Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy, with a few showers and a thunderstorm, and a high of sixty-three.  Sunrise is 5:15 AM and sunset 8:33 PM, for 15h 18m 08s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 75.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1987, on a visit to West Berlin, Pres. Reagan challenges Soviet leader Gorbachev to “tear down this wall!”

Recommended for reading in full:

 The Washington Post editorial board writes The U.S. still hasn’t done nearly enough to stop election interference:

IT IS obvious to all but the willfully ignorant that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. What is less obvious is what this country is going to do about it. So far, the signs have pointed to: not nearly enough. A report from scholars at Stanford University offers one road map — and shows how the nation remains shockingly near the beginning of the road.

The Stanford report includes 45 recommendations for protecting the U.S. democratic process. Some three years after Vladimir Putin’s government planted trolls and bots on social media sites to propagandize for Donald Trump, hacked into the emails of officials on Hillary Clinton’s campaign and probed election infrastructure for vulnerabilities, the president’s team has not pursued a single one of them. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) continues to block even the consideration of stand-alone legislation that would bolster election security.

The refusal to act is dangerous. Though Russia infiltrated voting networks in 2016, there is no evidence any machines were tampered with or votes changed. Next time, we might not be so fortunate.

Vanessa Williamson and Jackson Gode describe Red-tape voter suppression: How new, draconian voter registration rules undermine voting rights:

In Tennessee, a draconian new law aims to penalize groups engaging in voter registration campaigns. Civil rights advocates have rightly compared the legislation to the racist voter suppression policies of the Jim Crow era and are contesting the law’s constitutionality. Having experienced the effects of similar legislation in the field, we can say with confidence that if the Tennessee law is allowed to stand, it will undermine voter registration efforts and keep eligible voters off the rolls.

In 2018, in Dallas, Texas, and Cleveland, Ohio, our team conducted a randomized controlled trial of a new policy idea: offering voter registration to people when they file their income tax returns at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites. The experiment was a success: the program doubled voter registration rates among the initially unregistered.

A less encouraging finding was the sheer disparity between our two test states. Each year, millions of Americans register to vote or update their voter registration thanks to the tireless efforts of civil society organizations that run voter registration tables, go door-to-door with voter registration forms, or otherwise remind potential voters to get registered in time to vote. But running a voter registration campaign that would be uncontroversial in other states is extremely difficult in Texas, because Texas has some of the most severe limits on voter registration of any state in the nation. It takes a simple procedure and makes it needlessly bureaucratic and extremely intimidating to both voters and volunteers, while doing absolutely nothing to make voter registration more secure

How a Company in Berlin is Turning Coffee Grounds Into Reusable Cups: 

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of seventy-eight.  Sunrise is 5:15 AM and sunset 8:33 PM, for 15h 17m 34s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 63.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1864, Congress honors a Civil War hero:

Colonel Joseph Bailey was honored with a “resolution of commendation,” by the United States Congress for his “distinguished services in the recent campaign on the Red River.” Bailey, a logger from Wisconsin, saved a Union fleet stuck in the Red River, Louisiana, due to a sudden drop in water level. Although his idea of damming the river to relieve the fleet was scorned by many of his peers and superiors (including many West Point graduates), his experience in logging on the Wisconsin River proved invaluable.

Recommended for reading in full:

Jon Swaine reports Company part-owned by Jared Kushner got $90m from unknown offshore investors since 2017:

A real estate company part-owned by Jared Kushner has received $90m in foreign funding from an opaque offshore vehicle since he entered the White House as a senior adviser to his father-in-law Donald Trump.

Investment has flowed from overseas to the company, Cadre, while Kushner works as an international envoy for the US, according to corporate filings and interviews. The money came through a vehicle run by Goldman Sachs in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven that guarantees corporate secrecy.

Kushner, who is married to Trump’s elder daughter Ivanka, kept a stake in Cadre after joining the administration, while selling other assets. His holding is now valued at up to $50m, according to his financial disclosure documents.

Tory Newmyer writes How Trump’s Mexico showdown undermines his standing in other trade talks:

The episode provides a couple of important lessons for governments (think: China, the European Union and Japan) still facing their own showdowns with the Trump administration. 

For one, Trump’s willingness to threaten a top trading partner with stiff tariffs — even as his administration pushes ratification of a trade pact with Mexico and Canada as its top legislative priority — sends a clear message about the president’s respect for his own trade deals. That is, even a signed agreement offers no protection against Trump deciding, with no warning, to launch new hostilities.

What’s more, the warmed-over offers from Mexico that Trump is touting as a major victory, along with an unverified claim about new farm purchases, suggest the president cares less about substance than his ability to declare a win. As the New York Times’s Michael Shear and Maggie Haberman detailed over the weekend, the deal “consists largely of actions that Mexico had already promised to take in prior discussions with the United States over the past several months, according to officials from both countries who are familiar with the negotiations.” And Bloomberg News found no support for Trump’s assertion, via tweet, that Mexico has agreed to “immediately begin buying large quantities of agricultural product from our great patriot farmers.”

(Emphasis in original.)

Why So Many People Are Dying On Top Of Mount Everest:

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will see a mix of sun and clouds with a high of seventy-three.  Sunrise is 5:15 AM and sunset 8:32 PM, for 15h 16m 55s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 52.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1837, state capitol workers arrive in Madison: “workmen arrived in Madison to begin construction of the first state capitol building. A ceremony to lay the building’s cornerstone was to be held three weeks later, on July 4, 1837.”

Recommended for reading in full:

Beth Reinhard, Katie Zezima, Tom Hamburger, and Carol D. Leonnig report NRA money flowed to board members amid allegedly lavish spending by top officials and vendors:

A former pro football player who serves on the National Rifle Association board was paid $400,000 by the group in recent years for public outreach and firearms training. Another board member, a writer in New Mexico, collected more than $28,000 for articles in NRA publications. Yet another board member sold ammunition from his private company to the NRA for an undisclosed sum.

The NRA, which has been rocked by allegations of exorbitant spending by top executives, also directed money in recent years that went to board members — the very people tasked with overseeing the organization’s finances.

In all, 18 members of the NRA’s 76-member board, who are not paid as directors, collected money from the group during the past three years, according to tax filings, state charitable reports and NRA correspondence reviewed by The Washington Post.

The payments received by about one-quarter of board members, the extent of which has not previously been reported, deepen questions about the rigor of the board’s oversight as it steered the country’s largest and most powerful gun rights group, according to tax experts and some longtime members.

The NRA, founded in 1871 to promote gun safety and training, relies heavily on its 5 million members for dues. Some supporters are rebelling publicly and questioning its leadership.

“I will be the first person to get in your face about defending the Second Amendment, but I will not defend corruption and cronyism and fearmongering,” said Vanessa Ross, a Philadelphia-area bakery owner and lifetime NRA member who previously worked at the Virginia headquarters managing a program for disabled shooters.

Among the revelations that have burst into public view: CEO Wayne LaPierre racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in charges at a Beverly Hills clothing boutique and on foreign travel, invoices show. Oliver North, forced out as president after trying to oust LaPierre, was set to collect millions of dollars in a deal with the NRA’s now-estranged public relations agency, Ackerman McQueen, according to LaPierre. And the NRA’s outside attorney reaped “extraordinary” legal fees that totaled millions of dollars in the past year, according to North.

See also Investigators Are Zeroing in on Top NRA Leaders’ Russia Ties—and Challenging the Gun Group’s Story.

A tale of three lizards: The problem with predators:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see scattered showers with a high of seventy-three.  Sunrise is 5:16 AM and sunset 8:32 PM, for 15h 16m 12s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 42.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1973, Secretariat wins the Triple Crown.

Recommended for reading in full:

  Michael D. Shear and Maggie Haberman report Mexico Agreed to Take Border Actions Months Before Trump Announced Tariff Deal:

The deal to avert tariffs that President Trump announced with great fanfare on Friday night consists largely of actions that Mexico had already promised to take in prior discussions with the United States over the past several months, according to officials from both countries who are familiar with the negotiations.

Friday’s joint declaration says Mexico agreed to the “deployment of its National Guard throughout Mexico, giving priority to its southern border.” But the Mexican government had already pledged to do that in March during secret talks in Miami between Kirstjen Nielsen, then the secretary of homeland security, and Olga Sanchez, the Mexican secretary of the interior, the officials said.

(Emphasis added.  Trump’s dealmaking is impressive only to the dense or deluded.)

Caitlin Dickson reports Border Patrol is confiscating migrant kids’ medicine, U.S. doctors say:

For the past year and a half, Dr. Eric Russell has been traveling from Houston to McAllen, Texas, every three months or so to volunteer at the Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center, a first stop for many asylum-seeking migrants who’ve been released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the Rio Grande Valley.

During his most recent visit to the clinic in April, when he saw more than 150 migrants, he noted a troubling new trend: a number of people reported that their medication had been taken from them by U.S. border officials.

“I had a few adults that came who had high blood pressure, who had their blood pressure medications taken from them and, not surprisingly, their blood pressure was elevated,” Russell told Yahoo News. “There was a couple of adults that had diabetes that had their diabetes medicines taken from them, and wanted to come in because they were worried about their blood sugar. And, not surprisingly, their blood sugar was elevated.”

(Trump’s lumpen base delights in the denial of humanitarian aid in cases like this.)

Patrick Marley reports GOP transportation plan would allow handful of legislators to impose vehicle fees of any amount:

Sixteen lawmakers on their own could impose fees of any amount to help pay for roads under a plan Republican legislators advanced late Thursday.

The proposal would allow the Joint Finance Committee to establish new fees based on how many miles vehicles drove, starting in 2023. The rest of the Legislature wouldn’t get a say in the matter under the plan.

Republicans on the committee included the provision in a massive transportation package they added to the state budget Thursday.

(And yet, and yet, the WISGOP keeps telling suckers & pigeons that it’s a small-government party.)

A Mexican Touch to Southern Cuisine:

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of seventy-eight.  Sunrise is 5:16 AM and sunset 8:31 PM, for 15h 15m 26s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 30.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1867, Frank Lloyd Wright is born.

Recommended for reading in full:

Martha C. White reports ‘Game over’: Big misses on jobs forecasts bring the costs of trade war into sharper focus (“This is a clear warning sign that the trade war is doing serious damage to the economy,” said one economist.):

June wasn’t a great month for the labor market. Economists blame President Donald Trump’s trade war — and warn that if he follows through with his protectionist agenda, he could lead America into a recession.

Friday’s announcement from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that the economy added just 75,000 jobs, well below expectations, came two days after payroll processor ADP’s report on private sector employment reported that a mere 27,000 jobs were added in May.

….

Weakness in manufacturing jobs, which were flat in May, is one big clue, he [Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics] said. “Job growth in manufacturing last year was averaging 20,000 to 25,000 per month. This year, it’s barely positive.” May’s loss of retail and transportation jobs also reflects the impact of shrinking margins and a constriction in global trade, he added.

Matt O’Brien writes It’s time to start worrying about the economy:

The point isn’t that things are as bad as the household survey has been saying, but rather that they aren’t as good as the business survey has. The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle. Which is why we should have expected the business survey numbers to regress to about where they are now. Bond investors, for their part, certainly did. By pushing long-term borrowing costs below short-term ones, they’ve been signaling that they think the Federal Reserve is going to have cut interest rates soon to fight off what they fear might be an incipient slump.

Lee Bergquist reports DNR refers Johnson Controls case to state prosecutors over failing to report pollution:

The state Department of Natural Resources is alleging that Johnson Controls International failed to report the release of hazardous materials at a property in Marinette that resulted in some residents unknowingly drinking water for years that was contaminated.

The DNR has referred the matter to the state Department of Justice for civil prosecution, saying a unit of Johnson Controls failed to inform state officials it knew that so-called forever chemicals had been found at a fire training facility in northeastern Wisconsin and did not take steps to minimize their impact.

Glendale-based Johnson Controls said in a statement Friday that it believed it was not obligated to notify authorities when the chemicals were first detected because the company believed the contamination was confined to its property.

NASA’s Mars Helicopter has passed another flight test:

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of eighty-two.  Sunrise is 5:16 AM and sunset 8:31 PM, for 15h 14m 36s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 19.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1913,  the first climbers ascend Denali:

The first ascent of the main summit of Denali came on June 7, 1913, by a party led by Hudson Stuck and Harry Karstens. The first man to reach the summit was Walter Harper, an Alaska Native. Robert Tatum also made the summit. Using the mountain’s contemporary name, Tatum later commented, “The view from the top of Mount McKinley is like looking out the windows of Heaven!”^[47] They ascended the Muldrow Glacier route pioneered by the earlier expeditions, which is still often climbed today. Stuck confirmed, via binoculars, the presence of a large pole near the North Summit; this report confirmed the Sourdough [expedition] ascent, and today it is widely believed that the Sourdoughs did succeed on the North Summit.

Recommended for reading in full:

Rachel Siegel reports U.S. trade wars with China, Mexico will stunt global trade growth and cost American jobs, analysts say (‘The Mexican tariffs alone could cost the United States 406,000 jobs and more than $41 billion in GDP’):

President Trump’s increasingly hawkish use of tariffs against China and Mexico could have drastic consequences for global trade and American jobs, according to a pair of new reports.

More than 400,000 U.S. jobs would disappear if Trump follows through on plans to activate escalating tariffs on $350 billion in Mexican imports next week, according to an analysis by the Perryman Group, a Texas-based economic consulting firm. That combined with existing levies against China has put global trade on course for its worst year since the 2009 financial crisis, according to Dutch bank ING. Its analysts forecast that international trade will grow 0.2 percent in 2019, a steep falloff from the 3.3 percent recorded in 2018 and 4.8 percent in 2017.

Much of that slowdown would stem from Trump’s ongoing trade war with Beijing. Last month, after negotiations broke down, Trump slapped a 25 percent levy on $250 billion in Chinese goods and began the process of taxing all products from China, which quickly retaliated with tariffs of its own.

Weeks later and angry over migration, Trump threatened tariffs on $350 billion in Mexican goods. That levy is set to kick in Monday at 5 percent and rise incrementally to as much as 25 percent, unless, Trump says, Mexico cracks down on Central American migrants crossing into the United States along their shared border.

Trump routinely misstates how tariffs work, insisting they are absorbed by U.S. trading partners. Tariffs in fact are taxes paid by U.S. companies that bring in products, so those costs are borne by manufacturers, chemical producers and others. U.S. companies typically pass along some of those costs to consumers.

After 66 Million Years, a T. rex Makes Its Debut:

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of seventy-seven.  Sunrise is 5:16 AM and sunset 8:30 PM, for 15h 13m 41s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 11.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission is scheduled to meet at 6 PM.

On this day in 1944,  the Allies land at Normandy to liberate Western Europe and thereafter force the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany.

Recommended for reading in full:

Maria Sacchetti reports Trump administration cancels English classes, soccer, legal aid for unaccompanied child migrants in U.S. shelters:

The Trump administration is canceling English classes, recreational programs and legal aid for unaccompanied minors staying in federal migrant shelters nationwide, saying the immigration influx at the southern border has created critical budget pressures.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement has begun discontinuing the funding stream for activities — including soccer — that have been deemed “not directly necessary for the protection of life and safety, including education services, legal services, and recreation,” said Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Mark Weber.

(The denial of simple services for minor children is a present to Trump’s base, a gift to his most bigoted admirers.)

Paul Farhi reports Lies? The news media is starting to describe Trump’s ‘falsehoods’ that way:

It’s (almost) official: The president of the United States is a liar.

This will not come as a revelation to people who have closely followed President Trump’s public statements and Twitter feed and have long doubted his veracity. It is, instead, a late-dawning recognition by mainstream news organizations, which until fairly recently shied away from branding the president’s many questionable utterances as outright lies.

Nowadays, many in the news media are no longer bothering to grant Trump the benefit of the doubt. In routine news and feature stories, Trump’s dishonesty carries no fig leaf. It is described baldly.

A recent sampling:

– CNN: “The Mueller report: A catalog of 77 Trump team lies and falsehoods.”

– Minneapolis Star Tribune: “President Trump lies to troops about pay raise.”

– Financial Times: “The real reason Donald Trump lies.”

(Trump is a liar – we should say so about him.)

Molly Beck writes Wisconsin will soon become an island surrounded by legal weed:

MADISON – When Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs into law a bill making way for recreational marijuana use in our neighbor to the south, his signature will put Wisconsin on an island surrounded by legal weed.

Three out of the four states that border Wisconsin — Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota —  have now legalized marijuana use and two of them allow residents to purchase and consume cannabis for any reason.

While more and more state legislatures are embracing legal marijuana for medical or recreational reasons — 33 in all — Wisconsin isn’t likely to anytime soon.

Republican lawmakers who control which bills arrive at Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ desk are opposed to legalizing recreational marijuana use and are split on whether the plant should be widely available for medicinal purposes.

The Real Reason Japan is Called the “Land of the Rising Sun”: