CHEYENNE—Rep. Dalton Banks, a twentysomething Republican rancher from Big Horn County, was clear about his goals for a measure that could inhibit Wyoming’s ability to pull off land deals with the federal government: He wants to ensure something like the divisive, $100 million Kelly Parcel deal doesn’t happen again. 

“I don’t think that it’s in the best interest of Wyoming that we let them gain more access to our ground,” Banks told fellow lawmakers Thursday. “I also think it’s in the best interest of Wyoming that we don’t allow just outright sales of state ground.” 

Banks’ House Bill 118, “Limitations on net land gains for the federal government,” proposes one short addition to the current statute. “No exchange executed under this section shall result in a net gain of surface rights or mineral rights to the federal government,” the bill states.

The slate of all-Republican co-sponsors includes Reps. Ocean Andrew of Laramie, Jeremy Haroldson of Wheatland, Reuben Tarver of Gillette, John Winter of Thermopolis and Sens. Bob Ide of Casper, John Kolb of Rock Springs and Cheri Steinmetz of Torrington. Banks and most of his cosponsors are counted among the hard-line cohort that includes the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and its Wyoming Senate allies. 

If enacted unchanged, the bill would add a new legal directive for Wyoming land managers, who often pursue land sales and swaps with the federal government. Some of those deals are compelled by the Wyoming Constitution, which requires officials to maximize revenues from school trust lands to fund public education. 

“We have rules and regulations, and we also have statutes that have been provided to us, and they’re a little bit contrary to what the intent of the bill is,” Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments Acting Director Jason Crowder told the House Agriculture, State and Public Lands & Water Resources Committee Thursday as the panel took public comment and expert testimony on the measure. 

The Office of State Lands and Investments, he explained, is charged with protecting and increasing the value of “the whole corpus” of the state’s lands and associated trust accounts. 

“Land transactions are the best way for us to do that,” Crowder said. 

In the case of the Kelly Parcel, the $100 million Wyoming received for 640 acres was $38 million more than the property’s appraised value. When the State Board of Land Commissioners OK’d the sale in a 3-2 vote, Treasurer Curt Meier said that, through investments, his office could turn the proceeds into $1.6 billion. 

“That could be a perpetual, actually generational fund that would benefit the students and the education system of the state of Wyoming,” the treasurer said at the time. 

Not all of his board colleagues agreed. Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder contested the sale, pushing instead for a land swap that would return fossil-fuel-rich federal land in the Powder River Basin. 

Degenfelder, the daughter of an oilman, spoke in support of Banks’ bill. 

“I fundamentally agree with the concept that we cannot continue to increase federal ownership of the state of Wyoming,” the superintendent told the House Ag committee. “48% of the surface is owned by the federal government, 65% of mineral acreage is owned by the federal government. We cannot afford to increase that number.” 

Lawmakers echoed displeasure with federal land management inside Wyoming’s borders. Banks cited both the Bureau of Land Management’s recent revisions of resource management plans for the Red Desert region and the Powder River Basin.

Tarver, a co-sponsor representing Gillette, wasn’t on the committee and couldn’t move to amend it, but suggested sweetening the pot for Wyoming and requiring a 10-to-1 or 100-to-1 acre requirement for any land deals. 

“I don’t see where the federal government manages absolutely anything very well,” Tarver said. “Everything they touch turns into a problem for the state of Wyoming.” 

Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, asked her fellow representative if he’d be OK with the bill if it infringed on private property owners’ rights to sell their land to the federal government. 

Tarver didn’t hesitate. “Absolutely,” he said.

Even a 1-to-1 acre requirement — as the bill is written — could dismantle some deals in the works. Crowder, with the Office of State Lands and Investments, cited the proposed land exchange with the Medicine Bow National Forest, as a potential casualty. The deal would enable construction of a 264-foot-high dam that would benefit a few dozen irrigators. 

The Medicine Bow deal’s benefit to an agricultural community didn’t sway Kelly Carpenter, a lobbyist for the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, who testified in support of the legislation. 

House Bill 118 passed through the House Agriculture Committee in an 8-1 vote after minimal debate, with Provenza opposed. It heads next to the Wyoming House of Representatives, where it’ll need to be read, and voted on, three times on the lower chamber’s floor. 

The post Fresh off Kelly Parcel sale, lawmakers seek to bar similar federal land deals appeared first on WyoFile .

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Wisconsin requires proof of identification to vote. 

Republicans in the Legislature put a referendum on the April 1 ballot to add the requirement to the state constitution. State Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, said the amendment makes it “harder to vote” than to buy a gun.

In Wisconsin, federally licensed gun dealers are required to do background checks on gun purchasers, but other sellers, such as individuals selling privately or at gun shows, are not.

According to a 2015 national survey of gun owners, 22% who made their most recent purchase within two years said they did so without a background check; the figure was 57% among gun owners in states such as Wisconsin that didn’t regulate private gun sales.

It’s the latest national survey, said Johns Hopkins University gun policy expert Daniel Webster.

On voter ID, a University of Wisconsin-Madison study estimated Wisconsin’s law prevented 4,000-11,000 Milwaukee and Dane county residents from voting in the 2016 presidential election.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

• Wisconsin Elections Commission: If you have one of these photo IDs, you are ready to vote!
• Wisconsin Legislative Council: 2011 Wisconsin Act 23
• University of Wisconsin-Madison: Wisconsin’s voter ID controversy: what you need to know
• Wisconsin State Legislature: Senate Joint Resolution 2
• Wisconsin State Legislature: Enrolled Joint Resolution — referendum question
• WisconsinEye: Sen. Kelda Roys remarks
• Wisconsin Legislative Council: Firearm Regulation in Wisconsin
• Giffords Law Center: Background Check Procedures in Wisconsin
• NRA: Wisconsin Gun Laws
• Election Law Journal: Voter Identification and Nonvoting in Wisconsin—Evidence from the 2016 Election
• University of California, Berkeley: Voter ID Laws: What Do We Know So Far?
• Annals of Internal Medicine: Firearm Acquisition Without Background Checks: Results of a National Survey

In Wisconsin, do you need more proof of ID to vote than to buy a gun? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

ATHENS, Ohio — Housing was a major topic at a Monday night’s Athens City Council meeting, with discussion of a new affordable housing project; news that a planned project is on hold; and a pitch from a local real estate developer to build more affordable housing.

At a combined regular and committee meeting, the council heard first reading of an ordinance that would authorize an agreement with Community Building Partners, LLC, to develop and build 14 single-family homes in the city.

The project is underwritten by a $2 million grant the city received in November 2024 from the state’s Welcome Home Ohio program. Community Building Partners will receive a developer fee of $10,000 per unit, according to the agreement. 

The project description attached to the grant award calls for construction of eight three-bedroom homes on the site of the former West Elementary on Central Avenue by Nov. 1, 2026. A future second phase would see construction of an additional six units on Grosvenor Street and Hudson Avenue. 

However, council member Alan Swank, 4th Ward said that those sites weren’t set in stone.

“The state got a little ahead of the ball game and identified the spots they wanted,” Swank said. “I’m not sure if they drove down here or talked to anybody, but that’s fine — we’re not bound to what they suggested.”

Athens City Service-Safety Director Andy Stone did not immediately respond to request for comment regarding the accuracy of Swank’s statement.

Each unit would cost approximately $250,000 to build and would sell for $130,000 to $150,000, Swank said. The proceeds of the sales would fund further construction, he added.

According to the multi-property listing service realtor.com, the median home sale price in the city of Athens was $287,500 in December 2024. 

Under the program terms, each home would have a deed restriction barring sale to anyone who earns more than 80% of the county’s annual median income as determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

“These have to be homes that are going to be homes for many, many, many years — not turned into rentals in the next three, five, 10 or even 15 years,” Swank said.

However, the Welcome Home Ohio guidelines say that the homeowner can rent out the property after five years.

The ordinance will have its second reading at the council’s next regular meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 21.

Other housing projects

Meanwhile, a proposed housing project near Monticello Village apartments on Hooper Street has stalled.

Hill Tide Partners of South Carolina had asked the city to rezone the area from R-1, single family residential, to R-3, multi-family residential for the project.. During the meeting of the Planning and Development Committee Monday, Swank said Hill Tide had withdrawn its request pending upcoming changes to Ohio’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program.

The project involves construction of 50 to 80 apartments on 18 acres at 111 Hooper Street. 

Hill Tide Partners may bring its proposal back sometime between February and April, Swank said.

Use of LIHTCs also was the subject of a presentation by David Funk of Capstone Property Management. 

LIHTC projects offer developers a dollar-for-dollar reduction in federal taxes for building affordable housing projects. Developers front the costs of construction in exchange for tax credits of 4% or 9% of the project cost. In addition, the developer earns project fees and reaps the profits from leasing or selling the housing units.

And projects in Athens County are especially attractive to developers using LIHTC, Funk said, because the state and federal governments offer additional incentives to encourage projects in Appalachia.

“There’s a reason why all of these developers are chasing these projects in Athens County — they’re lucrative,” Funk said. 

A LIHTC project underway in The Plains, Funk noted, will earn Woda Construction of Columbus nearly $6.6 million in developer fees and construction profit — none of which will be spent in Athens County.

Big development firms like Woda, Hill Tide and Spire Development have an edge in obtaining tax credits from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, Funk said, because they have more experience in such projects.

“LIHTC is very much a closed house of developers,” he said. “It’s a pretty small group, and it’s not a club that wants to have other people come in and compete against them.”

In the past eight years, 12 LIHTC projects have created 595 housing units in Athens County — “probably the highest number of LIHTC projects per capita in the state of Ohio,” Funk said. But none of them had local participation, so the county has lost an estimated $282 million in local economic impact, he said.

“The affordable housing that’s being created is fantastic, but it’s tended to take jobs away from the local builders,” he said. 

“But what if all this work had gone to them?” Funk asked. “We’d probably have a vibrant community of builders, a vibrant community of local suppliers.”

Funk suggested that the city create a public-private partnership to support local developers in pursuing LIHTC projects. 

“If done right, there’s enough resources here, enough income coming off these projects, to create an endowment fund,” he said. “Imagine what one could do with $6 million off one single project, in terms of furthering other affordable housing initiatives in Athens County.”

There are no models for such an initiative, he said.

“This would be really creative, to put forth this kind of partnership,” he said.

Patterson said he and Service Safety Director Andy Stone had met previously with Funk and seen the same presentation.

“I think that this would be really interesting, to be able to pull together various entities that might be interested in trying to apply for LIHTC themselves,” he said.

The Athens County Foundation could bring stakeholders together, he added. 

Solveig Spjeldnes, 1st Ward, chairs Affordable Housing Commission and said it could become involved in supporting such a partnership, including through identifying site locations. She suggested a land trust could potentially be used for projects, too.

Athens City Council’s next regular meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 21, in Athens City Hall, Council Chambers, third floor, 8 E. Washington St. Meetings are also available online. Regular sessions are on the first and third Mondays of the month; committee meetings are on the second and fourth Mondays.

The post Athens to build low-income housing on city’s West and Near East sides appeared first on Athens County Independent.

Maine has at least 11 so-called crisis pregnancy centers, facilities that offer prenatal services with the goal of deterring people from having abortions. These centers have come under scrutiny nationally for providing inaccurate information and have seen an uptick in funding since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

These anti-abortion centers are not regulated the same as health clinics. Many are not licensed or staffed by medical professionals but offer free services like pregnancy tests or ultrasounds. And because they are not medical facilities, these centers are not bound by HIPAA to protect patient confidentiality.

During a recent summit hosted by the Maine Public Health Association, abortion-rights activists warned public health leaders that these centers circulated misinformation about “abortion pill reversals” that aren’t supported by any studies. 

Grandmothers For Reproductive Rights (GRR!), a Maine-based organization, added that because the centers are unregulated, they may provide testing for sexually transmitted diseases but are not required to report the results to the state Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

They are located throughout Maine, from Sanford to Fort Kent:

• Open Arms Pregnancy Center, Augusta

• First Step Pregnancy Resources Center, Bangor

• Care Net Center of Mid-Coast Maine, Brunswick

• Hope House, Lewiston

• ABBA Women’s Resource Center, Portland

• Pregnancy Care Center of Aroostook, Presque Isle, Houlton & Fort Kent

• Zoe, A Women’s Center, Rockport

• Alpha Pregnancy Resource Center, Sanford

• Resolve Life Center, Waterville

There are an estimated 2,500 of these anti-abortion centers nationally, compared to about 765 abortion clinics, according to The Guttmacher Institute, a leading research and policy organization focused on reproductive health.

Maine is among a handful of states that has fewer of these facilities than abortion clinics, according to reporting from The Independent. In neighboring New Hampshire, for instance, there are more than 13 crisis pregnancy centers and only four clinics that offer abortions. 

In 2022, the year Roe v. Wade was overturned, crisis pregnancy centers nationally pulled in about $1.4 billion in revenue — and at least $344 million of that was in government funding, according to reporting from the Guardian. At least 16 states have allocated more than $250 million from 2023 through 2025 for programs intended to dissuade people from abortions.

The Charlotte Lozier Institute, which advocates for these centers, reported that in 2022, the centers consulted with 974,965 new clients, distributed 703,835 free pregnancy tests and performed 546,683 free ultrasound tests.

“Now, in the wake of the reversal of the infamous Roe v. Wade, the demands upon centers are increasing daily. Many states are responding with new funds and new policies to support the centers’ work,” Chuck Donovan, then president of the institute, said in its 2024 annual report.

Three states — Michigan, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania — have stopped publicly funding these anti-abortion centers, according to Equity Forward, an abortion rights group.

Abortion access in Maine is less restrictive than in many other states. Abortion is banned at fetal viability, which is about 24 weeks of pregnancy, but a recent law allows doctors to perform abortions after the cutoff when deemed medically necessary.

There were about 2,500 abortions in Maine in 2023, the vast majority of which happened before nine weeks of pregnancy.

Maine lawmakers passed a “shield law” protecting people who travel to Maine for abortion or gender affirming care from legal action taken from other states. It also protects the health professionals who provide the services. 

By Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon

How much are Alaskans willing to pay for produce that is homegrown? A newly published study has some answers: a significant premium, especially when they have information about the benefits of locally grown food.

Alaska grocery shoppers on average were willing to pay $1.90 extra for a head of lettuce if it was labeled as “Alaska Grown,” the study found. When given information about locally grown products’ benefits to health, the environment and the state economy provided by products with the “Alaska Grown” label, that premium jumped to $3.31 on average, the study found.

The study is based on surveys and interviews of shoppers at Anchorage grocery stores and farmers markets. The surveys and interviews were conducted by University of Alaska Anchorage students; the study was led by Qiujie Zheng, an associate professor of business analytics at the University of Maine. Zheng was previously at UAA.

While the surveys and interviews were conducted several years ago, in 2018, Zheng said she believes the results still stand.

The COVID-19 pandemic that came later may have changed food consumption patterns worldwide, she said by email. “However, due to Alaska’s unique geographical location, I believe that the state’s agricultural supply and consumers’ fresh produce options have remained relatively stable over the past few years,” she said.

There has been no interruption in the Alaska Division of Agriculture’s annual Alaska Grown $5 Challenge program, a summer and fall campaign that encourages residents to spend at least $5 a week on locally grown food, she noted. The information the researchers used from the state has been consistent, she added.

It was important to study consumer preferences for Alaska Grown products because the subject has gotten much less attention than consumer attitudes about local foods elsewhere, Zheng said.

And Alaska has reasons to bolster its local sources of food, she said.

“Alaska’s unique geographical location significantly influences its food supply. Since the majority of Alaska’s food is imported, Alaska’s food supply is vulnerable to supply chain disruptions and natural disasters,” she said by email. “A stronger local food system could improve the resilience of the state’s food supply. Understanding consumers’ preferences for local foods and identifying potential marketing and communication strategies are critical before promoting local food in Alaska. This helps strengthen the local food network, and, in the long run, enhances the resilience of Alaska’s food supply.”

The study also analyzed consumer preferences about lettuce labeled as organic and lettuce grown through the hydroponic method, which uses a water-based nutrient solution as a substitute for soil.

Taken in isolation, the Alaska Grown premium that consumers were willing to pay was higher than that for organic food and for hydroponic-grown lettuce. Without being given extra information about benefits, consumers were willing to spend $1.74 more for organic lettuce and 73 cents more for hydroponic-grown lettuce.

Consumer preferences were more complicated when the Alaska Grown, organic and hydroponic labels were combined and when additional information was provided, the study found.

Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alaska Beacon maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Andrew Kitchenman for questions: info@alaskabeacon.com. Follow Alaska Beacon on Facebook and X.

The new leader of the U.S. Senate’s agriculture committee, Arkansas’ John Boozman, has several ties to meatpacking behemoths, including Tyson Foods, and has recently resisted efforts by his fellow Republicans to reign in their economic power.

New Democratic leadership on the committee also has strong agriculture ties, as Sen. Amy Klobuchar has received thousands from employees at the grain processor Cargill.

Republicans recently won control of the U.S. Senate, along with the presidency and the U.S. House of Representatives. This puts the GOP back in charge of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, which has sway over important food legislation, such as the Farm Bill. 

New chairman Boozman became the committee’s ranking minority member in 2021, with Democrats controlling the Senate. He was first elected in 2001.

Over his two decades in Congress, employees at Tyson Foods, one of America’s largest meat companies, donated more than $120,000 to his campaigns — the third-most he’s received during his career, according to OpenSecrets.

Neither Boozman or Tyson returned a request for comment.

Just four companies, including Tyson Foods, control 85% of the beef industry, which critics argue limits competition and gives them significant power to set prices. Most beef is bought through contracts, but independent ranchers in rural areas have called for legislation requiring the companies to purchase at least some of their beef on the open market.

In 2021, Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, championed the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act to address ranchers’ concerns. But, when the bill faced opposition from his fellow Republicans, Grassley pointed the finger at Tyson and its peers. 

“You got to think behind all this is the political power of the big four packers,” he said, according to Politico.

In response, Boozman said Grassley is a “good friend and we work together very closely, but I think there’s a misunderstanding that somehow we’re trying to block this bill.”

Politico reported that some of the concerns among those trying to pass the legislation were the connections to the meat industry on Boozman’s committee staff. His policy director, Chelsie Keys, used to work for the National Pork Producers Council, which represents major meatpackers. Also, the policy director’s spouse, Gordon Chandler Keys III, is a lobbyist for JBS USA, one of the four companies that control most of the beef industry.

In recent years, Chandler Keys has lobbied the Senate on issues related to “meat inspection” and the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration, or GIPSA, according to lobbying disclosure records. GIPSA is tasked with investigating unfair market practices. Originally an independent agency within the USDA, the first Trump administration moved it under the umbrella of another agency, which has reduced its effectiveness, critics have said.

The records do not specify which senators were lobbied, and a committee spokesperson told Politico in 2022 that Keys does not lobby Boozman. Keys did not return requests for comment.

Grassley told KMALand, a radio station in Iowa, that he will continue to push for the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act in this year’s Congress, perhaps as an addition to the Farm Bill.

When asked about the act’s chances, given Boozman’s reported resistance, a spokesperson for Grassley’s office said, “Senator Grassley remains committed to enhancing transparency in the cattle market and ensuring a level playing field for all cattle producers.”

Tyson’s relationship with its contract farmers could be further scrutinized during the next congressional term as the U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating the company after it closed several of its plants in recent years.

Because of industry consolidation, rural farmers who raised Tyson’s chickens had no other company to sell their chickens to, leaving them saddled with debt. 

In Missouri, a Tyson competitor attempted to buy a shuttered plant, but Tyson worked to prevent the purchase, according to an investigation by Watchdog Writers Group and Investigate Midwest. Tyson also subpoenaed communication between former growers and federal investigators. Boozman’s Republican colleague, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, called the company’s actions “anti-American.”

So far, Boozman has not publicly commented on the Tyson plant closures. When he was formally tapped to lead the agriculture committee, he released a statement saying his aim was to “bolster rural communities.”

Sen. Klobuchar, a Democratic member of the Senate ag committee, has ties to Cargill

On the Democratic side, significant changes are reshaping the Senate agriculture committee’s leadership for the first time in years, driven by a major retirement and election losses. 

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2001, is leaving. She has helped shape several farm bills, most recently as committee chairwoman. Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat who has been a recent committee mainstay, lost his re-election bid in November.

Klobuchar, of Minnesota, is now the ranking minority member. She’s received consistent support from employees at Cargill, the nation’s largest private company and a major grain processor. Over the years, she’s supported the biofuel industry, a key component of Cargill’s business.

In 2020, as Klobuchar ran for president, the then-CEO of Cargill, Dave MacLennan, served as her campaign bundler, a usually wealthy person who raises substantial cash from others. Overall that year, Cargill employees donated about $37,000 to her — the third highest total from company employees, according to OpenSecrets. 

In 2024, Cargill employees donated about $13,600 to Klobuchar, the fifth-most that year, according to OpenSecrets. Cargill employees also donated to Boozman and California’s Adam Schiff, who is also on the Senate agriculture committee. 

Cargill is a major producer of biofuels, such as ethanol. A growing body of evidence suggests that ethanol — trumpeted as a climate smart alternative to gasoline — might have minimal climate benefits or, perhaps, might be worse than gas. 

Klobuchar has consistently supported the industry. Over the past few years, she has introduced legislation focused on E15, a blend of ethanol that Cargill and others sell. One bill would have removed warnings about ethanol’s potential impact on cars, and another would allow E15 to be sold year-round.

Klobuchar’s office did not respond to requests for comment. The email address that Cargill said was the “best way” for reporters to contact the company bounced back.

New Farm Bill will be area of focus for new committee leaders

The agriculture committee's most important business will likely be passing a Farm Bill, which funds subsidies for farms and financial assistance for low-income families, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The 2018 Farm Bill expired in 2023, but Congress has approved two-year funding stopgaps since then. 

In June, Boozman, as the ranking minority member, published his framework for a new farm bill. He called for increased spending on the so-called “farm safety net” and on trade programs. In November, following her retirement announcement, Stabenow released her framework, which Boozman called “insulting.” While also increasing funding for the farm safety net, it emphasized funding for SNAP and conservation programs related to climate change.

Republicans have 53 votes in the U.S. Senate, but it takes 60 to pass a farm bill in the upper chamber. The legislation will need to attract some Democrats.

“I think at times last year, pretty consistently, it was clear that the ability to work across partisan lines had frayed in the Senate ag committee,” said Mike Lavender, the policy director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which advocates for sustainable food systems. “The biggest question on my mind is, how will new leadership really lean into a bipartisan approach and working together to get a bill done?”

From a policy standpoint, the shift in leadership likely won’t result in dramatic changes, especially given Boozman’s previous role as ranking minority member, he said. But having different individuals in charge might lead to different points of emphasis. 

For instance, Stabenow focused on funding specialty crops, which are a big part of Michigan agriculture. But Klobuchar might focus on competition and antitrust laws, Lavender said. In 2022, Klobuchar published a book on monopoly power.

The post New Senate agriculture committee leadership has extensive ties to industry heavyweights appeared first on Investigate Midwest.

Damakant Jayshi

While reiterating its commitment to affordable housing, the Wausau City Council on Tuesday rejected an initiative to build an affordable house on a city-owned lot amid cost concerns.

The council voted 1-10 against the initiative, which was to be funded by external sources rather than local tax dollars, with Alder Chad Henke as the sole supporter of the project.

The bid for the modular home at 1019 West Bridge St. was approximately $350,000, resulting in a potential loss of around $200,000. The completed home was estimated to sell for between $140,000 and $175,000 to an income-qualified first-time homebuyer. City staff emphasized that the project’s funding would come from sources such as the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, not from local taxes.

Revenue from the home’s sale would have been reinvested in similar affordable housing projects. This was the fourth attempt by city staff to solicit bids for the infill lot.

Henke had expressed frustration with delays in building affordable homes and past project failures and argued last week that the city should be prepared to absorb a loss to demonstrate its commitment to affordable housing.

He had a question for his colleagues on the council. 

“If this quote is accurate – it’s a little high but not outlandishly high – my question is, and my big concern is, who’s going to be building single family homes in the next 10 years if it’s not subsidized somehow,” he said. “No one is going to be building single family homes, and that really scares me.”

Alder Lou Larson suggested exploring private sector involvement in building homes on such lots. That would mean market price. City staff have noted that the cost of the two-bedroom modular home with a basement and two-car garage was comparable to a stick-built house. Development Director Randy Fifrick reiterated on Tuesday that CDBG funds could only be used to purchase a home, not for construction.

The Wausau Economic Development Committee had passed the initiative 3-2 the previous week.

Council members oppose high bid price

Several council members emphasized they were not opposed to affordable housing but objected to the high bid price. The lone bid, from Rothschild-based Brian Luedtke and Associates, was $348,472, and was considered high by both alders and Community Development staff.

According to bid documents, $140,000 of the construction cost would be covered by CDBG funds. WHEDA was expected to cover about $80,000 of the $208,000 construction cost, with the remainder coming from ARPA funds.

Alder Michael Martens agreed with Henke that subsidies are essential for affordable housing. “If we want affordable housing, we just have to get behind it and say, ‘this is what we’re going to do to bring affordable housing’ and not just pay lip service to wanting to create affordable housing.” However, he opposed the current proposal, saying the price was very expensive.

Alder Lisa Rasmussen highlighted the challenges posed by rising construction costs since the council allocated ARPA funds for affordable housing two years ago. She noted the need to ensure that homeowners could afford property taxes and insurance, suggesting the council “go back to the drawing board.”

Alder Becky McElhaney reported that most residents who contacted her supported affordable housing but were concerned about the high costs. “This housing project just doesn’t make financial sense,” she said.

Alder Carol Lukens addressed public questions about alternative uses for the lot, such as selling it to adjacent property owners or donating it to Habitat for Humanity, both of which had been explored unsuccessfully. She noted that questions and suggestions about providing rental or financial assistance were not applicable to the current project. Lukens, who chairs the Economic Development Committee, asked if the matter could go back to the body to explore options to lower the cost.

City Attorney Anne Jacobson said if the council rejected the proposal, it could not be reconsidered by the committee.

Alder Terry Kilian, who opposed the proposal due to the high cost, still preferred building single-family homes on infill lots.

Mayor Doug Diny said the sense he got was that while subsidies were not opposed, the project’s cost was too high. “We got $200,000 spiff and one person is going to be (a) lucky draw,” he said. “The lottery isn’t a way to fulfill our housing needs either, and we should be responsible, whether it’s federal or city funds, to be spending it wisely.” 

During public comments, two residents urged the council to reject the proposal due to its high cost, arguing it was not in the city’s best interest.

The Feather River Canyon begins just outside of Quincy, California. This corridor is home to Highway 70, one of the few year-round arteries to the many mountain communities. It is known for fishing and notable whitewater rafting, as well as steep canyon walls.

The holiday season brought a series of storms to this area as part of an atmospheric river, a long, narrow plume of moisture that can stretch for thousands of miles. Think of it as a rain storm that travels along the jet stream. These events not only bring increased rainfall and provide much-needed precipitation to the American West; they also bring increased risks of landslides, especially in areas affected by wildfires.

Since the 2021 Dixie Fire, there have been nearly a dozen reported landslides that have closed Highway 70 along the Feather River Canyon. These slides have ranged from small to major, closing the highway from just a few hours to days or weeks at a time. The trifecta of wildfires, topography, and heavy rainfall work effectively to dislodge the exposed rock and dirt.

“When you take away the vegetation, the raindrop goes directly to the soil and that mechanical action of the raindrop on the soil can help dislodge soil particles and start moving material down slope,” said Nina Oakley, Ph.D, an applied meteorologist and climatologist for the California Geological Survey.

Oakley specializes in atmospheric rivers and geohazards, and her work focuses on the interaction between extreme rain events and post-fire burn areas. She stressed that these burned areas have a huge affect on future landslide activity, because without vegetation on the surface, raindrops have a stronger impact force on the ground, which can more easily dislodge soil.

Though not directly related, atmospheric rivers and wildfires play an important role in the landscapes of California, Nevada, and other western states. Research has shown that as temperatures rise due to climate change, the atmosphere holds more water vapor and therefore injects more moisture with every rainfall. In fact, for every 1˚ Celsius increase in temperature, the atmosphere can hold 7% more water vapor. In burn areas, like those in eastern California, these elevated moisture levels are leading to landslides.

These events in turn lead to increasing road maintenance work to combat the effects to travel corridors in the region.

“Especially the Feather River Canyon, with the geography that’s in there, you get the water that comes through the rock with a lot of storms, so it definitely is prone to debris and slides,” explained Chris Woodward, spokesperson for Caltrans District Two. 

Woodward, who has been with Caltrans for eight years, said there has always been land and rock slide activity in the canyon–but it’s increasing.

“It feels like since the Dixie fire, we’ve had even more [landslides], with a large portion of it being in the burn scar as well,” he said.

Atmospheric rivers and wildfires aren’t the only culprits causing landslides in the region. The unique Sierra Nevada geology and topography also contribute. Younger volcanic rocks lie on top of older granite stone, giving the Feather River Canyon a unique geology that is more prone to landslides. Throughout the canyon, there are already varying degrees of erosion that can be seen in some places.

Caltrans regularly patrols the Highway 70 corridor and makes minor repairs throughout the year, and the agency schedules extra crew members during winter storms. Woodward said the state divides Caltrans into multiple districts, allowing each unit to adequately focus on its assigned region. District Two maintains more than 4,000 miles of highway across eight counties. They have 22 maintenance stations and more than 30 different crews to cover this stretch of northern California.

“We also have staff, especially during storms, in areas where we’ve seen debris,” said Woodward. “The Feather River Canyon is a good example. You’re always getting some kind of debris, especially if you’re having heavier systems, a lot of rain, different things like that.”

Sometimes the slides and debris can be cleared by patrolling maintenance crews. Other times the slide is massive and the state sends it out to a contractor. Known as a director’s order, this allows Caltrans employees to continue to monitor the road while a contractor clears the slide.

How do atmospheric rivers play into this?

An atmospheric river “is a concentrated corridor of heavy vapor that leads to precipitation, and often heavy precipitation in California,” said Kristen Guirguis, Ph.D., a scientist with the University of California, San Diego.

Imagine a river with intermittent rapids traveling from the sub-tropics to the dryer mid-latitudes. Each series of waterfalls is a storm. Now imagine this river is more than 1,000 miles long and several hundred miles wide. With each waterfall, a storm pounds the West Coast, bringing rain and snow to the region. This is essentially what an atmospheric river resembles. However, not all atmospheric rivers are the same.

“There’s been research that suggests that in the future, precipitation is going to become more volatile,” said Guirguis. This translates to more dry spells in between storms followed by wetter, more intense storms.

“Under climate change, when you have a warmer atmosphere, then you can hold more water vapor. So there’s a potential for just wetter, wetter storms,” she said.

Atmospheric rivers are being increasingly recognized for their importance. Guirguis said they are important to study because these events deliver so much of California’s water, up to 50% percent in some locations. According to the American Meteorological Society, atmospheric rivers transport on average “more than double the flow of the Amazon River.”

It’s only been in  the last two decades that scientists, like Nina Oakley, have really begun to focus more on atmospheric rivers.

“We really need to consider those moisture transport processes to study precipitation extremes,” said Oakley. She added it is important to understand the mechanics of an atmospheric river and how no two are alike.

In 2023, the American Geophysical Union developed a five level scale for these potent storm systems. Similar to a hurricane rating, the intensity scale goes from AR-1 to AR-5. With AR-5 being the most intense, the rating is based on moisture content and duration. These two data points help meteorologists predict the potential rainfall amounts and impact to a region when forecasting an atmospheric river event.

But it’s not moisture alone that leads to landslides in a burn area.

“What will cause flash flooding and debris flows on a recent burn area is tied to rainfall intensity,” said Oakley. “We also have changes in the water repellency of the soil. These physical and chemical processes change the soil water repellency and the potential for erosion.”

Oakley is currently studying the burned area of California’s fourth largest fire, the Park Fire, which began outside of Chico, Calif. and burned almost 430,000 acres. That burn area acts as a valuable case study for scientists.

“The late November storm on the Park fire got about 10 inches of rain, but it was all kind of moderate intensity,” said Oakley. “So we didn’t have any debris flows observed there, even with all that rain, because it wasn’t intense.”

Without high-energy, intense rainfall, Oakley said an atmospheric river may not cause a landslide–but those aren’t the only concerns. Wildfires and atmospheric rivers can also cause increased sediment runoff, which alters waterways, fisheries, and water resource infrastructure. This intersection of rain and fire is blending the impact of climate change in compounding ways.

“There’s all these cascading effects of having a wildfire and rainfall occurring on it,” explained Oakley.

With winter in full swing and wildfires extinguished, more atmospheric rivers are on their way. How they impact the burn scars of the Caldor, Dixie, or Park fire is yet to be known. But scientists like Oakley and Guirguis are working to help inform the public about the potential impact of these weather events.

The best thing Oakley urged the public to do ahead of a storm is to stay informed.

“Tune into your local National Weather Service office and determine whether there’s a hazard in your burn area,” Oakley said. “Is it an extreme atmospheric river or not?”

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Editor’s Note: As the Sierra Nevada Ally has reported, the incoming Trump administration has signaled its intent to reduce or remove certain climate-related federal agencies, like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That agency is responsible for managing and maintaining the nationwide emergency radio network that alerts the public of extreme weather events.

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The Cherokee Nation has received a $10.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to install electric vehicle chargers across its reservation.