It’s thunderstorms ahead for Whitewater today, with a high temperature in the lower nineties. There’s a Common Council meeting tonight, at 6:30 p.m. The meeting agenda is available online. The Wisconsin Historical Society marks this day in 1832 as the end of the Black Hawk War: On this date the defeat of Black Hawk and…
703 search results for "TID 4"
City, Government Spending, Taxes/Taxation
The Cost and Camouflage of Grants
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s an item in the Whitewater city manager’s July 15th Weekly Report that shows how deceptive grants — supposedly free money — can be. First, the cost. Grants for bridges, etc., aren’t free — someone had to earn that grant money, money that found its way to one public or quasi-public organization or another. When…
City, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Planning, Taxes/Taxation, University
Another Innovation: Whitewater’s ‘Innovation’ Center as an Eleven-Million Dollar Meeting Hall
by JOHN ADAMS •
The federal government gave millions in tax dollars to Whitewater, the Whitewater Community Development Authority, and UW-Whitewater for a reason. Here’s that reason: September 7-September 11, 2009 …$4,740,809 to the Whitewater Community Development Authority, the University of Wisconsin Whitewater, and the City of Whitewater, Wisconsin, to fund construction of the new Innovation Center and infrastructure…
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 2-9-11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning, Today’s forecast for Whitewater calls for a sunny and cold day, with a high temperature of eight degrees. Today at 4 p.m., a Joint Review Board meets to consider distressed status for tax incremental district 4. The agenda is available online. Here it is — Whitewater Tax Incremental Finance District No. 4 Proposed…
City, Development, Planning
Spoken and Unspoken
by JOHN ADAMS •
A man returns from a fishing tournament, and his acquaintances ask him how he did. “Great! Phenomenal! Spectacular! Amazingly, astoundingly well!” he declares. “I caught three fish,” he says. Someone standing nearby is familiar with the tournament, and asks a question. “Weren’t you that one contestant who had help to catch his fish, and besides,…
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 1-26-11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning, Whitewater’s forecast calls for a chance of flurries, with a high temperature of twenty-two degrees. In the City of Whitewater, there’s a meeting of the Community Development Authority’s Housing Task Force (and it feels like, say, the 9,234th task force created since 2004) from 5 to 6 p.m. The agenda is available online.…
Free Markets
Curiosity Thrilled the Cat — The American, A Magazine of Ideas
by JOHN ADAMS •
….the free market promotes another virtue [additional to independence, productivity, and self-responsibility] that is rarely mentioned: curiosity. In 2004, psychologists Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson created an index of 24 character strengths, such as kindness, wisdom, and gratitude; based on their research, curiosity was one of the top five most closely linked to fulfillment and…
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 1-5-11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning, Whitewater’s forecast calls for an even chance of snow, with a high temperature of twenty-seven degrees. In the City of Whitewater, there will be two municipal public meetings today. At 9 a.m., the Joint Review Board meets, to begin considering distressed status for tax incremental district 4. The meeting agenda is available online.…
Innovation Center/Tech Park
Local Origins of the Next Great Exclamation
by JOHN ADAMS •
The English language sees countless new words and expressions coined each year, as human needs and experience shape and alter our common vocabulary. Far away, in distant England, in a musty study, there’s a learned British lexicographer who probably tracks so many of these new expressions as he can. The old Oxford don likely spends…
City
On Whitewater, Wisconsin’s 2011 Municipal Budget
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater’s lengthy budget process draws to a close. I offer proposed changes as a longstanding objection to current policy; I don’t expect that any of these changes will be implemented this year. In time, though, Whitewater will have to make drastic reductions, and the longer they’re put off, the worse they’ll be. There are four…
City, Holiday
Boo! Scariest Things in Whitewater, 2010
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s the FREE WHITEWATER list of the scariest things in Whitewater for 2010. The 2007, 2008, and 2009 editions are available for comparison. The list runs in reverse order, from mildly frightening to super scary. (Before I begin, I’ll note that I think this last year was the worst in recent memory, a time of…
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 10-28-10
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning, It’s a breezy day in Whitewater, with a forecast for a high temperature of forty-five. School’s out, for the next two days, a kind of pre-Halloween treat for thousands. The New York Times reported that on this day in 1886, President Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty: The statue of Liberty yesterday was…
Crime, Laws/Regulations
Citations and Drinking
by JOHN ADAMS •
Last week, police in Whitewater broke up a large drinking party at a house on Highland Street. They issued one-hundred thirty-two citations. See, Police issue 132 citations at Whitewater party. I am a supporter of neither a drinking nor a drug culture; they hold no allure for me. Drinking in a house with a hundred-fifty…
Science/Nature
Robot Duo Make Pancakes From Scratch | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
by JOHN ADAMS •
Household robots could become a reality sooner than we think. But the first hurdle they would have to clear is to prove they can make great pancakes. After all, the breakfast is the most important meal of the day. A demo posted by Willow Garage, a Palo Alto, California, robotic company, shows two robots working…