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Tuesday, May 3, 2022
Happy Wednesday, Wisconsin! We made it to midweek.

Here's the tl;dr for today's newsletter...
  • I’m frankly amazed that I have to say, 'Don’t destroy records that are subject to an open records request.'" But that's what a judge had to tell the Speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly on Wednesday—the second time a judge has had to state the obvious in court cases involving Republicans' alleged investigation into the 2020 presidential election.
     
  • A plan to drill for gold, zinc, and other minerals in a sensitive part of Marathon County has rattled plenty of folks already dealing with industrial chemicals in their well water.
     
  • During this National Small Business Week, the Biden administration has crunched the numbers on how much a Republican plan would raise taxes on Wisconsin's hometown entrepreneurs.
     
  • At first, Sen. Ron Johnson only wanted to complain about the leak of a likely US Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. But now that it's out there, Johnson calls it "the correct decision" and he said abortion rights should be subject to the whims of public opinion on a state by state basis. 
State by state basis? That's the kind of thing you do to decide whether to have toll roads or an official state dance, not fundamental rights for every American.

 
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with tips, suggestions, and ideas. 
 
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Sen. Johnson Wants 'Messy' State-by-State Rules to Govern Abortion Access 

Sen. Ron Johnson praised the potentially explosive US Supreme Court decision to repeal women’s abortion rights as “the correct decision” and said that the states should become a checkerboard where abortion is legal is some places, illegal in others, and partially legal elsewhere.

Commenting Tuesday evening on Newsmax, theWisconsin Republican said reproductive health rights should be “put back in the court of public opinion.”

“Even if this is the final decision, from my standpoint this is the correct decision,” Johnson said. “Each individual state will decide this for themselves.”

Long claimed to be “settled law” by its conservative critics, Roe v. Wade is now being characterized as divisive rather than a fundamental healthcare right.

Having the Supreme Court make a ruling in Roe “didn’t solve the problem, didn’t end the debate,” Johnson said. He also believes abortion will remain legal in most states.

“It may be a messy process, but it’s the right way to decide this.”

As for the resulting births from unwanted pregnancies, Johnson expressed his opposition in January to helping families with climbing childcare costs. “I don’t think it’s controversial to believe that it’s parents’ primary responsibility to raise their children, not somebody else’s,” he said. 

Last year, he single-handedly delayed passage of the American Rescue Plan, which delivered $1,400 checks to most families, put money behind rental assistance, and lowered healthcare costs for plans purchased through the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplace.

WATCH: Courier Newsroom's Allan Piper lays out three key facts to know about the potential for Roe v. Wade to be overturned—and how it has made the governor and attorney general races in Wisconsin even more critical.

It's also a refresher of how Republicans sabotaged two Supreme Court vacancies and made it possible for abortion rights—supported by the vast majority of Americans—to be revoked.

Marathon County, Already Shaken by PFAS, Now Faces Test Drilling for a Potential Mine That Could Further Harm Groundwater 


Residents of Marathon County, already facing uncertainty about the health of their water supply, are providing input early in the process as a Canadian corporation seeks permission to do exploratory drilling for a potential metallic mine near Dells of the Eau Claire River County Park—something that many fear could cause catastrophic groundwater contamination.

The county board’s Environmental Resources Committee met Tuesday to discuss how the area in the Town of Easton is being examined by GreenLight Metals, a Canadian corporation that has an exploration permit from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) that lasts until June 30. GreenLight needs Marathon County’s permission to start studying whether initial drilling could lead to an open-pit mine in the future.

But even before the mining might begin, it's the test drilling that also causes concern. Some of the items on the DNR list of approved drilling and filling sealing products and drill lubricants appear to contain antifreeze, while others are cautioned to only be used as a last resort.

"This could go for three to five years and might mean thousands of holes with this level of toxicity,” said meeting attendee Ron James.

“Wausau has had problems with PFAS,” meeting attendee Nancy Stencil said of the recent discovery of industrial chemicals in every city well. “What is happening with the water and groundwater? Where are the guarantees if something goes through? Will people be able to drink their water? Prove that mining is not going to damage the groundwater at all. Sulfuric mining, what we’re talking about, this is acid, this is what [the project] is.”

Mining in the state for non-iron products had once been subject to stricter regulation, but former Gov. Scott Walker and a Republican-led Legislature killed rules that said a company must show that a similar mine in the US or Canada had run and then been closed for 10 years without polluting the area. The legislation was introduced by US Rep. Tom Tiffany during his time in the state Senate.

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Four Out of Every Five Owners of the Smallest Businesses in Wisconsin Would Pay Higher Taxes Under a Republican Senate Plan


Small Business Week is taking on special meaning this year as entrepreneurs whose businesses survived the pandemic look back on the previous two years. Despite federal relief and targeted efforts by state governors, small businesses owners are still largely on shaky ground. Even so, a plan proposed by the head of the US Senate Republicans' campaign committee would hike taxes for most of them.

According to a new analysis by the Biden administration, more than half of Wisconsin small business owners, including 80% of those who earn less than $50,000 per year, would face a significant tax increase under a tax plan put forward by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida)—a 60-page, 11-point proposal filled with conservative priorities that he would push to enact if Republicans are victorious in November.

Scott’s proposal, which Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson described as a “positive thing," includes plans to raise taxes on the poorest Wisconsinites and potentially end Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act—or at least force those plans and every other federal law to face elimination every five years.

Scott—who in 2018 was worth $260 million—did not provide details about how his plan would work, but a new White House analysis suggests that under Scott’s plan, 52% of small business owners in Wisconsin would face a tax hike, with the typical business paying an extra $700 per year in taxes. The Republican’s proposal would also disproportionately harm those small businesses earning under $50,000 per year, with 80% of such business owners experiencing a median tax increase of $500 per year.

The plan has been criticized by President Joe Biden, who has overseen a small business boom as Americans have applied to start 5.4 million new small businesses in 2021, a number 20% higher than any previous year on record. 
 
—Keya Vakil

Judge to Assembly Speaker Vos: Frankly Amazed I Have to Tell You Not to Destroy Records About Election Probe


For the second time in as many weeks, a judge on Wednesday ordered that records related to the Republican-ordered, taxpayer-funded investigation into the 2020 election in Wisconsin not be deleted, saying she was “amazed” such an order was necessary.

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos hired former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to look into the election won by President Joe Biden. Vos and Gableman are also defendants in three open records lawsuits filed by the liberal watchdog group American Oversight.

Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington on April 21 ordered Gableman “not to delete or destroy any record that is or may be responsive” to the group’s open records requests. Remington made the order after Gableman’s attorney told American Oversight that it “routinely deletes documents and text messages that are not of use to the investigation.”

On Wednesday, another judge issued a similar order directed at Vos.

“I don’t want any records destroyed,” Dane County Circuit Judge Valeria Bailey-Rihn said. “I’m frankly amazed that I have to say, `Don’t destroy records that are subject to an open records request,' [and] order that to occur. All of us know what the law is.”

—The Associated Press

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The mailbag address for Founding Editor Pat Kreitlow is  >>>  
Pat@UpNorthNewsWI.com

 
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