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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Laurel Walker column
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jan. 17--Ever notice how some things take for-evvv-er?
George Bush's goodbye, for instance.
I'm generally not an impatient person. But really. Let's get on with it. Move on. Enough with the exit interviews that attempt to rewrite history already.
Or how about Scott Jensen's date with Lady Justice?
The former Assembly Republican leader from Waukesha County has been fighting political corruption charges for almost as long as Bush has been in the White House. He'll be gone but Jensen will still be appealing.
He's owed a second trial -- OK, that appeal worked -- on felony charges that he used state workers and resources in campaigns for Assembly Republicans in 1998 and 2000. I'm bettin' he's betting that witnesses won't have memories that long in the next trial.
Meanwhile, he's still got some fight in him over where the trial will be held. An appeals court this week gave him some bad news -- that he can't move the new trial from Dane County to his own backyard, Waukesha County. Still, there's a Supreme Court that he can and probably will ask.
Here's something else that took too long: General Motors Corp. owning up to this problem.
Wisconsin's renowned "lemon law" lawyer Vince Megna said it took only one hour for a jury to find in favor of his client, who sued GM when it would not give him a replacement or refund for his faulty GMC pickup truck. The problem, as reported Thursday by the Associated Press, is that some trucks and SUVs can lose their power steering while drivers are making slow turns, as in parking.
The Waukesha County Circuit Court jury awarded $120,000 to Minocqua plumber Todd Van Natta and $259,000 to his attorneys at Jastroch & LaBarge in Waukesha. Megna has since joined Aiken & Scoptur of Milwaukee.
"I believe this is the largest lemon law attorney fee in the U.S.," Megna said, adding that GM also owed more than $150,000 to its own attorneys. "GM turned a $35,000 issue into a $550,000 problem. No wonder they need a bailout."
General Motors Corp. was one of the U.S. automakers that went to Congress last month, hat in hand, seeking an $18 billion loan.
How long will it take to get a statewide -- or national -- smoking ban in workplaces, including taverns and restaurants?
This week, the American Lung Association reminded us of the progress -- or lack thereof -- toward protecting citizens' health and finances from the tolls of tobacco. Wisconsin, with no comprehensive workplace ban, isn't doing so great. But it's doing a good job helping people quit with its Quit Now Line, (800) 784-8669.
Some argue that smoking bans ought to be between businesses and their patrons. But what about workers?
I love the latest trend in downtown Waukesha, where 14 restaurants and bars -- seven of them new -- recently shouted out that they're smoke-free.
One, Sprizzo Gallery Caffe' owner Karla Harper, put it this way: "As a non-smoker and cancer survivor, I did not want to work in an environment that was notably harmful to myself and others. I wanted to provide my customers with that same atmosphere."
It's time lawmakers catch on.
Call Laurel Walker at (262) 650-3183 or e-mail lwalker@journalsentinel.com.
To see more of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jsonline.com.
Copyright (c) 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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