Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 40.  Sunrise is 6:26 AM and sunset 5:46 PM, for 11h 19m 58s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 86.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets via audiovisual conferencing at 6:30 PM.  

 On this day in 1972, the Pioneer 10 space probe is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Catherine Rampell writes The Senate parliamentarian’s ruling on the minimum wage did Democrats a favor:

Firing or overruling the ref won’t help you if your own team can’t decide where the goal posts are.

This has been obvious for a while. Yet Democratic leaders chose to ignore the discord rather than adopt a compromise policy that might be acceptable to moderates — and still achieve, say, 90 percent of the left’s objectives. Which are, presumably, to raise living standards for as many of the working poor as possible.

Raising the federal hourly minimum wage from $7.25 — where it has remained since 2009 — is broadly popular among both voters and Democratic lawmakers. There’s disagreement, though, about what level it should be raised to.

The “Fight for 15” movement, launched in 2012 by fast-food workers with backing from organized labor, cultivated political support for this round-numbered, alliterative goal. The movement has had successes in places such as New York and Seattle, and the left wing of the Democratic Party has worked to expand the minimum to $15?nationwide.

But this policy’s economic and political effects might look different in areas where wages and costs of living are lower. In Mississippi, for instance, the most recent data available show that the median wage is $15 per hour. So if implemented immediately, a federal minimum at that level would apply to half of the state’s wage-earning workforce.

It’s unclear how employers might react to a large mandated increase. Maybe they’d lay off lots of employees or reduce hours, as opponents of minimum wages generally argue. This would undercut the policy’s goal of helping low-wage workers. Or maybe employers would raise prices. Or demand higher productivity. Or accept lower profits. Or some combination of all these things.

Amelia Thomson and Laura Bronner write Police Misconduct Costs Cities Millions Every Year. But That’s Where The Accountability Ends:

As the country has witnessed episode after episode of police abuse, holding police officers accountable for misconduct has become an urgent issue. But despite increased attention, it’s still rare for police officers to face criminal prosecution. That leaves civil lawsuits as victims’ primary route for seeking legal redress and financial compensation when a police encounter goes wrong. The resulting settlements can be expensive for the city, which is generally on the hook for the payouts (meaning ultimately, most are subsidized by taxpayers), and those costs can encourage cities to make broader changes.

Successful settlements are also a helpful source of information for places that are serious about police reform. If cities and police departments want to cut down on misconduct and spend less taxpayer money, they need to know how much they’re paying for police abuse, and what kinds of incidents are most frequent and most expensive.

 Everything the home cook needs to know about steak:

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 29.  Sunrise is 6:28 AM and sunset 5:45 PM, for 11h 17m 05s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 93.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Community Involvement & Cable TV Commission meets via audiovisual conferencing at 4 PM. 

 On this day in 1985, Herb Kohl purchases the Milwaukee Bucks.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Rachael Vasquez reports Survey: Nearly Half of Wisconsin Manufacturers Say Business Still Down:

Nearly half of Wisconsin manufacturers say their business remains down, according to new survey results released Thursday by Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership (WMEP) Manufacturing Solutions, a not-for-profit manufacturing consulting firm that caters to small and midsize manufacturers across the state.

The survey found 22 percent of manufacturers reported their business down “significantly” compared to a normal year, and 17 percent said business was still “down somewhat.”

Only 8 percent of respondents said business was “down greatly,” a marked improvement from October when 18 percent of manufacturers were still reporting large declines in revenue.

Alternatively, nearly 40 percent of manufacturers said their business was up to some degree.

George Bureau, vice president of consulting services for WMEP, said that split shows an “uneven” recovery.

“We have some manufacturers that are actually too busy that are having challenge(s) getting product out the door, and some that are OK, and … a few that aren’t doing so well,” Bureau said.

Stephanie Kirchgaessner reports Workers at firm owned by top Trump donors exposed to higher Covid rates (‘Employees at Uline, owned by billionaires Dick and Liz Uihlein, have filed numerous safety complaints, investigation finds’):

Employees at a private Wisconsin company owned by two top Republican donors in the US have faced significantly higher rates of Covid-19 infection and have filed numerous complaints about workplace safety to federal authorities, according to a Guardian investigation into Uline.

Dick and Liz Uihlein, the billionaire founders of the Uline packaging and office supply company who were once dubbed the “most powerful conservatives you never heard of”, have been critics of Wisconsin stay-at-home orders and, some employees fear, used their considerable political clout to try to challenge safety rules in the state.

An internal document seen by the Guardian shows that at least 14% of Uline’s corporate workforce has tested positive for Covid-19 since last April, compared to 8.7% of the population in Kenosha county, where the company’s corporate office is located.

Jacob Bogage and Hannah Denham report As USPS delays persist, bills, paychecks and medications are getting stuck in the mail:

The agency’s delivery times have sunk to historic lows since [Louis] DeJoy took over in June. In most states, it took at least five days for a piece of first-class mail — such as a bill or paycheck — to arrive last month, according to data provided by mail-tracking vendor GrayHair Software. Going back 90 days, into the heart of holiday shipping season, it took more than six days on average for first-class delivery nationwide. The Postal Service aims to deliver local mail in two days and nonlocal mail in three to five days.

At the end of December, the agency had an on-time rate of 38 percent for nonlocal mail, according to data it reported to a federal court. Traditionally, that number is around 90 percent. The Postal Service has not disclosed 2021 metrics.

How to build a quantum internet:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 44.  Sunrise is 6:29 AM and sunset 5:44 PM, for 11h 14m 13s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 98.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1935, DuPont scientist Wallace Carothers invents nylon.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Ashley Luthern and Gina Barton report How a rape case exposed a tangled web of dysfunction in Milwaukee (Part 1):

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel does not publish the names of people who report being sexually assaulted unless they agree. In this case, the woman did not. In a lawsuit filed against the Police Department and the city last year, she used the pseudonym Jane Doe.

In 2019, Doe reported to police that Haywood, a prominent real estate developer, had raped and possibly drugged her. He denies wrongdoing and has not been arrested or charged; her allegations remain under investigation by law enforcement and prosecutors.

Doe’s lawsuit, which argued that the Milwaukee Police Department violated her rights as a crime victim by repeatedly failing to notify her about important developments in the investigation, was settled earlier this year. As a result, the state Department of Justice has taken over the case. The settlement also creates a legal pathway for crime victims throughout Wisconsin to ensure their rights are protected.

On the surface, there appear to be several reasons why Doe’s case stalled, including the five years she waited to report the incident to police.

But a Journal Sentinel investigation uncovered problems that go far beyond a mishandled rape allegation — problems that affect the lives of Milwaukee residents who have nothing to do with Doe’s case.

The man Doe accused is influential, the beneficiary of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded city loans for development projects. One of his attorneys was a member of the powerful Fire and Police Commission, which has the final say on which police officers should be promoted and disciplined — including those in charge of investigating Doe’s case. The conflict of interest sparked infighting among commissioners and public officials that has upended Milwaukee’s search for a new police chief.

See also Parts 2, 3, and 4.

 Justin Baragona reports South Dakota AG May Have Been Reading Right-Wing Biden Conspiracies While Killing Man With His Car:

South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg acknowledged during his interviews with police investigators last year that he was reading political articles—including a conspiracy theory-laden piece about Joe Biden—on his phone just before he struck and killed a pedestrian with his car.

Ravnsborg is currently facing three misdemeanor charges, calls from Gov. Kristi Noem to resign, and impeachment proceedings for killing 55-year-old Joseph Boever on the side of a highway last year.

….

“At 10:20:49, you were on the Dakota Free Press site,” one investigator told the attorney general, in a clip first flagged by Media Matters research fellow Timothy Johnson. “These are all on your work phone. A minute later, you were on the RealClearPolitics website.”

“And then, about a minute later, this article was pulled up through the Just The News,” the interrogator continued, referencing the site founded by pro-Trump columnist John Solomon.

The investigator, meanwhile, went on to note that the article in question was “about Joe Biden and something to do with China” and that Ravnsborg was on that link up to a minute before the accident, further asking the attorney general if he remembered reading this while driving.

How Books Are Handmade at the Last Printing Press of Its Kind in the US:

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 42.  Sunrise is 6:31 AM and sunset 5:42 PM, for 11h 11m 20s of daytime.  The moon is full with 99.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1782, the British House of Commons votes against further war in America.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Rich Kramer reports Data Show Wisconsinites Flocked to the Outdoors as a Respite from the Pandemic:

The number of people turning to the state’s parks, hunting and fishing amid the COVID-19 pandemic grew significantly in 2020 according to new research from the non-partisan Wisconsin Policy Forum.

A new report titled “Take It Outside: Pandemic Spurs Outdoor Pursuits” shows that sales of state parks stickers jumped by more than 42 percent compared with sales in 2019. The report notes that is despite some state parks being closed in spring of 2020.

Fishing license sales grew by more than 13 percent between March 2020 and January of this year. The report notes that 93,414 individuals bought their first Wisconsin fishing license during that timeframe. That’s more than twice the number of first-time licenses sold between March 2019 and January 2020. License sales to non-residents also jumped by nearly 39 percent.

Wisconsin Policy Forum researcher Jason Stein told WPR it will take time to know if last year’s boost was an aberration or a new trend. But he said it will likely have some impact moving forward.

“It’s like anything, you know — if you can get a bunch of people to try something new, birdwatching or cross-country skiing or whatever it is,” said Stein. “For some of them, it’s really going to click with them.”

 David Smith reports Biden visits disaster-hit Texas as Cruz basks in warmth of Florida right-fest:

America’s political divide was on display on Friday as Joe Biden flew to Texas to comfort victims of a deadly winter storm while Ted Cruz, a senator from the beleaguered state, basked in Florida sunshine and joked about his recent holiday in Mexico.

The US president, who made empathy the core of his election campaign, and the first lady, Jill Biden, travelled to Houston for his first trip to a major disaster site since taking office on 20 January.

….

Addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Cruz made light of a controversy last week in which he flew to Cancún, Mexico, for a family holiday even as millions of Texans shivered in unheated homes. “Orlando is awesome,” Cruz said. “It’s not as nice as Cancún, but it’s nice!”

The crowd laughed at the quip.

Matt Zapotosky and Spencer S. Hsu report FBI focuses on video of Capitol Police officer being sprayed with chemicals before he died in pro-Trump riot:

Investigators have uncovered video appearing to show someone spraying a chemical irritant at Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick and other law enforcement personnel fending off rioters in last month’s attack, though they have yet to identify the person or tie the activity directly to Sicknick’s death, according to people familiar with the matter.

Sicknick’s death has vexed investigators exploring the Jan. 6 riot, as they have struggled to figure out how precisely he died and whether someone could be held criminally accountable in connection with the death.

Investigators determined Sicknick did not die of blunt force trauma, people familiar with the matter said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. U.S. Capitol Police in a statement Jan. 8 said that Sicknick died “due to injuries sustained while on duty.” No autopsy or toxicology report has been made public, unusual seven weeks after a death.

 These pilots are landing on a runway made of ice:

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 40.  Sunrise is 6:33 AM and sunset 5:41 PM, for 11h 08m 29s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 99.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1815, Napoleon escapes from Elba.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Andrew Atkinson reports Biggest Foreign-Worker Exodus Since WWII Adds to Britain’s Woes:

Foreign workers are leaving Britain at the fastest pace since World War II, presenting a challenge to an economy already roiled by Brexit and the coronavirus

London alone has lost 700,000 people over the last year, recent research suggests. The implications are profound for the Treasury, landlords and the chances for a recovery from the worst slump in three centuries.

….

A turn in migration flows would reshape the politics of immigration after a decade of government efforts to limit the numbers arriving. Longer term, it could also exacerbate the demographic problem that the U.K. shares with countries from Germany to Japan: how to support a rapidly aging population.

A theoretical scenario where migration dries up instead of rising by around 100,000 a year could cost the U.K. about 1% of output after five years. That would raise the budget deficit by 0.7% of gross domestic product, based on a rule of thumb used by the OBR, the U.K. fiscal watchdog.

Paul A. Smith reports Gray wolf kill rises to 216, 82% above state-licensed goal:

Hunters and trappers killed 216 gray wolves in the 2021 Wisconsin wolf harvest season, 82% above the state-licensed goal, according to Department of Natural Resources data released Thursday.

The hastily-arranged season began Monday and ended Wednesday; the kills surpassed the established goals in each of the six wolf management units.

State-licensed hunters and trappers had a harvest quota of 119 spread across the state, excluding Native American reservations.

The swift pace of the wolf kills, mostly by hunters using trailing hounds, took the DNR by surprise. And the overage was made worse by a state statute that requires 24-hour, rather than immediate, notice of the season closure, as well as a decision by the Natural Resources Board to issue twice as many as the normal number of permits.

….

The rushed timeframe also allowed very little opportunity for legally-required consultation with Native American tribes.

“This season trampled over the tribes’ treaty rights, the Wisconsin public, and professional wildlife stewardship,” said a spokesperson for the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. “It will go down as a stark example of mismanagement, and the problems that can be expected when the state Legislature and the courts embrace special interest groups over the public as a whole.”

Jana Kasperkevic interviews Fahmi Quadir in “Short Sellers are Always an Easy Boogeyman”:

Short sellers say they play an important role in the market, helping with price discovery and even exposing fraud, like in the cases of Wirecard and Valeant, the “pharmaceutical Enron” whose fraudulent conduct was exposed by short sellers including Quadir and Citron Research. But due to the backlash targeted at those shorting GameStop stocks, Citron Research is now pivoting away from short selling to helping investors buy stocks for the long term. “The risk-reward of being a short seller is not worth it; it’s not worth it for me or my family,” Andrew Left, founder of Citron, told the Wall Street Journal.

Quadir is no stranger to the downsides of short selling, which besides potentially losing millions of dollars include being followed and, as the New York Times recently put it, being “reviled by executives and shareholders alike.” And while dealing with such hatred might be a cost of doing business, Quadir worries that we might be losing sight of the crucial role short sellers play in the market.

How This Founder Built a Billion-Dollar Ethical Egg Business:

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 39.  Sunrise is 6:34 AM and sunset 5:40 PM, for 11h 05m 37s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 95.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

 Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets via audiovisual conferencing at 5:30 PM.

 On this day in 1933, America launches the USS Ranger, the first purpose-built aircraft carrier to be commissioned by the US Navy.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Molly Beck reports Tension is growing in the Wisconsin State Capitol as some Republican lawmakers refuse to wear face masks:

A year into the coronavirus pandemic, Wisconsin lawmakers are still debating face masks.

Republicans who control the state Legislature are pushing their colleagues to debate and vote on legislation in person but won’t require everyone to wear face masks — an environment Democrats are warning could put those who visit and work in the state Capitol at risk.

The inconsistent mask-wearing while the coronavirus pandemic persists is emerging as a flashpoint between Democratic lawmakers who want all members to wear face coverings at all times until everyone is vaccinated and some Republicans who refuse to wear them.

The tension spiked last week on the Senate chamber floor when Republican leaders of the state Senate refused to allow Democratic members to participate virtually and did not require the body to wear masks while sitting and bellowing together in one space.

….

Over the last two floor sessions in the state Senate, about 10 Republicans did not wear masks while participating in floor sessions — or about 30% of the chamber. Both Senate leaders and the chairman of the health committee were among them.

At one point, Democratic Sen. Chris Larson pointed out the Senate has a rule for male members to wear jackets but not face masks after Senate President Chris Kapenga asked him to change his attire.

“Just to be clear, we have a requirement for a jacket but we don’t have one for a mask — is that accurate?” Larson responded. “Correct,” Kapenga replied.

Andrea Salcedo reports South Dakota AG pushed by critics to resign over new evidence in fatal car incident: ‘He knew what he hit and he lied’:

Days after South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg fatally struck a man while driving in September, detectives told the Republican official they had found a pair of broken reading glasses inside his Ford Taurus. They belonged to the man he killed.

That was a problem, detectives said, because Ravnsborg, 44, said he didn’t know he had hit a man until the following day, when he returned to the scene and found the body of Joseph Boever, 55, in a ditch.

“They’re Joe’s glasses, so that means his face came through your windshield,” one of the detectives said in an interview released by the South Dakota Department of Public Safety on Tuesday.

The interviews raise questions about the conduct of the state’s top law enforcement official in the Sept. 12 incident, giving fuel to a chorus of lawmakers demanding he leave office. On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers filed two articles of impeachment against Ravnsborg, who has since been charged with three misdemeanors, and South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) called for his resignation.

But Ravnsborg said that he will not step down. “At no time has this issue impeded his ability to do the work of the office,” Mike Deaver, his private spokesman, said in a statement to the Argus Leader.

(If it should be true that a state attorney general can lie during an investigation without impediment to his job, then his job has no connection to law and justice.)

What’s Wrong With The Unemployment Rate?:

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 38.  Sunrise is 6:36 AM and sunset 5:39 PM, for 11h 02m 47s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 90.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater University Technology Park Board meets via audiovisual conferencing at 8:00 AM, and there will be a Lakes Drawdown Community Meeting via audiovisual conferencing at 5:30 PM.

 On this day in 1854, a Penny Red with perforations becomes the first perforated postage stamp to be officially issued for distribution.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Katie Shepherd report Critics slam Sen. Ron Johnson for unfounded claim that ‘fake Trump protesters’ led riots: ‘It’s disgraceful’:

As senators on Tuesday worked to unpack the security failures that allowed a pro-Trump mob to storm the Capitol last month, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)offered a wholly different take on what had happened: that “agent provocateurs” and “fake Trump protesters” were to blame.

Critics, including some within his party, promptly slammed Johnson over his unfounded suggestions that the Jan. 6 insurrection had been a “jovial” protest and that the rioters who stormed the Capitol were not supporters of PresidentDonald Trump.

“It’s disgraceful for a sitting Senator to spread disinformation so blatantly,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who has been an outspoken critic of Trump and his role in the insurrection, said Tuesday evening on Twitter. “It’s a disservice to the people he serves to continue lying to them like this. It’s dangerous and it must stop.”

….

Quoting an article published on a far-right website, Johnson claimed that the “great majority” of protesters had a “jovial, friendly, earnest demeanor” and blamed the violence that turned deadly on “plainclothes militants, agent provocateurs, fake Trump protesters, and disciplined uniformed column of attackers.”

In fact, more than 200 rioters have been criminally charged by federal prosecutors, including many who have self-identified as Trump supporters and who have documented ties to far-right extremist groups. Federal officials have said there is no substantial evidence of left-wing provocation or that anti-fascist activists posed as Trump supporters during the riot.

(Like Joe McCarthy before him, Johnson would have spent his time as an unnoticed backbencher had he not spouted conspiracy theories and lies.)

Heather Long reports Millions of jobs probably aren’t coming back, even after the pandemic ends:

Millions of jobs that have been shortchanged or wiped out entirely by the coronavirus pandemic are unlikely to come back, economists warn, setting up a massive need for career changes and retraining in the United States.

The coronavirus pandemic has triggered permanent shifts in how and where people work. Businesses are planning for a future where more people are working from home, traveling less for business, or replacing workers with robots. All of these modifications mean many workers will not be able to do the same job they did before the pandemic, even after much of the U.S. population gets vaccinated against the deadly virus.

Microsoft founder-turned-philanthropist Bill Gates raised eyebrows in November when he predicted that half of business travel and 30 percent of “days in the office” would go away forever. That forecast no longer seems far-fetched. In a report coming out later this week that was previewed to The Washington Post, the McKinsey Global Institute says that 20 percent of business travel won’t come back and about 20 percent of workers could end up working from home indefinitely. These shifts mean fewer jobs at hotels, restaurants and downtown shops, in addition to ongoing automation of office support roles and some factory jobs.

Elizabeth Ann, the first cloned black-footed ferret: