Waukesha County Leaders, Nanny State Cheerleaders, Continue Great Lakes Blockade

They came.

They met.

They continued to say "No" to the Great Lakes Compact, pushing the fiction that with just a few simple tweaks, an agreement that has already been approved by four Great Lakes states' legislatures could be weakened enough to pass muster by a small group of obstructionists in Waukesha County.

"They" are business leaders and elected officials, such as Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas, rationalizing their stalling of the Great Lakes Compact at a forum Thursday sponsored by another of the nay-saying groups, the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce.

Story by Darryl Enriquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, here.

The now-very partisan (so filter out the GOP chaff) uproar is primarily over the belief that the State of Michigan, under the Compact and an existing, 22-year-old federal law, might veto a diversion application from the City of Waukesha because it lies outside of the Great Lakes basin.

But the story makes clear that Waukesha City Mayor Larry Nelson supports the Compact because it establishes and clarifies diversion rules and procedures for the first time.

And Michigan did not block the diversion to Pleasant Prairie, so this spectre of big bad Michigan is something of a canard.

It's noteworthy that the Waukesha Freeman story on this conference has a flat-out mistake in its lead sentence, repeating the fiction that Michigan has opposed "any type of diversionary efforts."

If that were true, Pleasant Prairie wouldn't be getting Lake Michigan water today.

And speaking of errors, why does the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce still have on its website the anti-Compact resolution it adopted last year that claims the two Canadian Great Lakes provinces have veto power over US states' diversion applications.

The Canadians' review is advisory only, and I have posted items about this uncorrected bit of xenophobia for eleven months.

C'mon, Chamber leaders: straighten out your story.

With seven years of negotiations and debate having led to half the Great Lakes states legislatures approving the Compact - - Compact versions that include as their foundation the very portions that Waukesha County's naysayers want changed with a mere wave of a magic wand - - there's no way that negotiations will be reopened so those four states would bow to Waukesha and adopt a new agreement, something along the lines of "The Greater Waukesha County Water Enabling Compact."

Attention Waukesha County policy-makers:

It's a regional, two-country Compact, a regional, cooperative plan to protect an international water resource.

The largest newspaper in Ohio ripped their Waukesha/GOP Assembly counterparts there. See Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial, here.

And a number of Wisconsin editorial boards have also called out the Wisconsin GOP on its Compact shenanigans, with the latest reasoned effort by the Wisconsin State Journal, here.

If you think about it, what these Waukesha obstructionists want - - as do their allies in the state Assembly leadership who are blocking the Compact's introduction in Madison - - is the ultimate legislative protectionism of a Nanny State:

A special set of rules that will enable one segment of a larger group - - one County among hundreds across eight states and their equivalents in two Canadian provinces - - to have a special privilege or advantage.

For that, they should be run out of the Republican Party.

Economy OK: Mission Accomplished

Pres. George W. Bush says we are not headed for a recession.

Whew.

Water Deal To Menomonee Falls Approved: Sky Did Not Fall

With very little fanfare, the Milwaukee Common Council has renewed its water sale arrangement with Menomonee Falls, despite some hiccups a few weeks ago at the Council committee level.

Despite the gnashing of teeth in some quarters, and predictions of the end of regionalism as we know it, Menomonee Falls' deal was re-upped, as was going to be the case.

There were so little fireworks when the vote came that Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had the story on page three of the Metro section in my edition.

Truth is - - Menomonee Falls was not, and is not, the sticking point when it comes to regionalism in these here parts on the water diversion issue, or other matters.

The early rhetoric about the pending deal, and the need to tie these arrangements to larger urban needs, like transit and housing and job opportunities, was aimed at other communities seeking water that do not have the best track records on recognizing that there are larger social and economic issues in the region that should be solved together.

Waukesha and New Berlin come to mind - - as I wrote at the time- - or other communities in the area likely to be folded into regional distribution of Lake Michigan water in new schemes being studied at the regional planning commission.

Communities that also have not been leaders in regional transit provision, or pushing the regional planning commission to get busy and update the regional housing plan that the suburbs have been content to have sat dormant since 1975.

What Milwaukee's Common Council and Mayor Tom Barrett are trying to communicate is that getting a valuable resource like water comes the need for reciprocity from the buying communities.

And not just the going rate of something like four cents per 100 gallons of water.

If there is to be real regional development in southeastern Wisconsin, and if that development is going to accelerate in the distant suburbs in part with Lake Michigan water sold by the City of Milwaukee, there needs to be a distribution of some of the water-borne benefits.

Sometimes that it called tax-base sharing.

State Sen. Mary Lazich, (R-New Berlin) one of the communities applying for a Lake Michigan water sale through Milwaukee calls it "extortion" - - not much of a negotiating tactic.

(One link touching on both tax-base sharing and Lazich's extortion screed is here).

And the GOP-run State Assembly is threatening to cripple the entire Great Lakes Compact, the very water management agreement that provides the quickest legal route to a diversion to Lazich's hometown - - an even worse negotiating tactic endorsed by the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce, Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas and others.

So Menomonee Falls will continue to get its City of Milwaukee water.

We'll see if New Berlin and Waukesha get the point:

Regional cooperation means give and take, not just take, take, take, and when it comes to the Great Lakes Compact, obstruct, obstruct, obstruct.

Are Heart And Lung Diseases Chronic Conditions? Ask The WMC, As It Urges Chronic Disease Focus - - AND Relaxed Air Pollution Standards

You gotta love the WMC:

The Journal Sentinel reports on its Newswatch blog (full text below) today that the powerful statewide business lobby wants more focus on chronic disease in the discussion of health care provision.

But it also wants lowered air pollution standards in southeastern Wisconsin, where a spate of dirty air alerts put people at risk for lung and heart ailments.

I guess some chronic diseases are worth fighting, and others, well, those can persist.

Go figure.

From newswatch:

THURSDAY, Feb. 28, 2008, 11:54 a.m.By Rick Romell

WMC calls for focus on chronic disease

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's largest business lobbying group, said Thursday it has joined a national effort to highlight chronic disease - and its cost - as a key health-care issue in this year's presidential election.

WMC is part of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, a national coalition whose leaders include former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona.

In a statement, WMC said chronic disease accounts for 75% of health-care costs, and that half of costs are related to lifestyle choices such as smoking, unhealthy diet and lack of exercise.

Health insurance in the United States is largely provided through business and other employers, with the employer typically paying most of the cost.

WMC Political Session Scheduled Friday In Milwaukee: Picketing, Too

Former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin's effort to illuminate political and fundraising efforts by the powerful statewide business lobby Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce - - as the State Supreme Court race heats up - - makes a stop in Milwaukee Friday morning.

In the form of an informational picket from 8 AM to 10:30 AM in front of the M&I Bank, 770 Water Street.

Details of the WMC effort are here.

Text of Soglin's news release, below:

Soglin Consulting, 121 Standish Court , Madison , Wisconsin 53705

Contact: Paul Soglin For release 7:00 am Monday February 25, 2008
Tel. 608.238.4042 Cell phone 608.770.0947 Email: paul@psoglin. com

Picketing at the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) Meeting at 770 Water Street , Milwaukee

There will be an informational picket at a WMC meeting in Milwaukee , Friday February 29, 2008 from 8:00 am until 10:30 am to coincide with their hosting a meeting designed to raise money to influence the Supreme Court race.

WMC is certainly the most influential lobbying organization in our state. It claims over 4,000 member businesses—and they make the biggest contributions, indirectly, to politicians’ campaigns through their issue ads they purchase at election time.

WMC, through its Issues Committee has played a prominent role in a number of state wide elections including the last campaigns for Governor, Attorney General, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

It does this by soliciting funds and then purchasing issues ads which do not support a specific candidate but which attack the candidate WMC opposes.

While WMC does not have to reveal its contributors, television stations are required to make public ad purchases.

Last July, the Democracy Campaign estimated that WMC spent $2.2 million on television and other advertising in an effort to defeat Annette Ziegler’s opponent in the Supreme Court race. (The Capital Times, July 24, 2007). Ziegler was subsequently found to have ruled in cases where she had a conflict of interest and now faces discipline from her colleagues on the Supreme Court

Today WMC is hosting a seminar designed to enlist opposition to the candidacy of Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler.

It is estimated that WMC will attempt to raise between $2.5 and $4 million in an effort to defeat the distinguished jurist, Justice Butler. Those picketing today are making it clear that the people’s Wisconsin Supreme Court is not for sale.

Members of labor and professional organizations are opposed to these efforts. We do not have the legal means to find out which WMC members fund these attack ads.

But we do have access to the WMC board of directors and can identify the people who are responsible for the decisions to raise the money and to buy the advertising. They can enjoy their right to raise money for issue ads and we have the right to note who is legally responsible for taking out the ads.

Again, we cannot name the individuals and corporations that contribute to the WMC Issues fund; that information is not available to the public. Only WMC can tell you who contributes to their political advertising.

We wish to make it clear that this is not a picket of M&I Bank, Marshall & Ilsey Corporation, or any of the occupants or tenants of 770 Water Street

The board members from these companies have the power to either stop the ads or at least reveal who pays for them.

For more information, contact Paul Soglin at Soglin Consulting, 608-238-4042. Or 608-770-0947 (cell)

BACKGROUND INFO ON ISSUE FROM PAUL SOGLIN

Here is the link to WMC’s website for more information as to what they are doing: WMC Regional Meetings: Wisconsin Supreme Court Unbound (When you go to this site it says page canceled. Wait and about 30 seconds later an Adobe page will open up. See what the WMC is saying about the present Supreme Court - you'll be surprised. Buzz Davis )

Dave Zweifel: Shining the Spotlight on WMC

Below are some other articles and editorials. (We picketed WMC in Madison , Wausau and Green Bay in the past two weeks.)

Our Legal System Shouldn't Be For Sale –Wausau Daily Herald editorial
…By the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's calculations, almost $6 million was spent -- most of it by special interest groups, and $2.2 million of it by one group alone. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, which represents businesses and chambers of commerce, buried television stations with that much cash…

Group protests business lobby Wausau Daily Herald -news

Protesters target WMC The Capital Times - news

Associated Press: Protesters Picket WMC Over Funding Of Political Ads

Great Lakes Day in DC Being Live-Blogged

Follow events in Washington, DC, on-line, here.

Earlier information, here.

GOP-Run Assembly Blocks Discussion Of Climate Change Legislation, Programs

Not content with its recent sandbagging of the Great Lakes Compact and its water conservation provisions, the GOP-run State Assembly has turned its "Just-Say-No" mentality towards blocking innovations to address climate change that many other states are adopting.

Details here from Wisconsin Environment, including the unwillingness of the GOP's Assembly leadership to even schedule hearings on the Wisconsin Safe Climate Act, and all the important information from citizens and groups that could have been offered.

The GOP is needlessly and destructively politicizing any effort in the legislature to address environmental needs and issues, carrying water instead for business interests and contribution bundlers like Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.

As long as the GOP holds its slim majority in the Assembly, partisan priorities will trump the public interest there - - and oddly, harm the state's growth and job-creation opportunities in the alternative energy and related agricultural sectors.

As is true in the GOP's opposition to the Great Lakes Compact, ideology and campaign financing arrangements are turning Wisconsin's "Forward" motto into an ironic joke.

Voters need to remember these obstructionist approaches come the statewide fall elections.

The GOP Assembly leadership is even blocking a bill that just passed the State Senate that would require insurance companies to cover autism treatments.

But the GOP obstructs that, too.

And you wonder why the country doesn't have comprehensive health care insurance and a host of programs that are routine in the rest of the industrialized world.

The difference is that one of our two major parties obstructs many programs that would help middle class families, but guarantees privilege and favoritism for the wealthy.

Obstructionist is too strong a term, you say?

One Wisconsin Republican, State Sen. Mary Lazich, (R-New Berlin) touts on her blog her self-described "obstructionist" tactics when it comes helping block the Great Lakes Compact.

Details here.

Global Warming Lawsuit, Alaskan-Style

Probably won't be the last, either.

Strong Journal Sentinel Op-Ed On The Great Lakes Compact: Will The Ed Board Follow Suit?

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a strong op-ed Tuesday on the Great Lakes Compact that labeled the GOP's last-second opposition "a sucker punch."

The newspaper's editorial board has yet to weigh in on the GOP's tactics.

Garrison Keillor on Obama's Appeal

Sums it up for me.

State Moving Forward With Rules To Keep Invasive Species From The Great Lakes

Because the federal government is dragging its feet, the state Department of Natural Resources, under pressure from the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation and other state conservation interests, is adopting statewide rules to keep invasive species out of the Great Lakes.

Backgrounder from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, here.

Rush Limbaugh Is A Pathetic Joke

Had the pleasure of listening to the infamous Rush for a few minutes today.

He managed to drop two of his stock phrases, "feminazis" (feminists) and "the drive-by media" (mainstream media) in nearly consecutive sentences, indicating his intellectual limitations and his waning appeal during the presidential campaign.

Limbaugh sounds predictable, whiny and out of touch, not just with people like me, who drop in here and there, but to his core, conservative audience that, unlike Rush, likes McCain.

Dane County Can Learn From Waukesha's Mistakes: Chapter XIII In "The Road To Sprawlville"

This installment on our virtual tour, The Road To Sprawlville, uses the roadmap for planning (sic) in Waukesha County as a warning for Dane County.

Capital Times editor emeritus Dave Zweifel notes the efforts of Dane County activists who see Waukesha County's sprawl-happy groundwater depletion as the road to ruin.

Right now, Dane, Waukesha and Milwaukee County are linked by an interstate, and many missed commercial and educational connections and opportunities.

Rail service among the three major southern state counties and population centers would be a boon.

But Dane County's imitating Waukesha County's loss of agricultural lands in favor of subdivisions and strip malls that help drain the water table and pollute the air would be giant step backward.

You don't want The Road To Sprawlville becoming a permanent fixture in your community.

More Sunlight On The WMC

The Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's largest business lobby, just can't stay out of the headlines.

The most recent installment: a solid piece in the Madison Capital Times by editor emeritus Dave Zweifel about the group's campaign to unseat State Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler.

Paul Soglin has been hitting those same themes, while in Milwaukee, One Wisconsin Now is on the case, too,

And I've been cataloguing the WMC's leadership, if you can call it that, in trying to sink the Great Lakes Compact.

References to Soglin, and One Wisconsin Now's recent efforts are in a single posting, here.

Of note in the Zweifel posting, in the comment section, are indications that some Wisconsin customers and consumers are thinking twice about buying from WMC member companies.

Pushback against the WMC has been a long time coming, and for the group's members and their clout, financial consequences would be more than mere food for thought.

Milwaukee Magazine Feature On Water Issues

A comprehensive look at water issues and the Great Lakes Compact, by Barbara Miner, is in the current Milwaukee Magazine, featuring themes and faces familiar to readers of this blog.

Including the afore-mentioned Mary Lazich.

Small world.

The New Berlin-To-Ohio Great Lakes Compact Cabal - - In Mary Lazich's Own Words

State Sen. Mary Lazich, (R-New Berlin) has been hard at work undermining Wisconsin's ability to approve and implement the Great Lakes Compact - - a multi-state, US/Canadian agreement designed to ensure regional water conservation - - even though the Compact would ease federal water diversion restrictions that are currently blocking New Berlin from quick access to Lake Michigan drinking water.

As I wrote in a blog posting last April, it's how a State Senator shoots an entire District in the foot.

It's a strategy of delay and destroy that regrettably was adopted last week by the GOP-run Wisconsin State Assembly, though those leaders, like Lazich, claim (wink-wink) that the intent is to "improve" the Compact.

Like destroying the village to save it.

Leaders in the Assembly said the Compact, produced after five years of negotiations that ended in 2005, should be reopened to produce an agreement so watered-down that the other Great Lakes states would just jettison it - - leaving the Great Lakes vulnerable to large-scale withdrawals without standards or reasoned processes, let alone with guarantees to return of diverted water.

Some improvements.

Lazich has a blog on which she notes her working alliances with similarly-minded, anti-regional ideologues in Ohio - - a blog on which she flays New Berlin Mayor Jack Chiovatero and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett for having had the temerity to even talk ("cozying up," are her words) about negotiating a water deal for New Berlin in the spirit of the pending Compact.

Lazich is not content with using her blog to tout her proud Compact "obstructionist" (her word) stance on the Compact's procedural heart - - a diversion-approval requirement also embedded in 22-year-old federal law.

She also calls for the Compact's renegotiation (four of eight Great Lakes states' legislatures have already aproved the Compact, making its renegotiation an impossibility and/or certain procedural death) - - and just to make sure you know who's saying and proposing all these things, she recently posted a blog link to every word she's put there about the Compact.

Why?

Vanity? Chutzpah? Blogger's Look-At-Me Syndrome?

All she's doing is calling attention to the details of her willingness to represent - - Ohio.

And her inability to grasp regionalism, or the need to preserve commonly-held resources, while parading her intemperance and intolerance.

People and things she doesn't like in this debate, in her own words, are "threatening," "extortion," "unconscionable," "dictatorial," "small-minded," "simplistic," "ill-conceived," "off-base," "appalling," and others.

Here are all her postings, in text, from this self-proclaimed "obstructionist," who, if her allies in the GOP-run Assembly have their way, will put the Great Lakes Compact and Great Lakes waters at risk:

Let’s work with Ohio to improve the Great Lakes Compact
By Mary Lazich

Friday, Feb 15 2008, 12:55 PM
For months I have been recommending that Wisconsin refrain from approving a Great Lakes Compact that is flawed and should instead work with officials in other states that share my concerns, like Ohio to achieve a strong document.

That is why I am encouraged to hear that Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch and State Representative Scott Gunderson have written a letter to the President of the Ohio state Senate, Senator Bill Harris, stating they want to collaborate with the state of Ohio on changes to the Compact.

Representatives Huebsch and Gunderson correctly state they desire a strong Compact to protect the waters of the Great Lakes, that private property rights must be protected, and that one state should not have the power to impact the economic development efforts of another Great Lakes state.

I support Speaker Huebsch and Representative Gunderson in this endeavor.

Here is a copy of their letter to Ohio Senate President Harris.

I also concur with state Representative Jim Ott who has also expressed concerns with the Compact in its current form.

Representative Ott appropriately points out that the current Compact would deny cities like Waukesha access to Lake Michigan water, and that there should not be a rush to adopt a Compact.

A strong Compact is necessary for many reasons, including the fact that the Compact will be in place, as Representative Ott states, for “generations to come.”

Here is a copy of Representative Ott’s statement.

Here is a link to all of my blogs on the Great Lakes Compact.

I agree that Wisconsin should proceed cautiously and work to adopt a Compact that is the best document possible for the Great Lakes, Wisconsin, and the other Great Lakes states.

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We need a Great Lakes Compact, but…
By Mary Lazich
Friday, Jan 11 2008, 06:31 PM

The Great Lakes Compact is headed to the state Legislature for consideration.

We need a Great Lakes Compact, but as I have stated so many times in the past, it has to be the right document, free of flaws and trap doors.

Passing a Compact just to pass a Compact is the wrong approach.I was interviewed by Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel reporter Stacy Forster for today’s article on the Compact.

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The Journal/Sentinel gets it right on Great Lakes
By Mary Lazich

Wednesday, Nov 21 2007, 10:24 AM

The Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel Editorial Board has written an excellent editorial in today’s edition, stating the sale of much-needed public drinking water from the city of Milwaukee to New Berlin should not be predicated on approval of the Great Lakes Compact.

The editorial position by the newspaper is right on the money and I commend the Editorial Board for taking this stance.

Here is the editorial.

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Milwaukee using extortion to pressure for approval of Great Lakes Compact

By Mary Lazich
Thursday, Nov 1 2007, 08:53 AM

Several elected officials, representatives of conservation organizations, and private citizens held news conferences Tuesday calling for quick approval of a Great Lakes Compact.

I continue to urge caution to avoid approval for approval’s sake that might result in a flawed Compact.

Some of the comments made to endorse a fast Compact resolution are disturbing.

Milwaukee Alderman Michael Murphy issued a press release that, “the (Milwaukee Common Council’s) Public Works Committee unanimously passed a resolution that Milwaukee will not sign final agreements relating to the sale of water to communities outside the Great Lakes basin until all eight state legislatures in the Council of Great Lakes and two Canadian provinces ratify the compact.”

Murphy’s blunt statement is a direct shot across the bow, a clear indication that the city of Milwaukee doesn’t have any intention of assisting communities like New Berlin or Waukesha in dealing with their need for water.

Murphy’s press release also states that, “Once the compact is ratified; the City of Milwaukee may enter into agreements for the sale of water to neighboring communities outside the Great Lakes Basin.”

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has made similar statements, threatening to withhold water.

This amounts to pure extortion, and it’s very sad that Milwaukee officials would use a public-health issue as leverage to extort a vote. Here are the facts.

Milwaukee's role as it relates to water to the suburbs is only technical infrastructure, not denial or approval of access to Lake Michigan water.

Milwaukee doesn’t have authority to say yes or no.

It doesn’t have exclusive ownership of Lake Michigan or control of Lake Michigan water.

New Berlin has received approval from the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to negotiate with the Milwaukee Water Works for infrastructure access to Lake Michigan water.

The DNR told New Berlin they could negotiate with Milwaukee to access water, and those negotiations are taking place.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is telling mayors in the Senate district that I represent that they will not get water until I and other suburban legislators approve the compact.

The communities are under a radium enforcement issue. I do not take kindly to extortion, and I find it appalling that Mayor Barrett uses public health, denial of safe drinking water to my constituents as leverage.

I am told that Mayor Barrett is telling Mayors he wants them to develop low income housing and give him a share of all growth that results from Milwaukee giving the communities water.

If he wants to be the Mayor or city planner for the communities that I represent, then he ought to apply for the job.

Why does government regional cooperation not work? Because it is never cooperation; it is the City of Milwaukee using any means available to get control of suburban growth and get revenues from communities surrounding the city of Milwaukee.

The broad language of the compact and the problematic provision that allows a single Great Lakes governor to veto a proposal to divert water outside the Great Lakes basin are major sticking points about the Compact that remain.

One state enjoying dictatorial power is not consistent with the concept of majority rule our country is founded on, not to mention the issue of a governor of another state having the power to veto actions of people that do not elect that governor.

I spoke with a senator from Ohio and he informs me that Ohio is not going to ratify the Compact in its current form. Wisconsin should work in partnership with Ohio to address similar concerns and develop a more effective Compact.

I continue to interact with Ohio Senator Tim Grendell as he drafts legislation in Ohio.

Now the discussion on the Compact shifts to the state Legislature where the issue could very well get bogged down in partisan politics rather than focusing on scientific evidence and expertise.

Only two states that have little at stake, Minnesota and Illinois have ratified the Compact. It might be best for the Compact to be sent back to the Governors of the Great Lakes States so that they can correct the fatal flaws. Approving the Compact just to attain a Compact is not the solution.
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My comments on radio about the Great Lakes Compact

By Mary Lazich
Wednesday, Oct 31 2007, 11:43 AM

I was interviewed by Wisconsin Public Radio about my reaction to concerns about the Great Lakes Compact.

From the Wisconsin Public Radio website:

Local Officials Call for Great Lakes Protection10/31/07A committee working to protect the Great Lakes against large-scale water diversions disbanded recently in Madison.

But with the state budget debate over, local officials are calling on the Legislature to pick up the pieces of the Great Lakes Compact. Chuck Quirmbach reports. --…running time 1:27

Listen to this story now using RealPlayer

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Sharing my concerns with the Great Lakes Compact
By Mary Lazich

Sunday, Sep 2 2007, 07:12 AM

Last weekend, Great Lakes Legislators met in Michigan to discuss the great Lakes Compact, an issue I have been extensively involved in as a member of a special Wisconsin Legislative Council Committee reviewing the Compact.

Because I could not attend the meeting, I sent the following letter to Michigan State Senator Patty Birkholz and Great Lakes Legislators that outlines my many concerns about the Compact:

Dear Michigan State Senator Birkholz and Great Lakes Legislators:

Currently I serve on a Wisconsin Legislative Council Study Committee that has been meeting since September 7, 2006, to study and recommend whether the Wisconsin Legislature should adopt the Great Lakes Water Resources Compact.

Each of the eight Great Lakes states has a different stake in the Compact and the status of legislation to ratify the Compact varies from state to state.

I have followed this issue closely both on and off the committee, and I am very disappointed that I will not be attending the meeting in Traverse City.

Prior family plans with people attending from other states keep me in Wisconsin. The Great Lakes – St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact implicates conflicting public policy issues.

The Great Lakes hold about one fifth of the world’s freshwater. It is undisputed that freshwater is a valuable resource that must be preserved.

Some people may argue that water should not be removed from the Great Lakes or from the Great Lakes Basin.

However, it is also undisputable that freshwater is used now to meet current needs and those needs will continue to grow.

We Great Lakes states do not want to be at a disadvantage by agreeing to a compact that denies our constituents and our states reasonable use of Great Lakes water.

There are various problems with the Compact including, but not limited to:

ONE STATE VETO

Under existing federal law, the 1986 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), one state’s governor can veto an application for a diversion of Great Lakes water. The parties negotiating the Compact failed to remedy this twenty year old flaw in totality.

Instead, it still exists in the Compact in relation to some diversions. Allowing one state to veto an application gives one state power out of proportion with that state’s interests in the Basin’s resources.

Giving dictatorial power to one state is not consistent with majority rule. Our country was founded on majority rule and our country exists to this day on the principle of majority rule.

CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORITY

Proponents of the Compact may say that it should be enacted so that the states in the Great Lakes Basin can determine the future management of Great Lakes water.

However, Congress has the final legal authority to interfere with the operation of a compact. The ultimate check on Congress is political and unfortunately the eight states that are party to the Great Lakes Compact have a minority of seats in Congress.

Historically Congress has rarely interfered with compacts it has approved; however; with water becoming a scarce resource and the Great Lakes states status as a minority in the U.S. Congress, there is a lot at stake for the Great Lakes states. I am concerned that over time Congress might enact changes to water law that are not in the best interest of the Great Lakes and the Great Lakes states.

GOVERNORS MIGHT CHANGE COMPACT

Once approved by Congress, there is a provision of the Compact allowing the Governors of the Great Lakes states, sitting on the Council, to amend key provisions of the Compact regarding standards and reviews. There is the risk that they may amend the Compact so that it provides less protection for the Great Lakes, or at the other extreme, onerous regulations. This uncertainty always invites the possibility of litigation.

PUBLIC TRUST DOCTRINE

Adopting the Compact raises the specter of extending the Public Trust Doctrine to all waters in all Great Lakes states, including groundwater. Specifically, the trust language in the Compact, “The waters of the basin are precious public natural resources shared and held in trust by the states.”

For example, Ohio Senator Timothy Grendell has already noted that the Public Trust Doctrine language of the Compact would also have negative results in Ohio.

The Trust language in the Compact has been identified as language that cannot be modified by the states.

The Public Trust Doctrine has various meanings in the states, and the Compact may affect each state differently. What will it mean in the State and Federal courts, how will this get resolved?

FISCAL IMPACT

State and local governments will incur a fiscal cost for implementing the Compact, including the costs associated with litigation. The broad language of the compact is ripe for extensive litigation and state costs.

REGULATORY UNCERTAINTY

If ratified by all eight states and adopted by Congress, the Compact will be federal law. The results of litigation over the Compact may be unanticipated and unintended regulations, and states cannot change the Compact. The states do not have discretion to change substantive Compact language.

Early in the process, the Wisconsin Legislative Council staff provided our Study Committee with a memorandum that among other things identified examples of the broad language of the Compact. That memorandum is attached. The broadness of the Compact’s language invites litigation over its meaning and application.

CONCLUSION

The governors of the eight states and the premiers of the two Canadian provinces signed the Compact in 2005, and only Minnesota with very little at stake, and Illinois with massive special diversion protection in the compact, have ratified the Compact.

The Compact should be sent back to the Governors of the Great Lakes States so that they can correct fatal flaws in the Compact.

I hope the meeting in Traverse City is filled with healthy debate. I am very disappointed that I will not be in attendance, and I look forward to knowing the information presented in Traverse City.

If you have questions, comments, concerns, or advice for me, please contact me. Sincerely,Mary LazichState SenatorSenate District 28


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Chiovatero’s comments on Great Lakes Compact off-base

By Mary Lazich
Thursday, Jul 19 2007, 03:55 PM

For the past year, I have been serving as a member of the Wisconsin Legislative Council Special Committee on the Great Lakes Water Resources Compact.

My efforts have been focused on the Compact’s ideal goal to protect, conserve, restore, improve and effectively manage the Great Lakes waters.

That is the large picture. I have also been concentrating on gaining access to Lake Michigan water for New Berlin and Waukesha, a need that is critical for those communities.

The work has translated into hours upon hours of meetings, exhaustive research, and numerous correspondences with other concerned officials and water experts from around the Midwest.

That is why I was very surprised to read the off-base comments of New Berlin Mayor Jack Chiovatero in today’s Milwaukee Shepherd-Express Metro weekly newspaper.

Reporter Dennis Shook writes in today’s Shepherd Express-Metro:

Chiovatero, who has meetings this week with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to discuss water access details, said he sees Lazich as the major obstacle to solving the city's water woes."These are her people ... she lives here," Chiovatero said of Lazich, who could not be reached for comment.

"She has Lake Michigan water herself and she's enjoying it. So let everybody else [enjoy] it. This is just a political thing going on that has me upset," he said of her opposition to the compact.

Chiovatero’s rationale and line of thinking is small-minded and simplistic. His criticism is misdirected.

Instead of cozying up to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett who opposes access to Lake Michigan water for New Berlin and Waukesha, Chiovatero should be working with me, the state Senate representative of the area most affected by the Compact, to ensure our communities get the water they so desperately need.

How ironic that Chiovatero would call me an obstructionist on the Compact when he sits down at a meeting with Milwaukee’s Mayor who has been steadfast in his opposition to our area getting Lake Michigan water.

Barrett’s threat to prevent the ability of New Berlin and Waukesha to gain access to Lake Michigan water will result in requiring those communities to spend millions of dollars to drill new wells and treat existing wells. Withholding water from our area will endanger public health and will damage economic development.

Consistently, my opinion has been that the current Compact is a flawed document that is bad for public health, bad for the environment, bad for economic development, and generally bad public policy.

I am in no rush to approve a Compact that allows a single Great Lakes Governor to veto any diversion of water to New Berlin. Apparently Chiovatero fails to understand that provision alone would put the city of New Berlin that he is supposed to be representing in serious jeopardy of obtaining much-needed water.

The Compact that Chiovatero and Barrett say we should approve immediately is filled with flaws. Mark Squillace, Director of the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado Law School has written a research paper titled Rethinking the Great Lakes Compact.

Squillace maintains the Compact is so problematic that chucking it entirely and starting from scratch might be the best option.

Absent of any strict cap on overall use of water resources, the probability of overuse of water is high. Thus, the Compact fails to encourage conservation.

A critical Compact requirement is that states manage new or increased water withdrawals, a requirement Squillace calls cumbersome. Concentrating on new uses of consumption ignores existing uses of the resources that have a far more significant impact.

This edict will result in a failure to protect lake levels and a failure to promote the ecological health of the Great Lakes Basin.

Squillace also contends the Compact focuses too much on the place of the water use instead of the impact of the use on the overall water resources of the Basin.

Far from simple and efficient, the Compact forces states to regulate in a heavy-handed fashion that will impair economic development.

Chiovatero believes approving the Compact will be tantamount to waving a magic wand and like a panacea, our water troubles will conveniently be over.

I have done a lot of homework on this issue and it is far more complex than that.

Sadly, Chiovatero doesn’t get it.

I will not endorse a Compact that puts our communities in the precarious position of having water access stripped away by the whims of a single Governor in a neighboring state.

Furthermore, I will continue to speak out against the many defects in the document as long as they pose a threat to the welfare of residents in New Berlin and Waukesha.

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Great Lakes group holds meeting without notice

By Mary Lazich
Wednesday, Jul 18 2007, 11:13 AM

On Tuesday, a group formed by Governor Doyle to work on the Great Lakes Compact met for two hours in the Governor’s office.

As a member of the Wisconsin Legislative Council Special Committee on the Great Lakes Water Resources Compact, and as the state Senator representing New Berlin and the Waukesha area that will be affected by the Compact, I should have been notified about the meeting and invited.

I was not.

Darryl Enriquez of the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel interviewed me Tuesday about the meeting and writes about it in today’s paper:

“Lazich (R-New Berlin) is fighting a key detail in the compact, one of several that show the deep political and economic divisions that have brought work to a standstill.

The legislative group headed by state Sen. Neal Kedzie (R-Elkhorn) has a Sept. 15 deadline to complete its work. It is reconvening today after a lengthy lull.Lazich's beef with the federal version of the compact is that any proposal to divert water outside the Great Lakes drainage basin can be vetoed by a single governor.

As outlined in the accord, a diversion must be unanimously approved.

Lazich is working to change that provision so that only a simple majority vote of the eight Great Lakes states governors is needed for approval of a diversion project.

Her stance is viewed as an obstruction to compact approval.

"The compact is so flawed that it gives one governor veto power and no recourse," Lazich said. "I'm very much an obstructionist to the single veto. I'm very much a supporter to preserving the Great Lakes."

Lazich said she was upset about not receiving an invite to the governor's working group.

A governor's spokesman said that seven members of the Kedzie committee attended the working group, along with governor's staff, state Department of Natural Resources staff, environmentalists and others."

Was there a meeting of the Kedzie committee and I wasn't notified?" Lazich asked. "I am very, very concerned, and I will make this an issue at the start of the compact group meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) morning."

You can read the entire Journal/Sentinel article here.

At the beginning of today’s meeting, I asked for a show of hands of those committee members who attended Tuesday’s meeting at the Governor’s office.

Seven people raised their hands, many of whom are members of the same Great Lakes Compact subcommittee that I serve on.I reiterated my concern that I represent an area that has a great deal at stake on this issue, and yet was not notified or invited to Tuesday’s meeting.

I then respectfully asked some of the members who did attend to give a brief summary of what transpired so I could have the same frame of reference before today’s committee proceedings began.

There was a quorum of members of the subcommittee I serve on at Tuesday’s meeting in the Governor’s office.

That is very troubling, especially since I have been critical of the compact. I have referred to the Compact as a flawed document that is bad for public health, bad for the environment, bad for economic development, and generally bad public policy.

At today’s committee meeting, I requested that Mark Squillace, Director of the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado Law School be invited to speak to the Great Lakes committee. Squillace has written a research paper titled Rethinking the Great Lakes Compact.

The Compact’s ideal goal is to protect, conserve, restore, improve and effectively manage the Great Lakes waters.

Squillace writes the prescription in the Compact is sorely inadequate for achieving the stated goal. The Compact is so problematic that Squillace suggests chucking it entirely and starting from scratch.

The research paper published in the Michigan State Law Review can be found here.

Committee chair, Senator Kedzie said he will consider my request to add Squillace to a future committee agenda.

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The Great Lakes Compact is flawed
By Mary Lazich
Monday, Apr 9 2007, 08:52 AM

As a member of the Wisconsin Legislative Council Special Committee on the Great Lakes Water Resources Compact, I readily admit that I am not in a hurry to ratify the Great Lakes Compact. I cannot support a flawed document that is bad for public health, bad for the environment, bad for economic development, and generally bad public policy.

Mark Squillace, Director of the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado Law School has written a research paper titled Rethinking the Great Lakes Compact.

The Compact’s ideal goal is to protect, conserve, restore, improve and effectively manage the Great Lakes waters.

Squillace writes the prescription in the Compact is sorely inadequate for achieving the stated goal.

The research paper to be published in the Michigan State Law Review can be found here.

With surgical precision, Squillace dissects the Compact components, illuminating the reasons the document is far from being ready for prime time. The Compact is so problematic that Squillace suggests chucking it entirely and starting from scratch.

Absent of any strict cap on overall use of water resources, the probability of overuse of water is high. Thus, the Compact fails to encourage conservation.

A critical Compact requirement is that states manage new or increased water withdrawals, a requirement Squillace calls cumbersome. Concentrating on new uses of consumption ignores existing uses of the resources that have a far more significant impact.

This edict will result in a failure to protect lake levels and a failure to promote the ecological health of the Great Lakes Basin.

Squillace also contends the Compact focuses too much on the place of the water use instead of the impact of the use on the overall water resources of the Basin.

Far from simple and efficient, the Compact forces states to regulate in a heavy-handed fashion that will impair economic development. In conclusion, Squillace says the Compact will not achieve its goal of protecting and conserving the Great Lakes.

I agree.

Riddled with too many problems, the Compact is bad public policy.

Meanwhile, the need for New Berlin and Waukesha to obtain Lake Michigan water remains serious. Because both communities must reduce the concentration of radium levels in their drinking water, their need for increased access to Lake Michigan water is in the interest of public health.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has made it clear he is going to stand in the way.

Barrett is threatening the ability of New Berlin and Waukesha to gain access to Lake Michigan water, resulting in requiring those communities to spend millions of dollars to drill new wells and treat existing wells.

I am very concerned about allegations James Rowen posted on his blog, The Political Environment, on February 28, 2007. Barrett is threatening not only to delay Waukesha’s access to Lake Michigan water but also to impose a tax on access to water.

The need for Lake Michigan water in New Berlin and Waukesha is critical and undeniable. It is unconscionable that Barrett would attempt to profit from this public health crisis by extorting these communities to pay a huge new tax. Withholding water will endanger public health and will damage economic development.

Barrett needs to reconsider his ill-conceived notion to take economic advantage of the public health plight in our communities.

Snowmobiling Deaths Are Usually Speed/Alcohol Related

This AP story, perhaps edited by the Waukesha Freeman, manages to state that snowmobiling deaths are escalating this winter, but leaves out any discussion of the traditional, and preventable causes: speed and alcohol.

Instead, it credits a 55 mph nightime speed limit for keeping the number of fatalities down, given this winter's big snowfall.

Wierd reporting, or editing,

Great News! The Dirty Air Alert Into Tuesday For Wisconsin Only Covers 16 Counties

After several days of dirty air alerts for all Wisconsin's 72 counties, the warning issued Monday evening and running through noon Tuesday by the Department of Natural Resources only covers 16 counties.

That's progress - - unless you live in Barron, Brown, Calumet, Chippewa, Clark, Dunn, Eau Claire, Kewaunee, Manitowoc, Outagamie, Pepin, Pierce, Polk, Rusk, St. Croix, and Taylor counties.

No clean air for you.

Here's the full text from the DNR as of Monday night, and I added a little boldfacing to help you plow through the bureaucratese:

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is issuing an Air Quality Advisory for Particle Pollution (Orange) effective Monday, February 25, 2008 8:00:00 PM through Tuesday, February 26, 2008 12:00:00 PM for Barron, Brown, Calumet, Chippewa, Clark, Dunn, Eau Claire, Kewaunee, Manitowoc, Outagamie, Pepin, Pierce, Polk, Rusk, St. Croix and Taylor counties.

The advisory is being issued because of persistent elevated levels of fine particles in the air. These fine particles come primarily from combustion sources, such as power plants, factories and other industrial sources, vehicle exhaust, and wood fires.

The Air Quality Index is currently in the orange level, which is considered unhealthy for people in sensitive groups. People in those sensitive groups include those with heart or lung disease, asthma, older adults and children.

When an orange advisory for particle pollution is issued, people in those groups are advised to reschedule or cut back on strenuous activities.

People with lung diseases such as asthma and bronchitis, and heart disease should pay attention to cardiac symptoms like chest pain and shortness of breath or respiratory symptoms like coughing, wheezing and discomfort when taking a breath, and consult with their physician if they have concerns or are experiencing symptoms.

Fine particle pollution deposits itself deep into the lungs and cannot easily be exhaled. People who are at risk are particularly vulnerable after several days of high particle pollution exposure.

To receive air quality advisories by e-mail, visit http://dnr.wi.gov/air/newsletters/.
There are several actions the public can take to reduce their contributions to this regional air quality problem.
Reduce driving when possible and don't leave vehicle engines idling.
Postpone activities that use small gasoline and diesel engines.
Minimize outdoor wood fires.
Conserve electricity.
For more ideas on how you can reduce your emissions today and every day visit: Do a little, save a lot!
For more information:
Federal interagency air quality web site, for information on the Air Quality Index and nationwide air quality forecasts and air quality conditions, http://airnow.gov/
DNR's statewide air quality monitoring web page, http://dnrmaps.wisconsin.gov/wisards
For local DNR air management program contacts, http://dnr.wi.gov/air/about/regions.htm

One Milwaukee Suburb Endorses "Strong" Great Lakes Compact

The City of Cudahy, Wisconsin, a blue-collar community south of Milwaukee, supports a strong version of the Great Lakes Compact, according to a unanimous vote of its common council.

Out-of-basin, water-hungry Milwaukee suburbs in Waukesha County, should they wish to put some substance into regional (both in southeastern Wisconsin and across the Great Lakes, too) cooperation, could take their cue from Cudahy.

Percy Julian, Jr.'s Death at 67 A Shock

The passing in Madison of Attorney Percy Julian, Jr. means that the State of Wisconsin has lost one of its civil rights mainstays, and a genuinely decent man.

We send condolences to his colleagues, friends and family.

Statewide Air Quality Alert Extended All Day: Does The Pro-Pollution WMC Have A Solution

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has extended its weekend statewide air quality alert through this evening, which means when it rains and snows later today, that's toxic precipitation landing on your yard and poisonous particulate matter in the air that is burying itself into your lungs.

And those of your kids and grandparents, too.

You will recall that the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's leading business lobby, last year advocated rolling back air quality standards for southeastern Wisconsin, home to most of the state's polluting industry and vehicle traffic.

What is the WMC's approach now that these alerts have been coming repeatedly this fall and winter, and are not just the summertime notices that discourage people from playing sports and otherwise exerting themselves in heavy, moisture-laden, warm air?

Issue every Wisconsinite a portable breathing apparatus?

Mandate regular lung capacity checkups in health insurance policies?

Hand out free asthma medicines at WMC's lobbying offices in Madison to low-income, elderly and children especially vulnerable to lung diseases?

Why not give them a call and ask: 1-608-258-3400, or head for the group's website, with other contact and issue information, here.

You could also ask them why the organization is suggesting that the GOP-led state Assembly derail the Great Lakes Compact, too - - exposing the Great Lakes to whimsical and damaging exploitation through diversions without standards or controls.

The WMC is always worrying aloud about the business climate in Wisconsin (see a nice dissection of this faux issue by Paul Soglin, here) but when you look at its recent record, it seems as if its goals are to run down the state with endless complaints while blocking statewide resource protections that are in the widespread interest of Wisconsin residents.

So on the issue of helping to end the growing list of dirty air alerts in Wisconsin - - a state that needs to bring in tourists and encourage its residents to make the state their long-term home, here's a simple suggestion:

Taking a stand on the actual climate on behalf of business owners and employees who live here instead of whipping up negative media about the business climate in Wisconsin.

That stand would also be on behalf of the rest of us who like to buy locally - - but also want to breathe what is a common resource - - the air.

So to the WMC I say: be a strong advocate for air pollution standards that are better than what we have now, since current standards and practices are giving all of us - - and that includes WMC members - - the air quality of a cruddy day in LA.

Is that how to sell this region?

One Wisconsin Now On The Gableman Trail

One Wisconsin Now blogger Cory Liebmann, source of much of the investigative reporting that landed Annette Ziegler in hot water with the State Judicial Commission last year over ethical issues, has turned his attention to the State Supreme Court candidacy of Burnett County Circuit Judge Michael Gableman.

This may not turn out well for Gableman, whose entry into the state judiciary took a rather unusual route, and which is now raising more questions as his explanations are vetted and documents are unearthed.

Gableman won his appointment to a Burnett County seat on the bench while living in another county, after making campaign contributions and helping host a fundraiser for Governor Scott McCallum.

Additionally, McCallum did not use the standard process when he gave Gableman the appointment.

Details here.

More information about One Wisconsin Now (OWN), here.

For some perspective, imagine for a moment if Gableman was a Democrat and got his initial appointment to the bench from a Democratic Governor under the same circumstances that are now emerging.

You get the picture. There'd be righteous, rightwing talk radio, blogger and newspaper editorial hell to pay.

(Standard disclosure with regards to any posting regarding OWN: I sit on an OWN board, but play no role in Cory's blogging.)

With Sales In The Toilet, GM Exec Calls Global Warming "A Crock Of Sh*t"

A senior executive at General Motors, having misread customers' sensibilities for the few decades, goes a step further in his company's suicide by labeling global warming "a crock of shit."

Hey: that'll win some customers from Toyota, Honda and the others selling hybrids so fast they can't keep 'em on the lot.

Nader Runs, Again. Kinda Sad, Again

Ralph Nader is running for President.

Again.

I suspect he will attract few few votes this time. Five straight runs for President counting a 1992 write-in makes his effort this time really questionable.

Nader has been an important figure in many grassroots and progressive efforts.

He's iconic and has been influential.

But there's being strategic and smart and using your power to bring about awareness and change, and then there's marching too blindly to your own drummer, colliding with people with whom you'd be allies 95% of the time, but were too self-absorbed to see.

And in the worst of scenarios, sets up a repeat of the ugliness of the 2000 presidential election outcome, wherein Nader was credited or blamed with being the Bush-enabling spoiler.

And everything in its wake, from the Iraq war to years of environmental degradation.

Naderites hate that analysis, but that's a widespread perception, and unfortunately Nader can't help himself from having that all brought up again.

Kinda sad.

"No Way" Is No Way To Run A State

Why has Wisconsin turned into such a sourpuss? What's with this penchant for saying "No" all the time?

Wisconsin is headed towards being the ashtray of the Midwest, as we have failed again this year to enact a smoking ban in bars and restaurants, while neighboring states have made the move.

And we aren't permitted to have modern urban rail as a transportation option, as Chicago has had for years, and the Twin Cities is now enjoying.

Now our GOP--lead (sic) State Assembly is scheming various ways to kill the Great Lakes Compact, a regional water management agreement already adopted by four of the eight Great Lakes states, with others to follow, to help preserve a shared resource that makes up 20% of the world's fresh surface water.

We're looking like a backward, obstinate state that is a far cry from Progressive Wisconsin, the public policy laboratory that had a national reputation for good and innovative government.

Where the emphasis was on figuring out a way to say "Yes" to progress rather than reflexively saying "No."

It's more than coincidence that Waukesha County is the center of much of this negativity, having killed Milwaukee's light rail planning and now threatening to derail an entire eight-state, two-nation water conservation pact - - all to better serve powerful highway and land development interests.

Money in the political process, from the local level to the State Capitol, is the major barrier to a healthy Wisconsin agenda that puts common resources first.

The rise in special interest influence statewide - - and there is plenty of bi-partisan blame to go around on this one - - has given the restaurant and tavern lobbies enough sway in the legislature to overwhelm public sentiment that wants smoke-free dining.

It's why the highway lobby can find water-carriers at every level of government: they are even persuading Waukesha County to pledge $1.75 million in local funds to help build an interstate interchange to serve a privately-owned proposed shopping mall at Pabst Farms - - a mall literally planned in a farm field that has redefined itself from a so-called regional destination with upscale shops, fancy restaurants and other amenities to a big-box cluster in a glorified strip mall.

And into which your state transportation department, unwilling and unable to embrace rail transit in the region, has agree to spend nearly $22 million of our tax dollars to get the interchange done pronto.

The same special interest hegemony holds true for the damn-the-public interest Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, which is leading the fight against the Great Lakes Compact (though 80% of the public has said in recent polling it wants) and is also trying to win a roll back of clean air standards in southeastern Wisconsin despite a growing number of dirty air days this winter.

(UPDATE: The alert for unhealthy levels for particulate matter in the air from the weekend has been extended into Monday for the entire state. Hat tip to The Racine Post blog for the graphic).

Are we Wisconsin, or LA/Midwest?)

This is the same WMC by the way, that couldn't defeat two-term incumbent Democratic Governor Jim Doyle, so then poured millions into electing an ethically-challenged mouthpiece to the State Supreme Court last year.

And the WMC appears to be headed down the same road in this year's Supreme Court election, too - - details from Paul Soglin, here - - boosting a candidate whose initial appointment to the state judiciary has a odious back-channel flavor - - details from Cory Liebmann and One Wisconsin Now (OWN) here.

All to reify, or perhaps embed into the law being the better phrase, their bottom-line self-interest through the rulings of activist justices elected with WMC resources.

(Disclosure: I sit on a OWN board but play no role in its Supreme Court candidates' research or publication.)

You would think business, civic and education leaders would recognize that retrograde, unhealthy and just plain selfish state policy-making gives Wisconsin demerits as parents consider sending their kids here for an education.

Or that graduates, new business owners, tourists and retirees would begin to see Wisconsin as undesirable compared to other states, including our neighbors.

Recent visitors here are regularly shocked that smoking is still allowed in restaurants and bars. The frequent dirty air alerts got their attention, too.
And the state is pushing commercial expansion in the Kenosha area, and tourism in Door County. But doing it amidst air pollution that can bury dangerous particulate matter deep in your lungs - - some of which is there because we keep pouring billions into highways and intentionally withhold funding for rail alternatives.

How contradictory is that?

Study after study shows that an urban revival is underway nationally, but you can't pull that off in Wisconsin without rail.

Study after study shows that health is a major social and personal concern. But you can't attract and retain people if your public policies kiss off clean air, pleasant recreation indoors and out, and water conservation - - along with respecting the environment and the rights of neighboring states.

If Wisconsin's Assembly Republican leaders succeed in torpedoing the Great Lakes Compact, Wisconsin will go from good regional partner to pariah, the State that took "Smart" out of Smart Growth.

"No Way" won't keep Wisconsin moving forward, keeping up with the state motto and the statute of Miss Forward on the State Capitol dome.

It's no way to run a state.

More Dirty Air, All Day, Entire State

The polluted air in Wisconsin is likely to drive more people out of Wisconsin than the tax climate.

We've seen these bad air alerts and warnings all winter.

Here's the unhealthy news from the DNR, again for this weekend, and now updated to include the entire sstate Monday, too, (and illustrated here by The Racine Post blog):

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is issuing an Air Quality Advisory for Particle Pollution (Orange) effective Saturday, February 23, 2008 1:01:51 PM through Sunday, February 24, 2008 11:59:59 AM for all Wisconsin Counties.

The advisory is being issued because of persistent elevated levels of fine particles in the air. These fine particles come primarily from combustion sources, such as power plants, factories and other industrial sources, vehicle exhaust, and wood fires.

The Air Quality Index is currently in the orange level, which is considered unhealthy for people in sensitive groups.

People in those sensitive groups include those with heart or lung disease, asthma, older adults and children. When an orange advisory for particle pollution is issued, people in those groups are advised to reschedule or cut back on strenuous activities.

People with lung diseases such as asthma and bronchitis, and heart disease should pay attention to cardiac symptoms like chest pain and shor tness of breath or respiratory symptoms like coughing, wheezing and discomfort when taking a breath, and consult with their physician if they have concerns or are experiencing symptoms.

Fine particle pollution deposits itself deep into the lungs and cannot easily be exhaled. People who are at risk are particularly vulnerable after several days of high particle pollution exposure.

To receive air quality advisories by e-mail, visit

http://dnr.wi.gov/air/newsletters/.
There are several actions the public can take to reduce their contributions to this regional air quality problem.
Reduce driving when possible and don't leave vehicle engines idling.
Postpone activities that use small gasoline and diesel engines.
Minimize outdoor wood fires.
Conserve electricity.
For more ideas on how you can reduce your emissions today and every day visit: Do a little, save a lot!< /ul>
For more information:
Federal interagency air quality web site, for information on the Air Quality Index and nationwide air quality forecasts and air quality conditions, http://airnow.gov/
DNR's statewide air quality monitoring web page, http://dnrmaps.wisconsin.gov/wisards
For local DNR air management program contacts, http://dnr.wi.gov/air/about/regions.htm

Milwaukee Aldermanic Candidate Touts Great Lakes Protections, Jobs, Transit

Henry Hamilton III, an attorney and candidate for Milwaukee's Ninth Aldermanic District, is running on a program that ties together job development, transit expansion and protection for the Great Lakes.

Sounds good to me: I think protecting the Great Lakes from growing exurban demands for Lake Michigan water is a litmus test for service as a Milwaukee elected official.

Hamilton has a website: Check it out.

Gov. Doyle Urges Compact Approval; GOP/Trade Groups Balking

Gov. Jim Doyle urged adoption of the Great Lakes Compact Friday after a tumultuous week during which GOP Republicans and major state trade associations suggested the historic regional water management agreement be derailed.

With only a few weeks remaining in the current legislative session, approval of a Compact bill, delayed for more than two years, may occur in the Democratically-controlled Senate, but the Assembly, managed by GOP, may bottle the bill up in committee, or adjourn without taking action.

With polls showing about 80% of the Wisconsin electorate in favor of a strong Compact, the GOP may be handing the Democrats an easy win in this fall's elections by turning the Compact into a partisan issue.

The GOP leaders and their business community allies are arguing that the Compact be renegotiated and amended, but that's little more than spin, as four of the eight Great Lakes states' legislatures have approved the Compact and inserted it into the states's law, as is.

Rewriting the Compact at this stage is impossible, and the GOP leaders know it.

Worse, if Wisconsin is the lone holdout among the Great Lakes states, the agreement does not go into force.

That would leave the Great Lakes vulnerable to wasteful uses and imprudent diversions that could harm the level and quality of their remaining waters.

And encourage the GOP and other Compact opponents to begin to sue to remove federal diversion protections, leaving the floodgates open for water to be moved by tanker ship to Asia (proposed in the 1980's), and by pipeline to parched areas too far from the Great Lakes for water to be returned.

Mini-Archive Of Past Week's Posts About The Compact Killers

For your archiving or reading pleasure:

http://thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/2008/02/reckless-assembly-republicans-look-to.html

http://thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/2008/02/80-say-protect-great-lakes-gop-and-wmc.html

http://thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/2008/02/assembly-gop-leaders-ignore-record-this.html

http://thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/2008/02/great-lakes-governors-again-urge.html

http://thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/2008/02/wisconsin-groups-engage-in-water-policy.html

http://thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/2008/02/compact-killers-are-real-zealots.html

http://thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/2008/02/pushback-underway-against-assembly.html

http://thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/2008/02/cleveland-plain-dealer-rips-ohios.html

Cleveland Plain Dealer Rips Ohio's Compact Killers

Cleveland's Plain Dealer, Ohio's leading newspaper, editorially rips members of the Ohio legislature who are allied with GOP leaders in Wisconsin's Assembly who are also trying to kill the pending Great Lakes Compact.

Says the Plain Dealer, in plain talk that ought to shame Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, (R-West Salem) and State Rep. Scott Gunderson, R-Waterford):

"As we have said before, there is no place in public life for elected officials who would put at risk the future of Northeast Ohio's most treasured asset. That includes any members of the Ohio Senate who would put at risk our bountiful supply of fresh water."

Full text here.

Pushback Underway Against Assembly Compact Killers

Several Wisconsin conservation organizations, civic groups and leaders are beginning to react to last week's cynical ploy by GOP Assembly leaders to water-down or kill the pending Great Lakes Compact - - an eight state water management agreement.

The River Alliance of Wisconsin responds, here.

The Alliance for the Great Lakes has posted its pro-Compact testimony delivered at a Kenosha hearing about the agreement - - a regional hearing moved out of the State Capitol to a Lake Michigan basin community, but was woefully under-covered by local and regional media.
An exception: a thorough account in the Racine Journal Times, here.

Eight Wisconsin environmental and conservation groups hailed the hearing as a chance to highlight why a strong Great Lakes Compact is a necessity. Their joint release about the hearing is here.

Waukesha's Penchant For Secrecy Continuing

The City of Waukesha apparently has procedural manuals and dictionaries in which the word "transparent" does not appear.

It has decided to keep secret an appraisal of the cost of acquiring 42 acres near the Vernon Marsh in the Town of Waukesha to meet some its near-term water supply needs.

Granted that the plan is a controversial one, as experts have said the drawdown of water could harm the marsh and other resources.

And no doubt acquiring 42 acres through condemnation is a pricey move, since conceivably a developer, under some scenarios, could put a lot of half-million dollar homes on quarter-to-half acre lots there.

Not to mention the additional costs of drilling wells, adding pumps, pipes, monitoring equipment.

And, of course, the inevitable litigation that will ensue, either from neighbors, Waukesha taxpayers, the Town of Waukesha, some, or all.

But keeping the details under wraps again slaps the local taxpayers in the face, as the Waukesha City Council and the Water Utility have a history of closed meetings that has inflamed some residents.

And it feeds the impression that Waukesha prefers closed-and-back-door policy approaches.

That impression has made Waukesha look like a less-than-honest broker and player in the water debates ever since it twice confidentially (unsuccessfully) sought a Lake Michigan diversion from Gov. Doyle in 2006 while various commissions and committees were working in the open to write diversion rules and agreements.

Diversion requests that completely bypassed all the procedures in place for reviews, analysis and approvals.

I found those documents among files provided by the water utility through an Open Records request - - hardly the way for a community still seeking a Lake Michigan diversion to let the public know that 24 millions of water was being sought, and without any guarantee of its return to the Great Lakes basin.

It's hard to break old habits, but this love of closed meetings when doing the public's business, spending the public's money and impacting resources held in the public domain is completely counter-productive, and costs Waukesha credibility every time it is repeated.

Murphy Oil Pays Large Federal Safety Fines

Murphy Oil Co. recently paid $179,000 in fines for safety violations at the Superior, WI refinery on wetlands near Lake Superior that it plans to expand by seven-fold, according to news reports.

Among the violations: deactivation of alarm systems on pressurization equipment.

Compact Killers Are The Real Zealots

A few weeks ago, the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities pretty sharply criticized some environmentalists.

Those environmentalists had argued that if the Great Lakes Compact were implemented in Wisconsin, it should ban the shipping of water moved from a Great Lake to land that a diverting community annexed after December 13, 2005.

Here is a pdf to that Alliance publication. The Alliance argued that what the environmentalists were proposing could stunt Waukesha's growth, and shift development to Northern Illinois, where the US Supreme Court decades ago grandfathered a water diversion from Lake Michigan that the draft Compact cannot alter.

Why did the environmentalists suggest some limitations on water diverted to land annexed after December 13th, 2005?

That was the date that the eight Great Lakes Governors signed the draft Compact (in Milwaukee, by the way) - - the historic water management agreement now working its way through the states' legislatures, and which is about to be rolled out for formal legislative debate in Wisconsin.

Sources report that what the environmentalists had proposed - - and they would argue their suggested diversion limitation would discourage sprawl and minimize diversion volumes, and increase water conservation, too - - will not be in the Wisconsin draft.

At the time, I thought the term "zealots" was unnecessarily harsh:

Webster's Dictionary indicates that "zealot"connotes excess, extremes, fanaticism, "vehement activity," and other perjoratives.

The use of that term by the Alliance of Cities surprised me, because the environmentalists I know consider themselves urbanists, city-lovers - - pretty much the kind of groups and people that the Alliance represents.

When I worked for Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, his office and the Alliance were pretty friendly. Those are good people there.

So with that in mind, how do should we label what the Assembly GOP leadership and their allies in the business community are proposing in a fullt-court press on their side of the Compact debate?

With a great deal more clout than conservation-minded environmentalists, these power-brokers and their water-carriers in the Assembly are proposing a lot more than tying the use of diverted water to the date the Compact was signed.

They have suggested such wholesale changes in the Compact that the whole deal would have to be sent back to the states for renegotiation - - and its certain death.

Powerful business groups, trade associations and key Republican legislators - - Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, (R-West Salem), and State Rep. Scott Gunderson, (R-Waterford) - - know full well there will be no further negotiations.

That's because it took five years to write the Compact and four of the eight Great Lakes legislatures have already approved it.

There's surely an element of partisanship in their 11th-hour maneuvering and reaching out to like-minded GOP allies in the Ohio legislature, as they all know that Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, is chairman of the Great Lakes Council of Governors.

With Wisconsin the last state among the eight to see a bill introduced (Waukesha-area Republican legislators and other allies also derailed an effort last year to produce a bi-partisan bill in a study committee), the GOP Assembly leaders think they see an opportunity to embarass Doyle.

Again, their concern for the Great Lakes is plummeting about as fast as the historic falls in water levels in Lakes Superior and Michigan.

I have been blogging about these opponents and their strategies often this past week, with other posts dating far back into 2007.

The Wisconsin-Ohio Compact Killing axis dates to last year, too.

Furthermore, the changes the Wisconsin Compact killers said the wanted last week want would render the Compact useless.

They want a simple majority of Great Lakes Governors, meaning five of eight, to be able to approve a request for a diversion of water to a community that is outside the boundaries of the Great Lakes basin.

That's a prescription for net water loss in the largest supply of fresh surface water on the planet.

It's like saying: "Wisconsin To Great Lakes Region: Drop Dead."

There is no way that three states could allow the other five to take water that belongs equally to all eight.

And to Canadians and native tribes, too.

That is why federal law for the last 22 year has mandated that all eight Great Lakes Governors must approve diversions of water that flows beyond the boundaries of the Great Lakes basin, and why that principle is in the Compact.

It's the only way to protect a shared resource.

A level-headed organization like the Green Bay Press-Gazette editorially calls the argumentation over the unanimous-approval rule "little more than a red herring."

I agree.

To justify their last-minute sabotage, Wisconsin's Compact killers say they are trying to write a better, stronger, more fair Compact, but that's pure spin, and they know it.

What they are really trying to do is procedurally destroy the Compact, principally so that Waukesha business interests and road-builders can add value to their projects using Lake Michigan water.

And placing profit, politics and partisanship over Great Lakes preservation.

If that that isn't zealotry on behalf of greed, power and partisanship - - the antithesis of protecting a shared resource for the common good - - then I don't know what is.

Big Boxes May Not Draw Big Highway Bucks

Disappointed that the reconfigured Pabst Farms 'upscale' mall may be anchored by a Target, and not a trendy IKEA, for example, some Waukesha County Supervisors are hinting that they may not fork over the County's $1.75 million share to pay for the mall's controversial interstate interchange.

The mall's store mix is still up in the air, its first developer pulled out, and subdivisions at Pabst Farms are on hold as the subprime lending crisis has cooled the housing market.

It may be that the entire exurban, regional-mall model is a thing of the past, as gasoline has run up to $3.19 a gallon and urban development looks more efficient and sustainable, experts say.

And it seems like some County supervisors are not as free-spending as the state department of transportation, which has promised $21.9 million of the interchange's $25 million pricetag.

GOP Presidental Candidates Brought The Snooze Factor To Waukesha County Base

Waukesha County is a Republican Party stronghold, but turnout there in the Tuesday primary suggests that the candidates they fielded, notably US Sen. John McCain (AZ), and former Gov. Mike Huckabee (AK) have a charisma deficit compared to their Democratic rivals.

Seems that the Democratic candidates, notably US Senators Barack Obama (IL) and Hillary Clinton (NY) out-polled their GOP counterparts 71,000-to-53,000, for an approximate margin of 28,000, according to the Waukesha Freeman.

Probable advantage, come November: The Democratic ticket.

Wisconsin Groups Engage In Water Policy Hysteria, Double-Speak

A group of 19 Wisconsin business and trade organizations sent the Wisconsin legislature a letter on Tuesday that would have put a smile on George Orwell's face because it urged the adoption of something they called a "Strong and Fair Great Lakes Compact."

This is a bogus conceit: what the groups want is neither fair or strong.
They want the opposite, for the following reasons:

The current draft Great Lakes Compact - - already approved by four of the eight Great Lakes states' legislatures - - establishes first-ever region-wide rules and standards for communities wishing to move water out of the Great Lakes basin.

It even includes special exemptions for easy access for communities like New Berlin that straddle the Great Lakes basin boundary, as well as a process for out-of-basin communities like Waukesha.

You want unfair?

Current federal law has no standards or rules governing when or why an individual Great Lakes state governor can block a proposed diversion - - the opposite of what the Compact achieves.

Furthermore, the so-called "strong" Compact these groups say they support is actually a greatly-weakened version.

That's because it removes standards, proceedures and guarantees that make it more likely that diverted water would be returned to the Great Lakes.

Maintaining Great Lakes water levels, and requiring conservation and a demonstrated need for a diversion prior to a community's application is the entire purpose of the Compact.

What these groups - - led by the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce - - are proposing is in reality a loophole-ridden agreement that weakens, not strengthens, the Compact and preservation of the world's largest supply of fresh surface water.

And it pretends that seven others states, Canada and native tribes in both countries have fewer water rights than does Wisconsin.

The letter builds on the effort by the WMC, through willful actions last week by Assembly GOP leaders, to push the Compact back into renegotiation after five years of meetings that produced the draft Compact in 2005.

Regional negotiations that included business community input, and that produced, through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the exemptions to help out New Berlin, Waukesha and similarly-situated communities in Wisconsin and the other seven Great Lakes states.

Because several states of those states have already moved to approve it, and now have the common Compact version in their state law - - calls for Compact renegotiation are disengenuous and potentially-destructive.

And lo and behold, a day after the groups sent their "strong and fair" letter to the legislature on the 19th - - the WMC praised the action in a separate news release on the 20th.

Let's be honest, and stop the spin and manipulation of events and language:

Renegotiation, arguing for impossible Compact amendments or stalling its approval in Wisconsin - - the only Great Lakes state without a bill under debate - - is simply a way to kill it.

And that would expose the Great Lakes to wholesale exploitation - - all to
please businesses and groups with water-dependent annexations, road-building and sprawl-development in Waukesha County, and not Great Lakes protections, at the top of their agendas.

Indiana Approves Great Lakes Compact: Will Wisconsin Get On Board?

Indiana became the third state to approve the Great Lakes Compact, and with a bill through the New York state legislature awaiting the Governor's signature, half of the eight Great Lakes states have already signed on the dotted line.

The only holdouts appear to be Ohio and, yes, Wisconsin, where righty legislators, ginning up arguments about property rights and scary veto scenarios, are threatening to kill the entire US-Canada water resource management plan that has been seven years in the making.

Details here.

Welcoming Rob Henken Back Into The Transit Debate

Newly-appointed Public Policy Forum Executive Director Rob Henken may find the headline a bit inaccurate, since Rob has been involved for years in local transit work, and more recently in Milwaukee County efforts to resolve its funding woes, but as you can see from this posting on the PPF's blog, Henken is making transit funding and policy-making a top priority.

Sounds good to me.

Atlantic Magazine Suggests Urban Revival At Expense Of Suburban Decline

The Atlantic Magazine offers a prediction that should make the planners of Pabst Farms, et al, think twice about that public and private investment there.

It's in cities where the growth is going to happen.

Will the State of Wisconsin and regional planners begin to focus on a real urban agenda around here?

Lake Superior Decline Means Economic Losses

Another report documents the relationship between warming temperatures, lower Lake Superior water levels, and economic losses.

Food for thought as Wisconsin GOP Assembly legislators stall the pending Great Lakes Compact agreement, and turn a blind eye towards Great Lakes protections.

Belling Flubs GOP Primary Win Prediction: McCain Was The Winner

I said in a pre-primary blog posting that I was making a note of Mark Belling's prediction of a Mike Huckabee win on the GOP side of the presidential ballot, and would use that prediction as a gauge of Belling's insight into GOP politics.

Full text of Belling's commentary is here.

I guess the GOP is not as far, far Right as Belling assumes, or wishes.

Just pretty far Right, which is why McCain is running that way on immigration and torture.

Pabst Farm Mall Muddling Along: The Road To Sprawlville, Chapter XIII

The next installment of a never-ending series on this here blog, "The Road To Sprawville," today runs into a bit of congestion and doubt:

That's because the infamous, still-being-recalibrated upscale Pabst Farms mall won another approval in Oconomowoc - - but there are nagging questions about some huge issues, like viability and design, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

There seems to be an unhappy realization that what will be most visible to the driving public (the constituency this entire drama is all about) is less a gorgeous destination and more a generic brace of big-box stores.

With that reality shielded - - or is it actually highlighted by - - a thousand-foot wall. Don't forget that Robert Frost, discussing neighborliness, once wrote that there were things not to love about walls.

Without any hard information about the major tenants they'd be subsidizing, the Waukesha County Board of Supervisors is holding on to its commitment of $1.75 million in local revenues to pay its relatively small share of the $25 million interstate highway interchange that will funnel shoppers to the project.

You would think that residents and officials out in Waukesha would demand a better design and specifics before investing all that money into something that will dominate the landscape in Western Waukesha County for generations.

Not just because they were minding their wallets, but because they read that Frost poem along the way.

Sam McGovern-Rowen Runs Third; Campaign For Alderman Ends

Our son Sam McGovern-Rowen ran third in the eight-person field vying for the Milwaukee Third District race, so he does not advance to the general election.

The Journal Sentinel's account of the race is here.

Naturally, we feel badly about that. Sam ran a positive race, didn't pander, didn't spin, but couldn't get past two other candidates.

He had the most City Hall experience in the race, and would have made an excellent Alderman, but it didn't work out.

So it goes.

My Vote's Not A Secret Today

I get to vote today for my son Sam McGovern-Rowen for Milwaukee Third District Alderman.

He's run a positive, issue-based and mature campaign, and it'll be a privilege cast my ballot for him.

Another blogger whom I have not met feels the same way: Thanks to Urban Milwaukee for the analysis and support.

The rest of my ballot choices I'll treat the old-fashioned way, and keep 'em to myself.

Just make sure you go out tomorrow and vote.

Great Lakes Governors Again Urge Passage Of The Great Lakes Compact

Noting the potential harm to the Great Lakes inherent in obstructionist legislative tactics in Ohio and Wisconsin, the Great Lakes Governors have reiterated their call for passage of the Great Lakes Compact.

The Council of Great Lakes Governors website carries this renewed call for adoption: four states' legislatures among the eight bordering the Great Lakes have approved the Compact.

Gov. Jim Doyle is the group's chairman, raising the stakes in Wisconsin over approval or obstruction.

The Governors' statement in pdf format is here as a news release.

And only Wisconsin, where GOP Assembly leaders said Thursday they want to send the Compact back to all the states for renegotiations - - an obvious procedural method of killing it - - has yet to have a Compact-ratifying and implementing bill formally introduced for debate.

The negotiations to produce the Compact already approved by half the states' legislatures took nearly five years to complete in 2005. New negotiations to allow a few opponents to gut the original are never going to happen.

And because the agreement is a cooperative document to manage a shared resource, reopening the negotiations would only embolden a handful of self-interested critics - - centered in Waukesha County - - who would continue to demand more and more concessions.

The amazing thing about the Assembly GOP's action is that the Compact contains diversion exemptions and procedural breaks for communities like New Berlin which are looking to immediately obtain a Lake Michigan diversion.

Without the Compact and its exemptions - - inserted into the negotiations towards their conclusion specifically to assist New Berlin (along with other changes that make it more likely that even Waukesha, an out-of-basin community, could successfully make win a case for a diversion) - - New Berlin and Waukesha face much tougher diversion legal obstacles in an existing federal law.

Without all eight states approving highly-similar Compact bills, this complex agreement to better manage the Great Lakes and promote regional water conservation could wither, or fail altogether, opening the Great Lakes to unregulated diversions and other negative consequences.

The Governors are right to push for adoption, now.

I don't expect the Assembly leaders to heed the Governors' actions, but their statement will help Wisconsin residents and others around the Great Lakes region better understand who is for the Great Lakes, and who is against them.

Assembly GOP Leaders Ignore The Record: This Is Leadership?

The Assembly GOP leaders who threw a monkey-wrench last week into what was supposed to be a bi-partisan approach to Wisconsin's approval of the pending Great Lakes Compact - - risking the very preservation of this crucial regional resource - - are ignoring basic documents and information about the Compact already made available to the legislature.

Makes you wonder whether Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, (R-West Salem), or Rep. Scott Gunderson, (R-Village of Waterford), read the record and tossed it, or were unaware that their key arguments against the Compact have already been explained and settled.

Take, for example, the suggestion that the Compact - - a cooperative water management agreement among the eight Great Lakes states - - would somehow harm personal property rights.

That is one of the claims made by an Ohio State legislator, Sen. Tim Grendell, the leader of Compact opposition in that state.

Yet more than a year ago, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources official Chuck Ledin informed a state legislative study committee studying Compact issues that Grendell's claims had no relevance under Wisconsin law.

Yet both Huebsch and Gunderson have told Ohio legislators that they find merit in the Ohio arguments.

Their letter to the Ohio legislature is here.

The analysis by the DNR's Ledin, here, is either being ignored by the Assembly Republican Compact opponents, or their staffers haven't bothered to look at the record, absorb it and tell their bosses that they are out on a very thin limb.

Then there is the long over-looked, December 2006 advisory opinion written by then-Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager about Compact issues and water law - - also forwarded to the study committee.

It's an important document because it lays out the applicable federal law that Wisconsin must follow until the Compact is approved.

That statute, the Water Resources Development Act of 1986, (WRDA), says that all diversions of water away from the Great Lakes boundaries must be approved by all eight Great Lakes Governors.

Period.

No exceptions.

Huebsch and Gunderson say that gives the other Great Lakes' governors too much power over water use by Wisconsin (forgetting or overlooking that it also gives Wisconsin a voice in other states' water usages, too).

The Compact, however, at the insistence of Wisconsin's negotiators during the four years it took to write it, contained an exemption from that eight-state approval process for communities that straddle the basin boundary - - such as New Berlin.

And the Compact also creates, for the first time, a set of standards and rules that the Governors would have to follow when they were reviewing out-of-basin diversion applications for communities like Waukesha.

In other words, the Compact makes it more likely that Waukesha and New Berlin can apply for and obtain water if they follow the rules, while, as Lautenschlager explains in detail, WRDA is a much tougher law.

WRDA doesn't have any rules or standards or procedures for the states to use in reviewing eachother's diversion applications.

Makes you think legislators like Gunderson would be taking the lead on Compact approval because it is good for their districts.

But when you are an ideologue and under the sway of a special-interest powerhouse like the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, you are likely to put yourself in a politically-contorted and self-defeating position.

Gunderson, especially.

A good chunk of Waukesha County is in his district, and like State Sen. Mary Lazich, (R-New Berlin), a senior legislative colleague whose self-sabotaging proclivities Gunderson is channeling, these Waukesha legislators are making it more likely that their communities will not get the water they covet.

And are likely to find themselves locked in protracted and costly litigation for years.

Huebsch and Gunderson are making a mockery of the legislative process in Wisconsin, holding the state up to ridicule around the Great Lakes region, and are jeopardizing the world's largest supply of fresh surface water.

All in a day's work carrying water for the WMC, but I wonder: Will they put those achivements on their next piece of campaign literature?

And how will they explain it to constituents that a silly little daillance with an Ohio legislator and some self-parodying partisanship ended up costing their very own Waukesha County communities a rationalized shot at Great Lakes water?

Capital Times Hits GOP Pandering On The Great Lakes Compact

The reviews keep coming in about the GOP's game-playing on the Great Lakes Compact, and the theme is pretty consistent.

This time it's the Madison Capital Times, which editorially goes after the GOP's Assembly leadership for its last-minute sabotage of the pending Great Lakes Compact.

When It Comes To Energy Savings, Madison Law Firm Walks The Walk

The Madison law firm of Cullen Weston Pines and Bach goes green by meeting 100% of its energy needs from renewable sources.

Cullen Weston Pines and Bach is Wisconsin's only law firm to make that level of green partnership commitment, and only the second law firm nationally.

Details here.

80% Say Protect The Great Lakes: The GOP And WMC Say NO!

No one should be surprised that Wisconsin Assembly Republican legislative leaders could "gut" the Great Lakes Compact - - as Wisconsin DNR Secretary Matt Frank correctly put it last week when the GOP threw the pending international Great Lakes water conservation and management agreement into a partisan shredder.

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem) and State Rep. Scott Gunderson, (R-Village of Waterford), said they would support (sic) the Great Lakes Compact only with changes that would render it ineffective and unacceptable to the other Great Lakes states.

Great Lakes news accounts were not favorable.

The GOP's 11th-hour stall-or-kill tactic is happening because the Republican Party in this state, and particularly the GOP leadership in the Assembly. is owned lock, stock and barrel by the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.

That powerful lobby has had the Compact in its sights since 2004, laying the groundwork for the GOP Assembly leaders to line up with Ohio Republicans trying to kill the Compact there.

Nothing really new about that either: State Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin), has been fanning these flames since last spring, something I took note on this blog as early as April.

Similarly, the WMC's junior partner, the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce, has been taking the same Great Lakes deregulatory hard line.
I noted 11 months ago here that the Chamber's anti-Compact resolution incorrectly stated that the two Canadian Great Lakes provinces had veto power over any US state's diversion application, and that little bit of false xenophobia is still on the group's website - - easy click here:

http://www.waukesha.org/news_article.asp?ID=253:

And Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas fell in line with that faux, parsed Compact 'support' line a few days ago, too.

In Waukesha Republican circles, no one bucks the WMC. These Waukeshacentric interests don't want to work on behalf of the environment, or to protect resources shared with other states, even other nations.

They just want the water.

Gimme, gimme, gimme.

Even though everyone, from Lazich to Vrakas to the WMC's lobbyists in their brick fortress within walking distance of the State Capitol know that the Compact is dead without all eight Great Lakes states adopting common versions, leaving the Great Lakes relatively unprotected against unsustainable diversions.

Anti-Compact forces in Wisconsin and Ohio are suggesting that the Compact go back to the states for renegotiation for the allegedly-minor tweaks that would satisfy Huebsch, Vrakas and the rest of the WMC-inspired gang.

That is a fake argument because A) the changes are not minor, and B) those five-year discussions, which ended in 2005 and included major business organization input by the way, are simply too complex and complete to be restarted.

Note also that within a few weeks or months, six of the eight Great Lakes states will have approved similar Compact bills, leaving Ohio and Wisconsin as the hold-outs.

And because Ohio State Sen. Tim Grendell, the obstructionist upon whom Wisconsin's Compact-killers are relying upon in Ohio is a controversial, if not marginalized figure - - he had to offer an apology to his African-American colleagues for insensitive public remarks - - it is possible that Ohio will approve the Compact regardless of Grendell's efforts.

An update on the Ohio perspective from The Toledo Blade is here.

That would leave Wisconsin, the state whose Constitution incorporates public trust protections for water that date to the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, and the state that gave the world Gaylord Nelson and Aldo Leopold, as the sole barrier to Great Lakes' protection and preservation.

Imagine.

It's as if the forces of reaction and greed had taken the slogan, "On, Wisconsin," and transposed the letters in the first word, to "No, Wisconsin."

I think the next step in the anti-Compact strategy is even more daring and potentially-devastating:

A federal lawsuit filed by Waukesha or Ohio interests to overturn the sole federal water management law that protects the Great Lakes from water grabs - - and which ironically, contains tougher diversion regulations than the Compact would ease for Sen. Mary Lazich's New Berlin.

Her city straddles the Great Lakes boundary, so a special exemption was created in the Compact for New Berlin and other similarly-situated communities.

That exemption is not in the federal law, and if the Compact were reopened for negotiation, who is to say that exemption would survive a new round of compromises and trading?

Lazich's logic-defying anti-Compact stance illustrates a central fact of the debate as it gets more partisan:

For the Lazichs and others in the debate from the far right, it's all about ideology - - state's rights and a favorable, de-regulated fiscal environment for their big business allies.

It's a wierd, irrational and self-defeating twist on political correctness that has found a home on the Right side of the political spectrum.

These Great Lakes Compact opponents - - and let's not let them get away with hijacking the language as well as the Compact itself by saying they are supporters 'with just a few tweaks' - - have a lot in common with timber companies who would log the national forests on behalf of 'healthy woodlands,' or oil companies that would sink wells in protected habitats and claim their platforms are good for the wildlife.

When ideology and money are paired, forget about protecting common resoures, or even rationality.

The Compact killers may win a short term victory, but they won't be in the legislature forever.

More than 80% of Wisconsinites said in a recent UW-Survey Center poll that they wanted a strong Great Lakes Compact.

The disingenuous and narrow-minded approach of the Assembly GOP and the WMC represents the viewpoint of a selfish minority of the rich and powerful:

I'll stand with the Wisconsin tradition, and an 80-20 split on behalf of a shared water resource, any day of the week.

Scientists Claim Suppression of Report On Great Lakes-Area Health; Wisconsin Danger Included

Scientists are claiming that federal officials suppressed a report about health risks in the Great Lakes region traced to toxins in the environmental.

The report includes information about PCB contamination in the Fox River, according to The Washington Post.

The story had been circulating in regional newspapers, but now that it's in the Post, expect more national media and perhaps a better explanation from the feds about why they wouldn't release the report.

Great Lakes Regional Policy-Makers Appalled At Wisconsin's GOP Compact Killers

Media and public officials are discovering the Great Lakes Compact sabotage that got underway publicly last week by GOP lawmakers from Wisconsin and Ohio, and the stories are not pretty.

Here's one from The Detroit News.

And another, from the Ohio media, suggests that the Compact 'revisions' favored by that state's Compact obstructionist, State Sen. Tim Grendell, are not completely lucid.

Some revisions, eh?

Central City Milwaukee Experiencing A Hot Real Estate Market

There's much about Milwaukee that is positive, but little publicized: Tom Daykin at the Journal Sentinel shines a little light on new Central City affordable and appealing housing that shows there's plenty of appeal to urban living in Milwaukee.

Superior Daily Telegram Slams GOP Compact Politicking

Superior's Daily Telegram tells it like it is, ripping GOP assembly leaders for trying to sandbag the pending Great Lakes Compact agreement so that Lake Michigan water can be decontrolled and shipped more easily to "urban flighters" now sprawling through Waukesha County.

DNR Secretary Takes Issue With Wisconsin's Compact Killers

Ill-timed actions by GOP Assembly Republicans to"gut" the pending Great Lakes Compact could bring economic harm to Waukesha communities hoping to get Lake Michigan water, according to a letter to the GOP representatives from DNR Secretary Matt Frank.

It's probably a wasted effort, but good for Frank to frame the debate in those terms, since the Compact killers announced their plan Thursday, the same day a bill to implement the Compact in Wisconsin was rolled out in Madison after more than two years of preparation.

Talk about regional uncooperation - - as the goal was a bi-partisan bill to move along an agreement already adopted in four Great Lakes states and about to be approved in two and perhaps three of the remaining four - - meaning our state, the home of iconic conservationists Gaylord Nelson and Aldo Leopold could be the lone holdout to implemention of an agreement to save the Great lakes that has been seven years in the making.

And which does not go on to the US Congress for its crucial approval until all eight states adopt similar bills - - something the Compact killers are willfully trying to prevent.

As I have pointed out many times on this blog, a small group of ideological conservatives and ill-informed business interests, led by the WMC and State Sen. Mary Lazich, (R-New Berlin), are putting the Great Lakes Compact - - an eight state, two-country water management agreement and process - - at risk.

For Lazich, the contradictions are overwhelming.

That's because she represents a city that, under the Compact, is given a specific procedural break for easier access to Lake Michigan water - - an exception that does not exist under current and applicable federal law.

If members of Lazich's party successfully stall or torpedo the Compact, New Berlin's efforts to win a water deal could be blocked by the federal law.

As I said 10 months ago on this blog, when Lazich was inexplicably leading the fight against the Compact at the Capitol, that's how you shoot your entire district in the foot.

Pabst Farms Stressing Local City Budget, Services

The Daily Reporter's Sean Ryan produced a fascinating story about Pabst Farms and the consequences of using Tax Incremental Financing to spur the development there.

The story documents that because the increased property taxes produced through the TIF bonding goes first to repay that debt, and not to City of Oconomowoc general fund coffers, then the city can't afford to supply all the routine services those new property owners expect from a municipality.

So Pabst Farms' developers may have to begin paying for police services for instance, because Oconomowoc can't afford city officers to patrol the new developments.

Ironic, isn't it?

You use city tax money to fuel development, but you can't reap the added tax benefits to provide basic municipal services to the residents and businesses the development has produced.

Maybe TIF is a tool that shouldn't be used to build subdivisions on a small city's remaining or annexed farmland because it will stretch that community's resources to the breaking point.

The Northern Illinois Shootings, And The Guns

Among the news stories about the mass murderer's arsenal used to mow down students at Northern Illinois University was this troubling line:

"All four guns were bought legally from a federally licensed firearms dealer, said Thomas Ahern, an agency spokesman."

I'd say that's clear and convincing evidence that guns are just too damn available - - which is the main reason we have an annual murder-by-gun total in the US each year in the thousands, whereas in most countries around the world, similar murders are rare.

Ryan Braun's $10,000 Donation To Habitat For Humanity Speaks Volumes

Nice to see a young ballplayer like the Brewers' Ryan Braun giving his Rookie-of-the-Year $10,000 award check to Habitat For Humanity.

I'm sure athletes and celebrities commit flagrant acts of charity in private and there's no need for anyone to know - - but given the frequent sports-related headlines about selfish or boorish behaviors, and so few stories with anything suggesting a player with a progressive political consciousness, it was refreshing to see Braun, a local player, so generously supporting Habitat.

Rush Limbaugh Still Bashing McCain: You Go, Rush!

Let national talker and egomanic Rush Limbaugh make a fool out of himself, pretending to be as important as a presidential nominee, but let's thank him for helping keep Republicans divided and stirred up.

National Wildlife Federation Says Compact 'Amenders' Are "Hijacking" The Agreement

The National Wildlife Federation has strong words for leaders in the Republican Assembly caucuses of the Ohio and Wisconsin legislatures who want to send the Great Lakes Compact agreement into renegotiation purgatory.

As I have been arguing, this is a deliberate tactic to kill the Compact, and Compact opponents who have lined up in a shamefully destructive partisan approach to regional water stewardship know it.

I first noted efforts by Compact opponents in April, 2007 to convince Wisconsin legislators to make changes sought by conservative Ohio Republicans.

In August, I posted more material about the Ohio-Wisconsin anti-Compact alliance.

I had interviewed the leading Ohio opponent, State Sen. Tim Grendell, the organizer of a meeting in Michigan among midwest legislators who were said to have reservations about the Compact as written.

Grendell has worked State Sen. Mary Lazich, (R-New Berlin) to push the Compact back into negotiations: she unsuccessfully tried to convince a state legislative study committee to buy into Grendell's theories of water rights.

But now, along with Lazich, the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce is calling the shots, and water-carriers from the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce to Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas are willing to risk the Great Lakes for their narrow special, partisan interests.
Update here:

Make no mistake about it: some Waukesha political and business leaders are playing hardball and it's time to call them on it.

Publicly, they say they are Compact supporters.

But then the specifics come out: Supporters of just a certain kind of Compact, gutted of its essential principle of unanimous, eight-state approvals of diversions of water outside of the Great Lakes basin boundaries.

That is already the underpinning of applicable federal law, and how a Compact works.

And there is no way that the other Great Lakes states are going to resume negotiations that ran from 2001-2005 and produced a document already approved by four of the eight Great Lakes states' legislatures.

Waukesha County was already given diversion application permission in the Compact - - a direct, demonstrable route to Great Lakes water - - with the help of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources negotiators in 2004-2005.

Communities like New Berlin that straddle the actual basin boundary were given an even easier application standard to meet.

Yet now Waukesha's legislators want even more, and they know it isn't going to happen.

They should come clean, state they are killing the Compact, and deal with the consequences openly, rather than hiding behind the spin that all they are looking for is a simple do-over, a little tweak, a numbers change, making an "eight" into "a majority."

Environmentalists were tagged as zealots for trying to strengthen the Compact with tough provisions that would not have allowed diverted water to be transferred to communities new annexations.

Those provisions would have made the conservation goals of the Compact real and effective.

Those changes did not make it into the draft bill.

If that was zealotry, then just what the heck is the Assembly GOP/Waukesha business elite position?

McCain Flip-Flops On Waterboarding

As a tortured POW during the Vietnam War, John McCain knew what he was talking about when he consistently and strongly condemned waterboarding throughout the presidential campaign.

It gave McCain a perch on the small piece of moral high ground left in the GOP on the issue.

But now that McCain is the presumptive GOP nominee, he declined earlier this week to vote for a bill that passed the US Senate forbidding waterboarding.

I don't think I can recall a more stunning flip-flop or blatant act of pandering by a candidate poised to lead one of the national parties.

How can he possibly explain it?

Reckless Assembly Republicans Look To Kill Great Lakes Compact

Two leading Republican Assembly leaders are now on record joining the anti-Great Lakes Compact cabal of State Sen Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) and Ohio State Sen. Tim Grendell - - whose antics to sink the Great Lakes Compact by sending it back to negotiators for more 'changes' have been well-documented on this blog.

Also siding with Lazich: Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas, the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce, and the Metropolitan Builders Association.

Lazich and Grendell have colluding on this since August: Here is a posting based on my interview with him then.

Get the picture?

The Compact is a water management and conservation cooperative agreement (this is the concept Lazich & Co. just cannot abide) among the eight Great Lakes states.

Their governors, including Wisconsin's Jim Doyle, also agreed in 2005 following four years of negotiations, to support implementing bills in their states that would contain no substantive changes.

And a similar bill has to be approved by the US Congress, or the Great Lakes will become even more vulernable to whimsical and selfish takings of water, without standards, or a rational set of application and approval procedures needed to protect a multi-state, two-country (the US and Canada) resource.

So just as a Compact bill gets rolled out in Wisconsin today, (two states have approved it among the eight, and two more states' Governors have approved-bills on their desks, making new 'negotiations' after a seven-year process nothing but a sham strategy at this point), out come the Assembly obstructionist tactics, as explained by the following Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Newswatch blog item:

THURSDAY, Feb. 14, 2008, 2:14 p.m.By Stacy Forster
Great Lakes compact debated

Madison - As the state Senate opened debate today on legislation to ratify and implement a compact to stop large-scale water diversions and promote water conservation, some Assembly leaders indicated they want to go back to the drawing board on certain aspects of the compact.

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem) and Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford) Wednesday sent a letter to Bill Harris, president of the Ohio state Senate, saying they want to work with lawmakers there to change the compact, which was signed by the governors of eight Great Lakes states.

Huebsch and Gunderson wrote that they object to provisions that would allow the governor of one of the eight states to object to a water diversion and expand the public trust doctrine to include groundwater.

"The Wisconsin State Assembly is committed to introducing and passing legislation that mirrors legislation being introduced in the Ohio State Senate, and we welcome the opportunity to work with you and your colleagues to enact these changes across the Great Lakes basin," Huebsch and Gunderson wrote.

Four state legislatures have already ratified the compact, but Ohio, like Wisconsin, faces unique water-access issues.

There has been solid, bipartisan support for the compact in the Wisconsin Senate. But it has always faced an uphill battle in the Assembly, where some members are concerned the agreement is too restrictive for communities - including many they represent -- that want access to water and could stifle economic development.

The compact legislation has been a long time coming; legislators released a preliminary draft on Tuesday but concede there is still more work to be done.

The Senate's Committee on Environment and Natural Resources held an informational hearing today on a draft of the legislation.Sen. Mark Miller (D-Monona), chairman of the Senate committee, said the legislature's movement on a bill was a historic achievement.

"The Great Lakes compact is critical to protecting our state's natural resources," Miller said at the hearing. "Fresh water is predicted to become the most important resources in the world within the lifetime of today's children."

Belling Predicts Huckabee Win In Wisconsin

Granted that Mark Belling knows a lot more about Wisconsin's GOP than I do, so I was interested to read this lede in his February 13th Freeman column:

"Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee will win Tuesday’s Wisconsin presidential primary and the results reveal a lot about what is going on in both political parties. "

Full text here.

If Belling is right, (not Right), then the base in the Republican Party is farther right than I thought. So I will have learned something about both the GOP and I will acknowledge Belling's ability to discern that party's true mood and makeup.

On the other hand, if McCain wins the primary next Tuesday, then we will have learned something about Wisconsin's GOP voters, and about Mark, too.

Belling is one of those conservative radio talk show hosts in an absolute meltdown over the impending 'sky-is-falling' McCain nomination.

Democrats will have an easier time accepting either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama's nomination failure, since you don't hear many Democrats crabbing this badly should the Democratic nominee not be their first choice.

Wrote Belling, of McCain:

"The GOP is like the Titanic right after it hit the iceberg. You have the bizarre spectacle of a political party choosing as its nominee a candidate that most members of the party don’t even like. John McCain has nailed down the nomination by managing to win 40 percent of the vote in a lot of states. The remaining 60 percent doesn’t like McCain at all but never rallied around a single alternative.

"This leaves Huckabee as the only non-McCain standing (Ron Paul doesn’t count). Republican voters, distraught over McCain’s certain nomination, will trudge to the polls to register their disgust the only way they know how - by voting for Huckabee. In fact, Huckabee may win eight of the next nine Republican contests. He can’t catch McCain - McCain’s delegate lead is too large - but he will be able to take advantage of being the only way for the conservative base of the Republican Party to vent. Republicans will end up with a candidate so distasteful to them that he will limp into the general election having been clobbered in elections all over the country.

"Many believe McCain’s win, and the fact that fellow moderate Huckabee is the only alternative, is a sign that the conservative movement is dying. A better explanation is that there wasn’t a credible candidate for the party’s right wing to rally around. Fred Thompson was sleepwalking. Mitt Romney is a Johnny-come-lately who is a member of an unusual religion. Rudy Giuliani only supported some of the agenda. The bottom line is that Democrats Tuesday will pick a candidate they love and Republicans will try to send a message to one they hate."

Human Activity Effects The Oceans

Of course, the same people denying that human activity could possibly effect the atmosphere and the climate will resist the notion that people are effecting the oceans, as scientists report.

Ripon Offers Trek Bikes To Students Who Forego Cars

Ripon College has figured out a clever way to reduce the number of cars students bring to campus:

Free bikes, with helmets and locks.

Now there's a smart way to green up a campus.

County Pension Scandal Does Further Harm To Taxpayers

The pension fund debacle that drove former Milwaukee County Executive Tom Ament and a brace of supervisors from office continues to threaten the county's solvency.

A rocky investment climate and Wall Street losses could force taxpayers to infuse more dough into the system - - on top of a $50 million contribution this year, reports The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The pension fund scandals, coupled with current Exec Scott Walker's ideological penchant for more cuts in services, continues to harm the county and its taxpayers' wallets.

The best start would be replacing Walker with a real problem-solver, and then the implementation of out-of-the-box approaches to restore the county to fiscal and political health and success.

Barrett Calls For Great Lakes Compact, Notes SEWRPC Problems

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett used his State of the City address Thursday to call for adoption of the pending Great Lakes Compact.

Story, here.

Barrett also highlighted a concern that was detailed on this blog a few days ago - - the Department of Natural Resource's very troubling plan to turn over a key step in review of Great Lakes diversion applications and other water transfers to the regional planning commission, SEWRPC.

(And Assembly Republican leaders announced Thursday they were abandoning a bi-partisan approach to passing the Great Lakes Compact, preferring instead to send the agreement back to the states for renegotiation - - the procedural equivilant of sending a bill back to committee to kill it.)

Located in Pewaukee, and without a single Milwaukee-appointed commissioner among its 21 members, the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) has a structural and policy bias in favor of sprawl development.

Its recommended highway expansion plan, on which the state is spending $6.5 billion, does not include a penny of money for any rail or bus component.

That's the case even with the next $1.9 billion construction phase - - Milwaukee to the Illinois state line, even though there is a commuter rail plan ready to break ground in the same corridor.

These points are made strongly in Barrett's speech, too.

This all means the very communities in the six counties surrounding Milwaukee will be obtaining more highway access into undeveloped areas - - bringing along development, housing and jobs - - without providing access and benefits to less-wealthy, City-based transit-users.

Thus any reviews and decisions to approve water transfers to SEWRPC counties will be done deals if SEWRPC is permitted to then carry out their technical reviews.

That is monumentally unfair, discriminatory and just plain wrong. It will essentially turn SEWRPC into more of a special interest group - - helping subdivision planners and highway lobbyists and annexation-happy suburbs - - that it is now.

Add to that reality SEWRPC's unwillingness to provide a housing study with recommendations for the region since 1975, and the anti-Milwaukee biased regional trifecta at work within SEWRPC's offices comes into sharger focus:

No housing study for 33 years.

No transit in the multi-billion highway expansion plan.

Enabling water transfers away from Lake Michigan to the SEWRPC region's faraway suburbs, exurbs and remaining agricultural land.

So kudos to Mayor Barrett for highlighting and redefining the Great Lakes Compact issue.

We in Milwaukee need to hear from our legislative delegation, alderman and county supervisors, too - - and what we need to hear is those decision-makers applaud Barrett's leadership and will follow his lead.

The Milwaukee County Board does not need any more justification to yank SEWRPC's annual appropriation, for example.

It's the largest automatic transfer of operating money from the seven SEWRPC counties every year, and for Milwaukee County and the city, the return on that shift of hundreds of thousands of property tax dollars is now a net negative.

Milwaukee residents would get more bang for those bucks if they were air-dropped over Downtown Milwaukee, retrieved, spent at local restaurants and stores, or tucked into a Money Market account earning 0.5%.

Our elected officials have to stand up against this serious powershift away from the city - - if more power to SEWRPC on water transfers sneaks into the Wisconsin version of the Compact.

It will further disenfranchise urban residents and wall them off again, much as they are blocked from full access to the suburbs by the boundary-freezing 1955 Oak Creek Law, from an equal share of the benefits of state action, public spending and planning.

That's making a bad situation worse, and is certainly not what the Great Lakes Compact was intended to do.

Focused on water, the agreement - - rolled out today at the State Capitol later today for state approval - - the Compact is a conservation and stewardship agreement among eight states.

It should not be used to earmark water for suburbs, enriching them while while harming Wisconsin's only big city.

George McGovern's Moving Speech, Appearance At Turner Hall, With Audio

Sen. George McGovern spoke in Milwaukee's Turner Hall Tuesday night: A story about his talk there, and link to the speech's audio and post-speech remarks are below, from WisPolitics.com.

The event was the highlight of a day of family politcking in Milwaukee for Sen. McGovern on behalf of his grandson Sam McGovern-Rowen, my son.

Sen. McGovern gave his endorsement for Third District Alderman to Sam - - and also discussed national politics, and the wars in Iraq and Vietnam.
A long-time peace activist, and foe of the war in Vietnam, Sen. McGovern recently wrote a widely-read op-ed-piece for The Washington Post in which he called for the impeachment of Pres. George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney.

WisPolitics.com also posted links to remarks following the speech by both Sen. McGovern and Sam McGobern-Rowen - - again that is provided below.

From WisPolitics.com:

McGOVERN SAYS DEMS MUST WIN AT MILWAUKEE RALLY

It is “imperative” for Democrats to win the White House and solidify control of Congress this fall in order for the United States to get out of Iraq, former Dem presidential nominee George McGovern said during a campaign appearance for his grandson, who’s running for the Milwaukee City Council.

“I think it’s absolutely imperative that the Democrats win this election, that we get the White House, that we get the House and the Senate by larger margins than we now have it, and then bring this tragic war to a conclusion,” McGovern said at yesterday evening’s rally at Turner Hall.

During his talk before the crowd of about 80, McGovern compared Iraq to the Vietnam War, saying the only real difference is that the current war is being fought in a desert instead of a jungle.

McGovern, who served as a U.S. senator from South Dakota, said the current war is in some ways worse, because leaders had the Vietnam War as a lesson.

McGovern nearly came to tears when discussing “the loss of 58,000 wonderful young Americans” in the Vietnam War and remarked that he cannot visit the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C., and see the names and ages of those who died without similarly losing his composure.

“And yet here we are going down the same road again, 4,000 wonderful young Americans,” McGovern said.

McGovern spoke well of Sen. John McCain, but faulted him for supporting the Iraq War and said his plan for Iraq resembles the approach to the Vietnam War, in which the U.S. kept sending more and more troops in an effort to win.

“That’s the John McCain remedy; if you get into a bad war just keep sending in more troops and eventually you will kill more of them than they kill of us,” McGovern said. “It’s on of the reasons I don’t want him in the White House.”

McGovern said he had nothing personally against McCain. “I don’t have any personal malice towards John McCain. I served briefly with him in the Senate, and he’s a decent man who probably believes all this stuff he puts out,” he said to chuckles. “But there’s a limit to what even a great country like the United States can stand in the way of using its resources for destructive purposes.”

In a conversation with reporters later, McGovern described McCain as an “incurable hawk.” Also in his conversation with reporters, McGovern agreed that the primary this year has parallels with 1972.

“The transcendent issue in '72 was the war in Vietnam,” McGovern said. “This time it's the war in Iraq.” And although McGovern said some consider the economy the top issue, the nation’s economic difficulties are rooted in the war.

“The economy is in trouble partly because of all the wastage in Iraq,” McGovern said, adding that if the money for the war was spent on transportation, health care, education and the environment, “we wouldn’t have this sag in the economy that we're seeing today.”

McGovern has endorsed Hillary Clinton, but said he is happy with both Barack Obama and Clinton. “I'll have no problem endorsing and working for which ever one wins.” McGovern said. “But I did endorse Hillary, and I stay with that.”

McGovern, 85, stood through his entire 21-minute speech and stayed for nearly an hour after his talk to chat and sign autographs. McGovern, who became a history professor following his service in WWII as a bomber pilot, joked about how he managed to recently get the opportunity to write a book on President Abraham Lincoln for a series on American presidents.

“So here I am working on a book about the founder of the Republican Party,” McGovern said to laughs. “I wish to God we had Republicans like that now.”

McGovern’s grandson, Sam McGovern-Rowen, is seeking the 3rd Aldermanic District seat being vacated by Ald. Mike D’Amato. He is currently D’Amato’s legislative assistant.

Listen to McGovern’s presentation: http://blogs.wispolitics.com/multimedia/audio/2008/02/080212McGovern1.mp3

Listen to McGovern and McGovern-Rowen speak with reporters: http://blogs.wispolitics.com/multimedia/audio/2008/02/080212McGovernWithReporters.mp3


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Smart Wisconsin Legislators, Contemplating Water Legislation, Should Look South

Wisconsin legislators and the public will get their first look at the proposed Great Lakes Compact implementing bill on Thursday afternoon at 1:30 p.m., at an informational State Capitol hearing.

Details here.

After more than two years of delay, we'll see what legislators, various lobbyists and Department of Natural Resources staffers have come up with.

Happy Valentine's Day.

And while certain special interests have been campaigning for months to weaken the bill, so Waukesha developments and municipalities outside the Great Lakes basin might have easy access to Lake Michigan water - - regardless of the regional and national consequences - - there's a new Southern wrinkle that should give the Compact weakeners pause:

A federal appeals court has just ruled that drought-ravaged and over-developed Atlanta cannot make a side deal to get certain waters because the Federal Government holds the ultimate water transferring permission.

That message should not be lost on the City of Waukesha, or State Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and others who have either tried for a side deal, or who might delay the Compact for so long that the feds might tempted to step in and take control of the Great Lakes.

In other words, don't try and set up a sweetheart deal for yourself to access a shared resource - - say, the Great Lakes - - if there is federal law in place that says certain water transfer and management procedures must be followed.

The Water Resources Development Act of 1986 provides no exceptions to all eight Great Lakes' states governors approval of diversions out of the Great Lakes basin - - a law that doesn't parse diversions into categories - - so it would be foolhearty for Wisconsin legislators to bless back-door applications or insert language tweaks spun into Wisconsin law just to get water to out-of-basin suburbs.

Or to weaken, or remove altogether, that lynchpin eight-state approval diversion provision in the pending Great Lakes Compact.

That's the argument made by Lazich, the WMC, the Waukesha Chamber of Commerce, the Metropolitan Builders Association, and even Waukesha County Exec. Dan Vrakas and others who have said just that, in one form or another.

As I written repeatedly on this blog, ignoring the federal law is a very bad idea. All this and more about water law was spelled out in a crucial Wisconsin Attorney General opinion now 14 months old, but which has been ignored by the rest of the media and dismissed by DNR officials.

Those who ignore it, or who are out to sandbag the Compact in Wisconsin, could inherit a boatload of consequences:

Wisconsin could end up stirring up the other Great Lakes if the badger State trys to delete Compact language, or to add special exceptions for Wisconsin that the other seven Great Lakes states and their attorneys generals would not accept.

Worse, the Congress, which could look at the appeals court ruling and take back control over the Great Lakes.

So it's time for Wisconsin leaders and legislators to stop playing games with the Great Lakes, and to get serious about passing a good bill for Wisconsin.

An excellent argument by Steven Schmuki of the Waukesha Environmental Action League, (WEAL), for the Strong Compact is here.

Huge Brookfield Development Takes Shape As Regional Growth Again Avoids Milwaukee

Everytime I read about a massive, mixed-use project in the area - - this time in Brookfield, with everything from housing to retail to a corportate headquarters - - two questions come to mind:

Does the Milwaukee 7 encourage this growth so far from downtown Milwaukee - - in areas disconnected by transit from the rest of the region?

Do Milwaukeans understand the scope, depth, breadth and repetition of such projects planned or under construction beyond the limits of their land-locked City?

That's the challenge facing Milwaukee - - both the awareness of the movement of capital and jobs away from the City, and the consequences of that growth.

Senate Bars Waterboarding: The Vote That Should Never Have Been Needed

The US Senate has banned waterboarding, a form of torture that simulates drowning.

That the Senate needed to formally ban the technique is a powerful reason why the November election must be a complete repudiation of the Bush administration.

Soglin, Picketers, Target WMC's Negative Ads

Protestors took to the streets in Madison to picket the headquarters of the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.

A variety of interests, including former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin are shining the light of disclosure on the WMC, which will raise and spend millions to knock incumbent State Supreme Court jurist Louis Butler off the court.

The WMC helped elect Annette Ziegler last year with a multi-million blizzard of "independent expenditure" ads: Madison's protestors seem to be set on making the WMC's role a little more public, especially for WMC members who may not know the extent to which their dues are funding sharp-edged, right-wing political tactics.

If Lake Mead Runs Dry, They Will Come For The Great Lakes Supply

Lake Mead supplies much of the parched UW west with water: if the new predictions about its possible drying-up come true in the near future, there better be a tough Great Lakes Compact in place, or that water will move west.

Waukesha Environmental Group Advocates For Strong Great Lakes compact

The Waukesha Environmental Action League (WEAL), fighting the good fight for conservation from the heart of Waukesha, again lays out the merits of a strong Great Lakes Compact - - this time in an op-ed in the Waukesha Freeman by Steve Schmuki.

The Compact is an eight-state water resource management agreement: Wisconsin will soon consider whether to approve and implement the Compact, and forces in Waukesha County's business community and political leadership want to weaken the Compact.

The op-ed is a response to a previous piece by the Waukesha County Executive, Dan Vrakas, who was arguing for the exact opposite, and, in fact, argued for changes to the pending Compact so radical as to kill it.

I say, advantage WEAL. Thanks to Steven Schmuki for writing it.

Great Lakes Compact Draft Bill To Be Aired In Madison Thursday

I don't have the draft in hand, but the Great Lakes Compact bill will get aired at an informational hearing at 1:30 p.m. at the Capitol.

So we are hours away from learning if the bill is strong on conservation and resource manaagement - - or if opens the floodgates for easy diversions tp extend sprawl throughout southeastern Wisconsin at the expense of lakeshore communities' development and Lake Michigan stewardship.


This release was issued by State Sen. Mark Miller, (D-Madison), whose Environment and Natural Resources Committee will host the hearing:

Senate INFORMATIONAL HEARING Committee on Environment and Natural Resources

The committee will hold an informational hearing onthe following items at the time specified below:Thursday, February 14, 2008 , 1:30 PM, 412 East State Capitol.

Informational Hearing on draft Great Lakes Compact legislationLegislative Council will provide a briefing to the committee regarding the contents of upcoming legislation on the Great Lakes Compact.

Department of Natural Resources staff will be available for questions.Invited testimony only.

A preliminary draft of the legislation will be available prior to the hearing. An amended notice will be issued when the legislation is available for distribution.

Senator Mark Miller, Chair

Milwaukee At The Crossroads

In a piece I wrote for the Madison Capital Times op-ed page, I argue that Milwaukee is at a crossroads.

Will the state and regional planning commission begin to link public spending and decision-making on transportation and water access to Milwaukee's urban priorities, or will there be a focus on suburban growth that keeps legally-land-locked Milwaukee isolated, and relatively less successful?

Gableman Raises Less Money Than Butler: But...

The WMC will raise 25-to-50 times Gableman's paltry $125,000 kitty-to-date if that's what it takes for the state's largest rightwing business front group to unseat incumbent State Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler.

One Wisconsin Now's Simplified Website Has Great Functions

The newly-redesigned website for One Wisconsin Now is a gem.

There are easy buttons for sending letters to the editor, comments to public officials, and a host of additional simplied features: blog links, news links, communications and networking linkages - - the entire proverbial political/media/organizing ball of wax.

Check it out.

(Disclosure: for the umteenth time, I am on a One Wisconsin Now board, but had no role in the website's redesign. That's why it's so good!)

Michael Horne Follows The Golf Interstate Interchange Brouhaha

Michael Horne, at the Milwaukeeworld blog, advances the story of our state's obsession with road-building by reporting about plans to build a special interstate highway interchange for golfing events near Kohler.

That would be used about once every five years.

Regional Economic Planning - - Around Sustainability

Business and government officials in the Washington DC metro area - - and all the way to Northern Maryland to Southern Virginia - - are setting up a regional effort to conduct economic planning around environmental sustainability.

Is that approach on the radar over at The Milwaukee 7?

The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission?

Or are we doomed here to planning agendas that don't even include modern rail transit as adjuncts to highway expansion, for instance?

Five Acres Of Organic Farming Can Provide A Middle-Class Income

If you can plant five acres with organic crops you can create a middle-class income, according to Maryland officials.

I wonder how this up-to-date information would work its way into the land-use studies and other demographic plans and goals out at the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission?

DNR Wants To Give Sprawl Planners Even More Power

According to the Daily Reporter, the state Department of Natural Resources wants to give organizations like SEWRPC (the suburban-leaning southeastern Wisconsin regional planning commission) power to recommend approvals for water extensions to undeveloped areas in the counties for which they plan.

If the state permits an unrepresentative body like SEWRPC to help greenlight water transfers from Lake Michigan water to out-of-basin, undeveloped regions (read: enabled sprawl), the result would the additional, government-imposed-and-sanctioned impoverishment of Milwaukee - - a reckless and discriminatory state government act not seen at the Capitol since the Legislature land-locked Milwaukee more than 50 years ago.

The DNR would have the final say, but the SEWRPC seal-of-approval would give water transfer schemes all the cover that final decision-makers would need to give them the go-ahead.

In our region - - Racine, Kenosha, Walworth, Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington Counties - - SEWRPC is heavily biased already in favor of job, housing, and highway growth in the out-of-Milwaukee suburbs.

It's an agency where the prevailing culture is to do things the way they've always been done - - using a small cadre of consultants, rocking no boats, - - as sprawl eats up much of the region's open space, and even SEWRPC's once-sacrosanct environmental, green corridors.

Goodbye, Kettle Moraine, Pabst Farms, Ruby Farms, as The Road To Sprawlville gets another lane all the way to the Jefferson County line.

SEWRPC recommended spending $6.5 billion to rebuild and add capacity to the area's major highways, including adding eleven miles of lanes to the Marquette Interchange and knocking down scores of homes and businesses in and around Milwaukee.

The state transportation department, which gave SEWRPC a million bucks to write the plan, graciously accepted it, and recently announced that the next, transit-free expenditure of $1.9 billion would rebuild and add a lane from Milwaukee to the Illinois state line.

That's what they call planning in southeastern Wisconsin.

And SEWRPC is finishing up a 'regional' water supply study with a committee whose 32-person, all-white membership is heavily tilted away from Milwaukee.

While each county has three commissioners, the City of Milwaukee, with 625,000 people, and populations larger than any of the other six counties, has none.

So do you think SEWRPC will take into account Milwaukee's predominantly low-income population, and its economic development needs, if the issue is whether suburbs should get more water to expand into their undeveloped areas?

The DNR plan, according to the Daily Reporter, would require regional commissions to consider their existing data and plans to determine whether water transfers are needed - - but in SEWRPC's case, its plans are written piecemeal and are inadequate.

For example, SEWRPC has not written a regional housing plan since 1975. Gerald Ford was President then. The Milwaukee Brewers were seven years away from the their only World Series appearance. A generation ago, and more.

And while SEWRPC advocated on behalf of the highway expansion plan it wrote a few years ago for the state, it completely left transit out of that plan.

And the DNR wants to give this agency more power?

What a ridiculous and dangerous circular approach, because SEWRPC already has signaled over and over again that it has little interest in genuine planning to bring about things Milwaukee needs - - transit, housing options, and related job growth.

Milwaukee began to lose clout and wealth when the state locked it out of further annexations in 1955.

White flight accelerated that trend.

SEWRPC has helped marginalize the City: Now the state wants to boost suburban annexations by making it easier for those communities to get more water - - all of which works to the detriment of the largest city in the state.

That's not insightful planning with a city in mind.

It's planning to keep the city out of sight and mind.

Here's a question:

Will the state and SEWRPC recommend and implement tax sharing, so that the water wealth get distributed throughout the region, and particularly to Milwaukee, the most likely source of water diversions, given the city's water intake and pumping capacities?

I doubt it.

Tax base sharing is not one of the issues being explored by the water study committee.

And let's be honest just this once:

The suburbs are interested in walling themselves off from Milwaukee as the focus on their own growth.

They are not interested in sharing.

State Sen. Mary Lazich, (R-New Berlin) has even called such wealth-sharing programs "extortion," so let's not expect the suburbs to offer anything to Milwaukee except a miniscule premium on top of a water gallonage charge. If even that.

Housing agreements. Transit connections for workers or commuters? Forget it. They've ducked these options for decades.

And what is the state's response"

The Daily Reporter piece lets us know that it is apparently OK with the state if Milwaukee gets left further and further behind as the powers-that-be concoct legislation to make sure that it is the suburbs that are taken care of.

Yes, first thing first.

And the City of Milwaukee? Well, it will come into play relevantly during the water debate in the region if SEWRPC - - a body on which it has no representation - - decides to drain off a little more of its resources and transfer them to the suburbs?

Like what was done with land, homes, businesses and tax-base for the Marquette Interchange project, and which will be repeated in the other highway plan segments for the next 25 years.

This is going too far.

If legislation to approve the pending Great Lakes Compact that will probably be introduced next week for a hurried special session includes this extension of power to bodies like SEWRPC - - power fatal to Milwaukee given these commissions' counties-only structures - - then Milwaukee's Mayor, Common Council County Board and legislative delegation have got to demand that it be removed.

And sseriously think about whether this is a version of the Compact that can be supported if.

Because that's not a Compact. It's a suburban-enabling piece of special interest legislation, and one that completely trashes the notion of stewarding commonly held resources.

Additionally, Milwaukee County supervisors should strongly consider withdrawing their annual contribution - - it's in the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, and is by far the largest of the counties' shares to SEWRPC's operating budget - - if SEWRPC becomes a formal partner in moving water westward.

The Compact is supposed to be a water management agreement among the eight Great Lakes states to further conservation and limit diversions to those absolutely necessary.

And the regional planning commission is supposed to be a collaborative, neutral body, or at least should try to be one, and not continue to define itself as a special-interest adjunct to suburban developers and the road-builders.

Wisconsin officials at the state and local level are constantly looking for ways to subvert the Compact by finding or creating loopholes, principally for Waukesha County suburbs that have overdrawn their wells, yet continue to annex land, pushing development far to the west.

Giving SEWRPC a strong say in whether water should be moved to undeveloped areas - - and calling it planning when the outcome (wink-wink) is so predictable - - is like giving the Tavern League a strong say in whether new bars and restaurants should allow smoking...then calling it public health planning.

Does Highly-Paid Get You High-Quality?

I'm fascinated by the language in the headline on this Wisconsin State Journal story about the 66% proposed increase in pay for the next UW-Madison chancellor:

"Let UW invest in quality leaders."

Is there a correlation between quality and pay?

If there was, then why have there been scores of scandals on Wall Street, at the CEO level of big corporations, and even in professional sports, where highly-paid only meant devious, sneaky, corrupt and felonious.

I'm not saying that's where the UW is headed.

But let's drop the fiction that there has to be a relationship between pay and quality.

Experience, OK.

But quality?

Way too subjective, and often, way too wrong.

France Now Has A Pro-American Leader, Faster Trains And Smoke-Free Dining

Sounds better than ever, mais non?

Let's Highlight Here The Wisconsin Initiative On Climate Change Impacts

Richard Lathrop, co-chair of The Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change (WICCI) left this important information on an early blog post, and I want to put it up as a separate posting so it gets more publicity.

I had urged the WICCI and other state activities aimed at climate change to make sure there were Milwaukee components, and Lathrop, a limnologist at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, is way ahead of me, explaining:

The Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts (WICCI) was created to assess climate change impacts on specific natural resources, ecosystems and regions, as well as industry, agriculture, tourism, and human health in Wisconsin.

An important outcome of these assessments is to develop adaptation strategies that can be implemented by businesses, farmers, public health officials, municipalities, resource managers and other stakeholders.

One of the primary responsibilities of the Science Council of WICCI is to create working groups that will conduct the particular impact assessments on statewide topic areas such as water, forests, wildlife, human health, and tourism.

Working groups are also being created to conduct integrated assessments in particular geographic regions such as Milwaukee and the northern forests.

A “Milwaukee Working Group” is particularly compelling given the region’s economic importance to Wisconsin and the region’s large population. This effort also recognizes that Milwaukee has unique challenges as a dense urban center located on the shores of Lake Michigan.

The formation of a comprehensive working group within WICCI is in the works, led by Dr. Sandra McLellan of the Great Lakes Water Institute at UW-Milwaukee.

The goal will be to look at a full range of potential climate-related impacts on human health, air quality, water quality and quantity, the urban economy, etc.

So far there has been an overwhelmingly positive response from the region’s key leaders in water resource management, urban sustainability, urban planning, the business community, and public health willing to participate in this working group.

In the weeks ahead the Milwaukee Working Group will hopefully take shape where it can be soon launched.

A summary of activities to date will be given by WICCI Science Council Co-Chair John Magnuson as part of a keynote presentation entitled “Identifying and Adapting to Climate Change Impacts in Wisconsin” at the UWM Conference on Climate Change and Sustainable Development being held in Milwaukee on April 24-25.

Richard Lathrop
WICCI Science Council Co-Chair
email: rlathrop@wisc.edu

1,000-Foot Wall Will Greet I-94 Motorists At The Pabst Farms Mall

A 1000-foot screening wall is now proposed for the planned upscale Pabst Farms mall where it will face a $25 million Boutique Interchange off I-94.

This is the improved mall design? Are you kidding?

Who's in charge: The East Berlin Public Works Department?

Here's A Water Diversion Solution: Redo States' Borders

Powerful special interests in Waukesha County trying to undo key cooperative provisions of the pending Great Lakes Compact - - an eight-state agreement to manage Great Lakes water - - are being outdone by their states' rights counterparts in Georgia:

To access more water, drought-stricken Georgia wants to redraw its border with Tennessee to, voila! - - turn a Tennessee lake into Georgia water.

Setting aside its unconstitutionality, and sheer gall, it's instructive to see the lengths to which water-hungry, over-developed parts of the country will go to get their hands on more water.

Rather than focus on sustainable development and conservation.

Out in Waukesha, County Executive Dan Vrakas, leading business interests, and other elected officials are trying to get key language removed from Wisconsin's eventual approval of the Compact - - while calling themselves Compact supporters.

If they succeed, they would it kill the Compact that has to be approved in eight states without major changes, invite litigation from other Great Lakes states and set off a scramble for uncontrolled diversions that would make the Georgians envious.

And maybe get them thinking about a big diversion south down the Mississippi River, then piped east towards Atlanta.

Sen. George McGovern's 2/12 Milwaukee Appearance: A Family Affair

As readers of this blog may recall, I am in my personal life A) the father of Milwaukee 3rd District candidate Sam McGovern-Rowen, and B) the son-in-law of former US Sen. George McGovern.

I'm proud to be known as these folks' relatives. I've been called worse.

And I also was once a candidate, too, (for Madison Mayor), way back in another life, so that is why people say we are a political family, even though it is Sam's campaign this winter that has re-energized that identity.

Most of the time, I am just a humble blogger, shoveling snow in my spare time, playing peek-a-boo with my twin grandsons, and waiting for Opening Day.

Campaigns for families, shall we say, are busy times, and occassionally, with luck, in the midst of the work and hyper multi-tasking, moments arrive that can be memorable, even fun.

And I think George McGovern's Tuesday, 2/12 speech about the issues of the day at a rally for Sam at Turner Hall should be one of those moments.
I can remember when I was a mayoral candidate, my parents had a coffee for me in the house I grew up in out east, with long-time family friends in the living room, and it was an emotional experience.

Later, my Dad flew out to Madison, stood with me in deep snow out at Lot 60, and handed out leaflets as people got off campus buses.

That I can now do much the same for Sam is extremely rewarding: being the parent of a candidate, I discover, generates pride that is overwhelming.

George and Eleanor McGovern also came to Madison for a series of coffees for my campaign (for the record, I lost by 1,018 votes out of 65,000, but who remembers these details?) and again, those were memorable events because of the teamwork, and the love.

I didn't live in Milwaukee in 1972, the year that George won the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, but I am hearing that many of the McGovern volunteers are planning on coming to the Turner Hall event.

That should be a nice reunion.

My wife Susan and I were in Milwaukee for the primary, with our infant son Matt in tow. I remember getting to spend a day campaigning in the area with Leonard Nimoy.

Top that!

Anyway.

I'm happy that George is on Sam's schedule.

Details about the rally are on Sam's campaign website, here.

Major Changes At The Capital Times

Thursday's announced changes at the Capital Times are huge.

The historic daily paper will soon become primarily a digital, online production, with a twice-weekly hard copy.

That leaves the Wisconsin State Journal as the only daily paper in Madison, but also positions the new Cap Times as a news organization that will publish with immediacy.

Given its twice-weekly hard copy editions, and continuing tie-in with the State Journal, the Cap Times will soon be something of a prototype, and one that could deliver instant news and opinion in a way that other media can't, won't...but might.

It is another indication that the future of news is on the Internet.

Not as the sole news and information format or platform, but the one that is growing.

One of its two weekly hard copies will come out on Thursday, this competing directly with Isthmus.

I have loyalties and histories with both these publications. Each is valuable. I hope they both succeed.

The Road To Sprawlville, Chapter XII: Dead End In Brookfield

Seems there's not enough money in Brookfield to get the last half-mile of a road project done - - and really, the amounts in dispute are relatively small - - but you can't help noticing that not far away, you have this underway or on the books:

• $810 million for the Marquette Interchange rebuilding and expansion.


• $1.9 billion for the I-94 North/South rebuilding and expansion.


• $3.8 billion for other regional highway rebuilding and expansion.


• $25 million for the I-94 Boutique Interchange for the Pabst Farms (not built) mall.


• $5 million (give or take) for an I-43 Boutique Interchange near Kohler for golf tournament access every five years.
  

That's where the money is going, folks. Not for transit. Not for local projects that need a relative pittance.

The big bucks are going for what they call in the industry "The Majors," and in southeastern Wisconsin, it's The Road To Sprawlville.

And it will bypass Brookfield as easily as it is leaving Milwaukee behind, too.

Courtesy of the road-builders and their friends in state government.

Gretchen Schuldt Calls Out WisDOT On The Wacky Golfing Interchange

I wrote about it, but Gretchen Schuldt does far better with it.

While Milwaukee Region Shuts Out Minorities, Seattle Leads

Seattle regroups to include its minority populations in its plans, says The New York Times.

Around here, the Milwaukee region is going the other way.

And you wonder why the region is always behind the eight-ball.

Its hyper-segregation, making it one of the less-desirable and slowest growing regions nationally, isn't an accident after all.

It begins with Milwaukee being a landlocked city, via a special, discriminatory state statute ("The Oak Creek Law," so Oak Creek could gain the tax benefits from a Wisconsin energy power plant, along air pollution and all the other sad ironies, 50 years later).

That action by the legislature froze Milwaukee's borders in 1955, stunted the city's growth, and kept the state's largest minority population encapsulated where the job base would decline.

White Flight nationally was gaining strength at that time, leading to the Iron Ring of growing, but segregated suburbs around Milwaukee turned it into a regional policy.

Census figures indicate that patterns of suburban segregation are strong today, but fresh government planning, transportation and water policy are making them ever more permanent.

Additionally, while restrictive covenants in housing deeds to keep out African-Americans and other minorities have been banned, clever local zoning codes that prohibit modest-sized homes, or multi-family, market rate apartments create the same effect:

Upper-income populations that are predominantly Caucasian continue to expand in the suburbs, while lower-income residents, predominantly minority, remain concentrated by in the city.

Add to that A) the seven-county highway reconstruction and expansion plan crafted by the regional planning commission - - where the City of Milwaukee has no vote among 21 commissioners - - and B) pressures to divert Lake Michigan water to many of those highway-enhanced suburbs, and the region's decision-makers are willfully excluding its minority residents from the very areas where growth will accelerate.

And excluded likewise from participation in these substance and process of many critical decisions: the regional planning commission's water advisory committee, for example, has 32 members, all Caucasian.

And, I'd argue, this exclusion and diminuition of minority participation retards the region's appeal, and full growth potential, by its institutional evasion of equity in public resource distribution/

You remember equality? That key part all the due process, equal protection, and life, liberty and property language that anchor our law and democracy?

I have written extensively about these trends for years, including a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sunday Crossroads op-ed piece, here.

Top Ten Reasons To Oppose I-94 Expansion, Again

1000 Friends of Wisconsin's listing of the Top Ten Reasons To Oppose I-94 Expansion south of Milwaukee to Illinois is so good that I decided to post a link to it again.

State, Suburbs Need To Heed Southern Water Court Decision

Wisconsin legislators and the public will get their first look at the proposed Great Lakes Compact implementing bill on Thursday afternoon at 1:30 p.m., at an informational State Capitol hearing.

Details here.

After more than two years of delay, we'll see what legislators, various lobbyists and Department of Natural Resources staffers have come up with.

And while certain special interests have been campaigning for months to weaken the bill so that Waukesha business and municipalities might have snap access to Lake Michigan water - - regardless of the regional and national consequences - - there's a new wrinkle that should give the Compact weakeners pause:

A federal appeals court has just ruled that drought-ravaged and over-developed Atlanta cannot make a side deal to get certain waters when the Federal Government holds the ultimate permission.

That message should not be lost on the City of Waukesha, or State Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and others who have either tried for a side deal, or who might delay the Compact for so long that the feds might tempted to step in and take control of the Great Lakes.

In other words, when you try to set up a sweetheart deal for yourself to access a shared resource - - say, the Great Lakes - - and there is a federal law in place that says certain diversion procedures must be followed in all cases (The Water Resources Development Act of 1986 provides no exceptions to all eight Great Lakes' states governors approving diversions out of the Great Lakes basin) - - it would be foolhearty to try through back-door applications or language tweaks to get water to Waukesha's out-of-basin suburbs.

Or to weaken, or remove altogether, that lynchpin eight-state provision in the pending Great Lakes Compact, as Lazich, the WMC, the Waukesha Chamber of Commerce, the Metropolitan Builders, and even Waukesha County Exec. Dan Vrakas and others have said, in one form or another.

As I written repeatedly on this blog, this is all spelled out in a crucial Wisconsin Attorney General opinion now 14 months old, but which has been ignored by the rest of the media and dismissed by DNR officials.

If those who are out to sandbag the Compact in Wisconsin get their way, they could end up stirring up the other states, and worse, the Congress, which could look at the appeals court ruling and take back more control over the Great Lakes.

That would show Mary Lazich and her states' rights allies in Ohio who are also trying to stall the Compact through an absurd effort to send this seven-year, US and Canadian negotiation back for more drafting that it is the Congress that has the ultimate say in major US water policy planning.
Time for Compact supporters to get serious about passing a good bill for Wisconsin that is also mindful of the risks the other side is taking.

An excellent argument by Steven Schmuki of the Waukesha Environmental Action League, (WEAL), for the Strong Compact is here.

WMC Bemoans Our Courts: Soglin Corrects, With Facts

In this round of Soglin vs. the WMC, "Court Performance," advantage Soglin, since he has the facts.

No Money For Health Care, Domestic Programs? Here's Why

Here's a big number: the Pentagon says next year the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will exceed $685 billion.

More than $51 billion a month.

Special Interests Want Another Boutique Interstate Interchange

First it was Pabst Farms' developers partnering with the ever-compliant state Department of Transportation to throw $25 million into a brand-spanking new, full-boat I-94 "Diamond" interchange.

That's so shoppers could get themselves into the parking lots at a proposed upscale shopping mall in Western Waukesha County, with the developers paying just 7% of the cost, and hometown Oconomowoc less than 2%.

Sweet!

Now the golf tournament people up in Sheboygan County want a special I-43 interchange near Kohler to get drivers to big pro tournament events held there - - oh, about every five years or so.

Seems too many people were using State Highway 57 to get there.

Imagine: drivers using a state highway!

We can't have that: so the proposed solution to once-every-fives' congestion is the construction of a duplicative, $5 millin-or-more Interstate interchange instead.

Looking at if from the transportation department's perspective:

What's $5 million when just down the road in the Milwaukee area, you've penciled in $6.5 billion is penciled for the region's highway improvement and expansion plan.

Note I didn't say "freeway," as surely we all know now that freeways ain't free, and unless we begin levying tolls, the gas tax is going to have to go up about 20 cents per gallon to pay for the plan.

The $1.9 billion I-94 North/South leg from Milwaukee to the Illinois State line is set to begin later this year, through 2012.

Experts say the special interchange for golf tournament attendees would be a development killer in the area, but with Kohler Co. executives putting up half the study costs, what do you think the outcome will be?

(Could be a new Wisconsin state motto emerging here: "Wisconsin: We'll Build You A Boutique Highway."

For many millions of dollars less, fleets of TV-equipped, beverage-laden luxury shuttle buses to these occassional events could be run to Kohler from destinations like Milwaukee, but transportation spenders in this area are biased towards getting single-vehicle drivers everything and anything, regardless of the cost to the taxpayers.

In other words, bank on this one being par for the course.

(Thanks to Michael Horne for tipping me off about this.)

Polarized Parties Offering Real Choices In The Post-Bush Era

It's easy to play pundit after Super Tuesday: the parties are as factionalized as is the general electorate.

In the GOP, conservatives disagree on which candidate is acceptably, certifiably conservative.

In the end, McCain will get the nomination over a fading Romney, and people like Rush Limbaugh and Charlie Sykes will have to decide if a conservative who is right and Right 80% of the time is right enough to obtain their support.

Let's hope that enough true believers on the GOP side sit it out, because the Democrats are heading for a nomination even more deeply divided.

Obama and Hillary Clinton could come into the convention far short of a majority.

And even if a deal is done to select one over the other on the convention's floor and in the proverbial back rooms (many of which are now virtual), the hard feelings and disappointments in the base, particulary with Obama's army of first-time or passionate voters, will make the Democratic party hard to effectively unify before the election.

So the 2008 campaigns reflects the deep divisions in the country, too.

A final thought:

I see each of the three most probable nominees with special advantages;

McCain can present himself as a centrist, the non-Limbaugh.

Clinton has tremendous appeal among female voters and Democratic party traditionalists who feel she has earned the right to be the standard-bearer.

Obama appeals to younger voters and racks up big majorities in African-American communities.

Somewhere among that mix, once vice-presidential selections are made, is a winner, and if the country is lucky, we'll choose a Democrat who can extricate us from the mess - - war, deficits, recession, the world's disdain - - left behind after the eight catastrophic years of Bush-Cheney.

Racine Does Not Want To Be Waukesha's Toilet

I've been writing for some time about water diversion planning by Waukesha that could include discharging some of its wastewater down the Root River.

One example here, just for the record.

Now some Racine politicos are realizing that if the procedures and standards for that wastewater's discharge and treatment aren't specified, Racine could become Waukesha's toilet, as State Rep. Cory Mason, (D-Racine) puts it.

This is one of the many issues that will play itself out as the Great Lakes Compact hits the legislature for debate.

And it illustrates why people who look at communities across the Lake Michigan boundary that are seeking water, and who say, 'just give them water,' have to grasp that their are huge downstream and region-wide issues that have to addressed transparently before the Compact is approved, and before any diversion application gets approved, too.

Here is a sample of the unresolved water quality and quantity questions:

• Will the Compact specify standards for returned diverted Great Lakes water?
• Are current treatment and dischargestandards adequate?
• Would the Department of Natural Resources' current standards protect its fish hatchery not far from Lake Michigan, and the Root River's value as an angling and recreational locale?
• Does a discharge plan meet the Compact's return flow mandate if Waukesha is permitted to return only a portion of the 24 million gallons daily it wants to move in from Lake Michigan, with the rest being flushed away forever down the Fox River to the Mississippi River and finally to the Gulf of Mexico?
• With so much remedial work ongoing in the Meonomonee and KK Rivers and watersheds, is this the time to take a step backwards on the Root?
• Will the other Great Lakes states accept that partial return, or a partial return that meets relatively low water quality standards.
• Will the DNR try to call the diversion a withdrawal, and not a diversion, to help Waukesha escape rules and standards that apply to diversions under the Compact and existing Federal law?
• Can the shoreline and river bank, along with nearby basements, survive unscathed during major rain events if there is a fresh downstream torrent of new wastewater from upstream Waukesha?

Rep. Mason is right to raise these questions before the a Compact bill, delayed by Waukesha County business and political leaders for about two years, finally moves into legislative debate.

Illinois and Minnesota have approved the Compact: Wisconsin is coming to the debate later than the others seven Great Lakes states, and the same forces that have delayed it want to remove diversion approval procedures that would weaken the Compact and cause the other states to walk away from has been nearly seven years of collaborative negotiation and work.

Counting on the DNR to be the outspoken champion of a strong Compact, in the grand Wisconsin environmental tradition?

The DNR has said that it does not necessarily feel bound by existing diversion law , so people will have to hold its feet to the fire if the agency is to be a strong advocate for Wisconsin's waters it manages under the State Constitution's Public Trust Doctrine.

Rush Limbaugh, Failing Kingmaker

Every primary US Sen. John McCain, (R-AZ) wins is another loss of sorts for Rush Limbaugh, who, along with many other righty talkers, is trying to salvage the fading candidacy of Mitt Romney.

If McCain wins the GOP nomination in the face of the Limbaugh Machine, the talkers will be weakened - - but will come away with an even more solid base of far, far, far rightwing listeners who believe that McCain is some sort of ideological traitor.

That means a smaller audience for some talkers than they enjoy today - - devoid of moderates - - but with enough true believers to talk among themselves and keep advertisers happy.

Bush To Leave Country With Huge Debt

President George W. Bush wants to drown taxpayers in red ink as he leaves office.

It'll take a Democratic President and Congress to set things right again.

Remember the Clinton administration, and the record surpluses it left behind?

Let's see how fast our Republican friends weigh in with comments that claim Bush is somehow a better budget manager than was Bill Clinton.

The Political Environment Enters Year Two, Hits The FM Airwaves

I feel pretty good about the blog after a year.

It's more work than I anticipated, but I'm happy that the issues I've tried to emphasize - - the Great Lakes Compact, the lack of fair transit in the region, exclusionary planning, suburban sprawl (in my continuing series, "The Road To Sprawlville")- - are gaining traction on the Internet, and in media in Wisconsin.

Usually the tone and content of most of the discourse on or surrounding the blog has been useful, so I'll stay with it and see what happens.

Coincidentally, Jane Hampden of WUWM-FM, 89.7, had taped a "Lake Effect" segment with me last week about blogging, the environment, and family politics (my son Sam is running for Milwaukee 3rd District Alderman), and that show aired the morning of the 4th.

A blog's birthday present.

Here is an archived link.

The program repeats at 11 p.m. the rest of the week, too.

State Climate Change Response Getting Organized

Wisconsin's climate change initiatives are getting organized, with a focus on coordination in the agricultural, industrial and university sectors.

A website about the iniative collaboration is here.

I've said earlier that Milwaukee, urban interests and city workforce goals have got to be included.

Mad Magazine, Emulating The Onion, Discovers Global Warming

Mad Magazine has figured out a unique way to blend environmentalism and commentary on George W. Bush.

Details here.

Tavern League, Special Interests Killing Smoking Ban

Wisconsinites want it, writes the Madison Capital Times' Judith Davidoff, but special interests are going to keep us what Gov. Doyle has correctly says will be our new identity:
Ashtray Of The Midwest.

When Regional Non-Cooperation And Sabotage Masquerade As Regional Cooperation

Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas raised Double-Speak to a new high in these parts, saying that he supports the Great Lakes Compact...but sides with the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce which calls for gutting the Compact of its underlying principle:

All eight Great Lakes states must approve diverting water outside of the boundaries of the Great Lakes basin.

That requirement is also embedded in the applicable federal law passed in 1986 - - The Water Resources Development (WRDA) - -because the Great Lakes belong to all the eight Great Lakes states (and two Canadian provinces), so a cooperative agreement assures stewardship of this unique fresh water resource through ral management - - by unanimity.

Vrakas, the Chamber, the Metropolitan Builders Association, the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), State Sen. Mary Lazich, (R-New Berlin) and other Compact obstructionists know this full well:

Trying to delete such a major provision would void Wisconsin's approval, preventing the unanimous ratifications among the states needed to send the Compact to Congress for its adoption - - and after wrecking the Compact's planning dating to 2001, the gutting would open the Great Lakes to reckless and unmanaged drawdowns.

More information about the WMC's role, here.

Quite the risk in this era of water awareness and shortages, eh?

Saying, as does Vrakas, that he supports the Compact minus the eight-state diversion approval procedure is the opposite of supporting the Compact.

It is a knowing and willful effort to undermine, even destroy, the Compact, a spinning, headline-hunting passive-aggressive feint, but devoid of content, credibility and courage.

It is also designed to pressure the Doyle adminitration to support a Compact too weak to be accepted by his gubernatorial counterparts - - but to make him the bad guy in Waukesha County if he won't.

This is how cynical politics is orchestrated by Waukesha game players.

Their ideologically-based sabotage extends even to a willingness to undercut their own efforts to win water deals with Milwaukee.

If Waukesha County leaders try this end-run around the law and the heart of the Compact (following two 2006 secret failed efforts), growing anti-diversion positioning in Milwaukee and across the Great Lakes will accelerate.

More and more, I believe the ultimate goal of certain Waukesha political and business states', us-firsters/states' rights conservatives is the side-tracking or death altogetherof the Compact (I've said this before), followed by litigation to nullify WRDA - - an act of imperious and self-defeating selfishness.

The fallback plan is prodding the regional planning commission, (SEWRPC), to createa new regional authority to distribute water across Waukesha County to its outer bounaries through a Compact loophole.

I Discuss Blogging, Politics on WUWM-FM, 10 A.M. Monday, 2/4

Jane Hampden is running a series on Wisconsin bloggers on "Lake Effect," her 10 A.M. program on 89.7 WUWM-FM.

I'm her Monday morning guest.

Again - - Why Density, The Opposite Of Sprawl, Is A Solid Environmental Path

A Michigan blogger again notes our polar US planning opposites - - density vs. sprawl - - with their differing effects on environmental sustainability.

But with a twist: the European example, perhaps anathema here, but a model worth studying.

One Wisconsin Now Website Gets Super Upgrade

The website of the statewide progressive organization One Wisconsin Now has had a tremendous reconstruction - - better design, upgraded features, easier access.

The site is now even a more required stop at least daily by Internet news seekers, bloggers, political organizers, media and other opinion-makers.

(Disclosure: I am on the One Wisconsin Now board, but did not participate in the site's redesign, so I am seeing it for the first time this morning.)

Another Dirty Air Alert, Sunday, For Entire State

Remember as you read these alarmingly repetitive alerts about bad quality air in Wisconsin that the state has petitioned the US Environmental Protection Agency to weaken air quality standards in southeastern Wisconsin - - where the largest share of industrial and vehicle emissions are produced.

Here is the text of Sunday's all-state alert:

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is issuing an Air Quality Watch for Particle Pollution effective Sunday, February 03, 2008 12:01:00 AM through Sunday, February 03, 2008 11:59:59 PM for all counties.

The watch is being issued because of the forecast for elevated levels of fine particles in the air. Fine particle pollution is composed of microscopic dust, soot, liquid droplets and smoke particles that are 2.5 microns or smaller.

These fine particles come primarily from combustion sources, such as power plants, factories and other industrial sources, vehicle exhaust, and outdoor fires.

The Air Quality Index is forecast to reach the orange level, which is considered unhealthy for people in sensitive groups.


People in those sensitive groups include those with heart or lung disease, asthma, older adults and children. When an air quality watch is issued, people in those groups are advised to reschedule or cut back on strenuous activities during the watch period..

People with lung diseases such as asthma and bronchitis and heart disease should pay attention to cardiac symptoms like chest pain and shortness of breath or respiratory symptoms like coughing, wheezing and discomfort when taking a breath, and consult with their physician if they have concerns or are experiencing symptoms.

Fine particle pollution deposits itself deep into the lungs and cannot easily be exhaled. People who are at risk are particularly vulnerable after several days of high particle pollution exposure.

To receive air quality advisories by e-mail, visit http://dnr.wi.gov/air/newsletters/.

There are several actions the public can take to reduce their contributions to this regional air quality problem.

Reduce driving when possible and don't leave vehicle engines idling.

Postpone activities that use small gasoline and diesel engines.

Minimize outdoor wood fires.

Conserve electricity.

For more ideas on how you can reduce your emissions today and every day visit: Do a little, save a lot!

For more information:

Federal interagency air quality web site, for information on the Air Quality Index and nationwide air quality forecasts and air quality conditions, http://airnow.gov/

DNR's statewide air quality monitoring web page, http://dnrmaps.wisconsin.gov/wisards

for local DNR air management program co
ntacts, http://dnr.wi.gov/air/about/regions.htm

California Leads In Alternative Energy Investment

California is leading the way in alternative energy investment, far outstripping Wisconsin.

Granted it's a larger state, and let's acknowledge Wisconsin's fledgling efforts - - outlined recently by Gov. Jim Doyle in his State of the State speech, here.

And there is more evidence of collaboration among university, business and agricultural interests, through a climate change initiative, here.

But Wisconsin could be a lot more aggressive, establishing something approaching a state-level Marshall Plan, focusing on its northern forest resources, agricultural and water availability, academic leadership - - and here is the key, which seems to be missing in all the talk, planning, activity and promising:

Milwaukee's industrial and employment base.

That's how you make Wisconsin a national leader in the alternative energy revolution, and a destination for national capital looking for a home and a good return on itself - - by making sure there is a jobs' component in the work that means something to the state, its workers and job-seekers, too.

Wisconsin could set start, and then implement, an historic merger and working partnership amont the state's urban and rural sectors, its academic staffs and blue-collar workers, its farm production and industrial output.

It's time to think bigger about all the green there is in Green, and about the good that can be done for individuals and the state's economy at the same time.

It's time to Green Up the Wisconsin Idea, and the state's identity, so the next media splash about alternative energy initiatives has nothing to do with California, but instead has Wisconsin focus and a Milwaukee dateline.

More Relics From Waukesha's Watery Past

There was a time that Waukesha had dozens of springs and water bottling operations, a far cry from today's realities of dried up springs, overdrawn wells and impending applications to pipe in replacement water from Lake Michigan

A developer has found a supply of old bottles from that era; today, bottled water usually comes by the truck load from Michigan, and as for "springs" in Waukesha, the best known is the Country Springs Hotel and conference center west of the city on I-94, complete with water park.

Environmental Web Experts Rate Politicians Worldwide

The entertaining and informative website Grist.org lists its top 15 Green politicians worldwide, and an interesting mix from US makes its way into the group.

Push For More Independent DNR Gathering Steam

Conservation and some environmental groups are pushing hard for reform in the selection of the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources.

This time around, the effort to roll back what began in the Tommy Thompson era - - Secretary by gubernatorial appointment, not by the Natural Resources board - - could pass both houses of the Legislature.

Waukesha Likes What It Hears About The Compact Bill

Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson says he likes what he is hearing about the bill being prepared to have Wisconsin endorse and implement the Great Lakes Compact.

That means Waukesha and other Wisconsin communities will probably be allowed to use diverted water to fuel development in land it plans to annex.

While that sounds good for Waukesha, the homebuilders and other business interests, it could mean that without strong conservation measures and a commitment to planning that includes housing, transit and land-use protections, the Compact becomes a tool to enable sprawl at the expense of Milwaukee's land-locked city population.

We'll see if any of that big-picture, inclusionary vision is in the Compact.

Urban Agriculture Advocates To Convene In Milwaukee, 2/28-3/1

Milwaukee will be centerstage for a national meeting of activists on the cutting edge of an important and growing movement nationally: urban agriculture.

Details of the conference, planned for February 28-March 1 at the Hilton downtown, are here.

And a session of the 4th St. Forum, scheduled for noon at Turners on Friday, February 29th, will focus on the issue, too. Preliminary details are here.

Urban agriculture makes sense on so many fronts, summarized below (a great site is provided through Growing Power, long a local leader in hands-on projects and education in the field:

• Locally-grown food is fresher.


• Consumers can support area producers, or get involved in growing and sharing their own food through neighborhood gardens and coops.


• Locally or homegrown foods are more likely to be organically-produced.


• Energy is saved through minimized transportation and shipping expenses.


• Green planning and participation is infused throughout the community, from individual action to neighborhood action to governmental support. Absolutely no one loses, and everyone wins.

It's significant for Milwaukee that that this national conference, with local support, is being held here.

Here is a jpg of the conference flyer. Pass it along.

More on this topic to follow.

Feds Unsatisfied With State's I-94 Plan

Critics of the state transportation department's plan to rebuild and widen I-94 from Milwaukee to the Illinois state line have a new ally: the US Environmental Protection Agency, according to information posted on Gretchen Schuldt's blog.

In its rush to get the $1.9 billion highway plan into the ground beginning this year, it seems the state has overlooked critical air pollution and wetlands standards.

Imagine: George Bush's EPA is our environmental watchdog!

The City of Milwaukee is on record against the plan because it leaves out any transit components, and several organizations had filed formal comments with the project's planners about land use and civil rights deficiences.

Let's see...pollution and wetlands problems (environment), transit and cost issues (urbanity), civil rights shortcomings (basic equality): sounds like a trifecta of flaws that are the very opposite of publicly-spirited planning.

Is there any justification for such half-baked work on what will be the most expensive road project in state history, and perhaps the most expensive public works project since statehood?

Small Business Times Editor Continues Dialogue About Milwaukee

Steve Jagler, editor of The Small Business Times, continues the discussion about Milwaukee's business climate that he began a few weeks ago - - and which led to his condemnation by some local talk radio hosts.

Jagler's piece, like his earlier commentary and reporting, is filled with good data and examples of where Milwaukee's business base is expanding and diversifying - - undercutting the negative reviews offered by the talkers and corporate CEO's whose Milwaukee bad-mouthing got Jagler correctly annoyed in the first place.

Definitely worth a read.

When The Great Lakes Compact Bill Is Rolled Out, Look For The WMC's Fingerprints

Legislators are being pressured on all sides of the Great Lakes water debate as they put their finishing touches on legislation that would have Wisconsin approve and implement the Great Lakes Compact.

The Compact is a pending eight-state agreement designed to improve water conservation in the Great Lakes region, and also to produce first-ever rules and standards for the diversion of water to communities outside of the Great Lakes basin.

With water supply now a hot issue worldwide, all eyes will be on Wisconsin when the legislation arrives, because our state has a long favorable environmental history, yet is the only one of the Great Lakes states without a Compact bill adopted or debated.

For more than two years, efforts to get the Compact introduced for debate in our legislatures have been thwarted, principally by business interests in Waukesha County who want easier access to Lake Michigan diverted water than would be permitted by the Compact, as well as by existing laws.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce was part of that resistance.

Speaking for the state's largest businesses, the WMC sent the legislature last year an eleven-page critique of a first draft of legislation to approve and implement the pending Great Lakes Compact.

The WMC called for the gutting of that draft, which never moved into the legislature for a debate.

Too restrictive, said the WMC. Too many new hoops to jump through. Too much regionalism.

And as the Compact rollout approaches, there again has been a concerted effort behind-the-scenes these at the Capitol recently to weaken yet another draft Compact bill - - and again, sources say, the WMC is carrying water for the crowd that wants a watered-down Compact for Wisconsin.

When the bill comes out in a few days, it will be interesting to see how many times the WMC's "delete" key got hit as final trade-offs' were made and were committed to paper.

Will Wisconsin debate a bill that genuinely seeks to approve this historic, Great Lakes management agreement - - a document and plan already compromised substantially during four years of negotiation and containing major loopholes permitting bottled water exports and some easing of Great Lakes diversions - - or will Wisconsin go further down the WMC's path to an even weaker bill?

Here's that link again to the WMC's arguments. Bookmark it and put it side-by-side when the Compact bill sees the light of day.