8-5: “our strong mitigation efforts are working very well”

❎Extra Tuition-Free Time on Campus

Two colleges -- St. Norbert College and Pacific Lutheran University -- will offer students an extra term or two without charge. The programs aim to make up for subpar on-campus experiences amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Inside Higher Ed

 

❎House Republicans Examine Foreign Money to Colleges

Representatives wrote Harvard, Yale and four other universities asking for records into any deals they have with foreign countries.

Inside Higher Ed

 

❎Democrats Again Call for Aid to Undocumented Students

Inside Higher Ed

 

❎MeTooSTEM Leader Admits to Faking Identity

Inside Higher Ed (See also The Anonymous Professor Who Wasn’t, NYT)

❎Don’t Blame Colleges for the Coming Fall Debacle

This is just what higher education looks like in a failed state.

CHE

From Rough&Tumble:

❎California’s coronavirus test result data may be flawed, says top health official -- A steep decline in California’s coronavirus infection rate announced this week by Gov. Gavin Newson may not be accurate, according to the state’s top public health official who said Tuesday that the state’s data system used to process COVID-19 test results is marred with technical issues. Colleen Shalby in the Los Angeles Times$  Ana B. Ibarra CalMatters Aidin Vaziri in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Amy Taxin Associated Press -- 8/5/20

 

❎These O.C. parents have a message for Gov. Newsom, teachers’ unions: ‘Open up the schools.’ -- A pro-charter school group brought some 75 parents, teachers and a couple of Orange County Board of Education members together Tuesday evening to rally for the reopening of schools that were closed because of coronavirus concerns. Parents, they said, should be making the choice of whether their children learn on campus or online. Roxana Kopetman in the Orange County Register -- 8/5/20

❎Some California teachers asked to return to empty classrooms during distance learning -- When Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered school districts to remain closed for in-person instruction in counties where coronavirus cases are spiking, some California teachers felt relieved. But now, several school districts are requiring teachers to conduct distance learning from their physical classrooms, sparking new fears as Covid-19 cases continue to climb across the state. Sydney Johnson EdSource-- 8/5/20

 

❎Nurses statewide to protest shifting ratios at medical facilities -- The California Nurses Association plans to stage rallies at nearly 70 hospitals and medical centers Wednesday to protest waivers that allow facilities to staff some units below state-mandated nurse-patient ratios as nurses are shifted to more critical patients. Kevin Smith in the Orange County Register -- 8/5/20

In the future, things will be swell

❎Census facing uncertainty, hostile president -- Every 10 years since the 18th century, the United States has counted noses. A lot is riding on this decennial tally. It affects the way federal funding is distributed and it can have a dramatic impact on the boundaries — and number — of political districts. Lana Schwartz Capitol Weekly -- 8/5/20

 

❎Deputies accused of being in secret societies cost L.A. County taxpayers $55 million, records show -- Los Angeles County has paid out roughly $55 million in settlements in cases in which sheriff’s deputies were alleged to belong to a secret society, records obtained by The Times show, illuminating the entrenched nature of a subculture that has plagued the Sheriff’s Department for years. Alene Tchekmedyianin the Los Angeles Times$  Stefanie Dazio Associated Press -- 8/5/20

 

❎California legislators urge Newsom to sign bill requiring CSU students to take ethnic studies -- Within the next 12 days, Gov. Gavin Newsom will decide which ethnic studies courses California State University students must take to graduate. Ashley A. Smith EdSource -- 8/5/20

 

❎Billions for national parks as historic bill becomes law -- After spending his presidency denying climate change, placing coal and oil industry officials in top environmental jobs, and weakening dozens of public health and wildlife rules, President Donald Trump on Tuesday reversed course and signed a historic law to pump billions of dollars into long-neglected repairs and upgrades at America’s national parks. Paul Rogers in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 8/5/20

 

❎Trump Cherry-Picks Coronavirus Data in Briefing Appearance -- President Trump, in a news conference on Tuesday, cited a slew of statistics to argue that “our strong mitigation efforts are working very well.” Here’s a fact-check. Linda Qiu in the New York Times$ -- 8/5/20

8-4: Board of Ed stifles public's input

✅ Orange County Residents Debate Going Back to School

Voice of OC

     Orange County’s Board of Education call for a return to classrooms without masks or social distancing last month drew a host of reactions from across the country.

     Yet panel members never gave Orange County residents their own chance to sound off. 

. . .

     Over 4,000 email comments were submitted for the Board of Education’s July 13 meeting but board members chose not to publicly acknowledge any of the emails before taking a vote. 

     Board members instead chose to hear from 20, in-person commenters who seemed to have been picked at random but were overwhelmingly in favor of the board’s proposal. 

     The board still has not published the emails on their website, which they are required to do under the Brown Act, and has not announced a plan on how to release the emails to the public. The only information published by the board is a list of names from the commenters.

     Voice of OC filed a public records request the night of the July 13 meeting, hoping to see what the public’s opinion of the recommendations were, and has reviewed half the emails. 

. . .

     A vast majority of the public comments reviewed so far were in favor of schools remaining closed until proper safety protocols could be implemented. 

     Of the 2,097 emails reviewed by this publication date, 1,540 commenters said they were against the board’s proposed guidelines for reopening free of restrictions and 345 commenters were clearly in favor of a return to classrooms without masks or social distancing.

. . .

     A number of the commenters vowed to vote against board members who advocate in favor of a reopening with no masks and no social distancing come the next election.

     The last elections for the County’s board of education was in March of this year that saw Republicans hold on to a supermajority of seats. 

     The next election is set for 2022, when trustees Mari Barke and Lisa Sparks will be up for reelection.

✅ UCI creates pharmacy school, will enroll students in fall 2021

OC Reg

From Rough&Tumble:

✅ California’s coronavirus cases are finally dropping. How do we stop another surge? -- The number of reported cases, people hospitalized with COVID-19 and the percent of tests coming back positive are dropping for the first time since a June spike in infections sent shock waves through the state’s recovery plans. Those are “encouraging signs,” Newsom said, but he warned Californians to not forget what happens when we get too comfortable. Marisa Kendall in the San Jose Mercury$ Don Thompson Associated Press -- 8/4/20

 

✅ California’s COVID-19 positive test rate declines. Did closing bars and malls work? -- The governor said it’s possible that “all of the above” contributed to the current decline, while cautioning that the trend is not yet clear. In critiquing his own performance, he has repeatedly said that the state didn’t focus enough in the first round of opening on educating the public about the caution and behavioral changes that would be required. Sophia Bollag in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 8/4/20

 

✅ Newsom provides path for elementary schools to open, strictly limits youth sports -- California elementary schools that want to open their doors for in-person learning must consult with parents, labor unions and others on campus and demonstrate their plans for contact-tracing and other public health measures that have been widely implemented in summer camps and child care settings, according to new guidelines released Monday night. Katy Murphy and Jeremy B. White Politico Dustin Gardiner in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Robert Jablon Associated Press Anita Chabria, Nina Agrawal in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/4/20

 

✅ Democrats take fundraising lead in Orange County’s State Senate, Assembly battles -- Democrats are raising more money than Republicans in all but one of Orange County’s nine state Senate and Assembly races, according to the latest fundraising reports filed with the state. Brooke Staggs in the Orange County Register -- 8/4/20

✅ UC Regents want to investigate top salary cuts -- Two key members of the UC Board of Regents are in favor of a model that would reduce top salaries to help offset pandemic expenses. Also, next year’s UC budget has more money for policing and the stage has been set for a likely September vote about a telescope in Hawaii. Mikhail Zinshteyn CalMatters -- 8/4/20

 

✅ D.A. Is Investigating Trump and His Company Over Fraud, Filing Suggests -- The office of the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., made the disclosure in a new court filing arguing Mr. Trump’s accountants should turn over his tax returns. William K. Rashbaum and Benjamin Weiser in the New York Times$ -- 8/4/20

✅ Rent is coming due in California: ‘Two weeks to avoid complete catastrophe’ -- The California Legislature has less than a month left in its pandemic-shortened session to deal with one of the state’s worst economic crises in decades, and there’s no greater emergency than what to do about the rent. Alexei Koseff in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/3/20

✅ California undercounting COVID-19 cases due to ‘serious’ technical issue, counties say

The Sacramento Bee

     Health officials in multiple California counties say the electronic system used by most local health departments statewide to report data on infectious diseases is currently experiencing “serious” technical issues, resulting in coronavirus cases being significantly undercounted.

     The technical problems suggest that the apparent statewide decline in COVID-19 activity that had been observed in the past few days, and which Gov. Gavin Newsom touted during a Monday news conference as an indication the state has been “able to get a handle” on the pandemic via social distancing and business closures his administration re-implemented last month, may instead be either partially or entirely attributed to a data glitch….

New case numbers likely under-reported today

In one possible world: March 1930

8-3: Trump is Mussolini, he said (and I thought)

✅Coronavirus hospitalizations drop in L.A., Orange counties -- Coronavirus hospitalizations in Los Angeles and Orange counties have dropped over the last week, which may be evidence that actions taken to limit the virus’ spread are working, public health officials said Sunday. Alex Wigglesworth in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/3/20

✅San Francisco flattened the curve early. Now, coronavirus cases are surging -- The Bay Area was supposed to be exceptional. It was one of the first metro areas in the United States to fully shut down to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Nearly everyone wears masks, in stores and on streets. Its progressive residents generally have been inclined to follow the rules, and there’s a high level of trust in public health officials, local governments and the fast-changing science. Heather Kelly and  Rachel Lerman in the Washington Post$ -- 8/3/20

 

✅Scientists Worry About Political Influence Over Coronavirus Vaccine Project -- Operation Warp Speed has moved along at a rapid clip. But some people involved in the process fear pressure to deliver an October surprise for President Trump. Sharon LaFraniere, Katie Thomas, Noah Weiland, Peter Baker and Annie Karni in the New York Times$ -- 8/3/20

✅Pelosi accuses Trump, Birx of spreading misinformation about coronavirus -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi doubled down Sunday on her claims that President Donald Trump and coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx are spreading misinformation about the pandemic.  Allie Bice Politico -- 8/3/20

 

✅Orange County Public Workers Confront Coronavirus Uncertainty Amidst Outbreaks

Voice of OC

 

✅Coronavirus tracker: California cases surpass 500,000, but hospitalizations are on the decline

OC Register

     For the fifth consecutive day, California reported fewer coronavirus-related hospitalizations. According to state reports, there were 7,754 hospitalizations Saturday, Aug. 1, or 245 fewer hospitalizations.

     The state’s number of total cases topped 500,000 (506,456) since reporting began, and 9,354 people have died as of Saturday. There were 6,896 new cases of the coronavirus and 182 new deaths reported, according to unofficial counts from county websites. California health officials reported the state’s first coronavirus death of a child on Friday, saying the victim in the Central Valley was a teenager who had other health conditions.

 

✅COVID-19 Roundup: Study Recommends Testing Every 2 Days

Experts say study offers "wake-up call" as to whether colleges are planning enough testing. Players push back on planned football season, and another college lays off faculty.

Inside Higher Ed

     A new modeling study published Friday by researchers at Harvard and Yale Universities concluded that a safe way to bring college students back to campus this fall would be to test them for COVID-19 every two days using "a rapid, inexpensive, and even poorly sensitive" test, and to couple this testing with strict behavioral strategies to keep the virus’s rate of transmission (Rt) -- the average number of individuals infected by a single contagious person -- below 2.5.

Such a strategy, the authors wrote, “was estimated to yield a modest number of containable infections and to be cost-effective.”

     They added, “This sets a very high bar -- logistically, financially, and behaviorally -- that may be beyond the reach of many university administrators and the students in their care.”….

 

✅Colleges Seek Waivers From Risk-Taking Students

Inside Higher Ed

     As fall semester approaches, students are increasingly opposing liability waivers and "informed consent" agreements required by colleges as a condition of returning to campus.

✅Covid Tests and Quarantines: Colleges Brace for an Uncertain Fall

Colleges are racing to reconfigure dorms, expand testing programs and establish detailed social distancing rules. And then, what to do about sex?

NYT

     This month, many colleges around the country plan to welcome back thousands of students into something they hope will resemble normal campus life. But they face challenges unlike any other American institution — containing the coronavirus among a young, impulsive population that not only studies together, but lives together, parties together, and, if decades of history are any guide, sleeps together.

     It will be a hugely complex and costly endeavor requiring far more than just the reconfiguring of dorm rooms and cafeterias and the construction of annexes and tent classrooms to increase social distancing. It also crucially involves the creation of testing programs capable of serving communities the size of small cities and the enforcement of codes of conduct among students not eager to be policed….

 

✅Jim Clyburn: Trump is Mussolini

The South Carolina Democrat compares the president to the Italian dictator.

Politico

     House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn on Sunday likened President Donald Trump to Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, warning that Trump would resist leaving office.

     The South Carolina lawmaker and No. 3 House Democrat said on CNN's "State of the Union" that Trump has taken up "strong-arm tactics." Trump ignited an uproar last week after he floated the idea of delaying the November election, which he lacks the authority to do.

     "I don't think he plans to leave the White House," Clyburn said of Trump. "He doesn't plan to have fair and unfettered elections. I believe that he plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to continue to hold on to office."….

✅Its Plan Is Risky, Its Community Is Vulnerable, and Cases Are Surging. Why Is This University Reopening?

CHE

The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, facing a system mandate, financial necessity, and concern for students’ well-being, will reopen even as public-health experts underline extensive risks.

✅Trump calls Birx's dire warning on widespread coronavirus in the US 'pathetic'

Guardian UK

 

8-2: the man who made Stephen Miller

The notorious Stephen Miller

✅Coronavirus deaths rise in L.A., Orange County -- Southern California counties continue to report high death tolls from the coronavirus. Orange County reported 31 new deaths Saturday. Los Angeles County tallied 50, which officials contrasted with last week, when an average of 38 people were dying each day. Alex Wigglesworth in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/1/20

✅Lopez: In Orange County, heart of the mask resistance, a doctor tries to restore faith in science -- The day was fading fast in Laguna Beach, where people often gather at the water’s edge to celebrate gauzy, pink-toned sunsets. Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/1/20

 

✅Eviction ban to end in California. And a crisis looms if lawmakers don’t act -- The first of the August arrives with a renewed sense of worry for renters in the capital region and California affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Malaika Kanaaneh Tapper in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 8/1/20

✅'Wrong!': Trump slams Fauci over testimony on Covid-19 surge -- President Donald Trump publicly rebuked Dr. Anthony Fauci on Saturday, forcefully rejecting the nation’s top infectious disease expert's testimony on why the U.S. has experienced a renewed surge in coronavirus cases. Evan Semones Politico -- 8/1/20

 

✅Do We Believe in U.F.O.s? That’s the Wrong Question

Reporting on the Pentagon program that’s investigating unidentified flying objects is not about belief. It’s about a vigilant search for facts.

NYT

 

✅Trump didn’t like rulings on DACA. So he’s defying them.

Editorial Board

Washington Post

 

✅How America votes is inherently unpredictable. So why do polling?

The Post’s polling team, Scott Clement and Emily Guskin, delve into conducting and interpreting polls during an election season. How exactly can polls be representative of the electorate? And are they predictive of how a country will eventually vote?

Washington Post

 

✅Trump gets an education in the art of reversal

The president’s backdown in fighting with schools about their reopening marked the latest in a long line of failed red lines for Trump.

Politico

 

✅The Man Who Made Stephen Miller

Almost 20 years ago, anti-immigration activist David Horowitz cultivated an angry high-school student. Now his ideas are coming to life in the Trump administration.

Politico

…[David] Horowitz wrote that hope and fear are the two strongest weapons in politics. Barack Obama had used hope to become president. “Fear is a much stronger and more compelling emotion,” Horowitz argued, adding that Republicans should appeal to voters’ base instincts…. 
. . . 
Horowitz ran, and continues to run, the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, which was later renamed the David Horowitz Freedom Center: A School for Political Warfare. The foundation says it “sees its role as that of a battle tank, geared to fight a war that many still don’t recognize.” The enemy? In the foundation’s words, it’s the “political left,” which “has declared war on America and its constitutional system, and is willing to collaborate with America’s enemies abroad and criminals at home to bring America down.” Horowitz says the political left poses an “existential threat.” Horowitz has been labeled an anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a hate watch group.
. . .

He came to believe liberals had waged a wrongheaded “war against ‘whiteness.’” White European males, primarily English and Protestant Christian, created “America’s unique political culture … [which] led the world in abolishing slavery and establishing the principles of ethnic and racial inclusion,” he wrote in his book Hating Whitey. “We are a nation besieged by peoples ‘of color’ trying to immigrate to our shores to take advantage of the unparalleled opportunities and rights our society offers them.”…. 
. . .
Miller got into Duke University. Horowitz was relieved. His young protégé would go on rising. And he would take Horowitz’s ideas with him; he started with a launch of a Duke University chapter of Horowitz’s Students for Academic Freedom….

 

8-1: 31 deaths in a day

✅California surpasses 500,000 coronavirus cases, capping off deadliest month yet -- The state reported 267,974 new cases in July — more than half of the state’s total cases since the start of the pandemic, and more than double the previous monthly record of 120,177 in June, according to Chronicle data as of Friday afternoon. Catherine Ho in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/1/20

 

✅Hospitals Juggle Resources, Continue Surgeries As California’s COVID-19 Cases Rise -- Hospitals throughout California were stockpiling gowns and masks, pulling hospital beds out of storage and cross-training nurses this spring in case droves of COVID-19 patients appeared at their doors.  Sammy Caiola Capital Public Radio -- 8/1/20

 

✅Mail Delays Fuel Concern Trump Is Undercutting Postal System Ahead of Voting -- Welcome to the next election battleground: the post office. Michael D. Shear, Hailey Fuchs and Kenneth P. Vogel in the New York Times$ -- 8/1/20

 

✅Lobbying Intensifies Among V.P. Candidates as Biden’s Search Nears an End -- Two women, Representative Karen Bass and Susan Rice, the former national security adviser, are among the most formidable contenders on Joe Biden’s list. Jonathan Martin, Alexander Burns and Katie Glueck in the New York Times$ -- 8/1/20

✅July was California’s worst month of the pandemic -- With one day left to go, July has already amounted to California’s worst month of the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of cases and deaths. But, as it comes to a close, there are signs that the spread of the virus had begun to slow. Evan Webeck in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/31/20

✅Fears grow that releasing thousands of California prisoners will spread COVID-19 into communities -- Missteps by corrections officials handling releases from state prisons are fueling fears in some California counties that thousands of inmates eligible for early release will spread the coronavirus in their communities. Anita Chabria, Richard Winton, Kim Christensen in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/31/20

 

✅Protester had hands up when LAPD officer shot him in head with projectile, video shows -- Footage from a Los Angeles police officer’s body camera shows a man with his hands up being shot in the head with a tactical round as officers advanced on a crowd of fleeing protesters in late May. Kevin Rector in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/31/20

 

✅Orange County Coronavirus Hospitalization Numbers Continue to be Clouded by Uncertainty

Voice of OC

 

✅Coronavirus swings toward Orange County’s younger crowd

OC Reg

OC data here

7-31: I put a spell on you

From Rough&Tumble:

 

✅A new strain of the coronavirus is dominant now. Is it more contagious? -- A mutant strain of the coronavirus that some researchers believe is more infectious is rampaging across the globe and has moved into the Bay Area, but there are conflicting views about how this tiny deviant is impacting people. Peter Fimrite in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/31/20

 

✅With California deaths surging, will Newsom have to do more? -- In a little more than a week, the state has set four coronavirus death records, hitting an all-time high — 193 deaths — on Wednesday. Experts say those numbers are the expected result of the surge in cases that started last month after communities around the state eased their lockdown restrictions. Marisa Kendall, Harriet Blair Rowan, Evan Webeck in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/31/20

✅Trump faces rare rebuke from GOP for floating election delay -- GOP officials from New Hampshire to Mississippi to Iowa quickly pushed back against Trump’s suggestion that it might be necessary to delay the November election — which he cannot do without congressional approval — because of the unfounded threat of voter fraud. Steve Peoples Associated Press -- 7/31/20

✅Record economic plunge, bleak jobs numbers reveal virus toll -- The coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy plunging by a record-shattering 32.9% annual rate last quarter and is still inflicting damage across the country, squeezing already struggling businesses and forcing a wave of layoffs that shows no sign of abating. Martin Crutsinger and Paul Wiseman Associated Press -- 7/30/20

AND…

 

✅Journal Editor Regrets Publishing Racist Article

Inside Higher Ed

     Jonathan B. Imber, Jean Glasscock Professor of Sociology at Wellesley College and editor in chief of the journal Society, said in a statement that he regrets publishing a commentary by Lawrence M. Mead that many scholars say is racist.

     Publishing the piece "was a mistake, and one I deeply regret," Imber said. "My intent was to have this commentary published alongside two critical reviews of his 2019 book, Burdens of Freedom, on which Mead’s commentary is based, that identify flaws in Mead’s arguments. The decision was entirely my responsibility and no other member of the editorial board of Society was consulted or participated in that decision."

     Imber said he's "recommended the call for retraction," and that Springer Nature, Society’s publisher, is conducting an investigation to be completed shortly. "I deeply regret the pain that this has caused. I apologize to everyone affected by this," he said.

     Mead, an influential professor of politics and public policy at New York University, denies that his article attributing poverty among Black and Latinx people to their "culture" espouses racist views.

     [According to an earlier IHE article:

“Today, the seriously poor are mostly blacks and Hispanics, and the main reason is cultural difference,” [Mead] wrote. “The great fact is that these groups did not come from Europe. Fifty years after civil rights, their main problem is no longer racial discrimination by other people but rather that they face an individualist culture that they are unprepared for.”

Cultural difference, Mead says, “helps to explain the two most puzzling things about the long-term poor: their tepid response to opportunity and the frequent disorder in their personal lives.”]

✅Education Department Applied Pressure to Save Troubled For-Profit Colleges, Accreditor Says

CHE

7-30: the "false plunge"

✅Lapses in state coronavirus data cause false plunge in Orange County case rates

OC Reg

✅Confusion Reigns Around Orange County’s Coronavirus Death Counts and Hospitalizations

Voice of OC

✅Orange County Hospital Workers are Getting Fatigued

Voice of OC

✅Children May Carry Coronavirus at High Levels, Study Finds

NYT