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Monthly Archives: March 2011

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.31.11

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Good morning.

Whitewater’s weather for today looks to be mostly sunny and forty-nine degrees. We started the month with a temperature of abut forty-degrees. I’m not sure that fits the adage that March comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb, but it’s evidence of a positive change.

In the CIty of Whitewater today, the Joint Review Board will meet at 9 a.m. That agenda is available online. It’s all about the wreck that is tax incremental district 4.

What happens when cat-like aliens decide to invade an inner city block in London? The working class residents decide to defend their turf. That’s the premise of Attack the Block, and I think it looks promising:


YouTube – Attack The Block – Official HD.

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Law, Laws/Regulations, Police

Institute for Justice Shines Light on Law Enforcement Slush Funds

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I’ve posted before about the harm to sound law enforcement through ‘policing for profit,’ where the promise of financial gain motivates law enforcement efforts. Fortunately, the Institute for Justice has done fine work exposing the distortion — and lack of accountability — in departments that drift into this bad habit.

See, for example, The Institute for Justice on ‘Policing for Profit.’

When police departments seize property, they should be required to catalog and account for it.

This problem is so bad, in so many places, that the IJ’s had to file suit in Georgia to ask a court to compel officials to comply with Georgia’s own laws. The case, filed today, is Van Meter v. Turner.

In Major Lawsuit Filed Today Seeks to Shine Light On Georgia Law Enforcement Slush Funds, the IJ reports that

Georgia has some of the worst civil forfeiture laws and practices in the country, but a lawsuit filed today by the Institute for Justice (IJ) and five concerned Georgia citizens seeks to change that.

Civil forfeiture laws allow the police to seize your home, car, cash or other property upon the suspicion that it has been used or involved in criminal activity. In an attempt to ensure civil forfeiture is subject to public scrutiny, Georgia law requires local law enforcement agencies to annually itemize and report all property obtained through forfeiture, and how it is used, to local governing authorities.

But many, perhaps most, local Georgia law enforcement agencies fail to issue these forfeiture reports, thus turning forfeiture proceeds into off-budget slush funds shielded from public view. A new report, Forfeiting Accountability: Georgia’s Hidden Civil Forfeiture Funds, finds that among a random sample of 20 law enforcement agencies, only two were reporting as required. Of 15 major agencies in Georgia population centers, only one produced the required report. Yet federal data show Georgia agencies taking in millions through forfeiture.

Examples of abuse with these funds include a Georgia sheriff spending $90,000 in forfeiture funds to purchase a Dodge Viper, and a Georgia district attorney’s office using forfeiture funds to purchase football tickets.

Here’s a short, humorous video that describes the problem:



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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.30.11

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Good morning.

It’s a mostly sunny day ahead for the Whippet City, with a high temperature of forty-five degrees.

There will be a joint Park & Recreation Board and Landmarks Commission tonight at 7 p.m.

The meeting will feature a public hearing:

Neighbors and interested community members are invited to attend a public hearing on Wednesday, March 30th at 7:00 PM, held at the Whitewater Municipal Building in the 2nd floor conference room. The public hearing will be held jointly by the Parks and Recreation Board and the Landmarks Commission. This will be the third meeting in a series of public meetings, the prepared restoration plan will be presented at the meeting and the intention of the meeting is to generate discussion and direction for the plan. The City has contracted with Jennings & Associates, a planning firm that has significant background in both land restoration and planning, as well as archeological preservation.

The draft plan for the restoration is available online.

City, Government Spending

Veronique de Rugy Discusses the “Truth About Nuclear Power” on Bloomberg Television

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Veronique de Rugy, of George Mason University’s Mercatus Institute, debunks claims about inexpensive energy from nuclear power. It’s expensive, and often relies on state subsidies.



Disclosure: It’s true that, in 2008, I advocated building a nuclear reactor on the site of our current municipal building. See, Go Nuclear! and Update: Go Nuclear! I will concede that I lack de Rugy’s knowledge about the general costs of nuclear power; I am sure that, whatever those costs, she’d concede that a reactor would be a specific social and economic gain over the current use of the building. more >>

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.29.11

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Good morning.

It’s a partly sunny day ahead for Whitewater, with a high temperature of forty-one degrees.

There’s a Common Council meeting tonight, at 6:30 p.m. The agenda is available online.

Over at Science News, there’s a story with good news, of a sort: Daniel Strain reports that Major Earth Quakes [are] Not Linked.  Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey conclude that

Big earthquakes like the Sendai quake that devastated Japan in March don’t cause similar disasters on the other side of the globe, a new study suggests.

Like ranks of falling dominoes, tremors on the scale of the Sendai quake can trigger other earthquakes, say geophysicists at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif. But, based on analyses of about 30 years of seismic data, those shocks are all very small or sit close to the original fault break, the group reports online March 27 in Nature Geoscience.

“If California is ready to go, it’s because California is ready to go,” says Jian Lin, a geophysicist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. “Not because an earthquake in California would be triggered by Japan.”

Good news, of a particular and limited kind.

Government Spending, Liberty, Politics, University

Thirty-Five Million’s Not the Answer

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You may have heard that UW-Whitewater’s in line for thirty-five million in construction spending. All those millions, but still a march of UW-Whitewater professors to Madison to protest the governor’s budget. (I posted on the trek, as reported in the Janesville Gazette, on March 23rd at Daily Wisconsin.)

Why would they walk all that way?

Because construction spending doesn’t compensate for changes in employees’ conditions and rights. Gov. Walker’s proposed around a billion in public works spending (so much for fiscal restraint), but if he thought he’d get a political lift from it, he’s sure to be wrong. (If he thinks Wisconsin will get a meaningful economic lift out of it, then he’s sure to be wrong about that, too.)

I’m not sure any amount of capital spending will help the Walker Administration to win over those who aren’t die-hards. Nor should it — employees sensibly won’t accept a pretty building as a substitute for an ugly reduction in association rights, or cuts to classroom programs.

What’s odd is that these die-hards pride themselves on fiscal restraint and prudence while they flack for millions in pet-project spending. What they derided in the Doyle Administration, and in the Obama Administration, they celebrate in themselves.

It’s not principle, but opportunism and incumbency, that motivates these would-be defenders of the public purse.

In any event, in the short time of the Walker Administration, these party-line men have alienated so many Wisconsinites that all this spending is so just much political water on sand.

Music

Music Monday: Crimson Skies, Arixo Sunset

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Someone asked me my choice for the best video game music. That’s a difficult selection to make, as many video games are well-produced, with good soundtracks. If I had to pick one, I’d choose the soundtrack from Crimson Skies as particularly memorable, almost haunting.

Enjoy.

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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.28.11

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Good morning.

Whitewater’s forecast calls for a sunny day, with a high temperature of thirty-eight degrees.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets today at 4:30 p.m.  The agenda for the meeting is available online.

Campus and schools are back in session today.  Study responsibly.  It’s only a matter of time before one government commission or another develops a program along these lines: Appropriate Calculus or Respectful Social Studies.

The Wisconsin Historical Society notes that on this day in 1954,

McCarthy Recall Campaign Begins in Sauk City

On this date, “Joe Must Go,” a bipartisan grassroots campaign to recall Sen. Joe McCarthy from the Senate, began in earnest with an organizational meeting in Sauk City. The campaign had to collect 403,000 signatures in 60 days to force a recall election. With little money, a hastily thrown together organizational structure, and unenthusiastic or non-existent support from existing organizations (including farmers and organized labor), the group was still able to secure 335,000 signatures. Later in 1954 Sen. McCarthy was publicly censured by his Senate colleagues. [Source: The History of Wisconsin, v.6: Continuity and change, 1940-1965 (Madison, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1973-1998).]

I’ll post this week on a modern-day version of McCarthyism in Wisconsin.

If you’ve ver thought of building a large, fire-breathing robot, you’re not alone.  Here’s a bit of inspiration:



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