Iron County DA Martin Lipske's Misconduct on Display Again

The volatile Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske in northern Wisconsin has struck again.

Yesterday, John Michael Kallas of Hurley, Wisconsin was found Not Guilty of "Repeated Sexual Assault of Same Child" by a jury in a criminal trial, Price County Circuit Court Judge Douglas T. Fox presiding, (notations from the Wisconsin Court System - Circuit Court Access (1st Degree Sexual Assault).

The acquittal of Mr. Kallas for an alleged incident in 2001 illustrates the pattern of DA Martin Lipske using the district attorney's office in a capricious (and corrupt) manner—filing severe criminal charges, and then filing more spurious charges in what has become Lipske's bizarre game of playing with defendants' lives—hence defendants often exercise their right for a judicial substitution [requesting a new judge per Wisconsin statute] because Lipske is widely viewed as being in political bed with Iron County Judge Patrick Madden, and Lipske's cases often end with dismissals and acquittals when judicial substitutions are requested.

Lipske likes to drag out cases, the better the process harasses and injures the defendants.

Lipske's conduct cries out for an investigation by the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR).

"Martin Lipske has run his district attorney's office in a vindictive and slip-shod fashion since he got his license to practice back. [Lipske was "Suspended for Discipline" for two years under the category of "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misconduct" in 1990, Mal Contends] Real people have suffered. Something, and I don't know what, has to be done," said Joe Agostine, Councilor of the City of Ashland and an environmental activist in neighboring Ashland County. "Lipske has terrorized people and I always say, for years, he keeps getting away with it. He gives lawyers a bad name. I have lost my faith in the criminal justice system if something isn't done and he is not held accountable. I mean he is in office supposed to be protecting people not terrorizing them."

The sordid story of Lipske and his routine perversion of the judicial system is largely off the Wisconsin political radar screen as Iron County is sparsely populated and isolated. And the local press, specifically the Iron County Daily Globe, frequently covers for Lipske and the Hurley sex trade.

This site has spoken with numerous activists and residents of Iron and Ashland counties, none of whom will speak on the record for fear of retribution from Lipske and his associated political machine that is viewed as vindictive. (Mal Contends)

Said one activist in the region, speaking on background. "Lipske is a sick SOB. He does play with peoples' lives. It's common knowledge, and I want to live long enough to see Lipske meet with some legal reckoning. I don't know what that is, but it shouldn't be that hard to make people see what's going on."

Kallas' exoneration comes just weeks after new charges were piled on by Lipske against Kallas in a separate case.

This is the Modus operandi of Lipske: Inflict and intimidate disfavored defendants by use of public office for the purpose of harassment and obtaining an advantage over a defendant. It is also a clear and repeated act of abuse of process. 

GTAC Frontman

The source speaking on background above has had no legal or formal dealings with Lipske, and was contacted initially for his opposition to the now apparently defunct plan of the billionaire mining mogul, Christopher Cline, and Cline's subsidiary, GTAC, to slash a massive open pit iron ore mine, in Iron and Ashland counties.

The proposed mine owners' agents at GTAC are part of the massive Scott Walker-coordinated criminal scheme that was exposed and investigated by a bipartisan group of prosecutors in a John Doe probe (now under adjudication at the Wisconsin Supreme Court) that saw Walker's campaign, Friends of Scott Walker, engage in settlement talks with law enforcement officials last year. (Fischer, PRWatch) Lipske is roundly criticized by Wisconsin environmentalists for siding with GTAC in the few cases Lipske involved his office.

Volatility

D.A. Martin Lipske protects sex trafficking in Iron County 

Lipske is criticized as well for the all-over-the-map quality of his prosecutions.

Last year Lipske covered up for a favored defendant who engaged in sex trafficking, paying $1,300 for a 14-year-old girl to be transported over 600 miles to a hotel in Mercer in Iron County in 2013. Lipske gave the man a deferred prosecution to the shock of local residents who thought this was too much for even Lipkse. (Mal Contends)

Lipkse will often charge a defendant, and then file a felony bailjumping charge without cause.

