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Assault Awareness & Prevention, Hunger, Language, Public Relations, University, UW System, Writing

At UW-Whitewater, For All That Value, Too Little Administrative Respect for Values

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There’s a press release (screenshot here) contending that UW-Whitewater contributes a large sum – hundreds of millions – to the Wisconsin economy. The release is written by Assistant Vice Chancellor Sara Kuhl.

Kuhl begins the release touting the power and influence of the university by misspelling a common English word (emphasis added):

UW-Whitewater, one of the UW System’s premiere universities…

The release should read premier (among the first rank) not premiere (the first showing of a movie or play). This is not the first time UW-Whitewater’s leadership has made this mistake.

The claim of vast wealth produced should, if even partly true, allow Kuhl’s office to buy a dictionary, and offer her and others the chance to open its pages now and again.

Truly, however, Kuhl’s deficiencies of ordinary usage are the least of concerns.

This recent study touting value doesn’t address the many of the highest values.

Instead, this beautiful campus faces problems more costly than any value supposedly generated: basic values of learning and safety are under stress at this institution – a self-promoting administration, flacking sham studies, while faculty are shunted aside, hunger is present on campus, and a longstanding, ongoing problem of sexual assault on and off campus continues.

What these recent administrations have brought cannot compensate adequately for what what they’ve taken.

Health

The Hidden Crisis in Rural America

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It’s prohibitively difficult to access mental-health services in rural America. That’s because, relative to urban areas, rural counties have so few mental-health professionals. The majority of nonmetropolitan counties in the U.S. don’t have a psychiatrist, and almost half lack a psychologist. The paucity has resulted in a public-health crisis—rural Americans suffering from a psychiatric condition are more likely to encounter police than receive treatment. Each year, 2 million mentally ill Americans, most of whom aren’t violent criminals, end up in jail.

This is the case in Cochise County, Arizona, a sprawling area nearly the size of Rhode Island and Connecticut combined, but with 3.8 million fewer residents. Many 911 calls in the area involve people with mental-health issues, and according to Mark Dannels, a local sheriff, 67 percent of the people in Cochise County Jail were diagnosed with a mental-health condition.

In the short documentary Out of Sight, Out of Mind, directed by James Burns for PBS Independent Lens, Dannels and other residents of Cochise speak to the alarming implications of the area’s lack of psychiatric resources.

“There’s an increasing demand for mental-health services across the board, and we can’t keep up,” Dr. James Reed says in the film. Reed is one of just two mental-health professionals serving the entirety of Cochise County.

“With the lack of resources in a county like Cochise, it is a revolving door [to prison],” Dannels says. “The options are limited … one option that remains constant is the arrest. I’ll be the first tell you, that’s not the answer.”

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 12.9.19

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will see scattered morning showers a high of forty-five.  Sunrise is 7:14 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 06m 37s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 92.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets at 6 PM, and the Whitewater Fire Department also meets this evening at 6 PM (later canceled).

On this day in 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas debuts on CBS.

Recommended for reading in full:

David E. Sanger writes For Trump, Instinct After Florida Killings Is Simple: Protect Saudis:

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — When a Saudi Air Force officer opened fire on his classmates at a naval base in Pensacola, Fla., on Friday, he killed three, wounded eight and exposed anew the strange dynamic between President Trump and the Saudi leadership: The president’s first instinct was to tamp down any suggestion that the Saudi government needed to be held to account.

Hours later, Mr. Trump announced on Twitter that he had received a condolence call from King Salman of Saudi Arabia, who clearly sought to ensure that the episode did not further fracture their relationship. On Saturday, leaving the White House for a trip here for a Republican fund-raiser and a speech on Israeli-American relations, Mr. Trump told reporters that “they are devastated in Saudi Arabia,” noting that “the king will be involved in taking care of families and loved ones.” He never used the word “terrorism.”

What was missing was any assurance that the Saudis would aid in the investigation, help identify the suspect’s motives, or answer the many questions about the vetting process for a coveted slot at one of the country’s premier schools for training allied officers. Or, more broadly, why the United States continues to train members of the Saudi military even as that same military faces credible accusations of repeated human rights abuses in Yemen, including the dropping of munitions that maximize civilian casualties.

AJ Vicens writes Trump Headlines a Fundraiser Alongside Accused War Criminals:

President Donald Trump’s took part in a Saturday night rally in South Florida, bringing two accused war criminals on to the stage as honored guests.

According to the Miami Herald, during his speech at Florida Republicans’ annual Statesman’s Dinner, Trump brought Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and Maj. Matt Golsteyn in front of the crowd. Trump controversially pardoned the two—along with former Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher—last month against the recommendations of senior military leaders. Lorance was serving a 19-year prison sentence for murder after ordering soldiers to open fire on three unarmed Afghan men in 2012, killing two. Golsteyn had been charged with premeditated murder after admitting to shooting a detained, unarmed Afghan man in 2010. Golsteyn killed the prisoner off-base and buried his body, only to dig it up later, bring it back to the base, and burn it in a pit used to dispose of trash, according to theWashington Post.

How America’s Love Of Cats And Dogs Became A $72 Billion Business:

City, Television

Tuesday, December 10th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, A Holiday Program of Three Classic TV Shows

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This Tuesday, December 10th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of three classic television shows (during a program of two hours in length) @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

  • “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” a Honeymooners version of “The Gift of the Magi,” originally telecast live in black-and-white on December 24, 1955.
  • “An Old Fashioned Christmas,” telecast December 21, 1966, in color: Oliver Wendell Douglas shocks Hooterville by chopping down a real tree for Christmas.
  • “The Johnny Cash Christmas Special” telecast November 30, 1977, featuring June Carter Cash, The Statler Brothers, Roy Clark, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Taped at The Grand Ole Opry, Nashville.

Enjoy.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 12.8.19

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see scattered afternoon showers a high of forty-three.  Sunrise is 7:13 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 07m 30s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 86.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1941, the United States declares war on the Japanese Empire.

Recommended for reading in full:

  Peter Wehner, an evangelical Christian opponent of Trump, writes Christian Doomsayers Have Lost It:

One of the things I have been most struck by in my conversations with Christian conservatives is how moral concern has given way to moral panic. It distorts their perceptions about the very real progress that has been made while causing feelings of deep insecurity and fear, despite “fear not” being one of the most frequently repeated commands in the Bible.

Many Christians have become invested in a dark narrative. As a friend of mine puts it: “They seem to have some kind of psychological craving for apocalyptic fear. I wonder if walking it back is even possible.”

Whether these Christians will be able to walk back or not, the effects have been injurious. This apocalyptic moral mind-set has led to an alliance with a shockingly unethical figure, who embodies a mobster’s mentality and an anti-Christian ethic. Mr. Trump, a skilled demagogue, has taken full advantage of this. There appears to be almost nothing he can say or do to break the bond that has developed, and virtually nothing that many of his Christian supporters will not excuse.

See also Wehner’s The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity (“evangelical Christians should acknowledge the profound damage that’s being done to their movement by its braided political relationship—its love affair, to bring us back to the words of Ralph Reed—with a president who is an ethical and moral wreck.”)

(Wehner’s two articles seem contradictory – on one hand doomsayers, on the other hand a deepening crisis – but are easily reconciled: he considers general trends as relatively positive, but his fellow evangelicals’ particular political support for Trump as destructive to evangelicalism. Both are possible. I’m not of a conservative evangelical denomination, but Wehner’s assessment seems sound.)

Michael Gerson writes Trump and his Fox supporters are no longer content just spewing propaganda:

The triumph of ad hominem arguments on the Trump right also has a deeper and darker meaning. Fox News is no longer content to spout pro-Trump propaganda. It must destroy Trump’s opponents, even if they are honorable people. Especially if they are honorable people. The goal is not to dispute their testimony — which, on the facts, seems indisputable — but to discredit them as witnesses and as human beings. The immediate response to the release of Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s testimony was for Ingraham to call his loyalty to the United States into question — despite a Purple Heart giving evidence of such loyalty. Attacks on those who dare oppose Trump are reflexive and brutal. To hell with past service. To hell with facts. All that matters is muddying, blunting or silencing an accusation against the dear leader.

In Berlin, Karaoke in Front of Thousands:

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 12.7.19

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of forty.  Sunrise is 7:12 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 08m 26s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 79.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1941, seventy-eight years ago, Imperial Japan attacks the American naval base at Pearl Harbor.

Recommended for reading in full:

Katelyn Ferral reports The Wisconsin National Guard gave sexual assault accusers waiver forms to avoid police:

At least two soldiers who say they were sexually assaulted while serving in the Wisconsin National Guard say they either were asked by Guard officials to sign forms waiving their right to notify local law enforcement of the assaults or encouraged to file generic police reports only as a formality, indicating that the military was handling it.

Records obtained by the Cap Times in both cases show that the victims signed or were asked to sign the same form waiving their right to notify local law enforcement.

In one case, a soldier who filed a formal report of sexual assault with the Guard, aiming to trigger an investigation against her perpetrator, says she was told by the Guard’s Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC), Maj. Robert Brania, that she needed to make the police report as a “formality” but advised her to make it generic.

“You don’t want the cops coming to his house and bothering his family. Just keep it vague and tell them the military is handling it,” she recalled that she was told. “Why is the state SARC telling me not to name his name?”

The soldier requested anonymity because she still works for the Guard.

She later filed a more detailed police report on the advice of her Special Victims Counsel, which is a type of attorney the military assigns to sexual assault victims.

….

The National Guard Bureau’s investigators later substantiated her sexual assault allegations. Wisconsin Guard officials later allowed her perpetrator to retire with benefits and rehired him as a private civilian contractor.

(Emphasis added.)

Previously: Wisconsin National Guard’s response to sexual-assault allegations ‘an absolute train wreck,’ federal investigator says and Email shows former DOJ leaders coordinated with Wisconsin National Guard to keep feds out of sexual assault investigations.

Paul Sonne, Greg Miller, and Josh Dawsey report As impeachment tide swirls around Trump, Giuliani drops anchor in Ukraine:

Even as the House of Representatives began drafting charges against President Trump this week, his private attorney, who many believe is partly responsible for leading Trump on the path to his likely impeachment, made an audacious trip to the country at the center of the scandal.

Rudolph W. Giuliani departed Kyiv after meeting with a range of Ukrainians who have been feeding him unproven allegations against former vice president Joe Biden and helping construct a counternarrative that is taking hold in the Republican Party. The latter story line asserts that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election, including with the baseless theory that Ukraine, rather than Russia, was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.

How Trump Got Caught Red Handed by the Impeachment Inquiry:

CDA, City, Local Government, Newspapers, Open Government

Who Implied That Toppers Might Move Its Headquarters? Whitewater’s City Manager, That’s Who

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In a Janesville Gazette story from 12.5, Whitewater’s city manager, Cameron Clapper, is reported as saying that another paper’s coverage incorrectly implied that Toppers Pizza might move its Whitewater headquarters. In fact, the video of a recent Community Development Authority (CDA) meeting from 11.21.19 reveals that it was Clapper, himself, who implied that Toppers might move. (See the video embedded above for the relevant portion of the meeting, transcribed below. The full meeting video is also available online.)

Here’s a transcription of what Clapper said at the meeting about Toppers Pizza:

Clapper: So only a couple of things I have additional to add at this meeting. In prior meetings I had mentioned that I had been playing, I think I’ve mentioned, I’ve had some phone tag with the owner of Toppers Pizza.

I left a message again anticipating this meeting this week, and am waiting for a response back to meet with him and go over future plans for Toppers Pizza in the area. And just essentially just a business retention expansion visit.

But we know that the building has changed owners and so…

Stanek: Is that related to the grocery store?

(Crosstalk)

Stanek: Potentially?

Clapper: It is potentially related to the grocery store. If Toppers wants to not be there anymore, that is a potential location perhaps where we might be looking…

Stanek: It was a grocery store at one time.

In the Gazette story, Clapper is reported to have said that another paper’s account raised a wrong implication:

Clapper pointed to another news outlet’s recent coverage, which he said incorrectly implied Toppers Pizza could leave its headquarters and open a space that might interest a grocer.

The city manager emphasized he has no reason to think the pizza chain will do anything but stay where it is.

That’s not right – Clapper implied Toppers might depart, as his remarks on 11.21.19 plainly show. The other paper (the Register) did not make a mistake – Clapper is accusing that other paper of error simply for reporting his own public comments.

The worthy course for Whitewater’s city manager would have been to admit that he wrongly implied a business departure; it’s not right to blame the Register for his own plain words.

As for the Gazette’s reporter, he’s turned in another disappointing story by failing to hold an official accountable for that official’s own words. (When I wrote about the Gazette story yesterday, it seemed weak, but now it’s evidently negligent.)

As always – the best record of public meetings is a recording. Without that solid source to verify officials’ statements, minimal & verifiable accountability would be replaced with official excuse-making and journalistic negligence.

Cats, Science/Nature

Friday Catblogging: Cats’ Facial Expressions

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Karin Brulliard reports on a study of cats’ facial expressions in Cats do have facial expressions, but you probably can’t read them:

Cats have a reputation for being “inscrutable,” the researchers say, and their results mostly back up this notion. More than 6,000 study participants in 85 countries, the vast majority of them cat owners, watched brief cat videos and then judged the animals’ moods. The average score was just under 60 percent correct — an F, if cat videos were a school subject.

However, 13 percent of participants did quite well, scoring 75 percent or above. The researchers dubbed these achievers “cat whisperers” — and said their results are important.

“Cats are telling us things with their faces, and if you’re really skilled, you can spot it,” said author Georgia Mason, a behavioral biologist at the University of Guelph in Ontario. “Some people can do it — that means there’s something there. That means that cats are hard to read,” but not wholly inscrutable, she said.

Women, who made up three-fourths of participants, scored better than men, but not by much. Younger people did better than older people. But the most skilled diviners of feline feelings were people with professional experience involving cats, including veterinarians. (You can take a shortened version of the survey here.)

