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October 7, 2022

Research

American children got 10 per cent fatter during the pandemic, ‘alarming’ study suggests

Posted on
Daily Mail

Quoted: Study author Dr. Drew Watson, physician for the University of Wisconsin Athletics, said: ‘The cancellation of sports in the early pandemic was accompanied by decreased physical activity and quality of life, as well as startlingly high levels of anxiety and depression.

“Although the return to sports has been associated with large improvements in physical activity levels, quality of life and mental health, we are still seeing higher levels of anxiety and depression than before Covid, suggesting that this will remain a vitally important priority for years to come.”

How green are biofuels? Scientists are at loggerheads

Posted on
Knowable Magazine

Tyler Lark, a geographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, grew up among farms, working on a neighbor’s dairy, vaguely aware of the tension between clearing land to grow food and preserving nature. As an engineering student working on water projects in Haiti, he saw an extreme version of that conflict: forests cleared for firewood or to grow crops, producing soil erosion, environmental denudation and worsening poverty. “I think it was that experience that told me, ‘Hey, land use is important,’” he says.

Doctors providing trans care are under increasing threat from far-right harassment campaigns

Posted on
NBC News

Dr. Katherine Gast had become accustomed to the odd social media comment or email from someone who does not support or understand gender affirmation procedures she provides to her transgender patients.

But Gast, a co-director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s UW Health gender services program, was blindsided by what happened when the social media outrage machine that has developed around transgender issues came for her.

On the afternoon of Sept. 23, a two-minute video of Gast describing gender-affirming operations was posted by the Twitter account Libs of TikTok, a self-described news service that acts as an outrage content factory for conservatives.

State news

In Wisconsin, voting limits vetoed, but conservative court steps in

Posted on
The Center for Public Integrity

Quoted: “What the Wisconsin Supreme Court said is that to the extent that these ballots are being dropped off with election officials, that it has to be the voters themselves that do it and not others,” said Robert Yablon, associate professor and co-director of the State Democracy Research Initiative at University of Wisconsin Madison School of Law. “But they specifically didn’t rule on whether that is also true when an absentee ballot is put in the mail. There just is not a definitive state level word at this point.”

“There are some people who just can’t physically get up to put it in the mail,” Newcomer said. “There’s a reason why they vote absentee. It is difficult for them.”

Wisconsin’s 46 Most Influential Latino Leaders, Part 5

Posted on
Madison 365

Jair Alvarez is a litigation attorney providing corporate and criminal law counsel and representation in Madison, operating his own practice since graduating from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2014. As a law school student, he volunteered at the National Immigrant Justice Center.

Luz del Carmen Arroyo Calderon is Retention Initiatives and Student Engagement (RISE) Student Success Manager at Madison College. She grew up in a small town in Mexico and was 12 when she moved to Milwaukee with her mom. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2010 and taught in the Madison Metropolitan School District as a Bilingual Resource Specialist, Bilingual Resource Teacher and Dual Language Immersion Teacher until 2017, when she joined the staff at Madison College.

Kattia Jimenez is the owner of Mount Horeb Hemp LLC, a USDA certified organic hemp farm. She is a host of the Hemp Can Do It podcast and is a guest lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural & Life Sciences.

Crime and safety

Community

Storytellers share pieces of themselves at Madison Moth GrandSLAM Championship

Posted on
Isthmus

Last December, Danielle Hairston Green took the stage in front of a roomful of strangers and told a witty, passionate story about “leaping and soaring” to overcome life’s obstacles. Not only did she receive raucous applause, but she also won that night’s monthly themed StorySLAM at the High Noon Saloon, sponsored by The Moth Madison.

On Oct. 14, Hairston Green will join nine other area storytellers at The Barrymore Theatre to compete in the first in-person Madison Moth GrandSLAM Championship since October 2019.

“It’s important for people to find a home to not only share their thoughts and experiences, but to do so in a space that’s nonjudgmental and where people are vulnerable,” says Hairston Green, who is director for the Human Development and Relationships Institute in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension. “Sometimes at StorySLAMS, you’re in front of people you’ve never met and may never see again, and that’s a freeing experience.”

Hopeful tenants camp out overnight for affordable housing in Madison

Posted on
NBC-15

Within the line of tents, sleeping bags, and blankets, some UW-Madison students say they are waiting for J Michael Real Estate to open at 9 a.m. Hopeful tenants say they started lining up almost 24 hours before then because Friday is the first day applications are accepted and it’s on a first come, first serve basis.

Health

Business/Technology

Housing advocates ask Nessel to weigh in on compensation for overtaxed Detroiters

Posted on
Detroit Free Press

Quoted: “We are here fighting for what Detroiters clearly said they wanted, which is property tax credits and cash compensation for the theft that happened through these illegally inflated property tax foreclosures,” said Bernadette Atuahene, a professor and property law scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.

UW Experts in the News

Status of the Russia-Ukraine war

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Seven months since Russia invaded Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has asserted control over a nuclear power plant and signed annexation laws for territories out of Russia’s control. Includes interview with Ted Gerber, Director of the Wisconsin Russia Project, Professor of Sociology

Experts say Trump, election deniers eroding trust in democracy. Can it be restored?

Posted on
ABC News

Quoted: “After every election, especially a presidential election, there is some sense among the people who voted for the losing candidate that the election was not quite fair,” Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told ABC News. “But 2020 is different,” Burden continued. “Republican voters have been stuck with very low levels of support.”

UW-Madison Related

Does Ron Johnson understand Wisconsin’s important role in developing Social Security policy?

Posted on
Wisconsin Examiner

Noted: The Social Security program emerged from discussions in the economics department at the University of Wisconsin, which also developed programs such as unemployment insurance, workers compensation, Aid to Families with Dependent Children and other social programs. Prototypes for national legislation on these topics first passed in the state of Wisconsin.

‘Living through the seasons’: Small but growing movement taps ancient traditions to feed future generations

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Cornelius, who balances farming with his full-time job as deputy director of the Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center at UW-Madison and raising his 4-year-old son, hopes the farm can be economically self-sustaining, providing food for his family and his community as well a space for gathering, learning and passing on knowledge.