Park City Daily News (2024)

23/05/2022

New garbage and recycling bins are being delivered!

18/05/2022

NO ‘NO MOW MAY’ FOR MERRILL
By Derek Woellner

After multiple meetings, the city’s previous Board of Public Works failed to create a ‘No Mow May’ for Merrill.

According to information provided by Street Superintendent Bonack to the Board, "[No Mow May] is run by Bee City USA in an effort to promote pollination by reducing the mowing of lawns in the month of May to create habitat and forage for early season pollinators. This is mostly done through a suspension of lawn length enforcement with some communities requiring registration.”

The issue was discussed in length at the Board's February and March meetings this year, as well as June of last year.

Christine Vorpagel brought the request and attended all three meetings. She stated the purpose of her request was “to help repopulate our bees.” She pointed to cities such as Wausau and Stevens Point as examples of nearby communities which have been participating in the program for years.

Mayor Woellner’s opinion was that they should notify the Street and W**d Commissioner that the Board will reduce any lawn charges during the month of May to zero, and that the Commissioner shouldn’t issue fines for that month.

Bonack disagreed with the mayor, stating he thought the city should use a registration or permitting process, possibly giving signs out stating “This is a No Mow May yard.”

Alderman Rick suggested that people could use the “Native Lawn” ordinance to apply for a permit to do ‘No Mow May’.

Despite there being no direct opposition, the Board did not find agreement on which method should be used to implement the program, and the issue was tabled after a motion made by Alderman Sabatke and seconded by Rick.

Vorpagel expressed her outrage that the Board had a whole month, if not a year, but did not do any work to come to a solution.

The Board of Public Works is now comprised of some new members after the April election.

17/05/2022

CONGRESSMAN & PARTISAN PAC BEHIND AUTOCRATIC TAKEOVER OF COUNTY GOVERNMENT
By Derek Woellner

US Representative Tom Tiffany contributed a quarter of the funds raised by The Jefferson Project, the political action committee behind the recent autocratic takeover of the Lincoln County government.

The Jefferson Project, through print and radio advertisements, helped flip key county board supervisor seats and replace the board chair this past Spring election.

According to the latest campaign finance statements, Tiffany donated $1,000 of the total $3,955 raised by The Jefferson Project, outspent only by the Republican Party of Lincoln County, which donated $2,000. State Senator Mary Felzkowski was the third highest contributor with $500.

Spending over two-thousand dollars total, the largest expenditure by The Jefferson Project was a $650 radio ad attacking the former Lincoln County Board Chair, Kevin Koth, who was running for re-election. He was defeated by 28 votes.

In their first meeting, the newly elected board chose as the new chair, the Treasurer of The Jefferson Project, Don Friske.

Calvin Callahan, a Board Supervisor and also State Assemblyperson for the district encompassing Lincoln County, then motioned to suspend the rules to pass a new ordinance which was authored by Callahan and co-sponsored by Friske.

The new law grants Friske the unilateral power to appoint committee chairs, breaking from the board’s long-standing more democratic method, and voted to strip the county’s lawyer, the Corporation Counsel, of her role as parliamentarian, meaning Friske now rules over any procedural challenges.

The Lincoln County Board of Supervisors is non-partisan, meaning political parties are not included on the ballot.

In an article called “Local Nonpartisan Elections, Political Parties and the First Amendment” published in the Columbia Law Review, the author Nancy Northup states, “Most local elections in America are nonpartisan. States first enacted nonpartisan election laws during the Progressive Era in response to the perception that political party bosses and their organizational machines were corrupting city governments. Nonpartisan schemes, by limiting political party participation in local elections, are seen as a means to a more efficient and responsive local government.”

The Jefferson Project, funded by a US Congressman, a State Senator, and their political party, outspent every candidate for the County Board, winning a supermajority, and the first action that that supermajority took was to consolidate the power of the board chair, who happened to be the very person behind The Jefferson Project.

Such organized action by a political party for a local nonpartisan election is unusual. It appears that "political party bosses and their organizational machines" may have returned, seizing our county government.

16/05/2022

PROTESTORS AT COURTHOUSE PICKET FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS
By Derek Woellner

Protesters gathered outside the courthouse Saturday afternoon, demonstrating in support of women’s rights and against the leaked US Supreme Court ruling which would overturn Roe v. Wade.

The organizers of the protest, Mas Yeskis and Emily Taggard, stated they were there “to fight for reproductive rights” and for “women's rights to choose.”

"I think abortion is a human right," Yeskis said, "the first thing that people think of when they hear abortion is it’s murder, but that's not what it is. It's prolife, it saves people's lives. So many sum it up as baby killing, when it’s so much more nuanced than that. It’s about pregnancy, bodily autonomy, human rights, the statistics behind who’s having abortions and why, [and] the science behind when life begins.”

“We don't want to have abortions, we just want to be able to choose,” explained Taggart, “everyone should have access to safe abortions.” She added, “We want safe abortions so we don't have to go back to coat hangers and people throwing themselves down stairs.”

“It’s a necessary healthcare choice,” said Yeskis, sharing her own personal story where she had to consider the possibility of having an abortion.

"When I got married, I really wanted a baby,'' Yeskis explained, stating how she and her husband were constantly testing for pregnancy, and were so happy when it happened, “but at her 20 week ultrasound, we found out she had a cyst in her brain.”

Such cysts are fairly common in pregnancies, but can be a sign of a worse condition such as Trisomy 18. According to Cleveland Clinic, no more than 10% of babies born with Trisomy 18 make it to their first year, and most cases ended in miscarriage or stillbirth. Due to this, medical professionals will often suggest an abortion if the condition is confirmed through testing.

Facing the possibility that her baby may suffer if it were born with a condition such as Trisomy 18, Yeskis and her husband began considering an abortion. Thankfully in the end, the tests came back negative, and the couple had a healthy baby girl.

Yeskis concluded, “I can’t imagine what that would have been like if I didn’t have an option. If I was forced to have a baby that was going to suffer.”

Yeskis was also handing out lists of abortion services in Wisconsin, places to donate to to support women in need of abortions, and Wisconsin Legislature contacts. She said, "the main thing people can do to help, if they want to help, is call your senators, and donate to places that help women in need.”

The protest received a mixed reaction from passersby. One woman in an SUV slowed as she passed, shouting, “thank you,” to the demonstrators. In contrast, just a moment later a man in a pickup truck slowed and angrily yelled incoherent profanity.

12/05/2022

PATH SET FOR NEW HIGH-END NEIGHBORHOOD
By Derek Woellner

Last week the Redevelopment Authority (RDA) reviewed the potential plat concept for a new high-end neighborhood and approved $30,000 to begin clearing and grubbing the right-of-way for a new street.

The proposed neighborhood is located at the north-center of the city, within the large pine forest behind Sawmill Brewing Company. The plan requires the extension of Spruce St. northward, where it will then turn east and connect to E 14th St.

The strategy to clear the path for the road this early on in the process “seemed to work well for the Superior St. development,” the city’s Finance Director, Kathy Unertl, told the RDA, “If somebody is looking at one of these lots, and you’re trying to sell them, being able to walk in there and see where the lots are, that would help for marketing.”

The plat concept reviewed by the Authority featured 24 new lots for development. The owners of the property, Todd and Renea Frederick with Prairie River Properties LLC, stated that 20 of the lots are meant for high-end homes.

The 1,500 foot extension of Spruce St. will cost the city an estimated total of $878,500, including the $30,000 that has been approved for clearing and grubbing. According to the RDA meeting minutes, “The potential utility and street infrastructure improvements of Spruce St. would be considered as part of the TID No. 7 budget for 2023.”

The Common Council will vote on the 2023 budget in November. If approved, TID No. 7 will borrow the money to invest in the street infrastructure to facilitate the development of the lots. Then the increase in taxes collected from the new homes will be used to pay off the debt incurred by the project and will become future revenue for the city.

In the same meeting, another project was proposed for TID No. 7, adding at least three new residential lots on E 13th Street, west of Cedar St. The request from Tina Dengel with Riverbend Realty Group is for the city to extend utilities including three water and three sanitary laterals, as well as asphalt paving and curb and gutter.

The estimated total cost for the E 13th St. extension is $75,500. The RDA approved a commitment to extend the utilities when the building permits for the homes are issued, and the street’s curb, gutter, and paving improvements will be considered in the 2023 budget.

The two proposed projects follow a third, ongoing project in the same area. A new extension of E 10th St. from Mill St. to Spruce St. was approved last year and is currently under construction.

Photo: Plat concept from 5/4/22 RDA agenda packet.

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11/05/2022

NEW COUNCIL INVESTS $50K, CONTINUING COMMITMENT TO MORE HOUSING
By Derek Woellner

Tuesday night the Merrill Common Council approved a $50,000 purchase of 2.61 acres along Johnson Street for future residential development.

The vote comes just one month after three new aldermen, Mike Caylor, LaDonna Fermanich, and Dick Lupton, and new mayor Steve Hass were sworn into office.

The purchased land will be broken up into eight separate lots for new homes to be built. The City will be requesting proposals for the development of the lots, offering the land for free as an incentive.

The plan to develop eight houses, each with a minimum of a $250,000 value, will add more than $2 million to the city’s tax base. By collecting property taxes on the eight homes, the $50,000 investment will pay for itself in under two years.

Alderman Steve Sabatke thanked Church Mutual, the seller of the property, for the “very attractive price.”

The Council voted to approve the project 7-1, with Alderman Mike Rick voting against it.

Under the previous council in 2020 and 2021, the city added 23 new single family homes and four new multi-family buildings which totaled 56 units. They also approved agreements for construction to take place yet this year in 2022, with builders including Ryan Ott Construction, Denyon Homes, Timber Ridge Builders, JJ Premier Investments, CMO Building Service, JS Builders, Nicolet Lumber, and SC Swiderski to provide a wide variety of houses, duplexes, and apartment buildings.

Two new single family homes have already been completed in 2022.

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10/05/2022

EDITORIAL
BIG MONEY IN THE COURTS, AS ABOVE SO BELOW
By Derek Woellner

As highlighted in recent news, hundreds of millions of dollars of "investments" into our nation's courts have continued offering huge returns.

The US Supreme Court is positioned to overturn half a century of precedent, taking away the 14th Amendment right to “Liberty” from half of Americans. The language in the recently leaked draft ruling sets the tracks for future legal challenges to things like contraceptive use and gay marriage.

The Justices that reportedly support the leaked ruling have all benefited from millions of dollars being spent on their behalf by dark money and special interest groups.

The long-serving Justices within this paid-for majority have proven their loyalty to their donors and their hypocrisy to the public by ruling to expand the rights of corporations and big money, like they did in Citizens United.

As big money dominates our nation’s highest court, so it does at the state level as well.

Just a year after the Citizens United ruling in 2010, dark money and special interest groups like Club for Growth and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) spent $3.7 million supporting their preferred candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, David Prosser. That amount was five times more than Prosser’s campaign spent itself. The election was decided by just 7,000 votes, leading many to theorize that the huge spending by special interest groups changed the outcome.

Three years prior, the WMC had spent $2.75 in support of candidate Michael Gableman. Again, this was five times more money than the candidate’s own campaign spent on their election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Gableman won his seat by 20,000 votes.

The "investments" of these groups into the elections of the Wisconsin Supreme Court proved most valuable in 2015 when the Court ordered the end to an investigation involving them. Club for Growth and WMC, along with 27 other groups, were directly implicated in an investigation as to whether these groups had illegally coordinated with a candidate.

Now, obviously, if a judge received millions in funding from a group, and that group is involved in a case, the judge should recuse themselves from that case.

The Caperton v. Massey ruling in 2009 established that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires judges to recuse themselves not only if actual bias or an economic interest has been demonstrated, but also when “extreme facts” point to a “probability of bias.”

In the Caperton v. Massey case, the CEO of the Massey Coal Company contributed over $3 million to help elect a state Supreme Court Justice. At the same time, the Massey Coal Company was in a legal battle with another coal company that Hugh Caperton was the president of. When their case made it to the West Virginia Supreme Court, the Justice that the $3 million went toward was asked to recuse himself but he refused. That fact was taken to the US Supreme Court, which ruled that the judge did indeed have to recuse themselves in such a situation.

So when the Wisconsin Supreme Court took on the case involving Club for Growth and WMC, Prosser and Gableman were asked to recuse themselves on the grounds of Caperton v. Massey. Gableman simply ignored it and never gave his response for his refusal to recuse. Prosser also refused, but responded that he didn’t need to recuse himself, because several years had passed since his election, which apparently removed any bias that $3.7 million could have caused him.

As a result, the Wisconsin Supreme Court voted 4-2 to halt the investigation and to destroy the evidence. They even took it a step further and ruled that coordination between special interest groups and candidates was not illegal, retroactively legalizing what was widely understood at the time to be illegal campaign activity. Gableman wrote the majority opinion.

Another Justice had recused herself from the case because her son worked at the same law firm as one of the attorneys involved in the case.

Had Gableman and Prosser recused themselves, the decision would have likely been a 2-2 tie. Then a less-conflicted appeals court would have taken on the case.

Luckily for the public, before the evidence was destroyed, someone leaked it to the British newspaper The Guardian.

From the federal to the state level, big money dominates the nominations and elections of our Justices. The money wouldn’t be spent if it didn’t offer returns.

09/05/2022

EDITORIAL
“SOCIETY” OF LAWYERS BEHIND ATTACK ON CIVIL LIBERTIES, FUNDED BY DARK MONEY (Part 3 of 3)
By Derek Woellner

A SYSTEM OF DEEP SECRET POCKETS
In 2019, the Washington Post did an investigative report on the Federalist Society’s longtime vice president, Leonard Leo. Analyzing the most recent tax filings available at the time, the Post found that between 2014 and 2017, dark money groups associated with Leo and the Federalist Society received more that $250 million from undisclosed donors. One donation was a single $24 million amount.

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Courts Subcommittee, in a speech about the Federalist Society said, “By the Post's reckoning, $250 million in dark money flowed through this apparatus. Testimony before the [Subcommittee] has since updated that number to $400 million.”

As mentioned in Part One of this series, dark money groups are organizations with secret donors; they not required to disclose where their money comes from to the IRS. They work like shell-companies and enable wealthy donors and corporations to spend huge amounts on political marketing anonymously. Leo’s career with the Federalist Society gives us a glimpse into the system.

According to the Post, “The groups in Leo’s network often work in concert and are linked to Leo and one another by finances, shared board members, phone numbers, addresses, back-office support and other operational details, according to tax filings, incorporation records, other documents and interviews.”

One such group is called the Judicial Crisis Network (previously the Judicial Confirmation Network) or JCN. The Post reported that JCN was once “based at the home of Ann and Neil Corkery, close allies of Leo who have served as board members or treasurers of organizations run by Leo and a small group of interconnected activists.”

Although JCN’s board director, Gary Marx, stated that JCN and the Federalist Society have, “different boards, different missions, different functions and do very different things,” the Post writes that when a “reporter visited the JCN offices to ask questions, a security guard contacted a longtime employee of the Federalist Society to see whether anyone at JCN was available. A Federalist Society employee then escorted the reporter to JCN’s office.”

The Post also reported that JCN’s president, Daniel Casey, “receives no pay from JCN or three other nonprofits in the network that he helps to lead.” However, “He received more than $1.5 million in fees from the Federalist Society over nine years for media training.” Strangely, Casey isn't paid by the company he runs, but is paid by the Federalist Society who happens to be in the same office space.

Leo has worked directly with JCN, although never in a formal position, going back many years. “In 2005 and 2006, Leo served as the leader of the campaigns supporting Supreme Court nominees John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr.,” the Post reported. Leo would later brag about his work during that time to a college Federalist Society chapter, stating that he and others spent about $15 million in dark money on political marketing, conducting polls to craft persuasive messages and directly influencing the news media. His biography on the Federalist Society website also states he “organized the outside coalition efforts in support of the Roberts and Alito U.S. Supreme Court confirmations.'' JCN was a key group in that effort.

In more recent years, JCN published a news release during President Obama’s second term stating that they launched a $7 million media campaign to influence the Senate to prevent Obama from filling the vacant Supreme Court seat. In 2017, JCN announced they would spend $10 million on what they called “the most robust operation in the history of confirmation battles” to promote the nomination of Gorsuch.

In 2016, Leo created three new dark money groups: BH Fund, America Engaged, and Freedom and Opportunity Fund. Within the first two years, the three groups raised a total of $33 million. BH Fund received a single $24,250,000 donation from someone whose identity is still not publicly known. Millions were then shuffled to various other groups.

The Freedom and Opportunity Fund distributed $4 million to a group called Independent Women’s Voice (IWV). The Post tells us that Heather Higgins, IWV’s president and chief executive, “once described her group as a weapon in the “Republican conservative arsenal” that caters to “donors who want a high return on their investment for their political dollars,” according to a video of a speech she made at the nonprofit David Horowitz Freedom Center.” Higgins also said, “We have worked hard to create a branded organization … that does not carry partisan baggage,” Higgins said in 2015. “Being branded as neutral but actually having the people who know, know that you’re actually conservative puts us in a unique position.”

Along with BH Fund, Leo also created BH Group. “In the two years following its formation, the BH Group received more than $4 million from the Judicial Crisis Network, a related group called the Judicial Education Project and a third nonprofit in the network called the Wellspring Committee, all of them connected to Leo through funding, personnel and the same accountant,” reported the Post. “Leo, who disclosed BH Group as his employer in a campaign finance filing, declined to say how much money he received from the company or provide any other details about it.”

The Federalist Society paid Leo an annual compensation of more than $400,000 in the years leading up to his recent retirement. The Catholic Association paid him $120,000 for consulting in 2016.

“Leo joined the Federalist Society as one of its first paid employees,” the Post reported, “Leo also developed a reputation as a conservative moneyman. When Kavanaugh and other Bush aides were looking for someone to pay for a press event aimed at supporting the stalled judicial nomination of Miguel Estrada, they turned to Leo.
“Leonard Leo will know,” a White House aide wrote in an email obtained by The Post. “We probably don’t want the fed soc paying for it, but he might know some generous donor.””

Leonard Leo is just one person within a vast network of individuals and groups who have spent millions, if not billions, of dollars over the past two decades in an effort to take control of the Supreme Court. His position at the top of the Federalist Society gave him a central role in coordinating the effort.

Using the Federalist Society as a scouting ground, big moneyed-interests have identified their preferred justices, and have successfully gotten them appointed in courts across the nation, including a majority on the Supreme Court.

05/05/2022

EDITORIAL
“SOCIETY” OF LAWYERS BEHIND ATTACK ON CIVIL LIBERTIES, FUNDED BY DARK MONEY (Part 2 of 3)
By Derek Woellner

PART TWO: AN ASSAULT ON OUR RIGHTS AND GOVERNMENT
This past Monday, Politico published a leaked Supreme Court majority draft opinion showing that the Court’s Federalist Society members want to overturn Roe v. Wade on the premise that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause does not explicitly grant women the right to their own freedom of choice and family.

This ruling would set the stage to challenge a number of long-standing and popular rights that have been found to be protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.

The framers of the Fourteenth Amendment proudly called it “the gem of the Constitution” as “it is the Declaration of Independence placed immutably and forever in our Constitution.” The Amendment states “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Which, of course, is in reference to the Declaration asserting “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” as “unalienable Rights.”

The Federal Society members’ ruling undermines half a century of precedent with a new “originalist” interpretation of the law. But some argue that the right to family, the right to choose to have children, is supported by the history of the Constitution and is the true “originalist” interpretation.

“The rights to control one’s body, establish a family, and have children necessarily safeguard the right to abortion as a fundamental right. The right of “having a family, a wife, children, home,” as Senator Jacob Howard, who played a central role in drafting the Fourteenth Amendment, put it, guarantees to the individual free choice in matters of family and childbirth, in the same way that the freedom of speech also includes the right to not speak,” wrote David H. Gans, a director at the Constitutional Accountability Center, last November for The Atlantic.

The Fourteenth Amendment was passed just three years after the end of the Civil War. It was passed in response to southern states trying to restrict the rights of former slaves after the war. The Due Process Clause, which guarantees our right to liberty, to freedom, has been used since then to reaffirm our rights again and again. In 1954, the Brown v. Board of Education ruling found that segregated schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth was cited in the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut case regarding contraception, and in the 1967 in*******al marriage case Loving v. Virginia. It was used to bolster gun rights in the 2010 McDonald V. Chicago, and was cited in the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling that legalized gay marriage.

Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward, the authors of the Politico article published alongside the leak, wrote, “Alito’s draft argues that rights protected by the Constitution but not explicitly mentioned in it — so-called unenumerated rights — must be strongly rooted in U.S. history and tradition. That form of analysis seems at odds with several of the court’s recent decisions, including many of its rulings backing gay rights.”

A super-majority of Americans support same-sex marriage rights. Nearly the same amount believe in a woman’s right to choose. A recent Gallup poll found 94% of Americans support in*******al marriage. Americans support the rights of others to do what makes them happy, for the freedom to build their own families, but a small minority has taken control of the judicial system and is working to take away those rights.

It cannot be for purely “originalist” ideological reasons. These actions arguably go against originalism, and judicial members of the Federalist Society have shown that they are willing to stretch the meaning of the law to benefit corporations and big money as pointed out in part one of this series. Their record shows little hesitancy in straying from “originalist” values.

The values most apparent in the actions of the Federalist Society justices are those often projected by bigoted Oligarchs. Misogyny, homophobia, and racism are all present, but most prominently of all is big money, hand-in-hand with power.

For the Court to claim they now have the power to determine what is “rooted in U.S. history and tradition” is a blatant power grab. They point the finger and claim that previous Courts went too far by expanding marriage and family rights, and that only their interpretation of what “Liberty” means is correct. Stating that liberties are only granted if they are “rooted in U.S. history and tradition” establishes a standard which has already been proven to be arbitrary in its first application, as the quoted paragraph above by Gans shows.

This ruling has seemingly come as a shock to people like Congresswoman Susan Collins who received heavy criticism for her votes to confirm Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. She said in a statement, “If this leaked draft opinion is the final decision and this reporting is accurate, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office.” The leak has been confirmed to be accurate by the Chief Justice.

Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett all lied to Congress about their intentions to overturn Roe v. Wade. Collins may call their words “completely consistent” but they were lies. Despite what the Justices said officially on record, it was obvious this was coming.

Donald Trump spoke openly about the plan in his 2016 campaign. At the October 19th debate, he said that overturning Roe v. Wade “will happen, automatically,” if he was elected and had the opportunity to make appointments to the Supreme Court.

Once elected, Trump worked with Leonard Leo, the executive vice president of the Federalist Society, to choose the three appointments that he made to the Court. Gorsuch and Kavanaugh have been reported to have been Leo’s personal picks, and the Federalist Society helped assemble the list from which Barrett was chosen. A report by Lambda Legal found that 85% of Trump’s circuit court nominees were or are affiliated with the Federalist Society.

Before Trump, George W. Bush also appointed a large number of Federalist Society judges. A 2009 study published in Political Research Quarterly found that about half of Bush’s appointments for appellate court judgeships were Federalist Society members.

The Federalist Society has been openly stacking the Courts in a well-organized effort for decades now. They have already obtained power, but will continue to expand it, and they will continue to act. Their future actions cannot be predicted with detail, but more misogyny, racism, and homophobia, along with other unpopular actions are likely to come, as the Federalist Society Justices have shown no respect for the beliefs or rights of the average American. Their repeated hypocrisy dismisses any claims of their actions being motivated by “originalists” beliefs, and so, to understand their motivations, their true masters, we need to follow the money.

(Stay tuned for part three, A System of Deep Secret Pockets, where we’ll explore the funding network surrounding the Federalist Society.)

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