Many of former Gov. Walker’s legislative victories depended on gerrymandering, and Speaker Robin Vos would not be the speaker today without a wildly gerrymandered state. Say what one wants about those men, they’re staying true to their shared dance partner: Walker has joined a GOP group that favors gerrymandered redistricting, and Vos refuses to answer…
Wisconsin
Bad Ideas, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Foxconn, Government Spending, State Capitalism, State Government, WEDC, Wisconsin
Foxconn: Behind Those Headlines
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
One reads that today Foxconn is promising a less advanced facility in Wisconsin by 2020, and today’s promise has captured a few headlines. The truth – even if Foxconn follows through on this latest promise – is an embarrassing retreat, as Bloomberg’s Tim Culpan observes: Sounds like it’s more than a year late, and well…
Poll, Trump, Wisconsin
Trump: Net Negative in Wisconsin
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Courts, Elections, Law, Wisconsin
Chief Judge Lisa Neubauer for Supreme Court: Fairness. Justice. Equality
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Courts, Law, Wisconsin
In Wisconsin, a Case of First Impression on Social Media Contacts
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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…
Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Demographics, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Local Government, Mendacity, Politics, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, WEDC, Wisconsin
‘Inside Wisconsin’s Disastrous $4.5 Billion Deal With Foxconn’
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
The published case against Foxconn – with reporting & analysis from some of America’s finest journalists and economists – is overwhelming. Their careful, published work has set out the plain facts for well over a year. And yet, as a multi-billion dollar public failure, there are even more startling accounts still emerging. Austin Carr reports…
Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Local Government, Mendacity, Politics, Scott Walker, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC, Wisconsin
Laughable Spin as Industrial Policy
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Alternative Title: Oh, no baby, of course I still love you… Josh Dzieza reports After a ‘personal conversation’ with Trump, Foxconn says it will build a factory in Wisconsin after all (At some point…): Days after Foxconn’s Louis Woo told Reuters that the company is no longer planning to build a factory in Wisconsin, Foxconn says the factory plan…
Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economics, Economy, Free Markets, Government Spending, Hunger, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Planning, Poverty, State Capitalism, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, WEDC, Wisconsin
The Fight Against Gravity
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Trump Administration wants to bolster industries that are market failures, with coal as an example. Catherine Rampell writes of that effort in The Trump administration learns that fighting gravity is hard: The Trump administration is learning that, as new data show that the industries it has worked hardest to prop up — through bailouts, tariffs…
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Government Spending, Local Government, Scott Walker, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC, Wisconsin
Lost Homes and Land, All Over a Foxconn Fantasy
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Wisconsin State Senator Jon Erpenbach reminds that people lost homes and land over the Foxconn proposal, and communities spent far over one-hundred millions on an idea that was – to any reasonable, discerning person – doomed to fail. Doomed to fail: dozens of analyses and warnings from across America, of which merely one is Tim Culpan’s Wisconsin…
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Government Spending, Local Government, Scott Walker, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Tony Evers, WEDC, Wisconsin
WISGOP Assembly Speaker Vos Hopes You’re Stupid
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
With the news that Foxconn plans to drop manufacturing at a plant that was supposed to hire thousands of workers, for which people lost their homes, and that was the centerpiece of Scott Walker’s corporate welfare and crony capitalism, Speaker Robin Vos blames…newly-elected Gov. Tony Evers. Oh, brother: Vos must hope that Wisconsinites are stupid enough to believe…
Courts, Elections, Law, Wisconsin
‘This is not a close decision’: Federal Judge Strikes Down Lame-Duck Changes to Wisconsin Voting Laws
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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…
State Government, Tony Evers, Wisconsin
Gov. Evers’s Inaugural Address
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Laws/Regulations, Litigation, Politics, State Government, Tony Evers, Wisconsin
Evers Turns the Board Around
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Tony Evers, by his nature, avoids initiating a confrontation. He seems to have found a political and legal strategy to match his natural disposition. Patrick Marley reports Tony Evers says it will take a lawsuit to get him to go along with lame-duck legislation: Incoming Gov. Tony Evers said Wednesday he would not go along…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, CDA, Charity, City, Corporate Welfare, Culture, Dogs, Economy, Education, Federal Government, Foxconn, Free Markets, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Police, Politics, School District, State Capitalism, State Government, University, UW System, WEDC, Wisconsin
The Broad Outlines of 2019
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
For many years, I would begin the year with predictions for the twelve months ahead. Events since 2016 have made predictions harder, but one can still discern some short-term developments for the city. These prospects, of course, form an online of topics to ponder, and about which to write (often requiring that one return to the…