Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny, with an even chance of scattered afternoon thundershowers, and a high of sixty-six. Sunrise is 5:19 AM and sunset 8:25 PM, for 15h 06m 21s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 29.5% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}two hundred third day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1911, Ray Harroun wins the inaugural race of the Indianapolis 500. On this day in 1864, the Wisconsin 2nd, 6th, 7th, and 36th Infantry regiments participate in the battle at Bethesda Church, Virginia.
Recommended for reading in full —
France 24 recorded the exchange where French Pres. Macron slams RT, Sputnik news as ‘lying propaganda’ at Putin press conference:
P.R. Lockhart reports that Women Are Now Living With the Fear of Deportation If They Report Domestic Violence:
President Donald Trump’s January executive orders on immigration worried advocates working with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, who argued that their clients and other victims of crime would no longer be willing to seek help or cooperate with law enforcement. Their concerns were further justified when police departments in Los Angeles and Houston announced that Latinos in those cities were reporting sexual assaults at lower rates in the wake of hostile rhetoric and enforcement activity targeting undocumented immigrants. Now, a new survey provides the data that demonstrates a noticeable shift in immigrant survivors’ contacts with victim services providers in recent months.
“The results of this survey are troubling,” Cecilia Friedman Levin, senior policy counsel for ASISTA Immigration Assistance, said in a recent press call discussing the survey results. “It represents that there is uncertainty and distrust around the institutions that are supposed to provide [survivors] with protection and safety.”
Mathew Rosenberg, Mark Mazzetti, and Maggie Haberman write that Investigation Turns to Kushner’s Motives in Meeting With a Putin Ally:
WASHINGTON — Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, was looking for a direct line to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia — a search that in mid-December found him in a room with a Russian banker whose financial institution was deeply intertwined with Russian intelligence, and remains under sanction by the United States.
Federal and congressional investigators are now examining what exactly Mr. Kushner and the Russian banker, Sergey N. Gorkov, wanted from each other. The banker is a close associate of Mr. Putin, but he has not been known to play a diplomatic role for the Russian leader. That has raised questions about why he was meeting with Mr. Kushner at a crucial moment in the presidential transition, according to current and former officials familiar with the investigations.
Ryan Lizza asks How Worried Should Jared Kushner Be?:
The main takeaway from the Kushner news is similar to the takeaway from Trump and Flynn’s handling of the Russia probes. In each case, we have a series of actions by people who seem to be concealing specific contacts with Russians connected to the Kremlin’s intelligence services and then acting to thwart an investigation. Flynn lied about his contacts with Kislyak. Trump tried to kill the F.B.I. investigation of Flynn and eventually fired his F.B.I. director. Kushner hid his contacts with Russian officials and then pressed his father-in-law to sack Comey, who was looking into the matter. “Anytime someone on the Trump campaign conceals or misleads about a contact they had with Russia at the time of Russia’s interference campaign, that’s a big red flag,” Eric Swalwell, the Democratic congressman, who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said.
Today I Found Out recounts The Great Emu War of 1932: