Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset 8:28 for 15h 11m 28s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 10.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Equal Opportunities Commission meets at 5 PM, and the Police & Fire Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1965,  NASA launches Gemini 4, a NASA crew’s first multi-day space mission. Ed White, a crew member, performs the first American spacewalk.

Here’s an update on yesterday’s post about Another WISGOP Holdover (After an Encouraging Reminder from Lifetime Schemer Robin Vos). Robert Atwell, who has signaled he’ll overstay his term in the Board of Regents, cannot say no other nominees are pending. Henry Redman reports Evers makes three appointments to UW Board of Regents despite Walker appointee’s refusal to leave:

Gov. Tony Evers on Friday announced three appointments to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, including one to replace an appointee of Gov. Scott Walker who has said he won’t leave his position despite the expiration of his term. 

In a news release announcing his appointments to the board, which contains 14 citizen members, Evers did not address Robert Atwell’s statement earlier this week that he would be remaining on the board, but said that the body is at a “critical juncture.” 

“Our UW System is at a critical juncture after a decade-long war waged on higher education by Republican lawmakers in our state, the devastating results of which we are seeing firsthand as campuses close their doors, layoff staff, and cut programs,” Evers said. “The work of the UW Board of Regents is as important as ever, and I have full confidence that the three individuals I am appointing today are ready and prepared to face these challenges head-on, to do what is in the best interest for our students, faculty, and staff, and to ensure we have the fully funded, fully functioning UW System that Wisconsinites deserve and that meets the needs of our students, our workforce, and our local communities.”

On Monday, Atwell said in an email to UW System leaders that he wouldn’t be leaving. He’s able to remain on the board because of a legal precedent set by the state Supreme Court after a Walker appointee to the state Natural Resources Board refused to leave for over a year past the expiration of his term. The precedent states that so long as the state Senate, currently controlled by Republicans, does not confirm an appointee’s replacement, that person can remain in their post indefinitely. Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe has also used the ruling to remain in her post despite opposition from Republicans to her continued service in the role. 

Evers appointed Tim Nixon, Jack Salzwedel, and Desmond Adongo to seven year terms. 

Nixon, a commercial lawyer, was appointed to replace Atwell. He has received three degrees from UW schools. 

Can stay and should stay aren’t the same concepts; a well-ordered system is one in which should trumps can.

Conditions allow firefighters to make progress in containing Corral Fire:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 77. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset 8:28 for 15h 10m 23s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 19.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1966,  Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world.

Readers will recall Fred Prehn, the dentist-cranberry farmer who refused to leave his seat on the state’s Natural Resouces Board at the expiration of his term. Although the Wisconsin Supreme Court, then with a conservative majority, found his actions lawful, Prehn later left that board, in the way that even the most stubborn ticks dislodge themselves after they’ve gourged long enough. See Tiny Fred Prehn, Fred Prehn, the Most Self-Aware Man in All History, and Frederick Prehn finally resigns from Natural Resources Board.

Now comes another, as Todd Richmond reports Republican-appointed University of Wisconsin regent refuses to step down when term ends:

Then-Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, appointed Robert Atwell to the Board of Regents in May 2017. His seven-year term ends this month. 

Atwell sent an email to Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman, regents President Karen Walsh and regents Executive Director Megan Wasley on Monday saying he won’t step down until he chooses to resign or the state Senate confirms a successor. 

The state Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that political appointees don’t have to leave their posts until the Senate confirms their successor. Atwell said in his email that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos reminded him that he could remain in his position on the regents.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has yet to announce Atwell’s successor. 

“I knew Bob Atwell as a person of high personal integrity,” Evers told The Associated Press on Saturday. “Something has changed.”

Quite a menagerie the WISGOP has: Atwell comports himself as a parasitic arachnid and Vos as a weasel. Admirers, it seems, in their own disordered but surprising fashion, of the animal kingdom.

Mass parachute jump over Normandy kicks off commemorations for the 80th anniversary of D-Day:

Parachutists jumped from World War II-era planes into now peaceful Normandy to kick off a week of ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Soldiers from across the United States, Britain, Canada and other Allied nations waded ashore through hails of fire on five beaches on June 6, 1944. French officials, grateful Normandy survivors and other admirers are saying “merci” but also goodbye to the fast-dwindling number of D-Day veterans still alive. (AP video by Nicolas Garriga/Production by Jeffrey Schaeffer)