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Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

City, Conflicts of Interest, Development, Economy, Local Government, Planning, Special Interests

Daily Bread for 8.13.24: Inflation Abates, Again

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 6:00, and sunset is 7:58, for 13h 57m 38s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 59.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1961, East Germany closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin to thwart its inhabitants’ attempts to escape to the West, and construction of the Berlin Wall is started. The day is known as Barbed Wire Sunday.

Of wholesale inflation, Jeff Cox reports Wholesale inflation measure rose 0.1% in July, less than expected:

A key measure of wholesale inflation rose less than expected in July, opening the door further for the Federal Reserve to start lowering interest rates.

The producer price index, which measures selling prices that producers get for goods and services, increased 0.1% on the month, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. Excluding volatile food and energy components, the core PPI was flat.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for an increase of 0.2% on both the all-items and the core readings.

A further core measure that also excludes trade services showed a rise of 0.3%.

On a year-over-year basis, the headline PPI increased 2.2%, a sharp drop from the 2.7% reading in June.

Inflation is abating, and growth is up, and in these improving conditions residents of both big cities and also small towns (like Whitewater!) have a chance to avoid the economic mistakes of the past (and those who made them).

Some of Whitewater’s special-interest men (from the 2000s and 2010s) are like declining athletes who should have retired from the game years ago. They stayed too long, and now can’t hit, can’t field, can’t circle the bases. Overweight and underpowered. They want to blame everyone else for their below-average performance. One wonders: why pretend it’s a major-league game with these minor-league banjo-hitters stumbling up to the plate?

Whitewater deserves better.

Orbits:

Cats, Daily Bread, Photography

Daily Bread for 8.12.24: From Walter Chandoha, 1962

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 79. Sunrise is 5:59, and sunset is 7:59, for 14h 00m 10s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 48.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1851,  Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine.

Cats, because one can afford to be relaxed.

Photo by Walter Chandoha, 1962:


Not to be underestimated:

Daily Bread, Nature

Daily Bread for 8.11.24: The 2024 Perseid Meteor Shower

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 76. Sunrise is 5:58, and sunset is 8:01, for 14h 02m 41s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 39.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1919, the Green Bay Packers professional football team is founded during a meeting in the editorial rooms of Green Bay Press-Gazette.

The 2024 Perseid Meteor Shower:

Ditching generators and recycling buildings: How Paris did the Olympics differently:

From energy to reused infrastructure to vegetable-friendly menus, the 2024 Paris Olympics organizing committee orchestrated this year’s event with its own flavor.

Books, Censorship, City, Daily Bread, Education

Daily Bread for 8.10.24: The Store That Only Sells Fake Food

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 72. Sunrise is 5:57, and sunset is 8:02, for 14h 05m 11s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 30.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1519, Ferdinand Magellan‘s five ships set sail from Seville to circumnavigate the globe. The Basque second-in-command Juan Sebastián Elcano will complete the expedition after Magellan’s death in the Philippines.

This Store Only Sells Fake Food:

From the Barbie movie to Netflix’s series The Gentlemen, this fake food artist from Scotland has served up the most REALISTIC-LOOKING food for film sets all over the world. Want some fake Ice cream? She’ll make it. What about fake Jell-O with a gun inside? Easy! That’s a piece of cake for Kerry Boyes. This is YOUR how to guide for making fake food look real.

Giant pandas make public debut at San Diego Zoo:

The San Diego Zoo officially opened its new panda enclosure to the public allowing people to finally see Yun Chuan and Xin Bao — the first Chinese giant pandas to enter the United States in 21 years.

Books, Censorship, City, Daily Bread, Education

Daily Bread for 8.9.24: Tracking Book Bans

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 71. Sunrise is 5:56, and sunset is 8:03, for 14h 07m 39s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 22.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1944, the United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.

Richelle Wilson reports Wisconsin’s ‘banned book queen’ tracks book challenges and worries about widespread bans (‘Tasslyn Magnusson keeps a public database of book bans around the country and advocates for students, authors and librarians’):

Magnusson worries about increased efforts to ban books from school libraries. Last year, Wisconsin was the second-leading state nationally in the number of school library book removals, according to a new report she and others wrote for PEN America. A big reason for that was one parent in the Elkhorn Area School District who requested a review of 444 books.

Other districts around the state are dealing with debates around book bans, too. Magnusson lives with her family in Prescott, a small town in western Wisconsin where the St. Croix River and the Mississippi River meet. She said local school districts have been feeling the strain of increased book challenges, which often lead to heated discussions at school board meetings.

An aspiring children’s author herself, Magnusson started participating in the “kid lit” community on social media after getting a master’s degree in writing for children and young adults. That’s when she first noticed that some of her own favorite authors, including young-adult fiction writer Laurie Halse Anderson, were having their books taken off shelves.

In 2021, Anderson posted on X that her 1999 novel “Speak” seemed to be getting banned more often. She suggested that someone should start tracking book bans around the country. 

Magnusson took note. 

“I was like, ‘Wow, Laurie Halse Anderson asked. I can do that. I know how to use a Google spreadsheet,’” Magnusson recalled on WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “So, I took it upon myself to make a spreadsheet. And here we are three years later.”

This book-banning panic will subside when it meets opposition; opposition, however, requires awareness of the censors’ and scolds’ work.

See also PEN America, New Report Finds Unprecedented Surge in School Book Bans.

The physics of fish hearing:

Cats, Games/Puzzles

Friday Catblogging: Stray Coming to Nintendo Switch

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Stray will be coming to Nintendo Switch on November 19! Also currently available on PlayStation, Xbox, macOS, and PC. Lost, alone and separated from family, a stray cat must untangle an ancient mystery to escape a long-forgotten cybercity and find their way home.

Alana Hauges reports Indie Sensation ‘Stray’ Meows Up Switch Release Date:

Releasing on Switch on 19th November, Stray is an award-winning adventure game where you play as a cute little kitty cat. But this cat has big paws to fill — it has to uncover an ancient mystery hidden within a huge, neon-lit cybercity. Yeah, it’s catpunk, baby. Or cybercat? Well, the cat isn’t cyber… you get it.

The cat makes friends with B-12, a drone, and the pair must work together to escape the city. Stray earned tons of praise for its realistic cat animations and unusual premise, and it was even up for Game of the Year at the 2022 Game Awards.

City, Film

Film: Tuesday, August 13th, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, In the Land of Saints and Sinners

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Tuesday, August 13th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of In the Land of Saints and Sinners @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Crime/Action/Thriller

Rated R (Language/Violence)

1 hour, 46 minutes (2024)

It’s 1974, during “The Troubles.” A disillusioned hit man (Liam Neeson) comes out of retirement for one last job, when an IRA bomber on the run arrives in his sleepy Irish village. Totally filmed on location: an absolutely beautiful depiction of Irish locales, people, music and culture. Liam Neeson considers this one of his best film roles, ever.

One can find more information about In the Land of Saints and Sinners at the Internet Movie Database.


City, Daily Bread, University, UW System

Daily Bread for 8.8.24: Arrive for the Campus, Stay for the City

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 79. Sunrise is 5:55, and sunset is 8:05, for 14h 10m 06s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 15.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1974, President Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announces his resignation from the office of the President of the United States effective noon the next day.

Whitewater has a public university, and a goal of this community should be to encourage graduates of UW-Whitewater to remain in the city as residents after their graduation. Statewide, the Universities of Wisconsin have had success with graduates remaining in the Badger state. A local goal should be to encourage the graduates of our campus to take up long-term residency in Whitewater.

Of the state figures, Abbey Machtig reports Universities of Wisconsin graduates stay in state, according to ‘Facts and Trends’:
 

Almost 90% of Wisconsin residents with a bachelor’s degree from the Universities of Wisconsin were still living in the state five years after graduation.

That compares to 10% of graduates who were originally from Minnesota and 16% of graduates from other parts of the country or world, according to data from 2021. These findings, and more, were shared in a report the system released Wednesday. The report, “Facts and Trends,” includes information on state funding trends, enrollment and participation rates, affordability and tuition.

That Wisconsin residents stay in Wisconsin does not surprise me: this is a congenial place to live.

The goal for Whitewater, however, should be to encourage UW-Whitewater students, from whatever communities before attending our campus, to become long-term residents of our community after graduation.

See Universities of Wisconsin, Facts & Trends 2024.

What do Team USA Olympians listen to before they compete?:

Daily Bread, Economy, Health, Kulturkampf, Opioids, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.7.24: Opioids Still a Top Wisconsin Concern

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 78. Sunrise is 5:54, and sunset is 8:08, for 14h 12m 31s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 8.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1947, Thor Heyerdahl‘s balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America

Christine Durrance, a professor in the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, writes Wisconsin’s opioid crisis complicates an already troubled health care system (‘54% of respondents in UW-Madison survey report health care as quite or an extremely big problem for Wisconsin; 69% feel this way about health care being a problem for the country’):

Health care is the third most concerning issue during this presidential election year, according to WisconSays survey data collected as part of this year’s Main Street Agenda, which the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison is using to highlight what matters to Wisconsin throughout 2024.

In this statewide representative survey, 54% of respondents report health care as quite or an extremely big problem for Wisconsin; 69% feel this way about health care being a problem for the country. These sentiments are felt across the state with 58% of Democrats and 54% of Republicans viewing it as quite a problem or an extremely big problem for the state. There is also little divide between urban (54%) and rural (53%) residents.

….

In 2022, more than 80,000 Americans died from opioids. It was the most deaths in a year due to the drug, and roughly four times the number of deaths attributed to opioids just a decade earlier. Nearly 1,500 Wisconsinites lost their lives to opioids in 2022, almost 20% more than just two years prior.  

The effects of the epidemic on our communities and health care system reach far beyond overdose mortality. One understudied aspect of the opioid crisis is its impact on women, infants, and children.

A hundred culture-war issues, pushed relentlessly, have only distracted from, but not alleviated, tens of thousands of yearly tragedies.

See also Society of Actuaries: Economic Cost of the Opioid Crisis.

Firefighters rescue deer on UW-Stevens Point campus:

Around 11 a.m. first responders were called to the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Pointr construction in Lot J.

Crews were able to restrain, secure, and free the deer from its predicament. 

Daily Bread, Harris-Walz, Never Trump, Presidential Race 2024, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.6.24: Wednesday in Eau Claire, Dueling Rallies

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy and windy with a high of 74. Sunrise is 5:53, and sunset is 8:08, for 14h 14m 55s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 4.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1960, Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.

Anya van Wagtendonk reports Democrats and Republicans will have dueling rallies in Eau Claire tomorrow:

Eau Claire will be host to not one, but two presidential campaign stops on the same day this week. 

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, announced last week she’d visit the western Wisconsin city with her as-yet-unannounced running mate on Wednesday, Aug. 7. [Since this report, the Harris Campaign announced Gov. Tim Walz as V.P. Harris’s running mate.]

On Monday, the Trump campaign announced that Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance , the Republican vice presidential nominee, will hold a rally in Eau Claire that same day.

There’s a false quadrennial complaint that the two major parties are the same. The complaint has never been accurate; it’s never been less accurate than now. Democrats Harris-Walz and Republicans Trump-Vance could not be further apart and yet be in the same society.

If it all seems the same, the problem isn’t with the choice. It’s with the grasp of those who can’t see the differences.

The choice is stark and the imperative clear: Harris-Walz.

Never Trump means never Trump.

Private Cygnus cargo ship captured by space station robotic arm:

The Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft was captured by the International Space Station’s robotic arm on on Aug. 6, 2024 at 3:11 a.m. (0711 GMT). [Full Story](https://www.space.com/cygnus-ng-21-ar…) According to Space.com. the freighter — named the S.S. Richard “Dick” Scobee, after the commander of the tragic STS-51-L mission of the space shuttle Challenger — delivered nearly 8,200 pounds (3,720 kilograms) of food, scientific gear and other supplies to the ISS.

Carpetbaggers, Daily Bread, U.S. Senate, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.5.24: Baldwin Outraises Hovde 7-1

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 83. Sunrise is 5:52, and sunset is 8:09, for 14h 17m 18s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.0 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater School Board goes into closed session shortly after 6 PM and returns to open session at 7 PM.

On this day in 1884, the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe’s Island (now Liberty Island) in New York Harbor.

If Eric Hovde weren’t spending millions of his own money, he’d already be out of Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate race. Few others are ponying up. Baylor Spears reports Baldwin outraises Hovde nearly seven times over last month:

Wisconsin Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, who is  running for her third term, outraised her opponent, Republican businessman Eric Hovde nearly 7-1 last month, according to recent Federal Election Commission reports. 

Baldwin reported more than $2.5 million in receipts from July 1-24, according to the FEC pre-primary reports. Almost $2.1 million of that came from individual contributions, and according to WisPolitics, of that, $773, 270 came from individuals who contributed less than $200.

Baldwin reported spending about $3.4 million, and ended the period with $6.3 million on hand.

Meanwhile, Hovde trailed the incumbent significantly, reporting $374,000 in contributions in the same time period. He spent nearly $2.7 million, and ended the period with $3.1 million on hand. He has kept up with Baldwin in part because of the $13 million in personal loans he has put into his campaign since February.

Hovde’s lack of appeal isn’t surprising. It’s what happens when Mitch McConnell creates a carpetbagger in a mad scientist’s laboratory.

Previously at FREE WHITEWATER: Hovde’s Evident, Ignorant Racism, Eric Hovde Treats Wisconsin as a Side Hustle,  It’s Not Going So Well for Hovde, Eric Hovde Should Fire His Political Consultants and Hire a Therapist, Tim Michels 2.0 Eric Hovde Announces U.S. Senate Run, and Another Vanity Candidate.

Missing boaters rescued without injuries amid incoming hurricane:

The rescue happened amid unusually strong winds as Hurricane Debby passed by the area.

Daily Bread, Language, Law, Legislature, State Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.4.24: No on Amendment Questions 1 and 2

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 86. Sunrise is 5:50, and sunset is 8:10, for 14h 19m 39s of daytime. The moon is new with 0.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1914,  in response to the German invasion of Belgium, Belgium and the British Empire declare war on Germany. The United States declares its neutrality.

Voters will see two questions on the state’s Aug. 13 primary ballot to amend the state constitution, both of which would shift power to direct federal funding from the governor to the Legislature.

Questions written nebulously, and presented to voters on a month of traditionally lower turnout, deserve rejection. Government, and the questions it presents, are meant to be more than semantic trickery.

These are the amendment questions:

QUESTION 1: “Delegation of appropriation power. Shall section 35 (1) of article IV of the constitution be created to provide that the legislature may not delegate its sole power to determine how moneys shall be appropriated?”

QUESTION 2: “Allocation of federal moneys. Shall section 35 (2) of article IV of the constitution be created to prohibit the governor from allocating any federal moneys the governor accepts on behalf of the state without the approval of the legislature by joint resolution or as provided by legislative rule?”

For more information on the amendments, see Michael Keane, Wisconsin Constitutional Amendments, Wisconsin State Law Library. Keane writes:

If a majority of those voting on the ratification question vote “yes,” then the amendment has been ratified and becomes part of the constitution upon certification of the results by the chairperson of the elections commission, unless another date is specified in the amendment. (Wisconsin Statute 7.70(3)(h)).

The two amendments on the ballot in August, dealing with the expenditure of federal funds, were approved by the legislature on first consideration during the 2021 session (2021 Senate Joint Resolution 84; Enrolled Joint Resolution 14); they were approved on second consideration by the 2023 legislature (2023 Assembly Joint Resolution 6; Enrolled Joint Resolution 14). Two questions must be submitted to the vote because two different constitutional revisions are incorporated in the single joint resolution. The Supreme Court has ruled that in such cases, separate questions must be submitted to the people. (State ex rel. Thomson v. Zimmerman, 264 Wis. 644).

It appears that, for the first time, the people will be asked to approve a constitutional amendment at a primary election. All previous constitutional amendments have been submitted to the voters for approval at the non-partisan general (April) election, or the partisan general (November) election. (Wisconsin Blue Book, p. 509-514).

Signs of Ancient Life on Mars? Here’s What We See in This Intriguing Rock:

NASA’s Perseverance rover has made very compelling observations in a Martian rock that, with further study, could prove that life was present on Mars in the distant past – but how can we determine that from a rock, and what do we need to do to confirm it? Morgan Cable, a scientist on the Perseverance team, takes a closer look.