Category: UW Experts in the News

But Alta Charo, a UW-Madison law professor who served in President Barack Obama’s administration, said the ban likely would be pre-empted by another state law that criminalizes abortion after the point of fetal viability. That law is much more recent — having been enacted after the Roe decision — and worded so as to imply the legality of abortion before viability, Charo said.

Mark Stephenson, the director of dairy policy analysis for UW-Madison’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, addressed the current double whammy faced by Wisconsin cheesemakers. “Even if we can kind of get this trade stuff behind us and we can start to successfully renegotiate trade pacts with other countries or blocks of countries, those other things are still in place and it makes it just that much harder for us,” Stephenson said. “It’s non-tariff barrier to trade and it’s going to take a long, hard time to recover from it.”

Quoted: “There are many possible negative mental health concerns that appear to be associated with high ACE scores, including depression, anxiety, ADHD, suicide attempts,” said Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, associate professor of pediatrics at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. “However, there are also many negative physical concerns, including higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.”

Quoted: Susan Paskewitz, a professor of entomology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said this year’s tick season is not expected to be any worse than last year’s. But things have been different.

Eleanor Neff Powell, associate professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and faculty affiliate of the Elections Research Center, said that the upcoming election will present challenges for GOP candidates.

You’re not imagining things. Madison is having a “bad mosquito year,” according to University of Wisconsin Extension entomologist PJ Liesch.

Noted: According to UW-Madison economics professor Noah Williams, between July of 2014 and May of 2018, fast-food employment grew 8.8% in Wisconsin, but only 4.8% in Minnesota.

Quoted: “But then again, the life of the former Vice President for Student Affairs and Professor of Counselor Education at Northeastern Illinois University has been nothing short of extraordinary, which is why in retirement, he’s become the subject of a new Festschrift — “a time-honored academic tradition that recognizes the retirement of a noted and celebrated scholar by other scholars contributing original work to a volume dedicated to the honoree,” says Dr. Jerlando F. L. Jackson, one of the co-editors of Advancing Equity and Diversity in Student Affairs, the Festschrift in honor of Terrell that was released late last year.

Interview with Terry Warfield, PwC Professor, Richard J. Johnson Chair of Accounting & Information Systems, Wisconsin School of Business

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement this week, leaving President Trump with a second pick for the high court within his first two years of office. UW-Madison political science professor Ryan Owens lends his insight to who might replace Kennedy and what the retirement of the justice means for Wisconsin’s Gill v. Whitford redistricting case.

Quoted: Noah Williams, a UW-Madison professor of economics, said that when the Trump administration first announced its tariffs, many predicted they would be a short-term negotiating ploy. Since the retaliatory tariffs have been announced, “those hopes are dwindling,” he said. “I don’t really see any signs of people stepping back.”

“They’re just trying to defend their nests,” explained Anna Pidgeon, associate professor in the department of forest and wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Mammals are a threat to eggs or to nestlings.”

Modern science ignored fathers for decades. Thousands of studies document how motherhood impacts women but, until recently, we weren’t even sure that having children makes men happy—let alone how it impacts their biology or psychology. And, even now, as more research take an interest in the male experience of family, undisputed facts remain few and far between. “There’s some conflicting work out there,” explains Margaret Kerr, a psychologist who studies the emotional experiences of parents at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Some say overall life satisfaction declines, others that it stays the same, and some work says it increases. So… that’s not super helpful.”

Noted: A change of less than 2 degrees may not seem significant, especially in a state where daily temperatures swings of 40 degrees are not uncommon, but averaged over years and thousands of square miles, it’s a big deal, said Stephen Vavrus, senior scientist at the Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: Ryan Owens, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of political science and the director of the Tommy Thompson Center on Public Leadership, said the effects of the ruling were already felt in Wisconsin in 2011 after Gov. Scott Walker signed Wisconsin Act 10 into law.

Quoted: Ryan Owens, a UW-Madison political science professor and expert on the U.S. Supreme Court, said it’s likely public unions nationally will see similar membership declines after the court’s ruling.

Quoted: Noah Williams, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said when firms face an uncertain future, particularly with political or policy implications, they may be reluctant to take on long-term investments that forgo income or profits today in the hope of higher revenue in the future.

Quoted: “Back in the day, the majority of exercise studies focused on the parts of the body from the neck down, like the heart and lungs. But now we are finding that we need to go north, to the brain, to show the true benefits of a physically active lifestyle on an individual.”?—?Ozioma Okonkwo, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

Noted: In the second half, guest Robert Yablon explains the voters rolls case
Husted v. A. Phillip Randolph Institute. He’s an Assistant Professor at the UW-Madison Law School, where he researches election law, constitutional law, federal courts, and statutory interpretation.