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Category: State news

Gov. Tony Evers orders face masks for state employees; state buildings remain closed to public

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Wisconsin State Journal

DOA spokeswoman Molly Vidal said the Evers order applies to roughly 35,000 executive branch employees throughout the state but not to those in the Legislature, the court system or the University of Wisconsin System … A similar mask rule was already in place on the UW-Madison campus, where employees are required to wear masks inside all campus buildings unless they are alone in a lab or office.

Are High Water Levels a Result of Climate Change?

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Door County Pulse

While many people are scrambling to combat flooding and damage to infrastructure, climate scientists are working to find out what has been causing the latest rise in lake levels. According to Jack Williams, a UW-Madison geography professor and climate-change expert, it’s the billion-dollar question.“We can’t yet definitively say,” Williams said. “What we know is that we are seeing increasing temperatures and variability of rainfall, which are both known to be caused by climate change.”

Bice: ‘(Expletive) your statues’: Senate candidate faces backlash after defending destruction of Madison statues

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Widespread criticism has rained down on those who led a night of destructive protestsin Madison on Tuesday night after the arrest of a Black protester.

Many on the left and right were left baffled and upset that rioters toppled two iconic Capitol statues — one of an abolitionist who died during the Civil War and the other a female figure representing the state motto “Forward.”

But one state Senate candidate, Nada Elmikashfi, defended the destruction in no uncertain terms.

Finally, Elmikashfi, a 24-year-old recent University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate and a Muslim immigrant from Sudan, said, “I’m glad my future colleagues in the legislature are getting a good introduction of how nice I’ll be in the Capitol when it comes to their anti-blackness.”

Crowds tear down statues, attack Wisconsin state senator

Posted on
AP

Madison has a long history of protests and clashes with police, dating to student-led demonstrations on the University of Wisconsin campus in the 1960s. About 100,000 people protested in 2011 over anger related to anti-union proposals from then-Gov. Scott Walker. Smaller protests are almost a weekly, and sometimes daily, fixture at the Capitol on a host of issues.

‘This is shocking to me’: A voter ID case that could rattle Wisconsin’s fall election has been on hold for more than 3 years

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Robert Yablon, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School who specializes in election law, called the case “a true outlier.”

“Seventh Circuit cases rarely sit for even one year after oral argument, much less three,” he said by email.

“The judges’ internal deliberations are confidential, so it’s impossible to know for sure what’s happening behind the scenes. The judges may have disagreements that they’re truly struggling to resolve. It’s also conceivable that they’re waiting to see if Wisconsin law changes in ways that moot the appeal or hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court eventually decides another voting-related case that offers further guidance on the relevant legal standards.”

Gov. Evers to give $80 million to K-12, higher education institutions in response to coronavirus

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: According to data presented to the Board of Regents at the beginning of the month, the system anticipates a total loss of more than $100 million through the end of the summer, even taking into account the emergency federal funding they’ve received.

The UW System will receive $20 million of the funding, coming just as UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee announced their plans to reopen for the fall Wednesday.

The money will help offset the cost of technology infrastructure, personal protective equipment and other expenses, UW System President Ray Cross said, but said more help will be needed.

Maps show ZIP codes with highest percentage of people at risk of severe complications from COVID-19

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: “We found substantial variation across communities in the proportion of people who had these risk factors for severe complications,” said Maureen Smith, a physician and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. “That finding suggests that matching community with the right resources needs to take into account that communities are different.”

The information compiled by UW researchers can help identify potential hot spots, said Jessica Bonham-Werling, director of the Neighborhood Health Partnership Program, which prepared the reports, at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. That in turn can help public health and other officials make decisions on where to allocate resources, from testing and contact tracing to community services, such as delivering groceries.

The number of Wisconsinites hospitalized for coronavirus is growing, one reminder that coronavirus ‘hasn’t gone anywhere’

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Oguzhan Alagoz, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an infectious disease modeling expert, said the increases Wisconsin is seeing are likely driven by many factors, like increased testing availability.

Alagoz said early mobility data shows people are taking precautions despite moving more.

“With current levels of movement, if people didn’t wear masks, if people were behaving as they were pre-March 10, believe me, we would have seen a double, triple, exponential increase in the number of cases,” Alagoz said.

Wisconsin Supreme Court order opened bars and restaurants, but an analysis shows only a 3% increase in total movement statewide

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Nasia Safdar, an infectious disease expert with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said factors such as improved weather and the end of at-home schooling in some districts have likely contributed to a general trend of increased movement.

“I think there were things that helped people stay put in the beginning of this, which is that there was a lot of fear and uncertainty and the weather wasn’t great,” she said. “I’m sure people are experiencing some cabin fever despite their best intentions.”

Thomas Oliver, a health policy expert, also at UW-Madison, said the increased movement in Wisconsin and mixed messaging sent by the patchwork of rules from authorities at all levels is concerning.

“It was inevitable you would see slipping adherence to the recommended guidelines regardless, but now we have so many contradictory and competing guidelines,” he said.

Oguzhan Alagoz, an expert in infectious disease modeling at UW-Madison, said the pictures he saw after the court order of unmasked people standing close together inside bars is troubling and likely to lead to more cases.

After April’s election difficulties, would a vote-at-home system make more sense for Wisconsin?

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: “If the state wanted to really do a vote-by-mail system like those five states out West do, it would require lots of printing and postage costs upfront, millions of dollars,” said Barry Burden, UW-Madison political science professor. “Because all those states automatically send ballots to all their registered voters. That would be about 3.3 million ballots in Wisconsin.”

As More Wisconsinites Leave Home, Health Experts Warn Against Ending Social Distancing

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Song Gao, a geography professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been aggregating cell phone data that shows how far Wisconsinites are traveling each day as a way to understand if residents are following the state’s “Safer At Home” order. Gao said residents’ mobility has been reduced significantly in the past month, especially in urban areas like Dane and Milwaukee counties. 

But he has seen increased movement around Wisconsin starting last week

“I think this is also linked with last week’s events. Like people started getting (outside) and also last Friday, they also had some protests outside the state Capitol,” Gao said.

Experts split on whether Wisconsin should reopen on a regional basis

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Jim Conway, an infectious disease expert and associate director for health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Global Health Institute, argued loosening restrictions regionally is a short-sighted idea.

“It’s like being in a swimming pool and having one area of the pool that it’s OK to pee in,” he said.

Conway said because the economy relies on travel in many sectors, there would be no way to ensure new cases weren’t brought to areas with few cases and few restrictions under a regional plan — especially in a state like Wisconsin with a lot of recreational tourism in rural areas.

Wisconsin Republicans haven’t come together on a COVID-19 response plan

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: But James Conway, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Global Health Institute, called opening different regions of the state at different times “terrifying.”

“It’s almost like the least common denominator will prevail if you do start to allow certain areas to open more liberally and have other areas still confined because you know there’s going to be travel and transit between those places. And as we saw in the Green Bay area it doesn’t take much for something to go from a small number of cases to exponentially exploding in just a few short days,” said Conway, who supports Evers’ plan.

Wisconsin colleges weigh how to reopen campuses in fall amid COVID-19 uncertainty

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Wisconsin State Journal

“There may be some things we simply cannot do in the fall,” UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said Monday to the University Committee, a small group of professors representing faculty members on campus. “It is quite possible that 80,000 people cannot gather in Camp Randall.”

Local governments avoid employee furloughs, reduced hours during shutdown

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Wisconsin State Journal

While the University of Wisconsin System and some UW campuses last week announced employee furloughs to save money in the face of looming recession-related reductions in state and local tax collections, many local governments in Dane County are making sure their employees get their hours, with some adjustments.

UW System Administration announces 1-day-per-month furloughs through June 2021

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Chancellors of UW campuses, where the bulk of the System’s 39,000 employees work, are making their own decisions on whether to furlough employees. UW-Milwaukee became the first to say it will “most likely” impose a campus-wide furlough for its roughly 3,700 employees. UW-Madison, which is bracing for the largest loss among the campuses with an estimated $100 million shortfall, expects to announce details by the end of the month.

As Gov. Tony Evers closes some state parks, local officials urge park users to follow health guidelines

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Noted: Located within the city, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is also taking steps in its outdoor spaces to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. 

UW-Madison spokesperson Meredith McGlone said the university has posted signs at outdoor locations, including Memorial Union, campus recreational fields and Picnic Point. Also, the university has removed some recreational equipment, like basketball hoops and volleyball nets.

“We understand everyone’s desire to spend some time outdoors staying active, especially as the weather is improving, but we share the concern about maintaining 6 feet social distancing while being outdoors and engaging in recreational activity,” McGlone said in a statement. “Now more than ever, Badgers need to look out for each other and for the most vulnerable members of our community.”

Plenty of blame to go around after chaotic spring election amid COVID-19 pandemic

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Wisconsin State Journal

Quoted: “From a public health perspective, this was counter to all good scientific evidence and advice right now for how to continue to curb the pandemic from having serious impacts in the state,” said Kristen Malecki, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “The fact that politics interfered with sound judgment and jeopardized public safety is something that should not be ignored.”

Wisconsin Voters Go to Polls Despite Coronavirus Pandemic

Posted on
Wall Street Journal

Sarah Farr, a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student, signed up to be a poll worker after hearing about the need for volunteers. “I felt like if I could volunteer to help out, maybe that would mean that somebody else could stay home,” she said, adding that she checked her temperature last night to ensure she didn’t have a fever.

Wisconsin GOP Forced Thousands Of Voters To The Polls During A Pandemic

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HuffPost

“It’s a personal health and safety question you have to ask yourself,” Nate Moll, 30, who works at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and regularly staffs elections, said. On Tuesday he was stationed at a consolidated voting ward in one of the university’s student unions. “I did go back and forth … One of my friends ducked out because he lives in a house full of other people. It was too large of a risk to go out.”

Wisconsin election poll workers fear catching, spreading coronavirus as thousands will congregate to vote Tuesday

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: For Alyssa Birkeland, a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying political science and business, volunteering as a poll worker was an easy decision.

“I felt like it was my duty to volunteer, and hopefully relieve the stress,” she said.

But Birkeland, 21, still worried about the risk of contracting the coronavirus as people flock to the polls.

“It’s definitely a little bit of a concern, but I’m probably one of the best people to be put in that position,” she said. “I rather it be me than someone else.”