A buy local movement in my town has issued an ‘eat local’ challenge. I’ll take that challenge. I’ve questioned parts of the buy local campaign, but I’m open to eating locally.
(Readers know that I’ve opposed city officials’ meddling in what should be a private merchants’ campaign. It’s not the business of our city government to endorse some merchants over others; that’s the role for consumers in the marketplace. I have also had doubts about the definition of ‘local’; residents employed at our Walmart are just as local as any other workers in town, and I will not demonize the employer who offers them work, or the consumers who rely on that retailer.)
I’ll happily take a challenge, though, to eat locally, if that challenge truly means all businesses in Whitewater. I frequent our famers’ market, for example, and picked up some fine produce there again yesterday.
Thirty days’ worth of local dining? My pleasure, I’m sure.
Here’s the flyer the buy local campaign is distributing:
At the City of Whitewater website, one finds notice of a public hearing about a fiscally-distressed TID [tax incremental district]. There’s much to say about all this, but for now, two remarks about the hearing notice —
The notice lists only the name of the CDA coordinator, but City Manager Kevin Brunner’s name should appear above hers on any notice about the fiasco that is TID 4. Brunner’s been running (and been compensated for overseeing, I believe) the CDA. He’s quick to show for a photo when there’s an event for which he can somehow claim credit. Particularly, he’s touted himself as knowledgeable about tax incremental financing; now that TID 4 is gasping for air, Brunner’s name is nowhere to be seen.
Could there be a less convenient time for public input than 4:30 PM in the afternoon? (Perhaps 2 a.m. in the morning was already taken.) The public hearing should be at a time like meetings for Common Council — 6:30 p.m., when people can attend following work.
Here’s that public notice, in full:
Public Hearing Notice on TID 4 Distressed TID Project Plan Amendment
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Community Development Authority of the City of Whitewater will hold a public hearing on September 27, 2010, at 4:30 p.m. at the City of Whitewater Municipal Building Community Room located at 312 West Whitewater Street, Whitewater, Wisconsin, for the purpose of providing the community a reasonable opportunity to comment upon the proposed Project Plan Amendment for designation of Tax Incremental District No. 4 as a distressed Tax Incremental District within the City of Whitewater, Wisconsin. The public is hereby notified that the life of a distressed tax incremental district may be extended, that it may receive excess tax increments from a donor district, and that the life of the donor district may be extended to provide such increments. The cost of the amendment will include additional staff time, additional interest costs, bond refinancing and underwriting fees, publication costs, and additional Department of Revenue administration charges. All interested parties will be given a reasonable opportunity to express their views on the proposed amendment. A copy of the Project Plan Amendment will be available for viewing at the offices of the City Clerk located at 312 West Whitewater Street, Whitewater, Wisconsin, during normal business hours and will be provided upon request. Such hearing shall be public and citizens and interested parties shall then be heard.
Mary S. Nimm, Coordinator,
City of Whitewater Community
Development Authority
312 West Whitewater Street
P. O. Box 178
Whitewater, WI 53190
Broader U-6 Jobless Rate up to 16.7%: Why the Jump? -WSJ http://bit.ly/bc0NGS. Under-utilized workers seeking full-time work
10:13 AM Sep 3rd
CatoInstitute: Constitution Day is just around the corner – get 10 copies of the Cato Pocket Constitution for just $10: http://bit.ly/93Rwam
9:37 AM Sep 3rd
RT @reasonmag: How significant is the risk that the U.S. will eventually hit a debt crisis? http://ow.ly/2yzC8
1:24 PM Sep 2nd
RT @WiStateJournal: 1 in 6 Wisconsin banks had net loss in 2nd quarter, but that’s an improvement http://ow.ly/18PdXw
9:17 AM Sep 2nd
RT @nothingbutnets: Send a net, save a life! Together we can cover a continent. http://ht.ly/2ysWs
9:16 AM Sep 2nd
RT @radleybalko: NPR panel just warned me that use of the word “constitution” is a good sign that a politician is extremist. Good to know!
4:05 PM Sep 1st
RT @radleybalko: This week’s crime column: Follow-up on Northern Virginia’s secretive police agencies. http://tinyurl.com/2f6eht3
10:36 AM Aug 31st
Via Volokh.com: “Use of [Communist] Party Newspapers and Magazines as Toilet Paper is Strictly Forbidden.” http://bit.ly/de7yu1
2:19 PM Aug 30th
Tickets Available at the Door: Jungle Jack Hanna Brings Live Animal Pals to Whitewater August 29, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. « http://bit.ly/a7TF8o
11:46 AM Aug 29th
Here’s a post with two Tea Party supporters, one of whom was once Republican majority leader in Congress. There are differences between the Tea Party movement and libertarianism, but simarities, too.
