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Category: UW Experts in the News

A New York Times article sought to expose Wausau and Marathon County’s racial tensions. Some say that ‘snapshot’ only made things worse.

Wausau Daily Herald

Quoted: Doug McLeod, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said conflict can indeed be threatening, especially to smaller cities, and that the national attention that Wausau is receiving would “disappear into everything else” in a city like New York or Chicago.

“(Conflicts) can be more divisive, they can raise tensions in smaller communities,” said McLeod, who studies social conflicts and the mass media. “Those communities might look for scapegoats to place blame, (and) it’s often the person coming in from outside — like a journalist from New York.”

You may see yellow-green water off Park Point this summer

Duluth News Tribune

Quoted: “The spotter sensor is a basketball-sized, solar-powered yellow buoy that will be anchored,” said Chin Wu, a lead researcher from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The GPS drifter tracker looks rather like a red post floating upright in the water. It will be drifting with the current. We’d appreciate it if the public would allow the equipment to operate.”

If You Notice This at Night, It May Be an Early Alzheimer’s Sign, Study Says

Best Life

Quoted: “Previous evidence has shown that sleep may influence the development or progression of Alzheimer’s disease in various ways,” Barbara B. Bendlin, PhD, the study’s author from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, said in a statement. “For example, disrupted sleep or lack of sleep may lead to amyloid plaque buildup because the brain’s clearance system kicks into action during sleep. Our study looked not only for amyloid but for other biological markers in the spinal fluid as well.”

After COVID-19 vaccinations, Milwaukee singles say they’re ready for a summer of dating

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: “It’s really a litmus test for a world view right now,” said Christine Whelan, clinical professor at University of Wisconsin’s School of Human Ecology. “If you have been vaccinated, you trust in the science. You have sort of a proactive approach and you believe in public health and research.”

Arizona Election ‘Audit’ Should Not Be Trusted, Expert Review Finds

Business Insider

“The Cyber Ninjas boondoggle deviates so substantially from a proper audit or recount that the results simply can’t be trusted,” Barry C. Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Insider. “The Cyber Ninjas firm is not only unqualified to be conducting the review, but they do not actually seem interested in following protocols that could enhance public trust rather than undermining it.”

UW Health’s Dr. Pothof discusses Delta variant concerns

WISC-TV 3

Play Videospaceplay / pausequnload | stop ffullscreenshift + ←→slower / faster↑↓volume mmute←→seek  . seek to previous12… 6 seek to 10%, 20% … 60%With only 45% of Americans fully vaccinated against COVID-19, health experts continue to be worried about the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

Kids’ cartoons have more LGBTQ representation than ever before – but only if you pay for it

Insider

AnneMarie McClain, a children’s media and education researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Insider that inclusive shows are essential to kids across income differences.”Children might not have representation in their communities. They might not have representation in their schools. And so media is a source of representation that can help children know that they’re OK and that their identities are valid,” McClain said.

35 years later, shift to specialty cheese paying off for Wisconsin farmers

Spectrum News

Quoted: “Mind you, it’s a difficult thing to do, and to do well,” said Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at UW-Madison.

Stephenson said farmers often make about $20 per hundredweight (cwt) for milk. By selling the cheese instead of the milk, they can get somewhere closer to $100 cwt for their milk.

“Sure, there are additional costs along the way, but potentially the income stream is bigger,” Stephenson said. “But there are a lot of ways it can go wrong.”

Teachers worry legislation limiting race discussion could have ‘chilling’ effect in Wisconsin classrooms

Wisconsin State Journal

Gloria Ladson-Billings, a UW-Madison education professor emeritus and one of the first scholars to introduce the idea in the 1990s, said Republican rhetoric purposely twists the intent of critical race theory, which does not argue that one race is superior to another but that white privilege perpetuates inequities. “This particular movement at the legislative level is a red herring, a way to gin up fear,” Ladson-Billings told the State Journal in an interview. “It’s a political move, a way to rally the troops.”

The environmental impact of bidets versus toilet paper

Andrea Hicks

The main thing to consider, says Andrea Hicks, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin, is where you live and what the water situation is there. For example, in Wisconsin, where Hicks is based, there’s plenty of water to spare for butt-cleansing purposes, so if a bidet is something you’re curious about you should just go for it. But water availability simply isn’t an easy thing for every person across the country—just look at the drought plaguing the West Coast currently.

Robert Hollander, towering scholar of Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy,’ dies at 87

The Washington Post

“His more than 40 years of teaching Dante gave him many insights into the poem which he incorporates into the commentary,” Christopher Kleinhenz, a professor emeritus of Italian at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said in an interview. “He has made Dante accessible,” Kleinhenz continued, so that “we as contemporary readers can appreciate and can see how Dante was important in the Middle Ages and how he continues to be important today.”

The Immune System’s Weirdest Weapon

The Atlantic

The few scientists who did take up the inglorious mantle, however, quickly found a wealth of lore to uncover. Anna Huttenlocher, a rheumatologist and cell biologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has spent years watching the cells zoom through tissues and built structures in the lab.

New research shows prosecutors often fight winning innocence claims, offer deals to keep convictions

KARE 11

Quoted: Keith Findley co-founded the Wisconsin Innocence Project, and was the co-director for years. Now he teaches on criminal law, evidence and wrongful convictions at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

“One of the things that innocence advocates have noticed over the years is that not always, but sometimes, prosecutors, when confronted with very powerful evidence of innocence, go to great lengths to try to preserve the convictions,” Findley said. “Including making plea offers that are essentially so good that it’s hard to turn them down, even for an innocent individual.”

Most of Wisconsin has no native earthworms. What’s with that?

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Fittingly, the thrashing invaders were first confirmed in the state by both Williams and Brad Herrick, ecologist and jumping worm specialist at UW-Madison Arboretum. The worms were discovered during a 2013 talk they were leading about invasive species at the Arboretum in Madison.

In 2013 when the jumping worms were first documented, they were probably already established in Wisconsin and the Midwest, Herrick said.

“They have been in North America for around 100 years,” he said, creeping here from the northeastern part of the country. “The Midwest states have been the recent invasion.”

Herrick, also known as Dr. Worm by Williams, is beginning his PhD study on the biology, ecology and control of jumping worms. He is helping lead a statewide jumping worm survey beginning in July.

How the U.S. Made Progress on Climate Change Without Ever Passing a Bill

The Atlantic

“Policy makers have been dithering about climate change since 1988, and in the background you have this steady progression of technologies,” Greg Nemet, a public-affairs professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, told me. Foreign industrial policy has driven that progression, he said, although American tax rebates—and California’s economic planning—have also played a part. Those policies have allowed the entire world to decarbonize and led companies to support ever more aggressive carbon cuts. That, in essence, is the green vortex.

A Leader’s Guide To Managing Employee Uncertainty

Forbes

Uncertainty avoidance is the measure of a culture’s (or an individual’s) discomfort with uncertainty and ambiguity. Researchers Dan Grupe and Jack Nitschke at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that people who are more comfortable with uncertainty will let events unfold, make observations with less emotional reaction, and deal with what happens.

U.S. Covid-19 Deaths Top 600,000

Wall Street Journal

“In the U.S., death from Covid is almost entirely preventable,” said Ajay Sethi, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, citing access to vaccines in the country. “Crossing the 600,000 milestone is a sobering reminder that the virus is still spreading and that there are still too many people unvaccinated.”

Continued Drought Could Affect Wisconsin Fruit, Vegetable Crops

Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Amaya Atucha is a fruit crop specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension. She said the hot and dry conditions over the last few weeks have put stress on everything from strawberry plants to apple orchards.

“Plants in general use water mostly to be able to control temperature. So the warmer it gets, the more water they need to be able to cool down,” Atucha explained.

Cole Lubinski manages the UW-Extension’s Langlade Research Station, which supports the state’s potato industry. He said his area has gotten enough moisture so far this year, but farms in the Central Sands have had irrigation systems running around the clock.

“Vegetable crops, they’re considered a high-moisture crop, so it’s very crucial to keep proper soil moisture levels,” Lubinski said. “When you have weeks like last week where there was a lot of heat and you get put on electrical (peak) control, where you can’t run your system if it’s run by electric, then you’re going hours without water for your crop.”

‘Both harmful and dangerous’: The 3 times Wisconsin legislators equated COVID and gun rules to the Holocaust

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Simone Schweber, Goodman professor of Education and Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said such comparisons are not rare — likely because there are few events that trigger such universal agreement.

“The Holocaust is still, and deservedly so, a very powerful moral paradigm, and it may be one of the few large-scale events that we all agree, on the political spectrum, that it’s awful,” Schweber said.

TikTok Added Beauty Filters to Videos Without Telling Users

Newsweek

Technology Review also spoke to Amy Niu, a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin who studies the impact of beauty filters, who said that in China some popular apps automatically add beauty filters. Niu said that apps like WeChat, the most popular social media app in China, and Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, include beauty filters on the camera as the default.

This is the Minimum Wage vs. the Cost of Living in Every State

Newsweek

Wisconsin’s minimum wage is at the federal level, unlike its neighbors Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Iowa, however, has stayed at the same rate. As in other states, a higher rate is under discussion. An economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Tim Smeeding, told Wisconsin Public Radio that a federal rate of $15 an hour would be too high all at once. He advocates raising it in stage

Women appointed to top positions in Uganda, but feelings are mixed

The Conversation

President Yoweri Museveni, who has led Uganda since 1986, has appointed a woman, Jessica Alupo, as vice-president and another woman, Robinah Nabbanja, as prime minister. He has also increased the percentage of women in the cabinet from 27% to 43%. This is the second time Museveni has appointed a woman as vice-president. Specioza Wandira Kazibwe served as vice-president from 1994 to 2003.

-Aili Mari Tripp

It’s safe to leave your bunker: Blame that Chinese nuclear plant alarm on fuel rod faults

The Register

“For pressurized water reactors (PWRs), which are the most common reactor type in the US as well as the type of reactor at the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant, the biggest causes of fuel leaks are debris and grid-to-rod fretting, which occurs when a nuclear fuel rod rubs against the metal spacer grids that hold the rods in place,” Katie Mummah, a nuclear engineering PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told The Register.

Ron Johnson called Joe Biden ‘a liberal, progressive, socialist, Marxist.’ Can someone be all those things?

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Richard Avramenko, a UW-Madison political scientist and director for the Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy, said Johnson would have been more accurate to describe Biden as a “left liberal.”

“Liberals, socialists and Marxists are, by definition, progressives,” Avramenko said in an email. “But Biden is not a ‘classical liberal’ (i.e., libertarian) — he’s a ‘left liberal.’ “

Avramenko added, “If he said, ‘Don’t ask me to get inside the mind of a liberal, progressive, socialist, Marxist — whatever you want to label him — like President Biden’ it would have been less questionable.”

Homeownership Gap For People Of Color In Wisconsin Is Wide; Communities, Nonprofits Try To Close It

Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Kurt Paulsen, a University of Wisconsin-Madison expert on housing affordability, said little headway has been made in increasing Black homeownership, which stands at 44 percent nationally compared to 74 percent for whites.

“Nationwide, the Black homeownership rate is still not where it needs to be, and in some ways, has not significantly improved since the 1968 Fair Housing Act,” Paulsen said.

Kacie Lucchini Butcher is a public history project director at UW-Madison who researches housing inequity. Butcher emphasized the alarming implications of low Black homeownership rates, including the ability of such families to build intergenerational wealth.

“If homeownership continues in the way that it does, and if access to housing continues in the way it does, we are just going to see a continued exacerbation of wealth inequality and of poverty. One of the best ways to fix this is to get everybody housing.”

UW-Madison professor Kris Olds, an expert on urban planning and gentrification, said housing affordability remains a huge problem across Wisconsin, especially in Madison.

“One of the problems in Madison is so much of it (housing) is allocated to single family zoning districts, and it’s quite expensive to access that,” he said.

Paige Glotzer, assistant professor of history at UW-Madison and author of a book on the history of housing discrimination, said bias still permeates the housing market in sometimes inconspicuous ways.

‘Everybody pray for rain’: Southeastern Wisconsin crops and gardens could be damaged if drought and dryness continue

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Joe Lauer, an agronomist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, acknowledged that farmers are anxious about the dry weather, but said that he’s not concerned … yet.

“One of the characteristics of a record-breaking year (for corn) is a mini-drought during the months of May and June,” he said. Lauer explained that a dry spring allows farmers to plant without fighting wet fields.

If you are worried about your garden or lawn, horticulture educator Vijai Pandian from the UW-Madison Extension has some tips to mitigate drought stress on landscape and garden plants.

Dr. Eva Vivian honored with WIHA’s Healthy Aging Star Award

Madison 365

Dr. Eva Vivian’s passion for health equity continues to change lives in her community and for that, the Wisconsin Institute for Healthy Aging (WIHA) recognized her work with the 2021 Healthy Aging STAR Award for Health Equity at a recent virtual ceremony.

The award – one of five presented in conjunction with the 2021 Healthy Aging Summit on June 4 – recognizes and honors individuals that improve health, wellness and access to care in communities throughout Wisconsin.

Dr. Vivian is a professor in the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy and president of African American Health Network (AAHN), where she pushes for equity in underserved communities, with a specific emphasis on diabetes.

As Drought Conditions Continue, Southern Wisconsin Farmers Face Uncertain Financial Future

WORT FM

Southern Wisconsin is pushing through an unseasonably dry summer. While the arid, hot days may be uncomfortable for those of us in Madison, it could spell financial trouble for the region’s farmers.

For more, our producer Jonah Chester spoke with Christopher Kucharick, professor of Agronomy at UW-Madison.

Who’s Afraid Of Critical Race Theory?

WORT FM

Noted: Today, guest host Karma Chávez spends the hour with Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, a longtime educator and early proponent of critical race theory in the classroom. They talk about what CRT is and isn’t—and why the GOP’s strategy may backfire and ultimately encourage a new generation of students to bring critical inquiry to their study of history.

Gloria Ladson-Billings is the former Kellner Family Distinguished Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and faculty affiliate emeritus in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is the author of The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children (Jossey-Bass, 1994), Crossing Over to Canaan: The Journey of New Teachers in Diverse Classrooms (Jossey-Bass, 2001), and many journal articles and book chapters, including “Just what is critical race theory and what’s it doing in a nice field like education?” (1998).

The Peculiar Divergence In COVID Vaccinations Around Milwaukee’s Republican Hinterland

PBS Wisconsin

Quoted: That the decision to get a COVID-19 vaccine often includes a political dimension is a predictable result of the policy response to the pandemic as it unfolded over an exceptionally tumultuous period in American politics, according to Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“It’s not surprising that people’s attitudes toward vaccination can line sometimes with political beliefs because the disease has been discussed in those arenas,” Sethi said.

National polling conducted over spring 2021 has shown eagerness for the vaccines among Democratic voters, while Republican voters have indicated tepid enthusiasm, with a distinct difference between men and women. But simple partisanship doesn’t tell a complete story about who is open to getting vaccinated.

“It’s even more pointedly about the Biden-Trump difference,” said Barry Burden, a professor of political science at UW-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center.

Burden noted that voters’ preference in the 2020 presidential election “is far more predictive [of their vaccination views] than a person’s race, or age, or income, or just about any other thing that might be asked in a survey.”

A Wisconsin School District Initiative Aimed At Addressing Inclusivity Sparks Uproar From Parents

WPR

Quoted: It’s a conceptual theory to help explain how inequality gets reproduced and maintained in our society, not an approach to demonize one racial group. It is usually taught at the graduate level, said University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Kevin Lawrence Henry.

“Critical race theory becomes a catch-all for anything that’s about equity and addressing diversity and racial disparities and inequality,” he said. “It becomes a kind of boogeyman or straw man about how we are indoctrinating children in schools, but in fact, critical race theory is not taught in the K-12 arena.”

UW-Madison epidemiologist Malia Jones named as Academic Staff Excellence award recipient

The Capital Times

The University of Wisconsin-Madison System Board of Regents named epidemiologist Dr. Malia Jones as one of three recipients of the 2021 Academic Staff Excellence Awards. The award, which recognizes staff members and academic programs based on superior performance and creative, personable approaches to education, presents winners with a $7,500 cash prize. It is the highest honor the UW System can bestow upon their academic staff.