Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 79. Sunrise is 7:16, and sunset is 6:02, for 10 hours, 46 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous, with 77.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1897, the Yerkes Observatory is dedicated:
Founded by astronomer George Hale and located in Williams Bay, the Yerkes Observatory houses the world’s largest refracting optical telescope, with a lens of diameter 102 cm/40 inches. It was built through the largess of the tycoon Charles Tyson Yerkes, who rebuilt important parts of the Chicago transportation system after the fire. Situated in a 77-acre park on the shore of Lake Geneva, this observatory was the center for world astronomy in the early 20th century and invited a number of astronomers from around the world, including Japan, for scientific exchange.
Trump has said much about immigration. The Marshall Project has published Fact-checking Over 12,000 of Donald Trump’s Statements About Immigration. The fact check is detailed, and I’d encourage readers to review the full article. Below are summaries of the main points of the fact check:
TRUMP: “Under Border Czar Harris, our communities are being ravaged by migrant crime.”
FACT CHECK: According to a consistent, overwhelming amount of criminology research, immigrants to the United States, both legal and undocumented, have committed less crime than native-born Americans going all the way back to the 1870s.
TRUMP: “[South American countries are] emptying out their prisons and their mental institutions into the United States of America.”
FACT CHECK: Experts and journalists find no evidence that South American countries are intentionally freeing mentally ill and incarcerated people to infiltrate the U.S.
TRUMP: “Cases like Kate Steinle, murdered in San Francisco by a five-time deported illegal immigrant, or cases like Sarah Root… or my friend Jamiel Shaw who lost his incredible son…”
FACT CHECK: Trump relies on emotionally powerful anecdotes to portray an alleged crime wave by undocumented immigrants, but research shows that immigrants commit less crime than native-born Americans.
TRUMP: “They want [unauthorized immigrants] voting, because they believe they’ll be voting for Democrats every single time.”
FACT CHECK: There is no evidence that Democratic immigration policies have led to any meaningful increase in noncitizen voting, or in any form of demographic advantage for the party.
TRUMP: [Democrats] want sanctuary cities, which means crime and drugs and death.”
FACT CHECK: Research consistently shows no link between sanctuary policies and increased crime rates. Instead, migrants in sanctuary cities are less likely to commit crimes than native-born citizens, with cities tending to experience decreases in property crime and homicide rates.
TRUMP: “Do you want to hear ‘The Snake?’…This was an old song that I revised… Think of it as the people that we’re letting in.
FACT CHECK: The daughters of Oscar Brown Jr., the original writer of the snake song, said Trump’s interpretation is dishonest and immigrants are not dangerous like the snake.
TRUMP: “We have no idea who they are. They want to come into our country. They may be ISIS. It may be the great Trojan Horse of all time. Who knows?”
FACT CHECK: Arab and Muslim refugees from the Middle East are unlikely to enter the U.S. due to rigorous vetting. In the rare cases they were accepted, they have been connected to planning or carrying out acts of terrorism in only a handful of instances since 1980.
TRUMP: “Illegal aliens coming into our country under Biden are treated better than our vets.”
FACT CHECK: While it’s true many undocumented people make use of public benefits, their monetary contribution to the country likely exceeds the cost of the benefits they consume, and they do not receive more benefits than citizens who are veterans.
TRUMP: “Democrats are the party of open borders, socialism, and crime, whether you like it or not.”
FACT CHECK: The claim that Democrats want open borders is false, since their recent policies focus on enforcing border laws and reducing illegal crossings.
TRUMP: “Dwight Eisenhower – nice guy – he moved a million and a half people out of the United States.”
FACT CHECK: Trump claims a 1950s-era deportation operation was “humane” and resulted in over a million deportations, but that number is contested, and the initiative took a steep humanitarian toll.
TRUMP: “They’ve taken the jobs of African Americans and Hispanics, and that was obvious to me. Next is gonna to be unions, you watch.”
FACT CHECK: Trump greatly overstates the tenuous connection between people who cross the border illegally to the “taking” of Black or union jobs.
TRUMP: “Believe me, it’s gonna work. Walls work.”
FACT CHECK: The reality of building a border wall is complex, and the barrier has proven to be ineffective, costly to taxpayers, and a driver for more dangerous modes of entry into the country. Historically, many undocumented immigrants overstay their legal visas, something a wall wouldn’t prevent.
TRUMP: “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats… They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
FACT CHECK: There is no evidence to support claims that Haitian migrants are abducting, killing or eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio.
State officials discuss election security concerns: