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Author: knutson4

Investigating vandalism at UW-Madison

WTMJ

The University of Wisconsin-Madison police are investigating 2 incidents of vandalism on campus.

The most recent incident happened around 3am on Wednesday, September 4. UWPD found several parts of Library Mall, including the Hagenah Fountain, vandalized with paint. Facilities crews were able to clean up the graffiti.

Is a Postmodern building historic? The answer might determine a downtown office tower’s fate

Milwaukee Journal Sentinelee

The building’s homage to Flemish Renaissance Revival architecture − City Hall’s design − resonated with board member Sissel Schroeder.

“I think that’s what made this stand out compared to other Postmodern buildings in Milwaukee,” said Schroeder, a University of Wisconsin-Madison anthropology professor who voted to support 100 East’s nomination.

Northland College back for fall semester — though with fewer offerings and students

Wisconsin Public Radio

The Fall semester at Northland College in Ashland is underway after the small college faced closure last spring.

In March administrators announced the spring semester would be its last unless they could raise $12 million in a matter of weeks. Though the college didn’t get the amount hoped for, it did see a successful fundraising campaign, enough to keep the doors open at the school that has gained a national reputation for its environmental education programs.

UW tuition promise programs finding success, but need funding

Wisconsin Public Radio

For years, national surveys of students and families have shown the cost to attend college heavily influences where high school students choose to enroll. Educators in Wisconsin have taken that seriously.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison launched Bucky’s Tuition Promise in 2018. The program covers a student’s tuition for four years if the family has a household income of $65,000 or less.

Wisconsin’s prison population swells as other states limit incarceration

PBS Wisconsin

Extended periods of supervision after release from prison do little to improve public safety, according to Cecelia Klingele, a University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School professor of criminal law. The long terms “may interfere with the ability of those on supervision to sustain work, family life and other pro-social connections to their communities,” she wrote in a 2019 study examining 200 revocation cases.

“Fewer, more safety-focused conditions will lead to fewer unnecessary revocations and more consistency in revocation for people whose behavior poses a serious threat to public safety,” she added.

Main Street Agenda is hitting the road to hear from Wisconsin on issues that matter to you

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Main Street Agenda is here to help you navigate these times. It is an election-year project designed to provide information and civil conversations about the issues Wisconsin voters care most about. The topics come from a UW Survey Center survey, WisconSays, that asked residents about the top issues they face.

The emerald ash borer is now in every Wisconsin county. But the fight isn’t over. Why?

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Homeowners and communities can also take steps to slow the spread. Ash trees should be checked out for emerald ash borer symptoms, and insecticides can be applied according to guidelines provided by a certified arborist or the University of Wisconsin extension. Trees can also be removed, and replaced with non-susceptible species.

10 diverse children’s books with Wisconsin connections

Appleton-Post Crescent

But the number of diverse children’s books and creators has significantly increased since then, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center found. The CCBC is based in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education and receives funding from the state Department of Public Instruction. It reviews the diversity of both content and creators of about 3,500 children’s and young adult books each year.

“Children are curious learners, and are most naturally interested in themselves and also in understanding the world they live in,” CCBC Director Tessa Schmidt said. “Books should offer children the opportunity to see themselves, as well as people in their local and global communities.”

Wisconsin voter ID law still causing confusion, stifles turnout in Milwaukee, voting advocates say

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“It’s a small factor compared to not liking the candidates or not caring about the outcome,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the Elections Research Center. His university colleagues published a 2017 study on the effect of the law.

Best & Worst Places to Retire (2024)

WalletHub

“Location during retirement is often based on an individual’s situation and desires. Many of the factors that should be considered will be specific to the person, couple, or family,” says Jonathon Ferguson a financial capability specialist with the Financial Education Division of Extension at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Yet, all retirees or soon to be retirees can benefit from understanding the taxation implications of their retirement locations. State rules regarding taxation of pension benefits, social security benefits, long term capital gains, etc. can vary a lot.”

This Wisconsin grad is showing his Badgers pride at the racetrack and representing his sport at the game

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Oconomowoc native and proud University of Wisconsin grad Yuven Sundaramoorthy is representing his alma mater this weekend at the racetrack and his profession at the stadium.

Sundaramoorthy, who graduated from UW in December 2023 with a degree in computer science, is a rookie driver in the IndyNXT steppingstone series running along with the NTT IndyCar Series at the Milwaukee Mile.

Want to go to the Badgers’ season opener Friday? Less than $5 can make it happen.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Fans eager to see how Year 2 of the Luke Fickell era begins Friday night won’t need to shell out much money to make it happen.

A flood of seats for the University of Wisconsin football season opener at Camp Randall Stadium against Western Michigan are available for $2 to $6 on Vivid Seats and StubHub at points all over the stadium, as of late Thursday morning.

Best personal loans for students

WalletHub

Do you have any advice for students shopping for a personal loan?

“Be realistic. Make sure you understand the terms of the loan and have calculated your expected loan payment,” says James M. Johannes, a professor emeritus at the Wisconsin School of Business. “Recognize that these scheduled debt payments will in almost all cases severely and adversely impact your ability to borrow to fund a car, house, etc. after you graduate until the loan is repaid. Be patient! Recognize that life is a journey, and you might have to live frugally until the loans are repaid.”

US ‘exorbitant privilege’ is alive and well

Reuters

Research this week published by the University of Toronto’s Jason Choi, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Rishabh Kirpalani and Duong Dang, and New York University’s Diego Perez highlights the extent of America’s ‘exorbitant privilege.’

In their report ‘Exorbitant privilege and the sustainability of U.S. public debt’ they note that this special status “increases the maximal sustainable debt by approximately 22% of GDP.”

In other words, the U.S. government can sustainably borrow as much as 22% of GDP more than it would otherwise be able to if it weren’t the supplier of the global reserve currency.

Ph.D.s are next in fight over affirmative action

The Wall Street Journal

The McNair program’s racial eligibility criteria violate the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the U.S. Department of Education by Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, a conservative legal organization, on behalf of a national student group called Young America’s Foundation and two of its student members.

Column: A new era at California Endowment as longtime leader Robert K. Ross retires

Los Angeles Times

One of those O.C. activists was Carolina Sarmiento, a community studies professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who sits on the board of El Centro Cultural de México. The Santa Ana nonprofit uses music and art classes to organize residents around issues such as gentrification and cultural identity, and it also puts together one of the biggest Día de los Muertos commemorations in Southern California.

“There were few foundations that would allow us to do the work we do, the way we do, and the endowment allowed us to do that,” Sarmiento said. She credits Ross with “leading the conversation in philanthropy on how to gift responsibly in a way that they’re not co-opting social movements but letting community-based groups lead.”

Food poisoning: Salmonella risk increasing, microbiologists warn

Newsweek

“Climate change will increase the risk of foodborne illness from consumption of raw produce,” said study author Professor Jeri Barak, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“It’s not surprising that a host is altered by disease,” said Barak. “What’s interesting is how these changes affect other members of the bacteria community, in addition to the pathogen causing the disease.”

With a compelling origin story and an evolving mission, Alaafia helps Milwaukee’s African-immigrant women

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Alaafia got a grant from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation that focuses on sickle cell research to determine the disease’s impact on patients’ lives. Another grant from University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin Partnership Program funds health care navigation services, including support in finding and using resources, preventive care and mental health support

How Black women In higher ed support each other with Rachelle Winkle-Wagner

WORT FM

Host Karma Chávez returns to chat with Rachelle Winkle-Wagner, a professor of educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, about her new book, The Chosen We: Black Women’s Empowerment in Higher Education. They talk about how, as a white woman, Winkle-Wagner built trust with the Black women she interviewed for the book, and how her relationship to Black feminist theory–especially the idea of collective liberation–developed over the years.

New COVID-19 vaccine coming to Wisconsin pharmacies soon. Here’s what to know.

Wisconsin Public Radio

“If we go all the way back to the beginning of COVID, we are now starting to see that every year we’re having two peaks: a big peak in the wintertime and a lesser peak in the summertime,” Dr. Jonathan Temte said in an interview on WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “We’re right in the middle of that summer peak right now.”

