Good morning. 
Thursday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of fifty-eight. Sunrise is 6:53 AM and sunset 6:34 PM, for 11h 40m 43s of daytime. The moon is full with 99.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
Today is the one thousand four hundred twenty-third day.
Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets via audiovisual conferencing at 3:30 PM.
On this day in 1890, Congress establishes Yosemite National Park.
Recommended for reading in full —
Julia Ainsley reports Internal document shows Trump officials were told to make comments sympathetic to Kyle Rittenhouse (‘DHS talking points obtained by NBC News show officials were told to speak sympathetically about Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen charged with killing two protesters in Kenosha, Wis.’):
Federal law enforcement officials were directed to make public comments sympathetic to Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged with fatally shooting two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, according to internal Department of Homeland Security talking points obtained by NBC News.
In preparing Homeland Security officials for questions about Rittenhouse from the media, the document suggests that they note that he “took his rifle to the scene of the rioting to help defend small business owners.”
Another set of talking points distributed to Homeland Security officials said the media were incorrectly labeling the group Patriot Prayer as racists after clashes erupted between the group and protesters in Portland, Oregon.
It is unclear whether any of the talking points originated at the White House or within Homeland Security’s own press office.
Rittenhouse, 17, supported Trump and police on his social media pages before he traveled from his home in Antioch, Illinois, to Kenosha on Aug. 25 with an AR-15-style rifle, authorities say. Rittenhouse was arrested on first-degree murder charges and is fighting extradition to Wisconsin. His attorneys argue that he was acting in self-defense.
Three former Homeland Security officials, two of whom worked for Republican administrations, said it was unusual for law enforcement officials to be instructed to weigh in on a particular group or individual before investigations had concluded.
“It is as unprecedented as it is wrong,” said Peter Boogaard, who was a spokesperson for Homeland Security during under the Obama administration.
Aaron Blake reports Trump unleashed a torrent of disinformation about voter fraud at the debate:
“When you have 80 million ballots sent in and swamping the system, you know it can’t be done.”
This contradicts what Trump’s own postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, has repeatedly said. DeJoy told the Senate last month that the Postal Service would be able to deliver the ballots “securely and on time,” calling it a “sacred duty.” He added just last week that Trump’s claims that it can’t handle the ballots are “incorrect.” (DeJoy, it bears noting, is a Trump loyalist and was a top fundraiser for him.)
….
“They found ballots in a wastepaper basket three days ago, and they all had the name — military ballots, they were military — they all had the name Trump on them.”
Trump’s claim is false. The FBI initially said all nine of the discarded ballots were for Trump, but later amended that to say that seven of the nine were (the other two had been resealed without establishing whom the votes were for). What’s more, there are very logical, non-nefarious explanations for it, as The Washington Post’s Philip Bump noted, with officials citing confusion over precisely what the pieces of mail were and opening them. There was also controversy over the Justice Department issuing a statement that included who the votes on the ballot were for — which invited allegations that DOJ was yet again furthering Trump’s political goals.