Jeffery Hall is a good example of ugly architecture, all concrete and lots of peeling paint. The building consists of three floors above ground and three floors below ground.
State Senator Lena Taylor today filed the paperwork required to run for Milwaukee County Executive in next spring’s critical elections, vowing to “restore balance, integrity, and fiscal accountability for the Milwaukee residents who depend on public service — and the taxpayers who foot the bill.”
While Bierman has been a loyal Republican, he has no background as a police or fire professional, or in emergency management or homeland security. That has raised concerns for Rhode Island U.S. Rep. James Langevin, a Warwick Democrat who sits on the House Select Committee on Homeland Security.
“I do know Brock Bierman. I appreciate his service to Rhode Island. He’s a nice guy,” Langevin said yesterday. “But I am concerned that FEMA hasn’t learned the lessons of the Mike Brown situation.”
Langevin said he wasn’t judging whether Bierman should have been hired. However, “when I see appointments being made with strong political ties, that concerns me,” Langevin said. “If they’re going to work for FEMA, I would expect to see individuals in those positions with emergency responder, emergency management experience.”
PROVIDENCE — Lincoln D. Chafee, who lost his Senate seat in the wave of anti-Republican sentiment in last November’s election, said yesterday that he has left the party.
Chafee said he disaffiliated with the party he had helped lead, and his father had led before him, because the national Republican Party has gone too far away from his stance on too many critical issues, from war to economics to the environment.
“It’s not my party any more,” he said.
Chafee’s departure is another step in the waning of the strain of moderate Republicanism that was once a winning political philosophy from Rhode Island and Connecticut to the Canadian border. For the first time since the Civil War, the six New England states combined now have only one Republican U.S. House member, Connecticut’s Christopher Shays.
Chafee said he disaffiliated from the party “in June or July,” making him an unaffiliated voter. He did so quietly, and until yesterday, he said, “No one’s asked me about it.” He said he made the move because “I want my affiliation to accurately reflect my status.”
“There’s been a gradual depravation of … the issues the party should be strong on,” and the direction of the national party, he said.
That’s no secret. In a Journal Op-Ed piece published on the Thursday before the election, Chafee himself laid out some of the ways he disagreed with his party, notably as one of only 23 senators and the only Republican to oppose the resolution supporting the invasion of Iraq. He went on to criticize the “permanent deficits” caused by Republican tax cuts.
Chafee referred yesterday to the broad-based, bipartisan Iraq Study Group that Congress created, a process Chafee approved of. The study group recommended a gradual pullback of American forces, and insistence that the Iraqi government take more responsibility for security. But he said that since the study group made its recommendations, which he agreed with, “no one’s paid any attention to them.”
Most disturbing of all, the number of Americans without health insurance jumped. At this point, there are 47 million uninsured people in this country, 8.5 million more than there were in 2000. Mr. Bush may think that being uninsured is no big deal — “you just go to an emergency room” — but the reality is that if you’re uninsured every illness is a catastrophe, your own private Katrina.
In an attempt to raise the nation's historically low rate of breast-feeding, federal health officials commissioned an attention-grabbing advertising campaign a few years ago to convince mothers that their babies faced real health risks if they did not breast-feed. It featured striking photos of insulin syringes and asthma inhalers topped with rubber nipples.
Plans to run these blunt ads infuriated the politically powerful infant formula industry, which hired a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and a former top regulatory official to lobby the Health and Human Services Department. Not long afterward, department political appointees toned down the campaign.
The ads ran instead with more friendly images of dandelions and cherry-topped ice cream scoops, to dramatize how breast-feeding could help avert respiratory problems and obesity. In a February 2004 letter, the lobbyists told then-HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson they were "grateful" for his staff's intervention to stop health officials from "scaring expectant mothers into breast-feeding," and asked for help in scaling back more of the ads.
The report did not assert a direct cause and effect, because doing so would require studies in which some women are told not to breast-feed their infants -- a request considered unethical, given the obvious health benefits of the practice.
Power to the People: Run Your House on a Prius
By JIM MOTAVALLI
WHEN Hurricane Frances ripped through Gainesville, Fla., in 2004, Christopher Swinney, an anesthesiologist, was without electricity for a week. A few weeks ago, Dr. Swinney lost power again, but this time he was ready.
He plugged his Toyota Prius into the backup uninterruptible power supply unit in his house and soon the refrigerator was humming and the lights were back on. “It was running everything in the house except the central air-conditioning,” Dr. Swinney said.
Without the Prius, the batteries in the U.P.S. unit would have run out of power in about an hour. The battery pack in the car kept the U.P.S. online and was itself recharged by the gasoline engine, which cycled on and off as needed. The U.P.S. has an inverter, which converts the direct current electricity from the batteries to household alternating current and regulates the voltage. As long as it has fuel, the Prius can produce at least three kilowatts of continuous power, which is adequate to maintain a home’s basic functions.
This form of vehicle-to-grid technology, often called V2G, has attracted hobbyists, university researchers and companies like Pacific Gas & Electric and Google. Although there is some skepticism among experts about the feasibility of V2G, the big players see a future in which fleets of hybrid cars, recharged at night when demand is lower, can relieve the grid and help avert serious blackouts.
Willett Kempton, a senior scientist in the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware, said the power capacity of the automotive fleet was underutilized.
Mr. Kempton is helping to explore the V2G capabilities of a fuel-cell bus and battery-electric vehicles. The technology is also well-suited for so-called plug-in hybrids, which are being developed by General Motors, Toyota and other automakers. Plug-in hybrids will use larger battery packs and recharge from a household outlet for 10 to 30 miles of electric-only driving. When modified, these cars can return electricity to the grid from their batteries.
Poverty levels rising in Valley
Federal report shows 9.5% of population have lower incomes
Federal poverty statistics released Tuesday show the number of working poor in the Fox Valley continues to climb despite the country's rebounding economy.
The U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey for 2006 indicates an estimated 34,863 residents in the Appleton-to-Oshkosh area, or 9.5 percent of the population, had incomes below the federal poverty level in 2006.
The number was up from 29,325, or 8 percent, in 2005 and 21,729, or 6 percent, in 2004.
Of those residents living in poverty, 14,478, or 3.97 percent, could be considered working poor, up from 11,948, or 3.3 percent, in 2005 and about 7,600, or 2.1 percent, in 2004.
"This is sad news," said Debra Cronmiller, executive director of the Emergency Shelter of the Fox Valley, "but I'm not surprised. It's what we've been telling people for five years now."
"I want to know why I'm planning a funeral while George Bush is planning a wedding."
Anika Lawal, of Maryland, whose daughter, an Army sergeant, was recently killed in Iraq
Diebold can't sell elections unit
Diebold Inc. confirmed on Thursday what had been widely speculated since January: That it tried and failed to sell its often criticized voting technology business.Instead, the company said, it will allow the unit to operate more independently, giving it a separate board of directors and perhaps a new management structure.
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Diebold did not rule out later selling part or all of the realigned business.
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"By putting it at arm's length, they make it possible to spin this off at some point," said Gil Luria, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities.In a research note, Edward Wheeler, with Buckingham Research, said growth prospects in Diebold's core automated teller machine and security systems and services businesses remains solid and "on track with our expectations for accelerating momentum building over the next several years."
Diebold has often defended its voting machines and its own business intentions, even after its former chairman and chief executive, Wally O'Dell, sought with little success to convince critics his Republican politics and fundraising for President Bush were not the motive for the company's involvement in elections.
What we should be doing is paying attention to the common and omnipresent threats to our health and welfare. You know what really hurts young people in America? Drugs, alcohol, vehicles, and relatives. Oh, and poverty. The poorer a child is, the more likely that drugs, alcohol, vehicles, and relatives can do serious damage to them. If poverty kills or maims millions of American children and video games kill and maim exactly zero, why do we see more stories about video games than poverty? If children tend to get hurt at home and almost never get hurt at school, why are we so obsessed with school violence and pay so little attention to home and family violence?
GUEST VIEW: GOP’s state budget proposal is just plain dishonest, hurtful
As the conference committee joins to work out a final version of the state budget to send to the governor, there is very much at stake. So I want to be very clear. The budget that Assembly Republicans are bringing to the table is wildly out of touch with basic Wisconsin values.
The cuts in their budget would have devastating effects on many areas of life — from health care to education to public safety to economic development. They made sure to cater to big oil and include a tax break on gold bullion, but they failed to ensure that Wisconsinites have health care or that our kids have good schools.
First, the Republican Assembly budget would cause immediate harm to public schools. Statewide, it would cut schools by nearly $130 million, keep Wisconsin dead last in the nation in school breakfasts, increase class sizes, and layoff 1,700 teachers. That means $2.7 million less for La Crosse County schools.
The Republican budget would also slash over $125 million from University of Wisconsin campuses and eliminate all increases for student financial aid.
On average, the GOP budget would cut 5 percent to community aids — impacting local police and fire protection and emergency services, not to mention snow removal, garbage pickup or street maintenance. Like I said, Republicans are aiming at some of the most basic services you can think of.
And then there’s health care. Democrats have been working hard to find the best way to make sure Wisconsinites get the health care they need. The governor’s budget had a plan to cover 98 percent of our citizens, and the Senate had another plan to provide universal healthcare. And what have Republicans contributed to efforts to find the best way to provide affordable health care to Wisconsinites? Nothing.
Well actually, they’ve done even less than nothing. The Assembly Republican budget eliminates programs to provide affordable health care for over 185,000 Wisconsinites, including 38,000 uninsured children. And it cuts funding to critical programs that serve some of our most vulnerable citizens — seniors, the disabled and the young.
But every time Democrats try to work to find the best way we can make sure Wisconsinites have affordable health insurance, Republicans come back with nothing but the same old rhetoric.
They try to tell us that they are the ones standing up for taxpayers, that these drastic cuts are all in the name of a “no tax increase” budget. What they’re not so quick to talk about is the $256 million fee increase their budget also includes.
Now, I understand there is a difference between a tax and a fee, but it seems to me that if Republicans are trying to tell Wisconsinites that their budget is best because it doesn’t increase taxes at all, they should be a bit more forthright about fee increases. Because in the end, it is still an increase and the taxpayers are still footing the bill. Let’s at least be honest about what we’re talking about.
As the conference committee works through the budget in the days and weeks to come, I can only hope this sort of honesty will win out over rhetoric, and that together, we can pass a budget that puts Wisconsin families first. At the heart of this budget process is protecting the basic values of our state, and GOP legislators have failed to do so on many levels.
I urge Republicans to rethink their extreme budget and put their focus back where it should be — on the hard-working families of this state, our public schools, our veterans pursuing higher education and our citizens who need health care. And I urge you to tell them the same thing.
Joe Wineke is chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.
The Pentagon sold more than a thousand aircraft parts that could be used on F-14 fighter jets — a plane flown only by Iran — after announcing it had halted sales of such surplus, government investigators say.
According to opensecrets.org, Rep. Tom Petri is the 15th wealthiest member of Congress.
For Immediate Release
Grassroots Business Group takes Wisconsin Health Reform Plan to Pewaukee
www.BusinessCoalition.net/wisconsin.htm
Contact:
Keith Schmitz/414-963-0847/ schmitz1@ameritech.net
(Milwaukee, WI) -- Local businesspeople are invited to attend a meeting to organize grassroots business support in the Milwaukee area for the proposed Healthy Wisconsin plan which passed in the State Senate last week. This organization, the Business Coalition for Single Payer Healthcare, will be part of similar groups throughout the state.
The second of three meetings in the area will take place at 5:30pm on Thursday August 2nd at the Machine Shed at I94 and Hwy 164 (exit 294, northeast corner, west of hotel)
Cash bar and optional appetizers or dinner
The meeting will feature a presentation by Institute for One Wisconsin regarding the details on the Healthy Wisconsin plan, followed by a discussion of possible action that can be taken to support the plan.
The meeting is being organized by Jack Lohman, a retired business owner, Keith Schmitz an owner of public relations firm and a grassroots organizer, and C.J. Brown, a local business consultant. This will be the first of three meetings that will be held in the Milwaukee metro area through August.
Although Families USA reported that Healthy Wisconsin will create 13,000 new jobs and $1 billion in new business activity, existing business groups including WMC have opposed the proposal. That, even though the plan will provide all businesses and their employees with the healthcare coverage they need at a cost for many companies below what they are paying now for healthcare insurance. The plan promises to make Wisconsin businesses more competitive and ultimately make Wisconsin an attractive place to do business.
Space at this event is limited so please RSVP to Keith Schmitz at schmitz1@ameritech.net. You can call 414-963-0847 for more details.
President Bush yesterday rejected entreaties by his Republican allies that he compromise with Democrats on legislation to renew a popular program that provides health coverage to poor children, saying that expanding the program would enlarge the role of the federal government at the expense of private insurance.The entire story is here.
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"I support the initial intent of the program," Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post after a factory tour and a discussion on health care with small-business owners in Landover. "My concern is that when you expand eligibility . . . you're really beginning to open up an avenue for people to switch from private insurance to the government."
The 10-year-old program, which is set to expire on Sept. 30, costs the federal government $5 billion a year and helps provide health coverage to 6.6 million low-income children whose families do not qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford private insurance on their own.
About 3.3 million additional children would be covered under the proposal developed by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Republican Sens. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) and Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), among others.
"I'm not going to answer endless questions about it all over again and again and again and again. That might sell newspapers, but it wouldn't serve my family or my constituents well."
-- Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), 7/16/07, speaking out publicly for the first time about appearing on the D.C. Madam's list
VERSUS
"Some current polls may suggest that people are turned off by the whole Clinton mess and don't care. ... But that doesn't answer the question of whether President Clinton should be impeached and removed from office because he is morally unfit to govern."
-- Vitter, 10/29/98
A new poll reveals a clear leader in the Republican presidential race: nobody.
The AP-Ipsos survey shows nearly a quarter of Republicans are unwilling to back any of the top candidates -- Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, John McCain or Mitt Romney.
Cutting elderly health care funding so gold bullion dealers can get tax breaks. I can’t wait for the 2008 election cycle to make that point over and over again.
By a vote of 223 to 201, the House of Representatives voted late Thursday to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq. Rep. Tom Petri voted against the withdrawal proposal, and has issued the following statement:
I'm concerned that the current debate on Iraq in Congress is driven by domestic politics rather than by sensible foreign policy.
Yes, the situation in Iraq is unsatisfactory, to say the least. But while it's easy to say what isn't working, there seems to be a shortage of solutions that will actually work, and that won't threaten to expand the conflict throughout the entire region.
Officials report massacre of Shiites in Iraq
Car bomb explodes near Iranian embassy in Baghdad
Two fathers with missing sons, one war
Iraq-bound Guardsman fast-tracks wedding for terminally ill father
29 killed in overnight attack in Iraq
Military Considering bigger Surge
Florida Army reservist asks court to stop 5th overseas deployment
Officials report massacre in Diyala
Triple bombings in northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk kill more than 80 ...
