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Category: UW Experts in the News

An aging, declining population of hunters spells trouble for Wisconsin deer management

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Social scientists, including Thomas Heberlein of the University of Wisconsin (now professor emeritus of community and environmental sociology), have been examining and documenting a decline in hunting in the U.S. for decades.

The rate of decline in gun deer hunting was predicted 16 years ago by a team of University of Wisconsin and Department of Natural Resources researchers.

The researchers, Richelle Winkler and Jennifer Huck of UW’s Applied Population Lab in Madison and Keith Warnke of the DNR, released a draft of their study in 2007 titled “Deer Hunter Demography: Age, Period, and Cohort Analysis of Trends in Hunter Participation in Wisconsin.“

The Right-Wing Website Behind the ‘Inhumane’ Outing of an Alabama Mayor

Posted on
The Daily Beast

Kathleen Bartzen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told The Daily Beast that the private life of a public official is relevant to a news audience when it affects them in a meaningful way. She listed one example: If a public official is embezzling public funds to pay for hotel rooms for their extramarital affair. “But when it is purely the private life of a public official, I struggle to see the public interest that’s served by reporting on that private life,” Culver said.

UW Health nurses reporting safety concerns to state amid labor dispute

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Nurses at UW Health submitted paperwork Thursday urging Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services to investigate concerns about patient safety.

It’s the latest escalation amid an ongoing labor dispute with the health care system, as nurses who are pushing for collective bargaining power raise alarms about the effects of under-staffing, employee turnover and worker burnout.

UW-Madison team works to identify lost service members from Wisconsin and beyond

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Every county in Wisconsin has at least one service member missing in action since Pearl Harbor. A team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is working to identify them and others at sites around the world.

Graduate and undergraduate students, professors and others at the university make up the team working on the Missing in Action Recovering and Identification Project, or UW MIA RIP. They all volunteer their time to travel to sites around the globe to find and repatriate the remains of soldiers lost in war.

Answering common questions about Wisconsin’s eviction process and tenant rights

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

If a tenant were to receive a second five-day eviction notice for nonpayment of rent within the same leasing year, then a landlord can give a no-cure notice, but the resident must be given 14 days to vacate, according to Sophie Crispin, director of the Eviction Defense Clinic at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Jewish students learn to cope with war at campus safe space

Posted on
Spectrum News

Joshua Manders is a Jewish student studying at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Manders said since the Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7, his life has become very stressful.

“It definitely has been tough, that first week where, the first few days, especially when the war first broke out, it is a lot of emotions to go through,” said Manders.

Manders has direct connections to the war. That’s not unlike many other Jewish students on the UW-Madison campus.

Democratic lawmakers propose funds for universal, free school meals

Posted on
WORT FM

Earlier this summer, the Healthy School Meals for All coalition and UW-Madison Professor Jennifer Gaddis released the first statewide survey of the Wisconsin school nutrition workforce.

That report found that of the approximately 5,089 K-12 school nutrition workers across the state, 94% were women, and 88% were white.

It also found that four out of five school food workers who were not managers worked part-time, and that a quarter of schools across the state offered poverty-level starting wages for school nutrition workers.

To fill Milwaukee special education teacher jobs, program pays for master’s at UW-Madison

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The UW–Madison Special Education Teacher Residency Program comes with a commitment: three years working in MPS after finishing the master’s. Those teachers continue receiving mentorship and guidance for at least the first two years of teaching after finishing the degree.

Collisions with deer spike every November. One surprising factor? Daylight saving time

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Timothy Van Deelen is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology. He said the breeding season increases the likelihood of human-deer interactions for three or four weeks each fall.

“The male deer is almost a different animal during the breeding season, behaviorally,” Van Deelen said. “Bucks will dramatically extend their home range, and mature bucks are moving through their big home range trying to find does who are receptive to being bred.”

Russian Lawmaker Wants a ‘Ministry of Happiness’ as Citizens Sour on War

Posted on
Newsweek

Mikhail Troitskiy, professor of practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek that while Matviyenko is likely not among the most corrupt politicians in Russia, her comments should be viewed in the context of the country’s current political situation. Russia is known for public figures who may struggle to properly express their sentiments, or those of the citizenry, because they avoid taboo subject matter.

Science of fainting: New research showing link between brain and heart offers clues

Posted on
NBC News

“Oftentimes we’re just scratching our heads as to what to do about it,” said Dr. Zachary Goldberger, a cardiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health who wasn’t part of the new research.“Now that these scientists have helped us to understand that there’s a possible mechanism for it, you could potentially imagine that there’ll be therapies on the horizon,” he said.

Thomas Jefferson Could Lose His Plant Over Slave Ownership

Posted on
Newsweek

Changes could impact the twinleaf, a type of flowering plant that grows in more than a dozen states in the eastern United States. The twinleaf’s scientific name is Jeffersonia diphylla, named after Jefferson, who is a controversial figure in American history known for being a slave owner. Jefferson reportedly grew the plant in his gardens at Monticello, his primary plantation in Virginia, the University of Wisconsin-Madison reported.

What you need to know about proposed amendments to Wisconsin election policy

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

This week, the State Legislature debated a series of election-related amendments to the state Constitution. The Republican-led proposals would outlaw private funding for elections, prevent non-U.S. citizens from voting in local elections and have current voter photo ID requirements written into the state constitution.

Interview with Howard Schweber, professor of political science and legal studies at UW-Madison.

Fact check: Scott Walker mostly misses the mark by calling Wisconsin a blue state

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Elections Research Center, said the situation in the state is not as black and white  … er, blue and red, as Walker claimed.

“It seems factually incorrect to call Wisconsin a blue state,” he said via email, adding Wisconsin is actually remarkably balanced between Democrats and Republicans.

Fact check: Claim that Wisconsin abortion restrictions worsened OB-GYN shortage half-true

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In fact, the UW Health spokesperson said the hospital isn’t certain if its decrease in applications is an indication of a trend – though she noted that some applicants have asked about the 1849 law in their interviews.

Dr. Ellen Hartenbach, chair of the OB-GYN department at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, also told Wisconsin Health News in May that the university is uncertain if abortion restrictions caused this year’s decrease in applicants.

How and Why Do Violent Tornadoes Form?

Posted on
Smithsonian Magazine

Atmospheric scientist Leigh Orf of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has taken advantage of advances in supercomputing to build ten-meter-resolution models that can directly simulate tornadoes. At this scale, turbulence comes alive, Orf says. His models reveal how small areas of rotation could combine to kick off a tornado. “It fully resolves non-tornadic vortices that merge together in ways that are very compelling and I’ve never seen before,” he says.

Youths are struggling with anxiety, depression more than ever. UW team trying to get more psychologists in the pipeline.

Posted on
Wausau Daily Herald

Every year, 60 to 70 school psychologist positions in Wisconsin go unfilled.

That’s based on the most recent data collected by the Wisconsin School Psychologists Association. And it’s a good reminder why Katie Eklund, co-director of the School Mental Health Collaborative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, spends her time focusing on workforce initiatives.

Weather Guys: Sea ice update, waterspouts and celebrating 75 years of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at UW-Madison

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Sea ice is one way that scientists can learn about the effects of climate change. The Weather Guys are back to share about this year’s sea ice season. They’ll also fill us in on waterspouts and 75 years of the UW-Madison Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

New drone technology could help scientists finally understand how tornadoes form

Posted on
Inverse

Most models working at coarser resolutions can’t actually see simulated tornadoes, inferring them instead based on areas of air with a lot of spins. Atmospheric scientist Leigh Orf of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has taken advantage of advances in supercomputing to build 10-meter-resolution models that can directly simulate tornadoes. At this scale, turbulence comes alive, Orf says. His models reveal how small areas of rotation could combine to kick off a tornado. “It fully resolves non-tornadic vortices that merge together in ways that are very compelling, and I’ve never seen before,” he says.

State climatologist Steve Vavrus wants to help Wisconsin adapt as our climate changes

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

And while Vavrus started off a Boilermaker, earning his undergraduate degree in meteorology at Purdue, he’s been a Badger for decades — for so long, in fact, that as the newest state climatologist, Vavrus is now referencing his own graduate work from the 1990s as he investigates how Wisconsin’s climate has changed.

Can the gray wolf help control CWD-infected deer? Great Lakes tribes and UW scientists team up to find out

Posted on
WUWM-89.7 Milwaukee

Last week, as scientists gathered inside a cozy research station in north central Wisconsin, not far from Minocqua, Michael Menon was one of the researchers in the room.

He’s the UW-Madison PhD student chosen to conduct the wolf study that’s being funded and co-led by the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission.

Wisconsin poverty has come down from highs of the 2008 recession, but still above early 2000s lows

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Steven Deller, the report’s author and an agricultural and applied economics professor at UW-Madison, said he attributes the state’s inability to return to the low poverty rates it saw in the late ’90s and early 2000s to a shift away from more highly-paid manufacturing jobs toward a more service-based economy, the state’s decline in unionization and a slow recovery from the Great Recession.

Republicans have ruled Wisconsin for a decade – but a court decision could change that

Posted on
The Guardian

“The party majorities are sufficiently large that the legislature can get away with being completely unresponsive to anything a majority of voters want,” said Ken Mayer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. “If you can’t lose, you don’t have to care. If you run the risk of losing, based on not caring, you will start to care.”

Wisconsin business leaders see AI’s potential. Are companies ready?

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

In an August presentation, Somesh Jha, a computer science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the technology could be a threat to cybersecurity and could be misused to spread misinformation.

For example, there’s already a “fine-tuned” AI that can write spam emails, he said. AI can also be used to create fake images and videos that look real, known as “deepfakes.” Jha said deepfakes could be used, unethically, during elections to sway public opinion.

“This is coming,” he said. “I can tell you that there are people (who) are really scared.”

UW-Madison program will boost special education teaching pipeline in Milwaukee Public Schools

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Over the next three years, Milwaukee Public Schools will have help securing candidates for some of its toughest-to-fill teaching jobs.

A new partnership between MPS and the University of Wisconsin-Madison provides on-the-job training through a 10-month teaching residency, paired with a special education teacher preparation master’s degree program.

Dairy workers on Wisconsin’s small farms are dying. Many of those deaths are never investigated.

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Lola Loustaunau, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School for Workers, said that “it would really open the door for a lot of protections for workers” if OSHA consistently inspected small dairy farms that provide housing to immigrant workers.

“If they are politically interested in doing something,” she added, “it looks like they have all the basis to do it.”

A spider was found inside a woman’s ear. Such cases are rare, doctors say, but not unheard of.

Posted on
NBC News

Dr. Stacey Ishman, an otolaryngology instructor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, estimated that she has treated about eight patients with insects in their ears over her 23-year career — often people who did outdoor activities like camping.

“Most of the time the ear is completely fine,” said Ishman, who also wasn’t involved in the new report. “If there’s some injury to the ear canal, quite honestly it’s more often from people trying to get it out than it is from the bug itself.”

NY natural history museum changing how it looks after thousands of human remains in collection

Posted on
Washington Post

Susan Lederer, professor of medical history and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin’s medical school, said that as the number of medical schools increased in the 19th century and dissection became an essential part of training, schools needed to find more cadavers.

States passed laws making unclaimed bodies, mostly of very poor people, available to medical schools.

“It reflects longstanding assumptions about the differences between middle-class and either working-class or underclass people” that it was deemed acceptable to turn certain bodies over but not others, she said.

Wisconsin reaches an all-time high in domestic violence-related deaths

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

In 2022, Wisconsin saw a record-setting increase in domestic violence-related suicides and homicides, up 20 percent compared to the previous year. We talk to Mariel Barnes, an assistant professor in the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison, about why Wisconsin’s domestic violence problem is worsening, and what we can do to improve outcomes for victims.

Wisconsin’s voter ID law is being debated again — with a twist

Posted on
The Capital Times

But in light of Protasiewicz’s victory, Barry Burden, a professor of political science at UW-Madison, noted that “the two parties are looking at the Constitution and litigation differently than they used to.”

He added that voter ID would be a logical place for conservatives to start, if they were serious about pursuing a strategy of embracing constitutional amendments.

Bill would block losing primary candidates from running write-in campaigns

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

University of Wisconsin-Madison Political Science Professor Barry Burden told WPR that, unlike Wisconsin, most states have banned losing primary candidates from running in general elections.

“I do wonder if this is coming from Republicans, in part, because of a concern that there might be candidates who splinter off from the Republican Party if Trump is the nominee next year,” Burden said.

Wisconsin organizations urge lawmakers to embrace local approach to reducing childhood obesity

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

In 2018, the UW-Madison’s Division of Extension received a $2.5 million five-year grant from the CDC’s High Obesity program to address obesity in Menominee County. The funding led to the Kemāmaceqtaq: We’re All Moving initiative, which worked with county and tribal government and community groups.

Gauthier, who helped lead the initiative, said the last five years of work have focused on changing policies and making environmental improvements to support healthy choices. The initiative has helped local government buildings, schools and community groups adopt new nutrition policies, supported a local farmers market program and led a walking audit of the county to identify how to improve infrastructure for walking and biking.

Amber Canto is director of the Health and Wellbeing Institute with the UW-Madison’s Division of Extension and project director for the High Obesity Program grant funding. She said they’ve received another five-year award to continue their work in Menominee County and begin work in Ashland County, which now also has an obesity rate of more than 40 percent.

Canto said they’ve tracked increases in healthy food options and recreationally-accessible miles, but the bigger impacts are harder to quantify this early on.

“That data has shown, from a theory perspective, that if these opportunities are present that the behavior and therefore the health outcomes will shift over time,” she said at Monday’s hearing.

A Wauwatosa homeowner got an unsolicited cash offer to buy their home. Here’s why it’s likely too good to be true

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

University of Wisconsin-Madison clinical law professor Mitch said the price listed is likely less than what the homeowner would get by listing their home for sale publicly.

The fake check at the top of the ad appears to be one of the many marketing methods people are using to buy and then resell homes for profit, Mitch said.

“The idea is that sending out lots of letters or texts could be worth it if they get enough responses from people looking to sell,” he said.

Milwaukee homicides 4th most in nation per capita: study

Posted on
Fox 6 Milwaukee

“Mayor Johnson is doing some really interesting things, trying to bring in business and economic activity into the city,” said Alvin Thomas, an assistant professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “That is going to be necessary to afford people the opportunities to take care of themselves.

“At the core are things like mental health, access to jobs – jobs that will allow an individual to respectively be able to care for their children and family and community.”

Mississippi River basin residents worry about the environment and want change, study finds. But many don’t know they’re in the basin.

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“If you had asked (about environmental changes) 20 years ago, it would (have been) really different,” said Dominique Brossard, chair of the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who reviewed a summary of the study’s findings.

“I think it’s promising that people are realizing there are environmental issues impacting their region as a whole,” she added.

Burying power lines for wildfire prevention is effective but expensive

Posted on
CNBC

“So one option is to essentially just shut down the power line, because if there is no voltage and no current on the line, there is no chance of this release of energy happening and then there is no chance of an ignition,” explains Line Roald, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison whose work includes modeling the risk of wildfire ignition and power outages in the electric grid.