Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of sixty. Sunrise is 6:33 AM and sunset 7:23 PM, for 12h 50m 07s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 35.7% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred forty-fifth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1917, Pres. Wilson asks Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. On this day in 1865, the 5th, 6th, 7th, 19th, 36th, 37th and 38th Wisconsin Infantry regiments participate in the final assault on Petersburg, which brought about the fall of Richmond. (The 5th Wisconsin Infantry was in front at the charge and their flag was the first one planted on the rebel works.)
Recommended for reading in full —
A Whitewater day care investigated after 2-year-old found wandering by highway:
“WHITEWATER, Wis. – A 2-year-old who was supposed to be at a day care in Whitewater was found alone outdoors by strangers, according to police and the men who found the girl. Department of Children and Families Communications Director Joe Scialfa confirmed that the agency received a complaint against the The Learning Depot child care center related to the Whitewater incident. The Learning Depot is on Highway 59, the same road where Madl said the girl was found. DCF’s childcare rating and complaint-tracking system, YoungStar, had records of multiple violations during licensing visits by state officials in April, May and August of 2015 and April, July and November of 2016. Violations ranged from uncovered garbage cans, inaccurate record keeping to child-tracking procedures. YoungStar records show The Learning Depot was sent a warning letter on Aug. 31, 2016, for a violation in July in which a staff member reported having 11 children in her group, but officials counted 12 and only 10 were signed in. A violation of close supervision was noted on April 4, 2016, which YoungStar described as “Children were not closely supervised when they ran ahead of the teacher when leaving the center and crossing the parking lot to play on the driveway while cars were driving through this same area.” The center was fined $100 for an incident July 11 for an incident in which a 5-year-old was allowed to enter the building unsupervised from the playground to use the bathroom. A message left with The Learning Depot staff Friday was not immediately returned. Scalfa said DCF is investigating the Thursday incident.”
Matt Reed cautions Trump Is President. Now Encrypt Your Email: “This is more than a philosophical concern about the hypothetical violation of privacy rights; it’s a practical one, and not just for groups who have specific fears of federal intrusion — undocumented immigrants, say, who want to communicate with family or lawyers away from the predatory gaze of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or journalists seeking to protect confidential sources. As lawyers and civil libertarians point out, federal criminal law is so vast and complicated that it is easy to unwittingly violate it, and even innocent conversation can later be used to build a criminal case. Encrypting your communication isn’t a matter of hiding criminal activity; it’s a matter of ensuring innocuous activity can’t be deemed suspicious by a zealous prosecutor or intelligence agent. Telling a friend that a party is really going to “blow up” when you arrive is less funny when it’s being entered into evidence against you.”
Nicholas Kristof writes that In Trump Country, Shock at Trump Budget Cuts, but Still Loyalty: ““This program makes sense,” said Banks, who was placed by the program into a job as a receptionist for a senior nutrition program. Banks said she depends on the job to make ends meet, and for an excuse to get out of the house. “If I lose this job,” she said, “I’ll sit home and die.” Yet she said she might still vote for Trump in 2020. And that’s a refrain I heard over and over. Some of the loyalty seemed to be grounded in resentment at Democrats for mocking Trump voters as dumb bigots, some from a belief that budgets are complicated, and some from a sense that it’s too early to abandon their man. They did say that if jobs didn’t reappear, they would turn against him. One recent survey found that only 3 percent of Trump voters would vote differently if the election were today (and most of those would vote for third-party candidates; only 1 percent said they would switch to voting for Hillary Clinton). Elizabeth Hays, 27, said her life changed during her freshman year in high school, when four upperclassmen raped her. Domestic Violence Intervention Services rescued her, she said, by helping her understand that the rape wasn’t her fault. She’s profoundly grateful to the organization — yet she stands by Trump even as she is dismayed that he wants to slash support for a group that helped her when she needed it most. “We have to look at what we spend money on,” she said, adding, “I will stand behind my president.”
[Many Trump supporters will stand by him, and yet his particular ruin will come despite their support. They can’t save Trump. Successful opposition to Trump demands from a focus at the top, not the supporters about whom Trump nerver cared, and will soon enough abandon. Their loyalty to him will not – indeed has not – been reciprocated. See, Trump, His Inner Circle, Principal Surrogates, and Media Defenders.]Susan Svrluga reports that A student says school officials stopped him from handing out copies of the Constitution. Now he’s suing: “Kevin Shaw was handing out copies of the U.S. Constitution to students at Pierce College in Los Angeles when he was stopped by a school official and told that he was only allowed to do so in the “free-speech zone” on campus and would need a permit, the philosophy and political science student says. “These are our rights,” Shaw said this week, after filing a lawsuit in federal court against the college and the Los Angeles Community College District, which requires all campuses to have such zones. “Why should the school be able to set which groups are allowed to speak, and who is allowed their First Amendment rights?”….Shaw’s case launches a national effort by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education to combat “free-speech zones” on campuses, which the group has long criticized as unconstitutional. “At the very moment when colleges and universities should be encouraging open debate and the active exchange of ideas, Pierce College instead sends the message to its students that free speech is suspect and should be ever more tightly controlled,” Arthur Willner, an attorney working with FIRE on the case, said in a statement. “This does a disservice to the student body, as well as being contrary to long-established law.”
Great Big Story presents Lines in the Sand: When the Beach Becomes a Canvas —
Lines in the Sand: When the Beach Becomes a Canvas from Great Big Story on Vimeo.
Anyone can write their name in the sand, but Jim Denevan uses the beach to create stunning large-scale art. What started as a hobby over 20 years ago has resulted in worldwide recognition, and he’s created masterworks from Russia to Chile to Australia. At the end of the day, though, Jim’s just happy to find a new beach to make his canvas.