There are many things you can get away with at the venerable old Rathskellar in the Memorial Union on the University of Wisconsin campus, but peeing on the bar is not one of them.
Strange but true: Tales from the police beat
Capital Times
Author: jnweaver
UW men’s hockey: Sioux skater must apologize for slashing Bucky Badger
Capital Times
Bucky Badger took a tap on the shins from a North Dakota hockey player on Saturday â?? and now the University of Wisconsin mascot will receive an apology.
WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod said Sioux defenseman Joe Finley was captured on videotape slashing Bucky Badger â?? played by UW student David Blanchard â?? before Saturday’s game, which North Dakota won 3-1.
Finley must write a letter of apology to Blanchard, McLeod said.
A happy BTN ending
Capital Times
All is well at Creekwood Assisted Living in Waunakee.
About two months of going without the Big Ten Network due to a customer service snafu by DISH Network has ended with DISH agreeing to provide BTN to the 20-resident facility for free.
Creekwood director Judy Goldade said she was told BTN will be available to Creekwood by the weekend, which is important with the University of Wisconsin football game against Minnesota on BTN at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Badger basketball games against Savannah State, Florida A&M and Colorado airing on BTN on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, respectively.
“The residents will be ecstatic,” Goldade said today.
Women’s basketball: Tennessee unanimous No. 1; Wisconsin back in poll (AP)
Capital Times
Tennessee is still the unanimous No. 1 and Wisconsin’s back in the Top 25 for the first time in five years.
…”It’s an awesome thing for us to reach the Top 25,” Wisconsin coach Lisa Stone said. “It’s an early ranking, but it demonstrates the fact that we’re headed in the right direction.”
…Texas, Louisville, Notre Dame, DePaul and Wisconsin held the final five spots.
New firms look to get launched
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Twenty-one companies that will pitch their stories to investors from at least three states Wednesday at the Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium in Madison’s Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center.
UW in bowl mix
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
With the University of Wisconsins regular-season football finale less than a week away, this much is known about UWs bowl prospects:
A victory over Big Ten rival Minnesota on Saturday would keep UW in the running for a spot in the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1 in Tampa, Fla.
Sarah Davis: Evjue grant helps make health film for Hmong
Capital Times
Dear Editor: The Center for Patient Partnerships and Freedom Inc. Hmong Resource Center would like to thank The Evjue Foundation for funding the creation of a short film, “Body and Spirit: Healing Your Way.”
Produced in the Hmong language with English subtitles, and featuring Hmong Americans from a variety of backgrounds — shaman, nurse, patient and elder — this DVD seeks to improve the health care experience for Hmong families.
Carroll Street apartment fire under investigation
Capital Times
Fire investigators have returned to the scene of an apartment fire downtown, still trying to determine the cause of the blaze that forced about 30 UW students to seek other accomodations since early Saturday morning.
The blaze at 505 N. Carroll Street caused about $206,000 in damages. Thirteen Madison Fire Department units responded to the two-alarm blaze, which started in a sixth-floor apartment of the seven-story building.
State biotech execs: full speed ahead
Capital Times
Wisconsin’s biotech executives are more bullish on their own companies than on the state’s overall biotech economy, according to a new quarterly survey from the Wisconsin Biotechnology and Medical Device Association and the state Department of Commerce.
More than 70 percent of the executives who responded to the inaugural Wisconsin BioIndustry Outlook survey rated the current condition of the state’s biotech and medical device industry as excellent or good, and they were almost evenly split on whether the state of the industry would get better or stay the same during the next 12 months.
Micro massive: Microbial Sciences UW’s largest academic building
Capital Times
By John Oncken
Research is front and center at UW-Madison’s new Microbial Sciences Building.
The first floor Microbe Place allows visitors to see exhibits showcasing research in progress. There are dozens of laboratories to serve researchers and students. And there’s an overnight area equipped with cots and showers that provides a home away from home for researchers during lengthy experiments.
The $121 million building on the west end of campus is huge — 330,000 square feet — and is the largest academic building on campus. The only larger building is the Kohl Center.
UW women’s basketball: Nonconference schedule lacks elite foes
Capital Times
Lisa Stone intended to put a couple of strong opponents on the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team’s nonconference slate for the 2007-08 season, and said last December that “people will have smiles on their faces when they see the schedule.”
As Wisconsin opens the nonconference portion of its schedule tonight at Cleveland State, there are relatively few major challenges ahead for the Badgers.
Sally Dreher: UW shafts fans like politicians do the public
Capital Times
Dear Editor: Talk about being two-faced! The UW will still let Charter advertise at the stadium, Kohl Center, etc., and yet what Charter is doing to the fans by not televising many of the games is terrible, but the UW really doesn’t care. The bottom line is money, and how sad.
I would hope John Wiley, Barry Alvarez and Vince Sweeney would consider the fans, but I am sure they won’t. They are just like our politicians. They really don’t care about their fans. It is all money.
Sally Dreher, Madison
Fox Valley exec picked as state commerce head
Capital Times
Gov. Jim Doyle today named Jack L. Fischer, the CEO of a family-run Fox Valley real estate development firm, as the new state secretary of commerce.
Fischer succeeds Mary Burke, the former CEO of Trek Bicycles. He will begin his new job on Nov. 26; the appointment must be confirmed by the state Senate.
State Senate OKs cable bill: Nine Democrats vote with GOP
Capital Times
A split Democratic caucus failed to muster enough votes to pass major protections sought by consumer advocates in a controversial AT&T-backed cable deregulation bill.
The bill easily passed the state Senate 23-9 after five hours of debate Thursday.
Campus silent on UW investments
Capital Times
For the first time in memory, no University of Wisconsin students, staff or faculty showed up at a trust funds investment forum conducted yearly by a Board of Regents committee.
The committee seeks comment on socially responsible issues such as protecting the environment or opposing discrimination, to help guide investment decisions.
“Two years ago, the room was full,” Tom Reinders, portfolio analyst for the investment funds, said at the unattended event Thursday.
Camp Cacophony
Capital Times
It never fails.
Whenever a team has an opportunity to thank its fans, everyone from the head coach to the last scrub off the bench crows about how their supporters are the greatest in the world.
Such superlatives have been bestowed upon the sea of red that frequents Camp Randall Stadium on fall football Saturdays, especially after the Badgers started regularly giving their faithful something to cheer about again in the early 1990s.
But how do you measure the caliber of a crowd?
UW’s Hill to sit again
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
University of Wisconsin tailback P.J. Hill, who sat out the loss at Ohio State because of a bruised left leg, is not expected to play Saturday when UW faces No. 13 Michigan.
Strickland gives to help friend gain
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Long-snapper Steve Johnson, a fellow fifth-year senior who teamed with Ben Strickland at Brookfield Central High School before coming to UW in 2003, will remember his longtime friend for another contribution.
Strickland, a team captain, gave up his scholarship this year for Johnson.
Carroll weighs crime solutions
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Neighbors and students of Carroll College called for improved street lighting and other safety measures Thursday after a recent spate of criminal activity in the area.
Cable carriers see drop in users
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications, two major cable carriers in Wisconsin, are reporting they have lost thousands of cable subscribers, a development some tie to consumers upset that they cant get the Big Ten Network and the NFL Network.
Japanese prints simply beautiful
Capital Times
Many things distinguish Madison, but one of the least known ones is the impressive collection of some 4,000 Japanese woodblock prints in the Van Vleck Collection of the University of Wisconsin’s Chazen Museum of Art.
You can see a major and large new exhibition of these prints in two galleries. About 130 prints are in the show “Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School” and about 210 are featured in the impressively illustrated catalog. Both offer some eye-catching art.
Kid contemplatives: UW neuroscientist’s project aims to give middle-schoolers tools of ‘mindfulness’ and meditation
Capital Times
If gym class helps children tone the body, what helps them exercise the mind?
Homework and tests are logical answers, if proof of success is a higher GPA. But when the goal is to produce a more emotionally sturdy and thoughtful person, researchers suggest the ability to be still and contemplate is what can make a positive difference.
In 2008, local middle school students will among those who participate in a national pilot project that studies the effects of contemplation in the classroom, says Richard Davidson, a University of Wisconsin researcher/neuroscientist.
Also quoted: Former UW-Madison researcher John Dunne of Atlanta’s Emory University,
UW football: Getting number retired ‘amazing’ to Dayne
Capital Times
When Ron Dayne was first told his number would be retired by the University of Wisconsin this weekend, he thought it was some kind of joke.
“I kind of knew that my jersey was already retired,” Dayne said in a teleconference Wednesday. “So at first I was like, ‘Yeah, OK, whatever. It’s already retired. Don’t nobody wear it and it’s been up in the stadium.'”
What’s next for Josie’s site?
Capital Times
After standing unused for years, the site of Josie’s Spaghetti House has been sold and is poised for redevelopment, but it’s still unclear what will end up on the well-trafficked corner.
Real estate developer Tom Degen bought five parcels of land, including the two sites where Josie’s sits (the parking lot and the restaurant at 906 Regent St.), for $2 million in June, according to public records. The three additional sites are homes on College Court, and are adjacent to the Josie’s properties.
2 UW unions net tentative pacts
Capital Times
Negotiators for the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics have reached tentative agreements with two unions.
Members of the Wisconsin Professional Employees Council and the Wisconsin Science Professionals are expected to vote on the agreements in late November or early December.
The hospital’s unit of the Professional Employees Council, which includes 60 information technology workers, will receive a 4 percent across-the-board increase effective in January 2008, another in January 2009 and another in 2010. Insurance rate increases were also limited.
UW 2nd in science, engineering funds
Capital Times
The UW-Madison now ranks second among all 600 research universities in the United States for the dollar amount of science and engineering research conducted annually.
With research expenditures in those fields totaling $832 million for the 2006 fiscal year, the University of Wisconsin moved up from third to second, according to statistics published by the National Science Foundation.
UW-Madison was second only to Johns Hopkins University.
UW coal goal: Comply with Clean Air Act
Capital Times
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will work with the University of Wisconsin on ways to get the university to clean up a 48-year-old coal-fired Charter Street power plant that’s been ruled noncompliant.
Lloyd Eagan, DNR South Central Region director, said today the goal is to bring the facility back into compliance with federal clean air laws.
“We need to sit down with the UW and work through the things they’ve looked at, to see what’s practical for their situation,” Eagan said. “There’s a whole range of options to consider.”
Doug Moe: Bakken’s record disappears through uprights
Capital Times
JIM BAKKEN had to admit that he had never heard of Rob Bironas, the Tennessee Titan placekicker who last month broke an NFL record that Bakken had held for 40 years.
It was left to Bakken’s 11-year-old grandson to set him straight.
Outdoors: Givnish believes much more must be done to stop spread of CWD
Capital Times
Tom Givnish, a University of Wisconsin professor of botany, has strong feelings about deer and chronic wasting disease.
It is not surprising that he serves on the CWD Stakeholder Advisory Committee that will advise the state Department of Natural Resources on changes it should make in the DNR management program.
UW women’s basketball: Like Badgers, Anderson gaining national recognition
Capital Times
Jolene Anderson has played with some of the top women’s basketball players in the nation, and the University of Wisconsin senior guard is now being mentioned in the same breath as those standouts.
Anderson did not make The Associated Press’ preseason All-American team, which was released Tuesday afternoon, but was one of 15 players to receive votes.
UW websites to help students compare schools
Capital Times
The University of Wisconsin System will be part of a new national program in which universities provide standardized information in the same format so prospective students and their parents can compare institutions.
Though the UW System has been providing much of the information online for years, this new format will for the first time include test results that show how much students learn during their time at the universities.
The tests will compare randomly selected freshmen with randomly selected seniors to measure gains in critical thinking and written communication across all academic disciplines.
Mike Ivey: Work can be deadly, especially on the road
Capital Times
The most dangerous place on the job is no longer the factory floor. It’s the highway.
Great strides have been made in workplace safety over the past decades, thanks to modern equipment, protective gear and ongoing inspections by government regulators….
ELECTRIC SLED: As a cross country skier, I’ve never had a problem with snowmobiles. At least both require snow.
But here’s one answer to the noise, smoke and pollution problems: electric snowmobiles.
A team of UW-Madison mechanical engineers has now developed an earth-friendly snowmobile that could facilitate scientific research in Antarctica and Greenland.
Elections chief to front reform board
Capital Times
A new nonpartisan board created to restore public confidence in government chose to fill its top staff position with the current head of an agency that will be eliminated under the reorganization.
Kevin Kennedy, director of the state Elections Board, was chosen Monday to serve as the new Government Accountability Board’s legal director. As such, Kennedy will be the top staff member overseeing the agency that is replacing the Elections and Ethics boards.
The Legislature created the new nonpartisan board of six retired judges to investigate public corruption and enforce laws involving campaign finance, elections, ethics and lobbying.
Hillel plan moves forward
Capital Times
Under threat of a lawsuit from its adjacent neighbor, the UW Hillel Foundation is moving forward with plans to triple the size of its student center at 611 Langdon St.
The Jewish student organization, which traces its Madison roots to the 1920s and is the second oldest operating Hillel in the world, wants to demolish its existing 12,000 square-foot building and replace it with a four-story, 40,000 square-foot facility.
Those plans have run into opposition, however, from the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based owners of the seven-story Campus Inn hotel next door at 601 Landgon St.
Center of attention: UW’s Fluno Center gains international acclaim for food, accommodations
Capital Times
On the menu: butternut squash bisque, with root vegetable chips. Roasted beet and apple salad, with chevre and walnut vinaigrette. Toasted pumpkin-gorgonzola ravioli, with pipian pesto.
The diners were about 130 women business executives, who had gathered for leadership education and inspiration.
The setting was downtown Madison, at a place that has earned global acclaim but is relatively unknown locally.
Ed Huck: Frankenstein budget means Frankenstein veto
Capital Times
It takes extreme circumstances for me to support the so-called Frankenstein veto. But I’ve seen one too many Frankenstein budgets passed by the Legislature not to gain an appreciation for a little artful reassembly of a state budget.
Let’s perform an autopsy on the latest budget. Gosh, it looks like the transplant surgeons in the Legislature assembled it willy-nilly from a really odd assortment of body parts.
Circuit Court Judge Bartell to retire
Capital Times
Dane County Circuit Court Judge Angela Bartell, the longest tenured judge currently serving in Dane County, will end her career in February after 30 years on the bench, she said in a letter to Gov. James E. Doyle Monday.
Bartell became the second woman judge in Dane County on Jan. 3, 1978, when she was appointed as a county judge under the old judicial system, replacing Judge William Eich, who was in turn replacing the retiring William Sachtjen as a circuit court judge. The next year Wisconsin adopted a restructured court system and all county judges were made circuit judges.
Landry starting to feel at home with the Badgers
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Marcus Landry hears the cheers every night.
When the University of Wisconsin junior rides his moped to his patio door, 2-year-old Marcus Jr. drops whatever he is doing, runs to the window and excitedly pulls the blinds open as far as they go. Inside, 1-year-old Moriah waits and once she spots Landry starts yelling from sheer joy.
Daddy’s home!
Bielema has backup plan
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
It remains unclear whether tailback P.J. Hill, who sat out the loss to Ohio State last week because of a bruised left leg, will be healthy enough to play Saturday when UW (7-3, 3-3) tries to upset No. 13 Michigan (8-2, 6-0).
Rob Zaleski: Cancer at bay, UW team doc makes the run
Capital Times
At 11 this morning, the 39-year-old orthopedic surgeon — one of two physicians who travel with the University of Wisconsin-Madison football team — will be on the sidelines at Ohio Stadium for the Badgers’ much-anticipated showdown with unbeaten Ohio State.
And Sunday morning, he will be among some 38,000 runners competing in the New York City Marathon.
….He’s also using the race to raise money for the UW’s Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center and had already exceeded his goal of $26,200 — or $1,000 per mile — by last week.
Doug Moe: To see the Badgers, it’s hello, DirecTV, and goodbye Charter
Capital Times
I ASKED the woman who took my DirecTV order Friday if they have been getting a lot of calls from Wisconsin.
She actually laughed. “Wisconsin and Michigan,” she said. “We are being bombarded.”
Yeah, I caved. I’m still not really sure how I feel about it, but I did it. I know how my 16-year-old son feels about it, which is most of why I did it. The installers are coming Wednesday.
Errors have high opportunity cost
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Two days before his football team took the field against top-ranked Ohio State, University of Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema outlined his formula for victory.
In short, he believed the Badgers had to capitalize on every opportunity to make a play and avoid providing Ohio State with any extra scoring opportunities through turnovers.
UW failed in both areas and the result was a blown chance to stun the No. 1 team in the nation and remain in the Big Ten Conference title race.
Few minority faculty at UW, study finds
Capital Times
A comprehensive national survey found that the UW-Madison and other top research universities had extremely small numbers of under-represented minority faculty members in 2007.
Under-represented faculty were defined as blacks, Hispanics and American Indians, who made up 28.7 percent of the United States in 2006 and are gaining an increasing number of Ph.D. degrees. Asians, who made up an estimated 4 percent of the population, are not categorized as under-represented.
Like the other top 100 research universities studied, the University of Wisconsin-Madison had very few black or Hispanic faculty, and just one American Indian faculty member was listed among UW faculty in the 15 science and engineering disciplines studied.
Maternity leave offered to UW-Madison chem researchers
Capital Times
The UW-Madison chemistry department is now providing a paid maternity leave for research assistants as a way of ensuring that more women advance to faculty status.
The policy was proposed last year when the 40-member faculty — which includes four women — voted to approve the idea of a 12-week maternity leave with pay, but the proposal became snagged in the legal department.
Jesse Miller charged with escape and lying to police
Capital Times
The man who allegedly brought the University of Wisconsin to a near standstill with a series of threatening telephone calls in September made a brief court appearance Friday on charges of escaping a work-release jail and lying to police during a telephone call from San Diego.
Those charges against Jesse Miller, currently held in the Dane County Jail, do not address the series of threats made to the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Sept. 25, in a series of phone calls. Assistant District Attorney Michael Verveer said Friday the UW Police Department has not yet turned over police reports of the incident to the District Attorney’s Office.
Planet Earth slates a weekend of films
Capital Times
The Tales From Planet Earth Film Festival starts today at the Orpheum Theatre and runs through Sunday at several locations in downtown Madison, including the UW-Cinematheque screening room and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
All films are free and open to the public, and most will feature a post-show question-and-answer session.
Mertz: Will BTN lead to Big Ten expansion?
Capital Times
Jay Wilson is one of the most popular broadcasters of all time in Madison, a product of his talent, charm and omnipresence while serving more than a quarter-century in the sports department of the local ABC affiliate.
And yet, when he innocently (and probably sheepishly) answered a question from the audience about his current source of employment at a recent event he emceed, Wilson was greeted with a chorus of playful (we hope) boos.
Wilson, you see, has been doing some play-by-play for the Big Ten Network. And these days, you might as well tell people you work for the IRS or Halliburton.
UW sees red on Ebola lab: Research halted here, but goes on elsewhere
Capital Times
After telling the University of Wisconsin to halt research on the deadly Ebola virus because the university’s lab didn’t meet safety standards, the federal government has continued its own research on the virus in a lab with an even lower safety standard.
….”It’s an uneven playing field,” said Janet Klein, UW’s biological safety officer. She said the university is considering appealing the NIH decision.
Score one for little guys: Mount Horeb cable firm includes Big Ten Network
Capital Times
Doug Welshinger was sitting at home last Saturday flipping through his TV channels when he stumbled upon the Wisconsin-Indiana football game.
“I was thinking I was watching ESPN, and I just suddenly noticed that this was the Big Ten Network,” said Welshinger, who owns the Grumpy Troll Brewpub in Mount Horeb. “So I called down to the (Grumpy Troll) and our assistant manager said someone already came in and told us we had it and we had a small crowd watching.”
Quoted: UW-Madison professor of telecommunications Barry Orton
UW-Madison grads team up for business school
Chicago Tribune
Thirteen University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business alumni have anted up a combined $85 million for “unnaming” rights to the school.
State graduations top national rates
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
New NCAA data released Thursday indicate that 76% of the athletes at Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin who began college as freshmen in 2000 graduated within six years.
Donation to fund college program
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A nonprofit Madison group has pledged $40 million to help fund the Wisconsin Covenant, an initiative that promises eighth-graders who do well in school a spot in college and financial help.
Miller named new co-chair of powerful budget-writing committee (AP)
Capital Times
Senator Mark Miller of Monona is the new co-chair of the Legislature’s powerful budget-writing committee.
Miller takes over for Senator Russ Decker of Weston who was elected as the new Senate Majority Leader last week.
The person Decker ousted in a vote taken a day after the budget passed is joining the Joint Finance Committee.
UW men’s basketball: Flowers returns after two-week leave
Capital Times
Michael Flowers returned to the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team with as little fanfare as when he left it.
The Badgers’ senior guard was back at practice Wednesday afternoon at the Kohl Center two weeks after the team sent out a brief announcement that said Flowers was taking a temporary leave of absence for medical reasons.
Tip for the tipsy: Call Bender Defenders for a ride home
Capital Times
Drinkers in Madison have a new best friend in Bender Defenders, a service that will drive you home in your own car when you have had too much to drink.
Bender Defenders, modeled after a similar business in London, hit the streets on folding motor scooters on Sept. 8. Rather than taking a cab home and retrieving their car in the morning, customers call Bender Defenders, and a driver arrives wearing a tuxedo T-shirt and riding a folding motorbike. The driver then collapses the scooter and puts it into the customer’s trunk or back seat before driving them home.
Once the customer is home, the driver will get back on his motorbike and ride to the next destination.
Doug Moe: Kirk Douglas’ mark on Hollywood is UW site’s headliner
Capital Times
….You can discover a lot of the backstory of “Seven Days In May” on a Web site — www.wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu — that debuted this week. It’s the new site of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, and they have rolled it out with a bang, unveiling the “Kirk Douglas Collection,” an astonishing online array of letters, photos and other documents from Douglas’s historic show business career.
UW plays with the big boys
Capital Times
While the University of Wisconsin doesn’t quite rival Ohio State in athletic department spending, it’s among the top half of the Big Ten.
All NCAA schools are now required to report their financial information to the U.S. Department of Education. Each school has its own internal formula for calculating its athletic department budget, however. That can include additional monies from campus support or other funding sources.
UW officials report the 2006-2007 Athletic Department budget at $82.6 million.
$40M fund aids Doyle’s Covenant plan
Capital Times
Gov. Jim Doyle today announced the creation of a $40 million endowment to help fund his Wisconsin Covenant plan, which will guarantee financial aid for college-bound high school students.
During an event in Milwaukee, Doyle said the program will begin with a contribution from the Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corp., which he said will be used to challenge other businesses to contribute to the covenant program and provide grants to students.
Doyle also announced the creation of a new Wisconsin Covenant Foundation, a private, nonprofit and tax-exempt charity that will raise and distribute money for the program.
More bad news about cable TV: Prices to go up
Capital Times
With many of its local subscribers already angry because it has been unable to reach deals to carry the Big Ten Network or NFL Network, Charter Communications this week sent letters to them announcing cable TV price increases that take effect Dec. 1.
UW has tough nut to crack
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Tyler Donovan appreciates both the magnitude of the task facing the University of Wisconsin offense this week in Ohio Stadium and the potential reward.
“It is going to be the ultimate challenge for us so far this season,” UW’s senior quarterback said.