Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 62. Sunrise is 5:43 and sunset is 8:00, for 14 hours, 17 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 60.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater Unified School District Board meets in open session at 6:30 PM, then enters closed session at 6:50 PM.
Additionally, the Trump administration announced planned tariffs on Chinese solar products sold from southeast Asia, ranging from 41 percent to more than 3,500 percent depending on the country. Those tariffs still need to be finalized and would require a vote by the International Trade Commission.
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Ismaeel Chartier, development director at RENEW Wisconsin, said the combination of tariffs could make some projects in the state “economically unfeasible,” especially if the tariffs on imports from southeast Asia take effect.
“They no longer ink out,” he said. “The return on investment is not a 10-year return on investment, it becomes a 30-, 40-, 50-year return on investment.”
The tariffs on steel and aluminum raise the costs of the metal racking used to mount solar panels, while the duties on China and the planned targeted solar tariffs would increase the costs of panels themselves, Chartier said.
I’ve no claim about whether tariffs will make the proposed Whitewater project too costly; they are likely to affect at least some of the nearly 20 Wisconsin projects either underway or awaiting approval.
Sunday in Whitewater will see a mix of clouds and sun with a high of 64. Sunrise is 5:44 and sunset is 7:59, for 14 hours, 15 minutes of daytime. The moon is in its first quarter with 50.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 2007, Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by the 2007 Greensburg tornado, a 1.7-mile wide EF5 tornado. It was the first-ever tornado to be rated as such with the new Enhanced Fujita scale.
And how about when it comes to long-standing trends in Wisconsin’s labor market or demographics? Are there numbers you like to bring up that you think people don’t tend to know?
If you look at the working-age population declining from 2020 to 2030, and then kind of leveling off from 2030 to 2040, we’re just not going to have strong growth in the number of individuals who are working age in the state. That’s mostly true across the state, although there are some counties that will be projected to grow, like Dane and Eau Claire.
And then also, the combination of individuals of retirement age or nearing retirement age that are going to either leave the labor force or change the types of work they’re doing. If we look at the manufacturing sector, for instance, we have almost 131,000 individuals in that industry who are aged 55 or older, or almost 28% of that industry. So in those large employment sectors in the state, how do we think about replacing the workforce or augmenting the workforce going forward due to retirements or just shifting abilities due to the aging population?
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How are the challenges or opportunities different in different parts of the state, say in urban areas versus more rural areas?
Certainly many of the non-metro areas do have an older population and will continue to have an older population going forward, so they will most likely face some of the bigger challenges in terms of some of the population shifts by age group. In some of those areas too, you have some of the bigger challenges in developing housing … to try and attract a new labor force. So those challenges are a bit twofold.
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Which Wisconsin industries rely more on older workers?
Wisconsin’s working-age population is declining, leaving industries with more workers nearing retirement age. This U.S. Census Bureau data shows which industries in the state most relied on workers ages 55 and older in early 2024.
The demographic challenges, in industries where they are present, are a refutation and rebuke to those who say ‘let’s boost manufacturing through tariffs’: it will be more difficult and take more time — if it should work at all — than advocates of tariffs glibly contend. The pro-tariff crowd might as well say let’s build time machines out of DeLoreans.
“Star Wars” fans around the world are celebrating the space epic this weekend through an unofficial, fan-made holiday. A sly nod to one of the films’ most popular catchphrases, May the 4th is known as Star Wars Day and has been embraced by businesses and communities over the years. (AP Video: Haven Daley) Read more here: https://bit.ly/42WHZbo
Saturday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 56. Sunrise is 5:46 and sunset is 7:58, for 14 hours, 12 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 39.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1952, the Kentucky Derby is televised nationally for the first time, on the CBS network.
When you imagine a plant, what do you think of? Lush green leaves, the sweet smell of a flower or maybe some roots? Well, the world’s largest flower doesn’t have any of these! Rafflesia is a parasitic behemoth that has baffled scientists since its discovery. Taking years to grow from seed to flower, it undergoes most of its long life hidden discreetly on the forest floor. When finally ready, it explodes into the largest flower in the world. As an incredibly fussy grower, Rafflesia is rare even in pristine rainforest environments. Armed with some creative thinking and an endless supply of patience, the team at Bogor Botanical Gardens embarked on an outrageous quest to grow the flower in the middle of a bustling city…
Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 61. Sunrise is 5:47 and sunset is 7:57, for 14 hours, 10 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 29.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 2011, Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI’s most wanted man, is killed by the United States Navy SEALs in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Republican Josh Schoemann, the top elected official in a suburban Milwaukee county, this week created a committee to run for governor in 2026, making him the first candidate from either major party to get into the race.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has not yet said whether he will seek a third term. Evers has repeatedly said he will announce his intentions after the state budget is passed and signed into law, which typically happens around early July. Asked for a reaction, a spokesperson for Evers referred to a comment from the Wisconsin Democratic Party.
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Schoemann, 43, filed to create a campaign committee on Wednesday. He is the executive of Washington County, one of the deepest red counties in Wisconsin, which President Donald Trump won with 67% of the vote in 2024.
Schoemann has never run a statewide race before and is unlikely to be the only Republican candidate in the election that is 19 months away.
The last line above tells the tale: “is unlikely to be the only Republican candidate in the election that is 19 months away.” The race is so far away, in political and economic conditions so volatile, that beyond tallying entrants there’s nothing yet meaningful to add.
Thursday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 55. Sunrise is 5:48 and sunset is 7:55, for 14 hours, 7 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 19.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Public Arts Commission meets at 5 PM.
Yesterday’s post addressed the possibility of a 120-day contract extension between the city and school district for a school resource officer. SeeDiscussion of Whitewater’s School Resource Officer Merits a 120-Day Contract Extension. A contract extension would have been a commonplace approach between parties that share a good-faith commitment to work together.
Submitting a bid to other communities, as the Whitewater Unified School District’s board did on Monday, 4.28.25, is both rash and reckless.
The three developments, since my last post, deserve attention.
First, in city press release of 4.30.25, one sees the city will present an amended agreement for the Whitewater Common Council’s 5.6.25 agenda. A contract extension was a reasonable offer; an amended agreement from the city is likely to be as well.
Second, the district’s press release is a series of accusations, disputed by the city, that could and should have been addressed in ongoing discussions. The city offered the school district the chance for that discussion, and now offers an amended agreement. There are disputes over which one should be prepared to go one’s own way — this is not one of them. We are the same community, honest to goodness. These public bodies, council and board, are not engaged in arm’s-length transactions, where after a dispute one party could easily walk away from another.
Going to bid was rash because there was no impediment against continued discussions save an impetuous outlook. This libertarian blogger has been an occasional critic of policing in this city, and I’ve made my views plain more than once, but if there’s ever been a police chief open to discussion it’s this one. If Whitewater’s school district is impatient with city officials, then it suffers habitual impatience.
Rejecting a contract with the city for an SRO is also reckless. It’s impractical to expect some other community to supply an officer to this community.1 SRO positions in other communities are overwhelmingly supplied from the community’s own department (the exceptions are communities too small to do so). The city’s own research shows this to be true. Whitewater has had for years a police department able and willing to supply an SRO. No sensible department would want to send one of their officers to another city for this hyper-local, intra-community role.
Likewise, no nearby community privatizes its SRO, and it’s easy to see why: private security will not be as accountable in either training or on the public record. (On a larger scale, it’s the reason America has public armed forces rather than a private militia. Many activities should be private; a few should be public. Policing in public schools should be a public function. Private businesses like shopping malls use security guards; public schools use public police departments.)
It would be a mistake to reject a local contract, and thereafter find that Whitewater’s schools are left with no resource officer, or an ill-considered alternative. Ignoring the city’s offer creates needless controversy.
Third, the city’s reply shows an understanding of the SRO role that the decision to solicit bids simply does not. One might say that the district acted as it did to gain attention to its position. There are better ways to gain attention. Nonetheless, no one improves his negotiating position at the cost of undermining his overall condition. The district has for years used the services of a Whitewater SRO. Turning away from modifications to the existing arrangement for improbable or impractical alternatives creates needless risk. Those risks would not be borne by another community; they would be borne by this community.
The Whitewater Common Council will place an amended SRO contract offer with the district on its 5.6.25 agenda. Discussions thereafter between the parties should strive to achieve an agreement between Whitewater’s schools and the city’s police department as promptly as possible.
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One can be a supporter of remote work yet see that policing is not, literally, a remote work position of one person from someplace else. ↩︎
Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 65. Sunrise is 5:50 and sunset is 7:54, for 14 hours, 5 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 11 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1803, American representatives sign a treaty to purchase the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation.
Update, Wednesday morning: I’ll have more about this evolving topic for tomorrow’s post.
The sensible forum for a discussion about Whitewater is Whitewater. In this way, the sensible forum for a discussion of the role of a school resource officer for the Whitewater Unified School District is within Whitewater. Our goal should be to adopt the best practices of any community, discussed openly and applied, within this community.
For many years, the Whitewater Unified School District has had a school resource officer drawn from the ranks of the Whitewater Police Department. The SRO contract between the school district and city is due for renewal this summer.
In a letter dated 4.9.25, outgoing Superintendent Caroline Pate-Hefty raised concerns about police services to the district. At its 4.15.25 meeting, the Whitewater Common Council supported (1) an extension of the current agreement for 120 days to give time for a new superintendent to discuss the agreement with the city and (2) requested that the city’s proposed extension be included in the school district’s next agenda packet.
Whitewater’s Police Chief Dan Meyer followed this council action with a 4.17.25 letter to the WUSD board outlining the city’s position. In reply to an email from the district’s board secretary, the city’s chief of staff repeated the city’s request for an extension to be added to the school board’s next meeting.
The extension that the city and the city’s police chief requested was not added to the school board’s open-session 4.28.25 agenda. There was no reason not to include the city’s extension requests in the board’s agenda packet for open-session consideration. Instead, the school board voted to put the school resource officer position to bid to communities in the area.
This was both a rash and impractical decision. The Whitewater Unified School District and the City of Whitewater have, as the names of both reveal, a community in common. The Whitewater Common Council was owed inclusion of its request as a matter of open government, of good faith discussion within this community, and, plainly, of simple courtesy.
If there are concerns to be addressed, those concerns should be addressed first in this community. An extension of the existing contract would give time for this community to hear and respond to those concerns. Submitting the school resource officer position to a bid cuts short that discussion. (It most certainly has this effect, too: rejecting an extension is turning away from the incumbent department, placing it in a lower position than it now occupies. There’s a difference between holding a spot and having to reapply for it.)
This libertarian blogger offers today no position on the right contract provisions for an SRO for Whitewater’s schools.It’s enough to know that the decision deserves more intra-community deliberation than the 4.28.25 school board action allows.
Whitewater’s schools should not be so quick to turn away from Whitewater.1
An extension of the current agreement for a 120-day period is the most reasonable choice for the community, and it is one that the board should promptly adopt.
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I don’t believe I’ve ever suggested that Whitewater could be made better by contracting away fromWhitewater. We should be trying to do better here in Whitewater. ↩︎
A mating-season crazed woodpecker had damaged dozens of car mirrors in Rockport, Massachusetts, but residents remain amused rather than angry at their feathered neighbor (AP Video: Rodrique Ngowi) Read more here: https://bit.ly/42RnSeN
Tuesday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 61. Sunrise is 5:51 and sunset is 7:53, for 14 hours, 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 5.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1986, a fire at the Central library of the Los Angeles Public Library damages or destroys 400,000 books and other items.
Voters in Wisconsin could be seeing double on Election Day if the practice of fusion voting — which allows the same candidate to appear on the ballot under multiple party lines — makes a comeback in the battleground state.
A lawsuit filed Tuesday seeks to legalize the practice, saying it would empower independent voters and lesser-known political parties at a time of increasingly bitter partisanship between Republicans and Democrats. The lawsuit comes just four weeks after the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, which broke records for spending and saw massive involvement from the two parties and partisan interests.
Common in the 1800s, fusion voting means a candidate could appear on the ballot as nominated by Republican or Democratic parties and one or more lesser-known political parties. Critics argue it complicates the ballot, perhaps confusing the voter, while also giving minor parties disproportionate power because major-party candidates must woo them to get their endorsements.
Currently, full fusion voting is only happening in Connecticut and New York. There are efforts to revive the practice in other states, including Michigan, Kansas and New Jersey.
Wisconsin voters can understand a fusion ballot, as much as voters in New York and Connecticut, leaving possible confusion as an unpersuasive objection. Beyond that, it’s hard to tell how this might shape Wisconsin elections in the near-term. New York and Connecticut seem to have managed; we could, too.
Monday in Whitewater will be windy with evening thunderstorms and a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:52 and sunset is 7:54, for 14 hours, 0 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s School Board meets at 5:15 PM, goes into closed session at 5:30 PM, resuming open session at 7 PM. Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1845, the first issue of Scientific American magazine is published.
As Wisconsin’s planting season gets underway, cuts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and fluctuating tariffs on foreign trading partners are creating a new level of uncertainty for farmers.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the USDA has ended two programs that gave food banks and schools money to buy food from local ranchers and farmers. One of the programs, the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program, was used in more than 40 states, accordingto Politico.
The other program, The Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, was used in all 50 states and provided up to $900 million in funding, according to the USDA and the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
Mechanical metamaterials are structures carefully designed to give rise to unique or unusual physical properties. Now a team has taken inspiration from origami to create a modular metamaterial system. These units couple twisting movement with compression or expansion, and by combining these modules in different ways the researchers behind this work have found applications across a range of fields, from lightweight dancing robots to mechanical computing.
Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 67. Sunrise is 5:54 and sunset is 7:51, for 13 hours, 57 minutes of daytime. The moon is new with 0.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1945, Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.
From ancient cliffside chapels to bone-filled cathedrals, these are the most unusual churches in the world. While The Vatican and The Pope represent the heart of Christianity, this video explores lesser-known yet astonishing churches shaped by religion and built with truly unique architecture. These aren’t the most famous churches you’ve seen on postcards — they’re stranger, more remote, and full of unbelievable stories that that redefine places of worship.
Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 59. Sunrise is 5:55 and sunset is 7:50, for 13 hours, 54 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 2.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1954, the first clinical trials of Jonas Salk‘s polio vaccine begin in Fairfax County, Virginia.
When sentiment declines, it’s understandable that Americans would look for examples of other difficult times.
For modern Whitewater, the Great Recession’s influence is the key to understanding both economics and politics in the city. It is Whitewater’s signal modern event. Those difficult years from 2007-2009 led to an aftermath that still afflicts the city.
The failure of local officials and community leaders during that time was astonishing: the boosters1 wanted to deflect past others’ suffering, the special-interest men diverted valuable resources to their own schemes while Whitewater stayed poor2, the center-left grew but still struggles to land a decisive blow3, and the rightwing populists4 now in the city owe their present role as a faction to forces they can’t or won’t grasp.
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Narrow of mind and small of heart. See the FREE WHITEWATER category on Boosterism. ↩︎
Avaricious schemers failing time and again to match the accomplishments of the generation before them. See the FREE WHITEWATER category on Special Interests. ↩︎
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is celebratiing 35 years in space. See images of Mars, planetary nebula NGC 2899, Rosette Nebula and galaxy NGC 5335 to celebrate.
Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 56. Sunrise is 5:57 and sunset is 7:49, for 13 hours, 52 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 7.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
A bill declaring that war exists between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Spain.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, First. That war be, and the same is hereby, declared to exist, and has existed since the twenty-first day of April, A.D. 1898, including said day, between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Spain.
Second. That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, directed and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces of the United States and to call into the actual service of the United States the militia of the several States, to such extent as may be necessary to carry this act into effect.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, Beloit College President Eric Boynton and Lawrence University President Laurie Carter were among hundreds of college leaders nationally who signed the April 22 letter condemning government overreach.
Trump’s political interference is “endangering American higher education,” the letter said. “We must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses.”
College leaders said they didn’t oppose “legitimate government oversight” but rejected the “coercive” use of public research funding. The signers came from a mix of Ivy League institutions, small private schools, large public research universities and higher education associations. The American Association of Colleges and Universities circulated the letter.
Harvard University President Alan Garber was among the signatories. The nation’s oldest and wealthiest university has been in a standoff with the Trump administration since it said it would not agree to the government’s sweeping demands, including reducing faculty power, government audits of university data and changes to its admissions system. The government responded by freezing more than $2.2 billion of its grants and contracts.
Harvard has dominated headlines in recent weeks, but nearly all higher education institutions have been upended since Trump started his second term.
America’s system of higher learning is as varied as the goals and dreams of the students it serves. It includes research universities and community colleges; comprehensive universities and liberal arts colleges; public institutions and private ones; freestanding and multi-site campuses. Some institutions are designed for all students, and others are dedicated to serving particular groups. Yet, American institutions of higher learning have in common the essential freedom to determine, on academic grounds, whom to admit and what is taught, how, and by whom. Our colleges and universities share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where, in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation.
Notably, Trump’s claim that his control of higher education is necessary to combat hate speech is a shallow lie. He’s an authoritarian who seeks to limit legitimate speech, at public or private colleges, that’s not to his liking. The American university system is the finest in the world; Trump would ruin it for the sake of his movement’s perpetual control.
These university leaders are right to defend their institutions against his depredations. Harvard and others are right force him to fight for every inch of ground he wishes to control.
Arbor Day: What to know about the holiday celebrating trees:
Arbor Day began in Nebraska in the late 1800s. Here’s everything you need to know about the holiday commonly observed the last Friday in April.
