-By Benjamin Yount and M.D. Kittle, cross posted from Watchdog.org
SPRINGFIELD – The dividing line in the national debate over the future of public-sector unions can be found between the Land of Lincoln and its neighbor to the north.
The story of Illinois and Wisconsin is a tale of two very different states.
Wisconsin, led by Gov. Scott Walker and majority Republicans, took on public-sector unions and won in the pursuit of balancing a $3.6 billion state budget shortfall in 2011.
PENSION TENSION: A large crowd of union members and the professionally outraged (kids and older people bussed to the rally) demonstrate last month in downtown Chicago.
Illinois, led by Democrats with a veto-proof supermajority in the Legislature and Democrat Pat Quinn in the governor’s mansion (at least occasionally), have long coddled the public unions to which they and their campaign war chests are beholden. Consequently, the state faces billions of dollars in unpaid bills and unfunded pension liabilities for current public employees of about $130 billion.
Wisconsin’s economic prospects have vastly improved. The state’s public pension system, while not perfect, is nearly funded – at least based on much more liberal accounting standards than market-based measures. The Badger State budget now boasts a surplus of $741 million, the vast majority of that targeted for tax cuts over the next two years.
Illinois, meanwhile, continues to be buried under a mountain of debt, a broken fiscal house that has taken the state’s credit rating with it.
A Tale of Two States: Illinois vs. Wisconsin in the Public Pension Debate”
You’ll recall the story about Sweet Cakes by Melissa, the Oregon bakery that 
On the August 18 broadcast of NBC’s Meet The Press, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in direct terms that more people will face life threatening situations if the courts are successful in stopping the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk program.
Louisiana’s Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu is embarrassed by America. So embarrassed that she can’t travel in Europe because some Americans lack health insurance. Naturally, many Americans would be happy to donate to a fund to give Landrieu a one-way ticket to her choice of European countries.
Hugo Schwyzer, a Pasadena City College professor who made a name for himself as a “male feminist,” went on a tear on Twitter admitting that he has no qualifications to be a teacher, that he’s had affairs an his wife with a 23-year-old woman, that he involved himself in inappropriate Internet exchanges à la Anthony Weiner and that he is a “p*ss poor feminist.”
Ray Widstrand, a 26-year-old white man, moved to a St. Paul neighborhood that many feel is dangerous. On August 4, Widstrand found out why people think so badly about the neighborhood when he was beaten into a coma by a group of local gangbangers.
On August 4 a nearly fatal car crash occurred on a Missouri highway. The driver was feared near death and called for a priest to minister to her. Suddenly a Catholic priest appeared seemingly out of nowhere, attended to her, and then mysteriously disappeared causing many to wonder just who he was and how he just vanished like that. Well, now that mystery priest has been identified.
Once again, the New York Department of Education is in the word-banning business and is telling schools to ban dozens of words from use in the class room and on tests. And why are they banning the words? Because they might make kids “feel” bad. But, worse, some of the banned words would actually prevent learning!
Homosexual hate is blooming again, this time in Grimes, Iowa. No, I don’t mean hate turned against gays, but gays perpetrating the hate.
The saying, “More Guns Less Crime,” seems to be coming true if the Commonwealth of Virginia is any indication as gun sales have soared there even as crime rates have fallen.
“Dear homeless, you have been voted off the island.” That is what some Hawaii lawmakers are saying with a plan to allocate state funds to buy one-way tickets off the Island for the state’s homeless population. It is two Democrats sponsoring the program, too.
Again showing how easy it is to have conservatives blocked or removed from Facebook, the new video campaign ad for Dan Branch, the Republican candidate for Texas Attorney General, was removed from the social media giant for “community standards” violations.
Newspaper editor Drew Johnson was fired by the Times Free Press of Chattanooga, Tennessee for posting a headline that told President Obama to take his jobs plan and “shove it.”
Even though Florida’s Stand Your Ground law had absolutely no part at all in either the death of her son or the prosecution of the man that shot him, Trayvon Martin’s mother is now trying to make a name for herself by becoming an advocate for repealing Florida’s self protection law.
If you haven’t paid your bills there is expectation that you can lose everything, of course. But what if you are not behind in your bills, but a bank that isn’t your bank breaks into your house, hauls away your belongings, changes your locks, all claiming you owe them money? And what happens when the bank realizes it got the wrong house? Worse, how would you feel if the bank refuses to pay you back for its destruction of all your belongings?