Gov. Tony Evers kicks off a budget listening session in Appleton, Wis. on Monday, Dec. 2 | Photo by Andrew Kennard

Members of the public traveled to Einstein Middle School in Appleton Monday to tell Gov. Tony Evers about their priorities for Wisconsin’s 2025-2027 budget. 

During the first of Evers’ five planned listening sessions around the state ahead of his next budget proposal, Wisconsin residents expressed concern about the cost of housing, Wisconsin prisons and other issues in a breakout group attended by the Examiner. 

In opening remarks, Evers expressed support for addressing “long neglected” priorities and cited Wisconsin’s budget surplus of over $4 billion for the 2024 fiscal year. 

Evers said his priorities include expanding BadgerCare, legalizing marijuana, protecting access to reproductive health care, gun and justice reform, protecting the environment and investing in kids and schools. 

Local Republican state Rep. Ron Tusler (R-Harrison) has a different view on the surplus, Fox 11 reported. He wants to use it to  return money to taxpayers and provide relief from inflation.  

Members of the public split into six breakout groups. Each group focused on different topics relevant to the budget. The Examiner attended the “Strong & Safe Communities” group, which addressed issues ranging from affordable housing to Wisconsin’s prison system. 

A De Pere resident brought up the high cost of housing, saying that she and her husband are from Door County but couldn’t afford to live there even though they both work. Even in De Pere, “all the houses in my neighborhood are getting bought up and flipped,” she said. 

Tom Denk, who was formerly incarcerated, said he wants to see change in Wisconsin prisons. He said he wasn’t allowed access to enrichment  programs in prison. 

“The DOC needs more funding because their staff need to be educated. They need to have that trauma-informed care,” Denk said. “Because most people are going to get out of prison. I’m one of them.”

Substance abuse and anger management programs in the Wisconsin prison system have waitlists in the thousands. The Department of Corrections’ website says the agency tries to enroll people in programming as they get close to their release date. 

Karen Winkel, a homeless prevention specialist, said many of her clients have been recently released from the Department of Corrections or the Green Lake County Jail, with “no place to go. There’s no place to live.” 

Lisa Cruz, executive director of Multicultural Coalition, Inc., said her nonprofit is overwhelmed with serving immigrants and refugees. 

“It’s [a] humanitarian crisis,” Cruz said. “And I think we often think about that happening somewhere else, in another country, maybe in another state. It’s right here and it’s right now.”

Members of the group expressed concerns about American Rescue Plan funding running out, including funding for services for crime victims. Wisconsin passed $10 million in funding for victim services earlier this year, but providers are still facing budget cuts. 

“My agency received a 72% reduction, really impacting nearly half of our budget,” said Isabel Williston, executive director of ASTOP Sexual Abuse Center. 

Jared Hoy, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, attended the group discussion, but mostly listened since the focus was on the public’s input. 

An informational packet distributed at the event described positions the governor has taken on criminal justice. These include increasing funding for Wisconsin’s TAD (treatment alternatives and diversion) program and addressing staffing shortages that have worsened conditions in state prisons. 

Evers will introduce his budget proposal early next year, Communications Director Britt Cudaback told the Examiner in late October. In his remarks, Evers praised Wisconsin’s new legislative maps as more reflective of the “will of the people.” In last month’s election, the maps helped Democrats flip 14 previously Republican-held seats in the Legislature, narrowing Republican majorities. 

Evers’ next listening session is Wednesday evening in La Crosse, followed by Milwaukee, Ashland and a virtual session.  

Members of the public can submit comments on budget priorities through the governor’s constituent services page. 

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Protesters filled the Wisconsin Capitol in 2011 to protest the legislation that ultimately past as Wisconsin Act 10, eliminating most union rights for most public employees. (Photo by Emily Mills. Used by permission)

A Dane County judge on Monday struck down the core parts of the landmark state law that eviscerated most union rights for most public employees in Wisconsin.

Judge Jacob Frost ruled that Act 10, passed by the state Legislature’s Republican majority in 2011 and signed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in his first year in office, was unconstitutional in making some public safety workers exempt from the law’s limits on unions but excluding other workers with similar jobs from those protections.

The ruling essentially confirmed Frost’s ruling on July 3, 2024, when he rejected motions by the state Legislature’s Republican leaders to dismiss the 2023 lawsuit challenging Act 10.

In that ruling, Frost declared that state Capitol Police, University of Wisconsin Police, and state conservation wardens were “treated unequally with no rational basis for that difference” because they were not included in the exemption that Act 10 had created for other law enforcement and public safety employees.

For that reason, the law’s categories of general and public safety employees, and its public safety employee exemption, were unconstitutional, Frost wrote then.

Frost reiterated that ruling Monday. “Act 10 as written by the Legislature specifically and narrowly defines ‘public safety employee,’” Frost wrote. “It is that definition which is unconstitutional.”

In addition, the judge rejected the suggestion that Act 10 could remain in effect without the law’s public safety employee carve-out, and that either the courts or the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission could resolve a constitutionally acceptable definition in the future.

“The Legislature cites no precedent for this bold argument that I should simply strike the unlawful definition but leave it to an agency and the courts to later define as they see fit,” Frost wrote. “Interpreting ‘public safety employee’ after striking the legislated definition would be an exercise in the absurd.”

Advocates, lawmakers react

Opponents of the law, including plaintiffs in the lawsuit, cheered Monday’s ruling, while Act 10’s backers attacked it and vowed to see it through the appeals process.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of a group of local and state unions and public employees by the progressive nonprofit law firm Law Forward along with Bredhoff & Kaiser.

“This historic decision means that teachers, nurses, librarians and other public-sector workers across the state will once again have a voice in the workplace,” said Jeff Mandell, Law Forward president and general counsel. “Every Wisconsin family deserves the chance to build a better future through democratic participation in a union. As an organization dedicated to protecting and strengthening democracy, Law Forward is proud to have been a part of this important case.”

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), dismissed Monday’s ruling. Through its Republican leaders, the Legislature was among the defendants in the lawsuit.

“This lawsuit came more than a decade after Act 10 became law and after many courts rejected the same meritless legal challenges,” Vos said in a statement. “Act 10 has saved Wisconsin taxpayers more than $16 billion. We look forward to presenting our arguments on appeal.”

Gov. Tony Evers, who has sought to repeal Act 10 since he took office in 2019, applauded the ruling.

“This is great news,” Evers, a Democrat, said in a social media post on BlueSky and on X. “I’ve always believed workers should have a seat at the table in decisions that affect their daily lives and livelihoods. It’s about treating workers with dignity and respect and making sure no worker is treated differently because of their profession.”

Evers sought to repeal the law in each of the three state budgets he has submitted since taking office, but the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee Republicans stripped those provisions each time.

Ben Gruber, a conservation warden and union leader, called the ruling “personal for me and my coworkers.” Gruber is one of the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

“As a conservation warden, having full collective bargaining rights means we will again have a voice on the job to improve our workplace and make sure that Wisconsin is a safe place for everyone,” he said in a statement distributed by the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC).

Member local unions of WEAC were among the plaintiffs.

“The lawsuit was filed because of the dire situation that exists in Wisconsin’s public service institutions since workers’ freedoms were unconstitutionally taken away,” WEAC stated. “The state’s education workforce is in crisis as 40 percent of teachers leave the profession in the first six years because of low wages and unequal pay systems; the conservation warden program is fraught with unfair and disparate treatment of workers; and there is a 32 percent staff vacancy rate for corrections officers.”

Also joining in the lawsuit was the union representing University of Wisconsin  graduate students who work as teaching assistants, TAA Local 3220.

“Graduate workers look forward to claiming our seat at the table to ensure our teaching and research, which helps make UW-Madison a world-class university, are supported and compensated fairly,” said TAA’s co-president, Daniel Levitin. “The winds of change are blowing in our direction and we urge the university to take note and voluntarily recognize the TAA as the union of graduate workers and be prepared to meet us at the bargaining table.”

TAA is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers. “Workers must have the right to partner with their employer and negotiate fair wages, benefits, and working conditions,” said AFT-Wisconsin President Kim Kohlhaas.

Appeals expected

WEAC’s statement cautioned that the ruling’s impact would be delayed by appeals. “The plaintiffs acknowledge that while this decision is a major win for Wisconsin’s working families, it is likely that the case will remain in the courts for some time before a final victory is reached and pledge to continue fighting until the freedoms of all workers in Wisconsin are respected and protected,” the teachers union said.

Sen. Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) was first elected to the Legislature the year after the law was passed and now leads the Democratic minority in the state Senate.

“This is a crucial step to recognize and restore the rights of hard-working public employees doing the people’s work in every corner of Wisconsin,” Hesselbein said in a statement. “There are likely further hurdles ahead and I applaud the resolve of those who have kept up the effort to restore the right to collectively bargain in the state.”

State Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) was a Milwaukee Public Schools teacher when the law was enacted.

“I saw firsthand the negative impact that the lack of collective bargaining had not only on our profession of teaching but also the schools, students, and our communities,” Clancy said in a statement. He called Monday’s ruling “a crucial step to ensuring that every Wisconsin worker has access to fair and equitable working conditions.”

Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevera (R-Fox Crossing), was among the GOP lawmakers decrying the decision, declaring that the law had saved taxpayers $30 billion — nearly twice the figure Vos asserted.

“Today, an activist Dane County judge overstepped his role and unilaterally struck down Act 10 because it didn’t align with his politics,” she said in a statement. “One judge, appointed by the current governor, acting like a super-legislature is about to bankrupt local governments and school districts across Wisconsin.”

Kurt Bauer, president of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state’s largest business lobby and among the groups that had championed the legislation, called the ruling “wrong on its face and … inconsistent with the law” in a statement Monday that called Act 10 “a critical tool for policymakers and elected officials to balance budgets and find taxpayer savings.”

He said the business lobby’s members “hope this ruling will be appealed and that Act 10 will be reinstated as quickly as possible.”

This story has been updated with reactions to the ruling. 

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President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he would nominate former Congressman Sean Duffy as Transportation secretary. In this photo, Duffy and his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, speak onstage during the 2023 FOX Nation Patriot Awards at The Grand Ole Opry on Nov. 16, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images)

President-elect Donald Trump will nominate former U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy, a Wisconsin Republican, to be the next secretary of Transportation, Trump said in a statement Monday evening.

Duffy, who earned praise from both parties during his House tenure for helping to pass legislation funding a bridge connecting Wisconsin and Minnesota, won five elections to the U.S. House but resigned his seat in 2019 to care for a daughter born with a heart condition and Down syndrome.

Duffy appeared on MTV’s “The Real World” before running for Congress. He met his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, on the show.

After leaving Congress, Duffy returned to TV, appearing as a commentator on CNN, a contributor for Fox News and later a co-host on Fox Business.

A former member of the House Financial Services Committee, he also led the financial services practice at the Republican-leaning lobbying firm BGR Group.

In the written statement from the presidential transition, Trump highlighted Duffy’s years in Congress.

“Sean will use his experience and the relationships he has built over many years in Congress to maintain and rebuild our Nation’s Infrastructure, and fulfill our Mission of ushering in The Golden Age of Travel, focusing on Safety, Efficiency, and Innovation,” Trump wrote. “Importantly, he will greatly elevate the Travel Experience for all Americans!”

Trump and Duffy appear to enjoy a warm relationship, with the former president encouraging Duffy to run for Wisconsin governor in 2022, bypassing the front-runner for the GOP nomination, former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch.

DOT portfolio

Congress passed, and President Joe Biden signed, a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021. That law authorizes highway and transit programs through the end of September 2026.

The law increased several sources of transportation funding, including some grant programs that are awarded at the secretary’s discretion.

If confirmed, Duffy would also oversee the Federal Aviation Administration, which is monitoring Boeing after a series of safety mishaps involving the manufacturer’s jets.

New standards for rail safety, following a disastrous derailment last year of a train carrying hazardous materials near East Palestine, Ohio, and autonomous vehicles could also be on the next secretary’s agenda.

Trump’s Transportation secretary in his first term was Elaine Chao, who was the Labor secretary under former President George W. Bush. Chao, who is married to outgoing Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, announced her resignation from the administration on Jan. 7, 2021, the day after a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Trump’s record on transportation during his first term was marked by a series of false starts on a massive infrastructure package that never materialized. Some inside the administration sought to boost private-sector involvement in infrastructure, while others favored more direct federal spending.

The Milwaukee Police Administration Building downtown. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

Back in July, a lot happened while the Republican National Convention (RNC) was going on in downtown Milwaukee. Donald Trump accepted his party’s presidential nomination. Local residents protested the RNC. Out-of-state police killed an unhoused man in King Park, and the convention brought so much traffic to the gay and bisexual dating app Grindr that it crashed. Those events and more were probably followed by the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) using a new tool to scan, scrape and search online activity. 

In April, the MPD announced that it was seeking an open source intelligence tool ahead of the RNC. Basically, anything which can be openly seen and accessed online counts as open source intelligence. Using the tool, the MPD planned to augment its online monitoring capabilities. What would have taken hours just a few years ago could be reduced to minutes. By the end of May, MPD had settled on an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered software called Babel Street. The contract for Babel Street, which was not to exceed $43,673.50, was awarded on May 23.

A Request for Proposal (RFP) document, compiled by the Pewaukee-based technology brokerage company Abaxent, provides details on Babel Street. The document was obtained by Wisconsin Examiner through open records requests. Utilized by the U.S. Armed Forces, intelligence agencies and the federal government, Babel Street “empowers users to extend their search to the farthest corners of the globe, netting data beyond the traditional scope of [publicly available information] in a safe and secure environment,” the RFP document states. “It opens the door to enriched and standardized [publicly available information] data from over 220 countries.”

Not only can Babel Street search online content in over 200 languages, it also employs “sentiment scoring” in over 50 languages. A Babel Street glossary of terms webpage states that sentiment analysis involves determining “if a given text is expressing a positive, negative sentiment or no particular sentiment (neutral).” The RFP document also claims that Babel Street’s use of AI “accelerates investigations and uncovers connections.”  

An MPD spokesperson echoed that point, saying in an emailed statement to Wisconsin Examiner that the software has “increased the speed of investigations.” The spokesperson said that Babel Street is used by MPD’s Fusion Division. Social media investigations are a staple for Milwaukee’s Fusion Center, composed of both MPD’s Fusion Division and the Southeastern Threat Analysis Center (STAC). Originally created for homeland security, the Fusion Center serves a variety of roles today — whether that’s operating the city’s Shotspotter gunshot surveillance system, monitoring a camera network spanning Milwaukee County, conducting ballistic tests, accessing phones seized by officers, or processing information from cell towers. 

Within the Fusion Center, analysts assigned to the Virtual Investigations Unit monitor social media, investigating not only people but entire social ecosystems. Babel Street “pinpoints key online influencers, allowing investigators to explore networks from a powerful starting point,” the RFP document states. “Rapidly exposing and unlocking their web of relationships delivers crucial information in a matter of minutes.” All of that data then gets plugged into sophisticated visualizations such as maps, algorithmic scores, or graphs. “Visualized mapping unearths influencers who have the greatest impacts on organizations, senior leaders, and world events,” the document explains. “Advanced algorithms score and prioritize critical online entities to measure this influence, bringing to the forefront obscure identities that make up their network.” 

Babel Street can track the growth of online influence emanating from a person or group of interest to police. Investigators can also set real-time updates alerting them to new developments online, as well as “persistent” monitoring. “A persistent Document Search on an identified threat actor continuously monitors filtered topics the actor is publicly engaging in,” according to the RFP document. “By establishing a persistent collection via user-built filters/queries, users can not only increase their data access and insight, but they can also automate the rate aspects of analysis.”

 

Contract B20203, Purchase Order PUR20203 (RNC Open Source Tool – Abaxent response)_Redacted

Records from the City of Milwaukee Purchasing Division, obtained through open records requests.

 

Babel Street draws on a wealth of online information to gather intelligence for police. An aspect of the software known as “Synthesis” allows MPD “to understand the profile of key influencers based on attributes, such as person/organization, location, occupation, interests, areas of influence, and communication style, which are automatically tagged for millions of accounts using an AI model, while still giving the City the option of manual tagging.” Babel Street also allows MPD to pair keyword searches with geo-fencing, thus alerting the department to posts within a specific geographic area. MPD’s new open source intelligence tool also enables data to be extracted from the dark web — parts of the internet which are not indexed in search engines and require specialized internet browsers to locate.

The ability of law enforcement to map online connections between people worried privacy advocates leading up to the RNC. In early April, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) warned that using an open source intelligence tool, MPD could more effectively track and profile people who were exercising their constitutional rights. David Maass, director for investigations at the EFF, told Wisconsin Examiner that open source intelligence tools “are designed to produce ‘results’ even if there’s no evidence of a nefarious plot.” 

Many police reform activists in Milwaukee also remember the protests of 2020, when police departments heavily relied on social media to surveil protesters. All of that information, however, takes time to collect and sift, especially when a department may only have so many analysts on hand. “No longer are analysts manually checking multiple data sources to identify changes,” according to  the RFP document, “as Babel Street Insights persistently and automatically collects, ingests, and alerts users when new information is available, dramatically increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of each analyst.” 

All of that information, however, also needs to be vetted to ensure that it’s accurate. “Intelligence often requires vetting in order to determine whether it is reliable or not,” MPD’s spokesperson wrote in an email statement. “Additional investigation would be required with all intelligence.”

MPD said that it does not track Babel Street’s involvement in investigations, either during the RNC or after. There is also no standard operating procedure governing the software’s use by MPD, a spokesperson told Wisconsin Examiner. “This software is utilized to investigate crimes or to assist with mitigating threats to pre-planned large-scale events,” wrote the spokesperson in a statement. No decisions have been made yet about renewing the MPD’s one-year contract for Babel Street. 

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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.”

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Flanked by Sam Liebert, left, and Scott Thompson, center, Nick Ramos of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign addresses reporters Thursday outside a Wisconsin state office building. The three criticized Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde for not conceding after vote tallies reported that Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin finished the election with 29,000 more votes than Hovde. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

Voting rights advocates joined the calls Thursday for Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde to back away from accusations he made earlier this week that something went wrong with vote-counting in the election Hovde lost to Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

“This is a direct attempt to cast doubt on our free and fair elections. And this is not only disappointing, it’s unnecessary,” said Sam Liebert, Wisconsin state director for All Voting is Local at a news conference Thursday morning. The nonpartisan, nonprofit organization advocates for policies to ensure voting access, particularly for voters of color and other marginalized groups.

“The rhetoric of questioning our democracy is more than just words, but it contributes to chaos and confusion, which undermines public trust in our elections and the officials who administer them,” Liebert said.

The news conference, held outside the state office building that houses the Wisconsin Elections Commission, was organized by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonpartisan voting rights and campaign finance reform advocacy group.

Speakers emphasized Wisconsin’s history of ticket-splitting and the near equal division of Republican and Democratic voters. For that reason, they said, victories last week by Republican Donald Trump in the presidential race and Baldwin, a Democrat, in the Senate race shouldn’t be viewed as remarkable or suspicious.

“Donald Trump won, Tammy Baldwin won, Kamala Harris lost, and Erik Hovde lost,” said Scott Thompson, an attorney with the nonprofit voting rights and democracy law firm Law Forward. “The people of Wisconsin know it, and I think Eric Hovde knows it too.”

“What you’re doing is creating divisions, and that cannot be accepted here in Wisconsin,” said Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

During the campaign, Hovde “said all the right things — he talked about how he would honor the election results, talked about … there’s no time for us to continue these types of conspiracies and lies,” Ramos said. But since the election, he added, Hovde has shifted his attitude.

Hovde so far has declined to concede the U.S. Senate election, although The Associated Press called the race for Baldwin, the Democratic two-term incumbent, early Wednesday, Nov. 6. With 99% of the vote counted, Baldwin had a 29,000-vote lead over Hovde, a margin of slightly less than 1%. She declared victory after the AP call.

Hovde’s first public statement came a week after Election Day. In a video posted on social media Tuesday, he said he was waiting for the vote canvass to be completed before he would comment on the outcome.

“Once the final information is available and all options are reviewed, I will announce my decision on how I will proceed,” Hovde said.

Nevertheless, Hovde questioned the vote totals that were reported from Milwaukee’s central count facility, where the city’s absentee ballots are consolidated and tallied.

About 108,000 absentee and provisional ballots were counted in the early hours last Wednesday, with Baldwin garnering 82% of those votes, according to the Milwaukee Election Commission. In Milwaukee ballots cast in-person Tuesday, Baldwin won 75% of the vote.

Both Republican and Democratic analysts have pointed out that Democrats have disproportionately voted absentee over the last several elections and that the outcome Milwaukee reported last week was in line with those trends.

In his video, however, Hovde highlighted the late-counted ballots. He falsely called Baldwin’s lead in that tally “nearly 90%,” claiming that was “statistically improbable” in comparison with the in-person vote count.

Hovde said that because of “inconsistencies” in the data, “Many people have reached out and urged me to contest the election.”

Ramos pointed out Thursday that Wisconsin lawmakers had introduced a bill with bipartisan support that would have allowed election clerks to begin counting absentee ballots the day before Election Day — ending the late-night tally change  from absentee votes that have become a regular feature in Milwaukee.

The legislation passed the Assembly but died in the state Senate. “We have folks in the state Legislature that would rather play political games and would rather see moments like this than actually fix the problem,” Ramos said.

While Hovde spoke skeptically about the vote count in his video, in a talk radio interview after it was posted he described the election outcome as a “loss.”

Hovde is “talking out of both sides of his mouth right now,” Ramos said. “And so, on the one hand, we get to hear him say things like, you know, ‘It’s going to take me a while to get over this loss,’ and then we get to watch a video that gets broadly disseminated across X and Facebook and Instagram, where … he’s literally talking about how he does not believe what happened in Milwaukee and how the numbers shifted [in the ballot counting] aren’t accurate.”

In his video Hovde said that “asking for a recount is a serious decision that requires careful consideration.”

Counties must send their final vote canvass reports to the Wisconsin Elections Commission by Tuesday, Nov. 19. Candidates then have three days to make a recount request.

State law allows candidates to seek a recount if they lose by a margin of less than 1%, but it requires the candidate to pay the cost if the margin is more than 0.25%.

“He certainly can pursue a recount, although it looks like he’s going to have to pay for it himself,” said Thompson. “[But] Eric Hovde does not have the right to baselessly spread false claims and election lies.”

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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.

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The Oshkii Giizhik Singers perform at a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives fundraiser. | Photo by Frank Zufall

Family members of missing and murdered Indigenous people, along with their friends and supporters, gathered at Denfeld High School in Duluth, Minnesota Saturday for a fundraiser titled , “No More MMIW/R Concert and Art Exhibition – Honoring Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives.”

The purpose of the event was to raise money to help families of those who have been murdered or gone missing.

Event organizer Rene Goodrich, Native Lives Matter Coalition leader and a member of both the Minnesota and Wisconsin MMIW/R task forces, said the dollars raised would go to a MMIW/R mutual aid fund called Wiidosendiwag, Ojibwe for “Walking Together.”

Goodrich said the support would help families continue searches for relatives and fund advocacy and awareness in local communities.

Families represented at the event included relatives of Chantel Moose, 27, a Fond du Lac tribal member in Minnesota, who died from a knife wound on April 12 in Duluth (two persons have been taken into custody for the offense). They were joined by relatives of Peter M. Martin, 32, also a Fond du Lac tribal member who has been missing since March 8, 2024, last seen in the Mahnomen neighborhood of the reservation.

Attendees at the event observed an art exhibition of red dresses inspired by the MMIW/R movement.

Groups opposing the Enbridge Line 5 Pipeline near the Bad River Reservation in northern Wisconsin and representatives of agencies helping victims of sexual assault set up tables at the event.

The fundraiser featured a concert by the Oshkii Giizhik Singers, a traditional group of Indigenous women, Native American flute playing by Michael LaughingFox Charette (a Red Cliff tribal member) and two members of the Christian rock band, Remedy Drive, from Nashville, Tennessee, followed by Mitch McVicker, another Christian contemporary singer, with a final performance by Keith Secola, folk and blues rocker, who is a seven-time Native American Music Award winner.

David Zach, lead singer for Remedy Drive, has been involved with a group that has organized to fight sex trafficking in Asia and Central America.

Peter Martin

At one of the tables were family members and a friend of Peter Martin. They are all Fond du Lac tribal members: Martin’s older sister Linda Martin-Proulx, niece Izzy Proulx and friend of the family, Kayla Jackson.

The ongoing search efforts by the Martin family will be helped by funds raised Saturday.

“He has been missing since March 8, and we did a search on the Fond du Lac reservation,” said Jackson. “We’ve searched over 1,000 acres on the reservation.”

“He lived on Rustic Lane. It’s not like him to just leave without telling anybody,” said Izzy Proulx. “He’s really a homebody, so we think it’s really out of his character to just go off and not tell anybody. There’s been no activity on any of his social media or his bank accounts, like nothing.”

Initially there were intense searches for Martin, coordinated with law enforcement and tribal organizations, but then a heavy snow fell and hampered the effort.

“There were a lot of people coming out to help us before the snow,” said Izzy. “It (searches after the snow) got harder and harder but we still kept searching.”
Local law enforcement has been working with the family, collecting evidence and tips.
Izzy said tribal people often don’t trust law enforcement, but are more willing to give tips to the family.

The three women believe that there is foul play involved in Martin’s disappearance.
“As you see on the flier, he’s 32 and he’s a father,” said Izzy. “His daughter is maybe one or two years old when he went missing, so he’s a first-time father and he wouldn’t just leave his daughter behind and he is from a big family.”

The searches have uncovered articles of clothing believed to be Martin’s. The family is conducting ongoing searches in areas that haven’t been looked at. They are using technology from law enforcement to organize efforts so the searchers in the forest can systematically comb for evidence.

“We’ve had some dogs brought in from South Dakota to work with us, too,” said Izzy.
There was also a contribution of remote communication radios in the field, and the Fond du Lac Police Department has been working with the family to ensure the searches are safe.

“They gave us life jackets to wear as we were searching over bogs,” she said.
However, as time drags on, the search effort is more and more just family members holding out hope they find Martin or evidence to explain what happened to him.

Grassroots effort

Before the concert, Goodrich thanked those who came out to support the fundraiser, and she talked about its importance.

“There’s a larger work that’s happening with Indigenous advocates, grassroots boots on the ground with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives crisis,” she said. “Yes, we do have a crisis. The numbers are astounding.”

She added, “This is not a new crisis. This is not a new epidemic. This is very historical to Turtle Island (Earth) to Indigenous peoples and has been happening since the very onset of colonization onto Turtle Island.”

She noted that in Minnesota there are 13 MMIW/R open cases, representing at least 13 families who have been affected and their larger communities.

According to a 2017 U.S. Department of Justice report, she said, Native American women face murder rates in some U.S. counties and reservations that are 10 times the national average, and homicide is the third leading cause of death for Native American girls between the ages of 10-24 and the fifth leading cause of death for those ages 25-34. More than 84% of Native American women had faced violence in their lifetimes with over 56% experiencing sexual assault.

“Over 40% of our women that have identified as victims of sex trafficking have identified as American Indian, Alaskan Native and also our First Nations (Canadian Indigenous) people,” she said. “So our women are greatly disproportionately targeted by violence.”

Goodrich also cited a 2016 National Institute of Justice study which showed 1.4 million American Indian and Alaska Native men have also experienced violence in their lifetimes.

The MMIW/R movement, Goodrich said, began 40 years ago in Canada and in 2012-13 spread to North Dakota and Minnesota.

In the Twin Ports area of Duluth, Minnesota and neighboring Superior, Wisconsin, non-violence groups, legislators and nonprofit community partners and police departments, especially the Duluth Police, created a local reward fund, called Gaagig-Mikwendaagoziwag, Ojibwe for “They will be remembered forever.” The reward fund has been accepted as a statewide program in Minnesota, offering up to $10,000 for tips on MMIW/R cases.

Goodrich called the effort in Minnesota “historic,”and said the same grassroots effort would be instrumental in creating the fund for families.

“How do we best meet that need?” she asked. “We do that on a grassroots level by meeting just like we’re meeting tonight, by creating innovative and different pathways to meet these needs, and we don’t ask for permission. We push forward and wait for the state to pick it up.”

Future fundraising

A second fundraiser is set for the Twin Ports Trafficking and MMIW Awareness Month on Jan. 11, 2025 in Superior.
More information will be available at https://www.facebook.com/share/19QyCYKLov/

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