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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 9-22-10

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Good morning,

Today’s forecast calls for a day of dense fog with a high temperature of seventy-four degrees.

There will be a meeting today in Whitewater of the Joint Review Board, from 4 to 5 p.m., concerning a designation of distressed status to Tax Incremental District 4. The meeting agenda is available online. (I will post more specifically on TID 4 between now and the September 27th public hearing about that district’s condition and possible designation. Whitewater’s city manager has made a some remarks on the topic, and I will address his characterization of the district’s history.)

It’s picture re-takes day at Lakeview School today.

On this date in 1862, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

On this day in 1862, after the Battle of Antietam, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. He first issued a preliminary proclamation, and a final version took effect on January 1, 1863. The New York Times website links to an NYT report of the announcement.

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional relation between the United States, and each of the States, and the people thereof, in which States that relation is, or may be, suspended or disturbed.

That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all slave States, so called, the people whereof may not then be in rebellion against the United States and which States may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery within their respective limits; and that the effort to colonize persons of African descent, with their consent, upon this continent, or elsewhere, with the previously obtained consent of the Governments existing there, will be continued.

That on the first day of January in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

That the executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States, and part of States, if any, in which the people thereof respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof shall, on that day be, in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto, at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.

That attention is hereby called to an Act of Congress entitled “An Act to make an additional Article of War” approved March 13, 1862, and which act is in the words and figure following:

“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That hereafter the following shall be promulgated as an additional article of war for the government of the army of the United States, and shall be obeyed and observed as such:

“Article-All officers or persons in the military or naval service of the United States are prohibited from employing any of the forces under their respective commands for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labor, who may have escaped from any persons to whom such service or labor is claimed to be due, and any officer who shall be found guilty by a court martial of violating this article shall be dismissed from the service.

“Sec.2. And be it further enacted, That this act shall take effect from and after its passage.”
Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled “An Act to suppress Insurrection, to punish Treason and Rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other purposes,” approved July 17, 1862, and which sections are in the words and figures following:

“Sec.9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army; and all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them and coming under the control of the government of the United States; and all slaves of such persons found on (or) being within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude and not again held as slaves.

“Sec.10. And be it further enacted, That no slave escaping into any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, from any other State, shall be delivered up, or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or some offence against the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, and has not borne arms against the United States in the present rebellion, nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto; and no person engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, under any pretence whatever, assume to decide on the validity of the claim of any person to the service or labor of any other person, or surrender up any such person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the service.”

And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey, and enforce, within their respective spheres of service, the act, and sections above recited.
And the executive will in due time recommend that all citizens of the United States who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout the rebellion, shall (upon the restoration of the constitutional relation between the United States, and their respective States, and people, if that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.

[Signed:] Abraham Lincoln
By the President [Signed:] William H. Seward
Secretary of State

more >>

Economy

John Merline: A Tale of Two Economic Recoveries

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The recovery that isn’t —

Fourteen months after the 1981-1982 recession ended, the unemployment rate had dropped to 8 percent, the Consumer Confidence Index had soared to more than 103, and the economy was cooking along at an average 7.7 percent quarterly growth.

This time around, unemployment is stuck at 9.6 percent, consumer confidence is at a depressing 53.5, and economic growth since the recession ended has averaged a comparatively paltry 3 percent….

Via Opinion: A Tale of Two Economic Recoveries.

Official Misconduct

Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim (Update 5)

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The Associated Press reports that a Third Woman Says DA Kratz Harassed Her:

Ruskiewicz said she went to Kratz in 2008 asking for his support for her pardon application and career advice before she entered law school. She said Kratz agreed to support her and they met in his office, where he asked her an odd question about whether a boss could have a sexual relationship with a secretary. She was confused but grateful for his support.

He gave her his cell phone number, and she texted him later to thank him for the help — a move she now calls a mistake.

She said his messages soon turned sexual. She recalled him texting while he was on vacation in Michigan with his family asking how she would “please him between the sheets while he takes a nap.”

When will Wisconsin’s Office of Lawyer Responsibility admit their failure to address Kratz’s misconduct properly when domestic-abuse victim Stephanie Van Groll first complained of Kratz’s messages?

For prior posts, see Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim, Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim (Update), Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim (Update 2), Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim (Update 3), and Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim (Update 4).

Official Misconduct

Update: Excessive Public Compensation in Bell, California (Lessons for the Rest of America)

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Readers may recall a post from July about the excessive municipal compensation of officials in Bell, California, an impoverished town where officials helped themselves to huge salaries. See, Excessive Public Compensation in Bell, California (Lessons for the Rest of America).

Those officials now face more than public condemnation and forced resignations, as the AP reports that the Ex-city manager [is] among 8 arrested in Calif. scandal:

The mayor and ex-city manager of the scandal-plagued Los Angeles suburb of Bell were among eight current and former city officials arrested Tuesday in a corruption investigation.

The district attorney’s office said several City Council members were taken into custody along with ex-city manager Robert Rizzo and Mayor Oscar Hernandez.

“This, needless to say, is corruption on steroids,” District Attorney Steve Cooley said at a news conference in Los Angeles.

The district attorney, state attorney general and others have been conducting investigations of officials in the small working-class city since it was disclosed they were paying themselves huge salaries. Rizzo was making nearly $800,000 a year.

The investigations involve allegations of corruption, misuse of public funds and voter fraud in the city where one in six of the 40,000 residents live in poverty.

Pretending public officials are saints, and their every action selfless and noble, is worse than false; it’s delusional and destructive.

City, Poverty

The City Manager’s Selective and Deceptive Use of Data

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Over a month ago, Whitewater’s city manager, Kevin Brunner, used his Weekly Report to tout data from the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance that he contended showed the strength of Whitewater’s fiscal position. (Predictably, the website of a local politician ran the figures that Brunner posted in full, without commentary.)

Brunner aimed to show that, using data from the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance’s MunicipalFacts (spelled that way), Whitewater’s fiscal position was better than most of the Wisconsin cities in the 12,500 to 17,500 population range. See, Brunner’s July 30th Weekly Report.

There were two reasons to be suspicious of Brunner’s contention. First, if conditions were as bright as he claimed, the city would not be facing a fiscal shortfall into the hundreds of thousands. Second, Brunner did not include all the data that appear in MunicipalFacts.

Brunner included categories from the report that he found favorable, but a review of the actual, entire document quickly revealed that he omitted some of the data for the cities in Whitewater’s population group. (Brunner never mentioned that he selected only some of the available data. He pointed readers to a link to the report that he erroneously contended “can be accessed online” at http://www.wistax.org/pubs/. All the data are not online, but are instead only available if one buys or finds a copy of MunicipalFacts.)

I located the most recent, and complete, copy of the report, and here’s a comparison that Brunner chose not to include in his Weekly Report. The City of Whitewater depends on more shared revenue from the State of Wisconsin that just about any other city in the population group:

Shared Revenues (in Thousands)
State shared revenue payments received by municipality.
High: $4,152
Median: $901
Low: $276
Whitewater: $3,656

Shared Revenues Per Capita
Per capita shared revenue payments.
High: $325
Median: $62
Low: $20
Whitewater: $259

As Brunner’s administration is so dependent on outside assistance, and as state payments are shrinking, the administration finds itself with less than before — and that’s one reason we have a fiscal shortfall.

Other communities in our population group are simply far less dependent on Madison as a cash cow. These data were available in the printed report, but Brunner chose not to include them. (I’ll presume it was a choice, unless two of the pages were stuck together in his copy, and he simply forgot about the millions that Whitewater receives from the state that most population group cities do not.)

We have significant poverty and significant need, and a bureaucrat’s selective use of data changes none of that sad truth.

Conservation, Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 9-21-10

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Good morning,

Today’s forecast for Whitewater calls for a day of thunderstorms with a high temperature of eighty-four degrees.

In the City of Whitewater, the Urban Forestry Commission meets this afternoon, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. The agenda is available online. Later, at 6:30 p.m., there will be a meeting of Whitewater’s Common Council. The agenda is available online, also.

Over at Wired, there’s a video that shows how destructive shark finning — killing sharks for fins — has been. In Video: Shark-Finning Puts Species on Verge Extinction, Annaliza Savage describes the problem:

Shark-finning has increased over the past decade for a number of reasons, including increasing demand for shark-fin soup and traditional cures, improved fishing technology and improved market economics, according to the conservation group Shark Water.

Shark fins go for big money. A single dried fin can fetch up to $300.

A growing Asian middle class now has access to shark-fin soup, a dish once reserved for royalty. Cities like Shanghai have multistory shopping centers dedicated to fish and animal sales, which include bin after bin of shark fins.

Here’s an accompanying video:


Link:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid90402333001?bclid=90190339001&bctid=605835578001 more >>

Economy

Since 2009, Unemployed More Likely To Drop Out Of Labor Force Than Get Jobs

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Since 2009, a layoff victim has been more likely to give up looking for work and drop out of the labor force than to find a job, according to a new report from the Roosevelt Institute, meaning employment prospects for the jobless are the worst they have been since the government started keeping track of them.

Via Since 2009, Unemployed More Likely To Drop Out Of Labor Force Than Get Jobs.

Official Misconduct

Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim (Update 4)

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Governor Doyle, doing the right thing, announced that he will promptly begin the removal process of Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz. (I’ve criticized Doyle on economic issues, but is doing the right thing, commendably in this matter, of victims’ rights and prosecutorial misconduct.)

Consider a second instance of misconduct, as reported in the story to which I have linked, above:

Earlier Monday, Doyle’s office released a letter from a second woman who says Kratz made inappropriate comments to her and even invited her to watch a crime victim’s autopsy.

In a letter sent Friday, the woman said Kratz contacted her on Match.com in December. She said they had dinner at a Green Bay restaurant in January, and that during the meal Kratz took several phone calls from detectives investigating the disappearance of a woman who investigators believed had been killed.

The woman, whose name was redacted from the letter, wrote that Kratz discussed several aspects of the case with her that had not been released to the public. The woman wrote that she and Kratz communicated by text for a couple of days after their dinner.

The woman wrote in the letter that Kratz eventually sent a text “inviting me to go with him to the autopsy (provided I would be his girlfriend and would wear high heels and a skirt).”

At the State Journal, there was an earlier report, before Gov. Doyle spoke, with additional, disturbing details about Kratz’s misconduct in the prosecution of a domestic abuse case.

It was misconduct for Calumet County D.A. Ken Kratz to send a domestic abuse victim vulgar, propositioning text messages while he prosecuted her ex-boyfriend for attacking her. It was far, far worse for Kratz to say that he might reduce the charges only minutes before he started propositioning her. (Kratz denied suggesting as a reduction only days ago; records made at the time, now revealed, show that he is accused of exactly that.)

[Crime-victim] Van Groll told state investigators the text messages started coming after she met with Kratz to be interviewed about the case. She said she thought it was odd he asked at the end of the conversation whether she would mind if he reduced the charge [against her attacker] from a felony to a misdemeanor, according to the Division of Criminal Investigation records made public Monday. She responded that strangulation is a felony.

Minutes after she left his office, Kratz started sending the series of messages.

Van Groll’s attorney, Michael Fox, said the discussion of a lesser charge gave the text messages greater impact. Van Groll told police she felt pressured to bow to Kratz’s wishes or worried he’d retaliate.

“She was frightened that, to the extent she didn’t at least be civil to this district attorney, that charge might be lessened and her greatest fear was that it would be dropped altogether,” Fox said.
“Whether intended or not, it amplifies the harmful nature of the statements he made to her.”

Kratz has hired an attorney of his own, and the latest AP story makes clear that the purpose of hiring counsel is to try to keep his job. (He’s not looking to protect himself against a civil claim, if any, from the victim, but to keep his official post.)

He must be removed from office, and the State of Wisconsin must be prepared to contest any attempt he makes to retain his post. Wisconsin district attorneys (through their own association), crime victims, legal experts, and several legislators have called for Kratz’s dismissal.

Governor Doyle is right to act, and swiftly, against an official unworthy of the public trust.

For prior posts, see Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim, Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim (Update), Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim (Update 2), and Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim (Update 3).

Official Misconduct

Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim (Update 3)

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I’ve posted before about the Calumet County District Attorney, Ken Kratz, who sent a series of vulgar, propositioning text messages to a domestic abuse victim while he was prosecuting her ex-boyfriend on a felony charge. Kratz should never have sent the messages, and should have resigned immediately after sending the first one. There are some updates about his conduct.

Kratz’s Misconduct is as a Prosecutor. There’s a fine story in the Wisconsin State Journal that summarizes nicely that Kratz’s text messages were ethically wrong: “As soon as he hit the “send” button on sexually charged text messages, Calumet County District Attorney Kenneth Kratz should have known he was creating an ethical minefield, legal experts said.”

His misconduct should be evident to anyone:

Prosecutors have additional requirements beyond what private lawyers must follow. Among them is to be “ministers of justice” who treat all parties fairly.

[Richard] Supple, a former prosecutor for New York state’s lawyer-regulation system, said the temptation in Kratz’s situation might be to come down unreasonably hard on a defendant to curry favor with the victim.

Or, if he and the victim had a falling out, to go easy on the defendant.

“A DA’s obligation is to do justice, and that includes justice to everybody, including the defendant,” said Supple, a partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson, which has offices in Wisconsin.

It’s unavailing to contend that Kratz broke no criminal laws; his actions violated his professional obligations as a prosecutor.

Where was Wisconsin’s attorney regulatory agency, the Office of Lawyer Regulation? It was someplace, anyplace, where it was convenient to do nothing. (Kratz contends that the OLR found no violations in his conduct; the OLR contends that it is not allowed to release any information about Kratz’s conduct.)

