Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of thirty-three. Sunrise is 7:15 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 05m 38s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 10.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
Today is the seven hundred sixty-first day.
Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1864, the 3rd Wisconsin Infantry reaches Savannah, Georgia:
The Wisconsin 3rd Infantry arrived at the front lines for the Battle of Savannah, Georgia. After marching from Atlanta under General William T. Sherman, Wisconsin troops assembled outside the coastal city of Savannah and laid siege to it.
Recommended for reading in full:
Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger, and Carol D. Leonnig report Russians interacted with at least 14 Trump associates during the campaign and transition:
The Russian ambassador. A deputy prime minister. A pop star, a weightlifter, a lawyer, a Soviet army veteran with alleged intelligence ties.
Again and again and again, over the course of Donald Trump’s 18-month campaign for the presidency, Russian citizens made contact with his closest family members and friends, as well as figures on the periphery of his orbit.
Some offered to help his campaign and his real estate business. Some offered dirt on his Democratic opponent. Repeatedly, Russian nationals suggested Trump should hold a peacemaking sit-down with Vladimir Putin — and offered to broker such a summit.
In all, Russians interacted with at least 14 Trump associates during the campaign and presidential transition, public records and interviews show.
Andrew Cohen of the Marshall Project summarizes the latest on The unindicted co-conspirator:
Federal prosecutors allege that President Trump and his former lawyer Michael Cohen conspired to commit campaign finance crimes involving hush money to women. THE NEW YORK TIMES They recommend “a substantial term of imprisonment” for Cohen, who pleaded guilty this summer to tax evasion, false statements, and other crimes. CNN And they say his separate cooperation with Mueller’s Russia investigation should not warrant “extraordinary leniency” given his “pattern of deception that permeated his professional life.” USA TODAY Mueller’s own sentencing memo, meanwhile, chronicles broader collusion and conspiracy evidence extending into Trump’s presidency. POLITICO Finally: A running tally of charges from Mueller’s investigation. NPR
Tony Newmyer reports U.S.-China trade standoff means no reprieve for rattled investors:
“As far as I’m concerned it’s a hard deadline,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer said in a rare interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Offered a chance to reassure markets, Lighthizer (whose name has also surfaced in speculation about who will replace outgoing White House chief of staff John Kelly) instead gave some cold comfort. He said, in essence, the United States will only agree to forgo more tariffs if the Chinese agree to major structural changes in their economic approach. “It is a very important matter, and there’s a long history of having things not work out.”