Wisconsin State Journal from Madison, Wisconsin • 3

A3 FRIDAY. MAY 20, 2011 LICHEN VS. PRIONS Research shows lichen could be used in fight against chronic wasting disease, page as Slums lawyers plead ease Blocking budget law within her power, they say is not immune from following that law. Rather than having the high court step in at this stage, Sumis lawyers wrote, the state should allow the case to run its course in circuit court and appeal after the courts final order is given. Having the Supreme Court take the case, they wrote, would require it to untangle legal underbrush that would be a largely academic exercise, at a time when the court and the state face very non-academic, practical tasks.

Also filing briefs Wednesday were Ozanne and lawyers for state Sen. Mark Miller, D-Madi-son, and state Rep. Peter Barca, D-Kenosha. Oral arguments are scheduled before the Supreme Court on June 6. ByEDTRELEVEN etrelevenmadison.com 608-252-6134 A Dane County judge did not abuse her discretion when she issued an order barring the state from implementing a law that strips most public workers of most of their collective bargaining rights, her lawyers wrote in a brief to the state Supreme Court.

The brief, written by lawyers for Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi, was among several filed late Wednesday in response to a petition to the high court last month by the state departments of Justice and Administration, asking tilG court to throw out Sumis order and take the case. Sumi issued the order in a lawsuit by Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne alleging a state legislative conference committee violated the states open meetings law in passing the bill March 9. The state agencies allege that Sumi exceeded her authority by issuing the order. In Sumis brief, lawyers Marie Stanton and Dean Strang also asserted that the conference Committee likely did violate the states open meetings law with its hastily convened meeting, in which it approved a stripped-down budget repair bill, then sent the bill on to the Assembly and Senate for votes. The measure passed and was signed by Gov.

Scott Walker. Sumis order, barring Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law and barring its further implementation, has kept the law in limbo since late March. Republican leaders in the state Legislature have discussed adding the measure to the biennial state budget for re -passage but say they will wait until June to see where the court battle stands. In their brief, Stanton and Strang wrote that Ozanne has the authority to seek an injunction for a violation of the open meetings law and that the Legislature HES A LITTLE GREEN BUT ON THE JOB ive-year-old Theo Hubanks appears to relish the rigors of yard work Thursday while assisting his mother with a grass-cutting project outside their West Lawn Avenue home in Madison. DOUQ Memories pour forth at the new Rennies hey opened a new Rennies in Madison this week, and Mary Jorstad wasnt about to miss it.

There she was Tuesday afternoon, seated at the counter, eating an ice cream sundae. Jorstad was eating ice cream, but she was remembering the professor who came into the soda grill Jorstad began managing 50 years ago in the Rennebohm Drug Store Rennies, as any true Madisonian will tell you at University and Randall avenues and made what Mary considered an unusual request. Gashouse eggs, the professor said. I dont know what that is," Jorstad replied. Jorstad, incidentally, is a lively 95.

The new Rennies Dairy Bar featuring organic Babcock Dairy ice cream and the malts, shakes and sundaes that made the original Rennies soda fountains and grills famous is located in the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery (WID). Because WID is located on the University-Randall comer where Oscar Rennebohm opened Rennebohm Drug Store in 1925, it made sense to put the Rennies name on the new WID soda fountain, operated by the Wisconsin Union. The Oscar Rennebohm Foundation gave its blessing. And who better to eat one of the first sundaes than the woman who once suffered an ailment called frozen shoulder because she spooned so much ice cream in the 25 years she ran the soda grill at what was called Rennies 1. In between bites of the sundae on Tuesday, Jorstad was talking about eggs.

He started to explain how to cook gashouse eggs, she said, recalling the hungry professor. I told him if he wanted them, he should come back behind the counter and make them himself. Jorstad was joined at the Rennies counter this week by her daughter and son-in-law, Lucille and Mike Werlein, and by Rennebohm Foundation president Steve Skolaski and Carl Korz, director of dining services at the Wisconsin Union. Jorstad grew up in Madison and graduated from Madison Central High School. She began her career at Rennies working as a waitress at the State and Lake street location known as the Pharm then in 1951 was named manager of the soda grill at Rennies 1.

Even though the Rennebohm Drug Stores which at one point totaled around 30 in Madison were sold to Walgreen Co. in 1980, longtime residents still talk about Rennies, many of them wistfully when it comes to the soda fountains. I had a college friend who could not start his day without a Rennies grilled Danish. A Rennies manager named Mary Jane Klinkner concocted a Hot Fudge Mary Jane sauce that gave an entire generation a sweet tooth. Today, the good works of the Rennebohm Foundation keep the name alive, and in 2008 the foundation gave a $3 million gift to Vilas Zoo in honor of all former Rennies employees.

Few worked longer or harder than Mary Jorstad. This week she was recalling getting to Rennies 1 around 5:30 a.m. for the 7 a.m. opening. Her friend Maddy Gentilli, who worked the grill, arrived about the same time.

Nobody made a better burger with Please see moe, Page A4 Reality of budget numbers not pretty City Council, mayor commit to involving the public early in process of setting priorities. By DEAN MOSIMAN dmosimanmadison.com 608-252-6141 Madison officials on Thursday offered more details on the citys budget challenge for 2012 and vowed to involve the public from the start in setting priorities. The city would need a $27.2 million tax increase more than the state levy limit allows to keep existing services and absorb potential cuts in state aid next year, Comptroller Dean Brasser said at a special meeting with Mayor Paul Soglin and the City Council. Such an increase would translate into a 15.2 percent tax increase $309.59 on the average $239,239 home, Brasser said. That increase would be $10.8 million more than the state allows, meaning the city must cobble a budget of legally and politically acceptable tax spending cuts, efficiencies and revenues, and hope the state backs off some steep reductions in state aid proposed by Gov.

Scott Walker. Brasser stressed that costs and revenues are fluid and may change significantly in coming months. To help make decisions, Soglin is proposing a new effort to engage residents at the beginning rather than the end of the citys operating budget process. There isnt time to do the same for the capital budget, he said. Specifics are still being decid- ed, but the city would ask committees, staff and council members who focus on similar topics to seek input on public needs and wants at a series of meetings.

The meetings would happen before agencies submit budget proposals to the mayor, who will offer a spending plan in early October with final council decisions coming the week of Nov. 15. The key is finding a way to get input beyond traditional hearings, Soglin said. Lets be more than the procedural republic, he said. Lets make it meaningful.

The challenge, council members said, is how to do it. There are many more public meetings coming for all of us, council President Lauren Cnare said. 1 Dems slam Ryan on home turf At a rally in Waunakee, Baldwin and Pelosi vow to fight for Medicare funding. By CLAY BARBOUR cbarbourmadison.com 608-252-6129 WAUNAKEE Democrats brought the fight over Medicare reform to U.S. Rep.

Paul Ryans backyard Thursday, holding an event in the home state of the man trying to turn the federal program into a subsidized private insurance plan. Democratic U.S Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, held a press conference at the community senior center in Waunakee, where they vowed to fight for continued funding of the social safety net that helps millions of seniors get medical care. Medicare is a promise we made to our seniors and it is one I intend to keep, Baldwin said. Senior citizens didnt get us into this budget mess.

They shouldnt be punished as we work our way out of it. Ryan, chairman of the powerful House Budget Committee, has taken heat in the past month for his Pathway to Prosperity, a controversial budget plan that would cut government deficits by about $6.2 trillion over the next decade. While supporters have praised the Janesville Republican for tackling entitlement spending, critics have gone after him for proposing tax cuts, practically ignoring military spending and suggest JOHN HART -State Journal U.S. House Minority Leader. Nancy Pelosi, left, joined U.S.

Rep. Tammy Baldwin in Waunakee on Thursday for a press conference attacking the Medicare reform plan championed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Janesville. Ryan recently authored a controversial budget plan that would cut government deficits by about $6.2 trillion over the next decade. ing a massive overhaul of Medicare. Ryans plan would give people younger than 54 subsidies to buy private health insurance, rather than having them rely on the federal government.

Though the proposal passed the GOP-led House, it has lost support and is not expected to make it through the Democratic-con-trolled Senate intact. Several polls have shown the proposal is not popular with a large percentage of the public, many of whom fear any sort of major change to their benefits. This plan would abolish Medicare as we know it, said Pelosi. We cannot let that happen." Some have suggested that the backlash against Ryans plan led him to turn down a chance to run for Sen. Herb Kohls seat in 2012.

Kohl is stepping down. Baldwin has been mentioned as a potential Democratic candidate for the post. On Thursday, she would say only that she is jgiving the opportunity a serious evaluation. Baraboo man charged in death of his daughter was suspicious. The doctor told investigators he was contacted by intensive care unit doctors after the toddlers death at the hospital was determined to be the result of severe brain trauma and bleeding.

Doctors said the injuries were consistent with the child being shaken or suffering significant impact trauma, according to the criminal complaint. The childs father, Dustin A. Mann, has been charged with first-degree reckless homicide as a result of the incident and faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted. Mann told a Baraboo Police i and checked on the 13-month-old girl. She said the girl appeared OK an4 was sleeping.

At about 3:45 p.m., she heard the toddler moaning. When the mother went to check on her, she told police she noticed one of the childs eyes was open and the other was closed. The mother said the girls open eye was staring off as if she was not really there, according to the complaint. The couple took the girl to St. Clare Hospital where a CT scan showed bleeding in the her brain.

The mother said she did not see any physical injuries on the toddler. A Doctors suspected child was shaken or suffered major impact trauma. By ED ZAGORSKI Baraboo News Republic BARABOO A three-month investigation led to the arrest of a 24-year-old Baraboo man Thursday who police say shook his 13-month-old daughter to death. According to a criminal complaint filed Thursday, a doctor at UW Hospital contacted Sauk County authorities and said the Feb. 6 death of Kennedy Mueller V- detective he was caring for his two daughters when they began fussing, according to the criminal complaint.

He said the older of the two girls pulled the other off a toy horse, about a foot high, and she landed on her head. He said he yelled at the older daughter, which startled her, causing her to fall on the younger childs head. Mann told the investigator the toddler puked and then asked for a bottle and he put her down for a nap. He said he checked on the toddler two times before her mother came home from work. The mother said she returned from work sometime after 3 p.m..