Quoted: “Given the importance of getting election administration right and the suspicion these candidates continue to express about the 2020 election, it is surprising that their plans for replacing the WEC are not more specific,” said Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Elections Research Center.
Interview with Diana Hess, dean of the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education and a Professor of Curriculum and Instruction.
As thousands of would-be attorneys anxiously await their scores after slogging through last week’s bar exam, law grads in Wisconsin are already beginning their careers as full-fledged attorneys, blithely unburdened by the need to pass a test.
The only state in the nation that still offers “diploma privilege,” Wisconsin allows people who graduated from either of the state’s two law schools — University of Wisconsin Law School or Marquette University Law School – to skip the bar, provided they successfully completed specific law school classes.
“And in the middle of his tenure as governor, there was a huge controversy because he actually pushed to change the language of the University of Wisconsin’s mission statement to take out the idea that the goal of the university is the search for truth.”
Quoted: “In the absence of any maternal illness, genetic abnormalities in the fetus — including those that would not allow the fetus to survive outside the womb — do not constitute a life-threatening condition for the mother,” Dr. Lisa Barroilhet, interim chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said in a written statement. “Because the abortion is not being performed to save of the life of the mother, it would not be legal in Wisconsin per the 1849 statute.”
Quoted: Steve Deller, ag economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said agriculture experienced the same supply chain issues that almost every industry faced in 2021.
“A lot of the stuff that farmers need to operate were in very low supply. So essentially it’s more expensive for farmers to operate,” Deller said. “It’s like any business. You know, I need to buy a new piece of equipment, but I can’t find it and prices go up.”
Noted: As absentee ballots are being cast across the state for Aug. 9 primary elections, Robert Yablon, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, recently joined Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Central Time.” He said leaving the voting rule debates unsettled amid an election is essentially asking for controversies.
Interview with Steve Deller, Professor, Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
We’ve never seen anything quite like this in our politics.
There have been bitter divisions in the past — the Civil War and Vietnam Era come to mind — but at no time in our history has politics been so fraught with anger, distrust and disinformation — and turbocharged by algorithms that reward fighting and conflict and discourage deliberation.
We need to find our way through this thicket, and I think it begins with encouraging thoughtful discussion.
That’s why we’re collaborating this year with the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wisconsin Public Radio on a project we’re calling Wisconsin’s Main Street Agenda.
University of Wisconsin Law Professor Keith Findley is a member of Madison’s Police Civilian Oversight Board. He says a plethora of research shows that women on the force have a positive impact on police departments and communities. He says they are often better at communicating and de-escalating tense situations.
Officials with the UW-Madison-based Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene and the Department of Justice’s crime lab — which do the vast majority of toxicology tests used in state prosecutions — acknowledge that they don’t have the equipment needed to distinguish between two isomers, or forms, of methamphetamine.
Quoted: “When we get that high community level CDC indicator, that’s when community-wide masking is really necessary,” said Ajay Sethi, a University of Wisconsin epidemiologist. Even at lower community levels of COVID-19, “people who are especially vulnerable to severe disease should always be wearing their mask indoors,” he added.
Noted: Before the pandemic hit, 1 in 12 Wisconsinites were food insecure — meaning they couldn’t or were uncertain they could get the food they needed. Food insecurity is linked to children struggling more in school, worse health outcomes in all age groups and greater stress on families, according to the Wisconsin Food Security Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Trump lost Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes in 2020. It was a key state to his re-election and one that he won in a historic victory in 2016 that a Republican hadn’t pulled off in decades. The state is key to any new run for president, said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Wisconsin is one of the states where he falsely claims to have been robbed of victory, so the recent Supreme Court decision gives him yet another opportunity to explain why his loss wasn’t actually a loss,” Burden said.
“Nearly two years after an election that every judge and security expert deemed to be proper, Trump’s continual fixation has an air of desperation.”
Beyond Hunger, a new series by Wisconsin Watch produced by University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism students, will launch on July 21 with an evaluation of how pandemic-related programs alleviated a lot of hunger — and what it means for Wisconsin now that those support systems are fading.
Noted: Once regulations are changed, UW must provide its students with a method to learn abortion procedures out of state to remain an accredited by NACGME.
“While the OB-GYN residents previously had access to clinical training in abortion, that access is now significantly limited,” UW Health said in a statement. “It remains too soon to predict what options we will pursue, but we are focused on training OB-GYN physicians to provide the most comprehensive care possible.”
Quoted: Rob Yablon, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School who specializes in election and constitutional law, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this year that there is no legal way for state lawmakers to decertify the 2020 election
“At this point, the bell cannot be unrung,” he said.
Howard Schweber, a UW-Madison political science and legal studies professor who is an expert in constitutional law, also said the fact that officials elected in 2020 have held office for more than a year “makes the whole thing even more preposterous.”
Wisconsinites have the weight of the nation’s problems on their minds heading into the 2022 midterm elections, a nod to a state whose voters might be pivotal to the balance of power in the U.S. Senate this fall.
That was a key finding of the La Follette Policy Poll, a written survey sent to 5,000 state residents last fall, which asked about the issues that matter to them most and the problems they most want solved. Nearly 1,600 responded.
“The main goal was taking a pulse on what are the policy topics Wisconsinites care about most with the hopes of steering our elected officials and candidates toward those topics,” said Susan Webb Yackee, a professor of public affairs and director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison.
Friday morning, President Biden signed an executive order that provides some protection for emergency medical care access to women who seek abortions in states that ban it, like here in Wisconsin. But it does not undo the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
“I mean this is a lot of smoke, but not a whole lot of heat,” said Ryan Owens, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He says the president does not have the power to legalize abortion nationwide.
“The reality is in order to get any effective change on this you’d have to look at changing legislation,” said Owens.
Quoted: Ion Meyn, an assistant law professor at the University of Wisconsin, called the cases against Wells and others in Fond du Lac County “a real abuse of (prosecutorial) discretion.”
Toney did not respond to multiple requests for an interview or answer emailed questions. But in a statement to Wisconsin Watch, he said attorney ethics rules prevent him from commenting on a pending case.
“Elections are cornerstone (sic) of our democracy which must be defended at every turn, not just when you agree with the law or the politics,” he wrote. “I want people (to) exercise their right to vote and ensure they do so lawfully. Wisconsin law requires someone to register to vote where they live, not where they receive mail. That is made clear on voter registration forms.”
Quoted: “I think there needs to be that follow up, and that follow up needs to be much quicker,” said Ryan Poe-Gavlinski, director of the Restraining Order and Survivor Advocacy Clinic at the University of Wisconsin Law School. “In restraining order cases, they do that firearms surrender hearing two weeks out, but why are we not doing them within 48 hours?”
Fish is a popular food in Wisconsin whether it’s part of a Friday night fish fry or a staple for Wisconsin tribes. However, a new study finds around only half of people surveyed in the Great Lakes region know about fish advisories that set limits on how much is safe to eat.
The study was published in June in the journal Science of the Total Environment. Researchers from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and University of Wisconsin-Madison found around 5 million people ate more fish than recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agency recommends no more than two meals or 12 ounces of fish per week.
Written by Susan Webb Yackee, a professor of public affairs and director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison.
Noted: On average, Wisconsin customers pay nearly 6 percent of their income on electricity and gas. Using federal data, a University of Wisconsin-Madison analysis found 18 neighborhoods across the state have energy burdens of 8 percent or more, including nearly a dozen Black and Hispanic communities in Milwaukee County. In rural areas, Menominee, Marinette, Clark, Burnett and Adams counties also paid a greater proportion of their income on energy costs.
Noted: Over the next four months, our “Wisconsin Main Street Agenda” project will report on what we’re learning from residents and explain what we know about the mood of the electorate based on that massive survey of Wisconsin residents by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center.
The project is a partnership of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Ideas Lab, the LaFollette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wisconsin Public Radio.
Quoted: “I view it as an incompetent circus from someone who doesn’t know what he’s doing. But I think it’s had real effects,” said Barry Burden, director of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Elections Research Center.
Quoted: “The investigation has become a morass of competing lawsuits back and forth between different parties in the state and outside the state,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “And those legal debates have sort of overtaken the substance of the investigation itself.”
Molly Wecker, a second-year medical student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, had long planned to be an obstetrics-gynecology doctor in her home state. But with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling last week, the Rock County native is rethinking her plan.
Quoted: “I hadn’t heard much about the ban until quite recently,” said Jenny Higgins, a professor of gender and women’s studies and obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. “Folks didn’t really believe that overturning Roe was possible, or palatable, until recently.”
Quoted: Jenny Higgins, a professor and director of the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said their research has also shown an increase in birth rates in Wisconsin in recent years due to abortion clinic closures. Higgins said Wisconsin’s abortion ban will have devastating impacts on people’s health and wellbeing in Wisconsin.
“Either people will travel out of state to get abortion care in Illinois and Minnesota, for example, which will take significant time, money and logistical resources,” said Higgins. “Some people will self-manage their abortions here in Wisconsin … and then, of course, some people will not be able to access abortion care at all.”
Noted: When the La Follette School of Public Affairs surveyed Wisconsin residents last fall, researchers found people in the state have far more complicated — and frankly, far more important — issues on their minds, things like climate change, health care, race relations and water quality, precisely the issues that don’t often get covered extensively in political campaigns or can easily be reduced to bumper sticker slogans.
Over the next four months, our “Wisconsin Main Street Agenda” project will report on what we’re learning from residents and explain what we know about the mood of the electorate based on that massive survey of Wisconsin residents by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center.
The project is a partnership of the Ideas Lab, the LaFollette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wisconsin Public Radio.
University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman issued this statement: “We know that abortion remains a highly contentious issue that directly affects our students. We are reviewing the U.S. Supreme Court decision to determine what impact it may have on our universities. Like others, we will monitor the legal process surrounding this issue and will adhere to the law as it continues to evolve.”
Tiffany Green, a professor of health sciences, obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, joins Live at Four to talk about what the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade case means for Wisconsin.
Noted: UW Health on Friday said the loss of safe, legal abortion access would be predominantly felt by underserved rural areas and marginalized populations.
“As we enter a time of rapid change and uncertainty, UW Health will put the needs of our patients first and foremost to ensure they receive not just the best care but the best medical advice related to their care options,” the statement read.
Quoted: Wisconsin’s abortion ban makes the procedure illegal unless deemed medically necessary to save a patient’s life.
Abby Cutler, an OB-GYN on faculty at UW Health said that definition is impossible to pin down.
“Knowing when that line is, when does a patient, when does a mother or a future mother become sick enough or is in enough danger to require life-saving treatment immediately,” Cutler told Wisconsin Public Radio. “I think that’s a really difficult line. There is no line, really.”
Noted: Dr. Soyeon Shim assumed her current position as the Dean of the School of Human Ecology (SoHE) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2012. She has led SoHE’s All Ways Forward campaign and exceeded its campaign goal by 150% by raising $72 million, including 13 endowed chairs and professorships, a deanship, and 10 new graduate fellowship endowments. Dr. Shim’s scholarly research focuses on consumer decision-making and has won competitive grants totaling more than $1.5 million from federal agencies and private foundations. Dr. Shim has received numerous teaching, research, development, and leadership awards, both at the university and state/national level.
Wisconsin Public Media and the Educational Communications Board joined broadcasters from around the state to celebrate the life and career of former WPM Director Gene Purcell who was one of four people inducted into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame on June 23, 2022. Purcell was a longtime WPR reporter, regional manager, and former director of the ECB before becoming director of WPM at UW-Madison in 2018. He was killed in a traffic collision in August 2021.
Quoted: Ron Kean is a poultry specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension. He said the influenza virus has historically died down in summer months, so bird enthusiasts are cautiously optimistic about the rest of the summer.
“We’re hopeful that we’re through this at least for now,” he said. “Especially a lot of the small producers, exhibition breeders, things like that, I think are quite excited to be able to go back to having shows.”
Quoted: Heat-related deaths are often underreported, said Jonathan Patz, the Vilas Distinguished Professor in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“A lot of times you don’t see the underlying issue being heat, so it’s underreported,” Patz said. “A recent re-analysis of heat deaths in the United States finds that about 12,000 Americans die every year from heat waves.”
“When there’s a lot of humidity in the air, that daytime heating doesn’t dissipate at night as easily,” said Steve Vavrus, a senior scientist with the Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research at UW-Madison. “It’s like putting a heavier blanket on us at night, and so we can’t cool off. That’s when we get into these somewhat dangerous conditions at times during heat waves.”
The money from the USDA will be divided between four initiatives within the DBI, with $20 million being allocated toward Wisconsin’s Dairy Business Innovation Alliance led by Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association and the Center for Dairy Research at UW-Madison.
Quoted: Miscarriage management or removal of an ectopic pregnancy shouldn’t fall within even the strictest interpretation of the 1849 law, said University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor Miriam Seifter. Still, she said that gray area could create a “chilling effect” on patients or doctors involved in care that could be construed as an abortion.
“It’s understandable that a lot of people would feel like they needed to proceed with caution and would be concerned about potential ramifications in a legal landscape that really hasn’t been clarified yet,” she said.
Wisconsin’s abortion laws are a “tangled set of provisions,” Seifter said, with a number of “outstanding legal questions about how to make sense of them.” She expects there will be ongoing debate about the state of legal abortion if Roe v. Wade is struck down.
People with metabolic disorders who require formula to ensure adequate nutrition are among those dealing with a months long shortage — the Waisman Center at UW-Madison is seeking to help source alternatives, even as such options can be stressful.
Noted: Stanke was crowned Miss Wisconsin Outstanding Teen in 2017 five years ago to the day, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison nuclear engineering student is the first women to have held both the titles of Miss Wisconsin’s Outstanding Teen and Miss Wisconsin.
Noted: Adam Stevenson, clinical professor, director of the Frank J. Remington Center at the University of Wisconsin Law School, noted that people may confuse parole with what is now often called early release. The truth-in-sentencing law provided a sort of “clarity” to sentences, he explains, separating them into a clearly designated periods of time incarcerated and time under community supervision. For example, someone convicted of a felony might spend 10 years behind bars followed by five years on extended supervision. Parole, on the other hand, acts as a sort of floating date within the imposed sentence.
“A person who is on parole is out in the community in a similar fashion to a person who’s out on supervised release, or extended supervision,” Stevenson says. “There are different processes or different things that may apply if they do something wrong, or if something happens, but it’s a very similar type of situation. That is, they’re just following different rules and under supervision out in the community.”
Stanke is a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she is earning her Bachelor of Science degree in nuclear engineering. She is the first woman in the history of the Miss Wisconsin Organization to have held both the titles of Miss Wisconsin’s Outstanding Teen (2017) and Miss Wisconsin.
A UW-Madison junior studying nuclear engineering won over $12,000 in scholarships after being crowned Miss Wisconsin Saturday evening.
Two Republican candidates for governor said that if elected they would recall and replace all of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ unconfirmed appointees to the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported Monday.
The board overseeing Wisconsin’s public universities could look remarkably different come this time next year.
At least two of the four Republicans running for governor have vowed to replace all of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ unconfirmed appointees serving on the UW Board of Regents with their own picks if elected this fall.
In an interview before her departure to become president of Northwestern University this fall, Blank took aim at state regulations that prevent the UW System’s flagship campus from issuing its own bonds for new buildings and which add time and expense to routine maintenance.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents Thursday approved a budget that keeps an in-state undergraduate tuition freeze in place for another year.
Wisconsin residents will not pay any more next year to attend the state’s universities. The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved a tuition freeze for in-state undergraduate students Thursday as part of the 2022-23 operating budget.
Quoted: Bob Cropp, professor emeritus of agricultural economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said high demand for milk is what drove prices up in 2014. But he said this year’s record prices are due to farmers cutting back on production.
“Milk production for several months, starting actually the last quarter of last year, has been running below a year ago,” Cropp said. “Cow numbers have declined and production per cow has been below normal, so we have resulted in a tightness of the supply-demand situation.”
Quoted: Hart Posen is an expert on business strategy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Business. He said he was surprised to see Kohl’s move forward with Franchise Group, Inc. because the holding company runs such a different set of retail businesses.
“There are two reasons one firm acquires another firm. One reason is they believe that the firm’s assets are undervalued, they think they’re getting a good deal on it,” Posen said. “More often than not what we would like to see in these situations is what we would call a strategic buyer — a buyer that brings specific assets or knowledge or expertise to bear — that we believe may add value within Kohl’s. And it’s not at all clear to me that this buyer is a strategic buyer in that sense.”
Quoted: A study released last month by UW-Madison researchers found the elimination of air pollution emissions across the country from energy-related activities could prevent more than 50,000 premature deaths a year.
In a press release about the analysis, Claire Gervais, a clinical associate professor with University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, called the results “shocking.”
“Doctors can only do so much,” Gervais said. “We must have better public policy to reduce industrial and transportation sources of fossil fuel burning.”
Noted: University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Collaborative for Reproductive Equity (CORE) says Wisconsin already restricts many aspects of abortion, including banning government-funded insurance coverage, limiting availability through family planning programs, requiring mandatory counseling, ultrasounds and waiting periods for medication and surgical abortions and gestational limits, among other restrictions.
“None of these restrictions are evidence-based,” says CORE director Jenny Higgins.”There’s no medical reason for any of these restrictions. So just on that alone, these restrictions should be seen as onerous.”
Quoted: According to UW associate law professor Miriam Seifter, the judges found a right to privacy based on precedents dating back to the late 19th century. The opinion concludes that the “mother’s interests are superior to that of an unquickened embryo,” regardless of whether that embryo is “mere protoplasm,” in the view of the physician, or “a human being,” in the view of the Wisconsin statute.
Jay Rothman started the tight-rope-walking job of leading the University of Wisconsin System this week by defending the incoming UW-Madison chancellor while also not calling out Republicans for criticizing her.
Newly appointed University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman plans to recommend a tuition freeze in the upcoming school year for in-state undergraduate students when he presents the Board of Regents with the System’s annual budget next week.
Noted: Mitchell, who lives in Windsor, is the presiding judge of the juvenile division in Dane County and oversees cases within the county’s high-risk drug court program. He is a former prosecutor for the county and was the director of community relations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before first being elected judge in 2016.
Quoted: Rob Yablon, University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor and redistricting expert, disputes that.
“Even at that late stage, I do think it’s an exaggeration to say that there weren’t any other options that were available,” he said.
Yablon said the state Supreme Court could have taken more evidence or reconfigured the Milwaukee districts. They also could have drawn a whole new map. These are things courts do, Yablon said.
Welcome to Wisconsin: Legislative leaders immediately slammed the newly named chancellor for the university’s flagship campus for being too liberal.
