Family & Community
The Rifle
Born in the late 40’s, I grew up in a family of hunters. Fair shots most of them, I remember standing next to my father when a spooked buck crossed our path at a dead run. Dad shot twice, hit twice, and the buck went down. It was near Hatfield, in central Wisconsin.
Dad’s rifle was an old, iron sight, pump action, 30 Remington. It has killed (we kill deer - corn and oats are harvested) a few deer since my father died in 94. My sons have used the rifle. It was never a popular caliber and bullets are no longer manufactured for it. I have about 35 left – should last ...
IMPORTANT PETITION – FAIR COMMUNITY ENERGY CONVERSATION
RePower Madison, a citizens action group in the Madison area, is asking people to sign the petition linked below asking Madison Gas and Electric executives to establish a "full and fair community conversation." Although the results of the petition were to be delivered on January 26th,the petition is being left open beyond this date and can be signed by any concerned citizen.
Contact: Mitch Brey, 920-323-9585
Date: January 26 2015
More than 750 Customers Deliver Petition to MGE asking for a Fair Community Energy Conversation
A petition in response to MGE’s ...
“I Don’t Have a Clue” – School Play Mirrors Confusion in Assembly Education Committee
“Edgar: All right, everybody; back to the scene of the crime.
“Ella: New clues?
“Carol: What clues?
“Bob: What’s the next clue?
“Carol: I don’t have a clue.
“Norman: (At the window box, dramatically.) Guys, the body’s gone!”
So goes the hilarious comedy written by Craig Sodaro and performed by Alma students. The play begins as a murder mystery dinner invitation and ends wrapped up in an international smuggling ring.
Students spent the last three and a half months practicing lines and preparing costumes. Play Director Tom Brakke ...
ON THE BOOKSHELVES . . . . . THE OTHER WES MOORE
One Name, Two Fates….”The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine.
The tragedy is that my story could have been his.”
This wonderful book by author Wes Moore must be included in conversations about disparity, race and poverty.
Two young African-American boys grow up within city blocks of each other in Baltimore. Each is named Wes Moore. One is currently serving life-imprisonment for murder. The other grew up to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran of Afghanistan, White House Fellow and business leader.
Author Wes Moore was a ...
MINNESOTA WON AND WISCONSIN LOST
A letter to the editor:
Minnesota’s Governor Dayton did just the opposite of Wisconsin’s Governor Walker. Dayton raised taxes on the super wealthy and corporations who had already received the huge Bush tax cuts, and the results speak for themselves:
Minnesota ended 2014 with a $1.23 Billion Surplus that is expected to keep rising
Wisconsin faces a $2.2 Billion Deficit for 2015
In the past 25 years the nation’s economy has grown by 83 percent, and workers today produce twice as many goods and services per hour on the job as they did in 1989. But after ...
New Survey Asks Your Opinion of Public Tax Dollars Funding Private Schools
New Survey Asks Your Opinion of Public Tax Dollars Funding Private Schools
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OurSchools
School Funding Reform for Wisconsin, Stevens Point, released an online survey on vouchers and public school funding on Tuesday, January 6, 2015. This survey seeks to engage public school supporters by educating them and empowering them to take action.
In the first 36 hours it was online, 1,150 people took the survey:
More than 530 people chose to leave comments related to vouchers and how their school districts are coping with budget cuts, ...
SIT UP AND PAY ATTENTION
A letter to the editor:
Sit up and pay attention!
Pardon me. I just used what my son calls my school teacher voice. It's that important, neighbors. On January 14th the Wisconsin legislature holds hearings on the so called school accountability bill (A co-sponsor is Assemblyman Jarchow).
I urge you to watch carefully as the party of small government takes more control away from our local school boards. The plan is for a 13 member academic review board established by the legislature to oversee and grade public schools, for-profit schools, and private voucher ...
NOT A DEMOCRAT . . . . A HUMBLE OPINION
As the dust settles on the November elections and the Democrats assess the damage, one thing seems increasingly clear. . . it is no longer clear at all just who or what is a Democrat. Given the apparent identity crisis, a process of elimination may be in order. . .
If you are not willing to openly fight the historic wealth inequality that has replaced democracy in America, you are not a Democrat.
If you are not publicly advocating the breakup of “too big to fail” Wall Street banks, you are not a Democrat.
If you do not rigorously support criminal prosecution ...
Quotations From Republican Senator Dale Schultz
By the Middle Wisconsin Editorial Board
“We are now literally dismantling the state government, and people need to think long and hard about what they want for a future in our state,”
“The K-12 system in the last few years has laid off 3,000 personnel, and it looks to me like that’s going to accelerate. Out my way, I would not be shocked if a huge percentage of school districts wind up going to referendum to have the privilege of raising their own property tax because the state has walked away from its principal responsibility of providing for a ...
Wisconsin Becoming a Low-Wage Economy
By Jeanne Larson
UW-Milwaukee Professor Marc Levine's October 2014 study for the Center for Economic Development, "Is Wisconsin Becoming a Low-Wage Economy? Employment Growth in Low, Middle, and High Wage Occupations: 2000-2013," uses Bureau of Labor Statistics data to illustrate a troubling long-term trend in Wisconsin: the number of low-wage jobs is growing much faster than middle- or high-wage occupations.
Levine divided Wisconsin's 750 occupations into three tiers based on median wages, the midpoint where half the workers in the job are paid more, half are paid ...
