Legislative leaders on Monday announced a budget-repair package they intend to pass over the next two days – a plan Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle said he expects to rework with vetoes when it hits his desk.
Fire destroyed the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house at the University of Wisconsin-Madison early today, leaving 25 residents displaced, three firefighters injured and an estimated $750,000 in damage, according to the Madison Fire Department. [With an accompanying video link]
After months of discussion and debate, Carroll College trustees have voted to change the school’s name to Carroll University, effective July 1.
Quoted: Paul Mitchell, assistant professor of agricultural economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Instead of cramming for finals, 25 members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity sat on a Metro Transit bus early this morning at the corner of Langdon and Frances streets keeping warm as dozens of Madison firefighters battled a massive fire that enveloped their fraternity house.
The fire department got the first call at 11:41 p.m. Monday after a city of Madison police officer noticed a glow that she thought was a grill at the back of the house, said Madison Fire Department spokeswoman Bernadette Galvez. When the officer investigated she found that the back of the house was on fire, Galvez said.
In Australia, where the development of an air ambulance service 80 years ago made medical care available to the vast remote inland region known as the Outback, people have a reverence for that country’s Royal Flying Doctor Service.
….Wisconsinites, especially those living in remote stretches of this state, would do well to nurture a similar reverence for the UW Med Flight Service, which over the past 23 years has provided tens of thousands of patients with state-of-the-art emergency care and an essential connection to the finest hospital facilities.
For the third straight year, the University of Wisconsin football team will kick off its homecoming game at 11 a.m.
The Badgers will host Illinois the morning of Oct. 25 at Camp Randall Stadium in a game that will be televised by either ESPN, ESPN2 or the Big Ten Network, UW announced Sunday.
Wisconsin also had 11 a.m. start times for homecoming against Minnesota in 2006 and Purdue in 2007.
To say Dr. Darren Bean was a high achiever would be an understatement.
Besides his role as a Med Flight physician for six years and the Madison Fire Department’s medical director for the past 16 months, he was the director of ultrasound for the UW Hospital emergency department, according to UW Hospital’s Web site. He was a member of the hospital’s mulidisciplinary trauma committee and the Regional Trauma Advisory Committee.
An assistant professor with the UW School of Medicine who received his medical degree from the University of Vermont College of Medicine, he had subspecialties in clinical research in pediatric and adult sedations, complex airway management, multi-trauma and bedside ultrasound.
Dr. Darren Bean spent time teaching cardiocerebral resuscitation to Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and members of the Madison City Council and Madison Rotary Club over the past six weeks.
Bean, along with nurse Mark Coyne and pilot Steve Lipperer, died in a Med Flight helicopter crash near La Crosse Saturday night, and Cieslewicz said he became acquainted with Bean and his work over the past year.
“All three of the men dying is, of course, a terrible tragedy,” Cieslewicz said. “I only knew Dr. Bean so I can only speak directly of him.”
Bean, a member of the UW Hospital staff since 2002, began a position as the Madison Fire Department’s medical director in 2007. He was a huge advocate of the CCR method, a new protocol being used by Madison firefighters and other responders.
Steve Lipperer, the pilot of the Med Flight helicopter that crashed Saturday night near La Crosse, was recently married to Dr. Desiree La Charite, a Med Flight physician since 2001. The couple lives in the town of Westport.
Lipperer had been with Med Flight for more than 20 years, said Glenn Kimmel, associate professor of medicine in the UW’s section of emergency medicine.
“He was also a private pilot and a great guy,” Kimmel said.
Move out week and commencement exercises at the Kohl Center will combine for a perfect storm of traffic this week on Dayton Street and the surrounding area on the eastern edge of the UW-Madison campus.
Motorists not involved in either the move out or graduation are asked to try to avoid driving in the area.
Mark Coyne loved sailing, flying and Jimmy Buffett. But most of all, he loved teaching emergency medical services.
“Just a couple weeks ago, we were both talking shop about EMS,” said his friend, Todd Cole. “He said, ‘You know, I really make a difference with what I do. Teaching really means something. I’ve really affected a lot of people.’
“I said, ‘You absolutely have, Mark.’ It was one of those comments that was so true.”
Coyne, 54, was the nurse on board the Med Flight helicopter that crashed on Saturday night. He was also a full-time EMS instructor at Madison Area Technical College, where he had worked since 1987.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly last week announced the four finalists being considered for the position of chancellor at UW-Madison.
But the preliminaries are over. Now is when the process to name John Wiley’s successor truly begins to heat up.
Starting Monday and running through Thursday, each of the finalists to become the next leader of Wisconsin’s flagship university — with 40,000 students, 16,000 employees and an annual operating budget of $2.2 billion — will interact with faculty, academic staff, students and community members.
(Includes links to Q & A with each of the candidates)
Twenty-three years of accident-free medical rescues by UW Med Flight ended in tragedy Saturday, with the fatal nighttime crash of an American Eurocopter EC 135 helicopter on a wooded bluff five miles outside downtown La Crosse on a return trip to Madison after ferrying a patient to a La Crosse hospital.
The craft lost contact with the airport shortly after take-off at 10:48 p.m. Killed in the crash were Dr. Darren Bean, nurse Mark Coyne and pilot Steve Lipperer.
The cause of the accident is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, but several studies have found circumstances of such a flight — at night and without a patient on board — are linked with high accident rates in what authorities have identified as an alarming increase in the number of emergency medical services aircraft crashes.
Thoughts and prayers are pouring in for the UW Hospital Med Flight crew of three killed Saturday night when the helicopter crashed on a bluff near La Crosse.
UW Health set up a tribute web site for Dr. Darren Bean, nurse Mark Coyne and pilot Steve Lipperer and as of 8 a.m. Monday, three dozen messages had been posted, many from colleagues at UW Hospital, as well as from hospitals around the state.
The helicopter crash was the first for Med Flight since the program began in 1985.
This week, a University of Iowa committee on athletics approved new guidelines that will allow school administrators the right to randomly check the social networking sites of Iowa athletes, and discipline those who violate school policies.
The man recommended to become the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s next chancellor has a 23-year career with the university, having worked his way up from assistant professor to interim chancellor.
Richard J. Telfer, 59, was recommended on Friday to become Whitewater’s next chancellor by UW System President Kevin P. Reilly and a special committee of the Board of Regents. The full board is expected to act on the recommendation in June.
The District of Columbia, Detroit and New Orleans have all, at one time or another, been dubbed the Murder Capital of the United States.
Madison, a university town at heart, will never compete for that title.
Unsolved Murder Capital of the United States is more apt there.
There have been five unsolved murders in just the last 10 months in Madison – a place that, a lot of years, still doesn’t get that many total.
For the doctors and nurses on air medical teams, the helicopters used to transport critically injured and ill patients often become simply the room where they work.
That unique, pressure-packed environment drew Darren Bean, Mark Coyne and Steve Lipperer to work for University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics’ Med Flight. All three men chose a profession that creates a bond among people who often must make life-or-death decisions quickly.
A Med Flight helicopter from the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison had taken off from La Crosse and turned toward home late Saturday when authorities lost contact with the aircraft less than six minutes into the flight.
Because of rain and fog and the densely wooded, hilly terrain, it took authorities until Sunday morning to find the twisted wreckage of the helicopter and the bodies of the pilot, flight doctor and nurse.
Quotes Kenneth Mayer, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and mentions UW-Madison student and superdelegate Awais Khaleel.
Kevin Barrett, the 9/11 skeptic whose questioning of the official story of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon drew fire from politicians when he held a one-semester appointment as an associate lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is about to push back at the politicians.
Barrett plans to announce soon that he will run as a Libertarian candidate against U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, the La Crosse Democrat who has represented western Wisconsin’s 3rd District since 1996.
Quoted: A recent analysis co-authored by by Morris Davis, professor of real estate and urban land economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Richard Davidson, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Erin Andrews was telling a Bo Ryan story on the way to the airport and her next assignment — air time being an occupational hazard and occupation. Pick a day, any day, and there’s a good chance that the ESPN sideline reporter will be in transit from one airport to the next, as dictated by her all-consuming schedule.
Dogs do ease tensions, University of Wisconsin students who walked around the Library Mall on campus Wednesday afternoon agreed.
Some 10 pooches were with their owners on the mall for the annual Pet Therapy event. The idea is that passing students can spend a few minutes with an animal to relieve their end of the semester stress, and maybe even talk with the dog owners, all of whom are members of the UW Health Services Counseling and Consultation Services.
Union officials fiercely defended on Wednesday the embattled 911 dispatcher who took Brittany Zimmermann’s phone call the day she was murdered.
The field of finalists for the top job at the University of Wisconsin-Madison includes the dean of the university’s largest college and three outsiders: a former dean, a provost and a vice president for research.
MADISON, Wis. — Part of the old Ogg Hall dorm at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus is still standing more than a month after demolition was supposed to be done.
That’s because the state of Wisconsin ended its contract with the demolition company, Dore and Associates, of Bay City, Mich. State officials said that the work was behind schedule and unsafe.
FENNIMORE, Wis. — An apparent gun threat prompted school officials at Southwest Technical College in Fennimore to close its campus on Wednesday.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Three of four finalists to be the next University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor have ties to the state’s flagship university.
UW System President Kevin Reilly announced the four candidates on Wednesday. The two men and two women are vying to replace Chancellor John Wiley, who is stepping down in September after seven years. None are minorities.
If Ald. Michael Schumacher has his way, anyone with a drunken driving violation would be barred from getting a bartender’s license for a five-year period.
Schumacher, who will likely unveil his proposal to the Madison City Council at its May 20 meeting, says “it’s a privilege to have a license, not a right.”
While 123 colleges felt the first bite of the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate system, the University of Wisconsin passed with flying colors.
All 23 sports sanctioned by the school exceeded the benchmark score of 925 — equivalent to a 60 percent graduation rate — in statistics compiled during the 2006-07 school year, and the men’s cross country team posted a perfect 1,000 score.
A former dispatcher who answered a 911 call from Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone before she was allegedly stabbed to death in her West Doty Street apartment committed two different procedural errors in handling the call, according to Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk.
The dispatcher — who has 20-years of experience and is described by Falk as “a seasoned veteran with a good work record” — did not alert law enforcement of Zimmermann’s call nor did she call back to Zimmerman’s phone after being disconnected. Both inactions violate 911 Center policy.
However, even if protocol had been followed, Falk said she doesn’t believe police could have responded in time to save the 21-year-old UW-Madison student.
Dane County residents should continue to have confidence in the 911 communications system, but should also understand the limitations of using cell phones when making an emergency call, said Scott McDonell, chairman of the Dane County Board, in statements Tuesday regarding the botched 911 call in the Brittany Zimmermann murder case.
“Our citizens rely on the fact that when they call 911 for help, the call will result in emergency assistance being dispatched within minutes,” McDonell said. “They should continue to have confidence in the public safety communication system.”
Women who stop smoking dramatically reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke by 20% within five years, and have a lung cancer risk similar to that of a non-smoker after 30 years, a new study shows.
The findings support previous research that removing tobacco from the body is beneficial to health.
Meanwhile, a U.S. panel headed by a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher is releasing updated guidelines today on the best way to quit.
With the release of its latest set of data on academic performance, the NCAA has begun to take action against poorly performing Division I schools.
The new academic progress report was released Tuesday, and it showed more than 700 sports teams fell short of a 925 score (out of 1,000), a mark that equates to a graduation success rate of nearly 60%.
In Wisconsin, none of the four Division I schools faces any penalties. However, the NCAA has its eye on the men’s basketball program at UW-Milwaukee.
Madison taverns may have taken the happy out of happy hour, but they can’t be sued for it, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in a decision released Tuesday.
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Two dozen bars near the University of Wisconsin campus bowed to political pressure and agreed in 2002 to limit drink specials offered on Friday and Saturday nights. The political pressure rendered the bar owners immune from state anti-trust laws, the high court found.
Carroll College students participating in a new survey have shown little enthusiasm for changing the school’s name to Carroll University.
A 911 call from a murdered college student’s cell phone featured sounds that should have been significant to a 911 operator, but they were not heard by the dispatcher during the call, Dane County’s top official said Tuesday.
Microsoft and Google. Two names that any up-and-coming market in the country would be happy to welcome. And now Madison can do so, thanks to the nation’s second-biggest research university.
Neither tech giant is creating a lot of jobs in Wisconsin’s capital city yet, but the fact that both want to be near the University of Wisconsin-Madison speaks well for what UW-Madison is doing for the economy in south-central Wisconsin.
With final exams coming up, Renee figures she could fetch about $20 per capsule for Adderall, a prescription amphetamine widely known across campus as a “study drug.” But she sells her surplus only to close friends, generally charging $5 per pill, which helps her cover her monthly refill costs of $25.
The UW-Madison senior first tried Adderall, which is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), during finals week of her freshman spring semester three years ago.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly on Tuesday announced four finalists who are being considered for the position of chancellor at UW-Madison.
The candidates are: Gary Sandefur, dean of UW-Madison’s College of Letters and Sciences; Biddy (Carolyn) Martin, Provost of Cornell University in New York; R. Timothy Mulcahy, vice president for research at the University of Minnesota; and Rebecca Blank, former dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.
When the University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team prepared to play its first Western Collegiate Hockey Association games of the second half of the last two seasons, it did so without some key players. Those series coincided with the final days of the World Junior Championship, the top international under-20 competition and an event to which the Badgers often lose multiple skaters.
The weekends of the World Juniors are supposed to be clear of WCHA games, and Badgers coach Mike Eaves said the league has apologized for the scenarios over the last two seasons. There are no such worries in the 2008-09 schedule, which was released Tuesday.
27 News has uncovered the veteran 911 operator who mishandled an emergency call from murder victim Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone had requested a transfer out of emergency communication work nearly a month before the Zimmermann call.
Last week, county officials confirmed the 911 operator, 54, had requested, and received a transfer from the communications center, but did not specify the date of the transfer request.
911 Center Director Joe Norwick has yet to respond to a request from 27 News for more information on the timing and motivation of the operator’s transfer request.
MADISON, Wis. — The state of Wisconsin has paid the Sierra Club $251,000 in legal fees after the environmental group settled a lawsuit that uncovered clean air violations at a University of Wisconsin power plant.
Former University of Wisconsin hockey players Jinelle Zaugg, Kerry Weiland and Molly Engstrom are among 18 players who have been selected to participate in the U.S. Women’s National Program’s residency program.
The University of Wisconsin men’s golf team will be heading west in an effort to earn a spot in the NCAA finals.
The Badgers qualified for their second straight NCAA appearance as the 20th seed in the West Regional, the NCAA announced Monday.
Downtown tavern owners weren’t popping champagne bottles but were “very, very happy” about the Wisconsin Supreme Court finding their voluntarily ban on weekend drink specials didn’t violate anti-trust law.
“We were very concerned (about losing) because you never know what will happen,” said Bruce Meier, whose family has owned the Kollege Klub for 55 years.
Twenty-four bars have spent in excess of $500,000 in legal fees to defend a class-action suit filed in Dane County Circuit Court in 2004 on behalf of University of Wisconsin students, said Scott Stenger, spokesman for the Wisconsin Tavern League.
A UW-Madison student faces a felony charge of criminal damage to property for allegedly setting off a fire sprinkler system in the University House Towers student housing on Frances Street on April 4.
Max J. Korman, 18, of Northbrook, Ill., allegedly set off the building’s sprinklers on the eighth floor where he resides, and was caught on the building’s security video system. The system activation caused thousands of dollars in damages to the building and to the retail store on the ground floor and led to the evacuation of residents.
Along with a felony count of criminal damage, Korman is also charged with a misdemeanor count of interference with fire fighting equipment.
What chase next for Warren Whitelightning?
An arrest warrant was issued late Monday afternoon for the apprehension of the man who stole a Krispy Kreme truck in Madison and led police on a low-, medium- and high-speed chase, much of it captured on videotape, crashing into a squad car along the way.
Whitelightning entered no-contest pleas in February to most of the charges that resulted from the University Avenue chase last November, and he was scheduled for a sentencing hearing Monday afternoon in front of Dane County Circuit Court Judge Stuart Schwartz.
Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk has written letters of apology to be sent to the family of murder victim Brittany Zimmermann and her fiance, in response to a disclosure last week that a call to the 911 center was made from her phone around the time she was killed, but was not returned as is normal protocol.
Falk aide Joshua Wescott said Monday that the family and Zimmermann’s fiance, Jordan Gonnering, should receive the letters of apology shortly.
The recently elected UW-Madison senior class president has been arrested and charged with misdemeanor theft for stealing bus tickets from the Memorial Union information desk.
Oliver Delgado won election as president of the class of 2008-09 by garnering 430 votes in the spring election, beating Jeff Wright (388 votes) and Tim Fung (101), according to election tabulations by the Associated Students of Madison.
But a couple of weeks before the early April vote, Delgado was caught stealing bus tickets so he and his roommate could get out of Madison for spring break, according to a complaint filed in Dane County Circuit Court.
The fifth time was the charm for Madison architect Bob Sieger in his efforts to redevelop the corner of Regent and Monroe streets.
The Madison Plan Commission late Monday night approved a demolition permit to allow Sieger to raze his existing retail and office building across from Camp Randall Stadium. That clears the way for him to build a four-story, 48-room boutique hotel at the site.
In a new study, University of Wisconsin-Madison agricultural economist Randy Fortenberry says it’s clear that the increasing use of corn to produce fuel has played a role in rising corn prices – but he cautions that the magnitude of the increase has been overstated.
A highly touted program to walk University of Wisconsin-Madison students home safely has been understaffed while services are in high demand after a student’s murder, employees say.
MADISON, Wis. — Dane County officials said on Monday that they plan to release new information regarding the killing of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student but gave no details on when.
This follows last week’s revelation that the Dane County 911 Center received a call from 21-year-old Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone on the day she was killed. However, a 911 dispatcher hung up on the call and then failed to call back, which violates protocol. Police officers were never sent to investigate.
The news touched off a public round of fingerpointing between Madison police and various local and county officials about whether there was enough information from the call to prompt police to respond. The dispatcher who answered the call has since been transferred to another county job, WISC-TV reported.
Dear Editor: As your thought-provoking piece about the Chazen Museum’s “Ringmaster” display points out, even P.T. Barnum couldn’t convince today’s public that using animals in circuses is still acceptable.
The days of boxing up animals and carting them from city to city, beating them until they perform silly tricks, and tearing apart animal families and friends in the name of “entertainment” are coming to an end.
The Chazen Museum should keep the models and historic displays, because soon, it will be the only reminder of the cruel and unethical use of animals in circuses.
Dear Editor: The coal plant on Charter Street must be shut down. This plant produces an immense amount of carbon dioxide, which only increases the rate of global climate change. Not only will acid rain become more prevalent, human health is at risk due to the increased pollution. Particulate pollution is especially a concern for people with asthma. Not only will the skies be cloudier, radioactive isotopes such as uranium are also being released. Mercury is also a heavy pollutant from coal plants that is getting into Madison lakes and bioaccumulating in the fish we eat.
It looked like Bourbon Street in New Orleans on a Sunday morning, as the Mifflin Street Block Party in Madison wound down at about 8 p.m. Saturday.
After about 10,000 young people had partied hard for hours, the street was strewn with flattened beer cartons, flattened beer cans, broken plastic cups and — manure from the steeds of mounted police. Most party-goers had left, and a phalanx of police arrived to clear the rest from the street, leaving only some die-hard partiers on balconies and porches.
About 400 people had been arrested, mostly for alcohol-related offenses such as underage drinking and having open alcohol containers.
