Good morning. 
Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 11. Sunrise is 6:56 AM and sunset 5:21 PM, for 10h 24m 11s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 1.9% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1861, Jefferson Davis is notified by telegraph that he has been chosen as provisional president of the Confederate States of America.
Recommended for reading in full —
Mary Spicuzza, Madeline Heim, and Guy Boulton report Thousands of Wisconsin vaccine appointments have been canceled or delayed because of uncertainty over vaccine supply:
Vaccine appointments have been rescheduled or canceled this week in Madison and La Crosse, and other providers have slowed or simply stopped scheduling them, as the shortage of vaccine continues to leave people scrambling.
“Due to shortfalls in this week’s supply, we need to cancel over 2,400 appointments,” read an email from UW Health. “The supply of vaccine we have received from the state so far is just a small fraction of what we need to reach the patients we care for in our community.”
David D. Kirkpatrick and report ‘Its Own Domestic Army’: How the G.O.P. Allied Itself With Militants:
Dozens of heavily armed militiamen crowded into the Michigan Statehouse last April to protest a stay-at-home order by the Democratic governor to slow the pandemic. Chanting and stomping their feet, they halted legislative business, tried to force their way onto the floor and brandished rifles from the gallery over lawmakers below.
Initially, Republican leaders had some misgivings about their new allies. “The optics weren’t good. Next time tell them not to bring guns,” complained Mike Shirkey, the State Senate majority leader, according to one of the protest organizers. But Michigan’s highest-ranking Republican came around after the planners threatened to return with weapons and “militia guys signing autographs and passing out blow-up AR-15s to the kiddies on the Capitol lawn.”
“To his credit,” Jason Howland, the organizer, wrote in a social media post, Mr. Shirkey agreed to help the cause and “spoke at our next event.”
Following signals from President Donald J. Trump — who had tweeted “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” after an earlier show of force in Lansing — Michigan’s Republican Party last year welcomed the support of newly emboldened paramilitary groups and other vigilantes. Prominent party members formed bonds with militias or gave tacit approval to armed activists using intimidation in a series of rallies and confrontations around the state. That intrusion into the Statehouse now looks like a portent of the assault halfway across the country months later at the United States Capitol.
Texas lawyer boldly declares: ‘I’m not a cat’:
“Mr. Ponton, I believe you have a filter turned on in the video settings,” Judge Roy Ferguson, presiding over the case, begins by telling Mr. Ponton in the video.
“Augggh,” an exasperated Mr. Ponton responds, as his kitten face looks forlornly at the corner of the screen, its eyes seeming to be full of terror, shame and sadness. “Can you hear me, Judge?” he asks, although the audio was never at issue.
H. Gibbs Bauer, another lawyer on the call, puts his glasses on and leans forward to better examine the wonder on his screen. He adjusts his tie, as if subconsciously aware of his supporting role, but keeps a straight face.
As does a stone-faced man in another box, identified as Jerry L. Phillips, seemingly unfazed by the cat.
Mr. Ponton continues.
“I don’t know how to remove it,” he said. “I’ve got my assistant here and she’s trying to.”
To get the hearing moving, he offers: “I’m prepared to go forward with it.”
Then, crucially, he clarifies: “I’m here live. I’m not a cat.”