Author: jplucas

Noted: Isthmus and The Daily Page have partnered with professor Sue Robinson and her UW-Madison journalism students to produce a series of issue-based reports on the county executive race. Look for those stories on TheDailyPage.com starting Monday, March 23.

Quoted: Anthony Milanowski, an assistant scientist at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has done his own research on teacher effectiveness and vetted other research on the issue, said various studies have drawn that line where seniority ceases to matter anywhere between three years and 11 years. West’s claim of three years is on the low side of most research, he said.

Noted: UW-Madison Journalism Professor Sue Robinson has been interviewing Cap Times employees, researching how papers are transforming themselves for the Web and what that means for traditional journalism. The interviews are confidential, but Robinson says staffers have been “grappling with brand-new beats and skill sets during a time of industry-wide strife and upheaval.” Amid a lot of quick-hit press-release and police-blotter items, reporters are “spending more time on longer depth pieces, going more narrow and deeper.” At the same time, many are blogging as well, creating a more informal kind of journalism. Video and other online features are added to the mix.

Quoted: â??Itâ??s really something that does not look good on the surface,â? said Mason Carpenter, a professor of management and human resources at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: “Currently, if you make a charge on your credit card, the interest rate could change in the future. It could go up considerably,” notes University of Wisconsin financial specialist Michael Collins.

Quoted: Despite the formidable resources a Wal-Mart brings to bear on any market it enters, Mason Carpenter, a University of Wisconsin business professor, said that he doesn’t see harm coming to Epic.

“I wouldn’t say they are a threat at all to Epic,” he said.

Quoted: UW-Madison Grainger School of Business economist Mason Carpenter told 27 News, even if AIG contract bonuses cannot be rescinded, new federal legislation should be enacted to more tightly require such bonus payments to reflect company performance, if a company receives federal funds.

Quoted: But given the term’s widespread use, UW-Madison professor Thomas O’Guinn said he was surprised the state was seeking trademark protection. O’Guinn, director of the school’s Center for Brand and Product Management, said a quick Internet search revealed broad use in the public domain.

Also: University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor Anuj Desai said he doubted the state would have legal problems. As long as there is no risk that consumers will confuse the state’s marketing with someone else’s, the likelihood of problems is low, he said.

Quoted: “Age is a very poor criteria to judge competency,” said Mark Sager of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a physician and specialist in aging issues and Alzheimer’s.

“It’s ability, it’s competency, it’s performance that is the most important indicator of their ability to do a job,” Sager said.

Quoted: Pension borrowing deals are analogous to individuals borrowing on margin – a loan backed by stocks and bonds – and using the money to buy more stocks, said James Seward, an associate professor of finance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The risk rises with interest rates and the relative health of the financial markets, he said.

Quoted: University of Wisconsin history professor John Sharpless said that the two crises are different.

“There are some similarities but I think overall, the differences are enormous. Nothing rivals the Great Depression at all,” said Sharpless.

Sharpless marks the differences as double-digit unemployment, families divided because parents couldn’t afford children at home and bank failures in the thousands.

“I think when that generation looks back and obviously, there are fewer of those people in our society, it was a big deal. It was enormous. It produced a generation that didn’t want to ever be in debt,” said Sharp

Quoted: Dr. Dennis Maki, professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said it’s time for the government to become more proactive in stopping food-borne illnesses.

Marketing professor Deborah Mitchell recalls watching a hushed, serious scene on NBC’s “ER” that involved a stricken victim and the clicking of a dialysis machine. After the scene faded to black, she was surprised by a sudden change in tone, from soothing to stentorian, as an ad blared forth for snack food.

“How inappropriate! It’s one thing to have your creative be relatively upbeat, relatively perky, and you hope it’s not going to come right after a scene like that, very somber,” said Ms, Mitchell, a senior lecturer at University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin School of Business. The sound is jarring, she said, but it certainly grabs the viewer.

Quoted: “The governor’s proclamation is an acknowledgment of importance of eating right to improve the health of Wisconsin citizens and the need for more emphasis on prevention and wellness in our health care system,” said Susan Nitzke, a registered dietitian and professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.