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Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.26.25: Wisconsin Supreme Court Rejects Challenges to State’s Congressional Maps

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will see a partly sunny afternoon with evening thunderstorms and a high of 89. Sunrise is 5:18 and sunset is 8:37, for 15 hours, 19 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1948, the first supply flights are made in response to the Berlin Blockade.

There are risks in intimating (1,2) even a simple probability (there are no certainties) of an appellate court’s ruling. One saw this yesterday, as the Wisconsin Supreme Court dismissed challenges to the state’s congressional district boundaries:

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to hear challenges brought by Democrats seeking to throw out the battleground state’s current congressional district boundaries before the 2026 midterms.

The decisions, made without explanation from the court, is a setback for Democrats who had hoped for new, friendlier district boundary lines in Wisconsin as they attempt to win back control of the House next year. 

Democrats asked the court to redraw the maps, which would have put two of the state’s six congressional seats currently held by Republicans into play. It was the second time in as many years that the court had refused to hear the challenges.

See Scott Bauer, Wisconsin Supreme Court refuses to hear challenges to the state’s congressional district boundaries, Associated Press, June 25, 2025.

This is not only a setback for Democrats; it’s a setback for anyone who wanted fair maps.

Rubin Observatory’s first images — Take a tour in 4K:

Tour the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s views of the Virgo cluster, Trifid and Lagoon Nebulas.

Budget, Daily Bread, Speaker Vos, State Government, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 6.25.25: It’s Not a Wisconsin Budget Negotiation, It’s Another WISGOP Display of Bad Faith Claims

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 82. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset is 8:37, for 15 hours, 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is new with 0.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1950, the Korean War begins when North Korea invades South Korea.

One reads that the state budget deadline looms as Assembly approves new programs without funds:

Assembly Republicans gathered ahead of the floor session to stress the need for bipartisan negotiations and progress on writing the state budget.

Budget negotiations fell apart last week for the second time as Senate Republicans walked away from talks with Gov. Tony Evers. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) said in a statement at the time that discussions were “heading in a direction that taxpayers cannot afford.” 

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said during a press conference that he has been in communication with Evers, including on Tuesday morning. 

Vos said the discussions about child care funding are “preliminary” with “a lot of details to be worked out.” He said Assembly Republicans remain “steadfast” in its opposition to “writing checks out to providers” but are open to working with Evers on child care. 

Evers told reporters Monday he wouldn’t sign a budget if it doesn’t include money for child care.

“Republicans need to get their act together and come back and let’s finish it up,” Evers said.

Asked if he would sign a budget that doesn’t include funding for the state’s Child Care Counts program, Evers said “no.” 

Evers has not vetoed a budget in full during his time in office, though he has exercised his partial veto power extensively, rejecting major tax cuts and making changes to extend increases for school revenue – to the great irritation of Republicans.

See Baylor Spears, Budget deadline looms as Assembly approves new programs without funds, passes nuclear power bills, Wisconsin Examiner, June 25, 2025.

Professional journalism only goes so far, by its own standards, in calling this what it is.

Prof. Mark Copelovitch, using higher-education funding as his example, describes Assembly Speaker Vos’s approach:

Quite right: Vos reflexively argues in bad faith, where there is always another reason, lurking behind his professed reason, for his actions.

In Whitewater and across Wisconsin, Vos is a hopeful model for liars, schemers, and posers that they, too, can gain power and influence without talent or integrity.

Drones tackle Everest’s trash crisis, carry garbage down:

A Nepalese company has used drones on Mount Everest to transport crucial mountaineering equipment up perilous crevasses, and then using the same drones to transport trash back down the mountain.

Animals, Birds, Conservation, Daily Bread, Environment, Insects, Nature, Plants, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.24.25: Prairies & Pollinators

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 84. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset is 8:37, for 15 hours, 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 1.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1812, Napoleon’s Grande Armée crosses the Neman river beginning the invasion of Russia.

An interlude for today, of prairies and pollinators.

Prairies:

Pollinators:

Congress, Daily Bread, Fair Maps, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 6.23.25: Noticing Wisconsin Congressional Redistricting Before 2026

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 92. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset is 8:37, for 15 hours, 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 5.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Lakes Advisory Committee meets at 4:30 PM and the Urban Forestry Commission meets at 5:30 PM. The Whitewater School Board meets at 7 PM.

On this day in 1917, in a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retires 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the umpire.

The national press has begun to notice what’s been evident locally for weeks: that Wisconsin congressional redistricting before 2026 will bring changes to the state’s partisan congressional mix. (See from FREE WHITEWATER on 5.13.25 Probable Consequences of Redrawn Wisconsin Congressional Maps.) Dan Merica and Matthew Choi write:

Wisconsin has only eight congressional districts, and many of them are considered safe seats. However, because the state may undergo a rare mid-decade redistricting process ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, two districts currently controlled by Republicans could become significantly more competitive.

Just ask one of the Republicans representing one of those districts.

“We both lose,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden said when asked by CNN about the stakes of redistricting in the state, referring to himself and Rep. Bryan Steil. “So that’s why everyone’s paying attention to this on a national level.”

The last redistricting in the state occurred under a conservative-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court that applied the “least change” standard, which Democrats contend left the districts biased in favor of Republicans. The state’s legislative maps were redrawn in 2023 after the court abandoned that standard, but the congressional maps were not.

….

“It’s hard to think of a standard that would lead to maps getting even more skewed in favor of Republicans in Wisconsin, so Derrick Van Orden has about a year and a half to decide how to spend his final months in Congress,” said Ben Wikler, the outgoing chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. “The writing is on the wall here.”

See Dan Merica and Matthew Choi, How voters in rural Wisconsin could decide the House majority, Washington Post, June 23, 2025.

Merica and Choi write elsewhere in their story that “[h]yperbole aside, the result could decide control of the House,” but that strikes me as hyperbole in the middle of it: could decide is possible but only in the way that many causes and effects are possible.

I’ve no idea whether Wisconsin’s congressional results will decide the national House majority. It’s enough to know that congressional redistricting in Wisconsin is probable before the 2026 election, and that Van Orden and Steil would both lose if their district maps are redrawn.

Kevin the Canadian Chihuahua has his own way to beat the heat:

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by The Three Chimigos (@the_three_chimigos)


Daily Bread, Economy, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.22.25: Wisconsin Faces Economic Uncertainty

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will again be windy with a high of 93. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset is 8:37, for 15 hours, 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 11.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1944, President Roosevelt signs into law the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill.

FDR Library https://fdrlibrary.wordpress.com/tag/g-i-bill-of-rights/, Public Domain, Link.

Meanwhile, in Wisconsin:

The most common word attached to the current state of Wisconsin’s economy is “uncertainty.”  

In just about every sector, businesses have been forced to adjust and become flexible for any future economic headwinds. Persistent inflation and the impact of tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump since he returned to office in January have businesses and consumers struggling to plan.

“Nobody worth their salt is making any legitimate forecasts,” said Dennis Winters, chief economist with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.  

….

But recent national reports have showed that hiring is slowing. There’s worry that trend could expand and lead to job cuts.

National surveys show that consumers are starting to feel the same uncertainty and are starting to pull back on spending on things like cars, clothing and appliances. And a variety of factors, including high mortgage interest rates, are stalling the residential real estate markets. More pullbacks, including reduced air travel, are anticipated.

See Ricardo Torres, Tom Daykin, Rick Barrett, Sarah Volpenhein, and Genevieve Redsten, Economic anxiety: How sectors of Wisconsin’s economy that affect everyday lives are faring, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 16, 2025.

Sun blasts powerful X-flare that ‘appears to destabilize filament,’ causing it to erupt:

Sunspot AR4114 erupted with an X1.9-class solar flare on June 19, 2025. The flare “appears to have destabilized a magnetic filament,” according to Spaceweather.com. The flare and filament eruption were captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory in multiple wavelengths. Footage courtesy: NASA / SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, helioviewer.org | edited by Space.com’s Steve Spaleta.

Daily Bread, Film, Photography

Daily Bread for 6.21.25: Can You Believe Your Own Eyes? Not With A.I. | Op-Docs

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 93. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset is 8:37, for 15 hours, 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 19.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 2006,  Pluto‘s newly discovered moons are officially named Nix and Hydra.

By H. Weaver (JHU/APL), A. Stern (SwRI), and the HST Pluto Companion Search Team. Public Domain, Link.
Film and text by Maximilien Van Aertryck and Axel Danielson: The camera is a tool — but to do what? Images shape our daily life, yet we rarely question how they’re made or why.

As filmmakers, we’re fascinated by how humans use cameras and by the immense influence images have. For 15 years, we’ve investigated the history of the camera, and we’ve turned the material we gathered into a feature documentary, chronicling how people behind the camera went from capturing the image of a backyard to today’s multibillion-dollar content industry.

The video above, “Death of a Fantastic Machine,” is a shorter version of that documentary, and here we focus on something that emerged as the key factor: how economic forces have shaped what we see, from the earliest photography to the algorithms and A.I. of today.

Some say there are an estimated 45 billion cameras on Earth today, giving humankind access to perspectives far beyond our own reach. But the very tool that could help us understand the world is increasingly used to distort it. With A.I., this distortion has reached a new level.

When any photo or video can be manufactured, what happens to the camera’s credibility? Can we still trust what we see?

A kelp gull, typically found along coasts in the Southern Hemisphere, is frequenting the roof of a building along the Milwaukee’s Lake Michigan shore:

City, Daily Bread, School District

Daily Bread for 6.20.25: The Whitewater School District’s New Superintendent

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Good morning.

The first day of summer in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 82. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset is 8:36, for 15 hours, 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 30.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1975, the film Jaws is released in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing film of that time and starting the trend of films known as ‘summer blockbusters.’ See also Think you know ‘Jaws’? Test your knowledge with this trivia ahead of the movie’s 50th anniversary, Associated Press, June 19, 2025.

The Whitewater Unified School District, in a 6.19.25 press release, has now announced that Samuel Karns, formerly of the Beloit School District, will be Whitewater’s new school superintendent.

The district’s press release appears above, with a few remarks below:

1. One wishes Whitewater’s new superintendent the best, truly. This is a district with several challenges, not the least of which is a faction that insists it’s a district with no challenges. It’s reasonable, absent some unexpected development, to give this new superintendent a full school year to settle into his role.

2. Of those challenges: a community that is divided politically and culturally, an outgoing superintendent who has shown contempt for open government and dialogue, a school board that has shown contempt for open government and dialogue, an administration and school board with a tolerance for their own below-average performance, a number of administrators who should not have been hired over these last five years, and too many people who have been emotional rather than composed in addressing these failings.

3. This libertarian blogger has approached these matters dispassionately, with sangfroid, so I’ll state plainly: I’ll never understand how this outgoing superintendent enthralled some and discombobulated others. Over these five years, I have been unimpressed and unfazed.

4. Whitewater’s students have deserved better performance, and some, admirably, have managed to do well even in difficult times.

5. Addressing all this is not quite a supertask, yet it will be difficult. No one should expect sudden progress (although a change from an autocratic administrative approach to a normal approach of give-and-take will, undoubtedly, be a meaningful improvement).

This community will have to decide what it wants: a minimal level of accord among factions, incremental progress, or wholesale reform?

A variation on a venerable expression: Central Office won’t be rebuilt in a day.

Once malnourished, hairless bear is now fully furred:

The orphaned and once hairless bear cub now weighs nearly 80 pounds, fully furred and has all the energy in the world.

City, Film

Film: Tuesday, June 24th, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Nickel Boys

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Tuesday, June 24th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Nickel Boys @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Coming of Age/Drama/History

Rated PG-13; 2 hours, 20 minutes (2024)

The chronicles of a powerful friendship between two young Black teenagers, navigating the harrowing trials of the Nickel Academy, a Florida reform school in the 1960’s Jim Crow South. Based on the best selling novel by Colson Whitehead. Nominated for Oscars: Best Film and Best Adapted Screenplay.

One can find more information about Nickel Boys at the Internet Movie Database.

Climate, Daily Bread, Science/Nature, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.19.25: A Hazy Shade of Summer

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset is 8:36, for 15 hours, 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 40.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM.

It’s Juneteenth. On this day in 1865, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are officially informed of their freedom:

Despite the surrender of Confederate General-in-Chief Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, the western Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi did not formally surrender until June 2. On the morning of June 19, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived on the island of Galveston to take command of the more than 2,000 federal troops recently landed in the department of Texas to enforce the emancipation of its enslaved population and oversee Reconstruction, nullifying all laws passed within Texas during the war by Confederate lawmakers. The order informed all Texans that, in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all enslaved people were free:

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.

Why are Wisconsin’s summer skies hazy these past few summers? Here’s why:

Early snowmelt is a warning sign of intense wildfires to come

Although separated by thousands of miles, Milwaukee’s air quality shares a surprising connection with the snow in western Canada. Scientists are finding that early warning signs of an intense wildfire season — one that can generate fires sending smoke all the way to the Great Lakes region — come not when the Canadian fires are sparked, but during warm winters and long springs, when snow melts early.

Although some people still don’t like hearing it, that’s a function of climate change.

Much of the early snowmelt turns into runoff, and does not adequately soak into soil. That leaves behind dry land that serves as fuel for fires. Even wetlands, which would normally stop the fires or provide water for firefighters, dry out and burn.

….

To understand how wildfire smoke is transported from Canada to the Midwest, [air quality meteorologist at Wisconsin DNR Alex] Oser said, it’s helpful to think of the atmosphere as multiple layers surrounding the Earth. Smoke in the surface layer, where we live and breathe, can sometimes travel long distances, but typically stays put or moves slowly.

The most significant movement occurs when smoke enters the high winds of the jet stream at the next level – the stratosphere. “If you have a very hot fire, a very large fire, that smoke can punch through the film between these two layers” said Oser.

Once in the stratosphere, near the height where planes fly, wind can carry Canadian smoke from west to east across the continent and to Europe. Images from NASA satellites this year show a smoky haze across North America.

See Andrew Montequin, Melting snow in Canada exacerbates wildfires that bring smoke to Milwaukee, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 19, 2025.

Less ketamine1, more rocket science:

_____

  1. A short time-frame drug test now, even if true, doesn’t suddenly undo the effects of years of misuse. ↩︎

Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Legislature, Litigation, State Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.18.25: Unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court Upholds Attorney General’s Core Executive Authority

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with afternoon showers and a high of 76. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset is 8:36, for 15 hours, 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 52.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1815, the Battle of Waterloo results in the defeat of French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, forcing Napoleon to abdicate the throne of France for the second and last time.

Yesterday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision striking down a law enacted in 2018 that required the Department of Justice to obtain approval from the Joint Finance Committee before settling many civil cases. The court held that litigation in two primary areas (civil enforcement actions and cases the DOJ brings at the request of executive agencies) constitutes core executive functions. Wisconsin’s high court held that requiring legislative approval for settlements in these cases violates the Wisconsin Constitution’s separation of powers.

See Henry Redman, Unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court rules for AG Kaul, limiting legislative committee’s powers, Wisconsin Examiner, June 17, 2025.

See also Kaul v. Wisconsin State Legislature, 2025 WI 23, No. 2022AP000790:

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Rainbow and twister create unique moment amid tornado warning:

A large twister was spotted spinning near a rainbow amid a tornado warning in Nebraska.
more >>

Conservative Populism, Crime, Daily Bread, Populists, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.17.25: Eleven Wisconsin Lawmakers Named in Killer’s Manifesto

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 86. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset is 8:36, for 15 hours, 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 64.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1673, Marquette & Joliet reach the Mississippi: “”Here we are, then, on this so renowned river, all of whose peculiar features I have endeavored to note carefully.” 

Captured killer Vance Luther Boelter’s manifesto included the names of nearly a dozen Wisconsin lawmakers:

Eleven Wisconsin lawmakers are named in a manifesto written by a gunman suspected of killing a Democratic Minnesota lawmaker and her husband and shooting another lawmaker and his wife, according to Democratic sources.

Wisconsin Democrats gathered June 14 at their annual convention under increased security after the two Democratic lawmakers in neighboring Minnesota were gunned down in their homes overnight.

Authorities say Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed and state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were injured at their homes by 57-year-old Vance Luther Boelter, who was impersonating law enforcement in what Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called a “politically motivated assassination.” Hoffman and Hortman are both members of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Democratic sources told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that 11 Wisconsin lawmakers’ names are on a manifesto police recovered in their search for Boelter, who was apprehended in Minnesota on June 15. In some cases, the Wisconsin lawmakers were relocated from their homes to keep them safe as the search for Boelter continued, according to the sources. The group of Wisconsin lawmakers included eight women and three men, according to one source. All are Democrats.

“I just learned that. And that’s just shocking, to be honest with you, that is just absolutely shocking,” Democratic state Sen. Brad Pfaff of Onalaska said. “I don’t understand the level of anger that would lead to such a violent outburst that took place today in the Twin Cities, and I don’t understand why state legislators here in Wisconsin would also be on such a list.”

He said his name was not among those on the list.

Pfaff said he’s concerned that intensifying political rhetoric has pushed the country to this point. 

See Molly Beck, Laura Schulte, and Daniel Bice, 11 Wisconsin lawmakers named in manifesto of Minnesota gunman, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 16, 2025.

While disturbing, there’s nothing surprising about this: pardoning violent insurrectionists, for example, shows support for political violence.

See also Brian Klaas, Understanding Trump’s incitements to violence, The Contrarian, June 16, 2025.

Verifying the authenticity of videos claiming to show Israeli and Iranian airstrikes:

Conservative Populism, Conspiracy Theories, Crackpots, Daily Bread, Scott Walker, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.16.25: Scott Walker Completes Transformation from Wisconsin Governor to Internet Troll

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 83. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset is 8:35, for 15 hours, 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 73.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1911, IBM is founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.

Scott Walker, former governor of Wisconsin, now spends his days as president of the Young America’s Foundation, but his nights and weekends as an Internet troll:

The claim Walker was making, repeated widely throughout conservative populist channels, is the false claim that the conservative populist who murdered two and wounded two in Minnesota was somehow liberal and the crime was a liberal plot.

Walker, of course, would have had no idea either way: he only repeated what he read uncritically on mendacious and moronic websites.

Walker’s now completed his transformation from failed governor of Wisconsin to Internet troll.

No Kings in Wisconsin: