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Daily Bread, Legislation, Legislature, Toxic Positivity, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 12.20.24: Wisconsin Senate Democrats Hope Hyenas Will Stop Eating Meat

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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:

The moment a violent earthquake shook a cafe in Vanuatu’s capital on Tuesday.

Daily Bread, Legislation, Legislature, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 12.18.24: That ‘Bipartisanship’ Didn’t Last Long — Because It Was Never There

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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:

A driver in California escaped with minor injuries after they crashed through the glass wall of a fitness center and plunged into a swimming 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)

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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:

Emergency workers race to find survivors and restore services to the French overseas territory of Mayotte, where hundreds, possibly thousands, are feared dead from the worst cyclone to hit the Indian Ocean islands in nearly a century.

_____

  1. 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

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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:

Travel along a steep slope up to the rim of Mars’ Jezero Crater in this panoramic image captured by NASA’s Perseverance just days before the rover reached the top. The scene shows just how steep some of the slopes leading to the crater rim can be. The rover used its Mastcam-Z camera system to capture this view on Dec. 5, 2024, the 1,349th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. At the time, the rover was about 1,150 feet (350 meters) from, and 250 feet (75 meters) below, the top of the crater rim – a location the science team calls “Lookout Hill.” The rover reached Lookout Hill on Dec. 10 after a climb of 3½ months and 1,640 vertical feet (500 vertical meters).

Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Legislation, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 12.3.24: Act 10 Ruled Unconstitutional, These Years Later

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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:

This video captured the California Highway Patrol rescuing a man trapped on the side of a cliff above Baker Beach in San Francisco. The man was hoisted safely to the beach below.

Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Legislation, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 11.12.24: Oral Argument at the Wisconsin Supreme Court Over an Abortion Ban

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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):

Wisconsin Supreme Court: Josh Kaul v. Joel Urmanski

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

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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

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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.

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Italy’s Mount Etna erupting at night:

Italy’s Mount Etna has erupted again, sending out spouts of lava into the night sky. Europe’s most active volcano has become a destination for tourists and volcano enthusiasts looking to catch a glimpse of its frequent activity.

Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Legislation, State Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.20.24: Wisconsin Supreme Court Considers Gubernatorial Partial Veto

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Good morning.

Thursday, the first day of summer, in Whitewater, will be cloudy with a possibility of afternoon showers and a high of 83. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset 8:36 for 15h 20m 23s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 97.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1944, the Battle of the Philippine Sea concludes with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.”

Wisconsin governors, since 1930, have had the power to veto legislation in whole or part, and that power has been controversial for nearly as long. Rich Kremer reports High Court To Review Wisconsin’s Nearly-Century-Old Veto Power (‘Business group’s lawsuit challenges Gov. Evers’ partial veto to create 400 years of funding’):

The state’s partial veto dates back to 1930, when concerns about state lawmakers adding multiple appropriation and policy items into what are known as omnibus bills came to a head. The Wisconsin Constitution was amended to give more power to governors to reject those items, one by one.

“Appropriation bills may be approved in whole or in part by the governor, and the part approved shall become law,” the new amendment read.

According to a study by the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, proponents believed governors needed a check on the new budgeting process. But opponents worried giving governors more veto authority extended the already broad powers of the executive branch.

When he was campaigning for governor, Philip La Follette said the proposal to expand veto powers “smack[ed] of dictatorship.” The amendment was approved by around 62 percent of voters in 1930, and after he was elected, La Follette became the first governor to use it.

Nine times, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has heard challenges to the partial veto. The case now pending before the Wisconsin Supreme Court will make it an even 10.

This tenth challenge is over Evers’s use of the partial veto power:

Evers’ partial veto last summer caught the Republican-controlled Legislature by surprise. By crossing out a 20 and a dash before he signed the state’s two-year budget, Evers authorized school districts to collect additional property taxes to fund a $325 per-pupil increase for more than 400 years. The Legislature intended the increase to expire in two years.

Republican lawmakers were outraged. The GOP-controlled Wisconsin Senate voted to override Evers’ veto, but the Assembly never followed suit.

The challenge the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to hear Monday, which was brought by the business lobbying group Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, alleges Evers’ veto violates the state’s constitution. The first legal briefs are due by July 16.

Evers’s expansion of the legislative funding until 2425 was unexpected (and I’d argue that expansion goes too far). And yet, and yet, his actions are a clever expression (and send-up) of political gamesmanship. I don’t know Evers’s childhood reading and viewing habits. Still, his partial veto suggests someone who enjoyed the irony and satire of Mad magazine or has a Bugs-Bunny-level cleverness.

(Bugs is, possibly, one of the sharpest Americans ever. In my household, to trick someone playfully, to pull something clever over on someone, is to ‘Bugs Bunny‘ that person. Evers certainly Bugs Bunny-ed the legislative majority with his partial veto.)

Bugs Bunny’s first on-screen appearance in A Wild Hare. Fair Use.

Japanese salamanders can live up to 80 years:

The aptly named Japanese giant salamander can grow up to five feet long and weigh over 50 pounds. But despite its primitive look, this amphibian is highly evolved. When it detects a threat, it excretes a pungent ooze that smells like a pepper. If left alone, the salamanders can live up to 80 years, but pollution and over-collection are threatening this fascinating creature. This is the Japanese giant salamander.

Assault Awareness & Prevention, Daily Bread, Education, Law, Legislation, Misconduct

Daily Bread for 3.24.24: Bipartisan Legislation to Protect Students Against Strip Searches and Sexual Misconduct

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 Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 38. Sunrise is 6:48 and sunset 7:13 for 12h 24m 52s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 99.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of shogun from Emperor Go-Yozei, and establishes the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo, Japan

Long overdue, but as Baylor Spears reports Gov. Evers has signed bipartisan legislation to protect students against strip searches and sexual misconduct:

Gov. Tony Evers signed education-related legislation Friday, including a measure to tighten protections for students against strip searches and sexual misconduct.

One measure, Senate Bill 111, now 2023 Wisconsin Act 198, was introduced in reaction to a 2022 incident in which a Suring School District employee, who was searching for vaping devices, allegedly ordered six teenage girls to undress down to their underwear. Neither the students’ parents or law enforcement were informed about or present at the time of the strip search.

The law redefines the meaning of “strip search” and “private area” to include undergarments in order to protect students from any official, employee or agent of any school or school district conducting strip searches. 

Rep. David Steffen (R-Green Bay), who coauthored the legislation, said in a statement that “being treated with dignity and basic privacy is something that every student should expect when they enter our schools.

“The event at Suring revealed a statutory loophole that needed to be closed,” Steffen said. “This bill will protect our students from experiencing such intrusive searches in the future.”

Another measure, Senate Bill 333, now 2023 Wisconsin Act 200, seeks to better protect students by making sexual misconduct against a student by any school staff member or volunteer a Class I felony. It also adds more violations to the offenses where the state superintendent would be required to revoke a license  without a hearing, and prohibits a licensee from ever having their license reinstated by the state superintendent if they are convicted of a crime against a child that is a Class H felony or higher or a felony invasion of privacy or sexual misconduct by a school staff person or volunteer. 

It should not have required reporting on strip searches over a vape pen for this legislature and this governor to agree on legislation against those kinds of searches.

Better late than never is worse, and too late, for some.

Building a heart atlas:

Daily Bread, Education, Laws/Regulations, Legislation, Literacy, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.12.24: Finance Committee Edits the Wisconsin DPI List of Science-Based Reading Curriculums

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 Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 66. Sunrise is 7:09 and sunset 6:59 for 11h 49m 45s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission meets at 6 PM and the Public Works Committee also meets at 6 PM. 

On this day in 2009, financier Bernie Madoff pleads guilty to one of the largest frauds in Wall Street’s history.

On 3.7.24, FREE WHITEWATER posted on the Wisconsin DPI List of Science-Based Reading Curriculums. That post cited the reporting of Danielle DuClos and Rory Linnane (DPI diverges from Early Literacy Council in its reading curriculum recommendations).  

The Joint Finance Committee had the option to edit the DPI list of science-based reading programs with their own science-based list. They’ve now done so. Baylor Spears reports Republican-led budget committee rejects DPI literacy curriculum recommendations:

Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) rejected the state Department of Public Instruction’s early literacy curriculum recommendation and, instead, chose to approve a smaller list of instructional guidelines recommended by the Early Literacy Curriculum Council.

The curriculum recommendations are part of the state’s work to improve the way reading is taught by shifting early literacy education to a “science of reading” approach, which emphasizes phonics and learning to sound out letters and phrases, and away from a “balanced literacy” approach, which focuses on pictures, word cues and memorization.

….

For the 2024-25 school year, the council’s final list included: Core Knowledge Language Arts K-3, Our EL Education Language Arts, Wit and Wisdom with Pk-3 Reading Curriculum and Bookworms Reading and Writing K-3. 

DPI, however, had submitted a longer list of 11 recommended early literacy curricula to the Joint Finance Committee last month for consideration. The agency’s list threw out the “Bookworms” curriculum, saying it did not include instruction in some of the components included in the Act 20 definition of science-based early reading instruction, and included the other three council recommendations along with eight other options.

The committee approved the council’s final curriculum list in a 10-4 vote on Monday.

SpaceX Dragon with Crew-7 returns to Earth after 6 months in space: 

Daily Bread, Education, Laws/Regulations, Legislation, Literacy, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.7.24: The Wisconsin DPI List of Science-Based Reading Curriculums

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 Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 52. Sunrise is 6:17 and sunset 5:53 for 11h 35m 17s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 11.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1799, Napoleon captures Jaffa in Palestine and his troops proceed to kill more than 2,000 Albanian captives.

Danielle DuClos and Rory Linnane report DPI diverges from Early Literacy Council in its reading curriculum recommendations:

Wisconsin’s Early Literacy Curriculum Council and the Department of Public Instruction have released their highly anticipated lists of recommended reading curriculums, as required by the state’s aggressive new literacy law Act 20.

Act 20, signed into law last summer, requires curriculum to be backed by the “science of reading”: a decades-old body of research that explains how the brain learns to read. It includes an emphasis on phonics, which teaches students the sounds letters make and how those sounds combine in predictable patterns to form words.

The bees that can learn:

Daily Bread, Legislation, State Government, Taxes/Taxation, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.6.24: Gov. Evers Signs Child Care Tax Credit Lift to Federal Level

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 Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 52. Sunrise is 6:19 and sunset 5:51 for 11h 32m 22s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 20 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1820, the Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allows Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, brings Maine into the Union as a free state, and makes the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.

Erik Gunn reports Evers signs child care tax credit hike, urges more action on child care support:

Gov. Tony Evers signed legislation increasing Wisconsin’s child and dependent care tax credit Monday and at the same time renewed his call for broader state support for child care providers.

“We need a long-term solution to our state’s looming child care crisis—including direct support for providers through Child Care Counts—and I will work with anyone from either side of the aisle who’s ready to work together to get this done,” Evers said.

The governor signed the legislation — AB-1023 — in a ceremony at a Waukesha child care center, La Casa de Esperanza.

The bill raises the state income tax credit for a family’s child and dependent care expenses to 100% of the federal tax credit from the current 50%. It also raises the maximum amount of expenses that can be counted to calculate the credit.

The child care tax credit is the only measure of four Republican-authored tax cut bills introduced in January that won broad support from Democratic lawmakers and the only one the Democratic governor signed. On Friday Evers vetoed the other three bills — changing the state’s second-lowest tax bracket, exempting the first $75,000 to $150,000 of retirement income, and nearly doubling the maximum tax credit for married couples.

More tax reductions are in order, but if one had to pick one of these bills only (although it wasn’t a choice of only one!), the child care credit hike was the best choice. 

Barred Owls LIVE! WBU Barred Owl Cam:

Crapweasels, Daily Bread, Elections, Fair Maps, Gerrymandering, Legislation, Legislature, Speaker Vos, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.14.24: Speaker Vos Rushes While the Rushing is Good

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 Good morning.

Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 45. Sunrise is 6:52 and sunset 5:25 for 10h 32m 57s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 28.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 2018, a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida is one of the deadliest school massacres with 17 fatalities and 17 injuries.

Baylor Spears reports Legislature adopts Evers’s maps in second attempt to choose before state Supreme Court (‘Most Democrats vote no, saying they don’t trust Republicans’):

Six parties submitted maps to be considered and consultants recently said that the two sets of legislative maps submitted by Republican lawmakers and the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) amounted to more partisan gerrymandering.

The consultants did not pick a preferred map, but said the other maps, including Evers’ submission, were “nearly indistinguishable.” Those proposals have been projected to reduce Republican control of the Legislature from its current near-supermajority status 

Republicans lawmakers have found Evers’ maps, which would likely keep a Republican majority, although a smaller one, in the Legislature, preferable to the other submissions before the state Supreme Court. 

“Republicans were not stuck between a rock and a hard place,” Sen. Van Wannggard (R-Racine) said in a statement about the vote. “It was a matter of choosing to be stabbed, shot, poisoned or led to the guillotine. We chose to be stabbed, so we can live to fight another day.” 

….

Vos, who was the only representative to speak during the floor session, also rejected the idea that the move was a legal strategy.

Ahead of the floor sessions, some Democrats expressed concerns that Republicans wanted to pass Evers’ maps and then back a federal legal challenge before Republican-nominated U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Diane Sykes, formerly a conservative justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Such a challenge “could ultimately keep the state with its current gerrymandered maps, Democrats told the progressive news platform Democracy Docket. 

“If we get these new maps, the governor’s maps, signed by the Republicans, it’s more than likely that there’ll be a challenge in the 7th Circuit Court,” U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan said over the weekend. “We’re fearful the Republicans are finally trying to come around to do what they should have done in the first place, but they’re doing it with — I guess the technical term would be ‘with sh-t-eating grins on their faces.’ We can assume that this is not done because of the idea of good government.”

Evers’s maps would be an improvement, but Vos’s trustworthiness is discernible only with an electron microscope. Delays in Evers’s maps, either as implementation within the legislation or by litigation against implementation, would be objectionable. 

Vos does objectionable quite well. 

Note to the special-interest men (movers & shakers, lobbyists, p.r. men, whatever) in Whitewater: looking up to Robin Vos is like looking up to the pigeon that’s gonna relieve itself on a car. Normal people do not respect the men, or the pigeons, who do that.

Ukraine’s forces claim to have destroyed a large Russian landing ship in the Black Sea: