MILWAUKEE - Governor Scott Walker and others heading to Messmer Preparatory School on Milwaukee's north side had to go through alternate entrances on Friday after a protester made sure those doors wouldn't open in a normal fashion.
"Some of these folks superglued our front doors at the prep school," said Br. Bob Smith, OFM, the president of Messmer Catholic Schools, about the school on the corner of North Fratney and East Burleigh Streets.
He told Newsradio 620 WTMJ that a woman was walking in front of the school Thursday, asking people to protest.
According to Br. Smith, one protester said " 'Get ready for a riot,' because they were going to disrupt the visit." - 620WTMJ
Friday, August 26, 2011
County Exec to Cut Services, Give additional Worker Benefits
MILWAUKEE - It was a packed house at the Washington Park Senior Center Thursday evening. One by one, people stepped up to the microphone, to speak out out against proposed cuts to Milwaukee County Services.
The county faces a $55 million dollar budget shortfall. County Executive Chris Abele says the budget situation is dire, and even compared it to "the Titanic meeting the Hindenburg". -620WTMJ
County Exec Abele is threatening cuts to Mental Health, Bussing and Special Needs transportation. Stating the County Defecit as the reason for the needed cuts. Wasn't it just last month that he agreed to give benefits to County Workers Domestic Partners?
White Supremacy group plans Protest in West Allis
WEST ALLIS - A white supremacy group is planning a protest in response to the State Fair mob attack, and police are issuing an unusual alert.
Maureen Metzer owns a dance studio a block away from West Allis City Hall. She heard about the rally scheduled for Labor Day weekend and isn't taking any chances. "I am concerned. We actually did decide that we will not be open that day."
It's advice she and other business owners in the area got from the Police Chief in a letter recommending people "lock their doors and close during the time of this activity." Maureen is grateful for the warning. "They told me they've never experienced anything like this before, and I guess better safe than sorry." - 620WTMJ
Illinois Raising Tolls by almost 88%
Driving in Illinois is about to take a much bigger toll on motorists' wallets.
Tolls will shoot up an average of 88% next year to finance a $12 billion toll road expansion and renovation plan, the Illinois Toll Highway Authority decided Thursday.
For drivers who have an I-PASS, an electronic device that allows them to pay tolls automatically, it's the first toll increase in 28 years, the toll road authority said.
But for the occasional toll road user who pays in cash - including many Wisconsin drivers who don't have an I-PASS - it's going to be the second massive increase in seven years, with a third coming up three years later.
In 2005, tolls doubled for anyone without an I-PASS. Those drivers will face increases in both 2012 and 2015, while those with an I-PASS will see only a 2012 increase.
At mainline toll plazas, the ones that all drivers must pass through, the average toll will rise 35 cents, from 40 cents to 75 cents for an automobile equipped with an I-PASS on Jan. 1, the toll road authority said. Trucks pay more, depending on their size and the time of day; their rates will hold steady next year but rise in 2015.
Individual tolls vary from one plaza to another, however, and rates are above average at several of those closest to the Wisconsin border.
At the Waukegan Plaza on I-94, the I-PASS rate will jump from 75 cents to $1.40 next year. The cash rate will increase from $1.50 to $1.90 in 2012 and $2.65 in 2015. - JSOnline
13 Union Protestors Arrested and Carried out of Capitol
Madison - Several hundred chanting, cheering protesters entered the Capitol rotunda Thursday around the 6 p.m. closing time. An hour later, Capitol police carried 13 of them away.
Most of the protesters left around 6:30 p.m. at the urging of police. Officers sought to close the building and enforce a Dane County judge's order from earlier this year that the building be cleared of the public after its business was done for the day.
"I'm asking you very nicely to leave," Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs said. "Please leave now. We need to lock the building."
The protest came on the first day that higher pension and health contributions kick in for state employees.
The scene recalled in a modest way the massive protests of last year over Gov. Scott Walker's legislation repealing most collective bargaining for public workers. That measure also made the cuts to workers' benefits taking effect Thursday to help balance the state budget.
The first wave of protesters entered the statehouse carrying banners, shouting and banging on drums and cowbells. One of them - among those later arrested - was waving an American flag and standing on the first-floor railing overlooking the rotunda until police asked him to step down. - JSOnline
It is this type of behavior and that at the offices of Paul Ryan that have led many Independents to turn away from supporting the Union. Disruptions to the system and blatant disrespect of the law.
No Charges in Supreme Court Choking Claim
Madison - Neither Supreme Court Justice David Prosser nor fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley will face criminal charges for a June altercation that broke out as the judges were considering Gov. Scott Walker's union bargaining law, a special prosecutor has determined.
But the incident still could have far-reaching effects - possibly even opening the doors of the court to the public as justices debate how to decide cases.
Breaking her silence about the altercation in a written statement Thursday, Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson said she would propose "the presumption will be that court conferences are open to the public," as a way to lead the fractious court back toward civility.
Abrahamson was not available for an interview, and a court spokeswoman said she could not confirm whether the chief justice was referring to deliberations on individual cases. But meetings on the court's rules and finances are usually open to the public already, unlike the justices' deliberations.
No other appellate court in the nation opens its deliberations to public scrutiny, former state Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske said. If Wisconsin's high court did so, "that does create huge problems in decision-making," as citizens see for the first time how the justices' reasoning and even rulings can shift in the months between the time a case is argued and time a decision is handed down, warned Geske, a Marquette University law professor. - JSOnline
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