FREE WHITEWATER

State Government

Daily Bread, Politics, State Government, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 10.13.22: The Appointed Squatters on the Technical College Board

by  •  •  Comments

Good morning. Thursday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 51. Sunrise is 7:06 AM and sunset 6:14 PM for 11h 07m 53s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 85.8% of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 5:30 PM.  On this day in 1903, the Boston Red Sox…

Daily Bread, Elections, Local Government, Politics, State Government, Walworth County, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.10.22: Wisconsin’s August 9th Primary

by  •  • 2 Comments

Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 82. Sunrise is 5:56 AM and sunset 8:03 PM for 14h 06m 28s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 96.3% of its visible disk illuminated.   On this day in 1977, 24-year-old postal employee David Berkowitz (“Son of Sam”) is arrested for…

Business, Daily Bread, Federal Government, Hubris, Local Government, Planning, State Government

Daily Bread for 5.7.22: Fordlandia’s Folly

by  •  •  Comments

Good morning. Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 62.  Sunrise is 5:39 AM and sunset 8:02 PM for 14h 22m 59s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 35.4% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1992,  Michigan ratifies a 203-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law.…

Daily Bread, Elections, Gerrymandering, Legislature, Politics, State Government

Daily Bread for 1.9.22: They’d Rather Stay Forever

by  •  •  Comments

Good morning. Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 19.  Sunrise is 7:24 AM and sunset 4:40 PM for 9h 15m 47s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 49% of its visible disk illuminated.  On this day in 1992, the first discoveries of extrasolar planets are announced by astronomers Aleksander…

Local Government, Never Trump, Politics, Right-wing Populism, School District, State Government, Trump, Trumpism

Conservative Populism Moves in One Direction Only

by  •  • 1 Comment

While there’s more than one kind of conservative Republican (traditionalist, transactionalist, or populist), it’s the populists who are the most numerous and most demanding. Over time, they’ve pushed other kinds of conservatives – even transactionalists who are behind-the-scenes manipulators – into subordinate positions. (See generally Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021.) These rightwing populists have outlasted Trump,…

Bad Ideas, Corporate Welfare, Development, Foxconn, Marketing, Mendacity, Public Relations, Scott Walker, Special Interests, State Capitalism, State Government, WEDC, WISGOP, YMBFKM

Foxconn’s Venture Capital Fund

by  •  •  Comments

Bruce Murphy has a solid assessment of Foxconn’s much-touted (by Foxconn) venture capital fund in About That Foxconn Venture Capital Fund. It’s well worth reading in full. A few key points: Unfulfilled: Louis Woo of Foxconn had promised this venture fund for startup companies would naturally connect to Foxconn’s innovation centers in Eau Claire, Green Bay…

Business, Corporate Welfare, Foxconn, State Capitalism, State Government

After Years of Promises, Foxconn Will Think of Something…by July

by  •  • 2 Comments

Years of claims, promises, declarations, announcements (and private homes destroyed along the way), and yet Foxconn still needs a bit of time to think of something to make. Just give ‘em a sec, they come up with something by July: Liu said that the company will announce what it will make in Wisconsin before July.…

Education, Elections, School District, State Government

The Spring Primary 2021

by  •  •  Comments

Yesterday’s Wisconsin Spring Primary (mid-February, windchill of about two degrees) saw local and statewide education contests. There was nothing unexpected about the results: in Whitewater more than two candidates have a good chance at one of the two available board seats, and statewide Underly and Kerr have significant backing. For Whitewater’s school board, five candidates…

Bad Ideas, Boosterism, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Speaker Vos, State Capitalism, State Government, Technology, WEDC, WISGOP

Accountability Comes Calling at Foxconn

by  •  •  Comments

After years of grandiose – ludicrous, truly – claims about Foxconn from Trump to Vos to boosters in Whitewater, Accountability has made her way to Foxconn. If not Accountability personified, then at least Missy Hughes (the new, Evers-appointed leader) of a slightly-reformed WEDC. Josh Dzieza of the national publication The Verge reports Wisconsin denies Foxconn tax…

CDA, City, Economy, Local Government, Poverty, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Walworth County, WEDC, Wisconsin

Whitewater & Walworth County’s Working Poor, 2020 ALICE® Report

by  •  •  Comments

The 2020 ALICE® report, on those who are “asset limited, income constrained [yet] employed” is now available.  These latest data were collected before the recent recession – one can be sadly confident that hardship reaches farther now. For Wisconsin, 11% of households were below the poverty level, and 34% (including those below the poverty level) were…

Babbittry, City, Corruption, Federal Government, Law, Local Government, Official Misconduct, Open Government, Police, Politics, State Government

Cameras, Not Committees

by  •  • 1 Comment

Recent protests across America against excessive and biased use of police force began after ordinary people in those communities recorded official (to the point of murderous) actions, and then shared their recordings with others. It was not government – local, state, or federal – that promptly shared these recordings of excessive force; it was ordinary…