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Author: knutson4

Thai Protesters Return as Parliament Eyes Charter Recast

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Bloomberg

Quoted: “The repressive response from the state indicates the fear of those who hold power. The sophistication and steadfastness of response by activists indicates that they’re not swayed by this fear,” said Tyrell Haberkorn, professor of Southeast Asian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “As the impact of the pandemic on the economy and future opportunities continues to intensify, citizens are likely to question how well authoritarianism is working and call for change.”

A New York Times article sought to expose Wausau and Marathon County’s racial tensions. Some say that ‘snapshot’ only made things worse.

Posted on
Wausau Daily Herald

Quoted: Doug McLeod, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said conflict can indeed be threatening, especially to smaller cities, and that the national attention that Wausau is receiving would “disappear into everything else” in a city like New York or Chicago.

“(Conflicts) can be more divisive, they can raise tensions in smaller communities,” said McLeod, who studies social conflicts and the mass media. “Those communities might look for scapegoats to place blame, (and) it’s often the person coming in from outside — like a journalist from New York.”

You may see yellow-green water off Park Point this summer

Posted on
Duluth News Tribune

Quoted: “The spotter sensor is a basketball-sized, solar-powered yellow buoy that will be anchored,” said Chin Wu, a lead researcher from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The GPS drifter tracker looks rather like a red post floating upright in the water. It will be drifting with the current. We’d appreciate it if the public would allow the equipment to operate.”

If You Notice This at Night, It May Be an Early Alzheimer’s Sign, Study Says

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Best Life

Quoted: “Previous evidence has shown that sleep may influence the development or progression of Alzheimer’s disease in various ways,” Barbara B. Bendlin, PhD, the study’s author from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, said in a statement. “For example, disrupted sleep or lack of sleep may lead to amyloid plaque buildup because the brain’s clearance system kicks into action during sleep. Our study looked not only for amyloid but for other biological markers in the spinal fluid as well.”

After COVID-19 vaccinations, Milwaukee singles say they’re ready for a summer of dating

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: “It’s really a litmus test for a world view right now,” said Christine Whelan, clinical professor at University of Wisconsin’s School of Human Ecology. “If you have been vaccinated, you trust in the science. You have sort of a proactive approach and you believe in public health and research.”

35 years later, shift to specialty cheese paying off for Wisconsin farmers

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Spectrum News

Quoted: “Mind you, it’s a difficult thing to do, and to do well,” said Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at UW-Madison.

Stephenson said farmers often make about $20 per hundredweight (cwt) for milk. By selling the cheese instead of the milk, they can get somewhere closer to $100 cwt for their milk.

“Sure, there are additional costs along the way, but potentially the income stream is bigger,” Stephenson said. “But there are a lot of ways it can go wrong.”

New research shows prosecutors often fight winning innocence claims, offer deals to keep convictions

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KARE 11

Quoted: Keith Findley co-founded the Wisconsin Innocence Project, and was the co-director for years. Now he teaches on criminal law, evidence and wrongful convictions at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

“One of the things that innocence advocates have noticed over the years is that not always, but sometimes, prosecutors, when confronted with very powerful evidence of innocence, go to great lengths to try to preserve the convictions,” Findley said. “Including making plea offers that are essentially so good that it’s hard to turn them down, even for an innocent individual.”

Most of Wisconsin has no native earthworms. What’s with that?

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Fittingly, the thrashing invaders were first confirmed in the state by both Williams and Brad Herrick, ecologist and jumping worm specialist at UW-Madison Arboretum. The worms were discovered during a 2013 talk they were leading about invasive species at the Arboretum in Madison.

In 2013 when the jumping worms were first documented, they were probably already established in Wisconsin and the Midwest, Herrick said.

“They have been in North America for around 100 years,” he said, creeping here from the northeastern part of the country. “The Midwest states have been the recent invasion.”

Herrick, also known as Dr. Worm by Williams, is beginning his PhD study on the biology, ecology and control of jumping worms. He is helping lead a statewide jumping worm survey beginning in July.

Where Traffic Deaths Surged In Wisconsin During the Pandemic

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PBS Wisconsin

Noted: Milwaukee’s new traffic unit is using DOT data to focus its enforcement efforts on intersections and stretches of road identified as particularly dangerous. The DOT partners with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory to collect collision report data that flows in from law enforcement agencies across the state every day and organize it into an interactive statewide map of crashes.

Continued Drought Could Affect Wisconsin Fruit, Vegetable Crops

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Amaya Atucha is a fruit crop specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension. She said the hot and dry conditions over the last few weeks have put stress on everything from strawberry plants to apple orchards.

“Plants in general use water mostly to be able to control temperature. So the warmer it gets, the more water they need to be able to cool down,” Atucha explained.

Cole Lubinski manages the UW-Extension’s Langlade Research Station, which supports the state’s potato industry. He said his area has gotten enough moisture so far this year, but farms in the Central Sands have had irrigation systems running around the clock.

“Vegetable crops, they’re considered a high-moisture crop, so it’s very crucial to keep proper soil moisture levels,” Lubinski said. “When you have weeks like last week where there was a lot of heat and you get put on electrical (peak) control, where you can’t run your system if it’s run by electric, then you’re going hours without water for your crop.”

‘Both harmful and dangerous’: The 3 times Wisconsin legislators equated COVID and gun rules to the Holocaust

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Simone Schweber, Goodman professor of Education and Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said such comparisons are not rare — likely because there are few events that trigger such universal agreement.

“The Holocaust is still, and deservedly so, a very powerful moral paradigm, and it may be one of the few large-scale events that we all agree, on the political spectrum, that it’s awful,” Schweber said.

Ron Johnson called Joe Biden ‘a liberal, progressive, socialist, Marxist.’ Can someone be all those things?

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Richard Avramenko, a UW-Madison political scientist and director for the Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy, said Johnson would have been more accurate to describe Biden as a “left liberal.”

“Liberals, socialists and Marxists are, by definition, progressives,” Avramenko said in an email. “But Biden is not a ‘classical liberal’ (i.e., libertarian) — he’s a ‘left liberal.’ “

Avramenko added, “If he said, ‘Don’t ask me to get inside the mind of a liberal, progressive, socialist, Marxist — whatever you want to label him — like President Biden’ it would have been less questionable.”

Homeownership Gap For People Of Color In Wisconsin Is Wide; Communities, Nonprofits Try To Close It

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Kurt Paulsen, a University of Wisconsin-Madison expert on housing affordability, said little headway has been made in increasing Black homeownership, which stands at 44 percent nationally compared to 74 percent for whites.

“Nationwide, the Black homeownership rate is still not where it needs to be, and in some ways, has not significantly improved since the 1968 Fair Housing Act,” Paulsen said.

Kacie Lucchini Butcher is a public history project director at UW-Madison who researches housing inequity. Butcher emphasized the alarming implications of low Black homeownership rates, including the ability of such families to build intergenerational wealth.

“If homeownership continues in the way that it does, and if access to housing continues in the way it does, we are just going to see a continued exacerbation of wealth inequality and of poverty. One of the best ways to fix this is to get everybody housing.”

UW-Madison professor Kris Olds, an expert on urban planning and gentrification, said housing affordability remains a huge problem across Wisconsin, especially in Madison.

“One of the problems in Madison is so much of it (housing) is allocated to single family zoning districts, and it’s quite expensive to access that,” he said.

Paige Glotzer, assistant professor of history at UW-Madison and author of a book on the history of housing discrimination, said bias still permeates the housing market in sometimes inconspicuous ways.

‘Everybody pray for rain’: Southeastern Wisconsin crops and gardens could be damaged if drought and dryness continue

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Joe Lauer, an agronomist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, acknowledged that farmers are anxious about the dry weather, but said that he’s not concerned … yet.

“One of the characteristics of a record-breaking year (for corn) is a mini-drought during the months of May and June,” he said. Lauer explained that a dry spring allows farmers to plant without fighting wet fields.

If you are worried about your garden or lawn, horticulture educator Vijai Pandian from the UW-Madison Extension has some tips to mitigate drought stress on landscape and garden plants.

Dr. Eva Vivian honored with WIHA’s Healthy Aging Star Award

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Madison 365

Dr. Eva Vivian’s passion for health equity continues to change lives in her community and for that, the Wisconsin Institute for Healthy Aging (WIHA) recognized her work with the 2021 Healthy Aging STAR Award for Health Equity at a recent virtual ceremony.

The award – one of five presented in conjunction with the 2021 Healthy Aging Summit on June 4 – recognizes and honors individuals that improve health, wellness and access to care in communities throughout Wisconsin.

Dr. Vivian is a professor in the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy and president of African American Health Network (AAHN), where she pushes for equity in underserved communities, with a specific emphasis on diabetes.

As Drought Conditions Continue, Southern Wisconsin Farmers Face Uncertain Financial Future

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WORT FM

Southern Wisconsin is pushing through an unseasonably dry summer. While the arid, hot days may be uncomfortable for those of us in Madison, it could spell financial trouble for the region’s farmers.

For more, our producer Jonah Chester spoke with Christopher Kucharick, professor of Agronomy at UW-Madison.

Who’s Afraid Of Critical Race Theory?

Posted on
WORT FM

Noted: Today, guest host Karma Chávez spends the hour with Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, a longtime educator and early proponent of critical race theory in the classroom. They talk about what CRT is and isn’t—and why the GOP’s strategy may backfire and ultimately encourage a new generation of students to bring critical inquiry to their study of history.

Gloria Ladson-Billings is the former Kellner Family Distinguished Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and faculty affiliate emeritus in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is the author of The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children (Jossey-Bass, 1994), Crossing Over to Canaan: The Journey of New Teachers in Diverse Classrooms (Jossey-Bass, 2001), and many journal articles and book chapters, including “Just what is critical race theory and what’s it doing in a nice field like education?” (1998).

The Peculiar Divergence In COVID Vaccinations Around Milwaukee’s Republican Hinterland

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PBS Wisconsin

Quoted: That the decision to get a COVID-19 vaccine often includes a political dimension is a predictable result of the policy response to the pandemic as it unfolded over an exceptionally tumultuous period in American politics, according to Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“It’s not surprising that people’s attitudes toward vaccination can line sometimes with political beliefs because the disease has been discussed in those arenas,” Sethi said.

National polling conducted over spring 2021 has shown eagerness for the vaccines among Democratic voters, while Republican voters have indicated tepid enthusiasm, with a distinct difference between men and women. But simple partisanship doesn’t tell a complete story about who is open to getting vaccinated.

“It’s even more pointedly about the Biden-Trump difference,” said Barry Burden, a professor of political science at UW-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center.

Burden noted that voters’ preference in the 2020 presidential election “is far more predictive [of their vaccination views] than a person’s race, or age, or income, or just about any other thing that might be asked in a survey.”

A Wisconsin School District Initiative Aimed At Addressing Inclusivity Sparks Uproar From Parents

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WPR

Quoted: It’s a conceptual theory to help explain how inequality gets reproduced and maintained in our society, not an approach to demonize one racial group. It is usually taught at the graduate level, said University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Kevin Lawrence Henry.

“Critical race theory becomes a catch-all for anything that’s about equity and addressing diversity and racial disparities and inequality,” he said. “It becomes a kind of boogeyman or straw man about how we are indoctrinating children in schools, but in fact, critical race theory is not taught in the K-12 arena.”

Wages, child care and more: Why the labor market isn’t growing

Posted on
Wisconsin Examiner

Quoted: “These jobs aren’t the same jobs they were a year ago, and our lives aren’t the same lives that they were a year ago,” says Laura Dresser, associate director of COWS at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The research and policy center examines economic issues as they affect workers and employment.

Workers in the hospitality industry, already at the lower end of the wage scale, were especially hard hit.

“Those jobs make for very hard lives,” Dresser says. As the coronavirus spread, “either your venue shuts down and your work goes away, or if your work doesn’t go away, you’re exposed through your work.”

Oneida Co. judge threatens to jail a woman for not spending her stimulus check on rent

Posted on
Wisconsin Examiner

Quoted: “This, to me, has an awful underpinning that seems like this is happening because the person is being treated differently because they’re low income,” Mitch, a professor at the UW-Madison School of Law who teaches tenant law, says. “It’s not just an issue that’s the result of poverty, poverty is causing these issues.”

A Wet Decade Shifts To Drought In Southern Wisconsin

Posted on
PBS Wisconsin

Quoted: Dry conditions have been holding pretty steady for the past month or so, said Christopher Kucharik, a climate researcher and professor of agronomy and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The longer they continue, though, the more intense drought becomes, with southeast Wisconsin moving from a moderate to severe level as June started and hot weather descended.

Enwejig Works To Preserve Wisconsin’s Indigenous Languages

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WORT FM

For hundreds of years, Wisconsin’s indigenous languages faced suppression and extermination. Concerted efforts to wipe out native tongues played out in a variety of arenas — from schools to government policies.

Enwejig hopes to address some of those past injustices. The group, which formed last year on the UW-Madison campus, works to bring visibility and recognition to Wisconsin’s native languages.

For more on the group’s mission, our producer Jonah Chester spoke with Brian McInnes, an associate professor of civil society and community studies/American Indian studies at UW-Madison.

Wisconsin Experiment Grows Cotton In Space To Help Crops On Earth

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WUWM

For the first time, cotton seeds will germinate and grow in space over the next few days, under the supervision down here of UW-Madison botany professor Simon Gilroy.

Gilroy says he wants to clarify this is not to supply fabric for those in orbit. “Yeah, our classic joke when talking about the experiment is the astronauts are going to make their own suits. It’s not what’s its for,” Gilroy tells WUWM.

University of Wisconsin professor sends cotton experiment to space

Posted on
Spectrum News

A professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is taking his experiments to new heights at the International Space Station (ISS).

Dr. Simon Gilroy is a botany professor at the university. An experiment he and colleagues have been working on for the past three years is now making its way to the ISS after being launched Thursday.

The Geometry Of The World Around Us

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Math may seem as though it only exists in an abstract part of our lives, but a new book shines a light on the geometry of everything around us. University of Wisconsin-Madison math professor Jordan Ellenberg joins us to talk about his latest book Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else.

A Love Letter to the Up North State of Mind

Posted on
Milwaukee Magazine

Quoted: In a 2014 Wisconsin State Journal story seeking to define Up North, Eric Raimy, a UW-Madison professor who has studied the quirks and forms of the English language in Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest, said it’s not clear when the term was first used, but it has grown to become exceptionally well understood today. “North itself is a geographical term,” Raimy told the State Journal. “But the fact that the term is Up North, that changes it from a purely geographical term to more of a social-cultural term. It can bond us.”

Get some dirt under your nails

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Hoard's Dairyman

Perhaps you are a person who works full time at another job but dreams of owning a small farm someday. Or maybe you already operate a farm but want to add another enterprise or start a side business. Whatever your aspirations may be, some of the first steps in making this goal a reality is to create a plan and secure funding.

That was the topic discussed in a University of Wisconsin Division of Extension webinar, titled “Your farm startup: where to begin and who can help?” One of the speakers was Andy Larson, the Farm Outreach Specialist for the Food Finance Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. With personal experience as a banker, extension educator, and farmer, one of his first pieces of advice was to “get some dirt under your fingernails.”

“Try it first,” Larson said. “Only real-life, on the ground experience can tell you whether your passion stands up to the daily grind.”

Gresham School District Hits Milestone, Raises $1M For Students’ Scholarship Fund

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Supporters of the endowment are hopeful the funding will help students graduate college with a little less debt. Wisconsin falls in the middle when it comes to tuition costs for 4-year and technical colleges, said Nicholas Hillman, an associate professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education who directs the Student Success through Applied Research Lab.