Good morning. Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 84. Sunrise is 5:26 and sunset is 8:34, for 15 hours, 8 minutes of daytime. The moon is full with 99.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Alcohol Licensing Committee meets at 5:30 PM, and the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Commission…
Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 83. Sunrise is 5:25 and sunset is 8:34, for 15 hours, 9 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 98.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1962, Starfish Prime tests the effects of a nuclear test at orbital…
Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 84. Sunrise is 5:21 and sunset is 8:36, for 15 hours, 16 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 47.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets at 6 PM. On this day in 1776, the Continental…
Good morning. Thursday in Whitewater will see a partly sunny afternoon with evening thunderstorms and a high of 89. Sunrise is 5:18 and sunset is 8:37, for 15 hours, 19 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1948, the first supply…
Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with afternoon showers and a high of 76. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset is 8:36, for 15 hours, 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 52.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 5 PM. On this day in…
Good morning. Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 76. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset is 8:34, for 15 hours, 19 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 94.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1983, Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave…
Good morning. Thursday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 79. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset is 8:34, for 15 hours, 18 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 98.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Commission meets at 5:30 PM. On this day…
Good morning. Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 77. Sunrise is 5:33 and sunset is 8:09, for 14 hours, 35 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 99.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated. The Public Works Committee meets at 5 PM, and the Whitewater Common Council…
Good morning. Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 69. Sunrise is 5:38 and sunset is 8:04, for 14 hours, 26 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 91.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1974, the United States House Committee on the Judiciary opens formal and…
Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 56. Sunrise is 6:03 and sunset is 7:44, for 13 hours, 41 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 44.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Trump Administration takes an extreme view of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, and assumes that institutions public and private must comply unquestioningly with the administration’s interpretation of that decision. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction chooses otherwise:
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction rejected the Trump administration’s request to certify compliance with a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion in K-12 public schools.
State Superintendent Jill Underly said in a statement that Wisconsin schools are following the law.
“We’ve put that into writing to the USDE,” Underly said. “We believe in local control in Wisconsin and trusting our local leaders – superintendents, principals, educators – who work together with parents and families every day to support students. They know their communities best. Washington, D.C. should not dictate how schools educate their kids.”
The U.S. Department of Education sent a letter earlier this month to state agencies across the country requesting that agencies check with local school districts to ensure they don’t have diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
The federal administration is trying to apply the U.S. Supreme Court’s Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision, which said race-based programs in higher education violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, to K-12 education. The administration said state agencies needed to ensure compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the Supreme Court decision.
Wisconsin is one of several states, mostly led by Democrats, that have pushed back on the request. The Trump administration, which has been targeting diversity efforts in K-12 schools as well as in higher education and other sectors, has threatened that it could pull funding from states that don’t comply with the request.
Critical Race Theory (CRT) was Trumpism’s chief enemy not long ago, but it’s since been replaced with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Trumpism is at bottom a cultural movement,1 seeking to exact revenge against the movement’s cultural enemies (e.g., gays, ethnic minorities, and others identified now and again to give the movement an opponent).
Today it’s DEI. Tomorrow it will be something and someone else. Today will be easier for them if their targets simply comply. They’ll not stop; their grievances are fathoms deep.
There’s no reason to make their lives easier while they make others’ lives harder. They expect swift compliance. Refusing to comply at their mere demand is a strong initial response. They are unworthy of others’ anticipatory obedience (to borrow an apt phrase).
Underly was sensible to respond with a rejection.
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Trumpists are laughable on economics, for example, because their authoritarian movement’s sustaining energy is cultural. They’ve no developed economic theories because their attention is elsewhere and they find it’s too much work for middle-aged men and Boomers to rummage around for a coherent economic concept or two. Instead, they wind up plucking terms and assembling them into nothing better than a Frankenstein’s monster ↩︎
Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy, with scattered afternoon showers, and a high of 52. Sunrise is 6:04 and sunset is 7:43, for 13 hours, 39 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 55.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1836, following earlier debate, Congress passes and President Andrew Jackson approves a resolution creating the Wisconsin Territory with an effective date of July 3, 1836.
At Wisconsin Watch, Tom Kertscher chronicles former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman’s history of disreputable conduct long before Robin Vos appointed him in 2021 as a special council. It shows how much was known of Gableman’s unworthy conduct, including insobriety, by ranking members of the WISGOP:
In October 2008, just two months after Gableman was sworn in [as a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court], the state Judicial Commission filed a complaint against him, alleging his ad violated the state judicial code of conduct.
The commission dropped the case in 2010 after the Supreme Court deadlocked 3-3 on what to do about the complaint. Gableman didn’t participate. The other three conservative justices saidthat while the ad was “distasteful,” its statements were “objectively true” and protected by the First Amendment.
….
Ethics complaints were filed with twostate agencies over Gableman’s acceptance of two years of free legal services, likely worth tens of thousands of dollars, in the case filed against him over the Butler ad. As a justice, Gableman did not recuse himself from cases argued by Michael Best & Friedrich, the law firm that provided his free legal aid. He ruled in favor of the firm’s clients five times, more than any other justice during his tenure on the court, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. No action was taken against him from those complaints.
Wisconsin Watch has learned that while a justice, Gableman attended the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland — in possible violation of judicial rules prohibiting attendance at party conventions — and while there, he appeared intoxicated and was escorted out of the convention hall after causing disturbances, according to two Wisconsin Republicans in attendance and a third briefed on the incident shortly after it happened.
Former longtime state GOP leader Steve King recalled then-U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy telling him that Gableman “has a problem and we need to get him back to his hotel.”
These WISGOP men knew then, but are only talking now.
Gableman was paid $117,000, more than double the $55,000 that had been budgeted, according to a previously unreported document Wisconsin Watch obtained from the Assembly clerk.
“He paid no attention to detail, he delegated almost all the work to somebody else and very poor follow-through,” Vos told Wisconsin Watch. “It seemed like Mike Gableman was more concerned about the money he was earning as opposed to finding the truth.”
A person of normal judgment would have known that Michael Gableman wasn’t the man for any serious job. Gableman is a former justice and past embarrassment to Wisconsin. Robin Vos, by contrast, remains a current legislator and ongoing embarrassment.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 42. Sunrise is 6:24 and sunset is 7:29, for 13 hours, 5 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 83 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Tech Park Innovation Center Advisory Board meets at 8:30 AM, the Public Works Committee at 5 PM, and the Community Development Authority at 6 PM.
On this day in 1820, the Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Milos.
There are updates on the careers of influential two Wisconsinites.
Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who led a widely derided review of the 2020 presidential election, searching for evidence for baseless accusations of fraud, will have his law license suspended for three years, according to a stipulated agreement between him and the state Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR).
Law Forward, the progressive voting rights focused firm, filed a grievance against Gableman with the OLR in 2023. The OLR filed a complaint against Gableman in November that alleged, among other counts, that he had failed to “provide competent representation” and to “abstain from all offensive personality” and of violating attorney-client privilege.
The allegations against Gableman stemmed from his treatment of the mayors of Green Bay and Madison, whom he threatened with jail time during his review, false statements he made during testimony to legislative committees, violating the state’s open records laws, breaching his contract with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and, when OLR began investigating him, “making false statements” to the investigators in an affidavit.
As part of the stipulated agreement, Gableman admitted that “he cannot successfully defend against the allegations of misconduct … and agrees that the allegations of the complaint provide an adequate factual basis in the record.”
The Wisconsin Supreme Court will have to approve the agreement between the parties, as is likely. A three-year suspension is lenient; Gableman’s conduct merits permanent disbarment. Vos, regrettably, remains in office despite his own role in selecting (and tolerating too long) Gableman’s cascade of lies.
Bradley also has been floated as a contender to replace retiring federal judge Diane Sykes on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, which would be a lifetime appointment.
She told Wispolitics she is focused on Wisconsin at the moment.
Monday in Whitewater will see wind gusts and a high of 46. Sunrise is 6:38 and sunset is 7:20, for 12 hours, 42 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 6.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Update No. 2: Turns out Nicholas Jacobs, one of the winners of a million dollars, wasn’t an ordinary attendee but a Wisconsin College Republicans chairman:
Nicholas Jacobs, a student at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, is listed as the chairman of Wisconsin’s College Republicans chapter. He has made his account private on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that Musk owns.
According to his LinkedIn account, Jacobs worked for the campaigns of U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and Rep. Derrick Van Orden. In the fall of 2024, he worked as a “ballot chase representative” for Turning Point Action, which began as a youth-focused group active on college campuses but has expanded its voter outreach operations, especially in Wisconsin.
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Elon Musk gave out $1 million checks on Sunday to two Wisconsin voters, declaring them spokespeople for his political group, ahead of a Wisconsin Supreme Court election that the tech billionaire cast as critical to President Donald Trump’s agenda and “the future of civilization.”
Elon Musk presents a check for $1 million dollars to a man during a town hall Sunday, March 30, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
Elon Musk presents a check for $1 million dollars during a town hall Sunday, March 30, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
“It’s a super big deal,” he told a roughly 2,000-person crowd in Green Bay on Sunday night, taking the stage in a yellow cheesehead hat. “I’m not phoning it in. I’m here in person.”
….
A unanimous state Supreme Court on Sunday refused to hear a last-minute attempt by the state’s Democratic attorney general to stop Musk from handing over the checks to two voters, a ruling that came just minutes before the planned start of the rally.
Sunday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 64. Sunrise is 6:40 and sunset is 7:19, for 12 hours, 39 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1867, the United States and the Russian Empire agree to the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, about two cents/acre. The parties later ratify the agreement by treaty, and effective transfer occurs in October 1867.
It was improbable that Wisconsin courts would intervene to prevent Elon Musk from conducting a giveaway (of either hundreds of dollars or even millions of dollars) so close to the April 1st election. American courts are not dispositionally situated to address an authoritarian movement, as these movements act quickly, audaciously, and ignore both law and tradition in pursuit of their goals.
A Wisconsin appellate court denied the state Democratic attorney general’s request to stop billionaire Elon Musk from handing over $1 million checks to two voters at a rally planned for Sunday, just two days before a closely contested Supreme Court election.
The denial Saturday by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals is the latest twist in Musk’s deep involvement in the race, which has set a record for spending in a judicial election and has become a litmus test for the opening months of Donald Trump’s presidency. Trump and Musk are backing Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel in the race, while Democrats are behind Dane County Judge Susan Crawford.
Attorney General Josh Kaul filed the lawsuit Friday, arguing that Musk’s offer violates the law. Kaul on Saturday later appealed to the state Court of Appeals, after a county court judge refused earlier in the day to hear the request for an emergency injunction to block the payments.
