Straight from the horses' mouths

Michael Watkins, the head of government documents at UW-O's Polk Library, has created a page where citizens can get direct access to reports and other information from the state or federal government.

Current items include the 9/11 Commission Report and the Army inspector general's report on Iraqi detainee abuses.

Tabor delayed

It looks like there won't be any action until early next year on the tax cap plan.

Water & sewer rates likely to rise

The Oshkosh City Council will consider an ordinance Tuesday night that "would authorize a 3% increase in our water rates," City Manager Richard A. Wollagnk said July 23. A separate ordinance will do the same for sewer rates.

"This is recommended by our water rate consultant and is to keep our rates in line with the increasing costs of operating our water system," he said in his regular newsletter to the mayor and council.

"The last time we had a rate increase was in 2001. As you can see, a 3% increase is only 1% per year."

He used about the same language to explain the sewer rate increase: "Like our water rate increase request, this is being recommended by our rate consultant for our wastewater treatment facility. It is a 3% rate increase to keep us in line with the increased costs that we have incurred in the operation of our wastewater treatment system. Again, the rate has not been changed since 2001."

At its meeting the council will also officially receive notice of claims from eight more city residents for damage from backed up sewers. Their claims total close to $50,000.

Go here to see the complete agenda.

Oshkosh Today

The Oshkosh Community News Network is featured on a segment of this week's edition of Oshkosh Today, which is shown on OCAT Channel 2.

Program host John Urben was kind enough to invite us back later this year after the oshkoshnews Web site is up.

Library to host site

The Oshkosh Public Library has agreed to host the local news site sponsored by the Oshkosh Community News Network. The site, currently under construction, is scheduled to go live by the end of the summer. Its Web address will be www.oshkoshnews.org.

In addition the library and OCNN have announced plans to work as partners in the "Oshkosh@151" project. This is an effort to create an electronic scrapbook for the city to mark its 151st year of existence.

"This will put the library in a position to readily archive any and all information developed as part of the site that is of historical value for the future," said John Nichols, the director of the library.

Death toll hits home

Through the first week of July, 19 Wisconsin soldiers have died in combat operations in Iraq, which ranks the state in the top third of the country for war deaths. But on a population adjusted basis the state falls slightly below the national average for fatalities.

See complete state breakdown here. To see U.S. casualties mapped by state, go here.

These figures are based on statistics developed by a Web site called Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. The site is operated by two private citizens, civil engineer Pat Kneisler of Benicia, Calif., and computer programmer Michael White of Atlanta. But it is viewed as authoritative and has been widely quoted in the media.

The most recent Wisconsin death was announced by the Department of Defense July 7. “Staff Sgt. Stephen G. Martin, 39, of Rhinelander, Wis., died July 1 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., from injuries sustained in Mosul, Iraq, on June 24 when a car bomb exploded near his guard post,” the government said in a press release. “The incident is under investigation.”

The Casualty Count site has been developed based on this kind of terse announcement. In this war, the government has opted not to provide a running tally of deaths and injuries, which is what prompted Kneisler to start doing her research, she said last summer in explaining the site’s purpose and methodology.

While she found other groups were publishing lists of casualty information, they had data errors and other problems.

“That is why this web site was developed … to provide information that has been scrupulously culled from government sources and cross-checked against other existing lists to ensure the most accurate and complete accounting of deaths that we can possibly assemble,” Kneisler said.

“And then we take things a step further. We present the data in a way that will allow other researchers and interested individuals to easily analyze it for trends and benchmarks,” she added.

By importing information from her site into an Excel spreadsheet and adding Census Bureau population numbers, it was possible to calculate per capita death rates. By that measure, Vermont has suffered the greatest toll in the Iraq War with more than 14 deaths per million residents. Wisconsin ranks 21st with 3.5 deaths per million residents.

About 2,600 Wisconsin citizens are currently on active duty as part of National Guard and military reserve units, according to Lt. Col. Tim Donovan, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs. The number of Wisconsinites in regular Army units is not known.

Of the 19 Wisconsin service members killed, there were 10 regular Army, five Army Reserves, three Marines and one National Guard, Donovan said.