State employees are struggling to understand how Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle will implement his plan requiring them to take 16 unpaid days off over the next two years.
Doyle said details are still being worked out, but in the meantime state workers don’t know who will be affected, whether part-time workers risk losing benefits and who will decide when the time off must be taken.
Steven Weber told a Verona bowling alley bartender last week he was â??going on a shooting rampage and was going to kill his ex-wife,â? according to search warrants filed Monday in connection with the attempt to find him.
Francesca Weber, 47, a well-liked clinic receptionist who had over the past several years bounced from seeking protection from an abusive, drinking husband to futile, painful attempts at reconciliation, was fatally shot twice in the head Saturday night at her apartment in Fitchburg, the warrants say.
….In a statement Monday, UW Health officials said Francie Weber had worked at UW Health-Belleville since January 1997 as a clinic receptionist.
It’s been nearly two weeks since Gov. Jim Doyle announced that state workers will experience what many in the private sector have already gone through because of the national recession.
Awaiting some 67,000 state employees, 30,000 of whom work in Dane County, are 16 furlough days over the next two years and the rollback of a 2 percent pay raise each of the next two years for those who manage to keep their jobs. Upward of 1,100 state workers are expected to face layoffs. While the bare bones of the governor’s plan have been released, the specifics still are under discussion, leaving state workers able to do little more than take a wait-and-see approach to what the economic downturn will mean for them.
Quoted: Susan Paskewitz, a University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist.
Quoted: Bob Schuster, Wisconsin historian and administrator-emeritus for the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
When the University of Wisconsin-Madison makes its financial aid offer in the coming weeks to rising sophomore Kate Konetzke, it probably wonâ??t account for the fact that the postal service in Neenah recently cut her momâ??s hours or that her dadâ??s working less at a steel fabrication plant.
So the Konetzkes, who live near Oshkosh in Winneconne, may ask the school to reconsider the aid offer, given the fact theyâ??ll likely make less money this year than anticipated.
â??Itâ??s worth a shot,â? said Konetzkeâ??s mother, Sue, as she helped her daughter move out of Sellery Hall last week. â??Otherwise, it looks like weâ??re sitting in a situation weâ??re no longer in.â?
Economic hardship is prompting a growing number of UW-Madison students and families to appeal financial aid decisions â?? which for the 2009-2010 academic year are based on 2008 earnings â?? school officials say.
By Mike Householder, Associated Press
….House, the lead character on the Fox medical drama of the same name, is a Michigan medical school graduate, and the DeGroots are Michigan doctoral candidates who founded the mysterious Dharma Initiative at the center of the ABC serial Lost.
Such tie-ins allow TV and film productions to be more authentic while at the same time providing universities with free advertising and the chance to up their coolness quotient.
“It’s fun for everyone â?? alumni and students â?? to see their university pop up in film,” said Lee Doyle, who heads up the University of Michigan’s film office.
And while that may be, it sometimes can be serious business for Doyle and others who hold the equivalent job at major universities.
They have their school’s reputation to consider in weighing whether to allow it to be associated with a TV show or movie
UW-Madison faculty and staff who get paid through federal grants will have to take 16 unpaid days off over the next two years, just like other state workers.
This is according to a document that UW-Madison has posted on its Web site, in response to frequently asked questions.
Fights inside Madison Avenue, a popular campus-area nightclub, resulted in two dozen officers descending on the melee early Sunday morning, Madison police reported.
Only one person was arrested at the nightclub at 624 University Ave., following the brawl that was reported at 1:50 a.m. Sunday.
When economists read the statistical tea leaves, seeking signs of an easing recession, they often look for a bottoming of the stock market or an uptick in factory orders.
But the economic picture for thousands of working people across Wisconsin won’t improve until the job picture brightens. And on the jobs front, there’s some good news for Madison, which was just rated No. 1 among medium-sized cities for so-called Next Generation workers. These are younger, tech-savvy people who want “a good job in a great city,” according to Next Generation Consulting, which produced the list.
Quoted: Noel Radomski, director of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education (WISCAPE)
MADISON (WKOW) — Watertown native Mary Woodard Lasker will be honored on a 78-cent postage stamp.
The stamp is part of the Distinguished Americans series and a first-day-of-sale ceremony honored her at her childhood home on Friday.
….A special ceremony unveiling the stamp will be held Tuesday, May 19 at 9:30 a.m. The stamp will be unveiled in the lobby of the Wisconsin Institute for Medical Research on Highland Avenue.
Patrick Farrell, who served as provost at UW-Madison until December of 2008, was named the new provost and vice president for academic affairs at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.
In December, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin removed Farrell from his post in an effort to put her own leadership team in place on campus.
A student at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire is one of 655 now confirmed cases of swine flu in Wisconsin.
The study of the La Isabela skeletons grew out of a project in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, where in 2000 researchers were surprised to find the remains of West Africans among those buried in a mid-16th-century church cemetery in Campeche. Vera Tiesler and Andrea Cucina from the Autonomous University of Yucatan invited T. Douglas Price, director of the Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, to do isotopic analysis of those skeletons’ teeth.
Story quotes James Burton, a geochemist at the University of Wisconsin involved in the La Isabela and Campeche projects.
State employees are struggling to understand how Gov. Jim Doyle will implement his plan requiring them to take 16 unpaid days off over the next two years.
Doyle said details are still being worked out, but in the meantime state workers don’t know who will be affected, whether part-time workers risk losing benefits and who will decide when the time off must be taken.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison campus’ School of Human Ecology is offering a house for only $1 with one major catch — the house must be moved. [Third item in briefs column]
Quoted: Frederick Langheim, a neuroscientist and psychiatry resident at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Jessy Tolkan has squared off against Pat Buchanan on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews.” She counts the oil and coal industries among her fiercest adversaries. But she never imagined that she would one day take on her father in her battle against climate change.
The 28-year-old daughter of a Milwaukee auto dealer and UW-Madison graduate has emerged over the past few years as one of the leading young voices in the country on clean energy issues. Tolkan, who grew up in Glendale, is part of a growing network of advocates trying to build an organized movement of young people committed to solving climate change.
One by one, UW-Madison graduates Saturday extended their hands on the commencement stage for a bare-handed shake with Chancellor Biddy Martin.
So much for swine flu worries.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig speaks at the University of Wisconsin-Madison commencement Saturday, May 16, 2009, in Madison, Wis.
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has a message for graduates at the University of Wisconsin: Dream big and don’t fear failure.
In his commencement address Saturday, Selig urged the graduates to be resolute during these difficult economic times.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison last year briefly suspended its marching band after allegations that underclassmen were forced to drink huge amounts of alcohol.
One dollar, that is all it takes to buy a beautiful 1940’s house on the UW campus and make it home. But, it’s not quite that simple.
“The house itself has a very unique character,” said School of Human Ecology Dean Robin Douthitt. “In its day it was considered a very upper middle-class home.”
Even in a tough economy, graduation is something to celebrate.
Thousands of graduates from area colleges – Marquette University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, UW-Madison, Beloit College and Cardinal Stritch University – did just that in ceremonies Sunday.
MADISON — Baseball commissioner Bud Selig didn’t mention the ongoing steroid scandal or lagging baseball attendance in his commencement address to University of Wisconsin graduates on Saturday.
Instead, the Milwaukee native and 1956 Wisconsin graduate talked about how he dreamed of living a “baseball life” while a college student, not knowing exactly what that was or how to achieve it. He used his success story as an example for graduates, whom he encouraged to dream big and not be afraid of failure.
MADISON, Wis. — Baseball commissioner Bud Selig steered clear of controversy in his message to graduates at the University of Wisconsin.
Selig told graduates in a commencement address Saturday not to be afraid of the difficult economy they are entering but instead to dream big and not fear failure.
What Selig didn’t do was talk about the ongoing drug problem in professional baseball, or this season’s drop in attendance.
MADISON, Wis. — Many Madison-area businesses enjoyed heavy traffic over the weekend as thousands of visitors were in the capital city for graduation ceremonies at the University of Wisconsin.
After the approximately 5,000 UW students of the class of 2009 were handed their diploma at the Kohl Center, the graduates â?? and their proud friends and families in attendance â?? looked to celebrate.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — State employees are struggling to understand how Gov. Jim Doyle will implement his plan requiring them to take 16 unpaid days off over the next two years.
Doyle said details are still being worked out, but in the meantime state workers don’t know who will be affected, whether part-time workers risk losing benefits and who will decide when the time off must be taken.
State Rep. Cory Mason, D-Racine, made an excellent point when he urged the Legislature’s budget committee to approve a plan to allow the nearly 20,000 faculty members and academic staffers of the University of Wisconsin System to form unions and bargain collectively with the state.
One by one, UW-Madison graduates Saturday extended their hands on the commencement stage for a bare-handed shake with Chancellor Biddy Martin.
So much for swine flu worries.
About 5,000 students were eligible to participate in one of five graduation ceremonies for the campus this weekend â?? UW-Madison officials said hand sanitizer was available at different locations in the Kohl Center.
Five heralded University of Wisconsin-Madison athletes and coaches are among six individuals honored Thursday as the class of 2009 inductees into the State of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame.
