WI faces epidemic with new leaders who respect science

Granted there are many unknowns, but we can say with certainty that Wisconsin will be led through the challenges of the dangerous coronavirus outbreak by Democratic Governor Tony Evers - - 

 - - a former high school science teacher and holder of a Ph.D - - and not an anti-science career politician who left his Marquette University studies a few credits short of junior status and never missed a chance as governor to disregard science in favor of favors for his allies.

And every time I read about the shortage of coronavirus testing kits our intentionally-underfunded-and-staffed Centers for Disease Control had on hand after Trump had decimated the agency, the phrase "testing kits" conjures the scandalous unwillingness of the previous Wisconsin administration and GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel to work through a huge backlog of untested rape kit evidence on behalf of numerous victims and societal justice.

Which Walker shrugged off by rewarding Schimel with a judgeship in Waukesha County a couple of days after they both lost their 2018 elections - - a judgeship for which Schimel had himself recommended others - - another commentary on Walker and Schimel's preferences for self-dealing and partisanship over endorsing expertise.

The blunt truth is that eight years of GOP reign which Evers and AG Josh Kaul finally closed out was an era of the dismissal of science and expertise, creating shortfalls, gaps and missed opportunities in policy-making and the production of good information for residents, taxpayers and their children - - from providing cleaner air to addressing climate change to fighting deer wasting disease.

Many experts inside and outside of the DNR - - but who interacted with it - - repeatedly offered details about the damage being done by Team Walker and for special interests - - which I twice published as their submissions accumulated, here and also here: 

*  A third former staffer said: 

The most alarming issue to me is the great waste of decades of sound science, compiled overtime in on-going studies and data collection. WI had more information about our natural landscape than most states. Abolishing science services put an end to decades long studies vital to maintaining and recovering rare and endangered plants and animals as well as understanding natural communities as information on resilience for climate change. 

* A current employe on personal time echoed many of the lobbyists and former staffers'  observations:

Under Walker and Stepp, science is not a priority. Scientific knowledge is ever-changing but in Wisconsin our staff are being left behind. We no longer have a statistician to help interpret data, a library to provide journals or books, or researchers that monitor fish counts, wildlife health, air quality, water quality and etc….employee scientific knowledge and data specific to WI is stagnant...we cannot do the best job possible for our state. 

The DNR is currently run by people who understand public relations spin but not the complexity of the natural resources they are responsible for...Communications staff, generally not trained specifically in resource communication, answer questions with talking points..usually developed by upper management - political appointees - and legal staff. The information provided is biased and superficial.

Republicans even slowed actions to keep toxic phosphorous discharges out of state rivers and streams, and made it easier for manure and nitrates to contaminate rural wells near animal feedlots.

Walker's 'legacy' further stained by more brown in the drinking water

Set aside the b.s. that Walker is pushing as his 'legacy' and focus on the actual b.s. people in Wisconsin are drinking:

Hazardous drinking water found in 42% of southwest Wisconsin wells

This is on Walker, and for that matter, his devoted water carriers - - whether those already polluted or at risk - - named Robin Vos and Scott Fitzgerald - - who were given their marching orders and aligned the Legislature with corporate water hogs statewide.

And people with open contempt for science like former, long-term DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp were put into positions of authority where expertise, institutional memory and public health were not allowed to drive public spending and workforce decisions.

You can read her own words here in a post which contained the full text of a nasty, anti-DNR rant she'd written before Walker handed her the reins at the DNR - - a partisan and petty rant she has since taken down:

Those of you that haven't had the pleasure of peeking behind the scenes of our state agencies like DNR, Health and Family Services, etc...need to know how some of the most far-reaching policies come down on our heads.

The most crushing/controversial rules that businesses have to follow in our state are--most times--done through the "rule making process" of our state agencies. Without bogging everyone down with some really boring procedure talk, suffice it to say that many of these great ideas (sarcasm) come from deep inside the agencies and tend to be reflections of that agency's culture.

For example, people who go to work for the DNR's land, waste, and water bureaus tend to be anti-development, anti-transportation, and pro-garter snakes, karner blue butterflies, etc...This is in their nature; their make-up and DNA. So, since they're unelected bureaucrats who have only their cubicle walls to bounce ideas off of, they tend to come up with some pretty outrageous stuff that those of us in the real world have to contend with.

Stepp's contempt - - which she took for several years to top EPA posits handed her by Walker's ally Donald trump - - was blatant, ideological and unapologetic:

DNR Secretary Stepp unaware of clean air, water value

Someone better pass the word to Cathy Stepp, our DNR Secretary:

DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp, a former homebuilder, recalled at one agency listening session how an employee told her that “clean air and clean water, that those were our customers. 

And [she] said, ‘Well, the last time I checked, they don’t pay taxes and they don’t sign our paychecks.’ “

Towards the end of 2018, I put together a 21-part blog series on Walker's attack on clean air, fresh water, good science and the only environment we have.

Of the 21 installments, this one focusing on science continues to be the most-downloaded. 

Walker's 8-year attack on Wisconsin's environment. Part 18. The 33 times science was dissed, dismissed.

So I feel better knowing that a person with Evers mindset and background is now in charge of state government, as this Oct. 8, 2018 tweet of his makes clear:

As a former science teacher I can tell you this: I believe in science. It’s time to stop the partisan nonsense and take commonsense action — because work on climate change simply cannot wait. 

Can you imagine if that same Walker/Stepp/Schimel crew were still in charge of preparing the state for a pandemic, let alone guiding us through it?