Everyone supports road-building, repairing, patrolling and replacing through a variety of taxes, but one central Wisconsin town - - Hull - - wants to retract road usage to drivers only.
Bicyclists and pedestrians can, what, hitchhike?
To further honor the automobile, and the Car-Is-King municipal mindset there, Hull might consider renaming itself Edsel.
Hat tip, Tom Held.
Far-rightwingers in Wisconsin with an email account can get a weekly update from the Scott Walker/Koch brothers support group known as the Wisconsin Club for Growth.
This week's edition sent to me by a friend contains barbs under the heading "Happy Columbus Day!" for those trying to eliminate Native American mascots and nicknames from Wisconsin schools, including this line:
...people who define themselves by their grievances are unlikely to [sic] ever satisfied by the steps taken to appease them.Remember that when you hear the wealthiest 1%, and their cheerleaders - - Eric Cantor, Charlie Sykes, Herman Cain, et al, stamping their feet and grieving about any incremental increase in their tax rates.
It can make a shallow, flip-flopping Wall Street toady look reasonable.
(originally posted, 11:59 p.m., October 12, 2001) Funny how things work out.
It has been a given that Scott Walker would face a recall movement, but the timing was up for debate, with some progressives concerned that gathering recall signatures as soon as possible beginning in November would be difficult, given that the tight, 60-day petitioning window included Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's holidays - - while giving Walker an immediate fund-raising advantage
Truth was, no amount of strategizing and control from the top was going to delay the inevitable because angry voter/activists were going to run a movement at the grassroots and push others to run with the fast-tracked timetable.
So while Walker, as an incumbent elected official under recall, will indeed be able to raise Koch Brother-unlimited-level conservative donations, and the Right will galvanize to try and save him - - look what has sprung up, out of the blue, unexpectedly - - a phenomenon - - the Occupy Wall Street movement.
That movement, going national and with expanding media, has deep roots in the anti-Walker protests that began in Madison this winter, and which helped legitimize direct, street action, will come full circle back to Wisconsin with Occupy rallies on October 15th.
Where it will pick up energy and help launch and support the Walker recall just a few weeks later.
What a political lesson all this is: A few months ago, no one thought to label Walker representative of, and toadying for, the 1%, to the disregard of the 99%.
So much of what politicians react to, and cannot stage-manage, is out of their control, and while Walker and his people assumed that talk radio allies and rich backers could help him tough his way through a recall campaign, along comes a larger, righteous movement that can and will brand Scott Walker as emblematic of everything that needs to be overturned to return American democracy to fair play and open governance.
Make note of the Oct. 18 registration deadline:
Adapting Your Work to Climate Change
A Freshwater Future/EcoAdapt Workshop
Milwaukee November 11-12, 2011
Freshwater Future’s climate symposium will assist grassroots groups in developing climate savvy projects and preparing climate adaptation grant applications.
Friday, November 11 (The Brico Fund, 1122 N. Astor Street)
9:00 – 10:30 Welcome, Laying a Framework for Adapting Your Work to Climate Change
10:45 – 11:15 Climate Change Impacts in the Great Lakes
11:15 – 12:00 How to Make a Project Climate Savvy
12:00 – 12:30 Lunch
12:30 – 1:30 Working with Local Governments on Climate Change Projects
1:30 – 2:00 Communicating about Climate Change
2:00 – 5:00 Ideas for Developing Climate Projects
Friday Evening, Group Dinner at the County Clare Irish Guesthouse and Pub
Saturday, November 12 (The County Clare Conference Room, 1234 N. Astor Street)
9:00 – 10:00 Tools and Resources for Climate Adaptation Work
10:00 – 12:30 Development of Climate Projects
12:30 – 1:30 Lunch
1:30 – 3:00 Draft Climate Adaptation Projects in Prep for Grant Submittal
To register and book lodging and meals, go to http://www.freshwaterfuture.org under news and announcements.
DEADLINE TO REGISTER October 18, 2011.
With a sneak attack on public employees, repetitive deception and catering to self-serving special corporate interests, Scott Walker has made the recall movement's announced plan for an early start to the process inevitable.
And let's be clear: he is not being recalled over one vote or controversial policy that can be corrected in the next election.
Look at the record: this has been coming for more than 20 years.
I've cataloged Walker's flaws and failures through 1,407 posts on this blog. Feel free to use the archive through the search box.
Success for the recall is a matter of logistics, effort, commitment and money.
All in all, it's doable - - an opportunity to correct a pattern of deceit inflicted against the people. And it's a necessity if fairness and democracy is to be restored to the State of Wisconsin.
It's asking too much to wait until 2014.
All in for the recall.
The private sector doesn't have a monopoly on savvy decision-making.
Exhibit "A" - - Netflix.
Successor to New Coke, the Edsel, Schitz beer, RCA's videodiscs, etc.
Rolling Stone magazine publishes reporting and predictions about climate change underway now, with implications and relevance for the US, from blazing Texas to the alternately seared and flooded Midwest.
A long read, but worth the time.
Here.
Republican state legislative leaders want the new concealed carry law interpreted to allow packing heat in the Capitol.
Next up for GOP folks: Full-body armor, helmets, personal scanning shields?
There is no real reason to implement this policy other than legislators, and Atty. Gen. J.B. Van Hollen catering to the National Rifle Association and pandering to far-right conservative voters.
Which is not a good reason to introduce firearms into public space where controversial issues are aired and debated, and where partisanship continues to burn white hot.
You will recall that in defending himself a week or so ago against any involvement in an unfolding John Doe probe, Scott Walker hauled out his Boy Scout experience to proclaim his virtue.
Gov. Scott Walker says he isn't worried about a John Doe investigation of his current and former aides.How does that match up with his many false statements so rated after vetting by PolitiFact - - the most by any Wisconsin politician this year?
That's because, Walker said, he is a man of integrity.
"I know that throughout my career - first in the Legislature, then as county executive and now for the last 10 months as governor - I live by the standards I got from my parents," said Walker, whose father was a Baptist minister. "Certainly, they got me to the rank of Eagle Scout, and I continue to have that kind of integrity."
Murphy: Right, right. We'll back you any way we can. But what we were thinking about the crowd was, uh, was planting some troublemakers.Or:
Walker: You know, well, the only problem with that — because we thought about that. The problem with — my only gut reaction to that would be, right now the lawmakers I've talked to have just completely had it with them. The public is not really fond of this. The teacher's union did some polling and focus groups I think and found out that the public turned on them the minute they closed school down on them for a couple of days. The guys we've got left are largely from out of state and I keep dismissing it in all my press comments, saying ehh, they're mostly from out of state. My only fear would be if there's a ruckus caused is that would scare the public into thinking maybe the governor has to settle to avoid all these problems. You know, whereas I've said, hey, we can handle this, people can protest, this is Madison, you know, full of the '60s liberals. Let 'em protest. It's not going to affect us. And as long as we go back to our homes and the majority of people are telling us we're doing the right thing, let 'em protest all they want. So that's my gut reaction. I think it's actually good if they're constant, they're noisy, but they're quiet, nothing happens. Sooner or later the media stops finding them interesting.
Walker: Yeah, well thanks. This is an exciting time. This is, I told my cabinet, I had a dinner the Sunday uh, excuse me, Monday right after the sixth. Came home from the Super Bowl where the Packers won, that Monday night I had all my cabinet over to the residence for dinner, talked about what we were going to do, how we were going to do it, we'd already kind of built plans up but it was kind of the last hurrah before we dropped the bomb. And I stood up and I pulled out a picture of Ronald Reagan, and I said, you know, this may seem a little melodramatic, but 30 years ago Ronald Reagan, whose 100th birthday we just celebrated the day before, had one of the most defining moments of his political career, not just his presidency, when he fired the air traffic controllers. And I said, to me that moment was more important than just for labor relations or even the federal budget. That was the first crack in the Berlin Wall in the fall of Communism because from that point forward the Soviets and the Communists knew that Ronald Reagan wasn't a pushover. And I said, this may not have as broad of world applications, but in Wisconsin's history — little did I know how big it would be nationally — Wisconsin's history, I said, this is our moment. This is our time to change the course of history, and this is why it's so important that they were all there. I had a cabinet meeting this morning, I reminded them of that. I said, for those who thought I was being melodramatic, you now know it was purely putting it in the right context.
Murphy: [Laughs] Well, I tell you what, Scott: Once you crush these bastards I'll fly you out to Cali (California) and really show you a good time.
Walker: All right, that would be outstanding. Thanks for all the support in helping us move the cause forward, and we appreciate it, and we're doing it the just and right thing for the right reasons and it's all about getting our freedoms back.
Murphy: Absolutely. And, you know, we have a little bit of a vested interest as well. [Laughs]
Walker: Well that's just it, the bottom line is we're gonna get the world moving here 'cause it's the right thing to do.
Murphy: Alright then.
Walker: Thanks a million!
Murphy: Bye-bye!
Walker: Bye.
Liberals and other genuinely tolerant citizens, regardless of political party, need to push back publicly against discriminatory campaigning for cheap political points directed against Republican candidate Mitt Romney over his Mormon faith.
Regrettably, conservative GOP/Tea Party candidates Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain are side-stepping the issue, so are giving their assent to the bigots because Cain and Bachmnn think there are votes from narrow-minded constituencies to be gathered through strategic silence.
Shame on them. This is every American's fight.
Religious intolerance was wrong when John F. Kennedy's Catholicism was
made into a campaign issue by bigots during his 1960 Presidential run,
and it's just as wrong today.
The flip side is that the overall emphasis of religion in US politics is out of place, too: Media should back off demanding answers and explanations about candidates' faith. And candidates should stop pitching themselves as believers worthy of votes because that translates as exclusionary, or judgmental, against other religions and their adherents.
That feeds intolerance and we're back to the attacks on Romney. Whether candidates are undermined because they are Catholic, Mormon, Jewish, Muslim - - it should all be out of bounds in America.
People who don't like Romney's politics - - too conservative, not conservative enough, flip-floppy on big issues like health care - - have plenty to work with.
If Republicans and conservatives want to select candidates using religious tests, it's not enough to sit back and let them hack each other up because it makes the entire debate and landscape ever more toxic.
When it comes to religion in politics, I'd be happy with don't ask, don't tell, don't criticize and don't wrap yourself in it, either.
Hats off to the Wisconsin Senate leaders who used fake candidates in the recall elections to force primaries, confuse voters and generally devalue the whole process.
These are the same people who railed against voter fraud [sic]with their equally phony and partisan Voter ID law.
Voter fraud, no. Election fraud, OK!
Your cohorts in Arizona thank you for the lesson.
We know that phosphorus leads to algae contamination of rivers, lakes and wetlands - - and Scott Walker's administration has delayed implementation of new phosphorus controls in a misplaced sop to business that took years among stakeholders to negotiate - - but now a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researcher finds a new threat, particularly to users of rural well water:
Phosphorus interacts with soil allowing deadly E. coli bacteria to penetrate groundwater.
On rural fields, cow manure is a major source of E. coli 0157:H7, a strain that can trigger internal bleeding and kidney damage when people ingest it. Each year, this pathogen causes about 73,000 illnesses and 60 deaths in the U.S., says Jin Li, an environmental engineer at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Contaminated drinking water is the culprit in about 15% of those infections.Details here.
Our shame: Wisconsin is right there in a compelling national report about the fraud in Voter ID laws.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's statement that the Occupy Wall Street protesters were out to kill jobs was self-destructive, ignorant and demagogic.
Does he want to argue that Wall Street is where the job-creators hang out? Only if you think their bonuses and golden parachute payments trickle down, and then - - where are the jobs?
Like a misguided dictator, Bloomberg is giving the demonstrators momentum with thoughtless moves and words, just as the movement goes national. Is that his goal?
We saw this in Wisconsin, too.
When his fraudulently named "Budget Repair Bill" was unmasked for the union-stripping measure it really was, and demonstrations broke out in Madison, Gov. Walker mischaracterized the demonstrators as mostly out-of-staters - - a statement rated "false" by PolitiFact.
But...unlike Bloomberg, at least Walker didn't have law enforcement pepper-spray and arrest non-violent people by the hundreds, as has Bloomberg's NYPD.
Though Walker did tell Ian Murphy, the fake David Koch in the now-infamous prank, recorded phone call, that he considered sending provocateurs into the crowd of protesters, but demurred, for political reasons:
Murphy: Right, right. We'll back you any way we can. But what we were thinking about the crowd was, uh, was planting some troublemakers.So Bloomberg is out-Walkering Walker.
Walker: You know, well, the only problem with that — because we thought about that. The problem with — my only gut reaction to that would be, right now the lawmakers I've talked to have just completely had it with them. The public is not really fond of this. The teacher's union did some polling and focus groups I think and found out that the public turned on them the minute they closed school down on them for a couple of days. The guys we've got left are largely from out of state and I keep dismissing it in all my press comments, saying ehh, they're mostly from out of state. My only fear would be if there's a ruckus caused is that would scare the public into thinking maybe the governor has to settle to avoid all these problems. You know, whereas I've said, hey, we can handle this, people can protest, this is Madison, you know, full of the '60s liberals. Let 'em protest. It's not going to affect us. And as long as we go back to our homes and the majority of people are telling us we're doing the right thing, let 'em protest all they want. So that's my gut reaction. I think it's actually good if they're constant, they're noisy, but they're quiet, nothing happens. Sooner or later the media stops finding them interesting.
Old-timey government? Bloated with perks.
Walker and the Tea Party's reformed version?
Better perks! Free iPads!!
Great piece by Dan Bice.
If you are a Wisconsinite, there's no need to produce an overwrought George Willian ode to baseball to define the day.
Our one true fact is that Nyjer Morgan supplants Scott Walker as the most-often uttered name in the state, and the context is all good.
Here are the five most-read blogs items last week.
