Good morning.
It’s a rainy day ahead for Whitewater, with a high temperature of fifty-eight.
The Wisconsin HIstorical Society notes that on this day in 1996,
Governor Tommy Thompson signed the W-2 (Wisconsin Works) program into law, making Wisconsin the first U.S. state to replace a benefits-based welfare system with a requirement that recipients work to get aid. W-2 formed the basis for national welfare reform.[Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Tommy G. Thompson Center].
Ars Technica has a fine story for the holiday — Happy Easter: pygmy rabbits reintroduced to the wild:
Rare pygmy rabbits are being reintroduced to their native Columbia Basin in the United States, from the brink of extinction. It will be the first time that the endangered species has been seen in the wild since 2004, after a mere 16 of the remaining little fluffballs were taken into captivity in an attempt to save their species in 2001.
With adults weighing in at under 500g, the pygmy rabbits don’t share the same reputation as their larger cousins—pygmies do not breed capriciously in the wild, one of the reasons why bringing them back from extinction (as they were declared in the 1990s) is such an achievement for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Here’s a video from the Oregon Zoo that shows how small these rabbits are —