Category: Experts Guide

Quoted: Mark Copelovitch, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison LaFollette School of Public Affairs and expert on international political economy and the European Union, said Harley-Davidson’s announcement highlights the impact of Trump’s tariffs on U.S. companies.

“Harley-Davidson’s announcement illustrates the serious and direct consequences for American companies of the Trump administration’s protectionist trade policies and the retaliatory tariffs imposed by the EU and other major trading partners such as Canada and China,” Copelovitch said in an email. “Harley’s announced plans to shift production of its motorcycles for sale in the EU is the predictable response of a firm facing rising prices overseas for its exports as a result of the tariffs, which would raise the price of motorcycles sold in Europe by about $2,200 on average.”

Noted: Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist, said the party endorsement does not guarantee that Vukmir will win the nomination.

Quoted: In the Obama Administration, time in O.R.R. care was approximately a month, on average. We worried a lot about variations of a few days. There have been reports that stays are closer to two months now,” Maria Cancian, who between 2015 and 2016 served as H.H.S.’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy in the Administration for Children and Families, told me. Such delays inevitably lead to overcrowding and a lack of space. Often, the O.R.R. prefers to send children, particularly young ones, into foster care, so that the child can benefit from a stable family setting while waiting for placement with a more permanent guardian. But many such programs are currently overextended.

Noted: To determine what that “something” was, Serido and her research partner, professor Soyeon Shim of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, continued to study the same subjects as they advanced through their 20s.

The tick population is growing across Wisconsin, and so is the population of deer ticks carrying Lyme Disease. That’s according to Susan Paskewtiz, a professor of Etymology at UW-Madison. Paskewitz has been working with software developers and her team to launch the “Tick App”. It’s a smartphone application where users log their encounters with ticks. The logged information provides data for UW-Madison researchers to track tick populations and locations.

Quoted: This rejection of some scientific facts doesn’t surprise Dominique Brossard, PhD, Chair of the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A leading expert in the field of science communications, Dr. Brossard’s research focuses on the intersection of science, media, and policy. With evidence-based findings as her guide, Dr. Brossard knows that effective communication requires more than telling others that your expertise trumps their opinion. “We know that informing people of scientific facts doesn’t automatically change their mind about topics related to health, science, and technology,” she explained. “People rely on underlying psychological mechanisms that may not take facts into account. Because of that, just providing scientific information to the public is not effective enough to sway opinion about complex science issues.”

Quoted: Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said it’s clear the public is “mostly not attuned to the insider conversation” about the Democratic candidates and that the resources available to each candidate will start to matter more as each campaign intensifies this summer ahead of the August primary.

Noted: Podcast includes interview with Lisa Ruth Rand, historian of science technology and the environment.

Noted: WORT Producer Nina Kravinsky brings you the story along with an interview from with UW-Madison Political Science Professor David Canon, analyzing today’s Supreme Court decision.

Noted: People may be seeing these wild animals more frequently for a number of reasons, said David Drake, an extension wildlife specialist and lead researcher for the UW-Madison Urban Canid Project. Coyote populations are likely increasing in number while also becoming less afraid of humans, prompting everyday encounters in the park, on the sidewalk, and even in backyards.

Q&A with David Canon.

Noted: Interview with Andra Ghent, associate professor of real estate and urban land economics.

Noted: Chris Kucharik is a professor of Ergonomics and Environment at UW-Madison. He describes the distinct appearance of the algae.

Noted: Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said though the Democrats won just one of the two contests held Tuesday, both districts moved significantly in the Democratic direction from voting patterns in the 2016 presidential election.

The chain had not been profitable for years. Wisconsin School of Business professor Hart Posen argued in an April 20 interview with Wisconsin Public Radio’s Central Time that the company wasn’t competing very effectively with its retail peers, to say nothing of online challengers. “Really the fundamental problem at Bon-Ton was there was nothing distinctive about them,” Posen said. “They weren’t low-price, they didn’t have the best selection, they didn’t have the best customer service. There was nothing that would really make you go into a Bon-Ton store … Bon-Ton would have been in trouble, I think, regardless.”

Quoted: David Canon, professor and chair of the political science department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said research suggests there is an advantage to being higher on the ballot — particularly in such a large field. “There is definitely work I’ve seen that says that being first is definitely an advantage to being second,” he said.

Noted: “There’s some risk that if (the party’s) candidate doesn’t win the primary, they have to decide what to do,” said UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden. “Neither candidate is going away anytime soon.”

Quoted: Mostly floodwater species of mosquitoes — those bloodsuckers laying eggs in heavy woods, low-lying areas or wherever they find a pool of water, such as a tire or bird bath — were out in force for the first time over the holiday weekend, said Patrick Liesch, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison insect diagnostics lab.

Quoted: Alfonso Morales, a professor of food systems and urban planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, seconded that. “Urban agriculture is a process,” he said. “It’s not something that happens from one day to the next.”

Noted: “In general, the results look like (what) I would have expected from the general literature on perceptions of police,” said Pam Oliver, a UW-Madison sociology professor who’s studied racial disparities in criminal justice in Wisconsin. “There is a substantial literature that says the police and policing are actually different in different kinds of places or for different kinds of people, so that experiences with police differ.”

Quoted: Dee Warmath, an assistant professor of consumer science at the School of Human Ecology.

Quoted: “Ticks are definitely out in full force at the moment, so anyone heading outdoors this Memorial Day weekend should be on the lookout,” said P.J. Liesch, extension entomologist and director of the UW-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab.

Noted: The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is among the groups that say a personhood measure could criminalize certain forms of birth control. Alta Charo, a professor with expertise in law and bioethics at UW-Madison, said the same. Charo, who served on former President Barack Obama’s transition team, said certain infertility treatments such as in-vitro fertilization also could be affected.

Quoted: “Retailers prefer sampling events to price-based promotions, such as coupons or temporary price reductions, because these events encourage consumers to try a product and build loyalty that won’t disappear once the price goes back up,” said Qing Liu, an associate professor in marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who contributed to the study.

Noted: “We’re seeing more interest now as we’re seeing bigger populations of people in urban areas – food deserts – looking at ways to get food production closer to the consumer,” said Johanna Oosterwyk. She’s the manager at D.C. Greenhouse on UW-Madison’s campus.

Noted: Today’s media is so diverse in its mission, style and point of view that there is something for everyone to hate (or like). But the mistrust of the “mainstream media” on the right has reached a point where it is reinforced by practically everything that happens in the Trump presidency, said Dhavan Shah, a professor of mass communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Noted: Bob Turner says he can think like a criminal, not just because of his job tracking them down at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as the chief information security officer, but also because he’s been a victim of them.

Includes interview with Lesley Sager, a faculty associate in design studies at the School of Human Ecology.

Interview with Hart Posen of the Wisconsin School of Business.

Noted: Unlike a check or credit card payment, a bitcoin transaction provides no form of positive ID — unless the sender independently confirms the transaction, said Brad Chandler, who directs the Nicholas Center for Corporate Finance and Investment Banking at UW-Madison.

Quoted: “Getting out in front of a story like this is textbook crisis management,” said Thomas O’Guinn Chair of UW Marketing Department. “What they did how they responded, they didn’t argue with the customer – didn’t say no you don’t understand this.”

Quoted: One reason the equable, fifty-six-year-old Baldwin “is being so heavily targeted,” Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, said, is that she is the most visible elected Democrat in the state. “Over the past eight years, Republicans have had tremendous success retaking the governorship, both chambers of the state legislature, and statewide offices,” Burden said. “The Baldwin seat is the most highly coveted prize for Republicans to gain.”

“They’ve been important to their communities here in the state,” said Jerry O’Brien, executive director of the Kohl’s Center for Retailing Excellence at UW-Madison, said of Bon-Ton stores. “Retail is in a state of disruption right now and the role of the department store has changed.”

Noted: Even more significant are the blighting effects on survivors. Charlie Trevor of University of Wisconsin–Madison and Anthony Nyberg of University of South Carolina found that downsizing a workforce by 1% leads to a 31% increase in voluntary turnover the next year.

Quoted: “Many people are being revived with naloxone over and over again, and the drug is critical in saving these lives,” said Anita Mukherjee, one of the study’s authors and professor in the department of Risk and Insurance at the Wisconsin School of Business. “But we need to give them treatment so that they are not in the risky position again.”

Barry Burden, a UW-Madison political science professor, said Kleefisch’s district — the 38th, which covers far western Milwaukee suburbs — is a reliably conservative area in a conventional election year and likely will be in November.