DennisDeery.com

Congratulations to our friends at the Council of Rural Initiatives on the launch of their new web site, developed by Irish Rose Consulting. This was a short-timeframe project, so we made use of WordPress with a pre-developed template. We’re happy to be able to support the efforts of this new organization working for rural Wisconsin.

 

A couple of weeks ago I attended a rural issues forum held here in Menomonie by the Center for Rural Affairs. CFRA staff are barnstorming the upper midwest to hear about the issues facing rural areas. Heidi Clausen, a reporter for The Country Today newspaper wrote a nice article summarizing the event, including a few choice quotes from yours truly.

I recently attended the Midwest Rural Assembly in Sioux Falls, SD. I wrote a short guest post on the Wisconsin Rural Partners web site describing the conference.

Congrats to our good friend Herby Radmann of Bullfrog Fish Farm who was featured in “Questioning the Locals” column in the most recent issue of Volume One magazine!

PortalWisconsin.org has launched a new arts and culture blog focused on the state of Wisconsin. Our good friend Ricky Rolfsmeyer is a contributor to this group blog. Check out his great post, “The Gift of Communities,” and be sure to add the blog’s feed to your newsreader.

The UW-Stout community was saddened last week by a tragic house fire that resulted in the deaths of three students. The opportunistic nut-jobs at Westboro Baptist Church, known for showing up at military funerals to tout their belief that God is punishing the U.S. for its acceptance of gays, decided this was another golden opportunity to show the world the depths of their hatred. Their four protesters showed up on the Menomonie campus last Thursday bearing placards with statements such as “God Hates Fags” and other well-known bible verses. They were greeted by a crowd of students, faculty and townspeople estimated to number 1,000. While the counter protest wasn’t entirely peaceful (one student was arrested for stealing signs from the Westboro protesters), the locals did manage to make the fine point that the Westboro message wasn’t welcome in Menomonie. After less than 1/2 hour doing God’s work, the Westboro folks tucked tail between their legs and scooted out of town, presumably to crawl back down their little hole in the ground. A representative from the church commented to the newspaper:

“I have to tell you the brutish children of Wisconsin are a cut above the rest in their rebellion and disobedience and filthy behavior.”

Ahhh, makes a person proud to be child of Wisconsin!

Badger Herald – Four Westboro Baptists meet 1,000 protesters at UW-Stout

The Wisconsin State Journal has a nice article today about the small brewery that’s been established at my alma mater University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Sadly, the brew pub wasn’t around in my time at school, being established in 2002 when a new student center was built. College kids today have it so good!

WRLP is holding an online auction to raise funds to support their programs. If you’ve been reading this blog a while, you know WRLP is a program I think very highly of – it truly changes lives. Check out their auction, bid early, bid often!

A couple of weeks ago Senator Hillary Clinton addressed the National Rural Assembly via a video link-up. This gathering of 400-people, part of the Kellogg Foundation’s Rural People, Rural Policy initiative, was an effort to highlight the issues facing rural areas, and to broaden the discussion beyond agriculture policy, which has generally been the focus of rural policy efforts. To that end, during the Q&A session following her talk, Senator Clinton was asked by one participant if she, as President, would consider changing the name and mission of the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Rural Affairs. To her credit, she said yes, she believed that would be a terrific idea.

Now, I’m a little amazed at her reaction, and I hope it wasn’t just a throwaway line to feed the crowd. And I have to say I’m a little amazed that, from what I’ve seen, there’s been little or no reaction to this in the U.S. rural press (let me know if I’m missing it). Historically agriculture interests, and specifically commodity producers, have ruled the debate on rural policy issues. Looking at the current farm bill debate, I think we can say that hasn’t changed much, yet. Most people would tell you that it’s not going to change anytime soon. I wonder if the fact that Ms. Clinton’s remarks haven’t drawn much fire indicates that the status of ag in rural policy is beginning to change? The reality is that rural doesn’t mean ag in the way it used to in the United States. Rural issues cover a much broader swipe now than they used to, and our policy structures need to change to reflect that. I think a change as basic as renaming the Department of Agriculture would be a great place to start – the names we put on things define how we think about those things.

Growing up in southwest Wisconsin, tornado watches and warnings were a constant feature of summer life. As a little kid, I can remember trips to the basement to wait out the storm, and when I got a little older I got to join Dad on tornado watch for the local volunteer fire department. I can still vividly remember the night the tornado hit Barneveld, Wisconsin, and the phone rang in the middle of the night calling for ambulance volunteers. A few weeks later Dad and I went to Barneveld for a day to help with cleanup, and it remains one of the most amazing displays of nature’s power that I’ve ever seen.

The University of Michigan Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences has created a Google map mashup that allows you to view tornado paths overlaid on an interactive map. Using Google Earth, you can even fly a bird’s-eye view of the tornado path. Their database includes tornadoes from 1950 to 2005. You can search for tornadoes by date, strength and zip code. Looking at this map of my hometown, it certainly looks like a dangerous place to live!

This site is also a great example of the Google Map interface that allows programmers to overlay data on interactive Google maps. This is a great tool for presenting geographic data without a lot of work or cost. Google has launched an initiative to help nonprofit organizations present data to support their causes – check out the gallery.

Finally, a couple of examples of Google maps that I’ve done for client sites:

Menomonie Recreation Department

Greater Menomonie Chamber of Commerce