Daily Bread for 4.12.17

Good morning.

Midweek in Whitewater will be increasingly partly cloudy with a high of sixty-three. Sunrise is 6:16 AM and sunset 7:34 PM, for 13h 18m 33s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 98.6% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred fifty-fifth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets today at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1861, Confederate forces begin the Civil War by firing on Fort Sumter. On this day in 1864, the 14th, 29th, and 33rd Wisconsin Infantry regiments help repulse Confederates attacking Union transport ships heading upstream on the Red River Expedition.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Ellen Nakashima, Devlin Barrett and Adam Entous report that the FBI obtained FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] warrant to monitor Trump adviser Carter Page: “The FBI obtained a secret court order last summer to monitor the communications of an adviser to presidential candidate Donald Trump, part of an investigation into possible links between Russia and the campaign, law enforcement and other U.S. officials said. The FBI and the Justice Department obtained the warrant targeting Carter Page’s communications after convincing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power, in this case Russia, according to the officials. This is the clearest evidence so far that the FBI had reason to believe during the 2016 presidential campaign that a Trump campaign adviser was in touch with Russian agents. Such contacts are now at the center of an investigation into whether the campaign coordinated with the Russian government to swing the election in Trump’s favor.”

(On 11.7.16, Louise Mensch reported about the existence of FISA warrants in this regard, more generally, in EXCLUSIVE: FBI ‘Granted FISA Warrant’ Covering Trump Camp’s Ties To Russia.)

Meg Jones reports that a Civil War group files a lawsuit to get Wisconsin city to mow grass around graves: “A Civil War group upset over conditions at a Muskego cemetery that contains Civil War veterans’ graves filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to get the city to mow the grass. The Sons of Union Veterans asked Muskego officials last year to clear weeds and debris from the graves at a tiny cemetery at the southwest corner of Ryan and North Cape roads. The city refused because the small plot is a plant sanctuary and the last native prairie in Muskego. Muskego clears away some of the plants in the spring with a controlled burn but that also concerns members of the Wind Lake chapter of Sons of Union Veterans. “From their periodic burnings that they do, it’s degraded the (burial) stones where they’re about ready to fall apart and tip over,” said Bob Koenecke, the group’s commander. “We’d like them to stop the burning and we’d like them to clean up the cemetery.” Under Wisconsin law, veterans’ graves must “receive proper and decent care” from cemetery owners. The lawsuit filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court Tuesday is seeking a declaratory judgment on whether the way Muskego is caring for the cemetery is proper and decent.”

Heidi M Przybyla writes that Republicans avoid town halls after health care votes: “The migration away from public forums has been going on for months, despite complaints from constituents and local media. There have been roughly 30 recent newspaper editorials slamming lawmakers for avoiding town halls and calling on members to face their voters, not only in bluer portions of the country like New York but also in critical battlegrounds like Pennsylvania’s 6th and 7th districts, represented by Reps. Pat Meehan and Costello. Costello’s office screened participants for his Saturday town hall through the online reservation site Eventbrite and forbid videotaping, leading the local Democratic Party chair to call the event “staged.” Others lawmakers are holding question-and-answer events over the phone or Facebook Live, a social media tool allowing them to speak to a camera while avoiding uncomfortable public exchanges with the citizens they represent.”

Tom Daykin writes that Journal Sentinel block to be redeveloped for newspaper’s offices, other uses: “A preliminary deal has been reached to sell the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s longtime downtown headquarters to a Michigan development firm that plans to renovate it into offices for the newspaper and other businesses as well as street-level restaurant?space. ProVisions LLC, led by Murray Wikol,?also has conceptual plans to demolish a portion of the property, the old Milwaukee Sentinel building, and develop an 18-story office tower at the site….Gannett Co. Inc., which owns the Journal Sentinel, and Troy, Mich.-based ProVisions,?have reached a preliminary sale agreement. The companies hope to complete the transaction by June, Wikol said. “This better supports our business needs moving forward — it will allow us to improve our space for the future, including an emphasis on digital capabilities and collaboration,” said Chris Stegman, Journal Sentinel president. “It reinforces our commitment to the community and will be part of reinvigorating the west side of downtown.” Gannett plans to lease back space on the historic Milwaukee Journal building’s fourth and fifth floors, Wikol and Stegman said.”

(The headline should have read Gannett sells Journal Sentinel Building, Will Lease Back Only Part.)

A Great Pyrenees makes a break for it (but was found safe fifteen hours later sleeping in a nearby yard) —