Wisconsin Gets Win Against Proposed Gtac Mine

Wisconsin needed a win, and Friday we got a big one.

The proposed massive open-pit Gogebic Taconite (Gtac) Iron ore mine that would destroy pristine habitats and waters and fill in wetlands looks dead in the wake of a statement issued Friday by Gtac President Bill Williams announcing the firm will close its Hurley office in Iron County effective Sunday. (Rick Olivo, Ashland Daily Press)

Amid Scott Walker's assaults against the Wisconsin environment and University of Wisconsin System, the news spread quickly across social media.

The closing of the mine was predicted two years ago by an attorney in Iron County, Tony Stella.

The proposed mine attracted national attention with New York Times writer, Dan Kaufman, calling the fight against the mine, The Fight for Wisconsin's Soul.

Professor Charles Wilkerson, Distinguished Moses Lasky Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School, also said Native American Treaty Law would doom the mine. (Mal Contends)

At the site of the citizens group, Citizens Concerned about the proposed Penokee Mine (Facebook), people expressed joy and determination to fight again should Gtac decide to move on another front in this massive con game.

Writes Wisconsin environmentalist, Jim Rowen:

GTac says it is shelving its plan to blow up, dig up and mill the Penokee Hills in the Bad River watershed for low-grade iron ore already in surplus supply - - because, it says it found too much water in the wetlands in the watershed at the edge of Lake Superior.

Sure, it took the mining company four years to make this discovery.

The uproar the plan caused in state politics helped force the moderate GOP mining opponent Dale Schultz from the State Senate and it seems as if the company wasted $700,000 in thank you money in routed to a Scott Walker advocacy group for his getting a sweetheart enabling bill that is still on the books through the Legislature.

A mining protestor, Katie Krow Kloth, is still facing a criminal charge from a corrupt Iron County District Attorney, Martin Lipske, who fronts for the Gtac mine and the Iron County sex industry, including sex trafficking of minors.

Maybe the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin or the FBI will look into this one day. I would not hold my breath.

In the mean time, those on the front lines in Iron and Ashland counties should be feeling good about themselves this weekend.

Said Wisconsin environmentalist, Barbara With: "I am glad that people are being realistic about GTac closing their offices, having intelligent discussions, etc etc but for this moment, can we please just be happy they are leaving? No it doesn't mean the stand is over, no, it doesn't mean they aren't coming back. But for now, thousands and thousands of people stood long and strong to protect our water, and GTAC is closing their offices and leaving. For now. So for now, we celebrate. It doesn't mean we are naive or stupid or don't understand the bigger picture. But for god's sake if we cannot savor a moment we have long dreamt of, what's the point? This effort has been exhausting. I don't know about anyone else, but I personally gave up my life for several years to take this action. So for now, please, just let me be happy. that is all."

Indian Treaty Law Expert: Adverse Effect on Treaty-protected Species Dooms Mine

Getches, Wilkinson, Williams and Fletcher's
Cases and Materials on Federal Indian Law

Charles F. Wilkinson, arguably the leading legal expert on native American treaties who literally wrote the book on Federal Indian Case Law, and wrote and edited numerous other treatises on federal Native American law, offered his comments on the Lac Courte Oreilles' efforts to halt the proposed Gogebic Taconite mine in an e-mail received moments ago.

Professor Wilkerson is the Distinguished Professor, Moses Lasky Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School, and most recently primary author of the Cases and Materials on Federal Indian Law, (6th ed. 2011) (with David H. Getches, Robert A. Williams, Jr. and Matthew L. M. Fletcher)

Wilkerson's brief e-mail appears to indicate that because Republicans have admitted they expect environmental damage in the very text of bill, the mine likely will have to be revised or abandoned when challenged in light of Native American treaties.

[See Charles Pierce's Wisconsin INC: "The bill reflects the reality of mining. There are going to be some impacts to the environment above the iron ore body," said (Sen. Tom) Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst.]
 ---
Reads Prof. Wilkinson's e-mail:

This iron mine complex cannot go ahead without a full analysis of the treaty rights of the Lac Courte Oreilles (LCO) band. More than a century and a half ago, the LCO negotiated treaties that guaranteed tribal members the right to hunt and fish on their former lands. The transfer of those lands by the tribes has been of great benefit to the non-Indians of northern Wisconsin but the courts have squarely recognized that, in return, those promises must be honored. Earlier this year a federal judge in Washington State ruled, under similar circumstances, that the treaties require more than just allowing tribal members to hunt and fish—the treaties also require healthy habitat so that the species can thrive.

And, so, the question is: 'Will this mining complex adversely affect the habitat of treaty-protected species?' If so, the proposed mining project will have to be revised or abandoned.

Charles Wilkinson
Moses Lasky Professor of Law
University of Colorado Law School
#

Corruption Fuels Mining Company's Moves in Northern Wisconsin

When the multibillion-dollar mining corporation with a record of poisoning the environment came into Wisconsin and announced it intended to dig and operate a 20-mile, open pit iron-ore mine in the Penokee Hills of Northern Wisconsin under the authority of state legislation the mining company drafted, opposition arose quickly.

Gogebic Taconite, one cog in the huge private mining conglomerate, Cline Resource and Development Group, determined they wanted the iron-ore extracted in what would be the largest mine in Wisconsin's history, and the Republican Party decided they wanted the $15 million they received from the mining concerns.

What the people of Wisconsin want is of no concern.

What environmentalists and Native Americans wish specifically similarly is of no apparent concern, as now Iron County (Wisconsin) officials are threatening to evict, arrest and prosecute the Lac Courte Oreilles band which has set up a Harvest and Education camp near the mining site.

The Bad River Band soon will set a similar camp.

Iron County is the least populated county in Wisconsin, isolated in the north woods; and its district attorney, one Martin Lipske, is known for being corrupt, incompetent and provincial. A lot like the Republican Party.

Worse, Lipske is suspected of deceitfully pursuing and obtaining the conviction in 1997 of an innocent man, Don Miller, now serving a 42-year sentence for a crime that he apparently did not commit, though Lipske has been shown to have been made aware of exculpatory evidence.

Small town justice in the deep north woods in a county selling out the environment and taking away the life blood of an innocent man.

Lipske refuses comment on all matters now, and in recent weeks has gone silent on the mining operation as his history has hit Wisconsin political blogs.

Now, Lipske pursues his effort on behalf of Gogebic Taconite to charge a 26-year-old woman protester, Katie M. Kloth, 26, of Stevens Point, with robbery with force, misdemeanor theft, and two counts of criminal damage to property.

Her crime?

Kloth yelled at Gogebic Taconite personnel and allegedly stole a cell phone some weeks back.

Lipske has amble experience in throwing people in prison for years without cause. But the spotlight is beginning to shine on Lipske now, illuminating a corrupt and cowardly man ... hiding.

This will change, and I predict here Lipske will meet justice for his crimes.

As for the environment under threat by Gogebic Taconite and supported by Iron County officials and the Republican Party, public consciousness of the planet we inhabit has a way of exploding.

"No one should be surprised by what this mining company is doing. So many people in this country have been raised without an environmental ethic. It's hard for them to develop a sense of the earth as an organism when you live in an artificial setting and away from what's natural," said Becky Gawboy, a Native American environmental and education activist living in rural northeastern Minnesota. "Corporations like this mining outfit are simply the culmination of a culture that is obsessed with material things like TVs, isolated and alienated from the living world. Of course they can't make healthy decisions about the environment because they don't see themselves as part of it. They wish to devour it. Really, corporation are evil entities and as corporations have evolved they have become the center of darkness, a rapacious, destructive force."

Iron County, Wisconsin is not Lowndes County, Alabama—a notorious, racist county 1,100 miles almost due south from Hurley, Wisconsin.

But small-town injustice and corruption join Iron County and Lowndes County.

Iron County features an epic case study in corruption and a huge corporation v. families and the environment; the fate of this clash is directly dependent on how many good men and women remain silent.

Scott Walker's Broken Promises

Not working

"[E]very initiative that's undertaken and every program that's administered will be examined for its effect on jobs. Every decision must be considered in the context of what it means for job creation and economic recovery."
- Scott Walker's 2010 Campaign Site

A reformist Wisconsin press committed to good government, holding politicians accountable, and reporting the truth would be giving Scott Walker failing grades in fulfilling campaign promises, accusing him of deceit or incompetence on a massive scale.

But don't look at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's PolitiFact's "Walk-O-Meter: Tracking the promises of Scott Walker" for such a scale.

Politifact is a scam, a newspaper gimmick flacking for Walker's most important promise: 250,000 new jobs, rated by Politifact as "in the works."

Walker's 250,000 is constantly spun by this dishonest administration, and Walker's performance is found wanting.

Here's the Capital Times database keeping track of the 250,000 jobs mark. Wisconsin is bringing up the rear among our neighboring states.

Such data should be kept by every media outlet.

In fact Wisconsin has dropped down to 44th in the nation in creating private-sector jobs.

Walker also made a promise to "(s)trip policy and pork projects from the state budget," another broken promise that even some Republicans are calling Walker on, as noted by Bill Lueders in Isthmus.

Consider taxes. Walker hiked taxes on seniors and working families by nearly $70 million, as noted by Melissa Baldauff.

Education, check out Walker's 2010 site; in fact pick any issue and Walker has failed miserably.

But the jobs promise is the most egregious of Walker's broken promises, aka lies:

Presenting Scott Walker's 68 Page Plan to Create 250,000 Jobs

After Scott's big primary victory, he has been traveling the state to spread the word about his plan to get government out of the way to allow the private sector to create 250,000 jobs during his first term. ...

One could talk about Walker's secret agenda as well.

About that "Cline Group’s Wisconsin-based subsidiary Gogebic Taconite’s proposed $1.5 billion open pit iron mine in the Penokee Range south of Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin’s Ashland and Iron counties."

That's one hell of bomb to drop on the Wisconsin people.

Scott Walker's Bombs Include Obliterating Community Control

Christopher Cline's Mega Mansion in North Palm Beach
Mining mogul Cline has his eyes set on northern Wisconsin's iron ore,
but Cline will not appear in person before community boards
concerned about environmental disasters and massive pollution.
The trip to Wisconsin from Palm Beach might interfere with Cline's life.
Cline is an avid mega yacht enthusiast - northern Wisconsin is not his place.
Cline famously sold his $27-million yacht, the 161-foot Mine Games,
because Cline had a larger boat on order, so don't expect Cline to
come up before some County Board and community panels to justify
his company coming in and destroying a near-pristine environment.
The man's too busy for Wisconsin.

Scott Walker never campaigned on taking away the liberty of workers to organise.

Walker never campaigned on taking away local control of communities to set policies protecting citizens, protecting its schools, and local environments.

Walker never campaigned on taking away a women's right to choose, or closing Planned Parenthood centers serving women's health care.

But only two years into Walker's administration, these rights and many others lie in ruin, as if hit by a depleted uranium shell air strike from a corrupt administration literally targeting its own citizens in service to huge-moneyed interests.

It would be nice to hear to voices of opposition on every medium, every street corner. But the guns of opposition have gone virtually silent. For now. Citizen action is gathering and war plans are being made.

Walker won't back down—because he's so brave (ask him)—from taking away the power of communities enacting residency requirements for their local employees.

Walker and the GOP are sneaking the anti-residency provision into the state budget, against almost unanimous opposition from community mayors, village presidents, town managers and other elected municipal representatives.

As more extreme, severe-weather events occur, Walker's usurpation could have another unforeseen effect, at least an uncared-about effect.

Said Larry Arft, City Manager in Beloit, Wisconsin: "Don’t forget, public works employees are also first responders. Winter storm events, summer rain storms, wind storms, we have people on call for our utilities. 24/7 somebody has to be on call and they need to be there in a few minutes."

Not Walker's concern.

If communities start passing laws protecting their land in any capacity, how can out-of-state billionaires strip the land? What would be next, stopping fracking?

Walker is getting set to cash in on his work for billionaires and out-of-state interests who could not care less if Wisconsin tips over and falls into Lake Michigan, as long as the Christopher Clines (a pure bastard of a man hooked up with the Carlyle Group) and the Koch brothers get their hands on our resources, the Wisconsin people and our public land and waters be damned.

New Film Says, Stop the Disaster Inflicted by the GOP and Mining Goon, Christopher Cline

The Iron Current

One would believe that self-consciously polluting water and watersheds is an act of mass poisoning perpetrated by sociopaths like the kind of crazies hunted by the FBI.

They should be.

What the Republicans and Christoper Cline's minions are doing is unforgivable.

A new documentary film coming out chronicles the crime before it happens—The Iron Current.

The documentary examines the issue of iron ore mining in northern Wisconsin and its impact on local citizens and the environment. The Iron Current: The goal of this documentary is to show how the communities and citizens of Northern Wisconsin are reacting to a proposed iron ore mine near Lake Superior. If permitted, this mine would be the largest open pit iron ore mine in the world, up to four and a half miles long and reaching depths of one thousand feet during phase one. With the unemployment rate near twelve percent in the area, many residents are aware of the need for good paying jobs. Other residents however, aren’t willing to gamble the environment for the jobs, especially the people of the Bad River Indian Reservation, which is located at the mouth of the Bad River on Lake Superior. The proposed mine would be placed at the headwaters of the Bad River, six miles upstream from the Indian Reservation.

The documentary will examine many complex topics surrounding this issue. The proposed mine site lies upon the oldest mountain range in the world called the Penokee Hills, which contains one half of the remaining Iron Ore left in the continental United States. It is an environmentally rich area consisting of many rivers and streams which make up the Bad River Watershed and the Kokaggun sloughs, nicknamed the Everglades of Lake Superior. The Bad River Watershed is considered the most pristine estuary left throughout the Great Lakes by many biologists and also serves as an important spiritual center for the Lake Superior Ojibwe people.

(Directed by Dean Vogtman; produced by Dean Vogtman and Dan Fitzpatrick).

Scott Walker Trying to Provoke Those Opposed to Massive Open Pit Mine

Stand against Scott Walker and Christopher Cline

Update: Meanwhile, back in Madison Scott Walker's Department of Administration "plans to implement emergency rules for citing protesters, which would bypass the need for public input," and allow the police to successfully target anyone protesting Walker's policies, even to the point of closing the state capitol because of the declared emergency.
---
"I think (mining-related companies) would like to get going as quickly as possible," Scott Walker said. "Even with the threat of legal action, I don't think you'll see a slowdown of the process."

Scott Walker knows exactly how his words are received, and now Walker is attempting to again play the part of agent provocateur.

Just days after Walker signed the mining bill gutting environmental laws, in typical Walker fashion, Walker is directing his rare public comments with words intended to offend, insult and inflame those who oppose the huge mine.

Opposition to the Gogebic Taconite's [of Cline Resource and Development Group] open-pit iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin is growing; and Native Americans have made clear they will not stand down as their land is raped and the waters are polluted.

Walker acts like the operation and legality of the open pit mine is a fait accompli.


Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters

Walker gives no measure of respect whatsoever to the widespread opposition and the many legal and constitutional problems with the mining bill and the proposed mine.

He doesn't even attempt to address any concern, no matter how widespread, no matter how obviously valid, no matter the grave nature of what an open pit mine can do to an ecological system

"I think (mining-related companies) would like to get going as quickly as possible," Walker said last week. "Even with the threat of legal action, I don't think you'll see a slowdown of the process."

Walker wants conflict; that's why he shows open contempt by pretending to believe opposition does not exist, and that no serious issues are in play.

Walker has his hand on the National Guard trigger, and would love to call for federal law enforcement to block Native American resistance, all in service to the mining industry and Walker's political career.

As Al Gedicks notes, Gogebic Taconite's open-pit mine is "not only a major rollback of environmentally protective mining laws, it is also a well-funded mining industry assault on the grass-roots environmental, sport fishing and tribal movement."

Governor as troll: One who makes inflammatory commentary intended to offend.

A corrupt governor and a con artist, Cline Resource and Development Group's Scott Walker may one day look back and discover that the open-pit iron ore mine was a bribe and callow insult too far.

Stand with the Bad River Tribe Site

Stand with our environment, our state and the Bad River Tribe

Stand with our environment, our state and the Bad River Tribe,

"Throughout the process, Republican leaders along with the Governor have falsely claimed that the bill would not reduce environmental standards. However, the day following Senate deliberation of the bill, Senate author Tom Tiffany finally admitted the truth - that his bill would not only allow for 'adverse environmental impacts' to occur during mining, but that the bill was written to protect the company in the case of an inevitable lawsuit."

- Wisconsin Sen. Bob Jauch (Poplar, Wisconsin), via Sarah LittleRedfeather Kalmanson

View of the econsystem immediately downstream from Gogebic Taconite’s proposed mine

Update: Must reads today by Charles Pierce (Esquire) and Brian Pierson (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), an attorney representing the Bad River band of Chippewa arguing for the rule of law.
---
From Rep. Tod Ohnstad (D-Kenosha):  Aerial view of the econsystem immediately downstream from Gogebic Taconite’s proposed mine in northern Wisconsin.

"The way the Republicans have rushed this bill through the committee process left me no choice but to vote against it,” said Rep. Ohnstad. "We would have more hearings of the Kenosha City Council about whether to put up a new stop sign!"

As for Gogebic Taconite's Christopher Cline: You really think I give a shit, I live in Palm Beach!

Cline is like locusts; or more specifically the privately held Cline Resource and Development Group.

He buys up the politicians for sale; his companies come in, consumes all the natural resources; and then they as Cline's companies leave a wasteland.

He wants to despoil a pristine environment, and make a lot of money doing it.

What the people of Wisconsin, and the people of Ashland and Iron counties want is not Cline's concern.

Mining Owner from Palm Beach Gave Tommy Thompson $2,500, $10,000s More to GOP in 2012

Christopher Cline of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and head of Gogebic Taconite gave Tommy Thompson $2,500 for Thompson's unsuccessful run for U.S. Senate in 2012, a search at the Center for Responsive Politics reveals.
Cline has numerous companies that he uses to funnel money into politicians with their hands out.

Cline also contributed over $100,000 in 2012 alone to GOP organizations and figures including Mitt Romney and House Speaker John Boehner, and remains a dirty coal producer who some call the New King of Coal.

As for Wisconsin, taking the iron and trashing the environment will do nicely.

Gogebic Taconite's Christopher Cline is set on raping the land in northern Wisconsin and no one is going to get in his way.

Certainly, not the people who live in in Iron and Ashland counties.

GOP May Find Out: Not a Good Idea to Mess with Folks' Land and Homes

Bad River Is Terrible Place to Rip Up and Plunder

GOP and Mining Interests: We're just here to help.The privately held Mining group that rewrote Wisconsin's environmental laws with GOP complicity is of course in this for the money, and it doesn't care what it leaves behind.
---
Messing with people's land is not wise, no matter how illegally and underhanded the Wisconsin Republican Party has decided to scheme with the Florida-based Gogebic Taconite.

Scott Walker is in Florida for a fundraiser; wonder if any of his mining buddies are around.

For Gogebic Taconite to come to Iron and Ashland counties and rip up and pollute the land on the Bad River Watershed—which empties into Lake Superior, and the homes of the Bad River Indian Reservation and Wisconsin residents on this pristine land—will prove a difficult proposition no matter how many Republicans Gogebic Taconite have in their pockets.

In fact, this attack on a way of life may make Scott Walker's attack on workers look like a walk in the park by comparison.

"GOP extremists are fully in charge of Wisconsin state government and are willing to attack a native culture and the state's constitution for political and partisan hegemony," notes Jim Rowen after news that the state assembly passed the iron mining bill on a party line vote.

Now, GOP extremists may just find out how badly it plays to savage the Wisconsin Constitution, and pillage the pristine Bad River and Lake Superior in the land that Wisconsin citizens and Native Americans up North call home, many of whom live there because it's stunningly beautiful.

As for Gogebic Taconite, it is but one $billion company of the privately held Cline Resource and Development Group, of billionaire Christopher "Chris" Cline fame.

Cline is this for money, period. Not for jobs, not for preserving the land, not for helping Northern Wisconsin. In 2011, the New York Times (Geraldine Fabrikant) ran a piece on the slowing market for mega yachts.

The 161-foot Mine Games, a boat built by Trinity Yachts of Gulfport, Miss., was put on the market for $27 million several months ago, for example, because its owner, Chris Cline, who heads Cline Resource and Development, a mine development company, had a larger boat on order.

Not sure who Cline and his partners are going to have do Gogebic Taconite's public relations campaign up north in Wisconsin, but I can tell you they are going to be good.

Consider our neighbor to the South, Illinois. From the AP:

An investor who's trying to develop an iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin also owns a coal mine in Illinois that's accused of doing too little to resolve long-standing water pollution problems.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is seeking enforcement action over Macoupin Energy, alleging that the company isn't adequately addressing groundwater problems at its Shay 1 mine in Carlinville, Ill., the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported (http://bit.ly/14ts7XI) (on March 6, 2013).

The agency said it plans to refer the case to the Illinois attorney general's office.

Macoupin is one of four Illinois mines owned by billionaire Christopher Cline, who wants to build a $1.5 billion iron ore mine just south of Lake Superior ... .

The proposed Wisconsin mine, known as Gogebic Taconite, is at the center of a debate over whether Wisconsin should ease environmental safeguards and make other regulatory changes to the process of granting mine permits.

Republicans and the huge energy companies assure us: Don't fret over the environment, climate change, your land, your water, or your backyard; we're just here to help.