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Education, Good Ideas, Law, Newspapers, Open Government, Public Records 2, School District

The Best Record is a Recording

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A video recording of the 5.28.19 Whitewater Unified School Board meeting is now online. It is, truly, a genuine good without merely particular ends.  (Every regular and special board session should be online, by the board’s own policies. See Public Records Request, 5.20.19.) A recording of the full session confirms yet again that the best…

Courts, Crime, Drug War, Health, Law, Walworth County

Treatment Courts as Practical Success Stories

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Treatment courts, whether for drunk driving or drug abuse, have been successful in jurisdictions across the country.  Counties from coast to coast – red or blue – have seen positive outcomes from judicially-overseen treatment programs.  Despite this, there’s been opposition to a drug treatment court in rural Walworth County, sadly beset by addictions of various…

Babbittry, Blogging, City, Freedom of Speech, Law, Liberty, Newspapers, Open Government, Press

Sunshine Week 2019

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It’s Sunshine Week in America: a seven-day focus from the American Society of News Editors and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press on “access to public information and what it means for you and your community.” One doesn’t have to be a reporter (and bloggers, for example, are not reporters) to understand the importance…

Immigration, Law, Religion, Trump

‘Christians Build Bridges, Not Walls’

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In Texas, a white adobe chapel built in 1899 on the banks of the Rio Grande sits in the proposed path of President Donald Trump’s border wall. A Border Patrol agent stands sentry yards away. A military helicopter—part of Trump’s troop surge at the border—drowns out Father Roy Snipes. It’s akin to “saying Mass in…

Courts, Law, Wisconsin

In Wisconsin, a Case of First Impression on Social Media Contacts

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Wisconsin’s Court of Appeals handed down a decision today concerning social media.  The appellate court held that a trial judge’s decision to accept a litigant’s Facebook friend request during litigation before his court created a risk of actual bias, resulted in the appearance of partiality, and so was a due process violation for which trial judge’s…

Crime, Law, Trump

Circumstantial Evidence is Often Very Reliable

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Trump’s defenders – many of whom would otherwise support aggressive criminal prosecutions – sometimes argue that the case against Trump is merely circumstantial (no “direct evidence of collusion”).  These apologists ignore what in other cases they might acknowledge: that circumstantial evidence can strongly, reasonably support a conclusion.  Eric Swalwell and Chuck Rosenberg (as recounted by Natasha…

Courts, Crime, Law, Walworth County

Scenes from the Alabama Walworth County Legal System

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One reads that Walworth County treatment courts face uncertain future after DA questions role: The future of Walworth County’s treatment courts is uncertain after District Attorney Zeke Wiedenfeld at a special meeting Tuesday questioned his office’s participation in the programs and its level of control over who enters them. Most questions from Tuesday’s meeting went…

Authoritarianism, Federal Government, Law, Race, Trump

Undermining His Own Case for a National Emergency

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Elizabeth Goitein observes Trump Is Destroying His Own Case for a National Emergency (“By waiting for Congress to act, the president is undermining the legal basis for any declaration”): Here’s how the legal process for emergency powers works: Under the National Emergencies Act, passed by Congress in 1976, the president has broad discretion to declare a…

Courts, Elections, Law, Wisconsin

‘This is not a close decision’: Federal Judge Strikes Down Lame-Duck Changes to Wisconsin Voting Laws

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Laurel White reports Federal Judge Strikes Down Lame-Duck Changes To Wisconsin Voting Laws: The restrictions limited early voting in Wisconsin to the two weeks before an election. In recent years, cities including the Democratic strongholds of Milwaukee and Madison have offered several weeks of early voting. Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed the new restrictions into…