In a place where poverty rules and jobs lack, the College of Menominee Nation has taken root, offering hope and preserving tradition.
Learning as lifeline
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Author: jnweaver
UW event will honor Graaskamp legacy
Capital Times
James A. Graaskamp, the late and legendary UW-Madison real estate professor, will be honored April 25-26 when the UW-Madison Center for Real Estate is renamed in his memory.
Since 2005, almost 600 alumni and friends generated nearly $11 million in donations for the Center and its renaming. The support provides the critical resources to allow the Wisconsin Real Estate Program to remain competitive and to carry on the legacy of Jim Graaskamp, the UW said in a news release.
Turntable artist is a unique opener for Kohl Center show
Capital Times
Mike Relm knows he has an awesome responsibility on his shoulders when he steps onstage Tuesday night at the Kohl Center to open for the Blue Man Group.
For many of those in the audience, this will be their first time seeing a DJ perform live, apart from the ones who take requests for the “Electric Slide” at weddings.
iPod Nation
Capital Times
The recent spate of legal threats from the music industry against the UW campus community apparently has convinced few students to change their file swapping habit, but they’re also using a slew of other tools to find new music.
A stroll down State Street is all one needs to see the pervasiveness of the digital music culture: white wires disappear into students’ ears, an Apple iPod loaded with hundreds, even thousands, of songs on the other end — some tracks likely acquired illegally.
Stem cell bill has UW support
Capital Times
WASHINGTON — University of Wisconsin scientists are strongly backing a measure set for Senate debate next week that would override President Bush’s restrictions on stem cell research funding.
It would allow researchers to use embryos that would otherwise be discarded from fertility clinics.
“We feel that (the bill) will open up new avenues of this research,” said Andy Cohn, spokesman for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Research grants drop
Capital Times
For the first time in nine years, fewer than one-half of all UW faculty have obtained new research awards to do their work, and the average award total has decreased 25 percent.
A passion for science: Three profiles of people devoted to research
Capital Times
Work as a scientific researcher means living a life that is full of questions, and being spurred by discoveries that reveal themselves in small increments.
The adventure is about knowing when to change directions, because the plotted route will be full of surprises and often in need of revisions. The reward is finding an answer to something that no one else knows, and being able to prove it, perhaps after years of experiments in uncharted territory.
Study finds flu’s drug resistance rising
Capital Times
Flu viruses with reduced sensitivity to drugs intended to prevent or limit infection have been found in patients not previously treated with these drugs, according to an international research team led by a UW-Madison researcher.
The emergence of drug-resistant influenza spreading by human-to-human contact was documented in a study of Japanese patients. University of Wisconsin virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka was the lead author of a report on the findings in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
Doyle touts biofuels, renewables
Capital Times
Vowing the Midwest can become “the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy — with Wisconsin at the forefront,” Gov. Jim Doyle today unveiled the new Office of Energy Independence and gave support to a regional renewable energy credit trading system.
“If an oil field in Iran has to compete against a farm field in Wisconsin, that’s a very good thing for the environment, for our economy and for the world,” said Doyle in remarks prepared for an event today on the UW-Madison campus.
Bill Berry: State sets example with at-risk species
Capital Times
Aldo Leopold and his buddies would have enjoyed the moment. There I was, napping on a bench made of stone in the University of Wisconsin Arboretum when the pterodactyls approached. They surrounded me, but feigned disinterest and instead plucked last year’s crabapples from the Arboretum’s vast selection.
Was this a dream? No, it was turkeys, and how pleased the lovers of diversity who created the Arboretum would have been to see these giant birds enjoying a late afternoon fruit snack.
TV news: Wilson, ready to be a ‘regular’ dad, leaving WKOW
Capital Times
There’s a basketball hoop in the backyard of Jay Wilson’s Middleton home, one that sits idle more often than the WKOW/Ch. 27 sports director would like. Some days, Wilson is able to steal a few moments between newscasts to shoot around a little with one of his three children.
Those days just don’t come around enough.
Koua Xiong: Professor innocent until proven guilty
Capital Times
Dear Editor: As a Hmong man, I do not feel that law Professor Leonard Kaplan said anything that is “hateful.” I think what he said might have been misinterpreted by the students in his classroom.
There are times when people take what is said and hear what they think is being said. I truly think that if statements of this magnitude were made in the classroom, the students should have addressed the issue with Professor Kaplan in the classroom. The class should have asked for clarification of what he meant by what he said there and then.
Charles W. Sorensen: UW-Stout models how campuses must focus
Capital Times
Wisconsin’s economic strength relies heavily on its educational foundation, and we are fortunate to have an extremely strong system of higher education, one that must be preserved and supported.
….Just as in the private sector, we must brand our uniqueness; we must characterize our programs and campuses so our students, parents, stakeholders and employers understand the value added that we provide.
Longtime judge DeChambeau to step down June 1
After more than four decades of public service, nearly all of it in Dane County, longtime Dane County Circuit Judge Robert DeChambeau has decided to retire.
“I have mixed feelings about retiring, but it’s time,” said DeChambeau, 68. He notified Gov. Jim Doyle last week that he will step down as a full-time judge on June 1.
Doug Moe: Hoffman film takes bizarre twist
Capital Times
Given how strange the Barbara Hoffman murder case was in real life, it’s fitting that the movie version of the case should have its share of strangeness as well.
According to a story this week in the New York Post, strangeness recently invaded the Schenectady, N.Y., set of the filming of Madison author Karl Harter’s 1990 book on the Hoffman case, “Winter of Frozen Dreams.”
….THE LOS ANGELES Times on Friday had a substantial story about the ongoing attempt in the Wisconsin Legislature to get financial incentives for filmmakers — scheduled to begin Jan. 1 of next year — into effect immediately. The concern is that a $10 million film on the life of a Madison native, poker star Phil Hellmuth, will likely film in Canada rather than here if the incentives aren’t in effect.
East High students get hands-on experience in horticulture
Capital Times
Thinking did not go dormant inside the East High School greenhouse this winter.
Overlooking bare-branched trees etched on a landscape hinting at spring and the bustle of East Washington traffic, a working garden thrives. Extending from the school’s brick exterior and enclosed by tall, sloping windows, tiers of plants reach out to grab all the energy they can as the low-light days get a little brighter.
Since 1977, when Mary Klecker, the East High agriculture teacher, formed a horticulture class, this greenhouse has been a focal point of the Madison public schools’ only agriculture sciences program.
UW women’s basketball: WNIT run provides glimpse of the future
Capital Times
LARAMIE, Wyo. â?? The future looks bright for the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team.
Although the Badgers lost to Wyoming 72-56 in the championship game of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament Saturday afternoon, all Jolene Anderson, Janese Banks and Mariah Dunham could think about after the setback were preparations for the 2007-08 season.
UW holds steady in graduate school rankings
Capital Times
The University of Wisconsin-Madison ranked about the same as last year in several of the U.S. News & World Report graduate school rankings for 2007.
The newly published issue of America’s Best Graduate Schools also includes ratings done in previous years, however, which raised UW’s overall prestige.
Culinary clips: Gene Becker
The UW just raised thousands of dollars through on online auction of an eclectic assortment of merchandise, much of which was donated by alumni.
Overnight getaways, celebrity-autographed guitars, lunch with football coach Bret Bielema and autographed sports jerseys and equipment made up a chunk of the sales roster, and bidding ended this week. There also was food: six months of ice cream from the Madison-based Chocolate Shoppe, a Fudge Bottom Pie party for 12 and a case of Mojo Organic Beef Jerky.
A case of beef jerky? What’s with that?
Organization is key to planning break trips
Capital Times
How do you organize trips by 120 University of Wisconsin-Madison students to 12 widely separated destinations in the United States where they are to help with social or environmental efforts cheaply, safely and efficiently?
Very carefully.
Melissa Mamayek, adviser for the Alternative Spring Breaks Program at the University of Wisconsin, said some solid processes have been developed during the 17 years since the program started on campus.
Rivals focus on campus safety in District 8
Capital Times
Although both aldermanic candidates for District 8 prioritize campus safety as their main concern, they diverge on their approaches to preventing crime and assault.
Eli Judge and Lauren Woods are Chicago natives, current University of Wisconsin students and well-known campus leaders and civil rights supporters.
But they’re offering voters different plans to combat what many students believe is an increasingly unsafe atmosphere around the university campus.
County picks new cultural affairs chief
Capital Times
University of Wisconsin Foundation Vice President Karen Crossley has been selected as the new Dane County cultural affairs coordinator, replacing longtime coordinator Lynne Eich, who is retiring in two weeks.
County Executive Kathleen Falk announced the appointment today.
A spring break helping others
Capital Times
Ten UW-Madison students will start out Saturday for a spring break trip that doesn’t involve wild beach parties or exotic vacation locales.
They will head to New Orleans to help clean up the still horrific remains of Hurricane Katrina.
Johnson named AHCA women’s Coach of the Year
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Mark Johnson of the University of Wisconsin has been named as the AHCA women’s Division I Coach of the Year.
UW women’s basketball: Banks, Anderson propel Badgers to WNIT title game
Capital Times
It took time for Jolene Anderson to find her shot Wednesday night, but teammate Janese Banks provided a much-needed boost in the first half for the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team.
The two guards combined for 49 points to lead the Badgers to a 79-72 victory over Western Kentucky in a Women’s National Invitation Tournament semifinal before 4,942 spectators at the Kohl Center.
Doug Moe: A rave review late in his life
Capital Times
IN JANUARY, husband and wife filmmakers Tim Onosko and Beth Abrohams traveled from Madison to Austin, Texas, for a screening of their documentary, “Lost Vegas: The Lounge Era.”
….It’s nice that Onosko, who died at 60 in Madison on March 6, lived to experience the enthusiastic response in Austin to the movie he worked so hard to make happen. You don’t find a lot of first-time filmmakers in their late 50s. But as Tim told me a couple of years ago, if he was ever going to make a career change, it was time to get to it.
Succession plan: Campus Nerds streamline net operation
Capital Times
Net Nerds has a new leader and a new format, but it’s still about fixing people’s computer problems.
Kristen Berman, who founded Net Nerds in 2004 after she and her roommates bought beer for a neighbor who fixed their computer, graduated in December and landed a job in Silicon Valley working for Intuit, which produces TurboTax and QuickBooks.
Berman…is retaining ownership of Net Nerds but has handed the operational reins to Chris Friederich, a UW junior finance major.
Men’s Health lauds UW Hospital doctors
Capital Times
Men’s Health magazine has chosen three University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics doctors as being among the “Top Doctors for Men” regionally and nationally.
The first such listing by the magazine, in the April issue, names sports medicine surgeon Ben Graf, gastroenterologist Mark Reichelderfer and cardiologist James Stein as among the top 20 in each of their fields.
Badgers’ final determination
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Jolene Anderson and Janese Banks have carried the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team for most of the season.
UW’s gifted junior duo, with some timely help from their teammates Wednesday night at the Kohl Center, carried the Badgers into the Women’s National Invitation Tournament championship game.
MRI detects breast cancer missed by other methods of diagnosis (Los Angeles Times)
Capital Times
In women newly diagnosed with cancer in one breast, an MRI can find the disease in the opposite breast more effectively than standard mammography or clinical examination, scientists said Tuesday.
MRI, which stands for magnetic resonance imaging, detected cancers that had been missed by the other methods in 3.1 percent of patients in a large clinical study, researchers said.
Quoted: Frederick Kelcz, a professor of radiology at UW-Madison
Bo Ryan Named Coach of the Year
Capital Times
MADISON – Wisconsin head men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan has been selected to receive the Adolph Rupp Cup as the national coach of the year, the Commonwealth Athletic Club of Kentucky announced Tuesday.
Ryan led the Badgers to a school-record 30 wins this season and the first No. 1 ranking in school history. The award will be presented to Ryan in Atlanta on March 29 at the start of the NCAA Final Four.
Farm Show vendors planting the seeds of future sales
Green Bay Press-Gazette
Quoted: Randall Fortenbery, director of the Renk Agribusiness Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Ellig earns alumnus award
A Lincoln High School Class of 1955 graduate, Bruce Ellig will receive the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Businessâ??s Distinguished Business Alumnus Award at a dinner Friday night in New York City at the New York Athletic Club.
Concerns aired on statewide cable bill
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Mentioned as opposing the legislation is University of Wisconsin-Madison telecommunications professor Barry Orton.
Bo Ryan wins honor
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Wisconsin basketball coach Bo Ryan has won the Adolph Rupp Cup as the nation’s outstanding Division I coach, the Commonwealth Athletic Club of Kentucky announced Tuesday.
Lost world climates predicted
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A global warming study involving University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers says some climates of the world will be lost by 2100 and replaced by other climates not known in the world today.
Marquette professor’s work stirs doctrine debate
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The controversy surrounding Marquette theology professor Daniel Maguire mounted Tuesday over his circulation of pamphlets defending abortion and same-sex marriage.
A national Catholic organization lashed out at Marquette for allowing Maguire to teach, while the professor complained that the university had failed to adequately defend him against attacks by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
County picks three finalists for arts position
Capital Times
Three finalists, two from Madison and one from Stevens Point, have been chosen as possible successors to Lynne Eich, the longtime director of the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission.
The final interviews were completed Monday by Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and her staff. Falk is expected to announce her decision in one to two weeks, according to Falk spokeswoman Joanne Haas.
….(One of the three is) Karin Crossley, a vice president at the UW Foundation and oversees major gifts and development for the business school, the law school, the College of Engineering, the Division of International Studies and several campus units related to the environment.
UW study: Get ready for climates unknown
Capital Times
Known climates will disappear as a result of global warming, replaced by climates unknown in today’s world, a new study predicts. Entire plant and animal species could be lost as a result, said primary study author Jack Williams, a geographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Global climate models for the next century forecast the disappearance of climates currently found in tropical highlands and regions near the poles, according to the study by researchers at UW-Madison and the University of Wyoming.
Todd Finkelmeyer: Great year for Bo’s Badgers, but …
Capital Times
….Is it fair to say the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team – which was ranked No. 1 in the nation a little more than a month ago – underachieved this season?
….Can the current UW coaching staff continue to bring in the type of players that will allow the Badgers to consistently compete for a Big Ten title and advance deep into the NCAA tournament?
Doug Moe: Comics editor got his start here
Capital Times
HERE’S MILTON Griepp on Jay Kennedy, the King Features Syndicate editor-in-chief and former Madisonian who drowned at 50 in a rip tide off Costa Rica last week:
“He was pleasant, upbeat, optimistic and a great guy to be around,” Griepp was saying Friday. “Super smart, an encyclopedic memory and relentless in pursuit of his goals.”
Also in this column: ….An art review in Friday’s Los Angeles Times gave posthumous credit to a well-liked and respected UW-Madison art professor in the critical early development of the renowned artist Bruce Nauman.
Review: ‘Don Giovanni’ gets face-lift
Capital Times
Scoundrels, heartbreak and vengeance have changed little throughout the centuries. The University Opera of UW-Madison presents these themes with a modern twist in Mozart’s classic dark comedy “Don Giovanni.”
….The University Opera dresses up the story with modern (or at least mid-1980s) clothing and slightly updated themes, such as a short scene where Don Giovanni turns his attentions toward a young man. The modern twist was pulled off with somewhat mixed results.
UW women’s basketball: Anderson, Badgers rally way into WNIT semifinals
Capital Times
Jolene Anderson has never been one to stray from a challenge with the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team. Although Anderson and the Badgers stared at a 14-point, second-half deficit against Virginia Sunday afternoon in a Women’s National Invitation Tournament quarterfinal, failure did not enter their minds.
Anderson scored 22 of her game-high 30 points in the second half – including a clutch 3-pointer to increase the Badgers’ lead in the closing minutes – to lift Wisconsin to an 84-78 victory before an energetic crowd of 3,149 at the Kohl Center.
Court to hear drink special case appeal
Capital Times
The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to Madison’s controversial ban on drink specials in bars.
The court will hear an appeal by UW-Madison students who claim that a 2002 agreement between city officials and the Dane County Tavern League to ban two-for-one drink specials after 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights constitutes an illegal restraint of trade.
Editorial: Price gouging by the UW System (Beloit Daily News)
Regents are expected to consider and approve a UW-Madison proposal that would tack what amounts to a $1,400 a year surcharge onto tuition costs for engineering students. The premium would raise about $3 million per year, according to estimates, which UW officials say would provide extra money to pay faculty and improve research opportunities in Madison.
We urge UW decision-makers to stop shaking down students and parents. Double-digit tuition increases – topped with curriculum-specific premiums – threaten to price Wisconsin kids out of school.
Low UW pay makes it tough to attract, keep faculty
Green Bay Press-Gazette
UW-Green Bay Chancellor Bruce Shepard writes that salaries of UW System faculty and staff have posed a daunting challenge on UW campuses throughout the state. In his opinion, the quality of what has long been considered a world-class university system is at risk.
A change in climate: Global warming in Wisconsin
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The duration of ice on Lake Mendota in Dane County has slipped from an average of four months between 1850 and 1870 to nearly three months for the 20 years ending in 2005, according to research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
John Magnuson, a lake researcher at UW, said less ice cover could harm the health of some lakes.
High court race nastier than usual
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin.
Paying by the program (Inside Higher Ed)
Inside Higher Education
An examination of differential tuition plans nationwide notes that at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Board of Regents will consider two differential tuition policies, one for the School of Business and the other for the College of Engineering, next month.
Thompson touts benefits of stem-cell research in state
Green Bay Press-Gazette
Northeastern Wisconsin can and should capitalize on biomedical research â?? especially the stem-cell research currently being cultivated at the University of Wisconsin â?? former Gov. Tommy Thompson told a group of business and elected officials on Thursday afternoon.
An election? Madison will go on spring break instead (AP)
La Crosse Tribune
Eli Judge is running for city council but the University of Wisconsin-Madison residence halls and fraternities heâ??d represent will be mostly empty on election day.
Thatâ??s because, for the first time in recent memory, the April 3 spring election coincides with UW-Madison spring break. Thatâ??s forced Judge, a sophomore, to knock on doors for weeks urging students to vote early.
Money search gets in the way of research
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
When Jerry Chi-Ping Yin started his research lab in 1995, he spent the majority of his time conducting experiments and interacting with staff throughout the day.
Now, the University of Wisconsin-Madison molecular geneticist tends to hibernate in his office – writing, submitting, rewriting and resubmitting grants to fund his studies and pay seven salaries, a cost of about $400,000 a year.
Gophers are relying on ex-Badger to help them catch up
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Columnist Michael Hunt discusses former Badger sports administrator Joel Maturi’s success as Minnesota’s athletic director.
Badgers extend season
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
If Lisa Stone’s University of Wisconsin players go on to win the Women’s National Invitation Tournament title, any medals they receive will pale in comparison to the mettle they displayed Sunday afternoon at the Kohl Center.
Dark chocolate lovers get more sweet news
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Feeding chocolate to a bunch of middle-age, overweight people for weeks on end might not be as unhealthy as it seems.
Researchers found that six weeks of daily consumption of a dark chocolate cocoa mix significantly improved the blood vessel health of those who participated in the study. The study is the latest in a growing number that link reduced heart disease risk to flavonoids in dark chocolate and other food and beverages, such as red wine, green tea and dark-colored fruits and vegetables.
“There are hundreds, if not thousands, of flavonoids in every plant substance we eat,” said James Stein, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “This is a very hot area. This study confirms what other investigators have found.”
Grocery chain’s dominance attracts suitors
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Peter Carstensen, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.
UW women’s basketball: Rebounding sparks Badgers past Kentucky
Capital Times
Details made the difference as the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team continued its postseason march.
The Badgers attacked the glass ferociously Thursday night and held off a scare from Kentucky for a 67-61 win before 2,420 spectators in a third-round game of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament at the Kohl Center.
Tech system head grilled on costs
Capital Times
Taxpayer rage about technical college costs boiled over as state legislators grilled the president of the Wisconsin Technical College System at the State Capitol on Thursday.
“There is a horrific outcry in the western part of the state,” said Kitty Rhoades, R-Hudson, co-chair of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee.
She told WTCS President Dan Clancy that the intensity of complaints about property taxes that support the technical colleges spiked after a state audit found that many technical college instructors are paid more than professors at state universities in the same areas of Wisconsin.
UW System makes case for partner benefits
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Providing domestic partner benefits to University of Wisconsin System employees would cost an estimated $1.3 million a year, system President Kevin P. Reilly told the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee Thursday.
UW downloaders targeted
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Wisconsin college students beware: Sharing music through peer-to-peer networks could cost you a lot of money.