PIZZA TURNOVER, LATEST ON ART FELONS

Dear Reader,

It has taken my fingers a few hours to warm up after spending the morning down in the Valley where Palermo Villa Pizza was getting groundbroken, but I have regained enough control of certain of my extremities to dash off this missive to you.

Today I make a note about the board of directors of the East Town Association, and wonder why a certain art dealer's name remains on the association’s website.

Then I keep you up-to-date with plans for next Monday’s sentencing of yet a different Milwaukee art dealer, and then we go to the Valley for the groundbreaking. I end with a reminder to change the batteries in your smoke detector, with a special message from the President of the Fire Fighters’ Union, Greg Gracz.

We also hear from our Madison correspondent, Paul Snyder, reporting on an international symposium of deer - automobile collision experts who will convene there, and the havoc on our highways wrought by these numerous ruminant mammals -- or is it by us?.

Send me your messages, etc., and give me a call, since I’m spending much more time indoors these days.

Michael Horne

Editor / Publisher

horne@milwaukeeworld.com

LORD ON BOARD?

East Town Association says Felon is “On Leave”

The East Town Association still shows convicted felon and art dealer Michael H. Lord as a member of its Board of Directors on its website.

But, according to E. Kate Mohle, the Executive Director of the neighborhood association, “Michael Lord is currently taking a leave of absence from the board of directors of the East Town Association.”

This could be quite a lengthy absence if he does not prevail in his current legal troubles in circuit court involving a Matisse drawing Lord never paid for that he sold to Bud Selig. A civil judgment in that case has already been entered; a criminal case is pending.

The East Town Association should either acknowledge Leave of Absence as a status of board membership, and recognize Lord's position as such (it has ex-officio as a membership status) or it should perhaps examine whether its bylaws might need revision.–Michael Horne

KAROS SENTENCING MONDAY

Whitefish Bay art dealer Marilyn Karos is expected to be sentenced in Federal Court on Monday, October 31^st, at 10:30 a.m. in the court of Hon. Charles Clevert for corruptly endeavoring to “influence, obstruct and impede the due administration of justice in the case of Richard O’Hara v. United States.

O’Hara had been convicted on March 19, 2001 of interstate travel in aid of racketeering to commit extortion and conspiracy to possess stolen property and sentenced to ten years in prison. Karos was a co-defendant in that case and pled guilty to possession of stolen property, to wit: antique armillary spheres stolen from the Rome Observatory in Italy. A Chicago dealer named James F. Kosi, an associate of Karos and her lover O’Hara testified for the government during O’Hara’s trial.

In 2004 Karos traveled to Chicago on several occasions to entice Kosi to sign a false affidavit to help O’Hara get out of prison, and met with him in Milwaukee on July 20, 2004, offering him $56,000 to sign the false affidavit, giving him $2,100 on the spot. The Feds, by pre-agreement were listening in and Kosi signed the document. The false affidavit was submitted along with O’Hara’s petition for rehearing on September 20, 2004, and within three days, the U.S. Attorney’s office filed an emergency submission saying the affidavit was false and that the petition be denied, which it was on September 27^th, 2004, leading to Karos’ present predicament.

The maximum term for the offense is ten years and $250,000; a restitution order may be entered by the court.

A plea agreement negotiated for Karos by her attorney Stephen M. Glynn in April 2005 calls for no jail time, a fine of $2,100 (interestingly, the exact amount Karos was out of pocket from the Kosi downpayment, presumably seized by the government) and a special assessment of $100.

We will see Monday if the judge will go along with the lenient sentence or if there might be some surprises awaiting Marilyn Karos when she arrives in the Federal Building. – Michael Horne

PALERMO’S BREAKS GROUND

The long saga of the former Milwaukee Road shop property in the Menomonee Valley entered an exciting and different phase Monday, October 24^th, when ground was broken for the first development on the reclaimed brownfields.

Palermo Villa Inc., the nation’s largest largest private label pizza manufacturer, broke ground on its new corporate headquarters just west of the 35^th Street Viaduct on a chilly October morning.

The leaden skies did nothing to diminish the brilliance of the nine golden shovels lined up at a pile of sand dumped on the property for the ceremonial soil-turning. Among those handling the tools were Governor Jim Doyle, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (who lost the gubernatorial primary to Doyle) and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, who might be on the way to losing his own gubernatorial primary. They were joined by Giacomo Fallucca, President and CEO of Palermo Villa Inc., and his family, along with Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority Executive Director Antonio Riley and Laura Bray, executive director of the Menomomee Valley Partners. Alderman Michael Murphy acted as master of ceremonies.

It was a moment of pure democracy, where the attendees were sheltered from the winds by a tent, while the politicians were out in the elements freezing their heads off, most notably in the instances of Doyle and Riley who have little in the way of natural cranial covering, and had nothing in the way of hats.

The white tent did nothing to shelter the attendees from the winds of the politicians’ speeches.

Riley mentioned that Governor Doyle had inherited a deficit from the previous administration, yet he cleared it up in just a year. The governor usually says this line himself. Riley told the crowd, “we can talk all we want but we have to get this economy growing.”

Doyle told the Fallucca family, “when my two boys were teens, about one quarter of the Doyle household income went to your family each year. … Pizza is the perfect food.” He added that the development of the Menomonee River Valley as an industrial zone will have “tremendous value and potential to be a true hub of economic activity.” The governor also announced the award of $22 million in new market tax credits for Palermo’s 150,000 square foot project, a rendering of which was mounted behind the podium.

That image, according to Fallucca, will ‘be reminiscent of a 16^th Century Italian Villa and will consist of corporate offices, meeting areas, a retail store, outdoor piazza and an Italian-style pizzeria café for patrons to enjoy.”

Yes, one can so readily imagine a 16^th Century Italian Villa rising from the Menomonee Valley. Villa Terrace, you’ve got nothing on this project!

The governor also handed out a Wisconsin Department of Commerce $750,000 loan (Mary Burke was nowhere to be seen) and mentioned the financial cooperation of the City and the Milwaukee Economic Development Corporation.

He also told the audience that 150 jobs will be on-site, with full health benefits. Eighty-five of those jobs will be transferred from Illinois. The Palermo Villa firm distributes to 2,000 stores, he said.

Ald. Murphy said, “Palermo’s may not be the whole pie, but it is the first and biggest piece,” of the Valley’s redevelopment.

Mayor Barrett said it was “an honor to be at the Fallucca family reunion. Thanks for locating this facility within seven minutes of my home. If you want employees, put your facility where employees live.”

He added that three other sites west of 35^th street would be on the market soon. He also indicated that with one teenager and others on the way, the Barrett family will, like the Doyle family, be on a pizza binge for some years to come.

Scott Walker said “I am not Italian by blood, but I am by marriage, and more importantly, by diet.”

Laura Bray of the Menomonee Valley Partners said there are more workers within three miles of the site than anywhere in Wisconsin. She says she has 13 acres for sale right now, and will have seventy acres to market eventually. She promises the reopening of a “historic tunnel,” on the site.

While the event went on, giant earth moving equipment raised the level of the nearby brownfields some 20 feet from reclaimed freeway soil. Huge boulders were unloaded from trucks to aid in the “innovative groundwater management” of the site, and the Henry Aaron trail was also under construction.

Among the attendees were Sen. Tim Carpenter and Ald. James Witkowiak, with a brace on his left foot. He said he twisted his ankle. Margaret Henningsen was there, representing Legacy Bank which has invested a chunk of change in the project. She says she simply loves the new Milwaukee Public Market downtown. – Michael Horne

Milwaukeeworld.com update: October 25th, 2005: The $22 million in New Markets Tax Credits announced by the governor has not made the newspaper. The Democrats did put out a press release on this infusion of funds which you can find here: http://www.wisdems.org/ht/display/ReleaseDetails/i/690329

CHECK THOSE BATTERIES

This is the season when we are to replace the batteries in our smoke detectors. I moved into a place a couple of months ago and was alarmed to find there were no detectors. (Maybe the previous tenant took them.) Of course, I set a couple up immediately, concerned in particular because another tenant of my building has mobility problems.

I ran across Greg Gracz, the president of the Firefighters union and told him that tale. He said that was an example of why whe was opposed to the proposed staff cuts planned for the Fire Department in the mayor’s new budget.

Fire fighters used to be sent out in the neighborhoods specifically to check for places where the elderly or the infirm lacked working detectors, and would replace batteries, or install new ones for free. “With the staff cuts, we can’t send officers out to check for smoke alarms anymore,” he said. – Michael Horne

FROM BREW CITY TO CAPITAL CITY

“It’s like something in the headlights… oooh, tip of my tongue…”

By Paul Snyder

I suppose I should make good note of the fact that the entire desk I concoct this entry to MilwaukeeWorld on is made of wood and offers considerable space for knocking. Cue the intro: While driving, I have never hit a deer or so much as seen one bound onto any road space in front of me.

Knock, knock.

Logical, you might assume, considering I spent four years living in Milwaukee. You don’t (or shouldn’t) see them causing exasperated braking on Wells Street. Now I live in Madison, the state’s 2^nd largest city, and suffice to say, they’re not nibbling on the Capitol lawn anymore than they’re prancing around the Third Ward. And I’ve made more than my fair share of trips between the two cities on the I-94 thoroughfare with absolutely no doe-eyed interruption.

But there is the family’s cabin up in the Northwoods. I also make frequent runs up there during the summer months… I’ve nearly taken out a turkey and a bear, but though I have seen them in the wooded areas to the sides of the roads, deer have never bolted in front of my (admittedly) high-speed races to the lake. My father has hit a couple, but, the reality remains only the stuff of legends for yours truly.

Now in no way am I saying that because I’ve never seen one it’s not a problem, but perhaps I underestimated the havoc deer actually wreak in this state until the state Department of Transportation announced a summit of an international panel of experts (that’s right, they’re calling in the big guns from Canada and Japan, as well as the rest of the country) to ponder the deer-crash problem the state is having.

By the numbers, Wisconsin police responded to 19,846 deer crashes in 2004. That works out to roughly 55 a day. Shocking enough in itself, the fuzz figures it’s a dramatically underestimated number considering that more than 48,000 deer carcasses were removed from state highways last year.

So Madison – which is part of Dane County – which claimed nearly 1,000 of the 19,846 crashes in 2004 – on October 24 and 25 is holding The Deer-Vehicle Crash Reduction Meeting. One can only imagine what two-days in this international think tank will produce… personally I think it’s the strongest argument yet for flying cars. After all, Back to the Future II gave us a deadline of 2015 for traffic jams in the sky, and we’re coming down to under a decade now…

Whatever it is, let’s hope they profoundly expound upon the pointers they’ve used to announce this international summit. I’m still wondering if they pulled these from my 10^th grade driver’s ed book:

• Watch out between dusk and dawn. Many accidents occur during the low-light or dark hours between dusk and dawn, when deer move between daytime bedding sites and evening feeding areas.
• Expect deer at crossing signs. The signs identify dangerous stretches. Slow down and scan the sides of the road and ditches for animals. Watch for movement or reflection from their eyes.
• Drive defensively. If you see deer near the road, slow down. Deer may dart in front of you, and if there is one deer, there are probably more nearby.

And just incase you thought Chris Farley and David Spade were holding truths to be self-evident in their ultra-serious 1995 drama, Tommy Boy, WisDOT wants to make sure you remember that, fine acting aside, it’s still a lot of Hollywood surmising…

• If you hit a deer, stay away from it even if it appears to be dead. A stunned animal can regain consciousness and seriously injure a human. Move your vehicle off the road and call law enforcement for help. Never put the deer in your car or truck.

And they really lined themselves up for some PETA strife with this one:

• Hit the deer, not something else. Hit the brakes, but don't swerve, which can cause you to lose control or hit another vehicle. Striking a deer is much safer than colliding with another car or a tree.

As the holiday season approaches and you have to drive around the state to see relatives take some care out there… But if you should be involved in one of the 2005 deer-vehicle statistics from here on out, consider giving WisDOT a call and imploring, “I thought you were supposed to figure this out!”