Wisconsin

Source: https://spectrumnews1.com/wi/milwaukee/news/2025/07/16/van-orden-pocan-capitol-confrontation

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5540917

HAYWARD, Wis. — Chilly nights on northern Wisconsin’s Chippewa Flowage don’t deter 15-year-old spearfisher Gabe Bisonette. He’s been learning the Ojibwe practice for so long now that when his headlamp illuminates the eye-shine of his quarry, he can communicate the sighting to his dad with hardly a word.

Ojibwe and other Indigenous people are fighting to keep this way of life vibrant. As a result of warming waters, increasingly variable seasonal changes and lakeshore development, walleye numbers in some lakes are dwindling. Losing the species would mean losing a food source for community members, a sovereign right to fish, and a deep connection to tradition and nature. Many are optimistic that with the help of science and proper management, they will be able to continue this tradition in the future, but there’s also concern about the changes already happening.

“We’ve seen things here over the last couple of years that I’ve never seen before,” said Brian Bisonette, Gabe’s uncle and the conservation director of the Lac Courte Oreilles Conservation Department. “It worries me, what I’ve seen in my lifetime, what’s my grandson going to see in his lifetime?”

Full article

I can see the WSOR trains go by a couple of times a day from my office window. There's a routine: Send a locomotive out to the west side to pick up the consist of hopper cars, take them out to the east to get filled with gravel or crushed stone, then take them out to the west, often with tanker cars added to the train. Once in a while, they take a train of full lumber cars west.

Today, I happened to look out and see something completely novel: C&NW steam locomotive #1385 on its flatbed, pulled by a WSOR diesel. The Mid-Continent Railway museum is finishing up a years-long restoration of #1385, and it's on its way back to North Freedom.

I am kind of embarrassed to admit how delighted I am to see it, and all of the love the volunteers have lavished on it. I remember seeing #1385 under full steam, pulling the circus train back in the day, so it holds a fond place in my childhood memories.

There's a homecoming celebration at the museum this Saturday, and I just had to share.

Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/wisconsin-republican-deletes-post-appeared-002459499.html

https://www.wxow.com/news/wisconsin-politics/rep-van-orden-appears-to-celebrate-millions-losing-healthcare-in-since-deleted-x-post/article_d638ae8a-b6fc-42ec-9a97-38e0e3c9d1de.html

Hi Wisconsin, New Orleanian here.

This past May, Washington Post revealed the police in my city were secretly using the first of its kind facial recognition technology to track citizens in real time.

I'm posting here because I also learned that recently, Milwaukee police have been expressing interest in using facial recognition tech, despite protests from citizens.

New Orleans has been less than transparent about handling all of this, and NOPD has stopped using the tech since WaPo exposed they were violating a city ordinance. However, NOPD has now proposed an updated ordinance which would allow them to legally continue using the realtime tracking and facial recognition tech despite warnings from the ACLU that the ordinance will leave the city vulnerable to the federal government government.

"If the federal government wants to use the data from New Orleans facial recognition system to identify and deport undocumented persons in the city, they just have to get a federal warrant to come in and get that data,” Marlow said. “And they’re going to use it for that purpose, regardless of what the local law says.”

“What the New Orleans City Council needs to understand, and they need to understand it right now, is that if they set up a system of this level of power in their city, and they don’t have lockdown control in all instances over the technology and its data, they are placing every resident of New Orleans and every visitor of New Orleans at risk,” Marlow continued. “Not only [is New Orleans] creating the possibility that the federal government could come in and commandeer this equipment and its data to go after people in New Orleans, they’re inviting it.”

The City Council meeting regarding the proposed ordinance is schedule for this Thursday, June 26 at 10:00a.m. CDT.

There is also a Livestream link if you or anyone you know is interested in watching the meeting

Whether you choose to watch or not, I hope you will stay vigilant about what AI and surveillance policy your local law enforcement might be considering and how it relates to your own civil liberties. I find it very odd that in addition to the concerns over police use of facial recognition tech, New Orleans and Wisconsin also share a concerning link to the Peter Thiel owned company Palantir.

Former Wisconsin Congressman Mike Gallagher was named Palantir's defense business chief in August of 2024.

From ~2012-2018, the city of New Orleans secretly partnered with Palantir and allowed the company to test it's controversial predictive policing tech.

After this secret contract was exposed, predictive policing and eventually facial recognition technology were banned in New Orleans in 2020. In 2022, the mayor requested the ban be lifted and replaced with an ordinance that would allow some very concerning surveillance practices by law enforcement, and allow facial recognition in certain circumstances as long as it followed the procedure outlined in the ordinance.

This is the same ordinance that WaPo proved NOPD was violating in May of this year, and the same ordinance New Orleans city council will vote to amend this Thursday, June 26, 2025.

Although the city has allegedly not worked with Palantir since the official contract was dissolved in 2018, Project Nola, the private surveillance company NOPD was receiving the facial recognition and real time tracking information from, was established in 2015 by a former New Orleans police officer. During this time, Palantir was still using surveillance tools throughout the city to create and test their new predictive policing tech.

It's important to note that in addition to owning Palantir, Peter Thiel also happens to fund the facial recognition software company Clearview AI. Clearview has been providing facial recognition software to federal agencies such as ICE and multiple local law enforcement agencies around the country since ~2020.

A little background information, as I've recounted a few times on Lemmy: Back in the '90s, UW-Madison professor Joel Rogers co-founded an aspirational new political party—creatively named the New Party—that tried to revive fusion voting. They endorsed a Democratic candidate for the Minnesota House in 1994, and the Minnesota DFL objected. They took the case to the Supreme Court, which upheld the ban on fusion voting. The New Party lost momentum and fell apart soon afterwards. Progressive Dane, based in Madison, is the only remaining New Party affiliate.

It's not surprising to see the Wisconsin Republican Party objecting to the practice; it will be interesting to see what the Wisconsin Democratic Party thinks. (I recently learned from the Wikipedia page on fusion voting that the Republicans and Democrats used to run fusion candidates to defeat socialists in Milwaukee.)

I wish United Wisconsin all the luck.

The partial veto that the Wisconsin governor can do is ridiculous. But it was ridiculous back when Tommy Thompson was doing it, too. If Republicans can use it, so can Democrats.

In a sliver of good news for today, Michael Gableman faces consequences.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27797493

I guess that every election now will have a referendum to amend the state constitution for funsies. Let's add Chapter 1 of the statutes—Sovereignty and Jurisdiction of the State—since that seems pretty important. Maybe the state symbols? I mean, nothing's more patriotic than the American Robin. Let's get the lyrics to "On, Wisconsin!" in there, too. That, and the 2025 Green Bay Packers schedule definitely should be in the constitution, and we can add 2026 next year.

Now that it's an open ledger, what other random crap should we put into our foundational document?