Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of forty-six. Sunrise is 7:25 AM and sunset 4:35 PM, for 9h 10m 27s of daytime. The moon is new with 0.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
Today is the seven hundred eighty-seventh day.
On this day in 1855, King Camp Gillette, razor magnate, is born in Fond du Lac.
Recommended for reading in full:
Margaret Taylor describes How the New Congress Can Restore Its Constitutional Role:
Without naming all potential areas for inquiry, the possibilities include: (1) the administration’s policy toward, and Trump’s financial interests in, various authoritarians and dictators around the world; (2) the administration’s policy toward, and Trump’s treatment of, democratic allies; (3) the administration’s Syria, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea and China policies; (4) the state of the workforce at foreign policy and national security agencies, especially the State Department, as well as foreign aid policies and plans; (5) the outcomes of the administration’s changes to Obama-era counterterrorism policies; (6) the administration’s cybersecurity policy and steps to defend against information warfare by foreign adversaries; (7) the administration’s southern border policies and actions and policy toward Central America; (8) the administration’s push for more nuclear weapons and the path forward with respect to arms control treaties; (9) the state of the United States’ human rights and democracy agenda; (10) the administration’s policy toward Israel and prospects for a two-state solution; and (11) the consequences of America’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord and the administration’s climate agenda.
Betsy Woodruff and Andrew Desiderio report Dems Move to Block Trump From Lifting Sanctions on Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska:
If successful, the resolution would prevent the Treasury Department from lifting sanctions on the Deripaska-controlled companies EN+, Rusal, and EuroSibEnergo. A mechanism in the 2017 Russia sanctions package, the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), would trigger the reversal. Passed overwhelmingly by Congress over Trump’s objections, CAATSA allows the House and Senate to block White House efforts to alter sanctions by passing a joint resolution of disapproval within 30 days of the administration’s announcement.
Lawmakers involved in the talks told The Daily Beast that CAATSA appeared to be the best legislative vehicle to block the lifting of sanctions on the Deripaska-linked businesses.
Deripaska has proven to be an inviting target for lawmakers. His ties to Trump’s former campaign chief Paul Manafort, which Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has investigated, run deep. And the nature of the deal concerns Democrats. Lord Barker, a former U.K. energy minister who now sits as a member of the House of Lords, chairs EN+ and helped negotiate the terms under which the Treasury Department would lift the sanctions on the businesses. Barker’s Russia ties have concerned some of his British colleagues, as The Daily Mail has detailed. The Guardian reported that a parliamentary committee asked Barker for information about his work for EN+, and he refused to provide anything publicly because of his work trying to lift U.S. sanctions.
From western Australia, The Happiest Animal: