Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see scattered thunderstorms with a high of eighty-seven.  Sunrise is 5:20 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 17m 11s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 6.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1859, daredevil Jean François Gravelet (professionally known as Charles Blondin) becomes the first person to walk a tightrope across Niagara Falls.

Recommended for reading in full:

Sophie Carson reports Wisconsin gun manufacturer shipped unmarked rifles, pistols to Australian arms dealer illegally, plea deal says:

[Andy] Huebschmann owns Germantown-based Thureon Defense LLC and is licensed to manufacture and deal guns, according to the plea agreement. He met Paul Munro of Australia at a Las Vegas gun trade show about seven years ago, and Munro persuaded him to ship him Thureon guns under the radar.

….

To carry out the scheme, Munro and others constructed a shipping crate with a secret compartment under the floor in which to pack the guns and rifle parts and delivered it to the Thureon offices, according to the plea agreement.

Between 2013 and 2016 Huebschmann shipped Munro rifle kits with parts for semi-automatic or fully automatic triggers, frames and slides that could be assembled into full pistols and other weapons. He did not have export licenses for the shipments.

….

The maximum sentence for his charge — violating the Arms Export Control Act— is 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

(No portion of rights under the Second Amendment includes concealing gun shipments to Australia.)

Elaina Plott reports Another Allegation—And Trump’s Allies Just Don’t Care (‘Inside the president’s orbit, the gravity of sexual-assault accusations against him no longer seems to register’):

“What was she, like, the 28th or something?” one former White House official pondered to me. In a separate conversation, another offered a different guess: “Twenty-two? Twenty-three?”

They were talking about E. Jean Carroll, the longtime Elle advice columnist who, for the first time last week, publicly accused Donald Trump of assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room more than 20 years ago. And what they were trying to do was locate the latest number of women who have accused the president of sexual misconduct. (The answer: at least 22.)

For these former officials, the apparently incalculable magnitude of this number did not cause them to reconsider Trump’s every denial of the varied allegations—to wonder, for example, about the likelihood that 22 or 23 or 28 women were all lying in their stories of harassment, groping, unwanted kissing, and, in Carroll’s case, sexual assault.

Rather, for them, the increase in the number of women seemed to mirror the increase in their indifference. Another accusation, they seemed to say, was like another dollop of numbing cream. “I didn’t read it,” the second former official told me, referring to Carroll’s written account in New York, which was an excerpt from her forthcoming book. “We’re just kind of numb to it all at this point.”

Surfing the Amazon River’s Endless Wave:

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of eighty-six.  Sunrise is 5:19 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 17m 48s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 13% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1862, 5th Wisconsin Infantry and Co. G of the 1st U.S. Sharpshooters take part in the Battle of Savage’s Station during the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia.

Recommended for reading in full:

Josh Lederman and Kristen Welker report Trump defends Biden after Democratic debate, says Harris got ‘too much credit’:

Speaking to reporters at a news conference after the G-20 summit in Japan, Trump said that the line of attack by Harris was “so out of the can,” suggesting it was rehearsed ahead of time.

“It wasn’t that outstanding, and I think probably he was hit harder than he should have been hit,” Trump said.

(It’s notable that Trump feels the need to address Harris‘s performance.  If she’s the nominee, Trump will find himself facing a tenacious opponent who will overmatch him in every way.  My own views on Harris are here.)

Patrick Marley and Molly Beck report Wisconsin’s GOP speaker says he wants to consider legalizing medical marijuana, just after rejecting governor’s plan:

MADISON – Days after rejecting a medical marijuana plan, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Friday he wants to debate the issue this fall even though it would be extremely difficult to pass.

Vos, of Rochester, in recent years has shown support for legalizing medical marijuana, but other Republicans who control the Legislature have expressed deep skepticism toward the idea.

“I’d like to have at least a discussion about medical marijuana,” Vos said Friday when asked about his top priorities for lawmakers when they return to the Capitol in the fall.

He acknowledged that the idea is unlikely to go anywhere even if he finds enough support for it among the five dozen Republicans in his house. That’s because of staunch opposition to the idea from Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau.

(Joe, commenting here, was spot on about this as a political issue.)

 Surviving the Worst Skydiving Accident in History:

The professional skydiver Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld was poised to achieve his dreams. He was training with his team for the World Championships—a life goal since he started practicing the sport at age 5, jumping off his bunk bed with a blanket for a parachute.

Then, on April 23, 1992, Brodsky-Chenfeld lived a nightmare. Along with 22 others, he boarded a plane for a routine training jump. Two months later, he awoke from a coma to discover that a horrific plane crash—one of the worst in skydiving history—had crippled his body and claimed the lives of 16 of his skydiving teammates. The doctors told him that he was lucky to be alive, but he would never skydive again.

In Yali Sharon’s short documentary Above All Else, Brodsky-Chenfeld describes his traumatic near-death experience, the inspiring vision he had before waking from his coma, and his miraculous recovery.

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will see occasional thunderstorms with a high of eighty-five.  Sunrise is 5:19 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 18m 22s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 21.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1832, Gen. Atkinson starts up the Rock River in the Black Hawk War.

Recommended for reading in full:

 Dan Balz reports Harris upstages Biden and Sanders with dominating performance:

Harris delivered a dominating performance through much of the two hours, attacking Biden on civil rights, showing passion on race and other issues and silencing her fellow candidates when their crosstalk early in the debate threatened to show Democrats as a squabbling and disagreeable family.

It was when, as others talked about racial issues, that she broke in and changed the flow of the evening by reminding voters of the attributes that help define her candidacy. “As the only black person on this stage, I would like to speak on the issue of race,” she declared.

Biden asserted that Harris’s criticisms on race were a “mischaracterization of my position across the board.” But her attacks, delivered at close range and with forcefulness and personal references, left a mark on the former vice president and established her as a candidate to be reckoned with.

Harris has often struggled to match the promise of her candidacy, but in her first opportunity arrayed as one of 10 candidates, she made the most of the opportunities she was given — and took some on her own to announce her arrival on the big stage.

Thursday’s debate may not change the polls much but it will probably reorder how Democrats begin to think about the choices before them.

(Some points and disclosures. I’m not a Democrat but a Never Trump libertarian. That places my views, along with many others, into an opposition that Benjamin Wittes has called a Coalition of All Democratic Forces, a vast group of particular views united in the defense of a traditional liberal democratic political order.  A third party would prove useless against Trump; it’s a grand coalition in support of a major party – in this case the Democratic Party – that will end his political career.  Harris’s particular views often diverge from libertarian lines, needless to say.  She is, however, unquestionably intelligent, knowledgeable, and in temperament well-suited to face Trump.  I am a Harris donor, and although I would support any major-party opponent to Trump, it seems to me impossible for a discerning person to doubt her strengths and the promise of her candidacy.)

The New York Times podcast The Daily offers corroboration of E. Jean Carroll’s accusations against Donald Trump:

The writer E. Jean Carroll came forward last week with explosive accusations that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s. Today, the two women she confided in after the alleged attack discuss it publicly for the first time.

How IOT – an Internet of Things – Gives Rise To Smart Stores:

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will see periods of sun, a late afternoon thunderstorm, and a high of eighty-nine.  Sunrise is 5:18 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 18m 51s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 29.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority is scheduled to meet at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1950, in response to communist North Korea’s invasion of the South, Pres. Truman orders United States forces to the peninsula.

Recommended for reading in full:

 Patrick Marley and Molly Beck report Key senator defends Tesla provision, gives Republicans enough votes to pass state budget:

To get the vote of Kapenga, Assembly Republicans added a provision to the budget Tuesday that would allow Tesla to sell its electric vehicles directly to consumers rather than having to go through dealers as other car companies must.

Kapenga owns Integrity Motorsports of Eagle. An accountant, Kapenga said the car business is a hobby and he would not gain financially from the measure that would allow Tesla to sell cars more easily in Wisconsin.

He choked back tears during the Wednesday news conference, arguing the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story on his ties to Tesla impugned his character.

“Just remember as reporters what you say not only impacts the senator it impacts me as a dad … what you say in the press does impact people’s lives,” he said.

See also Provision on electric vehicles is aimed at getting GOP senator who sells Tesla parts to vote for budget.

(Those must have been heavy crocodile tears Kapenga was fighting.)

 The Washington Post offers a Fact Checker’s Guide to Manipulated Video:

The Internet is increasingly populated with false and misleading videos. These videos — spread by politicians, advocacy groups and everyday users — are viewed by millions. The Fact Checker set out to develop a universal language to label manipulated video and hold creators and sharers of this misinformation accountable. We have found three main ways video is being altered: footage taken out of context, deceptively edited or deliberately altered.

. Rich Kremer reports DNA Evidence Backlog Greatly Reduced:

As Attorney General Josh Kaul and Gov. Tony Evers advocate for more DNA analysts at the Wisconsin Department of Justice, new data shows the backlog of DNA evidence at the state’s crime labs has been cut by nearly half in 2019.

Data obtained by WPR from the DOJ through an open records request show the number of DNA evidence cases pending for more than 90 days in 2019 dropped from 766 in January to 410 in April.

The DNA backlogs have been hotly debated since it was reported in 2015 that there were 6,000 untested sexual assault kits in Wisconsin. Former state attorney General Brad Schimel vowed to speed up DNA analysis at the state’s crime labs by increasing funding for the labs and contracting with testing centers in other states. In September 2018, Schimel claimed the state’s backlog of untested sexual assault kits had been eliminated.

An insect-sized robot:

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of eighty-five.  Sunrise is 5:18 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 19m 17s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 39.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1834, an act of Congress creates new land districts:

On this date an Act of Congress created the Green Bay land district (east of a line from the northern boundary of Illinois to the Wisconsin River) and west of this, the Wisconsin Land district. The act followed land cessions by Native Americans defeated in the Black Hawk War. The creation of the land districts opened up much of southeastern Wisconsin for settlement.

Recommended for reading in full:

Mary Spicuzza, Patrick Marley, and Molly Beck report Provision on electric vehicles is aimed at getting GOP senator who sells Tesla parts to vote for budget:

A last-minute budget provision to make it easier to sell cars made by Tesla is aimed at winning the crucial vote of Sen. Chris Kapenga, who has pushed for the measure in the past and owns a business that sells Tesla parts and salvaged electric vehicles.

Assembly Republicans added the measure to the budget Tuesday, a day before the GOP-controlled Senate was to take it up. Kapenga is a longtime supporter of the Tesla proposal but said he wasn’t sure yet if he would vote for the budget.

(How very odd: it’s almost as though WISGOP scheming were no more subtle than an avaricious landlord and his few dogsbodies interfering in the economic policy of a small rural town.)

 Danny Hakim reports N.R.A. Shuts Down Production of NRATV:

The National Rifle Association has shut down production at NRATV.

The N.R.A. on Tuesday also severed all business with its estranged advertising firm, Ackerman McQueen, which operates NRATV, the N.R.A.’s live broadcasting media arm, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The New York Times.

While NRATV may continue to air past content, its live broadcasting will end and its on-air personalities — Ackerman employees including Dana Loesch — will no longer be the public faces of the N.R.A. It remained unclear whether the N.R.A. might try to hire some of those employees, but there was no indication it was negotiating to do so.

The move comes amid a flurry of lawsuits between the N.R.A. and Ackerman, and increasing acrimony that surfaced after two prominent N.R.A. board members first criticized NRATV in an article in The Times in March. The separation had become inevitable: The two sides said last month that they were ending their three-decade-plus partnership.

(A legitimate defense of the Second Amendment involves neither support for Trump nor financial dependency on Russian oligarchs.  See Investigators Are Zeroing in on Top NRA Leaders’ Russia Ties—and Challenging the Gun Group’s Story.)

Places to avoid: Rat Falls From Ceiling, Onto Customer’s Menu at Restaurant: 

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will see a likelihood of an afternoon thundershower with a high of eighty-three.  Sunrise is 5:17 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 19m 38s of daytime.  The moon is in its third quarter with 49.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1950, Communist North Korea attacks the South, beginning the Korean War.

Recommended for reading in full:

Maria Sacchetti, Nick Miroff, Rob Kuznia, and Arelis R. Hernández report Despite delay of ICE raids, immigrant communities mobilize for roundups:

President Trump’s decision to postpone the mass arrests of immigrant families with deportation orders offered a two-week reprieve to shaken cities and towns Sunday, but faith and immigration leaders said they will continue to mobilize for roundups in case talks between the White House and congressional Democrats break down.

After Trump threatened raids a week ago, immigrant rights groups in Chicago, Washington, New York and nationwide publicized emergency hotlines, alerted volunteers and hastily arranged gatherings to teach immigrants what to do if an agent knocks on their door — efforts that are ongoing since the president called off the raids Saturday. The arrests were set to begin Sunday.

“We’re ready. We’re going to be vigilant,” said Richard Morales, director of the immigrant rights campaign for Faith in Action, a national faith-based network in more than 20 states. “Whether it happens today or it happens in two weeks, our congregation, our clergy, they’re ready to respond.”

See also A Trump official tried to argue that detained children don’t need soap, toothbrushes, or beds to be ‘safe and sanitary’ while in Border Patrol custody.

Matt Velasquez reports Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo is named NBA’s MVP:

Six years ago, Giannis Antetokounmpo was still an unknown quantity even among the most experienced basketball minds. A gangly, 6-foot-9 teenager born to Nigerian immigrants in Greece, he was relatively new to basketball and it was anyone’s guess what he would become when the Milwaukee Bucks selected him 15th in the 2013 NBA draft.

What he has become, after six years in Milwaukee, is the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for the 2018-19 season, an accomplishment that became official on Monday night at the NBA Awards in Santa Monica, California, where Antetokounmpo took home the Maurice Podoloff Trophy. In earning the honor, he beat out last year’s MVP James Harden of the Houston Rockets as well as Paul George of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

See also Bucks’ Mike Budenholzer named NBA 2018-19 coach of year.

SpaceX Falcon Heavy makes dramatic early morning launch: