Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 48.  Sunrise is 6:57 AM and sunset 7:06 PM, for 12h 09m 28s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 30% of its visible disk illuminated.

Recommended for reading in full — 

On this day in 1918, Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time.

 Elizabeth Beyer reports State superintendent candidate used district email during work hours to set up private business:

State Superintendent candidate Deborah Kerr solicited clients and organized branding for her private consulting business through her public school district email address, including several times during work hours, prior to her retirement as Brown Deer School District superintendent last year.

Emails obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal show Kerr used her district email address during work time to set up her private consulting firm, Lead Greatly, LLC, on multiple different occasions from March to July 2020.

She used her district email to schedule meetings with the Danielson Group, a Chicago-based education company, about their teaching framework, often replying to messages between the district’s 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday work hours.

Records show Kerr also:

• Spent time during work hours discussing branding for Lead Greatly with her administrative assistant, who was helping Kerr with graphic design, through her district email;
• Pitched her consulting firm to superintendents in Fox Point Bayside School District and Maple Dale-Indian Hill School District while arranging meetings to discuss projects; and
• Directed a project manager with the Consortium for School Networking to Lead Greatly in her final days as superintendent of Brown Deer.

Nico Hines reports Veselnitskaya’s Trump Tower Coverup Linked to Secret Russian Chemical Weapons Program:

A company newly sanctioned by the U.S. over Alexei Navalny’s poisoning attack is tied to the money-laundering network that Natalia Veselnitskaya tried to cover up at the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting, according to financial records obtained by The Daily Beast.

Now we know why Vladimir Putin was so desperate to play down the international corruption probes that began when Sergei Magnitsky uncovered a $230 million fraud on the Russian people. For the first time, that dark-money network can be linked to the murderous chemical-weapons program run by Russia’s notorious intelligence services.

After exposing the massive theft of state money, Magnitsky ended up dead in a Russian prison cell. Legislation in his name has been enacted all over the world by governments seeking to clamp down on corruption, including the U.S.’s Magnitsky Act. Despite the interventions of Veselnitskaya—a Russian lawyer who was sent to the U.S. to persuade the Trump campaign to overturn the law—investigations tracing that stolen money continue to expose an international web of bank accounts linked to alleged wrongdoing.

Adam Zagoria reports What to Watch in the First Weekend of the Men’s N.C.A.A. Tournament:

[See our complete guide to March Madness.]

The 2021 N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament tipped off Thursday with the play-in games from Indiana. They included a late-night matchup of the blue bloods U.C.L.A. and Michigan State, winners of a combined 13 national championships, but the action tips off in earnest on Friday.

Beginning at 12:15 p.m. Eastern time, eight games will take place Friday afternoon, followed by eight more in the evening. All the games are being played in Indiana because of the pandemic. Sixteen more games will be played Saturday. Four national television networks — TBS, CBS, TNT and TruTV — will carry the action.

The second-round games this year will occur on Sunday and Monday (feel free to call in sick on Monday), and by Monday night, the round of 16 will be set.

Spiral galaxy Messier 106 in amazing view snapped by Mayall Telescope:

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 43.  Sunrise is 6:59 AM and sunset 7:05 PM, for 12h 06m 31s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 22% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1954, Parker Pen Employees Win Wage Increase: “On this date employees of Parker Pen in Janesville won a 5-cent-an-hour wage increase in contract negotiations. After the raise, male employees made a base pay of $1.95 an hour while their female counterparts were paid $1.62 an hour. “

Recommended for reading in full — 

Meryl Kornfield and Hannah Knowles report Sheriff’s official who said spa shooting suspect had ‘bad day’ posted shirts blaming ‘CHY-NA’ for virus:

The backlash began with the sheriff spokesman’s statement to reporters that the mass shooting suspect was having a “bad day.”

“He was pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope. Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did,” Cherokee County sheriff’s office Capt. Jay Baker said Wednesday. He was describing the 21-year-old man accused of killing eight people, mostly Asian and almost all women, in a rampage across three Atlanta-area spas.

Then — as the violence stirred fears in an Asian-American community that already felt under attack — Internet sleuths and journalists found Baker’s Facebook posts promoting shirts that called the novel coronavirus an “IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHY-NA.”

….

Baker is not just any employee of the sheriff’s department, some noted, but its spokesman, who shapes public knowledge of the attacks that unfolded Tuesday in his county and then at two businesses in Atlanta.

“All of us have experienced bad days,” tweeted Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.). “But we don’t go to three Asian businesses and shoot up Asian employees.”

(Conservatives would have once ridiculed – rightly – the suggestion of bad days as a motive for mass killings. It’s common now to hear them dribble ludicrous excuses like this for those who are visually similar to themselves.)

 Lorraine Ali writes What Woody Allen’s defenders are really upset about:

It didn’t take much to convince Woody Allen defenders that HBO’s four-part docuseries, “Allen v. Farrow,” was a one-sided hatchet job against the revered filmmaker. The four-part investigative series hadn’t yet premiered when they began tearing down its reexamination of the allegation that Allen molested Dylan Farrow, his adoptive daughter with actress Mia Farrow, when she was just 7 years old.

Angry readers wrote to The Times in response to my favorable review of the series, insisting I was part of a lynch mob: “Shame on you!”

….

To these outspoken fans, Allen is a victim of Farrow’s sour grapes, of “cancel culture,” of feminism itself. But the truth underlying their emotional, often highly personal defenses of Allen is that he’s become subject to the forces of change that have finally begun to challenge the old world order, when a girl’s place was tantalizing Allen or other actors on screen, no matter how nerdy or neurotic those men might be, or how young the woman.

No one knows for sure what really happened in the Allen/Farrow household except the people who survived the nightmare. The rest of us base our opinions on the most compelling argument, and up until now, Allen — a beloved filmmaker in a notoriously sexist business in a patriarchal society — has had the megaphone, and the might of the industry, to present his account.

Perhaps these Allen diehards are upset because “Allen v. Farrow” finally explores the other side of the story, and they’re used to a world where women were simply told to shut up.

How Wrigley’s Dominated The World Of Chewing Gum:

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 39.  Sunrise is 7:01 AM and sunset 7:04 PM, for 12h 03m 36s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 14.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Parks and Recreation Board meets via audiovisual conferencing at 5:30 PM.

 On this day in 1776, the British Army evacuates Boston, ending the Siege of Boston, after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery in positions overlooking the city.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Dan Mangan reports Putin pushed Biden misinformation to Trump allies and media in 2020 election, U.S. says:

Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, authorized intelligence assets to promote misinformation during the 2020 election cycle about Joe Biden through U.S. media and people close to then-President Donald Trump to try to boost Trump’s reelection chances, a U.S. intelligence report said.

In particular, the declassified report, released Tuesday, said that Putin “had purview over the activities of Adriy Derkach, a Ukrainian legislator who played a prominent role in Russia’s election influence activities.”

Derkach, who has ties to Russian intelligence, is known to have met with Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, who for months promoted discredited allegations against Biden, now president, and his son Hunter Biden.

The findings are outlined as the second “key judgment” of the report, “Foreign Threats to the 2020 US Federal Elections,” by the National Intelligence Council.

“A key element of Moscow’s strategy this election cycle was its use of people linked to Russian intelligence to launder influence narratives including misleading or unsubstantiated allegations against President Biden through US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals, some of whom were close to former President Trump and his administration,” the report said.

See Foreign Threats to the U.S. 2020 Federal Elections.

Bill Glauber and Daniel Bice report Milwaukee County Judge Brett Blomme arrested, faces charges of possession of child pornography:

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Brett Blomme was arrested Tuesday on tentative charges of possession of child pornography, the state Department of Justice announced.

Blomme, 38, was taken into custody by special agents with the state Division of Criminal Investigation “following an investigation into multiple uploads of child pornography through a Kik messaging application account in October and November 2020,” according to a statement.

Criminal charges are expected to be filed against Blomme on Wednesday. He was arrested in Dane County.

A 44-page search warrant filed Friday by a DCI special agent said investigators found Blomme, using the name “dommasterbb,” uploaded 27 videos and images containing child pornography. Two of the files were uploaded at a Milwaukee County government building, the search warrant said.

 Abigail Becker reports Clerks begin mailing absentee ballots in Wisconsin’s fifth statewide pandemic election:

Heading into Wisconsin’s fifth statewide pandemic election, local clerks are continuing to administer elections with precautions in place to keep voters and workers safe.

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said in an email that clerks have adjusted to the “new normal” and can handle the April 6 general election safely.

“Following safety protocols has been effective and we all have what we need,” McDonell said. “Certainly clerks are very much looking forward to this pandemic ending.”

Iceland on high alert for a possible volcanic eruption following thousands of tremors:

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 46.  Sunrise is 7:02 AM and sunset 7:03 PM, for 12h 00m 41s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 8.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Alcohol Licensing Commission meets via audiovisual conferencing at 5:45 PM, and the Whitewater Common Council meets via audiovisual conferencing at 6:30 PM. 

 On this day in 1935, Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Elizabeth Dwoskin reports Massive Facebook study on users’ doubt in vaccines finds a small group appears to play a big role in pushing the skepticism (‘Internal study finds a QAnon connection and that content that doesn’t break the rules may be causing ‘substantial’ harm’):

While Facebook has banned outright false and misleading statements about coronavirus vaccines since December, a huge realm of expression about vaccines sits in a gray area. One example could be comments by someone expressing concern about side effects that are more severe than expected. Those comments could be both important for fostering meaningful conversation and potentially bubbling up unknown information to health authorities — but at the same time they may contribute to vaccine hesitancy by playing upon people’s fears.

….

The company’s data scientists divided the company’s U.S. users, groups and pages into 638 population segments to explore which types of groups hold vaccine hesitant beliefs. The document did not identify how Facebook defined a segment or grouped communities, but noted that the segments could be at least 3 million people.

Some of the early findings are notable: Just 10 out of the 638 population segments contained 50 percent of all vaccine hesitancy content on the platform. And in the population segment with the most vaccine hesitancy, just 111 users contributed half of all vaccine hesitant content.

Miranda Bryant and Martin Pengelly report FBI arrests two men for ‘bear spray’ assault on Capitol officer who later died:

Julian Elie Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania and George Pierre Tanios, 39, from West Virginia, were arrested by the FBI on Sunday and expected to appear in federal court on Monday.

They were charged with assaulting Sicknick with a “toxic spray”, thought to be bear spray, which Khater was allegedly seen discharging into the officer’s face in footage of the riot. It is not yet known if it caused Sicknick’s death.

Sicknick, 42, was one of five people to die as a direct result of the assault, which Donald Trump incited when he told supporters to “fight like hell” in his cause. The officer died in hospital on 7 January. A police statement said he “was injured while physically engaging with protesters” and “returned to his division office and collapsed”.

 Mitchell Schmidt reports Republican mailer for state Senate candidate implies nonexistent State Journal endorsement:

A Republican Party campaign mailer for a state Senate candidate includes altered versions of statements the Republican made to the Wisconsin State Journal, making it seem as if the candidate were endorsed by the newspaper.

The mailer supporting Rep. John Jagler, R-Watertown, includes two of Jagler’s responses to a candidate questionnaire that was published last month ahead of the Feb. 16 primary. The statements in the mailer appear under the State Journal logo, but change personal pronouns “I” and “We” to Jagler’s name, making the quotes seem like they came from the newspaper, rather than from Jagler himself.

Giraffe calf Kendi makes debut at Indianapolis Zoo:

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy, with snow this afternoon, and a high of 32.  Sunrise is 7:04 AM and sunset 7:02 PM, for 11h 57m 45s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 4.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission is scheduled to meet via audiovisual conferencing at 6 PM, and the Whitewater Unified School District Board is scheduled to meet via audiovisual conferencing in closed session at 6:15 PM and open session at 7 PM. 

 On this day in 1783, in an emotional speech in Newburgh, New York, George Washington asks his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. The plea is successful and the threatened coup d’état never takes place.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Rich Kremer reports Tech Schools See Big Enrollment Declines (‘Pandemic reduces enrollment nationally 10%, report says. State schools see similar trend’):

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reports that at public, two-year community and technical colleges, enrollment fell this spring by 9.5 percent compared to spring of 2020. Undergraduate enrollment at public four-year universities dropped by 3.3 percent, and at non-profit, private universities, enrollment fell by 2 percent. The report is based on preliminary data from 43 percent of colleges and universities in the U.S.

….

The national trend tracks with what administrators at some Wisconsin technical colleges are seeing. Laura Bray, Milwaukee Area Technical College vice president for college advancement, told WPR’s “The Morning Show” that they’re seeing fewer students as the pandemic continues.

“In terms of enrollment and where we’re at, we have already projected to a decline of 9,100, what we call FTE or full time equivalent students,” said Bray. “And we do expect to fall short of that for this year.”

In an email sent to WPR, MATC spokesperson Ginny Gnadt said the projected 9,100 students this year works out to a 9-percent drop in enrollment compared to the 2019-2020 school year.

Western Technical College President Roger Stanford told WPR he estimates enrollment is down by around 15 percent compared to last spring. Stanford says fewer students have been able to stay in school during the pandemic.

 Molly Beck and Eric Litke report Why Milwaukee ranks near the top of U.S. cities receiving federal stimulus dollars:

Cities received allocations based on a formula that incorporates how population growth compares to other cities of similar size, poverty rates and the amount of overcrowded housing. Funding for counties was determined largely by population and unemployment rates were a factor in how much state governments received.

About a quarter of Milwaukee’s population is considered to be living in poverty and about 35% of working-age residents are not in the labor force, according to 2019 U.S. Census data.

In Wisconsin, Milwaukee receives the most — at $406 million. Milwaukee County will receive $183 million, Dane County $106 million, Waukesha County $78 million, Brown County $51 million, Madison $49 million and $47 million for Racine.

 Amy Brittain and Josh Dawsey report New York’s vaccine czar called county officials to gauge their loyalty to Cuomo amid sexual harassment investigation:

New York’s “vaccine czar” — a longtime adviser to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo — phoned county officials in the past two weeks in attempts to gauge their loyalty to the embattled governor amid an ongoing sexual harassment investigation, according to multiple officials.

One Democratic county executive was so unsettled by the outreach from Larry Schwartz, head of the state’s vaccine rollout, that the executive on Friday filed notice of an impending ethics complaint with the public integrity unit of the state attorney general’s office, the official told The Washington Post. The executive feared the county’s vaccine supply could suffer if Schwartz was not pleased with the executive’s response to his questions about support of the governor.

 Patrol Ship Hits Massive Waves Near Antarctica:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 45.  Sunrise is 7:06 AM and sunset 7:01 PM, for 11h 54m 49s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 2017, a naming ceremony for the chemical element nihonium takes place in Tokyo, with then Crown Prince Naruhito in attendance.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Shane Goldmacher writes The Imperious Rise and Accelerating Fall of Andrew Cuomo:

Mr. Cuomo’s governorship is imperiled, as he faces allegations of groping, sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior made by six women; an independent investigation into those accusations; an impeachment inquiry by state legislators; a federal investigation into his handling of nursing homes during the pandemic; and collapsing support from leaders in his own party.

Yet for all of that, Mr. Cuomo is now furiously plotting a path to salvage his job, his legacy and even a potential fourth-term re-election run in 2022, according to Democrats familiar with his thinking. In defiant remarks on Friday, Mr. Cuomo accused Democratic leaders of “playing politics” by calling for him to resign and demanded they wait for the “facts” as he impugned the motives of the women who have come forward.

“A lot of people allege a lot of things for a lot of reasons,” Mr. Cuomo said, denying he ever sexually harassed anyone.

Be it his self-regard, his disdain for fellow Democrats or his imperious demeanor, Mr. Cuomo alienated allies and enemies alike on his way up in politics, and now finds himself sliding from hero-level worship to pariah-like status with the kind of astonishing speed that only the friendless suffer. It is a downfall foretold in a decade-long reign of ruthlessness and governance by brute force, according to interviews with more than two dozen lawmakers, elected officials, current and past Cuomo administration officials, political activists and strategists in the state.

 David Smith reports Trump’s Washington hotel echoes to silence of missing MAGA crowd:

The hotel in Washington made just $15.1m in revenue last year, a drop of more than 60% from the year before. Then came Trump’s election loss and impeachment for inciting a deadly insurrection a short distance away at the US Capitol on 6 January, inflicting huge reputational damage.

….

Kevin Chaffee, senior editor of Washington Life magazine, said: “The Trump hotel has been struggling for quite a while and, without him being there, people don’t need to curry favour by staying there. Some embassies had their events there and they don’t need to do that now.”

 The Guardian reports Lara Trump-linked dog rescue charity spent $2m on Trump properties:

A dog rescue charity that has links to Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, has spent almost $2m at Trump properties in the last seven years, according to US media reports.

While other companies and groups have distanced themselves from the Trumps since the 6 January attack on the capital, the Florida-based Big Dog Ranch Rescue is expected to spend another $225,000 at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club for an event this weekend, according to a permit filed with the town of Palm Beach, which was reported by HuffPost.

The former president has been living in the club full time since leaving the White House in January following his election defeat.

HuffPost reported that Internal Revenue Service (IRS) filings show that the charity has spent as much as $1,883,160 on fundraising costs for events at Mar-a-Lago and a nearby Trump golf course since 2014. Lara Trump, who is married to Eric Trump, has been a chairwoman for charity events since 2018.

How This Artist Made $69 Million Selling Digital Art With NFTs [Non-Fungible Tokens]:

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 56.  Sunrise is 6:07 AM and sunset 5:59 PM, for 11h 52m 01s of daytime.  The moon is new with none of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1862, the Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves is passed by the United States Congress, effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Ron Johnson says Capitol attackers ‘love this country’ but he would have felt unsafe if Black Lives Matter stormed building instead:

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson is facing accusations of racism after saying the supporters of former President Donald Trump who stormed the U.S. Capitol in January didn’t worry him but that he might have been concerned if they had been supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I knew those were people who love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, so I wasn’t concerned,” Johnson said about the predominantly white crowd that marched to the U.S. Capitol to overturn a presidential election and triggered an assault that left five people dead, 140 police officers injured and windows smashed.

“Now, had the tables been turned, and Joe — this is going to get me in trouble — had the tables been turned and President Trump won the election and tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and antifa, I might have been a little concerned,” Johnson said during an interview with syndicated radio show host Joe “Pags” Pagliarulo.

Paging @RacismDog

— American Bridge 21st Century (@American_Bridge) March 12, 2021

“What, white people love this country and Black people don’t? That’s exactly what he’s saying,” Sen. LaTonya Johnson, a Democrat from Milwaukee who is Black, said.

Johnson, who is not related to Ron Johnson, said it wasn’t Black Lives Matter protesters who triggered an insurrection that left five people dead, including a police officer.

 The Associated Press reports Green Bay mayor calls GOP hearing on election process ‘Stalinist show trial’:

Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich said a legislative committee hearing attended only by Republicans that featured testimony from invited conservative critics of how his city ran the November election was a “Stalinist show trial and a three-ring circus.”

Genrich told WLUK-TV on Thursday that neither he nor any city employees were invited to the Assembly Campaign and Elections hearing at the state Capitol on Wednesday. No one from the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which is charged with running elections, was invited to testify either.

Instead, a conservative attorney who sued to block Green Bay from being awarded grant money to help run the election, the Republican former county clerk and a Republican state representative all testified.

 Timothy Bella reports Trump requests a mail-in ballot after months of falsely crying ‘fraud’ on mail-in ballots:

Former president Donald Trump recently requested a mail-in ballot for a municipal election in South Florida, according to Palm Beach County records, voting again by mail despite months of repeatedly promoting false claims of election fraud without evidence.

Records from the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, first reported by the Palm Beach Post, show that a mail-in ballot for the town’s local election this week was requested on Friday for the former president’s residence at Mar-a-Lago, his private club on Palm Beach.

 One-take drone video of Minnesota bowling alley goes viral: