Historical Site Damage At Pabst Farms Echos Earlier Destruction

Call this chapter IX in our continuing series, The Road To Sprawlville:

Rare Native American effigy mounds, some in the shape of panthers, have been damaged at Pabst Farms, the Journal Sentinel reports.

Turns out it's not the first time this has happened out Waukesha way. More on that through the links above.

One of the more astonishing dynamics in southeastern Wisconsin arises in Waukesha, where opinion-makers want Milwaukee resources - - land for freeways, water for development - - but are perfectly able to trash Milwaukee in print without seeing anything hypocritical or inconsistent or flat-out counterproductive when doing it.

If it were up to me, I'd throw this virulently anti-Milwaukee op-ed in The Waukesha Freeman, referenced here, back in the face of every politician, business leader, editorial writer or everyday citizen in Waukesha County when they came looking to Milwaukee for resources. 

Everytime.

Health care reform, an absolute necessity for Wisconsin and the rest of the country, is moving forward despite the opposition of the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.

And this effort to change the way the state does business, literally and figuratively, could also help guide additional changes in other state policies with the common good in mind.

The full argument is here.

Fiscal conservatives and small-government advocates will complain about just about every form of taxation and government spending in Wisconsin - - except bloated highway budgets.

From light rail to farmland preservation to health care, so-called fiscal conservatives routinely bash tax-supported programs, but the addition of more interstate highway lanes, despite soaring costs and dubious justifications, get a pass from many fiscal conservatives.

Shouldn't this raise the hackles of every tightwad in our supposedly-overtaxed state: a projected increase of at least 60%-to-70% to rebuild and add a lane to the southeastern Wisconsin freeway system from the Illinois border to the Milwaukee County border - - an extra $450 million?

That's the fiscal dynamite in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story about the next phase of the regional freeway construction schedule, once the Marquette Interchange project is finished in 2008: