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Author: jnweaver

Tech and Biotech: Madison start-ups top Elevator Pitch contest

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Wisconsin State Journal

One of the liveliest events at the Early Stage Symposium in Madison is traditionally the Elevator Pitch Olympics. It?s a chance for entrepreneurs to talk up their young companies to a panel of seasoned investors, squeezing the high points into a 90-second presentation, the time of a theoretical elevator ride. Novo was founded in August by brothers Scott and Matt Johanek, of Shawano. Scott lives in Madison and teaches prototype design at the UW-Madison; Matt lives in the San Francisco area. Novo features customized luggage and other bags.

UW will host state tournaments through spring 2020

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WISC-TV 3

MADISON, Wis.-The University of Wisconsin has reached a deal with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association to host state high school athletic competition for seven years. The WIAA will host state competition for high school boys basketball, football, golf, wrestling, and softball at UW facilities in Madison through the spring of 2020. State swimming, diving, and tennis tournaments will continue to be held on the UW campus but are not part of the new agreement.

State residents not tolerating wolves as much as before, study finds

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Capital Times

Are Wisconsinites wary of wolves? A study from UW-Madison researchers found an increasingly negative view of the animal by state residents. The study published in an upcoming issue of the journal Conservation Biology shows a declining tolerance of wolves, even if those surveyed had no intimate contact with a wolf. The study was by environmental studies professor Adrian Treves and colleagues Lisa Naughton-Treves and Victoria Shelley, according to a news release from the UW-Madison news service.

On Campus: UW-Madison atheist group would spend $30,000 to pay 8 staffers

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Wisconsin State Journal

A UW-Madison student group set up to support atheists and other nonbelievers stands poised to get more than $67,000 in funding next year, as reported today by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It would be the largest funding level for any such group nationally, according to the story.The group, Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics, or AHA, breaks down how the money would be spent in a Nov. 8 blog post. The biggest chunk, $30,000, would go toward salaries of eight paid staffers.

Seely on Science: From farm fields to bluebirds: heeding nature’s climate clues

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Wisconsin State Journal

It has taken a nightmarish hurricane in the waning days of a bitter presidential race to do it, but the phrase ?climate change? has again made its way onto front pages. And, perhaps because of the tragic images of people struggling on the East Coast, the issue has taken on fresh urgency. Earlier this week, Gus Speth, a noted environmental lawyer and advocate and a guest speaker at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies on the UW-Madison campus, said the often-ignored topic of climate change ?is now being put forth by reality.?

Mentioned: Ken Potter, UW-Madison professor of civil and environmental engineering

ASM forum discusses rising tuition at UW

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Daily Cardinal

The Associated Students of Madison?s final Shared Governance Week of Action forum Thursday sparked discussion about how to handle the costs of University of Wisconsin System schools in the face of decreasing state funding and increasing tuition and fees.University of Wisconsin-Madison Student Services Finance Committee Chair Ellie Bruecker and UW System Regent Katherine Pointer, the student appointee on the Board of Regents, each voiced their own ideas on how best to raise and manage universities? funds.

A long time coming: Ceremony kicks off Edgewater renovation

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Wisconsin State Journal

After a years-long fight to renovate the historic Edgewater hotel that saw countless revisions, legal challenges that reached the state?s highest court and city meetings that stretched well past midnight, there was a prevailing attitude at the project?s ceremonial groundbreaking Thursday morning: This was a long time coming. “We shouldn’t waste any time getting this project started,” project developer Robert Dunn said to open a program inside one of the hotel’s ballrooms. “Someone might change their mind.”

Moviegoers sink their teeth into ‘Twilight’ mania

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Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison?s vampire lore expert Tomislav Longinovic attributes the sometimes graphic creatures? foothold in popular culture to people becoming more accustomed to violence through war and what?s seen daily in the news. “As we accept more evil, the image of the vampire becomes more acceptable,” said Longinovic, who teaches “The Vampire in Literature and Film. “Plus, people want an escape. The rise of ?Twilight Saga? … really comes at a time when I think there?s a youth withdraw from reality,” Longinovic said. “It provides a nice imaginary niche … a psychological solace.”

UW-Madison atheist group poised to get $67,400 in student funds

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Wisconsin State Journal

Four years ago, Chris Calvey arrived to his first meeting of a UW-Madison atheists group to find only a select few nonbelievers. “It was a very small, weak group,” he said of the Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics, or AHA. Calvey knew the numbers suggesting that up to 9,000 Badgers were in his camp and set about finding ways to bring them together. Now, the UW-Madison student group attracts more than 100 to its annual start-of-school meeting, has an email list of 1,500 and stands poised to become by far the best funded group of nonbelievers on any U.S. campus, Calvey said.

Will Wisconsin Republicans wage another labor war?

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Capital Times

In his first term as governor, Gov. Scott Walker dealt one of the most significant blows to organized labor in recent American history. In few, if any, states are the collective bargaining rights of public-sector workers so limited, and in few places are the barriers to organizing a union in a public workplace so high as in Wisconsin, due to Walker?s signature legislation, known as Act 10. However, there is still much Republicans could do to further marginalize Wisconsin labor unions.

Third ASM forum addresses advising, academic issues

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Daily Cardinal

Wednesday?s Associated Students of Madison Shared Governance Week of Action forum facilitated a discussion between students and campus leaders on academic issues such as advising and Educational Innovation. The forum?s panel featured Wren Singer, campus advising director; Chris Olsen, Interim Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning; and Elaine Klein, Assistant Dean for Academic Planning in the College of Letters and Sciences.

Ward says university is not taking action on Palermo?s

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Daily Cardinal

Interim Chancellor David Ward released a statement Wednesday stating the University of Wisconsin-Madison will review its contracts with Palermo?s Pizza following a request by a university committee to cut ties with the pizza company….In the statement, Ward said he will review the committee?s request to cut ties, but the university currently has no plans to take action. Ward said while certain parties within the university, including the athletic department and the Wisconsin Union, have sponsorship agreements with Palermo?s, UW-Madison as an institution is not ?a party to this dispute.?

Badgers athletics: Enhanced hiring policy, tougher background checks pay off

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Madison.com

Because you can never be too careful these days, especially when it comes to children and sports, University of Wisconsin Athletic Department officials took important action earlier this year. They adopted a policy, which went into effect April 1, whereby background checks are done on all persons involved with the various sports camps that are held annually on campus. According to Holly Weber, the human resources director for UW Athletics, more than 700 camp-related background checks have been run through her office since April.

UW athletic director Barry Alvarez said recently the background checks had altered the course of more than one hire this year. He declined to get into specifics, but the impact is clear. “They’re very important,” he said of the reviews.

Dan Savage: ‘Even when we lose, we win’

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Wisconsin State Journal

It?s fitting that Dan Savage?s syndicated column reaches Madison readers in the pages of the Onion. That?s because Savage ? the author of sex advice column Savage Love and an outspoken advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights who will speak Monday night at UW-Madison ? started his column in the back offices of Four Star Video just off State Street in 1991. Savage is returning to Madison as a Distinguished Lecture Series speaker. But despite the program?s name, Savage says the event won?t be a lecture ? rather, it will be a question-and-answer session, where the audience determines what he?ll discuss.

Chris Rickert: Hollow reason for fatal shooting by cop is a tragedy

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Wisconsin State Journal

Research shows our perceptions about officer-involved shootings often vary dramatically from their reality. Michael Scott, a police officer turned UW-Madison clinical associate professor of law who co-authored a book on police-involved shootings, recommended a video put together this year by the Lane County (Ore.) District Attorney?s Office that suggests officers have far less time and control than we might think in deadly force situations, which make up a tiny fraction of the 1 percent of police calls that involve the use of any force at all.

Lowest corn yield in 16 years seen in drought fallout

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Wisconsin State Journal

In each of the last two Novembers, area grain operations piled towering mountains of corn on their lots ? lasting images of the two best corn yields on record. Those lots are empty this fall, symbols of a drought-ravaged growing season that has led the National Agricultural Statistics Service to predict that Wisconsin?s corn yield will be the lowest in 16 years and 20 percent lower than last year.

Quoted: UW-Madison agricultural economics professor Bruce Jones

UW committee approves funding for atheist group

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Wisconsin State Journal

A UW-Madison committee has approved using student fees to fund an atheist organization. Chris Calvey is president of the group, Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics. Calvey says it?s about time secular students got the support they deserve. The university?s Student Services Finance Committee recently approved about $67,000 to fund the group in the next academic year.

University committee takes aim at Camp Randall?s controversial pizza provider

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Capital Times

The muscle of Bucky Badger could possibly get behind striking workers at Palermo?s Pizza. The University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Labor Licensing Policy Committee is recommending that the university move toward terminating contracts valued at more than $200,000 annually with the Milwaukee frozen pizza maker, whose products are sold at Camp Randall and the Kohl Center. The contracts also allow for the use of the Bucky Badger logo on Palermo?s pizzas sold in grocery stores.

Police safety team encourages UW students not to jaywalk on campus

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Daily Cardinal

To prevent pedestrians from jaywalking, members of the Madison Police Department Traffic Enforcement Safety Team were positioned on the corner of Park St. and Johnson St. on Tuesday to educate pedestrians on correct procedures for crossing busy intersections. Madison Metro brought the issue of jaywalking to the team?s attention after becoming frustrated with pedestrians bringing traffic to a standstill, according to MPD TEST Sgt. Eric Tripke.

Law enforcement union sues over collective bargaining law

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Wisconsin State Journal

A Wisconsin law enforcement union sued the state Tuesday over the state?s collective bargaining law, alleging that the portions of the law pertaining to teachers and municipal workers that were found unconstitutional by a Dane County judge are also unconstitutional for state workers….According to the lawsuit, prior to the law taking effect, WLEA included state troopers and inspectors, along with Capitol and UW police officers and detectives, DMV field agents and police communication officers. Only state troopers and inspectors retained their union rights as part of a new unit carved out called “public safety” employees, the union said in a news release.

Bill Lueders: TV ads reviled, but effective

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Capital Times

Ken Goldstein, a UW-Madison political science professor who now heads Kantar Media/CMAG, which tracks political ads, cites their pivotal role in Wisconsin?s U.S. Senate race. He calls the fact that Democrat Tammy Baldwin ?had the airwaves to herself for over a month? after the primary, which depleted Republican Tommy Thompson?s cash reserves, ?decisive in her impressive victory.? As for the presidential race, Goldstein says, ?Advertising matters at the margin, and in many battleground states, the margin mattered.? And that makes the impact of all those commercials anything but marginal.

Doug Moe: Vietnam stories had to be published

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Wisconsin State Journal

The lieutenant colonel got a promotion for ordering the dogs shot. Actually, the promotion to colonel came after he tackled a private who threw a grenade in protest of the dogs being shot. It was all crazy. Of course it was. It was Vietnam. The episode above is out of “Dog Tags,” the first short story in a new collection, “DEROS Vietnam,” from longtime Madison journalist, veterans advocate and communications specialist Doug Bradley.

Gates Foundation grant awarded to UW System for online math course

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Capital Times

Incoming UW System students lagging in math skills got a big boost with the announcement of a new online course that has the potential to get more students to graduate in less time and at lower cost. A $50,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will be used at UW-La Crosse to develop a new “massive open online course,” or MOOC, that will give students the chance to improve their math skills without having to take remedial high school level courses in college. The MOOC will be free of charge and available to everyone.

Controlled burns planned in UW campus nature preserve

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Capital Times

If you see large clouds of smoke billowing from the western edge of the UW-Madison campus during the next week or so, don?t be alarmed: it?s man?s way of hastening what nature is slow to do. Prescribed controlled burns are planned in areas of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve to help control weeds, remove encroaching woody plants and encourage prairie plant growth, according to a news release from the UW-Madison news service. “The prairie?s exposed location allows its abundant upright fine fuels to dry quickly following precipitation,” preserve field technician Adam Gundlach said in the release, noting that leaf litter of surrounding woodlands often stays too damp to carry fire.

Brief: Researchers find more efficient method to process biomass

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Daily Cardinal

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a method to more efficiently convert biomass into high-demand chemicals and energy-dense fuels. The break through is the discovery that gamma-valerolactone, GVL, works as an ideal solvent in processing the two main components of plant biomass, hemicellulose and cellulose.

Badgers football: Montee Ball has end zone in sight

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Madison.com

A season that started with a nightmare for running back Montee Ball still has a chance for a dream-come-true ending. Despite everything he has endured in a topsy-turvy senior season at the University of Wisconsin, Ball is just one touchdown shy of the NCAA career record going into the game against Ohio State on Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium. Travis Prentice, who played at Miami (Ohio), holds the record with 78.

State health survey to seek participants from Madison’s Far East Side

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Wisconsin State Journal

Madison?s Far East Side residents shouldn?t be surprised if they?re asked to participate in a statewide health survey in the coming weeks. The Survey of Health of Wisconsin (SHOW), an ongoing project of the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, will be recruiting participants on the Far East Side for interviews this week and the weeks of Nov. 26 and Dec. 10. Randomly selected households could receive a letter asking them to participate in the study, which is used to create a general portrait of health in Wisconsin.

Spectrum Brands buys majority interest in Boston company

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Wisconsin State Journal

Spectrum Brands, Madison, said Monday it has paid $50 million cash to buy a majority 56 percent interest in Shaser Bioscience, a privately owned Boston company developing “energy-based, aesthetic dermatological technology for home use devices.”

Thomas O’Guinn, professor of marketing at the UW-Madison School of Business, questioned the diversity that will be added to Spectrum Brands’ already broad list of products. But he said the acquisition represents a growing market. “This is getting into a space that is almost medical device, but not exactly. That is not where I expected Spectrum to go,” O’Guinn said.

Efforts to push turnout in key 2008 demographic groups pays off for Obama

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Capital Times

Although there was no coordination between the Obama campaign and the get-out-the-vote efforts undertaken by advocacy groups like Citizen Action of Wisconsin, similarly targeted efforts were under way by the campaign. In fact, they?d never ceased since President Barack Obama was inaugurated nearly four years ago, says Gillian Morris, a campaign spokeswoman. College-age students were ?absolutely? targeted by the Obama camp, she says. Efforts were undertaken to get college students to vote early. Marquette University, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and UW-Madison students, for example, camped out at voting locations the night before Oct. 22, the first day residents could vote early in Wisconsin.

Longevity in Business: Kramer Printing going strong after 76 years

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Wisconsin State Journal

In business for 76 years, Kramer Printing was opened by Mildred Gill Kramer, one of the first women to graduate from the UW-Madison Business School, on July 7, 1936, in the Gay Building on Capitol Square. Now owned by Todd and Liz Tiefenthaler, Kramer Printing has expanded over the years. The couple met at UW-Madison in 1970 and married just before their senior year.

Review: University Opera?s Medea is fiery, fearsome

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Wisconsin State Journal

A doomed love triangle involving a hero, a princess and a scorned sorceress hell-bent on murder and revenge, the Greek myth and of Medea is ideally suited to an opera plot. Indeed, it has been interpreted into a number of operatic versions, and University Opera has chosen Cherubini?s fiery and challenging ?Medea,? in its Italian translation, as its latest stage production.

UW Health requires flu shots

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Wisconsin State Journal

UW Health is requiring employees to get flu shots this year, as more health care organizations say mandates ensure workers and patients are protected from infection. ?It makes sense to do whatever we can to implement the one measure we know will reduce hospital-acquired influenza,? said Dr. Nasia Safdar, head of infection control for UW Hospital. SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin, which represents UW Hospital nurses and therapists, is asking UW Health to consider an exemption for personal beliefs. The policy allows medical and religious exemptions.

What’s next? Politicians, analysts debate election’s lessons for state leaders

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Wisconsin State Journal

Wisconsin voters once again showed themselves to be both persuadable and polarized Tuesday. They stuck with their Democratic president despite a sour economy and they elected a very liberal woman to the U.S. Senate ? but at the same time they reinstalled and strengthened an aggressive Republican state Legislature that discarded 50 years of labor law, loosened gun controls and tightened restrictions on voting.

Quoted: Barry Burden, UW-Madison professor of political science

Curiosities: Are we getting better at predicting hurricanes?

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Wisconsin State Journal

A: We?re improving by leaps and bounds (in some respects), according to Christopher Velden, senior researcher at the University of Wisconsin?Madison?s Space Science and Engineering Center. ?In terms of the track of a storm ? where it?s going to go and when ? the forecast has gotten much better in the last few decades,? Velden said. That?s attributable to new hardware and software, and quality data.

University committee takes aim at Camp Randall?s controversial pizza provider

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Capital Times

The muscle of Bucky Badger could possibly get behind striking workers at Palermo?s Pizza. The University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Labor Licensing Policy Committee is recommending that the university move toward terminating contracts valued at more than $200,000 annually with the Milwaukee frozen pizza maker, whose products are sold at Camp Randall and the Kohl Center. The contracts also allow for the use of the Bucky Badger logo on Palermo?s pizzas sold in grocery stores.

Ask the Weather Guys: What is a nor?easter?

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Wisconsin State Journal

A: A nor?easter is an extratropical cyclone that affects the northeastern United States and extreme eastern Canada. An extratropical cyclone is a low-pressure system that forms outside of the tropics and is usually associated with fronts, unlike a tropical cyclone. A nor?easter is named for the strong northeasterly winds that blow across this region as the path of the low pressure moves northeastward, slightly to the east of the North American coastline.

Campus event pays tribute to John ‘Vietnam’ Nguyen

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Daily Cardinal

The Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives and First Wave dedicated their eighth-annual ?Passing the Mic? showcase to the late First Wave performer John ?Vietnam? Nguyen, who drowned in Lake Mendota in August. The showcase, which the Office of the Vice Provost for Equity and Diversity also sponsored in conjunction with the Wisconsin Book Festival, featured spoken word and music performances by First Wave, high school spoken-word artists from around the Midwest and guest performances.

Boutique, inventory break mold at Good Style

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Wisconsin State Journal

Putting things together in original ways is what Good Style Shop is about. The vintage clothing store is run by the same people who fill its racks with one-of-a-kind fashions from decades past ? so it?s easy to get advice about what shoes might work best, say, with that cocktail dress from the 1950s, or how to care for that leather jacket made circa 1974.

Doug Moe: Young actress pursuing her passion

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Wisconsin State Journal

One of Molly Kunz?s first exposures to the movie business came in the late 1990s, when her older brother, Eddie, got a role in the BBC production of ?Wisconsin Death Trip,? a dark film based on a dark book by Michael Lesy. Eddie played a young boy who was abandoned near some railroad tracks and ended up freezing to death.

?I was crying uncontrollably,? Molly said. Life being occasionally funny, Molly Kunz is now in the movie business. Kunz, 20, is a junior at UW-Madison, but she?s most definitely in the movie business. Kunz has spent parts of the past few summers acting in films in distant locales.

Know Your Madisonian: Football a big part of Peter Weiden’s life

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Wisconsin State Journal

Peter Weiden grew up “in the heart of football Saturdays” in Madison. He lived near Edgewood College, and it was nearly impossible finding a parking spot near his house when the University of Wisconsin football team was playing at Camp Randall Stadium. Now, at age 29, he’s in his third year working for the Badgers football program, including his second as assistant director of football operations.

Badgers women’s basketball: Taylor Wurtz prepares to play with pain

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Madison.com

University of Wisconsin women?s basketball coach Bobbie Kelsey knows how much Taylor Wurtz means to the team. ?We need her,? Kelsey said of Wurtz, the team?s leading scorer from last season who missed two weeks of practice and UW?s two exhibition victories due to a back injury. It appears Kelsey will have the 6-foot senior guard available for game action very soon.

Badgers football: Curt Phillips gets starting job against Indiana

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Madison.com

The long-awaited first start for University of Wisconsin senior quarterback Curt Phillips will happen on Saturday at Indiana in a game that could decide the Leaders Division representative in the Big Ten Conference championship game. A source close to the UW program on Wednesday confirmed Phillips has gotten most of the work with the No. 1 offense this week in practices and is expected to start over junior Danny O?Brien.

Bus drivers to ask for student ID

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Daily Cardinal

Beginning Monday, students using their unlimited-rides bus pass will have to show their WisCards to bus drivers when boarding Metro Transit vehicles that require the swipe of a pass to board. Madison Metro Transit announced in a press release Wednesday an initiative to enforce the rule already codified on the back of the Associated Students of Madison bus pass students receive, saying fraudulent use of the passes could threaten future pass programs.

Youth voter turnout close to 2008 level: High turnout, but less support for Obama in 2012

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Daily Cardinal

Despite concerns young voters would not turn out in big numbers to re-elect Barack Obama as president Tuesday, early statistics suggest the youth voter turnout nationally mirrors the huge numbers from 2008. However, the numbers this time around suggest Obama received a significantly lower proportion of these votes. Forty-nine percent of voters in the 18-29 age group showed up to vote in Tuesday?s presidential election, compared to 51 percent in 2008, according to statistics released Wednesday from Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, a nonpartisan, independent, academic research center that studies young people in politics.

Baldwin campaign defined Thompson as corporate sell-out

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Wisconsin State Journal

?Clearly, clearly Baldwin defining Thompson early on was a very big part of this race,? said Ken Goldstein, president of Kantar Media CMAG, which tracks political advertising. He noted Thompson wasn?t defining himself. UW-Madison history professor John Sharpless, a Republican who ran unsuccessfully against Baldwin for Congress in 2000, agreed. He said that between mid-August and mid-September, Thompson went from being a 10-point favorite to a 9-point underdog in the polls. ?It was a very rough primary that diminished (Thompson) the public?s eye, and a long period when she dominated the airwaves and beat him up,? said Sharpless, a Thompson backer.

From Madison police, a warning: Talk to us

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Capital Times

Tom Parr, a Madison police investigator, has been going to crime scenes for the past six years and has noticed a change. “What I?ve been noticing over the last year and a half or so is, when I get there, there?s a ton of people standing around (but) no one wants to talk to the police,” he says. “Nobody saw anything.” Parr continues: “I started (asking), ?Do we have a community apathy problem here in Madison??

…In May, members of the department’s Officer Advisory Committee, a 40-year-old council of employees charged with advising the chief, broached the issue with Police Chief Noble Wray. What they said is that a citywide partnership is needed to create strategies that involve the entire community, not just leave things to the police. So as a result, about 40 police officers, led by Wray as moderator, met at the department’s east-side training facility on Femrite Drive with four professors from the UW-Madison in September.

Oh, what a night! UW grad talks about Tony-winning ‘Jersey Boys’

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Wisconsin State Journal

There are stories of people who have seen ?Jersey Boys,? the 2005 blockbuster musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, a half-dozen times. At its Chicago opening in 2007, the boys got three standing ovations ? one before intermission ? and enjoyed a successful run for two-and-a-half years. The year before, the show won four Tony Awards, including Best Musical. None of this is particularly surprising to Marshall Brickman.

Badgers football: Bart Miller likely to return as offensive line coach

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Madison.com

Even though a decision likely won?t be made until after the season, University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema made it clear he is leaning toward keeping Bart Miller as the team?s offensive line coach. Bielema was asked about Miller on Tuesday during the Big Ten Conference football coaches? teleconference by a reporter from Omaha, Neb., which is Miller?s hometown.

Collaborative study aims to decode high STEM dropout rate

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Daily Cardinal

A recent report from the President?s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology projects a shortfall of one million college graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) over the next decade. Approximately five to six of every 10 students that begin in a STEM major will switch majors to a non-STEM field before graduation. A team of researchers from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) and University of Colorado-Boulder are undertaking a study to examine the reasons why students are switching out of STEM majors at such a high rate.

Observers say Paul Ryan now a frontrunner for 2016 GOP nomination

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Wisconsin State Journal

Ryan?s turn as a vice presidential candidate ? the first by a Wisconsinite on a major party ticket ? ended in a loss Tuesday, but observers say the Janesville Republican established himself as a frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016….And he would enter the 2016 election cycle better known by voters than other GOP hopefuls, said Barry Burden, a UW-Madison political science professor.

Political climate engages UW international students

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Daily Cardinal

With an increased emphasis on the student vote in recent American political campaigns, international exchange students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are becoming increasingly interested in being a part of the American election process. International Student Services, a program which aims to help incoming international students adjust to life in the United States, has hosted multiple events this fall urging international students to become connoisseurs of the American political system while in the country, including a mock election and results viewing party Tuesday night.

Despite being unable to vote, international students become immersed in the American culture of elections while in Madison, according to ISS Program Coordinator Marilee Sushoreba.

Madison turns out in the thousands to hear Obama, Springsteen

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Daily Cardinal

Thousands of Wisconsinites from Madison and surrounding areas packed Martin Luther King Blvd. Monday morning as early as 5:30 a.m. when doors opened to the Obama and Springsteen rally. But the large crowd is made up of mostly families, both young and old, with children ranging from infancy to high school seniors. There is a low turnout of University of Wisconsin-Madison students. UW-Madison Pharmacy student Renee Liebe said she skipped class to come to the rally, because she missed Obama?s Oct. 4 rally on Bascom Hil.

Badgers football: Who’s in at QB?

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Madison.com

University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema didn?t shed any light on who the team?s starting quarterback will be this week against Indiana during his weekly news conference on Monday. But Bielema did lay out some of the things he?s looking for in a starter ? and it?s not necessarily the same things as when three quarterbacks were fighting for the job during preseason camp.

Doris Teresa Wight: A poem for the losing side

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Wisconsin State Journal

Editor?s note: Doris Teresa Wight of Baraboo wrote the following poem decades ago after her pick for president lost. She is a professor emeritus at UW-Baraboo-Sauk County, where she taught creative writing. “I am 83 years old and have survived many an election that went the ?wrong? way for me,” she wrote to the State Journal, “so I trust that half the American electorate in 2012 will appreciate the insights I present.”