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Art, City, Daily Bread, Local Government, Open Government, School District

Daily Bread for 3.17.26: Perspective

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Good morning.

St. Patrick’s Day in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 23. Sunrise is 7:03 and sunset is 7:02 for 12 hours 0 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 2.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1776, the British Army evacuates Boston, ending the Siege of Boston, after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery in positions overlooking the city.

If it’s true (and it is) that most people in Whitewater are sharp and capable (as are people in all places), then why do policies go bad? (After all, the special interest men in town have mucked the city up for years. See A Candid Admission from the [OLD] Whitewater CDA and Meeper Technology Loan Investigation, Memo and Documents.)

There are surely many reasons, but I’ll illustrate one reason that seems an obvious explanation for longtime residents’ mistakes (regardless of where they sit ideologically). A closed group, whether in government or a small private faction, often finds itself with a problem of perspective.

It’s almost spring, so consider the beauty of this renowned Italian Renaissance painting about spring:

Bright, intriguing, and lively, isn’t it?

Well, no. It’s hard to believe that anyone would remember the portion that I’ve embedded above as a masterpiece of any era. It might not even be a painting — it might as well be someone’s ugly placemat.

And yet, and yet, what if the viewer were to step back, and in doing so realize that what appears above is only a small part of a masterpiece?

By Sandro Botticelli, Primavera, c. 1482. Left to right: Mercury, the Three Graces, Venus, Flora, Chloris, Zephyrus, Public Domain, Link.

Now that’s a world-historical work. Stand too close, however, and one sees too little.

There lies a problem: some residents often see too little by standing too close to the objects of their desire. They hear too little by talking only to each other. They read too little by looking only at each other’s messages.

Some may spend months on a goal (or for the special interest men months on a scheme), but their interlocutors are too narrowly selected, confirming only their own biases. There’s no effort to test or challenge the views of the small circle they’ve assembled. On the contrary, in an environment of toxic positivity, the only recognized toxin is a candid critique.

I’ll acknowledge that there are insights to be gained by proximity. How unfortunate that some fail to see that excessive proximity brings a countervailing, often fatal, loss of perspective.

Daily Bread, Open Government, School District

Daily Bread for 3.16.26: Soil Remediation

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 26. Sunrise is 7:05 and sunset is 7:02 for 11 hours 57 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater School Board will meet virtually at 6 PM.

On this day in 1995, Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified and took effect in 1865.

On the agenda of the Whitewater School Board meeting tonight, the board’s prefatory remarks before public comment have been modified. This libertarian blogger has been critical of the board’s prior, stifling statement before public comment. It’s to the good that the board has revised the statement.

(I’ve been critical of those who have encouraged the public to look away from school board actions, encouragement most notably from a former school board member who also served as school board president, Community Development Authority member, and chairman of that body. See Yesteryear’s Familiar Tune.)

Why would it matter? It shouldn’t be hard to see why.

Because a small group that speaks only to itself produces poor work. Years (more than five) of an increasingly closed approach — most notably during the last five — have left the community with less participation than it would otherwise have had. (It did little good during the prior five years to hold unplugged sessions where the then-superintendent said little and left all the plugging to her subordinates.)

One approach is to say forget the past, and focus on the present. (A few booster residents could flack it as a slogan: Focus on the Now!™) Well, if only that were possible — a community conditioned to expect less gives less in return.

The success of a new farmer depends not only on a proposed seed stock but the condition of the soil into which he’ll plant it. Past destructive use of herbicide should not, indeed cannot, be overlooked. Soil remediation requires that harmful chemicals, still lingering destructively, be acknowledged and removed.

Good crops won’t flourish in unremediated soil.

That’s why it matters.

Fireball streaks across skies of several European cities:

A fireball was captured over the skies of Belgium and the Netherlands on Mar. 8, 2026. Full Story: https://www.space.com/stargazing/mete…

Business, Daily Bread, Legislation, Legislature, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 3.15.26: It Shouldn’t Be So Hard to Sell Home Goods in Wisconsin

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see rain followed by evening snow, with a daytime high of 44. Sunrise is 7:06 and sunset is 7:01 for 11 hours 55 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 13.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 44 BC, a group of senators assassinate Julius Caesar, the dictator of the Roman Republic, on the Ides of March.

It shouldn’t be so hard to sell cottage foods:

Wisconsin lawmakers created an exemption for selling home-canned foods without a license under a 2010 law that’s known as the “pickle bill.” But it limits annual sales to $5,000 per person, and [small businessman Scott] Weber said that dollar amount has never been adjusted to reflect the much higher costs that he and other home producers are facing nearly 16 years later. 

[…]

This legislative session, there was a new push to update the pickle bill and expand the licensing exemption to home bakers. 

The GOP-authored legislation would have expanded the annual sales limit for cottage food producers to $40,000 per person. It also would have created new requirements for training and inspecting home kitchens.

The bill, which failed to gain traction among lawmakers, received pushback from advocates of cottage foods, who felt the new inspection requirements were too vague and not supported with funding to implement them. 

Wisconsin home bakers were also opposed to limiting their sales to $40,000. They currently face no revenue limit because they’re operating under an exemption created by a 2017 court ruling against the state.

Weber said he feels the two different operating rules for home bakers and home canners has left them at odds on getting behind a legislative fix. 

But both sides seem to agree that Wisconsin should follow neighboring states in creating a more comprehensive law around cottage food. 

In Iowa, cottage food producers can sell a wide range of shelf-stable foods directly to consumers and don’t have an annual sales cap. Minnesota’s law allows residents to sell up to $78,000 in shelf-stable foods, but does require producers to register and complete a food safety course. 

See Hope Kirwan, Homemade pickle sellers say $5K sales limit holds back rural small businesses (‘A 2010 law set the limit and lawmakers haven’t updated it despite rising costs, business concerns’), Wisconsin Public Radio, March 12, 2026.

One hears so much from the WISGOP about support for businesses, and yet WISGOP legislators are still unable to use their majorities to effect comprehensive small business legislation. If these WISGOP men were half so effective as they claim to be, they’d be able to craft and pass comprehensive legislation for these small businesses.

While small cottage businesses offer consumers delicious products, they’ve one disadvantage at the Capitol.

They’re not in the position to offer legislators big donations.

What is powering this supernova?:

Supernovae are colossal explosions triggered as ancient stars come to the end of their lives. Scientists have done huge amounts of work to identify and understand these cosmic fireworks but, in the last 20 years or so, astronomers have spotted some supernovae that don’t make sense. Superluminous supernovae are 10 to 100 times brighter than expected, and while different theories exist, no one is quite sure how that’s possible. Now the wobbling signal from one of these super bright explosions has provided a possible answer.

Cats, City, Daily Bread, Weather

Daily Bread for 3.14.26: Canadians Are Preparing for Snowfall, Too

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 39. Sunrise is 7:08 and sunset is 7:00 for 11 hours 52 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 20.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

It’s Pi Day:

In 1988, the earliest known official or large-scale celebration of Pi Day was organized by Larry Shaw at the San Francisco Exploratorium, where Shaw worked as a physicist, with staff and public marching around one of its circular spaces, then consuming fruit pies. The Exploratorium continues to hold Pi Day celebrations.

As Whitewater prepares for snowfall, we are not alone. Canadians — both people and cats — are getting ready, too:

Click image to play video

Meanwhile, in the Pacific Northwest, two lion cubs are weighed:

Click image to play video

City, Daily Bread, Economy, Trump, War

Daily Bread for 3.13.26: Growth Revised Down, Core Inflation Up

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 43. Sunrise is 7:10 and sunset is 6:59 for 11 hours 49 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 29.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1930, the Lowell Observatory announces Clyde Tombaugh‘s discovery of Pluto.

In a healthy economy, growth goes up, and inflation stays down. Mr. Trump has brought America just the opposite:

Economic growth was much slower than expected in the final three months of 2025 while core inflation rose to start 2026, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

Gross domestic product, a measure of all the goods and services produced across the sprawling U.S. economy, rose at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted annual rate of just 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The first revision of the GDP reading was a sharp step down from the previous estimate of 1.4% and well below the Dow Jones consensus forecast for 1.5%. It also marked a considerable slowdown from the 4.4% gain in the prior period.

For the full year, GDP posted a 2.1% increase, or one-tenth of a percentage point lower than the previous reading. In 2024, the economy rose at a 2.8% pace.

[…]

Stripping out volatile food and energy costs, the core PCE inflation rose 0.4% in January and 3.1% on a 12-month basis. Fed officials focus more closely on the core reading as a better indication of longer-run trends. The core reading was 0.1 percentage point higher than December.

[…]

“The big downward revision in GDP is a gut check going into this energy crunch, increasing the risk of stagflation,” said David Russell, global head of market strategy at TradeStation. “The soft January durable goods data also suggests the economy entered this crisis weaker than hoped. This creates challenges for investors with PCE inflation still running well above the Fed’s target.”

See Jeff Cox, Fourth-quarter GDP revised down to just 0.7% growth; January core inflation was 3.1%, CNBC, March 13, 2026.

A very stable genius, indeed.

The biggest threat to Whitewater’s economic well-being lies 1,337.76 miles to our city’s southeast.

How rising oil prices from the Iran war could drive up everyday costs:

The war in Iran is pushing crude oil prices higher, and that could mean rising costs for gas, heating and even groceries. Here’s how the conflict could affect everyday prices.
more >>

Cats, Science/Nature

Friday Catblogging: More Research on Why Cats Land on Their Feet

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Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times. From Taylor Mitchell Brown, Why Falling Cats Always Seem to Land on Their Feet, New York Times, Mar. 11, 2026.

Cats are endlessly fascinating, and among their captivating qualities is an ability to land on their feet. An article in The New York Times describes the latest scientific findings:

In a paper, published last month in the journal The Anatomical Record, researchers offered a novel take on falling felines. Their evidence suggests new insights into the so-called falling cat problem, particularly that cats have a very flexible segment of their spines that allows them to correct their orientation midair.

Greg Gbur, a physicist and cat-falling expert at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who was not involved with the paper, said the study was the first he knew of that explored “what the structure of the cat’s spine tells us about how a cat turns over while falling.” He added that the research uncovered many remarkable details about how cats maneuver while falling.

The researchers found that the feline spine was extremely flexible in the upper thoracic vertebrae, but stiffer and heavier in the lower lumbar vertebrae. The discovery matches video evidence showing the cats first turn their front legs, and then their lower legs. The results suggest the cat quickly spins its flexible upper torso to face the ground, allowing it to see so that it can correctly twist the rest of its body to match.

“The thoracic spine of the cat can rotate like our neck,” Dr. [Yasuo] Higurashi [physiologist at Yamaguchi University in Japan and lead author of the study] said.

See Taylor Mitchell Brown, Why Falling Cats Always Seem to Land on Their Feet (‘It takes backbone to solve an enigma like the “falling cat” problem’), New York Times, March 11, 2026.

Daily Bread, Economy, War

Daily Bread for 3.12.26: Works Best If You Own Exxon Mobil

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 43. Sunrise is 7:12 and sunset is 6:57 for 11 hours 45 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 38.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Commission meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1933, during the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as president. This is also the first of his “fireside chats.”

During this little excursion1 war with Iran, the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf has slowed, and so oil & gasoline prices have increased. Mr. Trump has an answer to escalating prices — they’ll make oil barons richer:

When oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.

See Zachary Folk, Trump Insists Oil Price Hikes Are Good For U.S.—As It Hits $100 A Barrel Again, Forbes, March 12, 2026.

Someone should ask Trump: Whattaya mean by we?

If Trump means holders of oil stocks, then yeah, they’re doing well this morning:

For a quick primer on why oil prices go up despite America’s role as a net producer, see Emmett Lindner, America Is an Oil Exporter. Why Does a Mideast War Raise U.S. Gas Prices?, New York Times, March 10, 2026. For Mr. Trump’s bad advice to tanker crews, see Colby Hall, Trump Told Tankers to ‘Show Some Guts.’ Then They Were Bombed, Mediaite, March 12, 2026.

_____

  1. See Francesca Chambers and Zac Anderson, Trump calls Iran war a ‘little excursion’ (The president dropped by a retreat at his Doral, Florida, golf club to sell the Iran war and pump up Republican lawmakers ahead of the midterm elections), USA Today, March 9, 2026. ↩︎

Oil ship attacked near southern port of Basra:

Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Schimel, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.11.26: Judicial Panel Won’t Extend Brad Schimel’s Tenure as U.S. Attorney

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:13 and sunset is 6:56 for 11 hours 43 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 48.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Comprehensive Plan Advisory Work Group meets at 4 PM.

On this day in 1990, Lithuania declares independence from the Soviet Union.

Perhaps Brad Schimel’s public career is over:

Federal judges in Milwaukee have announced that they won’t extend former Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel’s temporary appointment as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, meaning his appointment will expire next week.

Schimel was tapped by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Nov. 17, just months after losing last year’s election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. 

The appointment came after a state nominating committee chaired by Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson couldn’t agree on who to pick for the role. Under federal law, that meant Schimel’s interim appointment had to end March 17, unless a majority of judges in the Eastern District agreed to extend it.

On Tuesday, the district’s website announced the majority “declines to exercise this permissive authority.”

See Rich Kremer, Judges won’t extend Brad Schimel’s appointment as US Attorney, (‘The former state attorney general’s term expires March 17’), Wisconsin Public Radio, March 11, 2026.

Schimel was a Waukesha County district attorney, one-term Wisconsin attorney general, Walker-appointed circuit court judge, and Elon Musk-backed candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

I’ll always remember Schimel this way:

But [Waukesha County Circuit Court judge and Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate] Schimel suggested there are other perks to being a judge than having your own potty.

“You set your own hours,” Schimel said. “I set the hours. Certainly, I’ve got to get my cases done, but I can decide — you know what? — if I want to do golf on Thursday afternoon, I can do that.”

The same, Schimel said, is not true for lawyers, who have to show up in court when told to do so. He said he doesn’t misuse that power. And, he said, there are times he’s had to work “all day and into the evening.”

But that appears to be the exception.

“I’m home for dinner most nights now,” he said. “I shoot in two sporting clays leagues. Or I was until I made this announcement (to run for the Supreme Court). I was shooting in two shooting clays leagues a week. I was doing all this, playing band rehearsals.”

See Daniel Bice, Brad Schimel boasts he gets a private bathroom and sets own hours as judge, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 10, 2025.

In a state where judges are overworked, Schimel ran for the state’s highest court while breezily admitting he set his own hours. No and no again. Schimel richly deserved his election loss. (There’s a FREE WHITEWATER category dedicated to Schimel’s sorry public career.)

It’s possible, of course, that the Trump Administration will attempt a circumvention to keep Schimel in the role, but that maneuver in another federal district met with failure. See Ry Rivard and Matt Friedman, Alina Habba ‘unlawfully’ working as U.S. attorney in New Jersey, judge rules, Politico, August 21, 2025.

Habba, by the way, has since left New Jersey and moved near Mar-a-Lago.

Whether Schimel is on the market for a Florida property I’ll not speculate. If so, however, I’ll extend a helping hand: Realtor.com® has a fine selection of Palm Beach properties up for sale.

No Impact — Famous Asteroid Will Not Smash Into Moon (or Earth):

New James Webb Space Telescope imagery of asteroid 2024 YR4 confirmed that it “will safely pass the Moon at a distance of more than 20,000 km. (~12,427 miles),” according to the European Space Agency. It also poses no danger to Earth.

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.10.26: Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ziegler Won’t Run Again

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 54. Sunrise is 7:15 and sunset is 6:55 for 11 hours 40 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 58.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater School Board’s Calendar Committee meets at 4 PM. Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 5:15 PM.

On this day in 2006, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives at Mars.

A change of the majority makes time in the minority less attractive:

Ziegler’s announcement comes about a month ahead of this year’s state Supreme Court race, which is open following the decision of her fellow conservative colleague, Justice Rebecca Bradley, to not seek reelection this year. 

Appeals court judge and former Democratic state Assembly member Chris Taylor and Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar, a conservative, will face each other next month for that seat. 

The retirements of the two conservative justices come after liberals won the majority on the Court in 2023 and held it in last year’s race.

