Thursday, June 30, 2022

Betty Brooker Tower (1941-2022) Warren High School class of 1959

  


1959 Dragon yearbook

Source:  Nelson Funeral Home 

1967 Warren City Directory

  • [county section] Ruth and Harry live at 27027 Pennsylvania Avenue West Extension
  • [county section] Ruth and Leonard live at 642 Follett Run Road

1983 Warren City Directory
  • no changes

The popularity of Betty as a baby name is graphed here.  Let's take a look at son Ricky.

Source:  Social Security Administration

Ricky quickly rocketed into the top 100, where he spent 18 years (1952-1969), peaking at #34 in 1948 and 1949.  He also spent a total of 46 years in the top 200 (1947-1992). 


Other members of the class of '59 (20)
2021
Ronald Nuhfer.  (7/22)

George Ball.  (5/27)

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Catching up with Lucian K. Truscutt IV


Amazon

He hasn't published a book since 1998, but he divorced his second wife in 2013 and remarried last year.  And his royalty checks have been decreasing for years.

Based on the number of holdings available through LINKcat in the in the South Central Library System (50 member libraries), most readers would ask, "Lucian who?  What books did he write?"




Original 11/18/2012 post, "This Magazine Cover Makes Lucian K. Truscott IV's Blood Boil", starts here.



Lucien K. Truscott IV is the grandson of the grandson of U.S. Army General Lucian King Truscott, Jr.

Truscott IV is the author of the Dress Gray, which spent 13 weeks on the New York Times fiction best seller list in 1979, peaking at #5.


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Around Town Middleton: Tiedeman Pond observation platform replaced

 

NEW PHOTOS!!

Photos by Retiring Guy



Original 4/20/2022 post starts here

Say 'hello' to the newly observation platform.   And JoAnna, while you're at it.

Photos by Retiring Guy


This is what the previous platform looked like  nearly 8 months after the deluge.  (April 9, 2019)



Around Town Middleton posts
April 2022

January 2022

November 2021


February 2021

January 2021

December 2020

November 2020

October 2020

August 2020

December 2019
Roman Candle survives the cut, even without the availability of convenient parking.  (12/12)
The Monona side of town.  (12/6)

November 2019
Bike rack at Sauk Trail Elementary School.  (11/8)
Not everybody's on board in the Meadows neighborhood.  (11/4)
 
October 2019
Matching car and garage door.  (10/11)

September 2019
Around Town Middleton: Bees love ornamental onion plants.   (9/4) 

August 2019
60-year-old resident arrested for armed robbery.  (8/21)
Staff and visitors may now park in the MCPASD Services Center lot .  (8/2)

June 2019
"ROAD WORK AHEAD" trumps "DRIVE LIKE YOUR KIDS LIVE HERE" on Park Street.  (6/27)
Free lunch Friday.  (6/24/2019)
CBD, just like everywhere else in Wisconsin.  (6/24)
 
February 2019
According to chapter 8.07 of the city ordinances....  (2/4)

January 2019
More than a snow fort, but not a standing-room igloo.  (1/2)
 
December 2018
This section of sidewalk was replaced in 1980.  (12/18)
The post office's new and improved self-service kiosk.  (12/18)

November 2018
Spell checker.  (11/19)

August 2018
Must be on a tight schedule.  (8/6/)

July 2018
What type of seeds?  (7/6)

June 2018
If it's not one thing, it's another.  (6/23)
Bloom Bake Shop to reopen as Bloom Bindery, a bakery/bookstore.  (6/15)

May 2018
The Tiedeman Pond frog chorus.  (5/15)

March 2018
Tiedeman Pond winter fish kill.  (3/30)
Hear that lonesome whistle blow.  (3/22)
Explosion on Elmwood Avenue.  (3/20)
Googling 'Henry Hubbard'.  (3/18) 
A not-so-faded Flo strikes a new pose.  (3/12)

February 2018

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Red tsunami in November? Not if a special election in Nebraska is any indication.

 

Election results:  Ballotpedia
Headline:  U.S. News and World Report
A special election in Nebraska was supposed to be an easy win for House Republicans. It instead was the tightest race in decades in the GOP-dominated district, boosting confidence among Democrats hoping to energize voters by tapping into public outrage over the U.S. Supreme Court's abortion ruling. 
Republicans still won the open seat as expected, but the margin surprised even some Democrats who have grown accustomed to lopsided, morale-crushing defeats. 
Republican Mike Flood beat Democrat Patty Pansing Brooks with 53.2% of the vote in Tuesday's special election, according to unofficial results. Pansing Brooks received 46.8%, with less than 7,200 total votes separating the candidates. The win was the narrowest in decades in the Republican-heavy, mostly rural 1st Congressional District, which hasn't elected a Democrat to the House since 1964.
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Overturning Roe v. Wade: It's just the beginning

 

Headline:  Washington Post, 6/29/2022
The Thomas More Society, a conservative legal organization, is drafting model legislation for state lawmakers that would allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a resident of a state that has banned abortion from terminating a pregnancy outside of that state. The draft language will borrow from the novel legal strategy behind a Texas abortion ban enacted last year in which private citizens were empowered to enforce the law through civil litigation.

Original 6/27/2022 post starts here
Headline:  New York Times, 6/24/2022
Justice Thomas often writes separate opinions that fail to garner the votes of other justices. No matter. They always hit their intended targets: the conservative judges of the lower federal courts. Though Justice Thomas’s legal theories seem off the wall to many, in the hands of these acolytes, many of whom are former Thomas clerks, they flourish in the lower courts, widening the Overton window of mainstream opinion and shifting the terms of our debates. In his concurring opinion, despite the majority’s assurances that the Dobbs decision is limited to abortion and does not implicate other rights, Justice Thomas endorses reconsidering the Griswold, Lawrence and Obergefell rulings. These decisions recognize a right to use contraception, the right to engage in same-sex relationships and the right to same-sex marriage.  [emphasis added]
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Wednesday, June 29, 2022

GET ME REWRITE: "White life" queen Mary Miller wins GOP primary in wasp-waist, gerrymandered Illinois congressional district


Headline:  Reuters, 6/28/2022
Map:  Ballotpedia
U.S. Representative Mary Miller, a candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump, defeated moderate fellow Republican Representative Rodney Davis in an Illinois House primary that pitted two incumbents against one another due to redistricting, Edison Research projected on Tuesday. Reporting by Eric Beech
 

6/26/2022 update, "Hitler-quoting MAGA, one-woman clown show Mary Miller calls overturning Roe a 'white life' victory", starts here

Mary Miller (R-Illinois)
Headline:  NPR, 6/26/2022
"President Trump, on behalf of all the MAGA patriots in America, I want to thank you for the historic victory for white life in the Supreme Court yesterday," said Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., as she raised her hands to lead the crowd in Mendon, Ill., in applause. 
Her campaign says Miller misspoke. "She very clearly meant to say 'victory for Right to Life' during her remarks," said Isaiah Wartman, a campaign spokesperson, in an email to NPR, characterizing the moment as a "mishap" and a "stumble."

Oh no, she's totally programmed, channeling Bobbie Markowe in "The Stepford Wives"

Original 1/14/2021 post starts here.

In a conservative, solidly Republican district, Miller defeated her Democratic opponent by nearly 47 percentage points.   A romp, in other words.

Ballotpedia


Boston Globe, 1/14/2021 
An angry Moulton snapped pictures of the congressional quislings, precipitating a clash with Republican Mary Miller, the first-term representative from Illinois who had quoted Hitler approvingly at a “Save the Republic” rally the day before. [emphasis added]
“She came up and started screaming at me, inches from my face, spittle coming out of her mouth,” Moulton recalled. She said that she didn’t need to wear a mask, that COVID only kills 1 percent anyway, and that she wasn’t contagious, according to Moulton (Miller’s spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment).
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Daniel Defense does the limbo rock ("How low can you go?")

 


Church Leaders, 5/27/2022

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GET ME REWRITE: Foxconn's groundbreaking four years later ranks as Wisconsin's #1 con job


Headline:  WTMJ, 6/28/2022
Were we duped? Or were expectations not met due to outside factors? 
“A little bit of both” according to Editor in Chief of the Milwaukee Business Journal Mark Kass. 
It was June 27th, 2022 when then President Donald Trump visited Wisconsin to speak on the potential on the facility that was to be built on land in Mount Pleasant. Land that was acquired with plenty of challenges before the groundbreaking ceremony. 
With grandiose promises of thousands of jobs and manufacturing of all sorts of tech, the Foxconn plan fell well short of expectations. However, that doesn’t mean that it hasn’t created any jobs. The facility in Mount Pleasant employs about 800-900 people according to Kass. 

6/11/2022 update starts here
 
Headline:  Latestly, 6/11/2022


6/9/2022 update, "Yeah, right!  And in Wisconsin, Foxconn planned to create Wisconn Valley, Trump's 8th wonder of the world", starts here.

And we all know how that went!

Headline:  Bloomberg, 6/8/2022
Most people think of Foxconn as the company that assembles iPhones. But it's a lot more than that. In fact the company really got started by manufacturing all of the tiny components and connectors for the PC industry around the world, long before the iPhone ever existed. Now it wants to go back to its roots, but instead of making parts for PCs, it wants to make all the key components for electric vehicles. The potential is massive, and if they get it right, it could be wildly profitable.


4/5/2022 update, " Leaving behind empty buildings throughout Wisconsin, Foxconn exec Alan Yeung looks to wing it at UW-Madison College of Engineering", starts here.


Wisconsin Public Radio, 4/4/2022

No transparency, in other words.
Alan brings invaluable experience in new business venture and technology commercialization," Ian Robertson, dean of the College of Engineering, said in the announcement. "Taking more of our world-class research to market more quickly is a top priority, and Alan’s leadership and expertise in addressing opportunities and achieving alignments make him the right person to begin this effort.” 
Citing the hiring as a personnel matter, a spokesperson for UW-Madison's College of Engineering wouldn't provide information regarding Yeung's salary, hiring date and other details


5/13/2019 update, "Another Foxconn exec wings it", starts here.  


tick...tick...tick...tick....


The Verge, 5/13/2019

Quoted in Foxconn says empty buildings in Wisconsin are not empty.  (The Verge, 4/12/2019)
At the event announcing the Madison project, Foxconn’s Alan Yeung said the innovation centers were “not empty,” which prompted laughter from the crowd. Yeung also said The Verge’s story contained “a lot of inaccuracies” and that the company would issue a correction soon. He did not say what those inaccuracies were, and Foxconn never issued a correction, nor has it responded to repeated requests to clarify Yeung’s statement.

Keeping tabs on Foxconn Place in
Eau Claire
Green Bay
Madison
Milwaukee
Racine

Original 2/23/2019 post, "Foxconn exec wings it", starts here.

'Photo' is YouTube Jing

Foxconn exec: 'We're building the airplane while we're flying'.  (Madison.com, 2/22/2019)

Yes, we know.   A disaster in the making.
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Wisconsin 2022 elections: Who's running in the 74th Assembly District?

 

 The 74th Assembly District includes all of Ashland, Bayfield, Price, and Iron counties, as well as neighboring municipalities in northeast Douglas County, northern Sawyer County, and southwest Vilas County.

Source:  Ballotpedia (and election results below)

Beth Meyers is currently serving her 4th term in the Assembly and is not running for re-election.


Two Republicans will face off in the August 9, 2022.  The winner faces Democrat  on November 8,



Other "Who's Running" posts:
1st Assembly.  (6/14/2022)
4th Assembly.  (6/14/2022)
5th Assembly.  (6/14/2022)
13th Assembly.  (6/15/2022)
31st Assembly.  (6/15/2022)
32nd Assembly.  (6/16/2022)
45th Assembly.  (6/18/2022)
52nd Assembly.  (6/19/2022)
59th Assembly.  (6/19/2022)
60th Assembly.  (6/21/2022)
61st Assembly  (6/21/2022)
68th Assembly.  (6/22/2022)
71st Assembly.  (6/23/2022)
73rd Assembly.  (6/28/2022)

Wisconsin "Who Will Run" in 2022 races:
15th Assembly.  Joe Sanfelippo  (4/14/2022)
19th Assembly.  Jonathan Brostoff.  (4/30/2022)
27th Assembly.  Tyler Vorpagel.  (4/14/2022)
33rd Assembly.  Cody Horlacher.  (4/14/2022)
45th Assembly.  Mark Spreitzer.  (3/19/2022)
52nd Assembly:  Jeremy Thiefsfeldt.  (2/28/2022)
54th Assembly: Gordon Hintz.  (3/6/2022/
55th Assembly:  Rachael Cabral-Guevera.  (3/19/2022)
68th Assembly: Jesse James.  (1/28/2022)
73rd Assembly.  Nick Milroy.  (4/15/2022)
74th Assembly:  Beth Meyers.  (3/7/2022)
79th Assembly.  Dianne Hesselbein.  (3/18/2022)
80th Assembly.  Sondy Pope.  (4/15/2022)
84th Assembly: Mike Kuglitsch.  (3/1/2022)

5th Senate:  Dale Kooyenga.  (3/13/2022)
15th Senate:  Janis Ringhand.  (3/11/2022)
19th Senate:  Roger Roth.  (3/14/2022)
23rd Senate:  Kathy Bernier.  (3/15/2022)
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What's wrong with this picture?

 

Apparently, insane fuckup Ron DeSantis thinks he's governor of Iowa.

Demographics:  U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts
Photo and headline:  Miami Herald, 6/28/2022
Teachers who spoke to the Herald/Times said they don’t object to the state’s new standards for civics, but they do take issue with how the state wants them to be taught. 
“It was very skewed,” said Barbara Segal, a 12th-grade government teacher at Fort Lauderdale High School. “There was a very strong Christian fundamentalist way toward analyzing different quotes and different documents. That was concerning.” 
The civics training, which is part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Civics Literacy Excellence Initiative, underscores the tension that has been building around education and how classrooms have become battlegrounds for politically contentious issues. In Florida, DeSantis and the Republican-led Legislature have pushed policies that limit what schools can teach about race, gender identity and certain aspects of history. 
Are you sure you want to vote Republican this fall?
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Lavern Stapfer (1928-2022) Warren High School class of 1947

 

1947 Dragon yearbook

1967 Warren City Directory

1983 Warren City Directory
  • Stapfer Lavern C & Lois J; leaderman Pittsburgh Des Moines Steel h318 Park Avenue
The popularity of Lavern as a baby name is graphed here.  Let's take a look at granddaughter Harper.

Source:  Social Security Administration

Harper came out of nowhere in 2004 and quickly shot up into the top 10, where she has spent 6 of the past 7 years.

Other Class of '47 graduates (39)
2022
Edward Allen.  (6/22)
Paul Bobelak.  (5/31)

2021
Audrey Myers Mader.  (12/14/)
Martin Sisk.  (6/2/2021)

Jeanne Anthony Soliday.  (4/13) 
Jacquelyn Smith Cunningham.  (3/10)
Martha Winans.  (1/12)

2019
James Johnson.  (11/1)
Richard Morrison.  (8/6)
Richard Blair.  (6/25)
Mary Ann Gnagey Masterson.  (5/30)
Roscoe Knapp.  (5/18)
LeRoy Marti.  (3/7)

2018
Bonnie Bauer Lucia.  (8/20)
David Lopez.  (6/20)
Alan Schuler.  (6/8)

2017
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Illinois Republicans boogie their way to doomsday on board the Darren Bailey Clown Show bus

 

Congratulations to the folks at Trafalgar for nailing the outcome of the Illinois GOP gubernatorial primary.

Outcome and poll:  New York Times, Real Clear Politics
Headline:  Daily Herald, 6/28/2022
Conservative Republican Darren Bailey is headed for an election showdown with Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker this fall after trouncing rival Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin and upending expectations in Tuesday's primary. 
With nearly 79% of ballots counted, Bailey, a farmer from Xenia, had 57.4% of the votes, according to unofficial tallies. The Associated Press has called the race. 
Venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan of Petersburg had 15.7% of the tally for the party's nomination. 
Early favorite Irvin, a moderate supported by GOP establishment leaders, received 15% as the party's nominee for governor. 
"Tonight your voices were finally heard," Bailey said at a celebration in Effingham. "Voices from the farms, the suburbs and the city of Chicago. Tonight our voices send a clear message to the establishment and the political elite that we will not be ignored."
Chicago and Cook County vote:
  • Darren Bailey:  124,431
  • Current governor JB Pritzker:  439,539
And Pritzker didn't have a competitive primary.  He received 92% of the vote.


Original 6/27/2022 post stats here

Poll averages:  Real Clear Politics
Headline:  New York Times, 6/26/2022
The wicked, in this case, are the Chicago-based moderates aiming to maintain control over the Illinois Republican Party. And the righteous is Mr. Bailey, a far-right state senator who is unlike any nominee the party has put forward for governor in living memory. 
A 56-year-old farmer whose Southern Illinois home is closer to Nashville than to Chicago, he wears his hair in a crew cut, speaks with a thick drawl and does not sand down his conservative credentials, as so many past leading G.O.P. candidates have done to try to appeal to suburbanites in this overwhelmingly Democratic state. On Saturday, former President Donald J. Trump endorsed Mr. Bailey at a rally near Quincy, Ill.  
[snip]  
Far behind them is Mr. Bailey, whose primary financial benefactor is Richard Uihlein, the billionaire megadonor of far-right Republican candidates, who has donated $9 million of the $11.6 million Mr. Bailey has raised and sent another $8 million to a political action committee that has attacked Mr. Irvin as insufficiently conservative.
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GOP Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton parties like it's 1973

 

Headline:  Houston Chronicle, 6/28/2022
In a separate concurring opinion Friday, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas questioned a number of the high court's past rulings, including Obergefell v. Hodges, which established the right of same-sex couples to marry, and Lawrence vs. Texas—a 2003 decision in which the court ruled against the state of Texas regarding a 1973 law criminalizing the act of sodomy. 
Thomas also mentioned Griswold v. Connecticut, which established the right of married couples to use contraception without government interference. "In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is 'demonstrably erroneous,'" Thomas wrote. "We have a duty to 'correct the error' regarding these established in those precedents." 
During a Friday appearance on News Nation's "On Balance with Leland Vittert," Paxton said he would support the Supreme Court revisiting the cases mentioned by Thomas and defend Texas' long-unenforced law against sodomy.  [emphasis added]
Are you sure you want to vote Republicans this fall?


Original 6/20/2022 post, "Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton: 21 deaths at Uvalde part of God's plan", starts here.

Headline: Washington Post, 6/19/2022
In a podcast interview recorded the day after the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School and unearthed last week by Salon, Paxton was asked by North Texas pastor Trey Graham what he might say to the victims’ families. 
“I’d have to say, look, there’s always a plan. I believe God always has a plan,” the attorney general replied. “Life is short no matter what it is.”
Reductio ad absurdum:  It is what it is.

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Dear Ernst & Young employees, Cheating is bad, egregiously so on an ethics exam. Best, Retiring Guy

 

Definition:  Merriam-Webster
Headline:  NPR, 6/28/2022
For years, the firm's auditors had cheated to pass key exams that are needed for certified public accountant licenses, the Securities and Exchange Commission found. 
Ernst & Young also had internal reports about the cheating but didn't disclose the wrongdoing to regulators during the investigation. 
"It's simply outrageous that the very professionals responsible for catching cheating by clients cheated on ethics exams of all things," Gurbir S. Grewal, director of the SEC's Enforcement Division, said in a release. 
The fine is the largest penalty ever imposed by the SEC on an audit firm. 
The CPA, or certified public accountant, licenses are needed by auditors to evaluate the financial statements of companies and ensure they are complying with laws.  [emphasis added]


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