MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A state law designed to shed light on millions of dollars in state government contracts is not working properly more than two years after it was passed.
The law requires all state contracts to be made public on the Internet, but many are missing from the Contract Sunshine Web site that went online in January.
Condoms are not 99 percent effective in preventing pregnancy, but that’s what half the women surveyed thought in a study done by researchers at the Department of Family Medicine at UW-Madison.
The survey was done of 252 women at two family practice clinics, with the results published in the latest issue of the Wisconsin Medical Journal.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — It could be a sign of the economic times.
Badgers’ ticket sales for the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Florida are down sharply from previous bowl games.
UW-Madison stem cell pioneer Jamie Thomson received the prestigious Massry Prize for 2008.
The award recognizes Thomson, who is director of regenerative biology at the Morgridge Institute for Research and a professor at UW-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health, for his groundbreaking discovery of human embryonic stem ES cells a decade ago, and his subsequent work in developing induced pluripotent stem iPS cells.
Eight previous winners of the Massry Prize have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize.
A researcher from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health has been selected to help build a computer as flexible, complex, and small as a small mammal’s brain.
The economy is getting intensive care from Uncle Sam these days, but who’s going to help the state’s ailing hospitals?
Hospital revenues are falling while requests for charity care are soaring. The resulting financial squeeze has left growing numbers of Wisconsin hospitals demanding more federal relief as they contemplate drastic interim measures ranging from freezing equipment purchases and expansion plans to laying off staff, according to a report released Thursday by the Wisconsin Hospitals Association.
A Quiznos submarine sandwich shop in the new food court at University Square will not be able to sell beer after a unanimous vote by the city’s Alcohol License Review Committee Wednesday night.
Susan Crowley, the director of prevention services for UW Health Services — the largest tenant in the student services tower part of the development — spoke against the move. She said the large seating area would make it nearly impossible to control the distribution of alcohol once it was sold by Quiznos.
Wisconsin scientists hit the media big-time in 2001 when UW stem cell master James Thomson graced the cover of Time magazine.
Now, with much less fanfare, another UW lab whiz has made a splash in the venerable news weekly.
Randy Cortright, the co-founder of Madison-based Virent Energy Systems Inc., was the lead in a feature on 50 Best Inventions of the Year in the Dec. 4 issue, where he was lauded for his “grass to gas” technology.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to declare Dane County out of compliance with air quality standards for fine particle pollution Thursday, according to Dave Merritt of the Dane County Clean Air Coalition.
An EPA spokeswoman would not confirm the designation, but said an announcement will not come until early next week.
Mark Musolf, a calming, quiet and influential presence at the highest levels of state government for 30 years, was killed Tuesday afternoon in a car crash in Price County on Highway 13, near Park Falls.
His wife, Jocelyn Jacobs, 55, a passenger, was in critical condition at Marshfield Hospital.
The unsolved murder of slain University of Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann will be featured by CNN’s Nancy Grace on the national news network at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Tuesday.
Some were fueled by alcohol, others by a yearning to deface police property. They range in severity from bank robberies to reckless driving. But what really sets these crimes of the past year or so apart is, well, a certain lack of planning on the part of the perpetrators â?? or for those cases not yet completed, alleged perpetrators.
To compile this lofty list, several Capital Times reporters sifted through a year’s worth of stories. The criteria are somewhat vague to make the top eight of 2008, but you know them when you read them.
1. Krispy Kreme caper (UW Police chase)
MADISON — A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher remained on the job Tuesday even though he was caught in an online sex sting weeks ago.
Kevin Kreisel, 29, is charged with attempting to cause a child to view sexual activity and attempting to expose a child to harmful material. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which accuse him of exposing himself on a Web cam to a police officer posing as a 13-year-old girl.
Just a few months ago, University of Wisconsin-Madison zoology Professor James Pawley was hoping to keep working for another couple of years, figuring he would stay on as a full-time faculty member until his wife, who is also a professor, retires in 2011.
But due to tanking stock markets and concerns about a prolonged recession and how his state retirement benefits are calculated, Pawley decided the time was right to step down and start collecting his monthly payouts from the Wisconsin Retirement System.
Global warming didn’t start with the industrial revolution, but began 5,000 to 8,000 years ago with large-scale agriculture in Asia and extensive deforestation in Europe, according to new research by University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists.
MADISON, Wis. — A University of Wisconsin researcher is facing charges in Vernon County after being accused of exposing himself to an officer who was pretending to be a teenage girl online as part of an Internet sting.
Kevin Kreisel, 29, of Madison, is accused of felony charge of attempting to cause a child to view sexual activity.
MADISON, Wis. — The parents of slain University of Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann are pleading with a judge not to release a recording of her 911 call that was apparently made prior to her death.
The Kohl Center will be filled with pomp and ceremony Sunday as about 1,500 UW-Madison students don caps and gowns for the winter commencement.
Political science and public affairs professor Dennis Dresang will deliver the commencement address in ceremonies at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Brittany Zimmerman, a 21-year-old college student who wanted to be a doctor, called 911 as she was being attacked by a stranger, police say.
But the police did not come for 48 minutes. By that time, Zimmerman was dead. Her fiance found her body.
Although the dispatcher claimed later to have heard nothing, the 911 tape captured screams, gasps and what sounds like a struggle, according to the court documents.
Quoted: Charles O. Jones, political science professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
US research may pave the way for a drug to cut the permanent damage caused by a heart attack.
The researchers from UW-madison and Cornell University found that blocking a specific protein in mice was enough to cut potentially crucial scarring significantly.
A surge of interest – and funding – is likely in 2009 for efforts to cut energy use, develop next-generation biofuels and expand renewable energy sources such as wind power, energy experts say.
But don’t look for a rapid acceleration of plans to build new nuclear reactors, the experts said in assessing President-elect Barack Obama’s choices to lead his administration’s energy policy.
Experts say energy policy is going to take a greener hue, and they say an economic stimulus package may have its own green tint now that Obama has named his key energy and environment policy advisers.
Junying Yu now assumed she had no chance. Her scientific rival in Japan, Shinya Yamanaka, had sent mature mouse cells back to their embryonic origin. All that remained was for the work to be published. Soon he would do the same with human cells.
In 2003, Yu and her supervisor, UW stem cell pioneer James Thomson, had set out to reprogram human cells, unaware that Yamanaka was chasing the same improbable goal. If they succeeded, the scientists would capture the power of human embryonic stem cells without the ethically contentious destruction of embryos.
Cody Goloubef will help Canada try to win its fifth straight gold medal at the World Junior Championship.
The Wisconsin Badgers men’s hockey defenseman has made the 22-player Canadian roster for the elite under-20 tournament, which runs Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Ottawa.
Thank mice and a bunch of scientists for forging a path that may one day soon lead to new hope and treatment for the millions of Americans who suffer permanent damage from heart attacks.
A team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cornell University used genetically engineered mice to pinpoint a molecular culprit in the formation of scars after heart attacks. This scarring frequently prevents the organ’s muscles from working well even long after a heart attack.
The Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team began the season with low expectations and a chip on its collective shoulder.
Ten wins later, the expectations may have changed, but the chip is still there.
In the summer of 2007, University of Wisconsin-Madison stem cell pioneer James Thomson and dozens of scientists around the globe raced to turn back the clock and send mature human cells back to their embryonic origin. At stake was a new kind of medicine that could bring hope to millions. This link takes you to the Journal Sentinel’s series on the state of cell science.
UW System President Kevin P. Reilly says in an op-ed column: As President-elect Obama acknowledged in his election night speech, our country is facing some of the greatest financial challenges in our lifetimes. The next Congress will make difficult decisions about where to invest and where to cut. Leaders in Wisconsin face similarly vexing questions, as Gov. Jim Doyle expects a $5.4 billion shortfall for the upcoming two-year budget cycle.
The simple reality: We’re all going to have to do more with less.
Share the basketball on offense and you keep everyone involved and interested. Play with passion and poise on defense and make foes beat you from the perimeter.
The University of Wisconsin women’s team has followed that plan beautifully through the first month of the season, with the latest example a 67-48 drubbing of rival Marquette on Saturday at the Kohl Center.
The way Bo Ryan broke down his teamâ??s ability to get to the basket Saturday night made the game of basketball seem like basic science. You do X, weâ??ll do Y. Simple cause and effect.
â??Thatâ??s what you build in when you practice, that if teams are going to play the ball a certain way (and) play away from the ball a certain way, you take whatâ??s available,â? the University of Wisconsin coach said after his teamâ??s 77-57 victory over UW-Green Bay at the Kohl Center. â??I thought our guys made some good decisions, Pop (Trevon Hughes) and J-Bo (Jason Bohannon) especially.â?
Some University of Wisconsin-Madison students are preparing to beat a world record for snowball fights.
Quoted: Scott Craven, a University of Wisconsin-Madison wildlife ecologist.
In a small office in Madison’s University Research Park, a three-person staff is running an innovative graduate program aimed at bolstering the state’s growing biotechnology sector.
The 5-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison program says it turns out well-rounded biotech company leaders and tries to keep many of them in Wisconsin.
Madison resident Juli Speck was one of just 40 people nationwide to be chosen to take part in the TogetherGreen Conservation Leadership Program, part of a new conservation initiative of the National Audubon Society with support from Toyota.
I’m not the only one who believes the UW student section at the Kohl Center is extremely overrated. Kellis Robinett, a writer from the Idaho State Journal who attended the Badgers’ victory over Idaho State Tuesday night at the Kohl Center, wrote an accurate account about UW fans, and the students in particular, in a recent blog entry.
The Madison Marathon will have new courses in 2009, with all its events starting and finishing at the Alliant Energy Center.
New race director Ryan Richards — who also supervises Ironman Wisconsin — has begun a makeover of the full marathon, half marathon and quarter marathon courses for the May 24 event. The most noticeable change is that the Madison Marathon will abandon its traditional starting point on the Capitol Square, but Richards also aims to flatten out the course while steering runners past several civic landmarks.
Don’t tell Mariah Dunham the women’s basketball rivalry between the University of Wisconsin and Marquette University is tame.
When the UW junior forward checked her cell phone early Monday, she noticed a text message from Marquette senior guard Erin Monfre, a friend and rival from high school.
The message: “Our next game is against you guys. Be ready.”
Quoted: Steve Deller, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The 911 dispatcher who took a call from a college student around the time she was slain told investigators she either did not hear a scream on the call or did not recognize the sound as a scream.
The dispatcher, Rita Gahagan, also told investigators the subsequent noise on the call did not strike her as sounds of distress. Police have described the call as containing a scream followed by the sound a struggle.
Moving school funding away from property taxes, shortening high school time from four to three years, eliminating the corporate income tax. These are a handful of the many ideas an influential group of business and lobbying leaders in the state are hoping to spur a discussion about long-term solutions to Wisconsin’s economic woes.
UW-Madison’s two student unions will remain open into the wee hours of the morning starting Sunday night to give students extra study time during finals week.
If you woke up this morning, looked outside and didn’t see your car parked on the street, don’t be alarmed, it probably wasn’t stolen.
It was, however, most likely a block away with a $110 ticket under a wiper blade. The car was likely towed during the night by the city parking enforcers so streets in the snow emergency zone could be plowed.
The dean of the Wisconsin School of Business has been asked to craft long-term strategies to boost revenue for the state’s flagship school – part of public universities’ shift toward private sources of aid in an era of declining state support and a national recession.
But who wouldn’t want a UW fragrance that combines the smells of the Big Ten Pub, the popcorn from the Memorial Union and Lake Mendota algae? Or at Marquette, the combined aroma of hops and the Menomonee Valley?
A Dane County judge ordered the release Wednesday of a full report on the mishandling of a 911 call around the time a college student was murdered, but put off ruling whether audio of the call should be released.
Since arriving on campus in late August, new University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin has stressed the need for public institutions of higher education to reevaluate their funding models.
On Wednesday, Martin took her first major step in helping UW-Madison address this issue.
The University of Wisconsin Madison’s infertility program will be moving into a new clinic in Middleton in 2010. Generations Fertility Care, the planned new 15,000-square-foot facility, will be built near the intersection of Highway 14 and the Beltline, next to Transformations, UW’s plastic and cosmetic surgery clinic.
Madison (WKOW) — UW Health Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (REI) will open a new clinic with the latest programs and technology to help infertile couples overcome the challenges of conceiving a child.
Madison (WKOW) — University of Wisconsin-Madison student and former Obama campus organizer Bryon Eagon has announced his candidacy for the Madison City Council in the 8th aldermanic district.
Eagon, a UW junior majoring in Political Science and Communication Arts Rhetoric, has been an active student voice on campus.
MADISON, Wis. — The dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison business school has been tapped to take on a larger role at the university.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin has named Michael Knetter a special assistant for long-term strategy and development. Knetter is an economist who has led the business school since 2002. He will stay on as dean.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — University of Wisconsin-Madison seniors say they are having a tough time finding jobs – and some are considering graduate school to delay entering the work force.
On top of Christmas, snow, a bad economy and flu season, UW-Madison students have one more slightly stressful thing starting Sunday: finals week.
Feeling overwhelmed?
University Health Services (UHS) put together a list of stress-reducing tips, ranging from simple exercises to free counseling sessions to students who need some help, during the final, hectic week of the first semester.
After winning last month’s elections and becoming the ruling party in the State Capitol for the first time since 1986, Democrats should be full of post-election glee and seasonal joy. But the economy is tanking and state Dems are more likely to be greeting this New Year with calculators than champagne as they glumly try to figure out how to deliver on promised reforms in the midst of a financial mess.
A central question during caucuses this week will undoubtedly be the fate of a glittering array of health-related measures touted on the campaign trail.
In what researchers hail as promising news in the quest to slow the deadly progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, popularly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been able to prolong the lives of afflicted mice by equipping them with an extra gene that prompts production of a substance that temporarily blocks the disease.
University of Wisconsin-Madison students looking for a job this year dont need a dismal report from the National Bureau of Economic Research to tell them the United States is officially suffering through a recession.
They’re living it.
No one was fooling himself after this one.
The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team won for the seventh time in nine games, but its 60-58 victory over Idaho State on Tuesday night was hardly satisfying.
While banks and automakers command Washington’s attention, Gov. Jim Doyle this week wants to shift the focus to state governments across the country that face “unprecedented” and “devastating” budget cuts that could weaken their economic competitiveness.
….In these tough times, maybe we’re ready to listen more closely to advocates of a system called “steady state economy.” It is described as “a transdisciplinary field of study that addresses the relationships between ecosystems and economic systems in the broadest sense.” In short, it incorporates ecological principles into economic theory and focuses on sustainability.
One of its foremost spokespersons is Brian Czech, a conservation biologist who grew up in the Green Bay area. He got his undergraduate training at UW-Madison and his Ph.D. in renewable natural resources from the University of Arizona. He is a conservation biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and an adjunct professor at Virginia Tech.
After escaping the war zone that was his country, former child soldier Ishmael Beah, now a best-selling author, had forgotten many simple things.
“I had forgotten how to sleep. I had forgotten how to trust people. I had forgotten how to be happy. I had forgotten how to sit in one place more than a few seconds. I was very restless,” the Sierra Leone native told a near-capacity crowd of more than 1,000 people Monday night in the Wisconsin Union Theater during his Distinguished Lecture Series talk.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A record number of students earned degrees from the University of Wisconsin System during the last school year.
