http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/blogs-1-1-1-31.html News is out that Joseph Zilber, legendary developer and philanthropist, died this morning at the Zilber Hospice in Wauwatosa at the age of 92. Zilber needs no introduction, as he was a household name in Milwaukee for decades—decades past, thanks to his real estate developments, and for decades to come thanks to his incredible philanthropic works, which will shape Milwaukee in profound ways. In recent years, Zilber decided to invest ]]> The Open Book co-op has announced that the bookstore will soon close its doors. I just got off the phone with Keith Schmitz, who helped to organized the venture. He said sales were going up. "However, along with the memberships we had taken on some loans from people in order to bridge the gap between the memberships and what we needed to open and keep going,"  Schmitz said. But the revenues and memberships just weren't]]> I’m about as frustrated with the pace of health care reform as everyone else (well, except the tea partiers). But it looks like an end may be in sight, with a vote on the most recent bill coming soon. One last hurdle has been cleared with the Congressional Budget Office’s report on the cost and savings presented by the new bill. Over the next ten years, the bill would cost $940 billion. But here&rsqu]]> From his perch in Washington, Chris Cilizza puts a Tommy Thompson senate run at 50/50. Shepherd readers gave it a solid 65% chance. Me, I’m giving it a zero. Zip. Nada. Zilch. I think the former governor’s current flirtation with running for U.S. Senate has more to do with the weakness of Russ Feingold’s challengers plus Thompson’s mighty ego, helped along by the former Thompson aides at WPRI, who are blowin]]> This just in: the state Supreme Court has just accepted the Milwaukee Paid Sick Days case. The District IV Court of Appeals kicked the case to the Supreme Court, saying that there were bigger issues surrounding the enactment of the measure that should be decided by the state’s highest court. The court has been asked to decide whether Milwaukee voters were fully informed of the scope and content of the ballot measure—a piece ]]> Remember Advocates for Student Achievement, the so-called “reform” group that recruited and raised money for candidates for the MPS board elections held in April 2009? It took almost a year, but the district attorney’s office has charged Advocates for Student Achievement PAC and ASA-MKE Inc. with seven campaign-related violations in a civil complaint made public today. The DA is charging ASA-PAC and A]]> It’s too bad that the Department of Children and Families didn’t respond to my questions before press time. I would have loved to have included their perspective in my article on the injunctions filed to halt child care license revocations based on the new Wisconsin Act 76. But, unfortunately, DCF’s spokeswoman emailed her responses after our deadline. So here’s what I got from DCF’s Stephanie Hayden: ]]> Emilio de Torre from ACLU of Wisconsin is tweeting about a silent vigil at UWM. It’s peaceful, but police are parked nearby, Emilio says. About 75 students and faculty are demonstrating while Chancellor Carlos Santiago meets with three students about the fallout from last week’s protest. Fifteen students were charged and Santiago says they’ll likely face academic punishment. Here’s more info from SDS-Milwau]]> Let’s face it: if medical marijuana is going to be legalized in the state, it must be done now. The Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, a good, solid bill, has been introduced in the state Legislature. Gov. Doyle said he’d sign it if it’s delivered to him. Now’s the time to fight for it, before the legislative session ends in a few weeks. Who knows if Democrats will control both houses of the Legislature a]]> We’re number one! We’re number one! But it’s nothing to be proud of. The Wisconsin DNR issued another air quality warning today, the fourth day in a row. Fifty-four of the state’s 72 counties are affected, including southeastern Wisconsin counties. As Clean Wisconsin notes, “Wisconsin has the most unsafe air in the country today.” Definitely nothing to be proud of. The cause? The D]]> Way back in November 2008, Milwaukee County voters approved a measure to raise the sales tax 1% to support our mass transit, parks, cultural assets and emergency medical services. In return, those entities would be taken off of the property tax. That would help Milwaukee enormously—not only would transit and the parks have a dedicated source of funding that wouldn’t get cut at budget time, but it would mean that non-Milwaukeeans who u]]> Have you heard that 35 senators have signed on to a letter supporting the effort to pass a public option via reconciliation? According to Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet’s letter: "We respectfully ask that you bring for a vote before the full Senate a public health insurance option under budget reconciliation rules. There are four fundamental reasons why we support this approach—its potential for billions of ]]> Let me get this straight: the state submitted an application for Race to the Top (RTTT) funds, to be disbursed by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Duncan's criteria did not include mayoral takeovers of public school districts. Yet Gov. Doyle is blaming MPS and state legislators who opposed a takeover for Duncan’s decision not to award Wisconsin in the first round of Race to the Top funding. Perhaps Do]]> The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign has totaled up lobbyist activity on the various payday loan bills pending in the state Legislature. The various lobbyists spent a whopping $669,000 on trying to derail reform. And that was just in 2009. Wait until the 2010 figures show up. I’ve heard many tales about the horde of lobbyists descending on the capitol to do the bidding of an industry that made $124 million in profits in Wisconsi]]> I’m chained at my desk this afternoon but I’m getting word about arrests resulting from a protest at UWM. I just spoke with Mike Gold, a UWM student, who reported that the campus police used mace on 7 to 8 students and at least 15 people were arrested. They protesters were told that it was an unlawful assembly. Gold said the protesters merely wanted to talk to Chancellor Carlos Santiago but that he]]> Tom Luljak, spokesman for UWM, told me the following about today's protest: Sixteen people in custody, 15 will be charged, one student was arrested but it was determined that he wasn’t part of the protest and ultimately was released. They’ll be charged with offenses ranging from disorderly conduct to resisting arrest, obstructing an officer, and possessing illegal substances. Luljak said: “We had a peaceful protes]]> Leave it to the Journal Sentinel’s Steve Schultze to find a victory for Scott Walker in the midst of a budget meltdown of Walker’s own making. Once you stop chuckling at the JS’s front-page spin you’ll realize that the 2010 county budget is no laughing matter. It’s based on wage and benefit concessions that had not been presented to the unions prior to the budget. The problem with that is that]]> Wisconsin’s two senators, Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl, have sent a letter to WellPoint CEO Angela Braly, asking her to reconsider the giant insurer’s 17% rate hike on some individual insurance policies in Wisconsin. While the hike isn’t as outrageous as WellPoint’s 39% increase in California, it’s still going to have a negative impact on more than 13,000 people in Wisconsin. WellPoint, which owns the former]]> I am so sick of the Journal Sentinel writing puff pieces about Rep. Paul Ryan. Today’s valentine, “Ryan Scores Points At TV Health Summit,” lauds the Janesville Republican and allows him to criticize—unchallenged—the Democrats’ health reform package. “This bill is a new health care entitlement at a time when we have no idea how to pay for the entitlements we already have,” the ]]> Aren’t Republicans supposed to support choice within the free market? Don’t they believe that competition is the best way to provide goods and services efficiently? So why did US Rep. Paul Ryan vote to protect health insurance giants by opposing a bill that would strip anti-trust exemptions for insurance companies? Ryan was one of 19 House members who voted in the interests of massive health insurance corporations li]]>