Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes delivers updates about the Dec. 16, 2024 school shooting at Abundant Life Christian School on Madison's east side. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Just days after he was thrust into the national spotlight following the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School that killed two people, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes was announced as the new chief of the Seattle Police Department. 

Barnes’ acceptance of the job in Seattle comes as the Madison police are still investigating the shooting on Monday and the motives behind the 15-year-old girl’s attack. Authorities have discovered that the girl was in contact with a 20-year-old California man who was planning his own attack on a government building. 

Since the shooting, Barnes has been an outspoken critic of hardening the defenses of community schools. At his first press conference after the shooting, he was asked if the school had metal detectors and responded that schools shouldn’t have such measures installed. 

“I’m not aware that the school had metal detectors, nor should schools have metal detectors,” he said. “It’s a school. It’s a safe space.”

Prior to the shooting, Barnes had been named a finalist for the Seattle job. 

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell noted in a statement that Barnes has successfully brought crime down in Madison and promised to continue to work to combat gun violence.

“Earlier this week, under tragic circumstances, the nation received its introduction to Chief Shon Barnes. We all saw firsthand what our team has known since we began this recruitment process — that Chief Barnes possesses the impressive leadership capabilities, compassionate approach, and dedication to effective police work needed to continue moving our Police Department forward,” Harrell said. “I’ve spoken with Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway to express my condolences and support as they process this week’s tragedy and to share my continued commitment to fighting for solutions to the gun violence epidemic that impacts every corner of our country through our shared work with the U.S. Conference of Mayors.”

Barnes took over as chief in Madison in early 2021 as the city responded to an increase in violent crime and the protests against police violence that occurred across the country in 2020. During his tenure, Barnes has overseen the department’s effort to equip officers with body cameras. 

He was also named a finalist for the chief jobs in Chicago and San Jose, California, despite telling Isthmus in 2021 that he was committed to Madison “for the long haul.” 

Rhodes-Conway said in a statement that Barnes’ collaborative approach was important to the establishment of Dane County’s Public Health Violence Prevention Unit and the Madison Fire Department’s CARES program, noting that the city is “safer and more resilient” because of his work. 

“I would like to congratulate Chief Shon Barnes on his new opportunity in Seattle and thank him for his service to Madison,” Rhodes-Conway said. “The Chief has been a steady, forward-thinking leader throughout his tenure and he will be greatly missed.”

She also commended his work this week responding to the school shooting.

“The tragedy this week has been all-consuming, and we still have much healing to do as a community,” she said. “I’m grateful that the Madison Police Department responded to this unthinkable crisis with the utmost professionalism and compassion. Chief Barnes was at the center of coordinating local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies during an unprecedented moment. He did so admirably.”

The Madison Police and Fire Commission is responsible for finding Barnes’ replacement. Rhodes-Conway said in the coming weeks the commission will outline a search plan and during the recruitment process an interim chief will be named.

Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski and state Treasurer John Lieber present a large check to educators to represent the $70 million disbursement from the Common School Fund to public school libraries across state. (Courtesy of Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski)

Wisconsin school libraries and media resources will receive a record $70 million in funding from the Board of Commissioners of Public Land, Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski announced Thursday. 

The agency’s contribution from the Common School Fund breaks the record for largest ever provided, which was set last year when the BCPL provided $65 million from the fund. 

“I’m proud of our record-breaking distribution. It comes at a time when schools are being asked to do more with less, and our strategic investments and collaborative efforts are making a difference to ensure that every student—no matter where they live—has access to the books, technology, and tools they need to succeed,” Godlewski said in a statement.

The BCPL manages state trust funds created as Wisconsin sold off millions of acres of land granted to the state government in the 19th century. The agency also manages timber sales for 77,000 acres of land still under state control. 

The Common School Fund is the “only dedicated funding source for many of Wisconsin’s public school libraries,” according to a news release. The amount of funds provided to school libraries through the fund has substantially increased in recent years. In 2020, libraries received $38.2 million through the fund. 

“Today’s milestone reflects the dedication of our team and the strategic investments we’ve made to ensure the fund continues to grow for future generations,” Godlewski said. “We’ve diversified hundreds of millions of dollars to include Wisconsin-based venture funds that support new and growing businesses. This is a win-win for our state: the Common School Fund bolsters Wisconsin’s economy, and the financial returns directly support our schools and libraries, reinforcing our commitment to educational excellence and opportunity.”

At an event in Brown Deer Thursday afternoon, Godlewski, state Treasurer John Leiber and educators celebrated the learning resources the money will be able to provide. 

“Without the support from the common school funds, many school libraries would not have the necessary resources to stay up-to-date and provide the digital resources necessary for our students’ continued learning. The BCPL work ensures that these schools are not left behind, and that all students in Wisconsin, no matter their background, have access to the educational opportunities they deserve,” said Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association President Jennifer Griffith.

Funds disbursed through the BCPL have been criticized in recent years because the land provided to the state by the federal government in the 1800s was taken from the state’s Native American tribes. 

In February, data collected by the non-profit media outlet Grist showed that funds disbursed through the BCPL’s Normal School Fund to the state’s public universities came from profits made from land taken largely from the Ojibwe tribe, the Wisconsin Examiner reported.

Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes delivers updates about the Dec. 16, 2024 school shooting at Abundant Life Christian School on Madison's east side. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

This story was updated on Monday at 9:39 p.m.

Three people are dead and another six are in the hospital after a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School on Madison’s east side Monday morning. The shooter, who was a student at the school, is among the dead, according to Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes.

Two of the injured victims, both students, remain in critical condition while the other four have non-life threatening injuries, Barnes said at a mid-afternoon press conference. 

Barnes identified the shooter at a Monday night press conference as Natalie Rupnow, 15, who went by the name “Samantha,” and said she appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Gov. Tony Evers issued a statement decrying the shootings and announced he would order flags to fly half-staff across the state through Sunday, Dec. 22.

“As a father, a grandfather, and as governor, it is unthinkable that a kid or an educator might wake up and go to school one morning and never come home. This should never happen, and I will never accept this as a foregone reality or stop working to change it,” Evers said.

“Today my focus is on supporting these families and kids and the Abundant Life community, and the state stands ready to support them and the efforts of local law enforcement through what will undoubtedly be difficult days ahead.”

Police responded to the shooting at the K-12 private school shortly before 11 a.m., Barnes said. While clearing the building, officers found the person they believe to be responsible already dead, along with the other two people who were killed, one a teacher and the other a student. No officers fired their weapons during the incident.

Police searched a home on Madison’s North Side late Monday afternoon and evening and said the search was in connection with the shooting.

The shooter used a handgun, Barnes said. Her family was cooperating in the investigation, but there was no immediate information about what the individual’s motives may have been.

“You ask me about why, but I don’t know why, and I felt like if we did know why, we could stop these things from happening,” Barnes said.

In a statement, President Joe Biden called the shooting “shocking and unconscionable” and urged Congress to enact “Universal background checks. A national red flag law. A ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.” 

Biden was briefed earlier Monday about the shooting according to the White House press pool. 

At an earlier news conference, Barnes lamented the incident and its impact on the school and the community. 

“​​I’m feeling a little dismayed now, so close to Christmas, every child, every person in that building is a victim and will be a victim forever,” Barnes said. “These types of trauma don’t just go away. We need to figure out how to piece together what exactly happened right now. My heart is heavy for my community. My heart is heavy for Madison. We have to come together as a community and figure out what happened here and make sure that it doesn’t happen at any other place that should be a refuge for students in our community.”

Families of students showed up at the school before noon and at mid-afternoon were still lined up in their cars down Buckeye Road on Madison’s East Side waiting to be reunited with their children. Officials said they would not release information about the victims until families had been notified. 

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway emphasized the community-wide impact of the incident.

“This is a whole of government response,” Rhodes-Conway said. “It is not just police and fire. It is not just the city of Madison, and we have folks from all around the country, we have folks from multiple agencies engaged in both the initial immediate response and the ongoing support.”

She and Dane County Executive Melissa Agard emphasized the importance and availability of mental health assistance to anyone who may have been touched by the incident.

“If anyone needs mental health support as a result of this incident and the coverage of it, I encourage them to reach out” via the 9-8-8 emergency mental health line, which takes calls and text messages, Rhodes-Conway said. “It is incredibly important that we take care of our community in this very difficult time.”

“To all of those who are grieving in our community, please know that you’re not alone,” Agard said. “Dane County stands with you. We’re here to support you in any way possible — please reach out and ask for help.”

Barnes said he has been in contact with officials at the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI. 

Although the Madison Police Department had earlier reported five deaths in the shooting, spokesperson Stephanie Fryer said that was based on information from the hospital where the victims were taken. Hospital personnel later updated the number of deaths to three people, she said. 

This story has been updated with new information from the Madison police as well as city and Dane County officials.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser | official portrait

The United States and Wisconsin flags will be flown at half-staff on Saturday to honor former state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, Gov. Tony Evers announced Friday. 

Prosser died on Dec. 1 after a fight with cancer. The former justice spent most of his career working in government, starting in the 1970s when he worked as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice and then as a staff member for U.S. Rep. Harold Froehlich (R-Appleton). 

Prosser also served in the state Assembly, including terms as speaker and minority leader, before being appointed to the Supreme Court in 1998. He served on the court for 18 years and retired in 2016. 

“Justice Prosser devoted his career to public service, from working for a congressman and his local community to serving as a legislator and his nearly two decades as a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice,” Evers said in a statement. “His career was unique — he did a little bit of everything — and he spent much of his life seeking new and more impactful ways that he could make a difference in our state. Our thoughts and condolences are with his family, friends, staff, and former colleagues as they mourn his passing.”

Dane County's DAIS held an Oct. 1 rally for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

A report released Thursday from Dane County’s Domestic Abuse Intervention Services (DAIS) found that Dane County judges grant restraining orders against perpetrators of intimate partner violence in 34% of cases. 

The report found that even when a judge grants a restraining order, it is often not for the amount of time requested by the victim — despite state law requiring that the order be for the length of time requested by the petitioner. 

State law allows judges to impose restraining orders on domestic abusers for up to four years in most cases, and up to 10 years when it can be proven the abuser is especially dangerous. But in a handful of cases, the report found, a judge granted restraining orders for only two years to allow a “cooling off period” for the people involved despite “serious lethality concerns testified to in the hearing.”

Kianna Hanson, the legal advocacy program manager at DAIS, said at an event announcing the report’s findings Thursday morning that the “cooling off period” is a myth and that judges should follow the law. 

“The fallacy of the cooling off period, which some judges have cited as a reason for choosing to grant an injunction from less time than the petitioner has requested, which in domestic abuse injunction goes against [state law],” Hanson said. “This mythology around domestic abuse cases is harmful because it suggests that domestic abuse could be the result of anger or not being able to control one’s emotion, when in reality, domestic violence is most often a conscious choice that is rooted in gaining power and control over one’s partner.”

The report was completed by a team from DAIS and other community organizations to observe more than 800 hearings in Dane County Circuit Court from April 2023 to April 2024. At the Thursday morning event, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky said the report was a step toward trying to make Wisconsin’s legal system a better place for everyone involved in it. 

“What if the legal system were different? What if the legal system were the vehicle for healing and for change?” she said. “What if people left the legal system in a better place than where they entered, and I mean all of us. I mean judges and attorneys and witnesses and court reporters and victims and defendants and plaintiffs and bailiffs and advocates. What if we left work every day feeling energized and satiated and nourished instead of stressed out, depressed and exhausted, and what if the legal system itself helped us get to a better place?” 

The report found that in the vast majority of injunction hearings, 87%, the victim seeking the restraining order was there pro se, meaning they were representing themself. Just 15% of petitioners had support in court from organizations such as DAIS, who have employees who serve as court advocates to help victims navigate the legal process (but aren’t attorneys and can’t provide legal advice). 

Representation from an attorney or support from a legal advocate vastly increased the chances of a restraining order being granted, the court found. When acting on their own, petitioners had injunctions granted in 29% of cases but when assisted by an attorney or advocate, injunctions were granted 62% of the time — meaning representation increased the chances of successfully obtaining a restraining order by 114%. 

Hanson told the Wisconsin Examiner after Thursday’s event that DAIS would be able to handle more restraining order cases under its legal advocacy program, saying that because the issuance of a restraining order can be a life-or-death decision for an abuse victim, the organization would prioritize those cases. 

Domestic abuse organizations across the state face critical funding pressures after a steep decline in federal money they receive hit this fall. Advocates have warned those funding cuts could strain resources for organizations like DAIS across the state. 

The report also notes a number of comments court observers saw judges make during hearings in these cases that were interpreted as minimizing abuse, treating people of color differently and misstating the law. 

One judge, according to the report, denied an injunction over harassment, stating that he was doing so “because unwanted touching, kissing, or harassing text messages demanding explicit photos is not sexual assault,” despite state law saying it is. 

The judges are quoted anonymously in the report but DAIS staff said at Thursday’s event that in the organization’s next version of the report, it will attribute the quotes. 

Dane County Judge Julie Genovese, in attendance at the event, said during a question and answer period that she doesn’t think naming the judges will be helpful — even though the comments were made on the record in open court. 

“I’d like to say on behalf of the judges, that it would be a very helpful thing for somebody to come and present to the judges at a judge’s meeting, rather than we’re going to just identify you on our next report, to come to the judges discuss with them what are the issues, offer the training or the resources, rather than just do it in this form,” Genovese said.

Getty images

A case of avian influenza was identified in a Barron County commercial poultry flock, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) said Thursday in a news release. 

The flock where the infection was found will be depopulated and none of those birds will be used for food, according to the release. A control area of 10 kilometers has been established around the farm, stopping the movement of any poultry within that radius.

“DATCP continues to urge all livestock owners to implement strong biosecurity measures to protect their flocks and herds from the disease,” the release states. “This includes washing hands, disinfecting equipment, restricting access to animals, and separating new additions to the flock or herd for at least 30 days. Poultry owners are asked, when possible, to keep their birds indoors.”

Avian flu, or H5N1, has circulated among wild and domesticated birds in North America since 2021, the release states. Other animals, including dairy cows, have also been infected. The virus has been transmitted to a number of humans across the country through raw milk from infected cows. 

Wisconsin has not identified any cases of the virus in the state’s dairy herds.

Former Dane County Judge James Troupis appears in court on Dec. 12. He faces felony forgery charges for his role in developing the 2020 false elector scheme to overturn the election results for Donald Trump. (Screenshot | WisEye)

Two former attorneys and a campaign staff member for President-elect Donald Trump made their initial appearance in Dane County Circuit Court Thursday in the felony cases against them for their roles in hatching the scheme to cast false Electoral College votes for Trump following the 2020 election. 

Of the three men charged, Michael Roman, James Troupis and Kenneth Chesebro, only Troupis appeared in court in person. The other two appeared over the phone. All three were granted signature bonds with the condition that they not have any contact with the ten Wisconsin Republicans who cast Electoral College votes for Trump in 2020. 

All three men face 11 counts of felony forgery. 

Multiple recounts, lawsuits and investigations have found that Trump lost the 2020 election in Wisconsin. Still, after that election, the three men worked to develop the plan that involved false slates of electors casting votes for Trump in Wisconsin and other states. The false slates of electors provided a pretext for  the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

After the hearing, Troupis called the charges “lawfare in all its despicable forms,” saying Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has “doubled down on a vicious strategy to destroy our very faith in the system of justice by using the courts for his own personal political game.”

On Wednesday, the voting rights focused firm Law Forward filed an ethics complaint against Troupis, a former Dane County Circuit Court judge, with the state Office of Lawyer Regulation. The grievance alleges that Troupis’ role in developing the fake elector scheme subverted the will of the people and violated state rules for attorney conduct. 

“Our democracy depends on attorneys adhering to their ethical obligations,” Jeff Mandell, President and General Counsel of Law Forward, said in a statement. “Troupis violated those obligations by advancing falsehoods, enabling fraud, and undermining the rule of law. This grievance seeks to hold him accountable and ensure that such abuses of the legal profession are never repeated.”

The three men are next scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 28.

Cows in a western Wisconsin dairy farm. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

A Pierce County town of about 600 residents passed an ordinance requiring factory farms to obtain permits before moving into or expanding in the community. 

The decision follows a handful of other western Wisconsin communities in passing similar ordinances to limit the proliferation of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in the region. Those other communities have faced legal challenges to their ordinances and one rescinded its regulation after a change in elected leadership. 

The town of Maiden Rock overlooks the Mississippi River’s Lake Pepin. On Monday, the town’s board unanimously passed the ordinance which will require any proposed CAFOs within the community to obtain a license to operate from the town board. When applying, CAFO operators must have a third-party engineer supply plan for how the farm will manage its waste, emissions and runoff.

Pierce County has seen increased expansion of factory farms this year, with a dairy in the town of Salem announcing plans to expand from 1,700 to 6,500 cows. 

Once an application is received, the ordinance requires the board to send a letter to all residents within a three mile radius of the proposed farm informing them of a public hearing. The board will be able to grant or deny the license and if granted, impose conditions on how the CAFO must operate. 

The ordinance also requires the CAFO to fund third-party enforcement of the permit conditions. 

In the board’s materials about the ordinance, the board highlighted the enforcement mechanisms, noting that state regulations surrounding CAFOs in the state largely rely on self-reporting to the state Department of Natural Resources — a system that has resulted in large manure spills going unreported. The materials also note that a pending lawsuit from the state’s largest business lobby is attempting to strip the DNR of its authority to regulate CAFOs. 

The ordinance was drafted by a commission appointed by the board to study CAFOs. At a public hearing on the ordinance, nearly 100 residents attended and all spoke in favor of its passage. The first 23 pages of the ordinance document outline the threats CAFOs can pose to a community’s groundwater, air quality, public health, local agricultural economy and infrastructure. 

“Our town is blessed with a stunning mix of farmland, woods and bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River’s Lake Pepin,” a fact sheet about the ordinance states. “Rush River, a Class 1 trout fishing destination, is sustained by cool spring-fed streams. Everyone relies on private wells for human and animal consumption. CAFOs with thousands of animals are proposing to spread thousands of truckloads of waste in the Town. State and county laws have almost no control over these huge facilities. Without an ordinance, their impact on roads, wells, health and the economy are unknown.”

Western Wisconsin advocacy group, Grassroots Organizing Western Wisconsin (GROWW) celebrated the ordinance’s passage, saying it’s a victory for communities standing up to protect themselves. 

“I think the town board heard loud and clear that the residents of the town wanted the ordinance,” Danny Akenson, a field organizer for GROWW, said in a statement. “It’s a result of the community banding together and sharing their stories and fears. We’ve heard it all. Landowners have had their land used for manure spreading without permission. Residents have had to call the Sheriff’s Department to escort them out of their own driveway due to heavy truck traffic on country roads. Families have had to live with poisoned water that causes sickness and cancer.”

“We know that one town standing up and protecting themselves isn’t enough,”  Akenson continued. “Everyone deserves to have access to clean water and safe roads. Across Wisconsin, whether you’re in Maiden Rock or Milwaukee, corporate greed gets in the way of that dream becoming reality. In 2025, we hope to see even more towns stand up and pass ordinances of their own.”

Several other communities in the region have passed similarly constructed ordinances and have faced opposition from industry groups. The town of Eureka in Polk County is currently fighting a lawsuit against its ordinance. A ruling in that case is expected in early January. 

The board’s fact sheet on the ordinance notes that at a state Senate hearing in March, a Wisconsin Farm Bureau representative testified that farm groups want the state government to preempt operations ordinances against CAFOs because state law currently allows them. 

Akenson told the Wisconsin Examiner that the ordinances are allowed under the state constitution. 

“Maiden Rock’s ordinance is backed up by both Wisconsin’s Constitution and our state statutes. We’re a state that values local control,” he said. “Corporate industry groups show up with lawsuits to try and bury small towns in legal costs and paperwork. Checks and balances threaten their profits and power to consolidate markets, and they hope to scare other communities from taking action.”

“In our view, that’s what’s happening in Eureka right now,” he added. “Despite these threats, more and more towns are taking steps to protect themselves by passing ordinances. People are tired of the intimidation tactics by industry representatives. The people on the ground in Pierce County and all across the state aren’t backing down.”

The return of the sandhill crane to Wisconsin is a conservation success, but now the state needs to manage the population and the crop damage the birds can cause. (Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources)

In a vote that divided Republicans together with with hunting and agricultural interests on one side against Democrats and conservationists on the other, the Wisconsin legislative council study committee on sandhill cranes approved proposing legislation that would allow for a hunt of the birds and cover costs for corn farmers to have their seeds treated with a chemical that limits crop destruction by the birds. 

The committee held its final meeting Tuesday morning, with much of the debate surrounding the committee’s decision to combine both aspects of the legislation into one bill. Standalone bills that would individually cover the agricultural issues and hunting were considered but not advanced. 

Sandhill cranes were once nearly driven entirely out of Wisconsin, but the bird has rebounded here. It’s a major conservation success story in the state and in the eastern flyway — the region of the continent covering Wisconsin through which migratory birds travel as they move north and south each year. 

With the bird’s resurgence has come increased conflicts with humans. Much of the sandhill crane’s historical range covers the wetlands and marshes of south central Wisconsin that are prime areas for growing corn. Cranes are estimated to cause about $1 million in crop damage each year. 

Sandhill cranes are also territorial, with breeding pairs returning to the same area to lay their eggs every year. 

Migratory birds are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and if a farm has a problem with cranes damaging crops, that farmer must work with the agency to attempt to drive the birds off the property, using  methods that include killing the birds. 

Federal law requires that birds killed through that process not be eaten or used in any other way and the farmer must prove they’ve exhausted all other measures first. 

The solution promoted by interest groups such as the International Crane Foundation is the use of Avipel, a chemical compound that is applied to corn seed that makes it unappetizing to the birds, who eventually learn the corn isn’t food and — even though they remain on the property — stop damaging the crops. 

Under the legislation proposed by the committee, the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection would establish a program that reimburses farmers up to 50% of the cost to purchase Avipel treated seed. 

For years, hunting groups and Republicans have been trying to establish a sandhill crane hunt in the state. Some advocates for the hunt say the population has grown enough that it can manage a hunt while not damaging the population. Others say the hunt could bring down the population and reduce the amount of crop damage — a claim that bird biologists disagree with. 

Under the proposed legislation, the Department of Natural Resources would work with the Fish and Wildlife Service to get a hunt approved and then issue permits for the hunt every year. 

Conservationists and crane experts say that the federal government hasn’t updated its crane management plan in 15 years, leaving the state without much guidance for holding a hunt. 

“There’s nothing biologically that would prohibit a hunt,” Meleesa Johnson, executive director of Wisconsin’s Green Fire, said. “There’s nothing biologically that would say we need a hunt. So from my perspective, and what I’m hearing from my members is, yeah, you could do a hunt. We know how to do that. But what is that solving? Is that solving the problem we’re trying to fix?”

Republican lawmakers on the committee said that the combined bill, including both a hunt and farmer reimbursements, had the best chance of getting passed by both houses of the Legislature — which are both controlled by Republicans. 

Sen. Romaine Quinn (R-Cameron) said that the interest groups affected by the bill would likely be opposed to doing a standalone bill to subsidize the use of Avipel and that combining it with the hunting bill makes it more likely to pass. 

“I think our best shot threading this needle between all our constituencies that we try to represent not only on this committee, but ourselves as legislators, is to try to marry these issues together,” Quinn said. “I don’t think it’s complicated. I think the combined bill is not that hard. So I think politically, our best opportunity for any movement, for any group, is a combined bill.” 

But Sen. Mark Spreizer (D-Beloit) said that any proposed legislation not only has to get through the Republican Legislature, but be signed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and he doesn’t think it’s likely that Evers would sign a bill to hold a sandhill crane hunt — meaning the hunt wouldn’t happen and farmers would again be left with no recourse to address the crop damage problem. 

By only advancing the combined bill, Spreitzer said the committee was preemptively cutting off all avenues for it to achieve action on the crane issue. 

“There are a number of winnowing points that any bill that comes out of here, or any other bill that any of us might introduce have to go through,” he said. “If Republican leadership in the Legislature, which is in the majority in the Assembly, and the Senate, doesn’t like it, it’s not going anywhere. If the Democratic governor doesn’t like it, it’s not going anywhere. And there are multiple stages in the process where that happens. And so I think folks here could strategically decide, ‘Hey, let’s put all our eggs in one basket and only support the combined Avipel-hunting bill,’ and hope that that creates enough political pressure that it means that it gets through all of those choke points.” 

“Or it could be the exact opposite,” Spreitzer added, “that because you’ve got too much going on” Republicans could decide the Avipel program spends too much money or the governor could decide he won’t support a hunt. 

Spreitzer also said that it felt like the Democrats and conservationists on the committee had been “railroaded” by the committee’s chair, Rep. Paul Tittl (R-Manitowoc), to support the combined bill rather than finding consensus. 

“So nothing gets done, so I guess my advice is, don’t try to game out the politics too much. We’re going to have three votes on three different bills,” he said of the committee’s votes on the combined and standalone proposals. “If you like this bill, you should vote for it. If you like the next bill, you should vote for that, too. If you like the third one, you should vote for that, too. If there’s one you don’t like, vote against it. And the more votes that each thing gets coming out of here, the stronger chance it’s going to have.”

Electric power lines. (Scott Olson | Getty Images)

The Sierra Club of Wisconsin says that the decision to delay the retirement of a Columbia County coal power plant until 2029 to consider converting it to a natural gas plant will harm the environment and expose nearby residents to harmful emissions. 

The Columbia Energy Center was initially set to be closed this year, but two years ago the plant’s retirement was delayed until 2026. In a statement on Wednesday, the co-owners of the plant, Alliant Energy, Madison Gas and Electric and Wisconsin Public Service, said keeping the plant open another three years will allow them to “explore converting at least one of Columbia’s units to natural gas.” The companies added that the decision will allow them to maintain the reliability and affordability of energy. 

Utility companies have said that using natural gas allows them to keep providing power while moving away from more harmful fuels such as coal. 

“Natural gas plays an important role in enabling the ongoing transition toward greater use of renewable resources by providing a flexible, dispatchable resource to serve customers reliably and affordably when necessary,” the companies said in the statement. 

But environmental advocates lamented the decision, which will keep coal burning at the plant south of Portage for three more years than previously expected. On Friday, the Sierra Club criticized the use of natural gas at all. 

The environmental group said that gas plants are vulnerable to failure, especially in places that experience harsh winters. The environmental group accused the companies of making the decision to boost their own profits. 

The group also said that emissions from methane gas-burning plants are more harmful to the environment than coal plants and pose health risks to neighbors. 

“We are enraged that Alliant, MG&E, and WPS have once again kicked the can on the Columbia Energy Center’s retirement date, and further exasperated with their considerations to convert the station to deadly methane gas,” the Sierra Club’s Cassie Steiner said in a statement. “Make no mistake: methane gas is not a ‘transition fuel’; it’s a way for utilities to keep exploiting captive customers for an even greater corporate profit while polluting those same communities they are supposed to serve.” 

“Clean energy sources can reliably meet customers’ needs at a far cheaper cost and at no risk to their health,” Steiner continued. “Utilities like Alliant have continued to backpedal on their clean energy commitments and then hold their customers hostage to pay for their poor decisions. We simply cannot afford to extend our dependency on costly, polluting fossil fuels like coal and methane gas.”

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley has been selected to receive an award from the Milwaukee chapter of the Federalist Society for her “work on behalf of” the right-wing legal group’s “legal principles.” 

The chapter’s website shows that Bradley received the Judge Rudolph T. Randa Award at an event Thursday afternoon in Milwaukee. 

“Each year, the Milwaukee Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society presents the Judge Rudolph T. Randa Award to an individual whose work on behalf of the rule of law and the legal principles our Society exists to uphold is as unquestioned as it is longstanding,” the website states. 

Bradley is also on the chapter’s board of advisors. The Federalist Society aims to promote right-wing legal ideology and has successfully worked to get its members installed as judges on the local, state and federal levels. 

Over the last year, Bradley has been one of the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s most outspoken critics of the body’s liberal majority — regularly accusing the four left-leaning judges of acting on behalf of the Democratic Party. 

“It’s clear that Justice Rebecca Bradley is receiving this award because the Federalist Society believes she uses her position on court to advance their political and policy agenda instead of working for us,” Lucy Ripp, Communications Director of A Better Wisconsin Together, said.

The 30-foot balsam fir serving as Wisconsin's 2024 capitol tree was donated by a Rhinelander family.(Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Government employees, children in snow pants warding off the frigid early-December temperatures and Smokey the Bear gathered in the pine-smelling rotunda of the Wisconsin Capitol Thursday afternoon to light this year’s state holiday tree. 

This year, the tree commemorates the 125th anniversary of Wisconsin’s state parks, which began with the opening of Interstate State Park on the St. Croix River in northwest Wisconsin in 1900. Hundreds of ornaments handmade by kids from across the state celebrate outdoor recreation in Wisconsin. 

“Wisconsin is a treasure of natural beauty and wonder,” Gov. Tony Evers said before the lighting of the 30-foot balsam fir, donated by a Rhinelander family. 

Smokey the Bear and a seventh grader who spoke about what Wisconsin’s state parks mean to her flipped the switch to light the tree’s 10,000 multi-colored lights. 

Evers says new DNR secretary has been chosen, wants to keep focus on budget

At a news conference shortly after the tree lighting, Evers said that he has selected someone to take over as secretary of the Department of Natural Resources — a position that has been vacant for more than a year after former Secretary Adam Payne resigned last October. 

Evers wouldn’t say who the nominee is, but said it would be a woman. 

The governor also said he wouldn’t weigh in on the primary election in next spring’s campaign for a new Superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction and that April’s state Supreme Court race is “a huge, huge election,” but that the Court doesn’t make the law so he wanted to focus on the branch that does so. 

He told reporters that he hasn’t spoken with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos since November’s election. The relationship between Evers and Republicans in the Legislature has often been frosty, and he said he didn’t think that would change. But Evers said that in the upcoming legislative session, in which the two chambers are more closely divided than in recent years, it would be necessary for the two parties to work together to find solutions.

“I don’t think it’ll be much different,” Evers said. “They’re going to be huffing and puffing and I’m going to be huffing and puffing so on and so forth. But I believe that the makeup of the Legislature is going to make it imperative on all of us to come to some reasonable conclusions. We’ll see what happens.” 

“We’ll propose something, they’re going to save it or throw it out,” he continued. “We get five minutes together and get something accomplished. But at the end of the day, my priorities are in the budget.”

Jay O. Rothman, president of the University of Wisconsin System, speaks during the UW Board of Regents meeting hosted at Union South at the University of Wisconsin–Madison on Feb. 9, 2023. (Photo by Althea Dotzour / UW–Madison)

The Universities of Wisconsin Administration released a third-party report on its finances Monday, announcing plans for how it can better and more efficiently support the state’s public universities as the system faces declining enrollment and increased scrutiny from Republican lawmakers. 

The report’s release comes after Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said that the system’s $855 million budget request was a nonstarter — even though system President Jay Rothman agreed to Republican demands for changes to the system’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies. 

“Right now, the Universities of Wisconsin are 43rd out of 50 states in the nation in terms of public support for our universities,” Rothman said on WISN’s UpFront on Sunday. “The $855 million gets us up to average, gets us up to the median. That, to me, in the context of a long period of time where the universities have not been invested in, is a reasonable ask.”

The release of the report, from the consulting firm Deloitte, on the system administration’s finances comes after similar reviews of the finances of the 12 University of Wisconsin schools outside of UW-Madison. Ten of those schools have been operating at a deficit as budget support from the state government has decreased and enrollment numbers have declined. Only the Madison, La Crosse and Stout campuses have been projected to create enough revenues to cover their expenses. 

A strategic plan implemented by the UW Board of Regents in 2022 calls for structural deficits to be resolved by 2028. A decade-long tuition freeze implemented by Republican lawmakers was ended in 2022 and earlier this year, the Regents approved the second tuition increase in two years. 

​​“The independent third-party review that has now concluded complements our strategic plan, adopted by the Board of Regents two years ago,” Rothman said in a statement. “It provides us insight on how better to provide unparalleled educational opportunities for Wisconsin students, improve Wisconsin communities, and help Wisconsin win the War for Talent.” 

The report notes that each campus is run independently and that system administration needs to do a better job clearly stating what its goals are so campus leaders can plan effectively. 

There is a need to improve systemwide accountability, while leaving space for the unique identity and culture of each campus, as the Universities of Wisconsin is the sum of its parts, ultimately rolling up to singular financial statements.

“Without a clear tactical vision and roadmap for the future of UW operations, it is difficult for university leaders to make informed decisions about investing in operations and/or strategic priorities,” the report states. “UW universities would benefit from a strategic roadmap across administrative, operations, technology, programmatic, and enrollment initiatives.”

Efforts to solve the system’s financial woes have already been underway, with a number of branch campuses across the state being shuttered and faculty and staff at several universities facing layoffs. 

The release of the individual campus financial reports in April drew concerns from faculty and students that the system would lean on austerity measures to balance the budget, harming their jobs and educational opportunities when the true cause of the struggles is the lack of financial support the system has gotten in the state budget. 

Monday’s report recommends that the system administration do more oversight of academic program creation and management, noting that the number of programs at the 12 non-Madison campuses has grown by nearly 7% while the number of bachelor’s degrees conferred has declined by more than 9%. The report states that system administration should set clear markers for what it means for a program to be successful and better determine if a program should be tweaked, invested in, combined between campuses or closed. 

“While creating and curating academic programs should fall within the purview of faculty governance at each university, UW Admin should be accountable for creating transparent policies and processes to provide the data necessary for the Board of Regents to fulfill its role in approving and monitoring programs,” the report states. 

With the release of the report, Rothman announced a number of plans to follow its recommendations, including being more active in enrollment management, creating a work group for evaluating low-enrollment programs, increased standards for financial accountability and providing “more effective, customer-focused shared services.” 

“These reviews have helped us refine steps to eliminate structural deficits at a number of our universities and embark on a path of long-term financial stability,” Rothman said. “We will continue to make necessary changes across our universities to ensure faithful stewardship of resources and to better serve students and parents, employers, and communities across Wisconsin.” 

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser | official portrait

Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice and Assembly Speaker David Prosser died Sunday at 81 after a months-long battle with cancer. 

After graduating from law school in 1968, Prosser spent most of his career working in government, in all three branches. 

The Appleton native worked as a staff member of then-U.S. Rep. Harold Froehlich, as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, and as the Outagamie County district attorney for two years before being elected to the Assembly in 1979. 

He served in the Assembly for nearly 20 years, serving as Speaker of the chamber and as minority leader. In 1996 he left the Legislature to run for U.S. Congress, losing his race for the state’s 8th Congressional District to Democrat Jay Johnson. 

After that loss, Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson appointed Prosser to the Wisconsin Tax Appeals Commission. 

In a statement, Thompson said Prosser dedicated his life to public service. 

“A man of deep conviction and intense loyalty to our way of life, David knew without citizen service, there was no real democracy and that to avoid the slings and arrows of public life was to surrender one’s convictions,” Thompson said. “He never did.”

Thompson appointed Prosser to the state Supreme Court in 1998. 

In 2011, Prosser held onto his seat, winning a tightly contested election against  JoAnne Kloppenburg by 0.5% of the vote. Prosser’s victory to coincided with a sharp right turn in the state’s politics, with Republicans controlling all three branches of state government. That period also marked a sharp increase in partisanship among the Court’s justices. 

In 2011, as the justices debated the Court’s decision on Republican’s Act 10 bill to limit the collective bargaining rights of public employees, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley accused Prosser of putting his hands around her throat in a “chokehold.” The state’s Judicial Commission filed ethics charges against Prosser, but the case petered out after most of the justices said they couldn’t weigh in on its conclusions because they had witnessed the event. 

Shortly before his retirement from the Court in 2016, the Court’s conservative majority renamed the state’s law library after him. 

“Justice Prosser was the quintessential public servant who enjoyed a respected career (spanning more than 40 years) in the service of others. His exemplary service in all three branches of government demonstrated his unparalleled versatility and dedication to the public good,” Chief Justice Annette Kingsland Ziegler said in a statement. “On the bench, Justice Prosser brought a keen intellect and deep sense of fairness to every case, leaving an indelible mark on Wisconsin jurisprudence. He was well known for digging into the books and conducting exhaustive research, often ‘burning the midnight oil’ in the law library. Justice Prosser possessed a critical understanding of, and allegiance to, the rule of law.”

The Court’s now-liberal majority renamed the library after Lavinia Goodell, Wisconsin’s first woman lawyer, in June. 

Earlier this year, Prosser was one of the retired former justices from whom Assembly Speaker Robin Vos sought advice as Republicans called for the impeachment of Justice Janet Protasiewicz. In a statement, Vos said Prosser was a “mentor” and celebrated his career of public service. 

“Dave had a great sense of humor and was always quick to offer advice that was filled with great ideas and common-sense solutions,” Vos said. “He was well-regarded and well-respected by his colleagues on both sides of the aisle. A man of wisdom, Dave listened first, was thoughtful and independent-minded in his decisions. He gained the trust of his colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats. Dave leaves a legacy of service to the state that won’t be matched.”

A Milwaukee police squad in front of the Municipal Court downtown. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

Wisconsin’s municipal courts issued more than 27,000 arrest warrants and writs of commitment against people who failed to pay local ticket fines between January 2023 and August 2024, according to a report from ACLU of Wisconsin.

The extensive use of these tools, which include jailing people for failing to pay fines or forcing them to appear at a court date in 173 of the state’s 219 municipal courts (reflecting the number of courts which responded to the ACLU’s open records requests for data)  create a tiered local justice system, the report found. People who can afford a fine simply pay it and move on while those who can’t afford the fine must deal with the shockwaves a stint in jail can send through their lives. 

In 2023, the report states, Wisconsin municipal courts collected more than $35 million in fines. 

“Carceral sanctions for failure to pay municipal forfeitures create an unequal system of punishment: one for those with financial means and one for those without,” Dr. Emma Shakeshaft, the ACLU attorney who wrote the report, said in a statement. “People who are able to pay a municipal court ticket can address the citation without ever having to step in court or think about the ticket again. People who cannot pay the citation amount in full experience increased court and law enforcement involvement and a long series of harmful consequences that create barriers to well-being, employment, and community involvement.”

The report found that during the time period the ACLU assessed, Wisconsin municipal courts had more than 50,000 active warrants and commitments for people failing to pay fines. The data also showed the punitive actions were disproportionately used against people of color. In Milwaukee, which houses the state’s largest municipal court and employs three full-time judges, 71% of warrants and 49% of commitments issued between January 2023 and August 2024 were issued against Black residents. 

Even a short time in jail can have huge consequences for a person’s life, the report states, causing people to miss work or to be unable to care for family members over something as trivial as a municipal fine. 

“Monetary sanctions harm individuals and their families,” the report states. “Not only do these fines, fees, surcharges, and forfeitures have a more severe and disproportionate impact on those without access to financial resources, but they also cause harmful short- and long-term collateral consequences.”

Among the consequences of jail time for unpaid tickets are  driver’s license suspensions, caregiving emergencies, loss of employment, loss of housing and detrimental health impacts, the report found. “Overall, this leads to less household resources, limited social mobility, and negative financial consequences.”

The report also notes that using incarceration as the “teeth” of enforcement against minor violations is more expensive in the long term because of the expense to law enforcement and local jail staff.

Municipalities have a number of other tools available to collect these debts under state law, including the ability to “intercept taxes, garnish wages and levy bank accounts via the state debt collection agency, use a private debt collection agency, issue a civil judgment, transfer unclaimed property, issue a driver’s license suspension, or issue an arrest warrant for incarceration.”

A number of recommendations for municipal courts are made in the report, including eliminating the use of commitments and warrants in these cases, appointing legal counsel to people during hearings, reviewing and removing old warrants that are still active in local systems and improving data collection.

Michael Gableman in Dane County Circuit Court on Thursday, June 23 | Screenshot via Wisconsin Eye

The Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR) filed a disciplinary complaint against former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman on Tuesday. In 10 counts, the complaint alleges Gableman violated numerous provisions of the Wisconsin Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys during and after his much-maligned investigation of the 2020 election. 

Among the allegations, Gableman is accused of failing to “provide competent representation” and to “abstain from all offensive personality” and of violating attorney-client privilege. 

The OLR investigation into Gableman was initiated after a grievance was filed by voting rights focused firm Law Forward. In a statement, Law Forward president Jeff Mandell said the organization would continue to hold people accountable for undermining faith in the state’s election system. 

“Gableman misused taxpayer funds, promoted baseless conspiracy theories, and engaged in improper intimidation tactics; his efforts undermined the integrity of our electoral system,” Mandell said. “Law Forward is committed to ensuring accountability for those who undermine the public’s trust in our elections, and we will continue to pursue legal action to hold others who impugn elections responsible for their actions, ensuring that they face consequences for any misconduct that threatens the freedom to vote. Our work is far from finished, and we are dedicated to securing a future where elections remain fair, transparent, and free from interference.” 

The first two counts against Gableman involve statements and actions he took after filing subpoenas against the mayors and city clerks of the cities of Green Bay and Madison. The complaint alleges that Gableman mischaracterized discussions he had with the lawyers for both cities, communicated with Green Bay’s city attorney when the city had obtained outside counsel in the matter, lied to Green Bay city officials about the work of his investigation and mischaracterized those actions when he filed a petition with a Waukesha County Circuit Court attempting to have the mayors of both cities arrested for not complying with his subpoenas. 

The third count alleges that Gableman made false statements in his testimony to the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections when he accused officials at the Wisconsin Elections Commission, as well as the mayors of Green Bay and Madison, of “hiring high-priced lawyers” to conduct an “organized cover-up.”

Gableman – Complaint

“Gableman did not characterize his assertions as opinions,” the complaint states. “He presented them as objective, proven facts. His assertions were public accusations of improper, possibly unlawful activity by Mayors Rhodes-Conway and Genrich. Gableman had no tangible, verifiable, objective, persuasive evidence to support his assertions. Gableman’s accusations caused serious reputational damage to the public officials involved. He publicly sought to jail the mayors of Madison and Green Bay, despite all they and their attorneys had done to comply with Gableman’s subpoenas.” 

The fourth through seventh counts against Gableman involve actions and statements he made during open records litigation involving his investigation by the public interest organization American Oversight. 

Those counts allege that Gableman’s statements while on the witness stand, in open court during a recess and to the news media after a hearing about his investigation’s failure to provide records constituted demeaning statements about a judge and opposing counsel and displayed a “lack of competence” in following the state’s open records and records retention laws by destroying records and failing to comply with American Oversight’s records requests. 

Count eight alleges that Gableman used his contract with the Wisconsin Assembly and Speaker Robin Vos to pursue his own interests, including by stating multiple times he had to “pressure” Vos into continuing the investigation that dragged on for months after it was supposed to end. 

The complaint states that Gableman was paid a total of $117,395.95 during the investigation and the Assembly paid $2,344,808.94 for the investigation, including $1,816,932.26 for hiring outside counsel in multiple instances of  litigation initiated during the review. 

“Before signing the contract, Gableman did not tell Vos that he did not agree with the objectives Vos had outlined, the time frame for submitting the final report, or the compensation to be paid to him,” the complaint states. “Gableman also did not tell Vos that he intended to enlist public support to pressure Vos to change the objectives of the investigation, increase the budget, or expand the time frame.” 

The ninth count in the complaint alleges that by supporting a failed effort to recall Vos, and making various public statements at rallies and in the media about his discussions with Vos and Vos’ staff, Gableman violated his duty of confidentiality with his client, the Assembly. 

The final count alleges that Gableman lied in an affidavit to the OLR submitted during its investigation into his conduct. Gableman stated in the affidavit that at no time during his investigation was he “engaged in the practice of law.” However the complaint includes excerpts from a number of the agreements he signed with the Assembly that served as contracts for “legal services,” lists the instances during the investigation in which he gave legal advice to the Assembly and the times he made court filings as an attorney during the investigation. 

The complaint states that he made “multiple demonstrably false statements” in the affidavit in which he was attempting to show he had not violated the state code of conduct, itself a violation of the code. 

OLR complaints are heard by the state Supreme Court. The office said it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

The Pelican River area in Wisconsin. A group that worked with local officials to try to prevent the establishment of a conservation easement on land surrounding the river has influenced a propsal to change Oneida County's comprehensive plan. (Jay Brittain | Courtesy of the photographer)

A committee of the Oneida County Board has approved a number of changes to the draft of the county’s new comprehensive plan suggested by a timber industry group, aided by U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and American Stewards of Liberty, a right-wing nonprofit that has taken an interest in land use policy in Wisconsin’s Northwoods.

The five-member planning and development committee approved the recommended changes of the Rhinelander-based Great Lakes Timber Professional Association (GLTPA) at a meeting earlier this month. 

Since the approval of the Pelican River Forest conservation easement earlier this year, American Stewards of Liberty has undertaken an effort to influence local planning decisions up north. The organization has traditionally focused on ranching issues in the American west. Now it has begun to grow and, after being introduced by Tiffany, worked with officials in the region to oppose the Pelican River easement on the grounds that federal and state officials had not “coordinated” with locals. 

The group’s executive director, Margaret Byfield, later spoke at the timber group’s convention in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula this spring. 

ASL’s ideology, in the name of protecting property rights, calls for an expansion of extractive uses of land, including increased logging and the approval of open pit mines in the area. Opponents say the group twists a desire to protect private property owners into a belief system that prevents others from acting to conserve resources on their own land. 

The organization was also involved in helping to write the environmental policy sections of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation document written as a policy guide for the second Trump administration. 

Every county in Wisconsin is required to establish a comprehensive plan and update it once per decade. The document outlines goals and strategies for achieving the county’s land use plans. Oneida County has already made a number of changes to its draft plan that move county planning decisions away from support of conservation and toward more extractive uses of the land. 

The acceptance of the recommended changes concern environmental advocates, who argue that once one county has codified the ASL agenda, it becomes easier for neighboring counties to simply cut and paste those sections when their comprehensive plans are up for renewal. Opponents also worry that ASL’s viewpoint  will have more sway across the country once Trump takes office in January. 

Ahead of the committee’s Nov. 8 meeting, Henry Schienebeck, executive director of the GLTPA, sent a 31-page list of recommended changes to the body. The document mirrors the comprehensive plan, going through each chapter and recommending new, more anti-conservation language. It includes a number of provisions straight from ASL talking points, including sections that require conservation efforts to be coordinated with local officials, encouraging mining in the region and listing a need to “protect property rights” as a “top priority.”

GLTPA Oneida County Comprehensive Management Plan Comments 2024

At the nearly six-hour meeting, Schienebeck said that GLTPA’s recommended changes were developed by a committee that included the organization’s board members and Byfield as well as Tiffany and his staff. 

“We really just want to make sure that forestry is included in that and that we don’t lose access to the forest,” Schienebeck said. “And a lot of the issues that are in this plan deal with forest and natural resources, and that’s really what we’re working with every day.” 

Schienebeck did not respond to a request for comment on his organization’s recommendations. 

The GLTPA recommendations include proposals to change a section in the comprehensive plan that previously stated the county should “minimize impacts to the county’s natural resources from nonmetallic mining.” The new language states that the county should “consider impacts to the county’s natural resources from nonmetallic mining.” 

Many of the GLTPA recommendations were accepted without amendment by the members of the planning and development committee. Of the committee’s five members, four did not respond to a request for comment and one, Scott Holewinski, said he was out of the country and unable to comment. 

Eric Rempala, a member of local conservation group, Oneida County Clean Waters Action, spoke against the GLTPA recommendations at the meeting and tells the Wisconsin Examiner it’s “outrageous” to give an industry group this much influence over county land use policies.  Everyone involved should be more honest about ASL’s involvement, he argues. 

“You guys need to admit who you’re working with and what you’re trying to accomplish,” Rempala says. 

Charles Carlin, director of strategic initiatives for Gathering Waters, was heavily involved in getting the Pelican River Forest easement established. He says the language in the GLTPA recommendations is straight out of the ASL “playbook” and poses a threat to the health of the Northwoods environment and future conservation efforts in the area. 

“This is kind of a thing that we’ve all been worried about since Pelican River,” he says. “If that stuff actually gets written into a [comprehensive] plan, that is a dangerous foundation — both for Oneida County, but then something that could easily be copied by other counties.”

The seven members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court hear oral arguments. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday morning in a lawsuit over Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) Administrator Meagan Wolfe’s ability to remain in her post. 

Several times during the arguments, justices and attorneys described the situation as “absurd” and “bizarre” as the Court is being asked to deal with the ramifications of a divided state government that has frequently deadlocked over executive appointments to boards and commissions and the Republican-held Senate’s confirmation of those appointees. 

Two years ago, the Court, at the time controlled by a conservative majority, ruled that Frederick Prehn, a Republican appointee to the state’s Natural Resources Board, did not have to leave his post at the end of his term — even though Democratic Gov. Tony Evers had nominated his replacement. 

The Court found that until the Senate — whose GOP leaders were collaborating with Prehn to remain in the seat in an effort to influence policy decisions over wolf hunting and water quality — confirmed his replacement, state law allowed Prehn to remain on the board as a holdover. 

In the summer of 2023, Wolfe’s initial four-year term as WEC administrator expired and Senate Republicans, influenced by the three previous years of constant Republican attacks on the state’s election administration, said they would not confirm her to a second term. 

The three Democrats on the commission, in an effort to shield Wolfe from the Senate, abstained from a vote to reappoint her while the three Republicans on the commission voted to nominate her again. State law requires a majority of the six member body to vote in favor of an administrator’s nomination, however, meaning the nomination wasn’t officially advanced to the Senate for a vote. 

But the Senate acted anyway, voting against Wolfe’s appointment. Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul immediately filed a lawsuit arguing that under the precedent Republicans set in the Prehn decision, Wolfe is able to remain in her position as a holdover. 

At the circuit court level, Republicans admitted that the Senate vote to remove Wolfe was “symbolic.” But after a Dane County judge ruled in Wolfe’s favor, the GOP leaders appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. 

While neither side in the Wolfe case argued for overturning the Prehn precedent, the arguments put Republicans in the position of arguing against principles they had themselves fought for in the earlier case — only this time in front of a Court held by a liberal majority. 

Misha Tseytlin, the attorney for the Senate, argued that the statute that guides the commission’s authority to appoint an administrator creates “an affirmative duty,” and that the commission must nominate a new administrator when the four year term expires. He said that if the law doesn’t require WEC to act, unelected officials can shield the administrator from the elected Senate indefinitely. 

“Whatever level of absurdity one wants to put on the Prehn situation, whether it’s zero or 100, this one’s orders of magnitude more,” Tseytlin said. “There you had a traditional constitutional standoff between the governor and the Senate. They didn’t agree with the appointment, that’s resolved in the holdover. Here we have three, essentially bureaucrats, who have no constitutional status, holding the chief election officer appointment hostage away from the people.” 

But Justice Jill Karofsky questioned if this outcome simply forced the Republicans in the Senate to deal with the consequences of a legal interpretation they previously asked for. 

“You are trying to thread a needle here that has no eye,” Karofsky said. “Six of the seven of us sat in this courtroom two years ago when your client insisted that Fred Prehn should be able to retain his position on the DNR board, even though his term had expired and your client won. This is a case of careful what you wish for, isn’t it? Now the Legislature is here two years later, demanding that Meagan Wolfe must vacate her position.” 

“It seems to me, this has little to do with what the law actually says, and far more to do with who is in these positions,” she continued. “If the Legislature favors someone, they stay. If they don’t, they must go. Does that sound like the rule of law to you?” 

Assistant Attorney General Charlotte Gibson, the Department of Justice lawyer arguing on behalf of Wolfe, said that the statute that gives the commission the authority to appoint administrators does not require it to act when the administrator’s term expires. The administrator, she said, becomes a holdover appointee and serves at the will of the commission, who can fire her at any time. 

“[Wolfe’s] role is not a part-time policymaking position like the [Natural Resources] board people,” Gibson said. “This is an intense, full-time job requiring expertise and experience, and it just doesn’t work if there are frequent changes in personnel and sudden vacancies … but if an administrator is underperforming, the Commission’s right there on the ground with her. They’re going to see that, and regardless of whether they’re Republicans or Democrats, they’re going to coalesce and bring in an administrator who can do the job.”

The return of the sandhill crane to Wisconsin is a conservation success, but now the state needs to manage the population and the crop damage the birds can cause. (Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources)

The Wisconsin Legislature’s study committee on sandhill cranes held its second to last meeting Wednesday, taking a comb to the conclusions, findings of fact and legislative proposals that will be published when the body finishes its work next month. 

The 12-member panel, made up of two legislators from each party  and a group of advocates for agriculture, hunting, cranes and the environment, met for more than five hours, appearing to get close to consensus on an issue that has been raised a number of times in the state Legislature over the past decade with little progress. 

The resurgence of the sandhill crane in Wisconsin is a conservation success story, with the number of breeding pairs in the state reaching new highs after nearly being extirpated in the 1930s. But that success has increased conflicts with farmers — largely because the best land in the state for growing corn overlaps with the bird’s historical habitat in the wetlands of central Wisconsin. Sandhill cranes cause an estimated $900,000 of damage to corn grown in the state every year, a number that is almost certainly an undercount and doesn’t include damage to other crops such as potatoes. 

Recent attempts to pass crane-related legislation have failed after being injected into the partisan politics of the state’s divided government. A 2021 bill to allow the hunting of sandhill cranes died after Republicans invited controversial hunting advocate and rock star Ted Nugent to speak about the bill at a news conference. That bill was also supported by Hunter Nation, a non-profit that had played an instrumental role in the hotly debated wolf hunt that year. 

Three years later, the work of the study committee has brought wildlife advocates and Democrats into the discussion. 

Anne Lacy, director of eastern flyway programs at the Baraboo-based International Crane Foundation, said at the meeting that the science doesn’t show a hunt will solve the crop damage problem and that there’s still too many unknowns to determine if the current crane population in Wisconsin can support a hunt. But even without solving the crop damage issue, Wisconsinites might want to hold a crane hunt for social, cultural and recreational reasons and that may be possible if the state Department of Natural Resources can develop a plan that allows for a hunt while not harming the bird’s population in the state or surrounding region. 

“Cranes are a powerful symbol of Wisconsin’s conservation efforts, an effort which all Wisconsin citizens have contributed to and have a vested interest in maintaining, certainly,” she said. Science, she added, “allows a hunt when and where it is biologically appropriate for the species, and there are data which indicate that even a modest level of harvest of sandhill cranes could lead to a decline … that could potentially jeopardize seasons throughout the flyway.”

Finally, she added, “given that hunting will have no impact on crop damage, a hunt is purely a social recreation issue.” 

The committee discussed three pieces of legislation that relate to hunting sandhill cranes and much of the debate Wednesday focused on the very fine details of these proposed bills, such as what fees should be charged to hunters, how permitting would work and what rules would guide the hunting season. 

Any bill passed that allows the hunting of sandhill cranes in the state would need approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

The first two proposals are essentially the same, with one of the bills increasing the wildlife damage surcharge paid by hunters when they obtain their permit. The third proposal mimics the federal migratory bird depredation permit program, which allows farmers to obtain a permit to kill a bird that has been destroying crops. The committee has criticized the federal program because it requires the farmer to leave the carcass in the field so as to not encourage consumptive uses of the animal. 

“Hunters have a history of paying for opportunities, and so I like the bill with increased surcharges, and hunters have proven time and time again that we’re willing to pay,” Paul Wait, editor of Delta Waterfowl Magazine, said. “We’re willing to pony up, we’re willing to put that money forward to help with the crop damage fund, provided we gain access and opportunity, and that’s what we’re talking about here, from just a pure hunting standpoint, is, you know, providing a new opportunity for hunting in the state of Wisconsin.”

The committee also spent much of the meeting discussing proposed legislation that would compensate farmers for the use of Avipel, a chemical that can be applied to corn seeds that makes the seeds unappetizing to the birds and protects the corn from being damaged. 

The two proposals include one from the committee’s chair, Rep. Paul Tittl (R-Manitowoc), which would authorize the Department of Natural Resources to compensate farmers for the cost of treating their seeds with Avipel if they can demonstrate they had crop damage in a previous growing season. The other proposal, from committee member and farmer David Mickelson, creates a rebate program through the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP). 

The seed treatment bills gained more consensus support than the hunting bills, with much of the discussion focusing on how to structure the payment system, how the payments would be capped and how the program’s success could be measured so future Legislatures can assess its effectiveness. 

Rep. David Considine (D-Baraboo) said he was in favor of the proposal that puts the program in the hands of DATCP because “farmers, some of them, tend to distrust the DNR and that might not be news to some of you, but they trust DATCP.” 

Tittl and Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) had several discussions about what the ultimate text of the legislation should look like so it can pass through the Legislature and have funds appropriated to the program by the Joint Finance Committee, including reducing cost by capping use of the program. 

“I could say, ‘You know what, we’ll do it a lot more,’” Tittl said. “And then the chances of it passing through Joint Finance are almost zero. But I’d rather be more realistic.” 

The committee’s next meeting, at which it will finalize its proposed legislation, is scheduled for Dec. 10.

Environmental advocates are concerned about the second Trump administration's effect on Wisconsin water quality. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump frequently talked about slashing environmental regulations on industry, freeing them up to do as they wish because climate change is a “hoax.” 

With about 70 days until the second Trump administration takes office, environmental advocacy groups in Wisconsin are preparing for how they’ll respond to the actions of the Trump-led Environmental Protection Agency and the departments of Agriculture and the Interior as they try to protect the state’s air, water and natural resources. 

Howard Learner, president of the Environmental Law and Policy Center, says the first Trump term had negative effects on the environment, but the difference this time around is that Wisconsin and its midwestern neighbors have Democratic governors, attorneys general and liberal majorities on their state Supreme Courts.

“For the next few years in Wisconsin, there’s a Democratic governor, a Democratic-appointed Wisconsin [Department of Natural Resources] (DNR), a Democratic attorney general and a Democratic majority Supreme Court,” Learner says. “Where previously a number of DNR issues got tied up by the Republican majority, the current Supreme Court has given DNR more latitude to be protective of the environment. So there’s an opportunity for the states to be stepping up if the federal government is pulling back, and Wisconsin should seize that opportunity.” 

Many environmental advocates are also still in “wait-and-see” mode, wondering which party will win control of the U.S. House of Representatives and which members of Congress will control the body’s committees. 

Sara Walling, Clean Wisconsin’s water and agriculture program director, points to areas where there’s broad bipartisan consensus and there isn’t need for concern — largely the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a multi-agency collaboration to protect the largest freshwater lakes in the world. 

“Over the years, since its initial authorization, and then its reauthorization several times now, including during the Trump administration, both parties have really supported Great Lakes Restoration funding and those programs, so we fully expect that it will be intact and continue to be authorized moving forward,” Walling says. 

But she adds there are questions about the level of funding for projects such as cleanup efforts in the Milwaukee River estuary. She also says it’s unlikely progress will continue for starting a similar large-scale restoration project with the Mississippi River. 

Walling says she’s concerned about  the Trump-led EPA’s reliance on scientific research conducted by industries the agency regulates. 

“Generally speaking, the Trump administration in the past, and I don’t see any of this changing going forward, does not tend to rely on science when making a lot of its decisions at the EPA level,” she says.

Walling expects the incoming president’s administration to reject Biden administration EPA provisions “that have really been very heavily supported by really expansive scientific studies,” she says. “There’s a lot of initiatives that the EPA has been undertaking that are really a science-driven exploration of any environmental issue, to use that science as the backing for potentially new regulations.” 

Walling says that the pesticide and agricultural industries are areas where Republicans have complained about what the scientific research has found, and the Trump-led EPA and USDA may swing the pendulum back toward using research conducted by the companies themselves that ignores potential harms to the environment. 

Gussie Lord, the managing attorney of the tribal partnerships program at Earthjustice, says that for Wisconsin’s Native American tribes, the environmental concerns of the Trump administration focus largely on the construction of the Enbridge Line 5 oil pipeline in northern Wisconsin and the delisting of the gray wolf, once again allowing the animal to be hunted in the state. 

“We don’t know for sure what’s going to happen or what their priorities are going to be, but we can look at the previous Trump administration and the things that have been said by his advisors and former advisors, and we can surmise that there’s going to be a focus toward more extractive industry practices, including mining, oil and gas,” Lord says. 

Lord says protections under the National Environmental Policy Act, wetland protections under the Clean Water Act and subsidies for green energy are all at risk of being reduced. He also considers it likely that the new administration will approve federal permits for Line 5.

On Friday, Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who represents much of northern Wisconsin, wrote in his weekly email newsletter about “tapping into America’s clean oil and gas resources” and that removing the gray wolf from the federal endangered species list is a priority under the new administration

“I am committed to passing my legislation that will return gray wolf management back to the states, allowing us to protect our communities and rural livelihoods,” he wrote. 

In the previous Congress, Tiffany was a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources and chairman of the subcommittee on federal lands. During his last term, he allied with right-wing anti-conservation group American Stewards of Liberty to oppose conservation projects in northern Wisconsin. 

American Stewards of Liberty (ASL) played a role in developing Project 2025, the policy plan written for the Trump administration. The president-elect said during the campaign the document wasn’t going to reflect his administration, but Trump allies have touted it as a playbook for his term in the days after his victory. 

Charlie Carlin, director of strategic initiatives at Gathering Waters, which focuses on land conservation in Wisconsin, says ASL’s ideology becoming a main aim of the federal government’s environmental policy is worrying. 

“If we take seriously that Project 2025 is essentially a guiding document for what the next Trump administration looks like, then I think we need to be really concerned about the future of permanent land conservation, kind of across the board,” Carlin says. That extends to agricultural land and working forest land as well as natural and wildlife areas, he adds.

ASL and Tiffany have been outspoken in their support for extractive industries, and Carlin says he’s worried about the trade-off  the Trump administration appears likely to make. 

“I think it’s incredibly concerning — what’s the long term sustainability of both the landscape and the economy of northern Wisconsin if the levers of federal government are used to incentivize extraction [which] in northern Wisconsin is likely to be open pit mining,” Carlin says. 

“There’s potentially a major short term economic gain for the wealthiest — for the people who are the owners of those mining companies, or folks who invest in those companies.” he adds. “But then what suffers there is both water quality and forest land cover for the long term. So maybe you get 10 years or maybe a generation worth of revenue … extracted as you’re mining, and then you’re left with many generations of poison water or impaired water quality.” 

He adds that short-term gain could result in a long-term loss in more sustainable industries, diminishing property tax values for communities in the region.

“If you strip the timber off of the land in order to dig a big hole to extract minerals, then what you don’t have is the regular annual income that supports loggers and that supports the truckers and that supports the mills,  and also, that land base supports the outdoor recreation economy and the second-home economy that provides so much of the property tax base up north,” Carlin says. “And so what you’re talking about is this sort of short term blitz that is going to benefit a very few people at the consequence of the long term environmental and economic health of the entire region.”