by Madeline Heim and Caitlin Looby, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Louisiana Illuminator April 19, 2025
ASHLAND, Wis. — In less than 10 years, three catastrophic floods ravaged northwestern Wisconsin and changed the way people think about water.
The most severe, in July 2016, slammed Ashland with up to 10 inches of rain in less than a day — a month’s worth of rain fell in just two hours. As rivers swelled to record highs, major highways broke into pieces and culverts washed away. It took months for roads to reopen, with more than $41 million in damage across seven counties.
The Marengo River, which winds through forests and farmland before meeting the Bad River that flows into Lake Superior, was hit hard during these historic deluges. Centuries earlier, the upper watershed would have held onto that water, but logging and agriculture left the river disconnected from its floodplain, giving the water nowhere safe to go.
Today, the Marengo River stands as an example of a new kind of solution. Following the record floods, state leaders invested in opening up floodplains and restoring wetlands to relieve flooding. As the need to adapt to disasters grows more urgent, the Marengo River serves as an example that there’s a cheaper way to do so: using wetlands.
“We can’t change the weather or the patterns… but we can better prepare ourselves,” said MaryJo Gingras, Ashland County’s conservationist.
Wetlands once provided more natural flood storage across Wisconsin and the Mississippi River Basin, soaking up water like sponges so it couldn’t rush further downstream. But about half of the country’s wetlands have been drained and filled for agriculture and development, and they continue to be destroyed, even as climate change intensifies floods.
As the federal government disposes of rules to protect wetlands, environmental advocates want to rewrite the ecosystem’s narrative to convince more people that restoration is worth it.
Wetlands aren’t just pretty places, advocates argue, but also powerhouses that can save communities money by blunting the impact of flood disasters. A 2024 Wisconsin law geared at preventing such disasters before they happen, inspired by the wetland work in the Marengo River watershed, is going to test that theory.
“Traditionally, the outreach has been, ‘We want to have wetlands out here because they’re good for ducks, frogs and pretty flowers,’” said Tracy Hames, executive director of the Wisconsin Wetlands Association. “What do people care about here? They care about their roads, their bridges, their culverts … how can wetlands help that?”
Bipartisan bill posed wetlands as flood solution
Northern Wisconsin isn’t the only place paying the price for floods. Between 1980 and 2025, the U.S. was struck by 45 billion-dollar flood disasters, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with a cumulative price tag of nearly $206 billion. Many parts of the vast Mississippi River Basin receive up to eight inches more rain annually than they did 50 years ago, according to a 2022 analysis from Climate Central, a nonprofit organization that analyzes climate science.
Damaging floods are now so common in the states that border the Mississippi River, including Wisconsin, that the issue can’t be ignored, said Haley Gentry, assistant director of the Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy in New Orleans.
“Even if you don’t agree with certain (regulations) … we absolutely have to find ways to reduce damage,” Gentry said.
Former Wisconsin state Rep. Loren Oldenburg, a Republican who served a flood-prone district in southwest Wisconsin until he lost the seat last year, was interested in how wetlands could help.
Oldenburg joined forces with Republican state Sen. Romaine Quinn, who represents northern Wisconsin and knew of the work in the Marengo River watershed. The lawmakers proposed a grant program for flood-stricken communities to better understand why and where they flood and restore wetlands in areas that need the help most.
Jennifer Western Hauser, policy liaison at the Wisconsin Wetlands Association, met with Democratic and Republican lawmakers to advocate for the bill. She emphasized problems that might get their attention — related to transportation, emergency services, insurance, or conservation — that wetland restoration could solve. She said she got a lot of head-nods as she explained that the cost of continually fixing a washed-out culvert could vanish from storing and slowing floodwaters upstream.
“These are issues that hit all over,” she said. “It’s a relatable problem.”
State Highway 13, a major north-south route in Wisconsin, collapsed in rural Ashland County in 2016 after a massive rainstorm caused area rivers to swell to record highs. The county used state funds to restore wetlands, hoping to prove that they’re a natural flooding solution. (MaryJo Gingras/Ashland County Land & Water Conservation Dept.)
The bill passed unanimously and was signed into law by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in April 2024. Evers and the Republican-controlled Legislature approved $2 million for the program in the state’s most recent budget.
Twenty-three communities applied for the first round of grant funding, which offered two types of grants — one to help assess flood risk, and another grant to help build new wetlands to reduce that risk. Eleven communities were funded, touching most corners of the state, according to Wisconsin Emergency Management, which administered the grants.
Brian Vigue, freshwater policy director for Audubon Great Lakes, said the program shows Wisconsinites have come a long way in how they think about wetlands since 2018, when the state government made it easier for developers to build in them.
There’s an assumption that wetland restoration comes only at the expense of historically lucrative land uses like agriculture or industry, making it hard to gain ground, Vigue said. But when skeptics understand the possible economic benefits, it can change things.
“When you actually find something with the return on investment and can prove that it’s providing these benefits … we were surprised at how readily people that you’d assume wouldn’t embrace a really good, proactive wetland conservation policy, did,” he said.
Private landowners need to see results
About three-quarters of the remaining wetlands in the lower 48 states are on privately owned land, including areas that were targeted for restoration in the Marengo River watershed. That means before any restoration work begins, the landowner must be convinced that the work will help, not hurt them.
For projects like this to work, landowner goals are a priority, said Kyle Magyera, local government outreach specialist at the Wisconsin Wetlands Association, because “they know their property better than anyone else.”
Farmers, for example, can be leery that beefing up wetlands will take land out of production and hurt their bottom line, Magyera said.
In the Marengo watershed, Gingras worked with one landowner who had farmland that wasn’t being used. They created five new wetlands across 10 acres that have already decreased sediment and phosphorus runoff from entering the river. And while there hasn’t been a flood event yet, Gingras expects the water flows to be slowed substantially.
This work goes beyond restoring wetland habitat, Magyera said, it’s about reconnecting waterways. In another project, Magyera worked on a private property where floods carved a new channel in a ravine that funneled the water faster downstream. The property now has log structures that mimic beaver dams to help slow water down and reconnect these systems.
Tracy Hames, executive director of the Wisconsin Wetlands Association, walks along a stretch of Black Earth Creek in rural Dane County. The creek jumped its banks during a historic flood in 2018, causing millions of dollars in damage, and the county is now restoring wetlands and reconnecting the creek to its floodplain to alleviate future disasters. (Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Now that the first round of funding has been disbursed in Wisconsin’s grant program, grantees across the state are starting work on their own versions of natural flood control, like that used in Marengo.
In Emilie Park, along the flood-prone East River in Green Bay, a project funded by the program will create 11 acres of new wetlands. That habitat will help store water and serve as an eco-park where community members can stroll through the wetland on boardwalks.
In rural Dane County, about 20 miles from the state capital, a stretch of Black Earth Creek will be reconnected to its floodplain, restoring five and a half acres of wetlands and giving the creek more room to spread out and reduce flood risk. The creek jumped its banks during a near record-breaking 2018 rainstorm, washing out two bridges and causing millions of dollars in damage.
Voluntary program could be of interest elsewhere
Nature-based solutions to flooding have been gaining popularity along the Mississippi River. Wisconsin’s program could serve as a “national model” for how to use wetlands to promote natural flood resilience, Quinn wrote in a 2023 newspaper editorial supporting the bill.
Kyle Rorah, regional director of public policy for the Great Lakes/Atlantic region of Ducks Unlimited, said he’s talking about the Wisconsin grant program to lawmakers in other states in the upper Midwest, and that he sees more appetite for this model than relying on the federal government to protect wetlands.
And Vigue has found that stakeholders in industries like fishing, shipping and recreation are receptive to using wetlands as infrastructure.
But Gentry cautioned that voluntary restoration can only go so far, because it “still allows status-quo development and other related patterns to continue.”
Still, as the federal government backs off of regulation, Gentry said she expects more emphasis on the economic value of wetlands to drive protection.
“Every level of government is looking at ways to reduce costs so it doesn’t increase taxes for their constituents,” Gingras said.
John Sabo, director of the ByWater Institute at Tulane University, said as wetlands prove their economic value in reducing flood damage costs, taxpayers will see their value.
“You have to think about (wetlands) as providing services for people,” Sabo said, “if you want to get people on the other side of the aisle behind the idea (of restoring them).”
And although the Wisconsin grant program is small-scale for now, he said if other states bordering the Mississippi River follow its lead, it could reduce flooding across the region.
“If all upstream states start to build upstream wetlands,” he said, “that has downstream impacts.”
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Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.
SUMMARY: Thursday, May 22nd starts mostly clear and comfortable with calm winds and temperatures in the upper 50s to low 60s. A stalled frontal boundary to the north will push southward this afternoon, bringing increased clouds and a chance of isolated showers and thunderstorms, mainly near the I-30 corridor and parts of northeast Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Temperatures will reach the upper 80s to near 90°F. A slight cooldown is expected Friday, but warmth returns by Saturday with highs in the 90s. Sunday into Memorial Day, unsettled weather with more thunderstorms is likely, followed by cooler temperatures in the low 80s next week.
Skies remain mostly clear this morning. A frontal boundary is held up just to our north which will track further southward today where we could see pop-up showers and t-storms. Rain should end prior to sunset while clouds linger overnight. Temperatures will rebound by the weekend back to the lower 90’s. An unsettled-like pattern is expected to start on Sunday and continue through Memorial Day and the mid-part of next week. The good news is that temperatures will start to cool down after Memorial Day in the lower 80’s and upper 70’s.
Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student activist detained at a Louisiana immigration facility, faces legal challenges as his attorneys argue for his release based on “egregious government misconduct” and his risk of harm if deported. His legal team contends that federal policies were violated when Khalil’s attorney was denied access to electronics during hearings. They also argue that the GEO Group, managing the detention center, unfairly restricts public access and family visits. Khalil has been detained since March, despite not being charged with a crime, and is seeking permission to hold his newborn son, which the GEO Group has denied.
The federal judge overseeing the case of a Columbia University student activist held at a Louisiana immigration detention center has deferred to the private prison company managing the facility in determining certain rules for her court.
The questioned standards come into play as Mahmoud Khalil faces his next court hearing Thursday morning at the LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, when his attorneys say they’ll file a motion to throw out the case against him for “egregious government misconduct,” namely that Khalil was arrested without a warrant. They’ll also argue that Khalil is at risk of harm by Israel “anywhere in the world” and thus cannot be removed to Syria or Algeria.
The hearing is the first since one of Khalil’s attorneys, Nora Ahmed with the American Civil Liberties Union, was prevented from bringing her laptop computer into the courtroom on the grounds of the LaSalle Detention Center for an April 11 hearing. Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans said Khalil’s attorneys must abide by policies set by the facility’s operator, the GEO Group. Ahmed was prevented from having her electronics with her, despite attorneys for the federal government being allowed to have their computers.
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Comans’ ruling gives the Trump administration an unfair advantage in the case, Ahmed said in an interview with the Illuminator.
“It facially goes to show how biased the hearing was from the get-go – that this attorney was denied all of the access to electronics that the government” had, Ahmed said.
Khalil has been held at the Lasalle Detention Center since March 8, when federal authorities took him from his Columbia University apartment building in New York City. Although he’s a legal U.S. resident, ICE officials said they had a warrant to revoke Khalil’s student visa. He’s the first person President Donald Trump sought to deport from the U.S. for his involvement in pro-Palestinian campus protests.
Motion sought formal order
Over two months after being taken into federal custody, Khalil has yet to be charged with a crime. At his April 11 hearing, Comans ruled him deportable in light of a letter from Secretary of State Marco Rubio stating that Khalil’s activities at Columbia could have “adverse foreign policy consequences.”
According to a motion filed April 28, Ahmed was prevented from bringing her laptop and phone into that hearing, despite DOJ policy explicitly allowing counsel to have electronics. Ahmed said she had already been given permission to take her electronics inside by the ICE facility’s warden, GEO Group employee Shad Rice. GEO Group personnel handle security for the facility, including the secured area between the facility’s entrance and the courtroom doors.
Unable to bring her computer into the courtroom, Ahmed worked with a notebook and pen instead.
Judge Comans’ refusal to let Ahmed retrieve her computer is in direct violation of the Department of Justice’s policy, according to the April 29 motion. The policy states that attorneys “in proceedings before [Executive Office for Immigration Review] will be permitted to use electronic devices in EOIR courtrooms.”
After the hearing, according to the motion, Rice told Ahmed that “the Judge appeared to contradict herself” by blaming him and the GEO Group for Ahmed not being allowed to bring her laptop into the courtroom.
Jason Burke, administrator for the LaSalle Immigration Court, told the Illuminator that Justice Department rules do indeed allow Ahmed to bring her laptop to court proceedings, “but they got to get to EOIR space first. which we don’t control when we’re in a detention center.”
The GEO Group declined to answer questions regarding the matter.
In light of the confusion on April 11, the April 28 motion asked the court to ensure that Khalil’s counsel at upcoming hearings could bring their electronics into chambers.
Comans ruled May 9 that the motion was moot, writing that “should an attorney elect to appear in person, they are subject to the detention facility’s rules.”
Homero López, director of Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy in New Orleans, was startled when he learned of the judge’s order, which he described as “bulls–t.” López previously had a similar issue in 2022 at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in the Acadia Parish town of Basile. It was resolved when ICE Field Office Director Melissa Harper “clarified with Basile management that laptops will be permitted,” per emails López provided to Illuminator.
López said it was particularly surprising to have that issue at the Jena center, where, unlike other Louisiana ICE centers, the detention area and courtroom have separate entrances.
“I’ve never had to once ask anybody for additional permission to bring electronics into court” at Jena, nor has any other attorney he knows, López said. Comans should have directed ICE to get GEO Group to abide by federal policy – not defer to the company – he added.
The judge’s failure to do so “is another way to discourage people from taking on cases at that facility,” López said.
Supporters of Mahmoud Khalil rally outside the federal courthouse in Newark, N.J., on March 28, 2025. (Reena Rose Sibayan for New Jersey Monitor)
Unequal footing for ICE detainees
Khalil’s lawyers argue that the unequal access highlights a lack of transparency around immigration proceedings, and the hurdles the GEO Group and the federal justice present that affect a detainee’s legal proceedings. In a briefing for reporters Wednesday, co-counsel Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at City University of New York, described Comans as “an immigration judge who’s not an independent judge, who’s really a DOJ functionary.”
Khalil’s counsel decried this lack of transparency in a second motion, also filed April 28. The motion requested that, due to enormous public interest in Khalil’s case, Comans allow virtual or telephonic access for her proceedings.
During the April 11 hearing, Ahmed had asked permission to read out a statement about public access – a request Comans refused.
Ahmed’s quashed statement was a plea for Comans to ensure broader access to the hearing, noting that “what transpires today – determining who is allowed to stay on American soil and who must leave it – will have reverberations for years to come. As such, we ask this court to accommodate those intent on observing these proceedings.”
Instead, GEO Group security allowed less than two dozen people to enter the facility, leaving supporters and members of the news media to wait outside, some of whom had traveled from as far as New York.
Zach Kopkin, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace in New Orleans, was among those denied access. He told Illuminator that it “felt really important that Jewish folks be in that room” and “that we fight back with the truth, which is that a ton of Jews are also critical of the Israeli government’s war crimes and genocide.”
Comans also called the second motion moot, noting simply that “immigration hearings are generally open to the public, although certain exceptions apply.” Khalil’s team still has an outstanding request to the judge for an overflow room.
Khalil hopes to hold month-old son
New allegations against the GEO Group of violating federal policy in Khalil’s case were levied Wednesday. The LaSalle facility has refused to allow Khalil to hold his newborn son, who was born while he’s been in federal custody, citing “security concerns.” This comes despite ICE directives and federal policies which explicitly encourage contact between detained parents and children.
Khalil filed a request Wednesday with a federal court to order ICE to allow him a contact visit with his month-old son by the end of the day. The federal court accepted the argument and Khalil’s counsel say they’re working out details of the visit. Khalil’s wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, traveled over 1,000 miles with their child so Khalil could hold him for the first time.
According to emails within the filing, the GEO Group’s facility administrator said its procedures allow for “non-contact” visits only through a secure window.
ICE policy notes that contact visits “may be facilitated at all ICE detention facilities.”
Khalil’s lawyers argue the GEO Group’s refusal of contact is part of the “punitive” nature of his detention and transfer from its New Jersey facility, where family contact visits are provided daily and parents are allowed to hold their children.
Judge Comans will also decide whether Dr. Abdalla is permitted to hold their infant while attending proceedings Thursday.
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Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
This content exhibits a Center-Left bias as it focuses on issues related to immigrant rights, government accountability, and opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration policies. It highlights concerns about fairness, transparency, and alleged misconduct involving federal authorities and private prison companies, emphasizing civil liberties and legal advocacy. The framing tends to be critical of the government and immigration enforcement, reflecting values commonly associated with progressive or liberal viewpoints while maintaining a fact-based, measured tone.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Steve Wilson | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-05-21 16:27:00
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed an executive order addressing a major security breach at the Orleans Parish Correctional Facility, where 10 inmates escaped by removing a toilet and creating a hole in the wall. Five inmates have been recaptured, and the others remain at large. The order calls for an investigation by Attorney General Liz Murrill, audits by the state inspector general, and reviews of jail operations by the Department of Corrections. It also mandates judicial performance evaluations and the creation of a case-tracking system by the Metropolitan Crime Commission to improve the criminal justice system.
(The Center Square) — Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed an executive order Wednesday that demands an “immediate and aggressive response across multiple state agencies to address a major breach at the Orleans Parish Correctional Facility.
Ten inmates at the New Orleans facility escaped on Friday after removing a toilet and burrowing through a hole in the wall, even writing “to [sic] easy LOL” as a bit of parting graffiti.
Five of them have been caught, but the remainder are still at large.
“Our criminal justice system is a three-legged bar stool. If one fails, the whole system collapses,” Landry said in a news release. “This brings us to where we are today – New Orleans willingly handed the jail keys to those leaders who vowed to keep criminals out of jail. Sadly, it worked.
“However, the state will not sit idly by. We are taking immediate, decisive action to ensure that this never happens again. The people of Louisiana deserve not only transparency and accountability, but also a justice system that is unyielding in its commitment to public safety – and our executive order demands it. Enough is enough.”
The executive order will task state Attorney General Liz Murrill with an investigation into the jail break. The order also requires the state inspector general to oversee audits of case files. The state Department of Corrections will review jail operations for compliance with jail standards and relocate any state inmates, for which the parish is paid by the DOC, to state facilities.
The Louisiana Supreme Court will be asked to review the Orleans Criminal Court. His order also requires the state Judiciary Commission evaluate judicial performance in high-crime parishes.
Landry’s order also requires documentation of continuance requests by court clerks, and judges are encouraged to address unnecessary delays.
The Metropolitan Crime Commission will be asked to develop a system to track cases from arrest to conviction.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Right-Leaning
The article reports on Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry’s executive order following a jail break, focusing heavily on themes of law and order, public safety, and accountability within the criminal justice system. The framing emphasizes tough-on-crime rhetoric, including phrases like “enough is enough” and criticism of local leadership that “vowed to keep criminals out of jail,” which reflects a punitive, conservative approach to criminal justice issues. The coverage centers on the governor’s decisive actions and critiques of judicial leniency, which aligns with a right-leaning ideological stance. Although it largely presents facts and quotes the governor’s statements, the selected language and framing suggest a perspective supportive of stricter criminal justice policies, rather than a neutral or balanced reporting stance.
