The City of Milwaukee's first foray into charter schools at the high school level isn't exactly turning into a Harvard-style experience. In its annual report, the city's Charter School Review Committee blames a lack of financial accountability and staff problems for slow educational progress on behalf of the students at the Maasai Institute, 4744 N. 39th St.

The city is allowed to run charter schools, which essentially allows certain private schools to get public funding in order to compete with the Milwaukee Public School system.

The city committee noted the institute filed its financial information late, "due to its internal control deficiencies," and said the school was not in financial compliance with the terms of its contract with the city. It recommended that the school, "completely reorganize its internal control policies and procedures" and suggested that closer monitoring is needed.

It's the city's first contract with a school that strictly deals with high school-age students and one of the excuses offered by Maasai management is that teaching high school is more complicated.

"I am gravely concerned," said Ald. Joe Davis of the news.

"We can ill-afford compromise in educating our young people," concurred Ald. Willie Hines.

Aldermen nonetheless took no action to sanction the school.

Walking on Water: I've long wondered why the city's famed Riverwalk ended in a mess of rubble at the Brewers Point Apartments, 1858 N. Commerce St., near the site of the old Trostel Tannery. It's an obvious gap in the system. Turns out it was because the property owner wouldn't ante up to help pay for the strolling platform, which, as other riverside property owners have found, ultimately adds to the property values.

The dispute over who's paying what to build the thing has been going on since 1996. But now there appears to be a parting of the seas. A deal before the city's Redevelopment Authority has the city putting up $292,441.26 and the property owner chipping in $62,550.74 to get the walk built.

View From the Suburbs: Don Pridemore has a lofty view of solving racial disparity in incarceration rates in our fair state. Given the Republican is from Hartford, one could also accuse his view as being a tad simplistic as well.

In response to the governor's commission on racial disparity, Pridemore says that higher incarceration rates for African-American males starts with the family.

"There is one underlying fact that overrides all others: in Milwaukee, 82 percent of African-American babies are born without a father listed on the birth certificate," says Pridemore from his perch in the suburbs.

He goes on to claim that African-American children with two parents do not live in poverty.

"Rather than focusing on the dubious concept of unconscious racism or a statistical disparity in the number of persons who commit crimes, let's focus on why these problems may occur," he says. "After we work to preserve the traditional family structure, then these other symptoms -- such as a statistical disparity in the incarceration rate -- will decrease. How can we reduce racial disparity in the Wisconsin justice system? By reducing the ‘marriage disparity' in every race."

Felonious Assault: The recent spate of legal troubles for some state lawmakers has created some proposed laws as well. The faces Gary George, Chuck Chvala and possibly Scott Jensen all grace felon posters and one Republican senator wants to keep it that way and keep them out of the capitol building.

Jensen is already making the rounds under the dome. Sen. Alan Lasee (R-DePere) wants to ban convicted felons from working as lobbyists. He told a Senate committee that it make no sense to him that felons can't vote, but can be trusted to peddle influence in the Capitol and influence legislators' votes.

"It's like taking a child molester and putting him in charge of a day care center," he said. When probed about how broad his definition of felon is -- since different states have different views on the distinction and Lasee's proposal simply states that anybody convicted in any U.S. court would be banned -- the senator responded, "Why are we even arguing about having felons be lobbyists? A felon is a felon in my book."

Not Happy in Israel: We don't normally jump onto the international political scene, but this one's too good not to share. A member of the Israeli parliament blamed the country's supposed tolerance of gays for earthquakes that have rocked the Holy Land recently. There were two earthquakes in Israel this month and four in November and December.

Shlomo Benizri, of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, said the quakes were caused by lawmaking that gave "legitimacy to sodomy."

Israel decriminalized homosexuality in 1988, among other laws recognizing gay rights, including giving gay couples inheritance and adoption rights and recognizing same-sex marriages performed abroad.

Dock Work: The Milwaukee Rowing Club was given some prime real estate and state-of-art storage building as part of a deal with the city when it tore down the North Avenue Dam and rendered the club's Hubbard Park locale in Shorewood useless. The club, in turn had to maintain public access to the river via the dock.

Two girls drowned at the dock when the river became a torrent after a storm. The club was also required to maintain two water taxi docks, which it apparently has not done. An proposal before the Redevelopment Authority clarifies the agreement and requires the club to remove and repair the docks each season and would provide up to $10,000 from the city for the efforts.