The local economy has been stung by slower sales growth and the housing slide, with three in 10 firms responding to a new business survey saying profits were down from last year.
The fifth annual First Business Economic Survey of Dane County conducted by the UW School of Business released today (Wednesday) showed continued optimism among most local executives. But it also reflected the national economic slowdown.
It might be assumed that every rational Wisconsinite is agreed that rape is not a choice, and as such women who are assaulted ought not be punished for having been so victimized.
But assumptions are dangerous, especially when you are dealing with the state Assembly.
Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of state representatives — including almost all legislators who proclaim themselves to be “pro-life” — say they believe that women have a right to terminate pregnancies caused by rape, the Assembly is set for a fight over whether the state will mandate that women who have been assaulted have access to emergency contraception.
University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics has named a new chief executive officer who hopes to focus on community involvement and long-term planning.
Donna Katen-Bahensky, CEO at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and senior associate vice president for medical affairs at University of Iowa Health Care since 2002, has been named president and CEO of the UW facility.
She will begin work on Feb. 4, replacing Donna Sollenberger, who left in September to head the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Carl Getto has filled in as interim CEO and did not apply for the top job.
If you think Division I-A college football isn’t a big, big business, you need to see the salary chart for coaches in the Wednesday edition of USA Today.
Wow. Breathtaking.
All of these guys aren’t coaches. Some are CEOs of major companies with whistles around their necks.
University of Wisconsin System enrollment increased 2.1% increase at its 26 campuses this fall, to a record high of 173,313 undergraduates and graduates, according to a report the Board of Regents plans to review Friday.
Field Pass, Curt and Matt Brink’s proposed new venture at University Square, got a liquor license Tuesday night despite objections by some vocal members of the Capitol Neighborhoods Association and despite the venue’s location within Madison’s new alcohol density control area.
The City Council unanimously supported its Alcohol License Review Committee’s recommendation to grant a license for a 550-person capacity restaurant.
Jamie McCarville, who spoke in opposition to the licensing on behalf of the Capitol Neighborhoods Alcohol Issues Committee, argued that Field Pass’s proposed location within the University Square development — which also includes housing for students, many under the age of 21 — was a really bad idea.
Their poetry was by turns personal, political, poignant, hilarious and heartbreaking, but always lightning fast.
Four poets emerged from Tuesday night’s first annual UW collegiate poetry slam, hosted by the Multicultural Student Coalition. The four now move on to the national collegiate finals in Albuquerque, N.M. They were Danez Smith, Sophia Snow, Dominique Chestand and Kelsey VanErt.
The spoken word competition finals drew a crowd of about 300 people to the Memorial Union Theater on a snowy night. Fourteen students competed, culled from the 20 contestants in the semifinals Monday.
Quoted: Michele LaVigne, a University of Wisconsin-Madison law school professor
WALTER J. Blaedel didn’t want a memorial service, but he wanted to be remembered. His paid obituary in October said he wished that “family, friends, students and co-workers remember me occasionally, for having shared work, ideals, love, joy and sadness, success and failure.”
Blaedel, who died Oct. 8 at 91, was a brilliant chemistry professor who lived in Madison for 60 years and knew plenty about success and failure. After a bitter dispute with the University of Wisconsin department of chemistry that began in the 1970s and ended with his forced retirement in the early ’80s, Blaedel refused to go quietly.
Requiems are not your usual fare when its comes to holiday music.
One usually turns to brighter, more uplifting music.
….And yet last weekend’s performances at the UW-Madison of Karol Szymanowski’s darkly moody “Stabat Mater” and especially Mozart’s poignant Requiem felt right for the season. They helped set up a heart-felt and very non-materialist, alternative mood for the holidays. One left those works, and those performances of them, awed by beauty and pensive about life.
Obituaries of Frances L. Murphy, publisher emeritus of the longest-running African-American family-owned newspaper in the United States, who died Nov. 21 at 85, have mentioned she earned a journalism degree at UW-Madison in 1944.
Murphy’s grandfather founded the paper, the Afro-American, in Baltimore in 1892; her father later served as publisher, and Frances â?? known as Frankie Lou â?? became publisher in 1971.
In a lengthy interview with the Washington Press Club Foundation in 1992, Murphy provided a sobering account of what it was like to be black in Madison in the early 1940s.
As an international correspondent and photographer, Ruth Gruber witnessed a lot of history. She also created history during heroic adventures as a humanitarian.
….Gruber, 96, will be in Madison Thursday to talk about her latest book, “Witness: One of the Great Correspondents of the Twentieth Century,” during a free public lecture at the UW’s Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St.
Gruber is actually returning to her alma mater this week. She received a master’s degree from UW-Madison in 1931.
The University of Wisconsin football team is graduating more of its black athletes and is in better shape academically than at any point in the past six years.
T
hat is the conclusion of a study released Monday by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, which annually studies the major college football teams that qualify for bowl games.
Wisconsin graduated 52 percent of its black football players who enrolled between 1997 and 2000, the school’s high-water mark since the study originated in the 2002 season, and an improvement from 44 percent last year.
Otis Redding died at a time when many others were dying, both in the U.S. and Vietnam, and his “music gave people a sense of hope,” said UW-Madison Afro-American studies professor Craig Werner.
He and journalist Doug Bradley will be presenting a Redding memorial program called “Echoes From Vietnam: (‘Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay'” on Thursday evening. Werner and Bradley have interviewed hundreds of Vietnam veterans about the era’s music for a collaborative book, “We Gotta Get Out of This Place: Music and the Experience of Vietnam Vets.”
If developers can relocate two century-old homes, a new $24 million, 14-story apartment building could rise next year at the busy corner of West Johnson and Mills streets. Whether they can find appropriate sites for the homes remains to be seen, however.
Aimed at UW-Madison students, professionals and researchers with families, Ten Twenty-Two West Johnson calls for 163 apartments, from efficiency to four-bedroom units. Parking would be provided underground with space for mopeds, bicycles and 161 vehicles.
In the wake of the stunning announcement by University of Wisconsin-Madison professor James Thomson that he and his team had succeeded in reprogramming human skin cells to create new stem cell lines, many people have begun to speculate on the effect that this breakthrough will have on the stem cell debate.
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As the parent of a child with diabetes, it is my hope that Thomson’s breakthrough will allow our nation to move forward with a national policy that increases public funding of all forms of stem cell research. I would like to believe that we will see an end to the contentious debate over this research that has caused years of delay and that too often has left researchers without adequate resources.
I am not optimistic, however.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents will decide Friday on new rules that would require faculty to take sick leave when they are out sick, even if they get other instructors to cover their teaching responsibilities.
MONTCLAIR, N.J. (AP) — It was after 1 a.m. on a Sunday when college freshman Amanda Phillips arrived at the train station. She was nervous about walking alone in the dark to her dorm at Montclair State University.
So Phillips activated a GPS tracking device on her school-issued cell phone that would instantly alert campus police to her whereabouts if she didn’t turn it off in 20 minutes. After a five-minute walk, she safely reached her dorm room, locked the door behind her and turned off the timer.
….Montclair is one of the first schools in the U.S. to use GPS tracking devices, which along with other security technology are increasingly being adopted on campuses in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre last spring.
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Everyone — from students to senators, librarians to teachers — has a role to play in protecting the United States Constitution, particularly during a period when the executive branch of the government has demanded nearly unfettered power as a weapon of choice in the war on terror.
That was the message the dean of the Yale Law School brought to a crowded lecture hall at the University of Wisconsin Law School Friday evening.
WHITEWATER — Only a crisis would keep Andy Wolfe from eating Tuesday lunch at the First United Methodist Church.
And he’s not alone.
Hundreds of UW-Whitewater students begin arriving at the Prairie Street church about 10:45 a.m. Tuesdays for free, home-cooked meals in a warm and caring environment.
The standing invitation to university students has no strings attached.
Madison police are considering a UW-Madison student’s fall off an eighth floor balcony Saturday night as a suicide attempt, according to police spokesman Joel DeSpain.
DeSpain said this morning that the 21-year-old student was being treated in a local hospital for non-life-threatening injuries after he fell six stories from an eighth floor balcony to a second floor roof at the La Ciel Apartments on 515 University Ave. around 10:45 p.m.
UW-Madison placed 10th in a magazine’s ranking for athletics and academics at NCAA Division I universities.
Stack magazine, which provides information for high school athletes, published a list of “Elite 50” colleges this year for the first time. The study looked at a combination of academics, athletic opportunity and overall performance.
Quoted: Norman Fost, founder and director of the medical ethics program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
The Tennessee team set to face the University of Wisconsin in the 2008 Outback Bowl has endured a season that can only be described as tumultuous.
Quoted: Maria Cancian, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Another option the school could consider is to collect a donation and keep the name as is. That’s exactly what the Wisconsin School of Business in Madison did earlier this year.
After unsuccessfully trying to find a donor to attach its name to his school, Dean Michael Knetter instead offered a group of donors the right to put money toward keeping the name unchanged.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A new study says binge drinking among University of Wisconsin System students has declined slightly but remains higher than the national average.
The survey found that 54% of UW students admitted binge drinking at least once in the last two weeks. That’s down from 59% two years ago but above the national average of 44%.
The survey defined binge drinking as consuming 5 or more alcoholic beverages in one sitting.
The study also found a slight decrease in the consequences of drinking among students, such as missing class the next day or driving drunk.
(Same story is posted on WKOW-TV Web site)
MADISON (AP) — Summer break for school children could end earlier under a proposal the state’s tourism industry is lining up to fight.
Innkeepers, restaurant owners and tourism officials lobbied hard to enact a law that took effect in 2000 barring schools from opening any earlier than Sept. 1. The requirement gave families more time in the prime summer months to vacation and spend money. It also allowed high school students to work longer at large tourist destinations, like the Wisconsin Dells.
But freshman Republican Jim Ott of Mequon doesn’t think the law makes sense. There’s already a sign that Ott’s bill, despite garnering nine co-sponsors, likely will go nowhere fast in the Legislature.
The genius of forever-young insouciance staring into his own grave? That’s the monumental paradox emanating from Mozart’s “Requiem.” He died before he could finish the work, which he had promised for another dying man.
The UW Choral Union and Chamber Orchestra and director Beverly Taylor will resurrect this dark transcendence at 8 tonight and Saturday in Mills Hall, 455 Park St. Karol Szymanowski’s “Stabat Mater” also is on the program.
School officials correctly reconsidered their decision to charge a student group an unusually high fee to provide security for the upcoming visit of a controversial speaker.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee administrators said Thursday that they would rescind a security fee imposed on a student group to host a controversial speaker on campus, responding to criticism that the charge was unfairly and prohibitively high.
….While it sounds like a common complaint for singles in any city, those interviewed say there are a number of reasons why meeting a partner in Madison is challenging for those in the post-college, pre-family range. Chief among them is the city’s “brain drain,” when young, qualified workers leave for opportunities elsewhere after graduation.
A year and a half after opening the ambitious Brink Lounge on East Washington Avenue, Curt Brink and his son, Matt, are dedicating themselves to an even bigger project, a $4 million restaurant and entertainment venue called the Field Pass, which they plan to debut in the redeveloped University Square building next summer.
PHOENIX (AP) — Alando Tucker, the 29th overall pick in the first round of the 2007 NBA draft, has been assigned to the Albuquerque Thunderbirds of the NBA Development League by the Phoenix Suns.
Tucker, the Big Ten player of the year last season at Wisconsin, played in two of Phoenix’s first 14 games and averaged six points and eight minutes.
U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has accused her male opponents of “piling on,” but many local women leaders say playing the gender card is no way to get ahead.
In fact, of the dozen leaders in business, academics, law and politics contacted for this story, only one said her career was expressly harmed by sexism. Most said they make it a point to ignore any workplace prejudice that might be directed their way.
Quoted: Christina Ewig, an assistant professor of women’s studies and political science
The invitation for the University of Wisconsin Badgers to play in the Outback Bowl in Tampa on New Year’s Day will bring in big money for the UW-Madison athletic department.
The Outback Bowl generates a payout of $3.1 million, but after $1.6 million in bowl-related expenses for the UW, the university will have to split the remainder equally with the other Big Ten schools. Adding together the allotments (minus expenses) from all seven bowl games that have Big Ten teams, the total is an estimated $1.8 million per university.
Cash bail of $2,100 was set today for Warren G. Whitelightning of Crandon, the man who allegedly led police on a high-speed chase through Madison’s west after stealing a Krispy Kreme Donut truck when he was drunk early Saturday morning.
Whitelightning was officially charged in Dane County Circuit Court today in a criminal complaint alleging several offenses. He is being charged with shoplifting eight giant red hot pickled sausages from the Open Pantry on University Avenue, stealing the doughnut truck, ramming a University of Wisconsin Police car, attempting to elude pursing officers, operating after revocation, his fourth time drunk driving, and a hit and run.
With an invitation to the Outback Bowl in his pocket and his team’s first bowl practice set for Friday, University of Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema believes two things:
First, UW’s 9-3 record and top-20 ranking in every major poll demonstrate the Badgers earned the invitation to play a Southeastern Conference foe on Jan. 1 in Tampa, Fla.
Second, the Badgers should be as close to full strength as possible.
State Sen. Dave Hansen plans to introduce a bill that would extend collective bargaining rights to University of Wisconsin faculty and academic staff and include flexibility that could resolve concerns about a previous plan.
The majority of public- and private-sector employees in Wisconsin have the right to vote on whether they would like to be represented by a union, and the Green Bay Democrat hopes to extend that right to UW faculty — including professors and faculty who are supervisors or managers — and staff who are professional and administrative personnel. Civil service classified staff are already unionized.
Today Gov. Jim Doyle signed legislation that will require insurance providers to continue coverage of dependent college students if they have to leave school on a medical leave of absence.
The requirement includes all health care plans — private policies as well as those offered by the state or other public entities.
Chris Spencer wants to join a women’s basketball program that will allow her to become the best player she can be.
And the third-year sophomore said that would not occur if she stayed at the University of Wisconsin.
UW-Madison law Professor Leonard Kaplan is set to tell his story about the controversy regarding his alleged remarks in a class earlier this year at the Rotary Club of Madison Service Club luncheon at the Inn on the Park on the Capitol Square on Dec. 5.
Only Rotarians and guests may attend the noon event.
The University of Wisconsin football team has accepted a bid to play in the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1 in Tampa, Fla.
Officials from the Outback Bowl extended an invitation to the Badgers on Wednesday after the Capital One Bowl, based in Orlando, released UW from consideration.
After starting the season with a 5-0 mark that vaulted them to the No. 20 ranking, the Badgers were thumped by Duke, 82-58, Tuesday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The outcome should remind everyone that UW is still far from a finished product.
The raises were unanimously approved by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Employment Relations, which also gave about 7,200 University of Wisconsin System professors, teachers and other non-union workers pay increases that will total 5% when phased in by early 2009.
A student group at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that invited a controversial speaker to campus is protesting the school’s demand for extra security fees, saying the university is trying to kill the event and stifle free speech.
Quoted: Joann Peck, professor of marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Forget about crossword puzzles, sudoku, or computer “brain exercise” programs.
If you really want to fend off Alzheimer’s disease as you get older, take up jogging or tennis or bowling. OK, maybe not bowling. But just taking a long, brisk walk three or four times a week will help keep you mentally sharp.
Quoted: UW-Madison professor of neuroscience Ron Kalil
A huge corn harvest in Wisconsin yielded record corn prices for state farmers this year. That’s good news for the farm sector, as Agriculture Secretary Rod Nilsestuen noted in a 2007 Thanksgiving message disseminated around the state. But other reports that also arrived this autumn question the long-term environmental impact of increased corn cropping across the Midwest. Both messages are worth pondering as winter gives the fields a rest.
….The University of Wisconsin this year received a record $125 million grant to build a major cellulosic ethanol research facility. Cellulosic ethanol offers promise for better energy yields and more environmental compatibility. Crops like switchgrass and other native grasses, trees and other woody plants don’t hammer the soil and water as hard as corn or soybeans, another crop often grown for energy.
Dear Editor:
….With the recent discovery by Dr. James Thomson at UW regarding reprogrammed human skin cells acting like embryonic stem cells, the state has at least one more opportunity to take the lead in this innovative industry. Government leaders should invest in stem cell research institutes throughout the state, creating new biotechnology hubs. If this is accomplished, new jobs would be created, and all those students who think about leaving Wisconsin for better opportunities would think twice before exiting.
Dear Editor: First I must thank you for putting the article on the amount of money the University of Wisconsin is making with the Big Ten Network on your front page. I am also glad that state lawmakers started questioning, or we would never have known.
It does not seem fair to the coaches or teams, as there are many former fans who are losing interest in these sports when they can’t be seen on our regular cable TV. And this loss of interest will continue.
(This is the entire letter to the editor.)
Madison fire officials said today that a cigarette was the cause of a Nov. 17 fire that claimed the life of a Plymouth man at an off-campus residence.
Peter J. Talen, 23, was found dead in the living room at 123 N. Bedford St. after passers-by reported the blaze at about 5:35 a.m. In a press release, Madison Fire Department spokeswoman Lori Wirth said a couch on the porch of the nearly 100-year-old home was where the fire likely started. The living room where firefighters found Talen was adjacent to the porch.
Since the Big Ten concluded its regular season — some four or five months ago — there has been some clamoring for a Ron Zook Bowl, matching Zook’s former team (Florida) against his current team (Illinois), presumably in the Capital One Bowl. What’s in your wallet? Or Zook’s?
After a long delay, the state now has a new two-year budget. And, thanks to the tobacco tax bump it contains, it is positioned to forge a healthier Wisconsin.
A $1 increase per pack of cigarettes effective on Jan. 1 will provide just the incentive many smokers need to break a longtime addiction. It’s a great time to quit — for health and for cash saved by the smoker.
Local cops were in hot pursuit of breakfast early Saturday morning as a tipsy thief tried but failed to make off with treats from the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Co.
….When the truck driver noticed his truck of goodies was gone, he phoned police, with University of Wisconsin and city of Madison squads in hot pursuit.
An agreement finalized today requires the University of Wisconsin’s Charter Street heating plant to reduce its coal burning to 85 percent of past levels and eventually be replaced.
In addition, the consent decree reached between the Sierra Club and Department of Administration, which manages the aging Charter Street plant, will be used as a blueprint for reducing sulphur dioxide and mercury emissions not only at the Charter Street and Capitol Heating plants, but at all state-owned coal burning plants around Wisconsin.
It couldn’t have been drawn up much better for the University of Wisconsin volleyball team.
The Badgers learned Sunday night that they were awarded home matches for the first two rounds of the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball championships. And that could clear a path for them to reach the regionals, which they happen to be hosting, too, at the UW Field House.
The television program “Beauty and the Geek” is coming to Madison to find contestants for the fifth season of the reality show.
Representatives of the production will be at the University Book Store on 711 State Street next Saturday, Dec. 1 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. to audition both “geeks” and “beauties,” as the show calls them, in an open casting call.
Since audition signs have been posted, “students have been inquiring quite often, actually,” said Kevin Phelps, vice president of UBS. “It seems like it’s kind of a hot topic down on campus.”
The road to the 2007 NCAA women’s volleyball championships travels through the University of Wisconsin Field House.
Wisconsin, ranked No. 9 in both national polls, on Sunday was awarded a home berth for the first and second rounds of the 64-team tournament.
A new national testing program adopted by the University of Wisconsin System may give parents and students something they have wanted for years: an easier way to compare achievement at UW campuses and to compare UW schools with colleges around the country.