Here’s a description from Reason accompanying the video:
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is the latest victim of the Tea Party insurgency that’s trying to take over the Republican Party. Tea Party favorite Joe Miller defeated Murkowski in The North Star State’s primary by hammering away at (among other things) her support for TARP and lack of zeal for overturning Obamacare.
Miller joins a new breed of anti-spending candidates such as Maine’s Paul LePage, Kentucky’s Rand Paul, Florida’s Marco Rubio, and South Carolina’s Nikki Haley, who promise to bring a new passion for shrinking government to D.C. and state capitals.
Here’s how Freedom Works’ Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe sum up what the Tea Party stands for in their new book, Give us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto: “It doesn’t take a lot of words to say that we just want to be free. Free to lead our lives as we please, so long as we don’t infringe on the same freedom of others.”
Armey and Kibbe say that the Tea Party coheres around spending and that other issues are not central to its mission. Perhaps. Joe Miller is also pro-life, pro border fence, and wants to outlaw the use of embryonic stem cells in medical research. Maine gubernatorial hopeful LePage believes the “traditional definition of marriage should be preserved.” Haley, who will probably be South Carolina’s next governor, has campaigned on tough enforcement against illegal immigrants. And the closest thing to a Tea Party spokesperson is Sarah Palin, the former “Bridge to Nowhere” supporter who oversaw a 16 percent increase in spending during her time as governor of Alaska.
Can this coalition stay together, stick to its anti-spending message, and actually change American politics? Or will it be co-opted by the very party upon which it seeks to perform a “hostile takeover?”
Reason.tv’s Nick Gillespie sat down with Armey and Kibbe to discuss these issues and more.
The interview was shot by Jim Epstein and Meredith Bragg, and edited by Epstein and Joshua Swain.
Today’s suggested topic is no single topic at all — just a forum for your comments or questions. I’ll try to answer questions as quickly as I can.
The use of pseudonyms and anonymous postings are, of course, fine.
Although the comments template has a space for a name, email address, and website, those who want to leave a field blank can do so. Comments will be moderated, against profanity or trolls. Otherwise, have at it.
The unemployment rate rose to 9.6% in August. Although private payrolls increased, they did so by an amount too meager to prevent an increase in unemployment.
There’s no better time to reduce government’s twin burdens of taxation and regulation.
A preliminary count by Madison-based ForeclosureAlarm.com showed 2,511 filings in courts around the state last month, compared with 2,484 in August 2009….
Russell Kashian, a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater professor who tracks foreclosures in the state, put the blame on the job situation.
“You aren’t going to see a real improvement in foreclosures unless you see a real improvement in employment,” Kashian said.
Whitewater’s forecast for today calls for a day of scattered showers and a high of sixty-four degrees.
It’s Spirit Day at Whitewater Middle School today.
The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that on this date in 1783
Paris Peace Treaty Signed
On this date the Paris Peace Treaty was signed. The treaty demanded land, including Wisconsin, be ceded from Britain to the United States. Two years after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, American and British delegations met in Paris to formalize Britain’s recognition of the United States of America. The treaty articles were drawn up on November 30, 1782 and formally agreed upon on September 3, 1783. [Source: University of Oklahoma, College of Law]
In the first month of the city’s [Atami] promotional campaign launched July 10, more than 1,500 male fans of the Japanese dating-simulation game LovePlus+ have flocked to Atami for a romantic date with their videogame character girlfriends.
The men are real. The girls are cartoon characters on a screen. The trips are actual, can be expensive and aim to re-create the virtual weekend outing featured in the game, a product of Konami Corp. played on Nintendo Co.’s DS videogame system.
Whitewater’s forecast for Thursday calls for thunderstorms with a high of eighty-one degrees.
The History Channel reports that on this day in 1969, a major convenience for American consumers made its appearance:
On this day in 1969, America’s first automatic teller machine (ATM) makes its public debut, dispensing cash to customers at Chemical Bank in Rockville Center, New York. ATMs went on to revolutionize the banking industry, eliminating the need to visit a bank to conduct basic financial transactions. By the 1980s, these money machines had become widely popular and handled many of the functions previously performed by human tellers, such as check deposits and money transfers between accounts. Today, ATMs are as indispensable to most people as cell phones and e-mail.
In the USA, Luther George Simjian has been credited with developing and building the first cash dispenser machine. There is strong evidence to suggest that Simjian worked on this device before 1959 while his 132nd patent (US3079603) was first filed on 30 June 1960 (and granted 26 February 1963). The rollout of this machine, called Bankograph, was delayed a couple of years. This was due in part to Simjian’s Reflectone Electronics Inc. being acquired by Universal Match Corporation. An experimental Bankograph was installed in New York City in 1961 by the City Bank of New York, but removed after 6 months due to the lack of customer acceptance. The Bankograph was an automated envelope deposit machine (accepting coins, cash and cheques) and it did not have cash dispensing features. The Bankograph, however, embodied the preoccupation by US banks in finding alternative means to capture core deposits, while the concern of European and Asian banks was cash distribution.
