FREE WHITEWATER

City, Daily Bread, Elections, Law, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, University, Voting Rights

Daily Bread for 9.14.26: City of Whitewater’s September Polling Place Memo Changes the Question (from ‘Consolidation’ to Relocation)

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be variably cloudy with a high of 71. Sunrise is 6:33 and sunset is 7:06 for 12 hours 33 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 12.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Plan and Architectural Review Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1994, the remainder of the Major League Baseball season is canceled because of a strike.

A plain proposition: Government, whether of elected or appointed officials, is made legitimate through free, fair, and accessible elections. Whitewater should not — indeed must not — reduce the number of its polling places.

This September post follows earlier remarks about a city staff recommendation on the August 4 council agenda that in “[o]dd years, when there are no Presidential or Gubernatorial elections, I do not think we should have polling locations on campus.” Nothing nebulous about that. See City of Whitewater, Council Agenda Item 19, Potential of Consolidating Polling Locations for Low Turnout, in Common Council Meeting Packet 101–03 (Aug. 4, 2026) [hereafter Aug. 2026 Packet]. For remarks on that August memo see Preliminary Remarks Against the Proposed Discontinuation of the UW–Whitewater Polling Place in Odd-Numbered Years and, for a discussion of the community response, see Council Discussion of the Proposed Discontinuation of the UW–Whitewater Polling Place in Odd-Numbered Years.

The municipal administration now offers this month a wholly different proposal, one that I will address below. The proposal before the Whitewater Common Council for its September 15 meeting states, by contrast, that “[o]nly the August election location is being considered in this memo.” See City of Whitewater, Memorandum to Common Council, Feasibility of a Centralized Polling Location for August Primary Elections (Sept. 9, 2026), in Common Council Meeting Packet 192-201 (Sept. 15, 2026) [hereafter Sept. 2026 Polling Location Memo].

(For a moment, one might be forgiven for wondering about the change between months: Is what the community believed it heard and read in August really what the community heard and read in August? The answer is yes. The inversion of goals from August to September works momentarily like an expression derived from the title of a 1944 MGM film.)

The September change, at least, is a notable improvement over the August memo (as the September memo does not propose to reduce any polling places through so-called ‘consolidation’). The August memo’s proposal was, in fact, a reduction in the total number of polling places, however disingenuously it may have been described. Consolidation meant closure.

As this libertarian blogger wrote in August, full consideration of an election proposal would encompass both the municipal administration’s practical proposal and its legal implications (including state and federal law). Upon reading the city’s August election memo — a proposal provocative, objectionable, and utterly needless — it was prudent to outline and draft (but not publish) a full assessment on these topics. Now, too, only a part of that consideration is yet necessary (and somewhat less today than even in August as the proposal is narrower).

The Changed Staff Recommendation. The August staff recommendation would have closed the campus polling location for spring primaries and spring general elections in odd-numbered years. That proposal would have abrogated the well-considered Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City of Whitewater and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The September proposal acknowledges that the campus elections required by the MOU are not being changed. This is not a modification of the August proposal. It is, instead, a wholly different proposal. It’s far better than last month’s.

The proper practice would be for this city’s council to state on the record that the proposed closures in odd-numbered years have been formally and effectively withdrawn. No resident should have to guess an implicit or implied municipal change of course. Without that clear statement, the August 4 proposal remains formally unresolved while the September memorandum changes the question.

A Concise Legal Assessment. The September staff memo acknowledges what the August staff memo did not: that a location change for a city polling place will require a public hearing before the Whitewater Common Council. See Sept. 2026 Polling Location Memo 2 (“polling-place location may not be discontinued without governing-body approval after a public hearing at which the public may provide testimony”). See also FREE WHITEWATER, Preliminary Remarks Against the Proposed Discontinuation of the UW–Whitewater Polling Place in Odd-Numbered Years, August 4, 2026 (“Approval must come after a public hearing. The hearing must afford the public an opportunity to present testimony. The testimony must concern the proposed discontinuation, not municipal business in general. The August 4 packet labels Item 19 as a mere agenda item — the material provided does not identify it as the statutory public hearing”).

There’s a portion of the September memo that points toward a sound practice for the city going forward: “The timing and form of any Council action should therefore be coordinated with the City Attorney and the election calendar.” See Sept. 2026 Polling Location Memo 2. Yes, and yes again — doing so will help vet proposals.

Threshold Practical Considerations. What matters most? Voter access — not municipal convenience — matters most. Government serves its electorate; the electorate does not serve the government.

Whitewater already uses one polling place for August elections (as there is no campus polling place at that time under the governing MOU). The issue for Whitewater in the selection of a polling place is not, therefore, ‘centralization.’ Whitewater’s August polling place is already centralized at the Armory. The issue is whether to keep that polling place centralized at the Armory or centralized elsewhere through relocation.

As the August polling place is now at the Armory, that location should reasonably be treated as the default against which other options (the Starin Community Building or the Whitewater Public Library) are judged. Do those other locations offer a comparative advantage? There are many residents who should have a chance to offer their insights. This should be a decision made only after community input. There’s no compelling reason to rush this decision. None.

Assorted Oddities of the City’s New September Memorandum. There are assorted oddities in the September memorandum.

The table in the memo lists an August 16, 2022 Partisan Primary. Our state’s August Partisan Primary in 2022 was on August 9, 2022.

The turnout figures for August 11, 2026 do not add up in the memo. See Sept. 2026 Polling Location Memo 1. The ‘known in-person turnout’ is listed as 975, and the absentee vote as 579, for a total of 1,558. The sum of 975 and 579 should be 1,554. The turnout figures for ‘August 16, 2022’ (actually August 9) also do not add up in the memo. See Sept. 2026 Polling Location Memo 1. The ‘known in-person turnout’ is listed as 945, and the absentee vote as 583, for a total of 1,524. The sum of 945 and 583 should be 1,528. (By contrast, the numbers for August 13, 2024 add correctly: ‘known in-person turnout’ is listed as 1,196, and the absentee vote as 634, for a total of 1,830.)

I’m sure there is a reason, but there is no explanation in the memo’s main text or in a footnote.

The September memorandum is not a justification for the August proposal. It is a retreat from that proposal and poses a different question. The Whitewater Common Council itself (not simply a staff memo) should acknowledge that change, ensure that there will be no reduction in spring polling places through directions given to staff, and build a full public record before replacing the August polling place now serving the city.

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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): A New Ethics Ordinance, Development in Downtown Whitewater (Follow-Up), and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.

New Class of X-Ray Objects discovered using Chandra Observatory:

Scientists using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered 84 mysterious “hypersoft X-ray sources.” These strange objects could help solve long-standing mysteries in astrophysics.

BECI Power Line, City, Daily Bread, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.13.26: Main Gubernatorial Candidates Now Oppose the BECI Power Line

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 67. Sunrise is 6:32 and sunset is 7:08 for 12 hours 36 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 6.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1814, in a turning point in the War of 1812, the British fail to capture Baltimore. During the battle, Francis Scott Key composes his poem Defence of Fort M’Henry, which is later set to music and becomes The Star-Spangled Banner.

This libertarian blogger has posted twice previously on the BECI power line. See Opposing the Routing of the BECI 765-kV Transmission Line and Sugar Creek Stands Tall. This power line, unlike a recent solar power development in the area, is an expropriation from private property owners. (The solar power development represents a series of freely contracted agreements between private landowners and the developer for the placement of solar panels on farmers’ own land. The BECI power line is an imposed, forced acquisition of private landowners’ property for the developer’s ownership. A proposal like this is, or at least should be, presumptively objectionable in a society that understands the importance of private ownership as both a right and also as a source of overall economic well-being.)

This week, both major-party candidates for governor declared opposition to the BECI project (at least in its present form):

In the latest sign that a controversial high-voltage transmission line planned for Wisconsin has become a political touchstone, both candidates to serve as Wisconsin governor say they oppose it.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley announced his opposition in a Sept. 10 press release. Republican candidate Tom Tiffany has told voters across the state that he’s opposed to the project, a spokesperson said.

The BECI project, a proposed 765-kilovolt power line, would stretch from western Wisconsin to the Illinois state line in Walworth County. Despite the developers’ position that it is vital for a reliable electric grid and a smooth transition to clean energy, individual landowners and communities along the line have mounted intense backlash to what they view as an unnecessary disturbance of the state’s Driftless region, primarily intended to serve data centers.

The governor of Wisconsin, along with the state Senate, appoints commissioners to the Public Service Commission, who will ultimately approve or deny proposed power line projects like this one. The current commissioners, appointed by Gov. Tony Evers, are serving six-year terms that will end in 2030.

In Crowley’s Sept. 10 statement, he said Wisconsin’s clean energy future “cannot come at the expense of our local communities or the Driftless region as a whole.”

Tiffany in an emailed statement said Wisconsin “should not become a web of massive transmission lines crisscrossing our farmland because politicians failed to build reliable power right here at home.”

See Madeline Heim, Crowley, Tiffany oppose Driftless power line project, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, September 10, 2026.

These announcements are good news for those of us sensibly opposed to the project. They are not, however, the end of this project. (The opposition of major candidates will not, notably, immediately affect membership on the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, as most commissioners have years left on their terms.)

Two points come to mind. First, these candidates took the positions that they did in response to Wisconsinites’ expressed concerns. Governments and politicians now declaring against the project did not create popular opinion — they are responding to it.

Second, there are those in local governments near and far who may be advising that a deal should be made with the BECI developer, as the project is inevitable. That’s advice deserving only rejection. This can be stopped (and, even if not stopped, then crafted satisfactorily later only through resolute opposition now). Those talking about dealing now, compromising now, misunderstand the degree of opposition and what that opposition can accomplish. Indeed, opposition has already accomplished much, despite the rushed and duplicitous efforts of the developer. (Anyone thinking that the developer’s own focus group meetings in August were anything other than a contrived effort at considering residents’ views probably fell off a turnip truck yesterday.)

So along comes this developer like a python, looking for something to eat. Those who approach that reptile incautiously and innocently will only offer themselves as a meal.

By contrast, those who see this power line project for what it is — a developer’s rapacious taking of ordinary people’s private property for its own corporate gain — will make themselves like a porcupine, difficult to swallow and not worth the effort.

The best position against BECI is resolute opposition. Momentum is with those who oppose. There’s no reason whatever to relent now.

Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash.

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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations), Development in Downtown Whitewater (Follow-Up), Steps for a Public Interest Campaign, and A New Ethics Ordinance.

Bayside uses goats in the battle against roadside vegetation:

Bad Ideas, Conspiracy Theories, Daily Bread, Gubernatorial Race 2026, Tom Tiffany, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.12.26: Tom Tiffany Replaces One Nutty Idea with Another

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 6:31 and sunset is 7:09 for 12 hours 38 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 2.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1958, Jack Kilby demonstrates the first working integrated circuit while employed at Texas Instruments. (Kilby later won the 2000 Nobel Prize in physics for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit.)

Our time has seen countless conspiracy theories, not least among them the false claims about the result of the 2020 presidential election. On the campaign trail this fall, voters have a chance to meet one of the most committed of the 2020 election denialists, who now concedes — six years later! — that, in fact, Joe Biden did win that presidential election:

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Wisconsin Republican running for governor, moved to reverse Democrat Joe Biden’s win over Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Dec. 10, 2020: Signed a legal brief supporting Texas’ U.S. Supreme Court bid to overturn the results in Wisconsin and three other battleground states that backed Biden.

Jan. 5, 2021: Announced plans to vote against certifying the Electoral College results, claiming hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin votes were cast illegally, and later said he would have voted against certifying Wisconsin’s election results.

Jan. 6, 2021: Voted to object to counting electoral votes in Pennsylvania and Arizona, which supported Biden. 

May 18, 2026: Backed an FBI probe of Wisconsin’s 2020 election.

August 2026: Said he didn’t regret voting against certifying the election.

Sept. 4, 2026: Told Wisconsin Watch that Biden won but he still welcomes law enforcement investigations into Wisconsin’s 2020 election.

See Tom Kertscher, Did Tom Tiffany try to overturn the 2020 presidential election result?, Wisconsin Watch, September 10, 2026.

Worry not for Rep. Tiffany, as he has replaced his absurd election denialism with a new absurdity: he somehow believes that Donald Trump might truly make good on a promise to give each American $5,000 if the GOP retains both chambers of Congress. Catherine Rampell of The Bulwark illustrates nicely how unreliable Trump’s promise is:

Here is a partial list of times he’s teased checks from the government since retaking office:

See Catherine Rampell, Trump’s $5,000 Midterm Ploy Is Even Dumber Than It Sounds (‘The math is impossible, the inflation risk is real, and the plan would attract an army of scammers’), The Bulwark, September 10, 2026.

When Tiffany tires of his latest confidence in a Trump dividend, he’ll still have flat Earth, QAnon, and chemtrails claims to embrace.

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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Development in Downtown Whitewater (Follow-Up), Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations), A New Ethics Ordinance, and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.

So much better to set aside these silly political fantasies for a creative film about a coyote plaintiff and a corporate defendant. Coyote v. Acme, enjoyable all the way through, is an animated fantasy worth embracing. Bringing Explosive Life to ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ | Anatomy of a Scene:

Wile E. Coyote’s actions speak more bombastically than words in this scene from “Coyote vs. Acme.” After being the victim of countless anvils, boulders, dynamite sticks and faulty Acme products, Coyote is fed up. He goes searching for representation and finds a barely qualified personal injury attorney named Kevin Avery (Will Forte). Coyote has an expressive (and ultimately explosive) exchange with Kevin in his office. Narrating the scene, the director Dave Green discussed how he and his team put it all together. “The execution of the scene,” he said, “really begins in prep in the storyboard process.” Green’s story artists, using the script, would sketch out how Wile E. might look and respond in the scene, creating a sense of his emotional arc.

America, Daily Bread, Economy

Daily Bread for 9.11.26: National Economic Policy Has Been a Failure (Another in a Series Since 1.20.25)

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 78. Sunrise is 6:30 and sunset is 7:11 for 12 hours 41 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 0.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 2001, nineteen members of al-Qaeda execute the September 11 attacks, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks that killed 2,977 people using four hijacked aircraft. 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 crashes into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Remember this?

On the contrary, America lives this:

Prices for a wide swath of goods and services continued to climb in August, according to a report Friday that raises the specter of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike next week.

The consumer price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% for the month, putting the 12-month increase at 3.4%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Both readings were in line with the Dow Jones consensus.

However, stripping out volatile food and energy prices, core CPI posted a 0.3% monthly gain, or 0.1 percentage point higher than forecast. The core annual rate came in at 2.4%, in line with the estimate.

[…]

Energy propelled the headline number higher, as gasoline prices jumped 3.9%, accounting for more than one-third of the index’s gain. The energy index broadly rose 2.1% amid pressure from escalating tensions in the Middle East and was up 16.3% from a year ago.

Food prices edged 0.1% higher as food at home costs held flat. The food index accelerated 2.7% annually.

Another significant factor was a 0.3% climb in shelter costs, which had moderated over the prior two months. Transportation services saw a 0.5% increase. Used cars and trucks rose 0.4% and new vehicle prices were up 0.3%, part of what appeared to be broad-based gains for the index.

See Jeff Cox, Inflation persisted in August, potentially locking in a Fed interest rate hike, CNBC, September 11, 2026.

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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Development in Downtown Whitewater (Follow-Up), Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations), A New Ethics Ordinance, and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.

Light show takes place in New York to mark 25th anniversary of 9/11 attacks:

The skies lit up over New York Harbor Wednesday night with a drone show to mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks.

Cats, Science/Nature

Friday Catblogging: Now Extinct, the American ‘Cheetah’ Was Really More Like a…Puma

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Hypothetical life restoration of M. trumani. By Sheatherius – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link.

Sadly, North America never had its own true cheetah. The American cheetah, long since extinct, was closer to an American puma:

With their slender bodies and long front legs, Miracinonyx trumani—often nicknamed the “American cheetah”—was long thought to be a North American analog of the African big cat. But in a new study published in the journal Current Biology, researchers reveal that the extinct cat was more closely related to pumas. Some populations living near the Arctic preyed almost exclusively on fish, challenging the long-held assumption that these “cheetahs” chased fast-running prey, such as pronghorns.

[…]

However, in recent years, increasing evidence has suggested that M. trumani may not have been as cheetah-like as its appearance suggests. To delve deeper, Cassatt-Johnstone and her team sequenced the most complete M. trumani ancient DNA data set to date from four specimens, one from Wyoming and three from Canada’s Yukon Territory. The Yukon samples were previously thought to be a different species, but the team confirmed that they belong to M. trumani, extending the known range of M. trumani more than 20 degrees of latitude (more than 1,400 miles) farther north than previously known.

[…]

The team found that despite being discovered in different locations and having lived hundreds of years apart, the Yukon M. trumani individuals all showed signals indicating that they preyed almost exclusively on fish. The fossils’ nitrogen profiles were similar to those observed in fish-specialist orcas and sea wolves living along the coast of British Columbia, which eat mainly marine animals. In contrast, the M. trumani in Wyoming had the nitrogen markers of a terrestrial predator that mostly eats herbivores, similar to lions.

See Gaby Clark, The extinct American ‘cheetah’ was not a cheetah after all, Phys.org, September 6, 2026.

America, City, Daily Bread, Elections, Federal Government, Local Government, State Government, Voting Rights, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.10.26: Listing Methods to Obstruct a Free and Fair Vote

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be increasingly sunny with a high of 77. Sunrise is 6:29 and sunset is 7:13 for 12 hours 44 minutes of daylight. The moon will be new this evening with none of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1846, Elias Howe is granted a patent for the sewing machine.

By Elias Howe – https://patents.google.com/patent/US4750A/en, Public Domain, Link.

A federal and state election draws near. There is a reasonable concern that a movement that stormed the United States Capitol to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power will seek new ways to prevent another peaceful transfer of federal power. There are two principal ways to achieve this aim: by interfering with lawful voting or by contesting the lawful results. Of the latter — ways to contest votes lawfully cast — Evan Gorelick lists four main lines of attack:

Trump is the only president in U.S. history to try overturning an election. His ongoing assertion that elections are “rigged” creates a potential pretext for officials — a growing number of whom back the president’s election denialism, my colleagues Nick Corasaniti and Alexandra Berzon report — to question the outcome of this year’s midterms. If Democrats win enough seats to retake one or both chambers of Congress, then officials could:

Claim they saw polling-site irregularities. The Justice Department has been deploying election monitors this primary season. It could do the same in November. (Trump has claimed that loads of undocumented immigrants vote, for instance, even though a database managed by the conservative Heritage Foundation identifies only about 100 cases of noncitizen voting over the last quarter century, or roughly two instances per U.S. state.)

Claim voting machines lie. The president says they are “extremely exposed to attack” and has spread baseless allegations that they once “deleted” millions of votes. Trump told The Times he regretted not seizing voting machines after the 2020 election, and his administration has explored bringing criminal charges against election officials whom it believes did not sufficiently safeguard their computer systems. (Cyber experts have identified security flaws, but there’s no evidence they have ever been exploited to flip election results.)

Claim there was foreign interference. Trump often complains, falsely, that China sabotaged him in 2020. This summer, he made a prime-time speech resurfacing that exaggerated narrative. There’s a grain of truth: Beijing collected American voter data. But such data is publicly available and often purchased by domestic political campaigns. On the other hand, Russian meddling might have helped Trump in 2016.

Refuse to certify the results, or sue to challenge them. The Justice Department could unleash a torrent of post-election litigation. The agency has already demanded that states turn over voters’ confidential Social Security and drivers’ license data. Dozens of states have resisted, and the Justice Department sued them. It has lost every case so far. Still, election officials and Democrats worry the battle over voting records may be used to discredit or spread disinformation about midterm results. (Read The Times’s profile of the gladiatorial Trump official leading these efforts.)

See Evan Gorelick, What could go wrong?, New York Times, September 10, 2026.

It is not possible for a people to support a government that either burdens an election or rejects election results. This principle applies nationally, statewide, and locally. In this way, all places, whether big or small, are bound together in defense of a right they hold in common.

There are no exceptions, nor could there be.

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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Development in Downtown Whitewater (Follow-Up), Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations), A New Ethics Ordinance, and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.

Scientists say August 2026 was the Earth’s joint hottest month ever recorded:

The European climate service Copernicus said the Earth just sweltered through its hottest month on record in August. Scientists said the heat surge is mostly due to human-caused climate change, with help from a strong El Nino.

Budget, City, Daily Bread, Local Government, Reasoning

Daily Bread for 9.9.26: No, Whitewater’s Budget Did Not Simply Double (Part 2)

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 83. Sunrise is 6:28 and sunset is 7:15 for 12 hours 47 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning crescent with 3.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1947, scientists discover the first computer bug after a moth lodges in a relay of a Harvard Mark II computer at Harvard University. (They taped the dead moth into the logbook for the computer. “First actual case of bug being found,” one of the team members wrote in the log.)

Logbook entry containing the bug. Public Domain, Link.

This summer, by his own admission, a resident who served on and chaired the old CDA, presided over the Whitewater School Board, and has claimed expertise in finance contended that the city’s budget doubled over the last few years. In response, the City of Whitewater produced a memorandum debunking that claim. See FREE WHITEWATER, No, Whitewater’s Budget Did Not Simply Double, September 1, 2026.

During the September 1 session of the Whitewater Common Council, the city’s finance director presented that memo to the community.

In reply, the same gentleman who advanced the erroneous claim attempted to rehabilitate his position. Embedded immediately below are his remarks:

What is one to make of this effort at rehabilitating a claim? The simplest assessment: wrong before and still wrong, stubbornly so. There’s something telling about a reply that concedes that the city’s analysis is “a very nice factual report” but refuses to accept the ineluctable conclusions that follow from those same facts.

The response never shows — because it cannot — that the original $24 million-to-$49 million comparison measures recurring operations, distinct expenditures, or property taxes. From the get-go, this gentleman’s claim of $49 million (however characterized) was off by over $5.3 million due to his double counting of that amount. And yet, and yet, in his September 1 remarks, he holds to the $49 million figure.

This was the August claim: “City budget, total spending in 2021 was $24 million. This year it was $49 million.” The September claim retreats from that position: it is now about ‘all-funds spending’ and shifts to the general fund or individual tax bills.” When one claim fails, changing the subject to a related but different claim does not rehabilitate it.

The shift (and concession!) from an erroneous claim about the budget to an all-funds view matters because that shift includes utility funds, capital projects, millions in temporary construction expenditures, a full year of Fire/EMS activity compared with a partial year in 2022, and approximately $5.3 million in transfers appearing in both the sending and receiving funds. Whitewater’s general fund increase is also explained clearly in the finance director’s memo: referendums, state aid, permit revenue, interest earnings, debt service, a TID closure, and net new construction. “There’s still a lot more in there” is not an answer to that reconciliation.

Of taxes, be clear: city taxes are higher, but for identifiable reasons: two public votes for public safety and council-approved borrowing for capital improvements. That history is an argument about whether those choices were wise — not proof that the city quietly doubled ordinary government. These increases should not be an opportunity to collapse gross expenditures, recurring operations, tax levies, tax rates, individual assessments, and TID increments into a single misleading claim that “the budget doubled.”

Let’s assume someday, on a day uncertain, this libertarian blogger finds himself in debate with Whitewater’s finance director over one claim or another. I should hope that, if that day comes, then I have the intellectual honesty to admit any errors she might find in my analysis.

The budget didn’t double. Would it have been so hard to admit this obvious error?

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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Development in Downtown Whitewater (Follow-Up), A New Ethics Ordinance, Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations), and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.

Volcanic eruption on Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau causes widespread disruption:

America, Daily Bread, Economy, War

Daily Bread for 9.8.26: So America Didn’t Win This War in April?

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 82. Sunrise is 6:27 and sunset is 7:17 for 12 hours 50 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning crescent with 8.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 5 PM and the Whitewater School District’s Wellness Committee also meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1760, the French surrender Montreal to the British, completing Britain’s conquest of New France.

April 2026:

The Trump administration loudly and proudly declared a military victory in Iran this week. 

“Total and complete victory. 100 percent. No question about it,” President Donald Trump told a reporter with the AFP. 

“This is a victory for the United States that President Trump and our incredible military made happen,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing on Wednesday.

“This morning, a big day for world peace. Iran wants it to happen. They’ve had enough. Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield. A capital ‘V,'” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday. 

See Justin Fishel, Trump claims military victory in Iran, ABC News, April 9, 2026.

September 2026:

What to know about the Iran war today:

  • Brent crude, the international standard for oil, was trading at a seven-week high of $99 per barrel Tuesday morning, continuing an upward trend seen since the end of August.
  • The head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said Monday that Tehran is planning to announce a maritime “exclusion zone” outside the Strait of Hormuz where it intends to stop vessels attempting to transit the waterway without Iranian permission. 
  • Iran threatened Sunday to deliver a “more intense and more painful” retaliation after the U.S. struck three Iranian oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.

See Duarte Dias and Frank Andrews, U.S.-Iran War Updates: Oil nears $100 a barrel as Strait of Hormuz stalemate keeps ship traffic down, CBS News, September 8, 2026.

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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Development in Downtown Whitewater (Follow-Up), A New Ethics Ordinance, Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations), and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.

Energy Prices Surge, Reviving Inflation Fears as Winter Nears:

America, Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Tariffs, Trade, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.7.26: Wisconsin, Dependent on Canadian Trade, Braces for More Tariffs

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Good morning.

Labor Day in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 6:26 and sunset is 7:18 for 12 hours 53 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning crescent with 15.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1776, Ezra Lee makes the world’s first submarine attack in the Turtle, attempting, albeit unsuccessfully, to attach a time bomb to the hull of HMS Eagle in New York Harbor. Lee’s 1821 obituary noted that “[t]his soldier is the only man who fought the enemy upon land, upon water, and under the water.”

Cutaway replica at the Oceanographic Museum, Monaco. By Zenit, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link.

A continuing obsession with imposing tariffs, contrary to evidence from the last few centuries of modern economics, now brings America toward a worse trade war with Canada:

After more than two weeks of finger pointing, threats and patronizing insults between longtime trading partners, Canada’s latest retaliatory tariffs against the United States are set to take effect just after midnight Eastern time on Tuesday.

Polls show that Canadians strongly back Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision to end trade talks with Washington last month and to hit back with tariffs on about $20 billion in American products entering Canada. But there is also concern over what might happen next. President Trump has repeatedly threatened another round of American tariffs if Canada follows through on its plan.

Some in Canadian industry say they are inclined to take Mr. Trump at his word, at least on this threat.

People in the Trump administration “are willing to hurt themselves, their own sectors and industries, in pursuit of their goal, however misguided I think it is,” said Flavio Volpe, the president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’? Association of Canada. 

[…]

On Friday Mr. Trump escalated his trade rhetoric even further. He said that he might “end all trade with Canada” and other countries that have trade surpluses with the United States.

See Ian Austen, Canada’s Retaliatory Tariffs Set to Take Effect as Trump Threatens to Escalate (New Canadian levies of up to 50 percent are expected to begin Tuesday, even as Washington warns of a new round of American tariffs), New York Times, September 7, 2026.

The planned Canadian retaliation is especially damaging to Wisconsin as it targets products we produce or consume: milk products at 50 percent, cheese at 25 percent, agricultural equipment, steel, appliances, electronics, plastics, pulp and paper, and forestry products used in construction (including lumber at 25 percent and many plywood products at 50 percent).

See Department of Finance Canada, List of products from the United States subject to counter-tariffs effective September 8, 2026 (Aug. 25, 2026).

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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Development in Downtown Whitewater (Follow-Up), A New Ethics Ordinance, Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations), and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.

Meanwhile, during a time of wars, violent or economic, a risible man’s dimwitted trolling:

America, Climate, Daily Bread, Science/Nature, Weather, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.6.26: The Hotter Climate in Walworth, Jefferson, and Rock Counties

by  • 

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 79. Sunrise is 6:25 and sunset is 7:20 for 12 hours 55 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning crescent with 25.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1946, United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes announces that the U.S. will follow a policy of economic reconstruction in postwar Germany.

Over the last generation, temperatures in America — and that includes Walworth, Jefferson, and Rock counties — have grown hotter:

Summer has long been known for its spirit of adventure and reprieve, found in fire hydrants and backyard sprinklers, campsites and lemonade stands. It was the time of year when the outdoors could be most fearlessly embraced.

Now summer has a new set of fixtures: face masks, air purifiers and public health alerts. Children stay home from camp on smoke days, a gleeless version of winter’s snow days. People who work outside have turned to salt packets and cooling vests. The notion of enduring the summer rather than embracing it has spread far beyond the Sun Belt.

[…]

Heat is the most widespread change. Summer 2026 is on track to be both the hottest and most humid in the contiguous United States since records began in 1895. Even as the end of summer approaches, much of the country is experiencing waves of heat and humidity. Over the past two weeks, temperatures have climbed 15 to 20 degrees above historical averages in parts of California, the Midwest and the South, leading to school closures and early dismissals.

Here are the increases in days above 90 degree in the three counties near Whitewater since 1995:

Federal policy makes the effects of these climate changes harder to address, let alone remedy:

President Trump asks the nation to ignore the weather around us and treats climate change as a hoax. He has paid companies to cancel clean energy projects while forcing aging coal plants to stay open, including units in Indiana and Colorado whose executives requested permission to shut them down.

The administration has also made it harder for citizens to adapt. Shortly after Mr. Trump took office in January 2025, his administration stopped collecting data that helped the government prepare for natural disasters. It withheld funds to renovate hurricane-prone homes in North Carolina and cooling centers in Florida. Mr. Trump is hastening a future with hotter, smokier and stormier summers, and leaving citizens with fewer defenses.

See Editorial Board, It’s Not Just You. America Has Gotten Much Hotter, New York Times, September 5, 2026.

Here we are: the most technologically advanced society in human history, having built a civilization across an entire continent, hobbled and beset by a federal administration both ignorant and obstinate.

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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Development in Downtown Whitewater (Follow-Up), A New Ethics Ordinance, Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations), and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.

How discarded oyster shells get a second life:

Discarded oyster shells can be reused instead of thrown away, giving them a second life in coastal restoration projects.

Agriculture, Daily Bread, Economy, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 9.5.26: Wisconsin Dairy Farms Drop Below 5,000 for First Time

by  • 

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 79. Sunrise is 6:24 and sunset is 7:22 for 12 hours 58 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning crescent with 35.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1774, the First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia.

Jim Massey, writing at Farm Progress, reports that the number of Wisconsin dairy farms has dropped below 5,000:

The number of Wisconsin dairy herds slipped below 5,000 in August, just 3% of the number of dairy herds the state boasted at its peak nearly 100 years ago.

The official number, as compiled by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, was 4,991 licensed dairy herds in the Dairy State as of Aug. 1, down from 5,222 a year earlier. The state had 5,470 dairy herds back in 2024.

Dairy herd numbers have been on a downward trend since NASS recorded 167,000 dairy herds in the state in 1930.

1960: 95,000
1980: 44,000
2000: 19,232

The steepest single-year decline occurred in 2019, when 818 farms stopped shipping milk.

While dairy farm numbers have fallen drastically in Wisconsin since the turn of the century, milk production has remained relatively stable over the past 25 years.

See Jim Massey, Wisconsin dairy farms drop below 5,000 for first time, Farm Progress, August 27, 2026.

These numbers suggest greater efficiency from a smaller number of farms but also a smaller number of independent family farms. (Whatever the proportion of independent family farms in the remaining total, the decline in the total number of farms has been so great that family farms must be fewer today than in 1980 or 2000.)

This decline affects the economic independence of southern Wisconsin family farms. The stress that these farms are experiencing from tariffs further threatens their future. See Tariffs Leave Farmers Paying More.

And so, and so, if a WISGOP candidate for state senate visits Whitewater and contends that he supports ‘agricultural viability,’ that candidate might want to look south-southeast to see that the agricultural viability of family farming is now threatened by Mar-a-Lago’s tariff-loving owner.

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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Development in Downtown Whitewater (Follow-Up), A New Ethics Ordinance, Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations), and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.

Meanwhile, U.S. Mint produces $1 coin with Trump’s face:

The U.S. Mint releases video showing the manufacturing process for $1 coins featuring President Trump, issued to mark the United States’ 250th anniversary in 2026. Critics have raised questions about the design’s legality. While Congress in 2020 passed a law allowing the Treasury Secretary to mint $1 coins to mark the 250th anniversary, that law forbade designs portraying a living person.

Agriculture, Daily Bread, Economy, Elections, Gubernatorial Race 2026, Never Trump, Tariffs, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.4.26: Tariffs Leave Farmers Paying More

by  • 

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will see clouds and scattered thunderstorms with a high of 89. Sunrise is 6:22 and sunset is 7:24 for 13 hours 2 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning crescent with 46.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1923, the first U.S.-built rigid airship, the USS Shenandoah, makes its first flight.

USS Shenandoah moored at NAS San Diego, October 1924, Public Domain, Link.

Sarah Godlewski, candidate for lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, now serves as Wisconsin’s secretary of state. Godlewski is an Eau Claire native, and her academic background in conflict resolution, public treasury management, and public administration will serve her well as our next lieutenant governor. She recently spoke with Wisconsin farmers about the challenges they face under tariffs:

I’ve no connection to the Crowley-Godlewski campaign except as one more Wisconsinite who sees the incomparably better opportunity that campaign offers this state.

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Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Development in Downtown Whitewater (Follow-Up), A New Ethics Ordinance, Polling Places in the City (Further Considerations), and Steps for a Public Interest Campaign.

Inside the hidden diesel tax being passed along to consumers:

California is home to the highest fuel prices in the U.S. as well as the busiest containership port complex in the nation. So as the Iran war enters its sixth month and petroleum-product prices remain elevated, consumers across the U.S. could be hit with higher prices for a host of everyday products.