Catching Up

Happy Monday. Well, as happy as any Monday can be.

We’ve been appropriately focussed mostly on the Middle East over the last couple of weeks. So, today let’s catch up on a bunch of stories that have developed over that time.

Billionaires win again. As predicted, the billionaire owners of the Milwaukee Brewers extorted $546 million out of taxpayers. A bill giving the club $411 million in state taxpayer dollars plus another $135 million from Milwaukee taxpayers sailed through the Assembly and will probably pass the Senate and be signed by the governor. What surprised me wasn’t the outcome but the sailing part. The vote was 69-27. Speaker Robin Vos had only 44 of the needed 50 votes in his caucus, so what did the Democrats do? Cave immediately. They provided the six votes and plenty more and demanded nothing in return — no more funding for the UW, for child care, for cleaning up PFAS. Nothing. Big victory for Vos. Big embarrassment for Democrats.

Van Orden flees. Rep. Derrick Van Orden decided now would be a good time to leave Washington and head for Israel on a fact-finding tour. What does it say about the House Republican caucus when one of its members would rather be in a war zone? Or maybe it’s just another war zone.

Roggensack stonewalls. Retired Chief Justice Pat Roggensack has shown little patience for public interest groups wanting to simply know what she’s up to. While two other retired justices fessed up to being on a panel appointed by Vos to advise him on the impeachment of new Justice Janet Protasiewicz, Roggensack wouldn’t answer a simple question about whether she was part of that august body or not. Clearly, she was the third member of that group. And, while former Justices David Prosser and John Wilcox provided information about what they told Vos — don’t impeach Protasiewicz — Roggensack won’t say. Now, she’s fighting a subpoena to make her appear in court over a case demanding that the panel act with all of the transparency of the public entity that it probably is. Roggensack had a reputation for being difficult and partisan as a chief justice. She hasn’t retired from that posture.

Nonpartisan redistricting has a glitch. A state Senate committee held a hearing last week on a bill that would create a nonpartisan redistricting process similar to Iowa’s. Republicans are advancing this, an idea they’ve staunchly resisted for two decades, while staring down the barrel of lawsuits challenging the current maps — one of those suits will almost certainly prevail with the new liberal majority on the Supreme Court. But the bills have a fatal flaw. If the nonpartisan maps created by the Legislative Reference Bureau are rejected twice by the Legislature, they can go back to their old gerrymandering ways. The bill has to be amended to make it clear that the Supreme Court is the ultimate arbiter. Otherwise, it’s all just window dressing.

Lockdowns for prisoners and information. It’s somewhat understandable that the Department of Corrections has had to institute lockdowns at state prisons. There’s a shortage of guards, though that may ease soon since the Legislature approved an increase from $20 to $33 an hour for starting pay. What’s not understandable is the faltering flow of information coming from DOC. They haven’t been forthcoming about how many institutions are under lockdown, they first said that the lockdowns weren’t related to staffing shortages until they did say that, they’ve often just been unresponsive to requests for comment and they won’t even call a lockdown a lockdown. No, it’s “modified movement.” I’m going to nominate the DOC for the Tim LeMonds Openness in Government Award.

UW employees get shafted. Vos has stopped a 6% pay raise from going to UW System (excuse me, “Universities of Wisconsin,” see below) employees while all other state employees will get it. He’s trying to put pressure on the UW to eliminate its diversity, equity and inclusion programs. I’ve got my own problems with DEI, but the answer isn’t to punish workers who have no control over UW policy. Vos should agree to a Legislative Audit Bureau deep dive into how DEI is actually conducted on UW campuses and free up both the pay raises and over $30 million that was cut from the UW budget for the same reason.

By any other name. Yes, System President Jay Rothman has decreed that the UW System shall henceforth be known as the Universities of Wisconsin. Why do the words “Titanic” and “deck chairs” come to mind? The UW now wants to emphasize that it is plural — “universities” — just as it becomes less so, as it’s in the process of shutting down three two-year campuses. Maybe that’s the point. We’re shrinking so let’s say we’re not.

R-E-L-A-X. The Packers have lost their last two games to two of the worst teams in the NFL, making them maybe the very worst team in the league. But do not lose faith, people. This is a young team beset with injuries that are stunning even by NFL standards. Wait for the last few weeks of the season. The playoffs are out of the question, but let’s see what these guys can do when then they’re healthier and more experienced. There’s always next year.