Good morning. 
Thursday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy, with scattered thunderstorms, and a high of 78. Sunrise is 5:17 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 19m 46s of daytime. The moon is full with 99.9% of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM, and the Whitewater Fire Department at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1947, Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.
Recommended for reading in full —
Reid J. Epstein reports Michigan Republicans Debunk Voter Fraud Claims in Unsparing Report:
A committee led by Michigan Republicans on Wednesday published an extraordinary debunking of voter fraud claims in the state, delivering a comprehensive rebuke to a litany of accusations about improprieties in the 2020 election and its aftermath.
The 55-page report, produced by a Michigan State Senate committee of three Republicans and one Democrat, is a systematic rebuttal to an array of false claims about the election from supporters of former President Donald J. Trump. The authors focus overwhelmingly on Michigan, but they also expose lies perpetuated about the vote-counting process in Georgia.
The report is unsparing in its criticism of those who have promoted false theories about the election. It debunks claims from Trump allies including Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow; Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former president’s lawyer; and Mr. Trump himself.
Yet while the report eviscerates claims about election fraud, its authors also use the allegations to urge their legislative colleagues to change Michigan’s voting laws to make absentee voting harder and limit the availability of drop boxes for absentee ballots, as Republicans have done in other swing states as they try to limit voting.
William G. Gale and Darrell M. West write Make Election Day a national holiday:
As Congress continues to grapple with voting rights legislation this week, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has used his considerable influence as the Senate’s key swing vote to set the terms of the debate. Last week his office released a list of voting rights provisions he would support. At the top of his list: making Election Day a national holiday. Without this simple step toward turning out as many Americans as possible to vote, any reform will be incomplete.
So far this year, hundreds of bills have been introduced that could have the effect of suppressing people’s right to vote. States such as Georgia and Iowa already have passed restrictive measures and many others appear poised to do the same thing. These efforts challenge fundamental values of American democracy and constitute a serious threat to the “one person, one vote” principle.
Abigail Becker reports Madison nearing launch of mobile crisis response team:
Madison is preparing to launch the city’s first mobile unit of unarmed first responders and mental health providers who will respond to people in a nonviolent, emergency mental health crisis by bringing interventions to them.
Ald. Arvina Martin, District 11, pushed the city to create the pilot program, called Community Alternative Response for Emergency Services or CARES. She said it could be “life changing.”
“I’m really really excited that we are taking some steps in order to make our treatments and how we address mental health emergencies in the city something that will provide better outcomes for them and hopefully not to involve the criminal justice system,” Martin said at a public input session on the program Tuesday.
The $600,000 pilot program will consist of two teams that each include a Madison Fire Department community paramedic and a mental health worker from Journey Mental Health. Though the long term vision is to operate the program 24/7 throughout Dane County, the teams will initially respond to nonviolent 911 mental health calls Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in downtown Madison.