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 12.6.19

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of thirty-six.  Sunrise is 7:11 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 09m 27s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 70.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1884, workers complete the Washington Monument with a 100-ounce (2.83 kg) aluminum apex/lightning-rod being in place.

Recommended for reading in full:

Yesterday — Katelyn Ferral reports Wisconsin National Guard’s response to sexual-assault allegations ‘an absolute train wreck,’ federal investigator says.

 Today — Katelyn Ferral, Molly Beck, and Patrick Marley report Email shows former DOJ leaders coordinated with Wisconsin National Guard to keep feds out of sexual assault investigations:

“I’m hoping if I keep doing him favors, I’ll get a ride on an F-35,” Delanie Breuer, former chief of staff to former Attorney General Brad Schimel, joked about Adjutant General Donald Dunbar in a Sept. 13, 2018 email to her boss.

The email was obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Cap Times just after federal investigators completed an investigation into whether the Wisconsin National Guard was properly handling allegations of sexual misconduct — a review called for by Gov. Tony Evers and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

The DOJ in October 2018 agreed to make available investigators to the Wisconsin National Guard to review such allegations. Earlier this year, a guard spokesman said all reports made by victims who want an investigation are first referred to the DOJ or local law enforcement.

But in the 2018 email, Breuer said the purpose of the agreement was to keep the National Guard Bureau out of state investigations and would not add any new responsibilities to the department.

“The purpose of the (agreement) is mainly to get the federal National Guard Bureau off the back of (Dunbar) – (the National Guard Bureau) is currently stepping in on all investigations that don’t otherwise have a neutral third party,” Breuer wrote. “It basically spells out what (Division of Criminal Investigations) would already do. … It’s just putting it in writing for (Dunbar).”

(Emphasis added.)

 Molly Beck, Katelyn Ferral, and Patrick Marley also report in a separate story Sweeping investigation into sexual misconduct in Wisconsin National Guard could trigger overhaul:

Federal investigators have completed a sweeping investigation into how the Wisconsin National Guard handles allegations of sexual assault and harassment among its ranks — a review that will soon be made public and could trigger major changes within the Guard.

Gov. Tony Evers said Thursday that within days he will make public the findings of a seven-month investigation by National Guard Bureau’s Office of Complex Investigations into whether the Guard allowed sexual predators to go unchecked and retaliated against victims.

The governor said he will then announce next steps to “ensure that our men and women in uniform work in an environment free from sexual assault, sexual harassment and retaliation.”

The results of the investigation, called for by Evers and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldin in April, come just days after The Capital Times revealed federal investigators conducting the review believe guard officials’ response to sexual assault allegations were “an absolute train wreck.”

SpaceX CRS-19 Dragon launch & Falcon 9 first stage landing:

Business, City, Local Government, Newspapers

Local Government’s Failure to Speak Independently and Effectively

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There’s a story at the Janesville Gazette that illustrates the inability of Whitewater, Wisconsin’s local government to communicate effectively on its own.  The story, primarily, is about the ongoing search for a stand-alone grocery store to come to Whitewater.  See Whitewater city manager remains ‘optimistic’ city will get a grocery store (Beleckis, reporter; Schwartz, editor).

Routine, periodic. In some respects, the story is the same as others published periodically in which officials predict a grocery in the relatively near future. There’s no reason to doubt that city officials want a grocery store; it’s simply false – and silly, really – to contend otherwise. Indeed, it’s probable that officials would incline to any deal, however profligate, than to no deal.

Business rumors. There will always be occasional rumors in Whitewater (and every other city) about businesses that might be coming or going. Business journals, for example, sometimes mix accurate reporting with analysis of low quality. Part of the Gazette story allows Whitewater’s city manager, Cameron Clapper, to reply to a speculative report of that kind.   

Failure of independence and effectiveness. Underlying all this, a key point: local government in Whitewater displays weakness and misunderstanding when it relies on an out-of-town chain paper to relay its message. A city using social media & an official website should neither need nor want messaging from a decrepit newspaper with a young reporter. The paper undoubtedly skews to an elderly readership. Whitewater’s own publicly-paid officials would be ahead of stories like this, ahead of rumors like this, if they’d only developed a better bond with the city’s residents.

The Gazette is interesting to me because I grew up in a newspaper-respecting family, and the gap between good work and the Gazette’s reporting is evident. As a practical matter, however, stories in the Gazette about Whitewater’s government are mostly inconsequential for Whitewater – the paper has a skewed demographic and low quality. Most people are reasonable and sharp; for that majority, these stories are easily dissected and dismissed.

It’s not this libertarian’s role – and it never will be – to represent local government. And yet, and yet — it should be obvious that local government should be able to speak directly and effectively to the residents from whom it receives authority.

Catch-up, let-me-explain stories like this show how poorly government communicates on its own.