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There is no doubt that farming can be extremely rewarding, yet also stressful and demanding. Various risk factors including weather, economic uncertainty, as well as, ever-evolving supply and demand changes, can take a toll on farmer’s mental health.
In order to address some of these issues, the University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension will be offering virtual and in-person educational programs to help the Wisconsin agricultural community identify and respond to a variety of behavioral health challenges.
The possibility of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson becoming the first Black woman to join the Supreme Court of the United States, is a moment that’s inspiring young Black women across the country.
Iman Davenport is a second-year law student and the president of the Black Law Students Association at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
When Davenport recently had the opportunity to be in Washington, D.C., she jumped at the chance to get a front row seat to history being made.
“She’s one of his country’s brightest legal minds. Yet, there are still people in this country that see her skin and assume that she’s not qualified. As a Black woman entering the legal profession, this confirmation is a literal dream come true,” said Davenport.
Noted: Tractor prices are up as much as 20% from two years ago, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension. Used equipment is difficult to find and expensive.
“Supply chain disruptions have created chaos in new-and-used machinery markets,” UW Extension said in a report last fall.
Quoted: “It still really hasn’t hit me,” said longtime PA announcer Bonnie Oleson.
Oleson is the PA announcer for the University of Wisconsin-Madison women’s volleyball, basketball and softball teams. On occasion, she also announces for the women’s soccer and hockey teams.
The Journal Sentinel and USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin will livestream several democracy-focused programs this spring from the University of Wisconsin-Madison LaFollette School of Public Affairs.
The first, today at 5 p.m., features Harvard University Professor of Government Daniel Carpenter, who will discuss his book “Democracy by Petition,” which traces the explosion and expansion of petitioning across the North American continent.
After state agriculture officials confirmed the presence of bird flu in Wisconsin, one poultry management expert shared safety tips for poultry farmers and what risk exists to humans.
Ron Kean, a faculty associate and extension specialist in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, also explained what costs farmers can and cannot get covered if the flu hits their farm.
Quoted: Hart Posen, a professor of management and human resources at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said while concerns of negative effects from a buyout aren’t unfounded, he sees it as a positive story in an industry that has had few positive stories in the past decade.
“This is all happening because Kohl’s is, of department store retailers, one of the best positioned department store retailers,” Posen said. “This is (a) department store that has real potential. Some folks think they can pull more out of it, which may or may not be true.”
The nation may have its eyes on the college basketball brackets, but another March Madness event unfolded Friday at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, where the Class of 2022 graduates received their long-awaited residency placements.
The ninth president of the UW System is scheduled to start this summer after a years-long search for a new leader. We discuss the selection of a Milwaukee law firm CEO and other news in higher education with the head of the UW System Board of Regents.
As for the science behind March Madness, UW-Madison professor of industrial and systems engineering and bracketologist Laura Albert joined Live at Four to talk about how to make the most of your bracket for this year’s NCAA tournament.
Tommy Thompson is set to leave the University of Wisconsin System on Friday, closing a 20-month presidential tenure in which he brought stability and some momentum at a time of internal and external challenges.
Quoted: Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor and director of the university’s Elections Research Center, said Vos’ statement will make it even more difficult to assuage concerns within his party over the 2020 election.
“To suggest that it was sort of endemic it was everywhere and substantial. That’s a big statement,” Burden said.
“Even if none of this other stuff had been happening, the investigations, or (Rep. Tim) Ramthun’s (decertification) efforts or anything else, but the speaker of the assembly to say there was widespread fraud in a statewide election is a real statement and a real change.”
A small Madison startup launched only two years ago to provide free alternative data for investors says it now has 340,000 registered users.
Twin brothers James and Chris Kardatzke debuted Quiver Quantitative in February 2020 while they were students at University of Wisconsin-Madison studying finance, economics, and statistics. They graduated that year and gave their full attention to running the business which now has six full-time employees, with plans to hire a few more soon.
Engineers at UW-Madison have created a new method for improving the quality of 3D-printed metal products.
Additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3D printing, can create complex metal structures with greater ease than traditional manufacturing processes, a release from the university shows. But the process often introduces defects such as tiny cracks and pits in the materia
Quoted: Sanctions aimed at Mordashov and other Russian oligarchs are meant to squeeze these powerful domestic allies of Putin, according to Andrew Kydd, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“The idea is that if you seize the assets of these oligarchs, then they will feel the pain of the war and lean on Putin to stop the war,” he explained.
A new procedure called “radiofrequency ablation” is bringing relief to people who suffer from migraine headaches. The procedure uses heat delivered via electrical stimulation through wires and probes to nerves in the head.
Dr. Alaa Abd-Elsayed, medical director, UW Health Pain Services and Pain Management Clinic, says with one visit, patients can see relief for months.
“Around a year for most of the patients we see. It can actually for some patients go for two years,” he said.
If you’re jaded by GPS, if you think maps are mere representations of reality, The Cartographers would like a word with you.
These savants, who mastered the arts of scale and legend at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, know that maps can be portals, too.
Noted: Klauser graduated from South Milwaukee High School. He later received his undergraduate, law and master of arts in public law degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Ajay Sethi, a professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he expects to see plenty of people continuing to wear masks long into the future. In addition to COVID-19, masks can help protect against other respiratory pathogens like rhinovirus, enterovirus and RSV, Sethi said.
“If you’re around somebody who’s coughing or sneezing, it may not be SARS-CoV-2,” he said. “So wearing a mask protects against all those things that spread by large droplets and to some degree, the aerosolized pathogens too.”
Patricia Téllez-Girón, professor of family medicine at UW-Madison, remembers occasionally seeing people wearing masks before 2020, especially while traveling. She remembers thinking that was unusual, and wondering if those people were really sick. Now, she’s changed her perspective.
“No, they were smart!” she said. “They already have learned what we just learned.”
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is trying to get in touch with students who were unable to attend in-person graduation ceremonies over the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At a recognition event in April, those former students will have the chance to walk across the stage.
Quoted: The consolidation of farms seen across agriculture is a big part of why the state has fewer licensed dairy producers, according to Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“In many cases when farms sell out, most of their cows may go to other dairy farms. And so the remaining farms have gotten a little bit larger,” Stephenson said.
Stephenson said in 2005, the average herd size in Wisconsin was 82 cows per farm, and in 2020, that average climbed to 177 cows per farm. In other words, the average more than doubled over 15 years.
CIA director William Burns told the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday that he believes Vladimir Putin is losing the “information war” over Ukraine, and this may chip away at his domestic support for the invasion. But what are Russian citizens hearing about the war? Anton Shirikov, who researches misinformation at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, joins William Brangham to discuss.
Scott Seyforth has read more than 100 interviews with Carson Gulley.
Not once did the culinary, radio and TV pioneer of the mid-1900s mention how proud he was of his now-famous fudge bottom pies, said Seyforth, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant director of residence life at University Housing.
“It’s one of the only things people know him for because for 40 years, it’s the only way almost that university communications has presented him to the public — as in relationship to fudge bottom pie,” Seyforth said recently on WPR’s “The Larry Meiller Show.”
Quoted: Tom Eggert, a retired sustainability professor who taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said customers, employees and investors are pushing businesses to make commitments to reduce their emissions.
“You start with maybe a lot of greenwashing, but we’ve seen over time that the infrastructure gets created underneath those goals, underneath those targets, to be very credible, when people then question them on what they’re doing,” said Eggert. “I would say companies in Wisconsin, companies in the United States, companies around the world are on a continuum from complete greenwashing at one end to complete transparency and viable targets on the other.”
Quoted: The Journal Sentinel talked with financial aid experts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Ascendium Education Group about the top questions borrowers have asked about the changes.
“This is huge and it’s well worth (borrowers) time to look into this,” said Emma Crawford, director of financial wellness and financial aid advising at UW-Madison’s School of Medicine & Public Health.
In our new feature, “Digest,” Isthmus interviews unsung or behind-the-scenes members of the service industry and lets them speak for themselves.
Sasha Debevec-McKenney, 31, is a poet, an instructor at UW-Madison, and the current artist-in-residence at StartingBlock. She’s also a part-time server. She has worked at restaurants in New York City and Madison, including Willalby’s Cafe, Settle Down Tavern and Diner in WIlliamsburg, Brooklyn. Currently she works a couple lunch shifts a week at Morris Ramen.
If life had gone as planned, Maria Alice Lima Freitas would be in medical school, inspired by the career of her father, a surgeon who practiced in Brazil. But instead of changing careers, the 49-year-old therapist retired from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Researchers in Wisconsin continue to study the spread of black-legged “deer” ticks and the long-term impact of Lyme disease. In a recent presentation, Susan Paskewitz, a medical entomologist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, said ticks have “invaded our state entirely” and, as the climate warms, are marching into Canada.
Xia Lee, a tick biologist in Paskewitz’s lab, has studied the insects for more than a decade. Lee says Lyme-bearing ticks “are always born uninfected,” but they pick up infections as they feed on animal hosts.
Lee notes that Wisconsin never got the proper recognition as the site of the first case of the disease.
“We like to joke about it and say that Wisconsin was actually the first state where Lyme disease was detected,” he says, “but we never got the glory for naming (it).”
Noted: Some colleges and universities were already test-optional, and many more waived SAT and ACT scores as a requirement for admission during the pandemic. In Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin System is test-optional through the 2024-25 school year.
Quoted: Over the past three decades, Susan Paskewitz, a medical entomologist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, has documented the growing prevalence of ticks in Wisconsin.
Paskewitz found that deer ticks, also called black-legged ticks, have moved steadily from northwest to southwest, and then into the central and eventually slowly into the eastern and southern Wisconsin.
“They invaded our state entirely,” Paskewitz said in a 2021 Wednesday Nite @ The Lab episode. She said the regeneration of forests decimated by logging in the early 1900s and rebounding of the deer population are the main drivers in Wisconsin. Paskewitz said warming temperatures caused by climate change are expected to lengthen the tick season and accelerate their northward march into Canada.
For Maddy Rauls, teaching is a family business.
The fourth grade bilingual English language arts teacher in Waunakee has several aunts who are teachers, and her dad was her high school’s chemistry teacher.
When she started school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in September 2017, a career in teaching was on her radar, especially because she loved babysitting and working with kids at summer school. When she liked the education classes she took her first couple of years, that sealed the deal.
A bipartisan bill to create a nitrogen optimization pilot program to aid farmers in reducing nitrogen pollution passed the state Senate Tuesday and will now head to Gov. Tony Evers’ desk. The measure, SB-677 creates a commercial nitrogen optimization pilot program and provides crop insurance premium rebates for planting cover crops, which farmers may use to improve soil health. The bill also creates a new state hydrogeologist position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison extension, tasked with aiding local communities in tackling areas with high concentrations of contamination.
Wisconsin Watch has been named a finalist in 12 categories in the Milwaukee Press Club’s 2021 Excellence in Journalism contest.
Whether the entries won gold, silver or bronze will be announced in May. Three of the awards are shared with news partners and one award is shared with students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Noted: After McCallum lost in 2003 to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, Farrow left the Capitol. She would return to a high-profile public position a decade later when former Gov. Scott Walker appointed her to the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has ordered venture capital fund Alumni Ventures Group to repay $4.7 million to certain funds, and a $700,000 penalty, for making misleading statements about fees and breaching operating agreements.
The New Hampshire-based firm has funds with names pegged to universities, such as Bascom Ventures for University of Wisconsin-Madison alum, but doesn’t have any formal affiliation with the schools.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor and redistricting expert Rob Yablon said while it’s not especially likely, he “would not be surprised at all” if the U.S. Supreme Court decides to hear the Legislature’s appeal in some form.
“This is an area of law that is in flux right now,” Yablon said. “The approach that the Wisconsin Supreme Court majority took is essentially in line with the way that these claims have been handled for the last few decades, but the U.S. Supreme Court has signaled interest recently in revisiting some of that case law.”
Noted: Peterangelo added that he is working with a graduate student from the University of Wisconsin-Madison on a study that compares Milwaukee to cities of similar size and demographics across the country in the hopes of learning how they have addressed housing disparities. He hopes to have that new report ready by summer.
UW-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) announced they will alter their Farm and Industry Short Course (FISC), beginning in 2023.The program will switch from a for-credit, on-campus residential experience lasting 16 weeks, to a more flexible, non-credit format. The residential program will end this spring when the current class of Farm and Industry Short Course (FISC) students receive their certificates.
A UW System initiative will provide incentives to twice as many student health care workers with additional funding from the Wisconsin Partnership Program.
This UW School of Medicine and Public Health program is providing $500,000 for the effort, doubling the total funding for the incentive program that was announced in December 2021. The state Department of Health Services provided the initial funds.
The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team’s Johnny Davis was named to his first All-American list of the season. Only one voter for the Sporting News All-America team didn’t have Davis listed on their first team.
University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson is stepping down from his role later this month. But before leaving, Thompson is visiting UW campuses around the state.
UW System interim president and the longest-serving governor in Wisconsin Tommy Thompson announced his resignation back in January.
Monday, Thompson showed his gratitude for his time as president at the UW-Oshkosh campus.
Here’s what guests on the March 4, 2022 episode had to say about the split decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court adopting maps submitted by Gov. Evers, Gableman’s 2020 election report and February 2022 statewide polling on elections and issues.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s plans to demolish a century-old building that was once part of Columbia Hospital are on hold.
The city Historic Preservation Commission on Monday granted temporary historic designation for the building, 3321 N. Maryland Ave.
Former University of Wisconsin assistant men’s basketball coach Lamont Paris will appear in the NCAA Tournament for the first time as a head coach courtesy of a remarkable overtime buzzer-beater by Chattanooga’s David Jean-Baptiste on Monday night.
Noted: The University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin Idea: The Wisconsin Regional Art Program hired painter John Steuart Curry in 1936 as the first artist-in-residence at a U.S. university. Curry, and later Aaron Bohrod, worked with groups around the state to encourage to encourage small-town and rural artists. The program valued art created not only by professors and artists, but also by regular people, Sawkins said.
Noted: Methane is considered a greenhouse gas because it traps infrared radiation in the atmosphere and raises air temperatures. Livestock farming represents about 30% of the methane emissions produced from human activities in the U.S., with beef and dairy cattle as the major contributors, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension.
The UW-Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Natural Resources have issued a scientific report examining how global warming has affected the state over the past decade, with measurable effects differing by season and time of day.
As Wisconsin farms prepare for the upcoming growing season, some producers are having a hard time finding enough workers.
Claire Strader is an organic vegetable educator for FairShare CSA Coalition and the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension in Dane County. Last fall, she started hearing from farmers who were worried about a potential labor shortage.
“They knew that they were going to be losing workers from their farms because those workers were telling them that as they were moving on to other opportunities,” Strader said. “Those farmers, in particular vegetable farmers, were telling us that they were in a crisis looking for workers.”
There were no carbon monoxide detectors in the living areas of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee dorm where a gas leak forced an evacuation Monday night and sent 17 students to the hospital for treatment, the university confirmed Wednesday.
James Thomson, the University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist who first isolated and grew human embryonic stem cells, inspiring a generation of researchers, and igniting a furious ethical debate that he would later help resolve, will be retiring in July after more than 30 years with the school.
Quoted: “The government has to provide more resources, if we’re going to ensure that everybody has their basic needs met during this transition time, and it’s wonderful to see people in the community coming together,” said Erin Barbato, director of the Immigrant Justice Clinic at the University of Wisconsin Law School. “But that’s not going to solve the problem for everybody.”
The legal clinic is helping evacuees file for asylum and training attorneys to represent them in that process — positions that are in short supply. Barbato and other immigration experts fear some people will fall through bureaucratic cracks unless the federal government takes action to stabilize the system.
With mask mandates lifting once again and some itching to return to normal, the head of UW Hospital’s Transplant Infectious Disease Program called for continued vigilance on behalf of her immunocompromised patients.
Dr. Jeannina Smith, who also teaches in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Medicine, said her patients are “very valuable, vital (and) important members of our society.”
Nonetheless, they are particularly susceptible to COVID-19 as Wisconsin approaches the end of its second full year in the pandemic.
An array of faculty, staff, undergraduate employees, and University of Wisconsin community members gathered over a Zoom call this Tuesday for mobilization around COVID safety and policy on campus. The meeting was organized in direct response to a University announcement that it would allow its indoor mask mandate to expire on March 11th, which falls a day before the school’s spring break. The expiration will take place 10 days after the rest of Dane County, which announced the end of required indoor masking effective at midnight on March 1st.
Signs are static.
They can, of course, convey concise and relevant historical information. But they are limited to one point in time, said Kasey Keeler, an assistant professor of civil society and community studies and American Indian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
That’s why Keeler is leading a project, “Mapping Dejope: Indigenous Histories and Presence in Madison,” which will make Indigenous history of the area digitally accessible.
University of Wisconsin-Madison instructors will be able to recommend their students continue wearing face masks after a campus mask mandate expires March 12. But despite concerns about immunocompromised or otherwise at-risk staff, faculty are being told to masking will now come down to personal choice.
Experts said America could see a potential for cyber attacks from the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
A UW Madison professor said though nation-state attacks don’t seem to be Putin’s goal at the moment, now is a good time to take stock and put added security in place.
“I think we have to be careful generally, but I think it wouldn’t be a bad time for companies and individuals to take security precautions seriously,” said Yoshiko Herrera, Professor for the Department of Political Science at UW Madison.
Herrera recommends backing up hard drives and making sure you have secure passwords in place.
Yoshiko Herrera, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert on Russia and eastern Europe, and Jon Pevehouse, the chair of UW-Madison’s political science department, join Live at Four to explain what’s next following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Quoted: “Stock markets tend to react very quickly, but then unless there’s some real material damage, you’re gonna get a reversion.” said Mark Copelovitch, Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs at University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Yoshiko Herrera agreed with Keane.
“Taking control of the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, is key to [Putin’s] plan,” said Herrera, an expert on U.S.-Russian relations. Given the opposition of the Ukrainian government and people, she said “the prospect of an insurgency or protracted struggle, unfortunately, seems likely.”
Quoted: Putin “has been preparing economically for sanctions for years,” Yoshiko Herrera, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in Russia and U.S.-Russia relations, told this column. Herrera cited Russia’s expansion of its reserves of foreign currency in recent times as one example
Referring to the invasion of Ukraine, Herrera added, “He is willing to pay an economic cost for this. Saying we are making it economically costly? That is not going to do it. He has already factored that in.”
