From the July 10, 2011 CSI Walworth County Sunday "The Way we see it" column:

Headed by Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court certainly is excessively partisan. The past three months alone have featured reports of name-calling, a physical confrontation in the Capitol and Abrahamson’s blistering budget-repair dissent that was, in part, an unseemly personal attack on Justice David Prosser.

For a much longer period of time, the political and pundit classes have expressed concern about the partisan nastiness of high court races that now attract large amounts of special-interest money. Most recently, Prosser survived a vicious union-led challenge that would have given a new liberal majority the ability to undo key aspects of Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s legislative agenda.

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From the July 3, 2011 CSI Walworth County Sunday "The Way we see it" column:

And so, it’s come to this in the Badger State. After enduring months of political turmoil punctuated by death threats, vandalism, an illegal union occupation of the Capitol, obnoxious work stoppages that closed public schools and the unseemly decamping of Democratic senators to Illinois resorts, Wisconsin residents now learn that the acrimony might well have incited violence among state Supreme Court justices.

Conservative Justice David Prosser, who survived a tawdry union-funded re-election challenge in April, stands accused by liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley of choking her last month during a dispute over a ruling on landmark legislation curtailing collective bargaining by public employees. Prosser denies the allegation — police were still investigating at press time — and so, the circus surrounding Gov. Scott Walker’s attempt to de-fang public-sector unions has a new sideshow.

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From the June 26, 2011 CSI Walworth County Sunday "The Way we see it" column:

It’s difficult to imagine a more painful  Father’s Day than the one endured by David and Marilyn Kreinz of Beloit. On a day when most dads enjoy the loving embrace of their children, David Kreinz learned that his oldest son had died the day before, some 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan.

Tyler Kreinz, a U.S. Army Specialist and tanker, died June 18 in a roll-over accident while serving with the Army’s 4th Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment of the 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. The circumstances of the accident were not known at press time.

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From the June 19, 2011 CSI Walworth County Sunday "The Way we see it" column:

Here are excerpts from recent editorials in American newspapers:

It’s been more than two years since the Democrat-led Senate last passed a budget, a fact that puts it squarely in violation of the law. So when will the arrests begin?
We say that only partly tongue in cheek, because the refusal of Democrats in Congress to pass a budget or take meaningful steps to head off our looming fiscal disaster is nothing short of a national disgrace. ...

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From the June 12, 2011 CSI Walworth County Sunday "The Way we see it" column:

As the Obama administration continues to inexplicably wring its hands over mere mention of the global war on Islamic terror — the war that dare not speak its name — it’s worth recalling a savage and decisive battle waged 69 years ago in the South Pacific.

The first months of 1942 were grim for the United States and its World War II allies. Hitler controlled Europe with a ruthless, cutting-edge war machine. Imperial Japan, meanwhile, had destroyed the heart of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor and conquered the Philippines, along with numerous other islands throughout the Pacific. But at Midway Island, an otherwise unremarkable atoll 1,200 miles west of Hawaii, U.S. forces beat back the Japanese advance and turned the tide of the awful war in the Pacific.

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From the June 5, 2011 CSI Walworth County Sunday "The Way we see it" column:

As the clamor to relax security at the Wisconsin Capitol continues — a mediator will help the Walker administration and public-employee unions resolve the dispute over access — we are reminded by yet another “educator” that safety, indeed, remains a concern for Republican legislators who dare take on government labor.

The threat of another illegal union occupation of the People’s House arguably has declined over time, but an atmosphere of intimidation remains, as caterwauling liberals continue to shower Republicans with shrieks of, “Shame, shame shame!” every time a disputed bill is passed, and as reports persist that aggrieved union members happily fantasize about the deaths of their political opponents.

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