Temte is associate dean for public health and community engagement at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He also serves on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 Vaccine Work Group and the Adult RSV Vaccine Work Group.

Next round of COVID vaccines, Social media warnings for minors, Wisconsin folk songs in the National Recording Registry

Wisconsin Public Radio

A Wisconsin doctor explains what you need to know about the next round of COVID vaccines. Then, we explore the effectiveness of warning labels for social media sites. Then, we hear some Wisconsin folks tunes that were recently added to the National Recording Registry.

Best savings accounts for kids

WalletHub

What advice do you have for parents who want to open a bank account for their child?

“To put into their children’s minds the importance of compounding of interest and that time is the great help in building wealth. also, to discuss the importance of FDIC insured banks vs. non,” says Phil Greenwood, senior lecturer in the Management and Human Resources Department at the Wisconsin School of Business.

Nearly 900 Wisconsin folk tunes part of the National Recording Registry in Library of Congress

Wisconsin Public Radio

What constitutes “folk music”?

Though musical genres are, by nature, difficult to define, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor emeritus Jim Leary gave WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” a fairly succinct answer: “Fundamentally, folk music is the grassroots music; the musical vernacular of distinctive locales and cultural groups.”

When and where to get the latest COVID-19 vaccines in Wisconsin

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In general, people in higher-risk groups such as older patients or people with compromised immune systems should get the new shot as soon as possible, said Ajay Sethi, a professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies infectious diseases. He advised those who recently had COVID-19 to wait to get the new shot until three months after infection.

Who is Kamala Harris’s mother, Shyamala Harris?

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The family lived in Madison from the time Kamala was three to five years old. Shyamala worked as a breast cancer researcher in the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at University of Wisconsin-Madison, while Donald was an associate professor of economics at the university.

Wisconsin Palestinians have felt isolated from politics. The upcoming election has made it worse.

Wisconsin Watch

University of Wisconsin-Madison student Reem Itani, 20, who was involved in the uninstructed movement in the April Democratic presidential primary, told Wisconsin Watch she felt “very unsafe” living under a Trump presidency, pointing to his administration’s 2017 travel ban from seven predominantly Muslim countries, which Trump called a “Muslim ban.”

Wisconsin’s inmate population swells as other states limit incarceration and close prisons

Wisconsin Watch

Extended periods of supervision after release from prison do little to improve public safety, according to Cecelia Klingele, a University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School professor of criminal law. The long terms “may interfere with the ability of those on supervision to sustain work, family life and other pro-social connections to their communities,” she wrote in a 2019 study examining 200 revocation cases.

“Fewer, more safety-focused conditions will lead to fewer unnecessary revocations and more consistency in revocation for people whose behavior poses a serious threat to public safety,” she added.

New biohealth workforce training program aims to be ‘major catalyst’ for Wisconsin economic growth

Wisconsin Public Radio

A new workforce development program in Wisconsin will train 2,000 workers over the next five years in a growing sector of the health care industry.

The Actualizing Biohealth Career Pathways project is a partnership between Wisconsin technical colleges, universities and employers that want to keep up with anticipated demand in the field.

After declaring financial emergency, Alverno College lands $10 million gift

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

John Morgridge is the former chairman of Cisco Systems, and Tashia Morgridge is a retired special education teacher. They have a long history of donating to Wisconsin colleges and universities. Both of them graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and have given hundreds of millions of dollars to their alma mater for various causes, such as faculty recruitment and a new computer and data sciences building. They have also given money to Cardinal Stritch University — where Tashia earned a doctorate of education — before the university closed in 2023.

The surprising depth of human-insect relationships with Heather Swan

WORT FM

On today’s show host Douglas Haynes sits down with Heather Swan to talk about her new book “Where the Grass Still Sings: Stories of Insects and Interconnections.” Heather Swan is a poet, writer, and lecturer in the University of Wisconsin – Madison’s English Department. Her book tells stories of human-insect connections through the lens of science and art, with a focus on the way we can connect across species.