Good morning.
Whitewater will see a rainy Thursday with a high of fifty-four. Sunrise is 6:14 AM and sunset 7:35 PM, for 13h 21m 21s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 95.3% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred fifty-sixth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1743, Thomas Jefferson is born. On this day in 1864, the 14th, 29th, 33rd Wisconsin Infantry regiments help repulse Confederate troops attacking Union transport ships headed upstream on the Red River Expedition.
Recommended for reading in full —
Mike McIntire reports that After Campaign Exit, Manafort Borrowed From Businesses With Trump Ties: “Aug. 19 was an eventful day for Paul Manafort. That morning, he stepped down from guiding Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign, after a brief tenure during which Mr. Trump won the Republican nomination, Democrats’ emails were hacked and the campaign’s contacts with Russia came under scrutiny. Dogged by revelations about past financial dealings in Ukraine, Mr. Manafort retreated from public view. But behind the scenes, he was busy with other matters. Papers were recorded that same day creating a shell company controlled by Mr. Manafort that soon received $13 million in loans from two businesses with ties to Mr. Trump, including one that partners with a [pro-Russian] Ukrainian-born billionaire and another led by a Trump economic adviser. They were among $20 million in loans secured by properties belonging to Mr. Manafort and his wife.”
Kelsey Sutton reports that GAO says it’s investigating Trump transition team: “The Government Accountability Office will investigate whether members of President Donald Trump’s transition team followed federal guidelines and ethics rules during the presidential transition, following complaints lodged by Democratic lawmakers in November. In a letter dated April 5 to Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the GAO confirmed that it would examine the transition team, including reviewing its use of federal funds and looking into the team’s communications with foreign governments. The letter was posted to Warren’s website this week and reported by The Associated Press on Wednesday.”
Jay Elwes conducts an interview with Richard Dearlove, the fomer head of Britain’s MI6, for Interview: Richard Dearlove—I spy nationalism: “…the allegations that members of Trump’s staff had illegal contact with the Russian government during the election campaign are “unprecedented,” said Dearlove. As for the president’s personal position, he said, “What lingers for Trump may be what deals—on what terms—he did after the financial crisis of 2008 to borrow Russian money when others in the west apparently would not lend to him.” I also asked Dearlove about Trump’s suggestion that the US National Security Agency (NSA) or British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) had bugged Trump Tower on the instructions of Barack Obama. This allegation was flatly rejected by both organisations and also by James Comey, Director of the FBI, who told Congress in a March hearing that “we have no information to support” Trump’s claim. “This is simply deeply embarrassing,” said Dearlove, “for Trump and the administration, that is. The only possible explanation is that Trump started tweeting without understanding how the NSA-GCHQ relationship actually works.”
Kaitlin Menza writes that Audience Laughs as Kellyanne Conway Complains About Liars: “She spoke at D.C.’s Newseum during an all-day examination of journalism in the Trump era. Other speakers included recent Pulitzer winner David Farenthold of the Washington Post and press secretary Sean Spicer. What does Conway, the woman who coined the term “alternative facts” to describe the information that President Trump relayed to the country regarding his inauguration crowd size, have to say about honesty in the media? “You can turn on the TV—more than you can read in the paper because I assume editors are still doing their jobs in most places—and people literally say things that just aren’t true,” Conway said with no trace of irony. The crowd at the Newseum promptly laughed in her face, to which she nodded and smiled as if to note she was in on the joke.”
Some laughs as @KellyannePolls says “You can turn on the TV…and people literally say things that just aren’t true.” pic.twitter.com/9CKVQV7fJM
— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) April 12, 2017
Watch as a bald eagle protects her eaglet in during storm that spawned tornado in Washington: