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…
Legislature
Courts, Daily Bread, Gov. Evers, Laws/Regulations, Legislature, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 9.14.25: Evers Administration Sues Over Legislature’s Block on Rulemaking
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 82. Sunrise is 6:34 and sunset is 7:05, for 12 hours, 32 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 48.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1994, the remainder of the Major League Baseball season is canceled because…
Daily Bread, Gov. Evers, Laws/Regulations, Legislature, State Government, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 8.23.25: Legislature Blocks Evers Administration Rulemaking
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 74. Sunrise is 6:10 and sunset is 7:43, for 13 hours, 34 minutes of daytime. The moon is new with 0.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1775, King George III delivers his Proclamation of Rebellion to the Court of St James’s stating that the American…
Daily Bread, Gov. Evers, Laws/Regulations, Legislature, State Government, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 8.21.25: Evers Administration Advances Rulemaking
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 78. Sunrise is 6:08 and sunset is 7:47, for 13 hours, 39 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 3.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Lakes Advisory Committee meets at 4:30 PM and the Community Development Association meets…
Daily Bread, Elections, Legislature, Politics, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 7.23.25: A Better Wisconsin Politics Requires a Better Wisconsin Legislature
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will be increasingly sunny with a high of 91. Sunrise is 5:37 and sunset is 8:24, for 14 hours, 47 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 2 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1829, William Austin Burt patents the typographer, a precursor to the typewriter.…
Budget, Daily Bread, Elections, Legislature, Wisconsin, WisDems
Daily Bread for 7.21.25: “If Wisconsinites want a better budget…”
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:35 and sunset is 8:26, for 14 hours, 51 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 13 percent of its visible disk illuminated. The Whitewater Common Council & the Whitewater Unified School District Board meet jointly at…
Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Legislature, Litigation, State Government, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 7.9.25: Wisconsin Supreme Court Again Restores Traditional Executive Authority
by JOHN ADAMS •
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…
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…
Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Legislature, Litigation, State Government, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 6.18.25: Unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court Upholds Attorney General’s Core Executive Authority
by JOHN ADAMS •
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…
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, Legislature, State Government, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 1.23.25: The WisDems’ Bipartisan Delusion
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 23. Sunrise is 7:17 and sunset is 4:56, for 9 hours, 39 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 33.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1957, American inventor Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, which later renames it the “Frisbee.”
I’m not a member of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. I’m also not looking for El Dorado, the Fountain of Youth, or the Lost City of Z. It’s possible that Wisconsin Democrats are looking for some of these fantastical places, because they’re still looking for bipartisanship with the WISGOP.
The Democrats have been searching for months. See The Glistening Optimism of Wisconsin’s Senate Democrats and That ‘Bipartisanship’ Didn’t Last Long — Because It Was Never There.
The fruits of this quest have been wanting, as Baylor Spears reports:
Each session the Assembly Speaker has the responsibility for determining the number of members per committee, unless a rule specifies otherwise. The Speaker also determines the ratio of majority to minority members on each committee. The committees are essential to the lawmaking process given that they are where bills are first moved to be discussed after being introduced, where bills receive public input and are debated by lawmaker before ever being considered for a vote by the full body.
Democrats have complained about losing members on committees despite winning additional seats in the full body. Despite Republican’s narrower majority this session, in some cases Democrats make up a smaller proportion of members on committees than they did in the last session.
“Unfortunately, Assembly Republican Leadership has chosen to begin the legislative session in a highly partisan fashion, reducing Democratic positions on the vast majority of committees despite the people of Wisconsin choosing to replace ten incumbent Republican legislators with Democrats in the last election,” Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said in a statement announcing Democratic committee membership. “I hope my Republican colleagues will choose to shift course and join Democrats in putting the people of Wisconsin over partisan politics in the coming legislative session.”
Neubauer’s staff said they were not consulted by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) about the committee sizes or ratios.
Rep. Robyn Vining (D-Wauwatosa) said there was a “general understanding” that with more members in the house overall, Democrats were expecting that to be reflected in committees. Democrats picked up 10 additional seats in the Assembly, making the body about 55% Republican and 45% Democratic.
See Baylor Spears, Assembly committees this session are different — and smaller, Wisconsin Examiner, January 22, 2025.
I’m sure Rep. Vining is an intelligent and capable representative, but here her charity exceeds her opponents’ merit. There can be no general understanding with these WISGOP leaders. They’ll say what they want and later take what they want.
Indeed, I’m not sure why the Wisconsin Democrats aren’t aware of the video record of Speaker Robin Vos’s past scheming. It’s right there, on YouTube:
(There’s much to learn from Tolkien, in print, of course, but from Peter Jackson’s films, too.)
Here’s a palate cleanser after that last video. Disc Dog – amazing disc catching dogs:
Daily Bread, Law, Legislature, Litigation, Open Government, Public Records, Speaker Vos
Daily Bread for 12.29.24: Speaker Robin Vos Tries to Shirk Responsibility (Yet Again)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 42. Sunrise is 7:25 and sunset is 4:29, for 9 hours, 4 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1845, the United States annexes the Republic of Texas and admits it as the 28th state.
When lawmakers use public funds wastefully, taxpayers bear those costs. The costs send a signal to those taxpayers that the public deserves greater frugality from lawmakers. The waste is unfortunate; the signal to taxpayers, however, acts as a call for scrutiny over those lawmakers. When lawmakers violate the law, and private parties sue successfully over those violations, the public cost of that litigation sends a message to taxpayers that their public representatives have burdened them once again (and so should be replaced).
Speaker Robin Vos, however, does not want the WISGOP Legislature’s failures to reach taxpayers. No and no again: Vos has wasted money, and the public should feel that he has; Vos’s position has lost in the courts, and the public should feel that he’s lost.
Predictably, Vos is trying to avoid the price of his own violations of the law:
A three-member Wisconsin appeals court has awarded $241,000 in legal fees and costs to the liberal group American Oversight in two open records lawsuits it brought against Assembly Speaker Robin Vos over the investigation he ordered into the 2020 presidential election.
The Waukesha-based District II Court of Appeals rejected Vos’ efforts to reverse Dane County Circuit Court decisions ordering the state to pick up $143,211 in legal fees for one American Oversight case and $98,000 for a second one. The rulings make clear the costs will ultimately be paid by taxpayers.
….
The three appellate judges reviewing the public records cases were two conservatives — Mark Gundrum and Maria Lazar — and one liberal, Lisa Neubauer.
See Daniel Bice, Appeals Court upholds $241,000 in legal fees to liberal group over Gableman records, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 27, 2024.
If the public doesn’t want to bear these costs, then the public needs a better majority, and a better speaker. Vos is a below-average steward of public funds and if the public wants Vos, well, it’s going to be more expensive than it would be with a competent Assembly speaker.
(Imagine being someone — in Whitewater, let’s say — who thought that a call from Vos was a sign of importance and influence. Honest to goodness, someone who thought that would be a ridiculous person. A call from Vos? Even the receptionist shouldn’t have to take that call, and it would be a burden merely to retrieve his message from voicemail.)
See also from FREE WHITEWATER an entire category dedicated to Robin Vos. It’s a years-long account of his serial failures. (Best not to read near mealtime.)
One eco-friendly way to recycle Christmas trees — feed them to goats:
Budget, Daily Bread, Legislature, State Government, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 12.23.24: Four Billion’s a Lot of Money to Be Left Unused
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:23 and sunset is 4:25, for 9 hours, 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 43.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1688, as part of the Glorious Revolution, King James II of England flees from England to France after being deposed in favor of his son-in-law and nephew, William of Orange and his daughter Mary.
The State of Wisconsin has both a general fund surplus and a rainy day fund, with the surplus now at $4,500,000,000. It is, after all, a lot of money:
Gov. Tony Evers announced Friday that Wisconsin’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, which is published by the Department of Administration, recorded a $4.5 billion positive balance in the state’s general fund at the end of the 2023-24 fiscal year.
In addition to the general fund, the state’s Budget Stabilization Fund — or “rainy day” fund — ended the fiscal year at the highest level in state history with a balance of $1.9 billion. The rainy day fund has set a new record every year since Evers took office in 2019.
“For thirty consecutive years, our state’s checking account ran at a deficit. Thanks to our efforts to pay down our state’s debt and work across the aisle to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, Wisconsin has never had a deficit since I took office,” Evers said in a statement. “This is great news for the people of Wisconsin and our state’s economy.”
The balance in the general fund — a budget surplus — will likely be a major point of discussion next year as Evers and lawmakers begin work on the state’s next two-year budget.
See Baylor Spears, Wisconsin’s annual financial report records $4.5 billion budget surplus, Wisconsin Examiner, December 21, 2024.
The inability of lawmakers to agree on a plan for the use of the general fund surplus is unsurprising. These are the men who gerrymandered, backed grossly wasteful projects, pretended a pandemic was safe, and endorsed election conspiracies for so long as conspiracists did not level accusations in their own direction.
Honda and Nissan start merger talks in historic pivot:
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: