FREE WHITEWATER

Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

Daily Bread, Negligence, Open Government, School District

Daily Bread for 6.3.25: Audit Reveals Errors of Whitewater’s School Finances

by  • 

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be windy with evening showers and a high of 83. Sunrise is 5:18 and sunset is 8:28, for 15 hours, 10 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 54.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1965, NASA launches Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Ed White, a crew member, performs the first American spacewalk.

Where does it lead a community to follow Yesteryear’s Familiar Tune, and push public issues out of public view (and so out of the public’s mind)?

It leads here: to an audit of school district finances that finds “deficiency in the District’s internal control to be a significant deficiency.”

Those who do good work don’t need to fret over “any more bad press in the community.” Those who abandon good work, over time, wind up precisely where they did not want to be. See Ryan Spoehr, ‘Significant deficiencies’ flagged in Whitewater schools financial audit, Janesville Gazette, May 29, 2025.

A video of the pertinent portion of the 5.27.25 Whitewater school board meeting appears above and the 80-page audit appears at the bottom of this post.

The audit highlights 14 significant concerns:

  1. Material Audit Adjustments (“we proposed a number of adjusting journal entries that were required to prevent the financial statements from being materially misstated”).
  2. Preparation of Financial Statements, Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards and Schedule of Expenditures of State Awards (“the responsibility for control over the financial statements being prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America remains with the District’s management”).
  3. Employee Benefit Trust Fund (“the District did not appropriately record Fund 73 transactions, nor make the correct transfer of funds, into and out of fiduciary accounts”).
  4. Capital Projects Funds (“Expenditures that should have been part of the Capital Improvement Fund Plan were instead found in the Capital Expansion Fund and the General Fund, necessitating reclassification to the correct fund”).
  5. Excess of Expenditures Over Budgeted Amounts (“governmental fund type expenditure accounts had overdrawn their appropriations. Section 66.042(7) of the Wisconsin Statutes state that no order may be issued in excess of the funds appropriated for the purpose of which the order is drawn, unless authorized by a resolution adopted by the vote of two-thirds of the governing body”).
  6. Special Revenue Gift Fund Monies (“the District was unable to provide the auditors with a list of balances for each special revenue being tracked in the fund”).
  7. Long Outstanding Checks (“the District was carrying long outstanding checks with some dating back to 2020”).
  8. Fund Balance Policy (“the District has a formal fund balance policy, although the policy does not appear to include the requirements of GASB [Governmental Accounting Standards Board] 54. GASB Statement No. 54 defines the various elements of fund balance”).
  9. FDIC Insurance (“at June 30, 2024 the District has significant amounts of deposits in excess of the FDIC insurance limits. We did not note that the District has any form of collateral on their deposits”)
  10. Retention of Voided Checks (“a number of voided checks were not retained at the District”).
  11. Controls Over IT and Cyber-Attack Training (“we strongly recommend management investigate methods of training staff in modern cyber-attack methods to assist in preventing an attack”).
  12. Internal Controls over Cash Receipts (“one receipt was noted identifying two individuals who had signed off as having counted cash. However, when the cash was deposited into the bank, the deposit was for less than both individuals had counted”).
  13. Client Adjusting Entries (“we noted numerous instances of manual adjustments which lacked appropriate documentation or were incorrect”).
  14. Actuarial Studies for OPEB [Other Post-Employment Benefits] (“GASB Statement 75 requires a new valuation every two years. If there are significant changes to employee benefits accounted for under the Statement, a new actuarial study should be scheduled before the mandatory 2-year period”).

A few remarks:

Tenure. Everyone on this school board has been in office for at least a year, with many having served far longer.

Less Than 10 Minutes. This entire presentation on the audit took less than the brief ten minutes allotted on the agenda.

Late Into the Meeting. This audit was not discussed until two hours, eighteen minutes into the meeting.

Intro to the Discussion. The presenter, a district employee with a doctoral degree, begins with this introduction to the discussion: “I know this is the most exciting thing in the planet that you’ve all been looking forward to.”

Honest to goodness. A lawyer does not deprecate legal ethics with a sardonic introduction, nor a doctor with similar sarcasm before discussing the Hippocratic Oath.

About Lawyers and Opinions. One hears in the presentation that “[r]emember that an auditing firm’s job is to offer an opinion of the district. So, it’s just like a lawyer. They never say this is for sure.” As it turns out, I happen to be familiar with law, as a matter of practice and jurisprudence. This audit is not “just like a lawyer” (however vague that remark is).

This audit is not like a memorandum of law on the likelihood of prevailing in litigation. It’s an audit mainly focused on actual events and facts. What the district has done or not done, so to speak, in the words of a venerable liturgy.

What Wrong Means. The presenter contends that “I do want to remind you that this was, this came on the heels of the absence of a business manager. So, there was no one at the helm for about six months, you know, during this audit. So, a lot of the things they found are not things that the district is necessarily doing wrong.”

No, and no again: Not having someone at the helm is, in fact, doing something wrong. An outside contractor should have been hired. In any event, these many deficiencies cover more than a single vacancy period.

A Boardmember’s Concluding Remarks: “I can’t imagine [to] keep uncovering things constantly.”

Well, neither can this libertarian blogger.

Whitewater deserves better.

Powered By EmbedPress

more >>

City, Daily Bread, Local Government, Open Government, School District

Daily Bread for 6.2.25: Yesteryear’s Familiar Tune

by  • 

Good morning.

This mock-up of the Surveyor spacecraft was taken in 1966. By NASA – NASA, Public Domain, Link

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 83. Sunrise is 5:18 and sunset is 8:27, for 15 hours, 9 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 44.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1966,   Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world.

Whitewater has been in the midst of a contractual impasse between the Whitewater Unified School District and the City of Whitewater over the district’s objections to a long-standing arrangement for a school resource officer. See from FREE WHITEWATER Discussion of Whitewater’s School Resource Officer Merits a 120-Day Contract Extension, More on a Whitewater School Resource Officer, Update on School Resource Officer Discussions Between the Whitewater School District and the City of Whitewater, Status of a School Resource Officer for Whitewater’s Schools, and City of Whitewater Renews Proposal and Encourages School District to Negotiate.

A longtime resident speaks on the SRO issue at the 5.6.25 meeting of the Whitewater Common Council:

I’m not going to get into the details of the negotiations between the two boards, but help me understand how negotiation by press release is a good idea. When the city manager put out a press release laying things out, made it very public. I don’t know why they left, but I believe that [unclear] was here to deal with this issue. I know WTMJ ran a story on it. We don’t need this. They’ll get to it. They’ll get to it.  

I have some questions in your packet [concerning particulars of an SRO proposal from the city]

….

But let the boards work with each other.  Let’s not make this an issue of individual personalities. We don’t need any more bad press in the community.

A few remarks:

A request. A lifelong resident, who served on the old Community Development Authority, was president of the old Community Development Authority, served on the Whitewater School Board, and was president of the Whitewater School Board, asks “help me understand“ a matter of public importance.

Easily fulfilled. These are public issues involving child safety, about public officials, at public expense. The particulars of the dispute should be known to residents in the city (pop. approx. 15,000) and the whole district (pop. approx. 22,000). These details are not about mere negotiations, but about fundamental claims that should be, and in a well-ordered community must be, public knowledge.

That’s not an issue of personality, that’s an issue of policymaking.

Bad Press. The best way to avoid bad press is to do good work, and the best way to do good work is to expand the discussion to the whole community.

The particulars of the SRO proposal mentioned on 5.6.25. As it turns out, the resident’s assessment (available in the video above) on the city’s proposed SRO contract (including ill-grasped concerns1 that expenses for an SRO were ‘like double-dipping’ ) was wrong. One meeting later, on 5.20.25, the City of Whitewater answered (refuted, truly) the resident’s concerns in a memo. See City of Whitewater, Public Comment Response from May 6, 2025 Common Council Meeting, May 9, 2025.

Familiarity. Old Whitewater — a state of mind rather than a person — has always felt that a few people in this small American town should decide without informing others of vital public issues.

It’s yesteryear’s familiar tune2, as astonishingly predictable as it is predictably astonishing3.

_____

  1. These concerns were evidently erroneous when made on 5.6.25. Anyone with a causal knowledge of prior contractual arrangements would have seen as much. Still, a full memo refuting these concerns was helpful to the public. One can admire a good refutation. ↩︎
  2. Increasingly rare these days, because to call for closed discussions isn’t as common in town as it once was, but then a remnant still has a lack of reflection before speaking. ↩︎
  3. Hearing this never upsets me (although I am intellectually opposed to it): my reaction is perhaps similar to that of an ornithologist who hears once again the call of a fading species. There were years ago more people of this closed-government view in town, flocking here and there. ↩︎

Italy’s Mount Etna sends huge ash plume into air during eruption:

Birds, Daily Bread, Nature

Daily Bread for 6.1.25: Pileated Woodpecker Snacks on Seeds and Suet

by  • 

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 72. Sunrise is 5:19 and sunset is 8:27, for 15 hours, 8 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 34.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1495,  a monk, John Cor, records the first known batch of Scotch whisky.

A small pterodactyl male pileated woodpecker snacks on seeds and suet:

Watch a male Pileated Woodpecker stop by the Cornell Lab FeederWatch Cam for a snack of seeds and suet. The large woodpecker starts by excavating some suet before settling in on the seed cylinder for a long foraging bout.

The convenience of an ATM:

Daily Bread, Games/Puzzles, Language

Daily Bread for 5.31.25: A Scrabble World Champion’s Tips

by  • 

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 70. Sunrise is 5:19 and sunset is 8:26, for 15 hours, 7 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 24.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1859, the clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, which houses Big Ben, starts keeping time.

The Palace of Westminster from across the River Thames. The Elizabeth Tower is visible on the right. By Terry Ott from Washington, DC Metro Area, United States of America – Built in 1016, CC BY 2.0, Link

This Scrabble World Champion can help you win:

Scrabble ranks among the most iconic board games of all time—right up there with Monopoly, Jumanji, Risk, and Clue. But unlike most, Scrabble demands a sharp mind. You’ll need the vocabulary of a spelling bee champion, the precision of a math whiz, and the strategy of a chess master—all while keeping a close eye on your opponents’ every move. In this video, we explore the fascinating history of Scrabble and sit down with World Champion Wellington Jighere, who shares his top tips and clever hacks for dominating the board and winning a game of Scrabble. Want to level up your game? Join us and discover plenty of Scrabble secrets, with a dose of history along the way.

The Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library:

See also Endangered Archives Programme, British Library.

Conspiracy Theories, Daily Bread, Health, Medicine

Daily Bread for 5.30.25: Another Conspiracy Theory Besets Wisconsin

by  • 

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 78. Sunrise is 5:20 and sunset is 8:25, for 15 hours, 5 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 16 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1899, Pearl Hart, a female outlaw of the Old West, robs a stage coach 30 miles southeast of Globe, Arizona.

There have been legion conspiracy theories besetting some Wisconsinites over the last twenty-five years: 9/11 as an inside job, Obama’s birth certificate, claims the Clintons murdered several people, QAnon, that COVID-19 was a planned pandemic, the lab leak theory about COVID-19, that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, that there is in America a ‘deep state,” and that elites are replacing whites with racial minorities. I’ve likely forgotten a few.

Wisconsin now faces another crackpot theory, about the cause of measles, from Wisconsin doctor Pierre Kory:

Last month, Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary and longtime anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attended the funeral for the second unvaccinated child in Texas to have died in the ongoing measles outbreak. While in Texas, he met with the two grieving families — along with two local doctors promoting unproven measles treatments, whom he called “extraordinary healers.” 

Following the first death, Children’s Health Defense (CHD), the anti-vax organization Kennedy led until recently, pushed its own narrative claiming that the 6-year-old Mennonite girl did not actually die from the measles. In this effort, CHD has relied heavily on Pierre Kory, a Wisconsin doctor who has both amplified that assertion and claimed that the measles virus has been weaponized by unknown conspirators.

Kory is a Kennedy ally who has been widely criticized for spreading Covid misinformation during the pandemic, including pushing the use of ivermectin as a “miracle drug” for treating that virus. 

For years, CHD and Kennedy have promoted the debunked claim that the standard measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine given to almost all children in the U.S. is tied to autism. With an upsurge in the pandemic-era, right-wing embrace of the anti-vax movement — and of Kennedy himself — there has been a notable decrease in routine pediatric vaccinations in the U.S. 

Now that measles immunization rates have fallen below thresholds to maintain herd immunity in certain parts of the country, outbreaks such as the one in West Texas are expected to become more common. In February, Texas reported the country’s first measles death in a child in the more than two decades since the disease was classified as eradicated in the U.S. 

In response to this death, CHD posted a video on March 19 featuring Kory and Ben Edwards, another Texas doctor Kennedy applauded, discussing the girl’s medical records, which her parents released to the organization. 

Despite having no training in pediatric medicine and having had his board certifications in internal medicine and critical care revoked last year, Kory claimed the child’s death was due to incorrect antibiotic management of a bacterial pneumonia infection that had “little to do with measles.” Edwards — a family doctor who has been treating measles-stricken children in Texas with medications not indicated for measles and was accused of seeing pediatric patients while actively infected with measles himself — concurred with Kory. 

(Emphasis added.)

See Center for Media and Democracy, Wisconsin doctor makes wild measles claims, Wisconsin Examiner, May 30, 2025.

‘Only the best people’…

Aerial video captures severe storm above Austin:

Video taken from a plane shows a severe storm heading toward Austin that would knock out power for thousands of people.

Cats, Science/Nature

Friday Catblogging: Cats Can Identify Owners from Strangers by Scent

by  • 

Cats can identify owners from strangers by scent:

The study by Tokyo University of Agriculture found cats spent significantly longer sniffing tubes containing the odours of unknown people compared to tubes containing their owner’s smell.

This suggests cats can discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar humans based on their odour, the researchers say, but that it is unclear whether they can identify specific people.

….

In the study published on Wednesday, researchers presented 30 cats with plastic tubes containing either a swab containing the odour of their owner, a swab containing the odour of a person of the same sex as their owner who they had never met, or a clean swab.

The swabs containing odours had been rubbed under the armpit, behind the ear, and between the toes of the owner or stranger.

Cats spent significantly more time sniffing the odours of unknown people compared to those of their owner or the empty tube, suggesting they can discriminate between the smells of familiar and unfamiliar people, the researchers said.

….

“The odour stimuli used in this study were only those of known and unknown persons,” said one of the study’s authors, Hidehiko Uchiyama.

“Behavioural experiments in which cats are presented with multiple known-person odour stimuli would be needed, and we would need to find specific behavioural patterns in cats that appear only in response to the owner’s odour.”

See Tim Dodd, Cats distinguish owner’s smell from stranger’s, study finds, BBC, May 28, 2025.

Daily Bread, Economy, Housing

Daily Bread for 5.29.25: Higher Lumber Prices Will Affect Homebuilding

by  • 

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 70. Sunrise is 5:20 and sunset is 8:24, for 15 hours, 4 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 8.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Police & Fire Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1848, Wisconsin enters the Union:

Wisconsin was admitted to the Union by act of Congress on May 29, 1848. As soon as possible after the close of the second [state] constitutional convention, notice was given in Congress (Feb. 21, 1848), by the territorial representative, the Hon. John H. Tweedy, of his intention to introduce a second bill for the admission of Wisconsin into the Union (the first bill had not taken effect because the voters of Wisconsin rejected the first, 1846, draft constitution).

March 13, 1848, the people of the territory voted on the new constitution, and it was approved by a vote of 16,799 to 6,384. On March 16, President Polk in a special message submitted to Congress the Wisconsin constitution with accompanying documents. On March  20, Mr. Tweedy introduced his bill, which on April 13 was favorably reported from the committee on territories, read first and second times and referred to the committee of the whole. It was made a special order for May 9, and on the 11th was engrossed, read a third time and passed. The Senate at once took action, and a week later, May 19, the bill was concurred in and ten days later, May 29, was approved by the president.

How higher lumber prices will impact homebuilders:

Volatile lumber prices are once again rattling the U.S. housing market, squeezing builders and threatening to exacerbate an already dire affordability crisis. Though lumber avoided inclusion in the latest round of tariffs, the Trump administration has signaled growing interest in tightening trade restrictions, which could also increase lumber prices.

Glacier collapses burying evacuated Swiss village in mud and rocks:

A huge section of a glacier in the Swiss Alps has broken off, causing a deluge of ice, mud and rock to bury most of a village evacuated earlier this month due to the risk of a rockslide.

Daily Bread, Never Trump, Politics, Tony Evers, Wisconsin, WisDems

Daily Bread for 5.28.25: Democrats Pressuring Evers Don’t Know What State They Live In

by  • 

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be rainy and cloudy with a high of 62. Sunrise is 5:21 and sunset is 8:23, for 15 hours, 03 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 3.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 585 BC,  a solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by the Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares in the Battle of the Eclipse, leading to a truce. This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated. It is also the earliest event of which the precise date is known.

Ruth Conniff (always worth reading) writes in the Wisconsin Examiner that grassroots pressure on Gov. Evers reflects nationwide impatience with Dems:

More than 100 citizens from an array of grassroots groups packed the Wisconsin state Senate parlor and marched on Gov. Tony Evers’ office Tuesday, their chants bouncing off the marble walls inside the Capitol. They were there to deliver a letter — which they urged others to sign online — demanding that Evers veto the state budget if it doesn’t include key elements of the governor’s own budget proposal.

“The whole Democratic grassroots is now demanding that national leaders stand and fight,” said Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, who helped organize the effort, “and I think that spirit is now being translated down to the state level.” 

Public school advocates, child care providers, teachers’ unions and advocates for criminal justice reform and health care access came to demand that Evers take a stronger stand and threaten to use his significant veto power in negotiations with Republicans. 

See Ruth Conniff, Grassroots pressure on Gov. Evers reflects nationwide impatience with Dems, Wisconsin Examiner, May 28, 2025.

I’m not a Democrat, yet I understand Democrats’ justified frustration. Indeed, this libertarian blogger has encouraged collective protest. See Go Outside.

Gov. Tony Evers, however, is governor of Wisconsin, not Illinois; his political position is different from the one that J.B. Pritzker (admirably) has taken. (Without question, Pritzker’s expressed views on Trump are similar to millions of Americans, my own among them.)

Someone would do well, however, to remind activists that there is more than one path to success. Ever is a twice-elected governor, and he is almost certain to run again. Although mild-mannered, Evers has a record of political success in this state, and a strong chance of success should he run for a third term in 2026.

Tony Evers’s re-election is vital to Wisconsin’s political health. Other Democrats running in legislative races next year can take a more assertive stance. Evers needn’t — and shouldn’t — change his approach. That approach is, and will continue to be, a winning one.

SpaceX’s Starship fails mid-flight in ninth test mission:

Daily Bread, Politics, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 5.27.25: On Recent Wisconsin Political Speculations

by  • 

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 69. Sunrise is 5:21 and sunset is 8:23, for 15 hours, 02 minutes of daytime. The moon is new with 0.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 5 PM. The Whitewater Unified School District’s Policy Review Committee meets at 6:40 PM. The Whitewater School Board then meets in open session at 7 PM, to enter closed session and return to open session later in the evening.

Photograph by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

On this day in 1937,  in California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California.

There’s all sorts of speculation about who’s running for what in Wisconsin. Molly Back and Daniel Bice at the Journal Sentinel offer Which Democrats will run for governor if Tony Evers doesn’t and answers to other questions. Let’s address some of their speculations:

Q: If Gov. Evers declines to run for a third term, who are the likely Democratic front-runners?

Molly: Here are the Democrats I hear floated when this question comes up: Attorney General Josh Kaul, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, and soon-to-be-former Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairman Ben Wikler.

Evers running again is as close to a certainty as there is.

Q: Is U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson running again in 2028?

Molly: Johnson is now in his third term (one term longer than he initially promised to stay in D.C.) and is now 70. Whether he seeks a fourth term is a good question, and I don’t think we’ll have an answer until closer to 2027.

Dan: Remember when Johnson was just a “citizen legislator,” emphasizing the fact that he was a businessman and political outsider? Things have changed. Johnson sold his business and is now a D.C. insider. Washington will do that to you. But is he ready to give up his podcast interviews and Fox News airtime for a quiet retirement in Oshkosh? Who will listen to his conspiracy theories then? 

Johnson is a crackpot and a liar (he broke his pledge not to run for a third term). There’s no predicting his actions except to know that he’s a crackpot and a liar. (And holy cow, if Johnson retires, it won’t be to Oshkosh: Johnson travels along a Washington, D.C. to Florida axis.)

Q: Scott Walker is on TV a LOT. Is he running for office again?

Dan: Here’s what you need to know — his poll numbers are not good from what I hear, and he’s making more money than he ever has. In 2023, he pulled in $840,521 as president of the Young America’s Foundation, according to its financial filings. (So much for his brown bag lunches.) It’s also a job without a downside. If the number of conservative youngsters increases, then great. But if it doesn’t, what did you expect? He can blame the liberals for running the universities, the entertainment industry and the media.

So the answer is no, not anytime soon. He’s too busy counting his cash and his media appearances.

Well, that’s right: Walker isn’t running, and would lose any major race if he did run. The WISGOP isn’t Walker’s party anymore; it’s Trump’s. It’s also well-known, not scuttlebutt, what Walker makes at YAF. (There’s no ‘from what I hear’ inside knowledge required.)

See Molly Beck and Daniel Bice, Which Democrats will run for governor if Tony Evers doesn’t and answers to other questions, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 27, 2025.

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano shoots lava fountain into air in latest eruption:

Video from the U.S. Geological Survey showed Kilauea volcano spewing lava more than 800 feet into the air in its latest eruption on Hawaii’s Big Island.

America, Daily Bread, History, Military

Daily Bread for 5.26.25: Memorial Day

by  • 

Good morning.

Memorial Day in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 66. Sunrise is 5:22 and sunset is 8:22, for 15 hours, 00 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 0.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Memorial Day Parade will begin at 10:30 AM at 426 North Street and end at the Old Armory on 146 North Street.

On this day in 1969, Apollo 10 returns to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first crewed Moon landing.

Chaya Tong reports on an Arlington National Cemetery ceremony eight decades on:

More than 80 years after he died in the attack on Pearl Harbor, John Connolly was finally laid to rest – not as an unknown in a mass grave, but as a naval officer in Arlington National Cemetery.

When the Navy first called to tell his daughter, Virginia Harbison, that her father’s remains had been identified, she hung up. At 91, living in assisted care in Texas, she could hardly believe it. It was her son, Bill Ingram, who called her back to share the news again. She was silent for so long that he had to ask if she was all right. “Bill,” she said, “I hadn’t thought about that for 60 years.”

She has lived the full life her father never had the chance to. In March, Ingram pushed his mother in her wheelchair to her father’s gravesite for the burial.

“They fold the flag in this very tight, nice triangle, and then with white gloves, the commanding officer comes and takes it and kneels down and hands it to my mother,” said Ingram, who lives in San Francisco. “It was incredible.”

On Dec. 7, 1941 during the attack on Pearl Harbor, 429 service members aboard the USS Oklahoma died. Horrifyingly, men trapped below deck after the ship capsized could be heard tapping out “SOS” in Morse code as the air supply dwindled. Though 32 men were rescued, the rest were tragically not reached in time.

….

In 1944, the Navy re-commissioned one of their ships as the USS John Connolly. Though his story was a tragic one – an officer who never returned home whose remains were left unknown – history has granted him a second chance at closure. Over eight decades later, he got the hero’s burial he deserved.

See Chaya Tong, Eight decades after dying in Pearl Harbor attack, Georgia-born sailor gets Arlington farewell, Georgia Recorder, May 25, 2025.

Jupiter’s auroras captured by the James Webb Space Telescope:

Daily Bread, Education, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 5.25.25: A Wisconsin School That Excels at Math

by  • 

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 67. Sunrise is 5:23 and sunset is 8:21, for 14 hours, 58 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 4.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1933, the Walt Disney Company cartoon Three Little Pigs premieres at Radio City Music Hall, featuring the hit song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?“

A Wisconsin school that excels at math:

See Corrinne Hess, This Wisconsin school excels at teaching math. Can its approach work statewide? (‘Nearly 80 percent of Winskill Elementary School students are advanced or meeting expectations in math, double state’s average’), Wisconsin Public Radio, May 22, 2025.

Kenya relocates endangered black rhinos in conservation bid:

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 5.24.25: Chris Taylor Enters Wisconsin Supreme Court Race

by  • 

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 66. Sunrise is 5:23 and sunset is 8:20, for 14 hours, 56 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 9.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1844, Samuel Morse sends the message “What hath God wrought” (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from a committee room in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court race now has two candidates, incumbent Rebecca Bradley and challenger Chris Taylor:

The next battle for Wisconsin’s Supreme Court is shaping up, with liberal state Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor announcing Tuesday that she will challenge conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley.

While the race won’t tip the balance of power on the state’s highest court like the last two Supreme Court contests, it could potentially grow liberals’ current majority.

….

The announcements by Taylor and Bradley come after Wisconsin set yet another record for campaign spending on a judicial race. All told, more than $100 million went toward supporting the Crawford and Schimel campaigns according to WisPolitics, which is nearly double the previous record set in 2023. 

Liberals currently hold a 4-3 majority on the court, a split that will remain unchanged after Crawford takes office Aug. 1. A Bradley victory next year would keep that 4-3 margin intact. Should she lose, it would give liberals a 5-2 edge on the court.

See Rich Kramer, Liberal Judge Chris Taylor enters 2026 race for Wisconsin Supreme Court (‘Taylor is the first candidate to formally challenge conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley’), Wisconsin Public Radio, May 20, 2025.

Norwegian man wakes up to find grounded cargo ship narrowly missed his home:

Authorities say they received reports that the NCL Salten had run aground shortly before 6 a.m. Thursday. No injuries or oil spills were reported. Shipping company NCL said in a statement it was aware of police statements saying they had one suspect. The company said it was cooperating with the investigation.