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School District

Lewis Black on the Education Crisis in America

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From The Daily Show, here’s a clip of Lewis Black remarking on the education crisis in America. It’s all very bristly, of course, but that’s the style of Black’s sharp humor. For it all, the brief scenes that Black includes about students’ desperation to attend a charter school (from the film Waiting for Superman) are poignant.



(h/t to the Huffington Post for the link.) more >>

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 10-6-10

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Good morning,

Whitewater’s forecast is for a sunny day with a high temperature of seventy-three degrees.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission will meet tonight from 5 to 6:30 p.m. The agenda is available online.

It’s Homecoming Week here in the Whippet City, and today’s activities include a Canned Food Drive this morning, a Lip Sync competition tonight at 7 p.m. at the high school, and the traditional Burning of the W outside the high school tonight at 8:30 p.m.

The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls a famous defense of free speech from our past, from this day in 1917:

1917 – Robert La Follette Supports Free Speech in Wartime

On this date Senator Robert La Follette gave what may have been the most famous speech of his Senate career when he responded to charges of treason with a three hour defense of free speech in wartime.

La Follette had voted against a declaration of war as well as several initiatives seen as essential to the war effort by those that supported U.S. involvement in the first World War. His resistance was met with a petition to the Committee on Privileges and Elections that called for La Follette’s expulsion from the Senate. The charges were investigated, but La Follette was cleared of any wrong doing by the committee on January 16, 1919. [Source: United States Senate]

Freedom of Speech, Laws/Regulations, Liberty, Politics

Camp Politics: Training the Next Generation of Censors Since 1974!

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The Institute for Justice has a very sharp parody of incumbents’ tricks to retain office, entitled, Camp Politics: Training the Next Generation of Censors.

Here’s a description of the summer camp, where young people can learn how to stifle free expression, and retain power:

An Important Message From The Staff of Camp Politics:

Our mission is to train your son or daughter to win political office and then stay there – mainly by using campaign finance laws to suppress political speech that threatens their reelection.

But, unfortunately, many in the public have the absurd idea that free speech should receive the full protection of the First Amendment. One of the chief proponents of this view is the Institute for Justice. It just launched its “Citizen Speech Campaign,” which it calls “a multi-state effort to restore full protection to political speech about candidates and ballot issues.” If you truly care about your children’s future as successful incumbent politicians, please do not allow the Institute to dissuade you from sending them to Camp Politics.

Learn more about the Institute for Justice’s Citizen Speech Campaign.

http://www.CampPolitics.org.

Buy your Camp Politics T-shirt today: http://iam.ij.org/bTNbXY.

Cast:
Narrator: Steve Izant
Counselor: Nick Hanson
Kids: Sophia Cabana, Zachary Cabana, Nicky McBroom, Sam McBroom, Julia
Simpson, Kate Simpson, Natalie Simpson

Enjoy a clever, and sadly true, description of America’s contemporary political culture:


more >>

Official Misconduct

Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim (Update 7)

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There’s a story in the Post Crescent about the aftermath of Calumet County D.A. Ken Kratz’s resignation, entitled, Resignation may not be the end of Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s woes.

The resignation put an end to Gov. Jim Doyle’s efforts to remove him from office….

Kratz’s resignation followed more than two weeks of pressure that swelled after news reports detailed 30 text messages Kratz. 50, sent to domestic violence victim Stephanie Van Groll, who was 25 at the time. Kratz was prosecuting Van Groll’s ex-boyfriend at the time.

Van Groll’s attorney, Michael Fox, said last week he’s weighing whether to file a civil lawsuit seeking damages from Kratz….

The state Office of Lawyer Regulation, meanwhile, re-opened its file on Kratz after other women came forward with reports of inappropriate advances….

….Spokesman Bill Cosh confirmed Monday that the Department of Justice continues to seek information from anyone who knows of misconduct by Kratz.

And on Monday, the Calumet County District Attorney’s Office declined a Post-Crescent request for information under the state’s Open Records laws citing an exemption for open cases. “This office has confirmed with the State Attorney General’s Office that there is an ongoing investigation concerning Mr. Kratz,” wrote Assistant Dist. Atty. Jeffrey Froehlich, who is running the prosecutor’s office.

For prior posts, see Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim, Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim (Update), Update 2, Update 3, Update 4, Update 5, and Update 6.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 10-5-10

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Good morning,

Whitewater’s forecast for Tuesday calls for a sunny day with a high temperature of sixty-seven degrees.

There will be a meeting of Whitewater’s Common Council tonight at 6:30 p.m. The meeting agenda is available online.

At Lakeview School, there will be a 6 p.m. P.T.A. Meeting.

The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that on this day in 1846,

First State Constitutional Convention Meets

On this date Wisconsin’s first state Constitutional Convention met in Madison. The Convention sat until December 16,1846. The Convention was attended by 103 Democrats and 18 Whigs. The proposed constitution failed when voters refused to accept several controversial issues: an anti-banking article, a homestead exemption (which gave $1000 exemption to any debtor), providing women with property rights, and black suffrage. The following convention, the Second Constitutional Convention of Wisconsin in 1847-48, produced and passed a constitution that Wisconsin still very much follows today. [Source: The Convention of 1846 edited Milo M. Quaife]

Laws/Regulations

Reason.tv: Nanny of the Month for September 2010 – Busted for Growing Veggies!

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Reason presents the Nanny of the Month for September 2010. While America thinks of new ways to live a truly green lifestyle, including eating locally-grown produce, in DeKalb County, Georgia officials want to fine a man for growing too many vegetables.



Here’s the description accompanying the video:

Nanny of the Month turns one-year-old this month, and it seems that public officials’ obsession with minding other people’s business has only intensified over the past 12 months.

We’ve exposed meddlers who want to squash other people’s right to do everything from sing karaoke, to drink raw milk, and bust a move at ladies night.

What could possibly top all that? How about the “Greenest County in America” suing a man for growing too many vegetables in his garden?

Presenting Reason.tv’s Nanny of the Month for September 2010: DeKalb County, Georgia CEO Burrell Ellis!

Approximately 1:20 minutes. more >>

Official Misconduct

Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim (Update 6)

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Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz, accused of sending vulgar and propositioning text messages to a domestic abuse victim while he prosecuted her attacker, has resigned his office.

See, It’s official: Embattled DA Kratz resigns.

The Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation’s dismissal of a professional misconduct grievance against Kratz, regarding the messages he sent to the domestic abuse victim, is a source continuing controversy.

For prior posts, see Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim, Official’s Misconduct: Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz’s Treatment of a Crime Victim (Update), Update 2, Update 3, Update 4, and Update 5.

Science/Nature

NASA: A Simulated Alien’s Eye View of Our Solar System

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Today’s posts bring two outer space topics. Earlier today I embedded a video from father-son team about their launch of a balloon and video camera about nineteen miles above the earth’s surface.

Over at Physics Buzz, from PhysicsCentral there is a recent post about a simulated alien’s eye view of our solar system. See, An alien’s eye view of the solar system (w/ video).

With help from a supercomputer capable of 67 trillion calculations per second, astronomers at NASA Goddard have determined what our solar system would look like to an alien astronomer. The simulations track the interactions of 75,000 dust grains in the Kuiper Belt, which is an icy region out beyond Neptune where millions of small bodies (including Pluto) orbit the sun.

Here’s what NASA scientists think extraterrestrials (if there are any) might see if they looked in our direction —



Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op1mSSfLbiY more >>

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 10-4-10

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Good morning,

Whitewater’s forecast for today calls for a sunny day, with a high temperature of sixty degrees.

In the City of Whitewater today there will be a meeting of the Parks & Recreation Board at 4 p.m. The agenda is available online.

On this day in 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first satellite into orbit. Sputnik was about the weight of an average man, and completed roughly fifteen orbits of the earth each day. The New York Times reported on Sputnik is a story entitled, “Soviet Fires Earth Satellite Into Space; It Is Circling the Globe at 18,000 M.P.H.’ Sphere Tracked in 4 Crossings Over U.S.”

Decades later, the Soviets are gone, but the fascination with space exploration continues. An American father-and-son team from Park Slope, New York recently launched their own camera into space, to a height of nineteen miles, carried aloft on a helium balloon. A balloon, an iPod, an HD camera, and a parachute: they’re the ingredients of a remarkable story of ingenuity. They have a video recording of their balloon’s preparation and flight:


Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

Link: http://vimeo.com/15091562.

Simply remarkable.

City, Innovation Center/Tech Park

Whitewater’s Innovation Center: Economic Development Administration Sends ‘Cease and Desist’ Letter Over Alleged Violation of Competition in Construction Requirements

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The City of Whitewater, together with UW-Whitewater and the Whitewater Community Development Authority, is undertaking an eleven-million dollar, publicly-funded technology park project. The centerpiece of that project is an Innovation Center building.

(I have written about the project before; for information on the relationship between the three organizations involved in the project, see the Memorandum of Understanding between them, available online at the Technology Park’s website.)

The project, including the centerpiece ‘Innovation Center’ building, relies on a federal grant from the Economic Development Administration, with additional funding from the issuance of millions of dollars in federally-subsidized Build America bonds.

In late September, the federal Economic Development Administration sent a letter to the City of Whitewater’s city manager, Kevin Brunner, among others, directing work on the project cease and desist based on an alleged violation of federal regulations on competitive practices. The letter is from C. Robert Sawyer, Regional Director of the Economic Development Administration. I have embedded a copy of the letter below, the first paragraph of which describes the federal directive to halt work related to the Innovation Center:

It has come to the Economic Development Administration (EDA) attention that the construction contractor for the Whitewater Technology Park building portion of the Project has not been awarded per EDA Standard Terms and Conditions. The construction contractor is also working as a construction project manager developing specifications, requirements, statements of work, and invitations for bid and/or requests for proposal. This is a clear violation of the Grant Award Terms and Conditions and in particular, CFR 15 § 14.43 Competition. This unauthorized action subjects the grant to possible termination for cause.

The City of Whitewater, Community Development Authority and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, as co-grant Recipients, are hereby advised to cease and desist, all construction activities associated with this EDA investment….

A full accounting of this matter by the EDA will be required before it will authorize any additional Project activities….

See, full letter from the Economic Development Administration to the City of Whitewater, among others:

(Note: The letter does not say what prompted the review and directive from the Economic Development Administration.)

Federal Legal Requirements

The Code of Federal Regulations, Section 14.43, Competition, requires that

All procurement transactions shall be conducted in a manner to provide, to the maximum extent practical, open and free competition. The recipient shall be alert to organizational conflicts of interest as well as noncompetitive practices among contractors that may restrict or eliminate competition or otherwise restrain trade. In order to ensure objective contractor performance and eliminate unfair competitive advantage, contractors that develop or draft specifications, requirements, statements of work, invitations for bids and/or requests for proposals shall be excluded from competing for such procurements. Awards shall be made to the bidder or offeror whose bid or offer is responsive to the solicitation and is most advantageous to the recipient, price, quality and other factors considered. Solicitations shall clearly set forth all requirements that the bidder or offeror shall fulfill in order for the bid or offer to be evaluated by the recipient. Any and all bids or offers may be rejected when it is in the recipient’s interest to do so.

(Emphasis added.)

Selection of a Construction Services Firm: J.P. Cullen

A review of the minutes from the August 11, 2009 meeting of the Technology Park Board, available online at the Technology Park website, shows that the Board selected a construction manager at the meeting, as recorded at Item 5 of the minutes:

Discussion of Approval of Construction Management Services Agreement, Gayhart explained that he, Brunner, Knight and Cliff Goodhart had interviewed three firms for construction management services yesterday. These firms were Findorff Construction (Madison), J. P. Cullen & Sons (Janesville), and Miron Construction (Menasha). After due deliberation and consideration, the committee is recommending that J. P. Cullen be selected to provide construction management services for the Whitewater Innovation Center project and that a recommendation be made to the Community Development Authority and Common Council to approve a construction services agreement yet to be finalized with Cullen. It was moved by Gayhart and seconded by Brunner to approve the recommendation to hire J. P. Cullen and Sons for construction management services. The motion was unanimously approved.

(A summary of estimated costs from Cullen, in a letter dated April 16, 2010, and linked below, indicates that Cullen estimated its construction management charges at $285,436.)

A review of the minutes of subsequent meetings shows that Cullen’s representatives routinely participated in Technology Park Board meetings. See, online minutes.

The Construction Management Firm Recommends Itself for a $2.8 Million-Dollar General Construction Bid

At a Whitewater Community Development Authority meeting on April 19, 2010, as recorded at Item 6 of the meeting minutes, the CDA took action on bids that Cullen, as the construction management firm, itself recommended:

6. Discussion and Possible Action on Bid(s) for construction of the Whitewater Innovation Center (as part of the Whitewater University Technology Park and Economic Development Administration Grant) Brunner noted that bids were opened on Thursday, and it was a competitive process. Low bidders were outlined in an outline provided by JP Cullen.

Attached to the minutes is a letter from the Cullen firm, addressed to City Manager Brunner, and outlining recommended bids. For the general construction base bid, Cullen recommended that

For Base Bid #1 — General Construction, three responsive bids were received ranging from $2,890,195 to $3,070,000. JP Cullen & Sons, Inc. submitted the lowest responsive bid at $2,890,195 and we recommend that they be awarded a contract for Bid Category #1.

The minutes record that

Jeff Knight motioned to (on behalf of both the CDA and the Whitewater Technology Park Board) approve the bids for the construction of the Whitewater Innovation Center. Jim Allen seconded.
CDA Ayes: Jim Allen, Jeff Knight, Alan Marshall, Tom Miller, Jim Stewart
Nays: None
Absent: Al Stanek, Marilyn Kienbaum
Tech Park Board Ayes: Chancellor Telfer, Kevin Brunner, Peter Zaballos, John Chenoweth, Jim Stewart, Bud Gayhart, Jeff Knight
Nays: None

See, minutes of the April 19, 2010 Community Development Authority Meeting, with letter from the J.P. Cullen firm:

The minutes record no discussion of Code of Federal Regulations 15 § 14.43 on competition and the prohibition against a construction management firm receiving compensation as a contractor.

Latest Community Development Authority Meeting

On September 27, 2010, the Whitewater Community Development Authority held a regular board of directors meeting. The agenda for the meeting is available online. Item 10 from the agenda lists a discussion of the technology park:

10. Whitewater Technology Park
a. Innovation Manager Search Update
b. Economic Development Administration Update
c. Infrastructure Updates
i. Starin Road Extension
ii. Tech Park Infrastructure

A video recording of the meeting is available online. Beginning at 1:17:45 into the recording, Whitewater city manager Brunner discusses item 10 b, “Economic Development Administration Update.” I have embedded the video below, with my own transcription of the relevant discussion:

Transcript of conversation:

Brunner: Economic Development Administration update. We continue to work with the EDA on a variety of compliance issues. We have a meeting scheduled with them next week to discuss some concerns the EDA has regarding the Innovation Center and we hope to work out the details of that with them next week.

[Cross talk with Mary Nimm, CDA Coordinator]

And we have a new rep who has brought a new set of eyes and a lot more [laughs] detail, a lot more detail that we have to go through… So, that’s that… I don’t know, Mary, do you want to make any other EDA comments?

Nimm: Just that we have a new rep.

(Notes: 1. Although the letter from the Economic Development Administration bears a stamp of 9-28-10, it is likely that other telephone, email, or written communications on this subject preceded receipt of the letter. The addressees in the letter likely knew about the directive in the letter before the September 27, 2010 CDA meeting. 2. Although the Economic Development administration apparently has a new project representative, the federal regulations on competition in construction have been the same during the entire course of the project. The representative may be different, but the law and the obligations for the project have been the same throughout.)

Additional posts will follow as developments warrant.