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City, Conflicts of Interest, Development, Economy, Local Government, Planning, Special Interests

Daily Bread for 8.13.24: Inflation Abates, Again

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 6:00, and sunset is 7:58, for 13h 57m 38s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 59.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1961, East Germany closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin to thwart its inhabitants’ attempts to escape to the West, and construction of the Berlin Wall is started. The day is known as Barbed Wire Sunday.

Update 8.14.24: Yesterday (below) was a post on wholesale inflation. Today, one sees that the consumer price index is also lower: Inflation Slipped to 2.9% in July, Lower Than Expected (‘CPI report likely seals case for the Fed to begin cutting interest rates at its next meeting’). Good news, all around.

Of wholesale inflation, Jeff Cox reports Wholesale inflation measure rose 0.1% in July, less than expected:

A key measure of wholesale inflation rose less than expected in July, opening the door further for the Federal Reserve to start lowering interest rates.

The producer price index, which measures selling prices that producers get for goods and services, increased 0.1% on the month, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. Excluding volatile food and energy components, the core PPI was flat.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for an increase of 0.2% on both the all-items and the core readings.

A further core measure that also excludes trade services showed a rise of 0.3%.

On a year-over-year basis, the headline PPI increased 2.2%, a sharp drop from the 2.7% reading in June.

Inflation is abating, and growth is up, and in these improving conditions residents of both big cities and also small towns (like Whitewater!) have a chance to avoid the economic mistakes of the past (and those who made them).

Some of Whitewater’s special-interest men (from the 2000s and 2010s) are like declining athletes who should have retired from the game years ago. They stayed too long, and now can’t hit, can’t field, can’t circle the bases. Overweight and underpowered. They want to blame everyone else for their below-average performance. One wonders: why pretend it’s a major-league game with these minor-league banjo-hitters stumbling up to the plate?

Whitewater deserves better.

Orbits:

Books, Censorship, City, Daily Bread, Education

Daily Bread for 8.10.24: The Store That Only Sells Fake Food

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 72. Sunrise is 5:57, and sunset is 8:02, for 14h 05m 11s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 30.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1519, Ferdinand Magellan‘s five ships set sail from Seville to circumnavigate the globe. The Basque second-in-command Juan Sebastián Elcano will complete the expedition after Magellan’s death in the Philippines.

This Store Only Sells Fake Food:

From the Barbie movie to Netflix’s series The Gentlemen, this fake food artist from Scotland has served up the most REALISTIC-LOOKING food for film sets all over the world. Want some fake Ice cream? She’ll make it. What about fake Jell-O with a gun inside? Easy! That’s a piece of cake for Kerry Boyes. This is YOUR how to guide for making fake food look real.

Giant pandas make public debut at San Diego Zoo:

The San Diego Zoo officially opened its new panda enclosure to the public allowing people to finally see Yun Chuan and Xin Bao — the first Chinese giant pandas to enter the United States in 21 years.

Books, Censorship, City, Daily Bread, Education

Daily Bread for 8.9.24: Tracking Book Bans

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 71. Sunrise is 5:56, and sunset is 8:03, for 14h 07m 39s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 22.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1944, the United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.

Richelle Wilson reports Wisconsin’s ‘banned book queen’ tracks book challenges and worries about widespread bans (‘Tasslyn Magnusson keeps a public database of book bans around the country and advocates for students, authors and librarians’):

Magnusson worries about increased efforts to ban books from school libraries. Last year, Wisconsin was the second-leading state nationally in the number of school library book removals, according to a new report she and others wrote for PEN America. A big reason for that was one parent in the Elkhorn Area School District who requested a review of 444 books.

Other districts around the state are dealing with debates around book bans, too. Magnusson lives with her family in Prescott, a small town in western Wisconsin where the St. Croix River and the Mississippi River meet. She said local school districts have been feeling the strain of increased book challenges, which often lead to heated discussions at school board meetings.

An aspiring children’s author herself, Magnusson started participating in the “kid lit” community on social media after getting a master’s degree in writing for children and young adults. That’s when she first noticed that some of her own favorite authors, including young-adult fiction writer Laurie Halse Anderson, were having their books taken off shelves.

In 2021, Anderson posted on X that her 1999 novel “Speak” seemed to be getting banned more often. She suggested that someone should start tracking book bans around the country. 

Magnusson took note. 

“I was like, ‘Wow, Laurie Halse Anderson asked. I can do that. I know how to use a Google spreadsheet,’” Magnusson recalled on WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “So, I took it upon myself to make a spreadsheet. And here we are three years later.”

This book-banning panic will subside when it meets opposition; opposition, however, requires awareness of the censors’ and scolds’ work.

See also PEN America, New Report Finds Unprecedented Surge in School Book Bans.

The physics of fish hearing:

City, Daily Bread, University, UW System

Daily Bread for 8.8.24: Arrive for the Campus, Stay for the City

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 79. Sunrise is 5:55, and sunset is 8:05, for 14h 10m 06s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 15.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1974, President Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announces his resignation from the office of the President of the United States effective noon the next day.

Whitewater has a public university, and a goal of this community should be to encourage graduates of UW-Whitewater to remain in the city as residents after their graduation. Statewide, the Universities of Wisconsin have had success with graduates remaining in the Badger state. A local goal should be to encourage the graduates of our campus to take up long-term residency in Whitewater.

Of the state figures, Abbey Machtig reports Universities of Wisconsin graduates stay in state, according to ‘Facts and Trends’:
 

Almost 90% of Wisconsin residents with a bachelor’s degree from the Universities of Wisconsin were still living in the state five years after graduation.

That compares to 10% of graduates who were originally from Minnesota and 16% of graduates from other parts of the country or world, according to data from 2021. These findings, and more, were shared in a report the system released Wednesday. The report, “Facts and Trends,” includes information on state funding trends, enrollment and participation rates, affordability and tuition.

That Wisconsin residents stay in Wisconsin does not surprise me: this is a congenial place to live.

The goal for Whitewater, however, should be to encourage UW-Whitewater students, from whatever communities before attending our campus, to become long-term residents of our community after graduation.

See Universities of Wisconsin, Facts & Trends 2024.

What do Team USA Olympians listen to before they compete?:

City, Daily Bread, University, UW System, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.1.24: Direct Admission for UW-Whitewater and Many Other Public Universities in Wisconsin

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with scattered afternoon thunderstorms and a high of 84. Sunrise is 5:47, and sunset is 8:14, for 14h 26m 32s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 9.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1774,  British scientist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.

After years of discussion, many Wisconsin public universities will begin to offer direct admissions. Henry Redman reports Thousands of Wisconsin high school students to be directly admitted to UW schools for 2025:

Starting next week, tens of thousands of high school students across Wisconsin will be directly admitted to Universities of Wisconsin schools without filing applications. 

The admissions are part of a new program, launched in December, to boost admission on the state’s public university campuses. 

Next week through September, students will start receiving emails letting them know they’ve been admitted. School districts across the state participating in the Direct Admit Wisconsin program shared student grade point averages and course credits with University of Wisconsin administrators for rising seniors. The program identifies if a student qualifies to be directly admitted to any of the 10 participating campuses. 

UW-Madison, UW-La Crosse and UW-Eau Claire are not participating. 

Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman said this week 50,000 students across 330 high schools are eligible under the program. 

This is a sensible policy as it reduces one unnecessary step to entry.

Previously at FREE WHITEWATER: Direct Admission into the UW System Is a Sensible Idea (8.21.22) and supporting A Direct-Admissions Proposal for the UW Schools (12.8.23).

August 2024 Skywatching Tips from NASA:

What are some skywatching highlights in August 2024? Mars and Jupiter have a super close meetup, the conditions look good for the Perseid meteors, and how to observe a stellar nursery – the Lagoon Nebula.

City, Daily Bread, Kamala Harris, Presidential Race 2024, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 7.31.24: July Is Not Ending As It Began

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 89. Sunrise is 5:45, and sunset is 8:15, for 14h 28m 46s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 15.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Lakes Advisory Committee meets at 4:30 PM.

On this day in 1777, the Second Continental Congress passes a resolution that the services of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette “be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States.”

Many Wisconsinites know the presidential candidate they support; from a candidate’s perspective, support only matters if it leads to a vote or a contribution. Will those supporters turn out? In deep-blue Dane County, it looks like blue support (never in doubt) will lead to blue voting. Thomas Beaumont reports Harris gives Democrats a jolt in a critical part of swing-state Wisconsin:

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — More than 40 people filed into a converted coffee shop on a recent Saturday morning in Madison, Wisconsin, to organize in a west-side neighborhood for Vice President Kamala Harris.

A month ago, fewer than 10 people showed up for a similar event for President Joe Biden. Some told organizers they were no longer willing to knock on doors in Wisconsin’s famously liberal state capital.

The excitement among loyal Democrats lit by Harris replacing Biden has enlivened the party’s base in Wisconsin, particularly in areas where the vice president must run up big margins to carry a swing state that Biden flipped from Republican Donald Trump.

“Kamala Harris is the defibrillator that the Democratic Party needed,” said John Anzalone, who was Biden’s chief campaign pollster in 2020.

Dane County, which includes Madison, is the fastest-growing county in the state, fueled by the combination of the University of Wisconsin and the state capital’s workforce.

A local version of this excitement will present itself among Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters in Whitewater.

July is not ending as it began.

Endangered zebra foal is born at Chicago-area zoo:

America, City, Daily Bread, Politics, Presidential Race 2024, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 7.23.24: Wisconsin Will Be Visited Again & Again

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will see morning showers with a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:38, and sunset is 8:24, for 14h 45m 23s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 93.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1962,  Telstar relays the first publicly transmitted, live trans-Atlantic television program, featuring Walter Cronkite.

The Republicans had their national convention in Wisconsin, and both parties will send candidates and surrogates into Wisconsin through November. Today, for example, Kamala Harris will hold first rally of her presidential campaign in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee isn’t America’s biggest city, and Wisconsin isn’t America’s biggest state. Many larger places, however, are decidedly settled on one party and so will not be swayed. Wisconsin might pick either party and so she will receive frequent visits.

There’s a local angle for Whitewater in all this: if Wisconsin receives more attention, then some of the cities & towns in the state may receive more attention, too. We have received much notice over the last year concerning newcomers to our city. National attention on us would be an order of magnitude higher than what we’ve previously garnered if we received a visit from a central figure in either party.

I don’t know, of course, that we will receive a high-profile political visit; it’s simply the case that no one visits a place that he or she doesn’t know exists.

The major parties well know that Wisconsin, and as it turns out, Whitewater, exist.

As the Olympics near, Ukraine mourns athletes lost to war:

City, Daily Bread, University

Daily Bread for 7.12.24: Committee Ponders the Universities of Wisconsin

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 85. Sunrise is 5:28 and sunset 8:32 for 15h 03m 51s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 37.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1543, King Henry VIII of England marries his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace.

Baylor Spears reports Study committee meets for first time to consider future of the University of Wisconsin System:

A study committee made up of lawmakers and members of the public will spend the next few months discussing the future of the University of Wisconsin system and solutions for ongoing concerns, which appeared to be wide ranging during the panel’s first meeting on Thursday. 

The group will provide legislative recommendations when it wraps up its work late this year.  It comes after a legislative session that was marked by a showdown over diversity, equity and inclusion, controversy over free speech on campuses as well as the financial future of the UW system.

Committee chair Rep. Amanda Nedweski (R-Pleasant Prairie) noted during the meeting that the UW system faces challenges that include declining enrollment on many campuses  along with  fiscal constraints at individual institutions and at the system level. She said the committee would be a place to openly, honestly and respectfully discuss the issues in a public setting, even though conversations may be “intense” and “uncomfortable” at times. 

“We all are here because we share the goal of taking action that will support the function of the UW system as an effective economic driver in our state going forward,” Nedeweski said. 

The committee is made up of four state lawmakers — including Nedweski, Sen. Cory Tomczyck (R-Mosinee), Rep. Alex Joers (D-Middleton) and Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) — as well as 14 members of the public, who have an array of stakes in and ties to the UW system. It is planning to meet four other times between now and November. 

A few remarks:

  1. There is no certainty about what the study committee might propose, let alone what action might be taken on any proposals it makes.
  2. Over the years, I’ve been critical — with justification — of several administrators at UW-Whitewater. (There’s no reason to be critical of the current chancellor; he’s managing well during difficult times.)
  3. The success of our local campus is vital to the socio-economic health of Whitewater. That success does not depend on, and will not come from, a narrow focus on a particular economic advantage that the university offers to a few business people, such as student rentals.
  4. Whitewater needs to abandon the notion, so to speak, that someone who supplies hospital beds is qualified to practice medicine.
  5. After the last three years, it should be evident to residents that offering apartments for rent does not provide any unique insight into K-12 education, university education, municipal finance, Wisconsin’s Public Records Law (Wis. Stat. §§ 19.31–19.39), Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Law (Wis. Stat. §§ 19.81–19.98), or coherent (let alone persuasive) speaking during public meetings.

Italian artist creates Eiffel Tower in farm field ahead of Paris Olympics:

City, Film

Film: Wednesday, July 17th, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Napoleon

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Wednesday, July 17th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Napoleon @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building: Biography/History Rated R (violence, language) 2 hours, 38 minutes (2023) The life and times of soldier, strategist, general, emperor: Napoleon Bonaparte 1 (1769 – 1821). An incredible costume drama/historical epic, detailing the rise,…

America, City, Daily Bread, Economy

Daily Bread for 7.11.24: U.S. Inflation Cools Again

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 5:27 and sunset 8:33 for 15h 05m 14s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 28.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1796, the United States takes possession of Detroit from Great Britain under terms of the Jay Treaty.

On this day in 1839, the first patent is issued to a Wisconsin resident:

Ebenezar G. Whiting of Racine was issued patent #1232 for his improved plow, the first patent issued to someone from Wisconsin. Whiting’s improvements consisted of making the mold-board straight and flat which, when united in the center with the curvilinear part of the mold-board, would require less power to drag through the dirt. Whiting went on to serve as Vice President of the J.I. Case Plow Company and received another patent for a steel plow in 1876.

Christopher Rugaber reports US inflation cools again, potentially paving way for Fed to cut interest rates soon:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation in the United States cooled in June for a third straight month, a sign that the worst price spike in four decades is steadily fading and may soon usher in interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

In a better-than-expected report, consumer prices declined 0.1% from May to June after having remained flat the previous month, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the first monthly decline in overall inflation since May 2020, when the economy was paralyzed by the pandemic. 

And measured from one year earlier, prices were up 3% in June, cooler than the 3.3% annual rate in May.

The latest inflation readings will likely help convince the Fed’s policymakers that inflation is returning to its 2% target. A brief pickup in inflation early this year had caused the officials to scale back their expectations for interest rate cuts. The policymakers said they would need to see several months of mild price increases to feel confident enough enough to cut their key rate from its 23-year high. 

Whitewater has a chance to make gains in her community during these improving economic conditions. Yesteryear offers no answers for the city, save what not to do this time.

Closest massive black hole to Earth may be in Omega Centauri, Hubble finds:

Hubble Space Telescope observations of the Omega Centauri star cluster, about 18,000 light-years from Earth, has revealed evidence of an intermediate-size black hole.

America, City, Daily Bread, Economy, Employment

Daily Bread for 7.8.24: National Labor Market Adds 206,000 Jobs with Slight Rise in Unemployment

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 81. Sunrise is 5:25 and sunset 8:34 for 15h 09m 03s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 7.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Board meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1776, church bells (possibly including the Liberty Bell) are rung after John Nixon delivers the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence of the United States.

On this day in 1850, James Jesse Strang Is Crowned King:

On this date, James Jesse Strang, leader of the estranged Mormon faction the Strangites, was crowned king; the only man to achieve such a title in America. When founder Joseph Smith was assassinated, Strang forged a letter from Smith dictating he was to be the heir. The Mormon movement split into followers of Strang and followers of Brigham Young. As he gained more followers (but never nearly as many as Brigham Young), Strang became comparable to a Saint, and in 1850 was crowned King James in a ceremony in which he wore a discarded red robe of a Shakespearean actor, and a metal crown studded with a cluster of stars as his followers sang him hosannas.

Soon after his crowning, he announced that Mormonism embraced and supported polygamy. (Young’s faction was known to have practiced polygamy, but had not at this time announced it publicly.) A number of followers lived in Walworth County, including Strang at a home in Burlington. In 1856 Strang was himself assassinated, leaving five wives. Without Strang’s leadership, his movement disintegrated. 

Josh Schafer reports US labor market adds 206,000 jobs, unemployment rate rises to 4.1%:

The US labor market added more jobs than expected in June while the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose, reaching its highest level since November 2021, another sign that the job market continues to cool.

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday showed the US economy added 206,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in June, more than the 190,000 expected by economists.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.1%, up from 4% in the month prior and the highest reading in almost three years. June’s job additions were a slight decline from May, which saw job gains revised down on Friday to 218,000 from the 272,000 initially reported last month. 

The skill to take advange of job gains (and benefit the city still more if there should be interest rate cuts) will not be found among Whitewater’s self-promoting “action-oriented” types of fifteen or twenty years ago. The sooner the city turns away from their monkey shines the better.

Indeed, the work of that aged and addled cohort has been worse for the city, in concept and execution, than Monkey Shines the 1988 b-movie horror film:

It’s hard to estimate precisely, but a rough guess is that Whitewater would have been 179.6% better off with a killer monkey than that failed group from yesterday.

What is the rarest animal in the world? The 5 most-endangered species: