Today’s read is from Allysia Finley of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board:
Hundreds of unruly campus protesters have been arrested in recent days, but how many will spend more than a few hours behind bars, if even that? Lawbreakers at the University of California, Los Angeles were given food as they were being booked and then released with a citation. Some said they planned to return to campus to cause more disorder. “We’re definitely not done,” one woman said. “I’ve never felt more proud of myself.” No doubt.
Why should they be deterred? Shoplifters and even violent criminals in America’s biggest cities repeatedly get arrested and let loose. Progressives don’t believe in punishing anyone for anything—except Donald Trump, his supporters and wealth creators.
Too busy protesting to study? No problem. Columbia this spring extended its deadline to April 29 for deciding whether to take classes pass-fail. How many students who barricaded themselves in Hamilton Hall last week planned to “mail it in” for their finals?
Columbia administrators threatened to suspend protesters. That’s no punishment. Many would enjoy spending another semester in college since dad or Uncle Sam is footing the bill. If they don’t want to repay their student loans, the government will forgive them. The students’ credit reports won’t even get dinged. Thanks, President Biden.
If they forget to pay other bills, the government has their backs. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has effectively capped all credit-card late fees at $8. The CFPB also plans to cap bank overdraft fees at a nominal amount, meaning spendthrifts needn’t worry about getting penalized for overdrawing their checking accounts. And if they don’t want to pay rent, cities including New York and Los Angeles have imposed regulations that make it prohibitively difficult to evict tenants.
Once upon a time, children were taught that choices bore consequences. No more. Don’t want to study or finish your homework? Schools are adopting “equity” grading systems, the Mercury News reported last month, with “some choosing to eliminate D’s and F’s, while others move away from zero grades or eliminate late penalties.”
Dublin Unified School District in California’s Bay Area will “remove extra credit and bonus points that elevated grades, and provide students with multiple chances to make up missed or failed assignments and minimize homework’s impact on a student’s grade.” Many school districts have banned homework altogether. Pedagogues wonder why kids spend countless hours a day on TikTok. Cause, meet effect.
Here’s another example of causality. A Gallup and Institute for Family Studies report last year found that children whose “parents invest heavily in discipline, monitoring, and loving support” have better mental health than those who don’t. No surprise. Yet disciplining children has recently fallen out of liberal fashion too. Parents instead are told to encourage their children to reflect on why they misbehave. Our 77-year-old former president probably couldn’t explain why he acts out. Good luck getting a 7-year-old to do so.
Teachers unions and progressives oppose tough school-discipline policies, arguing that they discriminate against minorities. There’s scant evidence of that, but the Obama administration nevertheless told schools to drop their “zero tolerance” policies. Many did. The Biden administration has even threatened to investigate public schools that impose tough discipline for violating civil-rights laws.
But would so many protesters be flouting the law if they had been disciplined more as kids? The Catholic school I attended in the early grades forbade children from playing during lunch break unless they had finished the frequently nauseating cafeteria meals. Students dutifully shoveled down the grub. Perhaps colleges ought to hire nuns to bring their campuses under control.
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said he didn’t call police in sooner to dispel protesters because he wanted “to discuss options for a peaceful and voluntary disbanding of the encampment.” Administrators at other colleges have similarly expressed fear of “provoking” protesters—only to see them escalate their rebellion.
It’s reminiscent of the feeble Obama and Biden foreign policies. Both presidents failed to enforce sanctions and their own declared “red lines,” which resulted in adversaries’ becoming more belligerent. The Biden administration has refrained from strictly punishing China for helping Iran and Russia wage war on Israel and Ukraine.
Last week the State Department said Russia has used chemical weapons in Ukraine, and that it wasn’t “an isolated incident.” The department vowed to impose sanctions on entities linked to Russia’s chemical and biological weapons programs. Why not do so earlier? Perhaps for the same reason college administrators refrained from clearing encampments sooner.
The failure to punish bad behavior is a failure of deterrence. Only those living in the Ivory Tower could have been surprised when protesters, after facing little resistance to their take-over of campus yards, seized and vandalized buildings.
Hey, that may seem like ancient history. After all, wasn’t that piece of business taken car of last month? Don’t have to worry for another year.
And no, it’s not the sexiest topic. But it’s critically important. Especially when I recently noted how so many people believe it’s the end of the world if they didn’t receive a big, fat, wet, juicy tax refund.
Let’s discuss.
What does “withholding tax” mean?
The term “withholding tax” refers to the money that an employer deducts from an employee’s gross wages and pays directly to the government. Employers remit withholding taxes directly to the IRS in the employee’s name. If too much money is withheld, an employee receives a tax refund; if too little is withheld, they may have to pay the IRS more with their tax return.
How did the “withholding tax” originate?
Well-known economist Milton Friedman was involvedin the development of the withholding tax when he did tax work for the government in the early 1940’s. Friedman spoke about it in a 1995 interview with Reason.com:
I was an employee at the Treasury Department. We were in a wartime situation. How do you raise the enormous amount of taxes you need for wartime? We were all in favor of cutting inflation. I wasn’t as sophisticated about how to do it then as I would be now, but there’s no doubt that one of the ways to avoid inflation was to finance as large a fraction of current spending with tax money as possible.
People at the Treasury tax research department, where I was working, investigated various methods of withholding. I was one of the small technical group that worked on developing it.
One of the major opponents of the idea was the IRS. Because every organization knows that the only way you can do anything is the way they’ve always been doing it. This was something new, and they kept telling us how impossible it was. I played a significant role, no question about it, in introducing withholding. I think it’s a great mistake for peacetime, but in 1941–43, all of us were concentrating on the war.
I have no apologies for it, but I really wish we hadn’t found it necessary and I wish there were some way of abolishing withholding now.
Jason De Sena Trennert is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Strategas and its related companies, and is considered to be one of Wall Street’s top thought leaders on economic policy. On Tax Day this year he wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal headlined “Milton Friedman’s Worst Mistake.” The piece got the following reaction from readers:
Jason De Sena Trennert is right that the withholding tax is a stealthy mechanism used to lessen the pain associated with paying our income taxes. The withholding tax acts like general anesthesia during surgery. It has three effects: an anesthetic effect, an analgesic effect and an amnesic effect. Put simply, it reduces awareness, mitigates pain and helps you forget. Like surgeons, our tax-collectors might not be able to fulfill their duties without these same effects from the withholding tax.
Mr. Trennert points out that Milton Friedman played a role in bringing the withholding tax into existence. It certainly wasn’t the economist’s finest hour. But he was an employee of the U.S. Treasury at the time. More ominous is the role of private-sector actors in bringing the withholding into being.
Beardsley Ruml, the treasurer of R.H. Macy’s (as well as chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Board) realized that customers didn’t like big bills. They preferred making smaller payments over time, even if it meant having to pay interest. He took the idea to the U.S. Treasury—another unholy alliance between the private and public sectors.
The withholding tax is only one thing that makes U.S. taxpayers more docile (the analgesic effect). Paid preparation of taxes goes a long way in masking the gargantuan complexity, and inefficiency, of the tax code to the average citizen (the anesthetic effect). And of course, April 15 is nearly as far from Election Day as possible (the amnesic effect).
Don’t expect any of these things to change. If the U.S. government won’t eliminate withholding, perhaps U.S. companies can take a step in that direction. A daring company could temporarily cease withholding income taxes for, say, three or six months; and then withhold at a rate for the following months that meets the employee’s targeted annual withholding amount. That would be both shocking and informative to the employee taxpayer.
—SAL GRECO, C.F.A., Greenland, N.H.
Mr. Trennert’s lament applies with equal vigor to state and local governments, which also require employers to withhold taxes from their employees. But there’s more.
Take Illinois. In 1953 the Illinois General Assembly created the Illinois State Toll Highway Commission to borrow money to build highways. The tolls were intended to pay off those bonds, and the roads were then to become freeways, maintained by the gas tax. The public was repeatedly assured that the tolls—then 25 cents— were temporary.
But state politicians realized that with the toll roads went jobs, contracts and clout, so the Toll Highway Commission became permanent in 1968. The original tollway bonds were fully paid off in the early 1980s, but the tolls continued. The tollway budget is now $1.4 billion, with more than 1,400 employees.
To Mr. Trennert’s point, the toll payments—now as high as $7.20—are done quietly and effortlessly through electronic transponders, which are automatically replenished with your credit card.
—NATHAN LICHTENSTEIN, Chicago
These letter writers get it.
I bet they also understand and agree that taxation is theft.
On Monday the owner of a technology firm focused on providing management and technology solutions based on industry best practices sent an extensive e-mail to many Franklin individuals about the current controversies surrounding the Rock. Here are portions of that e-mail:
The May 7th Franklin Common Council agenda packet includes the following 80 events at The Rock Sports Complex. These events have previously resulted in complaints about disruptive noise heard for miles.
31 Extraordinary Entertainment Special Events listed under Section H with no information other than the dates and event names which are the following:
· 2 Day Tacos and Tequila / Phase Fest. 2-day “music festival.” 11 am to 11 pm
· 19 dates for the Summer Concert Series at the Umbrella Bar: 6:30 pm to 10:30 pm.
· 9 Fireworks events after Milkman games, each starting at approximately 10 pm.
50 Milkman games (20 UW-Panther games already occurred without a permit)
On Tuesday, May 7th, the Common Council can require conditions be added to an approval for any event or license. This is necessary for all items on this agenda, including the Summer Concert Series every Saturday from June through September, that goes until 10:30 pm, violating the Franklin noise limits as reported in the Milwaukee County 2023 Sound Study of The Rock. Additionally, there are the 9 fireworks events, which is roughly 1 fireworks event every other week for the entire summer, the Tacos & Tequila 2-day festival 11 am to 11 pm, and 50 loud Milkman games. = 80 noisy events on the agenda.
Also, on this agenda is the closed-door session for The Rock TID #5 shortfall, which if unpaid, puts the taxpayers at risk for payment. According to Franklin codes 121 and 169, approvals for events are not able to be given if outstanding balances, orders, back-taxes, and liens are owed from the property / premises /owner. The developer has a financial shortfall / default of TID #5 agreement. The City of Franklin agreed to a maximum investment of $22.5 million, but then paid the $5 million in cost over runs for the development, even though page 4E indicates all cost overruns are the sole responsibility of the developer.
The entangled partnership of the City to continuously promote and accommodate this nuisance property is harmful to citizens. An invoice for $934,000 was sent to The Rock in December 2023 and this invoice is still unpaid.
To be clear, the impacted neighbors from neighborhoods established decades before the Rock, that have filed complaints have not requested The Rock to be shut down. The request for 10 years and counting is for the noise to be TURNED DOWN. (this is well documented in the media, public comment, alderman statements etc)
Noise is a serious hazard to the public health, welfare, safety, and quality of life. A substantial body of science and technology exists, by which excessive sound may be substantially abated. Citizens have a right to an environment free from excessive noise that may jeopardize health, safety, and welfare or degrade quality of life.
Many complaints include sleep disruption, not being able to use patios / yards, inability to have company over because can’t have a conversation as a result of the very loud music and announcer. The response to neighborhood concerns about the 2014 noise issues during the stadium approval process was a written response 3-31-2014. The Development team’s response was: “The public address system proposed for this project utilizes technology to reduce significantly, if not eliminate audible DB or noise pollution that may disturb adjacent property owners. Our speakers are aimed directly into the crowd and designed to get the loudspeaker closer to the listener’s ear.”
The Rock’s representations and applications all indicate no adverse harm to neighbors and no interference in the quality of life assurances:
· That “advanced technology would be used to reduce significantly, if not eliminate the audible noise into the neighborhood” (The developer / Rock’s presentation and application 3/31/2014)
June 7, 2018: “We have gone to almost every meeting over the past five years and expressed our concerns on every level,” said Draginis-Zingales. “The lights, the noise, . it’s been unbearable,” she said.
“Not everyone is going to be happy with these types of developments,” Zimmerman responded. “It’s something they’ll have to learn to live with.”
The developer, Zimmerman said, “I think there’s a great opportunity for us to continue to activate this area and for those who don’t like noise and lights and activity, it’s probably still going to be a bit of a challenge, frankly,“
· The developer indicated on Sept 22, 2023, “They live close to an entertainment district, that’s the harsh reality,” Zimmerman said. “Let’s try to find a solution. I’m optimistic. But at the end of the day, there is going to be noise (coming from The Rock Sports Complex). We can’t just turn the volume down.”
So for those misinformed people who think the neighbors are being unreasonable, more research is recommended into the hundreds of meetings, documents and dozens of media segments that reveal what is really going on. The fact is, the noise is heard for miles and the Rock refused for years to turn it down. So instead of doing the right thing, following laws and contracts, there is a “negotiation” that has been going on for years with neighbors held hostage. In my opinion, the present scenario is likely something like this: Maybe the Rock doesn’t want to pay the $1 million shortfall so there will be a “negotiation” to actually follow the laws and stop harming citizens for a payment plan / financial workout (by the way, the City is not a bank, the taxpayers are at risk). Or maybe the Rock will pay the $1 million, but then wants to continue to blast noise for miles to disrupt the lives of hundreds of families and add more boisterous nuisance events each year. Both of these “options” should be unacceptable to the City and citizens, all the citizens, but especially the hostages in the community for the past 10 years.
To be clear, there is no “negotiation” that allows citizens to be harmed or quality of life infringement. That would be a deliberate, intentional and egregious action by the City to continue this situation. The involuntary control of hundreds of family’s quality of life standards by interference by the Rock needs to cease. One media group indicated that the Rock calls certain members of the group advocating for restoration of quality of life as “terrorists”. Given that hundreds of families are being forced to tolerate harm for 10 years, that appears to be a deflection. This harm has been allowed for a decade because the City of Franklin refuses to enforce their own laws when it comes to its partnership with the Rock.
Mass killer Darrell Brooks on Monday conceded prosecutors had enough evidence to prove his guilt in another violent crime he was involved in before committing the Waukesha parade tragedy.
Brooks, 42, appeared in a Milwaukee County courtroom and pleaded no contest to intimidating a victim and second-degree recklessly endangering safety, both class-G felonies.
Brooks also faced other charges, including intimidation of a witness, bail jumping and disorderly conduct. They were dismissed, but will be read into the court record when he is sentenced Aug. 16.
The charges all stemmed from a Nov. 5 2021 incident during which prosecutors say Brooks threatened, punched and drove over the leg of an ex-girlfriend during an argument at a gas station in Milwaukee.
Sixteen days later, police say Brooks became involved in a “domestic disturbance” and then drove through the Waukesha Christmas Parade route, killing six people and seriously injuring dozens of others.
—Milwaukee Journal sentinel
It was shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday when roughly 200 eighth-grade students and staff filed into the cafeteria at Mount Horeb Middle School.
Within 15 minutes, sandwiches were left half-eaten and trays of food remained untouched.
The panic hit the cafeteria quickly. Eighth-grader Henry Loger, 14, stopped eating when he heard a friend saying, “What is Damian doing? He has a gun.” When Loger looked up, he saw his classmate, Damian Haglund, approaching the cafeteria’s front window.
Loger said when Haglund reached the window, he started “slamming the butt of a rifle against the glass.” The glass didn’t break.
Loger said he didn’t make eye contact with his classmate. He just remembers Haglund “staring ahead.”
“My heart sank,” Loger told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “It was insane. At first, it didn’t register in my mind that it was a gun. It was so big.”
The Wisconsin Department of Justice said in a statement Saturday that Haglund had brought a Ruger .177 caliber pellet rifle to the school.
When officers arrived, Haglund pointed the pellet rifle at them and did not comply with the officers’ commands to drop the weapon. Officers shot and killed him, according to the DOJ. The officers involved have been placed on administrative leave, per state policy.
Ana Kolb, 14, never saw Haglund. She sits at a lunch table farthest from the front window. She remembers hearing other students screaming. Following the lead of others, Kolb started running down a hallway, past the gym and the band room.
“There’s a shooter. You need to run,” Kolb shouted at students practicing their instruments in the hallway.
She continued running past the basketball courts and down a hill. It was then she heard the sound.
“I heard gunshots but I never looked back,” Kolb said. “I never stopped running.”
Robin Wasikowski was on the phone when she heard her doorbell start ringing, and thought it was a delivery driver.
Her doorbell kept ringing as she rushed to answer it. Two girls on rollerblades at her door told her somebody had a gun and there was a shooting.
“These two girls couldn’t even stand up on their own, they were so scared,” Wasikowski said. “I was just dragging them into my house.”
“I guess the kids are pretty traumatized,” Wasikowski said. “They were rocking back and forth saying they’re too young to die.”
She’s also been haunted by the tragedy.
“I’m having a hard time sleeping,” she said. “I just can’t get those screams out of my head.”
The investigation into last week’s incident is ongoing, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
If Donald Trump keeps trying the patience of the judge presiding over his hush money trial, the former president could wind up back in his home New York City borough of Queens — specifically the prison on Rikers Island, experts said Monday.
Judge Juan Merchan, who on Monday found that Trump once again had violated a gag order that bars him from disparaging witnesses or the jury, warned the ex-president could face jail “if necessary” for further violations.
Mike Lawlor, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven in Connecticut, said Rikers is the likeliest destination if Merchan goes that route.
Trump would immediately be placed in protective custody for his own protection, Lawlor said, meaning he would not be permitted to mingle with the rest of the prison population.
“He’d have no contact with anybody but corrections officers and members of his Secret Service detail,” Lawlor said. “The people at Rikers have lots of experience dealing with high profile prisoners, including vulnerable, elderly people like Trump.”
Also, Trump would have to go through the intake process that every prisoner goes through, including the ignominy of having corrections officers making “him get on a scale and then list his actual height and weight on the public website,” Lawlor said.
Trump has contended that he’s the victim of a two-tiered justice system that is treating him more harshly than other individuals. But the former president’s critics say it is actually the other way around — that any other criminal defendant who made the kind of public statements Trump has made would have already found themselves behind bars.
—NBC News
Anti-Israel protesters vandalized a World War I memorial in Central Park on Monday and burned an American flag after a mob of more than 1,000 marchers was blocked by cops from reaching the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the star-studded Met Gala was in full swing.
At least one America-hating vandal torched Old Glory at the site of the 107th Infantry Memorial, the base of which was defaced with graffiti reading “Gaza” in large black letters.
Others plastered the statue’s bronze soldiers with stickers of the Palestinian flag that read “Stop the Genocide. End the apartheid. Free Palestine.”
Some of the protesters climbed atop the infantrymen and waved Palestinian flags or draped them over the figures.
Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters say that protesters who take over school buildings or block others from using areas of the campus should be arrested. A Scott Rasmussen national survey conducted by RMG Research found that just 17% believe they should not.
The survey also found that 44% believe most campus protests have included threats to Jewish students and hatred toward Jews. Twenty-two percent (22%) disagree.
—NewsMax
According to the statistics, the three big wins racked up in the women’s Division III track & field events by college transgender runner Sadie Schreiner would have placed Schreiner at the bottom of the heap in the men’s divisions.
Running for the Rochester Institute of Technology on Saturday, Schreiner won the 400 meters with a 55.07 and the 200 meters at 24.14, Fox News reported.
Schreiner was also awarded a school record in the women’s category with the 200-meter time, now a Liberty League conference women’s record. It is also a record-beating Schreiner’s past 24.50 sent this season.
However, both finals would have left Schreiner in last place in the men’s categories during the weekend’s events, Fox added.
—Breitbart News
Americans say they are happy at work. Are they really?
When asked how they feel overall about their jobs, most U.S. workers are positive, with 62.7% saying they are satisfied, according to new survey data from the Conference Board, a business-research group. That is the highest job-satisfaction rating since the survey began in 1987.
Dig deeper, though, and that figure might have plateaued, the researchers said, along with a widening gap in job satisfaction between men and women. Nearly 65% of men say they are happy with their jobs compared with 60% of women. The largest gaps in satisfaction between men and women were related to financial benefits of work, such as wages, benefits and bonuses.
The American worker has a lot of reasons to feel upbeat. Unemployment has been below 4% for two years, wages finally started growing faster than inflation last summer and wealth has been bolstered by rising stock and home prices. In many white-collar jobs, employees enjoy latitude to work from home or flex their hours.
A confluence of negative factors has accompanied the positives. While inflation is down from a year ago, household budgets still feel squeezed by the cumulative rise in prices since 2021.
Workers are hungry for a promotion, raise or both. Eighty-five percent of 1,000 U.S. professionals polled are considering looking for another job, according to LinkedIn.
“In general, people are saying, ‘I’m OK because I have a job,’” said Dana Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board. “But they are worried about the future.”
—Wall Street Journal
The trust funds the Social Security Administration relies on to pay benefits are now projected to run out in 2035, one year later than previously projected, according to the annual trustees’ report released Monday.
On the projected depletion date, 83% of benefits will be payable if Congress does not act sooner to prevent that shortfall.
The Social Security trustees credited the slightly improved outlook to more people contributing to the program amid a strong economy, low unemployment and higher job and wage growth. Last year, the trustees projected the program’s funds would last through 2034, when 80% of benefits would be payable.
—CNBC
Miss USA Noelia Voigt announced Monday she is relinquishing her crown to prioritize her mental health.
Voigt, 24, who captured the Miss USA crown in September, posted on Instagram that she is resigning.
“My journey as Miss USA has been incredibly meaningful, representing Utah with pride, and later the USA at Miss Universe,” Voigt said. “Sadly, I have made the very tough decision to resign from the title of Miss USA 2023.”
The Miss USA Pageant said in a statement that it respect’s Voigt’s decision and has accepted her resignation. The pageant said it is reviewing plans for “the transition of responsibilities to a successor” and will make an announcement soon.
—NBC News
OPINION
Biden Is Coming for Your Air Conditioner.
Your next new home air conditioner could set you back $12,000 or more, with federal regulators contributing to the rising cost of staying cool.
Before 2020, buying and installing a new residential central air conditioner typically cost well under $10,000. Many jobs, including both purchase and installation, fell in the $6,000 to $7,000 range—about half the current price—says Martin Hoover, a co-owner of Atlanta-based Empire Heating & Air Conditioning.
While many factors, including rising material costs, have contributed to the increase in prices, regulations have played an outsize role. The Energy Department in January 2023 issued a new efficiency standard for residential systems. It necessitated a major redesign that increased costs by $1,000 to $1,500, according to Mr. Hoover. DOE bureaucrats say the regulation will deliver net benefits for homeowners, but it isn’t clear that consumers will ever earn back in long-term energy savings the steeper upfront costs they’re paying.
Next up is an Environmental Protection Agency regulation scheduled to take effect in 2025. It will require air conditioning equipment makers to use new refrigerants deemed sufficiently climate friendly. The only refrigerants being used by manufacturers that meet the EPA’s new green standards are classified as mildly flammable. Would-be buyers of these new units may worry about safety, but the bigger issue is cost. Sensors will need to be included in equipment operating with flammable refrigerants to detect leaks and shut off systems as necessary.
In response to questions from investors, manufacturers in earnings conference calls have estimated that the price of compliant equipment will increase at least 10%—hundreds of dollars per system.
The switch to flammable systems will also require additional technician training and extra installation steps that are likely to increase labor costs for installations and repairs. The sticker shock of a new system may induce many homeowners to maintain their old ones for longer, but there’s no escaping the growing web of costly red tape.
Even if you hold on to your older system, a refrigerant leak would require a recharge with replacement equipment made more expensive by federal limits on supplies. Such repairs cost $400 to $500 more today than a few years ago, according to Mr. Hoover.
Inflation is partially to blame: Rising salaries for service technicians, along with higher vehicle and insurance costs, have contributed.
Despite the worrisome trends, federal regulators have shown no signs of letting up, especially now that air conditioners are in the crosshairs of the Biden administration’s obsession with climate change. Team Biden seems to think that affordable air conditioning is one more thing homeowners may have to sacrifice to save the planet.
—Ben Lieberman is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY – In 1824, one of his greatest masterpieces, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, composed while he was completely deaf, premiered in Vienna. It was the composer’s first on-stage appearance in twelve years; the hall was packed. Beethoven was several measures off and still conducting when the orchestra finished.
The contralto Caroline Unger walked over and forcibly turned Beethoven around to accept the audience’s cheers and applause. According to one witness, ‘the public listened to his wonderful, gigantic creations with the most absorbed attention and broke out in jubilant applause, often during sections, and repeatedly at the end of them.’ The whole audience acclaimed him through standing ovations five times; there were handkerchiefs in the air, hats, raised hands, so that Beethoven, who could not hear the applause, could at least see the ovation gestures. The theater house had never seen such enthusiasm in applause.”
On the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting of the Franklin Common Council, from the city’s own wording:
The City faces significant budgetary concerns due to project overruns and inefficiencies in fiscal notes, budget confirmations, and project management. The City’s ongoing audit highlights the urgent need to access financial procedures and policies and implement industry-standard best practices. The identified financial policy inefficiencies and lack of project management protocols necessitate immediate action. Approving this motion will empower the Directors of Administration and Finance to address these issues, ensuring improved financial and project management for the City.
The council will consider a motion to “Authorize the Directors of Administration and Finance to Access Current Financial Procedures and Policies and Implement Industry Standard Best Practices and Project Management Protocols.”
The Director of Administration for the city is Kelly Hersh who prior to being selected by Mayor John Nelson had ZERO experience in municipal government. She was a perfect choice for Nelson since before being elected mayor he did absolutely nothing in his years on the Franklin Common Council. The only claim to fame Hersh had to be Nelson’s nominee was she attended council meetings to yell insults at former Mayor Steve Olson. You can bet Nelson loved that.
I worked for the WI State Senate for 15 years that included collaborating with the state’s Legislative Audit Bureau, considered to be the best auditors in the entire country. Asking Hersh to perform what the above motion requests is like going to a chiropractor when you have a toothache.
To borrow a quote from ESPN’s Chris Berman, the current city administration in Franklin aided by a do-nothing common council is “fumblin’ bumblin’ stumblin’.”
Today’s read is from Scott Walker, president of Young America’s Foundation and the 45th governor of Wisconsin:
Arrest them. Remove them. Expel them.
What we see happening on college campuses across the country is not about free speech. The destruction of property is not about free speech. Violence against others is not about free speech. Violations of the law are not about free speech.
There must be consequences for the disruptive, violent and illegal actions of radical students on college campuses. Law enforcement officers must arrest them. They must be removed from campus so law-abiding students can safely resume their education. College administrators must expel those who were warned yet continued to illegally occupy campus space and, in some cases, structures.
Cheers to the campus, municipal, county and state law enforcement officers who are arresting those who are violating the law. Cheers to the fraternity members who help protect the American flag. Cheers to the Jewish students who would not be deterred by the mobs.
Cheers, too, to the few campus administrators who took aggressive action against the nonsense. The first to come to mind are from the University of Florida. A statement from the school’s Division of Student Life said that the following were allowable activities: “Speech — Expressing viewpoints — Holding signs in hands.” This seems reasonable to me.
The university’s memo went on to say that the following were prohibited items and activities: “No amplified sound — no demonstrations inside buildings — no littering — no camping — no sleeping — no unmanned signs — no blocking egress — no building structures — no camping (including tents, sleeping bags, etc.) — no disruption — no threats — no violence — no weapons, etc.” It seems like the grown-ups are in charge of this institution.
Real consequences should come from violating the policies as they said that they would ban anyone who was arrested from campus for three years and suspend any students. Employees and professors who were arrested should be fired. As arrests were made this week, the university administration released a statement saying: “The University of Florida is not a daycare, and we do not treat protesters like children. They knew the rules, they broke the rules, and they’ll face the consequences.”
As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said: “You have a right to support or not support Israel. That’s the First Amendment. You don’t have a right to pitch a tent in the middle of campus and commandeer some of the property.”
While Florida officials led the way, others started to wise up. Arrests were made on Wednesday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Earlier in the week, I called attention to the fact that state law prohibits unauthorized camping on campus property. After extensive pressure, the police came in and took the occupiers away while tearing down the tents.
At the same time, students and staff with Young America’s Foundation traveled to Columbia University, Harvard University and other campuses to put up American and Israeli flags to draw attention to the hostages taken by Hamas last Oct. 7. Sadly, the plight of those violently taken more than six months ago has been largely forgotten by most corporate media outlets.
In addition, the media elites have created a false narrative that suggests that college students overwhelmingly side with Hamas. A new Harvard CAPS-Harris poll shows that 80% of registered voters support Israel in the war, while 20% side with Hamas.
While older voters are more likely to support Israel than younger respondents, it is interesting to note that 57% of voters 18 to 24 support Israel over Hamas. This is a clear sign that the views of younger people overall are not aligned with those of the radicals on campus.
We’ve seen this for years with our work at Young America’s Foundation. We provide more campus lectures than any other conservative organization, yet college administrators and student government officers consistently try to block our speakers from appearing on campus.
Ironically, our students take the time to become officially recognized organizations on campus, fill out the required paperwork, reserve auditoriums or gymnasiums, and follow other requirements. Yet they are the ones who are routinely given pushback.
In contrast, many administrators are neutral or even supportive of the radical organizers in the encampments even though they are clearly violating university rules and state law. As the saying goes, if it were not for double standards, the left would have no standards at all.
At the University of California, Los Angeles, our students filed the necessary paperwork to bring Robert Spencer, founder and director of Jihad Watch, to campus for a lecture. Our UCLA chair was told their event might not happen unless the encampments on campus are gone.
Even worse, the same radicals who support terrorists are now blocking Jewish students from setting foot on campus. This is just as bad as the racists who once sought to block Black children from attending school in the 1960s.
This is not about free speech. What so many radicals are doing is against the law. Arrest them, remove them and expel them. There must be consequences for these illegal acts.
President Joe Biden’s visit to Racine County on Wednesday will highlight a massive increase in the scale of Microsoft’s data center development in Mount Pleasant.
Microsoft has begun construction of its first data center building in the village’s Wisconsin Innovation Park and has pledged a minimum value of $1 billion on the first phase of the development.
That investment is “just the tip of the iceberg” for Microsoft’s involvement in Racine County, a source said Friday.
Wednesday’s announcement is expected to be an expansion that’s multiple times larger and create far more jobs than what has to date been made public about Microsoft’s data center plan.
—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A student who was killed by police outside a Wisconsin school pointed a pellet rifle at officers and had refused to drop the weapon, authorities said Saturday.
The state Department of Justice released few other details, three days after the shooting at Mount Horeb Middle School in Mount Horeb, 25 miles west of Madison.
The student, whose name and age still have not been officially released, did not get into the school. No one else was physically injured.
Police were called around 11 a.m. (Wednesday) day after a caller said someone with a backpack and long gun was moving toward the school.
“Officers directed the subject to drop the weapon, but the subject did not comply,” the Department of Justice said Saturday. “The subject pointed the weapon at the officers, after which law enforcement discharged their firearms, striking the subject. Lifesaving measures were deployed but the subject died on scene.”
The weapon was described as a Ruger .177-caliber pellet rifle. The state said police at the scene were wearing body cameras.
—Associated Press
Most nursing homes in Wisconsin will need to hire more nursing aides to meet minimum staffing requirements newly announced by the federal government, a mandate that some nursing homes worry they will struggle to meet amid staffing challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The requirements, which will be phased in over the next few years, are the first time the federal government has mandated a minimum staffing standard for nursing homes, a move that resident advocates have been urging for decades as mounting evidence showed a close link between staffing levels and quality of care for residents.
Under the requirements, nursing homes will be required to provide staffing that, at a minimum, is equivalent to nearly 3.5 daily hours of care per resident. The change comes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed chronic understaffing at many nursing homes that contributed to widespread outbreaks and deaths from COVID-19. It was announced last month by Vice President Kamala Harris.
But some Wisconsin nursing homes and their trade groups are worried they won’t be able to find the nurses and nursing aides required to meet the new requirements, especially as nursing home employment continues to lag behind pre-pandemic levels.
—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Dozens of federal judges failed to fully disclose free luxury travel to judicial conferences around the world, as required by internal judiciary rules and federal ethics law, an NPR investigation has found. As a result, the public remained in the dark about potential conflicts of interest for some of the United States’ top legal officials.
Federal judges — occasionally with family members or even their dog in tow — traveled to luxury resorts in locations as far-flung as London; Palm Beach, Fla.; Bar Harbor, Maine; and the outskirts of Yellowstone National Park for weeklong seminars. The judges received free rooms, free meals and free money toward travel expenses, together worth a few thousand dollars.
For almost two decades, the federal judiciary has recognized that the combination of apparent luxury and ideological content can present the appearance of undue influence on the courts. In response, the judiciary has required more transparency in the form of public disclosure.
An NPR investigation found that the disclosure systems often fail to give the public timely information about the outside benefits that judges receive and from whom.
As a result, judicial ethics experts say, people with cases before these judges lack important information about a judge’s potential biases. That information, if received in time, could be used to request that a judge recuse from a particular case.
—NPR
A driver died after a vehicle crashed into an outer perimeter gate of the White House complex, and the incident late Saturday was being investigated as a traffic crash, police said. President Joe Biden was spending the weekend in Delaware, and the Secret Service said there was no threat to the White House.
The male driver, who was not immediately identified, was found dead in the vehicle following the crash shortly before 10:30 p.m., according to a Secret Service statement.
The Metropolitan Police Department said the vehicle crashed into a security barrier at the intersection of 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Police were called to the scene at 10:46 p.m. and said one adult male was pronounced dead from the crash into a security barrier around the complex.
The Secret Service and police will continue to investigate.
—Associated Press
The Democratic Party is bracing for massive protests during the Democratic National Committee convention in Chicago in August, reminiscent of the chaos of the 1968 convention.
Fears of a repeat of the infamous convention, which saw hundreds arrested, have been thrown around as the Israel-Hamas war continues and as massive campus protests that have paralyzed several universities have further illustrated what may be in store for the Chicago DNC convention in August.
“This last week has taken the demonstrations to a different level,” former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff William Daley told the Washington Post. “It portends that you have the potential for big demonstrations. Whether they get violent — that’s more imaginable today than it was a year ago.”
Despite his concerns, he was hostile to mere suggestions that August could see a repeat of 1968.
“To analogize what’s going on in the country today with 1968 is ridiculous,” Daley, who attended the convention, said. “Only people who weren’t alive in ’68 have that idiotic perception.”
—Washington Examiner
Nearly half of the Marine Corps’ barracks — about 49% — were found to have problems following a force-wide inspection earlier this year, but only a tiny fraction of those issues such as mold stemming from poor ventilation, temperature and moisture control resulted in Marines being moved, service officials said.
Less than 1% were considered “non-mission capable,” requiring 118 Marines to be moved from a total of 97 rooms. The rest of the barracks — the other half — had “no issues, no discrepancies,” said Maj. Gen. David Maxwell, head of Marine Corps Installations Command, or MCICOM.
The inspection took place between February and March, a quick time frame for a herculean task that involved looking at hundreds of barracks buildings and roughly 60,000 rooms around the world. It was meant to better understand the state of the barracks, which have come under scrutiny in recent years for having dismal conditions across the military, and to make sure that leaders addressed immediate health and safety concerns for Marines who live in them.
Ventilation, to include heating and cooling systems; water issues; and mold were primary factors that led to more than 100 Marines being relocated from their barracks rooms. Other issues were found in nearly half of the barracks, too, but were not severe enough to warrant relocation, officials said.
One sergeant out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, told a panel at the Modern Day Marine Expo in Washington, D.C. that she and other Marines she knew had trouble making the barracks into a comfortable living place after moving from building to building so many times, adding that it’s gotten to the point where she and others “don’t unpack anymore.”
Much of the middle and southern part of the country is bracing for a rare dual-emergence of two gigantic cicada broods, Brood XIX and Brood XIII, some which have already been spotted by people in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky and Missouri.
While some fear or dread the insect invasion, scientists say it’s a fascinating, spectacular occurrence that shows the great dance of nature at its most exceptional.
The two broods appear at different intervals: every 13 and every 17 years and overlap between them is rare. Cicadas are short-lived and will only be around for about six weeks. And they only emerge from underground when the surface temperatures reach 64 degrees, which is happening now.
“They’re sort of goofy. They’re not super great flyers and they’re kind of awkward when they land. They don’t bite, they’re not poisonous. If your pet eats one it’s not going to harm them. They’re totally harmless to humans and domestic animals,” said Floyd Shockley, co-lead of the entomology department at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.
Shockley said the next few weeks will be “a natural phenomenon that other people in the world would be jealous to see.”
—USA TODAY
Do you have a special teacher or educator who has been important in your life? This is the week to thank them! The first week of May each year is National Teacher Appreciation Week, and the Tuesday of that week is National Teacher Day. The National Educators Association sets this aside as “a day for honoring teachers and recognizing the lasting contributions they make to our lives.”
The origin of this day goes back to 1944, when political and educational leaders began talking about the need for a day to honor teachers. In 1953, Eleanor Roosevelt pushed Congress to formally proclaim a National Teacher’s Day, and in 1980, it finally became official.
—eSpired
OPINION
Former President Donald Trump is getting dragged through the courts via the “lawfare” charges manufactured against him — and seemingly millions of liberals and Democrats are ecstatic. Chaos, turmoil and pain such as this can feel exhilarating when it’s the other side’s ox being gored.
But what happens if, in but a few short months, it is their ox being gored? Or they themselves?
Will they cheer? Will they take to the streets in celebration? Of course not. They will scream out their innocence as they label the attacks “partisan” while demanding impartial justice.
Unhinged partisan politics is quickly propelling our nation down the path of the normalization of the weaponization of law to take out a political opponent — a path that is destructive to all.
New York Times columnist David Brooks said the quiet part out loud recently while on left-of-center “PBS Newshour”: “if you look at democracies in decline, then it is a pattern that people in office use their power to indict and criminalize and throw in jail the people who were in office before them of the opposing party. And so we are a nation, democracy in decline.”
While he may have been trying to project such unethical and illegal behavior onto Trump and the Republicans, it perfectly defines what the Democrats are now trying to do to Trump.
As I write this, the Biden White House, the Democratic National Committee, Democratic politicians, most of the mainstream media, most of academia and most of Hollywood seem thrilled that Democratic district attorneys, attorney generals, special counsels and judges such as Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, Fani Willis, Jack Smith, Arthur F. Engoron and Juan Merchan are seemingly working as one to bankrupt Trump, keep him off ballots, wound his campaign — or send him to prison.
But what if that poisonous partisan shoe is soon switched from a Republican foot to a Democratic one? Even with the endless lawfare being waged against Trump, more and more people are anticipating that he will be the next president of the United States. Then what?
There has already been open speculation by conservative and Republican pundits that red state attorneys general, district attorneys and prosecutors should employ the exact same tactics the Democrats are using to go after Trump to investigate Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama and President Biden.
Many on the right believe former President Obama has a very interesting history in Chicago; that Hillary Clinton has a very interesting history with hard drives; that Biden has a very interesting history in Ukraine and China.
Especially under a GOP administration, how easy would it be for Republicans to either file charges against Clinton, Obama and Biden, or to “reinterpret the law” to rule against them?
As counterintuitive or sacrilegious as it may seem to most on the left, Democrats need to defend Trump against this lawfare so they can protect themselves in the near future.
So here’s a crazy idea. Instead of creating a Frankenstein lawfare monster that will surely turn against them, why don’t the Democrats simply try to beat Trump fair and square at the ballot box? A very logical — and American — concept, which acclaimed ESPN sportscaster Stephen A. Smith recently articulated on his talk show:
“To my liberal friends out there, all you’re doing is showing that you’re scared you can’t beat [Trump] on the issues and the merits … And so for me, I find myself ashamed of the Democratic Party for their lack of a competitive fervor …You had since 2016 to come up with somebody else, and you still can’t do it? That is pathetic. It is pathetic. And there is no excuse for it whatsoever … tens of millions of people see what extent the other side is willing to go through just to keep him out of office because they can’t beat him on their own merits.”
Trust the will of the American people. Why does that option frighten them so?
—-Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY – In 1937, the infamous Hindenburg disaster occurred as the hot air balloon-based dirigible attempted to land in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Built as the most luxurious and largest flying vessel of its time, the Hindenburg was docking when a small gas leak was noticed. Unfortunately, before anyone could do anything about it, the nearly 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen gas used to float the Hindenburg exploded in a ball of flame.
People on board the vessel began desperately trying to escape the Hindenburg, with most jumping to try and catch the landing cables hanging in the air. Most of these passengers died in the process. Other people simply tried to jump to the ground, but it was at such a distance that most broke their legs as they fell. In all, out of the nearly 100 passengers only 56 managed to make it out alive.
Announcer Herbert Morrison gave a harrowing live account of the explosion to radio listeners as it occurred saying, “It’s burst into flames. This is terrible . . . it’s burning, bursting into flames, and is falling . . . oh, the humanity.”
A great story a couple of months ago in The Epoch Times featured “America’s Truck,” a huge semi-trailer that salutes our military and first responders.
I contacted the truck’s owner Brad Chase to see if the amazing vehicle would ever roll into Wisconsin. Chase sent me a brief message on Thursday night informing with no fanfare that he was refueling in Hixton, WI, a village of 455 in Jackson County.
That was it. No word on the truck’s schedule. But you never know where or when it’ll turn up. It sure would be worth seeing.
‘I Need to Give Something Back’: Truck Driver Wraps Semi in Awesome Ultra-Patriotic American Mural
By Michael Wing The Epoch Times March 20, 2024
(Courtesy of Forged By Fire)
America’s Truck has been rolling since former President Donald Trump was voted into office in 2016, parking its wheels in the National Mall in Washington for the first time that same autumn.
A glorious American rapture on wheels—licked by fire and draped in stars and stripes—best describes this big rig semi-trailer truck owned by Brad Chase, 66, a trucker from Billings, Montana.
He arrived and jaws dropped. Supporters of President Trump took the opportunity to do a walk around and touch and marvel at Chase’s masterpiece. Since then, he and his 18-wheeler, named “Forged by Fire,” have been lured around the country to attend patriotic events.
In 2019, Mr. Chase, a former firefighter who hung his hat after 9/11, rolled down Interstate 75 with a motorcade of 60 Jeeps carrying Gold Star families. The path was all clear. A police escort on motorcycles held traffic at bay. All highway entrances and exits were blocked in a show of respect for the families as they were ushered to Cincinnati’s stadium on a red carpet. At the ballgame, the Leap Frogs—a precision parachute team of Navy SEALs—would descend into the stadium to great fanfare.
A crack in his voice was heard as Mr. Chase spoke to The Epoch Times, recalling the moment.
“Law enforcement shut down the interstate so that we could take these people up the interstate without any problems up to the ballgame,” he said, “honoring these people.”
Mr. Chase has a brother who served on the USS Forrestal and a cousin in the Navy SEALs. His dad was a forest ranger, whom he fought wildland fires with until 1977 while living in Minnesota; afterward, he became a full-time firefighter for a decade longer.
“I retired from fire service, I still needed something to give,” he said. “You just don’t stop being a policeman, you just don’t stop being a firefighter … and I needed to give something back.”
Finding new purpose wasn’t difficult for Mr. Chase, as he saw that exactly what he was seeking had already been done. Semitrucks could be wrapped in fully customizable artwork, and the designer he had his sights on, Justin Pasky, worked for a company in Minnesota.
They touched base, and Mr. Chase soon realized how difficult working with artists could be. After a few months of bugging Mr. Pasky, they finally came together to work on a wrap.
And so began an ongoing endeavor for the pair, who didn’t always see eye to eye, to bring Mr. Chase’s key concepts of military, emergency medical services, police, and firefighters together on a grand scheme to tell America’s story—from George Washington Crossing the Delaware to the war in Afghanistan—and have one whole side engulfed in flames, honoring firefighters. There would be freedom given to the artist. Mr. Chase only had three rules:
“First, we’re going to agree on a price; second, no skull and crossbones; and third, simple, I get the final say.”
Fortunately, getting to work on a wrap that had guns was a rarity for Mr. Pasky, who tackled it with relish. There was back and forth between the artist and driver for four months, as Mr. Chase sent pictures to him while on the road. While Mr. Pasky had a story to tell, so did Mr. Chase, though they both knew what he wanted. In the end, though, it all came together in the most glorious and harmonious way, as if they both somehow lost control of the project and a higher power took over.
“Finally, I stopped in at his place of business, we sat down, and we finally finalized it,” he said. “It was done and there was no more questions, both of us [were] satisfied with what it said.”
At that moment, he told Mr. Pasky, “Wow! It has everything, when did we lose control?”
“Looking back at it, it was like we’re being guided by another hand,“ Mr. Chase told The Epoch Times. ”I was just like, ‘I think God had a play in this.’”
For the past six years, Mr. Chase has continued long hauling loads across the country, but more and more he has been called to bring his truck—dubbed America’s Truck by some—to patriotic events. Wherever he goes, people see its grandeur, and it’s become a magnet for events organized by the likes of Blue Skies and the Red Knights.
So many people are moved by America’s 18-wheeler that it’s given Mr. Chase new purpose in life. He’s witnessed Vietnam vets stop by and fall to pieces. “They just break up, they just completely break down,” the driver said, noting that his new mission got him “out of bed.”
“The project gave me something to do, to look forward to,” he said.
He said he wants to help people suffering from PTSD, wounded warriors, and servicemen returning home with illness from their deployment.
Once hauling loads from ocean to ocean, Mr. Chase says he’s “slowing down a bit now.” Yet he continues to dream big about his next motorized artistic addition: a new state-of-the-art wrap for his semi with a reflective surface that makes it light up at night.
This Just In... From Franklin, WI 