>> The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original
production. >> Today, as I announce my
intention to not seek reelection in November, I
do so with deep gratitude and with pride in the work
we've done. >> After 13 years as
Assembly Speaker, the longest in state history,
Robin Vos is stepping down from office.
[MUSIC] I'm Frederica Freyberg.
Tonight on "Here& Now", analysis of Speaker Vos
departure and the final business of the legislative
session. An immigration attorney on the fast
changing legal landscape. Candidates for governor
weigh in on data centers and how teams of people are
preserving indigenous canoes thousands of years
old. It's "Here& Now" for February 20th.
>> Funding for Here and Now is provided by the Focus
Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
>> A powerful figure in the state legislature is not
seeking reelection after 22 years representing his
Racine County district and 13 years leading the
Assembly, Republican Speaker Robin Vos said late
this week he is retiring from office. The Vos
announcement comes as Democrats try to flip
control in the legislature in upcoming elections under
new voting maps. Senior political reporter Zach
Schultz is at the Capitol with more on. Hi, Zach.
>> Hello, Fred. >> So describe just how
powerful Speaker Vos has been in the legislature.
>> Well, he is the longest serving Assembly speaker in
state history, and that did not come without him
learning how to consolidate power within his own party,
within his own caucus in the Assembly. He had a lot
of nicknames from both friends and foes. Vos Vos
the Shadow Governor. It was basically known that
nothing could become law without him saying yes, and
signing off and allowing it to come to the floor in the
assembly. And he controlled that chamber for quite a
long time. >> What does his departure
say about how real the potential of November
elections might be for the partisan makeup of the
legislature? >> Well, Democrats
certainly see it as a positive sign. They're
definitely proclaiming in all their press releases
that this is the sign. Republicans know that this
is going to be a Democratic fall, and they're going to
pick up those five seats that they need to flip the
assembly. I wouldn't look as far into it as that. In
his announcement, he wasn't going to seek reelection.
Vos said he had a mild heart attack last fall. He
certainly is. He said he's going to continue to
campaign. He certainly set up a machine within the
Republican Party to win those seats, even when
they're facing into headwinds, so I wouldn't
count that out. It's a lot about optics, though.
Democrats are going to campaign and say they've
got momentum because of this. And certainly the
idea of what the Assembly will look like in the
future without Robin Vos, no matter who is in charge,
means there's a lot of uncertainty coming to the
chamber and to the Capitol. >> How realistic is a flip
from Republican to Democratic majority in the
Assembly and Senate? >> Well, in the Senate,
it's two seats that the Democrats need to pick up.
They have their eyes on those, and they feel very
confident that they've got good candidates in seats.
They've got some open seats. As Republicans are retiring
and not choosing to defend some of those seats,
they're optimistic in that chamber and the Assembly.
It is an uphill climb. They they had those same seats
that they had two years ago. And the Senate side, it was
seats that weren't up two years ago. So they couldn't
have done it. The Assembly Democrats had their chance.
They they won ten, but they lost the five. They needed
to flip it. They've retained candidates.
They've got their eyes on who they want to see
targeted. We all know what those battleground races
are going to be. A lot of it depends on what the wave
looks like at the top. If there is one one way or the
other, but down ballot. And that's one thing Vos has
been known for, is insulating his candidates
in those seats so that they don't face some of those
political headwinds that may impact other candidates.
So it is a complete toss up in the Assembly.
>> Meanwhile, the Assembly was adjourning with a
little undone business on the floor, including that
deal between the Republicans and the
governor over property tax relief. That could still
happen. Or what do we think? >> Well, there's always
time. The Assembly Republicans say that this
is the last time they're going to be in session,
that they're taking the rest of the year off to get
ready for the campaign. However, there are floor
session dates available in March if they want to come
back in regular order. And obviously they can always
come back in special session or extraordinary
of deal that could get done on a moment's notice,
simply because there's a lot of political incentives
going into the fall for both sides to want to
figure out how to spend some of this surplus and
campaign on that. However, the two sides are not on
the same page right now, and they are running out of
their own set deadlines for how long they have, so who
knows? >> I wanted to ask you
about the bill that passed in both chambers. That's
the Medicaid expansion expansion to give one year
postpartum coverage to to new mothers. I thought Vos
didn't like that. >> Yes, he was the lone
person standing in the way of that bill becoming law
for at least a couple sessions now. He told me
last December he didn't believe in expanding the
welfare state, which is why he opposed Medicaid
expansion. However, the people that were lined up
the Republicans out front to announce they'd reached
a compromise were those very vulnerable Assembly
Republicans running to protect that majority for
next year. It wasn't a coincidence that they were
ones to announce that that bill was going to pass. And
in the end, Vos voted for it on the floor.
