Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 75. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset is 8:36 for 15 hours 20 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 36.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1975, the film Jaws is released in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing film at that time and starting the trend of films known as “summer blockbusters.”
Upcomingposts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, Outcome-Driven Argumentation, and a New Ethics Ordinance.
Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 74. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset is 8:36 for 15 hours 20 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 26 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1865, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, are officially informed of their freedom. The anniversary was officially celebrated in Texas and other states as Juneteenth. On June 17, 2021, Juneteenth officially became a federal holiday in the United States:
On the morning of June 19, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived on the island of Galveston to take command of the more than 2,000 federal troops recently landed in the department of Texas to enforce the emancipation of its enslaved population and oversee Reconstruction, nullifying all laws passed within Texas during the war by Confederate lawmakers. The order informed all Texans that, in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all enslaved people were free:
The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.
(Citations omitted.)
Ridglan Farms’ remaining beagles will soon be released to canine rescue groups in other states. As a matter of animal treatment, but also our state’s reputation, a facility conducting medical testing on beagles has been a disaster for Wisconsin. While medical testing is necessary, all testing depends on contexts, and among those contexts are the subjects of that testing. Some contexts simply cannot be overcome; no level of advocacy can overcome popular revulsion. Reporters from around the world have covered this story. Michael Sainato of The Guardian reports on the upcoming release of the five-hundred remaining dogs:
A beagle breeding and research facility in Wisconsin that has been the focus of animal rights protests is shutting down, and a rescue group in Florida is taking in the remaining dogs.
“Not one dog will remain,” Lauree Simmons, founder of Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Florida, said in a press conference announcing the news on Monday. “No more breeding, no more testing, no more anything.”
[…]
Protesters descended on the Ridglan Farms breeding and research facility in March and April in an attempt to free the beagles there. An estimated 1,000 activists clashed with police in April in another open rescue attempt for the dogs, resulting in 29 arrests, according to the Dane county sheriff’s department.
“Before the open rescue, activists called upon law enforcement, prosecutors, the governor [of Wisconsin, Tony Evers], humane officers, licensing boards, and judges to protect the dogs from Ridglan’s established, lengthy record of cruelty – without success,” said a statement from Chris Carraway, staff attorney at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.
After the April protests, Big Dog Ranch Rescue and the Center for a Humane Economy announced they reached an agreement with Ridglan Farms to buy 1,500 of the 2,000 beagles at the facility for an undisclosed price.
Animal rights attorneys then sought a court order to protect the remaining 500 beagles at the facility.
Ridglan Farms in October had reached an agreement with a special prosecutor to resolve criminal animal abuse allegations against the facility. That settlement required the facility to surrender its license to sell and breed dogs – but did not require any changes for the dogs remaining at the facility.
The principal concern is, of course, the humane treatment of living animals, with reputational concerns being only secondary to the principal issue of treatment. And yet, and yet, of that secondary reputational concern one can confidently say that building a testing facility for thousands of beagles was among the worst possible ideas — simply a dunce’s idea of cleverness.
The animals, and Wisconsin, are now better off.
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Upcomingposts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, Outcome-Driven Argumentation, and a New Ethics Ordinance.
In the 1971 thriller “Duel,” a made-for-TV movie that became Steven Spielberg’s feature-length debut, the director had an early go at building an intricately suspenseful sequence. He has been showing audiences how suspense is done in the 55 years since. “Duel” involved a menacing trucker who was none too happy with the driver of a red car. In one tense moment, the truck begins to push the car into a moving freight train. Spielberg’s latest film, “Disclosure Day” (in theaters), is a layered sci-fi thriller that has very little in common with the sparse “Duel.” But in one sequence, the two films are in sync, and the new scene is a continuation, of sorts, of the old. In “Disclosure Day,” Margaret (Emily Blunt) and Daniel (Josh O’Connor) are on the run with an archive that could prove the existence of other intelligent life on the planet. As they wait at train tracks, a car rams them from behind and begins to push them into the train. Reflecting on “Duel” in this Anatomy of a Scene video, Spielberg noted, “I had always said, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if the truck had actually pushed the car into the train?’ So I thought, I’m going to do that in ‘Disclosure Day.’ I’m going to take that scene to its full realization.” Watch the full video to hear Spielberg reveal more of his techniques in a scene like this, and explain how to keep viewers on the edge of their seats.
A cat stole the spotlight during a performance by the Imperial Russian Ballet Company, casually sauntering onto the stage as dancers performed a scene from Romeo and Juliet in western Turkey last week.
Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 72. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset is 8:36 for 15 hours 20 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 16.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM.
Whitewater is a city of over nine square miles of land and water. The municipal government owns some portion of that land. Of the portion of the land that the municipal government owns, some portion has been without any useful purpose (unless one considers vacant and ignored land a useful purpose).
At its meeting on June 16, the Whitewater Common Council sensibly and without dissent approved the sale of a half-acre parcel to Bethel House, a 501(c)(3) charity, to build its second property providing transitional-housing assistance for families otherwise facing homelessness.
This is easily a beneficial use of the property. The property had no use whatever before, but now this land may be improved for a community need.
The land is not new, so to speak — what’s new is an increased willingness of the local government to support efforts, both for-profit and nonprofit, to develop what was otherwise neglected or ignored for decades.
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Upcomingposts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, Outcome-Driven Argumentation, and a New Ethics Ordinance.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be rainy with scattered showers and a high of 65. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset is 8:36 for 15 hours 21 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 8.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.
Japan is a technologically advanced, modern society. And yet, even advanced societies sometimes find themselves culturally stymied when faced with challenges and threats. Japan’s approach to bear attacks — that is, real attacks on people in Japan — is an example of a culturally timid approach when bears (family Ursidae) are chasing, mauling, or eating people (family Hominidae).
Posts from FREE WHITEWATER have chronicled Japan’s tepid response to bear attacks.
How Japanese officials have tried to use bells and whistles to ward off bears (from 12.29.25):
How Japanese officials tried to use robot wolves to scare bears away (from 5.14.26):
How bears have been opening windows and escaping from capture to chase Japanese residents around cities (from 6.6.26):
What’s been the response to these bear attacks? Japanese hunters are now drilling by tracking a man in a bear mask:
(It’s sadly fitting, somehow, that the man in the drill complained, by the way, that his bear mask was hot and he couldn’t see anything. Honest to goodness.)
Japanese officials’ diffident response to bear depredations risks turning parts of the country into a real-life version of a 1970s B-movie:
What works better than bells, whistles, robots, and drills with masks?
This: Wis. Dep’t of Nat. Res., Learn to Hunt Bear, Wisconsin DNR (last visited June 17, 2026).
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Upcomingposts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, Outcome-Driven Argumentation, and a New Ethics Ordinance.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with scattered showers and a high of 69. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset is 8:35 for 15 hours 20 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 3.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1858, Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.
It is the nature of a productive, free-market society like ours — America’s — that continued prosperity requires dynamism. We are not a sluggish people. We are an energetic people. Sometimes our dynamism requires great effort; other times it requires only that we consider the opportunities before us.
A confident, composed person considers these opportunities as they arise. Through reasoning, knowledge, and principle he engages in discussions of all sorts. He enters conversations believing himself to be right yet open to being proved wrong. This is the confidence of a well-individuated man. This is the confidence of our dynamic, productive society.
Although opportunity could visit many places — and will remain only where welcome — sometimes she arrives in one’s own town.
One morning, opportunity sends an invitation to a meeting. The offer is one of conversation, of discussion, of a proposal. She awaits a reply.
Accept her invitation, take the meeting, join her at the table.
Upcomingposts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, Outcome-Driven Argumentation, and a New Ethics Ordinance.
Monday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 73. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset is 8:35 for 15 hours 20 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 0.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1846, the Oregon Treaty extends the border between the United States and British North America, established by the Treaty of 1818, westward to the Pacific Ocean.
On the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting (6.16.26) of the Whitewater Common Council there is a letter of intent from developer Anderson Ashton to the City of Whitewater proposing to develop a city-owned, seven-acre parcel on Bluff Road for a new grocery store and a childcare center. SeeLetter of Intent from Matthew J. Mehring, President, Anderson Ashton, Inc., to Mason Becker, Community Development Director, City of Whitewater (June 10, 2026.)
The letter of intent proposes a methodical discussion and negotiation with the City of Whitewater for a public-private development, proposes the transfer and improvement of city-owned land for a complementary grocery store and childcare center, with final terms reserved for a later development agreement.
A letter of intent is an invitation — it is not a deal but rather a request to discuss a deal.
There are sound reasons for the Whitewater Common Council to respond affirmatively: (1) the proposal addresses two community needs at once, (2) another grocery would meet a continuing need in a city of nearly sixteen thousand, (3) childcare supports working families, (4) the proposal rests on substantial private investment, (5) the City-owned land is now vacant and private development would bring tax revenue, (6) the proposed terms for land and infrastructure contributions are similar to prior projects in the city, and (7) Anderson Ashton outlines a methodical project schedule that includes subsequent evaluation and approval before Whitewater’s Planning Commission, Community Development Authority, and the Common Council between now and April 2027.
The sensible course is for the Whitewater Common Council to respond affirmatively at its 6.16.26 meeting to Anderson Ashton’s letter of intent.
The letter of intent and accompanying conceptual images appear below:
Upcomingposts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, Outcome-Driven Argumentation, and a New Ethics Ordinance.
Use this tutorial to start exploring worlds beyond our own. With this 3D interactive tool, you can visit all the stars beyond the Sun where we’ve found other planets, called exoplanets.
Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 67. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset is 8:34 for 15 hours 19 minutes of daylight. The moon is new this evening with none of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1777, the Second Continental Congress passes the Flag Act of 1777 adopting the Stars and Stripes as the flag of the United States:
Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision to take up the case comes nearly a year after it denied Elias’ petition asking justices to take the case up directly. In November, the majority appointed a panel of three county judges to hear the Elias suit and another to hear a different map challenge brought by liberal Wisconsin firm Law Forward.
It was an untested path to get a redistricting case before the Supreme Court, which relied on a 2011 law passed when Republicans controlled the Legislature and governorship. The panels dismissed both cases, citing the inability of lower-court judges to overrule the Supreme Court, which enacted the congressional map in 2022 during another redistricting legal battle.
While Elias filed a notice that it will appeal the panel’s ruling, no briefs had been filed as of Thursday evening explaining what parts of the panel’s decision it disagrees with.
Attorney Bryna Godar with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison told WPR the Supreme Court will have to decide if Elias’ partisan gerrymandering claims can proceed.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean that the court will resolve all of the issues in these cases right away,” said Godar. “If the court concludes that these claims are available under the Wisconsin Constitution, then it’s possible that they would send the case back to the three judge panels for further fact finding and a specific ruling on whether these maps violate the state constitution.”
Two points come to the fore. First, the disposition of these cases will not affect the 2026 congressional district maps. Any decision here would apply to the maps for our 2028 congressional election.
Second, when conservative justices on the court call these appeals ‘political,’ and thus illegitimate, they should recall that the least-change doctrine they created and imposed on Wisconsin’s prior maps was an unprecedented alteration of our elections law perpetuating political decisions from a decade earlier. For a critique of that former conservative majority’s approach, see Johnson v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, 136 Harv. L. Rev. 998 (2023) (‘Wisconsin Supreme Court Adopts New Election Maps that Change Existing Districts Least, Regardless of Partisan Bias’):
In Johnson I, the Wisconsin Supreme Court carved out a new form of entrenchment protecting the state’s biased maps. Scholars have called entrenchment “the fundamental problem . . . that defines . . . election law.”97 Partisan gerrymanders, for instance, are insidious in part because they entrench themselves politically. Voters who want to get rid of the gerrymander often must vote out a party that has stacked elections in its favor. Just as partisan gerrymanders advantage gerrymanderers politically, Johnson I’s doctrinal gerrymander — selectively moving a disfavored remedy into a more demanding rights test — advantaged gerrymanderers in court. The justices thereby created a new form of entrenchment: a doctrinal skew that tilts the legal playing field against arguments for unwinding a gerrymander and toward arguments for perpetuating it. That choice, in turn, entrenches Wisconsin’s biased maps more deeply than ever.
Consideration of an appeal against our current congressional maps is, at bottom, to redress a lingering unfairness in those maps.
Upcomingposts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, Outcome-Driven Argumentation, and a New Ethics Ordinance.
FIFA is spending millions to create consistent, natural-grass playing surfaces across all 16 stadiums hosting the 2026 World Cup. Because many of these venues in the U.S. were designed for NFL football rather than soccer pitches, the project requires massive transformations at each venue. Grass for the new playing surfaces must be grown at specialized turf farms, transported across the continent, and installed in stadiums across North America, each with its own unique climate, design, and challenges.
Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 84. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset is 8:34 for 15 hours 19 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning crescent with 4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Upcomingposts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, Outcome-Driven Argumentation, and a New Ethics Ordinance.
Friday in Whitewater will see sunny skies with a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset is 8:33 for 15 hours 18 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning crescent with 9.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The dandy-horse was a two-wheeled vehicle, with both wheels in line, propelled by the rider pushing along the ground with the feet as in regular walking or running. The front wheel and handlebar assembly was hinged to allow steering. The dandy horse was capable of more than doubling the average walking speed, to around 10 mph (16 km/h) on level ground.
Performative lying — where someone lies boldly — is the order of the day at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. and 1100 S. Ocean Blvd, Palm Beach, Florida. Perhaps Derrick Van Orden would have been a blatant liar without inspiration, but one supposes it’s easier for him when he need only mimic the style so much in fashion at those addresses.
Did Donald Trump’s signature 2025 legislation cut Medicaid spending by $1 trillion over a decade?
Yes.
Federal legislation known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” included an estimated $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid spending over the next decade.
Passed in 2025, the bill included tax cuts and increased spending on immigration enforcement and the military, offset by nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
If the bill were truly beautiful, Van Orden would have no reason to deceive. Assuming that Van Orden is not in his cups when speaking (and at least he appears sober in the clip embedded above), then he’s simply lying.
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Upcomingposts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, Outcome-Driven Argumentation, and a New Ethics Ordinance.
Feline features stare out from the covers of umpteen novels, they have an officially designated day devoted to their mystique and popularity, and have outnumbered dogs as pets for a decade.
The influence of cats is evident across every corner of Japanese society, with a recent report crediting them with generating an expected ¥3tn ($18.8bn) in value to the Japanese economy this year – a phenomenon dubbed “catnomics.”
The power of the paw is especially evident in one retro neighbourhood of Tokyo, where on a recent afternoon North American, Australian and European visitors milled around the capital’s self-proclaimed “cat town.”
[…]
In a nation of pet lovers – where domesticated dogs and cats outnumber children aged under 15, Japanese households kept 8.8 million cats in 2025, compared with 6.8 million dogs, according to a survey by the Japan Pet Food Association. The average cat-owning household, the survey said, spends almost ¥1.8m ($11,300) over the course of their moggy’s life.
It is that level of devotion that makes cats big business. In his most recent report on “catnomics”, Katsuhiro Miyamoto, professor emeritus at Kansai University, estimates that animals will add just under ¥3tn ($18.8bn) in value to the Japanese economy in 2026.
Combining estimates of consumer spending at cat cafes and on items such as photo books with sales and salaries among cat food manufacturers and related companies, Miyamoto noted that the estimate fell just short of beating the economic impact of the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka.
Thursday in Whitewater will see evening thunderstorms with a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset is 8:33 for 15 hours 17 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning crescent with 18.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1936, inventor Edwin Armstrong demonstrates FM broadcasting to an audience of engineers at the FCC in Washington, DC.
Jeffrey Dahmer was accused of multiple murders committed in Milwaukee. He was tried in Milwaukee County in 1992 on the question of whether he was responsible for his actions, and was found responsible for his crimes, without mental disease or defect. Dahmer received a fair trial. His actions were all over the news, yet he received a fair trial.
Now along comes James Troupis, charged in Dane County with multiple felony counts for his alleged role in a fraudulent electors’ scheme after Biden carried Wisconsin in the 2020 election. Troupis claims, among other defenses, that he cannot get a fair trial in Dane County. He’s asking for a change of venue to another county.
Does James Troupis believe that he’s more notorious than Jeffrey Dahmer? Dahmer received a fair trial in Milwaukee County; Troupis — far less known or controversial than a cannibalistic killer — would receive a fair trial in Dane County.
In one brief, Troupis’ attorneys argued that the publicity that has surrounded the case for the last half-decade has irreparably hurt Troupis’ ability to get a fair trial. They argue that Dane County public figures including state Supreme Court justices and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway disparaged Troupis, and that local media has tainted public opinion.
I’ll not venture whether any of Troupis’s defense motions will be granted (he has through counsel filed more than one motion).
It’s enough to know that other Wisconsin counties have held trials — fairly and efficiently — for acts and culpability alleged within their borders by defendants far more notorious than Jim Troupis will ever be.
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Upcomingposts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, Outcome-Driven Argumentation, and a New Ethics Ordinance.
Whale bones and ancient fossils have been discovered on the ocean floor, concentrated in a deep groove known as the Diamantina Zone. Researchers used the Fendouzhe submersible to descend into the largely unexplored depths and were amazed to find deep-sea creatures living on fallen whale bones as well as hundreds of fossils. The oldest fossil was dated to over 5 million years and another represented a previously unknown species of extinct beaked whale. Read the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158… 0:00 The whale necropolis 1:10 Journey to the bottom of the ocean 1:49 Deep-sea creatures living on whale falls 2:50 Discovering fossils 4:12 A million-year-old map of beaked whale evolution 5:39 The mystery of the Diamantina Zone’s huge whale graveyard 7:32 The deepest whale fall ecosystem and a unique site in paleontology
Wednesday in Whitewater will see intermittent afternoon and evening thunderstorms with a high of 85. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset is 8:33 for 15 hours 17 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning crescent with 27.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1999, in the Kosovo War, NATO suspends its airstrikes after Slobodan Milosevic agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo.
The greatest trick that Whitewater’s special-interest men ever pulled was convincing anyone, even themselves, that they had any credible economic insights to offer.1 They have been the champions of Trump’s losing ideas.2 It’s been hocus pocus all the way down. Yet again, one sees how much damage their candidates and their outlook have inflicted on American consumers:
U.S. inflation accelerated for a third-straight month in May amid a stalemate in negotiations to end the war with Iran, likely keeping interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve at bay.
The Consumer Price Index report rose 4.2 percent in May from a year earlier, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed on Wednesday. That is up from a 2.4 percent annual increase before the conflict in the Middle East started in February and is the fastest pace since April 2023. Over the course of the month, overall prices jumped 0.5 percent.
Energy prices drove the bulk of the increase in May. Once those were stripped out alongside food prices, the “core” index rose 2.9 percent on a year-over-year basis, a 0.1 percentage point decrease from April’s annual rate. Core prices rose 0.2 percent for the month.
Energy costs have been spilling into categories where they make up a large chunk of the ultimate price tag, including food and airline fares. For the Federal Reserve, which will vote next week on whether to change interest rates, the most important question is whether stickier categories like manufactured goods and services — the core inflation — are also being affected.
The war in the Middle East is not the only factor pushing prices up. The data center boom has created demand for the memory chips that go into nearly all consumer electronics, reversing a long slide in the cost of technology. And a persistent drought has thinned out production of some crops and livestock, especially beef.
Upcomingposts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, Outcome-Driven Argumentation, and a New Ethics Ordinance.
The conflict in the Middle East is causing price hikes and product shortages across the global economy, from fertilizer to semiconductors. For medical supply company Gentell, which sources raw materials from around the world, the crisis at the Strait of Hormuz is causing volatility for its business. CNBC’s Pippa Stevens takes a look at how the company is faring amid the latest global supply chain disruptions.
