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Local Government

Local Government, Politics, Trump

Trump’s the Failure We Always Knew He Would Be

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Writing in the Journal Sentinel, Craig Gilbert finds that Donald Trump has squandered chance to broaden base, increase popularity, polls show: “He’s done nothing to expand his base and, if anything, he’s sort of where he was, or experiencing greater erosion,” says Lee Miringoff, who conducted polls this month for NBC/Marist in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania that showed Trump with…

City, Culture, Local Government, School District, University

Mentoring

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I’ve long held that Whitewater’s Major Public Institutions Produce a Net Loss (And Why It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way). This contention is true for several reasons, all leading to this result: “Whitewater’s major public institutions – her city government, school district, and local university – produce this unexpected result: although members of the government are…

City, Local Government, Politics

Three Tiers of Public Communication

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Local government – and here I am thinking primarily of a small town’s local government – has three tiers of communication: saying nothing, saying something, saying the right thing. (In the third tier, right refers to a full and fair means of communication, and not right as merely agreeable and pleasing.) Saying nothing. Common enough…

City, Economy, Local Government, University

How a Campus Masks Local Mistakes

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Many small towns, looking for something to attract visitors and newcomers, probably dream about the possibility of a college campus. Whitewater has a public university campus, and the majority of the city’s residents are students at that school. Thousands of students in the city assure a steady stream of retail traffic we would not otherwise…

City, Culture, Economy, Local Government

Whitewater, Cultures & Communications, June 2017 (Part 1: Introduction)

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This is the first post in a series considering related local topics of cultures & communications within the city. I’ll start with an introductory series of assumptions, some I’ll flesh out in greater detail in the series, but all of which state plainly my views. 1.  In America’s current political climate, it’s national politics that necessarily…

City, Local Government

Term Limits, Briefly Considered

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There was a discussion last night at the Whitewater Common Council about term limits (if any) for appointees to city boards and commissions. The discussion followed a briefer one on 4.18.17. I mentioned yesterday that this would be an interesting agenda topic, and it was. It’s worth noting that although I thought there should have…

Babbittry, Conflicts of Interest, Culture, Local Government, Newspapers, Politics

Margaret Sullivan on Great Local Reporting

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Margaret Sullivan, the Washington Post’s media columnist observes that Great local reporting stands between you and wrongdoing. (Sullivan was formerly The New York Times public editor, and the chief editor of her hometown paper, The Buffalo News.) Sullivan explains what great local reporting means: “In only 15 years, American newspaper companies slashed their workforces by…

America, Charity, City, Development, Economics, Economy, Holiday, Local Government, Planning, Politics

Reading and Reviewing

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There are two books I’m eager to review here at FW: Katherine Cramer’s Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker (2016) and Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story (4.18.17).  Like many others, I’ve been awaiting Goldstein’s book for some time, knowing that significant works take time. For both books,…