On the surface, providing money for free cab rides home from bars appears to be a good use of drunk driving fines.
State Sen. Jim Sullivan (D-Wauwatosa) is pitching a bill that would use $15 from drunk driving tickets for the Safe Ride program. Safe Ride is sponsored by the Tavern League and participating taverns offer free rides home for those who feel they've imbibed too much.
It's quite popular in rural areas of the state, but for some reason not so prevalent in Milwaukee.
Sullivan's idea would add $10 from each fine to support the program from the current $5. It wouldn't raise the fine; just switch some of where the money goes. The Tavern League says it will match the increase as well. Last year, there were 37,734 free rides throughout the state, according to testimony presented to the Senate's Judiciary Committee.
"This is saying we're not just punitive but we're preventive," said Sullivan in defense of his bill.
Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) caused pause in the committee's approving the idea when he noted that it would cost the state and counties some $200,000 in revenue from OWI tickets. That effectively stalled the matter and Sullivan said he would work out the details.
For the Health of It: Some state legislators are trying the get Wisconsin out of the mainstream when it comes to pot laws. The latest effort is being billed as "the most comprehensive medical marijuana legislation to date," according to bill sponsors, state Reps. Frank Boyle (D-Superior) and Mark Pocan (D-Madison).
The bill would allow patients with serious illnesses including cancer and multiple sclerosis to have pot prescribed as part of their treatment. The two are calling the bill the "Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act," marking the 10th anniversary of Rickert leading a 210-mile wheelchair trek across the state that advocated medicinal marijuana.
It's the fifth time such a bill has been proffered in the state Legislature, dating back to 1997. In the last session of Legislature, medical pot received larger headlines when former state Rep. Gregg Underheim, a Republican, sponsored the bill. Medicinal marijuana is legal in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Montana, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Alaska and Hawaii.
Bob & Brian Road Hits Dead End: The venerable radio team of Bob & Brian will not have the honor of having a street named in their honor. Even though a citizens committee in charge of considering Milwaukee street names liked the idea of naming a portion of Martin Drive after the morning talk team, a Common Council committee stuck to the rules when it comes changing street signs.
The duo has hosted a morning drive time in Brew Town for 20 years and station PR types at 102.9 FM thought it would be a good promo to have the street in front of the studio named after them. City rules, however, state that honorees must be dead or at least 70 years old to be considered. A 102.9 FM exec suggested to the council's Public Works Committee that taken as a duo, Bob & Brian are more than 90 years old.
Powering Down: The state's Public Service Commission utility regulation board gave the go-ahead for the sale of the Point Beach nuclear power plant to a private firm from Florida. The move essentially allows a corporation, FPL Energy, Inc., unregulated control of the power plant, watchdog groups say.
"The sale of Point Beach to an out-of-state corporation continues Wisconsin's path down the misguided slope of energy deregulation," says Charlie Higley, exec director of the Citizens Utility Board.
The state previously approved a controversial sale of the Kewaunee nuke plant to Virginia-based Dominion Power and at one time was allowing California-based Calpine unfettered ability to build new power plants in the state as well. Despite being fueled by high-powered lobbyists here, Calpine eventually declared bankruptcy.
CUB and other watchdog groups warn that the proliferation of private power companies could lead to another energy crisis like the one California experienced in the last decade. And in the case of nuke plants, they warn that the state essentially has no control over how the waste will be stored.
Seeing the Light: State Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) has just now expressed "frustration" over finding out that Delphi executives are taking home some $37 million in buyout money while the company lays off its 200 workers in Oak Creek.
To say Plale is a tad slow on the uptake would be kind. Reports that Delphi was shutting its Oak Creek plants and execs were getting huge golden parachutes has been in the news since 2005.
"When I heard this news, I could not believe how a company could turn its back on its workers," said Plale, who was decidedly silent two years ago when the writing was on the wall.
Eye on Wisconsin Eye: Is it a power thing, a coincidence or are Republicans camera shy? At a recent state Senate committee meeting, Republicans on the panel were seated with their backs to the camera of the new C-SPAN-like broadcast of the state Legislature known as Wisconsin Eye. Democrats, who sit in the majority and thus control everything that happens at such meetings, had ample face time and the best camera angles.
Word on the Street: Sources close to politics on Milwaukee's North Side aren't surprised that Ald. Ashanti Hamilton is seeing his name associated with negative headlines, especially in light of a Journal Sentinel report rehashing previous personal troubles and that the first-term alderman is facing foreclosure on one of his homes.
The week started with Hamilton's opponent, C. Orlando Owens, getting police to issue a disorderly conduct ticket to the alderman. Disorderly conduct tickets aren't usually the stuff intrepid police beat reporters pick up on in a normal day. And Hamilton wasn't even arrested.
Owens has behind-the-scenes backing of none other than Jerell Jones, Milwaukee's minority media mogul and the mastermind behind the Gary George recall. Jones was also one of the key forces supporting Ald. Michael McGee Jr. until his self-inflicted demise. A Journal Sentinel report Thursday highlighted Hamilton's foreclosure, but knowing how the paper does business, it certainly didn't dig up the story on its own and was likely fed the info by Hamilton's opponents.
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.
