Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 87. Sunrise is 5:49 AM and sunset 8:12 PM for 14h 23m 43s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 95.5% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1977, Tandy Corporation announces the TRS-80, one of the world’s first mass-produced personal computers.
Shawn Johnson reports New lawsuit seeks to overturn Wisconsin’s Republican-drawn legislative maps:
The lawsuit argues the state’s current legislative district lines, drawn originally by Republicans in 2011 and updated in 2021, violate the Wisconsin Constitution. It asks the court to declare them invalid and eventually decide on new maps.
Should plaintiffs succeed, every state senator would have to run for election under new districts in 2024, effectively resetting a chamber where Republicans currently hold a veto-proof two-thirds majority that gives them the power to impose their legislative will on Democrats.
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The case was filed with the Wisconsin Supreme Court Wednesday as an “original action” petition, meaning it asks the court to hear the case directly rather than let the lawsuit proceed through the state court system first. Four of the court’s seven justices would need to agree to that expedited timeline, meaning that if all four liberal justices want to pursue the case, they could.
Should the lawsuit succeed, the court could then decide whether to accept maps from parties or appoint a “special master” to handle redistricting itself.
If plaintiffs get their way, a victory would also apply throughout the state, and all at once. While state Senators normally run on staggered four-year terms, it would have all 33 Senate districts up for election in 2024. That would mean half of all Senators would be running in special elections, and they’d need to run for reelection in 2026. All 99 Assembly races would also take place under the new map.
See Press Release, Wisconsin Voters File Challenge to Wisconsin Gerrymandered Legislative Maps (‘National Legal Experts Unite to Restore Democracy in Wisconsin’) and Case 2023AP001399 Petitioners’ Memorandum of Law.
Press Release link.
Memorandum of Law link.
Best wishes to these Wisconsin petitioners in their efforts to restore fair maps to our state.
Captive-Reared Great Lakes Piping Plovers Released at Cat Islands in Lower Green Bay:
On Wednesday, July 17, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Audubon Great Lakes and partners at Detroit Zoo and University of Minnesota, released four federally endangered Great Lakes piping plover chicks at the Cat Island Restoration Site, in Lower Green Bay.