Kratz Gets a Lawyer, Goes on Medical Leave. See, Calumet County DA Ken Kratz Goes on Medical Leave. I don’t know all the reasons that Kratz has a lawyer, but one is sure to be the possibility of legal action from the recipient of Kratz’s messages. He’s also announced that he’s going on medical leave, although his ailment is undisclosed.

For prior posts, see, Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim, Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim (Update), and Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim (Update 2). more >>

Government Spending

Downsizing the (Federal) Government

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Last Friday’s comments included proposals to reduce military spending and spending on bridges & bike paths that go nowhere.

There’s a lot that’s been said about Alaska’s proposal for a Bridge to Nowhere, but it’s true that we have our own, genuine, half-completed project in Whitewater. We’ve not had the publicity, and reporters’ attention, that Alaska got for a mere proposal (Gravina Island Bridge). That hardly seems fair; we got less attention for a real bridge than Alaska got for an earmark that was finally rejected.

I posted one part of a much larger Cato e-book on downsizing the federal government, and possible cuts for the Department of Transportation. The e-book has proposals for all of the federal government, including ideas for reducing defense costs.

(Sections on reducing expenditures by federal department on the DownsizingGovernment.org website are going up department-by-department, and defense is slated for posting sometime soon.)

There’s no question that America has enemies, and we have to right to defend ourselves against those enemies. Tat doesn’t mean we have to spend on every project that’s technologically possible.

More significant, it’s a free-market domestic economy, unburdened by too much spending, that makes possible the wealth that sustains an adequate defense. A productive economy greatly improves the security of America, as it serves as a source of plenty for us, object of admiration for our allies, and formidable safeguard against our enemies.

There’s room for cutting every department of the federal government, including defense.

Small Whitewater, Wisconsin will undergo her own budget deliberations, having held a preliminary meeting about which I’ll comment later. When those deliberations begin, it will make sense to take stock of what local political leaders have proposed, and what’s possible.

For now, it’s enough to say that there’s not been much justification for the status quo. It’s easy to offer platitudes about how many projects we need, but politicians and bureaucrats (bureaucrats most of all) owe the community more than insistence that Whitewater has to keep doing what she’s been doing. Last year, for example, Whitewater’s city manager, Kevin Brunner, began his budget proposal with the contention that demand for services kept rising, and so an increase in the levy was justified. On the contrary, he found from Common Council that keeping the tax levy from increasing mattered more than a supposed popular desire for more taxing.

Worse still, spending and borrowing on multi-million dollar projects provide no benefits to struggling residents; they’re empty efforts of bureaucratic vanity.

Nor, by the way, is cutting anywhere a good idea. Some services are more important than others, and selecting isn’t as cut-and-dried as some budget cutters think.

(For example, I think I can demonstrate that Whitewater should cut elsewhere than Parks and Recreation. I know that at least one Council member is keen to cut there; I’m confident that I can show it’s a bad idea.)

There’s a straw-man view that anyone wanting to cut is a hard-hearted person, interested in cutting with indifference to ordinary people’s lives.

Those who are looking to impose that stereotype will prove disappointed; serious, necessary cuts for reform don’t rest on, or harm, ordinary people, but improve their lives.

Law

Wisconsin Attorney General Hosts Public Records Seminar

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The Wisconsin State Journal reports that Wisconsin’s Attorney General, J.B. Van Hollen, will host an open records seminar this week in Madison. The Wisconsin Department of Justice will hold several public records seminars, live or video-taped, over the next few weeks. See, Wis. AG to host first open records seminar.
Free registration for the seminars is available online.

Wisconsin’s Public Records Law (WPRL, ss. 19.31-19.39) and Open Meetings Law (WOML, ss. 19.81-19.98) are necessary checks on government officials otherwise often unchecked.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 9-20-10

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Good morning,

Today’s forecast for Whitewater calls for a twenty-percent chance of thunderstorms and a high temperature of seventy degrees.

In the City of Whitewater today, there will be a Parks and Rec Board meeting. The agenda for that meeting is available online.

For those looking for a bit of cat-bloging, here’s your fix:

Wired reports from the National Zoo in Washington that Baby Lion Cubs Get First Vet Exam” —

They were great first-time patients and all four cubs appear to be healthy at this time,” veterinarian Katharine Hope at the National Zoo said in a press release. “Their eyes are starting to focus on things, their hearts and lungs sound clear, they are all strong and in good body condition and it looks like some of their lower teeth will start erupting soon.”

Here’s a link to a live cub cam:
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GreatCats/default.cfm?cam=LC1#cam

Image courtesy National Zoo.