Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 46.  Sunrise is 6:04 AM and sunset 7:42 PM, for 13h 37m 56s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 41.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1775, the Revolutionary War begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Fred Hiatt writes China’s third phase of genocide denial: Attacking those who speak the truth:

At first, when a few brave journalists at Radio Free Asia began alerting the world to the terrible events unfolding in western China, China’s Communist rulers denied that anything at all was taking place.

Then, when satellite photos and survivor testimony became too overwhelming, the regime admitted that, yes, there are camps. But not concentration camps! Those are … vocational schools! Pay no attention to the barbed wire and guard towers.

Now, even as it maintains its increasingly threadbare lies, the regime is intensifying the third phase of genocide denial: attacking the truth-tellers.

More than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are being held in China’s brutal camps. Hundreds of mosques and Muslim cemeteries have been destroyed. Muslim women are forcibly sterilized; Uyghur children are taken from their homes and sent to state-run boarding schools. Men can be sent away for wearing a beard or declining to consume pork or alcohol. The Chinese Communists are attempting to wipe out a culture, a way of life, a people.

We know this thanks to Radio Free Asia reporter Gulchehra Hoja and her colleagues, to a few dogged academics and to dozens of survivors and exiles who have bravely given testimony.

At a news conference this month, the Chinese Foreign Ministry attacked many of those witnesses as liars, criminals, terrorists and persons of “bad morality,” as RFA reported.

One of those named as a terrorist was Hoja, 48, who agreed to speak with me Friday. While we were talking, she learned that the regime has listed her father, Abduqeyum Hoja, as a terrorist as well.

“He is 80 years old!” she exclaimed. “A retired archaeologist. What kind of terrorist?”

 Kenneth Chang reports NASA’s Mars Helicopter Achieves First Flight on Another World (‘The experimental Ingenuity vehicle completed the short but historic up-and-down flight on Monday morning’):

A small robotic helicopter named Ingenuity made space exploration history on Monday when it lifted off the surface of Mars and hovered in the wispy air of the red planet. It was the first machine from Earth ever to fly like an airplane or a helicopter on another world.

In NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, engineers cheered just before 7 a.m. Eastern time as an image was transmitted back to Earth by the helicopter showing its shadow looming over the Martian surface during its flight, which occurred around 3:30 a.m. on Mars.

The achievement extends NASA’s long, exceptional record of firsts on Mars. But it was also something different for NASA — a high-risk, high-reward project with a modest price tag where failure was an acceptable outcome.

Ingenuity helicopter flies on Mars — see the first pic & video:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 60.  Sunrise is 6:06 AM and sunset 7:41 PM, for 13h 35m 13s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 32.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1923, Yankee Stadium, “The House that Ruth Built,” opens.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Kelly Meyerhofer reports UW branch campuses ‘at risk of closure’ under bill giving tech colleges more freedom:

Wisconsin technical colleges could more easily establish general education degree programs under a Republican bill that the University of Wisconsin System says would threaten the existence of some of its smallest campuses.

The bill introduced earlier this month would eliminate a longstanding requirement that technical colleges receive approval from the UW Board of Regents before starting associate degree programs in arts and sciences on their campuses.

Of the state’s 16 technical colleges, just six offer such two-year programs, which are the most common stepping stone for students to go on to a four-year university and earn a bachelor’s degree. Other technical colleges have tried establishing the programs in recent years but have historically received rare support from the UW System.

That’s because the System’s small branch campuses offer the same two-year programs. Allowing more technical colleges to start their own could cut into branch campus enrollment, which has suffered steep losses in recent years.

….

Nine of the 13 branch campuses this fall had a head count enrollment of 500 or fewer students. Demographics show even fewer students graduating from Wisconsin high schools between 2025 and 2030.

(These branch campuses, like the technical colleges, are principally two-year programs. Campuses like UW-Whitewater at Rock County might be directly affected, but four-year comprehensive programs like UW-Whitewater here in Whitewater indirectly affected by their association with a branch campus.)

Danielle Ivory, Lauren Leatherby, and Robert Gebeloff report Least Vaccinated U.S. Counties Have Something in Common: Trump Voters:

About 31 percent of adults in the United States have now been fully vaccinated. Scientists have estimated that 70 to 90 percent of the total population must acquire resistance to the virus to reach herd immunity. But in hundreds of counties around the country, vaccination rates are low, with some even languishing in the teens.

The disparity in vaccination rates has so far mainly broken down along political lines. The New York Times examined survey and vaccine administration data for nearly every U.S. county and found that both willingness to receive a vaccine and actual vaccination rates to date were lower, on average, in counties where a majority of residents voted to re-elect former President Donald J. Trump in 2020. The phenomenon has left some places with a shortage of supply and others with a glut.

For months, health officials across the United States have been racing to inoculate people as variants of the coronavirus have continued to gain a foothold, carrying mutations that can make infections more contagious and, in some cases, deadlier. Vaccinations have sped up and, in many places, people are still unable to book appointments because of high demand. In Michigan, where cases have spiraled out of control, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, recently urged President Biden to send additional doses.

But in more rural — and more Republican — areas, health officials said that supply is far exceeding demand.

 First-ever camera collar footage from a wild wolf:

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 57.  Sunrise is 6:07 AM and sunset 7:40 PM, for 13h 32m 29s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 24.0% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1970, the ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Craig Gilbert writes As politics is nationalized, April’s non-partisan elections are looking more and more like November’s partisan ones:

Five months after the November 2020 presidential race, Wisconsin held a contest for state school superintendent.

The November election was close.

The April election wasn’t.

The November election attracted massive attention.

The April election didn’t.

The November election drew 3.3 million voters to the polls.

The April election drew about 912,000.

The November election was partisan.

The April election was nonpartisan.

But as different as they were, the two elections did have something in common.

The geographic voting patterns were remarkably similar.

By and large, the counties that performed the best for Democrat Joe Biden last fall also performed the best for the winning and more liberal candidate in this month’s race for state school superintendent, Jill Underly.

And the counties that performed the best for Republican Donald Trump last fall generally performed the best for Underly’s more conservative opponent, Deborah Kerr.

This happened despite vast differences in turnout, spending and media attention in the two races and the fact that one office — the presidency — is the ultimate partisan prize and the other is a low-profile, nonpartisan office overseeing the state’s public schools.

Dalton Bennett, Shawn Boburg, Sarah Cahlan, Peter Hermann, Meg Kelly, Joyce Sohyun Lee, Elyse Samuels, and Brian Monroe report 17 requests for backup in 78 minutes (‘A reconstruction shows how failures of planning and preparation left police at the Capitol severely disadvantaged on Jan. 6’):

At 1:13 p.m. on Jan. 6, a D.C. police commander facing a swelling crowd of protesters on the west side of the U.S. Capitol made an urgent call for more officers in riot gear. “Hard gear at the Capitol! Hard gear at the Capitol!” Cmdr. Robert Glover shouted into his radio.

Glover and a team of D.C. police officers had rushed to the besieged complex moments earlier at the behest of Capitol Police. By the time they arrived, the Capitol grounds were already being overrun by a mob intent on overturning President Donald Trump’s electoral defeat.

Over the next 78 minutes, Glover requested backup at least 17 times, according to a Washington Post analysis of the events, and the mob on the west side eventually grew to at least 9,400 people, outnumbering officers by more than 58 to one.

 Storm chaser Mike Olbinski records Shadows in the Sky:

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 57.  Sunrise is 6:09 AM and sunset 7:39 PM, for 13h 29m 45s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 16.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1945, the United States Army liberates Nazi Sonderlager (high security) prisoner-of-war camp Oflag IV-C (better known as Colditz).

Recommended for reading in full — 

Vanda Felbab-Brown writes The US decision to withdraw from Afghanistan is the right one:

The Biden administration’s political courage lies in its refusal to be cowed by the possibility that a terrorism threat will grow in Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal. That specter has been a key justification for militarily staying on and on. That possibility needs to be weighed against other already materialized strategic threats and realities. Indeed, another wise aspect of the Biden administration’s decision was to stop treating U.S. Afghanistan policy in isolation from other issues and strategic priorities; to date, the tyranny of sunk costs has inflated Afghanistan’s importance.

Now, threats from China, an aggressive Russia, North Korea, and Iran — as well as zoonotic pandemics — are more important strategic priorities. Investing in U.S. Special Operation Forces, top leadership attention, and financial resources to counter those threats can deliver far greater strategic benefits than perpetuating the Afghanistan military effort.

Megan Hart reports Kimberly-Clark: Relocating 250 Workers To Chicago Won’t Interfere With Tax Incentives In Wisconsin:

The global manufacturer behind brands like Kleenex, Huggies and Kotex struck a deal with former Gov. Scott Walker in late 2018, allowing the company to receive up to $28 million in grants. In return, Kimberly-Clark committed to investing in its Fox Valley facilities, keeping jobs in Wisconsin and buying from Wisconsin suppliers.

“It is disappointing that Kimberly-Clark has chosen to move these jobs out of Wisconsin, especially as our state is just beginning to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Secretary Missy Hughes, of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., said in a statement.

Her agency is reviewing its contract with Kimberly-Clark to determine whether the move will affect its eligibility for tax incentives, she said.

Caleb Ecarma writes White Nationalists Sure Don’t Think Tucker Carlson’s “Replacement” Segment Is About Voting Rights:

Perhaps emboldened by Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch, who stood by his segment ostensibly promoting the white nationalist “replacement” theory, Tucker Carlson has spent much of this week doubling down. “Demographic change is the key to the Democratic Party’s political ambitions,” Carlson said Monday night, cementing his position in the face of calls for his firing. “Let’s say that again for emphasis because it is the secret to the entire immigration debate.… In order to win and maintain power, Democrats plan to change the population of the country. They’re no longer trying to win you over with their program. They’re obviously not trying to improve your life. They don’t even really care about your vote anymore. Their goal is to make you irrelevant.”

And strangely, despite Fox News’s and Murdoch’s insistence that Carlson’s focus on this topic has to do with voting rights, and not racist conspiracy mongering, he appears to have drawn praise from a certain segment of adoring fans. “Holy shit, I just watched Tucker’s replacement segment. This is a turning point in the program,” wrote one user on 4chan’s /pol/ board––one of the few remaining online platforms that hosts self-described Nazis––in a thread praising Carlson for naming “the jew on national television.” Others on the thread shared their praise by posting a meme depicting Carlson as the far right’s cartoon frog mascot, Pepe, urging fellow 4chan-ers to “get your parents to watch right now to boost tucker’s ratings so murdoch doesn’t get cold feet,” and declaring, “HEIL TUCKER!”

 Why Starlink Is Crucial To SpaceX’s Success:

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 54.  Sunrise is 6:11 AM and sunset 7:38 PM, for 13h 26m 59s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 9.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 2019, the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris in France is seriously damaged by a large fire.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Bill Glauber reports Wisconsin Treasurer Sarah Godlewski joins Democratic race for Ron Johnson’s U.S. Senate seat in 2022:

Taking the fight straight to Republican Ron Johnson, state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski announced Wednesday that she’s running for U.S. Senate.

Godlewski joined an increasingly crowded field of Democratic hopefuls eager to challenge Johnson, who has not yet announced if he’ll seek a third term in the U.S. Senate next year.

In a video to launch her campaign, Godlewski sought to set up a contrast with Johnson and said: “We’re … how do I put it nicely? Different.”

“Ron Johnson has spent his time covering up for Donald Trump, denying climate change and catering to the super-wealthy,” she said.

Godlewski fiercely criticized Johnson’s comments on the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, in which he said, “This really didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me.”

Godlewski declared: “I don’t think you show respect by beating and killing police officers.”

Julian E. Barnes, David E. Sanger and Lara Jakes report Biden Administration to Impose Tough Sanctions on Russia
(‘Administration officials were determined to draft a response that would impose real costs on Moscow, as many previous rounds of sanctions have been shrugged off’):

“It will not simply be sanctions,” Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, said in February. He has frequently said it will include “a mix of tools seen and unseen,” though there have been disagreements in the administration about how many of the steps to make public.

Restrictions on sovereign debt affect a nation’s ability to raise dollar-denominated bonds, with lenders fearful of being cut off from American financial markets. The United States has used similar techniques against Iran, among others.

Russian bond prices have fluctuated in recent weeks in anticipation of possible sanctions. Russia has relatively little debt, making it potentially less vulnerable to the tactic. And rising oil prices will benefit the country’s economy.

Nevertheless, any broad sanctions on Russia’s financial sector would amount to a significant escalation in the costs that the United States has been willing to impose on Moscow. And part of the administration’s concern has been whether Russian entities could retaliate by exploiting “back doors” implanted in American systems.

Elaine Godfrey writes The Rural Pandemic Isn’t Ending:

It’s possible—even probable—public-health experts told me, that months from now, some rural areas will still have very low vaccination rates, providing isolated havens for the coronavirus. That outcome could be calamitous. First, as long as unvaccinated individuals live together in a community, frequenting the same shops, offices, and classrooms, the virus can find hosts through which to spread. Second, and even worse, a virus left unchecked will evolve—that’s what viruses do best—and could become more infectious, more lethal, and more resistant to existing vaccines. Which means that, ultimately, a new, super-charged coronavirus variant could create the conditions for another epidemic, the experts told me. This is why “we need people vaccinated now, not four months from now,” says Alan Morgan, the CEO of the nonprofit National Rural Health Association.

See also Red states on U.S. electoral map lagging on vaccinations.

 Michelangelo’s David: Inside the high-tech project to create a perfect 3D ‘twin’:

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 45.  Sunrise is 6:12 AM and sunset 7:36 PM, for 13h 24m 13s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 5.0% of its visible disk illuminated.

The school district’s Policy Review Committee meets via audiovisual conferencing at 1 PM.

On this day in 1775, the first abolition society in North America is established, the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Kelly Meyerhofer reports UW-Madison hires former Foxconn official to lead office working with businesses:

The hiring of John Garnetti, Foxconn’s former deputy director of U.S. strategic initiatives, comes about halfway through a five-year agreement between UW-Madison and the Taiwanese technology company that critics say has fallen far short of expectations.

Foxconn officials in 2018 committed $100 million to help fund a new UW-Madison engineering building and company-related research. Records show the university received $700,000 in the first two years of the deal — less than 1% of the company’s pledge.

Bruce Vielmetti reports Kenosha officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back returns to full duty, won’t face any discipline:

District Attorney Michael Graveley announced in January that Rusten Sheskey would face no criminal charges in the Aug. 23 incident that left Blake paralyzed from the waist down. 

On Tuesday, Chief Daniel Miskinis issued a press release on Twitter stating that Sheskey has also been cleared of breaking any internal policies, and has been back on duty after months of administrative leave since March 31.

….

On March 25, Blake filed a federal civil rights lawsuit for damages against Sheskey.

Blake claims Sheskey’s use of deadly force was excessive, violated Blake’s rights under the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable seizure, and was done with “malice, willfulness, and reckless indifference” to Blake’s rights.

One of Blake’s attorneys, Patrick Salvi Jr., called Tuesday’s revelation that Sheskey had returned to full duty without discipline very surprising.

“How can anyone say this is a desired result for a police encounter?” Salvi asked. He called it “a very sad state of affairs” if Kenosha police truly believe Sheskey acted in accordance with policy and training.

“But that’s not true and we’ll prove it in our lawsuit,” Salvi said.

Michael Gerson writes Tucker Carlson shows what mass-marketed racism looks like:

The Anti-Defamation League has demanded Carlson’s firing for his unapologetic embrace of “replacement theory.” Here is how Carlson defined this idea in the process of defending it last week: “The Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate of the voters now casting ballots with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World.”

Why people should be offended by this mystifies Carlson. “Everyone wants to make a racial issue out of it,” he continued. “No, no, no, this is a voting-rights question. I have less political power because they are importing a brand-new electorate. Why should I sit back and take that? The power that I have as an American, guaranteed at birth, is one man, one vote, and they are diluting it.”

There is a reason, of course, that “everyone” wants to make a racial issue out of this. Because it is a putrescent pile of racist myths and cliches. Nearly every phrase of Carlson’s statement is the euphemistic expression of white-supremacist replacement doctrine. “The Democratic Party” means liberals, which translates into Jews. They are importing “new people” from the “Third World” means people with black and brown skin. Those kinds of people, in the racist trope, are “obedient,” meaning docile, backward and stupid. Their votes do not constitute real democracy because they are replacing the “current electorate” — which is presumably whiter and less docile. These paler, truer Americans are thus deprived of their birthright of political dominance. And fighting back — making sure the new Third World people have less power — becomes a defense of the American way.

 Fireball lights up Florida sky:

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of  51.  Sunrise is 6:14 AM and sunset 7:35 PM, for 13h 21m 26s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

There will be a school board election canvass at 9 AM, and Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets via audiovisual conferencing at 6 PM.

On this day in 1960, the United States launches Transit 1-B, the world’s first satellite navigation system.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Rory Linnane reports Burlington schools failed to address ‘racially hostile’ environment, DPI finds:

Burlington Area School District officials failed to report, investigate and respond to racist incidents for years, the state Department of Public Instruction has found, and ordered district officials to address its “racially hostile environment.”

It took years of advocacy by Darnisha Garbade, a parent of two former Burlington students, to get to this point, while she repeatedly hit dead-ends with district officials.

“I asked, I begged, I cried and pleaded for help on many occasions to many of Burlington’s leaders but was treated as if I was the problem, instead of racism being the problem,” Garbade said in a news conference Monday. “I consistently spoke the truth, and even provided evidence when I wasn’t believed. And yet, I still wasn’t believed.”

Steve Plank, superintendent of the Burlington Area School District, did not acknowledge any wrongdoing but said he regrets that anyone felt discriminated against and will comply with the order.

….

When the American Civil Liberties Union helped Garbade appeal the district’s finding to DPI, the state agency found numerous issues with the district’s handling of reports of racial harassment of Garbade’s children and many other students.

On Friday, DPI ordered the district to submit a corrective action plan within 30 days, including specific steps to prevent discrimination in discipline; address the racially hostile environment; review its practices for reporting discrimination complaints; and bring its policies up to compliance with state codes.

Martin Pangelly reports Tucker Carlson: Murdoch backs Fox News host in ‘white replacement’ furore:

The chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League told Lachlan Murdoch on Monday an award it gave his father a decade ago “does not absolve you, him, the network, or its board from the moral failure of not taking action” against the Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Jonathan Greenblatt has called for Carlson to be fired for advocating “white replacement” theory, a racist trope which holds that the Democratic party favours unlimited immigration in order to boost its vote.

….

“Demographic change is the key to the Democratic party’s political ambitions,” he [Carlson] said. “… In order to win and maintain power, Democrats plan to change the population of the country.”

In a reply provided to CNN, Greenblatt said: “Although I appreciate the sentiment that you and your father continue to support ADL’s mission, supporting Mr Carlson’s embrace of the ‘great replacement theory’ stands in direct contrast to that mission.

“…ADL honored your father over a decade ago, but let me be clear that we would not do so today, and it does not absolve you, him, the network, or its board from the moral failure of not taking action against Mr Carlson.”

Greenblatt also said Carlson’s “attempt to at first dismiss” the racist theory “while in the very next breath endorsing it under cover of ‘a voting rights question’ does not give him free license to invoke a white supremacist trope.

“In fact, it’s worse, because he’s using a straw man – voting rights – to give an underhanded endorsement of white supremacist beliefs while ironically suggesting it’s not really white supremacism. While your response references a ‘full review’ of the interview, it seems the reviewers missed the essential point here.”

Unearthing the little-known ancient theatres of Greece’s Epirus region: