-324-5924 (1-866-DAILY AIR)
Federal interagency air quality web site, for information on the Air Quality Index and nationwide air quality forecasts and air quality conditions, http://airnow.gov
DNR's statewide air quality monitoring web page, http://dnrmaps.wisconsin.gov/wisards
For local DNR air management program contacts, http://dnr.wi.gov/air/about/regions.htm

If We Could Only Live In A Theocracy...

But no - - because of that pesky First Amendment.

And damn that 1776 revolution.

Sigh.

First Chance To Ask Questions About SEWRPC Water Plan Tonight In Milwaukee

The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Committee rolls out its first water supply study meeting- - with speakers, story boards and a comment period - - tonight from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., at HeartLove Place, 3229 N. Martin Luther King Jr Dr.

The full regional water supply proposed plan meeting schedule during the next several weeks is here.

The City of Waukesha, which SEWRPC recommends receive Lake Michigan water for its city purposes, rolls out its proposed city water diversion plan tomorrow night at 7 p.m. in its Common Council chambers.

Waukesha uses nine million gallons of well water daily, which the lake water would replace, because it is cleaner, and the switch will allow the overused underground supply to rebound.

The Waukesha plan envisions an eventual Lake Michigan diversion of 24 million gallons a day.

Perhaps officials at each meeting can explain the purpose of the additional 15 million daily gallons of diverted water, and how much of the total will spur new development rather than serve existing needs, and how much is likely to end up in basements along Underwoood Creek when Waukesha's treated water is to be returned.

OWI 'Compromise' Still Coddles Offenders

There's something pathetic about legislators twisting themselves into knots trying to sorta criminalize a first-time OWI offense, but not really, which still gives too much leeway to a person arrested for driving drunk.

These legislators are trying to look innovative and bold.

Hardly.

No other state gives a civil ticket/wrist slap to a first-time offender, and that's because the other states know that first-time offenders are not first-time drunk drivers: they are first-time caught drunk drivers.

I have known many people with alcohol problems, and one thing they have in common is that they drove under the influence often - - A lot.

Too many Wisconsin legislators, in the grip of political denial and special interests, too, want us to believe that they are legislating with the interest of that mythical poor first-time/only-time/one-time offender who was merely unlucky and "made a mistake."

And for whom a ticket is all the deterrent they will ever need.

If this person exists at all, he or she is a rarity.

To make matters worse, the proposed compromise says that if a first-time offender re-offends, the ticket converts to a misdemeanor and the second offense is another misdemeanor.

Some reform: For the repeat offender, that ticket didn't do the trick, and that second offense - - a misdemeanor - - is the way a second offense is treated now.

Wisconsin needs to get into the real world of drunk driving enforcement.

Here is one legislator who seems to understand.

His sister was killed by a drunk driver. For his colleagues, shouldn't that be enough?

Waukesha's Premature Push For Lake Michigan Water

I have had time to study in depth the written questions posed by six environmental groups to the City of Waukesha as Waukesha moves towards filing a formal application for a Lake Michigan diversion.

The questions, lengthy and somewhat technical, are here.

Raised in the questions are legal, regulatory, environmental and regional development issues that, for the first time, coherently provide the very blueprint for discussion absent from the regional water supply study that the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission has just finished and is about to launch for public comment.

It is amazing that SEWRPC spent nearly a million dollars of public money and took three years to write a water supply study that ignores big picture issues - - such as the relationship of water to growth - - yet comes to the conclusion that diverting water to Waukesha is the best idea available.

From the beginning, SEWRPC limited the scope of its study and hired the same lead consultant - - Ruekert & Mielke - - to write its recommendations that the City of New Berlin had hired to write its Lake Michigan diversion application.

And you wonder why I have been arguing that SEWRPC needs to be reconstituted with new management and direction so that it can take all aspects of planning into account?

Or why SEWRPC's justice task force has asked that outside experts he retained every time SEWRPC writes a plan so that independent socio-economic analyses can he obtained?

Waukesha has yet to make more than a public relations case that its water supply needs have to be met with a diversion.

And its water supply consultants suggest that the DNR hasn't had time to write rules and provide diversion guidance now that the Great Lakes Compact and state enabling legislation have been approved.

The diversion seres its ambitions growth plans, through annexations and building so it can be the hub of a sprawled-out Waukesha county that is in line to absorb by 149,000 new residents, according to Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas.

That is an increase to 509,000 residents above its 2000 US Census Bureau number of 360,000 county residents - - about equal to adding two Ozaukee County census bureau population totals to Waukesha County.

[Update: At Monday night's SEWRPC water study presentation at HeartLove Place, in Milwaukee, SEWRPC water expert Bob Biebel challenged the population figure put out by Waukesha County Executive Vrakas. Biebel said SEWRPC believes Waukesha County's population will rise by 70,000 by 2035, and said SEWRPC also believes Milwaukee County's population will grow by 70,000, too, despite a state official's estimate of losses.

So what is driving the City of Waukesha's water diversion application which will seek up to 24 million gallons of water, when its current daily use is nine million gallons+.

Why apply for more than twice your current usage? What's really going on?

And while that question needs an open discussion, neither SEWRPC, Vrakas, or the City of Waukesha is leading the charge for planning to integrate transit, affordable housing, clean air and sustainable use of new and existing supplies of water - - speaking volumes about their willingness to off-load those issues onto the rest of the region and taxpayers.

[Update: At the Monday water presentation, Biebel said nearly all the SEWRPC water utility service area has been built out, leaving little need for water above 9.8 million gallons daily - - the current Waukesha city average daily usage - - and that because Waukeaha's growth will be same whether the city gets Lake Michigan water or uses other sources, the net job growth due to the Lake Michigan diversion is "zero."]

The new Great Lakes Compact says that a diversion has to meet a last resort, and clearly Waukesha is not at that position.

And the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has not written the rules governing many aspects of diversion application submission, review and implementation.

So in an interim review period of what may be several years, it behooves Waukesha to answer the groups' questions, since this will not be the first test of the city's plans.

The environmental groups have done the region a genuine public service.

It should have done pro-actively by SEWRPC - - a failure of regional planning mirrored by SEWRPC's now 34-year-delay in housing plan preparation, and advocacy of a $6.5 billion regional freeway expansion and reconstruction scheme without a penny recommended for transit.

SEWRPC's small-picture management keeps validating its outdated regional land use plan - - always the agency's touchstone for study scopes and work - - and reinforces sprawl, and economic and racial segregation.

In other words, helps keep the region mired in its old ways.

In a word: uncompetitive.

A region where exurban and new suburban growth has been encouraged at the expense of existing infrastructure and available labor pools in the City of Milwaukee and the City of Racine.

And where highway expansion is draining the life from small town Main Streets and older suburbs: case in point - - SEWRPC's support for a quick, $25 million interstate interchange to an empty mall site at Pabst Farms.

Near subdivisions put on hold, as the recession kills housing construction and retail expansion, along with driving and highway need and use.

The City of Waukesha is holding a public hearing on Tuesday the 13th of January where it will roll out more details of its application-in-preparation.

The meeting is in its council chambers, at 7:00 p.m.

It will be interesting to see how the city separates substance from PR, and begins to answer not only questions from groups but from taxpayers who will face tens of millions in expenditures that are difficult to justify, and will further tax the entire region.

History Shows Census Estimates Are Historically Inaccurate

A state official predicts a big drop in Milwaukee city and county populations.

It's important to help build the city, but as to the estimate - - yawn.

There is a long history of inaccurate predictions, in part because they are made from a distance by people without a feel for the City.

Milwaukee comes out better after estimates and a census because it enlists some of those community-organizing, foreign-language speaking, culturally-sensitive city-savvy residents to supplement federal census takers' door-to-door work.

I helped coordinate this effort for the city during the 2000 census, so I know of which I speak.

City leaders had the same experience during the 1990 census, and the same will be true in the 2010 census and beyond.

Sen. Mary Lazich, Alcohol Jokester

Shameful.

When It Comes To Water Policy - - Silence, Please

A Journal Sentinel columnist and editorial board member has had it with all those questions being raised about Waukesha's quest for Lake Michigan water.

Dang questions!

Imagine asking for scientific details and other information about piping Great Lakes water out of its basin, then returning it as wastewater to a tributary that can flood - - then into a watershed where millions and millions of dollars have been spent on water quality and other environmental improvements.

The temerity of people wanting some details - - especially since the City of Waukesha hasn't even disclosed its application yet.

Look for the City of Wauwatosa (the projected tributary dumping site), the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Waukesha taxpayers, and the seven other Great Lakes states to be asking the same kinds of questions...and more...and demanding answers...to some preliminary questions that were easily dismissed by the columnist.

Madison Minister Argues For Humane Environmentalism

To which I'd add, the more green, long-term social and personal investments we can make individually, and through policy advocacy, the closer we come to the ideal he seeks.

Wilderness Areas Expanded Nationally

Republicans had supported much of the preservation action, so it sailed through a Senate vote.

Regional Water Study Public Comment Schedule

Want to comment on the water supply study recommendations created by a committee appointed by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission?

Here's the meeting schedule.

The study recommends diverting Lake Michigan water to the City of Waukesha: the city wants about three times as much water as recommended by the committee.

The difference is because the committee was primarily looking to create a regional water supply and conservation program, but Waukesha wants a lot more water for its growth.

Which promotes sprawl and contradicts local, state and national efforts to promote land and water conservation, clean air, and smart growth.

And will spur more development far from where the housing and job needs in the region are the strongest - - in Milwaukee and Racine.

So stop in at one of the meetings, ask some questions and state your opinions.

SEWRPC will probably not change its recommendations because of input received in these pro forma meetings, but establishing a strong public record can come in handy during subsequent planning or legal processes.

DNR Not Ready To Review Diversion, Say Waukesha's Consultants

Waukesha is proceeding with its application for a Great Lakes diversion, but with the ink barely dry on the Great Lakes Compact and state enabling legislation, is the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources fully-staffed and geared-up to handle its complex role in the application's drafting and review?

Consultants hired by the Waukesha Water Utility to help write that city's precedent-setting Lake Michigan diversion application said in October that the new Great Lakes Compact "has added new requirements that Waukesha must meet before proceeding with the completion of the application," but the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources "has not had time to promulgate rules or draft guidance concerning the application" are related matters."

Susan Hill and Jeff Edstrom, working for GeoSyntec, an Illinois consulting company, made the observations in an October 9, 2008 letter to Waukesha Water Utility general manager Daniel Duchniak.

The utility provided the letter, and other documents about its Lake Michigan diversion planning, last week.

The letter explained why GeoSyntec was seeking additional 2008 funding from the utility.

The next day, October 10, Duchniak told utility commissioners in a separate letter that he was recommending that GeoSyntec's 2008 contract be boosted by another $54,00o, bringing the 2008 total to $183,400.

[The utility's 2008 meeting minutes do not appear online this weekend (2007's are all there), and when I find the link to those 2008 minutes about the contract change, I will post that.]

GeoSyntec laid out in its five-page letter the work it would provide under the amended contract, including more meetings with the DNR, the regional planning commission (SEWRPC) and environmental groups on the diversion application and on water quality, supply and wastewater treatment plan matters.

The key paragraphs of the GeoSyntec letter (I will post it as a link when it's converted to a pdf):

"The passage of the Compact legislation in Wisconsin has added new requirements that Waukesha must meet before proceeding with completion of the application. Our discussions with DNR staff over the past summer confirm that three additional products/activities will need to be completed to support the application: 1) revisions to the Waukesha Wastewater Facility Plan, 2) development of a Water Supply Service Area Plan, and 3) discussion/negotiations with DNR and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission regarding effluent limits and regional water quality issues.

"Because Waukesha will be the first community to move with an application from with a straddling county under Act 227, DNR is very cognizant that they will be setting precedent. The Wisconsin legislature passed statutes requiring the additional products; however, DNR has not had time to promulgate rules or draft guidance concerning the application and the Water Suppl;y Service Are Plan. As a result, DNR has been understandably careful to provide Waukesha with clear guidance on how the application and supporting documents should be assembled."

Later, GeosSyntec's personnel note "In order to better develop a final application, it is necessary to have close communication with DNR staff. With staff changes at the DNR as well as a new statute that does not have precedent applications, it will be necessary to meet more frequently with DNR staff."

GeoSyntec has been a Waukesha contractor for several years, and has been paid in the $75,000 to $100,000 range annually. It works closely with the public relations firm Martin J, Schreiber & Associates and the Reinhart law firm, too.

The total billings for these consultants, and two more that lobby in Washington, DC for federal funds, exceeds a half-million dollars since 2000.

When I get a better total, I'll pass that along.

Another Milwaukee-Centered Blog Arrives

Issues drawn together, so to speak.

When You Cut Down And Pave Habitat, Animals Don't Leave

Like the deer who eat landscaping and increasingly are involved in highway crashes, coyotes still need a place to live, eh?

Senator To Give Pay Raise to Non-Profits

Also sounds like a taxpayer-subsidized tax deduction to me.

Scott Walker And The Coming Flip-Flop

Predictable turnaround coming on stimulus aid.

And I say "coming flip-flop" because in classic Walker style, he is now saying he might be open to some aid, so he's still wiggling to have it all ways.

Proving he stands for nothing.

I suspect this editorial and a storm of political and bloggers' uproar has gotten Walker's attention.

And I further expect this 'for-it-quickly-after-I-was-foolishly-against-it' cave-in becomes part of Gov. Jim Doyle's campaign against Walker, should Walker blunder into another run for Governor.

Or it'll all be moot if the GOP finds a more credible candidate, which, given Walker's erratic approach to the stimulus and the county's dreadful finances, shouldn't be too tough.

Common Ground With Mark Belling

He's teeing off Thursday afternoon on the floundering upscale mall plan at Pabst Farms.

Common Ground with this blog.

Not to mention the ACLU of Wisconsin that has filed a formal complaint over the project's proposed I-94 interchange.

Belling is calling the continuing promised mall "a giant con" and saying also that "the interchange needs to be stopped.

The state, county, city of Oconomowoc and SEWRPC have all been pushing that $25 million interchange to the mall - - what I call the Interchange to Nowhere.

Why keep one con - - Belling correctly points out that the Pabst Farms TIF also includes $24 million in taxpayer subsidy - - going with another?

Environmental Groups Pose Detailed Questions About Waukesha's Diversion Plans

The City of Waukesha is planning to seek, under the terms of the Great Lakes Compact, a diversion of up to 24 million gallons daily from Lake Michigan.

That diversion across the subcontinental divide to a community wholly-outside the Great Lakes basin would be the first sought under the new Compact, so for legal as well as environmental reasons it is crucial that the application be carefully constructed and completely and publicly justified.

Though the application has not been filed, enough of Waukesha's intentions are known that half-a-dozen environmental groups have sent Waukesha officials a list of detailed questions to bring more of the city's plans into the light.

Those groups have posted those questions on a new blog, here.

I expect that these questions, Waukesha's answers, and other materials will help inform the discussion in the region about water diversion policy across southeastern Wisconsin.

Since the application would have to be approved by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources - - and the DNR has not written the administrative rules it needs to implement the new Compact - - and also must be approved unanimously by the other seven Great Lakes states, I'd guesstimate that serious consideration of a Waukesha application is two-to-three-years away, at the earliest.

The timing of the environmental groups' questions is apt, as both Waukesha and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission are holding public meetings next week on water supply issues.

The SEWRPC meetings will touch on more than its recent study recommendation that Waukesha receive Lake Michigan water.

Waukesha is seeking a lot more water than what SEWRPC is recommending in a regional scheme designed to conserve water and replenish a stressed deep aquifer beneath Waukesha County and much of the region.

I'll post those schedules over the weekend.

SEWRPC Dooming Its Justice Task Force

I've attended several of the meetings held by SEWRPC's relatively-new Environmental Justice Task Force, and it's time to ask:

Why does the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission - - 100% paid for by the taxpayers in seven area counties - - want this important group to fail?

Created in 2007 (eight meetings in 18 months) following SEWRPC's contentious 2004 federal re-certification review - - a crucial quadrennial evaluation through which the agency keeps its power to greenlight major highway projects - - the EJFT was supposed to be SEWRPC's formal link to low-income and minority communities shut out for decades from regional planning and agency hiring.

Even today, only three of SEWRPC's 49 staff professional are minorities, and SEWRPC's offices are in a remote, Pewaukee location far from the region's low-income and minority residential clusters in Milwaukee and Racine.

And none of the 32-members of the agency's water supply advisory committee were African-American - - not a first-time advisory committee makeup in an agency where the committees do much of the basic work, are provided with paid consultants and thus wield power.

But SEWRPC's working relationship with its task force is strained, to say the least.

Last year, when the task force learned SEWRPC was about to designate a new Executive Director with a no-advertising, in-house promotion, it asked the agency to slow down the process so it could weigh in.

In other words, to do its job.

Request refused; then Deputy Director Ken Yunker's pre-ordained hiring was affirmed.

The task force in 2008 voted to recommend to SEWRPC that all agency studies have outside experts write the socio-economic analysis to make sure that perspective was included.

Insulted by the suggestion, SEWRPC shot it down.

And SEWRPC is about to hire a public relations/outreach specialist - - a job right down the task force alley, but the task force was not included in that hiring process.

It appears as if the time and energy of a very dedicated group of citizens and local officials is being wasted, as the agency treats the task force as little more than window-dressing.

From my perspective, it's another reason why Milwaukee County and the City of Milwaukee need to remove themselves from SEWRPC, withdraw their annual $845,000 property tax donation, and create a planning agency with a genuine urban agenda, and a management team that truly respects public participation.

An interim suggestion - - and one that could help the task force with its self-evaluation SEWRPC says the task force will do this summer:

The task force could adopt its own agenda on housing, water, job development, transit and other pressing issues, elect its own officers, and take its very important mission directly to other groups and to media on behalf of the groups that SEWRPC told federal evaluators the task force would serve.

And as the feds process all the feedback (heavily negative) it got from local residents and officials during the still-incomplete 2008 evaluation, SEWRPC's dismissive treatment of the task force should be added as an important item for SEWRPC's correction.

I-94 Interchange To Nowhere Needs To Be Halted

Now that the Mayor of Oconomowoc is saying that the upscale mall at Pabst Farms is a pipe dream, isn't it time that the state, Waukesha County and Oconomowoc withdraw their financing for nearly all that $25 million full-diamond interchange that was to service said mall?

Big glitzy malls are hardly being built anywhere. Retail is dying. The last thing the region needs is a new Mayfair dumped in a cornfield, complete with a fancy interchange for motorists who are more likely to be saving their money, or shopping to help save Main streets in downtown Oconomowoc, Jefferson, Fort Atkinson or Waukkesha.

And let's have the State Audit Bureau examine the process wherein the various parties and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission charged ahead on the interchange plan even as one mall developer pulled out and its replacement couldn't - - and still hasn't - - come up with potential tenants that you wouldn't find in a glorified strip mall?

$25 million would provide a lot of tax relief, or fill a lot of potholes, or get some local transit service running in a part of the region where buses are as scarce as albino deer.

WEPCO Looking To Great Lakes Wind Turbines

Pete Millard has a solid piece on wind power in the Business Journal.

Post-Election Palin Is Good...

But the questions in this so-called interview are priceless.

Hardin Out; Michael Mathias' MPS Candidacy Boosted

A blogging first: Pundit Nation's Michael Mathias looks to be in good shape for the upcomiong MPS District 4 race race because incumbent Charlene Hardin has been disqualified.

Scott Walker: 'I'm A Know-Nothing.'

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker finally admits he's not a real manager, leader, thinker or risk-taker.

He has shown that he is over-matched by circumstances and expectations basic to his job by explaining away his breathtakingly ignorant position against accepting federal stimulus money - - this time by likening it to taking a $1,000 gift and using it to buy a $60,000 sports car.

What kind of absurd math and financial analysis is that?

Weirdly, Walker thinks he can manipulate the economic collapse into a personal, political advantage - - that somehow there is merit in letting a severely-challenged county do without federal investments and better public services.

Walker is letting doctrinaire, discredited Republican ideology and his 2010 Gubernatorial scheming dictate an 'approach' to a Recession/Depression.

Imagine getting a diagnosis of treatable cancer and being told by the oncologist assigned by your HMO that you can't have the latest and best medicine available - - because the doctor has decided that you should tough it out on your own.

If Walker were able to decline federal funding, Milwaukee County would further position itself negatively against surrounding counties and cities.

Let's hope that Gov. Doyle, if stimulus funding comes directly to the states for distribution, is able to work with other more enlightened and thoughtful local officials who won't imitate Walker's paper-thin reasoning - - and that's a generous description - - as taxpayers and residents should not be punished because Walker wants a shoutout from his right-wing and libertarian talk radio shills.

Walker's approach is shameless transparent, guided by opportunistic narcissism that is also dead wrong objectively, too.

Xoff says it better than have I.

New Great Lakes Blog, Diversion Watch, Has Been Launched

Looks good to me. I hope people sign in, read, link and otherwise use it.

Dow Chemical Gets Minor Wrist Slap

Dow Chemical owes the State of Michigan $1.8 million for some dioxin cleanup and related paperwork.

So? The company had 3rd quarter revenues, in a down economy, of more than $15.4 billion.

Hard to tell which is the greater outrage: the toxic pollution, or that the company gets away with a bill, as if that was a big deal.

I see something of a trend - - companies like Dow and Enbridge wreck the environment and get the equivalent of a speeding ticket.

And if not for pressure from environmentalists, the companies would make a clean getaway, so to speak.

Scott Walker Blows Off Constituency

Walker says he doesn't want stimulus funding for Milwaukee County.

Easy for him to say: He has a big salary, fully-paid health care and a great pension.

Talk about a craven and cynical pre-2010 gubernatorial election ploy.

Update: Some Walker supporters think he's off-base, like business leader Tim Sheehy.

I predict the Journal Sentinel will editorially spank Walker, too.

Isn't it time to find a new County Exec, particularly one who will also help break the local and regional transit funding logjam?

Looks Like We Can't Afford To Get Repeat OWI Offenders Off The Roads

A report says tougher penalties for repeat OWI offenders will break the bank.

And what are the costs to families, employers and society-at-large of not removing multiple-offense OWI defendants from the roads?

Maybe we should put new signs at the state's highway border crossings that say "Welcomes Repeat OWI Offenders, You Misdemeanant Rascals!"

Bar License Suspension: Video And More Information

The Franklin tavern that lost its license for 90 days admitted it thought a heavy drinker they repeatedly served would leave the premises and sleep it off out in his van - - as they knew he had done previously, according to a Milwaukee television station.

Story and video, here.

Instead, the inebriated patron drove away, 18 drinks later, and killed two people.

For those of you who think this was all an "accident," feel free to read the criminal complaint in the case - - a 19-page history of the defendant's behavior, including multiple OWI convictions as well as the events that led up to the double-fatal crash.

That won the tavern a 90-day suspension, the first of its kind in state history.

And you think the state doesn't enable drunk driving? (Wisconsin has the highest rate of drunken driving in the nation, and national estimates put your chances of being in an alcohol-related traffic crash sometime in your life between 30-60%.)

Two lives lost.

A 90-day suspension.

Begs the question of how many people does a patron have to kill for a tavern to lose its license?

Earlier post here.

National Effort To Direct Stimulus Spending Away From New Highways

In other words, away from adding at least $200 million in unnecessary and wasteful new lanes on I-94 from Milwaukee to Illinois, and towards repairs of roads and bridges first.

The coalition Transportation For America makes this salient point:

"Now is not the time to squander money on wasteful projects or to give states a blank check for new road construction. We must demand accountability and transparency from the states. We simply cannot afford to build new roads to crumbling bridges."

I'd add transit to the to-do list, especially rail, where Wisconsin is deficient, and where rail-oriented development would add long-term benefits at stations and along routes.

The I-94 plan is part of a $6.5 billion, 25-year, seven-county regional freeway expansion and reconstruction plan, with 127 miles of new lanes added to several major highways.

The plan was crafted by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC), an unelected body, and on which the City of Milwaukee, with a population larger than five of the seven individual counties, has no direct representation.

The Milwaukee Common Council and Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors opposed adding any new lanes in the City of Milwaukee, and the Common Council also recently asked the state to drop the two new lanes to and from Illinois in favor of a pending commuter rail plan - - but SEWRPC's governing body of 21 appointed commissioners and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation have turned down these requests.

The I-94 expansion is also the subject of a federal civil rights complaint.

There are multiple posts about the regional planning commission and the freeway expansion plan available through the search function on the top left of the blog home page.

Clean Waters In Wisconsin?

There's the myth, the picture postcard memories of canoeing, fishing and swimming - - and there's the reality.

Every two years, the state's must compile a list of so-called "impaired" bodies of water that fail to meet clean water standards.

I find this long list from 2008 depressing and alarming.

