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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.31.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

July ends with sunny skies and a high of eighty-four. Sunrise is 5:45 and sunset 8:16, for 14h 30m 36s of daytime. We’ve a full moon tonight.

Of the moon, on this day in 1964 America’s Ranger 7 spacecraft spent back pictures of the lunar surface, more detailed than any seen before:

Pasadena, Calif., July 31 – Ranger 7 radioed to earth today the first close-up pictures of the moon – a historic collection of 4,000 pictures one thousand times as clear as anything ever seen through earth-bound telescopes.

Scientists here were hailing the achievement, which exceeded all expectations, as by far the greatest advance in lunar astronomy since Galileo.

They said the pictures not only represented a great leap in man’s knowledge of the moon, but also, on a more practical level, lent encouragement that the lunar surface was suitable for Project Apollo’s manned lunar landings.

The still pictures were snapped and transmitted in the last 17 minutes before the spacecraft [by design crashed] into an area northwest of the Sea of Clouds.

They meant in effect that the 240,000-mile distance to the moon had been shrunk by man’s ingenuity to a mere half-mile in terms of what he could see of its topography. They showed craters three feet in diameter and a foot to a foot and a half deep.

The best earthbound telescopes, handicapped by the shimmering mantle of the atmosphere, can shrink the lunar distance only to 500 miles and reveal features no smaller than about one-mile across.

On this day in 1967, Lake Geneva takes a stand for the preservation of Western civilization, assuring her place in history:

1967 – Lake Geneva Bans Go-Go Girls
On this date the Lake Geneva city government passed an ordinance banning go-go girls, dancers in bikinis, and swimsuit-clad waitresses from working in establishments that served alcohol. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Here’s Friday’s puzzle from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — July 27-31
Showstoppers
It’s curtains for us this week. For each day, we started with the title of a Broadway musical’s Act I closing number and replaced all the letters in each word—except the last letter—with asterisks. The name of the musical is presented the same way in parentheses.
Example:
******G ******Y (*****D)
Answer:
“Defying Gravity” (Wicked)
What to Submit:
Submit the song title and the musical’s title (as “Defying Gravity (Wicked)” in the example) for your answer.
Friday, July 31
***E ********D ******G (****H ******C)

City, Local Government, Politics, Press

Message Frenzy

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If one runs a business, and has a sale scheduled, advertising the time and place of the sale is vital: people won’t attend events of which they’ve no knowledge.

Some news stories are like this: reporting on an approaching storm requires quick publication of the weather.

It’s not true, however, that every story requires quick publication: some are instant coffee, but others are slowly cold-brewed. 

Looking at Whitewater, or communities close to Whitewater, one sees how many stories are rushed, how many quick press releases are issued to ‘get one’s message out,’ or ‘jump on a story,’ etc. 

A few more hours’ care would have produced a better product: more strengths, fewer weaknesses.  (Some of the weaknesses are hostages to Fortune; they reveal views that will likely come back to haunt months later.)  

There’s more than one person advising Whitewater’s officials to respond quickly, change the subject, move on, etc. 

They all have this in common: they don’t understand that the city evolves meaningfully over seasons and years, not hours and days. 

Federal Government, Law, Liberty, Local Government, Open Government, Public Records, State Government, Wisconsin

The Public Records Law Still Stands

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After a push to alter Wisconsin’s Public Records Law (Wis. Stat. §§ 19.31-19.39), we’re now secure with the original law intact.  

Below one will find a recording of Wisconsin A.G. Brad Schimel’s Open Government Summit, held earlier this week at the Concourse in Madison.  

J.B. Hollen, Schimel’s immediate predecessor, started strongly in favor of the Public Records Law but was less supportive in his second term.  A.G. Schimel’s approach is better for the public, although it’s disadvantageous for public officials seeking to conceal information from the very residents to whom they are legally obligated.

(It’s also helpful that support for the law is widespread, and not confined to the party in opposition.  Two of the key opponents of gutting the law have been the MacIver Institute, a conservative think tank, and Rick Esenberg’s Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, a conservative-leaning public interest firm.)

But one has this problem, that has grown worse over these last few years: too many officials, in cities, towns, and universities, have decided that they can reply to a public records request however they’d like.  Replies like this are dares: will you go to court over this?  Alternatively, will you accept what we’ve supplied, however inadequate in reply it so obviously is? 

Some denials may be over fair questions of interpretation; that’s not what I’m describing.  Many denials are a test of one’s citizenship, of one’s rights in a free, well-ordered society: can someone successfully compel others to accept less than their rights require, consigning them to an inferior position in disregard of the law?

There’s no way to know how a requester will respond to an insufficient reply until the need arises, of course.  It’s helpful, though, to state plainly a path one will follow.  Having stated as much, officials will not be able to say they’ve been blindsided.

This summit was long, I know, and time is precious.  Still, there’s much in here, useful for thinking about government, on one’s own, rather than relying on officials’ superficial, self-serving declarations.  

Restaurant, Review

Restaurant Review: Tokyo (Revisit) 

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Here’s a summary of a return trip to Whitewater’s Tokyo restaurant.  

When I visited Tokyo two years ago, I wrote that I liked it, despite a “décor [that was] a bit aged, but pleasant.”  In the times that I’ve visited since, including recently, the establishment is no less aged, but no less pleasant, either.

Tokyo doesn’t inspire an out-of-place feeling, it inspires a feeling of being from another time.  I like it that way: it’s not like anything else in the city.   Switch an air-conditioner for fan, squint a bit, and one might just as easily be in a sushi restaurant from sixty years ago.

It’s wonderful, really: outside one sees Main Street from ’15; inside it might as well be ’55.  Not 1955 as it was, but 1955 as we would like to believe it was, calmer and quieter, slower-paced and less fraught.

Everything in Tokyo is soft, calm, almost sedate.  A press release slipped under the restaurant’s front door would shrivel for want of fussiness and concern.  It’s a preternatural calm, and so few in Whitewater have that, as we’ve a small town of insiders’ bother, worry, and cliquish insecurities.

Try the sushi.  Just the sushi to start: a few dishes to share with someone, or a combination platter.  Drink what you’d like, tea, iced tea, water, sake: just try the sushi.  I’m writing of my own experience: of six different preparations (tuna, salmon, eel among them) and all delicious.    

This is a family-run establishment, relying on one person to cook, one to serve, but although there are few on staff, I have yet to have a bad experience or meal.

It may be a long wait, but then time’s not a concern here, and those looking for fast should look elsewhere.  

One note: it’s pricier than some other nearby restaurants, but I have found the portions ample.  In fact, although I rarely order so much that I would need to take food with me, I had remaining sushi that served well for lunch.

Recommended.

LOCATION: 161 W Main St, Whitewater, WI 53190 (262) 473-3000.  Google Map linked above.

OPEN: Open daily 11 AM until 9 PM, except Sundays.

PRICES: Main entrée and a drink for under $20.

RESERVATIONS: Unnecessary.

DRINKS & WINE: Sake, wine, beer.

SOUND: Moderate volume, with background music reinforcing the notion that this is an establishment from another time.

SERVICE: Friendly, quiet, at a relaxed pace.

VISITS: One as a revisit (supper).

RATING: Recommended. 3.25 of 4.

GoldStarGoldStarGoldStarGoldStar25

RATING SCALE: From one to four stars, representing the full experience of food, atmosphere, service, and pricing.

INDEPENDENCE: This review is delivered without financial or other connection to the establishment or its owner. The dining experience was that of an ordinary patron, without notice to the staff or requests for special consideration.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.30.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a sunny day in town, with a high of eighty-five. Sunrise is 5:44 and sunset 8:17, for 14h 32m 45s of daytime. The moon’s a waxing gibbous with 98.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

This day in 1619 sees the opening session of this continent’s first elected legislative assembly:

In Jamestown, Virginia, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World–the House of Burgesses–convenes in the choir of the town’s church.

Earlier that year, the London Company, which had established the Jamestown settlement 12 years before, directed Virginia Governor Sir George Yeardley to summon a “General Assembly” elected by the settlers, with every free adult male voting. Twenty-two representatives from the 11 Jamestown boroughs were chosen, and Master John Pory was appointed the assembly’s speaker. On July 30, the House of Burgesses (an English word for “citizens”) convened for the first time. Its first law, which, like all of its laws, would have to be approved by the London Company, required tobacco to be sold for at least three shillings per pound. Other laws passed during its first six-day session included prohibitions against gambling, drunkenness, and idleness, and a measure that made Sabbath observance mandatory.

The creation of the House of Burgesses, along with other progressive measures, made Sir George Yeardley exceptionally popular among the colonists, and he served two terms as Virginia governor.

On this day in 1857, a noted Wisconsin economist is born:

1857 – Thorstein Veblen Born
On this date economist and social commentator Thorstein Bunde Veblen was born in Cato, although some sources place his birth in Valders. He is best known for his book The Theory of The Leisure Class (1899), a classic of social theory that introduced the concept of “conspicuous consumption.”

Here’s the Thursday game from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — July 27-31
Showstoppers
It’s curtains for us this week. For each day, we started with the title of a Broadway musical’s Act I closing number and replaced all the letters in each word—except the last letter—with asterisks. The name of the musical is presented the same way in parentheses.
Example:
******G ******Y (*****D)
Answer:
“Defying Gravity” (Wicked)
What to Submit:
Submit the song title and the musical’s title (as “Defying Gravity (Wicked)” in the example) for your answer.
Thursday, July 30
***’T ***N *N *Y *****E (****Y ***L)

 

Economics, Government Spending, Local Government

Retrospective and Prospective Costs

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There are few more useful ways of looking at expenditures made and expenditures contemplated than as retrospective (sunk) or prospective (future) costs. 

Consider the example of a man building a boat to catch one-hundred pounds of fish per day.  The fisherman spends seventy-five thousand building his own boat, and is partly done.  If he spends another twenty-five thousand, he’ll have completed his project, and be able to catch his desired quantity of fish.

He then learns that there’s a boat he could buy for fifteen thousand that would enable him to catch as many fish, and as well. 

His goal is to catch a hundred pounds a day, and now he has a choice: finish his own maritime creation at a remaining cost of $25,000, or buy a completed boat that will perform the same task for $15,000.

What’s the better option? 

He’s already spent a lot (his sunk cost), but he can achieve his goal (fish-catching) and save money ($10,000) if he simply buys a completed boat. 

Placing sunk costs in perspective, rather than being bound by them for subsequent expenditures, allows someone to spend money and allocate resources wisely.  (There are limits on any perspective, but this one is often useful.)

Looking back at a recently-held Common Council meeting, it’s clear that one can be elected, mature in age, and professionally-credentialed, and still misunderstand or ignore this useful perspective. 

That’s Councilmember Ken Kidd’s mistake, in part, when discussing whether to accept the work of the Donohue Engineering firm for wastewater upgrades and a waste importation scheme:

So then are we going to have a third independent if there’s a [laughter]…are we going to break the tie if there’s not agreement?….We worked really hard to choose somebody we trusted, and then we’re going to say Cameron go find some guy that’ll come in and are we going to trust that person? I mean, it would be nice if somebody with credentials comes in and says, ‘this is the best plan I’ve ever seen’ and that’ll be easy. But if he doesn’t, then I think we have to at least think about what’s our next step. Then are we going to engage an alternative engineering firm?

Dr. Kidd doesn’t want to look elsewhere (that is, to commit to a prospective cost), because he feels that “we worked really hard to find somebody we trusted” (that is, he thinks he’s put in enough work already).

But that work’s done, and the only forward-looking question should be what to do next (as Dr. Kidd himself comes close to seeing). 

It’s just that he doesn’t want to face that question, having (at least by his own account) done a lot of work already. 

It’s prudent to consider a future cost; it’s a mistake to lead with an emphasis on sunk costs.

(This leaves aside the question of whether Donohue’s work is, as Dr. Kidd implies, an independent study; it’s nothing like a genuine, independent study.  It’s a third-party sales presentation tailored to city officials’ narrowly-defined, revenue-generating goals.  See, on this point, Studies and The Scope of Donohue’s Work (Part 2).) 

One can conclude two things about this.  First, credentials are not enough (medical doctor, university administrator, dog groomer, whatever).  Careful reading and testing of ideas in politics and economics are what a small town’s government needs.  A mere title assures none of that. 

Second, this careful reading and testing of ideas in politics and economics is an ongoing pursuit.  Neither political office-holding nor political commentary is a reward for past accomplishments, as though they were gold watches. 

What one did is yesterday’s work; it’s done, and one should look to what is – and should – yet to be done. 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.29.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Wednesday will bring scattered morning thunderstorms to Whitewater, with gradual clearing in the afternoon, and a high of eighty-three. Sunrise is 5:43 and sunset 8:18, for 14h 34m 54s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 94.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1958, Congress votes for a space agency:

…the U.S. Congress passes legislation establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America’s activities in space. NASA has since sponsored space expeditions, both human and mechanical, that have yielded vital information about the solar system and universe. It has also launched numerous earth-orbiting satellites that have been instrumental in everything from weather forecasting to navigation to global communications.

NASA was created in response to the Soviet Union’s October 4, 1957 launch of its first satellite, Sputnik I. The 183-pound, basketball-sized satellite orbited the earth in 98 minutes. The Sputnik launch caught Americans by surprise and sparked fears that the Soviets might also be capable of sending missiles with nuclear weapons from Europe to America. The United States prided itself on being at the forefront of technology, and, embarrassed, immediately began developing a response, signaling the start of the U.S.-Soviet space race.

Among NASA’s many current projects is the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (in orbit around the moon since 2009). Below is a video describing how NASA controls the orbiter:

Here’s today’s game from Puzzability, part of their Showstoppers series:

This Week’s Game — July 27-31
Showstoppers
It’s curtains for us this week. For each day, we started with the title of a Broadway musical’s Act I closing number and replaced all the letters in each word—except the last letter—with asterisks. The name of the musical is presented the same way in parentheses.
Example:
******G ******Y (*****D)
Answer:
“Defying Gravity” (Wicked)
What to Submit:
Submit the song title and the musical’s title (as “Defying Gravity (Wicked)” in the example) for your answer.
Wednesday, July 29
*E *O *******R (*****E)

CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Economics, Economy, Gluttony, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Politics, WEDC, Wisconsin

The State’s WEDC and Whitewater’s Facsimiles

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Ongoing revelations about the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation are a double concern: they’re stories of statewide malfeasance, and those revelations beg the question of how local officials in Whitewater are managing their own pools of public money.

First, the latest stories (it’s a steady stream) of state-level error, waste, and negligence:

Madison— Failing to run adequate checks, Wisconsin’s flagship jobs agency gave two awards worth more than $1.2 million to a financially troubled De Pere businessman who had not disclosed his problems to the state, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel review has found.

Despite those omissions in 2011 and 2012, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration kept working with Ron Van Den Heuvel and his clean energy company, Green Box, into 2014, state records show.

There is no record of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. notifying the city of De Pere about the company’s money troubles even though Green Box was working with the city in an unsuccessful attempt to get tax-exempt bonds — in part to repay the state’s soured loan.

It’s the second case disclosed in recent weeks in which WEDC failed to catch omissions by businesses about their troubled finances and then continued to work with them….

Via Jobs agencies loaned $1.2 million to businessman with troubled finances.

Yet make no mistake – even after being thrust into the spotlight WEDC is pressing on in issuing unmonitored awards. Just this past Monday [7.20.15] – four days ago – Walker took a break from his campaign to drop in on the agency’s quarterly board meeting. While that $500,000 loan [for William Minahan] was on the public agenda and one board member openly wondered why there hadn’t been “a giant red flag to cease and desist all activities,” the agency’s staff quietly presented a different proposal: to cut the number of tax credits [that] the agency audits from a required 100% (which it has never managed to comply with), to just 25%.

Via Brian Murphy @ Talking Points Memo. 

Second, inevitable concerns arise about local distributions after a stream of state-level reports: should a reasonable man or woman believe without careful inquiry & verification that state officials have managed these kinds of public funds poorly but that local officials (the CDA, Tech Park Board, etc.) have performed better? 

Put another way: Does anyone think that state officials are less competent and diligent than their local counterparts?

I don’t know.

At the very least, Whitewater – her city government, her Community Development Authority, all with pools of taxpayer money to dole to so-called startups, etc. – the officials responsible owe as much of an accounting of actual performance as any state official. 

In a well-ordered community, these local distributions would be periodically and independently audited. 

Libertarians (and others of different views) know well that any number of special interests – business, labor, political – will seek to ensconce themselves into government positions, directing government work to their own selfish ends. 

One would prefer a community requiring no political concerns.  A serene place like that would perhaps be a world only of cat videos and puzzles; we do not live in such a place. 

Grants and loans of public money to white-collar firms, an addiction to tax incremental financing, sketchy claims of job creation, expensive buildings at public expense, public men who present themselves as development gurus, the selling of public property to business interests too cheaply – this gutter economics infects the CDA and other public agencies in Whitewater. 

In a city with so many who are poor, these distributions to white-collar professionals have been utterly ineffectual for the many, and useful only to a few (for their immediate gain or in scrapbook headlines).

In any event, no one owes these few their claims on faith alone; they’ve wasted too much already in this city. 

Perhaps it is enough – Dieu aidant – that some are naturally inclined to review, first from curiosity and thereafter in root-and-branch scrutiny. 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.28.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of eighty-nine. Sunrise is 5:42 and sunset 8:19, for 14h 37m 00s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 88.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 4:30 PM today, and the city’s Police and Fire Commission at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment is adopted, with three-quarters of the states having ratified it:

Following its ratification by the necessary three-quarters of U.S. states, the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing to African Americans citizenship and all its privileges, is officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution.

Two years after the Civil War, the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 divided the South into five military districts, where new state governments, based on universal manhood suffrage, were to be established. Thus began the period known as Radical Reconstruction, which saw the 14th Amendment, which had been passed by Congress in 1866, ratified in July 1868. The amendment resolved pre-Civil War questions of African American citizenship by stating that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States…are citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside.” The amendment then reaffirmed the privileges and rights of all citizens, and granted all these citizens the “equal protection of the laws.”

On this day in 1934, a planned community descended into violence:

1934 – Two killed, 40 hurt in Kohler riot; National Guard occupies town
On this day, the “model industrial village” of Kohler became an armed camp of National Guard cavalrymen after deadly strike-related rioting. The July 27th violence, which killed two Sheboygan men and injured 40 others, prompted the summoning of 250 Guardsmen to join the 200 special deputy village marshals already present. After striking workers became agitated and began to destroy company property, deputies turned to tear gas, rifles, and shotguns to quell the stone-throwing crowd, resulting in the deaths and injuries. Owner Walter Kohler blamed Communists and outside agitators for the violence, while union leaders blamed Kohler exclusively. Workers at the Kohler plant were demanding better hours, higher wages, and recognition of the American Federation of Labor as their collective bargaining agent. Not settled until 1941, the strike marked the beginning of what was to become a prolonged struggle between the Kohler Company and organized labor in Wisconsin; a second Kohler strike lasted from 1954 to 1965. [Source: Capital Times 7/28/1934, p.1]

Here’s the Tuesday game from Puzzability in this week’s Showstoppers series:

This Week’s Game — July 27-31
Showstoppers
It’s curtains for us this week. For each day, we started with the title of a Broadway musical’s Act I closing number and replaced all the letters in each word—except the last letter—with asterisks. The name of the musical is presented the same way in parentheses.
Example:
******G ******Y (*****D)
Answer:
“Defying Gravity” (Wicked)
What to Submit:
Submit the song title and the musical’s title (as “Defying Gravity (Wicked)” in the example) for your answer.
Tuesday, July 28
*******R ***A ****S, ***A ***S (***N ******S)