Embed from Getty Images While there is much talk about high-profile cabinet posts like State, Defense, and Justice, there are lower-profile posts that will still attract both interested parties and occasional controversies. The Department of the Interior is among them. Prospects for that cabinet secretary include oil baron Forrest Lucas (a big contributor to Mike…
Federal Government
Federal Government, Law, Liberty, Local Government, Open Government, Public Records, State Government, Wisconsin
The Public Records Law Still Stands
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
After a push to alter Wisconsin’s Public Records Law (Wis. Stat. §§ 19.31-19.39), we’re now secure with the original law intact. Below one will find a recording of Wisconsin A.G. Brad Schimel’s Open Government Summit, held earlier this week at the Concourse in Madison. J.B. Hollen, Schimel’s immediate predecessor, started strongly in favor of the…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, Crime, Federal Government, Government Spending, Libertarians, Official Misconduct, University
If Universities Want Federal Money…
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
If universities want federal money (and they want as much as they can get), then it’s wrong for them to shirk federal legal standards for reporting assault and for proper treatment of those alleging assault. (Make no mistake: I’d contend that universities have a duty to manage campuses well and fairly even if there were…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, Crime, Federal Government, Law, Official Misconduct, University
UW-Madison Now Joins UW-Whitewater Under Federal Title IX Investigation
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In the Wisconsin State Journal this morning, one reads that a second Wisconsin school is under investigation for its handling of sexual assault complaints. Dan Simmons writes that UW-Madison is now the second university in the state to be included in a growing probe of possible violations of federal law over the handling of sexual…
Federal Government, Local Government, State Government
The Public-Sector Public-Relations Problem
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s almost no part of government, down to the smallest unit, that doesn’t approach the public as though a salesperson, as a matter of persuasion through public or media relations. Consider how odd, how ironic, this situation is: government, whose authority derives in a free society only from the public, uses public resources to present…
Federal Government, Local Government, Politics
Public Choice Theory Inoculates People from Poor Policy
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In places big and small, one of the many questions for residents is this: is holding government office, whether elected or appointed, a more virtuous way of life than private activity? If it should prove more virtuous, then one can reasonably contend that long-tenured government officials are, themselves, more virtuous than private citizens. One could…
Federal Government, Freedom of Speech, Liberty, Local Government, New Media, Open Government, Politics, State Government, Writing
Steps for Blogging on a Policy or Proposal
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
For bloggers who cover politics, policy-making, etc., just as would have been true of essayists and pamphleteers in an earlier time, it helps to have a method to one’s writing. In the paragraphs below, I’ll list steps one should take when approaching a topic. The steps are in a rough order, but in any method,…
Federal Government, Government Spending
Fear Not!
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Economy, Federal Government, Gluttony, Government Spending, Local Government, State Government, Taxes/Taxation, Walworth County, Wisconsin
The Crazy-Wrong Argument on Taxes
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
A succinct truth: money doesn’t grow on trees. Local government funds municipal projects in one of three principal ways: through local taxes & fees, local borrowing (debt in the form of bonds), or public money from other jurisdictions (grants from the state or federal government). These grants of state or federal public money are, themselves,…
Federal Government, Law, Liberty
She’s Right
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Corporate Welfare, Federal Government, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park
No, That’s Not Why There’s an Innovation Center
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Perhaps, just perhaps, Whitewater’s a laboratory for testing the theory that if one repeats a flimsy explanation long enough, it will become true. Over at the Daily Union, there’s a recent story about a university project that’s developed a smartphone app that allows users “to link organized recreational activities with social media.” One reads that…
Federal Government, Weird Tales
Federal government caves, withdraws disciplinary action against flatulent worker
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Despite trillions annually, and more lawful authority than any human institution in all history, the U.S. federal government is still too craven to discipline even one malodorous employee: The Social Security Administration officially reprimanded an employee whom colleagues accused of continuously “passing gas and releasing an unpleasant odor” that created a “hostile work environment.” After…
Federal Government, Government Spending
Public Elves? Oh, Brother
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The days of a quiet, humble ‘job well done’ are over. One knows this, after seeing a public service video in which government workers praise themselves, and liken their own work to that of eleves. Say what one might about the productivity of the government, at least it’s working overtime on the self-promoting-video front. Published also at Daily Adams.