On Friday, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Insect Diagnostics Lab PJ Liesch said he received the summer’s first reports of Brood XIII 17-year cicadas emerging in Wisconsin.
“With the mild El Niño winter we had this last year we started seeing some activity back in months like February,” UW Extension Entomologist PJ Liesch said. “I always like to remind folks that technically, you could bump into ticks in Wisconsin any month of the year as long as it’s warm enough. It generally has to be free of snow on the ground and about 40 degrees and above.”
UW Applied Economics Assistant Professor Andrew Stevens said it’s more than just an attempt to help people dealing with high grocery costs caused by inflation.
“These loans can be appealing to those with poor or limited credit histories, yet they carry inherent risks,” says Anita Mukherjee, a professor at the Wisconsin School of Business. “Specifically, they often come with significantly higher interest rates and fees due to the increased risk lenders assume by not checking credit. The allure of accessibility should be carefully weighed against these loans’ short repayment terms, which can make monthly payments more challenging.”
“A climate haven is the idea of a place that’s a refuge or a safe spot from the impacts of climate change,” said Steve Vavrus, the state climatologist and co-director of the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts.
University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences professor Ankur Desai and his lab conduct ecometeorological research, a cross-pollination of meteorology and ecology. At Seven Seeds Farm, they investigate how cattle farming on silvopastures impacts climate.
Ian Robertson, the outgoing dean of the UW-Madison School of Engineering, offered his thoughts on the future of the program with its new building on track after political wrangling over DEI programs at the university.
Shelby Ellison, an assistant professor in the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences at UW-Madison, said the plants looked purposefully planted in the flower beds that contained mostly tulips but that it was unclear whether the plants could be used as marijuana without further testing.
“It is impossible to determine if they were hemp or marijuana without testing for THC content. I do think they were likely intentionally planted just because there were so many of them,” she said.
Conventions as we know them today — major events held in large cities attended by party insiders — began in the early- to mid-1800s. State parties needed to coordinate their activities and nominate someone who would appear on the ballot across the country, explained University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Barry Burden.
“All that changed 50 years ago, when the parties changed their nomination systems to emphasize primaries and caucuses as the ways that delegates would be selected,” Burden said.
Terrie Mess of Lake Geneva sent TMJ4 photos of several cicadas hatching in her yard on Friday. PJ Liesch, with UW’s Department of Entomology, along with the DNR, confirmed that this represents the first report they are aware of in Wisconsin this year.
There has been a general rise in solar activity on the sun in recent years, said Mayra Oyola-Merced, UW-Madison assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.
Citizen science projects could help map the Wisconsin locations of noisy but benign cicadas and far less welcome ticks. Entomologist Phil Pelliterri explains what researchers hope to learn.
Developing a positive body image and healthy mental attitude towards your body is very important to living your best life. We talk to Distinguished Psychologist Shilagh Mirgain about how to focus on the function of your body and not its shape.
PJ Liesch, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Insect Diagnostics Lab, said he can’t give an exact date when the cicadas will emerge but expects them to come out in southern Wisconsin during the last two weeks of May.
Similar-sized cities like Fort Wayne, Indiana, or Toledo, Ohio, that had their manufacturing sectors decline have seen their populations either stagnant or barely grow year over year, while Madison continues to grow, said Kurt Paulsen, a professor of urban planning at UW-Madison. And other Midwest state capitals with big universities, such as Lincoln, Nebraska or Columbus, Ohio, have lower median home values.
“This is always the challenge with how you measure Madison,” Paulsen said. “It’s really hard to find a comparable.”
“I’ve lived here for 30 years and until last summer, never had a summer like that where we had the air quality warnings,” says Monica Turner, a Professor of Ecology & Biology for UW-Madison.
“The wildfires in Canada are so large and they’re being driven by the warming climate that we have. The smoke particles are going up in the atmosphere and then coming down and being driven by the winds into Wisconsin and other parts of the country,” says Turner.
UW-Madison management professor Martin Ganco says non-competes allow companies to lock employees in place without offering competitive wages.
Robert Yablon, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School and an expert on state courts, said the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s declining case count is on par with a national trend of state supreme courts and the U.S. Supreme Court deciding fewer cases.
“They are conceiving of themselves as courts that are resolving the big ticket issues, rather than doing run of the mill error correction,” Yablon said of high courts around the country.
Jackie McCarville is a regional dairy educator for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension in southwestern Wisconsin. She also feels like concern around avian flu has died down, especially as many farms begin work in their fields this spring.
“But I think it’s still in the back of a lot of minds: what happens if it does get into Wisconsin?” McCarville said. “What considerations should we be looking at? It’s a great time to look at your biosecurity plan to see what you can do to protect your farm.”
Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, said much of the national dairy industry has been opposed to doing more testing for the virus on farms. He said the number of avian flu tests in cattle across the country has actually declined since the federal order requiring them went into place.
“We are in this time where we often see cops shooting people in unjustified ways, which is definitely a big social problem right now,” said Travis Wright, an associate professor of counseling psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “But this wasn’t a cop doing a cold call warrant on an adult who was caught off guard. This was somebody in a defensive act protecting children.”
Menzie Chinn, a macroeconomist at UW-Madison, said much of the United States’ strong recovery can be attributed to federal stimulus programs.
“We were much more aggressive, so it’s no wonder that we’ve recovered in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic much more rapidly,” he said.
As protesters dismantled their tent encampment at UW-Madison after reaching an accord with university administration, journalism professor Douglas McCleod discussed the impact of campus protests.
Experts at UW-Madison explain the mental load that moms or mother figures tend to take on in the household and how taxing it can be on their mental health. Assistant Professor of Sociology at UW-Madison Allison Daminger studies cognitive labor in households and how couples divide up the work.
Wisconsinites can be jailed for failing to pay public fines and court debts. We talk with John Gross, a clinical associate professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and director of the Public Defender Project, about how frequently it happens and how it affect the justice system.
Around 50 percent or fewer ash trees have died in northern Wisconsin where infestations are relatively new, according to PJ Liesch, an entomologist with the Division of Extension at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Unfortunately, we’re still going to be seeing lots of ash trees dying over the years and likely decades to come,” Liesch said.
“It is the most diverse, equitable, and inclusive folksong field collection ever made for the Library of Congress,” said James P. Leary, professor emeritus of Folklore and Scandinavian Studies at UW-Madison. It reminds “us that we cannot fully grasp the richness of American roots music without recognizing the many peoples, tongues, and sounds that – whether past or present, from mainstream or margins, deservedly acknowledged or unjustly ignored – have always made America great.”
The UW-Extension office said it depends on the lawn. Lawns that are solely turfgrass will provide few resources for pollinators. But lawns that have low-growing plants like dandelions will provide nectar and pollen.
KP.1.1 and KP.2, nicknamed FLiRT (pronounced “flirt”), are considered omicron variants, said University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of population health sciences Ajay Sethi. The “FL” and “RT” in the name refer to the mutations present in the variants that allow them to evade some of the immunity people have built up from past infections or vaccines.
The connection between humans and dogs has long been studied by researchers in fields like anthropology and psychology—but not by many economists. Interview with David Weimer, author of a new book that studies human-canine relationships through an economic lens.
We talk to authors of new book “Chasing the Stars,” James Lattis and Kelly Tyrrell, about the history and astronomical impact of the Washburn Observatory on the UW-Madison campus.
Dr. Keith Poulsen, director of the UW-Madison Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, has been monitoring a strain of avian influenza called H5N1 that has so far been identified in dairy cows in nine states. It has not been found in Wisconsin, but Poulsen said researchers are testing cows that are transported across state lines.
In those situations, having members of both parties present reduces the risk that observers might think poll workers are trying to benefit one side or another, said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“It should build trust in the system, because it means that each polling place, if it were staffed by at least one Republican and one Democratic poll worker, has a monitor from each party essentially keeping eyes on what’s happening,” Burden said.
Steve Vavrus, director of the Wisconsin State Climatology Office, said that continues an ongoing trend where many months have been warmer than normal.
“Not only here, but over most of the country,” Vavrus said. “And that would continue the long- term trend with our warming climate.”
Student protests across the UW system are as old as the universities themselves. One project is working to archive that history, specifically at UW-Madison. It’s called Sifting and Reckoning. It shares the history of student protests and uncovers the exclusion and violence toward marginalized groups on campus. Kacie Lucchini Butcher, the director of the Rebecca M Blanks Center for Campus History, shares about the project.
Research shows that traumatic experiences can shift the physical makeup of our brains, said Shanda Wells, behavioral health manager for Behavioral Health in Primary Care at UW Health. When we encounter life-threatening events, it can change how we react to other things, which makes processing those experiences all the more vital.
Beth Olson, an associate professor of nutritional sciences in the Department of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recently spoke to WPR’s “Central Time” about
A meteorite found in Wisconsin 15 years ago is now on display at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Geology Museum.
Column by Burden, a professor of political science at UW-Madison.
Many people brush off measles outbreaks as a problem for the unvaccinated, or dismiss spikes in mpox as an issue mainly for men who have sex with men, Ajay Sethi, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, told me. And they shrug off just about any epidemic that happens abroad.
UW Health’s Dr. Jeff Pothof joins News 3 Now Live at Four to discuss the importance of being vaccinated against measles.
An innovative program at UW-Madison is connecting communities throughout Wisconsin to education, outreach, technical assistance and research to help local governments solve challenges and improve livability and wellbeing.
PJ Liesch, an entomologist with the Division of Extension at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said defoliation could slow the growth of trees that may be logged for lumber. From a forest health perspective, it could also leave them vulnerable to secondary pests like the two lined chestnut borer. The insect, a native relative of the invasive emerald ash borer, typically targets weaker oak trees and starts killing branches in the upper canopy.
With spongy moth increasing for several years now, Liesch said there’s a lot of stressed oak trees. “So the secondary insects and problems can start popping up, and then it’s a very slippery slope leading to tree death in some situations,” Liesch said.
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison are leading a new nationwide hub for school mental health grants.
Katie Eklund, Stephen Kilgus and Andy Garbacz are in charge of METRICS, a new center dedicated to addressing students’ mental health needs. They’re co-directors of the School Mental Health Collaborative, under UW-Madison’s Department of Educational Psychology.
“Any habitat that provides more flowers is going to be a benefit to pollinators. That being said, if your lawn is all grass with no flowers at all, not mowing for the month of May is not going to have any impact on pollinators,” said Hannah Gaines-Day, research scientist at UW-Madison’s department of entomology. “So, if you’re participating just to participate but you have no flowers, then the pollinators are not going to see a benefit.”
“While opioids are involved in the majority of overdose deaths in the United States, we are increasingly seeing deaths involving a variety of other substances as well,” says Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, associate professor in the department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “Substance use trends also look quite different from one region to another.”
University of Wisconsin–Madison Vice Provost and CIO Lois Brooks shares how an internal group supports a vibrant, collegial IT community at the university.
The state’s top disease official says reports of public exposure to two infectious diseases in Wisconsin last week show new emphasis is needed on the importance of vaccines.
“I’m excited that states and institutions are thinking about ways to streamline the pipeline into college,” said Taylor Odle, assistant professor of educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has studied college admission policy extensively.
With Colorado becoming the ninth state to confirm bird flu in dairy cattle last Friday, Wisconsin farmers are becoming increasingly concerned about the spread of the highly contagious H5N1 avian influenza virus.
It’s having a deep impact on the labor force. According to a 2023 report from High Roads Strategy Center, part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin’s women labor force participation dropped below 60% for the first time since the late 1980s.
“Our relative (workforce) advantage shrank quite substantially over the last two years,” said Laura Dresser, associate director of High Roads Strategy Center. “We know that child care has been in crisis, even before the pandemic. Our structures for taking care of kids tend to weigh heavily on women and on women’s work.”
In 2012, a group of law students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison saw a need for free legal assistance among undocumented immigrants.
Around 200 immigrants were facing deportation in Wisconsin at that time, but there were few legal resources for them, especially in the Dane County area. In response, the students established the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Immigrant Justice Clinic.
On the Friday 8 O’Clock Buzz with Andy Moore, Dean Diana Hess from UW-Madison’s School of Education discusses the critical need for teachers in Wisconsin and the innovative Wisconsin Teacher Pledge program.
In some areas of the state, “from a distance, they can actually look like plumes of smoke because there are so many, probably tens or hundreds of thousands, in some of these mating swarms that they form,” said P.J. Liesch, director of the UW-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab.
Across the country, state lawmakers are cutting funding to their most prominent public universities.
That dwindling support for higher education was the subject of a panel at UW-Madison earlier this evening – and the School of Education’s Dr. Taylor Odlewas one of the panelists.
While public perceptions of the value of going to college have diminished in recent years, experts argue the lifelong earning potential for someone with a bachelor’s degree is worth the investment.
That was the message Wednesday from a forum about the future of flagship universities held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While ideological battles over diversity programs, curriculum and funding continue, universities must forcefully advocate for their value to society, the panelists said.
Several experts said the USDA’s plans to require testing in cows are a good start. “We need to be able to do greater surveillance so that we know what’s going on,” said Thomas Friedrich, a virology professor at the University of Wisconsin’s veterinary school.
Susan Carpenter, native plant garden curator and gardener at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum, told WPR’s “Central Time” that Wisconsin’s native bees have different ecological functions and needs than domesticated honey bees.
UW-Madison professor John Rudolph says instead of focusing on jobs and college prep, educators should teach what science is and establish trust in scientists. Rudolph joins us to discuss his book “Why We Teach Science (and Why We Should).”
Column by Menzie Chinn, professor of Public Affairs and Economics in the UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs and Department of Economics.
