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Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.17.20

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of sixty-six.  Sunrise is 6:38 AM and sunset 6:59 PM, for 12h 21m 04s of daytime.  The moon is new with 0.0% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

 On this day in 1787, delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia sign a proposed United States Constitution.  

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Marissa Lang reports Federal officials stockpiled munitions, sought ‘heat ray’ device before clearing Lafayette Square, whistleblower says:

Hours before law enforcement forcibly cleared protesters from Lafayette Square in early June amid protests over the police killing of George Floyd, federal officials began to stockpile ammunition and seek devices that could emit deafening sounds and make anyone within range feel like their skin is on fire, according to an Army National Guard major who was there.

D.C. National Guard Maj. Adam D. DeMarco told lawmakers that defense officials were searching for crowd control technology deemed too unpredictable to use in war zones and had authorized the transfer of about 7,000 rounds of ammunition to the D.C. Armory as protests against police use of force and racial injustice roiled Washington.

In sworn testimony, shared this week with The Washington Post, DeMarco provided his account as part of an ongoing investigation into law enforcement and military officers’ use of force against D.C. protesters.

On June 1, federal forces pushed protesters from the park across from the White House, blanketing the street with clouds of tear gas, firing stun grenades, setting off smoke bombs and shoving demonstrators with shields and batons, eliciting criticism that the response was extreme. The Trump administration has argued that officers were responding to violent protesters who had been igniting fireworks, setting fires and throwing water bottles and rocks at police.

But DeMarco’s account contradicts the administration’s claims that protesters were violent, tear gas was never used and demonstrators were given ample warning to disperse — a legal requirement before police move to clear a crowd. His testimony also offers a glimpse into the equipment and weaponry federal forces had — and others that they sought — during the early days of protests that have continued for more than 100 days in the nation’s capital.

DeMarco, who provided his account as a whistleblower, was the senior-most D.C. National Guard officer on the ground that day and served as a liaison between the National Guard and U.S. Park Police.

(Emphasis added.)

 Will Sommer reports New QAnon-Allied GOP Senate Candidate Also Pushed Anti-Semitism, Flat Earthism, and 9/11 Conspiracies:

One-time QAnon supporter Lauren Witzke won the Republican Senate primary in Delaware on Tuesday, campaigning on a pledge to institute a decade-long moratorium on all immigration and beating a rival candidate endorsed by the state GOP by nearly 14 percentage points.

….

With her victory still just hours old, the newest Republican Senate nominee publicly thanked a white nationalist leader who marched in the “Unite the Right” rally and has questioned the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust.

“Thank you, Nick!” Witzke tweeted in response to a tweet from Nick Fuentes, a Charlottesville participant who has become the face of the far-right angry, young white nationalist fringe.

It’s not just Fuentes with whom Witzke communicates. She also is regularly in contact with anti-Semitic and white nationalist figures in the “America First” faction of the pro-Trump right.

….

Witzke has also more or less endorsed the idea of Trump becoming a lifelong king of the United States, and said she believes that the earth is flat.

Russian opposition leader Navalny posts photo of himself from hospital, pledges to return to Russia:

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Charity, City, Poverty

Waiting for Whitewater’s Dorothy Day

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Whitewater has many needs, but fulfilling them requires setting aside the city’s longstanding addiction to press releases, public relations, ‘messaging,’ etc. That approach is both ineffectual and proud (where pride is a sin).

Worse still is the irreparably conflicted role of politician and reporter, a government intrusion into civil society, a bad habit of Old Whitewater that has grown worse this year. That toxic potion offers no good, and much that is bad. Better nothing than the wrong thing: first do no harm.

What, instead, for Whitewater?

Writing in reply to a comment from early August, this prescription seemed in order:

Politicians, appointed officials, business lobbyists, Old Whitewater’s thinning ranks of self-promoters, or commuters who hold sway only part of the day — we need more than that. It’s good to have people who speak or write, as I do, but that’s not enough, either.

Whitewater needs her own version of Dorothy Day – someone committed to a lifetime of charitable work on behalf of this community without flinching or favoritism. Someone here, who will hold fast come what may, unyielding, beginning and ending each day in the place of her devoted efforts.

We don’t have that yet, at least not anyone so admirably fierce as Day was. I’ll never stop hoping.

