FLAGS FLY HIGH DESPITE PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION

KING FLAG PROCLAMATION IGNORED

By Michael Horne

February 7^th 2006, 1 p.m.

The enforcement of the Presidential Proclamation calling for flags to be flown at half-staff today, February 7^th, 2006, in honor of Coretta Scott King has been spotty, at best, from those flags visible from the milwaukeeworld.com vantage point high above the city's downtown.

As of noon, Marquette University, the Wisconsin Center District, the Milwaukee County Courthouse, Rockwell Automation and the Wisconsin Club all had their flags at half-staff.

However, public buildings including the Police Administration Building, City Hall, the Milwaukee Public Museum and the Milwaukee Public Library continue to fly the flags at the tops of their respective poles. [Update --2:15 p.m. The Milwaukee Public Library has lowered its flag. --Ed.]

The flags also fly high today at private buildings including the Milwaukee Center, the Hyatt Regency Hotel and the Catholic Knights building.

The presidential proclamation, reprinted below, asks that flags be flown at half staff until sundown – so there is still time for the parties above to remedy their lack of respect to the memory of a prominent American.

A Proclamation by the President: Death of Coretta Scott King A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

Photo Essay: Remembering Coretta Scott King

As a mark of respect for the memory of Coretta Scott King, I hereby order, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, that on February 7, 2006, the day of her interment, the flag of the United States shall be flown at half staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset on such day. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same period at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this sixth day of February, in the year of our Lord two thousand six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirtieth.

GEORGE W. BUSH

LOST PASSIONS

Over a year ago, Milwaukeeworld.com told you that Passions Night Club, 200 E. Washington Street, was owned by Rep. Leon Young and his brother. Passions, you learned, had a long history as a lesbian bar, and I was wondering what kind of place it would be under its new owners.
It didn't take long to find out -- within days of my posting, there was a shooting at the bar, and, a couple of months later, another shooting.
This was too much for the neighbors and for Alderman Jim Witkowiak, who pressed in the Licenses committee, which he heads, to see that the bar be closed down.
Today, the Common Council was spared the agony of voting on the issue when Passions voluntarily surrendered its license.
During the committee hearings, representatives for Passions tried to portray the tavern as simply one of many in the neighborhood, and had the audacity to suggest the neighborhood problems there due to activities in area gay bars, most of which, like the Triangle and the Bootcamp, have been in the area for decades without imperiling the lives of their customers with gunfire.
I'm not sorry to see Passions go, and hope Rep. Young will not have lost too much money on this neighborhood disgrace. Maybe he can go back to work now as an assemblyman.
--Michael Horne

WEALTHY MEQUON SCHOOLS BEG FOR $

OLD SCHOOL DAYS

MEQUON REACHES OUT TO ALUMS JUST IN TIME FOR REFERENDUM

Thank goodness the junk mail settings at milwaukeeworld.com do not filter out messages from The Mequon-Thiensville School District School Board, otherwise I would not have received a recent alumni newsletter, my first ever, from Homestead High School, where I was a graduate of the class of 1971.

According to Dennis Krause, the Community Resource Director of what is certainly among the state’s wealthiest school districts, the newsletter “is another step in building an alumni community based on information from the most recent Homestead Alumni Directory.”

It is also an excellent way for the school district to remind former Highlanders that there is a referendum on the ballot in Mequon and Thiensville on February 21^st.

In the referendum, the prosperous burghers of Mequon-Thiensville will be asked to

“exceed the state’s revenue limits by $7.5 million over the next three years. District officials estimate a shortfall of $6.5 million over the next three years if the referendum does not pass. That would lead to severe budget cuts.”

Among the cuts – loss of teachers, loss of building maintenance funds (which will always cost more if deferred) and other draconian measures.

It just doesn’t seem fair that the wealthiest among us should have to suffer just because the poor and middle classes are having a hard time paying their taxes! Why send your kid to a good school district, if the district can’t spend its money to provide a good school?

Dennis Krause, the community resource director, has lived in Thiensville for 15 years, and many remember him from his days on the television news. His position is paid for by private funds.

For more information on the referendum, go to http://www.mtsd.k12.wi.us/MTSD/District/board-information/referendum/default.html

Michael Horne

MIDWIFERY BILL PASSES BOTH HOUSES

MIDWIFERY UPDATE

The Wisconsin Senate passed SB477 Tuesday, January 31^st, 2006 by a vote of 29 – 4. The bill, which we have previously written about here, provides for regulation of midwives in Wisconsin who are not also licensed nurses, and was promoted by Katie Prown, PhD., of Fox Point. The companion bill in the assembly, AB709, was heard the same day and sent on to the governor for his signature, which Prown expects to be forthcoming. According to Prown, “the Governor’s spokesperson indicated the Governor recognized the need for regulating midwifery in Wisconsin.”

She said the final days of lobbying on the bill were hectic, with a number of representatives of the medical establishment fighting its passage, including the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians, of Thiensville, of all places.

Prown said her group was able to secure its legislative goals with an expenditure of under $3,000, proving to her that “grassroots power” still has the ability to sway the legislature in Wisconsin, just when you thought all hope was lost.

The midwifery bill was good news to Sonya Jongsma Knauss, of MKE, the free weekly publication of Journal Communications, Inc. She and husband Dan plan to use the services of a midwife for the home birthing of their upcoming child, their fourth, which is on the way.

-- Michael Horne

SEMPER FIDELIS -- OMEGBU AMUSES

SEMPER FIDELIS

Omegbu Always Amuses

By Michael Horne

As I posted last Friday, Fidelis L. Omegbu, an attempted candidate for Milwaukee County Executive in 2002, filed suit in U. S. District Court last September asking for damages since he was not allowed on the ballot. He is asking for $20 million in damages from the taxpayers in his suit, a copy of which was sent to me by a kind reader.

I thought I would share some of Omegbu’s complaints with you so that you might make up your own mind as to the merits of his case, and to the character of a man who could have been our county executive.

Omegbu begins by filing his case against defendants “Milwaukee County District Attorney Mr. E. McCain,” by which he presumably means E. Michael McCann. He also sues the “Suprintendant” of the Milwaukee County House of Correction, and the Milwaukee County “Sheriff’s” David Clarke.

Aah, but these are merely simple errors of the dotted “i” and crossed “t” variety, and are hardly representative of the meat of Omegbu’s complaint, which goes on for more than 200 counts.

“Plaintiff was subjected to emotional injury, loss of liberty and freedom and deprivation of his personal property, including his noble position in politics.” [Emphasis added.]

I’m not certain which are the noble positions in Milwaukee politics; perhaps Omegbu was a member of the Milwaukee County House of Lords.

Omegbu explains for us why he “did not appear or challenge the disqualification [of his forged nomination papers] because of the defamatory issues in the press and media.”

We also learn that “plaintiff had a prospective contract if elected as the Executive to manage the Milwaukee County for defendants paying approximately $132,000 per year.”

Of course, this prospective contract was ruined when his forged nomination papers were rejected.

According to count 120 of the complaint, “the actions of the Sheriff Department in causing these numerous incidents of eviction unlawfully, making plaintiff unfit for housing.” You can figure that one out for yourself.

Yet worse fates than unfitness for housing befell our Omegbu (who now lives in a hotel, he says). According to count 124, on April 6, 2002, plaintiff was taken to St. Michael’s Hospital but was arrested by the “Milwaukee Policy” while in coma for battery charges.” You better watch out when the Milwaukee Policy is after you!

By count 194, we learn “other politicians similarly situated were not prosecuted like Gary George and the rest mentioned in this complaint were prosecuted and the campaign manager Mr. Dave Begel was not prosecuted because he is white man.”

Finally, in count 206, Omegbu reminds us he was sentenced to “only one count of election fraud.”