Skip to main content

Author: jnweaver

A good-looking master’s thesis (Wisconsin State Journal)

Posted on
Capital Times

When Sheri Meland finishes her dissertation, it’s almost certain to garner lots of media attention. The topic is the impact of a person’s looks on their success – or lack thereof – in life.

She used 3,000 of the more than 10,000 people in the famed Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. The WLS subjects, all graduates of Wisconsin high schools in 1957, are among the most studied people in history, with researchers checking back with them in 1975, 1992 and 2002.

Meland has completed all of her research, but only a little bit of her analysis; with two young children and a booming business, finding time has been a challenge.

Cabbing around town with Cieslewicz

Posted on
Capital Times

Throughout his first term in office, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has made a point of leaving the office. This week, the plan was to venture into the private sector and ride along with Union Cab….

….Cieslewicz, once a regular bus rider who on one occasion said that he preferred not to drive on the Beltline, will ride in a yellow minivan with driver Jen Sutherland, who grew up near La Follette High School and started driving a cab in 1994. She’s also the president of Union Cab’s board of directors…. Sutherland answers some questions about herself and says she has degrees from UW-Madison in math and psychology.

“I’ve found use for them here,” she says.

“I’ll bet,” the mayor says. “One more than the other, probably.”

‘Lost’ writers find way home to UW

Posted on
Capital Times

As Hollywood screenwriters, University of Wisconsin-Madison graduates Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis are island-hoppers.

Their first job as TV writers was on a short-lived remake of the 1970s show “Fantasy Island.” But their most recent has landed them on a very different isle, the mysterious tropical locale (actually filmed on Oahu, Hawaii) of the hit ABC show “Lost.”

….Horowitz and Kitsis will be back in Madison next week as part of the Jewish Cultural Collective and UW-Hillel’s “Entertainment Spotlight Series.”

Gary Green: Survey on UW was likely biased

Posted on
Capital Times

Dear Editor: What was The Capital Times thinking when it ran an article on Feb. 24 regarding public attitudes toward the UW?

The survey was conducted and paid for by the Woods Communication Group. The results were seized on by Republicans who used them to support their position that the university is out of touch with state residents.

State audit finds 40 felons on UW System payroll

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

There were 40 felons working in the University of Wisconsin System last fall, and most of them – including two convicted murderers – were employed by UW-Madison, according to a legislative audit released Tuesday.

Jensen trial: Aide says she worked on campaign

Posted on
Capital Times

A former legislative aide to then Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha, testified today that she was paid by state taxpayers out of Assembly Republican Caucus funds in the summer and fall of 2000 when her entire workday was spent on Jensen’s re-election campaign.

Leigh Himebauch Searl testified that she worked in Jensen’s office in full- or part-time roles while also attending classes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

When she graduated in May of 2000, she said, she took a full-time job in Jensen’s office and was soon told by another Jensen staff member, Jodie Tierney, that her office would be relocated to the Republican Party of Wisconsin headquarters a few blocks from the State Capitol.

UW schools employed 40 felons in ’05, audit finds

Posted on
Capital Times

The University of Wisconsin System employed 40 felons as of late last year, including 25 who were convicted before they were hired, according to a state audit released today.

The Legislative Audit Bureau found the vast majority of the felons were employed by the UW-Madison campus.

A state lawmaker said she found the audit “extremely distressing” and called for a public hearing. UW President Kevin Reilly said the Board of Regents is already working on the problem.

ATC to discuss Arboretum line

Posted on
Capital Times

The American Transmission Co. will give a presentation Wednesday night to explain how the University of Wisconsin Arboretum could become part of a corridor for a high-voltage transmission line.

Audit: 40 felons work in UW System, four on academic staff (AP)

Posted on
Capital Times

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The University of Wisconsin System, under fire for its employment practices, employs 40 felons as of this fall, four of them on the academic staff, according to an audit released Tuesday.

The nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau reviewed the system’s employment rolls after concerns were raised last year following media reports on three professors who kept their jobs despite felony convictions.

….The audit noted state statutes prohibit job discrimination based on an employee’s arrest or conviction record unless the conviction is substantially related to the person’s job.

Greetings from Muriel Simms!

Posted on
Capital Times

It was a time in her life when the right side of her brain needed to come into play.

Muriel Simms, a longtime educator in Madison, was working on her doctorate in 2000 — 25 years after receiving her master’s in curriculum and instruction at the UW — when she decided to stir creative juices.

“My mother had just died, too, and I was very close to her, so this was a real intense, emotional period in my life,” Simms recalls.

To relieve stress, she took some art classes and eventually created a line of greeting cards with an African-American focus.

Todd Finkelmeyer: Would it kill UW to pinch a few pennies?

Posted on
Capital Times

A couple items to ponder while practicing your figure skating routine on the Vilas Park lagoon …

Anyone else surprised the UW athletic department had to scramble a bit over the past month to make ends meet?

In the end, officials found a way to close a nearly $1.4 million gap between projected revenues and the $78.3 million spending authority request that was finally approved Friday for fiscal year 2006-07.

(Article appeared in 2/25/06 Capital Times)

Mark Sevelis: Radicals’ treatment of Kohl too typical

Posted on
Capital Times

Dear Editor: Maybe the editors at The Capital Times should write an editorial that would tell Madison citizens how to behave in a civil manner. I can understand if some right-winger was treated the way Sen. Herb Kohl was, but a solid Wisconsin Democrat?

The atmosphere in Madison can no longer be called liberal or ultra-liberal. Your fair city and university are run and overrun by dangerous radicals.

State is only a minority shareholder

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Letter-writer says: Republican gubernatorial candidates Scott Walker and Mark Green need to take Economics 101 before continuing to blast the University of Wisconsin System’s policies on pay and out-of-state tuition (“Walker wants to shake up UW System,” Feb. 23).

Survey results aren’t surprising

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Letter-writer says: When discussing the survey conducted by the Wood Communications Group, doesn’t the quote from University of Wisconsin System spokesman Doug Bradley say it best?
Advertisement

“This wakes us up even more” (Survey scalds UW System,” Feb. 24). How can one be any more “awake”?

Charge against tailback reduced

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin freshman tailback P.J. Hill, originally charged with disorderly conduct while armed for his alleged role in an incident outside a UW dormitory last month, has seen that charge reduced to disorderly conduct, according to University of Wisconsin Police.

Hastad to lead Carroll College

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Carroll College is reaching into the University of Wisconsin System for its next top administrator.

Douglas Hastad, chancellor of UW-La Crosse, was named Monday as the new president of Waukesha’s private, four-year college.

A focus on forgiving

Posted on
Capital Times

The role of forgiveness in healing some of life’s hurts will be the topic of a seminar at Meriter Hospital on Wednesday, March 8.

Dr. Robert Enright, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who is a considered a pioneer in the study of forgiveness, will lead off the seminar.

Capacity caps eyed for beer garden crowds

Posted on
Capital Times

Beer garden operators near Camp Randall and elsewhere might soon face caps on the number of people allowed to congregate in their outdoor drinking areas.

Madison Fire Department marshal Ed Ruckriegel said the city received significantly more complaints last year about overcrowded outdoor drinking areas on football game days.

He said he has met with city staff and a subcommittee of the Alcohol License Review Committee to review these concerns and complaints, but has not yet discussed the issue with bar owners.

Turbocharging competition: UW in contest to rev up SUV’s fuel efficiency

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The “Moovada” has everything that most sport utility vehicles owners would want – good gas mileage, low pollution and decent performance.

You won’t find the vehicle on car lots yet. Rather, it’s the name given to a souped-up Chevrolet Equinox by a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering students – their entry in a nationwide contest to build a more fuel- efficient car.

On Thursday, the students received a boost when automotive parts supplier Johnson Controls Inc. presented them with a turbocharged hybrid battery system to use in the crossover SUV.

Survey scalds UW System

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin residents think the University of Wisconsin System is overpriced, overstaffed and out of step with ordinary people, according to a survey by a Madison firm that is the first of its kind in nearly a decade.

More than 70% of those polled said they thought “UW campuses spend too much money on things they don’t need instead of… educating students.”

Wood Communications Group conducted the survey quietly last fall as a first step toward building support for the UW System in the business community. The firm has used the results to rally university and business leaders ever since, saying that more needs to be done to improve the system’s public image. But in recent weeks, the survey might have backfired. Word of it has spread to critics of the UW System, who view it as justification for attacks.

State retirees’ hikes 6.5%, 9%

Posted on
Capital Times

State and local government employees covered under the Wisconsin Retirement System will receive “modest” credits to their retirement account balances this year, Eric Stanchfield, secretary of the Department of Employee Trust Funds, announced today.

The rate for the larger core Fixed Fund is 6.5 percent, while the rate for the smaller all-stock Variable Fund is 9 percent. The increases last year were 8.5 percent and 12.0 percent, respectively.

Suit reinstated against UW (AP)

Posted on
Capital Times

A federal appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit brought by a woman claiming the University of Wisconsin-Madison passed her over for a job after she criticized the school.

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago said Thursday a jury should decide whether UW-Madison employees retaliated against Wanda Ashman for her comments critical of the university’s use of limited term employees.

Posted in Uncategorized

UW prof earns library research award

Posted on
Capital Times

An assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will receive a fellowship award for her research proposal to study how people choose to do online research.

Kyung-Sun Kim, in the School of Library and Information Studies, will receive the 2006 Samuel Lazerow Fellowship from the Association of College and Research Libraries for her anticipated study.

Survey: State residents say UW unaffordable

Posted on
Capital Times

A survey about the University of Wisconsin System reveals that the people of Wisconsin simultaneously love the UW and also feel deep frustration about it.

The report, which was conducted last fall by the Madison-based Wood Communications Group, became public and was immediately politicized by legislative critics and Republican office-seekers Thursday.

It began as attempt to gauge UW’s support among the public and to find ways to improve the university’s standing with the business community.

Wisconsin Union Craftshop turns 75

Posted on
Capital Times

It is not itself an art or a craft. But it is certainly where a lot of each has been created.

I’m speaking of the Wisconsin Union Craftshop, and this week marks its 75th anniversary.

….When it opened, the craft shop was the first of its kind for a university in the country, according to Wisconsin Union publicity. What is unquestionable is that countless photographs, silkscreen prints, pieces of wood furniture and metal sculpture have come out of this shop, which also taught classes and mini-courses in how to create art and craft.

Ex-Badger Gillette to coach MATC’s resurrected softball program

Posted on
Capital Times

Getting a new job usually calls for a celebration — a night out with the friends, a fancy dinner with the family or even a small get-together with a few bottles of cheap champagne.

So what was Madison Area Technical College’s newly hired softball coach Boo Gillette, a former University of Wisconsin catcher, doing the day it was announced she would be leading the reborn program in 2007? Why, getting ready to write a 10-page paper that was due the next day, of course.

UW men’s basketball: Tucker committed to UW’s cause — this year and next

Posted on
Capital Times

(Alando Tucker) knows his high academic and basketball IQs, his incredible abilities on the basketball court, his gregarious nature that makes him so popular with his teammates, classmates, coaches and reporters who talk to him all were developed through his close relationships with members of his family.

… it explains why Tucker will shut out any outside voices that might try to convince him into making himself eligible for next June’s NBA draft. He made it clear his only focus is on playing for Wisconsin this year and next year, too.

“People talk. But I’m enjoying myself here,” Tucker said. “Everything I’m going through I’m enjoying. I’m not looking for anything but finishing this season off strong and coming back next year. That’s all that’s on my mind.”

Walker wants to shake up UW System

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker said Wednesday that the state should consider breaking up the University of Wisconsin System.

Walker’s suggestion – in response to news of managerial missteps, administrators’ raises and out-of-state tuition cuts – was the closest thing to a new policy idea offered up at a candidates’ forum marked by sharp clashes between the four attorney general hopefuls and somewhat milder sparring between the two Republican gubernatorial candidates, Walker and U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.).

Experiments in education

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

School science days typically fall into two categories, according to Tom Zinnen, a biotechnology outreach specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

There’s the science fair, where certain students research their projects for a week, then present their findings to the rest of the student body. And there are the “science spectaculars” where a scientist comes to the school and, with the help of two or three students pulled on stage, performs for a watchful audience.

On Wedesday, Zinnen brought a third type of science day to Lowell Elementary School in Waukesha.

UW students push living wage again

Posted on
Capital Times

Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are trying again to pass a requirement that workers paid with student fees earn a living wage.

Students overwhelmingly passed a referendum last spring that required workers at the Wisconsin Union, University Health Services and the Division of Recreational Sports to be paid a living wage, as defined by the city. That now comes out to $10.23 per hour.

But the Student Judiciary overturned the referendum on a technicality, said Josh Healey of the Student Labor Action Coalition. So now, the group is trying a different tactic to enact the change.

Badger Herald editor defends publication

Posted on
Capital Times

Mac VerStandig met his critics head-on and both sides refused to budge.

VerStandig, the editor-in-chief of The Badger Herald, was part of a panel discussion Tuesday sponsored by the Dean of Students’ office to discuss the Badger Herald’s decision to reprint a Danish cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. Publication of the cartoon and others like it in a Danish newspaper last year has led to international furor and deadly riots in several countries.

Multiple experts and student representatives weighed in on the issue at Bascom Hall, but the central focus of the night belonged to the heated and often contentious debate between VerStandig and those at the panel discussion and in the audience.

Nita Larson: Newspapers show very little courage

Posted on
Capital Times

Dear Editor: Embassies burn, publishers of newspapers abroad are imprisoned, student editors are suspended for printing the Danish cartoons and The Capital Times says that it believes in free speech under certain conditions. In the shriveled world of newspapers, this substitutes for courage.

Nita Larson
Belleville

Bob James: Muslims outraged by cartoons show failure to respect right to free speech

Posted on
Capital Times

….I would suggest to Mr. Basir and others who hold his opinion that these cartoons should never have seen the light of day, that they consider why the right to free speech was in the First Amendment of our Constitution, rather than, say, the Eighth, or not at all. It is because that right, like the freedom to assemble or the freedom of religion, was considered of paramount importance by the framers.

Sometimes, it requires that we develop a somewhat thicker skin, since free speech is and ought to be granted to people whose opinions of us are less than we’d like. But that is also a lesson worth learning.

UW sports: Ticket price hike likely for men’s hoops; U-Ridge to add par-31 course

Posted on
Capital Times

The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board Finance Committee unanimously approved a $78.3 million dollar spending authority for the 2006-07 fiscal year at its Tuesday meeting. The proposed budget will now go to the full Athletic Board on Friday for final approval.

The Athletic Department covered a $1.4 million gap from a month ago, cutting more than $700,000 in proposed capital expenditures and projecting an additional $600,000 in revenues due to new courtside seating at the Kohl Center and expanded catering and concessions operations.

….The Finance Committee also unanimously approved a $2 increase in all men’s basketball tickets, which will go to the full Board for approval on Friday.

UW men’s basketball: Would you pay $15,000 for a courtside seat?

Posted on
Capital Times

If Jack Nicholson or Spike Lee ever become Badgers fans, they could find a familiar seat waiting for them at the Kohl Center as early as next season.

Tucked into the Univeristy of Wisconsin Athletic Department’s projected operating budget for 2006-07 is the creation of courtside seating, which will undoubtedly become the hottest ticket in town.

The UW expects to rake in $300,000 from the sale of the new seats, which will be along the sideline opposite the teams’ benches.

UW budget set at $70.4 million

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Finance Committee of the University of Wisconsin Athletic Board on Tuesday approved a $70.4 million budget for 2006-’07 that includes a positive net margin of slightly more than $100,000, thanks largely to an increase in the cost of men’s basketball tickets and the inclusion of new “courtside” seating at the Kohl Center.

The full athletic board is scheduled to vote Friday on the $70,416,600 budget for UW athletics.

Stanley hearing rescheduled

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The preliminary hearing for former University of Wisconsin tailback Booker Stanley, originally set for Tuesday morning, is being rescheduled and likely will be held sometime in the next three weeks.

Stanley, 22, appeared Tuesday in Dane County Circuit Court. However, his attorney informed the court that Stanley, who originally decided to waive his right to a preliminary hearing, had changed his mind.

Mixed reaction to tuition cuts

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The University of Wisconsin System’s plan to cut tuition for out-of-state students received a mixed reception at a legislative hearing Monday.

Several members of the state Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities offered support for the cut, saying they believed it was intended to boost the enrollment of all students, including Wisconsin residents, as argued by university officials.

Teeth discovered in mutant chickens

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Matthew Harris didn’t flinch at the crocodilian-like teeth flashing six inches in front of his face. He didn’t scream or whimper, either.

Instead, he sat back, shook his head and leaned in for a better look.

That’s because Harris, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison last year, wasn’t looking into the mouth of a giant, dentition-ridden reptile.

Scientist moves on

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The first scientist hired at Madison’s WiCell Research Institute has been named director of the University of Connecticut’s new human embryonic stem cell laboratory, the university said Tuesday.

Ren-He Xu, a developmental biologist and expert in growing human embryonic stem cells, will receive a tenure track faculty appointment along with the opportunity to develop a new stem cell institute for the university. Xu is a staff scientist at WiCell with no faculty appointment.

With expansion planned, Kohl’s has positions to fill

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

With 500 new stores planned in the next five years, Kohl’s Corp. needs that many new managers, and twice as many assistants.

Those are just a few of the jobs that the fast-growing department store chain will create in the coming years, President Kevin Mansell told students in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s retail program, part of the School of Human Ecology.

Editorial: New name, old problem (Appleton Post-Crescent)

Posted on
Appleton Post-Crescent

Like a laundry detergent that’s advertised as “new and improved!” the failed Taxpayer Bill of Rights has been repackaged and given another name in the state Legislature.

But when you open the Taxpayer Protection Act and take a close look at it, you’ll see that it has the same basic flaws as its earlier version.

New? Yeah. Improved? Some. But at its core, the proposed amendment to the state constitution remains an example of wrong-thinking government.

Marc Kornblatt: Free speech proves more powerful when it is teamed up with restraint

Posted on
Capital Times

….The recent decision of UW-Madison student journalists to reprint a cartoon that depicted the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a lit fuse pitted the right of free speech against reasonable restraint. When Muslim students on the UW campus expressed outrage, calling it a racist act, The Capital Times sided with the Badger Herald’s editors.

Like The Capital Times, I, too, do not believe the publication of the controversial cartoon was necessarily a racist act, but I also do not believe printing it served the common good.

Donald Downs & Kenneth Mayer: Freedom to offend is a vital part of our collection of rights

Posted on
Capital Times

Controversy has beset the Badger Herald campus newspaper for publishing an editorial accompanied by a cartoon of Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb. Critics have hurled several accusations at the Herald, including questions about the timing of the free speech act, the motivations of the editorial board, and the claim that the board could have achieved its purpose by describing the image rather than publishing it.

….We must resist the idea that the expression of a political idea, or a statement of criticism, or satire, should be subject to sanction or prohibited simply because one group or another finds that idea, criticism or satire offensive.

Danish cartoons spark local controversy

Posted on
Capital Times

The Muslim Students’ Association at UW-Madison worries that recent publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad are “alarming signs of rising Islamophobia in our community.” Several events are planned to discuss the issue and bring more understanding of Islam.

Robert A. Hall: Muslim students should be protesting violence

Posted on
Capital Times

Dear Editor: The Muslim Students Association is right to protest the Badger Herald’s publication of a cartoon of Muhammad. They should protest almost as loudly as they protested the murder of 3,000 innocent people by Muslims on 9/11….

….Acts of murder and terrorism degrade Islam far more than any cartoon, and Muslim silence convinces non-Muslims that most Muslims condone the slaughter of innocents. There’s a nasty joke going around that a moderate Muslim is one who’s out of ammunition. When Muslims display more outrage over cartoons than over murder, they give such slander of Islam credence.

Dennis Semrau: Girls’ new state basketball home not a big deal

Posted on
Capital Times

The WIAA girls state basketball tournament will have a new home for the next three years due to scheduling conflicts with the University of Wisconsin at the Kohl Center.

One might think that after the stunning show the WIAA put on at the Kohl Center last year, moving to the tournament to the Coliseum at the Alliant Energy Center would be a step backward for the girls’ game. But you could play the game at Vilas Park and it wouldn’t matter to the coaches or players, whose only concern is winning a state championship.

UW plan adds in-state students too

Posted on
Capital Times

The effort to add out-of-state students at the University of Wisconsin is part of an effort to add students overall, university officials said this morning.

Regent President David Walsh and Executive Senior Vice President Donald Mash were at the Capitol this morning to speak before a Legislative panel on the university’s controversial plan to give tuition discounts to out-of-state students. The plan, they said, would increase the number of those students, who pay much more than in-state students, thus increasing the university’s overall pot of money.

UW stem cell expert leaving for post at UConn

Posted on
Capital Times

Wisconsin is losing one of its top stem cell researchers to Connecticut, but the loss could open the door for more opportunities for researchers here to supply stem cells to a greater number of universities and research labs.

Ren-He Xu, the first employee of the WiCell Institute six years ago and now the senior scientist at the institute, has been named director of the new human embryonic stem cell lab being developed at the University of Connecticut.

Bielema plugs unexpected hole

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Bret Bielema needed less than a week to fill an unexpected opening and finalize his first coaching staff at Wisconsin.

Randall McCray, 36, was named UW’s defensive line coach Monday. He replaces Earl Lane, who left South Florida to join UW’s staff but last week took a job as LSU’s defensive line coach.

Pageant winner backs girls sports

Posted on
Capital Times

With a little help from Earth, Wind and Fire, a UW-Madison senior tap danced her way to the Miss Madison Area 2006 title.

Kimberly Pifer, 21, beat out seven other contestants Saturday at Monona Grove High School in front of two dozen of her friends and family members and a crowd of about 200.

Pifer said she intends to use her new position to emphasize the need for gender parity in athletics.

Doug Moe: UW seniors aim to use noggins to see the world

Posted on
Capital Times

FOR TWO UW-Madison students, a journey of a thousand miles will begin with a single tattoo.

But Liah Hansen, 23, and her friend Chloe Britzius, 22, hope there will eventually be many tattoos and that the journey will take them tens of thousands of miles – all the way around the world.

Hansen and Britzius have created a Web site in the hope of selling temporary tattoos on their foreheads as a way to fund a trip set for September that would take them to New York, California, South America, Africa, Asia and Europe.

UWM student found dead in apartment (AP)

Posted on
Capital Times

MILWAUKEE (AP) – A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student was found dead in her apartment, according to a medical examiner’s report.

The cause of the 21-year-old Stratford student’s death appeared to be natural or accidental, according to the report issued Sunday. The medical examiner’s office probably will not determine a cause until more tests are done.

According to the report, Cheryl J. Kaiser was found Saturday night kneeling in front of an overflowing bathtub, with her head and hands in the tub. Kaiser was drinking Friday night and vomiting in the bathroom Saturday, according to the report.