Needless to say, Dorothy Day’s economic proposals would not be mine; her orthodox Catholicism would not be my Protestantism.

And yet, and yet, she will be forever admirable – and was one of America’s towering figures of the twentieth century – because she was rightly and sincerely committed to the disadvantaged, steadfastly so.

City, Conflicts of Interest, Coronavirus, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, Open Government

Whitewater Common Council Meeting, 9.15.20: 4 Points

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Updated 9.16.20 with meeting video.

Last night, among other items, Whitewater Common Council’s met and considered municipal actions in response to the pandemic, heard presentations from Downtown Whitewater, Inc. and Discover Whitewater, and appointed a resident to fill a council vacancy in AD 5.

A few remarks — 

1. Pandemic Responses. Whitewater’s council last week declined, on a vote of 5-1, to consider an ordinance restricting mass gatherings during the pandemic. A majority of the council last night held that same view, and so did not direct Whitewater’s city attorney to draft another version of an ordinance.

Interim Chancellor Dr. Greg Cook spoke last night, but nothing he said brought about a majority for an ordinance regulating mass-gatherings. Responding to concerns about quarantine policy, or responding to a likely misunderstanding about how data are collected at UW-Whitewater, was more useful to the community.

2. Councilmember appointed. Council appointed Greg Majkrzak to serve as the AD 5 councilman until next April.

3. Policing. Whitewater now has, as almost all college towns have, a mutual aid agreement between municipal and university law enforcement. (If requested, one agency will come to the assistance of the other.)

The city and university are now working on a co-enforcement agreement, where action by one force or another would not be limited merely to a specific request (but rather be more liberally allowed under the terms of the co-enforcement agreement).

There’s nothing meaningful to say until one sees the terms of a draft agreement (a draft that will be an item on a future council agenda, perhaps next month).

 4. Asides.

Whitewater doesn’t have a public health department, so she does not have a public health officer. It does no good for the city’s common council president to carry on as though he is a municipal health officer. He’s over-confident in himself and under-trained in the field. His speculations and inquiries implicate not only his judgment but that of Whitewater’s municipal government and the private organization, the Whitewater Community Foundation, that publishes his work.

There’s a difference in roles between Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: one has to manage an institution and her majority caucus, the other is free to advance her own ideological views without having to manage others’ cooperation.

Some people are suited to one role, but not the other — it’s unfortunate not to see as much.

One should hear others out fully. Residents and council members should always be allowed to hold their opinions: as a matter of right, for others’ edification, and even so that opposing parties may reply informatively.

Across society, in all sorts of professions, America has become more causal: one goes on a first-name basis, shirts are open collar, etc. At the university, it’s all titles and hierarchy: interim chancellor, assistant vice chancellor, deputy adjutant vice director of residence hall number 5, etc. These titles are expected each time someone uses a university official’s name. Fair enough if the university wants to carry on that way.

It sounds absurd, however, outside the university — including among professionals. Indeed, it’s more like a parody of a hierarchy and professional life. If one wants to speak persuasively outside a university environment, once needs to speak the way others do (including other professionals).

It’s no less discordant for councilmembers to speak of each other formally as Mr. This or Ms. That. A small town runs on a first-name basis, but if local government adopts for its officials an awkward, old-school usage, then this libertarian will not object.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.16.20

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of seventy-seven.  Sunrise is 6:37 AM and sunset 7:01 PM, for 12h 23m 57s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 1.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

 On this day in 1959, the first successful photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration on live television from New York City.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Isaac Stanley-Becker reports Pro-Trump youth group enlists teens in secretive campaign likened to a ‘troll farm,’ prompting rebuke by Facebook and Twitter:

The messages have been emanating in recent months from the accounts of young people in Arizona seemingly expressing their own views — standing up for President Trump in a battleground state and echoing talking points from his reelection campaign.

Far from representing a genuine social media groundswell, however, the posts are the product of a sprawling yet secretive campaign that experts say evades the guardrails put in place by social media companies to limit online disinformation of the sort used by Russia during the 2016 campaign.

Teenagers, some of them minors, are being paid to pump out the messages at the direction of Turning Point Action, an affiliate of Turning Point USA, the prominent conservative youth organization based in Phoenix, according to four people with independent knowledge of the effort. Their descriptions were confirmed by detailed notes from relatives of one of the teenagers who recorded conversations with him about the efforts.

The campaign draws on the spam-like behavior of bots and trolls, with the same or similar language posted repeatedly across social media. But it is carried out, at least in part, by humans paid to use their own accounts, though nowhere disclosing their relationship with Turning Point Action or the digital firm brought in to oversee the day-to-day activity. One user included a link to Turning Point USA’s website in his Twitter profile until The Washington Post began asking questions about the activity.

In response to questions from The Post, Twitter on Tuesday suspended at least 20 accounts involved in the activity for “platform manipulation and spam.” Facebook also removed a number of accounts as part of what the company said is an ongoing investigation.

 Craig Silverman, Ryan Mac, and Pravnav Dixit report A Whistleblower Says Facebook Ignored Global Political Manipulation:

Facebook ignored or was slow to act on evidence that fake accounts on its platform have been undermining elections and political affairs around the world, according to an explosive memo sent by a recently fired Facebook employee and obtained by BuzzFeed News.

The 6,600-word memo, written by former Facebook data scientist Sophie Zhang, is filled with concrete examples of heads of government and political parties in Azerbaijan and Honduras using fake accounts or misrepresenting themselves to sway public opinion. In countries including India, Ukraine, Spain, Brazil, Bolivia, and Ecuador, she found evidence of coordinated campaigns of varying sizes to boost or hinder political candidates or outcomes, though she did not always conclude who was behind them.

“In the three years I’ve spent at Facebook, I’ve found multiple blatant attempts by foreign national governments to abuse our platform on vast scales to mislead their own citizenry, and caused international news on multiple occasions,” wrote Zhang, who declined to talk to BuzzFeed News. Her LinkedIn profile said she “worked as the data scientist for the Facebook Site Integrity fake engagement team” and dealt with “bots influencing elections and the like.”

Winners of the Nikon Small World in Motion Competition:

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Coronavirus, Education, Laws/Regulations, Public Health, School District

Whitewater School Board Meeting, 9.14.20: 5 Points

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Updated 9.16.20 with meeting video.

At last night’s meeting of the Whitewater Unified School District’s board, the board voted unanimously to offer a choice of either face-to-face or virtual instruction beginning September 28th and continuing through the semester (absent any alterations in the event of significant COVID-19 infections). Parents received, last night, an email requesting their choice for their children’s instruction.

A few remarks —

 1. Health Trumps Estimates. In these months since the pandemic led to significant restrictions in March, it has always been true that how people fare, and how institutions actually function, matters more than mere estimates of either.  I’ve avoided estimates of my own, in the same way that a reasonable layperson avoids calculating the trajectories of interplanetary probes: it’s a job best left to those familiar with the field.

(During the comment period last night, a parent questioned the soundness of interpretations of epidemiological data by laypeople. Yes, and yes again. A commitment to learning – where one truly respects formal study – requires an acknowledgment that almost everyone involved in these discussions is untrained in public health or epidemiology. They’ve a responsibility to decide, but these decisions require humility, as some officials last night readily acknowledged.)

There are, however, two sound assumptions that require no training at all: parents will be unforgiving about injuries to their children and the true test of all past and current estimates begins now that school returns to session (for K12 and for the local college campus).

 2. Politics.  Ordinarily, an action from a school board or town council would have an immediately discernible political consequence (about those the decision benefitted, and those it did not). That’s not true about this pandemic: a determination – at least a serious one – depends on the outcome of the pandemic months from now, stretching into the new year. Political estimates now would be ephemeral only; a lasting assessment depends on how actions today look next year.

 3. Scarcely Begun at All. Watches, phones, and wall calendars all tell the same tale: this school district has been in session for only two weeks, and only about ten school days during that time. However this semester unfolds, the academic year has hardly started. There have been no large-group daily interaction as would be typical with a face-to-face return. Doubt not: the moral position is – and must be – that one hopes against injury.  It’s simply a blunt concession that schools across the country have, as yet, limited experience with returning classes.

 4. Money for New Employees and Supplies. While I’m supportive of those who worry about the costs of protective items for classes, as government should be limited (and frugal to keep it limited), the cost of protective items, and support staff, is trivial as against the cost of immediate injury.

Indeed, even the mere economic loss from this current recession (excluding economic estimates of personal injury) is so great that the cost of a few more employees, protective barriers, etc., should be unnoticeable by comparison.

After this pandemic ends, Whitewater will still be struggling economically. That’s not a public health prediction; it’s a sound assessment that Whitewater’s stagnant, pre-pandemic economy will experience especial difficulty recovering from the current recession. Minimizing additional loss in the way the district is considering – a few people more, a few more supplies – is no burden at all.

A post-pandemic economy that yet remains stagnant is a burden the community will have to face and overcome.

 5. Asides.

Public comment should be free and unguided, with restrictions only for time limits or against profanity. It is natural that some members of the public will be emotional; they should be allowed to express themselves (as they were allowed last night). The public comments last night were well-handled — extending the time for the few additional speakers in queue was the right decision.

The fewer interruptions to an administrative presenter’s remarks the better.  Holding board members’ questions until the end of a presenter’s remarks makes it easier for the public to follow. 

Coronavirus, Local Government, School District

Local Politician Tells District Administrator How to Read District’s Own Approved Documents

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In Whitewater, a local charity, the Whitewater Community Foundation, publishes a website in which the city council president poses as something like a reporter. It’s an obvious conflict of interest, from a man who shows no understanding of either proper journalism or conflicts of interest.

Where Whitewater departs from the conventional in natural beauty, she does so to her credit (as the city is beautiful). Where Whitewater departs from convention in standards, she does so to her detriment (as rejection of time-tested principle is unworthy). See Whitewater’s Local Government: Always Literally, Not as Often Seriously. 

One reads that after last night’s lengthy school board meeting, Whitewater Common Council president Lynn Binnie spoke with Dr. Caroline Pate-Hefty, the Whitewater Schools’ district administrator.

Binnie writes in the Whitewater Community Foundation’s publication that

In a conversation with Dr. Pate-Hefty after the meeting this writer [Binnie] expressed the view that, given the current rapidly increasing level of positive test results in Whitewater, it is possible that the balanced case incidence metric might by September 23 enter the “Red,” very high risk level, wherein the Jefferson County model recommends all virtual instruction. Pate-Hefty indicated that the board had confirmed that, while they would be consulted in that event, it would remain their intention to continue with the September 28 plan.

Honest to goodness.

One can assume confidently that, whatever one thinks of this decision, Dr. Caroline Pate-Hefty has sufficient comprehension to understand the model’s color-coded tiers and the condition of the city as well as a Whitewater councilman.

What could this man say on the subject that this woman would not already know? 

More significant still — a school board of seven men and women unanimously approved this plan before he spoke with her. Nothing Binnie said to Dr. Pate-Hefty after the meeting would – or could – alter the board’s authority to determine this matter.

(A board’s lawful decision sets policy authoritatively – there’s no legitimacy in going around a board. This is a repeated problem of understanding for Binnie. He once asked a former district administrator to defend a decision that had been made by the board, not the administrator. No and no again: a school board decision – on a sign for the high school – had already been made. The district administrator had no independent obligation to Binnie apart from relying on the board’s decision. See A Sign for Whitewater High School.)

Now, I’ve not met the district administrator, and perhaps never will. We’ve not corresponded, and apart from a public records request that might one day go to the district under law, it’s unlikely that we will ever correspond.

One should, however, be attentive to her work. The measure of her public role as district administrator – her writings, statements, live or recorded remarks – are objects of governmental policy. Even when one does not comment on a meeting or a communication, it’s important to listen to it or read it.

A sound commentary on an administration demands some remove from the immediate action. One discerns best from a position of distance and detachment.

(At the same time, Dr. Pate-Hefty would gain nothing by speaking with me, as any other use of her time would be more profitable.)

For it all, whether writing in support or opposition, it would never occur to a discerning person to explain to this district administrator matters that her intellect, education, and her own observation would easily make plain.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.15.20

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of sixty-eight.  Sunrise is 6:36 AM and sunset 7:02 PM, for 12h 26m 48s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 5.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

 The Whitewater Common Council meets via audiovisual conferencing at 6:30 PM.

 On this day in 1916, Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Yasmeen Abutaleb, Lena H. Sun, Josh Dawsey and Rosalind S. Helderman report Top Trump health appointee Michael Caputo warns of armed insurrection after election:

A top communications official for the administration’s coronavirus response urged President Trump’s supporters to prepare for an armed insurrection after a contested election and accused government scientists of “sedition” in a Facebook Live chat that he described in detail to The Washington Post on Monday.

Michael Caputo, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, which is overseeing the coronavirus response, leveled the accusations and promoted other conspiracy theories in a Facebook Live event first reported by the New York Times. Caputo confirmed the authenticity of the video in comments he made to The Post.

….

In the Facebook video, Caputo criticizes government career scientists, the media and Democrats, the Times reported and Caputo confirmed. He said he was under attack by the media and that his “mental health has definitely failed.”

“I don’t like being alone in Washington,” Caputo said in the video, describing “shadows on the ceiling in my apartment, there alone, shadows are so long.”

Caputo also said the CDC, which is part of HHS, had a “resistance unit” that aimed to undermine Trump. Without offering any evidence, he also accused scientists “deep in the bowels of the CDC” of giving up on science and becoming “political animals.”

They “haven’t gotten out of their sweatpants except for meetings at coffee shops” to plot “how they’re going to attack Donald Trump next,” he said in the video. “There are scientists who work for this government who do not want America to get well, not until after Joe Biden is president.”

He also predicted that Trump would win the election but that Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, would refuse to concede. “And when Donald Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting will begin,” he warned in the video. “The drills that you’ve seen are nothing. If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it’s going to be hard to get.”

 Meg Jones reports Marquette University students living at Schroeder Hall must quarantine for two weeks because of a coronavirus outbreak:

A cluster of coronavirus cases at a Marquette University dorm has prompted officials to quarantine the entire residence hall for two weeks.

Students living at Schroeder Hall at Marquette were notified late Monday that they must quarantine in their rooms starting at 10 p.m.

The university says 373 students live at Schroeder, one of the large dorms on the downtown Milwaukee campus, and 3% have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Schroeder Hall residents are asked to not move out or leave town for two weeks because of fears they could infect their families and home communities.

If students do choose to leave campus to quarantine, they must stay off Marquette property for 14 days and then must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test within three days of their return to school.

Disc golfer hits 530 ft hole in one:

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Blogging, City, Local Government, Music, Politics

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Helpful Advice for Whitewater, Wisconsin

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Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton is rightly celebrated as a masterpiece.

It also offers useful political advice, even for small town officials. From that musical’s Washington on Your Side, consider this sage observation on the limits of intra-institutional reform:

If there’s a fire you’re trying to douse,

You can’t put it out from inside the house.

There’s much to be said for an independent position, or at least a single position free from myriad conflicts of interest.

No one – ever – uplifts a community by lowering its standards.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.14.20

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of seventy-seven.  Sunrise is 6:35 AM and sunset 7:04 PM, for 12h 29m 41s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 12.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

Whitewater’s planning commission meets via audiovisual conferencing at 6 PM.  The Whitewater Unified District’s school board meets in closed session at 6:30 PM, and in open session at 7 PM, via audiovisual conferencing.

 On this day in 1944, Maastricht becomes the first Dutch city to be liberated by Allied forces.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 JR Radcliffe and Meg Jones report University of Wisconsin-La Crosse pauses in-person instruction for two weeks as cases spike there and in other cities that host UW campuses:

As the second University of Wisconsin campus switched to virtual learning because of an alarming rise in coronavirus cases Sunday, statistics show seven state communities where colleges are located are among the fastest-growing COVID-19 outbreaks in the nation.

On Sunday UW-La Crosse issued an urgent “shelter in place” order, citing an increase of COVID-19 cases, and suspended in-person undergraduate instruction for two weeks.

Figures updated Sunday in The New York Times show Whitewater, Madison, La Crosse, Platteville, Eau Claire, Stevens Point and Green Bay are in the top 20 metro areas where new cases are rising the fastest in the last week, on a population-adjusted basis.

All seven of those Wisconsin cities are home to UW campuses, where classes for the fall semester started recently.

(Emphasis added.)

See New York Times data to which Radcliffe and Jones refer, Monitoring the Coronavirus Outbreak in Metro Areas Across the U.S.: Where There May Be Bad News Ahead.  

(These data describe places with a population of fifty-thousand or more, leaving data for small cities like Whitewater inclusive of an area greater than the respective city proper; the data are week-over-week only. I offer no assessment or prediction about these data – the link provided simply shows the basis for the Journal Sentinel’s reporting about Whitewater and other Wisconsin college towns.)

 Shawn Johnson reports Wisconsin Judge Denies Kanye West’s Bid to be on Presidential Ballot:

A Brown County judge has rejected rapper Kanye West‘s attempt to get on Wisconsin’s presidential ballot, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court could still have the final say.

In a decision handed down late Friday night, Brown County Judge John Zakowski ruled that West’s campaign missed the state’s deadline to file his nominating signatures.

Wisconsin law requires independent presidential candidates to file at least 2,000 signatures from eligible Wisconsin voters “not later than” 5 p.m. on Aug. 4. Multiple videos taken that day showed an attorney for West’s campaign entering the front door of the Wisconsin Elections Commission roughly 14 seconds after 5 p.m.

West’s campaign argued that because state law sets at deadline of “not later than” 5 p.m., the signatures should count.

But the Wisconsin Elections Commission voted 5-1 to reject that argument and on Friday, Judge Zakowski upheld the ruling.

“The court finds that, basically, 5 o’clock is 5 o’clock,” Zakowski wrote.

Zakowski went on to compare the 5 p.m. filing deadline to a 9 p.m. cutoff for liquor sales.

“The court’s own personal experience is that at some stores the hour, minute and second hand appear on the check out screen,” Zakowski wrote. “When it is one second after nine, the alcohol cannot be scanned thereby preventing its purchase. In other words, any time after 9 o’clock means it is later than 9 o’clock and alcohol cannot be purchased, even at 9:00:59.”

Katsiaryna Shmatsina observes Any Putin intervention in Belarus will meet ‘huge pushback’: 

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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.13.20

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of seventy.  Sunrise is 6:33 AM and sunset 7:06 PM, for 12h 32m 33s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 20% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

 On this day in 1862, Union soldiers find a copy of Robert E. Lee‘s battle plans in a field outside Frederick, Maryland. It is the prelude to the Battle of Antietam.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Devi Shastri reports UW students describe chaos as COVID-19 raged through residence halls, leading to lockdown:

Students were running to the Walgreens across the street and the nearby Fresh Market, stocking up on food and supplies. They had been told they had just a few hours before they would be isolated in their dorms for two weeks, inciting panic.

“There were people buying gallons of milk, boxes of cereal, tons of food, cases of water, just stocking up for this quarantine,” [student Lauren] Tamborino said.

Teachers started emailing her to say deadlines on homework assignments were being pushed back. Students were told if they left the dorms after the 10 p.m. lockdown, they would not be allowed back in.

And all of this was unfolding on Wednesday, one week to the day after classes started.

UW-Madison officials sent out information about when meals would be delivered and promised medical care, mental health support and strict enforcement of restrictions on gatherings.

“We know you want to be here and we hope this necessary step will help us achieve the goal of remaining on campus all year,” said a message to students in Sellery and Witte halls.

Watching the chaos, Tamborino knew one thing: She did not want to be here.

Students in UW-Madison dorm quarantine share inside perspective:

Some Families Choosing to Take Students Home:

Kelly Meyerhofer reports UW-Madison orders more sorority and fraternity houses with COVID-19 cases to quarantine:

More than half of sorority and fraternity houses near UW-Madison’s campus are now under quarantine for at least the next two weeks.

Of the roughly 1,500 fraternity and sorority members who live in university-recognized chapter houses, 820 have received quarantine orders from UW-Madison and the city-county health department. This includes the 420 members put under quarantine last week after 38 members recently tested positive.

The Greek life quarantine orders are in addition to the more than 2,200 students quarantined in Witte and Sellery halls and 124 students in the university’s separate quarantine housing. Altogether, there are at least 3,100 students in quarantine, or roughly 10% of the undergraduate student population, though the number is likely higher when accounting for the unreported number of students who live in off-campus, non-Greek housing also in quarantine.

A UW-Madison list of Greek chapters currently in quarantine includes 22 sorority and fraternity houses. The university recognizes 40 chapter houses.

Yvonne Kim reports ‘Steeper and faster than we expected’: UW chancellor addresses campus COVID cases:

“I think none of us expected quite the magnitude of rise that we saw at the very beginning of this week, which really led us to take action,” [Chancellor Rebecca] Blank said. “We knew that there would be some spikes … Students would come; there would be some partying. The amount of that rise was steeper and faster than we expected, and steeper than some of our fellow schools in the Big Ten.”

Bugs, Weeds, Snails: Your Sushi Is Served:

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