Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of twenty-six. Sunrise is 6:53 AM and sunset 5:24 PM, for 10h 30m 49s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 56% of its visible disk illuminated.
Today is the eight hundred twenty-sixth day.
On this day in 1935, Wisconsin sets a floor on gasoline prices: “in an effort to stop gasoline price wars, the state of Wisconsin established a minimum price of 16 cents per gallon for gasoline.”
Recommended for reading in full:
Bruce Murphy examines Walker and the Russian Connection:
Yesterday Urban Milwaukee published new data by Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC) on the state’s top 20 individual donors and on the list was the Russia-connected business man, Leonard Blavatnik, of New York City, who gave $100,000 to the state Republican Party in August 2018, at a time when the party was controlled by Gov. Scott Walker.
Walker had earlier received $1.75 million for his run for president from Blavatnik’s company Access Industries.
Why the donations? That involves a murky mystery that might make a good John LeCarre novel. Blavatnik, you see, is a Soviet-born and Russian-raised American citizen who co-owns businesses in Russia with two oligarchs there, Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg, who are close to Vladimir Putin, as the Dallas News has reported
….
Blavatnik gave a $250,000 donation to Walker’s Our American Revival fund (supporting his run for president) just days after Walker met with accused Russian spy Maria Butina, who has pleaded guilty to attempting to infiltrate Republican political circles and influence US relations with Russia before and after the 2016 presidential election. Butina had developed a friendship with officials with the National Rifle Association and used that connection to meet Republican candidates for the 2016 election. She met with officials in the campaign of Donald Trump and with Walker himself.
Molly Beck reports Scott Walker’s ‘Open for Business’ welcome signs will soon be detour markers:
Signs championed by former Gov. Scott Walker that welcomed visitors to Wisconsin as a state “Open for Business” are being turned into detour signs.
An official in Gov. Tony Evers’ administration said in a letter this month that the signs donning Walker’s economic development mantra will be turned into signs used for detours and directions in emergency situations.
“Therefore, the old signs will be cut in half with no material wasted,” said the Feb. 1 letter from Department of Administration enterprise operations administrator James Langdon to Republican Rep. John Macco of Ledgeview.
Amy Wang reports Top dog? It’s King, a wire fox terrier who won best in show at Westminster:
Breed after breed took turns in the spotlight, getting judged against their competitors. Over the course of two days, the field of about 2,800 dogs from 203 breeds was whittled to dozens, as one dog emerged from each breed contest victorious, to a mix of whoops, polite clapping and a few tears. By Tuesday night, only one dog remained: best in show.
King, a wire fox terrier, ultimately won the top award.