Here’s the FREE WHITEWATER list of the scariest things in Whitewater for 2009. The 2007 and 2008 editions are available for comparison. The list runs in reverse order, from mildly frightening to super scary. 10. The Census. It’s only a year away, and in can’t be avoided — a decennial census is a federal, constitutional…
121 search results for "coan "
Uncategorized
Happy Friday
by JOHN ADAMS •
Posting has been light this month, as I have thought about FREE WHITEWATER’s readers, and how to describe and explain our town to a growing, out-of-town audience. When I started writing, I never thought about how many readers I might attract. I wrote what I felt like writing, and if anyone wanted to read, they…
City, Police
Vandalism and Alcohol
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Whitewater’s had more than its share of property damage from vandalism. Strong property rights make a for a strong community; free markets in private property are the foundation of a productive society. We have vandalism, too, and just about everyone contends that much of it comes from over-drinking, leaving a bar, after weekend last call.…
City
A Proposal for Whitewater’s Municipal Public Meetings
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I once read that one should offer solutions, not problems. Funny, something like this passes as …. insight. (I’m not sure where I read it. It might have been on a motivational poster, in a fortune cookie, or perhaps from an email I saw from a former city employee, writing to Chief Coan, discovered during…
City, Press
Wisconsin State Journal: “Alcohol Company Rep Arrested for OWI, Other Charges After Allegedly Running Over Officer’s Foot”
by JOHN ADAMS •
One hears a great deal about how much trouble alcohol causes. In Whitewater, I’ve heard more than once that alcohol causes raucous behavior. (There’s much that’s ridiculous about the excuse that alcohol makes people do stupid things. No matter, let’s assume, for now, that alcohol is the root of the problem.) If it should be…
City, Press
Common Council from September 8, 2009: Risk and Accountability
by JOHN ADAMS •
City
Common Council: What Are They Building in There? (July 21st, 2009)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Uncategorized
Why is an Agenda So Short (and Careless)?
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve some catching up to do on our last Common Council meeting. The last Police and Fire Commission meeting had a posted agenda so short that it was easy to tease about it. The agenda crammed item after item, including two police officer interviews, into a proposed 20 minute window. (See, Whitewater’s Latest Police and Fire Commission…
City
Email to Germany — Whitewater, Wisconsin’s Suggestions for the Name of a New Element!
by JOHN ADAMS •
Prof. Dr. Sigurd Hofmann GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung Planckstr. 1 64291 Darmstadt S. Hofmann@gsi.de http://www.gsi.de cc: Angela Merkel, Bundeskanzlerin der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, angela.merkel@bundestag.de Per E-Mail und Blog-Post Guten Tag, Prof. Dr. Hofmann, Ich möchte diese Gelegenheit nutzen, Sie zu beglückwünschen, und alle Mitglieder Ihres Teams an der GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, für die Entdeckung einer…
Uncategorized
Suggestions — Whitewater, Wisconsin — Name that New Element!
by JOHN ADAMS •
Well, thanks, Whitewater (and points far beyond, too)! I very much appreciate your suggestions for a name to recommend to the German scientists who recently discovered a new, super-heavy element (See my earlier post, Whitewater, Wisconsin — Name that New Element! I’ll list your suggestions, and later today I’ll post the email that I send…
City
The Trip of a Lifetime: Jolly Ol’ England!
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve received emails about a court ruling from England, in which an English judge ruled against the right of anonymity for a blogger. The ruling’s specific and technical, and of no precedent for America. Britain does not have a written constitution, unlike America, France, or Japan, for example. Her system of government is unlike our…
Libertarians
Gary Cooper’s Portrayal of Howard Roark in Rand’s Fountainhead.
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesterday, I posted a short clip from the 1949 film version of Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead. The film stars Gary Cooper as Howard Roark, an architect and individualist. Here’s a bit more. Rand wrote the screenplay for the film, and one can easily hear her voice in Roark’s words. Roark finds himself on trial, and delivers a…
City, Police
Whitewater’s Latest Police and Fire Commission Meeting, of May 2009
by JOHN ADAMS •
Has Whitewater Police Chief Jim Coan already hired a trainer for Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission members? Earlier this week, on May 20th, 2009, Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission met for a quarterly meeting. They met in a small conference room, rather than a chamber suitable for public attendance, and unlike so many other public…
City, Press
Two Accounts of One Council Meeting
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater’s a town of fourteen-thousand, with a university campus, but no local, daily press. That doesn’t mean that news isn’t reported in Whitewater. Some news is reported, although often in ways that are bland, and embarrassing moments in Whitewater often disappear from mention, sometimes to the benefit of incumbent politicians, career bureaucrats, and local people-of-influence.…