FREE WHITEWATER

Education

Wheels to Whitewater program brings Latinos to university campus — Walworth County Today

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Here’s a great idea, described in a press release of the Delavan-Darien School District, to give prospective college students a chance to learn about university life:

Delavan-Darien High School Latino students had a chance to visit UW-Whitewater recently as part of the University’s Wheels to Whitewater program, according to the Delavan-Darien School District blog.

The program provides students who might not otherwise have the chance to visit other colleges with the opportunity to do so. It is also another way for the university and prospective students to make personal connections.

Here’s the link to the blog post: Wheels to Whitewater program brings Latinos to university campus.

Via Wheels to Whitewater program brings Latinos to university campus — Walworth County Today.

Crime, Press

A free pamphlet about illicit drugs that every reporter should download – By Jack Shafer – Slate Magazine

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Drug addiction is a serious problem, and one compounded when bad information substitutes for good —

Where do most people get their information about drugs? From the press. And where does the press get its information? Primarily from other misinformed journalists, lazy cops, grieving parents, clueless drug counselors, spurious Web sites, and gibbering druggies. By indulging their worst class biases, by following their newsman instincts to hype the sensational or dramatic aspects of the story, by giving in to fear and ignorance, journalists keep their readers in the dark about drugs.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Newspapers could establish drug beats and fill them with reporters as eager to learn about Mexican tar as budding financial reporters are to understand the workings of the Fed. Press organizations that say they can’t afford a drug-beat reporter could at least invest in a few reference works to help their staff cover illicit drug use. One of my favorites, Buzzed: The Straight Facts About the Most Used and Abused Drugs From Alcohol to Ecstasy, is now in its third edition. Thanks to the work of one enterprising soul, the entire text of the 1972 classic Licit and Illicit Drugs is on the Web. Although dated in spots, it’s still a solid and valuable overview of the drug universe.

See, A free pamphlet about illicit drugs that every reporter should download. – By Jack Shafer – Slate Magazine.

City, Planning

Public meeting planned to discuss busy Whitewater intersection — Walworth County Today

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One can be sure that Whitewater could use improvements to an intersection at Highway 59 and Milwaukee Streets. A press release issued today describes a public meeting about the intersection to be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 9 in the Whitewater City Council chambers.

The release mentions that the “purpose of the meeting is to provide information on the proposed improvement alternatives and obtain input that will assist WisDOT and the city of Whitewater in further development and refinement of the alternatives in advance of the selection of a preferred alternative.”

If the project takes as much time as the description takes to make its point, Whitewater will have a new intersection within, say, a dozen years or so.

See, Public meeting planned to discuss busy Whitewater intersection.

Crime

Milwaukee FBI agent trips up Russian ‘king of spam’ – JSOnline

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Authorities say he was the king of spam, a 23-year-old Russian controlling a network of infected computers generating 10 billion unwanted e-mails a day – a third of the global spam stream – until a Milwaukee FBI agent unplugged the operation.

Now, Oleg Nikolaenko awaits a hearing in federal court in Milwaukee, where he is charged with helping cyber hucksters pitch everything from counterfeit Rolex watches to fake Viagra….

A reported three years is a long time to devote to a spam investigation.

Nikolaenko may be a miscreant, but is the global spam king really a top FBI concern? Spam’s troublesome, but there must be threats to America — of both domestic and foreign origin, variously — that are more important.

Via Milwaukee FBI agent trips up Russian ‘king of spam’ – JSOnline.

Government Spending

Fed aid in financial crisis went beyond U.S. banks to industry, foreign firms

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Spending so profligate that even the United States Senate’s self-professed socialist from Vermont thinks it’s excessive:

The financial crisis stretched even farther across the economy than many had realized, as new disclosures show the Federal Reserve rushed trillions of dollars in emergency aid not just to Wall Street but also to motorcycle makers, telecom firms and foreign-owned banks in 2008 and 2009….

“The American people are finally learning the incredible and jaw-dropping details of the Fed’s multi trillion-dollar bailout of Wall Street and corporate America,” said Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), a longtime Fed critic whose provision in the Wall Street regulatory overhaul required the new disclosures.

“Perhaps most surprising is the huge sum that went to bail out foreign private banks and corporations. As a result of this disclosure, other members of Congress and I will be taking a very extensive look at all aspects of how the Federal Reserve functions.”

The disclosures (and disclosure provisions) would not have been necessary had the Federal Reserve not spent — and wasted — the money.

Via Fed aid in financial crisis went beyond U.S. banks to industry, foreign firms.

Science/Nature

Arsenic-Based Microbes Challenge Chemistry of Life – WSJ.com

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Quite the innovation —

Researchers on Thursday said they had created microbes that “very likely” use arsenic in their DNA in place of phosphorus, in what may be the first exception to the formula long thought to govern the basic chemistry of life.

Force-grown in the lab, the bacteria use the notorious poison to replace molecules of the element phosphorus in critical parts of their working biology, including in the spiral backbone of DNA, which is a crucial component for all known life, the researchers said. By depending on an element so toxic to normal life, the microbes are a living demonstration of the exotic substances that alien biochemistry might, in theory at least, use on other worlds



Via Arsenic-Based Microbes Challenge Chemistry of Life – WSJ.com. more >>

Politics

Jennifer Rubin Moves to the Washington Post

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Jennifer Rubin, the veteran blogger formerly writing at Commentary‘s Contentions blog, has moved to the Washington Post, where she’s blogging at Right Turn.

I read from among the left, right, and libertarian, and I’m glad that I do — the conservative Jennifer Rubin is a compelling polemicist. She’s far more — educated, sharp, principled, interesting, indefatigable. I’m in agreement with her (as one can guess) only part of the time: there are many issues on which conservatives and libertarians part company.

No matter — I don’t read for agreement, but for understanding.

On her last day at Commentary, here’s part of what she had to say:

My writing career began as a lark and has become a passion, the most satisfying and engrossing occupation I could have imagined. The opportunity to write in COMMENTARY’s pages and on this website – and throw some elbows, take the barbs (from those whom I’m delighted to have enraged), and report what the mainstream media refused to – has allowed me to contribute to the political debate and, along the way, break news. I owe COMMENTARY’s editors, staff, and writers an immense debt of gratitude….

I have received the benefit of my readers’ extraordinary wisdom, occasional corrections and objections, and good humor. (I’ve often thought that many of you should be writing rather than just reading.)

So very well said.

I had linked to Contentions on her account, and I will update my blogroll to include her new location.

I’ll be sure to visit her there, happily and frequently.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 12-2-10

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Good morning,

It’s a partly sunny day ahead for Whitewater, with a high temperature of thirty-one degrees.

The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that on this day in 1954,

McCarthy Censured by Senate

On December 2, 1954, the United States Senate voted to censure Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. Declaring his behavior “contrary to senatorial traditions,” the 1954 Senate resolution officially condemned McCarthy’s reign of anti-communist terror.

McCarthy was worse than an embarrassment, but it’s pure ignorance to call McCarthy’s actions a ‘reign of anti-communist terror.’ Those looking for a reign of terror — and this should be clear to anyone writing for the Wisconsin Historical Society — will find it in communism, itself. For a bit of help in this direction, the Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression is just what the doctor ordered.

It would make a fine Christmas present for anyone needing a better understanding of, well, history.

In the meantime, here’s a short video from YouTube that will help lift any lamentable ignorance of the last century’s terror —



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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 12-1-10

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Good morning, Whitewater

Today’s forecast calls for a day of flurries, with a high temperature of twenty-eight degrees.

In the City of Whitewater today, there will be a meeting of the Landmarks Commission at 5 p.m. The meeting agenda is available online.

Here’s a trailer for a film with a fascinating premise: “A sci-fi thriller from the mind of Duncan Jones, centered on a soldier who wakes up in the body of a commuter who witnesses a train explosion.”



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Education, School District

Charter Schools Naturally Depend on Sound Charters

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I’ve been asked about a charter school for my small town. Whitewater, Wisconsin may have a public charter school next year. The Whitewater Unified School District received a grant for planning, and may receive additional funding for a school. See, Whitewater charter school on track for 2011.

Charter schools typically have support across politics, and libertarians (for example) have long supported them.

It’s worth stating, though, the obvious: a merit of charter school depends on its charter. Until a community sees what the charter establishes, there’s not much to assess.

(Implicit from the school’s charter comes a necessary, second question: who will be eligible for attendance at the school, by what process? In a well-ordered community, a sound charter offers its own, reasonable answer — via a fair process — to this second question. In a politically disordered community, the second question receives an unjust answer, or an ambigious answer that invites bias. The greater the separation between these two questions, the greater the unfairness or ignorance of a proposal. The closer these two questions, the greater the fairness and soundness of a proposal.)

I have no doubt much thought has gone into all this. There will be answers forthcoming, and only then will one be able reasonably to say what a charter school would offer Whitewater.

Laws/Regulations, School District

Wisconsin’s Law on ‘Raced-Based’ School Mascots

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Several public schools in Wisconsin have mascots named after Indian tribes, or famous tribal leaders. I’m am neither a supporter nor an opponent of those mascots’ nicknames. Communities in Wisconsin should be free to decide for themselves what they’d like to call their teams. They may choose wisely, they may chose foolishly, but it should be a matter for residents of those districts to decide. (My small town of Whitewater, Wisconsin has the whippet as a mascot, and that’s a fine choice.)

Unfortunately, Wisconsin law allows the state superintendent to decide whether local public districts may use a tribal name, or other ‘race-based’ name. See, Wis. Stat. 118.134, et seq.

Although the law allows residents of a district to challenge a school mascot name, residents could always challenge a district’s mascot name, through advocacy and politicking. What’s different is that our current law shifts the burden of proof to a district to show that a race-based name “does not promote discrimination, pupil harassment, or stereotyping, as defined by the state superintendent by rule.”

If our law should not shift decision-making to the state superintendent, then worse still is the shifting of the burden of proof to the district. The burden of proof should rest with those who seek change (here those who are aggrieved that a district uses a tribal name).

Shifting the burden is more than shifting the burden; it’s stacking the deck. These names may be offensive — the process for removing them is an unfair change in the burden of proof. Wisconsin’s mascot law is the wrong way to try to achieve change.

I wouldn’t want a tribal nickname for my district’s mascot; even less do I support state determination of other districts’ choices, through a fixed, stacked process.

Repeal of the law will preserve opportunities for advocacy while limiting state interference in local districts’ choices.

See, Kedzie joins effort to repeal race-based school nickname bill.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for November 30, 2010

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Good morning,

Whitewater’s forecast calls for a wintry mix, of drizzle, sleet, and snow showers, with a temperature falling from the forties.

Over at ScienceNews.org, there’s a story of discovery, entitled, Amphibian debuts: Hunt for lost frog turns up new species in Colombian rain forests. Rachel Ehrenberg writes that

Finally some good news on the frog and toad front: Scientists on an amphibian expedition in Colombia’s cloud and rain forests discovered three new species, including a tiny beaked toad….

A new species of rocket frog, a kind of poison dart frog belonging to the genus Silverstoneia, also was described for the first time. As was a toad so unfamiliar that researchers can report only that it has bright red eyes and lives high in the Chocó montane rain forest.

There’s something endearing about that description: “so unfamiliar that researchers can report only that it has bright red eyes and lives high in the Chocó montane rain forest.”

For those in Wisconsin interested in seeing amphibians close up, there’s an exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum entitled, Frogs: A Chorus of Colors, with a score of species on display. The exhibit runs through January 2nd, 2011.



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