Whaaaaat? Scott Walker accused of breaking fund-raising law?

The New York Times reports that Walker and three other 2016 presidential hopefuls' unofficial campaigns are already running afoul of fundraising laws:

 ...two leading campaign finance groups charged on Tuesday that the spread of these unofficial campaigns in recent months was not only deceptive, but also illegal.

The groups, the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21, filed formal complaints with the Federal Election Commission against four undeclared candidates for president: Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Rick Santorum, all Republicans; and Martin O’Malley, a Democrat...

...those four have been particularly aggressive in appearing at fund-raisers, visiting crucial states like Iowa and New Hampshire, hiring staff members and setting up offices, and positioning themselves for a possible bid, Paul S. Ryan, a lawyer for the center, said in an interview. 

Not Walker. I'm sure he learned his lesson.

Who do you think he is - - Kelly Rindfleisch?

Walker's discrimination flip-flop

It seems that presidential wanderlust brings out the worst in some Wisconsin GOP governors, current and past. (Lee Sherman Dreyfus, excepted).

Remember when former Gov. Tommy Thompson said during his fifteen minutes of presidential politicking in 2007 that employers should be allowed to fire employees over sexual orientation - - then had to recant that position, because, among other things, it conflicted with Wisconsin law he had enforced as Governor?

But said the question confused him because he was distracted by a bad hearing aid battery and the need for a bathroom break?

True story.

Now it's Scott Walker's turn for a flip-flop on the issue - - what is it with Wisconsin's GOP leaders, anyway? - - though in Walker's case, he's moving backwards towards enabling sexual orientation discrimination.

Walker used to tout Wisconsin's first-in-the-nation legal protections for gay and lesbian workplace rights - - the protections which Thompson forgot - -  when endorsing Wisconsin law to oh-so-cleverly "balance" out Wisconsin's marriage equality ban, Salon.com notes:

Walker, that erstwhile champion of a “healthy balance” — a little inequality here, a little equality there — is now lending his support to Indiana’s discriminatory law. Asked for the governor’s position on the measure, Walker press secretary AshLee Strong told CNN on Sunday, “As a matter of principle, Gov. Walker believes in broad religious freedom and the right for Americans to exercise their religion and act on their conscience.”

In other words, marriage discrimination, OK - - workplace discrimination, No - - even-steven, let's move on.

But now through his calculated, pandering silence I wrote about yesterday, Walker is giving cover to Indiana's ugly step backwards to help out fellow right-wing ideologue Mike Pence, the Hoosier state Governor.

Walker should be forced to say if he'd sign an Indiana-style law and overturn nearly 35 years of inclusive, fair-minded, modern Wisconsin practice.

UW staff cuts, a/k/a Walker's WI 'Idea," expand to more campuses

The historical Wisconsin Idea was the application of knowledge for the greater good - - "sifting and winnowing" to get to the truth and its public benefits.

Walker's still-not-corrected Wisconsin Idea, or "drafting error," [Sic] attacks the original, cuts the UW schools' budgets, and dumbs-down the notion of searching science - - so now four of the campuses are responding by offering buyouts to staff who will take their knowledge, experience and productivity elsewherein response to his proposed $300 million in cuts, program deletions, purchasing reductions, and more.

The original Wisconsin Idea was supposed to benefit Wisconsin.

Walker's perverse rewrite will benefit other states.

On, Wisconsin?  Nope. On, Minnesota, Iowa, Stanford, Yale, etc.

Stalled Waukesha water plan review hitting fifth anniversary

Wednesday, April 8th, is the five-year anniversary of the Waukesha Common Council's adoption of the Waukesha Water Utility's application for a precedent-setting diversion of Lake Michigan water out of the Great Lakes Basin.

But rein in your optimism if you think the application's implementation after all that time is just around the corner.

Though the city is facing a June, 2018 court-approved deadline to provide customers with a cleaner water supply, delays and missed deadlines - - accompanied by inaccurate progress estimates - - have pushed that projected compliance date to the summer of 2020, and there is no "plan B," according to a City of Waukesha document which The Journal Sentinel prompted and cited:

Waukesha will be unable to comply with a court-ordered deadline of June 2018 to provide radium-safe water to its customers and will ask for an extension of at least two additional years, city officials concede in a memo prepared in response to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel inquiry.

Back to the history.

The application was forwarded in the spring of 2010 by Waukesha officials to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, (an agency dedicated website, here), for the beginning of its detailed review, but the application and documentation have needed so many revisions that even Scott Walker's laissez-faire DNR has yet to finish its review.

If, and more likely, when the DNR says the application is up to snuff, it becomes the agency and the State of Wisconsin's job to sell it across the Great Lakes region and navigate hurdles that will include:

* Public hearings and comment periods likely to prompt more revisions:

* Reviews in the other seven Great Lakes states; unanimous approval of an application for a diversion of water outside of the Great Lakes basin under a two-nation legal Compact is required before a diversion can begin.

* Convincing those other states that Waukesha's intention to send water beyond its current boundaries to undeveloped areas, and to nearby municipalities with no known water shortages or diversion applications of their own - - what I have called the application's weakest link - - can be allowed under the Compact agreement, principally a water conservation and management document.

* Consultation that agreement on an advisory basis with two Canadian provinces and First Nation tribes there because the US and Canada have combined management responsibilities over all five Great Lakes.

Remember that a legally-simpler application for a diversion of an amount of water smaller than what Waukesha is seeking ran into harsh, advisory criticism several years ago from several of the other states, and from environmental organizations with institutional credibility and expertise which raised substantive concerns.

Wisconsin on Waukesha's behalf should expect no less.

Here is some of that history.

Litigation is a possibility, either in Wisconsin, or elsewhere. Litigation could potentially add years to a final diversion decision and also add risk to the viability of the Compact agreement, which, for now, guarantees that water cannot be moved out of the Great Lakes basin to thirsty jurisdictions beyond a county whose borders, like Waukesha's, touches the basin boundary.

So keep that all in mind, with this reminder, and some highlights:

June 9, 2010: 

State officials on Tuesday returned Waukesha’s application to buy Lake Michigan water, saying the city has not exhausted its studies of alternative water sources.

April 8, 2010: 

The Waukesha Common Council placed the city's search for a radium-free water supply into the hands of Wisconsin and the other seven Great Lakes states on Thursday when it agreed to ask those states for permission to buy Lake Michigan water.

January 29, 2010:

Waukesha Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak said the DNR has agreed to work with the city's proposed timetable to move the application through the approval process by the end of the year....

If the city completes the impact study by June, Duchniak and Nelson said they are optimistic of gaining Wisconsin's permission for a diversion by July.

May 21, 2009: 

...Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson confirmed that Waukesha will forward a diversion application by the end of this year...

April 26, 2008: 

...in its two confidential applications for Lake Michigan made to Gov. Jim Doyle in 2006, Waukesha sought 24 million gallons daily, suggesting that it expects its population to increase along with its total water needs.

Six ex-DNR Secretaries oppose Walker power grab

Six former Secretaries of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources have signed a public statement opposing Scott Walker's surprise budget initiative to fundamentally remake the department's citizen policy oversight board into an advisory body.

That would vest more power over DNR policies and programs in the Governor's "chamber of commerce mentality," political appointees who run the agency.

The letter was released by the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, (WWF). I will post the text below.

Here is the WWF release:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

                              Wisconsin Wildlife Federation

April 2, 2015

Contact: George Meyer, Executive Director, 608-616-5545

All Former DNR Secretaries Endorse Current Authority for the Natural Resource Board 

Columbus: In an unprecedented letter of unity, all six former living DNR Secretaries endorsed that the Natural Resources Board should retain its current authority over the Department of Natural Resources. The former Secretaries careers span 36 years of leadership from 1975 through 2011 and represent Secretaries that served under both Republican and Democratic Governors and served as both Board appointed and Governor appointed Secretaries. The Secretaries are Anthony Earl (also a former Governor), Bruce Braun (Deputy Secretary under the late Secretary Buzz Besadny), George Meyer, Darrell Bazzell, Scott Hassett and Matt Frank. The letter was sent to the Chairs of the Joint Finance Committee:

Dear Senator Darling and Representative Nygren:

The state budget that is presently before the Joint Finance Committee proposes to change state law by removing the decision-making authority of the Natural Resources Board and making it solely advisory to the Department of Natural Resources Secretary.

The below signed individuals served as Secretaries of the Department of Natural Resources from 1975 until 2011 (36 years). The group includes Secretaries that served in Republican and Democratic Administrations and as Board-appointed and Governor-appointed Secretaries. We have worked very closely for and with the Natural Resources Board over those years and have direct first-hand knowledge of its operations and value.

We all agree that the Natural Resources Board should be retained as the decision-making body for the Department of Natural Resources. As presently constituted the Board provides immeasurable value for Wisconsin citizens and the natural resources of the state.

The Board provides an extremely valuable function as a major gateway for average citizens to directly impact all forms of natural resource management. This is done through citizen appearances at the monthly Natural Resources Board meetings and through the thousands of individual citizen communications that Board members receive each year and bring to bear in their decision-making process. 

Secondly, we all have benefited from having the direct input from the highly respected conservationists that have served on the Board during our tenures. Natural resource decision-making is often complex and controversial and we found it very valuable to have the ideas and direction of these individuals in making decisions. The Board as decision-makers brings the perspective of average citizens to the table and is valuable in molding agency decisions to be less bureaucratic and workable for the average citizen.

It has been set forth by some that removing the Natural Resources Board as the decision-making body will increase accountability for agency decisions for Wisconsin citizens. In fact, having the open process of monthly meetings of the Natural Resources Board as a decision-making body where average citizens can comment and bring forth any issue regarding the agency problems is a far higher level of accountability for Wisconsin citizens.

Lastly, we believe that if the Natural Resources Board is changed to an advisory body, the state will lose the high level of individuals that have historically served on the Board and that their “advice” will be easily dismissed at the discretion of the Secretary.

Sincerely yours,

Anthony S. Earl                                   Bruce Braun                                George Meyer

 DNR Secretary                   Deputy Secretary to C.D. Besadny             DNR Secretary

   1975-1982                                          1982-1993                                     1993-2001

 Darrell Bazzell                                     Scott Hassett                                 Matt Frank 

 DNR Secretary                                    DNR Secretary                            DNR Secretary

   2001-2003                                            2003-2007                                   2007-2011

Barrett strong vs. Indiana bias law; Walker ducks

Proud of our Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett for his solid public statement against the Indiana 'free-to-discriminate' law roiling the nation. Barrett knows true March Madness when he sees it, as he said in a Journal Sentinel op-ed:

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed legislation that invites discrimination based on the discriminator's religious beliefs. State law there explicitly sides with religious extremists over the civil rights of gays, lesbians or others who do not embrace the religious views of those empowered to discriminate... 

Other states are considering Indiana-style discrimination justified on religious grounds. Arkansas appears close to enacting a similar law. Wisconsin would be wrong to follow. 

Our state should be more welcoming to people whose race, sexuality or religion differs from the majority. That is good for business, and, far more important, it is the just thing to do.

Further embarrassed by our part-time Governor and full-time presidentially-politicking-and-pandering Scott Walker, who ducked the obvious question and all its moral and leadership implications:  

On Indiana's new conscience law, which critics say would allow businesses to discriminate against gay and lesbian people, among others, on religious grounds, Walker said he was not aware of any move to follow suit in Wisconsin but declined to say whether he would sign such a measure if it did.

Maybe Walker's got Florida on his mind?

His feigned disinterest reminds me of what he had to say about the 'right-to-work' law he didn't have any interest in before he recently and enthusiastically signed it:

"From our standpoint, it's never going to get to me," said Walker... "It's not going to get to my desk. I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure it isn't there."

And ducked questions about why he'd 'changed his mind.'   

Walker's spokeswoman said he would sign it...Walker walked past reporters, declining to answer questions, at a National Governors Association meeting Friday in Washington.

Sierra Club is right: repeal sweetheart WI iron mining bill

This is exactly correct. And the Legislature should also repeal that equally-offensive and insider-driven companion bill that closed for the mining company's benefit a lot of forest land near the now-abandoned project site.

Elizabeth.Ward@sierraclub.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                                                                              March 30, 2015

Contact:     Dave Blouin, Sierra Club Mining Committee Chair (608) 220-4040  

                   Elizabeth Ward, Sierra Club Conservation Programs Coordinator (608) 256-0565

Sierra Club Calls for Repeal of GTac’s Iron Mining Law  

                                                                                                                                                                                

Madison:        The Sierra Club today renewed its call on the Wisconsin Legislature to repeal 2013 Act 1, the comprehensive gutting of environmental protections written by Gogebic Taconite to enable its now-abandoned mine proposal.  2013 Act 1, the ferrous or iron mining law, should be repealed in its entirety since the company is not pursuing permits.

The iron mining law (state statutes Chapter 295, Subchapter III) is based entirely on the scientific falsehood that iron mining cannot cause acid mine drainage caused by the presence of sulfide minerals. Numerous independent geologic studies have proven that there are significant quantities of sulfide minerals in the Penokees at the proposed Gogebic Taconite (GTac) mine site.  This fact proves that the reductions of environmental protections along with severe limits on the public’s right to participate and challenge permits were unjustified.    

“GTac has abandoned its proposal after demanding certainty in permitting that only this law could give it.  That fact gives the legislature a rare opportunity to fix the huge mistake it made when it approved such damaging legislation based on false information.  GTac lied to the public and the legislature to get its way and made a lot of promises it couldn’t keep.  Let’s fix this law now before the next fly-by-night company shows up.” said Dave Blouin, John Muir Chapter Mining Committee Chair

The ferrous mining law was overwhelming opposed at each public hearing in the legislature by thousands of state residents. More than 75 statewide, local and national conservation and environmental organizations including the Sierra Club, Wisconsin Resources Protection Council, Trout Unlimited, the Wisconsin Association of Lakes, the Izaak Walton League of Wisconsin, the River Alliance of Wisconsin, the Penokee Hills Education Project, the Mining Impact Coalition of Wisconsin, Clean Wisconsin, the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters and the Natural Resources Defense Council opposed the legislation.   Polling showed that the law was opposed by a majority of state residents.

The ferrous mining law established broad and comprehensive reductions in environmental protections and citizen involvement to enable the proposal.  Amongst the most egregious, is the fact that the law established that the destruction of wetlands through mining, and for dumping wastes into, was presumed necessary. The law also broadly reduced protections for lakes, streams, groundwater, and air. Repealing 2013 Act 1 would have no effect on regulation of future iron mining as it would reestablish protections and regulation of iron mining that were in the current metallic mining law.  That law was crafted and intended to regulate iron mining when it was originally approved by the legislature.   

###

Founded in 1892 by John Muir, the Sierra Club is America’s oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. The Sierra Club’s mission is to explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth.  The Sierra Club – John Muir Chapter is made up of 15,000 members and supporters working to promote clean energy and protect water resources in Wisconsin.

Walker could step aside after his budget for full-time campaign

Just a hunch, but after reading this interesting Politico.com profile which fleshes out Walker's heightened commitment to campaigning, and understanding that his major primary rival Jeb Bush can put in as many hours a day campaigning as he wants, I wouldn't be surprised to see Walker announce he'd heard the Calling and resigns after his all-in/deeply-reactionary/scorched-earth budget is signed.

Then he can go flat-out on the campaign trail, be anywhere and everywhere his jets can take him, freed from any responsibility or distraction or potential fund-raising conflict in or about the governorship of the State of Wisconsin.

Scott (a/k/a Regular Joe) Walker a Palm Beach, FL regular

The Sunday New York Times featured Palm Beach, FL, "a tropical paradise for the 1 percent."

Never been there, but I see that while Scott Walker hawks an Everyman, blue-collarish persona, he's been in Palm Beach courting power-brokers and big donors several times, including:

March 22, 2015.

February 28, 2015.

February 28, 2014.

February 14, 2014.

March 14, 2012.

April 8, 2011. (Accompanied, reported the Capital Times, to an appearance before a Rush Limbaugh-hosted event by his ex-Milwaukee County Deputy Chief of Staff, and since-convicted John Doe I felon, Kelly Rindfleish)

Will high-end golf courses help Wisconsin's poor economy?

In the battle by the Kohler Co. to build another of its fancy golf courses - - this one along the shores of Lake Michigan in the Town of Wilson south of Sheboygan,

it's noteworthy that local opponents, making progress playing David to the region's Goliath, are also standing their advertising ground (page nine, zoom in) ahead of important, April 7th local town board elections.

The fight over the golf course is certainly a local issue led by local citizens, and has generated some statewide environmental concern because the site is in a forested, wetlands-rich 247-acre nature preserve right at Lake Michigan (see above) and an adjoining state park.

The current plan has the golf course, clubhouse and parking lot sharing a narrow access road to the state park.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which operates the park, has a team working with the developer to move the project along, though no construction permits have been filed with the DNR or the US Army Corps of Engineers.

But environmental issues aside, the proposal has a broader political context because another developer wants a financial boost - - Tax Incremental Financing dollars - - from the state for a big golfing project in Adams County.

Given the existing high-end golf courses already here, Is growth in that market a sure bet, given golf's overall decline nationally, not to mention the state's stagnant job-creation and low-wage economy?

Are more high-end golf courses sited with the blessing of the state to principally serve upscale users a smart approach to improving Wisconsin's mediocre economy?

Note also that the key figure in the Adams County golf development is a Walker/GOP donor - - as is Herb Kohler, Jr. - - so the issues are definitely wrapped up in special-interest politics.

Gender discrimination and the costs of ideology

The New York Times is reporting that Indiana officials are working to "clarify" a recently-passed 'religious freedom law' that could allow businesses to deny service on religious grounds to customers perceived to be gay or lesbian.

We've seen all sorts of alleged clarifications aimed to clean up various political missteps - - 'walking back' is the favored non-denial denial. of late - - and Wisconsin got a dose of "drafting error" to explain away Walker's still-not-repaired budget attack on the long-established University of Wisconsin public service mission.

But I'm not sure how Indiana gets itself out of the damaging ideological trap it dug for itself at the expense of the First Amendment on behalf of its right-wing, Tea Party constituencies.

Indiana, home to the Final Four, or Indiana, the Discrimination Light state?

When Indiana fully stops digging this nasty hole, taxpayers there are going to wish their losses - - all told - - could have stopped at the $1.1 million it just cost Wisconsin taxpayers to finally settle the consequences of having inserted and then defended. at state expense, language in the Wisconsin Constitution that enabled discrimination against same-sex couples.

How a bridge led to development in Milwaukee

I appreciate Tom Daykin's big-picture look at the continuing burst of development, including housing, on the near South side associated with water research and technology investments.

The photo accompanying the story shows the award-winning Sixth Street Bridge - - so beautiful that I once had to redirect some tourists on Wisconsin Ave. away from it because they thought they thought they were heading for the Calatrava Art Museum pedestrian bridge.

The old Sixth Street Viaduct which the bridge replaced was a flat, single-purpose interstate-highway style concrete span built to move commuters above the Menomonee River Valley; the new bridge, designed at the insistence of then-Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist (I was in the meetings) over the objections of the Thompson administration and its DOT at the time.

Norquist wanted a more functional, urban-friendly bridge that came down gracefully to the Valley floor, thus opening the land and water there to greater access and development - - results visible now at the popular, commerce-generating destinations, including the Harley-Davidson Museum at Canal Street, then west past the Potawatomi complex, the Menomonee Valley Partners' multiple business and park initiatives - - a national model - - all the way paralleling the Henry Aaron State Trail to a final connection at Miller Park.

The long-delayed Milwaukee streetcar project should similar public and private-sector payoff.

I have been telling the story of the bridge since 2008, but it's a story still ignored by state planners fixed on highway expansion at the expense of city land, and the needs of pedestrians, bike riders and train passengers:

...Norquist prevailed, and the new bridge has won awards for its striking appearance. 

It also set off development in the newly, more-accessible Valley, and gave Harley-Davidson the option to locate its museum there. 

The struggle with the state and the eventual happy outcome proved that cities are more than land to be spanned. 

Get yourself onto the streets where there is commerce and culture. State road-planning shouldn't obstruct that essential definition of what a city is all about. 

And public structures can be functional and beautiful. There needn't be a contradiction there.

Walker failed-transparency alert

After a series of self-inflicted Walker blunders revealing his unpreparedness - - and without even mentioning his jaw dropping verbal FUBAR in Arizona last week about being US Commander-in-Chief-ready by having earned Eagle Scout merit badges thirty-years ago - - the authoritative Politico.com notes that our ambitious Governor traveling with state subsidies is suddenly being kept away from curious media.

I try and tie Walker's reflexive defaults to secrecy and his aversion transparency when I see them (enter the word transparency in the search box, upper left, for more) to the time Walker preposterously claimed ownership of the term by saying he'd "lived it."

Well, he ain't living it now, observes Dylan Byers at Politico.com:

...in the wake of a few controversial, headline-grabbing quotes about evolution and President Obama's religion, the Wisconsin governor and likely Republican presidential candidate has put brakes on his media availability, reporters who follow him say. 

On Friday, Walker toured the Texas-Mexican border with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The tour was closed to the press, and Walker did not take part in a media avail afterward. Similarly, Walker visited Greenville, S.C., last weekend but refused to take questions from the media. Of the six likely Republican candidates to visit the state in the last two months, Walker was the only one to pass on the press.

WEDC a model of unintended consequences

The Cap Times notes today that the Monday Yahoo.com expose of Walker's connections to Eau Claire billionaire John Menard, Jr. has again shed light on the financial, policy and political failures of the Walker-created-and-chaired Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, WEDC.

The Cap Times piece is a great read.

What fascinates me about the entire matter is how badly WEDC has turned for Walker who had so much invested in it, sort of like the baseball team manager who walks (sorry, but interesting pun) a couple of batters in a remade lineup only to see a batter hit a grand-slam home run.

He proved his executive powers by creating the agency after defunding the Department of Commerce.

Then he created a politically-friendly board of WEDC directors touting the private sector's model and lingo - - "Corporation" - - to run it, and made himself the Chairman so he could get every molecule and second of airtime credit which he and his handlers could wring from it.

Then he had the Legislature advance WEDC millions of dollars in loan, grant and tax credit funds, then cue the jobs that would flow like falling water and fill in his boastful 250,000 new private-sector jobs promise - - then on to the White House as Reagan 2.0 and job-creator-in-chief.

D'oh! Wisconsin is now 40th among the stats in job-creation, falling from an already-mediocre 31st, and those jobs that are being created fall into low-wage service categories in a state where Walker will not budge off the legally-minimal $7.25/hr. wage. More, here.

And WEDC is providing national media like Yahoo's lead investigative reporter Michael Isikoff the window through which to see things about Walker we here have long known.

Road to the White House? He's put the state on the road to ruin.

As the Cap Times note, WEDC is an institutional and functional train wreck. The jobs promise is a well-known failure and Walker has retreated in the post-Yahoo WEDC/ethics fallout by claiming he's pretty much uninvolved in the agency's financial practices.

A commander-in-chief practicing duck and cover.

WI DNR touts recycling; Walker again cuts the funding

It's another of these disconnects I've noted frequently: The DNR talks up a program - - this time, it's recycling - - while Walker's policy undermines the program or cuts its funding.

In his first budget, he proposed ending the state mandate that local governments operate recycling programs and further proposed eliminating all state recycling assistance to local governments.

The Legislature balked, though there were cuts that increased the burden on local taxpayers - - which is what local officials are saying is in store for their programs, again.

What a silly, stupid and insulting game.

Walker moving from pandering to Palinesque self-parody

If Sarah Palin had ever suggested she could step in as Commander-in-Chief because she'd been a Girl Scout, she'd have been laughed off the stage even faster, but some reason, Walker can step just as deeply into full Onion mode without instantaneous disqualification.

He's done it repeatedly, and there he goes again.

Saying you are prepared by Eagle Scout training to be the Commander-in-Chief of history's most complex, expensive, far-flung and lethal military in a dangerous, nuclear-armed tinderbox world is like saying that tossing paper airplanes during 3rd-grade recess has prepared you to fly a stealth fighter.

Or that you are qualified to command the International Space Station because you successfully steered the grocery cart to the Moon Pie display forty years ago.

Cutting-edge environmentalism for viewing at Milwaukee events

Schedule yourself at the first-ever Great Lakes Environmental Film Festival (website):

The first annual Great Lakes Environmental Film Festival (GLEFF) will take place from May 1st – 3rd in Milwaukee, WI. The festival will feature environmental documentaries, adventure films, and fiction films with environmental themes. GLEFF is hosted by the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University.

Also check out this notice from 1000 Friends of Wisconsin:

REGISTER TODAY! Placemaking - Milwaukee