Spring in Whitewater begins with cloudy skies and a high of 60. Sunrise is 6:58 and sunset is 7:07 for 12 hours 9 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 3.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1815, after escaping from Elba, Napoleon enters Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, beginning his “Hundred Days” rule.
In Devin LeMahieu’s tenure as GOP leader, he initially oversaw lopsided Republican majorities. He began with a 21-12 majority in 2021, and by 2023, Republicans held a 22-11 edge.
He flexed that power when possible. The GOP’s two-thirds supermajority meant Senate Republicans could vote to override governor’s vetoes, although the overrides never passed with enough votes in the Wisconsin Assembly. LeMahieu also held up numerous appointees of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, and voted to firemany of them.
But the dynamic changed under new, more competitive political maps passed by Republicans in early 2024 under pressure from the Wisconsin Supreme Court. With half of all Senate districts up for election that year, Democrats flipped four districts, shrinking the GOP majority to 18-15 and putting Democrats in position to potentially win control of the Senate in 2026.
On shelves crammed with cuddly toy native animals in an Australian airport gift shop, one fluffy possum stood out: Its big brown eyes were moving. Airport staff were able to remove the possum from the airport unharmed.
On the serious matter of people, credit where credit is due: no living American has done more — or could have done more — to harm relations with our friendly neighbor to the north than Donald J. Trump.
The very idea of bad relations with Canada was once so silly that Matt Stone and Trey Parker made it the intentionally absurd plot of their movie Bigger, Longer & Uncut (“When Eric Cartman and his friends go see an R-rated movie, they start cursing and their parents think that Canada is to blame”):
Tuesday, March 24th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Song Sung Blue @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
(Biography/ Music)
Rated PG–13 2 hours, 12 minutes (2025)
Lightning and Tunder, a Milwaukee husband and wife Neil Diamond tribute act, experience soaring success and devastating heartbreak in their musical journey together. Stars Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson (Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Actress).
Thursday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 53. Sunrise is 6:59 and sunset is 7:06 for 12 hours 7 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 0.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 2003, Pres. George W. Bush addresses the nation, announcing the invasion of Iraq.
Brad Schimel, the former Wisconsin Attorney General, will continue to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Wisconsin under a new title, the U.S. Justice Department announced.
Schimel had been interim U.S. Attorney, but that appointment expired on March 16. Schimel could have been made the U.S. Attorney by the district’s judges, but they declined to do so, opting not to insert themselves into the process.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Schimel as First Assistant United States Attorney, announcing the move March 18.
The position is traditionally the number two in the office, but Schimel will lead the office and the position of the U.S. Attorney will remain vacant.
[…]
Previous First Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Frohling will continue to serve in an executive position, according to a release.
The move by the Justice Department mirrors what has happened in a couple of other federal districts, where the office is run by a Trump-appointed person with the title of First Assistant U.S. Attorney.
That move happened in the Western District of Virginia, where Robert Rracci [sic — should be Tracci] is now the first assistant.
In the Central District of California, the biggest federal district in the nation, Bilal A. Essayli has been running the office as first assistant since late last year. That happened after a federal judge ruled that Essayli could not legally continue as acting U.S. Attorney, but wrote that he may lead the office as first assistant.
In this case, the United States Department of Justice (but truly the Trump White House, as we no longer have an independent Justice Department) has simply moved everyone down one level, and… the normal appointment process has been circumvented.
Schimel is sure to be happy with this; after losing his reelection bid as Wisconsin Attorney General and a subsequent Wisconsin Supreme Court race, he will take whatever work he can get on the public tab.
As always, this reminder about the Trump Administration: if they’d like you to join, it should be a reminder that something’s gone wrong with your career.
Vexed by the Justice Department’s chaotic oversight of federal prosecutions in New Jersey, a judge threw a government attorney out of a hearing and ordered the three officials in charge of the state’s U.S. Attorney’s office to answer questions under oath.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 39. Sunrise is 7:01 and sunset is 7:05 for 12 hours 4 minutes of daytime. The moon will be new this evening.
Whitewater’s Parks and Recreation Board meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1925, the 1925 Tri-State tornado hits Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people.
The potential for Republicans to lose the Senate majority in the next election cycle cast a shadow over the Wisconsin State Senate’s last regular day of work this legislative session. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) faced criticism from his members for bringing bills to a vote without a majority of support from his caucus and one longtime Republican announced his retirement.
Wisconsin Republicans currently hold an 18-seat majority in the 33-seat state Senate. The 17 odd-numbered seats will be up for election this year for the first time under the new maps adopted in 2024, which puts the majority in play this November. Democrats have not been in the Senate or Assembly majority since the 2009-10 session.
LeMahieu drew fire from members of his own party for allowing votes on bills supported by Democrats to legalize sports betting in Wisconsin and to provide funding to the University of Wisconsin to help pay student athletes for their name, image and likeness. Some Republicans who opposed the bills said it would lead to LeMahieu losing his leadership position and to Republicans losing their Senate majority in November.
Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater), who is one of the most conservative lawmakers in the state Senate and is retiring at the end of his term, said voters will hold Republican lawmakers “to account for selling out their interests” in November.
“The passage of these two unpopular bills will help pave the way to minority status for Republicans come November,” Nass, who has served in the Legislature since 1991, said in a statement.
Republicans were likely already on the way to minority status in the Wisconsin Senate. In any event, Nass’s reasoning makes no sense. If the bills are unpopular and most Republicans oppose those same bills, then most Republicans should benefit by their opposition.
Instead, LeMahieu calculates that the bills are sufficiently popular, and that the Republican caucus’s majority is out of step, so he’s allowed bills forward without a majority of WISGOP senators in favor. (That’s a quality that any party should want in a legislative leader: the ability to assess and compromise for an overall benefit.)
Nass has held office for decades, having lost the sense (if ever he had it) that a majority of the WISGOP caucus does not always mean a majority of the Legislature, let alone a majority of Wisconsinites.
That lack of sense — senselessness, one might say — is one of the many reasons Nass’s pending retirement has been overdue.
A suspected meteor that fell from the sky over the Cleveland area shook homes and startled residents who heard a boom that some compared to an explosion. People hundreds of miles away reported seeing the bright fireball at about 9 a.m. Tuesday.
St. Patrick’s Day in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 23. Sunrise is 7:03 and sunset is 7:02 for 12 hours 0 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 2.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1776, the British Army evacuates Boston, ending the Siege of Boston, after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery in positions overlooking the city.
There are surely many reasons, but I’ll illustrate one reason that seems an obvious explanation for longtime residents’ mistakes (regardless of where they sit ideologically). A closed group, whether in government or a small private faction, often finds itself with a problem of perspective.
It’s almost spring, so consider the beauty of this renowned Italian Renaissance painting about spring:
Bright, intriguing, and lively, isn’t it?
Well, no. It’s hard to believe that anyone would remember the portion that I’ve embedded above as a masterpiece of any era. It might not even be a painting — it might as well be someone’s ugly placemat.
And yet, and yet, what if the viewer were to step back, and in doing so realize that what appears above is only a small part of a masterpiece?
By Sandro Botticelli, Primavera, c. 1482. Left to right: Mercury, the Three Graces, Venus, Flora, Chloris, Zephyrus, Public Domain, Link.
Now that’s a world-historical work. Stand too close, however, and one sees too little.
There lies a problem: some residents often see too little by standing too close to the objects of their desire. They hear too little by talking only to each other. They read too little by looking only at each other’s messages.
Some may spend months on a goal (or for the special interest men months on a scheme), but their interlocutors are too narrowly selected, confirming only their own biases. There’s no effort to test or challenge the views of the small circle they’ve assembled. On the contrary, in an environment of toxic positivity, the only recognized toxin is a candid critique.
I’ll acknowledge that there are insights to be gained by proximity. How unfortunate that some fail to see that excessive proximity brings a countervailing, often fatal, loss of perspective.
Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 26. Sunrise is 7:05 and sunset is 7:02 for 11 hours 57 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater School Board will meet virtually at 6 PM.
On this day in 1995, Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified and took effect in 1865.
On the agenda of the Whitewater School Board meeting tonight, the board’s prefatory remarks before public comment have been modified. This libertarian blogger has been critical of the board’s prior, stifling statement before public comment. It’s to the good that the board has revised the statement.
(I’ve been critical of those who have encouraged the public to look away from school board actions, encouragement most notably from a former school board member who also served as school board president, Community Development Authority member, and chairman of that body. SeeYesteryear’s Familiar Tune.)
Why would it matter? It shouldn’t be hard to see why.
Because a small group that speaks only to itself produces poor work. Years (more than five) of an increasingly closed approach — most notably during the last five — have left the community with less participation than it would otherwise have had. (It did little good during the prior five years to hold unplugged sessions where the then-superintendent said little and left all the plugging to her subordinates.)
One approach is to say forget the past, and focus on the present. (A few booster residents could flack it as a slogan: Focus on the Now!™) Well, if only that were possible — a community conditioned to expect less gives less in return.
The success of a new farmer depends not only on a proposed seed stock but the condition of the soil into which he’ll plant it. Past destructive use of herbicide should not, indeed cannot, be overlooked. Soil remediation requires that harmful chemicals, still lingering destructively, be acknowledged and removed.
Sunday in Whitewater will see rain followed by evening snow, with a daytime high of 44. Sunrise is 7:06 and sunset is 7:01 for 11 hours 55 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 13.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 44 BC, a group of senators assassinate Julius Caesar, the dictator of the Roman Republic, on the Ides of March.
Wisconsin lawmakers created an exemption for selling home-canned foods without a license under a 2010 law that’s known as the “pickle bill.” But it limits annual sales to $5,000 per person, and [small businessman Scott] Weber said that dollar amount has never been adjusted to reflect the much higher costs that he and other home producers are facing nearly 16 years later.
The GOP-authored legislation would have expanded the annual sales limit for cottage food producers to $40,000 per person. It also would have created new requirements for training and inspecting home kitchens.
The bill, which failed to gain traction among lawmakers, received pushback from advocates of cottage foods, who felt the new inspection requirements were too vague and not supported with funding to implement them.
Wisconsin home bakers were also opposed to limiting their sales to $40,000. They currently face no revenue limit because they’re operating under an exemption created by a 2017 court ruling against the state.
Weber said he feels the two different operating rules for home bakers and home canners has left them at odds on getting behind a legislative fix.
But both sides seem to agree that Wisconsin should follow neighboring states in creating a more comprehensive law around cottage food.
In Iowa, cottage food producers can sell a wide range of shelf-stable foods directly to consumers and don’t have an annual sales cap. Minnesota’s law allows residents to sell up to $78,000 in shelf-stable foods, but does require producers to register and complete a food safety course.
One hears so much from the WISGOP about support for businesses, and yet WISGOP legislators are still unable to use their majorities to effect comprehensive small business legislation. If these WISGOP men were half so effective as they claim to be, they’d be able to craft and pass comprehensive legislation for these small businesses.
While small cottage businesses offer consumers delicious products, they’ve one disadvantage at the Capitol.
They’re not in the position to offer legislators big donations.
Supernovae are colossal explosions triggered as ancient stars come to the end of their lives. Scientists have done huge amounts of work to identify and understand these cosmic fireworks but, in the last 20 years or so, astronomers have spotted some supernovae that don’t make sense. Superluminous supernovae are 10 to 100 times brighter than expected, and while different theories exist, no one is quite sure how that’s possible. Now the wobbling signal from one of these super bright explosions has provided a possible answer.
Saturday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 39. Sunrise is 7:08 and sunset is 7:00 for 11 hours 52 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 20.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
In 1988, the earliest known official or large-scale celebration of Pi Day was organized by Larry Shaw at the San Francisco Exploratorium, where Shaw worked as a physicist, with staff and public marching around one of its circular spaces, then consuming fruit pies. The Exploratorium continues to hold Pi Day celebrations.
Friday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 43. Sunrise is 7:10 and sunset is 6:59 for 11 hours 49 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 29.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1930, the Lowell Observatory announces Clyde Tombaugh‘s discovery of Pluto.
In a healthy economy, growth goes up, and inflation stays down. Mr. Trump has brought Americajustthe opposite:
Economic growth was much slower than expected in the final three months of 2025 while core inflation rose to start 2026, the Commerce Department reported Friday.
Gross domestic product, a measure of all the goods and services produced across the sprawling U.S. economy, rose at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted annual rate of just 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The first revision of the GDP reading was a sharp step down from the previous estimate of 1.4% and well below the Dow Jones consensus forecast for 1.5%. It also marked a considerable slowdown from the 4.4% gain in the prior period.
For the full year, GDP posted a 2.1% increase, or one-tenth of a percentage point lower than the previous reading. In 2024, the economy rose at a 2.8% pace.
[…]
Stripping out volatile food and energy costs, the core PCE inflation rose 0.4% in January and 3.1% on a 12-month basis. Fed officials focus more closely on the core reading as a better indication of longer-run trends. The core reading was 0.1 percentage point higher than December.
[…]
“The big downward revision in GDP is a gut check going into this energy crunch, increasing the risk of stagflation,” said David Russell, global head of market strategy at TradeStation. “The soft January durable goods data also suggests the economy entered this crisis weaker than hoped. This creates challenges for investors with PCE inflation still running well above the Fed’s target.”
The war in Iran is pushing crude oil prices higher, and that could mean rising costs for gas, heating and even groceries. Here’s how the conflict could affect everyday prices.more >>
Cats are endlessly fascinating, and among their captivating qualities is an ability to land on their feet. An article in The New York Timesdescribes the latest scientific findings:
In a paper, published last month in the journal The Anatomical Record, researchers offered a novel take on falling felines. Their evidence suggests new insights into the so-called falling cat problem, particularly that cats have a very flexible segment of their spines that allows them to correct their orientation midair.
Greg Gbur, a physicist and cat-falling expert at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who was not involved with the paper, said the study was the first he knew of that explored “what the structure of the cat’s spine tells us about how a cat turns over while falling.” He added that the research uncovered many remarkable details about how cats maneuver while falling.
The researchers found that the feline spine was extremely flexible in the upper thoracic vertebrae, but stiffer and heavier in the lower lumbar vertebrae. The discovery matches video evidence showing the cats first turn their front legs, and then their lower legs. The results suggest the cat quickly spins its flexible upper torso to face the ground, allowing it to see so that it can correctly twist the rest of its body to match.
“The thoracic spine of the cat can rotate like our neck,” Dr. [Yasuo] Higurashi [physiologist at Yamaguchi University in Japan and lead author of the study] said.
Thursday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 43. Sunrise is 7:12 and sunset is 6:57 for 11 hours 45 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 38.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Commission meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1933, during the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as president. This is also the first of his “fireside chats.”
During this little excursion1 war with Iran, the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf has slowed, and so oil & gasoline prices have increased. Mr. Trump has an answer to escalating prices — they’ll make oil barons richer:
See Francesca Chambers and Zac Anderson, Trump calls Iran war a ‘little excursion’ (The president dropped by a retreat at his Doral, Florida, golf club to sell the Iran war and pump up Republican lawmakers ahead of the midterm elections), USA Today, March 9, 2026. ↩︎
Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:13 and sunset is 6:56 for 11 hours 43 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 48.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Comprehensive Plan Advisory Work Group meets at 4 PM.
Federal judges in Milwaukee have announced that they won’t extend former Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel’s temporary appointment as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, meaning his appointment will expire next week.
The appointment came after a state nominating committee chaired by Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson couldn’t agree on who to pick for the role. Under federal law, that meant Schimel’s interim appointment had to end March 17, unless a majority of judges in the Eastern District agreed to extend it.
On Tuesday, the district’s website announced the majority “declines to exercise this permissive authority.”
Schimel was a Waukesha County district attorney, one-term Wisconsin attorney general, Walker-appointed circuit court judge, and Elon Musk-backed candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
But [Waukesha County Circuit Court judge and Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate] Schimel suggested there are other perks to being a judge than having your own potty.
“You set your own hours,” Schimel said. “I set the hours. Certainly, I’ve got to get my cases done, but I can decide — you know what? — if I want to do golf on Thursday afternoon, I can do that.”
The same, Schimel said, is not true for lawyers, who have to show up in court when told to do so. He said he doesn’t misuse that power. And, he said, there are times he’s had to work “all day and into the evening.”
But that appears to be the exception.
“I’m home for dinner most nights now,” he said. “I shoot in two sporting clays leagues. Or I was until I made this announcement (to run for the Supreme Court). I was shooting in two shooting clays leagues a week. I was doing all this, playing band rehearsals.”
In a state where judges are overworked, Schimel ran for the state’s highest court while breezily admitting he set his own hours. No and no again. Schimel richly deserved his election loss. (There’s a FREE WHITEWATER category dedicated to Schimel’s sorry public career.)
It’s possible, of course, that the Trump Administration will attempt a circumvention to keep Schimel in the role, but that maneuver in another federal district met with failure. See Ry Rivard and Matt Friedman, Alina Habba ‘unlawfully’ working as U.S. attorney in New Jersey, judge rules, Politico, August 21, 2025.
New James Webb Space Telescope imagery of asteroid 2024 YR4 confirmed that it “will safely pass the Moon at a distance of more than 20,000 km. (~12,427 miles),” according to the European Space Agency. It also poses no danger to Earth.
