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3 Teams Report Stem Cell Progress

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Associated Press

By MALCOLM RITTER
AP Science Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — In a leap forward for stem cell research, three independent teams of scientists reported Wednesday that they have produced the equivalent of embryonic stem cells in mice without the controversial destruction of embryos.

They got ordinary skin cells to behave like stem cells. If the same could be done with human cells – a big if – the procedure could lead to breakthrough medical treatments without the contentious ethical and political debates surrounding the use of embryos.

Experts were impressed by the achievement.

Quoted (in 6/6/07 Capital Times): UW-Madison stem cell researcher Clive Svendsen)

Big Ten schools save by cooperating

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Capital Times

The Big Ten is not just a collection of university sports teams.

It’s also the framework for a collaboration of major research universities that share ideas, courses, study-abroad programs and purchasing power.

The Committee on Institutional Cooperation, known as the CIC, is a consortium of 12 universities, including the 11 members of the Big Ten and the University of Chicago.

Mike Lucas: Big Ten recruiting base on a downcycle

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Capital Times

In recognizing the University of Wisconsin football program’s renewed interest in the Fox Valley, stemming from the verbal commitments of Menasha’s Tyler Westphal and Neenah’s Peter Konz, it was noted that the Badgers have had limited success recruiting this area of the state.

Diversity in local law offices problematic

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Capital Times

Click through the Internet profiles of attorneys at Madison law firms and a clear picture emerges: white face after white face fill the rosters.

The scenario is different, but not much, at the Milwaukee offices of those same firms. Local law firms say that in recent years they have actively recruited minority attorneys — in state among graduates of the University of Wisconsin Law School and Marquette University Law School — as well as nationally.

But even as Wisconsin’s top firms woo minority attorneys, they are leaving the firms during the years young attorneys traditionally have been expected to hustle to make partner.

Big finish in the short run

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Thirty meters.

That’s how far Demi Omole had to go to maintain his lead and win the 100-meter dash title at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships a year ago. The University of Wisconsin sprinter got out of the blocks fast and accelerated to the head of the pack, but he couldn’t reach that next gear that would have made him a national champion.

Study nears on future of UW-Waukesha campus

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A new study on higher education needs in Waukesha County has been fully funded and could begin soon.

But whether agreement is possible between those seeking to preserve the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha and those hoping to transform it remains unclear.

Panel bumps up UW funding

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Legislature’s budget committee on Tuesday agreed to give the University of Wisconsin System about $149 million more in tax funds over the next two years – an increase that would likely raise undergraduate tuition this fall by an average of about 5%.

State Budget Director Dave Schmiedicke called the 5% average increase in undergraduate tuition a “best guess,” because final details of the two-year faculty pay raise plan won’t be decided for months. Tuition would rise another 3% in the fall of 2008.

UW System diversity progress is mixed

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Capital Times

The University of Wisconsin System’s Plan 2008 diversity effort, launched in 1998, has brought more students of color into the state’s universities but has failed to keep them there.

A progress report that the UW System Board of Regents will consider Thursday and Friday in Milwaukee shows that minority students increased from 7.5 percent to 9.4 percent of undergraduates during the nine-year period, while graduate and professional students of color increased from 8.9 percent to 9.4 percent.

However, the overall retention gap between students of color and white students increased 2 percentage points to 8.7 percent.

Game day control: Bar must add more deputies on football Saturdays

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Capital Times

In an effort to curb drunken fan behavior, the owners of Jordan’s Big Ten Pub must keep 10 off-duty Dane County Sheriff deputies on the premises to monitor its beer garden on UW home football game days this season.

Under a deal approved by the Plan Commission Monday night, the Big Ten Pub agreed to update its conditional use permit for serving alcohol outdoors on football Saturdays. Rules include hiring three more deputies in addition to the current seven, keeping food available in the beer garden and meeting annually with staff to go over safety concerns.

UW prof: I tried to warn School Board

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Capital Times

As the Madison School Board was meeting Monday night to confirm its decision to name a new elementary school for Gen. Vang Pao, reports were coming in that the Hmong general had been indicted and arrested by federal authorities as the alleged mastermind of a plot to violently overthrow the government of Laos.

The irony was not lost on Alfred McCoy, the J.R.W. Smail Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. McCoy had been fiercely criticized by supporters of the school-naming proposal, including members of the School Board, for loudly challenging the notion that Vang Pao should be honored.

Mike Ivey: Tomo bet pays off big time

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Capital Times

There were plenty of smiling faces around town after Madison-based medical equipment maker TomoTherapy made its initial public stock offering.

Not only was it a home run for the local tech economy, it was a grand slam for those lucky enough to get in on the ground floor.

Among the early investors was UW Board of Regents president and private attorney David Walsh….

PGA Nationwide Tour scouts Madison

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Capital Times

Officials from the PGA Tour will be in Madison next week to look at University Ridge and other area golf courses that potentially could host a Nationwide Tour event here starting in 2008.

“They definitely want to bring the event to Madison,” University Ridge director of golf Mike Urben said.

Urben said the Tour officials plan to visit the Ridge with University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez and associate athletic director John Chadima on June 12.

U of Minn. threatens to end reciprocity deal (AP)

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Capital Times

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The University of Minnesota is ready to end its tuition reciprocity agreement with Wisconsin starting with freshmen who enter in the fall of 2008 unless Wisconsin agrees to restructure the 40-year-old pact, school officials warned Monday.

Tens of thousands of students from both states use the agreement to attend schools in the other state without having to pay higher nonresident tuition rates.

But University of Minnesota officials say that because of the way the agreement is structured and because Minnesota’s tuition increases have exceeded Wisconsin’s over the years, Minnesotans now pay $1,200 to $2,700 more to attend schools in the University of Minnesota system than Wisconsin students do.

Panel supports fixes for affirmative action

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A committee of Wisconsin legislators and citizens formed to review the states affirmative action policies approved at least two reform measures Monday night as members fought viciously over whether race and ethnicity should be considered in government contracting and university admissions.

State Sen. Lena Taylor D-Milwaukee and other supporters of affirmative action accused the committees founder and chairman, state Sen. Glenn Grothman R-West Bend, of trying to ram through proposed legislation that would abolish or scale back affirmative action.

Graduation Webcasts bridge distances (AP)

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….For a growing number of colleges and universities – and even a few high schools – long distances are no longer an obstacle for far-flung friends and relatives who can’t make it to campus. Schools are turning to Internet broadcasts to bridge the distance on graduation day.

Madison rainfall sets record

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Capital Times

A 124-year-old weather record was shattered Sunday in Madison, when an early evening cloudburst on Dane County’s east side dumped three inches of rain at the airport.

The total rainfall Sunday in Madison was 3.06 inches, eclipsing the old record of 2.4 inches for June 3, set in 1883.

….Two UW-Madison buildings had extensive flooding from the Sunday evening storm, but spokesman Dennis Chaptman said neither the Medical Sciences Center or Birge Hall have major damage and will only need water cleanup.

UW rowing teams have good day

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The University of Wisconsin men’s rowing team had a successful day at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships in Pardeeville.

UW’s Davis inducted to wrestling hall

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Barry Davis, a U.S. Olympic silver medalist who’s now the head wrestling coach at Wisconsin, was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla., on Saturday.

Rules for student loans proposed

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The federal Education Department, criticized for lax oversight of student loans, released proposed rules Friday that would set new standards for universities and ban lenders’ marketing practices that have resulted, in some cases, in loan company payoffs to university officials.

Efforts would disregard race

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Affirmative action in the University of Wisconsin System and state contracting would be abolished or significantly scaled back under legislative proposals to be taken up today by a committee of state lawmakers and citizens.

Dave Zweifel: ATC Beltline route full of problems

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Capital Times

American Transmission Co.’s Mark Williamson announced last week that his power line firm rejects the notion that a new east-west transmission line could be built underground along the Beltline.

….Because the UW’s Arboretum stretches along the north side of the Beltline, the overhead route would have to run south of the highway. The amount of room there, especially since reconstruction of the frontage road, is minimal at best. Go look for yourself. It’s easy to see why Department of Transportation staff is deeply concerned….

Larry Shapiro: UW faculty galled by irritants other than low pay

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Capital Times

In Wednesday’s front-page story about the departures of many of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s finest faculty members, relatively small salaries were cited as a main reason. It’s fairly common knowledge that we are paid far less than our colleagues at peer institutions, not to mention at institutions that lack the UW’s prestige.

Less known are other irritations that have many of us thinking of packing our bags. Let me mention one that I find particularly galling: the policy for reimbursement of travel expenses.

Doug Moe: Official bird for Madison?

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Capital Times

OTHER CITIES have claimed the pink flamingo as their own, but Madisonians know the truth.

For many reasons, this city can lay claim as the true spiritual home of the pop culture classic pink plastic flamingo. News this week that the presumed demise of the plastic bird was premature offers city leaders a nice opportunity to seize the moment and name the plastic pink flamingo Madison’s official bird.

UW woos minorities

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Capital Times

The UW-Madison is hosting about 100 talented minority and low-income undergraduate students from around the nation this summer to do graduate-level research with faculty members — in the hope they will decide to continue their education in Madison.

The Summer Research Opportunity Program, partially funded by the National Science Foundation, includes programs in 10 fields, ranging from neurology and biology to engineering and education.

UW riled over move on patents (AP)

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The University of Wisconsin’s research arm challenged the federal government’s rejection of its patents covering human embryonic stem cell research on Thursday, defending researcher Jamie Thomson’s work as a “landmark invention.”

The California-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights and others are challenging patents that covr discoveries by Thomson, who was the first to grow and isolate human embryonic stem cells in 1998.

(Appears in 6/1/07 Capital Times)

Wisconsin Idea in action

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Capital Times

The Wisconsin Idea Seminar was launched 23 years ago by the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a way to introduce new faculty members and academic staff to the state and to the widespread connections between the university and the people of Wisconsin.

The annual five-day traveling seminar emphasizes the “Wisconsin Idea”: that the boundaries of the university are the boundaries of the state.

This year, 33 faculty and staff members, plus several lecturers and trip organizers, traveled by bus from Madison to Baraboo, Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Oneida, Door County, Green Bay and Milwaukee to visit agricultural, educational, ethnic, manufacturing and business sites and talk to the people who work to make them a success.

UW challenges rejection of patents

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

With its patents on the stem cell work of University of Wisconsin-Madison professor James Thomson preliminarily rejected, the foundation that helps shepherd the school’s research discoveries to market fired back Thursday, saying the rejection was wrong on multiple counts.

Wisconsin speller finishes 3rd

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Mentions that Madison’s leading speller was tutored by Jeff Kirsch, a professor of Portuguese and Spanish at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has been working with Isabel Jacobson weekly since last February, for no fee. The story also quotes Kirsch.

UW football: Heralded recruit from Neenah commits

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Capital Times

Peter Konz gave Bret Bielema some news Wednesday morning that caught the University of Wisconsin football coach by surprise.

Konz, a prospect from Neenah who was in town visiting the campus, verbally committed to the Badgers in Bielema’s office, an announcement that even those closest to Konz didn’t know was coming.

ATC says burying lines ‘impractical’

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Capital Times

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz wants an independent study of the feasibility of burying a portion of a controversial power line that could run along the Beltline.

American Transmission Co. on Wednesday announced preliminary results of its study of the issue, calling it “impractical” because part of the line would have to run through city neighborhoods and because of the huge costs of underground vs. overhead lines.

….Opponents of running the line overhead along the Beltline are concerned about impacts on the UW Arboretum, local businesses and neighborhoods. The line also has opposition from those who say it isn’t needed.

UW grad goes ‘Behind the Mask’

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Capital Times

NOBODY REALLY knows how a writer’s mind works, which is likely a good thing, but there came a night some years ago when David Stieve was half-watching one of his favorite horror films, “Halloween,” on television and he had an epiphany. It arrived in the form of a question.

What does Michael Myers, or Freddy Krueger, or any mad movie slasher do on a weekday afternoon?

“It can’t always be a full moon over the lake,” Stieve was saying Wednesday, from a car lodged in traffic on a southern California freeway.

Underground alternative

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The quest to build a major power line across Dane County has shifted into a debate over whether the line should be buried or strung on giant towers above ground.

American Transmission Co. of Pewaukee wants to begin operating the line by 2013 to help the fast-growing Madison area keep up with rising demand for electricity.

Concerns about the line prompted the mayor of Madison, the head of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum and the Public Service Commission to urge that the company study the possibility of burying the line in key stretches.

Posted in Uncategorized

Brainpower called key to prosperity

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Milwaukee region, once known as the “machine shop to the world,” must remake itself as the industrial “design shop of the world” if it is to compete in a landscape transformed by global economic forces, civic leaders said Wednesday in unveiling the Milwaukee 7s strategic economic plan.

The report by the seven-county economic development group said southeastern Wisconsins future hinges on its engineering talent, research-and-development capacity, its universities and its collective impulse to generate products and ideas.

‘Homegrown’ Byce a deserving pick for Madison Sports Hall of Fame

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Capital Times

Shortly after John Byce, 39, learned that he was being inducted into the Madison Sports Hall of Fame — the 2007 class will be recognized during a June 5 banquet — the former Memorial High School and University of Wisconsin hockey forward got on the phone and shared the good news with his old friend and teammate Rob Andringa, 38. “When he called and told me, I literally had goose bumps,” Andringa related, “because he’s so deserving.”

There’s was something else about the Hall of Fame committee recognizing Byce’s accomplishments as a local high school and college athlete that stood out for Andringa. “He’s truly homegrown,” he said.

ATC underground power line plans cut, called “impractical”

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Capital Times

Constructing a portion of a controversial power line underground along the Beltline Highway is “impractical” and will not be recommended, American Transmission Co. said today in announcing results of an undergrounding study.

Running part of the proposed Rockdale-West Middleton line along the Beltline is part of one of three potential routes for the controversial 345-kilovolt line, which ATC says is needed to meet growing electrical demand in the area.

….Part of the problem with undergrounding is that the locations identified as the most feasible include routes off the Beltline on city streets and frontage roads, rather than directly adjacent to the highway, ATC said.

UW’s Tucker turns down pre-draft camp invitation

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

One of the names you won’t find on the National Basketball Association’s pre-draft camp lists is University of Wisconsin forward Alando Tucker.

According to his agent, Tucker was invited to the camp but declined to participate. Tucker plans to work out for individual teams in the time set aside for such tryouts before the June 28 draft.

Ryan named to study panel on academics

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Bo Ryan, men’s basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin, has been named a member of a new NCAA study panel that will develop ways to enhance academic performance and graduation rates in Division I men’s basketball.

Guaranteed funding for college is the future

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Gary Kohlenberg has devised a financing structure and a branding concept that would help Gov. Jim Doyle as he tries to push guaranteed funding for students pursuing higher education through the Legislature.

Doyle’s Wisconsin Covenant has been running into heavy resistance in the Legislature, mainly because its financing has been purposely left unclear.

Providing a package of loans and subsidies for every eighth-grader who signs a pledge to earn a B average and exhibit good behavior in high school makes a lot of sense in a state where only 25% of the population holds a baccalaureate, two points below the national average.

There is almost unanimity that education is the ticket to prosperity in an innovation economy.

UW rowers prevail

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The prestigious Walsh Cup will remain in a trophy case in Madison.

Wisconsin’s sixth-ranked rowing team took home the Walsh Cup for a second consecutive year, defeating No. 16 Navy’s varsity eight on the Severn River in Annapolis, Md., on Sunday.

DNR finds fish virus in Lake Michigan

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Results of the tests on the brown trout were learned Wednesday night. The test was conducted by the University of Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. A backup test has been sent to a federal laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

Panel doesn’t endorse dorm, union projects

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Story mentions that the Legislature’s Joint Fince Committee refused to endorse other projects: building new dorms at six UW campuses; building or expanding student centers at UW-Madison and UW-Eau Claire; and providing $500,000 toward a planned Civil War museum in Kenosha.

Man is shot dead on State St. in Madison

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A Minnesota man was shot and killed after a fight on State St. in Madison, police said Wednesday.

Austin David Bodahl, 23, of Waconia, Minn., was shot in the 600 block of State St. about 11:54 p.m. Tuesday, according to a Madison Police Department news release and the Dane County coroners office.

UW day job feeds mystery author’s creativity

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Capital Times

Breathe easily, residents of small-town Wisconsin. Marshall Cook is outsourcing his mayhem to Iowa this time around.

Cook is the UW-Madison professor and mystery author who has turned the fictional town of Mitchell, Wis., into a hotbed of larceny and homicide in his last two books, “Murder Over Easy” and “Murder at Midnight.” Both books were based on actual murders; “Midnight” was a fictionalized take on the notorious unsolved 1998 murder of Dane priest Rev. Alfred Kunz.

For his follow-up, “Twin Killing,” Cook decided to send his sleuth, community newspaper editor Monona Quinn, out of state rather than make Mitchell as deadly as the little seaside community on “Murder, She Wrote.”

Man shot, killed during fight on State Street

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Capital Times

Madison police have a 31-year-old man in custody for the shooting death of another man late Tuesday night on the 600 block of State Street near the City Bar.

The victim, a 23-year-old man, was pronounced dead early this morning at UW Hospital. Police are not releasing his name until family members are contacted.

