Planning to Bail: Fueled by recent editorials and opinion pieces questioning Milwaukee County's presence in and payments to the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, three aldermen proposed this week to have the county opt out of the planning body. SEWRPC is made up of representatives from the seven area counties which pay the body to function based on tax base.

Noting that the City of Milwaukee has no representatives on the 21-member commission, Alds. Robert Bauman, Jim Bohl and Nic Kovac call the commission's actions as "taxation without representation."

Their resolution to punt from SEWRPC asserts that Milwaukee County represents over 47 percent of the region's population, but in total has only 14 percent of the votes on the commission and also pays 33 percent of the commission's operating budget. The City of Milwaukee, with 30 percent of the region's population, has no vote.

The lengthy resolution also notes that SEWRPC, with its offices in Pewaukee, employs mainly people from the suburbs and thus has a suburban focus, "giving Milwaukee County and City of Milwaukee residents little 'bang for the buck' from their SEWRPC contributions."

That point of contention was long an argument from the office of former Mayor John Norquist, who would likely also be quick to point out that there were no minorities working at the commission offices, either.

The three aldermen suggest that Milwaukee County forms its own regional planning commission made up of Milwaukee County, as Dane County has done.

Heartless Employer Update: Residents of Niagara will see their town's jobless rate screech up more exponentially and sooner than they had planned. NewPage paper mill announced earlier this month that it will close the plant along the Menominee River in July. It is by far the city's largest employer.

Now, NewPage announced this week that it will close at the end of this week, violating the state's 90-day "notice to close" law. The company also said it was considering selling the plant, which could offer hope to the community.

Blast From the Past: Stan Gruszynski, who has become something of a perennial candidate since leaving the state Legislature in 1994 after 10 years, will attempt to regain his seat this fall.

Gruszynski, a former Marinette County farmer, has since run for Congress twice and head of the state Democratic Party, too. Gruszynski, 59, is known as one of the state's more progressive and populist-minded pols and has been a regular feature of the "Fighting Bob Fest" held in fall in Sauk County.

He'll run against two-term Republican incumbent Jeffrey Mursau of Crivitz. The 36th Assembly District includes all of Forest, Florence and Menominee counties as well as parts of Shawano, Oconto and Marinette counties. That's an area of the state growing desperate for progressive voices.