Polluters' Toady for State Senate in Central Wisconsin, Patrick Testin

"We need to protect our natural resources
without limiting their use in Central
Wisconsin's agricultural economy," writes
Big Ag toady, Patrick Testin, in typical
polluters and poisoners' twaddle.
.

Patrick Testin has a mandate for his campaign for Wisconsin's state senate, district 24.

Do whatever the polluters, in particular the Wysocki corporate interests, want. Testin is well-paid for his efforts.

One problem facing Testin is he has no idea what the issues are as central Wisconsin's natural resources—aquifers, streams, lakes, (and to be candid property valuations)—are under assault by polluting factory farms.

Testin's incoherence on these critical issues is on display.

Have a look above-right at Testin's recent thoughts on the proposed massive factory farm by the Wysocki polluters in Saratoga, Wood County Wisconsin.

"We need to protect our natural resources without limiting their use in Central Wisconsin's agricultural economy," opines Testin.

What?

This is apparently Testin-talk for central Wisconsin should be a repository for millions of tons of liquid cow manure.
---
Golf resort designer Mike Keiser wants to build an environmentally friendly golf resort, Sand Valley Resort, sited along the bottom of the ancient Glacial Lake Wisconsin, a can't-miss recreational and tourism project.

Unfortunately for Keiser and Adams and Wood counties, the resort, now under construction, is adjacent to, and just south of a massive proposed Wysocki factory farm, halted for now.

If residents can't stop this polluting operation, it won't be just the residents of Wood, Adams and surrounding counties being poisoned, an enterprise protected by Testin and Wisconsin Republicans including Wisconsin's Republican attorney general and governor.

A stiff north wind carrying the stench of millions of tons of liquid cow manure would quickly educate golf enthusiasts on some the unsavory aspects of a Wysocki factory farm. If they breathe deeply, golfers will understand with a precision central Wisconsin residents are working to avoid.

Drink the area's well water, and it is advisable golfers are aware of the area's hospitals as well as tourist destinations.

As for Patrick Testin, he's looking for more money for his campaign and pushing hard for a tax-payer-funded gig in the Wisconsin State Senate.

Big Ag Targets Wisconsin State Senator Julie Lassa

Manure and pathogens vectored into Wisconsin's environment by Big Ag to
tragic consequences, as state Republicans take the polluters' side

As she has done countless times, State Senator Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point), listened to her constituents' concerns last week about the depletion and poisoning of water by the vile industrialized agriculture, (WSAW-TV), (Anderson, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin).

As Scott Walker plays the outside, and State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) plays the inside, Wisconsin Republicans protect the polluters, Big Ag.

Krug's role is particularly odious as his mendacity apparently knows no bounds, and his own constituents' health, and economic well-being are suffering grievously.

Now, Big Ag is targeting Sen. Lassa.

Lassa grew up on a small dairy farm in Portage County where "her parents taught her the important of hard work, the value of a dollar, and that honesty and integrity are everything," as she notes in her biography.

Here's a report from Wood County:

By Rhonda Cain-Carrell

While Senator Lassa participated in a Groundwater Listening Session in Saratoga, the Wysocki's were busy at the Stevens Point Country Club plotting her demise as our Senator. In one night, HOSTING and contributing $1,000 per plate as PLATINUM DONORS to the man they are running against one of very few legislators brave enough to stick their neck out for Wisconsin's water.

Please support Senator Lassa in the upcoming election.

Wysockis are working to get Patrick Testin in Lassa's seat.

$17,000 in donations from their family and very close business contacts JUST at last night's event:

Bob & Mary Berard ($2,000) - Paramount Farms recently purchased by Wysocki Companies, massive polluter
Paul & Dawn Roberts ($2,000) - Roberts Irrigation (reportedly the company that would sell irrigation systems for proposed CAFO/cropland in Saratoga)
Jeff & Kathy Sommers ($2,000) - Runs Central Sands Dairy, massive polluter
Nick & Diane (Wysocki) Somers ($2,000)
Kirk & Jackie (Wysocki) Wille ($2,000)
Bill & Marla Wysocki ($2,000)
Francis & Harriet Wysocki ($2,000)
Jim & Sharon Wysocki ($2,000)
Louis Wysocki ($1,000)

SO, the long and short of this is: NO TO TESTIN! He is sponsored by the Wysocki CAFO Family. A vote for Testin is a vote against Saratoga (Wood County), Rome (Adams County) and all of Wisconsin's water.

Wisconsin Rep Attacks Citizen Groups, Says Spreading "Misinformation"

Clean water activists in Saratoga, Wisconsin fight for
water and oppose the siting of a proposed factory farm

An impressive feat the last six years during Wisconsin's lost decade is the organization of citizen groups around the state to defend clean and abundant water.

The citizens' worst enemy are the state representatives who should be working for citizens.

In central Wisconsin, local representatives run political interference for Big Ag which pollutes and depletes ground and surface waters. [State Rep. Scott Krug, (R-Nekoosa), threatened this site with a libel suit in 2014 when I noted Krug running this "political interference," a threat Krug dropped after I advised him truth is an absolute defense against defamation actions, among other defects in Krug's threat with respect to libel law, (Mal Contends), (Capital Times), (Crooks and Liars).]

Defiling Wisconsin's waters has the political support of local State Rep. Scott Krug, (R-Nekoosa) and State Sen. Patrick Testin, (R-Stevens Point) who represent the gerrymandered districts drawn to elect Republicans. These legislators also lend their support to the proposed Wysocki factory farm. 

Wysocki and his family bankrolled State Sen. Testin with $10,000 in contributions for his successful 2016 run. Krug's 2016 campaign received heavy funding from Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Ron Vos Gov. Scott Walker and other Republican interests aligned with Big Ag, (Wisconsin Democracy Campaign),

After Krug and Testin helped ram through the Big Ag-supported Senate Bill 76 last week, Krug complained in his current constituent newsletter that, "The misinformation campaign by several area groups make this sound like a massively different bill than it is. I am happy to sit down with anyone and walk through the actual bill."

The groups Krug complains about include: Rome-Saratoga Friendly, Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors, Central Sands Water Action Coalition, Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network, and the Citizens' Water Coalition of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Senate Bill 76 "is good only for the handful of really large growers, [Big Ag], who have as much concern for their fellow farmers as they have for others who need access to clean and abundant water - none!," notes Saratoga (Wisconsin), Concerned last year, (Facebook).

Scott Walker will sign Big Ag's Senate Bill 76 soon.

Of note is the fact clean and safe water groups increasingly work in concert statewide. As noted by Criste Greening in the Green Bay Progressive in late April, clean water citizen groups include the following:

Citizens' Water Coalition of Wisconsin
Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network
Wild Rivers Chapter Trout Unlimited
Friends of the Central Sands
Frac Sand Mining Awareness
Crawford Stewardship Project
Protect Wood County & Its Neighbors
Save The Hills Alliance
Kewaunee CARES
People Empowered Protect the Land (PEPL) of Rosendale
Green County Defending Our Farmland
Central Wisconsin Nature Foundation
Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative
Facing Forward Vernon Our Wisconsin Revolution
Inland Sea Society
From the Earth
Indivisible Fond du Lac
Protect Our Water
Friends of the Kinni
Concerned Rome Citizens
Rome Saratoga Friendly
Indivisible Winnebago
Central Sands Water Action Coalition
Forward Kenosha
Rinehart Lake Association
Farms Not Factories
Spirit Creek Water Protectors
Indivisible Milwaukee ~ South Side
Bad River Watershed Association
Frac Sand Sentinels
Indivisible Solon Springs
Indivisible DeForest
Concerned Citizens of Princeton
Citizens for a Better Environment Lake Mills
Emerald Clean Water For All
Penokee Hills Education Project
Penokee Hills Light Brigade
Water Protectors of Milwaukee
Friends of the Eau Claire Lakes Area
Citizens for Environmental Stewardship
Indivisible Ashland
Heartland Land Creations
League of Women Voters of Ashland and Bayfield Counties
LCO/Sawyer County Dems
Preserve Waupaca County
League of Women Voters Upper Mississippi RIver Region
Crystal Lake Club
Friends of the Tomorrow /Waupaca River
Waupaca Commoners Caucus
Constituents Only
Defending Our Ixonia Countryside
Vernon County Democratic Party
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
Gaia Coalition
Concerned Citizens of Easton
League of Women Voters/Greater Chippewa Valley
Clean Water Action Council of Northeast Wisconsin
Organic Consumers Association
Blue Jean Nation
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
Echo Valley Hope
Madison Action for Mining Alternatives
Reedsburg Area Concerned Citizens

Wisconsin Clean Water Supporters Score First Major Electoral Victory

Communities in central Wisconsin await the decision of
the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a case that would
effectually halt a massive factory farm from beginning
operations with the consequences being economic
devastation for an entire Wisconsin region. Clean
water activists fear the decision will be corruptly
decided by five Republican-linked judges on the
seven-member court.

Madison, Wisconsin — Families and communities fighting for fresh water have scored their first electoral victory over Republicans and the industrial polluters for whom the GOP is transforming Wisconsin statutory and administrative law to make it easier to poison water without accountability.

Water is necessary for human life, but the Republican Party dismissive of this fact has not faced an electoral reckoning to this point, (Ecological Economics, Principles and Applications, Water, Mayo Clinic).

A special state senate election from northwestern Wisconsin signals a change that sent political newcomer State Senator-elect Patty Schachtner, (D-Somerset, Wisconsin) into the gerrymandered state legislature this week.

Notes Matthew DeFour this morning in the Wisconsin State Journal:

Some [political observers and environmental activists] ... said voters were tuned into local issues and angered by [defeated the Republican] Jarchow’s sponsorship of bills that have reduced environmental protections and local zoning control.

'We absolutely believe local issues motivated people in this race. All of our communications were very positive about Patty and the impact she can have on the local environment. We heard a lot from our members about Jarchow’s anti-conservation background,' said Staush Gruszynski, political director for the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters.

Jeff Smith, an organizer for liberal advocacy group Citizen Action of Wisconsin, said efforts to clean up the Red Cedar Watershed have been hampered by bills Jarchow has championed limiting local zoning control.

'There is a lot of angst toward Jarchow because of his anti-environment/pro-corporate stance,' Smith said.

Angst and anger because multi-generational families have children rushed to the hospital after bathing in water poisoned by factory farms vectoring manure into the environment. Consider this, children poisoned from bathing.

The Republican Party has become so pathologically removed from the health of families and communities that its office-holders are willing to see children poisoned in exchange for Big Ag's money.

Writes John Ikerd in Rural Communities of Necessity:

Rural America once had strong communities. It would have been very difficult for anyone who built a CAFO, (factory farm), in a rural area in earlier times. It wasn’t socially or morally acceptable for one person in the community to benefit at the expense of others.

A Wisconsin state senate district signals a return to the days when it mattered if you poisoned your neighbor.

From a piece here from May 2017 on the work of Wisconsin Republicans to methodically vector manure into rural communties, while depelting groundwater for the sole benefit of Big Ag:

Clean water activists in Saratoga, Wisconsin fight for
water and oppose the siting of a proposed factory farm

An impressive feat the last six years during Wisconsin's lost decade is the organization of citizen groups around the state to defend clean and abundant water.

The citizens' worst enemy are the state representatives who should be working for citizens.

In central Wisconsin, local representatives run political interference for Big Ag which pollutes and depletes ground and surface waters. [State Rep. Scott Krug, (R-Nekoosa), threatened this site with a libel suit in 2014 when I noted Krug running this "political interference," a threat Krug dropped after I advised him truth is an absolute defense against defamation actions, among other defects in Krug's threat with respect to libel law, (Mal Contends), (Capital Times), (Crooks and Liars).]

Defiling Wisconsin's waters has the political support of local State Rep. Scott Krug, (R-Nekoosa) and State Sen. Patrick Testin, (R-Stevens Point) who represent the gerrymandered districts drawn to elect Republicans. These legislators also lend their support to the proposed Wysocki factory farm. 

Wysocki and his family bankrolled State Sen. Testin with $10,000 in contributions for his successful 2016 run. Krug's 2016 campaign received heavy funding from Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Ron Vos Gov. Scott Walker and other Republican interests aligned with Big Ag, (Wisconsin Democracy Campaign),

After Krug and Testin helped ram through the Big Ag-supported Senate Bill 76 last week, Krug complained in his current constituent newsletter that, "The misinformation campaign by several area groups make this sound like a massively different bill than it is. I am happy to sit down with anyone and walk through the actual bill."

The groups Krug complains about include: Rome-Saratoga Friendly, Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors, Central Sands Water Action Coalition, Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network, and the Citizens' Water Coalition of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Senate Bill 76 "is good only for the handful of really large growers, [Big Ag], who have as much concern for their fellow farmers as they have for others who need access to clean and abundant water - none!," notes Saratoga (Wisconsin), Concerned last year, (Facebook).

Of note is the fact clean and safe water groups increasingly work in concert statewide. As noted by Criste Greening in the Green Bay Progressive in late April, clean water citizen groups include the following:
Citizens' Water Coalition of Wisconsin
Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network
Wild Rivers Chapter Trout Unlimited
Friends of the Central Sands
Frac Sand Mining Awareness
Crawford Stewardship Project
Protect Wood County & Its Neighbors
Save The Hills Alliance
Kewaunee CARES
People Empowered Protect the Land (PEPL) of Rosendale
Green County Defending Our Farmland
Central Wisconsin Nature Foundation
Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative
Facing Forward Vernon Our Wisconsin Revolution
Inland Sea Society
From the Earth
Indivisible Fond du Lac
Protect Our Water
Friends of the Kinni
Concerned Rome Citizens
Rome Saratoga Friendly
Indivisible Winnebago
Central Sands Water Action Coalition
Forward Kenosha
Rinehart Lake Association
Farms Not Factories
Spirit Creek Water Protectors
Indivisible Milwaukee ~ South Side
Bad River Watershed Association
Frac Sand Sentinels
Indivisible Solon Springs
Indivisible DeForest
Concerned Citizens of Princeton
Citizens for a Better Environment Lake Mills
Emerald Clean Water For All
Penokee Hills Education Project
Penokee Hills Light Brigade
Water Protectors of Milwaukee
Friends of the Eau Claire Lakes Area
Citizens for Environmental Stewardship
Indivisible Ashland
Heartland Land Creations
League of Women Voters of Ashland and Bayfield Counties
LCO/Sawyer County Dems
Preserve Waupaca County
League of Women Voters Upper Mississippi RIver Region
Crystal Lake Club
Friends of the Tomorrow /Waupaca River
Waupaca Commoners Caucus
Constituents Only
Defending Our Ixonia Countryside
Vernon County Democratic Party
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
Gaia Coalition
Concerned Citizens of Easton
League of Women Voters/Greater Chippewa Valley
Clean Water Action Council of Northeast Wisconsin
Organic Consumers Association
Blue Jean Nation
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
Echo Valley Hope
Madison Action for Mining Alternatives
Reedsburg Area Concerned Citizens

Will Proposed Ag Factory Torpedo Resort in Central Wisconsin

Sand Valley Golf Resort opened in May in central Wisconsin

Residents in central Wisconsin celebrating the grand opening of the Sand Valley Golf Resort in northern Adams County know May is pivotal in the regional effort to promote recreation and tourism.

Not only does May highlight a milestone of the years-long resort project, (Shuda, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune), a critical decision will be made that could effectively kill the project and ruin central Wisconsin.

On May 13, the Wysocki corporation will have decided whether to appeal to the Wisconsin Supreme Court a legal decision that threatens to halt plans to create a massive factory farm just a few miles north of Sand Valley.

The planned Golden Sands Dairy, (LLC), CAFO, for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, makes as much sense as siting a pond hazard composed of millions of gallons of liquid cow manure on every hole in the two courses.

As Don Ystad of Adams County Wisconsin who has been promoting tourism and recreation for years writes:

Take a step back from the politics of this situation and ask yourself, 'what is best for the state of Wisconsin?  Another CAFO sited, or the preservation and growth of an existing, vibrant area, poised to be the 'golf mecca of the Midwest?'

Unfortunately, the Wysocki CAFO has the political support of local State Rep. Scott Krug, (R-Nekoosa) and State Sen. Patrick Testin, (R-Stevens Point). These politocs have already chosen Big Ag over everything else, including Sand Valley.

Ironic is the fact Krug was out rah-rahing Sand Valley while running political interference for the last five years for Big Ag and Wysocki, the biggest threats to the resort.

Residents reached today are unanimous: C'mon, Krug, Testin, and Wysocki, don't screw this up.

Clean Water in Wisconsin Comes in Focus

Clean water activists in Saratoga, Wisconsin fight for
water and oppose the siting of a proposed factory farm.
Clean water activists statewide fear a future where
clean and safe lakes will become a memory.

Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin lakes are not bottomless sewers that take in millions of gallons of liquid cow manure and like magic create speaking-clean water safe for swimming, fishing and boating.

Rather, factory farms and other rapacious agricultural practices destroy and poison the water in the land of 15,000 lakes with devastating health, economic, and quality-of-life consequences.

These outcomes are acceptable costs to Big Ag, Gov. Scott Walker (R) and Wisconsin Republicans who run state government for polluting operations.

Congrats are in order for Steven Verburg of the Wisconsin State Journal for his critical reporting on the health of the Yahara lakes in Dane County in an important series this week. See also the related site, the Yahara lakes project.
---
This weekend also comes news from 100 miles north of Madison that three factory farm owners — Wysocki Produce Farms, B and D Farms and Okray Farms — "say they have joined together to help supply clean, safe water to residents with high nitrate levels in their wells" in the town of Armenia in Juneau County in central Wisconsin, reports Karen Madden in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune.

Wysocki Produce Farms, B and D Farms and Okray Farms are industry suppliers of pathogen, nitrate and phosphorous-laden cow shit to area communities.

After poisoning the private water wells of objecting families, the Wysocki corporation is offering cartons of uncontaminated water in trade. This is widely considered not to be an equatable deal.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is investigating the water poisoning in the region.

Area residents are sounding a skeptical note as they work to stop operation of another proposed massive factory farm in the town of Saratoga in Wood County. The Golden Sands factory farm is owned by the Wysocki corporation.

"I'd feel much better about it had they, (factory farm owners), done it without the EPA and county health officers breathing down their necks. They're trying to get in front of a very ugly situation made public because of citizen pressure from Saratogans and Armenians. The Wysockis didn't do this out of the kindness of their hearts, and it wasn't done because a state Senator or Assemblyman stepped in. This is the result of well-directed citizen activism. Well done my friends!," writes Don Ystad in an email to clean water activists this weekend.

Ystad live in Adams County, some six miles south of the proposed Wysocki factory farm.

Ystad's reference to a "state Senator or Assemblyman" points to central Wisconsin legislators, State Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point) and State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa), both of whom are politically owned by factory farm interests.

Krug faces presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party nominee for the 72nd assembly district, clean water activist David Gorski, in the general election this November.

These is caution optimism that Wisconsin has finally, after years of citizen action, come to the point where Republicans can be defeated in the gerrymandered legislative districts.

An activist rightwing Wisconsin Supreme Court bent the law to arrive
at a pre-determined decision green-lighting a proposed massive factory farm
in central Wisconsin. Corrupt justices hold a 4-3 majority at the
Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Wisconsin's Year of Water—2018

Increasing opposition to proposed massive CAFO in central
Wisconsin signals statewide, clean water sentiment.
- Photo by Mary Captain-Braund (creative commons)

In 2016, Election Day saw electoral defeats for two prominent clean-water candidates running for state assembly in central and northeastern Wisconsin.

The set-backs are temporary and the Wisconsin Blue Wave is acknowledged across the political spectrum as the terrain on which the 2018 campaigns are held.

Clean water champ and 2016 candidate, Dave Gorski, is back, running in the 72nd assembly district in central Wisconsin.

In Wisconsin's northeastern peninsula, a special election for state senate in a district held by Republicans is considered so vulnerable, Gov. Scott Walker went to unprecedented lengths to block the election before state courts ordered Walker to follow the law, forcing the gov to let people decide their representatives in free elections.

Anti-Trump and Walker animus, pro-women sentiment, public school defenders, local democracy, criminal justice reform and anti-Foxconn voters are poised to become electoral factors in 2018.

Clean water grassroots groups present the equivalent of a massive ground operation energizing the Wisconsin Blue Wave.

Candidates in 2018 have taken notice, bringing back a traditional Wisconsin commitment—clean and fresh water.

In the town of Saratoga, Wisconsin, (population some 5,100), in southern Wood County an entire municipal government is mobilized for survival, as one proposed factory farm, CAFO, in Saratoga would "likely contaminate residents drinking wells and pump out more groundwater than some cities," (Anderson, USA Today Network-Wisconsin).

Republican legislators, State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) and State Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point) in central Wisconsin work against the interests of their constituents whom they sell out to Big Ag interests which pollute and deplete surface and ground waters in support of the Republican coalition.

Some leading clean water advocates include gubernatorial candidate Matt Flynn, and Ann Groves Lloyd running for a special election in central Wisconsin, assembly dist 42.

Writes Flynn in a message repeated across the state:

Wisconsin used to be known for clean air, clean water, and clean government. Now we have dirty air, dirty water, and corrupt government. This is unacceptable. Here's how I'll protect our clean water resources as #wigov https://t.co/QB1xZ2KZyO #bluewave2018 https://t.co/FfLh1BsqJ5

— Matt Flynn (@ForwardWFlynn) May 1, 2018

Groves Lloyd of Lodi, Wisconsin is running in the special assembly election to be held on June 12, one of two special elections that will draw national attention.

The Wisconsin people have become so disgusted with Scott Walker and the Republicans rigging law and water-safety regulations to help polluters against families that Walker in a historic first actually blocked special elections to stop Wisconsin voters from electing candidate who would protect their families.

Below is a TV spot running widely featuring Groves Lloyd's campaign commitment to protecting water.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Case on Vested Property Rights and Zoning Powers Set for Oral Argument, Jan. 11

Proposed Golden Sands factory farm in central
Wisconsin could turn rural paradise into an
industrial wasteland. Don Ystad of Adams County
Wisconsin who has been promoting tourism
and recreation for years writes:
"Take a step back from the politics of this
situation and ask yourself, 'what is best
for the state of Wisconsin? Another CAFO sited, or the
preservation and growth of an existing, vibrant area,
poised to be the 'golf mecca of the Midwest?'
Unfortunately, the Wysocki CAFO has the
political support of local State Rep. Scott Krug,
(R-Nekoosa, Wisconsin) and State Sen.
Patrick Testin, (R-Stevens Point). These pols
have already chosen Big Ag over everything else,
including a new Sand Valley Golf Resort,
multi-generational families and entire communities.

The Wisconsin Republican Party's attempt to transform the legal scope of property rights on behalf of major financial donors is behind a case that could prevent the operation of a massive factory farm, sited in the town of Saratoga in central Wisconsin.

The case is Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga. The high court will hear oral arguments on Jan 11, 2018. [Note: For legal updates on the case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, enter 15ap1258 in the Appeal Number field, leave the rest of fields blank and hit search at bottom-left of the linked Wisconsin Supreme Court page.]

The Wisconsin Supreme Court no longer functions as an independent judicial body as its members have become corrupted and beholden to the Republican-linked special interests that fund some of the Court members' campaigns. Judicial ethics are decided by Republican justices who rejected proposed rules that would mandate justices recuse from cases involving their mega-donors to their campaigns, (Beck, Wisconsin State Journal, Mal Contends, The New Yorker).

Communities and private citizens want an April 2017 state appellate decision to stand because the ruling restricts a massive factory farm from beginning operations, as Republicans and Big Ag work to impose onto Wisconsin a radical, new conception of corporate vested property rights.

The predictable consequences of operation of the proposed Golden Sands factory farm are the pollution and depletion of water and air, devastating parts of four counties in this region.

The April 2017 Golden Sands Dairy LLC appellate ruling effectively kills the operation of the massive factory farm by disallowing use of a 4,660-acre manure dumping field on which millions of gallons of liquid cow waste would be vectored every year. The unanimous appellate ruling recognizes the town of Saratoga used its zoning power in accordance with state law and decades of legal precedent.

Concludes an amicus brief in part filed on behalf of local businesses in December 2017:

Over 1.7 million Wisconsin citizens more than 30% of the state’s population reside in towns like the Town of Saratoga. In this case, the Town reasonably evaluated local conditions and zoned its land to prevent harm to property values and businesses, drinking water quality, and local character. By seeking a 6,000-acre exception to this rule, GSD [Golden Sands Dairy] cannot credibly state that expanding the vested rights doctrine does 'no violence' to the Town’s ability to regulate land use. (GSD Br. at 26.)

The Court should affirm the court of appeals’ decision upholding the Town’s lawful exercise of its zoning authority in this case, and reject GSD’s requested expansion of the vested rights doctrine. 

Bottom line: Will the Wisconsin Supreme Court issue yet another corrupt decision on behalf of Republican interests? There is hope.

Two citizen groups, Protect Wood County (Wisconsin) and Its Neighbors and Concerned Rome (Wisconsin) Citizens are urging central Wisconsin residents to await the decision from the Court expected sometime in the Spring 2018.

From Protect Wood County:

Friends and Neighbors,

The date is set, January 11th, 2018, at which time our case against Wysocki will be heard in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.  Although this news broke quite a while back, there was the chance for extension requests and/or other delays, therefore, we kept silent on the news until we were positive the date would stick.  It officially appears that January 11th will be our day in court.

Cases in front of the Supreme Court follow a very formal and structured format.  Due to this, Saratoga’s legal team has asked that citizen supporters NOT attend the oral argument proceedings.  We ask all our followers please adhere to the legal teams request and continue to wait patiently for the outcome and judgment decision to be handed down later this spring.  Most likely we will not hear a deciding judgment until March or April of this year. Once again, we have more waiting ahead.

It is important to clarify the basis of the Supreme Court case as we continue to hear many residents misunderstanding what our current case is about.  The case before the Supreme Court is about vested rights to the thousands of acres of land Wysocki purchased in Saratoga.  In a very simplistic nutshell, the court will be deciding if Wysocki can clear-cut and crop the thousands of acres of land he purchased after Saratoga’s zoning was in place.  The court is not determining if Wysocki has the right to build the buildings and/or the CAFO, simply if he has the right to use the land for his identified purpose which is in conflict with Saratoga's zoning.  This battle has been a very complicated web of twist and turns, surely one for the record books.  

We will keep everyone informed as we continue through the next few months.

Central Wisconsin Clean Water Group Endorses Rebecca Dallet for Supreme Court

Proposed Golden Sands factory farm in central
Wisconsin could turn rural paradise into an
industrial wasteland. Don Ystad of Adams County
Wisconsin who has been promoting tourism
and recreation for years writes:
"Take a step back from the politics of this
situation and ask yourself, 'what is best
for the state of Wisconsin? Another CAFO sited, or the
preservation and growth of an existing, vibrant area,
poised to be the 'golf mecca of the Midwest?'
Unfortunately, the Wysocki CAFO has the
political support of local State Rep. Scott Krug,
(R-Nekoosa, Wisconsin) and State Sen.
Patrick Testin, (R-Stevens Point). These pols
have already chosen Big Ag over everything else,
including a new Sand Valley Golf Resort,
multi-generational families and entire communities.

Rebecca Dallet is our Supreme Court candidate, says Saratoga Concerned in Republican-dominated central Wisconsin

"Rural America once had strong communities. It would have been very difficult for anyone who built a CAFO facotry farm in a rural area in earlier times. It wasn’t socially or morally acceptable for one person in the community to benefit at the expense of others."
 —John Ikerd, Rural Communities of Necessity
 --
The communities of Saratoga and Rome, in central Wisconsin say the Wisconsin Supreme Court race is personal.

The April 3 race featuring candidates Rebecca Dallet, (a mainstream rule-of-law Milwaukee County judge), and Michael Screnock, (extremist rightwing Sauk County judge) will determine if rightwingers control the Wisconsin Supreme Court for the next nine years.

The stakes are high, but even more so for central Wisconsin where Republican interests and Big Ag are trying to use a local case awaiting decision from the Supreme Court to obliterate local control and codify corporate property rights in a radical and novel interpretation that is dreaded by families.

In Golden Sands Dairy, (Wysocki corporation),  LLC v. Town of Saratoga case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court will decide whether some 1.7 million Wisconsin citizen, some 30 percent of the state living in towns, can act locally to protect local conditions, property values, families, drinking water quality, and local character.  [For legal updates on the case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, enter 15ap1258 in the Appeal Number field.]

The case was argued Jan 11, 2018.

It's personal because 1,000s of families in Wood, Adams and Juneau counties who have spent generations building lives, security and opportunity for future generations will see dreams shattered and security gone if the Wysocki corporation's badly polluting factory farm begins operations.

The proposed massive factory farm, a CAFO or Confined Animal Feeding Operation, would leave the region an economic moonscape.

That's fine with Wisconsin Republicans, and Supreme Court candidate Michael Screnock whose campaign runs for and is funded by Republican special interests. Screnock in fact is a former attorney for Big Ag against virtually everyone else in Wisconsin.

A major group fighting for entire communities and central Wisconsin families just came out for Supreme Court candidate Rebecca Dallet, and against Screnock.

The group, Saratoga Concerned, is awaiting word from the Supreme Court on Golden Sands Dairy. They are nervous and frightened. Who came blame them?

Today, according to an email, Saratoga Concerned endorsed Rebecca Dallet over Michael Screnock.

From Saratoga Concerned:

As we are all aware, politics are dirty. It doesn't matter the party or the platform, each side spins false innuendos and statements at the other in the hopes of having you simply dislike the other candidate more. The race for Supreme Court is no different even though it is supposed to be a nonpartisan position.

We encourage everyone to vote on Tuesday, April 3rd but instead of voting by your political party leaning, we encourage you to vote the issues. Let's face it, the Wisconsin Republican and the Democratic party are not what they used to be years ago. Voting the issues is the only way to get folks in office who are going to truly represent your interests. We all need to be willing to put our political partisanship aside and vote on the things that are important to our fight.

Saratoga Concerned leadership team has identified our issues  1) Clean water  2) Protection of our Natural Resources and 3) Protecting local control. When looking solely at these three topics we feel strongly Rebecca Dallet is our candidate. Her challenger, Michael Screnock, has repeatedly represented CAFO owners in court against the average citizen and denies their civil right to clean and plentiful water. Not to mention his work with the Michael Best and Friedrich law office that is retained by Wysocki. We cringe just thinking about what may happen if he earns a seat on the bench.

We encourage you to vote the issues on April 3rd.

Our Saratoga fights need a Justice like Rebecca Dallet on the bench.

Wisconsin Waters Hailed by Citizens as Ag Interests Poison and Plunder

Citizens lobby Wisconsin legislators at the Wisconsin capitol
for clean and safe water in February 2017. Image is taken
from a video produced by Eric Peterson.

Madison, Wisconsin — A video is out offering a look into the efforts of Wisconsinites fighting for clean and safe water.

People want responsible water policy in Wisconsin.

Yet, the legislators shown in the video, constantly, (invariably), vote against the protection of clean water.

State Senator Patrick Testin, (Stevens Point), State Rep. Scott Krug, (R-Nekoosa), and State Rep. Joel Kleefisch, (R-Sturgeon Bay) are the worst offenders. They represent Wisconsin residents who are being hit hardest by Republican efforts to facilitate the poisoning and plundering of Wisconsin waters.

Donald Ystad of Rome, Wisconsin in Adams County sent an email out Sunday night to 100s of supporters and other interested parties., flush off a major legal victory by central Wisconisn residents over the proposed operation of a massive factory, a CAFO or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, that would devastate the waters of an entire region.

By Donald Ystad

Concerned citizens,

Many of you were among the nearly 500 people who attended the first ever Citizens Water Lobby Day in Madison on Feb 8th this year, and thanks to a very generous Rome donor, many of you rode to Madison in comfort on motor coaches.

That day was the genesis for the new statewide citizens lobby, Citizens Water Action Coalition.

Watch this video and think of all the grass roots groups from all over the state who are now joined together in the common fight to protect our water. You should recognize more than a few faces.

Then, when you read about the legislature pandering to the mega-farm lobby, the administration out of ​touch with citizens' rights to clean and abundant water, and the increasing number of incidents degrading our lakes and streams, make a pact with yourself to be a stronger part of this citizens lobby. It may be the only way to counter the big money interests buying their way through our legislature.

T​hank you to Eric Peterson for his efforts ​on this video.

Scott Walker, GOP Reps Probe Public's Gullibility on Clean Water

Protect our water, say Wisconsin residents. No, says Big Ag
and its Republican protectors in Wisconsin.

Clean water is necessary for life, and is good business. Wisconsin Republican politicians won't listen.

Don Ystad, a retired business consultant living in Adams County Wisconsin, has penned 10,000s of words to Wisconsin policymakers and officials charged with protecting the water.

Ystad has met with success in forming alliances with local citizens across the political spectrum in central Wisconsin, but Scott Walker and the Republican Party remain in unified opposition to clean water advocates as 1,000s in central Wisconsin fight a proposed massive factory farm sited in the town of Saratoga in Wood County and the vile practice of dumping millions of tons of cow manure into the environment.

Wisconsin State Reps. Joel Kitchens (R-Sturgeon Bay) and Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) represent districts in which aquifers and surface waters are being depleted and toxified by industrialized agriculture.

Both legislators are notorious yes men to Big Ag polluters in northeastern and central Wisconsin respectively. Both run political interference for industrialized agriculture operations as children are literally being sent to the emergency room after bathing or drinking water contaminated by the massive amount of cow manure and associated pathogens vectored into the environment.

"When Doug Jones and his wife, Sherryl,
bought their home in Spring Green
15 years ago, they had a vision of a place
where their family could gather,
enjoy the beauty of a restored prairie,
and where their grandchildren could
experience fresh air and a peaceful, rural life.
Their land included an 11-acre oxbow lake
and sloughs connected to the
Lower Wisconsin Riverway."
(Midwest Environmental Advocates)

Clean water advocates and other citizen groups—Kewaunee Cares, Saratoga Concerned and Citizens Concerned about Lake Superior CAFOs, for example—have worked for years with municipal, county and state policymakers only to find themselves blacklisted by the Department of Natural Resources and besmirched by Republican legislators such as we-don't-need-the-EPA Joel Kitchens and Krug, and some have become the victims of threats and vandalism in their very homes.

Now, water advocates, (aka Wisconsin families), are fed-up and frustrated as children are poisoned, well water continually contaminated and property valuations plummeting.

"We have played nice with our County Board of Supervisors long enough, it is time to start calling them out publicly on their lack of leadership and accountability to citizen concerns," notes Saratoga Concerned Friday night on their Facebook page.

In a letter to the Wisconsin Rapids City Times, Criste Greening of Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors rips the Wood County Board (central Wisconsin) pointing to outright hostility from Scott Walker ally, Wood County Board Supervisor and Chairman Lance Pliml and other Board members politically allied with Big Ag in Wisconsin.

Citizen groups across the state are aligning, a phenomenon assisted by social media such as Facebook. Look for a change in tone this election cycle.

Following a report from northeastern Wisconsin that two schools in embattered Kewaunee County received letters warning of well contamination last week, (Karen Ebert Yancey, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin), Scott Walker, Kitchens and Krug were featured in a piece yesterday morning reporting:

In response to continued groundwater problems in Kewaunee County, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) expects to issue new administrative regulations for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and other farmers in karst areas, state Rep. Joel Kitchens said Thursday.

Kitchens, R-Sturgeon Bay, met with Gov. Scott Walker Wednesday and said that they had agreed that different DNR rules governing agriculture were needed for 'unique geological areas of the state.'

'He understands that one size fits all doesn't work,' Kitchen said, referring to DNR regulations that govern statewide agricultural practices, particularly for manure spreading, (Karen Ebert Yancey, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

No activist reached expects anything to come from the latest lip service from Scott Walker and Republican representatives who have decimated the DNR, and who use the hyper-partisan Republican attorney general to further the aims of polluters, money donors and anybody willing to pay to play.

Will Republicans stop the proposed Wysocki factory farm? Will Republicans restore scientists and the autonomy of the DNR? Will Republicans restore the autonomy of administrative law judges?

One thing is certain: 'No' to all questions.

Said one clean water advocate from Door County, (aka 'Wisconsin's Martha Vineyard'): "I won't hold my breath on anything actually happening, but the heat is apparently on."

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel fetes Big Ag's candidate for state
senate, Patrick Testin, on Feb. 14, 2016, (Twitter)

Central Wisconsin Awaits Supreme Court on Factory Farm Appeal for Inflated Property Rights

Popular opposition to proposed massive factory farm
in central Wisconsin faces corrupt state Supreme Court.
Photo by Mary Captain-Braund

Appellate law and vested property rights concern families in central Wisconsin

Update: Examination of the updated Wisconsin Supreme Court website (PDF) indicates the court will hear Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga.

The Court website reads in part: "Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga - When a permit applicant secures vested rights by filing a valid building permit application for a project (Wisconsin's "Building Permit Rule"), does the law protect the applicant's right to both construct buildings and to use the project land in the lawful manner described in the building permit application?"
--
Madison, Wisconsin — In central Wisconsin a fearful, hope-and-see mood describes families awaiting the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision to grant or deny review of a state appellate court April ruling, Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga.

Residents want the April state appellate decision to stand because the ruling restricts a massive factory farm from beginning operations under a radical, new conception of corporate vested property rights

The communities' future depends on the high Court decision as the predictable consequences of operation of the proposed Golden Sands factory farm are the pollution and depletion of water and air, devastating parts of four counties in this region, if it began operation.

The Golden Sands Dairy LLC appellate ruling effectively kills the operation of the massive factory farm by disallowing use of a 4,660-acre manure dumping field on which millions of gallons of liquid cow waste would be vectored every year.

The Supreme Court decision on the Golden Sands-Wysocki corporation's petition for review, a legal request of a court to hear a case, is expected around October 12, some six months after the April appellate ruling's date.

The appellate ruling freezes construction plans of the dairy Golden Sands CAFO, Confined Agricultural Feeding Operation, by honoring the current legal delineation of vested property rights.

[Note: For updates the case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court is 2015AP001258. Enter   15ap1258 in the Appeal Number field, leave the rest of fields blank and hit search at bottom-left of the linked Wisconsin Supreme Court page.]

Republican Altering of Health, Safety and Environmental Protection

It's an indication how corrupt Wisconsin government is under Republican rule that residents contacted in Wood and Adams counties believe Republicans on the Wisconsin Supreme Court will vote to hear the Golden Sands Wysocki petition, overturn the appellate decision and radically expand the vested rights of property owners to commit virtually any environmentally and economically destructive act, altering the capacity of local communities to protect their economic and environmental well-being and the safety of families against corporate actors.

Since 2011 Republicans have implemented an unprecedented statutory framework according property rights supremacy over any other competing rights, including public interest concerns.

Notes David Strifling at the Marquette University  Law School:

In 2016, the Wisconsin Legislature [enacted] Wis. Stat. § 227.57(11). The statute provides that a 'court shall accord no deference to the agency’s interpretation of law if the agency action or decision restricts the property owner’s free use of the property owner’s property.'

Though to this point Republicans have worked to change the nature of corporations' property rights vis a vis the public interest function of state agencies, the Golden Sands Dairy LLC v. Town of Saratoga case accords the Republican-dominated Supreme Court a way to expand corporate property rights over the health and safety claims of neighbors and communities.

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Corporate interests, the Wisconsin Farm Bureau and Wisconsin Realtors Association, have filed Amicus, (Friend of the Court), briefs in support of the Court hearing the Golden Sands-Wysocki petition.

Republican Supreme Court members protect corporate interests, and for years have refused to recuse themselves in cases in which the justices' political campaigns have benefited from heavy spending by litigants, (Wisconsin Democracy Campaign), (Wisconsin Democracy Campaign).

Some central Wisconsin residents contacted believe that because the remaining credibility of the Wisconsin Supreme Court as an independent judicial body is at stake, the Court may not overturn the well-grounded April state appellate decision.

Proposed Golden Sands factory farm in central Wisconsin
could turn rural paradise into industrial wasteland.
 Don Ystad of Adams County Wisconsin
who has been promoting tourism and recreation for writes:
"Take a step back from the politics of this
situation and ask yourself, 'what is best
for the state of Wisconsin?  Another CAFO sited, or the
preservation and growth of an existing, vibrant area,
poised to be the 'golf mecca of the Midwest?'
Unfortunately, the Wysocki CAFO has the
political support of local State Rep. Scott Krug,
(R-Nekoosa, Wisconsin) and State Sen. Patrick Testin,
(R-Stevens Point). These politocs have already chosen Big Ag
over everything else, including the Sand Valley Golf Resort.