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Schimel, LaFollette berate Adamczyk over treatment of state employees (AUDIO)

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Attorney General Brad Schimel says Treasurer Matt Adamczyk has been “unreasonable and abusive” towards state staff. Adamczyk, Schimel and Secretary of State Doug LaFollete serve on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands.

During the board’s most recent meeting, LaFollete rebuked Adamczyk for repeatedly questioning qualifications of several agency employees. “I am critical of the treasurer’s continual harassment of our staff,” LaFollette said. “There’s no rhyme or reason for that.”

Adamczyk persisted in criticizing the agency’s management of its trust fund investments – and Schimel had had enough. “Just because you don’t like a question doesn’t mean that I can’t ask it,” Adamczyk said. “I’m sorry, I’m on this board.”

“Matt, I gotta tell you, I’m counting the days that you’re not on this board,” Schimel said. “I’ve had enough. Doug is absolutely right. The string of demands you’ve made on people who work hard at this agency have been unreasonable and abusive.”

AUDIO: Adamczyk, Schimel :60

The board’s chief administrator, Jonathan Barry, said the employees’ resumes and work experience show that they are qualified to do their jobs.

Adamczyk is the only one of the three board members who is not seeking reelection, although he is running for the state Assembly seat being vacated by Representative Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield.)

Madison to offer mini-bonds this fall

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Madison residents can buy in to a special mini bond issuance later this year.

A new program is lowering the price of city bonds to just 500 dollars this fall, and Madison finance director Dave Schmiedicke says that’s a good way for residents to get involved directly with city finances. “Which hopefully allow more of our residents to invest in the specific project, a renovation and expansion of the Olbrich Botanical Gardens.”

Schmiedicke says that’s a price that even smaller investors and city residents can take advantage of. “Here in Madison, I think we value civic action, and this is one way to express that civic action and get a return on that investment.”

In all other respects, other than the price, the bonds will be the same as they normally are with a 10 year maturity. Schmiedicke says $2.1 million worth of bonds will be issued.

Interest rates will be determined this fall ahead of the sale in October.

Senator Johnson talks politics on CBS Face The Nation

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Senator Ron Johnson is pushing back against a tweet from President Trump that threatens a shutdown for the government.

On CBS’s Face the Nation, Johnson says that Republicans don’t have the luxury of playing around with funding bills.

“Hopefully most of the appropriations bills will actually be passed. I certainly don’t like playing shutdown politics.”

Trump Tweeted Sunday morning that if Democrats don’t vote for funding his border wall and stricter immigration policies that he would be willing to shutdown the government.

Johnson is hoping that trade issues can also be resolved before a planned bailout of farmers takes place. He’s hoping movement in trade agreements with the EU could be a good start. “My hope is that by calling a truce, by moving forward to completing these deals, we never have to implement that 12 billion dollar program, because that would be a mess.”

The Senator also took some time to defend his positions on Russia after some criticism earlier this month that he deemed to be downplaying efforts by the county’s leadership to destabilize American elections. He says he’d like to see better targeting of sanctions against the economic leaders of the country.

“Let’s target the sanctions so they actually achieve their purpose, which is change their behavior. Get them to pull out of eastern Ukraine. Right now that’s not happening.”

 

Kooyenga to finally pay settlement fine

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A state representative on the hook for a settlement after illegally removing a protest sign from the Capitol will finally be paying that fine.

A report from the Journal Sentinel on Friday stated that Brookfield Republican Dale Kooyenga still hadn’t reimbursed the $30,000 settlement three months after the fact.

About a half hour later, Kooyenga’s office announced he’d be paying for the fine from his own accounts, and not his campaign funds.

The state settled a lawsuit after Kooyenga removed a sign critical of Donald Trump and Republicans from a public area of the Capitol in May of 2017.

Wisconsin DMV ready to issue voter IDs ahead of primary

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The Wisconsin DMV is working to make sure you can easily get a photo ID ahead of the August primary elections.

Administrator Kristina Boardman says you can schedule a time to get an ID at your local DMV, or at least make sure the wait isn’t long.

“We have our wait times online, so if people want to look at the internet for the location that they’re interested in, they can see what the current wait times are.”

She says anyone getting a photo ID for voting purposes can get one for free. “They’re free for voting purposes. We’ll get you the receipt that’s also good for voting and we can do that as soon as the same day.” 

You can find out more online at Wisconsin D M V dot Gov.

 

Speaker Ryan won’t back Rosenstein impeachment attempt

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There will be no support from House Speaker Paul Ryan on an effort to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Ryan told reporters at his weekly press conference that he’s not going to back the effort. “I don’t think we should be cavalier with this process, with this term. I don’t think this rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. That’s a really high standard.”

House Freedom Caucus leaders Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan accuse Rosenstein of “stonewalling” G O P efforts to subpoena documents from the Russia investigation, and say the D O J went too far in its efforts to investigate former Trump aide Carter Page.

Ryan disagrees. “We, since I got involved, have been getting a lot of compliance from D-O-J on the document requests.”

Ryan says that any impeachment discussion will slow down and impede other efforts that House leadership is making.

 

Secretary DeVos makes stop in Appleton to see technical college courses

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US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was in Appleton to see first hand how education can lead to a bright future.

“This administration and our President are very supportive of supporting multiple options and pathways for students to pursue their education and their learning beyond High School.”

Fox Valley Technical College’s Public Safety Program is an example of that,  merging classroom leaders with reality-based hands-on training.

“The goal is to highlight these kinds of opportunities and encourage more communities and more regions to adopt these sorts of opportunities for the students in their areas.”

Secretary DeVos says she supports having multiple pathways for students to pursue learning beyond High School.

She says Wisconsin is a good example of what that learning can lead too.

“Jobs that require some level of education beyond High School. Right here in Wisconsin, there are many of these kinds of opportunities, and they continue to grow.”

She pointed to FoxConn as an example of future job opportunities.

While in Wisconsin, the Secretary also paid a visit to Adam’s Friendship Middle School Tuesday.

“We know that there are best practices and we want to highlight those and encourage other districts to adopt them.”

She says the district is paving the way for safety procedures in school.

“This district has introduced comprehensive behavioral health services and programming into the whole system, and we want to see how they do that and what they have learned.”

The event included a building tour and roundtable discussion.

Secretary DeVos made her comments on the WTAQ Morning News with Matt and Earl.   You can find the complete discussion here.

WTAQ

Wisconsin senators react to proposed farmer bailout package

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The Trump Administration is planning to deliver a massive payout to American farmers hurt by a trade war.

That’s in line with a letter Senator Tammy Baldwin sent to the Ag Department earlier on Tuesday that called for farmer assistance.

“On top of every other challenge that our agricultural economy faces, especially dairy, the retaliatory tariffs are causing major harm.”

Under the proposal, the Trump Administration would deliver $12 billion in aid to farmers across the country. Baldwin’s letter to the USDA calls for long term fixes, and to instead focus on Chinese money manipulation and Canadian dairy tariffs.

Republican Senator Ron Johnson says farmers “want trade, not aid” while other critics say the administration is putting farmers on “welfare.”

Senator Johnson also suggested in front of reporters from Politico and The Hill that the Trump Administration is steering the country’s free market economy toward a “Soviet-style” system where “commissars” decide how to sprinkle out benefits.

State aid package could keep Kimberly Clark in Wisconsin

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State lawmakers could be coming back to Madison to try and keep Kimberly Clark in Wisconsin.

The company announced that they’ve reached a new agreement with their Union, and that they’re willing to work with the state to use an aid package to keep 600 jobs in Wisconsin.

The State Assembly had previously passed a package of aid that would provide 100 to 115 million dollars in incentives over the next 15 years.

The State Senate did not pass the bill before they adjourned this year.

Former Milwaukee County board member faces elections fraud charges

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Felony election fraud charges have been filed against a former Milwaukee County supervisor.

The original complaint against Peggy Romo West was referred to the County Ethics Board.  

Sylvia Ortiz-Velez defeated Romo West in the April election. Ortiz-Velez had accused her opponent of failing to circulate nominating papers, despite certifying she had done so.  Prosecutors say her nomination papers were not collected properly.

Her opponent was Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, who filed the complaint. “There were a few things that jumped out of the page at me right away.”

West’s lawyer is Michael Maistelman, who says his client is cooperating with the investigation.

“We look forward to our day in court and for her to be able to set the record straight and explain her side of the story.”

Romo West lost the election by slightly more than 200 votes. She had a previous run-in with the Ethics Board for missing campaign work with county business.