BP claims gas stations owned by Dhaliwal’s Bulk Petroleum have been selling generic gas at BP-flagged stations. Dhaliwal operates stations that sell virtually every brand of gasoline available but if the sign says "BP" the customers, and BP, expect the gasoline to be from BP. If it isn’t, if instead Dhaliwal is passing off fuel without proprietary additives blended in, he almost certainly is committing an act of fraud.

So where is the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s consumer fraud division? Like everything else in that agency, the consumer fraud division seems to have shut down since J.B. Van Hollen was elected attorney general. The division’s apparent decision to not investigate Dhaliwal may be part of the Van Hollen pattern of not doing anything about anything or it may be a result of Dhaliwal’s political juice. So just who is Darshan Dhaliwal?

A couple of decades ago a number of entrepreneurial immigrants from India’s Sikh community began buying Milwaukee area gas stations and convenience stores. Dhaliwal was Mr. Big. In addition to buying many stations himself, Dhaliwal helped many other Indian-Americans buy their own stations. In the process he became extremely wealthy and has used some of that wealth to get close to prominent politicians. Former Gov. Tommy Thompson and former Milwaukee Mayor Marvin Pratt were the closest. For years, Dhaliwal and Pratt were inseparable, forming the ultimate odd couple. They’d be seen at restaurants or the front row of Bucks games, Pratt in his perfectly tailored suits and Dhaliwal wearing his giant turban. Dhaliwal and his acolytes likewise gave a fortune to Thompson and it was Dhaliwal who vowed (and later reneged) to raise $1 million for Thompson’s presidential campaign. Van Hollen, the attorney general, is a Thompson protégé.

Dhaliwal has also raised huge amounts for Gov. Jim Doyle. When Dhaliwal puts the word out that it’s time to give, the local Indian community responds. As many as 25 Wisconsin politicians count the Dhaliwal gang as their biggest political benefactors.

I don’t know if the BP charges are true. I also don’t know if anybody cares what kind of gas they use. (All gasoline comes from the same terminals. The proprietary additives from each brand are usually added at the station.) The Dhaliwal story and that of the other Asian Indians is a remarkable testimony to entrepreneurial success. What he and the others have done is a tribute to hard work and initiative. But that shouldn’t give him a pass if the BP charges are true.

J.B. Van Hollen has been Wisconsin’s attorney general for a year. In that time, he hasn’t solved the backlog at the state crime lab (as he promised) nor developed a multi-agency action plan for Milwaukee (as he promised) nor released critical records from the Crandon mass murder. Maybe he’s just moving slowly. The alternative is that he has no intention of doing his job.

* * *

A bill has been introduced in the state Legislature that is a dream come true for Milwaukee and Waukesha gang leaders. It would raise back to 18 the age at which a criminal could be charged as an adult. Bosses of street gangs use teenagers almost exclusively as gunmen, street level enforcers and drug house managers because many of them are charged as juveniles and avoid serious punishment. Pushing the age back to 18 for even more crimes is a gift from heaven for these gang predators.

It’s not surprising that the bill is sponsored by some Milwaukee County Democrats like Sen. Lena Taylor, as they are chronically soft on crime and sympathetic to their increasingly influential gang bosses. It’s more surprising the legislation is co-sponsored by suburban Democrats like Sen. Jim Sullivan of Wauwatosa and Rep. Tony Staskunas of West Allis.

What is especially shocking is that the bill is also co-sponsored by Republican state Rep. Suzanne Jeskewitz of Menomonee Falls. While Jeskewitz is a RINO (Republican in name only), it’s still stunning to see her name on legislation that will cripple the fight against gang violence in Milwaukee and Waukesha. It may be that in Jeskewitz’s Menomonee Falls neighborhood juvenile crime is still limited to smashing pumpkins and breaking windows. But in other parts of Wisconsin, teenage gang-bangers are indiscriminately murdering and are terrorizing neighborhoods. Jeskewitz needs to get out of the ‘burbs long enough to see that babying gangsters is an awful idea.

As further evidence of her bleeding liberal heart, Jeskewitz wants to pay for the massive additional cost - all the money wasted on the programs that coddle juvenile criminals - by raising another tax, this one on video games.

(Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show. His column runs Wednesdays in The Freeman.)