Jonathan Rosenblum's News Articles

Judicial Commission Charges Supreme Court Justice with Three Ethics Violations

In the nearly 40 years since Wisconsin created an ethics panel to try judges for misconduct, charges had been filed only twice against members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Justice David Prosser became the third on March 16, when the Wisconsin Judicial Commission announced that wrapping one's hands around the neck of another justice would establish probable cause of judicial misconduct. Under normal procedures, the complaint would now go to a three judge panel picked by the Court of Appeals who would then make a recommendation to the Supreme Court itself for final action. However, in his most recent move, Prosser has demanded his fellow justices recuse themselves from any final action.

Scott Walker's New Job: Governer

Even before a recall election prompted by some 1 million Wisconsin residents has been scheduled, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has given himself a new job. In an email to constituents on March 2, he changed his title from Governor to "Governer."

The error was discovered by Madison disc jockey Nick Nice, who wrote in a Facebook message: "Actual screen shot from Walker's latest email. I don't even think Bush would have misspelled 'President.' Wow."

Earlier in the year, a Walker press release misspelled his hometown of Delavan, Wisconsin. It is unlikely that Wisconsin teachers, who lost the right to bargain for such matters as health insurance, working conditions and pensions under Walker, will provide the remedial spelling classes needed.

Wisconsin Protesters Celebrate First “Palm Tuesday”

It was just another balmy-frigid February 28 for Andrea Musher. She stood outside the Wisconsin State Capitol with a green parasol, a pink frangipani, and a sign with palm fronds rising forth.

Madison's former poet laureate, Musher was one of about 25 protesters who gathered on what they called "Palm Tuesday" to celebrate the emergence of a new Wisconsin state tree, which could be dubbed the "O'Reilly Palm."

The event commemorated the anniversary of the day Fox News ran video of violent "Wisconsin" protesters, with palm trees waving in the background. Musher's palm was intended to help people understand that Fox "pretends to be a news source. Instead they are a source of propaganda and fabrication."

Heartland Institute: Hoist With its Own Petard

It was not a happy Valentine's Day for the Heartland Institute's climate change denial campaigns. First, Heartland's plans for a $75,000 K-12 reeducation curriculum to turn America's children into climate change deniers was leaked to the DeSmog Blog along with Heartland's fundraising plan, which reveals support from the Charles G. Koch Foundation and a "free Koch summer intern."

Tracking the Front Group "Boomerang"

Corporate front groups can cause a "boomerang effect" to their sponsors, damaging the reputations of companies like ExxonMobil, Merck, and PepsiCo, when the sponsor's role in misrepresenting issues is widely revealed.

Fast Food Nation Interview: Eric Schlosser On Obesity, Kids, and Fast Food PR

When PR Watch most recently caught a cell phone signal from Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and the new Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food, Schlosser was rushing from car to car in New York City, after London, which was just after Berkeley, where he was giving students a preview of the indie film version of "Fast

As School Doors Open, Food and Beverage Industries Rush In

Ah, the sounds of School Year 2006-2007: the clatter of coins going down the pop machines to let loose a POWERade or an aspartame-sweetened diet soda -- maybe even a bottle of juice or milk. The rip of a new box of "reduced-sugar" Fruit Loops (or Frosted Flakes or Apple Jacks) at breakfast.

Did Sister Ruth Neglect to Reflect on McDonald’s?

I first met Sister Ruth Rosenbaum at the University of Wisconsin’s Living Wage Symposium in 1999. Her Hartford-based Center for Reflection, Education and Action (CREA), established in 1995, had produced impressive reports on miserable wages and working conditions in Haiti and Mexico, and I soon assigned them to students in my course on global sweatshops.

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