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Author: jnweaver

Gerrymandering solutions possible, Forum speaker says

Eau Claire Leader-Telegram

While Wisconsin waits to reargue a gerrymandering case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, the state should look to examples of better redistricting procedures, like those found in Pennsylvania, California and Iowa, a UW-Madison political science professor argued Wednesday night to an audience of roughly 75 people at the UW-Eau Claire Forum.

Barry Burden, also director of the Elections Research Center, said those three states have each come up with different solutions to the problem of gerrymandering.

See the little houses that inspired big Wisconsin writers

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: A University of Wisconsin professor and a pioneer of wildlife management, Leopold compiled a book of ecological essays and observations of nature in the 1940s. Published in 1949, a year after his death, “A Sand County Almanac” has sold millions of copies and influenced waves of conservationists who have followed him, inspired by the principle he expressed in his essay “The Land Ethic”: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

Microloans continue to assist furloughed federal workers

Badger Herald

Quoted: Jirs Meuris, assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Business, stressed the importance of the loans. According to Meuris’ research, employees who are financially insecure tend to be less productive. This financial insecurity leads to anxiety, making employees unable to focus on work, he explained.

“These interest-free loans are trying to create these safety nets for these workers … providing these safety nets can reduce a lot of the psychological strain that comes along with financial insecurity,” Meuris said.

Despite deal to avoid another shutdown, aviation safety workers are wary

Washington Post

Quoted: Jirs Meuris, an assistant professor of management and human resources at the University of Wisconsin at Madison said that while the rest of the country may have moved on, many federal workers, not to mention critical safety programs, have not.

“The first shutdown created very long-term problems,” Meuris said. “It posed threats to our security — and those effects will be felt for a very long time if we have a second shutdown.”

Sixteenth Street’s new program helps children and adolescents struggling with behavioral health problems

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Jason Fletcher, a professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison whose research includes child and adolescent health policy, found that when comparing siblings, one who had ADHD and one who did not, the sibling with ADHD earned approximately 33 percent less as an adult.

A Christian Group Is Building a Movement That Could Destabilize Jerusalem’s Most Explosive Holy Site

The Daily Beast

Quoted: According to Dan Hummel, a historian of Christian Zionism and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Christian interest there grew after Israel gained control of the site in 1967. This interest included evangelicals and fundamentalists who believed the future Third Temple would “play a role in the events in the lead up to Jesus’ return,” he wrote in an email to The Daily Beast.

Don Johnson, longtime Sentinel outdoors writer, is picked for the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Craven, 70, is a professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Wildlife Ecology at UW-Madison. In a more than 40-year association with the university system, including as UW-Extension wildlife specialist, he advanced the public’s understanding and appreciation for Wisconsin’s wildlife and natural resources, WCHF officials said.

Yodeling fame: Jim Leary gets a second Grammy shot for “Alpine Dreaming”

Isthmus

The first time Jim Leary was nominated for a Grammy, it went to Joni Mitchell. This time around, Joni isn’t part of the competition, though an homage to Bob Dylan is probably a crowd-pleasing favorite. Even so, who says there isn’t time to throw some Grammy love at yodelers? That’s the hope of Leary, a folklorist who is up for his second Grammy Award nomination for Best Album Notes for a release of archival music with a Wisconsin connection.

The Black Strike, Part 1

Madison 365

The Black Student Strike at the University of Wisconsin – Madison began 50 years ago today. This is a history of that strike and surrounding events, excerpted from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press’s new book, Madison in the Sixties, by Stuart D. Levitan.

Local immigration lawyer Aissa Olivarez attends State of the Union with Rep. Mark Pocan

The Cap Times

Noted: Olivarez and Erin Barbato, director of the Immigrant Justice Clinic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, worked for hours on behalf of detainees. They called ICE to see where the detainees had been taken, started intakes to see who could be eligible for relief and worked with other immigration attorneys to find out who could take cases pro-bono or at a low cost, referring families who could afford it to private attorneys.

The facts on immigration: What you need to know before the State of the Union

CBSNews.com

Noted: Undocumented immigrants are also less likely to commit serious criminal offenses, according to research conducted by Cato. Using government-supplied data from the Texas Department of Safety, the libertarian think tank concluded that in Texas the murder arrest rate for native-born Americans was “about 46 percent higher than the illegal immigrant homicide rate,” according to a June 2018 research note. Another study, performed by researchers at the University of Wisconsin, found that “increased concentrations of undocumented immigrants are associated with statistically significant decreases in violent crime.”

Madison celebrates John Harbison, a source of great music

WISC-TV 3

Noted: The University of Wisconsin–Madison will be honoring Harbison throughout February. An exhibit on display all month at the Memorial Library will focus on Harbison and his career. The first performance of Harbison’s music will be of “Wind Quintet” by the Imani Winds, Feb. 1 at the Union Theater. And Harbison will take up a one-week residency at UW–Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music to coach students in composition.

Meet Nemuri, the Gene That Puts Flies to Sleep and Helps Them Fight Infection

Smithsonian Magazine

Quoted: Chiara Cirelli, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the study, is interested in seeing what the nemuri gene’s effects are at less extreme levels.

“We knew there was this correlation, but here, we have an animal model, we have a specific gene, we can start asking these more mechanistic questions,” she says. The study opens up new avenues for research to drill down on the relationship between sleep and the immune system, explains Cirelli.

Two weeks later, BuzzFeed’s bombshell Trump report has yet to be corroborated

BuzzFeed

Quoted: “Reporters reviewing documents without editors seeing them happens every single day across news media,” said Kathleen Bartzen Culver, the director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Take, for instance, a crime reporter doing a story on filed charges by reviewing the criminal complaint. An editor rarely reviews the document as part of the editing process.”

Think You Know the Polar Vortex? Think Again.

Nova

Quoted: “The word has become appropriated by the popular media,” says Jonathan Martin, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He says the term “polar vortex” is now used in a general way to describe an extreme cold front that migrates southward to latitudes where it doesn’t typically reside.

The next frontier: Transgender rights take center stage

Isthmus

Quoted: These developments are deeply troubling for sj Miller, an internationally known gender identity educator and social justice activist who works as a faculty assistant at UW-Madison’s School of Education. “I’m worried sick,” says Miller, who is transgender. “You talk about hope, but I’m scared. [The Trump administration’s policies on gender identity] are going to open up this maelstrom of possibilities for putting prejudice back into practice.”

From baiting to embracing a ‘slow path,’ local artists respond to political tension

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Fred Stonehouse says he has a privileged view of Wisconsin politics. He lives in a working class and deeply red neighborhood in Slinger, teaches art in the “leftie bubble” of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and considers himself “a Milwaukee guy,” he says. Like a lot of artists, he leans left, but he’s hip deep in conservative circles too, including family and the monied collectors who buy his work. It’s one of the reasons his subtext is subtle.

Why Wisconsin microsurgeons are stitchin’ chicken: BTN LiveBIG

Big Ten Network

Chicken thighs: they’re an integral part of the chicken and man-alive are they ever delicious (shh, don’t tell the chickens.) But that’s not all. Thanks to some enterprising doctors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, chicken thighs have found a new utility… in the field of microsurgery.

Froedtert & MCW health network participates in All of Us Research Program

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is leading one of the world’s largest health research efforts to personalize medical treatment for people of all backgrounds. Through the NIH’s All of Us Research Program, the agency is seeking one million volunteers to build a database of health and genetic information to speed up research breakthroughs intended to improve care.

FDA Pushing for Over-The-Counter Sales of Naloxone

Pain News Network

Noted: “Expanding naloxone access increases opioid abuse and opioid-related crime, and does not reduce opioid-related mortality. In fact, in some areas, particularly the Midwest, expanding naloxone access has increased opioid-related mortality. Opioid-related mortality also appears to have increased in the South and most of the Northeast as a result of expanding naloxone access,” wrote Jennifer Doleac, PhD, Texas A&M University, and co-author Anita Mukherjee, PhD, University of Wisconsin.