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Is The End Near?
The state Legislature’s formal general-business floor session will conclude March 15 with most of the game-changing legislation already passed last year by the Republican majorities in the Assembly and Senate. Special sessions and extraordinary sessions can still be called.

Milwaukee County Judicial Candidates Face Off April 3
Dugan has practiced law in Milwaukee for 25 years, time in which she says she has honed the skills needed in a fair and impartial judge. Currently in private practice, Dugan was executive director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and served in various capacities at Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee and Legal Action of Wisconsin.

Romney’s Budget- Balancing for Dummies
Seeking applause from a right-wing audience in Michigan, Mitt Romney vowed: “I will cut spending, I will cap spending, and I will finally balance the budget,” saying that he would end federal funding for all the usual Republican budgetary...

The Drug- Testing- Industrial Complex
If someone connected to Major League Baseball’s drug testing hadn’t violated the rules of baseball in the first place, the reputation of Braun, one of baseball’s very best players and as far as anyone really knows a perfectly honorable one, wouldn’t be poisoned and the subject of debate all over this country.

Issue of the Week
Gov. Scott Walker, futilely arguing against a recall attempt that has the support of a million Wisconsinites, has just offered up his latest TV ad, which, like his previous ads, is full of lies. In “Promises Kept,” Walker speaks directly to the camera and the viewer and tries his best to sound trustworthy and sincere.

Boris&Doris [On the town]
B&D entered the “Predict the Winner” contest, coming in second place and thus missing out on a coveted yearlong pass to Marcus Theatres. The lucky winner was attorney Tom Perlberg,.

El Local Proves a Worthy Successor
It was a disappointment to hear about the closing of Las Esmeraldas, a place loved for its birria, whole red snappers and tacos al pastor. But, fortunately, there is a worthy replacement. The exterior remains much the same, featuring stonework with mortar joints painted a vivid green, but the “Las Esmeraldas” sign has been replaced with “El Local.

Salvatore’s Pizzeria Delivers the Goods
Pizzeria (2213 E. Capitol Drive), a simply furnished place with wooden floors, opened its doors in Shorewood last May. The restaurant is a venture by the owners of Sciortino’s Bakery, a Brady Street classic. The pizza dough is prepared with Sciortino’s recipe.

Room for Tasting at Great Lakes Distillery
Adding a tasting room to the Great Lakes Distillery was no small task. A Wisconsin law prohibited distillers from serving liquor, so before the Walker’s Point distillery could open its tasting room in 2010, owner Guy Rehorst had to lobby for the state Legislature to change the law.

THIS WEEK IN MILWAUKEE
A familiar face from the early days of MTV, Colin Hay affably fronted the Australian pop band Men at Work, scoring a handful of lighthearted Police-inspired hits like “Down Under” and “Who Can It Be Now.

SARAH VOWELL'S Conversational History Lessons
To me, it’s not only a fascinating story of how Americans changed this place and took it over, but because it’s about this group of islands in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific, it’s also a story that’s incredibly outlined. If you drew it on a map, it would be a straight line.

FILM CLIPS
Eddie Murphy plays fast-talking Jack Mc- Call, a literary agent who uses trickery and exaggeration to close deals. Chasing selfish purposes yet again, McCall sets his sights on New Age guru Dr. Sinja (Cliff Curtis). However, the guru is onto the silver-tongued agent.

First Stage’s ‘Chocolate Factory’ Lacks Key Ingredients
First Stage Children’s Theater opened a production last weekend that follows aspects of the basic story line but loses the magic of visual spectacle and wide-eyed wonderment in Richard George’s curiously “talky” adaptation. This is, after all, a magical place created for children by the “biggest kid” himself—Willy Wonka.

Orwell’s ‘1984’ Inhabits Alchemist Stage
As the play begins, we see Winston is already exhausted. What we are about to watch will define him as an individual. Elst plays the role not defiant so much as resilient. He seeks no more or less than the truth in a heartbreaking, sympathetic role. He’s not a hero.

Cast Excels in In Tandem’s ‘The Chosen’
The boys’ friendship results after Reuven accidentally injures Danny at a baseball game; their finely tuned rivalry comes from time spent in silent study, which tempers the pace of the first act.

Skylight Music’s Romantic ‘Daddy Long Legs’
The musical features Broadway actress Megan McGinnis as the young Jerusha Abbott, an orphan who is being put through college by a mysterious benefactor who writes her letters but refuses to identify himself. McGinnis, who has appeared in Les Misérables.

A Slice of Kenosha’s Lemon Street Gallery
month, Kenosha’s Lemon Street Gallery (4601 Sheridan Road) features artists selected from the gallery’s nonprofit, co-op membership. An accompanying reception is known as “Second Saturdays”—the next one takes place March 10.

Celebrating Women Through Art at UW-Milwaukee
The exhibit also features renowned New York artist Lesley Dill, who shipped eight large-scale multimedia pieces beautifully rolled and tied with satin ribbons. After being unfolded, these remarkable, scroll-like, hanging artworks display the artist’s combination of fabric, printmaking and text.

Conflict in the Capitol
The politician was Jefferson Davis, senator from Mississippi and secretary of war, who by the acts of seceding with his state from the Union and accepting the presidency of the Confederate States of America committed treason against his native land. Freedom’s Cap.

WOODLAND PATTERN’S ARRAY OF POETRY READINGS
peared in the Sunday Morning Press journal Portals and Piers. Authors include Stephen Anderson, first-place winner of the Kay Saunders Memorial New Poet Award in the 2005 Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Triad Contest; Chris Austin, whose works have...

Present Music: The Dark Side of Turning 30
Present Music turned 30 this year and is throwing a season-long theme party. The concert last Saturday at the Turner Hall Ballroom, titled “Around 30,” consisted of work by “around 30” artists, each “around 30” years old. Music compositions by seven composers, two accompanied by videos and two by dancers, were presented.

VIRTUOSO PERFORMANCES OF SIBELIUS, TCHAIKOVSKY AT MSO
Consequently, his many years of earnest effort as a violinist contributed to what would become his only essay in the concerto form, the Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 (1905). In this brilliant three-movement work, Sibelius struck an ideal balance between instrumental prowess and more purely structural and emotional values.

Group of the Altos Goes Big
where bands unearth straightforward styles championed by acts from previous decades. That simplification is presumed to lead toward a rawer—and therefore more authentic—sound that when done correctly comments on contemporary culture, not just the past.

Helping a Friend in Need
Eileen Worman’s medical problems are somewhat unusual, the financial problems that followed have become altogether too familiar. A Milwaukee musician who played keyboards in several local bands in the ’80s, Worman has endured three years of surgery, emergency rooms and dialysis after a botched procedure destroyed her kidneys.

Jean Grae w/ Element Everest @ UWM Gasthaus
disrespect intended to the UWM Gasthaus—it’s a nice place to work on a paper or enjoy some nachos—but it seems like Jean Grae should be commanding a bigger stage at a better venue.

Cd Reviews
Despite all that, Yellow Ostrich doesn’t make typical indie-rock fare. For example, multi-instrumentalist Jon Natchez plays at least 11 different kinds of horns throughout Strange Land’s 10 lush, rhythmically compact songs, which often focus on how things are not always better somewhere else.

Music Listings
Friday, March 9 Angelo’s Cafe Vino (Menomonee Falls),.

Milwaukee Filmmaker Documents Jeffrey Dahmer’s Impact
I asked them how they felt, their experience. Then the emotions really started flooding out. One subject even said she felt like a load was taken off. It helped that I didn’t come into the interviews with a set plan..

We’ll Need Extra Innings for Answers
“It can’t have surprised anyone who’s read the revelations about how the criminal justice system has been perverted by bungling crime labs and incompetent medical examiners. … Ultimately, in any authoritarian solution, the people with the power get lazy, and stupid, and they start making enough mistakes that people get tired of living with them.

News of the Weird
West, 41, of Fond du Lac, Wis., initially told authorities that his wife had hurt herself by falling, before later acknowledging that she had been attacked—but by ghosts, not by him. (He was charged, anyway, in January.

Freewill Astrology
But I’m hoping you will seek out some spirit medicine—healing agents that fortify the secret and subtle parts of your psyche. Where do you find spirit medicine? Well, the search itself will provide the initial dose.

One Schtup at a Time
Cripes, now I can’t remember. It might not even be either one of the two. Whatever the correct answer is, the point is that kilts make it easier and more convenient for the Scottish sheepherders to schtup a member of his flock when the spirit moves than if he’d been wearing a pair of trousers, what the fock.

Why Does Sex Hurt?
com. Not all questions received will be answered in the column, and Laura cannot provide personal answers to questions that do not appear here. Questions sent to this address may be reproduced in this column, both in print and online, and may be edited for clarity and content.