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	A Tactic? Milwaukee Archdiocese Files for Bankruptcy By Brian Lambert The MinnPost January 4, 2011 http://www.minnpost.com/dailyglean/2011/01/04/24584/a_tactic_milwaukee_archdiocese_files_for_bankruptcy In a move that will at least temporarily stop sexual abuse cases in their tracks, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has filed for bankruptcy. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports: “Jeff Anderson, the Minnesota lawyer who represents victims in the Milwaukee cases, called the action sad and alarming, characterizing it as a ploy to delay the lawsuits and the disclosure of damning information in depositions of retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland and Richard Sklba. Sklba's deposition was initially scheduled for January and recently rescheduled for February. ‘The bankruptcy essentially stops the cases from moving forward,’ Anderson said. ‘In other cities it's often been done on the eve of trial. In this case it's on the eve of the deposition.' " Your Second Amendment crowd is gonna love this guy. Mark Stodghill of the Duluth News Tribune reports on a Glock-toting judge who held a home intruder at bay: “A Duluth judge began 2011 as a crime victim but took command of the situation by grabbing a .45-caliber Glock from his safe and subduing a man who broke into his family’s Piedmont Heights home on New Year’s Day. Sixth Judicial District Judge Shaun Floerke intercepted a 26-year-old Duluth man who entered his home by breaking a window about 3 a.m. Saturday. The police report said the suspect was so intoxicated he couldn’t talk and he refused to submit to a breath test, said police spokesman Jim Hansen.” Being blind drunk didn’t make him any less cunning and dangerous. The Strib’s Eric Roper blogs about this morning’s prayer service, attended by Gov. Dayton and legislators from both parties: “Rabbi Sim Glaser, with Temple Israel in Minneapolis, noted that ‘making laws is no less than a divine task,’ as evidenced by the number of laws that fill biblical texts. ‘It took God twenty six generations to understand that humanity requires very specific legislation to survive,’ Glaser said of the time between the creation of Adam and the Bible. Lt. Col. John Morris, chaplain for the Minnesota National Guard, said greatness is often thrust upon people in war and civilian life — as it will be with this group of legislators.” I mean no disrespect to the chaplain, but the “thrust” of greatness is all too often met with the parry of mediocrity. Tom Scheck at MPR’s “Capital View” blog says Gov. Dayton will hand the Legislature a bonding bill by the end of the month. “Dayton wants the Legislature to quickly pass a public works bill to help spur economic development in Minnesota's construction sector. Dayton says half of his proposal will include his preferred projects. He says the Legislature can put forward their projects in the other half. Dayton says he'll challenge those who argue that bonding bills are ‘debt bills’ that don't spur private development.” There’ll be no temporary freedom for Denny Hecker. The judge this morning told him he’s staying put until sentencing later this month. The Strib’s Dee DePass reports: “Barbara May, who currently represents Hecker in bankruptcy court on a pro bono basis, attended Tuesday's hearing. She told reporters afterwards that she won't be surprised if Hecker ultimately spends 8 years in prison, counting time for good behavior. She had hoped Hecker might get sentenced to a minimum security facility in Duluth. However, with Tuesday's ruling to keep Hecker in jail, that is now unlikely. The best they can probably hope for is a federal medical prison in Rochester, May said. She noted that the facility would be equipped to treat Hecker's diabetes, high blood pressure and various other medical conditions that include a bad knee and attention deficit disorder.” Really, special prison care for ADHD? The comments about former Pawlenty deputy chief of staff Brian McClung’s Strib commentary are pretty entertaining. Here are a couple good ones: “The Strib's editorial board's critique of Pawlenty was thoughtful, measured and gentle. Nevertheless, McClung only saw burning excrement. Whatever McClung may be paid to believe, eight years of accounting gimmicks, depletion of reserves, receiving compensation as governor while campaigning for higher office, and a $6.2 billion deficit is a disaster, not austerity. Neither is it public service. Pawlenty, not the editorial board, left the burning pile on the doorstep.” And, from the other side: “I guess not wanting to spend money Minnesota does not have and challenging the amazing concept that gov't has to automatically grow every year is so awful. What has damaged MN cities is not the lack of LGA, it's the lack of political courage to stand up to public employee unions and reconnect with economic reality. MN had the same strategy that worked so well for the US auto industry — ignore reality and keep giving raises. You may not like what Pawlenty did or the fact he was an effective politician — but MN is better because we don't have an additional $7.5 Billion in new taxes.” With the debt ceiling and what to do about it the latest scheduled controversy/outrage, John Hugh Gilmore of Minnesota Conservatives writes today: “MC was initially leery about the prospect of a Speaker Boehner (and that was before his cringe-inducing crying jags) but now must correct that impression. Boehner seems measured, sober and careful. Above all, he seems to have listened very well indeed to the shellacking heard around the world. This only bodes well for a continued GOP controlled House of Representatives. However, Boehner himself has said that the vote on raising the debt ceiling will be an adult moment for freshly minted Congress members hailing from the tea party movement. And indeed it will be. No responsible elected member of Congress would allow the United States to default on its financial obligations. Bachmann's demand that the USA go ‘cold turkey’ on debt is relatively insane, to use a neutral term. It works well, apparently, for heroin or cigarette smoking. The international, interconnected financial system? No.” My blogging compadre at The Same Rowdy Crowd, William Souder, makes points about the never-ending crusade/canard for “small government.” Spinning off a recent David Brooks New York Times column, Souder says: “[A]usterity freaks like Tim Pawlenty and Chris Christie, and Tea Party reactionaries like Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint are a growing evil determined to chase the country down a dark, hopeless alley. They have no plan for competing with large, booming centralized economies in places like India and China that will increasingly dominate global playing fields. They assume that, left alone, outfits like General Motors and Goldman Sachs ... and I guess Facebook and Google ... will see us through. Good luck on that. Don’t kid yourself. Pawlenty, Christie, and their ilk are THRILLED by our current economic difficulties. They see the recession and the Obama administration’s efforts to address it, as proof of the folly of big government ... and, much more importantly, as an opportunity to unleash an epic re-alignment of priorities through draconian cuts to government spending and programs. It’s a chance to get the government out of all kinds of endeavors ... and to hack away at private-sector sacred cows like labor unions, which they hate. But since they don’t believe in government at all, what they really want isn’t to restrain the public sector ... they want to behead it.” And Mr. D at Mr. Dilettante’s Neighborhood looks at Gov. Dayton’s call for corporate volunteerism in our public schools. He writes: “A few questions for the governor: * So if a business "adopts" a school, do they get any say in how it is run? If, say, Medtronic adopted a school, could they expect an increased emphasis on science and allocate their funds to laboratory work? Or is it just supposed to offer volunteers and write checks? * Does Dayton really believe that workers at companies don't already volunteer a lot of time to schools? And how will the schools coordinate a phalanx of even more volunteers? I'm betting it would require another paid position or two at the school. Who pays for that? The business?”
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