Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny, with a chance of late afternoon thundershowers, and a high of eighty-two.  Sunrise is 6:17 AM and sunset 7:34 PM, for 13h 17m 04s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 1.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Joint Review Board meets today at 1:30 PM.

On this day in 2005, Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in Louisiana, causing catastrophic damage to New Orleans and other cities in the region.

Recommended for reading in full:

 Molly Beck and Patrick Marley report Lame-duck fallout: Wisconsin politicians still don’t have a way to settle lawsuits as more than 12 cases sit unresolved:

More than a dozen lawsuits involving state taxpayers are languishing because Wisconsin politicians can’t agree on how to resolve them under a new Republican law aimed at curbing the power of the Democratic attorney general.

The impasse comes as billions of dollars are on the table for states suing over the opioid crisis — including Wisconsin.

Nine months after Republican lawmakers passed a law requiring Attorney General Josh Kaul to get their permission before resolving lawsuits there’s still no agreement between the two on how to do it.

Kaul and lawmakers have been debating for months on how to navigate the new law and have put off resolving more than a dozen cases, according to documents obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week.

Kaul’s office in July asked the Legislature’s finance committee to hold a hearing to adopt plans to resolve some of the outstanding cases, including one over financial problems at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Foundation.

 Christine Schmidt reports to How publishers are cutting print days — and not losing (too many) subscribers:

It’s now inevitable that many newspaper publishers will slash the frequency of their print product. They won’t necessarily change their online output, but will reduce the number of days they spend setting up the newsprint, paying plant workers to assemble it and drivers to deliver it, etc. Chased by newsprint tariffs and squeezing budgets, un-dailying the daily newspaper is “one of the top topics of discussion in the boardroom,” an industry consultant told Ken Doctor earlier this month.

More than 100 U.S. newspapers have changed their printing frequency since 2004, according to UNC’s Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media, but that number is expected to skyrocket. This discussion could be wrapped up and in action as early as 2020.

Adam Liszewski reports Monkey Shatters Zoo Glass With Sharpened Stone in Impressive Prison Break Attempt:

On August 20, visitors to the Zhengzhou Zoo, located in Central China’s Henan Province, were amused by a Colombian white-faced capuchin monkey who had picked up a rock with a sharp edge and was using it to bang away on one of the glass walls of its enclosure, the People’s Daily reports.

….

A zoo staffer told Chinese media that this particular capuchin monkey has stood out by using tools to crack open walnut treats, instead of just struggling to bite open the tough shells. After the incident, the rocks in the enclosure were reportedly removed.

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of seventy-three.  Sunrise is 6:15 AM and sunset 7:35 PM, for 13h 19m 49s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 5.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1963, Dr. King delivers his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech to over 250,000 civil rights supporters.

See also text of the speech.

Recommended for reading in full:

 Stavros Agorakis summarizes news of A landmark decision in Oklahoma:

• Oklahoma delivered a stinging blow to the drug manufacturing firm Johnson & Johnson on Monday, a landmark victory for the state that may help decide more than 2,000 lawsuits targeting opioid makers and distributors around the US. [CNN / Jacqueline Howard and Wayne Drash]
• The company was ordered to pay $572 million for its “false, misleading and dangerous” sales campaign that contributed to the massive opioid crisis, as J&J supplied 60 percent of the opiate ingredients used for drugs like oxycodone. The amount, though short of the $17 billion Oklahoma hoped to secure in the trial, could pay for a year’s worth of epidemic relief services in the state. [NYT / Jan Hoffman]
• According to Oklahoma’s attorney general, Johnson & Johnson contributed to 6,000 deaths in the state alone since 2000, with the crisis en route to becoming the “deadliest” man-made epidemic. The pharmaceutical firm has already said it will appeal the judge’s decision. [Guardian / Chris McGreal]

….

• The surge in lawsuits comes after a string of evidence helped tie the companies’ malicious sales tactics to the opioid epidemic. According to Vox’s German Lopez, manufacturers promoted opioid-based painkillers as “safe and effective, with multiple studies tying the marketing and proliferation of opioids to misuse, addiction, and overdoses.” This also led to other waves of drug overdoses, as the use of heroin and, later, illicit fentanyls grew in response to people losing access to opioids or seeking more potent, cheaper highs. [Vox / German Lopez]

Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey report ‘Take the land’: President Trump wants a border wall. He wants it black. And he wants it by Election Day:

President Trump is so eager to complete hundreds of miles of border fence ahead of the 2020 presidential election that he has directed aides to fast-track billions of dollars’ worth of construction contracts, aggressively seize private land and disregard environmental rules, according to current and former officials involved with the project.

He also has told worried subordinates that he will pardon them of any potential wrongdoing should they have to break laws to get the barriers built quickly, those officials said.

Trump has repeatedly promised to complete 500 miles of fencing by the time voters go to the polls in November 2020, stirring chants of “Finish the Wall!” at his political rallies as he pushes for tighter border controls. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed just about 60 miles of “replacement” barrier during the first 2½ years of Trump’s presidency, all of it in areas that previously had border infrastructure.

 SpaceX Starhopper Launches on 500-Foot Test Flight:

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of seventy-eight.  Sunrise is 6:14 AM and sunset 7:37 PM, for 13h 22m 34s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 12.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 6 PM. 

On this day in 1883, Krakatoa erupts, destroying most of the island and nearby archipelago, and as a consequence “darkened the sky worldwide for years afterwards and produced spectacular sunsets throughout the world for many months. British artist William Ashcroft made thousands of colour sketches of the red sunsets halfway around the world from Krakatoa in the years after the eruption. The ash caused “such vivid red sunsets that fire engines were called out in New York, Poughkeepsie, and New Haven to quench the apparent conflagration.” This eruption also produced a Bishop’s Ring around the sun by day, and a volcanic purple light at twilight.”

Recommended for reading in full:

Jennifer Rubin writes How to respond to a manic president driving the economy into the ditch:

First, they [candidates opposing Trump] should give a serious speech warning of the dangers of an escalating trade war and inveighing against the preposterous (okay, bonkers) order for U.S. companies to cease doing business with China. The Democrats would do well to point out that the real socialist seems to be the guy in the White House who imagines we have a command-and-control economy. The candidates should also explain that what he proposed, if ever enacted, would have devastating consequences for American consumers, workers and businesses.

Second, they should reaffirm the independence of the Fed and pledge to keep politics out of the central bank. They might want to point out that Trump was the one who replaced respected Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen with Jerome H. Powell.

Third, the senators in the Democratic presidential race should demand hearings when Congress reconvenes with Powell, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and outside experts (perhaps past Fed chairs) to analyze what is going on and explain where this is all headed. What’s the end game? How do we “win”?

Finally, Democrats should explain what they would have and will do about China and the world economic trading system: Pledge to end silly spats with close allies, make whatever tweaks are needed to ratify NAFTA 2.0, revisit the Trans-Pacific Partnership (which would have made China the odd man out) and convene our closest allies, including the European Union, Mexico and Canada, to agree on a joint strategy for addressing the legitimate issue Trump has long since forgotten, the theft of intellectual property.

Investor Stephen Weiss observes the ‘Biggest Risk To Markets Has Always Been Trump’:

Trade Wars and Climate Change: Farmers in rural Michigan get candid about their struggles:

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of seventy-two.  Sunrise is 6:13 AM and sunset 7:39 PM, for 13h 25m 19s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 21.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 4:30 PM. The Whitewater Unified School Board meets in closed session at 6:30 PM, and in open session beginning at 7 PM. 

 On this day in 1863, the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry is among the Union forces that assault Confederate positions in Perryville, Oklahoma.

Recommended for reading in full:

 Rick Romell reports Farm Bureau report: Wisconsin again leads nation in family farm bankruptcies:

From July 2018 through June 2019, Wisconsin farmers filed 45 bankruptcies under Chapter 12, a section of the U.S. bankruptcy code that provides financially troubled family farmers with a streamlined path to repay all or part of their debts.

….

With depressed milk prices besetting Wisconsin’s thousands of dairy operations, the state has led the country in farm bankruptcies in recent years. Ronald Wirtz, regional outreach director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, also has pointed to Wisconsin’s smaller average farm size as a factor.

Wisconsin also has lots of farms — the 11th highest total in the nation, data from the 2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture shows. Even accounting for the relatively large number of farms here, however, Wisconsin’s farm bankruptcy rate is among the highest in the country.

Jonathan Swan and Margaret Talev report Trump suggested nuking hurricanes to stop them from hitting U.S.:

President Trump has suggested multiple times to senior Homeland Security and national security officials that they explore using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from hitting the United States, according to sources who have heard the president’s private remarks and been briefed on a National Security Council memorandum that recorded those comments.

….

• Asked how the briefer reacted, the source recalled he said something to the effect of, “Sir, we’ll look into that.”
• Trump replied by asking incredulously how many hurricanes the U.S. could handle and reiterating his suggestion that the government intervene before they make landfall.
• The briefer “was knocked back on his heels,” the source in the room added. “You could hear a gnat fart in that meeting. People were astonished. After the meeting ended, we thought, ‘What the f—? What do we do with this?'”

Trump also raised the idea in another conversation with a senior administration official. A 2017 NSC memo describes that second conversation, in which Trump asked whether the administration should bomb hurricanes to stop them from hitting the homeland. A source briefed on the NSC memo said it does not contain the word “nuclear”; it just says the president talked about bombing hurricanes.

  Meet Hong Kong’s Teenage Protesters:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of seventy-five.  Sunrise is 6:12 AM and sunset 7:40 PM, for 13h 28m 02s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 30.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

  On this day in 1835, the Michigan legislature incorporates the Wisconsin Internal Improvement Company to open communication between Green Bay and the Mississippi by land or water.

Recommended for reading in full:

Raj Karan Gambhir and Jack Karsten report Why paper is considered state-of-the-art voting technology:

Without a paper audit trail, it can be difficult to detect errors or breaches in the voting machine’s software or hardware, possibly allowing an incursion into American voting systems to go unnoticed. Even if an error is found, performing an audit of a paperless system can be difficult or impossible given a lack of redundant records to verify vote totals.

These concerns are not hypothetical: At the 2018 DEF CON hacking conference, a computer scientist easily manipulated a paperless DRE system such that every vote for one candidate registered as a vote for their opponent. Even more troubling was that without a paper audit trail, it was not possible to know the true count for each candidate.

The vulnerability of paperless systems became a real issue during the tight Georgia gubernatorial and Texas senate races of 2018. In both cases, paperless DRE machines allegedly switched votes for Democratic candidates into Republican votes. While this was likely a software glitch, the lack of a paper audit trail confuses what the intended votes were, and whether these allegations were true.

Lachlan Markay reports Steve King Is Broke And Has Been Abandoned by His Colleagues as He Runs for Re-Election: 

It is a remarkable though not entirely unpredictable abandonment of a sitting member of Congress. Though he was always controversial and further to the right than most of his colleagues, King has burned virtually all his bridges in the party this year with outlandish comments about white supremacy and abortion.

But while those comments have made King a pariah in the party—with House Republican leaders stripping him of his committee assignments—King has refused to leave office. Now, as he faces the toughest campaign since he was first elected in 2002, he is doing so with a potentially catastrophic lack of resources. The $18,365 that King’s campaign had in the bank at the end of June was the least cash on hand he’s ever reported after the first six months of a cycle.

King is dealing with that lack of resources as he faces very immediate threats to his incumbency. His 2018 Democratic opponent, former professional baseball player J.D. Scholten, lost by fewer than three points last year, and is making another run for the seat. This time around King also has a formidable Republican primary opponent, state senator Randy Feenstra, who has already scored endorsements from influential Iowans such as evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats. At the end of July, Feenstra’s campaign committee reported having $337,314.30 cash on hand, compared to King’s $18,000.

See also Congressman Steve King, But Not Only Steve King… and Why We (Now) Fight.

 Trying the Chow Mein Sandwich:

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of seventy-four.  Sunrise is 6:11 AM and sunset 7:42 PM, for 13h 30m 45s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 40.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

  On this day in 1970, a car bomb detonated near Sterling Hall on the UW-Madison campus kills research scientist Robert Fassnacht.

Recommended for reading in full:

 David A. Graham observes Trump Longs to Command the Economy (‘In his struggle against China, the president has begun to resemble his authoritarian rival Xi Jinping’):

The phrase that leaps from this meandering jeremiad [Trump on Twitter on 8.23.19] is this: Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China. In his ongoing struggle against China, Trump has begun to ever more resemble his rival Xi Jinping—an authoritarian presiding over a command economy.

….

Even if Trump is serious, does he really think he can mandate the behavior of private business via Twitter missive? Who knows! Trump has shown enough autocratic impulse, and enough ignorance of how the government and law work, that it’s impossible to rule that out. It’s also possible, though, that Trump knows he can’t actually decree such a move, but understands the power of saying it anyway, both as public relations and as a way to pressure companies to act out of fear of presidential reprisal.

Trump has demonstrated a yearning for the tools of a command economy since his campaign, when he repeatedly promised to keep American jobs in the country. In November 2016, when he was still president-elect, he bullied Carrier, the air-conditioner company, to cancel the closing of a plant in Indiana. The move horrified small-government conservatives, many of whom had opposed Trump during the election, but he was just getting started. As his trade war has hurt American agriculture, the president has undertaken a $16 billion subsidy program for farmers.

James Hamblin writes Trump Orders ‘a Lot’ of Ketamine for Depressed Veterans:

Trump said on Wednesday that the government will purchase “a lot” of the drug esketamine, a derivative of ketamine.

Though ketamine is known as a recreational hallucinogen, Trump asserted that a new nasal-spray derivative would be of great benefit to veterans with depression. As he left the White House for a veterans’ conference in Kentucky, he told reporters that he had instructed the Department of Veterans Affairs to make a large purchase—overriding a recent decision by the doctors who manage the hospitals’ formulary of which drugs are to be prescribed.

“There’s a product that’s made right now that just came out by Johnson & Johnson which has a tremendously positive—pretty short-term, but nevertheless positive—effect,” Trump said. But that statement is contrary to the evidence. A review by the Food and Drug Administration of what limited studies have been done with esketamine found mixed results, leaving many scientists unsure if the drug is indeed effective and safe. Just last week, the agency published a report that said the drug was not reliably better than placebo.

A[nother] benefit from dogs: