Walker avoids any connection to continuing Prison and Veterans blot on his governorship, no Photo ops tying him to utter Failure..

Only in Wisconsin media are following Scott Walker debacles considered "highlights," especially to the casual reader who's just happy with the sunshiny headline. I'll be honest, I'm not sure this wasn't a little tongue in cheek slap at Walker...I'm hoping it is....

Take for instance this list of "highlights" for his destruction of the environment...seriously? This is ready-made campaign copy for Walker's Democratic challengers:

Environment: Walker pledged to “continue to protect our natural resources.” He signed laws and rules that eliminated DNR scientist positions, delayed phosphorus pollution standards for lakes and streams, removed restrictions on large-scale withdrawals of ground water, withdrew tax support for state parks, and slowed purchase of conservation lands. His DNR reduced enforcement against polluters and poachers, removed information about climate change from its web site, and was criticized by state auditors for failing to follow its own water quality enforcement rules.

Or when Walker penalized Wisconsin hybrid and electric vehicle users, when he could have easily raised the gas tax, filling the transportation fund with cash from interstate drivers:

Transportation and infrastructure: Walker pledged to “work with the Legislature to come up with long-term funding options for” transportation. In three consecutive budgets, protracted negotiations have not yielded a long-term fix. Walker has opposed tax and fee increases, except a new fee on hybrid and electric vehicles. A recent legislative audit said 17 percent of state highways were rated in poor or worse condition in 2015, up from 7 percent in 2010.

 Walker avoids any connection to Prison and Veterans Blot on his Governorship: Governor Walker's union-busting Act 10 started the ball rolling at prisons and especially at the Lincoln Hills youth prison, and it's only gotten worse. But nothing will tie Walker to Lincoln Hills because he will never set foot in there or personally handle the problem:



Here's how Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Patrick Marley described it on WKOW's Capital City Sunday:

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1. Gov. Scott Walker recommends closing Ethan Allen School for Boys and Southern Oaks Girls School in southeastern Wisconsin and moving all juvenile offenders to the Lincoln Hills School for Boys campus in northern Wisconsin.

2. (Because of Act 10) many guards who were eligible to retire did so to avoid the 18% deduction from their paychecks or to work in unsafe conditions because the union contract and safety measures which had been negotiated no longer existed.

3. Judge writes to Walker about problems: A juvenile inmate is sexually assaulted and knocked unconscious by another inmate. A judge writes the governor about the staff waiting hours to get medical attention for the boy. No one is disciplined. 

4. A public defender in Milwaukee alerts officials about numerous problems, including that Lincoln Hills inmates have had their arms broken.

5. The state Department of Justice launches a criminal investigation of Lincoln Hills at the request of the Department of Corrections.
6. A John Doe probe is opened and a judge finds there is reason to believe a sweeping series of crimes have been committed. The John Doe phase of the investigation is closed around the time the probe is turned over to the FBI in 2016.

7. ACLU files lawsuit on behalf of four inmates, alleging their rights were violated at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake.

Walker's partisan hiring practice brings in divisive fired secretary...

2 years after firing, Scocos again appointed Wisconsin veterans secretary: In an Aug. 19 media release, the Disabled American Veterans of Wisconsin said that Scocos was an "extremely polarizing figure who raises extreme passion in the veterans community. He is not a unifying force, but a disruptive one," the statement read.

After transferring $10.3 million into the veterans fund in his first term, Walker promised to protect the Veterans Trust Fund while maintaining high-quality health care at veterans nursing homes. The state-run veterans home in King had its federal ratings downgraded in 2016 after a 94-year-old veteran died and federal reviews found multiple incidents of substandard care. A legislative audit found the state Department of Veterans Affairs had transferred $55 million from the home since 2003 and delayed about a third of the requested projects at King since 2011.