Jim Malewitz
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jmalewitz.bsky.social
Jim Malewitz
@jmalewitz.bsky.social
730 followers 810 following 350 posts
Managing editor of @wisconsinwatch.org and amateur old man baseball player. Alum: Bridge Michigan, Texas Tribune, Stateline, Iowa Watch.

Following Vanilla Ice's call to collaborate and listen.
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jmalewitz.bsky.social
50 years later, the mystery of the Edmund Fitzgerald still haunts the children of its lost crew. www.startribune.com/50-years-lat... (via @startribune.com)
They’ve had to fend off dark thoughts about his last moments and have absorbed scores of theories on why the ship went down. Their mother, who died of cancer in 1993, would grow ill around the anniversary and during storms that whipped through the lake. A headstone for Nolan Church rests next to his wife’s in a local cemetery. But his surviving children consider Lake Superior his gravesite. And the tragedy has made their relationships to the lake complicated. All three live near it in the Two Harbors area. But Gage, now 73, has for 50 years been too frightened to be on it or in it. It’s beautiful, she said, “but you never know with that lake.” Brabon, who lives in Kalamazoo, Mich., is drawn to the water. She visits Whitefish Point and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum there often. She likes to stand on the beach among the driftwood and memorials to the Fitzgerald crew, knowing that 17 miles out her father, Blaine Wilhelm, rests. “It brings me peace somehow,” she said.
November 10, 2025 at 12:10 AM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
"The increases depend on where you live. For example, the new benchmark plan in Milwaukee County will be 44% more expensive than the 2025 benchmark."
wisconsinwatch.org/2025/11/how-...
Health insurance premiums for federal marketplace plans will increase in 2026 Percentage of premium change for benchmark plans, 2025-2026 Prices shown are for a 27-year-old individual
November 6, 2025 at 3:12 PM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
A Ukrainian family that had settled in Wisconsin decided to move back to Ukraine, despite the war. "Their home country supports its citizens with more housing affordability, health care and social services than the United States does."
captimes.com/news/communi...

(via @erinmcgroarty.bsky.social)
Despite concern from other Ukrainian immigrants that the Trump administration would begin targeting families for deportation after dissolving the humanitarian parole program, Yevko said she and her husband did not return to Ukraine for that reason. Their home country supports its citizens with more housing affordability, health care and social services than the United States does. Her oldest son, Maksym, has special needs and requires neurological care that would be costly in the U.S. He was diagnosed with ADHD and global development delay, a neurological condition that occurs when a child younger than 5 does not meet certain developmental milestones. The condition can affect functions such as motor skills, social and emotional development or speech and language skills. “For such children, early therapy is very important. But we didn’t receive it,” Yevko said. “(In Ukraine) there is access to comprehensive therapy and support for a much lower cost.”
October 2, 2025 at 6:31 PM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
Sometimes lovely writing sneaks up on you. For example:

@merriam-webster.com’s “Some Notes On 'Asshat'”

www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/som...
As asshat steadied itself and found its legs, it took on a slightly elongated form: asshattery (extremely provisional definition: “the condition and practices of an asshat”). This word appears to have begun being used in the early 2000s, initially only in online writing. It also may now be found in a wide range of locations, linguistic registers, and media. If we have been calling people assheads for almost 500 years now, why did it take so long for ass and hat to get together in similarly pejorative fashion? One reason may be that while ass lends itself well to the beginning of an opprobrious compound, hat leaves something to be desired in terms of mordant wit (the etymological note we have describes the linking of ass and hat as “seemingly nonsensical”).
October 1, 2025 at 1:47 AM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
Ope.
www.jsonline.com/story/sports...
Wisconsin football's Billy Edwards Jr. exits Week 1 game with injury: What we know "Don't know a whole lot," Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell said after the game.
August 29, 2025 at 2:08 PM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
I enjoy the construction of this sentence.
"A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor emeritus who wrote the book, “How the Working-Class Home Became Modern, 1900-1940,” has knowledge of the basement toilets."
August 28, 2025 at 7:51 PM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
But then again — Hard to improve upon my near-perfect Madison 32+ Cheddar Shredders.
Baseball hat with yellow bill and white front panel and brown side panels. Has a logo of a yellow baseball going through a cheese grater.
August 20, 2025 at 2:09 AM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
Making waffles tonight inspired me to brainstorm baseball team rebrands.
A scowling personified waffle is elevated in the night sky — wearing sunglasses and with eye black. The logo says Night Waffles below. A scowling personified waffle is elevated in the night sky — wearing sunglasses and with eye black. It has a cape. The logo says The Dark Night Waffles.
August 20, 2025 at 2:03 AM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
Tonight’s @tigers.bsky.social game was like a healthy Midwest summer rain.
A house is shown along a rainy street scape, with the words: “We needed this.”
July 30, 2025 at 1:30 AM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
Ope. www.wearegreenbay.com/news/local-n...
Headline screenshot: Wisconsin officers find drugs, guns in bag labeled ‘Definitely Not a Bag Full of Drugs’
July 14, 2025 at 9:54 PM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
Independence Day in Madison, 1935 (via @captimes.com)
Headline: U.W. Monkeys, in Spirit of '76, Grab Liberty on July 4, Or Maybe 'Twas Heat. 6 U. Monkeys Gain Liberties Over Holiday Anyhow Six Simians Are Having a Time on West Side
July 5, 2025 at 4:41 PM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
70 years ago today in the Wisconsin State Journal (@madison.com)
Newspaper clipping: Escapee Beats Heat in Cool Cheese Factory. Story details a Waupun prison escapee being found in a Columbia County cheese factory drinking cool-aide and eating cheese.
July 5, 2025 at 3:57 PM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
The height of luxury in Wisconsin www.wpr.org/news/wiscons...
News screenshot: "Prosecutors say Stanley Pophal, 63, received payments from 128 investors and used the “vast majority” of that money to fund an extravagant lifestyle — including a “vast snowmobile collection.” In a press release, U.S. Attorney Timothy M. O’Shea said Pophal purchased more than 300 snowmobiles."
June 19, 2025 at 5:22 PM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
Note to reporters outside of Wisconsin:

Access Corrections also contracts with other state prison systems, so it's worth checking whether your state is affected. It appears to a nationwide problem. www.cashpaytoday.com
Screenshot says: 5-21-2025 IMPORTANT!!! Access corrections is experiencing an outage and they are working to resolve it as quickly as possible. Payments and registrations are not available at this time. We are sorry for any inconvenience. Thank you for your business."
May 22, 2025 at 11:26 PM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
100 years ago in the @captimes.com:

"If you need to be reminded that your mother is alive, consider this a reminder. But the man or woman to whom anything is more important than the daily happiness of a mother is not of much consequence."
Newspint clipping
May 11, 2025 at 4:40 PM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
Ahead of Mother’s Day, families of Wisconsin’s incarcerated hope the state prison’s overwhelmed, privately run phone system won’t leave folks disconnected. wisconsinwatch.org/2025/05/wisc...
He worries about a repeat around Mother’s Day. “Having that ability to speak to someone who still sees you as a human being and not a number is vital,” said Marianne Oleson, the operations director for Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing of Wisconsin. That’s especially the case for mothers who are incarcerated. The majority of women in prisons nationally have children under the age of 18, according to a 2016 U.S. Department of Justice report. Phone calls offer incarcerated women their only chance to act as parent, wife or daughter
May 11, 2025 at 3:21 PM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
The state of the cheese remains strong in Wisconsin. 🧀💪
Wisconsin Specialty Cheese Production Up 1 Percent With 25 percent of the nation’s total cheese production, Wisconsin maintained its ranking as the nation’s top cheese producing state in 2024. At 1.02 billion pounds, specialty cheese accounted for 28 percent of Wisconsin’s total cheese production. This was an increase of 71.3 million pounds from 2023. Ninety-three of the State’s 116 cheese plants manufactured at least one type of specialty cheese during 2024. Wisconsin cheese makers are known for offering a wide variety of high-quality specialty cheeses. A specialty cheese is a value-added product which commands a premium price. According to the Wisconsin Specialty Cheese Institute, the nature of specialty cheese is derived from one or more unique qualities, such as exotic origin, particular processing or design, limited supply, unusual application or use, and extraordinary packaging or channel of sale. The common denominator is its very high quality.
April 30, 2025 at 1:21 PM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
Remembering a “worm guy” of Madison.
Plaque on a bench says: “Remember Carl Johnson - 05/07/48 — 12/11/21 Walker, “worm guy,” beloved husband.”
April 6, 2025 at 3:07 PM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
Via @francescahong.bsky.social on X.
Cybertruck driver came onto campus grounds, threw drug paraphernalia everywhere screaming free weed. This is library mall near two polling location. Fortunately no one was hurt and the driver was apprehended.
April 2, 2025 at 12:57 AM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
Oh. www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/p...
Sen. Chuck Grassley said he didn't read transcripts of the text messages and "probably won't" but said they weren't classified information.
March 27, 2025 at 12:00 AM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
Bring these hats back for the championship!
University of Michigan’s Rumeal Robinson wearing “Just did it #1” cap while holding the 1989 NCAA basketball championship trophy.
March 23, 2025 at 12:06 AM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
I feel ya, desk.
Note on wooden desk that says: “This desk is very old. *Do not* force down. Ask for assistance.
March 22, 2025 at 10:31 PM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
This @highcountrynews.bsky.social news correction from a while back illustrates a lovely relationship between a magazine and its readers.
A couple of astute readers wrote in to let us know that our photo of the smallmouth bass in “River of bass” (October 2023) most likely depicted a redeye bass, a closely related species distinguished by the horizontal rows of spots below its lateral line…
March 22, 2025 at 3:17 PM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
Go Blue!
March 16, 2025 at 9:35 PM
jmalewitz.bsky.social
Flash forward to the day after the Mongrel Dog Show, which was reportedly a hit. It was, um, the second-biggest story of April 19, 1925. 😬
Front page of newspaper headlines: Crazed Woman Poisons Ten Dog Show Captivates City; Records Set Mongrel Hounds March to Glory for First Time
March 15, 2025 at 4:55 PM