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Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Mendacity, Trump

Daily Bread for 8.19.26: ‘Trump’s Broken Promises, in 11 Charts’

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 79. Sunrise is 6:05 and sunset is 7:50 for 13 hours 45 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 44.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

There will be a ribbon-cutting for the Whitewater Fire Department Training Facility at 4 PM, and the Parks and Recreation Board meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1692, during the Salem Witch Trials, Martha Carrier, George Jacobs Sr., John Proctor, John Willard, and clergyman George Burroughs are executed after being convicted of witchcraft.

Steven Rattner writes of Trump’s Broken Promises, in 11 Charts. His is a partial list; a full list of broken promises, economic or otherwise, would be closer to eleven hundred than eleven. Two of these eleven are cited below, with an open link for readers to review all the examples of significant economic failures:

“Promises made, promises kept.” Other presidents have employed variations of that phrase, although few with the gusto of President Trump; he even proclaims it on the White House website. When it comes to the economy, though, “promises not kept” would be a more apt description of the first 19 months of Trump 2.0. And many of the promises he has kept are causing as much damage as critics predicted. All in all, while Mr. Trump continues to boast about the “greatest economy we’ve ever had, by far,” the record to date falls far short of that lofty pronouncement.

[…]

See Steven Rattner, Trump’s Broken Promises, in 11 Charts, New York Times, August 18, 2026.

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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Development in Downtown Whitewater (Follow-Up), the Value of a UW-Whitewater Education, A New Ethics Ordinance, and Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations).

Drought reveals ‘Emperor Nero’s bridge’ beneath Rome’s Tiber river:

Weeks without rain have caused Italy’s Tiber River to fall to unusually low levels, revealing the remains of an ancient Roman bridge near the Vatican. Traditionally known as Nero’s bridge, archaeologists believe the structure may actually date back to the reign of Emperor Caligula.

City, Daily Bread, Development

Daily Bread for 8.18.26: Development in the Downtown (Along Jefferson Street)

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will see afternoon thunderstorms with a high of 80. Sunrise is 6:04 and sunset is 7:52 for 13 hours 48 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 35.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1868, French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium.

One of the items on the agenda of the Whitewater Common Council tonight is an assessment of a development proposal for Jefferson Street. This libertarian blogger will follow and post about the discussion.

For today, there’s a different — preliminary but inescapable — assessment to draw from the work of the city’s economic development team: this level of analysis is superior to the work of the city’s old Community Development Authority from a decade ago. There’s no way around this prima facie observation; no one in the prior city administration or on the old CDA produced anything like this ten years ago.

We are a city with a public school system and a university campus, and yet the work even a decade ago was below the skill and talents of our residents. That prior work did not meet the standards of our city, our state, or our nation. We are, all of us, members of a productive and competitive society unlike any other.

I write this with both sadness and optimism: it has been a long time coming, but our city government now meets a competitive standard of reasoning and written assessment. Sadness: years and opportunities were lost to a lower standard. Optimism: of course our community can achieve a better standard.

It’s right in front of us — 

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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Development in Downtown Whitewater (Follow-Up), the Value of a UW-Whitewater Education, A New Ethics Ordinance, and Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations).

Testing a Flexible, Fabric-Based Radar Antenna for NASA’s SkyFall Mars Helicopters:

When NASA’s SkyFall helicopters take to the Martian skies, one of their tasks will be to hunt for frozen water — a critical resource for future astronauts — using ground-penetrating radar. For that radar to work, the rotorcraft will carry a flexible, fabric-based antenna that extends below the aircraft without interfering with landings or breaking at touchdown. This video showcases testing recently completed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that demonstrates how the flexible antenna will function during takeoffs and landings. SkyFall is expected to launch aboard NASA’s Space Reactor-1 Freedom in late 2028.

City, Daily Bread, Development

Daily Bread for 8.17.26: Opposing the Routing of the BECI 765-kV Transmission Line

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 79. Sunrise is 6:03 and sunset is 7:53 for 13 hours 50 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 25.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater School Board meets at 6 PM. Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1978, Double Eagle II becomes the first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey, France, near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.

