The Daily Tribune from Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin • Page 4

Tuesday, March 1, 2011 NewsLetters 4A Daily Tribune, Wisconsin Rapids State Notes Obama: Flexibility OK, but health law stays 1 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS President Barack Obama speaks during a bipartisan meeting of governors Monday in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. away union protections, saying: "I don't think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified, or their rights are infringed upon." Wisconsin's governor, Scott Walker, was not at the White House but rather in his home state as a nationally watched budget showdown rolled on. He called for Democratic lawmakers to return to the state by today and vote on his bill that would end most collective bargaining rights for public employees as part of a plan to plug a $3.6 billion shortfall. Governors in Washington responded tepidly to Obama's pledges of flexibility on the health care law, which requires Americans to buy health insurance or pay a penalty beginning in 2014. "Oklahoma wants to do Oklahoma's own plan," said the state's Republican governor, Mary Fallin.

Asked whether Obama's plan was flexible enough, she said: "Well see." By Ben Feller The Associated Press WASHINGTON Anxious to ease deepening political tensions with the states, President Barack Obama on Monday told governors he wants to speed up their ability to enforce his signature health care law on their own terms. But his concession goes only so far He warned he won't allow states to weaken the law. He also told them not to vilify their own states' public workers while struggling with spending cuts. Hosting governors of both parties on his own turf, Obama offered them what they often request: more flexibility as they cope with painful budget dilemmas. Declaring that he would "go to bat for whatever works," Obama supported letting states propose their own health care plans by 2014 three years faster than the current law allows.

Yet this would be no change to the fundamental requirements of a fed- Last living U.S. veteran of World War levels of government grapple with huge economic pressures. The yearly gathering of the president and the state chief executives came as budget disputes are roiling, most notably in Wisconsin, where dramatic protests have raged for days. Calling for shared sacrifice, Obama said public workers understand they must absorb their share of budget cuts. But he delivered a sharp message to governors seeking to strip and family spokesman David DeJonge on a biography.

"We were always asking ourselves: How can we represent this story to the world?" DeJonge said Monday. "How can we make sure World War I isn't forgotten." Buckles asked his daughter, Susannah Flanagan, about progress toward a national memorial every week, sometimes daily. "He was sad it's not completed," DeJonge said. "It's a simple straightforward thing to do, to honor Americans." When asked in February 2008 how it felt to be the last survivor, Buckles said FORMER STATE SENATOR DIES AT AGE 86: Former state Senator Richard "Dick" Kreul, of Fennimore, has died at age 86. Kreul served in the state Senate mom 1978 until 1991.

He was later appointed by former Gov. Tommy Thompson to serve in the Department of Labor and Human Relations. Before serving in the Senate, Kreul farmed in Fennimore after graduating from high school in 1941. The State Journal said he also owned the Antique Harness Shop in Fennimore. According to Larson Family Funeral Home, Kreul's funeral service is scheduled for 11 ajn.

Tuesday at the Fennimore United Methodist Church. STURGEON SEASON WRAPS UP: Wisconsin's sturgeon spearing season has ended after a full 16-day run. The state Department of Natural Resources said if the fourth season to last 16 days, with a typical season ending after 11 days when the fish harvest reaches the cap. This year, 1,426 fish were taken, most from Lake Winnebago. On Sunday, the closing day of the season, 25 sturgeon were taken from Lake Winnebago and three of them tipped the scales at more than 100 pounds.

Sturgeon biologist Ron Bruch told the Fond du Lac Reporter the sale of spearing licenses topped more than 12,000, compared with nearly 11,000 last season. 2 PEOPLE FOUND DEAD IN JANESVILLE BASEMENT: Two people were found dead in the basement of a multiunit residence in Janesville. Police said the man and woman lived at the residence. Their bodies were found Sunday afternoon after family members Voice your opposition to budget bill For those who express support for Gov. Walker's budget bill, they need to actually read it.

Not only would the bill essentially dismantle public employee's unions (with a mandate that states these unions cannot collect dues), but the bill would take away health insurance coverage for tens of thousands of state residents. The language in the bill pertaining to Medical Assistance is vague, but what is clear is that one form of BadgerCare will be completely obliterated. It is unclear whether it will be the Core program, Basic program, or traditional BadgerCare, but if you depend on this assistance, be prepared for some bad news. I dies at 110 simply, "I realized that somebody had to be, and it was me." Only two known veterans remain, according to the Order of the First World War, a Florida group whose members are descendants of WWI veterans and include Buckles' daughter. The survivors are Florence Green in Britain and Claude Choules in Australia, said Robert Carroon, the group's senior vice commander.

Choules, who served in Britain's Royal Navy, was born in that country but now lives in Australia. Green turned 110 on Feb. 19, and Choules turns 110 in March, he said. know what happened to both Enron and Gray Davis. Our governor is behaving like he wants to be recalled! If you wade through the 144 pages of the bill he is proposing, you will clearly see that there is something in there for everyone to hate.

I guess it is more proof that people do stupid things when they are high on Koch. KathyS. DeWitt Wisconsin Rapids asked officers to check on the couple. The Janesville Gazette reported that Rock County coroner's office pronounced the two dead at the scene. Police have not released any additional details.

MAKER OF ALCOHOL WIPES SUED BY TEXAS COUPLE: A Wisconsin company that makes alcohol wipes and swabs is being sued by a Texas couple who lost their 2-year-old son to a fatal bacterial infection. Shanoop and Sandra Kothari say an alcohol wipe made by Triad Group, of Hartland, was the likely source of the infection that killed their son, Harry, in November. Triad voluntarily recalled all its alcohol wipe products. The Kotharis' attorney, Donald Kidd, said the boy was exposed to Triad alcohol pads after he had a benign cyst removed from his brain. Kidd said the alcohol pads had bacteria contamination that caused the boy's death.

The Journal Sentinel reported that the lawsuit was filed in federal court in Houston. The Triad Group did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the lawsuit. STATE RATES CHILD CARE, FINDINGS ONLINE: About 3 percent ofWisconsin's approximately 7,400 regulated child care providers have been assessed by the state's new rating system. The state recently began rating child care centers and posting the results online. Critics say the rating system, called YoungStar, relies too heavily on the education of teachers instead of how children are doing in their care.

Supporters say the ratings appropriately reward centers that work to become accredited. The Associated Press I have written my own letter to Walker asking for reform of the entire program, so that no one group of people winds up lacking health care. I am sure that most would be willing to pay higher premiums and co-pays. They could double the premiums for most of the people enrolled, and the state would come out ahead, and we wouldn't huge numbers of people without insurance. When a person doesn't have insurance, that person is forced to rely on private hospital programs.

When that happens, the costs of the uninsured is picked up by everyone else, as a hospital or clinic must then charge more for services. It is a backdoor tax. If you don't like hidden taxes, then you should not like this situation. Write Scott Krug to voice your opposition to Senate Bill 11. Jennifer Dolan Wisconsin Rapids Contact us for more details.

715-423-8100 www.papercitysavings.com Locations In Wisconsin Rapids and Nekoosa 7 Letters eral law that has divided the nation and prompted about half the states to try to overturn it through lawsuits. To gain new powers, states would first have to convince Washington that their plans would cover as many people, provide equally affordable and comprehensive care and not add to the federal deficit. More broadly, Obama sought to send a message both cooperative and pointed as leaders at all AP FILE PHOTO Frank Buckles, the last living U.S. veteran of World War died early Sunday of natural causes in his home in Charles Town, W.Va. comrades, prodding politicians to support a national memorial in Washington and working with friend civilian skews my thinking.

In my job, I worked alongside military personnel. In 36 years, I never heard a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine suggest he might have to take some job issue up with his union rep. Instead, most of the mihtary people I worked with felt they were well treated. If I were to point out some unfairness, they would probably shrug their shoulders and say, "Well I volunteered for this." As a civilian, I felt much the same in addition, I could quit if I chose. My wife, on the other hand, was a high school teacher in the state to our south.

There was a union in her school, but membership was not mandatory. She chose not to join. My dad would say that we need to follow the money to figure out situations like this. So, where does the union money go? Apparently it goes in circles from unions to elected officials and back to unions with a lot tax dollars sucked into the process. From my warped perspective, unions seem to have duped us into paying them to pick our pockets.

Thomas V. Bee Nekoosa I -ii'-'MMiiniirim i in By Vicki Smith The Associated Press MORGANTOWN, W.Va. He didn't seek the spotlight, but when Frank Buckles outlived every other American who'd served in World War he became what his biographer called "the humble patriot" and final torch-bearer for the memory of that fading conflict. Buckles enlisted in World War I at 16 after lying about his age. He died Sunday on his farm in Charles Town, nearly a month after his 110th birthday.

He had devoted the last years of his life to campaigning for greater recognition for his former Why do public servants need unions? I lived away from Wisconsin for a long time. The better part of my adult life was spent in Washington, D.C. They say that the Washington experience tends to warp one's sense of reality. Perhaps that is what happened to me. I am a recovering bureaucrat, and I am confused.

Somewhere along the way, my friends back here in Wisconsin decided it would be a good idea to make their government workers join a union. This puzzles me. Were our elected officials treating them badly or underpaying them? Were our administrative heads under budgeting for pay and benefits? Were our civil service regulations inadequate and our elected officials too ignorant to fix them? Or, were the worker lobbies just not putting enough pressure on our elected officials? I truly do not understand why public servants need unions, or why we allowed them to organize. Perhaps my experience as a Department of Defense Plenty to dislike in governor's proposal Want to know what is in Senate Bill 11 besides union busting? How does a 100 to 200 percent increase in your electricity bill sound? That is what selling off public utilities and no-bid energy contracts will lead to. It did in California, and we all Letters Policy Send your letter by e-mail to editorwisconsinrapidstribune.

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