I write a (mostly) regular feature called Register Watch™, where I offer commentary on our local weekly newspaper, The Whitewater Register. The Register has been published for over a century, and is now part of an area newspaper chain.
The paper’s viewpoint, seeping out into story after story, comes close to an insistence that Whitewater is a latter-day Eden. If the fictional town Pleasantville had a newspaper, it would be very much like the Register.
Visit the Internet Movie Database at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120789/
I’ll offer a new town slogan: — Whitewater: Live the Satire Others Only Dream About.
Front Page.
The lead story of the paper’s Thursday, August 28th edition is entitled, “More Bang for the Bus,” describing a new bus contract with our local school district. I have no idea who wrote the headline, but one seldom encounters clever wordplay like this these days. Crossword puzzles are easier, Scientific American long-since junked many of its challenging columns, and papers like the New York Times or Wall Street Journal just can’t manage a well-turned phrase anymore.
Fear not these declining standards — Whitewater still has the Register.
I’m not as concerned about how students get to school as about what they do when they arrive. I’m just old-fashioned that way. A bus contract is hardly a headline story, unless the bus offers a built-in bathroom, hot tub, and plasma television. The least one might expect is that the bus would be safe, but it’s not as though the local bus company builds the buses.
Inside.
If one looks at the stories and advertisements in the paper, one sees that many of them are for out-of-town events and merchants. The back page of the paper is soon to become a section for Delavan advertisers – recently for Historic Delavan, and now for a Delavan auto dealer.
We have auto dealers and shops in historic Whitewater, but they don’t have such prominent ads in the Register. (The Historic Delavan half-page ad is still in the Register – it’s just moved farther to the front of the paper.) Our merchants advertise elsewhere.
It’s not that the Register won’t cover a political story – it’s that they cover it from an incumbents’ and town fathers’ point of view. Readers are moving elsewhere, and that empty space fills with generic Walworth County stories and out-of-town ads.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread: September 3, 2008
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning, Whitewater
There will be a public meeting of the Whitewater Landmarks Commission tonight at 5:30 p.m.
We are a rural community, and at 7 p.m. tonight, at our high school, there will be an FFA meeting
The National Weather Service predicts a likely chance of showers with a high of 73. The Farmers’ Almanac forecasts that today’s conditions will be wet then fair. The Farmers Almanac prediction — written nearly a year ago, is certain to be half right — it must be fair at some point. (The Almanac wasn’t right yesterday — the National Weather Service was right on the money.)
In Wisconsin and American history on this date, in 1783, the Paris Peace treaty was signed between representatives of America and Britain. Here’s more detail from the Wisconsin Historical Society:
On this date the Paris Peace Treaty was signed. The treaty demanded land, including Wisconsin, be ceded from Britain to the United States. Two years after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, American and British delegations met in Paris to formalize Britain’s recognition of the United States of America. The treaty articles were drawn up on November 30, 1782 and formally agreed upon on September 3, 1783.
The full text of the treaty is available at Early America. more >>
Police
The Dangerous Paramilitary Direction
by JOHN ADAMS •
I am a blogger from Whitewater, Wisconsin, a small town of fourteen thousand in America’s Dairyland. There is, thankfully, no large and organized local threat against our city, or thousands of other cities in rural America.
We are far from America’s fanatical foreign enemies. Richland County, South Carolina is far away, too. It’s not so far, though, that the Richland County sheriff’s Department felt it could do without….an armored personnel carrier.
Radley Balko of Reason notes that the vehicle has “a belt-fed, .50-cal turreted machine gun” [that] Sheriff Leon Lott praises because of its intimidating presence.
Balko observes that this is “a caliber of ammunition that even the U.S. military is reluctant to use against human targets (it’s generally reserved for use against armored vehicles.”
These military weapons are lethal toys in the hands of these domestic police agencies.
For anyone who doubts as much, see the photo accompanying the Reason post, in which the members of the department pose with their new military vehicle.
Enforcement of local police matters, including narcotics offenses, can and should be conducted without military weapons.
Sheriff Lott has reduced his county to the unwise and embarrassing. America should leave military weapons and tactics to professional, full-time soldiers.
The post is available at
City
Taste of Whitewater: September 12 & 13 (Video 2)
by JOHN ADAMS •
On September 12 & 13, Whitewater will hold its 2008 Taste of Whitewater events at the Cravath Lakefront.
Here’s a second promotional video with more information —
City
2008 Taste of Whitewater: September 12 & 13
by JOHN ADAMS •
On September 12 & 13, Whitewater will hold its 2008 Taste of Whitewater events at the Cravath Lakefront.
Here’s a promotional video with more information —
<
Daily Bread
Daily Bread: September 2, 2008
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning, Whitewater
The National Weather Service predicts a sunny day with a high of 92. The Farmers’ Almanac forecasts that our weather will be wet then fair. They may both be wrong; both cannot be right.
There will be a meeting of the Whitewater Common Council tonight at 6:30 p.m. The agenda for that meeting is available as a pdf document at the City of Whitewater’s website.
School begins today for our public school students, and classes resume on campus. Best wishes for a happy and successful year.
The 2nd annual Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk® for Walworth County will be held on Saturday, September 20, 2008 at Library Park in Lake Geneva.
In Wisconsin history on this date, in 1862, the Wisconsin Historical Society reports that residents of the Manitowoc area panicked over a false report of an Indian attack:
Manitowoc settlers were awakened to the cry of “Indians are coming.” Messengers on horseback arrived from the Rapids, Branch, Kellnersville, and other nearby communities, announcing that Indians were burning everything in their path …. Fire and church bells gave warning to frightened residents. Over the next few days, people from the surrounding areas fled to Manitowoc and other city centers. Ox carts were loaded with women and children carrying their most valuable belongings…. a company of recruits from the Wisconsin 26th Regiment formed themselves into two scouting units, both of which returned to report that there was no threat of an Indian attack.
Fear of this false Indian attack took place at a time when there was a genuine, deadly threat from millions of Americans committed to secession and slavery.
On this date in American history, in 1945, representatives of Japan formally surrendered aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
Public Meetings
Common Council
by JOHN ADAMS •
Holiday
Happy Labor Day
by JOHN ADAMS •
Libertarians
Confusion on Immigration Policy from the Democratic Convention
by JOHN ADAMS •
From the Democratic Convention, courtesy of Reason.tv, here’s a video with interviews of Democrats and protestors discussing their views on immigration policy. (Best guess for a similar video interview from the Republican Convention: same across-the-board ignorance.)
Libertarians
Teasing on a Pro-Obama Music Video
by JOHN ADAMS •
Many have likely seen the pro-Obama music video, “American Prayer,” but libertarian Reason.tv takes a satirical look at the video in light of Obama’s oft-professed desire to transform the American economy and preserve American jobs.
Libertarians
Libertarian Take on McCain and Obama’s Possible Supreme Court Picks
by JOHN ADAMS •
Uncategorized
Wisconsin State Journal: “Probe Secret Deal for Deputy.”
by JOHN ADAMS •
I posted earlier this week on a news report that Columbia County D.A. Jane Kohlwey signed a secret deal with a criminal defendant (a deputy) so that the defendant could avoid a felony conviction. The Wisconsin State Journal carried the story, originally from the Baraboo News Republic.
Here are remarks from today’s State Journal editorial:
The state Office of Lawyer Regulation should investigate the galling actions of a Columbia County prosecutor.
District Attorney Jane Kohlwey signed a secret deal last year allowing a former Sauk County sheriff’s deputy to escape a felony conviction for hit and run, the Baraboo News Republic reported this week. Kohlwey also agreed to destroy the deputy’s deferred-prosecution agreement if he abided by its conditions.The Office of Lawyer Regulation needs to get to the bottom of this troubling episode and make sure other prosecutors across the state aren’t pulling similar stunts behind closed doors.
Trust in Wisconsin’s court system is at stake.
The editorial notes that “Kohlwey is admitting the obvious — she screwed up big time. She also says she didn’t destroyed the document, though an original can’t be found.” Perhaps Kohlwey thinks that losing a document is better than destroying it, but it’s implausible that copies are not available somewhere, as there were at least two parties to the deal.
Predictably, D.A. Kohlwey whines that she’s a victim: “The latest twist is Kohlwey complaining that it was unfair for her reprimand to become public. Clearly Kohlwey needs a refresher course in open government — and quite possibly stiff punishment from the Office of Lawyer Regulation.”
How many secret deals are there like this in Wisconsin, where elected prosecutors hide pacts from the public, to avoid their own embarrassment?
The editorial is available at
http://www.madison.com/
wsj/home/opinion/302700
Daily Bread
Daily Bread: August 29, 2008
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning, Whitewater
The National Weather Service predicts a sunny day with a high of 80. The Farmers’ Almanac continues a multi-day prediction with a forecast for pleasant and fair weather in the Great Lakes region. A match.
There are no public meetings scheduled for Whitewater on the last day of the week — the weekend begins on a private sector note.
Uncategorized
Abuse of Protesters at the Democratic National Convention
by JOHN ADAMS •
One would think, and hope, that if an American citizen could protest peacefully anywhere, then he or she would be able to protest outside a political convention hall.
Officials in Denver may have decided that a political convention means fewer rights for nearby citizens.
News website Raw Story reports that police and municipal officials may have committed numerous violations of basic American freedoms.
Among the allegations are claims that “police refused those arrested access to attorneys. Police did not let detainees use phones unless they posted their own bonds, and even failed to provide shoes, in one case marching a protester into court in bare feet and leg shackles.”
Additionally, officials may have “tricked protesters into pleading guilty, by giving them the impression they had to plead guilty in order to post bond. This meant that no one was allowed to make a phone call unless they plead guilty, thus making it impossible for arrestees to even call a lawyer until admitting guilt.”
There’s a sad irony that people may not be able to lawfully protest outside of a convention for a political party that takes the name Democratic, but perhaps that irony escapes Denver’s officials.
Here’s the link to the story:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/
Protesters_denied_access
_to_attorneys_
forced_0828.html
Here’s a link to a letter outlining concerns:
http://rawstory.com/images/other/aclu82708.pdf