Morning briefing: Gov. Scott Walker’s Wauwatosa home listed for sale

Take a look at the stories from around our area and world that are making news today.

Gov. Scott Walker’s Wauwatosa home listed for sale: Meg Jones of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes: “Gov. Scott Walker has put his home — the one in Wauwatosa, not the governor’s mansion — up for sale. The two-story, three-bedroom house has been listed by Delafield real estate agent Premar LLC for $338,000. The listing calls the home an ‘exceptional colonial!’ that boasts ‘quintessential Tosa charm!’ and mentions the in-ground swimming pool, bright white modern kitchen with Corian countertops and a front-entry sunroom. Walker tweeted Sunday night about his sons: ‘Matt graduates from Marquette in May. Alex from UW next May. Like many empty nesters, we are looking to downsize our home.’ It appears the home on N. 68th St., which was built in 1924, was listed on Saturday. Since purchasing it in March 2007 for $310,000, Walker has painted the home’s exterior, rebuilt the chimney and replaced the pool liner. Walker’s home features 2 1/2 baths and a full basement on a quarter-acre. Assessed at $359,900, the home’s tax bill in 2013 was $8,381. No open houses are scheduled, but prospective buyers can request a private showing. When reached by phone Sunday, Realtor Cathy Priem said she had no comment before hanging up. Walker was elected governor in 2010 and re-elected in 2014 after surviving a recall attempt. He has not said whether he’ll run for re-election in 2018.


Epic Systems soars with transition to electronic health records: Guy Boulton of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes: “The woman on stage wearing the red wig was paying homage to ‘I Love Lucy,’ in keeping with the conference’s ‘Classic Episodes’ theme. Silly, yes, but intentionally so — in keeping with the offbeat culture that counterbalances the serious work done on the sprawling campus of Epic Systems Corp. The woman in the wig was Judy Faulkner, the camera-shy yet approachable founder of one of the fastest-growing companies Wisconsin has ever known. Founded with a $70,000 investment in 1979 in a basement office, with a computer Faulkner says ‘sounded like a washing machine,’ Epic today commands nearly a quarter of the U.S. hospital market in the rapidly expanding industry of electronic health records. The company was on track to have revenue of more than $1.8 billion last year — up from $47 million in 2000. It now employs approximately 9,500 people — up from 396 in 2000. In the past two years alone, it has hired 3,000 people. Almost all of them work at its campus in Verona — 1,048 acres of gently rolling terrain that has been a perpetual construction zone for the past decade. Epic has spent almost $1 billion building the campus, and the company is far from finished.” Read more.


New ISIS video shows Paris attackers committing prior atrocities, threatening UK: Fox News reports:”A new video released by the ISIS terror group late Sunday shows nine of the extremists who carried out the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris beheading and shooting captives, as well as training with weapons while plotting the carnage that left 130 dead in the French capital. The 17-minute video shows the extent of the planning that went into the multiple attacks in Paris, which French authorities have said from the beginning was planned in Syria. The video was provided online by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi websites. The video does not contain any footage of the attacks themselves, but is assembled from material shot before the men left for Paris, as well as news and amateur videos. The video did not specify where the nine men were filmed, but it was believed to have been in ISIS-controlled territory in Syria. The video also contains threats against the United Kingdom, showing images of London landmarks Tower Bridge and St. Paul’s Cathedral and claiming extremists are ready to strike ‘anytime, anywhere.’ At one point, the image of British Prime Minister David Cameron is shown with a crosshair over his face.” Read more.


Who is the worst Republican governor?: Mark E. Andersen of the Daily Kos writes: “This has been a difficult diary to write — not because it is a difficult subject, but because it was so hard to narrow it down to just four governors. Describing the damage that the 31 current Republican governors have done to the United States (and to their own states) would likely take a tome the length of War and Peace. You don’t have the time to read that, and as these men and women are still in office it would be impossible to keep up with the garbage legislation they keep unleashing on their citizens. So let’s just keep it to the top (er, bottom) four,” Read more.


Middle class is ready for third party: Katie Kieffer of Town Hall writes: “A blizzard worse than Blizzard 2016—an icy storm of furious American voters—is descending upon Washington as voters prepare a revenge mutiny. ‘Revenge mutiny’ is my term for throwing overboard traitors who threw you overboard first. It’s happening within both the Republican and Democratic parties. We’ve knocked on doors. We spent weekends in drab phone banks making calls for candidates who promised the opposite of what they delivered. We’re done. Rome wasn’t built in a day. America will not be destroyed in a day. Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, and Bernie Sanders’ surging energy—simultaneous with Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, and Chris Christie’s plunging poll numbers—shows that Americans are through with the elites running the two major political parties.” Read more.


Obama calls Republican vision ‘unrecognizable’ in 2016 race: Michael D. Shear of the New York Times writes: “President Obama said in an interview released Monday that politics in America had become ‘meaner’ than when he took office, but expressed hope that Republicans would eventually turn away from the ‘expression of frustration’ and anger that Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz were offering to voters. Speaking to Politico’s Glenn Thrush for the site’s ‘Off Message’ podcast, Mr. Obama said the Republican candidates for president were more outside the mainstream than Senator John McCain was during the 2008 campaign. ‘John McCain was a conservative, but he was well within, you know, the mainstream of not just the Republican Party but within our political dialogue,’ Mr. Obama told Politico. The president said voters would have to judge ‘the degree to which the Republican rhetoric and Republican vision has moved, not just to the right, but has moved to a place that is unrecognizable.’” Read more.

Open all references in tabs: [1 – 6]