The number of Wisconsinites many months behind on student loan bills has risen by nearly 50% since last fall.
That’s according to federal data analyzed by the Associated Press, which found that more than 108,000 people in Wisconsin haven’t made payments on their loans in more than 360 days.
The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission is warning voters that they shouldn’t buy into prediction markets like Kalshi or Polymarket on the results of a Wisconsin election and then vote in that same race.
That’s because voters could be violating a decades-old Wisconsin statute that carries felony-level consequences – though it doesn’t appear the state has recently enforced it or proactively plans to hunt down lawbreakers.
Federal research funding cuts are having “unacceptable” impacts on scientific progress, according to the vice chancellor for research at UW-Madison.
Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska spoke yesterday on a panel in Milwaukee organized by the Wisconsin Technology Council, focused on how shifting federal priorities are impacting innovation in the state.
As business leaders grapple with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and integrate the technology into their workplaces, leaders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are finding innovative ways to serve their needs.
Faced with technical, ethical, and business questions, Wisconsin’s flagship university is meeting the rapidly evolving technology with a multidisciplinary approach and changing to meet the demands of employers and society.
If pundits are questioning Jordan Love’s ranking among the top quarterbacks, it’s reasonable to assume that question also has application to the Green Bay Packers.
If the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team is to take a leap next season, perhaps the biggest factor is its own players taking a leap of their own.
Transfers Trey Autry, Eian Elmer and Victory Onuetu bring experienced play at key spots after the Badgers lost eight players from last season’s roster. But the best play of Tuesday’s final opportunity for media to view Wisconsin practice over the summer came from a pair of sophomores.
Proposed changes to how the federal government awards research grants are raising concerns among scientists across the country, including researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who say the changes could affect how medical discoveries are funded for years to come.
The Office of Management and Budget is proposing revisions to the federal rules that govern research grants, a move that has prompted more than 400,000 public comments from researchers, universities, patients and advocacy groups.
The road to reshoring Wisconsin’s casting and forging workforce started at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this month in a workshop where temperatures rose higher than the nearly hundred-degree heat wave outside.
The upcoming Wisconsin midterms could shift the balance of power in the state Legislature, and the August primaries will determine which candidates voters want to see on the November general election ballot.
Democrats are aiming to flip both the Assembly and Senate in hopes of securing a trifecta in the state government. The party must flip two of the four competitive Senate seats to win a majority. The Assembly is a larger challenge as Democrats must flip five seats to claim a majority for the first time in 16 years.
What should have been one of the busiest weekends of the summer for downtown Madison businesses turned into a major disappointment as Canadian wildfire smoke created hazardous air quality conditions throughout the region.
The smoke essentially formed a black cloud over Maxwell Street Days, significantly impacting vendors and their bottom lines. Business owners reported drastic declines in foot traffic and sales during what is typically a peak revenue weekend for small businesses in the area.
Traveling to Green Bay and watching a football game at historic Lambeau Field is a must-do for many people.
Count Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman among them.
“Bucket list,” Freeman said. “Never been there. Everybody keeps saying that it’s a college football atmosphere in an NFL stadium.
Two University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering teams swept the top two spots at a national collegiate metal casting competition in May. The competition premiered as a series on Youtube on July 9. Season one of the series focuses on the 2025 competition.
Now that UW-Madison police have cut ties with Flock Safety, privacy advocates and others on campus say the community needs to be more involved in deciding which automated license plate readers, if any, the department uses in the future.
When eight of the company’s cameras first appeared on campus in July 2025, many people were taken by surprise, said Annette Zimmermann, a UW-Madison data science professor.
Just last week, Mimi Colyer, former University of Wisconsin volleyball standout, announced she is coming home and joining LOVB Madison.
Colyer spent only one season at Wisconsin, but it was a memorable one. In her senior year, she helped lead the Badgers to the Final Four before the program fell short in a semifinal loss in Kansas City in December.
Marsha Martin, a special education assistant at Sherman Middle School, always wanted to be a teacher, having grown up watching her mother teach.
But major life events distanced her from fulfilling her dream.
Astronomers have found a pair of the lightest giant planets known in the universe in a star system about 1,100 light-years away, according to a new study.
The discovery of these two gas giants, which are less dense than cotton candy, will help astrophysicists better understand the most extreme and unusual ways planets can form.
A man accused of poisoning a UW lab worker earlier this year is heading to trial, online records show.
Makoto Kuroda, 41, is charged with second-degree recklessly endangering safety and tampering with household products. The charges stem from an April 5 incident in which Kuroda allegedly contaminated his coworker’s belongings with toxic chemicals.
For Leah Nordin, the transition from Shawano High School to the University of Wisconsin has meant a new campus, new teammates and a new level of basketball.
The Shawano native arrived in Madison on June 7 as part of Wisconsin’s incoming freshman class and has spent the last month getting acclimated to college life while preparing for her first season with the Badgers.
Now that UW-Madison police have cut ties with Flock Safety, privacy advocates and others on campus say the community needs to be more involved in deciding which automated license plate readers, if any, the department uses in the future.
When eight of the company’s cameras first appeared on campus in July 2025, many people were taken by surprise, said Annette Zimmermann, a UW-Madison data science professor.
Starship Technologies has withdrawn its tiny, white food delivery robots from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s campus alongside other universities in the United States, the company announced early June.
The robot delivery company, based in Estonia and San Francisco, said they reduced their campus operations to focus on retail grocery chains and hot food delivery in cities across Europe and the United States.
UW-Madison researchers are “paving the way for scalable and practical” quantum computing by using advanced sensors to improve the technology.
That’s according to the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which is touting the approach as a top licensing prospect in its portfolio of engineering and computer science research from the university.
UW-Madison researchers are calling the Trump administration’s plan to rewrite the rules for awarding and managing federal grants “catastrophic” and “a dagger to the heart of science.”
Those are among a flood of nearly 500,000 public comments from researchers and higher education groups over the last few months, overwhelmingly opposing the Office of Management and Budget’s proposal released in late May.
It turns out Shawn Eichorst isn’t the only athletic director in town with good intentions and a plan to put student-athletes in the best possible position to succeed.
This past week, Eichorst officially took over the University of Wisconsin athletic program, a 23-sport Big Ten enterprise that casts a long shadow over the community.
Shawn Eichorst and Luke Fickell are still getting to know each other, but a couple of things stand out to Wisconsin’s football coach about the new athletic director.
“Since the time he’s walked in, since the time I talked to him on the phone, since the time I met with him, there’s a sincerity, there’s a authenticity that I would say is really easy to figure out,” Fickell said July 16.
An iconic rock ‘n’ roll band is coming to Wisconsin this weekend during the final leg of its stadium tour.
AC/DC is playing at Madison’s Camp Randall Stadium Sunday, July 19 as part of its PWR UP Tour.
The stadium tour is named after the 2020 AC/DC album of the same name and has been going on since 2024. The rock band’s website describes the tour as “powering up for the last time!” though it’s unclear if it’ll actually be AC/DC’s final tour.
Shawn Eichorst wasn’t far during the origin of University of Wisconsin men’s basketball coach Greg Gard’s coaching journey. The new Badgers athletic director graduated from UW-Whitewater in 1990 — three years before Gard joined Bo Ryan’s staff at UW-Platteville while still a student in 1993. In some respects, they just missed each other: Eichorst’s first major athletic administration role as the Director of Athletics at UW-Whitewater in 1999 was Gard’s first year with Ryan at Milwaukee.
UW-Madison’s June water main break that continues to disrupt campus air conditioning has prompted broader concerns from the UW Board of Regents about the aging infrastructure at the state’s 13 public universities.
Several Regents at a virtual meeting Thursday said the Universities of Wisconsin needs to plan for fixing other potentially failing campus infrastructure.
Dane County has seen more frequent air quality warnings over the past decade, but the area had yet to experience hazardous levels. That was until Thursday.
As more than 100 wildfires burn in Canada and northern Minnesota, southeast winds carried smoke across the Midwest this week. Shortly before noon on Thursday, a monitor in Madison recorded an air quality index of 450.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison plans to repair recent air conditioning problems at campus buildings before students return later this summer, an administrator said Thursday.
The company, a UW-Madison spinoff courted by several other states, will occupy part of the massive former Oscar Mayer plant on Madison’s northeast side – itself a symbol of the old and the emerging new. Private investors, the governor, state legislators, the state’s economic development arm, local officials, university leaders, utility experts and technology advocacy groups were all part of advancing the deal.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced today that international students will now only be allowed to stay in the United States for four years under their visa.
The new ruling will officially be published in the Federal Register tomorrow, July 17. The ruling guts a 1978 policy, known as ‘duration of status,’ that allowed international college and university students to stay in the U.S. until their program ended.
The smoke blanketing Wisconsin Thursday wasn’t subtle. You could see it, smell it and sometimes feel it while breathing. It was the product of wildfires burning in northern Minnesota and Ontario. Dr. Mayra Oyola, an atmospheric scientist at UW-Madison, said dry and windy conditions are fueling those fires. Typically, rain is helpful to fight fires, but Oyola said storms can pose a new challenge: lightning. Lightning strikes can ignite more fires.
“I feel bad saying this because it’s summer and everybody wants to eat fresh produce, but there isn’t really a safe way to wash it,” said Laura Knoll, a professor of medical microbiology at UW-Madison.
While the current outbreak has not been linked to produce sold by local farmers in Wisconsin, it’s still top of mind for farmers in the state.
Wildfire smoke moving into Wisconsin is bringing a surge of tiny particles that can travel deep into the lungs and cause irritation and inflammation, according to a UW Health allergist.
Dr. Mark Moss said the particles are a concern for anyone spending time outdoors, but pose a greater risk to certain populations.
Smoke from wildfires in Canada and northern Minnesota moved into southern Wisconsin on Thursday, bringing advisories through noon Friday that may be extended for some parts of the state.
Dane and other counties in south-central Wisconsin are under an “unhealthy for all groups” advisory, counties to the east are under a “very unhealthy for all groups” advisory, and counties to the west are under “unhealthy for sensitive groups” and “moderate air quality” advisories.
Summer is the most cherished time of year for Wisconsin residents. After a harsh winter, there’s nothing better than spending your days outside.
However, every good Wisconsinite knows a day spent out in a forest or at a lake is not complete without a tick check.
Every kid knows to look for ticks because they can cause Lyme disease, but a different tick species popping up in Wisconsin is a new reminder to check.
Aerica Bjurstrom, a regional dairy educator with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, said interest in the product is good news for the state’s dairy farmers.
“I think a lot of this innovation is coming from people in their own kitchens,” she said. “I think a lot of this boom in cottage cheese is coming from social media.”
Madison-based Realta Fusion plans to build a nuclear fusion research facility at the former Oscar Mayer plant in a move that company executives and government leaders say could boost the local economy and make the state capital a hub for green energy development.
People become infected with cyclospora by consuming contaminated fresh produce or untreated water. Cases pick up in warmer months, because more people are eating fresh fruits and vegetables, said Dr. Jim Conway, a UW Health Kids pediatric infectious disease doctor.
The company, which got its start at UW-Madison and is currently based in a shared office building on the Far West Side, had 35 full-time employees at the end of last year and expects to grow to 70 by the end of this year, CEO Kieran Furlong said.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison found July 7 that registered student organization Animal Advocacy violated university posting policies but cleared the organization of allegations that it solicited students to participate in the April Ridglan Farms rescue attempt, according to an investigative report obtained by The Badger Herald.
Weather forecasters expect this to be one of the warmest growing seasons on record for much of the Midwest.
The early July heat wave prompted crop growth while heavy rains fell across parts of Wisconsin. USDA data showed corn condition at 82% good to excellent, while soybean condition remained unchanged at 78% good to excellent, with 20% of the crop blooming.
A broken pipe about four feet in diameter and buried 20 feet underground is affecting air conditioning at nearly every UW-Madison facility.
Dan Vimont has a depressing prediction for anyone concerned about climate change.
“We will almost definitely shatter the global temperature record in 2027,” said Vimont, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
As another stretch of hot weather settles into southern Wisconsin, UW-Madison is continuing to work to restore cooling across campus after a major chilled water line broke last month.
The university says campus remains open and operating, but many buildings are still warmer than normal. Some buildings remain temporarily closed while crews continue both temporary cooling efforts and work toward a permanent repair.
Bricks that held an emotional connection with some University of Wisconsin fans are out of storage and going back into the ground around Camp Randall Stadium.
A new walkway at Gate 1 leading into Kellner Hall at the stadium’s southeast corner is the site the University of Wisconsin athletic department chose for the relocated brick walk.
When Andrea Gilmore-Bykovskyi, an associate professor in emergency medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, saw that the N.I.A. was interested in video research on lucid episodes, she knew one way to approach the problem. Her past work had involved filming people with dementia during interactions with nursing staff and then meticulously analyzing the videos, second by second, to assess which types of care affected patients’ behavioral symptoms. She proposed retooling those video methods to study lucidity.
University of Wisconsin athletic director Shawn Eichorst is starting with a slightly more lucrative contract than his predecessor, and it includes pay increases and potential incentives that could make it even more lucrative.
Eichorst’s five-year contract has an initial base salary of $1.6 million for 2026-27, and that is set to increase by $50,000 in each year, according to his contract obtained by the Journal Sentinel via an open records request.
Early findings indicate Sen. Lindsey Graham died from an aortic dissection— a condition that UW Health researchers in Madison are actively studying.
An aortic dissection occurs when a layer of the body’s main artery separates, disrupting blood flow to vital organs.
Dr. Paul DiMusto, a UW Health vascular surgeon and co-director of the UW Health Aortic Center, said many patients have no symptoms until the event occurs, and it is often life-threatening.
The size of an adult male giraffe. The height of a small two-story house. The length of a standard shipping container.
That’s how deep crews are digging to fix the broken pipe 20 feet underground that has left UW-Madison without most of its air conditioning and temporarily shuttered nearly three dozen buildings to preserve cooling.
It’s expected to take weeks to repair the chilled water line that broke on June 17, Robert Cramer, vice chancellor for finance and administration, wrote in a message to campus Monday.
Question: Does NOAA conduct fire weather forecasting?
Answer: Wildfire outbreaks require the alignment of several factors, including temperature, humidity, winds and the lack of moisture in fuels such as trees, shrubs and grasses. These factors have strong direct or indirect ties to current weather, climate variability and climate change. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration supports weather forecasting throughout a wildfire’s lifecycle: before, during and after the wildfire.
Drought conditions can set the stage for wildfires.
The foundation for much of what UW-Madison and the Universities of Wisconsin have become today was laid by Charles Van Hise.
President of UW-Madison from 1903 until his death in 1918, Van Hise is credited with creating the “Wisconsin Idea,” the concept that the state’s public university system should benefit every person in the state.
As college athletics enters a new era, programs across the country have spent years learning through trial and error how to succeed in a rapidly changing landscape.
Some institutions have found success. Others are still searching for the right approach. At Wisconsin, that challenge now falls to Shawn Eichorst, a Wisconsin native with deep ties to the state and the University of Wisconsin.
The Energy Department has underestimated the potential deadly consequences should plutonium escape the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which produces bomb cores for America’s nuclear weapons, a study published today by independent scientists found.
UW Madison’s Trout Lake Station is a lake ecology research station on the South side of Trout Lake in Vilas county. Every summer they open their doors to the public and invite them to explore the science happening right in their own backyard.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) wildlife ecologist quickly swung into action. He placed a small speaker on the hood of the truck and set it to play the same “Who cooks for you?” call on repeat, an irresistible provocation for the aggressively territorial owl species. Then, he pulled his 12-gauge Beretta shotgun from the truck’s cab and snapped a single birdshot-packed cartridge into place.
Lily leaf beetle, also called scarlet lily beetle, is an invasive species that is native to parts of Europe and Asia. It first showed up in Wisconsin in 2014 in the Wausau area. It likely came in with infected nursery stock to a garden center or big box store in that part of the state and was then purchased by customers who moved the plants elsewhere, said entomologist PJ Liesch, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab.
The explosive popularity of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound is transforming the way Americans treat obesity, with demand soaring beyond doctors’ offices and into online marketplaces, med spas and unregulated gray-market vendors. And while the medications are helping many people lose significant weight and improve their health, one Madison doctor warns the trend is outpacing the science.
Every Phish show generates its own mythology. In Madison that mythology dates back to 1998, when the band’s last appearance at the Kohl Center was nearly upstaged by an onstage streaker.
This week, some 28 years later, the Vermont-based jam band icons returned to Madison and the Kohl Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to open their summer tour. They delivered another performance fans are likely to be talking about for years — an expansive, 18-song marathon spanning two sets and an encore over more than three hours.
Wisconsin athletic director Shawn Eichorst hasn’t set specific expectations for the Badgers football program this season yet but admitted coach Luke Fickell checks a couple of boxes.
