Monthly Archives: January 2010

In the neighborhood: Fiesta Garibaldi busted for signs again

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The Department of Neighborhood Services cited Fiesta Garibaldi, 5106 W. Bluemound Rd., on Wednesday for having a temporary sign that covered more than 25% of a window pane and for failing to obtain a permit for a sign hanging outside.

This is not the first time Fiesta owner Valdemar Escobar, of Franklin, has tangled with the city over his signs. He was fined $668 earlier this month for essentially the same thing.

So, wonder who is paying the fines and what makes it worth it to Escobar to keep getting tickets.

Massachusetts

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The Democrats, faced with an absolutely critical race in Massachusetts to replace the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, start out by picking the wrong candidate: Martha Coakley.

Then they compound the error by running the worst major campaign in a long, long, long time.

Terrible.

Now will the Dems try to jam the health care votes in before Sen.-elect Scott Brown is sworn in?

Brewers vs. fans

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The Milwaukee Brewers are pushing for a law that would allow the Stadium District Board to establish a single area where fans could resell their tickets.

State Sen. Jim Sullivan (D-Wauwatosa) and a team of co-sponsors have obliged the Brewers by introducing a bill that would allow not only the Stadium Board to establish such an area, but also would allow any local government to do so, as well as the Lambeau Field football district and the Bradley Center.

It’s a bad bill. It gives the police and professional sports teams powers that they will selectively enforce against people who annoy them. If this bill becomes law, a fan will be acting illegally if he or she sells a ticket a neighbor at face value as they walk across the Miller Park stadium parking lot to go to a Brewers game together. The fan probably wouldn’t be busted for that. If, however, that fan is selling tickets for less than the Brewers charge, as does the man Jim Stingl wrote about, or if the fan ticks off a cop for some reason, that fan may well be looking at a $500 ticket.

This bill isn’t about protecting fans from harassment, as the Brewers claim. It’s about protecting major league profits.

This bill would take the Milwaukee Brewers’ (and other pro sports) business problem and use the police to solve it. It’s the wrong thing to do.

It’s called “free speech”

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We are in trouble when a local journalist suggests prosecutors should “throw the book” at a man based partly on the protest signs found in his garage. From Dan Bice’s column on Sunday:

When finally tracked down in his car outside his mother’s house, Hayes again refused to get out, according to the criminal complaint. Oak Creek police eventually opened the locked doors and found a number of homemade signs slandering officers.

“Sheriff (expletive) is Finished playing with balls,” read one sign, according to the complaint. Another one said, “God says All Pigs Should Have their Brain Beat Out of their head with a Hammer.” And one more: “Pigs Are Sick (expletive).”

Yeah, you’d expect prosecutors might throw the book at the guy.