Janesville has lost businesses of all sizes over the last year, and will lose yet another: Sanford Corp. will close the old Parker Pen factory. Over 150 jobs will be lost, and so will a business operating in Janesville since the nineteenth century. Parker has been a part of American history, and the Parker 51…

Good afternoon, Master Planners of Whitewater!  I’m sure that you’re busy today, designing a new interstate highway system, Lincoln Tunnel, Hoover Dam, etc., but I thought I’d write with comments on a fine book: Zoning, Rent Control, and Affordable Housing.  As you’ve heard, our city administration has declared housing Whitewater’s biggest problem.  William Tucker’s work is…

The Wisconsin State Journal has an Associated Press story reporting that one in five assembly aides earn more than their positions are supposed to pay. Most, apparently, are former aides to Assembly leaders who have been allowed to keep their pay level even after the Assembly changed hands following the last election. See, Overpaid Assembly…

Here’s a third installment of cat blogging. The Cat Fanciers’ Association of America recognizes about forty breeds of domestic cats, but all cats, single or mixed-breed, are admirable. Cats have an independent spirit that’s a fine reminder of the individualism which Americans — at their best — so abundantly possess. Today, I’ve posted a video…

An Illinois man was jailed for six months for a loud and boisterous yawn he uttered while attending his cousin’s sentencing. One would hope that Whitewater neither begins to follow this example through fines to those attending municipal court, nor expands it to sleepy pedestrians. Just in case – another cup of coffee might be…

I’m not a journalist, and I lack the talent for the job.  I have an interest in newspapers, in the way many Americans do — as a common person with the ability to read, and a respect for a free press and free speech.  Over the years I’ve been posting at FREE WHITEWATER, I’ve written…

Good morning, Whitewater There are no municipal, public meetings scheduled for today. The Wisconsin Historical Society notes that on this day in our history, in 1939, According to the fan site, thewizardofoz.info, “The first publicized showing of the final, edited film was at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin on August 12, 1939. No one…

The Wisconsin State Journal reports that State Rep. Samantha Kerkman opposes a bill that would require lawmakers to post their financial disclosure forms on the Internet. Why? Because, via an Associated Press story, she contends that ‘posting the information online would give too much information to critics who could find ways to harass lawmakers and…

In Whitewater, a town of about 14,000, there are a few hundred — career bureaucrats, politicians, would-be town squires — who walk around as though they own the place.  The idea that anyone might criticize their views, might question their policies, seems to them an offense against the natural order itself.  Unaccustomed to lawful political…

UPDATE, 9:28 PM: An astute and knowledgeable reader wrote earlier this evening with information about Maine Coon cats. I am happy to post it as an update: “I liked the video about the Coons, but one problem — it isn’t one of the largest cat breeds, it is the largest breed. Otherwise the information was…

Here’s the third of three Reason.tv videos for this Thursday.  This one’s on health care.   Reason notes that the “Obama Administration goes on the offensive against Matt Drudge and other critics for spreading ‘disinformation’ and ‘lies’ ” about health care.   What’s telling is that Linda Douglass, communications director of the Administration’s health care effort, really…

The Foundation for Economic Education — FEE to its many admirers — has fought for liberty since just after the Second World War. “Fee’s Lawrence W. Reed: How Having the Government Run the Economy Is a Recipe for Disaster” is the second of three videos from Reason.tv that I will post today.  Here’s the accompanying…

Thursday’s a libertarian version of NBC’s Must See TV at FREE WHITEWATER, with three videos from Reason.tv, the video website of Reason magazine and the Reason Foundation.   First  up, “F.I.R.E.’S Greg Lukianoff On Threats to Campus Speech.” The four-minute video records an interview in which constitutional lawyer Greg Lukianoff of the Foundation for Individual Rights…

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