A new study on poverty in Wisconsin shows a sharp increase in the need for food assistance as the recession deepened in the past two years.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty said the number of Wisconsin residents receiving food stamps has increased by 37 percent since 2007.
Velma R. Schurch, age 97 of Mount Horeb, passed away on Thursday, April 23, 2009. In 1933, she graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in home economics education and then taught in several Wisconsin high schools. Encouraged by her parents to continue her professional training, she earned a master’s degree in home economics education in 1937, also from the University of Wisconsin. Further reflecting her strong belief in the value of education, Velma established a Fund in the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to support programs/activities in greatest need.
Around Thanksgiving 2005 a teenage boy helped his brother-in-law butcher 31 pigs at a local Wisconsin slaughterhouse, and a week later the 17-year-old pinned down another pig while it was gutted. In the lead-up to the holidays the boy’s family bought a chicken and kept the animal in their home, out of the harsh Sheboygan autumn. On Dec. 7, the teenager came down with the flu, suffering an illness that lasted three days. He visited a local clinic, then fully recovered, and nobody else in his family took ill.      Â
Affordability. Itâ??s a word advertised in college brochures, catalogs and financial aid packages.
While every college and universityâ??s marketing department seems smitten with the word, affordability doesnâ??t have a concise or even similar meaning depending on whoâ??s doing the talking.
Student guides give potential incoming freshman and their family members a tour of the Viterbo Univesity campus Friday. PETER THOMSON photo
Nate Emerson, vice president for student affairs at Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical in Winona, Minn., calls affordability what students actually have to pay out of their pocket. In other words, the net cost: Gross tuition minus financial aid, not including student loans.
Noted: “It’s impossible to say with any assurance what’s going to happen,” said Dr. Christopher Olsen, a molecular virologist who studies swine flu at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Veterinary Medicine. “Influenza viruses can evolve quite quickly.”
Living and working in the New York region’s financial-media complex in 2009 means daily, compulsory attendance at a gathering of the glum. The economy may be shrinking at a 6 percent annual rate, but finance and media have contracted by about 30 percent. For the past year, the daily routine has meant sitting in a depopulated office (assuming you still have a job); following the latest grim news of magazine closings, buyouts, and layoffs; and commiserating with friends, family, and neighbors. And, of course, the angst extends far beyond directly affected companies. Finance dominates the area’s economy to such a degree that everybodyâ??lawyers, accountants, real estate brokers, waiters, retailers, and cab driversâ??have all been affected.
The greatest gift parents can give young children is a healthy, loving, consistent and nurturing relationship, regardless of what other challenges they may face in their environment, says child development expert Nan Brien.
Brien’s talk follows three brain investigators associated with the Waisman Center and University of Wisconsin-Madison who spoke on the impact of such issues as autism, fetal alcohol exposure, maternal depression and preterm birth. She said her role in the series is to offer some of the practical advice and strategies that will help parents and caregivers apply what they have learned about early brain development from the scientists.
Quoted: “Politicians like a new thing and we’re in the peak in the moment of the Twitter fad,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin, who also tweets. “In that sense, it’s not surprising to see them get on it.”
This week, President Obama said waterboarding is torture but gave no indication he is planning to hold anyone accountable for authorizing it. Interviewed is University of Wisconsin professor, Alfred McCoy, author of A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror. (Video.)
Noted: Long before this outbreak of swine flu, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Vicki Bier imagined the worst. She authored a report in 2007 that makes the case that pandemic diseases aren’t just health problems.
“It’s not just something you can hand off to public health (departments) and say, ‘Fix it for us,'” said Bier, a professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
Quoted: Economists ”used to say consumers are completely rational; they look at all the attributes and make a decision. Now we know that’s not true,” said Joann Peck, an assistant marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies consumer behavior.
Noted: “The volume of specimens coming into my laboratory has been sharply increasing, and we would anticipate that given the public health concern,” said Pete Shult, director of the communicable disease division of the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, who is overseeing the testing.
Dr. Christopher Olsen, a swine flu expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said having this H1N1 influenza A virus go back into swine creates opportunities for it to pick up genetic mutations or swap genes with other flu viruses. Canadaâ??s swine flu caseload swelled Sunday to 101 after health officials in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia reported new confirmed cases. Worldwide the WHO confirmed 787 cases in 17 countries.
Another great example of UW-Madison helping ordinary people and the economy in Wisconsin came Friday with the announcement of a $6.9 million federal grant for Alzheimer’s research.
UW-Madison is now home to a major national center focused on Alzheimer’s.
This will boost UW’s ability to attract more brain power and money for further studies. It also will give families struggling with the disease more hope for tests and therapies to prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s terrible symptoms.
Armando Muyolema, an Ecuadorian who lectures on Latin America at UW-Madison, said his eighth-grade daughter came home from school on Wednesday upset.
Quoted: UW-Madison economist Andy Reschovsky agreed the tax was regressive but said the increase would be relatively small for even a poor drinker.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, UW-Madison professor.
Barry Alvarez still believes in Lisa Stone.
Alvarez, the University of Wisconsin athletic director, made that clear Friday when he announced Stone would receive a one-year extension on her contract as UW women’s basketball coach. The extension, which was denied last year, gives Stone three years on her contract, carrying through the 2011-12 season.
Alvarez said he and associate athletic director Terry Gawlik, who oversees the women’s basketball program, were convinced Stone and her staff have the Badgers headed in the right direction after watching them compile a 19-15 record this season.
Finances are at the heart of a review by University of Wisconsin Athletic Department officials of their performance bonus plan.
“Everything I go to involves discussions on cost containment,” UW athletic director Barry Alvarez said, referring to meetings on the local, Big Ten Conference and NCAA levels. “That probably instigated it more than anything.”
Ground was broken Friday afternoon for a $43 million expansion of the Chazen Museum of Art on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
The project is happening due to a $25 million donation from UW-Madison alumni Jerome and Simona Chazen.
The Chazen’s are art collectors who live in New York, but they have deep roots in Madison. Three generations of the Chazen family have graduated from UW-Madison.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s plan to increase tuition would allow the school to hire 235 faculty and staff.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin has proposed increasing in-state undergraduate tuition by $250 per year for the next four years, on top of hikes approved by the Board of Regents.
Undergrads from other states would see their tuition go up by $750 per year.
State public health officials said Saturday that the number of probable swine flu cases in Wisconsin now stands at 66.
State health officer Dr. Seth Foldy told reporters Saturday afternoon that most of the cases appear to be mild.
Earlier on Saturday, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed three cases of swine flu in Wisconsin. They are the state’s first confirmed cases of the disease.
To date, there are now five probable cases of swine flu identified in Wisconsin. Of all the scientists around the world monitoring the outbreak, one of the leading researchers lives and works right here in Wisconsin. Chris Olsen is a molecular virologist who studies swine flu at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine in Madison. He talked to WPRâ??s Terry Bell about the latest developments. (Audio.)
UW-System officials are trying to find ways to make textbooks more affordable for students. As the average college student can spend up to $900 a year on them, the Board of Regents plans now to develop guidelines to help out.
Possibilities include having professors announce their text selections as early as possible, so students have more time to find the best deals. Another is to have professors order just the text, as opposed to â??bundledâ? versions that come with extras like workbooks and CD-ROMs, that drive up the price. (7th item.)
As the flu continues to spread, Madison is an epicenter of sorts.
Tireless work is happening by experts at the University of Wisconsin while one local company is working to make sure we’re better prepared in the future. The work is grabbing the attention of federal lawmakers.
The problems are worldwide but this is a local fight.
Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka is one of the worlds leading experts on pandemic flu. From his home at the UW Influenza Research Institute he’s been in constant contact with the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
University of Wisconsin student leaders and campus administrators met informally Sunday night at Chancellor Biddy Martinâ??s house to reflect on the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates and to look forward to the vote on the proposal by the Board of Regents Thursday.
Martin said in the few days left before the initiative goes before the board, the university will be working on the most effective way to present the proposal. If the initiative is passed, work will begin immediately on implementing its different facets.
Quoted: Before Mr. Obama signed the stimulus measure in February, much energy research relied on companies, and the money was scarce, says Glenn R. Bower, a faculty associate who directs automotive research at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “Companies more and more don’t really want to fund things that are superfundamental, because 19 out of 20 times they don’t produce anything” with a competitive edge, Mr. Bower says.
At his flu institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka is already studying the swine flu virus, prodding its genes for signs of weakness.
At his nearby company, FluGen, Kawaoka is developing vaccines for swine flu, bird flu and regular flu.
“I work on anything about the flu,” said the renown scientist, who received a sample of the swine flu virus last week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Forget the face masks and stethoscopes, UW researcher Vicki Bier uses calculators to study the spread of the Swine Flu.
She says public health professionals, businesses, and local governments need to consider how a health emergency can threaten jobs.
The first Saturday in May means Mifflin Street is packed with college party goers.
Madison police say this year’s block party is mellow compared to years past –as of 8:00 p.m., around 140 pople were cited and released for minor offenses. Only two were taken to jail.
Last year, there were 440 arrests, with 63 taken to jail.
Colleges across the country have seen a case or a few of probable or confirmed swine flu, and their responses have varied. Some have canceled certain events but otherwise are operating on normal schedules, while a few have shut down as have many K-12 schools.
A hundred cases of swine flu in the U.S.? Health officials say there are likely more. Just how many is not important, they say. As the world faces a potential pandemic, swamped labs are not testing all possible cases. Getting an exact tally has taken a back seat to finding new outbreak hot spots or ways to limits its spread, health officials said.
“The specimens are coming in faster than they can possibly be tested,” said Dr. Jeffrey P. Davis, state epidemiologist in Wisconsin, where a lab helped spot the nation’s first known case, in a 10-year-old boy from San Diego.
In the last two days, the Wisconsin State Laboratoy of Hygiene “had a huge spike,” about 150 samples of suspected swine flu cases, said its communicable disease chief, Pete Shult. Wisconsin has five probable cases awaiting CDC confirmation.
A number of American universities are calling off faculty and student travel to Mexico, and at least one is evacuating students from the country. The list includes campuses from Western Illinois to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and Tulane University in Louisiana.
(UW-Madison is mentioned.)
Quoted: Tody’s attorney, Byron Lichstein, said the decision means judges should automatically remove their family members from jury pools. He said his research turned up one other Wisconsin case where a judge’s mother was a juror in a 1990s murder case and about 10 others nationwide.
”This is a decision that helps safeguard the way juries work in our state,” said Lichstein, of the University of Wisconsin law school.
Eaton’s mother was among the potential jurors who showed up for Tody’s one-day trial. During jury selection, the judge jokingly asked her whether she was related to anyone in law enforcement. ”The judge,” she responded.
Quoted: ‘Let’s not lose track of the fact that the normal seasonal influenza is a huge public health problem that kills tens of thousands of people in the U.S. alone and hundreds of thousands around the world,’ Dr Christopher Olsen, a molecular virologist who studies swine flu at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, told reporters.
The former treasurer of a University of Wisconsin-Madison fraternity blamed an addiction to video games for his alleged theft of more than $12,000 from the fraternityâ??s coffers, according to a criminal complaint.
Gov. Jim Doyle declared a public health emergency Thursday after two more probable cases of swine flu were identified, bringing the state’s total to five.
Doyle signed an executive order giving the state health department the power to take all necessary steps to prevent and respond to flu cases and distribute anti-viral stockpiles, among other things.
Quoted: UW-Madison professor Andrew Reschovsky, who teaches applied economics, agreed that $172 seemed high and could be skewed by wealthier people buying more expensive items such as luxury cars and boats.
“My initial reaction is flu. ”
That was what Brock Waterman thought about a week ago while he was studying abroad in Mexico.
Since then he’s changed his tone a little…. and is now back in Boscobel in southwestern Wisconsin.
Wisconsin reported two more probable cases of swine flu Thursday, as Gov. Jim Doyle declared a health emergency, the state lab ramped up testing and experts said the danger lies in the potential of the virus to kill more than regular flu does.
The new cases are in young adults from Ozaukee County and Sheboygan County, north of Milwaukee, said Dr. Seth Foldy, state health officer. Three probable cases were reported Wednesday â?? two in Milwaukee and one in Adams County.
In the seven months since Biddy Martin took over as University of Wisconsin chancellor, sheâ??s pretty much observed her athletic department from the sidelines.
Sure, there have been meetings with UW Athletic Department personnel and public displays of affection for all things Badgers, but nothing that would openly define her intentions about governing arguably the most visible entity on campus.
Well, guess whoâ??s about to get her uniform dirty?
UW-Madisonâ??s Alzheimerâ??s disease research program, which runs the countryâ??s largest study of children of parents with the disease, is about to expand significantly.
The university is now home to one of 17 major national Alzheimerâ??s Disease Research Centers, officials will announce Friday.
A leading expert in Wisconsin on swine flu virus is urging caution, before there’s any projection about the potential of this current disease strain.
UW-Madison School of Veterinary School of Veterinary Medicine swine flu virus expert, Dr. Christopher Olsen has been quoted by ABC News, and L.A.Times and other national news outlets that this current epidemic may not be much different than regular flu outbreaks.
“My reason for making those comments is that we have some framework in which to rationally think about what has happened up to this point,” Olsen said.
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle declared a public health emergency Thursday after two more probable cases of swine flu were identified in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services said Thursday afternoon that probable cases have been found in “young adults” in Sheboygan and Ozaukee counties. Local health officials said neither person has needed to be hospitalized.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has done a study looking at the effects of a pandemic on schools, businesses and the working poor in Wisconsin.
Professor Vicki Bier said she and others tried to stay away from recommendations in the study. But, for example, it says if local health departments close schools, they should do it early to be effective.
The World Health Organization Wednesday raised its swine flu pandemic alert to the second highest of its six levels. UW infection disease specialist Dennis Maki says a pandemic refers to a new strain of a virus that no one has a natural immunity to, meaning everyone is susceptible.
Dr. Maki predicts if rates continue at their current levels, 500 people may be infected worldwide by the end of the week.
More cases of Swine Flu are detected as the governor declares an emergency in the state. Governor Jim Doyle declared a Public Health Emergency in Wisconsin on Thursday, in response to the presence of Swine Influenza A , or H1N1, in the state.
Higher education traffics in reputations. To thrive as an institution means keeping up with competitors while setting yourself apart. But as good as colleges have become at building brands, the game is shifting to social media, where there is perpetual motion and little control.
Each afternoon this spring, Brennan Jackson, an A-student who ranks near the top of his high school class, has arrived at his guidance counselorâ??s office to intercept the latest scholarship applications, as if they were a newspaper landing on his front stoop.
Concerns about swine flu are prompting possible travel changes for some University of Wisconsin students.
Reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization and the U.S. State Department have cautioned people against traveling to Mexico because of swine flu, and that could mean some changes for students planning to study there.
Mexico is suspected to be the center of the outbreak.
The one UW-Madison student who was studying in Monterrey, Mexico, this semester has left the city, and UW-Eau Claire announced Tuesday it has canceled its study abroad programs to Mexico.
Critics rail. The NCAA preaches restraint. But spending on college athletics continues to soar, a new study finds.
Major college programs increased their operating budgets by nearly 11% annually â?? bumping up expenditures by well more than a third over a recent three-year span â?? according to the report commissioned by the NCAA. That more than doubled the average 4.9% annual rise in universities’ overall spending.
College admissions officials, keenly aware that their target audience grows more tech-savvy with every passing year, appear to be getting the hang of social media such as Twitter and Facebook.
Helen Van Oosbree, age 57, passed away on April 26, 2009. She worked at both Slichter Residents Hall and University of Wisconsin System Trust Funds, where she built many life-long friendships.
Quoted: Students have a golden opportunity to discuss their goals at the end of an interview, says Greg Iaccarino, career and internship adviser at the University of Wisconsin. That’s when most interviewers solicit questions. Ask what kinds of projects previous interns were given and discuss what specific ideas they might have for you.
Quoted: Dr. Melissa Meredith, an endocrinologist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, suggests the following:
Quoted: “She was one of only three situations that we knew of where there was strong evidence of person-to-person illness,” said Dr. Christopher Olsen, professor of public health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Finances may not be the only reason for job cuts, said Mason Carpenter, UW-Madison School of Business professor of management and human resources.
Wisconsin deer ticks – the type known for carrying Lyme disease – are widely associated with the Northwoods. But now, they occupy a much larger territory.
In 1994, a deer tick “census” led by Dr. Susan Paskewitz, a UW-Madison Entomologist who specializes in mosquitoes and ticks, revealed the ticks had become established in the western two-thirds of the state. Since then, reports of Lyme disease and new infestations led Paskewitz to suspect that they had become prevalent throughout Wisconsin.
Quoted: â??A divided primary can be destructive but it also can be good for the party to have a contested primary,â? said Charles Franklin, a political scientist at UW-Madison. â??It gives both candidates the chance to make their case to the primary voters, and while they do that theyâ??ll be talking and advertising to the rest of the state.â?
The state’s leading infectious disease expert is warning of a possible flu pandemic because of the swine flu outbreak.
Mexico is the hardest hit with about 149 deaths in that country. Twenty of those are confirmed to be the swine flu. Meanwhile, nearly 2,000 have been hospitalized since the first report on April 13.
Dr. Dennis Maki, of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health, said that all signs are pointing toward a large outbreak, rivaling the worldwide flu pandemic of 1918.
Maki said that there are many reasons this situation might be even worse than the 1918 flu pandemic. He said that this is because of the preliminary mortality rate associated with this particular strain.
