Another Wireless Unplugging: Milwaukee's once highly touted effort to get into the wi-fi universe saw another chapter quietly came to a close this week, as one plan has been tabled for now. The Common Council's Steering and Rules Committee put the most recent issue of obtaining bids for the project to rest at its meeting this week. That's not to say a new effort to get bids won't resurface, but it appears for now there's no one screaming to do that.

In January 2007, Mayor Tom Barrett projected that by March 2008, "the entire city will be wired and a 'walled garden' of about 60 sites will be available to people accessing the wireless system in the City of Milwaukee." He noted that Milwaukee is on the cutting edge of wireless installation and has the opportunity to be far more advanced than other cities in the United States.

The mayor's plan, however, relied on local wireless networker Midwest Fiber Networks to do the job -- without considering other providers or hiring outside consultants.

After several missteps and under-calculations for the project, Ald. Michael Murphy proposed last year that the city get bids on the project. Last July, Midwest Fiber announced that the "test area" was complete, but so far signals have been nearly non-existent to find. It announced shortly thereafter that finishing the project was financially questionable for the company.

The term sheet with the city for the deal, dated 2006, is still up on Midwest Fiber's Web site.

The onus was on former city Chief Information Officer Randy Gschwind to get the job done. Gschwind left his city post this year and formed Information Technology Management Solutions, listing himself as a "virtual CIO."

Milwaukee's experience with wi-fi is similar to that of other American cities rushing to be the first to go wireless. Many found problems assembling the infrastructure and had numerous problems with signals. Smaller cities in the States, however, have been able to put together functional networks and cities in other countries, such as New Zealand, have had success as well.

Trumping Tragedy: State Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) has literally made a career out of taking tragedy or trouble and turning it into headlines for herself. And since she is facing a tough re-election fight against popular state Rep. Sheldon Wasserman (D-Milwaukee) for her seat, it should come as no surprise that she's at it again.

This time it comes in the aftermath of an incident in which a two-time drunk driver is accused of killing a pregnant Oconomowoc woman and her 10-year-old daughter. Waukesha County prosecutors are charging Mark Bensen, a Summit doctor, with homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle after saying he had the sleep aid Ambien, the anxiety medicine Xanax and the painkiller oxycodone in his system at the time of the crash.

Darling conveniently got some face time on Channel 4 condemning state drunk driving laws, saying that "we have to change some of the laws," but not offering much more. She suggested the state toughen laws after the third offense.

Darling got her interview the same day a community meeting was held in Oconomowoc to commemorate the death of Jennifer Bukosky and her daughter.

But Darling is actually a tad late and part of a long line of pols jumping on the tragedy, including Gov. Jim Doyle and Oconomowoc state legislator Joel Kleefish, who suggested the same thing shortly after the April 25 crash. But Darling got on TV and the other two did not.