Tuesday, April 14 at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of If I Had legs I’d Kick You @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Psychological Drama
Rated R (language) 1 hour 53 minutes (2025)
With her life crashing down around her, Linda (Rose Byrne) attempts to navigate her child’s mysterious illness, her absent husband (Christian Slater), a missing person, and an increasingly hostile relationship with her icy therapist (Conan O’Brien). A Best Actress Oscar nomination (and golden Globe winner) for Rose Byrne in a stunning, exhausting disturbingly brilliant performance.
Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 62. Sunrise is 6:23 and sunset is 7:30 for 13 hours 7 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 55.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1865, Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the war.
Each election season, Whitewater has its share of political yard signs throughout the city. A yard sign may simply represent a property owner’s expressed feelings, without any design to affect the outcome of an election. Political speech is often like this: speaking one’s mind.
As a practical matter, however, yard signs are a poor indicator of political outcomes in Whitewater.
First, it’s typical of local landlords (mostly if not exclusively right-leaning) to place yard signs for candidates on their properties. The location of these plentiful clusters, especially the ones on Main Street, are well-known to the community as student rental operators’ properties. (That is, they don’t represent the sentiments of the manyresidents therein, but instead of a fewowners thereof.1) Anyone who’s been in town for more than a year sees this, so the many yard signs on rental properties are reasonably discounted as a false indicator of popular opinion.
Imagine the landlords’ thinking:
Behold, our utilitarian buildings lovely properties of multi-tenant individually-owned residences that will trick convince Whitewater’s voters as an astroturf a grassroots movement in favor of our latest set of disposable beloved catspaws candidates!
I’d guess that local landlords see the clustered placement of their preferred candidates’ yard signs as a significant electoral advantage for their candidates. It’s obviously not.
Second, yard signs are overrated even in a media desert like ours. As a form of campaign advertising, yard signs are a low-cost, but also a low-impact, medium. A study from Columbia University in 2016 suggests that yard signs influence vote share only slightly:
After pooling the results of the four experiments and examining their averages, it appears that lawn signs raise vote shares, on average, by slightly more than 1 percentage point.
Based on pooled results, lawn signs are “on par with other low-tech campaign tactics such as direct mail that generate … effects that tend to be small in magnitude.”
Signs, in some scenarios, do not appear to be as effective when they make reference to a specific political party or ideology.
One percent is something, yet not a huge influence.
Yard signs are part of Americana, but they’re unlikely to change any races in Whitewater.
I’ll take a moment to discuss another medium that didn’t affect the Spring Election outcome. Social media in Whitewater, and that means Facebook, was ablaze in December and January with posts that suggested a significant right-leaning local trend. Relying on those winter posts would have been a false reliance on sincere but, as it predictably turned out, ephemeral sentiments. Facebook burns hot but fast. A steady candidate, holding his or her nerve, can weather a political torrent on social media. Neither fickle human nature nor an edgy algorithm keeps its focus for long.
Upcomingposts (in no decided order): Newspapers, the Regents, Economic Demand, Trump on Daycare, Claims of Legacy, and a Particular Species of Democrat.
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It’s still one person, one vote in Wisconsin, isn’t it? ↩︎
Wednesday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 65. Sunrise is 6:24 and sunset is 7:29 for 13 hours 5 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 65.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1820, a Greek farmer discovers the Venus de Milo on the Aegean island of Milos.
With Wisconsin’s Spring Election now over, I’ll offer preliminary remarks (beginning locally from the City of Whitewater and moving outward). Unofficial local results for all precincts below are from the election websites of Walworth, Jefferson, and Rock counties. Unofficial results for the Wisconsin Supreme Court race for >95% of the vote are from The New York Times.
WhitewaterCommon Council. Three Common Council contests for the City of Whitewater saw two incumbents (Orin Smith and Brian Schanen) re-elected and one new member (Gavin Kelleher) earning a seat on the council:
Whitewater Council At Large
Orin Smith
1,081 (Walworth 920, Jefferson 161)
Aubrey Thompson
861 (Walworth 700, Jefferson 161)
Whitewater Council District 2
Gavin Kelleher
190
Sean Liebherr
46
Whitewater Council District 4
Brian Schanen
375
Chuck Mills
210
Whitewater’s local government has been on the right path these last three years. Re-electing Smith and Schanen and electing Kelleher most effectively preserves the positive momentum the city has seen since 2022. This was the best possible outcome for Whitewater.
A ceaseless effort to deny evident municipal progress, sometimes relying on the use of non-residents’ false and ludicrous claims, did not obscure the progress that actual residents saw with their own eyes. In the end, truth is the most skillful advocate, achievement the finest rhetorician.
Doubt not, however, that the special interest men will say whatever they can, and do whatever they can, to control this city to their particular benefit. There are long years, and important work, yet ahead. One wakes up every day as a dark-horse underdog.
Whitewater Unified School District. In this race, four candidates (incumbents Stephanie Hicks, Lisa Huempfner, Christy Linse, and first-time candidate Terri Jones) sought three seats. Unofficial results show Huempfner and Hicks returned to office, joined by newcomer Jones.
Lisa Huempfner
2,053 (Walworth 1614, Jefferson 297, Rock 142)
Stephanie Hicks
2,044 (Walworth 1543, Jefferson 321, Rock 180)
Terri Jones
1,849 (Walworth 1447, Jefferson 279, Rock 123)
Christy Linse
1,707 (Walworth 1289, Jefferson 272, Rock 146)
I’ve been a critic of our school board, and I’ll leave more particular remarks on that matter for another time. Whether there will be a change of board direction, toward a genuine embrace of open government, I’ll not venture beyond the expression that hope springs eternal.
Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Statewide:
Chris Taylor
905,155 — 60.1%
Maria Lazar
600,044 — 39.9%
In Whitewater:
Chris Taylor
1,749 (Walworth 1,431, Jefferson 318) — 74.7%
Maria Lazar
591 (Walworth 489, Jefferson 102) — 23.4%
Judge Taylor ran even better in Whitewater than statewide.
Hers was also a more lopsided contest than even favorable polling (albeit admittedly sparse) suggested. Consider these figures from the Times website:
County type
Leader margin
Who is ahead of their benchmark?
Large cities 391,831 votes in
Taylor +60
Taylor by 12 pts. Needed at least +48
Smaller cities and suburbs 645,852 votes in
Taylor +7
Taylor by 21 pts. Lazar needed at least +14
Rural 337,810 votes in
Taylor +4
Taylor by 23 pts. Lazar needed at least +19
In each geographic category — for cities, suburbs, and rural areas — Taylor significantly exceeded the benchmark vote that she needed to win. In Walworth County, where Trump won by 22 points in 2024, Maria Lazar only won by 0.9 points in 2026 (that’s zero point nine, an amount less than one percent).
Here’s the Wisconsin vote by county from November 2024 and April 2026:
I know it's risky to read much into state-level elections, but the difference in these two maps is pretty striking. The left shows county-level votes for Trump and Harris in 2024 in Wisconsin. The right shows the results of yesterday's Supreme Court race, where the Democrat won in a landslide.
Upcomingposts (in no decided order): Yard Signs, Newspapers, the Regents, Economic Demand, Trump on Daycare, Claims of Legacy, and a Particular Species of Democrat.
Whitewater is the work — and adventure — of a lifetime.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 43. Sunrise is 6:26 and sunset is 7:28 for 13 hours 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 73.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1927, AT&T engineer Herbert Ives transmits the first long-distance public television broadcast (from Washington, D.C., to New York City, displaying the image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover).
I’ve read somewhere that today is election day in Wisconsin… Sometimes, in Whitewater, there’s a small flurry of schemes and lies in March that precede the April local election. We have not had that this year. (This year in Whitewater, the schemes and lies came along in February.)
This Election Day isn’t merely the end of a political season; it’s the beginning of a new one. It brings the commentary assessing the result and preparing for what comes next.
People choose freely. Afterward, one makes one’s way in the world of those choices.
Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 45. Sunrise is 6:28 and sunset is 7:27 for 12 hours 59 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 81.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 5:30 PM and the Police and Fire Commission meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1965, the Communications Satellite Corporation’s ‘Early Bird‘ (Intelsat I) becomes the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit.
Ariel Waldman, explorer and filmmaker, has a new series on PBS: LIFE UNEARTHED. The first episode (Antarctica: Life at the Edge) is now available. Upcoming episodes include examinations of fireflies, wetlands, prairies and prairie fires, dry valleys with Mars-like conditions, and Antarctica.
Before and after politics — before and after this long conflict that grips America — the natural order. Sometimes, as respite and rejuvenation, even now.
Easter Sunday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 51. Sunrise is 6:30 and sunset is 7:25 for 12 hours 55 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 89 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1621, the Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth, Massachusetts on a return trip to England.
Saturday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 49. Sunrise is 6:31 and sunset is 7:24 for 12 hours 53 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 93.7% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1818, Congress, affirming the Second Continental Congress, adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (20 at that time).
Taylor’s opposition, while a Democratic state lawmaker, to the Republican-backed 2011 state law requiring identification to vote.
Her introduction of a 2017 bill, which did not become law. It would have provided driver’s licenses to unauthorized residents, but the licenses would have been labeled: “Not valid for voting purposes.”
Taylor’s opinion, in a 2024 appeals court ruling, which said absentee ballots count even if voters’ witnesses fail to give election clerks their full address. Citizenship is required to vote in Wisconsin, but Wisconsin election officials generally do not verify citizenship when a person registers.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
And look, and look — the Lazar campaign is crawling to Election Day. Multiple blood transfusions wouldn’t be enough to save that anemic campaign. This false claim about noncitizen voting isn’t about winning the election.
It’s simply a desperation move before the clock run out.
Good Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 57. Sunrise is 6:33 and sunset is 7:23 for 12 hours 50 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 97.5% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1948, President Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing aid for 16 countries.
The president of the University of Wisconsin system said in letters obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday that he has been told to either resign or be fired, but has been given no reason and won’t step aside.
Jay Rothman, president of the multicampus 165,000-student university system since 2022, said in a letter addressed to the head of the Board of Regents dated March 26 that he has been given no reason why regents want him to leave.
Rothman said he has been told that his options are to resign or retire, and that if he doesn’t then the board “was prepared to terminate my employment despite all that has been accomplished.”
[…]
In the letter addressed to Bogost, Rothman said he had not been “provided any substantive reason or reasons for the Board’s finding of no confidence in my leadership.”
Because of that, Rothman said, “I am not prepared, as a matter of principle, to submit my resignation.”
Rothman also refused to resign in a second letter sent to two other regents on Wednesday after he said they urged him to step down during a Tuesday meeting. Rothman said the regents told him if he didn’t resign, the board was prepared to meet this weekend to fire him.
Rothman said those regents also could not give a reason for them wanting him to resign or be fired.
A public action over a public official — including over his or her tenure — must be publicly and thoroughly explained. The Regents do not serve in a private capacity and so may not act in a private capacity on behalf of the Wisconsin state university system.
These are public actions all the way through. There may be sufficient reasons for Rothman’s removal; they must be publicly explained and adequately justified.
Failure to do so is disqualifying for those serving on the Board of Regents.
The four astronauts on NASA’s lunar mission have spoken about their journey so far via video. Their Orion capsule is approaching 100,000 miles from Earth as it heads towards the moon, putting them on track to reach the farthest distance humans have ever travelled in space.
Thursday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 64. Sunrise is 6:35 and sunset is 7:22 for 12 hours 47 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 99.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
In a few moments, I will sign a historic Executive order instituting reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world. “Reciprocal”—that means they do to us and we do it to them. Very simple. Can’t get any simpler than that.
This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history. It’s our declaration of economic independence.
For years, hard-working American citizens were forced to sit on the sidelines as other nations got rich and powerful, much of it at our expense. But now it’s our turn to prosper and, in so doing, use trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt. And it will all happen very quickly.
With today’s action, we are finally going to be able to make America great again, greater than ever before. Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you it [sic] happening already.
We will supercharge our domestic industrial base. We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers. And ultimately, more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers. This will be, indeed, the golden age of America. It’s coming back. And we’re going to come back very strongly.
Scott Lincicome, Alfredo Carrillo Obregon, and Chad Smitson have looked at the economy a year later. Among their findings:
The tariffs raised prices
Notwithstanding the tariff exemptions, the duties undeniably increased prices for American importers and consumers. Economicresearchshows thatthe higher costs from tariffs passed through to prices paid by Americans at a rate as high as 96 percent. The administration and tariff defenders often cite that tariffs did not lead to an inflationary spiral, but—as many economists have repeatedly explained—that outcome was never a serious possibility. What was likely—and what did indeed happen—is that tariffs increased the prices of tariffed goods (imported and domestic) last year, and they remain elevated today. Economists from Harvard Business School have examined thousands of items sold at major US retailers and found significant increases in their prices—especially as compared to pre-tariff trends.
[…]
Manufacturing jobs did not boom and, in fact, kept declining
Manufacturers reported throughout 2025 that tariff-induced cost pressures and uncertainty hampered economic activity in the sector, and employment data suggest that this also contributed to a slowdown in hiring. While manufacturing employment indeed struggled throughout 2024, the data confirm that—contrary to White House promises—there was no tariff-related hiring boom in 2025.
[…]
Foreign investment did not boom
Despite the president’s Liberation Day prediction of a boom in foreign direct investment (FDI), quarterly FDI has fallen since April 2025, with the US registering $72.49 billion in FDI in Q4 (Figure 9). Total FDI in 2025 was $288.4 billion, lower than the annual totals from 2021 through 2024, and far short of the rate needed to reach the president’s lofty goal of $18 trillion in investment. New FDI last year was even lower. Several firms and countries have pledged to increase their investments in the US, but such pledges do not show up in data.
Space.com’s Tariq Malik and Josh Dinner were on-hand to witness NASA’s Artemis 2 crew launch to the moon from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1, 2026.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 42. Sunrise is 6:38 and sunset is 7:21 for 12 hours 43 minutes of daytime. The moon will be full this evening.
One of the first TV images of Earth from space, taken by TIROS-1 in April 1960. By NASA, Public Domain, Link.
A competitive primary might be beneficial to a political party: competition among primary candidates might produce good ideas, or it might prove a race to the bottom to attract a plurality of voters. The absence of primary competition might be advantageous: a single candidate might use the time wisely to prepare for the fall, or waste his time on niche issues. There’s more than one possible outcome.
So far, with about four months to go, a competitive gubernatorial primary is forcing Democratic candidates to craft big ideas; an uncompetitive primary is leaving the sole WISGOP candidate to drift into minor matters.
Admittedly, not every plan makes sense, or even works,1 but by definition a larger concern is likely to matter more than a smaller one. Emissions testing is inconvenient but hardly life-altering; daycare options are undeniably life-altering for children and parents.
A competitive gubernatorial primary supplies the incentive for Democrats to search for issues that are significant for voters; an uncompetitive primary has left Tom Tiffany2 to drift along with smaller issues.
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It was Mike Tyson who famously observed that “everybody has plans until they get hit for the first time.” This libertarian blogger has been forthright that there is a difference between telling time and watchmaking. I can see that child care is important without contending that I have any skill in designing a child care plan. It’s enough to see that child care is more important than emissions testing for a family’s life. Of planning generally, however, from this blogger’s vantage, I have always kept Tyson’s observation in mind. The local and statewide adversaries of progress are relentless schemers, lying in wait to undermine what they can. Much is lost through an overconfident myopia. Foresight isn’t everything, but it is nearly so. ↩︎
An energetic and thoughtful Republican would use his time more wisely. Tiffany’s like a Boomer on a cruise ship lingering at the dessert bar all day. ↩︎
Mercury shines at its brightest for the year, the Lyrid meteor shower peaks, and a bright new comet makes an appearance in April’s night sky. Catch Mercury low in the eastern sky before sunrise on April 3 at its greatest elongation. Then look up late April 21 into the 22nd for the Lyrids, with “shooting stars” radiating near the bright star Vega. Also this month, Comet C/2025 R3 (Pan-STARRS) may be visible with binoculars or a telescope, especially around April 17, before making its closest approach to Earth on April 27. 0:00 Intro 0:12 Mercury greatest elongation 1:22 Comet C/2025 R3 1:57 Lyrid meteor shower 2:39 April Moon phases Additional information about topics covered in this episode of What’s Up, along with still images from the video, and the video transcript, are available at https://science.nasa.gov/skywatching/…
Tuesday in Whitewater will see scattered afternoon thundershowers with a high of 72. Sunrise is 6:38 and sunset is 7:20 for 12 hours 42 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 97.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Aquatic Center Committee meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1951, Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.
A UNIVAC I at the United States Census Bureau in 1951. Public Domain, Link
After a loud and intense Wisconsin Supreme Court race in ’25, this year’s race is neither loud nor intense:
In another sign this year’s Supreme Court race is flying under the radar for many Wisconsinites, the number of absentee ballots cast so far is around 112,000 behind the pace set in 2025.
As of Monday morning, the Wisconsin Elections Commission reported 146,583 absentee ballots had been returned in the matchup between liberal Wisconsin Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor and conservative Wisconsin Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar.
The returns are a fraction of what they were 12 months ago when former Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel was competing against now-Justice Susan Crawford in a race where ideological control of the bench was at stake. On March 24, 2025, the commission reported that 258,975 absentee ballots had been returned.
It’s notable that last year’s intensity, and Elon Musk’s involvement, didn’t change the outcome: WISGOP-backed candidate Brad Schimel still lagged Susan Crawford’s legitimate poll numbers throughout the race and in the final vote. See Bruce Murphy, Crawford Was Ahead Through Entire Election, Urban Milwaukee, April 7, 2025.
There’s a debate between Taylor and Lazar on Thursday, April 2 at 7 PM. The election ends five days later.
Invisible carbon in the air may explain some of the secrets of static electricity. From Van de Graaff generators to flying kites in thunderstorms, scientists have spent centuries playing with the strange effects of static electricity — yet the details of the phenomenon remain mysterious. Now experiments show that carbon molecules could play a key role in how oxides gain static charge. Is this the long-hidden mechanism behind static electricity or just another piece of a complex puzzle?
Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 75. Sunrise is 6:40 and sunset is 7:18 for 12 hours 38 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 93.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Plan & Architectural Review Commission meets at 6 PM and the Library Board at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1867, the United States purchases Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, about two cents per acre. (The U.S. Senate later ratifies a bilateral treaty with Russia in May of that year.)
Consider an accurate headline describing the latest developments in the Iran War:
Check again soon, because in an hour or so the latest from Mr. Trump may be wholly different. Is the goal oil? Do we need oil? Should we need oil? Do we want regime change? Should we want regime change? Has the regime already been changed? Did we attack for ourselves or at the behest of a foreign power? Is the war won? Is the war intensifying? Is this even a war?
Admittedly, Trump is an extreme example of a problem with statements on topics national, statewide, or local: Is a claim justified merely in the making of it? He said it, so it must be true.1She claims it, and isn’t that all that matters?
A claim grounded like that would be the intellectual equivalent of a mayfly: buzzing, but only briefly. Few claims are self-authenticating, least of all the claims from Mar-a-Lago or whatever golf course Mr. Trump can find.
And yet, and yet, for so many of us, proof still matters beyond country clubs and golf courses.
It’s all 3-D chess, right? Has anyone considered that while a few talk about a three-dimensional version of chess, millions upon millions continue to play the traditional version of that ancient game? ↩︎