Context here, from Midwest Environmental Advocates, a public interest law firm.

Wisconsin Is At Ground Zero For Coal Ash Dumping

The New York Times front page story today about the dangers inherent in piles of burned coal by-products (fly ash) shows Wisconsin with a big concentration of fly ash dumps.

Here's the map.

Anyone keeping an eye on these dumps, and the hazards they pose to groundwater, air quality and other public health issues?

Michigan media are already tracking dumps near the Great Lakes, including in Wisconsin, and all this comes in the wake of a disasterous spill in Tennessee.

Tar Sand Oil Hitting The Fan

Environmental costs, financial costs, political costs - - you name it and it's causing tar sand exploitation to slow down in Canada and come under greater scrutiny on both sides of the US-Canada border.

That doesn't mean that Murphy Oil still isn't dreaming of that $6-$7 billion expansion to accept and refine tar sand oil at its Superior facility, a project that some state elected officials tout as compatible with a pristine Lake Superior, unpolluted wetlands and clean air, too.

One report predicted inevitable Great Lakes pollution from the tar sand industry, as refineries sprout and expand on the shorelines.

Extracting oil from tar sand is extremely energy/water/land-intensive, hence the product's reputation as dirty and expensive.

Refineries in Indiana and Michigan are also slated to accept tar sand oil shipments for refining.

There are 30 additional posts on this blog about tar sand oil. Use the search box on the left at the top of the homepage.

RNC Chairman Fears Minority Party Status

Has be been chaneling this blog?

This Gun Owner/Wielder Should Have Called The Police

Store owner gets ten years for shooting and wounding a suspected 'burglar.'

Two lives ruined.

Geothermal Energy Tapped For New UW-Madison Building

Pretty cool, so to speak.

Rep. Zepnick Gets It Right On Tavern License Revocation

State Rep. Josh Zepnick, (D-Milwaukee), makes the right suggestion when calling for license revocations from two bartenders and a Franklin tavern where a "blitzed" patron drank heavily, then killed two pedestrians nearby on Christmas Day, 2007.

Update: Franklin, tavern agree ti 90-day closing.

Some history, here.

Records cited by the Journal Sentinel alleged "the bartenders continued serving alcohol to [the defendant] - including at least nine 12-ounce beers and nine shots of alcohol over 6.5 hours – even after they knew he was intoxicated."

More information, and the criminal complaint, here.

Like all licensed businesses, a tavern exists only because local officials approve.

Tavern operations are a privilege, not a right.

Other taverns have had their licenses withdrawn or not renewed following public safety threats and incidents, such as shootings or repeated police calls, and in this case, two people died in part because of the tavern's behavior.

I say "in part" because, yes, the driver 'chose' (while blitzed - - the bartender's term) to drink and drive, and for that the driver is paying with a life sentence in prison.

Little compensation for the family of the couple run down and killed, I imagine.

But the driver had been repeatedly served in the tavern, and for that act of business irresponsibility, it's fair punishment to forfeit the license.

Again, it's of little use to the victims' family, though society is served.

Perhaps other taverns will take note as the state slowly moves towards greater recognition of its alcohol troubles.

Solutions include greater education, tougher law enforcement, and where applicable, sanctions for those who help people into (and profit from) unambiguous intoxication, esepcially when there are fatal consequences.

JS Editorial Blog Delivers Kevin Fischer Smackdown

As the kids say in text, LOL.

Add Phoenix To Cities Overcoming The Light Rail Phobia

Phoenix... and Dallas, Norfolk, Denver, St. Louis, Baltimore, Portland, Minneapolis, Memphis, San Diego, New Orleans, Charlotte, Houston, Salt Lake City, Sacramento, Cleveland, Kenosha.

Red states. Blue states. Cold states. Warm states. Big cities. Small cities. Aging cities. Booming cities. Conservative cities. Liberal cities. East, west, north, south, coastal, Midwestern.

(Maybe I missed a few, so here is a list.) And many have commuter rail, subways, and other coordinated rail systems.

But not Milwaukee. Or Madison - - for three reasons: Fear of talk radio, business community passivity, and lack of political will at the state and local level.

There is nothing meritorious about being the exception. The message we send is that we are stubbornly content to be left at the station with clean, city-friendly and job-creating transit options declined.

Milwaukee Shut Out Of Assembly Urban Affairs Committee

Well, Madison's got two of five Democratic appointments, with the rest to even smaller municipalities, like Manitowoc, so I guess that covers it from The One Big Wisconsin City's perspective.

Reminds me of the dealing that went down after the November elections, which saw Dems win both houses but leave Milwaukee without a legislative leadership position.

Hat tip to Michael Horne.

Rail Clicking Along...Elsewhere

When I was a kid growing up in Washington, DC, the notion of a city subway system was a dream.

Now the Metro could find its stations linked by a separate train system, the Purple Line, for which campaign-style signs have sprouted in neighborhoods in the Maryland suburbs and on lawns within walking distance of the only home my parents ever owned in Somerset, near the District line.

Part of a national rail trend, though still stymied in Wisconsin - - but achievable if federal stimulus funding coming our way is invested properly.

Sure To Be The Perpetually-Victimized Right's Next Fake Controversy

Hate-monger Ann Coulter gets cut from an NBC interview, and cyber-gossip extraordinaire Drudge is reporting that she is banned from NBC is for life.

Don't media have the right to pick their interviewees?

Don't all authors have to work and earn their way onto these shows, and if their statements are repeatedly reprehensible thus talk their way out of return visits - - as Coulter has apparently done?

Her schtick is to be outrageous. It sells books, but also creates blowback.

She dishes it out, as do her champions, so let's see how loud they cry about the consequences and what they think it reveals about the fake siege righties are under.

Brown County Joins Milwaukee/Dane/Racine/Waukesha Counties, Et Al, On Dirty Air Indicies

More evidence that Wisconsin has a great deal of work to do getting its major population centers on to the clean and healthy air lists.

One 10-county DNR non-attainment list here.

Dane County's situation, here.

It's 2009 - - Still No Meeting Date For SEWRPC Housing Study Committee

SEWRPC 'rushed' the naming of the committee to mollify its federal recertification evaluators in the fall of 2008, but the committee has yet to schedule its first meeting, according to the SEWRPC website.

Remember that SEWRPC last completed a regional housing plan in 1975.

And has been promising since 2004 to fix this oversight.

So let's be generous and say this study get started sometime this year, wraps up in 2010 and is published in 2011.

Pretty timely for a state and region with a full-blown housing crisis unfolding right now.

Krugman Right Again

An earlier post that referenced Paul Krugman set off some interesting comments, as have other posts about the economy and public spending.

Krugman won his Nobel Prize for his academic work, but is better known through his New York Times' columns, so here is his thinking about the stimulus planning.

Republicans who are already laying traps for the Obama initiative might take Krugman's political and economic opinions to heart, since I think we're all still in this together, right?

Don't Have A Cow, Man!

This ain't goin' nowhere.

Al Franken's US Senate Career Is About To Begin

Norm Coleman's term has expired, along with nearly all his reasonable options to hold his seat.

A Republican, Coleman was always an odd pick to replace the more liberal Paul Wellstone (D), a plane crash victim.

Stimulus Funds Can Get Madison, Milwaukee, Kenosha, Racine And Chicago On Track

There's been so much talk over the decades - - but little action - - about the wisdom of better cooperation involving Madison and Milwaukee, so here's a modest proposal:

The city councils and mayors of both jurisdictions sign letters or resolutions urging Gov. Doyle to elevate local and inter-city rail projects as top priorities for the spending of transportation stimulus funds from the federal government after the inauguration of Barack Obama.

This list would include rail to connect the two largest cities in the state, the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter line connecting SE Wisconsin to the Chicago market, and local trolley or additional commuter rail systems, so that both cities and their respective counties are not only linked together but can construct integrated, 21st century transit systems that augment their rather static bus operations.

This would be a state-defined-and-sponsored program that much more-tightly knits together Madison with the industrial and commercial centers in SE Wisconsin all the way to Illinois, and that induces transit-oriented development along the right-of-way and the creation of permanent, transit-system employment.

Here is good data about the increase in business development and long-term job growth associated with rail investment.

Without a coordinated approach, the stimulus money ticketed for transportation will get allocated to highway expansion first, with street and road repairs, local aides and transit bringing up the rear - - as per usual.

To say that Wisconsin and its cities are behind the times and the curve when it comes to rail is an understatement.

This is a huge, one-time opportunity to change the way transportation business is done in Wisconsin - - with an eye on job creation long and short-term, so getting it right is important.

Small Wind Turbines Could Work In Downtown Milwaukee

I see no reason why developers in Milwaukee couldn't use this emerging technology.

An item for Mayor Barrett's Green Team, perhaps?

SEWRPC Leaves Out-Dated Information On Its Website

Four weeks ago, I noted that the economic profile linked at the economic development button on the home page of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission was so out of date that the top bank in a list of the three largest banks, Bank One of Wisconsin, didn't exist anymore after a take over by Chase Morgan.

And that the phone number in the disappeared bank's information now belonged to Kincaid's, a downtown Milwaukee chophouse.

Doesn't the menu look more mouthwatering that SEWRPC's water supply study?

But seriously, here we are a month later, and the same stale data is still on the SEWRPC website.

What gives? No delete button on SEWRPC's computers?

Commuter Rail Fast Facts, FromTransitNow,org

This blog often carries items and comments about commuter rail and the proposed Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee (KRM) line.

From its lead advocacy group, here are some useful fast facts.

Obama Eyes Huge Tax Cuts; Right-Wing Will Be Confused

Tax cuts? Really? Keeping a campaign promise?

Really?

How will the right complaint about this?

Facing Fines, Waukesha Chose To Delay Its Federal Water Purity Compliance

The City of Waukesha might get fined by the State Department of Justice for missing a federal clean water deadline it had earlier agreed to meet.

Of course, Waukesha doesn't like to mention that its residents didn't get clean water for years because city leaders chose to fight the federal water purity standard with a multi-million dollar, failed lawsuit.

Franken's MN Senate Vote Lead Widens

He'll be certified the winner.

The Road To Sprawlville, Chapter XXIV - - A National Route

Right through the pristine western Montana forests, courtesy of George W. Bush and the timber lobbyist making policy.

When Wisconsin Blows Its Stimulus $$ On Highways: A Prediction

Here's the prediction:

The State Department of Transportation will not have enough engineers and managers to get the work done efficiently.

So more of the management and oversight will be jobbed out, enriching the contractors by putting them in the driver's seat.

K-ching, k-ching. Just think of the work order changes coming down the pike - - those paperwork adjustments to contracts that build up the bottom line after the cobntract has been let.

Milwaukee's Seth Foldy Named Wisconsin's Chief Doctor

The Doyle administration has named Dr. Seth Foldy the state government's chief doctor.

This is an excellent appointment; we served together in the administration of former Milwaukee Mayor John O. Norquist, and I can say with total assurance that Dr. Foldy is a true believer in public health.

And is a genuine practitioner in proactive parternships between people and agencies in health care policy-making and provision.

Conservatives Reprise Their FDR-Hating

Talk about living in the past.

Pipeline Company Pays Pittance For 100+ Violations

$1.1 million is good enough for Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen.

Pittance? yes, pittance. Right word, pittance. It was a $2.1 billion pipeline project to get tar sand oil down from Alberta, so the forfeitures paying the people of Wisconsin whose wetlands and waterways and other trust properties were trashed in violation of the construction permits equal just a hair over 0.05% of the total project cost.

How To Cut Heart Attacks, Health Care Costs

Ban Smoking.

The "Greenhouse" PM Drive-Time Program Is Better When Green Is Gone

AM 620 WTMJ's afternoon drive-time talk and news program is more contemporary and funnier when grouchy Jonathan Green is on vacation.

Been that way for years. I noticed the improvement when Mark Reardon used to sub for Green.

No offense to Green, but the show stalls with his downbeat sound and off-putting conservative patter - - the latter often being apropos of nothing.

Station management should consider moving this program permanently into the 21st century permanently.

Stimulus Planning, Or Pork-Barrel Feasting?

Without a plan and some standards, the Obama stimulus program turns into a cookie jar.

The Cap Times has a round-up, too.

I'd say, if it's a green project, it goes to the head of the list.

If it's routine highway expansion, to the bottom.

Driving is down, fuel prices will rise again, aging boomers will drive less, and demand for more lanes and fancy bypasses will decline.

Transit demand will rise, so let's add trains and buses, repair the roads we have, make the bridges safer and generally fix infrastructure before adding even more highways that then need maintenance, plowing, and traffic enforcement.

Imagine If OWI Enforcement Were Strict Year-Round

Milwaukee County deputies nearly doubled their OWI arrest total on New Year's Eve/Day to 28, and reported accidents dropped to zero during that same 20-hour period, records show.

Do we think there are twice the number of impaired drivers out on the roads on December 31st, and into the next day?

Probably more, but not double; instead this is an indicator that there can be results from intentional policing to protect motorists from drunk drivers, and to save the lives of impaired drivers, too.

My point is that society is not helpless when it comes to addressing dangers posed by drunken driving.

Stiffer enforcement, tougher laws (criminalizing a first offense) and aggressive alcohol intervention and education can bring about results - - but only if government, organizations and individuals agree that a coordinated and sustained approach is a good and doable thing.

Franklin Tavern Could Close After"Blitzed" Patron's Double-Fatal OWI

The City of Franklin wrestles with appropriate punishment for a tavern where a patron drank heavily before driving away and killing two pedestrians in 2007.

One possible solution: a seventy-five day voluntary closure.

Criminal charges were considered against tavern personnel because one bartender admitting serving the patron knowing he was "pretty well-blitzed."

Municipalities have revoked tavern operating licneses for a variety of on-site problems, and this case is unfolding in the wake of greater awareness and public anger about drunken driving.

Legislative Cave-In On OWI Reform Begins

Don't underestimate either the power of the Tavern League or the unwillingness of leaders to lead.

That's a victory for denial and a prescription for inertia when the issue is getting dangerous drunks off the state's highways.

Great Lakes Invasives Now Number 186

For those of you keeping score, and shaking your head about the harm we have allowed to happen to these Great Lakes.

Thanks to the Great Lakes Blogger Dave Dempsey, who has been sounding these alarms far longer than have I.

Tardy With Hybrids, Ford Is Still Ahead Of GM, Chrysler

Ford hasn't asked for federal bailout money yet, and if its new hybrid sedan is a hit, Ford could leave its US rivals in its dust.

Toyota and Honda have the current hybrid market almost completely-cornered, and some consumers will be skeptical that Detroit can build a reliable new-technology anything compared to the Japanese, but its Fusion model, and GM's electric Volt promised for 2010 just might help stabilize this bedrock American industry.

Too little, too late?

We'll know in a year.

Maybe Airline Baggage Fee Days Are Numbered

One airline successfully tests jet fuel made from plants.

And a Happy, Green New Year to you, too.

Daily Show, Others SAVED!

WhoHoo.

Happy New Year!