Saturday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 31. Sunrise is 6:43 and sunset is 5:34 for 10 hours 51 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 19.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1947, in New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first “instant camera,” the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
Polaroid Land Camera Model 95, the first commercially available instant camera, with sales beginning in 1948. By Daderot – Own work, CC0, Link
Farm bankruptcies are on the rise in Wisconsin, following a national trend.
A report from the American Farm Bureau Federation highlighted last year’s increase in Chapter 12 bankruptcies, a category of bankruptcy created specifically for farms and fisheries.
Bankruptcy filings were 46 percent higher than in 2024, according to the report, with more than a third of filings in the Midwest.
See Hope Kirwan, Farm bankruptcies tick up in Wisconsin, US (‘Industry experts say bankruptcy filings are ‘lagging indicator’ of high costs, low pay prices faced by farmers’), February 18, 2026.
While farm bankruptcies in 2025 were higher than in other years over the past decade, five of the six highest years in that decade occurred while Trump was president.
A man in Catania, Sicily, trained his dog to dump bags of rubbish by the roadside in an attempt to evade cameras installed by local authorities to combat fly-tipping [illegal dumping], municipal police have said. The episode was detailed in a Facebook post on the city of Catania’s official page. Accompanying a video of the dog was a remark from the police that ‘inventiveness can never become an alibi for incivility.’ The man has reportedly been identified and fined. Illegal dumping is a major problem in Italy, particularly in the south, with significant environmental and economic costs. In 2023, more than 9,300 waste-related offenses were recorded — a 66% increase on the previous year. In response, growing numbers of Italian municipalities are installing surveillance cameras, wildlife-style ‘camera traps’ and smart monitoring systems to curb fly-tipping and misuse of recycling points.
Friday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 38. Sunrise is 6:44 and sunset is 5:33 for 10 hours 48 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 11.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
One reads that Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos will retire at the end of his current term. There’s a FREE WHITEWATER category of posts about Vos. There one can find posts on his many errors and transgressions against sound public policy.
And yet, and yet, the best summary of Vos’s career comes from Dr. Mark Copelovitch, Professor of Political Science & Public Affairs & Director of European Studies, University of Wisconsin – Madison:
Almost everything now happening at the federal level now has a direct antecedent in Wisconsin GOP politics under Scott Walker & Robin Vos in 2008-25. The lying. The defunding. The violating laws & norms. The demonizing some people as not being part of the Herrenvolk. It was all here first.
Yes.
Considering Vos’s career calls for a palate cleanser afterward. Here’s something incomparably better than a bad politician from Wisconsin — a good boy at the Winter Olympics:
Tuesday, February 24th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Bugonia @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Dark Comedy/ Satire/ Science Fiction Rated R (violence, language)
1 hour 58 minutes (2025)
Two conspiracy–obsessed young men kidnap the high powered CEO of a major corporation, convinced she is an alien being from another galaxy intent on destroying Earth. Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress (Emma Stone) and Best Actor (Jesse Plemons)
Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 52. Sunrise is 6:46 and sunset is 5:31 for 10 hours 47 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 5.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1945, the Battle of Iwo Jima begins as approximately 30,000 United States Marines land on the island.
If one were to list kinds of alternative (low-carbon) power sources, solar, wind, and hydropower would be among them. That list would not be complete, however, without nuclear power. Wisconsin is now considering possible sites for new nuclear power plants:
The state Public Service Commission is partnering with the University of Wisconsin-Madison to identify potential sites for nuclear power plants in Wisconsin.
“Nuclear energy is the largest source of clean power in our country, and it’s a safe, reliable, carbon-free option to power our homes and businesses,” he said in the speech. “This could be a game changer for our state. I’m glad this work has received bipartisan support.”
Last year, Evers signed a bill that ordered a $2 million study to find potential sites for nuclear power plants. That law requires the study be completed by the beginning of 2027.
According to the PSC, the current biennial state budget provided funding for the study. The agency says the siting study will allow the state to understand how nuclear energy can help meet the growing need for carbon-free electricity.
Nuclear energy accounts for 16 percent of Wisconsin’s energy generation portfolio, according to the most recent Strategic Energy Assessment from the Public Service Commission.
While this libertarian blogger has doubts about bipartisanship in our current political conditions, if there should be bipartisanship on this issue, it would be welcome. Nuclear power offers Wisconsin clean, plentiful electricity. Clean electrical generation will help Wisconsin retain current residents and businesses and attract new ones.
Keep going: Plan carefully, and then build after finding suitable sites.
Many experts had thought sharks didn’t exist in the frigid waters of Antarctica before this sleeper shark lumbered warily and briefly into the spotlight of a video camera, researcher Alan Jamieson said this week. The shark, filmed in January 2025, was a substantial specimen with an estimated length of between 3 and 4 meters (10 and 13 feet).
Manheim Township School District’s board has placed Superintendent Caroline Pate-Hefty on administrative leave for undisclosed reasons, according to an email sent to district staff Wednesday morning by Assistant Superintendent Dale Reimann.
Reimann said in the email that he will be working closely with the board in the coming days to ensure that “critical duties associated with the superintendent’s role will continue to be addressed.”
District spokesperson Jenn Davidson confirmed in an email Wednesday that Pate-Hefty was placed on administrative leave but said the district does not comment on personnel matters. She has not responded as to whether the leave is paid.
Board President Patrick Grenter did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
MANHEIM TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The superintendent of the Manheim Township School District has been placed on leave.
The school district confirmed the information with WGAL Wednesday afternoon. Director of Communications and Marketing Jennifer Davidson shared the following statement:
“Dr. Pate-Hefty has been placed on administrative leave by our school board. The district is unable to provide comment on personnel matters.”
Ash Wednesday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 58. Sunrise is 6:47 and sunset is 5:30 for 10 hours 43 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1930, Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.
A SLAPP lawsuit is a strategic lawsuit against public participation. These lawsuits are designed to limit free and open discussion of public policies. They’re not good faith grievances — they’re bad-faith efforts to undermine rights of expression under the First Amendment. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (of which this libertarian blogger is a member) has opposed SLAPP lawsuits for years. See Joe Mullin, State by State, We’re Making Progress Against Anti-Speech Lawsuits, Electronic Frontier Foundation, July 11, 2022.
About two-thirds of states have anti-SLAPP legislation. Wisconsin may, at last, join their ranks.
AB 701, to protect people from Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP), passed on a voice vote. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.
Rep. Jim Piwowarczyk (R-Hubertus), who is the co-founder of the right-wing publication Wisconsin Right Now, said the bill would strengthen protections for free speech and civic participation and ensure that citizens aren’t silenced through “abusive litigation.”
“The bill creates a clear, efficient process for courts to quickly dismiss lawsuits that target protected speech or participation in government proceedings. It requires a prompt hearing and stays constant discovery while the motion is pending. It also allows prevailing parties to recover attorney fees,” Piwowarczyk said. “These protections help prevent the chilling effect prolonged and expensive litigation can have on free expression.”
The bill is based on model legislation developed by the nonprofit Uniform Law Commission.
“It’s a legal tactic … designed to punish someone through stressful, time consuming and expensive litigation,” Rep. Andrew Hysell (D-Sun Prairie) said about SLAPP legislation on the floor, adding that these types of lawsuits target people “simply because they choose to exercise their First Amendment rights to speak.”
This bill adopts the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act (UPEPA) approved by the Uniform Law Commission in 2020.
The bill allows a person served with a complaint in a civil action to file an expedited special motion to dismiss any cause of action asserted against the person based on the person’s 1) communication in a governmental proceeding; 2) communication on an issue under consideration or review in a governmental proceeding; or 3) exercise of the constitutional right of freedom of speech or of the press, the right to assemble or petition, or the right of association, on a matter of public concern. In general, the court must hold a hearing on a special motion to dismiss within 60 days of its filing and must stay the court proceedings, including discovery, until the court rules on the special motion and the time to appeal this ruling has expired. The court must rule on the special motion not later than 60 days after the hearing, and the appeal period is 14 days from the ruling. In ruling on the motion, the court must consider the pleadings, the motion, any reply or response to the motion, and any evidence that could be considered in a summary judgment proceeding. The court must dismiss with prejudice a cause of action if all of the following apply:
1. The moving party establishes that the cause of action is as described in items 1 to 3 above.
2. The responding party fails to establish the applicability of certain excluded situations, such as the cause of action being brought against a governmental unit or employee acting in an official capacity or against a person whose communication relates to the sale of goods or services.
3. The responding party fails to establish a prima facie case as to each element of the cause of action or the moving party establishes either that the responding party failed to state a cause of action or that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
A moving party has a right to appeal an order denying a special motion to dismiss. A court must award court costs, reasonable attorney fees, and reasonable litigation expenses related to the special motion as follows: 1) to the moving party if the moving party prevails on the motion, or 2) to the responding party if the responding party prevails on the motion and the motion was frivolous or filed solely with intent to delay the proceeding.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 56. Sunrise is 6:49 and sunset is 5:29 for 10 hours 40 minutes of daytime. The moon is new with none of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Ethics Committee meets at 4 PM and the Whitewater Common Council at 6 PM.
On this day in 1965, the Ranger 8 probe launches on its mission to photograph the Mare Tranquillitatis region of the Moon in preparation for the crewed Apollo missions. Mare Tranquillitatis, or the “Sea of Tranquility,” would become the site chosen for the Apollo 11 lunar landing.
On December 16, at public comment during a meeting of the Whitewater Common Council, a longtime resident (and current candidate for the council) spoke to oppose a possible use for Whitewater’s Innovation Center. One portion of his remarks lingers in memory.
CLAIM: In his remarks, the commenter expressed concern that a proposed use might be decorated in “a bunch of rainbow colors and indoctrinate our kids right out of the womb.”
ASSESSMENT:
Now, now: What to make of this? One begins by noting that the proposal itself made no mention or claim of indoctrination of any kind, let alone about the colors of the visible spectrum.
More particularly, there are three ways one can think about rainbow colors, should they appear to adults and children. Each way is uplifting and inspirational.
As a religious matter, rainbows are, in both Jewish and Christian traditions, meant as a sign of divine reassurance. The rainbow appears, after all, as the sign of God’s covenant with Noah after the Flood: “My bow I have set in the clouds to be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth,” Genesis 9:13. Later, the rainbow is used symbolically to describe divine radiance: “Like the look of the rainbow that is in the clouds on a day of rain, this was the look of the radiance all round, the look of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And I saw and fell on my face and heard a voice speaking,” Ezekiel 1:28. Mention of rainbows in these passages is wholly positive (and, in Ezekiel, descriptive of divine beauty).
As a matter of science, it was Newton who demonstrated that white light is composed of seven visible colors, establishing our scientific understanding of the spectrum. See a nice summary of Newton’s insight (overturning Aristotle’s view of color) at Smithsonian Institution Libraries, The Science of Color: Newton’s Rainbow. Newton’s discovery is enlightening.
As a matter of rights, merely stating the natural diversity among people and expressing a freedom of association among equals in society, the LGBTQIA+ community uses the rainbow as a symbol. (This is merely how I would describe their use of a rainbow in my own ideological terms — fundamentally, it’s how that community defines and describes itself that matters.) Their use of the rainbow as a symbol is positive and affirming.
And look, and look — one can see the symbol of a rainbow in all three ways, together. How odd, indeed, to see rainbows in one way, exclusive of other beautiful and symbolic ways.
Rainbows?
Yes and yes again — we could, truly, benefit from seeing a few more.
Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 62. Sunrise is 6:50 and sunset is 5:27 for 10 hours 37 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 0.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Those who were once debaters in high school undoubtedly remember both how instructive and how enjoyable those days were. They first learned skills in argumentation (later expanded in college and professional studies); they made new friends and traveled to interesting places for competitions.
In one popular format, an Affirmative team advanced a proposal (e.g., let’s build more hydroelectric plants) and the opposing Negative team would offer disadvantages — disads — to that proposal.
Starting out, young debaters had to learn how to overcome ridiculous opposing arguments as much as serious ones. Competitive debaters are expected to answer the points the opposing side raises, so even screwy arguments need an answer.
Sometimes, the most ridiculous disads to a proposal were claims that the proposal would lead to TOTAL GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR!
And so, and so, a Negative team might offer a disad to a proposal for building more hydroelectric plants that would have these tenuous links:
(1) a town builds a hydroelectric plant, (2) the plant receives a designation as critical infrastructure, (3) the Russian Federation is known to monitor American critical infrastructure, (4) the least-competent Russian monitors work on the weekends, (5) Russians habitually get drunk on weekends, (6) the Russian monitors will get drunk, (7) drunks typically misinterpret messages about critical infrastructure, (8) the Russians’ misinterpreted communications will get to the Kremlin, (9) Vladimir Putin works in the Kremlin, (10) he works on weekends because he has no friends, (11) he relies on anything he reads, (12) he dislikes the idea of American energy independence, (13) he’s prone to threats of nuclear war, (14) if he makes enough threats he’ll act on one, (15) this will be that moment, (16) he’ll launch a TOTAL GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR, and (17) Boom!
Well, there we would be, from one hydroelectric plant to devastation in fewer than twenty steps. That’s the disad that warns you not to build a hydroelectric plant.
And yet, and yet, outside of a young debater’s tenuous links, cause and effect in the world doesn’t work this way.
I was reminded of these sorts of disads while listening to an out-of-town commenter’s remarks at the February 3 meeting of the Whitewater Common Council against a private housing development: there are trains, there are (ever so improbably) train accidents (with no evidence that those rare accidents took place in conditions like ours), but had Whitewater done a vibration impact study? an acoustical noise analysis? or a soil stability study? etc. All this was offered as if it were serious, despite the development’s long distances from the road, and the existence of similar developments across Wisconsin and America without any incidents whatever.
This parade of odd interrogatories and improbabilities is rational (in the sense of a person speaking words in the English language) but not reasonable (in the way that credible arguments must be more than statistical improbabilities and cherry-picked examples).
People are free, by policy and practice, to offer remarks at the Whitewater Common Council. Those who live in the city, however, are free (and should) disregard claims that are simply a truncated version of a high-school disad.
Dog sledding once appeared as a demonstration event in the Winter Olympic Games, but never became an official sport. NBC News’ Gadi Schwartz and Savannah Sellers head to the Italian Alps where they hold their own dog sledding race.
Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 55. Sunrise is 6:51 and sunset is 5:26 for 10 hours 35 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 3.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 2013, the Chelyabinsk meteor explodes over Russia, injuring 1,500 people as a shock wave blows out windows and rocks buildings.
At the February 3 meeting of the Whitewater Common Council, during public comment, a longtime resident, second-generation landlord, former member of the Whitewater Community Development Authority, and former chairman of that same public body, offered a curious comment about the very body on which he had served for so many years.
I’ll consider his comments this morning.
CLAIM:
While talking about the Whitewater Community Development Authority, the resident offered his opinion of the role of that public body within the city:
I believe the last org chart I saw, the CDA responds to the council. Nobody else.
CITY’S RESPONSE:
In the posted packet for the upcoming February 17 meeting of the Whitewater Common Council, one finds a memo describing the CDA’s actual reporting relationship under Wisconsin statutes and City of Whitewater ordinances. See Memorandum to the Whitewater Common Council, City of Whitewater Oversight of Community Development Authority (Feb. 17, 2026).
ASSESSMENT:
This is an easy assessment. No organizational chart this commenting gentleman cited would supersede statestatutes, city ordinances, or judicial decisions (case law) in defining the role of a local development authority. Anyone even vaguely familiar with local government in Wisconsin would understand this.
To have been on the Whitewater Community Development Authority for years, and to have been its chairman, and yet not to look first (indeed, to know by heart) where to find the sources of that authority is absurd.
Honest to goodness — perhaps this resident’s confusion comes from being on a public board for manyyears and thinking of it as no more than a third-rate private clubhouse. If that should be true, then yes, of course an org chart, bathroom wall, or one’s inner monologue might seem like plausible descriptions of authority.
No and no again.
To the next generation in our beautiful city: live your lives so that your claims are not so superficial.
“NOAA’s GOES East satellite captured long, parallel bands of clouds called horizontal convective rolls,” on Feb. 1, 2026, according to NOAA, these “cloud streets” can form when cold air flows over warm water. Credit: Space.com | footage courtesy: NOAA.
Valentine’s Day in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 51. Sunrise is 6:53 and sunset is 5:25 for 10 hours 32 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 8.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1952, NBC’s long-running morning news program Today debuts, with host Dave Garroway.
Caroline Pate-Hefty, the new Manheim Township School District superintendent on Monday, July 7, 2025. SUZETTE WENGER | Staff Photographer | LNP | LancasterOnline
Dr. Caroline Pate-Hefty served as superintendent of the Whitewater Unified School District from 2020 to 2025. She left the Whitewater School District to become superintendent of the Manheim Township School District near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. One now reads from professional reporting that Pate-Hefty’s time with that district has been one of uncertainty and controversy. Ashley Stalnecker writes Manheim Township School District mum on staff departures, superintendent’s status:
Answers about leadership matters are hard to come by from Manheim Township School District officials. Three top administrators resigned their posts in the past three months; a fourth gave notice but later rescinded the resignation.
Calls and emails to the district’s superintendent, Caroline Pate-Hefty, have gone unanswered. She was absent from Thursday night’s school board work session, a meeting she typically attends.
A source said Pate-Hefty did not work from the district’s office all week, and did not appear at a scheduled event at Bucher Elementary School on Tuesday. LNP | LancasterOnline agreed not to name the source because the person did not have permission to speak to the press on the matter.
The silence of district staff and the nine elected board members might have something to do with Pate-Hefty’s contract, which includes a clause that shields from public disclosure any board-led investigation into her conduct or performance.
Pate-Hefty’s contract also prevents the board from speaking during or following an investigation into her conduct or performance.
“Any investigations undertaken by the Board shall endeavor to complete any such investigation in private and both Parties shall endeavor to avoid any public disclosure by the Board or Superintendent of the commencement or progress of the same,” the contract states.
[…]
Additionally, her contract requires the board to “speak in one voice” rather than “averaging the feedback” of individual members to synthesize private critiques by individuals into a single consensus report.
Stalnecker further reports that Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, said the provision in Pate-Hefty’s contract restricting public disclosure of an investigation is “troubling from a transparency perspective.” Indeed, in Wisconsin and in Pennsylvania, this contract provision would be subject to attack as null and void as against public policy. Litigation, however, takes time and is expensive.
(Solid reporting from Stalnecker and LNP | LancasterOnline. Quite admirable. We’ve not had reporting like this for Whitewater since WhitewaterWise.)
Whether litigated or not, the Manheim Township School District’s board, representing six thousand students, foolishly and recklessly cast aside open government for the convenience of Pate-Hefty.
Whitewater deserved better over those five years from 2020 to 2025. One now wishes better for the students, families, and residents of Manheim Township, Pennsylvania.
A suspect who broke into a jewelry store using a forklift, allegedly stole 150 grams of gold, and fled the scene on a donkey was arrested in Kayseri, central Turkey. Police teams from the provincial police department identified the suspect after reviewing security camera footage following the incident.
Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 49. Sunrise is 6:54 and sunset is 5:24 for 10 hours 30 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 14.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
It was political philosopher Thomas Hobbes who observed in 1651 that reason is a spy for the passions (“the Thoughts, are to the Desires, as Scouts, and Spies, to range abroad, and find the way to the things Desired”), where reason is used (however poorly) in service of dark or selfish desires.
Still true in many places, these 375 years later, including too often in Whitewater.
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