The Milwaukee Post

It's easy to blame "the system" when a vio- lent criminal escapes real punishment in Wisconsin. But that "system" is made up of men and women who make decisions. With judges running for re-election only every six years (and often unopposed) and district attorneys likewise immune from normal political pressure, there is often very little the public can do to the people who deny victims, and the rest of us, justice. We do have a rare opportunity right now with two of these legal miscreants seeking major statewide office. * * * James Daley is a judge from Rock County who wants to serve on the state Supreme Court. He's the anointed conservative chal- lenger to incumbent Ann Walsh Bradley in next April's election. Bradley is the worst jus- tice on the court and responsible for most of the acrimony on that dysfunctional body. But Daley's behavior in a shocking case this month shows he is neither a conservative or fit to serve on the Supreme Court. Brandon Quinn, 23, of Janesville was charged earlier this year after an especially savage attack on two children. According to the criminal complaint, he violently attacked the 7-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter of his then-girlfriend. The children were hit, according to the complaint, with a hammer, spoon and spatula until both were bloody and unconscious. The 9-year-old said Quinn hit her and her brother with a hammer. The boy was hit hard in his genitals and the child's mother says it's not clear if he will ever be able to have children. Quinn's excuse? According to the complaint, he said he was drunk. The Rock County district attorney's office cut a plea deal with Quinn, the terms of which are beyond appalling. Under the deal, one felony count would be dismissed and Quinn would plead guilty to another. The DA agreed to recommend only one year in prison. The agreement was presented in court last week to Daley, a veteran Rock County judge. He accepted the deal and indeed sentenced Quinn to a mere one year in jail (not prison) and five years of probation. One of the prose- cutors was quoted in the Janesville Gazette as saying Quinn deserved the deal because he had no prior record and it would have been traumatic for the children to have to testify. The mother of the kids isn't buying it. She says "the system" failed her children and that Quinn deserved a much stronger sentence. She has it half right. But it wasn't any "sys- tem" that sold out her kids. It was Judge James Daley. Daley could have rejected the plea agree- ment or he could have handed down a stronger sentence. Judges are under no requirement to accept the terms of plea deals. But Daley, a Rock County good old boy, wasn't going to rock any boats. He let Quinn skate with a disgraceful sentence. Daley, with his attitude, is unfit for the state Supreme Court. He may claim to have a conservative legal philosophy but his action in court says more about him, and the approach he brings to court, than any cam- paign statement. The conservatives who con- tinue to support Daley because they despise liberal Bradley are nothing more than hyp- ocrites. A few years ago, another liberal court jus- tice, Shirley Abrahamson, was opposed by a so-called conservative challenger, Jefferson County Judge Randy Koshnick. He was best known for acting as convicted cop killer Ted Oswald's lawyer. He got creamed in the elec- tion and rightly so. If state conservatives can't dredge up anything better than James Daley to run against Ann Walsh Bradley, the result will be the same and again rightly so. ( Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show. His column appears weekly in the Milwaukee Post.) September 19, 2014 • Milwaukee County Post • 9 MARK BELLING STANDING UP for MILWAUKEE OPINION Candidate's handling of abuse case shows he is unfit for Supreme Court By JOHN TORINUS The University of Wisconsin System is in some stage of denial about the magni- tude of the brain drain of college gradu- ates from the state. The system is pushing for more dollars for a talent creation initiative in the 2015-17 state budget, a laudable goal. Arguably, though, plugging the drain should be an even higher priority. In a recent analysis from within UW ranks, professor Morris Davis of the James Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at UW- Madison reported that Wisconsin lost more than 14,000 degreed graduates each year in the five years from 2008 to 2012. Those 70,000 emigrants are a big loss any way you cut it. Of those, 9,000 per year are recent grad- uates ages 21 to 25. That really hurts. Stack that against roughly 36,000 degrees granted annually from the UW System's 13 university campuses each year, and you get the magnitude of the "drain." We have 25 percent leakage on a net basis. Davis called it "a massive brain drain." Moral of the story: The UW System needs to put at least as much emphasis on the "demand" side of the state's economy, the job creation side, as on the "supply" side, the production of graduates. Those young emigrants are leaving for careers, not the weather. University leaders know this. The role of the university as a central player in an innovation economy was called out loud and clear in the four economic summits led by then-UW President Katherine Lyall from 2000 to 2003. The issue today is one of emphasis. The flow of graduates must be maintained, but UW must also embrace alliances with the state's industries that can expand and add jobs, and it must embrace the concept of a startup economy. UW President Ray Cross did include some monies for econom- ic development grants in his budget request. But that part wasn't front and cen- ter. As Israel and Silicon Valley have proved, it's entrepreneurs linked to univer- sity scientists and engineers who lead a nation or region to prosperity. UW-Madison has historically done a great job with patents and licenses, but has been lackluster at best in turning that intellectual property into new ventures that bring new jobs. With the exception of agribusiness it has largely limited its impact on the demand side to Dane County. There are a few signs of greater attention to its responsibilities to the rest of the citi- zens of the state, such as the new 4490 Ventures Fund that has a statewide mis- sion, but, overall, its statewide impact has been minimal to date. When Mike Lovell was chancellor of UW-Milwaukee, he totally got the need to integrate UWM with industry and start- ups. In a few short years there, he co-locat- ed technologists in centers for freshwater science and energy innovation. He support- ed advanced manufacturing. He connected with GE Healthcare and the imaging world. He established a new innovation campus that connects UWM's engineers with the researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He pushed student entrepre- neurship across the campus. He funded the new UWM Research Foundation that is rap- idly bringing the campus up to speed as a major R&D and technology transfer player. Closer ties between town and gown, industry and academe, have the added ben- efit of creating more chances for students to land internships, research posts and eventually jobs with the connected compa- nies. In his new roles as president of Marquette University, Lovell is already sig- naling that he will move MU from a teach- ing school to a larger role as a mover and shaker in the economy. Lovell is the right leader to bring together the public univer- sities in the region and the private colleges, which account for more than half of the region's graduates. Mark Mone, interim UWM chancellor, is following the strategic game plan laid out by Lovell and the two chancellors before him and therefore should probably get the nod as permanent chancellor. It would be tragic to lose the momentum that UWM has generated over the last decade. A new chan- cellor from the outside might have differ- ent ideas. The M7 region might as well get used to the reality that it is not going to get much help on the demand side from the flagship of the UW System, UW-Madison. It needs UWM to be a second flagship university, much as Michigan State operates in rela- tion to the University of Michigan. That role could be made much more pro- nounced if the five UW campuses in the M7 region (UWM, UW-Whitewater, UW- Parkside, UW-Washington County and UW- Waukesha) were tied into a single power- house institution. Each campus could each carve out strategic roles in the larger com- bination. UW-Whitewater, for example, could lead in the accounting disciplines, where it has undisputed expertise and national stature. Such a merger, in alliance with MU and the seven other private colleges in the region, could be a magnet for even more R&D dollars from the federal government and industry. Together, they might even help with drawing a federal institute or two to the Milwaukee area. Such R&D centers are major economic engines, and we only have only one small one in the whole state. The end game for the state and region is expansions of technology-intensive compa- nies and the launch of lots of high-growth startups. That's where Wisconsin can gen- erate the hot new jobs that could reverse the debilitating brain drain. (John Torinus is chairman of the board of Serigraph Inc. in West Bend and blogs regularly at www.johntorinus.com. His col- umn runs occasionally in The Post.) State must create better environment to entice grads to stay Torinus

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