FREE WHITEWATER

Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 6.4.14

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

Wednesday brings a likelihood of morning showers and a high of sixty-six. Sunrise is 5:18 AM and sunset 8:19 PM. The moon is a waxing crescent with thirty-nine percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The European Space Agency posted a video recently of the NASA Hubble telescope’s photographs of the distant universe:

Vast and beautiful.

On this day in 1942, the Battle of Midway begins:

…the Battle of Midway–one of the most decisive U.S. victories against Japan during World War II–begins. During the four-day sea-and-air battle, the outnumbered U.S. Pacific Fleet succeeded in destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers while losing only one of its own, the Yorktown, to the previously invincible Japanese navy….

On this day in 1837, a cornerstone ceremony takes place in Madison:

1837 – Territorial Capitol Cornerstone Ceremony Held
On this date Ebenezer and Roseline Peck hosted the Capitol cornerstone-laying celebration at their log public house in Madison. Peck Cabin, Madison’s first residence, business and post office, was demolished in 1857. [Source: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers. Edited by Sarah Davis McBride, p. 89.]

Here’s the Wednesday game in Puzzabiliuty’s Surround Sound series:

This Week’s Game — June 2-6
Surround Sound
Hope you can tune in this week. For each day, we’ll give you three clues, each of which leads to a word. The answers to two of those clues, when placed together in the right order, have the name of a musical instrument spanning the gap between the answers. When the instrument’s name is removed, the remaining letters, in order, spell the answer to the day’s remaining clue. The clues are presented in random order.
Example:
Small women’s clothing size; play simply, as a guitar; location
Answer:
STRUMPETITE (from petite, strum, site; the instrument is a trumpet)
What to Submit:
Submit just the full string of letters, with the instrument in the middle (as “STRUMPETITE” in the example), for your answer.
Wednesday, June 4
Group of ants or nudists; Broadway award; subject of discussion

Nature

Meanwhile, in New Mexico…

by  • 

Locusts:

axa3toewfd3mdwvfkcpj

Above is a zoomed-in, static view of the swarm on radar around Albuquerque. The swarm is so intense in some areas that its clocking reflectivity readings of 35-40 dBZ, or about the strength of a decent rain shower. Notable in the image is the thin line stretching from north to south, which is moving towards the west. These are locusts being bunched up along the leading edge of a gust of wind.

Via Radar Shows Millions of Locusts @ The Vane | Gawker.

Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government

Would They Run On It?

by  • 

When local government’s politicians and bureaucrats propose big projects, they should ask themselves: would we run on it?  That is, would they run on a standalone vote for (or against) their proposal? 

The open secret of local politics is that I’d guess many – if not most – of the big projects proposed would fail if put to a vote. Often, that would not be a matter of cost, but of priority: Many projects are generally needless, benefiting only a few well-placed businessmen. Genuine needs of a truly disadvantaged few are ignored. 

Local politicians and bureaucrats know this well, so they (1) conceal fiscal costs, (2) conceal or lie about other reasoned objections to a project, (2) conceal or lie about the actual beneficiaries (their cronies) of a project, and (4) use their willing toadies in the local press to trumpet imaginary successes after a project is completed. 
I’ve no doubt that if the Innovation Center, for example, had been put to a referendum in Whitewater, it would have failed.  Claims for it have been false promises, exaggerations, or outright lies.  Not one of the boosters of that project would have won a stand-up contest on its merits. 

Those gentlemen imagine themselves town notables, but they’ve an effective political circle only of hundreds, in a town of thousands. 

Now, someone might propose a question on principle, and run on it regardless of the chances for success.  Most local town squires are not like this – they’d rather win behind closed doors than contest an issue fairly before all the public. 

They feel this way, surely. 

Then again, everyone else knows this about them, too.  

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 6.3.14

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in town will be sunny, with a high of seventy-six and south winds of ten to fifteen miles per hour.

Downtown Whitewater’s Board meets this morning at 8 AM, and Common Council this evening at 6:30 PM.

Tank-Man1

On this day in 1989, China committed herself to the massacre of peaceful protesters in Tiananmen Square, killing thousands. (The photo above is from June 5th, after many had already been killed and martial law in Beijing instituted.)

Puzzability‘s Surround Sound series continues with Tuesday’s game:

This Week’s Game — June 2-6
Surround Sound
Hope you can tune in this week. For each day, we’ll give you three clues, each of which leads to a word. The answers to two of those clues, when placed together in the right order, have the name of a musical instrument spanning the gap between the answers. When the instrument’s name is removed, the remaining letters, in order, spell the answer to the day’s remaining clue. The clues are presented in random order.
Example:
Small women’s clothing size; play simply, as a guitar; location
Answer:
STRUMPETITE (from petite, strum, site; the instrument is a trumpet)
What to Submit:
Submit just the full string of letters, with the instrument in the middle (as “STRUMPETITE” in the example), for your answer.
Tuesday, June 3
Rooting on loudly; fish often served smoked or pickled; cheddar-flavored cracker brand

Local Government, Open Government, Press

Janesville Doubles Down

by  • 

There’s an update about Janesville’s fire station debacle: Janesville’s city attorney reportedly contends that Wisconsin law does not allow a petition to overturn what the City of Janesville contends is an administrative decision.  See, City attorney: Fire station question not for voters to decide. 

For now, consider the politics of this position.  (Here, I mean this broadly, an an expression of participatory government.)

Council and the Janesville municipal administration now stand to defend against the city’s own voters a process that was once concealed in an unlawful closed session, that will destroy some residents’ homes, and at a high municipal price tag. 

City Manager Mark Freitag had been working to promote a reputation for openness in the aftermath of the closed session.  Those PR gains (such as they were) will now be ignored or treated with scorn.

The Gazette has been on the wrong side of this issue, and now they’re on the wrong side of this issue along with local politicians and the city’s attorney.  That’s not as bad as being on the wrong side of an issue along with Vladimir Putin, but it’s hardly an esteemed group. 

The last place a declining paper should want to be is beside insiders and so-called influencers. It’s even worse when media outside the city are picking up the issue (rather sympathetically) via television.

Circling the wagons against residents is a mistake; when those circling the wagons already look dodgy, it’s a worse strategy.

What should have been done here? 

Any claim about the stated unlawfulness of a resident’s petition should have been combined with a political commitment to open the issue again.  One would say: we don’t believe you can proceed via petition, but we’re prepared to offer an alternative of further discussion (community survey, etc). 

The prior, unlawful closed session taints this whole process; attempts to shut down redress through legal procedures will only exacerbate political alienation.

Honest to goodness, these are maladroit men and women. 

It’s hard to overestimate how poorly all this has been handled.

Local Government, New Media, Press

Insiders’ Press Choices: Stagnation or Decline

by  • 

There is not a single newspaper in our part of Wisconsin that is not stagnant or in decline.  Not one.

(Stagnation, truly, applies only if one keeps the interval of measurement small; look over any reasonable period and you’ll find ongoing decline.)  

When town squires and self-declared ‘movers and shakers’ look for a compliant publication, they’re choosing among newspapers that are smaller and weaker than they were even last year. 

Media are not stagnant or declining; there are plenty of growing means of expression: Facebook, Twitter, email, text messaging, Instagram, Pinterest, blogs, etc. 

For the old guard, though, for those who expect a soft touch from soft-headed newspapers, there’s less and less on which they may depend. 

They’ve lost a general audience for their views, and now desperately rely on papers with a waning readership, increasingly unrepresentative and out-of-touch. 

Odd, though, because even now it might be different, with a different approach. 

Might be, but probably won’t be, ever again.

Local Government, Open Government, Press

How the Local Press Fails

by  • 

There’s a story at Channel 3000 (the website for WISC-TV) entitled, Janesville resident to petition council’s decision to build a new fire station.

The story says much about (1) government spending, (2) unlawful use of closed sessions to conceal projects, and (3) press competition. 

Here’s the cause of residents’ ire:

Janesville resident Billy McCoy is fighting back against the city’s decision to build a $9.6 million center fire station, saying he and other residents are “fed up” with both the city’s spending and the closed session the council held last year regarding the plans for the new station. McCoy has started a petition asking council to resend its decision.

“It’s time that these people realize, you know they say one thing and turn around and try to do something else, or they go behind closed doors and want to do something. The citizens are fed up with it,” he said.

McCoy needs the support of 3,165 residents to sign the petition. A referendum would require the city to allow residents to vote to support or reject council’s decision to build the new central fire house during the November elections….

Spending.  Ordinary residents see that $9.6 million is a lot of money, but so many local politicians get in office and forget as much.  Politics is littered with candidates who say they’ll hold the line on spending, but who become incumbents who can’t spend fast enough. 

Whitewater has one or two ‘proud conservatives’ whose political careers were exercises in backing every insiders’ big-ticket project that came along. 

Closed Sessions.  Janesville residents know, and so does the Gazette, that Janesville’s city council held at least one unlawful closed session about the proposed fire station.  Excessive spending is a piker compared with unlawful concealment to bring it about. 

Caving on Open Government.  Knowing that there was a council vote that was unlawful, the Gazette‘s editorial board still chose to cave on defending open government from government transgression: “The Gazette or the district attorney could attempt to make the council pay for its illegal meeting, but that time and money might be better spent elsewhere….”

Later, that same editorial board backed the fire station, and told this to residents who learned that their houses would be destroyed to make room for a multi-million-dollar project:

….No, it wasn’t a perfect decision, and neither was the process. The biggest mistake was making the initial choice to expand at the same location behind closed doors. Madison attorney Bob Dreps, an expert in media law, said the council’s closed-session November vote violated Wisconsin’s open meetings law.

Regardless, what’s done is done. Residents don’t have to like how the decision was made, but it’s time to accept it. Sometimes, thinking long term creates immediate pain. That’s the case here…

That’s not watchdog journalism…it’s lapdog journalism. 

Look at the Madison station’s account linked in my first paragraph above, and you’ll see that they’re covering this story without patronizing and condescending to Janesville residents. 

Not only that, they’re covering the story without a subscription fee, and with the added value a video clip of residents’ concerns.

A local paper should be leading the charge against this station, and the planning behind it. Instead, they’ve capitulated to government insiders, and now a Madison news station is poaching their readers.  Running a story now about voters’ concerns is simply scrambling to catch up.

Worse, anything now comes after a shut-up-and-eat-your-peas attitude. 

Still, press capitulation to government causes damage, but not indiscriminate damage: other media gain at the expense of a local newspaper’s sycophancy. 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 6.2.14

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

We have a probability of thunderstorms this Monday, with a daytime high of eighty degrees. Sunrise today is 5:19 AM and sunset 8:28 PM. The moon is a waxing crescent with twenty-two percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Kansas City Star reports this as the greatest paper airplane shot in sports history, recorded during an English soccer match:

Yes, very likely, I’d say.

On this day in 1924, America acknowledges citizenship of tribal populations:

President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizen Act, granting automatic American citizenship to Native Americans born in the United States. The law attempted to finalize Indian assimilation into white culture while permitting Indians to retain some of their tribal traditions.

In an effort to improve the federal government’s relationship with Indians, Coolidge tried to appear as a strong supporter of tribal cultural rights. On personal moral grounds, Coolidge sincerely regretted the state of poverty to which many Indian tribes had sunk after decades of legal persecution and forced assimilation. After signing the Indian Citizen Act at the White House, President Coolidge, in stiff white collar and dark suit, posed with four Osage tribal leaders, three of whom had donned traditional ceremonial dress. Earlier in 1923, he met with the Committee of 100 on Indian Affairs, and in 1925, he invited a group of Sioux from the Rosebud Reservation to the White House. Two years later, President Coolidge accepted honorary tribal membership from Sioux Chief Henry Standing Bear.

Puzzability begins a new series, entitled Surround Sound:

This Week’s Game — June 2-6
Surround Sound
Hope you can tune in this week. For each day, we’ll give you three clues, each of which leads to a word. The answers to two of those clues, when placed together in the right order, have the name of a musical instrument spanning the gap between the answers. When the instrument’s name is removed, the remaining letters, in order, spell the answer to the day’s remaining clue. The clues are presented in random order.
Example:
Small women’s clothing size; play simply, as a guitar; location
Answer:
STRUMPETITE (from petite, strum, site; the instrument is a trumpet)
What to Submit:
Submit just the full string of letters, with the instrument in the middle (as “STRUMPETITE” in the example), for your answer.
Monday, June 2
Sikh’s headwear; essential Thanksgiving fare; full of one-liners

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 6.1.14

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

A new month begins with afternoon showers and thunderstorms, and a high of eighty-four. Sunrise today in 5:19 AM and sunset 8:27 PM. The moon is a waxing crescent with fourteen percent of its visible disk illuminated.

NASA’s Goddard Flight Center published a video of solar observations that’s remarkable:

A coronal mass ejection burst off the side of the sun on May 9, 2014. The giant sheet of solar material erupting was the first CME seen by NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS. The field of view seen here is about five Earth’s wide and about seven and a half Earth’s tall.

IRIS must commit to pointing at certain areas of the sun at least a day in advance, so catching a CME in the act involves some educated guesses and a little bit of luck.

On June 1, 1980, television news in America begins a fundamental change:

…CNN (Cable News Network), the world’s first 24-hour television news network, makes its debut. The network signed on at 6 p.m. EST from its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, with a lead story about the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. CNN went on to change the notion that news could only be reported at fixed times throughout the day. At the time of CNN’s launch, TV news was dominated by three major networks–ABC, CBS and NBC–and their nightly 30-minute broadcasts. Initially available in less than two million U.S. homes, today CNN is seen in more than 89 million American households and over 160 million homes internationally….

Here’s a recording of CNN’s first hour of cable news, from that date: