Health care gaps; Indian Child Welfare Act debated; toxic algae dangers; natural area climate adaptation; Oneida restore native prairie
Of note: One of the realities of our health system — the world’s most expensive, accounting for almost one-fifth of the U.S. economy – is that access to hospitals and doctors alone will not improve the overall health of people who face the challenge of being poor. Housing, food, transportation, income and education — even something as simple as an air conditioner — can be more important to health than access to even the best physicians and hospitals, the Journal Sentinel’s Guy Boulton found.
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The U.S. pours money into health care, then holds back on social services. But those services often can do more to improve health.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — September 15, 2022
As a doctor, Amy Kind found she could admit a poor person to the hospital again and again, each time potentially costing tens of thousands of dollars. “Yet changing someone’s ability to have safe housing … was not something I could do,” said Kind, a professor at the University of Wisconsin medical school.
Oneida Nation steps in to defend Indian Child Welfare Act in US Supreme Court case
Green Bay Press-Gazette — September 14, 2022
Tribal leaders in Wisconsin worry a pending U.S. Supreme Court case could set back efforts to protect Native children from unnecessary removals and even have far-reaching implications for federal Indian law.
Testing the waters: How groups monitor toxic algae in the absence of state testing
Harvest Public Media — September 13, 2022
Toxic blue-green algae can sicken people and animals. Few states have routine testing programs to check for algae, so some local and volunteer groups are stepping in to fill that gap. The report comes from the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, of which Wisconsin Watch is a member.
Related coverage from Circle of Blue: Danger looms where toxic algae blooms
Wisconsin’s first grassland climate adaptation site is a ‘best case scenario’ for mitigating climate change
WPR — September 13, 2022
Rush Creek, 30 miles south of La Crosse, has been a State Natural Area since 1981. Property managers have been working on it for years, but the project marks the first time multiple environmental groups are teaming up to bring climate resiliency and explore new management approaches at the site.
Related coverage from Harvest Public Media: Midwest summer nights are heating up — and that’s hurting crops and livestock
‘The Earth is healing’: What a prairie restoration project on the Oneida Reservation can teach us about partnerships and the land
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — September 12, 2022
Leopard frogs. Mayflies. Bumblebees. Waterfowl. They’ve all found their way back here to the headwaters of Trout Creek on the Oneida Reservation thanks to an effort that started in 2018 to restore more than 400 acres of native prairie, wetland and forest.
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