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Daily Bread for 2.4.20

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of thirty.  Sunrise is 7:05 AM and sunset 5:12 PM, for 10h 06m 50s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 73.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Today is the one thousand one hundred eighty-third day.

The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM

On this day in 2004, Mark Zuckerberg launches “TheFacebook,” originally located at thefacebook.com.

Recommended for reading in full —

Daniel Bice reports ‘An unacceptable and upsetting environment’: 2020 Democratic Host Committee under investigation:

The two top officials overseeing Milwaukee’s host committee for the 2020 Democratic National Convention were sidelined Monday amid allegations of a toxic work culture.

In a letter to staff obtained by the Journal Sentinel, the board said it had retained an attorney to investigate “concerns about the work environment” for the Milwaukee 2020 Host Committee.

….

In interviews with the Journal Sentinel over the weekend, two experienced political hands who have worked with the host committee described it as having a toxic culture rife with power struggles, backbiting and mismanagement.

They accused the top two officials, Gilbert and Alonso, of giving contracts to their friends in New Jersey, calling meetings and then failing to attend them and being more focused on accumulating power than promoting Milwaukee.

A New Jersey firm with strong ties to the New Jersey Democratic Party, for instance, developed the website for the host committee and manages its email platform. Both Gilbert and Alonso are top-ranking Democratic operatives in that state.

These assertions come at the same time that Alonso is being accused in his home state of New Jersey of shaking down campaign contributors for his personal consulting business.

(Emphasis in original.)

Molly Beck reports Evers administration threatened prosecution of journalist over child abuse case reporting:

Gov. Tony Evers’ administration sought to block a journalist from publishing information from a confidential child abuse investigation by threatening prosecution, a rare move that could violate the U.S. Constitution.

Wisconsin Department of Children and Families officials in January warned an NBC News reporter that his planned publication of a story that included information from the investigation file would violate state law and could result in six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

“Please cease and desist immediately from any further illegal use and disclosure of the documents in the child abuse investigation file illegally disclosed to you, and any information obtained in that file,” Therese Durkin, chief legal counsel for the agency, wrote to NBC News reporter Mike Hixenbaugh on Jan. 24. “Failure to comply will lead to further legal action.”

State law requires such information be kept confidential, to ensure the privacy of children who are or suspected to be victims of abuse, and carries criminal penalties if documents or details contained in child abuse investigation files are released.

….

But media law experts say the First Amendment protects journalists’ possession and publication of truthful information in the public’s interest, regardless of how the information was released to them — and even trying to stop a reporter from publishing violates the U.S. Constitution.

“If somebody unlawfully discloses information to the journalist, but the journalist did nothing wrong, they have a First Amendment right to publish that information,” Sarah Matthews, a staff attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said in an interview.

Tonight’s Sky for February 2020:

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