Good morning.
Bastille Day in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of seventy-three. Sunrise is 5:30 AM and sunset 8:31 PM, for 15h 01m 24s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 73% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}two hundred forty-seventh day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
Whitewater’s Police & Fire Commission is scheduled to meet at 6 PM this evening.
On this day in 1789, French citizens storm the Bastille, freeing the seven inmates held there, as part of a broader movement against the French monarchy. On this day in 1948, Janesville sprays for bugs: “intending to create a bug-free environment, Janesville tested a DDT fogging machine that quickly emitted a “smokescreen of insect-killing fog.” City officials hoped to persuade the county to buy the machine for use by all municipalities or to buy it jointly with Beloit.”
Recommended for reading in full —
Matt Shuham reports that Trump Changes Tune On Russian Lawyer Meeting: ‘Maybe It Was Mentioned’:
Emails released Tuesday by Donald Trump Jr., ahead of a New York Times story on the same messages, show the President’s son responding enthusiastically to the promise of dirt on Hillary Clinton provided as part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s campaign.
On Wednesday afternoon, Trump told Reuters that “No. That I didn’t know. Until a couple of days ago, when I heard about this. No I didn’t know about that,” referring to the meeting between Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort.
Trump changed his tune later in the day, when he told reporters on Air Force One: “In fact maybe it was mentioned at some point,” referring to the meeting. (Reporters on the plane initially thought the conversation was off-the-record, but the President said otherwise on Thursday.)
Trump promised America the best people, the best words, but Justin Elliott reports that Trump Lawyer Marc Kasowitz Threatens Stranger in Emails: ‘Watch Your Back , Bitch’:
Marc Kasowitz, President Trump’s personal attorney on the Russia case, threatened a stranger in a string of profanity-laden emails Wednesday night.
The man, a retired public relations professional in the western United States who asked not to be identified, read ProPublica’s story this week on Kasowitz and sent the lawyer an email with the subject line: “Resign Now.’’
Kasowitz replied with series of angry messages sent between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern time. One read: “I’m on you now. You are fucking with me now Let’s see who you are Watch your back , bitch.”
In another email, Kasowitz wrote: “Call me. Don’t be afraid, you piece of shit. Stand up. If you don’t call, you’re just afraid.” And later: “I already know where you live, I’m on you. You might as well call me. You will see me. I promise. Bro.”
Lloyd Grove explains Why Sean Hannity’s Juiciest Blockbusters [Pro-Trump Distortions] Come From Circa News:
Sean Hannity is a big fan, and its critics say Circa News is a dedicated messenger for the Trump White House. But Circa claims it is aimed at ‘independent-minded millennials’….
In late 2015—less than a year after that Wired valentine [a puff piece on Circa in Wired Magazine]—Circa was purchased for an estimated $800,000 by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the nation’s biggest owner of local television stations.
Sinclair owns more than 170 stations currently, but if its $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media receives regulatory approval that number could conceivably grow to more than 230 stations across 108 television markets, including the widely watched cable channel WGN.
Sinclair promptly remade Circa in its own image, yet has stoutly denied reports in both Politico and The Washington Post that it cut an access-for-favorable-coverage deal with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. It was recently the target of a John Oliver takedown as a powerful purveyor of right-wing nonsense.
Discarding the original vision and replacing it with what critics claim is a stealthy emphasis on right-leaning, Trump-friendly content, Sinclair launched Circa News last July and, in recent months, has become a favorite of Sean Hannity among other Fox News personalities, along with embattled presidential son Donald Trump Jr. (a serial retweeter of Circa News stories), tendentious White House talking head Sebastian Gorka, and alt-right populist Trumpkin Mike Cernovich.
Rob Schulz reports that a Jury awards $7 million in damages after finding 2 Madison police officers used unreasonable force in 2014 fatal shooting:
Two Madison police officers used unreasonable force when they shot and killed a 26-year-old woman who was pointing a gun at her head during a 2014 incident, a jury found Thursday, awarding her family $7 million in damages.
The six-woman, two-man jury deliberated for about 3½ hours before ruling in the federal civil lawsuit brought by the family of Ashley DiPiazza against the officers, Justin Bailey and Gary Pihlaja. Bailey is no longer with the department.
After further deliberations, jurors awarded the family $4 million in compensatory and $3 million in punitive damages….
DiPiazza’s family contended that DiPiazza, a forklift operator at Pitney Bowes in Madison who was described by friends and family as fun-loving and loyal, was shot without making any threats to hurt anybody or pointing the gun toward anybody but herself. The suit claimed DiPiazza’s constitutional rights against unreasonable searches and seizures were violated when Bailey and Pihlaja shot her 11 times inside her MacArthur Road apartment. It also alleged Leerek, who was negotiating with DiPiazza, did nothing to stop them.
(Emphasis added.)
PBS NewsHour reports that an Elephant out for a swim gets emergency rescue at sea: