In Wisconsin

In Wisconsin #914

Wisconsin Public Television

Transcript: In Wisconsin #914

Air Date: Febraury 10, 2011

Patty Loew:

Welcome to In Wisconsin. Im Patty Loew. This week, a medical breakthrough at the University of Wisconsin.

Woman:

To end with a product on the market where youre actually helping people is wow!

Patty Loew:

Helping and providing hope for people who risk brain damage if they eat protein. Plus, a unique Tribal Americorps program.

Woman:

Follow your dreams. Dont let anything hold you back.

Patty Loew:

See how Wisconsins Native American communities are benefitting. And on-the-job training with the restoration of an historic ship.

Man:

This national treasure is being restored by our next generation.

Patty Loew:

And its being done at UW- Platteville. Those reports and our Quest environmental reporting project looks at the effect of climate change on fishing. Next on In Wisconsin.

Announcer:

Major funding for In Wisconsin is provided by the people of Alliant Energy, who bring safe, reliable and environmentally friendly energy, to keep homes, neighborhoods and life in Wisconsin running smoothly. Alliant Energy. Were on for you. And Animal Dentistry and Oral Surgery Specialists of Milwaukee, Oshkosh, and Minneapolis, a veterinarian team working with pet owners and family veterinarians, providing care for oral disease and dental problems of small companion animals.

Patty Loew:

We begin this week with a change in Wisconsins 11 Native American communities. Its change that holds the promise of providing assistance in a way thats never been done before. In Wisconsin reporter Liz Koerner shows you how some solutions are starting to take shape at Lac du Flambeau.

Liz Koerner:

Its a place blessed with natural beauty. The lakes are sparkling and clean, and the trees grow tall. This healthy landscape contrasts sharply with the health of many of the people who live here.

Ken Ninham:

Historical trauma has been a real issue, boarding schools have been an extremely big issue. Relocation of native people has been a real issue.

Liz Koerner:

Native Americans are plagued by a disease thats been passed on to generation to generation, and is triggered by alcohol.

Ken Ninham:

We see alcohol and drugs as sort of self-medicating trauma.

Liz Koerner:

Problems in the past have led to problems in the present.

Ken Ninham:

The stress and conflict that a lot of our families are going through, some of them are just barely making it from day to day.

Liz Koerner:

Alcohol abuse has been well documented here, from tribal members old enough to drive, all the way down to children barely in their teens. A recent survey found the problem is now starting at an even earlier age.

Sue Wolfe:

Theres a significant number of youth that are starting to drink as early as 7 years old. So thats a big concern for us.

Liz Koerner:

To combat the downward spiral of this disease, the tribe formed a coalition of professionals and concerned community members. Then applied to the Americorps program for workers who could devote full time to helping youth. Heather Wolfe is a Lac du Flambeau tribal member and works with children at the public school.

Heather Wolef:

Ive grown up with a lot of kids that, you know, that watched their parents, and they swore theyd never drink, and swore theyd never do this and that. And now I look at them today and its sad because theyre just, I mean, exact same place as their parents were.

Liz Koerner:

Now age 31, Heather has struggled with substance abuse herself.

Heather Wolfe:

I just think that if I could help some of these kids not have to go down that road, then I think it would be worth it.

Liz Koerner:

One strategy for substance abuse prevention is reconnecting Native American children with their own culture. An example is Ojibwe language lessons.

[speaking foreign language]

Ken Ninham:

Our elders have taught us that in order to continue to be strong and have inner peace, you have to be able to identify who you are as an individual.

Heather Wolfe:

And I think if that culture was taught and really, I mean, at a young age and then continually, then that will help, too, with them choosing, you know, making better choices as they get older.

Liz Koerner:

LaShawnda Maulson and Jeffrey Dunbar are also Americorps members based in Lac du Flambeau. This is LaShawndas second year serving under a grant held by the Marshfield Clinic Center for Community Outreach. She leads after-school activities including games that teach math skills.

LaShawnda Maulson:

(teaching children) Good job, all right.

Liz Koerner:

Shes seen how important it is to have caring adults in the lives of these young students.

LaShawnda Maulson:

If youre just about being a person, a positive person, every other day you see them, or you tell your story and they hear it, they think, well, I can make a difference, too. I can be a person that can also do it, or I can just do better myself.

Liz Koerner:

LaShawnda is on a first-name basis with her students, and they clearly enjoy the time she devotes to them. She offers them a message from comes from the heart.

LaShawnda Maulson:

Just really encouraging them with all their dreams, thats my thing. Follow your dreams, dont let anything hold you back. If you dont like something, just work around it. Dont let it hold you back.

Liz Koerner:

Its advice that shes now taking herself, because of her Americorps experience. At age 25, she now knows that she wants to work with children as a career.

LaShawnda Maulson:

I mean, I just love it when a little kid comes up and says hi, and they remember my name and give me a hug. Its really heartwarming to be able to do that. And Im really glad, Im really proud to say that I was part of Americorps.

Patty Loew:

While Americorps has sent workers to Wisconsins Indian communities for years, this is the first year the tribe got a grant for their own members. A total of 13 positions were funded in a grant held by the Sokaogon Chippewa community. Tribal Americorps members have also been involved in areas of juvenile justice, organic gardening and a junior tribal counsel. To find out more, just go to our website at wpt.org, then scroll down and click on In Wisconsin.

Patty Loew:

Now we turn to a medical breakthrough at the University of Wisconsin more than 10 years in the making. Imagine living in the dairy state and not being able to eat cheese, eggs, or meat. For some people, those basic foods can cause depression and even brain damage. This week In Wisconsin reporter Frederica Freyberg has an update on the revolution year new foods made from whey, a cheese byproduct in Madison.

Ann Zimmerman:

The diet is extremely restrictive. Jesses never eaten meat. Shes never eaten cheese. Shes never eaten fish. Shes never eaten pizza, hamburgers.

Frederica Freyberg:

In 2008, Ann Zimmerman told us about her 10-year-old daughters special diet. Instead of the usually kid-friendly fare for Jesse, she continues to thrive on a special formula, liquid nutrition that provides essential nutrients without protein. A newborn blood test that greets every baby born in the U.S. discovered Jesse he the genetic disorder called PKU, thats short for phenylketonuria. About one in 10,000 babies in this country lack the enzyme needed to digest phenylalanine, an amino acid found in protein. Even the protein in milk causes brain damage and severe retardation in people with PKU.

Ann Zimmerman:

Porridge, spaghetti, her special crackers.

Frederica Freyberg:

So people living with the disorder eat an array of specially made low-protein foods measured out in precise amounts, along with their formula. But that strict diet is hard to follow.

Matt Cortright:

When I was at home, I didnt have a problem. But when I was out, or when I was in school, it was hard to have self-control to say, okay, I cant have that. It looks really good, it smells really good, but I cant have that. I know that.

Frederica Freyberg:

Matt Cortright says he went off his special diet completely as a teenager. He suffered the consequences, developing neurological damage that caused a disabling movement addition order and seizures.

The dire consequence of falling off a PKU diet was about to get a pre-emptive strike, because scientists discovered how to isolate usable proteins from whey that comes from the cheese-making process. They purified one whey protein making it free of phenylalanine, the amino acid that causes brain damage, a potentially whole new food group took off from there and UW-Madison professor of nutritional scientist Denise Ney was in the lead.

Denise Ney:

It could just make the difference between life being a little bit easier and higher quality, to be able to have a variety of foods that were more typical foods, you know. I think it could be life changing.

Frederica Freyberg:

Scientific trials testing mice with PKU on the new protein diet proved safe and nutritional, and so dairy researchers got to work making puddings and sports drinks using the new intact protein called GMP.

Ann Zimmerman:

Is it good?

(Jesse shakes her head yes)

Frederica Frebyerg:

The foods proved much more palatable in test patients than the special formula. And the human trials also proved the products safe for consumption. And so seven years after Professor Ney started her research, a breakthrough in science has come to the breakfast table, and is now available commercially to buy.

Denise Ney:

It looks like milk. Its slightly sweet, maybe a vanilla, kind of a blander flavor.

Frederica Frebyerg:

The new product is called BetterMilk and its produced by a small company in Massachusetts.

Denise Ney:

People say that its easier to take than the amino acid formula. They like the taste of it basically. Either plain or flavored. The other thing, they say that they feel good with it, and that they dont feel hungry all the time. Its satisfying.

Frederica Freyberg:

The product can also be used in cooking or in smoothies, and the company is developing more foods and drinks using the GMP protein.

Denise Ney:

Its an amazing thing to start with an idea and the first research that was done in an area, and to end up with a product on the market where youre actually helping people is, wow!

The red or the pink is the GMP diet…

Frederica Freyberg:

But the scientific work isnt done. Ney is now testing lab mice to determine whether the GMP protein diet improves bone development and strength.

Physician:

Go ahead and put your hand up like this for me…

Frederica Freyberg:

Because osteoporosis is a chronic complication of PKU, causing even people in their 20s to develop weak bones and fractures.

Denise Ney:

If we could show that the GMP diet improved bone development, that would help it become the standard of care for better health for those with PKU.

Frederica Freyberg:

Those results are expected later this year. In Jesse Zimmermans case, Professor Ney reports that shes still sticking with her pantry full of special foods and formula. But from the safety standpoint, the new product is FDA approved for people age 2 and up.

Patty Loew:

Professor Ney says the new food product is especially helpful for parents of children with PKU that cant get used to the traditional formula. Another clinical study gets underway in March. It will involve comparing the traditional PKU diet and the new GMP diet as people use the foods in their homes. But the UW-Madison and Harvard University are taking part.

In if next few months, college students will set sail for a new job in the real world. The chances are most wont be working with a cauldron of liquid steel. This week in our Money Matters segment, Andy Soth shows us how students at one UW campus are getting skills for a hot job and a history lesson to boot in Platteville.

Andy Soth:

In this cauldron, steel is being heated to more than 3,000 degrees. Nearby, special sand is formed and packed with precision. Soon, molten steel will be poured into these stand blocks.

Philip Harrison:

So all the texture is great, love it. Its going to come out beautiful, too.

Andy Soth:

If all goes well, the steel will cool and retain the shape of the mold carved out of the sand. This is not a professional foundry or factory. Really, its a classroom. Welcome to the UW-Plattevilles Metals Manufacturing Senior Design Class taught by professor Kyle Metzloff.

Kyle Metzloff:

What Im trying to do with the students is to go from project start and design, all the way through finished parts shipped out the door.

Andy Soth:

While they probably dont start a night shift at Neenah Foundry with a chili cook-off like theyre doing here, the work these Platteville undergrads will do tonight is very real. The South Street Seaport Museum in New York has given them a special commission. The class is to make a part vital to the restoration of an historic ship.

Philip Harrison:

This national treasure is being restored by our next generation.

Andy Soth:

Philip Harrison is part of the team restoring the ship in New York. He traveled to Plattevill in December for this important step in the process.

This model is being shaped in plastic, by whats called a three-dimensional printer. It may not look like anything special, but after 40 pieces like it are cast in steel and shipped to New York, theyll be fitted on top of poles that will hold up the deck of the ship.

Philip Harrison:

These pieces actually are stronger than the originals, which lasted over 100 years.

Andy Soth:

Harrison may have come here to get something made the same way it was a century ago, but Plattevilles program is state-of-the-art high-tech.

Kyle Metzloff:

There is no way I can do what Im doing right now without the support of Wisconsin businesses.

Andy Soth:

A million dollars worth of donated computer software helps students model the flow and temperature change of the steel as it enters the cast.

Kyle Thorp:

And this gives us a good idea of how the part will solidify.

Andy Soth:

Armed with the knowledge of what will happen after the liquid steel is poured, the students put the sandcasts into position. The effort to restore the ship is an act of historic preservation. But if you lived in Wisconsin in the 1980s and saw one factory close after another, you might wonder if studying manufacturing today is also an effort in preserving history.

Kyle Metzloff:

In the 70s and 80s, there was some bad times. And probably the parents of high school children right now, those parents have that as a recollection in their mind that manufacturing is not such a great place to go into.

Andy Soth:

But because manufacturers didnt hire in the 1980s, today theres actually a worker shortage.

Mike Klonsinski:

Wisconsin has a two-tiered work workforce, where many of our manufacturing employees, skilled technicians and others, are between the ages of 55 and 65. Theyre going to be retiring and leaving the workforce in the next five to ten years. Were not sure where the next generation of those workers are going to come in. And thats a serious long-term challenge for manufacturing in Wisconsin. If we can get the best and brightest into manufacturing positions, and allow them to go ahead and use their brains to figure out how theyre going to beat the overseas competition, we can go ahead and win in a global marketplace. Despite what people say about having to compete with manufacturing and 25 cent an hour labor.

Andy Soth:

Mass produced goods can almost always be made much more cheaply overseas. Where Wisconsin companies can compete is with specialized and precision manufacturing, like medical equipment. And as for the new technologies like biotech and biofuels, that many see leading to a new economy, Metzloff points out that we cant get there without manufacturing.

Kyle Metzloff:

We cant build the equipment that it takes to, lets say, make ethanol or any of the high-tech biotechnologies. All these things require equipment to, you know, to produce whatever it is. And if we dont have the know-how, we cant get it made in China, its not necessarily a good option.

Andy Doth:

So these students under Metzloffs guidance were learning those skills. And theyre now ready to pour the molten steel into the molds.

Kyle Metzloff:

Learn how to problem solve is really the main goal. And problem solve on your feet. If theres a ladle of molden metal sitting there and we have about 30 seconds to decide whether were going to pour that into the molds that are going to make our castings, and we have some sort of problem, well, you better figure out to do it quick, because it will be a large cost to your company and effort wasted.

Andy Soth:

Metzloff takes almost missionary zeal in his effort to bring new people into manufacturing. Working through the night with his own students isnt enough. Hes also taking it to the high schools. At Waunakee High, hes lent an electric-powered kiln to a Tech Ed class taught by a former student. Its made for ceramics, but hot enough to melt aluminum.

Kyle Metzloff:

Im trying to present a package that they can get into metal casting, back into it in a lot of cases. Some schools have had these programs and closed them down probably in the 80s. And now were trying to reintroduce them.

Andy Soth:

Back at Platteville, its time to open the sandcasts and see if all that hard work has paid off.

For all the good points Metzloff makes about the need to preserve manufacturing as a vital part of the Wisconsin economy, its clear he also just wants to share his passion.

Kyle Metzloff:

Its in my family. Its in my blood, I guess. Im a third-generation metallurgist.. My father was in metals. My grandfather also. I still get excited when I see that metal pour. Or you know, when I open the mold up to see if the casting came out. I think if people do what they like doing, its not even like working.

Patty Loew:

All of Plattevilles December graduates in metal casting have already found work in the field. Professor Metzloff says it may be a leading indicator that economic recovery is around the corner. Foundries that make precision parts are usually the first businesses to benefit from an improving economy.

Foraging for food? A look at sustainable logging and the woman making it in a mans world. Those are just some of the reports were working on for the next edition of In Wisconsin.

She was a UW professor, flight instructor and shot down in Vietnam twice. And thats only the beginning.

Woman:

She realized that she could not learn to fly as a girl. They wouldnt teach her as a girl. So she thought, well, all right, then Ill be a boy.

Patty Loew:

Wait until you hear the rest of DJ Douglass amazing story.

Jo Garret:

This is In Wisconsin reporter Jo Garrett. And Im breaking the rules, sneaking a taste.

Man:

Theyre very good.

Jo Garrett:

You should try one, Frank. On a one-of-a-kind nature trail, devoted to wild edibles. Theres only one in the country, and its in Wisconsin.

Andy Soth:

This is In Wisconsin reporter Andy Soth. This great northern forest is a tribute to the advice of Chief Oshkosh.

Man:

When you reach the end of the reservation, turn and cut from the setting sun to the rising sun, and the trees will last forever.

Man:

At first glance it looks like a forest that hasnt been managed, but its anything but that. Its a managed forest.

Andy Soth:

Well show you the Menomonee way of forestry.

Patty Loew:

Join us for those reports next thursday at 7:30 right here on Wisconsin Public Television.

This year, In Wisconsin is putting a greater emphasis on environmental reports, including those on climate change. This time of year, Wisconsins frozen lakes are dotted with anglers and ice shanties, but Wisconsin winters are changing. Ice fishing dates back well before European settlers, to when Native Americans chopped holes in the ice in order to spear fish.

This week, as part of our reporting project called Quest, Finn Ryan, one of our partners with the Educational Communications Board, shows you how climate change could impact the future of ice fishing in madison.

Tom Marchant:

Ice fishing in Madison starts when theres at least four inches of ice on the lake, for me, anyway.

Ooh, Just missed it. See if I can get him again.

Norma Marchant:

You know that almost everybody that drives by thinks youre nuts.

Tom Marchant:

Ive always liked being outside and being out in nature. I think Id go nuts if I had to sit in a house all winter long. Fish tastes better in the winter, too. You dont have all the algae and all that other stuff growing in the water, all that isnt in their bodies at the time.

Norma Marchant:

So you go down until you hit the bottom, and then you just feel that tug.

Tom Marchant:

Theres one down there now. Lets see if I can get him to bite. Just a little guy. We usually get little gills and perch and some crappies. A lot of pan fish. Having ice on the lake affords you to get out where the fish are, or otherwise all you have a chance to get is what you get from shore, and thats usually pretty little fish.

I think it was four years ago that Monona had two spots that were as wide open, probably a football field length and width, that didnt freeze. I think the length of time the ice is on Madison lakes is getting less. I cant say that for sure, but it would make it real difficult to ice fish if that didnt freeze over.

Norma Marchant:

We actually are more competitive than we care to admit sometimes. But its friendly competition, right?

Tom Marchant:

I usually catch more fish.

Norma Marchant:

I think it usually depends on the day who catches more fish. Right, Tom?

Tom Marchant:

If you say so, dear!

[laughter]

Patty Loew:

UW researchers have been collecting ice data on Madison lakes since 1855. Looking to the future, Wisconsins average winter temperatures are expected to increase some seven to nine degrees in the next 45 years. Change which would have direct impact on ice cover and ice fishing across our state.

For additional information about our environmental reporting project, or the report you just saw, go to QuestWisconsin.org. There, youll find links to additional research and reports.

A quick reminder about our interactive blog called the Producers Journal. Its updated each weekday by the people who work in front of and behind the scenes on In Wisconsin. We hope youll check out the Producer Journal at wpt.org, and click on In Wisconsin. You can find out in advance about reports were working on, the people weve met, and the places weve been. Its all in the Producers Journal.

You know the saying, theres no such thing as safe ice. Well, some geese apparently didnt get the message! Our final video this week is from Columbia County, where the geese gather around open water on whats appropriately called Goose Pond. This kettle depression made by the retreating glaciers is a favorite winter spot for waterfowl, but its not always an easy landing. Enjoy the view and have a great week, In Wisconsin.

Announcer:

Major funding for In Wisconsin is provided by the people of Alliant Energy, who bring safe, reliable and environmentally friendly energy, to keep homes, neighborhoods and life in Wisconsin running smoothly. Alliant Energy. Were on for you. And Animal Dentistry and Oral Surgery Specialists of Milwaukee, Oshkosh, and Minneapolis, a veterinarian team working with pet owners and family veterinarians, providing care for oral disease and dental problems of small companion animals.