FREE WHITEWATER

City, Daily Bread, Local Government, Reasoning, Special Interests

Daily Bread for 2.3.26: Adventures in Underpowered Sampling

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 23. Sunrise is 7:07 and sunset is 5:10 for 10 hours 4 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 96.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6 PM.

Around this week in 1637, Tulip Mania collapses within the Dutch Republic.

CLAIM:

On December 16 of last year, during public comment at a Whitewater Common Council meeting, a local student-rental landlord offered examples of the property-tax assessments of some other homes in four communities along a narrow set of parameters. His transcribed remarks appear below:

I compared taxes and I brought some comparables from other communities around us.

It’s not a big sample. It’s just other houses in the other communities that are priced within $5,000 a month, fair market value. So my home has gone up, again, 71% since 21, on the city portion, and the school portion’s actually dropped nine.

I picked a home in Elkhorn that is, fair market value is within $2,000 of mine. Their property taxes on the city portion over the last four years are up 15%. Their school taxes are up 10%.

Their overall city portion of their tax bill in 2025 is $2,284. Mine is $2,732, $500 more. You can do the math on the percentage.

Picked a home in Delavan, $1,000 less fair market value than mine. Their property tax increase on the city portion of their bill since 21 is up 12%. The school district portion of their bill is up 17%. 

It’s kind of hard to compare school districts a lot because they maybe had a new building done, but everybody has school district referendums on their bills, different amounts of money. So again, their total city tax portion of the bill, $2,446, mine $2,731. Lake Geneva, they’re a different kind of an outlier, but I’m comparing the four cities.

Only have four cities that are predominantly in Walworth County. They have an awful lot of high-end homes out on Lake Geneva that kind of subsidize a lot of the other ones. Their property tax increase since 2021 for the city portion of the bill is 8%.

ASSESSMENT:

So one student-rental landlord of an inherited business picks a tiny group of homes from four other communities that are similar to his home in market value and offers this as a statistically meaningful sample for Whitewater?

If these remarks came from someone who was unfamiliar with any recognized empirical method, one would simply smile and ignore the comments. These are instead the words of a former member of the Whitewater Community Development Authority, former chairman of that body, former member of the Whitewater School Board, former president of that board, and (if I have this correctly) someone who claims a knowledge of finance.

He does admit, at least, that “it’s not a big sample.” No it’s not. His sample is the opposite of big.1

People have — and must always have — a right to speak to the Whitewater Common Council. That includes this gentleman as much as any other. That right, however, does not include having their arguments taken seriously.

Sometimes arguments are weak, sometimes samples are underpowered. This landlord’s public comments from December 16 would be one of those times.

_____

  1. The opposite of big is small. ↩︎

NASA delays Artemis II moon launch to March after fuel leaks during test:

NASA said Tuesday it will now target a March launch of its new moon rocket after running into exasperating fuel leaks during a make-or-break test.

City, Daily Bread, Local Government, Special Interests

Daily Bread for 2.2.26: Ill-Informed Speculation About City Hiring

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Good morning.

Groundhog Day in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 27. Sunrise is 7:08 and sunset is 5:09 for 10 hours 1 minute of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 99.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Earlier today, America’s finest meteorologist predicted six more weeks of winter.

The Whitewater School Board’s Policy Review Committee meets at 4:30 PM. Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1653, New Amsterdam (later renamed New York) is incorporated.

One aspect of a libertarian position is that government should be limited. Limited here means both in size (how many people, how much in costs) and reach (how those people conduct themselves). This is not, however, the most important libertarian claim — the most important claim is, and will always be, that each person possesses individual rights.1 See Tenets for my own description of libertarian positions.

CLAIM:

On December 2 and December 16 of last year, during public comment for Whitewater Common Council meetings, longtime and established residents asked about the number of employees that the city has recently hired, implying through their questions that the city government has embarked on profligate hiring.

CITY REPLY:

Clarification of Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Changes Since 2022

Since 2022, the City’s total Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) count has increased by 17.5 FTEs. However, nearly all of these additions are the result of major organizational changes—not discretionary hiring.

A breakdown is as follows:

  • 9.0 FTEs – Fire/EMS Department

These positions were created because the Fire/EMS Department became a full-time, fully staffed municipal department in 2023. Prior to this transition, the City relied heavily on a volunteer/paid-on-call model that was no longer sustainable for service demand and emergency response requirements.

  • 7.5 FTEs – Police Department

These positions reflect staffing needed to meet operational requirements, ensure officer safety, improve response times, and address increasing service calls. Public safety staffing levels are routinely reevaluated to ensure the City meets industry standards and community expectations.

  • 1.0 FTE – All Other Departments Combined

Outside of Fire/EMS and Police, the entire City organization has added only one net FTE in the past two years. This demonstrates that the City has not engaged in broad, organization-wide hiring, but instead has focused on staffing increases where they were operationally essential.

(Emphasis added.) See Clarification on City’s Increase in Hired Staff, City of Whitewater, January 20, 2025.

ASSESSMENT:

Anyone who has organizational knowledge — anyone who positions himself as an established man worth listening to — would look at the number of employees in an organization and ask if they are full or part-time and why they’ve been hired. Those two questions are so fundamental that even those without organizational familiarity would likely hit upon that line of inquiry.

In this case, those who have been here for years should know that this city has had voter-approved referendums that mandated additional hiring. Some of these gentlemen can tell you when, in 1975, a squirrel on Prince Street developed indigestion but somehow they can’t figure out in this small city that most of the municipal hiring has come from these recent referendums.

I’ve always — unlike others — supported people speaking and discussing. See Yesteryear’s Familiar Tune. That’s because in most cases people have interesting and valuable insights.

Sometimes, however, it becomes clear that a few entitled men are simply talking out of their hats.2 This is one of those times.

See also A Baseless Speculation About the City of Whitewater’s Salary Scale.

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  1. If libertarianism were about no more than small government, then we would all be inherited student-rental landlords complaining incessantly about our own taxes. ↩︎
  2. Where hat is a euphemism. ↩︎

What’s Up for February 2026 Skywatching Tips from NASA:

Jupiter is at its biggest and brightest all year, the Moon and Saturn pair up, and the Beehive Cluster buzzes into view.
0:00 Intro
0:14 Artemis II launch window opens
0:45 Orion the Hunter
1:23 A planetary parade
2:05 February Moon phases

Daily Bread, Language

Daily Bread for 2.1.26: Detecting the Location of an Accent

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 26. Sunrise is 7:09 and sunset is 5:08 for 9 hours 59 minutes of daytime. The moon will be full today with all of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1893, Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria, in West Orange, New Jersey.

Something of a palate cleanser for today. Sophia Smith Galer, a British journalist writing about language, tech, and culture, interviews Zay Dupree, a student in linguistics and cognitive science, about how Dupree detects the region of someone’s accent. Dupree explains his informed method of assessment. Both Smith Galer and Dupree are well worth following — there are always new things to learn.

Click image for video

Capturing Epic Slow Motion Footage of Backyard Birds:

Slow down and enjoy the birds. Feeder birds like titmice and chickadees are fun to watch, but they move so fast it’s hard to fully appreciate their flying skills. So Tim and Russell Laman used a 1,000-frames-per-second camera to slow down the action, revealing a whole ballet of intricate motions involved in landing at a feeder. These little birds turn their bodies vertically in mid-air and almost fly backwards, braking with their tail and using their long legs as shock absorbers to stop on a dime. They’re so different from larger birds like Mourning Doves. At super-slo-mo, you can see how each feather works, and understand the whirl of motion you see at feeders every day.

Conspiracy Theories, Crime, Daily Bread, Elections, Fraud, Mendacity, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 1.31.26: Conspiracy Theorist (and Convicted Felon) Is Wrong About Wisconsin’s Voter Rolls

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 24. Sunrise is 7:10 and sunset is 5:06 for 9 hours 56 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 97.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1865, the House of Representatives passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery, and submits it to the states for ratification. (The Senate had previously passed the amendment on April 8, 1864.)

There are elections ahead in 2026, and if there’s an election ahead, then there’s an opportunity for conspiracy theorists to spread false claims about those elections. Convicted federal felon Peter Bernegger (for fraud, fittingly) is back with new lies about Wisconsin’s voter rolls:

A misleading claim that Wisconsin has more registered voters than people eligible to vote is gaining traction on social media, including in posts shared this week by President Donald Trump. 

[…]

The posts circulating this week cite a video asserting that Wisconsin’s voter rolls contain more than 7 million names — far more than the state’s voting age population — and are overlaid with text reading, “This Is Not a Glitch — This Is Election Fraud Waiting To Happen.”

The video features Peter Bernegger, an entrepreneur who has been convicted of mail fraud and bank fraud. Bernegger has repeatedly promoted false theories about the 2020 election in Wisconsin legislative hearings and repeatedly filed unsuccessful lawsuits against election officials in search of proof for his claims. 

But his claim conflates two datasets in Wisconsin’s voter registration system: the Wisconsin voter list and active registered voters. 

[…]

As of July 2025, the state had about 8.3 million names on its list — in line with the number Bernegger cites. But of them, only 3.7 million were active registered voters. The remaining roughly 4.6 million are inactive voters. Inactive records include people who previously registered to vote but later moved out of state, died, lost eligibility because of a felony conviction, or were ruled incompetent to vote by a court. Those individuals haven’t been removed from the voter list, but because of their inactive status, they cannot vote unless they re-register, which requires proof of residency and a photo ID.

(Emphasis added.) See Alexander Shur, No, Mr. President. Wisconsin’s voter roll figures aren’t a sign of ‘fraud waiting to happen’ (‘People on Wisconsin’s inactive list aren’t eligible to vote, but their records stay on file indefinitely — a practice that actually helps reduce the likelihood of fraud, election officials say’), Wisconsin Watch, January 30, 2026.

A successful conspiracy theory requires a suspicious claim (why are the voter rolls so big?) but deceptively conceals a sensible explanation (some of those names are marked as inactive and cannot vote). Bernegger is not a federal felon because he tried to steal a loaf of bread — he’s a federal felon because he’s a defrauding liar.

Some men stay in the same lane their entire lives.

Daily Bread, Gubernatorial Race 2026, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 1.30.26: These Are the Gubernatorial Primaries the WISGOP and WisDems Were Always Likely to Have

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 16. Sunrise is 7:11 and sunset is 5:05 for 9 hours 54 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 92.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1862, the Union Navy launches the American ironclad warship the USS Monitor.

There’s a story at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel describing how Trump’s Tom Tiffany endorsement scrambles Wisconsin governor race.

I don’t see how.

Trump was always going to endorse someone, and that candidate would thereafter secure the WISGOP nomination in August. For the WISGOP, the only candidate who mattered was going to be the one with Trump’s endorsement, and Trump was sure to endorse someone. No one on this planet spends more time interjecting himself into issues of all sorts, political or apolitical, than Donald J. Trump. The name for a primary and general election candidate for the WISGOP needs no surname — DONALD J. TRUMP’S CHOICE is name enough for most Republican voters.

For the WisDems, by contrast, this was always going to be a race through to the August primary. (Mandela Barnes is popular with many voters, but not so much that he will have an inevitable march toward August 11.)

Those conditions do not describe a ‘scrambled’ race — they describe a predictably top-down WISGOP contest and a predictably competitive WisDems contest. This was, by late January or early February, the probable state of play. And so it is.

Meet the crawling, grabbing spider-hand robot:

Human hands are incredibly dexterous tools — but they have their limits. They are asymmetric, they only have a single thumb, and fundamentally, they’re connected to our arms. But none of that poses a problem for this robot claw. Its symmetrical design means it can seamlessly approach different tasks without having to twist to find the right angle, six fingers mean the design can juggle multiple objects at the same time and, if needed, it can simply leave its arm behind, perfect for dangerous or hard-to-reach places.

Daily Bread, Gubernatorial Race 2026, Politics, Trump, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 1.29.26: Statewide Is National

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 13. Sunrise is 7:12 and sunset is 5:04 for 9 hours 52 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 85.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1891, following the death of her brother Kalakaua, Lili‘uokalani is sworn in as the first and only queen of the Hawaiian Kingdom. (Her reign would end two years later when the Hawaiian monarchy was abolished following a U.S. military-supported coup d’état.)

Yesterday’s post contended that, with Mr. Trump’s endorsement of U.S. Rep. Tiffany, the WISGOP Gubernatorial Primary Is Effectively Over.

Yes.

WPR.org screenshot

See Shawn Johnson, Republican Josh Schoemann drops out of Wisconsin governor’s race (‘Schoemann, the Washington County executive, announced his decision the day after he failed to receive the endorsement of President Donald Trump’), Wisconsin Public Radio, January 28, 2026.

The WISGOP is merely a chapter, however small, of a national party. That national party is closer to a movement than an ordinary political party. That movement has a base, a core, that follows the will of one man. Those running statewide in the WISGOP are not running for office — they are running for that one man’s endorsement for office.

Those who tell you that these are ordinary times could not be more wrong. See generally A Conventional Framing for Unconventional Times.

Hubble and AI discover over a thousand unusual astronomical objects:

A new AI-assisted method was used to sift through Hubble archive data to discover “nearly 1400 anomalous objects,” according to ESA and NASA.

Daily Bread, Gubernatorial Race 2026, Politics, Trump, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 1.28.26: WISGOP Gubernatorial Primary Is Effectively Over

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 14. Sunrise is 7:13 and sunset is 5:02 for 9 hours 47 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 75.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1958, the Lego company patents a design of its Lego bricks that is still compatible with bricks produced today.

Wisconsin’s gubernatorial primary election is August 11, but the WISGOP race effectively ended Tuesday night:

WPR.org screenshot

President Donald Trump has endorsed U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Minocqua, in his bid to be the next governor of Wisconsin. 

Trump announced the endorsement Tuesday night, writing on his social media platform Truth Social that Tiffany had his “Complete and Total Endorsement.” 

“He will fight to advance Common Sense Values, and put WISCONSIN, AND AMERICA, FIRST,” Trump wrote.

See Anya van Wagtendonk, President Trump endorses Tom Tiffany for Wisconsin governor, Wisconsin Public Radio, January 27, 2026.

The first consequence of Trump’s endorsement of Tiffany is that all the candidates in the WisDems primary have by contrast become a few years younger, a few years quicker in their steps, and no less than 86.7% more appealing than before.

Sometimes, but only for a while:

Click image to play video

Campaign Ads, Daily Bread, Politics, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 1.27.26: Contributions Tell What Donors Think

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 13. Sunrise is 7:14 and sunset is 5:01 for 9 hours 47 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 66.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 2010, Apple announces the iPad.

Rich Kremer reports today that ‘fundraising reveals party priorities in battle for Wisconsin Legislature.’ The headline and story are spot-on — fundraising tells us what party donors think are the odds of taking one chamber of the Legislature or another. These donors may be right or wrong about the bets they’re placing. Kremer writes of what their contributions reveal about their sense of the race:

During the last half of 2025, the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee raised around $4.5 million with the help of a $3 million donation from GOP megadonor Elizabeth Uihlein and another $1 million donation from fellow megadonor Diane Hendricks. The group ended the year with around $5.2 million in the bank. 

During the same period, the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee raised just more than $1.1 million, which included $175,000 from Democratic megadonor and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and $100,000 donations from Lynde Uihlein of Milwaukee and David Hall of Pewaukee. The Democrats’ committee ended the period with around $241,000 in the bank. 

It was a different story on the Senate side of the fight for legislative control. The State Senate Democratic Committee raised around $772,000, while the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate raised around $307,000. At the end of the year, however, the GOP group had more money in the bank than its Democratic counterpart.

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Political Science Professor Anthony Chergosky told WPR the best way to determine how political parties feel about upcoming elections is to see where their donors are putting their money. He said the latest Wisconsin data “reflects the simple math that Republicans are more likely to maintain control of the Assembly majority than they are to maintain control of the Senate majority.”

See Rich Kremer, Fundraising reveals party priorities in battle for Wisconsin Legislature, Wisconsin Public Radio, January 27, 2026.

Of the $4.5 million that the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee raised, $4 million — 89 percent — came from 2 donors. Campaign money makes a difference, but bets from a couple of donors who bet large and often tell more about what they think than anything else.

It’s been a theme here at FREE WHITEWATER that Wisconsin politics (and politics elsewhere) is increasingly national in focus. That focus will be so intense this fall, and views so firm among so many voters, that big donors with long-standing commitments and long-standing preferences won’t matter as much as in prior years.

City, Culture, Daily Bread, Local Government, Open Government

Daily Bread for 1.26.26: Tactical Emulation in Whitewater Will Perpetuate Error

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 9. Sunrise is 7:15 and sunset is 5:00 for 9 hours 45 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 54.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater School Board meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1962, Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon. The space probe later misses the Moon by 22,000 miles.

For many years, until the beginning of the last decade, Whitewater was mostly a center-right town. For the special-interest men who dominated community development, and found any number of operatives and catspaws to stack on the Whitewater Common Council, this political orientation probably seemed like the natural order of the universe. Their outward profession of faith was boosterism, and their inner belief was personal entitlement. A small and beautiful city run like a company town, or closer still to the truth, run like a company store.

Readers have sometimes written to ask why I did not concentrate on the special-interest men from FREE WHITEWATER‘s beginnings in 2007. I’ve two answers. First, there was a worse problem back then. Second, I did not believe that any normal community would continue to pay much attention to that ilk.

(Note well: When I described members of that clique as town squires, etc., it was not because I was envious — it was because I thought they were ridiculous. It seemed reasonable that they’d fade on their own.)

And yet, time erodes all, including the plans of these now-aged men. The city’s demographic has changed (from a preponderance of residents of longstanding families to one of newer residents, by ideology, and by ethnicity.) These older cronies and entitled types are still around, but others have come forward, a bit younger and often with a different partisan ideology. They’ve grown tired of listening to, and being under the control of, a few entitled Boomers. Whitewater understandably deserves more than an American version of the British aristocracy, where the Duke of Cadbury or the Viscount of Yorkshire Pudding dominates politics for life.

(Again, an aside: While it’s certain that I don’t support yesterday’s tired special-interest men, and Whitewater will be better off when they stop obstructing possibilities, I am not a member of any faction in this city. If that’s not obvious, then nothing is. My tenets are my faction — of policy in this city I neither need nor want more. Actually, of policy in this city, no one needs more than his or her unselfish convictions, steadfastly held. This is the true high ground, the good ground on which to fight, being both right and formidable. Family, friends, and cats are private matters, not policy ones. Those who hold to their own unselfish tenets will find that, in fact, family, friends, and cats will respect them all the more for it.)

So, what’s all this about tactical emulation? New people, new factions, new ideas have — and should — come along to uplift this city. What a terrible waste it would be for residents who offer new and better to adopt the tactics of old and worse. Good ideas for this city, advanced with yesteryear’s bad tactics, are not primarily good ideas — they’re primarily bad tactics. The corruption of an action (using corruption as the Ancients would have, as the rejection of the common good in service of a private advantage) indelibly taints a policy or program.

Along will come an act utilitarian who will insist he’s simply looking for the greatest good for the greatest number, only to injure others for his defined good. Later will come along a rules-based utilitarian who insists he’s rules-based, and would not step on anyone based on his rules, except in this one case right now where he has to make an exception…

No and no again.

New ideas and new people should not, and if they are to advance this city’s betterment must not, emulate yesterday’s old tactics.

Daily Bread, Health, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 1.25.26: DeForest, Wisconsin Returns to Reason, Plans to Refluoridate Its Water

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 10. Sunrise is 7:16 and sunset is 4:58 for 9 hours 42 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 43.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1964, Blue Ribbon Sports, which would later become Nike, is founded by University of Oregon track and field athletes.

DeForest, Wisconsin has decided to refluoridate its water supply. It’s one small step, from one Wisconsin community, back from crackpottery:

The action follows a protracted controversy that inflamed local politics in the village of some 12,000 people.

Fluoride can be naturally present in drinking water, and many communities in the U.S. add fluoride to their water supply to maintain levels that are ideal for preventing tooth decay.

Fluoride strengthens teeth, which helps stop cavities. For that reason, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously celebrated water fluoridation as one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.

But fears about the effects of fluoride in water supplies have been spreading for decades in communities across the country, including DeForest. And U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy is among those promoting false information about fluoride.

Last February, DeForest trustees voted 4-3 to stop adding fluoride to the village’s water supply. This week, trustees took another step toward reversing that decision. 

The board voted 5-2 on Tuesday night to direct village staff to prepare a resolution that would rescind the prior anti-fluoride resolution. Trustees are expected to approve the new resolution during a meeting next month. After that, it will likely take several months before added fluoride is re-introduced to the water, Village Administrator Bill Chang wrote in an email to WPR.

See Sarah Lehr, DeForest prepares to reintroduce fluoride to its water after protracted controversy, Wisconsin Public Radio, January 22, 2026.

We live in a time beset by ignorance, intemperance, and outright idiocy. DeForest now looks to be on the mend, and one wishes that community a full recovery.

Moment Alex Honnold climbed to the top of Taipei 101 skyscraper without ropes:

Cheers erupted from a street-level crowd as he reached the top of the spire of the 508-meter (1,667-foot) tower about 90 minutes after he started. Wearing a red short-sleeve shirt, Honnold waved his arms back and forth over his head.

Daily Bread, Games/Puzzles, Sports, Weather, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 1.24.26: Crokicurl in Altoona

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be cold with a high of 1. Sunrise is 7:16 and sunset is 4:57 for 9 hours 41 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 32.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1984, Apple Computer places the Macintosh personal computer on sale in the United States.

By Sailko – Own work, CC BY 3.0, Link.

Crokicurl puts a new spin on sport of curling:

Curling is a well-known pastime both in the Upper Midwest and across Canada. Popular in Canada, but largely unknown to the south, is a tabletop board game called Crokinole. Both games are deceptively simple at first, but rely on a lot of strategy to master. Crokicurl combines them.

Ice Pancakes Roll Over Waves on Lake Michigan:

Pancake ice formed on Lake Michigan as cold weather passed through portions of Indiana and Michigan as part of a massive winter storm.