Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of seventy-five. Sunrise is 5:48 AM and sunset 7:54 PM, for 14h 06m 00s of daytime. The moon is full, with 99.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1803, American representatives sign the Louisiana Purchase Treaty.
On this day in 1864, Joseph Bailey saves a Union fleet: “Joseph Bailey began to direct the men of six regiments, including the 23rd Wisconsin, in a dramatic attempt to save the heart of the Union fleet during the Civil War. Bailey, who was from Wisconsin Dells and an experienced lumberjack, served as an engineer in the 4th Wisconsin Cavalry. In a doomed campaign against the Confederates on the Red River in Louisiana, Union warships found themselves trapped by low water and the rocky river bed. As Confederate soldiers approached, Bailey employed water control techniques used by loggers to construct a series of dams that successfully narrowed the river, raised the water level by six feet, and provided enough surge to free the trapped fleet of gunboats. For his role in this rescue, Bailey was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. He also received a Tiffany punch bowl from his fellow officers. [Wisconsin Lore and Legend, pg. 18.]”
Recommended for reading in full —
➤ Gretchen Brown reports 8 Wisconsin Counties Rated ‘F’ For Air Quality:
When it comes to air quality, Wisconsin is a mixed bag.
A new “State of the Air” report from the American Lung Association gives eight Wisconsin counties an “F” for ozone air quality.
Door, Kenosha, Manitowoc, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Rock, Sheboygan and Walworth counties received failing grades. In addition, Sheboygan made a list of 24 smaller cities with an ozone problem.
➤ Molly Beck reports Department of Corrections not investigating alleged sexual assault at DOC event:
Officials at the state Department of Corrections did not investigate when an employee reported she was sexually assaulted by a co-worker at a staff golf outing and asked the department to address it.
Instead, DOC officials told the Oakhill Correctional Institution employee to contact police on her own, recently released state records show. And when she filed a complaint with the state alleging she was the target of discrimination and harassment because of the 2016 incident, DOC denied responsibility — in part because she waited more than a month to report the alleged assault to her supervisors.
The records were released to the Wisconsin State Journal in response to a request by the newspaper in November under the state’s open records law amid increased scrutiny on how government institutions address complaints of sexual harassment and assault.
The former employee stopped working at Oakhill, in part, because of what she described as a hostile work environment after the alleged assault. Her husband, who also worked at the prison, resigned because prison administrators did not look into his wife’s allegations.
➤ Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Michael Scherer write Meet the little-known ‘big fish’ megadonor setting the tone for GOP primary races:
Behind just about every divisive Senate Republican primary this year, an amiable Midwestern businessman is bankrolling the candidate who claims to be the most hard-charging, anti-establishment conservative in the race.
Richard Uihlein, a wealthy shipping-supplies magnate from Illinois who shuns the spotlight, has risen to become one of the most powerful — and disruptive — GOP donors in the country.
For years, Uihlein has given money to isolated races in the service of his anti-union, free-market and small-government views. But he has dramatically increased his giving this cycle, pouring $21 million into races from Montana to West Virginia to ensure more conservative victories in the upcoming midterm elections, Federal Election Commission records show.
The beneficiaries of Uihlein’s largesse include upstart candidates such as Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who has made preserving the Confederate symbol in the state flag a centerpiece of his campaign for U.S. Senate. Uihlein gave tens of thousands of dollars to support failed Senate hopeful Roy Moore (R) in Alabama, doubling down even after multiple women accused Moore of unwanted sexual advances toward them when they were in their teens, FEC records show.
(Wisconsinites know Uihlein well. Let him waste his money on the neo-Confederate dregs.)
➤ Jennifer Rubin contends Trump has already been ‘played’:
President Trump looks with disdain on those who get snookered, which is odd since he’s the easiest of marks for anyone with a red carpet and a batch of insincere compliments.
His defensiveness about being “played” was evident when asked about the upcoming meeting with North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Un. “We’re not going to be played, okay? We’re going to hopefully make a deal, if not that’s fine,” he said on Friday at the White House during a press availability. He claims he is different from all previous presidents. Sadly, that is true — he is more ignorant and susceptible to flattery than any of his predecessors.
Trump shows every sign he is already being suckered. He blessed talks between South and North Korea on formally ending the Korean War and tweeted gleefully the war might be over. Does he know they cannot end it on their own without other parties to the armistice, including China? Chances are he doesn’t know this is part of a stage show designed to lure in an American president blinded by his own need for personal affirmation.
➤ NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory describes Bringing Mars Back To Earth: