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Category: Community

Henry Vilas Zoo host STEM camp for neurodivergent kids

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WKOW - Channel 27

The camp is organized in collaboration with Dr. Michael Notaro, director of the Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. With prior funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Notaro and his team have led similar camps in Beloit, Madison, and Wisconsin Dells.

However, future programming is uncertain. Federal support for the camps ended earlier this year when NSF grants were discontinued. While funding remains in place for this summer’s sessions, organizers are seeking alternative sources to continue beyond 2025.

Madison STEM camp for neurodivergent kids could see final year after funding loss

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WMTV - Channel 15

Dr. Michael Notaro, director of the Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, launched the program several years ago.

“I think that’s inspired by my son Hayden,” Notaro said. “He’s autistic and a wonderful boy. My wife is also autistic. And based on my desire to support and foster neurodiversity, we created three STEM camps.”

Wisconsin nutrition education program, jobs in jeopardy after Congress cuts funding

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Most of the money goes to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension, which offers programming in 70 of the state’s 72 counties. While UW Extension is exploring ways to sustain some SNAP-Ed capacity through alternative funding sources, it has already begun winding down operations. Layoff notices went out to 92 SNAP-Ed educators, UW Extension director Karl Martin said.

How a Madison doctor is trying to help others find affordable housing

Posted on
The Cap Times

Henderson brushed off the experience, hoping it was a fluke. But after matching into residency at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, she overheard a medical student lamenting about their housing struggles and something clicked.

“The lightbulb went off in my head,” Henderson said. “I realized I think this is a nationwide issue and then really started to look into it from there.”

Coldplay’s Chris Martin gives shoutout to woman he met on the street in Downtown Madison

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Wisconsin State Journal

Two Madison Area Technical College students had just left the Kollege Klub bar near the UW-Madison campus early Saturday when one of them thought she recognized Coldplay’s lead singer.

Coldplay’s sold-out Madison show at Camp Randall Stadium Saturday had about 58,000 attendees, according to a UW-Madison official. It was the latest stop in the band’s Music of the Spheres world tour, which began in 2022 and spans 225 nights in 80 cities across 43 countries.

Only two people arrested, and no others caught red-handed, at Coldplay concert in Madison

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

All in all, Coldplay at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison July 19 went off without a hitch — and without a viral moment.

There were only two arrests and no other ejections at the concert, according to Marc Lovicott, the executive director of communication for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department.

Local communities with state buildings get boost from Wisconsin budget

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Wisconsin’s new budget boosts some of the funding available to local communities, including those that are home to state buildings.

State buildings are exempt from property taxes, but Wisconsin does compensate the cities, villages and townships where those facilities are located. The increased funding will affect hundreds of communities that house state facilities ranging from prisons to universities to office buildings.

How to design an actually good flash flood alert system

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The Verge

And when it comes to warning people about flash floods in particular, experts still stress the need to get warnings to people via every means possible.

That’s why a “Swiss cheese” approach to warning people can be most effective in overcoming that last mile, Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist and manager of the Wisconsin Environmental Mesonet at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explains. (And it’s similar to an ideology used to prevent the spread of disease.)

“You know you got slices of Swiss cheese and they’ve got holes in them. Nothing is ever perfect. But if you layer enough pieces of cheese, it reduces the risk because something might go through one hole, but then it gets blocked,” Vagasky says. “We always want people to have multiple ways of receiving warnings.”

‘Queer people were living, loving, suffering, surviving – but invisible’: west Africa’s groundbreaking gay novel 20 years on

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The Guardian

Ainehi Edoro, associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and founder of the literary blog Brittle Paper, says the novel marked a turning point. “For a long time, queer characters in African literature were either invisible or treated as symbols of crisis, like their presence was a sign that something had gone wrong,” she says. “So when Dibia wrote a novel that centred a gay Nigerian man as a full human being, that mattered. He pushed back against an entire archive of erasure.”

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

The sold-out Coldplay show coming Saturday to Camp Randall Stadium, like the two shows by country music superstar Morgan Wallen at the stadium three weeks earlier, is a game-changer for the city, said the president of Downtown Madison Inc.

Coldplay is coming to Madison’s Camp Randall Stadium this weekend. Here’s what to know about the concert.

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Coldplay made Wisconsin history in October when it became the first concert announced at Madison’s Camp Randall Stadium in nearly 28 years.

Now, eight months later, the show is finally here — even though country superstar Morgan Wallen made sure the Chris Martin-led British band wasn’t the first to actually perform there. Wallen had two concerts, on June 28 and 29.

Measles cases surge past 1,300; experts blame erosion of trust in science

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Scripps News

Dr. Jonathan Temte, associate dean for public health and community engagement at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said that the resurgence is partly due to the erosion of public confidence in science and public health systems, fueled by misinformation.

“It really is made more difficult when you don’t have an intact public health system, when you don’t have a population that believes in evidence-based science and is wracked with concerns about conspiracy, and you have people who basically profiteer off misinformation,” Temte said.

The legacy of Robert La Follette’s progressive vision

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Time

In 1873, just before becoming a student at the University of Wisconsin, La Follette heard Edward Ryan, soon to become the state’s Chief Justice, give a commencement speech. Ryan bluntly defined the central questions of the coming era: “Which shall rule—wealth or man; which shall lead—money or intellect; who shall fill public stations—educated and patriotic freemen, or the feudal serfs of corporate capital?” This question would animate La Follette’s career as he tried to live up to UW president John Bascom’s insistence that students accept the obligations of citizenship and their duty to serve the state.

9 ways Madison residents will feel the new state budget

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The Cap Times

Andrew Reschovsky, an emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, estimates Madison schools will receive about $9.6 million more in special education aid over the next two years. But he said without increases to general aid or equalization aid — other major forms of state funding for schools — Madison must rely more heavily on local taxes for funding.

“Even though special education aid has been increased, it’s still a relatively small part of total state aid,” he said. “At the state level, state aid all together is less than half of total money needed, or total revenues, to support K-12 education.”

Y’all, we need to talk about ‘y’all’

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NPR

“It feels like home when I hear it,” says Kelly Elizabeth Wright, an assistant professor of language sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who grew up in Tennessee. “It’s from where I was raised. But it makes me feel included and welcome. And I think that’s part of why people are embracing it, because it has this capacity to make others feel included and welcome.”

Orion Initiative seeks to fix rural Wisconsin healthcare

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WORT FM

A new collaborative grant-making effort administered through the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, dubbed the Orion Initiative, seeks to reverse these trends for rural Wisconsin.  Orion Initiative Chief Executive Officer Dr. Amy Kind and U.W. Medicine Associate Professor of Rheumatology Christie Bartels spoke with Monday Buzz host Brian Standing about the project.

What’s next in the legal fight over abortion rights in Wisconsin?

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Wisconsin Public Radio

University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor Miriam Seifter said Planned Parenthood could still try to advance its constitutional arguments in a future case.

“Wisconsin imposes many other restrictions on abortion, and Planned Parenthood or other plaintiffs could decide to tee up the constitutional question by challenging those restrictions,” Seifter said.

Unconventional UW science ethics group to host 40-year reunion town hall

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The Daily Cardinal

In the 1980s, progressive undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin-Madison founded the Democratic Organization of Progressive Engineers and Scientists (DOPES), an anti-war science ethics group dedicated to challenging militarism — and particularly, student and graduate involvement within it.

40 years later, DOPES alumni hope to continue those conversations amid escalating tensions between the Trump administration and the science community. DOPES will host a town hall Friday July 11 at 2:30 p.m. at the Pyle Center. A moderated panel of DOPES members hopes to tackle questions on modern technology issues, like climate change and artificial intelligence.

More Wisconsin residents dying from alcohol-related liver failure, according to new research

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Wisconsin Public Radio

“We know that COVID — and the isolation related to COVID and the stress and strain of unemployment — was a cause,” said Dr. Patrick Remington, emeritus professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “We also know that there’s a mental health crisis in our nation … alcohol can be used to self-medicate. It’s an attempt to really blunt the pain that comes from depression and or anxiety.”

Madison Tibetans celebrate the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday

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The Cap Times

Richard J. Davidson, founder of the University of Wisconsin Center for Healthy Minds, reflected on the Dalai Lama’s influence on neuroscience.

“When I first met His Holiness in 1992, there were three scientific papers published on the effects of meditation,” he said. “Now there are thousands. This has been a legacy that will live on for many, many years and has transformed our understanding of the human mind and the human heart.”

Why is the Trump administration focused on undocumented immigrants, not their employers?

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

While the Wisconsin dairy industry is known to rely on unauthorized workers (it’s believed about 70% of the workforce is working illegally), the majority in the state actually work elsewhere, said Laura Dresser, a labor economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

From Dresser’s perspective, undocumented workers are especially vulnerable when law enforcement agencies focus more on immigration status and less on violations of workers’ rights.

That culture of fear can create “incentives for some employers to find a way to drive wages and standards down,” Dresser said.

Madison architect Kenton Peters dead at 93. Here are some of his best-known projects

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Wisconsin State Journal

A UW-Madison alumnus and former Badgers football player, Peters began his career in Madison in the early 1960s and was a prominent figure in the city’s development scene into the 2000s. He designed and built two of the high-rise condominiums now overlooking Lake Monona, including the metallic Marina building, among numerous other distinctive projects Downtown, on the UW-Madison campus and throughout the region. Many are still standing — and standing out — today.

Vigil honors former Rufus King, UW Madison running back Nate White

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WISN -- Channel 12 Milwaukee

A balloon release vigil was held at Rufus King High School in Milwaukee to honor Nate White, a former Rufus King and Badger running back who died last week.

After playing at Rufus King High School and then UW Madison, White then transferred to South Dakota State and played there for six months. Throughout his time out of state, family and friends said White kept in close contact with the community in Wisconsin.

New Wisconsin partnership aims to expand memory care for Latino community

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Wisconsin’s only bilingual memory clinic is partnering with the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health for a new elective course aimed at boosting doctor training, prevention and treatment to help with dementia in Latino communities.

Dr. Maria Mora Pinzon, an assistant professor of medicine at UW, leads the research team collaborating with the Latino Geriatric Center Memory Clinic. On WPR’s “Wisconsin Today,” Mora Pinzon highlighted the center’s over 17 years of experience of working with older Latino adults who are suffering from dementia.

Is abortion now permanently legal in Wisconsin? What the Supreme Court ruling means.

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“We could see future cases that argue there is a constitutional right to abortion in Wisconsin and challenge other laws that we have in the state related to abortion,” said Bryna Godar, a staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. “But those would be a bit more nuanced than challenging an outright ban.”

Madison musicians, artists collaborate at Next Wave

Posted on
The Cap Times

On the last weekend in June, artist and recent University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate Ava Albelo organized “Cog in the Machine” at Next Wave Studios, a multimedia production space on Madison’s east side.

Albelo said she funded the project with a grant from the UW-Madison Art Department. She hoped younger people would come to the show “and be interested in the artwork and ask questions and enjoy the music.”

Walter E. Dewey

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

He graduated from Wauwatosa East High School in 1979 and earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance, Investments and Banking from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1983. He earned his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 1989.

In the final weeks of Walter’s life, he and his family established a focused strategy to advance pancreatic immunology research at the UW Carbone Cancer Center. In lieu of flowers, the family invites memorial gifts to support this initiative.

Here’s a sample of the common readers colleges are assigning this year

Posted on
Forbes

Duke University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison are both assigning “James” by Percival Everett as their common reader. The novel is a fiercely satiric and darkly funny reimagining of Mark Twain’s American classic, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” told from Jim’s point of view. It won both the National Book Award for 2024 and the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

New UW-Madison class trains doctors on Latino cultural competency

Posted on
The Cap Times

The number of Latinos affected by dementia nationwide is expected to rise nine-fold over the next 30 years, according to Dr. Mora Pinzon, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

And to meet this growing need, UW-Madison’s medical school is launching a new course to better train future doctors in culturally competent care. With around 660 students total currently enrolled, the school plays a significant role in training doctors in the state.

For one night, international soccer game in Madison helped fans forget immigration anxiety

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Diego Adame just finished his freshman year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He’s from Monterey, so he and his dad were excited to attend the match, both wearing Tigres jerseys and calling out to players they knew.

Recently, the Trump administration tried to revoke the student visas of at least 27 Wisconsin students. Adame said his visa remained valid and he tries not to worry about what could happen.

“I just put the work in with studying and that’s about it,” Adame said. “Just stay focused on the grades.”

 

If ‘big, beautiful bill’ passes, Wisconsin Planned Parenthood clinics could disappear

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

According to a June brief from the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity at UW-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health, if all federal funding to Planned Parenthood was cut, Wisconsin community health centers would need to increase their contraception case loads by 144%, local health departments by 144% and hospitals by 142% to absorb Planned Parenthood patients — which the collaborative called “unrealistic, if not impossible” given current capacity.

The UW system is losing rural students’ interest. This pilot program aims to reverse course

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

As part of a pilot program called Wisconsin Rural Scholars, high school students from seven small and rural high schools around the state spent a week at UW-Madison in mid-June aimed at introducing them to the college environment. The program is funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant and was free for students to attend.

Here’s how a $200,000 USDA grant aims to boost central Wisconsin farmers’ markets

Posted on
Stevens Point Journal

The grant-funded research will also send University of Wisconsin students to farmers’ markets in Marathon, Portage, Wood, Waupaca and Adams counties this summer through summer 2027 to collect data on things like where are people visiting from, how much money do they intend to spend at the market and other area businesses, and what they love about farmers’ markets, Haack said.

 

Henry Vilas Zoo is finally naming its 20 flamingos. Why now?

Posted on
The Cap Times

Henry Vilas has a pair of brother badgers named after former University of Wisconsin-Madison basketball players Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker. The stars even visited the zoo to meet their namesakes.

“Ten years later, there are still many Madison people who visit them and recognize the names on the sign. And isn’t that cool — that it’s a badger, and they have Badger basketball names?” Peterson said.

Wisconsin’s 25 Most Influential Asian American Leaders for 2025, part 4

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Madison 365

Tariq Saqqaf is the City of Madison’s Racial Equity and Neighborhood Resource Team Coordinator, where he has been instrumental in revitalizing and leading the city’s Neighborhood Resource Teams (NRTs). Born in Trinidad & Tobago and raised across New Jersey, Madison, and Saudi Arabia, he earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology and began medical school at UW–Madison before transitioning to a career in social services.

Erika Gallagher is a teacher of English at Verona High School and the winner of the 2024-25 Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English Diversity and Inclusion Award. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UW-Madison.

 

LGBTQ community gathers at UW-Madison for picnic celebrating Pride Month

Posted on
WMTV - Channel 15

LGBTQ+ community members came together at a pride picnic at the UW-Madison Red Gym on Wednesday. June is recognized as Pride Month, and the picnic, hosted by the UW Madison Gender and Sexuality Campus Center, was a way for the community to celebrate.

“It’s just our way of celebrating Pride Month. Being together as a community, welcoming students, community members, faculty and staff to come together,” said Sanders Weinberg, program coordinator for the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center.

Camp Randall neighborhood bustling ahead of Morgan Wallen performances

Posted on
Channel 3000

A trio of trailers emblazoned with Morgan Wallen’s image arrived at Camp Randall Stadium Wednesday morning, bringing loads of sound, stage and lighting equipment for what will be the venue’s first concert in 28 years.

The Grammy-nominated country artist will perform two shows this weekend at the home of “Jump Around,” marking a historic return of live music to the stadium that last hosted a concert when The Rolling Stones performed in 1997.

Immigrants fear being ‘disappeared,’ Wisconsin attorney says

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Wisconsin Public Radio

As an attorney leading a law clinic that helps immigrants facing deportation, Erin Barbato knows her clients often face the bleak prospect of being deported to countries where they are not safe.

Attorneys at the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Immigrant Justice Clinic, which Barbato is the director of, regularly travel to the Dodge County Detention Facility — the only facility in the state serving as immigration detention center — to offer people free consultations and information about their rights.