This piece first published November 24, 2014, Debtwire Municipals
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Even with the State of New Jersey’s well-publicized problems, a USD 525m general obligation (GO) offering planned for after the holiday will see strong demand, said Mark J. Tenenhaus, director of municipal research at RSW Investments.
Photo: Tammy Baldwin addresses the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.. Baldwin would be the first openly gay senator if elected. / J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Female candidates often get support from women and related advocacy groups for their campaigns.
And when a candidate is female and gay? An entirely new demographic offers its support, said Dave Wegge, a political science professor at St. Norbert College in De Pere.
Diane Harrill helps make families.
The 49-year-old has given birth to nine children. But they’re not all genetically hers. She has five biological children, aged 13 to 30, and she has been a gestational carrier for four others. She calls the four her “surro-babies,” but doesn’t consider them her children.
“I love those babies, but not the way a mother loves a child,” Harrill said. “You love them, you think of them, but not every day. I think about what they’ll be when they grow up, just like my own kids. I remember their birthdays. But I don’t worry about them, because I know the parents. They were never mine.”
Gestational carriers bring embryos to term that are not genetically their own. The term “surrogate“ is commonly used in place of gestational carrier, but surrogates have genetic connections to the embryo.
The use of gestational carriers is up in recent years. Their numbers increased 13 percent in 2011 from the previous year, according to the most recently available data from the Society of Assisted Reproductive Technologies. The society says totals are up 99 percent since 2004.
Harill was first pregnant as a gestational carrier in 2004 when she was 41. Harrill’s sister-in-law introduced her to a couple unable to conceive, and Harrill says she had no reservations about carrying the child.
Excitment for $320 million jackpot creates lotto ticket demand in Green Bay.
—initially published March, 2013 at greenbaypressgazette.com
Mary Kay Bishop isn’t the average blue star mother.
Since her son, 1st Lt. Will Bishop, 24, enlisted, she’s made it her mission to ensure he and the men he serves with are given some reminders of home.
He started Army Ranger training after his University Wisconsin-Madison graduation, and Bishop has been sending packages filled with hundreds of cards, food, toiletries and other items since then. He is now second-in-command of a company with 150 people.
She spends several hours each week preparing the packages, and is prepared for months ahead.
“I don’t worry about me, because I know you’ll take care of me. I’m worried about my men.” she said her son told her before deployment.
“So I’m taking care of his men.”
—initially published March, 2013 at greenbaypressgazette.com
Jim Dietsche finished the Boston Marathon just 40 minutes before the chaos began.
Dietsche, his wife and their three children were less than a half-mile from the site of the explosions when they saw people rushing down Boylston Street, where the bombings took place, in hysterics.
ASHWAUBENON — Gov. Scott Walker, on his third stop in two weeks in the Green Bay area, said Thursday that recall-election politics are responsible for the state’s drop in private-sector job creation.
A report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released Thursday shows the state is ranked 44th in the nation for creating private-sector jobs. The data, which covers a year-long period that ended in September, shows a recent steady decline. Wisconsin ranked 42nd for the year that ended the previous quarter, and 37th in the quarter before that.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, said she is looking forward to today’s vote to expand background checks to more firearms purchases, but said getting those in place as well as other gun control restrictions will be a “process.”
The Senate is expected to vote today on a proposal that extends background checks to gun show and online sales, but the bill’s fate was uncertain until Wednesday, when Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., announced that compromise. Several senators, including Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, have threatened to filibuster any gun control bill.
Baldwin said she supports the bill, and the vote on background checks will open the door for discussion on other restrictions, like gun trafficking, an assault weapons ban, and limited capacity magazines.
A raise for the nation’s lowest earners has some support, but an increase may not have the intended effect of lowering the poverty rates.
Some businesses, economists and even workers question the effectiveness of a minimum wage increase.
Most everyone at Great Harvest Bread in De Pere earns more than the minimum wage, but with an increase of $1.75 an hour being proposed by the Obama administration, that probably would not be the case, said Brent Felchlin, manager of the bakery at 802 George St.
An increase would force him to “metaphorically tighten the labor belt to the tightest notch,” he said. “We’d be pushing people to do the best work they can as fast as they can, with an in-and-out philosophy. Labor is one of the things that can make or break a business.”
The idea of a doctor making a house call may seem too good to be true.
But some physicians deliver exactly that level of care to their patients.
Tom Zenner, a family medicine doctor for Bellin Health, is one of the physicians honoring the tradition. He said he’s “semi-retired,” but still sees about 15 patients a week, mostly seniors, in their homes or assisted living centers.
The Kewaunee doctor has been making the visits for about 32 years. When he started, “it just seemed like the right thing to do,” Zenner said.
The practice may be unique, but it saves money and allows health care providers to get more information about their patients than they would have during an office visit. It allows physicians to monitor a patient’s environment, assessing a number of factors, including risk, nutrition, obstacles and barriers.
MARIA AMANTE 