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Assault Awareness & Prevention, City, Crime, Culture, Distraction, Newspapers, University, UW System, Wisconsin

Truth-Telling and Tale-Weaving

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In conditions of real injury, in which truth-telling is important, tale-weaving about irrelevant matters is worse than wasteful: it’s a misdirection from the significant to the insignificant. Three recent stories illustrate the critical difference between these approaches. As a truth-telling story, Hope Kirwan of Wisconsin Public Radio reports ‘Students Deserve To Be Heard’: UW-La Crosse…

City, Conflicts of Interest, Ethics, Local Government, Newspapers, School District, Whitewater, WI Conflict of Interest Gallery™

The Whitewater, WI Conflict of Interest Gallery™

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Ours is an era of conflicts of interest and self-dealing. Conflicts of interest sometimes begin with ignorance but they persist through arrogance. Simple principles of separation between roles that were once understood and respected (in the main) are now commonly rationalized away. If one bemoans degraded national ethics, one should be clear that local officials…

CDA, City, Development, Economy, Local Government, Poverty, Taxes/Taxation

Trump Tax Bill is the Predictable Failure Sensible People Warned It Would Be

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In Whitewater, there’s a business lobby that amounts to a right-wing landlord or two, the dogsbodies who follow three paces behind, and the municipal officials who have been, variously, beguiled or browbeaten into asserting that government-directed capital spending means general prosperity.  It doesn’t; it’s the great myth of municipal policy.  A building here, a building…

CDA, City, Congress, Corporate Welfare, Free Markets, Gerrymandering, Government Spending, Local Government, Never Trump, Politics, Republicans, State Capitalism, That Which Paved the Way

F. James Sensenbrenner Heads for the Exit

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One reads that F. James Sensenbrenner, the pro-Trump septuagenarian multimillionaire congressman from a gerrymandered district that stretches all the way down to Whitewater, is retiring when his current term ends. Consigned to the minority forever must look unappealing. How time flies! It was not long ago that then-chairman of the Whitewater Community Development Authority was scampering…

ACLU, Asylum, City, Immigration, Law, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, Migrants

Derechos de los Inmigrantes — Immigrants’ Rights

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Posted originally on 7.14.19, now updated with additional information from the Spanish-language section linked below. Independientemente de su estatus migratorio, usted tiene derechos garantizados por la Constitución. Aprende más aquí sobre sus derechos como inmigrante y cómo expresarlos. …. Agentes policiales pregunta sobre mi estatus migratorio Cómo reducir el riesgo para usted mismo Mantener la…

City, Culture, University

Integration of University and Community

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In Whitewater, where a campus of the UW System represents a majority of the city’s residents, the integration of campus and community is an obvious need. One thinks of this when reading Deborah and James Fallows, The Choices Facing Community Colleges. (These authors are describing two-year programs, not a comprehensive four-year program as with UW-Whitewater,…

CDA, City, Development, Economy, Government Spending, Local Government, Poverty

Common Council, 8.20.19: Fiscal & Economic

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Yesterday, I posted about part of a Whitewater Common Council meeting that addressed a traffic signal at a dangerous intersection. See Common Council, 8.20.19: Misperception. There was another topic at that meeting: the annual audit of the city’s fiscal condition (link below).  In another place and time,  the fiscal condition of government might be decisive…

City, Education, School District

School Board, 8.12.19: 4 Points

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Updated 8.13.19 afternoon with video. Whitewater’s school board met in special session on Monday night, with two main agenda items: hiring a new middle school principal, and considering among several expenditures from five-hundred thousand dollars available to the district. A few points to consider: 1. The school board unanimously selected Chris Fountain, most recently of…