Quoted: Poverty report?s author, Katherine Curtis, demographic specialist at UW Extension and an assistant professor at UW-Madison.
Report: Poverty rates up in most Wisconsin counties
Wisconsin State Journal
Author: jplucas
Got a cold? Study says echinacea won’t help much
Madison.com
Got the sniffles? The largest study of the popular herbal remedy echinacea finds it won?t help you get better any sooner. The study of more than 700 adults and children suggests the tiniest possible benefit _ about a half-day shaved off a weeklong cold and slightly milder symptoms. But that could have occurred by chance. With government funding, Dr. Bruce Barrett and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin tackled the question again, using newspaper ads and posters to find volunteers with colds in the Madison, Wis., area.
On Campus: University of Wisconsin-Madison gets $20 million for humanities
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison will get $20 million for research and education in the humanities – $10 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and $10 million from the state of Wisconsin. The Mellon grant required a match of state funds, which Gov. Jim Doyle agreed to commit.
Study: Echinacea not likely the cold remedy it’s made out to be
Wisconsin State Journal
The herb echinacea might trim half a day off a typical cold and reduce symptoms by about 10 percent, but the slight help found in a UW-Madison study could have occurred by chance. “It suggests some minor benefit but does not prove it by any means,” said Dr. Bruce Barrett, a UW-Madison family physician who led the study and published the results Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
No word on the Badgers’ next defensive coordinator
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
As he prepares for his final game at Wisconsin, defensive coordinator Dave Doeren isn?t about to tip his hand regarding his replacement.”He has got a tough decision on who is calling the plays,” Doeren said, referring to UW coach Bret Bielema.
Bielema, who prefers to promote from within, has two solid choices on the staff in defensive line coach Charlie Partridge and secondary coach Chris Ash.
Former Wis. legislator settles misconduct case
Madison.com
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin.
Census set to show Wis. retaining 8 US House seats
Madison.com
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist David Canon, an expert on redistricting.
$271 Million Telescope Buried Under South Pole is Ready To Unearth Dark Matter (Fast Company)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, built over a decade at a cost of $271 million, is buried under the South Pole… and longer than the world?s tallest skyscrapers combined.
UW-Madison receives $10 million grant
Chicago Tribune
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has received a $10 million grant to enhance education and research in the humanities.
Echinacea no help for colds: study (CBC News)
CBC News
The herbal remedy echinacea is no better than a placebo at stifling the sneezes, sore throat and fever of common cold sufferers, a study suggests.
In the UW-Madison study of 719 people aged 12 to 80 with early cold symptoms, participants were randomly assigned to receive either no pill, a pill that they knew contained echinacea, or a pill that could be either echinacea or a sugar pill.
Got a cold? Study says echinacea won’t help much (AP)
Associated Press
Got the sniffles? The largest study of the popular herbal remedy echinacea finds it won?t help you get better any sooner. The study of more than 700 adults and children suggests the tiniest possible benefit ? about a half-day shaved off a weeklong cold and slightly milder symptoms. But that could have occurred by chance.
Echinacea for a cold? Eh, don’t bother, study concludes
Los Angeles Times
Echinacea has been used as a common cold remedy for years, but does it really work? In a recent study, researchers from the University of Wisconsin at Madison tested 719 patients who were coming down with a cold to see whether echinacea was effective in curing their symptoms.
Politifact Wisconsin: Charlie Sykes claims on Rose Bowl (Pants on Fire)
Taking hard shots at the world of academia is nothing new for conservative Charlie Sykes, who wrote a scathing book about university professors back in the 1980s.
Sykes, the longtime WTMJ-AM (620) talk radio host, was at it again recently when he riffed on the University of Wisconsin Badgers and the team?s upcoming trip to the Rose Bowl, the team?s first to the Pasadena, Calif., event since 2000. His target: UW?s plan to pay trip costs for outgoing Gov. Jim Doyle, UW Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin, members of the UW Board of Regents and other university officials as part of the official Rose Bowl traveling party.
Senate deal cuts Butler from federal judgeship vote
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The nomination of former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler to a federal judgeship in Madison would be scuttled under a reported deal that would permit a Senate confirmation vote on 19 noncontroversial judicial nominations by President Barack Obama before Congress adjourns. Story also quotes UW-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin.
Christine Buckley: Middleton, Wisconsin: Food for My Soul
Huffington Post
Noted: We finished our day of eating with a Wisconsin hallmark: the University of Wisconsin?s Babcock Hall ice cream. The University has been making and selling its highly acclaimed gourmet ice cream for over 90 years. We visited the campus Babcock Hall Dairy Plant for our scoops, but it can also be found at the Memorial Union on Lake Mendota. My personal favorites are Chocolate Peanut Butter and their patented Orange Custard Chocolate Chip.
Austin Disaster Relief Network helps flood victims rebuild (KVUE-TV, Austin)
Flood victims recovering from Tropical Storm Hermine got some help Monday from the Austin Disaster Relief Network. The group is giving assistance to homeowners who have no other place to turn.
A group of college students from the University of Wisconsin is even pitching in over Christmas break.
?A lot of people ask why couldn’t you help in Wisconsin, and there are things there. But this is the need and we had the ability so we wanted to come,? said University of Wisconsin volunteer Aaron Preston.
UW-Madison Receives $10 Million Grant (AP)
WISC-TV 3
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has received a $10 million grant to enhance education and research in the humanities.
Baby Jesus is comforting, but King Jesus is Lord of all (The Culpeper, Va. Star-Exponent)
The Social Psychology Quarterly earlier this month published a new study, ?How Does Prayer Help Manage Emotions?? by Shane Sharp, a University of Wisconsin-Madison sociologist.
Census set to show Wis. retaining 8 US House seats
Chicago Tribune
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist David Canon, an expert on redistricting, said Wisconsin probably will keep all eight seats.
Golden: Continue stem cell research
Wausau Daily Herald
Today, in labs across the country, potentially lifesaving work with human embryonic stem cells is being put on hold as a result of the stunning recent court ruling blocking further federal support of this revolutionary research.
Poverty rates on the rise in most Wisconsin counties
Appleton Post-Crescent
Quoted: “An increasing proportion of Wisconsin residents are facing economic hardship,” said the report?s author, Katherine Curtis, a demographic specialist at UW Extension and an assistant professor at UW-Madison.
Study says customer service even more important for today?s retailers
Wisconsin Public Radio
A UW researcher says retailers need to provide strong customer service more than ever, given the shaky economy and growing popularity of online shopping. With the holiday shopping season in full swing, retailers hope to end 2010 on a high note. Cynthia Jasper, a professor of consumer science at the UW-Madison, says to do this, they need to provide good customer service in their stores and online catalog. She says today?s shopper actually visits both in making a single purchase.
Study suggests standard flu vaccine protects people with asthma
Wisconsin Public Radio
A study undertaken last year during the H1N1 pandemic shows that a high risk group did better with more vaccine, and that may carry over to other kinds of flu. Doctors at the UW School of Medicine in Madison wanted to know how to best protect them, so they studied what dose of vaccine worked best on asthmatics.
Goodbye DADT, Hello ROTC
Inside Higher Education
Presidents of some of the nation?s highest profile colleges and universities, where the Reserve Officers? Training Corps program has been barred for decades, said that the U.S. Senate?s vote Saturday to repeal “don?t ask, don?t tell” will usher the return of the program to their campuses — though the exact procedure remained unclear.
UW scores humanities grant
Wisconsin Radio Network
UW Madison gets a major humanities grant. Chancellor Biddy Martin made the announcement Monday: the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded the university a $10 million grant as part of an effort to preserve and enhance the humanities at research universities. ?The grant . . . which will be matched by the state, will be used to support and sustain our strengths in core areas in the humanities,? Martin said. ?It will allow us to hire faculty, support postdoctoral fellows, and support graduate students.
‘Smart Drug’ use on the rise at Wisconsin college campus
WKOW-TV 27
As we told you Sunday night, illegal prescription drug use, is on the rise at Wisconsin College Campuses.
UW tailbacks competing for bowl action
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
With a showdown against unbeaten Texas Christian in the 2011 Rose Bowl less than two weeks away, Wisconsin?s tailback rotation looks just as it did in the regular-season finale against Northwestern: Sophomore Montee Ball, freshman James White and fourth-year junior John Clay.
Badgers painted in Rosey hue
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
This week?s edition of ESPN The Magazine (Dec. 27) carries a six-page feature about the Rose Bowl-bound Wisconsin football team, complete with real big photos of many of the Badgers? key players.The piece refers to the Badgers as perhaps ?the best FBS team in the land this season.?
Ten Years In, Afghanistan War Barely An Issue In 2010 Campaign (Huffington Post)
Huffington Post
Quoted: “I don?t recall it coming up in the debates at all,” said David Canon, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, of the war that Obama has made his own. “I don?t really remember seeing any reference to it in any of the ads. So I don?t think it really played a role at all. It was definitely about the economy, about jobs, a little bit about health care, but Afghanistan really didn?t come up. The issue on most people?s mind was the economy.”
UW football: Big Ten commissioner Delany open to re-evaluating division names
Madison.com
Big Ten Conference commissioner Jim Delany is apparently having second thoughts about naming the new football divisions Legends and Leaders after the names have been almost universally scorned by fans and the media. Delany did a radio interview on WGN AM-720 in Chicago on Thursday and revealed he could be open to changing the names.
Oates: Here’s a suggestion for the Big Ten
Madison.com
I see where Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany is going to reconsider the conference?s incredibly lame decision to name its new football divisions “Legends” and “Leaders.” Congratulations to sports fans and media types who panned those meaningless names so universally that it caused Delany to back off one of his decisions. That doesn?t happen often with this commish.
Chris Rickert: Hint of hypocrisy in Rose Bowl ‘gifts’
Wisconsin State Journal
If you haven?t heard, players and coaches were recently ushered into a suite stocked with 27 tony gifts and allowed to select up to $500 worth of leather recliners, digital cameras, headphones, camcorders, mountain bikes and the like ? all on Rose Bowl sponsors? dime. It came as a surprise to me to learn that this is standard practice in NCAA Division I college football, whose 69 other bowl-bound teams are getting a similar perk.
My Rose Bowl memory: Al Fish recalls a Badger fan’s ashes on the field
Madison.com
After the 1994 Rose Bowl, Al Fish remembers, two people said Uncle Charlie wanted his ashes spread on the field.
Malcolm into educating hunters
Madison.com
Karl Malcolm is a PhD student in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin. He?s also a lifelong hunter and a coordinator for the state?s Learn to Hunt program.
Ask the Weather Guys: What should I do if I get stranded in cold weather?
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: Steven A. Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
It’s unclear if Madison-area M&I branches will close or jobs will be cut due to bank sale
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: Jim Johannes, UW-Madison School of Business professor and director of the UW?s Puelicher Center for Banking Education.
UW-Madison professor emeritus is honored for contributions to manufacturing
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison engineering professor emeritus Rajan Suri was one of 10 people named to IndustryWeek?s 2010 Manufacturing Hall of Fame for fundamental contributions to the field. Suri developed the concept of “Quick Response Manufacturing,” a strategy aimed at cutting costly lead time by increasing efficiency in all of a company?s processes. Suri also founded UW-Madison?s Center for Quick Response Manufacturing, which applies QRM principles to help state manufacturers reduce overhead and be more competitive in the global economy.
On the Capitol: The legislative soap opera, with all its melodrama, finally ends
Wisconsin State Journal
Outgoing state Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, who is closing up shop at the Capitol next month after 26 years in the Assembly, has another job lined up at UW-Madison, where he?ll teach a graduate-level environmental policy course.
Brother, sister of mentally ill man who committed suicide in prison file lawsuit
Wisconsin State Journal
The brother and sister of a mentally ill McFarland man filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Madison Friday alleging officials? inadequate care resulted in his suicide last year at a Portage prison. The suit charges that Jesse Miller, 21, was subjected to “wanton and unnecessary infliction of pain, suffering, embarrassment and death.” He hanged himself on June 23, 2009, at the Columbia Correctional Institution. Miller was serving time for crimes including phoning in a threat to police three years ago, disrupting classes at UW-Madison.
Two men deny they know of possible connection to Zimmermann murder
Wisconsin State Journal
Two of the three young men who burglarized a Madison bar in 2008 said detectives told them forensic evidence shows there was a fourth burglar who also was involved in the killing of a UW-Madison student three months earlier. But in separate interviews this week at the Racine Youthful Correctional Institution, Spencer L. Hutchins and Darrielle L. Banks said they know nothing about the strangulation and stabbing death of Brittany Zimmermann. They also denied a fourth burglar was involved in the bar break-in.
UW-Madison plans watching party for Monday lunar eclipse
Wisconsin State Journal
The moon is expected to be shadowed by the earth starting late Monday and UW-Madison is celebrating. Jim Lattis, director of the astronomy department?s Space Place, says the eclipse will start subtly about a half hour before midnight Monday, with the moon becoming fully shadowed by 1:40 a.m. Tuesday.
Curiosities: What does astronomy say about the Christmas Star
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: UW-Madison Space Place director Jim Lattis, a science historian.
Some see use of ‘smart drug’ Adderall rising at UW-Madison
Wisconsin State Journal
Last school year, two UW-Madison journalism students walked into a campus library with a mission: See how fast they could score some Adderall, a popular prescription ?smart drug? that users say improves their ability to study. They were good to go in 56 seconds. All it took was a tap on the shoulder of one woman, a stranger at a table of students studying in silence. Asked if she knew where someone could buy some Adderall, the woman offered to call her friend downstairs, who was selling it. Experts say such easy access and casual acceptance is increasingly common on campuses, including UW-Madison, where students coping with academic demands are turning to illicit use of Adderall and other stimulants.
Rose Bowl, ‘Teach Me How to Bucky’ play well at UW commencement
Wisconsin State Journal
How big of a deal is the upcoming Rose Bowl on the UW-Madison campus? Almost every speech during the university?s commencement ceremonies on Sunday mentioned it ? as well as the song, dance and viral video ?Teach Me How To Bucky.? ?This is a place that sends its football teams to the Rose Bowl,? Chancellor Biddy Martin said to applause. ?This is a place where you can learn how to Bucky.?
Doug Moe: A Rose Bowl trip to remember
Wisconsin State Journal
If you dare, try this recipe for an unforgettable cross-country roadie: 13 students, a legendary football game and a dilapidated bus that lights people on fire and sometimes won’t stop.
The most boring scientific study in the history of the world
A University of Wisconsin-Madison professor 100 years ago wanted to do a long-term study on the ancient building material, so numerous cylinders of the mix of cement, water, sand and stone were made. Then the study began. For 100 years.
Give University of Wisconsin the freedom to deal with cuts
Wisconsin State Journal
State money is tight. But so are state mandates. That?s why incoming Gov. Scott Walker should accept UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin?s smart bid for greater flexibility. Martin understands the state is facing a more than $3 billion budget shortfall. She gets it that Walker doesn?t want to raise taxes. So she?s diligently preparing for flat or falling aid to University of Wisconsin System schools, including the flagship campus in Madison. Instead of whining about looming cuts like other local officials, Martin is highlighting ways the state can “help us help ourselves.”
UW-Madison to unlock space secrets in Antarctica with IceCube
Wisconsin State Journal
This week, workers and researchers from UW-Madison completed what may have been the most challenging construction job in the university?s history, 8,000 feet deep in the ice under the South Pole. They buried the last of 86 strings of detectors that are the heart of a massive scientific instrument called IceCube. It is the world?s largest neutrino detector, under construction since 2004 and designed to capture data on the high-energy particles from deep space as they zip through the crystalline Antarctic ice and collide with the atomic nuclei of frozen water.
Is Tenure Fair at Law Schools?
Inside Higher Education
A national survey of tenured law faculty members and interviews with a smaller group of them formed the basis of the paper, by two legal scholars, Katherine Barnes of the University of Arizona and Elizabeth Mertz of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. They note that tenure is viewed as crucial by most law faculty members, but for widely varying reasons.
Climate, culture linked in prehistoric Northeast
Boston Globe
Noted: Led by Samuel Munoz, now a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin Madison, researchers found that climate and human changes seemed to happen in step. Paleo-Indians, hunter-gatherers known for elegant fluted arrowheads chipped from stone, lived in the region from about 13,500 to 11,250 years ago, when the area had a tundra-like landscape with spruce and sedges. They may have hunted caribou.
The Numbers Behind Arizona’s Transplant Cuts for Medicaid Patients
Wall Street Journal
Quoted: ?The concern we?ve had is that the decisions they made were based on flawed, outdated data,? said Maryl R. Johnson, medical director for heart failure and transplantation at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison, and president of the American Society of Transplantation, a professional organization.
Mayoral Bet Adds To Badgers Bowl Game Hype
WISC-TV 3
When the University of Wisconsin Badgers take on the TCU Horned Frogs in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, there will be more than bragging rights on the line between the mayors of Fort Worth, Texas, and Madison.
Lack of state employee contracts upsets workers (Oshkosh Northwestern)
Sara Stichert and thousands of other state employees woke up Thursday morning to the news that they would still be working without a contract after the state Senate failed to approve new contracts in a special legislative session.
South Pole’s IceCube Neutrino Observatory Now Complete (Suite101.com)
The University of Wisconsin and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the completion of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory this weekend. Located at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, the world?s largest neutrino observatory has been ten years in the making. The final string of optical sensors was installed on Saturday, December 18, 2010.
Wis. researchers build South Pole observatory (AP)
Chicago Tribune
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have finished building an observatory at the South Pole that could help detect some of the tiniest particles in the universe.
It’s unclear if Madison-area M&I branches will close or jobs will be cut due to bank sale
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: An M&I merger or acquisition is not a surprise, said Jim Johannes, UW-Madison School of Business professor. “Everybody knew this was coming; it was just a matter of when and who,” he said.
?Smart drug? abuse rising on Wisconsin campuses (WisconsinWatch.org)
Last school year, two University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism students walked into a campus library with a mission: See how quickly they could score some Adderall, a popular prescription ?smart drug? that users say improves their ability to study.
UW-Madison will hold party to celebrate lunar eclipse
WKOW-TV 27
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is meeting to celebrate a lunar eclipse Monday night.
‘Smart Drug’ use on the rise at college campuses
WKOW-TV 27
It?s something UW-health leaders say they can?t ignore. The illegal use of the “smart drug” Adderall is on the rise.That?s according to the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.
Future uncertain for state contracts
Wisconsin Radio Network
The Legislature this week failed to pass state employee contracts that run up through July of next year, leaving the task to the new Republican majority. Those contracts are already 18 months overdue, and the outcome of the extraordinary session could lead to even longer delays.