Stimulus prattle: Arguing over stimulus funds continues to be a partisan affair with the state Democratic Party battling Milwaukee County Exec Scott Walker in a war of words. Walker said in an interview that he would sue the County Board if it wanted to use stimulus money.

That set Dem Party Chief Joe Wineke off. He says Walker has forbidden staff from applying for aid or new job projects for Milwaukee County as well as preventing staff from working with the new county task force or with the state Office of Recovery and Reinvestment on any efforts to restart the county's stalled economy.

"This is one of the most absurd crusades I have ever seen a politician embark on," he said.

Wineke claims the stimulus would create or save an estimated 12,000 jobs in Milwaukee County.

Playground pugilists: Fighting in the public schools has one state lawmaker exasperated. After a fight at Custer High School led to the arrests of six students and six adults, state Rep. Jason Fields said: "It is utterly ridiculous that adults are fighting with high school students on school grounds."

Field said he'll meet with Police Chief Ed Flynn and District Attorney John Chisholm, "to discuss what penalties exist and what measures can be taken to prevent adults from coming to school to fight kids."

Codes of conduct: The UW System Board of Regents heard from students concerned about efforts to discipline students for their off-campus behavior.

Kyle Duerstein, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student and a student member of the Chapter 17/18 review committee, cited four objections to the Regents:

• The proposed language is much more vague than the current version. The addition of such terms as "substantial university interest" make the protections for students laid out the current code much weaker and harder for students and administration to interpret.
• Off-campus discipline creates problems because students would face a double-jeopardy situation. "Any action by a student that might directly impact the safety of other students or the ability of the university to carry out its purpose would already be covered under state or federal code."
• "The elimination of the right to a hearing except under situations where the disciplinary action could be suspension or expulsion goes against both the revision committee's stated goals of making the process more educational and respecting the rights of the individuals involved," he said.
• The proposed code removes students' long-standing rights to have representation.

"There is a need to mend relationships between the community and students, but turning Chapter 17 into a tool with which to punish students arbitrarily, without due process, will not make university neighborhoods more peaceful," added United Council of University of Wisconsin Students University Affairs Director, Michael Moscicke.

Campaigning on corpses: Campaigning on the bodies of murder victims is in fashion in Madison these days. Nancy Mistele is running for Dane County exec and is using the murder of Brittany Zimmerman to further her cause. Mistele is running a radio ad that rips her opponent, incumbent Kathleen Falk, for the county's 911 call center's failure to respond to Zimmerman's call for help. The failure was covered up for a month by Falk, Mistele accuses.

Mistele's camp, citing a lawsuit filed by Zimmerman's parents, says a 2004 emergency response consultant instructed Falk to make improvements at the call center, or risk a "catastrophic" failure and that Falk failed to meet these recommendations.

Grant success for clean water: The Milwaukee Riverkeeper group was successful in its quest to get a $10,000 grant to beef up its voluntary water-monitoring program. The public cast votes and the top four groups received the grants from River Network and MillerCoors. The Milwaukee organization received 1,897 votes to finish in second place.