UW Health Behavioral Health and Recovery Clinic addiction medicine physician Dr. Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar examines how incarceration impacts people struggling with mental health and substance abuse.
UW-Madison entomologist PJ Liesch is back. We talk with him about what’s hampering the spread of spongy moths in Wisconsin. We also talk about how climate change is aiding the spread of joro spiders to northern regions. Then, two WDNR invasive species specialists share success stories from across the state.
University of Wisconsin-Madison social work professor Tova Walsh is glad more people are paying attention to postpartum depression in moms. She said that’s a big improvement.
With a wave of new hemp-derived THC alternatives hitting the market in Wisconsin, we check in with a cannabis historian about what these products are and how they’re shaping policy discussions around marijuana in the state. Interview with Lucas Richert, professor in the School of Pharmacy at UW-Madison.
Murv Seymour talks with Courtney Bell at the Wisconsin Historical Society about leading the Wisconsin Center for Education Research in its work on classroom innovations, challenges and inequities.
New federal funding will help place more OBGYNs in training in Wisconsin’s rural communities.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health will receive a $750,000 grant over the next three years to expand their rural OBGYN residency track.
University of Wisconsin-Madison sociologist Jessica Calarco believes her profession is an act of “un-gaslighting people.” She said she wants to help others see the challenges they face in their lives as products of large social structures and forces. In particular, she said she wants women to let go of guilt they might feel when they face struggles because of the unfair burden of social structures place on women.
In her new book, “Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net,” Calarco said women are often tasked with more of the unpaid or underpaid care work that keeps the economy moving.
Officials with La Crosse County, the town of Campbell, UW-Madison, U.S. Geological Survey and the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey earlier this week drilled three “sentinel” wells to help identify PFAS migration in the area and monitor the untainted aquifer.
Bird flu has not been found in Wisconsin cows, but voluntary testing has been minimal since late April, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture mandated testing of dairy cattle moving between states and quarantines of herds that test positive, said Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at UW-Madison.
UW-Madison Extension Entomologist PJ Liesch spends much of his time identifying and confirming insect sightings. This spring has brought him a number of unusual observations, including a scorpion.
I am back this month to say goodbye. This will be my last “Pleasure Practices” column for Tone Madison. I had discussed ending the column earlier this year to make some space for my new book projects during my upcoming sabbatical, but my recent experience with police violence has accelerated my timeline for wrapping up this series.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded $750,000 to the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Thursday, directed toward the establishment of new residency programs in rural communities.
“When looking for a new checking account, students should take their time to identify accounts specifically tailored to their needs – frequently these are promoted on college campuses in the fall,” says Anita Mukherjee, an associate professor in Risk and Insurance Department at the Wisconsin School of Business. “Many banks offer student-specific checking accounts that come with perks such as no monthly fees, lower minimum balance requirements, and free online banking.”
Answering the political science professor’s query was Dr. Jenny Higgins, director of UW Collaborative for Reproductive Equity and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“How do you feel, right now, being here in person?” Higgins asked the audience in the Great Hall of Harwood Memorial Union.
“I see some nods,” Higgins said. “Now think about trying to communicate that with somebody on your phone or even on Zoom.”
“At the time of reentry, we know that rates of returning to use – to substance use – are very high. That in combination with someone having no really no tolerance puts them at super high risk for having an overdose if they return to use,” explained Dr. Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, an addiction medicine physician and professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She treats patients with substance use disorders at UW Health’s Behavioral Health and Recovery Clinic.
Some people face disenrollment despite still qualifying for Medicaid. So before looking for new coverage, first check on whether you still qualify for Medicaid, said Adam VanSpankeren, navigator program manager for Covering Wisconsin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension program that helps people enroll in publicly funded health care.
As the health care industry continues to struggle with staffing, UW Health is looking to artificial intelligence to help nurses respond to patient messages more efficiently.
Protests, polarization, voter outreach, and the future of the Republican Party. Political experts from UW-Madison on Tuesday shared their expectations for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
More than 12-million Americans aged 40 and over have some level of vision impairment, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. David Gamm, an ophthalmologist from UW Health, joins us to talk all about the eyes — from macular degeneration to glaucoma.
The clinic opened in January and specializes in opioid use disorder. It offers walk-in appointments and free services to people with or without insurance. Patients can get prescription medication for opioid use disorder and medical treatment like basic wound care, family planning or hepatitis C treatment.
“You would have to go back to the big drought year of 1988 to find a drier May, and before that, all the way back to the thick of the Dust Bowl in 1934,” said Steve Vavrus, a climatologist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
If there is just a single issue that matters to most voters, it’s the economy. However, experts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison at Tuesday’s WisPolitics event said don’t count out what each party is pushing either.
Ion Meyn, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, said voter disenfranchisement laws typically affect people of color disproportionately.
“If you take a map of where Black people live, in terms of concentration … and then you map over that rates of incarceration, it maps out exactly,” he said. “And then if you put that same map and put in … the highest disenfranchisement rates — exact same place.”
UW-Madison emeritus professor of chemistry Bassam Shakhashiri is back to talk about the science behind fireworks and, in this election year, how science is part of the political process.
Forecasted rainfall is expected to be “on the high side” in the next few weeks, according to Ken Potter, a UW professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering who focuses on water management and flood risk mitigation.
“Choosing to act on climate has become a political talking point but this report should be a reminder to people that in fact it is fundamentally a choice to save human lives,” said University of Wisconsin climate scientist Andrea Dutton, who wasn’t part of the international study team. “To me, that is something worth fighting for.”
June is Dairy Month in Wisconsin! Learn how your favorite Wisconsin dairy products – from cheese curds to ice cream – are made with these episodes from PBS Wisconsin.
Simon Gilroy, a University of Wisconsin-Madison botany professor, is among a handful of scientists uncovering how plants respond to the world. But Gilroy hesitates to use the word “intelligence” when talking about them.
“One of the things that we do as humans is we anthropomorphize all the time. Inanimate objects, we attribute them human characteristics. And it’s just built into our DNA of how we interact with the world … so that must be how everything else operates,” Gilroy told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” recently. “That can sometimes totally get in the way.”
Jessica Calarco, a sociologist and associate professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, says writing her book “Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net” was a “labor of fury” and a “labor of love.”
The 45-minute, mile-long walking tours are set to be led by UW faculty, starting at 12:30 p.m., and every hour after that up to 4:15 p.m.
Liesch also plans to join Dan Young, a UW-Madison entomologist, in a presentation at 3:30 p.m. at Library Park near the library which will cover cicada basics and feature an up-close look at periodical cicadas.
A project on French Island near La Crosse aims to define the movement of PFAS in groundwater and to determine whether a deep aquifer could serve as a source of safe drinking water for residents with contaminated wells.
On Monday, a team of partners will drill to create three wells at depths ranging from 85 to 400 feet within the town of Campbell on French Island. Researchers with the University of Wisconsin-Madison will collect samples of sediment and rock beneath the surface.
Jason Fletcher, professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said during the early 20th century, producers of tree crops like apples commonly used the chemicals when preparing for an emergence.
“Because cicadas are known, when they’re coming and where they’re going to be in general terms, certainly in the past, farmers tried to protect their crops by dousing everything with pesticide,” he said.
Less than 1 percent of the state is considered to be experiencing drought, according to the latest map from the U.S. Drought Monitor.
It’s made for a quick end to a long period of drought, state climatologist Steve Vavrus said.
“Drought has virtually disappeared from Wisconsin finally, after 12 solid months,” he said.
John Shutske, professor and agricultural safety & health specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said from the beginning, Wisconsin’s age minimum has been much younger than other farm states who have similar requirements. National best practices for farm safety recommend youth be at least 14 years old before being allowed to operate equipment.
Every band has a leader; and, when Mike Leckrone left his post as director of the University of Wisconsin Marching Band after five decades, Corey Pompey took over the podium from his legendary predecessor in the spring of 2019.
Written by Mariel Barnes, an assistant professor with the La Follette School of Public Affairs. Her research examines everyday forms of violence against women, gender, and the politics of the welfare state.
Director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Insect Diagnostics Lab PJ Liesch received the first reports of Brood XIII cicadas in Wisconsin this year out of the Lake Geneva area just over a week ago. With some of the best-documented historical cicada activity in the state, Lake Geneva could very well be Wisconsin’s “bug central” this summer. Residents have already shared photos of cicadas covering tree trunks, sidewalks and other surfaces.
The Main Street Agenda is a project designed to focus on the issues Wisconsinites rank as most important heading into the 2024 election. The topics come from a survey of nearly 4,000 residents conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Survey Center in partnership with the La Follette School of Public Affairs.
Still, this is a unique phenomenon that people in the Badger State won’t experience again until 2041. Known on social media as the “Wisconsin Bug Guy” P.J. Liesch is particularly excited about the swarms of cicadas that have already started to pop up and make noise here.
“I turn 40 years old next year, and I have not seen these yet with my own eyes,” said Liesch, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are partnering with the Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and the National Park Service to launch the buoys. It’s a relaunch of a program that was discontinued last year because of a lack of funding.
Over the past few weeks, Brood XIII 17-year cicadas have emerged in parts of Wisconsin for the first time since 2007.
Dreamers live under a microscope; any mistake could jeopardize their status, said Erin Barbato, director of the Immigrant Justice Clinic at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
“Someone who has DACA is already incredibly accomplished and has had no errors in their ways for their entire life because they basically have been forced to have a perfect life — in academics and employment and with their character — in order to qualify for DACA,” Barbato said.
“I think you can show what has happened to real wages for teachers in Wisconsin when they’re not allowed to bargain over wages,” said Michael Childers, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who researches organized labor issues. “And what does that do to every other aspect in terms of teacher turnover and the ability to recruit and retain people to come to the profession. We’re 10 years in, there’s enough data.”
Researchers with the University of Wisconsin-Madison are looking to take 3D printing out of this world, successfully manufacturing computer components in zero gravity.
Gita Connolly, who works with people detained at Dodge through the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Immigrant Justice Clinic, said these documents are extremely important for people to proceed with their immigration cases. Even those who have chosen to leave the U.S. voluntarily cannot leave without their identity documents.
These are the voters whom Republican candidates risk losing if they take a strong stance on abortion bans, according to Mariel Barnes, a political scientist at the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“This presents a problem for the Republican Party and Republican candidates,” Barnes told the Cap Times. “Because they’re trying to satisfy this more extreme wing in the party that wants to restrict abortion under almost all circumstances, when it is actually very unpopular with the center of the party, and you need the center of the party to get elected.”
UW–Madison is home to a two-year training program, known as the Master Meat Crafter Program, that offers members of the meat industry new skills and knowledge to take their careers to the next level. Created in 2010 by Jeff Sindelar, Ph.D., a professor and extension meat specialist in Animal & Dairy Sciences, it is a one-of-a-kind program that brings people from across the country and abroad to Madison to earn the “Master Meat Crafter” distinction upon graduation.
UW–Madison’s Kevin Lawrence Henry Jr., an assistant professor in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, has been working to improve educational outcomes for underserved students and shares his experiences and recommendations.
“Studies have shown that students who were engaged in longer periods of distance learning or virtual learning fared far worse than some of their counterparts,” he explains. “And that particularly hurt Black and brown students in the state of Wisconsin.”
Brood XIII cicadas haven’t been documented in Milwaukee County for “several decades” and aren’t expected to emerge there this summer, said PJ Liesch, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Insect Diagnostics Lab.
Access to police employment data could also help groups like the Wisconsin Innocence Project, said Christopher Lau, a co-director of the project and law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Being able to use data to get background on officers in support of the cases of their clients, which often involve allegations of police misconduct, “would make our litigation much stronger,” he said.
“These insects spend over 99% of their life cycle in the water as juveniles, feeding and growing and developing. When they emerge as adults, they are really short-lived,” said PJ Liesch, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Insect Diagnostic Lab
The mission, called PREFIRE, short for Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment, includes two shoebox-sized satellites or ‘cubesats’ to find out how much heat Earth’s polar regions radiate out to space and how that influences our climate. University of Wisconsin professor, and principal investigator for the mission, Tristan L’Ecuyer spoke to Corin Dann.
The typical season for tick emergence is from May to September, said Susan Paskewitz, UW-Madison professor of entomology. But last year, she and her team found tick nymphs, or young ticks, as early as April 13, a record. This year, her team found ticks again in April.
PJ Liesch, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Insect Diagnostic Lab, said it could take cicadas up to a week after emerging to begin making their distinctive, ear-piercing call to attract mates.
“So we’re still that calm before the storm, and (it) hasn’t gotten noisy yet,” Liesch said.
University of Wisconsin Law School professor Sumudu Atapattu discusses how the idea of environmental justice applies to people and communities whose basic needs are affected by the changing climate.
A few weeks ago, on a University of Wisconsin-Madison campus sidewalk, a message in chalk read “DIVEST from Militarism.” It was final exams week, students and older adults alike lounged, studied and conversed alongside tents pitched illegally in protest, while a dainty melody on solo clarinet could be heard playing.
Once every 17 years, the species emerges as adults to breed. However, the species’ adult life only lasts about four to six weeks. This means their stint as an annoyance to humans and ample food source for wildlife will be over by the beginning of July, said PJ Liesch, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Insect Diagnostics Lab.
“When folks look at the cicadas and wonder, ‘Are they good or bad?,’ in my mind, the good far outweighs any bad because these insects are really going to serve as a huge benefit for our local wildlife population,” he said.
Sources include email conversation with Timothy Van Deelen, a professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and chair of the Environmental Conservation profession Masters Degree, May 10, 2024
Erin Barbato, who directs the Immigrant Justice Law Center at the University of Wisconsin Law School, says it takes time for asylum seekers to get a work permit needed for a driver’s license. After entering the country, asylum seekers generally have one year to fill out an application proving they should be granted asylum status to remain in the U.S. because they fear persecution in their home countries.
“Even if someone comes here and is seeking asylum, they won’t be eligible for a work permit for about six months,” she said. “And in order to get that work permit, it’s going to take six months to a year.”
