Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will see intermittent snowfall with a high of twenty-eight.  Sunrise is 7:17 AM and sunset 4:55 PM, for 9h 37m 44s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 97.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1968, the NBA awards a professional basketball franchise to Milwaukee.

Recommended for reading in full:

 Kenneth P. Vogel reports Deripaska and Allies Could Benefit From Sanctions Deal, Document Shows:

When the Trump administration announced last month that it was lifting sanctions against a trio of companies controlled by an influential Russian oligarch, it cast the move as tough on Russia and on the oligarch, arguing that he had to make painful concessions to get the sanctions lifted.

But a binding confidential document signed by both sides suggests that the agreement the administration negotiated with the companies controlled by the oligarch, Oleg V. Deripaska, may have been less punitive than advertised.

The deal contains provisions that free him from hundreds of millions of dollars in debt while leaving him and his allies with majority ownership of his most important company, the document shows.

With the special counsel’s investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election continuing to shadow President Trump, the administration’s decision to lift sanctions on Mr. Deripaska’s companies has become a political flash point. House Democrats won widespread Republican support last week for their efforts to block the sanctions relief deal. Democratic hopes of blocking the administration’s decision have been stifled by the Republican-controlled Senate.

 Christine Schmidt writes Nine steps for how Facebook should embrace meaningful interac— er, accountability (“There are broad concerns that Facebook continues to engage in deceptive behavior when it comes to user privacy, and that it is biased against certain groups, but outsiders currently have almost no possibilities to verify these claims.”):

What would you put on Facebook’s to-do list?

Well, a group of Oxford and Stanford researchers (Timothy Garton Ash, Robert Gorwa, and Danaë Metaxa) started with nine items, in their report released Thursday via Oxford and Stanford. (No funding for the report came from Facebook, but the company did provide “under the hood” access to them and other academics.) The focus is on ways Facebook could improve itself as a “better forum for free speech and democracy,” which, you know, the platform has had some struggles with in the past few years.

Part of the report focuses on the amends Facebook has attempted, such as broader transparency with academics and policymakers and introducing content appeal processes, but also points to the impact (and issues) that can arise from self-regulatory actions instead of external policies. (Remember, senators, he sells ads!) “A single small change to the News Feed algorithm, or to content policy, can have an impact that is both faster and wider than that of any single piece of national (or even EU-wide) legislation,” the authors write.

(Schmidt’s full article lists all nine steps.)

Why Are Some Plants Considered Weeds and Others Aren’t?:

Good morning.

The Dr. King holiday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of eighteen.  Sunrise is 7:18 AM and sunset 4:54 PM, for 9h 35m 44s of daytime.  The moon is full with 99.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1935, five Janesville boys are arrested: “five Janesville boys, ages 13-16, were arrested for a string of burglaries, including the thefts of cigarettes, whiskey and blankets. While in the police station, one of the boys tried to crack the safe in the chief’s office.”

Recommended for reading in full:

 Patrick Marley reports Evers tours teen prison that Walker wouldn’t visit:

Gov. Tony Evers wants to address problems at the state’s juvenile prison by raising wages, filling jobs and working closely with those suing over conditions there.

Evers said in an interview he believes the state is making progress at Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls but will need more time and money to shut them down. For now, the prison complex north of Wausau is scheduled to close by 2021.

The new Democratic governor toured the problem-wracked facilities during his first week on the job. The tour fulfilled a campaign promise he made to contrast himself with Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who didn’t visit any correctional institutions during his eight years in office.

….

Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake have been under criminal investigation for four years over allegations of child neglect and prisoner abuse. They have been the subject of multiple lawsuits, including one that resulted in an $18.9 million payment to a former inmate and another that forced the state to dramatically scale back its use of pepper spray and solitary confinement.

Annysa Johnson reports Milwaukee DA John Chisholm calls for a statewide review of Catholic Church abuse files:

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm is calling for a statewide investigation of the Catholic Church’s response to allegations of sexual abuse of minors, similar to the Pennsylvania probe that sparked a wave of inquiries across the country.

Chisholm said he would like to work with district attorneys around the state and newly elected Attorney General Josh Kaul to review all abuse allegations over the last 50 years. He said he would hope the state’s bishops would voluntarily open their files.

If not, he said, he would be open to other mechanisms, such as a John Doe or grand jury proceeding.

Chisholm said he also would consider asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to share with authorities the names of more than 100 alleged offenders under seal as part of the now-closed Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy.

“I strongly believe that we should have access to all of the dioceses’ complaints for the last 50 years, similar to a process we started in Milwaukee County in the early 2000s,” Chisholm said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Harvesting the World’s Most Expensive Spice:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of thirteen.  Sunrise is 7:19 AM and sunset 4:52 PM, for 9h 33m 45s of daytime.  The moon is full with 99.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1981, the Iran Hostage Crisis ends.

Recommended for reading in full:

Adam Rawnsley reports Breakfast in Trumpland: Inside the Nunes-Flynn Meeting That Caught Mueller’s Attention:

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) has gone from being an overseer in the Russia investigation to a potential witness in it. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly investigating potential influence peddling at an inaugural fundraising breakfast attended by Nunes, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and a host of foreign officials from around the world. So where do pricey Eggs Benedict fit in with the rest of the Russia investigation

Best buds: It makes sense that Nunes appeared at the event alongside Flynn, then his fellow Trump transition teammate. The two became close when Flynn was serving as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency for President Obama and Nunes was a junior member of the House intelligence committee, according to a Newsweek profile. The two bonded over Flynn’s Iran-centric view of Middle Eastern terrorism, and Nunes eagerly embraced the general’s conspiracy theories, like the belief that Tehran was somehow behind the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

 Last Tuesday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar questions attorney general nominee William Barr on obstruction from CNBC.

Justin George and Eli Hager report One Way To Deal With Cops Who Lie? Blacklist Them, Some DAs Say:

In the racially divided city of St. Louis the chief prosecutor has embraced a controversial tool to hold police accountable: blacklisting cops who she says are too untrustworthy to testify in court.

So far, Kim Gardner has dropped more than 100 cases that relied on statements from the 29 officers who got on the list for alleged lying, abuse or corruption. And she won’t accept new cases or search-warrant requests from them, either.

From Philadelphia to Houston to Seattle, district attorneys recently elected on platforms of criminal justice reform are building similar databases of their own. Often known as “do not call” lists, they are also called “exclusion lists” or “Brady lists” after a famous Supreme Court decision requiring prosecutors to disclose to defense lawyers information about unreliable police officers or other holes in their cases.

The goal is to help prosecutors avoid bringing cases built on evidence from officers who are likely to be challenged in court, these new DAs say. Having a centralized list at a district attorney’s office, they say, allows for the gathering of institutional knowledge, so that if one prosecutor on staff knows about a bad cop, all the prosecutors do.

(Small groups of liars and misfits have been shielded long enough, among the rank & file and among leaders.)

 A World-Famous Artist With Four Legs and a Bite:

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be cloudy, with blowing snow, and a high of twenty-three.  Sunrise is 7:19 AM and sunset 4:51 PM, for 9h 31m 49s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 96.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1809, Edgar Allan Poe is born.

Recommended for reading in full:

 Robert O’Harrow Jr. reports A $450 dinner, $45 whiskey: Political appointee, aide ring up the expenses:

They are federal financial regulators who filed for expenses like corporate CEOs, seeking reimbursement for limos, deluxe air travel and meals in posh restaurants.

There was an UberBlack ride from the District to neighboring Alexandria, Va., for $250, according to internal records obtained by The Washington Post. Two airline tickets to a meeting in Vienna came in at more than $11,000 each, even as a staffer found a way to the same event for a fraction of the price. A meal for three at Joe’s Seafood near the White House cost $450 — including $45 for a dish of Dover sole and $43 for halibut, according to receipts for the meal.

J. Mark McWatters, head of the National Credit Union Administration, and his chief of staff, Sarah Vega, and their guests also showed a fondness for wine and top-shelf liquor, including, in one instance, a $45 glass of 18-year-old single-malt whiskey, records show. In 2016 and 2017, they expensed more than $2,500 worth of alcoholic beverages — most of it under Vega’s account — despite a written policy prohibiting reimbursement for the purchase of alcohol.

(The transgression isn’t the meal’s cost; the transgression is expecting taxpayers to pay for it. McWatters and Vega may do as they wish, on their own time, with their own money.)

 Patrick Marley reports Judge finds Republicans violated free speech rights by blocking liberal group on Twitter:

MADISON – A federal judge ruled Friday that three Wisconsin Republicans violated the First Amendment rights of a liberal group by blocking it on Twitter.

U.S. District Judge William Conley found in a 30-page ruling that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester and two others had acted unconstitutionally by blocking One Wisconsin Now on Twitter “because of its prior speech or identity.”

One Wisconsin Now — an advocacy group that frequently tweaks Republicans online — in 2017 sued Vos, Rep. John Nygren of Marinette and then-Rep. Jesse Kremer of Kewaskum for blocking it on Twitter.

By blocking One Wisconsin Now, the three lawmakers prevented the group from responding to their posts and offering its own — often snarky — point of view.

Conley, who was appointed to the bench in 2010 by President Barack Obama, determined the three Republicans ran their Twitter accounts as public officials. By operating those accounts, they chose to participate in an interactive forum open to the general public, he wrote.

“Having opted to create a Twitter account … and benefit from its broad, public reach, defendants cannot now divorce themselves from its First Amendment implications and responsibilities as state actors,” he wrote.

Orca Calf Offers Hope for a Fading Group in the Pacific Northwest:

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy, with snow falling in the late afternoon, and a high of twenty-seven.  Sunrise is 7:20 AM and sunset 4:50 PM, for 9h 29m 57s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 89.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1803, Pres. Jefferson requests funding for what would become the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Recommended for reading in full:

 Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier report President Trump Directed His Attorney Michael Cohen To Lie To Congress About The Moscow Tower Project (“Trump received 10 personal updates from Michael Cohen and encouraged a planned meeting with Vladimir Putin”):

President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter.

Trump also supported a plan, set up by Cohen, to visit Russia during the presidential campaign, in order to personally meet President Vladimir Putin and jump-start the tower negotiations. “Make it happen,” the sources said Trump told Cohen.

And even as Trump told the public he had no business deals with Russia, the sources said Trump and his children Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. received regular, detailed updates about the real estate development from Cohen, whom they put in charge of the project.

Update: But see In a rare move, Mueller’s office denies BuzzFeed report that Trump told Cohen to lie about Moscow project.

Mikhaila Fogel, Susan Hennessey, Quinta Jurecic, Matthew Kahn, and Benjamin Wittes assess this news in The Latest Revelation From BuzzFeed News: Trump Reportedly Directed Cohen to Lie to Congress:

First, the criminality alleged in this story is—if true—unsubtle and unambiguous, directly related to the president’s conduct as president, and concerning matters of great import.

This story is the first direct allegation of a crime by Trump involving L’Affaire Russe for which the president cannot claim that his actions were authorized by the Article II powers of the presidency. There is an active debate about the degree to which the obstruction statutes can or cannot be applied to facially valid exercises of presidential authority—like, for example, firing the FBI director or directing the conduct of an investigation. There is no debate, by contrast, about whether the president can obstruct justice in his conduct outside of his authorities as president.

Eric Mack explains How to see the last ‘super blood wolf moon’ lunar eclipse for 18 years:

Starting at around 7:34 p.m. PT or 10:34 p.m. ET Sunday, a partial eclipse will begin, with the full eclipse starting a little over an hour later. You can safely look at the blood moon from anywhere skies are clear enough, unlike solar eclipses that require special eye protection in most cases. The main event lasts about an hour.

If skies don’t cooperate or you can’t be bothered to step outside for some reason to see it for yourself, you can catch the livestream from the Virtual Telescope Project in Rome below. There’s also a handful of other eclipses still to come in 2019.