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  • Monumental fight waged over national monuments

    If a tree falls at the Giant Sequoia National Monument in California, will a friend of Donald Trump get rich?

    This is the question that circulated on social media in late April, as Trump signed yet another executive order — this time directing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review the designations of dozens of national monuments on federal lands.

    Trump signed the order April 26, three days before he both hit his 100-day mark — which he dismissed as “a ridiculous standard” — and faced renewed resistance in the form of another global protest, the People’s Climate March.

    The order could lead to the removal of protections enacted by Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama under the 1906 Antiquities Act, which authorizes presidents to declare federal lands as monuments to guard culturally or environmentally significant lands and waters from exploitation.

    Zinke accused prior presidents of using the Antiquities Act as a political tool, and Trump said he wanted to end “another egregious abuse of federal power.”

    However, environmentalists say he wants to open federal resources to plunderers.

    “Blowing up more than 100 years of bipartisan tradition to rob our kids of their natural legacy is shameful and sad,” said David Yarnold, president and CEO of the National Audubon Society. “These are places Americans hold in their hearts.”

    The order called for a review of 27 monuments — every area larger than 100,000 acres protected since 1996 — including:

    • Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, a 1.3 million-acre monument established by Obama near the end of his presidency.
    • Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in Maine, designated by Obama in 2016 and the Atlantic Ocean’s first marine national monument, with 5,000 square miles of underwater canyons and mountains.
    • Giant Sequoia National Monument, which President Bill Clinton established in 2000 to expand the number of protected Sequoia groves.

    Timber companies want access to Sequoia. The commercial fishing industry wants access to Seamounts. And the energy industry wants in at Bears Ears, home to a million acres of land sacred to Native Americans.

    “Trump and the anti-public-lands zealots in Congress are plotting to destroy some of the country’s most stunning landscapes and cultural treasures,” said Randi Spivak, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s public lands program. “Their goal is to hand our public lands to corporations to mine, frack, bulldoze and clear-cut till there’s nothing left to dig up.”

    Offshore drilling

    Two days after signing the order requiring the monuments review, Trump signed another order aimed at expanding drilling in the Arctic and opening other federal areas to oil and gas exploration.

    “This executive order starts the process of opening offshore areas to job-creating energy exploration,” Trump said during the White House signing ceremony. “It reverses the previous administration’s Arctic leasing ban and directs Secretary Zinke to allow responsible development of offshore areas that will bring revenue to our treasury and jobs to our workers.”

    The president also directed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to conduct a review of marine monuments and sanctuaries designated over the past 10 years. This could directly impact efforts to protect resources in Lake Michigan.

    “Trump’s shortsighted order reverses climate progress and imperils coastal communities, irreplaceable wildlife and our shared future,” said Trip Van Noppen, president of Earthjustice. “We will go to court to enforce the law and ensure President Obama’s protections remain in place.”

    Did you know?

    National monument designations date to Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, and some of the nation’s most treasured national parks were first protected as monuments, including Grand Teton, Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion, Acadia and Olympic.

    Note: This story was originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Activists take direct action in continued call to stop Line 3

    Activists take direct action in continued call to stop Line 3

    Environmental activists risked arrest Aug. 29 with a demonstration urging Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton to act immediately to stop Enbridge’s Line 3 tar sands pipeline project.

    Participants included tribal elders, environmental and indigenous advocates and faith leaders.

    Some activists gathered in Bemidji to engage in an act of civil disobedience — the occupation of a downtown intersection for four hours.

    Others staged a sit-in Dayton’s office.

    “We are calling on Gov. Dayton to act. It is time for him to protect Minnesota from this dangerous tar sands pipeline,” said Margaret Levin, director of the Sierra Club North Star Chapter.

    Earlier this summer, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission voted to approve Enbridge’s proposal to replace a portion of its Line 3 pipeline against the recommendations of the state department of commerce, office of administrative hearings, pollutions control agency and department of natural resources.

    The commission also voted against the wishes of four tribal governments and thousands of Minnesotans who participated in the review process and opposed Line 3.

    The pipeline will carry tar sands oil from the Athabasca River Basin in Alberta. It risks spills in fragile areas, including where American Indians harvest wild rice. Ojibwe Indians, or Anishinaabe, consider wild rice sacred and central to their culture.

    Line 3’s terminal is in Superior, Wisconsin.

    “I am here to say, Bimaadiziwin Nibi. Water is life,” said Winona LaDuke, the executive director of Honor the Earth, who lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota. “I am here to say that our state should not be militarized and our people arrested and injured for a Canadian Pipeline Co. I am here because it is necessary to be here, to protect our future generations. I am a water protector.”

    About 60 people participated in the protest and several were detained by law enforcement.

    “This dirty tar sands project is another example of the fossil fuel industry’s disregard for tribal sovereignty, clean air and water, and the health and safety of communities and the climate,” said Kendall Mackey, a Keep it in the Ground campaigner for global group 350.org. “It’s time for Gov. Dayton to show real climate leadership by listening to the people of Minnesota and stopping Line 3 for good.”

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Sweet sorrow

    Newspaper people write on deadline for the here and now.

    I like to think of the staccato-like style of a news story as a beating drum.

    And I like to think Wisconsin Gazette — a newspaper that strived for accuracy and truth while pursuing a progressive agenda — provided a marching tempo for a movement.

    You’re holding the last issue WiG will publish — there’s great sadness in acknowledging this development.

    As you read the final issue, please take notice of the advertisers on these pages — they’ve supported us and by doing so they’ve supported our mission, our organizations, our causes and you, our readers.

    Also, please take notice of the names listed in the masthead. These are the people who’ve made each issue happen, who’ve devoted their professional lives to building a progressive newspaper because they believe the press is vital to improving your lives and the lives of your brothers and sisters. Especially take note of two names on this masthead, because Wisconsin Gazette would not have existed without them — Leonard Sobczak and Louis Weisberg. They’ve risked more than anyone could imagine to pursue the Wisconsin Gazette ideal.

    Some years ago, when I departed another newspaper where I worked with Louis, he wrote an editorial saying goodbye to me. He headlined the piece “Sweet Sorrow” and the words then, for me, are the words I think of now — for Louis and Leonard.

    Everyone who read WiG benefited from their uncompromising journalistic ethics, their fairness and sense of accuracy and their commitment to an independent press. With tireless devotion, they set the bar high — and then cleared the bar many, many times.

    Note: This story was originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Watershed campaign: Milwaukeeans unite behind water initiative

    For some Milwaukeeans, summer begins with a dance in the Summerfest water fountain during PrideFest.

    For others, it begins with a starry night paddle on the Milwaukee River or the first beach day.

    Water puts the sparkle in Milwaukee’s summers and helps define the city’s identity.

    “I live to be on the water,” says Bobby Lagerstrom, an avid kayaker and competitive swimmer. “That’s what brought me here. Milwaukee is a great water town.”

    In mid-May, Milwaukee Water Commons, a project of the Milwaukee Environmental Consortium, brought several hundred people together at the Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery for the Confluence Gathering. The event was the culmination of a two-year process involving 1,300 people and more than 30 groups interested in shaping a vision to make Milwaukee a model water city.

    “It was a very robust conversation,” said Milwaukee Water Commons executive director Ann Brummitt. “We talked to people about water — what matters, what are the issues, what are the concerns. And then we really asked people about a vision going forward.”

    Milwaukee Water Commons’ slogan is “Together, we’re shaping Milwaukee’s water future.” The nonprofit abides by these principles: Water is an essential element for all life on Earth. Water belongs to no one and cannot be owned. People have a responsibility to protect and preserve clean fresh water. Decisions about the care and use of water must involve everyone. And the Great Lakes are a gift, having “nurtured our ancestors and shaped us as a people and as a community. They continue to sustain us.”

    The group operates a water school that collaborates with other organizations on specific programs and cultivates neighborhood leadership. MWC also conducts town hall-style meetings and workshops and works with local artists.

    The Confluence Gathering provided the opportunity to launch six water initiatives under the “Water City Agenda.” The vision is for Milwaukee to:

    • Be a national leader in “blue-green” jobs. Work is underway to promote the blue-green economy in the city, but the scale needs to grow, according to Brummitt, who previously directed the Milwaukee River Greenway Coalition and worked as a school teacher.

    • Make safe, clean and affordable tap water available to every Milwaukeean. A chief concern in Milwaukee, as it is nationally, is aging pipes. “While our tap water that comes out of Milwaukee Water Works is very good, by the time it gets to your kitchen faucet, there’s a chance of lead,” Brummitt said.

    • Advance green infrastructure practices across the city. “There’s a lot of really good energy going into this goal already,” according to Brummitt, who said elements in new developments might include rain gardens and green roofs, bioswales and curb cuts.

    • Make Milwaukee’s three rivers and Lake Michigan swimmable and fishable.

    • Offer every Milwaukeean meaningful water experiences. Brummitt made this observation: For all the sailing, kayaking, swimming, fishing and strolling that takes place in Milwaukee, there are children in the city who’ve never been to one of the rivers.

    • Celebrate local waters in arts and culture.

    “There’s a lot of work to be done,” said Brummitt. “As strong as our water culture is, we’re still losing ground. We can’t keep pace with the environmental degradation. So that’s where we felt there was room to bring in more people and more perspective. Everybody has something to say about the future of water in Milwaukee.”

    In the coming months, think tanks will be established to tackle each initiative and, Aug. 7, an annual H20 happening — We Are Water — will be held at Bradford Beach on the Lake Michigan shore.

    Institutional partners in carrying out the Water City Agenda include the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Sewerage District.

    “The science is there, the tools are available and our water policy researchers are ready to help turn these transformative ideas into reality,” Jenny Kehl, director of the Center for Water Policy at UW-M, said in a news statement.

    Nonprofit partners in the campaign include leading environmental groups, as well as community and neighborhood organizations such as Alice’s Garden, a nonprofit in the Johnsons Park neighborhood.

    “The work Milwaukee Water Commons has taken on is some of the most important work this city will do,” said Venice Williams, director of Alice’s Garden. “It is about preserving the dignity of the ancestral waters of Lake Michigan. It is also about helping every human being who quenches their thirst, bathes their body, rinses their clothes, mops their floors, enjoys their cup of tea to understand one cannot exist without water.”

    A sister project, with a regional focus, is the Great Lakes Commons, and organizers in other Great Lakes cities, specifically Toronto and Cleveland, are at work employing the “commons” concept.

    “When we started this work, we started to look and see if there was a model for this kind of thing,” said Brummitt. “But there just isn’t a well established framework for a water city. This is our foray into creating that. It will be developed. That’s coming. We’re shaping the agenda in Milwaukee.”

    Become a commoner

    For more information or to get involved with Milwaukee Water Commons, visit milwaukeewatercommons.org.

    Save the date

    On Aug. 7, Milwaukee Water Commons will present We Are Water 2016, a communitywide celebration at the north end of Bradford Beach. The event will feature song and dance, artwork and spoken word, and the creation of a large, illuminated image of the Great Lakes in the sand.

    In related news …

    Carpenter raises concerns for pipeline spills

    Wisconsin Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, asked U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson to join with U.S. Sens. Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan to make sure the Department of Transportation classifies underwater pipelines in and around the Great Lakes as “offshore” facilities.

    Why? Carpenter said under federal law cleanup for “onshore” facilities is capped at $634 million but “offshore” facilities must have resources to cover all costs.

    If there were a spill in the water from the pipeline that’s transporting 23 million gallons of crude oil and liquid gas daily, the cleanup could be $1 billion. The pipeline crosses the Straits of Mackinac, connecting Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

    “Our incentives should be to protect the waters and avoid economic catastrophe of spills,” Carpenter said.

    — WiG

  • Decoding your life, growing family trees with DNA tests

    You’re not who you think you are, and now science can prove it.

    Individuals might have genes from ancestors who practiced discrimination as well as genes from the people against whom they discriminated.

    As gay poet Walt Whitman wrote in 1855, “I am large. I contain multitudes.”

    Today, with a little spit and about $200, millions of people are learning about the multitude of ancestors embodied in their DNA. Through personal genomic testing, they’re gaining unprecedented insights into themselves and their family histories.

    People are also reaching a better understanding of how they connect to one another. Simply looking at our ancestral composition map elicits a feeling of connectedness as a species.

    “You can find out if you’re part Irish, Scandinavian, Cameroonian or one of the other 23 ethnicities. And you might even discover cousins you never knew you had,” AncestryDNA says in its promotion inviting people to test the test sold by Ancestry, the parent of Ancestry.com.

    While the world seems to be divided along racial, ethnic and geographic lines, our genes tell a story of just how connected humans are on planet Earth. Diversity resides in harmony within all of us.

    “What do the 23 pairs of chromosomes in your DNA say about you?” teases 23andMe, Ancestry.com’s chief rival in the consumer market and the maker of probably the best-known home DNA test kit.

    With these the tests, people around the world are gaining new perspectives on their personalities and their health. And, many are getting surprises — large and small — with their results.

    One member of WiG’s extended family took the test and learned that the family trees buried in a memory box at the back of her closet contain errors and are vastly incomplete, while the family crests her dad’s been buying over the years apparently belong to someone else’s family.

    Using 23andMe, she learned that she’s 0.8 percent Middle Eastern/North African, less than 0.1 percent East Asian/Native American and 99.1 percent European.

    The analysis of her European ancestry shows her to be: 94.1 percent northwestern European, including 49.1 percent British/Irish; 15.4 percent French/German; 2.3 percent Scandinavian; 0.1 percent Finnish; and 28 percent “broadly Northwestern European.”

    She has 289 Neanderthal variants, which is more than 69 percent of other 23andMe customers, but her Neanderthal ancestry accounts for less than 4 percent of her overall DNA.

    Laura Weber of Green Bay took the test last year and found that Neanderthal ancestry accounts for less than 3 percent of her overall DNA.

    “I learned that I’m not 100 percent German, which my mom led me to believe for 56 years,” Weber said.

    On Mother’s Day, Weber said she might ask her mom to take the test, just to be certain she’s her mom.

    She was joking, but people who use 23andMe and AncestryDNA can make life-changing discoveries.

    How it works

    Here’s how 23andMe testing and analysis works:

    A kit is purchased online for about $200 and, soon after, a small box containing instructions and a vial is delivered. This is the “home-based saliva collection kit.”

    An account is created on 23andMe.com and the unique identifier code that arrived with the kit is registered with the account.

    Then, taking care to rinse out the mouth first, the customer spits into the vial, places the sample in a plastic bag that’s tucked into the box and ships the package — postage pre-paid — to the lab.

    After that, there’s a wait until one day an email arrives with a notice that the analysis is complete and the results are ready.

    The customer signs on to 23andMe.com to dive in and learn about his or her genetic code. An individual’s 23 pairs of chromosomes provide a lot of information about ancestry, health and traits. There are reports for:

    • Ancestry composition and maternal and paternal lineage, probably the first batch of information viewed by a new customer.

    • Wellness research for lifestyle choices, including research about lactose intolerance, muscle composition, sleep movement, and caffeine consumption.

    • Traits, from physical attributes to food preferences. Traits include: asparagus odor detection, bitter taste perception, cheek dimples, cleft chin, earlobe type, earwax type, eye color, finger length ratio, freckles, hair curliness, hair loss, reflex, toe-length ratio, and widow’s peaks.

    • Carrier status and inherited conditions, including for cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, hereditary hearing loss.

    For a couple of years, 23andMe couldn’t provide health-related information in the United States by order of the Food and Drug Administration. The government’s concern was that the information might lead people to take steps to mitigate serious diseases that they don’t have — or to ignore symptoms assuming they can’t have an illness.

    Last year, 23andMe launched a new user experience, which provides carrier status, wellness, traits and ancestry reports

    “My family did it for Christmas,” said Kevin Laws of Madison. “It really was pretty cool.”

    Growing knowledge base

    Laws, who has a background in chemistry, said he’s most interested in the health information and taking the 23andMe surveys to further research. People take the test and then take online surveys linked to scientific studies, which grows the knowledge base.

    There’s a broad range of surveys.

    Earlier this year, a study based on a 23andMe survey was published in Nature Communications and identified 15 locations in DNA associated with “morningness.”

    “In this study, we set out to discover more about an individual’s preference toward rising and were able to identify the genetic associations with ‘morningness,’ as well as ties to lifestyle patterns and other traits,” said Youna Hu, the lead author on the paper. “This type of study speaks to the power of the 23andMe database, which can yield genetic insights into a variety of conditions and traits and potentially (show) how those genetic factors are affected by behavior and environment.”

    The study of more than 89,000 customers found that seven of the loci associated with “morningness” are near genes previously known to be involved in the circadian rhythm.

    Additionally, the study found 56 percent of those surveyed considered themselves night owls. Women and adults over age 60 are more likely to be morning people, and morning people are less likely to suffer from insomnia or need eight hours of sleep each day.

    Weber said she’s a morning person. Laws is an owl.

    “The beauty of 23andMe is the ability to conduct research on common traits like being a lark or a night owl, which affect everyone, yet typically wouldn’t receive funding for a study,” said 23andMe senior scientist David Hinds, a co-author of the paper. “With the information we have, we can uncover the genetics behind a variety of conditions and diseases, and hopefully reach a better understanding of how we differ from one another.”

    In addition to accessing reports and taking surveys, customers on 23andMe, which partners with MyHeritage.com, can opt to share their genetic fingerprints, which allows for relatives — close and distant — to connect with them.

    Customers also can learn ancestral compositions and build family trees using Ancestry.com and its AncestryDNA autosomal DNA test, which costs about $100.

    Branching out

    Using MyHeritage and Ancestry.com, a person can grow a family tree from a sapling to a redwood overnight.

    Both websites offer tools to search billions of historical records, find archival photos, collect newspaper articles and bookmark histories.

    When MyHeritage and 23andMe announced their collaboration, MyHeritage CEO Gilad Japhet said, “Combining genealogy with DNA-based ancestry is the next evolution in uncovering family history. DNA testing can connect you to relatives you never knew existed, who descend from shared ancestors centuries ago. … Family trees and historical records are critical to map and fully understand these connections.”

    Laws said he was surprised to find a marriage record showing he had great-great-grandparents, who married in their teens. Weber said she was thrilled to come across a census account showing 12 people in her family lived together during World War II in an apartment on Chicago’s West Side.

    The services also can do the work of building a tree, which makes adding ancestors as easy as making friends on Facebook.

    “The next thing for me is to find out who all these people were,” said Laws, whose tree currently goes back to 1587. “Right now, they are names and dates and some bits of information.”

    Polling conducted by Ancestry.com for its Global Family History Report found that Americans would prefer to find they are descendants of explorers, royalty, Mayflower travelers and Revolutionary and Civil War veterans. That could explain why one WiG staffer knew two people who claimed to have learned from psychics that they were the reincarnation of Cleopatra. The ensuing feud over who was the real Egyptian queen ended their friendship.

    Genetic science, unlike psychics, tells the truth, which often is less glamorous. Most people learn they descend from World War II vets, immigrants and entrepreneurs.

    And Americans, the polling found, would prefer not to find thieves, drunkards or murderers in their family tree.

    Though Laws said he wouldn’t mind a thief if he left a fortune.

    DNA USA

    An early 23andMe study examined what DNA reveals about the U.S. population, migration and the rate of “ancestry mixing” among populations.

    The research, led by Katarzyna Bryc, showed the signature of historical migrations in the United States can be found in the DNA of today’s population.

    • About 3.5 percent of European Americans have 1 percent or more African ancestry.

    • European Americans with African ancestry are found at much higher rates in the southern states.

    • The highest levels of African ancestry among self-reported African Americans are found in the southern states, especially South Carolina and Georgia.

    • One in every 20 African Americans has Native American ancestry.

    • Among self-reported Latinos in the United States, those from the South and Southwest have the highest percentage of Native American ancestry.

    — Lisa Neff

    Did you know?

    National DNA Day is observed annually on April 25 to celebrate the discovery of DNA’s double helix in 1953 and the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003. This year, the National Human Genome Research Institute celebrated with a series of events.

  • Activists fight to protect wolves from hunts

    The U.S. House of Representatives recently voted to strip wolves of federal protections in Wyoming, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

    The 242–161 vote was on amending a hunting bill, the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act. 

    “This vote by the U.S. House of Representatives is a crack at the very foundation of the Endangered Species Act, a law that has a 99 percent success rate at pulling species back from the brink of extinction,” said Drew Caputo of the environmental group Earthjustice. “Ninety percent of Americans from across the political spectrum support the act. If we continue down this slippery slope, we could end up in a world where our children or grandchildren might never again see a bald eagle, or a breaching whale, or hear the cry of a wolf in the wild.”

    Amendment sponsors include U.S. Reps. Reid Ribble of Wisconsin, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Dan Benishek of Michigan, and Collin Peterson of Minnesota.

    Their measure, which the House voted for in late February, would override the federal court rulings that state management plans do not sufficiently protect wolves and return species management to states. This could again allow for the trophy hunting of Great Lakes wolves and the killing of wolves in most of Wyoming, where a management plan would provide for shooting wolves on site.

    The amendment also contains a clause precluding further judicial review of the removal of federal protections in Wyoming, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

    “If enacted, this legislation could prove devastating for the recovery of wolves in the continental United States,” said Caputo. “What’s at stake here is whether wolves in Wyoming and the Great Lakes will again face the same unregulated killing that nearly wiped them out in the first place.”

    The House vote came less than two months after Congress rejected a rider to an omnibus spending bill that would have removed Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the Great Lakes and Wyoming.

    A similar push is on in the U.S. Senate. In January, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works added a provision to the Sportsmen’s Act to subvert the judicial process and delist wolves. Currently, gray wolves in Minnesota are listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act and as “endangered” in Wyoming, Wisconsin and Michigan.

    Both the House and Senate measures would order the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reissue a rule to delist the gray wolf. The rule was first issued in late 2011 and cleared the way for states to manage wolf populations, which quickly led to the slaughter of wolves.

    Hunting wolves

    Wisconsin legislators legalized the use of firearms and crossbows to kill wolves. The state also legalized the baiting, trapping and hounding of wolves.

    “In Wisconsin, wolves are killed in some of the most brutal ways,” said Wendy Keefover, manager of The Humane Society of the United States’ native carnivore protection program. “Wisconsin is the only state where you can hound wolves. You can bait wolves. You can use neck snares to trap a wolf. …Wisconsin has some of the most egregious ways to kill.”

    Different numbers can be found for the wolf hunts held in 2012–13, 2013–14 and 2014–15 in Wisconsin.

    Data from HSUS shows:

    • 2012–13: The 2012 winter wolf count was 779–804 in 205 packs. The proposed hunting quota was 201 wolves. The DNR reported the killing of 117 wolves: 56 hunted and 61 trapped.
    • 2013–14: The wolf population was 660–689 in 197 packs. During that “season,” 17 wolf packs disappeared and the population declined by 19 percent. The HSUS said 65 wolves were killed for livestock depredation, 21 died in vehicle collisions, 59 were killed illegally, and hunters and trappers killed 257 wolves. Some 16,672 applications were filed and 1,879 permits were sold for the trophy hunt.
    • 2014–15: The state issued 1,500 permits to hunters and trappers and set a hunt quota of 156 wolves, prompting an appeal from The HSUS, which said the pace of trophy hunting, along with poaching, would cause a population crash. The HSUS estimated the total number of wolves killed was 301. Less than a week into the hunt, the DNR closed four of the six zones, with half the zones exceeding quotas.

    “There was such a rush to hunt,” said Melissa Tedrowe, Wisconsin state director for The HSUS.

    “After delisting, the only management tool offered by our state or the other states was to kill wolves,” said environmental activist Kelly Powell of Madison. “That isn’t a management plan. That’s slaughter. That isn’t the way to deal with a recovering species.”

    The official wolf hunting season in Wisconsin ended in early December 2014.

    That month, a federal judge overturned the delisting of the Great Lakes wolves, putting permitted hunts on hold.

    Benishek, in a statement, said the delisting amendment “was based on valuable input from both Michigan and federal officials in order to use sound science to responsibly manage the wolf population while also meeting the needs of local communities. As the number of wolves has increased well beyond the recommended number for recovery, there has been a negative impact on other species and a constant threat to livestock and pets.”

    The delisting measure has the support of Safari Club International, a hunting group, and the National Rifle Association, the largest gun ownership group in the United States.

    On the opposing side, Earthjustice, the Center for Biological Diversity and The Humane Society of the United States, along with many state and local organizations, maintain that the congressional push to delist wolves does not involve sound science or responsible management, nor does it have widespread public support.

    “I just really want to emphasize that the American public and the majority of Wisconsinites value and appreciate wolves as they icon that they are,” said Keefover.

    She and Tedrowe said the drive to delist is based on myths about wolves as predators and ignores the role of large carnivores in the ecosystem.

    A year ago, a coalition of animal protection and conservation organizations suggested reclassifying the gray wolf under the Endangered Species Act as threatened throughout the contiguous United States. That move would continue federal oversight and funding for species recovery efforts but provide some regulatory flexibility to address wolf conflicts.

    “A congressional end run around science and the Endangered Species Act will create more controversy and put wolves and the law itself in jeopardy,” Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said at the time. “The better path is to downlist wolves to threatened, replace the failed piecemeal efforts of the past with a new science-based recovery strategy and bring communities together to determine how wolves will be returned to and managed in places where they once lived.”

    The proposal pending in the Senate and the measure that passed the House does not take that approach. Another version of the Senate bill lacks the delisting amendment, and others opposed by animal welfare advocates and environmentalists.

    Activists also have grave concerns that lawmakers may attach riders to budget bills providing for the delisting of gray wolves in the Great Lakes and Wyoming.

    Recommended reading …

    Wyoming’s dire plans for the wolves by Tim Preso of EarthJustice.

  • Superhosts roll out welcome mats as Airbnb builds presence in Wisconsin

    Feel summer waning without even a weekend getaway?

    Airbnb superhosts await guest arrivals at artists’ studios in the Driftless Area, lake cabins in Door County, city apartments across Milwaukee, farmhouses in Dane County — even two yurts on Bayfield County forest land and a Frank Lloyd Wright home in Two Rivers.

    Renting vacation rental homes is big business in Wisconsin. Airbnb, the online hospitality service and marketplace that launched just a decade ago, has a sizable and growing presence in a state where hosts seem eager to make lodgers feel like family — if that’s what they want.

    “Ideally, I like to meet and greet people, that’s the fun of this,” Airbnb host Nina Cheney said of arriving guests. “But I play it by ear. You definitely want to give them their privacy.”

    Cheney offers two Wisconsin lodgings on Airbnb. One rental is a private room in a stone house, and the other is a “cool, scenic country art studio” that’s 20 steps from the main house. The studio is a converted rehearsal space from when Cheney worked as a juggler.

    Many of her guests are from Wisconsin or the Chicago area, but Cheney has welcomed people from around the world.

    So has Neda Stevic, an Airbnb host offering a private room in an apartment in Milwaukee.

    “I have had guests from China, Germany, Malaysia, Canada, France, India and Australia so far,” said Stevic, who began hosting in February. “This is a wonderful way to meet people from all over the world and learn about their cultures.”

    Hosts with the most

    Stevic and Cheney are superhosts, meaning they have five-star, 100 percent ratings on Airbnb from guests.

    It’s important for hosts to be honest in their listings and also to exceed guests’ expectations, the Wisconsin superhosts said.

    Another superhost, Michael Ditmer, easily exceeds guests’ expectations with a rare opportunity to stay in unique lodging — his Frank Lloyd Wright home in Two Rivers.

    Tours of the architect’s buildings can be found across the country, but “a typical historic house tour does not allow you to sit on the furniture, linger and enjoy at your own pace or give one the experience of living in the house,” said Ditmer, who described a stay at Wright’s Still Bend house as “almost a time-traveling experience.”

    Still, he said, superhosts need to offer special comforts. “Do not skimp on anything, keep the house very clean, think about the details and treat all your guests as if they are visiting royalty,” he advised prospective hosts.

    “Probably the one thing I do as a host that stands out is that the cottage kitchen is really well equipped, and I leave the guests breakfast goodies, so they don’t have to forage for food first thing the next day,” explained Elaine Carmichael, who five years ago began offering a waterfront cottage in Door County’s Sturgeon Bay.

    Cheney said she supplies fresh flowers and chocolates in the bedroom or bagels and coffee in her kitchen.

    In her listings on Airbnb.com, she shares details of her properties — “lovingly restored” and “bucolic views” — and also her passions — bird-watching, skiing, kayaking and traveling “whenever I can.”

    When Cheney travels, she’s partial to staying in Airbnb properties. In fact, she was a guest before she became a host three years ago.

    “I stayed in an Airbnb myself and realized, I can do this,” she said. “And I just decided to try it.”

    Carmichael travels a lot and likes the “living like a local” experience of Airbnbs. “One pleasure of travel is imagining what life would be like if you lived in the destination,” she said. “Living locally, instead of in a hotel, helps.”

    Stevic stays in Airbnb places “for a more authentic and affordable experience.”

    Living like a local in Wisconsin

    About 210,000 guests stayed in Wisconsin Airbnbs in 2017 — 97 percent more than the year before. The guests found lodging with more than 4,000 hosts.

    “I’ve just met some amazing people,” said Cheney. “It makes the whole world a lot smaller.”

    She mentioned four men from France who stayed with her while competing in the Ironman Wisconsin triathlon. “They were gorgeous. I just absolutely love being a host,” she said.

    Other perks? Two big ones are the income from rentals and the tax deductions for home improvements.

    For Stevic, hosting means her income exceeds her rent and utilities, and she can save to buy a home.

    “A lot of this has to do with where I am located, which is the middle of historic Brady Street,” she said. “People love coming here.”

    Ditmer, who has been hosting since Airbnb’s early days, also says the income more than pays the mortgage.

    Banking on bookings

    For 2017, Airbnb estimated Wisconsin hosts earned a combined $25.2 million in supplemental income.

    Milwaukee’s hosts in 2017 earned $4.2 million and welcomed 40,600 guests. Madison hosts earned $3.6 million and welcomed 27,330 guests.

    A typical annual income for a host in Wisconsin is $6,300, but some far exceed that amount.

    Carmichael began living full-time in Door County in 2004 and built a home on the lot next to a summer cottage. Then the decision was made to rent the cottage on Airbnb to cover property taxes, improvements and maintenance.

    “It turned out to be fun,” she said.

    And, it turned out to generate a good income.

    “We gross about $25,000 to $30,000 a year. … It’s 100 percent booked from April to November, roughly 60 percent the rest of the time.”

    State and local governments also gain from Airbnb rentals, especially around university campuses and during big events — from Packer games in Green Bay to festivals in Milwaukee to commencement ceremonies in college communities.

    Last summer, the state executed a model tax agreement with Airbnb. Effective July 1, 2017, Airbnb began collecting and remitting taxes to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue on all bookings, making the process seamless for hosts and the state. The agreement pertains to state sales tax, county sales and use taxes, stadium district taxes and some resort taxes.

    Airbnb also has tax agreements with some municipalities. An early arrangement was reached with the city of Madison, which received about $324,000 in room taxes from May 2017 through May 2018. That amount exceeded expectations by $124,000.

    More recently, Racine announced it would begin receiving an 8 percent tourist tax on Airbnb rentals this summer.

    “Working with Airbnb to collect and remit taxes is a great win-win for the city and the Airbnb hosts,” Mayor Cory Mason has stated.

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Hemp happenings: Industry to cultivate support during Hemp History Week in June

    More than 250 hemp happenings take place in early June, when Hemp History Week arrives.

    The campaign — set for June 4–10 — is coordinated by the Hemp Industries Association and Vote Hemp. HIA is a nonprofit trade group representing hemp companies, researchers, farmers and supporters. Vote Hemp is a nonprofit advocacy group.

    Hemp History Week is an industrywide effort sponsored by brands such as Dr. Bronner’s, Manitoba Harvest, Nature’s Path Organic, Nutiva, Pacific Foods and Plus+ CBD Oil.

    A focus will be on lobbying in Washington, D.C., and at state capitols, but some 250 other grass-roots events also are planned — plantings, markets, film screenings and more.

    Last year, more than 25,000 acres of hemp were planted and harvested in the United States. That’s a record in the few years since passage of the 2014 Farm Bill, which has resulted in 34 states lifting a ban on industrial hemp farming at the state level.

    States that legalized industrial hemp farming — per provision Sec. 7606 of the Farm Bill — include Wisconsin, as well as Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.

    Still, federal law prohibits commercial industrial hemp cultivation. And challenges for the industry include:

    • Inability of hemp farmers to obtain crop insurance and financing.

    • Difficulties involved with sourcing certified hemp seed.

    • Lack of adequate processing infrastructure in the United States for raw hemp materials.

    • Government interference with the interstate commerce of U.S.-grown and manufactured hemp products.

    • Misregulation of CBD products.

    Organizers of Hemp History Week plan to lobby to change state and federal laws, expose the depth of the industry’s roots in the United States and build awareness to the health, economic, technological and sustainability benefits of hemp.

    Celebrities and wellness experts onboard for the campaign include Dr. Andrew Weil, Alicia Silverstone, Phil Lempert, Ashley Koff R.D., Brendan Brazier, Elizabeth Kucinich, Ziggy Marley, Alexandra Jamieson, Jason Mraz, Dar Williams, Michael Franti, John Salley, Doug Fine and Ozomatli.

    With months still to go before Hemp History Week, organizers of the campaign in mid-February released a new video, “Deep Roots,” which was filmed at the Rodale Institute Experimental Farm in Pennsylvania.

    The video explores the research on cultivating hemp in a regenerative organic no-till agriculture model. In an interview, Rodale farm manager Ross Duffield talks about how industrial hemp could play a key role in rejuvenating the soil and economic health of U.S. farmlands. Also, research technician Tara Caton discusses the attraction pollinators demonstrate toward hemp.

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Study: Trump’s border wall threatens 93 species

    President Donald Trump’s planned border wall threatens 93 species, including jaguars, ocelots, Mexican gray wolves and cactus ferruginous pygmy owls, according to a new study by the Center for Biological Diversity.

    The study also found 25 threatened or endangered species have been designated “critical habitat” on the border, including more than 2 million acres within 50 miles of the border.

    “Trump’s border wall is a disaster for people and wildlife alike,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the center. “It could drive magnificent species like the jaguar and ocelot to extinction in the United States.”

    The study identified threatened, endangered and “candidate” species — those being considered for protection — that have ranges near or crossing the border.

    These include:

    • 57 endangered species.

    • 24 threatened species.

    • 10 species under consideration for protection.

    • 2 species of concern — golden and bald eagles.

    Construction of the 1,200-mile wall — along with related infrastructure and enforcement — would have far-reaching consequences for wildlife, including cutting off migration corridors, reducing genetic diversity, destroying habitat, and adding vehicles, noise and lights to vast stretches of the wild borderlands.

    “The border wall won’t be effective at stopping people seeking a better life from getting to this country, but it will destroy habitat and divide wildlife populations,” Greenwald said in a news release. “Building a wall across the entirety of the border would cause massive damage to one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America and would be a boondoggle of the highest order.”

    The sections of border wall already built have had a range of negative effects on wildlife, including direct destruction of thousands of acres of habitat, indirect impacts from noise and light pollution, and division of cross-border wildlife populations like bighorn sheep and jaguars.

    The border wall would cut through the Cabeza Prieta, Buenos Aires and several other national wildlife refuges, along with Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Big Bend National Park and many other natural areas.

    Last month, the center and U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., sued the Trump administration over the proposed border wall and other border security measures.

    The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, is the first targeting the administration’s plan to vastly expand and militarize the U.S.-Mexico border.

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • The Great American Eclipse to produce mass migration, awe

    Exterior, the crest of the highway. A farmer leans against her tractor. A family picnics outside their motorhome. A couple of bikers look up at the sky through extra dark shades. Cars, trucks and RVs are bumper to bumper.

    Over horns and laughter, there’s a battle between stereo systems. “Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone.” “Nothing I can say. A total eclipse of the heart.”

    A scene maybe from Close Encounters of the Third Kind or Independence Day?

    Nope, expectations for Aug. 21, when the Great American Eclipse of 2017 occurs from coast to coast.

    “This will be like Woodstock 200 times over — but across the whole country,” said Alex Young, solar scientist with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

    A total solar eclipse will be viewable throughout a 70-mile-wide path that crosses 14 states, from Oregon to South Carolina.

    The umbra — or dark inner shadow — of the moon will travel from west to east, from almost 3,000 mph in western Oregon to 1,500 mph in South Carolina.

    About 12.2 million people live in the path of the total eclipse and about two-thirds of the nation’s population lives within a day’s drive of seeing totality — for Wisconsinites, it’s as close as southern Illinois or Missouri.

    Those who stay in Wisconsin — and put on a pair of “eclipse glasses” — will see a partial solar eclipse, about 80 percent to 90 percent, depending on the location. In the Milwaukee area, there will be coverage of about 83 percent, with the eclipse beginning about 11:50 a.m. and continuing to around 2:40 p.m.

    “You are going to be watching the solar system move,” said Alan J. Peche, director of the Barlow Planetarium at the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley. “That’s going to be cool. When the moon starts to cover up the sun and takes a bite out of it, well, I love those transition times.”

    “Regardless of where you are in the United States on Aug. 21, you are going to want to be a part of this,” observed astronomy enthusiast Mike Jones of Lake Geneva. “What’s the last monumental good thing we’ve shared as a country?”

    ‘A generational event’

    How monumental is the event?

    The last total eclipse in the United States occurred Feb. 26, 1979, but the last total eclipse that crossed the entire continent occurred June 8, 1918.

    Scientists and educators at universities, museums and observatories are helping Wisconsinites make the most of the partial eclipse. In the weeks before, institutions are hosting lectures, screening planetarium shows and organizing viewing parties.

    “Wisconsin has some of the most active astronomy clubs in the country, and also some of the most famous observatories,” said skywatcher T. G. Gallant of Waukesha. “Plus, we have exceptional educational centers and museums. Anyone who wants to participate in the partial has a place to go in Wisconsin.”

    Gallant has plans to visit the Milwaukee Public Museum’s eclipse preview before she departs for Columbia, Missouri, to experience what NASA is calling the “2017 Eclipse Across America, when the sun and moon align with you.”

    On Eclipse Day, Gallant will be joining about 70,000 people in Faurot Field at the University of Missouri’s Memorial Stadium to watch the total eclipse — totality there will last about 2 minutes and 37 seconds.

    Bob Allen, the planetarium director at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, also will be traveling to experience the total eclipse. He’s an expert eclipse-chaser, having led a group of 30 people to Brandon, Manitoba, to experience the total solar eclipse in 1979 and a group of 12 to Hawaii in 1991.

    “I am going with a couple of friends to see this one,” he said.

    From the Milwaukee Public Museum, director Bob Bonadurer is leading a tour of eclipse-chasers to Missouri and southern Illinois.

    Another eclipse-chaser, Peche, has been waiting for the opportunity for decades and he’ll be traveling with family to the centerline in southern Missouri.

    He knows what to expect with totality Aug. 21: There will be about 2 minutes or so when day will turn to night. Bright stars and planets will be visible during totality. Birds will fly to their nighttime roosts. Nocturnal insects will chirp and buzz. Temperatures will drop.

    “Orion will be way off to the West,” Peche said. “Wildlife will start to think it is nighttime. It will go black like it’s midnight.”

    He continued, “It’s an amazing thing. I’ve never experienced the total eclipse, but I know I’ll never forget it.”

    “This is a generational event,” said Madhulika Guhathakurta, NASA’s lead scientist for the 2017 eclipse. “This is going to be the most documented, the most appreciated eclipse ever.”

    Since the last total eclipse that crossed the continent was nearly a century ago, scientists are eager to test the latest technology and tools — and theories. NASA alone plans to collect information from 50 high-altitude balloons, 11 satellites and hundreds of stations on the ground.

    Plus, scientists expect casual skywatchers to help document the event, a rare opportunity to observe the solar corona, the outer atmosphere of the sun, usually obscured by the bright surface of the sun. The moon will align exactly with the sun’s surface, enabling observations of the entire corona.

    “This total eclipse … is a fundamentally unique opportunity in modern times, enabling the entire country to be engaged with modern technology and social media,” said Carrie Black, an associate program director at the National Science Foundation. “Images and data from … millions of people will be collected and analyzed by scientists for years to come.”

    Plan and stock up

    While NASA is rallying for the eclipse, the Federal Highway Administration is stressing caution for a “special event for which there has been no recent precedent in the United States.” Some are predicting the largest temporary mass migration of people in the United States the week of the eclipse.

    “We’re encouraging people to put in some extra effort to plan their travel ahead of time, as this isn’t your average travel weekend,” a recent FHA statement advised.

    Plenty of people have planned, as accommodations — hotels, motels, campgrounds and vacation rentals — are booked along the centerline across the country.

    Peche, for example, booked his rooms about a year ago — as soon as reservations could be made.

    The FHA also advised people traveling to the centerline to bring food, water and other supplies.

    Peche said he’s prepared. He previously resided in Florida, and he made preparations the way Floridians prepare for hurricane season and a possible evacuation.

    “If you are going to the centerline, you might want to take toilet paper,” said Peche, who’s heard that all the port-a-potties in Missouri have been leased for Aug. 21 — and may not be in the best condition by Aug. 22.

    Gallant also is stocking up on snacks, water, toilet paper and cash.

    “This is going to tax everything,” Gallant said. “But for a couple of hours, I think we’ll all stop right where we are and look to the sky. And won’t that be the greatest?”

    Eclipse events

    If “planetarium” or “astronomy” is associated with an institution or organization in your community, odds are there will be an eclipse event of some kind on the calendar.

    A sampling for Wisconsin:

    • The Milwaukee Public Museum, 10 a.m.–3 p.m. Aug. 21, hosts “Eclipse Across America” and provides live-stream video of the eclipse, as well as views through telescopes and shows in the Dome Theater and Planetarium. MPM also is selling “eclipse glasses” while supplies last. Eclipse preview programs are July 29 and Aug. 12. For more, go to mpm.edu.
    • The Solar Eclipse Extravaganza Aug. 21 at Mill Road Library in Milwaukee features wandering astronomers, an inflatable planetarium, live-streaming feeds of the eclipse, arts and crafts, and history programs. For more, go to mpl.org.
    • The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Planetarium presents A Total Solar Eclipse Experience July 29, Aug. 5 and Aug. 12 for those seeking a preview of what’s to come Aug. 21. More details are at uwlax/edu/planetarium.
    • The La Crosse Area Astronomical Society plans an observing session Aug. 21 in Riverside Park in La Crosse.
    • Space Place, an outreach center of the UW-Madison Astronomy Department, is selling “eclipse glasses.” Also, Dr. Jim Lattis, the Space Place director, lectures on “The Great American Eclipse” Aug. 8.
    • An Eclipse Party to view the event takes place Aug. 21 at the Paper Discovery Center in Appleton. For more, go to paperdiscoverycenter.
    • Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay hosts an observing celebration 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. Aug. 21. For more, go yerkesoutreach.org.
    • Barlow Planetarium at University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley in Menasha offers an eclipse preview July 29 and is selling “eclipse glasses.” For more, go to uwfox.uwc.edu/barlow-planetarium.
    • A viewing event takes place 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Aug. 21 at Harrington Beach State Park in Belgium.

    For updates to these listings, go online to wisconsingazette.com. Send notices of eclipse-related events to lmneff@wisconsingazette.com.

    Say what…

    Eclipse: An alignment of astronomical objects in which a planetary object comes between the sun and another planetary object — like the moon between the sun and the Earth.

    Partial solar eclipse: When the moon passes in front of the sun, blocking part of the photosphere — the bright, visible surface of the sun.

    Total solar eclipse: When the alignment of the sun, moon and Earth causes the moon to appear to block the entire face of the sun.

    Totality: The period during a solar eclipse when the sun’s photosphere is covered by the moon.

    Transit: A celestial body appearing to move across the face of another celestial body.

    Corona: The upper atmosphere of the sun; it appears as a halo around the sun during a total solar eclipse.

    On the web

    eclipse2017.nasa.gov for maps, science, event listings, histories and links.

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Wisconsin walkabout: Take a hike for health, friendship, charity

    “Gotta beat Jim. Gotta beat Jim.”

    Anne Danner mutters this as she logs at least 12,000 steps a day trying to get healthy and happy — and beat her boyfriend in their ongoing fitness challenge.

    Some days she wins and some days he takes the title. But — after more than a year of challenges and many nights of running in place to gain the required steps — Danner doesn’t feel healthier or happier.

    “It’s like I’m running in a rut,” said the Milwaukee woman, one of two dozen WiG readers who responded to our online survey about walking in Wisconsin.

    New research may provide a clue to Danner’s misstep. It suggests she should eschew the treadmill in favor of long walks outdoors.

    The research found that taking three-hour hikes is more enjoyable than shorter, more intense exercise and leads to increased participation and improved mental health.

    In the jargon of the researchers, “Results provide support both for psychophysiological stress recovery theory and the affective benefits of green exercise. Thereby, similar previous findings of outdoor physical activity on anxiety and mood were confirmed.”

    The study involved volunteers who took mood tests, followed by brisk, long trail walks — and then more mood tests. On a second day, the volunteers repeated the routine but on a treadmill instead of an outdoor trail. On a third day, they spent three hours in a room, where they chatted, read and surfed the internet.

    Generally, the walkers were happier and had better heart rates than the loungers. And heart rates and mood scores were higher when walking an outdoor trail than on a treadmill.

    The study was conducted at the University of Innsbruck in Austria and published online in June by the journal PLOS One.

    Finding your path

    The results of the Innsbruck study wouldn’t surprise Eau Claire resident Tess Allen, who regularly goes hiking on the Chippewa Falls State Trail or the Old Abe Trail.

    The Old Abe is on an abandoned railroad grade over agricultural and forest land along the shoreline of the Chippewa River.

    “You’ll find dense woods and wildflowers out there,” Allen said. “I like to walk at mid-day, after the bicyclists have had their go. And I like to remind people that when you walk, you always make progress. It’s about my favorite thing to do.”

    WiG readers also recommend hiking:

    • the Ben Dibble Nature Trail in Delavan, where the winding route runs along the Lake Comus shoreline.
    • the Oak Leaf Trail in Milwaukee, because it’s easy to get to and great for observing people and nature.
    • the Geneva Lake Shore Path, a 21-mile path through lakeside neighborhoods in Lake Geneva.
    • at Harrington Beach State Park in Belgium, for the candlelight hikes and walks around a quarry.
    • the Ice Age Trail, to see glacial formations — kettles, erratics, eskers, drained lake plains, drumlins and kames.

    One of readers’ most recommended destinations on the Ice Age Trail is the Parnell Tower, a 60-foot observation platform near Plymouth offering a view of the forest and farmland.

    “On a clear day, you can see for miles and miles,” said West Bend resident Bobby Harden. “It’s breathtaking.”

    Walking clubs

    Harden first visited Parnell Tower with a walking club.

    “There’s dozens of them in Wisconsin,” he said of the clubs. “I don’t even know how many. They’re for adults of all ages. Really cool people getting together to explore, to see Wisconsin, to walk.”

    A search on meetup.com — a useful site for finding all manner of local group activities — reveals numerous walking and hiking groups in Wisconsin. Some groups are more informal, gathering for a specific event — like the Milwaukee campers, backpackers and hikers’ garden tour July 23. Others are formal clubs that meet regularly, such as the Waukesha Weekend Warriors. The Warriors club has planned a Lapham Peak hike in early August and “Hiking, Wining and Other Shenanigans” in September. Still other clubs are affiliated with environmental groups, like the Sierra Club and Audubon Society chapters in the state.

    Similar connections to fellow walkers also can be made on Facebook, where Wisconsinites can find myriad outdoor opportunities that offer adventure and even benefit a cause.

    Great Water Race

    Coming up, for example, is a scavenger hunt in Milwaukee set for July 22 that launches the new Water Story MKE smartphone app and benefits Milwaukee water sustainability nonprofit Reflo.

    Players in teams of two will use the app — created by Reflo — to discover how the city is connected by water.

    The Great Water Race, with six destinations, begins about 10 a.m. at Cream City Farms — the micro-farm located in the 30th Street industrial corridor on Milwaukee’s north side. The race finishes by 2 p.m. at Bradford Beach.

    Players might bike from one destination to the next, but once at each location, they’ll walk, completing challenges to earn points — and possibly win baskets filled with swag from Milwaukee Kayak Company, Bublr Bikes, Lakefront Brewery, River Revitalization and Milwaukee Riverkeeper.

    The race, says project organizer Michael Timm, is “about sharing an experience of discovery that connects us to water history and green infrastructure stories citywide.

    If you go

    The Great Water Race is set for July 22. It kicks off at 10 a.m. from Cream City Farms, 2055 N. 30th St. Tickets are $30 per team (two people is the suggested team size), with proceeds benefiting Reflo. For more information or to buy tickets, visit refloh2o.com/water-story.

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Rise and resist: The story of the year

    Rise and resist: The story of the year

    The largest single-day protest in U.S. history — the Women’s March on Washington — took place the day after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.

    The mass mobilization of demonstrators exceeded the expectations of organizers at the main march in the U.S. capital. The estimated 1 million attendees also far surpassed the number who attended the inauguration.

    There were sister marches held in 672 other cities around the world. Estimated participants worldwide: almost 5 million people.

    Aerial photographs popped with the pink of the pointy-eared pussyhats worn by so many marchers — reminding the world of Trump’s vulgar boasts about sexually assaulting women.

    Protesters carried signs that read, “Repeal and Replace Trump,” “Viva La Vulva,” “I’m with her,” “Ikea has better cabinets,” “Tweet women with respect” and “We shall overcomb.”

    The Women’s March on Washington began to come together in the first week after Election Day in 2016.

    The organizing statement read, “We stand together in solidarity with our partners and children for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health and our families — recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength of our country.”

    Sister marches took place in every U.S. state, including Wisconsin, as well as 60 other countries representing every continent.

    As many as 100,000 marched in Madison that day, the crowd rivaling the largest demonstrations staged in 2011 against Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal that ended collective bargaining for public workers in the state.

    Among the Madison marchers was Shelly Clarke of Racine, who said, “I went out to protest Donald Trump — his policies, his misdeeds and his hateful, sexist, racist, offensive language.”

    The protests did not end with the Women’s March, as grass-roots groups across the country formed to stage weekly demonstrations outside congressional offices, state capitals and city halls.

    And, in the months after the inauguration, there were marches for science, immigrant rights, the environment, fair wages, gun reform, LGBT equality, universal healthcare, net neutrality, peace, justice and black lives matter.

    About the People’s Climate March in April, Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity said, “From coast to coast we’ve seen a massive movement building to resist Trump and any policies that would hurt wildlife, marginalize entire classes of people and drive the climate deeper into crisis.”

    Resisting Trump in Milwaukee

    One of the larger demonstrations in Wisconsin occurred in February with the Day Without Latinx, Immigrants and Refugees. People went on strike, closed their businesses and withdrew kids from schools to join the protest, which culminated with a march to the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

    There, the demonstrators heard from Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, state Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa and Voces de la Frontera executive director Christine Neumann-Ortiz.

    “Today, we escalate the national and international struggle against Trump’s executive orders, which aim to expand the machinery of mass deportation and legalize discrimination based on race and religion,” Neumann-Ortiz said.

    Rebecca Schulz was among the protesters that day and she also participated in the Women’s March on Madison Jan. 21.

    She said the election outcome of 2016 drove her to march in 2017. “I was angry, furious about what happened on Election Day,” Schulz recalled. “That drove me.”

    The question now: How will the “rise and resist” movement mature as the nation approaches the 2018 midterms?

    More Flashback 2017:

    Donald Trump turned his back on the planet

    2017 saw accelerating attacks on the state’s environment

    Responding to gun violence, GOP moves to weaken gun laws

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Students leading the way forward on gun sanity

    Students leading the way forward on gun sanity

    The shots fired Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, reverberated across the country.

    They echoed in classrooms from Miami to Milwaukee as students and educators dealt with fear and anger over at least the 170th school shooting since the killing of 13 at Columbine High School in 1999. In Parkland, 17 people died and 16 were injured by a shooter armed with an AR-15-style semi-automatic weapon.

    The shots reverberated in legislative chambers and at the U.S. Capitol as well, as lawmakers debated whether to answer mass shootings by arming more people with weapons or restricting access to semi-automatic assault weapons.

    They resonated in corporate offices, too, where executives debated whether to continue dealing with the gun lobby and selling weapons to teenagers.

    Weeks after the shooting, the echoes had not died down. And they likely will not fall silent, as young people have mobilized to build a movement that’s inspired their parents, teachers and principals — and that could provoke political change from school boards to the White House.

    Students plan at least two major campaigns in March:

    • On March 14, 17-minute walkouts from school.

    • On March 24, a national march in Washington, D.C., and “sibling marches” around the world. Multiple marches are set to take place that day in Wisconsin and transportation is being arranged for students to travel from the state to Washington.

    The March For Our Lives mission statement reads, in part: “Not one more. We cannot allow one more child to be shot at school. We cannot allow one more teacher to make a choice to jump in front of a firing assault rifle to save the lives of students. We cannot allow one more family to wait for a call or text that never comes. Our schools are unsafe. Our children and teachers are dying. We must make it our top priority to save these lives.”

    The campaign was created by students “who will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action to stop the epidemic of mass school shootings that has become all too familiar.”

    “We are marching out of the classrooms to the campus and the Capitol,” said Milwaukee high school student Melinda Greski. “We demand safe schools. We demand an America where we can grow up.”

    Remarkable accomplishments 

    How powerful can the movement become?

    Consider how influential it was in its first couple of weeks.

    Some of the nation’s large retailers of guns, including Dick’s Sporting Goods, discontinued the sale of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines and raised the minimum age to purchase firearms to 21.

    On March 1, gun control activists launched a boycott of companies with ties to the National Rifle Association. Before the boycott hit, more than a dozen companies, including MetLife, Hertz and Delta Air Lines, stopped offering discounts or perks to NRA members and flatly rejected threats of retaliation from the organization.

    “The NRA has turned our country into a war zone and Americans are done dying for you,” said Brandon Wolfe, a survivor of the June 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. “Our children are done being your sacrifices.”

    Wolfe said two friends died at the gay nightclub and he endorsed a national campaign demanding that candidates and elected officials return NRA contributions.

    Many Democratic politicians backed the effort.

    “The students of Florida are holding public officials accountable to save lives,” House Minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said at the California Democratic Convention. “Let us salute students for their courage and clarity; and let us salute them by pledging not to take any NRA money.”

    Confronted by the outrage and eloquent student speakers, gun-friendly Republicans such as President Donald Trump, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida shifted their stances on gun control — but kept their NRA money.

    Widespread support for student activists

    Support for students is coming from gun control groups such as Everytown for Gun Safety, progressive institutions like Planned Parenthood, and progressive lawmakers, including state Reps. David Bowen and Jonathan Brostoff — who joined a Gun Violence Prevention panel in Milwaukee to tackle the issue — and especially school administrators, teachers and their unions.

    In late February, as news outlets reported a school district in Wisconsin would punish students who participated in the Youth Empower walkout, Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Darienne B. Driver sent a letter to the “Dear MPS Family.”

    “Our students have the constitutional right to free speech and peaceful assembly,” Driver wrote. “We support student-led civic engagement efforts and actions, as long as they are done in a safe and respectful manner. I stand with our students.”

    To assist students in preparing for this month’s actions — some 200,000 students at more than 1,900 schools are expected to participate in the walkouts — the American Civil Liberties Union has provided online training and “Know Your Rights” guides.

    For the marches, organizations are raising money to help students travel to Washington. Businesses are providing meeting spaces for organizers, eliminating fares and covering bills. Celebrities are writing checks for expenses. And longtime activists are schooling young leaders on voter registration efforts, because much of the responsibility for change rests with lawmakers.

    Demanding gun legislation

    March For Our Lives demands a “comprehensive and effective bill be immediately brought before Congress to address these gun issues.”

    The march statement says, “No special interest group, no political agenda is more critical than timely passage of legislation to effectively address the gun violence issues that are rampant in our country.”

    It’s before Congress and GOP-controlled legislatures that the #NeverAgain movement faces its largest hurdles to accomplishing that goal.

    In Madison, during the last scheduled floor session for the Assembly, Democrats backed universal background checks and Republicans went against them.

    “UBC should be the base policy where we can all agree and move forward together from,” Brostoff said.

    State Sen. Chris Larson, on March 1, reported Democrats introduced seven measures for “common-sense gun reform,” but the GOP leadership refused to hold hearings on the bills. Republicans did advance legislation to repeal the requirement to obtain a permit to carry a concealed gun, lower the age for conceal and carry to 18 and provide grants to schools for armed guards.

    Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., House Speaker Paul Ryan met with students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

    Afterward, Ryan called the students smart and passionate, thanked them for speaking with him, and said, “We will continue to work to find common ground on solutions that can help prevent the kind of senseless violence these students endured.”

    Yet as of March 7, Ryan, who received more from the gun lobby in 2016 than any other House member, had yet to allow a vote on any legislation to tighten gun laws to prevent mass shootings, not that there wasn’t plenty of legislation proposed.

    Newtown Action Alliance said at least 56 gun control bills were introduced in the 115th Congress — legislation to ban semi-automatic rifles and pistols, prohibit possession of large-capacity ammunition feeding devices, authorize funding for the CDC to research gun violence prevention, require background checks for purchases at gun shows, require reporting on bulk purchases of ammunition, list those prohibited from buying a firearm in a national database and establish a seven-day waiting period to buy semi-automatic weapons, silencers and armor-piercing bullets.

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • ‘Take Back’ campaign puts meds where they belong

    Take back meds to be safe.

    Take back meds to be green.

    These are the messages delivered by the environmentalists and addiction specialists collaborating on a pharmaceutical spring-cleaning campaign across Milwaukee County.

    Take Back My Meds MKE launched March 20, the first day of spring.

    “Safely disposing of unused medicine during spring cleaning at a drop box … is something each of us can do to combat the opioid crisis and protect Lake Michigan,” said Hashim Zaibak, CEO of Hayat Pharmacy and a founding member of the Take Back My Meds MKE coalition.

    The coalition consists of 15 community groups and businesses and its mission is to make it easier for people to dispose of unused medicine safely. Members include health-focused groups such as Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers and AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin, public policy organizations such as Citizen Action of Wisconsin, and environmental groups, including Milwaukee Riverkeeper and Clean Wisconsin.

    Uniting these groups are two basic concerns: Leaving unused drugs in a medicine cabinet creates an opportunity for abuse, while flushing unused drugs down a toilet or drain puts them into waterways, where they endanger both aquatic and human health.

    “The inappropriate disposal of prescription medication is a huge area of concern. The compounds and chemicals from our prescriptions and over-the-counter medications pollute our water supply when we flush them down the toilet or dump them in the garbage. When not disposed of properly, the chemicals and heavy metals these drugs often contain can remain in our water supply, harming aquatic life and human health,” cautions Clean Wisconsin.

    “When Milwaukee County residents flush unused medicine down the toilet, it goes straight into Lake Michigan because MMSD is unable to treat it,” Amber Meyer Smith, vice president of programs and government relations for Clean Wisconsin, stated.

    She advised, “Using a drop box or mail back envelope keeps unused medicine out of Lake Michigan, the source of drinking water in Milwaukee County.”

    Take Back My Meds MKE, at takebackmymeds.com, has mapped drop boxes or disposal envelopes for unused medicine at 76 locations.

    Opioid addiction often starts at home

    Of particular interest to the Take Back My Meds MKE coalition is the proper disposal of unused opioids.

    Out of 125 million U.S. households, an estimated 25 percent have opioids in them.

    In the Milwaukee area, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows 7.7 opioid prescriptions were dispensed for every 10 residents in 2016.

    And last year, at least 336 people in the county died from drug overdose deaths — the majority of involving opioids.

    One more statistic: 70 percent of opioid addictions are said to start at home, very often from unused medicine left in a cabinet.

    “Keeping unused medicine in your house is asking for trouble,” said Michelle Jaskulski, an outreach director at Addiction Policy Forum who said her two sons used drugs in the home. “So please, get rid of it in a safe and responsible way.”

    Research confirms harm

    Studies show that at least two-fifths of households in the United States contain unused medicines. With an estimated 4.2 billion prescriptions written a year and about 40 percent of those medications going unused, there’s a massive supply of potentially dangerous compounds leaching into waterways across the country.

    Research at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences has already identified pharmaceutical compounds in Lake Michigan. A 2015 study at the school determined that metformin — a medication commonly taken for Type II diabetes that’s found in freshwater systems worldwide — can cause male fish to produce eggs.

    Research conducted in cities in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas and Arizona found antibiotics, antihistamines and anti-seizure medication in waterways.

    Studies link pharmaceuticals in the water to lower sperm counts or damaged sperm in fathead minnow and reproductive changes in walleye, carp and bass.

    A 2003 study in Texas found two types of antidepressants in every bluegill, black crappie and channel catfish caught downstream from a wastewater treatment plant.

    Earthworms found in sludge from wastewater plants have tested positive for antidepressants. So have bull sharks in the Caloosahatchee River in Florida.

    And a growing body of research indicates that medicine seeping into water supplies can harm humans as well.

    Statewide and national efforts

    Wisconsin’s Department of Justice is sponsoring Dose of Reality Week, April 22–29 to raise awareness of the ongoing effort to prevent prescription painkiller abuse in the state. Information about the week and medicine drop-off locations in communities beyond Milwaukee can be found at doseofrealitywi.gov.

    Nationally, the Drug Enforcement Agency is sponsoring another prescription drug Take Back Day on April 28. Information can be found at takebackday.dea.gov.

    On last November’s Take Back day, a record-setting 912,305 pounds — 456 tons — of expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs were collected for disposal at more than 5,300 collection sites.

    In April 2017, about 450 tons of drugs were collected on Take Back day.

  • Poll: On abortion, widening divide between young Americans and seniors

    A new PRRI poll on a range of reproductive rights and women’s health issues shows stark generational divisions.

    On questions of personal beliefs about abortion, access to abortion and availability of abortion services, young and older Americans are deeply divided.

    A look at the PRRI “Widening Generational Divides on Abortion and Reproductive Rights” survey:

    • About 44 percent of young Americans say abortion goes against their personal beliefs, compared to 60 percent of Americans over 65.
    • Nearly two-thirds of young people, compared to 51 percent of seniors, agree that abortion should be legal in most or all cases.
    • Nearly seven in 10 young people, compared to 46 percent of seniors, agree that at least some health care professionals in their community should provide legal abortions.
    • A majority of young adults, compared to 42 percent of seniors, say abortion services should be covered by most health care plans.

    “The relative stability of attitudes in the general public toward the legality and availability of abortion over the past few years has masked a growing polarization of opinion between younger and older Americans,” said PRRI CEO Robert P. Jones. “As this younger generation continues to flex its political muscles — as we saw in the response to the Parkland shooting — they could also reshape the national conversation on women’s health issues.”

    Younger and older Americans also have different perceptions of how difficult it is to access abortion services in their communities.

    Among Americans overall, 38 percent say obtaining an abortion in their community is somewhat or very difficult, compared to 46 percent who say it is not too difficult or not at all difficult.

    Nearly half of young Americans, compared to 35 percent of seniors, say abortions are somewhat or very difficult to obtain in their communities.

    Trump undermining women’s health

    The PRRI poll was released just a week before Planned Parenthood’s lobby day, when more than 600 staff, patients and supporters came together to sound an alarm about the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine essential health services for women.

    At a news conference April 25, Planned Parenthood executive vice president Dawn Laguens joined U.S. Reps. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, and Gene Green, D-Texas, to talk about the ways the GOP-controlled Congress and the Trump-Pence administration rolled back access to affordable birth control, cut evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs and tried to block patients from accessing Planned Parenthood health centers.

    Moore, speaking outside the Capitol, said, “Who’d have thought it, that we’d still be out here protesting and trying to protect women’s rights to control their own bodies?”

    The lawmaker said the U.S. Supreme Court “is on our side,” as well as scientific and economic arguments, yet the Trump-Pence administration and Republicans in Congress and state legislatures continue to work to chip away at women’s access to care.

    “This is a nationwide problem, but it is also very, very local,” Moore said. “Because of the Trump administration’s willingness to provide waivers, states like my own state of Wisconsin are taking it upon themselves to continue to advance anti-choice initiatives.”

    Tanya Atkinson, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, also spoke at the news conference. Moore introduced her as a soldier and a good friend.

    Atkinson said Gov. Scott Walker and “other extreme politicians in Wisconsin have been pushing policy after policy to take away our basic rights and care. In Wisconsin, we’ve seen an unprecedented attack on women’s health.”

    As a result, there are fewer clinics and options for the 70 percent of young people who, according to the PRRI survey, believe that at least some health care professionals in their community should provide legal abortions.

    PRRI — the Public Religion Research Institute — is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to conducting independent research at the intersection of religion, culture and public policy.

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • On top of the world: Iceland No. 1 on LGBT Global Acceptance Index

    As Donald Trump campaigned for the White House in 2016, polls showed 19–25 percent of Americans said they’d consider moving to Canada if he won.

    Surveys put that percentage even higher among LGBT voters.

    But perhaps LGBT Americans should have been looking to move to Iceland, the Netherlands or Sweden, places that rank No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 on the Global Acceptance Index. Canada ranks higher than the United States, but not by far, though the rating is based on data from before Trump took the White House.

    The Global Acceptance Index was created to measure LGBT acceptance and inclusion and its effects. UCLA’s Williams Institute recently released a series of studies that include rankings of 141 countries on their level of social acceptance of LGBT people and rights since 1980.

    Acceptance, in the studies, refers to social beliefs about LGBT people, as well as the prevailing opinion about laws and policies that protect — or harm — LGBT people.

    In the study “Polarized Progress: Social Acceptance of LGBT People in 141 Countries, 1981 to 2014,” the researchers documented increased acceptance in 80 countries, a decline in 46 and no statistical change in 15.

    The most accepting countries were Iceland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Andorra — a tiny, independent principality situated between France and Spain.

    A second study released by the Williams Institute was titled “Examining the Relationship between Social Acceptance of LGBT People and Legal Inclusion of Sexual Minorities.”

    Here, the researchers found that democracies with a commitment to a free press and the rule of law had the strongest relationship between acceptance and inclusion.

    The relationship is weaker in states with autocracies.

    A third study looked at links between acceptance, legal protections and economic performance. Generally, LGBT people are economically better off in places where they are guaranteed rights.

    In this study, the researchers were able to associate higher Gross Domestic Product in countries with LGBT legal rights.

    Two key findings:

    • Having one additional legal right was associated with an increase in a country’s GDP of $1,694 per capita.

    • An increase of just one point on the Global Acceptance Index was associated with an increase in GDP of $1,506 per capita.

    “Programs that reduce violence, stigma and discrimination against LGBT people and policies that enhance access to education and health care will allow LGBT people the opportunity to realize their full economic potential, which will benefit the overall economy,” said Williams Institute researcher M.V. Lee Badgett.

    Measuring progress

    The Global Acceptance Index generates important data that allows scholars to track LGBT progress globally.

    “Very few surveys … provide sufficient data for global, cross-national comparisons of public opinion about LGBT people and rights,” said Andrew R. Flores, a visiting scholar at the Williams Institute, a think tank that focuses on public policy regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.

    “The Global Acceptance Index provides a consistent and comparable way to measure attitudes and attitude change, which could help us better understand the impact of LGBT inclusion in social, economic and political life,” he said.

    The Global Acceptance Index was created by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law and its international collaborators in the LGBTI Global Development Partnership — a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership.

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Supreme Court watch: Wedding cake ruling muddies the equality waters, more decisions to come

    Civil rights groups emphasized the narrowness of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this month that favored a Colorado baker who refused to serve a gay couple wanting to buy a cake for their wedding reception.

    But the ruling means more business owners will try to use their religious beliefs to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation — or other status. Just a day after the Supreme Court ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, there were news reports from around the country — Indiana, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, California and Georgia — of business owners announcing plans to refuse service or sales to LGBT people.

    Meanwhile, Jack Phillips — the baker at the center of the high court case — faced a torrent of criticism, especially on the food-focused social-media platform Yelp.

    In 2012, Charlie Craig and Dave Mullins asked Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in suburban Denver, to make them a wedding cake. He refused, he said, because he’s a Christian.

    The couple turned to the state of Colorado, which has legislation banning discrimination based on sexual orientation — and a process for determining whether bias has occurred.

    The Colorado Civil Rights Commission decided that Phillips discriminated against the gay couple, violating their rights.

    Phillips, represented by the right-wing Alliance Defending Freedom and supported by the Trump administration, sought a higher review and ended up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

    Arguments took place in December 2017 and the 7-2 ruling was issued June 4.

    Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the state violated the baker’s rights under the First Amendment but said the broader issue of whether there can be faith-based exemptions to anti-discrimination laws “must await further elaboration.”

    Kennedy, during oral argument, signaled trouble with what appeared to him to be anti-religious comments by a member of the Colorado commission.

    “We read this decision as a reaffirmation of the court’s longstanding commitment to civil rights protections and the reality that the states have the power to protect everyone in America from discrimination,” said James Esseks, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union LGBT and HIV Project. The ACLU represented Craig and Mullins.

    The ACLU and a host of LGBT groups pointed to a passage in the decision, joined by liberals Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer, that said disputes “must be resolved with tolerance, without undue disrespect to sincere religious beliefs, and without subjecting gay persons to indignities when they seek goods and services in an open market.”

    Still, in on-the-street interviews and on-the-web surveys by WiG, people repeatedly asked: How could the court not see Craig and Mullins were subject to indignities because of the baker’s bias?

    And clearly, each side involved in the case interpreted the decision differently.

    Esseks said the court did not say Phillips was free to turn away gay customers. Phillips’ attorney, Kristen Waggoner at the ADF, said the baker can refuse a same-sex couple service without fear of another legal fight.

    Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented in Masterpiece. Ginsburg wrote, “I strongly disagree … with the court’s conclusion that Craig and Mullins should lose this case.”

    Later this month, the justices could decide to take a case involving a florist who refused to serve a same-sex couple. Other similar disputes involve video producers, graphic artists, photographers and lodgers who say they oppose same-sex marriage on religious grounds and don’t want to participate in same-sex weddings.

    “The court did not rule that the Constitution grants the right to discriminate, quite the contrary, the decision maintains the longstanding principle that business owners cannot deny equal access to goods and services,” said Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference Education fund.

    “But make no mistake,” she added, “the decision makes clear that our fight for equal rights and dignity for all must continue. Yesterday it was barbecue. Today, it’s cake. Tomorrow it will surely be something else. And we will be there fighting.”

    High court decisions to come

    Still to come this month from the court is a ruling in a potentially landmark case out of Wisconsin on partisan gerrymandering: Gill v. Whitford. The court additionally heard redistricting cases out of Texas and Maryland.

    In Gill, the court is expected to decide whether the district court had the authority to hear a statewide challenge to the GOP-crafted redistricting plan for Wisconsin rather than district-by-district, as well as whether the lower court properly held the redistricting was an impermissible partisan gerrymander.

    There are other questions before the court in Gill, a case brought to the justices by the Walker administration after losing in the lower courts. Two key ones are whether partisan-gerrymandering claims are justiciable and whether the lower court wrongly adopted what the state called a watered-down version of a partisan-gerrymander test.

    Nearing the end of their nine-month term, the justices also are due to deliver decisions in:

    • Trump v. Hawaii, on the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s travel ban.
    • Carpenter v. United States, dealing with the warrantless seizure and search of cellphone records to track locations.
    • Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, dealing with whether public-sector employees can refuse to pay dues to their union.
    • Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky, dealing with whether a law banning political apparel at polling places violates the First Amendment.

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Reaction as U.S. Supreme Court punts on Wisconsin gerrymandering case

    Reaction as U.S. Supreme Court punts on Wisconsin gerrymandering case

    The U.S. Supreme Court has issued its ruling in the partisan gerrymander case out of Wisconsin. The high court June 18 said the plaintiffs failed to show they had standing to challenge the Republican-drawn statewide legislative map.

    First reports from the press at the Supreme Court described the much-anticipated decision as making a “punt” and taking a “pass.” The court terms are “vacated” and “remanded.”

    Here’s is the decision in Gill v. Whitford from the high court, issued shortly after 10 a.m. EST and written by the chief justice.

    “What is stunning about the ruling is that the U.S. Supreme Court found a technicality allowing it to avoid immediately ruling on the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering,” said Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “It is highly significant that the court refused to uphold the hyper-partisan districts created by Wisconsin Republicans, or reverse earlier federal court decisions which found them unconstitutional. There is nothing stopping the Legislature from from creating an independent redistricting process that serves the interests of the people of Wisconsin, not the partisan interests of political parties and politicians.”

    The case was argued before the justices last October, and progressives in Wisconsin and beyond had hoped the court would find that the partisan gerrymander was so egregious it was unconstitutional.

    Gill  involved a challenge to a Wisconsin map drawn after Scott Walker became governor and Republicans seized control of the redistricting process. The Democratic challengers, at the lower court level, showed Republicans drew the map in secret with the purpose of locking in their control of the Legislature.

    But the Supreme Court did not rule on the broader issue of whether the Constitution allows for electoral maps to be drawn to give an unfair advantage to a political party.

    Back at the lower court, the challengers — Democratic voters — still could another opportunity to prove injury by the redistricting plan, but it is unlikely that could happen before the November general election.

    “This case is very much still alive,” said Paul Smith the vice president of litigation and strategy at Campaign Legal Center, who argued the case before the court. “We now have the opportunity to demonstrate the real and concrete harms that result from partisan gerrymandering in the lower court, the same court that struck down the Wisconsin mapping scheme to begin with.”

    Smith also said, “When legislators draw voting maps to favor one party over another and to stay in power, voters no longer have a voice in the political process. Extreme partisan gerrymandering is increasingly getting worse — damaging our democracy and eroding voters’ confidence in our system. We will continue advancing efforts, in this case and others as well as through the political process, to end this practice and safeguard every citizen’s fundamental right to vote and have it count.”

    Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair Martha Laning issued this statement following the Gill v. Whitford  decision: “In 2011, Republicans in Wisconsin set out to draw maps that diluted the power of Democratic voters to ensure indefinite Republican control. The result has been an unfair electoral system that flies in the face of the foundational values of our representative democracy.

    “Regardless of today’s ruling, Democrats in Wisconsin will continue to compete everywhere possible in 2018. We will continue to mobilize and we will continue to build the infrastructure necessary for more victories for the people of Wisconsin.”

    The court also ruled June 18 on a case out of Maryland, Benisek v. Lamone, finding that the voters in the challenge failed to show how they were injured by a redistricting plan.

    Common Cause, responding this morning, said this is by no means the end of the road and referred to page 16 in the Gill decision: “We leave for another day consideration of other possible theories of harm not presented here and whether those theories might present justiciable claims giving rise to statewide remedies.”

    “With Wisconsin and Maryland’s cases still alive and Common Cause’s North Carolina case awaiting review by the Supreme Court, the fight to establish constitutional limits on partisan gerrymandering is very much alive,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of the organization.

    In Wisconsin, Jay Heck, the long-time executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, said, “Today, the U.S. Supreme Court today did not address the unconstitutionality of one of the most partisan gerrymanders of state legislative districts (2011) in American history, but we remain hopeful that standing can be addressed and we can win justice in the courts.”

    He added, “We even more urgently renew our call on the Wisconsin Legislature replace this broken system with a transparent, non-partisan process modeled after our neighbor, Iowa, in time for the 2021 redistricting cycle.”

    More reaction to the decisions

    From Democratic gubernatorial candidate Kelda Roys came this reaction: “Today, the Supreme Court remanded Gill v. Whitford, the Wisconsin gerrymandering case, to allow the plaintiffs to have their claim of harm reviewed by a lower court. This case was an important one to bring. Millions of Americans are now aware of how gerrymandering and rigged maps distort our democracy.

    “We knew that, regardless of the court’s decision, we would still have work to do to guarantee fair maps and representation for Wisconsinites. It will be up to the next governor and legislature to pass independent redistricting reform — something I will prioritize.

    “Democracy demands accountability. If legislators are not serving their constituents well, they should be voted out of office. Competitive elections help to ensure that legislators meet the needs of the people they serve or risk losing re-election. Competition also engenders a willingness to listen to those with whom we disagree — a skill that is in short supply.

    “Wisconsin Republicans effectively silenced half the voters in our state — preserving their own political power and changing the rules to prevent voters from holding them accountable. They knew their decisions were unpopular, but rather than face the voters, they chose to rig the maps, change campaign finance laws and suppress votes.”

    In a statement to the press, state Sen. David Hansen said, “The court’s decision shows just how much work needs to be done to restore fairness to our elections. It is time for legislators from both parties to come together and pass a real non-partisan redistricting law that will take the responsibility for drawing legislative district boundaries out of the hands of the politicians in Madison and replace it with one that gives the voters a voice in the process and at the ballot box.

    “We already know that nonpartisan redistricting can work because we’ve seen it in action in states as close as Iowa, which our plan is modeled after. Nonpartisan redistricting not only takes the politics out of the map-drawing process, it does far more than our current system to ensure open, fair and competitive elections.

    “I intend to re-introduce our Fair Maps redistricting plan as soon as I am able to when the Legislature convenes in January.”

    “The Supreme Court did not give us the ruling we had hoped against partisan gerrymandering,” said Erin Grunze, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin. “As we explained in our amicus brief, the Wisconsin maps deny many citizens the full power of the vote and should be redrawn. The current redistricting process protects the party in power — whichever party it is — and is not an open and transparent process carried out in the interest of the voters. It is notable that the Court ruling still allows the plaintiffs a chance to demonstrate this in further legal proceedings.

    “Regardless of what happens in the courts, Wisconsin can still right this wrong. So far, 39 of 72 Wisconsin counties have passed resolutions in support of a nonpartisan redistricting process. Lawmakers in the Wisconsin Capitol need to be accountable to voters and support legislation that will take the power of map drawing out of partisan control and give it to an independent body, with plenty of public input, in the interest of fairness and democracy. Wisconsin voters are demanding this reform and the League of Women Voters will continue to advocate for a nonpartisan redistricting process.”

    Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, chair of the Democratic Governors Association, said, “Americans cannot wait for the Supreme Court to stop the gerrymandering that poisons our democracy. The most important thing we can do in 2018 to stop gerrymandering is to elect Democratic governors who will fight for fairer maps. This November’s gubernatorial elections will determine the makeup of Congress and state legislatures for more than a decade. The Supreme Court today affirmed what we have known for some time: The best defense against gerrymandering in 2021 is a Democratic governor in the state house.

    “This November, Americans will elect more than 25 governors with veto power over 2021 maps. Governors with a veto pen in hand hold tremendous power to end extreme partisan gerrymandering and stand up for fair maps and fair representation. Democratic governors are ready to follow the path blazed by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf in fighting for maps that provide fairer Congressional and legislative districts. That’s why the DGA launched the Unrig The Map project to support this critical mission.

    “Today, Justice Kagan warned: ‘The 2010 redistricting cycle produced some of the worst partisan gerrymanders on record. … The technology will only get better, so the 2020 cycle will only get worse.’ Justice Kagan is right: And that’s why we need Democratic governors at the table to stop Republican map-rigging after the 2020 Census.

    “While the Supreme Court’s decision not to act on partisan gerrymandering today was disappointing, it reaffirms that electing Democratic governors in states is the single best path to unrigging the map across the United States. While Americans wait for the court to take on redistricting in 2019, we can take action in 2018 to elect Democratic governors and stop extreme gerrymandering in its tracks.”

    Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel issued the following statement: “I am pleased that the highest court in the land has unanimously reversed the trial court’s erroneous decision invalidating Wisconsin’s Assembly map. Today is win for the rule of law in Wisconsin, and a testament to the talented attorneys at the Wisconsin Department of Justice.”

    “We continue to stand proud that a group of citizens came together and took a case all the way to Supreme Court,” said Sachin Chheda, director of the Fair Elections Project, which originally organized and launched the lawsuit. “This is definitely not the end of the road.

    “The lawyers are reviewing the decision, & the plaintiffs will examine their options,” continued Chheda, who also serves as co-chair of the WI Fair Maps Coalition, 13 Wisconsin organizations fighting for the end of partisan gerrymandering. “In the meantime, we will immediately focus on gaining more support for independent redistricting reform & passing legislation in the coming term to ensure next round of map-drawing is fair.”

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • ‘Round up’ of losses for Big Chem as herbicides and pesticides come under scrutiny

    A federal appeals court ruled in August that the Environmental Protection Agency must ban a widely used organophosphate pesticide.

    The appellate court in the 9th Circuit ordered the federal agency to finalize its proposed ban on chlorpyrifos based on findings that the pesticide is unsafe for public health — and particularly harmful to children and farmworkers.

    “The court ended EPA’s shameful actions that have exposed children and farmworkers to this poison for decades,” Earthjustice attorney Marisa Ordonia said. “Finally, our fields, fruits and vegetables will be chlorpyrifos-free.”

    Chlorpyrifos — first developed by the Nazis for chemical warfare and repurposed for agriculture — is a pesticide that can damage the developing brains of children. Prenatal and early life exposure is linked to lower birth weight and neurodevelopmental harms, including reduced IQ, loss of working memory, attention disorders and delayed motor development.

    The pesticide is used on apples, oranges, broccoli and dozens of other crops, but has been banned from household use for about two decades.

    A year ago, the Trump administration reversed the EPA proposal to ban chlorpyrifos after Scott Pruit, who was in charge of the EPA, met with the head of Dow Chemical, the largest manufacturer of the compound.

    Sindy Benavides, the chief executive officer at the League of United Latin American Citizens, said, “For years, corporations like Dow were able to hijack our government to put profit before people. But … the court sided with reason. Children and farmworkers have the right to live and work without risk of poisonings.”

    Rounding up a loss

    In another legal dispute, this one over the herbicide Roundup, a San Francisco jury awarded $289 million to a former school groundskeeper, Dewayne Johnson, who said Monsanto’s Roundup left him dying of cancer.

    Johnson’s complaint said heavy contact with Roundup — the active ingredient in the product is glyphosate — caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

    A state superior court jury agreed, finding that Monsanto should have provided a label warning of the potential health hazard.

    Johnson’s attorney, Brent Wisner, also has filed a case in Wisconsin. He said, “A unanimous jury in San Francisco has told Monsanto: ‘Enough. You did something wrong and now you have to pay,’ There’s 4,000 other cases filed around the United States and there are countless thousands of other people out there who are suffering from cancer because Monsanto didn’t give them a choice. We now have a way forward.’”

    Monsanto spokesman Scott Partridge said the company would appeal, according to The Associated Press. Partridge noted that scientific studies and two government agencies concluded that Roundup does not cause cancer.

    Across the border

    Also in August, the Canadian government announced plans to phase out all outdoor agricultural uses of bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides by 2021.

    Previously, the European Union voted to ban the use of those pesticides on outdoor crops.

    In the United States, however, the EPA has not taken such action despite receiving more than 6 million public comments urging a ban on the class of pesticides.

    Not the breakfast of champions

    Lab tests commissioned by the Environmental Working Group headquartered in Washington, D.C., found that favorite oat cereals, oatmeal, granola and snack bars contain glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup.

    Glyphosate is a herbicide linked to cancer by California state scientists and the World Health Organization. It was found in all but two of 45 samples of products made with conventionally grown oats. About one-third of 16 samples made with organically grown oats also contained glyphosate, but with levels well below EWG’s health benchmark. For more, go online to ewg.org.

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Democratic AGs form defensive line against Donald Trump

    Eight Democratic attorneys general recently filed litigation seeking to block the Trump administration from eliminating long-standing protections under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

    The lawsuit, led by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, will be considered in the Southern District of New York alongside National Audubon Society v. Department of Interior, a case filed in May. 

    For 100 years, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act has prevented threatened waterfowl, raptors and songbirds from going extinct in the United States. Yet, the Trump administration wants to reverse decades of bipartisan support for implementing and enforcing the law.

    Conservationists say they’re buoyed by the suit filed Sept. 5.

    “To borrow a phrase, this is welcome wind beneath our wings in the fight to keep this vital bird protection law intact,” Sarah Greenberger, senior vice president of conservation policy for Audubon, said of the suit.

    Democratic attorneys general have held the line in other fights against the Trump administration. A Washington Post piece called them the “muscle of the resistance.”

    An association of Democratic AGs is leading a nationwide effort to elect more of them on Nov. 6, including in Wisconsin, where Josh Kaul seeks to unseat Republican incumbent Brad Schimel.

    The Democratic Attorneys General Association, in collaboration with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, has launched a site spotlighting “Schimel’s incompetence,” according to a news release. 

    At backlogbrad.com, the DAGA says that, among many other things, Schimel “completely botched” the probe of a youth prison and let the state’s backlog of untested rape kits linger for years without taking action.

    “The role of a state attorney general is to put the best interests of the people first — and that means testing rape kits, taking investigations seriously and holding other elected officials accountable,” said Sean Rankin, executive director of the DAGA. “Instead, Brad Schimel spent time appeasing a GOP governor, cozying up to lobbyists and passing out cheesy promo gear.”

    DAGA’s goal is to familiarize people with the vital roles that AGs play in state and government policies. As the heads of each state’s department of justice, the attorney general’s job is to function as the “people’s lawyer” — to represent the best interests of their states’ citizens.

    On most big issues that have reached the courts in recent years, AGs have taken sides, filed briefs and made arguments.

    In Wisconsin, under Republicans, attorneys general have participated in lawsuits opposing marriage equality, unions, women’s reproductive freedom, gun reform, living and equal wages, transgender access to necessary care, protection for immigrants and asylum seekers, and affordable health care.

    Meanwhile, across the border in Illinois, Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan has countered Republican executives in the state capital and at the White House by pushing progressive reforms.

    Madigan was among the Democratic attorneys general who filed briefs supporting unions in the U.S. Supreme Court case Janus v. AFSCME Council 31. So was Lori Swanson, the attorney general in Minnesota.

    After the ruling against unions, 20 Democratic attorneys general issued a statement: “We understand and appreciate the crucial role unions and collective bargaining play in our democracy and our economy. As the people’s lawyers, we are committed to ensuring working people can join together for fair and livable wages, workplace safety, pensions, paid sick days, health care services and other important protections. We will continue this work.”

    The Democratic attorneys general also have been at the forefront of opposition to the Trump administration’s separation and detention of families at the border, travel bans and environmental rollbacks. And, earlier this summer, they went to court to prevent the nationwide release of downloadable programs that enable people to make guns using three-dimensional printers. 

    Most recently, Democratic attorneys general faced Republicans in a Texas courtroom over the Affordable Care Act. 

    Attorneys general in GOP-led states, including Schimel in Wisconsin, brought the lawsuit, arguing the entire health care law — but most significantly the protection for people with pre-existing conditions — was rendered unconstitutional after Congress repealed the “individual mandate” that required most Americans to buy insurance or risk a tax penalty.

    The Associated Press said Texas v. Azar is the most high-profile legal challenge to “Obamacare” under Trump, whose administration is not defending the law in court. 

    Defense, in a sense, was left to the Democratic attorneys general, and at stake in Wisconsin are protections for an estimated 2.4 million people with pre-existing conditions.

    “This November, there is an opportunity to oust an attorney general (who) consistently fails to do his job and elect a new attorney general who is ready to protect the people,” said Rankin.

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • March for Science to protest Trump’s onslaught

    March for Science to protest Trump’s onslaught

    A resistance is rising to challenge the flat-Earth mentality governing Washington, D.C., and some state capitols.

    Efforts by the Trump administration to silence scientists and stifle their research are driving a global protest that will come together on Earth Day as the first-ever March for Science.

    Scientists will march on Washington April 22 and in more than 280 satellite marches around the globe. They’ll be rallying under the banner “Science, not Silence.”

    Organizers say the coalition involved in the march represents millions of scientists, engineers, researchers and students.

    As of March 3, more than 50,000 people had volunteered to help stage the demonstrations.

    “Scientific integrity serves everyone and we need to speak out for science together,” said Valorie Aquino, one of the march’s three national co-chairs and an anthropology Ph.D. candidate at the University of New Mexico. “We’re thrilled and inspired that our message is resonating with so many organizations and so many people who have been advancing and defending science for years.”

    The Trump administration’s efforts to censor scientists include removing research, data and other materials on climate change from government sources. Republican state governments, including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s administration, also have worked to conceal science-based information on climate change.

    March co-chair Caroline Weinberg, a health educator and science writer, said a goal will be “holding our leaders — both in science and politics— accountable to the highest standards of honesty, fairness and integrity.”

    Partners in the effort include the Earth Day Network, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Entomological Society of America, NextGen Climate America, 500 Women Scientists, the American Anthropological Association, the American Society for Cell Biology, Center for Biological Diversity, the League of Extraordinary Scientists and Engineers, Research!America, the Union of Concerned Scientists and many more.

    Earth Day and science

    The D.C. actions will begin at 10 a.m. April 22 with a teach-in and rally on the National Mall, followed by a street march. An announcement said the rally would “call for politicians to implement science-based policies” and serve as a celebration of “science and the enormous public service it promotes in our democracy, our economy and in all our daily lives.”

    Earth Day, organizers said, seems an appropriate time for the action.

    “This year’s global Earth Day theme is climate and environmental literacy and of course science speaks directly to our mission,” said Kathleen Rogers, president of the Earth Day Network.

    On the web

    Follow developments on the March for Science at marchforscience.com and on social media with #ScienceServes.

    Trump administration records requested

    The Center for Biological Diversity has filed public records requests seeking details about reported gag orders in place at the EPA, the Interior Department and the Department of Agriculture.

    “The American people have a right to know what their government is up to, especially one with such close ties to the very industries it’s charged with regulating,” said Meg Townsend, an attorney for the center. “Without this information, we can’t know whether agencies are actually safeguarding the well-being of our natural heritage or whether they’re selling our air, water and wildlife to the highest bidder.”

    Republicans work again to ban fetal tissue research

    Republican state lawmakers are renewing their push to ban research on aborted fetal tissue in Wisconsin.

    Private and university researchers who have blocked similar efforts the past six years remain firmly against anything that would impinge on their work.

    Three Republican lawmakers have circulated a bill that would prohibit the sale and research of fetal tissue starting in 2018. The measure would essentially duplicate federal law in Wisconsin.

    Other proposals would end the sale and use of fetal tissue and body parts obtained from abortions.

    Those against a ban say it would curtail promising research on potentially life-saving cures and treatments and hurt the state’s economy.

    Cures for Tomorrow

    A coalition of Wisconsin academic research institutions, bioscience-related trade groups and health care providers said given federal law and policies governing the use of fetal tissue and cells, “we strongly believe that no additional regulation by the state of Wisconsin is needed.” — AP

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Hundreds of native bee species headed toward extinction

    Hundreds of native bee species headed toward extinction

    An analysis of the status of bees native to North America and Hawaii finds many species in decline, and nearly one in four are at risk of extinction.

    “It’s a quiet but staggering crisis unfolding right under our noses,” said Kelsey Kopec, a pollinator researcher with the Center for Biological Diversity and the author of the study “Pollinators in Peril.”

    The decline of the European honeybee has generated a lot of buzz in recent years, but native bee species also are in trouble due to habit destruction, pesticide use, climate change, urbanization and agricultural intensification, according to the CBD.

    “Pollinators in Peril” reviewed information for all 4,337 North American and Hawaiian native bee species and found sufficient data to assess the status of 1,437.

    More than half of these species — 749 — are in decline, including 347 imperiled species.

    “The evidence is overwhelming that hundreds of native bees we depend on for ecosystem stability, as well as pollination worth billions of dollars, are spiraling toward extinction,” Kopec said.

    CBD dedicated a year to the analysis, which involved reviewing the conservation status of species set by state and federal governments and established by independent research.

    These native bees, unlike the European honeybees, are mostly solitary, ground-nesting insects that collect from pollen, nectar, leaves and petals.

    The report highlights several imperiled native bees:

    • Sunflower leafcutting bee. The large bee used to be seen among sunflowers on the Great Plains, but is in steep decline and rarely seen.
    • Wild sweet potato bee. The bee, which has a three-lobed snout, was once common in much of the East, but it is now “dangerously imperiled.”
    • Macropis cuckoo bee. The bee, which invades the nests of other bee species to lay eggs, was common across the central and eastern United States but is now endangered.

    Areas where native bees have suffered most in the United States are California’s Central Valley and the Midwest’s Corn Belt.

    The CBD report builds on other studies showing a global decline of bees and other insect pollinators. A United Nations group in 2015 reported declines for 37 percent of bee species. The report also said 9 percent of bee and butterfly populations face extinction.

    Milkweed for monarchs

    The Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin has partnered with the Monarch Joint Venture to protect a spring tradition and a threatened species.

    Each spring, monarch butterflies return from winters in Mexico to Wisconsin and other northern locations to breed and lay eggs.

    But for the past two decades, habitat loss, pesticide use, climate change and other threats have caused the monarch population to decline by more than 70 percent.

    NRFW announced recently it is working with about 50 other partners to conserve, protect and promote the monarch. It plans to coordinate educational programs and provide grants for monarch conservation and habitat restoration in Wisconsin.

    “Habitat in Wisconsin is a critical link in the monarch life cycle,” said Caitlin Williamson, director of conservation programs at NRFW. “So we believe it is our responsibility to do what we can to restore habitat and educate people in Wisconsin on how they can help.”

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • In Trump times, a revival of Poor People’s Campaign

    Protesters launched a six-week season of nonviolent, direct action on May 14, marching in Madison and rallying at the state Capitol.

    They will return on Mondays, as part of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. It’s an effort in at least 35 states inspired by the civil rights movement of the 1960s but rooted in the politics of today.

    The protests in May focused on the connection between systemic racism, poverty and suppression.

    Demonstrators called for an end to gerrymandering, reversal of state law barring municipalities from raising wages, immigration reform that protects immigrants and strengthens democracy and full restoration of the Voting Rights Act.

    Some demonstrators carried signs that read, “Voter Suppression = The True Hacking of our Democracy” and “Systemic Racism is Violence.”

    Similar demonstrations took place in other capitals on May 14, including Washington, D.C., resulting in hundreds of arrests in the most expansive wave of nonviolent civil disobedience in U.S. history, according to organizers.

    The co-chairs of the campaign, the Revs. William J. Barber of North Carolina and Liz Theoharis of New York were among those arrested.

    For two years, the leaders of the campaign carried out a listening tour across the country, meeting with tens of thousands of people, gathering testimonies and building a “Moral Agenda.”

    They announced the agenda in April and released details of an “audit of America,” which shows that Americans are in many ways worse off than they were in 1968, when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders launched the Poor People’s Campaign.

    As the campaign continues through the summer with teach-ins, marches, voter registration drives and more, activists will call for change to address racism, ecological devastation, the war economy and, according to a news release, “our distorted moral economy.”

    They will demand repeal of the 2017 federal tax law and push for universal, single-payer health care, clean water for all and better wages. 

    For more information about the campaign and to read the “Moral Agenda,” visit www.poorpeoplescampaign.org. 

    Note: This story originally published in the Wisconsin Gazette.

  • Anti-choice laws topple

    The U.S. Supreme Court on June 27 struck down anti-choice legislation in Texas with a decisive 5-3 ruling, imperiling similar measures in other states.

    By June 28, the high court had ruled against Wisconsin and Mississippi, where Republican leaders sought to appeal lower court rulings on their anti-choice provisions.

    Also, the Alabama attorney general announced the state would no longer defend its admitting-privilege requirements.

    The “complete and total victory … renews the promise of Roe v. Wade for the next generation,” said Nancy Northrup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

    At the ACLU, Jennifer Dalven of the Reproductive Freedom Project said, “The Supreme Court’s decision made crystal clear that laws like Alabama’s, Mississippi’s and Wisconsin’s that rely on sham justifications to prevent a woman from having an abortion are unconstitutional.”

    Such laws are called Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers or TRAP measures.

    “Wisconsin has not been immune to its share of TRAP laws,” said U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis. “In the last year alone, Gov. Scott Walker signed two different bills with the goal to defund our state’s Planned Parenthood centers. These health clinics are vital to the well-being of our communities.”

    Moore said she was thrilled by the developments at the Supreme Court, beginning with that Monday morning decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt out of Texas.

    The Texas measure

    The Texas law, HB2, was devastating in its impact on women and their families in just a few years.

    More than 40 abortion clinics were open in January 2013, when Rick Perry led an avowed push to end abortion in Texas.

    The law, signed by Perry in July 2013, required that doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles of their clinic and required clinics to meet hospital-like standards for outpatient surgery. Such standards include requirements for corridor width, floor tiles, parking spaces, elevator size, electrical wiring, plumbing and even the angle water flows from drinking fountains.

    Proponents of HB2 said the intent was to protect women undergoing medical procedures.

    Critics said the intent was to reduce or eliminate women’s access to abortions and to force clinics out of business.

    By the time the justices issued their ruling on June 27, only 19 clinics remained open in Texas.

    Planned Parenthood and other providers filed the first challenge to HB 2.

    A federal judge blocked implementation of the measure in October 2013, but an appeals court lifted the hold in March 2014.

    Whole Woman’s Health and other providers brought a new challenge in 2014. A district court ruled the admitting privileges and clinic requirements were an unconstitutional burden on women’s access to reproductive health care, but an appeals court again reversed the lower court.

    Care providers turned to the Supreme Court, which put a hold on further enforcement of the law and then heard the merits of the case in March.

    During oral arguments, it was clear where the court’s four liberal justices stood, where the court’s three most conservative justices stood, but not which side Justice Anthony Kennedy would stand on. His vote, always crucial, had even more impact after the death of Antonin Scalia in February.

    Kennedy and Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan were in the majority.

    Breyer wrote the opinion for the majority: “The surgical-center requirement, like the admitting privileges requirement, provides few, if any, health benefits for women, poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions and constitutes an ‘undue burden’ on their constitutional right to do so.”

    Ginsburg wrote a concurring opinion, saying the Texas law, and laws like it, “do little or nothing for health, but rather strew impediments to abortion, (and) cannot survive judicial inspection.”

    Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the dissenting opinion, which was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.

    Thomas said the court has a “troubling tendency to bend the rules when any effort to limit abortion, or even to speak in opposition to abortion, is at issue.”

    President Barack Obama and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton praised the decision, as did many Democrats across the country — from Capitol Hill to state capitols and city halls.

    Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, in a conference call with reporters after the June 27 announcement, called the decision an enormous victory for women.

    And Teri Huyck, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, said, “We applaud the court’s ruling affirming that abortion is a decision that should be between a woman and her doctor and a decision that should be made without politicians interfering.

    “Yet, today’s victory does not undo the past five years of damage and restrictions already written into law. No woman or doctor should be punished for receiving or providing essential medical care.”

    On the opposing side, Judie Brown of the American Life League responded to the court decision with a call to escalate anti-choice campaigns. She said the decision “serves as a blaring wake-up call to the mainstream pro-life movement that dinking and dithering over regulating the killing can never serve as a replacement for the fundamental battle that is not being fought — the battle for the recognition that every innocent preborn human being is a unique person from the moment of his biological beginning.”

    The impact

    Within hours of the court ruling, the Alabama attorney general announced the state would not defend its admitting-privileges requirements.

    Then, on June 28, the Supreme Court rejected appeals from Wisconsin and Mississippi.

    “The Supreme Court’s decision today denying cert in Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin v. Schimel is not surprising given the court’s decision yesterday in a similar Texas abortion law case,” said Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel in a statement to the press. “The opinion of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals stands and those portions of our law addressed by the decision are now permanently enjoined.”

    Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin said the court’s rejection of the appeal means the case is over and Republicans’ admitting-privileges restrictions are permanently blocked.

    Planned Parenthood was involved in the lawsuit, along with Affiliated Medical Services. They were represented by attorneys from Cullen Weston Pines and Bach, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the ACLU.

    “We are pleased the Supreme Court recognized the true intention behind this law,” said Tanya Atkinson, executive director of PPAW. “Gov. Walker’s relentless pursuit and defense of unconstitutional laws clearly show just how much elections matter. We need to elect leaders who understand that abortion is a deeply personal decision that a woman should be able to make in consultation with her family, her faith and her health care provider — without government interference.”

    At WiG press time, other states with admitting-privilege requirements included Missouri, North Dakota and Tennessee, where they were in force, and Kansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, where they were on hold.

    Other states with laws requiring clinics to follow hospital-like surgery center standards include Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Tennessee.

    Planned Parenthood’s Richards said the ruling in Whole Woman’s Health was just the beginning:

    “This decision has opened the door to go state by state, legislature by legislature, law by law, and restore access to safe, legal abortion.”

  • Supreme Court deadlocks on immigration case

    Supreme Court deadlocks on immigration case

    Karla Cano faces uncertainty. She had expected to qualify for deferred action under the Obama administration’s executive orders on immigration. But a tied decision by the U.S. Supreme Court creates uncertainty for Cano and her family.

    “All that is unjust about my situation will continue,” said Cano, 21, a senior at Mount Mary University and the mother of a 2-year-old son.

    “I am in college so I can have a career helping others, but I cannot start a career like that without work authorization,” she said. “We just want to help this country and support our families like anyone else.”

    The court, on June 23, deadlocked on President Barack Obama’s executive actions taken to shield millions living in the United States from deportation.

    The 4–4 tie means the next president and a new Congress will determine any change in U.S. immigration policy. The president said the court’s deadlock “takes us further from the country we aspire to be.”

    Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president, called the court ruling unacceptable and pledged to “do everything possible under the law to go further to protect families.”

    The dispute before the eight justices — the case was heard in April, after the death of Antonin Scalia — was over the legality of the administration’s orders creating “deferred action for parents of Americans and lawful permanent residents” or DAPA and expanding “deferred action for childhood arrivals” or DACA.

    Basically, the actions would have protected from deportation and provided three-year work permits to about 5 million undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, as well as undocumented people who came to the United States before the age of 16.

    The president announced the orders in 2014 and, soon after, they were challenged by 26 states led by Republican governors, including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

    Federal district and appeals courts sided with the states and said the executive office lacked the authority to issue orders shielding immigrants from deportation.

    The high court tie means the appeals court ruling stands. But the ruling in United States v. Texas did not set any landmark standards in the dispute over immigration.

    The U.S. Justice Department brought the case to the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the appeals court decision.

    The American Civil Liberties Union was among the many groups to file a friend-of-the-court brief in the case.

    Cecillia Wang, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said, the “4–4 tie has a profound impact on millions of American families whose lives will remain in limbo and who will now continue the fight. In setting the DAPA guidelines, President Obama exercised the same prosecutorial discretion his predecessors have wielded without controversy and ultimately the courts should hold that the action was lawful.”

    Reaction from the U.S. progressive community was swift and compassionate.

    “This split decision deals a severe blow to millions of immigrant families who have already been waiting more than 18 months for the DAPA and DACA programs to be implemented,” said Alianza Americas’ executive director Oscar Chacón. “The cold fact is that millions of parents and children will go to bed tonight knowing once again that their families could be torn apart at any moment.”

    At the Center for Popular Democracy, co-executive director Ana Maria Archila said, “If the highest court in the land cannot find a majority for justice and compassion, there is something truly broken in our system of laws, checks and balances.”

    In Wisconsin, Voces de la Frontera held news conferences in Green Bay, Madison and Milwaukee. LULAC, Centro Hispano and the Southside Organizing Committee also were involved.

    “This is very sad for me,” said Jose Flores, a factory worker, father of four and also the president of Voces de la Frontera. “I have been waiting and fighting for reform like DAPA for years. But we are not giving up. I refuse … to shrink back into the shadows.”

    Cano, a member of Voces de la Frontera, said, “I am not giving up on the struggle. We need more people to get involved in the upcoming elections, because this decision shows the importance of both the presidential and U.S. congressional elections and who the next president will nominate to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

  • House Democrats stage sit-in, demand vote on gun control

    House Democrats stage sit-in, demand vote on gun control

    Democrats staged a 1960s-style sit-in on the U.S. House floor June 22–23, chanting, “No bill. No Break.” The protest was intended to call attention to Republicans’ inaction against gun violence in the wake of the largest mass shooting in modern history at a gay dance club in Orlando.

    House Speaker Paul Ryan responded by shutting off all public access to the scene.

    “Speaker Ryan may have turned off the floor cameras in an attempt to silence us, but we will continue to stand up and give a voice to the majority of Americans who demand commonsense gun safety reforms,” said U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison.

    U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a longtime veteran of the civil rights movement, organized the protest along with Reps. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and David Cicilline of Rhode Island.

    In the hours that Democrats held the floor, they spoke about an epidemic of violence in the United States. With the blackout on C-SPAN’s coverage — the service does not control the floor cameras — members took videos of each other to share on social media.

    California Democrat Eric Swalwell videotaped New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler’s speech, delivered at about 2 a.m. June 23.

    “No other country in the world, other than those involved in active wars, have gun deaths more than three digits,” Nadler said. … We have 33,000 a year. We’re told this is because of insanity. Because we have mentally ill people. But we don’t have thousands of times more mentally ill people than other countries.”

    Nadler said if House Republicans refuse to pass an assault weapons ban or prohibit large capacity clips, they could at least close the loopholes in background checks and bar people on the no-fly list from gun purchases.

    Ryan dismissed the sit-in as a political stunt.

    He also dismissed the idea of “no fly, no buy,” saying it would deprive people of due process and the constitutional right to possess guns.

    Meanwhile, in the U.S. Senate, Democrats continued to press for reform even after failed votes on measures to expand background checks and keep people on the no-fly list from getting guns.

    President Barack Obama and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton echoed the calls for tighter gun laws. Clinton, early in her campaign, made enacting gun control measures a priority.

    Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, suggested the solution to gun violence is arming more people with guns.

    “It’s too bad that some of the young people that were killed over the weekend didn’t have guns, you know, attached to their hips, and you know where bullets could have flown in the opposite direction,” Trump told radio host Howie Carr on June 13, the day after the shooting in Orlando. Later, Trump said he was referring to guards and employees.

    Chad Griffin, the president and CEO of the Human Rights Campaign, said the shooting was a “toxic combination of two things: a deranged, unstable individual who had been conditioned to hate people and easy access to military-style guns.”

    HRC is the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights group. In late June, its board of directors adopted a resolution on gun control measures, an unprecedented move for the group.

    Americans are divided on gun control.

    Polls put those favoring gun control over gun rights at about 50 percent, down from 57 percent in 2000. Those who favor gun rights over gun control increased from about 29 percent in 2000 to 47 percent in 2015.

    When particular gun control steps are considered, however, the picture changes. A Pew poll conducted last August showed:

    • 85 percent of people support background checks for purchases at gun shows and in private sales.

    • 79 percent support laws to prevent the mentally ill from buying guns.

    • 70 percent support a federal database to track gun sales.

    • 57 percent support a ban on assault weapons.

    “Congress can’t even pass mild, commonsense gun control legislation supported by vast majorities of Americans,” said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the activist group CODEPINK, which recently staged a die-in at NRA headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. “The stranglehold the NRA has on our elected officials is breathtaking, and its effects are devastating to our families and communities.”

    Big bucks for big guns

    Gun rights groups contributed $33,925 to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, who is running for re-election in Wisconsin against Democrat Russ Feingold.

    The No. 2 payout was to U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, whose campaign has received $29,295 from gun rights groups, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

    Since the start of 2015, Senate Republicans have received $304,319 from gun rights groups. During that same period, Democrats have received $7,250.

  • Terror in the ‘Happiest Place on Earth’

    Terror in the ‘Happiest Place on Earth’

    An act of terror.

    An act of hate.

    The world responded with love and compassion, fury and fight.

    Early on the morning of June 12, a gunman armed with an assault rifle and a handgun went on a rampage at the gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Florida. He killed 49 people and wounded more than 50 others — some gravely.

    The 29-year-old killer was an American who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, abused his wife, used slurs against blacks, Jewish people, women and gays — although he himself was a regular patron of Pulse. He went on to terrorize LGBT people in that place that existed to celebrate Pride and provide sanctuary.

    Orlando — famously known as the “Happiest Place on Earth” — became the site of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, a massacre that left Americans mourning the many lost and struggling to address extremism, prejudice and gun access.

    “I can’t stop crying. I can’t make any sense of it all,” said Henry Rivera of Orlando, a transgender man who works at a restaurant just outside Disney World. “Everything seems different now.”

    Music, dancing, and terror

    On June 11, more than 300 people crowded into the high-energy club on South Orange Avenue for Latin night, an evening that promised entertainment by two drag performers, as well as dancing and music — salsa, meringue, bachata.

    Shortly after 2 a.m. on June 12, Omar Mateen, armed with a semi-automatic rifle and a Glock handgun, attacked the club, according to reports from the Orlando Police Department and FBI. As WiG to press, authorities were still compiling a detailed and complete timeline of what happened at Pulse.

    Survivors described chaos as Mateen launched a barrage of bullets, striking people at the bar, on the dance floor, in the restrooms and elsewhere.

    An off-duty Orlando police officer working as a security guard at the club responded to the gunfire. More officers arrived and Mateen retreated deeper into the club, then into a bathroom.

    At 2:09 a.m., an alert was posted on Pulse’s Facebook page: “Everyone get out of Pulse and keep running.”

    Dozens of people ran from the club, and more than 100 police officers responded to what became a standoff.

    Police believe Mateen killed most of his victims in the first 30 minutes. Those remaining in the bar were either hostages or in hiding.

    At 2:39 a.m., Eddie Justice texted his mother from the bathroom in the club:

    “Call them mommy”

    “Now”

    “I’m still in the bathroom”

    “Hes coming”

    “Im going to die.”

    Justice did die. His last text from the club was at 2:50 a.m.

    At about 5 a.m., police used a controlled explosion and an armored vehicle with a battering ram to clear a way for people inside the club to escape.

    Mateen died in an exchange of gunfire with police shortly after that.

    Violent, conflicted and radicalized

    The killer talked with police three times during the standoff, FBI Director James B. Comey said in a televised news briefing from headquarters in Virginia on June 13. Comey said calls from the killer to law enforcement began about 2:30 a.m. During those calls, Mateen, who was born in New York, claimed allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, as well as to the perpetrators of the 2013 Boston Marathon attack and to a Florida man who died as a suicide bomber in Syria.

    “These are strong indications of radicalization by this killer and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorism organizations,” Comey said.

    He added that the bureau, along with state and local law enforcement, were trying to understand “every moment of the killer’s path” leading up to the shooting.

    The FBI was already familiar with Mateen. In May 2013, the bureau began investigating him after co-workers said the contract security guard made inflammatory comments and claimed a family connection to al-Qaida. He was interviewed twice but the case was closed.

    Two months later, Mateen’s name came up as a casual acquaintance of a Florida man who blew himself up in Syria.

    “Our investigation turned up no ties of any consequence between the two of them,” Comey said. “We will continue to look forward in this investigation and backward. We will leave no stone unturned.”

    According to AP, the investigation found that Mateen, the son of an Afghan immigrant, was a bodybuilder who attended a mosque in Fort Pierce, Florida, and wanted to become a police officer.

    AP also reported questions were emerging about whether Mateen was conflicted about his sexuality. He allegedly cased Gay Days at Disney World about a week before the shooting and was seen regularly at Pulse. He apparently used gay dating apps as well.

    Mateen’s first wife, from whom he was divorced, has said he was abusive and suffered from mental illness. The killer’s father said Mateen expressed a hatred of gays, recently expressing anger at seeing two men kiss.

    Mateen’s father also made homophobic remarks to the press, saying that it was wrong for his son to shoot gay people because their punishment should come from God.

    “While the motive behind this crime remains unclear, our resolve to live openly and proudly remains undiminished. Now is a time for the whole nation to stand together against violence,” Rea Carey, the executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, said June 12.

    Chad Griffin, the president and CEO of the Human Rights Campaign, said, “This tragedy has occurred as our community celebrates Pride, and now more than ever we must come together as a nation to affirm that love conquers hate.”

    Memorials and mobilizing

    Vigils took place as early as June 12 and continued for days after the shooting.

    Many of the observances included a moment of silence and a reading of the victims’ names (see “The slain, next page). Many vigils ended with candleholders singing “Over the Rainbow.”

    Hundreds sang, “If happy little bluebirds fly/Beyond the rainbow, why, oh, why can’t I?” at the end of a vigil June 13 in Sarasota, Florida, the hometown of Edward Sotomayor Jr., who recently helped to organize the first LGBT cruise from Florida to Cuba. Sotomayor was shot while trying to get his boyfriend to safety.

    Many at the Sarasota vigil called the mass shooting a hate crime, and though there were demands for stricter gun control, the focus was on anti-LGBT violence.

    “This attack was with guns, but our people have been killed with knives and bombs and fists, too,” said Patricia Callahan of Lakeland, Florida. “We can’t forget.”

    Vigils took place across the country, at city halls and courthouses, plazas and parks, community centers and gay bars.

    “This unimaginable atrocity has not only robbed countless people of their loved ones, it has also stolen a sense of safety within the LGBTQ community,” said GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.

    In New York City, many gathered outside the Stonewall Inn, considered the birthplace of the modern LGBT civil rights movement. There, they chanted, “No hate, no hate! More love, more love.”

    In Wisconsin, multiple vigils took place, including in Milwaukee, Madison, Racine and Appleton.

    There also were many memorials outside the United States. In Paris, U.S. and gay Pride flags flew at city hall and the Eiffel Tower was lit up like a rainbow.

    Heads of state sent letters of condolence and issued condemnations. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said his country stands “shoulder to shoulder with our American brothers and sisters,” and Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah called the shooting a “senseless act of terror and hate.”

    Afghanistan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah urged “collective actions to end such attacks.”

    At the United Nations, High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein decried insufficient gun control in the United States and criticized the irresponsible pro-gun propagandizing in the country.

    ‘America’s rifle’

    Criticism also was leveled in the United States.

    The massacre is “a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship or in a movie theater or in a nightclub,” President Barack Obama said June 12, in remarks from the White House. “And we have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be.”

    Mateen was armed with the handgun and a Sig Sauer MCX semi-automatic rifle — marketed in the U.S. as a “modern sporting rifle.” He purchased it at the St. Lucie Shooting Center in Florida. Semi-automatic rifles also were used in mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut; Aurora, Colorado; San Bernardino, California; and elsewhere. The NRA calls that weapon class “America’ rifle.”

    After the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, the president dedicated the start of his second term to pushing legislation that would have banned certain assault-style weapons and capped the size of ammunition clips. The effort, however, failed in the U.S. Senate due to heavy opposition from Republicans who are backed by the National Rifle Association.

    In the years since, some reforms have taken place at the state level. But GOP-headed states, including Wisconsin, have enacted measures to weaken gun control laws.

    On June 13, Senate Democrats renewed calls for reform and Hillary Clinton, the Democrats’ presumptive nominee for president, repeated her call to keep weapons of war off the streets and “out of the hands of terrorists or other violent criminals.”

    Clinton and the president postponed a campaign visit to Green Bay scheduled for June 15, as the president made plans to visit Orlando on June 16 to “stand in solidarity with the community.”

    The slain

    As WiG went to press, these were the known dead in the Pulse terror attack:

    Stanley Almodovar III, 23; Amanda Alvear, 25; Oscar A. Aracena-Montero, 26; Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, 33; Antonio Davon Brown, 29; Darryl Roman Burt II, 29; Angel L. Candelario-Padro, 28; Juan Chevez-Martinez, 25; Luis Daniel Conde, 39; Cory James Connell, 21; Tevin Eugene Crosby, 25; Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32; Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez, 31; Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25; Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26; Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22; Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22; Paul Terrell Henry, 41; Frank Hernandez, 27; Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40; Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19; Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30; Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, 25; Christopher Andrew Leinonen, 32; Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21; Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, 49; Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25; Kimberly Morris, 37; Akyra Monet Murray, 18; Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20; Geraldo A. Ortiz-Jimenez, 25; Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36; Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32; Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35; Enrique L. Rios, Jr., 25; Jean C. Nives Rodriguez, 27; Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35; Christopher Joseph Sanfeliz, 24; Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan, 24; Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34; Shane Evan Tomlinson, 33; Martin Benitez Torres, 33; Jonathan Antonio Camuy Vega, 24; Juan P. Rivera Velazquez, 37; Luis S. Vielma, 22; Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, 50; Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37; Jerald Arthur Wright, 31.

    Donations and support

    Equality Florida, the statewide LGBT civil rights group, established a GoFundMe page to raise money to support those injured and the families of those killed at Pulse. Donations are accepted at www.gofundme.com/pulsevictimsfund.

    The Associated Press contributed to these reports.

    For updates and continued coverage, go to www.wisconsingazette.com.

  • Wise words: Commencement season to begin

    Students may be shaking spring-break sand from their flip-flops, but commencement celebrations are just weeks away for colleges and universities.

    Many Wisconsin colleges and universities — public and private — plan commencement ceremonies in May and are lining up speakers.

    NFL quarterback Russell Wilson will deliver the spring commencement address on May 14 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

    “It’s an honor to be asked to speak at any commencement ceremony, but I’m particularly excited to return to a place where I have so many great memories,” said the Super Bowl-winning Seahawk, who attended UW-Madison.

    Also in Madison, former Attorney General Eric Holder will give the keynote at the University of Wisconsin Law School hooding ceremony on May 13. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to talk to these graduates about the road ahead,” Holder said in a news release. “And I hope by sharing some of my own experiences, they see that it’s a big world just waiting for them to make a positive impact.”

    On May 22, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will address the graduating class at Carthage College in Kenosha, while alumna Judith Mayotte, a TV producer and humanitarian, will deliver the keynote the same day at Marquette University.

    At Ripon College on May 15, the class of 2016 will hear from soccer coach Pia Sundhage, who led the U.S. women’s team to two Olympic gold medals.

    Elsewhere, graduates of 2016 will hear from Vice President Joe Biden, who will deliver commencement addresses at the U.S. Military Academy, Delaware State University and Syracuse University’s College of Law.

    First lady Michele Obama will address graduating seniors at Jackson State University in Mississippi, as well as City College of New York and the Santa Fe Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

    Other speakers scheduled for commencements this spring include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at Drew University, Oliver Stone at the University of Connecticut, Ryan Seacrest at the University of Georgia, Hoda Kotb at Tulane, Spike Lee at John Hopkins, Hank Azaria at Tufts, Steven Spielberg at Harvard, Matt Damon at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, James Franco at Cornell, Bill Moyers at Rutgers, Ken Burns at Stanford and Seth Meyers at Northwestern.

    WiG ushers in the commencement season with a look at wise words delivered to previous graduating classes.

    Some favorites:

    • Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s address at Harrow School in 1941: “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense.”

    • President John F. Kennedy’s address at American University in 1963: “No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man’s reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable.”

    • Tennis legend Billie Jean King’s address at the University of Massachusetts in 2000: “The most important words that have helped me in life when things have gone right or when things have gone wrong are ‘accept responsibility.’”

    • Apple founder Steve Jobs’ address at Stanford in 2005: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

    • Actor and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger’s address at the University of Southern California in 2009: “You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.”

    • Country singer Dolly Parton’s commencement address at the University of Tennessee in 2009: “Now I usually try not to give advice. Information, yes, advice no. But what has worked for me may not work for you. Well, take for instance what has worked for me. Wigs. Tight clothes. Pushup bras.”

    • President Barack Obama’s address at Arizona State University in 2009: “A relentless focus on the outward markers of success can lead to complacency. It can make you lazy.”

    Commence career search

    College graduates from the class of 2016 face sunnier prospects in the job market than those who graduated a year ago, according to a new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

    The report shows employers expect to hire 5.2 percent more new graduates than they hired in 2015.

    Another report, released by an institute at Michigan State University, estimated national employers would hire 15 percent more graduates with bachelor’s degrees in 2016 than in 2015.

    Additionally, about 80 percent of the employers that answered the MSU survey described the U.S. labor market for college graduates as “good” to “excellent.”

    — L.N.

  • To veg out is in: Activists organize Milwaukee Veg Expo

    The moment for Pete Woodward of Milwaukee came when he read the bumper sticker, “Eat plants for the planet.” Something clicked, said the 29-year-old mechanic, and he began the cycle to following a vegetarian diet.

    For Molly Risser of Madison, the commitment came after an afternoon in a dog park.

    The 34-year-old office assistant recalled, “A friend was trying to get me to go vegetarian and she said, ‘Just imagine those people are chickens instead of dogs.’ I did. I know it sounds absurd, but your mind bends when you picture people playing in the park with a bunch of chickens.”

    Both relatively new converts to the vegetarian lifestyle, Woodward and Risser are looking forward to a new event on Milwaukee’s calendar — the Veg Expo, which takes place at Hart Park in Wauwatosa 10 a.m.-6 p.m. May 7.

    An announcement for the event invited people to “come veg with us!” and by that the organizers mean come learn from experts about the varied benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle for animals, people and the planet.

    Behind the expo

    A primary organization behind the expo is Citizens United for Animals or CUFA, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting, defending and respecting “the inherent rights of all nonhuman animals to live lives free from suffering, abuse and exploitation.”

    Members of the organizing committee also represent other groups, including the Madison-based Alliance for Animals and the Environment.

    Those who attend the expo can expect to learn about animal cruelty, including abuses in the factory farming of animals. Attendees also will learn about animal rescue campaigns and efforts to re-home dogs and cats and other animals in southeastern Wisconsin.

    Tim Swartz, a volunteer with the Alliance for Animals and the Environment and member of the expo organizing committee, became involved in promoting veg culture about a year ago after reading The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them, a book by Wayne Pacelle, the president of The Humane Society of the United States.

    “It was my first exposure to just the problem of factory farming, to how animals are treated on factory farms,” Swartz said. “I was appalled.”

    Swartz knew he wanted to make personal changes in his life: “That caused me to decide that I didn’t want to support what was going on anymore and to pursue a vegan diet. … It took me a little time to fully get there.”

    He also knew he wanted to get involved in a greater cause. “I wanted to make an effort to educate other people,” he said. “And when I learned about the environmental impacts of animal agriculture, well, that compelled me even more.”

    Consider these environmental benefits of a plant-based diet versus the impact of animal agriculture:

    • A plant-based diet free of meat, dairy and eggs can save more carbon emissions than driving a Toyota Prius — about 50 percent more, according to ChooseVeg.com and Mercy for Animals.
    • Raising animals for food uses about 30 percent of the Earth’s land mass.
    • About 70 percent of the grain grown in the United States is used to feed farmed animals.
    • About 80 percent of the land deforested in the Amazon is used to pasture cattle.
    • To produce a pound of animal protein compared with a pound of soy protein, it takes 12 times as much land, 13 times as much fossil fuel and 15 times as much water.

    The expo, first and foremost, is an educational forum.

    The lineup of speakers includes:

    • Robert Grillo of Free From Harm. He’s at work on a book about how pop culture uses a variety of fictions to influence our food choices.
    • Carol D’Anca of Food Not Meds. She’s a nutritionist and author of “Food not Meds.”
    • Dr. Kevin Fullin, chief of staff of the United Hospital System in Kenosha. He’s given more than 100 talks on plant-based nutrition and is chef who specializes in plant-based cooking.
    • Anne Temple of Moms Across America. She’s led the March Against Monsanto in Milwaukee and also lobbied Congress for food-labeling legislation.
    • Dr. Terry Mason of the Cook County Department of Public Health in Illinois. He was featured in the film Forks over Knives and has delivered many presentations on health and nutrition.

    At the expo

    Swartz hopes those who attend will listen to the experts, browse a marketplace, meet advocates and activists and sample vegan dishes served by restaurant vendors.

    “Lots of education is going to be going on,” he said. “That’s our main goal. For one thing, people should know there are delicious vegan foods that are out there and you don’t have to sacrifice enjoyment and taste. We’re really focusing on the food.”

    “It’s just going to be great to network with the people who are there,” said Rachel Golusinski of Milwaukee, an expo organizer and CUFA member who switched to a vegan diet about six years ago — just before Thanksgiving. “There are great opportunities.”

    Woodward said he plans to attend the expo with a consumer’s eye. “I am a vegetarian. I don’t need convincing. I’m cool with that and a lot healthier. What I want to know about is the best vegetarian restaurants and food.”

    Risser said she wants to connect with activists. Notice of participation by PETA and Mercy for Animals caught her attention.

    “I really, really respect what they do,” said Risser. “But I’ve never meant anyone with the groups. So I’m like really looking forward to talking with people and finding out how I can help.”

    Risser said she’s eager to get more involved in a veg community.

    “This is a true story. My mom had an easier time when I came out as gay than when I told her I was a vegetarian. And then vegan,” Risser said. “So I hope to meet some people, making make some friends. Maybe I’ll even bring my mom — or not.”

    Organizers hope to see 1,000 people attend the expo.

    “It’s not meant to be a fundraiser,” said Swartz. “It’s a free event. We’re really just investing and educating the city about environmental, ethical and health issues.”

    Golusinski said organizers also are looking to the 2017 expo.

    “We already have so many things planned for next year,” she said of the event, observing that most weekends there’s a veg fest taking place somewhere in the United States.

    Golusinski attended five such events since becoming a vegan, a conversion that came after viewing a video about the factory farming of animals.

    “I just said, ‘I’m not going to pay people to do this anymore,” Golusinski remembered.

    She recalled a slight learning curve, especially when selecting a restaurant to dine out. Events such as Veg Expo take out the curve.

    SAVE THE DATES

    Milwaukee’s first Veg Expo takes place 10 a.m.–6 p.m. on May 7 in Hart Park, 7300 W. Chestnut St., Wauwatosa. There is no cost to attend the event, though some vendors will be selling food and beverages. For more, go to mkevegexpo.com.

    Also of interest:

    • World Day for Laboratory Animals, April 23. In Dane County, activists will gather at

    1 p.m. at Hawthorne Library and carpool to a protest site.

    • Mad City Vegan Fest, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. on June 18,

    Alliant Energy Center Exhibition Hall. The festival features vendors offering vegan food, as well as information about the vegetarian lifestyle, animal welfare, animal rescue and more.

    PRODUCE PATCH

    The Dane County Farmers’ Market, a Madison tradition since 1972 and the largest producer-only farmers market in the United States, opened its outdoor season April 16 and continues on Saturdays at the Capitol Square into early November.

    The county’s Wednesday Market, located in the 200 block of MLK Jr. Boulevard between the Capitol and Monona Terrace, opened April 20.

    Both markets take place rain or shine.

    For more, go to dcfm.org.

    — Lisa Neff

  • Birding for bigger budgets: Wisconsin birdathon benefits conservation programs

    Those who venture into the woods on a weekend in May might spot an “Old Coot” or a “Lower Chippewa River Titmouseketeer.” These are not new species to add to the Sibley Guide to Birds, but rather team players in the Great Wisconsin Birdathon, an annual event that brings hundreds of birders outdoors for spring scoping and raises money for conservation programs in the state.

    The slogan: see a bird, save a bird.

    The goal is to raise $70,000, according to the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative.

    Birders — there are no restrictions on experience levels — join a team or create a team online and then find sponsors to pledge to donate for each species a team sees during 24 hours.

    “It’s like a walkathon but with birds instead of miles,” says Diane Packett, whose role as birdathon coordinator is to manage the website, recruit participants and help as many as 100 teams get set up to raise money and count birds.

    Some teams got out as early as April 15, but the event continues through June 15.

    Among the participants are eight teams of hotshot birders to raise $30,000:

    • Lake Superior eBirders in Ashland and Bayfield counties, who last year counted 161 species.
    • Madison Green Team of Dane County, who travel by bike, foot and kayak in search of birds at the UW Arboretum, Dunn’s Marsh, along the Capital City Bike Trail, in the Nine-Springs Wetlands and elsewhere.
    • Cutright’s Old Coots, whose territory includes Ozaukee, Sheboygan, Fond du Lac and Dodge counties and who participate in honor of Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame member Noel Cutright.

    Other celebrated teams include Curlew & Screech representing Columbia, Dane, Iowa, Sauk, Richland, Grant and Crawford counties; Secretary Birds of Door County and Green Bay; WSO Tessen Team of the Green Lake region; MotMotley Crew of Dodge County and the Titmouseketeers of Eau Claire, Dunn and Buffalo counties.

    “The signature teams include the state’s most serious birders, but the Great Wisconsin Birdathon can be great fun for everyone, no matter what skill level,” says Ruth Oppedahl, executive director of the NRFW. “Birding in your backyard for just a few hours is a wonderful way to learn about Wisconsin’s birds, while also taking action to help conserve them.”

    Packett says, “You can make the birdathon whatever you want. We have someone who does the birdathon from his backyard. Some people spend half a day. Some people start at midnight and drive around the state.”

    Students also get involved, including a grade-school class that identifies species on a neighborhood walk.

    “A lot of people think it is a great big species competition,” said Packett. “It can be. But it doesn’t have to be.”

    The birdathon benefits the Bird Protection Fund, which supports the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas II, Osa Conservation and the recovery of whooping cranes and the Kirtland’s warbler.

    Get involved

    The Great Wisconsin Birdathon continues through June 15, a partnership between the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative. To create or join a team or pledge to a team, visit wibirdathon.org.

  • Growing hemp, seeding a market for farmers and consumers

    “Hemp for victory” once was a rallying cry in the United States, back when Wisconsin dominated the hemp industry.

    The market for the 12-foot-tall plants was strong a century ago and reached its height during World War II, when Wisconsin led the nation in producing hemp for rope and twine. Growers in Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Dodge and Racine counties supplied the crop, and a mill owner in Waupon held the title of “America’s Hemp King.”

    What’s left of the glory?

    The cultivation of hemp in Wisconsin slowed dramatically with the development of synthetic fiber, but its death knell came in 1970. That’s when the federal government classified any amount of THC — a chemical compound found in both hemp and pot — as an illegal substance, thus killing the hemp industry. But hemp may soon make a comeback.

    FEDERAL FARM BILL

    The Agricultural Act of 2014, which President Barack Obama signed Feb. 7, 2014, contained a so-called “Hemp Amendment,” which allows states to work with higher-education research institutions to create programs for the growth, cultivation and marketing of industrial hemp. With the amendment, the federal government created a definition of industrial hemp so that it would not be confused with its cousin, marijuana.

    To capitalize on the Hemp Amendment, a state’s statutes must allow for hemp farming.

    Kentucky has become a leader on that front. Also, some farmers in Colorado started harvesting hemp in 2013, followed a year later by farmers in Vermont and then farmers in Oregon last winter.

    North Carolina is one of the most recent states to join the movement, enacting a law in October that says, “It is in the best interest of the citizens … to promote and encourage the development of an industrial hemp industry in the state in order to expand employment, promote economic activity and provide opportunities to small farmers for an environmentally sustainable and profitable use of crop lands that might otherwise be lost to agricultural production.”

    However, Wisconsin is not a hemp player.

    Not yet, anyway.

    MOVEMENT IN WISCONSIN

    It’s unlikely the state will produce another hemp king or queen, but Wisconsin could become a significant grower of the potentially big-money crop.

    “The 2014 Farm Bill gave states the authority to begin the process of legalizing industrial hemp,” said Wisconsin Rep. Dave Considine, a Democrat from Baraboo. “Now we’re looking to get something passed and get something going. … We’re vastly behind other states in the Midwest.”

    In the 2015–16 session, Considine introduced a bill to create a research-based hemp farming program in Wisconsin. The bill died in committee, but he plans to reintroduce the legislation in the next session.

    “A lot of people know of industrial hemp as a source of fiber, but that is not all by any means,” Considine said. “For one, it is an extremely popular source of Omega-3. It’s an amazing source of really good fatty acids that we need in our diet.”

    Considine’s bill would create a licensing program under the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and in partnership with research institutions. The license holders would plant, cultivate, grow, harvest, process, possess and deliver industrial hemp — Cannabis sativa with no more than 0.3 percent THC.

    “What the bill does is allow a university to come up with research. The first step is to make sure we have the right team to grow industrial hemp,” said the Democrat, who represents the 81st Assembly District in western Sauk County.

    “I have a very strong agricultural district,” Considine said. “Really productive land and people doing a lot of good things.”

    He noted the district has many farmers interested in “alternative cropping” and emphasized Wisconsin once was the “No. 1 producer of hemp.”

    The bill didn’t get a hearing in the session that ended in March, yet the proposal would seem to have wide appeal. National polls show support for such measures among Republicans and Democrats, farmers and hippies, conservationists and corporations, Libertarians and Greens, city dwellers and country folk.

    Considine said when he reworks the bill for re-introduction, he plans to build grassroots support, as well as line up organizational backing.

    “I’m committed to bringing it back,” he said. “I’m really hoping for the good of our state and the good of our economy that we can get moving.”

    Key to the drive is securing support from the state Farm Bureau Federation.

    Already, Considine has the backing of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, which has a policy stating the organization “joins all major agricultural associations in Wisconsin in supporting legislation to permit research and test plots in Wisconsin.”

    FEDERAL MOVES

    Meanwhile, pending in Congress is comprehensive legislation to legalize industrial hemp farming in the United States by amending the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act so that it will not include industrial hemp.

    Democrats Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Republicans Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky introduced the bill in the Senate, while Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democrat Jared Polis of Colorado introduced the House measure.

    Polis has said he’s hopeful Congress will build on the Hemp Amendment and pass the Industrial Hemp Farming Act “to allow this historical American crop to once again thrive on our farmlands.”

    Without passage, farmers still risk being targeted by federal authorities.

    Last October, the Drug Enforcement Administration entered the sovereign lands of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and destroyed a crop of about 30,000 plants. The tribe had legalized the growing of low-THC non-psychotropic hemp in May 2015, as provided for under the 2014 Farm Bill, and maintains that the DEA improperly destroyed the crop in the raid.

    The U.S. Attorney’s office said the DEA executed federal search warrants on “a large marijuana growing operation on tribal land,” according to a report published by the Associated Press last October.

    Since then, the Menominee Nation has filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge in Milwaukee to uphold the tribe’s right to grow industrial hemp. In February, the tribe filed a motion for summary judgment.

    “This is a straightforward legal question regarding the interpretation of federal law and we believe the court will decide this matter expediently,” Joan Delabreau, the tribe’s chairwoman, stated in a news release. “We are confident that the Farm Bill provisions require the federal government to recognize the Menominee Nation’s rights to cultivate industrial hemp.”

    In another case, a federal judge in late March lifted an injunction prohibiting a South Dakota tribal member from producing industrial hemp. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Viken observed a “shifting legal landscape” on industrial hemp since the injunction was filed more than a decade ago.

    However, Viken’s order was a narrow ruling and did not resolve the question of whether the Farm Bill allows for growing hemp on Pine Ridge Indian land.

    As legislative and law enforcement actions multiply, here are some key facts about hemp:

    • Hemp and marijuana are of the same plant species — Cannabis sativa — but the two plants are not bred and cultivated in the same way. The level of THC is much, much lower in hemp than in pot. Hemp can’t produce a high, but it can be used to make a handsome shirt or provide nutrition.

    • Hemp stalks produce two types of fiber, according to Vote Hemp, a nonprofit advocacy organization. The outer bast fiber can be processed into long strands and the inner woody core can be processed into chips.

    • The fiber is durable and makes for comfortable and colorfast textiles. It is used in composites or can replace plastics or fiberglass in molded products. The fiber also can be used to make building insulation or paper, while the inner core can be used to make animal bedding or nitrogen-absorbent fertilizer. The stalk even holds promise as an alternative fuel.

    • The hemp seed — a tiny nut that consists of a meaty inner core and a hull — has uses as birdseed and, toasted, as a human snack. But broader uses involve dehulling the seed or crushing the seed for oil, because the inner core contains two essential fatty acids — Omega-3 and Omega-6 — as well as proteins.

    Advocates tout the benefits of hemp seed oil supplements, the culinary value of hemp oil and the cosmetic applications. Even the protein-rich leftover hemp meal has value and is used for animal feed as well as high-protein powders and flours for human consumption.

    The U.S. market for hemp is about $450 million to $600 million a year. But with few exceptions, U.S. growers are not profiting. There is no large-scale industrial hemp production in the U.S. and the U.S. market is dependent on imports for finished hemp products and hemp ingredients. About two dozen other countries export hemp to the United States, including Britain, France, Germany, Spain — and especially Canada. But the U.S. production lag may be about to change.

    Marching in Milwaukee, 420ing in Madison

    Plant the date: The sixth annual Milwaukee Marijuana March assembles at 2 p.m. May 7 at Kilbourn Park, 2300 N. Bremen St.

    A Facebook event page indicated nearly 700 marchers plan to attend the event hosted by Legalize Wisconsin and the Wisconsin chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

    Participants plan to gather in the park at 2 p.m. and march at 4 p.m. Before the march, state Rep. Melissa Sargent, a legislative leader in the effort to decriminalize and legalize marijuana, will address the crowd. Medical marijuana patient Trevor James Sand and his daughter Erica also are set to make comments.

    The event commemorates Global Marijuana March Day.

    Action comes earlier in Madison, where the fourth annual Madison 420 Festival takes place at 4:20 p.m. on April 22 at the Brinklounge, 701 E. Washington Ave.

    Madison NORML and Madison Hempfest present the celebration, featuring The Grasshoppers jamrock band, The Northern Pines Band, Nuggernaut, The Material Boys, Mudroom, Bathtub Spring, The Lower 5th, Gin Mill Hollow, The Woods, Gary David and the Enthusiasts, Deteourious, Flowpoetry and Mission, a Jerry Garcia tribute band.

    The event is a benefit for the Madison chapter of NORML.

    Both events have at least a bit to celebrate. For instance, Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin pitched multiple reform bills in the 2015–16 session, including a legalization measure authored by Sargent and decriminalization legislation introduced by state Rep. Mandela Barnes and Sen. Chris Larson — all Democrats.

    To date, marijuana reform in Wisconsin has taken place mostly at the local level, with cities such as Madison and Milwaukee relaxing penalties for people found in possession of small amounts of pot.

    Twenty states have enacted laws to stop jailing people for possession of small amounts of marijuana.

    Also, voters in the District of Columbia and four states — Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington — have approved taking marijuana production and sales off the criminal market and instead regulating and taxing the production and retailing of pot. However, marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

    A national Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released March 25 found about 61 percent of those surveyed support legalizing marijuana. Most said they wanted to limit legalization to medical use or place restrictions on the amounts that can be purchased for recreational use.

    — Lisa Neff

  • WiG Endorsement: Hillary Clinton for president

    Without question, Bernie Sanders is mad as hell.

    And so are we angry as we struggle with wages that remain unchanged while living expenses rise and the American Dream seems to fade.

    We bemoan the billions thrown at campaigns to manipulate our minds and lament the popularity of billionaire bigots hurling insults and blame at some of the most vulnerable in our population.

    We’re furious about assaults on reproductive freedom, rising gun violence in our neighborhoods, police brutality on our streets, deportation of colleagues and family, wrongdoing on Wall Street and the continued plundering of our natural resources to fill the pockets of the Koch brothers and their brethren.

    Yes, there’s good reason for Bernie Sanders to be mad as hell. And for us to be mad as hell.

    So we wholeheartedly thank the U.S. senator from Vermont for lighting a fire in our party, inspiring younger people to register and reminding older people of the good old days raising a ruckus. With his demands for economic and environmental justice, Sanders transformed the Occupy Wall Street movement into a campaign to occupy the White House.

    We know we have readers — many readers — who passionately support Sanders and “feel the Bern.” We, too, respect Sanders and we respect your commitment to his campaign.

    We also have readers — many readers — who passionately support Hillary Clinton.

    We respect your commitment to her campaign.

    And we, at WiG, endorse her for president.

    The best candidate

    We believe Hillary Clinton is the best candidate to lead the Democratic Party to victory in a general election contest and she is the only major party candidate who will shatter that glass ceiling over the Oval Office.

    We will not pull back from this historic opportunity — the best candidate for the White House would be the first woman elected to the White House.

    Eight years ago, when Clinton conceded the primary fight to Barack Obama, she said, “As we gather here today in this historic, magnificent building, the 50th woman to leave this Earth is orbiting overhead. If we can blast 50 women into space, we will someday launch a woman into the White House.

    “Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it, and the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time.”

    OK, the path may not be easier, but Clinton has stayed this course and we are with her.

    Bernie Sanders repeatedly has told voters to compare records — that’s records, not messages. We’ve done that and we keep coming around to Clinton — former secretary of state, twice-elected U.S. senator and former first lady of the United States and the state of Arkansas.

    With decades of experience, she knows the problems we face — foreign and domestic — and she offers real solutions, practical policies, workable fixes to progress after this long paralysis in Washington.

    At a time when the Republican Party is doing its most to put forward the candidate with the least experience governing, the Democratic Party must put forward its most experienced and tested candidate.

    To anyone in the party who thinks Clinton isn’t addressing their issues and on a progressive’s side, we direct you to hillaryclinton.com and click on “issues” — the proposals go from treatment and prevention ideas for Alzheimer’s disease to growing workforce opportunities. She’s proposed effective ideas for addressing gun violence and her financial reform proposals show a deep understanding of the crisis. And, as this primary race unfolded, she’s listened and learned, improving her position on trade agreements and taking a stand on Keystone XL.

    Clinton, a master of policy and a devotee of details, knows how to build bipartisanship and move legislation in the Senate. She won approval of more legislation in eight years in the Senate than Sanders did in nearly a decade in that chamber and 16 years in the House.

    These are reasons why Clinton trumps Sanders in endorsements. Dozens of U.S. senators and former senators and more than 100 U.S. representatives. Some might see this as a negative — the spin this election cycle has turned “establishment” into a curse word, like “left” and “liberal” were for so many years. Yet, a presidential candidate is going to need these allies, these establishment folks, to win in November and to govern come January 2017.

    We look also to Clinton’s endorsements from some of our most trusted and valued progressive groups — leading labor, women’s, choice, civil rights, LGBT, immigrant rights and environmental groups have backed her bid.

    And we look to Clinton’s bold, broad community of voters — North and South, young and old, women and men, white and black and Hispanic. We see how she can unite us in what’s certain to be a big and bruising battle for freedom, justice and democracy. The Democratic coalition that grew and blossomed around Barack Obama’s promise of hope still exists — with Hillary Clinton.

    For more on Hillary Clinton, go to hillaryclintoncom.

    For more on Bernie Sanders, go to berniesanders.com.

  • U.S. hunters import 126,000 wildlife ‘trophies’ annually

    U.S. hunters import about 126,000 “wildlife trophies” annually and killed about 1.26 million animals between 2005 and 2014, according to the Humane Society International and The Humane Society of the United States.

    Trophy hunting is the killing of animals for body parts, such as the head and hide, for display or decor rather than for food and sustenance. A recent study examining the motivation for such hunts found that U.S. hunters glamorize the killing of an animal to demonstrate virility, prowess and dominance.

    A report from Humane Society International/Humane Society of the United States titled Trophy Hunting by the Numbers: the United States’ Role in Global Trophy Hunting, uses an analysis of hunting trophy import data obtained from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

    Some findings:

    • Trophies are primarily imported from Canada and South Africa, followed by Namibia, Mexico, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Tanzania, Argentina, Zambia and Botswana.

    • Trophy hunters most want to kill American black bears, impalas, common wildebeests, greater kudus, gemsboks, springboks and bonteboks.

    • Trophy hunters highly covet the so-called “African big five” — lions, elephants, leopards, white rhinos and buffalo. All of these species, except the African buffalo, are classified as near threatened or vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

    • The U.S. ports of entry that received the most wildlife trophies in the past decade were New York City; Pembina, North Dakota; Chicago; Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas; and Portal, North Dakota.

    “This report clearly shows the dire impact American trophy hunters are having on wildlife in other countries,” said Teresa M. Telecky, director of the wildlife department at HSI.

    She continued, “It’s outrageous that every year hunters take the lives of thousands of animals, many threatened with extinction, just to win a prize and show off. These animals need protection, not to be mounted on a wall. The fact that rare, majestic species are entering the U.S. in large and small ports of entry should alarm lawmakers and the public concerned about trophy hunting.”

    Hunting groups promote the hunts, offering accolades and awards to club members. The largest of these groups, Safari Club International, recently concluded its convention in Las Vegas, where more than 300 mammal hunts for more than 600 animals were auctioned off, and other hunts were arranged privately on the exhibit floor. An African lion trophy hunt can cost $13,500–$49,000. An African elephant hunt can cost $11,000–$70,000.

    SCI often uses the revenue from hunt sales to lobby against wildlife protection measures.

    For certain species, including lions, elephants, leopards and rhinos, the U.S. is the largest trophy-importing country.

    HSI and The HSUS, in a statement on the report, pledged to continue to seek new protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act for species that meet the criteria for listing.

    The African lion is the latest species to receive ESA protection, after a multi-year effort by animal protection organizations, including HSI and The HSUS.

    The groups are seeking increased ESA protections for species currently listed in a lower category of protection, as was recently done for the African elephant. HSI and The HSUS are also urging corporations — such as Swarovski Optik  — to end sponsorship of trophy-hunting advocacy organizations.

  • Civil liberties groups challenge StingRay surveillance

    Civil liberties groups challenge StingRay surveillance

    A StingRay or cell-site simulator is a surveillance device about the size of a suitcase that acts like a cellphone tower, sending out signals and tricking cellphones in the area into transmitting their locations and other identifying information.

    The device can round up data, collecting information from a suspect’s cellphone and also the phones of others in the area.

    The devices were developed for military use but have been purchased at about $100,000 each and deployed by federal, state and law enforcement agencies.

    The AP recently reported that police records show the technology — used by warrant squads, robbery divisions, and homicide units — has helped catch suspects in kidnappings, rapes, robberies, assaults and murders. The technology has also aided in locating missing persons.

    The ACLU has identified at least 60 agencies in 23 states and the District of Columbia using StingRays. They claim the use of StingRays to track individuals violates the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches.

    LAYERS OF SECRECY

    Much of what is known about StingRays is the result of freedom-of-information requests and lawsuits. The secrecy surrounding the use of StingRays for domestic surveillance is partly due to nondisclosure agreements signed by law enforcement agencies in exchange for the technology from Harris Corporation, the U.S. distributor of the European-developed device.

    One such agreement, signed on Aug. 13, 2013, by the Milwaukee Police Department, details the process and requirements for acquiring “wireless collection equipment.” The agreement reads, “Consistent with the conditions on the equipment authorization to Harris Corporation by the FCC, state and local law enforcement agencies must coordinate with the FBI to complete this nondisclosure agreement prior to acquisition.”

    The agreement maintains that revealing details about StingRays could adversely impact criminal and national security investigations, so “use shall be protected from potential compromise by precluding disclosure … in press releases, in court documents, during judicial hearings or during other public forums or proceedings.”

    In other words: Don’t tell, even if asked.

    In practice, the agreement could prohibit police departments from requesting warrants prior to conducting surveillance.

    The ACLU, the ACLU of Wisconsin and the Electronic Frontier Foundation argue that law enforcement must obtain a warrant from a judge based on probable cause before using real-time cellphone location tracking.

    MILWAUKEE INCIDENT

    A Milwaukee case provides an excellent example of alleged misuse of the technology.

    Damian Patrick was arrested midday on Oct. 28, 2013, after two Milwaukee police officers found him in the passenger seat of a car with a gun at his feet.

    But did the officers locate him legally?

    That question is key to U.S. v. Patrick. The case before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago involves law enforcement’s alleged use of StingRay tracking technology to follow Patrick and the dispute over whether police need a probable-cause warrant to use such devices.

    “Law enforcement must be required to get a warrant before accessing the vast amount of private information generated by cellphone location records,” said EFF senior attorney Adam Schwartz.

    The ACLU/EFF brief says it appears that MPD used a StingRay to track Patrick’s phone, but concealed that use from Patrick’s defense and the courts.

    Prior to his arrest, Patrick had been under surveillance by MPD and the FBI, according to court documents.  He’d been sitting in the passenger seat of a Chevy Malibu when he was located and then stopped by two MPD officers. They ordered Patrick and a driver out of the vehicle and recovered a semi-automatic gun from the area where Patrick had been seated.

    Patrick was arrested on an outstanding warrant for violating probation and, soon after, was facing a federal charge for possessing a gun.

    Police reports indicated the officers arrested Patrick because of an “unknown source,” but months later, one arresting officer revealed that law enforcement was tracking Patrick’s phone.

    A list of 579 MPD investigations involving the use of StingRays, which was obtained in a public records request, appears to include the Patrick case.

    Authorities, part of a task force working to find probation violators, had secured a judge’s order — but not a warrant —to get Patrick’s cellphone records from Sprint. Defense attorney Chris Donovan, in his appeal, said the order was not sufficient and Patrick’s arrest should be overturned, because the “fruits of this illegal search must be ordered suppressed, specifically the gun that was found lying at his feet when he was arrested.”

    “This is the first time this federal appeals court, whose rulings affect Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana, is considering whether citizens have an expectation of privacy in real-time cellphone location records,” said Jennifer Lynch, senior staff attorney with the EFF. “This case comes as we are seeing a groundswell of recognition that this information is private.”

    Lynch said the Wisconsin and Indiana legislatures have prohibited warrantless real-time cell tracking, as do at least nine other states.

    However, federal courts have issued conflicting rulings, which means the Patrick case or another federal dispute may take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

    WHO’S TRACKING AND WHY

    The implications of law enforcement using military-grade surveillance technology are broad. Consider all that a cellphone reveals about a person’s whereabouts and routines: When a person leaves home. Where he goes. Who she meets. Using StingRays, the location data a cellphone sends can be collected by police.

    In mid-February, the New York Civil Liberties Union secured documents through a freedom-of-information request revealing the New York Police Department used StingRays at least 1,016 times between 2008 and May 2015. NYPD used the technology without a written policy on procedure and followed a practice of obtaining lower-court orders rather than warrants.

    “Considering the NYPD’s troubling history of surveilling innocent people, it must at the very least establish strict privacy policies and obtain warrants prior to using intrusive equipment like StingRays,” said Donna Lieberman, NYCLU’s executive director.

    ColorOfChange, a national civil rights group, has condemned police use of StingRay surveillance, maintaining the devices have been used to monitor protesters, especially activists in the Black Lives Matter movement.

    ColorOfChange alleged the use of StingRays to monitor organizers of protests against the police killing of Eric Garner in New York City, as well as the movement of organizers in Ferguson, Missouri, after the police killing of Michael Brown. COC also charges that the devices were used in Baltimore to monitor protesters after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody.

    “We know all too well that unrestricted surveillance power gets disproportionately used against black communities,” said COC executive director Rashad Robinson.

    Robinson said the FCC should use its authority “over StingRay devices to suspend the warrantless use of these devices and require all law enforcement agencies to certify their devices to provide detailed and public policies for their use.”

    Reach Lisa Neff at lmneff@wisconsingazette.com.

  • Eyes in the sky: Drone growth elevates fun, raises privacy concerns

    Eyes in the sky: Drone growth elevates fun, raises privacy concerns

    As many as a million kids and kids-at-heart had their wishes take flight when they unwrapped a drone during the holidays.

    Consumer technology took a turn in 2015 and propelled domestic drones to new heights in popularity in late 2015 and early 2016.

    But policymakers and privacy advocates see gray areas as more and more pilots send their small unmanned aircraft into blue skies.

    More drone pilots than planes

    Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Michael Huerta announced in mid-January that there were more registered drone operators than registered planes in the United States. The FAA reports 320,000 registered manned aircraft and more than 325,000 registered drone owners.

    The number of drones in the United States likely is higher — because operators might own more than one small unmanned aircraft and other operators might not be registered, according to Huerta.

    The FAA launched a Web-based drone registration campaign just before Christmas, anticipating drone sales to skyrocket to a million during the holidays. The agency requires registration by operators of drones weighing more than 0.55 pounds and less than 55 pounds if they plan to fly outdoors for hobby or recreation. Registered drone operators receive a number that must be affixed to their aircraft.

    An FAA exemption program exists for operators of drones for commercial activities — including bridge inspections, movie and television filming, aerial photography, mapping and surveying work, pipeline inspections and first-responder investigation and surveillance activity.

    “The future is really here with drones,” said recreational pilot Kevin Fontaine of Green Bay. “They can be adapted for all kinds of fun and games and also used in all kinds of work. I first heard of them from a photographer friend. He was using a drone outfitted with a camera to make a zombie movie.”

    The zombie flick, Horror in Mount Horeb, hasn’t reached a movie-going audience, but many films and TV programs featuring scenes filmed using drones have shown up on large and small screens.

    “Drones have been instrumental in capturing some of the most iconic cinematography in recent memory,” said Randy Scott Slavin, founder and director of the New York City Drone Film Festival.

    “Drones are the most important cinematic tool since the tripod,” said Slavin, who referenced drone footage for the Oscar-winning opening sequence of Skyfall, the infamous Hamptons party scene in The Wolf of Wall Street and the many landscape images in the Netflix series Narcos.

    This year’s festival — the first such event dedicated to movies filmed using drones — is March 4–6. The final day features “Day of Drones,” with screenings and demonstrations by drone builders and pilots. One activity, “Drone Vision,” provides an opportunity for the curious to strap on a pair of goggles to see what a drone camera sees as it zips around New York City’s Liberty State Park.

    Fontaine said he’d like to refine his drone flying skills to take aerial landscape photographs this spring.

    “I’m still learning how to use it and there’s a lot of potential,” he said. “But for now, it’s a toy.”

    In the toy chest

    Drones can be purchased for less than $50 and more than $500, but most cost $120–$200. They’re wowing consumers and retailers at toy fairs and trade shows.

    At 2016 toy fairs, Odyssey Toys is showcasing the Pocket Drone, a collapsing video drone that’s about the size of an iPhone 6 — light enough and small enough to fit into a pocket. The built-in high-definition camera captures images to a 4GB SD card and the drone, which can be operated indoors or outdoors, features LEDs for night flying.

    Another “wow” at fairs is a toy built for pilots as young as 10 — Spin Master’s Air Hogs Connect: Mission Drone, which combines drone-flying and smartphone gaming.

    “It will be interesting to watch what happens as consumer unmanned aerial vehicle technology continues to evolve,” said Phil Solis, research director at ABI Research. The company monitors the tech market and predicts that consumer drone shipments will exceed 90 million units and generate $4.6 billion in revenues by 2025.

    It also will be interesting to watch what happens with the regulation of drones as consumer, commercial and government use prompts concerns about criminal applications and security breaches, and raises questions about privacy rights.

    Rules and regulations

    In December, the Center for Democracy and Technology proposed a set of voluntary best practices for drone operators, intending to protect privacy rights and support the industry.

    The nonprofit, which advocates civil liberties and a free Internet, recommended:

    • Commercial drone operators establish a privacy policy that describes the purposes for which the drone is used and the types of data the drone collects.

    • Private drone operators should not intentionally use a drone to enter private property without the landowner’s consent.

    • Private drone operators should not use drones to collect personal data without consent where an individual has an expectation of privacy; for persistent monitoring of individuals; or for employment, credit or health-care eligibility.

    • Private drone operators should try to avoid collecting, retaining or disclosing unnecessary personal data without consent. When possible, unnecessary data should be destroyed or de-identified.

    • Commercial drone operators should take basic steps to secure the personal data they collect.

    Federal guidelines established by Congress require that recreational drone operators keep unmanned aircraft in their sight and below 400 feet, stay clear of manned aircraft, remain at least 25 feet away from individuals and vulnerable property, avoid flying and using drugs or alcohol, and avoid photographing people in areas where there is an expectation of privacy.

    Drone pilots also must respect the no-fly zones established by the FAA and, increasingly, under state and local law.

    A focus this legislative season in Wisconsin and elsewhere was on drone use near prisons.

    Drones were deployed to deliver contraband — drugs, pornography, cellphones and weapons — to prisons in Maryland, Ohio and Oklahoma in 2015. In Wisconsin, a pilot lost contact with a drone that landed on the grounds of the Waupun Correctional Institution.

    The incidents prompted lawmakers to take up bills creating no-fly zones.

    Simple steps to directing with a drone

    Randy Scott Slavin, founder and director of the New York City Drone Film Festival, offers five steps to movie-making with a small unmanned aircraft:

    1. Read. Read the operating manual for the drone and read federal regulations and any local and state rules on piloting a drone.

    2. Practice. Drones are unique and have different flight characteristics. The only way to improve as a pilot is to practice.

    3. Shoot. Slavin says “shoot constantly” with drone cameras.

    4. Imagine. Drones put cameras in new places and can use cameras in new ways to re-invent how stories are told on film.

    5. Share. Edit and share footage online and at festivals. It’s too late to enter the 2016 New York festival — nycdronefilmfestival.com — but not too late to prepare for 2017.

    — Lisa Neff

    Reach Lisa Neff at lmneff@wisconsingazette.com.

  • Proposed hog farm prompts Bayfield County to tighten regs

    UPDATED: With a proposed factory farm threatening to foul Wisconsin’s “Crown Jewel,” the citizens of Bayfield County are not turning away from the stink or running from the fight.

    State law prohibits the local jurisdiction from saying “no” to the proposed “concentrated animal feeding operation” in the town of Eileen, but the county on Jan. 26 adopted ordinances intended to tighten regulations and protect the health and safety of the area’s residents and the environment.

    Bayfield County supervisors voted unanimously for an ordinance to create an operations permit for large-scale CAFOs and also for an ordinance to create an animal manure permit. The approach, creating local regulations on operations, is like the strategy local jurisdictions employed to control frac sand mines.

    The grassroots Farms Not Factories encouraged people to attend the meeting to show their support for stricter control and their opposition to the siting of the factory farm. The votes brought a standing ovation from opponents of the project, who are concerned with air emissions, odor impacts, water pollution, the release of pathogens and inadequate regulatory oversight.

    The proposal

    About a year ago, Reicks View Farms filed an application with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources seeking a permit to discharge annually about 6.8 million gallons of liquid manure, to be produced by 26,000 hogs at a planned breeding and feeding operation in Bayfield County. The manure would be stored in pits under covered barns and then injected into soil on about 1,300 acres in the Lake Superior watershed. Reicks wants to move the operation from Iowa because of the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus that’s so devastating to suckling pigs. Animals would be raised at the Wisconsin Badgerwood CAFO and then shipped to Iowa.

    An application filed with the state indicated the operation would create 27 new jobs, but didn’t say whether the positions would be permanent or what salaries they might pay.

    Farms Not Factories says a document provided to county officials and prepared by Reicks stated the business selected Eileen because of “its natural seclusion” — referring to the area’s isolation from hog farms in Iowa, Illinois and other parts of Wisconsin.

    The response

    Wisconsinites who care about the state’s outdoors know about a different type of “natural seclusion” in the region, which is home to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, Iron River National Fish Hatchery, North Country National Scenic Trail, St. Croix National Scenic Riverway and Whittlesey Creek National Wildlife Refuge.

    Wisconsinites familiar with the state’s geography also know that Eileen is in the Fish Creek Watershed and less than 8 miles from the Chequamegon Bay and Lake Superior. One of Farms Not Factories’ slogans is “10 percent of the world’s fresh water is more valuable to this planet than cheap bacon and pork tenderloin.”

    Wisconsin already is home to about 270 large-scale CAFOs. The number has skyrocketed from about 50 in 2006, when Gov. Jim Doyle signed legislation setting basic state standards for CAFOs and removing local control over siting the farms. “That legislation was put in place to provide regulatory certainty for Big Ag,” said Mary Dougherty of Farms Not Factories.

    The Badgerwood CAFO would be the first such operation in Lake Superior basin and the largest hog farm in the state. Farms Not Factories said the hogs at Badgerwood would produce as much waste as a city of 50,000 people.

    A moratorium on the development of large-scale farms was enacted in both Bayfield after plans for Badgerwood emerged.

    Since then, the project and possible responses have been under review.

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said it is looking at the project, in part because of concerns about pollution raised by the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, whose reservation is east of Ashland on the Lake Superior shore, and the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, whose reservation is north of Bayfield.

    The DNR agreed to do an environmental-impact statement and has collected a lot of public input — hundreds of suggestions and statements from citizens, scientists and advocacy groups. A draft of the EIS is yet to be released. Public comment would follow, then any revisions before the publication of a final EIS, which may or may not influence the state’s decision on the application for Badgerwood.

    Meanwhile, the reviews seem complete in Bayfield and Ashland counties.

    A committee established by the Bayfield County Board of Supervisors studied the issue, guided by the dual goals of “having a thriving agricultural community and maintaining the public’s health and safety and a healthy environment,” according to its final report.

    The committee studied issues relating to groundwater, surface water, microbiology and air quality and recommended the adoption of the Large-Scale Confined Animal Feeding Operations Ordinance to require new or expanding livestock operations of 1,000 animals or more to obtain a county operations permit and meet any conditions attached to the permit.

    The committee made some other recommendations, including the adoption of the Bayfield County Animal Waste Storage and Management Ordinance requiring new or expanding CAFOs to obtain a permit for storing and managing manure.

    “We can’t legally say ‘no,’” said Dougherty, “So, as a result, we came up with this — because we have to do something.”

    A poll recently released by Northland College’s Center for Rural Communities shows 63.3 percent of residents oppose the farm and there’s strong support for the county ordinances.

    Nearly three-quarters — 72.5 percent — of households support the tighter local regulations at the county level.

    Residents’ top five concerns for factory farms are water quality, smell, divisions in the community, air quality and health risks.

    These concerns are shared elsewhere in Wisconsin, which is why activists are developing a statewide coalition.

    “We have to have this as a mass movement and say this type of agriculture is not Wisconsin,” said Dougherty.

  • Wisconsin Republicans declare open season against environment

    Republicans took target practice in early January after declaring open season on Wisconsin’s environmental resources.

    The new year began with a bang, bang in the Capitol, where in just two days Republicans presided over a series of hearings on bills aimed at rolling back protections for air, land and water and at the same time curtailing the authority of local governments to protect natural resources.

    “From developing on lake beds to filling in wetlands to taking away local governments’ authority to protect the health of their communities, the Legislature is starting 2016 off with a pretty loud message to Wisconsinites,” said Kerry Schumann, executive director of the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters. The message, Schumann said, is lawmakers “are putting the wishes of big developers, factory farms, frac sand mining companies and other polluting interests above the needs of their constituents.”

    WLCV and the Sierra Club-John Muir Chapter, both nonprofit environmental advocacy groups, identified two measures of special concern — AB 600/SB 459, aka the “polluter grab bag,” and AB 582/SB 464, aka the “developer grab bag.”

    Supporters of the measures say they protect and advance “property rights.”

    Opponents say they further erode protections for Wisconsin’s natural resources.

    ‘Polluter grab bag’

    AB 600/SB 459 would allow developers to build on lake beds, provide incentives for developing a million acres of wetlands that lack federal protections and allow lakefront property owners to dredge up to three dump-truck loads of lakebed sediment every year.

    The Assembly Committee on Environment and Forestry held a hearing Jan. 5 on the bill, which is backed by Americans for Prosperity, League of Wisconsin Municipalities, Waste Management, Wisconsin Builders Association, Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association and Wisconsin Realtors Association.

    Registered opponents include WLCV, Clean Lakes Alliance, Clean Wisconsin, League of Women Voters, River Alliance, Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy, Wisconsin Association of Lakes, Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Association and Wisconsin Wetlands Association.

    “AB 600 undermines the public trust doctrine, allowing property owners on Wisconsin lakes, including the Great Lakes, to dredge material without any oversight and in most cases without even testing to make sure the dredged material is not contaminated,” said Bill Davis, director of the Sierra Club-John Muir Chapter. “And the bill gives away the public lake bed.”

    ‘Developer grab bag’

    AB 582/SB 464 would prohibit counties from placing moratoriums on new development. It also would prevent local governments from creating zoning requirements in response to a developer expressing an interest in locating there, according to the WLCV.

    The measure would provide financial incentives to develop land that is held in conservation easements and allow developers to shop around for a judge if there is a challenge to a permit.

    The Senate Committee on Insurance, Housing and Trade held a hearing on Jan. 5 on SB 464, which has the support of WEC Energy Group, Wisconsin Builders Association and Wisconsin Realtors Association.

    Opponents include Clean Wisconsin, League of Women Voters, River Alliance, Sierra Club, the town of Saratoga and WLCV.

    “The polluter and developer grab bags open the floodgates for developers, frac sand mining companies, factory farms and other special interests to make our water dirtier, fill in our wetlands and run roughshod over local communities and private citizens,” Schumann said.

    Elizabeth Ward, conservation programs coordinator with the Sierra Club, added, “This bill provides more giveaways to major corporations, like frac sand and oil pipeline companies, and removes the rights of landowners across Wisconsin to enjoy their land.”

    Also on the watch list this session …

    • SB 479 was the subject of a Jan. 5 hearing held by the Senate Committee on Insurance, Housing and Trade. Backers include a union local — the Madison Area Builders Association.

    Opponents maintain the measure would undermine Dane County’s authority on zoning and thus threaten local protections for wildlife and habitat.

    “This is another example of the state legislators attacking local control and making decisions that should be made at the local level,” said Dave Blouin, chair of Sierra’s Four Lakes Group.

    • SB 434 would open up more state forests to timber production. The bill also would prohibit the state Department of Natural Resources from offering guidance to property owners on wildlife action plans or requiring property owners to take action to protect species at risk.

    The state’s lobbying records show the Sierra Club joining WLCV in opposing the measure, which has support from Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association, Wisconsin Alliance of Forest Owners, Wisconsin Counties Association, Wisconsin County Forests Association, Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Association, Wisconsin Towns Association and Wisconsin Wildlife Federation.

    The Senate Committee on Sporting Heritage, Mining and Forestry held a hearing on the bill on Jan. 5.

    • SB 432 would promote privatizing Wisconsin’s water by allowing communities to sell water utilities to private out-of-state companies. The Senate Committee on Workforce Development, Public Works and Military Affairs held a Jan. 5 hearing on the measure, which is backed by some labor groups and opposed by environmental groups.

    • AB 603 would prohibit counties from enacting stronger protections for waters if local authorities determined state minimum standards were insufficient.

    The Assembly Committee on Natural Resources and Sporting Heritage held a hearing on Jan. 6 on the bill, which is opposed by WLCV, Clean Lakes Alliance, Clean Wisconsin, River Alliance and Wisconsin Association of Lakes.

    • SB 288 would remove the nuclear moratorium, lifting barriers to constructing new nuclear power plants in the state. It includes the requirement that new plants have a plan of action for dealing with hazardous waste.

    Additionally, the bill would put nuclear energy on the list of preferred energy options in the state, despite high costs associated with production and major concerns about the disposal of waste and the dismantling of outdated facilities.

    The Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy held a hearing Jan. 5 on the measure, which has overwhelming support from energy companies, labor unions and trade associations.

    Opponents include the Citizens Utility Board, League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, and environmental groups.

    Action alert

    Track Wisconsin environmental issues at conservationvoters.org, the website for the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters.

    Track legislation at notify.legis.wisconsin.gov.

  • Selfie satisfaction: Today’s selfie is yesterday’s portrait

    Selfie satisfaction: Today’s selfie is yesterday’s portrait

    The morning after Spain lost to Chile in World Cup play, soccer fan Tony Andres snapped a sour selfie and grumbled on Twitter. “The World Cup will produce more selfies than goals,” he tweeted to #WorldCupSelfies.

    He most certainly is correct. The 2014 FIFA World Cup is taking place in Brazil, where soccer fanatics, players and coaches are seemingly producing selfies by the second. The event kicked off with a celebration that featured hundreds of thousands of selfies draped across the field in the “Happiness Flag.” The massive photomosaic, sponsored by Coca-Cola, contained 223,206 soccer selfies and spanned 11,800 square feet.

    Beyond Brazil, social media has been flooded with selfies by soccer enthusiasts showing agony and ecstasy and also a lot of boredom and boozing. Most of the images come from smartphones or digital cameras. They are making their way to friends and fans, as well as strangers on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

    The self-portraits express loyalty to a team and allegiance to a nation. They also help to transform the events in Brazil into global happenings.

    The same day that those selfies of sour and grumbling fans of Spain showed up, there were selfies coming out of blood-soaked cities in Iraq and retweets of selfies by Jennifer Lopez and Demi Lovato minus makeup. There also was strange news of a warning from Madison police against posting #naked selfies.

    The selfie as portrait. As documentary journalism.  As celebrity pop shot.  As porn.

    The image-makers may be using new tools and reaching vast audiences, and the “selfie” may be a relatively new term, but self-portraiture is a very old form of art and method of expression.

    Old style

    Jan van Eyck’s Portrait of a Man in a Turban, painted in 1433, is described in art history books as one of the earliest panel self-portraits. In medieval and Renaissance works, artists may appear as faces in their crowds. Rembrandt painted a range of self-portraits in the 17th century. The world treasures self-portraits from artists as diverse as Frida Kahlo, Andy Warhol, Marie-Denise Villers, Raphael, Anthony Van Dyck, Gerard Sekoto, Gustave Courbet and, of course, Vincent Van Gogh, who painted himself dozens of times as a means of self-expression but also because he could not afford models. Writing to his brother about a painting he dedicated to Paul Gauguin, Van Gogh said, “The third picture this week is a portrait of myself, almost colourless, in ashen tones against a background of pale veronese green.”

    American photographer Robert Cornelius created a daguerreotype of himself in 1839 that is one of the earliest photographs of a person and possibly the first “selfie,” though he recorded it as “the first light picture ever taken.” An early self-photograph by a teenager was taken by 13-year-old Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna and sent to a friend in 1914, four years before she was executed by the Bolshevik secret police.

    There’s also a long history of self-portraits by average Janes and Joes. The Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers in New Brunswick, New Jersey, recently exhibited “445 Portraits of a Man,” a collection of photobooth self-images taken by Franklyn Swantek from the 1930s to the 1960s.

    The individual in the photos had been a mystery until a news story about the collection caught the attention of a man living in Minden, Nevada, who recognized his Uncle Franklyn, who had run Swantek Photo Service in Michigan for years.

    Susan Sidlauskas, who co-curated the exhibit, said Swantek was able to elevate photomatics into museum-quality conceptual art.

    “There’s a twinkle in his eye that suggests he had a reason for holding on to all those photos,” she said.

    This summer, the museum is exhibiting “Striking Resemblance: The Changing Art of Portraiture,” an examination of the portrait as a social medium, as a way of linking people together, which is what NASA accomplished with its Global Selfie from Earth Day.

    Worldwide Hug

    On April 22, NASA invited people to step outside to take a selfie and share it with the world on social media. NASA created a new view of the planet made entirely of those photos, a mosaic consisting of 36,000 individual images from 113 countries and regions — Antarctica to Yemen.

    “We were overwhelmed to see people participate from so many countries,” said Peg Luce, deputy director of the Earth science division at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

    “It’s like being part of a worldwide hug,” said Kimberly Rawlings of Chicago, who said her image is included in the Global Selfie. “The cranks who say we’re narcissistic for posting selfies, who complain about me-obsessed millennials, they miss the point of them.”

    And there are critics of the selfie phenomenon. Bloggers have complained that girls posting selfies are being exploited. Plastic surgeons say the selfie trend is increasing demand for rhinoplasty, hair transplants and eyelid surgery. Mental health professionals have suggested a link between body dysmorphic disorder and a compulsion to take selfies.

    But there’s little science behind the medical and mental health assertions and easy rebuttals to the exploitation assertion.

    “Taking selfies, that’s empowering, that’s being proud of yourself,” said Wisconsin pediatric counselor Helen Cox, noting that one recent survey of young women found that 65 percent said taking selfies boosted their confidence. “When you share selfies, that’s bringing you into a community of people.”

    Sometimes the community is small, a circle of friends.

    Sometimes the community is massive, a world of Earth Day celebrants or World Cup soccer fans.

    ***

    Did you know?

    Generally, under copyright law, unless there is an agreement to the contrary or a photo is shot as part of a job, it belongs to the creator, the person who pressed the button on the camera. And the owner holds exclusive rights to display, copy, use, produce, or distribute the creation. The subject in a photograph has some rights but not ownership, as do social media services where photographs are shared.

    Add an app

    Popular portraiture apps for smartphones and tablets:

    • CamMe: Take photos using hand gestures. Can take several photos sequentially, like the old photo booths. Enhance photos with cutouts. Easy sharing options.

    • Aviary: Touch up with red-eye removal. Add or remove color with splash. Add drama with sharpen. Stylize with filters and stickers.

    • Mextures: Apply film grain, textures, light leaks and gradients to images — from landscapes to portraits.

    • Facetune: Touch up portraits Hollywood-style. Remove blemishes. Even out skin tone. Brighten teeth. Color gray hair. Change eye color.

    • Instagram: Apply filters. Easy share options. Front and back camera support. Add depth of field.

    • Frontback: Shoot from the front and the back of the camera at the same time for the full story.

    • Slingshot: From Facebook. Allows users to send photos, to friends, who must reciprocate before

    viewing the photo.