INSTANT SURVEY VOTE ON – POLL s536:

Should the Chicago Waterway System locks remain open for commerce?

Background: In July, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit in federal court to force the closure of the Chicago Waterway System locks in an effort to keep Asian carp out of Lake Michigan.

The court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case on September 7. A coalition of businesses and government agencies in Illinois, called Unlock Our Jobs, says the locks closure would have a crippling impact on Chicago and the entire Midwest region.

Unlock Our Jobs plans to testify against the lawsuit and argues that alternative measures stand a better chance of keeping the carp out of the Great Lakes.

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INSTANT SURVEY VOTE ON – POLL s535:

Should counties have the option to tax an elaborate deer stand?

Background: Jeff Hardy, of Randall, Minn., has a deer stand on his 40-acre property in Morrison County. Hardy’s deer stand is a bit more elaborate than most, measuring 8 x 16 feet, with vinyl siding, a shooting deck and room to sleep a couple hunters. The county says it’s a bunkhouse, not a deer stand, and as such it is subject to property tax assessment.

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INSTANT SURVEY VOTE ON – POLL s534:

Should cougars remain
protected in Wisconsin?

Background:

DNA analysis confirms four cougars in state within last two years

MADISON — A few drops of blood, preserved by an alert warden, proves that while one male cougar was tracking through St. Croix and Dunn counties this past December, another male cougar was moving near the Flambeau River, 125 miles to the north.

This cougar, crossing a road, was spotted by a female bus driver east of Park Falls.  Warden Dan Michels responded and followed the animal’s racks into a cedar swamp where he spotted tiny blood drops behind the cougar’s tracks. He collected them in a test tube, froze the contents and submitted them for DNA analysis.

No other sightings of a cougar in that vicinity were reported, and no more evidence was found. Still, the science is irrefutable. The bus driver had seen a wild North American cougar, a male.

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