Thursday in Whitewater will be snowy with a high of 29. Sunrise is 7:21 and sunset is 4:23, for 9 hours, 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 79.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
MADISON – A new Assembly committee will focus in the next session on government efficiency, inspired by a similar federal department to be run in part by Elon Musk.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said in a Wednesday interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the new committee will be known as GOAT: Governmental Oversight, Accountability and Transparency Committee.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 31. Sunrise is 7:21 and sunset is 4:22, for 9 hours, 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 87.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1865, Secretary of State William Seward proclaims the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery throughout the United States.
Five days ago (less than a single week for those with calendars), one read that Wisconsin’s Senate Democrats had hope for a more bipartisan politics. This libertarian blogger had his doubts (seeThe Glistening Optimism of Wisconsin’s Senate Democrats).
Along comes Wisconsin Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) to confirm my skepticism:
New-elected Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) said Tuesday that she hopes for more bipartisan conversations next year, but that her caucus plans to operate in the same way it has previously, since Republicans still hold the majority in the Wisconsin Legislature, even after losing a handful of seats this election year.
The Legislature will return with closer margins next year following elections under new legislative maps. Republicans will have an 18-15 majority in the Senate, down from their previous 22-seat supermajority. In the Assembly Republicans will hold a 55-45 majority. Felzkowski made her comments during a WisPolitics panel Tuesday alongside Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) and two strategists — Keith Gilkes, a consultant and former chief political advisor for Republican former Gov. Scott Walker and Democratic strategist Tanya Bjork.
“Make no mistake, we still hold the majority,” Felzkowski said. “I hope we have better conversations. I hope we have better negotiations.”
Again, as before: “For a decade, Wisconsin was the most gerrymandered state in the country, the WISGOP still controls both chambers of the Legislature, and the GOP will soon control all three branches of the federal government (the single most powerful human institution on Earth).”
Those aren’t the sort of people in a genuinely compromising mood.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 38. Sunrise is 7:20 and sunset is 4:22, for 9 hours, 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 93.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1835, the second Great Fire of New York destroys 53,000 square meters (13 acres) of New York City’s Financial District.
AT&T plans to discontinue its traditional landline telephone service in Wisconsin and most states in its service area by the end of 2029.
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The company says only 5 percent of its residential customers still use copper technology and it’s working with them to ensure they do not lose voice or 911 services. The company has introduced a new service that works like a traditional landline, but connects using wireless networks or broadband.
In Wisconsin, roughly 15 percent of households still had a landline as of 2022, while roughly 5.5 percent of adults still primarily used their landline and 3 percent rely entirely on landlines, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
The vast majority of households used only wireless telephones in 2022 — 83.7 percent in Wisconsin. That number has come up substantially over the last few decades as advancements in cell phone technology have led to consumers increasingly ditching traditional landline service.
For comparison, about 12.8 percent of American households only had wireless phones in the latter half of 2006, according to federal data.
Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 42. Sunrise is 7:19 and sunset is 4:21, for 9 hours, 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 97.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater School Board goes into closed session shortly after 6:15 PM and resumes open session at 7 PM. Whitewater’s Library Board also meets tonight at 6:30 PM.
If rural America matters, and if it needs what advocates for rural America insist it should have1, then there’d be a new Farm Bill by now. The best that these advocates and professed defenders of rural America will produce, however, is likely to be a second extension of the existing legislation:
Wisconsin’s federal lawmakers are blaming the other side of the aisle for getting in the way of extending the farm bill.
The legislation is renewed every five years to fund programs around agriculture, conservation and food assistance.
Congress failed to pass a new farm bill in September 2023 and have instead extended the 2018 bill in order to keep programs operating. After making little progress on new legislation this year, federal lawmakers are expected to pass another extension as part of a deal to fund the government into early 2025.
Emergency workers race to find survivors and restore services to the French overseas territory of Mayotte, where hundreds, possibly thousands, are feared dead from the worst cyclone to hit the Indian Ocean islands in nearly a century.
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Not what this libertarian blogger insists rural America should have, but what professed advocates of rural America (from both parties) insist rural communities should have. ↩︎
Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 43. Sunrise is 7:19 and sunset is 4:21, for 9 hours, 3 minutes of daytime. The moon is full with 99.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Saturday in Whitewater will be cloudy, with snowy conditions this evening, and a daytime high of 36. Sunrise is 7:18, and sunset is 4:21, for 9 hours, 3 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 99.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Japan’s shaved ice treat is DELICIOUS Kakigori is a traditional Japanese shaved ice dessert dating back to the late 1800s. Originally meant for Japan’s elite. Chefs still abide by ancient methods of preparation, using ice frozen naturally by winter weather. But regardless of the texture, flavor, or weather, kakigori is delicious in every form.
Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 22. Sunrise is 7:17, and sunset is 4:21, for 9 hours, 4 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 95.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1972, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or Moonwalk of Apollo 17. To date they are the last humans to set foot on the Moon.
For a decade, Wisconsin was the most gerrymandered state in the country, the WISGOP still controls both chambers of the Legislature, and the GOP will soon control all three branches of the federal government (the single most powerful human institution on Earth). And yet, and yet, Wisconsin’s Senate Democrats are hopeful they can work ‘across the aisle’ with the WISGOP:
Wisconsin Senate Democrats knew going into this year’s elections that their opportunity to flip the Senate wouldn’t come until 2026, but they had a goal of flipping four seats and keeping every seat already held by a Democrat. They succeeded, and now the caucus is preparing for a legislative session with high hopes for bipartisan work.
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) told the Wisconsin Examiner in a year-end interview that her 15-member caucus is bringing “a lot of energy, enthusiasm and honesty” to the Senate and is looking forward to working next session. She said the bolstered caucus is returning for the next two-year session with “a lot of good ideas.”
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With a more evenly split Legislature, Hesselbein said there will be the potential to get more things done in a bipartisan way. She noted that last session several big pieces of legislation, including funding renovations at the stadium where the Milwaukee Brewers play, investing in the state’s local government funding and overhauling the state’s alcohol licensing, had bipartisan support.
Travel along a steep slope up to the rim of Mars’ Jezero Crater in this panoramic image captured by NASA’s Perseverance just days before the rover reached the top. The scene shows just how steep some of the slopes leading to the crater rim can be. The rover used its Mastcam-Z camera system to capture this view on Dec. 5, 2024, the 1,349th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. At the time, the rover was about 1,150 feet (350 meters) from, and 250 feet (75 meters) below, the top of the crater rim – a location the science team calls “Lookout Hill.” The rover reached Lookout Hill on Dec. 10 after a climb of 3½ months and 1,640 vertical feet (500 vertical meters).
Wednesday, December 18th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Love the Coopers @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Holiday/Comedy/Romance
Rated PG-13
1 hour, 47 minutes (2015)
The hilarious intertwined stories of four generations of the Cooper Family unfolds right before their annual family reunion on Christmas Eve. A stellar cast includes Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, John Goodman, Ed Helms, Timothée Chalamet, Amanda Seyfried, Alan Arkin, Marisa Tomei, Olivia Wilde, and June Squib.
Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 13. Sunrise is 7:16, and sunset is 4:21, for 9 hours, 4 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 90.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
CNBC offers a summary of national inflation numbers for November:
Consumers saw inflation pick up slightly in November as price increases in categories including groceries, gasoline and new cars outweighed a deceleration in others such as shelter during the month.
The consumer price index, a key inflation gauge, rose 2.7% last month relative to November 2023, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. The annual rate was up from 2.6% in October.
Homes, roads and buildings were covered in ash in the aftermath of the Kanlaon volcano eruption in the Central Philippine province of Negros Occidental, drone footage released by the Philippine Red Cross on December 10 showed.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 28. Sunrise is 7:16, and sunset is 4:20, for 9 hours, 5 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 81.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1972, Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and final Apollo mission to land on the Moon.
Wisconsin prosecutors filed 10 additional felony charges Tuesday against two attorneys and an aide to President-elect Donald Trump who advised Trump in 2020 as part of a plan to submit paperwork falsely claiming that the Republican had won the battleground state that year.
Jim Troupis, who was Trump’s attorney in Wisconsin, Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who advised the campaign, and Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day operations in 2020, all initially faced a single felony forgery charge in Wisconsin. Those charges were filed in June.
But on Tuesday, two days before the three are scheduled for their initial court appearances, the Wisconsin Department of Justice filed 10 additional felony charges against each of them. The charges are for using forgery in an attempt to defraud each of the 10 Republican electors who cast their ballots for Trump that year.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 32. Sunrise is 7:15, and sunset is 4:20, for 9 hours, 6 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 72.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 5:00 PM.
On this day in 1864, during his March to the Sea, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Union Army troops reach the outer Confederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a decision of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (based in Chicago):
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take a Wisconsin case that could have made it easier for parents to fight schools’ efforts to support transgender and nonbinary students.
Three of the court’s six conservatives — Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh — said they would have taken the appeal.
A group of Eau Claire parents argued challenges to gender identity support policies are being dismissed by judges across the country before they can be fully litigated because parents can’t show they’ve been affected.
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The Eau Claire Area School District of Wisconsin, which is defending its guidelines for ensuring a supportive environment for transgender students, countered that the parents are trying to create a new standard for lawsuits that would allow parents to preemptively challenge any school policy even if it doesn’t apply to them.
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The template Gender Support Plan prepared by the Eau Claire Area School District in 2022 recognizes that parents may not always be involved in a plan’s creation for a student. School personnel are supposed to check with a student before discussing their transgender status with a parent. But the support plan will be released to parents who request it.
A three-judge panel of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in May that none of the parents challenging the policy “has experienced an actual or imminent injury.”
