Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of eighty-four. Sunrise is 5:25 AM and sunset 8:34 PM, for 15h 08m 49s of daytime. The moon is in its first quarter with 50.3% of its visible disk illuminated.Today is the nine hundred seventy-third day.
The Whitewater School District’s Policy Review Committee meets at 8 AM.
On this day in 1863, the Siege of Jackson, Mississippi continues with several Wisconsin units participating.
Recommended for reading in full:
Michael Gerson writes American greatness needs to include humane treatment of migrants:
President Trump’s Fourth of July remarks did make reference to the abstract promises of the Declaration of Independence, but he mainly praised his nation as a place and a power.
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Contrast this with the national story told by Ronald Reagan or Franklin D. Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy or George W. Bush. American ideals — while growing out of a specific culture — are transcendent and universal. Though military power is essential, the nation advances on the strength of democratic hopes. It wins a global competition of ideals because it accords most closely with the durable dreams of humanity for liberty and justice.
This differing emphasis has dramatic implications. If the United States is primarily a normal nation, united by a common culture, then it is diluted by outsiders and weakened by diversity. In this circumstance, cultural differences lead inexorably to conflict and disunity. A nation defined primarily by culture or ethnicity is a fortress to be defended.
But if the United States somehow embodies the best and highest of human aspirations — separate from culture and ethnicity — then there is hope of mutual progress. “America has never been united by blood or birth or soil,” said George W. Bush in his first inaugural address. “We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.”
Lisa Rein, Michael Kranish, and Josh Dawsey report Epstein indictment renews questions about earlier case handled by Trump Cabinet official:
The indictment Monday of Jeffrey Epstein on sex trafficking charges has reignited questions about the way Alexander Acosta — now President Trump’s labor secretary — handled an earlier case against Epstein that resulted in a minimal sentence.
As U.S. attorney in Florida in 2007, Acosta negotiated a plea deal that led to two felony solicitation charges and 13 months in county jail for Epstein, with the billionaire financier allowed to work from his office six days a week. Epstein had been facing the possibility of life in prison. His alleged victims were not told about the deal.
On Monday, in the indictment issued in federal court in New York, Epstein faced charges resulting from allegations like those in the Florida case. The indictment says that “in both New York and Florida,” Epstein “perpetuated this abuse in similar ways.”