By Doug Hissom Special to OnMilwaukee.com Published Aug 29, 2007 at 5:16 AM

Gov. Jim Doyle’s headline grab in introducing an anti-crime package aimed at Milwaukee didn’t excite everyone.

Doyle’s plan focuses on gun regulations for the most part. It includes:

  • More monitoring of people who are prohibited from owning a gun.
  • A change in state law that prevents municipalities from enacting gun bans. That was passed shortly after Milwaukee held a referendum to bans guns, which failed miserably.
  • Keep guns from being sold at gun shows by dealers who don’t have federal dealing licenses.
  • Require all guns in the state to submit to ballistic fingerprints.
  • Deny guns to people who have been convicted of misdemeanors.
  • State Sen. Roger Breske (R-Eland) said the Guv was coming down too hard on legal gun owners. “The proposals he has made will do very little if anything to quell the violence that Milwaukee residents face. Instead these new proposals will only put more hurdles in front of law-abiding gun owners.”

School Makes the Grade: The state Department of Public Instruction banned 10 schools from participating in the school choice voucher program, but will still allow one school in the program that hadn’t paid it back taxes. The schools were banned for such reasons as failing to prove occupancy, lack of insurance or for not complying with orders for audits.

The schools were barred for a variety of reasons, such as failure to file a certificate of occupancy, lack of insurance or not submitting evidence of sound fiscal practices. They include: Xcellar8, Executive Kids Preparatory School, Joshua Elementary, The Young Women's Institute for Global Studies, Amazing Grace Christian Academy, Focus Academy, Ke'Laff's Academy of Children, SMI Early College Preparatory High School, Garden Homes Community Montessori School Inc. and Woodson Academy.

One school that wasn’t banned was Clara Mohammed, 317 W. Wright St., which was zapped with a federal tax lien for not paying $103,122 in income withholding last May. DPI officials at the time said the state would look into banning the school because state rules require schools to be current on its tax payments.

Chowing Down: Wisconsin is in the middle of the pack when it comes to fatness, reports the Trust for America's Health. The Badger state ranks 22nd in terms of adult obesity and 28th for overweight teens. Overall, 24.8 percent of the state’s adults are fat and 13.5 percent of teens are fat.

 

The fourth annual "F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America, 2007" report found that adult obesity rates rose in 31 states in the U.S. over the past year, and adult obesity rates now exceed 25 percent in 19 states. The rate of adult obesity increased in Wisconsin since last year. No state experienced a decrease.

Mississippi topped the list with the highest rate of adult obesity in the country for the third year in a row, and is the first state to reach a rate of over 30 percent (at 30.6 percent). Ten of the 15 states with the highest rates of adult obesity are located in the South. Colorado was the leanest state again this year, however, its adult obesity rate increased over the past year (from 16.9 to 17.6 percent).

The study also found:

  • 18.8 percent of adults in Wisconsin report that they do not engage in any physical activity. The national average is 22 percent.
  • Wisconsin is not one of 17 states that require their school lunches, breakfasts, and snacks to meet higher nutritional standards than the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requires.
  • Wisconsin is not one of 22 states that have set nutritional standards for foods sold in vending machines, a la carte, in school stores, or in bake sales in schools, and the state is not one of 26 states that limit when and where these foods may be sold on school property beyond federal requirements.
Doug Hissom Special to OnMilwaukee.com
Doug Hissom has covered local and state politics for 20 years. Over the course of that time he was publisher, editor, news editor, managing editor and senior writer at the Shepherd Express weekly paper in Milwaukee. He also covered education and environmental issues extensively. He ran the UWM Post in the mid-1980s, winning a Society of Professional Journalists award as best non-daily college newspaper.

An avid outdoors person he regularly takes extended paddling trips in the wilderness, preferring the hinterlands of northern Canada and Alaska. After a bet with a bunch of sailors, he paddled across Lake Michigan in a canoe.

He lives in Bay View.