Monday, April 3- Gay Comedian Bill Cruz of Chicago, Ill. will be performing at 9pm in Reeve 201.

Tuesday, April 4-Keynote Matthew Cusick, of the Cirque de Soliel will be speaking out against HIV Discrimination. 7pm in ReeveBallroom C. Mr. Cusick was fired from the Cirque de Soliel after an injury made his HIV status known. He subsequently sued the Cirque de Solieland won his lawsuit.

Wednesday, April 5- LGBT Film 6:30pm in Halsey Lecture Hall. "If These Walls Could Talk II"- a Lesbian themed film that follows a trio of lesbian couples in three different decades. There will be a short introduction and apost-viewing talkback and Q&A to help viewers understand what it islike to be lesbian.

Wednesday, April 5- Panel Discussion on the Effects of the Wisconsin Constitutional Marriage Ban. Presented by the LBGTQ Council. 4pm in Reeve 202.

Thursday, April 6- Wear your "gay? fine by me." T-shirts! Opal J. Ferarri's RIP-OFF Revolution! DRAG SHOW!!! 8pm in Albee Hall

Friday, April 7-Drag Culture Brown Bag with Dr. Tara Pauliny, Assistant Professor ofEnglish and the Royal Court to answer any question you may have fromThursday's show. Noon at the Women's Center.

The National Brownfield Association’s Riverfront Redevelopment Conference and Dealflow Exhibition

The National Brownfield Association's Riverfront Redevelopment Conference will be held in Aurora, IL April 6-7 and will bring together experts to explore and evaluate best practices for redeveloping riverfront communities and uncover new funding sources for redevelopment.

At the Riverfront Redevelopment Conference, you will learn what the developers, cities, and the industry as a whole need to close more deals and advance the brownfield cause. At the Dealflow Exhibition, riverfront communities will be bringing properties that are ready for redevelopment to developers with the expertise to reposition these sites for commercial retail and residential use.

Registration is available at the Brownfield Association website.

Session Overviews

What Are Developers Looking For? This panel will explore, in detail, which factors are most important to bring developers to your town and project. It will help clarify where you should focus your resources and time to entice developers to build in your area. Do incentives carry the same pull as finality? What would make your process more easily navigable? You will learn the answers to these questions and more.

What Do Cities Need? Learn what makes you the right developer for a project. This panel will explore issues such as becoming the winning bidder. We will discuss best-practices in working with residents and municipalities. The panel will also cover achieving a win-win project and a collaborative vision and why this collaboration is critical to your bottom line.

Technical Issues Surrounding Riverfront Redevelopment. This panel will discuss the technical aspects of riverfront development, ranging from waterfront permitting, dredging, wetlands issues, protective fencing, habitat development, and insurance to control of geese. The panel includes representatives from AIG Insurance, Chicago Wilderness, remediation consultants, waterfront design consultants, and a retired Corps of Engineers District Chief.

How to Market a Brownfield Site on the Path to Redevelopment. The public sector will share their experiences (and lessons learned) of how they marketed municipally-owned sites to attract private sector interest.

Thanks to the global industries that produce, package and ship our food, each meal you eat also feeds the nation's oil addiction.

...My breakfast fuels me up with about 400 calories, and it satisfies me. So, for just over a buck and half an hour spent reading the morning paper in my own kitchen, I'm energized for the next few hours. But before I put spoon to cereal, what if I consider this bowl of oatmeal porridge (to which I've just added a little butter, milk, and a shake of salt) from a different perspective. Say, a Saudi Arabian one...

...My meal traveled thousands of miles around the world to reach my plate. But then there's the rise of perhaps 600 million middle-class Indians and Chinese. They're already demanding the convenience of packaged meals and the taste of foreign flavors. What happens when middle-class families in India or China decide they want their Irish oats for breakfast, topped by organic raspberries from Chile? They'll dip more and more into the planet's communal oil well. And someday soon, we'll all suck it dry...

AlterNet Read the article here

Donations made after firms win state contracts - Months after landing lucrative state contracts, executives from two out-of-state consulting firms gave donations totaling nearly $45,000 to Gov. Jim Doyle's re-election campaign.

The donations to Doyle marked the first time that anyone from either company - Chicago-based Equis Corp. and Indianapolis-based Crowe Chizek - gave significant cash to any candidate in Wisconsin, according to an analysis of campaign finance records by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

- Capital Times Read the rest of the article here

"As concerns about peak oil mount, the latest group to jump on the renewable energy bandwagon has been the biotech industry. In a March 13th 2006 press release building towards their national convention in early April in Chicago, Jim Greenwood, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), proclaimed that a new wave of genetically engineered technologies will end our national addiction to oil. Nothing could be further from the truth." -Family Farm Defenders

Read the rest of the article here

The ABV gives an F to all of the common council candidates that foolishly suggested at last night's candidate forum that parks in Oshkosh are wasted space. While it would be fair to suggest that large empty parking lots attached to large empty big box mart buildings are "wasted space" and while it also would be fair to suggest that large adandoned industrial complexes and Brown Fields are "wasted spaces", it is just plain asinine to suggest that protected and maintained green spaces are "wasted."

City parks provide an extensive array of benefits to the community, including "improving economic health and vitality, reducing crime, improving public physical and mental health, creating a strong sense of community, supporting overall quality of life ..." (www.planning.org -http://www.planning.org/cpf/briefingpapers.htm)

If the city is worried about frequent up keep and staffing concerns, a viable option is to return the park space to a natural green space by planting native trees and other vegetation. According to the following website article (Benefits of Urban Trees), urban trees add beauty and improve personal health, trees reduce air pollution, trees conserve water and reduce soil erosion, trees save energy and modify local climate, trees increase economic stability, trees reduce noise pollution, and TREES INCREASE PROPERTY VALUES. http://www.state.sc.us/forest/urbben.htm)

Citing that over $500,000 is insufficient to run for the governor's seat, Republican challenger Scott Walker has officially dropped out of the Gov race. Read article here.

Wangari Maathai, activist, environmentalist and founder of the Green Belt Movement, will speak on Thursday, March 23, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Her speech will be shown live through a free webcast in Reeve Ballroom 227C, and will be followed by a reception featuring East African-themed refreshments. Broadcast of Dr. Maathai's speech is being sponsored by Earth Charter Oshkosh. All are welcome.

Click on this link to read more about Wangari Maathai

Click on this link to read more about the Green Belt Movement

"John Ivanko uses wind power, solar power, and a wood stove to meet the energy needs at his bed-and-breakfast, Inn Serendipity.

He serves food from his organic garden and composts the leftovers. Even the bath tiles at the inn were chosen with the environment in mind -- they were produced from recycled windshield glass.

As a result, the two-unit inn in rural Browntown, Wis., which Ivanko runs with Lisa Kivirist, was named one of the top 10 eco-destinations in North America last year by Natural Home & Garden magazine." - John Hartzell of the Associated Press, article from the Detriot Free Press

Click Here to Read the rest of the article here.

Oshkosh West mens basketball team finished their season undefeated at 26-0. Saturday, they defeated defending state champion Madison Memorial 52-40 to claim this years division 1 state title.

Congratulations to the team and the city. I look forward to the matchup next with North, who finished their mediocre season with a loss to West in the Sectional First round. North returns most of their key players, and will have a more developed inside man with Tank Johnson. West also returns several key players, and will likely again be a dominante force in the league.

To read a re-cap of the championship game, check out this article.

While I should be writing about the realities of war, the corruption in our state capital, the assualt on human rights in Wisconsin, and other abominable events of our day, I find myself filled with questions fueled by the proposal to place an angel statue in Menominee Park - to serve as a place of mourning for parents who have lost children.

First though, some info:

Q. What are the dimensions of the Angel? A. The Angel is 4’ 3" tall, and has a wingspan of 5’ 2". The diameter of its base is 22". That is big, especially since the angel will likely by placed on top of a 3-5 foot base.

The angel comes from the Christmas Box House International, which states, "Our mission is inspired by the book The Christmas Box..."

What is The Christmas Box about? According to Publishers Weekly, "this is steeped in specific Christian imagery and belief as the author draws on the drama of Jesus as God's sacrifice for the world's sins, and of his crucifixion and resurrection."

My Questions:

1. What are the organizers of this statue planning to have inscribed on the base or the statue? According to the ordering site, purchasers can inscribe whatever they would like.

2. If this is indeed to serve as a memorial for parents who have lost a child, why place it in happy Menominee Park? Why not place this in a local cemetary - a site dedicated to serving as a memorial for exactly this sort of thing?

3. If they can put a statue in the park, can I?? We could put a memorial for all of the innocent Native Americans that the white man massacred. Afterall, this is a park named for a Native American Tribe and somewhat dedicated to Chief Oshkosh.

4. After a year and a half, why does the mayor decide to finally take a stand? And on an issue like this?

5. Why didn't any of the counsel members who stated "they would ask the tough questions" not even ask one question about this. Clearly at least to some degree placing a possible religious symbol on a public land would raise eyebrows.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/3/15/9466/19457

Daniel Akaka
Max Baucus
Byron Dorgan
Dick Durbin
Dianne Feinstein
Daniel Inouye
Jim Jeffords
Ted Kennedy
John Kerry
Herb Kohl
Mary Landrieu
Carl Levin
Joe Lieberman
Blanche Lincoln
Barbara Mikulski
Patty Murray
Jack Reed
Harry Reid
Jay Rockefeller
Chuck Schumer
Ron Wyden

" Unfortunately, the president being censured was Bill Clinton, not George W. Bush. Because, you know, these senators had their priorities straight."

This Saturday, March 18 will be a large rally for peace in Stevens Point. The weekend marks the 3rd anniversary of the Iraq War, with nearly 3,000 U.S. Soldiers killed and more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians killed. The rally begins at 11:30am with speakers and music, followed by a march through downtown at 1pm. More to follow.

Those planning on going should meet between 9:15 and 9:30am on Saturday March 18 outside the Winnebago Peace and Justice Center, 321 Market St (next to Water City Grille) for car-pooling. (note - this is only a meeting point for those interested in going. If you are planning on driving, stop by to see if anyone needs a ride. There is no guarantee that anyone will be there to drive).

About the event: Indoor rally at 11:30 at PJ Jacobs Middle School. March downtown Stevens Point at 1, Peace Fair at 3 and concert at Mission Coffee House at 5. Come hear Bonnie Block-recent trip to Iran, Military Families Speak Out, Raging Grannies from Madison. Check out www.peacenorth.org for specific directions & schedule.

For additional information about possible rides, contact Constance Kanitz at ckanitz@new.rr.com

" National Democratic leaders are hyping their prospects, predicting their melodrama's popularity will skyrocket their party back into take-charge majorities on both sides of Capitol Hill.

But sneak previews I've seen of performances the national party intends to showcase are scenes from a real horror show. Call it 'Throwback Mountain'

What an unwelcome sequel. Remember who controlled Congress and the White House in 1993 when the Don't Act, Don't Tell ban passed, slapping every gay patriot in the face? Democrats. And when the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act breezed into law in 1996? The Dems controlled the presidency.

Now the national Democrats' 2006 marquee is ablaze with the names of carefully selected stars. Notably missing from the party's spotlight are candidates who embrace gay marriage; their ranks include strong gubernatorial contenders in two of the largest states, New York and California. So who is cast in leading roles?

Newly elected Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine, a vocal opponent of gay marriage, was tapped to give the Democratic response to Bush's State of the Union address.

Tennessee's Rep. Harold Ford, boosted by national Democrats for a Senate seat being vacated by the GOP, brags of voting in favor of amending the U.S. Constitution to outlaw gay marriage.

The Democrat recruited by the national party to challenge deeply prejudiced Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Bob Casey Jr., boasts, "The values I live by call on me to fight discrimination wherever I find it." Only trouble is, he doesn't find discrimination when he sees gay couples prevented from protecting themselves and their children by marrying.

And, of course, there will be plenty of cameo appearances by Sen. Hillary Clinton, who is quick to point out she supports the Defense of Marriage Act. The party's leading lady sees nothing wrong with a federal law that keeps elderly gay partners from getting Social Security survivor benefits.

Read entire article:
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060313/OPINION03/603130315/1272

In a press conference on the steps of the Capitol Monday, Congressional Democrats announced that, despite the scandals plaguing the Republican Party and widespread calls for change in Washington, their party will remain true to its hopeless direction.

"We are entirely capable of bungling this opportunity to regain control of the House and Senate and the trust of the American people," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said to scattered applause. "It will take some doing, but we're in this for the long and pointless haul."

"We can lose this," Reid added. "All it takes is a little lack of backbone." - the Onion 2/27/06


Read the rest of the Onion's piece here.

"A disastrous crude-oil spill on Alaska’s North Slope over the weekend has environmental groups renewing calls to stop the expansion of oil exploitation in the state.

...BP’s Prudhoe Bay operations have a leaky history. In 2003, the Anchorage Daily News reported on a leak discovered by BP workers that had possibly gone undetected for months, expelling around 6,000 gallons of oil and oily water into the environment. In June 2002, ADEC had fined BP $150,000 for failing to install a leak-detection system on its crude oil transmission pipelines in the Prudhoe Bay area, according to news reports from that time. In 2001, BP spilled thousands of gallons of oil into a freshwater lake. But according to the Anchorage Daily News, ADEC said that leak may have continued for days before detection by workers. " - by NewStandard Staff

Continue reading The NewStandard's piece "Alaska Oil Spill Exposes ‘Gentle Drilling’ Problems"

800 mile-long Trans Alaskan Pipeline

"Efforts to restore the death penalty in Wisconsin advanced further Tuesday than at any time in the last seven decades, as the Republican-controlled state Senate voted to put an advisory referendum on the ballot in September." Wisconsin State Journal

"Here is the wording of the proposed resolution on the death penalty adopted by the state Senate Tuesday. If the Assembly concurs, the following question will appear on the ballot for the Sept. 12 primary:

"Should the death penalty be enacted in the State of Wisconsin for cases involving a person who is convicted of first- degree intentional homicide, if the homicide is vicious and the conviction is supported by DNA evidence?" Wisconsin State Journal

"Sen. Carol Roessler, R-Oshkosh, said that those who would be executed have been tried, found guilty and exhausted numerous appeals. "I believe there needs to be a death penalty for individuals who have committed vicious, violent, premeditated first-degree homicide. The death penalty is about justice," she said, adding that two-thirds of her constituents favored the death penalty." Capital Times

"... the only just punishment for the barbarian and inhumane actions of a murderer is the death penalty,” - Mark Green, WiscPolitics

"... I believe that human life is a gift from God, and deserves protection." - Mark Green, Announcement Speech

The Local Opinion recently wrote this piece on a 2004 grotesque animal abuse case in Junction City. The farm's owners are facing trail now.

"... The box stall was several feet deep in manure. There was no bucket of water and no feed. The small yearling was grossly underweight. All his ribs were showing. ... The two other box stalls contained a starving haflinger gelding and a mustang mare that had eaten four of her barn boards trying to fill the void in her stomach. Her condition was grave."

Read on here.

In a secret Oshkosh residence, future republican leaders met to discuss the future of the party and determine what the next joke legislation will be once the Gods Gays and Guns fad has waned.

The Legislature currently has a bill floating around to repeal a Wisconsin law that restricts the construction of nuclear plants in the state. According to Clean WI, current law requires that there is a federal repository available to dispose of nuclear waste; and the cost to construct and operate a new nuclear plant is economically advantageous for ratepayers.

Clean WI continues:

""By 2010, the volume of nuclear waste in the U.S. is expected to exceed storage capacity at the still unlicensed nuclear waste dump in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. If new reactors are constructed or if existing reactors are re-licensed, it is certain that the federal government will again investigate the granite underlying the Wolf River area as a permanent storage site for the nation’s nuclear waste, as it did in the 1980s. Nuclear power plants generate a waste that is so toxic that it must be isolated from the environment for thousands of years. More than a half-century after the nuclear power industry began, a solution for high level nuclear waste disposal has still not been found.""

Read AB 1053 HERE

Ohio State Senator Fires Back at Proposed Gay Adoption Ban Legislation

This memo was emailed from Senator Robert Hagan to his Ohio State Senate colleagues on Fri, Feb. 24, 2006. The source for this posting is topix.net, dated Saturday, Februay 24, 2006. Memo from Robert Hagan to Ohio State Senate To: All Senate Members From: Senator Robert Hagan Re: Co-Sponsorship Request Date: February 22, 2006 "I intend to introduce legislation in the near future that would ban households with one or more Republican voters from adopting children or acting as foster parents. Policymakers in Columbus have ignored this growing threat to our communities for far too long. My legislation is modeled after a bill recently introduced in the Ohio House by Rep. Ron Hood (R-Ashville via Carrollton), which would prohibit homosexual, bisexual and transgender people from adopting children. It is unclear at this point whether Rep. Hood supports my legislation, though I remain hopeful. Credible research exists that strongly suggests that adopted children raised in Republican households, though significantly wealthier than their Democrat-raised counterparts, are more at risk for developing emotional problems, social stigmas, inflated egos, an alarming lack of tolerance for others they deem different than themselves, and an air of overconfidence to mask their insecurities. In addition, I have spoken to many adopted children raised in Republican households who have admitted that, ``Well, it's just plain boring most of the time.'' In fact, one adopted child raised in a fiercely partisan Republican household in suburban Cincinnati described his upbringing as ``18 years of hellish terror.'' ``A nightmare I haven't yet awoken from,'' said a 25-year-old Republican adoptee that chose to remain nameless. If you are interested in co-sponsoring this legislation, please feel free to contact my office." For more on this story: www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/nation/13945272.htm

All Good Politics Are Local
By Jim Hightower, Hightower Lowdown.

What an embarrassment our national government is. Mired in the sickening muck of corrupt corporate money and right-wing ideology, our so-called leaders continue to divert our public treasury and our nation's unlimited potential for good into war, into the pockets of the superrich, into the self-serving whims of greedheaded corporate executives, into a rising police state, into the careless desecration of nature … into waste.

Then why am I laughing, why am I almost giddy with optimism about where we're heading? You might say, That's an easy question, Hightower; you're either stupid or insane. Indeed, I know a few leaders of progressive groups based in Washington who have been drained of all optimism. Looking at the national scene, they share Woody Allen's despairing observation: "We stand today at a crossroads: One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other leads to total extinction. Let's hope we have the wisdom to make the right choice."

Luckily, however, my work is not based in Washington, and my frequent travels allow me to be in touch with a grassroots America that's unabashedly progressive and on the move.

Read the rest of the article here.

Senators who did not vote for the Patriot Act renewal: Feingold of Wisconsin, Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., Byrd of West Virginia, Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye (not voting) of Hawaii, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Carl Levin of Michigan, Patty Murray of Washington and Ron Wyden of Oregon.

Note the absence of WI Senator Herb Kohl from the list,.

To learn more about the Patriot Act, visit the ACLU's Myths and Realities About the Patriot Act page.

Also, read about John Adam's old version of the PATRIOT Act back in 1798. Rather interesting.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Crude oil spilled Thursday from a pipe transit line at Prudhoe Bay on Alaska's North Slope, and dangerous fumes were preventing crews from cleanup work.

The oil could be seen on the snow-covered tundra more than 200 miles (322 kilometers) east of Barrow. Alaska Department of Conservation spokeswoman Lynda Giguere said the oil was pooling on the frozen ground.

The cause of the spill, discovered early Thursday morning by BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. operators, had not been determined and it was unclear how much oil had spilled. The line carries finished, salable crude oil that eventually would find its way to the trans-Alaska pipeline, Giguere said.

The BP-operated transit line was between a gathering center and a pump station in Prudhoe Bay's western operating unit. Gathering centers separate oil from water and other materials that come out of the ground during drilling.

BP safety personnel said high levels of volatile fumes were detected coming from the spilled oil by air monitors. A spill response team was kept away from the site until safety officials determined levels were safe.

DEC approved the use of vacuum trucks to remove oil once site access was deemed safe. Weather was expected to help with cleanup efforts with cold temperatures causing the crude oil to "gel up," Giguere said.

March 03, 2006 — By Dan Joling, Associated Press

Pic from a previous Prudhoe Bay Oil Spill

In response to the decision by the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Hosty v. Carter, the The Student Press Law Center (SPLC) is urging public colleges and universities in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin to sign the following freedom of press statement:


The Chancellor at the University of Wisconsin Platteville signed on back in Novemeber.

SPLC Continues:

"The Student Press Law Center will publish the names of public schools in the Seventh Circuit that have recognized their student media as designated public forums as well as those that have not. The SPLC will periodically send the list of schools that have refused to issue such a statement (or who have ignored a request to do so) to state and national high school media organizations and will actively discourage high school students from attending a college or university that will not commit to supporting press freedom.

If you are on a public college or university campus in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin and would like your school added to the list of those that do recognize press freedom, please send us the following information:

1) A copy of a signed statement from a school administrator that one or more named student news organizations on your campus are operating as designated public forums where student editors have authority to determine the content without advance approval.

2) If not clear from the above, the name and title of the official who signed the statement and the date it was approved.

3) Your name, title, telephone number and e-mail address. Send the information to the SPLC via e-mail or by regular mail to:
Adam Goldstein, Legal FellowStudent Press Law Center1101 Wilson Blvd., Suite 1100Arlington, VA 22209-2275""

"Roll call: The Assembly voted 62-31 Tuesday in favor of a constitutional amendment that would restrict the legal definition of marriage to being between a man and a woman. The measure now goes to voters statewide in November."

• Democrats "aye" (6):Hubler, Krusick, Staskunas, Van Akkeren, A. Williams, Ziegelbauer.

• Republicans "nay" (1):Underheim.

"aye" means they voted in favor of the constitutional amendment