Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of fifty-five.  Sunrise is 6:55 AM and sunset 6:30 PM, for 11h 34m 58s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 97.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1919, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Adolfo Luque becomes the first Latino player to appear in a World Series.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Stanley Lupkin reports How Operation Warp Speed’s Big Vaccine Contracts Could Stay Secret:

The Trump administration has compared Operation Warp Speed’s crash program to develop a COVID-19 vaccine to the Manhattan Project. And like the notoriously secretive government project to make the first atomic bomb, the details of Operation Warp Speed’s work may take a long time to unravel.

One reason is that Operation Warp Speed is issuing billions of dollars’ worth of coronavirus vaccine contracts to companies through a nongovernment intermediary, bypassing the regulatory oversight and transparency of traditional federal contracting mechanisms, NPR has learned.

Instead of entering into contracts directly with vaccine makers, more than $6 billion in Operation Warp Speed funding has been routed through a defense contract management firm called Advanced Technologies International, Inc. ATI then awarded contracts to companies working on COVID-19 vaccines.

As a result, the contracts between the pharmaceutical companies and ATI may not be available through public records requests, and additional documents are exempt from public disclosure for five years.

John Cassidy writes How Boeing and the F.A.A. Created the 737 MAX Catastrophe:

The basic outlines of the Boeing 737 max tragedy are already well known—or should be well known. Even so, a detailed new report that the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure released on Wednesday morning is a remarkable document. In two hundred and thirty-eight pages of clearly written prose, it goes a long way toward explaining not only what went so wrong at Boeing but what has gone badly askew with the American corporation in general, and with American governance.

With the connivance of the Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing developed, built, and delivered hundreds of passenger jets that were a potential danger to anyone who stepped onto them. It wasn’t until after there had been two deadly crashes, which killed three hundred and forty-six people, that the U.S. government grounded these planes. Even then, Boeing claimed it had done nothing wrong. In fact, it had rushed an unsafe passenger plane into service, failing to alert its airline customers and their flight crews to the existence of a new piece of safety software that could override the pilots and push down the nose of the plane. This software—known as a Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or mcas—was designed to head off possible stalls, but it also had the potential to cause a catastrophe.

Thanks to the official crash reports and some excellent investigative journalism, this much we already knew. Based on an eighteen-month investigation, the new report adds a wealth of new details—and it points the finger in the right places. It illustrates how Boeing’s management prioritized the company’s profitability and stock price over everything else, including passenger safety. Perhaps even more alarmingly, the report shows how the F.A.A., which once had a sterling reputation for independence and integrity, acted as a virtual agent for the company it was supposed to be overseeing.

Video from Space for the Week of Sept. 27, 2020:

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of fifty-three.  Sunrise is 6:54 AM and sunset 6:32 PM, for 11h 37m 51s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 99.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1780, John André, a British Army officer, is hanged as a spy by the Continental Army.

Recommended for reading in full — 

David Sanger writes Tuesday’s Debate Made Clear the Gravest Threat to the Election: The President Himself:

Taken together, his attacks on the integrity of the coming election suggested that a country that has successfully run presidential elections since 1788 (a messy first experiment, which stretched just under a month), through civil wars, world wars and natural disasters now faces the gravest challenge in its history to the way it chooses a leader and peacefully transfers power.

“We have never heard a president deliberately cast doubt on an election’s integrity this way a month before it happened,” said Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian and the author of “Presidents of War.” “This is the kind of thing we have preached to other countries that they should not do. It reeks of autocracy, not democracy.”

But what worried American intelligence and homeland security officials, who have been assuring the public for months now that an accurate, secure vote could happen, was that Mr. Trump’s rant about a fraudulent vote may have been intended for more than just a domestic audience.

They have been worried for some time that his warnings are a signal to outside powers — chiefly the Russians — for their disinformation campaigns, which have seized on his baseless theme that the mail-in ballots are ridden with fraud. But what concerns them the most is that over the next 34 days, the country may begin to see disruptive cyberoperations, especially ransomware, intended to create just enough chaos to prove the president’s point.

 Heather Vogell reports The Kushners’ Freddie Mac Loan Wasn’t Just Massive. It Came With Unusually Good Terms, Too: 

After the news broke in May of last year that government-sponsored lending agency Freddie Mac had agreed to back $786 million in loans to the Kushner Companies, political opponents asked whether the family real estate firm formerly led by the president’s son-in-law and top adviser, Jared Kushner, had received special treatment.

….

The loans helped Kushner Companies scoop up thousands of apartments in Maryland and Virginia, the business’s biggest purchase in a decade. The deal, first reported by Bloomberg, also ranked among Freddie Mac’s largest ever. At the time, the details of its terms weren’t disclosed. Freddie Mac officials didn’t comment publicly then. Kushner’s lawyer said Jared was no longer involved in decision-making at the company. (He does continue to receive millions from the family business, according to his financial disclosures, including from some properties with Freddie Mac-backed loans.)

Freddie Mac packaged the 16 loans into bonds in August 2019 and sold them to investors. But Kushner Companies hadn’t finished its buying spree. Within the next two months, records show, Freddie Mac backed another two loans to the Kushners for an additional $63.5 million, allowing the company to add two more apartment complexes to its portfolio.

A new analysis by ProPublica shows Kushner Companies received unusually favorable loan terms for the 18 mortgages it obtained with Freddie Mac’s backing. The loans allowed the Kushner family company to make lower monthly payments and borrow more money than was typical for similar loans, 2019 Freddie Mac data shows. The terms increase the risk to the agency and to investors who buy bonds with the Kushner mortgages in them.

How The U.S. Battles Wildfires:

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of fifty-eight.  Sunrise is 6:53 AM and sunset 6:34 PM, for 11h 40m 43s of daytime.  The moon is full with 99.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

 Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets via audiovisual conferencing at 3:30 PM.

 On this day in 1890, Congress establishes Yosemite National Park.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Julia Ainsley reports Internal document shows Trump officials were told to make comments sympathetic to Kyle Rittenhouse (‘DHS talking points obtained by NBC News show officials were told to speak sympathetically about Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen charged with killing two protesters in Kenosha, Wis.’):

Federal law enforcement officials were directed to make public comments sympathetic to Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged with fatally shooting two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, according to internal Department of Homeland Security talking points obtained by NBC News.

In preparing Homeland Security officials for questions about Rittenhouse from the media, the document suggests that they note that he “took his rifle to the scene of the rioting to help defend small business owners.”

Another set of talking points distributed to Homeland Security officials said the media were incorrectly labeling the group Patriot Prayer as racists after clashes erupted between the group and protesters in Portland, Oregon.

It is unclear whether any of the talking points originated at the White House or within Homeland Security’s own press office.

Rittenhouse, 17, supported Trump and police on his social media pages before he traveled from his home in Antioch, Illinois, to Kenosha on Aug. 25 with an AR-15-style rifle, authorities say. Rittenhouse was arrested on first-degree murder charges and is fighting extradition to Wisconsin. His attorneys argue that he was acting in self-defense.

Three former Homeland Security officials, two of whom worked for Republican administrations, said it was unusual for law enforcement officials to be instructed to weigh in on a particular group or individual before investigations had concluded.

“It is as unprecedented as it is wrong,” said Peter Boogaard, who was a spokesperson for Homeland Security during under the Obama administration.

 Aaron Blake reports Trump unleashed a torrent of disinformation about voter fraud at the debate:

“When you have 80 million ballots sent in and swamping the system, you know it can’t be done.”

This contradicts what Trump’s own postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, has repeatedly said. DeJoy told the Senate last month that the Postal Service would be able to deliver the ballots “securely and on time,” calling it a “sacred duty.” He added just last week that Trump’s claims that it can’t handle the ballots are “incorrect.” (DeJoy, it bears noting, is a Trump loyalist and was a top fundraiser for him.)

….

“They found ballots in a wastepaper basket three days ago, and they all had the name — military ballots, they were military — they all had the name Trump on them.”

Trump’s claim is false. The FBI initially said all nine of the discarded ballots were for Trump, but later amended that to say that seven of the nine were (the other two had been resealed without establishing whom the votes were for). What’s more, there are very logical, non-nefarious explanations for it, as The Washington Post’s Philip Bump noted, with officials citing confusion over precisely what the pieces of mail were and opening them. There was also controversy over the Justice Department issuing a statement that included who the votes on the ballot were for — which invited allegations that DOJ was yet again furthering Trump’s political goals.

 The Night Sky for October:

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of fifty-eight.  Sunrise is 6:52 AM and sunset 6:36 PM, for 11h 43m 36s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 98.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1954, the U.S. Navy submarine USS Nautilus is commissioned as the world’s first nuclear-powered vessel.

Recommended for reading in full — 

David Frum nicely describes last night’s debate:

The debate format did not fail to control Trump.

The debate format succeeded in demonstrating that Trump cannot control himself.

— David Frum (@davidfrum) September 30, 2020

David Smith, Lois Beckett, Maanvi Singh, Julia Carrie Wong report Donald Trump refuses to condemn white supremacists at presidential debate:

Donald Trump declined to condemn white supremacists and violent rightwing groups during a contentious first presidential debate, instead urging a far-right group known for street brawling to “stand by” and arguing that “somebody’s got to do something” about the left.

The president was asked repeatedly by the moderator, Chris Wallace, to condemn violence by white supremacists and rightwing groups, such as armed militias, as well as criticizing leftwing protesters.

Instead, Trump addressed the Proud Boys, a far-right group whose members have been sentenced to prison for attacking leftwing protesters in political street fights, and said: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by! But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left.”

The Proud Boys, whose uniform is a black polo shirt, immediately celebrated the president’s comment in posts on social media platform Telegram. One Proud Boys group added the phrase “Stand Back, Stand By” to their logo. Another post was a message to Trump: “Standing down and standing by sir.”

McKay Coppins reports Trump Secretly Mocks His Christian Supporters:

In [Michael] Cohen’s recent memoir, Disloyal, he recounts Trump returning from his 2011 meeting with the pastors who laid hands on him and sneering, “Can you believe that bullshit?” But if Trump found their rituals ridiculous, he followed their moneymaking ventures closely. “He was completely familiar with the business dealings of the leadership in many prosperity-gospel churches,” the adviser told me.

….

Trump’s public appeals to Jewish voters have been similarly discordant with his private comments. Last week, The Washington Post reported that after calls with Jewish lawmakers, the president has said that Jews “are only in it for themselves.” And while he is quick to tout his daughter Ivanka’s conversion to Judaism when he’s speaking to Jewish audiences, he is sometimes less effusive in private. Cohen told me that once, years ago, he was with Trump when his wife, Melania, informed him that their son was at a playdate with a Jewish girl from his school. “Great,” Trump said to Cohen, who is Jewish. “I’m going to lose another one of my kids to your people.”

Vaccines 101: How new vaccines are developed: