Commentary Update for February 11, 2002: Sunset School, Chuck And Scott, Johnsrud And Aurora Healthcare, Ed Thompson and Jim Young

Friends,

Mr. Mather and I taped our first spring semester segment of Commentary today. Jim Simmons and Dan Rylance were the guests, discussing a variety of local, state, and national issues. The first taping of the semester is always a bit rough, but our student director Shane Borger did a nice job of keeping everything running smoothly. We should be on at 7 p.m. on Titan-TV 2 every night this week.

In other news, I'm sure all of you in Winnebago County have heard about the closing of Sunset elementary school due to the excessive mold problem. FOCUS (For Our Children United We Stand), the group that supported the failed November referendum, is urging the School Board to put up a referendum question on the April ballot to rebuild Sunset on Ryf Road. I received a letter from Jim Lemmer (FOCUS Chair) to that effect:
http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/palmeri/lemmeronsunset.htm

In Madison, WISC-TV yesterday called on State Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala and Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen to resign from their leadership positions: http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/palmeri/wisctv.htm

• I called for such resignations in October for the Wispolitics.com site: http://www.wispolitics.com/freeser/features/f0110/f01102901.html as well as a longer piece on the Commentary site:
  http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/palmeri/chuckandscottmustgo.htm
  

Oshkosh Business Page editor Sean Fitzgerald in his Sunday column wrote about Rep. DuWayne Johnsrud's identification of Aurora as "the new Wal-Mart of Healthcare": http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/palmeri/fitzonaurora.htm . I contacted Johnsrud for a copy of his original press release on the matter. Here it is: http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/palmeri/johnsrud.htm

Finally, we all know that Libertarian Party candidate Ed Thompson (Tommy's bro') has been getting lots of attention in a Wisconsin media determined to make him into the Jesse Ventura of the 2002 governor's race. Not surprisingly, Green Party Candidate Jim Young has gotten very little attention. To try and rectify that situation in my own little corner of the world here, I emailed Mr. Young some questions late last week. He emailed me back today and said he will answer them soon. As soon as I get his responses, I will post them on the site.
All the best,

-TP