KRM rolls up

an endorsement

Friday, March 2, 2007 4:05 PM CST

Racine County supervisors gave a ringing endorsement of the KRM commuter rail plan this week voting 19-4 in favor of a proposal for a $13 boost in the car rental fees as a funding mechanism. We hope that the margin of the vote gets noticed over in Madison where lawmakers need to approve the fee increase as part of the budget process - or take the much harder road of separate legislation. Last month Gov, Jim Doyle unveiled his budget and, while it included $1 million for engineering studies on the rail line to link Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee, it did not include the rental car fee boost endorsed by the Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority. A Doyle aide said the governor was "waiting for there to be a consensus around this proposal ... he's waiting for initiative from state legislative leaders." The county board vote has got to count as one measure of "consensus building" and we would hope that state Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine, and state Rep. Robin Vos, R-Caledonia, both of whom serve on the Legislature's powerful Joint Finance Committee, read it that way as well and help forge the mass transit link to boost the future of southeastern Wisconsin.

The slush may turn to ice today,

and March will continue its lion-like entry across the area, but there's music and drink and a good cause afoot tonight and Saturday at the 15th annual "Thoughts for Food" fundraiser at a variety of Downtown bars and other venues. The main event on Saturday features more than 60 local bands on 17 stages. Music starts at 8 tonight and 7 p.m. Saturday and all of it can be had for the mere price of $10 plus two non-perishable food items. ( Tickets bought Saturday are $15). The event has helped launch a variety of local bands � and contributed more than 60,000 pounds of food and more than $200,000 to the Racine County Food Bank over the past 14 years. Tonight's pre-event at George's Tavern and the Eagle's Club, just north of the Main Street bridge, features the Reconstruction Band, Inersyde, The Jim Best Project, Gary's Music World All Star Rhythm & Blues Showcase and Mesnard Location. If your thoughts run to dinner, instead, three restaurants, Henry and Wanda's, the Yardarm and the Yellow Rose are donating 10 percent of their proceeds on Saturday to the Food Bank. There is, as well, an all ages event from 6 to 11 tonight at the Racine YMCA, that will feature ten bands. Admission there is $6 plus two cans of food. It's all food for the soul and music to the ear. Just watch your footing.

Never stand between a senior citizen

and a bingo card. We would have thought that state bureaucrats were well-aware of that Wisconsin axiom. But no, state gambling sleuths finally tumbled to the fact that cafeteria at the Southridge Boston Store in Milwaukee, was - GASP - running a few bingo games at its early bird dinners. They've been doing it for 20 years. Included in the price of the $7.70 dinner, a diner got seven bingo cards and when the games were called they had a chance to win grand prizes like - a set of candles or maybe tea towels. But after a state gambling official saw an ad in a local shopper, the Greenfield police were dispatched to tell the store to knock it off. Ahhh, shades of the yellow rubber duckie races that triggered a brouhaha last summer until public sentiment beat that enforcement drive into submission. If our take on news stories is correct - a state senator was calling it "ridiculous" and the Department of Administration was inviting Boston Store to talk to him about ways of making the gaming legal - this surge of dinnertime lawlessness can be resolved without the use of manacles. Perhaps by giving out bingo cards without requiring a purchase, like, say McDonald's does with its Monopoly game pieces. You don't even have to advertise that no purchase is necessary, state officials said. OK. Ready? Under the B ... beat it.

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