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Author: jnweaver

UW men’s basketball: Bo doesn’t know Cinderella

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Capital Times

Maintaining a mind-set of staying under the radar has suited the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team well throughout the course of the season.

Coach Bo Ryan always has refused to feed into the national obsession with polls, seeds and pundits’ opinions, and that approach won’t change as the third-seeded Badgers (31-4) prepare to meet 10th-seeded Davidson (28-6) Friday night in a Sweet 16 game at Ford Field in Detroit.

If you think Ryan is going to offer a nugget on his surging Badgers playing an underdog like Davidson, the seventh-year UW coach won’t oblige.

Goliath, meet Davidson

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In college basketball, nobody really wants to be Goliath.

But Friday night in Detroit in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA mens basketball tournament, the University of Wisconsin Badgers will be Goliath against everyone’s David.

Dave Zweifel: There’s no end to chase for dollars over fans

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Capital Times

If you think the big fight between the Big Ten Network and the cable TV industry is the pits for fans of college basketball, take a look at this.

The NFL Network, which is also at an impasse with the cable companies here and elsewhere, has been clamping down on churches that have been holding football viewing parties in their basements to raise a few bucks to help fund their activities.

….The NFL isn’t alone in its audacity, however. Before the start of last fall’s football season, newspaper advertising departments got a letter from the UW-Madison’s trademark licensing director, Cindy Van Matre.

Roads Traveled: Ready, set, action for Wisconsin filmmaking

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Capital Times

The filming of “Public Enemies” in Wisconsin has our attention because of the star power — leading actor Johnny Depp — but we also have a thick streak of independent movies coming through here.

Expect these choices to widen. The Milwaukee-based Marcus Corp. recently promised to show Wisconsin-made films on more than 600 of its screens. That means automatic distribution in six states, says Scott Robbe, executive director of the nonprofit Film Wisconsin, which works to reel in movie production.

“It will be a great help to independent filmmakers, who will be able to say ‘and I have guaranteed distribution’ of the finished product” as a producer or financing is sought, Robbe says.

UW women’s basketball: Badgers bow out of WNIT

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Capital Times

University of Wisconsin women’s basketball coach Lisa Stone said Saturday night that it was hard to watch the NCAA tournament knowing the Badgers won’t be playing in the big dance.

It’ll be equally tough for Stone and her squad to follow the rest of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, now that they’re no longer a part of that soiree either. UW’s season came to an ignominious end at the Field House Saturday, as Villanova bounced the Badgers from the WNIT with a 60-54 victory in a second-round matchup before a crowd of 1,382.

UW men’s hockey: ‘Sliver of hope turns into ray of sunshine’

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Capital Times

There weren’t many words on the voice mail messages that flooded Davis Drewiske’s cell phone in a matter of a few minutes Saturday night.

“It was just a bunch of screaming and yelling,” the University of Wisconsin hockey captain said.

That’s probably well enough, because there might not be words to explain everything that happened to get the Badgers into the NCAA tournament.

Milewski: UW women’s great hockey season lacked perfect ending

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Capital Times

DULUTH, Minn. — It was going to be the end of the line either way, so there was no question that the goodbyes they said to three seniors were going to be emotional when they returned to their locker room inside the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.

A shutout loss gave the emotions a tinge of sadness instead of joy for the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team after Saturday’s national championship game.

UW players credited Minnesota-Duluth as a deserving champion after a 4-0 final in the last game of the season, but the Badgers quickly turned to thoughts of a successful season that just didn’t have the perfect ending.

Schultz: Balanced Badgers proving tough to beat

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Capital Times

OMAHA, Neb. — Brian Butch spent a moment imagining the task Kansas State coach Frank Martin had trying to prepare, in one day, his freshman-laden team to play the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team in an NCAA tournament game.

“I get a lot of attention drawn towards me and that opens up someone like Trevon,” said Butch, referring to the Badgers’ point guard, Trevon Hughes.

“Now Trevon is going to get a lot of attention and that opens up the next guy. So you try to take away things and you can’t because you have too many guys to make plays,” he concluded.

County Board District 5: UW students vie for open seat

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Capital Times

The UW-Madison area will be represented by a new Dane County Board supervisor this April, as two students vie to replace the first-term supervisor Ashok Kumar in District 5.

Conor O’Hagan and Wyndham Manning will face off April 1, with the winner being next in a line of UW students on the board.

….O’Hagan, 19, is originally from Appleton and is a freshman. He’s one of the freshman representatives on the ASM Student Council. Manning, 22, hails from Jacksonville, Fla., and is a senior majoring in communication arts and environmental studies.

Measuring up short of a third

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jinelle Zaugg, Jessie Vetter and a number of other Badgers ended the last two years as national women’s hockey champions. But not this year.

Badgers putting it all together

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

It was no contest, the 72-55 victory that sent Wisconsin to the Sweet 16. More than that, it was instructive of just how thoroughly dangerous the Badgers can be as this event moves along.

NCAA gives Badgers big reprieve

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Late Saturday, after Princeton and Boston College had won their respective league tournaments to provide the University of Wisconsin with the final push it needed to move up in the PairWise rankings and qualify for the NCAA Division I men’s hockey tournament, UW defenseman Davis Drewiske got a few phone messages.

“I was talking to (teammate) Michael Davies,” Drewiske said after practice Sunday night. “While I was on the phone with him I got four other calls, four other voice mails.

“No one said a word in any of the voice mails. It was just a bunch of screaming and yelling.

“We’re just really excited.”

Group wants guns at colleges

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

If Green Bay gun dealer Eric Thompson had his way, college students would carry more than just books.

In his vision, the next college shooter is thwarted by a student armed with one of Thompson’s guns – averting a massacre, saving lives.

Thompson’s Internet-based business TGSCOM Inc. sold weapons to the shooters at both Northern Illinois and Virginia Tech universities. First, he said, he felt grief for the victims. Then, a sense of resolve. Not to stop selling guns, but to advocate for guns on campus.

No-test option gives Lawrence a different look

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Lawrence University is among a growing list of more than 750 colleges and universities that have some kind of test-optional admissions, according to FairTest, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that opposes heavy reliance on the tests. The trend comes as standardized tests have faced increased scrutiny for possible bias against students who are the first in their family to go to college, minorities or non-native English speakers.

The majority of selective colleges and universities – including all University of Wisconsin campuses – still use standardized tests as one piece of the complex admissions puzzle.

“It’s certainly not the end-all, be-all factor,” said Tom Reason, associate director of admissions for UW-Madison. But it helps when high school grades and class rankings have become less reliable, he said. And public universities have an added layer of responsibility to ensure fairness and equity.

With their own hands

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In 2003, 23% of loggers surveyed in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula said they did not expect to be in the business in five years, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Michigan State University.

“Today, there’s definitely less loggers,” said Thomas W. Steele, an associate scientist at UW-Madison and one of the authors of the study.

Adam Young: Madison Metro takes taxpayers for a ride

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Capital Times

Dear Editor: Madison Metro is in trouble and refuses to admit it. A recent article compared ridership levels to the record set in 1982.

These numbers are so disingenuous and unsophisticated, it’s enough to make my head spin.

In 1982, Metro did not have thousands of UW student riders hopping on the bus every day to go every few blocks, as is the case today. Metro didn’t have large employers such as the UW and the city of Madison offering free bus passes to riders. And Metro didn’t have the infamous transfer point system, which forces more to make transfers to get from point A to point B.

Obituary: Helen H. Henry

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Madison.com

Helen H. Henry (Herwig), age 88, passed away following a long battle with Alzheimer’s on Wednesday, March 19. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she helped manage a seed corn farm, Henry Seeds, with her husband, Jerome. Through the UW, their farm hosted one of the first Peace Corps training camps in the U.S. in 1965.

NCAA women’s hockey: Wisconsin to face Minnesota-Duluth in title game … again

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Capital Times

DULUTH, Minn. — It’ll be a national championship rematch.

Minnesota-Duluth didn’t record a shot on goal in the second period and was outshot 43-15 for the game but edged New Hampshire 3-2 Thursday in the second Frozen Four women’s hockey semifinal.

The Bulldogs (33-4-1) will play the University of Wisconsin (29-8-3) in Saturday’s championship game. Last season, the Badgers beat UMD 4-1 in Lake Placid, N.Y., for their second straight national title.

A ‘typical Wisconsin game’ yields hard-earned victory No. 30

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Capital Times

OMAHA, Neb. — The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team is like modern art to many folks. They look at it, stare at it and study it but never really understand why anybody is a fan of it.

The Badgers’ 71-56 victory over Cal State Fullerton during a first-round NCAA tournament game Thursday night at the Qwest Center is a great example.

Bohannon shrugs off insults, continues to improve and impress

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Capital Times

OMAHA, Neb. — Somebody is always trying to show up Jason Bohannon.

When he committed to play for the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team, some fans had the audacity to wish Wauwatosa East’s Jerry Smith had committed instead.

His name is dirt in Iowa even though Bohannon was a prep superstar at Linn-Mar High School in Marion, Iowa, and his dad, Gordy, was a star quarterback for Hayden Fry and the Hawkeyes.

Springsteen ‘in awe’ of UW’s Davis

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Capital Times

Madison bass player Richard Davis is pretty nonchalant about his role Monday night on stage with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

“We know each other from years ago,” said Davis, 77, who has been a popular school of music professor at the UW-Madison for 31 years.

….His Wikipedia bio calls Davis one of the most widely recorded bassists of all time. He has worked in both jazz and classical music all over the world and has recorded extensively both as a leader and sideman.

State joins health care value push

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Capital Times

The Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds is one of a group of employee benefit trust funds collaborating to push the adoption of innovations aimed at improving health care quality and lowering costs.

“We’re going to be exploring best practices,” said Tom Korpady, division of insurance services administrator for ETF, which administers retirement and other benefit programs for more than 540,000 Wisconsin Retirement System participants and 1,400 employers.

Korpady added that many things are on the table, “but it’s premature to say exactly what we’re doing,” as the group is just beginning its work.

UW men’s basketball: Badgers’ barber shop duo specializes in buzz cuts

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Capital Times

OMAHA, Neb. — There is no rule, long, short or otherwise, regarding the length of hair for the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team. It just looks like it.

The Badgers are heading to the NCAA tournament with a reputation as one of the best defensive teams in the country. But the No. 3 seed in the Midwest Regional that will play Cal State Fullerton in a first-round game Thursday night might be the cleanest-cut team in the tournament, too.

Badgers learn to embrace their underdog role

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jinelle Zaugg doesn’t mind the view from the back of the line.

“I’m loving this year; it is completely different,” Zaugg, a senior forward on the University of Wisconsin womens hockey team, said after practice earlier this week. “We’re kind of like the underdog.

“And it is so much sweeter when youre the underdog. Nobody expects you to win and you come back and bite them.”

The Badgers 28-8-3, the two-time defending NCAA champions, enter the Frozen Four in Duluth, Minn., as the lowest-ranked team in the field at No. 4. They face top-ranked Harvard 32-1-0 at 5 p.m. Thursday.

Three college papers say no to anti-abortion group’s ad (AP)

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Capital Times

LA CROSSE — An anti-abortion group is criticizing three college newspapers that refused to run its advertisement that warns students going on spring break about using emergency contraceptives that the ad says can have “deadly” consequences.

Newspapers at 10 other campuses accepted the ad, said Virginia Zignego, a spokeswoman for Brookfield-based Pro-Life Wisconsin, which contends any artificial action that destroys a fertilized egg is akin to abortion.

The Badger Herald on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus ran the ad, according to the Wisconsin State Journal, but the editor of the university’s other student newspaper, the Daily Cardinal, told the State Journal that she was unaware of the ad until she saw it in the Herald.

UW women’s basketball: Badgers open WNIT at home Saturday

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Capital Times

Seniors Jolene Anderson, Janese Banks and Danielle Ward will get a chance to cap off their collegiate basketball careers in the postseason after all.

The University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team will make its second consecutive appearance in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament and will open play Saturday at 7 p.m. at the UW Field House.

Purse snatching attempt on Broom Street

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Capital Times

Two purse-wielding UW-Madison students fended off a would-be purse-snatcher early Tuesday morning, with one of the women “blasting” the attacker with repeated blows from her purse weapon.

According to Madison police,the two 21-year-old females were walking in the 400 block of N. Broom St. at 2:10 a.m. when they were approached by a stocky man, either Latino or Asian, wearing a white “hoodie” jacket.

Editorial: Seeing the light on tax

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Whether it’s called a hospital tax, assessment or fee, the idea makes good fiscal sense, which is why no one should be terribly surprised to see that support for the idea is gathering momentum among businesspeople in Wisconsin.

Hughes at point of success

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A couple of weeks ago, Trevon Hughes was asked how he had gone about cutting down his turnovers.

“I never even thought about that until you asked me that question,” he said.

Bo Ryan might have smiled if he heard that answer. As much as the University of Wisconsin basketball coach hates turnovers, he doesn’t want players obsessing, as he calls it, about not making mistakes. Learn your lesson and move on, he says.

UW, UWGB learn their seasons are not over yet

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

After a season filled with disappointment, the players and coaches on the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team received a small consolation prize late Monday.

UW, which was expected to contend for the Big Ten Conference regular-season title but finished tied for seventh and then lost in the first round of the league tournament, received an at-large berth in the 48-team Women’s National Invitation Tournament field.

More Obama ads aired in Dayton area (Dayton Daily News)

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If you thought you saw more TV ads backing Barack Obama than Hillary Clinton in the Dayton area during Ohio’s Democratic presidential primary, you were right.

In the Dayton media market, about $450,000 was spent on TV ads for Obama, compared to about $300,000 on Clinton’s behalf from Feb. 1 through March 4, Ken Goldstein, director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project, said Monday, March 17.

Student Build House During Spring Break (WKRG-TV, Mobile, Ala.)

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Spring Break is in it’s second big week all along the Gulf Coast and while the beaches are crowded, there’s an alternative Spring Break that is building memories of a different kind in Baldwin County.

While most spring breakers are headed to the beach, a group from the University of Illinois and the University of Wisconsin are building something more substantial than a sand castle.

As a scientist I used to think meditation was hokum. Not any more! (The Daily Mail, UK)

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Daily Mail (UK)

A column by scientist Kathy Sykes notes that she has always been cautious about alternative therapies â?? she would rather put her faith in conventional medicine, which has been put through numerous trials and research, and proven to work through rigorous experiments.

She mentions that at the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Professor Richard Davidson has carried out a study where he has seen significant changes in brain activity when people meditated.

Obituary: Susan Finman

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Madison.com

Secretary of the Faculty emerita Susan Finman, age 79, passed away on Saturday, March 15, 2008. A funeral service will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 18, at CRESS FUNERAL HOME, 3610 Speedway Road, Madison. A visitation will be held from 1:30 p.m. until the time of the service. A full obituary will be in Tuesday’s paper.

Badger Women’s Advance to Frozen Four

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WKOW-TV 27

Led by goals from three freshman, including the game-winner 1:29 into overtime by Mallory Deluce, the No. 4/5 Wisconsin womenâ??s hockey team outlasted No. 5/4 Minnesota 3-2 Saturday night at Ridder Arena in an NCAA quarterfinal.

Kelly Nash (Bonita, Calif.) and Hilary Knight (Hanover, N.H.) each scored in regulation as the two-time defending NCAA champion Badgers (28-8-3 overall) advanced to the Frozen Four, held March 20 and 22 in Duluth, Minn., for the third straight season.

Just as in the previous two runs to the national title, the Badgers needed overtime to reach the Frozen Four.

Sexual predators in treatment centers get college grants

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By RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press Writer

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — James Sturtz is not your ordinary college student struggling to pay tuition.

The 48-year-old rapist is one of Iowa’s most dangerous sex offenders, locked up in a state-run treatment center for fear he will attack again if released. Yet he has received thousands of dollars in federal aid to take college courses through the mail.

Across the nation, dozens of sexual predators have been taking higher education classes at taxpayer expense while confined by the courts to treatment centers. Critics say they are exploiting a loophole to receive Pell Grants, the nation’s premier financial aid program for low-income students.

St. Patrick’s Day in Colorado (The Rocky Mountain News)

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Russ McMinn knows – in excruciating scientific detail – what green beer can do to a person’s insides.

Still, knowledge didn’t prevent the 21-year-old microbiology student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from deciding Saturday night to join the 20th Runnin’ Of the Green in lower downtown Denver.

In politics, negativity can be positive

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Los Angeles Times

Hillary Clinton’s “3 a.m. phone call” ad has been parsed again and again since the March 4 primaries, with most pundits using it to launch their quadrennial protests that campaign ad negativity weakens the very fabric of our democracy by manipulating and misinforming voters. But tirades against negativity reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of elections. Negativity is essential to democratic politics and ultimately yields a more engaged and better-informed public. [A column co-authored by Ken Goldstein, professor of political science at UW-Madison]

Seeds of a great new industry taking root

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

There’s no one alive today who was around to witness the birth of Wisconsin’s dairy and cranberry industries in the late 1800s or the state’s rise as a manufacturing power in roughly the same era. But a new page in Wisconsin’s history of commerce is being written in our time – the emergence of stem cell medicine.

‘Stress test’ can protect against worst-case equity trap

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

With the U.S. economy in shaky territory, two University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate students say there’s one examination every stock should undergo: the stress test.

The subprime mortgage mess and subsequent paralysis in U.S. credit markets have made banks hesitant to lend and investors skittish about stocks. It’s unclear how much longer the situation will last, and how much blood will be left on Wall Street when it ends.

That’s why John Poehling Jr. and Jason Schultz say stress testing your stocks is so important.

The mighty microbe

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

While scientists have determined that humans probably are warming the world, it’s Earth’s microscopic inhabitants that may have even bigger climate clout.

It’s the increased breathing of these innumerable organisms as Earth warms that worries scientists.

These bacteria live in the soil, which stores an enormous amount of carbon, according to Christopher Kucharik, an associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment.

No business like show business

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

If they flop on Wall Street, Hollywood may save them.

University of Wisconsin-Madison business students created a mind-numbingly dull video about their Applied Security Analysis Program – until 1:47 into the 6-minute video.

Some missed gist of school choice report

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

We released a set of five baseline reports on the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program last month, the first new studies of the voucher program using individual student data since 1995. Since then, many stories and commentaries have been published. Some of those contained inaccurate, incomplete or misleading information. [A column co-authored by John Witte, professor of political science and public affairs at UW-Madison]

Seeding of content

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In the last 10 years, six Big Ten teams followed up regular-season championships with conference tournament crowns.

Only one of those teams, the 2001-’02 Ohio State Buckeyes, received a seeding in the NCAA tournament lower than what the University of Wisconsin received Sunday evening. The Badgers, fresh off a 61-48 victory over Illinois in the tournament championship game at Conseco Fieldhouse, were awarded a No. 3 seeding in the Midwest Regional and will play No. 14 Cal State Fullerton (24-8) Thursday at 8:40 p.m. in Omaha, Neb.

UW men’s basketball: Big Ten champs refuse to play the ‘no respect’ card

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Capital Times

INDIANAPOLIS â?? During one of the most remarkable seasons in the history of the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball program, the Badgers’ success usually has been predicated on taking advantage of whatever their opponents give them.

The Badgers had that in mind after they finished watching the NCAA tournament selection show Sunday evening and learned they were the No. 3 seed in the Midwest Regional and will play Cal State Fullerton in a first-round game Thursday at 8:40 p.m. in Omaha.

UW men’s basketball: Landry named Most Valuable Player of Big Ten tourney

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Capital Times

INDIANAPOLIS — Unselfishness has been such a key for the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team this season that individual awards have rarely taken center stage.

That was the case again after the Badgers defeated Illinois 61-48 Sunday at Conseco Fieldhouse to win the Big Ten Conference tournament title. Junior forward Marcus Landry was named the tournament Most Valuable Player while senior guard Michael Flowers was named to the all-tournament team.

Special event buses called key, but at risk

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Capital Times

Metro Transit has to find a new way to fund itself, according to a draft report by a special committee that has been studying the city bus system since September 2006.

The report released Thursday also says that in order to achieve long-term financial success Metro has to attract new riders, and it identifies promoting special event services and special fares as one of the system’s best bets for doing that.

Metro Transit Service manager Ann Gullickson told the city’s Transit and Parking Committee Tuesday, however, that Metro isn’t going to be able to continue to offer special event services. New Federal Transit Administration rules issued in January mean Metro won’t be running the Bucky Buses from Lot 60 to Camp Randall for University of Wisconsin-Madison football games, or providing park and ride service to Kohl Center events or WIAA events at any of the venues it uses, or operating shuttles to Rhythm and Booms at Warner Park in July, she said.

Emotional ceremony marks signing of contraception bill

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Capital Times

Flanked by two survivors of sexual assault, one with tears welling in her eyes, Gov. Jim Doyle signed a long awaited bill Thursday that requires hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims.

“This is one bill I’ve been working to get on my desk for a long, long time,” Doyle said.

UW staff goes GAIA for energy sustainability

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Capital Times

Ann Hoyt put her used shopping bags in her car so she can reuse them when she goes to the grocery store.

Tania Banak finally programmed the programmable thermostat in her home.

Marla Handy tried to figure out whether heating her rural home with wood was a good idea and looked at the pros and cons of an electric rechargeable lawn mower.

And all three will use a meter to measure the electricity used by household appliances, as well as surveying light bulbs in their homes to find whether some could be replaced with those that use less energy.

They are University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty and academic staff members who are seeking ways of sustainable consumption.

Posted in Uncategorized

Protein linked to cancers spread

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Part of the data was tested and analyzed in Madison at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, where the group conducted some studies to look for specific genes but also ran tests to see what they could find.

“Whats really cool is that the technology used was not widely available 10 years ago, but now with it, we can screen lots and lots of genes and identify novel genes,” said Christina Kendziorski, an associate professor in biostatistics and medical informatics at UW.

ID card change for UW faculty, staff

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Capital Times

About 8,000 UW-Madison faculty and staff members who still hold outdated Social Security number-based ID cards will be receiving an e-mail from the chancellor telling them their cards are being phased out.

“Protecting privacy is a growing issue and challenge in our increasingly electronic world,” said Ron Kraemer, chief information officer for the university. “This is one of many steps we are taking in the coming months and years to safeguard our campus community.”

The old cards will be invalid after April 15.