Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 85. Sunrise is 5:19 and sunset 8:37 for 15h 17m 19s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 42.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1613, the Globe Theatre in London, built by William Shakespeare’s playing company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, burns to the ground.
About a week ago, movers in Madison got to work on an apartment building on Dayton Street:
How Saving Coral Reefs Can Save the Planet:
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will see clouds and scattered showers with a high of 75. Sunrise is 5:19 and sunset 8:37 for 15h 17m 55s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 54 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1832, General Henry Atkinson and the Second Army begin their trip into the Wisconsin wilderness in a major effort against Black Hawk. The “Army of the Frontier” was formed of 400 U.S. Army Regulars and 2,100 volunteer militiamen to participate in the Black Hawk War. The troops were headed toward the Lake Koshkonong area where the main camp of the British Band was rumored to be located.
On this day in 1950, the Korean People’s Army kills almost a thousand doctors, nurses, inpatient civilians, and wounded soldiers in the Seoul National University Hospital massacre.
With the help of a Wisconsin Elections Commission decision, Vos slips away from the rightwing recall effort against him. See from Wednesday Enough Signatures for a Recall Against Vos citing reporting from that time (“Perhaps there will be a recall against Speaker Robin Vos after all. Rich Kremer reports WEC staff: Vos recall organizers submitted enough signatures, but legal question remains“).
The WEC has made its decision, on a 4-2 vote:
For the second time this year, the Wisconsin Elections Commission has ruled conservative activists failed to gather enough valid signatures to recall Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos from office, this time finding that some of the signatures were collected after the legal deadline.
In a 4-2 vote, the commission found that 188 signatures were collected by the Racine Recall Committee outside of a 60-day window in state law. That’s despite a recommendation by commission attorneys two days earlier saying recall organizers had collected enough signatures to force an election.
At issue were around 188 signatures collected on May 27, which was Memorial Day, and May 28. Because organizers gathered only 16 signatures more than required, subtracting 188 from that total sunk the petition.
The motion to deem the recall petition insufficient was made by Commissioner Don Millis, who was appointed to his seat by Vos in 2022.
Before the vote, Commissioner Mark Thomsen, a Democratic appointee, urged his colleagues to vote against Millis’ motion “that saves his guy,” insinuating that Millis was protecting Vos. Thomsen noted that some members of the recall effort “probably want to put us in prison” because of past decisions, but he said the Wisconsin Constitution gives them the right to recall officeholders.
“Personally, I think the recall is a waste of time, waste of money,” Thomsen said. “But there is a constitutional right for these folks and for us to say we are going to throw the sufficiency out now on this technical rule is going to be a farce.”
Rail bridge connecting South Dakota and Iowa collapses in record-breaking floodwaters:
Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 75. Sunrise is 5:18 and sunset 8:37 for 15h 18m 28s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 65.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1837, the Milwaukee Sentinel, the oldest newspaper in the state, is founded as a weekly publication by Solomon Juneau, who also was Milwaukee’s first mayor.
No one takes the risk of divulging unimportant judicial decisions. Federally and now in Wisconsin, three abortion-related court opinions or orders have been divulged beforehand in the last 25 months.
Federally, Politico reported in May 2022 that the Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows (the decision was handed down in June 2022). Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the Supreme Court is Poised to Allow Emergency Abortions in Idaho. (That decision was handed down today.)
In our state, we now have a leak about whether the Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear an abortion-rights case. WisconsinWatch reported on Wednesday that the Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear high-profile abortion rights case, draft order shows.
There’s some talk that abortion and reproductive issues won’t matter much in the fall. On the contrary, the issue has mattered before Dobbs and has now heightened political and legal importance since Dobbs. It is so important, in fact, that the long-held practice of confidentiality of key decisions has waned in these matters, all involving the extent of reproductive rights.
Judicial confidentiality has waned (regrettably) because these questions are so significant to so many (understandably). Legal importance won’t fade as political importance between now and November.
Pillars of Creation in 3D created from Webb and Hubble Space Telescope data:
Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will become partly sunny in the afternoon with a high of 82. Sunrise is 5:18 and sunset 8:37 for 15h 18m 56s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 75.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1974, the Universal Product Code is scanned at a retail store for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
Perhaps there will be a recall against Speaker Robin Vos after all. Rich Kremer reports WEC staff: Vos recall organizers submitted enough signatures, but legal question remains (“Because Wisconsin Supreme Court declared old legislative districts unconstitutional, whether Vos can be recalled in his old district ‘remains an unresolved legal question’ “)
The recall organizers have enough signatures:
Recall organizer Matthew Snorek said he submitted more than 9,000 signatures to the WEC on May 28. After an initial review, WEC staff determined that organizers turned in 6,866 valid signatures from residents in Vos’ old 63rd Assembly District.
In order to trigger a recall election organizers needed 6,850 signatures, which equates to 25 percent of the number of people who voted in that district during the last election for governor. According to the WEC staff memo, they cleared that mark by just 16 signatures.
The legal question:
But whether Vos can even be recalled from the 63rd Assembly District “remains an unresolved legal question” according to the WEC staff memo. That’s because the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority declared in December that maps drawn by Republicans in 2022 were unconstitutional, ruling that no future elections could be held using those districts. That includes Vos’ old 63rd Assembly District.
The WEC asked the court to clarify whether the old maps or new maps passed by Republicans and signed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in February should be used for potential recall elections. Justices declined that request in April, stating the commission, not the court, has the responsibility for administering elections.
While the Wisconsin Elections Commission may see this as an ‘unresolved legal question,’ the Wisconsin Supreme Court does not. The WEC has a decision to make. They can turn to past Wisconsin Supreme Court orders (Clarke v. WEC, 2023 WI 79; No. 2023AP1399-OA Clarke v. Wisconsin Elections Commission), but it is the WEC that will have to decide.
Speaker Vos has incited opposition from all quarters. In his political maneuvering, Vos is like a man who, over many years, carelessly scattered banana peels on the floor, only to find that he’s now unsure which way safely to turn.
Metro station floods in China’s Changsha city:
Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny in the afternoon with a high of 89. Sunrise is 5:18 and sunset 8:37 for 15h 19m 21s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 84.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1950, the Korean War begins when North Korea invades South Korea.
Scott Cohn reports Wisconsin wants to be a tech mecca. After Foxconn’s broken promises, the state says this time is for real. The story comes in three principal parts: then, now, and the future.
Then:
In 2017, then-President Trump and Wisconsin’s governor at the time, Scott Walker, announced that Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn had chosen Wisconsin for a huge manufacturing and technology complex, designing and building giant video displays.
The company promised to spend $10 billion and hire 13,000 new employees for a new campus in Mount Pleasant, about 30 miles south of Milwaukee. At a groundbreaking the following year, Trump said the new facility would be “the eighth wonder of the world.”
Wisconsin pledged more than $3 billion in state and local subsidies — by far the biggest such deal in the state’s history — and Walker proclaimed that the region would henceforth be known as “Wisconn Valley.” But it soon became clear that most of that was hype.
Within months, Foxconn began scaling back its plans, citing labor costs. As the company missed hiring target after hiring target, Walker, a Republican, lost his reelection bid in 2018 to Democrat Tony Evers. Evers’ administration renegotiated the Foxconn incentive package, but not before the state and local governments spent hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure improvements and land acquisition, displacing more than 100 homes in the process.
There are some glimmers of hope in Mount Pleasant. In May, Microsoftannounced it was increasing its investment in Mount Pleasant. The company announced last year it would spend $1 billion to build a data center on land that had been set aside for Foxconn. Now, the company said it would more than triple that investment to $3.3 billion, and that the data center would focus on artificial intelligence, adding more than 2,000 permanent jobs.
Racine County Board Chairman Tom Kramer, who came into office after the Foxconn deal was signed but dealt with much of the fallout, said the Microsoft deal proves that all the spending on infrastructure was not such a bad idea after all, even though the site was built for a massive factory but will get a much smaller data center instead.
[Mount Pleasant resident Kelly] Gallaher bristles when people suggest that all’s well that ends well in Mount Pleasant.
“We’ve watched our village go through a few years of desperation,” she said. “One of the worst aspects is the cynicism that it has caused among people.”
She said that cynicism extends to both Microsoft and the Tech Hub.
“The idea that we’re going to put our faith in our future in one company, I think should make every community pause,” she said.
Gallaher’s response is what reasonable people can and should expect after past policymakers talked big but delivered small, when they fumbled through project after project, and bemoaned any critique of their development failures.
See also A Sham News Story on Foxconn and FREE WHITEWATER‘s dedicated category on FOXCONN.
How to keep your dog cool in the heat:
Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 83. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset 8:37 for 15h 19m 42s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 92.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 4:30 PM. The Whitewater School Board goes into closed session shortly after 5:15 PM, and returns to open session at 7 PM.
On this day in 1948, the Berlin Blockade begins as the Soviet Union makes overland travel between West Germany and West Berlin impossible.
It wouldn’t occur to a sensible person to remove large numbers of periodic cicadas from a Wisconsin state park, thereby interrupting their natural lifecycle. The report seems too odd to be accurate, and yet, these are odd times. On Sunday, the Wisconsin DNR issued a press release warning against cicada harvesting:
MADISON, Wis. – Following multiple reports of people harvesting cicadas at Big Foot Beach State Park in Walworth County, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reminds the public that state law prohibits the capture and removal of animals, including insects, from state park properties.
There are exceptions for hunting and fishing activities that are otherwise authorized by law, but these exceptions do not provide for the collection and removal of cicadas.
DNR park staff and wardens have been instructed to make efforts to first educate the public on cicadas in state parks, and wardens may take enforcement action in response to violations.
If you are aware of cicada harvesting happening at any other state park locations in Wisconsin, please report it to the DNR’s Violation Hotline online or by calling or texting 1-800-847-9367.
Please note that no further information is available and we are not accepting interview requests on this topic at this time.
Honest to goodness, anyone so implicated is ignorantly destructive.
Bear snacks inside concession stand and scares worker:
Good morning.
Sunday will be partly cloudy with a high of 76. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset 8:37 for 15h 19m 58s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 97.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1911, native John Schwister becomes a pioneer in Wisconsin aviation by flying the state’s first home-built airplane. The plane, named the “Minnesota-Badger,” was constructed of wooden ribs covered with light cotton material. Powered by an early-model aircraft engine, the “Minnesota-Badger” flew several hundred feet and reached a maximum altitude of 20 feet. [Source: Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame.]
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.
Sarah Lehr offers a primer revealing laxity of Wisconsin’s attorney regulation in Will former Dane County Judge Jim Troupis lose his law license over false elector plot? (Troupis, along with Kenneth Chesebro and Michael Roman, face felony charges in false elector plot):
Felony conviction doesn’t necessarily lead to loss of Wisconsin law license
But, even if he’s found guilty, a felony conviction would not automatically lead to the loss of Troupis’ law license.
That’s unlike in other states, such as Texas and Maine, where people with felony convictions cannot practice law.
“Not all crimes are created equal and not all result in discipline,” said Stacie Rosenzweig, an attorney who specializes in legal ethics and licensing.
In Wisconsin, attorneys must report to the state’s Office of Legal Regulation and the Wisconsin Supreme Court if they’re convicted of crime, whether that’s a felony or misdemeanor, Rosenzweig said.
That report triggers an investigation from the office. But Rosenzweig said regulators will only pursue disciplinary action if they determine that the crime reflects negatively on someone’s ability to practice law.
Attorney rules prohibit dishonesty, fraud
“Crimes involving dishonesty, misrepresentation fraud — those are always going to reflect aversely to varying degrees,” Rosenzweig said. “Truthfulness is paramount.”
A section of the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s rules of professional conduct bars attorneys from actions “involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.”
Those rules apply “24/7,” Rosenzweig said.
“Whether you’re practicing law at the time or not, you’re not allowed to lie or commit fraud,” Rosenzweig said. “So anything like that is going to be looked at.”
The better standard would be to apply an automatic suspension for any attorney convicted of a felony, pending a subsequent disciplinary proceeding (to suspend, disbar, reprimand & restore to practice, or simply restore to practice). The public — clients and potential clients — are best protected when disciplinary actions place them as the group of preeminent concern.
That’s not Wisconsin’s approach, but an approach that does not address the public first and practitioners second disrespects both the public and the practitioner.
See also Troupis’s Suspension (Criminal Defendants Don’t Belong on Judicial Advisory Panels) (describing suspension from an advisory panel, not the practice of law).
How French artist Henri Roche developed his #pastels:
Good morning.
Saturday will be cloudy with afternoon thundershowers and a high of 84. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset 8:37 for 15h 20m 10s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 99.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1943, McCarthy Breaks Leg in Drunken Accident:
Future Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy breaks his leg during a drunken Marine Corps initiation ceremony, despite a press release and other claims that he was hurt in “military action.” Although nicknamed “Tail Gunner Joe”, McCarthy never was a tail gunner, but instead served at a desk as an intelligence officer. In 1951, he applied for medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded to those who had flown at least 25 combat missions. The Marine Corps has records of only 11 combat flights McCarthy flew on, and those were described as local “milk run” flights. Many of McCarthy’s claims were disputed by political opponents as well as journalists.
On this day in 1944, President Roosevelt signs into law the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill.
How Nvidia Surpassed Microsoft and Apple to Become World’s Most Valuable Company:
Creating Masterpieces for Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and The Pope:
Good morning.
Friday will be partly cloudy with a possibility of afternoon showers and a high of 88. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset 8:37 for 15h 20m 19s of daytime. The moon is full with 99.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1944, Camp Janesville was established when 250 German POWs arrived in Rock County to help pick and can peas, tomatoes, and sweet corn. The camp was a small town of tents that housed guards and the POWs, many of them from the defeated Afrika Corps led by the “Desert Fox”, Field Marshall Rommel. Another 150 prisoners were assigned to a similar camp in Jefferson. The German POWs were primarily in their mid-20s. They were eventually transferred to an undisclosed camp on September 25, 1944.
On this day in 1945, the Battle of Okinawa ends when the organized resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapses in the Mabuni area on the southern tip of the main island.
Wisconsin workers’ average pay — an average — increased significantly over the last year. David Clarey reports Wisconsin workers’ average pay jumps 5.3% from last year:
Wisconsin workers’ pay rose over 5% from a year ago at this time, slightly outpacing the national average, according to a new report.
The June 5 report from payroll company ADP shows that the median annual pay in Wisconsin in May reached $59,000, up 5.3% from a year ago. That slightly beat out the nationwide median pay of $58,300 and 5% increases.
ADP’s report uses salary data from about 10 million employees over a 12-month period to calculate the data, it said in a media release.
….
ADP’s figures are slightly higher than what USA TODAY reported in February. That report showed that the average annual salary in Wisconsin was $58,552.
The United States Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported its official statistics for May 2023 in April 2024. At that time, it said the annual average wage was $59,500 out of 2,885,990 workers in Wisconsin. Nationally, the annual average wage was $65,470.
These reported wage increases are averages, and ADP’s method is a private assessment. Even within Wisconsin, there are sure to be significant variations in employment levels and salary gains. Nonetheless, gains in individual and household incomes are a foundational measure of community prosperity. The measure of an advanced, productive market economy is whether it advances personal and household well-being across all parts of a community. In this regard, the goal should be the broader the gains, the better.
Some of us in Whitewater have done well over the last generation, but some of us is an inadequate achievement. How odd that, despite having lived long in this city, a few of us don’t seem to grasp this fundamental economic goal (and moral principle).
Wildfires rage in California and New Mexico:
Tuesday, June 25th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Mudbound @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Drama/War/Historical
Rated R (violence, language)
2 hours, 14 minutes (2017)
Two men, black and white, return from World War 2, to work on a farm in rural Mississippi, where they struggle to deal with racism and adjusting to life after war. A highly regarded film depicting the times. Nominated for 4 Oscars; an AARP Best Movies for Grownups.
One can find more information about Mudbound at the Internet Movie Database.
Good morning.
Thursday, the first day of summer, in Whitewater, will be cloudy with a possibility of afternoon showers and a high of 83. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset 8:36 for 15h 20m 23s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 97.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1944, the Battle of the Philippine Sea concludes with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.”
Wisconsin governors, since 1930, have had the power to veto legislation in whole or part, and that power has been controversial for nearly as long. Rich Kremer reports High Court To Review Wisconsin’s Nearly-Century-Old Veto Power (‘Business group’s lawsuit challenges Gov. Evers’ partial veto to create 400 years of funding’):
The state’s partial veto dates back to 1930, when concerns about state lawmakers adding multiple appropriation and policy items into what are known as omnibus bills came to a head. The Wisconsin Constitution was amended to give more power to governors to reject those items, one by one.
“Appropriation bills may be approved in whole or in part by the governor, and the part approved shall become law,” the new amendment read.
According to a study by the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, proponents believed governors needed a check on the new budgeting process. But opponents worried giving governors more veto authority extended the already broad powers of the executive branch.
When he was campaigning for governor, Philip La Follette said the proposal to expand veto powers “smack[ed] of dictatorship.” The amendment was approved by around 62 percent of voters in 1930, and after he was elected, La Follette became the first governor to use it.
Nine times, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has heard challenges to the partial veto. The case now pending before the Wisconsin Supreme Court will make it an even 10.
This tenth challenge is over Evers’s use of the partial veto power:
Evers’ partial veto last summer caught the Republican-controlled Legislature by surprise. By crossing out a 20 and a dash before he signed the state’s two-year budget, Evers authorized school districts to collect additional property taxes to fund a $325 per-pupil increase for more than 400 years. The Legislature intended the increase to expire in two years.
Republican lawmakers were outraged. The GOP-controlled Wisconsin Senate voted to override Evers’ veto, but the Assembly never followed suit.
The challenge the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to hear Monday, which was brought by the business lobbying group Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, alleges Evers’ veto violates the state’s constitution. The first legal briefs are due by July 16.
Evers’s expansion of the legislative funding until 2425 was unexpected (and I’d argue that expansion goes too far). And yet, and yet, his actions are a clever expression (and send-up) of political gamesmanship. I don’t know Evers’s childhood reading and viewing habits. Still, his partial veto suggests someone who enjoyed the irony and satire of Mad magazine or has a Bugs-Bunny-level cleverness.
(Bugs is, possibly, one of the sharpest Americans ever. In my household, to trick someone playfully, to pull something clever over on someone, is to ‘Bugs Bunny‘ that person. Evers certainly Bugs Bunny-ed the legislative majority with his partial veto.)
Japanese salamanders can live up to 80 years:
