FREE WHITEWATER

Public Meetings

Dementia Basics Workshop Offered in Racine

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Dementia Basics Workshop Offered in Racine
– Program to offer tools and insight on Alzheimer’s and related dementia –

The Alzheimer’s Association will be presenting a three-part “Dementia Basics” workshop on August 14th, August 21st and August 28th from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Racine. The workshop will be held at the Racine County Human Services Department, Community Meeting Room, 1717 Taylor Avenue.

This three-session workshop is ideal for those with a loved one who has been recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. Topics will include an overview of dementia, communication strategies, assessing behavior changes, safety issues, community resources and care for the family caregiver.

The workshop will be presented by Paulette Kissee, Regional Services Manager, Alzheimer’s Association. This program is free and open to the public; however registration is required. For information or to register please contact Paulette Kissee at 262-595-2387 or via email at paulette.kissee@alz.org.

The Alzheimer’s Association is a national non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research, to enhance care and support for all affected and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. The Alzheimer’s Association, Southeastern Wisconsin chapter provides information, education, and support to people with Alzheimer’s and other related dementias, their families, and healthcare professionals throughout an 11-county region. For more information about Alzheimer’s disease and local services visit www.alz.org/sewi or call the toll-free, 24-hour Helpline at 800-272-3900.

Public Meetings

Dementia Basics Workshop Offered in Racine

by  • 

Dementia Basics Workshop Offered in Racine
– Program to offer tools and insight on Alzheimer’s and related dementia –

The Alzheimer’s Association will be presenting a three-part “Dementia Basics” workshop on August 14th, August 21st and August 28th from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Racine. The workshop will be held at the Racine County Human Services Department, Community Meeting Room, 1717 Taylor Avenue.

This three-session workshop is ideal for those with a loved one who has been recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. Topics will include an overview of dementia, communication strategies, assessing behavior changes, safety issues, community resources and care for the family caregiver.

The workshop will be presented by Paulette Kissee, Regional Services Manager, Alzheimer’s Association. This program is free and open to the public; however registration is required. For information or to register please contact Paulette Kissee at 262-595-2387 or via email at paulette.kissee@alz.org.

The Alzheimer’s Association is a national non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research, to enhance care and support for all affected and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. The Alzheimer’s Association, Southeastern Wisconsin chapter provides information, education, and support to people with Alzheimer’s and other related dementias, their families, and healthcare professionals throughout an 11-county region. For more information about Alzheimer’s disease and local services visit www.alz.org/sewi or call the toll-free, 24-hour Helpline at 800-272-3900.

Public Meetings

Dementia Basics Workshop Offered in Racine

by  • 

Dementia Basics Workshop Offered in Racine
– Program to offer tools and insight on Alzheimer’s and related dementia –

The Alzheimer’s Association will be presenting a three-part “Dementia Basics” workshop on August 14th, August 21st and August 28th from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Racine. The workshop will be held at the Racine County Human Services Department, Community Meeting Room, 1717 Taylor Avenue.

This three-session workshop is ideal for those with a loved one who has been recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. Topics will include an overview of dementia, communication strategies, assessing behavior changes, safety issues, community resources and care for the family caregiver.

The workshop will be presented by Paulette Kissee, Regional Services Manager, Alzheimer’s Association. This program is free and open to the public; however registration is required. For information or to register please contact Paulette Kissee at 262-595-2387 or via email at paulette.kissee@alz.org.

The Alzheimer’s Association is a national non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research, to enhance care and support for all affected and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. The Alzheimer’s Association, Southeastern Wisconsin chapter provides information, education, and support to people with Alzheimer’s and other related dementias, their families, and healthcare professionals throughout an 11-county region. For more information about Alzheimer’s disease and local services visit www.alz.org/sewi or call the toll-free, 24-hour Helpline at 800-272-3900.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: July 24, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

There’s one municipal meeting scheduled for the City of Whitewater today, at 2 p.m. — the Broadband Communication Consortium meets at 2 p.m.

Wired reports that in science history on this date, in 1950, ” America Gets a Spaceport.”

Cape Canaveral, a name that would become synonymous with the U.S. space program by the late ’50s, was just an obscure spit of land jutting into the Atlantic Ocean along Florida’s eastern shore when, in 1948, an Air Force committee recommended its procurement for a missile testing range….

Actually, the Cape was only the committee’s second choice. But the original site in California was rejected after the Mexican government refused to let rockets traverse the air space over Baja California. (A near miss in Juarez, Mexico, where a wayward rocket from White Sands, New Mexico, crashed into a cemetery, probably influenced that decision.)

The British colonial governors of the Bahamas were not as squeamish, so Cape Canaveral got the nod. President Harry Truman inked the legislation in 1949 establishing the Joint Long Range Proving Ground at Cape Canaveral.

Aside from the clear air space, the Cape suited the needs of the military in other ways, too. Its remote location (Florida was a lot different then than it is now) and the fact that the downrange trajectory of a rocket launched eastward would be over the ocean were desirable. Also, the Cape is closer than California is to the Equator. That made it easier to launch rockets to the east, following the Earth’s rotation. Sites with similar attributes, such as Hawaii and Puerto Rico, were rejected for logistical reasons.

The first rocket to lift off from Cape Canaveral was a Bumper V-2, modified from the World War II-era German V-2s that pounded London. The two-stage rocket — using a V-2 booster topped by a WAC-Corporal second stage — was used mainly to conduct atmospheric tests….

Photo: Bumper V-2 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral on July 24, 1950.

Courtesy NASA.

Here’s today’s almanac —

Almanac
Friday, July 24, 2009 Sunrise Sunset
Official Time 05:37 AM 08:24 PM
Civil Twilight 05:04 AM 08:57 PM
Tomorrow 05:38 AM 08:23 PM
Tomorrow will be: 2 minutes shorter
Amount of sunlight: 14h 47m
Amount of daylight: 15h 53m
Moon phase: Waxing crescent

more >>

Charity, Press Release

Dementia Basics Workshop Offered in Racine, August 14th, 21st, 28th

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I received the following press release that I am happy to post —

Dementia Basics Workshop Offered in Racine
– Program to offer tools and insight on Alzheimer’s and related dementia –

The Alzheimer’s Association will be presenting a three-part “Dementia Basics” workshop on August 14th, August 21st and August 28th from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Racine. The workshop will be held at the Racine County Human Services Department, Community Meeting Room, 1717 Taylor Avenue.

This three-session workshop is ideal for those with a loved one who has been recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. Topics will include an overview of dementia, communication strategies, assessing behavior changes, safety issues, community resources and care for the family caregiver.

The workshop will be presented by Paulette Kissee, Regional Services Manager, Alzheimer’s Association. This program is free and open to the public; however registration is required. For information or to register please contact Paulette Kissee at 262-595-2387 or via email at paulette.kissee@alz.org.

The Alzheimer’s Association is a national non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research, to enhance care and support for all affected and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. The Alzheimer’s Association, Southeastern Wisconsin chapter provides information, education, and support to people with Alzheimer’s and other related dementias, their families, and healthcare professionals throughout an 11-county region. For more information about Alzheimer’s disease and local services visit www.alz.org/sewi or call the toll-free, 24-hour Helpline at 800-272-3900.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: July 23, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

There are no public, municipal meetings scheduled for the City of Whitewater today.

Here’s today’s almanac —

Almanac
Thursday, July 23, 2009 Sunrise Sunset
Official Time 05:36 AM 08:25 PM
Civil Twilight 05:03 AM 08:58 PM
Tomorrow 05:37 AM 08:24 PM
Tomorrow will be: 2 minutes shorter
Amount of sunlight: 14h 49m
Amount of daylight: 15h 55m
Moon phase: New Moon

more >>

Libertarians

Sam Adams Alliance

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UPDATE, 8:44 PM — Link’s now fixed — Sorry about that!

Here’s a link to the Sam Adams Alliance, an organization “leading a new revolution for liberty by training, inspiring, and empowering people to utilize new media tools (blogging, twitter, wikis) to advance economic freedom and individual liberty.

By linking liberty-minded citizens throughout the country to create a more transparent and accountable government, the Sam Adams Alliance is growing communities and building relationships, so the ideals of our Founding Fathers flourish for future generations.”

Visitors to the Sam Adams Alliance website will also find valuable information on freedom of information, and assuring good, open government through the Sunshine Review.

Sam Adams Alliance.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: July 22, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

I don’t know of any public, municipal meetings for the City of Whitewater today. Chin up — life will go on, some way, some how…

In American history on this date, the story of a small mistake that doomed Mariner I on July 22, 1962, as Wired recounts:

When The New York Times copy desk lets a typo slip through, it’s embarrassing but no one gets hurt. When NASA programmers screw up, the consequences are a tad more dramatic, not to mention expensive. In this case, a “missing hyphen” in code forces mission control to abort the launch of the unmanned Mariner 1 probe less than five minutes after liftoff.

Mariner 1 was intended to collect a variety of scientific data about Venus during a flyby of our closest neighbor in the solar system.

What caused the snafu remains unclear to this day, owing to the welter of conflicting reports — both official and unofficial — that appeared in the wake of the mission’s failure.

One of the official reports, issued by the Mariner 1 Post-Flight Review Board, concluded that a dropped hyphen in coded computer instructions resulted in incorrect guidance signals being sent to the spacecraft. The review board specifically refers to a “hyphen,” although other sources also refer to an “overbar transcription error” and even to a misplaced decimal point….

Such was the erratic nature of rocketry in the early ’60s that a backup probe, Mariner 2, was waiting in the wings. Nearly five weeks later, it launched cleanly, and it completed Mariner 1’s mission in December.

Moral of the story? Programmers shouldn’t double-check code. They should triple-check it.

(Mariner I rendering from NASA.)

Here’s today’s almanac —

Almanac
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 Sunrise Sunset
Official Time 05:35 AM 08:26 PM
Civil Twilight 05:02 AM 08:59 PM
Tomorrow 05:36 AM 08:25 PM
Tomorrow will be: 2 minutes shorter
Amount of sunlight: 14h 51m
Amount of daylight: 15h 57m
Moon phase: New Moon

more >>

City

Common Council: What Are They Building in There? (July 21st, 2009)

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Here’s a latest review of City of Whitewater invoices, in honor of the Tom Waits song entitled, “What’s He Building in There?” (The song’s an ode of — but not to — paranoia, and every time that I hear it, I think of all the small-town busybodies who are sure that your business should, truly should, be their business)

But for Common Council — a public body — deliberating public issues — what are they building in there? Let’s consider the invoices paid and unpaid submitted with the agenda for the latest Common Council meeting, for tonight, July 21st.

The agenda and invoices are available online.

From the invoices attached to the July 21st Common Council agenda, one finds —

One finds an invoice for over $6,800 for terrace trees.  I have no idea how many trees $6,800 buys, but I’d say whatever the quantity, it’s not enough!

Isn’t there anyone left in this town who learned story of Johnny Appleseed?   I thought that guy walked all over America, throwing apple cores on the ground, and thereby creating orchards, say, about every five-hundred feet.  Can’t somebody do that in Whitewater? (Assuming Whitewater Police Chief Jim Coan doesn’t find the tossing of apples shockingly raucous.) 

This town’s not that big.  In fact, it’s much smaller than all America.   Just find a litterbug, give him a bushel of apples, and point him down Main Street.  

Instant orchard. Big savings.  

(By the way, I see a member of the Common Council wants to abolish the tree commission.   I can’t wait to hear why.  If it has anything to do with the M. Night Shyamalan film, The Happening, about killer trees, I can assure all our local political class that The Happening was fictional.  Trees don’t hurt people that way, and even if they did, we’d want a commission to keep a close eye on them.)

The Brown Cab Service, at a cost of over $11,000 dollars. I’m not sure what period this covers, but the entry reads, “CAB SERVICE/JUNE.”  I find it hard to believe that there’s no cheaper option available. 

From Diversified Building Mtn, bills for over $18,000.  Oh my.  

But the really interesting entries are for TID 4, the local equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle — dollars sail in, a true benefit never to be heard from afterward.  For Eppstein Uhen Architects, for TID 4/INNOVATION CTR, in the amount of $17,363.18. 

I don’t begrudge the architects.  On the contrary, for an innovation center, it almost seems like too little.  The TID 4 designation, however, loses the game — tax incremental financing’s often bad policy. 

Our TIDs have been a mixed picture, and Whitewater could build a candy store there, and still come out behind.  Also for TID 4, another $54,000 for Raymond P Cattell, Inc.  

I also see that LK Marketing received over $5,000 for a CDA/B2B calling kit.  

Finally, the team at Vandewalle, for PLANNING/MAY SVC submitted invoices, as listed here, of $5,896.49.  Good for them.  Without that $5,896.49, we’d have mayhem, disorder, chaos around here. 

They always seem to have a strong feel for this community, so very much so….

Here’s the song – Enjoy!

more >>

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: July 21, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

There finest deliberative body in all America meets tonight at 6:30 p.m. There’s also a Whitewater Common Council meeting at that same time, here in the city. The agenda is available online.

On this date in Wisconsin history, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society, General Mitchell demonstrated the effectiveness of air power…

1921 – General Billy Mitchell Proves Theory of Air Power
On this date Milwaukee’s General William “Billy” Mitchell proved to the world that development of military air power was not outlandish. He flew his De Havilland DH-4B fighter, leading a bombing demonstration that proved a naval ship could be sunk by air bombardment. Mitchell’s ideas for developing military air power were innovative but largely ignored by those who favored development of military sea power. Mitchell zealously advocated his views and was eventually court martialed for speaking out against the United States’ organization of its forces. [Source: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Division of Archives & Special Collections]

Here’s today’s almanac —

Almanac
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 Sunrise Sunset
Official Time 05:35 AM 08:27 PM
Civil Twilight 05:01 AM 09:00 PM
Tomorrow 05:35 AM 08:26 PM
Tomorrow will be: 1 minute shorter
Amount of sunlight: 14h 52m
Amount of daylight: 15h 59m
Moon phase: New Moon

Public Meetings

Writing Your Memoir — Wednesdays Through August 26th

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I received the following press release that I am happy to post –

Writing Your Memoir
Day and Time: Wednesday 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Where: at the Whitewater Senior Center, Starin Park.

Fee $25 for 8 weeks or $4 per drop in class.

8-week class: July 8 through August 26

Contact: Lynn Greene, 262-495-8771, 262-728-3424, ext 110 (work)

You’ve lived it, now write about it! Everybody has a story to tell and this class will get you started or keep you writing. Practice with framing a story, catching a reader’s attention, building tension, and being truthful in a non-threatening way.
We’ll discuss and demonstrate ways to enrich your writing, including the use of similes, metaphors, and dialogue. Learn how to put your ideas, experiences and memories into print. Bring a notebook and a pen and one of your stories (if you have one) to get started.

Your facilitator is Lynn Greene, an award-winning journalist, who was recently recognized with a national award for best feature writing. This class will culminate with a celebration and reading of our work (date and location to be announced).

City, Planning

Whitewater Planning Commission: Here’s the Book for You!

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There’s a Planning Commission meeting in Whitewater, Wisconsin tonight. If I could recommend one book to that group, it might be William Tucker’s Zoning, Rent Control and Affordable Housing.

In honor of our Planning Commission, I will review the book, chapter by chapter, in the days ahead.

I’ll start tomorrow.

A blogger’s work is never done.

For excerpts from the book, see Zoning, Rent Control and Affordable Housing.

Sent via BlackBerry

City

2010 Census

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I wrote last week that I would post a link to the 2010 Census, a constitutional requirement. I now have that link on the main page of FREE WHITEWATER, on the left sidebar.

It’s a prominent link, easy to find and use.

Many civil libertarians find some census questions uncomfortable, but an accurate census will benefit Whitewater, tremendously.

We should see ourselves, clearly, as we really are.