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Campaign Ads, Conflicts of Interest, Courts, Daily Bread, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.18.25: Musk’s PAC Puts in Six Figures for Schimel

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 8. Sunrise is 6:47 and sunset is 5:30, for 10 hours, 44 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 69.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1930,  Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.

Fair use, Link

Not content with the federal government, Musk again sets his gaze on Wisconsin:

A political action committee backed by billionaire Elon Musk has scheduled hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of TV ads in Wisconsin this week with the state Supreme Court election fast approaching.

The ads are expected to aid conservative Brad Schimel who is running against liberal Susan Crawford in a race that will determine the ideological balance of the court. 

The ads from the Musk-backed Building America’s Future will start running on stations around Wisconsin Thursday and will continue through early March.

Available contracts posted by the Federal Communications Commission show more than $400,000 worth of ads will run in the Madison, Eau Claire, Wausauand Green Bay areas. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports more than $255,000 more will also be running in and around Milwaukee.

The FCC data doesn’t identify the content of Building America’s ads. However, the ads are expected to aid Schimel, the state’s former Republican attorney general.

See Rich Kremer, Group tied to Elon Musk investing in Wisconsin ahead of Supreme Court race, Wisconsin Public Radio, February 17, 2025.

Musk’s Tesla, by the way, is now suing the Wisconsin Department of Transportation in state court, Outagamie County, over that department’s decision against Tesla’s request to open dealerships in Wisconsin.

You never know, but just perhaps that’s litigation, should it one day reach Wisconsin’s highest court, that might be of interest to a Musk-backed Justice Schimel.

See also Musk Attacks Two Wisconsin Lutheran Groups (from 2.6.25) and World’s Richest Man Weighs In On Wisconsin Supreme Court Race (from 1.24.25).

Ice ‘Volcanoes’ in New York:

Budget, Daily Bread, State Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.17.25: $4,300,000,000

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 7. Sunrise is 6:48 and sunset is 5:29, for 10 hours, 41 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 78.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 4 PM, the Police and Fire Commission meets at 6 PM, and the Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1801, a tie in the Electoral College between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President and Burr Vice President by the House of Representatives.

Even today, $4,300,000,000 is a lot of money:

As Gov. Tony Evers puts the finishing touches on his next state budget proposal, projections show Wisconsin is expected to see a surplus of around $4.3 billion. 

It sets the stage for a familiar battle, with the Democratic governor calling for investments in priorities like education and child care and leaders of the Republican-controlled state Legislature calling for tax cuts.

The $4.3 billion projection comes from an analysis by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, which suggests state tax revenues will be nearly $895 million higher than expected throughout the next two-year budget cycle. The report credits that to a national economy that grew faster than expected in 2024 and modest increases in state sales tax revenue.

While the surplus is large, it’s not exactly new. Two years ago, Evers and lawmakers began the budget cycle with a projected $7 billion surplus. And even after they passed a new budget that increased spending and cut some taxes, the state ended last fiscal year with $4.6 billion in the bank.

See Rich Kremer, Wisconsin surplus projected at nearly $4.3B as Evers prepares next state budget, Wisconsin Public Radio, February 14, 2025.

There’s been no grand deal for the surplus these last few years, and regrettably the past is the best predictor of what’s to come.

‘Aqua tweezers’ manipulate particles with water waves:

Daily Bread, Education, Elections, State Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.14.25: Outlook for Wisconsin’s Spring Primary for Superintendent of Public Instruction

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Good morning.

Valentine’s Day in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 25, and snow likely this evening. Sunrise is 6:53 and sunset is 5:25, for 10 hours, 33 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 96 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1876,  Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.

Robert Yoon writes of the spring primary in AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Wisconsin’s spring primary between incumbent Jill Underly and challengers Brittany Kinser and Jeff Wright:

Kinser leads the field in campaign fundraising thanks to a flurry of contributions in January from big-dollar Republican donors. She had raised $316,000 through Feb. 3, compared with $123,000 for Wright and $121,000 for Underly. 

In 2021, Underly narrowly topped the seven-candidate primary field with 27% of the vote. Six candidates were aligned with Democrats, but none emerged as the clear alternative to Underly among Democratic voters. That helped the sole Republican-backed candidate that year, Deborah Kerr, to nab the second spot on the general election ballot with 26% of the vote. Underly went on to win the general election that year with 58% of the vote in a one-on-one contest with Kerr.

This year, three candidates are competing for two spots, and the primary has become several contests stuffed into a single race: one between Underly and Wright among Democratic-leaning voters, another with Kinser trying to consolidate enough support among Republican-leaning voters to outperform one or both of her rivals, and another with all three candidates competing for independent and crossover voters to tip the scales in their favor.

With only two candidates this year to potentially split the support of Democratic-leaning voters, Kinser would likely need to far outperform Kerr’s 26% in the 2021 primary to earn a spot on the April ballot, assuming a competitive contest between Underly and Wright.

See Robert Yoon, AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Wisconsin’s spring primary, Associated Press, February 14, 2025.

If the split between Democratic-leaning voters and Republican-leaning voters in this race is like 2021, then, yes, Kinser would likely need to outperform Kerr’s 2021 vote share.

It would be surprising, however, if the balance between ideologies is like that of 2021. At least, it would be surprising to me. If the conservative1 candidate cannot place comfortably in one of the two spots in this race, then conservatives wasted a campaign on a weak candidate or weak messaging. This environment, Spring 2025, is as much of a high-water level as the conservative populists in Wisconsin may ever have.

I’d guess Kinser will exceed 26 percent easily, and find herself in the Spring General Election against Underly.

We’ll know Tuesday night, and likely early Tuesday night.

______

  1. Conservative as an ideology in American is now synonymous with conservative populist. There are still a few different individual conservatives, but there is only one ideological movement: populism. ↩︎

Happy Valentine’s Day:

Daily Bread, Education, Elections, State Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.13.25: Conservative Candidate Outraises Opponents in State Superintendent Race

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 15. Sunrise is 6:54 and sunset is 5:24, for 10 hours, 30 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 99 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Community Involvement and Cable TV Commission meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1960, with the success of a nuclear test codenamed “Gerboise Bleue,” France becomes the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons.

Brittany Kinser is far ahead in fundraising:

Wauwatosa education consultant Brittany Kinser has signficantly outraised both of her Democratic opponents, according to the latest campaign finance reports. Her half-million dollar haul ($508,000) so far this year is nearly four times as much as state Superintendent Jill Underly raised ($132,000) and about 13 times as much as Sauk Prairie School District Superintendent Jeff Wright ($38,000).

Kinser calls herself a moderate but is backed by conservatives for her pro-school choice positions. Underly, the incumbent, is backed by the Democratic Party, though Wright has chipped away at some of her base. ….

Both state parties are pumping their preferred candidate’s campaigns with cash at an unprecedented level for a state superintendent election at this stage of the race, shattering any assumption about it being a nonpartisan election.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin contributed $200,000 to Kinser’s campaign so far, nearly 10 times the amount it gave in the entire 2021 race. The state Democratic Party gave Underly about $106,000 this month. The party gave her about $208,000 in the entire 2021 race. Wright has neither party’s financial support.

And there’s still a month and a half to go before the April 1 election.

Kinser has more than doubled the superintendent fundraising record set by then-Superintendent Tony Evers in 2017 for this stage of the race. In Gov. Evers’ entire 2017 superintendent race, he raised about $517,000. Kinser has raised nearly the same amount in just the first month of this race.

See Kelly Meyerhofer, In Wisconsin school superintendent race, one candidate is far ahead in fundraising, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 13, 2025.

Inflation increased in January, posing obstacle for tariff plans:

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.12.25: Fundraising Strong in Wisconsin Supreme Court Race

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be snowy with a high of 26. Sunrise is 6:55 and sunset is 5:23, for 10 hours, 27 minutes of daytime. The moon is full with 99.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1809, Abraham Lincoln is born.

Susan Crawford leads Brad Schimel in reported campaign fundraising, but both candidates are receiving millions:

Liberal candidate Susan Crawford continues to out-raise her conservative opponent Brad Schimel in a race that will decide control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

With roughly 50 days to go until the April 1 election, the race is already on track to smash previous fundraising records for a Wisconsin judicial election. 

Crawford, a Dane County judge, has brought in about $7.7 million since announcing her campaign last year, according to the most-recent reports filed by her campaign committee this week.

Meanwhile, Schimel’s campaign has reported about $5 million in donations.

Reports due this week cover donations through early February. Those disclosures were filed by campaign committees and do not reflect outside spending on the race, such as by groups who pay for their own issue-based ads.

Emphasis added.

See Sarah Lehr, Crawford out-raising Schimel ahead of April’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race (‘Both candidates have received large transfers of cash from state political parties’), Wisconsin Public Radio, February 11, 2025.

Detailed reporting on donors and donation amounts to the candidates is available at the Journal Sentinel. Note that while both major parties can transfer money to their preferred candidates, the candidates themselves cannot solicit more than twenty-thousand per donor. Candidate Schimel, predictably, didn’t seem to care about that limitation:

State campaign finance laws restrict donations to Supreme Court candidates to $20,000. But under a decade-old change by the Republican-controlled Legislature, political parties are allowed to receive unlimited donations, money they can then forward to their preferred candidates.

At a Calumet County Republican Party event in July, Schimel was caught on tape urging those who could afford to give more than $20,000 to donate to the party.

“Then, if you want to give a lot more, you can give that to either of the state parties, and they can transfer it,” he said. “They can transfer that to candidates. You can’t earmark it and say, ‘I’m giving you this money but you have to give it.’ But they’re going to those donors who are going to wait till after November 5 (2024) to make sure that I’m the last thing that they give the money to. But that money is going to come.”

See Daniel Bice, George Soros and Wisconsin GOP billionaires dump big donations in Supreme Court race, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 11, 2025.

Minuscule microrobots target drug delivery:

Scientists from the California Institute of Technology have developed microrobots smaller than the width of a human hair for targeted drug delivery. The minuscule robots can operate in body fluids and deliver the medicine exactly where it is needed in the human body.

Birds, Daily Bread, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.11.25: ‘A Different Kind of Snowy Season’

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 22. Sunrise is 6:57 and sunset is 5:21, for 10 hours, 25 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 98.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1979, the Iranian Revolution establishes an Islamic theocracy under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

A Different Kind of Snowy Season:

More about Snowy Owls:

Snowy Owls lead nomadic lives and travel vast distances from year to year searching for productive feeding areas.

Grand Canyons on the Moon:

The Schrödinger impact crater sits near to the Moon’s south pole. Sprouting off it are two canyons — called Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck — each comparable in size to the Grand Canyon here on Earth. These were formed when debris, thrown up by a meteor or comet hitting the Moon, crashed back into the surface. Now, analysis suggests that these high-energy streams of rock could have excavated the canyons in under ten minutes. Understanding this area of the Moon is important as the region has been selected for investigation as part of NASA’s Artemis missions.

America, City, Daily Bread, Drug War, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.10.25: Tariffs Won’t Solve America’s Fentanyl Addiction

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 29. Sunrise is 6:58 and sunset is 5:20, for 10 hours, 22 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 95.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Plan & Architectural Review Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1906,  HMS Dreadnought, the first of a revolutionary new breed of battleships, is christened.

In Whitewater, in Wisconsin, and across America, there are people addicted to fentanyl. Tariffs won’t relieve them of their addiction:

Americans consume more illicit drugs per capita than anyone else in the world; about 6% of the U.S. population uses them regularly. 

….

One such drug, fentanyl – a synthetic opioid that’s 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine – is the leading reason U.S. overdose deaths have surged in recent years. While the rate of fentanyl overdose deaths has dipped a bit recently, it’s still vastly higher than it was just five years ago.

Ending the fentanyl crisis won’t be easy. The U.S. has an addiction problem that spans decades – long predating the rise of fentanyl – and countless attempts to regulate, legislate and incarcerate have done little to reduce drug consumption. Meanwhile, the opioid crisis alone costs Americans tens of billions of dollars each year.

….

America’s experiments with tariffs can be traced back to the founding era with the passage of the Tariff Act of 1789. This long history has shown that tariffs, industrial subsidies and protectionist policies don’t do much to stimulate broad economic growth at home – but they raise prices for consumers and can even lead to global economic instability. History also shows that tariffs don’t work especially well as negotiating tools, failing to effect significant policy changes in target countries. Economists generally agree that the costs of tariffs outweigh the benefits.

Over the course of Trump’s first term, the average effective tariff rate on Chinese imports went from 3% to 11%. But while imports from China fell slightly, the overall trade relationship didn’t change much: China remains the second-largest supplier of goods to the U.S. 

The tariffs did have some benefit – for Vietnam and other nearby countries with relatively low labor costs. Essentially, the tariffs on China caused production to shift, with global companies investing billions of dollars in competitor nations.

This isn’t the first time Trump has used trade policy to pressure China on fentanyl– he did so in his first term. But while China made some policy changes in response, such as adding fentanyl to its controlled substances list in 2019, fentanyl deaths in the U.S. continued to rise. Currently, China still ranks as the No. 1 producer of fentanyl precursors, or chemicals used to produce illicit fentanyl. And there are others in the business: India, over that same period, has become a major producer of fentanyl.

See Rodney Coates, Why Trump’s tariffs can’t solve America’s fentanyl crisis, The Conversation, February 1, 2025.

Drug War or Trade War: prohibition has been and will be futile against addiction. Domestic demand seeks supply, whether that supply is produced on this continent or elsewhere.

More on tariffs, apart from supposed drug reduction: Metals tariffs ‘will have significant cost’ for US:

US President Donald Trump said he will introduce new 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the US, in a major escalation of his trade policy overhaul. Economist Vicky Pryce of CEBR talks about the impact his announcement will have on trade.

Daily Bread, Federal Government, Law, Litigation, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.9.25: Wisconsin Joins Multi-State Lawsuit Against Musk’s Access to Restricted Information

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 28. Sunrise is 6:59 and sunset is 5:19, for 10 hours, 19 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 90.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1870, President Grant signs a joint resolution of Congress establishing the U.S. Weather Bureau.

Overdue, both legally and technically, but justified litigation nonetheless:

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul are joining Wisconsin to a multi-state lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration and billionaire Elon Musk from accessing restricted government records on millions of federal employees.

In a statement, Evers said the lawsuit is aimed at protecting Wisconsinites’ personal details. “Wisconsinites expect the federal government to treat their Social Security numbers, bank account information, and other sensitive personal details with the highest level of protection and confidentiality — and that obligation doesn’t go out the window just because Elon Musk says it should,” Evers said.“Giving political appointees access to our most personal information like this is illegal. That’s plain as day.”

Agents working for Musk accessed the records maintained by the Office of Personnel Management, the Washington Post reported Thursday, citing four U.S. officials with knowledge of the developments.

….

The 19 states are seeking an injunction to block the Trump administration from blocking access to the payment system and a declaration that the Treasury Department’s policy change is unlawful, according to Kaul.

“Donald Trump has put the whims of Elon Musk ahead of Americans’ privacy and security,” Kaul said in a statement. “We’ve gone to court to address this outrageous situation and to protect the American people.”

See Molly Beck, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers joins lawsuit over Elon Musk’s access to restricted information, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 8, 2025.

What a young tapir looks like:

A rare and endangered Malayan tapir calf was born at Tacoma’s Point Defiance Zoo, the second tapir birth in the zoo’s 120-year history.

Courts, Daily Bread, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.7.25: Unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules Elections Administrator Can Remain in Post

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 31. Sunrise is 7:02 and sunset is 5:16, for 10 hours, 14 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 74.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1964, The Beatles land in the United States for the first time, at the newly renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport.

This morning, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s Administrator, Meagan Wolfe, can remain in her post. The ruling was probable based on a prior court decision (under a different court majority) from 2022, as Scott Bauer reports:

A unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Friday that the swing state’s nonpartisan top elections official, who has been targeted for removal by Republican lawmakers over the 2020 presidential election, can remain in her post despite not being reappointed and confirmed by the state Senate.

Republicans who control the state Senate tried to fire Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe in 2023, leading the commission to sue in an effort to keep Wolfe on the job.

The state Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower court’s ruling in Wolfe’s favor. The 7-0 ruling means that Wolfe can remain in her position and not face a confirmation vote by the Republican-controlled Senate.

The court said that no vacancy exists and, because of that, the elections commission “does not have a duty to appoint a new administrator to replace Wolfe simply because her term has ended.”

….

The court relied on the precedent set in its 2022 ruling that allowed Republican-appointee Fred Prehn to remain on the state Natural Resources Board after his term had ended. That ruling came when the court was controlled by conservatives. The court now has a 4-3 liberal majority.

See Scott Bauer, Wisconsin Supreme Court says swing state’s embattled elections chief can remain in post, Associated Press, February 7, 2025.

I felt that Prehn should have resigned at the end of his term (and been removed for failing to resign), but the Prehn ruling in 2022 made today’s decision as certain as a legal outcome could be.

‘Marsquakes’ travel deeper than expected, says new research:

Charity, Daily Bread, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.6.25: Musk Attacks Two Wisconsin Lutheran Groups

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:03 and sunset is 5:15, for 10 hours, 9 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 64.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Lakes Advisory Committee meets at 8:30, and the Public Arts Commission meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1778, in Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.

Private citizen Elon Musk never tires of using his control of the federal government to threaten others. Two Wisconsin Lutheran groups were among his latest targets:

Over the weekend, former national security advisor Michael Flynn posted on X, the social media platform Musk owns, accusing Lutheran organizations who receive federal grants of committing “money laundering.”

Musk responded that his team at the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, is “rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.”

Federal grants totaling billions of dollars each year go to nonprofits to provide a range of community services that states don’t provide themselves, such as housing or food assistance.

Flynn’s post included screenshots of some Lutheran groups that receive federal funds. But it’s unclear how Flynn identified which Lutheran groups to name in his post, or how Musk determined those payments to be illegal.

The two Wisconsin groups included by name in Flynn’s post are Wisconsin Lutheran Child and Family Services (WLCFS), a Christian mental health care provider in Germantown, and the Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation in La Crosse, a nonprofit health clinic that no longer has any affiliation with the Lutheran Church.

See Anya van Wagtendonk, Musk calls for cutting funds to Lutheran groups, including in Wisconsin
(‘2 Wisconsin groups were named in a social media post baselessly accusing Lutheran charities of money laundering’), Wisconsin Public Radio, February 6, 2025.

Wildlife rehabilitator nurtures injured squirrels and rabbits back to health:

Holly Hill-Putnam transforms her Windsor home into a wildlife sanctuary, providing round-the-clock care for up to 36 injured and orphaned animals. The Wisconsin WildCare volunteer specializes in rehabilitating squirrels, rabbits and chipmunks, preparing them for release back into nature.

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 1.31.25: Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Brian Hagedorn Recuses

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 45. Sunrise is 7:10 and sunset is 5:07, for 9 hours, 57 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 5.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1865, Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery, and submits it to the states for ratification

On the issue of whether he should hear a challenge to Act 10, or instead recuse himself, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Brian Hagedorn is undoubtedly right:

Conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Brian Hagedorn will not participate in a case challenging the constitutionality of Wisconsin Act 10, the 2011 law restricting public employee collective bargaining rights. 

In an order released Thursday afternoon, Hagedorn said he would recuse himself from a case being considered by the state Supreme Court that was filed in 2023 by the Abbotsford Education Association. The court is currently weighing whether to take the case directly before a state appeals court weighs in.

Hagedorn previously served as chief legal counsel for former Republican Gov. Scott Walker when Act 10 was drafted and defended in earlier court challenges.

Hagedorn said after reviewing legal filings in the case and the court’s ethics rules, he determined that recusal “is not optional when the law commands it.”

“The issues raised involve matters for which I provided legal counsel in both the initial crafting and later defense of Act 10, including in a case raising nearly identical claims under the federal constitution,” Hagedorn said.

See Rich Kremer, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Brian Hagedorn recuses himself from Act 10 challenge, Wisconsin Public Radio, January 30, 2025 and Abbotsford Education Association v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, No. 2024AP2429 (Wis. Supreme Ct. Order Jan. 30, 2025).

And, there’s an update on yesterday’s post about partisanship on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Readers may have seen WISGOP complaints about Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford’s attendance at a Democratic event. The complaints would have more credibility if her conservative and WISGOP-backed opponent, Brad Schimel, hadn’t already justified partisan support of court candidates:

“It’s just become that way, that liberal judicial candidates will associate with the Democratic Party and conservative judicial candidates will end up affiliating with the Republican Party,” he said, adding that each campaign needs grassroots support. “The question isn’t whether you have a political affiliation. It’s whether you can set that aside when you get on the bench.”

Belgian zoo unveils baby white rhino:

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 1.30.25: Of Course It’s a Partisan Race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 51. Sunrise is 7:11 and sunset is 5:05, for 9 hours, 55 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1933, Hitler takes office as the Chancellor of Germany.

I’m not sure what to make of a story that finds the Wisconsin Supreme Court race effectually partisan. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has been partisan for many years. Still, someone feels the need to explain this to Wisconsin readers:

As with each one before them, Wisconsin’s next Supreme Court justice pledges to be “impartial” when ruling from the bench.

But the current race for that coveted seat has been — and will continue to be — anything but politically neutral.

Indeed, the two candidates are repeatedly pointing out the other’s political ties leading up to the April 1 general election, and the two major political parties have lined up behind their preferred candidate, animated by the prospect that voters could again flip the court’s ideological majority.

One hears that even a broken clock is right twice a day, and so it’s Brad Schimel (of all people) who explains the state of affairs accurately:

In an interview with the Journal Sentinel, Schimel said he didn’t see a retreat from the overt partisanship of state Supreme Court races coming any time soon.

“It’s just become that way, that liberal judicial candidates will associate with the Democratic Party and conservative judicial candidates will end up affiliating with the Republican Party,” he said, adding that each campaign needs grassroots support. “The question isn’t whether you have a political affiliation. It’s whether you can set that aside when you get on the bench.”

See Alison Dirr and Daniel Bice, Just how partisan are the candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court? Here are the details, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 30, 2025.

Indeed: that is a question.

The choice for voters, however, depends on what one prefers from the partisan alternatives on offer.

Drone captures hundreds of dolphins along the California coast:

A whale-watching group captured drone video of a large pod of Risso’s dolphins near Carmel Bay, California.

Crime, Daily Bread, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 1.29.25: The Connection Between Two Murderous Extremists

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 41. Sunrise is 7:12 and sunset is 5:04, for 9 hours, 52 minutes of daytime. The moon is new with 0.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1845, “The Raven” is published in The Evening Mirror in New York, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe.

Madison and Nashville killers visited the same online networks:

Moments before 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow opened fire inside her Madison, Wisconsin, school, killing two people and herself last month, a social media account believed to be hers posted a photograph on X showing someone sitting in a bathroom stall and flashing a hand gesture that has become a symbol for white supremacy. 

As news about the shooting broke, another X user responded: “Livestream it.” 

Extremism researchers now believe that second account belonged to 17-year-old Solomon Henderson, who police say walked into his high school cafeteria in Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday and fired 10 shots, killing one classmate and then himself. Archives of another X account linked to him show that he posted a similar photo to Rupnow’s in his final moments. 

While there isn’t any evidence that Rupnow and Henderson plotted their attacks together, extremism researchers who have tracked their social media activity told Wisconsin Watch and ProPublica that the two teenagers were active in the same online networks that glorify mass shooters, even crossing paths. Across various social media platforms, the networks trade hateful memes alongside terrorist literature, exchange tips on how to effectively commit attacks and encourage one another to carry out their own.

See Phoebe Petrovic, Madison and Nashville school shooters appear to have crossed paths in online extremist communities (‘A month after a student opened fire at Abundant Life Christian School, another killed a classmate at Antioch High School. Both were active in an internet subculture that glorifies mass shooters and encourages young people to commit attacks themselves’), Wisconsin Watch, January 24, 2025.

Lightning strikes British Airways plane at a Brazil airport:

Video shot by an eyewitness shows the moment lightning strikes a plane’s tail while parked at a gate in Sao Paulo’s International Guarulhos Airport on Jan. 24. (Eyewitness Bernhard Warr said the aircraft was moved away to undergo safety checks after the incident, and that it departed almost six hours after it was scheduled to fly, following repairs of minor damage.)

Business, Daily Bread, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 1.28.25: Data Centers

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 48. Sunrise is 7:13 and sunset is 5:03, for 9 hours, 50 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 1.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 5 PM, and the Public Arts Commission at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1958, the Lego company patents the design of its Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today.

New data centers may be coming to Wisconsin, in Kenosha and Wisconsin Rapids:

More data centers — computer warehouses that underpin artificial intelligence and store everything from PayPal transactions to YouTube videos — are coming to Wisconsin.

Microsoft has purchased 240 acres for a new data center complex in Kenosha, the city announced Monday. It will sit northwest of the intersection of Interstate 94 and Route 142, 6 miles south of the company’s $3.3 billion data center campus under construction in Mount Pleasant.

Meanwhile, the hydroelectricity that once powered Wisconsin Rapids’ paper mill will now flow to a new data center. The data center developer Digital Power Optimization, known as DPO, announced on Thursday it has purchased the site and its power supply.

See Nick Rommel, New data centers planned for Kenosha, Wisconsin Rapids (‘Hydroelectricity, unused since paper mill closure, will power Wisconsin Rapids facility’), Wisconsin Public Radio, January 27, 2025.

Microsoft is one of the world’s largest corporations; DPO is far smaller, and involved in the volatile cryptocurrency mining sector.

Two announcements do not mean two constructed data centers. They mean only two announcements.

Highway bridge in Germany demolished with controlled explosion:

A highway bridge near Dortmund, Germany, was brought down with a controlled explosion.