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Author: knutson4

The US government killed nearly 2 million wild animals last year. Why?

Vox

Niemeyer has described the instinct to blame livestock deaths on coyotes and wolves as “hysteria.” The roots of such hysteria trace back to America’s early European settlers, who believed (wrongly) that the eradication of wolves was necessary for livestock production, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison environmental science professor Adrian Treves.

Harvard University renames its DEI office as its battle with the Trump administration expands to more fronts

CNN

Charleston has been the subject of conservative criticism in the past, facing allegations that much of her academic writing was plagiarized from her husband, LaVar Charleston. Earlier this year, he was removed from his position as the head of the Division of Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievement at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

‘I was one of these kids’: Carter Gilmore makes appearance at youth basketball camp

WMTV - Channel 15

Exact Sciences and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County teamed up on Wednesday to host a basketball camp for club members.

Kids participated in basketball drills, which were led UW-Madison athletes. UW-Madison men’s basketball player Carter Gilmore was among those athletes who spent time with the kids by taking photos and signing autographs.

State audit reveals gaps in tracking DEI initiative spending at Wisconsin agencies, universities

The Badger Herald

Republican-ordered audits found April 11 determined Wisconsin state agencies and the University of Wisconsin System failed to track millions of dollars spent on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts during the 2023-24 fiscal year — making it difficult to fully assess the efforts which have been under review due to recent federal orders.

Wisconsin home sales saw double-digit decrease last month compared to 2024

Wisconsin Public Radio

Steve Deller, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the seasonality of Wisconsin’s housing market helped insulate the state from similar month-to-month declines.

“I’m not going to rush my purchasing of a house because I think tariffs are going to hit,” Deller said. “I’m going to rush my purchasing of, say, a washer and dryer or refrigerator or a car because I think tariffs are going to cause prices to go up and I want to get them now. The housing market isn’t going to be hit by tariffs the same way.”

State joins lawsuit to block Trump administration cancellation of AmeriCorps

Wisconsin Examiner

“I was completely blindsided,” Parker Kuehni told the Wisconsin Examiner on Tuesday. The University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate with a degree in global health was in his second year with AmeriCorps, working at a Madison free health clinic and preparing to start medical school in June when he learned Monday morning that the program was canceled.

Feds reveal how immigration squad targeted thousands of foreign students

Politico

“You could have sent a letter to all these universities and said, ‘Those people have come up on a hit, you may want to check them out,’” the judge said. Even after the hearing, it remained unclear how deeply DHS officials examined the reasons students had “hits” in the federal criminal justice database run by the National Crime Information Center, or NCIC. The University of Wisconsin student who brought the suit that led to Tuesday’s hearing, Akshar Patel, had faced a reckless driving charge but it was ultimately dismissed.

More and more older Americans want to know their Alzheimer’s status, survey finds

NPR

The arrival of drug treatment has made people living with Alzheimer’s more optimistic, says Dr. Nathaniel Chin, a geriatrician at the University of Wisconsin who was not involved in the survey.

“Even if it doesn’t stop the disease in its tracks, it tells people that we’re making progress,” he says. “They want to know if they potentially could have this therapy or maybe the next therapy or two therapies down the road.”

Judge Hannah Dugan has all-star legal team, including ‘LeBron James of lawyers’

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Richard Frohling, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, oversees the federal team. He has spent much of his career as a prosecutor. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin Law School and working as a law clerk and in private practice, Frohling joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Milwaukee in 2000. He was named first assistant in 2015. He has twice been the Acting U.S. Attorney and briefly served as U.S. attorney in 2022.

Workday and the excesses of higher-ed “efficiency” consultants

Tone Madison

Rather than laying off staff or admitting fewer graduate students, one place the school (and the UW System more broadly) could look to save hundreds of millions of dollars is to cut its exorbitant spending on out-of-state business consultants and costly technology purchases. Additionally, in this time of attacks on faculty research, now UW System’s adoption of Workday further threatens researchers’ ability to do their work.

New group sees ‘fusion voting’ as a path to ease Wisconsin’s political polarization

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Barry Burden, a political science professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center, said while there is no silver bullet to inject harmony into the state’s politics, “allowing fusion to be used once again in the state has the potential to at least begin moving politics in a healthier direction without any negative side-effects.”

Here are the best states for remote work, if you can still find it

USA Today

The gradual retreat from telework “presents a valuable opportunity for companies that continue to offer remote work to differentiate themselves from the competition,” said Anyi Ma, an assistant professor of management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “These companies now have the chance to attract and hire the most talented employees who prefer remote work.”

What Kennedy gets wrong about autism’s causes

The Washington Post

Outside of specific genetic diseases, scientists have identified more than 250 genes that are associated with a higher likelihood of ASD. As Maureen Durkin, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explained to me, some of these genes are also associated with beneficial traits. “It’s not as simple as ‘these are causes of autism, and you’d want to edit them out of the genome,’” she said.

Wisconsin EMS providers are ‘in crisis.’ Lawmakers have ideas

The Cap Times

Belleville Area EMS is fully staffed — which is increasingly rare in Wisconsin — but a drop in volunteers has forced the service to rely on student recruits from the University of Wisconsin-Madison more than on local residents. Belleville also is among a growing number of EMS services shifting from an all-volunteer model to one that leans on some paid staff.

Stop to smell the roses: UW’s Earth Fest showcases sustainability, creativity

The Badger Herald

First established as a national holiday in 1970, Earth Day offers a moment to reflect on the health and beauty of the natural world. It is an excellent reason for millions of Americans to step outside and breathe in the fresh air. For University of Wisconsin students, it can be much more. This week heralds UW’s second annual Earth Fest, a week-long celebration of the Earth.

New Gustavus president named

Mankato Free Press

Following a postdoctoral fellowship in plant physiological ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Volin taught at Florida Atlantic University and served as director of the environmental sciences graduate program. Volin joined the University of Connecticut in 2007 to head the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, advancing to serve as vice provost of academic affairs.