FREE WHITEWATER

Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

A Serialized Draft, City

Meeper Technology Loan Investigation, Memo and Documents

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An investigation into public money from the Community Development Authority for Meeperbot and sister companies (those under the same ownership) is an investigation by some members of the local government (the municipal administration) into the conduct of other members of the local government (the Community Development Authority). All officials involved were (or are) public officials under the constraints (as they should always be) of law and public policy.

A memorandum describing the present state of the investigation (Rachelle Blitch, Director of Financial and Administrative Services, Meeper Technology Loan Investigation, 6.10.24) and supporting documents are public documents. (Professional reporting about the investigation is available at WhitewaterWise, City officials: Internal investigation finds CDA engaged in ‘lack of proper documentation, communication, and transparency’ when it ‘wrote off’ more than $750,000 in loans.)

The memorandum and supporting documents are embedded below. (The memo appears first, and the supporting documents — of which there are 34 — appear thereafter. Any highlighting or emphasis on the documents is from the public investigation.)

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Direct Link: Memorandum and supporting documents.

As the investigation is an ongoing matter, one can expect more public notes & documents, about these and other recipients.

Category Link for the Series: A SERIALIZED DRAFT. more >>

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.18.24: Wisconsin Likely Has Her 2025 Supreme Court Candidates

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 89. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset 8:36 for 15h 20m 20s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 87.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Alcohol Licensing Committee meets at 5:30 and the Whitewater’s Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 2023, Titan, a submersible operated by OceanGate Expeditions, implodes while attempting to view the wreck of the Titanic, killing all five people on board including the co-founder and CEO of the company, Stockton Rush, in the North Atlantic Ocean.

The Badger State likely has her two candidates for a Wisconsin Supreme Court race next year, as Shawn Johnson reports All 4 liberal justices back Crawford’s Wisconsin Supreme Court campaign (‘All 4 liberal justices back Crawford’s Wisconsin Supreme Court campaign’):

Just two days after she announced she was running for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford received endorsements from all four of the court’s liberal justices — a rare sign of unanimity behind a single candidate this early in the campaign cycle.

In a written statement released by Crawford’s campaign Wednesday, Justices Ann Walsh Bradley, Rebecca Dallet, Jill Karofsky and Janet Protasiewicz all pledged to support her candidacy.

The court has had a 4-3 liberal majority since last year after Protasiewicz defeated former conservative Justice Dan Kelly, ending the court’s conservative majority that had been in place since 2008. That will be up for grabs next year with Bradley set to retire.

….

While races for the court are officially nonpartisan, in practice, Democratic and Republican activists are heavily involved. Right now, the 2025 race is shaping up as a contest between Crawford, the choice of liberals, and Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel, the choice of conservatives.

Schimel, a Republican who was Wisconsin’s Attorney General from 2015 to 2019, was the first candidate to enter the race, announcing his candidacy more than six months ago. He said last month that he’d already raised more than $500,000 for his court bid.

A race between Dane County’s Crawford and Waukesha County’s Schimel might seem a match between Wisconsin’s traditional ideological battlegrounds of left and right, but the WOW counties aren’t as influential statewide for the WISGOP as they once were.

Red-Tailed Hawk Chick Makes Foray Towards Fledge Ledge On Exploratory Morning:

A Serialized Draft, City

Story, Investigation, History

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One reads a story, about a municipal investigation, into the conduct of other public officials, serving on the Whitewater Community Development Authority. The story is from WhitewaterWise, City officials: Internal investigation finds CDA engaged in ‘lack of proper documentation, communication and transparency’ when it ‘wrote off’ more than $750,000 in loans.

The story is not mine, as I am not a journalist (and do not aspire to be).

The investigation is not mine, as I am not a member of the government (and do not aspire to be).

And yet, there is a story, and there is an investigation, that points to a history of interest to this libertarian blogger (and doubtless many other residents).

That history has awaited, with patience, our consideration: it is the history that brought us here, all of us, into the present condition of the city. It is unavailing to say that this past must not be considered, as it has already been felt: there is no greater reflection on the past than for residents to feel its effects every day.

While Whitewater is beautiful beyond compare, she has not been a place for thorough and dispassionate reflection. Perhaps she never will be.

Whether dispassionate (as it should be) or overwrought (as it likely will be), Whitewater should press on in thorough consideration of the politics and policies that have brought us here. This consideration will show the measure of the officials who have exercised authority, not merely their measure when in authority, but their measure of composure now during an examination of that authority.

Category Link for the Series: A SERIALIZED DRAFT.

City, Daily Bread, University, UW System, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.17.24: Significant Progress on UW-Whitewater’s Budget

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 91. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset 8:36 for 15h 20m 12s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 78.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

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

On this day in 1673, Marquette & Joliet reach the Mississippi: “Here we are, then, on this so renowned river, all of whose peculiar features I have endeavored to note carefully.”

On this day in 1850, Vega becomes the first star (other than the Sun) to be photographed.

Deficits continue for a handful of Universities of Wisconsin campuses. Joe Schulz reports 6 UW campuses projected to have deficits, even after cost-savings efforts (‘Regent: UW-Oshkosh has depleted its reserves ahead of 2024-25 school year’):

The number of Universities of Wisconsin campuses projected to have budget deficits heading into next school year is down from 2023. But one campus has already used all of its reserves as efforts to address budget shortfalls there have negatively impacted staff morale.

Six UW schools are projected to have deficits next school year, down from 10 last year, according to Board of Regents finance committee documents. The structural deficits at those schools range from nearly $9 million to more than $500,000. 

The six campuses are UW-Oshkosh, UW-River Falls, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Superior, UW-Parkside and UW-Whitewater.

….

According to system projections, UW-Oshkosh is facing the largest deficit of any campus going into the 2024-25 school year. 

The other structural deficits are: 

  • UW-River Falls at $3.2 million, up from $2.0 million;
  • UW-Eau Claire at $1.6 million, down from $5.6 million;
  • UW-Superior at $1.5 million, up from $600,000;
  • UW-Parkside at $1.0 million, down from $5.3 million; 
  • And UW-Whitewater at $509,174, down from the $5.9 million.

There’s good news for Whitewater: this is a significant reduction in the structural deficit for our local campus. UW-Whitewater is in a better position now than some other campuses, however uncomfortable deficit-reduction has been.

Colorado rescue team frees dog trapped in house vent:

A twelve-week old Pekingese puppy was rescued in Parker, Colorado, on Tuesday (June 11) after being trapped for three hours in a townhouse vent.

Daily Bread, Holiday

Daily Bread for 6.16.24: Happy Father’s Day

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see morning thundershowers with a high of 88. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset 8:35 for 15h 20m 00s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 71.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Soothing to be writing as the rain bathes the city only inches from one’s porch.

A quick note: FREE WHITEWATER will begin a series tomorrow, as a serialized draft, on the long fight for good governance in our small and beautiful city. On days with installments, those posts within the series will appear at the top of that day’s posts, and with titles in a different type font from other posts. No title for the series quite yet, other than ‘A Serialized Draft.’ A proper title and other touches will come much later, when the series is compiled into a different, final form.

On this day in 1858, Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois. See Lincoln’s full speech, delivered at the Illinois Republican State Convention, Springfield, Illinois June 16, 1858.

Watch as arena transforms to hold Olympic swimming pool:

Daily Bread, Nature, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.15.24: Most-Visited Wisconsin State Parks (and the Popular Park Close to Whitewater)

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 82. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset 8:35 for 15h 19m 44s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 62.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1832, General Winfield Scott was ordered by President Andrew Jackson to take command at the frontier of the Black Hawk War:

Scott was to succeed General Henry Atkinson, who was thought to be unable to end the war quickly. General Scott moved rapidly to recruit troops and obtain equipment for his army. However, while in New York, the troops were exposed to an Asiatic cholera. Just outside of Buffalo, the first cases on the ships were reported and death often followed infection. By the time the ships reached Chicago, the number of soldiers had dropped dramatically from 800 to 150, due to disease and desertion. Rather than going on to the front, Scott remained with his troops in Chicago, giving Atkinson a brief reprieve.

On this day in 1844,   Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.

Among the most-visited Wisconsin State Parks, Devil’s Lake ranks first. Devil’s Lake is not far away, and it’s exceptional in beauty and diversity of offerings.

The second-place destination, however, may surprise. It’s even closer to Whitewater:

Number 2: Kettle Moraine State Forest-Southern Unit attracts about 1.5 million visitors annually. The busiest month is July, when more than 168,000 people arrive.

Clouded leopards from Indonesia:

America, Daily Bread, Holiday, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.14.24: Flag Day

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 79. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset 8:35 for 15h 19m 25s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 52.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1822, Charles Babbage proposes a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society.

On this day in 1885,  the first recognized observance of Flag Day in Wisconsin occurred at the Stony Hill School near Waubeka. The event was led by Bernard J. Cigrand, a teacher. Flag Day did not become a national observance until 31 years later when Woodrow Wilson recognized it on June 14, 1916.

It’s flag day in America. Right side up:

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Ohio town invaded by swarm of mayflies:

Courts, Crime, Daily Bread, Ethics, Law, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.13.24: Troupis’s Suspension (Criminal Defendants Don’t Belong on Judicial Advisory Panels)

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 86. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset 8:34 for 15h 19m 01s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 43.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Board of Review meets at 4 PM.

On this day in 1777,  Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, lands near Charleston, South Carolina, to help the Continental Congress train its army.

Scott Bauer reports Former Trump attorney in Wisconsin suspended from state judicial ethics panel:

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended former President Donald Trump’s Wisconsin lawyer from a state judicial ethics panel a week after he was charged with a felony for his role in a 2020 fake electors scheme.

Liberal advocates have been calling for Jim Troupis to step down from the Judicial Conduct Advisory Committee, saying he is unsuitable due to his role advising the Republicans who attempted to cast Wisconsin’s electoral votes for Trump after he lost the 2020 election in the state to Democrat Joe Biden.

Troupis, a former judge, Kenneth Chesebro, another Trump attorney, and former Trump aide Mike Roman were all charged by state Attorney General Josh Kaul last week for their role in the fake electors plot.

Troupis did not return a voicemail or text message seeking comment Tuesday.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court, in its order, notified Troupis and the judicial advisory committee that he was “temporarily suspended” from serving on the panel effective immediately. The court did not give a reason for the suspension. 

(In March 2023, the former conservative majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court reappointed Troupis to a second term despite awareness and objections at the time of his role in the fraudulent electors’ scheme. There was no requirement in 2023 that he be reappointed, and as there were many other suitable candidates for appointment, he should not have been given a second term.)

Now, almost a year and a half later, it should not — and among the ethically-minded people has not been — merely the center-left demanding Troupis’s suspension. Pending the outcome of criminal proceedings against him, he is unsuited to serve actively on the advisory committee. Should he be convicted, he is unsuited to remain a member.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court did not state a reason for Troupis’s suspension, as they might have, but then again, the reason should be apparent.

A glass that builds and heals itself:

America, City, Daily Bread, Economy, Housing

Daily Bread for 6.12.24: National Inflation Slows

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 87. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset 8:34 for 15h 18m 33s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 34.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1889, the worst tornado disaster in Wisconsin history occurs:

The storm virtually leveled New Richmond on the day the Gollmar Brothers Circus came to town. At the time, New Richmond was a prosperous town of 2500 people and one of the most scenic places in Wisconsin. On the day of the storm, the streets were filled with residents and tourists waiting for the afternoon circus parade. Shortly after the circus ended, the tornado passed through the very center of town, completely leveling buildings. Over 300 buildings were damaged or destroyed. Massive amounts of flying debris resulted in multiple deaths in at least 26 different families. In all, the storm claimed 117 lives and caused 150 injuries.

On this day in 1944, American paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division secure the town of Carentan, Normandy, France.

Good news on national inflation, as Jeff Cox reports Inflation slows in May, with consumer prices up 3.3% from a year ago:

The consumer price index showed no increase in May as inflation slightly loosened its stubborn grip on the U.S. economy, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.

The CPI, a broad inflation gauge that measures a basket of goods and services costs across the U.S. economy, held flat on the month though it increased 3.3% from a year ago, according to the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a 0.1% monthly gain and a 3.4% annual rate.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, core CPI increased 0.2% on the month and 3.4% from a year ago, compared with respective estimates of 0.3% and 3.5%.

….

Following the report, stock market futures pushed higher while Treasury yields slid.

Though the top-line inflation numbers were lower for both the all-items and core measures, shelter inflation increased 0.4% on the month and was up 5.4% from a year ago. Housing-related numbers have been a sticking point in the Federal Reserve’s inflation battle and make up a heavy share of the CPI weighting.

(Emphasis added.)

The cost of shelter continues to increase nationally, forcing the many to pay more of their income to the few for a place to live.

What are Joro spiders and are they dangerous?:

Daily Bread, Elections, State Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.11.24: A Bipartisan Vote for Wisconsin Elections Commission Chairperson

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 74. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset 8:33 for 15h 18m 02s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 25.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Community Involvement and Cable TV Commission meets at 5 PM and the Public Works Committee meets at 6 PM.

 On this day in 1935,  inventor Edwin Armstrong gives the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the United States at Alpine, New Jersey:

In June 1936, Armstrong gave a formal presentation of his new system at the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) headquarters. For comparison, he played a jazz record using a conventional AM radio, then switched to an FM transmission. A United Press correspondent was present, and recounted in a wire service report that: “if the audience of 500 engineers had shut their eyes they would have believed the jazz band was in the same room. There were no extraneous sounds.” Moreover, “Several engineers said after the demonstration that they consider Dr. Armstrong’s invention one of the most important radio developments since the first earphone crystal sets were introduced.” Armstrong was quoted as saying he could “visualize a time not far distant when the use of ultra-high frequency wave bands will play the leading role in all broadcasting”, although the article noted that “A switchover to the ultra-high frequency system would mean the junking of present broadcasting equipment and present receivers in homes, eventually causing the expenditure of billions of dollars.”

In a state and nation seldom bipartisan, Wisconsin saw a bipartisan vote yesterday: Bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission unanimously chooses Democrat as chair for 2 years. Scott Bauer reports:

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The same Democrat who led the Wisconsin Elections Commission during the contested 2020 presidential election will be back in the helm in the swing state this year after being unanimously elected Monday by the bipartisan panel.

Ann Jacobs was the only commission member nominated to serve as chair, reprising the role she had from 2020 to 2022. The unanimous vote included one from a Republican commissioner who attempted to cast Wisconsin’s electoral votes for Donald Trump in 2020 even though he lost the state.

The six-member commission administers and enforces Wisconsin election laws, but elections are run locally by more than 1,800 clerks in towns, villages, cities and counties. State law requires that the chair of the commission alternate between a Republican and a Democrat every two years.

Two key departures from normal yet persist on the commission (assuming anyone can define normal, let alone recall when that condition last held sway).

First, Bob Spindell remains a WISGOP commissioner. Yet, he is one of ten fraudulent presidential electors who admitted under a civil settlement that their actions were part of an attempt to overturn wrongfully the 2020 presidential election results. Spindell wouldn’t belong on the elections board of the smallest hamlet on the planet, let alone this state’s elections commission.

Second, Wisconsin’s elections administrator, Meagan Wolfe, remains a holdover employee in her full-time state position. A well-ordered politics would not have holdovers, as the appointments & confirmation process would not be intermittent.

The joy of snacking:

Archaeology, Daily Bread, Elections, Recall, Speaker Vos, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.10.24: So Is This a Political Crisis for Robin Vos?

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 69. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset 8:33 for 15h 17m 25s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 17.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning & Architectural Review Commission meets at 6 PM.

 On this day in 1999,  NATO suspends its airstrikes after Slobodan Milosevic agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo.

It’s possible that Speaker Robin Vos is “in the flight of his life” over a possible recall and then November election campaign, as emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Mordecai Lee contends. See Rich Kremer ‘The fight for his life’: Vos faces 2 challengers in district race who helped with ongoing recall (‘A Republican primary challenger and independent candidate facing off against longtime Assembly Speaker Robin Vos assisted with second effort to remove him from office’).

Kremer reports:

The Wisconsin Elections Committee is currently vetting more than 9,000 signatures submitted by organizers of the Racine Recall Committee. Committee members are confident they’ll have enough signatures to trigger a recall election, despite falling short with their first attempt earlier this year. 

A Friday press release from the Racine Recall Committee says the group is “extremely confident” it has enough signatures. A statement from the Vos-aligned group Wisconsinites for Liberty Fund posted by WisPolitics last week claims recall organizers have “once again fallen woefully short on collecting the required number of signatures.”

On Friday afternoon, Vos filed a challenge to the Racine Recall committee’s petition, claiming that organizers initiated it in the wrong Assembly District. 

A press release from Vos’ campaign called the second recall attempt a failure. It claims organizers allowed hundreds of people to sign recall petitions multiple times and states 2,000 signatures were collected from outside Vos’ old 63rd Assembly District. 

Vos is now running in the new 33rd Assembly District, where he will face up to three challengers, two of them people who have helped the latest recall effort.

They include Andrew Cegielski of East Troy, who plans to run against Vos in the Republican primary, Kelly Clark of Sturtevant, who plans to run in the general election as an Independent, and Democrat Alan Kupsik of Lake Geneva.

See also FREE WHITEWATER’s dedicated Speaker Vos category.

So is this a political crisis for Robin Vos? At the least, one can say that Vos’s tenure has been a political crisis for others.

There are probably a few people — including in Whitewater — who are obtuse enough to think that dropping Vos’s name still reflects well on them. If doing so ever reflected well on those so inclined, it’s been so long that only historians and archeologists can mark that ancient time.

Embed from Getty Images

World’s first drone delivery on Mount Everest a success: