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Business, City, Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.19.24: Whitewater Again Has a Dedicated Supermarket

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy, with a high of 84. Sunrise is 6:39, and sunset is 6:56, for 12 hours and 17 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous, with 96.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1796, George Washington’s Farewell Address is printed across America as an open letter to the public.

After years without a dedicated supermarket, Whitewater has an ALDI @ 1380 W. Main Street.

There was a ribbon-cutting this morning.

Before today’s grand opening, I stopped in last night and found ALDI clean, well-organized, with wide aisles. (I had never been inside an ALDI before, although we have ordered from the Janesville location through Instacart.)

Quite sharp, and a welcome business addition to Whitewater.

Updated, morning of 9.19: I added a reply to a post comment. I’ve also reproduced that reply below:

Unquestionably right. The old Sentry closed in ’15, and Whitewater went years fumbling with old-guard CDA attempts to bring a dedicated supermarket. They accomplished nothing of the kind. 

ALDI is in Whitewater because the city has a new municipal administration that brought ALDI here.

Bear sends group running after climbing out of car’s window:

America, City, Daily Bread, Economy, Self-Dealing, Special Interests

Daily Bread for 9.18.24: Now’s the Time

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 83. Sunrise is 6:39, and sunset is 6:57, for 12h 18m 05s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous, with 99.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Library Board Development Committee meets at 4:30 PM and the Parks & Recreation Board meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1942,  Spring Valley endures a flood:

On the evening of September 17, 1942, after a day of heavy rain, water began rolling through the streets of Spring Valley, in Pierce Co. The village, strung out along the Eau Galle River in a deep valley, had been inundated before, but this was no ordinary flood. By 11:30p.m., water in the streets was 12 to 20 feet deep, flowing at 12 to 15 miles an hour, and laden with logs, lumber, and dislodged buildings. Throughout the early morning hours of Sept. 18th, village residents became trapped in their homes or were carried downstream as buildings were swept off foundations and floated away. One couple spent the night chest-deep in water in their living room, holding their family dog above the water and fending off floating furniture. The raging torrent uprooted and twisted the tracks of the Northwestern Railroad like wire, and electricity and drinking water were unavailable for several days. Miraculously, there were no deaths or serious injuries.

On this day in 1945, General Douglas MacArthur moves his general headquarters from Manila to Tokyo.

Now’s the time for Whitewater to make good on improving national conditions. (The best way for the city to do so is to set aside the low-quality work but above-average sense of entitlement of the aged special-interest men who have kept Whitewater back for a generation1. See of yesteryear’s serial mediocrity Whitewater’s Still Waiting for That Boom.)

Of those improving national conditions, Jeff Cox reports The Fed’s biggest interest rate call in years happens Wednesday. Here’s what to expect:

For all the hype that goes into them, Federal Reserve meetings are usually pretty predictable affairs. Policymakers telegraph their intentions ahead of time, markets react, and everyone has at least a general idea of what’s going to happen.

Not this time.

This week’s gathering of the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee carries an uncommon air of mystery. While markets have made up their collective mind that the Fed is going to lower interest rates, there’s a vigorous debate over how far policymakers will go.

Will it be the traditional quarter-percentage-point, or 25-basis-point, rate reduction, or will the Fed take an aggressive first step and go 50, or half a point?

Fed watchers are unsure, setting up the potential for an FOMC meeting that could be even more impactful than usual. The meeting wraps up Wednesday afternoon, with the release of the Fed’s rate decision coming at 2 p.m. ET.

“I hope they cut 50 basis points, but I suspect they’ll cut 25. My hope is 50, because I think rates are just too high,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “They have achieved their mandate for full employment and inflation back at target, and that’s not consistent with a five and a half percent-ish funds rate target. So I think they need to normalize rates quickly and have a lot of room to do so.”

A rate cut of either size will be good for all America, including small-town Whitewater.

  1. One might wonder why these aged men didn’t have more time to choose well for Whitewater when they were younger. Wonder not: exaggerating, tale-bearing, pretending, posing, scheming, memorizing trickle-down jargon, and shoving themselves to the front of the line takes a lot of time, for goodness’ sake. ↩︎

City, Daily Bread, University

Daily Bread for 9.17.24: Good News on UW-Whitewater’s Enrollment

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 85. Sunrise is 6:36, and sunset is 7:02, for 12 hours and 25 minutes of daytime. The moon is full tonight, with all of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM on the UW-Whitewater campus.

On this day in 1787,  the United States Constitution is signed at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, bringing the Constitutional Convention to a successful end.

Whitewater received good news yesterday as did a few other Universities of Wisconsin campuses. Corrinne Hess reports Universities of Wisconsin enrollment up overall (‘8 UW campuses see enrollment increases over last fall’):

Preliminary enrollment figures released Monday show eight colleges in the Universities of Wisconsin system have more students this year than last fall. 

….

UW-Whitewater’s enrollment is the highest it has been since 2020. The Rock County campus, included in Whitewater’s 11,784 headcount, is expected to hold steady at nearly 700 students.

“We’re thrilled that more students are choosing to join the Warhawk family,” said Jackie Briggs, assistant vice chancellor for enrollment and retention. “UW-Whitewater’s commitment to student success, great teaching, inclusivity, and affordability continue to resonate. 

Preliminary headcount enrolment: 

  • UW-Eau Claire: 9,969
  • UW-Green Bay: 10,749
  • UW-La Crosse: 10,438
  • UW-Madison: 51,729
  • UW-Milwaukee: 22,517
  • UW Oshkosh: 13,127
  • UW-Parkside: 3,875
  • UW-Platteville: 6,419
  • UW-River Falls: 5,093
  • UW-Stevens Point: 8,263
  • UW-Stout: 6,870
  • UW-Superior: 2,756
  • UW-Whitewater: 11,784

This is good news for Whitewater. Enrollment gains in the present demographic environment are hard-won. This community will be better off leaving the last decade’s mistakes(1, 2) behind us. To support education is not to support anything or anyone but to support worthy endeavors and leaders. As always, the heart of the university experience lies in the relationship between professors & students and between students and their peers.

Whitewater’s social and economic health depends on a healthy campus. See Arrive for the Campus, Stay for the City. One hopes for continuing gains free of yesteryear’s errors.

Partial Lunar Eclipse September 17-18, 2024:

Bigotry, City, Daily Bread, Immigration, Mendacity

Daily Bread for 9.16.24: It Might Have Been Us

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 86. Sunrise is 6:37, and sunset is 7:01, for 12h 23m 50s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 96.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1908, the General Motors Corporation is founded.

Someone sees a burning house in the distance, and wonders whether it might be his house on fire. Perhaps, in those moments, he offers a prayer: Dear God, let this not be my house. And yet, and yet, there is a fire, and someone’s house is burning, and so asking that another might instead bear the loss is a selfish request. A more loving request of the divine: Dear God, let no one be injured and the damage be slight.

Note well: For all the dark publicity and fear-mongering about immigrants in Whitewater, worse lies about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, might have befallen us. See of Whitewater The Local Press Conference that Was Neither Local Nor a Press Conference. The scheming politicians who came to Whitewater were simply less ambitious than the ones who have afflicted Springfield.

I’ll not say that I am grateful misery has struck an innocent population in Springfield, Ohio, as I would not want suffering elsewhere. It is right only to hope that the racist lies told about Springfield cease, and that that town’s Haitian residents suffer no further injury.

Of human affairs, however, one can say this: those who came to Whitewater with matches might have caused a worse fire for us, and we need look only to Ohio to see how a few more matches, a few more lies, might have engulfed us.

Springfield on edge after lies:

City, Daily Bread, Food, Good Ideas

Daily Bread for 9.14.24: A Food Truck Festival @ the Lakefront

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 84. Sunrise is 6:35, and sunset is 7:04, for 12h 29m 36s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 82.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1994, the rest of the Major League Baseball season is canceled because of a strike.

Britain’s Red Arrows soar over Niagara Falls on Canadian tour:

The UK’s Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows, flew over Niagara Falls’ trio of waterfalls as part of a tour of Canada marking 100 years of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

City, Conflicts of Interest, Daily Bread, Ethics, Local Government, Planning

Daily Bread for 9.9.24: Minimum Standards for a Local Board or Committee

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 6:29, and sunset is 7:13, for 12h 43m 53s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 32.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Board meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1839, John Herschel takes the first glass plate photograph.

What conditions should a local government body always meet? Two come to mind in all cases.

First, board members must not vote or deliberate on matters in which they have a conflict of interest. This should be evident to a person of average understanding, and yet, throughout the last decade, the Whitewater Community Development Authority was plagued with conflicts repeatedly. Someone so implicated who looks at this situation without personal contrition and insists that these conflicts do not matter is, and always will be, unsuited for public life.

At Planning, for example, the board chairman should ask all board members before a significant matter with competitive implications: does anyone on this board have a conflict that he or she should declare? Those who remain silent yet have material conflicts known or discovered are unfit to stay on that public body. (Note well: this question from a chairperson is for those for those on a board or commission.)

Second, public comment in Whitewater often comprises both ordinary residents and special interests advancing their economic gain (e.g., principals, operatives, catspaws, etc.). See The Special-Interest Hierarchy of a Small Town and The Special-Interest Hierarchy of a Small Town (Adjacent Support). Almost all ordinary residents will have sincere reasons for supporting or opposing a policy; special interests will manipulate a few people now and again for the special interests’ own ends.

Boardmembers should consider of those who seek or oppose government action: cui bono? For whose benefit? In Whitewater’s case, is it for the community or for a few aged men who want to prevent competitive opportunity?

How Much Cheese Do Americans Eat Per Year?:

Is there such a thing as too much cheese? Producers across the US are betting billions of dollars that the answer is no. America’s per capita cheese consumption has more than doubled since the government began keeping track in 1975, to about 42 pounds a year—more than all the butter, ice cream and yogurt combined. Facilities for making cheese account for more than half of the $8 billion in US dairy-product projects slated to come online from 2023 to 2026, according to the International Dairy Foods Association.

City, Daily Bread, New Whitewater, That Which Paved the Way

Daily Bread for 9.6.24: A Whitewater ‘Unburdened by What Has Been’

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 6:26, and sunset is 7:18, for 12h 52m 25s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 10.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1946, United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes announces that the U.S. will follow a policy of economic reconstruction in postwar Germany.

Kamala Harris sometimes uses the expression “what can be, unburdened by what has been.”

The sound implication is that the present is burdened by what has been, but can be unburdened with effort.

Whitewater is like this, as the city is burdened twice-over by her past. First, she’s afflicted by a small faction of ordinary men possessed of extraordinary self-promotion and self-dealing. See A Reminder on Whitewater’s Fumbling & Stumbling Old Guard, The Special-Interest Hierarchy of a Small Town, and The Special-Interest Hierarchy of a Small Town (Adjacent Support).

Second, that small faction diverted attention from basic needs, including the ability of adults to discourse on a proper high-school level, leaving a small number in the community as little more than ignorant (lit., lacking knowledge or awareness) or confused tale-bearers. See Formation, General, Formation Hasn’t Stopped Mattering, and Formation, Moral.

Special interests’ particular avarice, afflicting the town with general stagnation, was worse even than economic: it has led to a decline in acculturation among the portions of the community those interests variously patronized or ignored.

They’ve left the next generation with a significant burden to overcome. Whitewater has made solid progress these last two years, and although we have years to go, we will overcome the burden of the past.

City, Crime, University

Whitewater Police Department Identifies Suspect in Homicide Investigation

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The Whitewater Police Department released today a statement identifying the suspect in the fatal shooting of Kara Welsh. That statement appears below:


Whitewater Police Make Arrest in Homicide Investigation – UPDATE

Whitewater, WI – September 3, 2024 – The Whitewater Police Department is confirming the identity of the suspect arrested in this case as Chad T. Richards, 23, of Loves Park, Illinois. Richards is scheduled to appear in court today, September 3rd, at the Walworth County Courthouse.

The Whitewater Police Department forwarded the following charges to the Walworth County District Attorney’s Office: First-Degree Intentional Homicide (Wis. Stat. 940.01(a)), Endangering Safety by the Use of a Dangerous Weapon (Wis. Stat. 941.20(1)(c)), and Disorderly Conduct while Armed (Wis. Stat. 947.01). It is noted that this case has not been concluded. Unless a judgement of conviction is entered, the arrestee/defendant is presumed innocent of all charges.

Due to the fact that this is an ongoing investigation, no additional details will be provided at this time. Anyone with information relevant to this investigation is encouraged to contact the Whitewater Police Department at 262-473-0555 option #4. Anonymous tips may also be shared using P3Tips.com.

Previously: A Fatal Shooting in the City, Official Release of Information on Student Fatally Shot.

City, Crime, Daily Bread, University

Daily Bread for 9.1.24: Official Release of Information on Student Fatally Shot

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 73. Sunrise is 6:21, and sunset is 7:27, for 13h 06m 31s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 2.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1939,   Germany and Slovakia invade Poland, beginning the European phase of World War II.

On Saturday afternoon, UW-Whitewater released a statement following the identification of the victim of a fatal shooting in the city. That statement, from Chancellor Corey King, appears in full below:

Message from Chancellor King

Dear students, faculty and staff,

It is with great sadness that we announce a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student has passed away. Kara Welsh, age 21, from Plainfield, Illinois, died in a shooting off campus on Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. More information is available on the City of Whitewater website.

Kara was majoring in management in our College of Business and Economics and was a standout member of the Warhawk gymnastics team, winning an individual national title on the vault in 2023.

We know the news of Kara’s death is heartbreaking for our close-knit university community. It is a time when we are all called upon to support one another, to process, and to grieve.

Please know that counseling services are available to you. For students, please contact the University Health and Counseling Services. For faculty and staff, please contact Acentra, the Employee Assistance Program.

Since learning of this tragedy, our colleagues across Whitewater have come together to respond and to engage in layers of support for our students, faculty and staff.  

  • Our Dean of Students office is connected with Kara’s family and is helping them navigate through the unimaginable situation of the loss of their loved one.
  • Our Athletics leadership brought together the gymnastics team and coaches to inform them in person, and University Health and Counseling Services offered counseling support. 
  • Our Academic Affairs staff are planning to provide extra support and flexibility to affected students with classes beginning on Tuesday.
  • Our UW-Whitewater Police Department continued their close collaboration with the City of Whitewater Police Department by providing assistance in the investigation.
  • The Chancellor’s Cabinet and other university leaders continue to stay in contact and take action to lead us through this difficult time.

Details for memorial services will be shared when they are available. I have directed that the UW-Whitewater flag fly at half-staff on Tuesday, Sept. 3, in Kara’s memory. 

Sincerely,
Corey King
Chancellor

City, Crime, Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.31.24: A Fatal Shooting in the City

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 6:20, and sunset is 7:29, for 13h 09m 18s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 5.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1939,  Nazi Germany mounts a false flag attack on the Gleiwitz radio station, creating an excuse to attack Poland the following day, thus starting World War II in Europe.

One reads this Saturday morning from a press release and professional reporting that there was a fatal shooting in the city shortly before midnight on Friday. From that reporting, Whitewater Police: 21-year-old woman dies from ‘multiple gunshot wounds’:

A 21-year-old woman has died after sustaining “multiple gunshot wounds,” according to information released Saturday by Whitewater Police Chief Dan Meyer. 

Meyer, within the release, stated that police responded Friday, just before midnight, to an apartment in the 100 block of W. Whitewater Street after receiving a report of an individual who had suffered gunshot wounds. 

Upon arrival, police found a woman deceased in the apartment. 

Also present, the release read, was a 23-year-old male who was known to the deceased woman. 

An investigation has led police to believe that prior to the shooting, an altercation occurred between the male and female, according to the release. 

The male has been detained and the investigation remains ongoing, the release noted. 

“We are confident that there is no threat to the community at this time,” the release reported.

The department was right to publish quickly a succinct release to inform the city and prevent rumor.

This fatal shooting is a fathomless loss for which one offers condolences to the family and friends of the deceased woman.

City, Daily Bread, Politics

Daily Bread for 8.29.24: Scouting Whitewater’s Political Landscape

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 84. Sunrise is 6:17, and sunset is 7:32, for 13h 14m 52s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 18.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1997,  Netflix launches as an internet DVD rental service (streaming came later, in 2007).

Joe Tarr reports on the enthusiasm that Kamala Harris is generating among many college students in Young Wisconsin Democrats fired up with Harris at the top of the ticket. Tarr’s story begins with an anecdote from UW-Whitewater:

Alyssa Wahlborg knows that her politics don’t always gel with that of the community where she attends college. 

While a lot of students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater might lean left, the larger community “leans a bit red,” she told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” Nevertheless, Wahlborg sees hope that the Democratic Party can make gains in rural Walworth County and elsewhere. 

“Having conversations with people on our campus makes you realize how blue we can get, and how we can flip our district,” Wahlborg said. “We even flipped our city council blue. We (elected) Democrats to our school boards.”

First and foremost, to all those arriving on campus: Welcome to Whitewater. It’s a beautiful city. There’s no better place to live.

The story inspires me to update a series of posts I wrote in 2021 about politics in the city proper (city politics that are evolving and different from red Walworth County). Here are those posts from 2021: 2021 Unofficial Spring Election Results, The Kinds of Conservatives in Whitewater, The City’s Center-Left, The City’s Few Progressives, The Campus, The Subcultural City, Marketing, COVID-19: Skepticism and Rhetoric, Majoritarianism, and The Limits of Local Politics.

Kevin the Canadian Chihuahua calculates the task ahead: