Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 70. Sunrise is 6:13 and sunset is 7:38, for 13 hours, 25 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 10.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Redistricting that way is not possible in Wisconsin, as the WISGOP legislature and the Democratic governor would not agree on any congressional redistricting that reduces existing gerrymandering in the state. (It’s notable that the WISGOP argues fallaciously that any attempt to reduce the gerrymandering of the maps from the last decennial census is, itself, a form of gerrymandering.)
For Wisconsin, any adjustments to the state’s Congressional districts will come from judicial action. Two cases are now pending in Dane County Circuit Court: Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, No. 2025CV002252 (Wis. Cir. Ct. Dane Cnty. July 8, 2025) and Elizabeth Bothfeld, et al. v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, No. 2025CV002432 (Wis. Cir. Ct. Dane Cnty. July 21, 2025).
A couple of very normal-looking Blue Jays are joined for a moment by an individual whose head is practically featherless! Despite the strange appearance, this is actually quite common at this time of year, especially for Blue Jays. In late summer and fall, when a bird molts, it usually grows and replaces its feathers gradually, but occasionally a bird loses all the feathers on its head at once. This is particularly true of Blue Jays, many of which molt the feathers of the head, or “capital tract,” in synchrony. The result is a very strange looking bald bird! This bald appearance lasts for about a week before new feathers replace the molted ones.
Monday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 68. Sunrise is 6:12 and sunset is 7:40, for 13 hours, 28 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 5.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 5:30 PM. The Whitewater School Board goes into closed session shortly after 6:30 PM, resuming open session at 7 PM.
At the Journal Sentinel, Craig Gilbert offers an assessment of the 2026 Wisconsin gubernatorial race. His article presents a few key points (points summarized as ‘AI-assisted’ by the Journal Sentinel; I’d recommend readers review the article in full, of course):
Wisconsin’s 2026 gubernatorial election is unusual due to the lack of an incumbent and potentially no widely recognized candidates.
Few candidates have high statewide name recognition, creating an unpredictable race where candidates have more leeway to define themselves.
Historically, candidates with low name recognition rarely win statewide races, but the open field presents a unique opportunity.
The race is expected to be highly competitive and the most open-ended in decades.
Gilbert’s full article would have been, in the political era before this one, the gold standard of analysis. In conditions of two conventional political parties, with a conventional federal executive, Gilbert’s assessment would be sound.
This is not, however, that time, as these are not those parties and this is not that federal executive. One party is a far-right populist party, and the federal executive is Trump, a bigoted authoritarian.
And so, and so, one should, adjust the Journal Sentinel‘s summary to represent the actual conditions of 2025-2026:
Wisconsin’s 2026 gubernatorial election is unusual as it has a major authoritarian party and an authoritarian president.
The lack of statewide recognition will not matter once Trump and supportive donors join the fight. Candidate ‘definitions’ will rest on how they stand in relation to Trump.
The outcome of the race will depend mainly on how Wisconsinites view Trump and Trumpism.
‘Historically’ is yesterday’s now-discarded perspective.
Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 69. Sunrise is 6:11 and sunset is 7:42, for 13 hours, 31 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1970, Vietnam War protesters bomb Sterling Hall at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, resulting in the death of a postdoctoral researcher and injuries to three others.
A Wisconsin judge Friday declined to dismiss felony charges against two attorneys and a former aide to President Donald Trump who advised Trump in 2020 as part of a plan to submit paperwork falsely claiming that the Republican had won the battleground state that year.
Dane County Circuit Judge John Hyland rejected the motions to dismiss the 11 felony charges filed against the three defendants. The charges are for using forgery in an attempt to defraud each of the 10 Republican electors who cast their ballots for Trump that year.
Jim Troupis, who was Trump’s attorney in Wisconsin, Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who advised the campaign, and Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day operations in 2020, all were initially charged in June 2024. The case has stalled as the judge considered their attempts to have the charges dismissed.
Each of the 11 of the felony charges they face carries the same maximum penalty of six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
“Troupis does not show that the First Amendment protects the right to commit forgery, does not show that the government violated his right to due process by entrapping him into that forgery, and does not show prosecutors must exercise discretion to charge an accused of his preferred offense,” the judge said in rejecting the motions to dismiss.
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The state charges against the Trump attorneys and aide are the only ones in Wisconsin. None of the electors have been charged. The 10 Wisconsin electors, Chesebro and Troupis all settled a lawsuit that was brought against them in 2023.
The southern Chinese tourist city of Sanya on the island province of Hainan closed businesses and suspended public transport as it prepared for the arrival of Typhoon Kajiki.
Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 74. Sunrise is 6:10 and sunset is 7:43, for 13 hours, 34 minutes of daytime. The moon is new with 0.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1775, King George III delivers his Proclamation of Rebellion to the Court of St James’s stating that the American colonies have proceeded to a state of open and avowed rebellion.
The Joint Committee on Legislative Organization voted by paper ballot along party lines Friday afternoon to direct the Legislative Reference Bureau not to publish any rule that hasn’t gone through a review by the Legislature in accordance with Wisconsin law.
Republican lawmakers on the committee proposed a vote on the motion Thursday after Gov. Tony Evers told agencies to skip lawmakers in the final steps of the rulemaking process. There are 27 administrative rules, including one to address the state’s policy on gray wolf management, that Evers submitted to the LRB for publication. Of those, 13 have not been reviewed by a standing legislative committee and are yet to be published.
It’s the latest step the administration has taken in testing the bounds of the recent Evers v. Marklein II ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The majority found in the case that the state laws giving the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules broad powers to block administrative rules indefinitely were unconstitutional.
The Evers Administration will have to decide whether to mount a legal challenge, an action that would seek a broader application of Evers v. Marklein II (Tony Evers v. Howard Marklein, 2025 WI 36, No. 2023AP2020-OA (July 8, 2025)).
Researchers have used a phenomenon called thermal transpiration to create a solar powered flying device that could one day carry sensors and communication equipment high in the mesosphere. Because these devices can fly in any low-pressure environment, the team think that in future it could even be used to collect data in the thin atmosphere of Mars.
Friday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 78. Sunrise is 6:09 and sunset is 7:45, for 13 hours, 36 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 0.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 2004, versions of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway. Both paintings are later recovered.
Doctors gave Cindy Bentley 24 hours to live after she was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. She beat the odds though, and through Special Olympics Wisconsin, she found purpose and athletic success, earning White House invitations from two U.S. presidents. Now leading People First, she advocates for disability rights across the state.
Hopefully, by the time you read this, the Brewers will be thick into this season‘s Race for the 2025 pennant! This is the chronicle of the City of Milwaukee and the State of Wisconsin and their 55 year love affair with the Milwaukee Brewers, and the incredible yet heartbreaking run in the 1982 World Series. (Our day will come). You’ve got to believe!
Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 78. Sunrise is 6:08 and sunset is 7:47, for 13 hours, 39 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 3.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Lakes Advisory Committee meets at 4:30 PM and the Community Development Association meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1883, an F5 tornado strikes Rochester, Minnesota, leading to the creation of the Mayo Clinic.
In an Aug. 12 letter to state agency leaders, Evers said a 4-2 ruling from the Supreme Court means there “no longer remains any statutory requirement to wait for legislative committee review before promulgating a rule once I have approved it.”
“I respectfully request that you analyze areas in which the Legislature’s prior abuse of power forestalled, delayed, or halted prior rulemaking in service of the people of our state,” Evers said.
In July, the Supreme Court struck down parts of state law that allowed the Republican-controlled Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules, or JCRAR, to indefinitely suspend rule changes.
Gov. Evers is applying the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision from July to other stalled rule changes, and here he’s likely to prevail in any possible litigation with the Legislature. The same reasoning that Wisconsin’s high court applied in July would apply to other administrative rules as well.
The politics will depend on how one views the rules advanced by the Evers Administration and may influence the 2026 gubernatorial race.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 77. Sunrise is 6:07 and sunset is 7:48, for 13 hours, 42 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 8.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Parks and Recreation Board meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1968, Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring. East German participation is limited to a few specialists due to memories of the recent war. Only Albania and Romania refuse to participate.
This was supposed to be a new golden age, but for Wisconsin’s dairy farms (and so many other businesses), it’s not turning out that way:
The Trump administration’s recent tariff actions could make it difficult for Wisconsin dairy farmers to export excess milk products and for beef producers to access Chinese markets, state farm leaders told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”
Consumers are contending with the highest average effective tariff rate since 1933, at 18.6 percent, according to the most recent estimate from the Budget Lab at Yale.
President Donald Trump’s recent tariff modifications are part of his goal “to take back America’s economic sovereignty by addressing the many nonreciprocal trade relationships that impact foreign relations, threaten our economic and national security, and disadvantage American workers,” according to a White House press release.
But Wisconsin Farmers Union President Darin Von Ruden said dairy farmers rely on international trade to export excess milk.
“We’re currently coming out of our highest milk production part of the year,” Von Ruden said. “When you have that scenario, plus these new tariffs coming on, countries not being able to afford our products … it stays here, which just then adds to that problem of lowering the price that farmers receive for their products.”
Hurricane Erin was captured by International Space Station cameras on Aug. 19. 2025. Erin is the first hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic season. Fly throught its eye: https://www.space.com/astronomy/earth…
Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 78. Sunrise is 6:05 and sunset is 7:50, for 13 hours, 44 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 15.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1944, the Liberation of Paris begins as Paris rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.
Pres. Trump wants a movement to end mail-in voting, but leaders from both of Wisconsin’s major parties know that ending mail-in voting would be a bad idea:
“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we’re at it, Highly ‘Inaccurate,’ Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES,” Trump wrote.
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Neither the president nor the federal government has the authority to manage election administration in this way. The law gives individual states broad power to decide how to run their own elections.
After Trump’s post, the Democracy Defense Project-Wisconsin board, which includes former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, former Attorney General JB Van Hollen, former U.S. Representative Scott Klug, and former Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate, said in a statement that such an action would increase inaccuracy in the state’s elections.
“The Constitution is clear: the federal government does not administer elections at the state level,” the group said. “In fact, improved access to voting methods, including the electronic machines Wisconsin uses that produce paper ballots and are unable to be connected to the internet, have benefitted Republicans just as much as Democrats. Wisconsin has displayed time and time again that our elections are safe and secure, and while we can always make them more efficient, there is no tolerance for inaccuracy in our results.”
Trump has gone back and forth on mail-in voting, and the GOP spent millions last year supporting mail-in voting. In any event, Trump’s executive order will not have the force of law across states that administer their own elections. Some may act to end mail-in ballots, but others will see that both major parties have benefited from the practice.
It’s likely Trump knows that mail-in voting will continue in many states, and the purpose of his campaign against them is to claim falsely that a vote next year against him will have been fraudulent. Mid-cycle redistricting, complaining about ballots, compelling private media to toe his line: all of these efforts and more are designed to preserve his authoritarian project against voters’ will.
NISAR is one big step closer to beginning its mission to study Earth’s changing surfaces. Following its launch on July 30, 2025, commands were sent to the satellite on Aug. 15, 2025, to unfurl its 39-foot-wide (12-meter-wide) antenna reflector. It’s the largest reflector NASA has ever deployed in space. The reflector is one of NASA’s key hardware contributions to the NISAR mission. Short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, NISAR is collaboration between NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). The mission will use an advanced, dual-band radar system — with complementary radar instruments provided by each agency — to collect high-resolution, near-global coverage of Earth, providing insights into natural hazards, agriculture, glacier and ice sheet movement, and more. The reflector plays a crucial role for both radars, which is why the successful deployment of the hardware is such a significant milestone.
Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 84. Sunrise is 6:04 and sunset is 7:51, for 13 hours, 47 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 24.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Since being appointed to the court by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, Bradley has reported that several conservative groups or legal centers have picked up nearly $52,000 in lodging, meals, airfare and other expenses so she could attend 20 out-of-state conferences and seminars since 2015.
No other sitting justice reported receiving even a third of Bradley’s travel expenses covered by outside groups.
In 2023 alone, Bradley’s excursions took her to conferences at The Royal Hawaiian resort in Honolulu, the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, Alaska, and the Henderson Beach Resort in Destin, Florida. A Virginia-based legal center footed the $12,000 cost for Bradley to attend those three events.
Bradley, an outspoken conservative, has also had her expenses covered to go to seminars in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Park City, Utah; and Laguna Beach, California, records show. In 2019, she even attended a three-day “Symposium on the Law and Economics of Marijuana Legalization” in Denver. Marijuana is not legal in Wisconsin.
A race between Justice Bradley and Wisconsin District IV Court of Appeals Judge Chris Taylor, if there is one, will center on issues beyond travel. As in so many races across America, the Wisconsin contest will serve as a referendum on federal policies. Trump will, in effect, be on the ballot in races big and small across America.
And yet, and yet, opposition video after opposition video of the exotic travel locales she’s visited would only diminish Justice Bradley’s image as a tireless warrior for conservative populism.
The self-indulgence that works in the White House or Mar-a-Lago won’t work for a Wisconsin candidate.
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Conservative Justices Ziegler and Hagedorn did attend. ↩︎
People returned to Palacios de Jamuz, a village in north-west Spain, after homes, crops and trees were badly burnt in recent blazes. Relentless heat and raging wildfires continue to ravage southern Europe, with one-quarter of weather stations in Spain recording temperatures of 40C (104F) or above over the weekend. Wildfires rage in Spain and Portugal amid searing heat.
Sunday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 80. Sunrise is 6:03 and sunset is 7:53, for 13 hours, 50 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 34.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 2008, American swimmer Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win eight gold medals at one Olympic Games.
It’s one year until the Wisconsin primary for the 2026 gubernatorial race, and fifteen months until the general election. Other than Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, no major candidate has announced in either party.
So far this summer, it’s been vanity statements about the possibility of running from Walker and Thompson, WISGOP long-shot announcements from Bill Berrien and Josh Schoemann, and now an announcement from beer vendor Ryan Strnad.
Those who have not followed every announcement (notably those from Walker and Thompson) have done themselves a favor. We’re a small state, and with relatively inexpensive media, there’s time and money enough to flood the Wisconsin many months from now.
When the field takes shape, it will be under the constant influence of federal issues and federal pressure. It’s hard not to see every competitive race in America as having that federal influence. Wisconsin’s 2026 gubernatorial race will be something like three-quarters Wisconsin and one-quarter federal (perhaps generously expressed in favor of Wisconsin).
The US Air Force’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron flew into the eye of Hurricane Erin. Also, see time-laped footage of the storm from NOAA’s GOES-19 satellite.
