Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 75. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset is 8:37 for 15 hours 21 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 55.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater School District holds an Operating Referendum Workshop at 5 PM and the Whitewater School Board meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1944, President Roosevelt signs into law the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill.
Wisconsin doesn’t mine coal, but it does have a highly polluting coal plant that runs on coal imported from elsewhere. The Trump administration intends to keep that plant going:
Earlier this month, the Trump administration listed the plant [in Pardeeville] as one of the beneficiaries of more than $700 million in spending to prop up the coal industry. The plant is expected to get $19 million through funding from the Defense Production Act.
“Our action will allow these facilities to invest in upgrades that will extend their operational lives for decades into the future, reinforce the reliability of our electric grid, which is really the biggest beneficiary, and most importantly, keep electricity prices very low for the American people,” Trump said in a June 4 Oval Office news conference.
Department of Natural Resources records show that the pollution emitted by the plant massively increased last year — a sign that the utility companies were ramping up the plant’s usage beyond its planned retirement date.
In 2024, according to the DNR data, the plant emitted 3.9 million pounds of carbon monoxide. That jumped to 6.6 million pounds last year. Carbon dioxide emissions increased from 11 billion pounds in 2024 to 14 billion in 2025.
Emissions of particulate matter, which is connected to health problems such as asthma, nearly doubled from 362,833 pounds to 685,876.
The amount of nitrogen oxide, ammonia, lead, arsenic and cyanide pumped into the air by the plant all increased last year, the DNR report shows.
See Henry Redman, Emissions of Trump-supported Columbia Co. coal plant jumped in 2025, Wisconsin Examiner, June 22, 2026.
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, Outcome-Driven Argumentation, and a New Ethics Ordinance.