Wisconsin
WI lawmakers should support data center accountability bill | Letters
Data centers proposed in our area pose multiple threats to our water, wildlife, and wallets. We all can take action by asking our senators and representatives to back SB729.
Fly over the Microsoft data center construction site in Mount Pleasant
Take a flight around the Microsoft Corp. data center campus construction site in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin as construction continues.
The data centers proposed in our area in Mount Pleasant, Port Washington, and Beaver Dam pose multiple threats to our water, wildlife, and wallets. The centers will require vast amounts of water to cool their equipment. Plus, 70% of the water consumed each year in Wisconsin goes to electric power generation, so the water needed for energy production adds to the millions of gallons these centers will need on peak days.
The massive energy infrastructure required to build and operate the data centers is expensive and threatens to burden customers for years with the huge costs. Also, at a time when the impacts of climate change make it clear that we should be transitioning to clean renewable energy sources, utility companies are using data centers as justification for building new fossil gas power plants, thereby keeping us from achieving the zero emissions future that we so desperately need.
Take action by backing Data Center Accountability Act
The Data Center Accountability Act, bill SB729, was introduced recently in the Wisconsin legislature. If passed, the bill would stipulate that:
- Data center must meet labor standards and use at least 70% renewable energy.
- All data centers must be LEED certified or the equivalent.
- Data center owners must pay an annual fee that funds renewable energy, energy efficiency, and a low-income energy assistance program.
We all can take action to prevent the worst impacts from data centers by asking our senators and representatives to vote for SB729. To find your legislators go to https://myvote.wi.gov/en-us/My-Elected-Officials.
Jenny Abel, Wauwatosa
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With the release of EA Sports College Football 27 right around the corner, it’s fun to look at how the video game sees the Wisconsin Badgers.
These past two seasons have been down years, no doubt, but Luke Fickell did a great job in the portal this offseason and has begun to rebuild what was once one of the most prestigious programs in the nation.
This article can’t possibly include every Badgers player in the game, but their overall rankings range from 64 to 85.
Wisconsin’s sixth-highest-ranked player is a kicker, and that should say everything you need to know about how EA Sports feels about this team.
Highest rated Wisconsin Badgers in CFP27
- 85 Overall
- HB Abu Sama III: 85 Overall
- CB Javan Robinson: 85 Overall
- 84 Overall
- QB Colton Joseph: 84 Overall
- 83 Overall
- DT Hammond Russell IV: 83 Overall
- FS Marvin Burks Jr.: 83 Overall
- 81 Overall
- 80 Overall
- HB Bryan Jackson II
- HB Darrion Dupree
- DT Junior Poyser
- WILL Mason Posa
Of the 10 highest-ranked players, three are running backs. In total, five are on defense, four are on offense, and one is on special teams.
Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Jordon Lawrenz on X @jordonlaw_pxp.
Reaction to Shawn Eichorst as potentially the next Wisconsin AD
On the Terrace View podcast, John Steppe and Mark Stewart give initial thoughts on reported connection between Shawn Eichorst and open UW AD job.
MADISON – Shawn Eichorst will start as Wisconsin’s athletic director with a higher annual salary than his predecessor.
Eichorst will make an annual salary of $1.6 million along with built-in annual increases and incentives, a university spokesman told the Journal Sentinel.
That is above Chris McIntosh’s $1.5 million annual salary for the 2025-26 academic year. (That consisted of $1 million from the university and $500,000 from the UW Foundation.) McIntosh’s salary was set to increase by $50,000 for each year of his contract, which would have gone through June 30, 2029.
It also is well above Marcus Sedberry’s $875,000 annual salary for the nearly three months when he was interim AD. Sedberry’s salary is set to return to $334,805 “plus any intervening pay adjustments,” according to the offer letter from April.
An open records request from the Journal Sentinel for Eichorst’s contract, which will include more details about the increases and incentives, is pending.
Eichorst previously served as the deputy AD and chief operating officer at Texas for the last eight years. He also was Miami’s AD in 2011-12 and Nebraska’s AD from 2012-17. Before Miami, the Lone Rock native spent five years working with the Badgers under Barry Alvarez.
A 9-year-old child died Tuesday evening after drowning in a western Wisconsin water park.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office says first responders were called to the Campfire Cove Aqua Park in Rural Balsam Lake, Wisconsin, around 8:15 p.m.
Though they attempted lifesaving measures, the child died at the scene.
The incident is under investigation, the sheriff’s office says.
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