Just settling into the Green Bay-Detroit football game (with accompanying war worship, natch):
"Detroit to slash 1,000 jobs soon" November 19, 2011|Associated Press
DETROIT - Detroit plans to cut 1,000 jobs by early next year to help deal with the city’s budget crisis and avoid the possibility of a state-appointed emergency financial manager, Mayor Dave Bing announced yesterday.
In a statement, the mayor’s office said that layoff notices will be delivered the week of Dec. 5. Bing said the cuts, which represent 9 percent of the city’s about 11,000 employees, will save about $12 million.
Merry Christmas.
“Solving our cash crisis requires a combination of concessions and tough cuts,’’ Bing said. “Layoffs will be strategic. We will limit the impact on residents, protecting core services like police and fire protection as much as we can.
“Our fiscal crisis will require everyone to share in the sacrifice. We need support from our residents to help push our unions, businesses, vendors, and elected officials to enact the common-sense changes we need.’’
What do you think the protests are about?
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"Foes begin effort to recall Wis. governor; Initiative fueled by collective bargaining law" November 15, 2011|By Scott Bauer, Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. - Political foes hoping to recall Governor Scott Walker over his moves to significantly curb union rights in Wisconsin planned a late-night rally and early morning pajama parties to officially kick off the effort.
Only problem is that Democrats are doing the same thing -- even in Massachusetts.
More than 100 events were planned across the state today to begin collecting the more than 540,000 signatures required to get a recall election on Wisconsin’s ballot next year. Supporters have until Jan. 17 to turn in signatures.
Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefsich and at least three Republican state senators also will be targeted for recall next year. Two GOP state senators lost their seats during recall elections in the summer.
“I fully anticipate there will be signatures collected in every single Wisconsin county,’’ said Mike Tate, chairman of the state Democratic Party. He said he hoped to collect at least 600,000 signatures by the deadline.
The recalls organized by Democrats, labor unions, and others, are largely motivated by Republicans’ adoption of a Walker-supported law that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for most public workers. Wrangling over the law this year spurred protests that grew as large as 100,000 people and motivated all 14 Democratic state senators to flee for three weeks in an ultimately vain attempt to stop the proposal.
They couldn't here that in Detroit?
Walker said yesterday that he remains focused on fulfilling his campaign promise to add 250,000 jobs by 2015, when the term he was elected to last year ends. He defended his record and said voters were ready to move forward and didn’t want to get stuck in an endless campaign cycle.
“We’ve made a lot of progress,’’ he said. “It’s a new day in Wisconsin.’’
Governors have only been recalled from office twice in US history, in North Dakota in 1921 and in California when voters removed Gray Davis from office in 2003.
Recall organizers hope to tap ongoing anger over the collective bargaining law and build on momentum from last week’s vote rejecting a similar law in Ohio.
See: Close Shaves in Ohio
Wisconsin doesn’t allow for a referendum challenging the law to be put on the ballot, so opponents targeted Walker and the three state senators.
“Any recall attempts filed will be nothing more than a shameless power grab by the Democrats and their liberal special interests, and will not deter Republicans from moving the state forward under responsible leadership,’’ Nicole Larson, a spokeswoman for the state Republican Party, said yesterday.
A march and rally is planned today for outside Walker’s private residence in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa. Organizers said they would gather petition signatures on the lawns of Walker’s neighbors. In downtown Madison, two Democratic state senators planned to circulate the petitions in a neighborhood they represent near the Capitol....
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Looks like Wisconsin is the winner.
