Good morning. 
Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 54. Sunrise is 6:11 AM and sunset 7:38 PM, for 13h 26m 59s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 9.9% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 2019, the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris in France is seriously damaged by a large fire.
Recommended for reading in full —
Bill Glauber reports Wisconsin Treasurer Sarah Godlewski joins Democratic race for Ron Johnson’s U.S. Senate seat in 2022:
Taking the fight straight to Republican Ron Johnson, state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski announced Wednesday that she’s running for U.S. Senate.
Godlewski joined an increasingly crowded field of Democratic hopefuls eager to challenge Johnson, who has not yet announced if he’ll seek a third term in the U.S. Senate next year.
In a video to launch her campaign, Godlewski sought to set up a contrast with Johnson and said: “We’re … how do I put it nicely? Different.”
“Ron Johnson has spent his time covering up for Donald Trump, denying climate change and catering to the super-wealthy,” she said.
Godlewski fiercely criticized Johnson’s comments on the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, in which he said, “This really didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me.”
Godlewski declared: “I don’t think you show respect by beating and killing police officers.”
Julian E. Barnes, David E. Sanger and Lara Jakes report Biden Administration to Impose Tough Sanctions on Russia
(‘Administration officials were determined to draft a response that would impose real costs on Moscow, as many previous rounds of sanctions have been shrugged off’):
“It will not simply be sanctions,” Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, said in February. He has frequently said it will include “a mix of tools seen and unseen,” though there have been disagreements in the administration about how many of the steps to make public.
Restrictions on sovereign debt affect a nation’s ability to raise dollar-denominated bonds, with lenders fearful of being cut off from American financial markets. The United States has used similar techniques against Iran, among others.
Russian bond prices have fluctuated in recent weeks in anticipation of possible sanctions. Russia has relatively little debt, making it potentially less vulnerable to the tactic. And rising oil prices will benefit the country’s economy.
Nevertheless, any broad sanctions on Russia’s financial sector would amount to a significant escalation in the costs that the United States has been willing to impose on Moscow. And part of the administration’s concern has been whether Russian entities could retaliate by exploiting “back doors” implanted in American systems.
Elaine Godfrey writes The Rural Pandemic Isn’t Ending:
It’s possible—even probable—public-health experts told me, that months from now, some rural areas will still have very low vaccination rates, providing isolated havens for the coronavirus. That outcome could be calamitous. First, as long as unvaccinated individuals live together in a community, frequenting the same shops, offices, and classrooms, the virus can find hosts through which to spread. Second, and even worse, a virus left unchecked will evolve—that’s what viruses do best—and could become more infectious, more lethal, and more resistant to existing vaccines. Which means that, ultimately, a new, super-charged coronavirus variant could create the conditions for another epidemic, the experts told me. This is why “we need people vaccinated now, not four months from now,” says Alan Morgan, the CEO of the nonprofit National Rural Health Association.
See also Red states on U.S. electoral map lagging on vaccinations.
Michelangelo’s David: Inside the high-tech project to create a perfect 3D ‘twin’: