Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 24. Sunrise is 7:25 and sunset is 4:30 for 9 hours 5 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 80.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1916, Russian mystic and advisor to the Tsar, Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, is murdered by a loyalist group led by Prince Felix Yusupov. His frozen, partially-trussed body was discovered in a Petrograd river three days later.
The bulk of the snow fall in Wisconsin Dec. 28 into Dec. 29 fell in far north-central parts of the state, Miller said. Some areas received over a foot.
Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 22. Sunrise is 7:25 and sunset is 4:29 for 9 hours 4 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 70.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1170, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II; he subsequently becomes a saint and martyr in the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church.
When asked how much money it will take to win the party’s nomination, Tiffany said his campaign is “budgeting to raise $40 million.” He criticized what he calls “the billionaire loophole” in Wisconsin that allows unlimited campaign contributions to political parties, which then transfer unlimited amounts to candidates.
“But you know, you can cry about it, or you can compete,” Tiffany said. “We choose to compete. We’re hoping to raise $40 million when it comes to a competitive primary.”
Part of Tiffany’s big-money talk — for a mere primary race — is to make himself seem inevitable and thereby to ward off any latecomers to the WISGOP gubernatorial primary who possess greater charisma1 .
In any event, no amount spent in the August primary will assure success in the November general election, for candidates of either party.
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That would be just about any latecomer with a pulse. ↩︎
The town of Osaki has been making the headlines as a bear hotspot as Japan reels from a year of record ursine encounters and deaths. The Guardian’s Justin McCurry visited Naruko Onsen hot springs in the northeastern town, equipped with bells and whistles to ward off any bears.
Note: The reporter in the video says that he, and Japanese targets of bear attacks, can use a device that makes the noise of gunfire, thereby deterring bears from attacking. I’d simply observe that actual gunfire also deters bears.
Sunday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 47. Sunrise is 7:25 and sunset is 4:28 for 9 hours 3 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 59.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen publishes a paper detailing his discovery of a new type of radiation, which later became known as x-rays.
Saturday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 42. Sunrise is 7:24 and sunset is 4:27 for 9 hours, 3 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 49 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1966, the Cave of Swallows, the largest known cave shaft in the world, is discovered in Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico:
“Temperatures in the cave are low. Vegetation grows thickly at the mouth, The cave floor is covered with a thick layer of debris and guano. The fungi in the guano may cause histoplasmosis in humans. The cave floor and walls are inhabited by millipedes, scorpions, insects, snakes and birds. From the floor at the bottom of the main shaft, there is a series of narrow pits known as “The Crevice”, totaling some 140 m (460 ft), which brings the total depth of the cave to 515 m (1,690 ft).”
A new study has found African lions produce not one, but two distinct types of roars – a discovery set to transform wildlife monitoring and conservation efforts.
Researchers at the University of Exeter have identified a previously unclassified “intermediary roar” alongside the famous full-throated roar. The study, published in Ecology and Evolution, used artificial intelligence to automatically differentiate between lion roars for the first time. This new approach had a 95.4 percent accuracy and significantly reduced human bias to improve the identification of individual lions.
Lead author Jonathan Growcott from the University of Exeter said: “Lion roars are not just iconic – they are unique signatures that can be used to estimate population sizes and monitor individual animals. Until now, identifying these roars relied heavily on expert judgment, introducing potential human bias. Our new approach using AI promises more accurate and less subjective monitoring, which is crucial for conservationists working to protect dwindling lion populations.”
New research reveals that a lion’s full-throated roar is unique to each individual and identification could soon help scientists to count lions and estimate population density. The team developed a data-driven method to automatically classify lion vocalisations, discovering two roar types (full-throated and a newly identified intermediary roar). The analysis used simple acoustic features, achieving up to 95% accuracy in identifying individual lions. Read the study published in Ecology and Evolution https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1… Led by Jonathan Growcott (University of Exeter and WildCRU), with collaborators at the University of Exeter, WildCRU (Matthew Wijers and Charlotte Searle), Lion Landscapes, Frankfurt Zoological Society, TAWIRI (Tanzania Wildlife Institute for Research) and TANAPA (Tanzania National Parks Authority).
Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 43. Sunrise is 7:24 and sunset is 4:26 for 9 hours 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 37.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1776, in the Battle of Trenton, the Continental Army under General George Washington executes a successful surprise attack and defeats a garrison of Hessian forces serving Great Britain.
Itzae was the first albino puma born in Central America, and is one of four known in the world. She was born in a Nicaraguan Zoo in August 2023, among her beige and spotted siblings, the common coloration of pumas. After Itzae’s birth, she required special care due to her albinism. The condition can often reduce the survivability of an animal due to the lack of melanin.
Pumas, also known as cougars or mountain lions, are native to the Americas. The genus Puma only has one living species, Puma concolor, of which Itzae is a member. Cougars range from as far north as the Yukon in Canada all the way down to Patagonia in South America, rendering P. concolor the most widely distributed terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere.
They primarily inhabit the mountains of the Americas, but can also be found in a variety of habitats due to their high adaptability.
Tuesday, December 30th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Eleanor the Great @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Drama Rated PG-13
1 hours, 38 minutes (2025)
96 year old actress June Squibb is Eleanor, a lonely senior looking for meaning and fulfillment. She finds it at a Jewish Community Center, but her fibbing about experiences during the Holocaust creates problems. Directed by Scarlett Johansson.
Christmas Day in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 39. Sunrise is 7:24 and sunset is 4:26 for 9 hours 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 27.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Christmas Eve in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 43. Sunrise is 7:23 and sunset is 4:25 for 9 hours 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 18.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1814, representatives of the United Kingdom and the United States sign the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812. (The treaty later takes effect on February 17, 1815.)
At the Journal Sentinel, Jessie Opoien writes a list of top Wisconsin political stories for 2026. Opoien sees six top stories: (1) control of the state government (legislative and executive branches), (2) possible congressional redistricting, (3) abortion, (4) large data center projects, (5) online sports betting, and (6) a Wisconsin Senate investigation of the state’s Department of Justice. See Jessie Opoien, The 6 big Wisconsin political stories to watch for in 2026, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 24, 2025.
I’d add one other, in front of all these: what do voters in Wisconsin think of federal policy? How do they feel about national issues now ever-present and intruding daily into their lives?
The answer will go far — very far — in determining control of the capitol, the intensity of the drive for redistricting, and what voters think of any WISGOP legislative investigations. The other issues Opoien lists, important in varying degrees, are slight as against the national political conflict that shrouds statewide politics.
Lights, music, and history came together in a show inside the Cathedral of Saint Michael and Saint Gudula in Belgium’s capital, Brussels on Saturday (December 20), to mark the building’s 800th anniversary, highlighting its architectural details throughout the month of December.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 43. Sunrise is 7:23 and sunset is 4:25 for 9 hours 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 11 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
At a Wisconsin Assembly committee meeting in November to consider a proposal to extend the widely popular Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Grant program, Rep. Rob Swearingen (R-Rhinelander) complained that too much land in his district has been conserved through the program.
That sentiment has become increasingly common among a subset of Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature, most of them representing the far northern reaches of the state. The complaint they often make is that Knowles-Nelson has taken too much land off local property tax rolls, depriving already struggling local governments of important revenue.
The complaints that Knowles-Nelson has conserved too much Northwoods land may prove fatal to the program in a Legislature that has been unable to find common ground on environmental issues.
But an analysis of public lands data shows that the Knowles-Nelson program plays a comparatively small role in Wisconsin’s conserved land portfolio. Despite the claims of critics, the program’s land purchases have been made in all corners of the state.
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Swearingen’s 34th district, which covers north central Wisconsin from Rhinelander up to the Michigan border, has more land conserved by the DNR than any other district in the state — almost 335,000 acres, nearly 24% of the district. That includes land set aside for state parks, natural areas, forests and similar uses.
But only 4.7% of the district is conserved through Knowles-Nelson. Another 4.6% of his district is conserved by the federal government, and 8.6% is conserved county forest land.
Despite the claims that Knowles-Nelson has devoured valuable land across the state, no Assembly district has had more than 5.1% of its land conserved through the program, data shows. The average amount of Knowles-Nelson conserved land across all 99 Assembly districts is 1.13%.
It’s much easier to claim falsely that the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship program is responsible for too much conservation land, and kill that program, than to assess accurately which ways that land became conservation-protected, or to declare openly that you’d rather not have conservation at all.
The impulse to assert without proof, and hope (or assume) that you must be right, is a lazy approach1.
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The Whitewater version of this is for a local landlord to walk up to the lectern at a council meeting and assert erroneously that “I think you have gone in a lot of your employment brackets where you’re hiring or you have staff that you are moving a lot of people up to the top part of the bracket.” SeeA Baseless Speculation About the City of Whitewater’s Salary Scale, Video @ 28:13, December 2, 2025 Common Council meeting. It’s so easy to speak those words into a microphone. It takes genuine effort, by contrast, to research first and speak only afterward. ↩︎
Deep in a cave on the Albania–Greece border, scientists found the world’s largest spider web — home to over 100,000 spiders, the biggest ever recorded.
Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:23 and sunset is 4:24 for 9 hours 1 minute of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 6.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1864, Savannah, Georgia, falls to the Union’sArmy of the Tennessee, and General Sherman tells President Lincoln: “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah.”
Didn’t Mr. Trump say of mail-in voting that “ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, IN PARTICULAR THE DEMOCRATS, KNOWS THIS”? He did.
Didn’t he say he’d sign an (unconstitutional) executive order purporting to end mail-in voting? He did.
Republicans are making mail-in voting a core part of their midterm battle plans — a sharp contrast with President Donald Trump’s efforts to abolish the practice as they scramble to turn out his base.
In Wisconsin, the state party is preparing a full-court press of mailers, emails, phone banks, door knocks and digital ads to get voters to sign up for mail ballots.
…
Trump has long falsely decried mail voting as rife with fraud. Over the summer, he vowed that Republicans “are going to do everything possible [to] get rid of mail-in ballots.” In November, and again this week, he called on Senate Republicans to eliminate the filibuster and pass a law to ban mail-in voting.
But, as has been the case for several years, he and his party are out of sync.
(Emphasis added.) See Lisa Kashinsky, Republicans push mail-in voting for the midterms in defiance of Trump (‘Fearing a turnout slump, Republicans are promoting mail voting to keep Trump’s supporters engaged — even as he tries to end the practice’), POLITICO, December 17, 2025.
What happened? Perhaps the WISGOP, and GOP parties across the country, woke1 up to the security and popularity of mail-in balloting. No. It’s more likely that worry over political trends drove them here.
No matter — mail-in voting is a sound and sensible choice for millions across the country.
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Woke: Used here as a verb, but more powerful as an ill-defined noun whose use causes blood-pressure spikes on the far right. ↩︎
Meet the bold Red-winged Blackbird! This quick 2-minute introduction presents all the basic information you need to know about this common North American bird, from identification to foods, nesting behavior, range, and more.
Winter1 begins in Whitewater with sunny skies and a high of 28. Sunrise is 7:22 and sunset is 4:23 for 9 hours 1 minute of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 2.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1913, Arthur Wynne, a journalist born in Liverpool, England, publishes a “word-cross” puzzle in the New York World that embodied most of the features of the modern crossword puzzle genre. This puzzle is frequently cited as the first crossword puzzle, and Wynne as the inventor. An illustrator later reversed the “word-cross” name to “cross-word.”
This libertarian blogger holds the working theory (shared by many) that the 2026 Wisconsin gubernatorial race will be a referendum on federal policy. SeeIt’s Who Was Missing from That Candidates’ Forum That Matters Most (11.9.25: “Our state politics is a proxy for national politics. There’s no evidence that this will change by next November, or for years afterward”) and Assessing Teasers and Speculation About Wisconsin Elections for 2026 (10.6.25: “There’s much about 2026 that’s yet to be decided, but one influence that’s certain. Wisconsin voters’ views of federal policy will shape the 2026 state races, whichever candidates are nominated”).
It’s true that particular statewide candidates, some stronger and some weaker than others, will make a difference. Mostly, however, the degree to which they more effectively support or reject federal policy will be their path to success.
Local races may remain local (although that will vary across the state).
Statewide, however? That’s national now.
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Winter: the second-best season, after fall. In your hearts, you know I’m right about this. Even now, you’re probably wishing it were colder. ↩︎
