FREE WHITEWATER

Daily Bread, Law, Misconduct, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 12.16.25: Wisconsin Now Requires Schools to Notify Parents Promptly of Sexual Misconduct Allegations

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 36. Sunrise is 7:19 and sunset is 4:21 for 9 hours 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 10.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1864, the Battle of Nashville ends as the Union Army of the Cumberland under General George H. Thomas routs and destroys the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General John Bell Hood, ending that army’s effectiveness as a combat unit.

At long last, it is Wisconsin law that schools must notify parents promptly of sexual misconduct toward children in the school’s care:

Wisconsin schools must now notify a student’s parent or guardian promptly if their child is the alleged victim of a sexual offense by a school employee or volunteer, under a bill signed into law this month.

Gov. Tony Evers signed the Republican-led bill into law Dec. 9. The new requirements set a timeline for public, charter and private schools to notify parents when allegations of sexual misconduct by school staff involve their children.

A co-sponsor of the measure, Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard, said in a statement the bill was “eminently necessary” because the state previously had no specific timeline to notify parents of such incidents.

Under the new law, schools must provide notice no later than 5 p.m. the same day if a report is received during school hours, or by noon the next calendar day if the report is received after school hours.

See Kayla Huynh, Schools must notify parents of sexual misconduct under new Wisconsin law, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 16, 2025.

In a well-ordered school district, officials would promptly, as a matter of moral obligation, report alleged injuries to the parents of affected children even without any legal requirement to do so. Wisconsin institutions and officials are too often lacking, so the law must enter to compensate as best as it can for deficiencies of individual character. There will still be efforts to evade legal responsibility as there have been efforts to evade moral responsibility.

Some officials, however, will be persuaded under law to act rightly on this fundamental duty where they would not have done so otherwise.

In the video below, Kristin Brey addresses the companion issue of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s many failures to track cases and inform communities of misconduct:

Brey: DPI Superintendent Jill Underly’s reluctance to face questions about how her agency handles sexual misconduct claims against teachers is unacceptable.

Conspiracy Theories, Daily Bread, Health, Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 12.15.25: Ron Johnson Endorses Discredited Medical Claims (Yet Again)

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 24. Sunrise is 7:18 and sunset is 4:21 for 9 hours 3 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 16.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater School Board meets at 6 PM. Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission also meets at 6 PM and the Library Board at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1791, the Bill of Rights becomes law following ratification by the Virginia General Assembly.

“Ron Johnson” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Sen. Ron Johnson’s habit of endorsing and promoting unfounded and discredited claims is unmatched in Wisconsin. He’s working to extend his lead among conspiracy theorists:

For years, Sen. Ron Johnson has been spreading conspiracy theories and misinformation about COVID-19 and the safety of vaccines.

He’s promoted disproven treatments for COVID-19 and claimed, without evidence, that athletes are “dropping dead on the field” after getting the COVID-19 vaccination. Now the Wisconsin politician is endorsing a book by a discredited doctor promoting an unproven and dangerous treatment for autism and a host of ailments: chlorine dioxide, a chemical used for disinfecting and bleaching. 

The book is “The War on Chlorine Dioxide: The Medicine that Could End Medicine” by Dr. Pierre Kory, a critical care specialist who practiced in Wisconsin hospitals before losing his medical certification for statements advocating using an antiparasite medication to treat COVID-19. The action, he’s said, makes him unemployable, even though he still has a license.

Kory has said there’s a globally coordinated campaign by public health agencies, the drug industry and the media to suppress evidence of the medicinal wonders of chlorine dioxide. His book, according to its website, contends that the “remarkable molecule” works “to treat everything from cancer and malaria to autism and COVID.”

The book jacket features a prominent blurb from Johnson calling the doctor’s treatise: “A gripping tale of corruption and courage that will open eyes and prompt serious questions.” 

Chlorine dioxide is a chemical compound that has a range of applications, including as a disinfectant and deodorizer. Food processing plants apply it to sanitize surfaces and equipment. Hospitals use it to sterilize medical devices, and some municipalities use low levels to treat public water supplies. Paper mills rely on it to whiten wood pulp. Safety experts advise those who handle it to work in well-ventilated spaces and to wear protective gloves.

Concentrations in drinking water systems higher than 0.8 milligrams per liter can be harmful, especially to infants, young children and fetuses, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. 

…

It is not medicinal, despite Kory’s contention. “It is all lunacy. Absolutely, it’s 100% nonsense,” said Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society in Montreal and an expert on the threat of pseudoscience. 

See Megan O’Matz, Senator Endorses Discredited Doctor’s Book on a Chemical He Claims Treats Everything From Autism to Cancer (‘Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson has a history of spreading vaccine misinformation. Now he’s giving credence to assertions about the therapeutic powers of chlorine dioxide, a disinfectant and deodorizer. “It is all lunacy,” one expert said’), ProPublica, December 11, 2025.

Sen. Joe McCarthy was a destructive conspiracy theorist, yet Johnson overmatches even McCarthy for the number of ludicrous claims made in one lifetime. There is an entire FREE WHITEWATER category dedicated to Johnson and his many false claims.

Turn aside, now, from a conspiracy theorist’s latest dark composition to something enduringly bright. Sophia Smith Galer discusses Handel’s Ariodante:

Click image to play video.

Congress, Courts, Daily Bread, Litigation, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 12.14.25: Plaintiffs in Wisconsin Congressional Redistricting Cases Propose Different Timelines

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 9. Sunrise is 7:18 and sunset is 4:21 for 9 hours 3 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 25.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1911, Roald Amundsen‘s team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.

By order of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, there are two judicial panels (composed of three circuit court judges) with each panel hearing one of two challenges to Wisconsin’s current congressional districts. See Wisconsin Supreme Court Appoints Redistricting Panels. The different plaintiffs in the two cases have proposed different timelines for remedies for their claims:

While both lawsuits are being filed by liberal firms, the attorneys handling the cases are raising different arguments and suggesting very different timelines.

Should judges in both cases follow a more protracted schedule, neither would be resolved until 2027.

One lawsuit, filed by the national Democratic firm Elias Law Group on behalf of Wisconsin voters, argues Republicans gerrymandered the state’s eight congressional districts so six of them favor GOP candidates. Elias attorney Julie Zuckerbrod called for scheduling the case in two phases so that a new map could be enacted before November 2026.

An attorney for the Wisconsin Elections Commission told judges it needs to know what that map looks like before March 1. Attorneys representing the state’s six Republican congressmen and the GOP-controlled Legislature said that’s impossible.

Zuckerbrod said “it’s absolutely possible” and pointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s 2023 decision striking down Republican-drawn state Assembly and Senate maps as a roadmap. She said in that case, justices considered legal arguments for what new legislative maps should look like “over the course of just a couple weeks.”

…

The other lawsuit, filed by the liberal firm Law Forward on behalf of a group called Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy, argues Wisconsin’s congressional map was drawn to favor incumbents above all else. 

But in a hearing on that case Friday, all parties agreed on a calendar stretching well past the 2026 midterms with a potential trial date of March 29, 2027.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge David Conway, one of the three judges considering that lawsuit, thanked the attorneys for the joint scheduling recommendations, noting that he and the two other county judges on the panel will work as quickly as possible.

“Nevertheless, we’re circuit court judges,” Conway said. “We do not have the resources of federal court judges. We don’t have a full staff of clerks, and we’re going to need time to work across county lines to make decisions together.”

In the other case being brought by Elias, Dane County Judge Julie Genovese signaled her panel may follow a similar timeline.

“We’ll do the best that we can,” Genovese said. “But you know, we have to digest these issues.”

See Rich Kremer, Judges hold hearings on Wisconsin map lawsuits, but signal decisions will take time (‘Democratic firm Elias Law Group says new maps possible before 2026 midterms. Liberal firm Law Forward agrees with 2027 trial date’), Wisconsin Public Radio, December 12, 2025.

See also Bothfeld v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, 2025 WI 53, No. 2025XX1438 (Wis. Nov. 25, 2025) (order) and Wis. Business Leaders for Democracy v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, 2025 WI 52, No. 2025XX1330 (Wis. Nov. 25, 2025) (order).

BothfeldDownload
Wisconsin Business LeadersDownload

Reasoned estimate, grounded in both the legal basis and political implications of these proceedings: if the panels were to decide for the plaintiffs in either case, the choice would be the later, 2027, timeline.

Gas explosion caught on doorbell camera destroys home in California:

A doorbell camera captured the moment an explosion erupted after a gas line rupture in Hayward, California, on Thursday. The incident injured at least six people, according to local news reports.

Blogging, City, Daily Bread, Reading, Reasoning, Writing

Daily Bread for 12.13.25: An Anecdote About Design

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 7. Sunrise is 7:17 and sunset is 4:21 for 9 hours 4 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 33.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1962, NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.

There is, or there should be, a calculated order to writing. Reasonable patience underlies that calculated order: not too soon, not too late. In the language of the law, some questions are not yet ripe. They may seem so, but they’re not yet so, if thoroughly considered.

This brings me to an anecdote, from around the time FREE WHITEWATER first began, in 2007. A resident emailed me back then, expressing a concern about this website. She observed that another website in town at that time was a revealing expression of its author’s personality: colorful, exuberant, a kind of heart-on-one’s-sleeve publication.

By contrast, she saw FREE WHITEWATER‘s design as cold, distant, and unrevealing of my personality.

I thought after considering her message: hasn’t she considered the possibility that cold and distant are expressions of my personality?

Her observation comes to mind now and again, even these many years later, and it always delights.

When and how to present is a discipline and requires discipline. There’s design but underneath design lies by design.

Before pen hits paper, and before fingers strike the keyboard, there’s much that’s simply observing, reading, listening, and considering. Empirical comes before, and shapes, the polemical. Not too soon; not too late. All of this is, or at least should be, by design.

December in Whitewater is almost always a fraught time1. It’s Hanukkah and Christmas, but it’s also, not uncommonly, a time of heightened political concern in this town.

These concerns matter, of course. They matter enough, truly, to hear the full discussion and argumentation about them.

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  1. Late March in Whitewater is typically another time like this. I take gear with me when I travel — phone, laptop, pens, pencils, notebook, reference books on Kindle — and there has never been a March vacation where they’ve not come in handy for one local controversy or another. Whitewater is always on my mind. ↩︎

Aerial video shows severe flooding in Washington state:

Aerial footage from Thursday, December 11th, shows deputies from the King County Sheriff’s Office Marine Rescue Dive Unit assisting residents from Duvall, Washington as many in the region experience flooding this week.

Daily Bread, Health, Vaccines, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 12.12.25: Wisconsin Sensibly Stays the Course on Childhood Vaccination

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 25. Sunrise is 7:16 and sunset is 4:20 for 9 hours 4 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 42.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 2000, the United States Supreme Court releases its decision in Bush v. Gore.

Wisconsin health officials have sensibly ignored a loud faction’s campaign against childhood vaccinations:

Wisconsin health officials say all babies should be vaccinated against hepatitis B at birth despite a recent change from federal vaccine advisers.

Last week, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended that babies receive the hepatitis B shot in the first 24 hours of life if their mothers tested positive for the virus or if the mothers’ status is unknown. The recommendation, which goes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says women who test negative for the virus should talk to their doctors about the vaccine.

Dr. Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, said Thursday that decades of evidence supports hepatitis B vaccination as a safe and effective strategy to protect infants.

…

Hepatitis B is a serious viral infection that affects the liver, and can lead to lifelong disease including liver failure and cancer. Up to 90 percent of infants who are infected will develop chronic liver disease. But in adults, an infection can be asymptomatic. Roughly half of people with hepatitis B don’t know they carry the virus.

Since the universal birth dose recommendation was adopted in the 1990s, pediatric hepatitis B infections have declined by 99 percent, according to Westergaard. He said there were no cases in Wisconsin newborns last year, and the state has seen between 0 and 2 cases annually over the last decade.

“That success reflects a simple, reliable approach that aims to protect every baby, including when screening and follow up doesn’t go perfectly in the real world,” Westergaard told reporters.

See Hope Kirwan, Wisconsin reaffirms support of hepatitis B vaccine for newborns, defying federal advisers (‘CDC advisory committee voted last week to end recommendation of a universal birth dose. But state health officials are directing Wisconsin doctors to carry on with the 30-year standard of care’), Wisconsin Public Radio, December 11, 2025.

Hiker mired in quicksand in Utah’s Arches National Park is rescued unharmed:

A hiker was rescued on Sunday after he was caught in quicksand in Arches National Park, Utah.

City, Film

Film: Tuesday, December 16th, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

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Tuesday, December 16th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Holiday/ Comedy/Family Rated PG

1 hours, 39 minutes (2024)

From the creator of the TV series “The Chosen.” Nobody is ready for the mayhem and surprises that ensue when six of the worst youngsters disrupt a small town’s yearly Christmas performance. 

One can find more information about The Best Christmas Pageant Ever at the Internet Movie Database.

City, Daily Bread, Foxconn, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 12.11.25: Foxconn’s Next Con

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 24. Sunrise is 7:15 and sunset is 4:20 for 9 hours 5 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 53.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Public Arts Commission meets at 5 PM, and the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Commission meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1941, Germany and Italy declare war on the United States, following America’s declaration of war on the Empire of Japan in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States, in turn, declares war on them.

Foxconn is back in the news:

A Wisconsin plant that President Donald Trump and Republicans championed during his first administration as the “8th Wonder of the World” is set to venture into building data centers with a new $569 million[1]investment.

But members of Congress said the state should first address serious concerns from constituents about manufacturers’ energy and water use, which could strain existing infrastructure and leave consumers footing the bill.

“The average Wisconsinite should not have to subsidize the power or water for a commercial entity,” Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden said.

Foxconn, a Taiwanese company and one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers, says it will create nearly 1,400 jobs in Racine County over the next four years, in exchange for up to $96 million in total performance-based tax credits. It’s the second amendment to the company’s contract with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. after Foxconn dramatically rolled back its initial plan, proposed in 2017, to invest $10 billion and create as many as 13,000 jobs.

…

Some Wisconsin residents have spoken out against data centers’ environmental impacts, including at small protests in seven cities across the state in the first week of December.

Just two major data centers slated for development alone, including the Microsoft project, would require the energy of 4.3 million homes, according to Clean Wisconsin, an advocacy organization that has criticized rising resource demands from the state’s data centers.

“The issue is we only have 2.8 million homes in Wisconsin,” said Amy Barrilleaux, a spokesperson for the organization.

See Jade Lozada, Foxconn, Trump’s ‘America first’ factory, is moving to AI. It’s giving lawmakers some pause, NOTUS, December 5, 2025.

If Foxconn has moved on to new sketchy claims after the failure of old ones, the same can be said of the local Whitewater men who once touted Foxconn’s fortunes. These same Whitewater gentlemen who showcased Foxconn’s Wisconsin scheme2 during the last decade have now moved on to advising residents about local policy3.

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  1. A claimed investment. But then, Foxconn has made many claims, with only some being true. ↩︎
  2. See A Sham News Story on Foxconn. ↩︎
  3. Their track record locally is, in fact, a version of error all its own. ↩︎

Hiker mired in quicksand in Utah’s Arches National Park is rescued unharmed:

A hiker was rescued on Sunday after he was caught in quicksand in Arches National Park, Utah.

Conservation, Daily Bread, Legislation, Legislature, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 12.10.25: Wisconsin Conservation Program’s Future Uncertain

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 31. Sunrise is 7:15 and sunset is 4:20 for 9 hours 5 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 62.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1864, during Sherman’s March to the Sea, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Union Army troops reach the outer Confederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia.

Wisconsin’s Knowles-Nelson Stewardship conservation program looks likely to expire at the end of this year:

The looming shutdown of Wisconsin’s decades old Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Grant program has put conservation projects across Wisconsin at risk as land trusts attempt to muddle on without the program that has protected more than 700,000 acres of land in the state. 

Without the stewardship fund, projects to conserve 1,300 acres of Northwoods forest near the headwaters of the Wisconsin River in Vilas County, hundreds of acres of “ecologically significant” wetlands in Door County and dozens of acres of prairie and grassland in Dane County could go unfinished. 

“It’s a bit bleak and it’s so disheartening to know that there’s so many beautiful, wonderful places kind of on the chopping block right now all across the state,” says Emily Wood, executive director of the Door County Land Trust. “It’s not just us. We hear from our partners that there are hundreds and thousands of acres that are just not going to be protected if [the program] goes away, and that’s going to have such an impact, domino effect, on future generations.” 

The Knowles-Nelson Stewardship fund was created in 1989 to fund land conservation in Wisconsin. The program provides grants to local governments and non-profits to cover some of the costs for purchasing and conserving land that can be used for recreation, preserving animal habitats and supporting local industries such as forestry. 

See Henry Redman, ‘Just don’t kill it’: Wisconsin land trusts face 2026 expiration of Knowles-Nelson stewardship fund, Wisconsin Examiner, December 9, 2025.

See also The Push to Save a Wisconsin Conservation Program.

Regrettable, but predictable: Wisconsin doesn’t have a bipartisan politics.

CCTV shows moment powerful earthquake hits Japan:

CCTV footage showed tremors in cities across north-eastern Japan on Monday after a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake. Orders were given for about 90,000 residents to leave their homes but tsunami warnings were later downgraded to advisories.

Culture, Daily Bread, Politics

Daily Bread for 12.9.25: Three, Three, and Three (They’re All Different)

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:14 and sunset is 4:20 for 9 hours 6 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 72.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Board of Zoning Appeals meets at 5 PM and the Public Works Committee at 5:15 PM.

On this day in 1775, British troops and Loyalists, misinformed about Patriot militia strength, lose the Battle of Great Bridge, ending British rule in Virginia.

We live in emotional, dyspeptic times. This is perhaps more true today even than in 1972, when Anthony Downs wrote, in National Affairs, about an issue-attention cycle concerning ecological policy. Downs observed that

a systematic “issue-attention cycle” seems strongly to influence public attitudes and behavior concerning most key domestic problems. Each of these problems suddenly leaps into prominence, remains there for a short time, and then though still largely unresolved–gradually fades from the center of public attention. A study of the way this cycle operates provides insights into how long public attention is likely to remain sufficiently focused upon any given issue to generate enough political pressure to cause effective change.

See Anthony Downs, Up and down with ecology — the “issue-attention cycle” , Nat’l Affs., Summer 1972, at 38.

I’ll borrow Downs’s concept and apply it a bit differently: there’s (in this time, our time) a public reaction in the first three hours, then the first three days, and later in the first three months. What begins so strongly as to appear irresistible in three hours looks less so after three days and looks again wholly different after three months.

Social media undoubtedly plays a role — a deceptive one — in persuading that the first three hours’ reaction will carry the day. That’s seldom likely, not merely because feeling fades, but more so because counterclaims on the same topic or other topics entirely emerge. What seems so certain, so inevitable, seldom is.

Perhaps someone who holds a minority ideological position, as I do, sees this more easily: many efforts begin initially as a defensive position against a larger, often majority, opinion. If all the engagement were decided in three hours’ time, well, that would be difficult; most engagements stretch, by contrast, over days and months.

Look around: how many supposedly decisive moments in the news, how many this-changes-everything declarations look different after only a few months? Many, often most, of them.

If one stays steady for mere hours and days, making good use of that time, the months produce a different result than initial responses suggested.

American Kestrel Cam’s Top 5 Highlights in 2025:

00:00 Introduction
00:10 American Kestrels Have A Chat During Incubation Switch: American Kestrels Have A Chat As Female Re…  
00:31 Female Kestrel Reveals Fifth Hatchling During Lunch Feeding: Fifth And Final Chick Hatches At American …  
00:52 Five Female Chicks Flap Away In Their New Feathers: Flapping Frenzy Reveals Five Female Nestli…  
01:11 Kestrel Sisters Squabble Over An Insect Snack: Kestrel Chick Grabs Sister’s Foot As They …  
01:27 Fledgling Supercut: Watch All Five Chicks Take Flight: Fledgling Supercut! Watch All Five America…  

Budget, City, Daily Bread, Local Government

Daily Bread for 12.8.25: Whitewater Common Council Adopts a Modern Budget

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 23. Sunrise is 7:13 and sunset is 4:20 for 9 hours 7 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 81.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater Fire Department Inc. meets at 6 PM and the Plan & Architectural Review Commission also meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares December 7 to be “a date which will live in infamy,” after which the U.S. declares war on Japan.

On Tuesday, December 2, the Whitewater Common Council adopted a modern, forward-looking budget on a 6-1 vote. The position of the Whitewater Common Council was the right decision. While it’s possible to describe aspects of local policy in political terms of left, center, or right (as this libertarian blogger sometimes has), this budget is best understood in different terms: as positioning this city well for present conditions and future opportunities. It is, simply expressed, a budget more in keeping with the needs of a community of many thousands than any prior effort over the last generation.

Efforts of the last decades — over a generation, really — were directed as though the government were of a few, by a few, and for a few1. Whitewater was deserving of more than that. We are a city not of a few, but of fifteen thousand. Those thousands of our fellow residents need, and deserve, modern services both for our community today and and also for a prosperous future.

Along will come a few from the past (or those they’ve collected) to say that their policies, of yesteryear, were so very much better. More pointedly, they’ll say that today’s policies should be yesteryear’s policies perpetually2. Well, this libertarian blogger was there in yesteryear, and it was often a dog’s breakfast of bad ideas, wastefully executed.

Americans are a dynamic, inventive, and innovative people. Each generation builds something new to meet the new circumstances before it. Modern is worth defending.

This conversation is sure to continue over the next several months.

_____

  1. Indeed, right-leaning residents from successful Wisconsin communities visiting Whitewater have been among the first to notice that Whitewater was poorly balanced over this last generation, with too much attention to the demands of student-rental operators and not enough to the city as a place for all residents, equally considered and respected. ↩︎
  2. They’ve a full quiver of other helpful advice, no doubt: Just walk in and hand them your résumé — that’s how you get a job; kids these days just don’t want to work; stay at the same company for 30 years — that’s how you get ahead. ↩︎

Mount Kilauea in Hawaii resumes its on-and-off eruptions:

Mount Kilauea on Hawaii’s Big Island has resumed its on-and-off eruptions, which have been captivating residents and visitors for nearly a year. The eruption is currently contained within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Daily Bread, Language, Nativism

Daily Bread for 12.7.25: Language and Nativism

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be increasingly sunny with a high of 23. Sunrise is 7:12 and sunset is 4:20 for 9 hours 8 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 90 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy carries out a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet and its defending Army and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 

In Britain, under the Labour Party, there will be a requirement next year that migrants speak English at a B2 level1. In America, there is a growing political2 demand for English language proficiency from immigrants. Sophia Smith Galer addresses this question for her own country and finds that nativists might be surprised to learn that they would struggle to meet the standards they’re so keen to impose on others:

Click image to play video.

In the caption to her Instagram post, Smith Galer refers to “A-level English (B2).” She’s using two common British descriptors: for academic achievement generally (that’s the A-level she means) and language proficiency (that’s the B2 level she means). For the British, a person at A-level academically should speak British English at B2 level.

But, but, but… could they? Could we do as well, either, when speaking American English?

The plain answer is that many a nativist would impose a standard on immigrants that he himself would struggle to meet.

American English is beautiful, but beauty (like love) should be embraced freely without demand.

_____

  1. In Europe, many institutions apply the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) to assess language proficiency. The CEFR adopts a scale ascending from Basic User (level A) to Independent User (level B) to Proficient (level C). There are gradations within each level, e.g., B1 and B2, where B2 requires (by the standard of the scale) a greater proficiency than B1. ↩︎
  2. A political demand is not a market demand: ability to function in the marketplace undoubtedly requires less proficiency than a political demand, or there would be no effort to impose government regulations that require more than the existing marketplace. ↩︎

So, a baby seal walks into a bar…

A seal walked into a bar… Or to use a technical term, it galumphed. A baby fur seal caused confusion when it waddled into a craft beer bar in Richmond, at the top of New Zealand’s South Island, on Sunday. One patron tried to usher the seal out the back door, but it eluded pursuit and dashed into a restroom, where it hid under the dishwasher, which was swiftly unplugged. Salmon was used to lure the seal out into a dog cage, where it stayed until Department of Conservation rangers arrived to collect the seal, whom they were already tracking. The department spokesperson, Helen Otley, said it was released on nearby Rabbit Island, which is considered a safe location due to its dog-free status. It’s not unusual for curious young seals to show up in unexpected places at this time of year, she said, as they follow rivers and streams up to 15 km inland.