Actor Henry Winkler, who will forever be known as Fonzie, the ’50s-style rebel from 1970s television, was in town last week to celebrate the completion of the fund-raising for the “Bronze the Fonz” statue. His likeness will be preserved somewhere along the Milwaukee River as a way to boost local tourism and perk up fund-raising for charities for kids. Visit Milwaukee spearheaded the project, and raised most of the $85,000 for the statue from Miller Brewing Co. and TV Land network.
But not everyone is thrilled. Mike Brenner, owner of Hotcakes Gallery and executive director of Milwaukee Artist Resource Network (MARN), sees the statue as a sign of Milwaukee’s lack of support for exciting local art. He sent this message to his friends and allies last week: “It’s with great sadness I announce that, on July 3, Hotcakes Gallery will close its doors for good. I cannot see running a contemporary art gallery in a city whose ‘leadership’ is so eager to invest its limited resources in garbage instead of fostering its burgeoning arts community … I want the world to see what I see … a city full of warmhearted, hardworking, creative individuals who deserve to be defined by so much more than beer, brats, cheese and Arthur Fonzarelli.”
Compassionate Conservatives?: Advocates for survivors of sexual assault won a huge victory when the Republican-controlled state Assembly passed the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Act on a 61-35 vote. The legislation is supposed to go back to the state Senate, where the bill was overwhelmingly approved last year, to work out some minor details.
But that is being stalled by the most conservative part of the state Assemblyits leadership. Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem) got his side of the aisle to vote to delay that action. Local Republicans Mark Honadel (R-South Milwaukee), Suzanne Jeskewitz (R-Menomonee Falls), Joel Kleefisch (R- Oconomowoc), Jim Ott (R-Mequon), Jeff Stone (R-Greendale), Robin Vos (R-Racine) and Leah Vukmir (R- Wauwatosa) all complied with Huebsch’s stalling tactics. The bill won’t be able to be addressed until the end of February. Chris Taylor, public policy director for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, called the move “meanspirited” and “unconscionable,” and took issue with Huebsch’s argument that rape victims could get emergency contraception from Walgreens instead of an emergency room. “This is an insult to every rape victim,” Taylor said. “He should be ashamed of himself.”
County Could Be Hit for $80 Million: We pulled out the calculator because we couldn’t believe it at first, but the overcrowded conditions at the county jail could lead to an $80 million fine levied against Milwaukee County. The county had agreed in 2001 to ease overcrowding in the jail, but it didn’t.
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In 2006, a judge found that 16,000 inmates were improperly held in unsanitary conditions between 2001 and 2004almost all of that time fell under the tenure of Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke. Advocates for the inmates want the county to pay a $5,000 fine for each of the 16,000 inmates, which adds up to $80 million. The trial judge refused to levy that fine, but an appeals court decided on Tuesday that compensation of some sort should be awarded.
Plugging the Holes: Gov. Jim Doyle announced last week that the state faces a potential $300 million budget shortfall, and critical programs are at risk. But One Wisconsin Now (OWN) has figured out how to plug that holeby bringing back the inheritance tax, which expired on Jan. 1. The tax used to kick in on estates worth more than $675,000. OWN says that taxing heiresses and heirs would bring in $300 million in three years, and save programs for the elderly, kids and the disabled that could be cut from the budget. The group has launched an online petition to bring back the inheritance tax at www.onewisconsinnow.org.
Universal Health Care for Kids Begins This Week: Friday, Feb. 1 is the launch of the expanded BadgerCare Plus program in the state, one of the governor’s pet projects that actually survived the nasty budget process of 2007. The program will allow any parent, regardless of income, to buy affordable health care for their kids. Lowincome families won’t pay anything, but premiums start with as little as $10 a month to buy into the program. For more information, go to www.badgercareplus.org.
Now if only Congress and the president could work out their problems with the SCHIP coverage…
Get Out the Vote: A huge voter registration drive was kicked off this week by Milwaukee’s ACORN office, in conjunction with groups such as Campaign Against Violence, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Urban Underground and Voces de la Frontera.
The groups are encouraging the city’s low-income residents and people of color to register to vote and turn out on Feb. 19, when the state will hold its presidential primary.
Keep the Milwaukee River Clean: Friends of Milwaukee’s Rivers (FMR) is encouraging those interested in keeping our rivers and lakes clean to contact state Rep. Scott Gunderson. The Republican from Waterford is holding up a bill, passed by the state Senate, which would phase out lawn fertilizers that contain phosphorus. The chemical usually runs off from lawns before it can soak in, and it’s linked to the growth of blue-green algae and is terrible for fish. FMR says it’s one of the biggest pollutants in the Milwaukee River basin. If you want to ask Gunderson to schedule a public hearing on the bill, you can reach him by calling 888-534-0083.
War Profiteers: Simon Harak, S.J., of Marquette University’s Center for Peacemaking, will speak in Racine about who is really profiting from the war in Iraq. Harak will bring together information about all of the private contractors and corporations that are boosting their bottom line thanks to the war on terror, and how they’re involved in the government’s policymaking.
Harak will speak at 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 4, at the Gateway Technical College, in the Huron Room of the Racine Building. For more information, go to www.racinepeace.org.
What’s your take?
