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Category: Experts Guide

Despite state restrictions, Wisconsinites are receiving abortions via telehealth

Wisconsin Public Radio

The data comes from states with so-called “shield laws,” said Jenny Higgins, director of the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These laws give some legal protections to clinicians who offer abortion care by telehealth to people living in states with abortion bans or telehealth restrictions, she said.

Report: Wisconsin farm, food industry grows slightly behind the rest of state’s economy

Wisconsin Public Radio

“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.”

Huckabee pick as Israeli ambassador reflects long evangelical alliance

The Washington Post

If confirmed, Huckabee, a former Fox News host and Israel tour guide for Christian visitors, will be the first evangelical in the ambassador role. Evangelicals and other Christian Zionists — those who use Christian reasoning to argue for a Jewish state in some part of biblical Israel — could have only dreamed of this moment a half-century ago, said University of Wisconsin religious historian Daniel Hummel.

Supplementing income off the farm, Social media warning labels, Powwow music

Wisconsin Public Radio

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.

Explainer: What are bomb cyclones and how do they form?

Reuters

A bomb cyclone’s winds can reach hurricane force – 74 miles (119 km) per hour – and stronger. These storms tend to form during winter and can spawn copious amounts of precipitation. They have life spans of about a week during which they grow to peak intensity over roughly four to five days and then dissipate over the last two, according to Jon Martin, a professor of meteorology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Disposable personal income rose at a faster pace in October than the month before

MarketPlace

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.

Trump won the popular vote, contrary to claims online

FactCheck.org

Barry C. Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explained to us in a Nov. 25 email, “Trump has not won an outright majority of the popular vote; that would require surpassing the 50% threshold. He has won a large plurality, which means that he attracted more votes than each of his opponents, but he is just short of a true majority.”

What exactly is shoofly pie anyway?

HuffPost

“Shoofly pie is a classic Pennsylvania Dutch pastry,” said Mark Louden, a professor of Germanic linguistics and director of the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It’s an “apt symbol of traditional Pennsylvania Dutch culture as it incorporates elements from Old World Europe but is a fundamentally New World phenomenon.”

UW mechanical engineer launches study of the brain and the “Havana Syndrome”

WORT FM

A team of University of Wisconsin researchers, led by Professor Christian Franck, have obtained a grant to investigate how pulsed microwave beams might affect the brain.  Christian Franck is the Bjorn Borgen Professor and H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellow at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the director of the UW PANTHER lab, which studies brain trauma.

Eat avocado to lower cholesterol, put on antiperspirant before bed and 11 more tips to have a great week

Yahoo Life

Talking to yourself out loud can be a great way to problem-solve — especially for people who regularly misplace things, Gary Lupyan, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Time. For example, if you lost something in your home, saying what you’re looking for out loud (keys, remote, your favorite sweatshirt) can “keep its visual appearance active in your mind as you’re searching,” Lupyan explained, making it more likely for you to spot it.

Millions from tax refunds go to pay hidden fees, report finds

The Washington Post

Sarah Halpern-Meekin, director of the University of Wisconsin’s Institute for Research on Poverty, agreed, cautioning that some taxpayers would wait longer for their refunds — or be unable to afford the up-front cost of tax preparation altogether — without these services.

“It’s easy to critique any products that are offered that incur costs or high interest rates, but we also need to ask what happens if those go away,” she said. “Is it better to pay a fee and then get to avoid eviction or avoid having your heat cut off? There are consequences for being credit-constrained.”

Lucy’s legacy

The Washington Post

“The common conception is that we’re finding the grandmother [of humanity], and we’re never finding that,” said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “Culturally, these are our ancestors  they are our connection to the past.”

Wisconsin tees up high-stakes Supreme Court race with partisan control on the line

The Hill

Howard Schweber, professor of political science and legal studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explained that some of the issues worth keeping an eye on are abortion, elections, Act 10 — Walker-era legislation that curtailed collective bargaining rights for many public employees — redistricting and religious freedom.

These disability doulas are helping people navigate life more comfortably

HuffPost

When I ask Sami Schalk, associate professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “Black Disability Politics,” how disabled people should prepare for the next Trump term, she says, “The state is going to abandon disabled people more than ever. Informal networks of care and support are the only way we survive.”

Huckabee as Trump’s pick for Israel ambassador is a win for Christian Zionism. Here’s why.

USA Today

“These are the people that were loyal to Trump in the first administration, were loyal to him when he was out of power and are now going to be close to the center of the second administration,” said Daniel Hummel, a religious historian at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a leading expert on evangelical support for Israel.  “I don’t know how they would be any closer — but I don’t see any daylight right now.”

Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens buried their dead differently, study suggests

Live Science

“The data are limited, but this is an impressive survey,” John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who did not take part in this research, told Live Science. Notably, he said there appear to have been consistent burial practices that distinguished Neanderthal and early H. sapiens burials. This is surprising because all of these small, scattered populations wouldn’t be expected to share cultural practices over long stretches of space and time.

Nanoink and printing technologies could enable electronics repairs, production in space

Phys.org

The flight path to these experiments began when a research team led by Iowa State’s Shan Jiang, an associate professor of materials science and engineering, and Hantang Qin, formerly of Iowa State who’s now an assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wondered if their ink and printer technologies would work in the zero gravity of space.

Fearing birth control bans, Wisconsin women begin to plan ahead

The Capital Times

Jenny Higgins, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the scope of her work with CORE, the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity housed in the School of Medicine and Public Health, has not shifted as a result of Trump’s victory in the Nov. 5 presidential election.

However, “the landscape of contraceptive care in the state is likely to change drastically,” Higgins said.

‘Government by the worst’: why people are calling Trump’s new sidekicks a ‘kakistocracy’

The Guardian

“Hayes’ term was absolutely being described as a kakistocracy,” said Kelly Wright, assistant professor of language sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. (1880 was also a general election year in the UK, another country known for its contributions to the English language. That year, William Gladstone became prime minister for the second time; perhaps his opponents were among those giving the word a boost.)

Report finds Wisconsin agriculture revenue on the rise, up nearly 11 percent from 2017

Wisconsin Public Radio

An economic analysis shows Wisconsin’s agriculture industry is pulling in more revenue in recent years but employing fewer people.

The report, titled “The Contributions of Agriculture to the Wisconsin Economy,” is published every five years. The newest survey found the industry earned $116.3 billion in revenue in 2022, the latest data available. That is a 10.9 percent increase from 2017. However, the numbers are nuanced, Steve Deller and Jeff Hadachek, co-authors of the report out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said on WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”

Holiday budgets by city (2024)

WalletHub

“For many consumers, overspending happens when they feel time crunched or make snap decisions in response to discounts or limited offers,” said Amber M. Epp, an associate professor of marketing at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Consumers can save money in the traditional ways by making budgets and lists this time of year, but also by comparison shopping and seeking out discounts for items already on their lists rather than impulse buying when presented with sales.”

Best credit cards for November 2024

WalletHub

“The market’s best credit cards are often indicative of the health of the economy, because their use can give insights into consumer perceptions and acceptability of interest rates, consumer spending habits as well as consumer debt,” said Cynthia Jasper, a professor of Civil Society and Community Studies, School of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In France, a family reckons with World War II Allies’ legacy of rape and murder

NPR

Mary Louise Roberts, professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was one of the first scholars to consult French as well as U.S. archives for her 2013 book, What Soldiers Do.

“Towards the end of the summer of 1944 there really was a problem with rape,” she says. “And the United States Army, at the highest levels of SHAEF, was concerned about it.” SHAEF was the acronym for the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, commanded by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.

What happens under water in winter?

Popular Science

When it comes to determining the role that lakes play in global carbon cycling, those estimates are often drawn from summer data. Just using that small subset of data creates errors in estimates of atmospheric interactions and other downstream effects, said Hilary Dugan, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Department of Limnology.

How Wisconsin lost control of the strange disease killing its deer

The Nation

I drove south out of Madison, Wisconsin, along solitary rural roads until I arrived at a secluded home set amid scattered forest and open prairie. Waiting inside for me were two men: Michael Samuel, a retired professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Bryan Richards, the emerging-disease coordinator at the US Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center.

Coca-Cola causes controversy with AI-made ad

NBC News

Neeraj Arora, the chair of marketing research and education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the reason why the company faced backlash for this specific advertisement, and not for “Masterpiece” last year, could be because many consumers recognize Christmas as an integral part of the company’s brand, and AI technology acts as a disruption.

“Your holidays are a time of connection, time of community, time to connect with family, and that’s sort of a big part of what the holidays are about,” Arora said. “But then you throw AI into the mix that is not a fit, that is not a fit with holiday timing, but also, to some degree, also Coke, what the brand means to people.”

Is raw milk safe? Science has a clear answer

Popular Science

Boiling is an even more aggressive form of heating than pasteurization, which was developed to kill pathogens while minimizing changes to milk’s flavor and composition, says John Lucey, a food science professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and director of the university’s Center for Dairy Research. “Boiling is a very substantial heat treatment whereas pasteurization is much gentler,” he notes.

Learn more about ‘American Indians and the American Dream’ with this ‘University Place’ Q&A and episode

PBS Wisconsin

In this episode of University Place Presents, host Norman Gilliland and his guest Kasey Keeler, assistant professor of American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, discuss the topic, American Indians and the American Dream, which she explores in her book of the same title.

Milwaukee, Madison first responders using whole blood in trauma response

Wisconsin Public Radio

Providers on air ambulances are usually able to give blood components like red blood cells and plasma. But Dr. Ryan Newberry, assistant professor of emergency medicine at UW Health, said research shows that someone who is bleeding to death needs all of the components in blood.

“(Whole blood) can help temporize or slow bleeding, especially if we can give it in that first hour after your injury,” said Newberry, who is also assistant medical director of UW Health’s Med Flight. “That allows us to have a little more time to get you from wherever that injury occurred, the side of the road, a back field, a community emergency department, and get you to a trauma center.”

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson to back Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for US health secretary

Wisconsin Public Radio

Patrick Remington, the former dean of public health at the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said it’s hard to tell in advance how Kennedy would lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Time will tell how his personal views over the past several years will translate into actions as secretary,” he said. “I think it’s important to understand sometimes people’s views change when their roles and responsibilities change.”

Her neighbor’s trees were killed by the emerald ash borer. Now they’re falling onto her home.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

There are several preventative emerald ash borer treatments homeowners can have administered to their trees annually in the spring.

Some of the most affordable treatments are sprayed onto trees and cost approximately $30 to $50 per each. Pricier, longer-lasting options can be directly injected into tree bark, said PJ Liesch, director of the Insect Diagnostic Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wisconsin is facing an uptick in food recalls. Here’s why

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Consumers should observe good food safety practices in order to protect themselves against food-borne illness. Health experts recommend getting a refrigerator thermometer and making sure the temperature is 40 degrees or lower. “The colder the temperature, the longer the food will last safely,” wrote Kathleen Glass, associate director of the Food Research Institute at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Defense attorneys fleeing courtroom of Dane County judge accused of bias, disrespect

Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison clinical associate law professor John P. Gross, a former criminal defense attorney, said that typically when a criminal court judge sees a lot of requests from defense attorneys to move cases out of a courtroom, it’s because the judge has developed a reputation for being “particularly harsh when it comes to sentencing.”

Other reasons could include that an attorney has disagreed with some of the judge’s past rulings, that a client has said something seen as inflammatory that upsets the judge, or that the judge has a poor judicial temperament, he said.