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Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

Politics, Poll, School District

The 9.17.14 Marquette Law School Poll (and Our Schools Referendum)

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Charles Franklin’s latest Marquette Law School Poll is out today, with polling on the governor’s race, attorney general’s race, and on several key political issues. 

Although the Wisconsin gubernatorial election is a huge topic within the state, there’s not much polling on it beyond the Marquette Poll. 

The poll has its critics, too.  Democrat Ed Garvey has for years said it’s biased.  More recently, there’s been surprise that prior results in 2014 surveys have gone the way they have (with Walker ahead among registered voters, but Burke ahead among likely voters – a counter-intuitive result for some analysts).  

Still, this poll is the biggest game in town, so to speak.

(One of my predictions for 2014, made in January, is that Gov. Walker will win statewide but that, locally, Mary Burke will carry the City of Whitewater solidly.) 

The 9.17.14 poll has Walker 49, Burke 46 among likelies, tied at 46 among registered voters, and within the statistical margin of error.  In the end, that’s really, as Franklin writes, a ‘statistical dead heat.’

Franklin sees a greater percentage of Republicans as likely voters than Democrats (80% over 73%), and in this latest poll sees a greater enthusiasm among GOP voters (67% to 60% for Democrats). 

It’s early, and Franklin’s polling (with what little public polling there is from others) will begin to emphasize likely voters as the election gets closer.

Statewide results like those in today’s poll, if distributed as one would expect across the state, would give Burke Whitewater and Walker the towns around the city.  There’s nothing surprising about today’s survey.

On our school referendum, I still think that the most important influence will be the governor’s race, by such a measure that local issues will get far less attention.  Local issues elsewhere will be mostly the same: it’s the gubernatorial race that will drive voting.

There are two exceptions to the gubernatorial race as a driver of local voting in Whitewater: if someone says something utterly nutty, or if no one makes any detailed case for the referendum. 

First, it’s highly improbable that there will be any truly nutty policy statements.  On the contrary, this is likely to be an undramatic discussion. 

Second, there will have to be some policy discussion: it would be oddly lazy to coast only on an expected blue wave in the city.  Even someone who thinks that the gubernatorial race will be paramount (as I do) wouldn’t be inclined to think that for proponents providing no discussion would be a sensible plan. 

The example in this, recently, is the failed Blackhawk Technical College referendum.  That measure had the strong support of labor, conservative business-development advocates, the Gazette‘s conservative editorial board, and politicians on both sides of the aisle. Conservative and liberal voters turned it aside, however, as there was little explanation of why the request was important. 

In my own case, I’m genuinely interested in the details behind the referendum, and more generally the curriculum in our schools. 

Those looking at this only as a matter of winning and losing will not find their man in me – serious topics deserve serious discussion.  The vote has significance for our high school (and other places), but it’s more than a high school election, so to speak. 

A dumbed-down political discussion is the last thing this town needs; Whitewater should have better than the recent use of a few numbers or slogans carelessly thrown about.

For today, though, we’ve more polling suggesting that the gubernatorial election before us is likely to be close, and so will be the key political topic for weeks to come. 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.17.14

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in town will be sunny with a high of sixty-nine. Sunrise is 6:37 AM and sunset is 7:01 PM. The moon is a waning crescent with thirty-four percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1787, delegates at the the Constitutional Convention sign their finished product:

Once the final modifications had been made, the Committee of Style and Arrangement was appointed “to revise the style of and arrange the articles which had been agreed to by the house.” Unlike other committees, whose members were named so the committees included members from different regions, this final committee included no champions of the small states. Its members were mostly in favor of a strong national government and unsympathetic to calls for states’ rights.[12]:229–230 They were William Samuel Johnson (Connecticut), Alexander Hamilton (New York), Gouverneur Morris (Pennsylvania), James Madison (Virginia), and Rufus King (Massachusetts). On Wednesday, September 12, the report of the “committee of style” was ordered printed for the convenience of the delegates. For three days, the Convention compared this final version with the proceedings of the Convention. The Constitution was then ordered engrossed on Saturday, September 15 by Jacob Shallus, and was submitted for signing on September 17. It made at least one important change to what the Convention had agreed to; King wanted to prevent states from interfering in contracts. Although the Convention never took up the matter his language was now inserted, creating the contract clause.[12]:243

Gouverneur Morris is credited, both now and then, as the chief draftsman of the final document, including the stirring preamble. Not all the delegates were pleased with the results; thirteen left before the ceremony, and three of those remaining refused to sign: Edmund Randolph of Virginia, George Mason of Virginia, and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. George Mason demanded a Bill of Rights if he was to support the Constitution. The Bill of Rights was not included in the Constitution submitted to the states for ratification, but many states ratified the Constitution with the understanding that a bill of rights would soon follow.[14] Shortly before the document was to be signed, Gorham proposed to lower the size of congressional districts from 40,000 to 30,000 citizens. A similar measure had been proposed earlier, and failed by one vote. George Washington spoke up here, making his only substantive contribution to the text of the Constitution in supporting this move. The Convention adopted it without further debate. Gorham would sign the document, although he had openly doubted whether the United States would remain a single, unified nation for more than 150 years.[12]:112 Ultimately, 39 of the original 55 delegates ended up signing, but it is likely that none were completely satisfied. Their views were summed up by Benjamin Franklin, who said,

“I confess that There are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them. … I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. … It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies…[15]”

Google-a-Day asks a geography question:

What famous Alexandrian was responsible for the most popular map printed from movable type in the fifteenth century?

Business

How to Pronounce 15 Difficult-to-Say Brand Names

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It shouldn’t matter whether a patron or partygoer pronounces a brand name just right. Still, for some people it’s a worry – who knows when the next snooty waiter or host might appear?

Business Insider‘s here to help, with a guide for pronouncing fifteen brand names that sometimes cause trouble:

Police, Politics, Press, University

The Politics of Informants at UW-Whitewater

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In a well-ordered community, there should be an accord between good policy and good politics. That’s not yet Whitewater, and this post will address the political implications of using confidential informants. 

(For a review of policy, please see yesterday’s How Rural Wisconsin Campuses Coerce Students into Becoming Drug Informants.)

1. Police Leadership.  There’s almost no chance that middle-aged police leaders (Chief Kiederlen at UW-Whitewater, Chief Otterbacher in Whitewater) will change their policies on the use of young confidential informants.  They were trained this way, brought up through the ranks this way, and are supported this way from like-minded police leaders nearby.

They’re sure that they’re right, and the risks don’t mean much to them.  (Kiederlen: “To me, it’s a positive all the way around.”) 

It doesn’t matter that it’s shallow thinking; they’ve the support from law-enforcement leaders of the same ilk.  There are also those in town who are concerned about a solution to drug use, and will latch onto any proposal (even one like this). 

Needless to say, it’s not community policing that Chief Kiedelen’s pushing.

2.  University Leadership.  Chancellor Telfer may have introduced Chief Kiederlen to a Common Council meeting, but that’s all Chancellor Telfer did – provide an introduction.  Chief Kiederlen did all the substantive talking.  (From the video, Telfer introduces Kiederlen from 7:10 to 8:00, and Kiederlen speaks from 8:00 to 13:00.)

This isn’t a chancellor who’ll take a strong stand; he’s available for happy news.  For more severe policies or bad news, it’s either the public-relations official or a subordinate. 

(Funny that – in the video above, Chancellor Telfer introduces Chief Kiederlen as a ‘colleague,’ not a subordinate, a highly-detailed UW-Whitewater organizational chart notwithstanding.) 

3.  The Difference of Four Years’ Time.   Four years ago, when I criticized then-Chief Coan’s use of confidential informants through the city police force, the Gazette published an editorial urging readers to ignore the criticism that so many leveled against confidential informants in the comments section of that paper. 

Just four years later, the Gazette has published this story by Sean Kirkby online at its mainpage, from the highly-regarded Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, that detailed the risks of the very practice that many criticized and that the Gazette once asked readers to ignore. 

4. Where This Story About Informants at UW-Whitewater is Playing.  It’s receiving coverage statewide, including in newspapers from the Gannett chain in Wisconsin.  This is not a Whitewater story, it’s a statewide story that’s chiefly about Whitewater’s campus. 

To readers outside Whitewater, the story shows the university in a Draconian light, as an outlier even among UW System schools. 

That’s a mess: coverage in so many papers – politically moderate ones – is a fortune in (sadly adverse) publicity.  Chancellor Telfer could announce dozens of supposed accomplishments locally (many of which are hollow), but that positive press would be nothing compared with the critical coverage UW-Whitewater is getting statewide. 

Worse, it’s coverage in places where UW-Whitewater should be competing for successful, talented applicants.  What will parents of competitive students see?  They’ll see either a school with too much drug use or a school that handles drug use in an overly severe way. 

There’s now an incentive to encourage their children (strong applicants who could go elsewhere) actually to look and to go elsewhere.

5.  Getting the Wider World Wrong.  It’s funny to refer to the rest of Wisconsin as the wider world, but that’s how it must seem from some local insiders’ perspectives. 

Did no one at UW-Whitewater see – especially after Chief Kiederlen’s too-rigid presentation to Council – that someone would at least have to offer him media training?  Chancellor Telfer holds a doctorate, but somehow he didn’t see or didn’t want to state the obvious: Kiederlen was unready for an interview on this topic.

(Internally, employees at UW-Whitewater may even offer reassurance that the interview went well, but a good number of them undoubtedly know that’s not true.  They’re probably relieved, if anything, that they weren’t interviewed, themselves.)  

All the talk about how sophisticated these administrators at the university are, how successful and trend-setting they are, but the truth comes as critical news and a downmarket image. 

These few seem to want a positive image even over actual achievement, but they just can’t see what that truly requires. People beyond the city just won’t accept at face value declarations of stupendous successes and gargantuan greatness. 

Chief Matt Kiederlen probably wouldn’t believe it (least of all from me), but his employer allowed him to go into an interview ill-prepared.  The policy’s misshapen, but he wasn’t properly prepped to present it, whatever its dimensions. 

These policies will linger, and so the politics of them will continue to bring outside criticism, under a university administration that fails at marketing even as it holds marketing in such very high esteem. 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.16.14

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday will be sunny with a high of sixty-five.

Whitewater’s Alcohol Licensing Committee meets at 5:45 PM, and Common Council meets thereafter at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1620, a ship leaves from England:

The Mayflower sails from Plymouth, England, bound for the New World with 102 passengers. The ship was headed for Virginia, where the colonists–half religious dissenters and half entrepreneurs–had been authorized to settle by the British crown. However, stormy weather and navigational errors forced the Mayflower off course, and on November 21 the “Pilgrims” reached Massachusetts, where they founded the first permanent European settlement in New England in late December.

Thirty-five of the Pilgrims were members of the radical English Separatist Church, who traveled to America to escape the jurisdiction of the Church of England, which they found corrupt. Ten years earlier, English persecution had led a group of Separatists to flee to Holland in search of religious freedom. However, many were dissatisfied with economic opportunities in the Netherlands, and under the direction of William Bradford they decided to immigrate to Virginia, where an English colony had been founded at Jamestown in 1607.

Google-a-Day asks a question about art:

What panel painting, with inscriptions from Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible, did Durer present to Nuremberg town officials?

Police, University

How Rural Wisconsin Campuses Coerce Students into Becoming Drug Informants

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Update: Here’s a post that I originally published this morning at a sister site, Daily Adams.

The first paragraph is a description of the city for readers who may not be familiar with Whitewater (so it will sound a bit awkward to those who live in town).

Thanks much to a sharp reader who pointed out that the post’s description of Whitewater needed an explanation for readers already familiar with our city – this post was intended for an audience both inside and outside the city (but I didn’t make that clear enough, initially).

Tomorrow, I will have a follow-up post on this topic, at FREE WHITEWATER, with some local political implications of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism’s stories about student drug informants.

Here’s the original post —

I live and blog from Whitewater, Wisconsin, a small rural town with a UW System campus. The city proper has a population of just under fifteen-thousand, and the campus is easily the largest institution in Whitewater (with about twelve-thousand students).  At sister site FREE WHITEWATER, I write about my town’s politics, economy, and culture. 

Over the years, I’ve criticized the Whitewater Police Department’s use of confidential informants: young people bear the risks of middle-aged drug warriors’ ambitions.  See, from 2010, about the City of Whitewater’s former police chief, Jim Coan, The Utter Foolishness of Jim Coan’s Prohibition. 

It’s with interest that I’ve awaited a story about the use of confidential college-student informants at UW-Whitewater.  There’s been talk about the story, and it’s now out, from the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. 

Sean Kirkby’s detailed story, Undercover students used in drug busts at some University of Wisconsin campuses, is thorough in its coverage, revealing in its reporting, and all of it well-written. 

I’d urge readers to review the entire story, as well as a companion story, Drug crime penalties are ‘huge’ for students.

A few highlights, below:

Use of informants is favored in Whitewater:

A member of the Walworth County Drug Unit, which arrested Butler, declined comment on whether the unit still uses students as informants. But UW-Whitewater Police Chief Matt Kiederlen says his department has used about 20 students as confidential informants during the past two years….

In all, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism communicated with 10 current and former UW-Whitewater students who were arrested by either the UW-Whitewater police or the Walworth County Drug Unit for selling drugs to confidential informants or possessing marijuana.

Nine were asked to become an informant. All but the unnamed student described earlier refused either because of safety concerns, not knowing other dealers or not wanting to turn in their friends.

A contradictory standard on students’ decision-making.  UW-Whitewater Police Chief Matt Kiederlen holds out a standard of decision-making that his own campus’s policies refute.  Here’s Kiederlen on students as adults:

“They’re no different from anyone else,” Kiederlen says. “Mom and dad tend to feel like they’re still in school, but the reality is that they’re adults and they’re making adult decisions. And there are adult consequences.”

Of course, they are still in school; someone should ask Kiederlen to look out his window. 

It’s obvious – from Kirkby’s story – that UW-Whitewater does treat students differently from older adults making adult decisions, as it uses game-like playing cards to explain policies to students:

Needless to say, that’s not a common way for middle-aged adults to receive information. 

Let’s be clear: Part of Kiederlen’s career rests on a middle-aged man intimidating much younger people into compliance with his drug-enforcement plans.  He’s not a middle-aged man among middle-aged men, working in an environment of equals. 

Kiederlen’s enforcement involves pressuring much younger and less experienced people. 

There’s risk in middle-aged men coercing much younger people into drug snares:

While becoming a confidential informant may help students avoid consequences, undercover operations can turn deadly.

Rachel Hoffman, a 23-year-old Florida State University graduate, was pressured in 2008 to be an informant after Tallahassee, Florida, police searched her apartment and found a small amount of marijuana and ecstasy. But the buy turned out to be an armed robbery, and the robbers killed Hoffman after discovering her recording device, says Lance Block, a Florida attorney.

Block, who represented Hoffman’s parents in a lawsuit following their daughter’s murder, authored a 2009 Florida law that regulates informant use, a practice he says contradicts law enforcement’s purpose.

“The police are supposed to protect us from harm, not subject us to harm,” Block says. “And when law enforcement intentionally expose untrained civilians into these highly dangerous operations, they’re not protecting them from harm … It’s one thing to get information from people secretly and confidentially. It’s another thing to throw them to the wolves, like they did with Rachel.”

If, after all, Kiederlen thinks he’s in the same adult position as, for example, a twenty-three-year-old woman, then he’s either obtuse or confused. 

‘Unknowns’.  Here’s Kiederlen on the risks:

“They [informants] are set up in such a way that if something is bad, they know what they can do to make themselves as safe as possible,” Kiederlen says. “We’re dealing with the drug world. It is unpredictable. We try with everything we have to predict putting them in the safest position we can, but there are always those unknowns.”

These ‘drug world’ risks are, after all, risks that Kiederlen and his force recreate.  It’s ‘safe as possible’ with the self-exculpatory, almost blithe observation that ‘there are always those unknowns.’

If Kiederlen wanted to sound shallow and indifferent, he’s succeeded. 

Kiederlen’s Presentation.  To get a sense of how Chief Kiederlen presents himself, embedded below is a clip from a City of Whitewater Council meeting where he spoke about his ‘personal philosophy.’ 

Readers will find this portion of the meeting from 7:10  to 13:00 on the video below. (UW-Whitewater Chancellor Richard Telfer introduces Kiederlen from 7:10 to 8:00, and Chief Kiederlen speaks from 8:00 to 13:00.)


Common Council Meeting 05/21/2013
from Whitewater Community TV
on Vimeo

Watching the segment yet again, I’m struck by how tense Chief Kiederlen’s presentation is; his manner appears about as tightly wound as anyone who’s spoken at a town meeting in years. 

And here we are, in rural America, where the drug war slowly, but too slowly, sputters out for lack of sense and reflection. 

Posted earlier @ Daily Adams.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.15.14

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Monday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of fifty-six.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission and Community Development Authority meet jointly tonight at 6:30 PM.

2 In last Friday’s FW poll, readers could vote on whether they’d try a black hamburger from Burger King Japan. A majority said they’d decline the offer: 61.9% said no thanks, with 38.1% saying they’d try one.

On this day in 1950, American Marines land at Inchon:

During the Korean War, U.S. Marines land at Inchon on the west coast of Korea, 100 miles south of the 38th parallel and just 25 miles from Seoul. The location had been criticized as too risky, but U.N. Supreme Commander Douglas MacArthur insisted on carrying out the landing. By the early evening, the Marines had overcome moderate resistance and secured Inchon. The brilliant landing cut the North Korean forces in two, and the U.S.-led U.N. force pushed inland to recapture Seoul, the South Korean capital that had fallen to the communists in June. Allied forces then converged from the north and the south, devastating the North Korean army and taking 125,000 enemy troops prisoner.

On this day in 1832, the United States makes a treaty with the Ho-Chunk:

On this date a a treaty was signed between the Ho-Chunk and the United States that stipulated that the Ho-Chunk cede lands lying to the south and east of the Wisconsin river as well as lands around the Fox river of Green Bay. [Source:Oklahoma State University Library]

Google-a-Day asks a football question:

What NFL quarterback threw for over 3000 yards and got 21 touchdowns in the 2010 season, but still did not make it into the “Hall of Fame”?

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.14.14

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Good morning, Whitewater.

imag0104

Sunday in town will be sunny with a high of sixty-five.

On this day in 1812, Napoleon captures Moscow, but doesn’t find what he expected:

On September 14, 1812, Napoleon moved into the empty city that was stripped of all supplies by its governor, Feodor Rostopchin. Relying on classical rules of warfare aiming at capturing the enemy’s capital (even though Saint Petersburg was the political capital at that time, Moscow was the spiritual capital of Russia), Napoleon had expected Tsar Alexander I to offer his capitulation at the Poklonnaya Hill but the Russian command did not think of surrendering.

As Napoleon prepared to enter Moscow he was surprised to have received no delegation from the city. At the approach of a victorious general, the civil authorities customarily presented themselves at the gates of the city with the keys to the city in an attempt to safeguard the population and their property. As nobody received Napoleon he sent his aides into the city, seeking out officials with whom the arrangements for the occupation could be made. When none could be found, it became clear that the Russians had left the city unconditionally.[62]

In a normal surrender, the city officials would be forced to find billets and make arrangements for the feeding of the soldiers, but the situation caused a free-for-all in which every man was forced to find lodgings and sustenance for himself. Napoleon was secretly disappointed by the lack of custom as he felt it robbed him of a traditional victory over the Russians, especially in taking such a historically significant city.[62]

Before the order was received to evacuate Moscow, the city had a population of approximately 270,000 people. As much of the population pulled out, the remainder were burning or robbing the remaining stores of food, depriving the French of their use. As Napoleon entered the Kremlin, there still remained one-third of the original population, mainly consisting of foreign traders, servants and people who were unable or unwilling to flee. These, including the several hundred strong French colony, attempted to avoid the troops.

On this day in 1875, a Wisconsin scientist dies in the surroundings he studied and loved:

1875 – Increase Lapham Dies While Fishing
On this date Increase Lapham died of a heart attack while fishing in Oconomowoc. Lapham served Wisconsin as a geologist, meteorologist, historian, archivist, anthropologist, and scientist.He helped found the State Historical Society and served on its board for 22 years. He helped establish the National Weather Service and worked to preserve Native American burial mounds, as well as the forests and prairies of Wisconsin. He also helped establish hospitals for the blind, deaf, and mentally ill in Milwaukee and to start two women’s colleges, Carroll College and Milwaukee-Downer College. [Source: Badger Saints and Sinners; by Fred L. Holmes, p.330-344]