Wagner Releases “Fabulous in Flats”

Our former Alum Blogger of the Month Mary Wagner ’99 has a new book of essays out.  (I especially appreciated her post here on Howard Eisenberg.)  This is from her publication announcement:

Fabulous in Flats, the  third collection of essays by internationally published, award-winning Wisconsin writer and photographer Mary T. Wagner, is now LIVE!!  The book is available in paperback and E-book format at iUniverse, Amazon and Barnes&Noble.com.  

Fabulous in Flats  follows in the spike-heeled footsteps of Wagner’s two earlier essay collections, Running with Stilettos: Living a Balanced Life in Dangerous Shoes and Heck on Heels: Still Balancing on Shoes, Love & Chocolate!  Her earlier books netted a Mom’s Choice Award, an Indie Excellence Award, a Silver IPPY Award, and first and second place finishes in the National Federation of Press Women’s annual communications contests.  Wagner is a three-time finalist in the Royal Palm Literary Awards, and has won the Illinois Woman’s Press Association’s Silver Feather Award in 2008 and 2011.  Heck on Heels also earned a spot on the list of finalists for ForeWord Reviews “Book of the Year” Awards in 2010.

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A New and Important Wave of MPS Principals

Milwaukee Schools Superintendent Gregory Thornton has released the first wave of his selections for new principals for Milwaukee Public Schools. As I described in a Journal Sentinel column a few weeks ago, Thornton is facing an unusual number of principal vacancies, in large part because of retirements triggered by the changes Republican Gov. Scott Walker is making to educational spending and public employment benefits.

One high-profile position on the new list: Mike Roemer was chosen to be principal of Ronald Reagan High School. The south side school, with its full international baccalaureate program, has been one of the brightest success stories in MPS in the last decade. Its high-profile founding principal, Julia D’Amato, retired several months ago. Roemer was the assistant principal under D’Amato and has been acting principal since she left. The school community lobbied hard for him to get the job.

Overall, the list of new principals includes four existing principals who are getting new or amended assignments and 17 people being promoted or hired to principal positions. The reassigned principals are appointed at Thornton’s discretion, but the promotions and new hires have to be approved by the School Board. A board committee will take up the recommendations at a meeting Tuesday.    

The list can be viewed by going to this Web page and clicking on “5-24-11 AFP Blue Book Advance Copy” on the right side of the page. Then click on Item 3 on the left hand side of the document that comes up.

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SCOWIS Approves LWOP for 14-Year-Old Killers

Today, in State v. Ninham, 2011 WI 33, the Wisconsin Supreme Court approved the sentence of life without possibility of parole for fourteen-year-olds who are convicted of first-degree intentional homicide.  The decision rests on a narrow reading of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark holding last year in Graham v. Florida, in which the Court outlawed LWOP for juveniles convicted of nonhomicide crimes.  Since Graham, lower courts across the country have been wrestling with the implications of the decision for other categories of offenses and offenders.

Ninham’s challenge was framed as a categorical challenge to the use of LWOP against fourteen-year-olds.  As such, the challenge was appropriately assessed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court using the two-prong analysis of Graham, (1) determining whether there is a national consensus against the challenged practice, and (2) exercising independent judgment as to whether the practice constitutes an unconstitutionally severe punishment.

As to the first prong, although a large majority of states authorize LWOP for fourteen-year-olds, the sentence is in practice very infrequently imposed:

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