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Although the five see themselves as protecting the city from rubber-stamped decisions by the power elite, the chamber of commerce's president has painted them as "a cancer on the community." A well-financed interest group of businessmen launched a recall effort of Medlock and another councilman; the League of Women Voters and the NAACP joined in and denounced the recall. Republican Mayor Bill LaFortune further disrupted the bloc by hiring one of the renegades to his cabinet.
Meanwhile, a popular radio talk-show host, Michael DelGiorno, added his voice to the cacophony with daily tirades and support of a rival recall effort -- this one against the mayor and four other council members.
"The whole thing has been extremely disruptive to the city," the mayor's chief of staff, Clay Bird, said wearily. "This is not the kind of national publicity we want."
-- Lois Romano
Lawmaker Wants Drinking Age Lowered for Service Members
If you're allowed to "fire a weapon of mass destruction," you should be allowed to toss back a cold one.
That is the reasoning of state Rep. Mark Pettis (R) in Wisconsin; he is proposing a bill that would allow members of the armed forces who are younger than 21 to drink legally. It would apply only to state residents.
"These young men and women come back from fighting in the war and the 21-year-olds can go into the bar and have a little camaraderie," said Pettis, a Navy veteran who represents the northwest part of the state. "But if they're 19 or 20, they have to go to a soda fountain. We should at least let them go into a tavern to socialize with their comrades."
The bill passed out of committee and will probably go to the assembly floor in early June. Mothers Against Drunk Driving opposes as the bill, as does Gov. Jim Doyle (D), largely because it would endanger about $30 million in federal highway funds withheld from states with legal drinking ages younger than 21. Pettis is seeking a waiver from the federal government so that highway funds would not be withheld.
"It's sad we have to beg the government for our highway funds just because we want to give service members a beer," he said.
