Skip to main content

Author: knutson4

How new tariffs on Mexico and Canada affect Wisconsin industries

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

“I’m looking at whether we’ll get into a tit-for-tat type of trade war,” said Steven Deller, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies Wisconsin’s agricultural and manufacturing economy. “One of the things the Canadian Prime Minister was talking about is cutting off the electricity supply to the U.S. If we get into that kind of tit-for-tat, then things are going to start to deteriorate rapidly. So I’m just going to be watching how our trading partners respond.”

US egg prices are expected to rise by more than 40% in 2025. What’s in store for Wisconsin?

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

So far, Wisconsin’s bird flu outbreaks have been among turkey flocks, not hens, according to University of Wisconsin-Extension poultry specialist Ron Kean. Still, the state has felt the strain of egg shortages, with some Milwaukee grocery stores even setting egg purchase limits in recent weeks.

“Unfortunately, I don’t see prices improving in the near future,” Kean said. “We still don’t have a handle on stopping bird flu.”

RFK Jr. has targeted antidepressants for kids. How do SSRIs work?

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Dr. Marcia Slattery, a physician and professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, focuses on anxiety disorders in patients between 5 and 18 years old. She could not speak to any of Kennedy’s claims, but offered her expertise on SSRIs and their role in children’s mental health.

Typically, once a signal is passed between neurons, serotonin is reabsorbed in those cells, a process called “reuptake.” SSRIs block this process of reuptake, which increases serotonin levels in your brain. That enables the brain to continue using serotonin to connect more dots as we go about everyday tasks.

COVID changed how we talk, think and interact. Now, how do we go forward?

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

It was March 2020 when Dr. Ajay Sethi got a call from his best friend in Maryland. His friend’s father had died from COVID-19, one of the earliest U.S. casualties of the virus.

“Because I’m an epidemiologist and I think about numbers, the emotions behind those numbers, how is it I know someone so early who’s died from COVID-19?” said Sethi, who serves as the faculty director of the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The odds are so unusual, I remember thinking then, it must be big.”

A group funded by Elon Musk is behind deceptive ads in crucial Wisconsin Supreme Court race

Posted on
Associated Press

While the new ads seem clever in their deception, they probably won’t be effective in swaying many voters, said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He noted the messaging is mild compared to attack ads that are hitting Crawford more harshly.

“The ‘Progress 2028’ ad has subtler messaging that requires the viewer to pay close attention to the content and connect the dots,” Burden said. “Voters who are aware enough to make these connections are probably already paying attention to the race and have enough independent information to offset any effect of the ads.”

Farmers fear more pain from Trump’s trade war

Posted on
Time

About 20% of U.S. milk production is exported annually, with about 40% of that going to Canada, Mexico, and China, according to Chuck Nicholson, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. If the domestic dairy industry gets only a little more milk than traders were expecting, prices drop as a result, Nicholson says. So if the dairy industry started trying to sell that 20% domestically instead of exporting it, prices would plummet, making it difficult for farmers to continue to operate.

Bad psychedelic trips linked to early death for some, study finds

Posted on
CNN

Some people fail to find a psychedelic experience beneficial, said Dr. Charles Raison, a professor of psychiatry and human ecology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison.

“Maybe one in 20 people report having ongoing difficulties they ascribe to the psychedelic technique,” said Raison, who was not involved in the new research.

The Chimamanda effect: Nigerians’ delight at first novel in a decade from their beloved daughter

Posted on
The Guardian

The publishing industry was also influenced by Adichie’s style, says Ainehi Edoro, founder of literary blog Brittle Paper and associate professor of English at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Before her, African fiction often came packaged with a kind of ethnographic weight – expected to ‘explain’ Africa to a western audience,” she says. “But Adichie’s work wasn’t performing ‘Africanness’ for an outsider’s gaze; it was literary, intimate, contemporary. She helped shift expectations – both in publishing and among readers – so that the next wave of African writers didn’t have to over-explain, dilute or justify their stories.”

Trump’s speech to Congress has the ingredients for an explosive event

Posted on
The Washington Post

“You begin to see, especially under Obama’s second term, members of Congress thinking they can reply audibly, yelling ‘You lie’ and making it less about unifying the country and more about fracture and division within Congress itself,” said Allison Prasch, an expert on presidential rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “It becomes this theater and stage for the opposition.”

As measles outbreaks spread, Wisconsin could be vulnerable

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

“We need really, really high vaccine coverage in order to protect a community from a measles outbreak,” said Malia Jones, a public health researcher and assistant professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It is the most infectious disease on Earth. Nearly everyone who is exposed to measles and has not been vaccinated will get it.”

Psychedelic drug studies face a potent source of bias: the ‘trip’

Posted on
Science

Charles Raison, a psychiatrist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has been experimenting with having people sleep through their trips, as a way to understand how much a conscious psychedelic experience matters. Two volunteers received psilocybin while in a deep sleep with a sedative, and 1 week later both “swore they got placebo,” Raison says. He is now developing a larger study in which people with self-reported reduced emotional well-being will be randomized to get psilocybin or placebo while either awake or asleep, to tease out how the trip influences longer term effects on emotional state.

When will hummingbirds migrate back to Wisconsin this year?

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A few birds have already started to arrive in the state for the spring, such as robins and red-winged blackbirds, according to Anna Pidgeon, a professor of avian ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Though hummingbirds are a little further behind, there are a few steps you can take in the coming weeks to encourage them to your yard later in the spring.

More universities slow spending, admissions over Federal funding chaos

Posted on
Forbes

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the provost and the dean of the graduate school sent a memo to college deans on February 23 advising them to “consider decreasing the number of admissions offers” and also to “carefully consider” whether to make any offers to candidates on their applicant wait lists should students who were initially accepted decline to enroll. While it was not an order to reduce graduate admissions, it was a clear suggestion to move cautiously as the university evaluated its available resources in light of continuing worries about federal funding.

Wisconsin public health experts worry about next year’s flu shot after FDA cancels advisory meeting

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

“There’s about a six month process to go from selection of the strains to then start manufacturing the vaccine to then scaling up and distribution,” said Ajay Sethi, a professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “So the timing is critical in order to sort of make the deadline of getting the flu shot.”

“We have this independence from government, this independence from industry, and it provides a background of individuals who have a lot of expertise on the topic,” said Dr. Jon Temte, a UW-Madison professor of family medicine.

But he said the committees simply make a recommendation that federal officials can choose whether or not to adopt. He said the FDA commissioner could still make a decision about next year’s flu shot in the coming months.

Midwest winters are changing. So is the ancient sport of falconry

Posted on
Associated Press

Jonathan Pauli, a professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has observed by systematically capturing, collaring and monitoring carnivores and their prey across the state and comparing their historical numbers to current-day ones. He said his team has observed a “relatively fast range contraction” of snowshoe hares, moving northward as climate change increasingly turns them into “white lightbulbs” highly visible to their predators in the winter.

23 Dem AGs think they’ve cracked the code to fighting Trump

Posted on
Politico

On February 10, 22 of the states sued over cuts to the National Institutes of Health. It was filed in Massachusetts, but is filled with details on which programs at the University of Wisconsin are being the most impacted.

“Making sure that information is being included and considered as part of these cases is what I see as sort of a key role for us and for other states,“ said Wisconsin’s Attorney General Josh Kaul.

Wisconsin’s Forgotten Olympian: The first Black Olympic medalist and the secret he kept

Posted on
TMJ4

Poage was born in Missouri in 1880 but moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin, as a child. He was a standout student and athlete in high school. Then he went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for college. He was the first African American on the team and the first to win a Big Ten championship. He graduated in 1904. Shortly after, he competed in the St. Louis Olympics, where he won two medals. He was also sponsored by the Milwaukee Athletic Club.

Careful messaging, uncertainty reign on Wisconsin college campuses in Trump’s second term

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

College leaders are scrambling to assess the ramifications Trump’s orders would have on their institutions and come up with a long-term strategy to defend higher education, which has long been a political punching bag for Republicans. They are trying to respond in a way that appeases students and professors, who tend to be progressive, without antagonizing the conservatives now in charge of the federal government.

“The chancellor is trying to thread a very, very narrow needle,” said Michael Bernard-Donals, a UW-Madison professor of English and Jewish studies.

Tony Evers on budget compromise, Trump and DOGE. Takeaways from the governor’s meeting with county leaders

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Evers highlighted his “Year of the Kid” designation and said a focus needs to be on schools during the budget season. An ongoing battle over literacy funding from the last budget is yet to be squared away and he called for setting aside funds for youth mental health. Though funding for public schools, the University of Wisconsin and the state’s technical schools is large, it’s a necessary investment, especially because of the uncertainty at the federal level, he said.

This Wisconsin county keeps roads clear, saves money by using cheese byproduct. Here’s why

Posted on
Wisconsin State Farmer

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Traffic Operations and Safety (TOPS) lab have found liquid brine in water highway maintenance cleared the state’s highways faster, provided better friction on roadways and reduced overall salt usage.

“The data tells a very positive story for winter highway safety in Wisconsin,” says Andrea Bill, associate director of the TOPS Lab, which is housed in the UW-Madison College of Engineering. “Liquid brine is an effective tool, and along with training, education and technology, our storm fighters are making effective reductions in the amount of chloride on our roads and improving the performance of winter roads.”

China told to drop marriage age to boost birth rate

Posted on
Newsweek

“Even lowering the legal age of marriage to 18 will do nothing to boost the fertility rate now that people have become accustomed to marrying young and having children later,” said Yi Fuxian, a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who conducts demography research. “China’s age of first marriage in 2020 was 29.4 years for men and 28.0 years for women, and it will continue to be delayed, following along the same path as Taiwan and South Korea.”

NIH funding cuts ‘a travesty to biomedical research,’ says UW research director

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

An announcement from the National Institutes of Health earlier this month said the agency would slash support for indirect research costs paid to universities, medical centers and other grant recipients.

The change could leave research institutions like the University of Wisconsin-Madison scrambling for millions of dollars from other sources to support labs, students and staff.

Trump administration delays Wisconsin research funds by withholding, canceling review meetings

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

“This is clearly a loophole which is now used to stall the reviews,” said Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska, vice chancellor for research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The impact of the postponement won’t be felt immediately, she said. But if the meetings can’t continue, it will have an impact in coming months.

“At the minimum, a delay. At the most extreme case, maybe funding won’t happen,” Grejner-Brzezinska said. “At the moment, we hope that it is just a delay. And are watching what’s going to happen next.”

Musk-backed SCOWIS attack ad features wrong Susan Crawford

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

It’s a sign of an increasingly negative campaign environment, said Michael Wagner, an expert on political communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“One thing that we’ve seen in our politics over the last several election cycles is an increasing willingness to take the shot, even if the candidate isn’t sure that the shot is accurate,” Wagner said. “The rush to get on air with negative ads, the appetite some audiences seem to have for them, all kind of contribute to the environment where mistakes like this can happen.”

Measles vaccination rates have fallen across Wisconsin, data shows

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

There are several reasons for Wisconsin’s low and declining measles vaccination rates, said Jim Conway, a pediatric infectious disease professor at the University of Wisconsin’s medical school. A “recency phenomenon” is one of them, he said.

“These ‘old-fashioned diseases,’ as one parent said to me a couple weeks ago, just aren’t as concerning,” he said. “Because they’re considered diseases that affected all our parents, but they don’t see them as a current threat.”

Rule breaker investing: Pet Perks, Vol. 2

Posted on
The Motley Fool

Let’s move to pet perk number 2. This one’s a little bit quicker hitting. I was reminded that I got it from Jordan Ellenberg, the mathematician and the academic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who joined me for Authors in August in 2023. His book “How Not To Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking” is where pet perk, number 2, comes from. I’m going to quote him in a sec, but here it is, essentially. As you get richer as a person, as you get richer as an investor, you’re able to take more risk and that is indeed a pet perk.

Improvements to hearing aid tech, access has led to better and cheaper options

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Untreated hearing loss can take a toll on the mental health of those hard of hearing, according to Rachel Lee, a University of Wisconsin-Madison clinical associate professor and audiologist.

“Hearing loss is associated with a lot of things, such as social isolation, which can lead to depression and anxiety. It can also affect cognitive ability,” Lee said recently on WPR’s “The Larry Meiller Show.”

A Michigan college student filed a lawsuit over a bad grade. It’s not the first time.

Posted on
Detroit Free Press

Donald Downs is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Wisconsin. He co-founded the Academic Freedom Alliance, a nonprofit that defends the rights of professors to speak, teach and publish without interference. He said courts aren’t the right place to settle grade disputes.

“These are matters of academic freedom and it’s usually best leave it up to the professors, because they’re the ones who know the subject,” Downs said. “If you take it out of their hands, then who’s going to do it? Our position is a strong presumption in favor of the faculty members’ academic right to have discretion over grades.”

How to channel anxiety as an emotional intelligence strategy

Posted on
Forbes

In 2013, Researchers at University of Wisconsin put this idea to the test. They placed people in MRI machines and threatened to shock them at random. There were three groups of participants:

The researchers measured fear activity in each person’s brain. And they found something incredible in the third group. Participants’ brains were much less active. They could literally outsource their fear to their loved ones. That means your brain can offload negativity. Leaning on others in tough times is like taking ice cream scoops of negativity out of your brain. The EQ Strategy: Ask your friends and family for support. Don’t let fear of vulnerability hold you back.

In pursuit of the best protein bar

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

“We weren’t trying to design the best protein bar ever.” said Audrey Girard, who is an assistant professor in food science at the university. “We were trying to figure out how these protein bars harden so that someone else could take this, and then design the best protein bar ever.”

Finnish saunas are having a moment in Wisconsin

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Arnold Alanen is a professor emeritus of landscape architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he researched the history of sauna structures. Alanen told “Wisconsin Today” that as a Finnish American, sauna has been a way of life for him from the beginning. He said he was first brought into a sauna as a very young baby, and then he caught on to the ritual when he was about 8 years old, living on his grandparents’ farm in Minnesota.

“The weekly sauna tradition was something that we did on our farm, just without interruption. We would do it every Saturday evening,” he said. “It became such an integral part of my life, as well as of our family.”

‘Heartbreaking to slow down’: UW-Madison researchers warn funding cuts would delay new treatments for cancer, more

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the nation’s top research institutions, are wary of potential cuts to funding under the Trump administration that they warn could slow their work and delay new treatments for cancer and other diseases.

U.S. dairy farmer says Trump’s mass deportation plan would put him out of business

Posted on
CBS News

John Rosenow, a fifth-generation farmer in Waumandee, Wisconsin, owns more than 900 acres and over 600 dairy cows. He said about 90% of the work on the farm is done by immigrants.

Those immigrants include Kevin, who was born in central Mexico and crossed the U.S. southern border illegally when he was 18. Now 21, Kevin, who did not provide his last name during an interview with CBS News, is among the 11 million undocumented migrants living in the U.S. More than 10,000 of them work on Wisconsin dairy farms, according to a report by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

On Collaborentoring: Xueli Wang offers advice for embracing mentoring as a form of collaboration.

Posted on
Inside Higher Ed

Written by Xueli Wang, the Barbara and Glenn Thompson Endowed Professor in Educational Leadership at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. With a focus on community colleges and postsecondary STEM education, her research examines educational practices, structures and policies that promote students’ holistic well-being and equitable access, experiences and outcomes.

An election for a single state Supreme Court seat becomes the ‘blockbuster’ political fight of 2025

Posted on
CNN

“It’s going to be a blockbuster,” said Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In a state where a Democrat controls the governor’s mansion and Republicans hold the legislative majority, the state Supreme Court “is the center of the action,” he said. “It’s become a place where a lot of hot-button issues people care about get decided.”