Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will see occasional thundershowers with a high of eighty-one.  Sunrise is 6:22 AM and sunset 7:25 PM, for 13h 03m 07s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 22.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1783, representatives of Great Britain and the United States of America sign the Treaty of Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.

Recommended for reading in full:

Mark Johnson reports 50,000 unvaccinated children head to Wisconsin schools as the U.S. copes with worst measles outbreak in 27 years:

When Wisconsin children return to school this week, close to 50,000 of them will have waivers that exempt them from vaccines, leaving them vulnerable to measles at a time when the nation has experienced its largest outbreak in 27 years.

Health officials across the U.S. have reported 1,215 cases of measles this year as of Aug. 22, the highest number since 1992, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Measles had been declared eliminated in 2000.

“I really do think it’s purely just dumb luck that this hasn’t spread to Wisconsin,” said James Conway, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Since November 2018, state health officials have investigated 382 suspected cases of measles; not one case has been confirmed.

Immunization rates of 92% to 95% are considered necessary to provide what health officials call “herd immunity.” The term is used to describe a level of immunization high enough to prevent the infection from spreading to those who are susceptible, possibly triggering a widespread outbreak. The vulnerable group includes children under a year who are too young to receive vaccines and children with weakened immune systems.

….

Not a single county in 2018 came close to the 92% threshold. In fact, 40 of the 72 counties had immunization rates below 80%.

Laura Santhanam reports How detention causes long-term harm to children:

The relationship between detention and increased mental health problems among children and families has been well-documented, according to Jaime Diaz-Granado, deputy chief executive for the American Psychological Association. His group has called the Trump administration’s rule change “a misguided attempt by this administration to stem the flow across the southern border.”

“The large majority of these children have already experienced trauma before arriving at immigration facilities, and the longer they are held in detention, the more likely their mental health will continue to suffer,” Diaz-Granado said.

Ample research has shown neglect harms children. In 2003, researchers published a series of foundational studies of the children raised in Romania’s orphanages that showed horrible consequences to those children and their society as a result of their institutionalization. Nelson was among the lead authors. When he hears reports of the U.S. separating immigrant children from their caregivers in federal custody, Nelson reflects on Romania where children were dropped off in institutions that had one untrained caregiver for more than a dozen children. “Yes, there are parallels,” he said.

Trying the Chow Mein Sandwich:

Good morning.

Labor Day in Whitewater will be partly sunny, with occasional showers, and a high of seventy-nine.  Sunrise is 6:21 AM and sunset 7:27 PM, for 13h 05m 55s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 13.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1945, aboard the United States Navy battleship USS Missouri, officials from the Japanese government sign a formal instrument of surrender.

Recommended for reading in full:

Conservative Michael Gerson writes Don’t try to explain away Trump’s crazy ideas:

This process [of explanation] has a number of steps — the stages of servility. At first, there is stunned silence. (Did he really propose to buy Greenland?) Then the frantic search for hidden wisdom. (Climate change — which the president sometimes views as fake science — will melt Arctic ice, open sea lanes and turn Greenland into the Panama Canal of the north.) Then the determined Googling of historical precedents. (Harry S. Truman, it turns out, also contemplated a Greenland grab.) Then growing defiance. (Greenland has loads of zinc! Doesn’t America deserve zinc?!)

….

But we should not play down the importance of having a president with harebrained notions. We should not explain away the craziness.

Certainly the president should not be allowed to lie away the craziness. In the face of good reporting on Trump’s nuclear idea, his claim of “FAKE NEWS” is entirely unconvincing. We have reached the point where the president’s denial of a charge actually makes it more credible. Recall his suggestion that the “Access Hollywood” tape isn’t real. And the claim that he never said Mexico would pay for the wall. And his claim that he never ordered White House counsel Donald McGahn to fire special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. And his claim that he never said Russia didn’t meddle in the 2016 election. And his claim that he never paid for the silence of a porn star. Self-serving deception by the president is now a justified expectation.

Isis Almeida, Mike Dorning, and Mario Parker report U.S. Farmers Stung by Tariffs Now Face a $3.5 Billion Corn Loss:

American farmers already stung by President Donald Trump’s trade wars now face billions of dollars in potential losses as controversial data from the U.S. government snuffs out a rally in corn.

The Agriculture Department on Monday [8.12.19] said farmers planted a bigger corn area than analysts estimated and pegged crop yields that also exceeded expectations, sparking the biggest rout in futures since 2013. That was a blow to growers who were holding back supplies, hoping a rally that started in May due to delayed sowing would extend through the fall.

The decline represents a potential loss of almost $3.5 billion for U.S. farmers, according to the American Farm Bureau, and is another setback for them after prices fell following the USDA’s previous acreage report, which was widely criticized for containing outdated data.

How To Spot Fake Pokémon Cards:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of seventy-four.  Sunrise is 6:20 AM and sunset 7:28 PM, for 13h 08m 43s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 6.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1972, Bobby Fischer wins the 1972 World Chess Championship: “The first game was played on July 11, 1972. The last game (the 21st) began on August 31, was adjourned after 40 moves, and Spassky resigned the next day without resuming play. Fischer won the match 12½–8½, becoming the eleventh undisputed World Champion.”

Recommended for reading in full:

Craig Gilbert observes Both sides in 2020 election fight are watching farm country for political fallout from Trump tariffs:

Even glimmers of good news come these days with a sobering twist. Milk prices have rebounded a little, but partly because enough farmers have quit that it has reduced milk production, said Matt Lippert, a University of Wisconsin-Extension agricultural agent in Wood County.

Asked to sum up perceptions of tariffs among farmers he talks to, Lippert said:

“Some of them are supportive of the president and say, ‘We just have to be patient. We’ve not been (treated) fair and the president is going to fix it.’ Then some of them are like, ‘We’ve given him enough time already.’ And there are others who are like, ‘No this wasn’t the way ever to do it.’ But they all uniformly think that loss of markets and the tariff thing is hurting them.”

 

(Tariffs are taxes on American consumers and businesses; trade wars bring these taxes. Those who support Trump – a fundamentally ignorant man – delude themselves if they think he offers an economic solution for America, let alone rural America. Those who support him more probably do so for cultural reasons, and yet in this, they are more closely aligned with the worst nativism of our past than a healthy contemporary society.

Note well — even among a supposedly loyal rural demographic, nearly 4 in 10 strongly disapprove of Trump – as many strongly disapprove as strongly approve.)

Elaine Kamarck recounts Trump’s hostility to election security preparedness:

From the very beginning of his presidency, Donald Trump has denied or downplayed Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. He has, at various times, dismissed the whole idea as a hoax, as fake news, or as an excuse by Democrats for why they lost the election. At other times, he has proclaimed his innocence vis-à-vis Russian campaign interference. From the earliest days of his presidency when he fired FBI Director James Comey in an effort to stop the investigation, he has denigrated and dismissed the entire issue. In its place he has insisted that the real problem in 2016 was not Russian interference but rather illegal voting by immigrants. The president’s beliefs have put him at odds with his own government and his own appointees, creating some awkward moments as the machinery of the federal government comes into conflict with the tweets of the chief executive.

Tonight’s Sky for September 2019:

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of seventy-two.  Sunrise is 6:19 AM and sunset 7:30 PM, for 13h 11m 30s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1864, the Battle of Jonesborough, during the Atlanta Campaign, begins as Union troops seize “railroad supply lines into the city. The 1st, 12th, 16th, 17th, 21st, 24th, 25th and 32nd Wisconsin Infantry regiments along with the 5th and 10th Wisconsin Light Artillery batteries fought in this battle.”

Recommended for reading in full:

Patrick Marley and Lee Bergquist report As the fight over Wisconsin’s lame-duck laws rages, the legal tab for taxpayers tops $1 million:

Wisconsin officials from both parties have lawyered up this year at a cost to taxpayers of more than $1 million.

The legal fees will only go up, as was made clear Thursday when Republican lawmakers hired another law firm to assist them in one of several disputes with lawmakers.

It’s the fourth firm they’ve hired since January. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has hired three firms since then to represent him and other state officials.

The reason for the boost in legal bills: a set of lame-duck laws Republicans approved just before Evers and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul were sworn in.

Those laws limit the powers of Evers and Kaul and have been the subject of five lawsuits, three of which are ongoing. Those cases have been the main source of the legal bills for taxpayers.

The lame-duck laws also made it easier for legislators to intervene in litigation over state laws. Legislative leaders have tried to insert themselves into four cases since January, helping fuel the rising legal costs.

Steven Elbow reports Labor report chronicles severe decline of unions in Wisconsin:

Republican efforts to eviscerate unions in Wisconsin have been wildly successful, according to a new report that indicates union membership has plunged by more than 50%, more than double the decline nationally.

University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) released its annual “State of Working Wisconsin” this week, showing that since the passage in 2011 of Act 10 — the law that stripped public unions of bargaining rights — union membership has declined by 53.9%. That’s three times the decrease of 14.9% in neighboring Minnesota. The decrease nationally was 21.2%.

In addition to Act 10, Wisconsin passed a right-to-work law in 2015 that allows union shop workers to decline to pay dues, delivering a blow to the financial position of unions in the private sector as well.

Before Act 10, Wisconsin’s rate of union members was above the national average. That changed in 2012, the year after the law passed.

Last year’s report — which is more detailed on even-numbered years and more a snapshot in odd-numbered years — detailed public-sector union membership rates, which fell from more than 60% since 2010 to 18.9 percent in 2017.

Wildlife center finds foster homes for 400 animals:

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of seventy-three.  Sunrise is 6:18 AM and sunset 7:32 PM, for 13h 14m 17s of daytime.  The moon is new with 0.0% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1862, Wisconsin soldiers defending the Union rest on the White House lawn:

The 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin Infantry regiments fought in the Second Battle of Bull Run. By the end of this third day, more than 18,000 soldiers had been killed or wounded and Union forces had been pushed back to Washington, D.C. When the Wisconsin regiments arrived in Washington, they rested on the White House lawn. According to historian Frank Klement, “President Lincoln came out with a pail of water in one hand and a dipper in the other. He moved among the men, offering water to the tired and thirsty. Some Wisconsin soldiers drank from the common dipper and thanked the President for his kindness.”

Recommended for reading in full:

Laura Strickler reports Purdue Pharma offers $10-12 billion to settle opioid claims:

The maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma, and its owners, the Sackler family, are offering to settle more than 2,000 lawsuits against the company for $10 billion to $12 billion. The potential deal was part of confidential conversations and discussed by Purdue’s lawyers at a meeting in Cleveland last Tuesday, Aug. 20, according to two people familiar with the mediation.

Brought by states, cities and counties, the lawsuits — some of which have been combined into one big case — allege the company and the Sackler family are responsible for starting and sustaining the opioid crisis.

At least 10 state attorneys general and the plaintiffs’ attorneys gathered in Cleveland, where David Sackler represented the Sackler family, according to two people familiar with the meeting. David Sackler, who was a board member of the company, has recently been the de facto family spokesperson.

See generally Watch Richard Sackler Deny His Family’s Role in the Opioid Crisis (“Sackler testified in 2015 in a lawsuit brought by Kentucky against his family’s company, Purdue Pharma, which makes the painkiller OxyContin. We published the transcript in February. Now you can see the video”) and Under Proposed Purdue Pharma Opioid Settlement, Sacklers Would Still Be Billionaires (“If the Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma, accepts the terms of a settlement now under discussion, Forbes estimates they will still be worth between $1 billion and $2 billion, down from a current net worth estimate of $11.2 billion”).

Ann E. Marimow reports Trump’s bank has tax records Congress is seeking in subpoenas targeting the president’s finances:

President Trump’s biggest lender has in its possession tax records Congress is seeking in targeting the president’s financial dealings, the bank told a federal appeals court in New York Tuesday.

The disclosure from Deutsche Bank came in response to a court order as part of a legal battle between Congress and the president over access to Trump’s business records.

The bank’s public redacted response filed Tuesday did not identify by name whose records it has.

Who Invented Chewing Gum?:

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny, with a chance of late afternoon thundershowers, and a high of eighty-two.  Sunrise is 6:17 AM and sunset 7:34 PM, for 13h 17m 04s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 1.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Joint Review Board meets today at 1:30 PM.

On this day in 2005, Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in Louisiana, causing catastrophic damage to New Orleans and other cities in the region.

Recommended for reading in full:

 Molly Beck and Patrick Marley report Lame-duck fallout: Wisconsin politicians still don’t have a way to settle lawsuits as more than 12 cases sit unresolved:

More than a dozen lawsuits involving state taxpayers are languishing because Wisconsin politicians can’t agree on how to resolve them under a new Republican law aimed at curbing the power of the Democratic attorney general.

The impasse comes as billions of dollars are on the table for states suing over the opioid crisis — including Wisconsin.

Nine months after Republican lawmakers passed a law requiring Attorney General Josh Kaul to get their permission before resolving lawsuits there’s still no agreement between the two on how to do it.

Kaul and lawmakers have been debating for months on how to navigate the new law and have put off resolving more than a dozen cases, according to documents obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week.

Kaul’s office in July asked the Legislature’s finance committee to hold a hearing to adopt plans to resolve some of the outstanding cases, including one over financial problems at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Foundation.

 Christine Schmidt reports to How publishers are cutting print days — and not losing (too many) subscribers:

It’s now inevitable that many newspaper publishers will slash the frequency of their print product. They won’t necessarily change their online output, but will reduce the number of days they spend setting up the newsprint, paying plant workers to assemble it and drivers to deliver it, etc. Chased by newsprint tariffs and squeezing budgets, un-dailying the daily newspaper is “one of the top topics of discussion in the boardroom,” an industry consultant told Ken Doctor earlier this month.

More than 100 U.S. newspapers have changed their printing frequency since 2004, according to UNC’s Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media, but that number is expected to skyrocket. This discussion could be wrapped up and in action as early as 2020.

Adam Liszewski reports Monkey Shatters Zoo Glass With Sharpened Stone in Impressive Prison Break Attempt:

On August 20, visitors to the Zhengzhou Zoo, located in Central China’s Henan Province, were amused by a Colombian white-faced capuchin monkey who had picked up a rock with a sharp edge and was using it to bang away on one of the glass walls of its enclosure, the People’s Daily reports.

….

A zoo staffer told Chinese media that this particular capuchin monkey has stood out by using tools to crack open walnut treats, instead of just struggling to bite open the tough shells. After the incident, the rocks in the enclosure were reportedly removed.

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of seventy-three.  Sunrise is 6:15 AM and sunset 7:35 PM, for 13h 19m 49s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 5.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1963, Dr. King delivers his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech to over 250,000 civil rights supporters.

See also text of the speech.

Recommended for reading in full:

 Stavros Agorakis summarizes news of A landmark decision in Oklahoma:

• Oklahoma delivered a stinging blow to the drug manufacturing firm Johnson & Johnson on Monday, a landmark victory for the state that may help decide more than 2,000 lawsuits targeting opioid makers and distributors around the US. [CNN / Jacqueline Howard and Wayne Drash]
• The company was ordered to pay $572 million for its “false, misleading and dangerous” sales campaign that contributed to the massive opioid crisis, as J&J supplied 60 percent of the opiate ingredients used for drugs like oxycodone. The amount, though short of the $17 billion Oklahoma hoped to secure in the trial, could pay for a year’s worth of epidemic relief services in the state. [NYT / Jan Hoffman]
• According to Oklahoma’s attorney general, Johnson & Johnson contributed to 6,000 deaths in the state alone since 2000, with the crisis en route to becoming the “deadliest” man-made epidemic. The pharmaceutical firm has already said it will appeal the judge’s decision. [Guardian / Chris McGreal]

….

• The surge in lawsuits comes after a string of evidence helped tie the companies’ malicious sales tactics to the opioid epidemic. According to Vox’s German Lopez, manufacturers promoted opioid-based painkillers as “safe and effective, with multiple studies tying the marketing and proliferation of opioids to misuse, addiction, and overdoses.” This also led to other waves of drug overdoses, as the use of heroin and, later, illicit fentanyls grew in response to people losing access to opioids or seeking more potent, cheaper highs. [Vox / German Lopez]

Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey report ‘Take the land’: President Trump wants a border wall. He wants it black. And he wants it by Election Day:

President Trump is so eager to complete hundreds of miles of border fence ahead of the 2020 presidential election that he has directed aides to fast-track billions of dollars’ worth of construction contracts, aggressively seize private land and disregard environmental rules, according to current and former officials involved with the project.

He also has told worried subordinates that he will pardon them of any potential wrongdoing should they have to break laws to get the barriers built quickly, those officials said.

Trump has repeatedly promised to complete 500 miles of fencing by the time voters go to the polls in November 2020, stirring chants of “Finish the Wall!” at his political rallies as he pushes for tighter border controls. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed just about 60 miles of “replacement” barrier during the first 2½ years of Trump’s presidency, all of it in areas that previously had border infrastructure.

 SpaceX Starhopper Launches on 500-Foot Test Flight:

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of seventy-eight.  Sunrise is 6:14 AM and sunset 7:37 PM, for 13h 22m 34s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 12.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 6 PM. 

On this day in 1883, Krakatoa erupts, destroying most of the island and nearby archipelago, and as a consequence “darkened the sky worldwide for years afterwards and produced spectacular sunsets throughout the world for many months. British artist William Ashcroft made thousands of colour sketches of the red sunsets halfway around the world from Krakatoa in the years after the eruption. The ash caused “such vivid red sunsets that fire engines were called out in New York, Poughkeepsie, and New Haven to quench the apparent conflagration.” This eruption also produced a Bishop’s Ring around the sun by day, and a volcanic purple light at twilight.”

Recommended for reading in full:

Jennifer Rubin writes How to respond to a manic president driving the economy into the ditch:

First, they [candidates opposing Trump] should give a serious speech warning of the dangers of an escalating trade war and inveighing against the preposterous (okay, bonkers) order for U.S. companies to cease doing business with China. The Democrats would do well to point out that the real socialist seems to be the guy in the White House who imagines we have a command-and-control economy. The candidates should also explain that what he proposed, if ever enacted, would have devastating consequences for American consumers, workers and businesses.

Second, they should reaffirm the independence of the Fed and pledge to keep politics out of the central bank. They might want to point out that Trump was the one who replaced respected Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen with Jerome H. Powell.

Third, the senators in the Democratic presidential race should demand hearings when Congress reconvenes with Powell, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and outside experts (perhaps past Fed chairs) to analyze what is going on and explain where this is all headed. What’s the end game? How do we “win”?

Finally, Democrats should explain what they would have and will do about China and the world economic trading system: Pledge to end silly spats with close allies, make whatever tweaks are needed to ratify NAFTA 2.0, revisit the Trans-Pacific Partnership (which would have made China the odd man out) and convene our closest allies, including the European Union, Mexico and Canada, to agree on a joint strategy for addressing the legitimate issue Trump has long since forgotten, the theft of intellectual property.

Investor Stephen Weiss observes the ‘Biggest Risk To Markets Has Always Been Trump’:

Trade Wars and Climate Change: Farmers in rural Michigan get candid about their struggles: