A team of reporters at The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has further mined the John Doe files published Wednesday by The Guardian, a British newspaper, and details today for readers several important disclosures.
Among the most disturbing new highlights - - and the entire piece is a solid read:
The already-disclosed $700,000 donation from an out-of-state iron ore mining firm routed secretly for the benefit of the Walker recall campaign effort through a third party group which did not have to publish a list of donations wasn't the whole story.
Another half-million dollars+ from the mining company was also massaged into pro-Walker campaign efforts - - and while the massive open-pit mine envisioned in the pristine Penokee Hills near Lake Superior by the company fell to environmental realities, pressure from north woods activism and opposition from the Bad River tribe armed with the moral high ground and treaty protections, the sweetheart mining bill which GOP legislators and lobbyists together delivered for Walker's signature - - with its deepening political taint and many rollbacks of land and water preservation - - remains on the books and cries out for immediate repeal.
As The Journal Sentinel team explains.
Among the most disturbing new highlights - - and the entire piece is a solid read:
The already-disclosed $700,000 donation from an out-of-state iron ore mining firm routed secretly for the benefit of the Walker recall campaign effort through a third party group which did not have to publish a list of donations wasn't the whole story.
Another half-million dollars+ from the mining company was also massaged into pro-Walker campaign efforts - - and while the massive open-pit mine envisioned in the pristine Penokee Hills near Lake Superior by the company fell to environmental realities, pressure from north woods activism and opposition from the Bad River tribe armed with the moral high ground and treaty protections, the sweetheart mining bill which GOP legislators and lobbyists together delivered for Walker's signature - - with its deepening political taint and many rollbacks of land and water preservation - - remains on the books and cries out for immediate repeal.
As The Journal Sentinel team explains.
* The mining firm Gogebic Taconite secretly donated more than $1.2 million to two conservative political groups in 2011 and 2012.
The Journal Sentinel had previously reported that Gogebic Taconite had given $700,000 to Wisconsin Club for Growth, a pro-Walker group then-headed by one of his campaign advisers. After that contribution, the GOP-controlled Legislature and Walker approved legislation aimed at streamlining regulations for an iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin.
But the figure actually turns out to be higher. According to one of the John Doe records, the mining firm gave at least $930,000 to Wisconsin Club for Growth and another $300,000 to the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce - Issues Mobilization Inc. -- another conservative dark money group -- during 2011-'12.