>> All right. Well, Zac Schultz, thanks so much.
>> Thanks, Fred. >> Governor Tony Evers,
last state of the state address called 2026, the
year of the neighbor, and asked Wisconsinites to be
good neighbors to each other. The neighborly
spirit was strained by week's end, as Republican
lawmakers and the governor were still working to reach
an accord on property tax relief before the
legislature adjourns for the session. Republicans
blame a spike in taxes on the governor's 400 year
veto that enshrined a $325 per student annual school
funding increase until 2425. Here are Evers and Senate
Republican Majority Leader Devin LeMahiue speaking on
the matter. >> A decade of Republicans
consistently failing to meaningful invest
meaningfully to invest in our kids and our K through
12 schools has consequences. Wisconsinites.
Wisconsinites have been going to referendum in high
numbers in years, raising their own property taxes
just to keep the school lights on. It started long
before I became governor. I get Republicans want to
blame my 400 year veto for property taxes going up.
Why, of course it's politics. Of course,
Republicans running under fair maps need someone else
to blame for for failing to fund our schools at the
levels I've asked them to for about two decades of my
life. >> Thanks to strong
Republican majorities here in the legislature,
Wisconsin families have only seen one example of
what state government could look like with full
Democratic control. Governor Evers disastrous
400 year veto that is driving property taxes
through the roof. The. If the Democrats were in
charge in Madison, Wisconsin would be a very
different place. >> While the immigration
enforcement surge in Minneapolis has wound down,
targeted arrests, including in Wisconsin, continue. The
mass deportation policy. Has the immigration system
scrambling to keep up. What kind of limbo does this
leave people in, and what is happening in the
immigration system? We turn to immigration attorney
Grant Sovern, thanks very much for being here.
>> Thank you for your interest.
the immigration system right now as an emergency
on two fronts. How so? >> Well, on one side, there
are just so many more people being picked up than
there ever have been before. I mean, it appears that
there's some sort of quota that Ice and Border Patrol
have to reach. So it's just an unbelievable,
unprecedented volume of people that we have to
address, and we have to get to them quickly. If we
don't find them within a day or two days, or at the
most three, they get moved to a facility away from
their family, away from a lawyer who can help them in
a jurisdiction that's often much more difficult. But on
the second side, the government is just changing
the rules every day, every week. Something that
lawyers have to find out about when you're in court
and waiting for a hearing. And they're just changing
the rules that make due process almost impossible
for anybody to get. >> Speaking of changing the
rules, what are you seeing among people who have
followed all the rules to become U.S. citizens? Or
they're here on some kind of protected status or
refugee status or something like that?
>> Yeah, I think, you know, we hear from the government
that all immigrants are criminals and therefore
they should be deported. But and then we also hear,
if only you wait in line like everybody else, if
only you file the right application, which frankly,
does not exist anymore. But successive presidential
administrations have come up with their own programs
because Congress basically hasn't done an overhaul of
the immigration system since 1952. But because of
that, the next president can just cancel those
things. And this administration has been
doing that left and right. So people who followed
every rule, they're supposed to fill out the
right application, waited when they should, paid the
right fee, are now being told that we are making you
illegal. If that's a term that can be used that the
administration uses. But they have done everything
right, especially now we're talking about people from
really problematic places like Ukraine and Venezuela
and places with civil wars and natural disasters where
people have gotten the application been approved
and are here in a legal path. The government just
pulls the rug out from under and says, you're no
longer illegal. And the worst that I can think of
from our own perspective are the 800 families,
people from Afghanistan who are airlifted out of Kabul,
who helped us, and our government, who are now
being told that the programs that they have
temporary protected status or humanitarian parole are
no longer valid. And so we're going to pick you up
if you are still in that status.
