This is the new home of old Uppity Wisconsin blog posts
News this morning --- Charlie Sykes will be leaving the air at the end of the year. Which leaves me two questions:
1. What is Sykes really up to
2. What kind of fresh new Conservative hell will WTMJ use to replace him?
The Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters held a press conference in Wisconsin Rapids along the Wisconsin River this afternoon.
The purpose is to refute claims by Scott Krug that the League had endorsed Krug for the 72nd District Assembly seat. In fact the WLCV has endorsed David Gorski. With avowed dedication to fair water usage laws and renewed attention to Public Education, David Gorski IS the Krug Krusher !
This morning the US Supreme court rejected the appeal on the John Doe II case. The case, which was brought by three county district attorneys, was the last hope for continuation of the John Doe probe in Wisconsin. We can now assume that the investigaition is officially dead, and that the corruption, pay-for-play, and flow of dark money into the state will continue.
A far-wing group, American Federation for Children (AFC) Action Fund, Wisconsin Committee, working to privatize public schools has dumped more money in its campaign elect State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa).
Krug is facing water warrior, David Gorski, the Democratic Party nominee for assembly district 72 in central Wisconsin.
The Citizen Action Western Wisconsin Organizing Co-op is continuing to fight the new CAFO in Dunn County. If you want to help to stop large dairy operations with uncertain controls over their pollution, please sign the petition against the CAFO expansion.
Also, if you would like to support political organizing in Western Wisconsin, and become a part of actions such as this, please consider signing up to become a member of the Co-op. They have been effective already on several fronts, including promoting fair living wages, environmental issues such as this, and fighting against Payday Lending -
If you want to know the background of both of the presidential candidates - warts and all - I think you could do much worse than the recent Fronttline episode - The Choice 2016. It's available on-line for viewing now at pbs.org.
Update -- On Friday federal district court Judge James Peterson demanded the state investigate the DMV's implementation of Voter ID and the ID process. The state must produce a report by Oct. 7. At the same time the state ACLU filed a motion in the 7th District Court alleging that the state is not giving ID's to people who request them. This is a lot of litigation and expense to solve a problem that does not exist.
I try to keep track of these things - but if you were to ask me exactly what the status is of getting an ID to vote in Wisconsin if you cannot come up with, for example, a birth
A banking executive serving as Chair and CEO of a publicly traded bank in northeastern Wisconsin may have joined forces with a Big Ag polluters' front-group.
Robert B. Atwell, the founder of the Green Bay-based Nicolet National Bank (publicly traded as Nicolet Bank Shares Inc.), used to give a community lecture entitled "Water, Money and Community," intended to stimulate solutions for a region heavily polluted by industrialized agriculture.
Now, northeastern Wisconsin residents are wondering if the banker Atwell is working with the industry-derived Big Ag PR initiative, Peninsula Pride, as a closely watched area state assembly race accelerates.
The race features Big Ag's State Rep. Joel Kitchens (R-Sturgeon Bay) against Lynn Utesch, a farmer and clean water activist living in Kewaunee County.
Here you go - this is more or less an experiment but you can watch the debate here.
So - the never-ending political circus in Wisconsin continues. If you've been following from home, the US Supreme court will soon consider whether they will hear a case to re-open the John Doe investigation in Wisconsin. Call it John Doe III. Yup, worse than the Rocky films. The point of contention here basically is that the state Supreme Court had a conflict of interest when ruling to shut down the John Doe because several of the court justices had received donations from groups with an interest in the outcome.
The recent cache of documents from the investigation that was released by The
William Iwen is a retired dentist living in Algoma in northeastern Wisconsin.
Iwen penned a letter endorsing water warrior, Lynn Utesch, candidate for the First assembly district.
Utesch is running against a pretender, a front-man for the polluters.
From the Capital Times:
The CAFO industry relies on free water from our aquifers and when millions of gallons of aquifer water is polluted with animal waste and unknown, unmeasured, undisclosed chemicals, hormones and antibiotic residuals, this dangerous waste is dumped back on karst countryside.
Lynn Utesch, who is running to represent District 1 in the Wisconsin Assembly, is a small organic farmer who does not need high-capacity wells or monocultures of chemical-dependent GMO corn, soy and alfalfa. He does believe in job creation for young people yearning to get back to the land as sustainable farmers on the land they love.
How to Fund Roads: A Balancing Act
By Senator Kathleen Vinehout
Funding roads is an important job for state leaders. Nine cents of every state budget dollar goes towards transportation. In the vagaries of Wisconsin state budgeting, this includes dollars the feds send Wisconsin (about forty cents of every road dollar comes from Uncle Sam).
A prudent fiscal manager must balance several factors to make wise transportation decisions. He or she must maintain our current investments, plan for future growth, pay scrupulous attention to efficiencies and quality construction, and reconcile
If you really want to know how corupted the Republican party has become over the past sixty years, take the time to read the Republican Platform from 1956 as Eisenhower was running for a second term. This is the America I grew up in. This isn't the America Trump and the Republicans want now. "Make America Great Again?" How about including the 1956 labor plank in the the 2016 party platform.
Here is the Labor Platform of the Republican Party in 1956...read it and weep!
Under the Republican Administration, as our country has prospered, so have its people. This is as it should be, for as
Water warrior fights for Wisconsin public schools
Said water warrior, David Gorski, "Scott Krug sold out to extremist, school-privatization ideologues to get reelected. This betrays our public schools and the families our schools serve. More than ever we need healthy, fully funded public schools for the sake of our children, our future."
We all knew it was going on, and we all knew it was deplorable. But it's always a great day to see the documentation.
Today's lead article on The Guardian's web site is Because Scott Walker Asked, an article based on a leak of the John Doe documentation which has been sealed by the courts. It is not clear who leaked these documents to The Guardian, but it's refreshing to see what it is that the donors to conservatives in Wisconsin have been so keen to cover up for years. It's what we all expected, but worse to see all in one lump.
The article is thoughtful, and I think fair. At the beginning of
From the Citizen Action Western Wisconsin Organizing Co-op. Click the image to enlarge it.
Legislative Audit Bureau Celebrates 50 Years of Service
By Senator Kathleen Vinehout
“Happy Birthday!” I told eighty auditors and other legislative leaders at a recent Capitol gathering. The nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) recently celebrated 50 years of service to the people of the State of Wisconsin.
LAB is the agency that works quietly behind the scenes to ensure state government delivers quality services. The agency has earned high marks for its work in national circles and criticism from both sides of the aisle in its detailed depiction of problems and recommended changes to
Fellow water warriors, Lynn and Nancy Utesch and Dave Gorski, attended the Wisconsin Factory Farm Summit in Green Bay this weekend.
The some 300 attendees at the conference are working to guarantee the future of clean water in Wisconsin against unanimous Republican Party opposition to this effort.
Lynn Utesch is a candidate for the First Assembly District.
Gorski is a candidate for the 72nd Assembly District.
Both Utesch and Gorski are making the future of clean water, small farming, tourism and recreation the basis of their campaigns.
