Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of eighty-two. Sunrise is 5:38 AM and sunset 8:23 PM, for 14h 44m 59s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 54.9% of its visible disk illuminated.Today is the nine hundred eighty-eighth day.
Whitewater’s Seed Capital Screening Committee (yes, really) meets at 4:30 PM.
On this day in 1969, Apollo 11’s astronauts splashdown after an eight-day journey and successful landing on the moon.
Recommended for reading in full:
Guy Boulton reports The state’s economy depends on manufacturers. They’re worried that a downturn is approaching:
But the outlook for manufacturing — which accounts for an estimated 16% of the state’s workforce, compared with 8.5% nationally — is less upbeat.
“Slower growth is ahead,” said Mike Halloran, an analyst with Baird who follows companies such as Gardner Denver Holdings, an industrial company based in Milwaukee.
Economic growth has slowed in China. Europe could slip into a downturn. Japan’s economy remains sluggish. And the tariffs imposed on imports from China have added to the uncertainty about the economic outlook.
That’s increased the caution of the companies that cut, stamp and forge the tools and dies, components and equipment that underpin industry.
The Institute for Supply Management’s survey of purchasing managers, a widely followed index commonly known as the PMI, showed that the manufacturing sector expanded in June, with the economy growing for the 122nd consecutive month.
But the rate of growth slowed for the third straight month, and the index was at its lowest level since October 2016. The New Orders Index showed no growth.
“There is a lot of caution around ordering,” said Richard Eastman, a senior research analyst who covers industrial technology for Baird.
Separately, the Conference Board Leading Economic Index released last week for June had the largest decline in three years. And though the stock market has hit record highs, the bond market is betting on weak growth at best.
Margaret Sullivan writes The media is getting a second chance to cover Robert Mueller’s findings — and this time get it right:
In political media, as in love, there aren’t many chances to correct a serious wrong.
But the news media will get just that on Wednesday when Robert S. Mueller III testifies before Congress, months after his long-awaited report on Donald Trump and possible Russian collusion to swing the 2016 election was competed.
Recall how gullible — and therefore misleading to the public — the news media was in March when Attorney General William Barr characterized the unreleased report in a four-page letter.
Coverage of that letter set in place an inaccurate narrative that has been almost impossible to dislodge.
Many news organizations, including some of the most prominent, took what Barr said at face value or mischaracterized the report’s findings.
They essentially transmitted to the public — especially in all-important headlines and cable-news bulletins — what President Trump desperately wanted as the takeaway: No collusion; no obstruction.