"My grandfather was a little old Italian immigrant that peddled fruit with a horse and wagon," he said in a statement. "He would go every morning to buy his produce on commission row. My father tells a story that my grandfather would always open the wooden crates to examine the merchandise before he bought it. The guys at the commission houses would hate this and give my grandfather a hard time. So one day my father asked my grandfather why he continually opened the crates when he knew it would aggravate the people. My grandfather replied, 'I don't buy cats in a bag. I want to know what I'm getting.'"

With no substantial drawings, plans or preliminary legwork done yet for a new building, Sanfelippo noted that cost overruns could be a problem.

County Supervisor Toni M. Clark, Chairperson of the County Board's Economic & Community Development Committee, gave three reasons for a new complex:

• "Milwaukee County taxpayers should not be stuck with a building that has attracted no other interested buyers or lessees. ... A new County-owned facility in the County Grounds gives us much more flexibility. A long-term lease at St. Mike's could have backed taxpayers into a corner down the road."
• "It makes sense to build a new facility in a central location, especially one that is in close proximity to the critical mass of major medical institutions in the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center."
• "We will have the ability to construct a new facility to meet our needs and develop property that will have lasting value. We do not want to be left with a building that has no buyers."

Wolf Fever: One would think a group calling itself the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation would protect all things wildlife. In light of a federal court ruling that put the grey wolf in Wisconsin back on the endangered species list, the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation has asked for an appeal.

A court ruled last week that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service misinterpreted the Federal Threatened and Endangered Species Act when it de-listed the grey wolf from the protection of the act in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Now, it's protected again.

There are between 539 and 590 wolves in Wisconsin, which naturalists from WWF contend is 100 more than the goal.

"The over-goal populations of wolves in Wisconsin are causing significant depredation to livestock operations and dogs owned by hunters and landowners in Wisconsin wolf range," stated Chuck Matyska, chair of the WWF's Endangered Species Committee. "This is the second time that the Federal Courts have intervened in the delisting of the gray wolf in these states and population levels are causing serious management problems."

Former state Department of Natural Resources chief George Meyer is the WWF executive director.