And how many of the 10 were from the media?

More people at the Club Tap, hey Al?

Caley, I'm so glad you're a reader! Thank you for the kind words.

I also find Jim to be a very capable reporter. His objectivity is what everyone wants in initial news gathering, and we are losing such front line journalists throughout the world.
Once the facts are gathered, then the opinionists way back from the front lines can have their take. But just finding and preserving the facts, and without opinion, is becoming rare these days.

I think she's being facetious. Ten people show up and this is news????????????

Ditto on kudos to Jim. And it should be mentioned that the chicken article was hi-larious!

This is news? Hey Jim, the City is about to embark on the largest public works project in the history of Wauwatosa with the Meineke Flood Mitigation project which is expected to cost the tax payers of Tosa between $8 million and $15 million dollars and you and your staff are writing about a this and chickens!?! I have not seen one story from Patch on this project, why is that? FYI, in case you want to belatedly cover the story, the DPW is meeting Monday morning at 8:30 am to discuss the bids and the Common Council is voting on the bids Tuesday night at 7 pm. The CC meeting is open to the public, but the public is restricted from comment.

Jim is obviously a nice guy, but his liberal bias drips with every word and topic that is chosen. He does cover the huge crime problem in Tosa very well, and I am sure that is kills him to describe the perps.

@Pudge: Here is your story: http://patch.com/A-tmxd

The bids were opened today. This project was debated for many years and was approved long before Wauwatosa Patch existed. It has only been in the past week that this has come onto anyone's radar again. I don't feel the least bit of shame about not covering what was a non-story until some neighbors got angry during the past week.

There was not. Broaddus was at that time executive director of Friends of Milwaukee's Rivers, a position she no longer holds and would not be inclined to speak to today. There was a discussion between Broaddus and Barrett of the current administration of the DNR and what they perceive to be its regulatory laxity, if I may put it politely. Specifically, they discussed the recent case of minimum fines levied against a company that was found to have spread more than the allowed quantity of human fecal matter on farm fields near residential wells, with which I am sure you are familiar.

At the time the commentary by Broaddus you referenced and linked to was published, I believe the Friends of Milwaukee's Rivers – now Milwaukee Riverkeeper – was engaged in several lawsuits against MMSD over releases of sewage into Milwaukee rivers and Lake Michigan. It is my understanding that Riverkeeper and MMSD have since settled their differences over that issue.

As for Barrett's promise to put a stop to such releases by MMSD – well, in my position, I try to avoid inserting my opinion on political issues – but I believe that in all honesty, I have to say the mayor may have overstated the ability of himself, MMSD or anyone wrapped in this corporeal coil to by any means control the fickle extremes of nature.

Get a life.

Not exactly. He implied that he might replace the current administrator of the DNR, and he referenced statistics referencing the current administration's significantly reduced compliance actions compared to earlier administrations under either Democratic or Republican governors.

Again, I tread lightly in the realm of opinion, but I believe if you or I were to put the question to him today, mayor and candidate Barrett would likely say that he was a bit out of his area of expertise in asserting that releases of sewage into Lake Michigan could be halted under any and all circumstances. The Deep Tunnel Project was never designed to do that, and it is not to the credit of several mayors, the sewerage district or the media in having allowed the general public to believe that it ever was. All engineered projects are designed based on predictions predicated from past events and all are limited by design restrictions that preclude performance in unprecedented events.

Not only the Deep Tunnel but the previously installed sewer system – which is composed of private, municipal and sewerage district laterals and mains – have been taxed numerous times beyond their design capacities in recent years.

In other words, no politician whether mayor of a municipality, executive of a county, governor of a state or president of the union should promise that he or she can control the weather.

@ Jim Price
Did Barrett promise misery in Milwaukee? He certainly delivered it. Well at least he used all the Walker Reforms to get a budget that was way out of whack in order. I think just about everything successful is out of Barrett's area of expertise . Just look at his awful (by any measure) record as Mayor.

Ask Walker who deregulated the E.P.A. Get your facts before you spew from the pie hole!

The current administrator of the DNR definitely has to go ... and the sooner the better !

What neighborhood did you grow up in? It has probably become more liberal now.

Dirk: I grew up in Madison. Loony left then and now. Like many liberals you seem to harbor the self-flattering delusion that liberals are, on a personal level, nicer and less petty people. I've lived in both "red" and "blue" areas and I can attest that that is not true.

In fact, Dirk, I do not post under my real name on sites like this any more because when I used my real name on JS online and voiced my support for Walker a few months back someone actually googled my name and called my place of employment, trying to get me fired for expressing my political beliefs. We do not yet live in North Korea (although parts of Milwaukee resemble the Third World) so my harasser was unsuccessful. Me, I just chalked it up to another display of the kindness and tolerance liberals exhibit to those who do not march in lockstep to their views.

Like I said, I grew up in Madison. I've seen that sort of behavior my entire life. It's a huge part of why I am now a conservative.

@east side conservative -
Frankly, I doubt some awful liberal called your place of employment and tried to get you fired for expressing your opinion. In fact, you may be one of those "free speech" conservatives working the recall petitions and trying to get signers in trouble with their employers, etc.. We know that goes on, because they admit it.
So what did the crazy liberals in Madison do to you in the old neighborhood that turned you into a rabid conservative? It is my experience that conservatives are the ones that gravitate to living in suburban enclaves, often gated, where there better not be anything unique or even different about you or your home.

Just as obama followed Bush Jr., Barrett is stepping in the dung left from Snotty Walker.