#Governor Dodge State Park

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Stephen Falls in Governor Dodge State Park, Wisconsin

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Governor Dodge State Park, Wisconsin, USA

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My Favorite Travels of 2022

Okay, man, is 2022 over already? I recall, and it’s a pretty distinct memory, as I was saying, one of my history teachers once told me that time moves quicker as we age. And, as I think more about it, that fact was hinted to me many times. Those hints came via cliche lines, ones relatives would say with broad smiles on their faces… “Wow, did you grow up fast.” “Jeesh, Chris, you’re twelve…

[beardedmrbean]

California Governor Gavin Newsom was called out by a reporter after he continued to dodge questions about blowing the state's $24 billion spending on the homeless.

The Golden State's budget deficit is at least $45 billion, a shortfall so large it prompted Newsom to propose painful spending cuts impacting immigrants, kindergarteners and low-income parents seeking child care in a state often lauded for having the world's fifth-largest economy. 

California spent $24 billion tackling homelessness over five years but didn't track if the money was helping the state's growing number of unhoused people, a damning report says.

At a press conference announcing his plans, he was asked by Angela Hart of KFF Health News if he felt his administration did enough to ensure the money was well spent and if he was worried the appetite for spending was lessening based on the homelessness program.

The usually confident Democrat hemmed and hawed for two minutes, to which Hart responded: 'I'm sorry governor, I didn't hear responses to either of those questions.' 

The governor said throughout his initial answer that the problem was dealing with local governments but Newsom was clearly chastened by Hart's retort.

Newsom finally leveled, saying the audit 'did not surprise me' and he agreed with most of its findings and said that the state has made unprecedented investments and tried to increase accountability from local governments for that spending.

'As it relates to the public mood... more is not always better, the public want to see results,' he added.

Hart finally thanked him for his answer, calling it 'thorough' before asking Newsom about cuts to healthcare spending and climate change.

The audit slams the state's homelessness tsars for spending billions across 30 programs from 2018-2023, but gathering no data on why the cash wasn't tackling the crisis.

It confirms what's clear to many residents — the homelessness crisis is out of control, and that tent encampments and troublesome vagrancy across major cities is bad and getting worse.

Homelessness jumped 6 percent to more than 180,000 people in California last year, federal data show. Since 2013, the numbers have exploded by 53 percent.

California is home to nearly a third of America's entire homeless population.

State Auditor Grant Parks wrote in a letter to Gov Gavin Newsom and lawmakers that the 'state must do more to assess the cost-effectiveness of its homelessness programs.'

Auditors probed five schemes that received a combined $13.7 billion in funding.

Only two of them were 'likely cost-effective,' including one that converts hotel and motel rooms into housing and another that helps to prevent families from becoming homeless, they found.

The remaining three programs, which have received a total of $9.4 billion since 2020, couldn't be evaluated due to a lack of data.

Thomas Wolf, a San Francisco-based consultant and former homeless drug addict, called the findings a 'scandal.'

'The state has spent billions on homelessness, and it's worse,' Wolf posted on X/Twitter.

'Outcomes literally mean everything when it comes to homeless services, and unsurprisingly, they have no data.'

For some, the audit confirms fears of a 'homeless industrial complex' – a gravy train of funders, officials, shelter owners and charities more keen on swallowing public funds than solving the problem.

Democratic state Sen. Dave Cortese, who requested the audit last year after touring a large homeless encampment in San Jose, complained of a 'data desert' and lack of transparency.

Republican state Sen. Roger Niello called the lack of accountability troubling.

'Despite an exorbitant amount of dollars spent, the state's homeless population is not slowing down,' Niello said in a statement.

'These audit results are a wake-up call for a shift toward solutions that prioritize self-sufficiency and cost-effectiveness.'

Newsom has made tackling homelessness a priority, and the growing crisis is sure to dog him should he ever set his sights on a national elected office.

The Democrat has pushed for laws that make it easier to force people with behavioral health issues into treatment. 

He also campaigned hard for a proposition that voters passed in March to make counties spend on housing and drug treatment programs to help fight homelessness.

The state auditor also reviewed homelessness spending in two major cities, San Jose and San Diego, and found that both failed to track revenue and spending due to a lack of planning.

The report spotlights how officials are battling a surge in homelessness in California and beyond.

A recent DailyMail.com/TIPP Poll showed that more than two thirds of US adults said homelessness was out of control and that officials needed to move those sleeping rough into tented encampments outside towns and cities.

The survey revealed that 67 percent of Americans are fed up with the country's fast-rising number of homeless people and want mayors to take drastic steps to tackle the scourge.

Former President Donald Trump making it part of his re-election campaign.

In a video on homelessness released by his campaign, Trump said that 'hardworking, law-abiding citizens' were being sidelines and made to 'suffer for the whims of a deeply unwell few.'

He vowed to 'ban urban camping' and create 'tent cities' on 'inexpensive land' for homeless people that will be staffed with doctors and social workers to help people address systemic problems.

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Governor Dodge State Park, Wisconsin (OC)(6000x4002)

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Hiking: Governor Dodge State Park

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Events 7.19 (after 1940)

1940 – World War II: Battle of Cape Spada: The Royal Navy and the Regia Marina clash; the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni sinks, with 121 casualties. 1940 – Field Marshal Ceremony: First occasion in World War II that Adolf Hitler appoints field marshals due to military achievements. 1940 – World War II: Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps of the British Army. 1942 – World War II: The Second Happy Time of Hitler's submarines comes to an end, as the increasingly effective American convoy system compels them to return to the central Atlantic. 1943 – World War II: Rome is heavily bombed by more than 500 Allied aircraft, inflicting thousands of casualties. 1947 – Prime Minister of the shadow Burmese government, Bogyoke Aung San and eight others are assassinated. 1947 – Korean politician Lyuh Woon-hyung is assassinated. 1952 – Opening of the Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. 1957 – The largely autobiographical novel The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh was published. 1961 – Tunisia imposes a blockade on the French naval base at Bizerte; the French would capture the entire town four days later. 1963 – Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 meters (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention. 1964 – Vietnam War: At a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Khánh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam. 1967 – Piedmont Airlines Flight 22, a Piedmont Airlines Boeing 727-22 and a twin-engine Cessna 310 collided over Hendersonville, North Carolina, USA. Both aircraft were destroyed and all passengers and crew were killed, including John T. McNaughton, an advisor to Robert McNamara. 1969 – Chappaquiddick incident: U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy crashes his car into a tidal pond at Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. 1972 – Dhofar Rebellion: British SAS units help the Omani government against Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman rebels in the Battle of Mirbat. 1976 – Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created. 1977 – The world's first Global Positioning System (GPS) signal was transmitted from Navigation Technology Satellite 2 (NTS-2) and received at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at 12:41 a.m. Eastern time (ET). 1979 – The Sandinista rebels overthrow the government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua. 1979 – The oil tanker SS Atlantic Empress collides with another oil tanker, causing the largest ever ship-borne oil spill. 1980 – Opening of the Summer Olympics in Moscow. 1981 – In a private meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, French President François Mitterrand reveals the existence of the Farewell Dossier, a collection of documents showing the Soviet Union had been stealing American technological research and development. 1982 – In one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University of Beirut, is kidnapped. 1983 – The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published. 1985 – The Val di Stava dam collapses killing 268 people in Val di Stava, Italy. 1989 – United Airlines Flight 232 crashes in Sioux City, Iowa killing 111. 1992 – A car bomb kills Judge Paolo Borsellino and five members of his escort. 1997 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army resumes a ceasefire to end their 25-year paramilitary campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland. 2011 – Guinean President Alpha Condé survives an attempted assassination and coup d'état at his residence in Conakry. 2012 – Syrian civil war: The People's Protection Units (YPG) capture the city of Kobanî without resistance, starting the Rojava conflict in Northeast Syria. 2014 – Gunmen in Egypt's western desert province of New Valley Governorate attack a military checkpoint, killing at least 21 soldiers. Egypt reportedly declares a state of emergency on its border with Sudan.

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Winter camping near southern Wisconsin

If you looking to enjoy the beautiful outdoors during winter months in southern Wisconsin, look no further! Many campgrounds offer year round camping and in 2021, the WIDNR announced reservations only requirements for winter camping is Wisconsin State Parks! Check out our favorite winter campgrounds, located near Southern WI, below. Governor Dodge State Park -Twin Valley Lake Campground,…

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Governor Dodge State Park, WI

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hiking at governor dodge state park in the southwestern driftless area of wisconsin.

[july 2021]

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This Summer's Best Outdoor Excursions

This Summer’s Best Outdoor Excursions

So, the Fall Equinox is upon us- or past us. I guess, the best way to put it, and probably the most efficient way to word what I mean, would be to say, “Fall has arrived.” With that, recollections of summer, as I’m plagued by yearnings for one last mid-70’s day, come to the forefront of my mind. So, with warmer days fading from memory, I figured I’d jot down my favorite 2022 summer outdoor…

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Governor Dodge State Park, Wisconsin

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Governor Dodge State Park - Wisconsin - USA (by John Westrock) 

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Events 4.30 (before 1950)

311 – The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ends. 1315 – Enguerrand de Marigny is hanged at the instigation of Charles, Count of Valois. 1492 – Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration. He is named admiral of the ocean sea, viceroy and governor of any territory he discovers. 1513 – Edmund de la Pole, Yorkist pretender to the English throne, is executed on the orders of Henry VIII. 1557 – Mapuche leader Lautaro is killed by Spanish forces at the Battle of Mataquito in Chile. 1598 – Juan de Oñate begins the conquest of Santa Fe de Nuevo México. 1598 – Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots. 1636 – Eighty Years' War: Dutch Republic forces recapture a strategically important fort from Spain after a nine-month siege. 1789 – On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first President of the United States. 1803 – Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation. 1812 – The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana. 1838 – Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation. 1863 – A 65-man French Foreign Legion infantry patrol fights a force of nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers to nearly the last man in Hacienda Camarón, Mexico. 1871 – The Camp Grant massacre takes place in Arizona Territory. 1885 – Governor of New York David B. Hill signs legislation creating the Niagara Reservation, New York's first state park, ensuring that Niagara Falls will not be devoted solely to industrial and commercial use. 1897 – J. J. Thomson of the Cavendish Laboratory announces his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton (in the atomic nucleus), at a lecture at the Royal Institution in London. 1900 – Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States, with Sanford B. Dole as governor. 1905 – Albert Einstein completes his doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich. 1925 – Automaker Dodge Brothers, Inc is sold to Dillon, Read & Co. for US$146 million plus $50 million for charity. 1927 – The Federal Industrial Institute for Women opens in Alderson, West Virginia, as the first women's federal prison in the United States. 1937 – The Commonwealth of the Philippines holds a plebiscite for Filipino women on whether they should be extended the right to suffrage; over 90% would vote in the affirmative. 1939 – The 1939–40 New York World's Fair opens. 1939 – NBC inaugurates its regularly scheduled television service in New York City, broadcasting President Franklin D. Roosevelt's N.Y. World's Fair opening day ceremonial address. 1943 – World War II: The British submarine HMS Seraph surfaces near Huelva to cast adrift a dead man dressed as a courier and carrying false invasion plans. 1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for less than 40 hours. Soviet soldiers raise the Victory Banner over the Reichstag building. 1945 – World War II: Stalag Luft I prisoner-of-war camp near Barth, Germany is liberated by Soviet soldiers, freeing nearly 9,000 American and British airmen. 1947 – In Nevada, Boulder Dam is renamed Hoover Dam. 1948 – In Bogotá, Colombia, the Organization of American States is established.