Lawmakers on a Republican-controlled legislative committee approved a state compensation plan Wednesday giving University of Wisconsin and state employees a 2% pay bump next year and in 2021.
December 19, 2019
Top Stories
100 UW-Madison, Oregon students and alumni to take part in service project before Rose Bowl
One-hundred University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Oregon students and alumni will take part in a service project supporting senior nutrition in the Los Angeles community before next month’s Rose Bowl game.
Research
Researchers Find High Levels of PFAS Chemicals in Rainwater in United States
Martin Shafer, principal researcher with the National Atmospheric Deposition Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told the Guardian, “There were folks not too long ago who felt the atmospheric transport route was not too important. The data belies that statement.”
Higher Education/System
Wisconsin lawmakers sign off on 2% pay increases for state workers, reject $15 minimum wage
Lawmakers approved a pay raise for state workers and University of Wisconsin System employees, though they again opted to scrap Gov. Tony Evers’ plan to implement a $15 minimum wage for Wisconsin employees during a Wednesday vote.
Committee Approves Pay Raises For State, UW Workers
A bipartisan legislative committee unanimously approved pay raises Wednesday for state and University of Wisconsin employees, but Republicans shot down Gov. Tony Evers’ request to raise the minimum wage for state workers to $15 an hour.
Lawmakers increase pay for UW, state employees by 2% while raises for state troopers are put off
State lawmakers on Wednesday approved an $84 million compensation package that includes a 2% raise for all state employees, but a pay bump for state troopers was put off after Republicans said the raises would make the salaries unaffordable for taxpayers.
Campus life
Look, Lisa, it’s Lin-Manuel Miranda!
In her speech at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Winter Commencement ceremony, Lisa referenced Hamilton – an award-winning Broadway musical written and composed by Miranda.
Impeach-Meh-nt: Despite strong feelings on Donald Trump, many Madisonians tune out House hearings
Lawmakers approved a pay raise for state workers and University of Wisconsin System employees, though they again opted to scrap Gov. Tony Evers’ plan to implement a $15 minimum wage for Wisconsin employees during a Wednesday vote.
State news
Committee Approves Pay Raises For State, UW Workers
A bipartisan legislative committee unanimously approved pay raises Wednesday for state and University of Wisconsin employees, but Republicans shot down Gov. Tony Evers’ request to raise the minimum wage for state workers to $15 an hour.
Agriculture
Soil Health and Conservation Tillage Put to Work
“In a perfect world that university staff dream about, you would treat every field separately according to its soil test,” says Dick Wolkwoski, Extension soil scientist at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Health
The workout drug
Researchers are still working out what matters in this complex arena. Exercises that involve more muscle groups generate more IL-6, so full-body exercises like running have a greater anti-inflammatory effect than exercises that target just a few muscle groups, says Pedersen. And the benefits go away within a couple of days, suggesting that exercising frequently is important. “If it’s been 48 hours since you exercised, it’s time to do it again,” says Jill Barnes, an exercise physiologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Autism prevalence estimates for Catalonia, Iran highlight gaps in data
Quoted: “A weakness of the [Catalonia] study is lack of information on co-occurring conditions such as intellectual disability, and information about sociodemographic variables,” says Maureen Durkin, professor of population health sciences and pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved in either study.
Athletics
Badgers’ Dana Rettke, Sydney Hilley earn first-team All-America honors
The University of Wisconsin’s Dana Rettke and Sydney Hilley were named first-team All-America by the American Volleyball Coaches Association on Wednesday.
UW Experts in the News
Economy Looms Large in 2020 Election Battle for Wisconsin
Quoted: “We’ve actually run into a bit of a bottleneck in the sense that we don’t have enough people to fill the jobs that we have,” said Steven Deller, economics professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who says economic strength is good news for President Donald Trump’s re-election efforts in the state.
First human ancestors to leave Africa died out in Java, scientists say
Quoted:But John Hawks, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, raised doubts about the identity of the fossils. “The question I’m asking is why should we think that these fossils are Homo erectus?” he said. “It’s hard for me to see a population of fossils from Java 120,000 years ago and not assume they were probably Denisovan.”
Can Diesel Finally Come Clean?
Quoted: “Sandia’s DFI technology is on the cutting edge of new ideas,” says leading diesel expert Rolf Reitz, former director of the Engine Research Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “It represents an alternative to natural mixing phenomena in diesel combustion.”
Let’s Talk About America’s Affordable Housing Crisis
Guests include Paige Glotzer, a professor in the department of history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She has written extensively about housing segregation in the U.S., the history of housing policy, and urban and suburban development. She is the author of How the Suburbs Were Segregated: Developers and the Business of Exclusionary Housing, 1890–1960, which will be published in April 2020.
UW-Madison Related
Latest Mar-a-Lago Intruder Appears at First Court Hearing
In another Mar-a-Lago trespassing case, a University of Wisconsin student was arrested in November 2018 after he mixed in with guests being admitted to the club. He pleaded guilty in May and received probation.