In today’s Badger Herald:

Sen. Mary Lazich, R-Waukesha, and Rep. Mark Honadel, R-Milwaukee, authored a bill that would prohibit tricking the call’s recipient into believing the caller is someone they are not for malicious purposes.

“While use of spoofing is said to have some legitimate uses, it can also be used to frighten, harass and potentially defraud,” Lazich and Honadel said in an e-mail to legislators.

The bill language forbids a caller from intentionally providing a false phone number and convincing the person receiving the call that it comes from someone other than the actual caller.

The bill would make it illegal to defraud, cause harm or wrongfully obtain any information of value from using a caller identification service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information. It would also prohibit individuals from masking their voices or providing a fake phone number to the call recipient, said Jason Vick, spokesperson for Honadel.

Looks like Moe Slezak will be able to run his business in peace from now on. Thanks Mary Lazich!

Michalski’s answer to that question was simple: he believes it’s the next normal step to take in his life. Having just recently retired from Rockwell Automation, where he was extremely active in his union, Michalski noted that he’s always tried to be proactive in finding solutions to problems. Michalski, who had been a member of the St. Francis school board for seven years prior to moving to Oak Creek, is also a member of the MATC Board of Directors, added that he wants to continue to serve the public in a greater role, hence his decision to run for the State Assembly.

As we began to discuss Michalski’s campaign, Michalski noted his campaign has been well-received by voters, adding that he has not encountered many citizens of the 21st District who weren’t receptive to his campaign. Michalski also made a point to note that since announcing his candidacy, his campaign has been very busy knocking on doors and making phone calls to voters throughout the district, adding that the campaign has knocked on over 3,400 doors since July 1st, in addition to over 2,000 phone calls made to voters within the 21st Assembly District. Michalski added he believes the whole campaign boils down to getting his name and face known by voters, a good number of whom have indicated they haven’t made up their minds yet on who they’ll vote for. Shannon Powell, Michalski’s campaign manager, went on to add that the campaign will be opening up a campaign office at the UAW hall in Oak Creek, an office that will be shared with the Democratic coordinated campaign. Powell pointed out that Rep. Honadel’s opponent in 2008 didn’t open up a campaign office at all, so he views the opening of a campaign office as a sign of how seriously they’re taking this campaign.

Asked to cite the issued he’s been focusing on during his campaign, Michalski said jobs, taxes, and health care would be his primary areas of focus if he’s elected to the State Assembly. Discussing the issue of jobs, Michalski said the primary focus of legislators should be not only keeping jobs in Wisconsin, but attracting new jobs as well, but he was quick to point out that the types of jobs he’d work to attract to Wisconsin would be family-supporting jobs, not simply minimum wage service jobs. Michalski cited his work to help bring some office operations of mining equipment maker Bucyrus to Oak Creek through the implementation of a tax incremental financing district as an example of the work he’d do as a member of the State Assembly to bring jobs to Wisconsin. As our discussion about jobs continued, I asked Michalski if he would have voted for the Clean Energy Jobs Act as a member of the State Assembly, and Michalski was adamant that he supports the Clean Energy Jobs Act, not only because it would have created jobs in Wisconsin, but also because “clean air and renewable energy is long-sighted.” Michalski noted that MATC is using a lot of renewable energy, in addition to teaching students how to build, install, and repair renewable energy equipment such as solar panels.

As our discussion turned to taxes, Michalski was quick to point out that he realizes no one wants higher taxes, including himself, and he cited his experience as a member of the Oak Creek Common Council as an example of how government can help grow and improve the community without raising taxes. Michalski noted that last year’s budget in Oak Creek included no increase in the mill rate for taxes, a fact that he believes demonstrates his experience in working within a budget.

My conversation with Tom Michalski drew to a close with a discussion about his chances of beating an entrenched incumbent in the form of Rep. Mark Honadel. Michalski acknowledged he faces an uphill battle if he’s going to beat Rep. Honadel, but he was quick to point out that he’s run and won as an underdog in prior races. Michalski was adamant that he believes he can beat Rep. Honadel simply by outworking Honadel in this election. He reiterated that he will be working hard over the next few months to make his name and face known to voters in the 21st District, and that he can beat Rep. Honadel by “getting out and pounding the sidewalks.”

There’s no denying Tom Michalski has his work cut out for him if he wants to beat Rep. Mark Honadel, and while it remains to be seen if he can pull out a victory, one thing is certain – Tom Michalski won’t lose to Mark Honadel because of a lack of effort on Michalski’s part.

I’ve long maintained the 21st Assembly District isn’t conservative enough to warrant Rep. Honadel running unopposed as often as he has, and I can only hope Thomas Michalski plans on making a serious run against Rep. Honadel, because the voters of the 21st Assembly District deserve a real choice on their ballots in November.

I’ll have more on the candidacy of Thomas Michalski in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

“I am just stoked up to no end because it’s going to be good for the region,” he said. “The potential is awesome.”

Not content to say he was stoked about the interchange, Rep. Honadel went on to agree with state Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale), who has said the Drexel Avenue interchange alone will bring BILLIONS of dollars in business development to the area.

So here’s a word to the wise for all you elected officials out there: If you want to create jobs and bring BILLIONS of dollars of business development to the area you represent, simply build a new freeway interchange; it just that simple!