Skip to main content

Author: jnweaver

Local performer’s pro-staying-at-home video goes viral, thanks to Rafael, Ava & Oprah

Posted on
Madison 365

James Gavins, the creative director of the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has taken to making music, dance and comedy videos during the COVID pandemic. Performing is nothing new for Gavins — an alum of the UW’s First Wave performing arts scholarship with a degree in theater, he worked with the Youth Arts Initiative and mounted a one-man show before returning to UW to join OMAI.

“The comedy and the sketches, and things like that, I’ve been doing that for a while, but as far as the music … that really started once quarantine hit, because I was an artist at home figuring this all out for myself, this is how I communicate. You try to communicate, and this is how I relate to most people,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

Canadian illustrator Julie Flett’s books reveal the truth about modern Indigenous life

Posted on
NBC News

Noted: Groups like We Need Diverse Books and accounts like The Conscious Kid have pushed for diversity and inclusion on children’s bookshelves and promoted stories written by and featuring Black and Indigenous people and other people of color. Only 46 out of 4,035 books for children and teens reviewed in 2019 were by Indigenous authors, according to data compiled by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wisconsin Corn Growers Expected To Bring In Record Yields

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Joe Lauer, an agronomy professor for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said farmers were grateful for more normal weather patterns this year after an extremely wet season in 2019.

“There’s a little more peace of mind, if you will, in kind of going through what I just call an average normal production season,” Lauer said. “We’re going to end up with record yields but it’s just kind of easier psychologically to take.”

Shawn Conley, soybean and wheat specialist for UW-Madison’s Division of Extension, said a lack of precipitation throughout the state at the end of summer caused the USDA to lower their forecasted yields to 53 bushels per acre. That’s six bushels, or almost 13 percent, higher than last year.

But Conley said most farmers were happy to have the dry weather.

“That allowed farmers to have a lot of days in the field that they can push through and get their crops out of the field in a timely manner,” Conley said.

Young Voters Helped Biden Beat Trump After Holding Back in Primaries

Posted on
The Wall Street Journal

Noted: Allyson Fergot, a spokeswoman for College Democrats of UW-Madison, said the group held weekly virtual phone-banking events over Zoom in the month before the election to encourage students to vote and answer questions about voter registration

In Dane County, Wis., home to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Mr. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received nearly 35,000 more votes than the Democratic ticket got four years ago. And in Centre County, Pa., home of Pennsylvania State University, the running mates received 1,800 additional votes over the 2016 count.

Retailers adjust and public health experts urge caution looking ahead to Black Friday in the pandemic

Posted on
Wisconsin Examiner

Quoted: “It will be unlike any other Thanksgiving week shopping that we’ve had, I imagine,” says retailing expert Jerry O’Brien.

Perhaps this year’s biggest Black Friday change is that retailers effectively started Black Friday weeks ago.

“They’re pretty much all coming out openly saying, ‘We’re going to spread Black Friday out through November,’” says O’Brien, who is executive director of the Kohl’s Center for Retailing Excellence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

UW-Madison epidemiologist Dr. Ajay Sethi is hoping that foot traffic will be modest and safe.

“I anticipate there’ll be less Black Friday shopping this year compared to last year, because a sizable proportion of people are well aware of our pandemic,” says Sethi, an associate professor of population health sciences and faculty director of the UW-Madison master of public health degree program. “It obviously needs to be minimal, because we want to have really no crowding anywhere, for at least the next several weeks or months, so we can stop the spread of COVID in the state.”

‘To beat this virus, we have to be united’: Chaos and resistance to COVID-19 measures hinder Wisconsin’s response

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Patrick Remington, former epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s preventive medicine residency program, said the best approach to tackling the massive outbreak is working together.

“To beat this virus, we have to be united in response,” he said.

Did Viruses Create the Nucleus? The Answer May Be Near.

Posted on
Quanta Magazine

Quoted: Just this year, researchers spotted pores in the double-membrane-bound viral factories of coronaviruses, which are eerily reminiscent of the pores found in cell nuclei. “If this result holds up, and assuming that the pore-forming protein was not derived from a eukaryotic genome, then it does blunt one argument against the virus model,” wrote David A. Baum, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in an email.

Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects

Posted on
National Geographic

Quoted: The discovery is especially surprising because the ants are well known. “There are thousands of papers on leaf-cutter ants,” says study co-author Cameron Currie, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“We were really excited to find [this in] one of the most well-studied insects in nature,” he says.

 

8 Wisconsin cities have some of the fastest case growth in US, per a New York Times analysis. Seven of them have UW campuses.

Posted on
Appleton Post Crescent

Eight Wisconsin metro areas have landed on the New York Times’ list of places across the country where new cases of COVID-19 are rising the fastest.

La Crosse is number one on the New York Times’ list, which was updated Thursday afternoon. In third is Whitewater, and the Oshkosh-Neenah area is in eighth. Stevens Point, Appleton, Platteville, Madison and Green Bay take up the 15th through 19th spots of the list, respectively.

With the exception of Appleton, all the Wisconsin cities on the list are home to a University of Wisconsin System campus.

Donald Trump tears into Joe Biden in return visit to Wisconsin

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: The president praised the Big Ten for its decision this week to start college football this season after earlier postponing it and singled out Barry Alvarez, the athletic director at the University of Wisconsin. Madison officials have urged fans not to gather for Badgers games as cases in the city climb — an increase largely driven by college students.

Covid spike or touchdown spike? Big Ten returns to the football field

Posted on
Wisconsin Examiner

Shortly after it was announced that the Big Ten conference had backtracked and the University of Wisconsin-Madison would be playing football this year, the team’s Twitter account tweeted a meme video of a group of people celebrating in a crowded bar during a soccer game in 2016. 

“You love to see it,” the tweet said.

Except in 2020, amid a local spike of COVID-19 cases, that image takes on a whole new meaning. 

Black Maternal and Child Health Alliance launched to improve the birth outcomes of Black mothers and babies in Dane County

Posted on

Noted: The group will be co-chaired by inaugural members Dr. Tiffany Green, assistant professor in the Departments of Population Health Sciences and Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Alia Stevenson, Chief Programs Officer with the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness.

“The Black Maternal & Child Health Alliance is comprised of Black women serving in important roles in health care, our community, and as decision-makers and knowledge experts. Our highest priority is to ensure that the health and wellbeing of Black mothers remains front and center,” says Co-Chairs Green and Stevenson in a statement. “As the Alliance moves forward, we are pleased to join the Dane County Health Council as we work together to advance the health of Black mothers, babies and their families in this county.”

Dane County add 210 new coronavirus cases; second consecutive day over 200

Posted on

Dane County confirmed 210 new coronavirus cases this morning, as yesterday’s Data Snapshot from Public Health Madison Dane County (PHMDC) reported 72 percent of all new cases the September 1-14 were from UW students and staff. Today’s new cases bring the total for the county to 8,461 as of this morning. There are 6,548 recovered cases while 1,872 are currently active. This brings the percentage of active cases to 22 percent.

Dane Co. average COVID-19 cases per day nearly doubles since last week

Posted on
NBC-15

Noted: Just over three-quarters of those recent cases were found in University of Wisconsin-Madison students and staff, with students making up the vast majority, 1,808 to 10 for the UW staff, PHMDC data notes indicate. Nearly 1,400 of the total cases were linked to college-age housing clusters, such as forms, apartment complexes with 10 or more cases, and fraternities and sororities.

As the pandemic grinds on, the Northwoods beckons many seeking solitude, natural social distancing

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Bayfield County is projected to lose 28% of its child population by 2040. Pepin County, 25%; Price County, 20%, according to the Applied Population Laboratory at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Those communities that lose too much of their youth population are in danger of becoming unsustainable,” the university said.

Coronavirus in Wisconsin: State reports more than 1,400 new cases as seven-day case average continues to rise

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: The new cases come as colleges and universities across the state continue to grapple with outbreaks of the virus on and around their campuses.

Nearly 90% of University of Wisconsin-Madison students who have tested positive for COVID-19 have exhibited symptoms, public health officials said Wednesday.

‘Wisconsin Funnies’ highlights comics artists from the Badger State, including Denis Kitchen and Lynda Barry

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Formats and preoccupations change, but comics never lose their power to communicate, criticize and entertain.

“Wisconsin Funnies: Fifty Years of Comics,” presented through Nov. 22 by the Museum of Wisconsin Art in two locations, surveys our state’s role in the great hurly-burly of funny words and pictures, especially from underground and alternative points of view.

One week into the school year, COVID-19 spread pauses in-person classes at UW-Madison

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Freshmen Lauren Tamborini and Bailey Donahue move out of Sellery Residence Hall at UW-Madison on Thursday. The students will be attending class online for at least the next two weeks. Citing rapidly rising COVID-19 cases including two straight days in which one in five student tests came back positive, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank locked down the state’s largest university campus for two weeks.

Here’s how the University of Wisconsin-Madison is limiting in-person interactions on campus in the next two weeks

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In response to spiking COVID-19 cases, the University of Wisconsin-Madison decided to make classes virtual, restrict other in-person activities and quarantine students living in two residence halls, Sellery and Witte. The decision was made Wednesday  and most restrictions will be in place until at least Sept. 25.

More than 350,000 accounts tweeted after Kenosha violence. Experts say bots were likely among them.

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: In the last presidential cycle, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Young Mie Kim found that Russian-linked disinformation campaigns focused ads on the swing states of Virginia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in particular, targeting both sides of the political spectrum with inflammatory posts on race, gun rights and increasingly, feminism.

COVID-19 causes University of Wisconsin, WIAA to cancel fall state tournaments slated for UW facilities

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

If the WIAA has state championships this fall, they won’t happen at the University of Wisconsin.

Wednesday the state’s high school sports governing body and the university announced that due to the “challenging situation with COVID-19 restrictions in Dane County” no state championships will be held on the UW campus this fall.

Deborah Birx touts masks in Wisconsin as conservatives try to throw out the state’s mask mandate

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Birx was in Madison to talk to Wisconsin officials and health care representatives about COVID-19 as part of a tour of states. Among those she met with was Tommy Thompson, the University of Wisconsin System president whom she knows from his time as health and human services secretary under President George W. Bush.

“I think he has taken a very serious and public-health approach to this,” Birx said. “He has a plan for surveillance testing, he has a plan for surge testing … and I think equally importantly, he has a plan for caring for students who become positive.”

She suggested that could help UW avoid the problems of colleges that have seen clusters of cases once students arrived on campus.

Borsuk: In a pandemic-altered school year, educators face challenge tracking student progress

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

How are people going to figure out how students are doing in school this year?

“I can’t imagine how this isn’t going to be the most challenging year that we’ve ever had for answering that question,” said Brad Carl, an expert on the subject who is with the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “How are we going to tell?”

Two pandemics, same story: The potentially dangerous overuse of antibiotics and ‘the road to medical hell’

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: The idea of using azithromycin for COVID-19 was based on preliminary French research suggesting a benefit that later was found to be flawed, said Ann Misch, an assistant professor of infectious disease at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Separately, laboratory research showed hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin reduced viral replication of cells infected by the virus, though not azithromycin alone. But, she said, “there’s a huge chasm between an effect in cell culture and in humans.”

She said there is no evidence azithromycin is effective against COVID-19.

“If people are using azithromycin, I am sorry to hear that,” she said.

Foreign actors seeking to sow divisions by targeting Native American populations, cyber intelligence firms says

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Richard Monette, director of the Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, largely agreed that the messaging would not have much influence on Native people.

He doubled down on Greendeer’s statement that U.S.-tribal relations are not as bad as some make it seem, but he added the presence of these tensions opens Native groups up to these types of social media attacks.

“America has got this history of trying to separate the Native American from her land and from her wealth. That’s true, and that gets exploited by people throughout the world,” Monette said. “If we don’t want them to use this against us, then we should stop doing that.”

Tommy Thompson, Tavern League, restaurant leaders appeal to campus businesses to take precautions

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The heads of the University of Wisconsin System, the Tavern League of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Restaurant Association sent an open letter to restaurant and bar owners Monday asking they take precautions to prevent COVID-19 spread as students start to return to campuses across the state.

UW System Interim President Tommy Thompson asked businesses to “help to encourage responsible behavior of our students,” alongside on-campus efforts to bring back a portion of some 170,000 students across 13 UW campuses.

Kenosha police shooting updates: Some Kenosha buildings are a total loss

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Protests in Wisconsin’s capital city started around 9 p.m., drawing out hundreds of protestors who were largely peaceful. The group marched up and down State Street and other streets near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, drawing students into their ranks, according to tweets from Emily Hamer, a reporter with the Wisconsin State Journal.

Republicans and Democrats put their contrasting Wisconsin strategies on full display

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: “Face to face campaigning is a known positive … the positive on the Republican side is they know this can work. One of the negatives is that we don’t know that it works in a pandemic,” said Michael Wagner, a journalism professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in political communication and behavior.