The Whitewater Common Council, as with other local governments, has an obligation to defend its residents’ property and the prospects for development of that property from others, whether those others are public or private entities. The proposed route of a 190-mile, $1.2 billion, 765-kilovolt transmission line across nine Wisconsin counties (including Jefferson, Walworth, and Rock) comes too close to Whitewater, unfairly and needlessly threatening the city’s present property values and future development.

A power line of this size will require transmission towers nearly two hundred feet tall, imposing easements of hundreds of feet on local property owners, thereby diminishing the value of their existing land and significantly reducing the prospects for further development nearby.

Unfairly: Use of eminent domain to advance the interests of a few private investors should not come at the expense of thousands of private landowners in the City of Whitewater. The search for more electrical capacity for some private parties should not — must not — come at the expense of many private owners and residents in this city. Successful development benefits all sixteen thousand residents of the city by making the community more prosperous. A giant power line that rings the city too closely will make the whole community less attractive to present and future development.

Needlessly: The specific placement of a large power line is neither a law of nature nor a divine command. The Wisconsin Public Service Commission will be able under law to choose between route options, some of which will be more favorable for this city and nearby communities.

Whitewater’s elected and appointed officials have an obligation to work diligently and zealously to protect the present and future interests of this city. A resolution Opposing the Routing of the BECI 765-kV Transmission Line is before the Whitewater Common Council this Tuesday, August 18. This resolution must serve as a starting point (and discussions may already be underway) for the successful defense of residents’ present and future development prospects.

Immediately below appear the thorough memo and well-drafted resolution in opposition to the BECI 765-kV line’s routing that are part of the Whitewater Common Council’s August 18 session:

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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Development in Downtown Whitewater, the Value of a UW-Whitewater Education, A New Ethics Ordinance, and Polling Places in the City (further considerations).

Adventure, Coyotepocalypse, Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.16.26: Meet the 91-Year-Old Hiking the Appalachian Trail

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 83. Sunrise is 6:02 and sunset is 7:55 for 13 hours 53 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 17.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1960, Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet, setting three records that held until 2012: high-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft.

Dale Sanders, known as Grey Beard, is setting out to reclaim his record as the oldest person to hike the entire Appalachian Trail. He has 12 months to complete the roughly 2,190-mile trail for it to count as a thru-hike record –– and is on track to finish in time.

After an injury while hiking this July, Sanders is ready to get back on the trail:

Ninety-one-year-old Dale “Grey Beard” Sanders was less than 150 miles from completing his goal of becoming the oldest person ever to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail when health concerns, combined with the loss of a close family member, forced him off the trail. Now he says he’s been cleared to get back to hiking and will return to the AT to finish what he started.

See Kelly Floro, At 91, Dale “Greybeard” Sanders Got Injured Just 142 Miles Shy of the AT Age Record — But He’s Not Giving Up, The Trek, August 14, 2026.

Admirable.

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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Development in Downtown Whitewater, Power Lines Near the City, A New Ethics Ordinance, and Polling Places in the City (further considerations).

In California, coyotes seize control of an abandoned construction site:

West Hollywood residents saw that a pack of coyotes has overtaken the site of an abandoned apartment construction project.

See also Cat v. Coyote, Cat Defeats Three Coyotes in Combat, Cat Defends Arizona Home Against Coyote, and The Trouble That Coyotes Cause.

Daily Bread, Health, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.15.26: Making Wisconsin Sick Again

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 79. Sunrise is 6:01 and sunset is 7:56 for 13 hours 55 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 10.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1945, Emperor Hirohito broadcasts his declaration of surrender following the effective surrender of Japan after many years of war across Asia and the Pacific:

It announced to the Japanese people that the Japanese government had accepted the Potsdam Declaration, which demanded the unconditional surrender of the Japanese military at the end of World War II. Following the Hiroshima bombing on August 6, and the Soviet declaration of war and Nagasaki bombing on August 9, the Emperor’s speech was broadcast at noon Japan Standard Time on August 15, 1945, and referred to the atomic bombs as a reason for the surrender. 

The speech is the first known instance of a Japanese emperor speaking to the common people (albeit via a phonograph record). It was delivered in formal Classical Japanese, with much pronunciation unfamiliar to ordinary Japanese. The speech made no direct reference to a surrender of Japan, instead stating that the government had been instructed to accept the “joint declaration” (the Potsdam Declaration) of the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and the Soviet Union. This confused many listeners not familiar with the declaration about whether Japan had actually surrendered. Both the poor audio quality of the radio broadcast and the formal courtly language worsened the confusion.

No one should want to become sick with measles, and no one should want others to become sick from that communicable disease. It’s true, of course, as some within the Make America Healthy Again movement observe, that everyone has an immune system; it’s also true that every single person who contracts measles has, in fact, an immune system. The anti-vaccination views embedded within MAHA did not stop the spread of a preventable infection. Some of the infected doubtless voted for Trump, and yet — are only the ignorant or deluded surprised? — they have nonetheless contracted measles:

State health officials are investigating an outbreak of 15 measles cases among residents in southwestern Wisconsin, and it’s likely there will be at least a half dozen more.

The surge of cases is up from two reported Tuesday.

Those first two cases were confirmed in an Iowa County resident and a Lafayette County resident. Thirteen new cases in Iowa County were reported Thursday, and were confirmed in testing by a state lab, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

The agency is reporting there are another six probable cases that have not yet been confirmed through testing.

DHS is closely coordinating with county health departments and receiving support from experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Dr. Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer with the DHS Bureau of Communicable Diseases.

“The majority of cases in this outbreak, similar to the large majority of cases in the overall United States outbreak, are occurring among unvaccinated people,” Westergaard said.

According to a DHS dashboard, around 60 percent of cases in Wisconsin this year involve children aged 17 and under. Three of those infected were under the age of four.

All but one of the 23 people with confirmed or suspected cases was unvaccinated.

See Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin health officials investigating measles outbreak in southwest counties, Wisconsin Public Radio, August 13, 2026.

People who are routinely vaccinated, and follow the sound advice of traditional, established medical science can go about their days with a general confidence. For them, vaccination is like putting on a raincoat in the rain — it’s simply a sensible practice. People in raincoats do not fear the rain — they walk calmly through it to achieve their daily tasks. My family and I are each vaccinated; we go about our days normally.

By contrast, those who rail against vaccines reject one of the benefits of American medical science, relying instead on the theories of charlatans that are no more reliable than the theories of savage European villagers who wondered many centuries ago why there were eclipses, plagues, and any number of discomforting intestinal disorders. (“Damn it, Heinrich! I’ve soiled myself again!“)

A sensible person simply avails himself of modern science calmly and without undue concern.

In the same way, as a consequence of the irresponsibility of the unvaccinated, large public and private institutions like K-12 schools and universities should sensibly and calmly review their outbreak protocols should cases of measles begin to surge in their areas.

Measles is preventable if approached rationally and knowledgeably.

See also Wis. Dep’t of Health Services, Measles Cases in Iowa and Lafayette Counties, Outbreaks, Recalls, and Investigations, updated Aug. 13, 2026.

We’ve no reason to listen to those who would only make Wisconsin sick again.

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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Development in Downtown Whitewater, Power Lines Near the City, A New Ethics Ordinance, and Polling Places in the City (further considerations).

This bird’s mimicry seems almost fantastical, but it seems to be true that this superb lyrebird can imitate the sound of a camera shutter:

City, Daily Bread, Elections, Gubernatorial Race 2026, Politics, Poll, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.14.26: On Local Election Results and Statewide Election Polling

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will see a mixture of clouds and sun with a high of 81. Sunrise is 6:00 and sunset is 7:58 for 13 hours 58 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 4.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1941, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill sign the Atlantic Charter enumerating their nations’ postwar aims.

With the Wisconsin August primary now over, a few points on local results and statewide polling come to mind.

Local results. Voters in the City of Whitewater, in combined unofficial votes from Walworth and Jefferson counties, cast the following votes among the Democratic gubernatorial candidates remaining in the race by Election Day:

HongCrowleyRoysBrennan
51035110639

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Voters in the City of Whitewater, in combined unofficial votes from Walworth and Jefferson counties, cast the following votes among the two Republican gubernatorial candidates:

TiffanyManske
33817

These unofficial results include city voters’ absentee ballots. Wisconsin law does not prioritize ballots by location counted or method of voting; an accurate reporting to the community of votes cast should necessarily include totals for in-person and absentee ballots cast (either when reporting or with a timely update). A solid community foundation requires publishing both types of ballots cast.

State timelines. In the same way, if residents in this city receive posts about the state of the gubernatorial race, those reports should be timely and accurate. Here’s an accurate timeline:

Rep. Francesca Hong conceded the gubernatorial primary race shortly after 2 AM on August 12. Her concession removed the possibility of a recount. The Associated Press then called the race for Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley on August 12 at 2:34 AM. One of the reasons the AP called the race was precisely because Hong had conceded, thereby removing the possibility of a recount. Leading Wisconsin Democrats later held a unity breakfast at Madison’s Prairie Cafe (attending, among others: Crowley, Hong, Lt. Gov. nominee Sarah Godlewski, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Rep. Mark Pocan, Atty. Gen. Josh Kaul, and Wisconsin Sen. Diane Hesselbein).

A local posting describing Crowley as the ‘apparent’ winner was erroneous. (By the early morning of August 12, Crowley was the winner of the race). A local posting describing a possible recount was misguided. (By the early morning of August 12, Hong had conceded and pledged her support to the Democratic nominee. Rep. Hong made clear at that time that she was not going to seek a recount.)

A solid community foundation requires publishing accurate information about election developments.

Polling. This libertarian blogger is not, obviously, a pollster. Instead, like many others, I rely on solid data and analyses from reliable professional pollsters. Pollster G. Elliott Morris’s Strength in Numbers newsletter is one of my favorite references. (I’m a subscriber. No, that’s not enough: I’m a satisfied, better-informed subscriber because of Morris’s work.)

In a post from August 13, Morris analyzes that raw data from another pollster (State Navigate), which, like many others, missed the mark in predicting Wisconsin’s outcome. Morris finds three errors in that polling:

  1. The actual primary electorate was older and more moderate than pollsters assumed…
  2. There was a lot of late movement toward Crowley…
  3. There is mixed evidence of higher survey non-response among more moderate Democrats.

See G. Elliott Morris, I re-analyzed the raw data from Wisconsin’s primary polls. Here’s what actually went wrong, Strength in Numbers, August 13, 2026.

Highly recommended and worth reading in full.

Forthcoming topics (in no decided order): A New Ethics Ordinance, a Whitewater Comparative Analysis, and Polling Places in the City.

Tarantula Nebula shines in new Chandra, Hubble, and Webb views:

Star-forming region 30 Doradus, nicknamed the Tarantula Nebula, is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. An amazing new composite image has been created with views from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes.

Cats, Weird Tales

Friday Catblogging: Sixty Cats Rescued from Abandoned Sailboat

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In Washington state, Tacoma police rescued sixty cats from an abandoned sailboat:

Sixty cats and kittens have now been rescued from an abandoned sailboat that was found anchored off a beach in Washington state, police said. 

The 40-foot boat, initially spotted earlier this month in waters near Tacoma’s Owen Beach, remains the focal point of an active criminal investigation as well as an ongoing search for additional felines that may have evaded law enforcement so far. 

See Emily Mae Czachor, 60 cats rescued from abandoned sailboat anchored off beach in Washington state, CBS News, August 13, 2026.

The Tacoma Police Department posted about the rescue effort, finding even more cats on the boat than they first expected:

America, Bad Ideas, City, Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Special Interests, Tom Tiffany, Trump, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.13.26: Stagflation Returns

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 76. Sunrise is 5:59 and sunset is 7:59 for 14 hours 0 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 0.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater School Board’s Human Resources Committee meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts receive a ticker-tape parade in New York City.

Nostalgia, however powerful, is not to be found in a yearning for the American economy of the 1970s:

Some readers may recall the misery of rampant stagflation in the 1970s. The fusion of inflation and stagnant economic growth destroyed millions of jobs while eroding virtually everyone’s purchasing power, ensuring there was no escape from economic pain for most Americans. Now, stagflation is returning after decades of dormancy. How pervasive will it become?

The person most responsible for answering that question is the Federal Reserve chairman, Kevin Warsh. The newly installed chair won his job by convincing President Trump that they shared similar perspectives on lowering interest rates, a move almost guaranteed to boost the economy in the short term, even if it risks economic calamity down the line. If history offers any guidance, how Mr. Warsh responds to Mr. Trump’s demands will have major repercussions on our future.

There’s no doubt that stagflation has returned. Inflation remains elevated, with July’s reading, released Wednesday, coming in at 3.4 percent year-over-year. Simultaneously, the economy is showing more and more weakness, with gross domestic product growth slowing to 1.5 percent in the second quarter of this year. The job market has slowed. The housing market has stalled. And, of course, oil prices remain elevated. This is a classic case of a lackluster economy with problematic inflation.

See Phillip Braun (Clinical Professor of Finance at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management), Stagflation, the Scourge of the 1970s, Is Back, New York Times, August 13, 2026.

In Whitewater (landlords and lobbyists), in Wisconsin (Tom Tiffany and the WISGOP), and in America (anyone connected to Mar-a-Lago), men have flacked for a destructive economic policy (to the extent that their views can be described as a coherent policy at all). Centuries of advanced, proven economics have been ignored for nothing so evident as avarice.

The lives of many ordinary people are thereby wrecked for the sake of a few men’s self-enrichment.

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Forthcoming topics (in no decided order): A New Ethics Ordinance, a Whitewater Comparative Analysis, and Polling Places in the City.

People around the world gather to witness solar eclipse:

From beaches in Portugal and the U.K. to the French capital and a hilltop town in Spain, crowds gathered in countries across Europe to watch the solar eclipse on Wednesday.

Daily Bread, David Crowley, Elections, Gubernatorial Race 2026, Never Trump, Tom Tiffany, Trump, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 8.12.26: The Most Important — and Encouraging — Number from the Wisconsin Gubernatorial Primary

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 84. Sunrise is 5:58 and sunset is 8:01 for 14 hours 3 minutes of daylight. The moon will be new today with none of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1960, NASA launches Echo 1A, its first successful communications satellite.

Counting in the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary stretched from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. (As with doubtless other Wisconsinites, I find that my Apple Watch’s sleep score is unusually low this morning.)

The WisDems’ volatile and surprising nomination process has now come to a close. The result was narrow, and in a contest ending so narrowly it’s hard to say what might have changed the outcome, because, candidly, many events might have shifted a few thousand votes between Crowley and Hong. News of a candidate accidentally stepping on a dachshund’s paw might have changed the outcome in a race otherwise so close…

Wisconsin has been, as she has been many times before, a place of national (and even international) attention. See Julie Bosman, Center-Left Candidate Defeats Democratic Socialist in Wisconsin’s Governor Primary, New York Times, August 12, 2026.

While the national press will, understandably, look at this race as a battle between two kinds of Democrat, there’s an election statistic that means much more. In the WisDems’ 2018 multi-candidate primary that Tony Evers won, 538,636 people voted for one of the Democrats. In the WisDems’ 2026 multi-candidate primary that David Crowley has now won, at least 787,665 people voted for one of the Democrats.

The 2026 number of those voting for a Democrat is about 46% larger than the 2018 number of those voting for a Democrat. Wisconsin has not grown forty-six percent larger in eight years, but the number of voters supporting a Democrat has.

Wisconsin’s Democrats and their allies are — and will be — energetic. In this respect, Rep. Francesca Hong captured the mood of the large Democratic-leaning coalition in her Tuesday evening remarks: “In 11 weeks, no matter who’s on this ballot, we are going to fight to win for one another.”

Yes.

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Forthcoming topics (in no decided order): A New Ethics Ordinance, a Whitewater Comparative Analysis, and Polling Places in the City.

British driver sets new land speed record for hydrogen-powered car:

The British engineering company JCB and the driver Andy Green have set a new world land speed record for a hydrogen-powered vehicle of 406.320 mph with their JCB Hydromax.

Daily Bread, Federal Government, Trump, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.11.26: Requesting FEMA Aid After Deadly Fox Valley Tornado

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will see thunderstorms with a high of 79. Sunrise is 5:57 and sunset is 8:02 for 14 hours 5 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning crescent with 2.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1942, actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive U.S. Patent No. 2,292,387 for their “Secret Communications System,” an early version of frequency hopping using a piano roll to switch among 88 frequencies to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam. They then donate the patent to the U.S. Navy.

Gov. Evers has requested federal help to assess storm damage from a late July tornado in the Fox Valley, but as with so much else under the Trump administration, there may be a catch:

Gov. Tony Evers is asking for federal help conducting damage assessments required to obtain federal aid in response to the EF-3 tornado that ripped through the Fox Valley late last month.

A severe storm hit the Fox Cities area on July 27, knocking down power lines and trees, flipping cars and leaving dozens of homes and businesses totally destroyed.

On Monday, the governor’s office announced the request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, for assistance in completing a formal federal preliminary damage assessment.

[…]

In March, Politico reported it was three times harder for Democrat-led states to receive disaster declarations than Republican-led states under the Trump administration. But in July, the administration approved disaster relief for parts of the state affected by severe storms, tornadoes and flooding this spring.

In response to flooding last summer, FEMA approved the state’s request for assistance to affected residents, but denied a request for aid to repair public infrastructure.

See Joe Schulz, Evers asks for FEMA’s help with damage assessments after Fox Valley tornado (‘Gov. Tony Evers: ‘This is the next step towards requesting formal assistance from our federal partners’), Wisconsin Public Radio, August 10, 2026.

The federal government is meant to represent all Americans equally, but that’s only until one man decides otherwise. Perhaps if a political ally asks Mr. Trump for aid, in exchange for just one favor to be performed at a later date…

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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A New Ethics Ordinance and a Whitewater Comparative Analysis.

Western Iceland prepares to glimpse dazzling total solar eclipse:

From lighthouses to lagoons and festivals, Iceland is preparing for a cosmic wonder as a total solar eclipse sweeps across its west coast on Wednesday. Authorities say they expect up to 20,000 additional overseas visitors for the celestial event, with hotels fully booked for months.

City, Daily Bread, Local Government, Planning

Daily Bread for 8.10.26: Local Comprehensive Planning

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will see scattered afternoon and evening thunderstorms with a high of 84. Sunrise is 5:55 and sunset is 8:03 for 14 hours 8 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning crescent with 6.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater School Board’s Teaching and Learning Committee meets at 4:30 PM and the full board meets at 6 PM. Whitewater’s Planning and Architectural Review Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1990, the Magellan space probe reaches Venus:

Magellan created the first (and currently the best) near-photographic quality, high resolution radar mapping of the planet’s surface features. Prior Venus missions had created low resolution radar globes of general, continent-sized formations. Magellan, however, finally allowed detailed imaging and analysis of craters, hills, ridges, and other geologic formations, to a degree comparable to the visible-light photographic mapping of other planets.

By NASA/JPL – http://solarviews.com/cap/venus/venview.htm (image link), Public Domain, Link.

Over recent months, Whitewater’s Comprehensive Plan Advisory Work Group has met to discuss the comprehensive plan for the city. Communities of all sizes undertake this work, either because their states require comprehensive plans or because it seems prudent to those communities. In Wisconsin, statutes do not require comprehensive local planning in all cases, but instead as a consequence of local land use ordinances. Wis. Stat. § 66.1001(3) (2025–26). In effect, this legal requirement makes a comprehensive plan a practical necessity.

Planning itself is unobjectionable and is often necessary. (Hayek, for example, famously notes that planning has a definite, albeit limited, role: “planning and competition can be combined only by planning for competition but not by planning against competition.”) It’s also impossible to ignore the difference in sheer command between municipal planning and national planning — local planning, even if misguided, has nowhere near the coercive power of national planning. By analogy, a homeowner’s association may sometimes overreach, but HOAs are not state regimes.

Whitewater’s is a work in progress, and I’ve no observations (nor even implications) to make today, except to highlight that the work is ongoing and worthy of consideration when completed. Embedded below is the latest recording of the local work group.

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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A New Ethics Ordinance and a Whitewater Comparative Analysis.

Now that’s competition — California corgi race brings fierce competition:

Tiny legs, big personalities and a competitive streak drew crowds to the Yolo County Fair in Woodland, California, where dozens of corgis raced for glory at the Corgi Nationals Super Sprint Series.

Business, Daily Bread, Energy, Law, Laws/Regulations, Regulations, State Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.9.26: When a Public Regulator Shows a Better Understanding than a Public Utility

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see thunderstorms with a high of 78. Sunrise is 5:54 and sunset is 8:05 for 14 hours 11 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning crescent with 13.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1810, Napoleon annexes Westphalia as part of the First French Empire.

This libertarian blogger has argued for the minimum number of data center regulations. See Assembly Passes Limited Data Center Regulations. Mine is a minority view these days — there is growing support across the political spectrum for more regulations, including a moratorium on their construction. (A member of the Whitewater Common Council recently observed that, with data centers and with Flock Safety, the political coalitions in opposition are a mixture of left and right. That’s true: to think that opposition in either case comes only from one side of politics is at best ignorant and at worst willfully so.)

Although allowing each community to decide whether to permit data centers would be my preference, recognition of the rule of law requires that companies act within statutes, regulations, and ordinances. For that reason, a contract between Microsoft and We Energies cannot bind Microsoft to contractual terms that violate state Public Service Commission regulations:

Microsoft’s new 15-year electric service contract for its Mount Pleasant data center includes a provision Wisconsin regulators previously rejected.

Signed last month, the agreement with We Energies specifies that power plants built or purchased to serve data centers must be located in eastern Wisconsin or Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. But Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission (PSC) voted in May to remove those geographic constraints, which critics argued would cut off Microsoft’s access to abundant wind power generated elsewhere in the Midwest and Great Plains.

We Energies says it will follow the commission’s order — as opposed to the contract’s language — while it works with the commission to resolve the discrepancy. In the meantime, some observers question how an outdated version of a high-stakes contract made it this far.

[…]

The PSC-approved rate structure allows large data center operators to “subscribe” to new power plants, picking up the bill for purchasing or constructing them in exchange for the right to use the electricity they generate and revenue from selling surplus electricity on the wholesale market.

We Energies argued that those plants should be located as close as possible to the data centers they would serve. 

Longer distances would increase the risk of grid failures disrupting data center operations, WEC Energy Group Director of Planning Jody Arendt told the PSC in January. WEC Energy Group is We Energies’ holding company.

The local power plants would be within the territory of the American Transmission Company (ATC), a transmission utility in which We Energies owns a majority stake — a relationship that could simplify coordinating repairs and upgrades, Arendt said.

See Paul Kiefer, We Energies says Microsoft won’t be held to contract terms that conflict with state regulators’ order (‘We Energies says Microsoft won’t be held to contract terms that conflict with state regulators’ order’), August 6, 2026.

We Energies wants to limit Microsoft via contract, but that limitation cannot be enforced in contravention of state regulations. We Energies now declares that it won’t enforce the geographical limitation on where Microsoft gets power, but the current contractual provision never had any lawful prospect of enforcement.

As a matter of sensible policy, Microsoft should be able to seek energy sources where it wants, at the best price, including renewable energy sources. The limitation that We Energies sought from Microsoft was a counterproductive (and self-serving) restriction on Microsoft’s freedom to seek suppliers where and as it wishes.

Here’s a case where the Public Service Commission had a better grasp of supplier selection than a public utility.

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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A New Ethics Ordinance and a Whitewater Comparative Analysis.

Video shows ancient Roman shipwreck with hundreds of large jars discovered off Sicily:

An ancient Roman shipwreck, with hundreds of amphorae, has been discovered around three miles off the coast of Mazara del Vallo, in Sicily, Italy’s heritage police said. The Carabinieri’s Cultural Heritage Protection Unit explored the underwater discovery with the help of scuba divers and underwater cameras.