From 2005 to 2023, Madison stands out as a top performer in the Upper Midwest in addressing the housing shortage, according to a new analysis. Yet, Texas has 15 cities out-pacing the nation in housing stock growth. Kurt Paulsen, a UW-Madison urban planner, examines the report and offers takeaways.
Category: Business/Technology
Kohl’s appoints third CEO in 3 years as sales continue to decline for Wisconsin chain
Nancy Wong is a professor of consumer science at the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She said department stores are grappling with multiple types of challenges at the same time, including demographic changes and economic pressures affecting America’s middle class.
“Given the economic turbulence and challenges that we’ve been facing in this country, the segments that are most financially squeezed are the middle class — the core segments of the customers that most department store chains used to enjoy,” Wong said.
How do Trump’s executive orders affect climate and clean energy funding in Wisconsin?
Greg Nemet, energy expert and public affairs professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the president doesn’t decide what to do about spending that Congress has authorized.
“This could end up just being more of a power struggle between Congress and the president,” Nemet said. “But in the meantime, it does reduce some confidence in the funding and the expectations that would go to our state.”
The perfect storm: why did LA’s wildfires explode out of control?
Since 1990, more than 1.4m new housing units in California have been built in wildlife-urban interface areas, which have a higher fire risk, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. As of 2020, they found, there were more than 5m housing units in these areas across the state. In Los Angeles, a real estate data company identified nearly 250,000 homes “with a moderate or greater wildfire risk”, according to a 2024 report.
Rocks, crops and climate
For enhanced rock weather (ERW) to have a large impact by 2050, it will need to expand quickly, says Gregory Nemet, an energy scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Last May he and his colleagues published a study analyzing the combined potential of novel CO2 removal methods such as ERW, direct air-capture machines and the use of biofuels with CO2 captured from smokestacks. Between now and 2050 these methods need to grow “by something like 40 percent per year, every year,” Nemet says.
Madison bakery ahead of the curve as FDA bans Red No. 3 food dye
Audrey Girard is a food scientist and assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Girard explained why the effort has taken a long time. “We have other natural additives, but a lot of times they’re more expensive and not as stable,” Girard said.
Girard explained that a scientific study on rats — completed more than 40 years ago in the 1980s — first raised health concerns about the dye. “At high ingestion levels, rats can have adverse effects, like growing tumors,” Girard said.“At high ingestion levels, rats can have adverse effects, like growing tumors,” Girard said.
How layoffs at local TV news stations affect Wisconsin communities
Mike Wagner, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told “Wisconsin Today” that these types of reductions are becoming more common in local television across the state and country.
“We’re seeing local television stations experience less investment from their owners,” Wagner said. “Reporters are tasked with doing more stories for more newscasts, plus do stuff for the web, plus do stuff for social media, all in the job of also trying to chase down the verifiable truth about important matters for their audience.”
How California’s wildfires could lead to higher insurance costs for the rest of the country
Expect more increases ahead. “If you are thinking about housing expenses, you probably shouldn’t rely on historical data on premiums and don’t assume that this is a high point that will be a flash in the pan,” says one of the paper’s authors, Philip Mulder, a University of Wisconsin professor of risk and insurance.
Why are egg prices rising in Wisconsin? Here’s what’s behind the egg shortage
Of course, $3.65 is just an average. Egg prices are similar across most U.S. states but can vary slightly, said University of Wisconsin-Extension poultry specialist Ron Kean.
“I would say the Midwest tends to be a little bit cheaper, but, by and large, prices are pretty similar, because we can ship eggs pretty easily,” Kean said. “So, if they’re a lot cheaper in one place, people will probably ship (those) eggs to the more expensive areas.”
After three collapsed mergers, Sanford CEO shares why fourth time’s a charm
Multiple health systems have abandoned merger and acquisition plans in recent years following FTC interference—but only about 1 percent of hospital mergers are flagged by the government agency, according to an April 2024 study from the University of Chicago, Harvard University, Yale University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That study—and others—associated health system mergers with rising costs amidst dampened competition.
Bloomberg Law: Obamacare at SCOTUS & soccer monopoly
Antitrust expert Peter Carstensen, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, discusses the soccer monopoly trial starting up in Brooklyn.
Public charging tax now in effect for electric vehicle owners in Wisconsin
Others like Chris McCahill, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and managing director of the State Smart Transportation Initiative, point out one negative to the tax — is electric vehicle owners already pay more than those with gas powered vehicles when registering their vehicle each year.
“So now with this new surcharge, the folks will be paying the state twice to try and compensate for those lost gas tax revenues,” said McCahill.
How many undocumented people live and work in Wisconsin?
A 2023 UW-Madison School for Workers survey found that over 10,000 undocumented workers perform around 70% of the labor on Wisconsin’s dairy farms. “Without them, the whole dairy industry would collapse overnight,” the researchers concluded.
Online privacy protection tips, and hearing aid enhancements
Hearing aid technology has advanced significantly. Many of these devices are now AI-enabled, track other aspects of your health and can be purchased over the counter. We talk to UW-Madison audiologist Rachel Lee about the latest in hearing aids.
Tom Still: Getting more business ‘starts’ for Wisconsin requires action on several fronts
As the 2024 “Empowering the Wisconsin Idea” report noted, UW-Madison is sixth in the nation in research and development spending but not as vibrant in fostering startups. Other universities with R&D budgets comparable to Madison are the University of Michigan, Ohio State University, the University of Minnesota and the University of Washington. All four generate far more startups
In fact, all but three of 14 universities examined by the report were tied to more startups — including some with a fraction of the UW-Madison’s research budget.
‘Middle class’ feels more confusing than ever. Here’s how you can avoid being caught in the middle
“(Middle class) is often equated with this idea that you’re financially comfortable,” says Megan Doherty Bea, an assistant professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Increasingly, more and more families do not feel financially comfortable.”
Three-fourths of homeowners may not have enough insurance to fully cover losses after a disaster, study says
Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Wisconsin-Madison looked at insurance contracts, focusing on nearly 5,000 policyholders who filed claims after the fire.
They found that 74% were underinsured, meaning they weren’t fully covered for total losses. And of that share, 36% of them were severely underinsured, meaning they were covered for less than 75% of their home’s replacement cost.
UW alum, Snow Scholars founder wins $150,000 ‘Shark Tank’ investment
Founded on UW campus, snow-shoveling business to service 26 college towns by next year.
First human death from avian flu sparks calls for stricter hygiene, more testing
Tom Friedrich, professor of virology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine, said more details are needed to understand what led to the patient’s death. But he pointed out that other countries have already seen deaths caused by similar H5N1 viruses, especially in people who are sick enough to be hospitalized.
“There’s over 50 percent case fatality when people have these severe infections,” Friedrich said. “So it’s not unheard of in other parts of the world, even though this is the first time it’s happened in the United States.”
Some Texas business leaders are apprehensive about Trump’s pledged deportations
A recent paper from researchers at the University of Utah and the University of Wisconsin-Madison explored the aftermath of the deportation of more than 300,000 undocumented immigrants nationwide from 2008 to 2013. In the places where deportations happened, the study found, homebuilding contracted because the local construction workforce shrank and home prices rose. The researchers discovered that other construction workers lost work too because homebuilders cut back on new developments.
Student loan debt: How to pay off loans faster
Dr. Nick Hillman, school of education professor and director of the Student Success Through Applied Research Lab (SSTAR) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek: “Leaving college with debt but no degree is one of the biggest factors that makes it hard to repay loans. Say a student borrows $10,000 for college but then has to leave before earning a credential. They don’t have the degree to show for it, but they have the debt. This can make it really hard to get established in the labor market and, as a result, to stay on top of monthly loan payments.”
Fewer men in rural Wisconsin participating in the workforce, citing lack of respect on the job
A lead researcher on the study, Sarah Halpern-Meekin, who’s a professor in the School of Human Ecology and director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said at the end of the day, people want to feel like the work they’re doing is meaningful.
Why you shouldn’t ‘heat up’ your car’s engine in cold weather
In 2016, Business Insider spoke with former drag racer Stephen Ciatti to get to the bottom of this widespread myth. Ciatti has a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has worked on combustion engines for nearly 30 years, so he knows a thing or two about how to best treat your car. According to Ciatti, idling your machine in the cold only leads to a shorter lifespan for your engine.
How Madison’s economy could change in 2025
The nearly 150,000-square-foot Element Labs opened at University Research Park in March 2024, with space for up to 20 bioscience companies. A similar-size project, called Velocity Station, is slated to replace the former Clock Tower office park at 6411 Odana Road, but no timeline has been announced.
UW-Madison researchers use AI to identify ‘sex specific’ risk factors in brain tumors
Pallavi Tiwari, a radiology and biomedical engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has spent the last 18 years developing artificial intelligence models to help study cancer.
Much of that work includes using machine learning to find ways to help predict cancer diagnosis, outcomes and drug responses, she said.
Social media trend encourages young people to buy less and reconsider their consumption
“This idea of advertising is not new, but I think what is new is the amount of time and the wide variety of exposure that our young people have to this influencer culture,” said Melissa Bublitz, a consumer researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The economists’ word of the year
“Almost all aggregate economic indicators indicated strong macroeconomic economic fundamentals for 2024, and yet there was substantial discontent. Even disaggregate measures for slices of the income distribution suggested pretty good conditions (wages exceeding inflation).” — Menzie Chinn, professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Doomed to be a tradwife
Allison Daminger, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin who studies the division of household labor, told me Fair Play is the program she tends to refer people to when they tell her they’re struggling with chore management. But people who seek it out, she said, often struggle with “overload, maybe some conflict in the relationship.” These are the very things that become hurdles to doing Fair Play.
Climate change is warming our winters. How are Wisconsin ski hill operators adapting?
Wisconsin ski hill owners are feeling the effects of warming winters due to climate change, but many are already adapting to keep business up, University of Wisconsin researchers have found.
Coal demand is up. Thank data centers and industrialization.
In China especially, coal is sticking around largely because demand for electricity is growing so fast, said Greg Nemet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
“And it’s been driven by very rapid uptake of electric vehicles in China, in addition, rapid uptake of using electricity for industrial heat in China and also for data centers,” he said.
What bird flu means for milk
There are a handful of variables and factors that shape the financial losses of a dairy hit with an outbreak. Luckily, agriculture economist Charles Nicholson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and some colleagues created a calculator to estimate this financial impact of a bird flu outbreak. Based on Nicholson’s estimates for California, a typical farm of 1500 cattle will lose $120,000 annually. For context, this is about $10,000 more than the median household income of a dairy farmer.
Not covered: Insurers add PFAS exclusions to commercial liability policies
Steph Tai, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, said many insurers wanted to avoid paying for cleanup costs. Despite broad language, some insurance companies were ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars. Tai said that’s prompted more express exclusions, such as those for PFAS.
“I think it’s partly because a lot of insurance companies have realized how much they’ve been spending on defending companies in this litigation,” Tai said. “They just want out.”
We interviewed men who left the workforce. Their reasons don’t fit narrative.
Written by Sarah Halpern-Meekin, director of UW-Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty and a professor of public affairs with the La Follette School of Public Affairs and the Vaughn Bascom Professor of Women, Family, and Community in the School of Human Ecology.
Sandhill crane committee supports hunting, and solar farms can accommodate crops
Can large solar farms and cultivated crops coexist? Our guests says “yes.” Agrivoltaics is the convergence of agriculture and solar farms, which is the area of study of UW-Madison hydrologist and professor Steven Loheide and professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences Ankur Desai.
TikTok influencers are driving raw milk sales – Here’s why it’s still a bad idea
What these idealists forget is that while people used to live on more natural products, they were also pretty unhealthy. According to John A. Lucey, PhD, a professor of food science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and director of the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research, it’s estimated that in 1938, pre-pasteurisation, milk-borne outbreaks constituted 25% of all disease outbreaks (related to food and water) in the United States. Now, they make up fewer than 1%.
AbbVie Acquires Madison-Based Nimble Therapeutics for $200 Million
Nimble’s roots trace back to 1999, when it was founded as NimbleGen in Madison, through research conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
AT&T to discontinue traditional landline service in Wisconsin by the end of 2029
“I’ve watched the markets grow from just plain phone service to hybrid computers that are in our phones, so-called smartphones through which life is now lived,” said Barry Orton, a retired telecommunications professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Old fashioned copper wire-based phones, which we all used to have in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s are now a thing of the past,” he added
Could AI help prevent diabetes-related sight loss?
“There’s very clear evidence that screening prevents vision loss,” says Roomasa Channa, a retina specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US.
Partisan approach to farm bill delaying updates for Wisconsin farmers
Paul Mitchell, professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said it’s fairly rare to see Congress have to pass a second extension to the farm bill. But he said the lack of cooperation between the parties has made it more difficult to reach the consensus needed to pass the large piece of legislation.
“Just like we walk up to the edge on these continuing resolutions to keep the (federal) budget going, the same thing is happening with the farm bill,” Mitchell said.
UW-Madison expands engineering project to put businesses right on campus
UW-Madison is adding a business partnership floor to its upcoming engineering building, aimed at opening a direct pipeline between students and the kinds of businesses that may one day employee them.
San Diegans can drink their tap water. Many pay more at the vending machine anyway.
“These are folks who can ill afford to spend that kind of money on what is really not a necessary thing,” said Manny Teodoro, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studied the water vending machine industry in a 2022 book, “The Profits of Distrust.” “Money spent on (vended) water is money that’s not spent on healthier food, on perhaps needed medicine and healthcare.”
Ex-ranger writes state parks guidebook, and UW-Extension ‘ag agents’ evolve
After years of reorganization, the Agriculture Institute within the UW-Madison Division of Extension has a growing staff of experts and researchers to help Wisconsin farmers. Institute director Heidi Johnson and Extension specialist Steven Hall join us.
Raw milk has documented health risks, but if Kennedy leads HHS, its backers expect a boost
McAfee’s products have been linked to several outbreaks of E. coli, salmonella and campylobacter, according to the University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research. Even with on-farm testing, raw milk isn’t safe for public consumption, said Alex O’Brien, safety and quality coordinator at the Center, which is on the UW-Madison campus.
“The more people who consume it,” he said, “the higher the probability someone’s going to become ill.”
Why Google’s quantum computing breakthrough is such a big deal
In the field of quantum, error correction is much more difficult and requires more hardware to function properly, which is why Google’s advancement is so important, said Mark Saffman, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director at the Wisconsin Quantum Institute.
Hold up—does cheese have protein? And what kinds pack the most?
“Cheesemaking is a process of concentrating the solids originally present in milk,” Ben Ullerup Mathers, a research cheesemaker at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Dairy Research, tells SELF. “Since protein is one of the main constituents of milk solids, the further you concentrate those solids, the more protein is in the final cheese. Since hard cheeses are the lowest-moisture cheeses, they will also be the higher-protein cheeses.”
Temu’s billionaire founder lost his title as China’s richest person just 20 days after winning it
Huang earned his master’s in computer science from the University of Wisconsin and interned at Microsoft in both Beijing and Seattle before beginning his career at Google in the U.S. in 2004. This was when Google really started taking off.
12 do’s and don’ts for becoming a better gift-giver, according to science
If “they receive what they have asked for, they’re still going to be quite happy because they’re getting something that they want,” said Evan Polman, an associate professor of marketing at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
The research that aims to cheese
On a recent Tuesday at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, sample number 435 lies supine on a lab table where it surrenders to a gauntlet of measurements.
Brandon Prochaska slides a thermometer into the pizza’s abdomen, and the digits tick upward to 205 degrees Fahrenheit. He and a group of other trained professionals jot the number down.
Nobel laureates vs. RFK Jr.? Have those nerds even tasted roadkill bear meat?
On the flip side, John Lucey, a professor of food science and the director of the Center for Dairy Research at University of Wisconsin-Madison, told The Washington Post that drinking raw milk is “a really stupid, bad idea,” adding: “It’s almost like a doctor shouldn’t wash their hands before they go into an operating room.”
App designed to help reduce food waste expands in Wisconsin
The app was created by Eddy Connors and Briana Boehmer while in college in Colorado. However, Boehmer is a University of Wisconsin-Madison grad and said she knew their team wanted to expand into the Badger State.
Empty nesters own some prime real estate. And they don’t seem very interested in leaving it.
“Homeowners are aging in place,” said Mark Eppli, director of the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
That’s partly because most of them have mortgages at under 4%, but is also just a personal preference. “They get comfortable with the church they’re going to, with the drugstore they go to, the grocery store, to the bar, whatever it may be,” Eppli said.
Tom Still: Life sciences ‘family tree’ in Wisconsin has big branch in Third Wave Technologies
Such was the case recently when nearly 150 people gathered in Madison to mark the 30th anniversary of an improbable venture capital investment in Third Wave Technologies, then a new company founded by two UW-Madison professors with the goal of producing diagnostic tests to detect genetic markers for diseases.
Can ‘America’s Dairyland’ become the future hotbed for fusion energy?
Fusion energy’s potential to produce abundant, clean energy to fuel industry and power advancements in artificial intelligence is no longer a matter of if, but when.
Can raw milk make you sick? Officials crack down amid bird flu fears.
Raw milk supporters say it contains more enzymes, probiotics (or the “good bacteria”), proteins and vitamins than pasteurized milk. They also say it helps prevent chronic health issues such as asthma and allergies, as well as ear and respiratory infections and fever, citing studies of European children living on farms. There’s little scientific evidence to support these claims, said John Lucey, director of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Dairy Research and a food science professor.
“The short answer is no, there are no proven benefits,” he told USA TODAY. “You are being conned with these claims,” he said. “This is snake oil.”
Texas could become a major producer of another source of renewable energy
Green hydrogen is forecast to meet global energy needs that will not be easily satisfied by battery, wind or solar power, Gregory Nemet, professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin’s Energy Institute, told ABC News in 2021. Batteries, for example, currently can take up a lot of space and also weigh a lot, making their use an issue for air travel and long-haul trucking. Hydrogen, by contrast, doesn’t include those challenges and also stores better long-term.
Report: Wisconsin farm, food industry grows slightly behind the rest of state’s economy
“The size of the pie is getting bigger,” said Steve Deller, a UW-Madison professor of agricultural and applied economics and co-author of the report. “Agriculture’s slice of that pie is also getting a little bit bigger, but it’s not growing at the same pace as the state’s economy is growing.”
Do pulsed microwaves cause brain injuries? UW-Madison researchers work to find out
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are launching the first comprehensive study into how pulsed microwaves might cause traumatic brain injuries.
Supplementing income off the farm, Social media warning labels, Powwow music
We learn how workers in Wisconsin are looking to bolster family farm income via employment in surrounding communities. Then a pediatrics professor shares research on social media and youth. And two members from the Wisconsin band Bizhiki discuss their new album of Indigenous music.
How to avoid Black Friday sale scams: Red flags, tips for safe shopping
AI-powered schemes can also have the typical telltale signs of a scam, Allen Monette with the University of Wisconsin-Madison says. Things like something pressuring you to act immediately and unusual requests for sensitive information unexpectedly can tip you off that it is not real.
Disposable personal income rose at a faster pace in October than the month before
There are some factors that could limit spending next year: Menzie Chinn, a professor of economics and pulic affairs at the University of Wisconsin, said delinquency rates have been rising and some consumers don’t have a lot of savings to fall back on.
“Those have been largely depleted, particularly among those income groups that are, let’s say, at median or below median income,” he said.