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That is asking for catastrophe. What do the Capitol police think? Van Hollen is pandering to the NRA and Tea Party fringe.
Hat tip to a successful event. Model for others.
Now the Archbishop in New York City, former Milwaukee church leader Timothy Dolan goes after President Obama on gay marriage.
The nation's top Catholic bishop issued a stern challenge to the Obama administration's decision not to support a federal ban on gay marriage, and warned the president that his policies could "precipitate a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions."
In a letter sent Tuesday (Sept. 20), Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, who heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he and other prelates have grown increasingly concerned since the administration announced last February that it would no longer defend the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act in court.
The Obama administration says it believes the law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman is unconstitutional.
U.S. Catholic bishops, concerned about Obama administration policies on birth control and gay rights that they say see as an unprecedented "assault" on the rights of faith groups, have established a watchdog panel to combat threats to "religious freedom.
The new Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty was launched by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and unveiled by the USCCB's president, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, on Friday (Sept. 30).
The establishment of a committee -- which signals a top priority for the hierarchy -- represents another escalation in the Catholic bishops' increasingly tense and public battle with President Obama as the 2012 presidential campaign season gets underway.I wonder what the reaction will be?
People who know a lot more about water rights and Native American treaty rights than do I tell me the Environmental Protection Agency's recognition of the Bad River band's water quality standards and right to set them is a very big deal.
That's because because it tips decision-making power over water and land management towards the Tribe and its interests, and away from the Gegobic mining company, its proposed open-pit iron ore mine, and legislative efforts to fast-track a mining permitting process and stage-manage the political situation near Ashland.
Further explanation, here.
"It gives the tribe a very big stick," said lawyer Glenn Stoddard of Eau Claire, who represents the band.Which is all well and good in a perfect world, but I wouldn't put it past Scott Walker and his allies to use this turn of events as a political and ideological lever against the Federal government, the EPA and their regulatory authority - - and also against environmentalists and more liberal voices in the southern part of the state who are supporting the Tribe when Walker looks for, or manufacturers issues during the recall.
So much for eliminating the 27% unemployment in Northern WI - that's double that on Indian Reservations that rely solely on government handouts...too bad the EPA couldn't do their own dirtywork instead of shuffling it off to the Indians who don't possess the technical knowledge to properly test the waters unless they hire outsiders to do it for them.
... obama is in charge of the EPA. ya know who wont allow us to drill in the gulf, alaska or anywhere else.... killing jobs.
Another Waukesha story - - no light rail. No regional transit authority. No Amtrak stop. No direct transit from downtown Waukesha to downtown Milwaukee. No direct service from New Berlin's Industrial park for Milwaukee or regional workers to downtown, the South side, the North side, etc.
No connection from Pabst Farms to anywhere. And now no takers for employer vans, now in storage.
You have to wonder how vigorously these vans have been marketed to employers.
Run for office? And lose again? And give up all that celebrity money and sidelines' snarky fun? Never.
What?
Four hours, and hands-on?
Can't have that, says the NRA. Too restrictive.
Isn't there, like, an email to read or some playing with a stick that could count?
Ah, State Sen. Mary Lazich, (R-New Berlin) - - Wisconsin's gift to political theater that keeps on giving.
On Thursday morning she's scheduled a hearing on the state's use of traffic roundabouts - - that foreign roadway import that calms traffic, and saves on stoplight costs, but which Lazich finds overwhelmingly baffling.
City of Milwaukee Mark Belling fears a New Berlin roundabout, too.
Even though all turns into them are to the right.
Some other true-fact items from the Lazich archives:
* She proposed criminalizing prank phone calls. This came after Scott Walker was embarrassed spilling the beans to the fake David Koch and earned her a shout out on "The Colbert Report."
* Led opposition to the Great Lakes Compact of 2008 even though it
was making it possible for her home town to get the Great Lakes water supply it sought, because she believed it would
destroy Wisconsin's sovereignty.
A State Senate floor tirade is here.
* Retained her chief staffer despite his having fought it out on his personal blog with a younger Franklin blogger and calling him a string of names, including "cheesecake breath;" labeling the DNR a wing of the Nazi party; calling liberal critics "matzo-skinned; and being dunned by the state for taking vacation time to which he was not entitled.
The aide, Kevin Fischer, then got hired by Scott Walker as communications director at what is essentially a state bank - - the Wisconsin Housing and Development Agency - - but still used his blog to blast away disrespectfully at people he didn't like even after WHEDA published new rules about employee conduct on social media.
I didn't know North Dakota was a nation until I heard it from Michele Bachmann, and she heard it from...
Excellent development: The Bad River band of the Lake Superior Chippewa has won the right to set high water quality standards, thus making sure than any mines in the area would have to discharge only high-quality waste water.
As the Journal Sentinel explains:
Federal regulators have approved a northern Wisconsin Indian tribe’s request to regulate water quality, a move that could influence the construction of an iron ore mine near Hurley.
The Bad River band of Lake Superior Chippewa said Wednesday that the Environmental Protection Agency had approved its application to set standards for water quality on tribal waters.
The approval also allows the tribe to impose limits on water uses on others outside the reservation who live upstream.
That could affect a proposed iron ore mine in the Bad River watershed that has been proposed by Gogebic Taconite, which is based in Hurley. The mine would be built in a ridge of hills to the southwest known as the Penokee range; in Michigan the same ridge is called Gogebic...
Gogebic Taconite’s plans for the mine are currently on hold while the company awaits possible changes in state law affecting the regulation of iron ore mining...
The standards will be stricter than current water quality regulations, said Cyrus Hester, a tribal environmental specialist. He noted, however, that the new rules are in compliance with EPA standards.
One aspect of the regulations allows the tribe to ensure that the quantity and quality of water from upstream sources do not affect the health of wild rice – a matter of cultural importance to the Bad River.
Excellent issue summary, information links and action steps, here.
I see that the National Wildlife Federation is out with a very important report on the worrisome state of the Great Lakes' fisheries.
Hat's off to Grafton observer and lake advocate Jim Te Selle, who had been alerting the DNR to this issue. I had posted last week his communication to the Department.
If you examine the Walker/Fitzgeralds' agenda and accomplishments [sic] to date- - the Voter ID bill locking in Republican advantages, a parade of business tax breaks, the shift of agency rule-making to the Governor's office, the management of the DNR with a "chamber of commerce mentality," the easing of mining approvals and wetlands protections, the boosting of private school choice, the crippling of public employee unions and members' collective bargaining rights, the starving of local bus systems, outright killing of both a Madison-to-Milwaukee Amtrak extension and separate SE Wisconsin commuter train, and more - - there's only one way to interpret it:
The far right, with Walker as the front-man CEO, is re-shaping Wisconsin as a subsidiary of the private sector run by the Class "A," preferred shareholders - - the WMC, major conservative donors and Americans for Prosperity-type advocacy groups, and ALEC, which provides secretive, members-only ideological and technical guidance.
That group is rewarding itself with dividends guaranteed, across the board, by Walker, the Fitzgeralds and other compliant legislative/managers on behalf of the majority, controlling Class "A" shareholders.
Everyday Wisconsin residents were assigned Class "B," or Common stock - - with smaller dividends, reduced voting power, fewer ownership rights, and less access to the board of directors.
And low-income residents - - we'll call them the "minority shareholders" - - are having their status reduced.
Continuously.
Despite Team Walker disinformation.
Long-term corporate control will be enforced with financing under the Citizens United decision, and further embedded in law by the Gableman-Prosser State Supreme Court-Ziegler-Roggensack majority.
They said they wanted to run the state like a business.
Welcome to Wisconsin, Inc.
This time, it's Kenneth Munson. Well done.
Joining Seth Foldy and Antonio Riley, et al.
David Clarke's budget has skyrocketed and talk radio can't rescue the Sheriff from the mess.
Another document dump - - the second in the last few weeks - - shows cozy relationship among the players, including American regulators now reviewing whether a major new pipeline from Canada to Texas should be approved.
With most of the oil ticketed for export via Houston, and not for domestic usage.
Not a good development for the White House and the public interest.
I went out of my way Tuesday afternoon to listen to John Mercure on WTMJ-AM radio interview apparent US Senate candidate Tommy Thompson, and frankly, Tommy brought nothing to the conversation.
Short answers.
No pep.
No snappy three-point program, no fresh pitch to listeners and voters who may have little information about a Governor-turned-corporate insider who last held office in Wisconsin 11 years ago.
And even his offering up a contemporary conservative talking point to prove he could speak in modern Tea Party lingo about taking the country back and denying Barack Obama a second term had theh inspirational content of used Cliff Notes and the energy of a batting practice toss.
There wasn't anything worthy of writing down and quoting.
His campaign hasn't even started formally, the election is a year away and already Tommy sounds weary.
I think a lot of voters are going to react that way, too, because it's been 13 years since he ran a statewide campaign in Wisconsin, 12 years since he was for the Amtrak system he's now willing to oppose, and four years since his self-generated Presidential boomlet became best known for debate stumbles and a slide into Jewish stereotyping.
Quoting from the AP about the debates, as posted by Fox News:
Flash forward to these here times, and Tommy 2.0 has taken the pledge.
LAKE GENEVA, Wis. — Expanding on his reason for saying at a debate that an employer should be allowed to fire someone for being gay, Tommy Thompson on Saturday blamed a dead hearing aid and his need to use the bathroom.
Thompson, speaking to reporters after giving an address at the state GOP convention, also said he was suffering from the flu and bronchitis and had been admitted to a hospital emergency room three days prior to the May 3 debate...
"I didn't hear the question. All I was thinking about was getting off the stage," Thompson said Saturday. "I said it, I'm sorry, and it won't happen again but it's not my record. ... There's nothing discriminatory about me at all."
That gaffe, as well as one in April when he told a Jewish group that earning money is "part of the Jewish tradition," have been a distraction for Thompson's campaign. But he told party faithful at the convention Saturday that he can still win.
Seems WisDOT is having trouble filling engineer vacancies. Here's the somewhat unusual hiring application re-announcement.
Who'd come here for 1% annual pay raises?
[Wednesday evening update: And why is DOA refusing to approve some requests from DOT to fill vacant positions and meet federal accountability and financing requirements? The positions in question would be financed with federal, not state dollars.]
Separately, the department is looking for recruiting help through its employee newsletter. Diverse hiring is certainly an important goal, but the timing is curious.
Help recruit new employees for WisDOT
One of the goals of the Department of Transportation is to recruit and retain a diverse workforce. The Bureau of Human Resource Services (BHRS) works with managers and supervisors on identifying recruitment resources during the staffing process.
In order to ensure we are attracting a diverse applicant pool for our vacancies, BHRS is reaching out to all department employees to learn of new or existing
recruitment resources we could use. As a department employee, you may be
aware of resources in your communities, organizations or internet outreach
resources that could assist the department in attracting a diverse applicant
pool.
Please take a moment to complete this short survey<http://2.selectsurvey.net/wisdot/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=m810n88>to help BHRS build an effective recruitment resource database.
Thank you in advance for your help
10 a.m - - 3 p.m. tomorrow at Pier Wisconsin on the lakefront. Sign-up, workshop information here.
As I thought - - Christie says no - - so Republicans are stuck with that Star Wars bar scene group.
What else can you call a proposal getting bill sponsorship in the legislature to let communities opt out of Smart Growth plans they have spent the last ten years developing and approving?
Typically these plans were produced through local meetings that encouraged discussion and compromise.
95% of Wisconsin communities have them on their books, state grants helped pay for them, and no one is complaining.
You want a fuel storage dump on a county park? Strip malls abutting a marsh? Then this bill is for you.
Newspapers and blogs and social media have been buzzing about Republican-led efforts to sneak wetland filling permissions into Special Session job-creation legislation, but truth be told, when businesses are caught filling wetlands, damming streams, even laying in a road - - intentionally, without permits - - the fiscal consequence is chump change.
Like less than $3,000 a year.
Sounds like a bottom-line best practice, if you ask me.
Case in point:
NEWS RELEASE
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen Announces Judgment Requiring Monroe County cranberry operation to restore wetland, restore flow to trout stream, and pay $50,000 for wetland filling violations
For Immediate Release For More Information Contact:
October 3, 2011 Dana Brueck 608/266-1221
MADISON — Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has announced that Richard L. Ducklow, Richard L. Ducklow & Sons, Inc., and Richard L. Ducklow 2000 Revocable Trust (collectively known as Ducklow), owners and operators of Ducklow Cranberry Co., a cranberry operation near Tomah, Wisconsin, have been ordered to pay $50,000 in forfeitures, assessments, costs and fees for violations of Wisconsin's wetland protection laws.
According to the State's Complaint, which was filed at the request of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Ducklow has long been on notice that it cannot fill wetlands without first obtaining a permit, and that a state water quality certification is a prerequisite for obtaining a Clean Water Act permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Ducklow obtained an after-the-fact permit for wetland filling in 1989.
In 1993, Ducklow sought to expand its operation again by damming a trout stream, filling wetlands and inundating additional wetlands. It applied for a Corps permit and Wis. Admin. Code ch. NR 299 water quality certification from the DNR, but the DNR denied certification and the Corps permit could not be issued.
But Ducklow proceeded to dam and divert the creek anyway, and to fill and inundate wetlands. It also constructed a road across the stream and in wetlands.
When the Corps discovered Ducklow's extensive wetland and stream alteration activities it alerted the DNR, and the DNR referred the matter to the Attorney General for prosecution.
Under the terms of the parties' settlement agreement, Ducklow agreed to restore the flow of the Brandy Creek to its original channel by installing culverts where it had placed diversion structures.
It also agreed to set its diversion structure above the ordinary high water mark of Brandy Creek so that the ordinary flow in the stream may be maintained.
It agreed to remove and restore a reservoir that had been constructed in wetlands and to limit the drawdown from another reservoir in order to prevent the reverse flow of groundwater from Brandy Creek into the reservoir.
Ducklow also agreed to remove a road constructed in wetlands if the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers does not determine the road is exempt from federal wetland permitting requirements. Ducklow agreed to pay $40,000 in penalties, surcharges and court costs, and to pay $10,000 to the DNR and the Department of Justice for the costs of investigation and prosecution.
"Cranberries are an important part of Wisconsin’s history and economy and there is no reason that a healthy cranberry industry cannot co-exist with appropriate and legal environmental practices,” Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said. “Growers should plan for full environmental compliance before doing work in waterways or wetlands to avoid the costs of enforcement actions down the road."
Assistant Attorney General Diane Milligan prosecuted the case for the state.
Copies of the Judgment and the Stipulation and Order for Judgment are available at the following links:
http://www.doj.state.wi.us/news/files/stipulation-order-ducklow-sons-20111003.pdf
http://www.doj.state.wi.us/news/files/judgment-ducklow-sons-20111003.pdf
# # #
113 calls since January.
39% don't get a call back within the prescribed 24 hours.
Disconnect this gimmick.
Is the surprise that he said it or that he said it on Fox?
The crowd that doesn't like big government and state power just loves toll roads, as libertarians want to keep feeding the State/Road-building complex.
All together now: We are not Illinois.
And when outed, fired the employee who discovered it.
Those Koch brothers.
Cut-ups.
Republican legislators who oppose transit, taking their cues from anti-rail Gov. Scott Walker, having this year eliminated regional transit authorities and further study of a commuter rail line from Milwaukee to nearby lakefront stops in Racine and Kenosha, succeeded last week getting the Feds to transfer commuter rail funding to other states.
This comes less than ten months after Walker turned back $810 million in federal funding to build an Amtrak/Midwest High-Speed rail connection from Milwaukee to Madison and make other improvements to existing Amtrak service from Milwaukee to Chicago.
Walker and the legislature are proceeding with a fresh $1.7 billion reconstruction and widening to the so-called Zoo Interchange at the Milwaukee/Waukesha County line west of the City of Milwaukee, and are forging ahead with other major highway projects, including widening and expansion of I-94 from Milwaukee to the Illinois state line and preparing for a new, $1 billion lane addition ti I-39/90 from Rockford at the Illinois line north to Madison and perhaps all the way to the Wisconsin Dells.
Then there's the $23 million Interchange to Nowhere.
In an are not served by transit.
And toll roads are on the horizon. Anything and everything for motorists, zip for transit users.
Milwaukee's righty talkers were siding with Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke last week over trims to his budget proposed by County Exec Chris Abele.
Clarke is talk radio's second-favorite elected official - - Scott Walker being the permanent #1 - - so the takeaway here is that small government and cutting budgets is absolutely, positively mandatory - - except if sought from a conservative office-holder, and that's the end of the world.
Clarke claims constitutional authority to do pretty much whatever he wants, right down to a constitutional right not to submit reports, as he said in a public letter:
He does not run the Office of the Sheriff, and I do not take orders or directives from a county executive. Case law is very clear that the sheriff alone decides how to carry out his duty and responsibility. His budget is an obvious attempt to micromanage my office. I am independently elected by the voters of Milwaukee County...I'm still looking for that constitutional provision about reports. If anyone finds it, please report it to me.
He may think that he can require me to submit reports, but again, the state constitution is very clear when it states that no county official can require a sheriff to submit reports. He can create any study group that he wants and they can make any recommendations they want. Again, I will refer the county executive back to the state constitution and case law that show that the sheriff alone decides how to carry out the duties and responsibilities of his office. My advice to him is not to hold his breath, because he’s not getting any reports....
Chris Abele ran for county executive, not sheriff. If he wants to be in charge of my office, he’s going to have to run for sheriff in 2014.
More bills are tossed by the Governor and legislature into the special session on job-creating that have nothing to do with creating jobs except in corporate donors' front-offices, lobbying, law and accounting firms.
Cue the campaign fund-raising letters - - so there may be a job or two added in the direct mail houses come election time.
The Journal Sentinel headline and deck describing this are direct and jaw-dropping:
The Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters last week got it right:Bills limiting lawsuits added to Legislature's jobs session
Measures would cut interest rate, curb medical cases
Buried within the package of small bills to be considered in the Special Session... are two proposals initiating major rollbacks to Wisconsin’s natural resource protections. These are not jobs proposals. Governor Scott Walker is clearly using several low-impact bills to provide cover for the two proposals that will decimate natural resources, reward campaign donors, and be wildly unpopular with Wisconsin voters.
Wisconsin voters will not be fooled by the clever packaging. If Governor Scott Walker were truly interested in creating jobs, he would not have driven 1,100 wind jobs out of Wisconsin or sent the Talgo high speed rail jobs to Illinois as a first order of business.I am waiting for the newspapers that endorsed Walker to slap him down for this completely dishonest offensive.
In addition, because similar ideas were floated on mining legislation in May, it appears this may be a back door attempt to allow mining companies to fill wetlands with toxic mining waste, contaminating drinking water and lakes and rivers....an assault on the very things that make Wisconsin a great place to live and work.
A judge says the law and process to get rid of offensive Native American mascots and nicknames is "silly."
The Governor, with a big advantage in the race to #1 in the PolitiFact "False" race to the top (scout's honor!), is trying to sneak into adoption more environmental degradation and weakened law under the guise of job creation.
Every day in Wisconsin there is more evidence that the state has lost its moral center.
The routine dumping of coal ash into Lake Michigan every day during the shipping season from the boilers of the Manitowoc, WI-to-Ludington, MI steam-powered ferry gets Sunday, page-one exposure in the Chicago Tribune.
Boaters who throw their garbage into the lake would and should get cited, but the Badger gets a pass for burning 55 tons a day and discharging overboard 3.8 tons of coal ash - - and, in fact, the pollution that comes out of the smokestack even has a separate legislative exemption from Wisconsin lawmakers.
How big a dose of pollution is this?
The Trib says..".the Badger dumps nearly 4 tons of coal ash into Lake Michigan — waste concentrated with arsenic, lead, mercury and other toxic metals. During its spring-to-fall season, federal records show, the amount far exceeds the coal, iron and limestone waste jettisoned by all 125 other big ships on the Great Lakes combined."
In the name of nostalgia for the last steamer working Lake Michigan?
The owners have been running a lobbying campaign to buy time, and maybe benefit from a less-interested administration after 2012, to put off converting to cleaner-burning fuel - - the company manages to call its coal "domestic fuel" - - as has every other similar ship on Lake Michigan.
The US Environmental Protection Agency had set a 2012 deadline for the Badger's compliance, but the ship's owners are looking for another five years.
The industry website Great Lakes-Seaway News had this say not long ago under the headline SS Badger Hopes to Wait Out EPA, Obama
Lake Michigan Carferry executive vice president Don Clingan was recently quoted in the Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter as saying that he hopes the S.S. Badger's two port cities, Manitowoc, WI and Ludington, MI can "hold hands across the pond" and lobby government officials for more time.The special treatment the ship receives at the expense of the public's clean air and water and now wants to further extend has been a sore spot and frequent topic on this blog for almost two-and-a-half-years - - here to here - - so let's hope more publicity will motivate public officials to make the ship's owners comply with the existing clean-fuel order and the public's legitimate expectation for a more-respected Lake Michigan environment.
Public Forum to
Focus on Regional Water Conservation and Stormwater Management
It's all related, folks. Whether disappearing forests or polar ice, the trend is definitely in the wrong direction, and it doesn't help to have deniers and oil industry errand boys like Rick Perry still blathering on about no scientific consensus. even as his drought-ravaged state burns.
Or Scott Walker pushing anew under the misleading heading of "job-creation" for easier permissions to fill the state's wetlands.
These one-dimensional leaders are wrong, at public expense, but, t may be too late to turn it around.
Along with a Federal warning about meddling with Wisconsin's mining and water-management procedures, and trip to Sprawlville to see and photograph the new Interchange to Nowhere:
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A right-wing activist Waukesha (are we surprised?) County judge ruled that the law establishing a complaint process that forced Mukwanago High School school to eliminate its Native American mascot and nickname (the "Indians") was "uncommonly silly."
In fact, the judge found that it was the school district that was being subjected to bias by the state, not complainants who might take offense at an "Indians" mascot and nickname.
[the judge] did agree with residents James Schoolcraft and Craig Vertz that the law, as applied against Mukwonago schools, was unconstitutional because the decision maker - a Department of Public Instruction employee named Paul Sherman - had an impermissibly high risk of bias.Apply that 'logic' to a school that used images and nicknames for any other ethnic or racial group - - say, Jews, or the Irish, or Poles, or African-Americans - - and see if there's a judge anywhere in the state who would weigh in with "silly" and turn the bias argument on its head.
Another effort is underway to put Wisconsin in line with the other 49 states and make first-offense drunk driving more than the mere ticket it is now.
I've lost track of the number of times I have argued for this on my blog for years.
I find it unlikely that the Legislature and Governor have the spine to take on the state's brewing, tavern and "hospitality" lobbies.
Note that pilots may not fly within eight hours of consuming any alcohol. Reflex impairment after imbibing is a well-known reality.
