Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 75. Sunrise is 6:34 and sunset is 7:04 for 12 hours 30 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 20.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Public Safety & Licensing Review Committee meets at 5 PM and the Whitewater Common Council meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1940, the Luftwaffe launches its largest and most concentrated attack of its entire campaign against Britain. Now known as the Battle of Britain Day, Germany is defeated in its air campaign, and thereafter postpones a planned naval invasion.
Americans heard, not that long ago, that our country was destined for a new “golden age.” Is this that promised time?:
Railroad fuel surcharges on U.S. grain shipments have more than doubled over the past year, rippling through the farm belt and raising transportation costs as many farmers also struggle with higher production costs.
The average fuel surcharge rate on grain shipments climbed to 48 cents a mile per rail car in the second week of September, up 153% compared with the weighted average a year earlier, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. Railroads use surcharges to recover most of what they have paid for fuel and combine them with long-haul freight rates.
With higher per-mile rates, surcharges accounted for 11% of total rail transportation costs for shipping corn and soybeans, compared with 5% a year ago, according to the USDA’s Sept. 10 report.
See Tim McLaughlin, Lisa Baertlein, and Julie Ingwersen, US rail fuel surcharges on grain hit record highs, squeezing farmers in harvest season, Reuters, September 14, 2026. See also FREE WHITEWATER, ‘New Golden Age’ Doesn’t Include Wisconsin’s Farmers, February 21, 2026, and Tariffs Leave Farmers Paying More, September 4, 2026.
No, this doesn’t seem like a new golden age. Not for agriculture, for industry, for buyers, for sellers, for producers, or for consumers.
The only gold in this is what a Florida man has hoarded for himself while littering public property with cheap, vulgar appliqués:
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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): A New Ethics Ordinance, Development in Downtown Whitewater (Follow-Up), and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.
Helicopter crew rescues injured climber from 700-foot cliff: