We're on Central Time. Vos is on Junket Time

Vos's La Dolce Vita. From The Twitter:

·

22h

Leading the @NCSLorg International Symposium for Legislative Leaders in Italy as NCSL President. Legislative leaders from across the country are taking part in the international exchange, which includes meetings with local dignitaries and tourism officials.

Foxconn's $100 million commitment to UW-Madison is less than 1% funded

If cash is the problem down at the Eighth Wonder of the World

Screen shot from Foxconn's video showing the Mt. Pleasant campus-to-be

the company could juice its commitment to UW-Madison by donating the first of its robotized coffee vending machines to the Memorial Union.

Regardless, Vos got his highway expansion, so his district's sprawl development is safe.

I'll add this post to my full Foxconn archive, below:

[Updated continuously from June, 2017] This archive with more than 340 posts - - and even more links and references - - tracks, explains and unmasks Wisconsin's public awards of $4.5 billion in state and local funds to Taiwan-based Foxconn. 

Call it a Scott Walker - - and failed campaign manuever - - production.

From NB

When Walker's hostility to Amtrak is aired, don't forget the 'math' he used to derail it

I see social media highlighting this piece in the Door County Daily News:

Civil Discourse: High Speed Rail Would Have Been Better Bet Than Foxconn

Wisconsin turned down more than $800 million in federal stimulus money in 2010 that would have created high-speed rail corridors between Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison and Minneapolis. 

Turning down that money will cost Wisconsin far more than it will ever gain from Foxconn. 

No argument from me; I'm glad to see that commentary and history debated and absorbed, especially in the context of $3 billion in state subsidies promised to Foxconn for production and employment that has gone from dubious to fanciful to farcical.

Talgo trains built for Amtrak in Milwaukee which Walker and GOP legislators made sure never operated here.

But I want to memorialize - - as I did earlier - - Walker's cavalier manipulation of numbers to justify what was in truth his partisan, politically-inspired and right-wing attack on urban rail and the state's biggest cities by focusing on one set of Walker statements and numbers.

Walker claimed if the Amtrak line was completed, state taxpayers would have to contribute $7.5 million (or more) annually for its operation.

That's $625,000 a month.

Walker's first two-year budget in 2011 called for spending $64.1 billion, or $2.76 billion every month. Fractions of pennies on the Foxconn dollar.

But wait: It turns out that Walker's annual Amtrak annual payment estimate of $7.5 million could have been vastly overstated, according to reporting at the time by The Journal Sentinel's Larry Sandler:

Even with the federal government picking up the line's full construction cost, Walker has said he doesn't want state taxpayers to pay operating costs, projected at $7.5 million a year, starting in 2013. 

A state transportation official has said state taxpayers' share could be as little as $750,000 a year, if federal aid covers 90% of operating costs, as it does for Amtrak's existing Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line.

But wait, again, because Sandler quoted Walker saying the annual Amtrak operating cost to Wisconsin taxpayers could be even more costly than his $7.5 million pronouncement:

"The whole reason we made a point of raising our concerns about this is I don't want the taxpayers of this state to be stuck with a bill of $7½ (million) to $10 million a year when we have roads and bridges that need to be fixed," Walker said.

So $750,000 jumped to $7.5 million, and then by a third to $10 million?

I'll leave it at that for now. It's almost time for my morning coffee - - no robot involved. 

Feel free to fix my math and fill in your comments about the roads, bridges and Scottholes Walker didn't fix.

19th WI hound fatally thrown to WI wolves in 2 months: $2,500 state check available.

It's happened again, and in a Price County area with multiple, recent fatal hound-wolf encounters about which the DNR had posted, to no avail. 

This year's hound death toll in Wisconsin is actually 20, as one hunting dog was killed in January. 

So we're about half-way to the 2016 record slaughter of 41 hounds, and the bear hunting season when GPS-collared hounds are running free through wolf country has weeks to go.

Until the state stops paying them $2,500 for each off-leash bear-chasing hound so lost, hunting dog owners in Wisconsin won't stop releasing their animals to chase wildlife - - wolves are still federally-protected, though social media carries reports of wolf poaching under the 'shoot shovel and shut' mantra - - and be overpowered and killed by the larger, pack-organized and dominant predators.

This only-in-Wisconsin payment system after wolf-hound fighting has been in place since 1985.

Here is a DNR website with minimal information about the hound deaths. 

The reported hound death in Price County was the 19th since bear-chasing-training season began 61 days ago and has now given way to bear-chasing-treeing-and-shooting season which began Wednesday, September 4.

Hound owners are eligible for the state reimbursement even if they released the dog into known wolf territory, or near bait which attracts both bears and wolves, or if the hound owner is a scofflaw, a repeat reimbursement collector, and so on.

The hound killed on 9/6 in Price County was a Plott hound, perhaps like this one:

Plott hound

'8th Wonder of the World' to make coffee vending machines in WI

No, you didn't see that headline.

You got 'The Eagle has landed,' world-altering, hyperbole-heavy language, like this:

Walker: Foxconn is a transformational, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Wisconsin

Because if you'd gotten the truth, Walker's desperate willingness to extend the fiscal fiasco and environmental obscenity Republicans decided taxpayers would subsidize on primo farmland in the Village of Mt. Pleasant, WI would have made you laugh instead of setting you free. 

So now in year three of the Foxconn Sprawl-and-Stall we have learned that when it eventually opens at the Versailles-like Mt. Pleasant, WI complex it has pledged to build - - 

- - the company's gaudy, sci-fi video is still posted - - automated airport coffee vending kiosks and not jumbo TV screens will be the first thing off the assembly line. 

(Remember all the hype about those LCD products for whose finishing the diversion of Lake Michigan water was easily approved after officials said that was crucial to the deal. Never mind...though the permission is still there and piping infrastructure is being laid, whether you need Great Lakes water to make a vending machine.)

Just don't forget the coup which Trump self-promoted when he came to Wisconsin to announce "one of the great deals, ever...:" 

“This is the Eighth Wonder of the World.”

Were you thinking at the time - - I like my coffee the way I like my politics: subsidized and robotized.

So: insert money, select flavor, press 1 for cream and 2 for sugar, stir, and read more here about what happened after the Eagle landed:

...billions of subsidies were pledged, people were displaced from their homes, fake blight was declared, some of the best farmland in SE Wisconsin was bulldozed, a deadly highway expansion was funded, air pollution rules were weakened, environmental rules were bypassed in an area already beset by flooding, and a Great Lakes diversion was approved - - to assemble robotic coffee vending kiosks? 

Attention, Foxconn shoppers - - the robots are coming

But not to build you that Made-in-Wisconsin YUGE-screen TV you hoped to get during the 2020 holiday season.

Nope: The Foxconn item for which Wisconsin taxpayers are providing billions will displace service workers and robotically make coffee in airports so Scott Walker can Tweet-pose with it.  'Ummm...airport coffee...no workers involved. Win-win!'

Foxconn’s first announced product for its Wisconsin factory is an airport coffee robot

And billions of subsidies were pledged, people were displaced from their homes, fake blight was declared, some of the best farmland in SE Wisconsin was bulldozed, a deadly highway expansion was funded, air pollution rules were weakened, environmental rules were bypassed in an area already beset by flooding, and a Great Lakes diversion was approved - - to assemble robotic coffee vending kiosks? 

Will add this to my Foxconn archive.

Kewaunee County water contaminated. For the umpteenth time.

Months ago, Kewaunee County clean water activist Nancy Utesch said enough was enough.

We asked the US Environmental Protection Agency for an investigation into the cause and source of well water contamination in our 2014 Safe Drinking Water Act petition, but the EPA has yet to address it... 

Central Sands has the Wysocki CAFO. We have 16 CAFOs. Wisconsin should long ago have stopped acting confused as to the cause and source of known, widespread contamination and moved instead to protect Kewaunee County residents and water resources of people statewide... 

Without real investigations, will we ever know the full extent and costs from the illness and suffering resulting from agribusiness here? 

Why has it taken this long?

We have waited long enough. 

Manure flowing from a Kewaunee CAFO, years ago.

More about Nancy and Lynn Utesch, here. 

Witnessing the degradation of the water quality of local rivers and streams—and the high contamination rate of tested wells in Kewaunee County spurred the Utesch family into advocacy. Lynn and Nancy worked with fellow residents James Olson and Dr. William Iwen to establish Kewaunee Citizens Advocating Responsible Environmental Stewardship (Kewaunee CARES) in 2011 for concerned residents to have a voice in the local and statewide debate over the need for greater water protection and sustainable farming.

But this was a headline and story on Friday. 

Kewaunee County warns neighbors about drinking water after manure spill

The issue is disgustingly repetitive. This is from 2016:

Residents criticize Kewaunee board as manure spill reported

As is this: 

A report from the WI manure-toxified front - - Kewaunee County

Here's an update circulated by Kewaunee Cares activists and environmentally-sensitive farmers Lynn and Nancy Utesch:

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

Many believe that Kewaunee County's problems are rooted in "run-off" issues-- spreading that unfortunately ends up leaving its intended site, more often than not, meeting up with water, and causing pollution.  

What is occurring in Kewaunee County is criminal, willful negligence that harms the landscape, our water and air, and the people living here.  Please look at the attached photos, taken last week, of recent applications to spreading fields in Kewaunee that resulted in run-off reaching the Ahnapee River [on the EPA's impaired waters list], and ultimately Lake Michigan.  

How much patience would you have? I'd say Kewaunee County has definitely waited too long for action. Maybe when Speaker Vos gets back from Italy, his slow-moving clean water task force will do something.

July, 2018: 

WI Central Sands the next Flint? Kewaunee County already soaks up that honor

Check out Milwaukee's Harbor View Plaza on Sunday, 11-4 p.m.

Note corrected time - - 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

I'd enjoyed the Harbor View Plaza's soft opening in July, and hope to see you at a family fun event there Sunday from 11 p.m. to 4 p.m. to appreciate Milwaukee's latest public-private effort that showcases Milwaukee's urbanity, water-based research and industrial character. The public space is at the end of E. Greenfield Ave. 

The observation tower is built from repurposed shipping containers.

Sanctioned & subsidized WI wolf-dog encounters kill 18th hound since July

Friday, 9/5 Update: 18th hunting dog in two months, and fourth straight Plott hound, thrown to wolves as bear hunting season is only a few days old.

09/06/2019

Douglas

1 Hunting dog killed (Plott, 6-year old female)

Douglas depredation location map [PDF]

Those $2,500 WI reimbursements are going to be flying out of the DNR's hound reimbursement fund.

Thursday, 9/5 Update: The WI DNR reports yet another Plott hound killed by wolves, this time in Oneida County, bring the week's toll to two and the recent two-month count to 17.

09/05/2019

Oneida

1 Hunting dog killed (Plott, 6-year old female)

Oneida depredation location map [PDF]

----------------------------------------------
Until the state stops paying them $2,500 for each off-leash bear-chasing hound so lost, hunting dog owners in Wisconsin won't stop releasing their animals to chase other wildlife and be overpowered and killed by larger, pack-organized wolves. 

From an email forwarded this afternoon by the DNR:

Hunting Dog Depredated in Forest County 

On 9/05/19, USDA-Wildlife Services has confirmed that wolves depredated a Plott trailing hound in the Town of Alvin, Forest County.

The Plott hound which was killed may look like the one below. 

Its death would be the 16th hound death after an encounter with wolves in Wisconsin since the July-August bear hunt off-leash hound 'training' season ended July 31. 

Here is a DNR website with minimal information about the hound deaths.

The bear hunting season began Wednesday, September 4.

Hound owners are eligible for the state reimbursement even if they released the dog into known wolf territory, or near bait which attracts both bears and wolves, or if the owner is a scofflaw, a repeat reimbursement collector, and so.

Plott hound

Wisconsin DNR mission statement needs one small edit

Given the continuing slaughter of bear-chasing hunting dogs released by their owners into fatal fights with wolves - - a uniquely Wisconsin subsidized activity authorized by the Legislature - - I'd suggest the small edit I've added below in bold-faced italics to make the WI DNR mission statement more accurate:

0. Wisconsin DNR Mission Statement
   To protect and enhance our natural resources: our air, land and water; our wildlife, fish and forests and the ecosystems that sustain all life.
1. 
   To provide a healthy, sustainable environment and a full range of outdoor opportunities - - except for certain hounds and the wildlife they are allowed to harass.
2. 
   To ensure the right of all people to use and enjoy these resources in their work and leisure.
3. 
   To work with people to understand each other’s views and to carry out the public will.
4. 
   And in this partnership consider the future and generations to follow.

The last two hunting dogs reportedly thrown fatally to wolves in Wisconsin were Plott hounds, perhaps looking like this one:

0. 
   

2nd WI hound taken by wolves in 2 days; 17 since early July

Friday, 9/5 Update: 18th hunting dog in two months, and fourth straight Plott hound, thrown to wolves as bear hunting season is only a few days old.

09/06/2019

Douglas

1 Hunting dog killed (Plott, 6-year old female)

Douglas depredation location map [PDF]

Those $2,500 WI reimbursements are going to be flying out of the DNR's hound reimbursement fund.

Thursday, 9/5 Update: The WI DNR reports yet another Plott hound killed by wolves, this time in Oneida County, bring the week's toll to two and the recent two-month count to 17.

09/05/2019

Oneida

1 Hunting dog killed (Plott, 6-year old female)

Oneida depredation location map [PDF]

----------------------------------------------
Until the state stops paying them $2,500 for each off-leash bear-chasing hound so lost, hunting dog owners in Wisconsin won't stop releasing their animals to chase other wildlife and be overpowered and killed by larger, pack-organized wolves. 

From an email forwarded this afternoon by the DNR:

Hunting Dog Depredated in Forest County 

On 9/05/19, USDA-Wildlife Services has confirmed that wolves depredated a Plott trailing hound in the Town of Alvin, Forest County.

The Plott hound which was killed may look like the one below. 

Its death would be the 16th hound death after an encounter with wolves in Wisconsin since the July-August bear hunt off-leash hound 'training' season ended July 31. 

The bear hunting season began Wednesday, September 4.

Hound owners are eligible for the state reimbursement even if they released the dog into known wolf territory, or near bait which attracts both bears and wolves, or if the owner is a scofflaw, a repeat reimbursement collector, and so.

Another first-line Foxconn figure steps away

Imminent disdain strikes Foxconn again.

Add senior company official Louis Woo to the list of Foxconn dropouts, which now includes former Foxconn CEO Terry Gou, (below), local booster and US House quitter Paul Ryan, local supporter and ex-Trump Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and the involuntarily retired ex-Governor and lead taxpayer giveaway artist Scott Walker, (also below).

Seems no one is in it for the long haul, as key players are disappearing as fast as the Project's's job promises, manufacturing goals and topsoil on a rainy August 2018 afternoon.

Woo is apparently recovering from an injury. No disrespect meant; the enterprise hasn't been a lucky one for many key players.

You can follow the project and how its going south, at this blog archive.

[Updated continuously from June, 2017] This archive with more than 340 posts - - and even more links and references - - tracks, explains and unmasks Wisconsin's public awards of $4.5 billion in state and local funds to Taiwan-based Foxconn. 

Call it a Scott Walker - - and failed campaign manuever - - production.

From NBC Nightly News, 7/21/19

Email confirms another WI hound thrown fatally to wolves

Thursday, 9/5 Update: The WI DNR reports yet another Plott hound killed by wolves, this time in Price County:

09/05/2019

Oneida

1 Hunting dog killed (Plott, 6-year old female)

Oneida depredation location map [PDF]

----------------------------------------------
Until the state stops paying them $2,500 for each bear-chasing hound so lost, hunting dog owners in Wisconsin won't stop putting their animals at risk by releasing their animals to be overpowered and killed by larger, pack-organized wolves. 

From an email forwarded this afternoon by the DNR:

Hunting Dog Depredated in Forest County 

On 9/05/19, USDA-Wildlife Services has confirmed that wolves depredated a Plott trailing hound in the Town of Alvin, Forest County.

The Plott hound which was killed may look like the one below. 

Its death would be the 16th hound death after an encounter with wolves in Wisconsin since the July-August bear hunt off-leash hound 'training' season ended July 31. 

The bear hunting season began Wednesday, September 4.

Hound owners are eligible for the state reimbursement even if they released the dog into known wolf territory, or near bait which attracts both bears and wolves, or if the owner is a scofflaw, a repeat reimbursement collector, and so.

After approving each ask, WI wants your views on its Great Lakes water management

I can't see how Wisconsin gets anything other than an "F" for Great Lakes Compact implementation 
 
after approving a Lake Michigan diversion to serve Foxconn - - and continuing to be the only state to approve such diversions under the Compact's rules - - but the DNR is obligated to ask for your comments, so have at it:

Public comment period open on Wisconsin 2019 draft Water Management Program Review

MADISON, Wis. - The Department of Natural Resources is seeking review and comment on Wisconsin's 2019 draft water management and water conservation and efficiency program review through October 15, 2019.

The department is also seeking comments on Wisconsin's water conservation and water use efficiency goals and objectives.

The program review is a requirement of the Great Lakes Compact (Compact) for members to review how their water management program implements the Compact.

The program reviews also provide an opportunity for each of the members of the Compact and the public to understand how all the members are implementing and adhering to the requirements of the Compact.

The department will review comments before submitting in its final program review to the Compact Council in December 2019.

Wisconsin's water conservation and water use efficiency goals and objectives guide the state's water conservation and efficiency program. These goals and objectives were last reviewed in 2011.

The draft water management review and the water conservation goals and objectives are available by searching the DNR website, dnr.wi.gov, for "Great Lakes Compact." Comments can be emailed to DNRWaterManagementProgram@wisconsin.gov or by U.S. mail to Shaili Pfeiffer, PO Box 7921, DG/5, Madison, WI 53707-7921.

The Great Lakes Compact is an agreement between the eight Great Lake states to implement parallel water management programs in the Great Lakes Basin, with a companion agreement that includes the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. 

The Great Lakes Compact became effective in December 2008.

Drafts of other Great Lakes states and provinces water management reviews are available at the Great Lakes Regional Body website: 

www.glslregionalbody.org.

Robin Vos is enjoying his obscurity!

Polling shows Robin Vos isn't well-known statewide, and that's the way he likes it. 

With recognition might come accountability, after all, and #whoneedsthat? when you've already picked your own voters #♥︎gerrymanderingLOL!

The most revealing part of the disrespect he tweeted (below) about the far more popular Governor isn't the arrogant, exclusionary and self-glorifying "getting things done" for conservatives.

Or "for Racine County," which could include the fiscal Foxconn wreckage he's helped load on to local taxpayers and the daily wreckage on an 'improved' I-94 which Vos pushed across the county.

The real tell in Vos' tweet is the exclamation point, because it shows the delight he takes in being the shadow puppeteer. Oh, and also the falsely-humble and stupid hashtag. He should have just written LOL and taken a first step down Honesty Lane..

Props to the Journal Sentinel's Molly Beck for pointing us to it.

Half the state hasn't heard of the most powerful lawmakers in Wisconsin, new poll finds

"Actually I'm more than happy to be getting things done for conservatives and Racine County while making sure Gov Evers doesn't screw up our state by enacting any of his very liberal agenda!" he tweeted, adding the hashtag: "#nocreditnecesssary."

Take away WI motorists' 1st-time-OWI get out of jail free cards

The public turned out in Madison Wednesday to support yet another bill to make first-offense OWI in Wisconsin a misdemeanor.

Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) wrote Senate Bill 9, which would make a first offense OWI a misdemeanor. "We are the only state in the country that has the first offense drunken driving as a parking ticket," said Sen. Darling.

It's a safe bet that the bill and anything else remotely in the public interest will die in committee, because too many Wisconsin legislators are too beholden to the state's various hospitality and alcohol lobbies, and too fearful of being called a party-pooper.

Related efforts have generally met with failure.

So it was not surprising to see legislators on the evening news default into their predictably phony hand wringing over what it would cost to have convicted offenders to sit for a few days, separated from their car keys, where they could count their blessings and remember them for not having killed themselves or someone else when caught driving drunk.

This is the same 'cost-conscious' Legislature which has just committed a record Wisconsin subsidy to a Taiwan-based TV screen manufacturer to build (perhaps) some products on rural Wisconsin farmland now being made more accessible through a quarter of a billion dollars in new highway spending.

How about dedicating a fraction of that kind of money to making the roads we already have a little safer by taking away the first-offense-OWI-get-out-of-jail-free card that comes attached to every State of Wisconsin driver's license?

Like there's a state birthright to endangering the public safety - - a pass we don't automatically grant to people for their first-time caught recklessly discharging a firearm in, say, a crowded shopping mall.

You don't hear legislators fretting over what a misdemeanor prosecution might do to a reckless firearm handler's future.

Commonsense, deterrent treatment of OWI as a menace to public health, combined with more education and broader access to treatment for abusive drinking, would be the most cost-effective approach of all, because you can't put a price on lives saved down the road.