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City, Cycling, Development, Economy, Good Ideas, Health, Hip & Prosperous, Planning

In Support of the Complete Streets Initiative for Whitewater

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This Tuesday, January 20th at 6:30 PM, Common Council will consider a Complete Streets ordinance (item O-3) for Whitewater. A Complete Streets program simply requires planners to consider bike and pedestrian travel, for example, when either building or reconstructing streets within our city. (I listened closely to discussion of the idea at our 12.16.14 Common…

City, Government Spending, Health, Waste Digesters

The Wastewater Facility Upgrades and a Digester

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On Tuesday night, Common Council heard the proposed cost of wastewater upgrades ($18.7 million) and the separate possibility of large digester. Let’s be clear about what a big digester’s “solids treatment” truly is: a process of importing other cities’ unwanted manure, human excrement, and industrial filth into Whitewater.  A few quick comments, as there is…

Health, Lifestyle, Nature

The Health Benefits of Going Outside

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It seems common for those of us in a rural community, but for many others, going outside into the created, natural order is an uncommon experience.  (Lack of connection to nature has troubled other generations, too: it’s a reason squirrels wound up in parks. )  

Animals, Health

Why It’s Hard to Swat a Fly

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It’s not easy to swat a fly. Although almost brainless by human standards, recent observations at the University of Washington reveal that flies have “well-developed, rapid-firing sensory motor circuits [useful] in order to register and respond to the visual threat of predators so fast and effectively.” See, Fruit flies show why swatting at flies is…

Crime, Health, Walworth County

The Long, Hard Roads

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Over at the Gazette, there’s a story entitled, Walworth County officials hope drug court for heroin addicts will start in June (subscription required).  The story, from reporter Andrea Anderson, is about a hoped-for program of rehabilitation for heroin addicts.   The program would apply to Walworth County residents, addicted to, and charged with possession of, heroin. If…

Crime, Health, Law

Looking at the Forty-Years’ Drug War

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Over at the Wall Street Journal, Nobel laureate in economics Gary Becker and Univ. of Chicago economist Kevin Murphy ask, “Have We Lost the War on Drugs?” Their answer is that we have, and what Richard Nixon began in 1971 has been a forty-years’ failure: President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs” in 1971.…

Crime, Health, Law, Laws/Regulations

Wisconsin and Marijuana and the Drug War

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Colorado and Washington State are backing away from the Drug War, having recently decriminalized minor marijuana offenses. The long-term prospects for widespread drug prohibition, of the kind we’ve had for a generation, aren’t good: it’s been too much money, and for no lasting gain. It’s a fair guess that by the 2033, the hundred-year anniversary…