Wisconsin State Journal Stands Alone as Only Daily Getting Story Right

Rep. Peter Barca (D-Kenosha)

Update: MJS coverage catching up now (Bill Glauber).

Kudos to the Wisconsin State Journal's Clay Barbour and Ed Treleven. So far the State Journal is the only daily newspaper to report this story right.

The Wisconsin writer, Illusory Tenant, noted to me that virtually every headline in the country is wrong, misreporting what the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) publishing the anti-collective bargaining-GOP bill means.

This includes the Milwuakee Journal-Sentinel which really blew it, "out to lunch," writes the Illusory Tenant.

Congrats to Rep. Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) and LRB Director Steve Miller for flushing the facts out as well.

GOP move does not enact law, say experts

Publication online is administrative step, not legally binding

Update IV: From WisPolitics:

Dane County District Attorney Ismael R. Ozanne knocks down GOP contention with statement:

I was surprised to learn shortly before 5 p.m. this afternoon that, despite Judge Maryann Sumi’s temporary restraining order, an effort was undertaken to try and make 2011 Wisconsin Act 10 (Governor Walker’s Budget Repair Bill) effective. I was even more surprised to learn that the impetus for an attempt at publication, contrary to Judge Sumi’s order, came from a named defendant in the lawsuit.

As Judge Sumi said in issuing the temporary restraining order enjoining publication of the bill on March 18, 2011:

Finally, the necessity to preserve the status quo. I think relief is essential to preserve the status quo, which is what exists here and now. The bill has passed. But it has not been published.

I believe that, pursuant to Judge Sumi’s order, the status quo is preserved. This case, including the legal significance of today’s actions, should be resolved in a court of law. I look forward to presenting our case on behalf of the People of the State of Wisconsin Tuesday morning, March 29, 2011, at 8:30 a.m.

Update III: I told my mother, we feel like we were just mugged, but we checked and we still have our wallets. This could have been a Friday night massacre of sorts, but instead the perp just committed suicide in the capitol.

Update II: Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) and "[LRB Director Steve Miller] met Friday. Miller said Fitzgerald asked him to publish the law and, after reading the statutes, Miller agreed that he could do so. He said he had never published a law without being given a date by the secretary of state during his 12 years of running the reference bureau." (Marley and Stein, MJS) Fitzgerald said, "It's law." [Note: Fitzgerald's status as a legislative expert is under some dispute.]

Update: Via Rep. Peter Barca comes this:

[LRB Director Steve Miller] ... indicated that the LRB published the Act in order to satisfy a statutory publication requirement that is separate from the publication duty of the Secretary of State, and that such separate and additional publication by the Secretary of State is required in order for Act 10 to take effect.

The "bomb" that Gov. Scott Walker bragged about dropping on Wisconsin was
followed by the latest bomb that has GOP leaders smiling.

Keep smiling. [The mad bombers—Scott Walker, the Fitzgeralds, and Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch—just blew themselves up with their home-made bombs. These guys are either very foolish, playing games with Wisconsin, or some combination of both.]

The bombers are known. And recall efforts of the GOP senators just got another great push, reminding citizens the GOP will do anything in pursuit of the goals of its far-right ideology.

The Wisconsin State Journal's report (Clay Barbour and Ed Treleven) includes experts' explaining why the GOP celebration of sticking it to working families is premature.

The legislative bomb, the anti-collective bargaining bill, had been pushed through the legislature without the necessary quorum and in violation of Wisconsin Open Meeting laws.

Now, the "drama over Gov. Scott Walker's controversial measure limiting public sector collective bargaining took a sharp turn Friday when the Legislative Reference Bureau published the law — normally the last step before legislation takes effect." (Barbour and Treleven)

But this act will not stand either inside a courtroom or in the homes of Wisconsin families.

From Barbour and Treleven:

But officials with the nonpartisan Reference Bureau (LRB) and the Legislative Council — the Legislature's drafting and research agency and its legal service, respectively — said publication of the act online was only an administrative step.

Reference Bureau Director Steve Miller and Legislative Council staff attorney Scott Grosz both said La Follette still needs to designate a date for publication and actually publish the act in the Wisconsin State Journal — something the court order bars the secretary of state from doing.

The WSJ report continues: "If the bureau's action did constitute publication, it could make moot the state's appeal of Sumi's order, now before the state Supreme Court."

And if Judge Sumi's order becomes moot, other remedies become available.

Madison attorney Lester Pines is quoted, saying: "I suspect that if Judge Sumi was willing to take up a (temporary restraining order) against publication I suspect she'd do the same thing on enforcement" of the new law. "This is going to unleash a tsunami of litigation." (Barbour and Treleven)

Constitutional Incompetence

Dane County's response to the lawsuit filed by the parents of the murdered UW-Madison student, Brittany Zimmermann, is mystifying: the U.S. Constitution "does not require municipalities to rescue persons in distress."

The suit will likely get tossed, but so what?

A young woman was killed, and Dane County failed her.

Settle the suit, and help put this tragedy behind the grieving family. There may not be a constitutional right mandating that our community protects our citizens, but there is an uncontroversial public policy imperative.

Ed Treleven in the Wisconsin State Journal reports:

A federal civil rights lawsuit filed against Dane County and a former 911 dispatcher by the parents of homicide victim Brittany Zimmermann should be dismissed because the county has no constitutional obligation to protect individuals from the acts of others, a response to the lawsuit states.

The response, written as a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, was filed late last month by private attorneys representing Dane County and former dispatcher Rita Gahagan. They were sued last month by Kevin and Jean Zimmermann in U.S. District Court over the response of the 911 center to a call made from their daughter's cell phone around the time of her death on April 2.

For more information, see:

- Falk apologizes to Zimmermann's family, fiance (Capital Times, May 6)
- County Board chair wants answers on 911 problems (Cap Times, May 6)

- Falk apologizes to Zimmermann's family, fiance (Capital Times, May 6)

- Soglin: We all failed Brittany Zimmerman.

***Note*** Contributions in memory of Ms. Zimmermann may be sent to:
The “Dollars for Brittany” scholarship fund
Care of the Brittany Zimmermann Memorial Fund
Marshfield Medical Center Credit Union
P.O. Box 279
Marshfield, WI 54449

Pardon Leo Burt and All Johnson/Nixon War Criminals

Update: Tip on fugitive charged in 1970 UW bombing doesn't pan out

Leo Burt, one of the four people who bombed the Army Math Research Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus on Aug. 24, 1970 during the height of anti-war protests is the subject of buzz that the DoJ and FBI are honing in on his whereabouts.

From this morning's Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), Ed Treleven reports:

If something is stirring in the case of Leo Burt, missing for decades after he allegedly took part in a Vietnam-era bombing on the University of Wisconsin campus, federal prosecutors and the FBI weren 't saying on Monday.

But on Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Grant Johnson filed a motion in Burt 's long-dormant federal criminal case seeking somebody 's fingerprints. The sealed motion, filed in the dusty case that has been pending against Burt since 1970, is titled "Application for Production of Fingerprints. "

Johnson said he couldn 't elaborate on what was contained in the motion. "If I could I wouldn't have had it sealed, " he said Monday.

Some who have followed the case, however, said it could mean that authorities want fingerprints from someone close to the case, possibly someone suspected of being Burt himself.

The bomb, made of more than a ton of ammonium nitrate fertilizer soaked in fuel oil and delivered in a van, ripped apart the UW physics department in the basement and first floor of Sterling Hall and killed 33-year-old physics researcher Robert Fassnacht.

The Armstrongs and Fine were convicted and punished for their roles in the bombing. Burt, however, has never been found and his fate remains a topic of speculation among those who lived in Madison at the time and followed the anti-war movement.

Leo Burt was the only one of the four who has escaped the U.S. government's pursuit of the perpetrators of the bombing, which inadvertently resulted in the tragic killing on a researcher working in the early morning.

I say the DoJ has a bit too much time on its hands.

If criminal violence during the Vietnam War period is really a concern of the government, there are many possible targets who served in the Johnson and Nixon administrations that perpetrated this criminal war under false pretenses and myriad misrepresentations made to the American people.

You want to go after them?

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