Environment

On Not Doing 9/11, Or, Right Now, I’ve Got A Desk To Clear

September 11, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

I’m going to be really honest with you: after all the fights at the mall to get just the right present for everybody and the giant hassle of going to the Post Office so I can get the perfect stamps for my cards – and then worrying that I left someone off the list – I am just not in the mood to do a 9/11 story.

And it’s been getting worse every year. I mean, just like the “It’s Christmas Every Day Store”, I know there’s one of the “9/11 Every Day” stores open, in the all-too-human form of Rudy Giuliani, and I’ve learned to live with that, but it seems like they got started with the 9/11 earlier than ever this year – and by the time the TV memorials and analysis and retrospectives are all over, to paraphrase Lewis Black…I’m going to hate freedom.

In an effort to stave off this fate, we’ll be headed in a different direction today: I have three stories to pass along; each is important enough that you really should know about them, and yet they’re each very much bite-sized and easily digestible.

It’s all good stuff…so let’s get right to it.

Battle's just beginning over proposed open pit iron ore mine

August 27, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

Gogebic Taconite spent about $115,000 in the last six months to lobby on behalf of its proposed open pit iron ore mine on the Penokee range in Ashland and Iron Counties.

State Sen. Bob Jauch (D-Poplar), who represents the area, says it was "a complete waste of money," according to this Ashland Current article by Bill Lueders.

Jauch argues that Gogebic and its hired allies “ended up alienating the public and confusing the Legislature,” by demanding too much on too short a timeline. He believes the company has “tainted the environment” for future progress, raising the hackles even of local officials who are supportive of the mine.

That may be true --to a point. The company wanted to shorten the approval process for a mine from several years to 300 days, eliminating a lot of environmental protection and citizen input in the process. Gogebic clearly overreached.