news writing
Scientists to lose jobs in 2014
STOUGHTON, Oct. 28, 2013 (WKOW) — Three months after two University of Wisconsin-Madison physicists earned a Nobel Prize for the Higgs boson discovery, 30 scientists from another of the university's physics labs will lose their jobs.
The Synchrotron Radiation Center (SRC), a $50-million facility based in Stoughton, opened in 1968 and is scheduled to close its doors on January 6, 2014 because of funding cuts by the National Science Foundation. The SRC is the first site in the world dedicated to this type of physics.
Women get lacquered up, despite doctor warnings
MADISON, Nov. 7, 2013 (WKOW) — Visit almost any nail salon at nine o'clock in the morning and only the most passionate polish-istas occupy the salon's cushioned chairs. Most are regulars, and almost all are getting no-chip manicures and/or pedicures.
"I don't know what they consider a gel nail addict," Madison woman Carol, who gets gel nails every two weeks, said, laughing, "my husband might think so."
'Environmental racism' charged in wake of coal study
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16, 2012 (UPI) -- It's becoming increasingly harder for the poor to breathe due to nearby coal plants, a study released this week states.
Low-income communities are disproportionately affected by health-threatening pollution from coal-fired power plants in Illinois and other Midwestern states, a report by the NAACP says.
People living within 3 miles of a coal plant are more likely to inhale pollutants that cause respiratory problems such as asthma, researchers said. They also said people living within 3 miles of a coal plant are disproportionately low-income and minorities.
Illinois moves to tighten laws on sex trafficking
CHICAGO, April 5, 2012 (Medill News Service) — As the second investor bailed out this week from Backpage.com, the website accused of facilitating prostitution, Illinois is poised to pass a bill that makes it easier to prosecute sex traffickers.
The bill, which passed the House unanimously last month and awaits Senate action, would address surreptitious methods such as schemes and intimidation used by pimps and traffickers to lure women, girls, and boys into prostitution.
Gun violence threatens mental health of inner-city youth
CHICAGO, May 30, 2012 (Medill News Service) — The mental trauma children suffer when gun violence strikes their families rallied kids, parents and community leaders at the Thompson Center Tuesday evening.
“Do you care?”
Master of ceremonies Mack Julion encouraged the sparse crowd of 50 to chant the phrase at the Youth for Peace rally, organized by The Safety Net Works of Auburn Gresham, a youth mentoring and employment program.
Dozens of kids held up multi-colored T-shirts with the names of loved ones they’ve lost to gun violence and they wore their own matching T-shirts that read, “I care…”
Fewer kids might start smoking, if Quinn’s cigarette-tax hike to help Medicaid passes
CHICAGO, May 10, 2012 (Medill News Service) — The way to break a young smoker’s habit, it seems, is through his wallet.
Or at least that’s what a research paper, released last week, found.
An estimated 250,000 American youths did not smoke cigarettes and 170,000 kids snubbed smokeless tobacco in the short term, thanks to the 2009 federal tobacco excise tax, which raised the levy on all tobacco products from 39 cents to $1.01.
However, further tax hikes, such as Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposal last week to increase cigarette prices by $1 to fund a $1.9 billion hole in Medicaid bills may fall short because smuggling and diminishing returns could cut into the tax revenues.
Chicago has 5th worst racial disparity for breast cancer deaths
CHICAGO, May 2, 2012 (Austin Weekly News) — Four women — three black, one Hispanic — sat slumped in their powder blue gowns in Mount Sinai Hospital's mammography center recently. Each woman hugged herself with both arms, cradling her breasts in between. They sat low and in a row.
In Chicago, nearly 80 African-American women die of breast cancer every year because of racial differences in access to healthcare, a new study suggests, the worst number of any city in the study.
