Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:13 and sunset is 6:56 for 11 hours 43 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 48.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Comprehensive Plan Advisory Work Group meets at 4 PM.
On this day in 1990, Lithuania declares independence from the Soviet Union.
Perhaps Brad Schimel’s public career is over:
Federal judges in Milwaukee have announced that they won’t extend former Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel’s temporary appointment as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, meaning his appointment will expire next week.
Schimel was tapped by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Nov. 17, just months after losing last year’s election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The appointment came after a state nominating committee chaired by Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson couldn’t agree on who to pick for the role. Under federal law, that meant Schimel’s interim appointment had to end March 17, unless a majority of judges in the Eastern District agreed to extend it.
On Tuesday, the district’s website announced the majority “declines to exercise this permissive authority.”
See Rich Kremer, Judges won’t extend Brad Schimel’s appointment as US Attorney, (‘The former state attorney general’s term expires March 17’), Wisconsin Public Radio, March 11, 2026.
Schimel was a Waukesha County district attorney, one-term Wisconsin attorney general, Walker-appointed circuit court judge, and Elon Musk-backed candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
I’ll always remember Schimel this way:
But [Waukesha County Circuit Court judge and Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate] Schimel suggested there are other perks to being a judge than having your own potty.
“You set your own hours,” Schimel said. “I set the hours. Certainly, I’ve got to get my cases done, but I can decide — you know what? — if I want to do golf on Thursday afternoon, I can do that.”
The same, Schimel said, is not true for lawyers, who have to show up in court when told to do so. He said he doesn’t misuse that power. And, he said, there are times he’s had to work “all day and into the evening.”
But that appears to be the exception.
“I’m home for dinner most nights now,” he said. “I shoot in two sporting clays leagues. Or I was until I made this announcement (to run for the Supreme Court). I was shooting in two shooting clays leagues a week. I was doing all this, playing band rehearsals.”
See Daniel Bice, Brad Schimel boasts he gets a private bathroom and sets own hours as judge, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 10, 2025.
In a state where judges are overworked, Schimel ran for the state’s highest court while breezily admitting he set his own hours. No and no again. Schimel richly deserved his election loss. (There’s a FREE WHITEWATER category dedicated to Schimel’s sorry public career.)
It’s possible, of course, that the Trump Administration will attempt a circumvention to keep Schimel in the role, but that maneuver in another federal district met with failure. See Ry Rivard and Matt Friedman, Alina Habba ‘unlawfully’ working as U.S. attorney in New Jersey, judge rules, Politico, August 21, 2025.
Habba, by the way, has since left New Jersey and moved near Mar-a-Lago.
Whether Schimel is on the market for a Florida property I’ll not speculate. If so, however, I’ll extend a helping hand: Realtor.com® has a fine selection of Palm Beach properties up for sale.
No Impact — Famous Asteroid Will Not Smash Into Moon (or Earth):