It is the second homicide this year in the city of Madison.

Mike Lucas: Extra football game puts Big Ten in quandary

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Capital Times

The Big Ten/ACC Challenge has not exactly been a competitive success, not from the Big Ten’s viewpoint. Since 1999, when the format was developed to create fan-friendly television matchups by highlighting men’s basketball teams from the respective conferences, the ACC has posted a 48-27 record, including an 8-3 mark last season.

Nonetheless, the partnership of these two high-profile leagues has been a financial success, while annually delivering a quality opponent on the schedule. Could this concept now expand to Big Ten football?

Possibly, according to University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez. Last week, the Big Ten’s football coaches and ADs got together in Chicago and discussed a variety of hot-button topics, not the least of which was potentially expanding the conference schedule from eight games to nine.

Editorial: Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch – Local, Healthy Food For Schools

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WISC-TV 3

The Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch program is yet another example of the Wisconsin Idea at its finest: the research and educational power of the University extending into the community in ways that benefit the lives of Wisconsin residents. But this particular partnership between the U-W Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, and the Madison non-profit organization REAP, is especially significant for two reasons. First, it is a model of a sustainable, clean and fair food system. And second, it is an effective response to the pervasive poverty in many of our public schools.

MU’s Ellis, UW’s Anderson closer to USA

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Marquette University’s Krystal Ellis and the University of Wisconsin’s Jolene Anderson each moved a step closer to being named to two separate USA Basketball teams over the weekend in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Daniel Golden: End military flyovers at Badger games

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Capital Times

Dear Editor: An all too frequent component of Badger football games has become a flyover of military jets at low altitude. The UW regents should outlaw this practice for two reasons:

First, it represents a tragedy waiting to happen, with the potential for thousands of deaths. Recently the 26th Blue Angel to perish in a similar setting illustrated the inherent risks in military hardware near civilian areas.

Second, and more insidious, it is a jingoistic commingling of the military-industrial complex with athletic-regional pride.

Anderson a finalist for U.S. team

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Capital Times

Jolene Anderson expects to spend her third summer competing at an international level.

The senior-to-be with the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team was selected as a finalist Sunday for the U21 World Championship team that will take part in the World Championships June 29 to July 8 in Moscow. The current 14-member roster will be trimmed to 12 players after practice resumes June 12 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Wiley relishing sunset years of UW career

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Capital Times

A legendary figure in higher education. A lightning rod for criticism. A prolific fundraiser. A former engineering professor whose patents have generated millions.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley’s career at the university has spanned four decades, from a graduate student in the 1960s to an engineering professor in the 1970s and ’80s and an administrator since then.

Turning back brain’s clock?

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Sleep remains one of the brain’s biggest mysteries. No one really knows exactly why we need it.

But in an unusual experiment, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison were able to induce what appears to be deep sleep by sending bursts of magnetic energy through the skulls and into the brains of napping volunteers.

Sweet way to heal examined

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jennifer Eddy vividly remembers the 79-year-old old man with foot ulcers so severely infected that his dried and deteriorated skin caused the loss of two toes.

Two surgeons urged amputation of the man’s lower legs to save his life, but the man opted to go home, and he then lost a third toe. Eddy, a family physician taught to never give up on a patient, approached the man with an idea she’d first heard about during medical school.

She told him that honey had been used since the early days to treat wounds and asked if he’d be willing to try it. The man agreed and placed a thick application of honey he’d purchased at a supermarket on his sore each day.

Within three weeks, Eddy says, the man’s foot began creating nice, healthy tissue. It took about a year for the ulcer to clear up.

UW, town in tiff over lab turf

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin is in the running to land the nations new high-security lab that will study foot-and-mouth disease, bird flu and other deadly animal illnesses.

The $450 million lab is projected to employ at least 300 people and generate more short-term jobs to build it. The National Bio- and Agro-Defense Lab would dovetail with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s expertise in animal and human health studies and help serve the states agricultural industry, supporters say.

But there’s a snag with the labs proposed location.

UW student contest advances biomedicine

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Capital Times

The inaugural Tong Biomedical Engineering Design Award competition for students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison yielded devices designed for the use of radiologists, audiologists and those treating sports-related injuries.

All of the devices were designed by UW-Madison biomedical engineering students. The competition earlier this month at UW-Madison involved nearly 150 biomedical engineering students. First-place awards were given to teams from the sophomore, junior and senior classes.