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Daily Bread, School District

Daily Bread for 8.25.26: Whitewater School Board Votes for a November Referendum (But There’s a Deeper Observation to Make)

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 79. Sunrise is 6:12 and sunset is 7:41 for 13 hours 29 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 93.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Finance Committee meets at 5 PM and the Aquatic Center Committee meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1835, the first Great Moon Hoax article is published in The New York Sun, announcing the discovery of life and civilization on the Moon:

The “Great Moon Hoax,” also known as the “Great Moon Hoax of 1835,” was a series of six articles published in The (New York) Sun, beginning on August 25, 1835, about the supposed discovery of life and civilization on the Moon. The discoveries were falsely attributed to Sir John Herschel and his fictitious companion Andrew Grant.

The story was advertised on August 21, 1835, as an upcoming feature allegedly reprinted from The Edinburgh Courant. The first in a series of six was published four days later on August 25. These articles were never retracted; however, on September 16, 1835, The Sun admitted the articles were in fact fabricated.

A lithograph of the hoax’s “ruby amphitheater,” as printed in The Sun. By Benjamin Henry Day (1810-1889) – Public Domain, Link.

Last night, on a 6-1 vote, the Whitewater School Board voted to approve a resolution authorizing the school district budget to exceed its revenue limit by $5,500,000 per year for four years for non-recurring purposes. This resolution will go before the district’s voters in November.

The possibility of an operational referendum has been a topic in this community, most notably on social media. For nearly everyone discussing this referendum, the only significant question is whether they support or oppose the resolution. This libertarian blogger has a different matter to address today. (For those who want a yes or no on the referendum question, any other aspect of the topic seems like a dodge. On the contrary, I have an equally significant, if not greater, issue to consider today. If others cannot grasp that there are underlying considerations, well, that myopia is theirs alone.)

While there is a reasonable case to be made against a referendum now (as against a smaller one in the spring), nearly everyone who has expressed opposition to the referendum publicly has failed — often embarrassingly — to do so.

My aim is not to make that case against the referendum, but to note how inadequate the approaches of last night’s referendum critics were. This is no small matter: this community has descended so that many of our fellow residents lack the emotional and intellectual discipline to contend over a topic persuasively.

Again and again, for those too ignorant or overwrought to understand: every medium favors a particular tone in communication. Print, audio, video, and in-person presentations are all different in their nature and so in their limits. In general, the more immediate the medium, the calmer and subtler the presenter should be. Print can carry strong invective, audio mild invective, video even somewhat less, and in-person debate and presentation the least of all. In place of invective, one substitutes humor —even wit — and polemics delivered in a more relaxed, conversational style.

People are angry over many topics; to advance their objectives effectively, they must tailor their presentations to the medium in which they’re presenting, setting aside intense feeling for clever advocacy. This is obvious to most, yet a few remain oblivious.

In the discussion last night, two commenters speaking against the referendum were, respectively, dull and dyspeptic. I’d take dull over dyspeptic, but neither is impressive.

This brings me, now, to board member Maryann Zimmerman, the one board member who voted against a November referendum. One can guess that her politics (so best as I can discern them) are certainly not mine. (We have never met or spoken, as I occupy an intentionally distant perch, although I did once notice her and her family at one of Whitewater’s Christmas parades. They were a charming, endearing sight, truly so.)

And yet, and yet, can this community not see that her manner on this topic, and on other topics (notably open government), is superior to the underthought or overwrought approaches of others who might share her politics? Or, for that matter, even some of those who oppose her politics? She is more composed in manner and more insightful in her counter-proposal than others who oppose the referendum. It’s not even close.

I had this conversation with a journalist last night: while in opposition to anyone in a debate I would always prepare as though an underdog, of everyone who has been on the board in the last twenty years, Zimmerman would strike me as the most formidable opponent. (Someone in this community once wrote to me that Zimmerman did not know what she was doing. Oh no, she knows exactly what she’s doing, and has a far better grasp than the man who thought otherwise.)

We do not have, however — and sadly will not have — a discussion over referendums where those on both sides present well and formidably. That’s the failing of this community over the last generation: we have a school district and a college campus, yet lack the proper discipline that learning in those institutions should bring.

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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, Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations), and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.

Fly Over Schiaparelli Crater on Mars – Animated From Orbiter Imagery:

Take a mesmerising flight over Schiaparelli Crater, one of the largest craters on Mars, using imagery from ESA’s Mars Express. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin & NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS (realistic flyover in the first half of the video); European Space Agency (orbit of Mars Express around Mars); German Aerospace Center (animation explaining how these videos are made).

Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Housing, Populists, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.24.26: Federal Government Moves Away from Effective Approach to Homelessness

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 76. Sunrise is 6:11 and sunset is 7:42 for 13 hours 31 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 87.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater School Board meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1970, Vietnam War protesters bomb Sterling Hall at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, killing university physics researcher Robert Fassnacht and injuring three others.

Two destructive forces threaten Wisconsin’s successes in combating homelessness: a worsening economy and a federal government decision to abandon a proven method to reduce homelessness:

According to a recent Wisconsin Policy Forum report, the state’s homeless population increased to 5,495 this year, a 4.8 percent increase over 2025. It was the fifth consecutive year of increases after years of decline.

The report said factors including rising housing costs, worsening economic conditions and the expiration of pandemic-era supports may be behind the rise.

Don Cramer, a researcher with the Policy Forum, said there is uncertainty whether there will be programming available to aid the increasing number of people who are struggling to keep their homes due to rising costs. 

“The fear is that more difficult economic conditions will cause more people to have housing insecurity, and that the homeless population will rise for that reason,” he said. 

[…]

The Policy Forum report said the previous decline in homelessness in Wisconsin was likely fueled by a number of factors, including the roll out of housing first programs. The housing first approach prioritizes providing homes to people before addressing other issues by providing them with mental health care or addiction treatment programs. 

Many housing first programs in Wisconsin rely on federal funding from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. That funding may be in jeopardy.

Michael Basford, director of Wisconsin’s Interagency Council on Homelessness, said HUD has announced it plans to redirect funds from away from housing first programs to treatment first models. 

“This proven model for ending homelessness is going to be put aside in favor of a model which we know doesn’t work as well as housing first,” Basford said.

Treatment first models require individuals to receive mental health or addiction treatment before they receive permanent housing.

See Elissa Eaton, Wisconsin’s homeless population may be increasing due to rising housing prices and declining economy (‘The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development may shift their funding from ‘Housing First’ to treatment first programs’), Wisconsin Public Radio, August 24, 2026.

The most effective overall economic approach, reaching the most people, would be an end to trade wars, federal budgets that redistribute federal funds to the privileged, and a relentless campaign against immigrant workers that has ruined individuals while leaving the economy enmired in stagflation.

And yet, as with so much else about populism, it prefers the economic myths of its strident members over empirically proven approaches. And look, and look, the populists’ conviction that treatment must come before housing makes sense everywhere except in reality — actual human experience shows that housing should come first as a practical solution to homelessness.

If, by contrast, the first goal of federal policy under populism is the populists’ own sense of what is disqualifying apart from practicality, well, then, they will inevitably find themselves on the other side of a majority that finds populism’s various prejudices and delusions no less disqualifying.

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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, Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations), and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.

Firefighters battle human-caused wildfire as it approaches Reno:

An out-of-control wildfire that made it difficult for crews to reach hot spots destroyed homes in northwest Reno, Nevada, on Sunday. Shifting winds challenged firefighters trying to bring it under control, and authorities urged some 90,000 people to evacuate. At least six people — three first responders and three civilians — were injured. Officials said the fire was “human-caused” but did not provide details on how they reached that conclusion, or whether it was intentionally set or accidental.

Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Tariffs, Trade, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.23.26: A Trade War with Wisconsin’s Largest Foreign Partner

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 74. Sunrise is 6:10 and sunset is 7:44 for 13 hours 34 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 80.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1966, Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.

The first image of Earth from the distance of the Moon, August 23, 1966. By NASA — Public Domain, Link.

What are successful market transactions? They are free and voluntary exchanges between buyers and sellers. In July, this website posted about the concern that Wisconsin officials had about the Trump administration’s increasing hostility to trade with Canada, Wisconsin’s neighbor and largest foreign trade partner. See, from 7.28.26, Another Federal Blow to Wisconsin’s Manufacturers (citing Wisconsin economic development leaders worried about new Trump tariffs on Canada).

Sometimes bad goes to worse, as one now sees with an escalating trade war with Canada:

The United States and Canada, historic allies along an undefended border, fell deeper into a trade war Saturday marked by angry recriminations and new tariffs that are expected to raise prices for products in both countries.

Each side blamed the other for the collapse of negotiations in Washington late Friday, leading the U.S. to impose 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods and Canada setting Sept. 8 as the start of its retaliatory penalties.

President Donald Trump’s import taxes will hit about 5% of what Canada ships to the United States every year, ranging from hockey sticks to tongue depressors. Prime Minister Carney said Ottawa would respond with targeted tariff protection for industries exposed to the new U.S. duties, including some steel products. He also mentioned the dairy, appliance, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper and electronics sectors.

[…]

The political impact will likely be even bigger than the economic fallout. The countries sold each other $880 billion worth of goods and services last year.

The tariffs were initially supposed to kick in at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. Trump extended the deadline for three days to allow talks to continue, but the countries could not reach an agreement in time. 

The U.S. and Canada have wrangled for decades over trade, poking each other over sore spots such as Canadian softwood lumber imports and U.S. access to Canada’s protected dairy market.

See Paul Wiseman and Rob Gillies, US and Canada fall deeper into a trade war with new tariffs as talks collapse and blame is spread, Associated Press, August 22, 2026.

The populists insist that a trade war with Canada is necessary to set matters right between our two countries, but their approach is closer to insisting that the way to heal a relationship is through abuse. I’d say all of this is ‘come for the false economic claims, stay for the culture war‘ yet that’s probably backwards.

It’s much more like ‘come for the culture war, stick around for the false economic claims.’

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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, Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations), and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.

Tornado touches down on Long Island:

Social media video shows a tornado causing damage in Atlantic Beach on 20 August. The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado touched down on the shore, saying it started as a waterspout over the Atlantic Ocean.

Daily Bread, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.22.26: Building a Birch Bark Canoe with Centuries-Old Techniques

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will see clouds, sun, and scattered afternoon thundershowers with a high of 79. Sunrise is 6:08 and sunset is 7:45 for 13 hours 37 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 72.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1963, X-15 Flight 91 reaches the highest altitude of the X-15 program (67.08 mi):

X-15 Flight 91 was an August 22, 1963 American crewed sub-orbital spaceflight, and the second and final flight in the program to fly above the Kármán line, which was previously achieved during Flight 90 a month earlier by the same pilot, Joseph A. Walker. It was the highest flight of the X-15 program. 

Flight 91 was the first internationally recognized spaceflight of a reused spacecraft, as Walker had also flown plane number three on the previous sub-orbital spaceflight over the Kármán line on July 19. The flight was air-launched from a modified Boeing B-52 Stratofortress support plane over Smith Ranch Dry Lake, Nevada, United States. Walker piloted the X-15 to an altitude of 107.96 km and remained weightless for approximately five minutes. 

An X-15 at the USAF Museum. By Dsdugan – Own work, CC0, Link.

Just as the X-15 is an exemplar of a successful modern design, a birch-bark canoe is an exemplar of a successful ancient design:

When Marvin DeFoe builds a canoe by hand he often thinks of his father and seven sisters. 

“My dad always told us we’re all in the same canoe and what we need to learn is how to paddle together so we can get to where we’re going,” said DeFoe, a tribal elder with the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

DeFoe spent three weeks this summer doing what he has done many times over the past 50 years. The master canoe builder used birch bark, white cedar and jack pine roots to build a canoe from scratch. 

[…]

Building the canoe is part of a program at the Madeline Island Museum called “Canoe Journeys,” which aims to honor and remember the 1854 Treaty of La Pointe — an agreement that stopped the removal of Ojibwe people from the area and secured permanent homelands for the tribes.

DeFoe built the canoe in front of an audience, while telling stories of Ojibwe people and the art of canoe building. At times people sang, played instruments and talked about the struggle that Ojibwe people went through to remain in the Great Lakes.

The canoe is set to take its maiden voyage on Saturday, Aug. 22. DeFoe anticipates watching the canoe float on the water for the first time. 

“I hope that it tells a story of all of us,” he told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “Don’t matter if you’re Indigenous or not. To be cognizant, to be mindful that we’re all in the same canoe, paddling together.”

See Mackenzie Krumme, Watch Red Cliff elder build birch bark canoe the way his ancestors did centuries ago, Wisconsin Public Radio, August 20, 2026.

There is ingenuity, even beauty, in both these ancient and modern designs.

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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, Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations), and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.

Europe’s warmer seas are appealing to swimmers – but what lies beneath is ‘alarming’, study warns:

Europe’s warmer seas are appealing to swimmers, but a study warns that their rapidly warming waters are producing severe ecological effects.

Business, Corporate Welfare, Daily Bread, Development, Laws/Regulations, Litigation, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.21.26: Oracle Never Deserved a Credit-Rating Exception

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will see clouds, sun, and a few thunderstorms with a high of 76. Sunrise is 6:07 and sunset is 7:47 for 13 hours 40 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 64.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia, a Louvre employee, steals the Mona Lisa:

In 1911, Peruggia perpetrated what has been described as the greatest art theft of the 20th century. According to Peruggia’s later interrogation in Florence, following his arrest on 12 December 1913, he said that he entered the Louvre on Monday, 21 August 1911, at around 7 am, through the door where the other Louvre workers were entering, wearing one of the white smocks that museum employees customarily wore, making himself indistinguishable from the other workers. It was a quiet morning, and the Louvre was nearly empty, because 21 August was the weekly closure day during the summer holidays.

When the Salon Carré, where the Mona Lisa hung, was empty, Peruggia lifted the painting off the four iron pegs that secured it to the wall between Antonio da Correggio‘s Mystical Marriage and Titian‘s Allegory of Alfonso d’Avalos and took it to a nearby service stairway of the Sept Mètres. There, he removed the protective case and frame, hiding the discarded elements behind some student artworks stored on the staircase landing. Some people report that he concealed the painting (which Leonardo da Vinci painted on wood) under his smock that was larger than him; however, Peruggia was only 160 centimetres (63 in) tall, and the Mona Lisa measures approximately 53 cm × 77 cm (21 in × 30 in), so it would not fit under a smock worn by someone of his size. Instead, he told investigators that he took off his smock and wrapped it around the painting, before tucking it under his arm, and left the Louvre through the same door he had entered.

He simply walked out with the painting under his arm…

Oracle is a multibillion-dollar corporation (with a market capitalization of over $400 billion this morning, 8.21.26). That large corporation sought an exception from Wisconsin’s credit-rating requirements as its credit rating is poor, owing to massive borrowing. (See Jonathan Mahler, Jim Rutenberg, and Kirsten Grind, Larry Ellison Bet It All on the A.I. Boom. Will He Be the Face of the A.I. Bubble?: ‘Inside the 81-year-old billionaire’s risky, debt-fueled scramble to transform his data empire into an A.I. juggernaut’, New York Times, August 5, 2026.)

Tant pis. Multi-billion-dollar corporations that sink their credit ratings do not deserve exceptions from Wisconsin regulators. The state requirements imposed by law on one large corporation should be imposed on all similar corporations. (The requirements may be onerous and need revision, but any revision should be applied across the board, not for one party only. Until lawful revision, there should be no exceptions.)

Oracle has now dropped its lawsuit that sought a credit-rating exemption:

Oracle moved to voluntarily drop its lawsuit against Wisconsin’s utility regulator on Monday, nearly two months after the tech giant turned to the Ozaukee County Circuit Court to challenge new credit rating requirements for data center developers in eastern Wisconsin.

With the case put to rest, the credit rating rules — intended to shield other Wisconsin ratepayers from fallout in the event a data center developer goes bust — now stand unchallenged. Oracle previously argued the requirements were overly stringent and could dissuade other companies from setting up operations in Wisconsin. 

Oracle’s share price has begun to rebound after a collapse that began in early June and continued for weeks after the company sued Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission (PSC). Its credit rating, however, remains well below the threshold at which it could avoid posting hundreds of millions of dollars in collateral as a condition of buying electricity for the Port Washington data center.

See Paul Kiefer, Oracle drops lawsuit challenging Wisconsin data center credit rules (‘The credit requirements, designed to protect We Energies customers from financial risks, now stand unchallenged’), Wisconsin Watch, August 17, 2026.

This libertarian blogger is not opposed to communities deciding for themselves whether to back data centers like Oracle’s. State requirements, however, must be imposed equally on data center builders; changes or revisions to these requirements must be general and not particular to one corporation or another.

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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), and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.

Fastest star in the Milky Way found by astronomers — it orbits a black hole:

The fastest known star in the Milky Way has been discovered by astronomers. The star, named S301, orbits the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (ESO’s VLTI) detected it.

BECI Power Line, City, Daily Bread, Development

Daily Bread for 8.20.26: Sugar Creek Stands Tall

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 78. Sunrise is 6:06 and sunset is 7:49 for 13 hours 43 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 54.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM and the Whitewater School Board at 6 PM.

On this day in 1975, NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.

Sugar Creek, Wisconsin, is a Wisconsin town of about four thousand people. And yet, and yet, in the defense of their property rights, the residents of Sugar Creek are standing tall:

SUGAR CREEK — People in Sugar Creek packed into their town hall to share their frustrations with a planned high-voltage power line. Town officials say they are just as upset and claim they learned about the project after residents did.

The company Midcontinent Grid Solutions sent letters to several Sugar Creek property owners about the BECI Project, a 190-mile, 765-kilovolt power line they hope to develop between Illinois and western Wisconsin through a substation in Sugar Creek.

Rachel Catlett received the letter because the proposed power line could run right through part of her property.

“In the past week, it’s been like drinking the ocean trying to find as much information as we can,” Catlett said.

[…]

The town board decided to consider a resolution affirming their opposition against the BECI Project on Monday night.

Catlett was the only public speaker in the packed room.

“This is an ask to stand with every land owner already living with the uncertainty this project has created,” Catlett said to the town board.

The board unanimously approved the resolution against the power line project.

See Taj Simmons, Sugar Creek residents and town board unite against potential power line project through the community, TMJ4, August 18, 2026.

This is good reporting on nearby residents’ views on a major project in our area.

Note well, Whitewater: The BECI line has been moving through regional planning since at least 2024, and Midcontinent’s developers were publicly selected for the project in January. Yet Sugar Creek’s chairman says affected landowners received notices about possible structures on their land before town officials heard from the company. Whatever the developer may call its outreach, this is no model of collaboration with the people expected to surrender interests in their property.

More to come.

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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), and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.

How Japan Averted an Even Worse Earthquake Disaster:

Japan avoided a major disaster after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit last month. Our reporter River Akira Davis visited Kumamoto, a prefecture near the epicenter, to see how it built quake-proof buildings and infrastructure.

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

by  • 

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: