In the Wisconsin State Journal, reporter Deborah Ziff has a profile of the candidates for the 43rd Assembly District, Kim Hixson and Evan Wynn. See, Candidate profiles: 43rd Assembly District.
Each candidate supplies information about his age, family, address, political party, current occupation, community service, education, and website.
The profile also includes a map of the district, one that extends from Whitewater to communities west of Beloit, Wisconsin.
Both candidates will be part of a League of Women voters forum this Saturday, at 11 a.m., at Whitewater’s municipal building, in the Common Council chambers.
In Whitewater, on Monday afternoon, there was a public hearing on the proposed Whitewater Unified School District budget. On Tuesday, there was a newspaper story, entitled Whitewater has budget hearing about the meeting. The story reported that “[t]wo members of the community attended….”
Is it any wonder that a meeting, held during the workday, would have poor attendance? The consequence of limited attendance, of course, is the opportunity to contend that the public had an invitation to attend, and declined that invitation. From these poor numbers, one might falsely conclude that the budget is uncontroversial, or actually has significant support. (If one wanted to claim universal support, one would go a step farther, and instead of holding the meeting during working hours, would hold it on a holiday, or at two o’clock in the morning.)
I have no idea how most people feel about the proposed budget; I do know that a meeting held during working hours, with limited notice, is a bad habit that Whitewater often uses to skirt discussion of potentially controversial matters.
There are few people in town who haven’t seen this approach before. It’s old-hat by now.
If the budget matters so much (and it does), and if it makes sense (I’m not sure), then one would think that district officials would be proud to discuss it with plentiful notice, and at a convenient time. A convenient time for ordinary, working people.
Here are a few points to consider, for next year:
Announce the hearing prominently on the main page of the district’s website. Here’s a screenshot of the school district website, with a listing for that same day the budget meeting was held:
A public hearing on the budget might have been listed, at least along with these entries.
Place the entire budget proposal online, on the district’s website. The district has a colorful, professionally designed website. I’m sure there’s plenty of server space for public documents, including a proposed budget.
The first place a public document about a budget should appear is on the website of the public body to which it pertains. No one should have to hunt for it, or ask for it — it should be available for review as a matter of course. It’s simply a throwback to another era to write, on the top of a budget proposal, that “The Budget in detail is available for public inspection at the Central Office.”
Why not publish it prominently on the district’s website, before the hearing?
There are even more important matters than this. I’m sure there are those who would contend that discussion of the budget involves a dispute between children-supporting educators and cold-hearted, anti-intellectual troglodytes.
I disagree, of course. And yet, I’ll also contend that there are far more important matters than the budget. Substantive work (that is, teaching and principles of the district) matters far more.
Added to substantive teaching, and also important, are policies that involve substantive principles of fairness, equality, and other American ideals. Although these principles are not part of a single curriculum, they matter more than simpler issues. (That some policies are substantive is easy to see. A policy that affords a person time to respond to an allegation is more important than a policy that requires he use a specific font when writing in reply.)
If the budget process isn’t more open and accessible, it speaks poorly of the chance to consider other substantive issues, often controversial, that are even more important.
Still, I am an optimist — Whitewater will be out of this habit someday.
I received the following press release that I am happy to post:
Alzheimer’s Association to Offer Support Group Facilitator Training
-Help Others by Becoming a Support Group Facilitator in Southeastern Wisconsin-
The Alzheimer’s Association is offering training for community members who are interested in leading, or facilitating, an Alzheimer’s Association support group. Training will take place on Tuesday, October 26, 2010 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Alzheimer’s Association, 620 S. 76th Street, Suite 160 in Milwaukee. This training is designed for volunteers interested in becoming a facilitator of a support group for family caregivers who provide care or support to persons with memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.
The Alzheimer’s Association, southeastern Wisconsin chapter, offers support groups in Dodge, Fond du Lac, Jefferson, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Sheboygan, Washington, Waukesha and Walworth Counties. To inquire about this free training and to receive an application to become a volunteer support group facilitator, please contact Krista Scheel, Program Director, Alzheimer’s Association, at 414-479-8800 or via email at krista.scheel@alz.org.
The Alzheimer’s Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support and research. Our mission is to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research; to provide and enhance care and support for all affected; and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer’s. For more information about Alzheimer’s disease and local services visit www.alz.org/sewi or call the Alzheimer’s Association 24/7 Helpline at 800-272-3900.
I received the following press release that I am happy to post:
Bruce Johnson’s distinctive raku ceramic pieces have been enjoyed by people all over the nation for over 25 years. Johnson is now offering to share his knowledge and technique with others by offering lessons in wheel thrown and hand built ceramics.
“With my years of experience as a full-time artist, I believe I have much to offer those interested in ceramics,” says Johnson, “whether they are just beginning or already experienced in working with clay.” In this unique learning opportunity, students will learn the art of making functional and decorative pottery, both hand built and wheel thrown. The pieces will be fired in food-safe, high-fire glazes, and in the ancient technique of raku firing.
All sessions will take place at Bruce Johnson Clay Studio, 302 W. Campus Street, in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, beginning the week of October 25 2010. The class includes one session a week for seven weeks, 25 pounds of clay, and all glaze materials, including firing. Classes will be held Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6:30pm to 9pm, and Saturday mornings from 10am to 12:30pm. Each class is limited to six students to ensure individual attention for each student.
To register, or for further information, contact Johnson at 920-648-3049 or bruce@brucejohnsonclaystudio.com. Samples of work can be seen on his website, www.brucejohnsonclaystudio.com.
Today’s forecast for Whitewater calls for a mostly sunny day with a high temperature of sixty-five degrees.
Today at 9 a.m., there’s a meeting of the Whitewater-University Tech Park board. The agenda is available online.
The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that on this day in 1961, the
First Oktoberfest [was] Held in La Crosse
On this date the first Wisconsin Oktoberfest celebration was held in La Crosse. In early 1960, civic leaders agreed that the city needed a community-wide activity. La Crosse had been without such an event since the Winter Carnival in early 1920s. Community leaders decided upon an Oktoberfest celebration. Parades, pageantry, royalty, brew, bratwurst, and entertainment characterize the event. [Source: La Crosse Oktoberfest]
This year’s event was held in late September, early October. The La Crosse Tribune has an online gallery of La Crosse Oktoberfest photos.
The original Oktoberfest, from Munich, is the one from which the Wisconsin version originates. Here’s a shot of a recent German Oktoberfest at night:
Alzheimer’s Association to Offer Support Group Facilitator Training
-Help Others by Becoming a Support Group Facilitator in Southeastern Wisconsin-
The Alzheimer’s Association is offering training for community members who are interested in leading, or facilitating, an Alzheimer’s Association support group. Training will take place on Tuesday, October 26, 2010 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Alzheimer’s Association, 620 S. 76th Street, Suite 160 in Milwaukee. This training is designed for volunteers interested in becoming a facilitator of a support group for family caregivers who provide care or support to persons with memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.
The Alzheimer’s Association, southeastern Wisconsin chapter, offers support groups in Dodge, Fond du Lac, Jefferson, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Sheboygan, Washington, Waukesha and Walworth Counties. To inquire about this free training and to receive an application to become a volunteer support group facilitator, please contact Krista Scheel, Program Director, Alzheimer’s Association, at 414-479-8800 or via email at krista.scheel@alz.org.
The Alzheimer’s Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support and research. Our mission is to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research; to provide and enhance care and support for all affected; and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer’s. For more information about Alzheimer’s disease and local services visit www.alz.org/sewi or call the Alzheimer’s Association 24/7 Helpline at 800-272-3900.
Easier said than done, though certainly worth doing:
Cuba is flirting with free-market reforms, while Cuban Americans try to help prepare the country for life under a version of capitalism.
(This story’s from the left-of-center Public Radio International — and that provenance offers another of many signs of the inevitable return to free markets in Cuba. Absent is the contention that a type of socialist system offers a serious alternative model. The point’s simply untenable.)
America and places beyond have heard the story about how firefighters in Obion County, Tennessee let a house burn down because the homeowners, the Cranicks, had not paid the $75 annual firefighters’ fee. (The department is from South Fulton, but serves areas in the county beyond the South Fulton city limits.)
At Reason.tv, there’s a video from Russia Today in which Reason editor Katherine Mangu-Ward discusses the incident with progressive journalist Mike Elk of In These Times. Libertarian Mangu-Ward is sharp, but the left-of-center Elk easily gets the better of her in this exchange.
There are a few quick points that might have made Mangu-Ward’s position stronger. I think she should have led with them.
First, it’s not a free market in firefighters’ services if the annual fee is merely a service charge, with no other option for services. A market would have more than one supplier. South Fulton, Tennessee doesn’t have a market in firefighters’ services — it has one government provider that passes a tax along as a voluntary fee. (South Fulton’s firefighting services are, in fact, a government monopoly.)
Second, a market would have allowed the Cranicks to pay a greater amount when a fire actually threatened their house. Pricing based on shifting demand is a hallmark of a free and properly functioning market. The homeowners would have had the option of paying a $75 annual fee, or paying far more ($500, etc.) when fire struck. In fact, the Cranicks made that very offer, but authorities refused it. That refusal is economically irrational, and demonstrates that officials in South Fulton weren’t operating under a market-oriented model of firefighting services. Instead, local officials operated under a destructive policy of spite, allowing a home to burn even under an offer a large payment for services.
Third, very few firefighters would watch a house burn. The inaction of the Tennessee department is, to put it mildly, unusual. (So odd that nearby departments have expressed outrage.)
Here’s the video of the discussion — see what you think:
Reason magazine Senior Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward argues that people should be able to pick and choose (and pay for) the services they want, including fire protection, on Russia Today’s The Alyona Show on October 5, 2010.
….But how much do inhabitants of our faith-saturated land actually know about religion? Not very much, according to a new survey released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life on Sept. 28….
While most people (89 percent) correctly understand that Supreme Court decisions bar public school teachers from leading their classes in prayer, many incorrectly believe that religion has been banned from classrooms altogether.
Sixty-seven percent mistakenly believe that teachers aren’t permitted to “read from the Bible as an example of literature,” even though teaching about the Bible as literature is constitutional, as many Supreme Court justices have repeatedly stated. And 51 percent wrongly think teachers can’t “offer a class comparing the world’s religions,” even though a small, but growing, number of school districts offer electives in world religions….
A good start would be to watch “God in America,” a groundbreaking six-hour documentary produced by WGBH/Boston that airs on PBS Oct. 11-13. The series explores America’s religious history—including the much-misunderstood origins of religious liberty—by combining outstanding scholarship with lively storytelling.
A famous libertarian novel made its way into a debate on Monday:
U.S. Senate candidates Ron Johnson and U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold clashed sharply Monday night on Ayn Rand’s famous novel “Atlas Shrugged” about an economy crumbling under the weight of government intrusion and regulations.
Feingold, by the way, is right about who’s working hard and productively — that group is vastly larger than simply a few factory owners, for example. The United States depends on millions and millions of hard-working people, in all sorts of occupations.
The actual number is so much larger than the one Rand imagined that the book’s plot is merely a metaphor for our actual condition. (I’m not sure how well Johnson sees that.)
Part of that actual condition, though, is one of people over-burdened and ill-served by government.
Whitewater’s forecast for Tuesday calls for a mostly sunny day, with a high temperature of seventy-seven degrees.
In the City of Whitewater today, at 4:15 p.m., there will be a meeting of the Urban Forestry Commission. The agenda for the meeting is available online.
There will be a PTO meeting at Lincoln School at 3 p.m. today. At Washington School, there will be a 6:30 p.m. PATT meeting.
An unknown, mongoose-like creature has been discovered in the wetlands of Madagascar. To the satisfaction of anyone who delights in new species discoveries but wishes they were a bit more charismatic, this cat-sized carnivore’s got heft.
