A woman comes upon a bear in the darkness near her home, believes it’s wounded, calls 911, and then (on her own initiative) begins administering CPR while awaiting the police.
Below is a link to the clip including the actual audio from that woman’s 911 call, about a ‘squished’ bear that was ‘flatter than a flitter’:
Admittedly, the animal-lover’s call to 911 has a surprise ending, but still…
Good morning, Whitewater
Week’s end in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of seventy-nine.
It’s the anniversary of the first Kennedy-Nixon debate, televised on this day in 1960:
On this day in 1833, several tribes in Wisconsin cede land to the United States:
1833 – Indian Treaty Cedes to Government
On this date Indian tribes including the Ojibwe, Menominee, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Ottawa and Sauk ceded land to the government, including areas around Milwaukee, especially to the south and east of the city. The ceded land included much of what is today John Michael Kohler and Terry Andrae State Parks. The Potawatomi continued to live along the Black River until the 1870s, despite the treaty. [Source: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources]
Google-a-Day asks a sports question about a location:
In what state did a golf star, who was the youngest player to achieve the Grand Slam, hold a news conference in 2010 to issue a formal apology?
It’s a promotional video for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (not a documentary), but this beagle has a film-star’s presence. And, if he successfully returns items only a few times, it’s still a great help:
Minor athletic-rules violations, no matter how widely reported, are trivial compared with assuring an open climate to report and address sexual assault and harassment (no matter how some try to change the subject).
A focus on a university’s small athletic discrepancies inadvertently (or intentionally) distracts from a more important focus on that university’s commitment addressing sexual assault and harassment.
I’ve posted on this topic previously. See, Assault Reporting, Formality, and Former UW-Whitewater Wrestling Coach Fader.
Prior news accounts of Coach Fader’s dismissal may be found at the Rockford Register Star (Wrestling coach seeks answers to dismissal) and Examiner.com (Update on Dismissal of Wisconsin Whitewater Coach Tim Fader).
There are also more recent stories at Channel 3000 and the Gazette (subscription req’d) about supposed athletic infractions in the UW-Whitewater wrestling program.
Behind both of the stories lies a UW-Whitewater self-reported review (embedded below at the end of this post) of the wrestling program.
I’ve several questions about the stories, and even more pressing questions about the federal harassment & abuse investigation of UW-Whitewater.
Timeline:
April 18, 2014. Report to Whitewater Police Department. By Fader’s account at the Rockford Register Star:
According to Fader, he received a phone call from the mother of a female student who had told her mom that she had been sexually assaulted by one of Fader’s wrestling recruits who was on campus for a visit. The recruiting visit had ended, but the recruit stayed in town for an extra night.
Fader did what he thought was the right thing by finding the recruit, talking to him, and taking him to the Whitewater police to make sure the incident was handled by the proper authorities.
When Fader received a return call from the mother of the alleged victim two days later, he thought it was all over. She told him that she should have never called him and that she was wrong about the incident. At that point, Fader believed the issue was over and all involved could move on.
May 1, 2014. U.S. Department of Education names UW-Whitewater as one of fifty-five four-years colleges in America under investigation for handling of sexual violence investigations. See, U.S. Department of Education Releases List of Higher Education Institutions with Open Title IX Sexual Violence Investigations.
(We’re a huge country; there are thousands of four-year schools in America.)
May 12, 2014. UW-Whitewater officials Drs. Matt Aschenbrener and Elizabeth Watson are “charged on May 12, 2014 to lead the investigation [Wrestling Recruitment Investigation], to report findings and make recommendations.” (See embedded investigation report, at the bottom of this post.)
May 15, 2014. The Janesville Gazette publishes a story on Coach Fader’s suspension (UW-W wrestling coach suspended).
The story refers to a memo from Chancellor Telfer sent earlier that week:
Telfer announced the actions in a message to faculty and staff Tuesday morning [May 13]. He said the actions came after an incident filed with Whitewater Police Department.
“On Monday [May 12], I was notified that the Whitewater Police Department is investigating an incident involving an adult-aged recruit for the wrestling team,” Telfer wrote. “This matter is ongoing and I can only share limited information at this time.”
(On May 16th, I posted Caution on Publishing About Criminal Investigations, responding to a jumbled, misleading Web account of Coach Fader’s administrative suspension that made him seem as though he might be the subject of a criminal investigation from April’s incident. Fader was not, himself, a criminal suspect.)
May 30, 2014. Wrestling Recruitment Investigation dated 5.30.14 completed for Chancellor Telfer.
June 2014. Fader is asked to resign. See, Wrestling coach seeks answers to dismissal.
Questions:
1. The Wrestling Recruitment Investigation – at least as memorialized in the 5.30.14 report to Chancellor Telfer – produced no evidence of violence, harassment, or similar injury. Was anything omitted?
2. If no incidents were omitted, then are all the enumerated infractions no more than administrative ones?
3. Who (Chancellor Telfer, Athletic Director Amy Edmonds, someone else) decided to go beyond the Wrestling Recruitment Investigation’s recommendations and terminate (or demand the resignation of) Coach Fader? The Wresting Recruitment Investigation recommends seven modifications to team practices, but not one of them mentions, let alone requires, a resignation or termination. Who made that decision to demand dismissal?
4. On what basis – by what reasoning – did someone (Chancellor Telfer, Athletic Director Amy Edmonds, someone else) decide to dismiss Coach Fader (as the report does not recommend such action)?
5. Does the decision to go beyond the recommendations of the report’s authors (Drs. Aschenbrener and Watson) – who write that they conducted “over 50 interviews” and reviewed numerous documents – not call into question either their judgment in recommending too little or that of others who exceeded their recommendations?
6. Were all those who requested this wrestling recruitment investigation, who conducted it, and who were interviewed for it aware of the prior, nationally-published reports of federal investigations into possible Title IX violations, at least one of which involved UW-Whitewater?
7. Since the federal investigation into an incident of alleged sexual violence or harassment at UW-Whitewater was reportedly opened on 2.14.14, before the April 2014 recruiting incident, are those two events not separate?
8. If they are separate incidents (as seems very probable), then why conduct an audit into wrestling but — apparently – no similarly detailed investigation into other sports or campus activities?
9. Athletic Director Edmonds, in the Channel 3000 news report, says that
….all of the internal investigation recommendations have been implemented, including the consolidation of recruiting activities for all of its 20 sports programs on campus.
“This has bolstered all of our recruiting,” Edmonds said. “We’ve made sure everything is in one place now.”
What level of investigation did UW-Whitewater conduct into those other 19 programs?
Are there reports for those audits, if any were done?
10. Does Athletic Director Edmonds, Chancellor Telfer – or anyone – think that if one finds no more than technical violations in the wrestling program, that this lack of evidence assures, a priori, no more serious discrepancies elsewhere?
11. Does anyone on campus believe that a discussion of technical violations of sporting regulations matters as much as a climate of open discussion on harassment or violence?
12. There have been several stories about these recruiting violations, but why has there not been as much press attention to a safe climate on campus?
13. Can university officials not see that strong action on minor matters is less important than strong action and discussion on important maters?
It’s much easier to self-report about recruiting in the wrestling program than to commit to a leadership discussion of apparently separate and surely far greater concerns elsewhere.
Good morning, Whitewater.
Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of seventy-seven. Sunrise is 6:46 AM and sunset is 6:47 PM. The moon is a waxing crescent with two percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Tech Park Board meets at 8 AM and the Community Development Authority at 5 PM.
On this day in 1957, integration of Central High School in Little Rock begins following the arrival of federal paratroopers:
Under escort from the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, nine black students enter all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Three weeks earlier, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had surrounded the school with National Guard troops to prevent its federal court-ordered racial integration. After a tense standoff, President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent 1,000 army paratroopers to Little Rock to enforce the court order….
Troops remained at Central High School throughout the school year, but still the black students were subjected to verbal and physical assaults from a faction of white students. Melba Patillo, one of the nine, had acid thrown in her eyes, and Elizabeth Eckford was pushed down a flight of stairs. The three male students in the group were subjected to more conventional beatings. Minnijean Brown was suspended after dumping a bowl of chili over the head of a taunting white student. She was later suspended for the rest of the year after continuing to fight back. The other eight students consistently turned the other cheek. On May 27, 1958, Ernest Green, the only senior in the group, became the first black to graduate from Central High School.
Governor Faubus continued to fight the school board’s integration plan, and in September 1958 he ordered Little Rock’s three high schools closed rather than permit integration. Many Little Rock students lost a year of education as the legal fight over desegregation continued. In 1959, a federal court struck down Faubus’ school-closing law, and in August 1959 Little Rock’s white high schools opened a month early with black students in attendance. All grades in Little Rock public schools were finally integrated in 1972.
On 9.25.1961, Wisconsin Gov. Gaylord Nelson signed a bill requiring seatbelts:
1961 – Law Requires Seatbelts in Wisconsin Cars
On this date Wisconsin Governor Gaylord Nelson signed into law a bill that required all 1962 cars sold in Wisconsin to be equipped with seat belts. [Source: Janesville Gazette]
Google-a-Day asks a football question:
What NFL player (Redskins and Vikings) held onto his record as the all-time interception leader until he retired?
Good morning, Whitewater.
Midweek in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of seventy-four.
The Wall Street Journal published a quiz matching respondents’ answers with different drawings (and the personalities those drawings are meant to represent). Which drawing are you?
Which @WSJ dot drawing are you? Take our quiz: http://t.co/IDETmvEzCy pic.twitter.com/ou9ZVhaDv9
— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) September 24, 2014
India is now the fourth nation to send a probe to Mars:
The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan “Mars-craft” (Sanskrit … ma?gala “Mars” + … y?na “craft”),[8][9] is a Mars orbiter launched into Earth orbit on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).[10][11][12][13] It was successfully inserted into orbit of Mars on 24 September 2014, making India the first country in the World to successfully send a spacecraft to Mars on its very first attempt.[14][15][16]
The mission is a “technology demonstrator” project aiming to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management, and operations of an interplanetary mission.[17]
The Mars Orbiter Mission probe lifted-off from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket C25 at 09:08 UTC (14:38 IST) on 5 November 2013.[18] The launch window was approximately 20 days long and started on 28 October 2013.[4] The MOM probe spent about a month in Earth orbit, where it made a series of seven altitude-raising orbital manoeuvres before trans-Mars injection on 30 November 2013 (UTC).[19]
It is India’s first interplanetary mission and ISRO has become the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after the Soviet space program, NASA, and the European Space Agency.[20][21] The spacecraft is currently being monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennae at Byalalu.[22]
The Curious Engineer describes the MOM project:
Google-a-Day asks a question about boxing:
The first fight ever held in the Madison Square Garden ring was lost by what former and future champ?
Construction in progress —
Over at Esquire, Ben Collins writes (accurately) about Roger Goodell as “a visual representation of everything wrong with corporate America squeezed into one empty suit made of blood and money.” See, Roger Goodell, World Class Client of Crisis Communications Experts, Still Needs to Resign.”
Collins can be confident because he saw Goodell’s 9.19.14 news conference.
Collins wasn’t writing about anyone in Wisconsin, or Walworth County, or Whitewater, but his critique of Commissioner Goodell could apply to more than one official in the Badger State:
Roger Goodell’s latest trainwreck was a Friday afternoon hour of buckpassing under the increasingly transparent guise of “crisis management.” He littered a 3 p.m. press conference with the same sort of faux MBA talk that has reaffirmed a corporate American culture wherein all problems can be coached away if the bottom line is unaffected….
It would’ve been great, say, five years ago. It might have even passed for leadership….
This is see-through public relations, and the jig is up. Americans can now imagine the board room in which “I GOT IT WRONG: 4X” was scrawled in perfect cursive upon a white board. They know it’s happening, and they know it’s subhuman, and they’re a little appalled by it..
The tired phrases, the tropes, clichés, jargon, argot, buzzwords, etc.: they’ve been used too often, and at the wrong times, to persuade any longer.
The national press will battle, and likely vanquish, an NFL commissioner who has it coming.
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, others will do their part against those small, but equally disappointing, closer-at-hand versions of Roger Goodell.
Video clips —
Roger Goodell spoke for forty-three minutes on Friday:
Keith Olbermann finished him off in six:
Ethiopia! from The Perennial Plate on Vimeo.
We travelled to Ethiopia for two weeks and filmed the making of injera, false banana and coffee as well as everything else we saw. Please watch, enjoy and visit this amazing country!
Created by: www.theperennialplate.com
In Partnership with Intrepid Travel: http://www.intrepidtravel.com/foood/
Filmed & edited by:
Daniel Klein ( twitter.com/perennialplate/ )
Mirra Fine ( twitter.com/kaleandcola/)
Music: "Eshururu" by Dereb The Ambassador: http://derebtheambassador.com/
Good morning, Whitewater.
It’s the first day of autumn. Google has a doodle to mark the change of season —
Tuesday will be sunny in Whitewater, with a high of seventy-four. Sunrise is 6:43 AM and sunset is 6:50 PM. We’ll have a new moon early tomorrow morning.
Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets this afternoon at 4:30 PM.
On this day in 1952, Sen. Richard Nixon, candidate for vice president, delivers his Checkers speech:
Los Angeles, Sept. 23–Senator Richard M. Nixon, in a nation-wide television and radio broadcast tonight, defended his $18,235 “supplementary expenditures” fund as legally and morally beyond reproach.
He laid before the Republican National Committee and the American people the question of whether he should remain on the Republican party’s November election ticket as the candidate for Vice President.
Rising, near the end of his talk, from the desk at which he had sat, Senator Nixon urged his auditors to “wire and write” the Republican National Committee whether they thought his explanation of the circumstances surrounding the fund was adequate.
“I know that you wonder whether or not I am going to stay on the Republican ticket or resign,” he said. “I don’t believe that I ought to quit, because I’m not a quitter….”
Nixon remained on the ticket; as expected, Dwight Eisenhower won easily over Adlai Stevenson.
Google-a-Day has a question about literature and history:
What Tom Wolfe novel is named after a 1497 ritual that Savonarola led involving mirrors?
Seth Casteel’s new book, Underwater Puppies, is now on shelves and at Amazon. It’s a photo collection showing dogs learning to swim.
Via Underwater Puppies: Photographer Seth Casteel captures swimming dogs @ The Telegraph.
The video below shows Casteel’s method for filming swimming canines.
Enjoy.
Over at the Janesville Gazette, they’ve an editorial stance occasionally focused on telling common people in that city to sit down, stop questioning, and just shut up.
Where once one heard that the proper use of the press was about speaking truth to power, what’s left of the Janesville press is about speaking half-truths to the powerless.
Still, I’m a free speech advocate, and that paper’s free to take whatever position it wants.
It’s odd, though, that a paper whose Saturday editorial decries poor quality (“Our Views: City’s critics should get informed, do better”) can’t seem to write an editorial on the subject without committing a garden-variety error of reasoning.
Consider this erroneous defense of Janesville’s new, multi-million-dollar municipal bus garage:
Simply stated, many of the critics are ill informed.
Some labeled the new bus garage a “Taj Mahal” as they saw it going up, but the majority of people who took the time to tour the facility and learn about it during an open house came away convinced it was a wise investment.
That’s a joke, right?
Does the Gazette‘s editorialist not understand that relying on the opinions of those who voluntarily attended an open house for a bus terminal is a reliance on a self-selected sample, and so commits the error of self-selection bias?
It’s a self-chosen pool of those who attended, for goodness’ sake.
Those who show up at an opera house are not an unbiased sample of an entire community’s views of Don Giovanni, after all.
Candidly, self-selection – because it produces a sample formed by its own members’ intentions – is an even more obvious statistical error than selection bias by researchers’ sloppy sampling (which might involve accident and so be harder to spot).
It’s fair to call for being better informed.
It’s even the paper’s right to call for being better informed while the editorial board carries water for government, businesses, and insiders against ordinary people.
But it’s simply laughable for the Gazette‘s editorialist to a call for ordinary people to be better informed while committing basic errors of reasoning.