Category: Experts Guide

Quoted: “We should expect exceptional voter turnout in Wisconsin in 2020,” says University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Barry Burden, another turnout expert.

Wisconsin’s climate and farming industry make it an ideal environment for growing hemp, according to Irwin Goldman, professor and chairman of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Horticulture.

Noted: Critics such as Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of law and bioethics, say such legislation doesn’t do anything beyond stirring up an ugly fight because there are already laws in place that protect babies as soon as they’re born.

Noted: Includes tips from Cliff A. Robb, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Consumer Science, Faculty Director, Consumer Finance & Financial Planning, School of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: “The trouble is if you look at the official poverty measure, it doesn’t cover things like the taxes they pay or the cost of going to work, and it doesn’t include the Earned Income Tax Credit or SNAP (food stamps) and other non-cash benefits,” said Timothy Smeeding, professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former director of the poverty institute.

Noted: According to University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Howard Schweber, it’s no longer a question. Running as an independent with no political support is a losing strategy.

Quoted: “The knife-edge politics of Wisconsin mean that Trump will not be able to take the state for granted,” said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “However important Wisconsin is to the Trump campaign, it will be even more essential to the Democrats.”

“I hope it’s a matter of when [national regulation is put in place], and not if,” said David Abel, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who focuses on energy systems, air pollution and public health. “It really has to be, if we’re going to avoid some of this really catastrophic damage.”

As for Trump’s rhetoric about “executing” babies, it and the bills to which it referred are meant to evoke a “visceral reaction,” according to Jenny Higgins, a professor in Gender and Women’s Studies and in Obstetrics and Gynecology at UW-Madison. “In addition to these claims being false, about doctors executing newborns, I would just emphasize that these bills just distract us” from a broader debate about abortion, contraception and related issues, Higgins said.

Quoted: “He still has his Trump base in Wisconsin and all around the county, and these are the people who come for the rallies,” said David Canon, a professor of American politics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “But it’s a relatively small percentage of the overall electorate right now in Wisconsin.”

Quoted: “You think of all the ways people interact with lake ice — skating, fishing derbies, iceboats,” said John Magnuson, an ecologist and limnologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “And already, in some of these lakes you have about a month less to do it.”

Quoted: “There are pros and cons, but if we were to just implement a cashless society with the current system, it would be pretty negative for low-income people,” said J. Michael Collins, faculty director of the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Quoted: “This is a global problem,” says Jordan Gerth, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

In the Democratic primary in Wisconsin, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont — its 2016 winner — likely starts the 2020 cycle with a modest advantage, said UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden.

Noted: CNG has been used in vehicles for about 30 years, UW-Madison mechanical engineering professor Glenn Bower said.

Quoted: Communicating visually can have a powerful effect on relationships, said Catalina Toma, a digital communications professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

“Nonverbal cues could be successfully used for getting people’s attention and engagement, and can facilitate a feeling of closeness, liking and trust actually,” she said.

Quoted: Although Sanders’ message may be mainstream now, Howard Schweber, a UW-Madison political science professor, says that doesn’t assure the Vermont senator the Democratic nomination. In the last election, many younger and more progressive voters were “uninspired” by Hillary Clinton, he says.

“That is not likely to occur if Bernie is pitted against someone like Kamala Harris, for example,” Schweber says.

Barry Burden, another UW-Madison political science professor, agrees that the competition will make it harder for Sanders to stand out this time around. “He is just one among almost 20 Democratic candidates rather than being seen as the main alternative to the establishment frontrunner,” Burden says. “Many of his fellow candidates have positions that mimic his agenda, so it will be harder for Sanders to differentiate himself in such a field.”

David Egan-Robertson, a demographer with the Applied Population Lab at UW-Madison, said the effects of the economic recovery are starting to be more widely apparent.

“The challenge for them is of growth, and many, many good companies have been felled by the challenge of growth,” said Hart Posen, who studies corporate strategy and strategic decision-making at the UW-Madison School of Business. “The key is understanding how to grow, but in the last 15 to 20 years, they’ve made a lot of very smart decisions.”

Quoted: Cybersecurity expert David Schroeder, an information technology strategist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, confirmed the security benefits of a unified 5G block of spectrum. According to Schroeder, “A single ‘domain’, so to speak, whether wireless spectrum or any other kind of network or medium, is always going to be easier to provision, manage, and secure than many disparate networks with different ownership/administrative structures and management regimes.” Schroeder said that is one advantage to a Unified 5G, “in no small part because of how pervasive it is likely to be.”

In October 2018, law professor Erin Barbato and her students represented a Cuban man in a political asylum case. He was “beaten, detained (and) threatened with disappearance by the Cuban authorities twice,” said Barbato, director of the Immigrant Justice Clinic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. He fled when his wife was eight months pregnant because he was accused of a crime he didn’t commit and knew he didn’t have any other options. He traveled to South America and walked all the way to the border. He was granted asylum.

Interview with Julie Mead, Associate Dean for Education and Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.

“Politically speaking, the election was tremendous (for conservatives),” said UW-Madison law professor Ryan Owens. “It was a huge victory.”

Noted: Paul Wilson, a University of Wisconsin-Madison nuclear engineering professor, disagrees, saying nuclear can play a role in the reduction of carbon so long as the U.S.’s current fleet of about 100 nuclear power plants is maintained and innovation in the field — such as building smaller reactors that are less expensive — is supported.

Quoted: And mobilizing those voters is always key, said Ryan Owens, a professor of political science at UW-Madison and director of the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership on campus. “Whoever mobilizes is going to be able to get there, get the victory. That shouldn’t be a huge shock. I think every election is like that,” he said.

Quoted: “When you do store things, the information the manufacturer provides can be really important,” said Barb Ingham, who as professor and food science extension specialist for the University of Wisconsin fields questions about food safety from around the state. “The shelf dating is really important … to getting the most for the money you spent for that product,” she said. “You’ll get the most quality for what you consume if you follow that date.

Quoted: “Generally young people don’t vote in midterms. They vote even less in spring elections. Spring elections are for school boards and mayors and young people are often a little more transient and less engaged with those local issues,” said University of Wisconsin – Madison journalism professor Lewis Friedland.

Quoted: The three main pollutants of most concern in Earth’s atmosphere are ground-level ozone, fine particulate matter and carbon dioxide, Tracey Holloway, University of Wisconsin professor and air pollution and public health specialist, said.

“The U.S. is very active and successful in eliminating emissions that affect public health, carbon dioxide is not one that affects public health,” Holloway said.

Quoted: Barry Burden, University of Wisconsin political science professor and director of the UW Elections Research Center, said the GOP spending increases were not necessarily a surprise.

“Because of the expected ‘blue wave’ and the success that Democrats had in several special elections earlier in the year, there was more sense in 2018 that Republican control was in jeopardy,” Burden said. “This was especially true in the State Senate, where Democrats only needed to pick up two seats to become the majority party. As a result, several key Senate seats saw a tremendous amount of spending by both sides.”

One reason is people tend to care more about politics after finishing their education, getting a job and starting a family, said Connie Flanagan, associate dean of the UW-Madison School of Human Ecology and an expert on youth and politics — milestones that millennials and Gen Zers are hitting at later ages than previous generations.

Noted: Donna Friedsam, health policy programs director of UW-Madison’s Population Health Institute, said Boasberg’s criticism of work requirements could be applied in other cases that challenge such rules. She said the threat of litigation could also persuade some states to think twice before implementing their requirements.

Noted: UW Madison College of Engineering Associate Professor Laura Albert says picking special numbers like birth dates don’t increase your odds of winning.

In fact, if you pick higher numbers in the 40’s and up-it’s more likely you won’t have to share your winnings should you hit the jackpot.

Quoted: “I expect her to win and potentially by a large margin,” Barry Burden, a UW-Madison professor of political science and director of its Elections Research Center, said in an interview last week. He speculated that the decision of outside conservative groups “not to invest in Hagedorn’s campaign tells me that they have concluded that the campaign is in trouble, and don’t want to throw good money after bad.”