By Doug Hissom Special to OnMilwaukee.com Published Mar 28, 2008 at 5:06 AM

Whether they know it or not, Milwaukee residents are on camera a lot these days.

Soon, even bus stops will be covered.

The city approved spending $110,000 to put cameras at three bus stops -- at 27th Street and Oklahoma Avenue, 35th Street and Burnham Street and 16th Street and National Avenue. The cameras, somehow, are expected to deter youth violence at the stops. Dan Alexander, the city's Homeland Security coordinator, said the cameras offer "great evidentiary value."

The Milwaukee County Transit System is chipping in for the cameras.

Attorney vs. attorney: The race for the city attorney's post, being waged between state Rep. Pedro Colon and incumbent Grant Langley, promises to be one of the more interesting battles in the election Tuesday.

Langley's office has been criticized at time for its seeming never-say-die attitude in some high profile cases.

The office has occasionally appealed court decisions against voices of reason, costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars. The issue surfaced four years ago, the last time Langley was up for re-election.

Colon believes that the city attorney should get more involved in what is ailing the city, not hide behind a desk, and handle lawsuits and other administrative tasks.

It is an important distinction between the two and it certainly cannot hurt having a candidate for city office raising issues that could make the city a better place.

Age before beauty: Milwaukee Ald. Jim Bohl is sponsoring a plan that would allow taverns to set age limits for patrons entering the establishment.

According to an official "analysis," Bohl's plan would "in the interest of the public good and keeping the general peace, to exercise a predetermined age restriction which must be posted at the establishment."

A Common Council committee held up the plan for further review.

Reviewing the review: The city's Homicide Review Commission will be reviewed. The mission of the commission is to study in detail each homicide in the city, including the victims' and the perpetrators' backgrounds and economic status.

The Common Council is expected to approve spending $25,000 to review the commission's work later this year. Ald. Robert Puente has been critical of the commission, questioning why the city was spending more than $200,000 on consultants. He remained mum, however, on the $25,000 tab.

Lawyers love Rebecca: A poll by the Milwaukee Bar Association shows that of the members of the bar expressing an opinion, 92 percent believe Rebecca Dallet is qualified to be a Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge, while only 42 percent believe her opponent, Jeffrey Norman, is qualified.

Norman, a police detective, has been caught fudging his resume in claiming that he was a law professor at UW-Parkside, which is not the case.

Violence begets violence: College Republicans at UW-Milwaukee seem to have a myopic view of what it takes to end the war in Iraq. After anti-war activists vandalized the Army Recruitment center on the corner of Oakland Avenue and Kenwood Boulevard, the CR's said anti-war types should try lobbying instead.

So far, that has done a lot of good.

"It is against the law to vandalize a government building. You can disagree with the war and the way it's going all you want, this is America and it is your right. You can't, however, resort to vandalism to get this message across, especially after the recent events in Times Square," said AJ Piwarun, executive director of the CRs.

Doug Hissom Special to OnMilwaukee.com
Doug Hissom has covered local and state politics for 20 years. Over the course of that time he was publisher, editor, news editor, managing editor and senior writer at the Shepherd Express weekly paper in Milwaukee. He also covered education and environmental issues extensively. He ran the UWM Post in the mid-1980s, winning a Society of Professional Journalists award as best non-daily college newspaper.

An avid outdoors person he regularly takes extended paddling trips in the wilderness, preferring the hinterlands of northern Canada and Alaska. After a bet with a bunch of sailors, he paddled across Lake Michigan in a canoe.

He lives in Bay View.