>> And there's a brand new rule out this week about
refugees. >> This is something it has
been going on for almost 75 years in the United States,
where we take people who have been languishing in
refugee camps around the world for 10 or 15 years
and give them a new life in the United States, that's
called refugee status. But all these people are ones
who have participated in this program, have been
granted status by the State Department or by the
Immigration Service, and they're allowed to stay in
the United States indefinitely because they
can't be sent back. They shouldn't be sent back. The
law says they shouldn't be sent back. And yet, just
this week, the government turned a rule that says,
you may apply for a green card within a year from
your refugee asylum status so you can have permanent
resident status. Stay, work wherever you want. Travel
in and out of the United States. They've now turned
that rule around to say, if you didn't apply for a
green card within a year, we reserve the right to
detain you, to investigate you, and potentially deport
you for no stated reason whatsoever. Except it seems
like to have more numbers to be able to say to the
American people, we've deported a lot of people.
>> What kind of scramble is this for people in your
line of work? >> Yeah, I can't tell you.
Times are difficult enough. Like where I work at the
Community Immigration Law Center. There are lawyers
who are fighting every day, and it's a really tough job.
Just normally between the volume and the stories and
the humanitarian side, kids and families. But now the
government is just changing everything they do, and it
is a very difficult situation to be try and
represent somebody. If you don't have a lawyer right
now, I can tell you you have 100% chance of being
deported because the rules have changed so much. The
the ground on which we are standing in immigration
court is changing every day or every week.
>> If you do have a lawyer, what are your odds?
>> I mean, I can tell you, you know, a case that
happened just in the past few weeks with our
organization is somebody was applying for asylum
from Latin America because they had a very bona fide
claim of persecution that would happen to them if
they got sent back to their home country and
fortunately came to us at the last minute and said,
Will you please come with us? And we didn't have time
to prepare. But when we went there, we found out
about these alternative country agreements that the
government is using to say, well, we can't send you
back to your home country because of persecution, but
we're going to send you to some third country to which
you've never been before, and without a lawyer to
know that that's going to happen and to prepare a
case about what would happen to that person if
they got sent, for example, in Latin America, the
government has arranged this agreement to send
almost everybody to Honduras. If you're from
Africa, everybody is sent to Uganda. And without a
lawyer, there's almost no way for you to prepare that.
And even with the lawyer, it is extremely difficult.
>> Where does this end up? >> Both for the families
but also for our community. The fact that you can be
picked up, sent to another country and in the middle,
put in prison for a potential civil violation
without any due process, is something that I and people
in our community in Wisconsin can't abide.
Everybody should have a fair shot. At least I and
the lawyers who work at the Community Immigration Law
Center are trying just to make sure today's people
are getting some due process. So all we can do
is see what's in front of us today and do the best we
can. >> All right. We leave it
there. Grant Sovern, thanks very much.
>> Thank you. >> What do the leading
candidates running for governor think about data
centers? Here and now? Senior political reporter
Zac Schultz asked them as part of our continuing
series on the biggest issues in the race for
governor. >> Wisconsin's utility
companies are asking the Public Service Commission
to approve the largest rate hikes in history. And
that's before we see any impact from the data
centers being proposed around the state. So we
asked the candidates what role the state should play
in approving or facilitating these data
centers. >> Exciting new technology.
I think we need to make sure, on the energy side of
it, that we do not harm existing ratepayers. So
residential ratepayers and manufacturers, it would be
unfair to existing manufacturers for them to
pay much higher electricity rates just because a new
industry came in. So we're going to probably have to
find a new template. If AI and the data center
specifically come into Wisconsin, we're probably
going to have to find a new template of how we deal
with energy and the data centers.
>> There shouldn't be any corporations that are
coming in and jacking up prices for ratepayers. And
I'm not interested in the state providing subsidies
and handouts for large corporations that are
coming in who are really going to impact our clean
lakes, our air. And so the subsidies that folks might
be proposing and support are really concerning to me.
And I think right now we are seeing democracy at its
core strength with people who are speaking out and
defending their communities and talking about why they
do or do not support data centers.
to our party, if they want to be here, let's invite
them. But let's be at the table making sure that they
are good partners for the state and making sure that
we are negotiating the best deals that we can for the
state. I'm somebody who's been at that table. I've
had those conversations. I've worked with the big
data centers and the big providers. I've worked with
many big companies in negotiating for Wisconsin,
and I have that experience that I would bring to the
table, and I would be very hands on in making sure
that we're doing everything we can to protect Wisconsin
ratepayers, Wisconsin's environment, but also take
advantage of the opportunity that's offered
by the investment we're seeing in technology.
>> This is a huge issue, and we need a statewide
strategy to deal with data centers because they're
coming into local communities and kind of
steamrolling them. And I think that people deserve
to have a voice in what happens in their
need to really know what the impact is going to be
on our environment, on the water and land usage, as
well as the impact on ratepayers for these data
centers. I've sponsored legislation along with my
colleague, Senator Jodi Habush Sinykin, to ensure
transparency as these data centers are coming in and
trying to negotiate. >> So data centers, it's
important for us if they are going to be built here,
there has to be a community benefits agreement. If they
are to come. That means ensuring that there is
local hiring. That means ensuring that utility rates
are not going up for customers. It also means
ensuring that community input is prioritized. There
shouldn't be data center construction if there's
mass opposition from the communities that they are
going to go in. And this also means addressing
concerns like water quality. >> We all have a little
anxiety about that, and you see that at the local level
with these things. But I think the responsibility
that we have fundamentally is to just ensure that
these conversations, some that are happening at the
state level, a lot that are happening at the local
level, that they are the main thing that we have
with them is that there is transparency around them
and that the users of this are accountable and that,
you know, the benefits accrue to all of us and
that the responsibility for the costs aren't borne by
taxpayers. In the state of Wisconsin.
be a conversation with the community, and we want to
make sure that those data centers are in a community
that wants them. But what we have to do on the front
end is to make sure, contractually, that the
energy uses are not going to be borne on the back of
taxpayers, that they are going to be investing,
particularly in renewable energy, and that they are
going to be bearing those costs for those energies,
because we certainly don't want it to be on the backs
of taxpayers. for us to utilize new
technology, leverage the legacy industries that we
have here locally. When you think about manufacturing
and agriculture and and water technology and things
of that nature, to really make it a community benefit,
you know, bringing in a tech tech centers and data
centers and AI can be good, but we have to make sure
that we have those protections in place, while
also making sure that there's community benefits
that are going to be tied to this level of
development. How do we utilize this for our
schools? How do we utilize this to expand broadband?
How do we utilize this to to to expand the access
that our entrepreneurs have in every corner of the
state of Wisconsin? >> Reporting from Madison.
I'm Zac Schultz for "Here& Now".
>> In environmental news, a court ruling maintains that
a permit was properly granted by the Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources, allowing the
Canadian oil company Enbridge Energy to reroute
an oil pipeline around the Bad River reservation in
northern Wisconsin. The tribe challenged the permit,
saying the line poses an environmental threat to
local waterways if a spill were to occur. The
administrative law judge deciding the case wrote,
quote. While the band expresses concern regarding
potential impacts, they have failed to provide
evidence demonstrating that the authorized activities
will in fact violate state water quality standards.
The fears that they express are fears they lack,
evidence showing that these changes will occur and
impact water quality. The band has filed a challenge
to the ruling. In a statement, an attorney from
Earthjustice representing the tribe said, quote,
Enbridge's project threatens permanent damage
to the bands treaty protected water plants and
medicines, all for the enrichment of a foreign oil
pipeline company. The band will continue to fight to
protect their interests and halt construction. In
recent days, divers announced the discovery of
a 150 year old shipwreck in Lake Michigan. The Lac La
Belle steamer ship sank in 1872, in Madison.
Historical underwater discoveries date much, much
older. Of the 16 ancient canoes found in Lake
Mendota, the oldest is 1200 years old, dating back to
indigenous water travel "Here& Now", and ICT
reporter Erica Ayisi tracks their discovery and
preservation. >> Here you can see how the
contour lines are a little bit flatter. We made it to
this turnaround and that's where the canoe was. Lots
of cool stuff you can find in the lake. Just got to go
look. >> Tamara Thomsen maritime
archeologist for the Wisconsin Historical
Society, went on a recreational dive to the
bottom of Lake Mendota in 2021 to collect fishermen
debris and told a colleague she saw a long slope
exposed through 24ft of water.
>> You know, I really think that was a dugout canoe. I
don't think that that was that was just a random
piece of wood on the bottom. But we should get another
tank and we should go out. And I think I can find it
again. >> But only the top portion
was exposed. So the bottom was still covered with silt
and it was just pristine. And it was so nice that I
thought, well, it can't be old.
archeologists pulled the canoe from the lake and
through radiocarbon data analysis, found it to be
1200 years old or Jung two Moore very, very ancient
canoes were found a year later.
>> One ended up being 3000 years old, which is
recovered in in the tank. And then we found another
one next to it, a little bit shorter, 2000 years old.
>> Thompson says the canoes are at least 15ft long and
made of cottonwood, elm and oak.
>> Red oak is very porous, and so they they would have
had to understand how to seal that cellular
structure in the canoe when they were building it, in
order to make the vessel watertight.
>> A total of 16 canoes were found in Lake Mendota
between 2022 and 2025. The oldest is 5200 years old.
>> To put yourself in that place and think what were
what were these people like? What were they doing in
these canoes? And then why are all these canoes in
this one spot? >> So at what point in this
did you start reaching out to Wisconsin's native
nations? >> Before any of the canoes
were recovered? There was consultation with with the
native nations of Wisconsin. >> Lawrence Plucinski,
Tribal historic preservation officer for
the bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, helped
with the preservation process. When the second
canoe was pulled from the lake, he says his ancestors
used inland waterways as transportation between one
side of the lake to the other to harvest, hunt, and
fish. >> You couldn't carry much
because they weren't like the total dugout type
canoes, you know, some were more leveler.
>> So what does that mean? The fact that they didn't
carry and take them with them, they were left there.
>> The canoes were not owned by each individual or
whatever. It was like a community.
>> There are no plans to move the remaining 14
canoes that are sitting here at the bottom of Lake
Mendota. In a decision made collaboratively between
Thompson and Wisconsin's native nations with the
goal of responsible stewardship.
>> We're not in the business of bringing up the
canoes, especially the shape that they were in.
They were they were broke apart in your hand if you
brought them up. >> The two extracted canoes
are sitting in a makeshift tank filled with
polyethylene glycol at the State Preservation Facility
in Madison to stabilize the fragile but heavy wood and
then freeze dry them. >> Any water that's left in
the cellular structure will be taken off.
>> One canoe will be stored at the preservation
facility, and the other will be on display at the
upcoming Wisconsin History Center, where Plucinski
says their indigenous history can be preserved.
>> Let our knowledge be told, you know, let our our
history be told of how we traveled.
>> In Madison. I'm Eric Ayisi for "Here& Now" and
ICT. >> In other news, Reverend
Jesse Jackson, the civil rights icon with strong
Wisconsin connections, died this week. Jackson visited
Milwaukee and environs many times, advocating for civil
rights and social and economic justice. In the
1988 presidential primary election in Wisconsin,
Jackson came in second in what the Milwaukee Common
Council this week described as a barrier breaking run
for the presidency, calling him a generational leader.
At the time, Jackson told The New York Times he was
very proud. He got so many white votes in Wisconsin.
Jackson marched in Milwaukee with Father James
Groppi in the 1960s and was in Wisconsin most recently
in 2020, for encouraging voter registration.
Reverend Jesse Jackson died at the age of 84.
>> In drugs and guns. >> For more on this and
other issues facing Wisconsin, visit our
website at PBS Wisconsin and then click on the news
tab. That's our program for tonight, I'm Frederica
Freyberg. Have a good weekend.
. >> Funding for "Here& Now"
is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and
Friends of PBS Wisconsin.