Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 77. Sunrise is 5:37 and sunset is 8:24 for 14 hours 47 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 70 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1829, inventor William Austin Burt patents the typographer, a precursor to the typewriter.
Americans are an optimistic people, and yet among some of us optimism simply goes too far:
That combination of optimism (he can win) and optimism that goes too far (enough voters will learn about him) nicely summarizes the situation for about half of the candidates in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
Corrinne Hess writes of Brennan’s situation:
If Brennan was hoping for party leaders to rally around his campaign overnight, it didn’t happen. Instead, Rodriguez dropped out, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley dropped back in, and Evers endorsed Crowley over Brennan and others who had worked for the governor.
[…]
[Director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Barry] Burden said because Brennan has never been elected to public office, he is largely unknown across the state. But because of his career, he’s very well known to people in politics and Democratic insiders. He’s also the brother-in-law of Kevin Conroy, the founder of Exact Sciences.
See Corrinne Hess, Democrat Joel Brennan says he can win the governor’s race — if voters get to know him, Wisconsin Public Radio, July 23, 2026.
Seems a bit late in the game to build familiarity with hundreds of thousands of voters (the primary is in nineteen days), but hope springs eternal.
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis and a New Ethics Ordinance.
If Wisconsin politics is in flux, at least we don’t yet have bears on the rampage:
The Wall Street Journal reports on the ursine invasion of Lake Tahoe:
Black bears are on a rampage across America, riding a population rebound driven in part by greater protection of the species. Around small cities and suburbs, the predators follow their keen sense of smell to dumpsters, cars and homes. In Gatlinburg, Tenn., police in May freed a bear that locked itself in a hotel restroom. A contractor in Steamboat Springs, Colo., opened his truck door in June to find a bear cub devouring his lunch.
[…]
An estimated 60,000 roam California alone, triple the number in the 1990s. Few places see more activity than the turquoise shores of Lake Tahoe.
South Lake Tahoe police have received 174 bear calls this year through Wednesday, compared with 97 over the same period in 2025. The reports range from brazen burglaries to visitors nervous about a bear wandering by.
Mike Webb cut short a family fishing outing last week after a 200-pounder approached, minutes after Webb’s 11-year-old son caught something. “I was relieved the bear didn’t notice, otherwise we could have had a situation on our hands,” said Webb, 38.
It was a wise move, as the same bear lunged at other visitors minutes later.
See Jim Carlton, Bears Are Running Amok in Lake Tahoe and Causing Chaos Among Locals, Wall Street Journal, July 23, 2026.
Japan has faced bear attacks and responded only with futile measures that, most likely, the bears themselves have understandably derided. Americans are simply going to have to do more.