29. First a little humor to lighten the mood after Friday's 10", and then something more serious.
A picture of a Red Squirrel (to the left) was forwarded to me, and despite my dislike for the meanest of the squirrel species in Wisconsin, I fully agree with him.
During the snowstorm I measured 18.5 inches of snow on the ground, which compacted to 17.3 inches yesterday. This morning I found 16.8 inches of snow pack.
I'm protesting the recent snow with a boycott of shoveling the front deck.
Great Lakes Compact struggle continues in Wisconsin.
My previous post concerning news of the Great Lakes Compact under Capitol Dome in Madison can be found here. From the Ashland Daily Press I found the following article today:
Doyle calls special session for Great Lakes Compact
By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press Writer
Published: Thursday, April 10, 2008 9:20 AM CDT
MADISON (AP) — Gov. Jim Doyle on Wednesday called a special legislative session to ratify an interstate treaty designed to prevent parched states from sucking water out of the Great Lakes.
Four states and two Canadian provinces have approved the Great Lakes Compact. Wisconsin lawmakers have been at loggerheads over the treaty, though, with Republicans complaining the compact’s language was rushed and gave too much power to other Great Lakes governors.
But lawmakers announced Wednesday they had hammered out a compromise. Doyle ordered them into special session beginning April 17 to vote on the deal.‘‘Through a lot of hard work, through a lot of cooperation, through some real persistence, we are ready in Wisconsin to pass the Great Lakes Compact,’’ Doyle said at a New Berlin news conference. ‘‘By doing so we will protect the asset that defines who we are geographically.’’
Eight governors signed the compact in 2005 after four years of talks. They were driven by fears that booming Southwestern states would try to pull water out of the lakes, which hold 90 percent of the nation’s fresh surface water.
The compact would allow a single Great Lakes governor to block any request to use lake water. It also sets out new guidelines for municipalities in the Great Lakes basin to draw water and encourages water conservation.
All the Great Lakes states and Congress must ratify the treaty before it can take effect. Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and New York have signed the treaty into law. So has Quebec and Ontario.
Wisconsin’s Democratic-controlled state Senate ratified the treaty in early March, days before the end of the legislative session. But Republicans who run the state Assembly balked, saying they didn’t have enough time to review the document before the end of the session.
