Three faculty members in the University of Nebraska College of Law provided expertise for national news stories in August. The stories were among 35-plus featuring Husker faculty, staff, students, centers and programs during the month.

• Kyle Langvardt, assistant professor of law, was interviewed for an Aug. 7 Business Insider article on the Trump administration’s attempt to ban TikTok and WeChat in the United States. He said Trump’s orders “are likely to have First Amendment problems.” “The reason is that they discriminate based on the identity of the speaker (Bytedance, Tencent) and also, arguably, based on the content of their speech,” he said. MSN.com picked up the story.

• Josephine Potuto, Larson Professor of constitutional law and former faculty athletics representative, was quoted in an Aug. 10 Wall Street Journal article on college athletic conferences deciding whether to postpone or cancel the upcoming football season. “I think there will be pushback on some of the campuses if there’s no football from people who believe that those consequences were overrated or not accurately predictive,” she said. “And schools will have to deal with that.” She was also interviewed for an Aug. 27 SI.com article on possible NCAA infractions by Louisiana State University’s basketball and football programs. “Schools used to be more aggressive in not retaining coaches who have an infractions record, or a potential infractions record,” she said. “That’s less and less true. It’s now more an emphasis on winning. It’s really sad.”

• Justin “Gus” Hurwitz, associate professor of law and director of the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center, was interviewed for an Aug. 29 Washington Post article on courts beginning to hold Amazon liable for defective products sold by third-party merchants. Amazon has argued that it is merely a conduit that connects sellers to shoppers. “What the courts have been struggling with is, can Amazon do that,” Hurwitz said. Many third-party sellers are effectively judgment-proof, he said, often disappearing when their products are found to be faulty.

More coverage:

Deirdre Cooper Owens, history, and director of the Humanities in Medicine program, was interviewed for an Aug. 1 Quartz article on the United States’ mixed history of treating racism as a public health issue. She discussed a failed effort in the late ’90s to address racism as a health crisis. “The medical industry was unwilling to see their own complicity,” she said.

Bruce Dvorak, civil engineering, was interviewed for an Aug. 1 National Provisioner article on new wastewater treatment technologies. As water scarcity increases in the West and Plains states, food processors and meatpackers will continue to invest in water reuse and water-conservation technologies, he said.

An article on the Mesonet Cattle Comfort Index provided by Nebraska Mesonet appeared in five Nebraska media outlets and Feedstuffs. The index was developed by Terry L. Mader and Leslie J. Johnson at the University of Nebraska, along with John B. Gaughan at the University of Queensland in Gatton, Australia. Galen Erickson, animal science, and Martha Shulski, director of the High Plains Regional Climate Center, were interviewed for the story.

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln has joined six universities in the Big Ten Academic Alliance to provide expanded online course offerings. Through this new program, Nebraska undergraduates can take one online course from another participating Big Ten school each semester as part of their academic experience with all tuition and fees waived. Stories on the course-sharing program appeared in the Lincoln Journal Star, Campus Technology, Cleveland.com, Inside Higher Ed and several other media outlets.

New research from Colton Fruhling, a doctoral candidate in physics and astronomy, suggests that the size of electron bunching relative to a laser beam could help researchers determine the duration of ultra-short electron bunches, a crucial step toward accurately capturing the dynamics of photochemical reactions such as photosynthesis. Phys.org and Technology.org ran articles on the research.

As of late July, pasture conditions in the United States as a whole were the worst since 2012, according to Martha Shulski, Nebraska state climatologist, director of the Nebraska State Climate Office and associate professor in the School of Natural Resources. Midwest Messenger published an Aug. 6 article on the conditions. Jerry Volesky, agronomy and horticulture, and Al Dutcher, agricultural extension climatologist at the Nebraska State Climate Office, were also interviewed for the story.

Aaron Berger, Nebraska Extension beef educator, wrote a recent article on three technologies — remote cameras, remote sensors and drones — to help ranchers check water for cattle. Western Livestock Journal ran the article Aug. 6.

Eric Weaver, biological sciences, has received a five-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to investigate the tobacco mosaic virus as a possible catalyst for developing a universal flu vaccine. Stories on the research appeared in eight Nebraska media outlets and Technology.org.

Nuwan Wijewardane, postdoctoral research associate in biological systems engineering, and colleagues have developed a quicker, cheaper method of analyzing soil after an oil spill. The Vis-NIR spectroscopy technology works by sending wavelengths of energy at a sample and measuring what is absorbed or reflected, and it only costs a few dollars per sample. Stories on the research appeared in the Environmental News Network, Phys.org, Science Codex and a few other media outlets.

Brian Fuchs, a climatologist at the university’s National Drought Mitigation Center, was quoted in an Aug. 10 NBC News article on all of Colorado being under drought or abnormally dry conditions. Experts say the conditions are part of a broader trend of intensifying dryness across the Southwest that is being exacerbated by climate change. “It’s one of those things where it may not be the main driver, but it’s definitely contributing to it,” Fuchs said.

The U.S. Drought Monitor — produced jointly by the National Drought Mitigation Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture — was highlighted in an Aug. 20 Forbes article.

Curtis Riganti, a climatologist with the drought center, discussed the Visual Drought Atlas for an Aug. 25 segment on RFD-TV. The atlas is a collection of landscape photos taken by citizen scientists that can be used for many purposes, including helping assess drought conditions. The drought center calls for atlas submissions on holiday weekends, such as Labor Day weekend.

Matt Spangler, animal science, was interviewed for an Aug. 11 Midwest Messenger article on Hereford cattle. The industry’s shift toward “blackhide” cattle and a trend toward straight-breeding in commercial herds has marginalized several breeds and created a loss of heterosis, he said. “The Hereford breed represents an important source of genetics to the beef industry,” he said. “It can be a valuable contributor to a crossbreeding program to gain heterosis and has several key advantages compared to some other breeds.”

Kathleen Lodl, associate dean of Nebraska Extension and Nebraska 4-H program leader, discussed how county fairs are adapting to COVID-19 regulations for an Aug. 11 segment on RFD-TV. “Everybody is wanting something that is a little back to normal in their communities, and 4-H’ers work year-round on their projects,” she said. “This gives them a chance to showcase their work, and it gives people a chance to see what young people are doing in their communities.”

A Climate Change Nebraska article on eco-anxiety in the heartland was mentioned in an Aug. 12 New Yorker column by author and environmentalist Bill McKibben. The story was written by Husker students Aila Ganic, a junior political science major, and Kayla Vondracek, a senior environmental studies major.

Marco Barker, vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion, recently discussed how unconscious bias keeps people from advancing economically on KSL’s Money Making Sense podcast. Barker said anyone in a position of power has the ability to limit opportunities for others not in power, whether they recognize it or not.

Mark Pegg, School of Natural Resources, and colleagues have found that pallid sturgeon stocked in a northerly segment of the Missouri River can live nearly three times longer, produce roughly 10 times as many eggs and weigh up to seven times more than specimens stocked on the Nebraska-Iowa border. Because the sturgeon at both locations came from the same genetic lineage, their disparities were likely driven almost entirely by differing characteristics of the river at the respective locations. Stories on the research appeared in Science Codex, Science Daily and a few other media outlets.

DTN Progressive Farmer published an Aug. 21 story on Zemua Baptista, a first-generation American who is raising chickens near Seward for a processing plant in Fremont. He is a senior agricultural economics major at Nebraska.

The Tekamah Pollinator Garden was featured in the Aug. 13 episode of “Backyard Farmer.” Kathleen Cue, a Nebraska Extension educator in Dodge County, helped design the 8,000-square-foot garden outside the Midwest Messenger offices. Midwest Messenger published an Aug. 21 article on the garden.

David Lott, Nebraska Extension educator, and Katie Kreuser, assistant extension educator, were interviewed for an Aug. 21 Midwest Messenger article on growing berry crops in Nebraska. Kreuser suggested avoiding blueberries since they don’t care for Nebraska’s soil pH and are susceptible to late frosts. Wild berries such as elderberries and mulberries are popular for people who like to make jam, liqueurs and other value-added products. Aronia berries also grow well in Nebraska, Kreuser said, but there is a small market for them.

New research by Eli Strauss, postdoctoral research associate in the School of Biological Sciences, and colleagues suggests that infanticide may be part of a strategy female hyenas use to maintain their social standing. Science News published an Aug. 25 article on the research.

Benny Mote, animal science, was interviewed for an Aug. 26 Pork magazine article on lameness in sows. He said the biggest misconception many producers have about lameness is that it’s something they simply have to live with.

Hope Wabuke, English, wrote an Aug. 27 article titled “Afrofuturism, Africanfuturism and the Language of Black Speculative Literature” for the Los Angeles Review of Books.

To accommodate riders and to comply with social distancing measures, University Parking and Transit Services has contracted with Arrow Stage Lines to add buses to the City Campus/East Campus routes. Bus and Motorcoach News published an Aug. 27 article on the changes.

Nathan Mueller, Nebraska Extension educator, was interviewed for an Aug. 27 Midwest Messenger article on the recent winter wheat harvest in Nebraska. He said the ideal time to plant winter wheat is early October, after the soybeans come out, which gives farmers the best chance at getting their crops to full yield.

Kelsy Burke, sociology, wrote an Aug. 31 piece for The Conversation about her research on evangelical sexual culture. Burke surveyed nearly 800 users of Christian sex advice websites and found that the vast majority supported a wide range of sex acts within heterosexual marriage as long as husband and wife consented. The story was picked up by more than a dozen media outlets.

New research by Brian Couch, biological sciences, and national colleagues has suggested that faculty who use innovative teaching practices communicate primarily with each other, limiting the spread of those practices to other faculty who could benefit from them. Stories on the research appeared in Phys.org, Science Codex and several other media outlets.

Faculty, administration, student and staff appearances in the national media are logged at http://newsroom.unl.edu/inthenews.
 If you have additions to this list, contact Sean Hagewood at shagewood2@unl.edu or 402-472-8514. If you have suggestions for national news stories, contact Leslie Reed at lreed5@unl.edu or 402-472-2059.