Interview with Jirs Meuris, assistant professor of management and human resources at the Wisconsin School of Business.
Rethinking The Workplace Post-Pandemic
Wisconsin Public Radio
Category: UW Experts in the News
Bill O’Reilly accuser’s appearance on ‘The View’ stopped by order
AP
That’s a potential conflict of interest, raising the question of whether Falzone’s experience with Fox would affect her independence, said Kathleen Bartzen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She said it would be wrong to suggest Falzone can’t write about these issues, but it’s questionable for her to write about them when it concerns Fox.
Opinion: Legislation would make obesity medications more widely available and help reduce inequities in care
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: Dr. Luke Funk is an associate professor of surgery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Srividya Kidambi is an associate professor and chief in the Division of Endocrinology and Molecular Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin/Froedtert Hospital. Dr. Christopher Weber is an obesity medicine specialist practicing in Milwaukee.
Madison health care workers say everyone can learn from Olympians
NBC-15
UW Health psychologist Shilagh Mirgain said events ranging from amateur athletics to giving a presentation at work can all be challenging situations, but a strong mind can help overcome them.
Louis C.K. Is Coming To Madison — And We Have Thoughts
WORT FM
Noted: Includes interview with Jonathan Gray, professor of media and cultural studies at UW–Madison.
Small farms vanish every day in America’s dairyland: ‘There ain’t no future in dairy’
The Guardian
Mark Stephenson, the director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the industry definitely has a lot of challenges but is nowhere near extinction.“We’ve produced record amounts of milk in the last year or two. It’s being consumed. Most of it domestically, but increasingly with exports,” said Stephenson.
U.S. companies that paid little or no income taxes support taxpayer-funded infrastructure deals
The Washington Post
Fabio Gaertner, an associate professor of accounting at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, was also not surprised by the corporate behavior.
Honeycrisp crisis? Orchards across Wisconsin may see a less than fruitful crop this season
NBC-15
“I think the main culprit is the drought that we had last year,” Amaya Atucha, state fruit crop specialist and UW-Madison Assoc. Prof. in the Dept. of Horticulture said. “This is not something we’ve seen on Honeycrisp; we’ve seen this on many of the early varieties.”
Local doctors: All unvaccinated people will eventually get some form of COVID
WISC-TV 3
“If you are not vaccinated, it’s not a matter of if you will get COVID-19,” said UW Health Dr. Jeff Pothof. “It’s when.”
LGBTQ patients face bias at the doctor’s office. Here’s how a first-of-its-kind fellowship at UW medical school aims to change that.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health will be the first site to host a new national fellowship that aims to make the doctor’s office more supportive of LGBTQ patients.
COVID-19 cases on the rise in Wisconsin
NBC-15
“This delta variant amongst the unvaccinated is the real deal. It’s nothing to laugh about or shrug off,” said Dr. Jeff Pothof, UW Health Chief Quality Officer.
Following the science vs. looking at logistics: Why school mask guidance differs
WKOW-TV 27
But UW Health’s Dr. Jeff Pothof said the AAP recommendation doesn’t mean the CDC guidance is outdated or unsafe.
Alliant Energy touts progress toward climate goals, pledges to plant 1 million trees
Wisconsin State Journal
But the results depend on details, such as the type of trees, where they’re planted and how they’re managed, said David Mladenoff, a professor of conservation, forest and wildlife ecology at UW-Madison, who cautions that such efforts are often public relations “gimmicks” that divert attention from more meaningful efforts to combat climate change. “If you add something, you are taking away something else,” Mladenoff said. “Nearly all open, noncultivated (areas) have habitat, water quality or other values.”
Just 7% of our DNA is unique to modern humans, study shows
AP
It’s a difficult statistical problem, and the researchers “developed a valuable tool that takes account of missing data in the ancient genomes,” said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who was not involved in the research.
Post-Covid, office wear and other clothing get a rethink as we all try to remember how to dress
NBC News
“I expect to see lots of color,” agreed Gail Brassard, who taught costume design at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Covid was such a life-changing event — like war or an economic crash — that its effects will be profound on all visuals and especially in the arts.”
How the new, expanded federal child tax credit will work
Wisconsin Examiner
Quoted: “This is just a stunning change in the American social policy context,” says Tim Smeeding, a professor of public affairs and economics with the LaFollette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an advocate for the policy.
Some form of universal child allowance benefit is found in 17 affluent countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.
“They allow parents who don’t have enough money to do things for their kids,” he adds. “It says kids are important.”
Families Embrace Their A, B, CTCs As Child Tax Credit Expands To Monthly Payouts
Wisconsin Public Radio
Quoted: “It’s transformative,” said Tim Smeeding, a professor of economics and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s a recognition that kids are expensive, and that we as a society have an obligation and an interest in having them grow up well, and do well.”
Smeeding noted that it’s particularly remarkable for including families who aren’t typically reached by the Earned Income Tax Credit, like the children of immigrant parents and “grandfamilies” — families where kids live with grandparents at least half of the year, and for whom grandparents provide at least half of the support. Unlike the Earned Income Tax Credit, which families receive as a credit when they file taxes each year, families can be eligible for the child tax credit even if they don’t make enough to file taxes.
Why Did Evers Veto An Update to Withholding Tables After a Tax Cut?
PBS Wisconsin
Quoted: “This is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. I have no idea why he did that,” said John Witte, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor emeritus who specializes in tax and budget policy.
Witte said there is speculation that Evers vetoed the change in the withholding tables because the governor hopes Democrats will take control of the Legislature in the 2022 election and repeal the tax cuts. By not changing the withholding tables, most taxpayers wouldn’t notice a difference, that thinking goes.
“If he changed the tables the tax cuts would be permanent,” said Witte.
Wisconsin Labor Market Faces Challenges New And Old Coming Out Of COVID-19 Pandemic
Wisconsin Public Radio
Quoted: Menzie Chinn, an economics professor with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in an email that while there is much demand for workers, supply remains constrained.
“Rising wages are not a ‘bad’, since that’s how the market adjusts to market conditions,” said Chinn. “There’s not a ‘shortage’ as the business community keeps on complaining about.”
Steve Deller, an applied economics professor at UW-Madison, said increased wages and benefits are one way companies are trying to be creative in the current labor market.
“Five years ago or so, people would think that a $15-an-hour job is a good paying job,” said Deller. “People are coming to the realization that’s not a good paying job. It’s got to be more than that. And businesses are coming around and saying, ‘If I want quality workers, I’ve got to up my pay.'”
‘Why Do You Keep Harassing Me?’: An Outagamie County Judge Controls Defendants After Sentencing
Wisconsin Public Radio
Quoted: “It is a little bit gray whether or not courts have the authority to do that,” said Cecelia Klingele, a law professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Wisconsin law alludes to the inherent authority of the court over its sentence, but it has not been fleshed out fully in case law, sort of, what are the outer bounds of that power,” she said.
New UW clinic to use latest genetic technology to help patients with unknown diseases
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Twelve years after scientists in Wisconsin delved into all the genes of a young Monona boy, diagnosed a new disease and saved the child’s life, a new clinic will try to do the same for scores of other people suffering from mysterious illnesses.
A Milwaukee community fridge that has provided food to hundreds has been shut down, and is looking for a new home
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: The fridge was co-founded by Taste Of Home Associate Culinary Producer Sarah Tramonte and University of Wisconsin-Madison Division Of Extension nutrition educator Hataya Johnson.
LIFT Dane’s Legal Tune-up Tool can help you remove eligible criminal and eviction records
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: “We used public data that is so often used against people to help correct situations or improve situations that might be barriers to employment, housing, education, childcare and health,” explained Marsha Mansfield, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Economic Justice Institute and director of LIFT Dane.
Milwaukee Cuban-Americans watch with unease as Cubans take to the streets in protest
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: “We haven’t seen these kinds of protests in Cuba, in part because the system is not one that grants the legitimacy of that kind of civic protest,” said Patrick Iber, an associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“The Cuban government often sees and accuses people who are involved in these protests as being interests of foreign powers, and that is the kind of accusation that the current president has used against the protestors.”
Shutdowns, sales and uncertainty: Can Wisconsin’s paper industry adapt to remain viable post-COVID?
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: Steven Deller, a University of Wisconsin-Madison economist and part of a group that studied the impact of Verso’s closure in Wisconsin Rapids, said he thinks the paper industry in Wisconsin is declining for reasons similar to what happened in Maine, where he worked at a university before coming to Wisconsin.
The problem in both states, he said, is that many of the plants are old and companies are finding it doesn’t make sense to invest in aging facilities. Instead, they are building new, often in the south to reduce transportation costs by being closer to timber producers in warmer places where trees grow faster.
U.S. Covid Cases Have More Than Doubled in Recent Weeks. What to Know.
Barron's
Quoted: Ajay Sethi, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that even though the Delta variant is the most infectious strain, “there are areas of the country where too many people have not yet gotten vaccinated and wrongly believe that the pandemic is over.”
Boosting Funding for K-12 Schools
PBS Wisconsin
An increase for Wisconsin’s K-12 schools in the state’s budget coupled with one-time federal pandemic aid still falls short according to public school advocates. Julie Underwood, former dean of the UW-Madison School of Education and board president for the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools, explains.
A Basic Primer On The Delta Coronavirus Variant
WORT FM
But, according to numbers from Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services, only about 83 casesof the variant have been formally diagnosed in the state.
For more on the variant, and the risk it could pose, our producer Jonah Chester spoke with Doctor Ajay Sethi, an Associate Professor in Population Health Sciences at UW-Madison.
‘They’re More Than Willing To Suppress My Vote’: Voters With Disabilities Sound off on GOP Voting Bills
Up North News
Quoted: The proposals, which would broadly make absentee voting more difficult, are in line with legislation that’s moved forward in other battleground states with Republican-majority legislatures, said Barry Burden, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and director of the Elections Research Center. Similar bills advanced in Florida, Georgia, and Arizona.
“The bills we’re seeing in Wisconsin and other battleground states are really just an immediate reaction to legislators’ discontent with what happened in 2020,” said Burden. “Its roots are in Donald Trump’s complaints about absentee voting. He railed for about a year, consistently and publicly, in speeches and on Twitter, about what he believed was fraud happening with mail-in voting,” he added.
How the new, expanded federal child tax credit will work
Wisconsin Examiner
Quoted: “This is just a stunning change in the American social policy context,” says Tim Smeeding, a professor of public affairs and economics with the LaFollette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an advocate for the policy.
PHMDC data shows COVID-19 breakthrough infections are rare
NBC-15
Dr. Ann Sheehy, who works in the COVID-19 ICU at UW Health, says even if a breakthrough infection happens, severe illness is even more rare.
Doctors urge people to watch Bucks games responsibly
WKOW-TV 27
Dr. Ann Sheehy with UW Health said everyone should enjoy the moment, but do so safely. “We’re all really excited for the Bucks, and I love the celebrations going on,” said Dr. Sheehy. “Especially after we’ve all been so separate for a year, it’s even more meaningful, I think, to gather people in the state of Wisconsin, to celebrate these things. I would just say that I hope that people that are attending have been vaccinated.”
The Complicated Patenting of Our Psychedelic Future
Psychology Today
Navigating A Post-Vax Summer
WORT FM
Interview: Christine Whelan, UW–Madison professor and Chief Happiness Officer at Dear Pandemic, offers “Nerdy Girl” insight into navigating our emotions, finding joy, and spreading kindness at this stage of pandemic life.
Wisconsin DNR working on wolf hunt and management plans
Spectrum News
Noted: A recent study from UW-Madison showed that about an additional 100 wolves had been killed during the hunt last winter on top of the 218 killed by hunters and trappers.
“Researchers estimate that a majority of these additional, uncounted deaths are due to something called cryptic poaching, where poachers hide evidence of illegal killings,” a university release about the study said.
What rising prices mean for Madison spenders
NBC-15
“Prices on consumer products have risen one to two percent every year for the past two decades,” said Cliff Robb, a consumer behavior expert at UW-Madison. “But this year, that jump is around four percent.”
Returning to the office causing separation anxiety in pets
NBC-15
World-renowned Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist and UW Madison Zoology Professor Dr. Patricia McConnell said Rafa likely has a mild case of separation anxiety because he paces, whines and is a little destructive. She said a more severe case of separation anxiety could be dangerous for pets.
Wisconsin summer camps work to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks
NBC-15
UW Health medical director of infection prevention Nasia Safdar said these are some of the mitigation strategies necessary to prevent future outbreaks, especially among unvaccinated children. Camp Woodbrooke accepts kids ages seven to 12, which means only a handful of campers are even eligible.
Gov. Evers stresses importance of vaccines after someone at budget signing event tests positive for COVID-19
CBS 58
Quoted: Ajay Sethi, professor of population health sciences at UW-Madison, said this scenario is proof the pandemic is not over.
“It’s a good reminder that anybody who is not yet vaccinated against COVID-19 really ought to do so because as soon as you leave your house without a mask, you have a risk of catching the virus,” said Sethi.
Republican State Lawmakers Float “Tech Accountability Bill”
WORT FM
Interview with Howard Schweber, a professor of constitutional law and free speech at UW-Madison.
Wisconsin group works to conserve and restore prairies
Spectrum News
Quoted: Earth’s vegetation is changing as fast as it did during the Ice Age, according to University of Wisconsin geography and climate professor Jack Williams. Organizations like the Prairie Enthusiasts conserving and restoring land makes a big difference.
“One of the things we’ve definitely learned from the past is that when climates change, species move and one way we can help those species is helping this movement across these modern, fragmented, very much transformed landscapes,” Williams said.
The US doesn’t really know how widespread the Delta variant is because its virus sequencing is lagging far behind many other rich nations
Business Insider
Quoted: Thomas Friedrich, professor of pathobiological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told the FT that federal regulations designed to protect people’s privacy can get in the way of the “rapid sharing of information we need.” States interpret these regulations in different ways, he said.
Wisconsin educators help design ‘Shipwrecks!’ game
PBS Wisconsin
During the 2020-21 academic year, 14 Wisconsin third through fifth grade teachers took part in the Shipwrecks! Game Design Fellowship with PBS Wisconsin Education and Field Day Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Throughout the winter, these educators met with teachers, game designers, researchers and maritime archaeologists to co-design a video game that investigates shipwrecks in the Great Lakes using the practices of maritime archaeologists.
As fisheries managers consider ecosystem approaches, new study suggests no need for new strategies
Seafood Source
Quoted: “Management of forage fish populations should be based on data that are specific to that forage fish, and to their predators,” University of Wisconsin-Madison Associate Professor Olaf Jensen, a co-author of the study, said. “When there aren’t sufficient data to conduct a population-specific analysis, it’s reasonable to manage forage fish populations for maximum sustainable yield, as we would other fish populations under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.”
Pencils down: The year pre-college tests went away
Knowable Magazine
Noted: When poor, Black or brown students score lower, it’s not exactly the tests’ fault, says Eric Grodsky, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who analyzed the links between standardized testing and socioeconomic status in the Annual Review of Sociology. That’s because scores reflect disparities in students’ lives before testing. Wealthy students, for example, might have benefited from parents who had more time to read to them as toddlers, all the way through to being able to afford to take both tests, multiple times, to obtain the best score.
Thus, the disparities reflected in test scores result not from a failure of the tests so much as a failure to create a just educational system, Grodsky says. “We don’t do a good job of serving all our kids.” And if test scores determine one’s future opportunities, using them can perpetuate those inequities.
The hackers are out there. You could be next
Agri-Pulse
Quoted: “The classic thing is that attackers go in and lurk, sometimes for very long periods of time, and maybe exfiltrate data,” said Molly Jahn, a plant geneticist at University of Wisconsin-Madison who was undersecretary of research, education and economics at USDA in 2009 and 2010 and has done extensive research on cybersecurity. Jahn is currently on loan to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) but spoke to Agri-Pulse in her personal capacity as an expert.
Wisconsin Gets ‘F’ For Civics Education
Wisconsin Public Radio
Includes interview with Diana Hess, dean of UW-Madison’s School of Education, about civics education in Wisconsin after an organization gave the state an ‘F’ for its standards for history and civics.
About COVID-19 And Pandemic Prevention
WORT FM
Interview with Shelby O’Connor from the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Shelby has worked with several other labs at UW-Madison on several specific areas of study, one of which she refers to as passive surveillance.
Wolf study raises questions about what’s going on in Wisconsin’s woods
Wisconsin Examiner
After contributing to an independent study to assess how many wolves were killed during the February wolf hunt, Professor Adrian Treves expected some criticism. “There’s just more controversy surrounding wolves, their protected status, and the conflict that some people experience with them that makes management very difficult and controversial,” Treves, a professor of environmental studies at UW-Madison’s Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies, told Wisconsin Examiner. It’s also normal for new research to be debated, questioned, and compared with other existing information. Treves, however, feels that’s not how the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is handling the study’s findings.
Native bees need saving too, research shows decline across Midwest
Spectrum News
This summer, UW-Madison researchers further looked at the links between certain types of crops, the growth in those types of crops and the correlation to a decline in native bees across the state and the midwest as a whole.
“Rarer [bees] that have become increasingly rare, they might not be able to thrive because we’ve eliminated those flowers that they need from the landscape,” said Jeremy Hemberger, a research entomologist at UW-Madison “by converting prairies and wetlands to agriculture and developments.”
The decline of native bees is a decades-long problem that keeps the list of endangered bees growing.
“Native bees are silently playing these really important roles, so just people becoming more aware that there’s all these other groups out there that through our actions we could be supporting, I think is a really valuable thing,” UW-Madison professor Claudio Gratton said.
Researchers Estimate 1/3 of Wisconsin’s Wolf Population Wiped Out in Last Year
Newsweek
In an analysis published in the journal PeerJ on July 5, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM) estimate that Wisconsin’s wolf population was reduced by about one-third between April 2020 and April 2021. Specifically, the researchers estimate that 313 to 323 (27 to 33 percent) of the state’s 1,034 wolves were killed by hunters or poachers in that period of time.
Wisconsin’s Covid Condition: The Delta Variant Looms for Unvaccinated People
PBS Wisconsin
Quoted: “The really good news is that if you have gotten your vaccine, you’re not going to be sick with the Delta virus,” said David O’Connor, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the July 7 edition of Here & Now’s Noon Wednesday.
“Most of the people who are getting sick with the Delta variant, and indeed with covid generally, in the United States are people who are not vaccinated,” said Thomas Friedrich, a professor of pathobiological sciences at UW-Madison, also during the July 7 episode of Noon Wednesday.
UW Prof. Jordan Ellenberg, “Shape: The Hidden Geometry Of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy And Everything Else.”
WORT FM
Stu Levitan welcomes one of the brightest stars in the firmament that is the University of Wisconsin faculty, Professor Jordan Ellenberg, here to talk about his New York Times best-seller, Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else.
Latinos Have Greater Risk of Developing Alzheimer’s, But Less Likely to Get Help
WTTW - Chicago PBS
Quoted: Dr. María Carolina Mora Pinzón, a preventive medicine physician and scientist at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute at University of Wisconsin, Madison, says that Latinos are less likely to move a relative into a residential care facility or access other forms of help.
“We have heard from people that are looking for the services, that they are not available for their family members,” said Mora Pinzón. “It’s either an access issue where they are not eligible, or the insurance does not cover these types of services.”
Humans are practically defenseless. Why don’t wild animals attack us more?
Live Science
Quoted: There are a few likely reasons why they don’t attack more often. Looking at our physiology, humans evolved to be bipedal — going from moving with all four limbs to walking upright on longer legs, according to John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“There is a threat level that comes from being bipedal,” Hawks told Live Science. “And when we look at other primates — chimpanzees, gorillas, for instance — they stand to express threats. Becoming larger in appearance is threatening, and that is a really easy way of communicating to predators that you are trouble.”
The Swelling Scientific Fallout From Wisconsin’s Wolf Hunt
PBS Wisconsin
Five months after hunters blew past the DNR’s harvest quota, a population study by UW-Madison researchers highlights an additional estimated impact of poaching the species after it lost federal protections.
‘I Think The Governor Wins’: Experts Weigh In On Political Spin Of State Budget
Wisconsin Public Radio
Quoted: Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at UW-Madison, agreed the tax cut will likely play to the governor’s advantage during campaign season.
“He will not be easy to paint as a tax-and-spend liberal,” Burden said. “I think (the tax cut) takes the edge off some of the criticism that Republicans would use.”
New Federal Funding Aimed At Small Meat Processors Could Help Industry Capitalize On Pandemic Demand
Wisconsin Public Radio
Quoted: Jeff Sindelar is a meat specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension. He said small and mid-size processors saw demand for their services and products expand rapidly in 2020, after coronavirus outbreaks forced large processing plants to reduce capacity or shut down.
“They were really stressed because (farmers) were needing places to go with their animals, (consumers) were interested in buying more protein, and there was also this small hoarding phenomenon that was going on for a short period of time,” Sindelar said.
Season 4 premiere: Critical race theory and a ‘woke’ military
Stars and Stripes
In the Season 4 premiere episode of Military Matters, host Rod Rodriguez discusses “wokeness” and critical race theory in the military with guests, Brian “BK” Kimber, Air Force veteran and host of the weekly podcast, “World News with BK,” and John Witte, professor emeritus from University of Wisconsin, Madison, in the departments of political science and the Robert La Follette School of Public Affairs.
Families to begin receiving monthly child tax credit payments July 15
NBC-15
About 90 percent of kids and families in the country are eligible for some credit, according to UW-Madison professor of public affairs Tim Smeeding. Smeeding said about 80 percent of families will hear from the IRS directly because they filed 2019 or 2020 tax return, but other families still have options.