Good morning. 
Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 21. Sunrise is 7:12 AM and sunset 4:20 PM for 9h 07m 57s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 14.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy carries out a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet and its defending Army and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Danielle Kaeding reports Wisconsin’s fall wolf hunt is on hold. Several lawsuits could affect whether it moves forward:
Wisconsin’s wolf hunt has been on hold since a Dane County judge issued a temporary injunction in October stopping the season that was set to begin Nov. 6.
The order came after a coalition of wildlife advocacy and animal protection groups filed a lawsuit arguing, in part, that the hunt is illegal because it relies on outdated regulations and a management plan that hasn’t been updated since 2007.
But that lawsuit is only one of several efforts to stop the hunt from happening.
Six Wisconsin tribes have also sued in federal court. They argue their treaty rights are being violated under state wolf management, pointing to February’s court-ordered hunt. State-licensed hunters killed 218 wolves in less than three days, harvesting the tribes’ share and exceeding the overall 200-wolf quota.
And another lawsuit filed by national wildlife and environmental groups seeks to restore protections for wolves nationwide.
Hunting advocates say the state should act quickly to ensure a hunt can happen before the end of the season in February.
Consider also that By Creating a ‘Landscape of Fear,’ Wolves Reduce Car Collisions With Deer:
Research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences highlights an underappreciated benefit of wild wolf populations: the large predators frighten deer away from dangerous roadways, saving money and lives in the process.
According to the analysis 22 years of data, a county’s deer-vehicle collisions fall by about 24 percent after wolves take up residence there, Christina Larson reports for the Associated Press. Nearly 20,000 Wisconsin residents collide with deer each year, which leads to about 477 injuries and eight deaths annually. There are 29 counties in Wisconsin that have wolves.
“Some lives are saved, some injuries are prevented, and a huge amount of damage and time are saved by having wolves present,” says Wesleyan University natural resource economist Jennifer Raynor to Ed Yong at the Atlantic.
Wisconsin’s last wolf hunt is an example of government planning gone wrong. The solution to bad planning isn’t more planning by the same planners. At the least, It’s remedial education for bad planners or new planners after those responsible for errors are removed from their positions.
Wisconsin shouldn’t be so tolerant of government error.