I-43 onramp closed; DOT to hold 7 p.m. news conference
The Wisconsin Ave. on-ramp to southbound I-43 in the Marquette Interchange is closed. A state Department of Transportation news conference is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

The DOT is advising motorists to take 11th St. southbound to Tory Hill Road/Michigan Ave., turn left on Tory Hill/Michigan and continue eastbound to Michigan Ave. to N. 2nd St., turn right onto N. 2nd St. to the I-43 SB/I-94 eastbound entrance ramp.

Rawson has passed along this photo showing that the ramp has already been closed, click for full size.

Rawson also passed along some interesting information from an inside source, the ramp has a design flaw and the ramp will be closed for 6 to 16 weeks. The firm being blamed for this mess is HNTB, and they will reportedly be absorbing all costs associated with fixing the flaw. It is also believed that this will call into question the rest of the construction, and the fact that Governor Doyle was pushing for redesign work to reduce costs.

HNTB is also a huge Doyle donor…

More details to follow, Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Frank Busalacchi is holding a press conference as I post this.

Flynn wants to let retired police officers carry guns
Soon, hundreds of former MPD officers in Wisconsin also could be able to carry concealed weapons, under a federal law that allows retired officers to be certified annually and carry their guns in any state.

The Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act was passed in 2004, and many other Wisconsin law enforcement agencies have been certifying their retirees to carry guns for years.

Wisconsin and Illinois are the only two states that do not allow any form of concealed carry. The federal law for retired officers would override those bans.

Hopefully this will soon be a moot point, as under a responsive state government, we will all be allowed the right to defend ourselves in the near future, but the thought that a retired law enforcement officer not being allowed to carry a gun if they wish to, has always struck me as incredibly stupid. Their training over a lifetime of service to the community could be invaluable in a crisis situation.

Signs like this are plastered all over the Southern half of Arizona, not just the immediate border areas, some as far North as 30 miles South of Phoenix.  The US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management does a pretty good job of itemizing the dangers.  Notice that there isn’t any denial that the problems exist.

Meanwhile, the good people of Arizona have been working to make their State a safer place to live and work, which included a new State law that mimicked existing Federal law…Arizona SB1070.  Adopting Federal law into the laws of  individual States is nothing new, despite the rhetoric decrying this as an unprecedented power grab by a “rogue State.”

The recent controversy over SB1070 was fueled by the wrath of pro-illegal immigration advocates and hyper-partisan Liberals/Progressives who were willing to write off the whole State as nothing but a bunch of racists.  A typical tactic aimed at bullying their opponents into backing down, which leaves little room for finding solutions to real problems.

Only Arizona didn’t back down.  Proving to be the opposite of the Great Uniter, President Obama ignored the appeals of his Arizona constituents and preferred to send in the Justice Department to quash their efforts.

Rather than work toward real solutions…rather than show support and understanding for the problems faced in Arizona…the Federal government opted to post these signs around the State.  The following is from an article in the Washington Times:

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose county lies at the center of major drug and alien smuggling routes to Phoenix and cities east and west, attests to the violence. He said his deputies are outmanned and outgunned by drug traffickers in the rough-hewn desert stretches of his own county.

“Mexican drug cartels literally do control parts of Arizona,” he said. “They literally have scouts on the high points in the mountains and in the hills and they literally control movement. They have radios, they have optics, they have night-vision goggles as good as anything law enforcement has.

“This is going on here in Arizona,” he said. “This is 70 to 80 miles from the border – 30 miles from the fifth-largest city in the United States.”

He said he asked the Obama administration for 3,000 National Guard soldiers to patrol the border, but what he got were 15 signs.

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It would seem that the message being sent over 1700 miles from Washington D.C. is…”que sera sera.”  So many people predicted Obama would surrender Iraq…who would have guessed it would be Arizona instead?

So why the controversy here? Wouldn’t you be up in arms with these problems in your backyard?  Who can honestly say that seeing a sign like this in Kettle Moraine State Forest or any of Wisconsin’s parks and wildlife preserves wouldn’t drive you to demand action from your lawmakers and law enforcement officials?  Arizona has a greater responsibility and more worrisome concerns to have time for what the Milwaukee County Board, the MATC board, the MPS school board or some other like-minded group that decides to get loony and stick their uninformed, pretentious noses into this issue.

When the federal government is issuing warnings against travel into certain areas within the United States, I think we are well past the point of condemning State and local officials for taking matters into their own hands.

John suspects, and knowing the area as well as I do, I agree that West Milwaukee, and even West Allis officers may have been able to help on the scene if they would have known that the officer was injured, but MPD insists on using a radio system that, even when it works, can be heard by no other agencies.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the officer and we wish him a speedy recovery.

Learn more about the OpenSky boondoggle.

The flyer invites readers to contact Take Back America organizer Peter Drummond at 414-333-1606, or via e-mail pdrummond@wiafscme.org, with any questions.

Actually, we do have a question: If the J/S sends reporters to this event, will they be attending as journalists, or as union brethren? Just askin’.

So, counting non-borrowed monies, Barrett and associates put up 6% in the deal.  Seems a little thin to me.  The housing bubble that burst like a nuclear mushroom cloud across this country was fueled in much the same way as this deal.  How much skin does Rick Barrett have in the game?  Enough?

City Comptroller Wally Morics didn’t think so.  The only thing that changed following a report by Morics critical of the deal and pessimistic of its future,  was the city council, led by Ald. Bob Baumann, demanded and received “personal guarantees.”

You want to buy a house?  Go to your lender with 6% down and give him your personal guarantee.  That’ll work, right?

I’ve commended Ald. Willie Hines in the past for being skeptical on this.  He aptly points out that if lenders don’t want to get in on it, that means they see too much risk and too little chance for the project to turn a buck.  Why should tax dollars be spent any less wisely?

And then, from Daykin’s earlier report, there is this little gem of a comment that, from what I’ve seen, has gone totally unnoticed:

“Bauman and other aldermen acknowledged those risks. But even if the condos sell poorly, they said, the income from the Moderne’s apartments and the project’s property taxes would together generate enough cash to pay back the city’s loans.“

Excuse me?  Since when are property taxes allowed to go towards loan payments?  Aren’t they to be applied to city services and expenses just like everyone else’s?  If the Moderne’s taxes are used solely for loan repayment, isn’t that a backdoor tax break?  Pyramiding ?  Double-dipping?  Something.

In the November 2009 report, Daykin said, “So far, four of the condos have been reserved by prospective buyers.”    The city comptroller estimated that the 14 condos had to average $939,000 each.  It’s been 10 months since.  I’d like to know where that number stands today.  It’s a question I put in to Mr. Daykin and I’ll share his response with you if/when I get one.

Arizona citizens enact a law that is a couple steps toward taking control of this situation and President Obama’s response is to take legal action against the citizenry, not the lawbreakers.  Brilliant!!

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I hate to start listing folks that were there, because I always forget someone, I appologize in advance if you are the one I forget Our favorite ‘Ol Broad drove all the way from Podunk Tn. again this year. Chad & Frank were also there before I arrived. Our own Glenn made it as did Mr. & Mrs. Real Debate & Dean. Phelony Jones joined us from the urban Hang Suite and Sarandipity even braved an attack from a wild beast to join the fun. Speaking of wild beasts, the The Asian Badger also joined us, as did The Silent E. After finishing his radio show for the day, WTMJ‘s James T. Harris came down to join us. He brought his iPad, pretty impressive gizmo! Jimi was also there, and I hope to link to some of his awesome pictures of the moonrise over the lake.

We finished the evening with a little bonfire, complete with marshmallows, and an awesome view of the moonrise over Lake Michigan.

Thanks again to Chris & Jamie, I’m sure I speak for everyone (even the people I forgot), we all had a wonderful day!