10-6: Unmasking an academic troll; Warren goes after those rotten for-profit universities; OC GOP is into money laundering; the GOP crowd says, "don't worry; be happy" (choke! snort!)

Sean Young, Blade Runner (1982)

✅Unmasking a Troll
University of New Hampshire suspends professor amid investigation into whether he trolled people online, pretending to be “The Science Femme, Woman in STEM.”
—Inside Higher Ed
     A white, male assistant professor of chemistry at the University of New Hampshire is on administrative leave after apparently posing as a female, immigrant scientist of color on Twitter to criticize feminists, trans people, Black Lives Matter supporters and others.

✅‘From Equity Talk to Equity Walk’
Rhetoric alone about equity, diversity and inclusion won't get the job done in higher education, say the authors of a new book.
—Inside Higher Ed
     Everyone in higher education has had the experience of hearing a college leader expound about the values of diversity or equity, or condemn a racist incident on campus. The statements are often eloquent and moving. The follow-up? Not so much.
     This is the subject of From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education (Wiley).

✅Warren Calls for Owners of For-Profits to Be Held Financially Responsible 

—Inside Higher Ed 
     The advocacy group Student Defense and Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren called on the Education Department on Monday to make the owners of for-profit schools financially liable for the financial losses of students if they are defrauded by the institutions.

✅Colleges, Organizations Launch National Voter Education Week
—Inside Higher Ed
     About 500 voter education and advocacy groups, colleges and universities, and student organizations nationwide have partnered to launch the first National Voter Education Week from Oct. 5 to 9, which includes free, nonpartisan online programming to educate new voters and particularly students.

✅How One Prominent Journal Went Very Wrong
The threats, rumors, and infighting traumatized staff members and alienated contributors. They blame its editor.
—CHE

Coronavirus outbreak

✅State Launches Money Laundering Investigation into Andrew Do and OC Republican Party
—Voice of OC
     State authorities have launched a money laundering investigation into Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do, focusing on whether he secretly – and potentially illegally – steered over $22,000 last month to his own campaign through the Orange County Republican Party.

✅‘It’s a political season’: Newsom cautions Californians against Trump’s downplaying of COVID-19 -- As President Donald Trump downplays the health effects of COVID-19 and tells the nation not to be afraid of the fatal disease, Gov. Gavin Newsom is countering with a stern message of caution to Californians. Maggie Angst in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 10/6/20

✅The CDC says the coronavirus can spread through tiny airborne particles after all -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged Monday that the coronavirus can spread through microscopic respiratory particles known as aerosols that float in the air for minutes or even hours before being inhaled. Richard Read in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/6/20

✅Working for Trump: Tweet-firings, subpoenas and now coronavirus -- The president’s staffers get fired and insulted by tweet. They get blamed for the president’s own failures. They get screamed at in the Oval Office. Scores of them have ended up subpoenaed, fined or even sentenced to prison. Now, the president’s staff has been dragooned into a coronavirus outbreak in which the stakes could be deadly. Nancy Cook and Meridith McGraw Politico -- 10/6/20

✅Newsom’s Supreme Court pick would be state’s first openly gay justice, and first Black man in 3 decades -- If confirmed, Jenkins, a deeply experienced jurist, who was born and raised in the Bay Area, would also be only the third Black man to serve as a justice in the state court’s history — and the first in 29 years. Byrhonda Lyons CalMatters Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Maggie Angst in the San Jose Mercury$ Carla Marinucci Politico Hannah Wiley in the Sacramento Bee$ Adam Beam Associated Press -- 10/6/20

✅Republicans still dismiss calls for alarm over virus as turmoil grows
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who tested positive last week, said in an interview that there is “a level of unjustifiable hysteria” about a virus that has killed nearly 210,000 Americans.
—WashPo

✅Virginia governor develops mild covid-19 symptoms, scorns Trump for downplaying disease
—WashPo

✅‘Epidemiologists just wanna vomit’: Doctors disturbed after Trump removes his mask at the White House
Following a weekend of mounting horror among medical professionals and commentators fretting over Trump’s handling of his own infection, his actions Monday left them worried and frustrated yet again.
—WashPo

✅Democrats losing the battle over voter suppression?
Voting rights advocates warn that suppression efforts in the final weeks of the election threaten the voting blocks Democrats need most.
—Politico