Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a stray shower and a high of sixty-eight. Sunrise is 5:57 AM and sunset 7:48 PM, for 13h 50m 34s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 68.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1800, the Library of Congress is established.
On this day in 1977, the Morris Pratt Institute leaves Whitewater (for Waukesha).
Recommended for reading in full —
➤ Stephanie Saul reports The Fight for Wisconsin Is On as Outside Money Pours Into Senate Race:
For many national Republicans, Ms. Baldwin has emerged as the top target in the 2018 midterms: Donors from outside the state are spending twice as much money on the race so far as on any other Senate contest this year, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics. Much of the money has gone toward television and radio ads.
The big spending doesn’t just signal that each party sees the Senate seat as winnable. It’s also a measure of intensity on both sides to prevail in Wisconsin after Donald J. Trump shocked Democrats in 2016 by being the first Republican presidential nominee to carry the state since 1984. National Democrats are bent on winning it back in 2020 — and getting Ms. Baldwin re-elected is a crucial step toward that goal.
The fight may become the most expensive Wisconsin Senate race ever: An analysis by the state Democratic Party found that nearly $10 million in advertising had already aired or been purchased by outside groups against Ms. Baldwin or in favor of Mr. Nicholson. (Mr. Nicholson’s camp put the number at nearly $9 million.) At least another $3.7 million in advertising is underway sponsored by outside groups in favor of Ms. Baldwin.
(A vote for Kevin Nicholson or Leah Vukmir is a vote for someone who will, on key issues, support Trump. Rand Paul, for example, was supposed to be an independent-minded, libertarian-oriented Republican; he’s nothing more than another dependable Trump vote in the U.S. Senate.)
➤ Thomas Beaumont and Scott Bauer report Democrats see Wisconsin as proving ground for party revival:
Since Republican Donald Trump’s surprise win in Wisconsin helped put him in the White House, Miller and other Democrats have channeled their anger and soul-searching into races closer to home, racking up unexpected victories that have alarmed Republicans across the country.
The epicenter of the Republican resurgence of eight years ago, Wisconsin is now the proving ground for a Democratic revival. The work of Miller and activists like her could play an important role in the fight for control of the House and Senate in November’s midterm elections. But their goal is more broad. One knock at a time, Democrats are seeking to rebuild their hold on the Upper Midwest and with it their hopes of winning the White House in 2020.
(It’s not just Democrats who want a revival here: some of us are neither Democrats nor Republicans, but seek a complete end to Trumpism, and the careers of each and every officeholder who supports it.)
➤ Vernon Silver reports Flight Records Illuminate Mystery of Trump’s Moscow Nights:
President Donald Trump twice gave James Comey an alibi for why a salacious report about the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow couldn’t be true: He never even spent the night in Russia during that trip, Trump told the former FBI director, according to Comey’s memos about the conversations.
Yet the broad timeline of Trump’s stay, stretching from Friday, Nov. 8, 2013, through the following Sunday morning, has been widely reported. And it’s substantiated by social media posts that show he slept in Moscow the night before the Miss Universe contest.
Now, flight records obtained by Bloomberg provide fresh details. Combined with existing accounts and Trump’s own social-media posts, they capture two days that, nearly five years later, loom large in the controversy engulfing the White House and at the heart of the Comey memos, which the Justice Department turned over last week to Congress.Neither the White House nor Trump Organization immediately responded to requests for comment.
(Predictable: Trump proved a liar yet again.)
➤ Elizabeth Dwoskin and Craig Timberg report How merchants use Facebook to flood Amazon with fake reviews:
SAN FRANCISCO — On Amazon, customer comments can help a product surge in popularity. The online retail giant says that more than 99 percent of its reviews are legitimate because they are written by real shoppers who aren’t paid for them.
But a Washington Post examination found that for some popular product categories, such as Bluetooth headphones and speakers, the vast majority of reviews appear to violate Amazon’s prohibition on paid reviews. Such reviews have certain characteristics, such as repetitive wording that people probably cut and paste in.
Many of these fraudulent reviews originate on Facebook, where sellers seek shoppers on dozens of networks, including Amazon Review Club and Amazon Reviewers Group, to give glowing feedback in exchange for money or other compensation. The practice artificially inflates the ranking of thousands of products, experts say, misleading consumers.
➤ James Gorman and Christopher Whitworth explain How This Beetle Evolved to Mimic Ants: