Led by Port Washington-based Aquarius Technologies Inc., Wisconsin companies have pulled in 70% more venture dollars so far this year than they did for the same period a year ago, according to figures released Monday.
Let me confess at the outset that before the 1988 film “Rain Man” – about an autistic savant named Raymond Babbitt – I knew virtually nothing about autism.
Like most people, I’d never known anyone with the disorder or even heard anyone talk about it. Which is hardly surprising, says Maureen Durkin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison epidemiologist, because before the 1990s, autism was considered an extremely rare developmental disorder, affecting about 1 in every 2,500 children in this country.
With the primary election over and the general election campaigns in full gear, the gnashing of teeth and mashing of keyboards is in full force.
Critics are quick to point out the flaws of the system. Too much money is spent, too much is contributed, too much is devoted to television ads.
Are these charges accurate? UW-Madison political scientist John Coleman examines the issue.
I received an e-mail from the Wisconsin Alumni Association this week seeking nominations for its annual “Badger of the Year” awards.
The release noted: “The criteria for the Badger of the Year awards are simple – recipients are alumni who are making a difference, whether by developing a successful business, serving as an educational leader, being a philanthropist or publicly supporting UW-Madison.
….Unfortunately, when I contacted the Wisconsin Alumni Association Friday, it turned out my nominee failed to meet certain other criteria for being named Badger of the Year. He’s dead, for one thing, and he didn’t graduate from UW-Madison for another.
Swirls of color, writhing bodies and confetti cannons welcome us to Carnivale at the beginning of “The Rover,” the latest offering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s University Theatre.
In some ways it’s a long 150-minute ride, but also one full of energy, humor and enough technical eye candy to keep us entertained throughout the trip.
Here are yet more examples of what’s wrong with our politics today: Several days ago an official state audit reported that faculty and staff at the University of Wisconsin seldom take any sick leave, a practice that allows them to accumulate days that they can convert into paid health insurance when they retire.
Anita Weier of our staff covered the audit report, which was released late on a Friday morning. But before the newspaper actually hit the streets a couple of hours later with her story, there was a press release in my e-mail inbox from GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Green, blaming it all on incumbent Gov. Jim Doyle.
Anyone who is at all familiar with state government knows that such a charge is patently silly. University and state workers for better or for worse have been taking advantage of that state benefit for decades.
In its latest biennial ranking, BusinessWeek rates the UW-Madison MBA program No. 4 in the nation in terms of fastest return on students’ investment.
The magazine reported that students who earn an MBA from UW-Madison have their costs of going back to school repaid due to higher salaries in less than five years, compared to more than 15 years for other MBA programs.
A man was hit on the head with a glass bottle Sunday night while walking near the UW-Madison campus. The victim told police he was in the 400 block of North Murray Street about 9 p.m. when a man approached him and struck him with the bottle.
The victim fled, and his assailant gave chase briefly before fleeing the area. The victim suffered a minor head injury. It was unclear what the motive was for the attack.
The Greater Madison Convention & Visitors Bureau is asking local professionals who are members of statewide, national, or international groups to work to encourage their organization to conduct their next convention in Madison.
Under the “Bring Your Meeting Home” campaign, the GMCVB will work with the group’s planner or representatives to make the meeting in Madison happen and to ensure its success.
University of Wisconsin students won’t know the results of elections on new student unions and living wages for student workers until Monday night at the earliest, since election officials are working with paper ballots.
The Associated Students of Madison fall election closed Thursday night after two days of voting, but counting the paper ballots, while deemed safer, will take longer than the actual voting took.
University of Wisconsin offensive line coach Bob Palcic asked his mother for one more favor when he bid her farewell last week.
“When you lose your mom, it’s rough,” Palcic said moments after UW’s 24-3 victory over Purdue on Saturday afternoon. “She was a great fan and a great mother. And . . . I just have to tell you guys that I had to give the eulogy.
Bret Bielema’s football team has caught the attention of the pollsters.
All it took for the University of Wisconsin to return to the top 20 in both polls for the first time since the end of the 2005 season was four consecutive Big Ten Conference victories, by an average of 31 points.
One day after UW whipped Purdue, 24-3, the Badgers on Sunday moved up four spots in each poll, to No. 17 in the Associated Press poll and to No. 18 in the USA Today poll.
Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and Republican challenger Mark Green went toe to toe for the final time Friday night in a debate that brought a new testiness to their encounters.
Green, who analysts said had the most at stake because he is the challenger, called out Doyle on health care costs, University of Wisconsin System tuition and casino cash, saying that “one election and millions in contributions” led Doyle to change his position on tribal casino expansion.
Amber Braun is one witch who does not want to frighten anyone this Halloween.
As president of the Pagan Student Alliance, a new club at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha, Braun hopes to show non-believers that they have nothing to fear from followers of paganism.
The 112,300-square-foot Laird Center for Medical Research, to be completed at the Marshfield Clinic in early 2008, will house 200 physicians and scientific investigators looking at everything from genetics and personalized medicine to emerging infectious disease and biomedical informatics.
Marshfield researchers also will work closely with scientists and physicians at the Medical College of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Television stations happily gobble up money from congressional races and various causes, with most 30-second spots constituting hit pieces against the opposition. Yet those seeking more expansive coverage had better not blink or they’re apt to miss whatever actual news content is devoted to the candidates.
Additional evidence of this trend comes from a study by the U. of Wisconsin’s NewsLab, which examined election coverage in nine major Midwest markets during September. The average allotment to campaigns within each half-hour newscast: 36 seconds. By way of comparison, crime received four times as much time.
Quoted: UW-Madison political scientist David Canon.
In the midst of the media frenzy over the illegal “motion W” penalties handed out by the University of Wisconsin is the not-so-funny problem concerning a logo used by Weston High School.
The little school located 70 miles northwest of Madison, which made national news in recent weeks when its heroic principal was shot and killed while wrestling a gun away from a student, has a “motion W” for one of its logos, too.
“I’ve just become recently aware that they are using that logo,” said Cindy Van Matre, the licensing director for the UW. “In light of what’s happened at that school, could you imagine the PR uproar if they were a school that we contacted right now?”
WASHINGTON – A federal government decision on supervisory employees could hurt efforts by University of Wisconsin-Madison professors, graduate students and staff to join unions.
A number of labor experts agree that a recent National Labor Relations Board ruling barring union participation by workers with supervisory duties, such as registered nurses, could affect university employees as well.
Gary Mitchell, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2412, which organizes administrative workers, worries that the NLRB has limited which workers can unionize.
At its founding, Wisconsin took a strong stand against discrimination.
Entering the union as a “free state” in the years before the Civil War, Wisconsinites established a state constitution that went far beyond the federal document when it came to guaranteeing the rights of all citizens and protecting against attempts by the state to deny those rights based on differences in race, religion or class.
….organizations that seek to promote economic growth, including Downtown Madison Inc., the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, the Madison Development Corporation, the Wisconsin Federation of Business & Professional Women, and the UW Board of Regents have all urged Wisconsinites to vote against this amendment.
The top executive at WiCell Research Institute – the hub for Wisconsin’s embryonic stem cell efforts – has left the organization.
Elizabeth L.R. Donley left her job as WiCell’s executive director last week to “pursue opportunities in the growing high-tech and biotech industries in the Madison area,” according to a news release issued by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, or WARF.
Letter-writers vent on the UW Marching band issue.
The on-the-field fiasco between Miami and Florida International last weekend created a firestorm. Players using helmets as weapons, stomping on players � it was enough to make the college football lover flip channels in search of the baseball playoffs.
Miami head coach Larry Coker has publicly commented on the affair, and Miami President Donna Shalala has said the event was nothing Coker should lose his job over. But let’s take a deeper look. The Hurricanes’ loss to Florida State took them out of the BCS picture in the opening week of the season. Then came a blowout loss to Louisville. Then a one-point win over Houston. In other words, Coker was a lame duck coach well before his players made a public disgrace of the program.
The popular pick to replace him at season’s end (assuming he is replaced) is former Hurricane coach Butch Davis, who once before resurrected the program from the depths of despair. But another name floating around Southern Florida is former Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez.
Carlos Santiago, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, announced Thursday that he will undergo surgery for prostate cancer next week and will be limiting his public appearances for four to six weeks.
When Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and Republican challenger Mark Green square off tonight in their final debate, the group they most need to reach – undecided voters – may be the least likely to tune in.
While the first debate focused on budget and taxes. This one is billed as “quality of life issues.” According to “We the People,” the list of issues includes a host of hot-button topics: “education, health care, the marriage amendment, campaign finance reform, immigration, energy, transportation and stem cell research.”
CHICAGO – For some, it would be unthinkable – certain social suicide. But Gabe Henderson is finding freedom in a recent decision: He canceled his MySpace account.
No longer enthralled with the world of social networking, the 26-year-old graduate student pulled the plug after realizing that a lot of the online friends he accumulated were really just acquaintances. He’s also phasing out his profile on Facebook, a popular social networking site that, like others, allows users to create profiles, swap message and share photos – all with the goal of expanding their circle of online friends.
Sixty percent of UW-Madison students reported in a recent survey that they never change the passwords they use for their campus accounts, although about 75 percent never intentionally share their NetID and passwords with others.
“That’s a good start, but it still gives us some cause for concern,” Jim Lowe, chief information security officer, said in a statement. “We would like to see all students regularly change and never share their passwords.”
A national free speech group lambasted Marquette University administrators Wednesday for removing a quote by humorist Dave Barry from a graduate student’s office door.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education criticized a Marquette administrator for removing this Barry quote from the office door of doctoral student Stuart Ditsler last month: “As Americans we must always remember that we all have a common enemy, an enemy that is dangerous, powerful, and relentless. I refer, of course, to the federal government.”
With a legal mind far sharper than the crease in his often-rumpled pants, Gordon Baldwin became the go-to person for questions on constitutional law.
BILL AYERS seemed flabbergasted to hear that Leo Burt is still on the run. And I have to admit, I was flabbergasted that Ayers was flabbergasted.
….Ayers and I were chatting in advance of his appearance tonight, with his wife Bernardine Dohrn, at the Wisconsin Book Festival. Currently college professors in Chicago, Ayers and Dohrn are famous – or infamous, depending on your take – for their association, three decades ago, with the Weather Underground, a Vietnam War-era radical group that advocated and practiced violence against establishment targets.
….Burt, of course, is the last fugitive from the Vietnam protest era, 36 years and counting since the August 1970 bombing of the Army Math Research Center in Sterling Hall, a blast that did $6 million damage and took the life of a young researcher, Robert Fassnacht, who was working late in the building when the bomb went off.
At 76, retired University of Wisconsin-Madison music professor Karlos Moser remembers the first time he heard and saw grand opera produced grandly. He was studying at Princeton University in New Jersey and would slip into New York City to see productions at the famed Metropolitan Opera. That’s where he saw the world’s greatest singers in the world’s greatest operas.
….Moser, who composes as well as produces, directs and conducts opera, will hold a special concert this Sunday to raise money for an endowment fund to buy season tickets to professional opera companies in Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago. UW students, including musicians and production people, would get to use those tickets.
New Orleans is coming back, just as journalist Chris Rose will this weekend.
He’s back in the city where he began his journalistic career, but New Orleans is home for good, come hell or high water.
For a year, he wrote desperately to help a city that almost died.
….For years, the Fetzer Center – located in the basement of the McClain Center – was the student-athlete’s best choice to get help. A second Fetzer Center opened today at the Kohl Center and will be put to immediate use by the men’s and women’s basketball and hockey teams. It’s located just 42 steps from the basketball and hockey locker rooms on the ground floor.
….Upperclassmen (and women) acting boorishly to lower-level classmates has been a time-honored tradition among many institutions. We all managed to live through those activities and become productive citizens ourselves. But, in these more enlightened times, it’s undoubtedly best they go away.
Nevertheless, I think the UW band and Leckrone got a bum rap.
The blanket “double secret” probation immediately gained the attention of cable TV news, which, typically, gushed over reports of semi-nude musicians and other titillating behavior. Sanctimonious critics denounced the band en masse and condemned the director for having lost control. And now the last straw is Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly joining in the condemnation.
Chris Rose believes “something very close to” a hurricane took him to New Orleans for the first time in 1980.
He and a friend, then students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, landed there when a storm foiled their Thanksgiving break and chased them out of Texas and Florida.
More than two decades later, Rose wrote about that trip in one of his many columns for the New Orleans Times-Picayune after Hurricane Katrina.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist.
Gordon Baldwin, longtime faculty member of the University of Wisconsin Law School who lent his constitutional law expertise to myriad public causes over the years, is dead at the age of 77.
The Law School announced that Professor Baldwin died in his sleep either Saturday night or Sunday morning in Italy, where he and his wife Helen were attending operas, a longtime passion of the Madison couple.
Two men were ordered to stand trial on numerous felony counts for an alleged gang rape in the campus area on Labor Day weekend. But charges against a third man, who admitted he was involved in the assaults, were reduced to misdemeanors following a preliminary hearing Monday.
Dear Editor: I think it is highly unnecessary to have tickets sold for the annual Halloween bash downtown on State Street. Paid admission to a public place is not right. I think this is just another way for the city to get money.
I have no doubt in my mind that there will be just as many riots as there have been in past years. Why wouldn’t there be? Just as many people will be there. Just as many people will be drinking. There will still be fights and people throwing up. There is no way to get around either of those things.
Dear Editor: I am writing to express my sincere disappointment regarding the mishandling of the recent parking permit enforcement by the University Transportation Service.
….I understand that the use of mopeds and their placement must be controlled. However, I have not seen any “permit required” signs posted in the moped parking areas, and I was unaware that a permit was necessary until I received a $30 citation. Why are there no signs posted? Why is this moped citation so exorbitant? Most importantly, why did the UW not issue warnings before citations?!
Bob Palcic, in his first season as the University of Wisconsin’s offensive line coach, has returned home to Buffalo, N.Y., to be home with his ailing mother and might miss UW’s Big Ten Conference game this week at Purdue.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to Bob,” UW coach Bret Bielema said Monday during his weekly news conference. “We knew this might pop up. He completed his preparation for the game this weekend and took off to be with his family.”
….Think all this tough talk about the UW marching band being placed on double-secret probation for alleged inappropriate activities is a joke?
You mean to tell me that UW Chancellor John Wiley would seriously consider not allowing the band to play at things like Badgers football games if Mike Leckrone’s charges don’t shape up?
Well, as bizarre as this all sounds, it must be noted that at least one band has been silenced by university powers this college football season….
….Chancellor John Wiley may feel the need to bash the band, or to say that band members portray the university in a poor light, but I do not see the grounds he uses to make this claim. I know of no other group who loves the university more or supports the athletic teams more than this dedicated group of 300.
Dear Editor: In regard to the article, “Watch your step, Wiley warns band,” we are appalled at the reactions and comments by Chancellor John Wiley.
….Our daughter currently in the band has developed a great work ethic, morals and social skills that are enhanced by her association with the band program.
In other words, the band is a highly positive and productive program – one of the finest and most successful programs in the UW System.
Dear Editor: Michael Leckrone, in his own way, has contributed every bit as much as Barry Alvarez and Pat Richter in turning the University of Wisconsin and its sports programs into the national force they are today.
University of Wisconsin linebacker Elijah Hodge, 20, will not face criminal charges for being in possession of a stolen moped on Sept. 19, Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard said Friday.
“There wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove he knew the moped was stolen,” Blanchard said.
All aboard! The Badger Trolley Bus is leaving the station for tours of fall color in the prairie and woodlands of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum.
Naturalist Kathy Miner narrated one of Sunday’s free, 45-minute tours and said guides see a smorgasbord of participants.
Three University of Wisconsin professors who took paid sabbaticals did not return to their schools afterward for the year required under state law, according to a new audit.
The faculty members at UW-Madison, UW-Platteville and UW-Stout should be expected to repay the salary and benefits they received during the sabbaticals, according to the report by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau.
Maybe this was the start of something special.
Saturday morning the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team convened for the first practice of what will be a season to remember, according to various pre-season publications and analysts across the country.
With five regular-season games left, a bowl game is assured.
When the national rankings were released Sunday, the University of Wisconsin was No. 21 in the Associated Press poll (up four spots), No. 22 in the coaches’ poll (making its season debut) and No. 21 in the first Bowl Championship Series standings of the season.
Qouted: UW-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin.
Quoted: Political scientist Charles O. Jones, emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and senior fellow at The Brookings Institution and UW-Madison political scientist David Canon.
The state invests public dollars in one thing or another every day. But last week, it invested $1 million in its future.
Like any other investment, this one may not pan out. But if it does, it could yield huge dividends, both in economic development and in healing.
This investment is in a small Madison company called Stem Cell Products Inc., founded by embryonic stem cell pioneer James Thomson and two of his University of Wisconsin-Madison colleagues. Being in the right place at the right time can mean everything in business, and Stem Cell Products may soon find itself in that enviable position.
….Mention to Ryan that might mean Wisconsin has finally arrived in the nation’s consciousness as a top basketball program and he shrugs his shoulders and says that it already arrived. It’s just that the local media hasn’t figured it out until now.
To prove his point, Ryan cited some remarkable numbers published in the Wall Street Journal in March that show the unique development and success of the UW men’s basketball program. It ranks among the nation’s leaders in total revenue ($12 million) as well as difference between expenses and revenues ($8 million). Another database showed that it ranks toward the bottom in the country in recruiting expenses ($43,309).
The University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin Historical Society are joining Google’s effort to digitize the world’s books and make them searchable on the Internet.
UW-Madison said Thursday the school and the historical society would make nearly 500,000 of their historical books and documents available on the search engine’s new site, Google Book Search.
Seventy-seven percent of University of Wisconsin System faculty used no sick leave last year, allowing them to convert the time into valuable health insurance credits, according to a state audit released today.
“Most employees can be expected to report using at least some sick leave over a three-year period, but 6,772 unclassified (non-union) staff reported using none from 2003 through 2005,” according to the audit, which recommends that the university adopt better reporting practices.
University of Wisconsin marching band director Michael Leckrone, under fire from Chancellor John Wiley because of misconduct by band members, said Thursday if the conduct doesn’t improve, he might not continue on as the director.
At a hastily called news conference in the university’s administrative offices at Bascom Hall, Leckrone, 70, band director for 38 years, said if changes don’t come, he could relinquish his baton.
The Madison Trust for Historic Preservation will offer a special walking tour of the UW-Madison campus on Nov. 4.
Nations seeking a lasting peace in the Middle East must understand global politics, the need for consensus and the fact that current policies are misguided and need to be re-examined, say two professors and Middle East policy experts.
(Ali Abootalebi, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and Nadav Shelef, a professor of Israeli studies at UW-Madison, outlined their “Paths to Peace” in the Middle East during a lecture at the Overture Center’s Capitol Theater on Wednesday.)
MILWAUKEE (AP) – Joseph Munz, a former high school football player from Lodi, didn’t worry about the danger of his job delivering sandwiches to help pay his way at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, friends and family say.