Athletic director and former head football coach Barry Alvarez, former head basketball coach and world-class tennis player John Powless, three-time national wrestling champion Lee Kemp, former NCAA president Judith Sweet and all-American basketball player and philanthropist Albert “Ab” Nicholas will be inducted into the hall in ceremonies Nov. 20 in Milwaukee.
MADISON – For sale: Two-story brick and stone home designed in the colonial revival style, offering 2,300 square feet of living space. Asking price: $1. Contact the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
For pocket change, UW-Madison is looking to sell the stately home at 1430 Linden Drive to any taker. Of course, there’s a catch: The purchaser needs to move the handsome house off of the site it has occupied for the past 69 years.
In a case that could have broad legal implications for when some patients are allowed to die, an advocacy group is alleging that doctors at UW Hospital broke the law by withholding treatment from two developmentally disabled patients with apparent cases of pneumonia.
An analysis prepared for lawmakers says Gov. Jim Doyle’s plan to give same-sex couples some legal protections likely does not violate the state ban on gay marriage.
President Barack Obama has nominated a UW-Madison alumnus to be the next chair of the National Endowment of the Arts, the largest arts organization in the country.
Rocco Landesman, 61, produces Broadway shows like â??Big Riverâ? and â??The Producers.â? His nomination needs to be confirmed by Congress.
….In his grand exchange, the president traded away an essential piece of what he had only recently said he believed. When he campaigned, Obama said he supported the “therapeutic cloning of stem cells.” But as president, he has already traded that position for one that some see as more politically realistic.
Under the compromise plan, the president proposed that federal dollars be allowed to pay only for research on stem cell lines created from surplus fertility clinic embryos, but that funds continue to be barred from stem cell lines created in the laboratory to study particular diseases. Also barred is financial support for creating new, genetically matched stem cells for use in the treatment of disease. That is the very “therapeutic cloning” research that the president supported during his campaign.
If you can avoid driving in the southeast part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus area around the Kohl Center this weekend, please do so.
Thousands of students, families and friends will descend on the Kohl Center, 601 W. Dayton St., for three days of five commencement exercises, beginning Friday evening and continuing on Saturday and Sunday.
The commencement congestion will be compounded by dorm students moving out of residence halls on Johnson and Dayton Streets, as well as ongoing road and building construction.
A melancholy milestone will likely be thrown in the direction of the University of Wisconsin menâ??s and womenâ??s track programs this weekend.
The Big Ten Conference outdoor meet will be held Friday through Sunday in Columbus, Ohio, and neither UW team stands to be a factor for the team title.
On the heels of similar outcomes during the indoor season â?? the men placed fifth, the women seventh â?? it would mark the first time in 10 years the Badgers failed to win at least one of the four championships.
This two-story brick and stone home in the colonial revival style can be yours for the low, low price of only $1. Thatâ??s right. Itâ??s not a scam! Itâ??s just that, well, the home does have some quirks. Letâ??s call it, charm.
For instance, the paint is peeling a little. It has asbestos and maybe lead paint. Thereâ??s no kitchen. And itâ??s been used as an office building for the past 40 years.
Oh, and you have to find a way to move it off the UW-Madison campus.
MTVâ??s â??College Lifeâ?? might seem like just another venture into the world of unreal â??reality,â?? but a harsher truth belies the showâ??s depictions of the undergraduate experience.
I did a lot of stupid things when I was a freshman.
Mentions a revealing book titled “Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion” (Harvard University Press), edited by Ronald Numbers, a historian of medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Halfway into a five-year, $5 million grant to spur entrepreneurship, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has started a host of programs designed to help get students into business.
The university has used the money to roll out new initiatives, from an arts enterprise club to a specialized dorm community and an event similar to speed dating, only with experienced entrepreneurs, said Charles B. Hoslet, senior special assistant to the chancellor and managing director of UW-Madison’s office of corporate relations.
The Wisconsin State Journal recently endorsed Senate Bill 175. If passed, it would change the rules for math and science teacher licensing in Wisconsin.We strongly disagree with the endorsement.
A column by Peter Hewson, a professor of science education at UW-Madison, and Eric Knuth, a professor of mathematics education at UW-Madison.
Four alumni have been selected to receive honorary degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Kyung J. Kwon-Chung, head of the molecular microbiology section at the National Institutes of Health, will be awarded the honorary degree Doctor of Science; Sheldon B. Lubar, business and civic leader, will receive the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters; Joan Wallach Scott, Harold F. Linder Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, N.J., will receive the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters; and Oliver Smithies, Excellence professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, will be awarded the honorary degree Doctor of Science.
Dear Editor: Recently, purchasing negotiations were initiated for the Drumlin Community Gardens land, yet the conflict remains unresolved. After reading articles, attending meetings and contacting farmers, city representatives, the Alexander Co., and others, it felt like our wheels were spinning in the mud — the stakeholders seemed deeply rooted in different world views and the conflict seemed intractable.
…despite past state budget rants, I’m not glad to see anyone take a pay cut. But welcome to 2009. You could be one of the thousands who once toiled at General Motors, Consolidated Papers, Harley-Davidson or GE Healthcare. Those jobs are not coming back anytime soon.
Still, with a $6.5 billion state budget hole that keeps on growing, something had to give. At least 15 other states, including once-envied Minnesota, are also furloughing public workers.
In the continuing fiscal crisis, magical thinking afflicts the State Capitol. Gov. Jim Doyle is again busy pushing — and some legislators are buying into — the politically handy myth that laying off public employees and cutting their wages are effective in helping ease the state’s multibillion-dollar budget deficit. Not even close.
Vander Blue met with representatives from his high school and the University of Wisconsin Monday night to discuss his academic future, leading to his vague declaration on a Facebook page that he is looking at other schools to play college basketball.
Blue, a junior guard at Madison Memorial who orally committed last summer to play for the Badgers, has struggled in the classroom, according to sources close to Blue and the UW menâ??s basketball team.
A working paper from the folks at the University of Wisconsin-Madison finds some key gaps in kids’ understanding of algebra â?? you know, that math the experts say is required for success in 21st century life.
One key gap: multiplication. The kids studied didn’t grab onto multiplication’s â??xâ? as well as they did addition’s â?? .â? And, at times, they tried to magically turn multiplication problems into addition problems as a result of this gap.
A former adviser to Senator Harry Reid is President Obamaâ??s choice to lead the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, giving opponents of a nuclear waste repository in Mr. Reidâ??s home state of Nevada another well-placed ally. The new chairman, Gregory B. Jaczko, has served on the five-member commission since January 2005. He will now serve as the commissionâ??s official spokesman and as its chief executive, overseeing day-to-day operations as well as long-range planning. [Jaczko earned his doctorate at UW-Madison]
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has suspended a research employee who has been charged with possession of child pornography.
No Joke: The man voted the funniest college student in the U.S. attends UW-Madison.
Adam Voll, a rising junior from Wheaton, Ill., won the TWIX Funniest College Student on Campus Contest.
According to this university website, there are three confirmed cases of the swine flu at UW-Milwaukee. The school reports that none of those who have the H1N1 virus live in university housing, although UW-Milwaukee anticipates “additional cases will be confirmed given the widespread nature of the virus in Milwaukee (319 confirmed cases in Milwaukee County as of May 11).” The university — in the midst of final exams week — will remain open.
David Carley, once one of the state’s most prominent housing and urban property developers and twice a candidate for Wisconsin governor, died early this morning at his home in Charlottesville, Va., at the age of 80.
….In addition to his business and an interest in state politics, Carley served as president of Milwaukee’s Medical College of Wisconsin, was a University of Wisconsin regent and headed then-Gov. Gaylord Nelson’s Wisconsin Department of Resource Development. At one point he was said to be on the short list for the presidency of the University of Wisconsin System.
….our state will continue its downward spiral and constant budget crises if we don’t make up our minds to stop doing business as usual.
We all should be ashamed that we’re among the leaders in growing our prison population, but we can’t afford to support our public universities.
Dear Editor: There’s a common misconception that being green is the same as being economically impractical. Seen as nothing more than a conscience pleaser for the rich, renewable energy has long been perceived as expensive and beyond the reach of the average American. However, when it comes to solar power, this really isn’t the case. Through a large number of economic incentives and buyback programs, solar power can pay for itself and then some within years and simultaneously help in the fight against global warming.
For Dan Woltman, the NCAA tournament took priority over a shot at playing in the U.S. Open.
Fed up with fights, disturbances and underage drinkers, Madison police had planned to take a new tack with the popular Kollege Klub bar near UW-Madison: Try to block the annual renewal of its liquor license.
But the effort to delicense the bar â?? named by Playboy magazine as one of the best campus party spots in the nation â?? ran aground earlier this week over a communications breakdown among city officials, leaving the cityâ??s Alcohol License Review Committee the option of only imposing modest conditions on the barâ??s liquor license.
Dairy producers now have access to a software program that lets them determine how to reduce lameness in their herd based on an analysis of environmental factors on the farm. Working with experts from Zinpro, Dr. Nigel Cook of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, was able to apply his knowledge to what is now called the ‘First Step’ software tool.
Letter writer criticizes the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates.
