A Foxconn Fever primer
[Updated continuously from June, 2017] This archive with close to 400 posts has tracked, explained and provided context and commentary for Wisconsin's publicly-awarded and record-breaking environmental favors, legal privileges and $4.5 billion in state and local funds to subsidize and assist a Taiwan-based Foxconn factory in rural Racine County, Wisconsin.
Call it a Scott Walker - and failed campaign manuever - production.
The archive also documents waivers of what been routine judicial and environmental reviews for a promised now- cancelled perhaps back-on-again-but-smaller?? Foxconn factory development that is still in line to receive a massive daily diversion of Lake Michigan water.
And emit nearly 800 tons of air pollution emissions annually over Racine County open space, farm and wetlands where Trump's EPA loosened air quality standards at Walker's requests.
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Call it a Scott Walker - and failed campaign manuever - production.
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| From NBC Nightly News, 7/21/19 |
And emit nearly 800 tons of air pollution emissions annually over Racine County open space, farm and wetlands where Trump's EPA loosened air quality standards at Walker's requests.
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* After four years, Foxconn site remains unproductive
* Another subsidy? For electric cars? Please!
* The City of Milwaukee has struck a far more frugal deal with Milwaukee Tool than what the Foxconn fiasco still promises. And without filling wetlands, diverting Great Lakes water or kicking a fresh spate of sprawling road expansion.
* Right-sized Foxconn deal reduces Walker-Vos commitment, public costs by $2.77 million, or about 90%. A lot of Racine County land and homeowners paid far too high a price for Walker's failed re-election ploy.
* Earth Day 2021 a fitting moment for Gov. Evers' effort to stem more taxpayer revenue from spilling off the Foxconn site.
* Will electric cars be built at the Foxconn Mt. Pleasant site? Despite industry leaders Tesla, GM, Ford and multiple firms in China? You'll have to wait until August to find out.
* Having paved the way for Foxconn to milk Wisconsin for billions in subsidies, new roads, utility lines and other legal and environmental privileges, GOP Speaker Robin Vos decides to appoint himself to the state board now trying to rework the Foxconn fiasco. Talk about a fox moving into hen house suite.
* Foxconn expanding. But not in Wisconsin
* And now, the retreat, as Foxconn offers to trade some promised subsidies for "flexibility." The word has special partisan and ideological meanings in Wisconsin worth recalling.
* The jobs numbers and forecasts for Foxconn employment at the Mt. Pleasant site just got worse.
* Foxconn has not met its over-promised pledges. COVID has wrecked budgets in Wisconsin, public and personal. The state needs to keep saying "No" to Foxconn's pitch for more taxpayer millions to which the company is not entitled.
* If Foxconn isn't going to build its promised mega-factory, why does it still hold air, water, wetlands, legal and other special permits and permissions
* Foxconn's downgrade from a product factory to a demonstration project of sorts is not a shocker. It's demonstrated a lot about Wisconsin and GOP ideologues for years.
* WI GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has played key enabling roles in the state's two current big stories: the rampaging pandemic and the ongoing crash of the heavily-subsidized Foxconn project in his home county of Racine:
* Another national media takedown of the entire Foxconn project, where the main building 1/20th its original size has been granted a permit to change its designation from manufacturing to storage:
* Breaking news: No tax credits until state and Foxconn agree on a new, relevant contract. Despite all the farmland plowed under, wetlands filled, highway work-to-nowhere-completed and local debt acquired. Again, thank you Scott Walker for-nothing-but losses.
* Three years in and there's little to show for all the public spending.
* Trump really wants Foxconn to do something in Wisconsin before the election.
* How very Trumpian: Foxconn sues in Green Bay over parking dispute.
* Clean air, flooding, Great Lakes conservation and climate change concerns give IL plenty of reason to ask for Evers' Foxconn review.
* !000 Friends of Wisconsin nails the environmental sacrifices at the heart of Foxconn con.
* Anybody remember any of this being included in the original discussions, negotiations, 'plans'?
* Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin was reposting projections which threw cold water on fears of increased flooding downstream from Foxconn...before the recent flooding.
* Mud, flood, water pollution, fake 'blight,' eminent domain and now a second local credit rating downgrade; what else is on the agenda at this Saturday's annual Mount Pleasant Day 2018?
road-building Transportation. My take: the real blight began with Walker, spread to the Legislature and infected the local governments there and now it's a full-on outbreak of Foxconn Fever.
3rd anniversary of Foxconn deal is approaching, company follow-through negligible* Vos's district is heavily larded with Foxconn-related roadwork. Yet Vos is complaining that Gov. Evers is allocating a far more modest sum statewide to road needs Vos and Walker's crew ignored for eight years. Totally hypocritical.
Vos gets Foxconn road-building bloat for his district, yet begrudges the rest of the state a more modest amount.* One realistic Illinois sees a silver lining in a smaller Foxconn workforce. Too bad WI pols weren't this honest when they promised Foxconn billions.
Clear-eyed IL business sees benefit if Foxconn's workforce misses its goals* As GOP fear-mongers about socialism - - what do you think all those Foxconn subsidies are about? Try 'corporate welfare,' or 'state socialism.'
In WI's state/corporate socialism, benefits and billions shoveled to Foxconn.
* Trump really wants Foxconn to do something in Wisconsin before the election.
Trump's message to Foxconn: Don't box me in* 2019 reporting ended with a bang.
A timely summary of Foxconn follies, pratfalls* Foxconn is about to finish its main Mt. Pleasant building, but for what purpose?
Wisconsin's really big box won't be building biggest screen devices* Local officials declared the Foxconn site 'blighted' to speed up removal of residents from their homes and farms. Now a hold-out wants a seat on the Racine County Board.
Foxconn Site resister announces for County Board* Trump's trade war with war is based in part on his objections to the many subsidies and favors it gives to businesses. Yet he and WI GOP officials provided the same kinds of state-provided perks and breaks for Foxconn.
Trump's objections to China's business subsidies undercut by subsidies he favored for Foxconn* A business writer notes that Foxconn is tightening up its web of facilities in Asia, thus making it inefficient to build a new plant far away in Wisconsin. Duh!
Wisconsin could get squeezed out of Foxconn's future.* Wisconsin tax credits disclosed Tuesday to Milwaukee Tool for facilities' expansion amount to one-seventh per job that have been promised to Foxconn. And the gap would widen substantially as the Foxconn project shrinks.
State tax credits per-job to Foxconn dwarf deals with high-profile Milwaukee-area firm* Oh, no one saw this coming. (Not)
Foxconn can't find workers willing to move to Wisconsin.* 12/13/19 - - Friday the 13th breaking news: Foxconn contract unraveling.
Basically, it's all hitting the fan* Walker could get tough questions about a new Foxconn financial expose, but only if media at a Milwaukee Press Club event on 12/3 have the interest in following through.
Walker needs tough Foxconn-financing questions at 12/3 media-sponsored program* Another report blasts the unreliable assumptions underlying Foxconn subsidies which could end up costing Wisconsin billions in development.
Report: Foxconn subsidies could smother billions in Wisconsin economic activity.* The Lake MI diversion for Foxconn was openly condemned in Canada. Wisconsin's diversion record has been slammed there before.
WI's Great Lakes diversion record aired unfavorably in Canada* Robin Vos had justified killing Amtrak expansion in Wisconsin, regardless of millions of dollars in forfeited taxpayer money and valuable equipment, because it was a 'sweetheart deal' fueling a costly 'bad decision.' This words may prove brutally ironic as Foxconn shrinks in significance.
Vos's words may jam Foxconn into irony vice* Two years in, let's make sure we know how we got here and why.
Foxconn is a flop* No Foxconn Innovation Center in Green Bay. Still, it's not all doom and gloom.
Foxconn jilts Green Bay* U of IL says it's getting $50 million from Foxconn. The UW-Madison was supposed to get $100 million and to date has received less than 1%.
U of IL might not want to spend the money yet.* E. Kenosha County may have to tighten up clean air permitting
Walker-Trump coordination eased clean air regs over Foxconn zone, not all of SE WI* First Foxconn-inspired housing component flops.
* At the regional planning commission, same old song.
SEWRPC whitewashes Foxconn environmental issues, other matters* Big Mt. Pleasant setback: Foxconn cancels its control tower.
No more conning tower in the ever-changing projec* Foxconn's $100 million commitment to UW-Madison has netted only $700,000 from the company. Gee: who saw that coming?
Foxconn commitment to UW-Madison less than 1% funded* The headline you didn't see, because it would have killed the deal.
'8th Wonder of the World' will assemble coffee machines in Mt. Pleasant.* Yea! People were displaced, and a Great Lakes diversion was a proved for - - wait for it - - assembling robotized coffee vending kiosks.
Attention, disappointed Foxconn TV shoppers* After people were moved out, and land bulldozed, a Foxconn road project - - like the whole shooting match there - - gets downsized.
In Year 3, Walkercon blight comes in sharper focus* For the record, the Foxconn diversion from Lake Michigan would be Wisconsin's 5th. Why are the other states so compliant?
About Pleasant Prairie's Lake MI diversion. That's right. Not Mt. Pleasant's for Foxconn. Who remembers?* Nice to see national publicity about the Lake Michigan diversion for Foxconn and Wisconsin's propensity to approve such arrangements regardless of the two-nation, eight-state Compact managing the Great Lakes.
Strong Wash Post op-ed vs. the Foxconn diversion*Freshly disclosed data show thousand crashes, 200 injuries, two deaths. Some road-planning.
Road planners made I-94 NS near Foxconn into a danger zone* Blackouts are not a confidence-builder.
Information squeeze extends the Foxconn blight* Speaker Vos' tweet which disclosed nothing of his meeting with Foxconn officials says he got an update and a reiterated commitment - - but to what version of Foxconn's plans?, who knows. His tweet has been retweeted a whole 19 times in more than two days. This is what passes for disclosure in WI about a project eligible for $4 billion plus public subsidies.
Here's Robin Vos 'report' on his Foxconn session* After nearly 27 months, 'no comment' by the company and top state officials about Foxconn's plans is unacceptable.
'No comment' after top-level meetings a bi-partisan public slap.* So if Foxconn sells before it opens a new large-screen factory in low-wage, more-friendly-labor-law China, why would it open anything similar or close to it in higher-wage Wisconsin?
China may sell its new China factory which was to be a twin to the Wisconsin project* N. IL Congressman, residents, upset over Foxconn site flooding runoff, WI's oversight [sic]
Fears aired over more Foxconn site flooding, downstream pollution* And another Foxconn-linked pol bites the dust.
Foxconn not a career-maker. Again.* How many Foxconn jobs, and doing what?
Finally a state official's succinct analysis: 'No idea...No idea.'* Just for the record: Trump predicted on ground-breaking day last year an even bigger Foxconn factory than the one which keeps getting smaller. And a bigger workforce than the maximum 13,000 which no one is projecting anymore.
Remembering when President Preposterouus made outsized, outlandish Foxconn predictions* Foxconn complains about project life in a "fishbowl." Not a good strategy.
Oh, brother* The head of the MMAC says he doesn't have a crystal ball to predict Foxconn jobs, though 1,500 - - or about 11% of the originally-pledged 13,000 - - is nothing to sneeze at.
On Foxconn, jobs, another crystal ball glitch* In the embarrassingly named "WisConn Valley, another non-delay delay."
Another Foxconn non-delay delay* Severe highway crashes in the I-94 Foxconn construction zone.
Crashes spiking in Racine County and since the Foxconn roadwork began* How deeply does the Walker 'chamber of commerce mentality' still run? The Foxconn diversion was just approved by a WI administrative law judge who was a former Walker official, donor, and ex-GOP legislative staffer. Sound fair to you?
Foxconn diversion first approved by Walker's DNR get green-light ruling by judge who was Walker donor, staff appointee.* US and Canadian Great Lakes water regulators meet next week in Milwaukee. The could put the Foxconn diversion on their agenda.
Foxconn diversion could be discussed at US-Canadian water officials' meeting in Milwaukee next week* A judge has ruled that Foxconn is entitled to its daily Great Lakes diversion. It's a precedent that weakens the Great Lakes Compact and drives another nail in the SE regional environment.
Another Great Lakes diversion adds to Wisconsin's status as the region's worst water manager.* Foxconn has already notified the DNR it will fill wetlands equal to the square footage of about 17 football fields. And there's more construction for more buildings, parking lots, amenities, related facilities and roads to come.
The rain falls. The floods spread. And Wisconsin still enables wetland filling.* Again, Foxconn murkiness. So add how tall its first building will be to questions about free water demand, waste water, clean air, downstream effects, hires, robots, production, viability, and so on.
Despite all the public favors, still a transparency deficit* This is the 324th post in this archive.
The F-con enters year three and ex-Gov. Walker isn't even in the US to comment* If you can get a 'Wisconsin' contract doing Foxconn work from Germany, let's expand the definition of who's a Wisconsinite for work at Foxconn, should a facility ever open with actual human workers.
For seat on the Foxconn gravy train, expand Wisconsinite hiring definition.* Lawsuits reveal EPA staffers knew the air pollution exemption for Foxconn obtained by Walker from Trump's EPA was not justified.
Feds want to quietly reverse the Foxconn air pollution favor
* How very Trumpian: Foxconn sues in Green Bay over parking dispute.
Foxconn works overtime, plugs empty values* Why Foxconn, WI jobs are in play internationally, and how Walker left us as mere observers.
Foxconn in international dramas, while WI taxpayers and local governments can only watch.* 13,000 Foxconn jobs. or maybe it's 6,500. Who cares. 'That's all kinda sidebar stuff.
WI GOP, Fitzgerald refine their aspirational political numerology* Foxconn says it was too cold a few months ago to work on its site. In Wisconsin. PolitiFact isn't buying it.
Foxconn building weather-delay claim rated 'false.'* What kind of public strategy is this? Foxconn says "calm down." It's only $4.2 billions your money, after all.
Foxconn smashes Walker's crystal ball* Oops. Evers Role-a-Dopes Walker, Vos.
Turns out it was the company that sought contract changes!* Foxconn is creating an ecosystem. Really?
On Earth Day eve, Vos misuses the word 'ecosystem.'* Robin Vos, State Rep. from Smarmytown.
Talks down to the new Gov., who happens to hold a Ph.D successfully defended.* The Great Lakes diversion for Foxconn? Not so vital after all.
So there's a Plan B for Foxconn water, the Racine Water Utility mgr. says.* Good for Evers to try and renegotiate the Foxconn deal. Look at all the major pending issues.
Four big issues of cost and liability hang over the Foxconn deal.* Of course Evers wants a new Foxconn deal. The company has altered and shrunk the project.
Dismiss the GOP's caterwauling about scaling back the Foxconn deal. That's reality.* More flooding fears downstream.
A flood of Foxconn flooding stories - - since 2017* Foxconn's chairman is taking a reduced role before his big US plant is set to open in WI.
Seems like a strange time for Foxconn chairman to step to the sidenlines* Foxconn adding real estate in 5th location. Is it an electronics firm or property collector?
Boardwalk, Park Place still available* More government-sponsored infrastructure pushes into Foxconn zone.
Near Foxconn site, more sprawl. It's no accident.* New statewide WI poll shows Foxconn support still under water by 6 points.
After 2 years of spending and hype, Foxconn still does not have majority support.* GOP legislators like Robin Vos won't borrow $40 million for cleaner Milwaukee water. The public subsidies for Foxconn iand new road-building in and through Vos' district are more than 100 times that sum.
GOP leaders push public $ to their districts. To Milwaukee, not so much.* Say, what? Mt. Pleasant is now leasing Foxconn land? For farming? Wasn't farming on the site considered blight just last year?
Mt. Pleasant to profit from leasing 'blighted' [Sic] Foxconn land for farming.* Seems Foxconn is building a facility that rules out the kind of manufacturing upon which public subsidies, water diversion and air pollution permits were based.
Urban Milwaukee: Foxconn construction in Mt. Pleasant suggests assembly work, not heavy-duty, high-tech manufacturing* The legal briefs are piling up.
Foxconn's Great Lakes diversion OK from WI DNR earns strong legal challenge.* Foxconn, UW-Madison have nothing to say about their $100 million partnership.
Chill Madison. You'll get updated: When it's appropriate.* WisDOT wants more wetlands, land and local dollars for the Foxconn project, this time to widen a county road over the objections of local residents. Talk about the gift that keeps on taking.
Foxconn-related road 'improvements' echo similar projects* So does the scaling-back of the Foxconn product-line at its projected Racine County factory mean there will be fewer of the gaudy, dreamy amenities also promised there?
Will Foxconn still create that Mt. Pleasant fantasyland-cum-ecosystem?* Just for the record: Earlier this week, IL officials said that the Foxconn project, complete with significant wetland fillings, was already sending silt into the already flood-prone Des Plaines River. The Foxconn project is nowhere near complete, and the Des Plaines River is under a flood warning through Sunday morning. Not a good sign.
Why N. IL is nervous about Foxconn, wetland-filling.* Microsoft says Foxconn broke licensing payment deal.
Microsoft: Foxconn broke agreement, missed licensing payments.* Foxconn earns WI two rebukes in one week from different Great Lakes neighbors. Walker has left behind a huge mess for citizens, Evers and his DNR to repair.
Walker's water policies, Foxconn, slapped from IL and MI* Illinois officials downstream raise alarms over Foxconn's hits to environment.
IL officials cite Foxconn river damage, wetlands losses* While Walker is off watching spring training baseball, Evers is busy dealing with Walker's Foxconn mess with a novel approach: level-headed honesty:
On Foxconn, Walker said 'the eagle has landed.' Evers-the-teacher does the myth-busting.* Major Wisconsin media carrying fresh interviews with experts who lay out this likely scenario: Foxconn won't be building a factory as promised in Racine County and local taxpayers indentured to the company are on the hook for millions and millions of borrowings already on the books.
Grim new reviews for Walker's Foxconn folly* Assembly Speaker and leading Foxconn water-carrier wants us to be "damn happy" that Foxconn is here - - though just what it will do is open to doubt. Vos wants the company to emit every last of its 796 tons of air pollutants annually the DNR has said it can belch out into Vos' district. Will his constituents with heart and lung disease, or concern for air quality and climate change, be as happy?
Vos airs out what makes him happy* Evers has stripped millions from the WEDC budget it wanted to continue Walker's pitch to out-of-state Foxconn recruits, like those stupid Illinois commuter train ad blitz our train-hating former Governor authorized. I'll bet the money gets reinserted by the GOP budget editors.
Vos can re-engineer Illinois train Foxconn recruiting ads Walker had funded* When Robin Vos tells we can't afford Gov. Evers' proposed budget spending that spreads benefits statewide, remind him of all the spending he has approved recently for his district, party, staff and personal air miles.
How Robin Vos spent his credibility. And your money.* Again were told that Foxconn is creating an "ecosystem." I'll bet the farmers whose land in Mount Pleasant has been bulldozed preferred the ecosystem Mother Nature had already provided for their work and appreciation.
Of Foxconn and ecosystems, real and synthetic
* Clean air, flooding, Great Lakes conservation and climate change concerns give IL plenty of reason to ask for Evers' Foxconn review.
IL officials want Evers to revisit Foxconn's WI permits* Everyday people and plenty of elected officials didn't want New York City to plan the Corporate Welfare game. Heads up, Wisconsin pols.
New York City to Amazon: Don't Foxconn us.* Walker concedes he failed at job-creation. Why else would he state that Foxconn will revive Midwest manufacturing. Wasn't that his job for the last eight years?
Walker posts his most embarrassing post-defeat bid for relevancy yet* Not 1st time State Sen. Tim Carpenter has protected the public interest.
Carpenter a reliable bulwark v. Foxconn, GOP/Walker Toxic Touch* Milwaukee, regional groups remind us that the Foxconn Great Lakes water diversion should be declared a non-starter.
Salute to Milwaukee Riverkeeper for keeping up the pressure.* The WI GOP sure flushed or forgot some of its important 'values.'
The WI GOP flushed for Foxconn at least 3 core principles* Milwaukee businessman, for the second time, blasts the Foxconn deal and the GOP pols who fell for it.
WI businessman slammed the Foxconn deal in 2107. And again, just now.* Bloomberg News calls Foxconn 'disastrous...hollow...nakedly political.'
Big national business media outlet uses 49 sources to demolish Foxconn and the politicians who were used to buy in.* Doesn't matter if Foxconn fails or bolts or simply shrinks: Vos got all that highway money for his district.
Vos is King of Sprawlville.* Evers' campaign included a pledge to look into the DNR's award to Foxconn of four air pollution permits. Now he's following through. If it were the big new paper mill its emission will equal, would you want it in a region of SE WI where air pollution standards were relaxed by the US EPA at Walker's request?
Evers follows through on Foxconn air pollution permits review* Anything new going on with the FUBAR Foxconn project? Not if you look at the WEDC Foxconn project and news site.
Foxconn turmoil in Wisconsin? Not on the state's main Foxconn project info website.* Journal Sentinel asks if WI overpaid for Foxconn. After already answering the question. A year ago.
Why is the Journal Sentinel asking a question it already answered?* Robin Vos engineers a deep Foxconn retweet. Explain, please.
Grist for Vos' next press availability* Foxconn's projections for blue-collar work are shrinking as the company throws out a big new number of anticipated engineering hires. Put a pin in this.
Foxconn says it will hire 10,000 engineers for the WI operation. That's a big new number.* Walker is quoting a Trump reassurance on Foxconn. Please!
What's worse than a Walker reassurance on Foxconn? Trump's.* On-again, off-again Foxconn project, with its bulldozing, subsidy-hogging and environmental risks, wags Wisconsin.
Foxconn Fiasco shows arrogance of WI's leader class. Again.* Vos, Fitzgerald tell a cover-your-as* whopper about Foxconn and Tony Evers
WI GOP fib gets jump on Lie of the Year Award* The bond-rating firm Moody's issues warning about local government's Foxconn risks.
Here's a new way to measure Walker's Foxconn folly* Foxconn now says it cannot say 'if, when and which' items it will manufacture or assemble in Wisconsin. The billions of dollars in subsidies granted, and other permits, permissions, perks and approvals were based knowing that Foxconn would build an LCD TV facility. How is this deal not now voided?
Foxconn changes the channel; old, new questions remain* WI got federal funding to add driverless trucking technology on I-94 to help move Foxconn manufactured goods to Mitchell Field. But if there's no factory envisioned on the Foxconn site now, why spend the highway money on the 'upgrades.'
Should Wisconsin still finance Foxconn special driverless I-94 shipping lane?* Foxconn has cancelled its Racine County factory. So it doesn't need the host of water diversion and air pollution permits the DNR awarded it. Or the facilitating federal clean air enforcement exemption handed over by the US EPA along the SE WI lakeshore north of the Illinois line.
No Foxconn factory, no need for those air and water permits and permissions.* January 30 produced the news that Foxconn was scaling back its WI project and would not be building a factory, as promised - - and publicly-funded - - in Racine County. Here's short course in how that came to happen.
Short roadmap to today's Foxconn news* Protection for taxpayers was not adequately built into the Foxconn deal until WI State Democratic Senator Tim Carpenter blew the whistle and got it inserted.
Let's correct Walker Tweet about doing us Foxconn deal favor* The headline says it all.
Breaking news: Foxconn says "not building a factory in Wisconsin."* Oh, boy. Talk about a Friday news dump: Foxconn has 'adjusted' its hiring and recruitment timelines.
Walker's WI looking conned and outfoxed* Oh, here's a surprise: Foxconn missed its 2018 hiring goals. All they had to do to qualify for state subsidies was to create 260 jobs. All they could muster was 178.
Foxconn misses jobs' creating goal* The pictures tell the story.
Foxconn's water diversion and discharge are important, because...
* !000 Friends of Wisconsin nails the environmental sacrifices at the heart of Foxconn con.
1KFriends of Wisconsin's short, brilliant summation of the Foxconn con* Oh, boy. At this late date, non-partisan auditors say WEDC's oversight of Foxconn isn't, well, legal, or in complying with the controlling contract.
WI GOP's early incompetence on Foxconn exceeds itself* National podcast examines the deal. Local officials are upset.
Foxconn deal, impacts, reviewed by national podcast, irking local officials* The WI GOP's power grab bill provides all sorts of protections for Foxconn by relocating authority over the state's project funding to the GOP-dominated Legislature and its finance committee. Now we are learning that Team Walker is also keeping control of the project by refusing to fully comply with a records request by litigants taking issue with the agency's Lake Michigan water diversion approval. So stay tuned.
WI DNR sued over Foxconn water diversion records* Foxconn is among the GOP elites' power grab priorities.
The Walkerite WI GOP's unbearable and destructive elitism* Foxconn among the items the GOP power grab bill reserves for self-serving GOP protection
The GOP power grab bill serves owners, donors and the legacy of one GOP godfather* Another contraction at Foxconn, on which Walker literally bet Wisconsin's farms. and then some.
Foxconn lays off 155 in Indiana* Still betting on the come.
Foxconn water bid gets more backers, slowed court calendar* As we learn that Foxconn is making "deep cuts" company-wide, let's look back at how and why we were roped into the Foxconn world.
Before FoxCon, there was WEDC-con. By Scott-con.* In both cases, the road-builders won, while you, your wallets and clean air lost.
Walker era bookended by hostility to Amtrak, favors for Foxconn* Lawsuits over air emission permits, a Lake Michigan diversion, plus concerns about downstream water quality and site runoff flooding are among the major environmental concerns Walker's flawed DNR management and WEDC funding have left for the next governor.
Walker dumping lawsuits, policy failures on incoming WI DNR* VA and NY both scored far more jobs and at substantially higher average rates in new Amazon HQ facilities than what Wisconsin 'won' from Foxconn. File with your other items labeled 'Why Walker lost.'
For 25,000 HQ jobs, NY paid half what Foxconn gets from Wisconsin for twice as many jobs. VA did even better.* Over Foxconn jobs, Walker breaks faith with the people. Of Chicago.
Wait: Foxconn jobs are for engineers from Asia?* Walker invites in a caravan. From China. To Mt. Pleasant. For Foxconn. With WI tax subsidies.
Walker's jobs' plan: Import Chinese workers to Racine County for Foxconn.* They're bulldozing and tearing down homes and literally lowing ahead as if nothing were amiss, but Foxconn's water and air permits are gaining formal complaints and litigation locally, regionally and beyond.
It's Walker's baby, but Foxconn is gaining obstacles* This is an installment of a 21-part series devoted entirely to the Foxconn matter.
Walker's 8-year war on Wisconsin's environment. Part 19. Foxconn.* I noticed that an older posting about waterway pollution talked about sediment from improperly managed construction sites was a worse waterway polluter than ag runoff. The runoff for days from Foxconn's site after summer rains is a good example.
WI DNR says mismanaged construction site runoff is a major waterway polluter. We have a fresh example...* Brad Schimel forgot in the 10/14 debate to mention when asked about Foxconn that he was an instant and public supporter of the proposal, and has since publicly stress the need for its 'success.'
In Sunday debate, Schimel forgot to feature his Foxconn friendliness* $1,159.50. Seriously?
DNR's Foxconn pollution fine doesn't deliver a deterrent punch* The Foxconn diversion featured in a Detroit-based Great Lakes water policy review.
Updates, commentary about Foxconn, Waukesha Great Lakes diversions* More millions shelled out by Mt. Pleasant over property seizures.
Mt. Pleasant pays more millions for Foxconn land seizures. Also lost: government credibility.* The Great Lakes Governors and their Canadian counterparts are meeting in Indianapolis. Why won't Walker hop on one of those state planes he's been using all campaign season, fly there and justify the Foxconn diversion, brad on his great work cleaning Great Lakes tributaries, protecting the ground water, etc?
Walker won't fly to Indiana and showcase his FUBAR Great Lakes 'policies.'* Walker and WI GOP-run state senate will give the Foxconn-style public tax break subsidies (about $100 million) to the very rich multinational firm Kimberly-Clark - - but only after the Nov. 6 election. That's to avoid Foxconn baggage in the election, and also to get K-C the money in case the state senate flips. Profiles in cowardice.
GOP gets cold feet over subsidies for K-C's Cold Springs plant* Do you think the concerns about dirty and water from the Foxconn site moving into Illinois has anything to do with it?
The EPA's pro-Foxconn Cathy Stepp is out of step with Illinois Senators* Fighting Village Hall in Mt. Pleasant, and winning.
Some holdouts kept land from seizure for Foxconn; the outrages continue.* Basically, the Case vs. Foxconn in one photo:
* Anybody remember any of this being included in the original discussions, negotiations, 'plans'?
With state $, Lake Michigan water, Foxconn sending super suburban sprawl to once-bucolic Mt. Pleasant
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| Foxconn promotional video suggests Versailles is coming to Mt. Pleasant. Or is it DisneyWorld? |
Foxconn flood muddied Robin Vos' Twitter feed, too
* Mud, flood, water pollution, fake 'blight,' eminent domain and now a second local credit rating downgrade; what else is on the agenda at this Saturday's annual Mount Pleasant Day 2018?
Muddied landscape, fiscal picture could frame Mount Pleasant Day 2018 on Saturday* Lessons learned: Images, activism pay off. Corporate P.R., not so much.
Floodwaters poured downstream from Foxconn to mainstream media; 3 takeaways* Residents want answers, action in wake of predictable 'Lake Foxconn runoff in flood-prone Racine County.
Mt. Pleasant residents want answers, action after Foxconn site runoff.* As predicted, heavy rains in SE WI have led to flooding off the Foxconn site and into the Pike River.
See the flood runoff from the Foxconn site. Heads up, downstream!!* Despite the heaving subsidies, or perhaps because they're on the schedule, Foxconn will add to or create shortfalls in the region's road and transit spending. What a deal!
Foxconn will create more road, transit service shortfalls, planners predict.* No one has updated the state's Foxconn public relations website with the news that the company is retreating from its signature pledge to build the plant of the future. Though the site has plenty of pretty pictures of Scott Walker. Surprised?
State's taxpayer-paid Foxconn news site not updated since Aug. 3rd; plenty of Walker pix* To no one's surprise, Foxconn now will not commit to building a factory producing the kind futuristic products for which Walker handed them billions, and to which they are contractually bound to produce. The company and WEDC are in full spin mode. It's too late.
Conned and outfoxed, Walker should quit* While WI floods, its expert information about why has been scrubbed by Walker's administration.
Wisconsin is flooded with water, science dismissal, too* Lake County, IL, having been hit by recent severe flooding, has hired a consultant to study possible runoff downstream from the Foxconn site. Here's a question likely to be studied:
Given the impacts of climate change on likely storm severity, are the five stormwater detention ponds planned on the Foxconn site adequate?* More than 50 affiliates of the League of Women Voters in four states have joined the legal challenge to the Wisconsin DNR's quick approval to a Lake Michigan diversion for Foxconn. This adds to the pressure to enforce and save the Great Lakes Compact of 2008, now at risk by Wisconsin's continuing pressure on the other states and outlier status on water conservation in the region.
Multi-state group joins opposition to WI approval of Lake Michigan water for Foxconn* The Foxconn giveaways - - legal, financial, environmental - - are on my top 12 list of reasons why Walker should be defeated by Wisconsin voters this November.
Walker's defects, disqualification explained in these 12 posts.* As Walker continues to tweet up a storm about Foxconn saving Wisconsin (and his own broken-job creating promises and related campaign bacon, too), the company reported that 'soaring operating costs' were cutting profits. Why do you think the company is spending $4 billion own robotics, and has said it expects to replace most if workers with those machines.
Foxconn reports soaring costs, falling profits. Are its robotics in the wings?* Local governmental infighting over taxpayer dollars for Foxconn is just the beginning of many, many problems there set in motion by Walker's one-man campaign agenda.
Two Foxconn tracks; Walker's to November, the public's to mid-century.* Abusive state power serving Foxconn in Mount Pleasant forces more property owners to sell.
State planning, intentional blight enables unpleasant Foxconn grind* 'You get a subsidy, you get a subsidy...'
Walker shovels out your money, wins hard-work award* Walker, the WMC, Trump and Pruitt's EPA went all in on relaxing air quality standards over much of SE Wisconsin. Today's ozone alert won't be the last, given Foxconn's projected 796-dirty air annual belch. History of Wisconsin under Walker reducing these alert notices also in this post.
Dirty air alert over WI lakeshore counties/Foxconn zone on 8/4 won't be the last* The Foxconn subsidies, in perspective. Arkansas says the Foxconn-style handouts Walker wants for Kimberly-Clark would violate that state's 'fiduciary responsibility.'
Arkansas official sends Walker scrambling for that book that tells you what words mean* Ozone alert over the Lakeshore counties. What's ahead, and what predated it, too.
WI lakeshore counties' ozone alert. Won't be the last.* The Foxconn bulldozing and land grab, along with the failed Gtac mine plan, a state parkland transfer to help enable Kohler to build his wetland-filing, habitat destroying, privately-owned golf course, and many other examples statewide highlight Walker's enthusiasm - - now again abetted by AG Brad Schimel's legal powers - - for special-interest favors and projects.
Schimel joins Walker in dismissing basic land, other public rights* Second lawsuit filed over clean air exemptions drawn to maximize Foxconn's allowable emissions. Post includes information about water diversion litigation, property rights' suit.
Trump/Walker 'Freedom to breath more smog' rule earns lawsuit* Foxconn and Mount Pleasant were supposed to save a stand of very old bur oaks - - one perhaps 400 years old right in the construction zone. Any news of their fate?
Any news of pre-Revolutionary War oaks in Foxconn's way?* He announced the project last year. The legislature has committed the taxpayers' billions. Bulldozers are moving dirt. So why is Walker still trying to justify it to voters?
Ad blitz confirms Foxconn's weight on wobbly Walker incumbency* Because Illinois communities downstream from flood-prone Racine County see the threat.
4th IL agency concerned with flooding opposes Foxconn environmental exemptions* Five million WI electric customers will pay $117 million for a Foxconn power line. Through their bills. For 40 years, thanks to Walker's PSC. We await his sales-pitching tweets.
Because $4.5 billion in public subsidies isn't enough, Bucky...* If you get to pick the winners in Wisconsin's corporate welfare sweepstakes, you get to be a winner, too.
Walker donors nailing down more Foxconn contracts. Report.* We try and figure out why Walker didn't opt for an easy Foxconn photo op.
Walker didn't schedule an easy Foxconn photo op. What's up with that?* So when does Walker declare the expenses associated with all his Foxconn events as political donations?
Three questions about Walker-Foxconn events* Think of the documented, $640-per-motorist annual car repair bill attributable to Wisconsin's persistently-rutted roads as Walker's wheel tax. Then grasp that many, many millions of transportation dollars are being sent to SE WI for new Foxconn-related road-building while the rest of the state's roads remain poorly-maintained.
Walker's yearly Scotthole wheel tax: $640 per Wisconsin motorist* Foxconn's generation-long drain on Wisconsin transportation spending will make our pothole-rutted, faster-moving roads less safe and more expensive to travel
Wisconsin's deadly road-tripping comes with deferred repairs, higher speed limits*Trying to get the cart behind the horse whee it belongs.
Groups trying to slow Foxconn's politically-driven bulldozing* Property seizures available at the Foxconn site wouldn't be Trump's first eminent domain rodeo.
Trump would have felt right at home where land seizures loom* Foxconn can blend higher-paying corporate and research jobs' salaries with the projected $23/hr. wages paid to estimated 5,000 factory-floor workers to help meet its pledge of 'average' wages per job of $53,000+. More of that one-sided private-sector 'flexibility' we hear about in Wisconsin these days.
Foxconn math could boost company qualifying for subsidy-qualifying pay target* The damage Foxconn will cause to Wisconsin clean air, wetlands, surface waters, wildlife and the rural environment mirrors his entire eight-year 'record.'
Walker's across-the board campaign against Wisconsin land, air, water and wildlife* Because Walker dare not call his campaign-assisting, $4.5 billion public subsidy for Foxconn the record-breaking 'corporate welfare' it is, he's forced to dress it up with some new, sanitized wording.
For Foxconn, Walker bulldozes the language, too* So Foxconn is reducing the size of its construction? Who knew what and when about that? I'm sure WI AG Brad Schimel will get right on that. Wait, what? He's already on the record hying the original numbers? Never mind.
Why WI GOP AG Brad Schimel can't probe devolving Foxconn deal* The Foxconn plant will be smaller, cheaper than what's been hyped. Until later. Maybe. Proving that sell a Rube Goldberg machine, first you have to make sure you're working with a rube.
Walker & WI: Baited, switched, outfoxed and conned* Yes, Walker's DNR scrubbed climate change science off its state website, but WisDOT's master plan was already out there with multiple references to climate change, the human activities which cause it and recommendations about energy and transit alternatives that can mitigate it.
Foxconn project undermines surviving WI climate change information, recommendations* Chicago Sun-Times warns of Foxconn site runoff downriver into flood-prone areas.
IL bemoans flood potential from Foxconn paving, 'planning'* Foxconn is the ultimate example of sprawl 'development' in Wisconsin. I bring together two of this blog's more-focused themes: "The Road to Sprawlville," and Foxconn.
Not Wisconn. Sprawlville* Mount Pleasant residents, grassroots groups to rally at 6/28 Foxconn ground-breaking. Also attending: Scott Walker and Donald Trump, with a big-ticket fundraiser also on their agenda.
Grassroots to rally vs. Foxconn ground-breaking on 6/28* Walker didn't say a word about Trump's seize-the-kids southern border policy this week. Today, we know why, as Walker's at the White House, because, you know, Foxconn...
Walker, silent no more...* People statewide are not buying Walker's photo-ops which promote Foxconn's purported 'benefit-to-your-town.' Because people know Foxconn is sucking up a generation's worth of Wisconsin school aid, road repair and broad-based economic development.
Foxconn could be Scotthole that disables Walker's campaign.* Oh, by the way, Foxconn says "many" jobs you thought were headed to Racine County are going somewhere else. But thanks for the diverted water, local lending, TIF and land deals worth local hundreds of millions of dollars.
Will Racine Co. taxpayers subsidize development elsewhere? Seems so.* Foxconn morphs from Walker's political panacea to "ecosystem" status, as language joins land being bulldozed.
About Foxconn, Walker goes oxymoronic* Walker rejected Obama-era federal funding investments in Medicaid, Amtrak and broadband, because, you know, federal funds, bad. But now that Trump offers federal funding to pay for some Foxconn-related roadwork, Walker says, 'yippee!'
Walker hails partial federal bailout for Foxconn roadwork* 1,000 dump-truck loads of gravel a day. At 73,000 pounds each. During 16-hour, seven-day-a-week hauling. For months. On roads, old and new. Who's going to pay for the damage? You will.
Foxconn site work could trip major outbreak of #Scottholes* More Foxconn, less Harley-Davidson.
In Walker's right-to-work WI, good pay replaced with less* The DNR says on Sunday, May 27 that the air quality in Wisconsin is "good." DNR data on its website also shows most counties in the state have moderate air quality, and only three rural counties air quality is actually rated "good" right now - - but counties with "unhealthy" readings - - including those with big populations, like Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha in the Foxconn zone - - far outnumber the "good."
The WI DNR says the state's air quality is "good." Seriously?* WI air quality in SE lakeshore counties heading to the unhealthy, 'orange' range for seniors, children and some with chronic illness. But the DNR won't tell you that as it did before Walker took office. And when Foxconn adds its new annual massive emissions tonnages?
SE WI dirty air notices: And when Foxconn adds its annual 796 emission tonnages...* So soon? An Asian industry media report claims Foxconn may not need the huge plant envisioned in Wisconsin because supplier difficulties may rule out, at least initially, the assembly of large-screen TVs there. Are we moving into Walker Folly territory yet?
Foxconn wobble* You can add fears in Illinois about downstream flooding off the Foxconn site in a shared, two-state watershed to concerns to Illinois about Foxconn-related air pollution and a Great Lakes water diversion.
Foxconn's environmental downsides of growing concern in Illinois* No surprise!
Major Walker backer gets major Foxconn contract* Walker keeps failing to convince people statewide that Foxconn is to their benefit. Latest example north of the Foxconn site.
Manitowoc writer not buying the Foxconn story Walker's selling* Walker says Foxconn is confused by its critics. Guess who didn't lay out to the company the inconvenient truths?
Walker gets the blame for poorly-prepping Foxconn* Noted financial academics say Foxconn subsidies are counter-productive. Plus, think of the environmental benefits if the clean air and water impacts were averted.
Experts say Foxconn subsidies are lost-opportunity job killers.* Walker's campaign is open for business.
OWN tracking lead Foxconn contractor Walker donations* A business publication helps get a bad actor removed from Foxconn work, but the episode shows the need for better communication between state and local officials.
Why one Foxconn contractor is already off the job* Many Foxconn jobs will pay less than the $57,000 annually promised as the average by the company, and many of the jobs are not going to be family-supporting.
Foxconn pays between $9.22/hr-$64,000+* A fresh taxpayer-paid Foxconn p.r. event for Walker today. But no unpleasant questions at this carefully-controlled event, please, so here are some reminders.
Walker-Foxconn-campaign strategy clarified today* It's less newsy that Foxconn intends to hire thousands of people for lower-skilled-and-wage jobs and more important to understand that the factory's site is right where its own state rep., Robin Vos, made sure there are no coordinated transit services crucial for lower-income workers less likely to have or afford to operate cars.
Foxconn always planned WI site as low-wage hub* WI AG Brad Schimel, GOP ally of Scott Walker and his 'chamber of commerce mentality'-driven DNR, will not protect SE Wisconsin from already-dirty air soon to be laden with another 796 tons of airborne pollutants from Foxconn - - so IL AG Lisa Madigan is stepping in with a federal lawsuit to do Schimel's work for him. And for us.
Foxconn-friendly EPA air regs for SE WI get IL lawsuit* Michigan legal activists urge Great Lakes states to take over review of Lake Michigan diversion for Foxconn which Walker's DNR hurriedly-approved. This is an effort to invoke the Great Lakes Compact. To save it.
MI group raises alarm about Foxconn diversion, seeks broader review by other states* Walker may not know or care that he's earned a spot at an historic climate change crossroads, so here's the story.
Walker's Grey Skies win is one for record books' material* Walker needs Foxconn to distract voters from his still-failed 250,000 new jobs promise. And if that means sacrificing clean air, clean Lake Michigan water, the integrity of the Great Lakes Compact, Racine-area wetlands and billions in public subsidies, so be it.
Walker wants Foxconn as distraction from his failed 250,000 new jobs promise* Trump, Walker, DNR and US EPA coordinate to ensure that SE WI will not have strongest air quality standards, rule, enforcement. #MWSA.
Making Wisconsin smoggier again* US EPA exempts SE WI and thus Foxconn site, environs from stronger clean air rules. Big win for Walker, Foxconn, but not children, seniors, joggers, asthmatics, COPD sufferers, etc.
Pharmacies, RR/ICUs big winners in latest Walker Grey Skies push* Corning said it wanted Foxconn-like subsidies to build glass sheeting plant near the Foxconn site, but Team Walker squelched that before backlash could reach DEF CON 5.
Walker nixes Foxconn-style-state payments to Corning, but...* Multiple review and permit exemptions, easy air pollution approvals and a questionable Lake Michigan diversion hurriedly greenly by the DNR for the Foxconn project are part of the larger environmental damage Walker and the GOP have wrought statewide.
Walker's lazy, loose 'policy-making' is fouling Wisconsin land, air and water* The other seven Great Lakes states have the right under the Compact to review the WI DNR's approval of a diversion for Foxconn. And history shows that other diversion approvals given additional reviews are improved.
The other Great Lakes states could review the Foxconn diversion* Wisconsin's DNR needs an updated, reality-based mission statement, given its obeisance to Foxconn and other special interests it reflexively serves through Scott Walker's 'chamber of commerce mentality.'
Walker's 'chamber of commerce mentality DNR needs a new mission statement* Walker goosed along a quick Lake Michigan water diversion approval for Foxconn, but he may run into opposition from other Great Lakes states and supporters of the Wisconsin Constitution, Article IX.
The WI DNR adds quick approval of Foxconn diversion to quick approval of air pollution permits* Yeah, says the DNR, no need to worry about Foxconn's intention to spew more than 700 tons of pollutants a year over Racine County. Next up: all that Lake Michigan water Foxconn wants, and says it will clean.
Foxconn's 4 air emission permits get quick WI DNR speed-dating* Former Gov. Tommy Thompson's sort of mea culpa about his history of harsh sentencing and Super Max imprisonment 'reforms' becomes a suggestion that a "select group of future parolees" could be tracked into Foxconn jobs.
Gov. Super Max finds new uses for prisoners* Small City of Milwaukee research agency again unearths facts about a Lake Michigan diversion.
Milwaukee report exposes state's pathetic Foxconn diversion 'due diligence* A blog reader suggests converting the 7-million-gallon-per-day Lake Michigan diversion for Foxconn and Mount Pleasant into daily tanker truckloads. It's a big, long line.
Foxconn Lake Michigan diversion = 1,100 tanker trucks everyday in a 14-mile long line.* Illinois and New York are raising the same kind of questions which Wisconsin water activists aired at a recent hearing about the legality of Foxconn's bid for a Great Lakes diversion being pushed by Gov. Walker. His DNR gets to review and can approve the application - - unless the other Great Lakes states mount substantial resistance.
Illinois, New York raise questions about Foxconn's bid for Lake Michigan water* Wisconsin pushed through the Great Lakes regional body a controversial Lake Michigan diversion for Waukesha, but the other states attached conditions due to Wisconsin's checkered environmental stewardship under Walker which could come back and bit the Foxconn diversion.
Awareness of Walker's poor water stewardship spreads to other Great Lakes states* Foxconn's likely acquisition of site land via condemnation is controversial so naturally Paul Ryan - - with a history of of opposing such practices - - is ducking that issue. He has a long record of duck-like behavior, easily tracked.
Paul Ryan, like a duck...* Walker signed the deal six months ago and road work at the Racine County site began in January. Could it be that a spate of negative stories about possible property seizures, air pollution and Lake Michigan water quality are making boosters nervous in this election year?
Boosters still touting Foxconn benefit to WI. Why now?* This is what you get when you let a Governor unleash his 'chamber of commerce mentality' onto the DNR and across state government: air pollution, CAFO-contamined drinking water, filled wetlands, state park land conveyed to private developers, etc.
From Mount Pleasant to Sheboygan, and beyond, beware developer-politician collusion* Racine County, nearby Lake Michigan and plenty of area codes far and wide will be dealing with levels of air pollutants equivalent to what is spewed by a major paper mill should the WI DNR gives Foxconn the emission permits it wants.
Wi DNR sets hearings on Foxconn's whopping air pollution ask* Remember when Kenosha decided that 'winning' Foxconn was too pricey and consequential? The Kenosha Mayor is happy with his decision, while neighboring Racine communities will pay a heavy cost in dollars, land, water, congestion, , etc.
Kenosha happy with no-risk Foxconn proximity* Walker and his GOP/business-obeisant caucus exempted Foxconn from environmental wetland permits and didn't even require a basic DNR oversight in the form of environmental impact statement for the site. But regional planners a few years wrote a comprehensive land use plan for all of Racine County that laid out the negative consequences of losing ag lands, habitat, open space, wetlands and other environmentally-significant resources. A sample:
Because of the many interacting relationships existing between living organisms and their environment, the destruction or deterioration of one important element of the total environment may lead to a chain reaction of deterioration and destruction of other elements. The drainage of wetlands, for example, may destroy fish spawning areas, wildlife habitat, groundwater recharge areas, and natural filtration and floodwater storage areas of interconnecting stream systems."Anybody else read this comprehensive report? Anybody care?
Regional planners have catalogued resources on 'WisConn' site* And, of course, enabling more allowable air pollution in SE Wisconsin has nothing to do with Foxconn. What's next for our 'chamber of commerce mentality' state under Walker? More lawn darts in the elementary schools? An end to state-sponsored cigarette cessation programs?
Walker adds dirty air to GOP's WI pollution portfolio* Wisconsin has been grabbing Great Lakes water since 1986
Foxconn diversion is 5th Great Lakes grab by imperious, outlier Wisconsin* Walker's DNR has sole approval role in Foxconn's water diversion bid. Given what Walker's done to the DNR, who think's the review will be science-based, open-minded and fair?
Walker has debased WI agency reviewing Foxconn water diversion bid* Bruce Murphy, Urban Milwaukee tracks the money.
Foxconn deal gets even worse* Foxconn says it will be a good environmental citizen and abide by all applicable rules - - which is a hollow pledge after Walker and the GOP legislature basically exempted Foxconn from routine environmental review and permit procedures that protect wetlands, streams, and lakes.
At Foxconn diversion hearing, citizen clarity, special interest chaff* At the Wednesday, 3/7 Foxconn water diversion hearing in Racine, let's get rock-solid guarantees about the return to the lake of clean wastewater - - unlike what's been reported flowing from Foxconn facilities in China.
To Walker, Foxconn: Lake Michigan is blue, not 'black-green-sudsy'* Consider where Foxconn wants to draw its daily millions of gallons of fresh water, use in its heavily absorbing and chemical-laden manufacturing processes - - and where it intends to redeposit - - treated - - about two-thirds of the draw.
Photo montage of Foxconn's water supply and discharge receptacle* Only in Wisconsin could you have the DNR urge government help in stemming habitat loss for the endangered Monarch butterfly, then a few months later approve road-building through known Monarch habitat. Because, you know, Foxconn.
DNR approves 'incidental' taking of Monarch habitat for Foxconn-roadwork* Intentional or not, there's a big omission from application filed by Racine County for a major diversion of Lake Michigan water. The application gets its one and only hearing on March 7th.
1 question about what's missing from Lake Michigan diversion plan 3/7 hearing* Idiocracy on full display as Walker strips another $90 million from the budget to fix what are the second-worst roads in America:
Walker's Foxconn Fever infects state road repair budget* The WI DNR will hold a March 7th hearing on the application to a body of Great Lakes governors under terms of a 2008 multi-state/US-Canada compact for a Foxconn Lake Michigan water diversion. That Compact set a high bar for diversions in exceptional cases to address water shortages or health issues, not to guaranty the well-being of a business that, in turn, would give one state an economic advantage by tapping into this shared, finite resource.
Foxconn diversion undermines Great Lakes Compact. Hearing 3/7.* The Village of Mount Pleasant begins blight-designation processes for Foxconn farmland and other properties for their faster acquisition to serve both the company and the state Department of
Blighted tag could get Foxconn rural land more quickly* To pay for expensive road projects like those he's promised to Foxconn, Walker would raise the gas tax, institute toll roads and even take federal infrastructure funding he once sneeringly called 'free,' even if comes with increased state matches.
Nothing matches Walker's flips on federal matching federal $$* The GOP says it likes choice, except when it comes to transportation.
How Walker sunk Amtrak funding, boosted I-94 work in Southern WI* Road tolling used to be a third rail issue in Wisconsin. Now the WI GOP is talking it up, and the need for hundreds of millions of dollars for Foxconn road-building is driving the issue.
WI road-tolling? Costly - - and no quick fix.* The report says all Foxconn plants, including Wisconsin's, could be fully automated, though it's more likely that some workers would be retained for certain tasks.
WI Foxconn plant could be robotized: report* Billions for Foxconn, millions for Kimberly-Clark all tied to Walker's failed 250-000 new jobs pledge.
Walker's famous FUBAR 250,000 new jobs pledge bites him again* Boxed in by election-year pressures and the precedent he invented, Walker is offering Foxconn-level job-retention subsidies to Kimberly-Clark (and even more widely, he says). K-C has said it is funding plant closings in Wisconsin and elsewhere with Trump-Ryan tax cut dollars. Subsidy on top of subsidy.
Desperate Walker forced to offer another company Foxconn-level subsidies* Add in the cost of marketing jobs to out-of-staters, then consider the losses to Wisconsin workers and communities if Chicagoans commute in for jobs paid for by Wisconsin taxpayers, and the true cost to Wisconsin of the Foxconn-per-job subsidy keeps rising.
Why the per-Foxconn-job subsidy is actually more than $200,000* Never has so much public money been thrown away by a Wisconsin politician.
Walker's lavish public spending on Foxconn explained* This data-driven report shows how little of Wisconsin's $4.5 billions in subsidies to Foxconn is actually directly related to job creation and sets a new standard for reporting about an unprecedented Badger State boondoggle.
Wisconsin Budget Project's invaluable Foxconn report* The Wisconsin DNR can move really fast if Foxconn has a need.
Fast-tracked 3/7 Great Lakes water diversion hearing for Foxconn* Foxconn wants huge water Lake Michigan diversion, so a lot to clean before returning it.
Foxconn's Lake Michigan diversion will exceed Waukesha's initial draw* Add air pollution to the Foxconn impact.
Foxconn will be major emitter of air pollutants* Walker figures the utility customers in WI and three more states picking up a $117 million tab for Foxconn will be too busy or curious to notice it among billions more.
Ratepayers regionally to pay for Foxconn utilities' expansion* Yorkville, in Foxconn project zone, saying "no" to water, land use changes.
Foxconn-area town balks at project's sprawl demands* Walker's new Wisconsin Idea involves sending business elsewhere.
Foxconn general contractors based in Rhode Island, Germany* Walker and the GOP legislature gave Foxconn a special fast-track route to the State Supreme Court for litigation arising in state courts. But as I predicted in November, there could be lawsuits over property seizure, and sure enough there is now a federal lawsuit on that very point which will not go on the Walker/Foxconn special state court fast-track.
Federal lawsuit detours around sweetheart WI/Foxconn fast-track* The company can quickly bulldoze the land, so why not tenants living there?
Media inquiries slow the Foxconn eviction machine* Foxconn wetlands filling begins. More to come, perhaps statewide, as what's good for Foxconn is good for every other small wetland owner in Wisconsin, GOP boosters say.
First Foxconn wetlands fill is big; more to come* Because every dollar for Foxconn roadwork is a dollar not spent filling potholes and repairing roads across the state which rank second-worst for repairs nationally.
Why no Walker ribbon-cutting on first Foxconn roadwork* Ah, what's eleven grand these days?
The $11,508 Foxconn question of the day* While potholes grow like mushrooms, Walker wants even more taxpayer transportation $$ for Foxconn.
Governor Pothole and his Foxconn infatuation* Walker after federal funds for Foxconn.
Walker's tightening Big Government embrace* Yeah, just skip that huge payment.
Try this Foxconn payment-skipping maneuver with YOUR bank* Walker starves roads statewide, finds $30 million for new road for Foxconn.
Expect Walker to deny, distract over new $30 mil. Foxconn road* Walker wants to lure environmentally-tuned in millennials to the GOP's \environmentally-degraded WI.
Walker train ad stupidity and hypocrisy, part three* Right-wing lawyers threaten local Foxconn funding.
In Wisconsin, the right is at war with itself* Leading environmental public interest law firm Midwest Environmental Advocates now following Foxconn issues.
Midwest Environmental Advocates posts Foxconn issues page* Here is the actual, 29-pagel Foxconn contract, as signed.
Here is the signed Foxconn contract* The ad features a trail biker. In WI, where Walker freshly blocked funding bike trail & sidewalk funding.
Walker's train ad stupidity and hypocrisy alert, part two* Give Walker an award for shortsightedness, hypocrisy and audacity: After killing an Amtrak extension from Madison that could have moved high-tech employees right to the heart of his so-called 'Wisconn Valley,' and reliably blocking commuter rail right through SE Wisconsin and any rail initiative in the state, Walker now wants millions from state taxpayers for ads on Illinois trains and other pitches urging Chicagoans to move here or take am Illinois train to a Foxconn job. When did he become Governor of Illinois?
Stupidity alert: Anti-train Walker now pitching WI through ads on IL trains* Basically, every woman, man, and child in Mount Pleasant just got a sprawl-inducing second mortgage.
A campaigning Walker assigns small village debt, sprawl* Again, we ask: does Foxconn need to apply for a Great Lakes diversion, as reported? Can Racine, or Mount Pleasant handle the water supply and wastewater treatment demands, and by the way, exactly what's in that discharge, anyway?
Undercovered Foxconn questions demand answers. Again.* Prediction: illegal work shifts won't be the only ugly story you read about Foxconn practices in the coming months and years.
Foxconn boosterism looking a little icky today* Summary post about the WI GOP war on the environment includes an explanation of Foxconn's coming collision with state wetland and water law.
Insiders, experts explain WI GOP's damage to the environment* Foxconn part of great WI water giveaway.
Walker, GOP officials worsen WI water, wildlife crises. Part two.* WI experts, advocates add Foxconn project the environmental dangers' list.
Walker, GOP officials worsen WI water, wildlife crises. Part one.* Foxconn is a big one, but not the first.
The con on protecting WI air, water extends far beyond Foxconn* Look past the gee-whiz promises to see who's already getting paid.
Foxconn offers gravy train, adds pie-in-the-sky* Watch Walker during 2018 spin 260 jobs into 250,000
At public expense, Foxconn gets low bar, Walker high praise* Foxconn fiscal fakery isn't Scott Walker's first foray into phony data.
Scott Walker's numbers games; the legend grows* Walker inflates Foxconn investment pledge by $! billion.
Walker hails $10 bil. Foxconn pledge; MJS says it's $9 bil.* When the hoopla ends, the hard work and choices begin
After WalkerFoxconnFest, the real meetings* Hubris alert.
Walker and Stepp were ready for Foxconn. Just ask them.* A billion here, and billion there...
Is Foxconn pledging a $10 billion investment...or is it $9 billion?* WEDC board doesn't get to see the contract after all
Slippery process: WEDC board approves Foxconn contract summary, not the actual contract* Who's on that WEDC board voting on Foxconnn in secret?
Private-sector dominated WEDC board dealing with Foxconn deal in secret* File under "not reassuring." or "Duh!"
Vos praises WEDC...for doing its job* The Nov. 6 secret Foxconn review session WEDC deigned to hold is a sham.
Rolling dice for Foxconn, in secret, with our money* A ray of sunshine forced on Foxconn contract.
Tim Carpenter wins a Foxconn round for the people* Props to Madison writer Lawrence Tabak.
Tremendous addition to our Foxconn awareness* In perspective: the con began long before Foxconn.
How Walker is privatizing and selling off Wisconsin* Exhibit "A" - - Walker's gift or public waters to Foxconn.
Walker will float campaign on our water* Loopholes shield Foxconn FUBAR contract from public view.
Foxconn's banker WEDC subject to open records. Or not* Walker's WEDC: Foxconn contract, history withheld from public.
Walker's Foxconn cover-up gets worse* More proof that Foxconn's environmental exemptions are the proverbial camel's nose in the people's water tent.
Wisconsin water grabbers are at it. Again.* Vos got Foxconn, big highway deal, still griping.
Why Robin Vos' losing hit on fellow Republicans is so irrational* Foxconn giveaways targeted to SE WI, now mysteriously delayed.
Walker's '18 campaign baggage getting heavier* Fixing FUBAR Foxconn contract w/out saying "drafting error." And more.
Scott Walker: Clean up on aisle '18* The Foxconn contract FUBAR is being covered up.
Walker's Foxconn coverup clock is running* Foxconn deal delayed.
What? Foxconn deal isn't ready at WEDC?* Foxconn now driving the WI highway budget & away from everyday needs.
Hurried $252 Foxconn million for I-94 N/S is both outrage and chicken feed* Villages take more time to ponder building a schoo.l
Locals pushed to hand Foxconn $764 million* Will Racine area cabbage fields sprout lemons?
Foxconn's $764 million local shares get aired this week* Saying 'trust the company' overlooks reality and the record.
Booster discharges murky Foxconn spin* Yipes! Local taxpayers will pony up $764 million local dollars For Foxconn.
$764 million cost of Foxconn 'win' for WI local government* Rush in WI to legislate broad environmental rollbacks statewide, Foxconn-style.
In post-Foxconn WI, GOP is done w/air, wetlands law* The Foxconn measuring stick.
Foxconn gets swift [WI AG] Schimel boost, rape kits get indolence* About Walker overpaying for Foxconn by a factor of five.
So Scott Walker walks into an auction...* Major fox in the Foxconn chicken coop.
Walker names Great Lakes Compact foe as key Foxconn aide* Oh, those Foxconn obstacles.
Fast-tracked Foxconn mix could sour* $3 billion bet on his re-election campaign. Then on jobs.
Note to NY Times: Foxconn is about Walker re-election. Then jobs.* Walker-led GOP group whitewashes his past, Foxconn future.
Walker shills rewrite his job creation record, Foxconn outlook* Really painful, stupefying irony alert.
Foxconn bill signing to spotlight Walker/Vos transportation incompetence* Walker, Foxconn and the "s" word.
Scott Walker's missing Foxconn word* Foxconn deal underscores Walker's 'chamber of commerce mentality 'governance.
Walker's WI is model hard-right "chamber of commerce" state* Oh, and about that little overlooked Foxconn item - - a Lake MI diversion.
Foxconn water diversion story needed more attention* Viewing Foxconn through Walker's discarded ethics lens.
Walker's deleted ethics code could have skewed Foxconn giving, lobbying* Foxconn is Walker's biggest use of gov't to pick winners and losers, yet...
Despite denials, Walker uses gov't. to pick winners & losers* WI Senate joins the Foxconn parade
Wis conned. GOP-led State Senate gives OK to unprecedented giveaways.* Not this special favor for Foxconn, this one!
WI GOP Senate Leader adds phantom judicial 'restriction' to Foxconn deal* Foxconn settles on Racine County, despite flooding history there.
Foxconn headed for flood-prone Racine County* Foxconn might feel it's the one which got conned.
For new WI mines, more env. giveaways than Foxconn got* Along with tax breaks, free highway work - - special Supreme Court access.
WI GOP lawmakers hand Foxconn newer, bigger favor* One potential Foxconn locale is struggling with the opportunity.
With Foxconn looming, Mount Pleasant had a meltdown* Out-going DNR Secretary Stepp spills the beans.
DNR's Stepp says a Foxconn was the plan all along* Holding Foxconn to the Walker/Trump environmental (will-wink) 'standards.'
Exposing Walker's environmental Foxconn con* 'No-tax-increase Walker' might just raise local taxes.
Add local taxpayers to school on cusp of Foxconning* WI may find Foxconn draining education funding.
WI legislators, on educ. funding today, could show Foxconn effect* Latest news: Foxconn's billion-dollar 'strain' on state budgets, or "D'uh!"
Go suck on $1 billion worth of lemons, Bucky* At least this time he didn't call you an ISIS fighter.
Vintage Walker uses Foxconn to flip off the people* A rushed project would not need so many corrections.
Another day, another Foxconn data correction.* GOP leaders Walker/Vos/Stepp have long failed job creation, environmental protection pledges.
On Foxconn assurances, consider the sources and histories* 13,000 jobs? No accident that the Assembly and public didn't have all the facts.
Put Foxconn on hold until Walker explains data suppression* Robin Vos, reckless and feckless.
Robin Vos trivialized $3 billion, ignored shocking jobs info* Dispensing with clean blue water, green legacy.
Green? WI GOP likes brown, orange, perhaps blackish and 'sudsy'* And the next shoe drops.
Seeing Foxconn 'win, WI GOP env. wrecking crew eyes mining favors* Walker, GOP laid Foxconn groundwork years ago.
Foxconn favors are basic to Walker, GOP's sloppy playbook* Walker evades leadership from #Foxconn to #Charlottesville.
On jobs, moral leadership, persistent Walker con* Reality, troubling numbers, no state budget mean nothing to GOP legislature.
GOP Foxconn votes proceed robotically as jobs, revenue estimates fall* New Foxconn bill version, same environmental rollbacks, records show.
Amended Foxconn bill retains env. waivers, special privileges* Changing the rules to fit the players.
As WI, GOP change the rules for Foxconn, a reminder* WI will subsidize Foxconn jobs paying nowhere near family-supporting wages.
WI now talking about <$15-per-hour Foxconn jobs* Now they're just wishing and hoping.
Witless Walker's farcical Foxconn fix* The Chicago Sun-Times 'thanks' Walker for pro-Illinois Foxconn plan.
Another bad review for Walker's Foxconn deal* Now we look for solace to Scott Fitzgerald (!) as Foxconn gets horrible reviews.
Foxconn doubters turn their lonely eyes to...Scott Fitzgerald!* Foxconn is to get a pass from normal DNR reviews, which is fine with the DNR.
Stepp puts the DNR in on Foxconn env. evasion* Walker told his Foxconn critics to 'go suck lemons.' Then...
Sucking lemons - - or absorbing buyer's remorse - - for 26 sucking years* Walker's fake-news Foxconn projects are collapsing.
Foxconn taxpayer projections zoom, payroll benefits plunge* No surprise that major WI polluting industry. wants env. exemptions.
If Foxconn is exempted from env. oversight, why not CAFOs?* Who's to say that Foxconn privileges won't be applied statewide?
And if environmental rules and laws are waived for Foxconn...* Does Michigan have better deal-makers than Wisconsin?
Foxconn eyes Michigan for high tech development site* Water law expert says Foxconn environmental rollback endangers the deal.
Noted water law expert predicts WI officials' Foxconn 'bungle'* The Walker/WMC tag team.
Foxconn to locate at intersection of Walker and WMC avenues* Big business laughs off Foxconn project environmental concerns.
Wisconsin Biz lobby sneers at routine Wisconsin conservation guarantee* Walker never saw a wetland he didn't want filled.
Walker's giveaway Foxconn bill extends his war on wetlands* Zoo Interchange completion $$ rerouted to another project for Foxconn.
Because the I-94 Vos/Foxconn exit isn't in the Zoo Interchange* Foxconn process 'open,' says Walker after closed door briefing for GOP caucuses.
Walker opens 'open' Foxconn FavorFest behind closed doors* Walker, Ryan producing Foxconn political ads.
Walker giveth to Foxconn, taketh for his re-election* Walker would allow Foxconn 19th century 'environmental' practices.
'Wisconsin Valley' or Wisconsin, Inc. dead zone?* The Legislature pushed to re-create Wisconsin as Wisconsin, Inc.
Rushed Foxconn special session set for 11 a.m. August 1* SE WI communities should worry about what Walker wants to do with their budgets, tax collections:
For Foxconn, Walker bets your farm, breaks the bank(s)* Walker, AG and legislature could give away what's not theirs:
Foxconn favors face WI Constitutional barrier* GOP Wi Attorney General Brad Schimel weighs in, pre-emptively and rhetorically.
Greenlight for Foxconn in WI AG's Tweet, rhetoric* Walker to convert Wisconsin to Wisconn without a constitutional convention, and if you don't like it, 'go suck lemons."
Walker to sacrifice DNR, PSC and WisDot integrity for 'Wisconn'* The cynical pot has his say.
Walker - - Gov. Cynicism - - decries Foxconn 'cynics'* Walker already has '18 campaign in Foxconn frame.
About Walker's '18 election Foxconn over-under* In Walker's Wisconsin, some blue-collar jobs are more important than others.
Walker touts Foxconn construction jobs, threw away Amtrak's* Walker, Trump should become the new champions of Great Lakes preservation and climate change science.
Great Lakes water lifts Foxconn deal* About jobs.
3,000 Foxconn jobs would not = 3,776 WI mfg. jobs lost in '16* Are HB-5 $$-for-visas in the deal?
Are green cards for investment in a Foxconn-WI deal?* Public dollars needed.
How many WI dollars will Walker give super-wealthy Foxconn?* When Foxconn stiffed another state.
If you've got Foxconn fever, remember Pennsylvania's hangover* Vos blocked transit Foxconn workers could have used.
Vos' long transit blockade does not help Racine's Foxconn future* Walker killed Amtrak service Foxconn might have loved.
Amtrak line killed by Walker could have fed Foxconn* Vos has a budget power move.
Vos plays Foxconn card in WI budget fight* For quick Japan trip, Walker kept Foxconn secret
Desperate Walker on 48-hour jobs mission - - to Japan
The assurances from Assembly Speaker Vos and others won't be the only things washed off this site.
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| The assurances from Assembly Speaker Vos and others won't be the only things washed off this site. |
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