Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 84. Sunrise is 5:26 and sunset is 8:34 for 15 hours 8 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning crescent with 20.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1212, the most severe of several early fires of London burns most of the city to the ground:
The second of the two great medieval fires of London, also known as “the Great Fire of Suthwark” [sic], began on 10 July 1212 in Southwark, the borough directly to the south of London Bridge. The flames destroyed Our Lady of the Canons (Southwark Cathedral, also known as St Mary Overie) and strong southerly winds pushed them towards the bridge, which also caught fire. London Bridge had only just been rebuilt in stone, and the structure itself survived the blaze. However, King John had authorised the construction of houses on the bridge, the rents from which were supposed to pay for its maintenance, and it appears that these were lost to the flames.
Even in a time without plentiful good news, one still finds encouraging developments. The decline in overdose deaths in Wisconsin is one of those encouraging developments:
Overdose deaths in Wisconsin rose from 1,061 in 2016, to 1,830 in 2022. A Wisconsin Department of Health Services report found stress and isolation caused by the coronavirus pandemic may have helped drive the increase.
But in the past few years, the state has seen a sharp decline in overdose deaths, dropping from 1,772 in 2023 to 1,185 in 2024. [Director of Substance Use Initiatives at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Michelle] Haese said there is not just one reason why overdose deaths have dropped in Wisconsin, but she did point to the “cumulative effect of years of investment.”
“This is a public health ecosystem working as intended and that’s finally showing up in the lives that are being saved, and the public health outcomes that we’re seeing in this space,” Haese said.
Haese also said people receiving medications for opioid use disorder — such as buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone — has been helpful. Those are three medications, “that can help people stop or reduce opioid use,” according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
“There’s still a long ways to go, we’re cautiously hopeful, but we’re definitely seeing signs of this turning around,” she said.
See Evan Casey, After record highs, communities across Wisconsin see decline in overdose deaths, Wisconsin Public Radio, July 9, 2026.
One day, our long political conflict will end, as all conflicts do. Until then, there is work that should and can be done regardless of one’s politics.
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis and a New Ethics Ordinance.
The Bayeux Tapestry arrives in London ahead of a sell-out show: