HERE IS VIDEO OF PAYDAY LOAN LOBBYIST ERIN KRUEGER

POLITICS MAKES BEDFELLOWS DEPARTMENT

LOBBYIST DISCUSSES BENEFITS OF UNREGULATED PAYDAY LOAN INDUSTRY

ISSUE CLOSE TO ASSEMBLY SPEAKER'S HEART

The woman, Shanna Wycoff, is listed as the manager of government affairs for Cincinnati-based Axcess Financial, which owns the payday lending chain Check 'n Go. She also lobbied on behalf of an industry group, Community Financial Services Association, last year before withdrawing Dec. 31.

 http://www.lacrossetribune.com/news/state-and-regional/wi/article_6ab4e2d4-0fbb-11df-8bb3-001cc4c03286.html

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld.com

By Michael Horne

And The Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team

In the classic Hollywood version, the dashing Speaker of the Assembly wrongheadedly opposes legislation to improve conditions in the orphanage in his district.
But a determined young nurse (in a nurse uniform, wowza!) goes to the state capitol, registers as a lobbyist, and gives him a piece of her mind.
After a couple Tracy - Hepburn episodes, the Speaker realizes the errors of his ways, and supports the legislation providing industrial training for the orphans.
The orphans all get steady jobs in the town's expanding munitions industry, while the Speaker and the nurse fall in love and get married.


You don't have to change much for the current Madison version.


Except the legislation isn't about orphanages, it's about Payday Loansharking. The nurse isn't a nurse, but she is a lobbyist for the Payday Loan industry. She gives the speaker a piece of her mind, and a piece of something else -- but she does it before the vote.
The speaker changes his mind, the legislation passes, and the speaker may or may not continue to date the lobbyist.
And this is the situation we find ourselves in, thanks to Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan, and his unnamed inamorata.
Yes, we have come to yet another tawdry pass in Wisconsin's politics.
The video segment is from the public domain Wisconsin Eye broadcast of September 3rd, 2009. Ms. Erin Krueger debates Rep. Gordon Hintz, who supports regulating this abusive industry.


mms://71.87.25.133/NMK/NMK_090903_REP_HINTZ.wmv


FUN FACT!
Sheridan's Assembly campaign website has this non-too timely observation about the speaker:

I enjoy spending my free time with my wife, Sarah, who is a social work 

lecturer at UW-Whitewater, and our three children ... 

It looks like the next "free time" for Sarah and Mike will be in Rock County Circuit Court on February 26th, 2010 where there will be a pre-trial conference for their upcoming divorce. 
Sheridan also owes $250.90 to the Eau Claire County Court for a 2009 speeding ticket there. He paid Rock County $186.00 for his speeding ticket there, also in 2009. 
On September 18th, 2009, Sarah Sheridan received $703.00 from Sheridan's campaign committee for "candidate travel Parade/Airline Ticket." On October 10th, 2009, Mike Sheridan filed for divorce. 


[Note: Ms. Krueger did not respond to Milwaukeeworld's query about whether she has a relationship with Rep. Sheridan while other lobbyists denied they had a relationship with him.] 

CITY MOVE TO SQUASH LADYBUG FAILS

CITY FAILS IN EFFORT TO HALT LIQUOR SALES TO DOWNTOWN CLUB

GETS EARFUL FROM JUDGE FLANAGAN

*     *     *

Judge Brash Rules All 12 Counts to Proceed

In $200 million School Lawsuit vs. Stifel, Nicolaus and RBC

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld

By Michael Horne

And The Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team 

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Mel Flanagan issued a Continued Temporary Restraining Order late today, Thursday, January 28th, 2010, ordering the City of Milwaukee to treat the Ladybug Club as if it were a licensed Class "B" Alcohol Beverage retailer.
The move came after the City informed the Ladybug Club's wholesalers that it would be illegal to sell alcohol beverages to the club, despite the provisions of the Restraining Order permitting the club to remain open pending judicial review of its license. [See earlier Milwaukeeworld posts on the license saga.]
Apparently the City Attorney sought to circumvent the court's ruling (and arguably its prerogative) by cutting off the liquor supply to the club, located at 618 N. Water St.
The judge was not impressed, ruling the city's attempts improper, and staying them pending finalization of her judicial review.
The Maistelman Law firm filed a Notice of Motion and Motion for Contempt [here is the motion for contempt] late Wednesday afternoon, and copied the documents to the city attorney's office.
Schrimpf responded:

"Kindly advise the Court that I am preparing a response to this utterly spurious motion." 

It appears he need not have bothered, since the judge did not find it spurious to any degree. 

IN OTHER LEGAL NEWS

Judge William W. Brash III permitted all 12 counts to proceed in the lawsuit filed by five Wisconsin school districts against Stifel Nicolaus & Co. and RBC for their sale of over $200 million in virtually worthless securities to fund their Other Post Employment Benefits.

CITY CELEBRATES CLXIVth BIRTHDAY

CITY BIRTHDAY PARTY AT CALATRAVA

DRAWS CROWD ON WINTER'S NIGHT

*   *   *

Expect Hines to Run for Mayor -- 

-- Whether or not Barrett Becomes Governor

Council President Willie Hines, Jr. 

Will Become Acting Mayor if Barrett Becomes Governor

Plans to Run for Mayor Even if Barrett's Quest Fails

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld

By Michael Horne

And The Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team 

A smattering of the city's elite and quite a number of newspaper journalists gathered at the Milwaukee Art Museum yesterday, Dies Martis xxvi Ianuarius MMX, to celebrate Milwaukee's CLXIVth birthday. The annual event, sponsored by the Milwaukee Press Club, which itself is celebrating its CXXVth birthday this year, was attended by over CCCXX people.
They gathered in the soaring Windhover Hall of the Calatrava-designed Quadracci Pavillion, where they trod the white marble floors that have shown more age in the last X years of their installation than in all the previous eons of their existence.
It is a space truly to be seen and not heard, as the challenging acoustics attested during the ceremony's brief program and a fun quiz by historian John Gurda.
Among the attendees was Mayor Tom Barrett, fresh from Madison where he attended a fundraiser for his run as governor held before current governor Jim Doyle's State of the State address, which we all were pleased to miss. He was among the last to arrive, and did so after the evening's program. His place was competently filled by Chief of Staff Pat Curley who said he does not involve himself in political matters like fundraisers.
Beating Barrett to the event were city officials including Alds. Bob Bauman, Joe Dudzik, Michael Murphy, Terry Witkowski and Common Council President Willie Hines. Their colleagues Nik Kovac and Ashanti Hamilton pretty near made it a quorum of the full council by the time of their late arrival, delayed by their attendance at a typical marathon hearing of the council's Licenses Committee.

COUNT ON HINES TO RUN

It was easy to get the impression that President Hines plans to run for mayor whether or not the current mayor wins his race for governor. I told that to Mayor Barrett, and received his less-than heartfelt thanks for my observation. Hines only smiled when I quizzed him about the matter.

AMONG THE ATTENDEES


Administration officials in the room included Elections chief Sue Edman and Department of City Development Commissioner Rocky Marcoux. Marcoux said he'd sure like to see the Pizza Man site redeveloped, and added the location has sufficient density that a future developer ought not face a mandate to burden  it with parking spaces.
Missing in action were City Attorney Grant Langley, (who never seemed an essential element to any party anyway) Comptroller W. Martin "Wally" Morics (probably off reading Shakespeare somewhere) and Treasurer Wayne Whittow (past his bedtime).
Members of the press included Jim Nelson, president of the club, fellow club potentate Marilyn Krause, reporter Joel Dresang, and editor Marty Kaiser (who violated the sanctity of the coat check department and bypassed its tip basket by retrieving his own raiments), all of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The coat check was run by a band of volunteers, including this reporter, but especially by  a group of civic-minded college students, many serving internships in the mayor's office.
Bruce Murphy, Mary Van De Kamp Nohl and Kuirt Chandler of Milwaukee Magazine also made their appearances, on a day when it was announced their publication's parent company, Quad Graphics, was to become publicly traded by the end of the year. The magazine's on-line offerings have expanded considerably recently in a process that is expected to continue. 
Jon Anne Willow of TCD also mingled among the crowd, as did Sonya Jongsma Knauss of milwaukeemoms, rubbing shoulders with party co-sponsor H. Carl Mueller, Evan Zeppos and Curt Gielow, who is soon to be the next mayor of the city of Mequon, running unopposed, as they tend to do things in Ozaukee County's great Cauldron of Democracy. He was accompanied by his wife Mary Gielow, who dreads having to conduct policy in the aisles of Sendik's grocery in Mequon as part of her uxorial duties as future first lady of Wisconsin's fourth-largest (by area) city. 
Guests feasted on a variety of local foods, including sausages and C% veal hot dogs from Usinger's, an "authentic" macaroni and cheese just like mom never made (with goat cheese and chicken) and abundant free candies from Quality Candy (is this why they went bankrupt?).
Beverages included free root beer floats from Sprecher (which has launched a new brand of regular beers under the Chameleon label) and free beers from Milwaukee Brewing Company.
Water was available at $II  a bottle, which tells you something about the value of that resource, especially considering the price of beer.
Party favors were pint glasses emblazoned with the Press Club's anniversary logo.

A PUBLIC QUAD GRAPHICS COULD IMPACT MILWAUKEE MAGAZINE

WOULD A PUBLICLY TRADED QUAD GRAPHICS
RETAIN THE CITY MONTHLY MAGAZINE?

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld.com


By Michael Horne


And The Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team

Today's news about the plans of Pewaukee-based Quad Graphics [company release here] to become a publicly traded company raises questions about the future of Milwaukee Magazine.

The award-winning monthly has been owned by the printer for over 25 years, during which time its publisher has been Betty Quadracci, wife (and now widow) of company founder Harry Quadracci.

The publication was a good fit for Quad Graphics, since it provided an excellent laboratory for the magazine printer to provide innovations that later became standard among all magazine publishers and printers. I was there to see many of them firsthand.

These included Macintosh-based direct-to-plate printing of the magazine at a time when all other magazines were still produced using traditional film processes.

There are countless other examples of synergies between the publication and advancements in printing technology that can be tied to the magazine's ownership by the world's largest privately owned printer.

However, just as the Allen-Bradley Company Orchestra's daily noontime concerts are no longer a staple of publicly traded Rockwell International, it is not entirely certain if the investment bankers would allow a publicly traded Quad Graphics to continue as the publisher of a metropolitan lifestyle monthly with a circulation much smaller than its traditional press runs.

Nor is it certain that new owners would maintain the hands-off policies of the Quadracci family regarding the magazine's editorial policies if they decided to continue producing the publication.

[It should be noted that the Quadracci family would retain a majority voting interest in the publicly traded firm. However, they will be subject to dealing with minority ownership interests for the first time.]

Corporate spokesperson Claire Ho told the Hound Dog:

"No plans have been made with regard to any of our operations or facilities."

Editor Bruce Murphy said such questions are better asked of the magazine's publisher.
 The firm's New York-based public relations agent had no immediate comment.

Harry and Betty Quadracci saved what had been a failing publication when they purchased Milwaukee Magazine for $50,000 two-and-a-half decades ago; Betty especially has put many years of work into managing it, dealing with details that most other centimillionaires would ordinarily delegate to others. She is also of an age when many folks choose retirement.

It may be time for a new ownership group to materialize if the city is to retain this vital, independent voice.

DISCLOSURE TIME!


Your correspondent has published hundreds of pieces in Milwaukee Magazine over the years, beginning in 1988 and most recently in the current issue, many of which were under the direction editor Bruce Murphy who previously was the first editor of Milwaukeeworld.