Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Mike Nichols Column: Idiocy Doesn’t Mean That It’s a Crime
By Mike Nichols, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Dec. 9–The following items first appeared in Mike Nichols’ “News & Views” blog.
(Dec. 5)
Washington County District Attorney Todd Martens is declining to charge James Buss, the knucklehead teacher and former union official, with trying to incite violence through a goofy comment on a blog.
Any other decision would have been surprising, at the very least, especially since Martens is one of the smarter prosecutors around.
(Another surprise to some folks: Turns out I was actually right when I said as much in a recent column.)
Buss posted an anonymous message lauding the Columbine killers on a conservative Web site discussing teacher pay.
“They knew how to deal with the overpaid teacher union thugs,” he wrote. “One shot at a time! Too bad the liberls (sic) rip them; they were heros (sic) and should be remembered that way.”
He wasn’t seriously advocating violence, and certainly wasn’t inciting it in any imminent way (the legal standard).
His sign-on name was “Observer,” not “Killer.”
The only thing harder to believe than his anonymous and idiotic posting is that anybody ever took it seriously.
Ozaukee trailing no one
(Dec. 5)
The Wisconsin County Health Rankings are out. Ozaukee is officially the healthiest county in all of Badgerland (followed by Waukesha, Eau Claire, Iowa, Dane, Portage, Outagamie and Washington) and — better yet — we now know why.
“I think it’s a great honor that we’re the healthiest county in Wisconsin,” Cedarburg Parks and Recreation Director Mikko Hilvo was quoted as saying in a story in one of the local papers.
“I think a lot of it has to do with the trail system we have here. People seem to be more active here than in the surrounding counties,” he added.
This isn’t just fabulous (and flattering) news for those of us who live in Ozaukee. It’s wonderful news for counties like Milwaukee (68th healthiest out of 72) and Menominee (dead last).
Instead of dealing with complex issues like access to health care, violence, tobacco use, high-risk sexual behaviors and lack of education and income, all county leaders in those places need to do is build more bike trails!
Instead of making sure kids have flu shots, we should just give them Schwinns!
Who’d have thunk it?
Ozaukee, a close look at the study reveals then again, isn’t just first in actual health (based on mortality rates and general health status), it is also first in so-called “health determinants,” things like socioeconomics, healthy behaviors and health care.
Jessica Athens, the primary author of the study done by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, confirmed Wednesday that another “determinant” of health (one area in which Ozaukee, actually, does not score well) is physical environment.
For research purposes, she said, that includes stuff like air quality, water quality, lead risk in the housing stock and urban design.
The prevalence of trails (which actually are very nice in Ozaukee County) was not considered.
Were it only so simple.
Search for Amber continues
(Dec. 4)
West Bend-area native Amber Wilde was last seen on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 1998, in Green Bay.
Jane Wilde, her grandmother, has spent years trying to drum up interest in the case, and put pressure on the man she thinks did something to her granddaughter.
But she is trying not to become too excited by the investigators’ decision to dig up a field just off Highway 29 in Shawano County this week.
Jane, who lives in the Town of Trenton, said the digging was in an area where a suspect in the case once worked.
“I’m just kind of middle of the road here,” she said, “trying not to read too much into it. But it is hard not to be optimistic, especially this time. To us, it is out of the blue.”
The Green Bay Police Department dug up basically the same area back in 2001, Jane noted.
“I am almost thinking it might be in the same field but further back” from the highway, she said.
They didn’t find anything, and said at the time they would not be back.
Now, they are.
They have a new source, Jane suspects.
“There has to be,” she said. “This is a big expense for them. There has to be some reliable source. They are not going to just do this for the heck of it.”
She’s not sure where all the time has gone. The child Amber carried, if my math is correct, would be in third grade. Amber was 19 when she disappeared and would be most of the way through her 20s.
It would be an “answer to our prayers and the best Christmas present we could ever have,” said Jane, “to find her” in Shawano and be able to put her “where she belongs.”
I asked where that would be.
“She is always in our hearts,” said her grandmother, “but somewhere where we know where she is at.”
E-mail mnichols@journalsentinel.com.
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