Recent Supreme Court elections in Wisconsin have brought national attention and record spending for the nominally nonpartisan seats with the ideological balance of the Court at stake. The 2026 Supreme Court race has not received as much attention or spending with the liberal majority assured regardless of the outcome. A victory for Taylor next month would increase the number of liberal justices on the Court, locking in a  5-2 liberal majority until 2030.

When Ziegler’s seat is up in 2027, liberals will likely look to extend their majority while conservatives will be looking to claw back some ground. 

See Baylor Spears, Justice Annette Ziegler won’t run for a third term on Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2027, Wisconsin Examiner, March 9, 2026.

Easy prediction for next month’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election: Chris Taylor defeats Maria Lazar. The race is quiet because Lazar’s campaign is going nowhere. See Bill Lueders, The unusually quiet race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, Isthmus, March 5, 2026.

Fox makes an appearance for the camera in Lake Tahoe Basin:

Click image for video

City, Daily Bread, Economy, Foreign Affairs

Daily Bread for 3.9.26: Foreign War Hits Domestic Markets — Even Supermarkets

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 69. Sunrise is 7:17 and sunset is 6:54 for 11 hours 37 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 67 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1044, the people of Constantinople riot against emperor Constantine IX Monomachos, whose preference of his mistress Maria Skleraina over empress Zoe Porphyrogenita is seen as an insult.

Iran is far from America, but global markets reach even the supermarket aisle:

What’s happening in the Middle East can seem very far away — at least until you stop for gas. Prices at the pump have jumped since Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz at the start of the conflict, creating a gap in the energy supply chain that spans the world.

It’s a reminder that war has profound effects on all those who are connected to it. And we are all connected to it, somehow.

Take agriculture. “The longer the conflict in the Middle East continues,” writes my colleague Peter Goodman, who covers global economics, “the greater the likelihood that people around the globe will pay more for food. And those in the most vulnerable countries could face hunger.”

Why is that? Because the Persian Gulf is a dominant source of the world’s fertilizers, especially those that deliver nitrogen to soils — a source of nourishment for crops that amount to half the world’s food. Fertilizer is produced in the region and shipped … everywhere. If the Strait of Hormuz remains strangled, prices for fertilizer will rise. And as a result, farmers may use less on their crops, if they can get any at all. The world will get less food, and it will cost more.

[…]

Which is terrible timing for farmers in the Northern Hemisphere, who will soon need fertilizer to boost their spring crops. Where might they get it? China’s the most obvious alternative, Peter writes. But last year the Chinese government imposed restrictions on the export of fertilizer, in part to shield its farmers from just the sort of geopolitical chaos this war brought on.

Prices are already climbing. Over the past week, the price of urea sold in Egypt, a market that economists track closely, climbed more than 35 percent. If the trend continues, governments across the Global South could need to subsidize the cost of growing crops. And that could add to their debt burdens.

Missiles fly over Iran: People get poorer in Africa. The cost of groceries in Dallas mounts.

See Sam Sifton, The New York Times, The Morning Newsletter (Mar. 9, 2026).

The man who builds hotels around the world selectively forgets that it’s a global economy for more than a few billionaire hoteliers.

Not long ago, the local landlord faction (well-read, thoughtful as always) was putting up signs on their rental properties warning about higher prices:

They should have spent less time putting up signs and more time studying at the university that sustains them. Even before this war with Iran, Mr. Trump’s long commitment to tariffs was sure to increase prices.

‘Not many off-ramps’ available to get oil back under $100:

A barrel of Brent Crude hit $119 at one point as traders rushed to price in massive supply disruption in the Middle East. Tim Graf of State Street told Reuters technical measures like releasing oil reserves may not change sentiment much.

Daily Bread, Economy

Daily Bread for 3.8.26: ‘Roaring Economy’ Not So Roaring

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 60. Sunrise is 7:18 and sunset is 6:51 for 11 hours 35 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 75.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1979, Philips demonstrates the compact disc publicly for the first time.

How’s the economy doing? Not well:

“WOW! The Golden Age of America is upon us!!!” Trump posted on social media Feb. 11 after the monthly jobs report showed gains of 130,000 jobs in January.

Since then, the job market has evaporated in worrisome ways.

Friday’s employment report showed job losses of 92,000 in February. The January and December figures were revised downward, with December swinging to a loss of 17,000 jobs. Monthly data can be rocky, but a trend has emerged that shows an enduring weakness. Without the health care sector, the economy would have shed roughly 202,000 jobs since Trump became president in January 2025. 

[…]

The president has repeatedly told Americans that keeping gas costs low would be key to defeating inflation. He has talked up the decline, citing figures that were far below the national average to assure the public that driving was getting cheaper.

But the strikes against Iran that began Feb. 28 have, for the moment, crushed that narrative. Prices at the pump have jumped 19% over the past month to a national average of $3.45, according to AAA. The investment bank Goldman Sachs warned in an analyst note that, if higher oil prices persist, inflation could rise from its 2.4% reading in January to 3% by the end of the year.

[…]

“Under the Biden administration, America was plagued by the nightmare of stagflation, meaning low growth and high inflation — a recipe for misery, failure and decline,” Trump said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.

The scoreboard tells a far different story, one that makes Biden’s track record in 2024 look better than Trump’s performance last year. The U.S. economy grew at a 2.8% pace during Biden’s last year, compared with 2.2% under Trump in 2025.

See Josh Boak, Trump’s ‘roaring’ economy meets a rough start to 2026: What the latest numbers show, Associated Press, March 8, 2026.

And look, and look, these promises of economic success from the man who lost money in the casino industry were always dubious beyond the point of the ludicrous. Touting Mr. Trump’s record has never been about the accuracy of his claims; touting Mr. Trump’s record has always been about applying a thin veneer of economics to a thick mix of cultural warfare for his base and grifting for insiders.

Critiquing Mr. Trump’s record isn’t about persuading the minority that still believes in him; it’s about reminding others that the majority of Americans sensibly see through his claims.

Video shows a tornado in Michigan destroying homes in its path:

At Lisa Piper’s home near Union City, Michigan, she can be heard repeatedly yelling out, as she films from her back deck a ferocious rotating column of air that appears to be a tornado tearing through a section of buildings across the lake from her.

Daily Bread, Education, Gubernatorial Race 2026, LGBTQ+, Tom Tiffany, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 3.7.26: So, Who’s Up for a Culture War Over a New Richmond, Wisconsin School Policy?

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 59. Sunrise is 6:20 and sunset is 5:51 for 11 hours 31 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 83.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1799, Napoleon captures Jaffa in Palestine and his troops proceed to kill more than 2,000 Albanian captives.

WISGOP Gubernatorial Candidate Tom Tiffany, Public Domain, Link.

Who’s up for a culture war over the bathroom policy of a school in New Richmond, Wisconsin?:

A St Croix County school district that has become the target of right-wing politicians and activists for allowing students to use restrooms corresponding to their gender identity is now being investigated by the Trump administration Department of Education over the practice.

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced in a press release Thursday it was investigating the New Richmond School District “based on reports that the District is allowing biological men to use female restrooms.” 

The head of a Wisconsin LGBTQ+ rights group Friday called the administration’s action an attempt to “bully” school children. 

“The law protects trans girls and their ability to use the girls’ bathroom,” said Abigail Swetz, executive director of Fair Wisconsin. “A federal department’s press release does not, and cannot, change law. However, a federal administration can bully our kids, and that is exactly what this announcement of an investigation is.”

[…]

A week after the issue first arose in January, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany posted on Facebook a demand that the district reverse its policy. Michael Alfonso, who is running in the 7th Congressional District race to succeed Tiffany, has posted on his campaign Facebook page at least five times in the last month about the policy, directing increased national attention to the district. State lawmakers from the area have also weighed in. 

Alfonso is the son-in-law of Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy, who previously represented the 7th District, and recently was endorsed by President Donald Trump. 

See Baylor Spears and Erik Gunn, Department of Education launches investigation over Wisconsin school district’s bathroom policies, Wisconsin Examiner, March 6, 2026.

We’ve a sinking economy and wars abroad, and so these gentlemen return to another war at home to hold their followers’ support.

The war against immigrants, however violent, has not been enough to satiate this ilk. And so, and so, they return to another domestic war against another innocuous minority.

What the February Jobs Report Means for the Economy and the Fed — “In a word, it was dismal”: