On Saturday, May 21, over 600 people arrived at the Northern Wisconsin Fairgrounds in Chippewa Falls to spend a day listening to and sharing their progressive ideas at the first annual Fighting Bob Fest North event. Although there were several "headline" speakers such as: Former US Rep. Dave Obey (D), US Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Wisconsin State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D) and John Nichols of The Nation; one would hardly know it by reading or watching the local media. The Chippewa Herald newspaper did cover the event, but none of the Eau Claire broadcast or newspaper organizations bothered.

It appears I have done a disservice to Assembly Democrats by suggesting they might hold off on ratifying state employee contracts because they are worried about how many staffers they will have next session.

Fortunately, I picked on a group whose reputation can't be damaged any further, in the wake of the Nov. 2 landslide that made them a small minority.

One report circulating, which was repeated here, is that Dems are leery about calling a special session to approve the new contracts because the new GOP majority has threatened to punish them by reducing Dem staffing levels for next session if they do.

Scott Walker, the governor-elect who can't seem to remember the part after the hyphen, has asked Gov.

New Hampshire just joined the list of states allowing gay marriage, after a quick trip through the legislature and a world-record-breaking signing by the governor. 

And yet, Wisconsin has somehow lost its progressive way on this issue.  2006 was the sad year in which Wisconsin legalized discrimination, both legally and morally.  It's time to fix this. Let's try again.  Let's keep trying until we get it right.

Once again, factory farms get a pass from a major environmental law 2/27/2008

If you live downwind from a mega-farm, don't put away those gas masks just yet.

The Natural Resources Board voted today to approve a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) rule that grants "sources of hazardous air pollution associated with agricultural waste" (read: manure) yet another exemption from state requirements concerning toxic air emissions. Now, these sources of pollution won't have to meet state requirements until July 31, 2011.

Since Borges is out on vacation, I thought I'd bring up the fact that the 2400 head Vernon County CAFO operation that she blogged about recently is probably going in . The Vernon County Board has voted to not support a moratorium on CAFO operations. More details when we have some.

Update -

There's now an article in the Vernon County Broadcaster .  Although there will be no moratorium on large animal operations --

The board did, however, approve two measures to address farm growth and land planning. On a pair of 15-14 votes, the board approved an animal siting ordinance limiting animal units and approved a measure to begin comprehensive planning.

The animal siting ordinance deals with farms with more than 500 animal units. That ordinance only gives the county oversight on the location of such an operation and is basically a permitting system. The ordinance is very similar to state legislation formulated for counties.

May 14-15 statewide conference at Monona Terrace in Madison. We'll ask conference participants to review and help us shape a set of recommendations and action steps. The proposals were formulated with extensive public input over the past two years of this Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters project. We'll issue a report later this year summarizing our findings and offering a final set of recommendations. We need concerned citizens to attend the conference and offer their insights and input. Registration information can be found at this_website. The conference will include in-depth discussions of important topics and will also offer arts and cultural activities focusing on the richness of rural life in our state.