Every Friday, Stuff We Missed looks to other Milwaukee publications (and beyond) for, well, stuff we missed throughout the week. This week: past, present, and future doofus Scott Walker.
• Scott Walker. Remember that guy? The former Wisconsin governor has been largely out of the public eye since losing to Tony Evers in 2018 (save for that time he tweeted a year-old picture of a pizza). Sadly, his ham-and-cheese ineptitude lives on to this day. Let’s revisit some of his greatest hits!
First, Foxconn. Remember that boondoggle? Back in 2017, Walker giddily brokered a deal to give the Taiwan-based Foxconn nearly $4 billion in state and local tax incentives to build a $10 billion flat screen manufacturing facility in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. The project would create up the 13,000 jobs! Then-President Trump called it the “eighth wonder of the world”! It turned out to be mostly bullshit!
Then again, maybe not? The [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel] reports that one of the empty Foxconn buildings near the company’s main Mount Pleasant campus is going to see some action…from a natural food coloring company. Yep, Oterra will set up shop in Foxconn’s old “Opus” building and bring “more than 100 jobs to the village.” Neat!
Foxconn, meanwhile, still plans to do…something with its main plant. Maybe make cars? Maybe something else? Who knows. Walker, meanwhile, has been busy getting a handful of likes on off-the-shelf boomer tweets about sNowFLakE cOLLegE stUDenTs.
Which is worse? The snowflake students or the pathetic administrators?
“Higher education” has increasingly become a joke where feelings trump facts. We have to push back!https://t.co/OwPW3tAxbm
— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) February 3, 2022
Now for trains. Specifically trains connecting Milwaukee and Madison. Back in 2010, the then-newly-elected Walker rejected $810 million in federal funds to build a high-speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison. That money went elsewhere, trains that had already been built for the project eventually went to Nigeria, and nothing of value was gained. Walker went on to star in some deer hunting videos.
But now, maybe a Milwaukee-Madison line might happen? According to the [Milwaukee Business Journal], Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway is predicting that the wheels for such a line could be put into motion within the next five years. That’s thanks to Amtrak’s previously announced national expansion plan (which also includes a Milwaukee-Green Bay route), and a $66 billion federal infrastructure bill.
“I think that’s definitely on the table,” Rhodes-Conway said. “Madison is on Amtrak’s map and I think that with this funding that we may be able to get that done. That to me is incredibly exciting.”
“The sun to govern the day, His love endures forever,” tweeted the man who’s governing days are over.
the sun to govern the day, His love endures forever.
Psalms 136:8 pic.twitter.com/dIMSnhftyx
— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) February 4, 2022
• On to other stuff. Former Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy is the latest investor in downtown’s 3rd Street Market Hall. Other investors in the food hall include current Milwaukee Brewer Christian Yelich, as well as Green Bay Packers wide receiver Randall Cobb. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• The site of the Couture development has a big crane now! [OnMilwaukee]
• The completion of the Couture development has been delayed again! [Urban Milwaukee]
• Way back in 2012, the “Lest We Forget” show served as a memorial to fallen figures of Milwaukee’s ’70s and ’80s music scene, as well as a chance for some bands from that era (Die Kreuzen, Tense Experts, 3XCleavers, more) to reunite. Now, 10 years later, another “Lest We Forget” show is set for May 28 at Turner Hall Ballroom. [Pabst Theater Group]
• New bar downtown. [BizTimes]
• New bar on the south side. [Urban Milwaukee]
• New Indian place in the Third Ward. [OnMilwaukee]
• New sandwich place in the Third Ward. [Milwaukee Magazine]
• New “Sherman Phoenix-style incubator for minority-owned retail and restaurant businesses” in Granville. [Milwaukee Business Journal]
• Oh yeah: The Bronze Fonz has been temporarily removed from its RiverWalk perch. Don’t worry, the statue is just being cleaned. It’ll be back! Relive the goofy controversy that once swirled around this goofy thing HERE. [Milwaukee Magazine]
• Have a great weekend, Milwaukee!