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Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

Business, City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Government Spending

The Bus: Bad for Whitewater Now, Far Worse for Whitewater Later

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As I write – these last eighteen months now offering ample evidence – Janesville Transit’s bus to Whitewater has been a failure.  It’s been used too seldom, at considerable public expense, mostly for a vast corporation that could easily pay its own way.   And yet, and yet, conditions might be even worse were the bus to achieve the goals of its out-of-town backers:

Under the very marketing plan that Janesville Transit’s director has repeatedly praised, and now proudly declares he is implementing, the bus is designed to entice Whitewater residents to shop and dine in Janesville.  The stated long-range plan for the bus – as one can see in the marketing study that Janesville Transit commissioned – expressly calls for taking customers out of Whitewater  and delivering them to merchants and restaurateurs in Janesville or other cities outside our city. 

The Marketing Strategy Behind the Bus.  Janesville Transit commissioned a marketing study about the bus, entitled an Integrated Marketing Communications Plan, from April 2013.  Janesville Transit’s director unreservedly supports the plan he received, having  formed a ‘partnership with university last spring’ that ‘produced a marketing plan which we have started to implement this fall’ ‘with direct marketing on campus’ as ‘some of you may see the advertisements in the local newspaper,’ or ‘heard some of the radio spots,’  and that ‘there’s more that needs to be done.’ Video: http://vimeo.com/78821732  @ 2:36:14.

The Integrated Marketing Plan concedes the common-sense problem the bus presents to local merchants:

The larger community as a whole has concerns with public transportation, such as the JMW Bus, because the bus system could take potential business to other cities.  This is a huge concern when it comes to the livelihood of Whitewater.

The plan plays on the false notion that people are ‘stuck’ in Whitewater:

The most prominent opportunity to [sic] the JMW bus is the large number of students who do not own cars.  Without cars, these students are generally stuck in Whitewater (or so they feel) because they do not have a vehicle of their own.

The plan is designed to take residents out of the city to shop elsewhere:

Sarah is a 19-year-old sophomore who lives at UW-Whitewater, She lives in the dorms and does not own a car.  On the weekends she stays in Whitewater, and often wishes there was more to do.

A proposed radio spot for the Janesville bus directly encourages residents to ‘leave town’ for visits that supposedly ‘open the door to new possibilities’ out of Whitewater, including a ‘huge selection of events and activities’:

The JMW Bus opens a new world of possibilities…

SFX [Sound effects]: Bus STOPPING AND DOORS OPENING.

MALE 1: Some people think that just because we live in Whitewater, public transportation isn’t an option,.

MALE 2: What they don’t know is that public transportation is an excellent option!  The JMW Bus picks up all over Whitewater and Milton.

MALE 1: And it goes to Janesville, which has a huge selection of events and activities….

ANNCR [Announcer]: The JMW bus is the most cost-friendly, convenient was to get around.  Next time you plan on leaving town, think JMW bus and open the door to new possibilities.

Every member of our local government who supports this project should honestly tell Whitewater’s merchants that it’s a plan designed to take customers to Janesville.  We talk about what it means to BUY LOCAL, but this is a plan to SHOP JANESVILLE.  Whitewater should support an emerging business culture of local shops and restaurants – this transportation scheme directly undermines our own efforts.

What good does it do to place a city manager or council member on a local business board or at the Community Development Authority if the marketing for the bus boosts out-of-town businesses and development in other cities?

It’s much better to be in Whitewater – this is the place that appointed and elected officials should be supporting.  Our city, our merchants, building Whitewater together.

The Bus Mostly Benefits (Now) One Big Company.  By proponents’ own admission, this bus still benefits Generac more than anyone else.

Generac Pays a Tiny Fraction of the Cost.  The projected cost for 2014 would be $394,646, but Generac would pay $47,830, or only 12.1%.  In 2013, Generac paid $46,000 toward the bus, and in 2014 it would be just slightly more at $47,830.  By contrast, Whitewater’s share would rise by 80%, from $10,000 to $18,000.

Generac Has Vast Wealth.  They’ve a market cap of $3.45 billion dollars, and over the past year have invested in plants in Mexico ($46.5 million in cash), Europe, and now Oshkosh.  Generac spent a thousand times as much for a plant in Mexico as she did for the bus they mostly use in Whitewater. 

Wasted Gas – It’s Not Green, It’s Brown.  Janesville Transit admits that they cannot right-size the bus based on ridership, and that full or empty the bus travels 300 miles a day in total miles.  It will cost – mostly in public money – $1,287 per weekday to operate, $773 per Saturday, and $515 per Sunday (operating whether full or empty).

Ridership Numbers Are Admittedly Confusing and Inflated.  Passenger boarding figures count riders twice: If one boards in Janesville, gets off at Generac,  he’s counted two times – for Janesville and Generac, yet still one person was riding.  See, Council Session of 11.5.13 Video Link: http://vimeo.com/78821732 at 2:27:16.

Advertising Has Been Misleading.  All that print advertising around town and yet it relies on bold claims of riders that actually double-count passengers.

Policy.  Watching how this started, under a former municipal administration, one sees that there was little foresight and understanding about the deal.  That’s been a huge problem for our city in the past, and getting beyond short-term or contradictory thinking is essential to our success.  It’s patently false to contend – as Milton’s mayor has done – that this is a forward-thinking project.  No, it’s yesterday’s crony-capitalism, wrapped up in today’s empty jargon about being forward-thinking.  There’s nothing progressive about this plan – it’s a regression to bad ideas and a lack of good planning,

Politics.  Opposition to this deal is non-partisan, neither Left nor Right, Republican nor Democratic. It’s a plan that undermines our city; the only reason it survives is because powerful corporate interests and out-of-town politicians pressure and cajole to keep it going.

I’d guess there’s no one – no one – in the municipal government who would sign onto this program if it were first proposed today.

The political and policy problems from this idea will, however, only grow worse for Whitewater as it goes forward.  If it fails totally Whitewater’s saddled with a wasted cost; if it grows Whitewater still bears that cost, but also a loss of local, independent business.

It’s an utter mess with which we’ve been saddled.

I truly hope that our current municipal administration  and our city manager are a success – we could very much use good years after so many disappointing ones.  Turning away from this very bad idea is prudent, and also will help preserve the many emerging good ideas within, and for, Whitewater.

 

 

City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Government Spending, Planning

Discussion about the Bus, 3.20.12 to 11.5.13

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I promised earlier a summary of principal arguments made about a (mostly) publicly-funded transit bus that benefits (mostly) one multi-billion-dollar corporation. Here’s that post, with a summary of points about the project at Whitewater’s Common Council sessions of 3.20.12, 11.20.12, and 11.5.13.

For each date, I’ve included a link to a Vimeo page with a video recording of that council session. (Each point listed includes a reference by time to the moment on the respective recording when someone made that point.) The left-hand column of the table offers points made; the right-hand column my remarks about that point.

Council Session of 3.20.12

Video Link: http://vimeo.com/38990709   from 4:30 to 6:45

Points Made Comments
Generac seeing interest in employees commuting from their homes in Janesville/Beloit area. City Mgr. Brunner facilitating meeting with Janesville transit to establish commuter line – Whitewater public financing in future if line is successful. [4:50] Public financing in the future?  That future turned out to the very same year – 2012.  City Mgr. Brunner must have meant the near future.
Over half the initial cost borne by state and federal government, about one-fifth from fares, and about three-tenths from ‘local sponsorship’  (that is, funds local governments or businesses) [5:50]  It’s mostly taxpayer-subsidized, although one big corporation gets most of the benefits for its employees.
Generac is very interested in starting this fairly quickly [6:05]  Of course they are – it’s their gain on others’ tab.
City Mgr. Brunner ‘at this time’ doesn’t think an agreement would require a financial commitment, but that’s ‘still to be negotiated’ [6:30] Oh, brother – @ 4:50 in the video Cty. Mgr. Brunner claims public funding was in the future, but @ 6:30 he contends a financial commitment was ‘still to be negotiated’  One supposes he when he said ‘in the future’ meant one minute, forty seconds later.
University has gone on record saying they will support it and put money into the system [6:40]  Now, however, one sees that they’ll only support the project if WW does – it’s conditional, contingent, and provisional support only – tepid and hardly an affirmation at all

Council Session of 11.20.12

Video Link: http://vimeo.com/54486419   from 0:10 to 45:37

Points Made Comments
Generac contends it has to go outside of Whitewater for workers [0:20] We have many unemployed here, too
Generac does not consider itself in the bus business [0:25]  No, of course not – they want taxpayers to be in the bus business for them – they want you to be in the bus business
Generac will hold big job fair in WW within next week [0:50] And yet, a year later, they’re still bringing in out-of-city workers
Generac employees eat lunch in WW [1:10] They don’t leave the Generac campus and everyone in town knows as much
Generac’s commitment will be similar to prior year at $26,000 [1:38] A three-billion-dollar company offers .0007% of its total wealth to to the project.
Generac seeks entry-level workers [2:30] We have workers like that here, but they’re hiring and busing workers from out of town
Generac partners with high-school drop-outs in a second chance program [3:15] It’s a small effort that ignores the larger pool of local laborers
Generac brings food vendors to its building [3:43] There’s Generac’s idea of community partnership – their campus, their terms, even assuming they do this regularly (and they offered no data whatever)
Eric Levitt, (then) City Manager of Janesville contends it takes courage to support the program [5:00] Yes, because it’s bad for Whitewater. Why would a good program of obvious benefit require courage?  It only required courage to ask Whitewater’s Council to benefit Levitt’s city over our own
The bus is called an ‘Innovation Express’ because it’s an innovation in tight times [5:15] There’s nothing innovative about a bigger city (Janesville) fleecing a smaller but more vibrant one (Whitewater)
Economic development is a regional effort [5:45] Only if by regional Levitt meant a bigger city (Janesville) fleecing a smaller but more vibrant one (Whitewater)  Levitt, by the way, was so committed to our area’s regional development that he took a much higher-paying job in affluent Simi Valley, California
The bus will capitalize by leveraging some pubic money to get a larger amount in state & federal money. That is, it was a grant grab at taxpayers’ expense
Jnsvl City Manager Levitt admits its a ‘difficult decision in a difficult time.’ [7:34] Why yes, bad ideas do make difficult decisions
Jnsvl Transportation Director Mumma lists 2013 federal/state cost at $245,000 [8:26] A quarter of a million even without local public money
Generac will contribute $26,000 [8:54] A tiny fraction
2009 study about bus concerned primarily students not general public [9:20] A years’ old study that ignored much of the community
2009 study finds that half of students would use bus ‘at some point’ [9:40] ‘At some point’ may be found between the ’12th of Never’ and ‘I’ll call you sometime’
In 2009 study, 27% of those who would use bus ‘at some point’ would ride ‘a couple of times a week’ A minority of an indeterminate number
The study found a ‘very small number’ that would use it on a daily basis Well, there you are
Jnsvl transportation director observes that ‘What we have here is an opportunity to say: Does this concept work?’ It only works if by working one means few riders now and more riders to Janesville stores later
10% of student body was part of 2009 survey [11:15] A small slice of only a slice of the whole city
State/federal money covers 80% of the bus’s operating deficit (that is, what fares don’t cover), and local sponsors (WW, UWW, or Generac) ay the rest [11:45] Most funding is taxpayer money
Riders in 2012 pay about $2.75 per ride in fares [13:40] And yet, most funding is taxpayer money
The bus will need 20,000-25,000 passengers in 2013 [13:47] 25,000
Of 2012 passengers, 5,000 were from Generac [13:50] That number would mean most were from Generac; a year later, it’s still predominantly Generac riders
For 2012, one will not see a lot of riders other than Generac based on how the schedule is constructed [14:52] A year later, it’s still predominantly Generac riders
Jnsvl transportation director claims 5-10 inquiry calls per day about the bus [15:13] There’s no way to confirm any of this
Bus will not operate at full potential until it operates at a time that’s more convenient for more people [15:20] It’s still often empty, so convenience must still be an issue
More trips will be added in 2013 [16:00] It’s still often empty, so more trips aren’t working out so well
Trips in 2012 align with Generac’s shift schedule [16:35] Of course
Very difficult to estimate the actual number of riders.  “It sounded to me like you worked backward from your estimate of how many dollars you need to the number of riders, instead of the other way around.  Am I wrong about that, I hope?” [17:11] That is exactly what the Janesville transportation director did
Survey data admittedly four years old, and don’t take into account anyone other than students [17:25] So, why use old data?
An expanded bus schedule for 2013 will focus on university class schedules, businesses in the tech park, although not all have a schedule like Generac [18:33] It’s still often empty, so convenience must still be an issue; It’s still often empty, so more trips aren’t working out so well
Discussions will include the City of Milton [20:00] Of course they will
Jnsvl Transit Director Dave Mumma declares that “Mumma is not going to pull the schedule out of his hat, I can tell you that much.”  [20:17] I agree; I’d guess Director Mumma pulled this idea from out of somewhere else
Jnsvl Transit will go to employers and to the university to develop transit schedule plan [20:38] It’s still often empty, so convenience must still be an issue; It’s still often empty, so more trips aren’t working out so well
Milton City Council will consider on 11/27/12 [21:36] Their needs are different from ours
Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Jeff Arnold pledges that university will commit to support the project with local government, and says money will not come from student fees [22:40] Why not support the project independently from the city? It’s because the university doesn’t care enough
Then-Director of Innovation Center Robert Young claims ten months of discussions about the bus [23:30] But very little public discussion at that point
Director Young claims that Generac’s CEO supports the Innovation Center [24:30] If the Generac CEO supported WW, he’d (1) pay for all of the bus, (2) help the Innovation Center with its ongoing struggle to make payments to WW in lieu of taxes
Cameron Clapper: Funding would be for 2013, not a long-term commitment: “It’s kind of wait and see before we would even think about committing any farther down the road.” [26:40] And yet, here we are, with more schemes to make municipal funding possible
A proposal appears before Council to reduce the amount of 2013 funding from $10,000 to $5,000. It fails
A council member suggests the university should contribute more than the city based on ridership; Chancellor Telfer reportedly contends that there’s insufficient ridership information to justify different levels of funding. [28:10] UW-W students use the bus more than other city residents
Chancellor Telfer reportedly contends that 2013 ridership estimates are mere projections. [28:20] Ridership is still disproportionately for Generac and UW-W
An anecdote about an election worker and rider with cerebral palsy. {28:50, 29:41] There are existing transportation alternatives that even the bus’s own marketing plan acknowledges as ‘competitive threats’ (Brown Cab, Rock County Specialized Transit, Walworth County Health and Human Services Transportation)
One should think about those who don’t have much money.  [31:00] I do; I write about poverty publicly more than anyone else in our city.  This is no anti-poverty program – it’s a big corporation looking to take public money to subsidize its own business model and Janesville hoping to lure Whitewater’s consumers
Council member hopes for better numbers in 2013. [31.27] Ridership is still disproportionately for Generac and UW-W.  One should be careful about those things for which one wishes – if ridership goes up, consumers go to Janesvile.
Motion for reduction to $5,000 in funding fails for want of a second vote. [31:56] Hard to resist an ill-considered idea
A council member expresses concern about going from 5,000 to 25,000 for ridership [32:36]
Ridership is still disproportionately for Generac and UW-W.  One should be careful about those things for which one wishes – if ridership goes up, consumers go to Janesvile.

 

Council Session of 11.5.13

Video Link: http://vimeo.com/78821732  from 2:21:36 to 3:29:30

Points Made Comments
Additional documents received for Council: Marketing Communication Plan, Memo on Proposed Fares, 2014 Projections on Cost (increased costs, reduced state/federal funding).  Cost of about $400K total, $112 for local groups, of which 42.6% from Generac, 24.6% is from Milton, and 32.8% from WW (50% WW and 50% UWW) UWW will match WW funding, Ridership figures for Sep & Oct [2:22:28] Many docs supplied late – Janesville’s officials don’t respect our processes. It’s not an equal partnership.
Janesville’s in-kind contribution document [2:25:32] They use an existing, old bus while Whitewater pays cash
October 2013 ridership numbers Generac 541, UWW 139, all others 89 [2:26:39] A year later: Ridership is still disproportionately for Generac and UW-W
Claim of 150% of last year’s ridership [2:27:10] Hardly five-times as much – as had been promised
Passenger boarding figures count riders twice: Board in Janesville, get off at Generac,  counted two times – for Janesville and Generac, yet still one person [2:27:16] Amazing – an admission that after a year of ads and touted figures that the so called passenger numbers count the same riders twice
 Municipal administration offers no funding for bus in proposed budget for 2014 [2:28:20] Sensibly so, but the administration needs to stand up to outsiders’ pressure
Possible ways to fund the bus: delay into two parts an employee wage increase, or reduce amount to building repair fund [2:28:53] Not one of these ways of taking money from others is fair or sensible
Generac representative doesn’t attend the meeting, although WW city manager was notified and promised someone would attend [2:31:40] Generac simply doesn’t care about or respect Whitewater’s municipal administration
Jnsvl Transit’s Dave Mumma tells Council and City Manager that Generac’s representative told him that she would instead attend event in Oshkosh where Generac recently bought another company [2:32:35] Generac simply doesn’t care about Whitewater’s municipal administration; when they have something to say, they say it to someone from Janesville – then that Janesville bureaucrat tells Council after the meeting has already started.
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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.19.13

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Good morning.

Tuesday will be sunny with a high of forty-two.  We’ll have light winds from the south at 5 to 10 mph.  Sunrise is 6:52 AM and sunset will be 4:28 PM.

Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1863, Pres. Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address:

On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln delivers one of the most memorable speeches in American history. In just 272 words, Lincoln brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary public why the Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War.

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought some four months earlier, was the single bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Over the course of three days, more than 45,000 men were killed, injured, captured or went missing.  The battle also proved to be the turning point of the war: General Robert E. Lee‘s defeat and retreat from Gettysburg marked the last Confederate invasion of Northern territory and the beginning of the Southern army’s ultimate decline.

Charged by Pennsylvania’s governor, Andrew Curtin, to care for the Gettysburg dead, an attorney named David Wills bought 17 acres of pasture to turn into a cemetery for the more than 7,500 who fell in battle. Wills invited Edward Everett, one of the most famous orators of the day, to deliver a speech at the cemetery’s dedication. Almost as an afterthought, Wills also sent a letter to Lincoln—just two weeks before the ceremony—requesting “a few appropriate remarks” to consecrate the grounds.

At the dedication, the crowd listened for two hours to Everett before Lincoln spoke. Lincoln’s address lasted just two or three minutes. The speech reflected his redefined belief that the Civil War was not just a fight to save the Union, but a struggle for freedom and equality for all, an idea Lincoln had not championed in the years leading up to the war. This was his stirring conclusion: “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Reception of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was initially mixed, divided strictly along partisan lines. Nevertheless, the “little speech,” as he later called it, is thought by many today to be the most eloquent articulation of the democratic vision ever written.

The full text is readily available online.

Here’s Puzzability‘s series called First Editions:

This Week’s Game — November 18-22
First Editions
This week, we’re summarizing books in just one word. Each day’s answer is a book title whose initial letters spell a three- or four-letter word. The day’s clue includes information about the book and a clue to the word.
Example:
Joseph Heller novel about a professor who has a chance to be the first Jewish Secretary of State, if he can just get that bandanna out of his mouth
Answer:
Good as Gold (GAG)
What to Submit:
Submit the book title (as “Good as Gold” in the example) for your answer.
Tuesday, November 19
Ernest Hemingway novel about the Lost Generation and the old ruler of Russia

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.18.13

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be colder than yesterday, with a high of forty. We’ll have another breezy day, with gusts of winds for today reaching to 25 mph. Sunrise today is 6:51 AM, and sunset 4:29 PM. The moon for November 18th is in a waning gibbous phase with 99% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Alcohol & Licensing Committee meets at 6:30 PM tonight.

On this day in 1883, new modes of travel make necessary the use of time zones (‘Standard Railway Time‘):

At exactly noon on this day, American and Canadian railroads begin using four continental time zones to end the confusion of dealing with thousands of local times. The bold move was emblematic of the power shared by the railroad companies.

The need for continental time zones stemmed directly from the problems of moving passengers and freight over the thousands of miles of rail line that covered North America by the 1880s. Since human beings had first begun keeping track of time, they set their clocks to the local movement of the sun. Even as late as the 1880s, most towns in the U.S. had their own local time, generally based on “high noon,” or the time when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. As railroads began to shrink the travel time between cities from days or months to mere hours, however, these local times became a scheduling nightmare. Railroad timetables in major cities listed dozens of different arrival and departure times for the same train, each linked to a different local time zone.

Efficient rail transportation demanded a more uniform time-keeping system. Rather than turning to the federal governments of the United States and Canada to create a North American system of time zones, the powerful railroad companies took it upon themselves to create a new time code system. The companies agreed to divide the continent into four time zones; the dividing lines adopted were very close to the ones we still use today.

Most Americans and Canadians quickly embraced their new time zones, since railroads were often their lifeblood and main link with the rest of the world. However, it was not until 1918 that Congress officially adopted the railroad time zones and put them under the supervision of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

On 11.18.1930, there’s a raid in Beloit:

1930 – Beloit Area Home Raided
On this date federal agents and county deputies raided Otto Matschke’s home, north of Beloit, and seized an illegal still and 300 gallons of contraband moonshine. [Source: Janesville Gazette November 19, 1930, p.1]

I’ve linked to puzzles from Puzzability before, and I’ll bring them back today.  Their new series is called First Editions:

This Week’s Game — November 18-22
First Editions
This week, we’re summarizing books in just one word. Each day’s answer is a book title whose initial letters spell a three- or four-letter word. The day’s clue includes information about the book and a clue to the word.
Example:
Joseph Heller novel about a professor who has a chance to be the first Jewish Secretary of State, if he can just get that bandanna out of his mouth
Answer:
Good as Gold (GAG)
What to Submit:
Submit the book title (as “Good as Gold” in the example) for your answer.
Monday, November 18
Fyodor Dostoyevsky novel about the murder of a pawnbroker for her headgear

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.17.13

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Good morning.

Sunday brings showers and thunderstorms with a high of sixty-one. Winds will be from the south, and later southwest, reaching 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph this afternoon.

November 17, 1869 sees a grand opening:

The Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean and the Red seas, is inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony attended by French Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III.

In 1854, Ferdinand de Lesseps, the former French consul to Cairo, secured an agreement with the Ottoman governor of Egypt to build a canal 100 miles across the Isthmus of Suez. An international team of engineers drew up a construction plan, and in 1856 the Suez Canal Company was formed and granted the right to operate the canal for 99 years after completion of the work.

Construction began in April 1859, and at first digging was done by hand with picks and shovels wielded by forced laborers. Later, European workers with dredgers and steam shovels arrived. Labor disputes and a cholera epidemic slowed construction, and the Suez Canal was not completed until 1869–four years behind schedule. On November 17, 1869, the Suez Canal was opened to navigation. Ferdinand de Lesseps would later attempt, unsuccessfully, to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama.

One-hundred forty years later, here’s a recording of a trip down the canal:

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.16.13

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Good morning.

Saturday brings showers and possible afternoon thunderstorm to Whitewater, with a high of fifty-five. Whatever our weather, we’ll never see a nearby natural event like the one those near Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung recently saw:

On 11.16.2001, a film series begins:

On this day in 2001, the British author J.K. Rowling’s star creation–bespectacled boy wizard Harry Potter–makes his big-screen debut in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which opens in movie theaters across the United States. Based on the mega-best-selling fantasy novel of the same name, the film, which starred Daniel Radcliffe in the title role, went on to become one of the highest-grossing movies in history.

The first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, debuted in Great Britain in 1997 and was released in the United States the following year under the name Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Children and adults alike were captivated by the story of Harry, his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, their adventures at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Harry’s struggles against his main enemy, the evil Lord Voldemort.

Here’s the trailer for that first film:

Poll

Friday Poll: Great Accomplishment or Bizarre Undertaking?

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One reads about a resident from Brooklyn’s unusual world record:

Scott Wiener of Brooklyn has amassed 595 pizza boxes from 45 countries. Just think of all the pizza he’s gotten to eat! Inspired by a beautiful box he found in Israel, Wiener started seriously collecting in 2008. He prizes his boxes from other countries, and one in particular is his favorite: a box from the Netherlands that “looks almost-but-not-really like Bart and Homer Simpson,” Wiener said in a press release. (Check out an image of it here.) “I remember shrieking when I saw it,” Wiener said. “It’s amazing.”

What do you think? Is Scott’s project a great accomplishment or bizarre undertaking? (I’ll say great accomplishment – there’s some impressive artwork he’s found among those boxes.)


Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.15.13

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Good morning.

Whitewater will have a mostly sunny Friday, with a high of fifty-one, and southwest winds of 5 to 10 mph.

On this day in 1864, Gen. Sherman begins his March to the Sea:

…Union General William T. Sherman begins his expedition across Georgia by torching the industrial section of Atlanta and pulling away from his supply lines. For the next six weeks, Sherman’s army destroyed most of the state before capturing the Confederate seaport of Savannah, Georgia….

After hearing that President Abraham Lincoln had won re-election on November 8, Sherman ordered 2,500 light wagons loaded with supplies. Doctors checked each soldier for illness or injuries, and those who were deemed unfit were sent to Nashville. Sherman wrote to his general in chief, Ulysses S. Grant, that if he could march through Georgia it would be “proof positive that the North can prevail.” He told Grant that he would not send couriers back, but to “trust the Richmond papers to keep you well advised.” Sherman loaded the surplus supplies on trains and shipped them back to Nashville. On November 15, the army began to move, burning the industrial section of Atlanta before leaving. One witness reported “immense and raging fires lighting up whole heavens… huge waves of fire roll up into the sky; presently the skeleton of great warehouses stand out in relief against sheets of roaring, blazing, furious flames.” Sherman’s famous destruction of Georgia had begun.

On this day in 1887, a great artist is born in Sun Prairie:

O'keeffe_-_'Pineapple_Bud',_1939,_

‘Pineapple Bud”, oil on canvas painting by ”Georgia O’Keeffe, 1939 Source: Saville, Jennifer, ”Georgia O’Keeffe, Paintings of Hawai’i”, Honolulu, Honolulu Academy of Arts via Wikipeda. Assertion of Fair Use.

1887 – Georgia O’Keeffe Born
On this date Georgia O’Keeffe was born in Sun Prairie. She studied at the Chicago Art Institute from 1904 to 1905. In 1907 she relocated to New York to study at the Arts Students League with William Chase. In 1926 she unveiled her now famous flower paintings. She received much of her artistic inspiration from her surroundings in New Mexico, where she settled permanently in 1946. O’Keeffe was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977. Georgia O’Keeffe died in 1986 in Santa Fe. [Source: Wisconsin Women: A Gifted Heritage]

Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about a characteristic of some organisms. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)

What is luciferase?

Animation, Nature, Science/Nature

What Might Mars Have Been Like?

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NASA scientists have tried to imagine how that planet might have looked when it once had flowing water (as they believe it did):

In a dramatic new video out of the NASA Goddard Conceptual Image Lab, animators conceive of what Mars may have looked like when its atmosphere and surface temperature allowed for water. The far-out animation is based on existing data collected by NASA — including information on sediment layering and surface erosion — that strongly suggest the Red Planet was once awash in waterways. The agency will soon have much more data on the history of Mars’ climate, as they prepare for the launch of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission on November 18th. MAVEN will seek to explore climactic changes on the planet, and may also help unravel whether or not Mars ever supported life.

Striking —

City, Local Government, Police

Policies for the Police and Fire Commission

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Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission meets tonight at 5:30 PM, to interview patrol officers and consider several policy documents. Those documents appear below, and at the bottom of this post readers will find the video recording of last week’s PFC meeting.

There are five processes or documents to be considered tonight:

(1)  PFC Oath 
(2)  Code of Ethics
(3)  Commissioner Responsibilities and Expectations
(4)  Complaint Process Overview
(5)  Hiring Process and Commission Involvement Policy

Here are a few things to consider, in no particular order.

To his credit, the Common Council member of the PFC – who occupies a different political status in the city by being elected to Council – was the only one from the 11.6.13 meeting who posed meaningful questions of conflicts of interest or of the draft complaint process.   

Code of Ethics.  I’m not sure who wrote the draft Code of Ethics.  Last week’s PFC discussion leaves the actual authorship vague.

(That is, I’m not sure who wrote it, not who typed it.  I’m referring the actual composition, not the word-processing of it.  Writing is a leadership responsibility, not a clerical matter.)

In any event, it’s written in a poor, occasionally substandard English.  Any document may have a few typos, but this draft is littered with errors of subject-verb agreement, misuse of simple words or misspellings, and beyond all that a flowery, rambling prose.  

No one is expecting Augustan English, so to speak, but one should at least have a PFC code up to the standards of our high-school graduates.  This isn’t.  

Beyond the composition, there’s a different point, that’s truly substantive, rather than stylistic: the use of the word stakeholder in the first paragraph (‘Personal Integrity’): “…in order to inspire trust among our stakeholders…”

It’s true that I don’t like the term, and have said as much before, but my objection here is more than rhetorical: the legal obligation is to residents, to citizens, to department employees, but not to some ill-defined group through a buzz-word term that sounds impressive until one realizes that it’s empty. 

‘Stakeholder’ is just an attempt to appear profound and comprehensive without comprehending that for a code, as for good law itself, only concrete and plain terms should be used.  The use here isn’t impressive, but deficient by ambiguity.

Hiring.  The drafts maintain the current and inadequate process of having a “Command Staff” official sit in on the interviews.  I’ve criticized this practice before.  See, along these lines, Police and Fire Commission Interviewing.

Funny, truly.  The department’s leadership in this small, rural town uses the sadly trendy term “Command Staff” to refer to itself, yet it’s so insecure that it dare not let citizens appointed for oversight sit with candidates in a room by themselves.  One would think that a true command staff (think Gen. MacArthur, not anyone in Whitewater) wouldn’t be so insecure over hiring in a town of about fifteen-thousand.       

Complaints Process.  Here one finds the truly absurd and ill-considered work of the author of the complaints process against a commissioner.  

Under the Wisconsin law, itself, the PFC has oversight over the chief of police and the department.  Yet, astonishingly, the complaints process against a commissioner-overseer of the department and chief is assigned to that very chief:

Complaint Against Commissioner.  The same process is used for any complaint.  The complaint [sic] forwarded to the Chief of Police.  If the Chief of Police believes the complaint has merit and violates the intent and meaning of the Commission, the complaint is forwarded to the City Manager and the Police Commission president for review.

This method assures that the police chief will act as interpreter and gatekeeper of the complaints process against a commissioner, even though it is the commission’s principal duty to oversee the police chief and department.  

The incentive for deals, arrangements, and protection of some (and claims against others) based on favoritism is inescapable in this circular arrangement.

Worse, even if there were no deals, it presents the appearance of a conflict of interest – and avoidance of conflicts is the avoidance of both substance and appearance.    

It’s ironic that the president of the PFC, Jan Bilgen, is also on Whitewater’s Ethics Committee, yet seemingly fails to grasp this simple principle.  Had the PFC president understood half of this, the provision would not have been – as it should not have been – even in the draft process.  

That others may have reviewed this provision before the 11.6.13 meeting and let it pass is simply embarrassing.  

For an example of a public body that faced a complaint against one of its members and took the right course of using an independent attorney to conduct the investigation, see School District Investigation Finds Board Member Violated Policies.  

Public integrity is more than a florid litany of what one declares about oneself – it’s the expectation that public officials will, in serious matters, submit to independent and impartial review.  

That’s not what’s present in this draft; Whitewater deserves better than something transparently inadequate.  

Police & Fire Commission 11/06/2013 from Whitewater Community TV on Vimeo.