Good morning.
Midweek in Whitewater will bring thunderstorms and a high of seventy. Sunrise is 5:54 AM and sunset 7:50 PM, for 13h 56m 25s of daytime. We’ve a new moon today. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred sixty-ninth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1986, a catastrophic nuclear accident at the occurs at reactor No.4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, in the Soviet Union. On this day in 1865, the 10th Wisconsin Light Artillery musters out: “It had fought in the battles of Stones River, Resaca, Jonesboro, and Bentonville, the sieges of Corinth and Nashville, the Atlanta Campaign, and Sherman’s March to the Sea. In three years the battery lost only 28 men, three killed in combat and 25 from disease.”
Recommended for reading in full —
M.B. Pell, Joshua Schneyer, and Andy Sullivan report that Hundreds more lead hotspots are identified as Trump prepares to gut programs: “An ongoing Reuters investigation has found another 449 areas around the U.S. with lead exposure rates double those found in Flint. But cities across the country say pending federal budget cuts could imperil efforts to eradicate the toxic metal. “If they go and snatch these funds away, where are we going to get help from?” [Mother of three Laicie] Manzella said. It’s a question being asked in cities across the United States bracing for cuts in programs that identify and eradicate lead poisoning hazards. Awareness of lead poisoning escalated following Flint’s crisis, and more recently from Reuters reporting that has identified more than 3,300 areas with childhood lead poisoning rates at least double those found in the Michigan city. Some of the areas slated to be hit hardest supported Trump in November’s election, though he lost Erie County, where Buffalo is the county seat.”
Lisa Rein reports that the Slow pace of Trump nominations leaves Cabinet agencies ‘stuck’ in staffing limbo: “The Senate has confirmed 26 of Trump’s picks for his Cabinet and other top posts. But for 530 other vacant senior-level jobs requiring Senate confirmation, the president has advanced just 37 nominees, according to data tracked by The Washington Post and the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition. These posts include the deputy secretaries and undersecretaries, chief financial officers, ambassadors, general counsels, and heads of smaller agencies who run the government day-to-day.”
Christine Hauser reports that Chobani Yogurt Sues Alex Jones Over Sexual Assault Report: “The suit, filed on Monday in district court in Twin Falls County, Idaho, named Mr. Jones and the media companies InfoWars and Free Speech Systems as defendants. It called “false” and “defamatory” several reports that appeared on InfoWars alleging that the company’s factory in Idaho, which employs refugees, was connected to a 2016 child sexual assault and a rise in tuberculosis cases. The reports were published April 11 on InfoWars.com and on “The Alex Jones Channel” on YouTube. They were promoted on Twitter under the headline “Idaho Yogurt Maker Caught Importing Migrant Rapists,” and were spread widely online. The founder of Chobani, Hamdi Ulukaya, a Turkish immigrant of Kurdish descent, has been the target of right-wing threats by people who accuse him of employing too many refugees in his factories, which began as a yogurt business in upstate New York and expanded to Twin Falls, a city of about 46,500 south of Boise.”
Jane Eisner observes that Ivanka And Jared Are Spectacularly Unqualified — And Why That Matters: “To cite a recent New York Times story, they “have emerged as President Trump’s most important advisers, at least for now.” And surely the most unqualified ones to ever hold such august positions. But that last part doesn’t seem to matter. Because beyond everything else — the astonishing conflicts of interest and the continued, brazen self-enrichment — these two represent the end of any expectation that expertise is required for government work. Even in a Cabinet that is viewed as the most inexperienced in American history, the president’s daughter and son-in-law stand out for having neither the knowledge nor the experience to reasonably pursue any of the many missions they have been given. They have never sought or held public office, never worked in the civic sphere, never served in the military, never helped craft policy, never made their own name or their own millions — never done anything, really, but follow in the footsteps of their rapacious fathers and build on what they were bequeathed.”
What it’s like to go to a cherry blossom festival in Japan? It’s like this —