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Daily Bread

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

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.

Daily Bread for 9.13.24: Wisconsin Supreme Court Takes Case on Future of Elections Commission Chairwoman

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 82. Sunrise is 6:34, and sunset is 7:06, for 12h 32m 27s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 73.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1956, the IBM 305 RAMAC is introduced, the first commercial computer to use disk storage.

By Norsk Teknisk Museum – https://digitaltmuseum.org/011015239966/22-0-ibm-modell-305-ramac/media?slide=0, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=124744659

Scott Bauer reports The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear a case on the future of the state’s elections leader:

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would hear a lawsuit that could determine whether the state’s top elections official could remain in her post after Republicans who controlled the state Senate sought to fire her last year.

….

Meagan Wolfe serves as the nonpartisan administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, an agency run by a bipartisan board that oversees elections in the key presidential battleground state. Republicans unhappy with her, especially after the 2020 election won by President Joe Biden, have attempted to oust her from her job.

Wolfe has been the subject of conspiracy theories and targeted by threats from election skeptics who falsely claim she was part of a plot to rig the 2020 vote in favor of Biden. Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020 by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin, and his win has withstood two partial recounts, a nonpartisan audit, a conservative law firm’s review, and multiple state and federal lawsuits.

….

Senate Republicans voted in September 2023 to fire Wolfe, despite objections from Democrats and the Legislature’s nonpartisan attorneys, who said the Senate didn’t have the authority to vote at that time because Wolfe was a holdover in her position and had not been reappointed.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul sued to challenge that vote, and in court filings, Republican legislative leaders changed course and claimed their vote to fire Wolfe was merely “symbolic” and had no legal effect. They also asked the judge to order the elections commission to appoint an administrator for the Senate to vote on.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Ann Peacock, in a January ruling, said Wolfe is legally serving as administrator of the elections commission as a holdover given that the commission deadlocked on whether to reappoint her. The Senate’s vote to remove her had no legal effect and the commission has no duty to appoint a new leader while Wolfe is serving as a holdover, Peacock ruled.

Republican leaders of the Legislature appealed and asked the state Supreme Court to take the case directly, skipping a state appeals court, which it agreed to do on Wednesday.

It’s astonishing how many repercussions and lawsuits Wisconsin has endured from election conspiracists.


Hikers caught in torrential downpour in the Grand Canyon:

Hikers touring the Grand Canyon in Arizona had to stop for shelter while heavy rainwater fell. The downpour caused flash floods in the area.

Daily Bread for 9.11.24: National Inflation Reaches a Three-Year Low

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 83. Sunrise is 6:31, and sunset is 7:10, for 12h 38m 11s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 53.13 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

There is a Special Lakes Advisory Committee meeting at 4:30 PM, and a Special Finance Committee meeting at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1789, Alexander Hamilton is appointed the first United States Secretary of the Treasury. On this day in 2001, the September 11 attacks, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks kill 2,977 people using four aircraft hijacked by 19 members of al-Qaeda. Two aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, a third crashes into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.


We have in our small town this morning some good national economic news. Christopher Rugaber of the Associated Press reports Consumer prices rose 2.5% last month, with U.S. inflation reaching a 3-year low:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The post-pandemic spike in U.S. inflation eased further last month as year-over-year price increases reached a three-year low, clearing the way for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates and likely shaping the economic debate in the final weeks of the presidential race.

Wednesday’s report from the Labor Department showed that consumer prices rose 2.5% in August from a year earlier, down from 2.9% in July. It was the fifth straight annual drop and the smallest since February 2021. From July to August, prices rose just 0.2%.

America had a good night last night, and today the nation awakes to good economic news. And yet, much work lies ahead…


Behind the Spacecraft: Europa Clipper:

Meet some of the engineers contributing to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, which will study Jupiter’s icy moon Europa to see if it has conditions suitable to support life. This trailer is an introduction to the team members profiled in the “Behind the Spacecraft: Europa Clipper” video series.

Daily Bread for 9.10.24: Baldwin Leads Hovde

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 6:30, and sunset is 7:11, for 12h 41m 02s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 43.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 5 PM, and her Community Involvement and Cable TV Commission also meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1846, Elias Howe is granted a patent for the sewing machine.


A recent CBS poll of US Senate races simply confirms what’s evident in Wisconsin: Baldwin leads Hovde. Kabir Kanna reports CBS News poll for 2024 Senate races shows Democrats lead in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin:

Though Democrats face a formidable U.S. Senate map in 2024, they’re currently ahead in three key races. 

In CBS News’ first poll of the race for Michigan’s open Senate seat, Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin is leading former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers by seven points. Meanwhile, Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin are ahead in their reelection bids by seven points and eight points, respectively.

….

Two months lie ahead, but Wisconsin’s a tough state for a carpetbagger. See also  Tim Michels 2.0 Eric Hovde Announces U.S. Senate Run.


Hydration:

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

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.

Daily Bread for 9.8.24: Team USA Wheelchair Basketball Defeats Great Britain, 73-69

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 73. Sunrise is 6:28, and sunset is 7:15, for 12h 46m 45s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 24.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1760, during the French and Indian War, the French surrender Montreal to the British, completing the latter’s conquest of New France.


Led by Steve Serio’s near triple double in his final game, Team USA won their third straight men’s wheelchair basketball gold medal with a 73-69 victory over Great Britain.

It was a good day for America — and for UW-Whitewater — yesterday in Paris as the United States took its third consecutive gold medal in wheelchair basketball. Liam Griffin of the Wheelchair Sports Federation writes On Top Again: U.S. Men’s Wheelchair Basketball Tops Great Britain for Third Straight Paralympic Gold:

Paris, France (Sept. 8) — Winning two consecutive championships is widely considered one of the hardest things to do in sports. Three in a row? Even tougher.

Team USA men’s wheelchair basketball had none of that on Saturday at Bercy Arena.

Great Britain gave the U.S. all it could handle, but it wasn’t enough. Team USA pulled out a 73-69 victory to secure gold once again.

“This team has grown so much over the course of the last couple of years,” proclaimed Steve Serio, team captain. “We knew that Great Britain was going to be a great opponent, a really tough group of guys. Right now, we’re just excited that we won a basketball game and got to bring home another gold medal for our country.

“It feels awesome,” exclaimed Jake Williams [UW-Whitewater alumnus, profile @ Team USA], owner of a third gold medal. “Gold medals are never easy, and I think this was one of the hardest ones with only eight teams being in the tournament, they’re all really good, but we stayed together as a team and I’m definitely glad that we came out on top.”

….

The win is a bittersweet one for Team USA. Before the game, Serio made a major announcement. The opening ceremony flag-bearer revealed that the Paris Games would be his last.

“He definitely makes my job a lot easier,” said Williams. “Playing for Team USA has been so much fun, definitely the most fun I’ve had playing basketball.”


Boeing Starliner successfully returns to earth without crew:

Boeing’s Starliner capsule successfully returned from the International Space Station Friday evening with an empty cabin, leaving behind two test pilots who must now remain on the station for another five or six months.

Daily Bread for 9.7.24: Turkish Ice Cream Doesn’t Melt

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 63. Sunrise is 6:27, and sunset is 7:17, for 12h 49m 35s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 17 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1864,  Atlanta is evacuated on orders of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman.


Turkish Ice Cream Doesn’t Melt. What’s the Secret?:

Name an unbelievable dessert that actually exists…ice cream that DOESN’T melt. Ankara might be the capital city, but Kahramanmara? is Turkey’s undisputed ice cream capital. Atilla Kanbur is the fourth generation in his family to make delicious Turkish ice cream, churning out 5 tons of the sweet stuff a day.

Finding flow on a single wheel | Wisconsin Life:

Onewheel enthusiasts race the trails of Northern Wisconsin, describing the unique “flow state” experience of this futuristic device, a self-balancing electric skateboard. Midwest Onewheel hosts a race on the WinMan Trails in Winchester, Wisconsin, challenging riders from across the United States in time trials to test their skills and abilities.

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

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.


Daily Bread for 9.5.24: Formation Hasn’t Stopped Mattering

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 6:25, and sunset is 7:20, for 12h 55m 15s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 5.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1905, the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by President Theodore Roosevelt, ends the Russo-Japanese War.


Three years ago, during the pandemic, pondering the social media scene, I posted on Formation, General:

Some level of formation, of structure and learning, is needed to make sense of a difficult subject.

Come now the conservative populists, who are convinced that there is no field, no topic, that requires more effort than their own ‘common sense.’  They ask — they demand — that others who have committed years of formal or self-study recognize unconsidered or ill-considered populist opinions as valid as any other opinion.

They sometimes simply don’t know what they don’t know. Their ignorance of substantive study is matched by their arrogance in insisting that substantive study doesn’t matter.  Someone might tell these conservative populists that arrogance invites Nemesis, but it would take some reading for them to make sense of those cautionary words.

Why have medicine, for example when any populist can spend a few moments on Facebook and diagnose any condition? (I’ve argued, for example, against amateur epidemiology, even when well-intentioned. See Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021 — COVID-19: Skepticism and Rhetoric.)

Modern medicine, architecture, or materials science requires dedicated study. Anyone, in any era, might have said he or she possessed ‘common sense.’ And yet, and yet, those people from those earlier times often lived short lives in filth and misery.

The conservative populists enjoy lives in an era of technological and scientific accomplishment dependent on the efforts of the very experts they denigrate.

When common sense fails for these populists, when they misread medical texts and legal documents, they make the excuse that the topics were too hard or too confusing for anyone to understand.  No and no again: the texts and documents were too hard only for those who had not committed the proper amount of study to the topic.

The lack of formation —of a learned foundation in politics, history, science, or even ordinary English usage — leaves the conservative populists unimpressive to anyone outside their circle.

Still true, years after the pandemic.


Underwater bridge gives clues to ancient human arrival:

Mallorca is the largest of the Balearic islands and the sixth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, but despite its size and location research suggests that it was among the last Mediterranean islands to be settled by humans. But exactly when people arrived on the island is a subject of much debate, with current estimates placing it at around 4,400 years ago. However, an ancient stone bridge in a flooded cave may call that timeline into question. By dating mineral deposits in the cave scientists have given a new window for when they suggest humans actually reached the island — at least 1,000 years earlier than previously thought.

Daily Bread for 9.4.24: Trump Media, Nothing But a Meme Stock, Keeps Falling

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 6:24, and sunset is 7:22, for 12h 58m 04s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission holds a Training/Review of Open Meeting Laws & Visioning Session at 6 PM.

On this day in 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University, found Google.


NBC reports that Trump Media, owner of Trump’s money-losing Truth Social venture, has “fallen to its lowest levels since the company started trading publicly following a merger in March. Former President Donald Trump and other major investors will be allowed to sell their shares in the Truth Social parent company later this month.”

Like his political ideology, Trump’s business ventures are gaudy confidence schemes.


The real reason the morning train was delayed:

Post by @catswithjobs_official
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Daily Bread for 9.3.24: Wisconsin One of Seven Key Campaign States

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 75. Sunrise is 6:23, and sunset is 7:24, for 13h 00m 54s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 0.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1783, the American Revolutionary War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain (ratification being later completed in 1784).


Steve Peoples, Thomas Beaumont, and Amelia Thomson-Deveaux report in Presidential Campaigns Brace for an Intense Sprint to Election Day that Wisconsin is one of seven critical states for both major campaigns:

After a summer of historic tumult, the path to the presidency for both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump this fall is becoming much clearer.

The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president will devote almost all of their remaining time and resources to just seven states [story highlights Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada]. They will spend hundreds of millions of dollars targeting voters who, in many cases, have just begun to pay attention to the election. And their campaigns will try to focus their messages on three familiar issues — the economy, immigration and abortion — even in the midst of heated debates over character, culture and democracy.

The candidates will debate in one week in what will be their first meeting ever. The nation’s premier swing state, Pennsylvania, begins in-person absentee voting the week after. By the end of the month, early voting will be underway in at least four states with a dozen more to follow by mid-October.

Wisconsin is again, as she’s has been for over a dozen years, among the most intense of political battlegrounds.


What’s in the Sky for September 2024:

Daily Bread for 9.2.24: Labor Day

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 74. Sunrise is 6:22, and sunset is 7:25, for 13h 03m 42s of daytime. The moon is new with 0.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1945, the Japanese Instrument of Surrender is signed by Japan and the major warring powers aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Japanese Government on board the USS Missouri (BB-63) on 2 September 1945. Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland, U.S. Army, watches from the opposite side of the table. Foreign Ministry representative Toshikazu Kase is assisting Mr. Shigemitsu. Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives. By Army Signal Corps photographer LT. Stephen E. Korpanty; restored by Adam Cuerden – Naval Historical Center Photo # SC 213700, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93758525

A reminder, although one shouldn’t be needed: free markets are markets in capital, labor, and goods & services. Not one — all. Erik Gunn writes Report shows improvements for Wisconsin workers while shortcomings persist:

Wisconsin workers’ wages are up and the racial and gender gaps they face are smaller, says a new Labor Day report. But the gaps haven’t been eliminated and challenges such as the scarcity and cost of child care continue to keep some in the state who want jobs from joining the workforce.

Those and other trends are mapped in the 2024 edition of The State of Working Wisconsin, released just before the Labor Day weekend by the High Road Strategy Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Working Wisconsin report examines the economy from the vantage point of how it affects workers. It is issued annually by the center, a nonprofit that researches and promotes solutions to social problems that focus on “shared growth and opportunity, environmental sustainability, and resilient democratic institutions as necessary and achievable complements in human development.”

See also State of Working Wisconsin 2024:

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The US Department of Labor presents The History of Labor Day:

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

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


Daily Bread for 8.31.24: A Fatal Shooting in the City

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.