Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny in the afternoon with a high of 82. Sunrise is 5:27 and sunset is 8:33, for 15 hours, 5 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 96.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
CDC data shows 2025 is now the worst year for measles cases in this country in more than three decades. More than 150 people have been hospitalized due to the growing outbreak and three have died, including two unvaccinated children in Texas. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Dr.. Adam Ratner, author of “Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children’s Health.”
Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with evening showers and a high of 84. Sunrise is 5:27 and sunset is 8:33, for 15 hours, 6 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 99.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Wednesday, July 16th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Flow @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Animated film/Family/Adventure
Rated PG; 1 hour, 25 minutes. (2024)
Golden Globe and Oscar winner for Best Animated Film. Latvian: no narration! It plays like a silent movie. You must pay attention to the entire film! In a post-human world, animals lead the way. Engrossing. Haunting. Beautiful.
Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 84. Sunrise is 5:26 and sunset is 8:34, for 15 hours, 8 minutes of daytime. The moon is full with 99.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Alcohol Licensing Committee meets at 5:30 PM, and the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Commission also meets at 5:30 PM.
On this date General Henry Atkinson and his troops built Fort Koshkonong after being forced backwards from the bog area of the “trembling lands” in their pursuit of Black Hawk. The Fort, later known as Fort Atkinson, was described by Atkinson as “a stockade work flanked by four block houses for the security of our supplies and the accommodation of the sick.” It was also on this date that Atkinson discharged a large number of volunteers from his army in order to decrease stress on a dwindling food supply and to make his force less cumbersome. One of the dismissed volunteers was future president, Abraham Lincoln, whose horse was stolen in Cold Spring, Wisconsin, and was forced to return to New Salem, Illinois by foot and canoe.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A new lawsuit seeking to redraw Wisconsin’s congressional district boundary lines was filed on Tuesday, less than two weeks after the state Supreme Court declined to hear a pair of other lawsuits that asked for redistricting before the 2026 election.
The latest lawsuit brought by a bipartisan coalition of business leaders was filed in Dane County circuit court, rather than directly with the state Supreme Court as the rejected cases were. The justices did not give any reason for declining to hear those cases, but typically lawsuits start in a lower court and work their way up.
This new lawsuit’s more lengthy journey through the courts might not be resolved in time to order new maps before the 2026 midterms.
The Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy argue in the new lawsuit that Wisconsin’s congressional maps are unconstitutional because they are an anti-competitive gerrymander. The lawsuit notes that the median margin of victory for candidates in the eight districts since the maps were enacted is close to 30 percentage points.
“Anti-competitive gerrymanders are every bit as antithetical to democracy, and to law, as partisan gerrymanders and racial gerrymanders,” the lawsuit argues. “This is because electoral competition is as vital to democracy as partisan fairness.”
In Japan, bobtail cats are considered good luck and Nagasaki is the place to find them. They are known as “omagari neko (bent-tail cats)” or “kagi neko (hook cats)” and have their own society of admirers and even a dedicated Shinto shrine. Their tails come in varieties including hook-shaped at the tip, curved or in a bun, explained Kazuya Hideshima, a worker at Omagari Neko Shrine and member of the Nagasaki Cat Society.
Past findings have indicated bobtails accounted for nearly 80% of the cats in Nagasaki, twice the occurrence of anywhere else in Japan. Japanese cats are believed to have come from China in the 6th century with Buddhist monks, serving as rat hunters to protect religious scriptures on ships.
Nagasaki residents hope the cats bring in tourists and help business.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 83. Sunrise is 5:25 and sunset is 8:34, for 15 hours, 9 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 98.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
View of Starfish Prime through thin clouds, as seen from Honolulu, 825 miles away. By US Gov – US Gov, Public Domain, Link.
Starfish Prime caused an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that was far larger than expected, so much larger that it drove much of the instrumentation off scale, causing great difficulty in getting accurate measurements. The Starfish Prime electromagnetic pulse also made those effects known to the public by causing electrical damage in Hawaii, about 900 miles (1,450 km) away from the detonation point, knocking out about 300 streetlights, setting off numerous burglar alarms, and damaging a telephone company microwave link. The EMP damage to the microwave link shut down telephone calls from Kauai to the other Hawaiian Islands.
(Citations omitted.)
Less than a month ago, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled unanimously when striking down a law enacted in 2018 that required the Wisconsin Department of Justice to obtain approval from the Joint Finance Committee before settling many civil cases. SeeKaul v. Wisconsin State Legislature, 2025 WI 23, No. 2022AP000790 (June 17, 2025).
Yesterday, the Legislature saw another clawback of its Walker-era authority when Wisconsin’s high court curtailed, in a 4-3 decision, a legislative committee’s power to stop executive agency regulations:
State laws that let a 10-member committee of the Legislature override regulations are unconstitutional, a majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
The ruling hands the administration of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers a victory in an ongoing battle with the Legislature’s Republican leaders.
….
The ruling finds five statutes, granting power to the Legislature’s committee that reviews and periodically suspends administrative rules, violate the Wisconsin Constitution.
Taken together, wrote Chief Justice Jill Karofsky for the four justices making up the Court’s liberal wing, the statutes give the Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules the power to effectively change state laws without going through the full legislative process.
“The ability of a ten-person committee to halt or interrupt the passage of a rule, which would ordinarily be required to be presented to the governor as a bill [to block the rule], is simply incompatible with Articles IV and V of the Wisconsin Constitution,” Karofsky wrote.
….
The Evers administration argued that five statutes granting JCRAR the power to review, object to and block rules before or after they are promulgated violate the state Constitution. Those include a law enacted in December 2018, after Evers was elected governor but before he took office, that allows the committee to lodge “indefinite” objections blocking a rule.
The Court majority agreed with the administration’s argument.
The Wisconsin Constitution requires that for a law to be enacted, it must pass both the Assembly and the Senate and then be presented to the governor to be signed or vetoed.
“By permitting JCRAR to exercise discretion over which approved rules may be promulgated and which may not, the statute empowers JCRAR to take action that alters the legal rights and duties of persons outside of the legislative branch” without going through the lawmaking process, Karofsky wrote.
An email newsletter from the Wisconsin Examiner offers this hysterical, histrionic quote from Sen. Steve Nass:
“The liberal junta on the state supreme court has in essence given Evers the powers of a King.”
– State Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater), chair of the Legislature’s Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules
A few remarks:
1. These powers of the Legislature (now curtailed) are not ancient rights of the people: they are Walker-era changes that the WISGOP pushed through quickly before Tony Evers first took office.
2. Nass is still a state senator? Bulking up that state pension, right?
3. Nass lists his district as R-Whitewater, but that’s only through part of the Town of Whitewater, not the city proper. Nass doesn’t live in, and would never be elected from, the City of Whitewater.
4. So Trump assumes authoritarian power unto himself, and becomes the subject of No Kings rallies across America, but Nass thinks Gov. Evers — Tony Evers, of all people — now has the essence of royal powers?
5. Nass says it’s a liberal junta that did this? Isn’t this overwrought legislator supposed to be speaking English-only like the native born? A Spanish language borrowing should be of concern to each and every blood-and-soil nativist. I thought Mr. Trump issued an executive order on that very matter.
Perhaps one of them will check Nass’s playlist for Yeri Mua.
Tuesday in Whitewater will see scattered afternoon showers with a high of 82. Sunrise is 5:24 and sunset is 8:35, for 15 hours, 10 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 94.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 5:15 PM.
On this day in 1776, church bells (possibly including the Liberty Bell) are rung after John Nixon delivers the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.
There’s a story today from reporter Baylor Spears about two Democrats running for the 17th Senate District seat that Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) now holds. This post isn’t about the Democrats1 mentioned in that story; it’s about the district in which they’ll be running. Spears reports on the political composition of the district before and after redistricting toward fairer maps:
Marklein won the district with 60% of the vote in 2022, but Senate District 17 changed considerably under the new maps. According to an analysis by John Johnson, a research fellow at Marquette University, the district leaned Democrat by 1 percentage point in the 2024 presidential election and by over 4 percentage points in the 2024 U.S. Senate race.
Sen. Howard Marklein accepted the budget deal with Gov. Evers. He did so because, like other officeholders in the WISGOP, he needed that budget deal if he were to have any hope of remaining an officeholder next year.
The loss of a gerrymandered 60% district to a -1% to -4% district has a way, it seems, of making WISGOP legislators more amenable to compromise. Underlining Marklein’s supposed bipartisanship is little more than a political incumbent’s survival instinct.
Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:24 and sunset is 8:35, for 15 hours, 11 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 89.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1928, sliced bread is sold for the first time (on the inventor’s 48th birthday) by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri.
There’s much exuberance, all of it unfounded, that the agreement between Gov. Evers and WISGOP legislators means bipartisanship has returned to the Badger State. If bipartisanship means genuine congeniality and cooperation from legislators in both parties (and that’s the proper connotation), then Wisconsin does not have bipartisanship.
But the negotiation process that led to the latest biennial budget was drastically different than in previous budget cycles since Evers took office in 2019, which were largely conducted on party-line votes without significant negotiations.
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse political science professor Anthony Chergosky said last year’s redistricting was one key. Under the new maps, Democrats failed to win a legislative majority in November, but gained 10seats in the Assembly and four in the state Senate.
“With the slimmed-down (Republican) majority, they had to lean on Democrats because they could not pass the budget with just their own members, and that transformed the negotiations compared to what we’ve seen in previous budgets,” Chergosky said.
The final budget vote in the Senate was 19-14, with four Republicans voting in opposition. Without the votes of Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, the compromise would have fallen apart.
That’s it: When the WISGOP lost their gerrymandered majorities, and when national policies incited protests across the state this year, Speaker Robin Vos came to a deal because he was too weak to do otherwise.
(Businesses require an attention that ketamine-fiend Musk seems to lack. In any event, there’s only room for one dysfunctional daddy in the GOP, and it’s not gonna be Musk…)
Tuesday, July 8th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of My Old Ass @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Coming of Age/Comedy/Drama
Rated R (language). 1 hour, 29 minutes (2024)
An 18th birthday mushroom trip brings free-spirited Elliott face to face with her wise-cracking 39 year old self. But, when Elliott’s “old ass” starts handing out warnings about what her younger self should and shouldn’t be doing, she realizes she has to rethink everything about her family, life, and love during this transformational summer.
Sunday in Whitewater will see scattered morning showers with a high of 78. Sunrise is 5:23 and sunset is 8:35, for 15 hours, 12 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 82.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1885, Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies on Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.
Whitewater’s Independence Holiday celebration concludes today at the Cravath Lakefront:
Carnival Only – Last chance for rides and a wrist band session. Christman Family Amusements Wrist Band Special: 12 to 4 PM, $25 each
Watch as a pair of Rough-legged Hawks work together to raise their chicks, in this excerpt from our documentary on the raptors of the Colville River Special Area, Alaska. Cornell Lab cinematographer Gerrit Vyn takes you up onto a steep cliffside for intimate views of the mom tending her growing chicks during the long days of the Arctic summer. Watch the full Colville River Raptors documentary and learn more: https://allaboutbirds.org/news/alaska…
Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with evening thunderstorms and a high of 87. Sunrise is 5:22 and sunset is 8:36, for 15 hours, 13 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 75.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1937, Spam, the luncheon meat, is introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation:
Ken Daigneau, the brother of a company executive, won a $100 prize that year in a competition to name the new item. Hormel states that the meaning of the name “is known by only a small circle of former Hormel Foods executives,” but a popular belief is that the name is a contraction of “spiced ham”. It has also been speculated to be an acronym for “shoulder of pork and ham.”
Spam musubi variant which includes egg. Spam musubi may take many forms, either with the spam on top of rice, or sandwiched between rice. Other possible additions include pickled radish and furikake. When having egg, it is commonly known as potama, especially in Okinawa (Japan). By Dllu – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link.
Whitewater’s Independence Holiday celebration continues today at the Cravath Lakefront:
Christman Family Amusements Wrist Band Sessions 12-4 PM, 5-9 PM: $25 Civic Organization Food Vendors 12 PM to 11 PM 40th Annual Car Show 2-6 PM Live Music at the Frawley Amphitheater: 12-1:30 PM Brian Matteson 2 PM Sawyer Road 5 PM Gebel Girls 8 PM Brightside
Fireworks 10 PM
Note: Weather may lead to a change in the fireworks schedule, including an earlier start time, if conditions permit. See Whitewater’s Annual Fourth of July Celebration @ Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BxVHxdBLJ/, for updates.
Friday in Whitewater will see scattered morning showers giving way to sunnier afternoon skies and a high of 89. Sunrise is 5:22 and sunset is 8:36, for 15 hours, 14 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 66.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Independence Holiday celebration continues today at the Cravath Lakefront:
Whippet City Mile: 9:45 AM along parade route 4th of July Parade: 10 AM Civic Organization Food Vendors: 10 AM to 11 PM Christman Family Amusements: 12-4 PM Wrist band Session Live Music at Frawley Amphitheater: After the Parade – enjoy one of the bands in the parade on stage! 2 PM Jeff Winard Polka Party 5 PM Rural Route 3 8 PM Stetsin and Lace Fireworks: 10 PM
We know it as an aspirational document (“We hold these truths…”). We understand it as a repudiation of tyranny (“Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.”). It is both those things, but it is also a compendium of complaints, a description of an autocrat’s offenses against a free people. And that was the part I found strangely relevant to our times.
The signers railed about exclusionary immigration policies that hurt the colonies (“He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither”). They inveighed against barriers to trade (“cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world”). And they condemned imposing “Taxes on us without our Consent,” which, if we remember that unilaterally imposed tariffs are a consumer tax, also sounds familiar. Tyrants, then and now, seek to dominate and micromanage commerce to the detriment of ordinary people seeking a better life.
And notice the common problem, then and now, when a tyrant attempts to corrupt the rule of law by seeking to intimidate and threaten members of the judiciary (“He has obstructed the Administration of Justice…. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices”); seeks to impair due process (“depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury”); and even ships people out of the country for punishment (“Transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences”). The tyrant playbook has not changed much in nearly 250 years.
Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 88. Sunrise is 5:21 and sunset is 8:36, for 15 hours, 15 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 57.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Independence Holiday celebration begins today at the Cravath Lakefront:
Christman Family Amusements Wrist Band Session: 5-9 PM, $25 each wrist band Family Day Sponsored by Generac 4-7 PM Karaoke at Frawley Amphitheater: 4-6 PM Miss Whitewater Pageant at Frawley Amphitheater: 6:30 PM Civic Organization Food Vendors: 4-11 PM
There’s a new state budget, despite grumbling about the terms from many Democrats and some Republicans. I’m neither a Democrat nor a Republican (nor of any political party), and perhaps that makes it easier to discern insightful reporting from the stenography of posturing and whining. Fortunately, Anya van Wagtendonk accurately reports on the underlying WISGOP weakness that Gov. Evers exploited:
That speed [in adopting a budget] was motivated by a deadline out of Washington, as Congress works to pass President Donald Trump’s signature “Big Beautiful” budget bill before a self-imposed July 4 deadline. That far-reaching tax and immigration legislation includes massive cuts to Medicaid, including a cap on how much money states can request from the federal government through hospital assessment fees.
The Wisconsin state budget passed Wednesday night raises its assessment fee to the maximum amount. By passing the budget before the Trump bill is signed into law, Wisconsin lawmakers dodged the new cap.
Earlier in the day, Assembly Speaker Vos said legislative Republicans and Evers’ office were aligned in trying to pass the budget quickly for that reason.
“We all understand that once the signature goes on at the federal level, it really limits the options for us to capture that federal revenue,” he said. “I think that’s one area we found pretty widespread agreement.”
As he signed the bill into law early Thursday morning — a contrast to past budget cycles, when he has acted days after passage, during the day and often flanked by kids — Evers referred to the truncated timeline, too.
“We want our health care system to be in good shape, and in order to do that, we’re going to need help from the federal government, and whatever we can do before they pass through … the federal budget, we will be able to access help from them to keep our hospitals afloat,” he said. “It’s absolutely critical for us to do that.”
That’s it: national Republican policy made state Republicans vulnerable to a looming deadline (a vulnerability that Evers exploited with dispatch). Vos was weak, not strong or ‘bipartisan’; Evers shrewdly exploited that weakness.
In Whitewater, the city’s declining and aged special interests look to Vos as patron and exemplar. In this, their judgment is weak and their prospects poor.
