Todd Richmond of the Associated Press reports Former drug smuggler can practice law in Wisconsin, state Supreme Court rules: The 4-3 ruling reverses a decision from the Wisconsin Board of Bar Examiners to block Abby Padlock from becoming an attorney in the state. According to court documents, Padlock became a drug smuggler to earn money so…
Wisconsin
Bad Ideas, Corporate Welfare, Foxconn, Government Spending, Scott Walker, WEDC, Wisconsin
Foxconn: Perhaps – Perhaps – a Few Lessons Learned
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Scott Cohn of CNBC reports After Wisconsin’s Foxconn debacle, states and companies rethink giant subsidies. Rethinking is a hopeful prospect, but there has been significant lasting damage, as Cohn reports: Economic development officials in Wisconsin say they are more than ready to move on to other matters now that they have renegotiated a massive subsidy deal…
America, Culture, Horde, Politics, Sen. Ron Johnson, US Senate Race 2022, Wisconsin
Johnson Picks His Predictable – and Ironic – Platform
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Jessie Opoien reports At WI convention, Ron Johnson calls for GOP to ‘take back our culture’: Johnson called on Republicans to run candidates at every level of public office, arguing that the GOP has spent too much time focused on federal elections while letting seats go at the local levels. “Take back our school boards, our…
America, History, Holiday, Milwaukee, Politics, Sen. Ron Johnson, U.S. Senate, Unfit, Wisconsin
Ron Johnson Got the Reception He Deserved
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Ron Johnson held up a Senate vote to make Juneteenth a holiday, and when he at last relented, he did so only begrudgingly (“While it still seems strange that having taxpayers provide federal employees paid time off is now required to celebrate the end of slavery, it is clear that there is no appetite in Congress…
City, Courts, Crime, Law, Walworth County, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Supreme Court Grants New Trial in State of Wisconsin v. Alan M. Johnson
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Alan M. Johnson was convicted in Walworth County of first-degree reckless homicide in the death of his brother-in-law. (Johnson’s late brother-in-law is identified in today’s high court opinion as ‘K.M.’ The events of the case took place in Whitewater, and the Walworth County trial was before Circuit Judge Kristine Drettwan.) Johnson appealed his conviction, and…
Bad Ideas, Boosterism, Development, Foxconn, Government Spending, Politics, Scott Walker, Speaker Vos, Trump, WEDC, Wisconsin
Adding the Amounts Spent for Foxconn (So Far)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Wisconsin’s new deal with Foxconn will reduce the cost to state taxpayers, but local governments have already spent vast sums on a project that will not – by Foxconn’s own belated admission – come close to what was originally, and ludicrously, promised. Bruce Murphy writes of The True Costs of New Foxconn Deal: the true cost…
America, Ethics, Legislation, Liberty, Music, Politics, Wisconsin, WISGOP
The Party Demands Unity
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
One reads that WISGOP Bill Would Make It Illegal For Sports Venues to Skip National Anthem: It would be illegal for some sports venues to skip the national anthem before games under a new bill proposed by a Republican legislator. Stevens Point Republican Sen. Patrick Testin’s Star Spangled Banner Act, proposed Wednesday, would require the anthem…
Elections, Law, Legislation, Republicans, Voting Rights, Wisconsin, WISGOP
WISGOP Moves to Restrict Voting
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Across America, Republicans are doing all they can to restrict voting access after Trump’s decisive loss in the presidential election. (Ceaseless lies won’t make up a 7-million-vote margin.) The WISGOP is no exception to this trend. Molly Beck and Patrick Marley report Republican lawmakers seek to overhaul voting in Wisconsin, including new rules for absentee…
City, Elections, Fair Maps, Gerrymandering, Law, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Counties Backing Fair Maps
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The fight against gerrymandering will be a key political issue statewide (and in Whitewater) over 2021-2022. See Probable Wisconsin Political Issues for 2021. Both of the counties of which Whitewater is a part have supported resolutions in favor of fair maps. For more information, visit the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition to help end gerrymandering in…
Conspiracy Theories, Covidiocy, Elections, Fellow Traveler, Law, Never Trump, Presidential race 2020, Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin
Ron Johnson Attracts Attention
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Never Trump conservatives at the Lincoln Project aren’t going away: they have lingering Trumpism in their sights. U.S. Senator Ron Johnson – who accepts every conspiracy theory but rejects Wisconsin’s certified electoral votes for president – has caught their attention. .@RonJohnsonWI I wanted to let you know what we are talking about at @ProjectLincoln…
Conspiracy Theories, Elections, Fellow Traveler, Presidential race 2020, Sen. Ron Johnson, Trump, Trumpism, Wisconsin
Whether Ambitious, Compromised, or Crackpot, Sen. Ron Johnson Doesn’t Disappoint
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Embedded below, Sen. Ron Johnson’s nine minutes, thirty-three seconds of lunacy on Sunday’s Meet the Press. A full transcript is available at NBC News. Previously: U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson: Ambitious, Compromised, or Crackpot?, National Reporting on Sen. Ron Johnson, and Ron Johnson’s 12.16.20 Senate Hearing on Election Security.
Budget, City, Demographics, Government Spending, University, UW System, Wisconsin
UW-Whitewater’s Budgetary Challenges Require a Studied Approach
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Whitewater is a college town. If a college town, then a college: the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. I’ve written about the university now and again. A simple summary of my views would be that Whitewater benefits from having a university, but that the school’s leaders (notably Telfer and Kopper) have failed both individuals and the community.…
Putin, Russia, Sen. Ron Johnson, Trump, Trumpism, Wisconsin
National Reporting on Sen. Ron Johnson
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Wisconsin’s political events have had more national attention over the last decade than the politics of similarly-sized states, but then we’ve had a worse politics than states of similar size. In the Washington Post, there’s a lengthy story about Sen. Ron Johnson that’s well worth reading in full. Michael Kranish, Mike DeBonis and Karoun Demirjian…
Biden-Harris, Courts, Elections, Law, Presidential race 2020, Trump, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Supreme Court Rejects, 4-3, Trump Campaign’s Petition to Overturn Wisconsin Election Result
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Earlier this morning, the Wisconsin Supreme Court denied the Trump Campaign’s petition to overturn, on various grounds, Joe Biden & Kamala Harris’s popular-vote victory in the state. (As a matter of law, the state’s high court affirmed a prior judgment and order against the Trump Campaign in the Circuit Court for Milwaukee County, Stephen A.…