Watchdog.org - 2,000-plus turn out to ‘Celebrate Gov. Walker’ in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Reporter

WAUWATOSA — In spite of the bite of a cold Wisconsin January afternoon, supporters of Gov.Scott Walker turned out en masse at Hart Park here to rally the Republican troops in the shadow of a massive campaign targeting the embattled governor, his lieutenant and four GOP senators.

Some of the biggest names among Wisconsin Republicans showed up to offer their support at the“Celebrate Walker” rally, including former Gov. Tommy Thompson and former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann, his opponent in Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate race. The bitter rivals seemed to put aside their differences Saturday long enough for the Republican cause.

Some pro-recall demonstrators turned out, too, leading to a few verbal clashes but “few problems” and no arrests, according to Wauwatosa police.

A crowd estimated at more than 2,000, according to police, attended the event, virtually held in the governor’s backyard in the city he and his family call home.

The event, which brought out Walker supporters from around the state, took place five days after the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and liberal political action committee United Wisconsin turned in about 1.9 million recall signatures, by the party’s count — including more than 1 million in the effort against the governor.

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Click here to see video of rally 

Watchdog.org - Exclusive: New Jersey Prosecutors Employ 125 Double-Dipping "Retirees"

New Jersey Watchdog is reporting that county and state prosecutors in New Jersey employ 125 double-dipping “retired” law enforcement officers, a New Jersey Watchdog investigation revealed. 

The prosecutors’ double-dippers retired at an average age of 49 to collect both pension pay on top of their salaries.   The 125 employees include:

• 56 retired municipal and county officers who work for county prosecutors;
• 37 retired state police officers employed by county prosecutors;
• Nine retired municipal and county officers on the payroll of the state Attorney General’s Division of Criminal Justice; and
• 23 retired state officers who work as investigators and supervisors for DCJ and the Office of Attorney General, as first reported Dec. 6 by New Jersey Watchdog.

Collectively, they rake in $18.5 million a year — $8.6 million per year in retirement pay plus $9.9 million in salaries.  The average double-dipper currently receives nearly $148,000 per year — $79,000 in salary plus $69,000 in pension pay.

The story, along with New Jersey Watchdog’s list of  “retired” officers working for prosecutors, is available by clicking here.  

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Watchdog.org - Phoenix Labor Union Targets Former Trustee Who Questioned How Taxpayer Money is Spent

Mark Flatten 
Goldwater Institute 

Natasha Nimer had a simple question: As a trustee in a local labor union representing City of Phoenix employees, did she have a duty to check the books of a taxpayer-funded insurance account it managed?

So she asked the executive board of AFSCME Local 2960. The response was an emphatic “no.”

She dropped the matter and thought it would end there.

She was wrong.

In the months that followed, union officials tried to strip Nimer of her duties as a trustee and steward. They tried twice to force her out of AFSCME, only to have the international headquarters order her reinstated.

Eventually union executives went after Nimer’s job as a civilian employee in the Phoenix Fire Department. They demanded her city phone records, personal and work-related emails, disciplinary files and performance evaluations; even a list of all of the Web sites she had visited. They wanted her computers seized and the hard drives searched for evidence she was doing something wrong.

The insurance fund Nimer asked about is one of many taxpayer-funded benefits worth millions of dollars that Phoenix provides to the seven labor unions that represent city workers with no accountability. The salaries of top union officials are paid by taxpayers. So are other cash benefits paid directly to the unions. Yet the city does not audit union accounts or require union officials to document how the time and money is spent.

Read More at Goldwater Institute 

Watchdog.org - State attorneys general rake in trial lawyer cash, dole out contracts

We wanted to share with you the below story from Watchdog.org. Feel free to repost on your website or blog. 

By Bill McMorris 

ALEXANDRIA — Trial lawyers have turned campaign contributions to attorneys general into lucrative contracts through class action lawsuits and no-bid contracts, according to a new report.

For more than 10 years, attorneys general in all 50 states have raked in millions in campaign donations from plaintiff lawyers. Some of those officials have awarded contracts to donors to represent government entities in multibillion dollar lawsuits, according to a new report from the Manhattan Institute, a conservative advocacy group based in New York.

States have turned to civil courts to punish polluters, investment firms and pharmaceutical companies to recover taxpayer money. The most notable class action involving state governments came in 1998 when cigarette manufacturers agreed to send more than $200 billion to states during a 25-year period to compensate for medical costs associated with smoking. Plaintiff attorneys took home more than $30 billion in that case.

In many cases, attorneys general contract out similar class action lawsuits to private trial lawyers, who earn a percentage of money won in civil trial or settlement. The legal community has opened up its wallets for the attorneys general, who control the purse strings on contracts.

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Watchdog.org - COMMENTARY: Unions go all in, lose big

By Kevin Binversie

Thirty million dollars doesn’t buy what it used to.

After months of campaigning, weeks of television ads and a fabricated grassroots effort never before seen in state political history, all Democrats in Wisconsin are left with is being now one seat shy of having the majority in the state Senate after winning two of the three recall elections Tuesday. If there is moral victory for Democrats, it is hard find.

The goal was control of the state Senate, and they didn’t get it. Last night was the main event, and no amount of political spin can say the efforts of Wisconsin Democrats weren’t from a lack of resources.

Of the two state Senate seats the Democrats did capture, they were the easy ones to predict. La Crosse’s Dan Kapanke was in trouble from the moment the recall movement began by simply being a Republican in a Democratic district. Fond du Lac’s Randy Hopper was bogged down by the implosion of his personal life that became public knowledge, yet he scratched and clawed back to a two-point loss.

I don’t know about you, but I have yet to meet a political consultant who believes little old ladies who go to church every Sunday are going to vote for any politician they believe abandoned his wife for a younger woman.

Read More at WisconsinReporter.com