Author: jnweaver

Noted: Jim Leary, emeritus professor of folklore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told PolitiFact that he hasn’t ever encountered evidence of any seasonal tradition like the one described in the Facebook post.

Leary said there are major seasonal traditions, such as the Jewish holy day, Yom Kippur, where atonement and forgiveness figure, but he is only aware of reciprocal practices, rather than one-way traditions regarding forgiveness between couples.

He called “ridiculous” the claim that “‘women’ (what women? since not all women share the same traditions) apologized so abjectly to their husbands, who the implication is had nothing to apologize for” and said it sounded more like a “patriarchal fantasy” than anything based in reality.

Quoted: UW-Madison Professor of Public Affairs and Economics Tim Smeeding says this rule change won’t mean much for Wisconsin, as the State has already taken benefits away from adults without dependents.

“That is not going to affect Wisconsin very much because our former governor, [Scott] Walker, instituted that law of April, 2015,” Smeeding says. “So, we already are telling able-bodied adults without dependents, so-called ABAWDs, that they have to work or lose their benefits after three months on the program.” 

Noted: The high water levels are mostly caused by record-setting precipitation in the Great Lakes basin over the last five years, according to Adam Bechle, coastal engineering outreach specialist with the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute.

Quoted: Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said since the news of Dean Foods’ legal woes hit the news, his phone has been ringing off the hook.

“Dean Foods is big in the market, representing at least a third of fluid milk sales (in the U.S.) and 10% of total milk sales, so this is big news in the dairy industry,” Stephenson said.

Noted: The forum was sponsored by a Madison chapter of the liberal American Constitution Society and held at the offices of the Foley & Lardner law firm. Mike Wagner, a University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism professor, moderated the debate.

Quoted: Meanwhile, turnout among Republican voters in the county has barely wavered over the years, making Democratic turnout the key to whether a Democrat can win the county and ultimately the state, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison Elections Research Center Director Barry Burden.

“In recent presidential elections, about one of out of every five Democratic votes has come from Milwaukee County, so it is essential that the party perform well there to win the state,” Burden said.

Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and sociologist Sarah Helpern-Meekin studies instability in peoples’ lives. This includes the role policy can play in affecting the instability around family members or financial situations.

She said for families working with a more fixed income, including those who are low income, have to make tough choices about where to cut back.

Renters can often face higher rents, but homeowners often must make the tough decision of whether to stay where they are or move.

“The options are often limited,” she said. “You need to pay your property taxes to hold onto your home, so you have to make some decisions about what it’s worth to you to hold onto your home if paying those property taxes is not feasible.”

Quoted: “For us humans, this (weather) can be a problem,” said David Drake, UW-Extension wildlife specialist and University of Wisconsin professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology. “For wildlife, the conditions might be out of the ordinary for this time, but they are well adapted to it.”

Quoted: Donald Downs, an emeritus professor of law and political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said a U.S. Supreme Court decision would give the county the ability to restrict the speech of county employees who work directly on water issues.

But the county has less authority to control what other county employees could say about water issues because they would be speaking more as citizens than as county officials, Downs said. He called putting restrictions elected officials “really problematic.”

“It’s clearly a gag order,” he said.

Quoted: “All I can say is: Wow,” University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism instructor Kathleen Bartzen Culver said in an email to the Associated Press. “I am astonished that a local government would find it appropriate, much less legal, to threaten a news organization with prosecution for doing what they are constitutionally protected in doing — representing the public interest by seeking, analyzing and reporting information.

“For the life of me,” Culver further wrote, “I’m struggling to envision under what statute a journalist would be prosecuted for covering water test results released by local government.”

Quoted: Jordan Gerth, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said some parts of the state have already seen 20 percent of their normal annual snowfall, which is unusual when compared to a normal November.

“You might get a few inches of snow, and the temperatures will be getting cooler, but it’s certainly nothing like what we’ve seen the last week of October into the beginning of this month,” Gerth said.