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Category: UW Experts in the News

Milwaukee Airport Cab Limit Struck Down (AP)

Forbes

University of Wisconsin law professor Peter Carstensen, who represented the cab drivers, said the ruling should prompt the county to stop giving citations to taxi drivers picking up specific passengers. He said the county might also amend the ordinance to give those taxis a specific waiting area.

Prof: Control environment to control allergies

Capital Times

….More than 50 million Americans suffer from allergies, and the numbers continue to grow despite advances in antihistamines and other drugs. So why have we failed to reverse this trend?

“It’s time to look at the underlying causes of asthma and hay fever instead of only treating the symptoms,” says Gregg Mitman, a professor of medical history and history of science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Following his own advice, Mitman wrote the book “Breathing Space: How Allergies Shape Our Lives and Landscapes.” In it, he traces the impact allergic disease has had on American life, culture and landscape since the 19th century.

Loew: Wilson championed women’s athletics

Wisconsin State Journal

By PATTY LOEW: Last month when Jay Wilson left WKOW TV Channel 27 after 27 years (how appropriate), Wisconsin sports lost, not only one of its finest sportscasters, but also one of the nicest guys in the business.

In an industry that attracts big egos, I’ll remember Wilson as one of the most genuine and humblest TV personalities I’ve encountered. And witty? I always enjoyed his self-effacing banter and admired his ability to keep sports in perspective. But that’s not the only reason I’ll miss him.

A bioethics twist: artificial stem cells (Christian Science Monitor)

Christian Science Monitor

Scientists in the United States and Japan announced yesterday that they have developed artificial stem cells from adult mouse cells. If the approach can be retooled for humans, they say, it would avoid the ethical quicksand that surrounds the use of stem cells drawn from nascent human embryos.

“The real challenge is translating this to human cells, which seem far more resistant” to the kind of manipulation scientists used, notes Clive Svendsen, a stem-cell researcher at the University of Wisconsin’s Waisman Center in Madison, Wis. Still, he adds, “it is truly amazing that they can produce cells that look like embryonic stem cells.”

Researchers make stem cells from skin (Financial Times)

Financial Times

Three scientific teams published separate studies on Wednesday showing that embryonic stem cells can be made by reprogramming some of the genes in adult skin cells, without having to create an embryo â?? at least in mice.

â??Thereâ??s still a ways to go but at first blush, the results are very encouraging and itâ??s certainly a boost for the stem cell research business,â? said Terry Devitt, a director at the University of Wisconsinâ??s stem cell research programme. â??But we still have a bottleneck in the federal government. Weâ??re hamstrung because the research is inadequately funded.â?

Student radio station at Burlington High reaching online audience (The Racine Journal Times)

Racine Journal Times

Quoted: Dave Black said webcasting has become common for smaller stations, like Burlington’s, for which signal strength is usually an issue. The technology allows smaller stations to reach larger audiences.

Black, general manager of WSUM, the campus station at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said college radio stations like his tend to be early adapters of this type of technology. The Madison college station has been Webcasting since 1996.

Ex-Wis. senator implicated in Laos plot (AP)

La Crosse Tribune

Thao, also a Madison parks commissioner, proposed naming a park after Pao. He later backed off the idea after UW-Madison historian Alfred McCoy renewed allegations from his 1972 book that Pao engaged in drug trafficking with the CIA.

McCoy’s allegations angered the Hmong. Thao and George hit back, publicly questioning McCoy’s scholarship and asking the university for an investigation.

McCoy recalls Thao organizing busloads of Hmong protesters to picket outside his office for three weeks demanding that he be fired. He was not.

3 Teams Report Stem Cell Progress

Associated Press

By MALCOLM RITTER
AP Science Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — In a leap forward for stem cell research, three independent teams of scientists reported Wednesday that they have produced the equivalent of embryonic stem cells in mice without the controversial destruction of embryos.

They got ordinary skin cells to behave like stem cells. If the same could be done with human cells – a big if – the procedure could lead to breakthrough medical treatments without the contentious ethical and political debates surrounding the use of embryos.

Experts were impressed by the achievement.

Quoted (in 6/6/07 Capital Times): UW-Madison stem cell researcher Clive Svendsen)

UW prof: I tried to warn School Board

Capital Times

As the Madison School Board was meeting Monday night to confirm its decision to name a new elementary school for Gen. Vang Pao, reports were coming in that the Hmong general had been indicted and arrested by federal authorities as the alleged mastermind of a plot to violently overthrow the government of Laos.

The irony was not lost on Alfred McCoy, the J.R.W. Smail Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. McCoy had been fiercely criticized by supporters of the school-naming proposal, including members of the School Board, for loudly challenging the notion that Vang Pao should be honored.

Vang charges reignite school name debate

Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison history professor Alfred McCoy and others have long alleged that Vang Pao presided over drug running and summary executions while working with the CIA on the so-called secret war against communists in Laos during the Vietnam War. Many Hmong and other researchers deny the allegations.

Wisconsin speller finishes 3rd

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Mentions that Madison’s leading speller was tutored by Jeff Kirsch, a professor of Portuguese and Spanish at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has been working with Isabel Jacobson weekly since last February, for no fee. The story also quotes Kirsch.