Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will see morning showers with a high of fifty-five. Sunrise is 6:49 AM and sunset 6:40 PM, for 11h 50m 51s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 88.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
Today is the six hundred eighty-ninth day.
On this day in 1941, Ted Williams becomes the last player to hit over .400 (he finished the season at .406).
Recommended for reading in full — ABA recommends Kavanaugh nomination delay, Walker Admin confiscates millions from disabled, what Erik Prince talked about with Russians, Madison nurse charged with injuring babies, video of the world’s largest battery factory —
Manu Raju reports American Bar Association: Delay Kavanaugh until FBI investigates assault allegations:
The American Bar Association is calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to halt the consideration of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh until an FBI investigation is completed into the sexual assault allegations that have roiled his nomination.
In a strongly worded letter obtained by CNN Thursday, the organization said it is making the extraordinary request “because of the ABA’s respect for the rule of law and due process under law,” siding with concerns voiced by Senate Democrats since Christine Blasey Ford’s decades-old allegations became public.
“The basic principles that underscore the Senate’s constitutional duty of advice and consent on federal judicial nominees require nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI,” said Robert Carlson, president of the organization, in a Thursday night letter addressed to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein.
“Each appointment to our nation’s Highest Court (as with all others) is simply too important to rush to a vote,” Carlson wrote. “Deciding to proceed without conducting additional investigation would not only have a lasting impact on the Senate’s reputation, but it will also negatively affect the great trust necessary for the American people to have in the Supreme Court.”
Daniel Hatcher writes Scott Walker confiscates millions from disabled and orphaned foster children:
Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has been partnering with a private company to search for foster children who are disabled or have dead birth parents — in order to take their money for state revenue. The state is even confiscating veterans’ benefits from foster children whose parents died in the military.
Contract documents obtained by public records request explain the practice. A 2011 contract signed with MAXIMUS Inc. shows that Wisconsin has collaborated with the company to maximize revenue obtained from foster children. In part of the contract focused on Milwaukee County, MAXIMUS has helped the state increase the number of children classified as disabled and to locate children with deceased birth parents — not to provide more services to the children, but so the state can take their resources.
In Milwaukee County alone, the Walker administration has been taking between $3 million and over $4 million in survivor and disability benefits from foster children each year — and the state has been taking millions more from foster children in other jurisdictions.
MAXIMUS has helped the state apply for the children’s Social Security disability (SSI) and and survivor benefits, and helped the state insert itself as representative payee to gain control of the children’s money. As representative payee, the state is obligated to use or conserve the children’s money only in their individualized best interests. But instead, the state abuses its position of trust and diverts the children’s money to state coffers — taking the children’s funds to repay state foster care costs that the children rightfully have no legal obligation to pay for.
Betsy Woodruff and Erin Banco report Revealed: What Erik Prince and Moscow’s Money Man Discussed in That Infamous Seychelles Meeting:
Joint U.S.-Russian raids to kill top terrorists. Teamwork between an American government agency and a sanctioned Russian fund. Moscow pouring money into the Midwest.
These are just a few of the ideas the head of a Russian sovereign wealth fund touched on during his meeting with former Blackwater head Erik Prince in the Seychelles, just weeks before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, according to a memo exclusively reviewed by The Daily Beast.
The meeting between Prince, an influential Trump ally, and Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of the sanctioned fund, took place on Jan. 11, 2017, at the Four Seasons Hotel in a bar overlooking the Indian Ocean. George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman who advises the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates, was also present.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has looked into the meeting as part of his larger investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. And nearly a year after the meeting, Prince told Congress his discussion with Dmitriev was just happenstance and took place “over a beer.” Prince also said he did not attend the meeting as a representative of the Trump team.
Shamane Mills reports NICU Nurse Charged With Injuring Several Infants In Madison Hospital:
A former nurse accused of injuring 10 newborns at a Wisconsin hospital has been charged with child abuse.
A criminal complaint filed in Dane County charges 43-year-old Christopher Kaphaem with 19 felonies relating to injuries on infants born prematurely from March 2017 through early 2018.
….
According to the complaint, a pediatrician with the University of Wisconsin Child Protection program reviewed the records of 40 infants who had been in the neonatal intensive care unit, reviewing medical histories, blood samples and bone mineralization samples to rule out medical causes for injuries to infants.
Investigators later identified a total of 10 infants that Kaphaem had cared for with injuries consistent with child abuse.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says five infants suffered serious injuries. The charges include intentional child abuse and abuse of a patient causing great bodily harm to babies. The injuries ranged from bruises to a broken arm and a skull fracture.
Kaphaem worked in UnityPoint Health-Meriter’s NICU since October of 2016 and worked overnight. Fellow nurses told detectives that Kaphaem would often close the door to do an infant’s care exam.
According to detectives who interviewed nurses who worked with Kaphaem, he had once told a fellow nurse “he was happy to work in the NICU because he would not have to deal with patients talking back to him.”
Get a look at the world’s largest battery factory:
Get a look at the world’s largest battery factory ? pic.twitter.com/yiLp14T7Ho
— CNET (@CNET) September 28, 2018