Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of thirty. Sunrise is 7:12 AM and sunset is 5:03 PM, for 9h 51m 49s of daytime. It’s the lunar new year, and the Chinese year of the Fire Rooster.
Recommended for reading in full —
Deadspin’s Diana Moskovitz reports on the allegations in a Lawsuit: Baylor Football Players Committed 52 Rapes In Four Years Under Art Briles: “Baylor football players committed 52 rapes in four years, the majority at off-campus parties hosted by football players, including five gang rapes; the university paid off one woman who said she was raped by giving her free tuition; and football staff arranged for women to have sex with recruits on their campus visits, according to a Title IX lawsuit filed today in federal court in Texas. The 26-page lawsuit—filed against Baylor on behalf of Elizabeth Doe—goes into immense detail about both a specific report of gang rape at the center of the complaint as well as how, it says, “football and rape became synonymous” under former football coach Art Briles, aided by a policy for football players described as “show ’em a good time.”
Keegan Kyle reports that Wisconsin’s State senators [are] up for 31 percent per-diem raise: “MADISON – After legislators in Wisconsin’s Assembly hiked how much cash they can pocket for working in Madison, their Senate peers plan to take a similar step. Most state senators last year were allowed to claim up to $88 for each day they worked in Madison, on top their $51,000 annual salary, under a decades-old benefit called per diems. This year, Senate leaders are interested in hiking the maximum rate to $115 a day, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald confirmed Friday. “As a result of input from members of both parties, several updates are being made to the Senate policy manual including a shift in per diem rates,” Myranda Tanck wrote in an email to USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.”
Daniel Drezner cautions Never underestimate the staying power of autocratic rulers: “One of the few correct themes of my public writing is that incompetent autocrats tend to stay in power far longer than pundits predict that they will stay in power. I have written that Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro would continue to rule their countries despite their abjectly awful economic policies. Back in 2011 I wrote that “Kim Jong Un will hold power for longer than any Western analyst expects him to hold power,” and the North Korean leader continues to be large and in charge….The trouble with buffoonish autocratic personalities is that there is a natural psychological bias to focus on the clownish parts of what the Dear Leader is doing and not enough on the consolidation of political power.”
Luz Gonlazez describes Going Rogue: “9 federal government agencies have gone rogue, I suspect largely in response to Trump and his administration’s determination to disrespect the value of its work, spread a false narrative of their mission and goals, and create a toxic environment of mistrust, misinformation, and uncooperative discourse. In other words, federal employees are doing for the American people what the Republican majority will not do, stand up to an authoritarian President and administration who do not even remotely resemble or represent the American people.
On January 26, all the senior staff at the United States Department of State resigned. Since Trump took office on January 20 (has it really been only 6 days) federal employees have created twitter accounts and tweets in defiance to the new administration’s attacks on truth and science. Showing courage and conviction. Days old rogue accounts @rogueNASA, @AltNatParkSer, @ActualEPAFacts, @Alt_NASA, and @WhiteHouseLeaks have tens of thousands of followers.”
Alexandra Horowitz describes How dogs can tell time with their noses: