You may recall during May 2007, I was interviewed extensively for an investigative report by Fox 6 Milwaukee about meter ramps.  Part of my frustration is the unnecessary amount of time spent idling in line on a ramp waiting for the light to change.

A Michigan woman took her disgust even further in what is being called a first. She complained via e-mail to the state. Nothing unusual there, but then she sent the Michigan Department of Transportation a bill for the estimated gas she thinks she wasted idling in traffic.

Here are all the details of this story.

This morning, I was a guest of Joy Cardin’s on Wisconsin Public Radio. We discussed the issue of requiring a photo ID to vote.

You can hear the interview by clicking “Listen” below. My interview is 18:40 into the program.

Joy makes reference to a column I recently wrote on photo ID. You can read it here.

I will be a guest of Joy Cardin’s on Wisconsin Public Radio this Monday morning from 7:30-8:00 a.m.

We will discuss a photo ID requirement for voting.

Wisconsin Public Radio can be heard on WHAD, 90.7 on your FM dial.

I will be a guest panelist this week on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10’s “4^th Street Forum.”  The subject for discussion:


WISCONSIN TAXES: WHAT'S ENOUGH? WHAT'S FAIR?
What's the Truth about Wisconsin Taxes?
Are they fairly distributed? Excessively high?
Are some people and businesses getting a good deal at the expense of others?

The program will air this Friday night at 10:00 p.m. and will be repeated this Sunday afternoon on Channel 36 at 3 p.m.

If you missed it, here is the video of my appearance Sunday with state Representative Fred Kessler on Up Front with Mike Gousha on WISN-TV Channel 12.  

We discuss proposed changes for state Supreme Court elections.

Channel 12’s Kent Wainscott interviewed me about Michael Gableman’s victory over Louis Butler in the state Supreme Court race and the call for change in high court elections.

You can see Kent Wainscott’s story here.

I was interviewed for an article about the competition for water that appears in the March issue of the National Conference of State Legislatures’ magazine, “State Legislatures.”

The article, entitled, “Hot Water,” discusses the Great Lakes Compact:

Supporters of the Great Lakes Water Resources Compact note that it still needs to be ratified by the legislatures of six more states and that the going may not be entirely smooth. In Wisconsin, Senator Mary Lazich says she has concerns that the effect of the compact may be additional bureaucracy. “I think it has the potential to be make-work for the government and private sector attorneys who will be involved in defining all of this down the road,” says Lazich.

But even with such reservations, Lazich acknowledges that momentum is in the compact’s favor, and for a compelling reason. “All of us are reading about the water issues across the country and it makes us even more determined to preserve our Great Lakes. We want to see the language of the compact tweaked a little, but ultimately the only thing that matters is making sure that nothing detrimental happens to the lakes.”

Here is the entire article.

Imagine getting a letter from the state Department of Revenue (DOR) declaring that you overpaid your taxes and you receive a check for $3,000.

Four months later, you get a letter from the Department of Revenue that you underpaid, and now owe the state thousands of dollars plus interest.

You pay the original refund, but not the interest because a Department employee tells you that you do not have to.

A few weeks later, another letter arrives, saying you owe interest and the state is going to charge a collection fee.

It happened to a Waukesha resident who contacted me and questioned why he had to pay for the Department erroneously mailing him a refund check.

The story has a happy ending. I looked into the matter and discovered the Department mailed incorrect tax refunds due to a computer problem. The Waukesha man and many other taxpayers with the same predicament, a total of 199, no longer have to pay interest because of the Department’s mistakes.

On Thursday, January 10, 2008, I appeared as a guest on Joy Cardin’s program on Wisconsin Public Radio to discuss Wisconsin’s ban on abortion. The state law is still on the books, but is overridden by Roe vs. Wade.

I oppose repealing the ban.

You can hear the entire program by clicking “Listen,” below.

Joy Cardin’s first guest is State Representative Therese Berceau (D-Madison) who supports a repeal of the ban on abortion. Listen to how Representative Berceau responds to her first male caller.

My interview follows Berceau’s.

I’ve updated my biz blog. “Taxes go up, people move out,” appears in today’s Small Business Times.

On May 24, 2007, I blogged about an extensive interview FOX 6 News did with me for their investigative report on ramp meters, the traffic lights on freeway on-ramps.

My concern is the ramp meters unnecessarily force motorists to wait long periods of time.

The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) has released its national study on traffic congestion, the 2007 Urban Mobility Report. In its press release, the TTI reports:

“Traffic congestion continues to worsen in American cities of all sizes, creating a $78 billion annual drain on the U.S. economy in the form of 4.2 billion lost hours and 2.9 billion gallons of wasted fuel—that's 105 million weeks of vacation and 58 fully-loaded supertankers. The current report is based on 2005 figures, the most recent year for which complete data was available.

The 2007 mobility report notes that congestion causes the average peak period traveler to spend an extra 38 hours of travel time and consume an additional 26 gallons of fuel, amounting to a cost of $710 per traveler.”

The TTI report says drivers waste almost an entire work week each year sitting in traffic on the way to and from their jobs.

Here is an ABC News report on the study.