Good morning. Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 43. Sunrise is 7:23 and sunset is 4:25 for 9 hours 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 11 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1688, as part of the Glorious Revolution, King James II of…
Legislation
Conservation, Daily Bread, Legislation, Legislature, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 12.10.25: Wisconsin Conservation Program’s Future Uncertain
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 31. Sunrise is 7:15 and sunset is 4:20 for 9 hours 5 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 62.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1864, during Sherman’s March to the Sea, Major General William Tecumseh…
Daily Bread, Health, Legislation, Legislature, Speaker Vos, Wisconsin, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 11.19.25: Robin Vos Was Never a Reliable Vote for Fundamental Principles
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 44. Sunrise is 6:52 and sunset is 4:28 for 9 hours 36 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 0.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Parks and Recreation Board meets at 5:30 PM. On this day in…
Conservation, Daily Bread, Legislation, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 8.27.25: The Push to Save a Wisconsin Conservation Program
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 74. Sunrise is 6:14 and sunset is 7:37, for 13 hours, 23 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 17.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1776, members of the 1st Maryland Regiment repeatedly charged a numerically superior…
Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Legislation, Legislature, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 7.2.25: Wisconsin Supreme Court Majority Rules That Last Fifty Years of Wisconsin Abortion Legislation Effects a Repeal of 1849 Abortion Ban
by JOHN ADAMS •
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…
Daily Bread, Legislation, Legislature, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 2.20.25: More a Wall than an Aisle
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 21. Sunrise is 6:44 and sunset is 5:33, for 10 hours, 49 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 51.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1933, Hitler secretly meets with German industrialists to arrange for financing of the Nazi Party’s upcoming election campaign.
At the Wisconsin Examiner, reporter Baylor Spears writes of Assembly bills that passed along partisan lines. See Baylor Spears, Assembly passes bills to regulate test scores, school spending, cell phone policies, Wisconsin Examiner, February 20, 2025. Wisconsin does not have, and is not likely soon to get, a bipartisan spirit. We are a divided state, with divided cities, towns, and villages. Those places are divided between each other, and within themselves.
Spears writes:
Wisconsin Republicans in the state Assembly passed a package of education bills Wednesday to implement new standards for standardized test scores, school funding allocations, responding to curriculum inspection requests and for keeping cell phones out of schools.
Spears also quotes the remarks of Rep. Joan Fitzgerald (D-Fort Atkinson):
Rep. Joan Fitzgerald (D-Fort Atkinson) said she was voting against the bill [AB 6, requiring in part that school boards assure that 70% of operating money would be spent on direct classroom expenditures] — — and others on the calendar — because they appeared to be written without “meaningful input” from teachers, administrators, superintendents, parents, students or community members.
“I’m here to let you know that if you want support in the educational community for any education bill, you should do your homework,” Fitzgerald said, “including having conversations with the public and reaching across the aisle.”
Fitzgerald said Franklin’s bill would take away local control from school districts and school boards and criticized the bill for including “vague” wording and “undefined terms,” saying the bills are unserious.
The men who profited by gerrymandering for over a decade will not reach willingly across the Assembly aisle until their portion of the chamber is smaller. Then, and only then, will they be interested in deal-making.
Until then, the Wisconsin Legislature has more a wall than an aisle.
See also That ‘Bipartisanship’ Didn’t Last Long — Because It Was Never There (12.18.24) and The WisDems’ Bipartisan Delusion (1.23.25).
Rescuers save man buried alive in Vail Pass, Colorado avalanche:
Daily Bread, Legislation, Legislature, Toxic Positivity, WisDems, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 12.20.24: Wisconsin Senate Democrats Hope Hyenas Will Stop Eating Meat
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 30. Sunrise is 7:22 and sunset is 4:23, for 9 hours, 1 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 71.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1803, the Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.
There’s positivity, there’s toxic positivity, and then there’s utter delusion:
Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) and Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) both serve on one of the most powerful committees in the Wisconsin State Legislature, yet as members of the minority they’ve often been frustrated by the way Republicans on the committee have excluded them from conversations. The lawmakers say they hope some of this changes next year.
The 16-person Joint Finance Committee is responsible for writing the state’s two-year budget — deciding which policy priorities get funding and which don’t — and reviewing all state appropriations and revenues. Republican lawmakers will continue to hold 12 seats next session with Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) and Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) serving as co-chairs.
….
Johnson said she thinks that new legislative maps could help change the dynamic. Roys also said it could have an impact that the state Supreme Court found it unconstitutional for the committee to block state spending on land conservation projects after the money has been budgeted.
“That dynamic is at play, and I wonder if it will chasten the Republicans. It doesn’t seem to have done so yet,” Roys said.
Emphasis added.
See Baylor Spears, Senate Democrats on budget committee say they hope Republicans change their approach, Wisconsin Examiner, December 20, 2024.
Honest to goodness. The people who take 12 of 16 committee seats despite a closely divided legislature are not, and will not be, chastened. They might one day lose their legislative majorities, but even afterward they will insist they were always — always — justified.
People flee cafe as magnitude 7.3 earthquake hits Vanuatu:
Daily Bread, Legislation, Legislature, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 12.18.24: That ‘Bipartisanship’ Didn’t Last Long — Because It Was Never There
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 31. Sunrise is 7:21 and sunset is 4:22, for 9 hours, 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 87.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1865, Secretary of State William Seward proclaims the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery throughout the United States.
Five days ago (less than a single week for those with calendars), one read that Wisconsin’s Senate Democrats had hope for a more bipartisan politics. This libertarian blogger had his doubts (see The Glistening Optimism of Wisconsin’s Senate Democrats).
Along comes Wisconsin Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) to confirm my skepticism:
New-elected Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) said Tuesday that she hopes for more bipartisan conversations next year, but that her caucus plans to operate in the same way it has previously, since Republicans still hold the majority in the Wisconsin Legislature, even after losing a handful of seats this election year.
The Legislature will return with closer margins next year following elections under new legislative maps. Republicans will have an 18-15 majority in the Senate, down from their previous 22-seat supermajority. In the Assembly Republicans will hold a 55-45 majority. Felzkowski made her comments during a WisPolitics panel Tuesday alongside Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) and two strategists — Keith Gilkes, a consultant and former chief political advisor for Republican former Gov. Scott Walker and Democratic strategist Tanya Bjork.
“Make no mistake, we still hold the majority,” Felzkowski said. “I hope we have better conversations. I hope we have better negotiations.”
See Baylor Spears, ‘Make no mistake, we still hold the majority’ says Wisconsin GOP Senate president, Wisconsin Examiner, December 18, 2024.
Again, as before: “For a decade, Wisconsin was the most gerrymandered state in the country, the WISGOP still controls both chambers of the Legislature, and the GOP will soon control all three branches of the federal government (the single most powerful human institution on Earth).”
Those aren’t the sort of people in a genuinely compromising mood.
California driver safe after car plunges into fitness center pool:
Agriculture, America, Daily Bread, Federal Government, Legislation, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 12.16.24: Slow Going on the Farm Bill (From Those Who Say the Farm Bill Matters)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 42. Sunrise is 7:19 and sunset is 4:21, for 9 hours, 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 97.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater School Board goes into closed session shortly after 6:15 PM and resumes open session at 7 PM. Whitewater’s Library Board also meets tonight at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1773, members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians dump hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
If rural America matters, and if it needs what advocates for rural America insist it should have1, then there’d be a new Farm Bill by now. The best that these advocates and professed defenders of rural America will produce, however, is likely to be a second extension of the existing legislation:
Wisconsin’s federal lawmakers are blaming the other side of the aisle for getting in the way of extending the farm bill.
The legislation is renewed every five years to fund programs around agriculture, conservation and food assistance.
Congress failed to pass a new farm bill in September 2023 and have instead extended the 2018 bill in order to keep programs operating. After making little progress on new legislation this year, federal lawmakers are expected to pass another extension as part of a deal to fund the government into early 2025.
See Hope Kirwan, Partisan approach to farm bill delaying updates for Wisconsin farmers, Wisconsin Public Radio, December 16, 2024.
Rescuers seek cyclone survivors in devastated Mayotte:
_____
- Not what this libertarian blogger insists rural America should have, but what professed advocates of rural America (from both parties) insist rural communities should have. ↩︎
Daily Bread, Legislation, Legislature, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 12.13.24: The Glistening Optimism of Wisconsin’s Senate Democrats
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 22. Sunrise is 7:17, and sunset is 4:21, for 9 hours, 4 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 95.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1972, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or Moonwalk of Apollo 17. To date they are the last humans to set foot on the Moon.
For a decade, Wisconsin was the most gerrymandered state in the country, the WISGOP still controls both chambers of the Legislature, and the GOP will soon control all three branches of the federal government (the single most powerful human institution on Earth). And yet, and yet, Wisconsin’s Senate Democrats are hopeful they can work ‘across the aisle’ with the WISGOP:
Wisconsin Senate Democrats knew going into this year’s elections that their opportunity to flip the Senate wouldn’t come until 2026, but they had a goal of flipping four seats and keeping every seat already held by a Democrat. They succeeded, and now the caucus is preparing for a legislative session with high hopes for bipartisan work.
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) told the Wisconsin Examiner in a year-end interview that her 15-member caucus is bringing “a lot of energy, enthusiasm and honesty” to the Senate and is looking forward to working next session. She said the bolstered caucus is returning for the next two-year session with “a lot of good ideas.”
….
With a more evenly split Legislature, Hesselbein said there will be the potential to get more things done in a bipartisan way. She noted that last session several big pieces of legislation, including funding renovations at the stadium where the Milwaukee Brewers play, investing in the state’s local government funding and overhauling the state’s alcohol licensing, had bipartisan support.
See Baylor Spears, Senate Democrats aim to work across the aisle, Wisconsin Examiner, December 13, 2024.
What’s the counter-argument to Senate Minority Leader Hesselbein’s optimism for legislative bipartisanship?
The Wisconsin Assembly Speaker is… Robin Vos.
Perseverance Rover Panorama of Mars’ Jezero Crater:
Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Legislation, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 12.3.24: Act 10 Ruled Unconstitutional, These Years Later
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 30. Sunrise is 7:08, and sunset is 4:21, for 9 hours, 13 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1947, the first TV station in Wisconsin, WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee, is established. The seventeenth television station in the country, WTMJ-TV is the first in the Midwest.
We live in time when past judicial decisions are discarded, at the federal and state level. It should not surprise, although it still does, that prior legislation and prior court rulings to it are again set aside. And so, as one would have expected since July, Act 10 has been ruled unconstitutional:
Judge Jacob Frost ruled that Act 10, passed by the state Legislature’s Republican majority in 2011 and signed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in his first year in office, was unconstitutional in making some public safety workers exempt from the law’s limits on unions but excluding other workers with similar jobs from those protections.
The ruling essentially confirmed Frost’s ruling on July 3, 2024, when he rejected motions by the state Legislature’s Republican leaders to dismiss the 2023 lawsuit challenging Act 10.
In that ruling, Frost declared that state Capitol Police, University of Wisconsin Police, and state conservation wardens were “treated unequally with no rational basis for that difference” because they were not included in the exemption that Act 10 had created for other law enforcement and public safety employees.
For that reason, the law’s categories of general and public safety employees, and its public safety employee exemption, were unconstitutional, Frost wrote then.
Frost reiterated that ruling Monday. “Act 10 as written by the Legislature specifically and narrowly defines ‘public safety employee,’” Frost wrote. “It is that definition which is unconstitutional.”
In addition, the judge rejected the suggestion that Act 10 could remain in effect without the law’s public safety employee carve-out, and that either the courts or the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission could resolve a constitutionally acceptable definition in the future.
“The Legislature cites no precedent for this bold argument that I should simply strike the unlawful definition but leave it to an agency and the courts to later define as they see fit,” Frost wrote. “Interpreting ‘public safety employee’ after striking the legislated definition would be an exercise in the absurd.”
See Erik Gunn, Judge strikes down core parts of Act 10 that stripped most public workers’ union rights, Wisconsin Examiner, December 2, 2024.
Video captures cliffside rescue in San Francisco:
Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Legislation, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 11.12.24: Oral Argument at the Wisconsin Supreme Court Over an Abortion Ban
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 49. Sunrise is 6:43, and sunset is 4:34, for 9 hours, 50 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous, with 85.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 5 PM, and the Public Art Committee meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1938, Nazi Germany issues the Decree on the Elimination of Jews from Economic Life prohibiting Jews from selling goods and services or working in a trade, totally segregating Jews from the German economy.
Todd Richmond reports Wisconsin Supreme Court grapples with whether state’s 175-year-old abortion ban is valid:
A conservative prosecutor’s attorney struggled Monday to persuade the Wisconsin Supreme Court to reactivate the state’s 175-year-old abortion ban, drawing a tongue-lashing from two of the court’s liberal justices during oral arguments.
Sheboygan County’s Republican district attorney, Joel Urmanski, has asked the high court to overturn a Dane County judge’s ruling last year that invalidated the ban. A ruling isn’t expected for weeks but abortion advocates almost certainly will win the case given that liberal justices control the court. One of them, Janet Protasiewicz, remarked on the campaign trail that she supports abortion rights.
….
The ban stood until 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide nullified it. Legislators never repealed the ban, however, and conservatives have argued the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe two years ago reactivated it.
Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit challenging the law in 2022. He argued that a 1985 Wisconsin law that prohibits abortion after a fetus reaches the point where it can survive outside the womb supersedes the ban. Some babies can survive with medical help after 21 weeks of gestation.
Urmanski contends that the ban was never repealed and that it can co-exist with the 1985 law because that law didn’t legalize abortion at any point. Other modern-day abortion restrictions also don’t legalize the practice, he argues.
Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper ruled last year that the ban outlaws feticide — which she defined as the killing of a fetus without the mother’s consent — but not consensual abortions. The ruling emboldened Planned Parenthood to resume offering abortions in Wisconsin after halting procedures after Roe was overturned.
Urmanski asked the state Supreme Court in February to overturn Schlipper’s ruling without waiting for a lower appellate decision.
See Oral Argument in Josh Kaul v. Joel Urmanski, as DA for Sheboygan County, WI 2023AP002362 at Wiseye (free subscription req’d):
As noted in yesterday’s post there is, however, a constitutional Supremacy Clause that, if relied upon following federal restrictions, would make state action moot.
Why methane emissions matter in the fight against climate change:
Courts, Daily Bread, Federal Government, Law, Legislation, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 11.11.24: Wisconsin Supreme Court to Hear Arguments in Abortion Lawsuit
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Veterans’ Day in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 50. Sunrise is 6:42, and sunset is 4:35, for 9 hours, 52 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous, with 75.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Plan & Architectural Review Commission meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1918, Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car in the forest of Compiègne.
Sarah Lehr reports Wisconsin Supreme Court hears arguments Monday in abortion lawsuit (‘The case involves a 19th century law previously interpreted as banning abortions in the state’):
The state Supreme Court will hear Monday from attorneys on both sides of a case that could decide the future of abortion rights in Wisconsin.
Oral arguments are scheduled to begin at 9:45 a.m. before the seven-justice court, which flipped to a liberal majority in August of last year.
Planned Parenthood is currently providing abortions at several clinics in Wisconsin, citing a lower court decision. But a ruling from the state’s highest court could provide more finality and clarity about the legal status of abortion in Wisconsin.
There is, however, a Supremacy Clause that, if relied upon following federal restrictions, would make state action moot.
Bells return to Notre Dame Cathedral after 2019 fire:
Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Law, Legislation, Legislature, Liberty, State Government, Tony Evers, Voting Rights, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 7.5.24: Wisconsin Supreme Court Restores Absentee Ballot Boxes
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a chance of scattered afternoon showers and a high of 76. Sunrise is 5:23 and sunset 8:35 for 15h 12m 21s of daytime. The moon is new with 0.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1687, Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
On this day in 1832, General Atkinson and his troops entered the area known by the Native Americans as “trembling land” in their pursuit of Black Hawk:
The area was some 10 square miles and contained a large bog. Although the land appeared safe, it would undulate or tremble for yards when pressure was applied. Many of the militiamen were on horses, which plunged to their bellies in the swamp. The “trembling lands” forced Atkinson to retrace his steps back toward the Rock River, in the process losing days in his pursuit of Black Hawk.”On this day in 1832, General Atkinson and his troops entered the area known by the Native Americans as “trembling lands” in their pursuit of Black Hawk. The area was some 10 square miles and contained a large bog. Although the land appeared safe, it would undulate or tremble for yards when pressure was applied. Many of the militiamen were on horses, which plunged to their bellies in the swamp. The “trembling lands” forced Atkinson to retrace his steps back toward the Rock River, in the process losing days in his pursuit of Black Hawk.
Whitewater’s Independence Holiday celebration continues today at the Cravath Lakefront:
Christman Family Amusements Wrist Band Session: 5 PM to 9 PM
Civic Organization Food Vendors: 4 PM to 11 PM
Live Music at Frawley Ampitheater:
Cactus Brothers 5 to 7 PM sponsored by TDS
Titan Fun Key (Whitewater band playing ‘70s rock, funk, and blues) 8 PM to 10:30 PM
Family Day Powered by Generac: Free petting zoo, pony rides, camel rides 4 to 8 PM
This morning, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued rulings restoring absentee ballot boxes (Priorities USA v. Wisconsin Elections Commission), holding unconstitutional specific statutes that placed the power of the executive branch to carry out the law in a committee of the legislature (Tony Evers v. Howard Marklein), and reversing a lower-court decision that allowed recommitment and involuntary medication without actual hearing notice to the subject individual (Waukesha County v. M.A.C.).
All three decisions appear below.
Italy’s Mount Etna erupting at night: