Author: knutson4

The guest is Sarah Halpern-Meekin, associate professor of Human Development and Family Studies at UW-Madison’s School of Human Ecology.

It’s been a wet summer in Wisconsin and wet summers are often filled with mosquitoes. But that isn’t how 2019 has played out so far, according to a Wisconsin scientist.

Lyric Bartholomay, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who studies infectious disease agents such as mosquitoes and ticks, told WPR’s “The Morning Show” Thursday that the state has seen average numbers of mosquitoes so far this year.

Noted: Patrick Iber is an assistant professor of Latin American history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and author of Neither Peace nor Freedom: The Cultural Cold War in Latin America.

Quoted: “The biggest financial mistake prospective parents make is thinking they have to buy everything new. For large baby items associated with a particular life stage (e.g., bassinets, baby swings, exersaucers, etc.), parents can find good deals on secondary markets, such as online neighborhood buy-and-sell groups, consignment shops, or yard sales,” says Amber M. Epp, Associate Professor of Marketing, Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The life of these products is much longer than the time period the baby will use it, so parents can buy many of these items in excellent used condition at a fraction of the price.”

Noted: Professor Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a guest.

Quoted: “There’s something to be said for that,” said James P. Leary, co-founder of the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The vitriol is saved for the Illinoisans.

Quoted: Mark Seidenberg, a neuroscientist who specializes in the study of language and reading at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, calls those arguments offensive and indefensible, saying they “set up a false competition between children who have reading problems for different reasons.”

Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism professor Michael Wagner, who specializes in political communication, said it’s unclear whether the episode will matter to voters should he seek another political office.

“It’s pretty cut and dry that he lied and that usually doesn’t sit well with the voters,” said Wagner. But the impact in a polarized electorate is unknown, he added.

“We’ve seen lots of scandals at statehouses that were electrifying at a time that seem to fade away,” Wagner said. “In the Trump era, politicians can choose to try to ride it out and hope the news cycle changes.”

Noted: A recent study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison of social media reaction to mass shootings points to one of the obstacles that proponents of gun control face in marshaling political support for new gun restrictions even after the most horrific of these events.

Dhavan Shah, the UW-Madison professor who oversaw the study, said in an interview Monday that with each new shooting now, it is his sense that expressions of sympathy are increasingly seen as inadequate.

“I do think there is more of an immediate recoiling at the notion of (just) ‘thoughts and prayers.’ … There is a sense of the emptiness of that,” said Shah, director of the school’s Mass Communication Research Center. “Whatever side it is, I don’t think there is a lot of people who don’t think this a problem at this point.”

Quoted: “You’d like to think you’ve got seven people sitting there and looking over the law and being fairly dispassionate about it. (Their decision) shouldn’t be predictable by someone who knows nothing about the law,” said Frank Tuerkheimer, an emeritus University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor who studies judicial ethics. “As we become more polarized why shouldn’t appointment of judges be polarized, too? I would be surprised if it were otherwise.”

UW-Madison journalism professor Mike Wagner says the more President Trump tweets and gets retweeted, the more media coverage he generates.