Bartolotta’s Lake Park Bistro Executive Chef Named Best Chef in Midwest

National James Beard Culinary Award Goes to Adam Siegel

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Bartolotta’s Lake Park Bistro in Milwaukee today announced that Executive Chef Adam Siegel has been named The 2008 Best Chef in the Midwest by the nationally acclaimed James Beard Foundation in New York City. Siegel, 35, was selected from an esteemed group of other Midwestern finalists, including three prominent chefs from Minneapolis and one from Kansas City.

The James Beard award recognizes Siegel for his culinary expertise in preparing French bistro cuisine at the Lake Park Bistro. Siegel offers a contemporary flair to the French preparation style of Les Plats Classique, Les Plats Traditionnel and La Cuisine Modern du Chef. Siegel is also Executive Chef of Bacchus – A Bartolotta Restaurant in downtown Milwaukee.

“We are extremely proud of Adam’s selection as Best Chef in the Midwest by the prestigious James Beard Foundation and are also proud of what this national recognition for culinary excellence brings to the City of Milwaukee and our entire region.” said Joe Bartolotta, owner of The Bartolotta Restaurant Group. “This award reinforces what we have known for many years, and that is that Adam is truly a gifted chef. Those who partake in his culinary creations are always in for an enjoyable and memorable dining experience. We join the dining community of Milwaukee and Wisconsin in congratulating him for his creativity and leadership at two of our restaurants.”

Siegel has worked for The Bartolotta Restaurant Group for eight years. He’s traveled the world during the early part of his career studying under several James Beard Award winners in San Francisco and Washington D.C., and also in Italy and France. In addition, Siegel also trained under Paul Bartolotta at the Spiaggia restaurant in Chicago. Paul has also been a James Beard Foundation award winner, is a nationally recognized and awarded chef as well, and currently runs a popular restaurant at the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas. Siegel was raised in the North Shore area of Chicago and graduated from the culinary school at Kendall College in Chicago.

The James Beard Foundation Awards is the nation’s pre-eminent recognition program honoring professionals in the food and beverage industries. The Awards celebrate outstanding achievement in a variety of categories including: Restaurants and Chefs, Books, Journalism, Restaurant Design and Graphics, special achievement and more. Industry professionals are involved in the judging process, which includes hundreds of entries. The Foundation itself is dedicated to celebrating, preserving, and nurturing America’s culinary heritage and diversity in order to elevate the appreciation of culinary excellence. The Foundation is named for cookbook author, teacher and champion of American cuisine, James Beard, who died in 1985. More information can be found at www.jamesbeard.org.

The Bartolotta Restaurant Group is located in Wauwatosa and includes The Bartolotta Catering Company and several well known Milwaukee area restaurants, including Ristorante Bartolotta, Bartolotta’s Lake Park Bistro, Mr. B’s – A Bartolotta Steakhouse, and Bacchus – A Bartolotta Restaurant. More information on the restaurants and catering can be found at www.bartolottas.com.

Your Chance to Hear New York Times Best Seller David Sirota

Here's a great way to spend an evening with some dedicated progressives.

David Sirota, author of the New York Times best selling book Hostile Takeover, is coming to Milwaukee on Tuesday, June 17 at Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop at 7 p.m. for a book signing of his latest progressive clarion call, The Uprising.

Here's what the Washington Post had to say about The Uprising:

"The Uprising is a hard book to dislike or dismiss. Sirota reports cleverly and in pleasing detail about a complex world of political conflict that the journalistic throng obsessed with presidential candidates and their handlers seldom notices... He may not have the Establishment quaking in its Guccis, but his always energetic, often ironic reporting certainly made the quest worthwhile."

David has been a good friend to the progressive movement in Wisconsin and his blogs, columns and books are regularly cited in work we do here at One Wisconsin Now.

Can you join us June 17 at 7 p.m. at the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop, 2559 N. Downer Avenue in Milwaukee? You can RSVP and get more details here.

Demand more from your radio dial

Dear Reader,

Did you know that America's top 5 commercial radio station owners broadcast more than 2,570 hours of conservative news and talk every weekday? In our age of Shameful Shock Jocks* spewing hate talk, we need to support the progressive radio alternative, where facts are a crucial part of the story.

Our friends at Air America Radio are breaking new ground and hot news stories. They have some of AlterNet's most popular writers and media figures on their team -- Rachel Maddow, Tom Hartman, Laura Flanders, and others. And now, you can listen to them any time you'd like to, on the web, for free. Give them a try.

Don Hazen
Executive Editor, AlterNet.org

HISTORY IS MADE in St. Paul! - Barack Obama, June 3, 2008

Commuter Bus Ridership Up in Milwaukee, But After Years of Service Cuts It Won’t Be Able to Handle Increase

Published by Daniel Cody “Left on the Lake”





Data from the first three months of the year shows that Milwaukee commuter buses are seeing an increase in ridership that matches the national trend, which is something I’ve been predicting would happen for months now.

But there’s a problem with the increase in ridership here in Southeastern Wisconsin: after years of service cuts (and fare increases), transit officials now say they cannot handle a big increase in the number of riders.

Why? Because of poor long term planning and service cuts which have crippled the system and made it into a shell of it’s former self. When you completely drop nearly 20 routes, raise fares, and cut back on other routes throughout the system with a purposeful and deliberate goal of drowning what was at one time the best transit operation in the Country, this is what happens.

You have more demand for a service, but a deliberate willingness to not increase supply, and commuters in and around Milwaukee now are paying the price.

The kicker is that even at this late hour, with gas prices over $4.00/gallon, Southeastern Wisconsin still has no action plan in any regard to handle the desire of it’s residents to utilize more mass transit options:

As more drivers in the Milwaukee area convert to riding commuter buses from designated lots in Waukesha, Washington and Ozaukee counties, those buses are becoming more crowded. But after years of slashing service, beleaguered public transit systems can’t gear up quickly to handle a major influx of new riders, transit officials say.JSonline.com

Those opposed to mass transit in Wisconsin, led by County Exec. Walker, have successfully blocked any real progress on mass transit for the better part of a decade now. As residents actually start to feel the repercussions of that policy, more and more will start to ask the very valid question of, “Why are we the only metro area in the Country moving backwards on transit?”.

That’s something Walker and his supporters should have to answer for.

http://dancody.org/archives/commuter-bus-ridership-up-in-milwaukee-but-after-years-of-service-cuts-wont-be-able-to-handle-increase.html

Congratulations!

GOP Fails To Recruit Minority Candidates

This story was written by Jim VandeHei and Josh Kraushaar.
At a time when Democrats are poised to knock down a historic racial barrier with their presidential nominee, the GOP is fielding only a handful of minority candidates for Congress or statehouses - none of whom seem to have a prayer of victory.

At the start of the Bush years, the Republican National Committee - in tandem with the White House - vowed to usher in a new era of GOP minority outreach. As George W. Bush winds down his presidency, Republicans are now on the verge of going six - and probably more - years without an African-American governor, senator or House member.

That’s the longest such streak since the 1980s.

Republicans will have only one minority governor, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, an Indian-American, when the dust settles on the ’08 elections. Democrats have three minority governors and 43 African-American members of Congress, including one - Illinois Sen. Barack Obama - who is their likely presidential nominee. Democrats also have several challengers in winnable House races who are either black or Hispanic.

Despite having a Spanish-speaking “compassionate conservative” in the White House, Republicans’ diversity deficit seems to have only widened.

“In 1994, when I first ran, we had 14 African-American Republicans running for Congress. ... I was the only one that won that year, but we had 14, and we had some good candidates,” said former Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts, one of the party’s most recognized African-American voices. “I am grateful for what Ken Mehlman did when he was RNC chairman, but I knew that wouldn’t last - that was one person. I’ve never gotten the impression that it was institutionalized.”

So who’s to blame for this diversity deficit?

Jack Kemp, the former Republican congressman and vice presidential nominee, says the culprit is clear: a “pitiful” recruitment effort by his party. “I don’t see much of an outreach,” he said. “I don’t see much of a reason to run.”

A former black GOP candidate who declined to be identified by name offered a slightly more charitable explanation. He said the party is so broke and distracted that wooing strong minority candidates is a luxury it simply cannot afford right now.

Congressional staffers contacted for reaction on this issue did not want to comment but were clearly uneasy with the party’s all-white slate of viable candidates.

In all fairness, Republicans have never been very good at attracting strong minority candidates, especially African-Americans. Only four black Republicans - Watts, former Massachusetts Sen. Edward Brooke, former Connecticut Rep. Gary Franks and the late Illinois Rep. Oscar Stanton De Priest - have been elected to Congress since Reconstruction.

The party has done slightly better with Cuban-Americans and Hispanics in recent years - Cuban-American Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida recently served as RNC chairman. But the GOP remains a white-dominated party elected overwhelmingly by white voters.

Another mitigating factor for the party is that this has been a terrible year overall for GOP recruitment, as exemplified in the 0-for-3 Republican streak in special elections in recent weeks. The dilemma is simple: Who wants to run when the Republican brand is so unpopular and money is so scarce?

Still, the recruitment failure is striking when you consider the recent history of the GOP on this issue. It was not long ago - 2005, to be precise - that Mehlman, then the RNC chairman, grabbed headlines with a major speech on diversity before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“Republicans are committed to inclusion,” he told the group’s national convention. “I’m here four years before the next presidential election asking for your help. Inclusion means you work together to recruit candidates, not surrogates to speak on their behalf.”

Mehlman was far from alone. President Bush dedicated significant time in the early years of his presidency to reaching out to African-Americans with countless speeches on education and faith-based initiatives directed at minority communities. He aggressively appointed prominent blacks to his Cabinet, including two secretaries of state: Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.

Bush sometimes broke into Spanish as he called for immigration laws providing illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship, a hot topic in Hispanic communities.

The efforts, of course, were designed to attract voters - not just candidates - into the GOP fold. And the moral of the story is that the party clearly failed.

Some party insiders point to 2006 as the specific proof that diversity efforts may sound great but are still impractical and electorally unrewarding for the GOP.

During that cycle, Mehlman and GOP leaders talked a number of attractive black candidates into running for important seats: Michael Steele of Maryland, for the Senate; and Lynn Swann of Pennsylvania and Ken Blackwell of Ohio, for governor.

Scores of stories were written about the Republicans’ new plan to win tough seats with well-funded minority candidates.

Then they all lost badly. The election results in their respective states showed that they hardly made any inroads - even in the heavily African-American parts of the states they were running in. Swann was later asked to run for the House, and he declined.

Suddenly, the argument for minority outreach seemed to lack the underpinning of any successful political strategy: the ability to produce more votes.

The exit polling data for House races in 2006 showed the depth of the GOP’s outreach crisis. Republican candidates won 11 percent of the black vote and 30 percent of the Hispanic vote.

However, Watts, for one, rejects the argument that Republicans can’t compete for minority votes or successfully recruit minority candidates. He argues that the party simply hasn’t tried hard enough.

“Unless you have an infrastructure to build off of, it’s all throwing mud at the wall and hoping that some of it sticks,” said Watts. “There’s an entire infrastructure that needs to be thought through, and it seems to me no one is interested in building that.”


By Jim VandeHei and Josh Kraushaar
Copyright 2008 POLITICO