Capital Times editor’s note: In the wake of the ouster of Nino Amato as president of the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, Amato released this statement to “to eliminate any rumors or speculations as to what happened.” It has been edited slightly for length.
So what is that makes the disturbing Kafka one of the central writers of the 20th century?
“All of a sudden you aren’t what you are,” says Marc Silberman, a professor of German who has taught the novels and stories of Kafka at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1989. Silberman has other ideas he will share with the audience for the next Classic Book and Movie Club event on Jan. 22.
The University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center will test a drug to treat complications from breast cancer treatment.
About one in three breast cancer patients suffer from lymphedema, a swelling of the arms. It has traditionally been treated by massage therapy and compressive sleeves.
Researchers at the cancer center will now test pycnogenol, a plant extract typically used to treat leg edema, to treat this problem.
DeAaron Williams’ leave from the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team apparently will be permanent.
The redshirt freshman, who took what was called a temporary leave from the team for personal reasons before its game against Iowa on Thursday, will leave the program immediately and enroll at Illinois Central College, Williams’ high school coach, Dave Mott, told the Peoria Journal Star.
Although Bret Bielema has not commented publicly regarding the makeup of his first coaching staff at Wisconsin, several candidates have emerged recently.
The latest appears to be former Colorado defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz. According to the Denver Post, Hankwitz is in the running for a similar position at UW.
“Takes Five” interview with UW-River Falls chancellor Don Betz. Mentions UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley’s attendance at a summit on international education.
With electric rates and natural gas prices in Wisconsin soaring, customers have lost one of the most outspoken critics of utility profits.
Nino Amato was removed Monday as president of the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, a trade organization that represents large manufacturers and energy users. He had served 4 years in that position.
….Amato’s departure comes 1 1/2 years after he lost the presidency of the Wisconsin Technical College System board, which he maintains was due to his outspoken stances on the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents.
Dear Editor: As the son of a pharmacist from Rice Lake, a 1963 graduate of the University of Wisconsin who started his medical career in the Medical School in Madison, and someone with almost 40 years’ experience in the field of drug abuse treatment and prevention and the last five years evaluating patients for medicinal cannabis, I want to compliment Rep. Gregg Underheim and the Wisconsin Assembly Health Committee for their recognition of the contemporary medicinal value of cannabis.
Joe Koch fondly remembers a conversation he had with Brian Calhoun more than seven years ago. Calhoun, then a freshman at Oak Creek High School, was seriously considering walking away from football in part because he found it somewhat boring. Koch, the Knights’ varsity coach, was trying to persuade Calhoun to give the sport a chance.
Fast forward to Monday and another conversation between Koch and his former player. Calhoun, a star tailback for the University of Wisconsin football team this past season, called Koch to tell him he was skipping his senior season with the Badgers to enter the National Football League draft.
“It’s kind of neat to think, here’s a kid that we pretty much had to drag out of the classroom and talk him back into coming out for football,” Koch said.
State retirees may receive “very modest” increases in their monthly payments based on 2005 fund returns reported by the State of Wisconsin Investment Board.
The amounts of any possible increases, which are calculated by the Department of Employee Trust Funds, will not be known until sometime in February, SWIB said in a press release on Monday announcing 2005 preliminary results.
University of Wisconsin junior tailback Booker Stanley on Monday was charged with one count of second-degree sexual assault, four counts of battery, three counts of bail jumping and one count of reckless endangerment.
Suspended University of Wisconsin running back Booker Stanley was charged Monday with choking, beating and sexually assaulting his girlfriend in a December incident at their apartment, with beating her previously and with bail jumping for violating a court order by allegedly having repeated contact with her.
Stanley, 22, was suspended from the UW team after police were called to the University Avenue apartment on Dec. 21, when a neighbor heard Stanley’s 20-year-old girlfriend yelling.
A group of manufacturers concerned about high electricity and natural gas prices has terminated the contract of its president, Nino Amato.
Amato’s departure comes 1 1/2 years after Amato lost the presidency of the Wisconsin Technical College System board, which he at the time attributed to his outspoken stances on the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents.
After poring over all the available information from National Football League personnel and examining what he had accomplished in his one season at Wisconsin, Brian Calhoun’s next move became clear: NFL or bust.
Quoted: Katherine Cramer Walsh, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor.
UW-Madison political science professor Donald Downs responds to the question: “If the vice president is impeached (here’s hopin’), who gets to run the trial in the Senate?”
Should a person who is part of an organ donor network receive a transplant sooner than someone who urgently needs a transplant but is not part of a network?
David Undis, who heads an organization called LifeSharers, says that those who are willing to donate organs should also benefit if they need a transplant.
Dr. Hans Sollinger, who chairs the division of transplantation at the University of Wisconsin Department of Surgery, said that transplant centers such as University Hospital’s can only follow federal rules.
….In 1980, the year of one of Burr’s most famous prosecutions – the Barbara Hoffman murder case – he had 25 trials. He has long since stopped counting, but the total must be 500 or more.
….His first jury trial involved four defendants in what became known as the Gordon Commons food riot. “It had anti-war overtones,” Burr said….
MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin lost $4.7 billion in household net worth over a five-year period as more highly paid and well-educated residents moved out of the state than came in, according to a study that also found high numbers of 20-somethings and seniors leaving.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: John S. Hoffmire, the director of the Center on Business and Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
While home from college last month on holiday break, about 1,200 recent grads of the Mequon-Thiensville School District opened a peculiar piece of mail: a letter urging them to approve an upcoming $7.5 million referendum and a form they could use to request an absentee ballot.
The idea? By targeting college kids who might not otherwise vote on local issues, an advocacy group is trying to tap into a sympathetic audience of students who can vote in the district but who aren’t likely to own property and pay property taxes.
Although All-American tailback Brian Calhoun still has not ruled out returning to Wisconsin for his senior season, he continues to lean heavily toward entering the 2006 National Football League draft.
Toxins and the fear of their misuse – especially since Sept. 11 – has changed life in the laboratory for many scientists.
Passed in 2002, the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act requires scientists doing research on any of a number of bacteria, viruses and toxins meet a variety of strict security measures, as well as have employees pass a federal background check. While some researchers say that the regulations are appropriate and reasonable, considering the potential for terrorism, others complain that the requirements impede their work on important issues.
“The constraints are reducing research effectiveness,” says Caitilyn Allen, a professor of plant pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Some ants, it seems, are packing more than your picnic lunch.
According to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a particular tribe of ants, known as attine ants, have pockets throughout their thick, outer armor crammed full of antibiotic-producing bacteria. They use these bacteria to kill off a parasitic fungus that could destroy their way of being.
A cancer specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison says that a new way of treating ovarian cancer will save lives.
The National Cancer Institute is recommending that chemotherapy be pumped directly into the abdomen – in combination with traditional IV chemotherapy – to help women with advanced ovarian cancer live longer.
Ellen Hartenbach, director of gynecologic oncology at the UW-Madison, said Thursday that University of Wisconsin Hospital patients participated in clinical trials led by a Johns Hopkins researcher that produced the results leading to the recommendation.
Faculty, administrators and others associated with the University of Wisconsin gave $374,054 to political candidates or parties in last year’s federal election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Ninety-six percent of those contributions went to Democrats, the center says.
The conviction has been criticized for being based on evidence that, to some, didn’t paint a convincing case. After a semester-long look at the 11-year-old case, many of the students ended up agreeing with the skeptics. Tiffany Stronghart had never been in a prison before, much less gone there to talk to a murder convict.
So she was nervous upon meeting Penny Brummer. But Stronghart was surprised when Brummer put her at ease.
….Stronghart is a graduate journalism student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was participating in Deborah Blum’s 15-week investigative journalism class, which took on as its project Brummer’s 11-year-old conviction for murdering Sarah Gonstead, a confidante of Brummer’s estranged lover.
Gloria Johnson-Powell, associate dean at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, will be the featured speaker at Madison’s annual commemoration of the life and legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Johnson-Powell was a student of civil rights hero James Lawson, one of several young leaders King trained to carry the struggle for civil rights throughout the country. She later became the first black female full professor at Harvard Medical School.
MADISON, Wis. — A University of Wisconsin System committee is meeting in Madison on Thursday to develop new guidelines for student dorm workers.
The committee is expected to more clearly define the roles and responsibilities of resident assistants — students who are paid to supervise dorm residents.
Madison may have no trouble tooting its own horn, but it hasn’t done much with its flag. Unbeknown to many, the city has had an official flag since 1962.
….John Taylor, local philanthropist and owner of J Taylor’s Rare Maps, Notable Books and Antiquities on North Carroll Street, said he had city flags made because he wanted to display one in front of his store, which he opened about eight months ago. The flags are now for sale at Taylor’s store…. Taylor said he donates a portion of all store proceeds to the History of Cartography project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Trotting out Madison’s official flag is but one of the ways the city intends to honor its 150th birthday.
….Looking back over 2005, there are some things I’ll take the liberty of commenting on.
For the first time since the late 1800s the number of dairy farms in Wisconsin fell below 15,000. Some will blame government, big business, county extension agents, UW-Madison researchers, chemical companies, milk processors, media and even other farmers.
I say baloney, balderdash and b.s. Farmers are like other business owners: they do the best they can given the resources available.
Cheryl DeMars, a 13-year employee of The Alliance, has been promoted to CEO of the employer-owned health care purchasing cooperative.
DeMars, who received bachelor’s and masters degrees from UW-Madison, is involved in a number of national and local health care initiatives, including The Leapfrog Group, Wisconsin Healthcare Purchasers for Quality, The United Way, The Breast Cancer Recovery Foundation, and Access Community Health Centers.
An insurance plan that extends dental coverage to domestic partners of state employees is drawing fire from a Republican lawmaker.
In a letter Wednesday to the director of the Office of State Employment Relations, Rep. Mark Gottlieb of Port Washington questioned whether the department has “specific statutory authority to recognize domestic partnerships, and to offer tax-advantaged insurance plans to employees and their domestic partners?”
Gottlieb also asked if the department has the authority to authorize tax-deductible deductions to an employee reimbursement account for the medical expenses of a domestic partner.
Quoted: Mason Carpenter, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business.
Fraud, waste and mismanagement in state government are the targets of a bill authored by state Sen. Julie Lassa. The bill would create a toll-free telephone line in the Legislative Audit Bureau to receive reports of questionable activities.
Lassa, D-Stevens Point, said the identities of those who called the hotline would be confidential.
For sentimental reasons, University of Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez initially thought it might be fitting to draw Alabama as an opponent in his final bowl game since his first appearance in a bowl as a Nebraska linebacker was against the Crimson Tide. There was also the matter of the Badgers potentially matching up better with Alabama (which had struggled offensively) than Auburn (which had won its fourth straight game over the Tide for the first time since the late ’80s). But when the Capital One Bowl pairing was announced – pitting Wisconsin versus Auburn – Alvarez liked the matchup and shared that sentiment with his players.
“I wanted to get any doubt out of their mind that we couldn’t beat them,” Alvarez said. “I just wanted them in the right frame of mind, I just wanted them to know we trusted them. But I was very honest with them – I knew we’d have to play very well.”
An unexpected late entrant who filed candidacy papers for the Madison School Board will force a primary in one of the two contested races this spring.
The three-way race for the seat being vacated by retiring board member Bill Keys includes Arlene Silveira, Maya Cole and now Michael Kelly, a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student in medieval studies who filed his papers near the deadline Tuesday afternoon.
….In the other districtwide school board race, Lucy Mathiak, a UW communications director and the founder of a community support organization for East High School, is trying to unseat Juan Jose Lopez, one of the board’s longest serving members.
Bret Bielema now has the keys to the kingdom.
“I passed the baton as I walked in,” Barry Alvarez said moments after he closed his UW coaching career with a stunning 24-10 victory over No. 7 Auburn in the Capital One Bowl. “I said: ‘You’ve got the baton. The office is cleared out. . . .’ “
….As head coach at Wisconsin, Barry Alvarez brought back pride to the school’s football teams. He made us eager to see Badger football games for the games, not just for the (rightly barred now) sight of tipsy fans lifting students and passing them along up the rows of stands.
Wisconsin has always taken pride in its excellent university system but usually in a kind of offhand, proud-of-our-really-smart-kid-brother kind of way. For good or ill, passion often comes with athletic success. Got a first-rate history department? Terrific. Got a Rose Bowl contender? I’ll be there, and here’s my check for your fine school.
Alvarez made us expect a Rose Bowl winner every year, and he gave us three of them. His final game as coach against heavily favored Auburn at the Capitol One Bowl on Monday was a reminder of what we may miss. We’re sure, however, that he’ll continue to bring the same energy and success to his job as the school’s athletic director, and we wish him all the best.
When Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed a ban on all forms of human cloning in November, he argued that despite what its supporters claimed, the legislation would go against Wisconsin’s history of biomedical innovation, specifically in the controversial field of embryonic stem cell research.
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“Continuing this research,” Doyle correctly observed then, “is a win-win for our state.” And, we would argue, for the world as well, since many scientists believe that the research may one day lead to cures for a variety of illnesses and ailments.
Less than two months later, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have underscored the importance of this research with a development that moves their work closer to the day when it may one day actually reap therapeutic dividends.
The legal battle between Paul Barrows and the University of Wisconsin-Madison heated up Tuesday, when Barrows filed a document in federal court asserting that facts presented by university lawyers were “fantasy.”
The weather was dreary, cold and depressing Monday in Green Bay. It was a perfect day for a firing, and Ted Thompson didn’t hesitate. After all, cleaning house is the No. 1 duty on a new general manager’s job description.
Down in Orlando, it was bright, warm and invigorating. It was a perfect day to slap around an SEC team for a change and to reaffirm a legacy. Wisconsin did just that.
Mike Sherman and Barry Alvarez gave up their coaching jobs on the same day. One left the stage silently in deep and no doubt bitter disappointment. He had nothing to say. The other made a glorious exit that spoke volumes.
ORLANDO, Fla. – Even before he was injured, Joe Thomas had decided that he was coming back to the University of Wisconsin for his senior season.
ORLANDO, Fla. – When he was hired as the University of Wisconsin football team’s coach in 1990, Barry Alvarez was greeted with a warning from some of the program’s fans.
“One of the things I kept hearing when I took the job,” Alvarez said, “was, ‘Don’t embarrass us.’ ”
That seems like such a laughable request now, considering the legacy Alvarez will leave from his time on the sidelines. Namely, Alvarez won 118 games, including three Rose Bowls, and turned a program from a laughingstock into one that is respected nationally.
ORLANDO, Fla. – University of Wisconsin linebacker Mark Zalewski had a Dennis the Menace grin on his face, a playful, mischieveous grin. He was responding to a question about his new head coach, who just happens to be his old coach, his old position coach, Bret Bielema.
How, Zalewski was asked, will life change, if at all, now that Bielema was in charge of the whole football program and not just the linebackers or the defense. After kidding about the potential for giving Bielema some grief if he didn’t like the way the new head coach was running practice, Zalewski turned serious and said, “I can’t see a better candidate for head coach – just based on the energy that he brings and how much he loves the game….”
Beauregard is one lucky dog. Even though he suffered serious bite wounds in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and was hit by a car after being rescued and brought to Dane County, the Lab mix is on the mend and doing well, said Robin Serano, a technician at the University of Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital.
….He was the last to be adopted of four animals Serano saved from being euthanized and brought back with her in October from the mean streets of New Orleans, where thousands of companion animals ran wild after their owners fled floods brought by the hurricane.
….”We’re more party Badger fans than football Badger fans,” (Steve) Bartlett said of himself and his wife Linda. “They play exciting football, but we just wanted to get away from the clouds and the snow and the cold.”
That’s why the Bartletts didn’t hesitate to book their trip here. The same can’t be said for thousands of other UW fans, who decided against this bowl trip for various reasons.
Researchers at UW-Madison have developed two new stem cell lines which are the first of their kind to be grown without the use of animal protein.
Pioneer stem cell researcher James Thomson, working with a team from the private WiCell Research Institute, reported online Sunday in the journal Nature Biotechnology that the two stem cell lines, known as WA15 and WA16, were grown without the use of animal proteins or byproducts, meaning they are free of animal contamination, possibly paving the way for stem cell transplants into humans.
Paul Barrows, the University of Wisconsin-Madison administrator who says he was wrongly demoted, will finally get to face his accusers at an appeals hearing. The former vice chancellor for student affairs learned on Dec. 14 that the Academic Staff Appeals Committee granted his request for a hearing to appeal his demotion.
The burden of proof will be on the university to prove that his June demotion, from a higher-paying backup job to one that only paid half as well, was warranted.
Barry Alvarez will be paid $600,000 next year in his role as University of Wisconsin athletic director, while his hand-picked successor as football coach, Bret Bielema, will earn $750,000 under contracts signed by the two men on Friday.
The UW released Alvarez’s and Bielema’s new five-year contracts on Friday night, a day after the deals were approved by the UW Board of Regents.
“You’re absolutely right,” admitted Wanda, the 95-year-old Mifflin Street mystic.
“I’ve been doing these New Year’s predictions for almost a decade now – and I haven’t gotten a single one right.”
So why would I subject my readers to this one more time?
(These tongue-in-cheek predictions include a couple of UW-Madison mentions.)
Two UW-Madison projects to study advanced materials and fuels for current and future nuclear reactors have received a total of about $1 million in federal funding.
The funding is from the Department of Energy Nuclear Energy Research Initiative, which supports research and development under three initiatives: Generation IV nuclear energy systems, advanced fuel cycles and nuclear hydrogen.
It was, by most measures, a difficult year for the University of Wisconsin. The administration endured a series of high-profile embarrassments and budget headaches. But there were research breakthroughs and sweeping new plans for the UW-Madison campus.
The seeds for the university’s biggest problem of 2005 were planted in November 2004, when UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley announced that his longtime vice chancellor for student affairs, Paul Barrows, was stepping down to take a backup job in Bascom Hall, citing vague family considerations.
NEW YORK – Tensions over government pensions, like those that triggered New York’s transit strike, aren’t going away.
After a three-day walkout, the nation’s largest bus and subway system and the union representing its workers reached a deal this week that tiptoed around the contentious pension issue. But similar tensions will likely surface in other cities and states, as more governments wrangle with fast-rising retirement costs, experts say.
Lawmakers and public officials across the country are increasing their scrutiny of pension plans for state and local workers.
The University of Michigan has suspended sales of Coca-Cola products on its three campuses over allegations that the company permits human rights and environmental abuses abroad.
The suspension, which begins Jan. 1, will affect vending machines, residence halls, cafeterias and campus restaurants. Coke’s contracts with the university are worth about $1.4 million.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Brian Calhoun, Joe Thomas and Stanley McClover are all doing their best to focus on the Capital One Bowl, but they’re also weighing decisions for their futures.
The three juniors for Wisconsin and Auburn said Tuesday they haven’t made up their minds on whether to return for their senior seasons or enter the NFL draft.
The Madison Fire Department is taking residents of a campus area apartment building (on Iota Court) to task for failing to leave after their fire alarm sounded.
2005 saw a host of committees, task forces, hearings and press conferences devoted to improving – or touting – Wisconsin’s response to a possible outbreak of avian influenza. Though no confirmed human or bird cases of the H5N1 influenza virus have occurred in the United States, the disease has spread rapidly among birds and poultry in Asia and Europe.
Gov. Jim Doyle directed three state departments – Health and Family Services, Natural Resources and Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection – to form an Avian Influenza Coordination Team to bolster the state’s preparedness efforts.
….University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists, especially Yoshihiro Kawaoka, have been working on several fronts to fight avian influenza.
Marching in the UW Band kept them in shape when they were in college. Eventually, they married two saxophone players who were brothers.
More recently Cathy and Joanne Gauthier were new moms looking for a fitness program that they could do with their young children.
So they decided to start a business called CJ Fitness and become licensed providers of Stroller Strides, a national workout program that combines power walking with intervals of body toning exercises.
