Good morning. 
Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 5:49 AM and sunset 8:12 PM, for 14h 22m 37s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 23.5% of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1958, the world’s first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus, becomes the first vessel to complete a submerged transit of the geographical North Pole.
Recommended for reading in full —
Devi Shastri and Hope Karnopp report ‘This is madness’: Between politics and public health, UW schools work to adapt for fall:
Now, a proposal by state Sen. Steven Nass, R-Whitewater, is adding to the uncertainty and raising questions about how political influences could still stand to hamper the UW System’s fall planning.
If passed, Nass’ motion would direct the UW Board of Regents to issue its COVID-19 policies as emergency rules subject to legislative approval. The Republican-controlled rules committee, which Nass co-chairs, could then block part or all of those rules.
….
Opponents throughout the UW System say the change, if passed, would at least slow down the system’s reaction time by requiring an added layer of legislative approval for any COVID-19 protocol. At worst, they fear, it would end public health efforts like mask mandates altogether, leaving schools without the tools they used to curb COVID-19’s spread last school year.
“I feel like in some ways, going into this fall is actually worse than March 2020 or going into last fall, because at this point, things have been so politicized, people are so tired,” said Tracy Hawkins, chair of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s faculty senate. “(The pandemic) is not just a blip anymore. It has been a substantial portion of people’s college experience now. So it’s like the emotions of it are running even higher.”
….
Experts from the American College Health Association to the editor-in-chief of the leading journal Science have called for vaccination mandates on college campuses. While UW System schools still have made no indication they would require vaccination against COVID-19 this fall, some 623 campuses nationwide now do, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
That, as of last week, includes half of the Big Ten conference, of which UW-Madison is a part.
Michigan State University was the latest to impose a mandate on indoor masking and COVID-19 vaccination. President Samuel Stanley Jr. wrote that CDC data on the delta variant’s spread among vaccinated people was “concerning and significantly shifts the landscape.”
See also Steve Nass: Troll-King in Autumn.
Mick DeBonis reports As many Republicans try to rewrite history of Jan. 6 attack, Sen. Ron Johnson suggests FBI knew more than it has said:
“I don’t say this publicly, but are you watching what’s happening in Michigan?” Johnson said while discussing the Capitol attack with some of the event’s attendees. “…So you think the FBI had fully infiltrated the militias in Michigan, but they don’t know squat about what was happening on January 6th or what was happening with these groups? I’d say there is way more to the story.”
….
No credible evidence has emerged that the FBI had detailed foreknowledge of a violent assault on the Capitol or that its agents or operatives played a role in fomenting it. No specific claim of FBI involvement has surfaced in court filings made in the hundreds of cases filed against alleged Capitol assailants.
But the allegations have persisted in recent weeks as Republican supporters of former president Donald Trump, who falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election was stolen and encouraged his supporters to march on the Capitol as Congress counted electoral votes on Jan. 6, have consistently sought to finger other culprits for the breach of the Capitol.
See also Whether Ambitious, Compromised, or Crackpot, Sen. Ron Johnson Doesn’t Disappoint.