Good morning. 
Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 60. Sunrise is 6:06 AM and sunset 7:41 PM, for 13h 35m 13s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 32.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1923, Yankee Stadium, “The House that Ruth Built,” opens.
Recommended for reading in full —
Kelly Meyerhofer reports UW branch campuses ‘at risk of closure’ under bill giving tech colleges more freedom:
Wisconsin technical colleges could more easily establish general education degree programs under a Republican bill that the University of Wisconsin System says would threaten the existence of some of its smallest campuses.
The bill introduced earlier this month would eliminate a longstanding requirement that technical colleges receive approval from the UW Board of Regents before starting associate degree programs in arts and sciences on their campuses.
Of the state’s 16 technical colleges, just six offer such two-year programs, which are the most common stepping stone for students to go on to a four-year university and earn a bachelor’s degree. Other technical colleges have tried establishing the programs in recent years but have historically received rare support from the UW System.
That’s because the System’s small branch campuses offer the same two-year programs. Allowing more technical colleges to start their own could cut into branch campus enrollment, which has suffered steep losses in recent years.
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Nine of the 13 branch campuses this fall had a head count enrollment of 500 or fewer students. Demographics show even fewer students graduating from Wisconsin high schools between 2025 and 2030.
(These branch campuses, like the technical colleges, are principally two-year programs. Campuses like UW-Whitewater at Rock County might be directly affected, but four-year comprehensive programs like UW-Whitewater here in Whitewater indirectly affected by their association with a branch campus.)
Danielle Ivory, Lauren Leatherby, and Robert Gebeloff report Least Vaccinated U.S. Counties Have Something in Common: Trump Voters:
About 31 percent of adults in the United States have now been fully vaccinated. Scientists have estimated that 70 to 90 percent of the total population must acquire resistance to the virus to reach herd immunity. But in hundreds of counties around the country, vaccination rates are low, with some even languishing in the teens.
The disparity in vaccination rates has so far mainly broken down along political lines. The New York Times examined survey and vaccine administration data for nearly every U.S. county and found that both willingness to receive a vaccine and actual vaccination rates to date were lower, on average, in counties where a majority of residents voted to re-elect former President Donald J. Trump in 2020. The phenomenon has left some places with a shortage of supply and others with a glut.
For months, health officials across the United States have been racing to inoculate people as variants of the coronavirus have continued to gain a foothold, carrying mutations that can make infections more contagious and, in some cases, deadlier. Vaccinations have sped up and, in many places, people are still unable to book appointments because of high demand. In Michigan, where cases have spiraled out of control, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, recently urged President Biden to send additional doses.
But in more rural — and more Republican — areas, health officials said that supply is far exceeding demand.
