Bending the Arc

Sophia Walker, aka Lisle Lester, was a one-time resident of Fond du Lac and world-famous dramatist.  She created the first magazine in Wisconsin, The Badger State Monthly, and was acclaimed for her stage performances. She hired the first women typesetters in Wisconsin, when working at the Milwaukee Sentinel. Her life story was one of constant support of women’s issues. She died in New York City, and her life ended with the final indignity of having her cremains go unclaimed for 138 years.  

For 138 years, the cremains of Lisle Lester have been sitting on a shelf in a New York mortuary, unclaimed. When her life was featured by Soroptimist International of Fond du Lac, for their Women’s History Luncheon in 2024, the group decided to bring her home. Little did that organization know how much time and fees and red tape would be needed to bring back those cremains to Fond du Lac. 

After fundraising to acquire the legal means to do so, Soroptimist International of Fond du Lac petitioned a Queens, New York court for Ms. Lester's cremated remains to be moved to the custody of Calvary Cemetery. The petition was granted and Ms. Lester will be laid to rest in Fond du Lac on October 17, 2026, at 10 am at Calvary Cemetery. The public is invited to attend. 

Soroptimist's final goal is to gather funds for a monument stone to honor her life. Please consider donating at https://givebutter.com/lisle-lester-memorial-stone-fund-laikww 

This story was also featured on Green Bay local news: https://www.wearegreenbay.com/news/local-news/lisle-lester-returns-fond-du-lac/ 

Food Waste Prevention Week is September 28 - October 4.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is encouraging residents to celebrate this week by using simple tips to keep food waste out of Wisconsin landfills while saving money.

The DNR’s 2020-2021 statewide waste characterization study found that wasted food was the largest component of trash in Wisconsin. Wasted food is defined as edible food thrown away before it is eaten or because it is spoiled. When food scraps like banana peels were included, approximately 854,000 tons of food waste and scraps, or 294 pounds per Wisconsinite, were sent to the state’s landfills in 2020.

When this food waste breaks down in landfills, it produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Households contribute heavily to this, with food waste making up 30% of residential trash. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s recent report, "Estimating the Cost of Food Waste to American Consumers," found the cost of food waste to each U.S. consumer to be $728 per year.
“Through food waste prevention, Wisconsinites have a major opportunity to make a positive impact on the environment while saving money on their grocery bills,” said Kate Strom Hiorns, director of the DNR’s Waste and Materials Management Program. “Food Waste Prevention Week is a great time to look at how you can reduce the amount of food you throw away.”

Here are just a few of the ways you can be a food waste hero and reduce your impact:

• Understand date labels and when food items are actually unsafe. Date labels are not regulated by federal law and do not indicate food safety, with the exception of infant formula. Manufacturers provide dates to help consumers and retailers decide when food is of peak quality. The U.S. Department of Agriculture advises consumers to examine foods to determine if the quality is sufficient for use. Relying on your eyes and an old-fashioned sniff test can be a better indicator of whether food is good to eat and help you avoid disposing of healthy and safe food.
• Shop with a plan and prepare for gatherings. Buying more food than what is needed often leads to more food waste. You can reduce wasted food by checking your pantry for must-use items before shopping and creating a meal plan for the week based around them. It also helps to make a specific list and avoid shopping on an empty stomach to avoid impulse buying. Use the UW Extension Seasonal Availability of Wisconsin Fruits and Vegetables to guide your produce purchases and create your list and meal plan before heading to the store.
• Store food to extend its life. Proper food storage can reduce waste and save the time and money associated with additional grocery store runs. Proper storage paired with planning can reduce waste and save time and money associated with grocery storage. Save the Food's Store It Guide offers tips and tricks for storing food, and the Natural Resources Defense Council’s The Refrigerator Demystified sheet helps you properly organize your fridge.
• Start your journey! No matter when or why you want to get involved with food waste prevention, you have to start somewhere. The EPA’s Get Smart: Take the Challenge helps households determine their baseline food waste amount so they can track their habits and develop new strategies to reduce waste.

For more details and additional tips, visit the DNR's Reducing Food Waste at Home webpage or the official site for Food Waste Prevention Week.
 

Trafficking is an affront to human dignity. The Alliance to End Human Trafficking works to bring further awareness to the many concerning pieces of human trafficking.

If you missed their August 27 webinar, Keeping Students Safe: Recognizing Human Trafficking & Preventing Exploitation, you may be interested in the recording, which is available now on their YouTube channel.

After watching the recording, you may be interested in these resources to learn more about human trafficking in the sports industry:

• Stop Trafficking Newsletter: Signs of Trafficking Among Students and Resources
• Diocese of St. Augustine Video Resource (video duration 18:51)
• What Would You Do? Human Trafficking Scenarios (video duration 4:34)
• Alliance To End Human Trafficking Resources
• What is Human Trafficking and Student Indicators
   

Gov. Tony Evers, together with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Secretary Karen Hyun and Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa Chairwoman Liz Arbuckle, yesterday joined members of the Wild Rice Stewardship Council and stewardship advocates on the Bad River Reservation to celebrate Wisconsin’s first-ever “Wild Rice Week” to raise awareness of and appreciation for the value of wild rice in the state.

Wild Rice Week was established by Executive Order #277, which was signed by Gov. Evers last year as part of the Evers Administration’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebrations to build upon previous efforts of the Administration to reaffirm the state’s commitment to respecting Tribal sovereignty and fostering strong government-to-government relationships by bolstering the education and awareness of Tribal Treaty Rights and sovereignty and promoting stewardship to protect cultural wild rice resources.  

“Wild rice is a critical part of food security and culture for many Native Nations, and preserving and celebrating the long-established practice of wild rice stewardship in our state is essential to strengthening our government-to-government relationships and our efforts to protect our natural resources,” said Gov. Evers. “My administration and I are committed to ensuring the state is a strong partner in supporting and respecting Tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, cultural practices, and food resources. This week, and every week, we recognize the importance of this resource as well as the hard work of our Tribal partners, advocates, and those who have been hunting and gathering from these lands and waters for centuries to protect wild rice in Wisconsin and ensure its presence for future generations.”

“Wild rice is an important natural resource in Wisconsin, supporting healthy wetlands as a food source and habitat for wildlife and serving a vital role in the culture, identity and spirituality for many Tribal Nations in Wisconsin,” said DNR Secretary Hyun. “Protecting wild rice benefits both the health of our waters and the strong traditions tied to it.”

Read the full online version of this release here.

On August 18, 2026, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced the U.S. Forest Service has filed a proposed rule to rescind in its entirety the national 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which protects roughly 45 million acres of national forest land from road building and timber harvesting.  

A 30-day comment period is open now until September 21, 2026.

You can read the proposal and submit your feedback electronically through https://www.regulations.gov/document/FS-2025-0001-223869. Tips for writing an effective comment can be found at Regulations.gov.

Alternatively, you can mail hardcopy letters to:
Director, Ecosystem Management Coordination
201 14th Street SW
Mailstop 1108
Washington, DC 20250-1124

Learn the timeline of the Roadless Rule in this lovely Earth Justice article.

Additional background information is available on the Forest Service Roadless Areas webpage.
 

On August 11, wind gusts of up to 99 miles per hour ripped through Northwest Indiana. The National Weather Service confirmed eight tornadoes across northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana. Seven people died in storms across the state that week, including in Gary and Portage. NIPSCO is the city’s electrical power company. It was the largest outage NIPSCO’s history, with more than 300,000 customers in the dark. Gary and Portage were put last on the restoration list. Power was finally restored to the majority of Gary residents on Tuesday night, August 25. A full TWO weeks later. 
Two weeks with no refrigeration in August. Boil advisories, water main breaks, transformers exploding, sewage backing up and washing clothes in a sink and driving through a city where every traffic light is dark. Gary’s schools, about 4,300 kids, closed on the 13th and stayed closed. Nine days in, more than 22,000 customers in Gary were still out. Read this full story written by Patti Vasquez. 

Gary Mayor, Eddie Melton, pointed out that the power infrastructure has been a problem for years and the storm has shed a light on his generally underfunded, underprivileged city. Grammy award-winning rapper Freddie Gibbs, a native to Gary, IN, says his predominately Black hometown tends to be ignored. Watch their full interview here.

Anyone wishing to donate to The Greater Gary Storm Recovery and Relief Fund can visit https://www.gary.gov/stormrecovery

Late on August 25, President Trump approved a disaster declaration for Indiana.

Anyone anywhere seeking disaster assistance can visit: disasterassistance.gov
 

People for People FDL invites you to join them for a special presentation by member, Kat Griffith, called:

ICE Arrest and Detention Machine
Wednesday, September 9, 2026
5:30 - 7:00 pm

The presentation will include:

• The starting point of our story: border data from 1980 - 2024
• Resourcing the machine: the DHS budget and the OBBB
• Staffing the machine: recruiting, hiring and training agents; 287(g) agreements
• The detention center build-out: following the money
• Who's being detained and what happens in detention?
• What can we do - and why we shouldn't feel hopeless!

Location:
Founders Hall
CSA Motherhouse
320 County Rd K
Fond du Lac, WI 54937

If you cannot join in person, you can join by Zoom. Email tabler@csasisters.org  for the link.

The Fond du Lac Public Library is now plugged into the sun.

Following more than a year of permitting, construction, and more, solar panels at the library are producing electricity and lowering the library’s ongoing energy costs.

The project was announced in March 2025, when installation began on an array of 500-watt solar panels on the roof of the library. Now complete, 240 solar panels are harvesting energy from the sun, providing power to the Fond du Lac Public Library.

This marked the culmination of nearly three years of planning and fund-raising to make the solar project a possibility.

The new solar panels were expected to generate up to 400 kilowatt hours a day but have outperformed this level on several occasions since their installation. This is enough electricity to cover more than 25% of the library’s electrical needs, and library leadership anticipates the project to save the Fond du Lac Public Library about $22,000 a year.

“Library staff are pleased to complete the solar panel project, which benefits the community through efficient use of funds while also reducing the library’s environmental impact. We appreciate the community’s support in this endeavor,” Fond du Lac Public Library Director Rachel Fuller said.

The library’s collection serves every age group, from picture books for pre-readers to a robust equipment collection, and much more. Online services supported by the library include a streaming service for movies and series (Kanopy); an e-book, audiobook, and online magazine app (Libby); a language learning app (Mango), and much more.

Visitors to the library are able to see the savings in real time. A special display was installed near the library’s south entrance; it displays live updates about how much electricity the panels are generating for the library on a daily, monthly, and annual basis.

Financial support for the solar project was provided through a combination of Capital Improvement funds from the city of Fond du Lac and funding from the Friends of the Fond du Lac Public Library, as well as private donations from community members.