Good morning.

It’s a day in the mid-eighties, with a chance of afternoon thundershowers, ahead for Whitewater.

Whitewater’s school board is scheduled to meet tonight, at 6:30 p.m., with agenda items including an announcement on the selection of a new district administrator.  The meeting agenda is available online.

Good morning.

For today, a mostly sunny day with a high temperature of seventy-nine.

Over at Walworth County Sunday, there’s a story covering our Independence Day parade, from Todd Mishler, entitled, World War II veteran to be grand marshal of Whitewater July 4th parade. The story describes Jim Underwood’s service aboard the USS Solace during the attack on Pearl Harbor, later service during the war, through to discharge in 1948.

If there’s one story to read today, this would be the one.

Good morning.

It’s a sunny and warm day ahead for Whitewater, hitting about 80 degrees this afternoon.

There’s a school board meeting tonight, beginning at 6 p.m., to interview two candidates for district administrator.  It’s an open session for interviews, followed by a closed session for deliberations, with the possibility of an announcement thereafter.  The meeting agenda is available online, although as of this post it provides less information than has been announced or published previously.  There’s no violation in this, as the district need not rely on its own website to publish written announcements.  Written publication can be through a third party.  See, Wis. Stats. §§ 19.81-19.98.

It would be prudent for the district to use its own website, though, as its primary means of communication,  with agendas, etc., also published elsewhere.  When hiring an administrator or other district-wide employee, the district would do better to publish meeting dates and agendas, and a packet of information with supporting materials,  on its main page, as the most prominent item available.

The process is a rushed business, but even a poor process may produce, every so often, a good result.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has published news from the front — if the front were close by, and this were 1832:

1832 – Atkinson starts up Rock River in Black Hawk War

On this date General Henry Atkinson and the Second Army began its trip into the Wisconsin wilderness in a major effort against Black Hawk. The “Army of the Frontier” was formed of 400 U.S. Army Regulars and 2,100 volunteer militiamen in order to participate in the Black Hawk War. The troops were headed toward the Lake Koshkonong area where the main camp of the British Band was rumored to be located. [Source: Along the Black Hawk Trail by William F. Stark, p. 93-94]

Good morning.

It’s a day of strong thunderstorms ahead for Whitewater, with a high temperature of eighty degrees.

There’s a regular school board meeting tonight, beginning ?in closed session at 6 p.m., with an open session at beginning at 7 p.m., and a possible resumption of the closed session later tonight. ?The agenda as written offers no mention of an open session announcement tonight about internal candidates for district administrator.

Tomorrow’s currently scheduled special meeting lists closed session interviews, if any, and a possible announcement thereafter.

Correction, 6.28.11: interviews are an open process.

It’s not absurd to seek an internal candidate, but Whitewater’s approach — both exemplar and self-parody of a closed process — has little more than an even chance of producing a good candidate. ?See,?Whitewater Schools? Coin Flip.

The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls today as a birthday:

1837 – The Milwaukee Sentinel Founded
On this date the?Milwaukee Sentinel, the oldest newspaper in the state, was founded as a weekly publication by?Solomon Juneau, who also was Milwaukee’s first mayor. [Source:?History Just Ahead:?A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers edited by Sarah Davis McBride, p. 19]

That’s an inauspicious beginning that’s turned out well, as the paper has long since rejected the combination of politician and publisher, and embraced an independence lacking at its founding.

Good morning.

It’s a day of light rains for Whitewater, with a high temperature in the lower sixties.

A century ago, June 23rd marked a day of aviation triumph for Wisconsin:

1911 – First Home-Built Airplane Flies
On this date Wausau native John Schwister became a pioneer in Wisconsin aviation by flying the state’s first home-built airplane. The plane, named the “Minnesota-Badger,” was constructed of wooden ribs covered with light cotton material. Powered by an early-model aircraft engine, the “Minnesota-Badger” flew several hundred feet and reached a maximum altitude of 20 feet. [Source: Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame]

Good morning.

For Whitewater today, it’s a day of showers with a high temperature in the low seventies.

The Wisconsin Historical Society writes that today, in 1943, was one of the more embarrassing moments in Wisconsin political history:

1943 – McCarthy Breaks Leg in Drunken Accident

On this date future senator Joseph McCarthy broke his leg during a drunken Marine Corps initiation ceremony, despite a press release and other claims that he was hurt in “military action.” Although nicknamed “Tail Gunner Joe”, McCarthy never was a tail gunner, but instead served at a desk as an intelligence officer. In 1951 he applied for medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded to those who had flown at least 25 combat missions. The Marine Corps has records of only 11 combat flights McCarthy flew on, and those were described as local “milk run” flights. Many of McCarthy’s claims were disputed by political opponents as well as journalists.

McCarthy had this advantage, if consistency in such matters is an advantage: he was a lout from beginning to end, evident to anyone who looked his way. One cannot say he appeared to be one thing, but was truly something else; he was unsuited to represent others, from any angle or distance.