Taxpayers’ legal fees for redistricting now $1.3 million

Talk about it

Wisconsin taxpayers will spend another $425,000 to help majority Republicans try to keep the new legislative districts they drew last year, and possibly give them an edge in this fall's elections.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Gov. Scott Walker increased the limit on what outside attorneys can be paid to help the Justice Department defend a lawsuit against the new maps.

The firm of Reinhart, Boerner and Van Deuren had a $500,000 cap. It’s now $925,000.

The firm has already charged taxpayers $288,000 for its work. That's on top of the $400,000 that Republican lawmakers gave Michael Best and Friedrich for helping to draw up the new districts, which will be the subjects of a trial in federal court beginning Thursday, Feb. 23.

Testimony was scheduled to begin Thursday morning in a lawsuit in which Democrats and Hispanics are trying to get the maps declared unconstitutional.

The court tried but failed over the last two days to get Republicans to agree to re-draw the maps on their own, so the plaintiffs' objections could be addressed.

The plaintiffs say the new maps dilute the power of Hispanics in the Legislature and require too many people to wait six years instead of four to vote for their new senators.

Republican lawmakers say they drew the maps in accordance with population changes as required every 10 years.

$50 million to block Asian carp

The federal government will spend $50 million this year to try and keep the invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.

Administration officials have told the Associated Press about an updated plan. It includes the first water sampling to see if the bloated carp has taken hold in Lakes Michigan and Erie.

There will also be additional netting and trapping in rivers that connect with the lakes, plus tests of chemicals that can lure the carp to places where they can be captured.

Officials also plan to test an acoustic water gun. The goal is to scare the bloated carp away from shipping locks near Chicago which help connect Lake Michigan with the Mississippi River, where the carp has flourished in recent years.

The Army Corps of Engineers is studying the best ways to prevent carp in the Mississippi River from reaching the Great Lakes. The study is expected to be done by 2015. Wisconsin and four other states have asked a federal court to speed up the study.

Pastor accused of molestation

A western Wisconsin pastor is free on a signature bond after he was accused of molesting a 16-year-old girl he was home-schooling in Sparta.

Charges are pending against 41-year-old James Monson, who had a bond hearing yesterday in Monroe County. He's due back in court on Monday.

Monson is a pastor at the Gaining Ground Community Church, an evangelical Christian church in Sparta. Police started investigating him earlier this week after the girl's mother told police that the teen was sexually assaulted.

Monson faces possible charges of sexual exploitation by a therapist and having sex with a child 16 or older.

Governor in Washington

Gov. Scott Walker will spend this weekend (Feb. 25-26) in the nation's capital at a meeting of the National Governors Association.

Walker is a member of the governors' Health and Human Services Committee. The panel will talk about ways to make health care services more efficient and to assure that the system remains sustainable.

The governors' meeting begins Saturday. It ends Monday with a visit to the White House for a session with President Obama. Walker and the nation's other state leaders will also meet with Cabinet members, business leaders and others while in Washington.

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