The old line about first killing all the lawyers doesn’t apply to Madison’s Don Becker.
Becker has quietly become one of the most charitable givers in town.
Lawyer’s generosity turns up at Birkie
Capital Times
Author: jnweaver
TV to blame for late games, but BTN not the bad guy
Capital Times
The Big Ten Network has certainly taken its share of lumps over the last two years.
Sometimes, that abuse has been merited. Most notable was BTN’s role in the virtual blackout for customers within its targeted customer base, by way of its game of chicken with the cadre of cable companies that cover Big Ten territory.
But once that issue was resolved, and the hard feelings eased, it’s been hard not to view BTN as a win-win for fans.
Campus a cappella groups redefine pop (77 Square)
It’s a weeknight rehearsal in the Humanities building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, and the scene is chaos. Somebody’s playing the piano. Somebody else is eating Doritos. One guy is mugging for the photographer with a bottle of Tabasco sauce (“Take a picture of this!”). Everybody is talking and laughing.
Eventually the dozen or so college boys meander toward the center of the room, pushing back chairs and tables and lining up in a horseshoe formation. Someone plays the starting pitch.
Budget for Union South replacement expands to $94.8 million
Capital Times
The state Building Commission Wednesday added $7.1 million to the Union South replacement budget, bringing the project total to $94.8 million.
University of Wisconsin System Vice President David Miller explained that construction costs have been better identified as the project planning progresses. While a number of cost-cutting alternatives have been considered, including reducing the number of guest rooms from 120 to 60, the project remains above the estimated budget, and further cuts would contradict the student-approved scope of the project funded from $85.7 million in student fees.
UW grad student wins leadership award
Capital Times
A University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student has been recognized as a future leader in higher education.
Tessa Lowinske Desmond received the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders award from the Association of American Colleges and Universities, in ceremonies in January at the association’s annual meeting.
California real estate group buys seven downtown properties
Capital Times
A San Diego real estate group has purchased seven properties in downtown Madison from local landlord Harold Langhammer, with eyes on redeveloping the busy corner of West Washington Avenue and Broom Street.
Cardinal Group Investments, LLC announced Tuesday it acquired the seven properties totaling 78 bedrooms for $4.5 million.
The purchase includes the historic 25-room Zeta Beta Tau fraternity building at 233 Langdon St
Your Right to Know: Public access to 911 tapes helps assess emergency response
Capital Times
“I just came home, the door was bashed in and my girlfriend has been shot.”
Those were the words of Jordan Gonnering, speaking to a 911 dispatcher last April after he found the body of Brittany Zimmermann in the downtown Madison apartment that he shared with her.
Increasingly, the media use transcripts and audio of 911 calls as part of their coverage of public safety, a strategy that some applaud but others fear harms crime victims and violates their privacy.
City Council general election is set: Konkel vs. Maniaci
Capital Times
District 2 candidate Bridget Maniaci waited with a group of family and friends at Supreme Pizza on Tuesday night, talking excitedly while half-eaten pizza was neglected on the table. One by one, campaign volunteers darted into the near east side restaurant with unofficial vote totals from the district.
By 8:30 p.m., there was only one ward of four left to report, and Maniaci was in second place by 20 votes to candidate Adam Walsh.
….In District 8, which covers most of the University of Wisconsin campus, Bryon Eagon handily won the District 8 primary with 273 votes, while Mark Woulf beat challenger Katrina Flores for the second general election spot by a margin of only seven votes, 117-110.
State budget ‘shares sacrifice’ by taxing wealthy, holding school spending steady
Capital Times
Vowing that “everyone is going to have to share in the sacrifice,” Gov. Jim Doyle proposed increasing taxes on smokers and the wealthy, holding school and university spending by the state to modest increases and cutting dozens of state offices to close a more than $5.7 billion budget hole.
Doyle on Tuesday laid out a two-year $62.7 billion spending plan that he said keeps education, health care and middle-class families from being swamped by the recession.
Two biotech firms in Madison strike deal
Capital Times
Two Madison-based biotechnology firms are collaborating to advance research into human embryonic stem cells.
Stemina Biomarker Discovery Inc. and Promega Corp. announced the collaboration Monday.
Don’t walk this way
Capital Times
UW-Madison students, staff and faculty are taking dangerous steps when ignoring “sidewalk closed” signs along the north side of the Education building on Observatory Drive.
Construction has closed the sidewalk, so pedestrians are using the pavement of Observatory Drive as their walkway.
There’s a tight hairpin curve a short distance down the hill from the Education building, so walkers aren’t always visible to motorists.
UW professors featured on Big Ten Network
Capital Times
University of Wisconsin-Madison professors will get their 30 minutes of fame on the Big Ten Network with the premiere of a new show called “Office Hours.”
The half-hour show will make its debut on Thursday, Feb. 19, at 4 p.m., hosted by UW-Madison political science professor Ken Goldstein.
The topics on the talk show will include stem cell research, politics, and the economy.
WSUM brings eclectic radio (and free cake!) to Madison (77 Square)
If you channel-hop local radio stations a lot in the car, you know that feeling of being trapped inside a loopy time warp as yet another ’80s megahit or Pussycat Dolls production gets flogged to death.
Meanwhile, UW-Madison’s student radio station, WSUM/91.7 FM, is guaranteed to have entertaining, unusual and fresh programming throughout the day. Unless, as has been known to happen on occasion, a DJ abandons the studio early to make his biology exam on time.
Nadav Winer: Biomass boiler a major step for greener future
Capital Times
On Feb. 6, Gov. Jim Doyle announced the future installation of a new biomass boiler at the Charter Street Heating Plant in accordance with his NO COAL pledge for state heating plants in Madison. The governor’s decision is a major step forward in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, improving air quality while eliminating the need for and dependence on coal.
Brink Lounge bans hip-hop shows in the wake of weekend fight
Capital Times
The Brink Lounge is banning hip-hop shows indefinitely after 16 Madison police officers responded to a call from a Valentine’s Day hip-hop party where a fight broke out close to bar time.
Customers unlikely to see impact of Charter bankruptcy
Capital Times
Quoted: UW-Madison associate professor of business Jim Seward.
White-collar workers hit by recession
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Alisa Robertson, assistant dean for alumni and corporate relations at the Wisconsin School of Business, at UW-Madison.
Infant mortality fight gets $10 million boost in state
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The former dean of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health calls it “a silent tragedy.”
Wisconsin, a state that ranks high in the overall health of its population, has the highest rate of infant mortality among African-Americans in the country.
Voice of ascent: UW student could be on fast track to fame after Met audition (77 Square)
On Sunday at noon, James Kryshak walked onto the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in a three-piece suit and embarked on one of the most important auditions for a young singer on the continent.
“For an American, this is the competition,” said Kryshak, 25. “It’s very, very exciting. I never expected this to happen so soon.”
Kryshak — a high lyric tenor and UW-Madison student working on his master’s degree of music in opera performance — was one of two singers chosen from the Upper Midwest last month to advance to the semifinals of the Met’s National Council Auditions.
Guidance from the elders
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Marcus Landry and Joe Krabbenhoft didn’t just talk a good game. They both played good ones and led the Wisconsin men’s basketball team to a 55-50 victory over No. 24 Ohio State on Saturday night in front of a raucous crowd of 17,230 at the Kohl Center.
Doyle warns of pain in budget proposal
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Key details of the budget that Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle will recommend Tuesday are now known and, with the exception of the coming $3.5 billion shower of federal stimulus cash, there isn’t any good news.
Doyle repeatedly cautioned last week that his budget will be both unpopular and pinch most – if not all – Wisconsin residents in one way or another.
BTN turns a profit (77 Square)
Despite the tough economy, the Big Ten Network turned a profit for the first time in the final quarter of 2008.
Signing all those deals with cable companies like Charter, Comcast and Time Warner for last football season set up BTN, a join venture of the 11 Big Ten universities and News Corp.’s Fox.
The profit will mean more money for the Big Ten universities, which are guaranteed a certain amount of money and share any profits as well.
UW Institutes for Discovery topic of Feb. 24 meeting
Capital Times
The continued growth of the UW-Madison Institutes for Discovery and how that $150 million project fits into Wisconsin’s $1.1 billion academic research engine will be the topic of the Feb. 24 luncheon meeting of the Wisconsin Innovation Network in Madison.
The event starts at 11:30 a.m. and the presentation at 12:30 p.m. at the Sheraton hotel, 706 John Nolen Drive.
UW fans put on their best ‘GameDay’ face
Capital Times
They finally found a way to wake up the student section at the Kohl Center.
It took Digger Phelps and Rece Davis bopping to “Jump Around,” Bob Knight dancing with Bucky Badger, and television cameras zooming in and out to send a charge through the University of Wisconsin students who made up most of the crowd of 2,384 that took part in the “ESPN College GameDay” production Saturday morning at the Kohl Center.
Beloit College names president
Associated Press
BELOIT, Wis. (AP) — The new president of Beloit College says its history as a leading liberal arts college and its ability to keep its ideals drew him to the institution. H. Scott Bierman will begin his job at Beloit College’s 11th president on July 1.
State debate: Madison abortion decision sound, says Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Capital Times
….As long as second-trimester abortions remain legal and as long as no state money is being used to perform them at the Madison Surgery Center, the decision by the center’s board to offer those abortions appears to be legal and appropriate.
Hoofers winter carnival starts Thursday
Capital Times
Ice on Lake Mendota has melted so fast the Statue of Liberty, buried under the ice sheet, is beginning to reappear behind the Memorial Union on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
OK, that’s stretching the truth just a little bit.
But the top of Miss Liberty’s head and her torch-holding arm will be “protruding” through the ice, an homage to the university’s wacky past, serving as a beacon to all attending the annual Hoofers Winter Carnival this weekend on campus.
Stimulus package to mean $3.5 billion for Wisconsin, Doyle says
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Gov. Jim Doyle on Thursday estimated that Wisconsin will receive about $3.5 billion of the $789 billion federal stimulus package, and almost $2 billion of that would help fix state government’s budget deficit.
University of Wisconsin-Madison prof elected to engineering academy
Capital Times
University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Guri Sohi was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
Sohi is among 65 engineers and nine foreign associates elected in 2009. Those named to the academy were peer-elected for their exceptional contributions to engineering research, practice or education.
First head of University Research Park dies at 79
Capital Times
Wayne McGown, a man who held top positions under six state governors and four University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellors before being chosen as the first director of the University Research Park, passed away Tuesday after a battle with cancer. He was 79.
The only child of Homer and Amy McGown, Wayne grew up in Stevens Point and went on to graduate from UW-Madison with a bachelor’s in accounting and a master’s in political science.
Recalling the first shouts
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The first words Dick Vitale uttered as a college basketball analyst for ESPN were: “It should be a classic matchup. College basketball excitement, enthusiasm.”
The date was Dec. 5, 1979. The place was Alumni Hall at DePaul University. The teams were the host Blue Demons and the visiting University of Wisconsin Badgers.
Vitale and the ESPN “College GameDay” crew are to be at the Kohl Center on Saturday for another Wisconsin game, when UW takes on Ohio State.
A model for growth
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Academic research is a $1.1 billion enterprise in the state of Wisconsin, but the state and its businesses should be getting more bang for the buck from all that brain power.
Scientists turn skin cells to embryonic state, then to heart cells
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
In work that extends science’s power to alter the basic unit of a human being, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have taken skin cells that were reprogrammed back to their embryonic origin and grown them into functional, pulsing heart cells.
Applications down at UW-Madison, some other colleges
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Freshman applications are down at several University of Wisconsin campuses and a few private colleges in the state this year, reflecting a slowdown after years of growth and some impact of the struggling economy on students and parents.
UW-Madison’s freshman applications are down 5% from last year – the first time in five years that the university has seen a decrease, said Joanne Berg, registrar and vice provost for enrollment management.
Fired UW-Eau Claire professor: ‘I did show up!’
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — An accounting professor fired for not showing up for a job at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire said Thursday his absence was the result of eye surgery and he planned to work there.
Philip Siegel said he gave up a job at Florida Atlantic University and moved near Eau Claire for the position last summer. He said he had a university office and computer, published papers under the school’s name and went to a national conference for accountants before his contract started in August.
Chancellor urges humanities scholars to be in touch with public
Wisconsin State Journal
Humanities scholars at the University of Wisconsin-Madison could do a better job of communicating their value to the public, Chancellor Biddy Martin said at a lecture Wednesday.
Speaking on the topic of “humanities in the public,” Martin explored the challenges of translating academic research in subjects like English, history and philosophy to broad audiences.
Ask Lucas: Family man Landry adds to storybook career (Badger Beat)
Capital Times
….He’s overcome a lot of things throughout his career. He’s taken on the challenge of being not only a student-athlete, but a student-athlete-husband-father. I don’t think any of us appreciate that enough, to have a wife and three small children that also occupy big chunks of his time. That Marcus has been able to balance it might be the best storyline of all: going to school, playing at a high level of competition, and being the head of a family. So a lot of credit goes to Marcus and his wife for being able to pull it off.
University of Wisconsin-Madison looks at partnership with Iraq’s Tikrit University
Wisconsin State Journal
Iraqi students and faculty could begin studying and conducting research at UW-Madison if a burgeoning partnership with Tikrit University is formalized.
Sending UW-Madison students to study in Iraq is not in the immediate plans but could happen in the future if the country stabilizes, said Gilles Bousquet, dean of the Division of International Studies.
Officials from UW-Madison are speaking with U.S. Embassy authorities based in Iraq on Friday to discuss details of the possible relationship.
Obituary: Wayne McGown
Madison.com
MADISON – Cancer claimed the life of Wayne McGown on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009, at HospiceCare, Fitchburg. He was a professional in the Boy Scouts of America for seven years before beginning his 40 years of state service: 20 years at the top of State Street as senior administrator under governors Nelson, Reynolds, Knowles, Lucey, Schreiber and Earl; and another 20 at the campus end of State Street serving as special assistant to chancellors Shain, Cohen, Shalala and Ward. Wayne capped his career as the first director of the UW Research Park, 1984-1999.
California coffeehouse Peet’s opens in Memorial Union (77 Square)
The Memorial Union on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus is home to Wisconsin’s first licensed Peet’s Coffee & Tea shop. The coffee and tea house, located on the Union’s first floor across from Der Rathskeller, is celebrating its grand opening through Feb. 14 with samplings and door prizes such as mugs and T-shirts.
Biotech group changes name to BioForward
Capital Times
The Wisconsin Biotechnology and Medical Device Association is changing its name to BioForward Inc.
The announcement was made Wednesday at the association’s monthly breakfast at the MGE Innovation Center in University Research Park.
Wis. governor offers budget plan
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — No general sales or income tax increases or furloughs of state workers are in the Democratic plan released Wednesday to begin fixing Wisconsin’s $5.7 billion budget shortfall.
Gov. Jim Doyle said he had no current plans to furlough state workers, as is happening in other cash-strapped states, but it remains an option.
UW researchers turn biomass into biofuel
Capital Times
UW-Madison researchers have discovered a simple two-step process to turn raw biomass into biofuel. The work is being published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Online games like World of Warcraft can create better citizens, speaker argues
Capital Times
Can massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) like World of Warcraft produce better citizens?
That’s the provocative conclusion drawn by University of Wisconsin-Madison education professor Constance Steinkuehler, who has been intensely studying MMOGs and those who play them — including herself — for several years.
On Tuesday night, she laid out the evidence in a presentation called “Learning and Virtual Worlds: The Education Benefits of Digital Technologies” at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Lecture Hall.
Consultant hired to reconsider need for new transmission line
Capital Times
Will the combination of a deep economic slowdown, coupled with improvements in energy efficiency, preclude the need for a new $250 million high-voltage electric transmission line across Dane County?
It’s a question some are asking as more factories close at the same time President Obama is calling for a greening of the nation’s century-old electric system.
Last week, the Madison City Council approved hiring a consultant to study the economics of a new 345-kilovolt transmission line and to determine whether it is warranted. The city previously hired a consultant to study putting the line underground or somewhere other than along the Beltline highway as proposed.
Economy triggering depression, anxiety
Capital Times
n his stirring inauguration speech, President Barack Obama urged Americans to choose hope over fear.
While Obama’s election clearly has given some people a lift, rhetoric alone isn’t comforting those hit hardest by the country’s economic downturn.
As people lose jobs or watch their retirement savings dry up, some local psychiatrists say they are seeing an increasing number of new patients with depression or anxiety, and that the symptoms of some current patients have worsened.
Seeking relevancy, University of Wisconsin-Madison student government may overhaul itself
Capital Times
This past spring no more than 9 percent of the student body at University of Wisconsin-Madison turned out to vote for the student government elections. Participation, in fact, has been low for years — and so have been expectations. Katherine Tondrowski, chair of the Associated Students of Madison’s Elections Commission, admits she’d be “very happy” if even 10 percent of the student body would turn out to vote for a student government election.
Most associated with ASM seem to agree the organization is battling an identity crisis and image problem, and is struggling to remain relevant to the more than 40,000 students on campus.
Lawmakers plan to announce deal to fix budget deficit
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Gov. Jim Doyle and lawmakers plan to announce a deal today to patch a nearly $600 million hole in the state budget that runs through June 30.
College student information is in public domain
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Unless University of Wisconsin students specifically restrict access to their directory information, businesses such as credit card companies and lenders can get a list of every student’s name, address, phone number and more from the university for a nominal fee.
Landry closes in on scoring mark
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
When told of Marcus Landry’s impending membership in the 1,000-point club, University of Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan first responded, “That’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
It’s understandable. Coaches usually don’t pay much attention to such things. Besides, Landry doesn’t classify as a prolific scorer. His 12.9-point average this season is his highest mark as a Badger, and his four-year average is just 8.9 points per game.
Doyle says state workers could lose jobs without extra stimulus funds
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Workers who provide essential services in Wisconsin could lose their jobs if the federal economic stimulus package approved by the Senate doesn’t include $25 billion for states to help pay their bills, Gov. Jim Doyle said Tuesday.
A Musician’s Final Mission
Spectrum Magazine
As one of the world’s premier bass players, Richard Davis’s music has touched the lives of countless fans, and his teaching has inspired generations of students in the classroom as well as with the Richard Davis Foundation for Young Bassists, Inc., which provides musical instruction for financially challenged youth.
Audio outtakes of astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson’s lecture at UW
Capital Times
Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and host of Nova’s “ScienceNOW” program, spoke to a packed Union Theatre crowd on Feb. 1.
Here are some audio outtakes from that lecture:
Westgate Hy-Vee gets go-ahead from Plan Commission
Capital Times
It was all about economic stimulus Monday night as the Madison Plan Commission approved a new Hy-Vee grocery store at Westgate Mall despite conflicts with the city’s long-range plans for the site.
….Also Monday night, the commission approved a $14 million apartment and retail development at the corner of Regent and Park Streets, the former site of Josie’s Spaghetti House.
Madison developer Tom Degen is pursuing a 65-unit, six-story project at the corner, including about 4,250 square feet of ground-level retail space – enough for two or three tenants – and an underground parking lot providing 31 of about 45 parking spaces on the site.
The developer has said he is looking to attract upperclassmen and graduate students from UW-Madison as well as professionals working in the nearby hospitals.
University Opera behind world premiere of ‘Art and Desire’ (77 Square)
The tumultuous relationship between brilliant artists Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock seems designed for opera — it’s dramatic, passionate and artistically inspired.
So thought Minnesota-based composer Maura Bosch, who wrote “Art and Desire” about the two 20th century abstract artists. University Opera gives the work a world premiere on Feb. 20 and 22 in UW-Madison’s Music Hall.
UW Reactor To Ditch Highly Enriched Uranium
WISC-TV 3
MADISON, Wis. — A nuclear reactor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will be converted to run on less dangerous fuel under a national safety initiative.
UW-Madison officials said the reactor’s fuel will be converted from highly enriched uranium to low enriched uranium this year or early next year. The school said leftover fuel will be stored at a lab in Idaho.
T
UW-Stevens Point names student who died in fall
Associated Press
STEVENS POINT, Wis. (AP) — The student who died after being found unresponsive in the stairway of a University of Wisconsin-Steven Point dorm was a 19-year-old freshman from Fredonia.
Vice chancellor of student affairs Bob Tomlinson says Andrew Woods may have fallen down some stairs in Thomson Hall early Saturday morning.
New office created to deal with federal stimulus
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — There are many questions about what happens with the billions of dollars headed to Wisconsin under a federal stimulus plan in Congress. To help answer those questions, and smooth the process for distributing the money, Gov. Jim Doyle created a new state office.
The Office of Recovery and Reinvestment is headed by Gary Wolter, president and chief executive officer of Madison Gas and Electric Co. He is being assisted by Alan Fish, vice chancellor of facilities, planning and management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Both Wolter and Fish are working for free, assisted by about a dozen state employees who are being reassigned from other agencies.
Darwin still raising controversy…for another reason
Capital Times
Charles Darwin was able to stir up almost as much controversy with notions about dogs and emotions as with chimps and evolution.
The British naturalist, born 200 years ago on Feb. 12, transformed how the scientific community thinks about the evolution of plant, animal and human life through his brilliant, seminal work, “On The Origin of Species.”
Although Darwin’s pioneering notions about natural selection and evolutionary biology continue to draw plenty of fire and fury from religious creationists, he has another book that ruffles feathers, too.
Strong road stand
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Wisconsin Badgers came to town and absolutely wrecked the party.
Thanks to a fantastic start to the season and a stop by the Philadelphia Phillies’ World Series trophy tour, Penn State drew its largest crowd in eight years. Most of the 14,686 who filled the Bryce Jordan Center were hoping to see one of the most explosive basketball teams in the Big Ten do what it does best.