Monday Catch Up

Welcome to your Monday. How ’bout that UW volleyball team?! (Okay, so they dropped one to Penn State, but they’re still among the best teams in the nation.) Also, football was played this weekend, but only by Northwestern.

Today we’re starting a new feature here at YSDA, the Monday Catch Up. We’ve got so many opinions around here that a lot of them end up on the cutting room floor. So, the idea is to use Mondays to, well, catch up, on stuff we didn’t have room for in the previous week. Here goes.

It’s not over ’til it’s over.

The fat lady hasn’t sung yet. A vote on the Brewers’ stadium deal is scheduled in the state Senate for tomorrow, but as of Friday there weren’t 17 committed votes for it. Amendments have made the thing little more palatable. A ticket fee would be applied to concerts and other events, raising $14 million over 20 years (compared to $531 million in taxpayer payments), but the fee wouldn’t apply to Brewers games. The team says that’s a “nonstarter,” which is just a little bit on the arrogant side. Why shouldn’t Brewers fans (including me) pay a couple extra bucks on a ticket to fund the stadium that, let’s face it, wasn’t built for Kenny Chesney? And also, where do you think the Brewers are going to come up with their $100 million share of the improvements? They’re going to raise ticket prices. So, essentially, the team is saying they don’t want the taxpayers’ burden to be lightened by a ticket tax because they want it all to pay for their own stake. It would be a shock if this thing didn’t pass, but at least the Senate is improving it on the margins. The pig looks only a little better with that lipstick.

You’re gonna miss him when he’s gone.

Sen. Joe Manchin, facing likely defeat next year, decided he’s done everything he set out to do representing West Virginia. With nothing left to accomplish for the Mountain State, he’s going to spend some time traveling the country to test the waters as a third party candidate for president. Manchin angered liberals for not being Elizabeth Warren, but his very existence (winning in a state that went for Trump by 36 points) gave Democrats the majority and literally made every Democratic victory possible. From Katanji Brown Jackson on the Supreme Court to dozens of federal judges to record investments in fighting climate change to an historic infrastructure bill, none of that could have happened without Manchin. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would have blocked all of it. And what thanks did he get? Well, not much. At one point protestors in favor of various things in the big Biden stimulus package surrounded his houseboat and harassed his family. Nice work. If he does run for president and he does hand the White House back to Trump, blame the hard-left.

Roggensack dodges subpoena.

Former state Supreme Court Justice Patience Roggensack dodged a subpoena to appear at a court hearing regarding her involvement in Speaker Robin Vos’ panel which advised him on the potential impeachment of new Justice Janet Protasiewicz. When a server showed up at her home a man who answered the door said he didn’t know Roggensack and slammed the door. So, she didn’t show up in court but the judge ordered her to release materials related to the panel — which she still hasn’t admitted to serving on. Conservatives have blasted Protasiewicz for being outspoken on her views during the campaign, but Roggensack has been openly contemptuous of the very legal system she once led as Chief Justice.

Saying something nice about the PSC.

Man bites dog! YSDA says something nice about the PSC! We’ve been harshly critical of the state’s Public Service Commission because all three members have glaring pro-utility conflicts of interest. But, to be fair, if we’re going to criticize them for their appearance of bias then we have to acknowledge it when they do things that benefit ratepayers. You wouldn’t think that increasing electric and natural gas rates would be pro-consumer, but the respected rate-payer advocacy group, Citizens Utility Board, praised the PSC’s actions last week that trimmed the requested rate increases and lowered guaranteed profit margins. No, we’re not saying we were wrong. Those appointments simply make no sense and the recent round of decisions doesn’t anger the utilities all that much. Still, according to CUB, they did more or less the right thing over a series of decisions and so that should be acknowledged. The dog is recovering nicely from its human-inflicted wounds.

But they can’t pay their players.

Texas A&M fired coach Jimbo Fisher, but they’ll still have to pay him his full salary for the remainder of his contract, which runs through 2031, even if he gets another job. That means the Aggies will pay Fisher over $75 million for nothing. And, of course, they’ll have to pay a new coach. But college football won’t pay their own players a dime.