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Category: UW-Madison Related

Lights, Cameras and Homes for Veterans

WSJ

Through his rehabilitation, Capt. Church graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and he later earned a law degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He and Bella applied for and were granted a home from the foundation.

Midwest Capital City Madison, Wisconsin Is Quirkier Than You Think

The Daily Beast

Mad City or Madtown might appear to be just plays on its name, but it also says something about its quirkiness. This is a town, after all, that has a National Mustard Museum and named the plastic pink flamingo as its city bird. The latter happened after the University of Wisconsin’s quad was plastered with a thousand plastic pink lawn flamingos overnight in 1979. That flamingo-bombing became an annual tradition and the city’s official bird.

What’s Next after Creating a Cancer-Prevention Vaccine?

Scientific American

I see you studied molecular biology as an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Did you always want to work on vaccines?

-No, absolutely not. When I first started out I was an academic purist and thought you should study knowledge for its own sake. I was fascinated by molecular biology.

Mallards, Wisconsin Alumni Association announce ‘On Wisconsin Night’ at Warner Park

WISC-TV 3

The Madison Mallards and the Wisconsin Alumni Association are teaming up to bring “On Wisconsin Night” to the Duck Pond on Aug. 10. The first 1,000 fans through the gates at Warner Park will get a reversible hat with the Mallards and UW-Madison logos. In addition to the giveaway, there will also be appearances from Bucky Badger, the UW Spirit Squad and the UW Marching Band.

Native American students, educators have high hopes for bill mandating their history be taught in Illinois schools

Chicago Tribune

Noted: It also educates people and prevents schools from making mistakes like one experienced last year by Bang’s son, who was stopped from walking in his Evanston Township High School graduation ceremony because of what he was wearing. Miskobinis, who is now a freshman at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said the day after the graduation ceremony, the school’s dean and dean of students hand-delivered his diploma and apologized for what had happened.

A certain danger lurks there’: how the inventor of the first chatbot turned against AI

The Guardian

Noted: Protesters frequently targeted information technology, not only because of its role in the Vietnam war but also due to its association with the imprisoning forces of capitalism. In 1970, activists at the University of Wisconsin destroyed a mainframe during a building occupation; the same year, protesters almost blew one up with napalm at New York University.

Wait, Barbie is from … Wisconsin?

WCCO

The Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison has a Barbie collection dating back to 1961. That’s two years after she originally debuted in the same iconic black-and-white-striped bathing suit. The museum also has a Barbie dressed in a University of Wisconsin-Madison cheerleader uniform.

American poverty can be abolished, Pulitzer winner Matthew Desmond argues in new book

Wisconsin Public Radio

After netting a Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction for writing a book about evictions in Milwaukee, Princeton University sociologist Matthew Desmond sought to tackle a broader lens: Why is there so much poverty in a nation as wealthy as the United States?

In his new book releasesd this year, “Poverty, by America,” the University of Wisconsin-Madison alum argues one underlying reason for poverty is that many Americans benefit from it.

St. Mary’s Hospital launches program to give food to new moms who need it

Wisconsin State Journal

UW Health started screening ER and hospitalized patients for food insecurity in 2017, and screens children at clinic visits, spokesperson Emily Greendonner said. Patients needing food get food packages at discharge.

One in 12 Wisconsin families can’t afford the food they need, according to data before the COVID-19 pandemic, said the Wisconsin Food Security Project at UW-Madison. Food insecurity can contribute to chronic disease and poor mental health, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

People of UW: District 8 Alder and UW student MGR Govindarajan shares importance of getting involved

The Badger Herald

Editor’s note: People of UW is a human interest series produced by features editors and associates. The series — published online and on our social media accounts — aims to highlight a student at the University of Wisconsin making an impact on the campus community. These Q&As are lightly edited for clarity and style.

Wisconsin’s Watt brothers will appear on a Wheaties box

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

They’ve shared a household, a Pewaukee High School legacy, an NFL football field and now a cereal box.

Wheaties, the iconic brand that’s pictured prominent athletes on its orange cereal boxes since the 1930s, will release a new box that features J.J. and T.J. Watt on the front. The University of Wisconsin standouts have combined for four NFL Defensive Player of the Year trophies, and J.J. has been busy in his first offseason of retirement, recently announcing he’d be joining the NFL on CBS crew in the fall.

Rapper Yung Gravy will return to Summerfest to fill amphitheater vacancy after AJR’s exit

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Milwaukee music festival said early Sunday that Yung Gravy, the rapper and University of Wisconsin-Madison alum who headlined Summerfest’s Generac Power Stage Friday night, will perform at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater at 7:30 p.m. July 6. Admission to the concert will be free with general admission to Summerfest.

Student Loan Borrowers React to Supreme Court Decision

New York Times

Mr. Reed, who is 74, took out $3,300 in loans in the early 1970s to fund his studies at the University of Wisconsin. He worked for decades as a journalist, musician and fund-raiser for nonprofits, cobbling together a living off what were often low-income jobs. He paid $9,000 on his loans over the years — but interest and fees kept his balances ballooning, preventing him paying off his debt. Now, half a century after his college years, he owes $4,600 — more than he originally borrowed.

Phonics mandate: What to know about a new Wisconsin reading bill

The Capital Times

In December 2020, the district and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education announced an Early Literacy Task Force to look at how to teach students how to read and how to prepare teachers to do so. That task force published a 104-page report in December 2021 outlining 28 recommendations for the future of early literacy instruction in MMSD and in UW-Madison’s teaching preparation program.

Doulas could help reduce death rates of Black and Latino babies in Wisconsin

Wisconsin State Journal

Roots4Change, a Madison-based cooperative of Latina or indigenous doulas that started in 2018, has received grants from the state and the UW School of Medicine and Public Health to expand its services, train new doulas and help medical providers better understand various Latino cultures. Another UW medical school grant has helped families get fresh food.

Spirituality, Global Warming, and Grief: How Clergy Can Help Tackle Climate Anxiety

Mother Jones

Because no one was providing that, she created the Loka Initiative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Healthy Minds in 2019. While not specifically focused on climate emotions, the initiative trains evangelical leaders on climate science and also has organized a global event of Indigenous elders and environmental experts.

WPR names Sarah Ashworth as new director

The Capital Times

Ashworth, who was raised in Minnesota and received a journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, comes to WPR with a 25-year career in media. That includes roles as a director, producer, reporter and editor at Minnesota Public Radio, New Hampshire Public Radio, Vermont Public and Mizzou’s NPR station KBIA.

William Spriggs Was the Economist Who Fought for the Entire Working Class

The Nation

As a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin—where he earned his master’s degree in economics in 1979 and PhD in economics in 1984—Spriggs served as copresident of the Teaching Assistants’ Association (American Federation of Teachers, Local 3220), a groundbreaking campus labor union that fought a successful battle to expand collective bargaining rights for graduate students.

Intel Announces Its Newest Silicon-Based Quantum Chip

Forbes

On Thursday morning, Intel announced the release of its newest quantum computing chip, which it calls ‘Tunnel Falls’. The chip is aimed at the quantum computing research community, and as part of the announcement the hardware giant said that it will be providing chips to the Sandia National Laboratory as well as labs at the University of Maryland, the University of Rochester and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

With first-round funding in hand, Madison startup Realta Fusion aims to bring first reactor online within a decade

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Forget the well-worn adage that fusion energy and the promise of virtually unlimited green power is three or more decades away — a Madison startup believes it can develop a market-ready fusion reactor in a third of that time.

The longer time frame generally applies to utility scale reactors that some day could power the electric grid; Realta Fusion, a Madison company that spun off from the University of Wisconsin in September has more modest goals — modular reactors that within a decade could supply abundant energy for heat-intensive industries like plastics and fertilizer manufacturers, oil refineries and other companies that need massive amounts of heat for their processes.

Report: Turnover and vacancy rates at state agencies reached record highs last year

Wisconsin State Journal

Among agencies that fall outside the University of Wisconsin System, 16.4% of the state’s nearly 28,000 workers left their jobs in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2022, including 10.2% who left for voluntary reasons other than retirement, according to the report. What’s more, 5,770 full-time equivalent positions, or 17.7% of the total positions in state government outside the UW System, were vacant at the end of last June.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tests the conspiratorial appetite of Democrats

Washington Post

Kennedy ended his speech by recounting the 1960s obedience experiments by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram, which were funded by the National Science Foundation, but which Kennedy said, without offering evidence, were actually part of the CIA’s mind-control research program. (He has previously attributed this claim to University of Wisconsin historian Alfred McCoy, who has made a circumstantial case of CIA interest.)

The secret summer lives of American schools

The Hill

Instructor Oh Hoon Kwon speaks to students during a math class that was part of an intense six-week summer bridge program for students of color and first-generation students at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, on July 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger)

‘Funemployment’ and the Gen Z Job Market

WSJ

But Gen Z won’t find happiness getting high in Ibiza, scrolling on TikTok or sleeping till noon. True work-life balance is important, and lasting happiness is achieved by working incrementally toward valuable, fulfilling goals—not in indulging the fleeting pleasures of “funemployment.”—Anika Horowitz, University of Wisconsin-Madison, economics

Two years ago, back-to-back attacks rattled an Orthodox Jewish family. Now, they reflect on their place in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Meira didn’t want to just accept it, though. The incidents drove her to get involved with Jewish organizations fighting antisemitism on campus. First at UW-Milwaukee, now at UW-Madison, she works with students and university administrators to raise awareness about Jewish issues.