Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission will meet tonight. Here’s the first of some quick questions.
1. Who prepares the agenda? By Wisconsin statute, the PFC oversees the police department, not the other way around. One who drafts a meeting agenda typically controls the meeting.
The current PFC agenda, like others before it, says that it was “Sent to PFC members.” They should be sending it to the Municipal Building – did this agenda and those before it come from the department, not citizens?
It’s easy to say that it’s drafted by citizens, but sent by the city. The agendas are so alike a common municipal draftsman is more probable.
The City of Whitewater has one public meeting scheduled for today. There will be a meeting of the Police and Fire Commission at 7 p.m. in the municipal building, in the City Manager’s Conference Room.
The agenda for the meeting includes the following items:
I. Call to Order, Roll Call
II. Approval of minutes of May 14, 2008 minutes.
III. Citizen Comments
IV. Old Business ? None
V. New Business
A. Downtown Parking Enforcement
B. Fall Resident Education
C. PFC Support of Department/Share Accreditation
D. Member Training
E. Freedom of Expression Resolution
F. Chief’s Report
1. Accreditation Status
2. Personnel Updates
a) Community Service Officer and Dispatcher Hiring
b) Field Training of New Patrol Officer
c) Probationary Status of Patrol Officers
VI. Adjournment
Today in Wisconsin history, in 1938, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society, a “wind storm wrecked the Janesville Canning plant, nearly ripping off the entire third story that housed the cream corn department.”
The National Weather Service, predicts a high of around 85 with patchy fog. The Farmers’ Almanac predicts showers for the Ohio River Valley, then fair and pleasant. That’s as close as they come to Wisconsin.
I am unsure if America would benefit if states could lower the drinking age to 18 without federal penalty, but I am sure the current restrictions are a failure.
Recently, a group of college presidents from among 100 of America’s finest schools called for a debate on lowering the drinking age to 18.
Note that these are serious, accomplished men and women who recognize that current efforts are a revolving-door failure.
Many towns benefit practically from fines from the drinking that they condemns so vociferously. It’s a cottage industry.
Often no one succeeds meaningfully in reducing year over year underage drinking.
We say it’s wrong, but if it did not continue, we’d be at a financial loss.
An entire apparatus has sprung up, a handsome set of municipal machinery, to enforce these laws.
It produces no permanent gains in reducing underage drinking, but lots of show about combatting the problem.
Here’s a link to the college presidents’ call for a debate on the matter:
The City of Whitewater has a Common Council meeting scheduled for today. The meeting will begin in closed session, to consider the city manager’s contact, and then begin open session about one hour later.
On this day in world history, according to Wired.com Louis Daguerre in 1839 “reveals the secrets of making daguerreotypes to a waiting world. The pioneering photographic process is an instant hit.”
The National Weather Service, predicts a high in of around 81 with mostly sunny skies. The Farmers’ Almanac concludes a multi-day series with the prediction of hot & dry, then turning wet.
I received an announcement from the Community Development Authority about a first-time homebuyers workshop, taking place on September 20th. The program will take place on 9/20 at the Cravath Lakefront Center. Early registration is encouraged, by calling 262-473-0500.
Topics at the workshop will include establishing good credit, developing a household budget, what to look for in a home, deciding how much house you can afford, identifying needed repairs, negotiating price, and the loan process, among others. Below is a slide with detail on the program.
(Clicking the image will open and expand the slide in a new window.)
The City of Whitewater has two public meetings scheduled today. First, the Community Development Authority Business Park Marketing Committee meets at 4 p.m. in the municipal building.
The agenda for the CDA meeting includes the following items:
1. Call to order and roll call
2. Approval of the Agenda
3. Update and Discussion on Applied PhD Research Targeted Marketing Campaign for the Whitewater Business Park
4. WICITS Website Re-Design Progress Update and Discussion
5. Discussion on Valuation and TID 4 Investment in Whitewater Business Park
6. Update on Corporate Drive Construction
7. Future Agenda Items
8. Adjourn
Later, at 6 p.m., the Planning Commission will meet, also in the Municipal Building.
The agenda states amendments as of of 12:20 p.m., August 14, 2008, item # 4a: Discussion of the
role of the Plan Commission Chair; and the Hallmark Building requirements (Report from the City Attorney).
The agenda for the Planning Commission meeting includes the following items:
1. Call to order and roll call.
2. Hearing of Citizen Comments. No formal Plan Commission action will be taken during this meeting although issues raised may become a part of a future agenda. Items on the agenda may not be discussed at this time.
3. Approval of the minutes of the July 21, 2008 meeting.
4. Reports:
a. Report from CDA Representative.
b. Report from Tree Commission Representative.
c. Report from Park and Recreation Board Representative.
d. Report from City Council Representative.
e. Report from the Downtown Whitewater Inc. Board Representative.
f. Report from staff.
g. Report from chair.
4a. Discussion of the role of the Plan Commission Chair; and the Hallmark Building requirements (report from the City Attorney).
5. Review the proposed City purchase of the property (Lot 1 of certified survey map #3925) adjacent to the city park at 511 E. Clay Street for additional parkland.
6. Hold a public hearing for consideration of a conditional use permit application for the conversion of an existing retail space to a place of assembly (church) to be located at 545 S. Putnam Street.
7. Review proposed improvements to the façade of the building located at 182 W. Main Street for David Saalsaa.
8. Re-approve one lot Certified Survey Map on Caine Street for Springbrook Apartments LLC. (This is a technical housekeeping item to allow the recording of the document because it was not recorded within 60 days of the original approval.)
9. Information:
a. Possible future agenda items.
b. Next Plan Commission meeting.
10. Adjourn.
Yesterday in Wisconsin history, in 1936, Wisconsin issued its first unemployment check. The account is available at the website of the Wisconsin Historical Society. What’s inspiring about that moment is how the recipient turned a profit, so to speak, on the check:
On this date the state of Wisconsin issued the first Unemployment Compensation Check in the United States for the amount of $15. The recipient was Neils N. Ruud who then sold it to Paul Raushenbush for $25 for its historical value. The check is now at the Wisconsin Historical Society. Wisconsin was the first state to establish an Unemployment Compensation program.
The National Weather Service, predicts a high in of around 86 with sunny skies. The Farmers’ Almanac is in the middle of a multi-day series with the prediction of hot & dry, then turning wet.
Here are two videos explaining why FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, is a bad idea.
No American government should have the power to intercept phone calls of a citizen merely because he is calling someone — even family, friends, or colleagues — abroad, with no other basis or cause.
It’s an infringement of the liberty of American citizens, now shamefully supported by both major party candidates.
Your friends, if you call them such, probably send you any number of chain emails each day with polls, quizzes, and personality tests.
I’ll offer you one, too, but at least I’ve not sent it to you.
Here’s a quiz called the World’s Smallest Political Quiz, from the Advocates for Self-Government website. The website is libertarian, but the quiz has gained respect from non-libertarians, too.
The website also has links to other libertarian topics.
How did I score?
Libertarian of course, with 100% on personal and economic questions. (It would have been 90% on economic issues, but I see no timeline on the switch from welfare to private charity, so I felt comfortable with my own interpretation of a transition to private charity, and the retreat of the undependable, intrusive state from these spheres over time. Some accomplishments now, some later, all finally. I’m an optimist.)
Does your town have shortages of parking spaces for customers, residents, and visitors? Many towns have these challenges, and free parking (which isn’t ever free) is no answer compared with free market parking.
Over at the blog Pedshed.net, dedicated to “Walkable Urban Design and Sustainable Placemaking,” there’s a post on how Redwood City, California and other cities are trying a free-market approach:
“One solution is free-market parking. Set parking meter prices so that 85% of spaces are occupied and 15% are open at any given moment. This idea has been getting more attention lately, and Redwood City, CA is the locality that has put the most advanced implementation into action.”
This won’t be suited for every small town, but there is ample evidence in support of it. See, for example, an article that Douglas Kolozsvari and Donald Shoup wrote on the topic: Turning Small Change into Big Changes.
This way not work everywhere as well — a truly struggling area, not a congested one — would not be a target for this approach. If few show up, and traffic is low, your parking problem is really a lack-of-customers problem.
The McClatchy newspapers have an assessment of Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr’s impact so far. I think it’s half right — (1) Barr is having a great deal of trouble raising money, but it’s (2) not because he’s in Paul’s shadow (as quoted political scientist Steven Schier contends).
I think a commenter remarking on the McClatchy story has it right:
Ron Paul is not in Bob Barr’s way. Quite the opposite is the problem: Bob Barr continues to keep his distance from Ron Paul.
The bigger problem for Barr is that Paul has already set a higher standard for libertarianism, one to which Barr, as a former conservative, is not quite ready to commit to. Ron Paul inspires people with his integrity and commitment to that standard. Barr on the other hand turns people off with his mushy, kinda-sorta view of liberty.
Note, that I was not a Paul supporter, but I see the truth of the remarks — Barr just doesn’t seem like a libertarian to some libertarians.
I don’t condone or support illegal drug use in any way. I would prefer, however, that each state had the option to change its laws so that medical use of marijuana was lawful, without federal interference.
In California, and about a dozen other states, medical marijuana is lawful.
Federal law does not recognize medical marijuana use.
(There is also a conservative, not merely libertarian, case for general reform of our drug laws: National Review‘s editors came out against the drug war years ago. At first that might seem surprising, but after reading that publication for a while, one would see that the editors at NR came to understand the futility of America’s current drug policy.)
There is much that could be said about how waging a drug war has made police departments more aggressive, heavily armed, more eager for federal and state anti-drug funding, and less restrained – more paramilitary than civilian. I’ll leave that topic for another time.
For now, it’s enough to note how aggressive federal prosecutors are in cases against medical use of marijuana as a palliative for gravely ill patients.
Charlie Lynch, recently convicted of offenses relating to dispensing medical marijuana, faces a maximum, and Draconian sentence of as much as 100 years in prison. (Sentencing is in October.) He’s not a crime lord, drug kingpin, or anything of the kind. He dispensed marijuana for medical purposes to patients.
Note the community response in support of medical marijuana use, as noted in commentary about the video I have embedded:
“California voters legalized medical marijuana and Morro Bay’s mayor and Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the dispensary, and its owner Charlie Lynch.” (Emphasis added.)
If our laws justify a federal sentence of nearly 100 years in a medical marijuana case, then what are we to say about countless more serious, violent offenses? We would run out of possibilities before we could establish proportional punishments.
Here’s Drew Carey, a libertarian, on medical marijuana use, from Reason.tv:
Hat tip, naturally, to Reason.
Here’s another video, from Steven Colbert, in which he parodies inflated rhetoric and responses contrary to California’s law:
Coulson shows how even a small direct parental contribution in education, say 10-15% by cost, produces a significant increase in schools’ performance. (The irony is that parents and non-parents both pay a significant amount to public schools now, but without the kind of choice that should come with a significant contribution.)
Coupled with my earlier post on Coulson’s contention that public education was analogous to an expensive, old Chevy Impala, these will form the basis of three questions that I will use to consider education in our schools later this month:
(1) Are we performing better for what we spend and commit, across many years?
(2) How can markets or market-like free choices improve education?
(3) How can markets or market-like free choices improve education in our small school district?
I will revisit other topics that I have addressed for our schools, but these broad questions will guide my inquiry.
