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Business, Daily Bread, Federal Government, Government Spending, Tariffs, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 5.16.25: Solar Faces a Federal Budget Hit

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Good morning. Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 82. Sunrise is 5:30 and sunset is 8:12, for 14 hours, 42 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 86.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1527, the Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes…

Daily Bread, Elections, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 4.29.25: Fusion Voting

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 61. Sunrise is 5:51 and sunset is 7:53, for 14 hours, 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 5.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1986, a fire at the Central library of the Los Angeles Public Library damages or destroys 400,000 books and other items.

So, how ’bout fusion voting:

Voters in Wisconsin could be seeing double on Election Day if the practice of fusion voting — which allows the same candidate to appear on the ballot under multiple party lines — makes a comeback in the battleground state.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday seeks to legalize the practice, saying it would empower independent voters and lesser-known political parties at a time of increasingly bitter partisanship between Republicans and Democrats. The lawsuit comes just four weeks after the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, which broke records for spending and saw massive involvement from the two parties and partisan interests. 

Common in the 1800s, fusion voting means a candidate could appear on the ballot as nominated by Republican or Democratic parties and one or more lesser-known political parties. Critics argue it complicates the ballot, perhaps confusing the voter, while also giving minor parties disproportionate power because major-party candidates must woo them to get their endorsements.

Currently, full fusion voting is only happening in Connecticut and New York. There are efforts to revive the practice in other states, including Michigan, Kansas and New Jersey.

See Scott Bauer, Same candidate, two parties. A Wisconsin lawsuit aims to bring back fusion voting, Associated Press, April 25, 2025.

Wisconsin voters can understand a fusion ballot, as much as voters in New York and Connecticut, leaving possible confusion as an unpersuasive objection. Beyond that, it’s hard to tell how this might shape Wisconsin elections in the near-term. New York and Connecticut seem to have managed; we could, too.

Blue Jays:

Agriculture, Daily Bread, Economy, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 4.28.25: Needless Uncertainty During Wisconsin Agriculture’s Planting Season

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be windy with evening thunderstorms and a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:52 and sunset is 7:54, for 14 hours, 0 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s School Board meets at 5:15 PM, goes into closed session at 5:30 PM, resuming open session at 7 PM. Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1845, the first issue of Scientific American magazine is published.

Where agriculture requires as much certainty as possible, Trump brings uncertainty beyond mere vagaries of the weather:

As Wisconsin’s planting season gets underway, cuts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and fluctuating tariffs on foreign trading partners are creating a new level of uncertainty for farmers.

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the USDA has ended two programs that gave food banks and schools money to buy food from local ranchers and farmers. One of the programs, the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program, was used in more than 40 states, accordingto Politico. 

The other program, The Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, was used in all 50 states and provided up to $900 million in funding, according to the USDA and the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

See Trevor Hook, Wisconsin’s growing season arriving with uncertainty amid USDA cuts, tariffs (‘Reciprocal tariffs on US agricultural products and cuts to the federal agriculture department are adding new complexity to Wisconsin’s planting season’), Wisconsin Public Radio, April 25, 2025.

A New York Florida real estate man, having failed time and again at his business ventures, was the last person on Earth to grasp the needs Midwestern agriculture. See also Farmers and Farmers, Part 2 (Slogans and Reality).

Metamaterial origami robots:

Mechanical metamaterials are structures carefully designed to give rise to unique or unusual physical properties. Now a team has taken inspiration from origami to create a modular metamaterial system. These units couple twisting movement with compression or expansion, and by combining these modules in different ways the researchers behind this work have found applications across a range of fields, from lightweight dancing robots to mechanical computing.