Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 83. Sunrise is 6:37 and sunset is 7:00, for 12 hours, 23 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 18.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Parks and Recreation Board meets at 5:30 PM.
While it seems improbable to me that State Rep. Francesca Hong will be the Democratic nominee in the 2026 gubernatorial race, she’s not wrong to see that the primary race will have a role for a wild card:
A Democratic state lawmaker who is promising to be a “wild card” joined Wisconsin’s open race for governor on Wednesday, saying she will focus on a progressive agenda to benefit the working class.
State Rep. Francesca Hong, who lives in the liberal capital city of Madison, is embracing her outsider status. In addition to serving in the state Assembly, Hong works as a bartender, dishwasher and line cook. As a single mother struggling with finding affordable housing, she said she is uniquely relatable as a candidate.
“I like considering myself the wild card,” Hong said. “Our campaign is going to look at strategies and movement building, making sure we are being creative when it comes to our digital strategies.”
Part of her goal will be to expand the electorate to include voters who haven’t been engaged in past elections, she said.
The WisDems, like national Democrats in many places, are unsure how to proceed under a second Trump Administration. There’s no consensus whatever. Democrats within the state have different approaches, and Democrats outside the state are even further apart from each other on both strategy and tactics. Democrats need something more than their current disordered posture.
Francesca Hong may not be the wild card that the WisDems need, but they could use a wild card or two to redirect their diffuse, unfocused efforts.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 83. Sunrise is 6:36 and sunset is 7:02, for 12 hours, 26 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 27.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The faction that only a few years ago insisted that it wanted ‘choice’ over vaccinations now wields federal power through Robert Kennedy Jr. Theirs was, predictably, a disingenuous advocacy. They were not merely vaccine skeptics for themselves — they opposed all vaccinations. When out of power they called for choice. Once in power, Kennedy began imiting access to vaccines and research on vaccines. Kennedy’s an extreme vaccine skeptic; indeed, he’s an inveterate opponent of modern medicine.
Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order Monday requiring insurance companies to continue covering COVID-19 vaccines as changes out of federal health agencies have restricted eligibility for the shots.
In the order, Evers called on the state Department of Health Services and pharmacy and insurance boards to “ensure vaccine access for Wisconsinites to the fullest extent of the law and available funding.”
It would also require DHS officials to respond publicly to changes in federal policy that spark “confusion and uncertainty,” offering new guidance about vaccine safety and accessibility as needed.
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Previously, federal guidance recommended these vaccines for most people at most ages. Those recommendations reflected longstanding public health and scientific consensus stating that widespread vaccination is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of many diseases.
Those changes have taken place under direction from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a vaccine skeptic who has led the national Department of Health and Human Services since February. He’s overseen a seismic shakeup in national health policy and at agencies, including the ousting of leadership at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the removal of experts from vaccine advisory committees.
Public health experts have been alarmed by Donald Trump picking a vaccine-skeptic to head the US Department of Health and Human Services. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination comes as falling vaccination rates for diseases such as measles have led to a spike in cases globally. What’s behind anti-vaccine sentiment, how is it evolving and what effect is it having on public health generally? Sam Fazeli is Director of Research at Bloomberg Intelligence and has PhD in pharmacology. He joined Stephen Carroll the latest on episode of our Here’s Why Podcast to discuss the growing problem of vaccine hesitancy
Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 82. Sunrise is 6:35 and sunset is 7:04, for 12 hours, 29 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 37.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 82. Sunrise is 6:34 and sunset is 7:05, for 12 hours, 32 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 48.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1994, the remainder of the Major League Baseball season is canceled because of a strike.
In August, the Wisconsin Legislature blocked publication of new state regulations. The Evers Administration advanced those regulations after a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling in Tony Evers v. Howard Marklein, 2025 WI 36, No. 2023AP2020-OA (July 8, 2025). The Legislature contended that the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision was narrow, while the Evers Administration contended that the July decision was applicable generally to agency rulemaking.
The Legislature’s block left the Evers Administration with a decision whether to file suit in support of a broader application of the July 8 decision. The Administration has now decided to sue:
The new lawsuit from Evers is the latest in a protracted power struggle with the GOP-controlled Legislature over the technical, but impactful realm of administrative rulemaking.
Evers’ lawsuit argues a July ruling from the Wisconsin Supreme Court allows state agencies like the Department of Natural Resources or Department of Health Services to seek publication of proposed rules even if Republican-led legislative committees haven’t finished reviewing them. In essence, Evers is claiming that while proposed rules must be submitted to lawmakers for review, his signature is all that’s needed before they can take effect.
While the Legislature writes the laws that govern Wisconsin, agencies like the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Health Services write the rules for how those laws are carried out. For years, those rules went through a lengthy approval process requiring sign off from the governor and various legislative committees.
In July, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down parts of state law that allowed the Legislature’s Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules to block proposed rules indefinitely.
Watch as Ospreys hover high above, then plunge completely underwater in a dramatic fishing style no other raptor can match. Bald Eagles compete for the same prey, and their size and flight style make for a fascinating comparison. Watch full episode: The Slow Motion Beauty and Skill of an Osp…
Saturday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 80. Sunrise is 6:32 and sunset is 7:07, for 12 hours, 35 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 59.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Second Annual Food Truck Festival runs today from Noon to 6 PM.
On this day in 1956, IBM introduces the 305 RAMAC, the first commercial computer to use disk storage.
One month before a worker severed part of his finger at a food packaging plant owned by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, federal regulators ordered the company to make sure equipment couldn’t turn on unexpectedly and injure employees, records show.
The worker, Sean Wiley, was injured in March while cleaning a large machine known as a ribbon blender at the plant on Black Hawk Drive in Burlington.
Robin J. Vos Enterprises was given two citations and initially fined about $33,000 in late July by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration after the March incident, online records show. The penalty was dropped to $19,000 as part of a settlement between the company and the agency.
The company was fined and told it had to abate the violation by March 10.
That’s the same day Wiley was injured.
Wiley previously told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he didn’t know his coworker, who he said was supposed to be working with him and guarding the machine, had been reassigned to another piece of equipment.
….
Vos, one of the most prominent and powerful Republicans in Wisconsin, is the longest-serving speaker in state history. He owns several businesses, including his food packaging company, which started as a popcorn factory. He also owns a car wash in Union Grove and numerous rental properties in Whitewater. He previously owned Knights Popcorn in Milwaukee.
When Tesla car doors lose power, you need to use the manual door release to get out. But riders and drivers can get stuck inside. Emily Chang explains.
Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 81. Sunrise is 6:31 and sunset is 7:09, for 12 hours, 38 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 70.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Prices consumers pay for a variety of goods and services moved higher than expected in August while jobless claims accelerated, providing challenging economic signals for the Federal Reserve before its meeting next week.
The consumer price index posted a seasonally adjusted 0.4% increase for the month, the biggest gain since January, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.9%, up 0.2 percentage point from the prior month and the highest reading since January. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for respective readings of 0.3% and 2.9%.
For the vital core reading that excludes food and energy, the August gain was 0.3%, putting the 12-month figure at 3.1%, both as forecast. Fed officials consider core to be a better gauge of long-run trends. The central bank’s inflation target is 2%.
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On employment, the Labor Department reported a surprise increase in weekly unemployment compensation filings to a seasonally adjusted 263,000 for the week ended Sept. 6, higher than the 235,000 estimate and up 27,000 from the prior period’s revised figure. The claims level marked the highest in nearly four years.
There’s an unusual factory in Curitiba, Brazil. It’s producing mosquitos by the millions, all to combat the diseases these insects spread. That’s because the mosquitos produced here can’t spread infections like dengue, zika and chikungunya. So, what does it take to raise an army of virus fighting mosquitos? Read more: https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158…
Wednesday, September 17th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Beat the Devil @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Action/Adventure/Comedy Rated PG
1 hour, 29 minutes (1953)
Written by Truman Capote, directed by John Huston, and bankrolled by Humphrey Bogart’s Santana Productions company, this is a droll satire of the Maltese Falcon, and was Huston’s and Bogart’s sixth and last collaboration. On their way to Africa, a group of rogues and swindlers hope to get rich by outsmarting each other in their chase for uranium. Filmed on location in Italy, this film has become a Bogart cult classic. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lorre and Robert Morley.
Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 77. Sunrise is 6:30 and sunset is 7:11, for 12 hours, 41 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 81.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 2001, the September 11 attacks, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks kill 2,977 people using four aircraft hijacked by 19 members of al-Qaeda. Two aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, a third crashes into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Ron Johnson. Photo by Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America / (CC BY-SA)
On the eve of the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson sought to encourage those promoting unsubstantiated theories about the tragedy to continue to investigate it.
He told a crowd of about 75 people gathered in northwest Washington to pursue the “truth” about the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and suggested the government was covering up key details about the events. Still, he said he’s unsure if the “full truth could ever be possibly revealed.”
“I know a lot of people have theories,” Johnson said Wednesday evening.
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Johnson has previously questioned how World Trade Center 7, a third building in downtown Manhattan, could have collapsed in “any other way than a controlled demolition” since it was not directly hit by a plane.
“What actually happened at 9/11?” Johnson asked during an interview with the MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson in April. “What do we know? What is being covered up? My guess is there is an awful lot being covered up in terms of what the American government knows about 9/11.”
The National Institute of Standards and Technology, whose investigation into the collapse Johnson has called corrupt, determined that debris from the destruction of the Twin Towers started fires on floors of Building 7. The sprinkler system failed, and heat from the flames meant a structural column failed, ultimately causing the whole building to fall.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 75. Sunrise is 6:29 and sunset is 7:13, for 12 hours, 43 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 89.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
More students mean more opportunity. They represent potential and potentialities; not certainties, only possibilities, for themselves and us. What the Whitewater community makes of these additional students depends on how they and we interact. In the last decade, the 2010s, Whitewater saw a university leadership inadequate to its students and faculty. (See categories 1 and 2.) No amount of rationalization then or since changes that decade’s series of mistakes and misconduct. This libertarian blogger was right then and remains right now.
We are past that time, and one should be grateful (I know that I am) that we are.
What we make of this opportunity — whether we achieve some or all of what we can — still lies ahead.
There is a new method to detect and map spots on stars by “using observations from NASA missions of orbiting planets.” according to NASA”s Goddard Space Flight Center. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 73. Sunrise is 6:28 and sunset is 7:14, for 12 hours, 46 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 93 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1972, in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park, a Cave Research Foundation exploration and mapping team discovers a link between the Mammoth and Flint Ridge cave systems, making it the longest known cave passageway in the world.
Rich Kremer reports that Bryan Steil and Derrick Van Orden are Wisconsin’s top Democratic targets but haven’t strayed from Trump:
Trump has pursued much of his agenda without Congress, but his signature budget law is the exception. Nearly every Republican voted for it, including Steil and Van Orden.
Neither lawmaker has shied away from the votes, especially Van Orden. While he’s avoided in-person town halls, he’s been among the president’s most outspoken supporters, especially on social media.
“We will be passing @realDonaldTrump Big Beautiful Bill and anyone that is (in) the way needs to find another Party,” Van Orden wrote on X in late May.
“I am very proud to stand with @realDonaldTrump and the One Big Beautiful Bill,” he wrote in another post in June. “We are delivering on the mandate given by the American people. Cope.”
Steil and Van Orden cannot stray from Trump: WISGOP primary voters in their gerrymandered districts would not allow it.
There’s another reason they’ll not stray, however, a reason more immediate and psychological. They’ve espoused a far-right populist agenda, and populism is an insatiable extremism from which few adherents ever recant. Those who develop a craving for populism (the nativism, the magical economics, the thirst to impose their will on others by force) want more, not less. Go that far, and you’ve gone too far to walk back. Drink a little, and they quickly fill another glass.
The gap between a reasoned politics and populism is canyon-wide. Van Orden and Steil will stay where they are, come what may.
Visible from Australia, across Asia and western Europe, a blood moon has been captivating stargazers. This marvel is caused when the Earth shades the moon from direct solar light, causing the moon to appear red.
Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 71. Sunrise is 6:27 and sunset is 7:16, for 12 hours, 49 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 99 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater School Board’s Policy Review Committee meets at 4:30 PM. Whitewater’s Planning and Architectural Commission meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1966, the landmark science fiction television series Star Trek premieres with its first-aired episode, “The Man Trap.”
Administration officials also have said they expect provisions in Trump’s signature legislation, which he dubbed “the One Big Beautiful Bill,” to encourage greater business investment. In July, Bessent promised Fox that the measure “will set off growth like we have never seen before.”
Some Wall Street banks forecast a more muted performance, at least in the short term. Morgan Stanley pegs economicgrowth in the current quarter at 1.5 percent.
Today’s labor market weakness can be traced to several Trump policies, economists said. On-again, off-again tariff announcements over the past several months have made it difficult for businesses to plan new investments or to hire.
Trump has imposed the highest tariffs since the 1930s in a bid to encourage domestic manufacturing. Yet factory employment has dropped by 41,000 since February. Other trade-related sectors, including mining, wholesalers and oil and gas extraction, also have seen payrolls shrink in recent months. And the boom in factory construction that began under President Joe Biden ended after Trump eliminated many of the government subsidies that encouraged such projects.
“We aren’t even seeing the beginnings of a tariff-related recovery in manufacturing. You don’t expect to see it overnight. But it’s going in the wrong direction,” said economist Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic Policy Research in Washington.
The president’s crackdown on illegal immigration, including workplace raids like the one at a Hyundai plant in Georgia on Friday, is driving down the availability of foreign-born workers, which also weighs on hiring. Over the first six months of the year, the nation’s foreign-born population fell by more than 1 million, according to the Pew Research Center.
Trump’s tougher immigration policy, coupled with the effects of societal aging, are reducing potential monthly job growth by more than 100,000 hires, according to Barclays.
The Trump administration weathered another disappointing U.S. jobs report when the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on September 5, 2025, that total nonfarm payroll employment rose by only 22,000 in August. The total seasonally adjusted labor force has increased by only 34,000 since January 2025 and has decreased by 357,000 since its peak in April 2025.
“The loss of immigrant workers and immigrant consumers is a major cause of slow job growth,” said labor economist Mark Regets, a senior fellow at the National Foundation for American Policy, in an interview. “Immigrants both create demand for the goods and services produced by U.S.-born workers and work alongside them in ways that increase productivity for both groups.”
Far-right populism has no sound economic theory, certainly not a theory of mutually supporting, synergistic growth. (The populists aren’t free-market types.) Populism has, in economics and culture, only a zero-sum theory of someone’s loss as someone else’s gain. And so, and so, they erroneously believe that deportations, for example, would leave more for everyone else.
It hasn’t and it won’t work that way. It’s worth noting, however, that populist claims of an economic gain were, at bottom, only secondary to them in any event.
It’s a cultural and political retribution that they want. They’ll inflict (and endure) widespread economic pain for their primary cultural goals.
South Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung, has promised to make ‘all-out efforts’ to resolve the arrest of hundreds of the country’s citizens by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) during a raid at a factory being built in Georgia, Atlanta, to make car batteries. The incident could exacerbate tensions between the Trump administration and Seoul, a key Asian ally and investor.
