Editorial Page EditorNew Year’s resolutions are like the annual Polar Plunge into Lake Michigan. It’s a fine activity for someone else.So here are my New Year’s resolutions for 2009. They’re all for other people, of course: U.S. Attorney’s Office in Milwaukee: Keep on pushing — or pulling — on the investigation of illegal campaign contributions. There will be a change at the top in the office, as U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic is resigning, but the investigation can and should continue. Sometimes we hear complaints that this investigation makes Wisconsin politics seem as dirty as Illinois politics, but it’s better to accept a little tarnish on Wisconsin’s image than to look the other way when people are breaking the rules.International Olympic Committee: Make the right call for the 2016 Summer Games. It’s got to be Chicago.Milwaukee politicians: Decide to fight for a commuter train between your city and Kenosha. If not, figure out a better economic develop tool and fight for that. As the state’s biggest city, Milwaukee should be the economic engine that drives the state, but most of the energy seems to be coming from elsewhere.Fox River: Limit yourself to one flood per year, that’s all. We definitely do not want a repeat of 2008 which saw road-closing floods three times (April, June and December) plus other floods in January, February, March (twice) and early April.Abbott Laboratories: Get started on that Pleasant Prairie campus. Construction activity is pretty slow right now, so it might be a good time to start a big project.Everybody: Ride the bus once in a while.Every kid with a bike: Put a headlight on it or park it at sundown. Most drivers would be a lot better about sharing the road with bicycles if the bikes were more visible. For some reason, a lot of kids in Kenosha seem to think it’s OK to ride at dusk or later without any lights. It’s not OK.Lake Michigan: Bring the perch back to Kenosha this year. Waukegan had perch in the spring and and Milwaukee had perch last summer, but action on the North Pier in Kenosha was way too slow. We don’t want a repeat of that.State Senate: Make good on that promise to raise the state minimum wage. It might seem like throwing a red flag up in front of Republicans to raise the minimum wage when the economy is shedding jobs, but Republicans always object to increases in the minimum wage, no matter whether the economy is weak or strong.

According to Holly Sklar, an advocate for a higher federal minimum wage, states that raised their minimum wages above the federal level between 1997 and 2007 experienced better employment and small business trends than states that did not.Green energy proponents: How about some ethanol made from something other than corn? All those pilot projects and studies look so good, but it’s hard to find any actual production of ethanol from wood chips or from prairie grass or anything else that’s easy to grow. Come to think of it, somebody should figure out how to make ethanol from dandelions. We’d have fuel forever.Steve Lund’s column appears on Thursdays.