Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of thirty-one. Sunrise is 6:25 AM and sunset 5:47 PM, for 11h 22m 47s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 27.9% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred fifteenth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
Alexander Graham Bell is born on this day in 1847. On this date in 1875, industrialist, Republican politician, and Wisconsin governor Walter Jodok Kohler is born in Sheboygan.
Recommended for reading in full —
Margaret Sullivan writes that While pundits swooned over Trump’s speech, reporters plugged away at the real story: “Tuesday night was a low point for “the media” — if such a multi-headed beast can be described in those two words — as cable-news talking heads gushed over President Trump’s address to Congress. Will Oremus of Slate put it like this: Trump “managed to speak for an entire hour without sounding like an unhinged demagogue. For that, he was hailed by TV pundits across the spectrum who acted as though he’d just single-handedly defeated the Islamic State and restored the fortunes of the American middle class”….But as if to say that not all media are created equal, along came two blockbuster stories from two longtime rival newspapers. First, on Wednesday evening, with an 8:01 news alert, the New York Times dropped its triple-byline blockbuster: that the Obama administration had scattered a trail of bread crumbs, evidently so that contacts between Trump’s associates and the Russians would not be lost to a coverup by the new administration. Then, with a 9:04 p.m. news alert, The Washington Post published a shocker on the same general subject: that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had met with the Russian ambassador to the United States twice and failed to disclose that during his Senate confirmation hearings. Because of dogged reporting, and to some extent on intelligence-community leaks that Trump has found so outrageous, both stories hit hard.”
Aaron Blake describes Jeff Sessions’s puzzling press conference: “At one point early in the news conference, Sessions said there were two senior staffers in his meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in Washington. Later, he mentioned that there might also have been a third, more junior staffer. He at one point acknowledged that Kislyak may have sought the meeting because of his ties to the Trump campaign. “Ambassadors are always out trying to find out things and advance their agenda,” he said. Sessions also left open the possibility that there might have been other contacts with Russian officials, saying only, “I meet a lot of people” when asked to account for any other possibly undisclosed meetings. That will lead to all kinds of questions about more contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.”
Tony Cook reports that Pence used personal email for state business — and was hacked: “INDIANAPOLIS — Vice President Mike Pence routinely used a private email account to conduct public business as governor of Indiana, at times discussing sensitive matters and homeland security issues. Emails released to The Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network, in response to a public records request show Pence communicated via his personal AOL account with top advisers on topics ranging from security gates at the governor’s residence to the state’s response to terror attacks across the globe. In one email, Pence’s top state homeland security adviser relayed an update from the FBI regarding the arrests of several men on federal terror-related charges….Cybersecurity experts say Pence’s emails were likely just as insecure as Clinton’s. While there has been speculation about whether Clinton’s emails were hacked, Pence’s account was actually compromised last summer by a scammer who sent an email to his contacts claiming Pence and his wife were stranded in the Philippines and in urgent need of money.”
Jeff Potrykus describes Iowa 59, UW 57: Hawkeyes shock Badgers: “MADISON – This stunning collapse could weigh heavily on Wisconsin coach Greg Gard and his players for some time. How quickly the Badgers can recover from their stunning 59-57 loss to Iowa on Thursday night at the Kohl Center could determine how long UW remains alive in the postseason. UW led by nine points with 3 minutes 46 seconds left and by five points with 2:03 left. The Badgers committed two critical turnovers against full-court pressure, however, and Iowa capitalized to outscore UW, 7-0, in the final 1:45. “Losing is depressing,” said senior Nigel Hayes, who had five of UW’s 13 turnovers. “It is extremely upsetting. Especially when we lose the way we do and the way we have been.” In the closing seconds, Iowa’s Peter Jok missed a jumper, but Hayes mistimed his jump and Iowa’s Cordell Pemsl grabbed the loose ball.
Anatomy of a Scene takes a look at Logan: