Work on the first phase of improvements planned for the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame‘s Walk of Fame in downtown Milwaukee will begin soon and could be completed in time for the Republican National Convention on July 15-18.

“That continues to be our goal, to have everything in place by then,” said Brian Lammi, owner and board chairman of the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame. “We’re very excited about the design.” Milwaukee-based Rinka is the design firm for the project.

The Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame plans to spend more than $1 million on improvements to its walkway, which is located along the west side of Vel R. Phillips Avenue between West State Street and West Kilbourn Avenue in downtown Milwaukee.

First announced last year, the initial phase of improvements to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame’s Walk of Fame will include a 160-square-foot video screen attached to the southeast corner of the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, at the south end of the walkway. The video screen will show highlights of the careers of hall of famers and clips from the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame induction banquet and golf outing.

“As people are walking by or driving by they should get a good view of the 74-year-old history of the Hall of Fame,” Lammi said.

The video screen will also provide an opportunity for sponsorship messages and for messages from fans.

“It will be an interactive way for fans to participate with the Hall of Fame,” Lammi said. “We plan to open it up for fans to do things like a birthday message or celebrate their favorite youth sports team. There will be ways that fans can participate as those video boards can change throughout the year.”

The initial phase of the walkway improvement project will also include the addition of eight double-sided backlit boards that will show images of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame inductees and will be placed on top of columns lining the walkway. The signs will be created by De Pere-based Jones Sign.

The Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame also plans to host numerous events to make use of and draw attention to the walkway.

“Our goal is to start featuring press conferences, maybe do some basketball shootouts or putting contests or other ways that people can experience and be a part of the walkway and really trying to drive consistent traffic for that walkway,” Lammi said.

Ideas for additional improvements to the walkway are still being discussed but could include interactive touch screens to engage fans and help tell the stories of the hall of fame inductees, Lammi said.

Founded in 1951, the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame stopped adding bronze plaques for inductees a few years ago because space was running low to display them, they are extremely heavy (weighing 250 to 400 pounds each), some have been degraded by years and the elements, and today’s fans prefer to engage with modern forms of media, Lammi said.

“We felt more interactive, interview-focused videos or backlit images on stationary boards would be a better way to celebrate inductees moving forward,” Lammi said. “We just don’t think continuing to place these bronze plaques, which people aren’t necessarily paying a lot of attention to, was the best way to tell the story for these inductees.”

Menasha-based insurance company Network Health has become the presenting sponsor for the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame walkway, and the Hall of Fame’s golf outing. Milwaukee-based Zizzo Group is also a sponsor. Additional sponsorship opportunities are available, Lammi said.

“We’ve got a wide range of opportunities for organizations to share their stories and messages with the community,” he said.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge this afternoon upheld a Wisconsin law that requires absentee voters to complete their ballots in the presence of an adult witness, who must complete a written certificate containing a signature and address.

In a federal lawsuit filed last fall, four individual Wisconsin voters alleged that the state’s witness requirement violates Section 201 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). This lesser known section of the famous federal voting legislation prohibits denying the right to vote on the basis of a citizen’s failure to comply with a “test or device.” 

Under the law, tests or devices include the “requirement that a person as a prerequisite for voting…prove his qualifications by the voucher of registered voters or members of any other class.” Section 201’s ban on “tests or devices” was codified in the original 1965 VRA to outlaw a discriminatory post-Civil War voting practice in which prospective voters would need a “supporting witness” to affirm their qualifications. 

In addition to their VRA claim, the voters argued that the witness requirement contravened the Materiality Provision of the Civil Rights Act, which protects against disenfranchisement on the basis of trivial errors that are immaterial to a voter’s eligibility. The lawsuit pointed to the fact that during the 2022 midterm elections alone, over 2,200 absentee ballots were rejected due to witness certificate issues, such as a missing witness zip code. 

In today’s ruling, Obama-appointed Judge James D. Peterson rejected both of the plaintiffs’ arguments. As for the voters’ VRA claim, Peterson wrote: “The bottom line is that the only reasonable interpretation of [Wisconsin law] requires a witness to certify that the voter prepared the ballot correctly; it does not require the witness to certify the voter’s qualifications.” 

In terms of the voters’ Materiality Provision arguments, Peterson concluded that the “Provision does not apply to the witness requirement because it does not relate to “any application, registration, or other act requisite to voting.” The court relied heavily on a recent decision from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in which a three-judge panel held that the rejection of mail-in ballots with an incorrect or missing date did not violate the Materiality Provision. 

According to both Peterson and the 3rd Circuit’s reasoning, the Materiality Provision only applies to determinations regarding whether a person is qualified to vote. “The witness requirement is not a process for determining voter qualifications, so the Materiality Provision simply does not apply to it,” the opinion reads. 

As a result of today’s ruling, Wisconsin’s absentee voters must continue to fill out their ballots in the presence of a witness, who is required to complete a signed certificate.

Meanwhile, litigation is ongoing in two state-level lawsuits concerning what components of a witness address are sufficient to have an absentee ballot counted.

In a set of January rulings, a Wisconsin judge held that any witness address information on the ballot certificate that is enough to identify a location where a witness can be reached is adequate. The judge also ruled that the rejection of absentee ballots due to certain witness address errors violates the Civil Right Act’s Materiality Provision. Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled Legislature appealed the rulings, which are currently being litigated in the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. 

According to Democracy Docket’s database, there are five ongoing lawsuits surrounding absentee voting in Wisconsin. Earlier this year, voting rights groups filed a legal challenge to Minnesota’s witness requirement, which is currently proceeding in a Minnesota trial court.  

Read the opinion here.

Learn more about the case here.

The “open” sign flashed brightly for the state of Wisconsin’s annual fishing opener last Saturday, and now it is Minnesota’s turn.

We think things are shaping up to be a good one. Despite an early ice-out this spring, water temps have been able to stay on the cooler side. A mix of cool days, as well as off-and-on recent rain showers, have kept water temperatures from spiking. That is good news for anglers because that should make for a longer-than-usual bite timeline. Still, this is fishing, and any avid angler knows you can be humbled.

With that said, let’s all be optimistic and hope for the best fishing opener ever. As of now, the weather looks to be decent, so let’s keep our fingers crossed for that. For the Wisconsin opener, we had to fish in the cold rain, which wasn’t ideal.

Let’s dig into the next big holiday we call the great Minnesota fishing opener:

Lake Superior anglers have had on and off days depending on what Mother Nature has provided. We can report that boat marinas are filling up with vessels, and boat traffic is picking up a tad. From Ashland to the North Shore, we will start to see more and more big water boats out trolling. Best fishing continues to be trolling shallow running stick baits in a few different colors that can change daily.

This week, it sounds like bright orange was best for getting some coho bites. Fish locations are not as concentrated as we were seeing a month ago, but that is typical as many spring rituals are in motion. We are just coming off a pretty decent smelt haul, and humans were not the only ones harvesting some tasty morsels. Best depths targeted for coho have been in and around the 80–120-foot areas, but similar to changing bait colors, these can vary often too.

For the charter captains about to take to the waters, have a great season, and we look forward to hearing what’s happening out there.

Stream fishing continues to be going decent for some anglers. The streams from Two Harbors up the North Shore are seeing a few good fish being caught. Fan-casting fly rods with float indicators over fly lures continue to get a few bites. Water levels have risen, and flow is going pretty decent at this time. We expect to see some canoe and kayakers taking to the streams as we move farther into May.

The St. Louis River Estuary will be one of the busiest places for walleye anglers for the next several weeks. We expect to see many anglers launching boats throughout the system. Water temperatures, as mentioned, are still on the cooler side, hovering around the 50-degree mark, which should be good. The big girls should be heading back toward Lake Superior, but as usual, some lucky anglers will have a hook-up with these big, beautiful fish.

Please make the right decision on harvesting. I have often heard people say old walleyes can’t reproduce, and that is absolutely inaccurate. And, I promise, if you take a fish out of the water, it will 100% have no chance to reproduce. Keeping a few fish is OK, just make sure to know the rules, and please, please only keep fish of the juvenile type — say under 18 inches.

For success on the lower river and harbor, I would look toward the channel edges and work a slow bait. Crankbaits can be ideal, but spring fishing is usually better suited with live bait rigs. Lindy rigs, spinner rigs, dead sticks, or one of my favorites, “corking” (bobber fishing), will all be good tactics. Your fishing electronics will certainly show a bunch of fish, but not all will be active. Once a big group of boats with several baits start infiltrating fish schools, they can turn off pretty fast. The point is, don’t be afraid to find areas of the river with less traffic.

On to the inland lake fishing bite. Let’s start with Wisconsin, as we have been on somewhat of a bite to start the season. Fishing started slow on opening weekend but has picked up a little since. Water temperatures are just over 50 degrees in many areas we have been fishing. Walleyes have seemed to be better morning, and later evening biters for whatever reason. Usually, during the early part of May, we can get them pretty consistently throughout the day, but not this year as yet. Pike have been easy picking working weed edges around the 10-foot depths. Some beefy fish can be tackled this time of year, so if the walleye bite is a little “off,” don’t be afraid to cast out some stick baits or spinner baits toward shorelines.

For panfish enthusiasts, we are just getting rolling on some nice crappie bites near deeper breaks. Wind-blown shorelines, cork and split shot, with a crappie minnow, is a good recipe for some crappie fishing. The sunfish will be going in the shallow, warm water soft bottom areas. Using a bobber and a worm chunk is a good bet.

For Minnesota opening morning, if you are looking for walleyes, don’t overlook the big flats near substrate transition areas. Rock to sand is hard to beat. We look forward to hearing of some success from all of you. Man, is it great to be back to fishing! Everyone have a safe and enjoyable week, and we will most definitely see you on the water.

Jarrid Houston of South Range is a fishing guide ( houstonsguideservice.com ) on Minnesota and Wisconsin inland waters, the St. Louis River and, in winter, on Lake Superior.