Wisconsin lawmakers wave flag for bacterium

State budgets are tight and getting tighter, but politicians in Wisconsin are determined to promote the Badger State in a slightly cheesy way:

The state Assembly is considering a bill that would name the bacterium that converts milk into cheese as -- ready for it? -- the official state microbe.

The microbe, Lactococcus lactis, is poised to join the state’s list of 21 designated symbols, which includes an official dance (the polka), beverage (milk) and domesticated animal (the Holstein dairy cow). It would also be a first for the nation.

The idea first bubbled up a couple of months ago, when researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s department of bacteriology contacted lawmakers with suggestions of how to draw attention to the state’s emerging biotechnology industries and long-standing roots in agriculture.

Cheese, after all, is huge in Wisconsin, and lawmakers have never been hesitant to tout the industry to rally support. The state proclaims itself America’s Dairyland on its license plates and is a booster of its $18-billion cheese industry. But even these Cheesehead leaders were a bit perplexed by the bacteria idea.

“My first reaction was, ‘Uh . . . why would we do that?’ ” recalled Democrat Rep. Gary Hebl, one of the lead authors of Assembly Bill 556. “But then we started talking about it, and it made sense.”

It’s even got the university’s bacteriology department excited.

Lactococcus lactis, Hebl learned, is the chief starter culture for a variety of cheeses and other dairy products and is also being engineered to improve vaccine delivery.

He and a crew of fellow Democrats decided that they’d introduce the bill last month, in part because “we’ve been making a lot of painful cuts in our budget, and this doesn’t cost us anything,” Hebl said.

Besides, he added, “Wisconsin has a blossoming biotechnology industry and being the first state in the nation to adopt a state microbe is a great way to tell the world that Wisconsin is moving biotechnology forward.”

Well, that’s one way to do it. Some of his peers, though, wanted to give the microbe a name a wee bit easier to pronounce.

But Hebl wouldn’t hear of it. “There was talk about calling it ‘little cheesy,’ ” Hebl said. “No way. Lactococcus lactis is easy to remember. It’s like French, it just rolls off the tongue.” (It’s pronounced lac-tow-co-kus lac-tis, by the way. Duh.)

The bill, currently in the state affairs and homeland security committee, is set for a committee vote on Thursday. If all goes well, its fans expect it to go to the Assembly floor for a vote in mid-January.

Palin, tomatoes and bad aim

Political history is not usually made on a second-floor balcony in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.

But that’s where 33-year-old Jeremy Paul Olson -- observing the lines and hoopla at former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s book-signing at the Barnes & Noble on Monday -- lobbed not one but two tomatoes in the direction of the former Republican vice presidential candidate.

Instead of hitting Palin, he hit a cop and was arrested for disorderly conduct and assaulting a police officer.

Gawker called the Bloomington jail and talked to “a bored-sounding officer . . . apparently indifferent to the feat of produce-based heroics.”

The site added: “If anyone has information on the tomato-wielding Real American Hero Jeremy Paul Olson, please e-mail us. Who is this man? What motivated him to throw tomatoes at Sarah Palin? And most importantly: How could he miss!?”

Palin, who has sold more than 1 million copies of “Going Rogue,” kept on autographing, with her husband, Todd Palin, at her side. Certainly her fans ignored any sign of trouble -- after lining up in freezing weather before the mall doors opened at 5 a.m.

Golf tips a good idea at the time

The editors at Golf Digest had this great idea. President Obama has been playing a lot of golf lately. And according to a detailed report in the Wall Street Journal, not playing that well. So why not invite Tiger Woods, the world’s preeminent golfer, to give the president some tips?

And, in another brainstorm, they even Photoshopped an image of Woods in a caddy outfit posed behind Obama as he judged a putt.

After all, Steve Rushin explains in the January issue, they are at the top of their fields, both “prominent, multi-ethnic” African Americans, both with an older man as second lieutenant -- Vice President Joe Biden and caddy Steve Williams.

Mostly, said the writer, the difficulty of their tasks is similar. “Shooting back-to-back 65s at Firestone Country Club is -- ask any golfer -- every bit as difficult as achieving world peace,” he wrote.

But that was before Woods was embroiled in a personal saga gone public, with so many women now stepping forward to claim a relationship with the 34-year-old golf pro that some are talking about Woods’ tally and back nine.

Readers are flooding the magazine with complaints about Woods’ behavior, along with some choice tips of their own like, “Don’t get caught!”

One interesting political note. The magazine asked readers how much golf Obama should play.

Nearly 46% said “as much as he can without affecting his work,” and 8% said never -- and that was before Woods’ Thanksgiving driveway stunt.

p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com

Neuman writes for The Times.

Top of the Ticket, The Times’ blog on national politics ( www.latimes.com/ticket “> www.latimes.com/ticket ), is a blend of commentary, analysis and news. These are selections from the last week.