As the producer of In Wisconsin... I invite you to watch this week's show no matter where you live. We are based in Madison but our newsmagazine hosted by Patty Loew covers every corner of the state. In Wisconsin airs in most places at 7:30 on Thursday nights and there is an encore presentation at 10:30 Sunday night.

In Milwaukee it's a bit different with a broadcast time of 11:30 Sunday morning. And not to be outdone... we also have viewers in Minnesota. In Wisconsin is carried by Minnesota Public Television (WDSE-TV) in Duluth at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday for viewers in the Northwest corner of Wisconsin. I'm sure the Minnesotans who watch will enjoy the Packer report we have planned for our first show in February.

But I'm jumping ahead of myself... this week In Wisconsin features reports from around the state that include a new low-speed rail plan for Milwaukee, restoration on a 1916 Frank Lloyd Wright home, a very personal mission for a New Richmond High School student interested in stem cell research and find out how the Wisconsin DNR is using high-tech decoys to catch hunters who break the law.

Longtime WPT viewers will remember former anchor and news executive producer Dave Iverson. After leaving Wisconsin for his hometown of San Francisco, Dave produced "My father, my brother, and me", a Frontline documentary about the Iverson men's shared diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and what hope was coming from the latest research.

Parkinson's is at the center of Dave's NewsHour report which features a program started by the famous Mark Morris Dance Company in Brooklyn to teach dance movement to Parkinson's patients. Take a look, it's really well done.

I work with a woman who lost her voice recently. Her voice out lasted 3 weeks! She's a graphic designer and much of her work involves communication with a computer. But, during her design meetings with me and others we had to be creative about how to communicate. Once she recovered her voice she told me this has happened to her before so it made me wonder how many people suffer from either a very hoarse voice of no voice at all. And, how do people who spend much of their time talking for a living, like teachers, cope with this condition. It turns out there's clinic in Madison that specialized in helping people with this problem and people travel here from around the world seeking their help. It's called the UW-Voice and Swallow Clinic. We spent the morning videotaping both the professionals there and some of their patients. It's quite interesting. Look for this story after the holidays on In Wisconsin.

Everyone's trying to determine what a federal court ruling on stem cells means after a judge issued a preliminary injunction stopping federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The ruling came Monday and some interpretations of it could even curtail stem cell research allowed under former President George Bush. President Barack Obama had signed an order last year that repealed the Bush policy limiting federal dollars for stem cell research. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled aid for research that involves the destruction of embryos violates rules of federal spending bills.

On Here and Now this Friday, August 27, we'll talk with Dr. Timothy Kamp, director of UW's Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine Center, for his reaction to the court ruling. UW-Madison researchers pioneered stem cell science and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation holds several stem cell patents.

One of the limitations of storytelling on television is that there just isn't enough time to say everything you'd like to say about the interesting people we feature. My story in this week's edition of In Wisconsin is a good example. It's a humorous look at the autumn adventures of a father-son duo in Platteville. We focused only on their nut picking which is a weekend and after hours way to make a little extra money. The rest of the story about Roger Lange a.k.a. "the Dad" is that, in order to make ends meet, he works a full time job with the County AND serves as a local EMT. So, when he's nut picking, he's usually wearing his pager, ready to zoom off to an emergency. Now, if we were doing a documentary about Roger, who knows what else we might find out about this busy, busy man.

Wisconsin Public Television and Radio are participating in a collaborative journalism project with multiple Madison-based media outlets. The effort is called "All Together Now" and the idea is to get different media to focus reporting efforts on a single topic of particular importance to a community. The kick-off project is called "Madison Rx" and it looks at health care issues from multiple perspectives.

WPT's contribution is Art Hackett's story about an effort to provide health care to farmers and ag workers through a cooperative.

Other reports include a look at the state's insurance regulation from "Isthmus" and "Madison Magazine" reporting on the potential shortage of primary care physicians.

That's only a small sample of what can be found through links on the project's Web site. Please check it out and be sure to let the organizers know what you think.

H1N1 vaccination clinics begin today in some Dane County schools. The health department expects to vaccinate thousands of children. The current schedule calls for the clinics to be staged right up until December 1st. The State Department of Health Services tells me other districts across the state are also working to set up school-based clinics based on the allocations of vaccine they get. These clinics are not mandatory, and do require parental consent. After calling around to my own doctor's office, pharmacy-based walk-in clinics and other visiting nurse type public clinics, it sounds like getting your children vaccinated at their school is the best way to go - if you want them to get vaccinated. The other providers, at least as of today, don't appear to yet have the H1N1 vaccine for the general public.

Madison & Dane County Public Health Dept. H1N1 info page

State of Wisconsin's Pandemic Flu resource page