FREE WHITEWATER

City, Daily Bread, New Whitewater, That Which Paved the Way

Daily Bread for 9.6.24: A Whitewater ‘Unburdened by What Has Been’

by  • 

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 6:26, and sunset is 7:18, for 12h 52m 25s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 10.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1946, United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes announces that the U.S. will follow a policy of economic reconstruction in postwar Germany.

Kamala Harris sometimes uses the expression “what can be, unburdened by what has been.”

The sound implication is that the present is burdened by what has been, but can be unburdened with effort.

Whitewater is like this, as the city is burdened twice-over by her past. First, she’s afflicted by a small faction of ordinary men possessed of extraordinary self-promotion and self-dealing. See A Reminder on Whitewater’s Fumbling & Stumbling Old Guard, The Special-Interest Hierarchy of a Small Town, and The Special-Interest Hierarchy of a Small Town (Adjacent Support).

Second, that small faction diverted attention from basic needs, including the ability of adults to discourse on a proper high-school level, leaving a small number in the community as little more than ignorant (lit., lacking knowledge or awareness) or confused tale-bearers. See Formation, General, Formation Hasn’t Stopped Mattering, and Formation, Moral.

Special interests’ particular avarice, afflicting the town with general stagnation, was worse even than economic: it has led to a decline in acculturation among the portions of the community those interests variously patronized or ignored.

They’ve left the next generation with a significant burden to overcome. Whitewater has made solid progress these last two years, and although we have years to go, we will overcome the burden of the past.

Cats, Weird Tales

Friday Catblogging: Not Dead Ted

by  • 

Ted the cat walked through the cat-flap at his home in North Yorkshire – four days after his owners thought he’d been cremated.

In Britain, a Nicci Knight was on vacation when she was told erroneously that her cat Ted had died. She arranged to have the cat cremated while she was away. Four days later, Knight learned from her cat sitter that Ted was alive, and it was another cat that had drowned in Knight’s pond.

Jamie Grierson reports Cat makes surprise return home four days after being ‘cremated’ (‘Beloved pet Ted reunited with grieving North Yorkshire family after drowning mixup’):

Four days after the cremation, Knight – still in Turkey – saw she had several missed calls from her cat sitter. “I was in the pool again, having a lovely time, having, you know, put it [Ted’s death] behind us,” she told the broadcaster.

The cat sitter told Knight that Ted had just walked through the catflap. “I didn’t believe it at first,” Knight said. “I had to get her to FaceTime me live so that I could see that Ted was actually alive.”

Knight soon realised she had paid £130 to cremate someone else’s cat. When she later went to collect the ashes, she saw the urn had been labelled “Not Dead Ted.”

City, Film

Film: Tuesday, September 10th, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Thelma

by  • 

Tuesday, September 10th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Thelma @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Comedy/Action

Rated PG-13

1 hour, 38 minutes (2024)

When 93 year old Thelma Post (June Squibb) gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a quest across the city to reclaim what was taken from her. Revenge has never been sweeter. Drama, comedy, adventure and romance commences! Also stars Richard Roundtree, in his last performance.

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

Books, Business, Daily Bread, Education, Facebook, Fact Checking, Populists, Reading, Reasoning

Daily Bread for 9.5.24: Formation Hasn’t Stopped Mattering

by  • 

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 6:25, and sunset is 7:20, for 12h 55m 15s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 5.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1905, the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by President Theodore Roosevelt, ends the Russo-Japanese War.

Three years ago, during the pandemic, pondering the social media scene, I posted on Formation, General:

Some level of formation, of structure and learning, is needed to make sense of a difficult subject.

Come now the conservative populists, who are convinced that there is no field, no topic, that requires more effort than their own ‘common sense.’  They ask — they demand — that others who have committed years of formal or self-study recognize unconsidered or ill-considered populist opinions as valid as any other opinion.

They sometimes simply don’t know what they don’t know. Their ignorance of substantive study is matched by their arrogance in insisting that substantive study doesn’t matter.  Someone might tell these conservative populists that arrogance invites Nemesis, but it would take some reading for them to make sense of those cautionary words.

Why have medicine, for example when any populist can spend a few moments on Facebook and diagnose any condition? (I’ve argued, for example, against amateur epidemiology, even when well-intentioned. See Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021 — COVID-19: Skepticism and Rhetoric.)

Modern medicine, architecture, or materials science requires dedicated study. Anyone, in any era, might have said he or she possessed ‘common sense.’ And yet, and yet, those people from those earlier times often lived short lives in filth and misery.

The conservative populists enjoy lives in an era of technological and scientific accomplishment dependent on the efforts of the very experts they denigrate.

When common sense fails for these populists, when they misread medical texts and legal documents, they make the excuse that the topics were too hard or too confusing for anyone to understand.  No and no again: the texts and documents were too hard only for those who had not committed the proper amount of study to the topic.

The lack of formation —of a learned foundation in politics, history, science, or even ordinary English usage — leaves the conservative populists unimpressive to anyone outside their circle.

Still true, years after the pandemic.

Underwater bridge gives clues to ancient human arrival:

Mallorca is the largest of the Balearic islands and the sixth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, but despite its size and location research suggests that it was among the last Mediterranean islands to be settled by humans. But exactly when people arrived on the island is a subject of much debate, with current estimates placing it at around 4,400 years ago. However, an ancient stone bridge in a flooded cave may call that timeline into question. By dating mineral deposits in the cave scientists have given a new window for when they suggest humans actually reached the island — at least 1,000 years earlier than previously thought.

Business, Confidence Schemes, Daily Bread, Dog-Crap Company, Trump

Daily Bread for 9.4.24: Trump Media, Nothing But a Meme Stock, Keeps Falling

by  • 

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 6:24, and sunset is 7:22, for 12h 58m 04s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission holds a Training/Review of Open Meeting Laws & Visioning Session at 6 PM.

On this day in 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University, found Google.

NBC reports that Trump Media, owner of Trump’s money-losing Truth Social venture, has “fallen to its lowest levels since the company started trading publicly following a merger in March. Former President Donald Trump and other major investors will be allowed to sell their shares in the Truth Social parent company later this month.”

Like his political ideology, Trump’s business ventures are gaudy confidence schemes.

The real reason the morning train was delayed:

Post by @catswithjobs_official
View on Threads

City, Crime, University

Whitewater Police Department Identifies Suspect in Homicide Investigation

by  • 

The Whitewater Police Department released today a statement identifying the suspect in the fatal shooting of Kara Welsh. That statement appears below:


Whitewater Police Make Arrest in Homicide Investigation – UPDATE

Whitewater, WI – September 3, 2024 – The Whitewater Police Department is confirming the identity of the suspect arrested in this case as Chad T. Richards, 23, of Loves Park, Illinois. Richards is scheduled to appear in court today, September 3rd, at the Walworth County Courthouse.

The Whitewater Police Department forwarded the following charges to the Walworth County District Attorney’s Office: First-Degree Intentional Homicide (Wis. Stat. 940.01(a)), Endangering Safety by the Use of a Dangerous Weapon (Wis. Stat. 941.20(1)(c)), and Disorderly Conduct while Armed (Wis. Stat. 947.01). It is noted that this case has not been concluded. Unless a judgement of conviction is entered, the arrestee/defendant is presumed innocent of all charges.

Due to the fact that this is an ongoing investigation, no additional details will be provided at this time. Anyone with information relevant to this investigation is encouraged to contact the Whitewater Police Department at 262-473-0555 option #4. Anonymous tips may also be shared using P3Tips.com.

Previously: A Fatal Shooting in the City, Official Release of Information on Student Fatally Shot.

Daily Bread, Elections, Presidential Race 2024, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.3.24: Wisconsin One of Seven Key Campaign States

by  • 

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 75. Sunrise is 6:23, and sunset is 7:24, for 13h 00m 54s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 0.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1783, the American Revolutionary War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain (ratification being later completed in 1784).

Steve Peoples, Thomas Beaumont, and Amelia Thomson-Deveaux report in Presidential Campaigns Brace for an Intense Sprint to Election Day that Wisconsin is one of seven critical states for both major campaigns:

After a summer of historic tumult, the path to the presidency for both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump this fall is becoming much clearer.

The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president will devote almost all of their remaining time and resources to just seven states [story highlights Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada]. They will spend hundreds of millions of dollars targeting voters who, in many cases, have just begun to pay attention to the election. And their campaigns will try to focus their messages on three familiar issues — the economy, immigration and abortion — even in the midst of heated debates over character, culture and democracy.

The candidates will debate in one week in what will be their first meeting ever. The nation’s premier swing state, Pennsylvania, begins in-person absentee voting the week after. By the end of the month, early voting will be underway in at least four states with a dozen more to follow by mid-October.

Wisconsin is again, as she’s has been for over a dozen years, among the most intense of political battlegrounds.

What’s in the Sky for September 2024:

Daily Bread, History, Labor, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.2.24: Labor Day

by  • 

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 74. Sunrise is 6:22, and sunset is 7:25, for 13h 03m 42s of daytime. The moon is new with 0.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1945, the Japanese Instrument of Surrender is signed by Japan and the major warring powers aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Japanese Government on board the USS Missouri (BB-63) on 2 September 1945. Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland, U.S. Army, watches from the opposite side of the table. Foreign Ministry representative Toshikazu Kase is assisting Mr. Shigemitsu. Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives. By Army Signal Corps photographer LT. Stephen E. Korpanty; restored by Adam Cuerden – Naval Historical Center Photo # SC 213700, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93758525

A reminder, although one shouldn’t be needed: free markets are markets in capital, labor, and goods & services. Not one — all. Erik Gunn writes Report shows improvements for Wisconsin workers while shortcomings persist:

Wisconsin workers’ wages are up and the racial and gender gaps they face are smaller, says a new Labor Day report. But the gaps haven’t been eliminated and challenges such as the scarcity and cost of child care continue to keep some in the state who want jobs from joining the workforce.

Those and other trends are mapped in the 2024 edition of The State of Working Wisconsin, released just before the Labor Day weekend by the High Road Strategy Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Working Wisconsin report examines the economy from the vantage point of how it affects workers. It is issued annually by the center, a nonprofit that researches and promotes solutions to social problems that focus on “shared growth and opportunity, environmental sustainability, and resilient democratic institutions as necessary and achievable complements in human development.”

See also State of Working Wisconsin 2024:

The-State-of-Working-Wisconsin-2024Download

The US Department of Labor presents The History of Labor Day:

City, Crime, Daily Bread, University

Daily Bread for 9.1.24: Official Release of Information on Student Fatally Shot

by  • 

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 73. Sunrise is 6:21, and sunset is 7:27, for 13h 06m 31s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 2.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1939,   Germany and Slovakia invade Poland, beginning the European phase of World War II.

On Saturday afternoon, UW-Whitewater released a statement following the identification of the victim of a fatal shooting in the city. That statement, from Chancellor Corey King, appears in full below:

Message from Chancellor King

Dear students, faculty and staff,

It is with great sadness that we announce a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student has passed away. Kara Welsh, age 21, from Plainfield, Illinois, died in a shooting off campus on Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. More information is available on the City of Whitewater website.

Kara was majoring in management in our College of Business and Economics and was a standout member of the Warhawk gymnastics team, winning an individual national title on the vault in 2023.

We know the news of Kara’s death is heartbreaking for our close-knit university community. It is a time when we are all called upon to support one another, to process, and to grieve.

Please know that counseling services are available to you. For students, please contact the University Health and Counseling Services. For faculty and staff, please contact Acentra, the Employee Assistance Program.

Since learning of this tragedy, our colleagues across Whitewater have come together to respond and to engage in layers of support for our students, faculty and staff.  

  • Our Dean of Students office is connected with Kara’s family and is helping them navigate through the unimaginable situation of the loss of their loved one.
  • Our Athletics leadership brought together the gymnastics team and coaches to inform them in person, and University Health and Counseling Services offered counseling support. 
  • Our Academic Affairs staff are planning to provide extra support and flexibility to affected students with classes beginning on Tuesday.
  • Our UW-Whitewater Police Department continued their close collaboration with the City of Whitewater Police Department by providing assistance in the investigation.
  • The Chancellor’s Cabinet and other university leaders continue to stay in contact and take action to lead us through this difficult time.

Details for memorial services will be shared when they are available. I have directed that the UW-Whitewater flag fly at half-staff on Tuesday, Sept. 3, in Kara’s memory. 

Sincerely,
Corey King
Chancellor

City, Crime, Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.31.24: A Fatal Shooting in the City

by  • 

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 6:20, and sunset is 7:29, for 13h 09m 18s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 5.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1939,  Nazi Germany mounts a false flag attack on the Gleiwitz radio station, creating an excuse to attack Poland the following day, thus starting World War II in Europe.

One reads this Saturday morning from a press release and professional reporting that there was a fatal shooting in the city shortly before midnight on Friday. From that reporting, Whitewater Police: 21-year-old woman dies from ‘multiple gunshot wounds’:

A 21-year-old woman has died after sustaining “multiple gunshot wounds,” according to information released Saturday by Whitewater Police Chief Dan Meyer. 

Meyer, within the release, stated that police responded Friday, just before midnight, to an apartment in the 100 block of W. Whitewater Street after receiving a report of an individual who had suffered gunshot wounds. 

Upon arrival, police found a woman deceased in the apartment. 

Also present, the release read, was a 23-year-old male who was known to the deceased woman. 

An investigation has led police to believe that prior to the shooting, an altercation occurred between the male and female, according to the release. 

The male has been detained and the investigation remains ongoing, the release noted. 

“We are confident that there is no threat to the community at this time,” the release reported.

The department was right to publish quickly a succinct release to inform the city and prevent rumor.

This fatal shooting is a fathomless loss for which one offers condolences to the family and friends of the deceased woman.

Daily Bread, Wisconsin, Writing

Daily Bread for 8.30.24: Poet Anja Notanja Sieger Types Your Story

by  • 

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 79. Sunrise is 6:18, and sunset is 7:31, for 13h 12m 05s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 11.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1862,  Wisconsin troops rest on the White House lawn:

The 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin Infantry regiments fought in the Second Battle of Bull Run. By the end of this third day, more than 18,000 soldiers had been killed or wounded and Union forces had been pushed back to Washington, D.C. When the Wisconsin regiments arrived in Washington, they rested on the White House lawn. According to historian Frank Klement, “President Lincoln came out with a pail of water in one hand and a dipper in the other. He moved among the men, offering water to the tired and thirsty. Some Wisconsin soldiers drank from the common dipper and thanked the President for his kindness.”

On this day in 1945, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthur, lands at Atsugi Air Force Base.

‘Writing is listening’ Poet Anja Notanja Sieger types your story | Wisconsin Life:

Setting up a vintage typewriter in public spaces throughout Milwaukee, poet and performance artist Anja Notanja Sieger crafts custom poems on demand that create intimate connections with her audience. From anxious poems to marriage vows, Sieger’s spontaneous creativity has made her and her typewriter poetry beloved in the city’s cultural scene.

Cats, Science/Nature

Friday Catblogging: Why Cats Hate Closed Doors (Because, Ya Know, They Really Do)

by  • 

Over at Live Science, Margaret Osborne asks (and answers) Why do cats hate closed doors?:

If you’ve ever witnessed a cat in front of a closed door, you might notice how much they seem to be annoyed by it. They might poke a furry arm under the crack, begin to paw at the door or even attack it while letting out agitated meows. But why do cats seem to hate closed doors so much?

Both evolution and pet owners themselves play a role, experts say.

….

A closed door hits on all of what cat behaviorist Jane Ehrlich calls the “three terrible C’s” that cats dislike: They hate not having choice, they hate not being in control, and they hate change. While cats don’t necessarily want to be involved in whatever is happening behind the door, they do want to know what’s going on, she said.

Cats also enjoy attention from their owners — which a closed door eliminates. A 2017 study published in the journal Behavioural Processes suggests most cats prefer human interaction to other stimuli, including food and toys. And cats don’t understand that a closed door is temporary, either, Johnson said.

“They just know that the spot that they previously had access to — where they feel safe, or they like to sleep or nap or eat or what have you — is now suddenly taken away,” [cat behavior consultant Ingrid] Johnson said. “When we control things for our cats, we create stress.”

City, Daily Bread, Politics

Daily Bread for 8.29.24: Scouting Whitewater’s Political Landscape

by  • 

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 84. Sunrise is 6:17, and sunset is 7:32, for 13h 14m 52s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 18.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1997,  Netflix launches as an internet DVD rental service (streaming came later, in 2007).

Joe Tarr reports on the enthusiasm that Kamala Harris is generating among many college students in Young Wisconsin Democrats fired up with Harris at the top of the ticket. Tarr’s story begins with an anecdote from UW-Whitewater:

Alyssa Wahlborg knows that her politics don’t always gel with that of the community where she attends college. 

While a lot of students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater might lean left, the larger community “leans a bit red,” she told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” Nevertheless, Wahlborg sees hope that the Democratic Party can make gains in rural Walworth County and elsewhere. 

“Having conversations with people on our campus makes you realize how blue we can get, and how we can flip our district,” Wahlborg said. “We even flipped our city council blue. We (elected) Democrats to our school boards.”

First and foremost, to all those arriving on campus: Welcome to Whitewater. It’s a beautiful city. There’s no better place to live.

The story inspires me to update a series of posts I wrote in 2021 about politics in the city proper (city politics that are evolving and different from red Walworth County). Here are those posts from 2021: 2021 Unofficial Spring Election Results, The Kinds of Conservatives in Whitewater, The City’s Center-Left, The City’s Few Progressives, The Campus, The Subcultural City, Marketing, COVID-19: Skepticism and Rhetoric, Majoritarianism, and The Limits of Local Politics.

Kevin the Canadian Chihuahua calculates the task ahead: