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City, Press Release

Seniors in the Park and The Ruby Project team up to offer regular Gay and Gray group

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Please see the following press release about a support and social program for Whitewater’s LGBT seniors, from Seniors in the Park and The Ruby Project. Here is the text of the release, accompanied by the original version as an embedded document that may be printed or downloaded —

SUPPORT AND SOCIAL PROGRAM FOR SENIOR LGBT COMMUNITY

Seniors in the Park and The Ruby Project team up to offer regular “Gay and Gray” group

The senior population identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender is often grossly overlooked and ignored. Whitewater is widely known as a college town, but Seniors in the Park and The Ruby Project will combine the senior and college population with a new “Gay and Gray” monthly group. This social and supportive group will offer seniors social activities, such as game and movie nights, as well as supportive services, such as workshops and guest speakers. Area college students will be afforded the unique opportunity to learn from seniors identifying as LGBT by volunteering during these events at the Starin Park Community Building in the heart of Whitewater.

As the pioneers in the gay rights movement age, there are few local resources to support them. “There are people in the community who could use these services,” says Deb Weberpal, Director of Seniors in the Park. “The members will determine where the group goes and what services and supports are needed.” The first fall 2012 meeting will be held on September 10th, 2012 at the Starin Park Community Building.

The program will welcome input about social activities, workshops and guest speakers, and more. Meetings are generally the 2nd Monday of each month at 6:00pm.

Seniors in the Park is no stranger to providing much needed supports and services to area seniors. Their comprehensive calendar offers everything from Tai Chi and Gliding, to Chess and Euchre, to lectures series and day trips around the state. The “Gay and Gray” group will offer even more options to its members and community. Volunteers are an integral part of their success, and they welcome volunteers from UW-Whitewater and surrounding areas.

The Ruby Project (Janesville) currently offers a variety of supports and services for Janesville and surrounding area residents. “Our mission is to empower and educate our LGBTQA community of all ages,” says Kelley Blair Ostermann, Director of The Ruby Project. “We are excited to be able to facilitate such a unique program for area residents. Other cities interested in also forming “Gay and Gray” groups are watching this whole project closely to gain ideas and supports to run a similar successful program in their own communities.”

Seniors in the Park is conveniently located in the Starin Park Community Building in beautiful Starin Park. For more information on programs and activities call 262-473-0535 or pick up the Park Bench newsletter at the Starin Park Community Building, Irvin L Young Memorial Library, Whitewater Aquatic Center, and the Whitewater Municipal Building.

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If you’d like more information about this program, or to schedule an interview with Deb Weberpal, please call Deb directly at (262) 473-0535 or email her at dweberpal@whitewater-wi.gov.

Poll

Friday Poll: Will You Watch the Republican and Democratic National Conventions?

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Two national political conventions are upcoming: the Republican National Convention in Tampa (8.27 to 8.30) and the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte (9.4 to 9.6).

I’ll be watching and recording both. The broadcast networks won’t have much live coverage (they didn’t have much in 2008, either), but C-SPAN will have a great deal, live throughout the days and evenings of both gatherings.

C-SPAN also has RNC and DNC pages with coverage schedules, etc. (They also covered the Libertarian National Convention in May.)

Here’s the poll:




Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.24.12

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Good morning.

Friday will be partly sunny and hot, with a high of ninety-one, and winds from the south at 5 to 15 miles per hour.

On August 24, 79, Vesuvius erupted:

The Wisconsin Historical Society writes that this day in 1970 marks the anniversary of a 1970 bombing:

1970 – Sterling Hall Bombing on UW-Madison Campus

On this date a car bomb exploded outside Sterling Hall, killing research scientist Richard Fassnacht. Sterling Hall was targeted for housing the Army Mathematics Research Center and was bombed in protest of the war in Vietnam. The homemade bomb (2,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate soaked in aviation fuel) was detonated by the New Year’s Gang, aka Vanguard of the Revolution, who demanded that a Milwaukee Black Panther official be released from police custody, ROTC be expelled from the UW campus, and “women’s hours” be abolished on campus. The entire New Year’s Gang fled to Canada the evening of the explosion. Four men were charged with this crime: Karleton Armstrong, David Fine, Dwight Armstrong, and Leo Burt. All but Burt were captured and served time for their participation. Leo Burt remains at large.[Source: On Wisconsin (online PDF) Summer 2005]

For a book kindly recommended to me about the bombing, see the excellent Rads: The 1970 Bombing of the Army Math Research Center at the University of Wisconsin and Its Aftermath.

Google’s daily puzzle is perfect for physicists, professional or amateur: “In physics, what term describes the opposite of the reaction in which a particle and its antiparticle collide?”

City, Economy, Local Government

Differing Accounts

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From the Janesville Gazette, June 5, 2012: Brunner credits team effort for successes at Whitewater.

From the Daily Union, August 22, 2012: Whitewater council mulls dismal budget assumptions.

One might try to reconcile these accounts, of course, but the effort would be pointless. The former’s just an odd history, an ill-timed goodbye gift to Whitewater’s last municipal manager.

These stories represent two very different ways of seeing the city: by wishful yearning so intense it’s simply a fiction, or by a candid look at life in the city as we know it to be. One insists that the city is only what one says it is; the other that the city can only be what one makes of it. Candor in the first case is an impediment to the grand dreams of a few; candor in the second case is the only way by which the plain dreams of the many will be, truly if imperfectly, fulfilled.

There’s a generational tension in this, too, not wholly of age but of outlook: those who insist upon a sparkling view of the present are fewer in number each year; their decline is irreversible. In part that’s through retirement from the scene, but even more so it’s through the inescapable truth that this city — or any city — cannot be made better through fairytales, awards, and grand projects that are, collectively, just dumb show.

We can (and will) have a better future – but getting to that better time will test this small community. Some things will have to be set aside, just as time itself will set aside the empty claims of the last decade. Yet, no matter how hard — and there are both enduring fiscal and new environmental challenges facing the city — we’ll get through all this.

There’s much to say about all this, in a thorough and deliberate way, and no time better than in the weeks and months ahead.

Our city’s fiscal problems did not begin yesterday, but they can be overcome.

Not simply managed, but truly overcome.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.23.12

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Good morning.

Thursday’s early morning rain will give way to sunny skies with a high of ninety-one.

Over at LiveScience.com, there’s a collection of NASA satellite images showing Tropical Storm Isaac coming to life. The impressive technology that makes the video possible is exceeded only by the awesome beauty and power of the event it records.

Google’s daily puzzle asks about kinds of dinosaurs: “If your museum exhibit includes only the “bird-hipped” dinosaurs, which one would not belong: the stegosaurus, triceratops or allosaurus?” more >>

Freedom of Speech, Law, Local Government, New Media

First Amendment and Social Media in Federal Lawsuit Against City of Honolulu, Local Police

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There’s a case in Hawaii, in federal court, that may limit a city’s restrictions on municipal webpages and social media.

If municipal agencies establish Facebook or other social media pages, can they censor critical comments from among all other comments? That’s the question before the court in Hawaii, about the comments policy of the Honolulu Police Department’s Facebook page. Admittedly, a municipal agency could have a social media page with no comments allowed, but that wouldn’t be much of a social media page.

The plaintiffs’ contention, obviously, is that a local comments policy cannot trump First Amendment rights, should they apply:

Attorneys Richard Holcomb, Alan Beck, and Brian Brazier argue in their filing that Honolulu Police “unlawfully administer their Facebook Fan page in violation of American citizens right to free speech.”

The complaint claims “Honolulu police arbitrarily moderate the page by deleting comments and banning users who post or make comments unfavorable to the department” and that “online speech is just as important as a citizen airing their grievance in a public park – just because the speech is virtual, doesn’t mean it is not protected.”

Capt. Lum said the HPD cannot comment on details regarding the pending lawsuit. But added guidelines for posting are on the HPD Facebook site.

But Christopher Baker, spokesperson for The Hawaii Defense Foundation, said: “The First Amendment protects the right to free speech. Without question, social media has become a cornerstone for communication in the days of iPads, smart phones, and computers. In fact, online speech within sites like Facebook is utilized every day by citizens, businesses, and government agencies to communicate with the public at large.”

See, First Amendment, Facebook, Cited in Federal Lawsuit Against City, Local Police | Hawaii Reporter.

Posted originally on 8.22.12 @ Daily Adams.

Beautiful Whitewater, City, Food, Hip & Prosperous

September 22 @ Cravath Lakefront: Food and Craft Vendors for Pig in the Park BBQ

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Downtown Whitewater is looking for Food and Craft Vendors on September 22nd for its Pig in the Park BBQ:

Downtown Whitewater. Inc. is looking for Food and Craft Vendors for our BBQ Pig in the Park State Championship Cook-off Sanctioned by Kansas City Barbeque Society

Downtown Whitewater, Inc. will host the area’s first BBQ Pig in the Park Cook-off. The event will be held September 21-22, 2012 in Downtown Whitewater, on the beautiful award-winning Cravath Lakefront

This is an important chance for BBQ fans to show their stuff as the winner of the event may have an opportunity to compete at the national level. Around the competition there will be a festival atmosphere to include live music, eating contests, and activities for the kids.

Whitewater based restaurants, licensed caterers and civic organizations are eligible to apply for booth space inside the PigPen located in the parking lot at Cravath Lakefront Park. Each booth is allowed to sell up to four food items related to barbeque, awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.

Arts and Craft vendors interested in selling goods at the festival on September 22nd are also eligible to apply for booth space inside the PigAsso area. Vendors of arts and crafts should have original artwork and handmade crafts only. Homegrown pre-packaged food such as spices, sauces, jellies, etc. are also welcome. Commercial or “re-sale” items will be strictly prohibited for sale at the festival.

Pricing, additional details, and vendor applications, are available for printing or download from the festival website at www.piginthepark.net. Applications will be accepted through September 14th.

For more information about the KCBS you can visit www.kcbs.us and for more information about entering our Pig in the Park BBQ Cook-Off Contest please visit www.piginthepark.net or contact Tami at (262) 473-2200 or director@downtownwhitewater.com.

Downtown Whitewater was formed in 2006 and is a non-profit, community-based organization devoted to preserving, improving and promoting Whitewater’s quality of life, by strengthening our historic downtown as the heartbeat of our community.

The Triangle
Eat * Shop * Enjoy

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.22.12

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high temperature of eighty-three.

On this day in 1902, “President Theodore Roosevelt became the first United States chief executive to ride in an automobile in public” while visiting New England.

Scientists at Harvard may have found a substitute for plastic, and their inspiration?  Bug parts:

Google’s daily puzzle ask about a bit of chemistry: “You just used a flame test to identify the second least dense metal on Earth. What color did it give off?” more >>

Education, Government Spending

Attack of the Prissy Administrators

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People spend vast sums on public education, and some of that money’s wasted every time a principal or superintendent denies a valedictorian his or her diploma for saying the word hell in a commencement speech.

Has that ever happened? Yes, at least once, and that’s once too often:

Prague High School is withholding Kaitlin Nootbaar’s diploma until she apologizes for saying the word “hell” in her commencement speech, The Associated Press reported….

The Prague High School superintendent told the AP in a statement Monday that Nootbaar “used language that was inappropriate for a graduation exercise.”

The teen and her family disagree and have refused to apologize.

She’s now received her transcript, but not her diploma. It’s a petty punishment, weak and squeamish. Nootbaar’s original draft read heck and not hell, but that’s a difference too trivial for the punishment (and the bad publicity the district is receiving).

They’ve never heard the word hell before? That’d be surprising, and really a helluva thing, wouldn’t it?

Via WISN.

Posted originally on 8.21.12 at Daily Adams.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.21.12

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny, with a high of eighty, and calm winds.

Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state:

 

Google’s daily puzzle asks about the length of a stay in France: “How many years did the author who wrote “The truth is rarely pure and never simple” live under an assumed name in France?”