So, Lipske gets to manipulate the lives of disfavored defendants for apparent fun, political profit, and a self-conscious use of his discretionary power to obtain a dishonest advantage over disfavored defendants in repeated violation of SCR [Supreme Court Rule] 946.12(3) and Wisconsin criminal statute, (946.12 Misconduct in public office):

(3) Whether by act of commission or omission, in the officer's or employee's capacity as such officer or employee exercises a discretionary power in a manner inconsistent with the duties of the officer's or employee's office or employment or the rights of others and with intent to obtain a dishonest advantage for the officer or employee or another

Martin Lipske ought to front every daily newspaper in Wisconsin, absent that this story must be told and this site is committed to doing so as often as necessary.

Sources in Iron County say Lipske is planning on retiring soon. With justice he ought to be criminally investigated first.

District Atty Martin Lipske Covered for Child Sex Trafficking Offender

Iron County Martin Lipske runs legal interference for his
ally, Dennis D. Braun, in sex trafficking case in 2013-14

Update II: Another reader points out that Lipske, known for slow-walking cases, rushed this one though before Wisconsin's Sex Trafficking statute was passed and became widely publicized.

Updated - A reader points to the unpredictability and volatility of Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske in allegations-of-sexual-assault cases, noting a case in which Lipske had recommended 60 years of prison and 20 years of parole. (Ansami, Daily Globe (Ironwood, Michigan))
 ---

Suppose, and to be redundant hypothetically, a 14-year-old girl were transported over 600 miles to Madison to an isolated Madison hotel by three adults for the pleasures of a man paying $1,300.

Suppose early the next morning the girl fled the hotel screaming.

Suppose further that the man in the hotel room who paid the $1,300 was granted a liquor license 10 years earlier by the City, running a strip bar and brothel, among other dealings illegal under Wisconsin law.

Suppose further that the sitting District Attorney publicly took sympathies with the man in a local TV interview referring to him as a harmless "gentleman" after the incident, and then agreed to a deferred prosecution, meaning no prosecution of the man.

Suppose the absence of 'sexual predator' condemnations from the sitting District Attorney in the criminal complaint against the man, and no talk of protecting children.

I can tell you what would happen in Madison, and rightfully so: The community would be outraged, howls of condemnation would ring through the press, editorial demands for resignation of the DA would be legion across the political spectrum; child advocacy and sexual assault public interest groups would be all over the local media; a Recall petition would be launched within days; and national media would pick up the story asking: What is happening in Madison, Wisconsin?

This would not happen in Madison, Wisconsin and Dane County.

Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske

But this is precisely what occurred in 2013-14 in Iron County in far-northern Wisconsin in a hotel in the town of Mercer (population 1,407).

The case is State of Wisconsin vs. Dennis D Braun (Iron County Case Number 2013CF000052). [Update: Link to Wisconsin Circuit Court Access indicates this case is no longer public. Strange. Circuit Court Access message reads, "Your request could not be processed. That case does not exist or you are not allowed to see it."]

And the offending District Attorney is Martin Lipske of Iron County for whom the local ribald sex trade community in the City of Hurley provides political support.

Lipske's Iron County has been a notorious playground for corruption and the sex trade for many years.

Silver Street in Hurley, Wisconsin, known
for its wide selection of 'gentleman's clubs'

Below is video of Lipske portraying one Dennis D. Braun as a harmless, "elderly gentleman," and in typical Lipske-bizarre fashion, Lipske says: "There's nothing glorifying about this," with Lipske then feigning surprise that sex trafficking occurred in his rural county when Lipske knows perfectly well about Silver Street in Hurley.

Lispke was just shocked, shocked.

After the KBJR News, (Oct. 2, 2013) piece ran, it was reported that Braun sought and was granted a liquor license in the city of Hurley's topless bar section and Braun is at the center of the sex trafficking scandal.

Lipske was in a corner, raising the question of how to help his ally, Braun.

Lipske first minimized the affair, "the man only engaged in kissing the 14-year-old and providing wine." (KBJR News, Oct. 2, 2013)

Lipske then filed one charge, "Soliciting a Child for Prostitution."

This is the same district attorney notorious for filing multitudes of criminal charges for disfavored defendants such as GTAC mine opponents, knowing his political alliance with Iron County Judge Patrick Madden will almost guarantee verdicts and sentences Lipske wants, hence smart defendants ask for judicial substitution when Lipske and Madden are together on a case, unless the case involves a favored prostitute and a favored John.

D.A. Martin Lipske protects sex trafficking in Iron County

When the media light was off the sex-trafficking story, on January 13, 2014, Lipske and Judge Madden amended the charge for the "gentleman," to "Solicitation of Prostitutes," and on the same day agreed to a deferred prosecution, no prosecution, no conviction.

Lipske had done his job for the Iron County political machine.

There is no end to what Lipske is capable of both in persecuting the innocent, and protecting the guilty.

The last judge or district attorney criminally prosecuted in Wisconsin was Iron County Circuit Court Judge Alex Raineri in 1980 in a federal corrupt-prostitution case.

Lipske and Madden ought join Raineri, and every criminal case prosecuted by Lipske should be opened and objectively and thoroughly examined for misconduct and abuse of process.

Lipske is desperate for political allies outside of the sparsely populated Iron County.

In 2008, Lipske ran for DA on the Democratic Party ticket.

In 2012, after Scott Walker and Republicans went to work for the GTAC mine in Iron County after state Republicans and their allies were compensated by GTAC, Lipske ran as an independent.

In 2014, after Waukesha District Attorney Brad Schimel successfully ran for Wisconsin Attorney General, Schimel put out a press release announcing "Another Democrat Endorses Brad Schimel," listing Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske as a Democrat.

Lispke is for sale.

Worse, Martin Lipske is out of control and running wild as a sitting district attorney is literally terrorizing a Wisconsin county.

Iron County DA Is Minimizing Child Sex Trade

Update: District Attorney Lipske is shocked, shocked to find prostitution rings operating in Iron County. And child-sex trafficking rackets, who would have thought: Rural, isolated Iron County? Anybody who looked; that's who.

A 14-year-old woman runs screaming out a motel in Hurley, Wisconsin in Iron County, and is apparently a victim of sex trafficking.

And we have the Iron County District Attorney, Martin Lipske, playing the limited-hang-out game

Below is video of Lipske portraying one Dennis D. Braun as a harmless, "elderly gentleman" just looking for company.

Now, just breaking we find out Braun sought and was granted a liquor license on the city of Hurley's topless bar section of town and Braun is at the center of the scandal.

There is no end to what Lipske is capable of both in persecuting the innocent, and protecting the guilty:
From Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction:

Today, WJFW TV-12 NewsCenter revealed  67-year-old Mercer man, Dennis D. Braun is at the center of the sex trafficking case in Iron County, Wisconsin.

According to newspaper archives at the Ironwood Daily Globe, Braun was reported on June 12th, 2003, to have sought and gained a liquor license at 21 Silver St., Hurley in Hurley's notorious lower block where several topless bars and strip clubs operate.

21 Silver St. in Hurley is well known to be the address of a topless bar known by several different names through the years including Club 21 and currently as Club Sierra.
DA Martin J. Lipske has yet to charge Braun for his involvement in the sex trafficking case which saw three Milwaukee women, Tamyra Thomas, Nikia Burchette and Tanya Brown arrested on several felony charges including human trafficking and trafficking of a child.

Braun claims he found an ad in milwaukee.backpage.com advertising escort services to which he replied to. He reportedly offered the women $1,000 for their services plus traveling money. DA Lipske says charges are pending against Braun for his involvement.

Too much light on this for Lipske to run interference for Braun on this one.

Child Sex Trafficking in Iron County

Updated - "There's nothing glorifying about this," said Iron County District Attorney Marty Lipske.

No shit.

If any more evidence were needed that isolated Iron County Wisconsin is a sick den of corruption; comes a news headline today:

Three women charged in alleged child sex trafficking in Iron County

"It's not just an urban problem, it can also be a rural problem and with the advent of the internet it can happen anywhere," Iron County District Attorney Marty Lipske said.

You think?

Lipske's Iron County has been a notorious playground for corruption and the sex trade for many years.

Below is video of Lipske portraying one Dennis D. Braun as a harmless, elderly gentleman just looking for company.

Now, just breaking we find out Braun sought and was granted a liquor license on the city of Hurley's topless bar section of town and Braun is at the center of the scandal.

There is no end to what Lipske is capable of both in persecuting the innocent, and protecting the guilty:

Corrupt Iron County DA Has Conservationists Looking to Neighbor

Update: Heavily Armed Bulletproof did operate illegally in Ashland County. The StellaReport has the story.

As light shines on the isolated Iron County in northern Wisconsin, its corruption and the lurid nature of its public officials are getting a wider audience.

The light comes after the proposed Gogebic Taconite iron mine in Iron and Ashland counties was approved with special mining-company-written legislation, rushed through the Wisconsin legislature with sole Republican Party support in early 2013.

The Iron County District Attorney, Martin Lipske used to support Wisconsin Democratic Party Governor, James Doyle, but after Scott Walker and the GOP drummed up support for the mining bill, Lipske changed his party affiliation from the Democratic Party and ran as an independent in 2012, narrowly winning reelection.

Lipske is known in Iron County for fronting for the GOP-mining interests, and protecting it, refusing, for example, to prosecute the heavily armed rightwing militia, Bulletproof Securities, for operating without a license in criminal violation of Wisconsin law.

Now, citizens in Iron County are looking for evidence Bulletproof operated in neighboring Ashland County, in the face of Lipske's refusal to prosecute Bulletproof for repeated violations of the law.

Lipske is infamous locally as well for launching a prosecution against an innocent man whom Lipske incredibly taunts in a recent letter sent to the man, Donald R. Miller, in prison, chastising Miller for the work of his parents and supporters for maintaining a website—Anatomy of a Wrongful Prosecution.

Miller refused to plead no-contest after Lipske in a DA-proposed plea agreement in 1997.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School's Innocence Project was working on freeing Miller from 2011-12, obtaining an agreement from Lipske stipulating Miller's immediate release in late 2012.

Lipske reneged on the agreement after Lipske's political mentor and predecessor as DA, Iron County Judge Patrick J. Madden, rejected the agreement in late 2012 with no objection from Lipske.

Now, the Innocence Project continues its work.

A parole hearing is scheduled for later this year.

The Innocence Project is scheduled to meet with Lipske's office this week.

The latest:

Read this letter below and tell me the Wisconsin Iron County District Attorney's office is not corrupt.

Iron County DA Martin Lipske taunts innocent man,
sending him a letter while in prison

More Corruption in Iron County

Conflicts of interest and public officials fronting for Gogebic Taconite in Iron County.

Attorney Anthony J. Stella has the latest at the StellaReport.

Wisconsin GOP, Iron County Want Native American Mining Protesters Out

County District Attorney Martin Lipske.

But there is nothing funny about Iron County officials again trying to drum up racist resentment against the Lac Courte Oreilles band of Ojibwe.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin front-group, Media Trackers, and its Republican writer, Brian Sikma, are attacking a wooded campsite because it's calling attention to the proposed open-pit mine, owned by Gogebic Taconite for whom Wisconsin Republicans wrote a mining bill rushed through on a party-line vote earlier this year.

Writes Lee Bergquist this morning:

An attorney for Iron County says that a wooded campsite that's been a hub for opponents of a proposed iron-ore mine is violating county ordinances by exceeding the timeline that such a gathering can take place.

Michael Pope, corporation counsel for Iron County, said Thursday that the harvest camp organized by the Lac Courte Oreilles band of Lake Superior Chippewa has exceeded a two-week limit for such gatherings.

But Paul DeMain, a spokesman for the camp, said Iron County officials have raised no questions about the legality of the tent community directly with tribal leaders. He suggested the issue is politically motivated, as debate over mining shows no sign of abating.

Wisconsin Republicans like Sikma and Iron County officials should give it up.

The Lac Courte Oreilles band of the Ojibwe operate at a level of commitment that Republicans like Brian Sikma simply cannot understand.

Harassment will be laughed off.

Iron County DA Has History of Professional Misconduct, Suspension of License for Discipline

Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske's
law license was suspended for two years in 1990.
Lipske's  license was suspended four times
between 1985 and 1990 as well

Updated - Steven Verburg and the editors of the Wisconsin State Journal either have not vetted Iron County DA Martin Lipske as a credible source or do not care about Lipske's shady history of practicing law in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin corporate press is playing stenographer to Iron County DA Martin Lipske as Lipske makes pro-mining political statements to the press and threatens to throw the book at a mining protester as he publicly muses about prosecutions of several other Gogebic Taconite mining protesters prior to any criminal complaint or the inception of any law enforcement investigation, the latest careless move in a reckless history of Lipske's, confirmed by the State Bar of Wisconsin this morning.

To this point, the Wisconsin press has failed to report the numerous instances of professional misconduct in Lipske's legal career, treating Lipske's overheated characterization of mining protesters as credible, despite Lipske's slipshod history as an attorney in Wisconsin, as referenced by the State Bar of Wisconsin's history of Lipske's license to practice obtained this morning from the Bar in an e-mail after a phone call, and reproduced below.

Lipske as an attorney had his license to practice law suspended for nearly four years in Wisconsin, and is currently barred from practicing law in Minnesota for numerous ethical violations, including a two-year suspension for discipline involving "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misconduct."

Lipske is getting a free political ride as Lipske takes political shots at mining protesters in the press in his apparent attempt to criminalize opposition to the proposed, massive Iron mine in northern Wisconsin.

Steven Verburg of the Wisconsin State Journal offers editorial support for the Gogebic Taconite mining interests and its allies like Lipske in his news piece today.

Writes Verburg this morning: "The details on the [alleged criminal] incident help explain why the Gogebic Taconite mining company hired heavily armed security guards from Arizona who wore camouflage and masks, Lipske said."

Is that what Lipske said?

Verburg either has not vetted Lipske as a credible source, or does not care about Lipske's shady history of practicing law in Wisconsin.

The State Bar of Wisconsin confirmed this morning the almost four-year suspension of Lipske's license to practice law from 1990-1994, after a quick phone call.

Iron county in northern Wisconsin has a population of 6,861 people.

Lipske's suspension to practice law was lifted in 1994.

Lipske was "Suspended for Discipline" for two years under the category of "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misconduct" in 1990, it was reported in the Ironwood Daily Globe (Ralph Ansami), after consultations with the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation.

The State Bar will not provide specifics per its policy, but a press account from the Ironwood Daily Globe (Ansami. September 6, 1994) when Lipske ran for Iron County DA, reads:

Lipske was also sanctioned for failing to provide competent representation, and for neglect of several legal matters.

[Lipske] was suspended from practicing law in both Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Additionally, Lipske had his license to practice law in Wisconsin suspended four times for administrative delinquencies between 1985 to 1988.

Specifically, Lipske was suspended three times for failure to pay dues, and once for failing to obtain a Continuing Legal Education (CLE) requirement in 1985.

The history of Lipske's license to practice is reproduced below.

All of Lipske's suspensions to practice law in Wisconsin have been lifted since 1994.

Currently, Lipske is a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin in good standing.

Further information can also be obtained through the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation.

Iron County DA Martin Lipske License Status (State Bar of Wisconsin)
Atty. Martin Lipske License Status’

10/31/1985 Suspended for CLE (Education requirements)

11/1/1985 Suspended for Dues and CLE

11/7/1985 Suspended for Dues (CLE Lifted)

11/11/1985 Good Standing (All suspensions lifted)

11/3/1986 Suspended for Dues

11/12/1986 Good Standing (All suspensions lifted)

5/11/1988 Suspended for CLE

07/05/1988 Good Standing (All suspensions lifted)

7/1/1990 Suspended for Discipline [emphasis added]

1/19/1994 Good Standing (All suspensions lifted)

Mining Company Deploys New Masked Militiamen

Kate Sheppard has the piece at Mother Jones.

Corporate terror continues as Mining Company deploys new militia -  Image by Jim Limbach

WKOW TV Lets Genocide, Death Threats Fall into Equivalence Fallacy

So dedicated is local broadcast TV news to the proposition that any and all viewpoints are the same that even the Wisconsinites for Safe Mining references to "Genocide" go unmet, amid an explicit death threat now under criminal investigation.

The WKOW reporter, Greg Neumann, means well in his piece.

But what exactly has to be done and said before dumbed-down broadcast news ditches the false equivalence of Conservationists v. Mining, Corporate Militias, and now idiots who think "Genocide" is funny.

Likely, the poster of the "shoot on sight" Facebook post believes he is being funny.

Does Neumann get why it isn't?

Only one side is armed: The mining and militia side
Only one side thinks Genocide is funny:  The mining and militia side
Only one side thinks issues death threat: The mining and militia side

What has to happen before WKOW and other news sites stop treating all sides as equal?

Mining Operation's Supporters Make Online Death Threats

"Shoot on sight," reads Wisconsinites for Safe Mining Facebook page.

Someone get word to local media, this is not bad PR.

This is a reckless death threat, among other moronic chatter.

Do these people even remember who Jared Lee Loughner and former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords are?

What passes for humor among the rightwing can have deadly consequences perpetrated by the armed and hateful.

By Greg Neumann:

[One] Terry Dipper identifies Lisa Wells and three other women as making threats against the [Iron mine site] as justification for the [Bulletproof] guards.

In a post directly follow Dipper's, Wisconsinites For Safe Mining wrote:  "We have initiated a shoot on sight order for the malcontents that you have listed.  Trespassing on a mining site = genocide."

 Trespassing on a mining site = genocide? [sic]

Further comment should be unnecessary, but corporate media will find a way to present a false equivalence between death threats from idiots v. conservationists.

Dump False Equivalence of Conservationists v. Mining, Corporate Militias

Dump anything you want here, just watch the PR message

Wisconsin State Journal needs to begin thinking about the communities of Wisconsin, and forget the silly riffs on PR tactics

Not expecting rigor when I read Wisconsin State Journal editorials but its equating indignant Wisconsin citizens with armed, unlicensed, corporate, and illegal (look it up) militias is ludicrous.

The editorial from the Scott Walker rah-rah sheet concludes: "... [B]oth mining and protesting can proceed as planned."

No.

Actually, many federal laws and regulations have to be followed, and Wisconsin citizens retain their right to free speech, disregarded by Republicans after they sold out Wisconsin.


Yelling obscenities at out-of-state corporations poisoning our land and our water is self-defense.

If you don't agree, why not have your children or your parents drink the wastewater discharge that comes from huge open pit mines like that proposed up north. Personally, I don't drink anything with sulfuric acid.

Have some fish from the poisoned water, which is so predictable, Republicans actually wrote into the statute language that they expect environmental damage, so the numerous coming legal challenges can be met with the argument: We contemplated and wanted this pollution. [See "There are going to be some impacts to the environment above the iron ore body."]

The mine in fact will be stopped. The GOP's stating: We don't care about federal law; that's in the state law our party passed is in fact not an argument that will prevail in federal court.

Doesn't the State Journal have a problem with this? Is the State Journal so out-of-touch now that it can only think about Wisconsin families and communities in terms of good or bad PR?

The State Journal begins, "The message from northern Wisconsin last week was unmistakable: One giant public relations blunder can be topped only by ... another giant public relations blunder."

Firstly, the public has the right, guaranteed access, to the Iron Mine site.

Secondly, opening shop and operating as a private security firm is illegal without a license. It's the law and breaking the law is not a "PR blunder."

Since when is civil a prerequisite to stopping operations like Cline's new outfit Gogebic Taconite, coming in our backyard and poisoning the water and earth? You expect everyone to say, thank you.

No, 'get the hell out,' is appropriate for these trespassers, corporate terrorists like 'Bulletproof,' and the sick minds that would come in and poison families and their environment which they call home.

This is not about PR.

This is about preserving the environment and the health of Wisconsin families.

And these mining operations are in this for the money period.

What do you think, these are committed environmentally conscious, full-employment activists who care only about strengthening Wisconsin communities?

The State Journal needs to begin thinking about the communities of Wisconsin, and not worry about the profits of huge mining conglomerates and its political patrons.

Are you  the Wisconsin State Journal or the Republican State Journal.

Nothing wrong with being a party paper, but be honest about it.

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.