More off-leash bear-chasing hounds killed by wolves. Hounders get fat WI reimbursements.

[Updated] In Wisconsin, a hunting dog can be the owner's best friend, or a free $2,500 state check if the dog is sent to a violent death while chasing bears through wolf territory.

A state-issued license to run hounds against bears as training for e hunt is no longer required, so the hounders during a two-month summer training period can release their dogs at will.

The Wisconsin DNR has reported the 13th and 14th hound deaths by wolves during the legal, July-August bear hunt training season. This is the period during which owners release hounds off-leash and may apply to the state for a $2,500 reimbursement per dog killed by wolves which den and rendezvous where some hounders insist on running their dogs.

The actual bear-hunting season takes place from September 4-October 8;  something above 3,500 bears will be killed by around 13,000 licensed hunters out of roughly 125,000 license applicants.

It's worth noting that what the DNR's bear plan is regulating - - here is its recently updated plan - - is wildlife which belongs to all the people of the state and not to any group or portion of the population.

Yet hounders are legally permitted to release their packs of dogs to harass and tree bears, along with the wolves which are biologically-equipped to fight back.

One of the hounds in the latest DNR report on dog-wolf encounters Friday was a Redtick, similar to this one:

I track this only-in-Wisconsin payment program, and wrote a few days ago - - as I have often over the last few years - - that the number of dogs lost in this state-sanctioned animal cruelty in total exceeds 350, at a cost in public funds sure to pass the $800,000 mark this year.

That’s a lot of money which could be spent on public purposes. Could these northern counties, towns, and villages use these thousands of dollars instead for their local parks, fisheries, roads, schools, law enforcement, home care workers, and so on?

Payments to the hounders may be obtained by scofflaws, repeat claimants and careless handlers who release their dogs in or near known wolf pack territory, or bear baiting deposits which can also attract wolves.

The DNR posts warnings and maps, but some hounders obviously ignore them.

08/14/2019

Burnett

1 Hunting dog killed (Bluetick/Walker mix, 8-year old male)

Burnett depredation location map [PDF]

As I wrote in 2016 - - and regrettably only the numbers change:

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources records show that 28 bear hounds have died in this gruesome fashion this year, and a stunning 25 of these hounds have been killed just this month.

The reimbursement program was created by the Legislature in 1985 and is backed by powerful hunting lobbies, and the relationship between the payments and the dog death toll has been noted over the years. 

A recent study found that Wisconsin has a higher dog casualty rate than Michigan, which also allows their use in bear hunts. The lead author, a Michigan Tech wildlife ecologist, speculated that Wisconsin’s compensation program creates "an incentive for abuse" — that is, hunters who deliberately put their dogs at great risk.

Note also this 2015 blog post on many of the same issues: 

Enabled by a powerful lobby, the State of Wisconsin has eased some bear hunting rules to facilitate another seasonal "harvest" kill in the thousands.

Scroll down to the Wisconsin DNR's explanation:

The past six seasons have ranked as the top six bear harvests in Wisconsin history, and this trend is likely to continue with a record number of permits made available in 2015 (10,690). Wisconsin consistently ranks as one of the top bear harvest states in the country...

Bear hunters should be aware of a few important changes to bear hunting regulations in 2015. State law was recently changed to eliminate the Class B bear license; a Class B license is no longer required to bait bears, train dogs to track bears, act as a back-up shooter, or assist hunters with pursuing bears (provided that a person does not shoot, shoot at, capture, take or kill the bear unless acting as a back-up shooter). Any individual may now participate in bear hunting and training activities without a Class B bear license any time those activities are permitted and in compliance with applicable regulations...

In 2014, hunters harvested 4,526 bears - the third highest harvest in state history...

Gun hunters harvested 3,776 bears in 2014, while bow hunters accounted for 695 bears. A majority of bears were harvested using bait (3,395), but the use of both dogs and bait (995) and neither dogs nor bait (69) was also successful. 

Various DNR webpages reference the "thrill" of bear hunting or its "quality experience," and the agency's large carnivore expert told the Wisconsin Bear Hunter's Association in a pre-hunting season missive that the state provides a "high quality bear hunting experience."

Speaking of bear hunting and dogs, another DNR webpage discloses that in the last few weeks, nine dogs training against bears have been killed by wolves... 

For three years earlier in the decade, wolves were removed from federal protection and hundreds were killed in Wisconsin, principally through heads shots delivered to trapped animals in a hunting season which allowed the use of dogs in the seasons' last few days.

That bloodshed was stopped by a federal judge because states like Wisconsin were 'managing' the hunts with lax and ineffective 'regulation,' as I wrote in December, 2014:

Despite the obvious, WI DNR lets hounders kill out-of-quota wolves

The carcasses of eight wolves shot and killed last week in Wisconsin - - six of which were chased down by packs of hunting dogs, records show - - could have been figuratively deposited at the doorstep of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources because the agency treated them as disposable, special-interest trophies.... 

As the 2014 Wisconsin wolf hunting season approached its DNR-established quota of 150 kills last month, it became clear that permissible delays in kill-reporting could push the total above 150 quota - - unless the agency moved pre-emptively to close the season...and data received...from the DNR through an Open Records request lets you plot how that overkill to 154 from 150 took place, with six of the final eight wolf killings occurring with the "aid of dogs" - - an only-in-Wisconsin practice.

Northern WI GOP GOP Rep. Sean Duffy is promoting fresh removal of federal wolf protection.

This is the sparse method through which the DNR reports these hound deaths on a web page:

08/22/2019	Marinette	1 Hunting dog killed (Plott, 5-year old male)	Marinette depredation location map [PDF]
08/23/2019	Price	1 Hunting dog killed (Red Tick, 6-year old male)	Price depredation location map [PDF]

Walker, Vos to WI motorists: Ciao, suckers!

Hey, motorists in southern Wisconsin: If you worried that Walker and Vos were sharing your pain, stop fretting. They're not.

So let's tie together their legacy of highway delays, no-transit-road-congestion and dangerous, one-dimensionally corrupted public policy noted here and here on this blog recently -  - 

Vos, Walker blocked commuter rail in congested, deadly I-94 corridor

Walker's killing Madison-MKE rail didn't help capital win DNC hotel business 

Walker was last seen on Twitter having fun on his motorcycle, chowing down here and there and enjoying the beautiful outdoors in Wyoming. 

You can find that video yourself on his page on Aug. 19- - 

Got to love finding a swing on my way up the mountain in Jackson Hole! 

Wheeeee - - 

 - - with the vista he shared that reminds me of the Penokee Hills in NW Wisconsin he was all for flattening for the open-pit iron ore mining company which boosted a third-party Walker recall campaign ally with a quiet $700,000.

And Vos: 


Italy, here I come during the Assembly's vacation schedule he submitted

Ciao!! and Wheeeeeee!!

Monarch Trail celebration looks like good Sunday event

Always a nice event. Check it out. 

Tour de las Mariposas   Celebrate with the Friends of the Monarch Trail! Sunday, Aug. 25th, 4 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. at the Echelon Commons, 9810 Eschweiler Dr., Wauwatosa, WI. The Monarch Migration, a  2,500 mile flight to Mexico, will begin soon and we will wish them safe travels!  Come on a guided tour of the Monarch Conservancy and D.O.T. easement to see the progress of the restoration, learn about the monarchs’ life cycle, and spend a little time enjoying this natural sanctuary.  Parking along Discovery Dr. or Parks Department lot.  Look for the colorful banners. Hope to see you!! butterflybarb www.theMonarchTrail.org

Vos, Walker blocked commuter rail in congested, deadly I-94 corridor

5:45 p.m. Update: A Friday afternoon crash has caused a 2.5 hour delay in the zone. 
---------------

Let's continue to highlight what happens when right-wing WI GOP pols say 'no' to passenger rail, options.

* Earlier Friday morning I posted a reminder that Walker intentionally killed a federally-paid Amtrak connection between our state's two largest cities, Madison and Milwaukee.

I suggested that the absence of an Amtrak link probably didn't help make Madison, despite all its amenities, a super-attractive location to house visitors and delegates attending the Democratic National Convention in downtown Milwaukee.

Where events will take place within walking distance of the downtown Amtrak station.

And which would have been itself better connected by separate streetcar and light rail services had GOP pols for decades, with partisan and talk radio support, not slowed or blocked those options, too.

Had plans unfolded on schedule, the starter light rail, with an estimated 21,000 riders on weekdays, would have opened in 2006 and run about 10 miles from the Third Ward to Summerfest, downtown, Miller Park, the Milwaukee County Zoo and the County Grounds. Talk about a missed opportunity

* Similarly, I want to post a reminder that Walker and Robin Vos, the anti-transit GOP Assembly Speaker, also killed planning for a non-Amtrak commuter train line using equipment similar to the Chicagoland's METRA - -



for the K-R-M - - Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee local service - - which would have made 15 round trip runs daily to as many as 33 stops - - as an alternate to driving on I-94 - - per this regional planning document:

It will include stations for each of the communities identified in the previous phase of the KRM study including Kenosha, Somers, Racine, Caledonia, Oak Creek, South Milwaukee, Cudahy/St. Francis, South Side Milwaukee, and Downtown Milwaukee.

In other words, parallel to the same stretch of highway being 'upgraded' at Vos and Walker's behest to serve the road-builders and perhaps Foxconn's whatever/whenever - - the same stretch of highway where there have been more than 1,000 vehicle crashes in just over a year due to nightmarish congestion and lane-crowding, and other planning deficits:

Major props to the Racine Journal Times for digging our the deeper data: that underscores that investigative need, given how badly Wisconsin officials botched its planning and continuing oversight:

Crashes spike in I-94 work zone, traffic stops 'unsafe for everyone involved'

The project has turned an 18-mile, three-county-spanning stretch of I-94 into a perilous cacophony of orange barrels and lane shifts in which more than 1,000 crashes have occurred and over 200 people have been injured in just over a year, a Journal Times investigation has found.

Vos pushed hard for the fast-tracked I-94 project.

He's also described as most responsible for blocking the K-R-M and similar statewide regional transit authorities.

...state Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester), the KRM's most powerful opponent, pushed through the measure to kill the RTA, leaving no one to fund or run the KRM. 

* Yeah, this is same duo I wrote about in 2017:

Vos' long transit blockade does not help Racine's Foxconn future  

...right-wing GOP WI Governor Scott Walker's foolish blockade of an Amtrak extension from SE Wisconsin to Madison and the rest of Midwestern inter-city rail expansion removed development-based rail connections which would have fed potential employment for high-tech Foxconn should it build a mega-factory in Racine County:

Right-wing GOP WI Governor and shallow ideologue Scott Walker for the narrowest of partisan and self-serving political motives wiped out the federally-funded Hiawatha Amtrak connection between Madison and Milwaukee and south through Racine County to Chicago.

I also wrote last week that right-wing and fellow Walkerite transit foe GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was using the possible Foxconn project's trucking needs to press Walker to fund a faster completion of I-94 re-construction and expansion through Racine County which is Vos' home base and the heavily-rumored site for the Foxconn factory.

But as I documented Walker's short-sighted blockade of the Amtrak extension, let's also document Vos's one-note opposition to transit which can bring workers more easily to their jobs - - especially if they do not have cars or do not care to spend hours everyday on congested highways or potholed roads on what are rated America's second-worst state roads.

The record shows that:

* Vos got the 2011 legislature to ban regional transit authorities, (RTAs), a move, by the way,  which has effectively blocked the construction of a commuter rail line (the KRM), linking Kenosha, Racine (Vos' home county) and Milwaukee counties, thus denying his own constituents rail services that also were to include an easy transfer to Chicago's METRA commuter service.

The KRM would have been a great selling point to Foxconn: 

*  Remember also that every time a transit plan lands on the table, Republicans like Walker and Vos kill it by saying it's too expensive - - but show them plans for news lanes and suddenly money is no object.  

Walker began pulling highway comedy from other projects to get the Foxconn road-building binge started, and as I reminded readers before, made the motion to begin the entire SE WI 'freeway' [sic] multi-billion binge without any dedicated financing in hand and threw in an extra $750 million dollop for good measure:

Walker motion in 2003 tripped off SE highway overspending

The Wisconsin Legislature is grappling with a state highway budget unsustainably bloated by reckless borrowing and overspending on the so-called SE 'free'way system - - a problem that has helped stall the entire state budget process while preposterous presidential hopeful Scott Walker keeps skipping out to campaign from Iowa to New Hampshire and beyond.

So it's important to remember that Walker - - as Milwaukee County Executive - - played a key role in 2003 on a SE regional planning commission advisory committee which voted, without a companion financing plan, to recommend to state highway planners that Wisconsin add to the SE 'freeway' system the maximum number of new lanes among the alternatives considered - - 127 miles of lanes instead of 108 - - in what ultimately became a rail-free $6.4 billion package.

Walker's motion added an estimated $750 million to the ultimate price tag and also increased the number of structures and land removed from the tax base. 

As I said, these many FUBAR transportation disconnects were intentional, ideologically-driven decisions, and the negative consequences, like the colliding vehicles on I-94, keep piling up. 

Walker's killing Madison-MKE rail didn't help capital win DNC hotel business

I'm not privy to any inside information, but I'll bet Madison hotels might have had a better shot at housing some 2020 Democratic National Convention delegations and attendees if the city had an Amtrak connection to downtown Milwaukee.

From downtown Milwaukee, and within walking distance of the convention site, Amtrak runs seven daily round-trips "Hiawatha"-line trains to Chicago, but Scott Walker, for ideological and partisan reasons, derailed a similar, long-overdue Milwaukee-Madison connection which was to be built with Obama-era stimulus funding, as Wisconsinites know all too well.

These were two of the Talgo trains built in Milwaukee - - 
 
- - but which have moved on at a big loss to Wisconsin construction workers and taxpayers - - and to potential paying customers and rail-friendly businesses in the Milwaukee-Madison corridor.

For out-of-staters, here's most of the story:.

In Job Poor State, Walker Derailed Wisconsin's Emerging Rail Industry

With this update:

Talgo to keep trains, get $10 million more in settlement

And another one:

Amtrak line killed by Walker could have fed Foxconn

List of must-see WI parks includes 1 in golf course bulls-eye

Just for the record, Kohler Andrae State Park which is in this feature story's recommended list would lose land and trees right here - -

to an upscale golf course if ultimately approved.

And two others in the parks' feature  - - Amnicon and Copper Falls - - could have been gotten a share of dust, noise and water pollution had a giant open-pit iron ore mine Walker was promoting been blasted in the region for its predicted 35-mountain-top-removal assault on the Penokee Hills.

Check in with Friends of the Black River Forest for updates on its efforts to preserve all of Kohler-Andrae State Parks woods, wildlife habitat, rare dunes and important wetlands.

So salute the Bad River Band of Ojibwe for driving a successful battle to save the region's identity, Penokee Hills and water, and for making a new stand against an Enbridge oil pipeline that is a disaster waiting to happen.

WI road planners made I-94 N/S near Foxconn a danger zone

I'd said in June that federal transportation safety officials should be looking into the rash of crashes in the I-94 construction zone with the Foxconn zone at its center.

Will officials examine rash of major I-94 crashes, Milwaukee-IL state line?

[6/21/19 update]: A post-crash WisDOT assessment that standard protocols had been followed suggest the agency is out-of-touch with drivers' perceptions that the area is dangerous. I stand by my call for a federal safety investigation, below - - and before the next several crashes.

So major props to the Racine Journal Times for digging our the deeper data that underscores that investigative need, given how badly Wisconsin officials botched its planning and continuing oversight:

Crashes spike in I-94 work zone, traffic stops 'unsafe for everyone involved'

The project has turned an 18-mile, three-county-spanning stretch of I-94 into a perilous cacophony of orange barrels and lane shifts in which more than 1,000 crashes have occurred and over 200 people have been injured in just over a year, a Journal Times investigation has found.

I will add this post to my continuous Foxconn archive now with more than 350 posts, here. 

  

Trump says he's the messiah. Cong. Dems are enabling the peril.

Trump looks to the sky and says "I am the chosen one."

Stop playing 'What if Obama said that?,' and ask yourself this:

Can you blame him for believing it?

He launched a racist campaign for President - - with enough life-long personal and financial baggage to fit in an airbus cargo hold - - and no Republican stopped him.

He mocked a disabled reporter, smeared the wounded war hero John McCain, encouraged violence at his rallies, and solicited the help of Russia to further damaged his rival Hillary Clinton. 

No TV network stopped running his toxic events, 24/7.

He lost the popular vote by millions, but won the presidency through electoral college balloting established in the Constitution to protect smaller, slave-owning states from domination by the larger northern, slavery-free jurisdictions.

The manager of his campaign is now in prison, while Trump plays golf at taxpayer expense every weekend.

Trump's long-time lawyer who fixed messy personal situations before they could tarnish the campaign is also in prison. 

While Trump flies Air Force One to his elite Florida private club where he doubled the six-figure membership fee to further monetize his presidency.

Because the cash flow from his DC luxury hotel made possible by a sweetheart arrangement with his federal government landlord - - and his network of family businesses he stilll owns - - can always always use a supplement. Among the major donors to that scam are special interests and foreign governments which do business with his administration.

With apologies to another well-heeled hotelier, rules are for little people.

In other words, there are no standards, or limitations or consequences which Trump has been made to follow or endure, which is the way dictators and deities prefer to roll.

The Mueller Report? Bill Barr, Trump's new and improved Roy Cohn took care of that.

The access Hollywood tape. Assange and #1 Pal Putin swatted that away.

10,000 lies? Fox News, right-wing talk radio acolytes and other run-of-the-mill propagandists will clean that up.


Not to mention what a legion of lesser but effective grassroots sycophants are doing on an always-available basis.

Name your state, pick your water-carrier: Rubio in Florida. Kohach in Kansas. Ryan, Walker and Johnson in Wisconsin.

And deep in the hive, unseen, the anonymously but reliably droning Fitzgeralds, Voses and Duffys, whether caged kids, assault-weapons-on-demand, another tax break for Trump's donors or whichever favor-of-the-day needs selling and spinning.

The cult of Trump has always relied helpers eager to do the dirty work

No wonder Trump's grandiosity has given way to a God complex. Political gravity? Trump said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York City without consequence, and so far, he's right.

Earthly restraints? You and I and certainly the chosen one can see that ground support dropped their tethers, leaving his free to rise above it all.

And shooting the innocent? That will continue in American schools and synagogues and shopping malls because Trump is caving to the NRA on commonsense and popular gun ownership reforms, and Congress will not overrule the ruler.

And speaking of Congress - - Trump's norm-free, morality-free, America-busting reign of error will continue at least through 2024 - - because who says he isn't just our new presidential prototype - - unless Congressional Democrats toss off their torpor and get busy with impeachment proceedings.

Every day they stay in their self-imposed stupor is another 24 hours that reinforces their weakness, validates a messianic mind and harms a suffering nation.

DNR's housecleaning not the one I'd hoped for

When I read the first few words of this Journal Sentinel story's headline...

DNR beginning to clean out...

I seriously thought all the Walker, Stepp and Tom Tiffany corporate bellhops and anti-science hacks had finally been rooted out and walked to the front door.

Sadly, this is the entire headline:

DNR beginning to clean out hidden bunker used by Wisconsin fugitive

Well, a blogger can dream. 

Denmark discovers something is rotten in America

Just an old Masters in English here tipping the cap to Hamlet and The Bard:

In Denmark, Bewilderment and Anger Over Trump's Canceled Visit

Though it's not a perfect fit, as Hamlet feared Norway, while Trump wishes we could bring more so-white Norweigans here.

Though it's interesting that the Dutch rebuffed Trump's offer to buy the whole Greenland yard sale, and the Norwegians rebuffed him, too:

'Thanks, but no thanks' - Norwegians reject Trump's immigrati on offer

Poor baby: Trump can't buy anyone's affections. 

DNR accepting written comments through 9/19 on Waukesha's Great Lakes diversion

Because it's important to keep making a record.

Through the die has been cast, the WI DNR is obliged to take public comments through 9/19 on aspects of Waukesha's already-approved Great Lakes diversion and return flow scheme. 

 * Here's where and to send your comments:

Emails can be sent to dnroeeacomments@wi.gov through Sept. 19.

  * Here is one media account of Tuesday's night public session about the diversion which the DNR held in Waukesha:  

The DNR is looking specifically at the impact to waterways and wetlands for a pipeline that will bring water from Lake Michigan to the city of Waukesha through Milwaukee and safely funnel wastewater back to the lake using the Root River...

"We’re trying to put a lot of pressure here to make sure that we’re setting a really high bar that's going to protect the Great Lakes," Cheryl Nenn said, who’s monitored the project as part of the group Milwaukee Riverkeeper. 

  * Here is a recent blog item about it:

Will Waukesha and DNR as the referee be asked to spell out how properties outside of the city will be supplied water and sewer services even though the diversion agreement explicitly put limitations on those secondary, beyond Waukesha exceptions?

The question is relevant because it directly speaks to whether Waukesha gets to add tax base and fuel sprawl outside of the Great Lakes basin with Great Lakes water 

 

while adding wastewater to Lake Michigan treated to a lesser standard than what a connection to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage Commission could produce.

Trump knifes corn growers, then says 'rescue me.' For 2020.

Remember that lesson in Management 101: Don't let others make their problems your problems.

Well, the worst boss, ever, is at it again.

After launching an 'initiative,' Trump brings in the targets of his farm states' initiative - - 



- - and asks them to help him come up with a plan around the mess he created:

Trump Seeks to Allay Farm-State Uproar in Oval Office Meeting

The flurry of discussions is in keeping with the president’s practice of searching for immediate fixes to thorny policy disputes, from a border wall to the tax overhaul, sometimes impulsively endorsing just-advanced ideas that haven’t been deeply vetted.  

No doubt he remembered after he'd sandbagged Iowa corn growers that Iowa has those early caucuses.

Maybe Trump the Tariff and Baby-Caging King 



should try that fix-the-problem-I-laid-on-you tactic with steelworkers getting laid off in Michigan, dairy farmers failing in Wisconsin, soybean growers locked out of export markets and babies sitting in their filth in his cages.

Kind of like discovering your sewer service suddenly cut you off, then asks you to come in and help pick which outhouse design you prefer.

2 more WI hounds thrown to wolves. Total DNR reimbursements to owners will exceed $800k

[Updated, 11:30 p.m.] Life continues to be cheap for too many Wisconsin hunting hounds, but their sacrifice is sure remunerative to their owners, even to repeat state check applicants. Even to scofflaws.

Two more hunting dogs have been reported to the WI DNR having been killed by wolves during this summer's continuing bear hound 'training season' - - a two-months period during which bears and wolves are needlessly chased, harassed, and traumatized, while anyone out in the woods not running hound packs gets no relief.

That brings to twelve the number released off-leash this summer to their deaths by owners now eligible for $2,500 state reimbursement checks. 

That's $30,000 down the drain, too.

Could your local state park or fish restocking effort or wildlife photography program use that kind of free money?

And the number of hounds killed in this homegrown, state-sanctioned and subsidized fashion is well over 300, and counting, according to this DNR reimbursement chart - - with more wolf-dog encounters sure to kill more hounds because this year's bear hunting 'training' season runs through Aug. 31.

That's a lot of hunting dogs who had no say in the matter, and $800,000+ in public funds not available for public purposes.

And while the state encourages these fatal wolf-dog fights and pays off the hounders, dog-on-dog fighting statewide is a felony. What kind of sick double standard is that?

Milwaukee man gets 5 years for role in dogfighting ring

Both of the most recent subsidized kills were Redbone hounds, perhaps like this one:

Per the DNR:

08/17/2019

Ashland

2 Hunting dogs killed (Redbone, 6.5-year old; Redbone, 3-year old)

Ashland depredation location map [PDF]

Note what these hounders are ignoring, given these DNR warnings, yet can still collect the $2,500 state-provided payout:

Caution areas, dogs and wolf behavior 

When wolves attack dogs in hunting or training situations on public land, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will create wolf caution areas to warn hunters that a specific pack has attacked a dog or group of dogs. Bear hunters are urged to exercise greater caution if they plan to train hounds or hunt bear with hounds near any caution area, especially if near an actual kill site. Table 1 contains a summary of the 2019 dog depredations by wolves. 

As with other wild canids, wolves are very territorial and will guard their territories from other wolves, coyotes and domestic dogs. Wolves are probably most aggressive toward strange wolves and dogs at den and rendezvous sites when their pups are small, and when protecting a fresh kill. Wolf packs have pups in spring and then later will use rendezvous sites from mid-May to late-September, after the pups are big enough to leave their den. 

Adult wolves are very defensive of pups at rendezvous sites and will attack other predators, including dogs, which get too close to the rendezvous site or the pups.A pack will use from two to three to as many as six or more rendezvous sites during the summer.... 

Move two or three miles from any rendezvous site, if possible, before releasing dogs. In addition, avoid releasing dogs at baits recently visited by wolves. When looking for bear sign near bait, make sure to also look for wolf tracks. Be familiar with your own dog's tracks, so that you can distinguish it from any wolf tracks. If a specific bait site is receiving a lot of wolf use, discontinue using it until wolves have left and concentrate on an alternative bait site. Some hunters have had success with bells on dog collars to reduce wolf attacks, but some dogs with bells have been attacked by wolves.

About the WI PSC's latest transmission line OK, 1 thought

If I were editing this 18-paragraph story - - 

Regulators approve Cardinal-Hickory Creek power line 

- -  I'd have moved this graf from 18th to graf two, or at the latest, graf 3:

According to PSC records dating back to the 1970s, the Commission has never rejected a utility application to build a transmission line

------------------------------

 

Alcohol-related deaths a factor in WI life-expentancy decline

[Updated] While opioids in this Journal Sentinel study-based piece about falling life expectancies will catch the reader's eye - - 

Life expectancy for Wisconsin babies falls as opioid, alcohol and suicide take the young

- - don't miss this reference to a more familiar foe:

"I would say that the rate of alcohol-related deaths was one that stood out to me," says [study author Mark] Sommerhauser. "Wisconsin's rate (had been) almost exactly what the national rate was. Our rate has increased quite a bit more quickly."

The study was published by the non-profit, non-partisan Public Policy Forum.

Here's data from another non-profit, non-partisan source - - the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, and note these tracking data do not cover automobile crashes, sexual assaults, violent crimes and other known  consequences of abusive drinking: 

Alcohol also increases risk(link is external) of mouth, liver, throat, colorectal, voice box, female breast, and esophagus cancers; data on these cancers are also hosted on the Tracking data portal(link is external)(link is external).

I have written often over the 12-year-+ span of this blog about alcohol abuse in Wisconsin

 

and the state's bi-partisan refusal to take the costs and data seriously, let alone translating them into effective legislation and programs. 

Maybe this new story and study will provoke some significant awareness, though I remain pessimistic.

Some examples of past posts, and data, below. 

* 2008:
Kathleen Falk, guest post: Confronting Wisconsin's Drinking Abuses

* 2009:
Wisconsin, Assembly, Under the Wrong Influences, passes weak OWI package

* 2009 

Wisconsin's Drinking Culture Needs Profound Attention

* 2012 
Wisconsin needs bipartisan push for stronger OWI laws

* 2013
Wisconsin's Costly Drinking Culture on Further Display

* 2014: 
Wisconsin Officials Under Alcohol Lobbies' Influence

* 2017
Wisconsin dominates most-drunken cities' list: At what cost?

* 2018
Wisconsin dominates most-drunken cities' list. Again.

I don't remember the party in power here addressing the annual alcohol-related loss of lives and nearly $7 billion.

You can add Wisconsin's persistent and widespread alcohol abuse to this compilation of negative state rankings, as Wisconsin - - as it did last year - - put ten cities on this list of the country's 20 most-drunken.

No other state came close, so call it life in the state of denial.

Green Bay named drunkest city in the US; 10 Wisconsin cities listed as top 20 drunkest

The consequences in Wisconsin lives lost, families damaged and money wasted is well-known and heavily, repeatedly documented by public officials:

The per capita alcohol consumption rate in Wisconsin is 1.3 times higher than the national rate. The alcohol consumption rate for adults is 10 percentage points above the national rate (63% vs. 53%). Heavy drinking among adults is more common in Wisconsin than the nation as a whole. Wisconsin’s rate of adult binge drinking (22%) is third highest across all states and U.S. territories. Wisconsin women of childbearing age consume alcohol at levels higher than their national peers. 

Consequences of Alcohol Consumption Outpace National Rates

Given Wisconsin’s alcohol consumption patterns, it is not surprising that the rates at which Wisconsin experiences the consequences associated with alcohol use have also tended to be higher than national rates. Since 2008, rates of alcohol abuse and dependence have been higher in Wisconsin than the nation as a whole. Wisconsin's rate of death from alcohol-related liver cirrhosis has risen since 2008 as has the rate of alcohol-related deaths from causes other than liver cirrhosis. The latest available data show that Wisconsin has 1.2 times the national rate of arrests for operating while intoxicated (OWI) and almost three times the national rate of arrests for liquor law violations. However, since 2010, Wisconsin’s rate of alcohol-related motor vehicle deaths has been similar to the national rate.

Alcohol is the most frequently consumed substance of use and misuse in Wisconsin, contributing to consequences that affect all state residents.

In 2015, alcohol was a factor in at least 2,008 deaths and 2,907 motor vehicle crash injuries in Wisconsin. In 2013, the economic burden resulting from excessive alcohol use totaled $6.8 billion dollars.

Those data were published in 2016, nearly six years after Walker and the GOP took over state government.

They reflect many of the same outcomes published in 2012 by the same officials 21 months after Walker came to power. In other words, little progress.