Millions of gallons of contaminated groundwater and thousands of gallons of gooey black coal tar lie underneath Ashland’s downtown waterfront. It is by far the thorniest cleanup of an old manufactured gas plant in Wisconsin — both because of the difficulty in cleaning it up, and in finding someone to pay for it.
Category: Health & Welfare
Posted inHealth & Welfare, Justice & Safety
16 die, but boating safety stalls in Legislature
Despite the continued concern over preventable boating accidents and fatalities, Wisconsin lawmakers tried but failed in the last session to pass new laws mandating life jackets for children and cracking down on intoxicated boating.
Posted inHealth & Welfare, Justice & Safety
Suffering in silence: Campus sexual assaults vastly underreported
At University of Wisconsin campuses, most victims do not report crimes. The statistics are inconsistent. And most rapists go free.
Posted inHealth & Welfare
Wisconsin suicide toll rises, exceeds rates of neighboring states
Experts say Wisconsin’s high suicide rate, relative to those of neighboring states, could be linked to a high rate of binge drinking, easy access to firearms and lack of available mental health care, especially in rural areas.
Posted inDairyland Diversity, Economy, Health & Welfare, Justice & Safety
A delicate existence: Undocumented Wisconsin dairy farm workers
They traveled 1,720 miles to work long hours on a dairy farm in western Wisconsin, among people who do not speak their language and in a place where their presence is illegal. Part 3 in our Dairyland Diversity project.
Posted inHealth & Welfare
Depressed mothers face barriers to treatment
More than 65 percent of depressed mothers don’t get adequate treatment for depression, according to a nationwide study released this fall by the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. The study of 2,130 women found that black, Hispanic and other minority mothers, as well as uninsured mothers, were among the least likely to be helped.
Posted inEducation, Health & Welfare, Justice & Safety
Investigators head off threats from 125 troubled people at UW-Madison
Officials at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say they defused threats from 125 troubled students, employees and area residents under a little-known program launched two years ago in response to deadly tragedies on college campuses in Virginia and Illinois.
But the program didn’t identify at least three individuals before they caused problems at Wisconsin’s flagship campus, including threats against a campus leader, a bomb threat and a murder near campus.
Posted inHealth & Welfare
Seattle’s mystery man identified as University of Wisconsin grad
The man who woke up in a Seattle park with $600 in his sock but with apparently no memory of his identity is Edward F. Lighthart, who graduated in 1984 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a French degree.
Posted inHealth & Welfare
Can you help identify Jon Doe?
The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is assisting The Seattle Times in an effort to determine the identity of a man, possibly suffering from amnesia, who turned up three weeks ago at a Seattle park. The man says he attended UW-Madison in the 1980s.
Posted inHealth & Welfare, Justice & Safety
Accidents in non-motorized boats often deadly
There are far fewer accidents involving canoes and rowboats than motorized boats, but those that are reported are far more likely to be deadly.