Two children are dead because there were no working smoke alarms in their home. If I heard correctly, the home had several smoke alarms, but none had batteries. A 99 cent 9-volt… The Milwaukee Fire Department gives smoke alarms away, they even install them and change batteries, but I guess some people can’t be bothered… Such a sad story.
Outstanding, there has been at least a temporary stay on the UWEC Bible Study ban!
WBAY-TV: UW-Eau Claire suspends Bible study ban
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire is suspending a practice that banned resident assistants from leading Bible studies in their dorm rooms.
Interim Chancellor Vicki Lord Larson says a review found the unwritten policy was poorly communicated and inconsistently enforced.The campus launched a review of the policy after a senior resident assistant publicly challenged it after he was warned he could face discipline if he continued having Bible studies in his room.
Congressman Mark Green, state lawmakers and conservative groups attacked the policy as an assault on students’ constitutional right to practice religion.
Larson says the suspension will last until a committee makes recommendations on systemwide policies to guide the activities of resident assistants.
h/t goes to Kevin at Lakeshore Laments!
What the hell is wrong with Wisconsin’s Republicans?
Wisconsin has this really stupid law that is only in effect in the City of Milwaukee. If a police officer is fired, they are able to stay on the payroll until all appeals have been exhausted, this is an average of 9 months at full pay. If they lose their appeals, they do not have to give back the money, it is just lost to taxpayers. This year it is estimated to cost us about a half million dollars.
It was looking like the legislature was going to repeal this outrageous law, but today all of the Republicans on The Assembly Committee on Corrections and the Courts voted to kill the bill. while the Democrats voted for it.
Representatives that voted to kill this bill: Garey Bies (R) Mark Gundrum (R) Gregg Underheim (R) Carol Owens (R) Scott Suder (R) Daniel LeMahieu (R)
Representatives that voted for this bill: (three of the four were present, I do not know which Representative did not vote) Sondy Pope-Roberts (D) Sheldon Wasserman (D) Donna Seidel (D) Joe Parisi (D)
Thanks to these six Republicans, officers that have been fired, even for criminal acts, will get full pay for nearly a year. This is only in effect for police officers in the city of Milwaukee, no one else in the entire state gets this protection.
JS Online: DayWatch
A legislative committee today killed a bill that would have halted pay for Milwaukee police officers who get fired.The Assembly Committee on Corrections and the Courts voted, 6-3, to defeat the bill. All the Democrats present voted for the bill and all Republicans voted against it, according to the chairman, Rep. Garey Bies (R-Sister Bay).
Officers fired in Milwaukee remain on the payroll as they appeal their termination to the Fire and Police Commission under a 25-year-old state law that applies only to Milwaukee police. Other police officers in the state lose pay at the time of termination. Elsewhere, local fire and police commissions, not the chief, have the power to terminate.
Since 1990, 81 Milwaukee officers have been fired, and all but two filed appeals, according to figures from the commission. The city paid more than $2 million in wages and benefits to those 79 officers after they were fired, city officials said. Eleven won their jobs back on appeal. The officers whose appeals failed do not have to pay back the city.
In the past decade appeals have taken an average of nine months, according to a Journal Sentinel analysis. Currently, 14 fired officers remain on the city payroll, including nine who were fired in May for their alleged roles in the beating of Frank Jude Jr. The city expects to pay more than $500,000 to fired officers this year, officials said.
“I am extremely disappointed with the committee’s action this morning,” said Rep. Barbara Toles (D-Milwaukee), the bill’s sponsor. “This is a matter of basic equity for Milwaukee taxpayers.”
Bies said he was concerned Toles’ bill was weighted against the officers and in the city’s favor. If the state is to take away this protection from the officers, he suggested, then it should also take away the Milwaukee chief’s firing authority, as is the case elsewhere in the state.
With all of the hand wringing about not having enough cops on the streets, this takes a half million dollars every year off of Milwaukee’s crime infested streets. This money is needed elsewhere!
Past coverage on this issue can be found here:
John Gard 
laments that he my not be able to stop the automatic gas tax hike from being repealed. He said this at a fund raiser sponsored by the powerful Wisconsin Road Builders lobby.
Charlie Sykes read this from an email alert that the Road Builders put out this morning, telling their members to contact their legislators. Go here to learn now to contact your legislators and CALL TODAY! Hopefully Charlie will post this letter later today.
John Gard is a SELL OUT, he no longer even attempts to act like the Conservative he ran as!
UPDATE: Gard Response
John Gard called Sykes to give his view. My opinion is unchanged, Gard has become an ineffective leader, as Charlie said, he has “gone native” and should step down. His past history speaks for it’s self, John Gard is not a Conservative.
Update
Coming out of the break after John Gard spoke with him, Charlie said that he “wanted to give John Gard a chance to explain himself… I’m not sure it helped that much.” I agree!
Hilarious Update
Mark Belling just made a crack about John Gard’s whiny call to Charlie Sykes. Not a good day for Speaker Gard 
UPDATE: More Audio
Mark Belling finally got John Gard on the show, Gard said he will not support ending the automatically gas tax hike. Listen to the audio, Belling didn’t pull his punches.
Listen to Belling and Gard. This is a great exchange.
Woah! Belling told Gard he was Owned by the the road builders! Gard is still going on about his pet road project in Peshtigo.
Belling is right on! 98% of Conservatives are appalled by our Speakers actions!
Even Belling’s traffic guy John Wyatt is razzing Gard, he said Gard should put “C’mon Mark” on a bumper sticker
The President is hitting the anti-war liberals hard again today in a speech from the U.S. Naval Academy. Audio will be up as soon as it is over.
Here is the document released today by the White House: National Strategy for Victory in Iraq .html version and the full .pdf version.
Listen to the entire speech. This will open in a new window, so you can continue surfing as you listen to this powerful speech.
Double Standard Alert
None of the national networks covered this speech.
Luckily we now have the alternative media!
Why does the media fear reporting good economic news? If it is the truth, shouldn’t they be happy to report that the American economy is still roaring along? Why do they take such glee in reporting anything that harms America’s reputation while they shy away from facts like this?
Economy Grows at Robust Pace Despite Storms
The economy grew at a lively 4.3 percent pace in the third quarter, the best showing in more than a year. The performance offered fresh testimony that the country’s overall economic health managed to improve despite the destructive force of Gulf Coast hurricanes.The new snapshot of economic activity, released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday, showed the growth at an even faster pace than the 3.8 percent annual rate first reported for the July-to-September quarter a month ago.
The upgraded performance reflects more brisk spending by consumers and businesses as well as more robust investment on residential projects than initial estimates revealed.
“In anybody’s book this is an outstanding performance for the economy,” said Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics.
First, I want to say that aside from maybe Mark Belling, no one has been harder on Nicole Devin than I have. I still think that the way the Milwaukee Talkstar compitition was manipulated was wrong and the people that actually listened to the show every day the way I did had our votes nullified, and that was still wrong. I dedicated every morning while this competition ran, to the show and continue to listen daily, so I think I have some credibility to speak on this.
That said, I gave the show an honest chance. After the first day of “The Early Spin” I didn’t think that the show would make it. I feared that it would be a conservative, Dan Deibert and a liberal that didn’t win honestly, Nicole Devin, arguing with each other day after day. I didn’t want to wake up and listen to that the first thing in the morning, so I expected the show to be a flop. Before the show started, I said many times that I wanted the show to stick with Dan Deibert and expand Jamie Larson’s role and I thought that Pat Crowley (a Talkstar contestant that lost) was also a good addition. I thought that the addition of a liberal would just make the show an unlistenable mess.
My Confession
I now have to admit that the show has been, in my opinion, a success!
Nicole Devin is not the “Commie” that we feared we were going to be saddled with. She is well spoken and although quite liberal, she is not a “whacked out lefty”. Dan Deibert is a proven conservative, but Nicole handels him well. They are usually on opposing sides of most, but not all issues, and their discussions on both sides are usually well argued and enjoyable. Nicole does often fall back to the emotional arguments on some issues, but many liberal arguments are based solely based on emotion, so that’s all they have.
I also want to admit that at times, Nicole is right. Yes, I said that… As an example, Dan, on Thanks Giving Day when you wanted to eat in front of the TV while your wife went to so much trouble, you were dead wrong. It was fun listening to you try to spin your self out of that losing position, but you were wrong and Nicole nailed you good
So, there it is, I admit that I really enjoy the show. I am glad that they work so well together, and they really do. I wish them the best of luck and continued success… even Nicole *wink*
Note: I wrote this post yesterday while at work, but I see Aaron also had some comments on the show.
FOXNews.com: Iraq Hostages’ Group Blames Bush, Blair
A peace group blamed the United States and Britain for the abduction of four activists — an American, a Briton and two Canadians — shown in an insurgent video, saying the kidnapping was the direct result of the occupation of Iraq.
It’s not the fault of the terrorists that kidnapped them, it is OUR fault. Does anyone wonder why fools like this have no credibility?
I think this is a good change. It still will never be signed by Doyle, but it makes a good bill better. We will only get the concealed carry right when we get a new Governor or by Constitutional amendment.
News Talk 1130 WISN - News! Every Hour! Every Day!
One of law enforcement’s biggest objections to allowing people to carry concealed weapons may have been overcome. Sponsors of a Republican concealed-carry bill say they’ve reached a compromise with police groups. An amendment would allow officers on the road to run checks on cars they stop, to see if the owner has a permit to pack a weapon. Casey Perry is executive director of the Wisconsin Troopers Association. He says the change would protect both people in the car and officers on the approach. The bill’s creators have insisted the list of permit holders remain secret to ensure criminals don’t prey on people who aren’t carrying. Perry says under the amendment, any officer caught running registrations excessively to find out who has permits would be charged with a misdemeanor. Melanie Fonder is a spokeswoman for Governor Doyle. She tells News/Talk 1130 WISN Doyle still won’t sign the bill. He vetoed a previous concealed carry bill that cleared the Legislature. Authors of the bill plan a news conference with police representatives Wednesday to give details of the amendment.
Should be an interesting day on Milwaukee radio tomorrow. The EarlySpin crew will be interviewing Governor Jim Doyle about the Oil Company hearings at 8:05 and Charlie Sykes will be joined by Congressman Mark Green at 8:30 to talk about the gas tax and Governor Doyle’s energy hearings.
Remember a few weeks ago when the small plane crashed in a North side Milwaukee neighborhood? No one was injured (thank God) but the plane was hung upside down in the power lines. Well, today the police report finally came out and we discovered (not surprisingly) that the pilot was drunk. Do you know what the punishment for flying an airplane while intoxicated is?
If Betts is prosecuted and convicted under Wisconsin law for flying drunk, he faces a fine ranging from $10 to $100, O’Keefe said. Milwaukee police are working with state legislators to have the fines increased, he said.
An amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution is moving forward. The Senate is expected to pass this later in the week and that will clear the way to put the amendment on the Nov. 7 ballot where Democratic incumbents Gov. Jim Doyle and Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager are up for re-election, they both oppose this.
Here is the text of the amendment.
“Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state.”
Scott Walker issued a press release today reiterating his long time support for an amendment to protect the definition of a marriage as being between a man and a woman.
JS Online: Hundreds pack hearing on marriage amendment
An overflow crowd packed an emotional hearing today on a constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman and ban civil unions in Wisconsin.By midafternoon, dozens of people had appeared before the Senate’s Committee on Judiciary, Corrections and Privacy and the Assembly’s Committee on Judiciary, which held a joint hearing.
The story of the Milwaukee Public Museum has been out of the headlines for a few months, but it comes back with more bad news.
JS Online: Museum audit shows bigger deficit; net worth slips into red
Milwaukee Public Museum officials reviewed new financial figures today that show that the institution’s overall net worth slipped into the red at the end of its 2005 fiscal year.The surprising news was contained in a just-completed internal audit that shows a substantially higher deficit in fiscal-year 2005 than was forecast two months ago. Sources familiar with the audit said preliminary estimates showed a deficit for 2005 of $10 million to $11 million.
Do you have a Wisconsin based Blog? Want more traffic? Submit a post to the Carnival of the Badger. Any Blog from Wisconsin is eligible. You can find details on how to submit as well as more information here.
This week’s submissions are due Wednesday evening.
If you have questions, feel free to post them here, I would be happy to either answer or find the answer for you 
James Widgerson went to last nights candidate forum and has posted his observations. If you live in the 33rd, you really should read this.