Good morning. 
Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 49. Sunrise is 6:09 AM and sunset 5:58 PM, for 11h 49m 05s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 0.9% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 2009, financier Bernie Madoff pleads guilty to one of the largest frauds in Wall Street’s history.
Recommended for reading in full —
Mike Baker reports Seattle’s Virus Success Shows What Could Have Been:
One year later, the Seattle area has the lowest death rate of the 20 largest metropolitan regions in the country. If the rest of the United States had kept pace with Seattle, the nation could have avoided more than 300,000 coronavirus deaths.
During a year in which the White House downplayed the virus and other political leaders clashed over how to contain it, Seattle’s success illustrates the value of unified and timely strategies: Although the region’s public health experts and politicians grappled behind the scenes about how to best manage the virus, they came together to present a united front to the public. And the public largely complied.
“We could not afford to have mixed messages,” said Jenny Durkan, Seattle’s mayor.
The restrictions that have been in place off and on for the better part of a year have brought widespread disruption to lives and the economy. But as governors elsewhere have cited the economy as a reason to ease lockdowns, Seattle’s success showed that an alternative pathway was doable: Amid widespread economic turmoil, the state’s unemployment rate has been about average nationally, outperforming some places that have pressed ahead with wider reopenings, including Arizona and Texas.
David Leonhardt writes Follow-up: A Covid mystery:
In response to Monday’s newsletter about the mystery of the relatively low Covid death tolls in Africa and Asia, several researchers wrote to me to add a potential explanation that had not been on my list: obesity.
Countries with higher obesity rates have suffered more Covid deaths on average, as you can see in this chart that my colleague Lalena Fisher and I put together:
Obesity can cause multiple health problems, including making it harder to breathe, as Dr. David L. Katz told me, and oxygen deprivation has been a common Covid symptom. A paper by Dr. Jennifer Lighter of New York University and other researchers found that obesity increased the risk of hospitalization among Covid patients.
It’s a particularly intriguing possibility because it could help explain why Africa and Asia have suffered fewer deaths than not only high-income countries but also Latin American countries. Latin Americans, like Europeans and U.S. residents, are heavier on average than Africans or Asians.
Oliver Darcy reports Fox begs viewers not to tune away:
Meanwhile, Fox on Thursday night continued to make the case for why it should be referred to as a right-wing talk channel and not a news network. While Biden delivered his address, the network featured a box in the bottom corner of the screen showing Tucker Carlson’s live reactions.
And as Biden continued to speak, the network essentially begged viewers to stick around and not tune out for the night. “BIDEN SPEECH NEARLY FINISHED; TUCKER WILL RESPOND,” one on-screen banner promised. “TUCKER RESPONDS IN LESS THAN 60 SECONDS,” another read.
When Biden wrapped his address, Fox wasted no time commencing the Biden bashing. Carlson slammed Biden, telling the president, “How dare you tell us who we can spend the Fourth of July with.” Sean Hannity said Biden should “pick up the phone” and “call Mar-a-Lago” and “thank President Donald Trump.” Mark Levin said the speech was the “most disgusting, propagandistic speech that a demagogue, even a politician, has ever given.”
(One is reminded of Voltaire’s prayer: O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.)