Comment Hope it's better than their Exploding Kittens game (Score 1) 12
Comment My newest life as an elected official (Score 1) 109
I've served as a Milwaukee County Supervisor, an elected position here in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, for most of the past decade. We need to adhere to open meetings laws. And as part of the County Board Finance & Audit Committee, we are in charge of making decisions on how to spend millions of dollars on contracts and spending and overseeing the $1.2 billion budget.
That committee has been meeting since 11AM today. Now, usually we have seven supervisors in attendance, along with the chief legislative researcher, a committee clerk, legislative analyst, committee coordinator, and a host of other staff from the office of corp counsel, comptroller, audit, etc. Additionally, we usually have at least 25 people (at least!) who attend to speak on items, either as a supporter or a departmental representative, etc.
Today, we had six members attending in person and a seventh on part of the meeting via Skype. More importantly, everyone in the room was seated at least six feet apart. That meant we had a comparatively empty room. I did have the option to call in via Skype. Hopefully this will not result in me being a Darwin award nominee.
I don't yet know how we will handle the next full County Board meeting in a week or so. Or how the COVID-19 situation will impact the swearing in of the next County Board and County Executive, which happens around May 5, with several weeks of transition prior to then. That said, we have really good people working in our local government. We'll make the best of it. Public health and safety is our highest priority. Hence we will look at everything we can do to preserve that and carry out our duties.
"Good luck -- we're all counting on you."
No pressure.
Comment Re: Thanks for your kind support and happy though (Score 1) 31
Comment Milwaukee man attempts breaking world record for p (Score 1) 1
Comment A family connection of sorts: all in the name (Score 2) 118
Comment But could it fold itself seven times? (Score 1) 32
Comment Re: Try Edge on the Insider Preview Build (Score 3, Informative) 165
Comment Re: standards matter more than miliseconds (Score 1) 165
Researchers Claim a Few Cat Videos Per Day Helps Keep the Doctor Away 59
Comment Re: Problem? (Score 0) 186
Comment Re:Boeing bought more politicians. (Score 1) 127
Leaving out Boeing would be budget suicide for NASA.
No one should be left out because there should be no contract. Instead, NASA should be fostering a spot market for launches. They should have a separate bid for each launch: "We want X satellite in Y orbit, and insured for Z dollars." Then give the launch to the lowest bidder. That way each company can work continuously to cut costs and improve services, knowing that if they leapfrog the competition, they can win the next launch, instead of being locked out for years.
That is not feesable. It take years to be trained to fly in a spaceship - whether the lifting body like the Shuttle or Dream Chaser, or a capsule such as Soyuz, CST-100, or Dragon V2. You have to build not only the rocket, but a tower to carry the crew to the top of the rocket along with an arm to get the astronauts into the vehicle (which is not compatible/spacecraft). Escape systems need to be installed. It's very expensive, and it would never be built without assurance that the demand is there. At this time, there is no market for launches except from NASA or ESA. Cosmonauts would ride Russian spacecraft, Indians and Chinese are developing their own systems, etc. The public demand is too little at this time. Without a long-term contract, NASA is not enough for your proposal.
Comment Why do we still have thousands of nukes? (Score 1) 122
Comment Re:Never used this keystroke (Score 1) 521
Comment Re:um... (Score 2) 76
Milwaukee alders are very powerful in their community and on the city council. What's different here is that Milwaukee is the largest city in the state. It's the state's economic driver. So what happens here has resonance.
What may not be so different is that here, the taxi scene is dominated by one company with a de facto monopoly made possible by previous city action. Ald. Bauman is interested in expanding the choices available to consumers. Hence this action.
I serve on the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. That body has been maligned so many times it's not funny. One of my colleagues was just elected as an alderman. But that's another story.
Meanwhile, I've got this open data resolution that I'm working on...