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Author: gbump

23,000 absentee ballots were rejected in Wisconsin’s April primary. That’s more than Trump won the state by in 2016.

ABC News

Rejected mail-in ballots are unlikely to be the deciding factor in the 2020 election — but they could factor in to the result, according to Mike Wagner, a journalism professor who works with the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.”This is one of those elections where there are probably 19 things that could move a small number of votes in one way or another,” Wagner said.

UW students skeptical of “Smart Restart”

Madison365

Madison365 talked to some of the students who are returning to campus to learn their perspective on how they feel about the ‘Smart Restart’ plan. They were randomly chosen students and have suggested that UW-Madison should reconsider its reopening plan by either making the campus, dorms and classrooms safer for students and workers, or moving classes entirely online.

In address to UW regents, Thompson breaks down 3.5% budget increase plan

The Capital Times

Calling the process of building the 2021-23 biennial budget “one of the most significant actions” in the University of Wisconsin System’s history, interim President Tommy Thompson delivered a State of the University address Thursday that urged support for higher education and a reconsideration of System priorities.

Paul Fanlund: At mid-pandemic, why is anyone obsessing about college football?

The Capital Times

Granted, the loss of a University of Wisconsin football season is a massive disappointment for players and coaches and everyone involved with the program, and it constitutes a major financial hit to the UW Athletic Department. And there is the impact on bars and hotels and restaurants that do big business on home football weekends. But for the fans, it was always a pipe dream that they could return to Camp Randall this fall in what is often, ahem, a cheek-to-cheek experience because of the cramped seating in the historic old stadium.

Jensen, Jane Margaret

Wisconsin State Journal

She taught mini courses at the UW-Madison which were always well attended and earned her praise for her depth of knowledge and facilitation skills.

UW Regents approve budget with tuition-forgiveness program

Associated Press

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents on Thursday unanimously approved a state budget request that would increase spending by 3.5% in each of the next two years, create a new program to cover the tuition of lower-income families and borrow up to $1 billion to mitigate losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Metro Transit to increase service, resume taking fares

Wisconsin State Journal

Starting Sunday, service will increase by about 300 bus hours a day, from 700 to approximately 1,000, not including UW-Madison campus circulators or service for the Madison School District, Metro spokesman Mick Rusch said. The pre-COVID-19 level was about 1,300 bus hours a day. The increased service levels are expected to match current staffing levels and minimize overtime.

Once in VP discussion, Sen. Tammy Baldwin applies Wisconsin’s motto ‘Forward’ to election

Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison political science professor David Canon said vice presidential picks usually have fairly minimal impacts within their home state. “Are there any voters who will not vote for Joe Biden because Harris is the VP instead of Baldwin? Yeah, maybe there are a few, but I can’t imagine that will be enough to change the result in Wisconsin,” Canon said.

A safe, healthy path forward from the ravages of the coronavirus

Journal Sentinel

We need consistent tactics to battle this virus. We support national standards for face coverings. Our nation needs uniform criteria for stay-at-home orders, reopening businesses and in-person instruction at K-12 schools. We support the AAMC’s guidance for face coverings. While there are horrible disparities among certain populations, and some location-specific challenges, the biology of the virus does not vary from city to city or state to state. National standards will allow all communities to make informed decisions.

Robert N. Golden, MD, is dean of the  University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Joseph E. Kerschner, MD is dean of the Medical College of Wisconsin School of Medicine.See

As Covid-19 cases in prisons climb, data on race remain largely obscured

STAT News

John Eason, a University of Wisconsin-Madison sociologist who studies the effect of prisons on rural communities, argued that “it doesn’t matter who it is” that’s getting worse-hit by Covid-19 behind bars, given how many Black individuals are incarcerated. “If we don’t find a way to decarcerate, Black people are going to lose.”

What if We Worried Less About the Accuracy of Coronavirus Tests?

The New York Times

But such tests face regulatory hurdles before they can be produced widely. Other rapid tests that are available now may need to be refined further before they can be “operationalized,” or used effectively in an actual setting, like a school, according to Dave O’Connor. He and colleagues in the AIDS Vaccine Reseach Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have been piloting what is called a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) test, which can be done on saliva, as part of the N.I.H. Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics initiative. They’re running their project out of a minivan. “The first day we tested five or six people,” he told me. “Today we ran 80.”

Brain’s center of automatic body functions has autism links

Spectrum News

Some of the discrepancies might have arisen at least partly because the brainstem is difficult to capture in brain images, says Brittany Travers, assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It is surrounded by major blood vessels and cerebrospinal fluid, which are in constant motion due to breathing and circulation and create ‘noise’ in images.

Pence Campaigns in Wisconsin

Voice of America

Biden’s last in-person campaign stop in Wisconsin was on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus on Oct. 30, 2018, in the waning days of the midterm election. He has hosted virtual events and was supposed to accept the presidential nomination at the convention on Thursday, but due to COVID-19 will instead deliver his speech from his home in Delaware.

‘He Stiffed Our Party’: Bloomberg Doubts Resurface Before D.N.C. Speech

The New York Times

“After spending a billion dollars on his own candidacy in the primary, many in the party thought that would imply spending at least as much on the general election, if not more,” said Eleanor Neff Powell, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a focus on money in politics. “A billion dollars may be an unreasonable expectation, but he set — and in some ways expanded — those expectations during the primary, even if he didn’t outright say how much he planned to spend in the general.”

Editorial: Making UW System ‘more relevant and relatable’

WISC-TV 3

It is certainly not a surprise to this editorial board that former Governor Tommy Thompson is seizing the opportunity of serving as President of the UW System to encourage greater investment in the UW to leverage the system in meeting the immediate and future needs of Wisconsin.

How Birds Respond to Extreme Weather

Earth Observatory

“For the first time, we can look at how species responded immediately following extreme weather conditions over the scale of an entire continent,” said Jeremy Cohen, who led the research as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Kemper, Joyce M.

Wisconsin State Journal

She retired in 2006 after many years of service to the University of Wisconsin—Madison as a Graduate Admission Coordinator in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, receiving a Distinguished Achievement Award in 2003.

Gosting, Dorothy

Wisconsin State Journal

Dorothy worked in several departments at the University of Wisconsin, including the Food Research Institute, from 1966 until her retirement in 1992.

Millions of students are returning to US universities in a vast unplanned pandemic experiment

Nature

And for universities that opt to hold only virtual classes, revenue from dining halls, housing, gyms, parking and other facilities that charge fees will drop precipitously. University presidents have been projecting massive budget shortfalls: $96 million at Boston University in Massachusetts, $100 million at University of Wisconsin Madison, $120 million at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, $375 million at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Antibodies to opioids discovered in long-term users

New Atlas

“Opioid use disorder and opioid overdoses continue to be a major epidemic in this country,” says Cody Wenthur, from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “A relatively new therapeutic approach entering clinical trials is what in shorthand we call an opioid vaccine, where the immune system generates a response against the drugs. But for this approach to be successful, we need to identify the people who would benefit from that approach.”