John Clay, the ball is in your hands.
“What weâ??d like to do is see how he takes the reins,” University of Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema said Monday, “and see where he goes.”
Clayâ??s first steps should come Saturday when UW (2-0) hosts Wofford (1-1) and the redshirt sophomore from Racine Park High School takes the field for the first time as UWâ??s starting tailback.
Quoted: James Stein, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
The first detailed research on Wisconsinâ??s climate is forecasting a jump in average annual temperatures of 4 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit by midcentury, which could push humans and nature to adapt to weather conditions that at times resemble Missouri today.
The findings are unique for climate research in Wisconsin because researchers are making predictions about the future on a local scale. Climate scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said Monday that warming will be greatest in northern Wisconsin, with the smallest changes taking place in the south along Lake Michigan.
SAN FRANCISCO — When the coughing stops is probably a better sign of when a swine flu patient is no longer contagious, experts said after seeing new research that suggests the virus can still spread many days after a fever goes away.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been telling people to stay home from work and school and avoid contact with others until a day after their fever breaks. The new research suggests they may need to be careful for longer — especially at home where the risk of spreading the germ is highest.
Swine flu also appears to be contagious longer than ordinary seasonal flu, several experts said.
UW-Whitewater will offer an undergraduate degree in entrepreneurship after the UW Board of Regents approved the new degree Friday.
UW-Madison is the only other school in the University of Wisconsin System to offer such a degree.
Dane County Coroner John Stanley has died. Stanley was found dead at his DeForest home Sunday afternoon from what appeared to be a heart attack.
….He was chairman of the legislative committee for the Wisconsin Coroners & Medical Examiner’s Association and worked hand-in-hand with medical examiners in the pathology department at UW-Madison who conducted autopsies for Stanley’s office.
Quoted: Dr. Michael Hart, chair of the Department of Pathology
A recent survey of Wisconsin physicians found that a clear majority is concerned about the nationâ??s health system and believe reform is needed. The results are from a University of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Medical Society survey that was published this week in the Wisconsin Medical Journal. While there was a diverse response as to how the system should be reformed, there was broad agreement that all Americans should have health insurance – to be obtained from an employer, a private plan or another source, with subsidies if needed to make coverage affordable. More than 90% of physicians indicated that the government should bear some degree of responsibility to ensure all patients have access to high-quality, affordable health care.
A column by Richard D. Rieselbach, professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health; Patrick L. Remington, UW-Madison’s associate dean for public health and Cyril M. Hetsko, a board member of the American Medical Association, and a clinical professor of medicine at UW-Madison.
Dane County Coroner John Stanley has died. The Dane County Sheriffâ??s Office said that Stanley was found at his DeForest home sometime Sunday evening and that the cause of death appears to be medical in nature, said Sgt. Mark Olson. An autopsy is scheduled for later today to determine a cause of death.
Ever since we put solar panels on our off-the-grid cabinâ??s roof five years ago, I have been awed by how they power every electrical need of that building. Pumping water. Igniting the stoveâ??s burners. Lighting. They require no maintenance other than filling storage batteries with distilled water periodically. If we were on the electrical grid, it would make obvious sense to feed our excess power back into the grid.
This, University of Wisconsin football fans, is how you steal a victory from a determined Fresno State team led by a fiery coach and skill players whose talent would fit in just fine in the Big Ten Conference.
This is how you overcome a running game that was anemic except for about two plays, a depleted secondary that was beaten underneath and over the top from the first quarter to the fourth, and a series of penalties Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium that conjured memories of a forgettable 2008 season.
Critics of $20 million in budget cuts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee plan a noon rally Monday. The protesters, which are expected to include students and staff, are calling for a cut in tuition, for rescinding a pay cut for university employees and rescinding budget cuts.
Quoted: Robert H. Dott Jr., a retired University of Wisconsin-Madison geologist who co-authored “Roadside Geology of Wisconsin.”
Mentions that the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is researching ways to develop energy from wood, switchgrass and other plant matter.
The marriage of philanthropist Michael Cudahyâ??s money and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor Carlos Santiagoâ??s vision appears to be on the rocks.
Quoted: Tom Reason, acting admissions director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who said UW System colleges do not ask applicants whether they have been suspended from school.
Doctors told Nolan “Whiz” Beck in July that he would have to stay in the hospital for a few days after his surgery to remove a tumor. They were surprised when Beckâ??s health was good enough to send him home 30 hours after he was admitted.
“It was the fabulous care and the will to get on with my life,” Beck, 52, said of his short stay. Beck is battling advanced-stage kidney cancer. Although he had a kidney removed after a 2002 diagnosis, the cancer last year spread to his brain, lungs and bones.
While he undergoes monthly sessions of chemotherapy, Beck continues work as the University of Wisconsin Marathon Countyâ??s associate campus dean and director of student services.
Wisconsin economic development gurus love to tout Madison as one of the worldâ??s rising biotech “hot spots.” But Madisonâ??s biotechnology scene gets an unflattering mention in a new report detailed in the Scientist magazine – for having some of the lowest life sciences salaries in the nation.
Defensive end Oâ??Brien Schofield considers himself lucky. The same could probably be said for the rest of the University of Wisconsin football team.
Somehow, Schofield has managed to avoid the flu-like symptoms that ran through so many of his teammates this week. Heâ??s not sure how he did it, but he took the warnings seriously since the first time trainers talked to the team months ago about the H1NI virus.
The state will pay $50,000 to a woman who was shocked with a Taser by UW Police at a Badgers football game last year under a settlement reached on Tuesday, the womanâ??s attorney said.
Robert Gingras, the attorney for Margaret Hiebing, said the settlement was reached during a mediation session with retired Circuit Judge Angela Bartell, who brokered the deal between Gingras and state Department of Justice attorneys who represented UW Police Sgt. Tamara Kowalski and Detective Peter Grimyser.
Because of the large numbers of students heading to the doctorâ??s office with the flu, regular appointments at the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s health clinic are being restricted.
University Health Services UHS implemented its “surge plan” on Tuesday with the surge coming from students suffering from flu-like symptoms, so staff can take care of the students who are sick.
As of Saturday, about 200 students had visited the health services complaining of the flu. Most of the cases were for H1N1 flu, also known as swine flu.
University of Wisconsin offensive line coach Bob Bostad isnâ??t afraid to exercise his right to free speech. And more often than not, the words he chooses are as subtle as a pancake block. So donâ??t get him started on the holding call assessed to freshman center Travis Frederick in UWâ??s opener last week.
A slight majority of Wisconsin doctors who responded to a survey last summer supported national health insurance or achieving universal coverage through incremental reform, according to researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin Medical Society. The survey of 948 doctors found that more than 54% support legislation for national health insurance and 55% support incremental reform toward universal coverage. That compared with 37% of the doctors who opposed national health insurance and 26% who oppose incremental reform.
POYNETTE (WKOW) — One of the two new Canadian lynx kittens at Poynetteâ??s Mackenzie Center had to be euthanized.
A Mackenzie Center employee found the lynx unable to move its back legs. A trip to the UWâ??s vet school revealed the lynx had suffered an irreparable spinal cord injury.
The University of Wisconsin football team is scrambling to prepare for a home game against Fresno State Saturday after a large number of players came down with flu-like symptoms this week.
Dennis Helwig, director of sports medicine at UW, met with the media Tuesday night and would only confirm a number in the “low double-digits.”
Other reports had the number much higher. Brian Wozniak, a freshman tight end, wrote on Twitter.com just after noon that 45 players were out.
….It is still unclear why 38-year-old Mary Ehrlinger drowned on Aug. 19. She was not fond of lake swimming with its murky water, fish and seaweed, but she was a strong swimmer with 20 triathlons to her credit. She was training with a small group of friends to compete in Sundayâ??s Ironman Wisconsin, a grueling triathlon with a 2.4-mile swim, followed by a 112-mile bicycle ride and then a 26.2-mile run.
Ironman officials say they donâ??t intend to make any procedural changes because tight safety precautions are already in place, but Ehrlingerâ??s drowning and the deaths of three other triathletes in Wisconsin this year have led many in the sport to start thinking harder about safety, particularly for the often chaotic swimming portion of the events.
Quoted: Dr. Lee Faucher, a trauma and burn surgeon at UW Hospital and Clinics and medical director of Ironman Wisconsin.
The school year isnâ??t even a week old but UW-Madison health officials already are seeing a good number of students coming down with the novel H1N1 virus — previously known as the “swine flu” — that made its way through Wisconsin and other parts of the United States and Mexico this spring.
“This is becoming a big deal,” said University Health Services epidemiologist Craig Roberts. “University Health Services is essentially swamped right now with calls and visits from ill students. Itâ??s a little hard to assess if some of this is due to increased awareness of the flu this year — but a lot of it is real illness. H1N1 is definitely here and weâ??re starting to see a lot of it on campus.”
Roberts said UHS saw nearly 200 students with flu-like symptoms from Aug. 31 through Sept. 5. Recently completed lab work indicates the vast majority of those students have the H1N1 virus.
Roberts said the distribution of the flu cases is “very widespread. There is no particular clustering or focus of the illness. Itâ??s really affecting all ages under 25.”
MADISON, Wis. — A federal judge said the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater canâ??t collect damages from a former dean accused of misusing school money.
U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller said the university waited until after a two-year statute of limitations expired to sue former College of Letters and Sciences Dean Howard Ross over the alleged breach.
Dear Editor: Regarding the Aug. 19 Cap Times article about me, “Saving Donna Murphyâ??s brain,” I mailed a personal thank you letter to my surgeon, Dr. Beverly Aagaard-Kienitz, after recovering from the stroke, but my gratitude was not mentioned in the article. I (and my mom) would like to thank Dr. Kienitz again, along with Dr. Matthew Jensen, Nurse Janean Blabaum, Chris Whelley, and the UW Hospital staff. I was very fortunate to be under your care.
Two UW-Madison menâ??s basketball players were jailed Sunday on tentative charges of burglary and underage drinking in the thefts of portable music players, a cell phone and $400 cash from “numerous” dormitory rooms, university police said in a news release.
Diamond Taylor and Jeremy Glover, both 18-year-old students, were confronted by police as they left Sellery Hall, according to a news release. Police had been called to the dormitory to investigate a reported burglary.
Both were suspended from the menâ??s basketball team, athletic director Barry Alvarez announced in a press release Sunday night.
It was the day after Christmas in 2007 when Kurt Saupe finally agreed to head into urgent care. His wife had noticed that the seemingly fit and healthy researcher with UW-Madisonâ??s department of medicine was getting out of breath simply walking up stairs at home, and prodded him to get checked out.
An X-ray showed that much of Saupeâ??s left lung was filled with liquid. Two days later, a needle was inserted between his ribs, and three liters of fluid were drained off.
“And I was feeling much better,” says Saupe, whose name rhymes with “copy.”
But Saupeâ??s wife, a heart failure and transplant specialist with UW Hospital and Clinics, sensed something was very wrong.
The University of Wisconsin System plans to spend $81.4 million to implement a more efficient payroll and benefits computer system, with the majority going to outside consultants, officials said Wednesday.UW System President Kevin Reilly gave lawmakers the price tag and a projected completion date of 2012 for one of the most complicated information technology projects in state history.
Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are already coming down with symptoms of influenza, university officials said Thursday, though it is not yet clear whether these are cases of the novel swine flu strain that swept through Mexico and the U.S. this spring.
Early Monday morning, a 19-year old downtown resident called for police after returning home to find her apartment on the 600 block North Frances Street burglarized. The victim, and her roommates, had left around 10:00 p.m. to go out. Surveillance footage shows a suspected burglar entering the hallway of the residence shortly after 11:00 p.m. He appears to be turning door handles looking for an unlocked apartment. When he finds the victimâ??s apartment unsecured, he listens to hear if anyone might be inside. Determining not, he enters. The victimâ??s wallet – containing money and credit cards – was stolen.
Madison area cable provider Charter Communications announced that it now will be offering four Big Ten Network “overflow” channels. The channels will be at 321-324 on Charterâ??s Sports View digital tier.
Having four BTN overflow channels enables viewers to see up to five BTN games at once, an uncommon occurrence but something that can happen if, for example, five Big Ten schools were holding non-conference games at the same time.
At a busy Madison Common Council meeting on Tuesday night, council members voted to make the plastic pink flamingo the official city bird.
At Tuesday nightâ??s meeting, the mayor introduced his proposed capital budget and council members discussed funding for the plastic bag recycling program. The new mascot was debated for five minutes, and then the Common Council voted 15-4 to make the plastic pink flamingo the official city bird.
The idea was by a 1979 prank on Bascom Hill when the Pail and Shovel Party on campus put out 1,008 of the birds.
A 19-year-old Waunakee man celebrating his birthday was punched in the mouth by a stranger while walking down a street on the UW-Madison campus, police reported.
The attack happened at 12:20 a.m. Wednesday in the 800 block of West Johnson Street, according to Madison police. Police said the victim was walking with friends when three men got out of a Ford Explorer and started walking toward them.
Wisconsin job seekers are used to seeing the statement that employers cannot discriminate on the basis of age, race, sex, creed, disability, marital status, ancestry, sexual orientation, arrest record or military service, among other things, but under a bill authored by state Rep. Kim Hixson, D-Whitewater, credit history would be added to the list.
The Badger Connection
….Employers looking to fill mid-career, executive-level and specialized positions have a new tool that can help connect them to University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni who meet their qualifications.
The Badger Career Network Job Alerts is a service for employers to advertise jobs via e-mail alerts to UW alumni who have signed up for the recently revamped Badger Career Network program through the Wisconsin Alumni Association.
To product designer Michael Hartzell, one of the most difficult things is telling people heâ??s jobless. Itâ??s especially true in Madison, a city long viewed as recession-proof.
“Being laid off has a real stigma attached to it,” he says. “I havenâ??t even posted it on my Facebook page yet.”
Hartzell, 40, and a father of one, lost his position recently at Pacific Cycle during a companywide reorganization. Although he knew the end was coming, it didnâ??t make it any easier. Heâ??s since found a bit of consulting work, but few firms are hiring, and competition for any full-time openings is intense.
….As the nation readies to mark Labor Day 2009, Hartzell can take some comfort knowing heâ??s not alone. Some 273,000 Wisconsin residents, or 8.7 percent, are unemployed, according to the latest figures from the Department of Workforce Development.
Quoted: Laura Dresser, associate director of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS)
While area police have been able to crack a string of cold cases in recent years, more than 11 years after the Rev. Alfred Kunz was found with his throat cut at St. Michael Catholic Church in Dane, detectives are at a loss. They think they know who did it, but they can’t prove it.
“They’re tiring,” says Steve Gilmore, lieutenant of detectives at the Dane County Sheriff’s Office, of murder cases that drag on for years. “But if you solve them it’s all worth it.”
The oldest case, now in the hands of the UW Police, is the murder of Christine Rothschild, who was strangled on the UW campus in 1968. Her body was found behind some bushes near Sterling Hall, her gloves stuffed down her throat. Last year, a friend organized a ceremony on the campus to mark the 40th anniversary of the murder.
Rothschildâ??s was one of seven unsolved area murders of young women between 1968 and 1982 that investigators theorized were connected, as all the victims were in their late teens or early 20s, similar in build and with similar hair styles. The last was Donna Mraz, a 23-year-old UW student who was stabbed to death near Camp Randall Stadium while on her way home from work at a State Street restaurant.
….The call was from the College Republicansâ?? national office, asking me if Iâ??d join the campaign to tell President Barack Obama to quit his reckless spending, saddling future generations with trillions of dollars of debt.
When I said “no,” but Iâ??d join a campaign to tell the president to bring the troops home from the wars and use the hundreds of billions weâ??re spending there to pay for a national health care plan, the telemarketer hung up.
The countryâ??s disconnect is frustrating. College Republicans, old Republicans and a lot of Democrats and independents as well get all lathered up over plans to spend money so that 45 million Americans are at least minimally covered by health insurance, but they canâ??t be bothered to even think about the nearly trillion dollars weâ??ve already thrown down the rat hole weâ??ve created in the Middle East.
Pressure? What pressure? If University of Wisconsin junior quarterback Scott Tolzien is beginning to feel any uneasiness with his first college start just a few days away, he is masking the jitters flawlessly.
Music inspired by the soothing calls of contented monkeys relaxes the animals when it is played back to them, researchers have discovered.Researchers composed “monkey melodies” to investigate whether non-human primates are capable of responding to music with the same emotions as people.
Music has great power to alter our emotions â?? making us happy or sad, agitated or calm. Psychologists have tried in vain to figure out why that happens. Now, a composer says heâ??s has a clue. And he got it by writing music not for humans, but for monkeys.
â??Different species may have different things that they react to and enjoy differently in music,â? said psychologist Charles Snowdon of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who published the paper Tuesday in Biology Letters with composer David Teie of the University of Maryland. â??If we play human music, we shouldnâ??t expect the monkeys to enjoy that, just like when we play the music that David composed, we donâ??t enjoy it too much.â?
Madison will never forget and will always be in debt to Irwin Goodman, the eldest of the two jewelry store brothers who helped make Madison the city it is today. Irwin passed away Sunday at the age of 94, bringing to an end a storied life that meant so much to Madison business, its sport scene, its schools, its clubs and its robust nonprofit community.
….Irwin was a graduate of the University of Minnesota, where he lettered in track and field. His love for sports transferred to the University of Wisconsin, where he and his brother became fixtures in the stands at football and basketball games. Their generous donations to the athletic department included funded the conversion of the UW’s old baseball field near Picnic Point to a state-of-the-art women’s softball complex now known as Goodman Diamond, a clever takeoff on their years of advertising that “diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”
Three teens were arrested early Sunday morning in an alleged attempt to steal mopeds parked on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. A fourth teen reportedly got away on a stolen moped.
Irwin Goodman, a pillar of the Madison community who along with his brother Robert gave more than $10 million to philanthropic causes, died Sunday at his Madison home. He was 94.
Though he amassed his fortune selling jewelry, Goodman was able to give so much because of his frugal lifestyle, colleagues said.
….The Goodmans have been among the cityâ??s most philanthropic citizens, providing millions of dollars for civic events, UW-Madison athletics, the United Way of Dane County and the Madison Community Foundation.
A 20-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student was mugged early Friday morning while outside his residence downtown, police reported. The attack happened shortly after midnight Friday in the 400 block of West Gorham Street.
Thought Iâ??d share this entertaining blog post I stumbled across which talks about UW-Madisonâ??s decision to prohibit beer ads on its statewide radio network during football, basketball and hockey broadcasts. This type of advertising had been worth about $425,000 per year to the UW athletic department.
Here is one sentence from the blog post: “Yep, when all those students in Madison are huddled around the AM radio in their dorm rooms listening to the broadcast of Badgers games, their will be nary a mention of beer. And I donâ??t need to tell you that without those evil beer companies convincing these innocent and naive kids to overindulge while imbibing their immoral product via radio waves, binge drinking in at the University of Wisconsin will be but a distant memory.”
ANN ARBOR, Mich. â?? The University of Michigan announced Sunday that it has launched an investigation into allegations that its football program regularly violates NCAA rules limiting how much time players can spend on training and practice.
The announcement from Michigan athletic director Bill Martin came after a Detroit Free Press article in which players from the 2008 and 2009 teams said the amount of time they spend on football during the season and in the offseason greatly exceeds NCAA limits. The players spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity because they feared repercussions from coaches.
The college president is an economist. He knows numbers and history, theories and reality.
As he prepares for his Sept. 25 inauguration as Beloit Collegeâ??s 11th president, Scott Bierman surveys the landscape of higher education with cold-eyed realism. Hard times have hit Americaâ??s college campuses, endowments taking a hit during the stock market collapse, budgets tightening even as financially strapped parents seek increased financial aid for their children.
Bryan Renk grew up with a family seed business, directed licensing activities at one of the worldâ??s biggest academic technology transfer organizations and has overseen a company that makes feed additives with chicken antibodies. Now heâ??s been tapped to grow the organization that represents the stateâ??s biotechnology industry.
Renk, former licensing director at WARF, was named Friday as the executive director of BioForward, which has about 250 member companies, about half of which are biotech firms.
Madison police arrested two young men late Saturday night after a knife assault required stitches for one victim.
Jason M. Bischoff, 22, and Alexander M. Miller, 19, have been charged with second-degree recklessly endangering safety and carrying a concealed weapon after the incident in the 100 block of North Mills Street at around 1 a.m.
(The young men who were arrested are UW-Madison students.)
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has lauded its recent coverage of the continuing medical education program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Editorials, Aug. 16. These articles may mislead readers into viewing our CME program as little more than a paid mouthpiece for commercial interests that seek to manipulate physicians.
Nothing could be further from the truth, writes Robert Golden, dean of the school.
Is there something you wish every college student would know before the start of the school year?
The Capital Times posed that question to a range of people associated with higher education in the Madison area and asked them to share some â??words of wisdomâ? with students as the 2009-10 academic year gets under way.
(A variety of UW-Madison faculty and staff members offer their advice in this article.)
MADISON – Jill Dee (Gehm) Wilson, age 56, passed away on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009, after enduring two years of cancer. She was born on March 14, 1953, in Madison, the daughter of Gerald and Dolores (Pettis) Gehm. Jill graduated from East High School in 1971. She graduated from the LPN program at MATC and worked at UW Hospital for three years.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison was one of 23 Wisconsin colleges named to the first-ever list of military-friendly schools created by G.I. Jobs, a veterans magazine.
The 2010 list recognizes the top 15 percent of colleges, universities and trade schools that provide recruitment, retention and other services for veterans.
“This list is especially important now because the recently enacted post-9/11 GI Bill has given veterans virtually unlimited financial means to go to school,” G.I. Jobs publisher Rich McCormack said in a statement.
State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen should defend the stateâ??s new domestic partner law. The law confers to gay couples who register some 40 of the more than 150 benefits available to married couples.
The attorney general argues that he is not bound to defend an unconstitutional law. He sees the law at odds with a Wisconsin constitutional amendment in 2006 that banned gay marriage or a “legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals.” This is also the basis of a lawsuit against the domestic registry law, which was approved by the Legislature as part of the recent state budget. The state Supreme Court is deciding whether to hear the case.
In other words, Van Hollen is taking a side.
Bryan Renk, a former licensing director at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, has been named executive director of BioForward, a Madison-based biotechnology industry association.
MADISON, Wis. — Campus-area bars are working with the Madison Police Department to prepare for the return of students for the fall semester.
Bar employees attended tavern safety training on Wednesday night in Madison to review the basics of maintaining safe and trouble-free establishments.
“We go into everything. We go into legal issues, what can happen to you; we go into capacity issues,” said Katherine Plominski, the cityâ??s alcohol policy coordinator, who used to work as a bartender herself.
