Used book lovers are lining up for the biggest sale in the state starting Wednesday at Memorial Library on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
The semi-annual sale includes more than 15,000 books covering almost any subject, and other media, including CDs, DVDs, video, record albums and maps, will also be on sale.
BOSTON — For the third time in four years, multiple members of the UW women’s hockey team received All-America honors.
Senior goaltender Jessie Vetter and sophomore forward Hilary Knight were both named RBK Hockey/AHCA Division I first team All-Americans Thursday night. This marks Vetter’s second All-America honor and is the first time since 2007 that multiple Badgers were named to the team.
MADISON/ ST. LOUIS, MO. – Robert C. Newman passed away on Wednesday, March 18, 2009. Robert spent his career as a professor of horticulture at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. His work included teaching, research, and extension work throughout the state. He was a recognized expert in plant identification and was often consulted to assist with weed identification. His interest in turfgrass management led to the establishment of the Noer Turfgrass Research Facility and a turfgrass professorship at the University of Wisconsin.
….Globe University is a career college that works closely with the Minnesota School of Business.
Said Brock Vandervelden, who’s with the university, “We extend an opportunity for people who want something different. Let’s say they were downsized. The can come here get some retraining and get placed in a career they want to get into.”
Not only will the university employ and train local workers for the future, they are also making a more current economic impact.
MADISON, Wis. — The Madison Police Department has updated the sketch of a suspect in a 2005 sexual assault investigation.
John Dejung, a UW-Madison graduate who has worked the past 12 years as 911/311 director for the city of Minneapolis, has been named director of the Dane County Public Safety Communications Center, County Executive Kathleen Falk announced Thursday.
Dejung’s first official day as Dane County Public Safety Communications Director will be June 1. His starting salary will be $120,000.
The Minneapolis 911 Center was awarded the 911 Call Center of the Year for 2008 by the 911 Institute for its handling and emergency response coordination of the Interstate 35 bridge collapse in 2007, according to a news release.
Count Wisconsin Public Radio among the media outlets feeling the pinch from the sour economy.
Support in February’s pledge drive, when program hosts solicit and solicit listeners for donations, actually exceeded its goal of $800,000, raising a total $878,000. But a pledge drive launched last fall, just as stock market losses signaled the depth of the economic downturn, missed its goal, said WPR acting director Mike Crane. And end of year gifts, when listeners who pledge their support during the on-air drives often give again in a mail campaign, were disappointing. All in all, fundraising from listeners is $300,000 off pace this year, Crane reported.
As part of national Sunshine Week (sunshineweek.org), March 15-21, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council is bestowing its third annual Opee Awards in recognition of people and institutions that have had an impact on open government in Wisconsin during the last year.
….Media Openness Advocates of the Year (the “Mopee”): Wisconsin State Journal, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WISC-TV, WTMJ-TV. These four media outlets refused to take “You can’t know” for an answer when they tried to learn more about why police were not dispatched in response to a UW-Madison student’s call for help shortly before she was murdered.
For more than three decades, the YWCA Madison has bestowed annual honors to show its appreciation to women whose community service, leadership and dedication to the lives of others reflect the organization’s historic mission and values.
This year the group will present its 35th annual Women of Distinction Awards to Iris Christenson, Brenda Brown, Mary Lang Sollinger, Sharon Chamberlain and Jeanette Schreier.
A Madison man given a drunken driving ticket following a crash at the intersection of Observatory Drive and North Park Street late last week made matters much worse when University Police took him to an emergency room to have blood drawn. He now faces two felony counts for hitting a nurse and spitting on a cop.
The spring book sale organized by the Friends of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries will be March 25-28 in 116 Memorial Library, 728 State St.
The preview sale, which carries a $5 entry, will be from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on March 25. Book prices will be $5 for hardcover and $3 for paperback.
A man accused of raping a drunk University of Wisconsin student who had become separated from her friends goes on trial Thursday in Dane County for second degree sexual assault, more than two years after the alleged assault occurred.
Anderson Dasilva, 29, who was extradited from Massachusetts to face the charge, faces both prison time and eventual deportation if convicted of the crime. Dasilva is a native of Brazil and the United States government has placed an immigration detainer on him in Dane County, the first step in deportation proceedings.
The University of Wisconsin womenâ??s basketball team knows itâ??s going to play in the Womenâ??s National Invitation Tournament. The Badgers just donâ??t know who theyâ??re going to play or when theyâ??ll get to play them.
The Badgers (18-14) received a first-round bye and will play host to the winner of Wednesdayâ??s first-round game between Kentucky and Chattanooga. The second-round game is expected to be held at the Kohl Center but the date and time were not immediately announced, though it is expected to be held Sunday.
Marquette got the news late Monday that it would get a chance to defend the WNIT title it won a year ago and the Wisconsin Badger also won a berth, and a first-round bye.
The perplexing finishes of the Wisconsin men’s basketball team intrigued coach Bo Ryan so much that he didn’t review just the final 10 possessions of the team’s recent collapse against Ohio State. He and his staff looked at the final 10 possessions of every Big Ten game this season.
What he learned might surprise you.
“We fared pretty well,” he said, “and actually better than we thought.”
Gov. Jim Doyle proposed Monday that the state authorize $240â??million for construction projects at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, an unprecedented amount that UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago said would enable the university to reinvent itself as a research and economic force in the metro region.
State workers could be moved from agency to agency at the whim of a high-level executive branch bureaucrat under Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget.
The proposal, tucked away in the 1,743-page bill, gives the power to permanently move state employees to the secretary of the Department of Administration. That person, currently Michael Morgan, is appointed by the governor.
The idea is all about being more efficient, said Department of Administration spokeswoman Linda Barth. In some cases, people in different state agencies do work in similar fields and should be consolidated into the same office, Barth said.
The Badgers (19-12) received the No. 12 seeding in the East Region of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and will play No. 5 Florida State (25-9) at approximately 9 p.m. in Boise on Friday. If the Badgers win, they’ll face No. 4 Xavier or No. 13 Portland State.
Quoted: James Seward, an associate professor of finance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Mark Sager of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a physician and specialist in aging issues and Alzheimer’s.
MADISON – On Saturday, March 28, 2009, at 1:30 p.m. at MADISON’S LUTHER MEMORIAL CHURCH, family and friends will gather to celebrate the life and contributions of Mark Edward Musolf. Mark received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he played in the Marching Band, including at the 1963 Rose Bowl, and sang in campus vocal groups. He graduated from UW-Madison Law School in 1966, and was a devoted fan of UW athletics, especially football and hockey. Mark had a lifelong interest in politics and public service, including student government participation in grade school, high school and the university.
Local biotech entrepreneur Russell Smestad announced the launch of a Web site that aims to enhance the visibility of the Madison biotechnology industry, to facilitate finding local career opportunities in biotech, and to provide a private networking forum for its executive talent.
Smestadâ??s new company is Biotech Profiles LLC and the site is BiotechProfiles.com.
Pity the poor Cornell fans.
No, not because their beloved Big Red drew Big 12 champ Missouri in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Because Cornell wound up in Boise, Idaho, a place that’s as tough to get to from upstate New York as it is costly. Think “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” minus John Candy and the oompa band.
The dismal economy wasn’t lost on the NCAA tournament selection committee, which was even more mindful than usual of keeping teams as close to home as possible. But when three conferences have seven teams in the tournament, another two are sending six and there are rules limiting who can play each other when, some teams are going to wind up far from home.
Laurits (Lau) Christensen, chair of the economic and engineering consulting firm Christensen Associates of Madison, has established a named faculty chair in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Economics, the UW announced.
Christensen, who served on the UW-Madison economics faculty for 20 years, says he made the gift to allow the recruitment and retention of top-flight professors, the UW said in a news release.
Before there were SUVs and soccer moms, there was Alma Taeuber.
Taeuber founded the Regent Soccer Club near her home in the Vilas neighborhood in 1972, when her children were young and soccer wasn’t well known in America. In doing so, Dauber brought the sport to hundreds of west side Madison children.
Taeuber, 75, died on March 3 of pneumonia and advanced Parkinson’s disease.
Taeuber was a part-time demographer at UW-Madison and a copy editor for the American Sociological Review and the journal, Demography. She studied black and white housing and educational patterns and wrote scholarly articles on desegregation and a book on racial segregation.
America’s second-most famous pilot will be grand marshal for the 28th annual Crazylegs Classic race in Madison on April 24, race organizers announced.
Jeffrey Skiles, the co-pilot of U.S. Airways flight 1549 that made an emergency landing on the Hudson River in New York City on Jan. 15, will be on hand when thousands of participants line up on Capitol Square for the runs and walks to support University of Wisconsin-Madison athletics.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison student avoided a “pigeon drop” last week by mingling with a group of other students at an ATM machine instead of handing the $300 she just withdrew over to the “very intimidating” scammer.
The incident happened March 6 around noon at Gilman and Carroll Streets in downtown Madison.
The “Current Tendencies” exhibit, which will open tomorrow at the Haggerty Museum of Art is the first survey of the best contemporary, regional art to be shown in a Milwaukee museum in some time. The show, which will feature 10 artists, marks a change in direction for the Haggerty and its new director Wally Mason.
One of the 10 artists is Jennifer Angus, a Madison-based artist, curator, writer and UW-Madison educator.Here is a video sneak peek at her installation.
Marcus Landry really believes people forgot.
It might seem like ages since that the Wisconsin men’s basketball team stormed into Indianapolis and validated its regular-season title with a tournament crown won by sandwiching double-digit victories over Michigan and Illinois around a 12-point come-from-behind victory over Michigan State.
Many expected that team to win the Big Ten tournament. This year, the Badgers (19-11) are an underdog.
Wisconsin’s retiring superintendent of public instruction, Elizabeth Burmaster, has landed a post as president of Nicolet College in Rhinelander.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is certain to set off a scramble among scientists throughout the country – including those at the state’s two medical schools and other universities – with promising projects in need of funding.
The emergency spending bill includes $8.2 billion for research and $1.8 billion for construction projects and equipment.
That could mean tens of millions of dollars for the Medical College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health.
Jon Blais and Jeff Kaufman are two men who refused to fade away and die quietly.
Blais inspired an army of athletes by finishing the 2005 Ironman Hawaii in a heroic effort, the only athlete diagnosed with ALS to complete the grueling endurance race.
Kaufman has survived with the fatal disease for 20 years, breathing with a ventilator and utilizing his still-sharp mind to coordinate a gala that generates more than $250,000 annually to support research being done at the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
MADISON (WKOW) — The Supply Chain Performance Excellence Collaborative of the University HealthSystem Consortium, or UHC, named the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics one of five “top performers” for efficiency in managing supply, pharmacy, cardiology, and surgical expenses.
The collaborative began in 2007 to help academic medical centers improve their financial performance.
All three finalists for Dane County 911 director have local connections.
A 911 board selection panel this week sent three names to Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk for final review: John Dejung, Eddie Goldsmith and Phillip Vorlander.
Dejung, the top choice, who earned his master’s degree in business administration from UW-Madison, has been director of the Minneapolis 911/311 center for 12 years. The center was named the best in the country last year by the Washington-based E9-1-1 Institute for how it handled the Minneapolis bridge collapse in 2007.
Elizabeth Burmaster, outgoing state superintendent of public instruction, has been selected as the next president of Nicolet College in Rhinelander.
(Burmaster earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UW-Madison and served on the UW Board of Regents.)
Following an act of vandalism last week against a University of Wisconsin-Madison fraternity house involved in rape allegations, Dean of Students Lori Berquam is calling on the Greek community to step up vigilance around Langdon Street.
Three main picture windows were broken at Sigma Chi, 221 Langdon St., early Friday morning, according to Madison Police Department Spokesman Joel DeSpain. Fraternity members found rocks in the common area of the building, DeSpain said.
College kids love to talk about themselves, so it should be a real gabfest when University of Wisconsin-Madison students get their own talk show on the Big Ten Network.
“In My Humble Opinion,” or IMHO for texters, will have its premiere episode on Thursday at 4 p.m. on BTN, then will get a weekly time slot on the network starting Tuesday, April 7 through July.
The program is hosted by five students in a roundtable, unscripted discussion, on topics that include social media, relationships, money, sports, politics — generally anything that could interest the collegian.
Lisa Stone has had more than a few achievements in her career, including an NCAA Sweet 16 appearance as a basketball coach and many honors as a player.
But one particular statistic makes her happiest. At one point a few years ago, 13 of her former players were working as coaches at various levels.
“That was my proudest moment,” said Stone, who has been the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball coach since 2003.
That sentiment didn’t last long, however.
With all the stimulus money getting tossed around these days, you’d figure biotechnology would be near the top of the wish list.
Instead, specific funding for early stage science companies was practically written out of the $780 billion package, claims the president of Madison-based Centrose LLC.
A line inserted into the massive spending bill says $10 billion in stimulus funds provided to the National Institutes of Health are exempt from a previous requirement that 2.5 percent of NIH research money go to private companies.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s new chief diversity officer wants to make one thing clear about his role on campus.
“I’m not the vice provost for black folks,” Damon Williams, vice provost for diversity and climate, said at a recent meeting of the Academic Staff Assembly.
Williams, who is African American, started work at UW-Madison on Aug. 1 and is in the process of developing a new strategic framework for how the university will approach diversity issues on campus for years to come.
Madison motorists using a critical downtown corridor might want to consider an alternate route this spring and summer as road construction begins on Gorham Street, University Avenue and Broom Street.
The project is only six blocks long and two blocks wide, but it will tie up an important juncture where Gorham Street, the main westbound one-way street into downtown from the east side, meshes with University Avenue, the key one-way conduit through the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus heading to the west side.
Work begins Monday and is expected to continue through September.
A unified city-campus response to sexual assault is a priority for University of Wisconsin-Madison Dean of Student Lori Berquam, who is convening a campus forum Tuesday night to address the issue.
The forum will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Mosse Humanities building, 455 N. Park St., and is open to all students, faculty and staff.
If you’re a college kid going on spring break, always pack your condoms.
This tidbit of information is from University Health Services at UW-Madison, which issued a list of helpful hints for students going on trips during the annual spring break that starts March 15.
MADISON (WKOW) — Students at Madison Area Technical College are preparing for a new wave of interest in stem cell studies, after President Barack Obama lifted restrictions on federal funding. Even though MATC wouldn’t directly receive any money, instructors say the possibility of stem cell labs benefitting from President Obamas decision could trickle down to the school in other ways.
MATC offers the only 2-year program in the country with training in embryonic stem cells, according to a spokesperson. Right now, more than 60 students are working toward biotech laboratory degrees.
President Obama got a lot of applause for declaring in his inaugural address that he would “restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost.”
That was uplifting rhetoric, worthy of embrace and encouragement.
But the louder applause should come now, as the president follows through on his promise.
When President Barack Obama lifted restrictions Monday on taxpayer-funded research using human embryonic stem cells, he did more than clear the way for a significant increase in federal dollars going toward this potentially life-saving science.
He also gave stem cell researchers a morale boost by removing a dark cloud that had been hanging over the field since former President George W. Bush set funding restrictions on the science eight years ago due to moral objections by social conservatives.
“I think it’s a morale boost for all of science,” UW-Madison neuroscientist Clive Svendsen said in a phone interview, while walking outside the White House, on Monday. “It’s wonderful having a president put science first and foremost.
In each of Bo Ryan’s first seven seasons as the coach of the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team, one of his players was named to the All-Big Ten Conference’s first team.
That string ended this season as senior forward Marcus Landry was named to the coaches’ All-Big Ten second team and the media’s All-Big Ten third team, the conference announced Monday night.
The president’s executive order will open up hundreds of stem cell lines for research. It is the right decision.
Quoted: Michael Jacob, project coordinator for Covering Kids & Families at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Don Waller, professor of botany and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
MADISON, Wis. — Five University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers were invited to President Barack Obama’s ceremony lifting restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research.
Obama signed the order Monday undoing some restrictions put in place by former President George W. Bush on the work.
UW-Madison spokesman Terry Devitt said those invited include scientist James Thomson; the co-directors of the school’s Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center, Tim Kamp and Clive Svendsen; bioethicist Alta Charo; and National Stem Cell Bank Director Derek Hei.
President Obama lifted restrictions on funding for human embryonic stem cell research Monday morning and issued a presidential memorandum aimed at insulating scientific decisions across the federal government from political influence.
Obama took care to emphasize that the order would not “open the door” to allow human cloning, which he said is “dangerous, profoundly wrong and has no place in our society, or any society.” But the president said stem cell research has enormous potential to further understanding and treatment of many devastating diseases and conditions. America, he said, should play a leading role in exploring the stem-cell research frontier.
Five players scored goals and senior goaltender Jessie Vetter stopped 15 of 18 shots to lead the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team to a 5-3 victory over Minnesota in the WCHA championship game on Sunday in Minneapolis.
Equipment being heated in an oven started a fire that caused about $10,000 in damage to a laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Saturday.
The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team came into Senior Day on Sunday needing a victory to finish fourth in the Big Ten and lock up a first-round bye in the conference tournament. Not only did the Badgers get that “W” with an 85-61 victory over Indiana, each of their four seniors had his chance to star.
Mentions that a tribal commission trains substitute language teachers, works on language curriculum and helps with a University of Wisconsin-Madison project compiling a beginner’s dictionary of the Menominee language.
Little more than 10 years after University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher James Thomson first isolated and cultured human embryonic stem cells, President Barack Obama is poised Monday to reverse Bush-era restrictions on federal funding in a field that holds huge potential but generates intense controversy.
President Barack Obama is expected to sign an executive order on Monday reversing restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
A senior administration official said the president will hold an event at the White House to announce the move. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the policy had not yet been publicly announced on Friday.
For just the second time in program history, the Wisconsin Badgers will be playing in the semifinals of the Big Ten Conference women’s basketball tournament.
Seventh-seeded UW pulled off the first upset of the Big Ten Tournament by knocking off No. 2 seed Michigan State, 56-50, in a quarterfinal game Friday at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Leaders from across the University of Wisconsin System sounded a collective alarm Thursday during a Board of Regents meeting on the UW-Madison campus, stressing that state budget cuts would deeply impact students.
“Let us take our share of the pain,” UW-Madison Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin told the regents. “But let us not undermine the extraordinary quality of a UW-Madison or UW System degree.”
Due to a projected $5.7 billion state budget shortfall and a deepening recession, UW-Madison would need to absorb $63.4 million in cuts over the next two years if Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s recommended 2009-11 biennium budget passes in its current form. That figure represents more than a third of the UW Systemâ??s potential $174 million in lost funding.
