Monday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 86. Sunrise is 6:37, and sunset is 7:01, for 12h 23m 50s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 96.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Someone sees a burning house in the distance, and wonders whether it might be his house on fire. Perhaps, in those moments, he offers a prayer: Dear God, let this not be my house. And yet, and yet, there is a fire, and someone’s house is burning, and so asking that another might instead bear the loss is a selfish request. A more loving request of the divine: Dear God, let no one be injured and the damage be slight.
Note well: For all the dark publicity and fear mongering about immigrants in Whitewater, worse lies about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio might have befallen us. See of Whitewater The Local Press Conference that Was Neither Local Nor a Press Conference. The scheming politicians who came to Whitewater were simply less ambitious than the ones who have aflicted Springfield.
I’ll not say that I am grateful misery has struck an innocent population in Springfield, Ohio, as I would not want suffering elsewhere. It is right only to hope that the racist lies told about Springfield cease, and that that town’s Haitian residents suffer no further injury.
Of human affairs, however, one can say this: those who came to Whitewater with matches might have caused a worse fire for us, and we need look only to Ohio to see how a few more matches, a few more lies, might have engulfed us.
Sunday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 85. Sunrise is 6:36, and sunset is 7:02, for 12h 26m 43s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 90.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1832, the Ho-Chunk and the United States sign a treaty stipulating that the Ho-Chunk cede lands lying to the south and east of the Wisconsin River and around the Fox River of Green Bay. (More than one nation was involved in these treaty councils with the United States in 1832: “with the Ho-Chunk (Sept. 15) and the Sauk and Fox (Sept. 21). The Ho-Chunk ceded all their remaining territory south of the Wisconsin River; the Sauk & Fox ceded the Iowa shore of the Mississippi.”)
On this day in 1835, HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands. The ship lands at Chatham or San Cristobal, the easternmost of the archipelago.
Saturday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 84. Sunrise is 6:35, and sunset is 7:04, for 12h 29m 36s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 82.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 82. Sunrise is 6:34, and sunset is 7:06, for 12h 32m 27s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 73.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1956, the IBM 305 RAMAC is introduced, the first commercial computer to use disk storage.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would hear a lawsuit that could determine whether the state’s top elections official could remain in her post after Republicans who controlled the state Senate sought to fire her last year.
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Meagan Wolfe serves as the nonpartisan administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, an agency run by a bipartisan board that oversees elections in the key presidential battleground state. Republicans unhappy with her, especially after the 2020 election won by President Joe Biden, have attempted to oust her from her job.
Wolfe has been the subject of conspiracy theories and targeted by threats from election skeptics who falsely claim she was part of a plot to rig the 2020 vote in favor of Biden. Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020 by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin, and his win has withstood two partial recounts, a nonpartisan audit, a conservative law firm’s review, and multiple state and federal lawsuits.
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Senate Republicans voted in September 2023 to fire Wolfe, despite objections from Democrats and the Legislature’s nonpartisan attorneys, who said the Senate didn’t have the authority to vote at that time because Wolfe was a holdover in her position and had not been reappointed.
Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul sued to challenge that vote, and in court filings, Republican legislative leaders changed course and claimed their vote to fire Wolfe was merely “symbolic” and had no legal effect. They also asked the judge to order the elections commission to appoint an administrator for the Senate to vote on.
Dane County Circuit Court Judge Ann Peacock, in a January ruling, said Wolfe is legally serving as administrator of the elections commission as a holdover given that the commission deadlocked on whether to reappoint her. The Senate’s vote to remove her had no legal effect and the commission has no duty to appoint a new leader while Wolfe is serving as a holdover, Peacock ruled.
Republican leaders of the Legislature appealed and asked the state Supreme Court to take the case directly, skipping a state appeals court, which it agreed to do on Wednesday.
It’s astonishing how many repercussions and lawsuits Wisconsin has endured from election conspiracists.
Set aside superstitions like ailurophobia, melanophobia, or (on a day like today) triskaidekaphobia and see how sharp-looking black cats, in particular, are —
Wednesday, September 18th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Perfect Days @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Drama
Rated PG
2 hours, 4 minutes (2023)
Our last art film of Summer is one of serene peace, joy, and contemplation. Hirayama is content with his life as a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine, he cherishes music on cassettes, reading books, and taking photos of trees: a life of simplicity and daily tranquility. Oscar nominated for Best International Film. Language: Japanese. Shown with English subtitles.
Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 85. Sunrise is 6:32, and sunset is 7:08, for 12h 35m 19s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 64 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
One of two election law cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday reveals the extremism of election conspiracy theorists. Of that case (Wisconsin Voter Alliance v. Secord) and one other, Henry Redman reports in Wisconsin Supreme Court hears arguments in two election cases:
The first case involves a right-wing election conspiracy group, Wisconsin Voter Alliance, which has spent years casting doubt on the results of the 2020 election by alleging fraud in the state’s election system. The group, founded by conspiracy theorist Ron Heuer, has been filing records requests with counties across the state seeking documents showing the identities of people in Wisconsin who have been declared incompetent by a judge and had their right to vote taken away.
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The Wisconsin Voter Alliance has asked for the names and addresses of people who have been declared incompetent in guardianship cases so the group can compare that list with the voter rolls in the statewide voter registration database and find any people who have been voting despite having the right to do so taken away. County officials across the state have been denying these requests because state law requires that any court records in these cases “pertinent” to the declaration of incompetency be kept secret.
Open access to public records is a right, and a significant one, but not unlimited. Here, a private party wants to conduct its own examination, but as Redman reports the argument from Walworth County’s counsel, there is already a lawful public process to investigate people declared incompetent from voting:
Samuel Hall, the attorney representing Walworth County, argued the law requires that these records be kept confidential.
“Now the purpose behind the request and who the requesters are, as noble as they may be, are irrelevant under Wisconsin public records law,” Hall said. “The truth of the matter is that the District 2 Court of Appeals decision blasts open the door for the personal information of some of the most vulnerable people in our communities to be broadcast, not only to those with noble and good intentions, but to those who might do these folks harm or seek to defraud them.”
He added that to the extent that there is an interest in conducting oversight of this government function — in which the court system is required to make local election clerks aware of decisions so the clerks can update voting records — there are plenty of avenues to do so without a private citizen or organization getting access to information state law deems confidential.
“To the extent that there’s a desire to have oversight or a watchdog, per se, it doesn’t need to be done by a private individual or a private organization. Voting when ineligible to do so is a class I felony,” Hall said. “If there is a concern that that is going on, reporting it to law enforcement, reporting it to a local sheriff, could lead to a criminal investigation. We have a legislative process where even, you know, the Assembly or Senate could conduct inquiries, or the Wisconsin Elections Commission itself could conduct inquiries. None of that has happened here. This is a private organization seeking personal information of court documents that the Legislature has already deemed closed.”
That’s spot on: a private party’s right to review incompetency records has already been decided by the Legislature. (That this private party would very much like to see these records doesn’t matter; it’s law not private feeling that should govern here.)
Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 83. Sunrise is 6:31, and sunset is 7:10, for 12h 38m 11s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 53.13 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
There is a Special Lakes Advisory Committee meeting at 4:30 PM, and a Special Finance Committee meeting at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1789, Alexander Hamilton is appointed the first United States Secretary of the Treasury. On this day in 2001, the September 11 attacks, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks kill 2,977 people using four aircraft hijacked by 19 members of al-Qaeda. Two aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, a third crashes into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The post-pandemic spike in U.S. inflation eased further last month as year-over-year price increases reached a three-year low, clearing the way for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates and likely shaping the economic debate in the final weeks of the presidential race.
Wednesday’s report from the Labor Department showed that consumer prices rose 2.5% in August from a year earlier, down from 2.9% in July. It was the fifth straight annual drop and the smallest since February 2021. From July to August, prices rose just 0.2%.
America had a good night last night, and today the nation awakes to good economic news. And yet, much work lies ahead…
Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 6:30, and sunset is 7:11, for 12h 41m 02s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 43.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 5 PM, and her Community Involvement and Cable TV Commission also meets at 5 PM.
On this day in 1846, Elias Howe is granted a patent for the sewing machine.
Though Democrats face a formidable U.S. Senate map in 2024, they’re currently ahead in three key races.
In CBS News’ first poll of the race for Michigan’s open Senate seat, Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin is leading former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers by seven points. Meanwhile, Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin are ahead in their reelection bids by seven points and eight points, respectively.
Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 6:29, and sunset is 7:13, for 12h 43m 53s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 32.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
What conditions should a local government body always meet? Two come to mind in all cases.
First, board members must not vote or deliberate on matters in which they have a conflict of interest. This should be evident to a person of average understanding, and yet, throughout the last decade, the Whitewater Community Development Authority was plagued with conflicts repeatedly. Someone so implicated who looks at this situation without personal contrition and insists that these conflicts do not matter is, and always will be, unsuited for public life.
At Planning, for example, the board chairman should ask all board members before a significant matter with competitive implications: does anyone on this board have a conflict that he or she should declare? Those who remain silent yet have material conflicts known or discovered are unfit to stay on that public body. (Note well: this question from a chairperson is for those for those on a board or commission.)
Second, public comment in Whitewater often comprises both ordinary residents and special interests advancing their economic gain (e.g., principals, operatives, catspaws, etc.). SeeThe Special-Interest Hierarchy of a Small Town and The Special-Interest Hierarchy of a Small Town (Adjacent Support). Almost all ordinary residents will have sincere reasons for supporting or opposing a policy; special interests will manipulate a few people now and again for the special interests’ own ends.
Boardmembers should consider of those who seek or oppose government action: cui bono? For whose benefit? In Whitewater’s case, is it for the community or for a few aged men who want to prevent competitive opportunity?
Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 73. Sunrise is 6:28, and sunset is 7:15, for 12h 46m 45s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 24.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Paris, France (Sept. 8) — Winning two consecutive championships is widely considered one of the hardest things to do in sports. Three in a row? Even tougher.
Team USA men’s wheelchair basketball had none of that on Saturday at Bercy Arena.
Great Britain gave the U.S. all it could handle, but it wasn’t enough. Team USA pulled out a 73-69 victory to secure gold once again.
“This team has grown so much over the course of the last couple of years,” proclaimed Steve Serio, team captain. “We knew that Great Britain was going to be a great opponent, a really tough group of guys. Right now, we’re just excited that we won a basketball game and got to bring home another gold medal for our country.
“It feels awesome,” exclaimed Jake Williams [UW-Whitewater alumnus, profile @ Team USA], owner of a third gold medal. “Gold medals are never easy, and I think this was one of the hardest ones with only eight teams being in the tournament, they’re all really good, but we stayed together as a team and I’m definitely glad that we came out on top.”
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The win is a bittersweet one for Team USA. Before the game, Serio made a major announcement. The opening ceremony flag-bearer revealed that the Paris Games would be his last.
“He definitely makes my job a lot easier,” said Williams. “Playing for Team USA has been so much fun, definitely the most fun I’ve had playing basketball.”
Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 63. Sunrise is 6:27, and sunset is 7:17, for 12h 49m 35s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 17 percent of its visible disk illuminated.